Third time's the charm . . .

Back just before the dark times, Mantic put out a call for playtesters for a new game set in the Kings of War universe (i.e. the world of Pannithor).  We signed up, and once we were actually able to meet back in person, began to play some games.  The game was a hit, and in the four years since it came out, Mantic has released 15 fleets, sea monsters, terrain, mats and other accessories.  

The biggest change has been the switch to making the game ALL STLs - available on the Mantic Vault.  While you can still order some of the models directly from Mantic, they are no longer making new ones.  This does not mean they are not supporting the game however, as in the last year they have release 3 fleets via STL only (Ghosts, Kingdoms of Men, and the all new Forces of the Abyss).

Armada is based off of Warlord Games' "Black Seas".  During the playtesting, I bought a British fleet to use (because I wanted something other than empty cardboard pieces to play with).  We playtested with Kingdoms of Men, but Mantic at the time decided not to make models - instead the cards were made available through Warlord Games, and the images on the cards matched their ships.  I even wrote about them here.

The (very minor) issue I had was that the ships did not match any of the design aesthetic for the rest of the game.  I didn't see this as a huge deal however, and added them to my demo fleets.

The black seas ships have cardstock sails, and all all hard plastic. (With the exception of some ships that are in resin with metal masts).  Because the masts were so thin, you really needed to add the rigging for them - which is realistic for historical games - as the standing rigging was actually a structural part of the ship (just like the models, it held the masts in place).

Unfortunately, at the 1/700 scale does not make the tiny bowspirit (i.e. the mast sticking out of the front) nor the thin thread strong enough to hold up to repeated transport and demos.  I had a lot of ships, but was still trying to repair them with every event.

There have been other age of sail games out there, so I started looking for replacement ships.  Eventually I found Oak & Iron by Firelock games.

They actually had a new resin 3rd rate ship that I really liked that they had just released separately, so I bought it.  So I painted up my second version of a Kingdoms of Men fleet (but this time just the 3 ships for a demo (Large Main, Medium Main and Small Support (this is generally what was in a fleet starter box back when they were making them, and what I based my 120 pt demo fleets on) them up, and while a bit small (though it is the base size that matters), they were working ok for me.

Then in October 2024 the Mantic Vault released the MANTIC Kingdoms of Men fleet (completed in November)

It took me a while, but I finally finished my third Kingdoms of Men demo fleet

These very much fit the aesthetic of the other Armada fleets, with the spars and mats being much stronger.

One issue however, it the size.  With the bowspirit, all of these stick way out over their bases.  Now in perfect games with perfect admirals this is not a problem as no ships will come close enough another for it to make a difference.  Of course the players and game aren't quite that perfect (and we all know how that some of the most fun is when a sudden wind shift causes lots of chaos and collisions!).

Just to make it clearer, I took some comparisons of the Large Warmonger vs a Basilean Large Abbess.

What I did not notice but REALLY like is how similar in design the Warmonger and Abbess are.  This really fits with the way that age of sail worked in the real world - where the ships weren't really much different from each other, and in battle you would capture other ships, which  would be taken home, refitted and sent back out with a new crew as part of your own fleet.

I'm most concerned not about the length of these ships (mostly the Warmonger), but the height.  The ships I have barely fit in the bins I use to store and carry them (and while I could change bins, it is really convenient to use the same stackable bins for ALL my demo (and personal) models.  The Instigator is almost as tall as the Abbess!

So right now I'm going to see how it works to store the Warmonger sideways in my bin (sticking a piece of tin to the side of the bin).

Sharp eyes may notice one of the aft flags behind the Orc Bombboat - I have already found that these (and the flags on the top of the masts) are extremely brittle - all have 3 of them (one flag, both masts) have already broken off (the masts just when I reached over (well, almost over obviously) the ship for a bottle of paint to work on the bases.  (So I may be pinning these (not easy, but doable with the 1/32" wire and bits I use (and while I've already written up a post on pinning, it may be useful to show how I fix these (if/when I do)).

The funny thing is, this is not the ONLY fleet that is getting a third revision (and which I finished up today).

Mantic released the stats for the Ghost Fleet with the "Seas of Dread" expansion.  Basically ANY ship could be sunk and resurrected as a ghost ship.  So I took some of my extra ships (Orc, Basilean and Dwarf), painted them with a white base, green wash and white highlights, and I had a ghost fleet.  (Unfortunately I don't have pictures of those ships :-( ).

Ghosts are very quick to paint up because they are ghosts, and don't need lots of colors.  They were quick enough to do that I was able to get them ready for Origins that year.   Min the antic had already started putting Armada ships in the vault, so while I was setting up my buddy Keith mentioned that it would have been really cool if I had printed up ships from the vault in clear resin.  I asked him why didn't he mention this to me a week ago :-)

So AFTER I get back from Origins, I printed the same ships I had already painted in clear resin.  Again I painted up my second version with a thin green wash and white drybrush, for even better looking ghosts.

The ghost fleet was the first 'new' fleet that went straight to the vault in August 2024.  (With the second half in September).  I actually talked to Mantic, and got the August ghost ships a couple of days early (provided I made some for Ronnie) so I printed up ghost Elohi, Icebreaker, Thunderer, Argus and Needlefang, put a quick wash on Wednesday morning before I had to finish packing everything up and driving to Adepticon.  I dropped the ships off at the booth for Mantic to show off.

So after the ghost smasher came out in September, I printed them up in clear resin, and to make my 3rd version of this fleet washed them with green and drybrushed with white.

(ok, yes I'm missing the two side guns on the thunderer (one broke and I need to reprint them).  What I found funny with these is they are an Orc, Basilean and Dwarf ship, just like my original ones. (so this is the 3rd ghost smasher I have painted ;-).  

It is interesting that they list the ghosts ships in the vault based on the 'original' version that was 'ghostified'.  So the ghost smasher -> spectre, ghost elohi -> phantom, ghost thunderer -> wight.

I am working on a Forces of the Abyss demo fleet ( Abyssal Berserker, Abyssal Guard, Abyssal Flamebearer ), but it is the first one, and not done yet (struggling to figure out a color scheme for these - vault only models don't have color pictures).

Because it is all fun and games . . .