stenicplus
Mongoose
Our first game last night. Using 1/2400 ships.
Well it was a blast for the Germans… a blasting out of the water that is. Could have been oh so different if Alan had had something more dangerous than an Andrex Puppy to fight with.
In effect we had 2 Battlecruisers per side (1 ship each) and just went for it. The Germans closed fast to nullify the longer range of the Renown and pummel her lighter armour at close range. I say 'the Germans', in fact only Gordon with the Derflinger; Alan, unaware Gordon had given him a relative floating bucket – the Van der Tann, steamed of around the edge of the board. The British with the Tiger (me) and Renown (Mike) then exchanged fire with the Derflinger. Both the Renown and the Derflinger took some critical hits but the Derflinger remained active whilst the Renown limped away to put out fires and re-wire the gunnery sytems. In hitting the magazine the German had two chances to activate the Flash attribute in the rules – British ships go "Whoomph!!" on a luck magazine strike – but they failed.
Meanwhile the Van Der Tann had come up whilst the Tiger continued to chip bits of paint off the Derflinger although 2 outrageous shots blew the bridge of the Derflinger to bits. Now the German gunnery failed them as their shells either missed in Vand Der Tann's case or failed to get criticals in the Derflinger's case. The Tiger and both german vessels closed to point blank and the Renown fixed its gunnery and stayed at long range (outranging the Germans). More shots were exchanged and as we were so close we went for the torpedoes just as the Derflinger became crippled due to attrition. Limping in the water she was easy prey for the Renown's torpoedoes and the last we saw of her was the the mast serenely dropping below the surface, followed by the crump of the boilers going up.
Alone now the Van Der Tann tried to engage the Renown as the easiest to damage (and it was in a worse state). Boththe Britsh continued to pour in fire and the Germans decided to head for the safety of the high sea. With her stern to the British it all went wrong for hte German escape when the Renown blew away her aft turret and the Tiger did enough hits to cripple her. The Van Der Tann was reduce to a crawl with next to no rudder, next to no weapons and no desire to fight. The Van Der Tann struck her colours and her officers were welcomed aboard the Renown for a tot of rum and toast.
So the basic rules seemed simple enough and we added in the torpedoes for some fun at the end. A ship each was enough to get the hang of the rules. There was some book-keeping but nothing onerous. Alan was hard done by but otherwise a good fun game and worth pursuing. On balance the forces were in favour of the Brits but we had the fatal Flash attribute which, if the Germans had been able get more criticals would have mean the Brits were toast. We also had worse armour but when you can't hit jack less armour means nothing.
Interestingly whilst Gordon's GHQ ships were of significantly better quality (and price), with planking on the decks detailed etc… they did look more fragile and would not stand up to a drop on the floor. My cheap ones from My Little Ship Company would survive a tumble in the dryer but then the range of ships is less. We are looking at some merchant ships for convoy games and will look to using more of the advanced rules.
I've never played any other WW1 naval rules so have no comparison but this was quick, fun and felt like what I perceived a WW1 naval game would be like.
We did have a couple of questions:
When turning do you have to use the full turning point(s)? Ie must it be preciselt 30deg, 60deg. or 90deg? O can you move up to it, ie 15deg or 45 deg?
When firing, do you have to shoot in the same order that you moved in? Ie, initiative player elects to move first so must fire first? And, a related question, do the ships fire in the order they moved? Ie, I moved ship A first then later ship B, can I fire with ship B first or must it be A?
Thanks,
Steve P
Well it was a blast for the Germans… a blasting out of the water that is. Could have been oh so different if Alan had had something more dangerous than an Andrex Puppy to fight with.
In effect we had 2 Battlecruisers per side (1 ship each) and just went for it. The Germans closed fast to nullify the longer range of the Renown and pummel her lighter armour at close range. I say 'the Germans', in fact only Gordon with the Derflinger; Alan, unaware Gordon had given him a relative floating bucket – the Van der Tann, steamed of around the edge of the board. The British with the Tiger (me) and Renown (Mike) then exchanged fire with the Derflinger. Both the Renown and the Derflinger took some critical hits but the Derflinger remained active whilst the Renown limped away to put out fires and re-wire the gunnery sytems. In hitting the magazine the German had two chances to activate the Flash attribute in the rules – British ships go "Whoomph!!" on a luck magazine strike – but they failed.
Meanwhile the Van Der Tann had come up whilst the Tiger continued to chip bits of paint off the Derflinger although 2 outrageous shots blew the bridge of the Derflinger to bits. Now the German gunnery failed them as their shells either missed in Vand Der Tann's case or failed to get criticals in the Derflinger's case. The Tiger and both german vessels closed to point blank and the Renown fixed its gunnery and stayed at long range (outranging the Germans). More shots were exchanged and as we were so close we went for the torpedoes just as the Derflinger became crippled due to attrition. Limping in the water she was easy prey for the Renown's torpoedoes and the last we saw of her was the the mast serenely dropping below the surface, followed by the crump of the boilers going up.
Alone now the Van Der Tann tried to engage the Renown as the easiest to damage (and it was in a worse state). Boththe Britsh continued to pour in fire and the Germans decided to head for the safety of the high sea. With her stern to the British it all went wrong for hte German escape when the Renown blew away her aft turret and the Tiger did enough hits to cripple her. The Van Der Tann was reduce to a crawl with next to no rudder, next to no weapons and no desire to fight. The Van Der Tann struck her colours and her officers were welcomed aboard the Renown for a tot of rum and toast.
So the basic rules seemed simple enough and we added in the torpedoes for some fun at the end. A ship each was enough to get the hang of the rules. There was some book-keeping but nothing onerous. Alan was hard done by but otherwise a good fun game and worth pursuing. On balance the forces were in favour of the Brits but we had the fatal Flash attribute which, if the Germans had been able get more criticals would have mean the Brits were toast. We also had worse armour but when you can't hit jack less armour means nothing.
Interestingly whilst Gordon's GHQ ships were of significantly better quality (and price), with planking on the decks detailed etc… they did look more fragile and would not stand up to a drop on the floor. My cheap ones from My Little Ship Company would survive a tumble in the dryer but then the range of ships is less. We are looking at some merchant ships for convoy games and will look to using more of the advanced rules.
I've never played any other WW1 naval rules so have no comparison but this was quick, fun and felt like what I perceived a WW1 naval game would be like.
We did have a couple of questions:
When turning do you have to use the full turning point(s)? Ie must it be preciselt 30deg, 60deg. or 90deg? O can you move up to it, ie 15deg or 45 deg?
When firing, do you have to shoot in the same order that you moved in? Ie, initiative player elects to move first so must fire first? And, a related question, do the ships fire in the order they moved? Ie, I moved ship A first then later ship B, can I fire with ship B first or must it be A?
Thanks,
Steve P
