Prussian Empire Naval – Review

Welcome to a miniature review for the Dystopian Wars from the chaps at Spartan Games.

Today I shall be looking at the naval starter fleet for the Prussian Empire.

As always there shall be lots of pictures and not much else as my talking distracts from the miniatures

What’s in the box

So after ripping apart the nicely presented box (it didn’t survive for a picture) we get to look at the standard content for all Naval starter sets which is 1x Battleship, 3x Cruisers, 9x Frigates, 2x Bombers and 10x tiny flyer tokens. Plus the usual token sheets that are very much-needed in the game.

Fine looking resin/metal bits and pieces

The tokens and templates are a very good.

Initial thoughts and info

Now for those of you who have not seen these kits before let me explain some bits and pieces.

The card tokens are of a high quality and are very much-needed in the game. I could be picky and mention perforated tokens (like many board games) would have been much nicer instead of me using scissors/knife and messing it up especially for the round templates and the turning templates.

Now for the miniatures they bulk of which are in resin, I can only say it is pretty similar stuff to what you may see from a Forge World miniature.

Whatever it is though it must be high-grade as the level of detail on these are stunning. Literally I have never seen detail this small and this well executed from any other company maybe it is the scale that really does give it the wow factor (huge ships tiny windows/stairs) and others just don’t bother with the detail as small. You can see it across the range as you shall see in future reviews. You will not be disappointed that I can tell you right now.

The extra pieces such as the bombers and the turrets are all done in metal. This is understandable as the turrets would be so brittle as resin as would the bomber wings so again all understandable although it is a shame as the bombers do not have as much detail as the ships do.

Tiny Flyer Tokens

First up the tiny tokens;

As you can see they look pretty good with little clean up needed just the odd bit of resin here and there. The flyers themselves look pretty good and for those who love painting really small things think of the detail you could do although set to see individual numbers on the tails (there is a challenge for you).

Frigates

Next up the Frigates;

As hopefully you can see SG are pretty good with their techniques as that is 9 identical ships so big tick from me and with no cleaning up needed.

As you can see from the close the detailing is very nice yet in some ways relatively plain and simple such as the rivets on the hull. While certainly not necessary during the game I ask anyone to pick one of these up and not go wow.

Cruisers

Now for the cruisers;

The bigger ships begin to sure the real stream-lined feel of the PE fleet and again make for even greater levels of detail with broadsides and little extras like the ‘radar’ antenna on the bridge section.

The finished miniature with turret added really helps give the idea of some big guns being involved and who doesn’t like big guns.

Battleship

Now for the big ‘un;

The battleship carries on where the cruisers left off e.g. streamlined nice detailing BUT absolutely covered in guns

I like how SG have kept the feel of the fleet across the board,  these things feel like the hunters/sharks of the sea.

Again once fitted out with the turrets and generators it finishes off the ship very nicely I particularity like the PE generators (not sure if shield or Tesla OR both).

Bomber

Finally the bombers;

I am unsure about the bombers and this is not a because of the excellence seen in the resin miniatures. The design of it does not work well with the sharkiness of the ships and I am a touch disappointed.

Final thoughts

Overall you will not be disappointed by these kits and at the price they are sold for are an amazing way to get into DW. Yes the bombers are the weakest miniature in my opinion within the box but that is a small price to pay for some of DW sleekest ships (which would not look out of place in some WW2 naval games).