ShadowSea – Conquest of the Underground World Version 2.5
hardcover version
Battle to conquer a lost underground world full of ethereal magic and ancient artifacts! Players can choose from different distinct forces, human pirates and fortune hunters, dragon-men, amazonian sorceresses with savage beastmen, and others. Games are played with small sides so players do not need to invest in massive armies, just specialized warbands of personality characters and troops, and battles can be played in an hour. Take your forces into fungal forest, crumbling ruins, and dinosaur filled jungles in campaigns of multiple scenarios where each member of a warband can gain advancements as they win battles and gather treasure. But beware of wild creatures, as they have their own AI rules that allow them to hunt any model on the board. The book comes complete with all of the core rules as well as descriptions of all weapons, armor, tech artifacts, magic and special abilities for all characters and has the roster for the main forces as well as all wild creatures. In addition, the book includes a section detailing the different environments that players can explore and do battle within and descriptions of all of the different terrain types that can be encountered. Finally, there is a complete toolkit in the back that shows how to build your own custom characters or edit existing ones using a simple point calculation system.
– RULES BASED ON AWARD-WINNING SONG OF BLADES AND HEROES by Ganesha Games but with extensive additional rules, weapons, armor, technology items (akin to magic items) and new combat and movement options. ShadowSea include a detailed combat system that allows for targeting different body parts or subsystems. The activation system allows players to choose a basic free action or gamble on rolling dice for more complex actions. Game cards for miniatures are tarot sized (4.75 by 2.75 inch), giving room to include all of the descriptions of Special Abilities, Weapons, Armor and Tech Items. This means much less referencing the rulebook and faster gameplay for all. Sets of game cards can be downloaded in PDF format in the Download section of the website.
– 3D GAMEPLAY: In ShadowSea, the game a distinct three-dimensional feel with models able to climb terrain, leap across open areas and push or break scenic items. Models can also swim underwater or do battle upon boats in the Shadow Sea. The game is 100% compatible with DeepWars, so players can have full land-sea battles.
– INTENSE COMBAT, MAGIC AND TECHNOLOGY in the underground realm. Spellcasters can wield multiple magical spell types, including dimensional magic that allows unsavory spellcasters to call forth beings from the ethereal void. Scientists can discover artifacts with tremendous power or design and improve upon their own ether technology to upgrade and create new items.
– SKIRMISH WITH RPG FLAVOR: Combination of 28mm scale miniature tabletop wargame with campaign advancement and a role-playing flavor. The game can be played in single sessions of an hour, or as a campaign where warbands salvage ancient technology, design their own new tech items, enhance abilities and generally become powerful lords of the deep.
– TOURNAMENT RULES – The rulebook has an entire section on running tournaments, complete with scoring and timekeeping, as well as new Special Operations that each player gets for a scenario. The Spec-Ops are special missions that a warband can accomplish during a scenario to gain bonus Victory Points.
– BONUS PAINTING GUIDE – The hardcover version includes a painting guide showing how to paint the Leviathan miniature for the Dark Mariners using washes and glazes.
ShadowSea has many features that make it a flexible gaming system that is perfect for beginners but deep enough for experienced gamers.
- SIMPLE RULES that can be learned in one game, using 6-sided dice for rolls for combat, physical activities, spellcasting, using ancient technology or any other action during the game.
- FAST GAMES, lasting around an hour, with game models on each side alternating their turns of activation so that all players can stay in the flow of the game.
- SMALL WARBANDS of 4-8 models, so that anyone can have a warband destined for glory without spending a fortune.
- EASY MOVEMENT rules based on three measurement sticks.
- TABLETOP PLAY allows players to build a map on any 1 meter-square surface without the need for a grid. Just add scenery and start the game.
- LITTLE TO NO BOOKKEEPING! The models in a warband are represented by a basic block of two statistics and a few special abilities. Game cards come with miniatures so players have all of their abilities and rules in their hand,
- MAGIC AND TECHNOLOGY interweave in the Underlands. Warbands may battle using arcane magical spells or ancient technological weapons in the mysterious underground realm.
- ACTION BASED GAMEPLAY means that models have many choices of actions besides simply whacking each other across the skull. Leap chasms, climb pillars, break through walls, set explosives or try something unexpected.
- SIX COMPLETE FORCES battle in their quest for ancient artifacts. Over 300 heroes, fiends, wild creatures, ethereal demons, ancient mechanical constructs and stygian monsters.