Take Her Alive!

 

For a little fun we decided to line up the French and Covenant forces from the Iron Scorpion box, and put together a scenario.  In this game we set up a fortress (which was expanded mid-game because the original was a little small), in which was positioned Monique Dubois and a Section of Automata.  The French goal was to destroy the Automata and make base contact with Monique. This would win them the game. The Covenant had to hold out, on turn three reinforcements would arrive in the form of an Officer, Drone Squadron and Commandos…

 

The Fort above was before it was expanded (as per below).  The terrain is very bare bones because my big box of stuff is currently stuck in the shed behind a multitude of large heavy boxes and things.

 

 

 

 

The French charged up the board, moving at double time.  While the Machine gun Fire Team took up position in the forest.

 

Activation was key… the French Machine Gun fire team opened fire on the commandos and decimated their Section.  Soon after the Commandos charged the Machine gun, causing significant damage before the nearby Legionnaires swooped in and managed to finish the Commandos off.

 

Somehow, the French Marines charged the Automata… the Drone Section fired on the remaining Legionnaires, who then charged into melee.  Lastly the Drones themselves and officers charged in. In two or three quick turns every model on the board was involved with a messy and bloody hand to hand engagement around the fort.  The Gun Rotors proved the difference, while adding next to nothing to the dice pools, they managed to soak up a huge amount of damage and give the Covenant the slight edge they needed on the day.

 

The sole survivors of the game… Monique, Veronique and a single Automata…

One more point of damage and the two sisters would have been all that remained.  Awkward!

 

It was a fun game, and we re-wrote sections of the scenario to make it better balanced, and hopefully more fun!

Thanks Quinton!

The Covenant and the Chinese… fighters galore!

So Quinton (a regular gaming partner of mine) and myself lined up for a short game of Dystopian Wars.  We wanted to keep it small, and settled on 750 points.  We also wanted to push the fleets into cheese territory, and ended up with over 60 SAW on the table between us… Quinton and his Chinese with an astounding 34 SAW, and myself with a (still) respectable 28.

Chinese:

1 x Jian MkII Battleship

2 x squads of Chui Support Carriers

1 x Squad of Nu frigates (I think)

 

Covenant:

2 x Pericles Carriers

3 x Cleomedes cruisers

4 x Diogenes Frigates

5 x Thales Corvettes

 

Well, it was a very interesting game, and I’d love to play it again just to see if I could get the fleet to work better.  I moved my Pericles forward to take advantage of their Torpedoes, where I should have kept them on the baseline and given them Energy Turrets.  As it stood, the Pericles took a massive amount of damage, and unluckily my Commodore died early in Turn 2, this in turn had a huge effect on my Drone network, which was already outnumbered by the Chinese support aircraft and under strain as a result.

Wow, was there one hell of an air war in the middle of the board over turns 2 and 3.  That alone was worth the price of admission, and was hilarious to watch unfold.

Sadly though my Covenant just couldn’t stand up, the Pericles suffering too much damage to be able to cycle the Drones effectively, and the Chuis just being amazing medium support carriers.  In the end it was a devastatingly convincing win for the Chinese.

It would be fun to play those fleets again, we have a couple of other cheesy fleets to play, so it should be fun seeing how they go!  One of these days I’ll get the upper hand on the Chinese… one of these days! 😀

We proxied some ships – the Prometheus stood in for a second Pericles, and the Fresnels were unconvincing Cleomedes.

Look at all those support aircraft squadrons!

The air war was bloody and intense… it was also a lot of fun, even though my drones were not well enough supported to be able to manage much of a defence…

 

Der Holle Rache: a prelude to a heroic death…

Sunrise was approaching. The grey light of pre-dawn bore witness to fog rising in strained tendrils from the forests ahead.  Today, across this field, the tyranny of violence would rage.

Lady Lydia Carlton gazed through her binoculars, yes, they would be brought to fight today.  The Kingdom of Britannia, her forsaken homeland, had harried them to this place, but it was a good field to fight on, forests East and West broke the ground beautifully, creating a central passage through which the enemy would likely pass.  Such a concentration would be ideal, despite the terrible firepower of the British machines, her own force was specialised, hand picked by herself, an aggressive mix of regiments to compliment her own fiery disposition.  

She had commanded an advance force to dig in ahead and fortify a position in the bottleneck, the very regiment she had risen from, the 3rd Hypaspists, assault infantry of the highest calibre.  She closed her eyes, the aria from Der Holle Rache ringing from the slow turning wax cylinder on the bridge desk beside her, a frenetic song, it suited her mood. 

A polite cough stirred her.

“Milady, the artillery has indicated they in position.”

She nodded her response and opened her eyes, gazing into the space before her.  The Britannians had to strike today, leave her any more leeway and they knew, as she did, she would be away.  They had pushed her to this place, but fail to press and she would slip away as she had a dozen times already.  

“And Milady,” a pause from her officer. She turned and made eye contact, he looked down. “Our… our reconnaissance aircraft are reporting the British are closing.”

She nodded again, less curtly this time. “Good.” she replied, “They are as eager to end this dance as I am.”

___________

Infantry and bombers placed on the right to mitigate the Britannian flank…

The majority of the Covenant forces, Socrates Bombards, Colossus Robots, Lady Carlton’s Archimedes and the feared Aronnax, are positioned away from the flank, and facing the corridor.

Forward infantry support provided by the 3rd Hypaspists – an elite unit of Covenant Assault Infantry.

Early in the battle the Archimedes comes under heavy and sustained fire.

The British Terriers stream forward, the target of the Covenant is the smalls, so their approach is welcome.  Heavy fire from the Socrates tries desperately to reign in the British bombards, to little effect.

The flanking units start to impact on the Covenant right.

The Aronnax feigns attention on the centre…  Meanwhile the 3rd Hypaspists assault and destroy Terriers in the centre…

Then with the aid of a TAC card the Aronnax swings suddenly right, ramming and destroying tanks across two units.

The Britannians, too late, open fire on the Aronnax with their broadsides levelling considerable damage.  The Archimedes, and Lady Carlton, finally succumb to the massive concentration of fire.  Infantry on the right prize a Britannian MkII.

As the explosion of the Archimedes rocks the Covenant forces it is all too apparent to the Kingdom of Britannia that they have been thoroughly defeated.  They concede the day and disengage with what dignity they have left.

The Covenant is left to lick their wounds and mourn the loss of a fearsome leader…

A passing engagement

Sharp and bitter winds whipped the ocean surface to a roiling broth of high crests, deep drops and foam.  Captain Alexander, of the Covenant’s Aristotle Class Battleship, gazed across the seas with an unreadable expression in his face.  A smudge like haze was in the distant sky; smoke pouring through the funnels of French ships as they worked hard to close the distance.  There would be wreckage in the ocean come nightfall.

 

The Covenant line arrange their position. An enhanced Plato squadron angles itself to maintain the optimum range between the Covenant and the enemy.

The French and Australians line up ready to engage the Covenant.

A group of Australian Escorts close on the Covenant bombers…

Under heavy fire one of the bombers is hit, and spirals out of control into the ocean below. The other two are not far from destruction.

Heavy engagements between squadrons of tiny fliers were ongoing and bloody.

The Covenant and French both exchanged blows. The Fresnel enhanced Plato squadron were wreaking havoc, but the combined French and Australian forces were far from done.

In the end we called the battle as time was against us, and at that stage the combined French and Australian forces were ahead in points.

 

As the Captain Alexander ordered his squadrons to fight a disengagement and retreat, cheers and an echo of the call, “Vive le président” and “France toujours” could be heard across the waves.  It was far from over, but for now, the French had won the day.