1/300 scale Coastal Warfare game from Warlord "Cruel Seas"

[Gibby]

My hat off to Warlord, starting with today's newsletter they're doing weekly articles about the period and how the game works etc. Precisely what I said they didn't do enough of in the Blood Red Skies thread. Looking forward to seeing how it works. It's been a passion project for John Stallard apparently, and generally something done with passion is done well!

[Schogun]

Warlord has posted an intro. Not much detail but there is one picture of 2 pages from the rulebook that tells a lot:

http://www.warlordgames.com/cruel-seas-an-introduction-to-small-ship-action/

One die per ship. Pull die from bag and assign to ship. Move, fire, resolve damage.

Track ship damage by percentage. Looks like area for special damage to Engine, Bridge, Rudder, Crew and Fire.

[Billchuck]

Track ship damage by percentage. Looks like area for special damage to Engine, Bridge, Rudder, Crew and Fire.

Looks like just hull points.  As you take damage, move the marker at the top.  When you go off the end, move the marker at the bottom to the next ten.

[Schogun]

My question is if I buy just the rules, will I be able to get the ship cards? Will they be printed in the back of the book? Or available separately?

Chuck

[Rhubarb633]

I like the look of it. Nice models, the opportunity to build some coastal scenery, and an evocative, swashbuckling, cinematic setting. Can even add 1/300 scale figures to the mix.
It’s also innovative, and there’s something to be said for that in a hobby which - as far as the ‘historical’ side goes anyway - usually involves endless rehashing of the same periods and ranges of figures.
It’s just a game with toys. Ranges, move distances and so on in tabletop wargames are never remotely realistic. Almost nothing about tabletop wargaming is realistic. It’s all purely representational - one giant set of compromises between reality and suspension of disbelief, in order to get a fun, visually pleasing game with models onto a tabletop.
I can’t get hung up about ‘unrealistic’ gunfire ranges between boats 
Unless you play on a huge table with near microscopic toys, gunnery ranges are never going to be to scale. Playing wargames on domestic tables using models that are big enough to see, model, paint and enjoy, means accepting the compromise- nothing about relative distance is realistic.

Spot on! My sentiments entirely.

Just hoping the rules are up to the job.

The only slight disappointment for me so far is that the models look quite 'static'. These are fast craft, right. I want to see my Vospers surging forward, bows raised, not floating like ducks on a pond. I don't think it would have been too difficult to have made the models a bit more 'bows-up'. That said, they do look nice.

[Gunbird]

Maybe a stupid question, maybe not (as I simply can't see it listed, but I blame my glasses then).....does the book cover the entire war or is it focussed on a specific year? As the boats got very upgunned with the war progressing.

[Etranger]

I don't think it's stated but as the models they're releasing represent different stages in the evolution of the S-boats & MTBs it's likely that they will cover a significant part of the war.

[Schogun]

Damage video has been posted:


Roll # of d6s for gun(s). Add total. Deduct from ship's Hull Points.

There wasn't any dice for MGs or small weapons, so maybe just 20mm and larger?

Or maybe not until in point blank range?

[Schogun]

The December Wargames Illustrated with Cruel Seas sprue arrived at my local store yesterday so I bought a copy with the German S-Boats. The models are indeed beautiful. However, the sprue comes with 5 guns, one for each of 5 holes in the two models. So no extras. It's early, I know, but I hope Warlord sells a weapons sprue by itself.

Nice models though. Very tempting. Still deciding...

Chuck

[Schogun]

3 painting videos now:

How to paint German Ships:


How to paint British Ships:


How to paint Extra Details:

[tomrommel1]

I just collected all the available info about the game on my blog. So if you want to have a look:
https://wargamesgazette.com/2018/12/11/cruel-seas/

[tomrommel1]

Got the game in the post today !!! will have a good read of the rules tonight.

[digid]

We played this for the 1st time tonight. 2 games in fact. 4 players just to learn the rules. We all had a absolute blast. It has just the right amount of rules to strategy without getting bogged down. After the 1st turn everyone picked it up and we only had to reference the book for odd situations. I will be ordering a copy for myself. All agreed it is a keeper.

Dale

[tomrommel1]

Had a quick read of the rules last night. I must say that I rather like what I read! Basic rules only take up something like 12 pages. So you can start the first game quite quickly indeed.
One thing is that submarines are only represented as surfaced. If you want to represent sub chasing you will have to ad house rules. That shouldn't be to difficult as depth charges are represented.

[Volleyfire!]

Hopefully the tokens will be available separately so that those of us with masses of 1/600 can use the rules and don't have to fiddle around making loads of markers. And no I'm not going to just use tiddly winks instead, they look naff..