Runs for the Fijords

You may recall that in October Frank and I played a game were a German force tried to break out and get at a British Convoy. Defense of convoy pq 187 We took the end result as my starting force for the game the Scharnorst and Gneisenau are starting at 100% the Tripitsz has lost one hull box and two main turrets. We have a relief force coming up to help us from the south. Once again our battle field is chocked with fog and ice

as a major British force intercepting us

Frank wanted to try out the air rules but after a turn we realized it was slowing the game down far to much for what it was adding to the game.  So we pulled the aircraft and aircraft carrier.

This time the British are having some manuvering issues as Frank deployed too close and two ships slam into each other...

German Destroyers knife in from the south as the relieve force arrives and the two formation open fire.  Franks shooting is exceptionally good...

My shooting is... not bad but no where near as good as his... still one British destroyers blows up when a shell penetrates the magazine .

Franks gunnery unerringly hit my engine rooms three of 4 destroyers are adrift before turn 2 has ended!

Still they are able to loose torpedoes and the Cruiser Dido is blasted from the water

My one mobile destroyer launches torpedoes as well we land multiple hits Queen Elizabeth loses two hull boxes and take some engineering damage (which she will repair)

Renowned suffers multiple torpedo hits and sinks swiftly below the waves.  The Rodney take a torpedo hit an anti-climatic "critical" that does a single hull box of damage and knocks out one fire control tower (she has two so it hardly matters).

Frank's torpedoes aren't as effective but his gun fire continues to be good the Admiral Scheer is smashed her guns are out and her bridge is hit.  She fails moral and must run but can only move straight ahead for a turn.  Her torpedoes will eventual get Belfast and Scheer will end the fight a battered wreck with one hull box left.

The big ships are in range and start battering each other.  Scharnorst and Gneisenau both take damage to their rudders and hulls.  My hits on the British Battle ships are not nearly so effective. 

Shooting form my secondaries all but annihilates the remaining British destroyers. At this point it was getting late and we regretted the time spent messing with air craft as one more turn would have told the tale.   Frank was down to Rodney and Queen Elizabeth and single battered destroyer.  One of my destroyers managed to limp off the table the others were a complete loss.  Hipper was unhurt and could probably have made do and die torpedo attack on the BBs the next turn  and Blucher was heavily damaged and might have added its torpedoes (they didn't get in any pictures some how!)  Assuming Both British ship survived that the Germans would have been in very bad shape as they were both out of control and Gneisenaue was also taking on water due to a bulkhead hit.  We ruled both Battle Cruisers as probable losses but the Tirpitz probably escaped.  I would have liked about another 30 minutes of gaming time to get a solid decision.  This close action was deadly I think we may have recorded more torpedo hits in this one action then the surface forces of both navies managed in the whole war.

Defense of Convoy PQ-187

 In honor or Trafalgar Day Frank put together a Naval action some where in the dark cold waters of the Norwegian Sea.  Storms and Icebergs limit visibility for both sides, rules are GQ3.

  A British Force of two Cruisers, three Battle ships and a Battle Cruiser is screening a convoy(s) somewhere to the north.

 A German force of two Battleships, two Battle Cruisers and two Heavy Cruisers

  Long range contact is made with radar but with out visual sightings we are not able to fire.

 I have some issues with my maneuvers early on hitting an ice berg...

 and two ships nearly collide (I wanted to show you how badly I missestimated my maneuvers

 The ships seem so close but the subarctic air is still thick with fog and rain.

 Then shapes loom out of the fog!

 The British land several lucky hits on the Bismark but..

 There Cruisers take a worse pounding from the German battery...

 The Exeter is especially hard hit taking damage to its hull and engineering

 HMS Hood takes aim at the German Cruisers

 Germans launch torpedoes... hitting Hood.

 Prince Eugen takes multiple hits... most go low to the hull but her crew keeps her afloat somehow.

 The British Cruises are hit multiple times. Suffolk goes down with a critical hit to her bulkhead and multiple hull hits.

 Luttow is on fire and Prince Eugen has taken damage to her rudder (which her skillful crew repair) .

 An almost gratuitous number of hits land on Exeter.

