BatRep: League of Italian States vs Russian Coalition (800pts)

Admiral Dimitry Orlov was content.  He was back at sea where he belonged.

He shuddered as he thought of those long hours he had been adrift at sea following his last battle.  He vaguely remembered being blown off the bridge of the Georgy Pobedonosets ("St George the Victorious" in English) just before it sank.  It was a miracle he had survived the explosion, let alone the hour in the frigid Norwegian Sea afterwards.  He didn’t remember much of the details, but Orlov did remember the bone-numbing cold!  He thought he would never get warm again…

Now he was back on the bridge of his new ship, the Borodino Class Battleship Georgy Pobedonosets II, named in honor of his previous ship, and how well it had fought to protect the rest of the fleet before succumbing to the waves.

Now, Admiral Orlov was taking his new command out for a shake-down cruise.  He didn’t expect any trouble and had no intention of looking for any.

“Admiral!  A fleet spotted to the south!  It seems to be a Battleship with support ships and fliers, heading our way.  They refuse to acknowledge our hails!”

Great, thought Orlov.  Looks like I don’t need to look for trouble.  It has already found me…

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So Thurston got the “League of Italian States” fleet boxes and wanted to try them out against someone new.  (Appears the previous victim had a hard time dealing with the Italians and both needed a break)!  As I had just done a series of games with the Prussians, I figured I needed a chance to get back to my Russians.  So a few days before we met, I suggested we either play Box Sets or 800pt fleets.

Thurston texted me a day later: “My box set IS 800pts!”  That made it easy to decide the point’s value…

When we arrived at our FLGS, I discovered that someone had setup our normal table with the water-cloth and ice berg terrain pieces – we’d seen this setup before with other players doing 40K or other 28mm systems.  The table had far more terrain than we were used to.

“Wouldn’t it be fun to play a game on a table like that?”

“You know, it would…”

We looked at each other, laughed and left most of the terrain on the table…

Just a few icebergs, eh?

So, Russian Coalition (RC) Deployment, from Left to Right:

Russian Deployment

• -          3 Novgorood Frigates, with a Pesets sub behind them
• -          Iceberg/Island with a Tunguska Large Airship (with Ablative Armor) and a squadron of Fighters on top
• -          3 more Novgorood Frigates, with another Pesets sub behind them
• -          A Borodino Battleship, the Georgy Pobedonosets II with Torpedo Breaker Generator and 2 Veliky Escorts
• -          Another squadron of Fighters
• -          A squadron of 2 Suvorov Cruisers.

Note:  I had taken the 2 Pesets Subs to operate as separate squadrons to regain an activation I lost for dropping some frigates for some escorts for the Battleship.  I realized after the game that Pesets were “Limited Availability (750)”.  Technically, as this was an 800pt game, it was legal to take 2 units.  Normally, I wouldn’t take two units as such a “cheesey” choice in such a low-points game.  In this case, I just forgot to check the MAR before playing the game. 

The League of Italian States (LIS) Deployment, from Top to Bottom:

Italian Deployment

• -          2 squadrons of 3 Scutum Frigate-Escorts, 1 squad behind the other, just out of sight behind the iceberg/island
• -          A squadron of Torpedo Bombers on top of the Iceberg/Island
• -          A Mars Battleship
• -          Another squadron of Torpedo Bombers behind the island
• -          3 Gladius Cruisers with a total of 6 tokens of Uccisore Torpedo Boats
• (Tiny Tokens around the cruisers that are not touching or in formation)
• -          3 Scutum Frigate-Escorts with a squadron of 2 Fortuna Bombers behind and to the right
•  

Both sides were using their own STAR card decks, both rolled missions but decided to go for the standard 70% captured or destroyed default objective.  So whomever got to 560pts first would win!

Turn 1:
Italians Won the initiative

The Start of it all...

Turn 1 started cautiously.  Italian Torpedo Bombers started things off, moving forward ½ speed.  Russians countered with fighters moving forward, again ½ speed.  The Italian’s second Torpedo Bomber squadron moved towards the center of the table.  Concerned for the Battleship, the Russians moved a second squadron of fighters towards the center, to provide CAP if necessary.  Italy moved the first squadron of Frigates on the left forward.  The Russians moved their Frigates on the right of the iceberg forward.  Italian Frigates on the right moved forward and took a long-range shot at the Russian Frigates through a gap in the ice, but failed to damage anything.  Russian Cruisers moved forward, firing through the same gap at the Italian Frigates, but failed to do any damage with their broadsides at Range Band (RB) 3.  Italian Bombers then take a long-ranged torpedo shot at the closest Russian Cruiser through the gap, but the Torpedo Breaker on the Battleship redirected 3 torpedoes onto the other cruiser and neither was damaged.

