Foggy out there?

Fields of Glory page added.
Jon
Happy New year

Dystopian Wars the Beginning - FSA VS Prussians

The sea swelled gently against the hull of the FSA Paddle Steamer Lexington, as the Battleship moved steadily through the water with the waves crashing gently over the bow.
Wind blew sea spray against the windows of the bridge.

"Bring her to course 260"
"Eye eye Captain"
The Bow swung to the new direction, the rest of the battle fleet following.

"Ships off our port bow, Captain!" shouts a cold and damp look out.
"What are they?, are they  ours?"
As the captain peered through his telescope at the distant grey shapes, Bright flashes burst from the ships.

The sound of  screaming wind followed by a loud splash and a whoosh, close to the ship columns of water bust sky wards. Seconds later a thunderous noise was heard on the wind.

"Prussians!" Cursed the captain.. "Battle Stations!, lets show these buggers what were made off"

Dystopian wars, starter set, ships only: Prussia Vs FSA

With a few islands scattered we deployed our ships. I used a heavy screen of Frigates and the cruisers on my right and a squadron of frigates and my Battle ship on the left.
Dennis deployed his big boys all on his left flank with a screen of frigates across the table.

The Frigates closed quickly and we saw mutual destruction. The Prussians closed very quickly and straddled the FSA frigates using both bow guns and stern Tesla's to good effect. Slowly they Prussian frigates were sunk but at a high cost.

A surviving frigate takes on the FSA Battle ship

The FSA cruisers try to use the island as protection but the Prussians are faster and swiftly round the Island. The ensuing battle between the cruisers is a bloody affair.

Prussian Frigates about to surprise the FSA with there turn of speed.

The FSA cruisers about turn to face the Prussians head on. The resulting exchange of fire results in one of the Prussians disappearing in a Sturmagen Flare. The Prussians then fired back and the lead FSA cruiser also disappeared into the void. We were left wondering if with just wondered into the Dystopians wars version of the Bermuda triangle, two criticals, two double 6's, we waited for the third.

FSA cruisers loose one of there number before about their about turn.

The final tally is all the FSA cruisers sunk or disappeared, whilst the Prussians are left with one surviving ship. But not for long. The guns of the FSA Battleship fires sending the last Prussian cruiser to hell with a critical roll of double 1's leaving nothing but raining shrapnel as the ship explodes into little pieces.

The battle continued between the two Battleships. The FSA battleship starts to take a pounding and the Prussian battleship continues to close. The sole surviving FSA frigate moves away around an island knowing that is is now too far and out gunned to aid its big brother.

With a turn of speed the Prussian battleship crosses the bow of the FSA Battleship, with all guns blazing the my Battleship takes a pounding.

Prussians close for the kill

This sneaky manoeuvre leaves the FSA battleship with a problem. Do I call and all stop, but I still have to move 2" or do I try to turn. The result is either way a collision and my Battleship turns into the Prussian ship causing 1 hit. The Prussian ship must be made of stronger metal (Causes a critical hit + 2HP) as it rips the bow of the FSA battleship ploughing her under leaving behind in her wake little signs of the Big ship ever existing.

Oops! FSA Battleship is in trouble.

After action comments:
The Prussian fleet is quick and the Tesla coils are devastatingly good. Next time I need to hold them off at arms length.
Dystopian wars is a dice thirsty game and just ship on ship leaves something missing from the game.
Once we start introducing additional squadrons and air power it should hopefully get more interesting.
At the moment it is a case of wipe out the frigates, then the cruisers to leave Battle ship on Battleship.

Merry Christmas
Jon

Sand dunes at night - the Ambush

Some where in the desert night, the wind blew sand across an empty road, in the distance through the wind can be heard the roar of truck engines.
An Italian re-supply convoy moves slowly down the road with the escorting soldiers tired and sleepy being bounced around in their drafty vehicles.
The Drivers fighting tiredness look across enviously at there sleeping partners, wishing that the change over point would come soon so that they could take a turn at sleeping.
The lead trucks headlights pick out little in the blowing sand, beyond the circles of light, shadows loom and disappear, It was going to be a long drive.

Earlierthat day:

God morning Chaps.
Your mission today is to destroy an important supply convoy that is taking supplies to beleaguered troops.
With out these supplies the Italians will not be able to withstand our attacks much longer. If these supplies get through we will be unable to push him back and it will cost us dearly in lives.

Gentlemen, This convoy must be destroyed at all costs.

