Le Porte-Avions Français Arrivé

Reinforcements for my Dystopian Wars French navy have been completed, taking the force to a rounded thousand points.

The Aircraft Carrier 'Le Condorcet'; accompanied by three escort cruisers - 'Leon Gambetta', 'Jule Ferrer' and 'Victor Hugo':

Also painted but not shown are another six fighter tokens to go with the carrier.  Which is a huge model, dwarfing the Pocket Battleship already in the fleet.  I had fun with the aircraft and the flight deck; but to be honest all that camouflage was a bit of a chore...

Having a fleet of twenty vessels now I probably should read the rules properly!

La Capture du Vaisseau Amiral Russe 1870

My French Dystopian Wars fleet set sail once again.  Facing our erstwhile allies the Russians in a clash through what appeared to be the straights of Constantinople.

My fleet was the same as before, but the Russians were a new threat.  Pleasingly a painted one though.

The Russian vessels had only fairly short ranged weapons, but have no end of defensive systems designed to reduce the effectiveness of enemy attacks, and support a lot of flying vessels of substantial size.

They would prove to be a challenge.

We played the battle using objectives, these are a simple facility of the DW rules to provide each player with their own mission within the battle.  We rolled off for it and the Russians, under Paul, were looking to destroy 70% of my fleet, whilst I had to try and capture his flagship for victory.

Both fleets began to advance, but the Russians stayed close together to exploit their defensive systems, and the cover of the large Island.

I was able to engage the Russians at a range they could not reply to, but their Torpedo and Missile redirection systems made it close to impossible to harm them.  Meanwhile his flying vessels advanced to attack and I began to lose smaller ships.  Luck was not favouring me at this stage and casualties soon mounted.

My plans remained to capture the Flagship however, and from the start of the game I had decided to use the smaller flotilla ships to occupy the enemy whilst the Pocket Battleship 'Voltaire' and my Cruisers, with air cover, went after his battleship.

The Voltaire proved largely immune to the weaker gunnery of the Russians and the lack of effective support from his frigates (the disc shaped vessels - apparently based on an actual experimental Russian ship design!).  We closed, and not for the first time in the game the Russians found themselves on a collision course.

We collided, and the Russians tried to seize my ships first in an effort to forestall defeat.  But close defence fire stopped him in his tracks, and with the arrival of my Cruisers he was overpowered.

The French seized their prize and the Russians were defeated.  Victoire!

That said, it did not seem like a victory.  I was elsewhere on the battlefield getting my ass kicked in every direction.  Paul's flying ships seemed immune to my attacks until late in the game, and the bunkering of all his ships around the terrain features made them impossible to target effectively.  My Frigates and destroyers were sacrificial lambs to the slaughter for his cruisers.

It was a frustrating game; and raised a certain degree of alarm, that Spartan may have allowed a degree of 'Codex Creep' to develop with the Russians; it will take more than one game to be certain of that though....

Du Nord d'Alger: 1870 guerres dystopienne

Given how quickly I got my French DW Navy painted, it seemed appropriate to get a game in fairly soon too.  To be fair to my opponent, Paul, on the day I was actually more than a little distracted and so didn't give the game all the attention I should have, so apologies to him.  Still it at least meant the sort of victory for him that keeps opponents coming back for more; and besides we all know the rule of newly painted models - that they will get nailed first time out, so what chance did I have anyway?!*

My fleet found itself facing the hated Les Rosbeefs in a small stretch of water filled with islands and sandbars - AKA fantasy game terrain.  In a naval game this level of terrain seems overwrought, why on earth would I sail my entire fleet through this channel that's less than 200 yards wide?  when you consider that in the game only one item of terrain had any effect on the game - the sand bar - it seemed unnecessary to be honest.  On top of that we both had aircraft, Paul a flying aircraft carrier and myself three surface skimming cruisers; so terrain became even less relevant.  All that sea and we chose to fight in the bit of it least suited to manoeuvres?  Really!

Enough ranting.  I made my way through the melange of terrain to advance on the Britannic Majesty's fleet.

My skimmers were able to sweep over the sand bar to target the monstrosity that was the British Dreadnought.

Alas the Dreadnought was to prove brutally invulnerable, whilst the Royal Navy's submarines played merry havoc with my frigates.  But a lucky shot from my Destroyers would bring down the flying carrier and briefly take the smile off my opponents face!

My pocket battleship swept around the rear of the sandbar, allowing it to fire on the enemy but protecting it from torpedoes.  Frigates had led the way and cleared the enemy screen, allowing it some security.  In the mean time the Dreadnought had destroyed one cruiser and captured another but his attempts gain further ships resulted in the loss of all his marines. And if I'd had any sense I'd have thrown my own marines onto here or one of the other defenceless submarines.

But I didn't, my Frigates nad interceptors tried to torpedo the Dreadnought out of existence instead.

To no avail.  Although with the loss of his aircraft carrier and several other vessels it was close, the destruction and capture of numbers of my smaller ships gave Paul a narrow victory.

Curse you English Imperial dogs!

Afterthoughts, I must read the rules next!  Would really have helped...


