BatRep: Dystopian Wars 2 – 1500pt Kingdom of Britannia vs Prussian Empire

Admiral Von Shtupp paced the deck.  He was still not comfortable on the Pride of the Prussian Fleet, the Sturmbringer Submarine U-102.  He missed his Battleship, but it was still out for refit and repairs.

Meanwhile, Von Shtupp had orders to probe the northern Scottish Coast.  Naval Intelligence said that the British Grand Fleet was away - where was not clear but High Command wanted to do a quick reconnaissance and possibly a raid while the fleet was away.

That's IF they could trust Naval Intelligence...

Suddenly, the sub's warning klaxon sounded!  "Enemy Fleet spotted!  Battle Stations!  Battle Stations!"

Well, thought Von Shtupp, that answered THAT question...

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Playing our first “Posted” game of Dystopian Wars Version 2, it was Graham & his Kingdom of Britannia vs my Prussian Empire.  This would be fun as I haven’t posted a Dystopian Wars battle here since I started Beta Testing!  Hope I remember how!!!

First thing required in DW2, we rolled for Strategic and Operational Advantages.  Prussians won Strategic Advantage, British Operational Advantage.  What’s the Difference?  Well, Strategic Advantage chooses which table side they want (the “Main Deployment” zone) and determines who deploys first in the Advance Deployment Zone.  Operational Advantage gets to choose who deploys in the Main Deployment Zone first and which side they want as their Flanking zone.

All units on both sides need to be assigned to one of the following forces: Flanking, Advance, Reserve or Main forces.  This is done as part of the fleet-building.  You cannot change your mind dependent on missions, opponents, etc.

In DW2, the table is divided into “Zones”.  “No Man’s Land” is 8” from the Center Line – nothing can be deployed here.  The Next 8” is your Advance Deployment zone for any Advance forces (may not include any Large or Massive units other than Fortifications – no time for mobile units to get there).  Next is your Main Deployment zone (the rest of the table) for your Main Force; anything not identified as being Advance, Reserve or Flanking forces.  The Main force MUST contain at least 1 Massive/Large choice, 1 Medium choice and 1 Small choice – all from your core force (Naval in our mission), as well as the Commodore’s unit.  Flanking forces come in on the sides of the table in the 16” of No Man’s Land on a random turn.  Reserve forces come onto the Main Deployment zone’s table edge, also on a randomly determined turn. 

From the Prussian view, the “Southern Edge” was their Deployment Zone.  Terrain consisted of 2 Massive Islands in the North-East corner and another 2 Massive Islands in the South West corner.  Prussian Flanking zone was the Western Board edge (Prussian Left), the British got the Eastern edge (Prussian Right).

Neither side had Advance or Reserve forces.  Prussians had a Flanking force (just to be different), though the British did not. 

The Prussian Deployment was in two parts:

The Main Force was (Left to Right)

• 3 Riever Light Cruisers
• 2 Pflicht Scout Airships (obscured)
• an Imperium Skyfortress with a flight of 5 Dive Bombers and a Recon Flight
• a flight of 5 Fighters beside the Skyfortress
• 3 Donnerfaust Support Cruisers & 4 Stolz Destroyers
• a Sturmbringer Submarine (submerged) & its Recon Flight with the Commodore
• 2 Pflicht Scout Airships (obscured)
• a flight of 5 Fighters
• 5 Saxony Corvettes

Prussian Flanking Force (deployed on the Prussian Left):

• 5 Zerstorer Strike Bombers – arriving turn 1

(I had chosen the Bombers as a Flanking force because of their speed and the fact they could overfly any obstructions or terrain on the table.  Not knowing what the table was going to be like before the forces are chosen, things like that can make a HUGE difference in what you want in Flanking or Reserves.  It also helped that if they didn’t show up in time, my strategy didn’t need them – the Strike Bombers were completely expendable!)

The British fleet started to deploy and part way through deployment, we realized he forgot to include a Medium Naval choice to his Core Fleet (in fact, he didn’t have any Mediums at all!).  So a quick re-write was done and we ended up with the following list.

