Into the Narrow Seas

 This past Saturday at the Hamilton Road Games Group, Andy set up a scenario that was very small and quite tricky. Only four ships of WWI vintage and a few shore forts, but it made for a great little scenario which ended up being played three times. We used Naval Thunder rules and the ship models were 1/6000th scale.

I'd be willing to bet that some of you already know what the scenario was, but I (not being wise in naval things) only realized what it was after a little coaxing and some broad hints.

the table, suitably decorated with a narrow mouth and some of the north shore

One of th shore forts. The "A" and "B" show the fields of fire for the guns mounted in the forts.

There were "dead spots" between the forts fields of fire, but the ranges of the batteries was 40".

Each fort mounted 13.2" guns for primary armement and 12" guns for secondaries.

The setting was the Bosphorus and the scenario was the flight of the battlecruiser Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau. Only this time the Royal Navy figured out where they were going rather than holding to the belief that the two ship were going to interdict the French troop ships bringing colonial forces from North Africa to Metropolitan France. This was an incident I knew little about and I learned. The two ships were turned over to the Turkish navy and this caused a lot of good feeling toward the German Empire, since the British had kept/"commandeered"/stolen two battleships being built in British shipyards for Turkey just before the war started.
In our scenario, the two German ships are about to enter the narrows at Istanbul. They are being persued by the battlecruisers, HMS Indomitable and HMS Indefatigable. The three shore forts shown in the photos above cannot fire on anybody until one turn after the British open fire. The British ships set up 30" behind the German ships. To win, the British had to stop and/or sink the Goeben and lose no more than one ship.
In the first game, Derrik and I took the British ships (Indefatigable was mine) while Kevin and Martin took the German ships and Bear took charge of the shore forts. Andy refereed since he made up the scenario. Derrik and I set up widely seperated and did a stern chase for about three turns, then I opened fire. Breslau began to lay down smoke, steering left and right while Goeben ran for the end of the table. Since I had opend fire so early, I took a lot of damage from the shore forts as well as the Goeben itself. My rudder was damaged and I could only turn to starboard.

My command - HMS Indefatigable

the Goeben and the Breslau

The Breslau lays down smoke while the Indefatigable takes fire.

And more fire...

And more fire, until the rudder is disabled.

Eventually I took enough hits to sink and as the Indefatigable slipped beneath the waves and the Goeben made for a berth in Istanbul, we realized that we had plenty of time to play at least one more scenario. We realised that the shore forts were tremendously powerful so we reduced the efficiency of the Turkish crews and delayed the order to fire by allowing the forts to open fire d4+2 turns after the British open fire. This time, Derrik took the Breslau and Bear took Goeben. I handled the shore forts. Kevin and Martin took the British and began as far back as we did but kept their ships close together.

Like this.

They also held their fire until they were past the first two shore forts and were out of those fort's fields of fire. That left the third, which did some damage.

The British battlecruisers pushed forward at full speed in a tight formation.

Breslau laid down smoke again.

Smoke everywhere.

Although the light cruiser was able to hide the Goeben with smoke for a while,
the Breslau was sunk by the two British ships.

The two batteries in the third fort and the aft guns of the Goeben eventually pounded the Indefatigable to scrap. The rules allow for two sorts of hits: if your shells hit but you don't make the penetration roll, you do half damage (which wears down the ship). If your shells hit and you make the penetration roll, you do full damage and you roll on the critical hit table. That could start a fire, disable your rudder, start a flood, or on the roll of a 20 on 2d10, suffer an disasterous magazine hit which destroys the ship instantly. Kevin had numerous fires, flooding, and engine room damage. He did inflict some fire control damage on the Goeben, but that didn't keep the Goeben from reaching the end of the table and safety.
For the third game, Lyle and Dale took the British for a turn or two (they had to leave early.) This time all the ships started further outside the harbor in order to give the British more of a chance to catch the Germans before the Turkish fort guns could be brought to bear. Beth and I left not too long after that so I'm unsure of the out-come. It is a tough game for the British and I heard some talk of adding a third ship to the British flotilla. Still it made for a good game - a real barn-burner and a nail-biter that took all your attention for a rather brief time.

The Indefatigable under my command taking fire and showing a damaged rudder that would only turn to starboard.
I couldn't go straight or to port.

The Indefatigable slips into a watery grave, as it were.

One of the Turkish shore forts.
In the second and third scenarios, their fields of fire were adjusted, the gunners' efficiency
was reduced and the lag time regarding the orders to open fire was lengthened.

Kevin was captaining the Indefatigable when all these fires broke out.

You never know what you'll see in the waters around Istanbul.
A giant walrus makes an appearance... scouting for Godzilla, no doubt.

Skirmish gaming next week. I'll be busy elsewhere and won't be able to make the gaming.

Naval Thunder in Indochina

The Hamilton Road Games Group is attempting to develop a schedule for our 'historical' games. This past week, we exercised the schedule for "Fleet Actions" and played Naval Thunder using 1930's fleets for Imperial Japan and for France. The action was supposed to be taking place in the Gulf outside of Hanoi. The Japanese fleet was more modern than the French Pacific-Indochina fleet, which appears to be made up of out-dated battleships and cruisers with a batch of destroyers. The Japanese also floated larger guns and made the most of the "Long Lance" torpedoes.

Martin, Kevin, and Bear were the commanders of the French while Andy, Derek, and I captained the Japanese. My squadron consisted of the heavy cruiser Furutaka, and the destroyers Kagoro, Isukaze, Urakaze, and Akitsuki. (I'm glad I remembered to write those names down because I can't tell names or classes from ship silhouettes. Naval gaming is not my primary thing.) Oh, yes, photos are courtesy of Martin and of my wife's camera (manned by me.)

