Well, that was good fun!
We hadn't played Victory at Sea in years, so wanted something simple (ish) to get us back in the spirit of it.
We decided to try the Bismarck versus the Hood - obviously the latter is at a disadvantage (500 points versus 600) but we thought it should be close enough to have a good game.
~ This was played on a 'clean' 4'x4' table.
~ Bismarck's 4 aircraft couldn't be enough to net any useful bonus, so we ignored them.
~ Hood was forced to set up first, and set up centre, heading up-table, to close as fast as possible (no armoured deck, shorter range guns than her foe, and torpedoes that the Bismarck lacks means long range bad, short range good).
~ With full steam, the Hood got into visual range of the Bismark in the first turn. Whilst it only had fore turrets to its opponent's full main battery, it got its shot off first, landed one hit....which was a critical....to Vital Systems. We thought for one moment it was going to be a reverse of history, but in the end the result was Bridge Smashed - still bad, but not as bad as it could have been.
~ Both ships traded fire as they closed. With the Bismarck unable to perform special actions, Hood turned slightly to unmask her aft guns and slowed to Evade. Needing a 5 to hit whilst the Bismark needed a rerolled 4 kept the weaker-armoured battlecruiser within shouting distance as damage racked up. Both sides took low-level engine and crew criticals repeatedly and repaired them repeatedly.
~ Once things got into short range, damage started coming in dozen-point blobs as the capital ships were now missing with the odd shot rather than hitting with the odd shot. One torpedo salvo fired but only did a couple of damage due to Bismarck's Torpedo Belt 3.
~With the Bismarck reaching Point Blank range of its main guns first, and initiative - which had been firmly in the hands of the Hood for the first few turns - suddenly swapping to the Bismarck, the Hood was quickly crippled, losing both X and Y turrets. With an Engines 2 critical, it was half speed, -1" speed, and minimum of 3" move to turn, essentially locking it on a given course.
~ This continued for a turn or two, with the Bismarck passing in front of the Hood and continuing to batter it. Then, the Hood won initiative and by slowing got a decent shot with its torpedoes. This time, it got four damage through the torpedo belt, managing to cripple the Bismarck as well - and with a horrifying roll, the Bismarck lost all four turrets in one fell swoop.
~ Sadly the Hood, by this time, was 1" away from the board edge, facing it, so had no choice in the next turn but to sail cleanly off it. The Bismarck was equally locked to a reciprocal course, heading the other way whilst ineffectually firing twin-linked Light Weapons at the Hood.
~ In the end, Hood disengaged with 16 hit points left, whilst Bismarck had 26, but had an escalating Fire critical, CQ reduced to 4 and no ability to use All Hands On Deck! so it might well have killed itself shortly afterwards.
It was a very good game. The rules felt simple, and realistic. The Bismarck losing all eight main guns in one go was kind of harsh, though, instantly tilting the game had the Hood still been able to change course.
Questions that came up in the game have been put in the original thread in this forum; I should probably put them in here in the future.
We hadn't played Victory at Sea in years, so wanted something simple (ish) to get us back in the spirit of it.
We decided to try the Bismarck versus the Hood - obviously the latter is at a disadvantage (500 points versus 600) but we thought it should be close enough to have a good game.
~ This was played on a 'clean' 4'x4' table.
~ Bismarck's 4 aircraft couldn't be enough to net any useful bonus, so we ignored them.
~ Hood was forced to set up first, and set up centre, heading up-table, to close as fast as possible (no armoured deck, shorter range guns than her foe, and torpedoes that the Bismarck lacks means long range bad, short range good).
~ With full steam, the Hood got into visual range of the Bismark in the first turn. Whilst it only had fore turrets to its opponent's full main battery, it got its shot off first, landed one hit....which was a critical....to Vital Systems. We thought for one moment it was going to be a reverse of history, but in the end the result was Bridge Smashed - still bad, but not as bad as it could have been.
~ Both ships traded fire as they closed. With the Bismarck unable to perform special actions, Hood turned slightly to unmask her aft guns and slowed to Evade. Needing a 5 to hit whilst the Bismark needed a rerolled 4 kept the weaker-armoured battlecruiser within shouting distance as damage racked up. Both sides took low-level engine and crew criticals repeatedly and repaired them repeatedly.
~ Once things got into short range, damage started coming in dozen-point blobs as the capital ships were now missing with the odd shot rather than hitting with the odd shot. One torpedo salvo fired but only did a couple of damage due to Bismarck's Torpedo Belt 3.
~With the Bismarck reaching Point Blank range of its main guns first, and initiative - which had been firmly in the hands of the Hood for the first few turns - suddenly swapping to the Bismarck, the Hood was quickly crippled, losing both X and Y turrets. With an Engines 2 critical, it was half speed, -1" speed, and minimum of 3" move to turn, essentially locking it on a given course.
~ This continued for a turn or two, with the Bismarck passing in front of the Hood and continuing to batter it. Then, the Hood won initiative and by slowing got a decent shot with its torpedoes. This time, it got four damage through the torpedo belt, managing to cripple the Bismarck as well - and with a horrifying roll, the Bismarck lost all four turrets in one fell swoop.
~ Sadly the Hood, by this time, was 1" away from the board edge, facing it, so had no choice in the next turn but to sail cleanly off it. The Bismarck was equally locked to a reciprocal course, heading the other way whilst ineffectually firing twin-linked Light Weapons at the Hood.
~ In the end, Hood disengaged with 16 hit points left, whilst Bismarck had 26, but had an escalating Fire critical, CQ reduced to 4 and no ability to use All Hands On Deck! so it might well have killed itself shortly afterwards.
It was a very good game. The rules felt simple, and realistic. The Bismarck losing all eight main guns in one go was kind of harsh, though, instantly tilting the game had the Hood still been able to change course.
Questions that came up in the game have been put in the original thread in this forum; I should probably put them in here in the future.