UCM Heavy Ship Guide

The St Petersburg is a beautiful ship that unfortunately tends to be a bit of a let down. On paper, it is a very efficient package of firepower. It brings two burnthrough lasers for a significant discount over the equivalent firepower of Berlins or New Cairos, even more so with a points drop in the last balance review. On its own, it could rip an opposing cruiser in half with a good set of rolls, with a very high damage ceiling. Unfortunately it has one major obstacle in its way: the need to weapons free to get the most out of its weapons. That’s normally just a bit of a inconvenience, but with the St Petersburg, it is an enormous obstacle. Since both weapons are tied to the narrow arc, you will often find yourself wanting to turn. Weapon free means no turning and no layer shifting. A crafty opponent will use either solid maneuver or layer shenanigans to make a weapons free order hard to pull off. So, in effect, you often have to settle for only a single gun in order to get any weapons on target. That’s not exactly what you want from your big shiny death lasers.

The Moscow is an angry mass of guns, well deserving of its namesake. Much like the St Petersburg, it attempts to bring nearly the equivalent firepower of two smaller cruisers for a significant discount. It falls a little short of that since it lacks the squadron bonus that multiple Rios or Osakas would get, but it’s still a formidable amount of firepower. Like the other UCM heavy cruiser, it needs to rely on a weapons free order to maximize its firepower. That’s not nearly as bad of a limitation as the St Petersburg. The Moscow has a far easier time on weapons free orders since its main guns are able to swing to either side as well as the front. If you’re looking for a fairly cheap, efficient, and durable flagship, the Moscow can serve that purpose pretty well.

Oh boy. This Frankenstein's Monster of a ship is cobbled together from the extra parts in the bottom of your bits box. So let's break down what we have here. We have the usual three Fighters/Bombers from our UCM cruisers. For the Heavy Cruisers, that's unique. The extra durability comes at the usual heavy cruiser cost of speed. We also have a standard Cobra Heavy Laser. That makes this somewhat similar to the PHR Bellerophon. And then we have what I'm guessing is probably a mistyped UF-6400 Mass Driver, which is usually a 3+ lock, but for some reason is a 4+ lock here. However, even with the proper UF-6400 statline, this is a mess of a ship. The need to weapons free with a narrow arc, as mentioned above with the St. Petersburg, is problematic. All of that would be fine if this was costed appropriately. Spoiler: it is not. For just 15 points more, you get the immensely superior Johannesburg, which brings more of pretty much everything. All of the recently released experimental heavy cruisers are not well costed, but the Burnaby is the worst of the bunch. Sad to say, as cool as this ship looks on the table (personally, I would put the UF-6400 on the top and the Cobra Laser on the bottom), I really have no ideas for how to utilize it. It's just plain bad.

Much like the Seattle, the Johannesburg can be a somewhat controversial ship. Your view of the Seattle is likely to be similar to your view of the Johannesburg. It is my personal favorite flagship for UCM fleets for much the same reason I love the Seattle. It is a great generalist, able to provide launch support, but also bring solid firepower to bear. It has all the same guns as the Moscow, including the flexibility of being able to fire its main guns to either side and the front. It also has two more hit points, a 1” greater thrust, better point defense, and 3 fighters and bombers. For 45 points over the Moscow, that’s a really good deal. As I’ve said before, I really like having a Johannesburg and two Seattles at the core of my UCM fleets. Together, they provide a solid 9 fighters and bombers as well as up to 16 shots on a 3+ lock, giving both the immediacy of powerful guns as well as the flexibility of launch bays.

If you like burnthrough lasers…take some Berlins. If you like burnthrough lasers on a bit hull…maybe take some St Petersburgs and a Venice I guess? Oh right, there’s also the Perth, which is certainly…present. It’s not a terrible ship, but unlike the Johannesburg, it doesn’t really bring all that much firepower in its burnthrough laser. It’s more reliable than its smaller cousins in the UCM fleet since it starts with four shots, but with a cap of only eight damage, it is simply not going to put out as much damage as the equivalent investment in smaller cruisers. It has some smaller guns as well, but then you’re presented with the problem of having to go weapons free while trying to line up the narrow arc. It’s eight shots, but only on a 4+ lock, meaning they’re not likely to do a whole lot of damage. Oh, and it lights itself up with a spike when it fires its main weapon because of the Bloom keyword. That’s not ideal on a ship you are likely at least considering as your flagship. UCM have some solid options for flagships. The Perth is probably near the bottom of that list.

You are playing a game of feast or famine when you bring the Rome out to play. When those giant torpedoes hit home, they absolutely obliterate ships. Anything cruiser sized or smaller is almost guaranteed death. Battlecruisers are in for a very bad day. They’re even likely to cripple a Battleship and give a Dreadnought a seriously bad blow. If both torpedoes hit one target? Forget about it. But this all comes with a big giant asterisk. Torpedoes are always delayed until after the targeted ship’s next activation. That means that in addition to firing their weapons once again, they have some good opportunities to avoid damage. Once your opponent has played against torpedoes a time or two, they’ll quickly start to recognize they can hug some terrain and be prepared to use come to new heading orders. Plowing through any debris field is infinitely preferable to getting hit with Rome torpedoes, so you better believe they’re going to do it. This gives the ship two chances to roll to shake torpedoes: one for the come to new heading orders, one for the debris field. If they’re able to dodge into a dense debris field, they essentially get two opportunities to not take torpedo damage that turn on a 5+. Come to new heading only destroys the torpedoes on a 6, but even a delay is a major victory when you have up to 16 damage on the line. If they’re hugging a fine debris field, you shouldn’t even bother shooting. The odds of your torpedoes getting through are pretty slim.

The Venice's value comes down entirely to the Command Deck and UCM Battlenet rules, which are as follows:

Command Deck - If you mount your Admiral in this ship, when drawing Command Cards, you may draw 2 more than normal.

UCM Battlenet - As long as this ship is on the board, when a friendly Battlegroup within this ship’s weapons range activates, you may choose to discard 1 Command Card and that Battlegroup gains 1 of the following bonuses when on Special Orders:

• • Any ships in that Battlegroup may add 4” to their movement this turn (after any Thrust modifiers)

  • Special Orders that allow ships to fire weapon systems allow them to fire an additional weapon system. Special Orders that do not allow ships to fire weapon systems allow them to fire 1 Close Action weapon (but does not count for launching Launch Assets)

  • Any ships in that Battlegroup may change Orbital Layer, even if they otherwise would not be allowed to do so (all normal restrictions apply such as costing Thrust distance and only entering Atmosphere if they have the Atmospheric special rule).

Your should be mind will be swimming with possibilities. And I guarantee as much as you’re imagining right now, it’s even better on the tabletop. Max thrusting Taipeis YOLOing their way to close action from half away across the board? I’ve done that. Come to new heading and firing both of the St Petersburg’s burnthrough lasers? Check. Oh yeah, it’s glorious. At 220 points, the Venice is the most expensive battlecruiser by a good chunk. Pair that with the fact that its weapons are so pitiful that you might as well consider them to not even be there. You’re just gonna make something angry. What you’re left with is a really damned good flagship, but a fleet that is essentially short 220 points worth of guns. The bigger the game, the less that matters, but in smaller games, that’s a big chunk. In anything below 1500 points I don’t think I’d even consider the Venice. Even at 1500, I’m eternally asking myself if the impressive capabilities of the Venice are worth the cost. The recent 1.5 nerf to the ship has made me lean toward "no," but it still an intriguing ship.