THE BATTLE OF THE BOOK

Finallly I managed to borrow some time for posting a battle that took place the last month when I was abroad learning German. I played at Hahnc's house and was a battle between Ralgard and Iron Dwarves just as it is shown in the last Uncharted Seas Rulebook.


DEPLOYMENT

The battle took place in an archipielago and the deployment is shown in the following picture. The ships involved were the equivalent of each faction, except the Ralgard included a Battleship and I included submarines and an extra heavy cruiser and a destroyer squadron instead a frigate squadron.

EARLY  TURNS

The dwarves suffered a crippling blow when after suffering a second hit, the Bellows airship was destroyed by a double critical hit thanks to the Ralgard Warballoons that scored a bucket of exploding dice. So the airship was destroyed without contributing to the battle

The submarines and destroyers managed to sink a frigate here and there, I decided to attack in two waves. First one: the flagship, then followed by the Anvil Heavy cruisers. The hammers were badly damaged by shooting from the Ralgard Assault cruisers and war balloons but managed to sink many frigates and put some damage in the assault cruisers.

ENDING TURNS

The Dwarf flaship damaged the Ralgard battleship and the cruisers with experimental ammunition and in return, the cruisers and one of the submarines were sunk, and destroyers were badly damaged....

... When the destroyers were finally sunk by surviving frigates and the surviving submarine attempted to turn around (the submerged token has 360º turning rate, but once you surface they need the small template to turn from the last position they moved surmeged) so it took it another turn to turn around and fire the enemy frigates. The real problem was in the middle of the board. The Dwarf flagship found itself surrounded by enemies after sinking the last Ralgard cruiser and destroying the surviving war balloons. Also, the Anvils, that were almost untouched had no room to maneuver in support of their flagship....

... so the Flaagship was rammed by Ralgard Assault cruisers and slaughtered all the crew and the Admiral :( giving the Ralgard the victory.


AFTERTHOUGHTS

It was an interesting battle, I learned a lot. Hahnc told me about battlelines, but I had difficulties in making these maneuvers with so many islands around, and dwarves have not specially agile ships :( It also was a bad Idea to attack in separate waves leaving my flagship unsuported. I ended up blocking my own movement and firepower. Also, the destruction of my Bellows airship was a decisive blow (It could have bombed the assault cruisers), so I feel myself out-activated, and out-gunned the rest of the battle.

I will talk about dwarf tactics in the next entry on this blog. I promise... ;)

Dan

SHIP PAINTING: STEP BY STEP

Today I am going to write about how I paint a squadron of Iron Dwarves  "Anvil" class heavy cruisers

Step 1: Assembling and primming.

First of all I based the ship (see "Ship basing tutorial" in this month of the blog) and primed it with a brush, but it is possible to prime it with a spray. The base was also primed. The Anvils have a turret that I did not decide to glue becuause it will prevent me for painting the deck and the front side of bridge of the ship, so the turrets will be painted separately and later glued. If your model has parts that will make diffficult to paint the main body is preferable to paint them separately before assembling.

Step 2: Basic colours.

The basic colours of the hull and cannons are added to the ship. Also small details are painted because when I dip the model in the next step those details will be remarked. I re-check the ships to see there aren´t any colours that run into zones painted in another colour, and correct the mistakes before proceeding to step 3.

Step 3: Selective Dipping

It is called "Dipping" because the original procedure for it was to dip the model into the quickshade can then swing it until the shading stuff is gone from the outer zones of the model, but, because I do not have a place to swing the ships (no garden) and the ships are too big for that (and swinging could damage the base) I used a brush, to selectively paint the zone where the shanding liquied will be required, in this case the decks of the ship and lower hull (wich is "made" of wood planks) Then I use anothe brush to remove the  excess of shading stuff from teh zones. I do not cover the pannels in the upper hull because it will then require to paint each pannel separately and will consume a lot of time that is why I call it "selective" (the panel will go darker). The metallic details (except guns) are covere with the shader to remark the details and separate it from the hull.

The dipping or Shading process requires at least 3 days of drying then you can continue painting the model. The details of the lower hull should be perfectly remarked. At this step also add a black wash to the funnels of the ship.

Step 4: Panelling, part 1

In this step I paint the upper hull (the blue part). first covering the remains of the shading stuff that ran into the blue zone and then paintig the lines separating the pannels with a fine brush. I try to paint a white line thick enough to reach the two adjoining pannels using a brighter colour used to paint the hull. I also add lights to the edges of the blue zones of the ship.

