Prologue

FSA-occupied Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

The attack on Miami was swift and brutal.  Despite the best efforts of Wales’ men the damage to done to the infrastructure would take months to repair; the civilian casualties were the most devastating.

MacCannon was reviewing the reports from their most recent exercise when he heard a rapping at his door.

“Sir, urgent communique from  CINCCARR. Miami has been razed, and Fort Pierce destroyed.”

“I knew it, despite our early success against the coalition they would not be dissuaded.  How could their movements go unnoticed?  They seem to disappear and reappear at a whim.  I’ve heard stories of Covenant vessels seemingly ‘jumping’ locations, but wrote them off as stress-induced hallucinations.”

“If technology such as this exists, surely the Covenant wouldn’t have shared the capability with a potential rival?  If they are in league with each other gods help us all.  Perhaps my contacts know something…”

Later that day the response was received:

“The coalition have obtained a Calimachus.  They have been jumping the fleet to avoid detection, their next attack is Ft Vigilant in Cuba.”

MacCannon rushed to the bridge and broadcast to his fleet:

“Gentlemen, set a course for Guantanimo, it’s time for a reckoning.  Remember Miami!!!”

The response came in Unison: “REMEMBER MIAMI!”

INBS Furutaka

Kaigun-Chusa Tanaka, commanding officer of the armored cruiser Furutaka, kept his gaze fixed grimly forward, staring into the pre-dawn gloom as his ship steamed into Guantanamo Bay. The Furutaka, along with the other two armored cruisers in its squadron, Tone and Atago, formed the left wing of Admiral of the Sword Tanouchi Hiroshi’s Carribean Strike Force. Of to port loomed the low, ominous shape of the Prussian assault carrier Ruhr. To staboard lay the even larger shape of the force flagship, the majestic heavy battleship Musashi. Admiral Tanouchi was leading this attack in person from its bridge, which should have filled Tanaka with confidence. However, he couldn’t quite shake off a feeling of uneasiness about this sortie; their goal was to force an entry into the Amerian stronghold at Guantanamo bay, in order to soften up the defenses that ringed the harbor in prepration for an amphibous assault. While the plan was audacious, it was also full of uncertainty. What if the promised Prussian air support never arrived? What if the Americans were able to move reinforcements into the area faster than expected? It was not hard to imagine a series of events where Tanouchi’s forces could get trapped in the harbor and encircled by superior forces. Such a situation would be…serious. Quite serious, indeed. 

The Admiral had a plan to avoid such an event, Tanaka knew. The key component to that plan was a strange spherical object that seemed to bob along in the Musahi’s wake like a cork. What it was and where it came from was a highly guarded secret, even among the senior officers in the Blazing Sun force. From what Tanaka had been able to surmise, it was apparently a vessel of some kind developed by the Covenant of Antarctica, and captured by Shinobi agents off the coast of Korea. What its purpose was, and how it was supposed to aid the fleet, Tanaka could only guess. Rumors abounded; some said it granted vessels in its vicinity an impenetrable shield, proof against even the heaviest guns. Others claimed that it “phased” nearby ships partly into a different dimension, so that enemy shots passed right through their targets and did no damage. Still others claimed that the device was a teleportation machine, capable of transporting entire vessels many miles away in an instant. Whatever it was, it didn’t look like any ship of war Tanaka had ever seen, and it seemed to almost writhe with some kind of arcane energy field. Perhaps this strange vessel was the source of his unease…

Introduction

Matt:  Well, game 4 went swimmingly.  It seems that Captain Wales is destined to be Steampunk Sean Bean.  He gets an A for effort, but is never alive to receive the participation trophy.  After reading the campaign mission and recalling the ‘Hard Pounding’ I took last game I wasn’t overly excited about this one.  Either way, it was time for MacCannon to get back in the wheelhouse and try to halt the advance of the PE/EoBS coalition.

Andy: Once more into the breach! In this, the penultimate game of the campaign, my Blazing Sun naval forces are setting sail once again (with a little support from their Prussian allies!). After my big successes in Game 4, I am coming into the game with a narrow lead. Since I’m sailing into the teeth of the prepared American defenses, though, I’ll need some luck, a cunning plan, and some “borrowed” Covenant tech to make it through with that lead intact!

Forces

FSA (Matt)

• Group 1:
  • FSS Essess (CV)
  • Reinforced Cruiser Squadron (2x CA rockets, 1x Gunship)
• Group 2:
  • 4 Augusta (FF)
  • FSS Antietam (Heavy BB)
  • 3 Lexington (CL, shield)
    • These never made it onto the map, and probably would’ve skewed the game a bit more.

