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Dug up some more images from https://www.facebook.com/cruelseasthemtbgame

Interesting.
I'd of preferred something to play with cruisers and bigger to be an alternative to Victory at Sea

ValentineGames wrote:
Interesting.
I'd of preferred something to play with cruisers and bigger to be an alternative to Victory at Sea

I too prefer fleet games, but the fact that we are getting a new naval game from a leading company is exciting enough for me! I'm curious to see how the game plays...it might be very possible to convert the rules for larger ships using smaller models.

I believe one of the reasons Warlord has gone eith 1/300th is so that Cruel Seas will be compatible with Blood Red Skies.
For me scsle is not a problem and I am very excited for this release.

Elysium64 wrote:
I believe one of the reasons Warlord has gone eith 1/300th is so that Cruel Seas will be compatible with Blood Red Skies.
For me scsle is not a problem and I am very excited for this release.

BRS is 1/200 though.

its not a huge problem, a game focused on smaller craft could work at that scale - trouble is weapon ranges will still need to be silly to work and way too short for the scale of the models.

my main concern though is Warlords terrible support, this is likely to be another game they launch then forget when they launch the one after

Some updates:

Pre-orders start 2nd November and in stores from the 8th December!

The previous pictures of the game the tables looked super cluttered. That was a big turn off for me.

These more recent pictures looked much better.

This would have been the greatest joy in my whole life IF they had used another scale to include bigger units.
I’d like to play with hood, bismark, vittorio veneto, yamato, queen elizabeth, littorio, warspite, valiant, ecc.
I’d like to create the epic battles in the mediterranean see during the II WW like punta stilo, matapan, or the amazing hunt for bismark, not a destroyer game. I’m so sad for the missed opportunity.

 Danarc wrote:
This would have been the greatest joy in my whole life IF they had used another scale to include begger units.
I’d like to play with hood, bismark, vittorio veneto, yamato, queen elizabeth, littorio, warspite, valiant, ecc.
I’d like to create the epic battles in the mediterranean see during the II WW like punta stilo, matapan, or the amazing hunt for bismark, not a destroyer game. I’m so sad for the missing opportunity.

There's lots of games out there for that scale already. Reinventing the wheel rarely makes a successful mini game.

Mongoose's Victory At Sea springs to mind.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
Mongoose's Victory At Sea springs to mind.

V1 was a good game, no idea what happened to V2 or if it was ever released but the previews made it look way worse.

GHQ Micronaughts is a good one though, has a good few scenarios around well known battles as well (including a Midway mini campaign)

December 8th is release date, and that's too close to Christmas.

So I will be giving nothing but socks to relatives this Christmas. Possibly used ones.

There have been a few MTB scale rulesets on the market over the past 40+ years, however it is an extremely niche area, so it's nice to see new options in the market, especially with these models.

I think the way to approach it is like a skirmish wargame. Use a relatively small number of ships/boats on each side, and perhaps set all the scenarios in a locale where you can play a bit of a campaign.

People wanting fleet scale battles with cruisers and above really need to look at 2500/3000 scale models. A typical WW2 cruiser model in 1/700 scale is about 10 to 12 inches long and its main guns have a range of over 30 yards.

It is a stretch to play with them even on the floor of a school sports hall.

The largest ships are not destroyers, just torpedo boats/or escort destroyers.

While I will get a starter, I am holding off on fleets for quite a while. As mentioned, games like Antares, Test of Honor, BRS, others hit big but then seem to die off, especially locally. Definitely not happy about the resin ships in the fleets, as Warlord resin casting is very poor. All of my Bolt Action resin tanks had holes/bubbles, miscast areas, or massive injection poles sticking out.

Stealth7 wrote:
The largest ships are not destroyers, just torpedo boats/or escort destroyers.

While I will get a starter, I am holding off on fleets for quite a while. As mentioned, games like Antares, Test of Honor, BRS, others hit big but then seem to die off, especially locally. Definitely not happy about the resin ships in the fleets, as Warlord resin casting is very poor. All of my Bolt Action resin tanks had holes/bubbles, miscast areas, or massive injection poles sticking out.

Strange, I haven't had a single issue with Warlord resin since 2014 when they bought another resin casting company and absorbed them. Since then, their resin has been durable thanks to the new resin's flexibility and super high quality. Dozens and dozens of tanks and even bronekaters later, no issues. oh well, shrug.jpg





Automatically Appended Next Post:



Cruel Seas is a fast-paced 1/300 scale tabletop game recreating the swirling naval dogfights that took place on the seas around the world in the dark days of the Second World War.

