BatRep: 1,000 Points Kingdom of Britannia vs Prussian Empire

Admirak Von Shtupp was relaxing on the bridge of the SMS Kaiser Karl - the first of the Class of the Heavy Battleships.  Looking out the starboard window, he reminisced about the times he flew his flag from an Emperor-Class Battleship.  He had fond memories of those times.

The SMS Graf Zeppelin and SMS Graf von Zieten were back at port undergoing repairs and resupply.  The Pflichts were out on patrol over the crowded island chains.  Von Shtupp was patrolling near the Americas, looking for easy targets and gathering intelligence.  At least, that was the plan.

“Admiral!  We’ve spotted a fleet coming in to intercept us!”

“I suppose we should prepare to show the Americans a warm welcome.  I’ve never fought them before.”

“Admiral, they’re not Americans!  They’re Britanian!”

Oh well.  Maybe next time…

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Once more, the EEEEEvvvviiiiiillllll Britannians were after our hero, the Glorious Prussian Admiran von Shtupp!  The Cowards!  The Horror!!!

(Well, I had to come up with SOMETHING to start this Battle Report with!) 

A “New: idea to make things interesting:

Actually, Graham's done this to me numerous times, so I thought it only fair to share the “pain”.

I made up 5 separate lists, each for 1,000 points.  Each list was different “theme”, for lack of a better word.  One was heavy Air Support, one carrier, etc.  Then made him roll a dice (a 6 would require a re-roll – I just didn’t have time to come up with a 6^th list).  That would be the list to use.

The result: Each game, you not only know what fleet you’re going to have, as well as having to draw random missions!  More thrills (and heartache)!

Prussian Empire (PE) Deployment (Left to Right):

Prussian Empire Deployment 

• 3 Arminius Frigates
• 1 Kaiser Karl Heavy Battleship (the Commodore’s Flagship)
• Fighter SAS (5 Tokens)
• I Emperor Battleship
• 3 Hussar Gunships
• Fighter SAS (5 Tokens)
• 3 Riever Light Cruisers
• 3 Arminius Frigates

Kingdom of Britannia (KoB) Deployment (Left to Right):

Kingdom Of Britannia Deployment

• 4 Attacker Frigates
• 2 Agincourt Gunships
• Fighter SAS (5 Tokens)
• Fighter SAS (5 Tokens)
• 1 Ruler Battleship (may have had the Guardian Generator)
• 1 Majesty Dreadnought with 2 Bastion Escorts
• 4 Attacker Frigates

As you can see, we rolled pitifully little terrain.  One Massive Island in each of the Middle sections.

The Other “Oops” isn’t really a mistake, so much as a condition of the game.  NEITHER of us brought carriers, but had to declare the SAS squadrons in advance.  As a result, we both ended up with 2 SAS of Fighters (to deal with each other’s non-existent Air Forces) that would have absolutely no impact on the naval actions below.  On the other hand, they did provide a couple of extra activations for stalling…

We drew our missions, selected our Tactical Action Cards (TACs) and stared each other down as the dice began to roll…

Turn 1

Neither of us played TACs for the first turn.  Britannia won initiative.

The Britannian Dreadnought moved forward, flanked by her escorts, and turned her weapons on the Kaiser Karl.  After a bit of nail biting, the Karl suffered a Hit Point of damage.  Not a good start for the Prussians!  Kaiser Karl moved forward and fired everything she had back at the Dreadnought, but failed to damage the mighty ship.  Britannian attention hadn’t shifted from the Prussian Ship yet as the Britannian Battle Ship moved forward and attacked the Karl as well.  Fortunately, Karl’s legendary toughness prevented any further damage!

Seeking to protect the Kaiser Karl, the Prussian Gunships raced forward to blast the Britannian Battleship and scored a Crit!  Sadly I rolled “Chaos and Disarray”, something that wouldn’t impact the Battleship too much, so I played “Lucky or Unlucky shot”, allowing me to re-roll the Crit.  Graham was having none of that and cancelled the card by playing “Espionage”.  A quick 40VPs for the Prussians!

