WW1 Naval Battle of Zante (Flight of the Goeben)

I attempt to look knowledgeable, but Stacy and Sylvain are not buying it!

This week I ran a WW1 Naval game based on the infamous "Troubridge Decision".  This is a historical almost-was scenario (see the link Pursuit of Goeben and Breslau) based on a squadron of armoured cruisers commanded by Adm Troubridge that could have intercepted the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben early in the days of WW1.  Troubridge lost his bottle over night and shied away from the confrontation based on orders that allowed him to avoid superior forces.  Had he met the Goeben and slowed her down, a lot of recent history would have been altered.  However his squadron would have likely have been sunk in a straight up fight.

The game was fought using my 30 year old 1:3000 scale ships (Navwar mainly and some Skytrex) and the General Quarters 3 WW1 variant Fleet Action Imminent.  This was my first time using FAI although I have run GQ3 games several times.  Overall, I am not sure that the GQ system really fits WW1 as well as it fits WW2.  This may be to my inexperience with certain FAI nuances and differences from GQ3.   I may haul out my home brew faster play WW1 naval rules and do a refight.

The forces were as follows

• The BC Goeben and her escort LC Breslau were steaming SE at 18kts with orders to escape to Constantinople.  Sylvain took the Goeben and Jeremy the Breslau.  The Goeben had injured boilers and had a maximum speed of 24kts and would be slow in getting above 21 kts.  Note that the Goeben was still the equal in speed to the British CAs and vastly superior in fire power, range and armour.
• Curt took the role of Troubridge with 4 CAs (Defense, Black Prince, Duke of Edinburgh and Warrior).  I also gave Curt two Beagle class destroyers which with better planning would have been available to Troubridge.  Curt was 20,000 yrs (max visibility) from the Goeben heading SSW and on course to cross her T.
• Stacy took the role of the pesky Kelly brothers with the LCs Gloucester and Dublin plus two more Beagle class DDs.  Historically Gloucester tailed the Goeben for days until her coal ran low.  Dublin and the DDs nearly intercepted the Goeben on the previous night but just missed.  Overall the two LC captains (the brothers Kelly) were the only British officers to do well during the whole fiasco.  Stacy was 20,000 yrs SW of the Goeben heading E and well out of sight of Troubridge.
• Wind was light and variable, and a random die roll had it blowing from East to West initially and then SE to NW.

I didn't take notes for a full AAR, but highlights are as follows.

Stacy plots his move.

• The Goeben kept her speed relatively low (21kts) and got very close to Troubridge in trying to scoot past to the North (to the stern of the British initially).  This was a surprise to me as I expected her to speed up and keep the range long to maximize her advantages.  
• Smoke badly affected gunfire, as did the concentration of 2 or more CAs firing on one target.  it also hillariously affected German signalling.  The photos show Curt's wonderful smoke markers in play.
• Stacy's forces were unable to fire being our of effective range for the whole game.  My apologies to Stacy and I am nervously anticipating the role I get assigned in his next scenario.
• Gunfire was sporadically effective but deadly when it hit.  A single salvo wrecked the Defense, and narrowly avoided achieving the same result on the Duke of Edinburgh instead taking our her searchlights no less than three times.  In return, a few hits from the CAs wrecked the Breslau.  The Goeben also got close enough (6000yds) to let the Duke of Edinburgh take off a stern turret.
• Curt's two destroyers got in close and Basilisk put a torpedo into the Goeben, thus ensuring a British victory.  The hit reduced her speed and took out the fore turret.  It also significantly reduced her value to German diplomacy.
• The Germans were often signally directly up or down wind (i.e. into coal smoke).  The best signal was the one delivered to Jeremy advising him to "maneuver from X flank to Y flank" since every third word was lost in translation!
• The Breslau was dead in the water and struck her flag surrounded by three CAs.  In reality I suspect sea cocks would be opened and the crew to take to the boats.
• We ended up with Troubridge breaking off having hurt the Goeben and sunk the Breslau.  The Kelly brothers would resume their watch and call in the British BCs to the west and more DDs to finish the job.
• Lesson  number 1:  the ship with the bigger guns needs to keep the range long.  It takes longer but has far fewer risks.
• Lesson number 2:  don't let torpedo craft get any where near the big ships.  They can close awfully quickly.
• Lesson number 3:  I need review the  FAI rules again, as I am sure that I did things incorrectly along the way.  Also we were all caught by surprise by the ineffectiveness of many of the lighter guns.