Step 5: Panelling, part 2

I use even a finer bursh to paint a black line inside the white (or brighter) line that separate the pannels of the upper hull of the ship. The effect is a upper hull "made" of independent pannels. Sometimes I have to repaint one or"thin" a line with the hull colour. Some othe details are added like lights and shades to the metallic parts,  like the ram.

Step 6: painting the base, part 1

 I forgot to mention I paint the edge of the base in black using as less water in the paint as possible to protect the base from bending this can be done as early as step 2. Then, in this step I properly paint the base with a "base" colour of navy blue, covering the edges of the base, but you can leave them black. At this stage I also glue the turrets to the ships, as the zone they block for painting is already painted. It is possible to magnetize the turrets, but in my opinion the Anvil's turret is quite small for doing that.

Step 7: painting the base, part 2

Then I mix white with blue in a 3 parts of white , 1 of blue  to paint the "waves" in the base, starting with the ones at the aft and the prow of the ships then I add more waves in the middle zone trying to paint them as symetrical as possible.

Step 8: painting the base, part 3

Finally I add the white colour to the waves, on top of them, painting half  in white along the line of the wave, except in the prow, that is painted to look as realistic as possible, painting the upper zone of the wave and leaving the lower zone of the wave in light blue. In case of the Aft waves, I add a wash of  dark blue to separate the lines of the trailing waves first. Within the prow area I also add a little more lines to make the ship look "cutting" the waves.

Step 9: painting the base, part 4

Thinning. In this last step, I thin the lines representing the waves with navy blue to give the model a smoother look. Sometimes this may make the wave to be smaller but its OK as long as you keep them symetrical with the other side of the base. It is possible to drybrush some of the base to give more "texture" to it, but the models are just finished and I barnished them with a coat of matt varnish. except in the metallic zones where i mix gloss with matt varnish (50%) to make them look metallical and not just a tone of grey.

And that is all!!

I hope you liked the tutorial :-)

Dan

SHIP BASING TUTORIAL

As promised I am going to tell how I based my ships.

Step 1:  Materials

For bases, I use the thick card that come the last in an A4 pages bookbind. You can ask in the shop for them if they sell them separately (or just ask them to have some blank pages bookbinded then get thick card for the basses.

The thick card has the advantage of being easy to cut but you have to be carefull and prevent it to get wet in the wrong zone such as the edges, because it can bend. The other alternative is plasticard but I did not use that.

besides the thick card for the ship's base you will need: green stuff, PVA glue, filler and super glue.

The tools required: some pincers, scissors and a cutter (or modelling knife)

Step 2: Adjusting the base size

Use the model to get the desired size for the base. Some models may require a base larger than usual if for example have metal sails that can cause the ship to be accientally knocked over the side easily.

Step 3: Glue the ship to the base

For this step you will need both the PVA glue and the Super glue. The first will be doing the main gluing and the second will hold the ship in place because it dries fasther. Otherwise, if you only use PVA, the ship can "move away" while drying,  and if you only use superglue the ship can be easily rip off from the base in an accident.

In order to use the superglue correctly, just add two little drops at the prow and the aft of the ship's bottom. Wait some seconds and then let the PVA dry. Make sure you center the ship in the base before pushing it onto the base!

Step 4: Adding the waves, part 1

Take a bit of green stuff and place it next to the hull, where the hull "cuts" the waves. Make sure the ammount of green stuff is not too much to give it a realistic look. Once it is nex to the hull separate it from it a bit with the modelling knife and shape it into a "rising wave" from the prow of the ship.

At the aft of the ship, add the "trailing waves" with green stuff too, and shape it them with the knife until you think they look OK.

Some ships may have complex patterns of trailing and cutting waves.

Step 5: Adding the waves, part 2

Let's add some texture to the base, so it can be drybrushed a bit later on. You will need the filler this time and the pincers (and some water). Make sure you also have something to dry the thick card because if the water gets to its edges it may bend if you don't dry those edges often.

First use your fingers to extend the filler, but do not approach too much to the model. Use the pincers and the modelling knife to extend the filler towards the hull, to avoid touching the model with the fingers and removing some detail from it! If you touch the model accidentally wait for it to dry and remove it with a modelling knife.

Finally you may add some detail with the pincers (more waves) if you want.

