Another Point of Singularity

Having recently heard about THE UNCHARTED SEAS, by Spartan Games courtesy of The Miniatures Page, I decided to look into the game. Fortunately I also discovered the fantastic gaming podcast D6 GENERATION podcast recently and they have featured the game in a recent episode.

Craig Gallant's painted fleets, along with some really nice terrain he made for the game, can be viewed here. He took the photo above.

THE UNCHARTED SEAS is exploring the same niche that GW's MAN O' WAR briefly inhabited, and to a lesser extent, STRANGE TYDES by Wessex Games. Small fleet fantasy naval warfare is a 'period' I'd love to delve into, if the game is cost effective and plays well. I loved Man O' War when it was out, all too briefly, and always thought it was a crime that this particularly offshoot was pruned from the GW family tree.

I don't know much more about THE UNCHARTERED SEAS than what I can see; there are (at this time) four base fleets, available as individual ships or small starter fleets, all at a reasonable amount (considering the international rate of exchange). These are Humans, Dwarves, Orcs and the Dragon Lords. The Human FLeet greatly resembles a mix betwen the Bretonnian and Empire fleet from Man o' War, sort of like giant souped up medieval cogs. The Dwarven fleet look somewhat jarring in comaprison- sleek, almost like a futuristic luxury liner. Orcs look.. well, ork-y.. all angles and spikes. The Dragon Lord fleet has a repltilian flair to it.

I can't really comment on the rules, as I didn't see a sample PDF or anything I could base any judgment on. The images of rulebook pages look extremely well illustrated with lots of helpful examples.

I like Spartan's marketing approach; wait until you have enough starter fleets done to provide a nice mix of things BEFORE you do an all out game release. Word has it that an Elf Fleet is in the works.

Summary: I'm intrigued and certainly interested. That's about all I can say as I haven't see the game for sail or played around this part of the United States. Long gone are the days when I'd mail order it on a whim, just to find out (until we are in better economic times at any rate). I hope I can see this played at some point, and I'll have more to go on.