Time and Space

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To sail the Dreadfleet or not?

Posted by David Derksen

28 Sep 2011

David Derksen

(dkwd)

Canada
Winnipeg
Manitoba

Dreadfleet is the newest Big Box release from Gamesworkshop. While it has a lot going for it, I'm not going to pre-order it or rush out to get it.

I missed the boat when Man O' War first came out but was able to get the rules for them later. I haven't played it nearly enough to chase down all the figures on ebay. We did upsize it for one of the Wincons - I made a Dwarf fleet and JP made a Bretonnian fleet. But, since he didn't use the magic rules when he ran it, the Dwarves crushed the Bretonnians.

That said, if this had been a rerelease of Man O' War, I would have snapped it up. I had the original Space Hulk when it came out and snapped up the new set when it came out.

Dreadfleet is its own game. The beautifully detailed ships are larger than the Man O' War scale. The plastic islands look nice in the pictures. It is certainly a tempting set - but not enough to tip me into a buyer - not at the price it is listed at (over $100).

While in the states, if I can find it on sale, or if I get a chance to play it, I may change my mind. But, right now, I'm more looking at picking up the Heroclix Giant Size X-Men big figures from Toys R Us or even some more Tron cycles if I get the chance.

We'll see.

6 Comments

Wed Sep 28, 2011 5:35 pm

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Genghis Ahn

(Genghisx)

United States
San Clemente
California

Sometimes You Are Wrong !

Coolest Promo Ever ! Stonewall Lives

Have not been a fan but would also greatly appreciate people's thoughts on if this is worth the time and effort (painting, etc...) to play.

Posted Wed Sep 28, 2011 10:48 pm
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Eddy Green

(sphere830)

United States

Kansas

Well, like many others I had my reservations about dropping 'dentist-visit' money on another box-game, but, I'm glad I did (and probably became one step closer to looking like a toothless pirate)! Going through the amount of plastic is a hobbyist dream come true. The ship miniatures are classic. The scenery, tokens and auxiliaries are all super hip. Which brings me to another aspect of how bad-ass this box is to the painter and hobbyist, if not for every box gamer, this is a whole collection of battlefield and scenario scenery. Okay, enough about the miniatures.

*taking a breathe

The game book is laid-out very well. The art is beautifully impressive and sets a serious tone to the world that sucks you directly into it. I love the fact that you start with some of the most vile pirate-outcast of the Warhammer world...then you have the "bad" guys, led by none other than a vampire pirate. I don't know about you, but that pretty much sums up the overall tone of the game for me and that's pretty damned cool. The mechanics don't bog you down. There are twelve scenarios total which, for the first four build your fleet from one to four and beginning on the fifth scenario starts to utilize every ship in each fleet under a variety of conditions. These scenarios build until they are quite strategic. For example, an objective scenario is number ten, wherein there are islands all over the ocean play-area and victory goes to the fleet that have successfully garnered the most objectives by turn six.

The ocean and the scenarios are there own characters in the game in which sea-monsters, the wind itself, and the islands, which in some scenarios, each have their own special characteristics. This is one place to mention the adjunct system of cards that occur as random as the deck is shuffled, but also serve to physically illustrate special conditions, damage received, or supplements in-play. As a general rule, I love cool tokens denoting certain game elements. This game has all of the above. Game mechanics are illustrated with a wind gauge, Navigation rod adn a ships wheel to facilitate movement of the fleets. Each ship having its own characteristics, bringing us to our next and final section concerning "Dreadfleet".

As mentioned before, the ship models are brilliant, but also pretty interesting in that each ship, if you don't already know, have some very specific game mechanics that apply to each model. Each mechanic is illustrated with some great stories elements (or fantastic fluff others may deem it).

The mechanics are simple enough to get battling out on the sea rather quickly. Depending on how different the scenarios tend to play out will determine the re-playability of this all-in-one box-set will be settled in due time, but for the hobbyist/gamer, this is one fantastic acquisition. Besides, it's a deep-fantasy world driven pirate game, from one of the premier miniature game manufacturers. The price is steep, but even if you don't like, "bottom-less pit" style games like fantasy or 40k, this is one fantastic one-time buy. I hope this doesn't come off too much like a sales pitch. The truth is that it is an expensive game. It's more of a campaign/scenario driven set of rules. But, if your a miniature collector or painter already, the truth is that you won't be sticker shocked as much as plastic shocked when you open up the box. Many people don't consider that, if you like to paint and model, you'll get not only RPG length analogue entertainment from the game, but the considerable time modelling and painting a strikingly brilliant and seemingly fun game simultaneously.

I hope this helps some who are on the fence. The down side to games with so many great miniatures and modelling time factored into the production, is that this may not be the purchase for those daunted by or simply aren't into modeling, much less, painting. This is my first blog on Board geeks, but I've long been looming around and trolling through the site. Cheers!

Edited Sat Oct 1, 2011 5:37 am
Posted Sat Oct 1, 2011 5:28 am
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David

(Snowman)

New Zealand
Taupo

May the Great Spirit Bless all who read this.

sphere830 wrote:

Well, like many others .....

Great writeup, you should post it in the Dreadfleet forum section.
I'm very tempted to get this even though I will never paint it. One day I may be able to pay someone to do the job.

Posted Sat Oct 1, 2011 6:46 am
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Aaron Gelb

(asgelb)

United States
El Segundo
California

Snowman wrote:

sphere830 wrote:

Well, like many others .....

Great writeup, you should post it in the Dreadfleet forum section.
I'm very tempted to get this even though I will never paint it. One day I may be able to pay someone to do the job.

Pay? You just need the right friends!

I've got a friend who loves GW, he says for him its 60% painting, 40% gaming. I'm the exact opposite. So damn, its nice when he comes over and offers to paint 40 of my skaven clanrats in one sitting. He's painting another friend's Space Marines right now, and then he's onto my other friends Lizardmen.

Don't worry...I save the best models for myself (characters, warmachines, monsters, etc.)

With a friend like him, you can get great paint jobs for free!

We joke...we call him the long lost Chaos God..."The great Motivator."

If it wasn't for him, we'd all be playing with black and grey armies!

Posted Wed Oct 5, 2011 2:31 am
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Celebrating 5 years with a wonderful woman and worthy opponent at the game table !

(Mulligans)

United States
Middletown
Pennsylvania

Judging by the photos this game looks amazing... and then I see included in the contents is the 98 page rule book

Edited Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:15 pm
Posted Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:15 pm
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David Derksen

(dkwd)

Canada
Winnipeg
Manitoba

Mulligans wrote:

Judging by the photos this game looks amazing... and then I see included in the contents is the 98 page rule book

Sadface because the rulebooks is too big or too small?

There is a lot of story/flavortext in it and the dimensions are small so it isn't nearly as big as it sounds.

Posted Tue Oct 25, 2011 2:55 am
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