Well we played and I lost again.
Some interesting results but I need more destroyers!
Fleets were RAID, scenario was convoy.
RN:
Renown, Dorsetshire, 3 x J class, 3 x Tribal class. 6 x tramp steamer, 3 x Liberty ship.
KM:
3 x Zerstorers, 6 x type IX U Boat.
Loads of rules queries came out of this game, I'll try and record them later.
I set up in the special square and Ev won initiative. He popped his destroyers on level with the convoy. My Js went into battle.
Result of turn one - three sunk Zerstorers and two sunk J class. I'm down to four destroyers - U boats still lurk.
Turn two - Ev wins Ini again - U boats surface two inches infront of the convoy - PANIC! All in a line across the board.
The convoy moves up so the front rank is level with the U boats and not in arc of fire, the other ships are however...
The tribals blast forward, one ending up with it's tail infront of a U boat, the others about an inch and three inches ahead.
U boats release torps from the front at the convoy and the rear at Tribal 1. Tribal 1 depth charges the U boat. The U boat gets two point of damage and must surface.
Torpedo damage.... two tramps go down, Tribal 2 and 3 go down. I have two destoyers left to finish off SIX U boats.
Turn three and I get initiative.
Convoy moves up and the U boats swin around. No fire from the U boats as they reload. The surfaced U boatd takes around seven hundred hits from the broadside of Renown and it melted. Only five U boats left! J class tries to get into depth charge range and fails.
Turn four
Ev get the ini - Everyone moves around - U boats line up on the convoy, J class gets set to depth charge U boat 103. Firing - depth charges all miss....just my luck. U boats fire torps at everything. Clang, clang, glug....
Four tramps sink, one liberty sinks, one gets crippled and one escapes.
Turn five - Ev ini.
U boats cruise forward again at 1 inch. My remaining tramp tries to get away, destroyers manouvre. No one can fire as subs are underwater and reloading, destroyers are reloading and out of range respectively.
Turn six - Ev ini again.
Subs finish off the crippled liberty and the remaining tramp - five salvoes of torps into this one!
Convoy gone.
The game raised a few points, hope I got them all here...
FLANKS SPEED:
Can civilian ships use flank speed. We used the new 2" rule which means tramp steamers and liberty ships can move three times as fast - 3".
SUbs - can subs use flank speed when submerged?
If civilian ships CANNOT use flank speed then they will take 48 turns to exit the table on the convoy game. They start 48 inches from the edge and they move 1" per go - that's a long game.
DETECTING
THis was out take on detecting - let's say we've got six destroyers rounding on one U-boat. On the shooting phase of the destroyers, the first one rolls to detect - he doesn't, so can't shoot DCs. The second one tries to detect and does - all other ships can shoot the U-boat. Is that correct, or does the squadron rule change anything?
Crash dive....when would you ever want to use that rule?
Some observations:
AP torpedoes (which I think is all of them.) reduce the Armour rating of destroyers and tramps to 1 - you can't miss (if it wasn't for the 1 is a miss rule...)
I'm taking more destroyers next time!
Why no sub hunter traits on the British destroyers?? Britain was well in advance of US on ASDIC development. When do we get ship stats for RN ships with the hedgehog?
We're gonna run this scenario again in a fortnight. Ev is taking NINE U boats and I will have 6 J's, 6 Tribals and a Norfolk to finish off any that surface.
I need ot make more wreck counters!
Si
Si