The Kingdom of Britannia only had their Main Force (From the Prussian’s Left to Right):

• a flight of 5 Fighters
• 4 Attacker Frigates and a flight of 5 Fighters
• 4 Attacker Frigates & 2 Agincourt Gunships
• 3 Orion Destroyers
• a Ruler Battleship with Guardian Generator
• 4 Attacker Frigates
• 4 Attacker Frigates
• a Majesty Dreadnought with a Pulse Generator
• a Regent Battle Carrier with 5 Fighters and a Recon Flight with the Commodore

Final Deployment

After deployment, we drew cards to determine what our missions were.  We didn’t have the official TAC or Mission Cards (they hadn’t arrived yet), so I just used a deck of normal playing cards to determine what missions we would get. Picking the Ace through 6 cards on 2 separate suites and shuffling the suites independently, we drew our mission number.  Both of us chose to keep what we drew.  (If we hadn’t liked the mission, we could voluntarily opt for 70% of the enemy force, but it would then be public knowledge.)  We could have each rolled a dice, but that leads to confusion if the dice gets knocked around, etc…

As stated, I didn’t have TAC yet, so we went without.  Sorry!

Turn 1

Prussians won Initiative!  (Too bad I didn’t want it yet!)

Things started slowly.  Prussians moved the Sub’s Recon flight to kill an activation.  British retaliated by doing the same thing with their Carrier’s Recon, but then the Prussians had an extra Recon because of their Carrier and moved it next!

Forced to activate something useful, the British Battleship moved slowly around the edge of the islands and fired their guns and torpedoes at the Prussian Sub.  Because it was submerged, the guns lost ½ their Attack Dice (AD) and required 5+ to hit, so caused no damage.  Torpedoes are not hampered by this, but the Sub’s Concussion Charges (CC) stopped enough so that no damage.

The Prussian SAS (Support Aircraft Squadron) Dive Bombers moved forward over an island, not wanting to go too far forward as there were 2 SAS Fighter Squadrons across the table, waiting.

The British Dreadnought slowly moved between the 2 islands on the North East.  With limited visibility, it opened fire with their forward turrets at the Prussian Corvettes, damaging 1 and sinking another.  First Blood to the British!  The Corvettes passed their Disorder test.

First Blood!

Stalling for time (gee, those British have a lot of Frigates over there…), a Prussian SAS Fighter squadron moved forward, pacing the Dive Bombers and stalling for time.

British Destroyers advanced towards the Prussian Support Cruisers, firing guns and torpedoes, but discovered the Cruisers were out of gun range.  The torpedoes were once again stopped by CCs, no damage to the Cruisers.  Unfortunately, the Destroyers were going to block Line-Of-Sight to the British Gunships which I had planned to target with the Donnerfaust.  Activating the Prussian Frigates, they charged the British Destroyers and managed to sink 1!  Prussians are on the board!  The British Destroyers passed their Disorder test.

First British Loss!

The British, angered by the attack, sent their Gunships forward, firing guns and torpedoes at the Prussian Frigates, but only managed to damage 1.  This freed up the Line-Of-Sight issues for the Donnerfaust Support Cruisers and they turned to Starboard, firing all their Speerschleuders at 1 Gunship, critting it!  Besides the Critical Hit (Chaos & Disarray), the ship took a Lightning Rod token (all Tesla-Based weapons count as Devastating weapons until removed) AND lost 1 Assault Point (AP) due to the properties of the Speerschleuders!  In retaliation, one of the MANY Frigate squadrons on the left moved to starboard and made a torpedo attack on one of the Donnerfaust and got a Crit (NavLock)!

Donnerfaust Demonstrate Speerschleuders!

Wanting to protect my smalls but needing to use up an Activation, the Prussian Destroyers moved forward slowly, hiding behind the wall of Donnerfaust.  On the right of the table, another British Frigate squadron snaked between the Battleship and the island, turned to port and managed to sink one of the Prussian Frigates!  The Frigates passed their Disorder test.

A Prussian Frigate Burns!

With the Dread and Battleship having already activated, the Prussian Sub surfaced, turned to starboard and fired everything at the British Battleship, damaging it.  Once again, the Speerschleuders added a Lightning Rod and removed an AP as well!  The Sub tried to dive again (using Swift Manoeuvres), but failed the required roll.  British Frigates snaked out between the two North Eastern islands and the Dreadnought, managing to sink another Frigate.  The Frigates passed their Disorder test.

A 2nd Prussian Frigate Sinks!

The Prussian Pflicht Scoutships on the right, stayed obscured in the clouds and turned to port, pointing their Teslas at the Gunship with the Lightning Rod and fired their broadsides at some Frigates.  As the energy arced towards the Gunship, it damaged the hull and killed another AP while the broadsides sank one of the British Frigates.  The Frigates passed their Disorder test.

