dealing with the ruskies

[slimeball]

I have a 1500pt game where I am going to be forced to get up close with the big ugly Russian ships. the scenario is across open water (no cover) and I get extra points for getting into his deployment zone (he gets extra for keeping me out)

I know french are fairly well equipped for this as their large ships bring their own cover, (I did the same scenario using Danes attacking FSA defenders and it was a bloodbath)

I don't want people writing my list, just wanted a bit of advice as I have limited experience against the Russians.  I am thinking of leading their one charge with a la rochelle, but expect to see 2 moskvas guarding his table edge :-s

[Nazduruk_Bugzappa]

If your opponent owns Khatanga ice-breakers and/or Tiksi support cruisers, your usual defenses won't be as helpful.

If you own any models with Corrosive munitions, use them. The faster you can drop the targets' HP, the faster that Armour will be gone.

Take advantage of your speed. A Marseille squad with "Stoke the Engines" and targeted by a Boost generator can potentially get up to a 20" move. That speed can be useful whether you choose to use Hit&Run, or just for the 24" boarding assault.

[slimeball]

I do like the marseille cruisers, super fast but ludicrously fragile haha. I thought about corrosive Munitions help dissolve some of that armour, one of my favourite units is my epulard subs, they can stay under to avoid the area bombardments then come up to do some melting i usually also like my Cherbourg and toulons but feel with no terrain they will die horribly to the Russian guns.

 

why am I running straight at them???? it seems crazy.

 

I wonder if aircraft might be the way to go where I would normally put my armoured cruisers and battle cruiser. the Russians can't really put out many dice at rb3 or 4, can't shoot them at all at rb1 (their AA is a bit pants) if I can avoid rb2 and just keep bombing them I might be safe

[Amiral X]

If I have to get close against russian fleet, I think I would max-out the 40% of non core with air models and completely out-activated him with SAS. Something like, 1 Vauban (size massive+1 means it can fire without problem over anything !), 1 or 2 Tourbillon, 2 Rousseau. Except models with mortars, other models don't like flyers because their weapons are not effective over RB2 and can't engage flyer at RB1.

Chevaliers can be a good choice for small as they can manover at the egde of RB3 and be quite safe there while delivering full power rockets punches. Requin can be also a good choice as the lack of long range fire make them very difficult to dealt with for a russian fleet.

For medium, its more difficult (as always with our papercraft cruisers)... The best choice is probably the Dieppe for its RB3 efficiency. Toulon with redoutable heatlance could also be a good choice. Cherbourg is far to fragile for this job a think.

For large, after Vauban and Tourbilllon, any battleship or heavyBB could be ok. If you want to get close La Rochelle or heat-lance Magenta are good choice, if you want to keep a fire support large behind Saint-Malo or full-gun Magenta will make it perfectly.

 

Bonne chasse Amiral !

 

 

 

 

  

[Quickdraw]

Double Moskva at 1500 points will be rough. 

You can try to use their crappy arcs of fire to your advantage. If you use fast ships to get behind them they will have a heck of a time turning around to shoot you. A combination of fast ships and slower hitters will wreck havoc on his battle line. 

[pothoc]

Quickdraw would it be more evil if you ran 3 Borodino than 2  Moskva for an extra 5 points? I like the  Moskva but I just find that it is on the pricey side for what it does.

[Nazduruk_Bugzappa]

7 minutes ago, pothoc said:

Quickdraw would it be more evil if you ran 3 Borodino than 2  Moskva for an extra 5 points? I like the  Moskva but I just find that it is on the pricey side for what it does.

The only thing more evil, would be running 3× Khatanga icebreakers.

[Safr]

17 minutes ago, Nazduruk_Bugzappa said:

The only thing more evil, would be running 3× Khatanga icebreakers.

Ye, Khatanga ist beast...

 

I played few games recent time against Russia, 

My winning list for 1 000 pts was:

1x Charlesmagne

1x Cherbourge

3x Toulon

4x Chevaliere

5x Reqiuns

Its not optimal, only few activations, but i just tried some models, so it was for fun.

I dont remember exactly, what opponent had. 1x Moskva with escorts and some other stuffs. Moskva with linked escorts heart me a lot. There was an epic battle between Dreadnoughts in the middle of the map, the game ends with vicotry for me, but both Dreads was boarded.

Heat lances are good against Russia, problem is, their best firepower is in RB 2, but its RB where Russia start to throw trillions of dices...

[slimeball]

am I right in thinking area bombardment (the khatanga's thing) still always hits on a 5+ but ignores defensive MARs for being indiscriminate? my small shudder in fear at that, but 10 dice max doesn't seem that bad against larger ships to be honest

[slimeball]

I am thinking of something along these lines

 

 

 Large/Massive (745pts) +

····Charlemagne Class Dreadnought (330pts) [Cloud (20pts), Nullification (10pts)]

····Couronne Class Assault Carrier (175pts) [Cloud (10pts)]

····La Rochelle Class Heavy Skimming Battleship (240pts) [Cloud (15pts), Nullification (5pts)]

+ Medium (490pts) +

····Epaulard Class Submarine (180pts) [4x Epaulard (180pts)]

····Pascal Class Medium Bomber (195pts) [3x Pascal (195pts)]

····Rousseau Class Heavy Bomber (115pts)

+ Small (260pts) +

····Chevalier Heavy Destroyer (160pts) [4x Chevailer (160pts)]

····Requin Class Corvette (100pts) [5x Requin (100pts)]

[pothoc]

Slimeball what does your opponent like to take. As a Russian player I think the following list would be pretty fun to play in that scenario.

