I feel attacked! A lot of loyal naval gamers / modelers may have bought some Epic Battles in place of Victory at Sea this year, but it was only a few sprues, it didn’t mean anything.
I am also eagerly awaiting my Leviathans pledge, and feel that it will have the largest impact over the next year or two in the naval sphere. As much as I like Armada, Mantic is still years away from having the same kind of US distribution that Catalyst has already built, and even through my rose-colored glasses, I can also honestly say that they will never have the multi-channel reach that Catalyst enjoys thanks to their publishing history. Two year exclusive promotional runs at Barnes & Noble are basically unthinkable for any other miniature producers except for GW, who would rather promote their own storefronts, or Asmodee, who does not have a great record currently on boosting either of their legacy naval(-) games despite the Star Wars license.
Will Leviathans be riding on the coattails of the Catalyst / BattleTech renaissance… of course, but that is not necessarily a bad thing, and we could all see Great War starter boxes on game and book store shelves for years to come.