The British Carrier’s SAS Fighter squadron moved over the islands towards table center (and the battle).  The Prussian Skyfortress stayed obscured and fired its Tesla at the same Lightning Rodded (is that a word?) Gunship, damaging the vessel and removing another AP.  The poor Gunship was in really bad shape at this point, thanks in large part to the Lightning Rod.

The British Carrier activated, but was faced with a conundrum.  There wasn’t enough room to fit between the Islands (thanks to the Massive Dreadnought “corking” the passage).  It was forced to do a hard turn to starboard, but couldn’t move very far for fear of ramming its own Dreadnought!  It moved and turned just enough to avoid colliding with the island next turn and then declared “Slow Manoeuvres" (the old “All Stop”).  The Prussian Corvettes then sailed forward at full speed and blasted away at a Frigate squadron, sinking 1.  The survivors passed their Disorder test.

Prussian Corvettes Strike Back!

The last squadron of British Frigates activated and turned to starboard.  While their torpedoes failed to damage a Donnerfaust, the Frigates sank another Prussian Frigate, leaving a single ship in the squadron.  Unable to take the strain of constant shelling, the last Frigate failed its Disorder test!

The Prussian Riever Light Cruisers finally activated, moving at full speed around the far side of the islands on the South West.  In spite of the long range, the Rievers were able to sink 2 British Frigates from 2 separate squadrons.  Both squadrons passed their Disorder tests.

British and Prussian Fighters jostled for position for the next 3 activations.  This completed all the British Activations, leaving a couple of unchallenged Prussian Activations.  The Prussian Pflicht Scoutships on the left activated, turned to Starboard and fired their Teslas at long range, but failed to damage the Gunboat with the Lightning Rod.  Finally, the flanking force, the Strike Bombers, moved at Maximum speed from the flank and managed to sink another British Frigate!  The Squadron passed their Disorder test.

In the End Phase, the British were unable to repair ANY of their Critical Effects OR knock off any of the Lightning Rods!  The Prussians repaired the NavLock on the Donnerfaust and the Prussian Frigate rallied after losing all its AP!

Victory Points:

KoB:   110

PE:      190

End of Turn 1 - Start of Turn 2

Turn 3:

Prussians won Initiative once more!

Stuck with a problem, the Prussian commander decided to risk the Sub on the Surface and attack with the Strike Bombers first!  (There were 2 Squadrons of British SAS Fighters in striking distance – I figured they were lost anyway.)  Dropping out of the clouds, the Strike Bombers inundated the damaged Gunship with bombs, causing a double-crit and sinking the crippled ship.  After dropping their bombs, 3 of the 5 Bombers successfully climbed back into the clouds, leaving 2 below.

Strike Bombers . . Strike!

The British Battleship turned to port around the island, firing torpedoes and secondary guns at 2 Donnerfaust.  While the Secondary Guns missed the damaged ship, the undamaged Donnerfaust suffered 3 Raging Fires and a lost AP from the torpedo attack!  The Battleships Turrets all fired on the surfaced Sub, and Crit it (Generators Offline).  Angered (and not thinking clearly), the Sub stayed on the surface and fired everything at the Battleship once more.  The shots caused a Crit (Guns Damaged), added another Lightning Rod and cost the Battleship another AP, but kept the Sub on the surface instead of safely diving.  British Frigates formed a Line-Of-Battle beside the Corvettes and blasted the end ship to oblivion!  The rest of the Corvettes passed their Disorder test.

Another Corvette Bites The Dust!

The Lone Prussian Frigate, embarrassed at their cowardice, launched a suicidal attack on the British Destroyers, accidentally sinking 1!  The Surviving Destroyer passed its Disorder test.

Suicidal Attack Not So Suicidal!

The British Dread sailed out from between the islands.  Her Primary Guns were 1 point short of a Double Crit on the Sub (Guns) while the secondary weapons failed to damage the Donnerfaust.  Prussian Corvettes moved forward and engaged the lead Frigate beside the British Battleship at point-blank range – and FAILED to DAMAGE it!  Laughing, the British Destroyer moved forward and failed its Torpedo attack on the Donnerfaust!  Sadly, its guns did damage the last Prussian Frigate.  Prussian Rievers moved forward at full speed, each targeting a different British Frigate.  When the smoke cleared, 2 Frigates were damaged and another sunk!  The Frigate squadron passed its Disorder test.

