Gathering Warclouds

One of the great things about a blog is it gives you a record  to look back on. I've been writing Alea Iacta Est for a bit over a year now, and it's been interesting to see what game systems I focused on during 2012. At the start of the year the usual suspects were all keen on Dystopian Wars and the South-East Asian campaign. Around mid-year I got into space marines for Epic:Armageddon, a project I've been wanting to complete for a few years (although they still need some Thunderhawks...). Then towards the end of the year attention turned to a mix of 28mm World War II (trying a couple of systems, eventually settling on Bolt Action) and Epic: Moderns.

But now my first project for 2013 has brought me full circle - I was quite pleased to see that Warclouds Over Woolston (the annual CWC wargaming event) was this year including a Dystopian Wars section. Not having played DW for a while this seemed like a good event to enter. Having a quick read of the fleet composition rules (and skimming to remind myself of the rules and fleet list) my initial plan is to field this;

The Istvan Battlegroup

The dreadnought SMS Szent Istvan as the core of the fleet, escorted by 3 squadrons of destroyers, one squadron of frigates, and a squadron of Pflichts.I have almost all the models I would need for this fleet, and the painting is 70-80% done. A tournament provides a good incentive to finally finish things off.

For my small allowance I'm going with 3 destroyer units and 1 frigate. Most Prussian players rate the frigate as the best small choice. I don't disagree, but IMO the destroyer is very nearly as good and it's a cooler looking model. The frigates and two squadrons of destroyers are painted, leaving just the last destroyer squadron to go.

My 10 small flyers are unpainted, save for a prototype to try the colour scheme. Usually I field these guys as pure fighter units and play the air battle defensively.

The Pflichts are a relatively new addition to my fleet, but they've had some good (and admittedly lucky) results so far. The center one is completely finished, the leftmost needs some washing/drybrushing, and obviously the rightmost is barely started.

Finally we have the centerpiece of the fleet, the SMS Szent Istvan. She is fully painted, but for such an important model I may go back and see if there is anything I want to improve on. Next to the dreadnough is my landing craft, which is mostly done but could use some extra drybrushing. This isn't strictly part of the fleet list, but I figured I'd bring it along in case any scenarios need a random ship or objective marker.

Second Battle of the Eyrie

From the Journal of Admiral Horthy... 
"Intelligence reports said that the FSA had lost both of its battleships in a recent fleet engagement with the Japanese. So until they moved reinforcements into the region, the Eyrie would be relatively undefended. We were not at full strength outselves - the Istvan was still ungoing repairs and could not be deployed. However this was an opportunity that I felt we could not afford to miss, so I transfered my flag temporarily onto SMS Budapest and gathered a taskforce. As we approached air scouts reported a single large vessel. I assumed the spies were wrong and one of the FSAs battleships had survived. But since our dreadnought would be more than a match for a single FSA battleship, we pressed on.


A few moment later I was forcefully shown I was wrong - it was a dreadnought, one of the feared new Enterprise class. I would later learn that it was CSS Ragnarok. And what was more it had been equipped with the 'dual-shield' technology. SMS Budapest would be no match for such a beast in an open gunfight! Thankfully we had more squadrons than they did, and by careful maneuver I was able to keep the two dreadnoughts out of range of each other while the fleets closed."
 

My deployment. Budapest is out of shot above the reef in the top left.

My fleet consisted of a dreadnought (with no shields), 2 cruisers, a destroyer squadron of 4, two frigate squadrons of 4, a squadron of 3 Pflichts, and a squadron of dive bombers. Against this Jamie had a dreadnought (with two shields), two squadrons of 3 cruisers, a squadron of 4 frigates,a squadron of 3 heavy bombers, and a squadron of torpedo bombers. Since I had 7 activations to his 6 I was able to see where his dreadnought deployed before putting mine on the opposite end of the table.

"The opening exchanges inflicted moderate damage to both sides. On the eastern edge of the battle our frigates and destroyers suffered loses from Ragnarok's rockets and rear turret, but managed to sink a cruiser. Budapest suffered some light damage from the Ragnarok's front turrets, and only managed to inflict moderate damage on a bomber in exchange. With both the FSA cruisers and Ragnarok closing on Budapest the situation did not look good. "

My Pflicts and small vessels advance

SMS Budapest facing off with FSA cruisers

"Then in an instant the tide of battle turned. Our Pflichts, which had been advancing high above the battle, dropped their marines right onto Ragnarok - six full platoons worth. Miraculously they got through the dreadnought's intense flak almost unscathed, and despite heavy losses succeeded in capturing the massive vessel."

