Post by Syzmo on Feb 24, 2019 19:15:22 GMT
EDIT: An updated version of this is down the page. I'm leaving the original here because some comments reference it.
Hey guys, I’ve been meaning to write a history of WaS to help new community members catch up on the lore and history of our community since I first joined. Could you guys look it over and correct me where my understanding is wrong and fill in some areas where I could include more information etc.? I think it will make participating on the forum less intimidating for new members if they can take the crash course on who we are, where we came from, and what we do.
The History of Axis and Allies: War at Sea
Axis and Allies Naval Miniatures: War at Sea (WaS) is a standalone collectible card and miniatures wargame, set during the Second World War, created by game designer Richard Baker (RB), and produced by Wizards of the Coast (WotC). It is primarily intended for two players, one playing the Allies, and the other the Axis powers, although multiple players can play on each side. Each player creates a fleet of ships, submarines, and aircraft. Famous World War II vessels are represented by unique pre-painted plastic miniatures, each with a card listing historic facts and special in game abilities. The game was released by WotC from 2007-2011 and since has continued to be added to by players on the “Forumini” and “Shapeways” websites.
The iconic Axis and Allies (A&A) brand was created by Nova Game Designs in 1981 with the release of the strategy board game Axis and Allies. It was republished by the Milton Bradley Company in 1984 and has continued to inspire spinoff board games to this day. Over the last three decades Hasbro managed to acquire the smaller game making companies of Milton Bradley, Avalon Hill, and Wizards of the Coast and in 1999 A&A was transferred from Milton Bradley to Avalon Hill. By 2004 Hasbro transferred Avalon Hill to WotC, setting the stage for a new series of games.
After graduating with an English degree from Virginia Tech, L. Richard Baker III served in the United States Navy as a surface warfare officer from 1988-1991 and attained the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade. Rich was an avid player of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and upon returning to civilian life he was hired by Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) Inc. While there he wrote content for games, sourcebooks, and novels set in the world of D&D. TSR was acquired by WotC in 1997 and Rich continued to work on D&D under the new management. He also worked on helped design a number of fantasy, science fiction, and historical games.
In 2005 WotC released Axis and Allies Miniatures, a mostly 1/100 scale miniature war game focused on World War II ground combat. The game, despite drawing on A&A’s brand recognition and setting has little in common with the board game. It was a success and in 2006 it was announced that a naval miniatures spinoff would follow the original ground combat game, this time using 1/1800 for ships and 1/900 for squadrons of aircraft. From 2012-2013 a third variant, Axis & Allies Air Force Miniatures, released two sets of 31 1/100 scale aircraft which could be used independently or combined with the original ground combat game. The land game would run from 2005-2010 and release ten sets with a total of 508 miniatures with another two sets with a combined 110 units planned but ultimately canceled.
War at Sea was a 1976 Avalon Hill board game which focused on the Second World War at sea in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theaters. WotC took that name, the A&A brand, and the success of the original A&A Miniatures game and created a naval spinoff. Because of his naval background and game design experience Rich Baker was the main designer of WaS.
The first set, simply titled War at Sea, consisted of 64 units and was originally intended to be a standalone game. It was released on March 16th, 2007 and included iconic warships and aircraft from the UK, USA, France, Australia, Germany, Italy and Japan including Bismarck, Yamato, Enterprise, and Hood. Units were balanced against each other and sold in both randomized packs, each with a rare ship and four other units or in a Starter Set which initially contained nine randomized units, two double-sided battle map halves, six island cards, and eight six-sided dice.
The game was extremely well received thanks to its simple, non-simulation rules, and its durable, cheap, pre-painted, plastic waterline models. Lots of naval table top games exist, mostly complicated tactical simulations which represent ships with flat cardboard rectangles or expensive individually sold models that require assembly and painting. WaS filled a niche in the market for both a simple quick game, and for cheap ready to use pieces, even if they weren’t in a common scale.
No other game system in 2007 used 1/1800 scale with many using either 1/1200 or 1/2400 ships and it has become so popular that companies and individuals now sell models that size. Mongoose Publishing even created a competitor called Victory at Sea, using their A Call to Arms game system, and named after Avalon Hill’s original Pacific companion to War at Sea, released in 1977.
