Gods of War: Togo is a Polish naval wargaming game that focuses on historical battles taking place at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, treating events such as the Battle of Tsushima or the Battle of Santiago de Cuba. This period tends to be very neglected in wargaming. And it must be said, wrongly so!
Most of the games are focused on the various world wars or even further back in time on sailing ship battles. Yet the turn-of-the-century era contains some of the strangest (and therefore best for modelers!) ship designs, with navies experimenting with what a modern battleship should look like. Not to mention that the naval battles of this era set the course of history that the entire twentieth century subsequently followed.
Gods of War: Togo features (so far) four fleets: the American, Spanish, Japanese and Russian. Each fleet contains detailed 1:1200 scale ship models, printed using 3D printing. The fifth, the British fleet (complete with rules in English) is on Kickstarter right now, and raised its goal of 3500 euros on day one.
At this point, it's almost at its double, becoming the second successful campaign for studio GMBoardgames, which previously funded the English edition of its previous game, the 6mm American Civil War-focused Gods of War: Robert E. Lee, via Kickstarter.
With the new game, the developers promise players to experience thrilling battles in relatively simple rules, where the focus is more on ship command tactics than rules mechanics. Which sounds nice at first glance, and in theory it could deliver a similar experience to, say, our recently reviewed Crossfire.
Working with the developers, we got our hands on a (slightly stripped down) starter set with ships for the historic Battle of Santiago de Cuba, which effectively ended the Spanish colonial empire and launched the US on its trajectory as a world power. It can also be bought via Kickstarter as part of the Rear Admiral support for 110 euros.
The set includes everything one needs to play: nice 3D printed tokens, MDF command wheels in the form of a stylish compass, movement templates, weapon cutouts and angles for maneuvering ships. It's a bit of a shame that the two-player starter set only has one rulebook, but this is a niggle with pretty much all wargaming starter sets across the board.
In addition to the bases and models, you will also receive reference cards with the ship's stats and rules on one side (as we are used to with such cards) and a historical photo of the ship and accompanying text about its history on the other side. Which, while unnecessary in game terms, is a nice added value.
That rules page contains armor, lives, and all the weapons, including what rules govern at various ranges, everything you need to control that ship. The extra cards are kept in the included sleeves, which are not only designed to keep the cards from getting damaged by playing, but are primarily used to mark off damage to the ship with a marker!
The ship models themselves are resin 3D printed and it's up to you whether you love or hate the printed models. The models are nice for their scale and have sharp detail, although you can see some contours at times. But these mostly disappear after painting, and as you can see in the photos, they don't look bad at all in my quick tabletop paint, even if you only give them a speedpaint.
Since these are game models and not model kits for the shelf, they are missing some delicate details that could break during play or transport. Which may be a shame for some, but for me personally it's an advantage.
In the full-sized two-player starter set on sale, you also get a reference sheet with rules, artillery tables, and the rules themselves in color, but I don't have them as they are not in print yet.
But no need to worry about some lengthy post-campaign delivery. The creators promise delivery of the rewards as early as this October or November, which, given that apart from the Brits, the ship models are already being sold (the Polish version came out last September) and it's only a matter of printing the rules in English, I'd take their word for it.
Otherwise, there is no need to worry about any complicated army list building, because Gods of War: Togo has an online army building app, although only in Polish for now... Anyway, it shows that the creators are counting on a lot of nations in the future.
In addition, several additional objectives have already been unlocked in the campaign. You can look forward to two models of lighthouses, which will not only be for decoration, but also have their own rules. On top of that, you'll expand your fleet with two more ships and a pair of fortresses will complete the terrain. Two more ship models are yet to be unlocked.
I haven't gotten around to playing it yet, but so far I'm impressed with the quality of the game's gadgets and models, and Gods of War: Togo looks very good, at least on the material side, and is worth supporting in my opinion. By the way, I've already bid for more on Kickstarter too...
- Kickstarter link here! - GMBoardgames Website -
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