Last week we decided to go for a Naval Thunder scenario (it was a scenario from Station Manned and Ready, indeed... but we recycled it for NT). Usually when we play Naval Thunder, we like to put on table as many ship as we can, both for sake of painting glory and for letting more people to join us. Therefore, we often play Jutland-like battles, lasting 4 or 5 hours and usually with uncertain results (a part a lot of fun!).
With this small scenario, we gave a new deal to our naval warfare. Infact, it involves no more then 4 vassels per side, with the biggest ones being Armoured Cruisers.
Here come a brief description of the events introducing this scenario:
1st November 1914, The German Pacific Squadron under Admiral Von Spee was cruising carrying out commerce raids at the start of the First World War. The British, French and Japanese had squadrons searching for him at the start of the war, reminiscent of the search for the ship bearing his name at the start of the Second World War. The British squadron under Cradock intercepted him off the coast of Chile, and
after a one sided fight, the British Cruisers were annihilated.
as you can read, it was a one side action, with the British best achievement being surviving...
I suggested some victory conditions in order to equilibrate it a little bit. I've arranged a long table (2 mt long, 1,5 wide) with the Royal Navy starting on left side when the Hochseeflotte tries to intercept them from the middle of the table (so, it would roughly be as the RN was bearing westward and the germans came from north side of the table).
The brits would gain a victory point each ship they can bring out of the table from west end, 2 point if they do so with the slow armed merchantman (the Otranto), but they can get 2 victory point if the expose themselves to the more powerful german guns and get to sunk an enemy ship.
From other side, germans will get 1 victory point each british ship they'll sink and 2 points if they sink the Otranto.
With this in mind, let's review the forces on the water:
Royal Navy:
AC HMS Good Hope a decent AC, with 9" guns
AC HMS Monmouth (proxed with AC Warrior) a very light AC, with only 6" and 3" guns on it...
CL Glasgow (proxed with CL Bristol)
AMC Otranto (proxed with CL Aurora) slow and heavy ship, but with a good resistance to hits...
Hochseeflotte
AC Scharnhorst,
AC Gneisenau
CL Leipzig
CL Nürnberg
CL Dresden
CL Emden (as this last cruisers arrived only in the last part of the battle, we omitted it in this scenario)
The game was fun, with a lot of evasive manouvres, smoke curtains layered to cover slow ships, some big bangs from both sides, with the brits which nearly escaped the germans. Nearly. Germans lost 2 small CLs, and an AC, but have sunk almost everything on the table, apart of the merchantman, which was still afloat but, as it had lost almost every ship from his escort, she lowered her colours...
With this small scenario, we gave a new deal to our naval warfare. Infact, it involves no more then 4 vassels per side, with the biggest ones being Armoured Cruisers.
Here come a brief description of the events introducing this scenario:
1st November 1914, The German Pacific Squadron under Admiral Von Spee was cruising carrying out commerce raids at the start of the First World War. The British, French and Japanese had squadrons searching for him at the start of the war, reminiscent of the search for the ship bearing his name at the start of the Second World War. The British squadron under Cradock intercepted him off the coast of Chile, and
after a one sided fight, the British Cruisers were annihilated.
as you can read, it was a one side action, with the British best achievement being surviving...
I suggested some victory conditions in order to equilibrate it a little bit. I've arranged a long table (2 mt long, 1,5 wide) with the Royal Navy starting on left side when the Hochseeflotte tries to intercept them from the middle of the table (so, it would roughly be as the RN was bearing westward and the germans came from north side of the table).
The brits would gain a victory point each ship they can bring out of the table from west end, 2 point if they do so with the slow armed merchantman (the Otranto), but they can get 2 victory point if the expose themselves to the more powerful german guns and get to sunk an enemy ship.
From other side, germans will get 1 victory point each british ship they'll sink and 2 points if they sink the Otranto.
With this in mind, let's review the forces on the water:
Royal Navy:
AC HMS Good Hope a decent AC, with 9" guns
AC HMS Monmouth (proxed with AC Warrior) a very light AC, with only 6" and 3" guns on it...
CL Glasgow (proxed with CL Bristol)
AMC Otranto (proxed with CL Aurora) slow and heavy ship, but with a good resistance to hits...
Hochseeflotte
AC Scharnhorst,
AC Gneisenau
CL Leipzig
CL Nürnberg
CL Dresden
CL Emden (as this last cruisers arrived only in the last part of the battle, we omitted it in this scenario)
The game was fun, with a lot of evasive manouvres, smoke curtains layered to cover slow ships, some big bangs from both sides, with the brits which nearly escaped the germans. Nearly. Germans lost 2 small CLs, and an AC, but have sunk almost everything on the table, apart of the merchantman, which was still afloat but, as it had lost almost every ship from his escort, she lowered her colours...
the British choose a convoy formation, bearing WSW
a close-up to the convoy, with CL performing an evasive manouver, trying to keep formation with the slow and encoumbered Otranto.
Germans advance with a double line formation, full speed.
The german, after having succesfully intercept the british ships, but having suffered badly from 9" guns of Good Hope, performed a cleaver screening of the nearly sunk AC on the right. In the meanwhile, the Monmouth keep suffering from two fires on the bridge and a flooding...
Hey, what a good paint job on the Good Hope's sea base here... I'm proud! and it is my favourite ship too!
here below the nasty germans from Werther collection
the Magdeburg is showing some secondary damages on the superstructures...