While the new Victory at Sea was being harshly critiqued by gamers for its simplicity WaS proved robust with both a quick play rules set, and a full rule set, plus many house rules adding complexity, while still featuring an easy to learn fast playing “beer and pretzels” base game. House rules are so common and so easy to incorporate that Richard Baker himself even released a set of more complex additions to the base rules on his blog.
On July 25, 2008 a second set was released. It was called Task Force and was comprised of 60 more models. It added Canadian and Dutch warships to the Allied roster and added the first arguably “fantasy” unit, the German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin. Although Graf Zeppelin was nearly completed during the war many consider it to not be historic because she was never commissioned and never received aircraft. They argue that Germany, a primarily submarine and land based aircraft military during the war, should not be given carriers just so they can have what everyone else had. This argument of historic accuracy versus achieving balance in the very unbalanced world of World War II naval combat would continue to persist throughout the games entire life.
Task Force also added the first duplicates like battleships Tirpitz, Missouri, and Musashi, sister ships of units released in Set 1, reprinted with a new paint scheme and new cards with new abilities to keep costs down. This new set began to obsolete some of the units from the first set which had been balanced against each other instead of receiving purely historical stats. For example the American cruiser Baltimore received torpedo protection, a Special Ability (SA) her design did not warrant which was used to make her competitive against the Japanese Long Lance Torpedo SA.
A year later, September 1, 2009 Flank Speed became the third set in the series. It featured 40 models, including for the first time Soviet and New Zealander warships. It also added another fantasy unit, the Italian carrier Aquila which also was never completed. Rich had doubled down against his critics’ complaints and given a carrier to another land based air power. Not everyone disagreed with his decision to try and achieve balance by adding so called fantasy units to the Axis powers. In reality they were badly outnumbered at sea, especially after 1943, and would not be able to compete with the depth of Allied navies without new units. Already the pool of Axis capitol ships was starting to dry up.
Six months later on March 16, 2010 the Revised War at Sea Starter Set was released. It wisely corrected the issue of earlier starter sets which contained random units and didn’t always allow players to start a game with just the started set. The 8 units included were primarily balanced against each other which caused the Japanese cruiser Haguro to be significantly under cost. Additionally the revised starter set included, 2 double-sided battle maps halves, 4 six-sided dice and a new rule book.
This new rulebook also helped the game greatly. As early as July 2007 the advanced rules had been periodically updated with a Clarifications Document. In addition to answering players questions about vague rules the clarifications also introduced new concepts such as antisubmarine warfare (ASW) harassment and strafing penalties for fighters which had not been present in the original rules. Since at least one unit of the Task Force expansion set directly referred to these new rules they were implicitly considered as part of the core ruleset, despite only having been published online prior to the revised manual. The revised manual maintained the original quick play rules but added and clarified to the full rule set.
Only three months later, on June 8, 2010 Condition Zebra, the fourth set, was released with 40 models. The reduced number of units reflected the dwindling number of capitol ships left to make. It also introduced Greek and Finnish warships to the Allies, and Axis respectively. The French carrier Bearn and the American battleship West Virginia were introduced in this set. Interestingly West Virginia’s model is of the ship in 1941, however her stat card has technical abilities that were not added to the ship until later in the war. This introduced the concept of giving a ship its earliest possible entry date but allowing it to abilities and weapons scores from any point in its career.
Six months later it was followed by Set V on December 7, 2010. This set was supposed to be referred to as Fleet Command but for whatever reason is the only set referred to by number instead of name. Set V added Poland to the Allies and added the first neutral nation, Sweden, whose units could be used by either side but were intended to help the outnumbered Axis, whom the Swedes had favored during the war. Interestingly this set only included 39 units and some people believe the British Seafire was supposed to be the fortieth piece. In reality it probably had more to do with how the molds of some units were paired with others to simplify production resulting in one fewer mold than earlier sets.
2010 had been a great year for WaS fans with two new sets, a new starter set, and revised rules all coming out within months of each other but Richard Baker suspected the game was finished. He was running low on new capitol ships, had to include fewer units, and was forced to adopt more duplicates of previous units, which was negatively impacting sales. Luckily despite printing less units sales remained good enough to justify another set.
