The Rise of a Kingdom

The trouble with playing so many systems is that you need to make decisions as to which you favour. You can obviously play all of them at the same time, though doing so means that you cannot get used to any particular one. On the other hand, concentrating on one means that the others suffer and in addition it means that you have invested a great deal of money (and if you paint your models, time) on systems that fall by the wayside.

With such a good following for Hordes/Warmachine lately I've spent most of my time using my Trollbloods with a couple of 40k games thrown in to the exclusion of Dystopian Wars. Beccause of this I have considered shelving the Kingdom of Britannia several times, but the one thing keeping them out was that Ben was hosting a Dystopian Wars weekend last weekend meaning that they were kept in 'play'.

Going in to the weekend, I had only had one Naval Battle recently and it hadn't gone well, however having used my Armoured forces lately I was more confident with those.

Over the weekend I lost a couple, drew one and won a couple so was fairly happy and I had learned a lot on how the KoB worked and when to activate each squadron. Consequently the love is back for Her Majesty's Kingdom and I am intending to field them as much as possible.

With a growing group of players at the club I should be able to get a variety of games in.

Finally, a big thank you to Jamey and Ben for putting up with us all over the weekend!

Weekend of War

I went over the Pennines this weekend, or on to them - unsure to be honest, but regardless, I had a great time at My Friend Sam's house where he hosted our first seasonal event.

On the Saturday we had a Warhammer siege game whereby Chris, Ben and I each used our Ogre Kingdoms armies to take on Sam's Dwarfs. It turned out that Chris had been paid off to betray the other tribes; Something that Ben and I gave Chris plenty of flack over (you were a good sport on that one Chris). As such Ben and I decided to hold our alliance and take on the other two whom aside from being against us, didn't last long as allies. In the end, the record showed a joint victory for Chris and me, however Ben had borne the brunt of Chris' treachery and Sam really did face an uphill struggle to fend off three armies.

We used the Siege rules from the Blood in the Badlands book (which I shall discuss a bit more in depth in a future post) with a few tweaks that Sam tailored to suit (at least Ben and my) armies backgrounds. I really enjoyed the game as it was the first siege I have played and was great fun to take part in!

Today we had a game of Dystopian wars. We once more fought over somewhere hot outside Yorkshire which I'd already suffered a defeat at so wasn't too fussed about especially since the locals couldn't make a proper cup of tea!

Who am I kidding? I fought tooth and nail for this one! I felt that my fleet was a lot stronger than it had been in the last battle - I substituted the cruisers for another unit of Destroyers and took three Doncasters in addition to the scout rotors. In essence I think that the main downside came with the fact that I was forced to face two threats which although I had weakened (and had done so to eachother) at range, once up close I lost the edge against their superior boarding actions, tesla weapons, rockets and above all tactical skill (very unsporting chaps!).

I think that more adjustments are needed to try and find the most effective combinations, but once I feel I have done so, the plan is to assemble a more typical battle fleet.

So all in all, very tiring, but very worthwhile weekend of gaming!

Signalling the fleet

I took the Kingdom fleet out for a Jolly Boy's outing against Ben's Prussian Empire this week with mixed success. On the one hand I lost, but on the other I am starting to get a handle on the game now!

Typically I forgot to take my list with me so had to cobble one together when I arrived, so I’ll give you a rundown of the force, but I’m more likely to be accurate with Ben's list!

From memory I had a Dreadnought with two shields, a battleship with one shield and 3 escorts, three cruisers with experienced engineers, 3 destroyers, 4 frigates and 2 scout rotors.

Whilst I took a pounding, at least this time I’d managed to chip through Ben's force a bit more and I think experience will help me coordinate my attacks to a better combination. One of the elements of the game that we are still struggling with is the tiny fliers, and whilst there is still a way to go with them, I think that we are finally getting a bit nearer to understanding how they should be used.

I think that the destroyers, when used correctly shall be a fantastic addition to my fleet but I think I need more than the initial 3! Their pack hunters rule together with their high torpedo attacks will mean that groups of 4 will be more beneficial as I could either use a 4 strong squadron in groups of two against two smaller targets or a single 4 strong combined attack to make the most of breaking through the concussion charges of the larger ships.

I'm still struggling with the larger flyers. I used the Scout rotors last night and whilst they were nippy, there was only one occasion where there spotter rules came in to effect, so unless I learn to get the most out of the mines that they lay, it may be prudent to go back to the heavy bombers and perhaps use both together to try and get a quicker impression of their abilities.

The dreadnought did ok. It didn’t set my world alight (nor Ben’s ships too much!) but I think like the rest of the force I’m still needing to find how best to use him.

I’m struggling the most with the cruisers – they haven’t seemed to do much other than make up points and numbers. Other ships just seem to do their job better. If anyone reading this can give me some pointers especially on these, but really with any aspect, please let me know!

I didn’t use the subs during the battle though I think that I may switch these back in next time as I’ve been having a few thought on how best to use them and so am eager to find out if I am right.

I’ve attached a few photos which Ben kindly sent and shall try and describe what is happening in each.



KoB first turn just moments after the start (hence why the scout rotors are so far on the board!)



Prussian deployment



The end of turn 1 and I think at this point i'd taken out a Prussian cruiser and in return a scout rotor had suffered some damage.


 


Turn 2 and there was only one destroyer remaining for the KoB




Turn 3 and the damage starts to mount up for both sides, though the Prussians are seeming to lead the day!

 
 

You sunk my Battleship!

 
 
 
 

The end of the battle at the end of turn 4. It seemed like days later, but was infact 4 hours after the start!

Undeniably the Prussians had the edge but it hadn't gone all their own way as i'd managed to cause a fair amount of damage (or rather I'd caused more than I thoguht that I would do!) Next time Kaiser Ben! Next time!

Reinforcements for the Kingdom!

The first wave of reinforcements have arrived, and its once again distracting me. Its a difficult task concentrating on the Trollbloods with these boys staring at me. In this batch is the Dreadnought, which is massive by the way!, the fleet carrier, two lots of escorts and a squadron of destroyers.

Aside from one or two elements that i shall keep to myself for now, thats the navy more or less sorted meaning it won't be long until i start buying and storing the ground forces!

Life after the Palace of Thorns

Well, the dust has now settled after the Badab wars and as much fun as it was, there is a certain amount of releif. Although there are still elements of the army that require attention, i've decided that Louise has earnt her break and so, the army can wait a while.

Instead, there are now two things occupying hobby time. Firstly, my Trollblood Kriel Warriors is now in its next stage whereby i'm increasing unit sizes, adding attachments and adding new warbeasts. I've now received and built the Mauler and the slag troll which means that soon I shall begin on the Blitzer and then the Kriel Warrior Standard and Piper. I have also now got my Stone Scribe Elder meaning that my Krielstone unit is now more worthwhile. The problem with this though is that it is meaning that i'm finding it hard to fit everything in. Beforehand I just had about enough to squeeze a game together, but now there are too many exciting things and not enough points to go round. So at least for now i shall be employing the Trollblood version of the Chelsea squad rotation system.

Next up I'm starting my reading of the Dystopian Wars rulebook and whilst its early days yet, with some luck it won't be too long until the Kingdom of Britannia set sail, but more on that later