Messages

466

Space Naval Games / Firestorm Armada in The Ancible #14

« on: April 22, 2012, 08:11:52 am »

Just read a battle report with great pictures in the March issue of The Ancible:

http://www.the-ancible.com/

467

Roll Call / Re: VA, Eagle and Empire american fleet in teh house!

« on: April 22, 2012, 07:47:52 am »

Welcome aboard!

Check out the DWVA section for upcoming games and events:  http://www.manbattlestations.com/forum/index.php?board=15.0 

Our next Dystopian Wars tournament is June 3rd at the Game Vault in Fredericksburg.  And we just started an X-Cam campaign for DW, so you're welcome to sign up for that and track games on the forum as well.

468

DWVA / Battle Report Link

« on: April 21, 2012, 11:35:59 am »

Posted by Shades on WAMP:

http://www.wamp-forum.com/VB4/showthread.php?11650-Dystopian-Wars-battle&p=174875&viewfull=1#post174875

A good battle report with some dynamic pictures.

469

Modeling Q&A / Re: [BFG] Escort Carrier

« on: April 21, 2012, 10:48:50 am »

Great tutorial with valuable pictures.  I'm inspired to raid my tool box for wire caps and drywall anchors....

470

DWVA / Re: Historicon

« on: April 21, 2012, 09:45:48 am »

I'm looking at setting up a 4x4 foot table space with each player's force deploying within a semi-circular zone effectively 8" from the respective corner.  But I'm also thinking about making 1/4 of the space land and placing 1 armored force in one corner with 3 naval forces in the other 3 corners.  The objective would be to control the lighthouse at the very center of the board (which is also, for ease of acces for the armored forces, at the end of a narrowing penninsula), and I think it would also provide a good opportunity to demonstrate the interaction between land and naval forces in the game.

So, I'm planning to set up my EBS land and naval forces, directly opposite each other, and then two naval forces from other factions (FSA & Prussian) in the other two corners.

Yes, thanks for the offer, RandomBrit, for the loan of some of your Prussian ships.

471

DWVA X-Cam / Re: Spring 2012 X-Cam

« on: April 21, 2012, 09:37:43 am »

More than a week has passed and I'm the only one logging any games for the X-Cam.  Is anyone else playing any X-Cam missions and tracking results?

472

Space Naval Games / Re: Firestorm Armada: Where do we go from here?

« on: April 18, 2012, 05:46:03 pm »

Well, I'm in something of a similar position with the Uncharted Seas which my introduction to Spartan Games and my favorite tabletop miniature game to play.

Something I've done in the meantime, as I believe you have, is play & promote Dystopian Wars with the hope that some DW players will expand into playing your favorite Spartan game.

Just yesterday, playing DW at our FLGS, one of the guys talked about picking up a fleet box for the Uncharted Seas, and then I piped up and announced I'll run a demo game at any time.  Another player expressed interest, and I said, "If you enjoy playing DW and you like fantasy, then you'll love the Uncharted Seas."

Also, Firestorm Armada was mentioned at some point.  But a DW player expressed a lack of interest in any of the FA models.  But the new factions coming out definitely have me interested.  I figure I should at least own one faction of FA ships before I buy a 3rd DW fleet or a 6th US fleet....

On another front, I haven't been able to find any new players to try playing Battleship Galaxies with me....  I'm planning to set it up again for the teen gaming event at the library this Saturday and see if I can get a couple of the kids that usually play RISK to try it out.

473

DWVA / Tuesday Battle Report

« on: April 18, 2012, 05:33:36 pm »

Tuesday afternoon we ended up with several local players at The Game Vault, and after Jack & I played a mission for the X-Cam (his rogue faction of Japanese beat my Imperial scouting force trying to locate his main fleet), we played a team-based, 4-player game which included a young lady who tried the game out for the first time (and she seemed to enjoy it more than my wife who finds the game even more dull than chess).

Here are some pictures from the team game:



It was at some point when I was taking pictures that another young lady asked why I was taking pictures of our game in progress.  I had to admit, at that point, that it was because I'm a absolute Dystopian Wars geek.  And then Jack's Ika moved forward in a zig-zag fashion, passed two difficult terrain checks, and then all but swallowed the KoB battleship which was trying to recapture my poor war gyro (which had been boarded and captured by a squadron of Prussian frigates--damn those Prussian frigates).

474

DWVA / Re: Historicon

« on: April 18, 2012, 05:27:01 pm »

All right, I filled out the official registration.  And I sent an email to Spartan asking for some promotional flyer PDF, etc.