To stall for time, the Russian Sub on the right dove to Submerged Depth; its Echo generator splitting the echoes to two different positions.  The Italian Cruisers advanced; played Veteran Gunners (+1 to hit with 1 ship), but failed to damage the Russian Cruisers from RB2 through the gap in the ice separating most the fleets.

Peek-A-Boo...

The Russian Sub on the left, dove to Submerged level as well, its echoes splitting up to go on either side of an iceberg near the table center.

Echo Games!

Italian Torpedo Boats followed the Italian Cruisers, creating somewhat of a traffic jam approaching the gap in the ice between the 2 fleets.

The Dreaded "GAP!"

The Russian Battleship played “Stoke the Engines”, moved forward its full 9” firing it’s broadsides through the gap but miss the Frigates on the other side.  Sadly, the Turrets were just out-of-range to the Italian Battleship and had no arc of fire at anything else.  (I maybe could have brought a Raised Turret to shoot at the Frigates, but it may have been one of those cases where the turrets didn’t have a Line-Of-Sight, but the broadsides did.)  The Italian Battleship, sensing an opportunity, rushed forward at full speed, getting an extra inch due to “Streamlined Hull.  Her firing managed to sink 1 Frigate and damage another, but the Russian Frigates passed their Break Test.

At this point, I had a mental dilemma; The Russians had another “Stoke the Engines” card in their hand.  I had intended to play it next turn on the Battleship, but the Italian Battleship was just sitting there now…

I played the “Stoke the Engines” card on the Large Skyship, rushing forward 11” and getting the Italian Battleship in range of her guns!  After declaring 14 attack dice from the Main and Beam Turrets on his Battleship, Thurston gave the ship the Commodore Order “Power to the Shields”, giving him 4 shield dice due to the Mars having Amplified Shield Generator and the extra dice for the order.  The Italians then re-rolled a dice using Inventive Scientists, and THEN played “Hard as Nails” card, reducing the damage to the Italian Battleship down to a single Hull Point!  (Grrrr!)

Italian Battleship in peril!

In the last two activations of the turn, Italians moved Frigates from the left forward 12”, and Russians moved their Frigates forward and fired on them.  However, the Italian Frigates were 5+ to hit due to their special rules, resulting in no damage inflicted on the Italians.

Losses:
LIS:         0!
RC:         37

Turn 2:
Russia Played Radio Intercept
Italy Played Tactical Aid, gaining extra cards
Russia won the Initiative!

Russian Large Skyship activated first, moving forward and targeting the Italian Battleship at RB1 and finally dealt a Crit to the Battleship (Systems Offline – no more shields!)!  I then played “Tally HO” to activate a second unit but Thurston knew better and countered my card to prevent the effect.  Thurston was going to move forward a minimum amount to shoot his main guns at the Russian Skyship, but I pointed out that his main guns would not be able to bear on the Skyship from RB1; so he moved forward a bit more and brought all guns to bear from RB2, and played “Thunderous Volley” which failed to damage the Skyship, though he did sink the damaged Frigate.  The Frigate squadron passed their Break Test. 

The Russian Battleship activated next and moved towards the Italian counterpart, bringing all turrets to bear and caused another Crit (Weapons Damaged) on the Italian Battleship (for a total of 5HP gone)!

The Italian retaliated by launching a Torpedo Attack at the Russian Battleship from the Torpedo Bombers on the left, though through bad rolls on Thurston’s part and good defensive measures on mine, no damage got through. (Thank You Ablative Armor!)  Worried about another torpedo attack from the other squadron, Russian fighters on the left went full-speed to form up a CAP over the Russian Battleship.  This forced the remaining Italian Torpedo Bombers to redirect their torpedo attack onto a Cruiser.  The Battleship was within range to divert 3 torpedoes onto the other cruiser (causing no damage to the 2^nd Cruiser), and AA shot down 1 token, but the primary cruiser target lost its Ablative Armor and suffered a hull point’s worth of damage.

One of the Russian subs surfaced and attacked the Italian Battleship from RB2 with guns and torpedoes, but failed to do any damage to the enemy.

Italian Frigates on the left ran forward and successfully sank 2 Frigates and damaged the 3^rd on the left, but the survivor passed its Break Test.  The Survivor would then head towards the rest of the fleet to the right, failing to damage anyone in return as it fired while retreating.

Russian Frigates take a pounding!

