From Curt: Thalassa: 6mm Ancient Greek Naval Warfare (ships n' stuff) (85 Points)

I saved this entry for our last Wednesday (and our last day) as I wanted the chance to wind Greg up. I say this as I know he absolutely looooves naval entries. Sorry my friend, you'll have to grin and bear it for a few paragraphs at least. ;)

Last spring I came across 'Thalassa' while spelunking through 'Wargames Illustrated Online' and MyMiniFactory looking for, you know, useless cool stuff which demands storage to keep and brain cells to learn. 

'Thalassa' is 1:1 game set in the Hellenistic age of Greek naval warfare. It's historical(ish), but does make some allowances for more 'heroic' combat and leans heavily to a 'Sword & Sandals' type of cinematic game. One unique aspect of 'Thalassa' is that all of the models, dice, tokens etc. are available as 3d prints. They are all beautifully done (1:300 scale), very robust. and quite easy to paint (though admittedly one can get a bit lost in the detail). Last spring I printed off a handful of ships, painted them up and put together two small forces for a rousing game with the boys. I then packed them up and moved on to, you know, the Next Big Thing. 

Fast forward several months, and just before the beginning of the Challenge I noticed that there were a few new ship designs put on offer and thought I'd use it as an excuse to platform the game and add a few more hulls to my collection.

So first up are two triremes with thei very recognizable silhouettes. One is a 'Protos' design and the other a 'Ischyros'. Yeah, I dunno, it's all Middle Sea lingo to me. 

These are the classic Mediterranean 'battleships' of the 4 and 5th centuries CE. The level of crafting and technology packed into these vessels would have likened them to a spacecraft to a lay person of that time. Very impressive.

'Thallasa' allows players to customize the type and specializations of the ship's crew. Archers, hoplites, marines, various types of engines of war are all on offer. You just make your selection, pay your points and then 'slot' them into place on the hull. Fun!

You can also modify the hull with various figureheads, upper command decks, shrines, armoured skirting, etc. It's all pretty neat. 

Next up are the smaller-class ships, the Penteconters. One is a 'Tolmiros' design while the other is a 'Grigora'. 

These are the workhorses of the fleets. The vessels which carried the Greeks to Troy and which were crewed by Odysseus and the Argonauts during their Odyssey.  Nimble and quick, they are quite fun on the tabletop, though they can't take too much abuse when compared to their much larger tri-decked cousins. 

I magnetized the sails and masts so they are easy to store and are not so prone to break during play.

Finally we have a siege barge with a huge stone-throwing ballista on its center deck. It's very much a specialist vessel - a glass cannon with one purpose in-mind. 

Still, a very cool model with its top-heavy armament and supporting crane. Fun!

Finally, and not for points, here are two sets of wreckage markers I did up for the game.

One set is meant to depict when the enemy hull as just been split, with significant debris in the water, while the other is to show when some time has passed and most of the wreckage has sank into the deep.

As to points... In light of Greg's irrational-but-hilarious naval peccadillo, a part of me wants to nickel and dime each model for every measly point from every cast detail and burly crewman. But lets keep this simple and civil shall we?  I suggest that the larger triremes are equivalent in mass and complexity to a 28mm vehicle (20 points) whereas the smaller three vessels are not dissimilar to a 20mm vehicle (15 each). So 85 points in total. I hope this seems reasonable to you Greg, but I leave it to you for final adjudication.

I think I'll have one more entry before the close, but I'll have to get a wiggle on. 

See you at the finish line!

- Curt

***

Well, I suppose I should be relieved you are not pulling the usual "I'll claim an extra ten points because I painted this water specifically to represent salt water" sort of thing I have come to associate with all of this naval wargaming blarney!

My fully-rational views of naval types aside, this really is some tremendous painting, and the modular aspects of the models really drive home the tremendous potential offered by the combination of 3D prints and talented brush-holders such as yourself. As cool as the larger ships are, out of all of these, that bonkers one with the stone thrower on the middle of the deck takes the cake for me. I suspect the stakes are quite high when those fellows manage to find the range!

Tremendous work dude, and it is always an honour to "minion" one of your posts - even naval ones...thank you again for hosting and contributing to another wonderful Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge! 

GregB