Destroyer Action - Naval Thunder AAR

After a week's break, Ted hosted a game of Naval Thunder this past weekend. 

This week's scenario was the Battle of the Yellow Sea, where a Russian fleet attempted to break past their Japanese opponents and form up with other Russian forces. Historically, the Russians were defeated after their flagship took a hit to the bridge; whereupon the rest of the Russian fleet followed the uncontrolled flagship for a period before realizing it was no longer actually leading them. 

This version of Naval Thunder is based on pre-Dreadnought fleets, with ships engaging in what could be considered "knife fighting" range. So any firing past 20" was incredibly inaccurate and almost not worth doing. 

Chip and I commanded the Russians (I had the battleship division and Chip controlled the various protected cruisers and destroyer flotillas), and Ted, John, and Steve commanded the Japanese (with a mix of battleships, armored cruisers, protected cruisers, and destroyer flotillas). 

For the Russians, the game plan was simple: the battleships would chug along in a relative straight line towards the far table edge, where they hoped to escape from, as they protected the lighter cruisers and destroyers. 

That game plan was almost immediately foiled when Steve rolled up with a destroyer flotilla, launched nine torpedoes, and immediately sunk the Russian flagship Tsesarevich, but not before firing their secondary batteries and getting a critical hit on the ship's bridge.

Now, technically, we did things wrong here. Ted later discovered that destroyer flotillas can only launch three torpedoes per side, per turn. Which likely would have saved the Tsesarevich. But it sure seemed like Fate was having a hearty belly-laugh at my luck. 

Since we didn't realize the rule error at the time, Steve was quite happy to use his destroyer flotillas' much faster speed to spin around to the other side, launch another volley of torpedoes, and sink the Retvizan. 

So. Only a few turns in, and the Russians had lost their two strongest ships. Ted's cruiser division was making its way on to the table, and Chip had moved into the battleships' shadows to engage Steve's cruisers. 

Slowly, inexorably, the Russian and Japanese battleships drew closer to their assumed climatic confrontation. 

Meanwhile, Chip and Steve had gotten to grips with each other, their cruisers duking it out at short range. 

Realizing that John's battleship division was positioned to cross my division's T, I had my battleships veer off to port. This would at least give me a chance to fire back, and perhaps the additional splash markers from John's firing would save my ships. 

Unfortunately, that didn't work. John got enough critical hits to knock out half of my ship's main batteries, and my return fire was dismal. Two ships ended up with engine room hits as well, slowing them down. 

With my battleships in such dismal shape (and with us running out of time), I decided to run up the white flag and surrender. Had we played another couple turns, John would have used his split division to surround and destroy my remaining battleships. 

It looks like we'll be playing this scenario again, especially after discovering that destroyer flotillas aren't quite the unstoppable juggernauts that they seemed to be. If Chip and I control the Russians again, our best bet will be to slow the battleships to let the cruisers get ahead, screening the larger ships from the enemy's destroyer flotillas. The Japanese battleships are still a concern, but a 6:4 (plus two Japanese armored cruisers) fight would favor the Russians. So we'll see how that goes!

Alea Non Est - Strength & Honour AAR

Warning: The title's not the only bit of bad Latin in this week's post. 

This past weekend, Ted invited me to bring my Strength & Honour forces for another game. I obliged, as I wanted a refresh on the rules, and it's going to be one of the games for this month's club meeting.

As my order from Korhyl is currently making its way from Italy to the States, I used the same units from my first game of Strength & Honour. Individually, the Roman Legions are more than a match for most of the Pontic Greek units, but the Greeks were more numerous and had three units of cavalry to the Roman's none. 

Last time the Greeks had received a decent beating, so I was interested to see how it'd turn out in this game. 

John and Ted controlled the Greeks, while Steve and I controlled the Romans. 

In the first couple turns the Romans largely advanced as a front, while the Greek cavalry surged forward, outpacing their infantry counterparts and forcing a unit of Roman Skirmishers to retreat.

And it was fairly early on that, if I were to latinze the appropriate idiom, stercus percussit flabellum. 

A failed discipline test saw the only Veteran Legion, which had been a powerhouse in the previous game, instantly rout. Not only that, but the Legion lost their Eagle as well; a double Disaster Card result. 

With Steve's Experienced Roman Legion keeping the flank protected from the Greek's Skirmish Cavalry, his Raw Legion was facing both the Pontic Cavalry and Cataphracts. I swung my own Experienced Legion to hit the Cataphract's flanks, but was then flanked by one of Ted's Imitation Legions. And my own Raw Legion was staring down the length of a wall of pikes. 

One early result may have sealed the Roman army's fate early on. Now Steve and I were on the back foot, trying desperately to find some sort of equilibrium. 

Of course, my own traitorous dice weren't having any of that. 

To try and stem the Pontic tide, Steve and I both used our Skirmishers to head off enemy units. Unlike last game (where one unit of Skirmishers routed two Pike Phalanxes), this was more in line with how skirmishers should act in a game. 

Unfortunately, my one Experienced Legion was still stuck with an Imitation Legion in its flanks (thanks to a failed maneuver test), and my Raw Legion was pushed back and Disordered. The Romans were accruing Setback cards at an alarming rate.

While somewhat scatted, Steve's unit were at least hanging on. My Raw Legion managed to rally, and while Disordered the Experienced Legion at least ended up next to its Raw counterpart which had successfully reformed.

Distressingly, I was utterly outnumbered on the Roman right flank, and it was only due to a couple Greek Reversal of Fortunes that had kept my lone Experienced Legion from being overrun. 

Of course, that didn't much matter much after my Experienced Legion in the center failed to reform and instead routed and lost its Eagle (for two more Disaster cards)! 

John and Ted finally took pity on the poor, beaten Romans and called Homonculus Est. The final tally was 34 points against the Romans, and a measly 2 points against the Pontic Greeks. 

This was an even worst disparity compared to the last game! Here it seems like the Romans couldn't get anything right, as though the entire army had managed to drink the same soured wine the night before. 

At the very least, Ted's ordered Germans and my reinforcements should be arriving soon, at least the variety of armies I'll be defeated by will soon increase.