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"Leviathans game by Catalyst Game Labs" Topic


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WNT Blog02 Sep 2012 10:18 a.m. PST

Just found this and it sounds interesting it's a bit like Dystopian Wars by Spartan Games. Here's some information I managed to find.

Leviathans is a game in development by Catalyst Game Labs that simulates combat between warships that have taken to the air in an alternate history/steampunk 1910. The king leviathans, the battleships, are the largest vessels. Maneuvering in support are the smaller ships of light cruisers, destroyers, and others ships. Will you captain your fleet for king and country, expanding your nations power and becoming legend? Or will you fall from the sky, forgotten? In this box you will find a British and a French fleet allowing for instant action as two world powers vie for air supremacy on your game table!

In this box you'll find a British and a French fleet allowing for instant action as two world powers vie for air supremacy on your game table! Which can be preordered here link

This Box Includes:

2 rulebooks to transition players from the quick-start rules to the core rules
8 high-quality, 1200-scale plastic ship miniatures
12 Ship Cards
12 full-color Recognition Cards
1 Leviathans Gazetteer universe primer
2 fiction novellas
2 18" x 22" board-game quality maps
10 custom D12 dice and 2D6
2 reference cards
Leviathans recognition poster
Sheet of faction/ship crests
Template game aides (die cut cardboard counters)

I haven't manage to find much pictures of the actual vessel miniatures but here's one and they look awesome!

If interested here's a current promotion at Wayland Games I receive in a newsletter early this week.

link

TheBeast Supporting Member of TMP02 Sep 2012 11:07 a.m. PST

Been in 'development' for YEARS, demo'd at several GenCons, and I thought the box set was only being sold at game cons, but I guess it's time to ask the storekeep if we've any info yet.

Thanks!

Doug

CPT Jake02 Sep 2012 11:09 a.m. PST

I got this last week. The map boards are well made but poorly printed. The hex overlay on the sea side is not ligned up correctly and the sea side wraps onto the land side so that the two land boards have blue borders which kind of detract from them when you try to joint them together.

Nothing that will affect game play, but for a $100 USD game (or about 80 at the Warstore) it is sloppy.

Allegedly they are having a new printer handle the second printing. All things equal I would wait until they fix that beofre spending the bucks.

Jake

Note the white hexes don't line up if you line up the boards

picture

Pretty blue borders which will make aligning the land sides a little ugly…

picture

WNT Blog02 Sep 2012 12:13 p.m. PST

Thanks for the insight on this game! We will have to wait and hope for an improvement have you actually played thegame? Is it fun or rather mediocre?

Cheers

CPT Jake02 Sep 2012 12:26 p.m. PST

I have not played it yet. It does look like it will be fun.

Jake

WNT Blog02 Sep 2012 12:48 p.m. PST

Keep us updated if you play it as it sounds interesting!

Cheers

daghan02 Sep 2012 1:03 p.m. PST

Could the ships be cut down to waterline models?

Lion in the Stars02 Sep 2012 3:29 p.m. PST

Why would you want to cut a *flying* ship down to the 'waterline'?

Mr Elmo02 Sep 2012 4:02 p.m. PST

I don't know how you could "just find out" about this game. It's been vaporware for years.

Allen5702 Sep 2012 4:04 p.m. PST

Here is a review of the game TMP link

I saw another longer review on someones blog but cannot seem to find it at the moment.

drusty, The models are plastic so should be easy to cut down but if you want pseudo ships for the Victorian era you might consider the ones offered by Irregular. There are several sets. Scroll down the pages in these links.

link
and
link

Brigade models offers their Aeronef

link

Wessex games also has a couple

link

Another source of historic ships is Great Endeavors – Houston's Predreadnoughts. These are larger and more the size of the Leviathan models.

greatendeavours.co.uk/ships

tsofian02 Sep 2012 6:30 p.m. PST

For aerial ships you might alos want to look here

shapeways.com/shops/objects

Ironwolf02 Sep 2012 9:24 p.m. PST

I saw the demo at Gen Con a couple weeks ago. It looks fun and the ships looked kewl. I didn't get a chance to play it so can't comment on how the rules are.