The Italian Bombers, crossing over the island, fired 2 separate salvos of 6 torpedoes at the damaged Russian Cruiser, preventing the Battleship from “breaking” a single massive salvo, so 1 salvo was reduced and redirected to the undamaged Cruiser (causing no damage).  The concussion charges were directed against the full strength salvo and took out enough hits to prevent further damage!  In retaliation, the Russian Cruisers shot down 1 token of Torpedo Bombers and sink a Italian Frigate with guns in the gap.

The Italian Frigates then commit to a “Hit and Run” attack against the Cruisers.  Moving ½ their movement, the frigate’s Guns crit the damaged Cruiser (Systems Offline) but the Battleship’s Torpedo Breaker redirected 3 torpedoes back into one of the Frigates that strayed too close!  Torpedoes caused no damage and the Frigates continued their 2^nd half of their move to get around the corner of the island – making room for the rest of the fleet to pass through.

Start of the Attack Run...

..End of the attack run - open Gap for next squadron to come through!

One of the surviving Russian Frigates moved up beside the surfaced submarine, then lobbed mortar shells at the Italian Frigates – sinking 1!

Italian Torpedo Boats rush through the gap, successfully sank 1 of the battleship’s Escorts, but failed to damage the damaged Cruiser.  The Russian Fighters, discovering they can hurt them, blast away at the Torpedo Boats, and sank 1 token (needed 3 hits to kill 1 token).  Italian Cruisers finally came through the gap, but failed to damage the Cruisers with their guns and torpedoes, or damage the Tiny Fighters with their AA.

In the final activations, the Russian Sub on the left stayed submerged, both echoes continuing around opposite sides of an iceberg.  The last Italian Frigate Squadron attacked one of the echoes, only to discover the sub was actually at the other echo.

End of the 2nd Turn

In the End Phase, the Russians managed to repair the System Damage crit on the Cruiser (not that it needed it), and the Italians managed to repair the Weapons, but not the Generator on the Battleship!

Losses:
LIS:         210
RC:         170

Turn 3:
Italy played Mechanics and repaired the shields on his Battleship (DANG!)
Italy Won initiative!

The Italian Battleship slid forward at ½ speed, headed around the iceberg, guns blazing.  She managed to sink one of the last Frigates with his turrets (5 X 6s!!!), but the Russians played “Hard as Nails” on the Torpedo Attack on the Surfaced Sub so lost only a single hull point.  The Italian Battleship then finished its “Hit and Run” move, sliding gracefully into the cover behind an iceberg…

The Italian Battleship - running...

The Russian Battleship realized it would not be able to continue the fight against its counterpart, turned slightly to the right, bringing broadsides and turrets to bear on the Frigates and Cruisers, but only succeeded in sinking the last Italian Frigate on that side.  In a moment of stupidity, I forgot to detach the CAP so that it could go after the Bombers or the Torpedo Boats – a mistake I was doomed to repeat…

Italian Torpedo Boats launched another salvo and finally sunk the damaged cruiser, then played “Tally Ho!” to activate a second unit!  The Italian Cruisers followed up and with their front turrets, managed to strip the Ablative Armor off the Russian Battleship, though the Torpedoes failed to damage anything (The Battleship redirected another 3 torpedoes into one of the Italian Cruisers for no damage).  The Italian Cruisers Rear Turrets aimed at and stripped the Ablative Armor off the remaining Cruiser.  The Russian cruiser then remembered to roll for the Break Test due to the sinking of the other Cruiser by the Torpedo Boats, and passed the test.

The Italian Double Activation!

The Russian Skyship moved next and managed to roll a Crit on the Italian Battleship . . which was dropped to a single Hull Point thanks to its Amplified Shield Generator (But I played another ”Generator Offline” Card so hopefully it won’t get any future saves!).  AA from the Skyship took down another Torpedo Bomber Token.

The Italian Frigates, upset that they had been fooled by the Echo last turn, raced around the iceberg and fired on the submerged submarine, but failed to damage it.

"Get back here, you..."

The remaining Russian cruiser moved forward slowly, sank 1 Cruiser with a Double-Crit from its turret guns, failed to damage the 2^nd Cruiser with its broadside, but successfully sank another Frigate from the opposite broadside!

Italian Bombers came after the offending Cruiser, but the torpedoes failed to find their mark, though the AA crews did successfully shoot down 2 fighter tokens as the Bombers flew by.  The wounded Russian Fighter squadron strafed and sank another Torpedo Boat Token in retaliation.

Italian Frigates on the left maneuvered around the Italian Battleship – one missing a collision by Millimeters!  The Italian Frigates then proceeded to sink the last remaining Russian Frigate.

