Or as everyone I know calls them... the blimp faction!!! Lets get this out of the way first, those blimps are undeniably cool. Yeah sure the Yankee faction has their own sausage blimps but the Prussians fat blimps are pure design gold. They are awesome, and for me the real reason to own the Prussian fleet, that and the iron cross motif looks cool!
Product descriptionNow for the downside, of all the fleets I think the Prussians are the most boring looking. They look the most like modern navel battleships and because of that I find them a little uninspired. That's my personal opinion and I know there are others who really like the militaristic look of the Prussians, and I know Spartan have to cater for all tastes... but I prefer my steam punk stuff well more punky and steamy... erm... not in a saucy way you understand!!! Still there are a few nods to steam punk I suppose with the smoke stacks, although I feel they're more reminiscent of the golden age of ocean liners. As with all the starter fleets we have 1 Battleship, 3 cruisers and 9 frigates all in resin and then the two bombers in metal. You also have the same stat cards and templates etc. again its all good and you'll be good to go with everything right out the box.
Character of the pieces 7 out of 10
Yeah I'm more than aware that I'm probably the odd one out, insofar that I just don't really love the militaristic look of the Prussian ships. This is a steam-punk universe and they just don't seem to fit as well into that background for me so I'm scoring them lower than the other fleets because of my own personal taste. However I'd put up with them just so I could get my hands on their exceptional blimps!!! I'm sure though the more 'conventional' looking Prussian ships will appeal to many people.
Detail 7 out of 10Now this is a hard one for me to actually score 'fairly' because part of my detail score has always been about design aesthetics. However the Prussian boats display the same high level of detail present on both the Kingdom of Britannia and Empire of the Blazing Sun ships. All those teeny tiny rivets are there along with those planks of wood on the decking. If the military design look is you cup of Gluhwein you could probably whack that detail score up to something like an 8 or 9, but for me because they are aesthetically the most dull of all the starter fleets they score a 7. As I say this is by no means a reflection on the quality of the detail, the sculpting or the casting, it's purely lower because I personally don't like the look of the boats as much as the other fleets. The cards contained within the box and all those templates and counter gubbins are once more nicely detailed as they always are, and I wouldn't expect anything less off of Spartan Games. Just remember to bring some scissors or a sharp craft knife with a metal ruler when cutting them out!!!
Quality 9 out of 10Again in terms of casting and resin used I think its all tip top stuff I really do. As I've said before I'm more than pleased with the prospect of using any Spartan Pieces to game with. The card tokens and templates are on a good quality shiny glossy card and there were no casting defects at all. I'm getting used to saying that about Spartan Games products now. Sure there is normally a very thing layer of flashing around the base of most boats but this stuff comes away in your fingers without even trying to remove it, its that thin and cleaning up any residual resin left to the base of the ships has never given me any problems with a sharp craft knife.
Service 9 out of 10As before if I could please ask you to read my comments on service in the Kingdom of Britannia fleet review I'd be ever so grateful, ta very much!!!
Price 9 out of 10
As I've said before I got the Dystopian Wars Mega Bundle deal, which for those of you flush with cash is almost certainly a great bargain. If like most people you're struggling through at the moment suffering the consequences of having the world run by used car salesmen pretending to be spivs and merchant bankers and right royally f***ing things up for the rest of us then £32.50 isn't too bad. Oh and don't worry too much about the poor spivs and bankers we've all bailed them out of their self made mess with tax payers money so they'll still be able to bath in Champagne and drive Ferrari's, so that's OK then.
Overall 8 out of 10If you like the look of the Prussian's there's no reason not to go for them, but for me personally they're not my thing. There's something a little crazy and cool about the other factions starter fleets, while the Prussians seem very 'standard' which I suppose is a very Teutonic thing I guess and therefore totally in keeping. Still I guess its worth putting up with the ships just for the blimps and the forth coming Meltzer robot which looks all sorts of awesome if you ask me. So if the Prussians are your thing I'd say dive right in because they are a good little fleet, and as always the price point makes getting started in Dystopian Wars really tempting. Peace out!
Most of the ships look pretty conventional, if you know about ships. Brits look like old tumblehome pre-dreadnoughts. Americans look like paddleships and the Roanoke class. The blimps are actually reality based as well. The only real scifi ships are the Japanese and the Antarticans.
ReplyDeleteThere are also no boats in the fleet, the only boats I can think of in the game are the submarines, of which there are three types.