Given the great interest of everyone at our gaming club http://www.lshm.net I thought it would be a good idea to run a mini campaing.
Using the Avalon Hill Bismarck (1978 ) game and with minor integration adjustments I arranged the game in which the surface actions would be played using the Victory at Sea rules.
We used all the DM house rules plus a couple of our own ( for example fires cause criticals when you roll double ones upon trying to put them out).
We also changed the german radar to be 360 but gets a lock on a 4+ rather than 3+. The KGV class also had random chance of getting guns jammed.
We had to come up with rules for sides to disengage from surface actions and for chasing, so instead of using the edges of the table we decided that ships could disengage if they could start and end a turn more than 30" away from enemy ships ( as per DM rules we don't allow shooting over 30" ).
The strategic weather conditions would be converted to night or bad weather for the surface actions.
This is the full campaign report:
The Hunt for Bismarck
On May 22nd at 1200 hours the German hunt team composed of Battleship Bismarck and Cruiser Prinz Eugen left the port of Bergen under the cover of fog. Unfortunately upon leaving port at around 13:15 random short range patrols out of the Shetland Islands managed to sight the Bismarck and quickly informed the British high command. Upon realizing that he had been sighted adrmiarl Marty Lutjens turned North to open sea breaking contact with the Shetland short range patrols by 14:42.
Immediately, British forces started deploying search screens north of Iceland and between Iceland and Great Britain. The Hood and Prince of Wales were ordered to patrol the area east of the Faeroe Islands.
The British Elements at Scapa Flow upon receiving confirmation that the German ships had left port where given orders to leave for open sea and join the search efforts.
By 1600 hours weather conditions started deteriorating in the North Atlantic. Admiral Lutjens decided then to take advantage of the deteriorating weather and attempt to cross into the open Atlantic Ocean by rushing between Northern Great Britain and the Faeroe Islands. Although this would bring him dangerously close to Scapa Flow if the weather continued to deteriorate he would probably cross undetected and he would also be leaving the British patrols under the cover of night, soon he would be raiding the Atlantic and African convoy routes. A long recon plane was released from Bergen to scout ahead of the German ships.
At 2000 hours on May 22nd the weather conditions had greatly deteriorated as a severe storm front now moved through the North Atlantic, consequently the British search screen was rendered almost useless. Foreseeing the weather problem the British Admiralty had launched long range recon planes that would fly low and rendezvous with surface elements, combined search by surface and air elements would be the only way to effectively patrol the area between Iceland and Britain.
By 2100 hours only one of the dispatched air elements had managed to rendezvous with its assigned surface contact, this was the element assigned to reach Task force A, HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales, 100 nautical miles east of Faeroe Islands so at this point out of the over 700 nautical miles to be searched between Iceland and Great Britain only small area of 100 nautical miles to the east of Faeroe Islands was effectively being searched.
Unfortunately for Lutjens this was precisely the spot chosen for the crossing and at 21:12 still under the dying long day light of the North Atlantic and amidst of a mounting storm HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales sighted the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen and gave chase.
Admiral Marty Lutjens then decided that if he could concentrate fire on the Hood and force her to disengage he could later try to out run Prince of Wales or even try to face her at an advantageous tactical situation, so with this in mind Bismarck and Prinz Eugene made hard turns to starboard to bring all their guns to bear on the incoming enemy.
The initial salvoes started at 21:22 at a range of 26,000 yards.
The bad weather conditions made it difficult to direct gunnery fire at long range. After the few minutes it was clear that superior radar operation on the British side and also some very effective gunnery fire coming from HMS Hood were turning the odds against the Germans.
HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales go to flank speed giving Chase to Bismarck and Prinz Eugen
By 21:30 British gunnery fire had inflicted severe fuel ruptures on the Bismark, Lutjens then fearing for his now reduced ability to evade ordered Captain Kevin Brinkmann to conduct a risky torpedo run with the Prinz Eugen to try to disrupt the British chase and give time to the Bismarck to fix her engines and run away.
The strategy seemed to pay off at first when the fast moving Prinz Eugen managed attract all gunnery fire from Prince of Wales and Hood, yet again very effective gunnery fire from HMS Hood reduced Prinz Eugen speed and maneuverability and damaged her starboard torpedo tubes !
