Turn 3
The Prussian dreadnought levels its guns at the Britannian destroyers.
The battle between the frigates raged on, seeing the Britannians make a bold rush between the enemy ships, which turned out to be ill advised. (I forgot that my P/S torpedoes couldn't fire at range band 1!) Their turrets damaged one of the Prussian frigates, but failed to make any significant impact. At this point, the marines leapt forth from the decks of one of the Prussian frigates, screaming across the skies in their rocket packs and landing on the decks of the Miranda. The marines on board fought bravely, but were wiped out by the elite German troops, and the Miranda was taken a prize. The Britannian bombers swept in, dropping bombs on the small ships, but they proved difficult targets, and only one frigate was damaged. Another Prussian frigate launched a boarding assault at the Fort Rupert, but between the shredding ack ack fire, and the heroic tenacity of the Britannian marines, the boarders were wiped out to a man. At this point, the Britannian dive bombers swept in for the kill, blowing one frigate to pieces, but taking heavy losses themselves. (I lost three out of five tokens.)
One the other side of the ice, battle had been joined proper. The first shots from the scout airships saw arcs of lightning shoot from their nose mounted tesla weaponry at the Bellerophon. The ship took some damage, and a company of marines were fried alive by the deadly weapons. A squadron of Britannian Destroyers, the Achilles, Surprise and Broadsword, launched a volley of torpedoes at the closing Prussian cruisers, but concussion charges knocked them out of the water before they hit. The cruisers responded in kind with their broadsides, blowing the Achilles clean out of the water, before opening up on the Bellerophon with their turrets. The incoming barrage racked the ships decks with fire, one round going right through the hull of the great ship and detonating in the marine's quarters, killing hundreds. (A critical resulted in damage to the Dreadnoughts
AP, seeing a 6 rolled on a
D6 for damage.) The crew of the Bellerophon were not cowed by this, and opened fire with a deadly blast from the ship's guns. One Prussian cruiser went up in a vast explosion, another was engulfed in a raging fire that the crew hurried to put out. (Raging fire result on a critical.) Finally, the guns tore a great hole in out of the Prussian airships, and it slowly fell into the see, a burning wreck. The Prussian bombers fire their tesla coils at the Bellerophon, hoping to silence it's guns, but the ship's shield generator absorbed the damage. (We weren't 100% on whether shield
gens block tesla, but we figured that they count as gunnery. Corrections or corroborations welcome.
) The Britannian dive bombers covering the Bellerophon swept in, attacking the Prussian bombers, but were cut apart by ack ack fire.
Back with the frigates, Prussian dive bombers had closed in to aid the ships' advance, and sank the Fort Rupert, the last of the Britannian frigates. A lucky shot with torpedoes from the Invincible, a Britannian aircraft carrier, sank the Prussian Dreadnought's lone escort. Judging the range to be correct, the Prussian Dreadnought opened fire on its counterpart, but strong crosswinds pulled the shots wide. Suddenly, the crew noticed streaks of white heading towards them across the ocean. A trio of Britannian destroyers had circumnavigated the ice floe and launched a salvo of torpedoes at them. The concussion charges knocked most out, but one was racing towards the hull. A single marine on board stoicly took aim with his rifle. The rising and falling of the ship made it a near impossible shot, but he held his breath and squeezed the trigger... and a spray of water shot up into the air. He had achieved the impossible, shooting the torpedo out of the water. A huge cheer went up from the decks of the Prussian capital ship. (There was some crazy rolling on my opponents part here, just doing enough with very few sixes to stop the torpedoes. This is how we decided the last one was stopped.)
The Destroyers themselves were then hit by a retaliatory attack from Prussian dive bombers. The elite airmen of the Prussian airforce evaded every ack ack shot fired, and saw their bombs hit home on two of the Destroyers. The Exeter and the Acheron both sank beneath the waves, leaving only the Revenge afloat. It wasn't the only revenge present, though, as a squadron of Britannian dive bombers swept in on the Prussians, knocking most of them out of the skies for little loss. (The two armies' differences were quite noticable here, the Prussian dive bombers MAR allowing them to evade my ack ack to hit the Destroyers, whilst my More Machine Guns rule allowed my dive bombers to take their revenge.) Another wave of dive bombers swept in, all but obliterating the Prussian assault.
End of play turn 3.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Turn 4
Aerial attack!
Now came the conflict that would decide the battle. While the Britannian bombers and dive bombers finished off the last of the Prussian frigates behind the ice, the full might of the Prussian fleet and airforce came to bear against the Bellerophon. The airships and bombers dropped pounds of ordnance on the ship, weakening its defences and evading its ack ack fire, whilst the Prussian Dreadnought opened fire at long range. The Bellerophon held fast, though, and opened its guns on the approaching Prussian Cruisers, blowing one apart, and damaging another badly. The Invincible launched another volley of torpedoes, this time damaging the Prussian Dreadnought's hull, whilst its dive bombers wheeled overheard, doing battle with their Prussian equivalents as they launched desperate attacks on the Bellerophon. Finally, the Prussian carrier airship came into range, and with an ungodly loud crack, a bolt of electricity struck the hull of the Bellerophon, killing even more of her complement of marines.
End of play turn 4.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Turn 5
Sattamassagana's new dice redeem themselves.
Things were looking bleak for the Britannians at this point, beset on all sides by an implacable foe. A bolt from the Prussian dreadnought sank the Revenge, whilst its guns continued to tear apart the Bellerophon. A retaliatory volley of torpedoes from the Invincible failed to get past the dreadnought's concussion charges, although its ack ack fire managed to badly damage on of the bombers attacking the Bellerophon. The last remaining Prussian scout airship, despite extremely skilled piloting from its captain, failed to land any of its bombs home, but it drew fire away from the dive bombers as they swept in for the kill. In a last act of defiance, the Bellerophon tore into one of the bombers with its ack ack, hitting the bombs as the bomb bay doors opened and blowing the aircraft into nothingness. (I rolled well here, getting a critical with a result of a Magazine Explosion.) The last Prussian cruiser added fire to the attack, as the bombs hit home, ripping through the decks and blowing huge holes in the hull. The Bellerophon went down like a wounded beast, the men putting to sea in its lifeboats as the great vessle sunk beneath the arctic sea.
The Britannian forces were disheartened by this, but despair came about soon after. The remaining Prussian bomber turned off from its attack on the now sunk Bellerophon and closed in on the Invincible. A veteran of many battles, the experte captain of the aeroplane jinked and dodged around incoming ack ack, came in low of the aircraft carrier, and dropped its payload of bombs right on target... exposing the ship's store of ammunition. The rear gunner sigthed his tesla coil on the exposed ammo, and fired. In a tremendous explosion, the Invincible blew itself apart from the inside. The two hulls were smashed into wreckage, and eyewitnesses from the Britannian bombers say that the landing strip must have been lifted a full 100 yards into the air from the explosion. Seeing the last of their hopes sink with the Invincible, the remaining Britannian fliers pealed off, and made their way back to safety, the fight again another day.
End of play. Note the lack of remaining Brittanian ships.
Result: Crushing Prussian Victory.
All in all, a good game. I think I would definitely have to be more careful with my bombers next time, they were kind of wasted on the little frigates by the icebergs. Next time, we're going to use the morale rules properly, and use some of the game cards, see how that goes.
