BatRep: Dystopian Wars - 1500pts: Kingdom of Britannia vs Prussian Empire

Admiral Von Shtupp grumbled and fumed to himself. 

Even being on the bridge of SMS Graf von Zeppelin, the Blucher Dreadnought (and his Flagship), couldn’t rid him of the bad humor that surrounded him.  Von Shtupp’s pride had been badly bruised after his last defeat against the Britannians!

To make matters worse, he didn’t have his Carriers with him.  They were back in port undergoing retrofits.  There was no word when he would finally get his Air Support back. 

Finally, he was given a mission to track down the Britannians once more.  No Air Support, limited resources.  How was he supposed to even FIND the Britannians without airborn scouts???

Von Shtupp was an unhappy commander.

“Admiral!  The Radio room has received a message from fleet headquarters.  They’ve acknowledged that there are no fleet carriers or assault carriers that can be sent to help us, but they are attempting to route some resources our way.”

“Did they say if there were any Air assets available for us?”

“It was kind of Cryptic, sir.  They said to expect a rendezvous at 06:00”

“I guess we’ll need to wait.  They probably didn’t want to say anything in case the message was intercepted.”

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“Admiral, sorry to disturb you but the lookouts report two ships approaching.”

“What kind of ships are they?”

“I’m not sure, sir.  They look to be Gunships or Cruisers in size, but they have carrier decks.”

Suddenly, the drone of aircraft could be heard overhead.  Multiple engines.  Something Large.  Something Von Shtupp couldn’t identify.

“Admiral!  The Lookouts report fighters coming in to land on the two new ships!  They are carriers!  But there’s two large fliers the lookouts have never seen before…”

Maybe things are looking up, smiled Von Shtupp…

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Once more, the dastardly Britannians were seeking to interfere with the righteous fleet maneuvers of the glorious Prussian Navy!  The Scum!!!

Actually, we got the new boxsets and I wanted to try the new Prussian Toys.  The Prussian Reinforcements consisted of 2 Adler Heavy Bombers and 2 Havel Light Carriers.  I expected the Britannian fleet to want to test out their Halifax Bombers and Stalwart Heavy Destroyers as well.

I did some quick calculations and figured I could use both bombers AND the Carriers in a 1500pt list.  Anything less and there could be issues with the fleet compositions.  Graham was game, so off we went.

My first mistake was making 3 fleet lists.  The first 2 lists were minor changes in composition.  The third list was a radical departure from the other two.  It was “Gunship” heavy, the Havels would be providing all the carrier support for the fleet.  At 1500pts, I would normally prefer a second Carrier choice, but couldn’t fit it into this list.

So we rolled for fleets and of course, we picked the fleet I didn’t really want to use – the “Gunship” list!

We rolled out random terrain – lots of islands this time.  Britannia got Strategic Advantage, Prussia the Operational Advantage.  No advance forces this game, so Prussians made the Britannians start deployment.  Once deployed, we drew our mission objectives, drew our TAC, growled at each other a bit, and started to roll dice…

Setup:

Prussian Empire (West to East or Bottom to Top):

• 5 Fighters SAS
• 1 Adler Heavy Bomber
• 5 Fighter SAS
• 3 Arminius Frigates
• 1 Blucher Dreadnought (Commodore’s Ship) with Tesla & Shield Generators
• 1 Kaiser Karl
• 1 Konigsberg Battle Cruiser
• 4 Jager Strike Airships 
• 3 Donnerfaust Support Cruisers behind the Jagers
• 1 Adler Heavy Bomber 
• 4 Fighter SAS
• 4 Fighter SAS
• 2 Havel Light Carriers, behind the Bomber and Fighters (and ISLAND)!

Kingdom of Britannia (West to East or Left to Right):

• 4 Attacker Frigates
• 1 Hood Battle Cruiser
• 1 Agincourt Gunship
• 3 Stalwart Heavy Destroyers
• 5 Fighters SAS behind the Destroyers
• 1 Majesty Dreadnought (Commodore’s Ship)
• 2 Swift Corvette
• 5 Fighters SAS behind the Corvettes
• 1 Ruler Battleship
• 1 Ruler Battleship
• 1 Hood Battle Cruiser
• 1 Eagle War Rotor

All Fliers were Obscured in the clouds to start.

