Demo Games Day

I ran a day of demo games with a group of tabletop gaming fans showcasing their favorite "alternative" games in a store devoted to the top couple of miniature companies.  I set up a basic scenario which could accomodate 2-5 players. 



On the "starboard" side of the table I had a rocky cove set up, flanked by some crumbling ruins and centered around a lighthouse; on the "port" side was deployed a damaged Elven flagship with only a single squadron of destroyers running escort duty.  The objective for the Elven player was simple--get the flagship with the First Sea Lord to any place between the ruined pillars behind the lighthouse where Elven shore batteries could drive off any attackers.  Other players would either play allied squadrons of Elven ships helping to ward off attackers or Dwarven, SM, or BG squadrons attempting to sink or capture the Elven flagship.

I had two very interested players, and although one was interested in playing the Bone Griffons, the other really preferred to play Dwarves, particularly the "magic" Dwarves in the cast iron ships.  They also wanted to play against each other.  So, I quickly modified the scenario, removed most of the other squadrons, and the SM player had the objective of moving the "heavy cruiser" (yes, it's a SM battleship but I had a card printed out with stats for a heavy cruiser) to the safe haven behind the lighthouse while the BG ships attempted to sink or capture it.



I restricted the space on the table, and the Shroud Mages started 12" in from one corner while the Bone Griffons started 12" in from the other corner on the same table edge.  The fleet of Iron Dwarves among the STAR cards deck marked off the 12" out of bounds, so the players were effectively playing on a 3x3 foot area.  All the better to get them to the meat of the action, and by the end of turn 1 we had the heavy cruiser firing at submerged undead whales (to no effect), and a squadron of SM frigates closing on the squadron of BG cruisers.

The center of the board represented shallows, and I explained that only small surface models could move across that area, between the volcano and rocky island.  The BG player, on turn 2, surfaced his orca, deciding not to circle around to intercept the heavy cruiser (especially after the heavy cruiser changed course to follow the frigates and take chances with the oared galleys), and moved across the shallows to head directly toward their objective.

 The sea monsters, by the way, are only obstacles in this game, like terrain.  Turn 3 was quite exciting:  the squadron of orca moved to ram and board the heavy cruiser, but only 2 managed to reach the SM ship; a fast and furious boarding action damaged the target, but the boarding parties from both orca were absolutely destroyed.  The heavy cruiser moved to trade broadsides with the squadron of oared galleys:  all ships took some damage, but no criticals.  During the 4th turn the heavy cruiser moved to a stern raking position on one oared galley, and a double critical hit damaged the propulsion and rudder both, leaving it to drift ahead only 2".

The last remaining orca moves to collide with 2 SM frigates at once; it was a gamble, and it didn't pay out--one frigate was lost to the ramming, but the other managed to resist the boarding action and destroy the last of the undead crew on the whale.

Finally, with only 1 cruiser limping in the water with a single hull point while the heavy cruiser still had more than 50% hull points and was within sight of the harbour, the player of the Bone Griffons conceded the game.  The two new players had completed 5 turns in under an hour with fewer than 300 points worth of ships per side.

DWVA X-Cam

I'm concentrating more of my online activity on the ManBattlestations site, and Ruckdog just posted a blog post describing the series of games we just played of Dystopian Wars for a local X-Campaign here.

More details can be found on the forum side of the website: http://manbattlestations.com

Assault on Green Island Airfield

BATTLE REPORT
Assault on Green Island Airfield
Imperial vs. FSA vs. Covenant
1000 MFV each force, naval, air, and armored

The set-up for this scenario was a bit lopsided: I had 1000 points to set up on the island in the center of the board, including a bunker and airfield; my two opponents each had 1000 points on opposite sides of each other.  The objective was to assault and hold the airfield with AP.  Clearly my force was going to be the nut in the vise.

I put some land units on the island for defense, some medium flyers above the island, and some ships to either side, everything prepared to move in any direction.  My plan was to keep forces close to the island and respond to threats as they advanced, from either side.

Glorious 3rd of June DW

Thirteen players arrived and registered to participate in the Glorious 3rd of June Dystopian Wars Virginia event at the Game Vault in Fredericksburg.  We also had two standby players still new to the game but willing to even the matches so all players could play a game in each of the three rounds.  We started at noon.  I brought sandwiches and fixings set up on a side table for those who had driven as far as 50 miles to be there; these served well since we didn't take a break until the event finished at 6:30 pm.

