On Dark Tides: Smallscale Evil Dwarf Ships

A group of amateur sculptors and enthusiasts are currently busy at a cooperative, fantasy evil dwarf smallscale ship project over on Chaos Dwarfs Online (Warseer link). The models will be roughly compatible with Man o' War, Dreadfleet and Uncharted Seas, given how relative the scale of fantasy vessels are. The aim is to cast and sell the ships, though they'll be restricted to 3-4 moulds. Given the limited market and a need for the moulds to repay themselves, all escorts will go in one mould, forming one bundle kit so collectors will have to get several escort bundles to make squadrons of any single ship type, and the same will be true for the cruisers, submersibles and capital ships.

We hope to get someone rules-savvy to write a rules system for the ships down the road.

While not an Oldhammer project as such, it might still be worth to drop a mention here, and keep any interested collectors updated whenever new models gets released in the future.

Escort vessels released! Available through Warseer and Chaos Dwarfs Online.


Shading his eyes against the fiery glare below, captain Uhr-Maduknezhar stood astride up in the commanding archer tower of the slave galley Grasp of Lidunammu. The scarred and grizzled seaman observed the chaotic battle scene in the archipelago below while smoke columns obscured his view. He gripped one pointy merlon to counter the worst rockings of the crenellated tower as the frantic sea waves tossed the narrow ship about. The sounds of blackpowder blasts, creaking hulls and the galley drums were in the air. In the accursed salty wet, debris and bodies both alive and dead littered the surroundings, picked at by bloodthirsty sharks and yet worse behemoths of the depths, some of them a danger to the unharmed vessels. The situation was difficult to assess, for behind the smoke, the flimsy wooden masts and sails of the enemy fleet had become an indecipherable tangle.

"Our fire ships shouldn't ever have let loose at such an angle," groaned decksofficer Bel-Ninridu, gesticulating madly at the unquenchable flames dancing across waves and wrecks below. "Just look at it! It's a bloody mess of firewalls down there, smokescreens shielding their escape. Gallows!"

Without glancing at his subordinate, Uhr-Marduknezhar replied: "Our metal hulls have passed through seas of molten rock. Our rams have licked the waves of hell. What's a little flame to that?"

"With our ship unenchanted, without the preparatory rites, the rowers will perish at oars. We'll be stranded at great cost," said Bel-Ninridu.

"Then let the slaves broil and burn in their shackles if they wish to succumb to a little heat," said Uhr-Marduknezhar. "The roasted thralls will make for fine steaks. The omens are right, I am sure of it. Signal the helmsman, bring the Grasp of Lidunammu about and aim her at the largest pillar of smoke, right there. Then signal the taskmaster: Breakneck speed, full ahead. The gods will it! And brace for impact."

"Aye, aye, cap'n!"

Gorgeous, but can I make one request? Can you make the weaponry etc on the ship match its Man O War equivalent (i.e. An Orc Hulk is modeled with the fore Smash-Hammer)? That would make the models infinitely more usable for MoW (and there is actually a fairly big MoW community online). You can find all the old ship cards for free here: http://www.orderofgamers.com/downloads/ ... s_v3.5.pdf

Thank you! It's a good idea, but to intentionally model our ships on MoW would limit the creative freedom which is the spirit of the project. E.g. where would a triple-hull mortar steam catamaran fit in? While we certainly are inspired by Man o' War and can easily see people using the ships as existing vessels in Man o' War (the Orc Hulk would then be an equivalent to Grimstonefire's hammer ship, regardless of whatever other weapons might be added to it), the design goal is to create something of our vision rather than to intentionally, in detail, tread paths already well explored by others. In the long run, there's a slim possibility we could expand into other races' navies, and one aim with the project is to have someone rules-savvy cook up naval warfare rules to go with the ships.

Another aim would more importantly be to have some enthusiast produce new MoW ship card rules to go with our miniatures, thus making an unoffocial expansion to this classic game. Would there by any chance be such volunteers here? And would you please like to point us in the direction of the online MoW community? The old forum is down, so is there a Facebook group or something else?

You can now order these ships and other miniatures from ofancienttimes@gmail.com

Size comparison shot with Man o' War miniatures, provided by customer:



And the first gallery image, by Abecedar:

Gallery update, painted by Harry Howells: