Over at the Spartan Games Blog, Spartan have posted a series of images of some of the new ships that we’ll see as a part of the release of 2.0.
The Diophantus looks particularly awesome!
As a special promotional item in time for Salute, Spartan have announced the Bloody Rose of Krakow: Esmerelda Mieszka, and her heavy bomber the Valkyrie’s Fury…
From the newsletter:
Ex-Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth Pilot Esmerelda Mieszka is a gun for hire with a grudge to bear. After the death of her family at the hands of Russian Coalition forces, this talented pilot took to the skies in the name of vengeance.
Now the Commander of the Valkyrie’s Fury Heavy Bomber is available to hire for your Dystopian Wars force.
To get your hands on the Valkyrie’s Fury Heavy Bomber come and visit us at the Troll Trader stand at Salute 2014 in the Excel Centre, London on Saturday 12th April.
Anyone who pre-orders the new Dystopian Wars 2.0 Operation: Shadow Hunter Two player Box Set with Troll Trader at Salute, will receive a free Valkyrie’s Fury Heavy Bomber to take away on the day.
As part of this fantastic Salute only deal you will receive:
- 1 x Super Heavy Bomber (100mm Wing Span!)
- 1 x Acrylic Flight Stand
- 3 x Acrylic Bomb Tokens
- 4 x Tiny Flyer Tokens
- 1 x A5 Sheet – with artwork on one side and rules and stats on the other
Valkyrie’s Fury is fully compatible with your existing Dystopian Wars force and may be added as part of the “Non-Core” allowance.
You can find the stats for The Bloody Rose of Krakow here.
It’s not up on the Spartan Games website yet, but information on pre-orders for the new Dystopian Wars 2.0 Boxed Set – Shadow Hunters – has appeared on the Australian retailer The Combat Company.
So we have news of Operation Shadow Hunters:
I love the sound of some of the things included here, including the aerial movement trays for the Tony Flier Tokens, the clear Ghost model, the terrain sheets, the Tactical Action Cards, the Wani Secret Base, and the 32 page scenario booklet! Amazing!
It also includes a really solid number of models (46 FSA and Blazing Sun models). Fantastic.
They also have news of a leather bound rule book:
320 pages of Dystopian Wars goodness, with stats for 21 battle groups (land, sea and air) for all 7 core nations?
Wow is all I can say – I can’t believe the speed – I was expecting this much later in the year! Colour me excited!
You can find them on the Combat Company, with extra information, here:
In this unboxing video, which is exclusive to the Element270 blog site, I crack open the first objective set for Dystopian Wars.
This set will really add some spice to you games – and the deck of event cards can even hinder or help.
Hope you enjoy the video.
The Eclipse Company Support box contains fortifications, some bombers and tokens – all of which are featured in my unboxing video.
Together, this support box and the aerial battle group combine to allow players of Dystopian Wars the chance to run a full mercenary army or add in units to their existing fleets.
The Russians, still hurting from last battle, were back up against the exact same fleet as last time. The Russians will be happy to make it through without getting pantsed. The Ottoman Empire, triumphant… maybe cocky… were ready to put out some more hurt.
It was time for the Black Sea Battle 2 – Odessa Offensive! (I’ve run out of puns that don’t involve the Crimean peninsula…)
Wanting to test all my theories straight up I went for:
1x Tunguska
1x Borodino
2x Pesets
4x Rostov’s
2x Veliky’s
4x Novgorods
The Ottoman Empire had the same fleet:
1 x Kanuni Class Dreadnought
2 x Sinop Class Armoured Cruisers
2x 2x Avci Class Destroyers
3 x Zuhâf Class Small Flyers
4 x Mizrak Class Frigate
Deployments (Well, after the first move anyway…)
Tunguska gets first damage of the game with a hit on the Dread! Was it a sign of things to come?
First blood really goes to the Ottoman Empire, however with the Mizraks taking out the Velikys. Novgorods get revenge moving up and wiping out most of the squadron. The Novgorods pay a heavy price for their maneuver though with the Sinops killing a couple in return.
Meanwhile on the other flank things are getting congested, with mines, submarines, destroyers and flyers all getting funnelled into the small gap. The Tunguska is rewarded for its shirtiness by having its ablative stripped and then being dealt a critical by some TFTs. Sturingium Flare sending it back 4 inches. Things were getting tough.
Mines annihilate some Rostovs and the Tunguska takes yet more damage, another critical and is starting to look decidedly unhealthy.
Soon inevitable death comes – swift and relentless. And to cap it all off the Dread had managed to heal its only point of damage, thanks to a STAR card. It seemed like history was repeating…
Nobody told the Borodino this however, who rolled into town and took a startling dislike to the two Sinops and decided they shouldn’t exist anymore. Some fantastic (for me) die rolls and a STAR card later they were dead. Both of them. Straight up murdered. This may not seem like much but coming from last game where I could barely damage a frigate this was huge.
One down, one damaged, still with dice in hand
Soon all the Rostovs on the other side were dead. The storms had been playing havoc with the TFTs, slowing them down no end. The Pesets moved in and attempted a torpedo strike on the dread with no effect, even if i had missed completely the CC would have annulled any hits. The two flanks were almost mirror images of each other.
The Borodino finished off everything on its side leaving it with nothing to do and way too much distance to cover. I was down to only 2 squadrons comprised of the 1 Pesests sub and the Borodino. The last sub being the difference between achieving 70% or not for the Ottoman Empire. Whereas I had to kill the Dread to achieve it no matter what else happened.
Needless to say the last Pesets perished. The TFTs having been taken out much earlier by enemy fighters.
Regardless of the ultimate result, the Russian Coalition made its presence felt. It was not a pushover. It could take the fight right up in their faces and… yes… still lose, but… shut up! They did just fine! Its about how you play the war, not the result that counts. I’ll sat that now anyway…
Things to take away:
What will I take next time?
