Dredd Times
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What is often considered the key naval battle of the Second World War took place on December 13 1939, and pitted the German vessel Admiral Graff Spee against the combinded Royal Naval forces of cruisers; HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax and HMS Achilles.
This weekend I got the chance to demo VoS to some new players at our weekly games event held at The 3 Tuns in Edinburgh and what follows is a quick overview of how the battle went, the result and thoughts of the players.
Controlling the RN forces where George, Myles and Andy while I took control of the sole German naval vessel. My objective was simple on paper, get from one short side of the board (6'x4' btw) and off the other side. The other guys objective was simply to stop me by any means. As this is an historical scenario taken directly from the Victory at Sea rulebook, we set up as per the map, with the Exeter behind the Graff Spee, and both the Ajax and Achilles flanking at the far end of the table.
The rules allow for the use of planes but as I was teaching the game to players who had very little experience with miniature games I left out the aircraft phase and rules, as I thought they would have very little effect on the outcome.
Turn One: After rolling for initative the RN guys won and decided to make me move first. As with Babylon 5: A Call to Arms the player who gets the initative may choose who goes first but will always get to get first off the bat when the combat and shells start flying so it was a wise choice on their part.
Movement was down quite quickly with all three of the RN ships trying to close the gap between the German vessel, but leaving them just out of range of their shells, though sadly for them the Graff Spee has a much longer range than its counterparts in the Royal Navy (New Zealand too if you want to be really picky).
It was quite easy to guess how far away the Exeter was from the Graff Spee and a quick volly later left a couple of nice holes on the freshly scrubbed deck of the Exeter.
Turn Two: I won the roll this turn and forced the other guys to go first, watching carefully as they moved their vessels, making careful use of the turning compas. I took the Graff Spee in a straight line and didnt bother to turn at all, and by the time I had finished I could read the table and knew that within a short space of time the poor Ajax would be in serious trouble.
Attack phase and I fired first and true to my prediction opened up with the main A Turret on the Ajax and was lucky enough to get three hits, two of which were criticals. I rolled on the chart and managed to roll a six again on the weapons and ammo section and caused even more damage to the vessel, so much so that it was little more than a smoking husk, that could only move at half speed and had most of its weaponry in flames.
The Exeter fared a little better and managed to get a lucky shot off at the Graff Spee that buckled her armour and did a couple of points of damage. The Achillies was untouched and completely missed with all its shots.
Turn Three: Again the good guys (sic) won the roll off and made me go first which was a total stroke of fortune on my part as the badly wounded Ajax was of very little threat and the Achillies finished 10" away, well in range of my port and starboard torpedeos, not to mention my turret! So after the RN fired at the Graff Spee and failed to cause any real damage I returned fire and managed in one round to totally scupper the Ajax and take it out of the game, cripple the Exeter and seriously damage the Achillies.
Turn Four: By now things look as if history would really repeat itself and that the Graff Spee would forefill its objective. A lucky shot from the Exeter managed to reduce the speed on the Graff Spee, taking me down to 3", but with her guns blazing back the Graff Spee sent the valiant Exeter to a watery grave.
Turn Five: By now it was a question of time as both the surviving vessels traded blows, with a lucky critical taking out the Achillies guns for two turns and allowing the Graff Spee to limp off the far end of the table in turn seven and win the game.
Conclusions:
Victory at Sea is an extremely fast paced game and one that even a newcommer to the hobby can get to grips with very quickly. All the players who took part had fun and learned valuable lessons such as never present your beam profile (side on) to a ship with torpedoes as it can leave a very unpleasant taste in the mouth.
For those of you who wish to take part in the Battle for the River Plate and can make it to Dragonmeet in London on Saturday December 2nd, I will be running the scenario all day.
Marc
This weekend I got the chance to demo VoS to some new players at our weekly games event held at The 3 Tuns in Edinburgh and what follows is a quick overview of how the battle went, the result and thoughts of the players.
Controlling the RN forces where George, Myles and Andy while I took control of the sole German naval vessel. My objective was simple on paper, get from one short side of the board (6'x4' btw) and off the other side. The other guys objective was simply to stop me by any means. As this is an historical scenario taken directly from the Victory at Sea rulebook, we set up as per the map, with the Exeter behind the Graff Spee, and both the Ajax and Achilles flanking at the far end of the table.
The rules allow for the use of planes but as I was teaching the game to players who had very little experience with miniature games I left out the aircraft phase and rules, as I thought they would have very little effect on the outcome.
Turn One: After rolling for initative the RN guys won and decided to make me move first. As with Babylon 5: A Call to Arms the player who gets the initative may choose who goes first but will always get to get first off the bat when the combat and shells start flying so it was a wise choice on their part.
Movement was down quite quickly with all three of the RN ships trying to close the gap between the German vessel, but leaving them just out of range of their shells, though sadly for them the Graff Spee has a much longer range than its counterparts in the Royal Navy (New Zealand too if you want to be really picky).
It was quite easy to guess how far away the Exeter was from the Graff Spee and a quick volly later left a couple of nice holes on the freshly scrubbed deck of the Exeter.
Turn Two: I won the roll this turn and forced the other guys to go first, watching carefully as they moved their vessels, making careful use of the turning compas. I took the Graff Spee in a straight line and didnt bother to turn at all, and by the time I had finished I could read the table and knew that within a short space of time the poor Ajax would be in serious trouble.
Attack phase and I fired first and true to my prediction opened up with the main A Turret on the Ajax and was lucky enough to get three hits, two of which were criticals. I rolled on the chart and managed to roll a six again on the weapons and ammo section and caused even more damage to the vessel, so much so that it was little more than a smoking husk, that could only move at half speed and had most of its weaponry in flames.
The Exeter fared a little better and managed to get a lucky shot off at the Graff Spee that buckled her armour and did a couple of points of damage. The Achillies was untouched and completely missed with all its shots.
Turn Three: Again the good guys (sic) won the roll off and made me go first which was a total stroke of fortune on my part as the badly wounded Ajax was of very little threat and the Achillies finished 10" away, well in range of my port and starboard torpedeos, not to mention my turret! So after the RN fired at the Graff Spee and failed to cause any real damage I returned fire and managed in one round to totally scupper the Ajax and take it out of the game, cripple the Exeter and seriously damage the Achillies.
Turn Four: By now things look as if history would really repeat itself and that the Graff Spee would forefill its objective. A lucky shot from the Exeter managed to reduce the speed on the Graff Spee, taking me down to 3", but with her guns blazing back the Graff Spee sent the valiant Exeter to a watery grave.
Turn Five: By now it was a question of time as both the surviving vessels traded blows, with a lucky critical taking out the Achillies guns for two turns and allowing the Graff Spee to limp off the far end of the table in turn seven and win the game.
Conclusions:
Victory at Sea is an extremely fast paced game and one that even a newcommer to the hobby can get to grips with very quickly. All the players who took part had fun and learned valuable lessons such as never present your beam profile (side on) to a ship with torpedoes as it can leave a very unpleasant taste in the mouth.
For those of you who wish to take part in the Battle for the River Plate and can make it to Dragonmeet in London on Saturday December 2nd, I will be running the scenario all day.
Marc
