Friday, November 25, 2011

Assembling the Fleet

Hey Folks,

Long time no post, for which I blame work and the release of The Eldar Scrolls: Skyrim for Xbox 360...

I am not alone in a sudden drop of productivity, but at least I have managed to assemble my Prussian Fleet which took its sweet time to turn up from Old Blighty.  This was after NZ Post left it on my front porch for a couple of days as well, in which it got soaked (thankfully my rulebook survived!) and was amazingly not stolen!

In all there unpainted and semi-painted (read: stealth) glory;
So that's Destoyers at the front, followed by Crusiers and a Dreadnought flanked by two Battleships.  Two squadrons of Frigates flank the battleships while two squadrons of Escorts are in the centre.  The supporting Luftwaffe consists of two Scout Zeppelins, two Bombers, 3 squadrons of Tiny Fliers, a Recon Tiny Flyer and the massive Sky Fortress. Bringing up the rear is a par of wading Metzgar Giant Robots

Cruisers are part painted, will take good photo's when they are finished. 
 As you can see the fleet is in good order, mainly because;
Man this thing is huge!
So Jamie has Challenged me to have a 1000pt fleet painted in a little over a week.  Easy.  But what to paint?

Cheers
Jason

Friday, November 11, 2011

We all live on the Yellow Japanese Boat Train, We all live...

Hey Folks,

As you can probably tell we have been getting in alot of Dystopian Wars games with  Pooch's KoB victorious in its last encounter against the Japanese Boat Trains and also Jamie's FSA paddle steamers giving the poor Japs a good kicking.

I feel that regardless of the shame of defeat, we have more style.  Go Yellow Fleet!
Yellow Fleet moving through a strait in the Coral Sea somewhere.  "Ichi" Frigate Squadron (Hatsuune, Enoki, Hatsuzakura and Hinoki) leads the way  followed by "Roku" Crusier Sqaudron (Nagara, Yura, Natori) and the mighty Sokotsu class Battleship Masaka.  Bring up the rear is the "Ni" Frigate Squadron (Kaede, Kaki, Kaba, Hagi) while two DFA-170 bombers of the Fleet Air Arm pass overhead.

The Masaka
The Yura

Frigates of "Ichi" Squadron
DFA-170 Bombers
The Core of the Fleet
The Natori showing the Kanji symbol for Yellow that is carried by all the vessels in the fleet.
So overall I am quite happy how they came out.  I think the masts and ensigns really help get across the fact they are ships, and not trains!.  Even if I did put most of the flags on upside down...

I have reinforcements inbound but I also picked up another starter box that gave me the BB as well as the extras to do a fourth cruiser for "Roku" Squadron, another 4 frigates to form "San" Squadron and and extra DFA-170 bomber so I can field a full squadron of those too :)

Next up, Prussians...

Cheers
Jason

Sunday, November 6, 2011

First Dystopian Wars Game!

Hey Folks,

Pooch and I played our first game of Dystopian Wars and it was pretty brutal!

We each had 3 Cuisers and 6 Frigates (two squadrons of 3 each) with Pooch leading forth his Kingdom of Britannia Fleet while I fielded my partially painted Empire of the Blazing Sun train-boats that I scored in the Southern Sort Out buy/sell at Conquest.

I also managed to get the remaining three sections of the Board up to a playable standard.

We played two games, but I only got (bad flash) pics of the first one;

Japs to the left and Brits to the right...

A steamp punk Light House keeps watch

KoB Fleet deployed for battle, they may be stumpy but the look awesome and Pooch has painted them really well. 

Part painted EoBS. I'm still tinkering with a paint scheme as I can find one I really like.  Not sure about the Bands...

Fleets manoeuvre, initial salvos take a point off all my "Ichi" Squadron of frigates while I sink a KoB frigate and damage a Cruiser. 

Moving on here "San" squadron has destroyed a KoB Cruiser behind the Oil Derrick with some insane dice rolling while the KoB Frigate counter attack guts my Frigates...but then is smashed by the waiting EoBS 
Cruisers

KoB fleet mid game, its down to two Cruisers (one damaged) and a couple of frigates.  At the top of the photo "Ichi" Squadron burns.

Cruisers swing round with the top one being nailed by a "Hard Pounding" critical.  In a collision followed by boarding attempt Pooch's frigate killed off the marines from my frigate, but then I shot his marines down as well so we ended up in contact but unable to prize the other.  My Cruiser boarded to resolve the issue, but then had to All Stop so as not to ram the rocks!

And the Kob Cruisers take more of a pounding and use the Island for cover.
In the end I had sunk all of Pooch's fleet except a badly damaged Cruiser.

We played a second game which we didn't get to finish in which once again the Japanese frigates got the upper hand on their Pommy counterparts and my Cruisers had sunk a KoB Cruiser for minor damage.

What seems to be decisive is that my ships have a higher Critical Rating by one point, which means my Frigates  and Cruisers are really survivable compared to the British. I did tend to get some insane dice with the "exploding dice" mechanic (one chain of 4 "sixes" which was silly) and this lead to multiple critical hits which will kill any Cruiser. The KoB seem a bit weak in this department...so perhaps Shield Generators might be the way to go, even with the reduction in Firepower.  Air Power will add another element too...with KoB CAP Dive Bombers being particularly cool.

It is really hard to line up the fixed arcs of the EoBS ships though, so this will take some practice.

Overall its silly, fun and I get to roll lots of dice so I give DW a big thumbs up!

Cant wait for my Prussians to arrive!

Cheers
Jason