Realizing that their Battleship was now in danger, the British Gunships sailed out from beside the island and fired on the Prussian Gunships, damaging 1 ship and Crit the other (Chaos and Disarray).  This is what the Emperor was waiting for!  Time to move out and blast the Gunships!  EXCEPT!  I had moved MY Gunships in the way and the Prussian Battleship didn’t have the room to sneak behind the Prussian Gunships and attack the Britannian ones.  Dejected, The Emperor Battleship did a move forward and managed to damage one of the Britannian Escorts.

Britannian Frigates on the Prussian Left dashed forward, formed a Line Of Battle as they turned to starboard, but their long-range fire failed to damage anything.  Prussian Frigates on the left raced forward to attack and managed to damage 1 Frigate.

After all that, we both wasted time by fluttering our SAS around, jockeying for position but not attacking.  Obviously, neither of us wanted to be the next to expose a vulnerability, but ultimately, the Prussians had more stalling power than the Britannians.

Finally, the Britannian Forces had to activate something, so the Frigates on the Prussian Right moved forward and formed another Line Of Battle.  Sadly for the Britannians, they failed to damage anything and they were the last unit to activate.

Gleefully, the Prussian Rievers and Frigates poured out from behind the island and did . . NOTHING!  Sad, sad day for Prussian marksmanship…

In the End Phase, I missed noting if anything was repaired this turn. 

End of Turn 1

VPs:
PE:          40
KoB:       0!

(This is the first game I think we have ever had where NO ships were sunk in Turn 1!)

Turn 2

Both players glared at each other and Snapped down cards for the TAC Phase!  Britannia played “Radio Intercept” and rolled +1 to their Initiative roll.  Prussians played “Lost Orders”!!!  Britannia lost “Brace For Impact”.  20 more VP each!

Of course, Prussians won the Initiative (with Double-Sixs – Take THAT!  “+1 Initiative" – HAH!!!)

Prussian Gunships moved forward once again and blasted the British Battleship, getting another Crit (Hard Pounding – 7AP left).  

Gunships Crit the Battleship!

The British Dreadnought moved forward, its Escorts moved to the far side (hiding out-of-sight).  The Dreadnought then turned its weapons on a Gunship and the Kaiser Kark, damaging the Battleship but failed to damage the Gunship.

On the other side of the battle, the Rievers formed a Line Of Battle and fired everything at the lead Gunship, critting it.  Rolling on the chart, the Gunship suffered a Magazine Explosion, Just sinking it, another Frigate that was just a little too close and damaged the Gunship following close behind!  First Blood for the Prussians!  The Surviving Gunship, shocked by the violence of the explosion, failed its Disorder test!

Magazine Explosion!

The British Battleship managed to Crit a Gunship (glad they had already been activated).  Prussian Frigates on the right attacked and sank 2 more Britannian Frigates!  The Prussians were on a roll!

Britannian Frigates Sunk by Prussians!

Britannian Frigates on the left attacked and damaged 2 Prussian Frigates.  The Prussian Emperor Battleship did a minimum move forward and successfully damaged the Britannian Battleship.  The Surviving Britannian Gunship, despite being Disordered, turned towards and managed to sink a Riever Light Cruiser!  Britannia finally sank a ship!

Prussian Riever Sunk!

Meanwhile, in the skies above, the Britannian and Prussian Fighter SAS engaged each other.  All 4 SAS squadrons suffered casualties!

Prussian Frigates on the left move forward and damaged another Britannian Frigate.  The Britannian Frigates counter-attacked and damaged 1 Frigate and Crit a Riever (Fusion Leak – 3 Corrosion Markers!)!  The Kaiser Karl then turned her turrets towards the Dreadnought and Played “Devastating Barrage”.  The Britannian Admiral realized he couldn’t take the chance and dispelled it with “Stoke The Engines”.  As a result, the Karl missed critting the Dreadnought by a single hit!

In the End Phase, the Prussians repaired all damage effects without incident.  The Britannian Gunship lost 2 AP and then Rallied – all other damage repaired.

End of Turn 2

VPs:
PE:          280VP
KoB:       110VP

Turn 3

In the TAC Phase, both player played “Battlefield Repairs”.  The Britannian Battleship repaired its damage from 5HP to 3HP gone.  Prussians were luckier; managed to repair 4 HP damage on the Hussar Gunship Squadron, repairing all but 1HP of damage to the Squadron!