Cauldron of Silence

After a month of regular battle reports from the Cauldron of Silence campaign for Uncharted Seas, the final battle between two massive fleets was reported today on the Spartan Games BLOG.

Now that's a Battle Report!

Craig from the D6G has been writing some fun narrative battle reports on the blog over on the Spartan Games website, part of a tsunami of new material for Uncharted Seas, including some new options for Captains of Renown and featuring some awesome pictures of ships on the tabletop.  Here is a link for the most recent report:

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/battle-report-deep-within

I especially enjoy the conflict between my two favorite factions in the Uncharted Seas, something I have never witnessed because I'm always playing either one or the other but usually against Orcs or Dwarves.

Game with Greg

FSA fleet stationed off the coast of Ecuador was dispatched to investige reports of an Imperial force operating in the region.  The Blazing Sun battle group centered around the Kiyohime carrier Noto with a Tsukuyomi War Gyro in support along with escorts & frigates.  (Naval Core Forces with approximately 820 points in each.)

War Gyro with Crabs

Last week I played a X-Cam mission against my Usual Opponent's Covenant force.  It was a Clash of Arms scenario, and we set up a river action with mixed naval and armored forces.  The picture above provides a good view of the setup (I had just bought the building packs and had only just started painting them) with bridges, but it's turn 2, after my war gyro had already destroyed the Covenant battleship in the middle of the river....

Don't teleport your Covenant battleship right in front of the enemy's main force, especially before that main force has activated for the turn!

My Usual Opponent only rolled a single natural 6 in the first 3 turns while I managed to score a series of critical hits on his battleship.  An Imperial victory was all but certain, so in the last turn we agreed to modify the rules of teleporting vehicles with the Time Orb, and my War Gyro ended up with a Crab on deck!

Squid versus Battleship

A few local DW players met at the Game Vault one afternoon last week to play a few X-Cam games.  I didn't take as many pictures as usual, but I snapped this one at a key moment when a giant mechanical squid zig-zagged through the water to attack a British battleship.

And, when it was all over, the giant squid pulled the battleship beneath the sickly green waves.

More pictures and battle reports from X-Cam games I've played in the past two weeks are posted in our DWVA section on  MAN BATTLESTATIONS!

Street Fighting

I've been thinking about combining land & sea operations for Dystopian Wars in an urban environment, and I started tinkering with a scenario which features a city with several large canals and bridges.  I set up the scenario this past Sunday for two local players along with some infantry rules to playtest.

Unfortunately, I forgot the box of land templates I had cut out at home, so I pieced together the equivalent using sheets of paper and some pieces of green felt.  The objective was the single bridge in the center of the table, flanked by a clock towers which could be captured by infantry or rocket marines.  The Imperial force managed to steam up into the channel and capture both clock towers after destroying lead aerial elements of the opposing British force.

Another Demo Game

This past weekend I packed the DW models for my Japanese fleet into a carrying case and prepared to set out to the Game Vault to run a demo game.  While I was printing out the latest rule updates from Spartan, I returned to find Sabine tha cat had found a new place to nap on a foam tray.

The Glorious 6th of November

Dystopian Wars VA Autumn Event 2011

We had more than a dozen players for our DWVA Autumn Event which included three rounds of a Dystopian Wars tournament with 10 registered players and a 3-way exposition game of Uncharted Seas.

Here are the full rankings for the DW tournament:

1. Andy - Prussians

2. Kyle - CoA
3. Steve - CoA
4. Brian - CoA

5. Dave - KoB

6. John - Prussians

7. Trevor - KoB (with French leanings)

8. Greg - FSA

9. Nate - KoB

And, last but definitely not least, and only a mere 2 points behind Nate....

10. Jack - Empire of the Burning Sun

The first three placed players won store credit, and Andy also took the Best Painted Fleet prize. 

The runner-up for best painted fleet was our winner at the Uncharted Seas event last year, Mike with his incredible Orc ships.

DW Sunday at End Game Center

Last week my usual opponent and I took a drive down south to meet some new DW players and check out a game store I visited when I first moved to the area three years ago.  We played a game of DW and talked about the game with other players.  The big DWVA Autumn Event 2011 is only a week away now, and Kyle wanted to play a practice game with his 800 point fleet.

Kyle's Covenant fleet moves into position; with 800 points he included both a battleship and a flagship; I included, for the Blazing Sun, an unpainted Kraken as a proxy for the Mechanical Squid, along with the battleship Ontake.

