Dystopian Wars Battle Report 1

Well this evening I played my first game of Dystopian Wars. Before I go any further I want to state that this was a learning experience. I had roughly read the rules before this game and my opponent, Shawn, had not read the rules at all. With that said, there are some things we purposely left out (so we could learn the basics), some things that we forgot or did not do correctly, and some things that we just didn't know.

The report:

We both used the starting fleets that are in the battle box, minus the tiny flyers. I with my Prussians and he with his Empire of the Blazing Sun.



Seeing as how Shawn didn't know anything, I went over a couple of basics and then he gave initiative to me so that he could learn. I forgot that I even brought a camera until after our first few activations so I didn't get any pics of table layout or deployment.

The first couple of activations brought my fleet sort of forward and toward the center. I also had decided early on that I was not really worried about winning or losing but learning so I threw tactics to the wind and played.

My Frigates, Cruisers, and Battleship had taken out two frigates of one squadron and done one HP to the final Frigate.


His Frigates moved up and unloaded on my cruisers and scored a critical hit (Hard Pounding - -2HP and -2 AP). He moved his cruisers up and bombers.

Next activations had me moving my bombers (not pictured to the right) which didn't do much the entire game.

He moved up his Battleship and sank my damaged Cruiser.

My next learning experience was for Boarding. My Frigates went full speed ahead to seize the enemy Frigate. Here's a close up of the the aftermath of the boarding action. We were really unsure how to mark what AP went back to there home vessel so we put markers to show how much AP were left.

You'll also notice the paint job on the two Frigates. These are my two test models. I think that I like the colors all except the Decking. So, my quandary, which one looks best. They are painted the exact same except for the decking. Which do you prefer?

Shawn then swooped his Frigates around to get broadsides on both my Frigates and Cruisers. One of my Cruiser's took 2 HP.

My Frigates moved in to take out the incoming threat. Sank two of them and the third one broke. I'm still unsure what, how, and why's of the Bravery and Break Tests.

My Frigates surged forward and did 1 HP damage to the EotBS Battleship.

He moved his third squadron of Frigates (upper right) into the battle.

I moved my Bomber, still unseen in the pics and still ineffective (by my errors) in the battle).

Shawn moved his Cruiser's forward, fired rockets into the hull of my Battleship doing 1HP of damage my Battleship returned fire causing the same damage to one Cruiser.

He moved his bombers forward and fired rockets from each. One of them sank one of my Frigates and the other did another 1HP to my Battleship.

I was attempting to move my Cruiser's forward threading those two islands. Don't know why, jsut thought i would gain cover or something.

Probably skipped a few activations worth of pictures as his Battleship is moved, I'm missing a few frigates, my Battleship has taken another 1HP of damage, and my cruiser's have moved again.

And here was the mess in the middle of the board at the end of the battle. I had attempted to Board his Battlehips with mine while his bombers obliterated my fleet, scoring 12 hits on my Battleship. Two more Critical Hits were scored Rudder and  Weapons.

All in all, I am impressed with the game. I had a great game, I learned a lot, and I can't wait to play again. I'll put more in depth comments about game play, tactics, and stuff some other day when I'm not so tired.

Oh, and the Empire of the Blazing Sun sailed away with the victory, 410 - 285 (or something like that).

Curse of Zandri pt 1

I finished the Curse of Zandri ship for Dreadfleet last night. I took some pics this afternoon but I don't like them so I'll have to take some more pics once I have a bit more time.

The process:


I put the model completely together except for attaching it to the base. Primed the model in white due to not having any other primer colors at the moment. It was raining and I didn't feel like going out to get some.

Ushabti and Warsphinx thing - Vallejo Black base coat. Edges and marbled with GW Dark Angels Green. Highlighted the Marble effects and edges with Hawk Turquoise. Trim and Weapons: Mix of 1:1 Vallejo Gold and Privateer Press Umbral Umber. Then built up highlights to straight Vallejo Gold. GW Brown Ink was applied to the inlay and markings on weapons then picked out with Vallejo Gold.