Surface Action which again included 40 models was released on October 24, 2011. It introduced several new models as well as the nationless Shore Battery, a model based on Fort Drum, but not specifically named. It was the only unit in the game to not have an assigned national identity. Fort Drum was used by both the Axis and Allies during the war and this fact could have impacted the decision or it may simply have been that Baker didn’t think he’d get a chance to add another shore battery if this one was only playable by one side.
This set also was running so low on Axis capitol ships that for the first time it introduced reprints of already named ships, the so called “operational” variants of Rhenubung Bismarck and Sho-Go Yamato. These units don’t allow players to increase their capacity of Yamato or Bismarck class units above two but it does give them more options in picking a capitol ship. Each operational variant features an SA flavored by the operation depicted. While RB was using this as a way to extend the game it would later be used to fix some obsolete ships, such as the British battleship Hood which had a negative SA that made it nearly unplayable.
Encouraged by the continuation of the game so far Baker began working on a seventh set. He knew he wouldn’t get another after it so he added new models for many capitol ships which previously hadn’t made it into the game such as Lion and Shinano, as well as duplicates of units from large classes that had only been represented by a single model so far like New Orleans and South Dakota. Unfortunately the unnamed Set VII was not to be. Its likely 2012 release date was never announced because the game was cancelled.
On December 14, 2011, Richard Baker announced on his Wizards.com community page that Wizards of the Coast had eliminated his position and he would no longer be an employee of the company. He acknowledged the possibility that he would continue design work on the company's miniature lines on a freelance basis since the air combat game had just released and he still hoped Set VII would be made but it was not to be. By 2012 all three Axis and Allies Miniatures lines were cancelled. Interestingly A&A probably wasn’t the reason he was fired. WotC was cancelling D&D 4e which RB had worked on in favor for a revamped and much better received 5e.
This should have been the end of the game but WotC underestimated the market for WaS’ simple rules, and cheap pre-painted miniatures. On at least two online forums, Seas Ablaze and Forumini, players continued to play the game, making trades, discussing the rules, creating scenarios, scheduling in person meetups and online matches and eventually evolving the game itself.
From 2012 on, sometimes with input from Richard Baker, members of the Forumini forum formed teams to make the “Sea Gods” decks. Team Poseidon, Neptune, Ægir, Kraken, and Ryujin, each designed and printed 72 new cards. Where the WotC decks were numbered 1-6 these were lettered A-E. Called First Strike, Infamy, Battle Line, and All Hands on Deck, and Action Stations they added more variety, helped address balance issues, used the operational variants to re-stat some mis-statted units, and added all new classes of ships, sometimes “fantasy” units. As of the February 2019 the Forumini is working on Deck F.
Helping this expansion of the game beyond its cancellation was the rise of cheap 3D printed models by sites like Shapeways. Where before no models had existed in 1/1800 scale except for WaS ships, now CAD designers could draw and cheaply print models. In this way both units which WotC never made and cheaper alternatives to their units which only rose in price following the game’s cancellation allowed the game to enjoy a second wind.
New models and cards weren’t the only aftermarket parts that came out. The purchasing power of the Forumini community created a cottage industry that allowed the game to continue growing. In fact the Forumini has allowed players to enjoy the game without ever purchasing a WotC item thanks to cards and rules being made available to download for free, miniatures available from Shapeways, and game piece companies making better replacements for counters, bases for the models, and more durable maps.
The first 3 decks, A, B, and C were closed development teams. For D the forum attempted to get more or its dwindling population involved by having an open development process with players voting in units and helping stat them and apply SA’s. For this reason, Set D, created by team Kraken is often cited as being poorly developed and many players find issue with the deck, going so far as to leave the community, ban certain units, or ban the entire deck from play.
Part of the issue was different factions wanted the same unit for different reasons. The German battleship Scharnhorst for example was voted in by a coalition of players who either wanted a more usable version of that card or wanted an incomplete variant of the class with larger guns. This coalition was able ram the unit into development, then turned on itself with contributors then voting for the “fantasy” variant against the desires of the majority.
