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Does anyone here play this? Antimatter Games make some great models, and a local store sells many of them. I got some locally and some as a late addition to their recent Kickstarter, which they just shipped- I got mine a few days ago

Love the cephalid models, and picked up a larger creature, too. Planning to use them for other projects for now but I thought I'd ask if others were buying models from this company, they seem to show a lot of promise!

 RiTides wrote:
Does anyone here play this? Antimatter Games make some great models, and a local store sells many of them. I got some locally and some as a late addition to their recent Kickstarter, which they just shipped- I got mine a few days ago

Love the cephalid models, and picked up a larger creature, too. Planning to use them for other projects for now but I thought I'd ask if others were buying models from this company, they seem to show a lot of promise!

Have not played, although I am interested in both. Did back the most recent ShadowSea KS and got my figures recently although not my softcover rule book. At the moment I'm wishing I pledged slightly higher so I'd have two factions, but really I've enough miniatures that I can proxy to try the game, assuming I can get an opponent.

Edit: Here's my thread asking about Deepwars at the Miniature Page: Has anyone played Deep Wars?

Deepwars thread at Boardgame Geek.

I picked up two starter boxes and the printed rulebook for $5 combined at a recent convention on clearance. I generally assume situations like that mean the game can't be that great.

But the figures were fun to paint!

I just got my faction and book. The models are pretty nice and I'm looking forward to giving the game a try...

piperider361 wrote:
I picked up two starter boxes and the printed rulebook for $5 combined at a recent convention on clearance. I generally assume situations like that mean the game can't be that great.

But the figures were fun to paint!

Are the Starters and rulebook for 1st edition? I'd guess so since the KS rewards which are 2nd ed. are just being shipped.

I have Dark Mariners. The models are very nice. No one at my store plays, and I have not gone on a quest to find players.

I just got my pledge, and I'm impressed. Only missed the estimated shipping time by a month and change, which is better than most kickstarters I've backed. The sculpts are nice and crisp, and I like that they all had individual scenic base inserts. I got 6 of the lizardmen, and those guys have a really nice heft to em!

A friend went in for the Gamemaster Deluxe package, which got him a board, painted figures and let him design a mini (which got on the rules cover no less). He's got everything but the painted figures and the mini he designed, so we'll get to playing once those arrive. I'll try and have my crew painted to a respectable level by then. The system looks simple enough and fun.The 2' by 2' playing field means you waste less time getting into position and get to the action quicker.



Oh and piper, just because a game is on clearance doesnt mean its not great, just that it doesnt necessarily have a large audience. You'll probably have to convert some buddies. IMO, there's a few huge games that have less than desirable rules. Play what you like!

I've got the Ancients of Atlan starter + Hero and rule book for DeepWars.

It pops up on here from time to time, but I've yet to play a game. I know it's based on Song of Blades and Heroes, but I don't play that either.

The models are great. Been meaning to paint them up.

Deep Wars is a lot of fun. There are a lot of RPG aspects that are easily worked into the game w/o a lot of extra rules so you can take a lot of oddball actions like cutting a bulkhead open, laying traps, mining crystals, making an improvised weapon out of a heavy piece of coral, etc. Along with a campaign system that allows you to keep the loot from your dead opponents (or from items found/mined/captured) there's a lot of replay value.

Scenarios are what make this game fun. Yes, you can just play the straight up "kill everything" scenario but once you learn the game throwing in random events or creatures that both sides might have to deal with make the game so much better. There may be times when the terrain or extra creatures are more of a threat than your opponent!

For example, we played a game where each team had a scientist that was the only model who could figure out what the ancient device was for in the middle of the table. I got to it first hoping it was a weapon. Instead, I activated a portal to a hellish dimension and anyone who was facing towards the device had to make a check each turn to see if they were driven insane by what they were seeing (my poor scientist becoming the first victim of the device was unceremoniously shanked from behind as he stood drooling on himself). This made for a lot of maneuvering during the rest of the game as folks tried to get out of the line of sight of the device yet still work each other over.

Another game was fought near a whale carcass. A errant torpedo careened into the mass destroying the body and covering the table in gore and blubber, reducing the range at which folks could spot each other.

A third game saw divers drop onto the table from above with the intent to find buried treasures. The treasures were of course were guarded by multiple kinds of sea creatures and most everyone spent at least a few turns trying to fend off sharks or keep squids from pulling off dive tanks when they weren't being engaged by the enemy.

The better your imagination, the more you will like this game. It is VERY easy to learn the basics and you can add different levels of complexity as you get comfortable with the system.

Still want to play this, I have some of the minis.

Do they still have that sexy website?

One of the minis I have is very heavy. You could just it at someone and kill them.