*apropro to what was distracting me too.

La Marine Française à la Parade

You will recall a week or so ago I posted about my slightly impulsive Dystopian Wars purchase.  Well I've justified them somewhat by getting them already painted:

A nice little starter fleet - the contents of a fleet box plus a blister pack of destroyers for support.  Despite going overboard with the details, notably going for a dazzle pattern of camouflage and ship numbers, these were a breeze to paint.  It only takes so long to paint 1/1200th scale models for the wargames table!

I decided to add bases to the ships, not the convention in the game but it would make handling the models simpler and ironically, make storing the models easier.  The Spartan Games models are mostly a modern compound resinated plastic, which takes detail extraordinarily well, and it is also easy to see that they are computer designed and possibly the masters are produced on a 3D printer (given the precision of the work - though I'm guessing here!).  Only the large aircraft and the gun turrets are Pewter.

Everything, even the tiny aircraft on the flyer tokens, was given an heavily thinned ink wash for shading and to give something of a rusted look.

And yes, those aircraft are absolutely tiny!  Nonetheless you can see cockpit details, the engine exhausts and so on; given they are on a base all of 20mm square, they are remarkable!

So the fleet is ready for all hands action.  Overall I'm really impressed with the models, fine sculpts and great value.  Now to get a game o two in...

Les Guerres Dystopiques

Like a true gamer, I have sometimes to sell things, but usually only to fund other projects instead.  In this instance the selling of my otherwise unwanted AK47 Republic models has allowed me to guiltlessly embark on another game.

I've played Dystopian Wars a few times, along with its predecessor - Uncharted Seas.  The rules I really liked, providing a playable naval wargame, and the background - a steampunk version of the late 19th century transformed by the discovery of a 'super element' but still mired in very human politicing and fighting; but none of the initial fleets really appealed and so to date I'd been able to justify not getting involved in the game.

But with a hefty chunk of cash falling in to my Paypal account and some much mre attractive new releases; I've finally succumbed.

£50 or so with Trolltrader.co.uk purchased me the Rules, a starter fleet and an extra blister pack of ships:

And for the nation of choice, well I went with the French.




I find they have more elegance about them than the original model ranges (I really didn't like the look of a couple of the original nations produced for the game), and certainly look more like real vessels, even if as with most of the nations in the game, closer to the shipping of the 20th century than the 19th.  Though clearly the implied technology of the games' background plays a huge part in that.

One of the strengths of the rules is that they cover all arms warfare - land, sea and air.  And the French have attractive airships as part of their forces.
 


Though I have to say it is the naval games that appeal most to me, there's always been something about naval gaming that has fascinated me, and as the blog will attest to I've indulged in many maritime wargames.


But anyway, Spartan Games are certainly getting better as they go in the design stakes for their models, and with this game picking up in interest at the Headingley Club (I attend intermittently on Thursdays) I hope to be able to get some use out of these models once painted.


And given their size I don't see that taking too long to achieve either!

Dystopian Wars; By land, as sea

A good 10 months ago I had a play of Dystopian Wars, but I don't think it made it to the blog due to only going on mobile phone photo's and timing to a point where my laptop was broken.

The rules were very like, by which I mean essentially identical to, Uncharted Seas which I played a few times when it was first released.  I wondered how the system may translated to the land battles promised in the rules.  As it happens I got the chance to find out.

Basically the core rules are unchanged.  what is added is minimal, basically small tanks that come below the level of the smallest ships in the naval version, and aircraft that in many respects operate just like flying ships.  Terrain can effect tanks, but they are basically so massive that only things like cliffs or lakes would impede them.  They are also more manoeuvrable.

Above is an example of one of the biggest land ships, with the details of its' stat card.  The provision of these cards with models makes life a lot easier reducing recourse to the rules.  For those who don't know the combat mechanic is rolling a number of dice based on the range band, looking for '4+' to hit as a basic.  Scores of six are worth double and get you a reroll, so are the way a lucky hit can become catastrophic!  Score damage equal to the DR and reduce the unit by a hit point, Score equal to the CR for a random critical and double hits.  Once all the HP are gone a unit will be destroyed.

As for my game, it was a small affair played on a 4 foot by 3 foot table with whatever terrain was to hand.  I played the Federated States of America, whilst my Opponent and guide Paul played the Empire of her Britannic Majesty.

The American forces were blessed with longer range firepower, but less of it.  Initially the small square based of British tanks out shot my own, but the big American guns were telling.  The system being by unit activation allowed for the sort of simple tactical decisions of refusing options to the enemy, and rushing to act with key or opportunity forces.

Air power added another element to the battle as it cruised lazily around the battle (the aircraft themselves being reminiscent of Miyazaki designs).  The painting of the models did cause a rarity of wargiming reality, where I indulged in a friendly fire incident in which I shot down one of my own fighter planes.  We realised what had happened, but I insisted the result stood!

By this stage the British were clearly beaten, their multiple weak shots being no match for my hard hitting guns and luck.  Overall it was a simple, but enjoyable game.  I think I would still prefer the naval version, but it is an entertaining little game in it's own right.