Pandora on Dreadfleet

Hey there, Pandora here with another awesome thing that has stolen my mind. This month it has been all about Dreadfleet.

Dreadfleet is the newest sub-game from Games Workshop. To be honest I hadn't really paid much attention to the hype about it, and wasn't all that bothered until I happened to be in store on the launch day.

After 1 demo game I was sold.

So what's it all about? It is set in the Warhammer fantasy universe, sort of. The actual setting is a sort of 'Bermuda Triangle', a ship graveyard with many strange tales around it.

There are 2 main groups in the game the Grand Alliance (goodies) and Dreadfleet (baddies). All the ships have there own story of how they ended up in this strange place, as you would expect from a Games Workshop product the back stories are detailed and mesh together as part of an overall story of the game. There are 10 ships altogether, plus auxiliaries and scenery. The game box was priced at £70, which seems steep until you take into account it contains literally everything you will need, including dice, game mat and even plastic bags to keep cards in.

The models for this game are amazing. Each of the 10 ships is distinctive, and reflects the faction it represents very well. Though the one that surprised me was the inclusion of a Chaos Dwarf ship, the Black Kraken.

It's almost impossible to say which the best looking ship is, as they all have unique points that make them stand out. Though the 2 head ships, the Heldenhammer and the Bloody Reaver, are as expected the most impressive and the largest, though that's not saying all the ships aren't awesome.

I am also happy to report in the most part the models go together very easily and neatly. Painting wise, I found it easiest to follow the suggested colour schemes, as none of the factions I collect are included so I had little in the way of colour scheme knowledge for them. The accompanying White Dwarf has painting guides for all the ships, some of the auxiliaries and an overall guide to the scenery. The scenery pieces that are included with the game are equally impressive and distinctive. Hell, Citadel have even gone all out on the pieces for measuring the angle of a turn, measuring stick and wind direction gauge. Even the auxiliaries are detailed and unique. All in all a class act from the model point of view.

As for game play, again all angles have been covered well. All the ships have a card with their stats and Captain's abilities, meaning no fighting over the rule book. The instructions are clear and concise and cover almost everything that may come up during game play. Anyone familiar with playing Warhammer won't find this too much of a jump. The turn phases may have different names but are essentially the same, so there are orders (resolving continual effects etc), movement, Broadside (shooting) and boarding (close combat).

Player turn order is decided by a D6 roll at the start of each round, so tactics vary each turn depending on your roll and the actions of the players before you as well as anticipating the actions of the people after you. Also, as the instruction book is well laid out it isn't hard to find what you are looking for, for the times the player's minds go blank or an argument threatens to break out. Almost all special instructions are written on the various cards that come with the set. This means that when they are all laid out in front of the player, they essentially act as a quick reference guide.

Most of all this is a very sociable game. As there are 10 ships, there can be up to 10 players. The rule book contains various scenarios for different numbers of ships, and uneven sided battles.

There is also the matter of portability. As the girls quarters of the WIP HQ are a long way from the main HQ, I don't tend to war game much. As it means lugging an army case there and back, where as this is much easier to move. And only 1 person needs to bring things, so as many people can join in as are interested.

So get your pirate on. Yaarrrr! Rum all round!