The greatest flaw of making Deck D a total democracy was that members voted in more of the dwindling pool of capitol ships than should have been allowed, thus cutting the lifespan of the game. Even accounting for units which were never completed there are a finite number of warships that existed during World War II. Another way this development process limited the lifespan of the game was that cantankerous debates during the design process drove players away from the forum.
Around this time the Seas Ablaze deck, another community project on the now derelict forum of that name was printed along with a number of decks which had been created by dedicated individuals. Many of these decks involved re-statting early WotC cards or creating new units which became the prototypes of the team deck cards.
In early 2017 Team Ryujin began development of Deck E, Called Action Stations. This time around a better balance of community and team involvement created a more balanced deck. Community members were able to vote for about half of the units and the team filled in many of the smaller units to balance out the set list. Despite all of these advances earned from hard won experience a lack of community support in the form of playtesting and some developers dropping out for prolonged periods of time slowed the design process for this deck. It took a full year to develop and didn’t go on sale until March 2018.
A further complication during the development of Deck E was the change in ownership of the host server for the Forumini. With no idea what the transfer would mean for cost and previously created content the Forumini moved to a new host. Many important posts were copied and transferred over but membership and more importantly participation on the new forum doesn’t come close to equaling what it was before. The confusion and uncertainty of the move combined with the old Forumini still existing in a derelict state have only added to the decline of the game.
Immediately following the release of Action Stations and a shake up among the development team voting began on the set list for Set F. It involved less community input in choosing units, indeed relatively few daily active users remained outside of the development team. Development of this deck continues slowly but it will likely be the last of its type made. Discussions still rage on whether members should pack up and go home, work on a new starter set to get more people involved, or add to the game by creating something new like crew and upgrade card similar to the popular miniatures games based in the Star Wars universe like X-Wing.
Whatever the future holds, the Forumini, supported by designers on Shapeways, created more cards over a longer period of time than Richard Baker managed to put out in his original game. This extended the life of the game far beyond what should have been possible. The market for cheap pre-painted miniature warships and a simple easy to modify system has proven to be so extraordinary that second hand units can be worth over $50 now. Even though online participation in the game is fading the models and rules will stay relevant for the gaming community a very long time.
Hey guys, I’ve been meaning to write a history of WaS to help new community members catch up on the lore and history of our community since I first joined. Could you guys look it over and correct me where my understanding is wrong and fill in some areas where I could include more information etc.? I think it will make participating on the forum less intimidating for new members if they can take the crash course on who we are, where we came from, and what we do.
The History of Axis and Allies: War at Sea
Axis and Allies Naval Miniatures: War at Sea (WaS) is a standalone collectible card and miniatures wargame, set during the Second World War, created by game designer Richard Baker (RB), and produced by Wizards of the Coast (WotC). It is primarily intended for two players, one playing the Allies, and the other the Axis powers, although multiple players can play on each side. Each player creates a fleet of ships, submarines, and aircraft. Famous World War II vessels are represented by unique pre-painted plastic miniatures, each with a card listing historic facts and special in game abilities. The game was released by WotC from 2007-2011 and since has continued to be added to by players on the “Forumini” and “Shapeways” websites.
The iconic Axis and Allies (A&A) brand was created by Nova Game Designs in 1981 with the release of the strategy board game Axis and Allies. It was republished by the Milton Bradley Company in 1984 and has continued to inspire spinoff board games to this day. Over the last three decades Hasbro managed to acquire the smaller game making companies of Milton Bradley, Avalon Hill, and Wizards of the Coast and in 1999 A&A was transferred from Milton Bradley to Avalon Hill. By 2004 Hasbro transferred Avalon Hill to WotC, setting the stage for a new series of games.
After graduating with an English degree from Virginia Tech, L. Richard Baker III served in the United States Navy as a surface warfare officer from 1988-1991 and attained the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade. Rich was an avid player of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and upon returning to civilian life he was hired by Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) Inc. While there he wrote content for games, sourcebooks, and novels set in the world of D&D. TSR was acquired by WotC in 1997 and Rich continued to work on D&D under the new management. He also worked on helped design a number of fantasy, science fiction, and historical games.
