Dropfleet Commander Battle Report Part 1 - Scourge

Ok I don't usually do battle reports. Truth is I am both crap with a camera and would rather spend the time playing rather than taking pics, so what follows is a rarity....

We've sort of let Dropfleet slip down our agenda over the last few months. In truth this was partly because of the c*ck-up Hawk made of the Kickstarter delivery. Frankly we didn't fancy playing at clubs and shops when there was still a lot of folks waiting for their toys - didn't feel like having to field the questions to be honest, however since the KS has now finally ran it's course and everyone has their stuff, and because I enjoyed demo'ing it at Salute, we thought we would give it a try.

Between our last game and now the game has advanced (matured?) quite a bit, particularly with the introduction of Command Cards, Battleships, and at the other end of the scale, Corvettes. All three have or will alter the "meta" and the game is rather different with them. Sadly part of the lethargy has included not painting the substantial fleets I have, so having decided to play this evening I spent an hour or so rush painting my spiffing new Nickar class Hunter Killers using the methods I described back in the Sheet Metal Age here , and there was zero chance of getting my Scourge Battleship ready on time.

In the end here is the fleet I decided to take - incidentally this was generated by the excellent Dflist program available here - highly recommended!

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May Day - 1498pts
Scourge - 11 launch assets

SR13 Vanguard battlegroup (319pts)
1 x Manticore - 190pts - H
3 x Djinn - 129pts - L

SR15 Vanguard battlegroup (280pts)
1 x Shenlong - 170pts - H
   + Fleet Overlord (100pts, 5AV)
1 x Ifrit - 110pts - M

SR12 Line battlegroup (344pts)
1 x Hydra - 140pts - M
1 x Hydra - 140pts - M
2 x Gargoyle - 64pts - L

SR9 Line battlegroup (259pts)
1 x Chimera - 105pts - M
2 x Charybdis - 70pts - L
2 x Harpy - 84pts - L

SR4 Pathfinder battlegroup (98pts)
3 x Nickar - 66pts - L
1 x Gargoyle - 32pts - L

SR4 Pathfinder battlegroup (98pts)
1 x Gargoyle - 32pts - L
3 x Nickar - 66pts - L
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To quickly explain the two Vanguard Groups would perform slightly different functions. The Mantichore \ Djinn group is a close combat brawler and the other was (hopefully) going to allow the Ifrit to spike enemy ships for the Shenlong to target using a weapons free order . I like the Ifrit - as you can tell from this earlier post. The first Line Battlegroup is basically a pair of Hydra Class Carriers with two Gargoyle Strike Carriers (Light troopships) attached, with the intention being to leave the Hyrdas at the back of the fleet where they can reach out with their fighters, while the two Gargoyles operated independently to grab ground objectives. The second Line Battlegroup has the main troopship, plus a pair of Charybdis class Frigates. These are specialist ground bombardment units. A pair of Harpy class general role Frigates rounds off the group. The theory here being the combination of heavy troopship and bombardment would make taking larger ground objectives easier, and the Harpies could provide limited support and protection. The last two Battlegroups contained my newly painted Nickar Hunter Killers. These are specialist atmospheric attack ships who in theory would prey on enemy Strike Carriers trying to drop troops to the surface, which would leave the attached Gargoyle free to grab objectives - that was the plan anyway.

Here's a slightly blurred pic of the fleet before we kicked off. I'm using the clip on Battlegroup Indicators designed for Dropzone by  Dark Ops . They're really useful for Dropzone but I suspect I will be moving over to the "straws" option for Dropfleet.

Next time - the opposition - Space Whales!