Lost World Exodus - Wrath of the Nautilus Preview

Lost World Exodus an upcoming wargame from Warcradle, that while it has a very different setting, is entirely compatible with their other popular wargame, Wild West Exodus. One of the crews currently available for us in WWX, but made for LWE is the Wrath of the Nautilus. A crew of a submersible ship fits perfectly into our Nautical Tabletop Season. In this article, we'll introduce Lost World Exodus, the Wrath of the Nautilus, and also talk to Chris Pond, Assistant Studio Manager at Warcradle about capturing the nautical feel on the tabletop.

This article forms part of our Nautical Tabletop Month that's running across all of November. We're going to look at different nautical wargames and board games, as well as interview developers about capturing the sea feel on the tabletop. We'll also look at nautical factions in popular wargames along with tabletop accessories that are available to keep your hobby ship-shape. You can see all the articles here on the hub. So come aboard as we set sail and celebrate all games nautical in nature.

You can buy all the Nautical Tabletop Month products from our tabletop sponsor, Firestorm Games.

Lost World Exodus / Wild West Exodus Introduction

The icy wilderness of Antarctica holds a centuries-old secret buried in its frozen depths. This alien structure, known only as the Vault, contains marvels beyond human understanding. Now the Vault has been breached and an inexplicable transformation has created a Lost World of dense jungles, vast labyrinthine chasms and fiery volcanoes. 

Fuelled by rumour alone, the mighty empires of the Dystopian Age have sent expeditions to the distant shores of Antarctica. Traversing the exterior’s miles of ice and rock, these expeditions have finally reached the wild and wondrous interior of the Lost World. Scattered throughout this rich and varied landscape are seams of fabulous minerals, hyper-evolved megaflora and the menacing roar of new and terrifying beasts that call this Lost World home.

Even though Lost World Exodus hasn't been released yet, the compatibility with Wild West Exodus and sharing of core rules suggests that it will have the same test and action mechanics using dice and cards. In Wild West Exodus, players need to score 10 or more to achieve a test with a 10-sed dice plus their skill score, and actions and initiative are controlled with Action Cards drawn from a deck. The Action Cards all have 2 numbers, a central number on the card that shows how many action point a unit has when it's activated, and a number in a small circle in the top left and bottom right that is used for determining initiative order.

WWX can be a brutal game, as characters and units don't have wounds, so if they fail a saving throw, then they're removed from the game. Special characters have a few tricks and abilities to give them a little more staying power, but a determined effort on your opponent's half to remove a unit can be deadly if the dice don't go your way.

A couple of unit sets have been released for Lost World Exodus already, which can be used in Wild West Exodus. There are also several more are planned, along with the rules and gubbins set that will probably be similar to the Wild West Exodus box.

Wrath of the Nautilus

One of the boxes already released is the Wrath of the Nautilus, the crew of the Nautilus submersible that may see an appearance in Warcradle's upcoming game, Dystopian Wars.

The Wrath of the Nautilus detachment includes 6 fighters:

• Rani Nimue - Rani is the captain of the Nautilus and has some abilities that make her rapid on the battlefield. As well as being very handy in a fight herself, she makes other units around her also more accurate.
• Sarder Hardit Singh - Sarder is very protective of Rani. He can take attacks for her and attack back after being taken out. Armed with the brutal melee weapon, Bayako, Sarder is a combat monster.
• Charlotte Anning - Charlotte is a portal master for helping the crew get around. She is armed with the indirect Magic Lantern, which Charlotte wields accurately with controlled scatter.
• Neko Mei - Neko is fast and deadly, and incredibly stealthy. She deploys from the reserve anywhere onto the play area, and can't be targetted by human enemies unless they pass a mind check first.
• Violet Smee - Violet is solid in a fight, and has the added bonus of letting all allies within 10 inches automatically pass yeller checks, so adding in a few hand units for her to motivate is a good idea.
• Erasmus Darwin - Erasmus is ok in a fight and even better at keeping your other units on the table. He lets nearby friendly characters reroll grit checks, and can bring back eliminated automata units.

The Nautilus crew are all decent in a fight, but really shine when they allow their abilities to overlap. Sader can take attacks for Rani, and Erasmus can let Sader reroll Grit checks. It's their combined teamwork that really makes this crew shine and enjoyable to play.

Wrath of the Nautilus Developer Interview

TechRaptor: Welcome to TechRaptor Chris. Thank you for joining us. The Wrath of the Nautilus Detachment are a boxed set that can be played in both Lost World Exodus and Wild West Exodus. These systems have different narratives, but share core rules that make the miniatures entirely compatible with both systems. Is that right?

Chris Pond: That is correct. Both games are set in very different parts of the alternative Earth portrayed in the Dystopian Age but the core rules are the same so the characters are playable in both games.

TR: Tell us about the Wrath of the Nautilus crew, what brings them to the shores of the Lost World Exodus?

CP: Rani Nimue and her crew unofficially work for the Crown and what greater adventure than to explore the Lost World of Antarctica. 

TR: How do the Wrath of the Nautilus crew play on the tabletop? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

CP: Wild West Exodus and indeed, Lost World Exodus to a lesser extent, are narrative games and therefore characters play a large part of that. As a result, each Posse or Detachment are more thematic than tied to a specific faction strength or weakness. Each character certainly has strengths and weaknesses but when the whole box are together on the table it is more about how they work together. As a whole, they are good at close to medium range and there are a couple of heavy hitters in there, especially Sarder Hardit Singh, who hits like a freight train.

TR: Rani Nimue, as well as other characters in WWX and LWE, show nods to famous fantasy figures and characters from other IPs. Do you try and incorporate these known backgrounds into the stats and mechanics of the characters?

CP: The Dystopian Age is set in an alternate version of the Earth we know and love so the opportunity to explore alternate versions of well-known historical characters is too good to pass up. The background and theme of the characters in question absolutely reflect the in-game stats where applicable. As for characters from other IPs, I really don’t know what you are referring to there...

TR: How did you go about capturing the nautical feel of the crew on the tabletop? Do they operate differently from other crews in WWE/LWE?

CP: The best way to do that is through the theme. Half of the crew definitely feel like they have stepped straight off the deck of the Nautilus and onto the table, but the other half could be from other places. Nimue, Singh, and Violet Smee are all very heavy on the nautical theme whereas Erasmus Darwin looks more at home with the Enlighted, Charlotte Anning looks more like a research assistant or librarian and Neko Mei looks like she would be more at home leaping across rooftops in any city across the globe.

TR: Sarder Hardit Singh carries a wicked looking sword. What can you tell us about that? What is it? How did he get it? And how does it work in-game?

CP: He loves that sword. He loves it so much that “Bayako” actually means wife. It is possibly made from, and if not certainly modeled from the spine of some exotic aquatic creature. In-game it can deliver a nasty electric pulse giving it the Disrupt Quality and has quite a reach to it. 

TR: Are we going to see a cross-over with the Nautilus in the upcoming Dystopian Wars?

CP: Well you’ll just have to wait and see ;)

TR: Thank you very much for talking to us Chris. We look forward to seeing what's next for Lost World Exodus and Dystopian Wars.

The copy of Wrath of the Nautilus used to produce this preview was purchased by the author.