RoF v RC

Played the French v Russians in a 1000 point naval battle, my friend had just gotten a bunch of new Russian and Polish forces he wanted to try out and I just purchased some French.

 

We had played the scenario ‘Lion de Mer’ from Storm of Steel where the French easily pushed through the Russian land forces. A naval battle was going to be much closer.

 

French:

Magenta Battleship with cloud generator and heat lance (commodore)

3 Marseille Cruisers

3 Toulon Cruisers

3 Lyon Frigates

3 Lyon Frigates

3 Lyon Frigates

2 Voltaire Flyers

5 Fighters (ace)

5 Fighters (ace)

 

This didn’t quite come to 1000 points but my mate was decent and dropped his points to match.

 

Russian

Khatanga Heavy Battleship (commodore)

Zamiec Sky Fortress

2 Grom Flyers

3 Tiksi Support Cruisers

4 Nikel Heavy Firgates

5 Divebombers (ace)

5 Fighters (ace)

 

I had a squad of Lyon frigates flanking while my friend just dumped everything in the middle and was going to charge forward, Russian style.

 

Both of us rolled 5 for mission, kill/capture Commodore.

 

The Russians deployed their flyers on his right flank so I countered by deploying my flyers opposite with my Toulon Cruisers and Magenta in the centre. On my right flanks was the frigates and Marseille Cruisers with the Russians putting their heavy battleship in the centre next to his Tiksi Cruisers and Heavy Frigates.

RoF Fleet

 

 

 

RC Fleet

 France won initiative. To begin with there was some long range shooting with the Russian heavy frigates sinking one of the Lyons.

RoF and RC trade long range fire

 

He advanced his Grom flyers to try and take out my Voltaire with no effect, I responded by advancing my Toulon’s and using the heat lance to triple crit one of the Grom’s, sending it down in a smoking ruin. Go the heat weapons! My mate learned to fear them in the land battle we had fought.

 

The Russians responded by bombarding my Toulon’s with his heavy battleship, causing a crit, and sending the Zamiec forward and using the flame thrower and put several raging fire tokens on a Toulon, fortunately it was close to the Magenta so they passed the terror check.

 

The Poles show the French how heat weapons work

End phase was spent trying to put out all those raging fires that the Polish fire weapons put onto me.

 

End of Turn 1

Rof 105 vp

RC 25 vp

 

Russians took the initiative on turn 2.

 

His Zamiec continued what it did best and burned the same Toulon (six raging fire tokens!)



Burn, baby burn

 

Realising that the Toulon’s were in trouble I pushed them forward, hoping to take down the other Grom, I put a critical hit on it, nav lock. The fire must have put the Grom off and it whiffed it’s roll, unable to bring its fixed channel weapons to bear.

 

Attention switched to the right flank, with the Khatanga showing its worth by destroying two Lyon’s, two Marseille and critting a third. The Tiksi Cruisers finish it off later in the turn.

 

My Magenta pushed forward to get its heat lance into range, but the ablative armour on the Khatanga saved it, twice. 9 DR! Fire was traded between the Lyon’s and Nikel’s.

 

My Voltaire and fighters swooped in and finished off the Grom. Things are not looking good with my Toulon’s burning.

 

End of Turn 2

RoF 240 vp

RC 305 vp

 

Russians won initiative for turn 3. The Zamiec swung around and targeted the Magenta with its flame thrower and shot up the Toulon’s some more.

 

I pushed the Magenta forward but a Tiksi was blocking my heat lance from the Khatanga. So I put some hurt on one of them, causing a fusion leak. Once again I couldn’t damage the Khatanga.

 

The Russians continued their relentless charge forward, the Tiksi shot up the Magenta and the Toulon’s some more and his Khatanga surged forward, fortunately it was just short of ramming me (IR 11!) but he surged his conscripts onto my Magenta, after a bloody battle I had defeated the conscripts but was down to 1 marine.

 

My Voltaire’s pursued the Zamiec and damaged it but things were not looking good.

 

During the end phase all the fire on my Toulon’s sunk all three of them.

 

End of Turn 3

RoF 270 vp

RC 510

 

We ran out of time at this point but things weren’t looking good for the French, with a heavily damage battleship boxed in by three cruisers and a heavy battleship I conceded.

 

The Zamiec chases down the Magenta

 

The French marines manage to save the Magenta, for now.

What went wrong?

Well, I only had the 1.1 naval boxed set and the Toulon’s. It seemed that the new 2.0 models are quite powerful. If it had gone another turn the Khatanga would have rammed my Magenta and chewed it up with it's ice breakers.

 

Also RoF heat lances work best at Range Bands 1 and 2. RC primary guns work better at Range Bands 1 and 2. Perhaps I should have ditched the heat lance and used two primary guns for better long range firepower.