After Action Report: Noble Armada

[steelbrok]

I got into Call to Arms: Noble Armada last year. I saw painting up the figures, learning the rules and fighting some battles as my X-factor project (something to do while my wife watched X factor on Saturday night).

To my surprise I found I enjoyed painting the models (something I loathed as a kid) and while they’re not particularly well painted (my skills haven’t improved too much over the intervening 30 years) I was pleasantly surprised with the results.

After trying a few skirmishes to test the rules, last weekend saw the start of a campaign.

The campaign is set more or less in a RPG mash-up and House Hawkwood stand in for the Royal Navy Space Arm and House Decados for the Soviet fleet.

Scenario: On the back foot

Ideally the Soviet/Decados should have had 800 points and the RN/Hawkwoods 1000.

Actual fleets were:
Soviet/Decados
1 x Tupok’ta 200
4 x Nightwing 160
Total Points 840

RN/Hawkwood
Both the initial force and the reinforcements consisted of
1 x Griffin 220
1 x Darius 120
1 x Wayfarer 50
1 x Sawfly 150
Each force 540 points for 1080 total

The Soviet/Decados does seem unbalanced being nearly all stealthships with one big gun to back them up. The scenario was that the Soviets had been using the Nightwings to capture the shipping leaving an agricultural world, thus precipitating the present conflict. I saw the Nightwings as being submarine equivalents, essentially overlooking their large troop complements.

The planet was right of centre, the RN/Hawkwoods deployed orbiting the world and the Soviet/Decados force was split as seems to be required by the scenario. Tupok’ta destroyer and one Nightwing stealthship to the right hand side of the map and three Nightwings to the left.

The essence of the scenario is that the initial 500 point force should attempt to hold out against their 800 point attackers until their 500 points of reinforcements arrive to try and turn the tide. However the terrain (damn big planet on the map) changed things around.

The RN/Hawkwood force were able to quickly concentrate against the right hand enemy (Tupok’ta destroyer and Nightwing) while the other three Nightwings spent 3 turns trying to reach the battle while the planet limited their opportunities to engage the RN (I forgot about the All Power to Engines special action!).

The RN focused on the Tupok’ta which was soon crippled. It could still fire one weapon system (a decent 6 attack dice and if a nightwing knocks some shields down first it could still do some damage) but by now it was heading away from the main battle area (1/45 turn) and would have to come back around the planet to re-engage. So just as the other three Nightwings get into the fight the destroyer is out of it!

The RN/Hawkwood galliot tried to board a Nightwing supported by a Hornet (yes, a Hornet frigate, I’d picked up the Hornet models instead of the Wayfarers and then started using the Hornet stats completely forgetting they were supposed to be Wayfarers – so the battle was actually 1180 vs 840 points). The Hornet missed with its grappling guns and at this point I finally realized how many troops the Nightwings carry (12) and that they should be boarding not trying to duke it out with ranged weapons. Next turn another Nightwing joins the boarding furball. The galliot fell quickly.

Meantime thought the RN/Hawkwood reinforcements arrive. Their additional firepower quickly hammers the Soviet/Decados force (who had some unlucky stealth rolls too). In short order two Nightwings explode and a successful galliot/frigate boarding action seizes another.

Rather than bring the Tupok’ta back into the killing area it heads way from the battle.

Victory to the RN/Hawkwood force, the liftwood trade is secure.

Losses
RN/Hawkwood
1 x Darius galliot captured, 1 x Sawfly command frigate crippled, 1 x Griffin destroyer almost crippled.

Soviet/Decados
1 x Tupok’ta destroyer crippled, 1 x Nightwing stealthship captured and two destroyed.


Lessons learned:

Nightwing stealthships aren’t submarine analogues to sneak in relying on stealth and using their ranged weapons. They need to close as quickly as possible and board, board, board their enemies.
Don’t forget the Special Actions, especially All Power to Engines to get a scattered force concentrated as quickly as possible.
Ummm…Record damage etc at the close of the battle so that you can use the campaign rules properly!