By mid afternoon the men had fueled up and equipped their vehicles. The LRDG trucks started their engines and slowly moved of into the desert gavering speed over the hard sand. They had to be at the road before midnight and it was going to be a long drive. 
At 11pm a patrol veers off and heads at top speed into the desert night, its mission to delay any possible reserves.
The other two patrols find the road and the newly founded SAS patrol dismounted and headed across the road to catch the convoy in a cross fire.  Engines off they wait and it is not long before they see the lights and hear the sounds of distant engines, the convoy is coming....

Driving the lead truck is Mario. Cursing the blowing sand he peers through the gloom of the night, the lights of the truck are not helping much, ahead on the road he sees some dark shapes, then again he seen many dark shapes loom and disappear, suddenly his lights make out the shape of trucks and Mario slams on the brakes..too late. The flickering light of the machine guns illuminate the LRDG trucks and suddenly as his truck burst into flames, Mario falls into a long un-waking sleep.

In the dark of the night the LRDG wait for the convoy.

Awoken from their slumber the sleepy Italian soldiers quickly jump from their trucks into a fusillade of shots from the LRDG trucks. The convoy and its escort are shown no mercy and is quickly wiped out.

The convoy is quicly surrounded and the slaughter begins.

With the convoy destroyed the SAS remount and the trucks head of into the gloom of the desert night.
Suddenly lights appear in front of the trucks, the LRDG gunners waste no time and open fire. A few Italians fall,  but the rest dived for what little cover the desert offers and returned fire.
Tracers suddenly appear out of the night to the right of the patrol and they realise that they are caught in a cross fire between two platoons of Italian infantry.

The LRDG have no choice but to try and drive through the troops to their front but the fire is too intense, truck after truck bursts into flames.
The lead Patrol is destroyed, the Commander and his second try in vain to force a path but too are destroyed.
The second patrol takes cover in an oasis. On hearing engines close by they hope that the last patrol had returned but looked on in horror as a Armoured car platoon descends upon them all guns blazing.

Luigi gunned the Armoured cars' engine and drove straight at the Oasis, his commander giving him directions through his head set.
It had been a good evening, they had earlier surprised the Interdiction Patrol destroying it before it could signal what had happened.
The trap had been sprung. Infantry converged quickly on the area and blocked these marauders escape route.
Yes it had cost them the convoy but it was worth it to destroy a full LRDG patrol. They had been plaguing the Italian rear areas for such a long time wreaking havoc... NOW it was pay back.

Luigi brought his Armoured car to a stop and saw, as the cannon on his vehicle opened fire the LRDG trucks burst into flames. As the occupants jumped to safety they were met with a hail of bullets.  They were shown the same mercy they had shown the convoy.

The End, Italian Armoured Cars finish off the LRDG.

It only took a few moments for the LRDG to be destroyed, the night sky lit by the fires from the blazing trucks. 
SAS member Andy had jumped from his truck right at the last moment and he landed behind some shrubs near to the oasis. Near by he heard a groan and peered out to see his Friend Tim laying not far away, he reached out and dragged him into the shrubs.
The Italians moved in on the trucks, inspecting their handy work.  Andy dragged Tim away from the scene further into the gloom of the night, behind a dune, Andy quickly peered over to make sure he had not been seen then swiftly threw Tim over his shoulders and as fast as he could made his way further into the desert away from the carnage.
Andy saw the faint light of dawn and knew he had to find shelter, it was going to be a long walk back, but he vowed that one day the Italians would pay.

After Game thoughts:

I used too many points for this mission. Which allowed the Italians to muster a strong force. The Italian Infantry had too many heavy weapons for me to defeat.
The armoured cars coming on was the clincher.
The interdiction raid was useless and a waste of points, I repeatedly failed to stop any reserves and having to throw the Interdiction dice regardless of if the reserves arrived or not hurt for latter.
Remember for every 100 I spend the defending player gains an additional 100.
Fighting at night did not really help me, it slowed me down greatly and the fact I was fighting all the way meant that I was observed by every one and they were long range firing with HMG's and 47mm's before I could retaliate.
Picking up the SAS patrol cost me time, so maybe next time I don't use them.
Shoot for 1 turn then leg it may be the way forward.
Jon

Dystopian Wars Game 2

2nd outing for the Dystopian wars last night. 2 complete novices being umpired by me (The blind leading the Blind).

British Vs American as Dennis had not painted his up yet. It was a slow game with several rule look ups and quite a surprising few rounds of fire especially Turn 1.

Dennis used the Brits whilst another friend David used the Yankees. Dave's' Cruisers opened fire onto Dennis cruisers and well, er...

First Salvo from 2 main turrets linked together resulted in a critical hit on the first cruiser. Then the rockets linked fired at the third cruiser suffering another critical hit (we forgot that you can link AA fire from other vessels in the squadron but that would have only added 1 dice and I do not think it would have changed the out come). So Dave threw for the first critical.... then we went onto the Rockets which caused the critical on the third and he threw for that.

