Uncharted Seas Relaunches!

…into the digital realm! Higher quality models, enhanced detail levels, new designs, faster to market ability.

Spartan Games is excited to announce that it has concluded a major project in taking its highly successful Uncharted Seas fantasy naval tabletop game and moving it into the digital age.

This project has seen ALL 7 current fleets, which had been previously hand sculpted, completely rebuilt using state of the art digital technology. This has been a huge undertaking, involving over 70 new models, and reaffirms Spartan’s commitment to enhancing and supporting the fantasy realm that it created some three years ago.

“Although this has been a mammoth task for our creative and manufacturing guys, we’re committed to this digital remodel as part of our expansion plans for the Uncharted Seas,” explains Neil Fawcett, Creative Director of Spartan Games. “Our first digital fantasy sculpts created the Ralgard Fleet, the results of which were very successful. As we continued to review our other races, a digital rendition of the designs made huge sense.”

To this end our 3D modellers have taken each nation in turn and remodelled the core ships. For some fleets this has meant taking an already strong look and improving upon it with enhanced detail and precision, as well as remaking some models from scratch, whilst holding on to their aesthetic. A perfect example of this are the Orc Raiders, which have seen several models translated into the digital world, retaining their overall shape, but being massively overhauled with painstaking amounts of detail.

Other fleets have held on to their core shapes across the range, and these include the Dragon Lords and Iron Dwarves. The designers liked their look so much that they held true to it during the sculpting process, increasing detail levels and adding some new twists. With the Dragon Lords a new and intuitive way of locating the living sails has been created, whereas with the Iron Dwarves the uniformity and precision of this race has been captured with the new models.

“When the chance to digitally sculpt Uncharted Seas from top to bottom came up, Chris Drew and I were very excited about doing it. The chance to re-envisage classic models like Imperial Humans and Thaniras Elves was impossible to say no to,” explains Dave Kidd, senior modeller on the Uncharted Seas project. “We split the fleets up, chatted with the game guys about what they wanted from us and dived in. My first fleet to design was the Orcs, a nostalgic journey for me as it was the fleet that got me into the game. I looked to hold the original feel of them, but wanted to make them more aggressive and spikey, and genuinely mean looking.”

Along with the new models, the team has reworked the Core Rule Book into a new revision. It is worth clarifying that the core rules are not changing, and that the book is just a reflection of the new models, featuring photography of the new digital sculpts in all of their glory. The rules remain at Second Edition, as do the Race Decks.

The re-launch of Uncharted Seas will take place September 2011, when all 7 re-crafted fleets and the Revised Rule Book will be simultaneously available from shops around the world.

Storm Clouds Rising [Working Title]

We are pleased to announce that our first campaign supplement for Uncharted Seas will arrive hot on the heels of the game’s re-launch in September this year. Focussed on a series of conflicts in the Ossirian Sea, the book will have:

12 x Scenarios
Campaign Rules
Modelling Section – Making the Islands of the Ossirian Sea
Addendum Rules: including Land Combat, Crew Enhancements, Scenery & Fortifications
New Model/Ship Rules

And much more…

Over the coming weeks we will be adding more images of both digital models and painted models, so keep checking back.

This has been a huge undertaking, involving over 70 new models, and reaffirms Spartan’s commitment to enhancing and supporting the fantasy realm that it created some three years ago.

Laughing Man wrote:For instance, there's not many settings where the Orcs ruled the world for ages.

Absolutionis wrote:

Laughing Man wrote:For instance, there's not many settings where the Orcs ruled the world for ages.

...however, there is one: Warcraft

Flashman wrote:Bother, pics are work blocked. Can someone upload?

Mick A wrote:Why do companies always seem to do this now? I'm really getting tired of seeing 'Our new edition of "insert name here" rules is out soon'. There used to be a time when companies released a set of rules and that was it. Any rules additions or changes were put into a new scenario or army book so at least you had something extra for your money but you could still just use the main rules as is if you preffered. Now I'll take this all back if its a complete new set of rules but if its a couple of changes here and there I won't be wasting my money... Rant over...

Mick

Catyrpelius wrote:While the models look awsome, I think I'm done with this game.

This will be their third rulebook update in 2ish years...

Mick A wrote:Why do companies always seem to do this now? I'm really getting tired of seeing 'Our new edition of "insert name here" rules is out soon'. There used to be a time when companies released a set of rules and that was it. Any rules additions or changes were put into a new scenario or army book so at least you had something extra for your money but you could still just use the main rules as is if you preffered. Now I'll take this all back if its a complete new set of rules but if its a couple of changes here and there I won't be wasting my money... Rant over...

Mick

Catyrpelius (and others) wrote:I think I'm done with this game.
This will be their third rulebook update in 2ish years...

Osbad wrote:

Catyrpelius (and others) wrote:I think I'm done with this game.
This will be their third rulebook update in 2ish years...

I don't get the problem. Admittedly they faffed about a bit while they upgraded the rules, but now you can either buy 2nd edition rulebook for the vast sum of £15 (about the price of one Failcast model from the Evil Empire) or if you have the original rules, you can still use them with the FREE pdf downloads available from the site. How could they have possibly handled it better?

The new 3rd printing of the rule book is, as they say, not a change in the core rules just a reprinting to incorporate the new models and up grade the artwork etc. As nowadays you get stat cards in with the models, if you buy any of the new stuff you get the rules with it so your old 2nd ed (or 1st ed + pdfs) rulebook will be still valid. Again, what's the problem with that?

The alternative is letting the system languish for years with a broken and out of date rule book. How does that do anyone any favours? If you really like the old rules best, you can still use them if you want. The Spartan Game Police are hardly going to break down your door and force you to upgrade!