Dystopian Wars Saturday!

Ziggy and I got together for a Dystopian Wars game on Saturday. We played a land game for a change, you'll see part of the reason for that in a moment. Zig just got a Polish land force so I fully expected to be playing against the unpainted resin hordes of the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation. As it turned out, he brought out the British, which was fine with me - I'm familiar with them and I relished the chance to kill the stupid Brunel mobile airfield.

I just finished painting up my Prussian Seydlitz mobile airfield on Friday so of course wanted to give it a try. I've played with the Prussians a few times, but not recently to be sure.We played our typical 1000 points.

My Force Was:
1 Seydlitz mobile airfield
1 Metzger big robot
2 Schildtrager medium robots
6 A6V medium tanks
8 Walze small tanks
3 Jager small airships
1 Fighter Ace


The British Force Was
1 Brunel mobile airfield
1 Sovereign landship
3 Cromwell bombards
3 Mk2 medium tanks
1 Steward heavy tank
4 Foxhound light tanks
5 Terrier small tanks
1 Ace, I think

Our rather barren battlefield. The roads were simply for looks. The yellow lines show the various setup zones.

I was rather displeased to draw this as my objective. I stuck with it anyway. So now I HAD to kill the Brunel and Sovereign to win.

Our deployments. Neither of us had any flankers or reserve. We both played the "Lost Orders" TAC right out of the gates. 20 points each.

Stompenstein takes a long range shot at a distant Mk 2 with its Speerschluder and makes its own "mark."

The Foxhounds manage two quick kills against the Walze squadron in the center.

Something did this to Bertha but I cannot remember what. Possibly the artillery?

Score thusfar...

KOB  70

PE   20

TURN 2

The Mk 2s and their baby-sitter rolled up and shot up some of my medium tanks. Big-un lumbered forward, blasting the damaged British tank and damaging the Steward, whose Guardian Shield Generator simply had to go away.

The A6-Vs configure for some bug-zapper revenge. I rolled what must've been sixteen dice and couldn't manage to hit anything. The dadgummed shield went into gonzo-mode and blocked four or six of my hits.

Resulting in this little slice of insufferable-ness. I believe a few fist pumps and a dance were involved.

The Brits keep kicking ass - the Terriers score a Sturginium Flare on one of my mediums, killing it with comedy.

Back on my left, I took the air battle to Zig's air component and mauled his fighters. This was a huge deal for me because my SAS usually take it in the pants and I NEVER have air superiority. You'll also see one of my Schildtragers getting worked over by the bombards (lower right).

There - the Sovereign finishes off my little guy. Sadness.

End of turn 2. The Brunel takes out another of my A6es with a fore-gun shot. Things are going terribly terrible for the Prussians.

Your scoreboard:

KOB   250

PE   60

Turn 3

We both added 1d3 to our initiative rolls and I lost initiative anyway. Stupid cards.

Z's dive bombers take a stab at the Metzger who managed to kill one with AA. The big robot mercifully just took one point of damage.

The Prussian dive bombers return the favor and blast the Brunel, causing a crit - Generators Offline!

Stompy takes some useless shots at the stupid tank squadron whose shields have been kicking complete ass this game. The Brunel unloads on the robot's knees causing major damage - Shredded Defenses AND Fusion Leak.

My Walze squadron in the middle zips towards the Brunel and scores another crit on the beast! Hard Pounding, 3 AP lost.

I played "Stoke the Engines" and hit the Tesla Generator for a burst of speed on my Seydlitz. I rolled a "1" both times, go it got to move 7 inches. Feh. It did however get in on the Brunel whipping, scoring three more damage including the coveted "Weapons Damage."

The Cromwells come out from behind the woods and blast Bertha. My second group of dive bombers pounce on the big British carrier and finish it off!

Needing a big score, the Terriers continue to work on my Metzger.

And finally the Jagers make it around the corner and pour some lightning bolts into the British artillery.

Turn three came to a close and the score was looking a lot better now! We were both close to 50% but I still had to kill an undamaged Sovereign!

KOB  355

PE   395

Turn 4

I played "Battlefield Repair" on my Metzger which was one hit from dying, but Ziggy played an "Espionage" card to cancel it out. Booooooo hissssssssss.

With that, my first order of business was to use the Metzger before it got itself killed. It smashed into the Steward heavy tank which had been causing me so many headaches and caused ONE LOUSY POINT OF DAMAGE. At least that squadron was broken by the Terror.

The Terriers did what they're best at and got a big ol' mouthful of Achille's tendon. Buh-bye, Stompy. You were fun. Oh, and somehow with 200 points now with the new Orbat update. 150 + SV50. Seems way over-valued. Oh well, that was a big VP boost for Ziggy.

My Walze small tanks unloaded on the Sovereign and scored a crit. Initially I rolled a crummy "Engine Damage." I played the "Lucky Shot" card and re-rolled. I got "Weapons Damage!" Double fist-pump. 

I had to clear a path for the Seydlitz - it has a minimum 2" move. The A6es in the center finally manage to kill a Foxhound, clearing the path. The bombards line up another shot at my remaining Schildtrager.

Bertha rolled forward and unleashed all her weapons, killing a Foxhound and Cromwell and getting a dive-bomber group back up-to-snuff.

For grins, the Schildtrager ran forward into a Foxhound and kicked it halfway across the battlefield. Nice effort, little guy. It was way more impressive than the Metzger's assault, for sure!

The recently repaired DB squadron takes a run at the Sovereign and scores another crit - this time the "Engine Damage" must stay.

Thus ended turn 4. The score was very close now.

KOB   635

PE   610

Turn 5

Zig conducted his own Battlefield Repairs on the Sovereign but rolled poorly. Either way, I still had a lot of work to do on it.

The landship double-critted my Schildtrager killing it easily. Ugh.

Let's end this battle. The Seydlitz kills the last Cromwell, blasts the Brunel and repairs another dive bomber squadron. The dive bombers go in for the kill and finish of the Sovereign. Game over.

Final Score:

KOB   720

PE   950

Wow. What a good battle. Things started out so poorly in this game I was just waiting for it to be over. Then, halfway through turn 3, the planets aligned, my dice got their act together and I was able to bring firepower to where it was needed - against the big guys. For the first time ever, I got very good value out of a carrier and was very happy with the Seydlitz' performance. The Schildtragers, too, were a good points investment. The Metzger is a points-sink, which is unfortunate. Like most of the robots in this game it has too few weapons and too little speed. It MUST get into contact with enemy units to be worth a toot and with its miserly 6" rate + occasional Tesla generator success, it takes forever to get a return on investment. It is usually damaged very badly by the time it is close enough to fight.

On the other side, the Cromwells were very strong and the Steward + Mk2 squadron was terrific. The Brunel and Sovereign were good but not great, IMO. The Sovereign having Secondary weapons in all mounts is great for it, it can get a LOT of linked fire dice.

** edit **
Ziggy had the mission requiring that he destroy all of my Mediums - made more difficult since I had eight of them (the tanks and Schildtragers) and that they were widely spaced along my formation.

That was a hell of a way to spend Saturday afternoon and I'm looking forward to the next!