An idea with the recent new release Dreadfleet by GW

Games-Workshop recently revealed/released their new limited production game Dreadfleet which will begin shipping on Oct 1. Being a huge warhammer nerd I pounced on it because pirates are awesome. Anyway with the setting of Dreadfleet being the Warhammer fantasy world I have had an idea. In Dreadfleet there are a few different ways of attacking another ship such as firing broadsides, ramming and, most importantly, boarding. In the game I believe the determination of who wins a boarding encounter is based off a number of statistics but ultimately comes down to some dice rolls. I was thinking that when a boarding action is initiated instead of rolling dice there could be a mini Mordheim style skirmish to determine the victor. So when a boarding maneuver begins the two participating parties move to a side table and duke it out in a small skirmish. Something the size of 5 miniatures a side. The terrain would be limited to what would be present on the deck of a boat. The fact all the fighting will happen on a deck means it would almost completely be a melee encounter. Also, say a ship has taken damage from a broadside and is no longer at full strength. There could be some sort of penalty such that the wounded ship does not have as many men to reflect the damage it has taken. It may be a stupid idea but I think it could also add quite a bit of fun to the game and provide more customizability (is that even a word? Ha) within the game.

Am I crazy or do you think this could work?

Welcome aboard!

It would work.
We fight ship duels quite often actually.

https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/t5521-pirates-of-the-karibbean-a-mordheim-campaign

I recommend the rules from Warhammer Ahoy! But Warboss Kurgan and his ladz have come up with their own house rules.

https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/t3968-avast-ye-dogs-the-last-hurrah

Thanks!

Wow I had looked into the ship building on a few other posts but I didn't see that one. Those are some pretty epic sea vessels! I wish I had the time/money to construct a few of them.

It does take a bit of time, that's sure. I built 2 ships and have models for 6 or 8 more but the time has escaped me.

I think the Dreadfleet game could be used for Warmaster or such in a strategic campaign. As such the game is a great resource and another source of inspiration for 28 mm ships!

For our Mordheim pirate campaigns we do one captain/one ship so we don't need fleets. We just need enough ships for the people involved.

Especially being very limited on supplies like I am. That's why I got Dreadfleet, basically everything I need in a box. I've been trying to get into Mordheim for about a year now but I haven't found anyone that plays nearby so that's why using the 28 mm ships is an easy option because I can have everything needed in a single box without having to do much construction. Also if I ever find someone to play they don't need to construc their own ship.

My impression is that Dreadfleet is Warmaster scale so 6-10 mm. They would charge that $130 or whatever it is for one 28mm ship kit.

If nothing else come on down to Gencon in Indianapolis next year, big naval warhammery doings and often a good bit of Mordheim as well.

Yep whoops you are correct they are 6-10mm.

When is gencon? I have only been to one gaming convention, Origins in Columbus, and it was pretty good. I haven't done any tabletop gaming in about 5 years.

Gencon is mid August of 2012, so about a year away.

I haven't played any Warhammer in a couple of years, but I get my fix with Mordheim once a week. So I'm good.

I hardly ever get to Gencon even though I work a few blocks from the convention center. A local games club has run Mordheim events for the last 2 years and next year there is serious talk of putting on a large scale Warhammer sea battle.

You are do lucky that your game club runs Mordheim events. The only events around here are 40k. It's so terribly bland!

Kfish wrote:

I was thinking that when a boarding action is initiated instead of rolling dice there could be a mini Mordheim style skirmish to determine the victor. So when a boarding maneuver begins the two participating parties move to a side table and duke it out in a small skirmish. Something the size of 5 miniatures a side. The terrain would be limited to what would be present on the deck of a boat. The fact all the fighting will happen on a deck means it would almost completely be a melee encounter. Also, say a ship has taken damage from a broadside and is no longer at full strength. There could be some sort of penalty such that the wounded ship does not have as many men to reflect the damage it has taken. It may be a stupid idea but I think it could also add quite a bit of fun to the game and provide more customizability (is that even a word? Ha) within the game.

