The Eastern Sea

Release the KRAKEN!

So, I played an 1000 point game on a 4x4 board, vs Empire of the Blazing Sun. I don't remember much of it (the game was played yesterday night, but I've slept and worked since then, so my mind is fuzzy on the details...) so I'm not going to do a play-by-play, and I apologize, but I really don't have the current brain-capacity to remember order and the details.

We rolled 6 pieces of terrain (one in each quarter and two pieces per quater on the table half I ended up with) One Massive Island, 1 Large Iceburg, 3 Medium Iceburgs, and 1 Small Sandbar. We both got Destroy/Capture 50% Including All Mediums Fleet Order, which made for a very interesting clash over who could kill the others' mediums first. Also, I (again) didn't do a timed game, but it went relatively quickly anyway (I think grand total, it ended up being a little over 2&1/2 hours game time.)

So, the things that jumped out at me in this game: First, Rocket Jammers are made of EPIC WIN against Blazing Sun (and any other rocket-heavy armies)... I literally never suffered damage from a Rocket attack towards a Capital class model (though he did plink one of my Frigates out with one.) EotBS Torpedo Bombers are... in a word, DISGUSTING (except, apparently when they were trying to hit my Borodinos... more on that later...) they did a ridiculous amount of damage to my Fleet Commodore Carrier, and very much contributed to it sinking by turn two... the thing isn't nearly as tough as I'd like it to be. Squidy the Ika Class Mechanical Squid is similarly impressive: It snuck up under the water at me and Derelicted one of my Borodinos in one assault! It was depressing, but I got my revenge on it during the next turn.

So, funny story, through the whole game of shooting at my Borodinos, my opponent never managed to roll higher than 9 hits, meaning he NEVER knocked the Ablative Armor off of either of them (though Squidy did his thing to one, and the poor Borodino won't ever be the same again...) Mind you, this battle wasn't nearly as one-sided dice wise as my last, it actually seemed like we were both rolling average in two very different ways, he would roll generically well, whereas I would roll and fail epicly at hitting and then turn around and in another attack roll 7 sixes in one shot or something ridiculous, along with some randomly interspersed average rolls.

Something for me to be mindful of while playing is to figure out where I want my ships to go before I start moving them. It seems like I often get halfway through a movement (including turns) and then realize I shouldn't have turned (usually resulting in collisions between my own ships and/or terrain... this game marked the second time I crashed a Suvorov into terrain and lost it's Ablative.) Related story, the Borodino that Squidy Derelicted ended up drifting into the other Borodino (due to the aforementioned inability to know where I need my ships to end up... one day I'll learn...)

Neither of us ended up completing our field orders, but due to the devastation wrecked upon his fleet, my opponent decided it was safe to say I had won the day. Unscathed Borodinos are truly a fearsome sight to behold in RB2... (except against Frigates... then I just roll ones an twos...) It was a good game, and I very much look forward to the next time I can face the wrath of Squidy (and soon, his twin brother, Cuttlefish... or is it Cuddlefish?)

Turn one after both of our first activations... Worthy Adversary moved up the Frigates on the right, I moved the Borodino up.

Squidy in action. It was most uncool.

Another picture of Squidy hugging my Borodino, which incidentally, ended up drifting into the OTHER Borodino, luckily for me, this caused no damage. (Again, my opponent just couldn't roll 10 hits vs a Borodino...)

The aftermath of the battle, The only things Worthy Adversary had left were halfa-battleship, two frigates and his last Medium Squadron, (and a spent squadron of Torpedo Bombers) while most of my stuff was very much operational...

The three frigates on the left counter-boarded the Ika after it failed to crunch my second Borodino. Squidy went bye, bye.

The two Mediums of Infamy.

Vaya con Dios!