Guest poster Rob gives us a quick look at this limited edition tabletop game from Games Workshop.
For the uninitiated, Dreadfleet is a game that takes place in the Warhammer Fantasy universe, but rather than fighting over war-ravaged terrain, it focuses on battle in turbulent waters.
Working at a local hobby store, I have the ability to check out new arrivals as they come in. I had first read about Dreadfleet in an issue of White Dwarf magazine, and thought it was going to be something quite different from the rest of Games Workshop’s other offerings. Games Workshop has always provided me with at least some cool models to paint in the past, current gripes with the company aside; I was eager to get my grubby little paws in the box and see what it was really about.
The thing that caught me right off the bat was the packaging. Simply put, the box art looks amazing:
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It’s flashy without being tacky, and the size of the box itself (approx. 18″ or so) doesn’t even begin to tell you what kinds of treasures are encased within. Opening it up, you find what you’d normally expect to see in a model kit: A bunch of gray plastic sprues containing what you’re ultimately going to build. They unfortunately felt particularly greasy from the injection molding process, which means you’ll have to soak them in warm soapy water before assembly and painting. This adds time to the overall project, and while not a big deal, is still an inconvenience.
The models themselves are beautifully sculpted, and seem like they will be a lot of fun to paint. There are two factions in the game: The Grand Alliance and the Dreadfleet. Each faction has a total of five main ships, and each of those ships has a small detachment of smaller, auxillary ships that go with them. After everything is built and painted, it will ideally look something like this:
And that’s not even all of the models!
Anyway, the entire hobby side of the box is fleshed out with plenty of terrain pieces to paint up and even modify to your heart’s content. You might be wondering what kind of terrain would be necessary for a naval campaign. Well, in this case that would be things such as rocks jutting up out of the sea, or stony islands that cause havoc on the unwary. These are all included in the kit, and are available to lay down on the included game mat.
Now, when the box said that it came with a game mat, I was not expecting what it contained. I fully expected to see a foldable game board, much like you’d find in Monopoly, but instead was pleasantly surprised to find a soft cloth material game mat. It’s clearly well made, and with dimensions of 5′ x 3.5′, includes stitched edges to help prevent fraying from constant use. The material is smooth enough that the models can be effortlessly moved around via their included (unpainted) bases without fear of tearing into the mat.
Also included in the box: the rulebook for the official game, several 6-sided dice (one of which is red!), and two different decks of cards to be used during gameplay. The MSRP on this kit $115 USD, but I have already seen it on Amazon for less than $100. If you can convince your friends to either go in with you, or just to play the game every once in a while, this is worth a look. At this price, I feel that it warrants at least some consideration, especially if you’re a model builder.
Do you know if Games workshop plans to make more models/expansion packs in the future? $100 is a large sum to pay for a board game but it’s a fairly cheap introduction box compared to the similar offerings for WH40K and WH intro sets which are already a good value to begin with.
I like the idea of Dreadfleet more than the implementation. I LOVE the miniatures and painting them is a pleasure, the cloth board is nice, and the level of detail invested is obvious…but this is something that they over-complicated in their actual gameplay for the average player(my friends and I!), and where momentum is concerned, the fate cards hold up play too much. Better that there be no “Fate” sub-stage and allow it to be a more random occurance than to pad playtime against real tactics!
In the end, I know that I’ll have a nicely painted (hopefully) mini collection of an obsolete and barely-played stand alone game. I really liked the idea, but they could have made the thing more straightforward.