Am I crazy or do you think this could work?

in a word: YES!!

This could definitely work - Dreadfleet would become the "campaign system" for a series of linked boarding action skirmish games (way-back-when we talked about using Epic 40K as a campaign system for WH40K - with each firefight begin fought as a WH40K game and the grand manoeuvre done in Epic.)

I would suggest assigning each ship a number of crew models based on it's Crew rating. Maybe even use the Crew rating multiplied by 100 to give the Gold Crowns available to speed on crew? They seem to be mostly rated from 1 to 6 (but 7 for the massive undead juggernaught Bloody Reaver) so each crew would be between 100 and 600 gold crowns worth of Mordheim models. The Crew rating is probably reduced by damage from Broadside fire before the boarding actions phase, so losses would have to be taken into account before the Boarding action games.

You could even make Dramatis Personae for each of the Captains! They each have a Swashbuckling rating, so their stats could be graded based on that!

Ooooh! Good times!

Man, I would love to buy that set, but I can't justify spending $110 on 10 miniature ships. Maybe I'll just grab the novel and steal all the fluff I can instead.

There is quite a lot of things that come in the box but it is indeed a tad expensive. Unfortunetly for me there are not many people around here (Ohio) that play the specialist games anymore so with this i have the ability to walk in with the box set and find a random person to play because they do not need to supply anything.

Warboss, that sounds like it just might work out well. I wasn't sure if the ships came with a crew rating because it seems very little has been released about the actual rules of Dreadfleet. Or at least I am looking in the wrong places.

Time to make a pirate crew!

Check the GW blog:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/blogPost.jsp?aId=18300010a





Heldenhammer – Empire, Once the personal flagship of the Grand Theogonist (Sartosa Pirates)
Captain Jaego Roth

Bloody Reaver – Vampire Counts (Zombie and Skeleton sailors)
Count Noctilus

Black Kraken – Mechanical Kraken (Chaos Dwarf Pirates)

Skabrus – Skaven carcass ship (Skaven Pirates)

Swordfish – Pirate ram ship (Sartosa Pirates)

Grimnir’s Thunder – Dwarf Ironclad (Dwarf Pirates)

Curse of Zandri – Tomb Kings tomb ship

Flaming Scimitar – Arabyan elemental ship (Ogre Eunuchs!)

Shadewraith – Flying ghost ship (Ghost pirates)

Seadrake – High Elf Ship

Ah! Good find. I wonder how we could implement the Swashbuckling rating into the Dramatis Personae...

The crew rating could involve a direct correlation to the amount of gold to spend on the crew like you suggested. Would there be a limit on what type of models/weapons would be usable because they are on a ship with limited space and resources?

Kfish wrote:

Would there be a limit on what type of models/weapons would be usable because they are on a ship with limited space and resources?

Maybe - if you think your group may get a bit over-the-top. I think letting the fluff of each crew guide you would be a safe route though, and there aren't any real game-breakers that I can think of.

The ships in Dreadfleet are absolutely huge, so limited resources aren't a problem - the description Bloody Reaver mentioned thousands of zombies and skeletons! In theory the crews could be Warhammer army sized!... but that would make for a big investment of time, money and effort to reproduce them on the table top! Hmmmm...

It is certainly an idea with lots of potential!

Von Kurst wrote:

Gencon is mid August of 2012, so about a year away.
I hardly ever get to Gencon even though I work a few blocks from the convention center. A local games club has run Mordheim events for the last 2 years and next year there is serious talk of putting on a large scale Warhammer sea battle.

I would definitely be interested in that. Keep us posted, would ya?

SHARKBELLY!
Welcome aboard mate! Good to see you on Tom's since I rarely make it over to the W-E or such places anymore.

There is a thread on the Animosity forums

http://animositycampaigns.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=5074