[Battle Report] BFG- Crossing into Castellan (illustrated)

[Death Hawk]

+++ Fleet Captain’s log 0045470M41 +++
+++ Captain Eric Brigman commanding His Majestic Emperor’s vessel Divinity +++
+++ We are investigating reports of missing merchant ships that were due to arrive at Saylonia several weeks back.  Navigator Larune informs me that the Pendulum Tide is calm at the moment and that while it is not impossible that they were lost to the warp, that it is unlikely.  This leads me to suspect the greenskin filth that is famous for plaguing the sector.  Only time will tell. +++

+++ Fleet Captain’s log 0052470M41 +++
+++ Captain Eric Brigman commanding His Majestic Emperor’s vessel Divinity +++
+++ While patrolling along the Castellan and Regnia borders, augurs detected a debris field.  It turned out to be the remains of some of the missing merchant fleet.  They had been gutted from battle damage and obvious piracy.  This abomination will not stand.  Those that stand against the will of the Emperor will pay for their sins. +++

+++ Fleet Captain’s log 0075470M41 +++
+++ Captain Eric Brigman commanding His Majestic Emperor’s vessel Divinity +++
+++ At long last, we have found them.  It is a greenskin raiding force.  We are preparing to engage.  The Emperor’s retribution is at hand. +++

Imperials
Gothic (Divinity)
Dauntless (Red River)
3 x Firestorms (Zephyr Squadron)
3 x Cobras (Ajax Squadron)


Orks
2 x Kill Kroozers (Blamma’s Fury, Brutal)
2 x Onslaughts
2 x Savages
Brute ram ship


Notes* Firing would be simultaneous.

Orks Turn 1
Bellowing at his helmsman, Warboss Morgbak Blamma commands his fleet to move in for the kill.  The Kill Kroozers open fire just under maximum range.  Blamma’s Fury manages to take down the shields on the Divinty.  The Brutal opens fire on the Red River and manages to reduce its structural integrity by a third. 


Imperial Turn 1
The Imperials move in closer with Ajax squadron streaking ahead to unload their torpedoes on the Blamma’s Fury.  Fire from their lascannons take down its shield.  Then they fire 6 torpedoes at Blamma’s Fury and 1 slams home. Unfortunately, the other 5 sail past the Kroozer, narrowing missing one of the savages.


The Onslaughts open fire at the cobras.  They destroy 1 and take down the shield on a second. 

The Red River opens fire with its lances, but due to the damage it suffered earlier, fail to hit Blamma’s Fury.

Having come about, the Divinity’s lances come to life.    They find their mark and rend several large gashes into the Blamma’s Fury.  Not only that, but the thrusters are damaged and the lead Kroozer’s advance is slowed. 


Lance fire streaks out from Squadron Zephyr and destroys one of the savages, reducing it to cloud of debris.  The added battery fire then destroys the second savage. 


Ork Turn 2
The Red River targets the nearest Onslaught, but once again fails to strike home. The gunners in the starboard batteries have better luck and bring down the shields of the Brutal.  Focused on the larger ships, the Red River doesn’t notice the brute ram ship streaking out from behind the rest of the Ork ships until it is too late.  The brute slams into the Red River and inflicts crippling damage and is destroyed in the suicide run. 


The Brutal opens fire with it guns and heavy guns, pounding the Red River until there is nothing left but a drifting hulk of debris.


The guns of the onslaughts open fire at the Divinity, damaging the engines such that the ship was unable to navigate.  The Divinity’s lances replied in kind, but weren’t nearly as effective and only managed to bring down the shields on the nearest onslaught.

Failing the Emperor miserably, Squadron Ajax is unable to damage the Brutal.

Zephyr Squadron once again targets the Blamma’s Fury, their lances and batteries crippling the ship and inflicting heavy damage.


Blamma’s Fury's port guns open fire on the surviving members of Ajax Squadron.  They manage to knock down the shield on the nearest cobra, but fail to do anything more significant than that. The prow weapons then train on the Divinity and show why every naval officer should fear getting close to Ork ships.  They pound the Divinity mercilessly until the plasma core ruptures in a blinding display.  Two of Zephyr squadron and the closet onslaught are consumed by its death throws. 


Turn 3
With only a single firestorm and 2 cobras left, the imperials go dark and limp away from the triumphant Orks.

+++ Mayday, Mayday 0076470M41 +++
+++ Lieutenant Commander Kermano Torez commanding His Majestic Emperor’s vessel Ceylon +++
+++ Encountered Ork force along the Regnia border.  The greenskin’s devastated our patrol. +++
+++ The Divinity, Red River, Exeter, Gonzales, and Calysto were lost +++
+++ The Greenskins fleet is continuing to head deeper into Imperial space +++
+++ All Castellan forces should be on the alert +++

[Malika]

Cool I like it! The pictures could use a bit of improvement to make them look a bit more "convincing" but so far I like what I see!

By the way, do you have CELS' civilian ship component files? I think you might like them! I could email them to you if you would like that.

[Death Hawk]

Cool I like it! The pictures could use a bit of improvement to make them look a bit more "convincing" but so far I like what I see!

Yeah, Sketchup is awesome for making models, the rendering side is fairly limited.  At least in the free addition.  This is best evidenced in the lack of visibility of the opposing fleets in the distance.  Hopefully I will improve with time, but I wanted to get some product out there.

By the way, do you have CELS' civilian ship component files? I think you might like them! I could email them to you if you would like that.

I do not have them and I would greatly appreciate being able to get a close of look at Magos CELS' handiwork.  My email is visible in my profile.  Many thanks in advance.

[Malika]

Yeah, Sketchup is awesome for making models, the rendering side is fairly limited.  At least in the free addition.  This is best evidenced in the lack of visibility of the opposing fleets in the distance.  Hopefully I will improve with time, but I wanted to get some product out there.

How about some sort of photoshop program or whatever? Surely there are some Open Source versions out there (if you don't want to pay/register for it).

I do not have them and I would greatly appreciate being able to get a close of look at Magos CELS' handiwork.  My email is visible in my profile.  Many thanks in advance.

Check your inbox

[CELS]

As Malika says, this is all very promising and potentially a fantastic way of doing battlereports. The biggest problem, of course, is Sketch-Up's rather poor rendering of light and shadow, textures, etc.

The main problem is the lack of contours, which Sketch-Up makes up for with the black edges on all objects. While this does look good up close, it makes the objects look messy at a distance. The best way to get around this is to either switch off the black edges in Sketch-Up and increase the contrast between light and shadow, OR (much better) to find a filter in Photoshop that effectively softens the black edges and adds a sense of depth to the images. If you check the Aquanautica Imperialis images in the Artwork thread, you'll see what I mean. (Even if that's not a good rendering by professional standards)

The other thing that I think would improve the quality of the images is getting rid of the hand-drawn stuff, such as lasers, explosions and nebulae. Either you need to improve your technique for drawing these, or you can cheat, like I often do. To cheat effectfully, grab a photograph or professionally drawn image of an explosion, starfield background, nebula or whatever. Then simply copy-paste it in the background of your starship battle. Of course, it'll look really unnatural next to the poorly rendered objects from Sketch-Up. To get around that, run the photgraphic objects through a filter that makes them look a bit rougher, like they were painted. Then run the entire image (both the photograph background and the Sketch-up objects) through another filter, to get a coherent look on the entire image.

This is the way I've done all my images with Sketch-up objects on a background. You can see an example here, in the image of Eremaios, the city. Everything except the sky was drawn in Sketch-up, but notice the lack of black edges. A lot of the buildings look good, even though they're in the distance.

Hope that helps