Close call...

Suffering from “Target Fixation”, a Russian Sub sailed around the iceberg to fire guns and torpedoes at the Italian Battleship, but failed to damage as the target was partially blocked by the Iceberg (1/2 Attack Dice!).

The Italian Torpedo Bombers moved at ½ speed to waste an activation, then the other Russian Sub launched a torpedo attack against an Italian Cruiser, causing a hull point of damage AND bringing down the shield generator when the Inventive Scientists rolled a ‘1’!

In the End Phase, the Russians had no damage to repair.  The Italians repaired the shield generators on both the Battleship and the Cruiser.

Losses:
LIS:         290
RC:         240

Turn 4:
The Italians won initiative

The Italian Cruisers moved forward their minimum move and fired everything, but failed to damage anything!  However, they played “Generator Offline” on the Russian Battleship after it used its Torpedo Breaker to redirect torpedoes again.  Not good for the Russians as the Torpedo Breaker had been instrumental in reducing damage throughout the game!

Continuing our “Target Fixation”, the Russian Skyship chased the Italian Battleship and fired another Crit onto the hapless battleship (Nav Lock).  Italian Torpedo Boats fired another salvo at the Russian Cruiser, getting another Hull Point.  One of the Russian Subs followed the Italian Battleship around the iceberg but failed to damage it as the Inventive Scientists coaxed the extra save required from the shields to prevent damage (and sink the ship)!

"I'll get you and your little dog too!"

Italian Frigates attacked the other sub and got a Crit – Weapons Damaged!  

"Got ya!"

The Russian Battleship slowly turned to Port (Left) and fired all turrets on the Italian Battleship, but had to settle for sinking a Frigate with their broadsides.  The Italian Bombers fired torpedoes at the damaged Russian Sub and succeeded in sinking her before she could submerge and hide.  The Russian Cruiser then Played “Veteran Gunners”, but failed to hit anything!  The Italian Battleship moved forward minimum speed to avoid running into an iceberg next turn, played “Let Em Have It!” and managed to damage the sub that was stalking it.  As the final activation, Russian Fighters forgot to load their weapons and failed to damage the Torpedo Boats and the Italians played “Stoke the Engines” on the last Frigate squad, rounded the iceberg and managed to cause another hull point on the Russian Cruiser (leaving it with a single Hull Point).

Italian Frigates racing around the Iceberg!

At this point, Thurston and I realized that the store had closed (the Staff let us continue to play as they were just as interested in the turn’s results as we were)!

End of Turn 4 and Game!

Losses:
LIS:         320
RC:          352

Neither fleet completed the mission.  With victory points so close, we called it a DRAW!

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WOW!  Great Game!  Thanks to Thurston and the League of Italian States for a real nail-biter!

Discussing the game as we packed things up, we agreed on a number of points.

1.        The terrain helped the Russians much more than the Italians: with the Cruisers, Torpedo Boats and a squadron of Frigates all trapped on the wrong side of an island, they couldn’t bring their weapons to bear or put pressure on  the Russians until they made a run for the Gap!  That gave the Russians time to persecute the Italian Battleship and render it nearly useless.
2.        We agreed whomever won initiative next turn would probably win the game: The Italian Battleship was probably going to be sunk and the Russian Battleship and Cruiser had arc to all the remaining frigates and cruisers, but had lost their Ablative Armor, while the Italian Frigates and Motorboats still had enough fire power to threaten most everything – especially the Russian Cruiser.  Depending on who shot next, it would be a blood bath.
3.        The Italians are so dependent on Torpedoes, if I had swapped out the Russian Subs with Saransk Medium Skyships (or another large Tunguska), the Italian Fleet would have had a much worse time.  At the end of the game, the Russian Large Skyship was untouched as the most potent weapons were useless by my closing within RB1 of his Battleship or too far away to get through the Ablative armor by anything else.

My personal observations regarding my (Russian) fleet.  Well, I handed extra turn(s) to the Italians when I probably could have won the game in Turn 3 IF I HADN’T GOTTEN FIXATED on the Italian Battleship!  At the end of Turn 2, I had damaged the ship enough to get half points for it.  If I had concentrated on the rest of the fleet in turns 3 and 4, I probably would have earned the required points to win the game (and save some ships)!  For some reason (I don’t know why – I had documented the ship suffered 5 HP hit) I thought the Italian Battleship hadn’t suffered ½ damage yet.  Note to self – KEEP TRACK OF THESE THINGS!!!

My poor Novgorod Frigates got mauled this time out.  Usually they perform much better (and survive much longer), but seemed totally outclassed by the Italian counterparts.  I did have some pretty bad rolls, but suspect it had more to do with numbers and deployment than anything else.