Next battle:

Carrier Clash: Having failed to block the liftwood trade at its source the Soviets dispatch their new Hyram class carrier, the ‘Kiev’, to the planet Stormcloud to prevent the freighters reaching their destination.

I intend this to be a smaller battle to concentrate on the fighter side of things, maybe 500-600 points per side.

 

[Foxphoenix135]

So you tease us with painting commentary but don't post any pictures from the battle?

Nice write-up though! I too have Hawkwood / Decados fleets, and I enjoy pitting them against each other in unconventional ways like the scenario you described. Looking forward to that carrier battle!

 

[locarno24]

Nightwing stealthships aren’t submarine analogues to sneak in relying on stealth and using their ranged weapons. They need to close as quickly as possible and board, board, board their enemies.

Yes, yes they do.
There is a stealth destroyer (I think it's Al-Malik?). That has torpedoes in a forward mount, and is the closest submarine equivalent.
Most of the basic stealth ships are just slightly tougher galliots.

Also - a single non-stealth ship in a stealth fleet kind of has a big crosshairs painted on it!

 

[steelbrok]

In retrospect the best tactic for the stealths would have been to close as quickly (All Power to Engines) and have two or three of them try to swamp the Hawkwood destroyer with boarders.

But it was a good and fun learning experience

Foxphoenix, it never crossed my mind to photo the battle, will do so next time

Need to do a little filing, painting and glueing to get all the fighters finished then I'll be ready for the Carrier Clash


Out of curiosity does it tell us anywhere how much real time each turn takes?

 

[Foxphoenix135]

I don't recall where it says how much time is in a turn, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is in the area of half an hour or so... naval battles can be frighteningly slow affairs. I doubt having a naval battle in space speeds it up much.

 

[locarno24]

Long enough to re-arm a torpedo-bomber, so at the very least I can't see it being shorter than a quarter of an hour.

 

[bluebirds40]

cool report.

 

[steelbrok]

OK, following on from the recent battle at Barsoom, both the Soviets (represented again by Decados) and the Royal Navy (Hawkwood) send carrier forces to the turbulent planet Stormcloud.

At first I worked up two fleets at roughly 500 points each. However the carrier potions of these fleets still only come to 170 points each making these fleets with carriers along rather than carrier centred fleets. As part of the point of the game was to focus on and better understand the fighter rules I cut fleet sizes to roughly 400 points.

Royal Navy
“Ark Royal” Malcolm class light carrier (150 points)
4 flights Fitzhugh fighters (0)
4 flights Kestrel torpedo bombers (5 each)
“Scott” and “Livingstone” Wayfarer class explorers (50 each)
“Fisher” Sawfly class command frigate (150)
Total 420 points, Initiative +1 (Sawfly) and may re-roll (Wayfarers)

Soviet Space Force
“Kiev” Hyram class light carrier (150)
4 flights Subiaco fighters (0)
2 flights Rodrigo heavy fighters (5 each) *
“Don” and “Kuban” Reaper class raiders (60 each)
“Kutuzov” Lucretzia class Galliot (120)
Total 400 points, Initiative +1
• yes there should have been 4 torpedo bombers but I managed to completely mangle two of them when cutting them of the sprue. Thought about putting in something to act as substitutes then decided that such were the fortunes of war!
I’d originally gone with a Mantis for the Soviet/Decados force as a frigate has more firepower than a galliot and it could have scrubbed shields for the Rodrigos to attack with their meson tubes. Given that there are now only two Rodrigos I decided that using a galliot to try and board either the Sawfly or the carrier would be a better option.

Fighter tactics
The Decados heavy fighters only have a move of 8. To get them close to their target they are better off staying aboard their carrier (also speed 8 but which can make use of All Power to Engines) initially so in the first turns priority will go to launching fighters.
The RN/Hawkwood torpedo bombers have speed 10 so this is less of an issue, however if the Soviets/Decados are pushing their fighters out first then the RN pretty much has to do the same!

The Hawkwood torpedo bombers have Slow weapons and don’t need to worry about shields. The Decados Rodrigo heavy fighters have meson tubes and do. My thought was to send the Reaper raiders in with the Rodrigos to knock down some shields before the meson tubes are fired.

