CoA v RC 1500 points Naval

1500 points

Covenant of Antarctica v Russian Coalition with Polish allies.

The old enmity of the Antarcticans and the Russians meet once again with dreadnaughts clashing in the Dystopian world.

CoA

Prometheus Dreadnaught; energy turrets, Shield(3) upgrade & 2 Galen escorts (Commodore)

Epicurus Sky Fortress

Arronax worm

Callimachus-Beta battle orb

2 Fresnel cruisers

3 Plato Cruisers

3 Plutarch Destroyers

4 Diogenes Frigates

4 Diogenes Frigates

Lots of Drone fighters

MISSION

Destroy all mediums and 50% of fleet

 

 

RC (Polish Allies)

Moskva Dreadnaught (Commodore)

Khatanga Heavy Battleship

Kostroma Carrier

Zamiec Sky Fortress

3 Tiksi Cruisers

2 Myshkin Bombers

4 Nikel Heavy Frigates

4 Novogorod Frigates

1 Squadron Divebombers

Lots of fighters

MISSION

Destroy all large/massive and 50% of fleet

 

We rolled up a few islands blocking line of sight in the middle of the board and we decided to put in Minas Tirith as well.

Minas Tirith from the Lord of the Rings DVD box set fits in nice with the Dystopian Wars scale

 

 I deployed my heavy assets in the centre with the plan of swinging towards wherever his mediums were placed. With his Myshkin Bombers deployed in the centre I was confident I would knock them out of the sky before they reached me. I was going to send my Callimachus Battle Orb and Arronax worm to take out the Tiksi Cruisers deployed on his right flank.

 

Turn 1

RC won initiative. Fighters were pushed forward with the early activations. My Fresnel Cruiserss got a nice critical hit on the Moskva Dreadnaught, weapon damage (he repaired it in the end phase). My Prometheus Dreadnaught got a couple of solid hits on his Myshkin bombers, including a critical, as they went stratospheric. The Russian shooting is largely ineffective with my shields soaking most of the shots.

Early hits on the Moskva

 

End of Turn 1

 

Turn 2

RC won initiative. He pushed his Zamiec Sky Fortress forward (man that thing is quick for such a large ship) which put a critical hit (nav lock) on my Prometheus Dreadnaught and a critical hit (fusion leak) on one of my Plutarch Destroyers (it sinks in the end phase).

My Fresnel Cruisers put another hit on his Moskva Dreadnaught and the centre of the board was taken over with multiple dog fights between drones and Steel Interceptor fighters. The heavy ack ack that the Russian put out on the tiny fliers smashed my drones out of the sky. I did manage to mop up several Russian wings so they couldn’t return to the Kostroma Carrier.

The Callimachus Battle Orb pushed forward and unleashed an energy blast on the Tiksi Cruisers as they were bunched together put I only managed to put one point of damage on them. The Tiksi Cruisers return the favour and destroy the Callimachus Battle Orb. More units push forward and further long range torpedo strikes from my Diogenes Frigates sinks several of the Novogorod Frigates.

The Battle Orb taking a pounding

 

The Plutarch Destroyers pack hunted and put a critical hit on the Zamiec Sky Fortress.

 

 

Turn 3

The Zamiec Sky Fortress continues to charge forward, getting within optimal range of his heavy flame thrower. A torrent of fire spews out onto my Prometheus Dreadnaught, paint blisters but the damage was purely cosmetic. I use my activation to send my Prometheus Dreadnaught forward and unleash a particle accelerator, sinking three Nikel Heavy Frigates. I put the rest of my fire on his Myshin Bombers but wiff the rolls. Both are still flying and close enough to hit my Dreadnaught! I send my Iron Men to board the Zamiec Sky Foretress. I fail to kill his marines but my elite Iron Warriors sabotage the Zamiec before returning safely to the Prometheus. He is left with just a few marines to defend his Sky Fortress; making it a very tempting target.

 

I charge my Arronax worm forward with the intent to fire on one of the Tiksi Cruisers before tearing it apart with its drill. The maw gun puts a critical hit on the Tiksi and I roll a 12. The Tiksi teleported backwards and well away from the Sturginium enhanced drill. Thwarted! To top it off I fail my panic dive, leaving the worm on the surface.

The Arronax wants to eat some Russian Steel

 

Any other roll but a double 6

The Russians send forward the Myshkin Bombers which make it through the hail of ack ack to put another critical on the Prometheus Dreadnaught. In frustration my Fresnel Cruisers finally put down one of the Myshkins, but they had made it through to their target.