Start of Game!

Turn 1:

TAC Phase: Britannia tried to play “Lost Orders”.  Prussia cancelled it with their own “Lost Orders” and gave up 20VP to Britannia.

Britannia won the Initiative.

Britannian Frigates started things off, moved forward at maximum speed but had no targets in range.  A Prussian Fighter SAS moved forward a bit, just to kill an activation.  The Britannian War Rotor moved to the East and fired on one of the Adler Bombers, but missed.  The Jagers stayed high and moved forward but found themselves out-of-range of the War Rotor.  The Hood Battle Cruiser on the West of the battle zone moved forward, turned to port and fired on the other Bomber. Despite the loss of two attack dice for Rugged Construction AND requiring 5+ to hit, the Britannians got a Double-Crit (Engine Damage & 1 Raging Fire) on the hapless Bomber!

Prussian Bomber Used As A Target Drone!!!

The other Western Prussian SAS moved towards the Table Centre.  The Britannian Gunship moved forward and turned to port, but was unable to shoot at the Bomber due to range and Rugged Construction Penalties!  Not wanting to risk more casualties just yet, the Prussian Frigates made a minimal move forward.  The Eastern Britannian Battle Cruiser moved forward and fired on the Jagers and successfully shot down 1!

First Blood!  Jager Bites The Dust!

The Prussians decided it was time to act.  The Donnerfaust moved forward at max speed, boosted by their Tesla Generators and fired their forward Speerschleuder at the Battle Cruiser and not only damaged the Britannian ship, but emplaced a Lightning Rod on it and fried an AP!

One of the Britannian Battleships played “Stoke the Engines” and moved at max speed around the corner of an island, turning to starboard to expose all turrets to the Prussians and managed to crit a Donnerfaust (Chaos & Disarray) and shot down a 2^nd Jager with its broadsides!

Second Jager Shot Down!

The Kaiser Karl advanced forward at full speed and fired on the Battlecruiser, but due to the incredible Shields, failed to damage the smaller ship!  Britannian Heavy Destroyers moved forward, but found themselves out of range.  The Damaged Adler Bomber moved forward as fast as it could, but was unable to damage the enemy Battle Cruiser.  The Britannian Dreadnought felt sorry (???) for the Adler and moved forward so he could shoot it out of the sky, thus ended the bomber’s misery.  

Sorta…

Another Prussian Flyer Down In Flames!

On the East side, Prussian Fighters moved forward.  The 2^nd Britannian Battleship moved forward and turned to starboard, but failed to damage anything with their guns.  Their Speerschleuder on the other hand managed to crit the Battle Cruiser (Guns Damaged), thanks to the Lightning Rod placed on it earlier.  Britannian Fighters started to move towards their Battleships.  Prussian Fighters in the East also moved forward.  Britannian Corvettes moved out but fired on no one.  The Prussian Carriers moved forward their minimum move – staying protected by the island just a little while longer.  The last Britannian Fighters moves forward – the last activation of their turn.  The last Adler bomber moved forward and crit the Battle Cruiser (Nav Lock).  Finally, the Prussian Dread moved forward at maximum speed and sank the Battle Cruiser with its forward Tesla Cannon and the turrets crit the Gunship (Engine). 

The First Britannian Loss!

In the End Phase, the Britannnians failed to repair their Gunship and the Prussians failed to repair their Donnerfaust.  Both sides used their Commodore’s Reroll, but it made no difference.

End Of Turn 1

VPS:
KoB        180
PE           180

Turn 2:

TAC Phase: Britannia played “Radio Intercept” and rolled a bonus +2 to the Initiative Roll.  Prussians gained an extra 20VP.

Britannia won the Initiative.

The War Rotor did a 180 (something new in the latest Fleet Lists!) and moved west.  The Rotor’s guns failed to damage any of the Jagers.  (At this point, I was pretty sure Britannia’s mission was 50% and all smalls.  Why I didn’t act on this insight, I’ll never know…) The Donners moved forward and turned to starboard, then fired on both the War Rotor and a Battleship, but failed to damage either.  Britannian Fighters attacked and shot down 2 SAW for the loss of 2 of their own. 

