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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

US Battle Report - Big Badaboom

In the new light of morning, the airship isn't so bad after all.  I may try and touch it up some, which would be easier and less demoralizing than stripping it and starting over again.  I got in varnished in time to game with as planned.  EV did a random terrain setup again.  He took 7-8 islands and rolled for each of them, including them on a 4+.  He rolled 4d6 for inches and a scarrer die for directiion then placed the island from center accordingly,  Fleets were the same as the last two games.


The terrain we ended up with was sparse and didn't really affect play much.  I bunched my fleet on the far southern edger while EV was in the center.  I used the island as cover to avoid first turn shots from the flagship.  I wanted to bring the island into play.  I had a vague notion of splitting my fleet around the island for raking shots, but nothing firm.  The real token is on the extreme north edge.  I wanted to bring it around behind EV's fleet to pick on frigates or cruisers when the opportunity arose.  Setup:


Nothing much happened on the first turn, only movement.  I had no counter cards, but EV didn't play any spells so it didn't affect the game.  I want to bring the frigates around behind the larger ships, so I send them north,  End of turn 1:


The Shroud heavy cruisers crit one of my cruisers, then the flagship came along and finished it off.


I considered sending the southern frigates around the island while I send the battleship and heavy frigate around in front of the Shroud fleet.  End of turn 2:


We exchanged fire and dinged ships here and there.  Of note, one of my heavy cruisers gets shot up, causing a smashed rudder.  It'll be close whether or not I hit the island if I can turn; if I'm stuck drifting forward 2" there s no hope.  At least I learned about how ships can get back to sea if they run aground.  I decide to keep my fleet together and draw alongside the Shroud ships.  On reflection this could have been disastrous as it would surely have opened lots of ramming opportunities.  Considering EV's recent luck with ramming of late, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad anyway.  End of turn 2.


As we're starting turn 3, I notice how close my airship is to the Shroud cruisers, and how bunched the fleet is there in general.  I do a bit of perfectly legal premeasuring and send it in on a bombing run.  EV uses his western frigates for DF, but not the cruisers or eastern frigates.  I was holding Elite Gunners and noticed it said it would boost AD on any attack, but didn't specify a gunnery attack as do other cards.  We decided the card would work with the bomb.


All the cruisers took damage.  The rear cruiser's magazine exploded, starting another 8 AD explosion that hit the cruisers (again) and the frigates.  I wondered aloud whether the airship could also fire its broadsides.  I didn't think it would, but EV did, so we went to check the rules that I still need to print out.   There was nothing in them that said you could only drop the bomb, so the airship opened fire.  Another cruiser was destroyed along with a frigate.  It was a crippling blow to the Shroud center.


After the airship, I activate the damaged heavy cruiser.  I pass the repair roll and narrowly avoid the island, then follow up into the rear of a Shroud frigate.  My ram roll is poor, so we go to a boarding action.  EV kills two stout dwarven sailors, while I decrew and prize his ship.


I decide to move my frigates west to clear the center for the cruisers and battleship, but inexplicably move them between the Shroud flagship and my own cruisers,  I scramble to accommodate this change of plan and trade shots on the heavy cruisers and flagship for taking out most of a squadron of frigates.


This turn was brutal for the Shrouds.  Their center just evaporated, leaving the heavies and flagship to face a nearly full strength Iron Dwarf fleet.  End of turn 4,


I play Red Hot Shot on my battleship, then hammer the Shroud flagship with a broadside.  I do damage with the attack and set the flagship ablaze.


EV sends a heavy cruiser in to ram my battleship.  I hits, but doesn't crit, with the ram for no damage in return.  The boarding action saw my dwarves kill all the Shrouds and suffer two damage themselves.


This is mop up, and has been for a turn.  I thought EV would concede here, but he followed through to the end.  End of turn 5.

I decide to send my airship in first.  I blame this on winning initiative, a situation I'm unfamiliar with.  The Shroud flagship gets a rake on my battleship as a result, but is too damaged to crit it.  It takes my battleship and some cruisers to finish off the Shroud flagship.  Endgame:


The airship continues to give EV fits.  This time the bomb was devastating, taking out half the Shroud fleet.  I only lost a single cruiser the whole game, plus bits of damage on a handful of ships.  I'm starting to wonder if the airship is particularly effective against EV, or if it's just a very powerful ship on its own. With one being as effective as it is, I can't help but imagine how effective a full squadron of them would be.

12 comments:

  1. Another fine showing from my Shroud Mage fleet.

    I just cannot suck enough at this game, it seems.

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  2. haha, it'll get better, did you take advantage of the DF turret on the flagship at all?

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  3. Couldn't. If I fired it, I couldn't engage the battleship. Honestly, I didn't expect the stupid blimp to sink my whole fleet.

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  4. The DF turret on your flagship is a separate and additional DF attack, it wouldn't have affected your regular fire.

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  5. Ah, see that's not made very clear in the rules, so I gave in to the opinion that it just added to DF.

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  6. Maybe it's a special flagship rule? We should probably have a game where we have all the rules printed and handy one of these days.

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  7. Ha!I have the rules in my binder: Central Turret: this Turret has a 360 degree arc of fire that
    can ONLY be used for Defensive Fire against Flying models
    within Range Band 1.
    Defensive Fire: this Flagship can use its Central Turret to
    make an ADDITIONAL Defensive Fire (DF) attack against
    flying models using its DF * rating and the normal rules.
    It CANNOT use the Central Turret to attack other models.
    This additional DF rating IS affected by damage to the hull
    or crew losses. The ship STILL gets its normal crew-based
    DF roll as per the Flying Rules, but it CANNOT Link Fire its
    DF central turret and its DF with CP.

    Nothing about it ignoring the Defensive Fire restrictions as far as I see...

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  8. By the way: the main reason I didn't fold on the turn when I logically should have called it was because I was trying to be a good sport and finish out the game.

    Same with the Warmachine game before. Once my Bane Thralls crashed into your Winterguard and managed to miss every last attack, I knew the game was over. I still played it out to give you the satisfaction of actually winning instead of just blowing off your well earned victory.

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  9. Should bring up the turret question on the Spartan boards. Maybe the turret just gives you extra dice when you use DF? Or maybe it's for shooting multiple flying targets or something.

    As for calling a game, I was surprised you stuck out the US game. I didn't want to be a dick and say "Hey, you should cut your losses here." The Warmachine game I thought was close until the end, especially after I started blowing my own guys up. Granted losing DJ so early was a blow. Particulars aside, don't worry about spoiling a victory for me. I have plenty of time to bask and reflect and whatnot.

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  10. It's pretty clear to me that the DF is in addition to normal crew-based DF, not in addition to any other shooting it wishes to do. It makes the ship a sticky proposition to attack as it could inflict two or more points of damage on the flier.

    Aw, hell. I'll ask any way, but I'm pretty sure I played it right.

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  11. I can see it both ways. It'd make sense for it to be an independent turret, but then I'd expect some kind of note in the rules to say as much. We'll find out either way soon enough.

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  12. It seems the turret operates independently from the rest of the ship. That will help a bit against that damn airship.

    ...A bit...

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