Two magazines hits in the same round of firing..Ouch!

Yes Dave threw double 1 twice. So in one round of firing Dave took out two cruisers which didn't even get to move let alone fire..Ouch.
And that was turn 1...lol
Another mad moment for Dennis was when the his Battleship was hit with a whopping 20 hits, all this from, if I remembered correctly, A 6AD attack..lol

Ok do we have enough armour to stop that lot?

This meant that the ship took 2 critical hits which I think was a Hard pounding and a Fusion Leak. Lucky ship. The game only went to turn 3 before we called time. Once we are all up to speed on the rules I anticipate that the game will flow a lot quicker. Next time It may be my turn and hopefully  Dennis will have painted his Prussians or Japs by then.

Stockport Pick and Mix

This weekend saw me attend the Pick and Mix competition held at Marauder Games Northwest Gaming centre, Stockport, near Manchester (England for the guys in the states..lol and no not New England, the Old one.) which was run bu Hammy from MAWS. On the Saturday it was to be a FOW Mid war 1500 point comp and on the Sunday an Early War 1500 comp. There was also a FOG comp and I think a DBM comp.

The comp was to be three rounds with Hammys patented point system which was not too bad. I supplied the terrain and was there on hand to umpire and play if need be.

Saturday I took along my Mid war Tunisia Brits which I had used successfully previously. The only alteration made was I dropped 4 25 pdrs and took 2 17/25's (Which turned out to be a waste of points).

I set the tables up Saturday morning, 5 in all and they looked like this.


Table 1



table 2



Table 3



Table 4



Table 5

Saturday

 My First game was against a German Panzer Grenadier in Break through with me defending on Table 3, I managed to pen the Germans in pretty tightly. Leaving 2 infantry platoons and the 6 Pdrs to advance on to the objectives. The 17/25's covered the German deployment area and the objectives and I sorely missed having HE rounds. A bitter battle took place with the Germans struggling to get out of there deployment area against an infantry platoon and my Bofor's which the later were pined for 3 turns before being wiped out failing a last man standing roll. The German reserves arrived only to be blatted by a cheeky ATR shot and 9 shots from the 6pdrs.



Sig 33 guns nearly cost me the Churchill's and made me double the 2iC over to appoint a new commander. The Sig's promptly died to the combined Churchill and 25pdr fire.

Game over: 5-2 to me.

Other players Game 1 photos:


DAK Armour Vs US Armour



Finish Infantry Vs Hungarian Armour

Game 2 pitched me against the Finish Infantry and I was attacking in No Retreat(Grrr) on Table 4. As I rarely attack  with my Infantry, I forgot that they can attack at night (DOH!) and walked into the Finish Infantry loosing in a moment of Rashness my 2 carrier patrols and in a hard fought melee with Churchill's  and Infantry to which I manged not to kill a platoon but contested an objective


Moving up



After two failed assaults.

Game Over: 6-1 Loss.

Other game 2 pics:


DAK Armour Vs DAK Panzer grens.



US Armour Vs Hungarian Armour, The Yellow Reindeer was the Objective.

Game 3 saw me against a US Armoured company in Fighting Withdrawal on Table 1. As the person I was playing only had played two games before and was still learning I took pity on them. Also the fact that I came to realise earlier that besides myself and the Finnish Army player every one else were novices with none to limited gaming experience. I decided not to walk over this person in turn one and explained why I had set up the  way I did and how best to counter my set up. This cost me my 17/25's and it was then a slogging match with the Churchill's chasing the American Armour that walked into a gun line of 3 6pdrs.

At this point I was too tired and forgot to take pictures of the last games.

Game Over: 5-2 Win to me.

Joint Second Overall.
First place was to the Finnish Guy.

Not a bad day but I tired far too easily and this cost me and my over helpfulness in the last game cost me a valuable point, But sometimes it is more important to take stock of the level of players within a competition; rain your self in and take your game play down a notch or two, you already know what your army can do so its a case of be helpful and just be satisfied in the knowledge that you could have destroyed them Turn 1.

Sunday

I took along 2 armies, French armour and German Armour as I was a fill in player and could alternate the armies to face there historical enemy.

Game 1 saw my French Vs a German Infantry Company attacking in Cauldron on Table 3. Although the Germans was set up by a seasoned player it was controlled by marauder games owner Darren who was also advised by myself and another FOW player. The selection of the German force and its deployment along with the random deployment for my tanks left me with a very difficult game indeed and a after few calculations in my head I worked out that I was not going to win easily if at all. Several assaults later saw 2 tank platoons destroyed, a company test passed, reserves arrive and the CO and a platoon surrounded by AT weapons which were promptly destroyed with 3 105mm rounds and 15 Pak 36 shots needing 4's to hit, you do the math.