WNT Blog03 Sep 2012 2:09 a.m. PST

@ Mr Elmo: in fact it is quite easy as I only stumbled upon this game through a Wayland Games newsletter and I had never searched the internet before for such games. Cheers and the gameplay mecanisme looks nice.

Personal logo Inari7 Supporting Member of TMP03 Sep 2012 5:22 a.m. PST

I have played this game last week. IMHO the game is a bit long for what it is and very initiative dependent, I also don't like custom dice. What I do like are the models, the dry erase record cards, easy rules, and relative high movement of the ships. I think the game is good not great, I can't see myself buying this game especially for a hundred bucks.

daghan03 Sep 2012 9:58 a.m. PST

Many thanks for the links guys. I'm looking for sea-borne "steam-punk" pre-dreadnoughts, rather than the real thing.

Tim White03 Sep 2012 10:45 a.m. PST

@Inari7

My group would definitely agree with you on the "Long" game and the dice.

However on the initiative I disagree. I guess it really depends on what other games you've been playing. Given that initiative only affects movement (combat damage is simultaneous) and even then its by "ship type" and not just ALL ships – I think they've mitigated it well. BTW, not sure if you know but there is an alternate iniative system where you roll init for each ship type before moving.

-Tim

Personal logo Inari7 Supporting Member of TMP03 Sep 2012 3:55 p.m. PST

BTW, not sure if you know but there is an alternate iniative system where you roll init for each ship type before moving.

Did not know that rule, might have changed things a bit.

Camcleod04 Sep 2012 8:43 a.m. PST

If you do a Google Image search there are a few pics of the Leviathans unpainted ships and sprues.

Search for 'catalyst game labs leviathans'

CPT Jake04 Sep 2012 1:21 p.m. PST

The ships do not come on sprues, they come assembled and painted like the picture in the opening post shows.

WNT Blog05 Sep 2012 1:16 p.m. PST

I also thought the latter as stated by CPT Jake? Maybe they also sell unassembled and unpainted ships?

CPT Jake05 Sep 2012 2:10 p.m. PST

No, not yet and they are not sure they ever will sell them unassembled abd unpainted. They are considering it but it will not be any time soon according to the folks at Catalyst.

The Beast Rampant05 Sep 2012 4:49 p.m. PST

I picked it up at Dragon Con last Friday. Near as I could tell, one of two in the whole place.

I LOVE the ships. The paint jobs are simple but tidy (though I could have stood for the Brit leviathans to be dark *grey* and not gunmetal), with all assembled well, and no warpage to the masts. Only the French battleship had a bit of splotchy paint right on the bow, an easy fix.

I have not yet opened and folded out the shrinkwrapped maps, and have read most of the rules (and fluff), seems like it would play well; I don't get any bad impressions from the initial read.

The special "all 12-sided" dice are a weird notion, but three of the five colors are just divisible-by-twelve polyhedrals that happen to be 12-sided. I missed a golden opportunity to hit up the Chessex booth for appropriately-colored proxies, but it wouldn't be con if I didn't come home without something I needed. If you use ONLY actual d4-d12's, that would work fine. And it's not like the ones that came with the game are all that lovely.

TheBeast Supporting Member of TMP06 Sep 2012 5:04 a.m. PST

There were images of WIP that included the sprues, but the designer seemed pretty sure as well that painted was the way to go.

I was also one of the doubters crying vapourware. There'd be a flashy demo at GenCon, some hubbub on forums, then months of silence. Turned out, you were supposed to faithfully follow the Monsters In The Sky blog. *shrug* After a few years, doubting seems to come natural.

Then simplified rule books on Wargames Vault et al.

Then some 'hubbub' on a boxed game, then general silence.

Now, a game's available. My doubting eyes are open. Well, I guess I got tired of waiting. So, still haven't bought. Yet.

Other Beast: Thanks for the tip on dice. I think I'd love the ships as well, and it sounds like some Q-Workshop dice are almost a requirement. ;->=

Pedant alert! And, I think you mean a factor of twelve…

Doug

The Beast Rampant07 Sep 2012 6:51 a.m. PST

Pedant alert! And, I think you mean a factor of twelve…

Crap! I always get that backwards.

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