Powerful, well-armed boats manned by skilled crews stalked enemy shipping lanes, lying in wait for unsuspecting targets. With a roar of engines the motor torpedo boats would surge forward, opening up with tracer fire from an arsenal of machine guns and autocannons whilst large enemy vessels find themselves easy prey to a carefully placed torpedo.

The game covers six major nationalities, each of which has their own character and play style:
• The British Royal Navy
• German Kriegsmarine,
• US Navy
• Imperial Japanese Navy
• Soviet Navy
• Italian Regio Marina

The Cruel Seas rules explain how to organise your chosen fleet and take the fight to your opponent as you seek to rule the waves. The vessels vary in size and shape from fast, sleek killers to slow heavily armed ships. Cruel Seas provides a multitude of ships and plenty of options to customise your boats weaponry, making each game very different.

The Cruel Seas game is scenario driven providing a strong narrative element to your games. From easy to play introductory scenarios to more demanding operations that will provide a test of both your skill and your nerves!

The Cruel Seas starter game contains plastic British and German motor torpedo boats, plastic and card tokens, the rules and a variety of other accessories – everything you need to take on your opponent’s fleet. The rest of the range will include further plastic, resin and metal ships, aircraft and scenery.

So, fire your engines, ready your weapons and prepare to dominate the cruel seas!






The Cruel Seas boxed game, ‘Strike Fast, Strike Hard!’, contains:

• A4 softback rulebook
• A4 quick start guide with painting guides and flags
• Plastic early Vosper motor torpedo boat
• 3 x late Vosper motor torpedo boat
• 2 x plastic S-100 S-boat
• 2 x plastic armoured S-100 S-boat
• 1 x plastic torpedo markers sprue
• 1 x plastic plume markers sprue
• 1 x A0 double-sided battle mat
• 3 x die-cut punchboards (islands, sandbars, rulers, mines markers, game tokens, lighthouse, aircraft, etc)
• Ship data-cards for early and late Vosper MTBs, S-boats and a merchant/tanker
• Small, medium and large ‘wake sheets’
• 2 x sets of fleet dice (Royal Navy and Kriegsmarine)
• 1 x set of game dice

Fleets

All include cards, torpedo marker plastic sprue, etc as well as the following ships and aircraft:

Royal Navy
• 2x Vosper MTB plastic sprue (4 ships total)
• 2x Fairmile D (resin and metal)
• 1x Armed Trawler (resin and metal)
• 1x Bristol Beaufighter Mk Ic (metal)

Kriegsmarine
• 2x S-boat plastic sprue (4 ships total)
• 1x Vorpostenboot flakship (resin and metal)
• 1x M-class minesweeper (resin and metal)
• 1x Ju-87D Stuka (metal)

Italian Regia Marina (Available in January)
• 4x MAS boats (metal)
• 1x F-lighter (resin and metal)
• 1x MZ-Motozattera - AFP (resin and metal)
• 1x Gabbiano-class corvette (resin & metal
• 1x Cr.32 biplane (metal)

US Navy
• 2x PT boat plastic sprue (4 ships total)
• 1x Coastal Cutter subchaser (resin and metal)
• 1x LCI (L) landing craft (resin and metal)
• 4x LCM-3 landing craft (metal)
• 1x F4U Corsair (metal)

Imperial Japanese Navy
• 6x T-14-class MTBs (metal)
• 3x Maru-Ni kamikaze boats (metal)
• 3x Shin-Yo kamikaze boats (metal)
• 4x large Sampan (resin and metal - two of each canopied boat)
• 1x Escort Type Hei minesweeper (resin & metal)
• 1x Aichi D3A 'Val' (metal) •

Soviet Navy (Available in January)

• 4x G-5 MTBs (metal)
• 4x D-3 MTBs (metal)
• 2x pr.1125 Bronekater (metal)
• 1x Fugas-class minesweeper (resin and metal)
• 1x Il-2 Sturmovik (metal)

Flotillas
All include cards, etc
• S-Boat Flotilla - 6 plastic S-Boats
• Vosper MTB Flotilla - 6 plastic Vosper MTBs
• PT boat flotilla - 6 plastic PT boats

While I think the starter is a great deal, I have to wonder about the fleet box pricing. Unless some of the ships are quite big, I just can't see the value.

For example, the Kriegsmarine:

4x S-Boat - Same as in the starter, plastic From pics, maybe 2 inches each
1 aircraft - a single, small metal aircraft
Minesweeper & Flakship - These have to be where the meat is at, but without dimensions, hard to tell.