Battle of Castle Rock Island

A mist forms above the cold, still waters of the Sorylian Sea around Ratrap Island.  Ships take shape in the mist, black smoke belching from their stacks, the hiss of steam from engines, as two Dwarven fleets approach Castle Rock on the island renowned for the presense of a sinister mage.

Our first proper game of Uncharted Seas in more than a month, we started by setting out the sea mat and islands to play Dreadfleet, but we decided to break out the reliable old fleets instead.  800 points in each fleet, no composition rules and no special objectives.  I placed my Shroud Mages along the southern edge of the space, a pair of frigates to the north scouting for a battleship, then a pair of heavy cruisers, the flagship Lightbringer, a squadron of Adept Destroyers, and, somewhere, a Ripper Submersible lurked beneath the becalmed waters.  And barely three feet away, suddenly appearing as the fog lifts slightly, and just within long range, was Admiral Redhammer's fleet of Iron Dwarves with battleship, flagship, heavy cruisers, destroyers, and their Cursed Bellows Skyships.

Start of Turn 1:  Iron Dwarves to the North and Shroud Mages to the South.  Note the coffee mug from the Blogger's favorite used bookstore just beyond the southwest corner of the board; not for any good reason, I was just very pleased to be sipping hot coffee from my Powell's mug while playing my usual opponent my favorite tabletop naval game on a new sea mat during a comfortable Sunday afternoon.  No harm in recognizing the pleasure of having the time (and cash) to enjoy this hobby.

Our First (and Last) Game of Dreadfleet

My usual Dwarven opponent, the one that usually sinks my Thaniras Elven fleet, stopped by last night to try Dreadfleet.  We just played a trial game, the Dwarven ship proxied by his Iron Dwarf Dreadnought against the Shadewraithe which I had just started painting.  We started on opposite sides of the map, about 36 inches apart, and our respective ships closed, each opening broadside failing to scratch the other.  On the first turn both ships were pelted by a rain of sea snakes which were swept from the deck out of hand.

By turn 3 my Shadewraithe had pulled alongside the Dwarven ship and fired a volley which managed to damage some crew, but then the Dwarven ship moved into a stern raking position, and canonballs smashed the mizzenmast into so many splinters (corporeal or otherwise), reducing the speed of the Shadewraithe by several points.  Meanwhile, according to Fate, a Bone Hydra (represented by the beautiful yet unpainted merfolk) emerged from the waves and attacked the Shadwraithe.

The Shadewraithe's crew finally repelled the Bone Hydra which slipped back between the waves, but not before the Dwarven ship approached to ram the port side.  A brief action ensued with the Dwarven captain wounded by the Shadewraithe's Wraith-Captain, and the Shadewraithe managed to successfully escape jeoopardy and, the grappling hooks from the Dwarven ship slipping through the ghost ship, slowly started around the south side of the volcano island.  But the Dwarven ship took immediate action, repaired damage, and by turn 5 the two ships were again trading broadsides at point-blank range before a ferocious boarding action ensued.

We finally called the game, deciding we would have preferred to spend the hour playing Uncharted Seas.

On the positive side, both of us enjoyed playing on the sea mat, and we agreed it was equivalent to a twenty dollar value of the total cost.  Also, my opponent wanted to buy the Dwarven ship, still on the sprue, for ten bucks.   Despite the fragility of the models, compared to the certain heft of Spartan resin & metal ships, we determined each model worth 8-12 dollars just for the detail alone.  And the assortment of islands are cool, not to mention the measuring stick which I've been painting bleached bone white with brass highlighted inch numbers.  So, in the end, I feel the price was worth the ship models, islands, play mat, and the inspiration provided by the Fate & Damage cards to develop my own "perfect" tabletop naval game.

The Grand Alliance

Since I started tabletop wargaming with some passion two years ago I've had my eye on Games Workshop, specifically the Warhammer Fantasy Battles, and I even went so far as to sign up for a forum for players with a preference for Wood Elves, even tinkered with some Mantic elven spearmen figures in some Autumnal colors, but I never purchased any new GW products.

Until now.  When I saw the news of the Dreadfleet release I started looking for information on Man'O'War in a way I started looking for information on Battlefleet Gothic when I bought and started playing Battleship Galaxies two weeks ago (and BG was the first Hasbro game I've bought in decades).  Sure, I read the hype along with the skepticism, but critics of everything produced by GW remind me of the days when I was involved in the live rock music scene when I lived out on the West Coast with cool dudes talking about bands selling out because they got a record deal.  Dreadfleet caught my interest because it's a fantasy naval game, and I can't seem to get enough of those lately.

