This week has been the first ‘normal’ week I’ve had a long time. Or at least as normal gets for me. Tuesday so the return of game night and me and Pete squared off across the ocean in a game of Dystopian Wars Fleet Action. This was a chance for me to give the French a run out now that they are all painted and ready to go. It also made a change for Pete as he didn’t have to face my Russian Gunships and he really likes Russian Gunships. To be fair it was something of an unknown session for both of us. It’s been a while since I’ve got any gaming in and the first with the French. On paper they appear to be a mid-range fleet with their heat lances being good against bigger targets and they have good akak. But they are appear to be prone to boarding actions whereas the Empire of the Blazing sun are good at longer range with their rockets and are really good a boarding actions.
We decided to go with the constraints laid down for a core battle group which is 1 to 2 large squadrons, 1 to 3 medium squadrons and 1 to 3 small squadrons. With heat lances being something neither of us have used or faced before I decided to build my force around these. So for the large squadrons I went with a Mk II Gascony Battle Ship as my fleet command being my large squadron. For the medium squadrons I went with a Cherbourg Battle Cruiser, a couple of Toulon Armoured Cruisers, and 3 Dieppe Cruisers. Then for the small squadrons it was 4 Chevalier Heavy Destroyers, 4 Lyon Frigates and 5 Requin Corvettes. I had no idea how they would fare but they look nice and that’s enough of start.
Pete won the initiative so he got to set up and go first but this is a look at the table after set up. Having not played in so long and needing to check the rule for everything we were doing it meant that things progresses slowly but needless to say Pete go the first kill of the game taking out one of my Chevalier Heavy Destroyers. We traded blows and at the end of the first round we had both lost three ships each so things appeared to be reasonably even. But I had also taken damage to four other ships where Pete’s remaining ships were undamaged so it was certainly advantage Pete. Because we had been so slow we decided to halt things there and we will pick the game up next week. That will give me a chance to try and work out some tactics to avoid a white wash next week. I’m used to running my Russians in close and obliterating the enemy but the French don’t work that way and I’m struggling to work out how to get anything out of them.
On the hobby front I’ve been working on the finishing off the core of my French fleet which now consists of the two fleet boxed sets. Which for this week has meant the largest ship available to the French fleet the Charlemagne Dreadnought.
Although it was only after I had taken the pictures that I realised I hadn’t actually finished and installed the fore and aft turrets. Shame on me. I’ll get these done this weekend though. They have the option of running with turrets or generators and I’ve magnetised both version to give a bit of flexibility.
Next up with have a couple of Toulon Class Armoured Cruisers. I think these look really nice when lined up with alongside the MK II Gascony Battle Ship and a Cherbourg Battle Cruiser. All those heat lance turrets ready to wreak havoc on the enemy.
As we move down the pecking order the next ships we have are the Ecuyer Class Support Cruisers. Not exactly little ships and these look really good alongside the MK I Gascony Battle Ship.
The final ships in this box set are the Chevalier Class Heavy Destroyers.
That now give me twenty six surface vessels to pick from for the French which should allow for quite a bit of variety in picking forces for different games. It also leave things open for me to pick up some skimmers to complement what I already have but I’ll leave that for a while I think. All in all I think it’s been a good hobby week. I’ve even had the time to draft up a couple of painting guides that will be coming out over the next few weeks. Although they aren’t full step by step guides it’s still a bit of extra content. I’m also going to work on a bit of tutorial about how I make my Dystopian War bases. Making the most of a bit of time without mad travel commitments. So until next time have a good week.
