Demo Games - Teach 'em or Crush 'em?

On Tuesday, I helped Gaz run an intro game of Dystopian Wars at the club.  We just used our starter fleets, minus the bombers, with some random scenery.  Only one other person was actually playing (he was expecting more,) but c'est la vie.  It was an enjoyable evenings gaming, lasting only two turns, but taking some time to explain the nuances and strategies as well as the rules.

   
The last time I ran a full intro game was when we were away at the DW tournament in April.  At that time, I thought it best to "go easy" on the new guy, and played in such a way that not only would he get to experience most of the common situations (different guns, aircraft, collisions, boarding etc,) but also get an easy win.  Afterwards, I hear grumblings that, for whatever reason, he didn't like the free win.  It couldn't have been too bad, as he bought a starter fleet from one of the traders there.  Oh, btw, I let him win against a random fleet I made up on the spot, my tournament Empire of the Blazing Sun list is still undefeated!

Now I don't believe you wanted to do that. . .

This time, when I took over at the start of turn 2, I decided to play with the view "the burned hand teaches best" and punished a poor move by sinking the opposing flagship.  However, I left worrying that this had been a bit rude.  We'd introduced the mechanics and given a generous amount of advice, but should I have also given the easy win?  I certainly don't play wargames to win,  far from it in fact, and I don't know any others to whom winning is the most important thing in a game.  So does it follow that a new player would feel better about a game if they get an early win in?

Anyway, Corrado, hopefully you enjoyed Dystopian Wars - next time, try and keep your Battleship less exposed!

RAFWA Championship 2012 Photos 1

I've started working through my photos from last weekend.  Normally, I'm hopeless at taking pictures, but as the Mrs set the camera up for me, at least some turned out okay.

   

Friday nights demo/practice game.  Boozed up gamers teaching other boozed up gamers how to play!  Carnage.

Big Al's Federated States of America Fleet

Gaz's Kingdom of Britannia Fleet

 Rob's Covenant of Antarctica Fleet (with missing turrets and proxy Bombers)

My Empire of the Blazing Sun Fleet

For some reason I don't have an fleet photo of Woody's Prussian Empire, but you can see them this deployment shot:

This was a great table to play on.  Somewhere in the Southern Ocean, two fleets have engaged each other.  Unfortunately, a Sturginium spill has caused the currents to become extremely erratic.  Each turn we rolled a random direction and each iceberg would move an independently determined D6 inches in that direction.  Again, carnage.

 

Towards the end of the game.  We used the new field orders rules, so both sides rolled randomly for their objectives.  I think the Covenant had to destroy all large and massive vessels, while the Prussians had to destroy 50% points value including all small vessels.

The core mechanic of Dystopian Wars at work here with the Rob's Particle Accelerator. Rolling twelve dice, he scored an initial six hits, but kept rolling sixes to generate more hits. From those initial six, he ended up with twenty six hits.  Too bad it was only against a cruiser! 

The Solomon Islands table.  The rocky reef in the middle slowed movement to half rate except for small ships (and flyers obviously) but it didn't obscure line of sight.  Otherwise, this was a normal table.

Turn 2, the Empire of the Blazing Sun can put out a lot of long range fire.  It helps when Al couldn't roll defensive dice for toffee.

Close to the end.  My objective was 50% of the enemy fleet including all medium ships.  The FSA had to take out all my naval models.

End of the same turn, captured a Gunship and Frigate for double victory points.  Everything but the FSA Battleship and a couple frigates were gone, resulting in a comprehensive Japanese victory!

RAF Wargaming Association Championship 2012

This weekend saw the Royal Air Force Wargaming Association Championship 2012.  Gaz ran a small Dystopian Wars event with five players (including me.)  Other than that, there were tournaments for Flames of War and Warhammer 40K, a big roleplaying session and individual games of Black Powder, Arkham Horror, and and Age of Sail type game.  There was also a painting competition, raffle (involving rolling lots of dice - quality) and a nice dinner on the Saturday night (we toasted the Queen - first time I've ever done that!)


Given that the event was full of current and ex service personnel, there was also a vast quantity of booze (all at £1.50 a pint!) and on Saturday and Sunday, a few sore heads!  I took a few photos, but haven't had the chance to work through them yet.  Here's a sneak peek though:

So thanks to Gaz, Big Al, Woody, Rob, Sean, Pete, Steve, Nick, Dave and everyone else for a great weekend!

Empire of the Blazing Sun - Fleet Pictures

Finally, Finally, FINALLY finished up my Empire of the Blazing Sun 800 point fleet for Dystopian Wars.  In fact, the varnish was applied about 21 hours before we leave for the tournament (wow, flashbacks to university!)  I originally planned in this post to explain a bit about what each squadron did and what my tactics would be with them, but, to be honest, I'm sick of the sight of them!!!

The Flagship - Hachiman Class Dreadnought

Although they were only painted to a "tabletop" standard, they took a hell of a lot of work, being covered in lots of tiny details and textures.  If you're unfamiliar with any of the Spartan Games resin models, I'd heartily recommend you check them out, the level of crisp detail on them is really impressive.

Tsukuyomi Class War Gyro

From this distance, about three feet, I'm quite happy with them and I think the look is cohesive over all the ships.  If you get any closer however, you'll see a couple problems and some of the details I've missed.  The War Gyro in particular just wouldn't hold the drybrushed paint, so it got a thicker coat than the other ships.

Tanuki Class Gunships

Still, its not good manners to post pictures on your blog and then criticise them yourself (that is the readers job.)  So I'll just say again that I'm happy with how they've turned out.  Hopefully they will continue to perform well on the tabletop now that they're finished...

Yurgi Class Destroyers and Uwatsu Class Frigates

Tiny Flyers - Torpedo Bombers

My own personal Agincourt - Dystopian Wars

Or, perhaps, not their finest hour.

We had the last warm up game of Dystopian Wars last week, in preparation for this weekends tournament.  I used my Empire of the Blazing Sun list I talked about here, while Gaz's British fleet consisted of a battleship with escorts, a carrier, two submarines, two bombers, three frigates, three destroyers, three squadrons of dive bombers and one spotter plane. 

The British had the advantage of more squadrons to activate, but I won the deployment role to balance things out a little.  I put my Dreadnought and War Gyro opposite the British Carrier, while the Gunships and Destroyers faced the battleship and bombers.  The British Subs, my Frigates and lots of aircraft kept to the centre.

The battle, just after the first few shots.

I took the initiative on the first turn, so made the British move first.  Gaz moved his Submarines up and one fired at my destroyers, missing.  The Submarine then attempted to dive under the waves to safety, but failed the test to do so.  Things didn't get any better for the Brits.

The British left flank, things looking ok so far.

On my right, the Dreadnought and War Gyro took two turns to destroy the Brit carrier, frigate squadron and all but one destroyer.  The Gyro took a lot of damage from the dive bomber squadrons, but was still functioning.  My Destroyers put some damage on the Sub opposite them and a dented one of the bombers to their left.

Gunships & Destroyers, just before a flurry of rockets!

The Gunships on my right took a little damage each from the battleship, but managed to destroy one bomber, capture the other and started putting damage on the battleship.

Halfway through turn 3, everything heads toward the battleship.

At the end of turn two, Gaz only had his damaged Battleship, one Sub, one damaged Destroyer and some aircraft (without any bombs) left.  To his credit, he carried on for a few more activations, but facing with three big threats closing in, we called the game half way through turn three.  In case anyone didn't notice, total casualties for the Empire of the Blazing Sun: zero.  Not even a single tiny flyer token.  Nice.

The Kingdom of Britannia derelict area.  Heh, heh, heh.   

So a great warm up game for me, not so much for Gaz.  Still, it was a good reminder that who you're playing is often far more important than what you're playing.