A British SAS Fighter attacked the Strike Bombers, but only succeeded in damaging 1 bomber for a loss of 2 tokens.  The Donnerfaust did a hard turn to port, formed a rough Line-Of-Battle and fired all weapons but 1 on the last British Gunship, causing a Double-Crit (NavLock & 3 Raging Fires) as well as landing a Lightning Rod and shaving off an extra AP!  The last weapon was blocked by the British Destroyer, so the Speerschleuder was shot at the Destroyer.  Surprisingly, the Speerschleuder managed to Crit the Destroyer, sinking it!

Donnerfaust Damage The Last Gunship & Sink the Last Destroyer!

In a show of Seamanship (and insanity), a squadron of British Frigates snaked their way between the island, the British Battleship and the Prussian Corvettes, shooting their weapons at the Prussain Sub as they sailed out.  Though the torpedoes failed to damage the Sub, guns managed to shave another Hull Point off the surfaced Sub.  Pflicht Scoutships on the right targeted the Battleship and the Frigates and though they damaged the Battleship (and shaved off an extra AP), the Pflichts were unable to damage any of the Frigates.  Seeking revenge, a flight of British SAS Fighters attacked the Pflichts, causing a crit (Chaos & Disarray) for the loss of 3 tokens.  Prussian Fighters attacked the weakened fighter squadron and destroyed it completely for the loss of 1 token. 

Note: This was important as Carriers cannot replenish SAS that are completely destroyed.

The British Carrier, on Slow Manoeuvres, pivoted enough to avoid colliding with the islands, then announced it was dropping the “Slow Manoeuvres” token, This would enable the carrier to move normally in the following turn.  Prussian Pflichts on the left dropped to flying level, but failed to damage anything and both failed to go back into the clouds after their failed attacks.  The British Gunship did a minimum move forward due to NavLock and failed to damage any of the Donnerfaust, though its torpedo turret did manage to damage one of the Riever Light Cruisers.Prussian Dive Bombers started moving towards the table center, waiting for an opportunity to do something.  British SAS Fighers attacked the Pflicht Scoutships on the left, critting one (1 Raging Fire & 1 lost AP) for the cost of 2 tokens.  Finally, the Prussian Skyfortress, still obscured in the clouds, moved forward and turned its forward Tesla towards the last British Gunship and sank it.

The Skyfortress Sinks The last Gunship!

Another British Frigate Squadron moved forward and attacked the Donnerfaust Support Cruisers, but failed to cause any damage.  Prussian Destroyers finally came out from the shadows of the Donnerfaust, but failed to damage any of the British Frigates!  Another British Frigate Squadron turned and formed Line-Of-Battle, but also failed to damage anything!!!  Finally, a Prussian Fighter SAS attacked and destroyed another under-strength British Fighter SAS for the loss of 1 token.  Both sides then buzzed their Recon Flights around, ending the turn.

In the End Phase, the British managed to repair all the Critical Effects AND knocked off all the Lightning Rods!  The Prussians managed to repair all their Critical Effects and put out the multiple fires burning around the table.

VPs:

KoB:   130

PE:      480

End Of Turn 2 - Start Of Turn 3

Turn 3:

British won the Initiative!

As the Prussian Commander, I was sweating bullets!  My Commodore’s Sub was surfaced and the Dreadnought only needed to crit the Sub once to sink it!

Fortunately, the British activated a Fighter SAS and moved it towards the British Carrier.  With a sigh of relief, The Prussian Sub went beneath the waves and made a 180 degree turn – heading back towards the rest of the Prussian Fleet and safety!  Realizing his error, the British Battleship moved at full speed towards the sub and in a series of the most horrendous rolling of the game, failed to damage the sub!  (I think he rolled only 1 hit!)  The Pflicht on the right took the opportunity to come out of the clouds and attack the British Frigates with Teslas and bombs.  AA crit one of the Pflicht, but they were still able to sink 1 Frigate, then boarded and prized the British Battleship!

Capturing the British Battleship

British Frigates raced towards the submerged Prussian Sub, but only 1 made it into CC range.  Needless to say the Frigates failed to damage the sub, but they did manage to sink a Destroyer.  The Destroyers passed their Disorder test.

Prussian Destroyers Under Fire!

Prussian Rievers continued their high-speed dash forward, forming a Line-Of-Battle and turning broadsides and turrets on the British Frigates.  When the smoke cleared, 3 Frigates were sunk – 1 squadron completely destroyed, though a second squadron managed to pass their Disorder test.

Rievers Unleashed!