In 2005 WotC released Axis and Allies Miniatures, a mostly 1/100 scale miniature war game focused on World War II ground combat. The game, despite drawing on A&A’s brand recognition and setting has little in common with the board game. It was a success and in 2006 it was announced that a naval miniatures spinoff would follow the original ground combat game, this time using 1/1800 for ships and 1/900 for squadrons of aircraft. From 2012-2013 a third variant, Axis & Allies Air Force Miniatures, released two sets of 31 1/100 scale aircraft which could be used independently or combined with the original ground combat game. The land game would run from 2005-2010 and release ten sets with a total of 508 miniatures with another two sets with a combined 110 units planned but ultimately canceled.
War at Sea was a 1976 Avalon Hill board game which focused on the Second World War at sea in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theaters. WotC took that name, the A&A brand, and the success of the original A&A Miniatures game and created a naval spinoff. Because of his naval background and game design experience Rich Baker was the main designer of WaS.
The first set, simply titled War at Sea, consisted of 64 units and was originally intended to be a standalone game. It was released on March 16th, 2007 and included iconic warships and aircraft from the UK, USA, France, Australia, Germany, Italy and Japan including Bismarck, Yamato, Enterprise, and Hood. Units were balanced against each other and sold in both randomized packs, each with a rare ship and four other units or in a Starter Set which initially contained nine randomized units, two double-sided battle map halves, six island cards, and eight six-sided dice.
The game was extremely well received thanks to its simple, non-simulation rules, and its durable, cheap, pre-painted, plastic waterline models. Lots of naval table top games exist, mostly complicated tactical simulations which represent ships with flat cardboard rectangles or expensive individually sold models that require assembly and painting. WaS filled a niche in the market for both a simple quick game, and for cheap ready to use pieces, even if they weren’t in a common scale.
No other game system in 2007 used 1/1800 scale with many using either 1/1200 or 1/2400 ships and it has become so popular that companies and individuals now sell models that size. Mongoose Publishing even created a competitor called Victory at Sea, using their A Call to Arms game system, and named after Avalon Hill’s original Pacific companion to War at Sea, released in 1977.
While the new Victory at Sea was being harshly critiqued by gamers for its simplicity WaS proved robust with both a quick play rules set, and a full rule set, plus many house rules adding complexity, while still featuring an easy to learn fast playing “beer and pretzels” base game. House rules are so common and so easy to incorporate that Richard Baker himself even released a set of more complex additions to the base rules on his blog.
On July 25, 2008 a second set was released. It was called Task Force and was comprised of 60 more models. It added Canadian and Dutch warships to the Allied roster and added the first arguably “fantasy” unit, the German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin. Although Graf Zeppelin was nearly completed during the war many consider it to not be historic because she was never commissioned and never received aircraft. They argue that Germany, a primarily submarine and land based aircraft military during the war, should not be given carriers just so they can have what everyone else had. This argument of historic accuracy versus achieving balance in the very unbalanced world of World War II naval combat would continue to persist throughout the games entire life.
Task Force also added the first duplicates like battleships Tirpitz, Missouri, and Musashi, sister ships of units released in Set 1, reprinted with a new paint scheme and new cards with new abilities to keep costs down. This new set began to obsolete some of the units from the first set which had been balanced against each other instead of receiving purely historical stats. For example the American cruiser Baltimore received torpedo protection, a Special Ability (SA) her design did not warrant which was used to make her competitive against the Japanese Long Lance Torpedo SA.
A year later, September 1, 2009 Flank Speed became the third set in the series. It featured 40 models, including for the first time Soviet and New Zealander warships. It also added another fantasy unit, the Italian carrier Aquila which also was never completed. Rich had doubled down against his critics’ complaints and given a carrier to another land based air power. Not everyone disagreed with his decision to try and achieve balance by adding so called fantasy units to the Axis powers. In reality they were badly outnumbered at sea, especially after 1943, and would not be able to compete with the depth of Allied navies without new units. Already the pool of Axis capitol ships was starting to dry up.
Six months later on March 16, 2010 the Revised War at Sea Starter Set was released. It wisely corrected the issue of earlier starter sets which contained random units and didn’t always allow players to start a game with just the started set. The 8 units included were primarily balanced against each other which caused the Japanese cruiser Haguro to be significantly under cost. Additionally the revised starter set included, 2 double-sided battle maps halves, 4 six-sided dice and a new rule book.