Photos from Curt's iPhone below.

Troubridge's cruisers and destroyers with Curt's oh-so-cool smoke markers.

Looks like we're in range.  Gone under the tape measure, with Breslau on her port quarter. Not sure if this is the X flank or the X flank.  Models are 1:3000 Navwar and nearly 30 years old.  They stand up reasonably well, but my ship labels did not.  Fine point marker over white out were state of the art in 1986.

Destroyers make their run.  The smoke markers are particularly effective here.

Troubridge's squadron steaming to the right side of the pic.  Warrior followed by Duke of Edinburgh, Black Price and Defense.

A hit!  Too bad our 9.2" guns can't penetrate at any range over 6000 yrs.  Or  too bad we didn't keep the range longer if you're German and it is later in the action.

HMS Warrior takes a pasting from the Goeben's 11" guns!

Sea/Air Games Photos pt 3

HMS Euryalus under fire.  Flame markers by Litko, shell splashes by Curt.  Sean hit her in the seaplane hanger 3 times in one salvo.  Luckily for her she didn't have a seaplane and Sylvain put the fires out quickly.

Euryalus from ahead.

Tribal class close up

Italian cruiser with various bits needing straightening. 

Naval Game pics Pt 2

The game at set up, Italians in foreground, brits in background with assorted game aids on the table.  The plexiglass square hold all of the aircraft.

From another angle.

Close up of the Raiders

No Sylvain you don't have any nukes!

Tribals make smoke while under fire

The wooden horse looks on.

Nice overhead shot Sean.

Conn makes a key die roll.

Not there, I say it was here.

Photos from Recent Air/Sea Game pt 1

I managed to get Sean's photos from last Friday's game.  Sean being an artist by trade and a very good photographer, the quality of the photos is greatly improved over my normal bog standard pickies.  Sadly I have neither the talent, equipment or inclination to match his output.

Sylvain looks Professorial, Conn looks enlightened, I look for my glass of wine!

The RN Admiral looks confident while his convoy and escorts brew smoke screens.

Our host looks smug!

   

The smoke and flames mark where an Italian destroyer blew up from a magazine hit.

  

Action is getting tighter

Flames mark the end of the Italian destroyer (same one as above) plus the end of the Bolzano.

WW2 Naval Game With Air Support

This week I ran a WW2 Naval Game based on a Mediterranean convoy action.  I based it on the Vigorous & Halbard convoys of June 1942,when the Royal Navy's resources were stretched go their thinnest. The actual convoys are described in Vincent P O'Hara's book In Passage Perilous which I highly reccommend.  In June '42, the Italians with some Luftwaffe help stopped both convoys and won a surface action with the Western convoy's escorts.

I beefed up both sides, especially the Brits and included the air support - in the Battle of Panteleria there were air attacks simultaneously with the surface action!  The rules were General Quarters 3.

Forces are shown below.  Curt and Sean took the Italians and Sylvain and Conn the Brits.

 

In addition there were the following air assets ( all on call and arriving randomly except for the CAP flights).

• 2 flights of RAF Hurricanes from Malta providing Combat Air Patrols (CAP)
• 3 flights of Blenheim torpedo bombers from Malta
• 3 flights of Swordfish with fighter support of 2 flights of Fulmars from HMS Eagle
• A group of two blights each of JU87 dive bombers, JU88 bombers and MC200 fighters operating from Sicily
• 3 flights of SM79 torpedo bombers also from Sicily

The surface action wasn't my best effort.  I had the two sides make contact within gun range and on opposite courses, so it turned into a Space Invaders or Micro Armour type shooting gallery with limited tactical maneuvers.  Next time around I'll remember to go with the raiders overhauling the convoy in a stern or quarter chase.

