Story

Kapitan zur See Ruckdog surveyed the hostile, icy North Sea from his perch in the flag bridge of his flagship, the mighty Blucher-class Dreadnought SMS Mecklenburg. Surrounding the hulking shape of the Mecklenburg was the rest of his force, Raiding Force Z-28. His overall mission was to break through the Britannian blockade in the Greenland-Iceland-Britannia gap, and wreak havoc on the sea lines of communication between the Britannians and their North American allies. In order to help him accomplish that mission, he had a mighty array of warships at his command, including the Sky Fortress LZ-83, and the large submarine UG-8. So far, luck had been on his side; the ice flows and misty conditions of the North Sea had enabled him to elude detection. However, he was stirred from his reverie when the Leutnant serving as his staff communications reported “Signal from the LZ-83, Herr Kapitan; multiple Britannian warships sighted!” It seemed that his luck had run out afterall.

Hello again! I had another awesome game of DW last Sunday, this time against forum member Last Rites and his Britannians. This was a classic DW match-up between two heavyweight core factions.

Forces

I ran the same Prussian force as last time, which I’ve copied here for reference. The only difference is that I placed the Frigates, Corvettes, and the Battlecruiser in the Advance force:

Dreadnought Squadron (2#, 350 pts)
1 Blücher Class Dreadnought, 330 pts = (base cost 290) + Shield Generator 20 + Tesla Generator 20
1 ATTACHMENT: Wächter Class Escort, 20 pts

Fleet Submarine Squadron (2#, 165 pts)
1 Sturmbringer Class Submarine, 165 pts

Battlecruiser Squadron (1#, 110 pts)
1 Königsberg Class Battlecruiser, 110 pts

Support Cruiser Squadron (3#, 255 pts)
3 Donnerfaust Class Support Cruisers, 255 pts = 3 * 85

Frigate Squadron (4#, 120 pts)
4 Arminius Class Frigates, 120 pts = 4 * 30

Corvette Squadron (5#, 100 pts)
5 Saxony Class Corvettes, 100 pts = 5 * 20

Sky Fortress Squadron (7#, 150 pts)
1 Imperium Class Sky Fortress, 150 pts

Last Rite’s Britannian force consisted of the following:

1 Avenger Class Fleet Carrier, 220 pts (Guardian Generator (2, 8″, P=1);
1 ATTACHMENT: Bastion Class Escorts

1 Lord Hood Class Battlecruiser, 115 pts (Shield Generator (2))

2 Tribal Class Cruisers, 230 pts (Shield Generator (2))
1 ATTACHMENT: Dominion Class Support Cruiser

3 Vanguard Class Submarines, 165 pts

3 Stalwart Class Heavy Destroyers, 150 pts

5 Swift Class Corvettes, 100 pts

1 Lord Hood Class Battlecruiser, 115 pts

1 Eagle Class War Rotor, 150 pts

Deployment

Both of us decided to forward deploy some of our lighter units as an Advanced force, to which I also added by Battlecruiser:

Turn 1

Thanks to the advance forces, Turn 1 was quite eventful! Right from the start, my Prussians were rolling some very hot dice. I managed to to put critical hits on one of the Britannian cruisers with my corvettes, while my frigates, battlecruiser, and support cruisers managed to detonate the magazine on one of Last Rites’ subs, severely damaging another and another one of the cruisers! It wasn’t all one-sided, howerver; the Britannians managed to deal a critical hit to my Sturmbringer submarine.

Turn 2

The second turn was very deadly, indeed. My support cruisers and frigates managed to finish of the two remaining Vanguard subs,  causing yet another magazine detonation that serverely damaged one of the support cruisers that got a little too close! My dreadnought fired on the Eagle war rotor, obtaining a critical hit on the massive flying machine. In the mean time, Last Rite’s heavy fighther SAS support began attacking my Imperium sky fortress, putting two points of damage on it. Rounding out the action in the center, my battlecruiser traded shots with the Britannian carrier. On my left flank, my Corvettes and Last Rite’s cruisers continued to trade blows. I ended up losing two corvettes to the shooting, and a third to boarding. Those light little ships were no match for the Britannians, despite the cruisers’ weakened condition! On the right flank, the Sturmbringer continued to be brought under fire from not only the heavy destroyers, but also the Britannian carrier. My submarine was definitely feeling the pain of all that attention!

Turn 3

Thanks to time constraints, this would turn out to be the final turn. Last Rites won the initiative, and promptly swung his corvettes into the action. They rounded a large iceberg on my right flank, and finished off the Sturmbringer! In retaliation, my Imperium sky fortress lumbered over and proceeded to carpet bomb the area, claiming two of the corvettes and one of the heavy destroyers. The Imperium would pay for that however, as Last Rites’ swarm of fighter SAWs finally brought down the enormous Zeppelin.

My Dreadnought continued to dominate the center, successfully boarding the Eagle war rotor, although not before the rotor could conduct its own area bombardment of the dreadnought’s escorts. My dread also severely damaged the Britannian carrier. However, a wing of Britannian dive bombers managed to strike a knock-out blow on my battlecruiser, inflicting no less than three critical hits, including a Magazine Explosion! On the left flank, my surviving Frigate and Corvettes continued to trade shots with the Britannian cruiser squadron, with no clear victory.

Conclusion

In the end, this battle turned out to be a draw. We both drew the “Destroy all Smalls” field order, and neither of us were able to complete it. Both of us were down to our last few smalls, though, so it really could have gone either way. Overall, this was a really fun game with a lot of swings. I counted no less than 3 magazine explosions! So, lots of carnage. I felt I managed to do better this time around with capitalizing on the synergies in my fleet, specifically the deadly Speerschluder/Tesla Weapon combo. That, combined with my hot dice in Turn 1, enabled me to establish control early. However, I was unable to protect my fleet from the preponderance of Britannian air power; Last Rites had 4 fighter SAS to my 1, and in the end the Imperium paid the price for that mismatch. I also am still trying to find the best role for my Sturmbringer; this model underperformed again, getting eaten alive before it was able to do much damage. Here again, I think faulty deployment was to blame. I feel I left it too vulnerable on an undefended flank. I’m not giving up on this model yet, though!

Until next time…