Uncharted Seas: Initial Thoughts

Last weekend at the Warstore Weekend I picked up the Imperial Humans fleet for Uncharted Seas. I know I swore I'd never buy into this game, but since I got the box for free, I figure I kept my promise. I've only played one game of it so far, so I don't have a complete grasp on it yet, but given my experience with Firestorm Armada, I'd say I have a decent understanding of how the game works.

Unsurprisingly, there are some things this game does better than Firestorm Armada, and some things that FSA does better. Each game, even though it's using the same core system, does feel a bit different in its style and how it plays. I had expected the games to be far more similar, but it's interesting how changing a few things can really change the gameplay.

A few differences:
1. Ships are more effective from range band 1 than from range band 2. This means you'll want to get your ships up close and personal, and won't have to constantly be trying to maneuver to find that "sweet spot" to fire from.

2. Ramming and boarding are incredibly common occurrences in the game, and one of the better ways to take over enemy ships. Ram your ship into theirs and then board them. Also, when you finish killing off an enemy crew, your crew actually comes back to your ship rather than losing them for good.

3. Ships cannot see through each other and cannot move through each other. It's not 3-D space here. Firing through ships is harder, and you have to be a little more careful with your squadrons and positioning.

4. The decks are faction-specific, so each faction will have a few cards that are different from everyone else. For example, my faction, the Imperial Humans, have very little magic and what they do have is priestly magic.

5. Wind is important in the game. At least for some fleets. If you're sailing into the wind, you move at 1/2 speed. Unfortunately, the wind never helps you, so if you're sailing with the wind, you don't go faster. Too bad - I thought that would make an interesting mechanic. As it is, now the wind is just annoying.

6. Maneuvering is a bit different too. Instead of working with 45 degree turns and needing a certain number of inches before you can turn based on your size, each size of ship has a particular turning template which will show how fast it turns. Ships turn much faster in Uncharted Seas. Also, ships have a minimum move of 2" instead of 1/2 their speed. It means fleets with fast and slow ships can stick together a bit easier.

7. The critical hits table felt more punishing. There were a lot of things that simply could not be repaired except by cards.

8. There are far more special rules for different ships, and unfortunately none of these rules are on the cards themselves. You have to look in the book (or the handy download sheet from the website) to find what each of your ships does. Firestorm may reach that point as it expands the R&D ships, but for the moment, there are not nearly as many special rules in Firestorm.



Overall, the game changes out some good things and some bad things. I dislike the wind, the harsher critical hits table, the closer ranges of all the ships, etc. But I like that ramming and boarding are more prevalent in this game too, and I love the faction-specific decks. In the end, the game's no better than Firestorm Armada (and for me, the theme of Firestorm wins out), so I don't think I'll be expanding my ships beyond the starting box. Still, nice to have a different theme.