Court Jester
Mongoose
First of all, I must say that I had a great day at Mongoose Towers and had 4 very enjoyable games against 4 great opponents so my thanks to Matt for making it all happen.
On to the fleet... I had been planning a different type of fleet for the tournament. I wanted to use aircraft and prove that they can work and I think I managed to prove that they can be a competitive tournament force even if I made a few mistakes in my games that better players probably wouldn’t.
I decided to go with the following for the 1939, 1940 & 1942 games:
USS Yorktown (Yorktown-class)
USS Hornet (Yorktown-class)
USS Enterprise (Yorktown-class)
USS Hudson (Fletcher-class)
USS Taylor (Fletcher-class)
USS Wren (Fletcher-class)
9 Flights of Douglas Devastators (land-based aircraft)
Total Aircraft:
18 flights of Douglas Devastator Torpedo Bombers
18 flights of Douglas Dauntless Dive Bombers
9 flights of Grumman Wiladcat Fighters
Aircraft that start on the table against a fleet with no fighters:
18 flights of Douglas Devastator Torpedo Bombers
9 Flights of Douglas Dauntless Dive Bombers
Aircraft that start on the table against a fleet with fighters:
18 flights of Douglas Devastator Torpedo Bombers
6 Flights of Grumman Wiladcat Fighters
3 Flights of Douglas Dauntless Dive Bombers
The plan with the carrier fleet is simple… Launch as many aircraft as possible and then get the carriers out of the battle and use the destroyers to torpedo targets that may need a bit of encouragement under the waves…
The destroyers lay down smoke covering the carriers who should only really need to spend 3 turns getting all their aircraft airborne. Once the all aircraft have been launched the carriers then make for the nearest friendly table edge and if need be make a tactical withdrawal (giving up only 4 victory points each when they do).
The trick with the planes is selecting the right targets and concentrating your attacks (something I didn’t do to well with against the Italians). Damage might build up slowly but you should have time so keep your cool. It makes sense to attack things like the raid level cruisers who are as killable as their skirmish counterparts but give up double the victory points. Also crippling a larger ship will make her give up victory points so you don’t have to destroy them.
Once the destroyers have escorted the carriers far enough they can either speed up into an empty part of the table to just avoid being shot or you can use them to make specific attacks on ships that have been heavily damaged by your aircraft. But you have to weigh the victory points they will score against the points they will give up when they are invariable destroyed for making such brave attacks into the middle of the enemy fleet (which is usually bunched up to provide overlapping AA cover).
Quite often people were surprised when the destroyers swung about and steamed full speed into the middle of their fleets.
I made a few mistakes playing with this fleet, but I think in the future I might be more careful (and be more aware of the victory conditions) and I believe with careful play this can be very tough to beat.
Oh… one final thing after I have been "Bigging up" the fleet... it just cannot beat a fleet that contains a single battleship unless you are very very very lucky. The torpedo belts and armoured decks just kill any offensive ability you may have. And causing enough damage to get VP's is very hard indeed.
For the 1945 game I chose a rather simple and, some might say, silly fleet of :
USS Iowa (Iowa-class)
USS Hudson (Fletcher-class)
USS Taylor (Fletcher-class)
USS Wren (Fletcher-class)
Game 1
Against Ben Rubery playing Russians
Ben’s Fleet for all 4 games:
2 Gangut-class Battleships
2 Tashkent-class Destroyer Leaders
2 Novik-class Destroyers
2 Kirov-class Cruisers
The game was the “At All Costs” scenario and was played with bad weather.
Things started well and I was able to launch the second half of my air wing whilst the Russian fleet headed out at flank speed to close the distance.
Over the next few turns the Enterprise was crippled but was able to make a tactical withdrawal along with the other three cruisers. Dive Bombers were able to sink one of the Kirov-class cruisers and one Gangut was sunk by dive bombers, torpedo bombers and a torpedo strike from one of my destroyers.
It was at this point that I made a serious mistake. I should have simply made a bee-line for that table edge and withdrawn the destroyers at which point the game would have ended (I had no ships on the table) and I still had the victory point lead. But I misunderstood the victory conditions and my destroyers stayed on the table and were chased around until they were caught and torpedoed. Instead of winning I lost the game by a marginal amount. I learnt my lesson there.