Now, I think I have a good demo game scenario to run for up to 4 players for 1 hour at a time, and I'm working on some good terrain, but I'm going to need help with painted models.  I only have models painted for the EBS, but I can probably have my FSA models painted by July (and, at the rate I'm going, I may have a French fleet painted by then), but I'm aiming for 4 factions represented, and I confident that Kyle will allow me to borrow his CoA fleet models as well.  But if any of the local guys can help with a model loan (and you don't mind the thought of complete strangers handling your ships) I'm basically looking at 1 battleship, 2 cruisers and 3 frigates/corvettes for each player in the demo games.

475

DWVA X-Cam / Re: Exploits of the Blazing Sun

« on: April 17, 2012, 07:23:43 pm »

Location:  The Game Vault
Setting Location:  Sea of Japan - an EBS squadron pursues a rogue EBS fleet
Players:  Aaron (EBS) challenging Jack (EBS)
Mission Size:  Recon MFV 400
Mission Type:  Reconnaissance
Core Force:  Naval
Terrain:  None

Accumulated Campaign Points
 * Recon:  2/8
 * Strategic:  0/0
 * Control:  0/0

Jack set up a mixed force of battleship, pair of cruisers, and a squadron each of frigates and corvettes, all deployed in the center of the table space.  I led a pair of Inari from the edge nearest to the battleship, the guns remaining silent to spend an action to photograph the nearest corvette, which was successful, while the rocket battery launched a salvo against the battleship.  During my next activation I moved a full squadron of five corvettes directly toward the battleship, moving them into RB1 to make a fully linked attack which put some damage on the battleship.  Jack chose to move the battleship toward my Inari, leaving his own corvette squadron to grapply with mine, a good decision because the primary guns of the battleship were not having any luck hitting the small, elusive corvettes.

By turn 3 the Inari had taken a partially successful photo of the rogue battleship, but they both took damage from the capital ships, both the battleship and cruisers launching successive attacks against the medium flyers.  The only reason my flyers lasted into turn 4 was because of Jack's limited rolls of sixes, but my rolls were not much better, and in the end one Inari was destroyed in a fiery wreck and the other severely damaged, and my corvettes and frigates were absolutely destroyed.

Jack won the mission, defeated my advanced recon force, earning +5 Recon Points in addition to +3 Recon for earning more than 200 VP for my damaged and destroyed ships.  I earned +2 points for destroying most of his corvettes and frigates.

476

DWVA / Re: DWVA Summer Event June 3rd

« on: April 17, 2012, 11:11:23 am »

No teams this time.  We're playing three fast rounds to determine a victor according to wins.

477

DWVA / Historicon

« on: April 16, 2012, 07:39:32 pm »

Of course, I'm planning to attend Historicon this summer since it's practically in my own back yard.  And, of course, I'm now thinking about running a demo game of Uncharted Seas or Dystopian Wars.  I've already started the registration to run an event.  Of course, I'm leaning toward running the demo games for Uncharted Seas (I have 4 painted fleets now), but I could be convinced to run DW if I had another painted fleet to borrow or another assistant....

478

General Discussion / Re: Adepticon

« on: April 16, 2012, 07:06:09 pm »

As far as naval gaming goes, there are going to be some Leviathans demos....

I was excited about the Leviathans demo games when I heard about them at GenCon... back in 2009!  And then at GenCon last summer they were supposed to sell copies of the game but blamed production problems for not having it available.  And the last time I checked the blog they were STILL having problems with their production sources.

Anyway, the models look cool, and I wish I could buy a copy of the starter game already, even if I end up using the models with Dystopian Wars (like I use my Dreadfleet models with Uncharted Seas). 

Have fun, Ruckdog, take pictures to post, and damn those torpedoes, full speed ahead!

479

Roll Call / Re: greeting to all who read this.

« on: April 16, 2012, 05:30:21 pm »

Good to know I'm not the only guy here naming each of my ships along with members of their crew.  Although my documentation is often better than my painting, it doesn't keep me from usually losing more games than I win.  Welcome aboard!

480

Dystopian Wars / Re: Use STAR cards?

« on: April 15, 2012, 08:22:15 am »

Kyle and I have been playing with stacked 32 card decks; his is stacked with extra repair and shooting buffs while my deck has extra movement bonus and generator offline cards.  Both of us liked the faction specific card decks in Uncharted Seas and modifying our DW decks provides that feeling of unique qualities of a faction.

Yes, I think orangetom puts it well: the cards give you a feel of control but don't push the game balance out the window, especially since most cards can be countered.