Weekend Update

Destroyers are painted and the first coat of varnish is drying.  It's been oppressively hot here for the past couple weeks, but it rained earlier today so it's not quite so bad now.  On the bad side, I may have pushed my "There's no such thing as too much varnish" idea too far.  Things may look different when they've dried a little.

Ready to destroy.  After some varnish, of course.

As the end of the month approaches, so too does the time for the final wave of reinforcements.  While this slow growth experiment hasn't gone exactly like I'd hoped it would, it's been a good experience.  It took a bit of convincing on EV's part to get me to try Uncharted Seas, but having done so I find that I really like the game.  It has, for the most part, simple mechanics that are easy to learn, but still allow for depth in tactics.  The models have grown on me, are quick to paint up, and look pretty good when you're done with them.  Best of all, the models are fairly cheap and you don't need a bunch of them.  I'll do up my total investment when I do the actual reinforcement post, but I'd guess I have maybe $150 invested in the game, including the rule book, which is a low gate to entry as far as war games go.  But I should really save all the reflection for the last post in the 'series.'  In the meantime, a couple lists.

First, what I'm currently considering my 1200 point list.

Flagship - 160
Battleship - 120
Battleship - 120
2 Heavy Cruisers - 170
2 Cruisers - 100
2 Cruisers - 100
Airship - 85
3 Frigates - 105
3 Frigates - 105
3 Destroyers - 135
1200 total

I'm on the fence about cruiser squadron composition, but I'm leaning towards 2 ship squadrons.  The Krakens got the axe.  They just haven't done what I've wanted them to and I'd rather have another frigate or two instead of some Krakens.  I would like to try out the Belchers though.  I think they might be better suited to what I want a sub to do.

Next some tournament lists.  The 300 pointer, I have no idea what I'm going to do.  Probably it will end up as a flagship and a battleship, with 20 wasted points.  The idea behind that 300 point list keeps shifting though, with a new wrinkle that you can take literally whatever you want, faction be damned, though I think squadron size still counts.  I'm somewhat tempted to get the battleship I'll need for the above list on Monday, get it painted for Saturday, and then run a pair of battleships and a pair of Martyr ships, but I'm far from sold on the idea just now.  Hopefully it will be a non-issue as (currently) the top two players will each field a 600 point list against two of the lower players' 300 point lists.  I certainly hope to be one of the top two, but things have changed a bit each time I've looked at them, so I may play this one by ear.

In the more concrete department, my 500 point list will look like this.

Battleship - 120
Airship - 85
2 Cruisers - 100
3 Frigates - 105
2 Destroyers - 90
500 total

This is the list that will see the most action, so I've spent the most time considering it.  I'm still thinking about swapping the destroyers for a heavy cruiser though.  I hope to get a test game in with the list tomorrow, and perhaps another game or three with it before Saturday.  My 600 point list is the most settled, and the most conventional by my standards.

Battleship - 120
Airship - 85
2 Cruisers/1 Heavy Cruiser - 185
3 Frigates - 105
3 Frigates - 105
600 total

Both lists were engineered to have 5 squadrons, and therefore a max hand size to start the game.  I could push the 600 list to 6 squads by running pairs of frigates instead of groups of 3, but I've found the pairs to be less than effective.  I'm also not taking a flagship as I want the extra points.  While a flagship is nasty, it's really not that much better than a battleship, and by not taking the flagship I can take an airship instead of a cruiser.