Large

1x Khatanga (Heavy Battleship) - Nav. Large - 210 - 1/1
1x Borodino (Battleship) - Nav. Large - 195 - 1/1
1x Borodino (Battleship) - Nav. Large - 195 - 1/1

Medium

3x Tiksi (Support Cruiser) - Nav. Medium - 285 - 2/3
3x Tambov (Gunship) - Nav. Medium - 270 - 1/3

Small

4x Novgorod (Frigate) - Nav. Small - 120 - 2/4
4x Novgorod (Frigate) - Nav. Small - 120 - 2/4
5x Kazimov (Corvette) - Nav. Small - 100 - 2/5

[slimeball]

I have not played his Russians before, have barely played Russians at all. I know when he plays his other fleets he loves his dreadnaughts and always goes top heavy, so the moskva expectation was a guess, although any large pointy monster could be possible

[Nazduruk_Bugzappa]

54 minutes ago, slimeball said:

am I right in thinking area bombardment (the khatanga's thing) still always hits on a 5+ but ignores defensive MARs for being indiscriminate? my small shudder in fear at that, but 10 dice max doesn't seem that bad against larger ships to be honest

It's not just the ability to switch between a pair of 10AD blasts, or a 15AD "normal" attack, with the heavy Mortars. It's the 18AD linked broadside/light-mortar attack at rb2 (16AD in rb1).

[slimeball]

I didn't even realise that mortars can link in with the broadside, ouch! I don't have any mortars in my fleets other than my epulards so it doesnt come up much

[Lifegiver]

Running close to Russians is somewhat suizide. You should have actviation advantage to grant You strike first. Take 4 Apollo support carriers and keep them back to out activate him. If You do not own Apollos, take two Tourbillons.

A real problem will be glacier generators and jammers, so do not be reliant on rockets and torpedoes.

He will board You quickly, so take a Titan transport to fill up the AP of Your larges You loose by boarding.

For smalls, take some Requins for boarding and a squad of Lyons to deal with his smalls. Spread out Your smalls, maybe send one squad of Requins as flanking reserves.

For RoF naval mediums, a full squad of Dieppes will do it. 

For larges, go for a Vauban as Your admiral ship, because it is very resilent to boarding. A single Cherbourg sent as a flanking reserve will disturb his deployment and movements.

For air units, Tourbillon is good but You do not need it if You take Apollos. Take one or two full squads of Furieux with aggressive crew, because they are somewhat expendable and good against clustered Russian ships.

[Veldrain]

If I was Russian facing French I would expect my opponent to have at least one large aerial.  A minimum of one Tunguska would likewise be in the lineup.

[slimeball]

we played the game, ended a draw at turn 3, sinking the moskva took me from 300 behind to 100 ahead. was very proud of my la rochelle gunners for completely evaporating the ablative armour on the thing in at massive double crit, at the end of the third turn it had 1 hp left and 6 corrosive markers

my dice were appalling in the first turn were useless and he managed to take out my bombers very rapidly. his 2 squadrons of frigates managed to double crit two light bombers between them and the escorts on the moskva double critted my heavy bomber

[Nicius]

So what fleet did you bring in the end? My regular opponent is getting Russians with the kickstarter so I might face them soon.

[slimeball]

I went with 

 

charlamagne dreadnaught

st malo heavy battleship

la rochelle bringer of pain

 

4x epulard subs

3x pascal medium bombers 

1x rosseau heavy bomber 

 

3x Chevalier destroyer

5x requims

 

I was fairly happy with the list, the subs corrosive mortars were handy, hiding under water until they unleashed their payloads, parked them between Charlie and Larry to make them seem less of a target.

the French heavies did what they do best, absorbed unbelievable amount of firepower and blasting big holes in the enemies. have never used the St malo before (literally glued it together at deployment) loved it's odd arcs and it's ability to spray significant firepower in every direction.

the Charlie took a bit of beating, faced off directly against the moskva a khatanga and some tambovs so only 5hp lost is very respectable.

the bombers, they did nothing, every single attack against them had at least 14 hits so easy double crits. their only attack was the last remaining Bomber whiffing when hitting 2 frigates.

 

he took

moskva with 3 vileky

khatanga

2x kostromas

3x tambovs

2x 4 rostovs

 

 

 

 

[Lifegiver]

23 hours ago, slimeball said:

the bombers, they did nothing, every single attack against them had at least 14 hits so easy double crits. their only attack was the last remaining Bomber whiffing when hitting 2 frigates.

This is exactly what I suspected. Pascal is too vulnerable. If You want to make it count, You have to spam it to grant that some reach the enemy. Rousseau is somewhat better but a godd target for focussed fire- That is why I suggested Tourbillon and Furieux. They are more resilent for the price You pay.

Was there any boarding in the game? I am very surprised the Russian was so reliant on firepower instead of boarding units. The latter would have made short work of Your larges.

[slimeball]

he finished one of my pascals off with boarding from his frigates but never did enough damage to the larges to risk a boarding assault, with redoubtable AA and lots of elite or stoic crew the larges seem surprisingly resilient in my experience, the la rochelle only has regular crew but stood off a bit further as it has no reason to approach any closer than 16 inches. only the moskva has any better than conscripts iirc so it would have been an uphill battle for him.

 

I did do an attack with my requims on a Russian carrier, but that failed miserably and was only really an afterthought as they had been killing loads of SAS with their ack ack