Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!

Those who prefer to watch a summary of the battle report rather than to read it, see one here.

So this report is about my game in the Swiss DW Cup semifinals in Basel against a splendid French player (Seph) with an extremely well painted Russian Coalition fleet. Seph was the best gentleman one can possibly ask for and the game was fun and entertaining, yet my efforts seemed to evaporate just as if charging a fully equipped castle with a bare sword. ^^

Seph's Russian Coalition.

Once again my trusted Japanese list at 1'000pts.

This is how we set up.

After setting up, I felt very confident. I planned to put my three Tanuki Gunships on the very left or right to minimize the threat if his Field Order tells him to destroy my medium sized ships. However, when we went to get our Field Orders, Seph corrected me that you don't pick them, but you roll a D6 get them assigned. Ooops, I overread this with my opponents so far - we secretly picked them. o.O So we rolled our D6 and ended up with

Seph - destroy 70% of the enemy fleet.
Parcival - destroy all large and massive models of the enemy fleet

Here another mistake happened - I didn't read carefully and was under the impression I had to destroy *one* large or massive model. Hence I felt very confident that I could destroy his large ship in the upper center while he'd have hard time to get to 70% of my ships and therefore neglected his carrier in the upper right corner totally by thinking it's a smart move to just avoid it.

End of turn 1.

A the end of turn 1 I still felt very confident that I could win this game. He nicked some of my smaller ships (bye bye Fujin Corvettes), but due to pre-measuring I had positioned my ships in a way that his 16" (+Mv) threat range didn't or at least hardly bother me.

However, in turn 2 my biggest problem quickly became evident: Ablative Armor on all his medium, large, and massive ships.

My Uwatsus pumped three critical results into one of his medium ships...

...and didn't take off more than 1 hullpoint because of the Ablative Armor rule.

End of Turn 2.

The game went quickly downhill from this point. Due to Seph's high firing discipline and my inability to break through his Ablative Armor quickly enough my fleet started to disintegrate. My small ships were all but gone and the Dreadnought was heavily damaged where other gamers barely even scratched it. My remaining strong points where the Tanuki Gunships happily firing away their missiles in the lower left corner unchallenged while my Torpedo Bombers where flying rotations on the Sky Fortress.

End of Turn 3.

Turn 3 saw the end of the Dreadnought. The Sky Fortress dived and dropped her bombs, but got boarded right after and gave Seph double victory points.

The semi-finals and the pairing for the upcoming final game of the Swiss DW Cup.

So in the end I lost 885 : 295 against an opponent who definitely didn't steal his victory, but won graciously and even helped me with advice to improve my situation - without his help I would have lost even worse. o.O

However, despite me listing my mistakes above and despite the crushing result, I don't feel like it's doing justice to my performance. Instead I felt like I did reasonably well based on my skill level. A strong list in the hands of a strong player doesn't allow any mistakes and I think I was playing up to my best, so I give myself bonus points for having tried. :-D However, to be an effective threat against him, I'd have to play Seph and this list repeatedly until I am efficiently enough at taking advantages of his weak spots.

Well, I sign off for some "let's start a new fleet" therapy. ^^

DW Introduction Game

Tonight's GW game was an introduction game for +Sven Emmert who is always a great guy to have a relaxing game with - plus he's a great host. Because (or inspite?) of his heritage Sven couldn't do anything but picking up the Prussian Empire, so tonight it was the Japanese vs. the German starterbox.

After setting up for the game.

After explaining the Field Orders we both decided to destroy all medium sized ships and 50% of the opponent's flotilla. We played it openly and I helped him with tactic hints since this was supposed to be an introduction/learning game - and Sven is a quick learner.

While setting up, Sven made one mistake from my point of view - he had his large battleship on his right flank, which reduced its effectiveness. On the other hand, my two wings of torpedo bombers could easily swing in on my right flank and push towards his medium sized ships.

End of turn 1.

