BatRep: Dystopian Wars - 1000pts, Kingdom of Britannia vs Prussian Empire

Admiral Von Shtupp was happy.  Once more, he was at sea, in command of a Prussian Task Force.  The best place for an Admiral to be.  As he looked out the windows of the bridge of SMS Graf von Zeppelin, a Blucher Dreadnought, and he had to wonder what the day would bring.

This patrol was another Search-And-Destroy mission.  Von Shtupp’s mission was to track down and sink a Britannian Dreadnought that had been spotted in the area.  In his last battle, the enemy's Dreadnought had escaped.  Von Shtupp was determined it would not happen again.

Now they just had to find a Britannian task force and hope sink the Dreadnought once and for all.  A Britannian Task Force with something as dangerous as a Dreadnought was something that could not be allowed near the new Prussian Carrabiean Base.

It shouldn't be too difficult. 

Should it?

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First of all - an apology.  Some of the pics turned out terrible this time around.
I need to get a better camera...

The forces of those Imperious Warmongers of the Britannia had once more tried to trespass on to righteously conquered territory of the Peaceful Prussian Peoples!

Nyaaaa!  That sounded wrong even as I was typing it.  The Prussians were out to kick some Britannian Butt!  What else mattered?

I was feeling guilty as I haven’t posted a Dystopian War report in a while.  So Graham and I decided to blow the dust off the figs and, once more, sail the Seven Seas.  We quickly agreed to do a 1000 point battle and I started plotting his demise. 

I quickly realized that I hadn’t put any limitations on the lists.  I could probably expect to see an enemy Dreadnought (he’s predictable that way), so would bring my own.  I wanted some extra Air Support, and had to decide which way to go.  In the end, I decided I wanted the Fleet Carrier.  The problem with these choices, it takes up a LOT of my 1000 points.  I was going to have to be frugal with the rest of my points.

So, rolling the Dice, once more the Prussians had the Strategic Advantage and the Britannians had the Operational Advantage. 

The Battle area was a standard 6’ X 4’ area.  Rolling random terrain we both did horribly.  Only 2 islands.  One the in the North West corner, the other in the South East corner.

Kingdom of Britannia Deployment:
(South West to South East)

L > R = South East to South West

• 4 Attacker Frigates
• 1 Ruler Battleship
• 1 Fighter SAS with 5 tokens
• 1 Majesty Dreadnought with Pulse Generator and 2 Bastion Escorts (Commodore’s Flagship)
• 1 Fighter SAS with 5 tokens
• 2 Agincourt Gunships
• 4 Attacker Frigates

Prussian Empire Deployment:
(North West to North East – mostly hidden in the North West Corner behind a small island)

L > R = North West to North East

• 1 Fighter SAS with 5 Tokens
• 2 Hussar Gunships
• 1 Elbe Fleet Carrier with 2 Dive Bomber SAS (One 5, one 4 tokens)
• 1 Blucher Dreadnought with Tesla & Shield Generators (Commodore’s Flagship)
• 3 Arminius Frigates
• 4 Saxony Corvettes
• 2 Geier Bombers, Obscured (Flanking Force from the West – Arriving Turn 1)

Turn 1:

TAC Phase: The Britannians played “Lost Orders”, but it was quickly cancelled with the same; 20 points for Britannia!

Prussians won the Initiative – not that I wanted it…

(The dice rolls Graham was making already had me concerned – he had been on a really badly “Roll” lately and once more was rolling really low.  Sadly, we had yet to fire a shot!)

I hadn’t used Flankers in a while and decided for this game I wanted to try them again.  My “Plan” was the Bombers would arrive turn 2 or 3 and finish off some damaged targets.  Instead, I rolled arrival for Turn 1 and they had to be deployed close enough to the (undamaged) Britannian fleet that I was probably going to lose the Bombers in the first turn.  Knowing that, I used the Bombers first.