Thats $100 worth.

I am getting the starter, but will wait to determine if the game has legs before buying more. They are posting this as scenario based. so unless there are a good number posted or in the starter, it will die a fairly quick death without a point based battle mode.

There are going to be aircraft later. They got a lot of 1/300th ocean patrol aircraft from Luftwaffe 1946 Miniatures (MSD Games.com) for playtesting. Float planes, sea planes, and patrol aircraft. Aircraft were the most feared opponent of these small craft. With 1/300th scale they are probably focused on individual craft and their crew, and driving gamers to use their miniatures instead of 1/700th. Appears to be another d6 game driven by luck instead of tactics. There are some excellent simulations for small and large scale actions out there already. Still, it should raise interest and excitement in an area that has not had a lot of attention. Anything that brings more gamers into a scale and period of interest to me is welcome.

Stealth7 wrote:

For example, the Kriegsmarine:

4x S-Boat - Same as in the starter, plastic From pics, maybe 2 inches each
1 aircraft - a single, small metal aircraft
Minesweeper & Flakship - These have to be where the meat is at, but without dimensions, hard to tell.

Thats $100 worth.

I'm guessing (since I didn't see it explained anywhere) that the "squadron" packages have a single plastic sprue of two boats. If so, then the four S-Boats come out to $60 (since a squadron is $30). That would leave the remaining $40 for the aircraft, minesweeper, and flakship.

Also, I just stopped by Warlord's website. Given that the game is coming out in less than two months, I would have expected to see something up on the website about it. But it still doesn't have an entry.


Edit - On a whim, I went looking for information on the IJN T-14. Information was *very* sparse. About the most I could find out was that it was apparently an underpowered class of ships built late in the war, and that only two were completed.

The IJN fleet pack contains six of the boats...


Also, the IJN had a class of ships called Torpedo Boats, but these ships were more like Destroyer Escorts, and they shouldn't be confused with the smaller ships depicted here.

Eumerin wrote:
Edit - On a whim, I went looking for information on the IJN T-14. Information was *very* sparse. About the most I could find out was that it was apparently an underpowered class of ships built late in the war, and that only two were completed.

The IJN fleet pack contains six of the boats...

Also, the IJN had a class of ships called Torpedo Boats, but these ships were more like Destroyer Escorts, and they shouldn't be confused with the smaller ships depicted here.

http://www.ptboatworld.com/PT_Boat_Info/JapaneseMTBs.htm

 Albino Squirrel wrote:

Eumerin wrote:
Edit - On a whim, I went looking for information on the IJN T-14. Information was *very* sparse. About the most I could find out was that it was apparently an underpowered class of ships built late in the war, and that only two were completed.

The IJN fleet pack contains six of the boats...

Also, the IJN had a class of ships called Torpedo Boats, but these ships were more like Destroyer Escorts, and they shouldn't be confused with the smaller ships depicted here.

http://www.ptboatworld.com/PT_Boat_Info/JapaneseMTBs.htm

I stand corrected.

But given that a search for T-14 MTB pulled up more T-14 Armata MBT results than what I was looking for, it's not really surprising that my information would be bad.

Wondering why the US and IJN packs have so many transports when the other packs do not. I'd have thought landing craft were not combat boats beyond providing light fire at the landing point.....

Warlords newsletter had this on today, the rules and starter have a limited release you boat surfacing mini included which looks nice.

 TwilightSparkles wrote:
Wondering why the US and IJN packs have so many transports when the other packs do not. I'd have thought landing craft were not combat boats beyond providing light fire at the landing point.....

Warlords newsletter had this on today, the rules and starter have a limited release you boat surfacing mini included which looks nice.

I can't speak for the US landing craft. But the additional Japanese boats - aside from presumably the minesweeper - are all likely very small.

 TwilightSparkles wrote:
Wondering why the US and IJN packs have so many transports when the other packs do not. I'd have thought landing craft were not combat boats beyond providing light fire at the landing point.....

Warlords newsletter had this on today, the rules and starter have a limited release you boat surfacing mini included which looks nice.

Well, WW2 in the Pacific featured frequent amphibious operations, and sailing men and supplies to embattled or isolated garrisons. Thus, I would not doubt many of the Pacific scenarios would feature attacking or escorting amphibious forces to their target...

Eumerin wrote:

 TwilightSparkles wrote:
Wondering why the US and IJN packs have so many transports when the other packs do not. I'd have thought landing craft were not combat boats beyond providing light fire at the landing point.....

