Getting in ship shape

After shipping close to 36000 boats, my Armada pre-order finally arrived (and there was much rejoicing!)

I've already shown off most of the ships - there are only two left that I now have - the orc smasher and rabble squadron.

The larger the ship, the more parts it seems to come in, especially with the orcs.  The main body of the ship has two sockets per side for more guns!

The stern has a large structure on it (that also has a gun socket) and the bow comes in two parts.  Of course I grouped the parts as I grabbed them, with no logical order (which is why I don't have the two bow pieces together, as they should be).

Instead I have the top of the bow with the fore-sail

There are two pairs of sails

and two masts.  In addition are the extra canons - three on each side and one in the stern.

I'm not doing final assembly until after painting (as it is much easier if the sails and masts are painted separately from the hull), but I'll post up more pictures once they are done.

This leaves the tiny ships - the Rabble Squadron (which you can only get in the Orc booster box)

The tiny boats are the simplest boats as well - being composed of a whopping three pieces - the hull, the bow and the sail.   It doesn't mean it is skimping on detail however.

In addition to the boats, I picked up a set of the acrylic templates.

There are four templates - a ruler, windrose, front arc and turning arc.  The exact same artwork as the cardboard versions that come in the starter set (or the rulebook / token combo), sandwiched between two layers of crystal clear acrylic.

The front canon arc template is just slightly smaller than the cardboard equivalent, but works great.

The windrose is a bit simpler, as cutting the same shape out of acrylic would have been much more difficult.  However since this is only used to indicate wind position, it has absolutely no impact on the game.

The turn template is a tiny bit smaller than the cardboard version, but the key here is the 30mm middle space and the angles, which are both correct.

My only criticism of this beautiful template is the size - when ships are crowded together it can be difficult to put it in place.  

I don't have the means to precisely measure (nor cut) acrylic (yet), but I had an idea for a much smaller arch tool - basically three 30mm x 5mm pieces.  The middle piece would be half red and half yellow, with a red piece attached at 45 degrees on one side, and a yellow piece at 30 degrees on the other.

Since it is MUCH smaller it can fit into tighter spaces (and you just flip it over to turn in the other direction).  If someone wants to make this then please do (just send me a couple :-) ).

Finally is the ruler.  I believe it was on the Black Jack Legacy channel that they reviewed the acrylic templates several weeks ago before they came out, and they noted that there was a slight scale issue. (A similar issue that they had with the Walking Dead: All Out War templates).

I did not find this issue - it has been corrected.  The rulers both align to each other and to a measuring tape.

The acrylic ruler is slighter longer than the cardboard version - and this is the only issue I have with both of them.  These rulers DO NOT measure from the end to the end - they go from mark to mark (you can see the mark on the 0 and 8).  While this is artistically nice, I think it is problematic for gameplay.  It is simply too easy to start or end at the end of the ruler instead of the mark - and this could give one player an eighth to a quarter of an inch extra on each movement segment.  They would be better to be cut off at exactly 8 inches.  

You can always use the new Kings of War measuring sticks if you want (though I actually like to lay the ruler next to my ship with the M value lined up with the front edge of the base, then I can just slide the ship along the ruler to 0.

I hope to show some painted ships soon, with size comparisons.  And in a month or so have some dwarf ships to show off!

Because is it all fun and games . . .