Prussia won the Initiative.

Prussian Gunships started to Circle the Britannian Battleship and all 3 fired their Tesla Generators at the ship, but only 1 Tesla inflicted damage; Hard Pounding (6AP left).  The Gunships then opened fired and managed to damage the Battleship once more.

Meanwhile, the Britannian Dreadnought (with Escorts hiding on the far side) reminded the Prussians that while Frigates are maneuverable, they can still be rammed.  The Prussian Frigate Squadron on the left was completely mowed down by the speeding bulk of the massive ship.  The Dreadnought then played “Devastating Barrage” (which was cancelled with “Stoke The Engines”) and fired on the Kaiser Karl, damaging it.

Prussian Speed Bump!

On the other side of the battle zone, the Prussian Frigates maneuvered to board the Gunship while they fired on the Britannian Frigates.  When the smoke cleared, One Frigate was damaged and the Boarding had failed!  One Frigate lost their AP to the Gunship’s AA while another Frigate lost a crew in deadly hand-to-hand combat while the Gunship lost only 1 AP – resulting in a TIE!  Per the boarding rules, this meant that the Boarders made their way back to their ships under the smoke and confusion of the battle and no further damage to either side.

Prussian Frigates Fail To Board The Gunship!

The Britannian Battleship, feeling out-numbered and surrounded, mad a minimal move forward, turning her torpedo tubes towards the Emperor Battleship as the guns prepared to engage the Gunships at Range Band 1!  When the smoke cleared, the Emperor Battleship was damaged by Armor Piercing Torpedoes and suffered “Hard Pounding” effect.  The Gunships suffered 2 ships damaged and the third was crit (Chaos & Disarray).

The Rievers, laughing at their Fellow Captains on the Frigates raced forward to board the Britannian Gunship.  Or tried to.  When the Boarding Phase ended, the Gunship and ALL the Riever Cruisers had run out of Assault Points!  When both sides run out of AP, the Attacker commits an act of Sabotage.  As a result, the Gunship suffered 2 Raging Fires and an AP.  As the Gunship had no AP left, the ship lost a Hull Point instead (we couldn’t find an example in the rule book right then, but agreed it seemed the most likely outcome based on other situations where the ship loses an AP and has none).

Britannian Gunship Survives a Second Boarding Attempt

Laughing at the Prussians, the Gunship made a turn to starboard and fired on a Riever and SANK it!  The Survivor, Shocked at first failing to board the target in the first place, and seeing their sister ship sank instead, failed its Disorder Test!

Britannian Gunship Sinks a Riever!

The Prussian Emperor Battleship turned to starboard and fired on the Gunship and caused a crit (Generators Offline).  The last Britannian Frigate on the right turned to port and fired on the Prussian Frigates, but failed to cause any damage.  The Kaiser Karl fired all its weapons at the British Battleship, but the only thing to cause damage was the Speerscluder!  This added a Lightning Rod counter and removed another AP from the Battleship.  The Britannian Frigates on the left moved forward, turning to port and targeting the Kaiser Karl.  Fortunately (for Karl), there was no damaged to the Prussian Heavy Battleship.

Ending the Activation Phase, the fighters went at it again.  This resulted in both Britannian SAS destroyed while the Prussians were reduced to 1 and 2 Tokens each!  Prussia had Air Supremacy, but it was worth NOTHING!!!

In the End Phase, the Britannian Battleship managed to remove the Lightning Rod.  The Britannian Gunship was unable to put out all the fires and as a result, the burning hulk sank beneath the waves.  The Prussians couldn’t laugh as their Riever lost enough AP in its attempt to rally (which it didn’t have) that when it transferred into HP damage, it sank the Light Cruiser!

End of Turn 3!

VPs:
PE:          410VP
KoB:       340VP

Turn 4

Britannia won the Initiative!

In one of those “Use-It-Or-Lose-It!” moments, the Britannian Battleship activated and attacked the Emperor Battleship.  The Emperor suffered a Crit (Chaos & Disarray) – the LAST thing I wanted!  Chaos & Disarray prevents boarding attacks – the primary reason why I brought the Emperor!

Prussian Emperor Under Fire!

