Revised Ningjing Renders

[Ruckdog]

Warcradle has released some new renders of a revised design for the Celestial Empire Ningjing class battleship:









In addition to the changes made to the design, the fluff paragraph that accompanied these renders seems to point to the Ningjing being specifically Chinese in origin. Additionally, the Kaiju, the old EotBS heavy BB, has been confirmed to still exist in the new DA as well!

Here's an update on an exciting miniature coming for Dystopian Wars Third Edition later this year. The Ningjing Battleship for the Celestial Empire!

Though the Empire has endured in relative harmony for centuries following the Jade Pact, each of the Seven Emperors vies against the others for prestige and preeminence in all aspects of state.

For much of the Empire's existence, Empress Shinzua has held the honour of directing the Celestial Navy. She has excelled in this duty through each of her renewals and so has brought great prestige to the Japanese people in the arena of naval warfare.

The Ningjing Battlegroups are a declaration by Emperor Ming that the Chinese people are every bit as capable of contributing to the naval might of the Empire as their Japanese neighbours. Crewed by the finest sons and daughters of China, the hull of each Ningjing is blessed by the Emperor himself before launch.

When connected in the Dream, the topic of conversation between Shinzua and Ming seems to always drift back to how the Japanese Kaiju would fare against the Ningjing in battle. While it remains pure speculation, the other five have placed wagers on what the result would be. Perhaps the matter should be settled...

[RuleBritannia]

Before I get depressed by the design that is really awful to paint, and the prow that looks better on the 1950s car, can I just say how utterly I dislike the idea of the 'Jade Pact' communicating with each via psychic dreams rather than steampunk radios.  WC do not get steampunk.

[markymark1970]

Before I get depressed by the design that is really awful to paint, and the prow that looks better on the 1950s car, can I just say how utterly I dislike the idea of the 'Jade Pact' communicating with each via psychic dreams rather than steampunk radios.  WC do not get steampunk.

Telepathy and stuff?  Uhg...  What's next?  Mutant boarding parties?  Sunfire and 19th century X-Men as the Empress's assassination squad?  I agree.  At least fluff does not have to mean anything unless you want it to.

I do kinda like the ship though, reverse Cadillac fins and all...

[Landlubber]

The Chinese Federation fleet from the original Dystopian Wars is probably my favorite from an aesthetic perspective. I was not really a fan of the first ship that Warcradle showed for the "Celestials" (a few months ago). This is much better, however I think the three giant turrets are incongruous with the rest of the design. They look too much like battleship guns from real-world US Navy WW2-era battleships.

I do like the massive dragon's head on the bow.

Will be interested to see where else they go with this fleet.

[RuleBritannia]

The other question I would ask of these WC designs is has anyone printed them off and painted them?  Because they look unnecessarily difficult.

[Rich1231]

Danny, it's starting to feel like whatever we do you will dislike. Almost to the point that the studio are briefed that if it upsets you they are probably on the right track.

[Ruckdog]

Before I get depressed by the design that is really awful to paint, and the prow that looks better on the 1950s car, can I just say how utterly I dislike the idea of the 'Jade Pact' communicating with each via psychic dreams rather than steampunk radios.  WC do not get steampunk.

Telepathy and stuff?  Uhg...  What's next?  Mutant boarding parties?  Sunfire and 19th century X-Men as the Empress's assassination squad?  I agree.  At least fluff does not have to mean anything unless you want it to.

I do kinda like the ship though, reverse Cadillac fins and all...

It's a small quibble, but I want to point out it's at least possible that the Dream is some kind of giant steam-powered VR device the various leaders of the Celestials plug themselves into each night to conference and plan, as opposed to some sort of mystic telepathy. It's hard to tell from a throw-away reference in a single line of fluff .

19th Century X-men sound kind of cool now that you mention it...

The other question I would ask of these WC designs is has anyone printed them off and painted them?  Because they look unnecessarily difficult.

Not sure I get the same vibe...what specifically is giving you concerns? To me, these renders look like they will hold up well to my usual prime/ink wash/drybrush techniques.

[RuleBritannia]

>Not sure I get the same vibe...what specifically is giving you concerns? To me, these renders look like they will hold up well to my usual prime/ink wash/drybrush techniques.

There are lots of hidden and recessed parts to the model that look hard to reach, such as between the engines, under the roof etc that make painting with a brush or spray can pretty difficult.  The American vessel with its cow catcher with receded elements and parts of the model hidden round a column looks difficult to reach.  That will make priming difficult as will dry brushing.  With the problem of the shallow decking on the new Ice Maiden, there just seems to be a problem of models that look great on the render but don't seem to be thought about as painted models, therefore I think that's something that needs to be considered carefully. 

[Ruckdog]

>Not sure I get the same vibe...what specifically is giving you concerns? To me, these renders look like they will hold up well to my usual prime/ink wash/drybrush techniques.

There are lots of hidden and recessed parts to the model that look hard to reach, such as between the engines, under the roof etc that make painting with a brush or spray can pretty difficult.  The American vessel with its cow catcher with receded elements and parts of the model hidden round a column looks difficult to reach.  That will make priming difficult as will dry brushing.  With the problem of the shallow decking on the new Ice Maiden, there just seems to be a problem of models that look great on the render but don't seem to be thought about as painted models, therefore I think that's something that needs to be considered carefully.

Interesting points. I'll have to take a closer look myself once my Ice Maiden arrives!