Well Plan A failed what next... I hate cauldron, it has no place in a competition.

Game Over: 5-2 Loss, Company Broken.

The Other Game:


British Matilda company Vs German Panzer Company..guess who won.

Game 2 saw me defending against a German Panzer Company on Table 4 and a Shiter (yes I know, but it is that bad) of a mission; I had 3 platoons to protect 3 objectives to which one disappears. Superior German Gunnery and being Veteran made short work of my 75mm battery and my Recce was forced to disengage 4 out of 5 turns. By turn 5 when my reserves arrived I had to drive straight up to the objective which was already held by 2 Panzer platoons and the One man turret really screwed me up. Drive up get shot to pieces bring on next platoon, Drive up get shot to pieces bring on next platoon, drive up get sh..well you can see where this is going. I eventually managed to kill a platoon of PzII's at the cost of a 76mm battery, 10 H-35's and 3 Panhards. Normally my French ain't that bad but it seems I was having a really bad day dice wise.


Ominous shadows make the French look skywards.



End of my Turn 4 just before the Germans rush the 75's

Game Over 5-2 Loss, Company Broken.

The Third game of the day saw me pitted against the now obvious Competition winner Dan. Win or Lose there was no way to prevent Dan from loosing 1st place. I was using a Pz38 Kompany and after a quick discussion we thought we would make the game more of a challenge for Dan and swapped out some 38T's for 2 88's. The mission was free for all on Table 5 and I had already worked out that I could win if Dan attacked as he could not protect both objectives and I could not actually hurt him with my tanks (hence the 88's). This game lasted 2 turns. Dan pulled his recce off table so they could not get chased down by my Tanks. I hid my units from his Matilda's and we called it a draw as Dan worked out there was a way to defend 2 objectives with one platoon and attack mine but it would take him 8 to 10 turns to get past the 88's and take the objective providing he killed every thing I put on the objective to hold it, It would have taken him at least another 8 to 9 turns to wipe out my defending armour.



Er..Wot now???!?..hide and no blinkin chance.

Game Over:  Draw 1-1 (I think? or it may be 3-3, not too sure either way)

The other game was a bloody affair with German Panzers confronting the German infantry...OUCH! for the Panzers, I believe.

All in all it was an interesting weekend, with new experiences and rules learnt, better luck next time.

Last but not least Dans Tank company, seeing as Dan had to walk to the comp (or come by cab as he says) he left his BAR behind and brought with him what he could carry.


Small but deadly, Sod the BAR watch out for these buggers.

Dystopian wars Arrived

Yes my Dystopian wars has arrived. The two fleets are sitting now painted and awaiting a victim to play it with.

The Rule Book

Hmmm.... The rule book looks nice and is full of fluff on the fictional history variety, not backed up with many illustrations and the few illustrations there are look dark and too grity for my taste. Sarted reading the rules after watching several you tube vids and found it harder to read than most rule sets.

The book in its self is very badly laid out, with the index being almost next to useless. With important rules mentioned out of context or in-passing it is almost as bad as FOW to find the rule you need. Instead of logicaly putting the rules in order and in the relevant section you will find the obscure references in a totaly unrelated section.

The rule book smacks of the person who wrote it knows the rules inside and out and actualy forgot that someone else who reads them may not know the rules, so he has written them as he remembers.

Rules I struggled to and still can't; to find: Comodore special rerolls. Break test - What effect it has if failed (Its not actualy in the Break Section but the one before), Obscured flying models firing, small target modifiers, and many more.


FSA Starter set ships

Britonian fleet

The starter sets on the other hand are briliant. With little time needed in cleaning up the resin and with a wash they quickly paint up. Two fleets painted in 5 nights, thats not bad.

My first two fleets were the ones featured in the Triple Helix You tube vid, Britonia and the FSA.
The Britonia ships are very like there World War one counter parts and are easy to paint but realy lack anything cool. The FSA are al paddlers and are very nice when painted up and look very cool. The Britonians are actualy quite week compared to the other nations. They have very poor gunnery values but make up for it with torpedoes, The FSA on the other hand have deverstaing firepower but low critical hit points. So you need to hit them fast before they do the damage and you are unable o hurt them.

The Prussians and Japanese look cool with their flying machines and flying aircraft carriers. These are future purchases.


Two big ships fight it out

Still I have to sort these damn rules out into some sort of order, wheres me high lighters.
Jon