Turn 1 already was a heated bloody mess because the table was way shorter than a standard playing table. Pretty much every ship in turn 1 could either move and shoot in range band 2 or even range band 1, so at the end of the turn the medium sized ships on both sides were gone and it was just a matter who'd be racking up the remaining points more quickly. I was leading with an advantage in points because I had already killed Sven's Geier bombers which had a decent value pointswise.

Soon after the start of turn 2 the game ended already.

In turn 2 Sven started with his battleship trying to shoot down my DFA-170 bombers to tie on points. However, unlucky rolling on his part didn't even scratch them. In return, I moved my Sokotsu battleship six inches forward and unloaded everything I had onto his small ships on its starboard. I needed to destroy two more of his small ships and that was exactly what happened.

Looking back, I see two great points about this introduction game (on top of Sven's hospitality):

1. a smaller table is actually good for an introduction game because it gets the new person into the action quicker.
2. I never felt like I am after a decisive victory despite my longer experience with the game. I found the balance of power to be pretty even and I found that quite impressive for an introduction game.

BTW, the "sea cloth" comes from GW's game Dreadfleet. I have never played that game, its cloth is quite usable and visually appealing for Dystopian Wars. :-)

Handing out swim suits to the French

Half of the French Fleet I was facing tonight. Did I mention Stonehead is an excellent painter? :-D

The other half. Yay, more flying ships. ^^

So tonight was the third round of the Swiss DW Cup in Basel with the winners entering the semi finals. Since I never intended to go beyond the group stage I saw this as an added bonus. The bonus got even better when I saw Stonehead's beautifully painted French fleet again. :-)

Swiss DW Cup, 3rd round

Stonehead vs. Parcival
1'000 pts each
Republic of France vs. Empire of the Blazing Sun

This is how we set up.

As it turned out later, Stonehead picked the Field Order to kill all my medium sized ships (only my three Tanuki Class Gunships) whereas I decided to kill his small ones (two small groups of vessels). He surprised me, though, when setting up the table by putting each group of small vessels into one of his corners so I'd have to stretch myself quite a bit to get them.

End of round 1.

In round 1, my Tenkei Sky Fortress started eating up fire exactly as she was meant to do according to the teachings of Master Rufus.
On my left flank, my Uwatsus and the elegant Fujin started to sail using the protection of the island towards Stoneheads group of four small destroyers in the upper left corner in hopes of bringing me significantly closer to accomplishing my field order.
On my right flank, my wings of torpedo bombers flew forward to hunt down the two small whatevers in the upper right corner.

The French carrier (right next to the island in the back) suffered a magazine explosion in round 2 which was a significant moment.

In round 2, a significant moment happened when I scored ten hits against the French carrier which resulted in a Critical Hit which resulted in a Magazine Explosion on a roll of snake eyes (double ones). The French carrier was no more meaning that the French airplanes couldn't land, refill, and take off anymore either.

End of round 2.

On other news, in round 2 my fast Fujin started to harass his destroyers in the upper left and managed to sink one. Two groups of Uwatsus were steaming up behind them to finish them off in the 3rd round since he didn't pull them back towards the center.
In the center, my third group of Uwatsus and my Dreadnought let hell loose. My Sky Fortress did what she always did - eating up damage.
On my right flank, my Torpedo Bombers attacked the French medium sized ships because their heat lances were a significant danger to my Dreadnought. I figured my flyers could still land on the Sky Fortress for refills and then take off again to finish off their two small targets.

In the middle of turn 2, Stonehead asked me if we could finish the game after turn 3 since he had another appointment this evening, too, so the next round was going to be decisive.

The Dreadnought felt like clearing the path.

In round 3, I proceed to eliminate targets on the flanks to achieve my Field Order whereas Stonehead was laying down the law in the center of the table. My Dreadnought ate some more damage, but when it was finalls its turn, it steamed ahead for three inches and rammed this funny French ship - scoring a Critical damage and another Magazine Explosion. With its reinforced ram, the Dreadnought was neither impressed by the collision nor by the following explosion at all. :-D

End of round 3.