Death from Above! My Pflichts conduct their boarding assault

As my last action of turn 2 I advanced my Pflichts 10" straight out into the open towards Ragnarok (expecting them to die but absorb a lot of fire first)... and then gained the initiative in turn 3, and got them unharmed into boarding range. Jamie managed to only roll one hit with his AA dice, and my 17 AP managed to wipe out his 12, although with only 2 AP remaining. Since my victory condition was Kill all Enemy Large Ships, I had won.


So a fun game. And I have to give particular credit to Jamie for staying calm and pleasant even after losing the dreadnought that he'd hoped to spring on people as a nasty surprise.

Captain's Log, SMS Mjolnir

Dec 27
Admiral Horthy reports sightings of a large Japanese fleet, and has ordered us to make all speed to join up with the rest of the fleet. There will not even be time for us to repaint the ship - Mjolnir (and our destroyer escorts) will have to go into battle still in Prussian colours. I have ordered the gun crews to prepare the new incendiary rounds for use.

Dec 28
Made contact with SMS Szent Istvan and reported to the Admiral. He has confirmed the Japanese fleet has moved out to the South China Sea. Their destination is unknown, but he intends to move to engage them. All departments heads confirm Mjolnir is combat ready. Unfortunately the gun chiefs have reported the fusing of the incendiary rounds is incorrect (will need to be corrected in port), but they have sufficient stocks of standard APEX rounds.

We are steaming in close formation to starboard of SMS Szent Istvan. Our destroyers have been deployed along a two kilometer line to our starboard. The Admiral has a very low opinion of cruisers, and has deployed them in a "rearguard" role moving abeam to the fleet. In truth I think he simply doesn't want them to obstruct our lines of fire.


Dec 29, 1420 hours
Contact with the Japanese fleet! Their fleet includes; a dreadnought, two of their átkozott mechanical squids, a squadron of 4 cruisers, a squadron of 3 rotorcraft, and two squadrons of frigates. The majority of the Japanese fleet approached us from behind a group of small islands, with their squids and rotors on our port quarter.

Admiral Horthy orders destroyer squadron 3 to move towards the islands and occupy the Japanese fleet, while Szent Istvan and Mjolnir deal with these robotic beasts. I must confess some trepidation - this is an opponent beyond the realm of my experience. But I know my crew will serve with bravery and honour. Huzzar!

Dec 29. 1500 hours
Destroyer squadron 3 reports an enemy frigate destroyed and they are continuing to engage. My prayers are for those men, they do not know both a second frigate squadron and a cruiser squadron are moving towards them. The Admiral's plan is both cunning and ruthless. That one destroyer squadron is occuping half the Japanese fleet. It will cost those men their lives, but their sacrifice will not be in vain.

All batteries have opened fire on the squids. With only a vague wake to target the gun crews are having tremendous difficulty. Between our batteries, the Szent Istvan, and destroyer units 1,2, and 4, we have scattered half the ocean! Japanese rotorcraft continue to harass the destroyers, but so far to little effect.

Dec 29, 1510 hours
Hit! Spotted the clear blue flare of a breached sturginium reactor and sighted wreckage on the surface. One of the squids has been dealt with, and I will swear we must have damaged the other. However rockets from the rotorcraft have taken out one of our destroyers.

Dec 29, 1550 hours
Under attack by a giant mechanical squid!

It is a sight I will carry to my grave, a robotic beast as large as a cathedral bursting forth from the depths with no warning. I felt for certain we were doomed... but then the marines went into action. It was an awesome sight, brave men flitting like wasps between those lashing tentacles. In the end our marine company was scattered, but the mechanical beast was driven off.

Dec 29, 1630 hours
Marines from destroyer squadron 2 have finished off the squid. Destroyer squadron 3 is now completely destroyed, the enemy's cruisers and frigate are turning through the islands to engage us. Their dreadnought has move out from behind the island, but it is fighting two against one. I know that between us Mjolnir and Istvan can defeat it. However loses to our destroyer units have been very high - only 1 and 2 squadrons remain, and both have taken loses.