The Prussian Battlecruiser then activated, moved forward and used its Tesla Generator on the War Rotor and SUCCESSFULLY damaged the Generators!  First time the Tesla Worked that way!  The Battlecruiser then shot the War rotor with the Speerschleuder, damaged the Rotor and embedded a Lightning Rod!  Finally, the Cruiser’s turrets managed to crit a Battleship (Heavy Pounding: -3AP). 

Prussian Battle Cruiser Has A GREAT Turn!

The damaged Britannian Battleship turned to port and let loose.  The Torpedoes failed to damage the Dreadnought, but the guns Double-Crit the Battle Cruiser (Magazine Explosion: 3HP & Engines), leaving the Prussian with only 1HP!

The Battleship Fires Back!

The Jagers knew their time was limited and attacked the War Rotor and damaged the Britannian ship, thanks once more to the Lightning Rod!  The 2^nd Britannian Battleship activated and sank the Battle Cruiser with a Torpedo Attack while the turrets damaged a Donner and the Battleship’s AA managed to damage another Jager.

Second Battleship Finishes the Job!

The Prussian Bomber moved forward at maximum speed and and fired on the War Rotor, once more damaging the Rotor AND adding another Lightning Rod to the Rotor’s Hull!

The Britannian Destroyers moved forward and starboard, sank 2 Prussian Frigates and shot down 2 tokens with AA from a fighter SAS!  

Heavy Destroyers Attack!

The Fighters started to fly back to the Prussian Carriers.  Britannian Fighters attacked and shot down a Jager for no loss.  

Britannian Fighters Take Down Another Jager

Prussian Fighters moved forward and attacked the War Rotor, once more caused damage for no loss.  The last Britannian Battle Cruiser turned starboard and sank the last Prussian Frigate!  

Last Prussian Frigate Destroyed!

Another Prussian Fighter SAS moved towards the Prussian Carriers.  The Britannian Dreadnought moved forward, blocked Line-Of-Sight to the damaged Gunship from the rest of the Prussian Fleet and damaged the Prussian Dreadnought.  The only problem was the Dreadnought stopped so close to the Gunship, the Gunship would have to collide once it activated.

The Prussian had a problem.  Their mission was to sink all the Mediums and 50% of the fleet.  We were quickly running out of time and with the blocked Line-Of-Sight, and the Prussian Dread shielding the Kaiser Karl, I had limited choices.  In the end, I decided to hope the Gunship would sink itself and made a hard turn to port with the Dreadnought.  The Tesla Gun and 2 turrets targeted the Battle Cruiser and Crit it (Engines) while the rear turrets and broadsides double-crit the farther Battleship (Hard Pounding: 1 & Fusion Leak: 1).  The Prussians then boarded and prized the closer (damaged) Battleship!

The Britannian Corvettes moved out and damaged a Donnerfaust, but worst, shot down the last Jager with AA fire!

Last Jager (And Prussian Small) Destroyed!

We were out of time at this point.  I revealed my mission and Graham confirmed his was all my Smalls + 50%.  It all came down to two activations so that’s all we played:

The Kaiser Karl moved forward to expose all guns and fired on the Battle Cruiser.  When the shields were rolled and the results were figured out, I had rolled a single crit while the Battle Cruiser still had 3 HP.  I rolled the Crit: 1 & 2!  ARGGGHHHHHH – WAIT!  I laughingly played “Jolly Bad Luck” – which can be used to reduce any Non-Red 6 by 1 – and called it a Magazine Explosion!  Graham quickly scampered for his TAC deck and dispelled it “Breakneck Maneuver”.  But for 5 whole seconds, I had sunk the Battle Cruiser!  Sorta…

We then checked the collision between the Britannian Dreadnought and the Gunship.  The Gunship damaged the Dreadnought through some (un)lucky rolls.  We then rolled the Dreadnought’s dice.  Sadly, it only damaged the Gunship.

OOPS!!!  Gunship Collides With Dreadnought!

The game ended with BOTH Britannian Mediums with 1 HP each…

VPs:

KoB        455         All Smalls and 50% of the Enemy Fleet (1/2 Completed)
PE:          610         All Mediums and 50% of the Enemy Fleet (Nothing Completed)

A DRAW!!!

