Out of the Mist

[paulr]

As Ithoriel correctly identifed our naval game on the second day of the Call to Arms convention was off Gotland on 2 July 1915

The ships are those that took part in the action off Gotland in 1915.

German minelaying mission mugged by Russian cruisers as they returned to base.

Peter had added a slight twist to history to hopefully make it less of a mugging 

"At 0600 on 2 July, Commodore von Karpf split his command into two divisions. Augsburg, Albatross, and 2nd Div, X Flotilla proceeded SW to return to Gdansk. The other German division steered SSE towards their base at Liepaja on the East Prussian coast. Then around 0615 Lieutenant Commander Bühler, officer of the watch on the bridge of the Albatross, spots several large ships emerging from the fog to the south. Even as he orders "action stations" the Russian cruisers open fire....."



Fortunately for Bühler they fired on the other German division...



Roon and Lübeck and their torpedo boats were outnumbered two to one and to make matters worse the Russian light cruisers were armed with 6"guns compared to Lübeck's 4.1".



They altered course to WSW, worked up to full speed and opened fire on the Russians hoping to fight a long range engagement. Lübeck engaged the Russian torpedo boats as her guns would not penetrate cruisers at this range.



The Russians were keen to press home their advantage and advanced rapidly on a course of NW. This gave the Germans some hope as it limited the Russians to their forward guns only.



These hopes were reinforced by some good early shooting by Roon and a significant explosion on the leading Russian armoured cruiser.

(In General Quarters II a D10 is rolled to straddle the target and two D6s are rolled for damage, if all three score 6 the firer suffers a turret explosion and loses a quarter of its fire power. In this game the target player was rolling for damage and to add to the fog of war only described the damage done by the firer in general terms. Not knowing how much damage the enemy had suffered certainly added to the stress levels. In this game I managed to roll double 6s when the Russians had straddle on a 6 twice, more than we have seen in all our previous games. )

However, once the Russians had closed to effective range they altered course to W with their light cruisers 3,000 yards south of their armoured cruisers. The two Russian armoured cruisers concentrated their fire on Roon while the two light cruisers fired over their armoured cruisers on Lübeck.



Roon's main guns fired on the lead Russian armoured cruiser and her secondaries fired on the leading group of Russian torpedo boats before shifting to the lead Russian armoured cruiser. Lübeck fired on the rear group of torpedo boats.

Lübeck suffered a number of hull hits and started to fall behind Roon. Eventually she was dead in the water and slowly sinking (the purple die recording turns left until she sinks).



The German torpedo boats desperately fired torpedoes and laid smoke to screen Roon as she tried to withdraw to the west with damage rapidly mounting.

Further to the south west the German armoured cruisers Prinz Adalbert and Prinz Heinrich and a division of torpedo boats were steaming north at full speed to offer assistance to their hard pressed comrades.
(This was the slight twist that Peter had made to history to even the scenario up, historically these ships left port too late to be of assistance and ran into the British submarine E.9. In the scenario they arrived D6+2 turns after the Russians were sighted, of course I rolled a 6 )

As they came north they ran into the large Russian armoured cruiser Rurik. As they altered course to NW so all guns could bear Prinz Adalbert came under heavy fire from Rurik and was soon badly damaged and on fire! The accompanying torpedo boats were sent into attack with torpedoes encouraged by Commodore von Karpf in Augsburg who had pressed on at full speed to "link up with the additional German armoured cruisers".



Prinz Heinrich was struggling to find the range but Prinz Adalbert's single remaining main turret managed to still straddle the enemy. Suddenly a huge explosion was seen from the Rurik as one of her magazines exploded! (Peter had rolled a 9 on the critical hit D10 and then rolled a 4 on the D6 which was just high enough to cause a magazine explosion rather than depriving some guns of ammunition by flooding the magazine.)

Back to the east Roon and Albatross continued withdrawing at their best speed to the south west. Roon's upper works were a total wreck and no guns were able to deliver effective fire. All three divisions of torpedo boats were firing torpedoes and laying smoke to cover their withdrawal. The Russians were in hot pursuit. So hot that at one point a light cruiser burst through the smoke screen into the midst of one of the torpedo boat divisions and collisions were only narrowly avoided.



With Rurik destroyed Prinz Adalbert and Prinz Heinrich moved east at their best speed to meet the withdrawing Roon and Albatross. The accompanying torpedo boats were sent ahead to counter the large Russian destroyer Novik.



As the Prinz Heinrich opened fire on the Russian light cruisers the Russians realised that their chance of destroying Roon and Albatross had slipped away. Both forces withdrew behind smoke to effect repairs and assess the results of the action.

The Germans had managed to exit three of the four cruisers of the minelaying force (Roon, Albatross, Augsburg) along the southern edge of the board but they were too badly damaged to claim a tactical victory.

We therefore looked at victory points as per the rule book (based on sunk and damaged ships); Germans 14, Russians 8.

So a close winning draw to the very battered Germans 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Good report l love the figures and smoke!

[toxicpixie]

I like those broadside counters!

Great sounding game.

[Techno]

Terrific !
Cheers - Phil

[Ithoriel]

Nice report. Sounds like a fun game.

[Leman]

Not really my thing but I certainly appreciate a great looking game.

[paulr]

Glad you enjoyed the report, we certainly enjoyed the game

I like those broadside counters!

They are double sided, the orange side means you did damage last turn so it is easier to straddle this turn. We also put the splash marker on the base of a ship that was hit rather than next to it. It's surprising how a few little things like that make the game flow more smoothly 

[toxicpixie]

Ahh, clever... Yeah, I like GQ but in big, fast movin games it's easy to lose track like that - neat solution!

[nikharwood]

Cracking report - thanks for posting 

[pierre the shy]

Back from a little time away.

Just because I put together these scenarios doesn't mean that I expect to win them all the time...would you believe sometimes at least 

Mind you at Call to Arms 2013 we played "Old Dominion Gameworks - The Solomons Campaign". The US carriers got in two solid strikes on the Japanese carriers without reply and sunk 5 out of 6 of them. ..the umpire ruled that my strike on the last one, accompanying the flagship Yamato had to be unescorted as the CAP was "not available" so it got cut up badly by the few remaining Zeros though not before they put a torpedo into the flagship.

The other highlight for me was Washington and South Dakota closing with some unfortunate Japanese cruisers during a night action off Savo Island. The Japanese all guessed that the battleships would turn away so all their Long Lance torpedoes missed. The American battleships main guns did not.

Overall we had a good weekend of gaming with Colmins and Out of the Mist.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Sounds brilliant!

[toxicpixie]

"The American battleships main guns did not."

Ouch... that's gonna sting...

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

"Pass me another cruiser, this ones split!"

[Ithoriel]

So, presumably South Dakota managed not to switch off all her electrical systems this time

I've gamed the action against Kondo's bombardment group a number of times and it's been interesting to see the wide range of results.

Must resist the temptation to rebuild my naval collection ... Must Resist The Temptation To Rebuild My Naval Collection ... Must Resist The Temptation To Rebuild My Naval Collection ... Aaaaagh! Somebody swat that damn butterfly!!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Join the wet side, we have... Erm... Ships biscuits... And RUM!