Battle Royale Reprise: Next of Kin

This is a follow-up to events that unfolded on the Sigurd-Colosian border some two years after- "Scenario 3: Gunboat Battle Royale" took place in the House Colos  sourcebook. It straddles the line between battle report & Wardroom tactics discussion, but since it centers around games with pictures & background vignettes, I'm posting it here.


Background:
I wanted to play a simple battle showcasing the Dracula's I'd just finished painting, so I skimmed the book for any scenario that might feature it. This one looked great with one minor hitch: I forgot to purchase a Predator gunboat up until now, so rather than sub a Star Raven to stand-in, I opted to just leave out the gunships. I was also curious to see how the Dracula and Storm pair-up against each other with nigh-identical BPV and without the interference of the beefy gunboats. Today wasn't a trial of new military hardware -this time- it was personal...

(& oh-so cliché)

Story:
The border clash that unfolded that day sent the crew of an Iceberg and its Storm escorts to be whisked away to Valhalla by the Valkyries, but rumors soon circulated that in addition to the narrow escape of two Predators, a sole Dracula pilot was rescued shortly after from a life pod to cheat death -albeit with a compliment of gnarly burns over half of the pilot's face (impressively intimidating by Colosian standards!). Whispers of the deeds of Kunigunde von Maldor soon spread amongst those stationed near the ever-contested, asteroid strewn, demilitarized-in-name-only zone between the Greater Houses. Her decisive actions ensured both Predator gunships returned intact from their first test against Sigurd armaments. The peculiar, yet undeniably Colosian name eventually reached the ears of Brýja Åkerman -sister of Björn Åkerman, one of the felled Sigudians defending the good name of Günter Gutmann on that fateful day. Some say he was a gunner of an escorting Storm, others say he was the pilot of the Iceberg. None dare to ask Brýja directly. Her request for reassignment was immediate. Whether by the will of Odin, or some other fate, she didn't have to wait as long as was typical for the war machine of the Archdiocese to grant her request...

Two years to the day of her brother's death, Brýja's shrill voice, filled with a palpable zealous rage, intonations percolated in strong drink, reverberated through the skulls of the unlucky Colosian communications officers stationed on-duty that evening. Though much of the transmission was garbled and distorted, repeated threats to the notorious Kunigunde could be made out amongst the amplified stammering & wet sounding growls. Accompanied by her wingman Atríðr, the crews of Brýja's wing sat idling motionlessly against a ferrous backdrop of monolithic silhouettes -punctuating a slowly drifting field of smaller, jagged detritus. The glinting ablative plates of their Storm's hulls reflected rays of dim, amber light from a nearby star bleeding through a haze of dust. The waves of her vile transmission piercing through the silent theatre to manifest violently in nearby outposts. Although it wasn't Kunigunde von Maldor that answered the call that day, a pair of Dracula interceptors scrambled to quell the vengeful Sigurdian's belligerent challenges in short order -seeing to it that the surrounding asteroids are painted in the flickering crimson battle-light of blazing Maxim lasers yet again.



The first game was a trial-run. A few mistakes were made (an Epee shot was mistakenly granted +2 damage per each pt. over DV instead of for every two pts. over. That goof resulted in something like 34 damage (medium die was double 7's) instead of 20 after DR or thereabouts -oops! -a little extra damage there) we caught the mistakes almost immediately, but since we set the stage for this being just a practice run, we just played through the fouls this game. The main goal was to see how each ship's guns, DR, arcs, etc. play off of each other. It was a close and fun match. The Storm crews had an easier time of it due to mercilessly holding initiative all game. Here is our preliminary findings...

start of the match (the few asteroids I have are out of frame) will get them more involved next match hopefully)



Sigurd Archdiocce- Storm x2             w/Regular Crews (D6 ADB)
House Colos- Dracula x2                    w/Veteran Crew (D8 ADB)

These crew stats are across the board for all crew in each faction (i.e. all Colos D8's, all Sigurs D6's). Neither ship design carries torps. There is likely an old treaty in place restricting torp ordinance in the zone that while not followed to the letter, is tentatively observed more for financial reasons than anything -with as many hostilities as the two sides engage in, it gets costly. What torps that do get delivered being substandard bulk overdue for phaseout.