Still at her own risk Prinz Eugen closed and fired her port torpedoes on HMS Hood and went to flank speed to try to disengage, however HMS Hood managed to dodge the torpedo attack..
Despite the successful distraction forced on the British the Bismarck still had not been able to fully repair her engines and had been unable to range in with gunnery fire on the British ships.
HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales now resumed chase of the Bismarck at flank speed. Admiral Lutjens realizing that under present conditions he could not evade turned to Port to bring guns to bear on the British warships and opened fire on the Hood.
Players and referee enjoy the VAS surface action
For a moment the tide seem to turn in favor of the Germans when a successful full broadside coming from the Bismarck scored critical impacts on the Hood magazines setting her on fire from stern to stern and knocking three of her main turrets out of order. This would force the Hood to disengage leaving Bismarck to face Prince of Wales, however the joy was short lived on the German side since the Prince of Wales now quickly gaining on Bismarck managed to sink the escaping Prinz Eugen with a salvo from its rear four gun turret, and also inflicted severe impacts on the Bismarck.
By 21:46 all was lost for the Germans, the Prinz Eugen was slowly going under water, while the Bismarck was now crippled with only one main turret in operating condition. The Hood had managed to disengage but was effectively out of action since she was now down to skeleton crew and still fighting her many fires.
Realizing that the end was inevitable as the undamaged Prince of Wales was closing on him, Lutjens gave orders to scuttle the vessel and abandon ship thus ending the battle of the Faeroe Islands and the commerce raiding mission of the Bismarck.
Game Results
British victory pts = 30 (for sinking Bismarck) + 10 (for sinking Prinz Eugen) = 40 VP
German victory pts = 10 (for severe damage to HMS Hood ) = 10 VP
It was a decisive victory for the British, which was possible due to the very bad luck by Admiral Marty Lutjens whose risky strategy of running the British search screen under the deteriorating weather would have paid off if the British had not been able to join that particular long range recon plane with Task force A at the exact attempted crossing point chosen by Marty Lutjens.
Under bad weather on the North Atlantic Bismarck opens fire on HMS Hood before being crippled by Prince of Wales return fire.
Using the Avalon Hill Bismarck (1978 ) game and with minor integration adjustments I arranged the game in which the surface actions would be played using the Victory at Sea rules.
We used all the DM house rules plus a couple of our own ( for example fires cause criticals when you roll double ones upon trying to put them out).
We also changed the german radar to be 360 but gets a lock on a 4+ rather than 3+. The KGV class also had random chance of getting guns jammed.
We had to come up with rules for sides to disengage from surface actions and for chasing, so instead of using the edges of the table we decided that ships could disengage if they could start and end a turn more than 30" away from enemy ships ( as per DM rules we don't allow shooting over 30" ).
The strategic weather conditions would be converted to night or bad weather for the surface actions.
This is the full campaign report:
The Hunt for Bismarck
On May 22nd at 1200 hours the German hunt team composed of Battleship Bismarck and Cruiser Prinz Eugen left the port of Bergen under the cover of fog. Unfortunately upon leaving port at around 13:15 random short range patrols out of the Shetland Islands managed to sight the Bismarck and quickly informed the British high command. Upon realizing that he had been sighted adrmiarl Marty Lutjens turned North to open sea breaking contact with the Shetland short range patrols by 14:42.
Immediately, British forces started deploying search screens north of Iceland and between Iceland and Great Britain. The Hood and Prince of Wales were ordered to patrol the area east of the Faeroe Islands.
The British Elements at Scapa Flow upon receiving confirmation that the German ships had left port where given orders to leave for open sea and join the search efforts.
By 1600 hours weather conditions started deteriorating in the North Atlantic. Admiral Lutjens decided then to take advantage of the deteriorating weather and attempt to cross into the open Atlantic Ocean by rushing between Northern Great Britain and the Faeroe Islands. Although this would bring him dangerously close to Scapa Flow if the weather continued to deteriorate he would probably cross undetected and he would also be leaving the British patrols under the cover of night, soon he would be raiding the Atlantic and African convoy routes. A long recon plane was released from Bergen to scout ahead of the German ships.
