Okay, I don't want to sound like sour grapes here, but the aesthetics of the different nationalities are a little ... different.
They're definitely going with a more 'gonzo', fantasyish Steampunk setting then Leviathans is. Different game scale too. On the plus side, this makes it easy to instantly tell who's playing who.
And from the description, that sounds like the Japanese. I'm not all to fond of those, honestly. But then, I play the Navy with the huge paddlewheels, so who am I to judge.
However, judging by the "fluff" that I've read they don't have any fact checkers on their staff or they would've chosen names for ship classes more consistent with the Japanese navy. Also, I'm a little surprised they have an Empress on the throne. I want to hear the explanation for that. Japan has had a few Empresses but late Tokugawa/early Meiji Japan was definitely a man's world.
I suspect that fact its an 'alternate history' covers over a multiple of sins when it comes to historical accuracy, which accounts for changes in ship naming schemes and the like. Leviathans tends to hew closer to the real world, but it makes some pretty big changes too. I AM a bit amused that Australia seems to have become independant in both sets of games.
The rules were terribly written, dull and offered very little from their other games. Same game with a few tweaks.
Also don't like some ships are naval, some ships fly, some ships can go on land (a bit more understandable). The logic escapes me. Why have a game focused on such a wide variety of aspects?
After having read the book, and played a few games, a bit of an opposing view point here.
The game rules COULD have been organised a bit better, no argument about that. But the rules themselves seemed fairly clear, barring a couple abnormalities and a few bits of errata. There are plenty of examples to show how things work out. Having not played the other Spartan games, I have no idea how similar the two are, but if use the same mechanics, I dont consider that a bad thing. So long as they work, anyways. My one BIG issue is that the rules for setting up a game are hidden in the back. A minor quibble is I would like a bit more differentation between ship types (Each faction only has one Class of destroyer, escort, frigate, cruiser, etc) but that's something they can 'fix' with later expansion.
I consider this a plus, honestly. It's an epic scale wargame, so it's nice that they include all three spheres of combat (naval, air, ground) at once. I rather like the idea of being able to have a force of tanks, landships and coastal defenses being able to defend against a shelling armada of BB's and supporting bombers.
