Uncharted Seas
I love collectible strategy games. I like cards with cool art I can hold in my hands, miniatures I can move around and paint in my spare time. I love cracking open a new rulebook to see what secrets it might hold, or design patterns it might repeat. I love that new feeling of a system unexplored and with the possibility of untold hours of exploration.
I’ve recently discovered a new one, Uncharted Seas. It’s put out by a company in the UK, Spartan games. Oh, its got all the expected cliché versions of the fantasy archetypes: Bone Griffons (undead), various Elves, Orcs, “Empire” humans and some steam using races like Dwarves. The rulebook is a bit rough, not even completed, with continuing updates on the web site and pdf downloads just to allow you to play the complete game. The designers almost apologetic as they go to great length to explain how simple the rules are, and just how many expansions they plan to release. It’s got all the rough edges of a new game, but yet at the same time that is part of its charm. It gives me that new game feel, the hope of emergent complexity that arises from raw and pure mechanics ready to clash in the space of possibility.
What I especially like about Uncharted Seas is that a fleet can be bought for the price of around a new video game. They also can be painted pretty quickly. The mechanics are pretty clean, with a single dice pool ( 6 sided) where 4, 5, and 6’s score hits. The hits are added up and if they meet a target number, damage is scored. If a second, higher number is met, a critical hit is scored. This wraps up all the rolling into one pool, compared against one set of numbers. The really fun thing is that rolling a ‘6’ counts as 2 hits, and you get to roll again, allowing for chains of hits.
The company also seems to want to support the community, one of the most important aspects of a collectible strategy game. A local game store is running tournaments and has even apparently hired a representative for the area to help push the hobby. This is a key factor for the success of one of these games. So if you are looking for a fun collectable game that has all that new game charm, for a low price, check out Uncharted Seas.