Naval Gazing - First look at Warlord's new Victory at Sea

I was hanging around our FLGS mulling over what I would need in the way of supplies for the coming "Isolation", when a parcel was delivered from Warlord Games. It was the demo set of the new(to Warlord - more later) Victory at Sea WW2 naval game, due for release in April.

I'm interested in "this sort of thing" so decided to hang around and take a look. The demo set was not the full starter set - more on that later, but it is enough to show the basic mechanics. It contains 2 Cruisers and 2 Destroyers for both sides, Japanese getting Mogami's and Fubuki Class, US Northampton and Fletcher.

So first the models. These have come in for a lot of initial flak due to the very pronounced oval bases when seen in Warlord's promo pics. I'll come back to the bases in a bit, but the actual models look rather good. They're in the new "Warlord resin" and the castings I saw were crisp and clean, and looked very accurate. The scale s 1:1800 which is NOT a proprietary scale, despite what a lot of people think, and actually I think in this case it is a good choice - small enough to get some impression of ranges, but big enough to gave plenty of detail. The models came as a hull fixed to the base, which has some nice wave details, and a small sprue of detailing parts - turrets,  catapults etc. There was some warping but I expect that should be an easy fix with a quick hot water bath.

Now on to the "hovercraft" effect of the bases  In real life I don't think it is that bad. A quick read of the rules - which I assume are a cut down version, shows no need for the bases as part of the rules mechanics. My assumption is that they needed to base depth to make the casting easier and to allow them to have the names on the bases (which they do - individual ships on the Cruisers and classes on the DDs). Only Warlord know. I think they have made the issue worse in their photos by drybrushing the waves on their model bases, which creates an optical effect of emphasising the darker sides of the base - I suspect painting the sides of the bases a lighter shade would be a good idea.

I didn't get a chance to look at the rules themselves, but the accompanying punch board with tokens and turning angle thing etc was good quality and should last - not so sure about the paper sea mats which will I guess be the first thing to be replaced, but it makes sense to include them. The data cards seemed quite detailed - no idea of how accurate they are as I never got to look at them for any length of time. The damage track "clips" beloved of Warlord make a reappearance but these look to have been redesigned a bit and hopefully will work better than those in Cruel Seas. 

So - lastly a bit of history of Victory at Seas. Not something I have played, being a Dyed in the Wool General Quarters player. This game started out as a Sci Fi set of rules for Babylon 5 iirc, by Mongoose Publishing and it was modified by some enterprising folk to cover real WW 1 & 2 era games - not sure what that says about the rules but the general consensus was that the V1 set worked and gave a reasonably fun game, if not too accurate. V2 was scheduled but never completed, along with some detailed 3d mastered ships - about 50 so I am told. Warlord have done a deal with Mongoose and released this version along with the models. Not sure if this is indeed V1, V2 or somewhere in between. The starter fleets will be available through retail but the suggestion is the follow on models may only be direct sales.

First thoughts are this could be a winner - I know I said that about SPQR and that turned into a disaster to play in record time. In this case I think we are on firmer ground as there is a decade of testing the VAS system in it's various forms so it should have had most of the kinks ironed out.

The starter set is a USN\ v IJN affair and contains 3 US Cruisers and 6 Destroyers  vs 3 IJN Cruisers and 3 Destroyers. There are also Fleet Boxes that add battleships and Carriers and also some Battleships available as single packs.

One to watch

ps I think the ships would make excellent target markers for Blood Red Skies.

Thanks to Ste at Asgard Wargames for the pics - Cheers M8 - and if you're interested in VAS Asgard will have them on pre order now https://asgardwargames.co.uk/product-category/victory-at-sea