An Actual AAR: Dystopian Wars Necromancy!

 Ziggy suggested Dystopian Wars Fleet Action as a game selection for Saturday, and who am I to say no to that? I think the last time we played DW in any capacity was pre-pandemic. The follow up questions led us to a 1200-point land battle. Initially I thought French, but changed my mind to the Japanese Empire of the Blazing Sun since it really has been quite a long time and they were my first. Ziggy brought his Poles. Only in a Dystopian Wars - Japanese - Polish Venn diagram does this battle happen! 

See as though it's been four years (January 2020 was the last DW game I could find on my blog) we set up for a basic slugfest with no objectives other than re-learning the rules.

The big damn walking airfield finally made it on to the tabletop many many years after I put it together and painted it up. The Polish artillerymen Christened it the "Broad Side of a Barn-class Carrier." 

A view of my left flank. Some Polish tanks and artillery burn in the distance.

And one of my bombers meets a predicable fate. I was told the crew managed to stay safe, so that's nice.

With the Kagoshima taking it in the seat, I pushed it forward as quickly as I could to get some use out of it. It wasn't long though before the Zamiec airship was all over it, wrecking the magnificent machine.

Things were going pretty evenly across the battlefield, with a slight edge to the boys from Kyoto. The Japanese are very much a long-distance force with strong long-range capabilities while the Polish are point-blank specialists.

The Polish carrier had to go. My Taka Ashi heavy walker crab-walked on over and unloaded, along with the artillery. Boom goes the dynamite. 

Zig had a swarm of little tanks working their way around my right side and they appeared, giving my bombards a lot to think about.

Meanwhile, the forces I'd used to form a left flank had performed admirably and were now moving into the center to lend their rockets and shells to the fight!

The end drawing close, the last two big guys on the table converged. My walker was heavily damaged and the Perun landship was still factory-fresh. Not good for me at all.

Bring your marshmallows and long sticks. 

But let's look at something in the picture two up... those little rocket-launching walkers from hell were lined up perfectly for a massive 25-dice spite attack against the big Polish beast.

Setting up a coup-de-grace for my Chi-Ri medium tanks. How's that for a "Chi-Ri" on top? 

That was the end of turn four and we ended it there, a minor Japanese victory, although both sides had taken a massive beating.

We both had a great time and for a low-stress good old-fashioned smash-em-up, DWFA is always a great option. I have a feeling it won't be four years before our next outing!

Merry July 4th

It's Independence Day, woo hoo! A day off in the middle of the week is kind of ridiculous really but hey, a day off is a day off. Any excuse to burn burgers and have a brew is a good one.

I've actually done a fair amount of gaming the last couple of weekend, it's gone undocumented here but I'm about to rectify that. The day after Zig and I played Firestorm a couple of weeks ago, I met David up at Morningstar Games for a Dystopian Wars Fleet Action battle.

I used a fun pairing of Prussians and Eclipse Company mercenaries. David brought along his Blazing Sun Japanese.

So the general setup was that I was defending a channel and the EBS forces were trying to clear me out and capture the large building in the center (next to the robot).

By turn two, it seemed that David wasn't moving quickly enough towards the objective building. I was fine with this.

My swarm of little boats and subs drew a massive amount attention and really helped the Prussian cause. While David was expending considerable resources killing the hard-to-hit little guys, I was knocking on his larger, more threatening units.

Ol' Stampy gets up close and personal with the Blazing Sun sky fortress. Sadly, I completely botched the attack and did not crush the thing mercilessly.

In the end, it was a solid Prussian victory. My aggressive defense paid off - I took the battle to the enemy a long way from their objective. It felt great to put the DW toys back on the table. They really are a lot of fun.

Last Sunday, Dave and I met again at Morningstar, this time for some X-Wing. David flew a by-the-book TIE swarm - 8 x 12-poit TIES, while I used a Rebel mix including Poe Dameron, and ARC170 and a new Resistance Bomber.

Early into the proceedings I just could make anything happen and I wasn't feeling good about it at all.

The shot of the week - Poe gathers the attention of seven TIEs. Poor shooting by the Imperials meant that Poe's luck held out.

The TIEs at the bottom had finished of the ARC170 while I'd managed to bump off three of the Imperials. Things were starting to fall into place for me.

An example of David's fine driving skills. Keeping it on the table like no one's business!

The final result. Poe kills yet another TIE - he turned out to be quite the killing machine - and the Bomber hangs on to its final two hull points. I had managed to kill seven TIE fighters and only lost the ARC170. The Bomber is very nice and a good pickup for the collection. I've been eyeing the Ghost for a while, but I'm glad I went with this ship.