Both sides spend a few turns advancing toward each other since most of our guns were vastly out of range. The Japanese found the French in range first, but the dice failed us... consistantly... all through the game.

The Imperial Japanese commanders face some of the French fleet.

The same folks in the middle of the game with a smoke screen being generated by the French destroyers.

My cruiser, Furutaka, leading the destroyer squadron.

The three Japanese battleships under Derek's command.
Andy's squadron is in the background.

I believe this is Andy's lead cruiser.

To make the board less "boring", the Isles of Langerhans were added.
(Apologies to the Firesign Theatre.)

My intent was to do an end run on the left side and mess up the French fleet's day with torpedoes. The Japanese "Long Lance" torpedoes have a range of 150% of the French torps. They rate as a 24" torpedo with means if/when they hit, they do hull damage equal to their rate in inches, in this case 24 damage points to the hull. Some of the destroyers have a hull rating of 7 or 8; a torpedo hit could ruin your day. Andy intended to do something similar on the right flank with Derek holding the centre with his battleships - a force to be reckoned with! Kevin came at me with three cruisers, while Bear took the centre with three elderly battleships. Martin faced Andy with a destroyer-heavy force in an attempt to deny Andy's end run.

As I approached, my faster destroyers pealed off, leaving the heavy cruiser and the older destroyer, Akitsuki, to come straight in. I was still hoping to launch torpedoes. Alas, this was not to be.

Kevin measures the advance sailing of the French battleships. (He was closer to the models than Bear.)

Martin's flotilla - destroyers and a cruiser

The lead French battleship - the Bretagne, I believe.
An older hull and smaller than the Japanese battle wagons as you'll see later.

Led by the Kongo, the Japanese battleships execute a turn to bring broadsides to bear.
I find the "pagoda" conning towers on the Japanese ships to be quite a fetching feature.

Martin's destroyers lay down a smoke screen. I believe that's what "tin cans" are made for.

Furutaka is being passed by the slightly faster Kagoro in a vain attempt to begin a torpedo run.

The destroyer Isukaze was sunk, leaving only bubbles.
The markers are counter to symbolize that a ship is being fired at. Andy made them from 3/4 inch squares with two clear rubber/silicon pierced-earings backs glued on. The look like splashs in the water of missed shots. To show where a ship sank for photos, we'd throw a bunch out in a row.

This could've been messy. Martin's destroyers were laying down smoke. In the meantime, his cruiser took a hit to the rudder which jammed it in a continuous starboard turn, barely missing the destroyers engaged in laying smoke. The French cruiser happily pirouetted for the rest of the game.

More of Martin's DD's laid more smoke near the islands to mess up Andy's plans. The tipped-over ship is destroyed but has torpedoes in the water so was left there to mark the place of the launch.

Kevin and Bear slowly (well, not so slowly) picked off my ships - Isukaze (DD) in turn 6, Furutaka (CA) in turn 7 Kagoro, Urakaze, and Akitsuke (all DDs) in turn 8. I kibitzed for the rest of the game which was maybe a turn or two. Kevin turned his three cruisers back in order to come around and face Andy's ships. Bear's battleship squadron made a right turn and was steaming behind the smoke screen to attack Derek's battleships. Martin was holding is own, but only because Andy could not get his dice to cooperate! He kept rolling "ones" which is an auto-fail in the game. He was getting royally ticked off over this and considered throwing his dice through the drywall. If it hadn't been library space loaned to us, I'd have expected to have seen some d10-sized holes in the wall. I really can't blame him; such things are VERY frustrating!

Die, traitorous randomizers!

The Japanese had to withdraw, but it was not a full-fledged victory for the French. Their destroyer force had been hurt and the one cruiser continued to pirouette. The French battleships were really no match for the same number of Japanese BBs. The French cruisers were more numerous but had less guns. I think the French stuff was slower as well.

Not that it mattered.

Another artificial reef.

The Furutaka's bubbles with Kagoro steaming on it's futile errand.

Akitsuki, loyal and true to the last, attempts to finish his run on the French battle line.
"Loyal and true" translates into English as "futile and stupid."

The Japanese battleships with the Kongo in the lead.
Andy had just finished repainting the Japanese ships, so this as their first outing in their new paint.

The French destroyers begin their run.
The counter with the squiggle represents evasive action by the ship, which lessens the chance of a hit.

Kevin's  French cruisers turn their backs on my ineffective force and begin to sail around the back of the French battle line to engage Andy's force over by the islands.

The French line of battle is being ranged by the Japanese long range guns.

Another view of the Kongo.
I'm not a naval gamer but I was impressed with Andy's paint jobs.

The Japanese battleline from a different angle, giving a good view of the "pagoda" superstructure.

The French battleship were older and smaller.

French destroyers in their evasive action.

My cruiser and four destroyers with the Japanese battleships on my order pad - just to give an idea of size.

The French battleship Bretagne in front of the Japanese battleship Kongo -  the differences are obvious.

Another fun game despite the frustrations of the dice. A day of gaming is still superior to many things we could end up doing.

I'm not sure what church this stained glass window is from. I'm not sure I want to know.
I would like to know if the roll of the dice is based on grace or law or simple perverse randomness.

Sailing off into the sunset.

Next week we're going to try a space battle using the Sunder the Stars rules (available on line, I understand.) 

 "IN SPACE, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU WHINE."