At 2000 hours on May 22nd the weather conditions had greatly deteriorated as a severe storm front now moved through the North Atlantic, consequently the British search screen was rendered almost useless. Foreseeing the weather problem the British Admiralty had launched long range recon planes that would fly low and rendezvous with surface elements, combined search by surface and air elements would be the only way to effectively patrol the area between Iceland and Britain.
By 2100 hours only one of the dispatched air elements had managed to rendezvous with its assigned surface contact, this was the element assigned to reach Task force A, HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales, 100 nautical miles east of Faeroe Islands so at this point out of the over 700 nautical miles to be searched between Iceland and Great Britain only small area of 100 nautical miles to the east of Faeroe Islands was effectively being searched.
Unfortunately for Lutjens this was precisely the spot chosen for the crossing and at 21:12 still under the dying long day light of the North Atlantic and amidst of a mounting storm HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales sighted the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen and gave chase.
Admiral Marty Lutjens then decided that if he could concentrate fire on the Hood and force her to disengage he could later try to out run Prince of Wales or even try to face her at an advantageous tactical situation, so with this in mind Bismarck and Prinz Eugene made hard turns to starboard to bring all their guns to bear on the incoming enemy.
The initial salvoes started at 21:22 at a range of 26,000 yards.
The bad weather conditions made it difficult to direct gunnery fire at long range. After the few minutes it was clear that superior radar operation on the British side and also some very effective gunnery fire coming from HMS Hood were turning the odds against the Germans.
HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales go to flank speed giving Chase to Bismarck and Prinz Eugen
By 21:30 British gunnery fire had inflicted severe fuel ruptures on the Bismark, Lutjens then fearing for his now reduced ability to evade ordered Captain Kevin Brinkmann to conduct a risky torpedo run with the Prinz Eugen to try to disrupt the British chase and give time to the Bismarck to fix her engines and run away.
The strategy seemed to pay off at first when the fast moving Prinz Eugen managed attract all gunnery fire from Prince of Wales and Hood, yet again very effective gunnery fire from HMS Hood reduced Prinz Eugen speed and maneuverability and damaged her starboard torpedo tubes !
Still at her own risk Prinz Eugen closed and fired her port torpedoes on HMS Hood and went to flank speed to try to disengage, however HMS Hood managed to dodge the torpedo attack..
Despite the successful distraction forced on the British the Bismarck still had not been able to fully repair her engines and had been unable to range in with gunnery fire on the British ships.
HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales now resumed chase of the Bismarck at flank speed. Admiral Lutjens realizing that under present conditions he could not evade turned to Port to bring guns to bear on the British warships and opened fire on the Hood.
Players and referee enjoy the VAS surface action
For a moment the tide seem to turn in favor of the Germans when a successful full broadside coming from the Bismarck scored critical impacts on the Hood magazines setting her on fire from stern to stern and knocking three of her main turrets out of order. This would force the Hood to disengage leaving Bismarck to face Prince of Wales, however the joy was short lived on the German side since the Prince of Wales now quickly gaining on Bismarck managed to sink the escaping Prinz Eugen with a salvo from its rear four gun turret, and also inflicted severe impacts on the Bismarck.
By 21:46 all was lost for the Germans, the Prinz Eugen was slowly going under water, while the Bismarck was now crippled with only one main turret in operating condition. The Hood had managed to disengage but was effectively out of action since she was now down to skeleton crew and still fighting her many fires.
Realizing that the end was inevitable as the undamaged Prince of Wales was closing on him, Lutjens gave orders to scuttle the vessel and abandon ship thus ending the battle of the Faeroe Islands and the commerce raiding mission of the Bismarck.
Game Results
British victory pts = 30 (for sinking Bismarck) + 10 (for sinking Prinz Eugen) = 40 VP
German victory pts = 10 (for severe damage to HMS Hood ) = 10 VP
It was a decisive victory for the British, which was possible due to the very bad luck by Admiral Marty Lutjens whose risky strategy of running the British search screen under the deteriorating weather would have paid off if the British had not been able to join that particular long range recon plane with Task force A at the exact attempted crossing point chosen by Marty Lutjens.
Under bad weather on the North Atlantic Bismarck opens fire on HMS Hood before being crippled by Prince of Wales return fire.
I didn't have anything better at hand at the moment.
