Hello again! Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate in a Dystopian Wars tournament that was held at The Battle Standard, a store about an hour away from where I am living in Groton, CT. This was the latest in a series of such events that have been held at the store, and I had a great time!
The event included about 10 players, consisted of 3 rounds, and lasted from about 10 am to 5 pm. All of the games were fought with 500 point fleets assembled from the starter box for each faction. Interestingly, all of the factions released so far were represented at the event; there were even two French players, including myself! Read on for a summary of how my three games went!
Round 1
My first round was a rematch against Ryan, whom I played the last time I was at the store. Here were our two lists:
Me (France)
- Battleship w/Heat Lance and Cloud Generator
- 1 squadron of 2 Cruisers w/ Retardant Armor
- 1 squadron of 2 Heavy Interceptors
- 1 squadron of 4 Frigates
- 2 Wings of Torpedo Bombers
Ryan (Blazing Sun)
- Battleship w/ Shield Generator
- 1 squadron of 2 Bombers
- 2 squadrons of 4 Frigates
- 2 wings of torpedo bombers
Mission
The basic mission was to sink the enemy. However, as you can see from the set up picture there were a number of Cargo tokens on the middle of the board that were worth 10 VP each. In order to pick up a cargo token, the players had to have a ship within 4″ of the marker, and then roll a D6. On a 4+, the marker was picked up. A ship could only carry a number of cargo markers equal to its HP, and if a ship was carrying cargo when it was sunk, the cargo went down with it on a D6 roll of 1-3.
Result
Ryan beat me handily this round! By the end of the game, all I had left was my battleship and one of my heavy interceptors. Ryan only had a squadron of frigates and his battleship, but my battleship was hurt much more than mine. I have to hand it to Ryan; he has really mastered the intricacies of the Blazing Sun’s frigates, using them to great effect.
Round 2
Unfortunately, I don’t have any pics of this round, as my phone died and it spent this round out in the car charging! This time around I was fighting Nick and his Irish-themed Britannians. The mission was slightly different in that instead of picking up cargo, we had to distribute it amongst our fleet from the start. However, we also had decoy tokens to mix in with the actual cargo tokens, so that our opponent would not know which ship was actually carrying cargo. Here is how our lists looked:
Me (French)
- Battleship w/Heat Lance and Cloud Generator
- 1 squadron of 3 Cruisers
- 1 squadron of 3 Frigates
- 1 squadron of 4 Frigates
- 2 Wings of Torpedo Bombers
Nick (Britannia)
- Battleship w/ Shield Generator
- 1 squadron of 2 cruisers
- 2 squadrons of 4 Frigates
- 1 Wing of torpedo bombers
- 1 Wing of Fighters
Result
This was another loss for me, but it was much closer than my first game. Both of us lost our cruisers by the middle of the game, and once again it was up to the frigates to swing the balance. Between sinking more of my frigates and recovering some of my lost cargo, Nick marshaled enough points for a narrow win!
Round 3
My final round was against another Blazing Sun player, Bob. This time, the mission required each player to take turns placing 6 cargo tokens. There was a new twist this time, though; one of the 6 tokens was actually a Strength 5 mine that would explode if picked up by a ship, friend or foe! Here were our lists for this game:
Me (France)
- Battleship w/Heat Lance and Cloud Generator
- 3 Cruisers
- 2 Heavy Interceptors
- 1 squadron of 4 Frigates
- 2 Wings of Torpedo Bombers
Bob (Blazing Sun)
- Battleship w/ Shield Generator
- 1 squadron of 2 Cruisers
- 3 squadrons of 4 Frigates
- 2 Wings of Fighters
Result
This was another close game! There were a number of memorable moments, such as my torpedo bombers swooping in to destroy a Blazing Sun cruiser, and the Blazing Sun frigates blasting one of my heavy interceptors from the sky. However, the most shocking moment was when one of Bob’s frigates recovered my mine token, which promptly exploded and annihilated the whole squadron! In the final tally, I had managed to win a narrow victory, despite Bob having recovered more cargo than I had.
After Action
In the end, Ryan won the overall event with his Blazing Sun. Second place went to the Covenant of Antarctica, while third place went to the FSA. With one major loss, one narrow loss, and one minor victory to my name, I figure I was probably in the bottom half of the pack, but I had a ton of fun none the less! This event also marked the first official action for my new French fleet, which has only seen two games previously in various states of painting.
As a neat bonus, all of the players in the event received a small token that will allow them to re-roll one dice roll per game in the next event held at the store. I thought this was a very interesting idea, kind of a “Loyatly Rewards” program for the DW events.I think this needs to be carelfuly managed, though, to prevent newer players from being at too much of a disadvantage against the old hands.
Another point that just about everyone had agreed upon was that the next event should open up the list construction to more than just the contents of the starter boxes. I for one am definitely for this idea! I think the opportunity to incorporate things like airships, sky fortresses, carriers, dreadnoughts, destroyers, and the like will make for much more varied and exiting rounds.
Overall, I had a great time, and I want to say thanks to Erik for organizing the event and for Tommy and the rest of The Battle Standard crew for hosting it. I am eagerly looking forward to the next event! Here are all of the photos I took yesterday, in case anyone is interested:
Until next time, Good Luck and Good Hunting!