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<Sigh>

I just don't live right, I guess...

The hard part about these battle reports is writing up the Aftermath.  It's hard to be objective and not blame the dice.  Or the Opponent doing something underhanded.  Or the table rocked as I rolled.  Or . . You get the idea.

My Problems started during deployment.  I deployed my heavy stuff all on one side of an island and my opponent (rightly) concerned about the firepower on that side, kept most of his mediums on the other side.  I was actually thinking I might tempt the Mediums over but hind sight being what it is, yeah, I can't blame him.

Maybe my Problems started with the Fleet list.  It was a last-minute "I wanna try something DIFFERENT" but hadn't really thought out my strategy or tactics ahead of time.  I actually had plans on what I intended to do with the other lists.  I had no such plans for this one.  The low model count for Smalls didn't help me either.

Finally, I DID expect this one to go through 3 turns.  We never got to play that 3rd turn due to time issues.  (It's amazing how many people show up and want to talk to you, the more you have to do and the less time you have to do it!!!)  ((Not that I minded - it just made it harder to finish the game!))

I did capture that battleship in Turn 2, but to be honest, if the game had gone on one more turn, I would have probably lost the prize to Salvage as both the War Rotor and the other Battleship were near by.  I only left 4 AP on the Prize and kept 4 more on the Blucher. (Normally, I would probably left the Battleship Derelict and returned all my AP back to the Dread.)

So, that's my excuse for the Prussians "Underperformance" this time out.

What did I think of the New Units?

The Adler Bombers are interesting.  You can only take them in Squadrons of  1, so they can't support each other, really, other than to act as "bait".  Keeping the one bomber in the clouds kept it safe most the game, but Graham was more interested in all the Jagers to complete his objective - the bomber wasn't a threat until Turn 2 and not a serious threat until it could get into Bombing Range (which never happened).  On the other hand, the Western Bomber that got shot down in turn 1 took an amazing amount of fire to bring dow.  -2 Attack Dice for Rugged Construction and 5+ to hit made it very difficult to shoot down - it took the fire of the entire western board to bring it down (though it was a Dread's firing that finally did it in)!

I equate the Heavy Bombers to the Navy's Battle Cruisers - Glass Cannons.  They can dish out a LOT of damage (potentially) and as such are an important threat that needs to be neutralized.  However, as a unit of 1, they can't take a lot of attention - there's no one else to split damage over.  I think for them to survive, you need to take multiples of Heavy Bombers and / or Battle Cruisers and force your opponent to decide which one is a bigger threat.  Then prove they picked WRONG!!!  ;-)

The Havel Light Carriers didn't do much, but then they did what they were there for.  They provided more SAS to protect or attack with.  At 160 points for a pair, they're more expensive than a Rhine, but you get two ships with a combine HP value of 10 and potential for 2 X 4-token squadrons which gives you more fighting potential than 2 X 3-token squadrons of a Rhine and an extra usable squadron compared to the single 5-token SAS that the Rhine could put out (not to mention the possibly an extra activation(s) if you take the Light Carriers as Individual Units).  So I think there is a place for them in the Prussian Fleet.  They just weren't in a good place for this battle as they were too far from the front to rearm or replenish any of the SAS.

The Britannian Stalwart Heavy Destroyer IS a dangerous unit to face.  However, at 50pts a piece, they're approaching Cruiser Costs (Reiver is only 55) for less hull points and only 2 turrets.  Nasty but expensive!  This is a serious impact to the fleets 40% limit on Smalls.  Commanders will be forced to consider whether they want more Frigates and Corvettes rather than 1 Squadron of Heavy Destroyers.  

I'm disappointed I didn't see the Britannian Heavy Bomber, but such is life.  Maybe next mission.

My opponent kept his cool, kept his eye on the Objectives and if he had been a little more lucky, probably could have won this game.  It would have taken a lot more luck, but it was possible!  As it was, time and dice only let us have 2 turns and I was lucky to have squeezed a few more points than I should have - though it made no difference in the end.  I'm happy with a Draw as the game ended and it was still ANYONE's game!

Hope you enjoyed the show!  Have fun and Keep Your Head Above Water!!!