• Group 3:
  • Bunker complex
  • 2x Gun towers

EotBS (Andy)

• Group 1:
  • IBSN Musahi (Kaiju Heavy Battleship)
  • “Scions of Kusunoki” (5x Corvettes)
• Group 2
  • Furutaka, Tone, and Atago (Armored Cruisers)
  • Minamoto’s Own (4x Destroyers)
• Special Support Group
  • Calimachus Orb
  • 2x Escorts

PE (Andy)

• Group 2
  • SMS Ruhr (Assault Carrier)
• Aerial Support
  • Adler Heavy Bomber
  • 4x Speerwurf

Deployment

Andy: With the Prussians providing both carrier borne and land-based air support, the Blazing Sun naval forces were arrayed in battle order and ready to make their incursion into Guantanamo Bay!

Turn 1

Initiative: Andy

Andy: Having been awarded the initiative by the scenario rules, I set about advancing my forces and targeting the defenses arrayed around the periphery of the bay. The Musashi quickly came under heavy fire from the forts and American units stationed in the bay, losing 4 hull points in short order. Unfortunately for the Blazing Sun, their long-range rocket armaments were completely useless against the American fortifications; they were simply too well dug-in! They were vulnerable from the air, however; right on cue, the Prussian long range land-based air support arrived overhead, laying a devastating Tesla laced barrage onto the main American bunker complex.

Matt: Deployment gave Andy’s entire Aerial contingent a free attack run at the bunker, AA is was available and knocked out 1 HP from the bomber.  Not nearly enough to slow it down, and the bunker was lit up. It took 6 or 8 damage in the first turn.  I sent my fighter wing in to try for some damage on the bomber and was not able to do anything of note.

The naval side of things went a bit better, The reinforced cruiser squadron landed a crit with guns and followed up with a point of damage from the rockets.  Assorted gunnery from the rest of my fleet knocked a 4th point off of the Musahi.  I did, however lose my Gunship.

Turn 2

Initiative: Matt

Andy: The Blazing Sun forces were compelled to close range with the American fortifications, since their long-range rocket barrages had no effect. Thanks to the combined weight of the Prussian air assault and the close range attacks of  light Blazing Sun warships, the American bunker was reduced to a smoldering ruin.  Meanwhile, the rest of the Blazing Sun fleet was focusing fire on the American carrier, dealing heavy damage.

Matt: The damage the bunker received turn 1 had me pretty concerned, and thanks to the last fight, my reinforcements won’t show up until turn 3.  I had initiative and was determined to do something!  Fighters launched from my carrier knocked out a Speerwulf, and my dive bombers managed another crit on the Heavy BB.  The Prussian air wing knocked out another HP or 2 from the bunker and tried to finish it off with a boarding action from his Corvette Squadron.  As has happened on numerous occasions in this campaign, my anti-boarding AA had eaten their Wheaties and knocked out 4 of the AP, the defenders handled the rest!

Turn 3

Initiative:

Andy: The Blazing Sun, with the aid of their Prussian allies, succeeded in sinking the American carrier. However, the carrier’s aircraft had dealt Musashi a heavy amount of damage in return, and the ship ponderously tried to turn away in an attempt to disengage. This attempt was foiled by the arrival of American reinforcements, which quickly finished off the beleaguered Blazing Sun flagship. Admiral Tanouchi was last seen on her bridge, lashed to the wheel; his death was the signal to the Shinobi crew of the captured Calimachus orb to activate a secret contingency plan. Their goal now was to save the remaining heavy units of the force, including the Orb itself. They powered up the teleportation generator, aimed the focusing lens on the SMS Ruhr, and unleashed the orb’s power on the Prussian carrier. In a disastrous turn of events, instead of phasing out the carrier spontaneously detonated, taking its entire crew with it! Given the losses sustained by the Blazing Sun, and limited play time, we decided to call the game early at this point.

Matt: I was looking pretty thin, but thankfully my reinforcements would arrive this turn.  Andy miscalculated the HP on his Heavy BB and one crit would knock it out; I activated my last dive bomber squadron and sank the Heavy BB!  My next activation was the frigates, their deployment zone allowed me to move in on the corvette squadron and I finished it.  Finally, the Antietam arrived and landed a pair of crits on the Ruhr thanks to sustained fire from it’s turrets.

Result

With a final total of 18 CP for Andy and 24 CP for Matt, this was a narrow victory for the Americans!

Post-Battle Thoughts

Andy: I have to say, this was a fun scenario! I think this game felt a lot more balanced than some of the other games we’ve played in this campaign. I really liked the twist of having the Calimachus orb on the table to play around with. I might have squeezed out a narrow victory if it hadn’t misfired on me and destroyed the Prussian carrier! I also noted that this scenario is a tough match-up for the Blazing Sun in some regards. The focus of the scoring is on destroying the fortifications, but the fact that fortifications are immune to rockets in edition 2.5 meant that I had far fewer options for going after my objectives. Fortunately, the Prussian air power I brought helped out immensely in that regard. The bombing run made on the American bunker by my Adler made a huge difference!