The Kaiser Karl turned to port and fired, all weapons failing to damage their Targets!  The Dreadnought turned its guns on the Emperor next and crit the Emperor once again (Navigation Lock – NOW I couldn’t turn to ram the Britannian Battleship which otherwise was in perfect position)! 

On the other side of the battle zone, the Prussian Frigates made a 180 degree turn and sank the last Britannian Frigate on the right, clearing that half of the board of the Britannian Forces.

Another Britannian Frigate Sunk!

Back on the left, the Britannian Frigates moved forward and unloaded guns and torpedoes on the Emperor Battleship.  It was too much for the brave battleship.  It finally succumbed to its injuries and sank into a watery grave.

Death of the Emperor!

Trying to Avenge the Emperor, the Prussian Gunships continued to circle the Britannian Battleship and inflicted another Crit (Shredded Defences).

In the End Phase, the Britannian Battleship failed to repair the Shredded Defences.  The Prussian Gunships managed to remove the Chaos & Disarray from their squadron.

VPs:
PE:          440VP
KoB:       530VP – (Britannia hadn’t completed their objectives yet)

Turn 5

Kingdom of Britannia won Initiative again!

The Britannian Battleship declared Ramming Action and rammed the Kaiser Karl!  After we rolled the dice – NEITHER ship had suffered any damage!  Kaiser Karl then did a 90 degree pivot to disengage the ships.  While the Ram didn’t damage the either ship, this allowed the British Battleship to fire all weapons.  The Battleship was able to crit a Gunship (Engine Failure).

This was my chance!  The Britannian Battleship had Shredded Defences and had lost over half its Assault Points!  The Karl made a minimum move and boarded the Britannian Battleship!  Or tried to.  In one of the WORST rolls of the game, the Kaiser Karl’s Boarding action was DEFEATED by the minimal Britannian crew!  The only saving grace was that because it had Shredded Defences, the Battleship couldn’t take advantage of the retreat and use its AA on the AP as they disengaged.

The Dreadnought crossed the stern of the Kaiser Karl and blasted with everything it had and caused a crit (Hard Pounding – 5AP left)! 

Absoluetly frustrated and not wanting to take chances, the Gunships continued their circling of the Britannian Battleship and fired all weapons.  When the smoke cleared, the Britannian Battleship was nowhere to be found! 

The Britannian Battleship is Lost!

In retaliation, the Britannian Frigates turned and blasted the lead Gunship out of the water!

Britannian Frigates Sink a Gunship!

Finally, the Prussian Frigates on the far Right raced towards the rest of the conflict, but were too far away to make an impact this turn.  The Prussian Fighters could do nothing but watch the battle as it continued to unfold below them.

In the End Phase, the Prussians failed to repair anything.

VPs:
PE:          635VP   Sink 50% & all Mediums: Completed!
KoB:       615VP   Sink 50% & all Larges & Massives – Incomplete!

Prussian Victory!

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WOW!  NASTY Battle!

Normally, a battle like this would only last 2-3 turns.  To last 5 turns like this one did is all attributed to the missions we drew and the forces we used!

First, the Prussians had an "easier" time as they only needed to sink 500 points and all the Medium-Sized vehicles.  Sinking the Mediums was relatively easy (the weakness of having a single Medium Squadron).  While I wiped out the squadrons on the right, the left was more problematic as most of the smalls hid behind the protection of the Dreadnought.  That left the Battleship as a prime target.  While I was able to focus 2 Battleships and a Gunship Squadron at the Britannian Battleship, it proved to be a tougher target than I originally planned.

Not to mention how many failed Boarding attempts I made.  So much for the "Prussian Boarding Powers"...

On the Britannians side, he drew a tough mission - having to sink or capture 2 large major warships, and battleships at that.  While the Emperor finally sank, it took 5 turns and the Kaiser Karl, though badly damaged, was still had more than 1/2 its Hull Points by the end of the battle.  Not an easy mission at all.

In the end, though I won the game by completing both parts of the mission, there was only a difference of only 20VPs between our scores.  This really was a much closer battle than it appeared!

Anyway, a great battle!  I enjoyed it immensely!

Now excuse me.  I need to figure out some new lists for next battle!

Good Luck!