(13 tournament points to Ben and 7 points to me)
Game 2
John Wall playing Italians
John’s fleet consisted of:
3 Trento-class Cruisers
3 Zara-class Cruisers
6 Navigatori-class Destroyers
(I think he used the same fleet in all 4 games)
The game was the “At All Costs” scenario and was played in fine weather.
I started off with the destroyers laying smoke to cover the carriers and started to launch my planes.
The Italians were prepared for an air attack with a vicious number of AA attacks per cruiser and great positioning to cover each ship in the fleet by all the others. They also started to go evasive as my air armada made its way to the attack.
I started the attacks by torpedoing and dive bombing the 2 cruisers that had not managed to go evasive causing damage to both of them as well as sinking a destroyer with torpedo bombers.
And then it happened… the 2 cruisers that I had started to attacks on were able to go evasive whilst all the other cruisers stopped being evasive. And this is where I made another mistake… I switched attacks to undamaged cruisers and did the odd damage here and there.
Over the next few turns my aircraft were cut to ribbons by the intense numbers of AA fire from the cruisers (27 dice on average…) as well as never really concentrating my attacks on any ships long enough to do enough damage to any one of them.
All 3 carriers made safe withdrawals from the battle and my destroyers made death-rides trying to torpedo some cruisers before they were destroyed but my dice let me down. I missed all the attacks against a cruiser and only managed to sink a second destroyer. All my destroyers were sunk.
(17 tournament points to John and 3 points to me)
Game 3
David Underwood using the Kriegsmarine
David’s fleet consisted of:
Scharnhorst-class Battlecruiser
3 Zerstörer 1936-class Destroyers
2 Type-VII U-Boats
6 flights of Messerschmitt Me-109’s
(again I believe he used the same fleet for all 4 g ames)
The game was the “At All Costs” scenario and was played in fine weather.
I started with my Wildcats in the air this game to counter the German fighters that were present. The game started with my destroyers laying down smoke to cover the carrier’s advance.
The Scharnhorst detected the USS Yorktown on Radar and opened fire at 40” causing moderate damage to the carrier.
The Wildcat fighter pilots made a good show of dogfighting the Germans managing to shoot win 2 out of 6 dogfights. The staying power of the wildcats showed through as their 2 damage points kept them in the fight. Over the course of the game however all the Wildcats would be lost to the German pilots.
The diver bombers started their attack runs on the Scharnhorst causing moderate damage whilst the torpedo bombers concentrated on taking out the German destroyers.
Again all three carriers were able to make good their escape however this time they still had at least 1 flight of un-launched dive bombers on board as they withdrew.
My destroyers sped forwards and tried a desperate torpedo attack on the Scharnhorst which unsurprisingly only caused 2 points of damage… Meanwhile the dive bombers were starting to take their toll causing plenty of hits and criticals on the German battlecruiser.
One of my destroyers was sunk by the return fire from the Scharnhorst’s guns and torpedoes whilst the other two made good their escapes into more open parts of the board.
On the last turn of the game the last wave of dive bombers were able to cripple the Scharnhorst whilst the last flight of Devastator torpedo bombers heroically crippled the last German destroyer with a sing torpedo strike (the other two having been caught short by torpedo bombers in earlier turns).
(7 tournament points to David and 13 points to me)
Game 4
Peter Perry (LBH) using the Royal Navy
Peter’s fleet consisted of:
2 Illustrious-class Aircraft Carriers
3 J,K&N-class Destroyers
2 Norfolk-class Cruisers
2 York-class Cruisers
The game was the “Victory at Sea” scenario and was played in bad weather.
The game started with radar being used to spot the enemy fleets resulting in plenty of detected ships on both sides of the table.
The first few turns of the game were spent with both fleets closing on each other and very few shots being fired. All the US Navy’s spotters were shot down in short order by Martlet fighters.
In one titanic clash the two fleets met and the Royal Navy unleashed its Torpedoes… all of them… In total the Iowa was attacked by 25 torpedo AD and yet she sailed through them all guns blazing. By the turns end she was on fire and her engines had been heavily damaged but she was still going.
Over the next few turns my destroyers made half hearted attacks but generally headed away from the fight having unloaded their own torpedoes.
The Swordfish torpedo runs were met with a wall of AA fire but still 3 managed to make it through adding to the torpedo strikes against Iowa but it was not enough.
The Iowa engaged the Royal Navy fleet by herself, after the destroyers had fled to open waters, and by the end of the game she had sunk all of the Commonwealth cruisers and one destroyer for the loss of no US Navy vessels.
