News for WotC’s War at Sea mini game, part of the Axis & Allies Minis, has been sparse for many months. We last discussed the game on August 22, 2007 in our article War @ Sea: A History According to Game Designer Richard Baker. Fast forward roughly 6 months to now and we’re happy to share news of confirmed releases for Set 2.

The releases are confirmed by WotC game designer for WAS Richard Baker and have been posted at Axis & Allies foruMINI. You can read and participate in the discussion at WAS Set II. With bated breath I am proud to share the unfinished list of confirmed War at Sea Set II Releases. Set 2 is officially named Task Force and has a release date of July 25, 2008.

• HMS Warspite (WWWWWWWWWWWOOOT!!!)
• Graf Zeppelin
• BF109E (which we are allowed to land on carriers as if it were the 109T)
• Admiral Hipper – class
• Zara (Italian Heavy Cruiser)
• SM.79 (Italian torpedo bomber)
• HMCS Haida (Tribal-class destroyer, Canadian ship woohoo!!)
• HMAS Arunta (Tribal-class destroyer, again! huh?)
• HMS Kent (reprint of Canberra, with higher Armor value)
• USS San Francisco
• Tirpitz (higher cost, range and AA than Bismarck)
• De Ruyter CA (Dutch ship)
• Iowa sister ship
• Akizuki-class destroyer
• F6F Hellcat (!!! The wildcat is so overpowered I wonder how much better stats they’ll allow the immensely better Hellcat to have!)
• Kongo sister ship (most probable)
• USS Yorktown
• New Japanese battleship (possibly the Fuso)
• HMS Fencer (reprint of St. Lo)

Also, night-fighting and Kamikaze rules in set II.

I must reiterate thanks to Axis & Allies foruMINI, UNC_SAMURAI, Richard Baker, and all the WAS fans who have gathered this information and made it available on Axis & Allies foruMINI. All credit for this list goes to them.

Looking at the list we can see that it is composed of 19 models. There are 4 German, 3 IJN, 3 US, 3 UK, 2 Italian, 1 Australian, 1 French, 1 Canadian model. The composition of this is pretty fair although I would have preferred to see some more planes and fewer US vessels. This list does leave out at least 1 IJN kamikaze model, which I know must be in Set 2 because special rules for kamikazes are due to be released in conjunction with the new models.

As previously stated by Richard Baker a lot of the vessels will be repaints of existing ships and he has recently said

We saw the second round of paint masters for War at Sea II last week, and they’re making good progress. Some of the paint jobs are quite good—for example, the HMS Kent has its fantastic wartime dazzle camo. You won’t mix it up with the HMAS Canberra from set 1, trust me! I think it might be my favorite paint job in either set, just because the colors are so striking (although the Duca d’Aosta from Set 1 is quite good, too). Another good one is the HMS Fencer, which is another “reprint.&rdq uo; It looks enough like the St. Lo that we re-used the sculpt for a British CVE. With the flight deck painted wood-tone and the dazzle camo on its hull, it’s a completely different ship… you just can’t believe it’s the same model with a new paint scheme. The Fencer is a vicious ASW ship, by the way; if subs still trouble you even after the rules update, a Fencer and a Swordfish will work wonders.

I’m quite excited about all the models including the reprints. Several WAS gamers were already converting ships and repainting ships to be used in the game. The Graf Zeppelin was popular in that regard and now the rest of us can have that vessel with ease. Unfortunately I do not have pics of the new models but when they become available I will share them here for your viewing pleasure.

Until then let’s get the discussion rolling on this set. Be thankful for what got in, commiserate what didn’t make the cut, and contemplate what the kamikaze rules could be.