This new rulebook also helped the game greatly. As early as July 2007 the advanced rules had been periodically updated with a Clarifications Document. In addition to answering players questions about vague rules the clarifications also introduced new concepts such as antisubmarine warfare (ASW) harassment and strafing penalties for fighters which had not been present in the original rules. Since at least one unit of the Task Force expansion set directly referred to these new rules they were implicitly considered as part of the core ruleset, despite only having been published online prior to the revised manual. The revised manual maintained the original quick play rules but added and clarified to the full rule set.
Only three months later, on June 8, 2010 Condition Zebra, the fourth set, was released with 40 models. The reduced number of units reflected the dwindling number of capitol ships left to make. It also introduced Greek and Finnish warships to the Allies, and Axis respectively. The French carrier Bearn and the American battleship West Virginia were introduced in this set. Interestingly West Virginia’s model is of the ship in 1941, however her stat card has technical abilities that were not added to the ship until later in the war. This introduced the concept of giving a ship its earliest possible entry date but allowing it to abilities and weapons scores from any point in its career.
Six months later it was followed by Set V on December 7, 2010. This set was supposed to be referred to as Fleet Command but for whatever reason is the only set referred to by number instead of name. Set V added Poland to the Allies and added the first neutral nation, Sweden, whose units could be used by either side but were intended to help the outnumbered Axis, whom the Swedes had favored during the war. Interestingly this set only included 39 units and some people believe the British Seafire was supposed to be the fortieth piece. In reality it probably had more to do with how the molds of some units were paired with others to simplify production resulting in one fewer mold than earlier sets.
2010 had been a great year for WaS fans with two new sets, a new starter set, and revised rules all coming out within months of each other but Richard Baker suspected the game was finished. He was running low on new capitol ships, had to include fewer units, and was forced to adopt more duplicates of previous units, which was negatively impacting sales. Luckily despite printing less units sales remained good enough to justify another set.
Surface Action which again included 40 models was released on October 24, 2011. It introduced several new models as well as the nationless Shore Battery, a model based on Fort Drum, but not specifically named. It was the only unit in the game to not have an assigned national identity. Fort Drum was used by both the Axis and Allies during the war and this fact could have impacted the decision or it may simply have been that Baker didn’t think he’d get a chance to add another shore battery if this one was only playable by one side.
This set also was running so low on Axis capitol ships that for the first time it introduced reprints of already named ships, the so called “operational” variants of Rhenubung Bismarck and Sho-Go Yamato. These units don’t allow players to increase their capacity of Yamato or Bismarck class units above two but it does give them more options in picking a capitol ship. Each operational variant features an SA flavored by the operation depicted. While RB was using this as a way to extend the game it would later be used to fix some obsolete ships, such as the British battleship Hood which had a negative SA that made it nearly unplayable.
Encouraged by the continuation of the game so far Baker began working on a seventh set. He knew he wouldn’t get another after it so he added new models for many capitol ships which previously hadn’t made it into the game such as Lion and Shinano, as well as duplicates of units from large classes that had only been represented by a single model so far like New Orleans and South Dakota. Unfortunately the unnamed Set VII was not to be. Its likely 2012 release date was never announced because the game was cancelled.
On December 14, 2011, Richard Baker announced on his Wizards.com community page that Wizards of the Coast had eliminated his position and he would no longer be an employee of the company. He acknowledged the possibility that he would continue design work on the company's miniature lines on a freelance basis since the air combat game had just released and he still hoped Set VII would be made but it was not to be. By 2012 all three Axis and Allies Miniatures lines were cancelled. Interestingly A&A probably wasn’t the reason he was fired. WotC was cancelling D&D 4e which RB had worked on in favor for a revamped and much better received 5e.
This should have been the end of the game but WotC underestimated the market for WaS’ simple rules, and cheap pre-painted miniatures. On at least two online forums, Seas Ablaze and Forumini, players continued to play the game, making trades, discussing the rules, creating scenarios, scheduling in person meetups and online matches and eventually evolving the game itself.