Deck and Oars: Privateer Press Bloodstone.Washed them with GW Devlan Mud then dry brushed with PP Bloodstone.

Gold: Mix of 1:1 Vallejo Gold and Privateer Press Umbral Umber. Then built up highlights to straight Vallejo Gold.

Hull: Base coat of Vallejo Iraqi Sand. Wash of GW Devlan Mud.

Red and Blue Banding: blue was painted with Vallejo Prussian Blue and highlighted with GW Ice Blue. The red is GW Mechrite Red with a highlight of GW Macharius Solar Orange.

Weapons on Deck: Catapults Vallejo Iraqi Sand with wash of Devlan Mud. Bolt Thrower things. GW Chainmail washed in GW Badab Black

Water: Basecoat of  Vallejo Prussian Blue. Dry-brushed with GW Enchanted Blue, then with Ice Blue. Then a heavy wash of 1:1 of GW Thrakka Green wash and GW Badab Black wash. After wash dried painted Vallejo White on the wave crests. Bones and skulls were painted a basecoat of Vallejo Iraqi Sand and then highlighted with Vallejo White.

I tihnk that's about it. If I remember anything else. I'll post it when I repost pics.

Ships Ahoy!

This update is for Dystopian Wars. A miniature game set in a steam punk alternate earth in 1871created by Spartan Games.

My painting project for this semi-new and exciting game is the Prussian Naval Battle Box for a friend.

The box comes with

• 1 - Emperor Class Battleship
• 3 - Reiver Class Cruisers
• 9 - Arninius Class Frigates
• 2 - Geier Class Bombers
• 10 - Tiny Flyer Tokens
• Stat cards (called FIG's I think) for each Class of models, except for the Tiny Flyers.
• All the tokens and templates you need for the game.

I am really shocked at these models. 1) for the size of the models. I thought they were smaller than they are. 2) The detail in these models are amazing!

After un-boxing, removed mold lines, and putting an undercoat of grey here they are.

I'm still up in the air as to some of the things I want to do with this fleet.

1. I want to separate the Tiny Flyers from their tokens and have them look like they are flying. But I'm not sure how to go about it yet.
2. I also want to magnetize the turrets. Or at least one of them on the Battleship.
3. and I'm still unsure of the exact color's I'm going to paint the fleet.

Well till next time...Sail away, sail away, sail away!

Dreadfleet

I've put the Thundertusk on hold, sort of. I'm painting it sloooooowly so that I can do a great job.So, instead I am painting up the Dreadfleet. game, put out by Games Workshop. Not going to go into a lot of details but it's a sea faring pirate game set in the Warhammer world. The game play is fun, fairly easy, and has lots of room for strategy.




I'm also using this game to get my 6 year old into miniature painting and modeling. He's been so excited to put models together, paint them, and play the game.

We've (my son and I) unboxed the game, put all the models together, put an undercoat on some of them. The ships that need to be painted before assembly have just been snapped together and not glued. Also, we've not put the sails on any of the ships wanting to paint them seperately and put them on the ships after they are painted.

To see which one I painted first I took the ship cards (each ship has it's own stat card) shuffled them, and drew one. So, the Curse of Zandri is my first ship. Taken from GW website:

Even by the standards of the Undead fleets of Nehekhara, King Amanhotep's flagship the Curse of Zandri is a strange and wondrous craft. It is propelled through the waters by hundreds of skeleton oarsmen, undying soldiers whose strength is drawn from the tides of magic so that they will never tire in their task. Along the flanks of the Curse are massive statues of the Nehekharan gods, given unlife in order to hasten the demise of their prey. Gigantic Screaming Skull Catapults line its decks, ready to rain shreiking death onto the decks of Amanhotep's enemies, and eight-foot stakes of sharpened dragonbone shoot out from the triangular apertures in its flanks as the Curse draws near to its prey.

So here's my progress so far on this ship:

More to come soon enough.