In Coalition Russia Dystopian Wars plays you!

So, I've played my first couple of games with the Russians now and I'm enjoying them immensely.

Firstly I played an 800 point Naval core battle against Ben's Republic of France force on Wednesday and we had a bash at actually rolling for Field orders and also in using National Fleet Commodores from the Hurricane Season campaign book. My mission was to kill 50% of his force AND destroy all mediums. For his part he had to kill all my Large/Massives (so my Borodino then).

In the end, Ben won as he tabled me, though it was a hard slog for him. I was a bit further away from my objective as he still had most of his mediums, albeit that they were limping around, but limping meant they weren't destroyed, so.

Tonight I faced Matt's Prussian Empire (Matt can't read or write so he doesn't blog) at the same level. This time we both reverted to kill 70% as we weren't keen on the options we rolled. No National Fleet Commodores this time.

I managed to pretty much cripple his battleship early on, and in addition gave most of his Frigates a big headache. Now, not sure whether it was just down to a mixture of dice luck and relative experience, but Matt was really struggling to take my boys down. I handed him the Rostovs (destroyer) squadron early and was perhaps a little over aggressive with the Saransks (medium skyships) as they took a battering as well.

I'm still awaiting a reasonable amount of RC naval and air units to arrive, but all things considered I'm happy with how things are progressing. Low activation numbers are an issue, but the storm weathering isn't as scary as I feared. My appraoch really is to view Ablative armour as a bonus rather than something to pin hopes on. Also, I'm liking the way I can target two models with the Novgorod frigates regardless of their position - the trick is to just ensure that I move tem cleverly enough to be in RB1 of the first model and far enough away to be in RB2 of the second to make the most of the lob shot. With most ships that would be a tricky prospect, but with these frigates I can dart about in any direction!

I'm happy with the Suvorov Cruisers and the Tambov Gunships alike and obviously both have Jammer generators that benefit the force against different nations, so the plan is to mix lists dependent upon who I face. An inconvenience when you consider that I was able to write an all comers list for the KoB, but I suppose that was something of a luxury!

So, the Juggernaut has begun to build up steam. Dare you stand before it?

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!