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).
