As mentioned earlier, I was gonna throw up a quick AAR of a game featuring the RNES versus the Nero Marina, once we were done, and here it is.....

And the Brits suffered their most decisive defeat in decades, as the Italians just HANDED them their asses in a "night time" battle fought over the dark side of the moon.

Curious about Spanish settlements on the lunar surface, both militaries had dispatched fleets to snoop around and report their findings.  We honestly didn't know it was going to be a battle fought in the dark until we rolled for battlefield conditions using rules published in The Merchant War.  And that one toss of the dice, more than any tactical acumen on my part, defeated the opposition on the spot.

The Royal Navy Ether Squadron fielded the following:
Cornwallis class BB with x4 FACs
Gauntlet class BC
Southam class CA
Anglesey (Southam class CA)

While the Nero Marina showed up with:
Dante Alighieri class BB (new design for upcoming Janes-ish type supplement)
Tomaso Albinoni class CH
Guittone d'Arezzo class CA
Masolino (d'Arezzo class CA)

The British should have had a decided range advantage over the Italian fleet.  The lightning projectors on the Cornwallis ignore everything but size and range -- and it was going to be gunning for the Alighieri.  To help expand on this advantage,  the Southam class carries keel bombards.  By buying two such ships, my opponent was planning to mass his fire on a single target and win the battle before I could even come to grips with him.

But he gambled by buying those designs before we tossed for visibility.  And in the dark, the edge offered by LPs and bombards is pretty much tossed out the window.  The Nero Marina hulls are faster. The Alighieri is a VL ship with a Thrust Rating of 6 and 10 D12 guns; ,the d'Arezzo class cruisers have a Thrust Rating of 7 and are decidely dangerous at short to medium range.

So ouch for him.

As we approached he launched his FACs in an early attempt to whittle me down early on, but got some lousy rolls with his torpedo carrying attack craft.  Targeting Tomaso Albinoni, he managed to drive two torpedoes home, but those four hull hits (d8 (x2) torps) really didn't sway the outcome of the battle, and he lost 30 VPs worth of attack craft in quick order for only 12 VPs scored on me.

The Brits also attempted to light me up with starshells fired from their secondaries, but their rolls were only mediocre, so the templates were small.  And star shells are area weapons that light up a patch of space you're hoping the opposition will end up in during the subsequent turn.  The Italians were fast enough that he couldn't illuminate us until everyone was within reach of searchlights.  Those snapped on all over the place and the effect was pretty cool for those folks watching 

Those came into play immediately after everything mentioned above.  Albinoni and Gauntlet illuminated each other at 8", and immediately started wailing away.  And the Nero Marina heavy cruiser won an immediate advantage by rolling an impossibly NICE broadside -- scoring hits with 3 of its d8(x3) primaries when it needed "8"s to hit.   8) Nine points of damage rolled on the Gauntlet's damage track, when the British ship was unable to score a hit with any of its 4 primaries, saw it lose a handful of hull points, one point of armor, two points of thrust and one of its main guns.  While this was happening, Albinoni was missed by a keel bombard shot from Anglesey.

In return, Albinoni was close enough to Anglesey to take part in one of the Italians' favorite tactics.  While ships will typically single out individual targets for their gun fire, all those Hale Rockets carried by Nero Marina hulls will be used to swamp a single identified target.  By (hopefully) eliminating a single enemy hull as quickly as possible, sort of a bum rush, they create a gap in the enemy fleet that their superior speed will help them exploit.

In this case, it was Anglesey's turn.  The British cruisers had advanced in line abreast formation to make the best use of their keel bombards, while the two Italian cruisers had come up in line ahead, arriving off Anglesey's port bow.  While Anglesey was able to fire first that turn (the British fleet had been active), its guns only did light damage to Masolino (primarily to the Italian ship's thrust and secondaries) while Southam contributed almost nothing against d'Arezzo.  Masolino then opened up on Anglesey from relatively close range (5") , and hurt it a bit with its d6 guns. 

The real pain, however, came from the 30 Hale Rockets slashing in from three different Italian ships.  Eight of those warheads drove in to cause damage -- amounting to 10 points total.  Something a 9 hull ship just isn't built to take gracefully.  Anglesey was reduced to four hull points and lost a big chunk of its weaponry, eventually succumbing to Masolino's and d'Arezzo's gun fire AND three squads of boarders who applied the coup de grace by killing off the remainder of its crew      .....we felt free to close the gap because the Southam class doesn't come with torpedoes.

Meanwhile, Cornwallis and Dante Alighieri were following roughly parallel courses and causing oodles of damage with their respective hardware.  The first exchange went to Cornwallis, which inflicted eight points from its D10 lightning projectors at 7" -- compared to the four points of damage inflicted by the Alighieri's 10 D12 guns and a pair of Hale Rockets.  The exchanges were largely even, though, with the British relying on the quality of their hardware, while the Italians hoped to win through the sheer number of guns they could bring to bear. Two very different schools of thought. 

But this was really the only thing approaching a "bright side" for the RNES.  The Albinoni managed to kill Gauntlet in a running duel in which it was free to dictate the range and its heavier broadsides regularly stove in the British ship's reduced armor belt.  By keeping the duel within the +1 range band, the Italian heavy cruiser was able to roll 6 d8 dice -- now needing only a "7" to get through, while the Gauntlet could only roll 3 d8 dice needing an "8" to hit.

Just as an example,  Albinoni managed a 3,8,8,1,6 and 4 in a typical turn, and that meant six more points of damage.  Within a handful of turns, it was all over.

And while the d'Azzero cruisers were battered from their exchanges with their British counterparts, they had managed to roll up the British left by polishing off  Southam, as well. 

While Cornwallis was staying neck and neck with Alighieri, it was down to about half strength and was in no shape to now deal with the heavy cruiser closing in on its damaged hull.  The British player called for an end to the battle, and we allowed his BB to slip off into the inky depths of the void.  Good thing, really, as Alighieri was suffering, too.  Lightning Projectors are just frigging deadly against big ships, and the only saving grace for the Italian design was that it trades armor for speed and firepower.  So some of the benefit of that advanced Brit tech is lost.  Its got so MANY primaries, though, that its primaries degrade kinda quickly. 

Final Tally
Two battered d'Arezzos
One damaged Alighieri (about 1/2 strength but having lost a lot of its primaries)
One slightly damaged Albinoni

Versus
Two KIA Southams
One KIA Gauntlet
Four KIA FACs

We didn't even bother to count up the points.  Whitehall suffered a serious blow to its fleet roster this day, and the Italians went home for some well deserved R&R.

And that was that....really, like I said, we benefitted a lot from the nighttime conditions, as I think things could have gone a lot differently if he had been able to employ those Lightning Projectors, keel bombards and FACs from long range.  But that's just one more reason I love this game.  There are a lot of tactical wrinkles you have to consider for a fastplay set of rules.

Hope folks enjoyed it.  Sorry for the length.
Matt</r>