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....