I've been painting a bit recently and have finished up a few things.

Here's a fun little well / fountain with some creepy crawlies in it.

Another good pickup at Morningstar...

 I can't believe Jeff had one of these on the shelf. A very nice pickup for my Red Fleet for StarDust.

And they got painted up quickly. I haven't touched the fighters yet.

And lastly, some Malifaux minis.

 This is the "No Shelter Here" box set.

Creepy little girl and zombie baby

Three ghosts and a poltergeist

One of these days I'll put Malifaux on the table and try to learn the system, but until then, I just really love painting the models. Happy Fourth and stay safe!

Well Dang!

Apparently Spartan Games is closing up shop. I've enjoyed Dystopian Wars for many years and Firestorm Armada / Planetfall more recently. Announcement Here.

It's sad, but this sort of thing happens. The original WarZone suffered a similar fate and really stung for me. FASA's Crimson Skies was a terrific airplane shoot-em-up that had a short run.

I'm sure Zig, Mike, David and I will continue to play. The games fit good niches and we've got enough stuff for a lifetime. That said, I did just order a Firestorm Armada box from Amazon - some ships I've had my eye on and just never picked up.

I'm feeling GREAT about having downloaded Firestorm Taskforce and Dystopian Wars Fleet Action, both faster-play rules for the flagship games, within the last few days. Having perused the rulebooks and Orbats, they're solid and will certainly get table time.

Farewell, Spartan. Your games were a blast, your models terrific and your customer service exemplary.

AAR - Dystopian Wars in the South Seas

Ziggy has talked about running some Dystopian Wars narrative campaign games for a little while now so last evening we finally put resin to tabletop and made something happen. It'll be a series of battles between his British Empire forces and my Empire of the Blazing Sun forces. I'll be able to call on Eclipse Company mercenaries if we deem it necessary.

Our first battle was a small-scale surface action. In game terms, 800 points, mediums and smalls only. No SAS, no TAC, no special deployment.

We played on a 4 X 4 table. I have corvettes off to my left, frigates, gunships, destroyers and mini subs in the middle and light cruisers right. My newly minted "quick and easy islands" made their debut.

Captain Hamasaki started barking orders to his fleet. The Nakatsu squadron reacted quickly with a barrage of rockets easily sinking a British destroyer in the distance.

Attacker Sqn 512 pulled forward and concentrated fire on one of the Japanese cruisers damaging it, only to suffer return fire from the enemy destroyers.

Hamasaki's gunship group and Territorial Patrol Sqn 12 trade shots.

The British commodore, Admiral Hayes steams his personal Reinforced Cruiser Squadron forward and easily finishes off the Japanese gunship! Hamasaki would be picked up later, clinging to a length of timber.

So, after a turn, this is how the forces were arrayed. My snipers holding back with the brawler smalls quickly advancing. The fleet would carry on with Hamasaki's final transmitted orders.

The Uwatsu squadron pulls in close to the British command squadron and fires a mighty barrage, causing a fusion leak in the engine room!

The Nakatsu's get the jump on 512 Squadron, sinking a frigate and damaging another.

They are followed by a fine example of naval gun and rocket fire as the destroyers finish off British Torpedo Destroyer Squadron 1200.

And then things got very bloody indeed. My mini subs first surfaced and covered Hayes' Agincourt with corrosive fire. Fast Corvette Squadron Cricket with Hammer streaked in from the east and hit the lead Tribal hard, igniting the powder magazine. The ship was ripped apart from stem to stern. The massive explosion went on to sink several surfaced Zarigani subs, an Uwatsu frigate, two British frigates and caused further damage to the Agincourt!

At this point I had sunk more Japanese vessels than the British had!

 The remnants of the command group steer their ships into the corvettes which had caused so much trouble.

Both were sunk easily. They proceeded to blast away at the remaining Tanuki gunship.

A turn later, the gunship suffered a further round of heavy gunfire and went under.

The Nakatsus continue to perform well over on my right. Their assault marines boarding and derelicting the last of 512 Squadron.

The Blazing Sun frigate squadron takes the final shots of the battle, sinking commodore Hayes' Agincourt. The British hoisted the white flag and the two fleets began separating, looking for survivors amidst the wreckage.