At this point, my opponent said he conceded the match.  He just wanted to make 1 last activation – just to see if he could win a moral victory.  He activated his Dreadnought and moved at full speed towards the Prussian Sub.  Turning 5 turrets on the beast towards the Prussain, he fired.  Now a submerged sub requires 5+ to hit AND as he was using guns (no sub-killer rule), all his weapons were at ½ dice!  Also, the Prussan Sub had Rugged Construction which made him loose 1 extra dice from his attack pool.  Holding his breath, he rolled the dice – and rolled EXACTLY what he needed to get a Crit!  The Prussian Submarine was sunk, along with the fleet Commodore!

VPs:

KoB:   430      Mission: 50% of the Fleet Value + Sink the Commodore’s Vessel  (1/2 Completed)

PE:      1010    Mission: 50% of the Fleet Value + ALL Mediums (Fully Completed)

Prussian Victory!

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Well, that was an interesting battle!

Looking at the Prussian Forces, everything worked the way I had planned.  I had specifically chosen the Donnerfaust and the Sturmbringer Submarine for the use of their Speerschleuder.  I wanted to optimise the use of my Tesla Weapons and the Speerschleuder just made them that much more effective.  By planning when and where to use them, the Donnerfaust and Sturmbringer were able to stick the Lightning Rods where and when I needed them.

The Strike Bombers are a fun choice.  I had other options (such as the Jager or the Speerwurf) but someone told me the Zerstoer Strike Bombers were useless and should be avoided.  Like another player I know, I just had to try and prove it wrong.  In the end, the Zerstoer were quite useful.

Taking the Skyfortress and 2 Squadrons of Pflichts seemed to be a good choice to team up with the Donnerfaust & Sturmbringer.  Their forward Teslas really were boosted by the effects of the Lightning Rods.

A lot of people complained about the Riever Cruisers, but with their downgrade to Light Cruiser status and their new rules, the Rievers are very effective "Small" hunters.  At 150 points for 3, they're very cost effective, too.  A squadron of 4 Destroyers is 160pts and 4 Frigates is 120pts so Rievers are right in the middle.

My Small choices were all decent choices, but I did keep the Stolz Destroyers back too long.  That was my fault, not the Destroyers.  The Frigates and Corvettes performed well (as I expected they would).

Sadly, I was hoping to demonstrate the SAS and Carrier rules a bit more, but I never did need the Dive Bombers and the Fighters never made it back fast enough to be replenished and/or repurposed.  Maybe next time.

On the British side, WOW!  He REALLY had some bad luck with dice!  I can't emphasize it enough!  I didn't win the game so much as his dice rolls lost him his game!  The score shows how badly he was rolling.

The other issue, was his forgetting the requirement for Mediums choices.  He dropped a 2nd Battleship (for which I am grateful) to free up the required points to take the 2 Gunships and a few upgrades throughout the rest of the fleet.  He really should have dropped some Frigates and gotten a 2nd Medium Squad of almost any type.  There was a 1 in 5 chance I would draw the mission I did and it was the worst possible mission for him I could have drawn.  Having only 1 Squadron of Mediums (and an under-sized one at that) really made it too easy to accomplish 1/2 my mission objectives.

The only other thing I'll comment on was the British Deployment.  We discussed it afterwards, but I think he made a mistake putting both the Dreadnought and Carrier behind the islands.  Though the Dreadnought headed out immediately, it's angles for Line Of Sight were severely limited until Turn 3 so it was never able to use all its weapons to full effect, crippling the Dreadnought's efforts.

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Admiral Von Shtupp was furious!  Not only had Naval Intelligence gotten their facts wrong, it almost cost Von Shtupp his life!  As it was, it did cost him his Command Ship!

Von Shtupp wasn't sure how he got out alive.  One moment, he was in the conning tower of U-102, submerged and running away from the British Frigates, the next thing he remembered was bobbing on the water, being towed by some crewmen amidst the wreckage of the U-102 and bodies of the crew.  In fact, by some miracle, some 7 people survived the sinking of the sub, in spite of the odds.  From what Von Shtupp learned from the other survivors, the ship split in half in a large explosion, ejecting some of the crew in the process.

In Spite of the humiliation of losing his command, Von Shtupp was pleased to learn that his fleet did drive back the British with relatively light losses.  Already High Command was reportedly congratulating themselves for such a successful mission and The Emperor was asking some very pointed questions to the command of Naval Intelligence.  Rumour had it that a medal and a promotion would soon be coming...

Oh well, thought Von Shtupp, calming himself a bit.  At least I'll be getting a new command.  Hopefully something more appropriate for my proven ability!