Man O' War (game)

Man O' War

Raging Sea Battles in the World of Warhammer
Man O' War box art
Manufacturer(s)	Games Workshop
Designer(s)	Nigel Stillman, Bill King, Andy Jones,
Publisher(s)	Games Workshop
Years active	1993
Players	2+
Random chance	Dice rolling

Man O' War (sometimes also written as “Manowar”) is a now out-of-print table top war game by Games Workshop. The game was set in the same realm of Warhammer Fantasy as used for the Warhammer Fantasy Battle and included most of the factions from that setting. Other races of the Warhammer world were not included, either because they were lacking seafaring abilities (Wood Elves), missing from the main factions at that time (Ogres, Lizardmen), or both.

The game name coming from "Man-of-war", it dealt with the sea battles of the Warhammer world; each player controlling a fleet of model ships. The game typically used a small number of models with half a dozen to a dozen models per player. Each model had a corresponding template to record damage, crew levels, and outbreaks of fire, among other bookkeeping activities. In this regard, the game mechanics proved some limiting factors, even if innovations were present, like alternate unit activation.

Ships were designated as belonging to one of 3 categories. The largest and most powerful ships were the Men O' War (MOW). These command ships operated singularly and usually carried the fleet Admiral and Wizard (if available). Men O' War were the most powerful ships in the game and they could typically take heavy punishment before sinking. Ships of the Line (SOL) varied in size and firepower and were operated in squadrons of 3. One ship in the squadron was designated as a flagship and the other ships in the squadron had to stay within 6" of it to receive orders or else they would become stragglers and suffer various penalties. Independents (INDs) were similar to Men O' War in that they operated singly, but were much less powerful and tended to be unique in some way, making their classification as a SOL less appropriate.

By the time all the supplements had been published Man O' War supported the following fleets:

The boxed game included twelve plastic models (rowed galleys), sufficient to learn the basics of play in scenarios between "pirates" and "the Empire", but the other ships in the Empire's fleet and those for the other races were metal models. These came in small boxes rather than blister packs. Each box had the metal parts for the model ship (or ships - smaller ships came three to a box) and printed sails and flags with plastic masts (as applicable). These miniatures are now considered "out of print". The boxed game contained land features in the form of printed card shapes as well as the printed templates.