Facing off against each other were myself in the guise of Vice Admiral Rudolf von Der Goltz in charge of the main Prussian Fleet, Sandy Dewer as Air commodore Johan Müller in charge of the Prussian Air contingent and my younger brother Andrew in the character of Kaigun Shōshō Enomoto Sukeyuki of the Kappa Division of the Sword army of the Empire of the Blazing Sun, on the other side Bill Robertson in the as Vice Admiral Sir Thomas Northbury of the Brittannia Naval Armada and Ian Beal (Yes, that's really his name) playing the part of commodore Josiah Tattnal of the Federated States of America's Navy with attached units of the FSA air fleet.
The Prussian order of Battle:
IPNS Bismark a Blucher Class Dreadnought and Admiral Von der Goltz's flag ship
IPNS Graf Spee a Blucher Class DN
IPNS Graf Zepplin a Rhine class Fleet Carrier
IPNS Brandenburg an Emperor class Battleship
Cruiser Squadron 1 (Konigsberg class battlecruisers)
IPNS Moltke, Vonder Tann
Cruiser Squadron 2 (Reiver class Cruisers)
IPNS Prinz Heinrich, Furst Bismark, Prinz Aldebert
Cruiser Squadron 3 (Reiver class Cruisers)
IPNS Agir, Elbing, Falke
Destroyer Squadron (Stolz class)
IPNS Stoltz-II, Sachesen, Wuttenberg
Frigate Squadron 1 (Arminius class attached to Graf Zepplin)
IPNS Borther, Berlin, Rothe Lowe
Frigate Squadron 2 (Arminius)
IPNS Morian, Chur Prinz, Kur Prinz
Corvette Squadron (Saxony Class)
IPNS Stoch, Biene, Eber, Stien, Viper
A Metzger-B class Robot commanded by Brother Theodore Janus of the Teutonic order
Air Contingent
IPAS Derflinger Imperium Class Sky Fortress
IPAS Fritzjof Gewitterwolke class Airship Air commodore Johan Müller Flagship
IPAS Geifon, Goeben, Pflicht class Scoutships
2 Geier Class Bombers
EBSN Asahi a Sokutsu class BS and Kaigun Shōshō Enomoto Sukeyuki's flag ship
Cruiser Squadron (Nakatsu class CR)
EBSN Furutaka, Kitakami, Mogami
Frigate Squadron (Uwatsu frigate)
EBSN Kaiyo Maru, Shohei Maru, Kaiten
2 DFA-17 Bombers
Brittannia Naval Armada
HMS Vanguard a Majesty class DN and ice Admiral Sir Thomas Northbury's flagship
HMS Courageous, Furious Avenger class Carriers
HMS Repulse, Superb Ruler class Battleships
Cruiser Squadron 1 (Tribal class CR)
HMS Cavendish, Hawking, Raleigh
Cruiser Squadron 2 (Tribal Class CR)
HMS Trobisher, Effingham, Cumberland
Frigate Squadron 1 (Attacker class Frigates attached to Repulse)
HMS Heda, Pomone, Shannon, Leonidas
Frigate Squadron 2 (Attacker Class Frigates attached to Superb)
HMS Briton, Tenedos, Thetis, Lively
Corvette Squadron (Swift Class)
HMS High Flyer, Esk, Pylades, Cossack, Tartar
Frigate Squadron 3 (attached to Furious)
HMS Havock, Ferret, Hornet, Lynx
Frigate Squadron 4 (Attached to Courageous)
HMS Decoy, Boxer. Dasher, Haughty
Frigate Squadron 5 (attached to Vanguard)
HMS Fearless, Nike, Harold, Hastings
Destroyer Squadron
HMS Lightening, Banshee, Dragon
FSA Battlegroup
FSS Ranger a Saratoga class Fleet Carrier flagship of commodore Josiah Tattnal
FSS Indiana an Independance class Battleship
Crusier Squadron (Lexington Class attached to the Indiana)
FSS Atlanta, Chicago, Harvard
Corvette Squadron (Revere class attached to the Ranger)
FSS Cayuga, Chippewa, Chocura
Air contingent
FSAS Polk Valley class Airship
FSAS Davis, Beuregard Lee class Scoutship
FSFR Huron, Kineo John Henry class robots
2 A-17 class Bombers
The fleets at the beginning of the game.