The Storm was able to position after the first Dracula had moved in every turn. This allowed the Storm's to set up overlapping arcs in later turns in what flight doctrine has coined "Freki's Den" --an overlapping area where both Storm crews can get off a pair of Impulsegun attacks, dual Blatgun attempts, and the Missile Launchers of both Storm on the following turn at the Dracula caught in the overlapping field of fire. The other vessel was usually in the front-firing arc of a pilot's Gungnir & Missile Launcher. It should be noted since it isn't clear from the descriptions, the primary driver of this back to back overlap was that one of the Storm had been whacked at this point (the botched Epee hit most of it)- it's W result fried the Gungnir mount, it was down to a drive of 8, and it was easier to make this happen from a movement standpoint -plus the gunner's missile launcher was fresh-full having not had an opportunity to make a successful lock-on at the time.


The Storm's needed a 5 or less for lock-on and ended up performing statistically inferiorly having spent their karma during the initiative phase with 10's generally, but over a couple turns trapping a ship in this manner, the missile salvos that did manage to eventually connect after point defense whittling a few away wore the Colos ships down in speed, and in Defense Value via a shields hit critical. As soon as his wingman was in jeopardy of falling prey to the Storm's wrath, the remaining Dracula pilot broke off and retreated, the Storm pilots content fanatically devoted to chasing down the wounded Colosian craft, thus ending the confrontation.

☠  ☠   ☠   ☠  ☠

The Dracula's, to their credit, fought back fang and claw -killing a Sigurd Gunner on a critical and delivering raking Maxim laser hits with consistent 3d8 Epee blasts. The Quad Stilettos saw much of their energy absorbed by the heavier armor of the Storm hulls (they must score doubles with the low die to see much effect while the Storm's armor is intact), but the Dracula's higher speed and defensive values kept the less skilled frenzied gunners of the Archdiocese in fits of frustration.

Due to the relative weakness of the stilettos against dedicated armor plating coupled with the overlapping missile launcher threat posed by their adversaries, the CJu-91c's preferred positional attack solution is, therefore, a wide Eppee crossfire pattern Colos pilots refer to as "The Coffin". It plays to the range advantage the Epee has over its Gungnir counterpart while avoiding both Dracula getting caught simultaneously in overlapping firing arcs by a team of Sigurd ships working in tandem. Had the Colosian interceptors gotten the upper hand a few times where initiative is involved, the engagement likely could have broke in their favor.


(the overlap can be at any angle of course, but how cool is making it look like a coffin for a ship called a Dracula?? Answer: Very.)

The next match will take the knowledge gained into account, get some more asteroids on the board, and try and add a few more rules like Quirks into the mix.

I left the story of Kunigunde von Maldor open for later games involving these two Houses. I'll be sticking to painting these factions until both are finished and having a game featuring each craft as soon as it's completed. If Brýja survives, she'll be promoted to a Storm II. What vessel should Kunigunde show up in when she makes her eventual entrance? Keep her in a Dracula, or promote her to the helm of a Colosia-Wulf CfW-202 “Phalanx”?

ϟ ϟ

Thank you for sharing this! Any chance of some close up pix of the ships you used?

Thank you for sharing this! Any chance of some close up pix of the ships you used?

The update was getting a bit long in the tooth so I want to get it done & off my plate for now... see below.

Turn 1: closing range


Storm (W) got early crit slaps... a loss of gunner A, & result 9, affecting the main gun.


Dracula's forward arc advantage press... Storm (V) loses its rear missile launcher on a crit, while Storm (W) had its front launcher taken out by opponent fiat via a capital "W" hit before it could attempt a lock-on next turn.


Dracula's zoom forward losing initiative on the chit pull. Storm (W) suffers the loss of its second crewman (Gunner B), While Dracula (Z) has its Epee succumb effects of critical result (#9). The Quad-Stelletto's mount bonus being just enough to melt through the 3DR of the Storm at this point giving them an edge over the Gungnir's --struggling to get a firing solution on the nimble colosian ships in their front arcs.


More damage ticks off --mostly on Storm (W).


Final- battered & beaten, the fanatical Storm pilots refuse to give up the fight and pay for it dearly. The Dracula's, with a bit of luck and maneuvering, didn't get targeted by a single missile launcher the entire match!

House Colos Victory!

Takeaways: We used drawing chits instead of rolling for initiative and it was a welcome change for sure. You never knew what was going to happen next. We also used the overdriving the engines rule, and it may need some more tweaking, but it was nice as well, although due to positioning, the pilots didn't want to move much anyway, a lot of tight turns and dogfighting. Pictures have a lot of the info on them, the red die is the damaging one (plus bonus weapon damage), the order of movement is listed by the ship as well. I have all of the shots fired notes, but my memory rapidly faded on any other details --I should have written this up immediately as I intended, but I started getting commitments out the thrusters that needed attending.

Will do this again in a month. Look for some Strella engagements in October.