The Bombers dropped from the clouds, moved forward and each fired their Tesla at a separate Frigate, and sank 1, but failed to damage the other.  I then played Break Neck Maneuver and both bombers successfully made the climb back into the safety (???)  of the clouds.  Fist Blood for Prussians, but another 20 Points for the Britannian Forces!

Prussian Bomber Attack Run

The Britannian Battleship activated but with no other targets other than the Bombers, the ship trained two turrets on each.  One Bomber was damaged, the other was Crit (Guns Damaged).

Britannia Strikes Back!

Stalling for time, Prussian Dive Bombers moved forward.  Sadly, as expected, the Britannians were firmly focused on the Geier Bombers.  A flight of Britannian fighters attacked the German Bombers and shot down the damaged Bomber for a loss of 1 token.

As Expected, the Bombers Attract Too Much Attention...

Another Prussian Stall, another Dive Bomber Squadron moved forward.  Britannian Frigates moved forward and fired on the last Bomber from Range Band 2.  The Bomber was Crit (Hard Poundiing – 2 AP lost).  A flight of Prussian Fighters didn’t have the range to attack the Britannian Fighters, so they took position in front of the Dive Bombers.

The Britannian Dreadnought activated and, with no other targets in sight, blew the last Prussian Bomber from the skies with broadsides.  At least the Bombers had misdirected Britannian fire for a while…

Death By Dreadnought

Prussian Fighters moved forward to help screen the Dive Bombers from attack (no, I was killing time and Activations).  The final Britannian Fighter SAS moved forward – well out of attack range of anything.

FINALLY, the Prussian Ships activated!  The Gunships powered up their Tesla Generators and boosted a hard turn to starboard around the tip of the North West Island.  Checking range, they fired all guns at the Battleship and successfully damaged it (Missed a Crit by 1 or 2 hits).  Britannian Gunships sallied out and turned into a Line Of Battle so that both Torpedoes and Turrets could return fire.  The Gunships managed to successfully damage one of their Prussian Counterparts.

The Prussian Carrier also boosted its speed with a Tesla Generator and sailed forward far enough that she was able to sink a Frigate with the Speerschleuder in spite of the range and needing 5’s to hit!

Prussian Carrier Sinks a Frigate!

The Britannnians then activated their last squadron, the other Frigate unit moved forward – not too far as they feared being attacked and/or boarded by the Prussian Smalls.

With no further enemy reactions possible, the Prussian Dreadnought activated its Tesla and just made enough speed to clear Line-Of-Sight around the island for all turrets to target the Britannian Battleship AND screen the Carrier from any direct attacks.  With a Deafening roar, the Dread managed to crit the Battleship from Range Band 3, which caused a Fusion Leak (3 Corrosive Counters Worth)!

Britannian Battleship Sufferes Fusion Leaks!

Prussian Frigates and Corvettes advanced forward at max speed, but only the Corvettes were able to damage a single Frigate from the Britannian squadron.

End Phase:

The Prussians had nothing to repair (the bombers had been obliterated).  The Britannian Battleship was only able to stop one Corrosive Marker, so suffered 2 extra Hull Points!

End of Turn 1

VPs:

KOB       160
PE:          60

Turn 2:

TAC Phase: Britannia played Battlefield Repair but it was stopped with Prepare My Personal Transport.  Another 60pts for Britannia.

Prussians won Initiative (Graham rolled Snake Eyes).

A flight of Prussian Fighters attacked Britannian Fighters and blew their attack, only shot down 1 token for the cost of 2 in spite of having Acrobatic Pilots (3DR instead of 2 in an Interception).

The Britannian Battleship, worried it was doomed, activated first and moved forward and to port.  Broadsides and torpedoes failed to do any damage, but the turrets sank the damaged Prussian Gunship with a Double-Crit!  Ouch!

Prussians Lose A Gunship!