(3 tournament points to Peter and 17 points to me)
Pictures to follow...
On to the fleet... I had been planning a different type of fleet for the tournament. I wanted to use aircraft and prove that they can work and I think I managed to prove that they can be a competitive tournament force even if I made a few mistakes in my games that better players probably wouldn’t.
I decided to go with the following for the 1939, 1940 & 1942 games:
USS Yorktown (Yorktown-class)
USS Hornet (Yorktown-class)
USS Enterprise (Yorktown-class)
USS Hudson (Fletcher-class)
USS Taylor (Fletcher-class)
USS Wren (Fletcher-class)
9 Flights of Douglas Devastators (land-based aircraft)
Total Aircraft:
18 flights of Douglas Devastator Torpedo Bombers
18 flights of Douglas Dauntless Dive Bombers
9 flights of Grumman Wiladcat Fighters
Aircraft that start on the table against a fleet with no fighters:
18 flights of Douglas Devastator Torpedo Bombers
9 Flights of Douglas Dauntless Dive Bombers
Aircraft that start on the table against a fleet with fighters:
18 flights of Douglas Devastator Torpedo Bombers
6 Flights of Grumman Wiladcat Fighters
3 Flights of Douglas Dauntless Dive Bombers
The plan with the carrier fleet is simple… Launch as many aircraft as possible and then get the carriers out of the battle and use the destroyers to torpedo targets that may need a bit of encouragement under the waves…
The destroyers lay down smoke covering the carriers who should only really need to spend 3 turns getting all their aircraft airborne. Once the all aircraft have been launched the carriers then make for the nearest friendly table edge and if need be make a tactical withdrawal (giving up only 4 victory points each when they do).
The trick with the planes is selecting the right targets and concentrating your attacks (something I didn’t do to well with against the Italians). Damage might build up slowly but you should have time so keep your cool. It makes sense to attack things like the raid level cruisers who are as killable as their skirmish counterparts but give up double the victory points. Also crippling a larger ship will make her give up victory points so you don’t have to destroy them.
Once the destroyers have escorted the carriers far enough they can either speed up into an empty part of the table to just avoid being shot or you can use them to make specific attacks on ships that have been heavily damaged by your aircraft. But you have to weigh the victory points they will score against the points they will give up when they are invariable destroyed for making such brave attacks into the middle of the enemy fleet (which is usually bunched up to provide overlapping AA cover).
Quite often people were surprised when the destroyers swung about and steamed full speed into the middle of their fleets.
I made a few mistakes playing with this fleet, but I think in the future I might be more careful (and be more aware of the victory conditions) and I believe with careful play this can be very tough to beat.
Oh… one final thing after I have been "Bigging up" the fleet... it just cannot beat a fleet that contains a single battleship unless you are very very very lucky. The torpedo belts and armoured decks just kill any offensive ability you may have. And causing enough damage to get VP's is very hard indeed.
For the 1945 game I chose a rather simple and, some might say, silly fleet of :
USS Iowa (Iowa-class)
USS Hudson (Fletcher-class)
USS Taylor (Fletcher-class)
USS Wren (Fletcher-class)
Game 1
Against Ben Rubery playing Russians
Ben’s Fleet for all 4 games:
2 Gangut-class Battleships
2 Tashkent-class Destroyer Leaders
2 Novik-class Destroyers
2 Kirov-class Cruisers
The game was the “At All Costs” scenario and was played with bad weather.
Things started well and I was able to launch the second half of my air wing whilst the Russian fleet headed out at flank speed to close the distance.
Over the next few turns the Enterprise was crippled but was able to make a tactical withdrawal along with the other three cruisers. Dive Bombers were able to sink one of the Kirov-class cruisers and one Gangut was sunk by dive bombers, torpedo bombers and a torpedo strike from one of my destroyers.
It was at this point that I made a serious mistake. I should have simply made a bee-line for that table edge and withdrawn the destroyers at which point the game would have ended (I had no ships on the table) and I still had the victory point lead. But I misunderstood the victory conditions and my destroyers stayed on the table and were chased around until they were caught and torpedoed. Instead of winning I lost the game by a marginal amount. I learnt my lesson there.
(13 tournament points to Ben and 7 points to me)
Game 2
John Wall playing Italians
John’s fleet consisted of:
3 Trento-class Cruisers
3 Zara-class Cruisers
6 Navigatori-class Destroyers
(I think he used the same fleet in all 4 games)
The game was the “At All Costs” scenario and was played in fine weather.
