Black Seas: US Navy Starter Set

Ahoy there!

Last week I picked up the starter set for the new Black Seas game by Warlord Games. While there, the shop owner told me that the Americans were being released the next week and I got very excited. I just picked them up (with the help of a $25 store credit). Since not too many photos of the set itself has been released yet as I can tell, I wanted to venture into the world of “unboxing” and let you know what the set includes.

Pretty standard stuff to start with: flags, sails, cards, and a bobbin of thread for the rigging. Such items are found with just about every Black Seas starter set.

Also included are sprues for 6 brigs and 3 frigates. Again, pretty standard for these sets. But I'm constantly struck by how detailed these models are.

The real gems of this set are found in the bubble wrap, however!

Gunboats are significantly smaller and have less firepower than other ships in the game, but are nimble and are supposedly quite hard to hit. The hulls of three boats are cast in resin with metal sails to be installed later.

For the three frigates on the sprue, there are metal components with nameplates and figureheads to create three of the US Navy's "Original Six" ships: USS Chesapeake, USS Congress, and USS Constellation. The game's designer admitted that Constellation's nameplate is based on the second, slightly smaller sloop-of-war from 1854 (and currently a museum ship in Baltimore, Maryland). This was done to create a bit of variety. 

Then there are two resin "super frigates" in the set to make two more of the "Original Six" ships: USS United States and USS President! What really impressed me with these is that the hulls appear to be two different sculpts to represent the uniqueness of each ship.

USS President includes a figurehead of George Washington (I think) and is superbly detailed!

USS United States is similarly detailed.

This set exceeds all of my expectations and I can't wait to get started! The USS Constitution comes as its own set, so once that's acquired one can sail the Americans with pride on the tabletop!