Fire on the High Seas

On the oceans of Panithor, the elves claimed to be masters of the high seas, until they encountered the Salamander fleets out of the east.  While not as maneuverable as the elven split hulls, these powerful fleets are proving to be a powerful force for dominance of the oceans.  And now they are available for Armada (just in time for the Armada tournament at Adepticon!).

As shown on the back of the starter box, the Salamander starter comes with 3 ships, and five cards with the salamander special rules and unique upgrades.  However one thing I quickly noticed is that the unique magic cards (the magic deck list, and the unique salamander magic spell) are NOT shown on the box, nor were they included.  I do not know where/when these will be available, but I was disappointed as both the Twilight Kin and Elf starter boxes included the magic cards.  However Mantic acknowledged this on Facebook, and if you email them at support@manticgames.com they will send out the cards.  They also posted pictures of them, which I've included here.

All the other cards are there

Now to get to the models.

I was happy to find that once again the resin spruelettes were given numbers to identify which parts belonged to which model.  This is great, however for the sails it isn't as necessary as it might seem, as Mantic has learned after the initial release to standardize the sails, so there are some spruelettes with different numbers but the exact same sail as others (there are a total of 4 sizes of sails, but two of those (the tiny and extra large) are each only used for a single model.

So we'll look at the models in sprue # order, which means the first ship is the small support Komodo (16).   This one comes on three sprues - the main hull, cabin roof and small sail, and separate small sail.

If you look closely at the numbering on R4801603, you will see that the 6 is pasted over something - because this is the exact same sail as R4801703 and R4801803.

Just to note, it is MUCH easier to paint the sales separately from the hull - so these are just stuck in with blu-tac (well, for the first few it was a white poster putty, but it actually wasn't holding them in place long enough to get a picture, so I found some 'real' blu-tac).  The bottom of each sale is square, and the socket has that offset to set the sails at the correct angle (but with the putty this may not be correct).  

A second note - these ships are based on ships from the orient - thus the square sales, and the pagodo like cabins.  

Caution - be very careful  trimming the corners of the pagoda roofs and layers - as they have the characteristic upturned corner that is very thin and generally has a bit of flash round it.  It id very (VERY) easy to end up cutting off the upturned corner when trimming off that flash (I found it best to use clippers to cut the flash off instead of a knife to attempt to slice it.).

The next model is the medium main J'Koor'Uk (17) (and no, I'm not sure how to actually pronounce it).  This has four spruellettes - the hull, the cannons and roof, and a small and large sail.  As I mentioned before, the small sail R4701603, R4801703 and  R4801803 are exactly the same, as are the large sails R4801704, R4801804, R4801904 and R4802006 (now why it is 2006 and not 2004 I don't know).

                                                          

The last ship in the starter set is the large main Tyrant (19), with six spruellettes (3 of R4802004)

Upper roofs

Middle roofs

Of course to dedicated salamander admirals, just the starter isn't enough.

The booster contains two of the tiny Warden Squadrons (15) (each is two ships on a single 30x30 base, so 4 of these), a medium main J'Koor'Uk (17) and a medium support Herald (18).

Each of the Warden Squadron models is on a single spruelette, with the ship and it's tiny sail.

The details for the J'Koor'Uk is the same as the starter set.

Finally is the medium support Herald (18), with 4 spruellettes - R4801803 and R4801804 are the same small and large sails we have seen already.

For some people, size does matter.  In that case you would the extra large main Drake/Kthorlaq's Shield[1] (20).  This model has 9 spruellettes and allows you to build the generic XL ship, or the unique Kthorlaq's Shield.

R4802002 is used to make the unique ship

R4802003 has alternate cabins - the one on the left (in the left picture) is for the unique ship, the one on the right (with the spikes) is the generic version.  For the unique ship, glue the two pieces from R$802002 to it.  If you want to be able to switch between the two, then magnetize these pieces and the back of the main hull where they fit.  Or just buy two kits!

This is a fire elemental that goes on the bow of the ship.

There are two of these extra large sails

and two of the large sails

and 4 cannons.

For people who aren't satisfied sailing on the sea, there are also two ways to fly above it!

The two fliers are the Phoenix (02) and the Scorchwing Flight (21)

The Phoenix is the same as the Basilean Phoenix, all on a single spruellette

The Scorchwing Flight is basically a tiny scorchwing (like the winggits are for the Orcs) on two spruellettes

One trickier part of assembling this one is the lower wings.  If you look at the body (R4802101), you will notice that the hole for the flying stand isn't very deep.  It turns out that the two lower wings fit around the flying stand to help lock it in place.  I found that I had to glue the stand into place (which I prefer to do AFTER painting) in order to get this assembled.

So except for the magic cards (the deck card and the unique spell) the salamanders are done.  Next fleet to look forward to are the Northern Alliance / Varangur - these two fleets will use the same ships, but have different fleet rules, upgrades and unique ships.

Because it is all fun and games . . .