I started off with the destroyers laying smoke to cover the carriers and started to launch my planes.
The Italians were prepared for an air attack with a vicious number of AA attacks per cruiser and great positioning to cover each ship in the fleet by all the others. They also started to go evasive as my air armada made its way to the attack.
I started the attacks by torpedoing and dive bombing the 2 cruisers that had not managed to go evasive causing damage to both of them as well as sinking a destroyer with torpedo bombers.
And then it happened… the 2 cruisers that I had started to attacks on were able to go evasive whilst all the other cruisers stopped being evasive. And this is where I made another mistake… I switched attacks to undamaged cruisers and did the odd damage here and there.
Over the next few turns my aircraft were cut to ribbons by the intense numbers of AA fire from the cruisers (27 dice on average…) as well as never really concentrating my attacks on any ships long enough to do enough damage to any one of them.
All 3 carriers made safe withdrawals from the battle and my destroyers made death-rides trying to torpedo some cruisers before they were destroyed but my dice let me down. I missed all the attacks against a cruiser and only managed to sink a second destroyer. All my destroyers were sunk.
(17 tournament points to John and 3 points to me)
Game 3
David Underwood using the Kriegsmarine
David’s fleet consisted of:
Scharnhorst-class Battlecruiser
3 Zerstörer 1936-class Destroyers
2 Type-VII U-Boats
6 flights of Messerschmitt Me-109’s
(again I believe he used the same fleet for all 4 g ames)
The game was the “At All Costs” scenario and was played in fine weather.
I started with my Wildcats in the air this game to counter the German fighters that were present. The game started with my destroyers laying down smoke to cover the carrier’s advance.
The Scharnhorst detected the USS Yorktown on Radar and opened fire at 40” causing moderate damage to the carrier.
The Wildcat fighter pilots made a good show of dogfighting the Germans managing to shoot win 2 out of 6 dogfights. The staying power of the wildcats showed through as their 2 damage points kept them in the fight. Over the course of the game however all the Wildcats would be lost to the German pilots.
The diver bombers started their attack runs on the Scharnhorst causing moderate damage whilst the torpedo bombers concentrated on taking out the German destroyers.
Again all three carriers were able to make good their escape however this time they still had at least 1 flight of un-launched dive bombers on board as they withdrew.
My destroyers sped forwards and tried a desperate torpedo attack on the Scharnhorst which unsurprisingly only caused 2 points of damage… Meanwhile the dive bombers were starting to take their toll causing plenty of hits and criticals on the German battlecruiser.
One of my destroyers was sunk by the return fire from the Scharnhorst’s guns and torpedoes whilst the other two made good their escapes into more open parts of the board.
On the last turn of the game the last wave of dive bombers were able to cripple the Scharnhorst whilst the last flight of Devastator torpedo bombers heroically crippled the last German destroyer with a sing torpedo strike (the other two having been caught short by torpedo bombers in earlier turns).
(7 tournament points to David and 13 points to me)
Game 4
Peter Perry (LBH) using the Royal Navy
Peter’s fleet consisted of:
2 Illustrious-class Aircraft Carriers
3 J,K&N-class Destroyers
2 Norfolk-class Cruisers
2 York-class Cruisers
The game was the “Victory at Sea” scenario and was played in bad weather.
The game started with radar being used to spot the enemy fleets resulting in plenty of detected ships on both sides of the table.
The first few turns of the game were spent with both fleets closing on each other and very few shots being fired. All the US Navy’s spotters were shot down in short order by Martlet fighters.
In one titanic clash the two fleets met and the Royal Navy unleashed its Torpedoes… all of them… In total the Iowa was attacked by 25 torpedo AD and yet she sailed through them all guns blazing. By the turns end she was on fire and her engines had been heavily damaged but she was still going.
Over the next few turns my destroyers made half hearted attacks but generally headed away from the fight having unloaded their own torpedoes.
The Swordfish torpedo runs were met with a wall of AA fire but still 3 managed to make it through adding to the torpedo strikes against Iowa but it was not enough.
The Iowa engaged the Royal Navy fleet by herself, after the destroyers had fled to open waters, and by the end of the game she had sunk all of the Commonwealth cruisers and one destroyer for the loss of no US Navy vessels.
(3 tournament points to Peter and 17 points to me)
Pictures to follow...