All that is left is is to wait until the filler dries, and here you go! the base is ready for painting. I usually add a base coat to the model and its base. I also paint more waves to the base, and if you want how I paint the  model wait for the next tutorial ! ;-)

Hope you liked it!

Dan

IRON DWARF SHIPS

Last entry there was the picture of the whole fleet but I think it could be more interesting if you can see the models more closely. When I have more time I will post a tutorial about how I painted those ships and the basing of the models but at the momment I have a German exam next week and have to prepare it. When it is done and I get a moment to do it I began to post the tutorials.

Now let's see those ships individually:

Dwarven submarines

(closer look)

Mixed squadron:  regular cruisers (Hammer class) and one heavy cruiser (Anvil)

The flagship of the dwarven fleet: a Chainmail class (modified battleship)

(front view)

And finally a Heavy cruiser squadron (full of Anvil class) These are the latest models painted by me before the exams

I hope you liked it!

Next: basing tutorial

Dan

DWARF FLEET AHOY!

The Gate of Suns keeps going Cap'n!

I have been busy with the Directorate Fleet and models from other games (one of them has been a Dwarf army) so I decided to keep painting my lovely dwarf ships until they are all finished!

I will be posting pictures of the separate models but for the momment here is a picture of all my painted Iron Dwarf fleet!

See you soon! ;)

Dan

A NEW HOPE

Unexpectedly, the 16th We had an update in the forums from Spartan Games after months of  silence. Basically the post said we will see some rules at the end of this year as a free PDF download. Also it states the UCS is not dead but "on hold" and even has some sculpts under development.

This was the full post:
"
Hi all,

​We understand there's been some confusion on where Uncharted Seas currently lies, and we're very sorry to hear that some of you have been so unhappy and confused with the stance we've taken on this. In no way do we mean to imply that we don't care, or your reactions are unimportant to us. As we've undergone some changes within the team lately, our forum presence has been somewhat hit-and-miss and we understand that, and are dealing with it. This is not at all a reflection on Uncharted Seas, as it has been forum-wide and not just within this conversation. With the regard to the game itself, the following is an official update from Neil himself.

"As you all know we withdrew the last models from mail order sales a few months ago. We currently have no plans to sell these models again and have effectively retired their moulds from manufacturing.

We had been working on an updated set of rules for the models gamers currently own, and we are hoping to release these later this year as a free PDF download. We had also been working on new model sculpts, but this project is on hold while we focus on Dystopian Wars and Firestorm Armada projects.

As soon as any of these plans change we will update you via our forum.

Best regards,
Spartan Neil"

​We hope that clears up any questions on the future of the game, but if you do have any others, or any comments you'd particularly like to share, please do feel free to email a member of the team.
"

---------

This also has been confirmed by Spartan Beth. So, I think these are good news!!. We are getting new rules
and Spartan has not completely 'discarded' the game. They will be focusing on their main games and there is a possibility the game (or a similiar game) returns in the years to come.

A SAFE HAVEN

As the first entry of the year I wanted to dedicate The Gate of Suns to some download resources, so they can be accessed easily if for some reason you lose the files and Spartan Games decides to retire all those free stuff from their Uncharted Seas Download Resources Section, you have a "safe haven" to recover the lost files of this game. (and is kept alive!) Remember: It´s the first entry of 2016 ;-)

Uncharted Seas Basic Rulebook

The book is the latest update of the rules but it comes without the fleets, so I also made links for the fleets

The Bone Griffons
The Dragon Lords
The Imperial Humans
The Iron Dwarves
The Orc Raiders
The Shroud Mages
The Sky Pirates
The Ralgard
The Thaniras Elves

Finally we have some various stuff for campaings, background etc...

Introductory background for Uncharted Seas
The Cauldron of Silence scenario set

Uncharted Seas Map

UCS Territorial Map


And as a final comment...

Apologies for posting that late, but I have temporarily stopped painting my IH fleet just because It has been recently my birthday and a friend gave me some Firestorm Armada stuff. so I found myself under the "new toy synfrome"  and resuming painting Directorate. add on top of this the last film of Star Wars (I am a fan) and you know. those storm troopers shaking in the transport.. they look like Directorate troops on a Haunter... lol so I will be busy for a while with Armada stuff before I get back to IHs and those nice ships. I will be writting articles about tactics and stuff from time to time, I promise ;-)