Dec 29, 1700 hours
The Japanese fleet breaks off. While I am eager to pursue, Admiral Horthy feels it would be unwise to do so without destroyer escort, so we likewise head for port.

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This was the first game in a campaign. Jason's field orders were to kill my mediums (hence why my cruisers sat in the corner all game), mine was to kill his massive/large ships. Neither of us achieved these goals, so we went to VPs - I killed two Ika, 4 frigates and damaged an Inari, while Jason killed 9 destroyers. Less than 50 VPs difference, a draw.

A draw means no territories change hands. But even so I'm fairly happy with the result because I killed those two Ika. Under the campaign rules we have a total fleet (starting at 1500 points) which we draw our game fleets from. Jason no longer has those Ika in his total fleet, and will have to spend Requsition Points (RP) to replace them. He also needs to spend RP to replace his frigates, and repair damage to his Inari and Dreadnought. I was quite lucky there was no damage to either dreadnought, so I only have to replace my destroyers.

Will post in more detail about the campaign rules next blog.

Second Battle of the Sulu Sea

After the inconclusive First Battle of the Sulu Sea, both the American and Hungarian fleets were spoiling for a rematch. Both sides hastily made what repairs and reinforcements they could, and steamed forth to face the hated enemy...

So tonight Jamie and I played a rematch of our drawn game from last week. As we were now playing under the Bangkok Treaty rules, I would have to modify my Hungarian fleet to suit. I dropped the battleship Zrinyi and one of my cruisers (both took a beating last game anyway, so presumably the repairs aren't done yet) and used the extra points to swap the corvettes for 3 trios of Destroyers. So with these changes my fleet was;

• SMS Szent Istvan (Blucher class Dreadnought, with two shield generators)
• SMS Toldi (Emperor class Battleship, with one shield generator)
• Cruiser Squadron Elso (2 x Reiver class Cruiser)
• A Squadron (3 x Stolz class Destroyer)
• B Squadron (3 x Stolz class Destroyer)
• C Squadron (3 x Stolz class Destroyer)
• 2 x Geier class Bomber

Against this Jamie's American fleet consisted of;

• 2 Independence class Battleships
• 2 Squadrons of 3 Lexington class Cruisers
• 2 Squadrons of 3 Augusta class Frigates
• 1 Squadron of 2 John Henry class Robots

I deployed my fleet in a reasonably tight formation, with Toldi and Szent Istvan anchoring the starboard end of the line. Jamie spread his fleet out a little more, with his cruisers and frigates to my left and center, the battleships abeam on the far right.

My deployment. The 2 cruisers are out of shot to the left.

FSA deployment. Two frigate squadrons are out of shot to the left.

The first turn was as usual uneventful, both sides being out of range to achieve anything. Jamie's battleships went on all stop orders, and his cruisers/frigates moved up from behind the island. My fleet pretty much all just charged on in, with the destroyer units leading the way and the big ships following.

Second turn things started to happen. The early exchanges went well for me, with my destroyers easily taking out a couple of frigates at long range. This was a trial run for the destroyers and I have to say I was impressed by them - they will definitely be in the fleet in future!

Then the American cruisers came foward. I expected the destroyers to die (or at least be reduced to ineffective) quickly, but they proved surprisingly durable. And even though my math showed they were best suited to long range gun duels, they proved pretty good in close range 'knife-fights' as well. The destroyers died, but took down their tonnage of cruisers before they went.

Meanwhile on the flanks Jamie's forces kept chipping away at me. On the left the John Henry's flew in and began strafing my cruisers, inflicting moderate damage. While on the right his battleships started bombarding my battleship. I had heard complaints on the DW forums about FSA shooting, but this was the first time I had seen it in action. Previous battleship duels had happened at RB2 (8-16"), where Prussian vs. FSA is an even match. This time he shelled me from more than 2 feet away. I expected fire from that distance to be ineffectively weak (mine would have been) but he kept throwing out 9 dice from half the board away. Over two turns this knocked my battleship down to half strength, seriously impeding it's combat effectiveness.

SMS Szent Istvan and SMS Toldi blocking a channel.

By turn 4 my capital ships were occupying the channel between two islands, facing off with what remained of the FSA cruisers. But the battleship was too damaged to be effective, and the dice just didn't go for the dreadnought. Then, for the last act of the game Jamie's battleships scored a critical on my battleship... and rolled snake-eyes for the result, instant destruction.