The Eclipse Mercenary Company will fight for anyone, if the money is good. Welcome to the latest unboxing video for Dystopian Wars – the Eclipse Company Aerial Battle group.
Watch as I break open the box and give you a first hand glimpse of these fantastic models.
It had been a while since I last played Dystopian Wars. It was all the way back in the heady days of 2013, such a distant memory now. I had an itch that needed a scratch, as anyone infected with the potent, but lovely, STD of DW can attest.
I was lucky enough to find a local game group that had a number of players with a wide range of factions but no naval Russians so along I went, glad that I would soon be sated. Bitter sweet was the outcome, as it always is…
I was up against the Ottoman Empire. It was all set to be a Black Sea Shakedown, a Big Bash on the Bosphorus, a Dardanelles Dalliance, an Istanbul Infraction. It was time to settle a grudge as old as Russia itself.
I went with:
1x Kostroma
1x Kthanga
3x Suvurovs
2x 4x Novgorods
3x Velikys (attached to the Kostroma)
The Ottoman Empire had:
1 x Kanuni Class Dreadnought
2 x Sinop Class Armoured Cruisers
2x 2x Avci Class Destroyers
3 x Zuhâf Class Small Flyers
4 x Mizrak Class Frigate
I deployed the Russians neatly in a tight formation behind an island. The Suvurovs ready to head one way the Kostroma and Kthanga the other. Novgorods were arrayed in a defensive wall to shield the larges.
The Ottomans spread out along the opposite side with the Dreadnaught on one end.
I won’t go exactly through each turn in minute detail but here is what went down:
Russians moved forward as did the Ottomans. Several Novgorods fall. First blood to the Ottoman Empire. Russians retaliated by taking down some small skimmers.
Then the storms started to gather, oh to literally, around my larges. It slowed movement down considerably as well as hampered my efforts at long range fire. It was not too long before the abalative was stripped from the Kthanga, it was the beginning of the end.
Soon there were no escorts or frigates left for the Russians. A light drizzle of Novgorod parts had started though.There had been very little damage done in return apart from a few skimmers and mine planes taken out, but not putting any serious dents in the Ottoman offensive.
The corrosive weapons from the Ottoman ships were eating through both the carrier and the ice breaker. The Kthanga like a tired, wounded bull thrashes trying to hit the matador doing little but refusing to give up.
While remote controlled mines ripped through the Suvurovs.
TFTs attempt diving run on dread, come up short with only minor damage resulting inflicted. Then a collision! Not a ram, unfortunately, occurs doing some damage to the enemy… the drill was so close! It was nearly magic.
The Ottoman dread moves in brandishing both broadsides the Kthanga is, finally, down (rest well my sweet) and the Kostroma sensing the futility of life (so Russian) decides to go the same way.
Game. Set. Ottoman.
It was a whitewash, plain and simple. The Ottoman ships were powerful at range and the storms wreaked havock for me trying to get into the fray. By the time i was there it was too late.
I also made some tactical errors, my targeting was almost random, very unfocused. Which is not helpful.
Lessons learnt:
1. If you have a newly painted Tunguska USE IT the movement, power, and mimic generator should have put it front and centre, indeed i intended to play it but didn’t, thinking longer ranged weapons would have been better.
2. Range, in this case, wasn’t as advantageous as it seemed thanks to storms. I found myself, toward the end wishing I had brought a Borodinosaur instead, despite the fact that the Kthanga took out some of the only units i managed to kill.
3. Boarding could do ok here, I should have tried it more, instead of shooting. You never know what some vodka fueled serfs might achieve. Indeed I think this might be an ok tactic against them more generally, not that I have much experience against them.
4. Ottoman units have a lot of MARs and generators but some are fragile underneath, some of their units had very low HP, so focused damage is the way to go.
5. After much discussion afterwards it was agreed that submerged units would probably also do quite well against them. As the bombards wouldn’t be so effective against them.
So with all that in mind I should have included in my force in order of perceived usefulness
1. Tunguska
2. Pesets Subs
3. Borodino
4. Rostovs, just to throw another shrimp on the proverbial… Fast, hard impact = solid potential.
When I next face the Ottoman Empire I will be far more prepared and focussed, unfortunately so too will my opponent who was already hatching plans involving islands, all stops and other nasties to impede the Russian advance.
Episode 3 of the Element 270 podcast – Fleet Review…
Episode 3 – Fleet Review Part 1
In this episode Giles, Peter and Reese talk about the holidays, cover the news, including the releases of the Eclipse Company and Objectives sets, complete part one of our fleet review and answer some listener questions.
In Part 1 of our fleet review we briefly cover the 7 main fleets of Dystopian Wars, including play style, tactics and a short discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of each fleet. In the fleet review we raise the issue of new and old rules – there are many fleet guides now available for download from the Spartan Downloads page: http://www.spartangames.co.uk/resources/downloads Including the updates booklets for the Russian Coalition, the Republique of France and the Covenant of Antarctica.
We also discuss some listener questions, including where to find some extras for Dystopian Wars – http://www.litko.net/ and http://corseceng.com/ and of course – Spartan Games –
Find more at our blog: https://element270.wordpress.com/
Our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/element270/
On Twitter: @element270
Question for listeners: Does Giles use the word ‘fantastic’ or ‘brilliant’ more often… the jury is out!
Find our Hot Topic here: https://element270.wordpress.com/2014/02/06/hot-topic-for-episode-3/
Ever since this fleet was announced I have been looking forward to this unboxing. The Black Wolf Mercenaries are an elite and deadly fleet; ready to fight for whoever pays the most (unless they’re Russian).
Element270 