Legends of the High Seas

Legends of the High Seas is a skirmish game by Warhammer Historical. It is based on the highly successful Legends of the Old West game, a mix of the Lord of the Rings game mechanics and the Mordheim campaign system.

For starters I posted an article about collecting pirate miniatures for a LotHS crew on my tabletop wargames blog. This may be useful to anyone that is interested in the game, but has no experience with non-GW miniatures.

Maybe seeing these great miniatures will ignite the pirate fire in some of you.

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY, CHRIS!

Is this your "historical" project? If so, you've picked a REALLY good one! THE GREAT thing about Pirate Lore & the Wild West, for that matter, is that while it IS historical, it IS ALSO so steeped in legends that it approaches the Realm of Fantasy.
AND the BEST part is there are JUST SO MANY really great minis out there to bring the WHOLE thing to VIVID, FULL COLOR, 3D life.

I'm going to LOVE this project. I'll keep me eyes peeled fer MORE minis that might fit into yer SCURVY plans, Matey! [God, but I'm EASILY distracted & enthused! ]

DeafNala wrote:

Is this your "historical" project?

Actually it is not. But I love LotHS nonetheless.

DeafNala wrote:

THE GREAT thing about Pirate Lore & the Wild West, for that matter, is that while it IS historical, it IS ALSO so steeped in legends that it approaches the Realm of Fantasy.

Yeah, sort of. The author, Tim Kulinski, stressed how he meant the game to be rather Hollywood style instead of a 100% historically correct battle simulation. He did a great job in my opinion.

I got an opportunity to thumb through the Legends of the High Seas rules. VERY WELL DONE; I WAS impressed! This game has TREMENDOUS potential. You ARE maintaining your position as my Hero admirably!

Addendum: I checked out your guide to Pirate minis; VERY WELL DONE, as usual. Here's another Pirate mini maker: www.moonlightmini.com . Moon Light is MOSTLY Living Impaired stuff with a fair amount of Folks That Are Still With Us Pirates, AND some COOL pulp era stuff. ALSO check out the link under Hobby for Shifting Lands, if for nothing other than PURE inspiration.

Since checking out your mini Pirate guide, I've been surfing my way through a LOT of mini makers. It seems like EVERYONE & their mother is making Pirates these days. It's cool, but most only make a few Pirate types, a lot of which are Fantasy ONLY sorts.

There is definitely NO paucity of selection in minis to choose from regardless of the type of game one wants to play. Baring a TOTAL economic collapse, this is a GREAT time to be a mini gamer!

It's really unbelievable how many miniature makers are out there, once you've decided to go beyond GW. There are so many small companies with their own minis it's crazy. You'd think for historical gamers Foundry and Perry would be enough to saturate the market. There really is enough for everyone's taste, it's fabulous!

Me, I do like Black Scorpion pirates the most, but I'll be also getting myself the Artizan and Crusader pirates ranges. They all are superb.

We ARE definitely on the same page on this one [I'd flip to another page QUICKLY if I were you ]. Should funds EVER become available, I'd love to get some of the Black Scorpion Pirates.
For some Fantasy type Pirates, I've GOT to get the Reaper Pirates of the Dragonspine Sea Boxed set #2 [ www.reapermini.com ] and a couple of other thingys they make [they just came out with a Giant Crab pack ]. The Artisan & Crusader stuff is ALSO on my MOST Wanted list.
Judging from the number of Pirate oriented folk on the Forum, this may become Tom's Piratical Mordheim Forum. ARRRH! Although, WE of the Orc & Goblin persuasion MAY do a take over first!

DeafNala wrote:

We ARE definitely on the same page on this one [I'd flip to another page QUICKLY if I were you ].

LOL. ha ha!

DeafNala wrote:

Although, WE of the Orc & Goblin persuasion MAY do a take over first!

Yes, I'm afraid this is true.

cianty wrote:

Yes, I'm afraid this is true.

Fear NOT, if we EVER took over we'd probably kill each other off THUS restoring things to NORMAL.

Addendum: on the Redoubt minis, while Redoubt's stuff is rather a mixed bag quality-wise, they DO have an EXCELLENT albiet PRICEY Bull Dog Brig , a RN ship's boat, & a couple of other nautical models that I could HONESTLY recommend. The Perry twins also had a couple of nice resin boats/ships available; I'm not sure if these are still being carried however.

DeafNala wrote:

Fear NOT, if we EVER took over we'd probably kill each other off THUS restoring things to NORMAL.

There is light at the end of the tunnel!

Wait, that's just a stain on the inside of my eye patch!

The rules aren't available anywhere online for free, I suppose?

Eliazar wrote:

The rules aren't available anywhere online for free, I suppose?

Ha ha, no way! Warhammer Historical makes money by selling rulebooks. They don't produce miniatures and you can't use Citadel Miniatures for most of theri stuff. Selling rules is what they are based on. Actually this is a dream come true. Imagine what Warhammer would look like if they were trying to make the rules so good that they had to make their money off selling those, instead of focusing on selling miniatures. This is exactly what Mordheim players complain about: GW doesn't support Mordheim because of lack of miniatures sales and producing Mordheim material would mean they'd have to make money off the books. And that's exactly what Warhammer Historical does! To me, this is a sign of quality.