 Sinking her  Bismark and Tirpitz are both taking hit.  Bismark takes hits low slowing her but her weapons are undamaged.  Tirpitz take an engine hit but is other wise in good shape

 Torpedoes fired by the Gneisenau hits the Valiant

 Hood takes enough damage form the Crippled Lutzow  that she goes down

 Bismark repairs her bulkhead damage just managing to stay a float.. she fires.. and hits the Rodney

 Rodney has lost two of her three turrets only the rear facing C turret still works...  Tirpitz slips off the table edge in the distance...

 Lutzow tries to ram the battle ships... but fails... she is burning.

 And is then smashed by fire from Warspite both of the old dreadnoughts are badly damaged by German fire.

 Gneisenau is ready to break north.. Scharnhorst is already off table Prince Eugen is preparing to die as is Bismark...

 Rodney's hull is ripped by the wreckage of the British cruisers and begins to go down her last shot will send Bismark to the bottom

Prince Eugan and Bismark sink but the take the Valiant with their last shots.  The Germans lost two cruisers, and a battle ship.  The Two German Battle Cruisers are still in excellent fighting trim, Tirpitz is still operational but only one main turret is functional still she can easily out pace the shot up Warspite the only British ship to survive.  The British lost two Battle ships, a Battle Cruiser and two Cruisers.  A clear German win how big the win is will depend on how much damage is done in the shipping lanes. The real looser (other then the men bobbing in the frigid waters) are probably the Marries on Guadalcanal as some panicked calls for more us naval support in the the Atlantic are going form London to Washingto.

USN Vs IJN Night action

 Frank and I were the only war game regulars at the Relentless Dragon last night (though they had quite a showing for Game of Thrones and at least one game of X-Wing) I fielded ships form Task Force AC against his IJN Cruiser battle group. I had two New Orleans Class Cruiser and Two Brooklyn class Cruisers (one of my favorites) with 4 Fletcher and 4 Benson Class Destroyers.  Frank had two Takoa(?) class  cruises and two Light Cruisers.  We are using night rules so we use anchors to make the location of the Flag ships.

 Radar and visual sighting by the leading ships soon have real ships on the table.

 USS Minnesota is illuminated....

 and quickly take multiple hits from two Japanese Cruisers

 USS Gansevoort is also hit hard by the fire...

 We don't let the Japanese off completely with out damage landing hits on one Japanese Heavy.

 The second Light Cruiser

  Its Turn two and the torpedoes start to churner  the waters

 To my surprise we USN torpedo men have a good night scoring one hit...

 We even damage the enemies engines

 Now if my navigation were a little better as I ground two of my Fletchers... One Benson goes down and two others are damages.

 My Brooklyns open up on their opposite numbers and live up to their reputation for rapid fire and accuracy.  Both Japanese lights are battered though both are still in the fight.

 My heavy cruisers also land good damage on their opposites (despite more damage to  Minneapolis and that ship having run aground).   One Japanese Heavy is dead in the water, and the second has a locked rudder.

 The Heavy Cruiser and my damaged Destroyer collide its not go for me but its actually worse for the Cruiser which gets a punctured bulk head (one that had just been fixed)

 The second force of Japanese destroyers cuts past the island  and my heavies prepare to take aim.

 The Japanese Lights are having their own troubles

 I lose the Boise to a furious attack of Japaneses torpedoes ( I dodged some 5 attacks before the sixth got two hits).

 Both Japanese lights are down to torpedo hits the Nashville gets several hits on one of the Japanese heavies but it hangs on.

Two of the Japanese Destroyers on the right are mission kills though they might limp home.  In total I lost one heavy and one light cruisers.  Five of my Destroyers also went down.  Two Japanese destroyers are probable kills (though still limping).  Both Japanese Light Cruisers were sunk and both of the Heavy Cruisers are badly damaged.  Quincy and Nashville are largely untouched.  We had to call the game because of time. I'll call it slight tactical victory for the Japanese, they sank more ships and might well have gotten the Quincy if they got in one more good Torpedo attack.  I probably would have gotten at least one Japanese Cruiser.  Neither of these task forces would be ready to fight again any time soon.