Retro Recall: Man O’ War
April 23, 2019 by dracs
Long ago, in a mythical age known only as "the 90s", I was spending the evening at my gaming club when one of the old guard gamers came in with a stack of boxes under their arm. They were having a clear out and decided to give away some of their old Games Workshop boxed games.
I dug through these crumbling, ancient sets with the fascination of a young Indiana Jones discovering a relic. Suddenly, I was brought up short by some colourful art. The box showed orcs and dwarfs fighting ship to ship, while in the background naval war raged. The game's title was Man o' War.
I Ship It
Man o' War was one of Games Workshop's specialised games. Set in the world of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, it stepped away from the massed ranks and skirmishes of its parent games to show the clashes happening across the oceans of the Warhammer World.
Players took control of massive fleets of ships from the various factions fighting within the world, each with its own flavour and style.
Bretonia fielded massive galleons straight out of the Age of Exploration, while dwarfs ploughed through the waves on their steamships and submarines. High Elves had graceful ships, while their Dark Elf cousins could call up monsters from the depths to ride upon. Here also we saw the orcs demonstrating their... creative flare that they became known for in the universe of 40k.
It was this diversity that really called to me with this game. I was already heavily invested in the world of Warhammer by this point, but the ships of Man o' War showed me the cultural differences and beliefs of the different factions in a way the land battles didn't allow for.
Searching For Sunken Treasure
I took that starter box home with me. That weekend, while caravanning in Norfolk, myself and a friend of mine tried to puzzle the game out on the linoleum floor of the caravan kitchen.
Sadly, we never managed to get a game. This was largely my fault as, instead of leaning the rules, I found myself constantly distracted by the different snatches of background and illustrations of the various ships you could field.
The game was already long out of print by the time I got a hold of it, and the core set itself only provided very basic ships to learn to play with. However, I remember looking in every hobby store about me for a Dwarf Dreadnought, or a Dark Elf Doomreaver.
Man o' War leaves me in the odd place of being nostalgic for a game I have never actually played. I don't believe it would be far-fetched to say that this game is responsible for first sparking my interest in naval warfare and pirates, and left me wondering just what could lurk in the depths of the Warhammer seas.
Where Is It Now?
As with many of Games Workshop's specialist games, Man o' War sadly went the way of the dodo. It still maintains a popular following among gamers, but it is very difficult to find a game if you want to try.
Games Workshop did make one memorable attempt to feed the need for Man o' War with their boxed game Dreadfleet back in 2011, which were, coincidentally, some of the first videos I appeared in for Beasts of War.
Gah, I was so awkward!
However, Dreadfleet failed to meet the expectations of its forebear. True, the game brought us some cool characters and great ship models. But it was more board game than miniatures game, following set stories and scenarios with specific characters, rather than letting you field your own mighty fleet.
Man o' War also saw a surprising return in video game form with the launch of Man o' War: Corsair on Steam.
It's a game I have been curious to try, for its heritage alone, but I'll admit that what I've seen of it has left me feeling underwhelmed.
There have been rumours, however, that we might see a return of the game for the Age of Sigmar setting. In a world that includes factions like the Idonneth Deepkin, this would be really cool to see. While it might lose a lot of the character of its original, Age of Sigmar is such a broad setting that a naval combat game would undoubtedly lead to some imaginative ships and monsters.
Do you think an Age Of Sigmar Man o' War would work?
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I remember picking up this game when GW actually had a sale on…Shocker. They were getting rid of stock and the game was discontinued. I always wanted to use it in a campaign of mighty empires with mass battles and ship fights as well. Such grand dreams never happened. What I did with my st I have no idea.
Honestly,no.As a GW Specialist Games grognard,i want Man o’ War back as it was,with my chosen Empire fleet ruling my tabletop waves.
From memory the Elvish fleets were highly over powered compared to everyone else
that’s always the case when you let the knife ears play. I find it best to kill them at the outset to prevent any future issues
So why did they kill the dwarves in 40k and not those pointy eared dingbats ?
Avast!
A cracking article and trip down memory lane.
I loved playing this, I’d inadvertently chosen High Elves before I’d really got to grips with the game. Turns out they were totally broken, no range modifiers (good or bad) plus their range ruler went to 4 instead of 3, all other ships only had a range of 3. At range 3 all ships suffered a penalty for shooting, High Elves no penalty at any range even 4.
I remember seeing this game a lot on pages of 90’s WD that I used to read in library and it seemed interesting. How ever it was already dead game when I entered hobby so I never had chance to try it out myself. Besides one friend that I had that was into hobby didn’t have Man O’ War. It was same with original Necromunda so I hope that they do same as they did with that game and bring Man O’ War back with new version.
Loved this game, sold all my stuff years ago. As you would expect I now regret it.