I bought a copy of Traflagar a few months ago, a bit late, but I was interested in how the system compared to Uncharted Seas as well as some other historical naval games I've played, like Wooden Ships & Iron Men or Flying Colours.  I suppose my used copy of Trafalgar was technically my first GW purchase, but with Dreadfleet my money when directly to GW through my FLGS.  And I felt justified by my purchase, especially after I opened the box.  Sure, there were an awful lot of skulls on those islands, but nothing a little flocking couldn't help, and the models certainly looked better in person than they did on the Beasts of War video I watched the previous week.  The scale was about right, and I saw no reason why I couldn't incorporate most of these ships, wrecks, and islands into my regular games of Uncharted Seas.

But the system, simple enough, really grabbed my attention with the FATE and DAMAGE cards.  Sure, Uncharted Seas is designed for fleet actions, fun and fast, but Dreadfleet looks like a game for a few big ships firing broadsides into each other at close range.  So, why not take the system for a spin?

Covenant Assaults Blazing Sun Coastal Fortress

We played a game on Sunday at the old Game Vault with 700 point fleets, using the Declared Objective of capturing a coastal fortress.  I added the coastal fortress into the cost of my total force, using the stats from the book but a paper model of an Italian castle in approximate scale which I had assembled the night previous.  My Blazing Sun force also had a shield tower adjacent to the fortress for additional protection, then the battleship Ontake with a pair of escorts, a pair of scout gyros, and a pair of bombers, along with two squadrons of tiny flyers, fighters around the battleship and torpedo bombers.  My opponent set up his battleship on the opposite corner of the board with a full squadron of cruisers, two squadrons of 4 frigates each, bombers and tiny flyers, basically his Covenant starter box.

Up through turn 2 I kept my forces in place and launche rockets against the approaching enemy, taking out some frigates and damaging those bombers.  He moved up a squadron of diver bombers to attack my coastal fortress, but the guns & AA managed to shoot them all down before a single bomb was dropped.

 

By turn 5 the Covenant battleship moved into position, blasted a hole through the coastal fortress with that energy weapon in the bow and fired a devastating broadside against the Ontake which suffered a catastrophic magazine explosion.  With the scout gyros trailing smoke, one with a stuck rudder and flying off into the sunset, I had no real support left for my coastal fortress.  During turn 6 he moved all of his frigates up to launch rocket marines, softening the defenses, and then the battleship launched rocket marines which managed to capture the coastal fortress intact, giving the CoA force a clear victory.

Covenant Fleet Skirmish

Only 500 points per side on a small board with a single small volcano between the forces.  No special or secret objectives.

Starting deployment.

Blazing Sun vs. Covenant

My Usual Opponent with his new Covenant of Antarctica fleet squares up against the Imperial Might of the Blazing Sun.  Approximately 700 point lists:  he's using the basic naval box set, and I'm using a pair of scout gyros in place of my cruisers and a squadron of three destroyers instead of 4 frigates.  Our respective naval contingents meet at a chain of small islands and close for action.

Battle of the Boiling Seas Strait

The Dragon Lords have sent out a vassal fleet of dwarves to harass the imperial expansions of the Elves from the Old World.

We had almost 1000 points each, almost everything on the table. A flagship and battleship each, plenty of destroyers and frigates.

Turn 1: The Shroud Mages spotted the Elven fleet near a strait between two islands in the Boiling Seas and set straight toward them. Fortunately, the Elven fleet possessed the wind gauge and set battle sail to move the frigate squadrons into medium range and commence firing upon the leading elements of the Shroud Mage fleet.

After forming a beautiful line-of-battle with 8 frigates in two squadrons, the Dwarven guns start punching holes in the Elven sails. I invent a busy character named Melvin the Elven Sailmaster who sets out, with thread and needle clenched in teeth as he climbs the ratlines, to mend the holes and tears. But, unfortunately, he can't keep up with all the damage. The Elven Battleship Mountain Spirit Fury moves directly through the gap in the frigate line-of-battle and leads a brave but foolish charge into the center of the Shroud fleet. Meanwhile, the heavy gunship which is the Shroud flagship moves slowly into position, gunning an Elven destroyer into splinters and firing upon the grand Mountain Spirit Fury.