In Space, No One Can Hear The Dice Clatter

I played my second game of Dropfleet Commander on the weekend. I don't think I posted anything about my first game - I won that one (somehow). My second try was not quite as successful but there was plenty of orbital destruction as spacecraft, large and small, exploded, burned, and fell out of the sky.

I played with Peter from NWA and we played the starter game from the starter box set. We also played this scenario last time but because we're starting out we haven't become too familiar with it yet.

We played the same teams. Peter: UHR and Me: the Scourge. Last time I rushed in and just tried to kill stuff whilst landing troops. In retrospect, that seems like the best way to play Scourge. In this weeks game I decided to try and be a bit more subtle and I suffered for it.

I had the opening move and decided to rush in using a Max Thrust order. This added a minor spike to my Gargoyle strike carriers which proved t be a mistake because it increased their signature which, in turn, made them a bigger target. The result of that being that the central carrier was blasted into scrap on the first turn.

By turns end we had everything on the table with my Scourge dominating the western side and the UHR the East. I managed to land some troops onto one cluster which was good but the loss of my other carrier was noticeable.

Turn two was bad for the Scourge. the UHR Seattle Class fleet carrier moved up in the cover of a debris field, declared: Weapons Free and went to work on my two Harpy Frigates that were leading the assult...

Nuff Said!

The battle wasn't all one sided though. In the Center the Scourge Shenlong heavy cruiser put some serious hurt on the UHR Berlin class cruiser in the center and also took out a Toulon frigate.

Meanwhile the UHR strike carriers had reached the eastern cluster and dropped two lots of troops and securing two sectors.

The UHR released some assets and did minor damage to the Scourge Ifrit cruiser and the Berlin moved up & gave it a blast. But it was the Seattle once again, after braving the debris field (taking minor damage), that came out and blasted the Ifrit into fiery pieces.

Things moved and more happened... The Seattle tried to take out my remaining Gargoyle as it moved into low orbit but it was unsuccessful and the gargoyle shot back causing minor damage. The Berlin and remaining Toulon frigate took on the Shenlong. The Scourge heavy cruiser declared Weapons Free and took out the Toulon and damaged the Berlin but it was itself destroyed in turn by the UHR Moscow heavy cruiser.

So, things were looking grim for the Scourge and I was going to admit defeat but I still had a trick up my sleeve. My Wyvern cruiser had been pottering along on Silent Running orders and now took a left turn bringing into range of both the Seattle and Berlin. Once again declaring Weapons Free the Wyvern took on both of the damaged UHR ships and destroyed the pair in a devastating display of firepower.

That made things look a whole lot better but there was the little problem of the Moscow which was also undamaged and was coming up on the flank of the Wyven.

At this stage we called the game (end of Turn 4). I couldn't win even though I did manage to get troops into the central cluster. But the UHR had two New Orleans strike carriers just outside the cluster capable of landing multiple troops.

All in all it was a great game and I look forward to playing more games. I'm currently busy building the starter sets of the other two factions. Here are the first few ship of my Shaltari fleet. These are a real challenge to paint.