All in...

For months the Russians had been planning their assault.  It was a small series of islands in the middle of nowhere, innocuous enough, but intelligence from defectors had brought this tiny series of islands to the full attention of the Russian admiralty.  Plans were hatched, spies sewn, forward observers posted... there was much nervous waiting as a fleet was massed in secret and sent half way around the world to deal a blow the Russians hoped would rouse the puppeteers from their games and pull them into the open where the Russians could crush them.

How and when a Russian spy was uncovered is unclear, but when the hammer of the Russian navy fell, it would find an enemy fully awakened to their preparations...

There would be no finesse, carefully laid plans, months in the crafting, would be worth less than the paper they were mapped on... what had been touted as an ambush assault became a titanic bloodbath, and clever tactics were eschewed for a simpler and neater plan: kill, or be killed...

The Russian Armada deploys quickly out of convoy to face an apparently awake opponent... what had hoped  to have been a surprise assault vanishes, it is clear that both sides have a fight on their hands.

Across the narrow stretch of ocean the Russian opponent waits... A full naval armada, much more than the small defence force the Russians had hoped to find...

So much careful planning wasted... initial moves would be as much to avoid a traffic jam as to engage the enemy, clearly neither navy had expected to engage the other here...

In the opening moves the first casualties were some fast moving Covenant Thales... they managed to inflict some small damage, but were destroyed for their troubles.

The strange sound of the Sturginium engines running hot... some bombers and fighters move against the Russian flank.

One of the  unlucky Russian bombers suffers a magazine explosion, neatly taking out some nearby frigates.

Fighter squadrons on boths sides hope to leverage enough air superiority to allow the dive through to their targets with minimal damage...

The Covenant are happy to sit back while the slow Russian ships advance... with enough concentrated fire some the ablative armour of their fearsome enemy could be removed and allow the Covenant to close...

Heavy use of mines on the Covenant's right wing... it was hoped these might slow the Russian advance on this side down and keep the hulking Borodino there out of the battle, at least for the short term...

The Covenant throw their smalls and mediums into the fray, hoping to peel away the ablative armour from enough Russian ships to make closing with the large ships less like suicide...

The heat is on... the monstrous Russian middle move up with the Rudnitskys doing as much as they can to reduce the effects of the sustained Covenant barrage... the Euclid throws itself into the fray, hovering down at sea level and unleashing the might of its deadly particle accelerator...

Only a short way into the engagement and it's a bloodbath, fire, steel and energy whip the ocean into a froth of destruction and a tempest of death...

Despite the best efforts of the Rudnitskys, the Russians suffer serious damage at the hands of the monstrous Euclid...

A small Russian frigate tangles with an Iceburg... without its sacrifice... next turn the Russian Moskva may have come afoul its own defences...

The Aronax appears in a storm of lightning as the Time Dilation Orb generators unzip space and time and teleport it into the fray...

Nearby the unlucky Russians suffer another magazine explosion as a Pesets submarine goes up after heavy fire...

Heavy damage has been sustained by both sides, while the Covenant seems to have the upper hand for now... had both sides stayed to the bitter end it would have gone much worse for them... the Russian heavy guns were just warming up and there was plenty to target...


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This was roughly a 3000 point battle between the Covenant and the Russians.  With something like 23-25 activations every turn, we only managed three turns in something like 5 hours (over an evening and the following morning) before we had to call it quits.  At that stage the Covenant were slightly ahead on the points front... but I couldn't have sustained it I don't think... my brothers Russians were only just warming to the task as we wound it to a close.

While it might not seem like we got in many turns, there was a massive amount going on.  Each flank was almost its own battle, and there were many little turning points, important engagements and desperate manoeuvres all across the board.

It was a great game - though the board was clearly to small for so many miniatures, it was also a heck lot of fun.  This was the battle we had to fight - throwing everything we had for our two main nations onto the table and seeing how the foam settled... it had to be done, and was a hugely enjoyable game!  I'm not sure whether I'll get to play as big a game as that again anytime soon, but at least we had a shot!

Cheers,
Giles.