The Pesets subs did ok.  I meant to get an extra activation with them and they were a nuisance factor that couldn’t be ignored.  They didn’t do a lot, but they did enough to distract the enemy from more important ships.  In this case though, I probably would have been better off with more skyships against the Italians.  Also, the subs would have been better acting together as a single squadron to link their fire against a single target.

Suvorov Cruisers did well, soaking up lots of fire and dishing it out as well.  I saved a few points not buying the Rocket Jammers (I knew the Italians didn’t have rockets).  I would have liked to use a Reinforced Cruiser Squadron with the Tambov Gunships, but just couldn’t find the points.  If I were to do a tournament, I would include the Rocket Jammers with the Cruisers to provide that required “Fleet Coverage/Protection” – just in case…

Speaking of “Fleet Coverage”, I love the Borodino Battleship!  While the Mimic Generator is an option, I must say I prefer the protection of the Torpedo Breaker for the whole fleet.  I almost always take this option as most everyone has torpedoes in their fleet somewhere.  Add on a couple of Escorts to increase AA & CC defences and it’s a pretty hard ship to crack.  Yes, it is slower than Molasses in January, but if I keep the fleet together, who cares!  The Torpedo Breaker was able to provide protection to my Cruisers, one of the subs and one squadron of Frigates until Thurston played “Generator Offline” card on the last turn!  And if the Turrets get into range, well, I’m pretty much guaranteed to hurt something.

That leaves the Tunguska Large Skyship.  This was my first game with it and I was quite happy with it.  While I could only bring 2 turrets of the 3 to bear on a single target throughout the entire game, those turrets made a lasting impression! Very happy with the performance of the Skyship, overall.  I just should have brought it back to protect the fleet rather than continue to harass the Italian Battleship after turn 3.  One thing I completely forgot was it had a Mimic Generator!  I could have copied the Borodino’s Torpedo Breaker to provide MORE torpedo protection to the fleet OR I could have copied the Italian Battleship’s Amplified Shield Generator (not that I really needed it – the Skyship suffered no damage throughout the game).

Playing against the Italians for the first time, I had a chance to form a few opinions on how they played.  First, as stated earlier, the terrain really hindered all the Italian’s long range fire in this game.  Secondly, I think Thurston suffered mostly from bad deployment rather than dice rolls or tactics.  By spreading out too far across the table (and between icebergs), he was unable to bring the entire fleet to bear at once.  This gave the Russians 2 turns to close and concentrate their fire on a single unit – which happened to be the Battleship!  The Battleship shouldn’t have been that easy to cripple that quickly, but that was the only target the Russians had for most of 2 turns!

The other impression I got was “DANG SHIELDS!”  The Italian fleet has them everywhere.  The only things that didn’t have them were the Tiny Fliers, The Torpedo Boats and the Frigates!  Everything else, including the Bombers, had a shield and boy, did they use them!  The Amplified Shields, plus Inventive Scientists (and a lot of bubblegum and twine) were the only things that saved the Italian Battleship from the onslaught it received!  But it did survive and did deny me those extra points I needed to win the game!

Once Thurston got passed his errors in deployment, he really did show he knew how to use his fleet.  Hit & Run is an interesting rule and seems to be a nice fit with this fleet, giving them just a little bit more perceived maneuverability.  The Frigates and Cruisers did well and behaved more or less as I expected them to.  The Torpedo Boats are a neat addition.  I don’t think they’re over-the-top and it gave the fleet that extra touch of uniqueness.  Beware: it is a fool that ignores the lowly Torpedo Boat!  There is a reason they have that name!  If I had a complaint about the fleet, it would be that the bombers appear underpriced.  For 55 points, you get 6 torpedoes for RB 2-4, Water Hunter, Hit & Run, Spotter AND a Shield Generator!  In pairs, they’re ok, but I would hate to deal with a full wing of 4 bombers…

The last thing I’m going to mention is the Italian fleet appearance.  When I first saw pictures of the fleet, I wasn’t impressed.  Having seen them close up and painted, well, they’re actually quite nice!  Thurston has a really good paint scheme and the ships look good in it.  The models are quite thin compared to any other fleet’s equivalent models, but it seems to work!  If I have any complaint of the models it’s that the Frigates were so narrow and top heavy, they kept tipping over on uneven surfaces or accidental “Dice Impacts”!  You may want to get a Dice Tray!  ;-)

Anyway, Great game!  Thanks again, Thurston!  We’ll have to give Orlov another chance to fight your Admiral!