 

[steelbrok]

The Soviet/Decados fleet were deployed near the planet and moved out to meet the advancing Royal Navy/Hawkwood force.

(Due to limited space I use centimetres instead of inches so the board may look very crowded. I now see that I should have done close up photos instead of trying to give an overview.)

I did put a photo in but it didn't copy across - something else to learn how to do!

As the fleets came into range there was a little long range missile fire but little else from the big guys or the fighters. The Hawkwood Wayfarers were able to target the Decados Subiaco fighters however. Not only did both hit a fighter flight, both flights failed their dodge rolls AND failed to re-constitute on the carriers! Half of the Decados “air superiority” fighters taken out before even engaging!

From here on the fighter portion of the battle was pretty much a rout for the Decados, leaving the Hawkwood Kestrels free to make repeated attack runs on the Decados carrier, eventually pounding it to pieces.

The Decados carrier and Reaper raiders were focusing their fire on the Sawfly command frigate (on the grounds that it had the most firepower and it was to try and take it down first). However with a hull score of 5 it is a tough beast to damage. The Decados galliot attempted to board the Hawkwood carrier but missed the crew quality check. After this it never really managed to line itself up for another boarding attempt and spent most of the remainder of the game as a low power gun platform before having to flee the combined firepower of a Sawfly frigate and four reloaded Kestrel .torpedo bombers.

Lessons learned:

The Decados force would have been better off with the firepower of a Mantis frigate instead of the boarding potential of a Lucretzia galliot. Are galliots better in games with more ships per side? At least then if they miss their CQC roll to grapple it should be easier to acquire a new target.

The Hawkwood carrier group provides a lot of firepower, especially as torpedoes bypass shields. Once enemy fighters have been driven off and target ships’ shields are down even the fighters can spend each turn strafing the enemy and steadily mount up hits.
The Sawfly is tough and gives a bonus to initiative, when explorers are along to allow re-rolls on initiative they seem to give quite an edge to the Hawkwoods.

The Decados heavy fighters with their meson tubes are affected by shields and just don’t seem as useful as the kestrels, though to be fair their limited numbers and short lifespan in this particular battle made it hard to give a fair assessment..


At the end of this battle the Royal Navy (Hawkwood) have secured both ends of the liftwood trade route from Barsoom to Stormcloud, the Soviets (Decados) are going to have to do something drastic to turn the tide. The Mind of Steel orders two initiatives, the building of a Dreadnought, the “Red Star” (I plan to shop for an Anikrunta soon ) and opens negotiations to hire in Vuldrok mercenaries (next painting project).

Watching and waiting are the Japanese (Kurgan fleet next birthday?) to see which direction they will strike.

 

[bluebirds40]

cool battle report.

 

[locarno24]

Are galliots better in games with more ships per side?

Bad CQ is a big problem, but the trick tends to be getting several attempts on the same ship.

If you aim to pass the bow or stern with a galliot, you get to fire you prow grapples as you close. If you miss, you keep moving, and then fire broadside grapples as you pass. That second roll significantly improves the chances of catching your prey....

 

[steelbrok]

I've realised that's what I did wrong. The galliot went directly at the target and missed with the forward grapple. It continued to move and I didn't even think of firing the port, starboard (or even BOTH!) grapples. would have made a big difference to the battle

The ship's captain has been executed by the duty commisar to encourage his successor to do better

 

[steelbrok]

Ambush and Rescue

I wasn’t very happy about the handling of the Soviet (Decados) force in the last battle (Carrier Crash). Neither the galliot nor the fighter squadrons performed well, though to be fair the fighter problems were more down to lucky hits than anything else. Still, I wanted some sort of rematch without simply refighting the same battle.

The scenario will be a blend of Ambush and On the Back Foot.

The newly promoted Rear Admiral Gorshkov of the Soviet Space Force (Decados) plans to ambush a Church frigate in order to draw in aid from the RN (Hawkwood) force at which point he will bring his own main force to bear.

I have a spreadsheet to randomly determine terrain, this time I got nothing but three asteroid belts, two of which were adjacent.

