I played Prussians. Dave played Kingdom of Britannia (KoB).
Prussian Fleet
- Emperor Battleship - Tesla Generator
- 1 Squadron of 3 Reiver Cruisers
- 3 Squadrons of 3 Arminius Frigates
- 1 Squadron of 3 Stolz Destroyers
- 1 Squadron of 2 Metzgers
- 1 Squadron of 2 Geier bombers
- 2 Tiny Flyer Fighter Wings of 5 tokens each.
Britannian Fleet
- 2 Ruler Battleships with 3 Bastion Escorts each
- 1 Squadron of 3 Agincourt Class Gunships
- 1 Squadron of 2 Hawk War Rotors
- 1 Squadron of 2 Vanguard Submarines
- 1 Tiny Flyer Fighter Wing of 5 tokens
- 1 Tiny Flyer Torpedo Bomber Wing of 5 tokens
Highlights of the game:
Turn 1: Jockeying and manoeuvring. The Vanguards went down the KoB left flank between the table edge and the big island and I diverted a Metzger, a frigate squadron and the destroyers to intercept. The Britannians stayed broadside on moving from right flank to left flank across their deployment area, while the Agincourts manoeuvred between the small islands. Prussian came head on across the table activating Tesla Schnellen Boosten and Sturginium powered engines where they could (neither of the Metzgers succeeded in activating their Boosts at all).What firing there was turned out to be insignificant with a couple of points of damage on the nearest Rotor and a dead frigate.
Turn 2: Achtung Minen! The rotors had dropped mines but forgot to move them and when the Reivers moved up and opened fire on the nearest Rotor immediate action was taken. Dropping a mine and moving off as quickly as possible the most damaged Rotor blew up another frigate. The least damaged rotor dropped it's mine right in the middle of a frigate squadron taking out two when it dropped bombs and shot at RB1. In retaliation the Prussians returned fire inflicting significant damage to both Rotors.
On the flank one of the Vanguards went off the table when it didn't have enough room to manoeuvre. The other Vanguard got jumped by frigates and destroyers and blew up on an Magazine Explosion critical taking two of the frigates with it.
In the middle, one of the Agincourts started taking damage from combined battleship, bomber and Metzger damage leaving it at half movement.
Turn 3: The Rotors had to be finished off, so we jumped them with a fighter wing, then the remnants of two frigate squadrons and then the cruisers. Both crashed and burned with surprisingly little damage in return, although the handful of mine markers they left behind would in fact prove critical later on.
The trailing Britannian battleship turned head on towards the Prussian Battleship and bombers and inflicted some minor damage. Ignoring the threat for the moment the bombers and battleship concentrated on the Agincourt squadron inflicting a Fusion leak critical and leaving the centre ship massively damaged.
Some dogfighting in the middle and the judicious use of offensive Ack Ack crippled both of the Brittanian tiny flyer wings and one of the Prussians.
Turn 4: Things get critical! We both played Flash Fire cards on each other. The Britannians played there's on the Prussian battleship when it activated the Tesla Schnellen Boosten. The Prussians played their card when we poured fire on the Britannian battleship and it used it's Guardian generator. We still managed a prodigious critical and put another Raging fire on board.
The Agincourts didn't fare well. The centre vessel was quickly dispatched, and some fire started to knock superstructure of the trailing gunship.
The small ships and the cruisers started to turn in towards the gap in the islands to concentrate fire on the lead Britannian battleship and the lead Agincourt. Torpedoes crippled and sank a damaged cruiser, while various fire tried to deal with the two loose frigates but failed.
Turn 5: Achtung Minen again! With no way to avoid it one of the remaining cruisers hit a mine, and suffered a Magazine explosion critical. The last cruiser plowed through the mines avoiding triggering any to deliver some fire on the Britannian lead battleship. Various small ships (including loose frigates and the Stolz squadron) attempted to engage the battleship or it's escorts with minor results sinking an escort and delivering some hull damage to the battleship.
On the other flank, the Prussian battleship closed with the blazing Britannian battleship and delivered 28 points of damage to a ship already suffering a Fusion leak! The Guardian generator saw off enough damage to reduce it to 3 criticals but a magazine explosion ensured the job was done. The Prussian battleship then unleashed it's starboard broadsides and Tesla coils against the trailing Agincourt and after activating the Tesla Generator, again caused a magazine explosion.
With only a battleship, a gunship and two escorts on the table against two frigates, three destroyers, two Metzgers, two bombers, a cruiser and a battleship; the Britannians conceded defeat...
Good game. Mixture of dice, but I got the right dice at the right moment generating 28 hits from 13 dice against the battleship and 18 hits from 7 or 8 dice against one of the gunships. Dave's dice were average at best.
Post battle I would say that I might have done better with maxed out frigate squadrons and using spare points for some escorts or corvettes. The Metzgers were slow, but did have some long range AD, but with no small targets on the Britannian side they didn't really count for much. For the second game running, God bless the Stolz!! They did a splendid job in hunting down the last submerged Vanguard, and had we gone to Turn 6 might have scored some telling damage on the remaining battleship. On the Britannian side, more Hawk rotors and small squadrons rather than escorts I would say.