Warlords newsletter had this on today, the rules and starter have a limited release you boat surfacing mini included which looks nice.

I can't speak for the US landing craft. But the additional Japanese boats - aside from presumably the minesweeper - are all likely very small.

I looked up the small IJN suicide craft listed in the fleet box, they are about the size of a small car so at 1/300 will be maybe an inch. Thats why there are 10 of them in a box. The bigger T-14 PT Boat was 57 ft, still only half the size of an S Boat.

Pre-orders are up: https://us-store.warlordgames.com/collections/cruel-seas

Apparently the US ships are some kind of secret, and they expect people to order them without being able to see them. And there aren't really close up pictures of any of the components.

Also, it looks like they are lying about the savings you get on the bundles, at least in $. They say you are saving $15 off the price by getting the bundle, costing $150 compared to $165 when ordering separately. But by my math, ordering separately is only $160. Maybe somebody screwed up the conversion from pounds to US dollars?

And it seems like you have to use the search bar and search for cruel seas to find this page with all the pre-orders on it.

Pretty amateurish rollout. Hopefully they get some decent pictures and a better way to find the products before the actual release, which it says is not until December.

There also isn't much info about the rules anywhere.

Im in for a Gold bundle starter preordered directly crom Warlord, and a IJN box, a Royal Navy box and a starter box ordered from Wayland Games.

Looks like I will have quite the shipyard at my desk in December...

 ingtaer wrote:

judgedoug wrote:Automatically Appended Next Post:

 ingtaer wrote:
They have a bad habit of releasing games doing a big splash and then cutting all support.

Yeah, there hasn't been any support for Bolt Action, Black Powder, Hail Caesar, Gates of Antares, Pike & Shotte; definitely not dozens of campaign books and thousands of miniatures with weekly to monthly new releases

Shrapnelsmile wrote:

 ingtaer wrote:
Looks interesting and were it by anyone other than Warlord I would be pretty excited.

This surprises me. Most of their games are thriving and their local support at our shop is incredible.

I was thinking more along the lines of the their side games like Terminator and Project Z, I must admit to not being that up on their smaller ranges but are they still releasing stuff for Dr. Who, Blood Red Skies, Test of Honour and Konflict?

Let me preface this by saying I am a HUGE Bolt Action fan and for the most part, I like WG. With that said...

Ingtaer has a very good point - WG seems to be following the GW model of releasing lots of side games for their main games with lots of fanfare, only to have support fizzle out with the excitement a few months later. They've been constantly licensing or outright buying completely different franchises and games in the past 2 years, trying to fling as much at the wall as they can to see what sticks - K47 (whose launch diverted a lot of Bolt Action support for several months), GoA, BRS, Dr. Who, 2000AD (Dredd, SD), Project Z, Terminator, ToH.....now they've announced this and a fantasy game Erewhon? Even their most diehard fans have to admit that this is a LOT for a middling company like Warlord to take on in a span of a couple of years.

Additionally, (though I'm not able to disclose much) Warlord Games NA has been very vocal about their "expectations" for larger events/conventions, in opposition to what the community has asked for. There are issues I see being voiced by players, convention attendees, and TOs that seem to be compounding as time goes on, rather than being addressed by the company. Again, I would like a game like this to do well, but I honestly don't think it will. WG customers have become more hesitant to pull the trigger on new games.

December issue of Wargames Illustrated will have a free Cruel Seas sprue containing two ships...

https://www.wargamesillustrated.net/free-cruel-seas-british-mtbs-and-german-s-boats-with-wi374-december-where-and-when-to-get-your-copy/

Each magazine has been randomly bagged with either two Royal Navy Vosper MTBs or two German Kriegsmarine S-Boats.

The Jan 19 issue will have 2 US PT boats as well...

I hope it will be good and I have asked to get a starter at my local store. However the complete lack of videos or even pictures for many sets during the pre-sale is a joke. At least have a demo game out there that people can watch.

The higher price point and lack of info kept me from spending any more. I think I would have liked the US sets, but at $150 and no info, eh no.

BRS is a fun game, but very poor support from warlord. The quality of the plastic used was also quite bad. Thankfully the community puts out a ton of options for models and rules.

WI374 (WITH FREE BOATS!) ON SALE IN WH SMITH

The latest issue of Wargames Illustrated (WI374, December) is now on sale in WH Smith stores around the UK (WHS High Street not Travel).

This issue has already sold out at loads of hobby stores (including Warlord Games, North Star and us!) so in the UK this maybe the only place you can get it. Unless you want to try eBay, where it's on sale for £10 + postage (see pic).