The Church frigate will be engaged by the Nightwing (using the rules from the Ambush scenario). The two raiders will begin play in one of the asteroid fields awaiting the RN main force.

Forces:
Soviet (Decados)
Hyram class light carrier “Minsk” 150 points
2 x Subiacco Fighters (1) 0 points
4 x Rodrigo heavy fighter (1) 20 points
Lucretzia class galliot “Suvurov” 120 points
2 x Reaper raiders “Don” and “Kuban” 120 points
Tupok’ta destroyer “Molotov” 200 points
Nightwing Stealth-Boat 160 points
770 Total
(1) As explained above I wrecked 2 Rodrigo models, for this game I’m going to swap the Subiaco and Rodrigo models to give them a better try out

Royal Navy (Hawkwood)
Malcolm Class Light Carrier “Invincible” 150 points
2 x Fitzugh fighter 0 points
4 x Kestrel torpedo-bomber 20 points
1 x Sawfly command frigate “Nelson” 150 points
2 x Wayfarer explorers “Scott” and “Livingstone” 100 points
Griffin destroyer “Prince of Hanover” 220 points
640 Total

Church
Rack frigate “John” 100 points

Gorshkov has very definite ideas about how to employ the components of his fleet.
Fighters: Target the RN’s Kestrel torpedo bombers
Heavy Fighters: Attempt to swarm any enemy target whose shields are down
Raiders: Stay concealed until the RN’s Wayfarers can be attacked and boarded to take out their scout function.
Galliot: board any of the large ships as soon as possible. If there is a choice between the destroyer and the command frigate or carrier; choose the smaller ship. (2)

(2) Why not give preference to boarding the destroyer, the “big gun”? Two reasons, firstly its larger troop complement would mean a longer struggle to take over the ship. Secondly taking out the carrier stops the kestrels reloading (and I have great respect for the kestrels after last battle) and taking out the Sawfly removes the Command +1bonus to the RN’s initiative.

If the Church frigate can gain a lock on either of the raiders in the asteroid belt in the first turn then the RN fleet will enter complete on turn 5.
If they fail to get a lock on the raiders then a reaction force (3) will enter on turn 3 and the remainder on turn 5.
Regardless, the Soviet (Decados) main force will enter on turn 4.

(3) The two explorers and the Griffin destroyer.

 

[steelbrok]

The battle opens

The Church frigate fails the roll required under the Ambush scenario rules and can only move forwards. Round one sees it boarded by the Nightwing and the boarding action begins. The Soviet Orbital Infantry get to show what they can do against the Church’s Knights. The battle for control of the rack frigate will take several rounds (unlucky die rolls for the Soviet/Decados boarders).

On round 3, HMSS “Prince of Hanover” (Griffin destroyer) and two Wayfarer explorers enter. They all close on the boarding action; the Nightwing begins a slow withdrawal, dragging the Rack along as the boarding action continues.

This draws the RN force towards the Soviet (Decados) main body as it enters on turn 4. A raider manages to grapple one of the explorers but suffers a crew critical hit (reducing troops to 1) when fired on by the other explorer. Given the sudden disparity of forces the RN destroyer is pretty unscathed as it is still out of range of most weapons. The Soviet carrier keeps deploying fighters but with a speed of only 8, the Rodrigo heavies actually begin to fall behind the main body of the fleet. The two fighter squadrons escort the carrier and the “Molotov”, (Tupok’ta destroyer) to guard against the RN’s Kestrel torpedo bombers.

The Church’s frigate is taken and the prize crew begin to take it away from the battlefield (exiting the board a couple of turns later).

Round five sees the main part of the RN arrive, as the forces close the battle becomes much more intense. The RN (Hawkwood) Sawfleet command frigate “Nelson” grapples and boards the Reaper that itself had boarded the explorer “Scott”. To make things worse for the Reaper the “Scott” is boarded by her sister ship “Livingstone”. This boarding furball quickly concludes with the Reaper captured by the RN.

Most of the remaining ships on each side try to focus on the other side’s carrier. The fighter/bomber groups attempt to close on the carriers too.