The first turn the Grand Coaliton won the roll (As they did the only two other turn we actually got in, note for next time, use less ships)
The Vanguard and CruRon 1 moved forward first and along with the FSA Airships and were out of range when they stopped, next came the Prussian Destroyer squadron that fired and hit the Chippewa front scoring the armour, the Geier's moved forward from the Air Contingent, and the Furutaka, Kitakami, Mogami moved forward and unleashed their rocket batteries at the Cavendish, Hawking, Raleigh hitting the Hawking's ammo hoppers blewing it to smitherines, the debris smashing into the Cavendish putting a hole in it and the Raleigh which survived intact, the squadron's morale didn't waver however..
The Vanguard battered the Mogami for a critical hit, damaging the engine.
The Graf Spee, Prinz Heinrich, Furst Bismark and Prinz Aldebert combined their turret fired on the Davis and battered a hole in it's side
The Graf Zepplin Bombard launched shells at one of the A-17's and sliced open it's armour.
The Brandenburg, Moltke and Vonder Tann fired their Main Batteries on the Polk slicing open it's frontal armour but missed with the of the Battle cruisers.
This was it for the first turn
On turn 2 the Repulse and it's escorts pounded the Elbing to scrap and it's consort likewise sank the Falke forcing the Graf Spee and Agir into retreat before they could even fire a shot.
The Prussian's returned the favour however when the Brandenburg, Moltke and Vonder Tann's Main Batteries trained on the Polk hitting, the Prussian Capital ships mimicing their allies in their smashing of the ammo stores of the airship, it exploded taking with it the Beuregard and almost the already damaged Davis, the Moltke and Vonder Tann turned their Speerschleuders upon one of the US A-17's killing it and making it's brother run away.
Firing after this pretty much sucked as the Ranger's fighter wing was decimated from AA from the Brandenburg, Moltke and Vonder Tann as it prepared to launch torpedos at the Emperor class leaving just one squadron that broke off and headed back to the carrier. Eveything else couldn't hit the broadside of a Dreadnought, and they tried.
Turn three really turned the game against the Coaliton though started so well when the Huron and Kineo scored a hit on the Bismark, annoying Admiral Von der Goltz, his shields didn't even turn on.
The Corageous and it's escort took out the Kaiten though the squadron's morale held.
The Stoltz-II, Sachesen and Wuttenberg fired on the Thetis and their gunners jumped for joy when they landed a dozen shells on the poor ship until they realised the Superb's Guardian generator had stopped the lot.
This wasn't the only time in the turn where a Guardian saved a ships bacon it happened a few times and greatly annoyed the Prussians and Japanese.
Though the Cavendish was also saved from death by it's own shields as fire rained down from the EotBS cruisers rocket batteries, it set the ship on fire but it would survive. The targets of the Nakatsu class ships broadsides in the High Flyer, Esk, Pylades, Cossack, Tartar couldn't say that when the High Flyer, Pylades and Tartar were hulled, forcing the rest of the squadron into retreat. They fired their torpedos at the Vanguard's escort but did no damage.
The Furious and it's escorts fired upon the Geifon and Goeben killing Prussian Air Marines on the Geifon and setting fire to the Goeben in addition to almost hulling them and damaging the engines.
The land based fighters of the Coaliton took out the remaining Uwatsu's with torpedos and bombs.
The Superb and it's squadron managed to land another hit on the Bismark further infuriating the Vice Admiral though he got some measure of revenge on the Coaliton when he virutally hulled the Ranger as FSMC personnel were killed and the ship went on fire.
The Morian, Chur Prinz and Kur Prinz took down the Briton and damaged the Thetis and the final firing of the game came in from the Stoch, Biene, Eber, Stien and Viper who were deadly the Viper took the Heda, Stoch put a hole in the Repluse, Biene killed off the Pomone, Eber hulled the Shannon, the Leonidas was lost with all hands as the Stien beat it to death, forcing the Repulse into retreat
Essentially we of the Imperial Bond won the game because of the damage we had done versus what we had recieved, it would probably have continued to go our way because we had pretty much and intact centre barring the tremeandously lucky attacks on the Elbing and Falke and Bills Guardian generators constantly saving his behind, the Ranger was scrap metal in at most another turn and so were the FSA bomber and remaining airship, probably the John Henry too, the Prussian fleet would do a burly on the island and come into the side of the remaining American forces then pile down on the Brits.
The consensus of everybody was it was good fun but we had far too many ships on the board. We'll have to cut it down to probably about half the next time we play it, and it's going to take us a while to get the rules down, so hopefully by next year at Carronade we can do a display.
Next up me and Ian are going to have a game at the Falkirk club two weeks tomorrow and hopefully we can arrange something in March or April for the Glasgow club. Maybe by then I'll have some Russians too and have them painted.
