Dystopian Wars - Campaign Game 1

Sunday afternoon I met Michael up at Morningstar for my first DW campaign game. Apparently he's already played a couple missions already. We played "Scenario 1" in his campaign set up and I ended up with both a free Bunker and two small transports. For those who are not regular readers I have an Empire of the Blazing Sun navy / army. My scenario 1 force was Task Force Cherry Blossom (we had to create five lists using the 3000 point master list and assign them to specific scenarios before the games). My force was:
6 Frigates
2 Destroyers
2 Gyros
5 Bombards
(660 points)

Mike is using Kingdom of Britannia in the campaign - his list for this game:
1 Battleship
2 Cruisers
8 Frigates
2 Submarines
2 Bombers
(730 points)

The KOB deployment. Those two transports in the killing fields are "mine" and a good example of why playtesting scenario rules is important. We need to tweak their setup - as it was, they were just free kills for Mike.

My deployment. Two lines of frigates on my left, destroyers and Gyros right and bombards and torpedo bombers in the center. The silver TFTs are fighters and I also have a recon TFT attached to the 3-gun bombard battery.

Early going. The transports were sunk quickly by the Brit frigates. My frigate trains steam forward and left.

Things warm up a bit. The British bombers torpedo two of my frigates while my destroyers rain rockets down on a group of British frigates.

And then I stopped taking pictures for a little while. Suffice it to say, things moved around and ships blasted away at one another. My bombards turned out to be a fantastic investments and are world-class killing machines. My torpedo bombers gutted a British submarine and damaged another. We traded frigate losses and I lost a handful of tiny fliers.

Then, the camera came back out when I had a bombard take a pot-shot at the wounded British submarine. It was one of those mythical, often talked-about dice rolls but rarely seen. The Sasquatch of dice rolls. the SIXES NATURAL YAHTZEE!

The dice pose for a group shot.

Needless to say, the sub went straight to the bottom of the sea.

We finished off turn two and Mike did some quick math. He had lost 370 points worth of things which put him over 50% losses. By his campaign rules, I had just won. Woohoo! 

KoB losses - 8 Frigates, 1 Bomber, 2 Submarines

EoBS losses = 6 Frigates, 1 Destroyer, 1 Bombard

What to take away from that game...

1) Bombards are dead sexy

2) Big boats do not win battles. Killing the right things wins battles. I racked up a ton of points in easy-to-kill frigates. I've dealt with British subs before and Japanese torpedo bombers are the solution every time. The Bomber kill was just one of those "work on it until it crumbles" things that I really am no fan of, but it worked out so I won't complain.

Next game is going to be next weekend - Monday I think since it's Memorial and most folks are off work. Y'all take it easy!