My friend had the boxed game and I started collecting a Bretonnian fleet when it came out. Still have one of the ships in its box on the shelf. I remember it being a decent enough game. There was a flyers supplement, I think, and the Dwarfs had gyrocopters, Elves had dragon riders, Brets had Pegasus riders… or I am remembering my wishlist rather than what actually came out. The nurgle fleet was awesome. I’d love to see what they would do now with Kharadon Overlords and even if it didn’t include ships, a Age of Sigmar aerial battle game… Read more »
Man O’War brings back the worst memory of ever going in to a GW. I specifically went in (on a rainy day) to buy some dwarf ships. When I went in, there was a game going on so I stood to one side and just watched it (I didn’t say anything nor did I touch anything). After a little while I realised the staff were talking about me; so I went to go look for what I wanted to buy and they carried on with a sort of commentary of what I was doing right up until I went up… Read more »
WOW
I had manowar it was awesome. I had pirates, empire, chaos dwarves and dwarves. I painted them with my humbrol paints and often snapped off the masts sadly. I had lots of fun gaming with my brother.
Sadly it all went up in flames at my dad’s house.
I saw the guys on youtube channel Battlehammer playing out a game of it and it brought back great memories.
I used to love this game, although I mainly played it with cardboard counters I made myself. In fact, I’m not sure I bought any ships besides the basic ones that came in the main box. Although I did convert some of them into chaos ships with skull prows, etc.
I loved this game also… damn it was grand. ….sigh ….. Oh well at least Warcradle is talking about eventually re-releasing Uncharted Seas
Hope they do; might give me the motivation to finally get around to painting the Shroud Mages I snapped up in the Spartan clearance sale when they discontinued it.
Real nostalgia here. My local GW had a ‘grand-reopening’ so I headed down there with a book of discount vouchers and picked up random things but mostly Man-o-War. I remember the game being ok-ish but the shopping for it was awesome!
I loved Man o’ War when it came out. We couldn’t get enough of the variety and numbers of ships and fought numerous sea battles. Eventually we craved 28mm navies to go with our minis collections. Some of my friends had founded 7th Street Games (which would become Flagship Games) to write rules and cast big ships in resin. As much as I enjoyed that and for as many years as we played it (we still do to be honest) Man o’ War will always hold an important place in my heart.
not a fan, I thought it was a bag of bollocks, with piss poor game play and poor miniature sculpts
I’m afraid that MoW belongs in what was to me GW’s “decade that taste forgot”. The horrible “red period” painting, the oddly mal-proportioned early plastics and overly complex game mechanics reliant on reams of cards kept me well away from them. Uncharted Seas from Spartan was the game MoW should have been
Is this the same decade as the ‘Age of Goblin Green Bases’? 😉
Well, to be fair, Goblin Green bases were a thing before the red period – I think they began in the mid-80s – but they definitely reached their apogee in the ’90s!
The green bases thing is a throw back to the old Britain’s figures from many many years ago
This game was long gone by the time I got into the hobby, which is a shame as I think it’d have been nice to have a campaign that combined both this and regular Fantasy. Never got around to playing it’s spiritual successor Uncharted Seas either, although I took the opportunity to snap up a Shround Mage fleet when that game was discontinued and on clearance.
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Edit: forgot to say fun to see Young Sam and Warren; don’t worry @dracs , you’re not the only one that doesn’t like looking at old pics of them self. 😉
I have a dwarf fleet for ManOWar, good fun intro to naval wargaming though it does get a bit housekeeping heavy with counters and ship templates. I did start to stat up the ships to use in the excellent Osprey ‘Fighting Sail’set of rules. Blood Red Skies and Dragon/Lion Rampant players alike will find things familiar in the FS rules.. hmmm now where did I put those plastic pirate wargalleys??
The rules are a little clunky and they are definitely the 90’s feel to them. Games take forever,but it is still a lot of fun. But its been about 3 months since I played it.
I think the sculpts would be a amazing… so yes I think AoS Man O’ War is doable.
I don’t remember Man O War as I was a Sisters of Battle purist and had no care for fantasy outside of my RPGs. Looking at the models I think I’ll be fine waiting for Dystopian Wars and Oak and Iron for my navel battles
I loved Man O’War. I still own several beautifully painted fleets (Empire, Bretonnia, Orc, Dwarf, Chaos Dwarf, High Elf, Dark Elves, Norse and Pirates). It was cumbersome and clumsy at times but the flavor and emersion were second to none. Whilst ships fought in squadrons, there was the ability to individualize every ships crew, equipment and abilities. I doubt it would work in AoS if only because there are no oceans of significance like there were in the ‘World that was’. The oceans of the Old World were clear battlegrounds for each and every faction but in AoS you ‘Gate’… Read more »
There were 3 Man o’ War tables playing at Adepticon 2019!
Fantastic to hear it’s still getting that sort of attention.
The game was characterful in small games, but as soon as it got big the whole game became a nightmare in book keeping with all the various cards and counters.
I truly love Man O’ War. I started off via Space Crusade then WFB, but MoW was the first game system that just got under my skin. I think it was artwork and fluff that did it.
Dreadfleet was such a disappointment, for a second there I thought we were going to have a true sequel. I’m fairly pessimistic about an official reboot, but something running off a modded Battlefleet Gothic system would be great and I’d re-mortgage my house if there were new figures that were good / scale compatible.
Loved the game back then…no idea if the rules would hold up to what I would call a good game nowadays because its soooo lang ago we played I really can´t remember…but still the fond memory’s of fun battles remain 🙂