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http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/2010/10/17/40137

Prussian Carrier

From their announcement:

The world of Dystopian Wars is similar to our own, but subtly different. The year is 1870 and the Industrial Revolution occurred decades earlier than in our own world. Technology is far advanced, and in many cases, unrecognizable, which has led to the development of fantastic naval vessels, hulking land ships and terror from the skies in the form of airships and war balloons.

More photos of some of the miniatures are available at FRP Games and TabletopShop Online.

I noticed this on SG's site over the weekend but there was little enough to report. How do you think Catalyst will take the news? FWIW, I prefer the Leviathans art--which is admittedly just a concept and has been so for an irritatingly long while now.

For comparison:

http://catalystgamelabs.com/leviathans/

And Spartan's page:

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/dystopian_wars.html

No clue.

Winning the miniatures wargame business seems to be about showing up with the minis. I
wanted to get into leviathans, too, but I needed minis.

No doubt.

But aren't you slightly weirded out by the look of those fighter planes? I mean, it's supposed to be 1870 . . .

Leviathans was demoed at last GenCon, but i think they were using cardboard boxes instead of real minis...

The planes are my only problem, though. I can overlook planes like how I can overlook Striking Scorpions.

Arms race!


http://monstersinthesky.com/2010/10/19/smoke-on-the-horizon-yet/

OMG! I need the rolling Westminster Cathedral in 28mm, NOW!

All the stuff has a 1920s sci-fi aesthetic. I don't understand the victoriana connection.

Spot-on, Georgie. The more I see, the more confused I get.

Manchu wrote:I noticed this on SG's site over the weekend but there was little enough to report. How do you think Catalyst will take the news? FWIW, I prefer the Leviathans art--which is admittedly just a concept and has been so for an irritatingly long while now.

For comparison:

http://catalystgamelabs.com/leviathans/

And Spartan's page:

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/dystopian_wars.html

See, I think I'd prefer to play Leviathan as well. And - as Manchu knows - I absolutely LOVE Spartan's other games.

I can even understand the look of Dystopian Wars, with the advanced technology... they kind explain it. http://www.spartangames.co.uk/dystopian_wars.html

And having land battles AND air/sea battles is cool. But I'm just not wild about any of the forces. Prussia's okay I guess.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

malfred wrote:Winning the miniatures wargame business seems to be about showing up with the minis.

AMEN. This is SO damn true. In fact, I may sig this.

Some of this stuff looks really nice, I do love the Victoriana style, it's like 'Nemesis the Gothic War' all over again.

RandyMcStab wrote:Some of this stuff looks really nice, I do love the Victoriana style, it's like 'Nemesis the Gothic War' all over again.

I don't think any of us hate it. We're just not instantly OMG,must haz!!

And really, that's how I feel about most Spartan stuff.

Awesome. When you start generating revenue off your sig, I expect a cut.

Or at least a discount.

Scottywan82 wrote:

RandyMcStab wrote:Some of this stuff looks really nice, I do love the Victoriana style, it's like 'Nemesis the Gothic War' all over again.

I don't think any of us hate it. We're just not instantly OMG,must haz!!

And really, that's how I feel about most Spartan stuff.

Very good point. When I first saw the Firestorm stuff, I wasn't excited about any of it. Now I could stand to have each fleet ("stand" because I hate painting space ships). Knowing that I could actually get a game in (one day soon heopfully!) where I live helps a lot, too. I'd say wining the miniatures hundred yard dash is about showing up with the minis but winning the marathon is about having survivable venues where those miniatures get used by gaming communities. So my general "meh" now may warm up considerably in the future.

malfred wrote:Awesome. When you start generating revenue off your sig, I expect a cut.

Or at least a discount.

malf, I PROMISE you will be the VERY first to know.

I cant help but feel they might have missed the mark with these. They remind me more of WW1 era hardware combined with a bit of BFG Grimdark. I dont see very much in the way of a victorian connection at all.

Well, the St Paul's dome tank kind of does. But I very much agree overall.

Page updates w/loads more pics:

Britannia

Japan?

Uh-Merca

SteamNazis

Ah once again people confuse steam punk with Victorian with ww1

Oh well they looks cool I suppose

The brit's landship looks funny with the dome!

http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/2010/10/dystopian-wars-mini-preview.html

Painted figs!

http://pokeminiatures.blogspot.com/2010/10/victorian-sci-fi-options-abound.html

I worry that Catalysts' factions will not be distinct enough, especially given that the prepaint schemes will be "very light and subtle; as appropriate to naval vessels." Still, I am more excited about Leviathans--and, frankly, more so now that I've seen what Spartan is bringing to the table. When it comes to one's addictions, sometimes the devil you don't know yet is better.

(Honored to be mentioned on your blog, malfred.)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, Spartan has some painted minis up now. See the links I posted a few days ago.

Scottywan82 wrote:

RandyMcStab wrote:Some of this stuff looks really nice, I do love the Victoriana style, it's like 'Nemesis the Gothic War' all over again.

I don't think any of us hate it. We're just not instantly OMG,must haz!!

And really, that's how I feel about most Spartan stuff.

Yeah I tend to agree with this. A lot of their stuff in general is just sort of ok (games are cool but minis are a little blah for me). I really like the look of Leviathans but then again they don't have any miniatures.......

Are the two current Spartan Games game liens and this new one substantially 'different?' It seems a little weird that they're doing (essentially) a third 'weird navy' game... They've got Weird Fantasy Navy, Space version of Weird Navy, and now Weird Airship Navy?

Basically, do the rules and such make these feel like truly different games, or are they too similar... I don't see anything wrong with sharing some base mechanics, but I'd kind of want a different feel from the different game lines.

I think Dystopian Wars will be land, air, and sea (whereas Uncharted Seas has only been air and sea). Point definitely taken, however. Similarly, you can definitely tell that all three games come from the same design studio. That's could be a plus or minus, depending on who you ask.

Personally, I prefer the Spartan models better than the few Catalyst CAD renders I've seen.

The Catalyst ships just look like naval vessels with booster rockets stuck on the ass end. I can't rationalize how those vessels would even stay in the air.

The Spartan models seem highly variable between the different factions and look like they would be more fun to paint and to play with.

The carrier models are pretty cool, I admit.

Here's hoping for a better paintjob. It's weird that they just blended the planes into the deck.

I personally like the look of almost all the Spartan minis.

Sure, it's nothing to run over my Granny to get too, but it's really nice to see companies not stuck in the marine/elf/zombie track.

It looks new/fresh/etc... I hope Spartan keeps pushing out stuff like this. They have a pretty heavy schedule over the next year.

Oh look.

Steampunk.

How original. Pass from me thanks.