The Prussian Empire - A Brief Introduction

The Fleet So Far

Hello and welcome to the second of my fleet profiles - the Prussian Empire. My first and largest fleet, they have undergone a major repaint over the past few months, after I became more and more disappointed with the initial scheme. 

This post will be a brief introduction, rather than trying to cover every ship in the fleet. I'll go into more depth about the different ship classes in the fleet over time.

The Prussian Empire

One of Dystopian Wars' 7 major factions, and one third of the Imperial Bond, the Prussian Empire is at first glance one of the more "normal" looking fleets in the game, especially when compared to some of the wackier vessels of the Sturginium Age. That simplicity belies their strengths however. Their vessels are fast, surprisingly resilient, and able to hit hard at close range with a combination of gunnery, Tesla weaponry and powerful boarding marines.

In basic terms, a Prussian fleet can be built in three main ways.

• Gunnery focused - making use of the Prussian close quarter gunnery, this fleet archetype relies on brute force gunnery.
• Tesla focused - while Prussian Tesla weaponry does not have the raw firepower of the Prussian gunnery, synergy between Tesla weaponry and speerschleuders, Tesla harpoons that act as lightning rods, help to make up for that discrepancy.
• Combined arms - tesla weaponry also strips crew from enemy ships, so a mixture of tesla, boarding ships and some gunnery can result in a powerful fleet that synergises well with itself.

Painting

I mentioned earlier that this fleet had been repainted. As some background, this was the first Dystopian Wars fleet I painted. I initially wanted to go for a blue-grey scheme to try something different, but my paint selection unintentionally made it (just another) grey Prussian fleet. I found it dull to paint and even more dull to look at:

While there's nothing strictly wrong with it, I just never found it particularly inspiring

Despite having a significant portion of the fleet painted, I made the decision earlier this year to start again. So out came the Dettol, and new inspiration was sought. Taking my cue from the look of pre-dreadnought ironclads, I went for a two tone scheme, of black hulls with white superstructures. Much more striking!

The Elbe Fleet Carrier is a true monster of a ship, featuring abundant tesla weaponry, and significant numbers of small aircraft

To all intents and purposes a flight deck strapped on to a dreadnought hull, the Elbe is a suitably imposing model

Protected by shields and rugged construction, and armed with powerful turrets, the Kaiser Karl Heavy Battleship is a floating tank

Donnerfaust Support Cruisers are armed with deadly Speerschleuders, and are a very effective force multiplier for Tesla focused fleets.

Havel Light Carriers bring a useful combination of mines, Tesla weaponry and fighter support - I'm looking forward to trying them out in game!

Brandtaucher Submarines were one of the new units added in Spartan's Kickstarter - I was fortunate enough to get hold of my pledge before the company went under.

As you can no doubt see from the group photo above, there is a lot of this fleet that hasn't been covered here. More will follow in other posts where I take a closer look at the Prussian Large, Medium and Small ships.

Looking ahead, I have the remainder of the Kickstarter to paint up - more submarines, Tesla destroyers and the delightfully ridiculous Gustav class monitor. Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading.