1000pts KoB+HEC vs EotBS skirmish

[varnos 277]

Had a small-ish game of 1000pts EotBS versus KoB + HEC mercenaries yesterday.

No cards used, 70% victory condition for both sides. EotBS had the following:

• ·       1x Kiyohime carrier
• ·       1x Mizuchi Battlecruiser
• ·       3x Tanuki Armoured Cruiser
• ·       3x Honshu Cruiser
• ·       2x4x Uwatsu frigates
• ·       2x5 torpedo bombers and 1x5 Fighter SAS + 1 recon

The KoB had the following:

• ·       1x Ruler Battleship
• ·       1x Elysium Sky fortress
• ·       3x Vanguard, no piercing torpedoes
• ·       3x Phoenician airship
• ·       1x Lord Hood Battlecruiser
• ·       3x Stalwart destroyer
• ·       2x5 dive bombers and 1x5 Fighter SAS + 1 recon

   

One squad of uwatsus was in the advance force, versus the vanguards in the advance and stalwarts in the flanking force.

Turn 1 sees little action. The Elysium sky fortress bombards the advance uwatsu frigates for only one damage with its earthshaker. Honshus manage to put 1 damage on the elysium. The hood and ruler are outside of easy reach and escape unscathed, most gunnery being used against the leading (submerged) vanguard elements, with little luck.

The Phoenicians manage to spot the Mizuchi battlecruiser twice behind an island, after which the ruler throws RB3 indirect fire on it, using the commodore ability to hit on a 4+. A crit leaves defenses shredded.

advance Uwatsu’s move beyond the cover of an island and try really, really hard to destroy a vanguard from RB1... But fail to damage it seriously.

Lord hood puts a damage on the Kiyohime carrier in its advance.

Turn 2 sees, well... The rest of the action. EotBS wins initiative (again) and the stalwarts arrive behind an island within RB2 striking distance of the Kiyohime, which is positioned on the outer edge of the flanking side. Torpedo SAS destroy a vanguard with a double crit. The remaining vanguards surface and ram two uwatsus saw them in half, throw the remaining torpedo dice in RB2 on the kiyohime, critting it (halved gunnery, raging fire) and board the remaining uwatsus. One Uwatsu falls, the other shoots down his attackers and laughs in the face of the enemy.

A second torpedo bomber squad crits another vanguard. Phoenicians retaliate with a critical hit on the Honshus (hard pounding, 1 AP)

Mizuchi advances and fires on a vanguard, critting it with 3(!) corrosion markers due to a fusion leak. Waiting dive bombers promptly respond by critting the mizuchi with a teleport effect, scuttling it just after the teleport ends (4 damage on the  crit).

The remaining vanguard is crit by an advancing kiyohime’s torpedoes.

The lord hood pounces in RB2 and crits the kiyohime again.

Honshus advance and damage an obscured phoenician (fire! fire!).

Stalwarts pounce and doublecrit the Kiyohime – it goes down in flames.

 

 

It is at this point that we played on just a bit, rolled some more dice, but at the end of turn two, we ended the battle with 480 points vs 165 points gained. Death toll:

• ·       4 uwatsu frigates (+1 damaged uwatsu)
• ·       2 damaged Honshus
• ·       1 Kiyohime Carrier
• ·       1 Mizuchi Battlecruiser
• ·       3 Vanguards
• ·       ...A lot of SAS.
• Nothing special, but a good little game. My perception may be biased since I fielded the glorious brits. A picture of the setup may follow.

[Soltan 109]

Thanks for this report !

I missed something or in the KoB list all HEC squadrons are capital ?

[varnos 277]

1 hour ago, Soltan said:

Thanks for this report !

I missed something or in the KoB list all HEC squadrons are capital ?

You're right, that's a bad oversight on my part! Oh dear. Should've taken the oceanus or hades models.

[Veldrain 376]

Turn 1 you have the Ruler using indirect fire at RB1.  Typo or was the battle cruiser further ahead then I thought it could get?

[varnos 277]

8 minutes ago, Veldrain said:

Turn 1 you have the Ruler using indirect fire at RB1.  Typo or was the battle cruiser further ahead then I thought it could get?

That's my bad, should've said RB3, not RB1. RB1 makes no sense, primary gunnery can't even use indirect fire in that band. This due to both the mizuchi and ruler moving so that it just reached RB3.

[Nicholas 227]

Good to see the KoB commodore ability used! By the way, how did the Vanguards throw their torp dice at RB1 on the Kiyohime?

[varnos 277]

1 hour ago, Nicholas said:

Good to see the KoB commodore ability used! By the way, how did the Vanguards throw their torp dice at RB1 on the Kiyohime?

They didn't, they did so in RB2 (although barely). The Uwatsus were in the advance force, allowing me to ram them and still have enough distance for a final volley. I derp again, I'll edit the post to amend.

Indirect fire is a strange beast, I rarely use it, normally. Sometimes, though, it can pay off to plan for it. In this case, I had 4 spotter models, which makes it a viable strategy. The problem is that I rarely take Hawks, so if I want spotter models I have to take allies.