In the mean time, here is a detailed look on the changes to the new Ningjing and my thoughts:

http://www.manbattlestations.com/blog/2018/02/03/thoughts-on-the-revised-ningjing/

[RuleBritannia]

Ultimately whilst my comment, with the benefit of hindsight, came off ruder than I intended, I meant it as a perfectly logical one.  What looks great on the render might look as great with paint or be hard to reach.  Taking the time to test paint a model and consider it as a gaming piece is quite important part of the modelling process, and Spartan took time to make gaps relatively shallow, as black paint can make them look deeper.  Early Spartan models had this problem, the Tribal was really awkward to paint, but I noticed it less in later models.

[Landlubber]

There are lots of hidden and recessed parts to the model that look hard to reach, such as between the engines, under the roof etc that make painting with a brush or spray can pretty difficult.  The American vessel with its cow catcher with receded elements and parts of the model hidden round a column looks difficult to reach.  That will make priming difficult as will dry brushing.  With the problem of the shallow decking on the new Ice Maiden, there just seems to be a problem of models that look great on the render but don't seem to be thought about as painted models, therefore I think that's something that needs to be considered carefully.

I don’t think it’s any worse (from a painting difficulty perspective) than the Zhanmadao Dreadnought from the original Chinese Federation fleet. That thing is FULL of cracks and crevices, and will probably destroy paintbrushes in the dry brushing phase. I still haven’t worked up the courage to paint mine! 

That being said, for me anyway, I find that the harder the model is to paint, the greater my satisfaction when it’s done.

The fins on the back look good, reminiscent of a Chinese junk’s sails. Overall the ship looks more aggressive to me than the original Jian-class.

@Ruckdog, steam-powered VR, that’s awesome!

[Covertwalrus]

 While I'm not hating the design as such and frankly I admit some of the new ship's details make more sense as a ship in a Chinese Steampunk navy, it's the general direction that the design team are heading in that concerns me as a player. To directly quote Stuart -

 "I think it’s important to acknowledge that visually the game is going to embrace and evolve the more outlandish concepts from second edition Dystopian Wars rather than keeping it in the ‘could happen’ vibe of the first edition. So more iceberg ships and robot dragons and less WWI German battleships. Our design team, while respectful of influences and inspiration found in the real world, are much more stylistically led rather than continuing the pseudo-historical feel of what went on before. For some that means the designs are going to be going in a direction that is not for them. The ships of the Dystopian Age are not ships you would honestly expect to find in real life (with or without Stirginium), but as playing pieces in a war game we want to make sure they are visually distinctive and exciting. In that regard Dystopian Wars will have much more in common with the design philosophies behind sci-fi and fantasy games like Warmachine than historical games like Flames of War."

 ( Taken from the Facebook discussion where Stuart is moderator, so you can see it here ) Now, I'm all for a little outlandish in Steampunk . . . however the essence of the genre is what is plausible rather than just weird for weird 's sake. I think that direction is going to alienate the customer base of DW that WC was hoping or seemed to hope to drag into the WWX world.
 Does weird and bizarre sell better than plausibly strange? Hard to say . . . Warmachine certainly is popular, but that's because it's a good rules system above all else. And some companies are so huge and garner such fans  they could release a resin brick and have people buy dozens of them, provided the brick had enough wolves and skulls on it

 But I shall wait and see further plans.

[Fracas]

Not a fan of the design ( reminds me of 50s hot rods ) or the fluff direction

[RuleBritannia]

While I'm not hating the design as such and frankly I admit some of the new ship's details make more sense as a ship in a Chinese Steampunk navy, it's the general direction that the design team are heading in that concerns me as a player. To directly quote Stuart -

 "I think it’s important to acknowledge that visually the game is going to embrace and evolve the more outlandish concepts from second edition Dystopian Wars rather than keeping it in the ‘could happen’ vibe of the first edition. So more iceberg ships and robot dragons and less WWI German battleships. Our design team, while respectful of influences and inspiration found in the real world, are much more stylistically led rather than continuing the pseudo-historical feel of what went on before. For some that means the designs are going to be going in a direction that is not for them. The ships of the Dystopian Age are not ships you would honestly expect to find in real life (with or without Stirginium), but as playing pieces in a war game we want to make sure they are visually distinctive and exciting. In that regard Dystopian Wars will have much more in common with the design philosophies behind sci-fi and fantasy games like Warmachine than historical games like Flames of War."

 ( Taken from the Facebook discussion where Stuart is moderator, so you can see it here ) Now, I'm all for a little outlandish in Steampunk . . . however the essence of the genre is what is plausible rather than just weird for weird 's sake. I think that direction is going to alienate the customer base of DW that WC was hoping or seemed to hope to drag into the WWX world.
 Does weird and bizarre sell better than plausibly strange? Hard to say . . . Warmachine certainly is popular, but that's because it's a good rules system above all else. And some companies are so huge and garner such fans  they could release a resin brick and have people buy dozens of them, provided the brick had enough wolves and skulls on it

 But I shall wait and see further plans.

That makes a lot of sense to me about the like/dislike split.  The 'grognard' players who seem more in favour of realism and the alt history setting are the ones most put off and out by WC's vision, especially as that was one the strong points of the Spartan Design and fluff, whilst those with more fantasy interests seem better disposed.  I suppose that in a wargaming epoch dominated by GW that the outlandish will win out, but counting myself amongst the Grognards it is a pity, as fantasy games are relatively common, whilst the gorgeous not entirely grounded reality of DWars classic relatively rare.  But times change, and we must change with them, even if it is to the more restrained madness of Brigade Games.

[Fracas]

I too prefer alternative historical basis for DW