The Myshkins make it through to bomb the Prometheus

 

More shooting includes damage put on my Arronax Worm as well as fire sinking several Diogenes Frigates. The Russians even attempt to board the Arronax Worm but do no damage to it.

Due to some poor manoeuvring on the Russian part (no doubt they’d been drinking vodka laced with Sturginium) the Khatanga Heavy Battleship collides with a Tiksi Cruiser, sending it to the bottom. In rage they open fire on the Epicurus Sky Fortress, putting damage on it.

I end the turn by launching some dive bombers that are within strike distance of the Moskva Dreadnaught. Next turn!

 

Points
CoA: 400
RC: 245

 

Turn 4

RC wins initiative (again). My friend worried about my dive bombers so he sent his fighters to intercept them, shooting down three of them. This left his Zamiec Sky Fortress in the open, the Prometheus Dreadnaught sends another wave of Iron Men onto the decks of the Zamiec and overwhelm his remaining Polish marines, prizing his Sky Fortress. Looking at the points I know that I just need to clean up his mediums and the game will be mine!

Give me the prize!

 

The Moskva Dreadnaught finishes off the Arronax Worm before I can activate it to smash into another Tiksi Cruiser and the Epicurus Sky Fortress wiffs the rolls on them. I charge up a Diogenes Frigate and got a lucky roll, sinking a Tiksi Cruiser. The Khatanga Heavy Battleship continues to put hurt on my Epicurus Sky Fortress.

After shooting down his Myshkin Bombers I try to get my ships into position to put long range fire onto his last remaining medium, the Tiksi Cruiser, but an island and his Khatanga blocks the view of my Fresnal and Plato cruisers so they have to settle on putting some hurt on his Dreadnaught and Carrier.

End of the turn and I’m only four hit points away from winning the game.

 

Points:

CoA: 835

RC: 330

 

Turn 5

CoA finally win the initiative and I have a rush of blood to my head. Despite my Epicurus Sky Fortress being badly damaged I activate it and open fire on the Tiksi. I only put out a few dice and wiff the roll.

The Russians show no quarter. The Kostroma Carrier sweeps forward and sends drunken conscripts onto the Prometheus Dreadnaught, overwhelming the Iron Men. They are recalled back to the Kostroma Carrier as the Russian’s had concerns I would prize his Carrier to go with the Zamiec Sky Fortress. The brutal broadsides double crit a Fresnel.

The Prometheus falls

 

I activate the Fresnel Cruisers next and show the Epicurus Sky Fortress how it’s done. Long range energy turrets double crit the last Tiksi Cruiser, sinking it. This gave me my mission and well over 50%.


Long range shooting from the Fresnels find their target

Everything that the Russians have goes onto the Epicurus Sky Fortress. The shields soak a huge punishment but enough shots get through and the Epicurus falls from the sky, green Sturginium flames spew from the multiple holes in the superstructure. It breaks apart as it crashes into the ocean below. The Russians had completed their mission.

The Khatanga finishes off the Epicurus

 

I try to earn a few more points by sinking some Novogorod Frigates and the Russians succeed in sinking the heavily damage Fresnel Cruiser.

What little remains of the Antarctican fleet slinks away.

 

End Points:

CoA: 965
RC: 1290

 

At the end of the battle I only had my cruisers and a frigate. The Russians still had several of their big ships, the Moskva, the Khatanga and the Kostroma. You don’t get points for having them below half hull points anymore. But it was the Khatanga that did the most damage. It didn’t really start that well but it put out a lot of hurt on my Sky Fortress to finish it off. If it was still flying the Antarctican’s would have won.

So what went wrong?

Charging my Callimachus battle orb into the teeth of the tiger was rash and fool hardy. I should have kept it back behind my Promethus Dreadnaught and just used the energy blast on weaker targets instead of going up against untouched Russian cruisers and battleships.

I think I had some poor luck knocking one or both the Mychkins down before they got a bombing run on. I put enough dice onto them but just couldn’t roll those 6’s. Perhaps I need to get some interceptors to help keep the skies clear.

It was also silly charging my Dreadnaught up. I wanted to use the particle accelerator and fore bombard but should have kept it close to my base line, hitting targets with broadsides and energy turrets, weakening them before turning and finishing them off. I did this with my Fresnel Cruisers and they put the hurt out.

 

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.