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Sacrebleu!

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Wow, that is one hell of a lovely model

They've been teasing this freakin' concept so long that Spartan Games released a whole steampunk model line in the meantime.

Hardly. Spartan has released the starters for their water units and the carriers. Oh, and one blister of medium fliers.

Hardly a whole steampunk line.

So really the french get a army of floating battleships. The french are not exactly known for their naval abilities! Did they ever even have a regular battle ship, I think they just got their first aircraft carrier!

On second look it appears that they did have A battleship in world war II, for all the good it did them.

The whole reason they were never able to beat the British is because the french navy sucked!

Cool story, bro.

I like it better than the Dystopian stuff. Here's hoping we see more soon.

Nice but I think I like Spartan's French BB better.





The French actually ARE known for their naval abilities pre 20th century. While they did lag behind in tech after WWI they did have a relatively modern fleet at the start of WWII. It was enough of a threat that the British decided to put most of it on the bottom of the ocean so that the Germans wouldn't get a hold of them (Operation Catapult).

Andrew1975 wrote:So really the french get a army of floating battleships. The french are not exactly known for their naval abilities! Did they ever even have a regular battle ship, I think they just got their first aircraft carrier!

On second look it appears that they did have A battleship in world war II, for all the good it did them.

The whole reason they were never able to beat the British is because the french navy sucked!

Which is why Churchill wanted it it before France fell and when the proposal fell through the Royal Navy sank the French Fleet, because letting the Kreigsmarine get their webbed mitts on it was not a jolly thought.

http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4006-16French.htm

The French have had carriers for a long time, operating American built aircraft since the end of the war.


Back OT the Leviathan models I have seen so far are really lovely imho and may possibly get a couple just to repaint (afaik they will be pre-painted, but stand to be corrected)
or possibly scratchbuild one

But as this is a steampunk/alternative history game
http://www.naval-history.net/WW1NavyFrench.htm


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ps there are some super drawings and cutaways on the website.

Spartan's model does look a bit more detailed. Pity its the only one of their ships that continues past the waterline. I wonder what Catalyst thought when they saw that . . .

I don't know HOW I missed this yesterday!

WOO HOO! I've been waiting to see these! Thank you!

Is a bit of a bummer to see those Spartan graphics right after though, eh?

Hmm, I still like this stuff a lit better than the Spartan models, however, there seems to be something slightly off about the model, like it was printed by a 3d printer, or plastic hold underneath a hot lamp for a few seconds.

Both spartan and Leviathan are 3d printed

I know they are, which is why they have that look as if they stayed under a hot lamp for a bit. But I still think the Leviathan model looks better than the Spartan one.

As I understand it, we've yet to really see the Spartan model. That's a graphic, yes?

http://monstersinthesky.com/gallery/

some interesting artwork of the Leviathan ships

nd another shot of the French ship

Yep just a picture i like what this shows tho the leviathans originals were all clear so the detail was all washed out but it looks promising anyway.

This ship looks great - I've been waiting a LONG time for this game to release, so hopefully this means something is coming... soonish?

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:http://monstersinthesky.com/gallery/

some interesting artwork of the Leviathan ships

nd another shot of the French ship

Wow, I like it way better from the front! Looks Good...

Nice to see some models, but how about some actual movement on getting the game to market. They have been dragging this thing way too long. It seems to be less of a game they actually plan to sell and more of something their people are doing in their spare time just for fun.

I would love to see it hit the market, or at least the models...they are begging for use with the Full Thrust rules.

Looks cool but it seems to be missing something...ah yes a white flag.

Lol anyways I would love to see it painted up, maybe a beautiful coat of white paint to go with the flag...

Manchu wrote:Spartan's model does look a bit more detailed. Pity its the only one of their ships that continues past the waterline.

I think that's because it's intended to fly.

DODcrazy wrote:Looks cool but it seems to be missing something...ah yes a white flag.

Hilarious. This comment falls into the same category as 'GW only cares about money' i.e. it's neither insightful nor original. Yet there's always someone who has to trot it out whenever the French military is mentioned. They're not the only country to lose war - or an empire.

I clicked on this partly out of curiosity and partly to escape from the multiple threads about price rises (yes they're a bad thing, but the hysteria gets old fast). I hadn't heard about this game, but I really like the look of both of these models. The Spartan design looks impressive as a computer graphic, but the actual model looks (to me) like a more successful flying battleship. I would happily buy and paint a range of models that were this good. Having checked the website, they mention sprues, which suggests that this is going to be plastic and not resin. Also, I realised they're not spaceships but literally jjust flying ships. Which for some reason is a bit harder to accept. Anyway, it looks promising.

Release is aimed at Summer, but they are not sure which month exactly.

There is btw. a reason for the delay of this game, but I will not discuss it here. If Catalyst wants to talk about it, they will. But I can say that the delay was not forseeable and only partly (to a very small part) their fault.

Manchu wrote:As I understand it, we've yet to really see the Spartan model. That's a graphic, yes?

