Dreadfleet

[Mr. White]

I know it isn't an AoS title, but many people brought it up in the Wizkids thread.

I actually haven't played the game, but have considered picking it up. It appears like it could be set during the End Times... a series of naval engagements underway while the world is getting ripped apart around them. I dont think that is the actual setting for the game, but it doesn't seem like it would take that much squinting to view it as set during the End Times.

I do believe it was the last 'new' Old World game released before the End Times went down.

But is it any good? Not looking for a Man O War clone. Does it stand on its own as a game worth getting?

[Menkeroth]

Certainly. The game was quite entertaining, with interesting rules, ships (mech kraken!) and all in all a good feeling of RPG with naval atmosphere. I was glad to have bought it back in the day. And no less surprised when I discovered during the reading of the 8th VC armybook after having played the game and read its fluff that the main adversary, Count Noctilus, was mentioned in the chronology of the book. This was really cool. Anyway, that's not Manowar, because Manowar was about naval squadron battles and Dreadfleet is an RPG about ships, just like AoS is more RPG and WHFB was more about large scale wars. 

[Rodiger]

I bought a copy of it a few years ago after seeing a friends copy, the ships in it are amazing models and I bought it off the strength of that. I really enjoyed painting them as well as all the scenery and components, I even painted the ruler. I have bought loads of GW games over the years and for components and models its one of the best, you even get a really nice cloth mat to play on. Dreadfleet now just sits in my display case.

I played the game a couple of times and I enjoyed it, my regular gaming friend didn't seem much into it though and we were playing a lot other games at the time so it just went to the back of the queue. From my recollection most of the missions are tutorial missions on how to play with the different ships. The last mission is basically a free battle between all the ships on both sides. I think it is alternative activation, it has been ages since I played it. The wind changes regularly which can hamper or aid movement, you take random damage cards which do different things to the ships, like take out guns or hinder movement. Each ship is unique and has it's own set of strengths and weaknesses as do the captains. I think there is enough there to enjoy playing the big battle multiple times especially as you get to know how to use each ship well, and there should be enough to make your own missions.  I always wanted more to do with it, like a better campaign, more ships to play with, but it bombed.

Having a quick look on Ebay, you can get a copy for around 40-50 pounds which is well worth it in my eyes.  

*Just dug out the rule book, the missions aren't all tutorial and there are a few using all the ships with different things to do. 

[Sleboda]

56 minutes ago, Rodiger said:

Having a quick look on Ebay, you can get a copy for around 40-50 pounds which is well worth it in my eyes.  

Many shops and vendors at conventions I've been to still have copies new,  unopened, often at a discount.  Worth looking around.

[Rodiger]

Or if you can do that, that's even better. I think a lot of people thought it would increase in value as it was limited like the 3rd Edition Space Hulk did, that used to sell on Ebay for upwards of £250 pounds until they re released it a couple of times. So a lot of people bought copies of Dreadfleet and it didn't sell, meaning there are a lot of copies about new and in good condition. I got mine for £40 pounds new and that was 2 years after it was released, doesn't appear to have increased in value since. 

[Menkeroth]

Exactly, I bought mine also at a quite good discount after approximately a year it was released. Or maybe even more. It's definitely worth buying.

[RuneBrush]

I quite enjoyed it, but it certainly wasn't what anybody was expecting when it came out.  I felt it wasn't as popular as it should have been but up until that point GW hadn't really released a truly "stand alone" game for years.  Comments above are entirely correct in that people bought multiple copies in the hope of making a profit and ultimately got stung!  If you can pick it up for £40 it's a bargain.

Although I feel something like it could work for AoS, I'm not sure GW will do a venture like it again.  It's an entirely different scale and we all know the first comment will be "but I want an XYZ", then again we've been surprised on things before so you never know!  I'd love to see 10mm Kharadron vessels...

[Menkeroth]

Actually with new GW there is such a possibility, although a bit different it will be, I guess. Dreadfleet sort of game would fit AoS well, and I too would be glad to see such ships in AoS, not only of KO but Chaos and undead too, for instance (ghost ships for the win!)

[Chris Tomlin]

Hey,

Yeah I think everyone bought up loads of copies expecting it to be the next Space Hulk. On a whim I fancied getting hold of a copy a couple of years ago. Rather than opting for a Buy it Now option on eBay (there are plenty to be had at the price ranges suggested above), I kept my eye open for auctions as I wasn't in a rush and actually ended up scoring a new one for just under £30 including postage (which must cost a fair bit as it's a big old box!).

I got really excited by it when I received it and assembled all the ships etc, which are really cool models...however, I have done absolutely nothing with it since!

It's a project I'd love to return to as a one off, paint it all up and play through a campaign. No idea what the gameplay is like though!!

Well worth a punt if you can pick it up on the cheap though I reckon.

Chris

[Killax]

On a totally unrelated note, I do hope that Games Workshop will always keep this one into consideration for Age of Sigmar. I'd love to see more (air)ships in Age of Sigmar for all kinds of Allegiances and Factions. In the same way I think the vechicles in Warhammer 40.000 are part of the reason why that game is so vastly popular. It would be very cool to have this as an alternative to some of the monsters. 

Offcourse it's just a personal desire and not an extremely burning one. It's just that a lot of the concept art for Dreadfleet is extremely awesome and Age of Sigmar is less bound by ships being exclusively naval transports. Just for the idea, a Wraithfleet would strike home much better if there was an actual ship available to Death aswell. Likewise fans of the Norse-like Slaves to Darkness would obviously also benifit from some sort of ship design.

