BatRep: Dystopian Wars 2 – 1000pt Empire of the Blazing Sun vs Russian Coalition

Admiral Dimitry Orlov was leaning over the railing of the Russian Fleet Carrier Russian Kiev.  His Battleship, Georgy Pobedonosets II ("St George the Victorious II" in English) was sailing alongside.  Why he was on a carrier instead of his beloved Georgy Pobedonosets II was an interesting story, probably.  Orlov had been ordered to.  Why?  No one thought to tell him why…

Oh well, just for this mission, Orlov hoped.

The sun was rising and in the distance he could see a squadron of Saransk Skyships peeping through the clouds.  It was always a welcome sight to see the skyships, but worrysome that they were short 1 ship.  Hopefully it wouldn’t be an issue.

In the meantime, Orlov had been ordered to look for the remnants of an Empire of the Blazing Sun’s task force.  It was supposed to have a Battleship in need of urgent repair and a couple of escorts, so Orlov felt at ease.  He had a small task force, but it was still more than a match for a bruised Battleship.

“Admiral to the Bridge!  Admiral to the Bridge!  All hands to Battlestations!”

With a heavy sigh, Orlov headed for the bridge, casting one last glance at Georgy Pobedonosets II.

“Well, Captain, have we spotted the enemy task force yet?”

Orlov grew concerned as the ship’s Captain turned to him, pale as a ghost, voice trembling.  “Sir!  Our reconnaissance flight just spotted the enemy task force!  We were misinformed as to the nature of the task force.  Not only is the fleet roughly the same size as our own…”

“Well?  Out with it man!”

“They don’t seem to be escorting a damaged Battleship!  They have what appears to be a fully functional Dreadnought!”

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So off we went!  Another game!  This time only 1000 points and Graham made sure he had a legal Naval list before we even started!  ;)

We were lazy.  The table was still set up from our last game, so we went with it.  Empire of the Blazing Sun won Strategic Advantage and Russians won the Operational Advantage.  So from the Russian’s point of view, We were on the south edge (again) with 2 islands in the North East corner and the South West corner.  Technically, the table size was 4’ X 6’, but in reality, we played the mission mostly in 4’ X 4’!

Neither side used Advance, Flanking or Reserve forces (the game’s too small for that).

Russian Coalition (RC) deployment – Left to Right:

• 3 Suvorov Cruisers on the far side of the islands
• 3 Novgorod Frigates
• A Kostroma Fleet Carrier with Torpedo & Rocket Jammers, 5 SAS Fighters and 4 SAS Dive Bombers and the Commodore
• A Borodino Battleship with Stoic Crew and Torpedo & Rocket Jammers
• 5 SAS fighters
• 3 Novgorod Frigates
• 2 Saransk Skyships (Obscured)
• 4 Suyetka Interceptors (Obscured)
• 5 SAS Fighters

Empire of the Blazing Sun (EotBS) (also known as the “Japanese”) deployment – Russian Left to Right:

• 3 Tetsubo Small Interceptors (Obscured)
• 3 Tanuki Armored Cruisers
• A Hachiman Dreadnought with Shield & Tesla Generators and the Commodore
• 4 Yurgi Destroyers
• 2 SAS of 5 Fighter Tokens, each
• 2 Inari Scout Gyros (Obscured)

We both drew our orders, but the Japanese decided to drop his secret mission (50% + the Commodore) to do just the 70% of the forces.  I kept the Russian Orders.

Initial Deployment!

Turn 1:

Russians won Initiative!

Russian Frigates on the left started to move around the leftmost island – staying under cover from everything it could hide from.  The Japanese Gyros climbed to the Stratosphere, but found they were out of weapons ranges and unable to spot the Russian Battleship for the rest of the fleet.  Russian Dive Bombers moved forward, over the islands, killing an activation.

The Japanese Destroyers moved forward maximum speed and fired on both the Skyships, damaging 1 and Crit the other (Nav Lock)!  Russian Frigates retaliated, coming around the right side of the southern islands and sank 2 Destroyers and damaged a 3^rd!  First blood to the Russians!  The Destroyer passed its Disorder test.

Russian Frigates get 1st Kills!

Japanese Cruisers advanced next, sank a Frigate, but the survivors passed their Disorder test.

Russian Skyships, already damaged, moved forward.  Though they failed to cause any damage, they DID spot a Cruiser for the rest of the fleet.  The Japanese Dreadnought moved next, roughly a 45 degree angle towards table center from the left (gaining 2” movement from the Tesla Generator).  Rockets crit 1 Skyship (Nav Lock + 1 fire due to Incendiary Weapons) while the turrets damaged the Russian Battleship (placing 1 Fire token there as well).