Go and buy their books. They're well worth it!

That's nowadays pirates for you, they even have to buy the rulebook

I was JUST over at the Wyrd Forum, & in their minis review section, lo & behold, Black Scorpion HAS more releases for September. OH BABY!

DeafNala wrote:

Addendum: on the Redoubt minis, while Redoubt's stuff is rather a mixed bag quality-wise, they DO have an EXCELLENT albiet PRICEY Bull Dog Brig , a RN ship's boat, & a couple of other nautical models that I could HONESTLY recommend. The Perry twins also had a couple of nice resin boats/ships available; I'm not sure if these are still being carried however.

I didn't notice your addendum before...

I just had another look at Redoubt.. I don't think they have any proper Vessels, except this little boat (and some Viking and Trojan stuff). However, I do like their Boxer rebellion range - the Boxers look pretty good to me! Style-wise they look as if they'd mix well with the Foundry Chinese Pirates, and I could even use them for my historical project I mentioned to you. What more can you ask for?

Perry doesn't offer any vessels on their website currently. I wonder what they looked like, but I bet they are top quality stuff as usual. Foundry also has a pirate ship that disappears when you click on it. Weird..

DeafNala wrote:

I was JUST over at the Wyrd Forum, & in their minis review section, lo & behold, Black Scorpion HAS more releases for September. OH BABY!

Well, they are out already (if they are what I think you are referring to). They just released some more Able Seamen, Privateers and a Governor as you can see on their homepage.

Yep, those are the B.S. minis I saw at Wyrd. That Highwayman style mini with the cross arms & pistols WIP looks REALLY nice!

I don't think the Bull Dog Brig is still available. My friend John had sent me one about 12 years ago. I did it up & sold it [sounds of Old Man kicking himself]. At the time it was with an extra crew set around $400.

There are some size differences within the different Redoubt ranges. The Three Musketteers in particular is quite a bit larger than the others. A couple of guys I used to game with were doing the Boxer Rebellion using The Sword & the Flame rules. From my deteriorating memory I think they were approximately the same size or very slightly larger than the Wargames Foundry stuff they had. The Chinese were too heavily converted to really tell how they would match up quality-wise.

Thanks for the info!

I also like that highwayman privateer a lot. Definately a stand-out model in that pack.

By the way, I am currently thinking about using this ship for my Chinese crew to be. We'll see...

OOOOOOOOH, that's one cool Junk! Considering the size, it's quite reasonably priced too. Is it a waterline model [couldn't quite tell from the photo] or will you be sawing it?

I'm digging my way through some OLD issues of Practical War Gamer. They had a Smugglers vs Revenue Agents campaign from the 18th century that MIGHT have Mordheim or LotHS possibilities. I NEVER throw out hobby mags, but FINDING them IS an adventure in & of itself.

DeafNala wrote:

OOOOOOOOH, that's one cool Junk! Considering the size, it's quite reasonably priced too. Is it a waterline model [couldn't quite tell from the photo] or will you be sawing it?

Yes, I'd have to saw it. But that would be the smallest problem I guess... I don't think I should assemble the model as normal if I wanted to use it for tabletop gaming (rigging and stuff). The price is pretty good indeed (60 cm length, 24 cm breadth, 59 cm height!). I'm just worried that it would be too time-consuming to assemble (and paint!) it.

DeafNala wrote:

I'm digging my way through some OLD issues of Practical War Gamer. They had a Smugglers vs Revenue Agents campaign from the 18th century that MIGHT have Mordheim or LotHS possibilities. I NEVER throw out hobby mags, but FINDING them IS an adventure in & of itself.

He he!

Just found this: http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/books/foundrycomp.asp

Looks like a great source book.

That is a VERY useful guide. I think they had one out previously that I saw in Harbinger. At any rate.quite a lot of their minis are painted by Kev Dallimore whose work & generosity in passing on technique I admire. Sadly sans credit cards or money, for the moment it's beyond my means to acquire; of course, with a bank job or a five finger discount this might be remedied.

The guys at the Foundry ARE incredibly prolific, AND have been for a LOT of years. The depth & breadth of their range of minis IS truly staggering!

For somemore Piratical Inspiration INCLUDING a Chinese Junk replete with crew check out www.witchhunter.net under, appropriately enough, Pirates.

NEWS FLASH!

Over at the Wyrd Forum, they had a WIP of Black Scorpion's next bit of Pirate goodness: a Ship's Cannon & two Gunners. LOOKIN' GOOD!

DeafNala wrote:

For somemore Piratical Inspiration INCLUDING a Chinese Junk replete with crew check out www.witchhunter.net under, appropriately enough, Pirates.

I know. His pirates are in the LotHS book.

DeafNala wrote:

NEWS FLASH!

Over at the Wyrd Forum, they had a WIP of Black Scorpion's next bit of Pirate goodness: a Ship's Cannon & two Gunners. LOOKIN' GOOD!

Now that's cool! Gotta love BS. Even though this means more must-have minis for me. Oh well...

I was over at www.theminiaturespage.com AND they had a LOVELY Sampan [looked like a Junk to moi ] from Houston Ships that looked like it might appeal to you.