The deep blue sea. The wide open water. The great blue yonder.
The sea is big. We all know that. More than big enough, you would think, for your Battlefleets to move around one another in stately fashion and pound one another with thunderous salvos from their gun batteries. But one lapse in forethinking can spell disaster.
In last week’s blog, David provided an insight as to how Movement works in the new edition of Dystopian Wars, and the various ways in which your ships can manoeuvre around one another. Today, he’ll be picking up where he left off, exploring what happens when all your intricate manoeuvring comes to nought and your ships collide.
Ain’t Big Enough For The Both of Us
“When a Surface model moves into contact with another Surface model or a Terrain Feature, that model suffers a Collision. As well as automatically gaining a level of Disorder, you may also take Damage if your model has just hit something bigger than itself.
If the model or terrain you collided with is larger than your model, you roll a number of Action Dice equal to your model’s Mass rating, with every Strike rolled inflicting 1 Damage. Unlike an Attack action, there is no grouping of Hits and calculating Successes. You take it all.
As you can see, accidentally rear-ending your own Dreadnought or dinging an island is usually a bad idea.”
Right in the Amidships
“But what if you want to hit something? What if that dinky little Frigate bobbing about in front of your Battlecruiser is just too tempting a proposition?
If you move a model at least 3” directly forward before coming into contact with one of your opponent’s models, and that model is in your Fore arc, then you can declare a Ram. If you do this then the Ramming model usually (with some notable exceptions, which we’ll get to later) can’t make any Actions in its Action Step. On top of that, an unwise Ramming action can still do a great deal of Damage to your own model. It can, however, also be absolutely brutal on your opponent’s.
To perform a Ram, the active model first has to make a Crew check. This works exactly like the Discipline checks in Armoured Clash, requiring you to draw a Victory & Valour card from your deck and compare the card value (on a scale of 1-12) to the Crew rating of your model. If the value is equal to or less than your Crew rating then the test is passed and you can Ram away. If it is greater, however, then the test is failed, and your aborted Ram is resolved as a Collision instead.
This is all giving me something of a cold sweat, recalling a test game I played against Matt’s Alliance fleet. Picture the scene. There I was. Union blue peacoat. Bicorne hat. Barking orders from the helm of my mighty Constitution-class Battleship. A squadron of Pugio Destroyers threading their way across my bows. I could have manoeuvred around them quite easily, but with an uncharacteristic rush of blood to the head I decided, no: that Pugio is going down.
‘“Ablative Armour (2) against this you!” I yelled across the table as I declared a Ram, and promptly failed my Crew check despite having a Crew rating of 9. So, for the dubious privilege of giving my Italian nemesis a hearty love tap, my Battleship gained a level of Disorder, found itself parked 1” behind a Pugio and so couldn’t Rally in the Consolidation Phase, and had sacrificed all of its Actions for that Activation.”
“[Redacted] Pugios!’
Heedeth well my lesson.
A ship that is not built for Ramming always runs the risk of coming off worse. A) Because there’s a chance that you’ll embarrass yourself horribly on your Crew check; and B) because both sides take Damage and Disorder pretty much indiscriminately, even if higher Mass ships do have a slight advantage.
Collisions hurt. They are meant to hurt. At least, for most units in Dystopian Wars…”
For Close Encounters
“Some units come with the Ramming Ship (X) property on their Unit Profile. This could represent a giant drill, a reinforced hull, or an electrified hammer bolted across the vessel’s prow. Whatever their form, these fixtures confer several advantages when resolving a Ramming action with them.
For starters, models with this property automatically pass Crew checks when declaring a Ram. You don’t even need to draw a card. Secondly, when making the Action Roll, they gain a number of Bonus Dice equal to the X value of the Ramming Ship (X) property, increasing the potential Damage they can inflict. But thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, Ramming Ships also take less Damage, ignoring all Strikes and Heavy Strikes against themselves.”
Ships in the Night
“A Ram is a high risk, high reward strategy, but enormously satisfying when it comes off. For the vast majority of your models, however, it is advisable to keep your distance, and manoeuvre wisely.”
David Guymer