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Tabletop Gaming, Models, and Minis => Wargaming => Topic started by: besilarius on October 26, 2018, 05:57:36 AM

Title: Cruel Seas. Coastal command fights
Post by: besilarius on October 26, 2018, 05:57:36 AM
http://www.warlordgames.com/annoucement-cruel-seas-ahead/?utm_source=Warlord+Games+Newsletter&utm_campaign=00065cc174-Wednesday_Hobby_%26_News_24th_October_2018&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b7e928b4ed-00065cc174-133188325&mc_cid=00065cc174&mc_eid=3e430d540c&fbclid=IwAR12LvD6XdzN5rQl8euc_KLkv0qDYYpORObL3WVIUqf81oCK8kzNu3DZHYk

Just was told of this.  Covers small boat actions like PT boats in the Pacific and MTBs in the English Channel and Med.
Very different and could be a lot of fun.
Title: Re: Cruel Seas. Coastal command fights
Post by: besilarius on December 27, 2018, 09:49:47 AM
This is working out to be a really, fun engaging game. 
If you are interested in british small boat actions, they are coming out with a Mediterranean pack.
For background, here is a wartime movie on MTBs and MGBs.  (Veddy, veddy british)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzJDVhuMaI8
Title: Re: Cruel Seas. Coastal command fights
Post by: Staggerwing on December 27, 2018, 08:49:44 PM
Quote from: besilarius on December 27, 2018, 09:49:47 AM
This is working out to be a really, fun engaging game. 
If you are interested in british small boat actions, they are coming out with a Mediterranean pack.
For background, here is a wartime movie on MTBs and MGBs.  (Veddy, veddy british)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzJDVhuMaI8

I saw this posted a while back- classic stuff: "Oh, ye canna go to Heaven, in an MTB...'cause an MTB only goes to sea..."
Title: Re: Cruel Seas. Coastal command fights
Post by: Silent Disapproval Robot on December 27, 2018, 10:52:36 PM
I ordered a copy of the starter from NWS but haven't heard back from them yet. 

Title: Re: Cruel Seas. Coastal command fights
Post by: besilarius on December 28, 2018, 08:45:50 AM
This game has some interesting mechanics.
Torpedoes are the real ship killers, but getting a hit is difficult.  You must aim at the spot you think the target will occupy when the torpedoes arrive.
You estimate the target's speed from their wake.  Different markers are used to show the target's speed, as a wake indicator.
There is some skill involved, not just rolling dice.  I really like that.
This is something like how submarines fired their torpedoes at targets, although there were mechanical devices in World War II to assist.  The american boats had a device called a banjo, that you dialed in factors like estimated range, target speed, and target angle.
PT boats and MTBs, only had the Mark I, Mod 0 eyeball. 
Title: Re: Cruel Seas. Coastal command fights
Post by: Silent Disapproval Robot on March 03, 2019, 05:26:03 AM
After trying it out, I'd advise not picking this one up for a while.  It's got some serious design flaws and the rulebook is a mess.

1) Movement rules have you line up a ruler with the front of your ship and then move the ship a certain number of centimetres along the ruler based on the ship's speed.  This isn't as accurate as it should be because the the models are different.  Some have bluff bows where others are quite tapered.  Do you measure from the very tip of the bow that's sitting 5-6mm above the table surface or do you measure from where the front of the bow meets the waterline?  Also, the rulers have a notch like a puzzle piece tab slot along the short edge.  Do you place the bow of the ship into that notch or try to line it up along what should be the edge of the ruler?  The rulebook advises you to pick up your ship model to move it and as well as turn turn your ships.  I'm not too fussed about this but I know a lot of minis guys who will lose their shit if you pick up a model off the table and put it back down "in the same general area".  Work around is to use the ship's wake/speed markers to line up along the edge of the ruler.

2) Torpedoes.  You fire a torpedo and it moves a set distance each turn until it hits something or runs out of fuel.  Even if you manage to get a good shot off and your torpedo mini impacts a target ship, you still need to roll to hit and the chances are pretty low.  Tiny, small, and medium ships (the bulk of what you'll be playing with) can't be hit by torpedoes at all (even though the torpedo to hit table has modifiers for ships of this size) and even large ships stand a better than 50/50 chance of not being hit.  Even if a torpedo does roll a hit, you then have to roll to see if it's a dud and this is based on crew experience levels rather than national torpedo type.  I think the early was US torpedoes should be much more likely to be duds than say, Japanese long lances.  The other weird thing is torpedo activation order in the turn sequence.  In terms of scoring a hit, it's far more likely for you to score a hit if the ship that fired the torpedo is then killed or surrenders as the torpedo will then activate first in turn order rather than as it normally would.  Torps just aren't a threat at all with the rules as they stand.

3).  Aircraft.  The aircraft data sheets are a mess.  They refer to strafing but then the game designers got rid of strafing rules so you can either drop bombs or launch torpedoes, depending on your loadout.  Veteran aircrews can attack multiple ships on their attack run.  As the rules stand, a veteran crew can attack multiple ships with a single torpedo.

4)  Searchlights.  Rules aren't clear but they can be interpreted as only the ship using the searchlight gains a benefit from it.  Apparently, it's a special beam visible only to the ship's crew.

5) Splashes from missed shots.  An rounds fired from a 37mm or larger gun that miss their target put out a splash plume marker near the target.  Once a ship has 3+ markers around it, it makes it easier for following shots to hit the target.  I get the intention of walking shots onto the target but the implementation is a mess.  The 3+ plumes near a target affects every ship firing at said target.  If 4 or 5 ships are all unleashing on a ship and plumes are spraying up all over the place, it would make identifying where your shot fell and correcting harder, not easier.  Also, you can fire after each leg of movement so the rules lawyers love the fact that they can open up with their big guns on leg one and put out plumes and then use the smaller calibre stuff that doesn't cause plumes on legs 2 and 3 and gain the plume benefit.

6) Weapons aren't clearly explained.  The to hit tables give bonuses to semi automatic weapons but the data tables don't ID which gun mounts count as semi auto.  The hit tables in the rulebook differ from those on the back of the movement rulers and on the quick play data sheet. 

7) Critical hits don't make a lot of sense when applied to larger ships.  You can take out a gunner via a critical and that causes a ship to stop firing for a turn while a new gunner mans the position.  Makes sense for smaller torpedo boats but for larger ships like destroyers, it doesn't at all.  All mounts on a destroyer stop firing because one AA position got pinned down from MG fire?