A large part of the exercise was to try the air rules and give me a reason to learn them!  Highlights included:

• The Blenheims came on first.  The Italian destroyer screen shot down 1 flight and chased another off damaged.  However, the third flight torpedoed and sank Bolzano.
• The mixed JU87/JU88/MC200 group came on next, with Sylvain attempting to intercept with the CAP. One flight of Hurricanes took a short cut over the convoy and was shot down by friendly fire from the escorts.  Seriously dude, what part of "Anti-Aircraft Cruiser" don't you get?
• The MCs ganged up and shot down the other Hurricane flight.
• Meanwhile the Luftwaffe went in on the Convoy.  The escort's AA fire was ineffective and one freight went down from a direct hit from a Stuka.  The other Stuka and a JU88 missed a second transport.

At this point we'd hit midnight and I was about to turn into a pumpkin so we called it a night.

Sean took many photos and sent me a link.  I'll post the best in a day or do.

Photos of Our Recent Convoy Action

British Convoy en route to the Med.  Stacey nicely convoyed gluten free provisions visible in the background.

Convoy from down low

The might of the Italian Navy at sea!!

Fortified by wine, Stacey plots his move.

The fleets converge (I'm not sure why either side tried to close so much, but who am I to argue)

There's a gonna be a fight here partner.

Sylvain mulls over his options and his wine.

Smoke - a dastardly British trick!

Getting closer while Sylvain gets closer to the snacks.

The sea is really rolling at this angle.

Red arrows mark the British torpedoes - red smoke from the Trento signals a hit!  I'm not sure of the wisdom of the DD captain who turned back towards his own fish trails.

Same scene from above.

Italian Attack on A British Convoy

It's been a long time since I put on a miniatures game mostly due to REAL LIFE imposing it's ugly head on my important business.  Well last night I brought out my 1:2400 WW2 ships and we fought a convoy action.  And I have to say that my rustiness showed - but we did get a good if much bloodier game than I expected.

Sylvain took the Royal Navy side and was assigned a small convoy of 5 merchantmen escorted by;

• HMS Carlisle an old WW1 cruiser refitted with 4" AA guns
• HMS Manxman the fast minelayer/AA cruiser/fast transport/jack of all trades
• 3 H class destroyers
• 3 Hunt class destroyer escorts
• Readers with keen memories might recognize this as the covering force that Curt used when we fought our larger convoy action against the Kriegsmarine.
• Originally I had intended to have a covering force of 4 RN cruisers and 6 DDs (3 Tribal and 3 J class) to play the part of the cavalry and arrive part way through the action.  However this was downsized to 2 cruisers on sober second sight when I starting laying the ships out on the table and these never made it on table.

Stacey took the Italian Side with the following forces

• the cruisers Gorizia, Trento  (both 8") and Bande Nere (6")
• 3 Soldati class DDs
• 3 Navagatori class DDSs
• Again readers might recognize this force as being approximately 1/2 of the forces from the Savos Island games.  
• Once again, the other half of the Savos Island RMI forces were intended to be on table but got downsized on reflection.

The RN arrived on the east end of the table and were intercepted by the Italians from their Northwest.  The convoy had to get across the table to exit on the west edge.  The RMI were given orders not to take serious damage, and couldn't follow off the west edge for fear of land based air on Malta.

Rules were of course GQIII and despite my rustiness, the lads made a good fight of it.  In the end the two sides closed far too close with the Italians trashing most of the escort at the cost of hull damage to 2 cruisers and several destroyers.  At this point I ruled that both sides would retreat, the convoy back to the east to fall back on the distant escort and the raiders to nurse the cruisers back to home ports.