The second Prussian Fighter SAS attacked the previously damaged Fighter SAS and shot down 2 tokens for no loss, leaving the Britannian Squadron with only 2 tokens left.  The Fighters attacked one of the Dive Bombers but due to their reduced numbers, neither side suffered a casualty.

The Prussian Gunship, trying to be brave, sailed forward to maximize their guns before being destroyed.  Broadsides damaged a Frigate while the turrets crit the Battleship (Guns Damaged)!

Charge Of The Gunship!

The Britannian Dreadnought moved forward and to port, sank a Corvette with torpedoes and vaporized the last Gunship with something ridiculous like 3 or 4 Crits while the Dreadnought’s AA shot down the rest of the damaged Prussian Fighter SAS.  OWwwwww…

Can You Say "OVERKILL"?

The Prussian Corvettes made hard turn to port and split their fire on the Dreadnought’s Escorts.  The Dread’s Guardian Generator worked overtime and saved both from taking damage in an inspired series of dice rolls.  NOW Graham starts to roll well again!  Grrrrrrr!

The Second Britannian Fighter SAS attacked a Dive Bomber SAS and shot down 2 for no loss.  Prussian Fighters move between the Carrier and the larger Britannian Fighter SAS, then successfully shot down 2 for the loss of 1.

Britannian Frigates on the East side move forward and attacked the Prussian Corvettes, damaged one and sank another.  Prussia was starting to struggle!

Britannian Frigates Engage Prussian Corvettes

The damaged Dive Bomber Squadron moved back to the Carrier, waiting for replacements.  Britannian Gunships advanced and sank the last two Corvettes!

Death Of The Prussian Corvettes

The Prussian Carrier replenished both the Fighter and Dive Bomber Squadrons nearby, then re-purposed the Fighters as Dive Bombers, giving me 3 SAS to attack with.  The Carrier moved forward its maximum speed, turning slightly to starboard (to avoid the table edge) and sank another Frigate with the Speerschleuder. 

In a fit of . .  Bravery?  Stupidity?  Anyway, the last Frigate from the Squadron turned and charged the Prussian Carrier.  Unsurprisingly, it caused no damage to the Great Ship.  Sadly, this was the last Britannian Activation of the turn!

"I Think I Can.  I Think I Can..."

Unopposed once more, the Prussian Dreadnought moved forward maximum speed with a slight turn to starboard and screened the Carrier once more.  Firing its guns, the Dreadnought sank the last Frigate of the squadron and then played Devastating Barrage on the Turret attack on the Britannian Dreadnought, which was cancelled with Espionage (gaining the Prussians a desperately needed 40 points).  Sadly, the turrets failed to damage the Dreadnought (dang Guardian Generators)!

Prussian Dive Bombers moved forward and the Frigates turned to Port and FINALLY sank one of the Dreadnought’s Escorts.

End Phase:

Once again, the Prussians had nothing to repair.  The Britannian Battleship stopped one Corrosive marker, but in spite of a re-roll, failed to stop the last Corrosive marker from removing its last hull point, sinking the Battleship!

Death By Failed Repair Rolls!

End Of Turn 2

VPs:

KoB:       480
PE:          380

Turn 3:

TAC Phase: The Britannians played Radio Intercept (which gave the Prussians another 20VP).

Prussians won Initiative again, anyway!  :-P

Well, at this point, it was probably all over but the Crying.  Graham had let slip after sinking the last Gunship that he had completed half his objective and now only needed 20 points to complete his Victory Conditions.  I decided I may as well go for broke and see what happened.

The Prussian Dread turned and closed with the Britannian Dread before turning to expose her broadsides and all turrets at the Dread.  The Guns Thundered and the Dread took a Crit Hit (Generators Offline)!  (Missed a Double-Crit by 1HP – MAN I hate that Guardian Generator!!!).  The Britannian Dread turned to starboard and sank a Frigate, shot down 1 Dive Bomber Token then missed damaging the Prussian Dread by 1 hit!