Russian Interceptors climbed to the Stratosphere and moved forward maximum speed.  Japanese Interceptors moved forward and shot down 1 damaged Skyship with a Crit.  The other Skyship failed its Disorder test!

Woe for the Russian Skyships!

The Russian Battleship turned and advanced between the two Southern islands, and failed to hit the “Spotted” Cruiser.  (Turned out that was a good thing!  The Russian Primary Guns can only do Indirect Fire at Range Band 3 & 4 – I forgot and was in Range Band 2!)

Japanese fighters moved to protect the Dreadnought and the Cruisers while the Russian Cruisers advanced beside the islands and failed to damage an Interceptor, the Carrier moved between the islands – right beside the Battleship and the Russian Fighters advanced forwards.

End Phase: The Japanese had nothing to repair.  Russians repaired all damage and put out all fires EXCEPT on the Skyship!  It lost 1 AP to the fire and another AP to the Disorder – leaving it with 4AP left!

Victory Points:

EotBS:   105

RC:         80

Turn 2:

EotBS won Initiative!

Note: For some reason, I didn't take any pictures of the 2nd turn.  I think this was because we were too caught up in the game.

Japanese Fighters attacked Russian Dive Bombers, shooting down 3 for the loss of 2 tokens!  The Russian Dive Bombers fled back to the Carrier (and out of range from a 2^nd attack).  Japanese Interceptors attacked the Skyship, but failed to damage it.  Russian Fighters attack an interceptor, damaging it for no loss to themselves!  The Japanese Destroyer made its Minimum move forward, sank 1 Frigate and damaged another!  The Frigates passed their Disorder Test.

Russian Fighters attacked the under-strength Fighter SAS, downing 2 (1 left) for the loss of 2 tokens.  Japanese Fighters attack the Russian Skyship and crit it (Guns) for no loss!  Things were looking bad for the Russian Skyship!  Finally, a Russian SAS fighter squadron attacked another Japanese Fighter Squadron – both squadrons destroying each other!

Japanese Gyros moved forward, forming a Line Of battle, their rockets finally destroying the Russian Skyship with another Crit while the Gyros’ guns shot down a Russian Interceptor!

Russian Cruisers passed their Sturginium Boost, gaining an extra 2” speed, successfully came around the southern islands and damaged 1 Cruiser from long range.  The Japanese Cruisers, simply moved forward, sank a Frigate with Torpedoes and damaged 2 Interceptors!

The Carrier Activated, replenished the missing Dive Bombers back to 4 tokens, passed its Sturginium Boost and managed to peak around the island enough to crit a Cruiser (Hard Pounding, -2AP).  The Japanes Dreadnought made a turn to Port with a minimal move where its turrets and rockets each caused a Crit on a Cruiser (Sturginium Flair – Cruiser teleported 11” to the upper Left – JUST in squadron Coherency!) and a Crit on the Carrier (Generator Offline).  Both ships gained a Fire Token as well!

That was the last activation for the Japanese.  Russian Interceptors dove down to Obscured, but failed to damage a Gyro.  The Russian battleship moved forward between the islands and using 2 turrets and broadsides, shot down 2 Interceptors and damaged the 3^rd!  The last Russian Fighter SAS moved to the left of the islands – within 4” of the Carrier.

End Phase: Once more the Japanese had nothing to repair.  For the Russians, the Generator was repaired on the Carrier and the Cruiser put out the fire, but both the Carrier and 1 interceptor still had a Raging Fire Token and lost an AP.

Victory Points:

EotBS:   260

RC:         140

End of Turn 2, Begining of Turn 3!

Turn 3:

EotBS won Initiative!

At this point, I must apologize.  My computer notes for the next turn were LOST!

(As an IT guy, I’m embarrassed and can only use this as an object lesson: SAVE & SAVE OFTEN!!!)

So, working from memory and pictures:

• A Japanese (SINGLE) fighter attacked my Dive Bombers (AGAIN?!?!?) and shot one or two down for their complete destruction.
• Russian Cruisers turn to present broadsides and turrets to a Cruiser – sinking it!
• Japanese Cruisers do a hard turn to Starboard and torpedo 1 Cruiser, turrets on another and rockets on a 3^rd, sinking 2 and damaging 1 (which passed its Disorder test).
• The Russian Carrier activated, replenished the Dive Bombers back to full strength, REPURPOSED a Fighter Squadron as Dive Bombers, advanced forward and crit a cruiser (Nav Lock) with its broadsides!
• I THINK the Japanese Dreadnought attacked the Carrier and Crit it twice with guns and rockets (Lotsa Fire and an Engine Damage).  Carrier was sitting with 1HP left around this point.
• Russian Dive Bombers fly over the island to the south, ready for next turn.
• Japanese Destroyers move and do something (can’t remember what).
• Russian Frigates race to front of Carrier and sink damaged Cruiser!  Survivor passed its Disorder test.
• The Japanese Gyros sink the Carrier with long ranged rocket fire (BARELY got the DR point they required)!  Whole fleet takes Disorder Tests – Frigates and Battleship FAIL!!!
• Battleship comes around island, but cannot Link its weapons so fires a turret at each Gyro, an undamaged Destroyer and broadsides at the Cruiser.  Damaged both Gyros and the Cruiser, but failed to damage the Destroyer.
• At some point, the Japanese Interceptor moved within 4" of a fighter squadron and declared AA against the fighters and rockets against a Cruiser.  As they were in Counter Attack range, the Fighters shot down the Interceptor before it could launch rockets at the Cruiser!
• Lots more of minor moves but nothing to note.