On my left flank, my Fujin and Uwatsus ringed the French destroyers and finished them off. In the center, the Dreadnought fired its three main canons at close range into the enemy ships causing even more damage. The last tanuki and the Sky Fortress tried to shoot the remaining small ship in the upper right corner again, but failed to do so. The airplanes didn't do anything since they were empty on torpedoes and reloading them made no sense as it was the last round.

Counting together the points at the end, the game ended with a victory for me (554pts) and an unfortunate defeat for Stonehead (195pts). In other words, despite my expectations I made it into the semi finals. :-D Now I wonder who I will play there. :-)

Ika Class Mechanical Squid

The Ika in submerged state.

The Ika in floating state as it attacks.

After last night's post, +Neil Laughlin asked to see some close-ups of the Ika and here they are. :-)

Painting the Ika was very straight forward. Unlike all other DW models, which were primed white, I primed the Ika black to give it a more menacing and less glorious look.

After that it was two coats of red, one coat of Iyanden Darksun followed by a coat of gold followed by Dark Tone ink, and the tentacles were simply drybrushed with some sort of metal color.

For the water I started with dark green where I continuously added dark blue and a lighter shade of grey in a wet blending process until the ripples started to pop out.

Every problem can be solved with more ships

I am currently on a roll. Within the last 48 hours, I have finished (from left to right) one DFA-170 Class Bomber, the Kiyohime Assault Class Carrier, the Tsukuyomi Class War Gyro, the Ika Class Mechanical Squid (submerged and floating), four Uwatsu Class Frigates, and three Nakatsu Class Cruiser. :-D

Now if that looks like I haven't even completed a starter box yet: pictured above are the remaining models of my second starterbox. :-D In fact my spreadsheet tells me I have painted 77% of my army. :-)


Still to go on my painting table:
6 Yurgi Class Destroyer
3 Inari Class Scout Gyro
11 Tiny Flyers

And as an added bonus:

1 Olympic Class Troop Transport

which I will do last. :-)

1st Warhammer Basilisk Dystopian Wars Cup - Group Stage

Gaming is so much more relaxed with all markers nicely stored away. :-D

In Switzerland, the first Warhammer Basilisk Dystopian Wars Cup is taking place - and as far as I can see, the people in Basel are the most active DW players.

The line-up for the group stage:

Group A:
Henshakles (Ottoman Empire)
Wildstyle (Covenant of Antarctica)
0815 (reserve player)

Group  B:
Geddon (Kingdom of Britannia)
Rufus (League of Italian States)
Seph (Russian Coalition)

Group C:
Apolloxer (Covenant of Antarctica)
Madwulf (Kingdom of Britannia)
Parcival (Empire of the Blazing Sun)

Group  D:
Sackratte (Empire of the Blazing Sun)
Sir Mauriac (Russian Coalition)
Stonhead (Republic of France)
At the very moment my participation in the group stage is over and Apolloxer and Madwulf still have to battle out their game. Here's the report for my two group stage games.

My fleet for the DW Cup group stage (from left to right): Tenkei Sky Fortress, Hachiman Dreadnought, 3 Tanuki Gunships, 3x4 Uwatsu Frigates, 3 Fujin Class Corvettes, Tiny Fliers.

All games are played at 1'000pts. My list:

1	Hachiman Otsu-Gata Class Dreadnought
3	Tanuki Class Gunship
4	Uwatsu Class Frigate
4	Uwatsu Class Frigate
4	Uwatsu Class Frigate
3	Fujin Class Corvette
1	Tenkei Class Sky Fortress

Apolloxer (CoA) vs Parcival (EotBS) (3:0, 635:550)

(please excuse some proxy models)

As it turned out in the end, both Apolloxer and I picked the Field Order to eliminate the other's medium sized ships.