True, but design-wise I like the Leviathan ship better. It just feels a lot bigger and imposing, the Spartan ships look like they are a slightly updated version of the Man O War stuff.

I've been excited about this game for some time. Great to finally see a model!

Agamemnon2 wrote:

Manchu wrote:Spartan's model does look a bit more detailed. Pity its the only one of their ships that continues past the waterline.

I think that's because it's intended to fly.

Yeah, I was just referring to what seems like Spartan sticking a pin up Catalyst's ass by making their own cool flying boat in a range that otherwise consists of floaters. (Thank you, thank you. Don't forget to tip your waitresses.) In all fairness, I have not played Leviathans myself but I have heard reviews from demo games where people say it doesn't do much that Uncharted Seas didn't already. But there are always comments like that, I guess.

@Duncan: I'm not sure there's any reason to be mysterious. For the sake of Dakkanauts who are curious, let me unpack some details. Duncan, feel free to supplement or correct any of this. First, here's what Randall Bills, Leviathans' line developer, had to say in April:

While it’s added a huge swath of snow to my beard, working with the production for Leviathans has been a fascinating learning experience, to say the least (as tweeted a few days ago, some things I’m putting together now for production I should’ve put together ages ago).

For those that have been following my blogs for a while and in particular have been following the posted illustrations and photos of miniatures, some immediately noted the differences in turrets 1 and 3 on the HML Leviathan. Instead of the rounded shapes like that of turrets 2 and 4, they were given more of a…well…cheese wedge, if you will. Since I’ve several full-color illustrations and detailed orthographics (blue prints) that show exactly what turrets 1 and 3 should be like, it left me wondering…and a little worried.


We finally were able to dig enough back into the process with the manufacturer to determine where that issue cropped up. The designer that engineered the CAD for the HML Leviathan (as the very first CAD) did a lot of research on real-world ships to see how they were designed and built to ensure that as much authenticity would come through from Doug’s brilliant artwork. However, somewhere along the way that research got mixed into the design…and ultimately to the mould.

It’s actually a very logical ‘might occur’ situation…but once again, nothing I ever would’ve thought about as likely to happen. Luckily the manufacturer had no issues admitting that was completely on them and is revising the mould for a new test shot. As usual, when I’ve more photos, I’ll be sharing.

So if that's that, there is absolutely no reason at all to be mysterious. But that really can't be all there is. This game has been delayed for much longer than one problem with one mold. And in that case, playing coy is a pretty poor policy.

In fact, that just tends to get people riled up -- like with the (hasty?) charges of embezzlement circulating around the web this time last year, for example, and the resulting speculation of them going out of business or at the very least losing the Shadowrun license. Some show of transparency in the short term seems like the best policy to me. Without a better picture, which only Catalyst itself can really provide, it's easy to draw the conclusion that Catalyst is still recovering from these problems, which are hardly of anyone else's making. I had heard rumors that getting the packaging together and finding the pricepoint was holding things up, too, but nothing more official. I figured the problem might be some mess in China (typical American, huh?). I also wondered if Doug Caffee's passing affected the schedule at all.

Now I want companies like Catalyst to succeed. I've bought a mess of their Cthulhutech stuff, for example. (That's a license they have lost.) But this game had a Spring 2010 release date and the lack of reliable specifics has left a lot of people confused and frustrated. (Which I'm sure makes the Catalyst guys even more reticent to give specifics.) I guess it's important to note that this isn't the first model we've seen -- remember the HML Leviathan? Remember? And we also saw molds. It's not like they haven't been trying, I know. Back in October, Worktroll posted the following over on the Leviathans forum:

When? 2011. Although there's a temptation to say December 13th, 2012, just to make a point to the Nirubu crowd

In the meantimes, thanks for your continued support & interest, and believe me I'm prepared to sacrifice as many minions as I can to get Levs out. Fortunately, though, minion sacrifice is under Randall's control ...

And from two days ago:

Real Soon Now. Randall's blog posts give some idea of the complexity - a lot more complex than the original BattleDroids box. But it is moving closer to completion ... sorry, best I can say.

The blog entry in question is quoted above, by the way.

For those interested, some PDFs have been on sale for quite a while:

http://www.wargamevault.com/product_info.php?products_id=74906

http://www.wargamevault.com/product_info.php?products_id=65903

http://www.wargamevault.com/product_info.php?products_id=78491

And some information about what they are:

http://forums.monstersinthesky.com/index.php/topic,600.0.html

I am also in the 'waited a long time for this' crowd, and I don't really mind so much. Like all good things (gah, it's cursed now ), they come to those who wait. I've been watching the Cat forums with interest, and I've a positive feeling that the game will come out nicely. I haven't bought the pdfs as I want to wait for the box set to come out.

The minis look good, though I'm not sure about the pre-paints but that isn't going to stop me when it finally come out...

WOW!!! This is the first time I have seen this. . . I have been looking for a game like this for some time.

Can someone point me in the direction I need to find about how the gameplay runs and such? This just might be something I invest into greatly.