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Tallying the final score, Jamie came out ahead by something like 140 VPs, so a narrow win to him. But I don't feel too bad about the loss. Partially because drinking your opponents beer really helps ease the pain, but mostly because that last critical largely decided the game - that was 85+ VPs on a single lucky roll. Without that Jamie would only have been 60 VP up, so basically a draw.

Other thoughts;
 - I did start to see why people claim the FSA is overpowered, or at least better than the Prussians. In a battleship duel, at under 16" range it's an even contest, but beyond that the FSA just wins outright.
- Didn't find bombing runs effective; having to fly right over the enemy is just too dangerous. However I may give them another go and try doing a 'handbrake turn' just in front of the enemy, see how that works.
- Destroyers rule, they are definitely going to be my small ship of choice.

Battle of the Sulu Sea

With the American presence in South East Asia anchored by their naval bases in the Phillipines, uncomfortably close to the Hungarian colony on Borneo, conflict in the Sulu Sea was inevitable. The Hungarian fleet was the same one that had fought the British to a standstill, reinforced by cruiser squadron Elso. Against them the Americans had two battleships, three cruisers, and seven frigates, plus air superiority thanks to a trio of bombers and two scout blimps. 

As they had against the British the Hungarians formed up into "twin sword" formation, with Toldi and Zrinyi on the right flank, Szent Istvan on the left. The Americans turned their battleships abeam to the enemy fleet, while the cruisers and frigates charged in ready to swarm the Szent Istvan. 

Hungarian fleet in twin sword formation

FSA battleships moving abeam to the enemy

The early exchanges of fire did not go well for the Hungarians. On the left their cruisers suffered slight damage from indirect fire, and without spotters the Hungarian retaliation was ineffective. However when the American bombers came forth the Hungarians found their aim - all three were downed in minutes, disappearing in a furious storm of shrapnel.

In the battleship duel on the left flank, Constitution got the better of Zrinyi, getting in an early hit that Zrinyi was never able to recover from. With Toldi having swung to starboard to reinforce the center the advantage was clearly to the FSA. Even so, Zrinyi valiantly fought on.

Zrinyi versus Constitution (top), while the rest of the fleet flaks FSA bombers (center)

On the right the Hungarian cruiser squadron had been all but eliminated. However the Szent Istvan had turned to bring its full broadside to bear, and the American cruisers had come out to play. The massive dreadnought unleashed its full might... and inflicted only moderate damage. American cruisers are tough!

Tough as the American cruisers were, the dreadnought was tougher. The cruisers simply did not have the firepower to hurt her, while her massive guns were (slowly) bringing the cruisers down.

The dreadnough SMS Szent Istvan facing off against three Lexington class cruisers

Seeing they had nothing which could stop the Hungarian dreadnought the FSA fleet disengaged. For their part the Hungarians were glad the badly damaged SMS Zrinyi had survived the battle, and returned to port to conduct repairs.

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Another really fun game. And another draw - I got 230 VPs versus Jamie's 225.

SMS Szent Istvan

I've had a quiet, productive day painting. The dreadnought SMS Szent Istvan is now finished;

I've been impressed with the performance of the dreadnought so far, and equally important the model is extremely cool. So I'm thinking my usual 1000 pt fleet will be centered around two of these bad boys, with escorts, destroyers and bombers to fill out the points.

My First Game of Dystopian Wars

Played my first game of Dystopian Wars at the Cavaliers on Thursday, against Chris (who borrowed Kruger's Blazing Sun fleet). As neither of us had even read the rules the game went a bit slowly, with much pausing to look up rules and/or check with the DW experts. For this first game we didn't use points - each of us just had matching fleets of 1 battleship, 3 cruisers, and two squadrons of 4 frigates. The tactics on both sides were pretty simple. My cruisers and battleship charged headfirst, with the frigates swinging around from the left flank. Chris similarly charged with his frigates and battleship, but left his cruisers steaming along the far board edge offering long range rocket fire.

During the first couple of turns Chris seemed to have the advantage. My cruisers took the brunt of his fire, and he sunk one and damaged enough. In return I only managed to damage a frigate. Since I figured the cruisers were lost anyway I made what I thought was a crazy move, and rammed them straight into his frigates. Turns out this wasn't that crazy - collison damage (both to you and the enemy) isn't that much, and you still get to shoot and then board! A few good dice rolls later and I had destroyed one frigate, captured two others and still had my cruisers.