The Dreadnoughts Confront Each Other

The Prussian Dive Bombers attacked and sank the last Escort, depriving the Dreadnought of her protection (not that it needed it).

Grabbing Points and stripping AA from Dread

One Britannian Fighter squadron attacked Prussian Dive Bombers and shot down 2 for the loss of 1 token.  A Prussian Dive Bomber squadron moved towards the Enemy Dreadnought, then the Britannian fighter squadron attacked and shot down 3 Dive Bombers for the loss of 1 token on another squadron. 

The Prussian Carrier replenished one of the Dive Bomber squadrons back to full strength, then made a hard Port Turn to aim its forward Tesla Gun at the Britannian Dreadnought (missing the Prussian Dreadnought by about ½”).  The Tesla Gun succeeded in damaging the Dread while the lightning removed an extra AP.

Britannian Gunships turned hard to port, fired at and damaged the Prussian Dreadnought.  The Final Prussian Dreadnought moved between the Carrier and the Britannian Dreadnought.  The last Britannian Frigate squadron shot down the remains of one Dive Bomber Squadron, shot down 2 tokens of another squadron and damaged 2 Prussian Frigates!

In a fit of cowardice, the last 2 Prussian Frigates made a hard turn to port and tried to hide behind the west most corner of the North West Island…

End Phase:

The Prussians still had no damage to repair.  The Britannian Dreadnought failed to repair it’s Generators.  Not that it needed to…

End of Turn 3 & Game!

VPs:

KoB:       510 – Destroy all Mediums & 50% of the fleet – Both Completed
PE:          425 – Sink the Commodore’s Ship & 50% of the fleet – Neither Completed

Kingdom of Britannia is Victorious!!!

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Well, Graham can quit complaining about his dice rolls now.  :-P

I think I had a decent force, I just drew the worst mission I could have.  I *could* have chosen to go with the Default 70%, but I didn’t want to give away my mission.  Besides, knowing he had a Dreadnought worth over 300 points in a 1000 point list, I knew I would have to sink or capture the Dreadnought on a 70% mission objective anyway.  It was a no-win scenario.  I maybe could have ignored the Battleship but it was blocking my flank attack on the Dreadnought AND a threat, so I really couldn’t ignore it. 

Hiding my most powerful ships behind the island didn’t help.  While it prolonged their fighting abilities and I was able to quickly get rid of the Battleship relatively quickly and easily, I was out of position to deal with the Dreadnought.  The combined close ranged firepower of both the Dread and the Fleet Carrier really would have dealt with the enemy Dread a hard time, IF I could have prolonged the battle.

Which was the main weakness of this list.  The two Massive ships limited my Medium and Small choices to 2 understrength units, each.  I probably would have been better served with a Single Massive and increased the number of Medium and Small choices, but that’s always the risk and trade-off with a battle of this size.  Same issue with the flanking forces.  In a larger battle, coming in on turn 2, flanking may have worked better.  This time, I gave away 120 points to my opponent.

Not that my choice of Manoeuvring helped.  I "COULD" have steered the last Gunship to safety behind the Carrier and Dreadnought instead of putting the pedal to the metal and doing that insainly suicidal charge.  I had pretty much guessed Graham's objectives at that point, but thought if I could have sunk the Battleship before activating the Dreadnought and Carrier, I would have a better chance

of damaging and sinking the Commodore's Dreadnought.  Only it didn't work and I had to wait for the Corrosion to sink it in the End Phase.  If I had backed off, I could have stalled possibly 2 or 3 more turns and had a decent chance of capturing or sinking the Britannian Dreadnought.  I wasn't thinking as clearly as I should have.  C'est la Vie!  (Pardon my French - assuming it is spelt correctly!)

Anyway, raham broke his losing streak and we got a good game that actually finished for a change!

Hope you enjoyed the report.  See you next time!