Matt: I agree that it was a fun scenario.  I didn’t love that Andy would have an essentially free round of shooting on the bunker, but I would receive the same boon later with my naval reinforcements.  Tiny flyers in DW 2.0/2.5 are definitely less clunky to use, but I’ve never been a fan of the naval carriers.  They seem to have great utility, but are also very easy to neuter with the DR/CR and fuel reserves.  My SAS squads were able to put in some decent work in this game, but I feel the points easily could’ve been used elsewhere.  That said, we tried to stay pretty close to what the scenarios laid out for us.  My MVPs for the game were probably the reinforced cruiser squadron (despite losing it early) and the fortifications that held tough for as long as they could.

Conclusion

The joint Prussian-Blazing Sun force sent to “soften up” the defenses in the outer approaches to Guantanomo Bay had completed their task, though at heavy cost. All of the fleet’s heavy combat units, including the Musashi, were destroyed. Even worse for the Blazing Sun, their captured Covenant orb was lost during the attack as well, severely limiting the ability of Imperial Bond forces to conduct hit an run attacks. Both sides knew that the time for the climatic battle for Cuba was about to begin..

Epilogue

INBS Furutaka

The bridge crew of the Furutaka stared in disbelief at the towering column of smoke that moments before had been the Musashi. They all knew this meant that their commander, Admiral Tanouchi, had just perished. “Back to your posts!” Tanaka growled, physically shoving the nearest crewman way from the bridge windows. “If you fail in your duty now,  you bring great dishonor to the memory of the Admiral!” he declared. This seemed to do the trick; at once the rest of the bridge crew seemed to snap out of their shock and return to their assigned tasks with renewed vigor. Suddenly, his executive officer cried out, “Sir, the strange object is starting to glow!” With a feeling of dread in his stomach, Tanaka walked across the bridge to stand next to the lookout. Sure enough, the Covenant vessel appeared to be building up a charge of some kind, and was developing a sickly green glow that was growing in intensity and brightness by the second. A strange hum also seemed to fill the air, along with a faint smell of ozone. Tanaka realized that the hair on the back of his neck was standing up, in a way that it once when he was still a cadet and had been climbing the mountain his ship was named for during a thunderstorm.

Suddenly, an arch of green lighting flashed out from the orb, striking the Prussian carrier that was, by this point, a few thousand yards off the Furutaka’s port beam. The lighting seemed to spread across the entire ship, until it was enveloped by a spider web of crackling green energy. As Tanaka watched with baited breath, the mighty carrier seemed to start to deform, and then fracture. Suddenly gouts of orange and yellow flame began to appear from those fractures, and half a heart beat later the entire ship detonated in a titanic explosion. The concussion from the blast rocked the Furutaka on its keel, nearly knocking Tanaka off his feet. When he looked again, there was nothing left of the SMS Ruhr but some small debris and a strong smell of ozone. “What in heaven was that, sir?” the exec asked. Grim-faced, Tanaka replied “it appears that whatever that thing was supposed to do, it just failed spectacularly.” He turned his gaze back to the orb, cursing the hubris of whatever damn fool Shinobi clan had just consigned their Prussian allies to a most unnatural end. Suddenly, the orb begain to glow again, clearly building up for another discharge.

“Are they going to do the same thing to us that they did to the Ruhr? Was Tanouchi’s plan to leave no witnesses?” his second in command wondered out loud in a low tone only Tanaka could hear. “I doubt it, that was never the Admiral’s style. Likely, those Shinobi over there are going to try and repeat whatever trick they tried with the Ruhr on themselves, to save their own worthless hides.” Sure enough, as the two officers watched, the orb was slowly enveloped in the same web of green energy the Ruhr had been. Just like the Ruhr, the strange craft distorted, and then suddenly exploded. “Well, that’s the end of that” stated Tanaka flatly. “It’s time to get ourselves out of here if we can. All Ahead Flank! Set course for open water.”

FSS Antietam, coast of Cuba

Despite MacCannon pushing his crews and the engines to the limit, they arrived too late to help Fort Vigilant and the Essess.  At least they could make the coalition pay for their audacity.

The frigates arrived first, followed by the Antietam.  MacCannon’s orders were clear and cold: “Make them pay.”  As he finished his command, the Antietam completed it’s maneuver opening the Ruhr to the full might of it’s gunnery.  The turrets rang out like a thunder, and the 38″ shells found their mark landing telling hits on the generator and engines.  At that point a wave of viridian energy washed over the Ruhr and their was a secondary explosion.  What happened next, Matthias would never wish upon his worst enemy:  The carrier seemingly collapsed in on itself like a crumpled newspaper before exploding in a multi-colored fireball that would put any Independence Day celebration to shame.

“Well fought all, they’ll not soon forget the Stormriders.“

Gallery