From 2012 on, sometimes with input from Richard Baker, members of the Forumini forum formed teams to make the “Sea Gods” decks. Team Poseidon, Neptune, Ægir, Kraken, and Ryujin, each designed and printed 72 new cards. Where the WotC decks were numbered 1-6 these were lettered A-E. Called First Strike, Infamy, Battle Line, and All Hands on Deck, and Action Stations they added more variety, helped address balance issues, used the operational variants to re-stat some mis-statted units, and added all new classes of ships, sometimes “fantasy” units. As of the February 2019 the Forumini is working on Deck F.
Helping this expansion of the game beyond its cancellation was the rise of cheap 3D printed models by sites like Shapeways. Where before no models had existed in 1/1800 scale except for WaS ships, now CAD designers could draw and cheaply print models. In this way both units which WotC never made and cheaper alternatives to their units which only rose in price following the game’s cancellation allowed the game to enjoy a second wind.
New models and cards weren’t the only aftermarket parts that came out. The purchasing power of the Forumini community created a cottage industry that allowed the game to continue growing. In fact the Forumini has allowed players to enjoy the game without ever purchasing a WotC item thanks to cards and rules being made available to download for free, miniatures available from Shapeways, and game piece companies making better replacements for counters, bases for the models, and more durable maps.
The first 3 decks, A, B, and C were closed development teams. For D the forum attempted to get more or its dwindling population involved by having an open development process with players voting in units and helping stat them and apply SA’s. For this reason, Set D, created by team Kraken is often cited as being poorly developed and many players find issue with the deck, going so far as to leave the community, ban certain units, or ban the entire deck from play.
Part of the issue was different factions wanted the same unit for different reasons. The German battleship Scharnhorst for example was voted in by a coalition of players who either wanted a more usable version of that card or wanted an incomplete variant of the class with larger guns. This coalition was able ram the unit into development, then turned on itself with contributors then voting for the “fantasy” variant against the desires of the majority.
The greatest flaw of making Deck D a total democracy was that members voted in more of the dwindling pool of capitol ships than should have been allowed, thus cutting the lifespan of the game. Even accounting for units which were never completed there are a finite number of warships that existed during World War II. Another way this development process limited the lifespan of the game was that cantankerous debates during the design process drove players away from the forum.
Around this time the Seas Ablaze deck, another community project on the now derelict forum of that name was printed along with a number of decks which had been created by dedicated individuals. Many of these decks involved re-statting early WotC cards or creating new units which became the prototypes of the team deck cards.
In early 2017 Team Ryujin began development of Deck E, Called Action Stations. This time around a better balance of community and team involvement created a more balanced deck. Community members were able to vote for about half of the units and the team filled in many of the smaller units to balance out the set list. Despite all of these advances earned from hard won experience a lack of community support in the form of playtesting and some developers dropping out for prolonged periods of time slowed the design process for this deck. It took a full year to develop and didn’t go on sale until March 2018.
A further complication during the development of Deck E was the change in ownership of the host server for the Forumini. With no idea what the transfer would mean for cost and previously created content the Forumini moved to a new host. Many important posts were copied and transferred over but membership and more importantly participation on the new forum doesn’t come close to equaling what it was before. The confusion and uncertainty of the move combined with the old Forumini still existing in a derelict state have only added to the decline of the game.
Immediately following the release of Action Stations and a shake up among the development team voting began on the set list for Set F. It involved less community input in choosing units, indeed relatively few daily active users remained outside of the development team. Development of this deck continues slowly but it will likely be the last of its type made. Discussions still rage on whether members should pack up and go home, work on a new starter set to get more people involved, or add to the game by creating something new like crew and upgrade card similar to the popular miniatures games based in the Star Wars universe like X-Wing.
Whatever the future holds, the Forumini, supported by designers on Shapeways, created more cards over a longer period of time than Richard Baker managed to put out in his original game. This extended the life of the game far beyond what should have been possible. The market for cheap pre-painted miniature warships and a simple easy to modify system has proven to be so extraordinary that second hand units can be worth over $50 now. Even though online participation in the game is fading the models and rules will stay relevant for the gaming community a very long time.
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