Is it a alternate activation or a I go you go system?

 Piston Honda wrote:
Still want to play this, I have some of the minis.

Do they still have that sexy website?

One of the minis I have is very heavy. You could just it at someone and kill them.

Is it a alternate activation or a I go you go system?

It's a bit more complex than alternate activation. You can roll from 1-3d6 to activate a figure. The number of actions that figure gets is equal to the number of d6s that equal or exceed that figure's quality level (A lower Q-value is better). Failures will either limit the number of figures you can activate now, or in the case of rolling three failures at once means your activation is now done and your opponent now starts activating. A number of powerful actions take at least 2 successes so as a player you'd need to take the risk of three failures in order to get a chance of success at that action.

For example, I try to use an Axibalan Elementalist. Minimum successes need to use her spells are two, three would be better. I roll three failures. She's done for this turn and you now get to roll for one of your models. You choose a figure already engaged in melee. You choose to play it safe and take a basic strike, so you only need 1 success. You roll 1d6, make the check and then resolve melee normally. As you are successful, you can activate another model. This continues until either you run out of models or roll failures that let me start activating again.

Now I still have not played, but it seems the system offers some decision points. Stick with safe 1d6 activations, but not get much done, or go big and chance catastrophic failure. And as noted above, some actions require two or more successes to be done at all, so you must risk giving your opponent the initiative.

As for the website, do you mean the Deepwars webpage? If so, yes. The Shadowsea needs reworking in light of the new releases and new edition. I'm guessing they are waiting until they've finished shipping the KS rewards.

If Shadowsea is getting a second edition, are there any plans for Deepwars to be receiving one as well?

If I remember correctly, they were once compatible.

I think they still are. The deepwars kickstarter came first, and got some rules revisions. The Shadowsea came second, and has a large number of crossover models that can be played in both Deepwars and Shadowsea. Same stat card, but certain guys work better either on land or underwater.

from the Shadowsea KS
"Anyone pledging in this project can choose to select DeepWars starter sets, miniatures and rulebooks to replace any starter sets and books from ShadowSea, or they can mix and match. Many of the miniatures from DeepWars can be used in on land in ShadowSea, including any Amphibious models. The DeepWars miniatures that are unable to leave the water have the Marine ability, although ones with powered dive suits can leave the water normally. Models that can be used in ShadowSea without. All DeepWars miniatures that can be used in ShadowSea with no modifications to the model have a gold coin next to them on the list of "unlocked" reward items that can be chosen by backers"

So it looks like with the most recent stat revisions in Shadowsea everything is brought into line.

The miniatures are fantastic, obviously, but my issue has always been that they licensed Song of Blades and Heroes rules for their game mechanics which are WAY too simplistic for my tastes. Every figure only has 2 stats (Quality and Combat) plus a few abilities/special rules, and a points cost following a simple formula based on stats+ability. Every any non-attack roll is uses your Quality (a simple D6 roll to equal or beat that stat, so low is good), and any attack uses your Combat (D6 added to your stat, so high is good). IIRC combat rolls are opposed checks, and beat = push back and possibly knock down, double/triple the opponents roll to injure/kill. All movement is using "movement sticks" that are short (3"), medium (5"), or long (7") and is determined by skills (5" is standard, short gives a points break, long costs more points)

SoB&H does have quite a bit of special rules to represent different abilities and such, but in the end there's just too little difference between an elf and an ogre and an alien and while you can do all kinds of different scenarios, it isn't that fun rolling the same exact Quality check to see if you pass a moral check and passing a "bluff the guard" check and "hack into the computer" check. Or when the same model rolls the same combat check when swinging with a dagger or a sword or an spear or shooting a bow or ballista or rocket launcher. You can play around with those a bit with different skills, but it's generally of the "grants a +1 in X case" variety

It works if you want a very light wargame with a lot of simple customisability to use any figure with and just chuck some dice around in. Personally, I'd recommend getting the fantastic Deep Wars minis and using a different, more robust game system like Savage Worlds or Pulp Alley

Thanks for the info guys, this is all very helpful! Love the models so no matter what, I'll use them for something

Hoping someone could answer some Shadowsea rules questions about custom figures.

1. When buying weapons and armor from a faction's Armory list (pg 202), you pay the points listed and gain the advantages/penalties as listed on the appropriate weapon table (pg 49 = HtH, pg 53= Ranged), right?

2. The trait Thick Skull (pg 82) says, "They are also able to attack by ramming other models, so they cannot be disarmed until they are killed." That's fine, but I have not found the stats for a ramming attack. Does anyone know where it can be found? [If it's an issue, going with a +0 H2H, no Armor Break or other weapon traits will do.]

Thank you for your time.