Twilight at the end of the tunnel

The first of the wave 2 ships (from the Seas Aflame expansion) have started to arrive - beginning with Twilight Kin (Elves are shipping in October).

Twilight kin are a bit different, as they do not have an Extra Large ship.  People have also asked if there is every a plan to do a Nightstalker fleet - and the answer to that is no, because the Nightstalkers are part of the Twilight Kin fleet - with their very ships named and infused with the stuff of nightmares.

The starter box comes with ship cards, the fleet specific rules and upgrades, plus the new magic cards (I hope that the other fleet starter boxes will eventually be upgraded to include their magic cards as well).  I think this is great - except I bought two sets of the full magic cards - and now only have one set of the TK cards because I just bought the one starter fleet.

Like all starter fleets, there are three ships.  Unlike the others, this one has a single Main Battle ship and two support ships (making it quite a few fewer points than the other starters).

The Soulbane is the large main battle ship.  The hull consists of two pieces - the main hull and the upper jaw of the mouth on the bow.

Unfortunately they seem to be continuing the internal numbering of the spruelettes (instead of the meaningful numbering that marks which parts go with which model).

One bit of standardization however, is that they are all using common sails - so several of the sail spruelettes are repeated for each kit.

The large double main sails with the carved flame on top are used for all the large and medium ships in the fleet.

The triangular foresail is for the both Large ships

The smaller triangular sails are used on the stern of the large and medium ships

Finally there are the tiny sails that go along the sides of the large and medium ships

Normally, I would show an assembled shot of each ship - however it is much easier to paint them BEFORE attaching the sails, making an assembled shot a bit harder to get.  However I wanted to see if I could have these ready in time for Gencon (I had more than a week - plenty of time!).  So instead I have pictures of the finished ships.

I try to paint mine like the Mantic scheme.  I also use GW contrast paints to speed up the process (plus I really like how wood looks with them).  Unfortunately under a crunch, I wasn't able to find the darker GW purple contrast paint, so I had to use the lighter one (Magos Purple), which came out more of a mix of pink and purple.  

The medium ship is a support ship - an Impaler.  This is the first non-orc ship that has the Ram(n) rule.

It has one of the double sails, and one of the triangular stern sails, and uses two of the tiny ones.

Lastly is the small support ship, the Banshee.

This uses a slightly larger triangular sail, as it is the only sail on the ship.

Next is the Booster Fleet box.  It contains two medium ships, as well as two squadrons of tiny ships.

This box contains an Impaler, just like the Start fleet (pictures of that above).  It then also has the Medium Main Battle Ship an Assassin.  The Assassin has the extra conversion parts to make it into the named ship for this fleet - the Heart Sinker.

It is a Hull, lower 

There are alternate top jaws - one to make the standard Assassin

The other to make the Heart Seeker (I did NOT make this named ship)

Like the Impaler, it has a double main mast, and a triangular one on the stern, and two of the tiny masts on the sides.  Unfortunately my kit was missing this spruelette - however a quick email and Elvis over at Mantic has already sorted it (though the mail may take a couple of weeks to get here).  I borrowed the one from the Butcher kit (since I am using the Assassin, but not the Butcher) until it arrives to finish that model.

Then there are the two Needlefangs - tiny squadrons of ships.  These have their own smaller triangular sail.

The next box is the Butcher.  This is instead of an extra large ship - a beefier large ship.

The only thing new here is the single piece hull.  It uses one of the tiny sail sprues, two of the double sail ones and the triangular fore-sail (though it DOES NOT have the sail on the stern).

Finally, the fliers will be shipping with the rest of the ships (so a faction ships all at the same time), so we don't have to wait for those.

There is really nothing to see in the blister pack

The first flyer is a Gargoyle Swarm - five gargoyles flying together.  It comes in two pieces

The other flier is the two headed Gordrake, in four pieces (body, tail, and two arms/wings).

The Twilight Kin look to be a bit more challenging to play, as a lot of their strengths depend on synergy between ships.  Get SoulBane in close to make it easier to board, then grapple and board a ship with the banshee, followed by an Assassin - Not much can survive with their crew strength reduced by two AND halved.

Because it is all fun and games . . .