With 2018 well and truly underway, its time for my next round of Naval Gaming predictions! As with my predictions in previous years, I am writing these without any inside knowledge. The accuracy of my 2017 predictions was officially Not Great, so hopefully I do better this year!

MajorMicNicol’s UCM Osaka Light Cruiser Group

Predictions

1. Warcradle will successfully re-launch Uncharted Seas and Dystopian Wars This Year

Based on the discussions Warcradle (WC) has had with the community, a few things seem pretty clear. First, WC’s plans go far beyond simply recycling the existing games and models. Second, the company appears to be putting serious resources into the development of  necessary resources into the development. And finally, based on statements WC has made and the concept art it has shown so far, it looks like Uncharted Seas and Dystopian Wars are first up in the queue. I’m keeping my fingers crossed we’ll see the fruits of these efforts this year!

2. The beta for Firestorm Armada will not start in 2018, and will get moved to 2019

WC has hinted that they are targeting late 2018 for a beta-release of the next edition of FSA. However, in light of my first prediction, I suspect that FSA will end up getting bumped into 2019 by DW and US. That suspicion was only re-enforced by the most recent episode of the Hub Systems podcast, where Stuart from WC mentioned that they are working with sci-fi authors to re-work the background for FSA. That’s really exciting news, but I do think that this process will probably take enough time that WC won’t be ready to start the beta process until 2019. I could be wrong, though!

3. Star Wars Armada Will Have A Successful Year, With 3 Waves of Releases

As new releases go, 2017 was a bit of an off-year for Star Wars Armada (SWA). There was only a single wave of releases in 2017; a second wave was planned for late in the year, but that has been delayed to this year. Given that the game appears to have a considerable amount of popularity (based on how many places I see it on sale at), I suspect that there will be another couple of waves coming this year. Combined with the wave delayed from 2017, and I think this could be a big year for SWA!

4. Dropfleet Commander Will Grow in Popularity in 2018

As I mentioned in my 2017 Prediction Results post, DFC seemed to lose a bit of momentum in 2017. The sale of Hawk to TTCombat towards the end of the year gives me hope that some fresh energy will be brought to the game. What I’m specifically looking for in this case in an enlarged event presence, new releases, and  the like.

5. The 2 New Expansions for Star Trek Ascendancy Will Release On Time

After lots of trials and tribal-ations, Gale Force 9 (GF9) has finally managed to get a solid set of expansions out the door for Star Trek Ascendancy in 2017. These were delayed by basically a year by supply chain issues. Late in December, GF9 announced that the next two expansions will be the Vulcans and the Andorians. I’m going to keep my fingers crossed and say that they will arrive this year, perhaps around the time of Gencon!

6. World of Warships Will See a Carrier Re-Vamp, And a RN Carrier Line

WoWS came a long way in 2017, but if there is still a glaring issue with the game it is probably the fact that there is wide-spread discontent among the playerbase about how carriers work. Wargaming has long promised a revamped interface for carriers and other major overhauls, and I think that 2018 will be the year these changes finally come through. As part of this prediction, I’m also including the release of the RN carrier line. Of all the major naval powers represented in the game, it was only the USN, Japan, and the RN that had a significant carrier force. We already have the USN and IJN carrier lines, which makes an RN line the next logical step, and would be a good thing to bring in along with revamped carrier mechanics in my opinion.

And there you have it! We will see  how I do at the end of the year. Until next time….