Photos to follow…oh yes the action included a collision between two cruisers and an intention ramming attempt.

WWII Naval - Thoughts on Night Actions

Recently I ran two games featuring night actions - or more properly I ran the same game twice.   I thought I would commit some afterthoughts to the virtual paper in the Ethernet.

• An umpire is really, really helpful with any game featuring hidden movement or fog of war elements.  Clearly a naval night action needs both (as do day actions in limited visibility like North Sea fog).  In our group, we typically use a non-player GM for most scenarios so this was an automatic for us.  In the past I've often had the GM take an active role, but I have to say I find the "neutral" GM leads to a much better game.  Furthermore, it's fun to be the GM and not just so you can see heckle both sides afterwards.

• We used dummy counters and pre-plotted movement prior to sighting as per the GQIII rule book.  It worked really well and the element of surprise was there until the moment that the last dummy was removed.

• In each of the two games we had newbies playing and (because I am a sadistic so-and-so) I gave them the no-hoper Italians.  Actually, the GQ rule book suggests that newbies take the RMI or early war USN and the old salts take the IJN or RN.  It does simulate the lack of experience in the crews and also gives a pretty easy hurdle to jump over in some cases!  However, our landsmen acquitted themselves well.

• In this particular case, it helped to have the newbies play the more passive roles - in this case steaming on fixed patrols.  It gave them less things to screw up and also gave them a few turns to learn the system. I continued this for the first couple of turns after sighting (that is after the RMI saw anything - the RN typically spots stuff much earlier), by having the old salts plot their movements and then we walked the newbies through moving their ships.  In no time at all, the new hands were able to solo.

• I did not use the fratricide rules from GQ - although there were a  couple of instances where there probably should have been the potential for "friendly fire".  To be honest, it was a combination of faulty memory and a wish to be kind to players (and the GM).  However, the GQ rules seem to be more appropriate for the Guadalcanal battles - where the USN hurt itself more than they hurt the IJN at times.  Friendly fire doesn't seem to be a common event in the Med night actions.  This may be related to the fact that the RN typically knew where their own ships were and the RMI had no idea where the enemy was until they started blowing them apart!

•  For the players, there is a definite learning curve and it chiefly involves patience.  Just because you spot something doesn't mean you should open fire on it!  In fact, the side with the intelligence advantage will get the best bang for buck by waiting until they can properly capitalize on it.  Get you sights locked on, get in proper position and then open up.

• In the GM's role I should have given the players a memory prod in tactics at time.  A few comments like "you may want to wait", "do you want to use searchlights or star shell" can take the place of tactical doctrine and training.

Savos Island Game 2 Photos

I received the photos from Curt last night.  These are from the second of our two games with Sylvain running the Royal Navy and Newbie Jeremy the Regina Marina.

The British maneuver in two columns on the right, zig zagging to avoid torpedoes.  On the left the Italian picket DD is under fire (one of Curt's wonderful splash markers) and a torpedo spread marked by the post-it arrow which didn't post to Curt's mat.

Same situation from above and behind the Royal Navy.

HMS Orion finds the spread of torpedoes, but Sylvain steam on undaunted. 

The lead two cruisers are Curt's, the rest are mine.  Another Litko marker marks the end of the Orion.

Curt was obviously fixated on this moment

Torpedoes launched everywhere as the Royal Navy splits and opens fire with full broadside.  An Italian cruiser sinks in the middle of Jeremy's line.  Sylvain has pulled a fast one and done a simultaneous 180 degree turned away with the group at the bottom.

Same situation in close up.

Close up of the Tribal class DDs at the end of Sylvain's line.

Royal Navy cruisers and DD.  That's Curt's HMS Exeter to the left, formerly at the head of the line and now tail end charlie.  She is preceded by HMSs Gloucester, Eurylaus and a destroyer (all my models).  The post its mark Sylvain's position at the start of the move prior to his Uey.