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. Some innovations were present, such as alternate unit activation.
Rules for another two types of Empire ship, a Dwarf "Dreadnought" and shore forts were also included to round out the Sea of Blood expansion.
Following the release of these supplements a series of articles which provided additional rules for Man O'War were published in issues the Citadel Journal. Number 6 (of the 2nd series) provided rules for an Undead fleet though no miniatures were ever modelled by Citadel.
Fleets
The Bretonnian fleet was modelled on ships of the 17th century while the Empire tended more towards the look of earlier time (the inverse of their land armies). The Empire had ships with both oars and sails with the exception of the "Great-Ship" which was sail only. The Empire also had ships that carried single large cannon or mortars. The Empire's flying units were Griffin riders.
Dwarf ships were steam powered ironclads, they also had submarines and balloons.
High Elf ships were fast manoeuvrable sail powered catamarans. By comparison Dark Elves mainly used great sea creatures as the basis for their "ships" - their largest ship, the "Black Ark" could house several monster-ships within for protection.
Orc ships tended towards the ramshackle and unorthodox, with large paddle driven hulks and inaccurate stone throwers as their sole armament.
Chaos Dwarf fleets consisted of various types of Battlebarge, each mounting a larger version of their tabletop artillery, the death rocket and Earthshaker.
Norse fleets were modelled on Viking longships and carried no weapons. To offset this, the Norse had a variety of specialist crew types such as Berserkers and Ulfwerener (werewolves) and excelled at performing boarding actions.
See also
The game was utilised as inspiration for the Games Workshop licensed naval warfare game Man O' War: Corsair by Evil Twin Artworks for the PC.
- Dreadfleet
- All at Sea (ruleset)
Reception
Chris McDonough reviewed Man O' War in White Wolf #35 (March/April, 1993), rating it a 5 out of 5 and stated that "Not many new games are as truly inspired and exciting as Game Workshop's Man O' War game. For all you GW fans out there, this one is a masterpiece."