Club night 13th January

Steve and I decided to play a Dystopian wars game. I have not yet used my new Dreadnought, and the 1.1 version PDFs re-inspired us to play again. Steve had to knock out my big ships to win, while I had to destroy more than half of his fleet, including all the larger vessels. I started with most of my fleet on my right, with a small element on the left.

Above: Early moves

Both fleets moved forward and opened fire.My AA proved remarkably effective against the incoming rockets thanks to some jammy dice rolls that would continue for most of the game, while my return fire caused some serious damage to the FSA battleship. The fleets continued to close and I concentrated my fire on the enemies left, destroying all the support frigates and inflicting more damage on the battleship.

On the other flank I managed to bring my destroyers and frigates to bear in combination and destroyed the enemy frigates opposing them. They then began to sweep towards the centre, despite some heavy losses from enemy bombers.

I was then able to move most of my fleet towards the centre and bring my heavier short range fire-power onto the cruiser occupying the centre of the FSA fleet, destroying them and then turning my fire against the airships, bringing them down. I was then able to board and capture the severely battered enemy battleship.

Although my big ships were damaged they were not out of it, and all the FSA really had left was their dreadnought on their far left. I pulled my air fortress back as it was beginning to suffer against the rockets from the dreadnought.

At this point we called it a day as the FSA fleet was defeated and my Prussians managed to claim a victory, thanks to a bit of luck and a finally better grasp of how to use my fleet effectively and maximise its strengths.

Club Night 6th January

Luke and I played our rescheduled league game after last week. Generally I struggle against Dwarves thanks to their high toughness and my sucky luck, but after the game against Colin and Luke's luck in his last league game I felt slightly confident.

When we rolled up the terrain my confidence changed as we rolled two settlements, plus a bunch of extra buildings and walls, so looked good defensive terrain. However it turned out Luke had no warmachines or missile troops so was going to have to bring the fight to me, as much as I was going to need to close with him. Also the 8th edition rule make moving through obstacles with my chariots a lot easier. My magic also looked good as I got the spells from shadows that reduced the enemies toughness.

We both set up with the bulk of our forces quite centrally. I put my Giant and the Minotaurs on my left and my Ungors on the left against the Iron-Breakers. Both sides moved forward to get to grips. I moved the giant towards the middle, while the Minotaurs moved out further to circle around, while the dwarf warriors moved to face them. On the other flank the Iron-Breakers and the Ungors began a fight, that somehow the Ungors managed to keep losing, but having more ranks were stubborn and kept passing their break tests.

In the centre a general melee had broken out which I gradually got the upper hand in, and then finally broke through, particularly helped by my magic, reducing the enemies toughness and increasing the strength and attacks of my already quite obscene general on his chariot (one turn he was throwing out 14, strength 10 attacks!). Luke continuously failed to stop my magic, despite help from various runes.

Once I broke through the middle, and the Minotaurs swept round the flank, I finally managed to rescue my Ungors and get another victory against the dwarves.

ACW Naval 30th December

For the last game of the year Luke and I planned to play our Warhammer league game, however Luke's work delayed him, so by the time he got to mine it was a bit late, so we rolled my Hammerin' Iron mat out on the floor in my flat rather than going to the club and played a ACW naval.

Luke again took the Union, while I took the confederates. I had more luck with the placement of my fort and the forces I started with getting CSS Arkansas right up against two of the Union Ironclads from the start and a fierce firefight started immediately, me forcing the Union to move by releasing a fire raft into them.

Combined with the fire from my fort, I exploded one of Polk's turtles, and then rammed another with CSS Van Dorn, before she was crippled herself. The massed fore of a surprisingly resilient Arkansas and the Fort pushed the Union fleet to navigate a narrow strip of river on the opposite bank between the bank and a line of river pilings (we use these to represent sandbanks).

As my final ships turned up, there was no sign of the last Union ironclad and the final floating ship was the third of the Union Cairo class, and was already badly damaged and facing the might of the whole Confederate flotilla, so Luke conceded a major victory to the confederates.