These boats are up for sale now! Order your squadron here.Also on Warseer. They’re priced at £9 / �,�12 for one squadron of five boats, plus postage, or £26 / �,�34 for three squadrons of five vessels each, plus postage.
Here’s a scale shot of the sculpts, the sizes of which are also true for the resin casts:
Size comparison shot with Man o’ War miniatures, provided by customer:
The resin casting by Zealot Miniatures is, as far as I am able to discern, flawless of a kind not often seen among resin miniatures. Nevertheless, should a miniature be damaged by air bubbles or other defects, just contact me with pictures of the damage, and the model will get replaced.
Shading his eyes against the fiery glare below, captain Uhr-Maduknezhar stood astride up in the commanding archer tower of the slave galley Grasp of Lidunammu. The scarred and grizzled seaman observed the chaotic battle scene in the archipelago below while smoke columns obscured his view. He gripped one pointy merlon to counter the worst rockings of the crenellated tower as the frantic sea waves tossed the narrow ship about. The sounds of blackpowder blasts, creaking hulls and the galley drums were in the air. In the accursed salty wet, debris and bodies both alive and dead littered the surroundings, picked at by bloodthirsty sharks and yet worse behemoths of the depths, some of them a danger to the unharmed vessels. The situation was difficult to assess, for behind the smoke, the flimsy wooden masts and sails of the enemy fleet had become an indecipherable tangle.
“Our fire ships shouldn’t ever have let loose at such an angle,” groaned decksofficer Bel-Ninridu, gesticulating madly at the unquenchable flames dancing across waves and wrecks below. "Just look at it! It’s a bloody mess of firewalls down there, smokescreens shielding their escape. Gallows!"
Without glancing at his subordinate, Uhr-Marduknezhar replied: “Our metal hulls have passed through seas of molten rock. Our rams have licked the waves of hell. What’s a little flame to that?”
“With our ship unenchanted, without the preparatory rites, the rowers will perish at oars. We’ll be stranded at great cost,” said Bel-Ninridu.
“Then let the slaves broil and burn in their shackles if they wish to succumb to a little heat,” said Uhr-Marduknezhar. “The roasted thralls will make for fine steaks. The omens are right, I am sure of it. Signal the helmsman, bring the Grasp of Lidunammu about and aim her at the largest pillar of smoke, right there. Then signal the taskmaster: Breakneck speed, full ahead. The gods will it! And brace for impact.”
Dînadan is correct. The escort vessels and the upcoming larger ships could either be used as proxies for existing ship types in those games, or they could be used with homebrew rules. One or more persons over on a Yahoo Man o’ War group has already volunteered for coming up with new ship card rules, and it’s under discussion.
But, strictly speaking, there is not yet really a wargame with which to play these models. The longer term goals (if sufficient interest exists) includes finding some volunteer rules meister who can concoct an entirely new fantasy naval game with simple but elegant rules for our ships, and naturally some enemy fleets to engage with.
Are there any Man o’ War players around here who would like to try their hand at house rules for the escort vessels? I guess the key thing about these boats is that they’re small, compact and expendable floating weapons, and the demonfire vessel is probably unpredictable as well.
Cannot write MoW rules myself, since that game was way before my time.
Are there any Man o' War players around here who would like to try their hand at house rules for the escort vessels? I guess the key thing about these boats is that they're small, compact and expendable floating weapons, and the demonfire vessel is probably unpredictable as well.
Cannot write MoW rules myself, since that game was way before my time.
Admiral
If you google Plague Fleet pdf and look up the Chaos Dwarfs you will see the type of silhouette drawings needed for the ship cards, then you can portion off the ship parts and write up the rest of the rules. These ships will just have rams, cannons or catapults and a special rule each for the more unusual ships. I haven't looked at the rules in years so i cant really help without rereading the whole thing. I could give it a go but wouldnt have time for three months or so. If someone can draw up the templates ill fill them in. Do the ships have names?
If you ever decide to form a miniature company, you should call it "Evil Dwarf Escort Service" ;P
Firehammer
This certainly would identify you to a very niche market that I'm sure is out there, but I think they'd be disappointed with what they discover. :hat off
@Pyro Stick: Thank you kindly! Maybe I’ll look into it in due time, but in the meanwhile fingers crossed some Man o’ War enthusiast shows up to handle that.
@Firehammer & Nicodemus: Nono, no Slaaneshi stuff allowed here.
Not a naval wargamer either but I really love the slave galley. In particular the tiny (or to scale massive) Chaos Dwarf Statue glaring down at his own ship.
Hehe, yep. My old pictures are downloaded and will be restored as per Nicodemus’ clever formula in due time. No high priority ATM, more important to map out members and salvage inactive ones’ albums. Everything is in a flux while the Photobucket crisis lasts. Bloodbeard have pictures of the ships on the Facebook page anyway. Also, all sales pictures exist on the blogshop. Click banner.