My cruisers facing off with Chris's frigates

 

Aftermath of the collison - two frigates have been claimed as prizes

Meanwhile my two frigate squadrons came around from the left, pouncing on an enemy frigate squadron from behind. Unfortunately the enemy frigates had a battleship nearby to support them, and the enemy cruisers turned out to be (just) in range as well. My frigates died in short order, although the did wipe out the enemy frigates before they sank.

My frigates move out from behind an island

In the center my battleship had moved up into the fray. While it was too late to save the cruiser squadron (which was now down to a single damaged ship) a lucky round of gunnery inflicted significant damage on Chris's battleship. Since my battleship was pretty much all I had left Chris fired everything he had at it, but with little result. He had lost all but one of his frigates, the long range rockets from his cruisers couldn't get through the battleship's AA defense, and his battleship was hindered by the damage it had taken.

My battleship and Chris's face off

At this point we called the game for time. I haven't read the rules for deciding who won, but I'd have to call it a moderate win  to Chris. He had wiped out everything I had except for the battleship, and had captured a cruiser and a frigate. Against this I had killed five frigates and captured two, plus inflicted 5 points of damage on his battleship. If we had keep going the advantage would have been mine - he just had nothing left that threatened my battleship.

So my first thoughts on Dystopian Wars;

• Good game, simple, fast, easy to play. 
• The rulebook is not well organised.
• The exploding dice mechanic means their can be big swings of luck. Not sure yet whether I consider this a pro or a con. 
• Didn't really see the big advantage of frigates people talk about. They did OK, but didn't seem that much better than other units. I guess a few more games might show me the circumstances in which frigates shine. 
• Battleship did well, and I'm feeling comfortable with my big-ship centric fleet. I have an idea for how to counter the vulnerability to frigates at close ranges, will have to try this out next game.

So next game I think I'd like to try out airpower, see how it works and how vital it is.

Update on the Fleet

A few evenings and afternoons of painting has seen steady progress. The fleet right now;

So just five more frigates plus the fighters to go. At this point I think I'm ready to order more models to bring the fleet up to 1000 points. Unfortunately the general consensus on the Spartan Games forum seems to be that the best Prussian unit is the Frigate, which I found somewhat uninspiring to paint. However I've also learned up to 70% of my points can go into large units... which at 1000pts means up to 4(!) battleships. I'll definitely pick up at least a second battleship, and probably a third. Or maybe go in another direction with the large ship madness and get a second battleship plus either a a Sky Fortress or a Dreadnaught. Decisions, decisions.

But here's some more images of the units I've finished;

For the Kaiser!

My latest gaming project is a Dystopian Wars fleet. I got tempted in the usual way (seeing other people with very cool looking models) and ordered myself a Prussian starter set. To (sort of, vaguely) go with my Hungarians in Flames of War, I'm going to paint them up as a "Hungarian Squadron" within the Prussian Empire - some green panels, maybe some red/green crosses if I can find my leftover transfers.
The Prussian Battle Group contains;

• 1 x Emperor Class Battleship
  
• 3 x Riever Class Cruiser
  
• 9 x Arminius Class Frigate
  
• 2 x Geier Bombers
  
• 10 x Fighter Bases
  
• Various counters, templates and stat cards
  

From the points values on the cards this comes to 700 points, although (having been dumb enough not to order the rulebook with my models) I don't have the fleet list so I don't know if I can use all of this. I also have to say I was surprised at how good the production values were - my experience with smaller miniature companies has been that their packaging is usually basic to non-existant.

The fleet is now assembled and undercoated. The models are mostly resin, with separate metal turrets. I'm not generally a fan of resin but in this case it works well. The ships are all fairly solid shapes, the detail is amazingly crisp, and Spartan Games were smart enough to make the thinner bits (the turrets with their long barrels) out of metal.

I sat down this afternoon and painted a prototype each of a frigate and a cruiser. I'm now itching to paint the battleship, but I'm forcing myself to leave this for last, or at least until I've done a couple more ships - a centerpiece model like this deserves the best paintjob, which means getting some practise in first.

Next purchase is likely to be another set of cruisers, possibly some destroyers, and the actual rules for the game!