20 Feb 2012

Shadow of Prometheus

Olly and I decided to play a quick game of Dystopian Wars as neither of us had played since the rules and errata clarifications came into effect.
I had bought along a Dictaphone to record the action and to make notes on dice rolls and so on but, unfortunately, it seems that our battle broke its ability to function. Let alone play back the recording. I did, however, take a few photographs which I'll upload now. The rest of this report will be supplemented by memory.

Nakatsu Class Cruisers
Hachiman Class Dreadnought, Uwatsu Class Frigates with Fighter Wing

Sokatsu Class Battleship with Frigates
DFA-170 Bombers
Covenant Fleet: Dreadnought, Carrier, Battleship and Destroyers. The base stand represents the Time Dilation Orb
I won the roll for first activation and chose to move my cruisers up to make a Range Band three rocket attack on the Icarus Class flyers which resulted in nothing.
Olly then selected his Callimachus Time Dilation Orb. Having never faced one of these machines before I was curious as to what it could do. This unit has the ability to teleport any model within 8" of its centre to any point on the battlefield via its on-board time dilation generator. On a roll of a 4, 5 or 6 the roll is successful with a 1 or 2 failing. If a 1 is rolled the targeted model disappears and does not return until the orb is next activated.
The Callimachus also has the Inventive Scientists MAR which allows you to re-roll a failed generator result so you have to be incredibly lucky for a Covenant player to fail this roll twice. Needless to say, Olly passed the roll and proceeded to teleport his Prometheus Class Dreadnought onto my Port flank.  

All that thou canst inflict I bid thee do; Foul Tyrant both of Gods and Human-Kind
This was something I had not prepared for. My previous games had always consisted of fleets advancing and firing as one would expect a naval encounter to play out. All of a sudden, I had a ship with enough fire-power to ravage my fleet twice over within range band one on the second activation.

Feeling slightly unnerved, I swung my Hachiman round to Starboard and linked all three primary turrets together for a 16 AD barrage; which did absolutely nothing. The gunners had, in fact, inflicted a critical hit but the Prometheus has a Shield Generator and Inventive Scientists which reduced my number of hits down to six, which, is one less needed to inflict one Hull Point of damage.
A follow-up rocket attack failed to get through the Antarctican Ack-Ack defence.           

After my Dread inflicted nought damage (see what I did there?), Olly activated his Dreadnought making the following attacks:

7 AA dice on my fighter squadron
Bombard attack on my Dreadnought for 9 AD
Particle Accelerator attack on Dreadnought for 12 AD   
Starboard Broadside attack on one Frigate for 12 AD
Starboard turret attack on second Frigate for 12 AD 
Port Broadside attack on one Cruiser for 12 AD
Aft and Port turret attack on another Cruiser for 18 AD
Fore Turret attack on Dreadnought for 12 AD

This onslaught resulted in the destruction of two fighters and two Frigates. Both of my Cruisers were reduced to half Hull Points through critical hits whilst my Hachiman lost two HP through two attacks exceeding its Damage Rating.

I then swung a full Frigate Squadron around and linked their main turrets to their starboard guns for 13 AD resulting in one Hull Point of damage being inflicted.

David and Goliath: Japanese Frigates engage a Covenant Dreadnought

Olly then moved up his Icarus Class flyers and reduced one of my Cruisers to one Hull Point. In response, I advanced my third Frigate squadron and linked their Main Turrets at Range Band 2 to deal one point of damage on the closest Icarus.
The Antarcticans struck back with their Plutarch Destroyers by sinking a Frigate.
The Blazing Sun Battleship then activated and launched two 6 gun volleys at an Icarus for no effect but the proceeding rocket strike broke through the defensive AA and penetrated its shields to inflict a Critical Hit. This produced a Fusion Leak meaning that its Critical Rating was now equal to its Damage Rating. As the Sokatsu has the Incendiary Rounds MAR this also started a raging fire on-board the Icarus.  

Too close to the sun: An Icarus Flyer suffers a raging fire from a Blazing Sun Battleship
The rest of the turn bore witness to three fighter squadrons being destroyed. My bombers swung in from the right flank whilst my Tenkei Sky Fortress descended from the clouds to link its Primary Guns onto a Plutarch and, thereby, destroy the destroyer.

We did begin the second turn but then called it quits due to time constraints. If the battle had continued, it would have more than likely resulted in a Covenant victory.
Still, I'm glad I played and experimented with some of the new rules and units. Next time I'll be much more wary of the Time Dilation Orb and place my fleet accordingly.

Until next time,

John of the Blazing Sun

1 comment:

  1. Im very sorry to all for my teleportation (and lack of progress in painting), it did however result in some other battles that may not have happened otherwise, frigate on destroyers, destroyers on battleship, sky fortress on destroyers. If it had played out as normal I think the bigger bits would have taken out the smaller ones before turning their guns on each other.
    I like the fact that some (sorry again) of the smaller bits were able to fight it out, also we saw some frigate on dreadnought action that did the most damage if my memory serves.
    Anyway, I'm sure I will die in a Japanese fireball next time round.

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