The Covenant and the foe...

This weekend my brother and I, in amongst what was also a nice family catch up, managed to square off for a couple of games of Dystopian Wars.

It was nice to be able to finally field an army for something, anything, that was fully painted, and to play on a board and with terrain that also looked good.  I'll be doing up a blog post about how I made the islands and so forth in the next few days, but in the meantime, here are some shots of the games.

Our first game was a simple 600 points, really a learning game to brush up on the rules (and we needed some brushing).

The game looked really nice, in my humble opinion, much worth the effort.

My plan was to use the Ptolemy bombers as mine layers and block off some of the gaps in between islands, allowing me more time to land shots as the Russians tried to close.  It wasn't as successful or brilliant as I had hoped.

Flying under an immense hail of AA fire, these bombers survived the squadron of fighters; managed to wipe out the Russian Novgorod frigates by dropping a mine squarely in the center of their line; and one of the two managed to survive flying over the decking of the lurking Borodino.

The first game ended basically a draw, I managed to knock out the required points to scratch a win for the Covenant, but with the wounded Borodino steaming down towards my injured Aristotle Battleship and whatever scraps I had left it was really anyone's game.

This game was basically all in - both of us fielded some 900 points (which was what we bought as our first foray into the system - basically a box set and a flying carrier each).  My goal this game was to keep my Epicurus back and use the recycling drones to as much effect as I could.  I should have deployed them in the center as I would have had more choices about what to do with them, as it was stuck on the flank, they never really contributed.

The Might of the assembled Russian Coalition, including their fearsome looking Zamiec...

I hoped that a couple of linked torpedo barrages at close range from these Diogenes Frigates might crack the ablative armour of the stout Russian Cruisers across from them... sadly some unlucky rolling meant little was achieved by their valiant deaths.

While the fighting was heavy and bloody on this flank, it really had little impact on the main event, which involved the Russian Cruisers, Zamiec and Borodino...

A wing of my fighters heavily damaged one of the Russian bombers,  it's ablaze but still limping along.

One of the more amusing moments in the game - the Borodino ploughed into and through my poor little Diogenes Frigate.  I think the twisted wreckage of my flaming ship barely scratched the Russian paint work.  He could have assaulted and prized her... no, he wanted to test the ram.

The second game went badly for me, I gambled on being able to break the ablative armour of the Russians with some quick assaults, and while my Battleship and Cruisers were nicely positioned, the failure of my frigates to break even some of the Russian armour meant, I think, my demise.

We didn't get to finish this game, but it would have been great to see how it would have swung, I had the Cruisers and Battleship ready to heave to and deliver broadsides on the enemy, as well an Epicurus and its fleet of drones ready in the wings.  He had his cruisers, mostly still with their ablative armour intact, and of course his Borodino (a fearsome ship) and the mighty Zamiec...

I feel the odds were stacked against me, so I'm happy to concede a loss.

Good games, and a lot of fun.  I'm already looking forward to the next game.  I had originally intended that when I get around to getting some more Dystopian Wars stuff - that I spread out and grab a couple of different fleets.  Now I'm really thinking I'd like to expand on the Covenant, and maybe invest in one other fleet...

Perhaps an Aussie fleet... those pocket battle ships and crocodile attack subs look a lot of fun!

Cheers,
Giles.