Wow. That was a brutal and sad affair for the Brits. We didn't keep score - we agreed after three turns that the EBS had won handily. My dice were on fire and really made all the difference. I flat-out stopped at least three solid torpedo waves with amazing CC rolls and it seemed like every attack I made was a crit. Sometimes the dice just can't be stopped.


The next game will likely see a Japanese surface fleet being ambushed by British subs and/or aircraft, since the British surface forces in the Java sea have had to retreat  following this battle. It was nice to put DW back on the table - we haven't played in a few months and it really has felt like forever since I used the EBS ships.

Dystopian Wars AAR: Sun, Fun and Guns in the SoPac!

Last Saturday Zig and I got out the Dystopian Wars toys for another installment in the ongoing battle between His Majesty's Navy and the Imperial Navy. I mixed things up a bit this go-round and used a few things we'd not put on the table yet, building a bit of a scenario into the proceedings.

I used the Steakhouse of Doom  (a Blazing Suns Bunker Complex) and a fun mix of naval and aerial forces. It's not up to tournament specs as far as point distribution but Z didn't care. Zig used his recently updated (new Orbat!) Australians. We both had 1200-points worth of stuff.

The setup was this - the Australian flotilla was out hunting the Japanese carrier group in the Solomons when it stumbled upon the recently completed Bunker Complex. The carrier Kane was indeed also present as was the heavy airship Okami. Never one to flee when there was a fight to be had, the Commodore McRath pressed forward.

 Deployment. The black-primed Aussies blend in very well. We rolled terrain randomly and got an unusually high SIX islands!

A better look at the Australian stealth ships and weird deployment. My bunker's mines bothered Zig so he stayed far away from them.

A damned Monitor pops one of my corvettes early. 

But revenge was very swift. The Temple of Doom blasted the tar out of one of two Pocket Battleships, the HMAS Wagga Wagga. Two volleys of rockets caused major damage.

Not to be outdone, the Japanese Armored Cruisers unload another massive barrage of rockets into the stricken Wagga Wagga. Blackness engulfed the great vessel for a moment, then it reappeared hundreds of yards forward, inverted and burning out of control on a nearby island. 

My little Tetsubo flying machines got in on the long-range act and set a flanking Kestrel rotor aflame with a veritable wall of rockets. Fighters from the nearby Kane also closed on the enemy fliers.

This is how it looked after turn 1.

We continue to exchange fire. My Gunships knocked out a mini-sub with torpedoes and continue to cause headaches with gunfire and rockets. One of the Gunships became a favored target of the Australians and was taking heavy damage.

One of the Monitors finishes off the Gunship. Bah.

Japanese and Australian small ships brawl mercilessly towards the right as the aircraft battle on the left. Jade Chrysanthemum Squadron finishes off the damaged Kestrel.

A Sub Tender is offered up to Neptune.

Frigates continue to make an impact, accounting for a Japanese Tanuki!

Japanese Corvettes cause major damage to one Monitor and launch an ill-fated boarding attempt against another.

The last of my Gunships is captured by the godforsaken Crocodiles. I had killed three of the things!

  

Kane's broadsides finish off the second Kestrel (not pictured)!

My Nakatsu Light Cruisers enter from the flank and the end of turn three and offer a textbook display of ineptitude. Six zillion high-dice shots, fuck-all to show for it. I went on to win the initiative on turn four and activated the Nakatsus immediately so they could redeem themselves. They repeated their prior garbage performance. A Sub Tender, HMAS Wogglepong, rammed one of my cruisers just 'cuz.

The Corvettes show my stupid Light Cruisers "how it's done" and kill off the Wogglepong.

The HMAS Cockburn unleashes a close-range beating on my Nakatsu squadron, cirtting all, flaring one into what would really be a useful position, all things considered.

I failed to take any pictures of the massive amount of damage that the Cockburn began to take from the Okani and the Temple O' Doom.

By the end of turn four, I'd managed to fulfill my objective requirements of destroying 70% of the enemy force, just barely. I had 850 points and Zig had managed 645, but hadn't come close to bagging my Commodore's vessel, the Kane.

Another brutal game of DW! It was contentious and a lot of fun, although the dice gods were in my favor that evening without a doubt. The Australians are still nasty as all get-out and I do not enjoy facing them. The Monitors, Battleships and Crocs are all high on my list of units I despise. Ziggy seemed to be pretty irritated that I was targeting his subs as much as I did with torps and CC. I'm a fan of the Bunker Complex - it is a solid use of 170 points. I'd take it again in a minute. My carrier did well, but that was as much a function of deployment as anything else. 

Looking forward to the next one!