End of turn – the burning Russian Interceptor failed to put out the fire and crashed.

Russian Cruisers Sink a Japanese Cruiser

The Carrier in Flames!  The Cruisers all gone but 1!

Another Japanese Cruiser is sunk!

Thar She Blows!  The Russian Carrier slips beneath the waves!

The End of the Game!

Victory Points:

EotBS:   Close enough to 70% I conceded the match (<50 points)

RC: Nowhere near enough: Mission was to destroy all Mediums and 50% of the fleet value.

We rolled for the next turn and Japanese would have had initiative.  First activation, the Dread would either sink the Cruiser (giving him the required points) or damaged the Battleship enough that it would have been useless for the rest of the game.

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NASTY game!  I lost that one quite badly!

So what happened?

First, I need to remember that Graham loves his Dreadnoughts.  I prefer to have more activations (and I did have more than he had throughout the game) but in this game, the Japanese Dread had good mix of weapons and range.  The Dreadnought used its weapons to near maximum effect the entire game.  That scared me and I hid my Battleship AND Carrier behind the islands as a result – cutting down my own firepower significantly.  I may have been better off with my own Dreadnought in this case, though I would probably have hid behind the island still, waiting to jump out at Range Band 2 (Maximum Effect Range).

Second, I broke my own rule about ALWAYS taking the Saransk Skyships in squadrons of 3!  As usual (and expected), the Skyships drew an incredible amount of fire until they were destroyed.  By taking the 3^rd Skyship, I could have either kept the enemy fire distracted a bit longer or kept enough flying longer so they could have done something useful in turn 2 (at least dropping mines and being a nuisance).  By not taking 3, I would have been better off picking something else.

I tried to use the Russian Suyetka Interceptors as Anti-Air and they are NOT!  Though they have Pack Hunter, Suyetka do not have Air Hunter so there’s no bonus for attacking other aircraft.  Though fast for a Russian Small, they’re really pretty slow compared to other nations (only a 12” move per turn).  Suyetka really are best used to drop from the clouds and strafe surface targets, then head back into the clouds again. 

The Fleet Carrier was doing ok until I forgot it was my Commodore’s ship and I acted like it was a Battleship.  My intent was to move the Carrier first, firing its secondary broadsides, then screen the Carrier with the Battleship in the next activation.  The problem with that was the Carrier got its Sturginium Boosts and the Battleship didn’t, so the Battleship got left behind!  The Carrier DID restock and repurpose Fighters and Dive Bombers which was a constant threat to the Japanese, but I held them back too long.

You will note I haven’t been bemoaning the changes to Ablative Armour.  I won’t, either.  As good as they were in Ver 1.1, I felt “dirty” using Ablative in its previous incarnation.  My opponents always complained about it and I didn’t like using Russians against rookies as a result.  It really was too powerful and needed to be downgraded somehow.  The fact that we now have SOME Range Band 3 capability I think helps make up for the downgrade and makes it more important for Russian Players to plan ahead.

Looking at the Empire of the Blazing Sun, it’s hard to find fault.  The Dreadnought was a nasty surprise (though it shouldn’t have been) and very effective.  It was never under any real threat throughout the game.  The Scout Gyros are a pain to deal with, firing rockets and turrets every turn, especially targeting my own Skyships.  If I had any complaint about the Japanese forces, it was the very limited number of activations he had, simply because of the points cost tied up in the Dreadnought.  Not something I like, but it worked for Graham.

The other pain to me was the number of Incendiary Weapons the Japanese had.  The Rockets are especially bad due to their high numbers of attacks and superior range to the Russian’s weapons.  Though there were a large number of fires burning each turn, most were caused by Turrets, not Rockets.  Having Jammers on just about everything really seemed to hamper the Japanese dependency on rockets, especially when you followed up with AA as well!  I find having Jammers as a preferred generator really does help the Russians survive longer against most opponents, especially if they are notoriously dependent on either Torpedoes or Rockets.

Anyway, it was a good game, in spite of the thrashing my poor Russians received!  I’ll have to come up with something new for the Russians, soon!

Good Luck!