Not quite the beginning of the game anymore. I immediately realized when I moved the Sky Fortress that I totally misplaced it. Truth be told, she won't see any action for the rest of the game.

End of Round 1 - so far only minor losses. My Dreadnought started to put damage onto the center ship of his medium sized ones.

End of Round 2 - things start to get bad. The Torpedo Bombers meant to kill off his medium sized ships in the upper center get shot down by his Interceptors. His small ships disrupt my lines. My small ships are not strong enough to block his worm. However, I am able to finish off his medium ship that already had damage from Round 1.

End of Round 3 - things start to get really bad. His small ships lock down my Tanuki Gunships at close range so while they still only have minor damage, their missiles are ineffective. The worm tears into my Dreadnought. :-/

End of Round 4 - I lose because my Tanuki Gunships get killed. Half a turn later, my small Uwatus would have taken down his last medium sized ship, but obviously, that would have been half a turn later.

Lessons learned:

• The Tanuki Gunships generally *want* to stay back.
• The Tenkei Sky Fortress is useless - at least for me.
• The Dreadnought is nearly unsinkable and should not be held back.

Madwulf (KoB) vs Parcival (EotBS) (0:3, 460:600)

As it turned out in the end, Madwulf decided to pick the Field Order where he had to sink my large vessels (i.e. my Dreadnought in this case) whereas I decided to destroy his small ones.

This is how we started.

End of Round 1 - Not much happening here. Madwulf killed an Uwatsu and wounded two plus started to fire away at the Sky Fortress (which I placed right in the center this time ;-)  ).

End of Round 2 - Things start to get serious. Madwulf keeps inflicting damage to my Sky Fortress, but his fire on her draws fire away from other more valuable parts of my fleet. (once again I have no clue what I should really do with her) Probably his biggest mistake here was to move his medium sized whitestriped shipes right between the two islands to block the way and fire salvos at me. My Uwatsus and my Dreadnought had little problems removing them in return. In the top left, my Uwatsus furthermore had no problem the British small ships, only one lowly ship remains. At this moment I felt I could win this game.

End of Round 3 - In the top left, the Uwatsus have no problems finishing off the last British small ship. In my lower left I am confronted with the problem that I have to turn my Tanukis and the Dreadnought so he can't hide on the right edge of the board making me chase him around that island forever. In other words, I needed a two-pronged attack with the Tanukis as the anvil and the Uwatsus as the hammer. And oh, my Sky Fortress is gone.

End of Round 4 - Everything I have is racing to the right for the hammer and anvil two-pronged attack. However, I realize that if his Dreadnought manages to sink my small ships before I can sink his ships hiding behind his Dreadnought, I can still terribly lose this game.

End of Round 5 - everything that can fires at his small and medium ships even if his Dreadnought blocks line of sight and my dice are reduced by half. My Dreadnought is busy turning around and would be turning still if the game hadn't ended there because I had killed all his small ships plus more than 50% of his overall points score.

Lessons learned:

• Once again, the Uwatsus are the work horses - for me a game is being decided on how effectively I can put them to use (or rather not, for the matter).
• I still have no clue what to do with the Sky Fortress.
• My Dreadnought always has to turn into the fray and not away from it even his starboard mounted weapons have a superior firing angle from that maneuver.

Now it depends on the outcome of the game between Apolloxer and Madwulf whether I advance in the cup or not. :-D

Thanks for reading. :-)

Dystopian Wars MMBB I

This Yuletide hat had a "Magazine Explosion" label on its front and you got to wear it whenever you scored one. :-D

Since my last blog post I finished painting my EotBS starterbox and participated at the Dystopian Wars MMBB I today - without having played a single game first, so I guess that puts me on par with +Andre Suwanda and his adventures in wargaming, I guess. :-D It's at tournaments where you learn to play games. :-D

My list:

EotBS (Tora! Tora! Tora!)

