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?

For the Motherland!

So the day we all new would come is upon us. In a moment of weakness I have ordered a second fleet for Dystopian Wars. After long consideration I chose the Russian Coalition, though it was a tough call between them and the FSA.

In the end it came down to the fact that the Russians seem to be a different beast to the initial nations and I liked the idea of having to weather all the incoming fire before unleashing a barrage at close range. It'll be tough, but at least it'll mean a swifter game until then. The models too are very nice being a mixture of inspirations from CoA to KoB whilst still keeping its own identity.

 In what is technically the second batch of purchases I have a bought a Kostroma Battle Carrier, a squadron of Tambov Gunships, a squadron of Rostov Destroyers and a squadron of Saransk Medium Skyships. The first batch is the Naval Battle group and the Moskva Dreadnought (which is holding them up as it hasn't yet been released) and so once that arrives I shall have a substantial Naval force supported by a small Air force.

At the moment however the models I have amount to 655 which is an awkward amount, so it may be a little while before the Russian Coalition sees action, however if all goes to plan I hope to use them in the upcoming mini campaign at Hulls Angels.

Until then however, the KoB shall rule the seas!