 

[Kramer]

2 hours ago, Killax said:

Offcourse it's just a personal desire and not an extremely burning one. It's just that a lot of the concept art for Dreadfleet is extremely awesome and Age of Sigmar is less bound by ships being exclusively naval transports. Just for the idea, a Wraithfleet would strike home much better if there was an actual ship available to Death aswell. Likewise fans of the Norse-like Slaves to Darkness would obviously also benifit from some sort of ship design.

And think of the campaign options a navel system adds. Massive almost real world scale map campaigns, would be really cool to go from a naval game to a regular game where the remnants of that naval battle actually arrive 

[Menkeroth]

True. And we already have sees and gulfs on different maps, and ships in the fluff, so models of them in any way would be awesome.

[Greyshadow]

Ah Dreadfleet, I love this game. I bought it just before it came off sale for the full AUD price and it was well worth it. The game occupied my painting queue for 11 months before I had painted it in its entirety. One of the best things about the game is how it features a diverse line up of ships rather than two distinct fleets. This made it really fun to paint. I also found the game great for creating custom scenarios for a big campaign I was running. I have so far designed four scenarios: 'Invasion', a Chaos fleet attempts to disembark an army on a landing beach; 'Capture the Flag Ship', the Empire attempts a surprise attack to re-capture one of their ships from pirates; 'Rescue the Admiral', Bretonnian marines conduct a pre-dawn raid on a sea fort and attempt to hold out until a relief force arrives; and 'Open Sea Battle', rough seas prevent the use of auxiliary vessels in a large fleet engagement.

I've played 13 games and I do think it is well designed gameplay wise. Thematically, the first games of the campaign play well but as the random effects of the Fate deck don't scale down for the smaller opening missions, I think some got the impression the game is more random than it actually is. (GW actually released a revised first mission called First Blood on their blog page that featured more ships to help address this).

I say go for it Mr White, the models are fantastic, the set is fun to paint and the game is great fun with plenty of room to adapt it to fit with your Age of Sigmar campaigns.

The Shadewraith floats by the dreaded Skull Island 

I created rules for the Bretonnian Galleon from Man-o-War and based it up for Dreadfleet

[harrocks]

interesting to read the positive comments.

I bought it s/hand (off one of the mods on this forum!) for a good price (although the postage was ultra-ouch), as a present-to-be for my nephew.

Purely on the basisi of the lovely models / presentation.

 

then discovered that the consensus at the time of release was that it was a poor game and that it sold ... poorly. Or so Says The Internet anyway.

Haven't done anything with it, and my nephew (who hasn't got in the hobby despite [because of?] his dad's gaming) is non-the-wiser ...

 

should add that the gaming cloth is very good - better than any of the currently available 'ocean' gaming mats I've seen (and bought).

If I hadn't thought of the marvel that is crushed velvet, I'd be using it for my current Ghost Archipelago project.

[DrDemento]

I would love to see (or make if I had time) AoS warscroll adaptation for Dreadfleet so I can get my group to play with these awesome models without a steep learning curve of a new rules set.  I know it would lack the depth of the Dreadfleet  rules but otherwise the beautifully painted set my friend gifted our group when he moved will just continue to sit in the box in the cabinet (maybe I should at least make some display cabinet space for the models).

[Greyshadow]

Dreadfleet is actually a really easy game to learn and it plays quite fast too. Although it is almost like a battle RPG in that the campaign follows Captain Jaego Roth’s quest for vengeance against Count Noctilis, it isn’t difficult to adapt it to fit your own stories.

Want to fight a sea battle with your Scourge Privateers vs a Chaos Plague Fleet as part of your AoS campaign ? Paint up the Aelf and Skaven ships and some islands and you are good to go. If you want to make it a bit more interesting maybe add the Kraken Daemon ship and Saltspites vessel.

I think Dreadfleet could be a cool side project for AoS players.

[Menkeroth]

It would be great indeed. It's logical they made an RPG instead of a Manowar kind of thing because it was apparently easier, but then maybe this will come again the future, who knows. Sea battles is the thing that fits high fantasy more than anything.

[decker_cky]

Dreadfleet had beautiful components and some neat mechanics, but there were some real issues with the game that should not exist for a premium priced game like dreadfleet. Jake Thornton (former GW designer) did a review, then started working on a new ruleset for dreadfleet. You can find what he wrote here: https://quirkworthy.com/category/dreadfleet/

 

[Greyshadow]

Jake Thornton's review was disgraceful. He had barely played the game before rubbishing it. Others that have actually given the game a more balanced look. Check out the Esoteric Order of Gamers play through for a fairer review (even if they did make a couple of rules mistakes). 

It was one of GW's first games that featured a light rules set - longer than four pages yes but quick to learn, favouring simplicity over complexity. The way this game was treated by the internet has some parallels with the way AoS was treated initially. Yes, the game does have some flaws. The game doesn't come into its own until the forth/ fifth scenario which I think was a big mistake.

I found the game quite fun, with plenty of opportunities for tactics and strategy. It does take awhile to learn all ten ships and the tricks they have up their sleeves. Some of the ships battlefield roles change  dramatically when their specific Fate card is drawn and this needs to be risk managed. The Skabrus (aka the-kamikaze-fish) can cripple your entire fleet single handedly when it uses its Fate card if your ships are too bunched up for example.

[harrocks]

good to hear, Greyshadow, and encouraging.

hope to give it a go sometime.

[Mr. White]

Looking around online...it looks like there were 2 pdfs of rules for DF from GW. Maybe they were campaign rules? New scenarios? FAQ? I don't know, but does anyone have these pdfs?

Thanks!

[MacDuff]

There are some PDFs if you google 'Dreadfleet PDF downloads '. But now I want AOS Epic - with airships, cog forts, God Beasts, and all the most fantastic big stuff, but tiny.

[Sharkbelly]

One of the WD issues was definitely a new scenario.