With the Sawfly granting +1 to initiative to match the Decados +1 and the Explorers’ scout traits allowing rerolls, the initiative pretty much stays with the RN/Hawkwood force for the remainder of the battle.

As the battle goes on (up to round 6 now), the Soviet carrier “Minsk” is battered, both long range missile fire and the Kestrel torpedo bombers being highly effective.

Guided weapons that ignore shields are potent, a lucky critical shield hit makes the “Minsk” vulnerable to later blaster fire. The ability of the RN’s explorers to redirect fire makes them a great force multiplier.

The slower Soviet Rodrigo heavy fighters have yet to make an attack run and are best employed after shields are burned out. A couple of RN weapon systems badly placed to fire on capital ships can engage the fighters. Their dodge protects some but others fall. The fighters escorting the “Minsk do defeat some Kestrels but will fall in the next round to attacks by the RN’s Fitzhugh fighters.

The Soviet galliot succeeds in boarding the RN destroyer “Prince of Hanover” but later both the Sawfly command frigate and Malcolm class carrier join the boarding action. The Soviets’ Nightwing repeatedly fails crew quality checks to turn more rapidly to join the boarding battle. The galliot is taken.

The Tupok’ta’s slug gun barrage proves very effective once some shields are down. Minsk is soon a blazing hulk though, With the RN still having a carrier on the table they have an edge in the remaining fighter-fighter battles.

With the galliot taken and their carrier destroyed the “Molotov” (Tupok’ta destroyer) becomes the RN’s main target and quickly takes a lot of hits. Despite this it’s slug gun barrage does significant damage to the RN’s carrier, “Invincible”

By now 9 turns have been played through and looking at the clock it’s time to wrap up (dog to walk very early!)

Finishing fleet status

Soviet
“Kuban” Reaper class, captured
“Don” Reaper, no damage
Nightwing, down to 17 damage, weapons critical 1
“Molotov” Tupok’ta destroyer, down to 12 damage, criticals: engines 1, weapons 1, shields 2
“Suvurov” galliot, captured
“Minsk” Hyram class carrier, destroyed

Church
“John” Rack class frigate, captured

Royal Navy
“Scott” Wayfarer class explorer, damage 5, critical: shields 1
“Livingstone” Wayfarer, no damage
“Nelson” Sawfly command frigate, no damage
“Prince of Hanover” Griffin class destroyer, no damage
“Invincible” Malcolm class carrier, down to 8 damage, criticals: shields 1, engines 1

Although the final result of the battle is an overwhelming RN victory it did feel like it could have gone the other way had a few dice rolls been different.

From the scenario design point of view there should have been bigger gaps between the different forces arriving. The fighte- carrier battle was far more even than the previous engagement. The Decados heavy fighters suffer from being slightly slower and ideally needing support to burn out shields when compared to the Hawkwood Kestrels. The Tupok’ta slug gun barrage can be devastating but again is better fired after shields are burned out. As the Vuldrok will be taking a hand in this struggle soon that is food for thought.

The Nightwing is very effective at boarding IF IT CAN ENGAGE. With only one 45 degree turn it can be difficult to get it into the battle.

Trying to take out the explorers and their scout trait is a good tactic. It seemed to be a good job for the raiders (and their failure in this case seemed unlucky), though perhaps they would be better employed in escorting the heavy fighters and burning out shields for them. This would mean using heavy units to take down the explorers though.

I can’t help thinking that the Hawkwood fleet is simply better than the Decados. Most major combatants mount missile tubes to bypass shields and the Kestrels can be a very dangerous opponent.

 

[locarno24]

The Nightwing is very effective at boarding IF IT CAN ENGAGE. With only one 45 degree turn it can be difficult to get it into the battle.

I'll agree with that. I've never been a massive fan of stealthships as they seem wracked with contradictions - unmanouvrable but needing to pass more manouvrable targets at point blank range to be effective, more durable because of stealth but needing to close to close range (where stealth is less effective) to perform their function...
The only real exception is the Al-Malik stealth destroyer, which sensibly pairs long-range stealth with long-range torpedo tubes.