1x Sokotsu Class Battleship

3x Nakatsu Class Cruiser
3x DFA-170 Class Bomber

4x Uwatsu Class Frigate
4x Uwatsu Class Frigate
3x Fujin Class Corvette

5Tft Torpedo Bombers
5Tft Torpedo Bombers

Game 1 vs. Stefan "Geddon" Werz (7th Shetland Patrol Squadron)

This is how we set up.

In his first turn, Stefan made sure to sink my small ships - I didn't know yet how good they really are and thought they are just canon fodder to protect the biggies. I didn't really do any damage in return.

In the second turn, Stefan methodically continued to tear my fleet apart while my Bombers went submarine hunting. :-D

In the third turn, Stefan took down my Bombers as I didn't wasn't aware yet one can shoot flyers with the main guns if near enough. My flyers in return were harassing his flyers and my Sokotsu Class started its main barrage fire.

At this point "Dice Down" was called and Stefan won an overwhelming victory - duh! :-D

Things I learned from this game:

• Don't run your large ships too far in the back - they wanna kill things.
• Small Torpedo Bombers are terrific against naval vessels.
• DFA-170 Bombers wanna stay either far away from ships or get really close to them - inbetween they are just canon fodder.
• Uwatsu Class frigates want to be the 2nd wave of attack.

Game 2 vs. Pascal "Sir Mauriac" Rüegge (казачий хор)

Forgot to take a picture at the very beginning, but one can still guess how we set up - and since I already knew that the Russian fleet races towards you, I simply had to hold the narrow between these two islands.

In turn 1, Pascal did only little damage and I just sneezed at one of his Novgorod Class frigates in return.

In turn 2, I put into practice what I learned game 1 and my Uwatsu broadsides all but eliminated the 8 Novgorod Class frigates. Pascal focused fire on my Bombers, took one down and severely crippled the other two.

In turn 3, Pascal's Rostov Class destroyers did an incredible turn to sink my Sokotsu Class battleship before Dice Down. He managed to damage the weapon systems and remove two hull points, but the Sokotsu was still going strong. On my side, everything - EVERYTHING - continued to fire into his Borodino Class battleship (because my mission was to sink it), but it survived with 1 hullpoint!

Things learned from this game:

• This game is fun! :-D
• Playing the mission helps. :-D Borodino Class is *heavily* armored and difficult to take down, but I could have done it with just a little more luck. Firing everything at the Borodino Class meant I neglected everything else, though.

Game 3 vs. Axel "Seph" Le Brize (черноморский флот)

Axel set up his evil Bunker in the center of the table so I had set up my entire fleet shifted to the left to avoid it as much as possible.

In turn 1, Axel's Bunker hit one of my Nakatsu Class. The Sokotsu Class answered with a volley from its main turrets.

Turn 2 was long fought and *very* bloody. Axel managed to score a "Magazine Explosion" on my Sokotsu Class battleship. The Sokotsu had 8 hullpoints so the explosion meant 16 dice against every ship within four inches - erasing three Uwatsu Class frigates, destroying one Nakatsu Class and seriously crippling the two others. At this moment I thought I had lost this game... but then I remembered that playing the mission helps. :-D I had to remove all his medium size ships as my mission and there were only two damaged ones left.

Turn 3 was my epic moment when my two small Uwatsu Class frigates indeed did kill his remaining two Suvorov and Tamboc Class with rolling hot on sixes. In return, his Borodino Class battleship and the Bunker sent everything I had left into a wet grave.

Things I learned from this game:

• Playing the mission helps!
• I am confident I'd have one this if my Sokotsu hadn't blown up in turn 2 because my fire power on the refused flank would have killed his medium sized ships much quicker.
• A mindset developed in Warmachine/Hordes definitely helps in Dystopian Wars games, but in the later movement is way more complex whereas in the former everyone just runs into a zone and you play a game of guessing millimeters. In Dystopian Wars you premeasure anything at any time and have your ships perform a ballet instead. I think that's way more entertaining.