Cruel Seas: Trial Run

Matt, Steve and myself embarked on a trial run of Warlord's Cruel Seas last night at BIG under the tutelage of Dave who was the only one of us who had read the rules!

Matt was the only one with painted minis (which were featured in the Warlord email newsletter yesterday as well) and they looked very nice in the flesh, I must nick his painting recipe!

One of Matt's nicely painted E-boats moving at full speed!

Steve and myself each took control of a Vosper I and Vosper II (I've decided to stick with the Warlord terminology for the time being) whilst Dave and Matt each had an S-1000 E-boat.

I expected the E-boats to make mincemeat of the Vospers but the game didn't turn out that way and despite Dave sinking my Vosper I after accidentally ramming it, the Royal Navy managed to sink three S-1000's (Dave being allowed a reinforcement boat after his first was sunk soon after ramming my Vosper I).

The situation after one of the E-boats has been sunk by concentrated Vosper fire!

Now Dave and Matt did exhibit some atrocious dice rolling skills (Matt missed one Vopser with all four weapons at point blank range on one occasion) and Steve and I did manage to get some lucky long range hits in getting a 1 on a D10, but overall the game was a lot of fun, and most importantly given the subject matter, was very speedy to play.

The random activation (using the Bolt Action dice in a bag system) kept things interesting, the roll to hit on a D10 followed by a number of D6 to see the amount of damage inflicted with sixes possibly causing critical hits worked well and we soon got hang of the movement speeds and benefits and penalties of moving at differing rates.

Overall we all had a fun time, it is definitely a beer & pretzels game with a Commando comics flavour, but I have not problem with that. The models are nice, the rules simple and enjoyable. I am sure there are some quirks (I suspect as you expand the game beyond the core it might squeak a bit) but as grown men playing with toys I am sure we can fix any glaring problems.

I bought some PT Boats from the shop after the game and Dave kindly donated two he had to the Allied cause which was much appreciated, so hopefully it won't be too long before we get some more nautical battles in...