Trying to take out the explorers and their scout trait is a good tactic. It seemed to be a good job for the raiders (and their failure in this case seemed unlucky), though perhaps they would be better employed in escorting the heavy fighters and burning out shields for them. This would mean using heavy units to take down the explorers though.

I wouldn't dedicate raiders to escorting heavy fighters given a choice - if you do, you're pinning the fastest and most agile unit in your fleet to a unit that's actually slower than a lot of your capital ships. Besides which, raiders don't actually pack that much firepower. Roderigos are essentially part of your main battle-line punch - unlike a kestral that can hunt independently - because you want to throw their meson tubes at the same target as your fleet's primary weapons; let the battlewagons knock down shields then let the heavy fighters hoof them in the vulnerable bits whilst they're exposed. This also provides the roderigos with an obscure kind of protection - unlike a torp bomber, people aren't inclined to shoot at something which can't hurt them on its own, so if a warship and a meson fighter are in the same arc, you'll rarely see someone waste an entire broadside battery or turret flattening a single fighter rather than trading fire with the enemy destroyer. And if they do, then you still win because you're drawing fire of your heavy warships.

I can’t help thinking that the Hawkwood fleet is simply better than the Decados. Most major combatants mount missile tubes to bypass shields and the Kestrels can be a very dangerous opponent.

Kestrels operate better independently, but I think Roderigos are in some ways better in a big warship brawl.

Similarly, Hawkwood ships are generally better one-on-one, or when facing bigger opponents, because of those missile tubes. I won't argue there. But they suffer from a very 'confused' armament - a broadside of precise lasers ideal for slashing at a ship once it's shields have been compromised.....and missile tubes that can't do that. By comparison, you have blasters in your turrets to drop shields fast, and then slug guns to capitalise on a ship with burned-out shields. This means that the increase in effectiveness of several Decados ships ragging on the same target increases much faster than multiple hawkwood ships firing on one opponent.

First the blasters to clear shields, then slug guns to wreck the hull.
Rinse and repeat.
Then lasers (which have less effective burn-out and would rather land those lovely precise hits on a bare hull)
Then finally fighter meson tubes. These things are utterly useless against an intact ship and horrifying against an unshielded one.

Pretty much the same with vuldrok, really - one vuldrok ship struggles against a shielded warship of equivalent displacement. With several, one of them closes to shove EM rounds in your face, and then the others fire hard rounds at the now-vulnerable target. The result is devastating in a 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 fight.


Interesting to see how things went. The boarding actions are annoying but things can often shift like that; that's why I generally say either go for boarding actions in a big way or not at all; you often see one or two ships launch a brutal boarding action then get mobbed by two or three enemy ships (which, even if not troopships, have more marines as an aggregate force) and captured themselves. You can get round this by having some elite marines or marauders to spearhead the force, but that's a bit of a trap unless you get them free or had a handful of spare points to spend - yes, they're as good as multiple marines in a fight, but actualy getting them onto another ship without having their galliot shot out from under them isn't easy and they can only be in one place at once; I'd rather have a second galliot than a galliot's points worth of troop upgrades....

 

[AdrianH]

I did put a photo in but it didn't copy across - something else to learn how to do!

Scroll down to the "Upload attachment" section. Click on "Browse" to choose your file, then on "Add the file".

Under the section where you do your typing, there should now be a new line, "Attachments" with a button "Place inline". You need to click that before the photo will appear in your post.

 

[steelbrok]

Thanks, I'll try that

 

[steelbrok]

Thanks for the feedback, locarno24.

On reflection I still think that using the raiders to attack the scouts is a reasonable idea (even though it didn't work out too well this time). Other than that they don't seem too useful, the ability to interupt the turn sequence seems cool but with only 2 troops and a couple of lasers per arc they can't achieve much.

Placing the Rodrigos in the line of battle is an interesting thought, may give it a try.

Next battle will likeley be another on the back foot scenario, this time with the Soviets (Decados) trying to rendezvous with their their new Vuldrok allies.

 

[steelbrok]

I can’t help thinking that the Hawkwood fleet is simply better than the Decados.

I may have to eat those words after the last engagement!

 

[locarno24]

I may have to eat those words after the last engagement!

Boom?