A buddy and I played a small quick game of GQ3.3 a couple of days ago – the Battle of River Plate. I had wanted to play out this battle for a while, since it seemed in every AAR I read, Graf Spee was sunk. Add to that I had just finished Dudley Pope's book and re-watched the movie. "Staffy, where's the sun?"
In my scenario, Graff Spee and Exeter start out 21,000 yards apart, basically heading for each other, Graf Spee coming southeast and Exeter heading northwest to investigate her smoke. Ajax and Achilles are still in line ahead heading ENE.
I had Graf Spee turn to starboard to bring her port broadside to bear against Exeter, and also try to keep the range open vs. the two CLs. I also rolled very well shooting, as you will see. I hit Exeter on that first turn even though I could only throw one D12 (including 1/2 dice for 1st turn firing at a target in daytime to get on target) and needed a '1'. Each 11" hit is two Equivalent Damage Rolls vs. cruisers. Exeter was lucky in only rolling two secondary batteries knocked out. However, in the subsequent 4-5 turns, I always hit Exeter at least once. She took an Engineering hit that resulted in a loss of all power due to her not having Unit Engineering, which also meant she couldn't train/fire her 8" guns, and a floatplane/fire hit. My buddy had sensibly jettisoned Exeter's floatplane the first turn. Exeter repaired her Engineering hit, allowing her to get underway again and rejoin the fight, and put the fire out the next turn after losing only 1/2 a hull box. However, in those next few turns, amongst a few other hits, she lost all three of her main battery turrets, failed morale, and turned away making smoke – eventually withdrawing to the Falklands. All very historical! "Request permission revise list of spares!"
Commodore Harwood on Ajax made his Force Morale check and kept fighting. Exeter had managed to knock out one of Graf Spee's 5.9" secondary mounts, but her hit on one of Graf Spee's 11" turrets failed to penetrate.
Meanwhile Ajax and Achilles had started turning toward Graf Spee, while holding their fire so as to not interfere with Exeter's shooting. This might nominally be a good tactic; however, unbeknownst to my buddy, I had some special rules in the scenario for hull hits eventually being able to knock out Graff Spee's galleys and fuel purification plant, and thus forcing her to withdraw to the neutral port of Montevideo – and even non-penetrating hull hits do 1/2 a hull box, and eventually would add up. Ajax and Achilles had to turn away one turn for Ajax to launch her floatplane. All this time Ajax was under fire from Graf Spee's 5.9" port secondary battery, but no hits were obtained.
After Exeter disengaged, Graf Spee switched her 11" guns to Achilles. With the help of her floatplane observing (before Graf Spee eventually shot it down), Ajax managed a hit on one of Graf Spee's torpedo mounts, and did 1/2 a hull box due to a non-penetrating hit. I missed rolling the destruction of Graf Spee's galleys and fuel purification plant by 1 (whew!). Beyond this, my buddy rolled abysmally in his shooting.
On the last turn we played, the range had closed so that Graf Spee's 11" to-hit was "1+ – 2", meaning in GQ3 on each D12 she would get 1 hit on a ‘1' or a ‘10' and 2 hits on a ‘2'. On the three dice, I rolled two '2s', or 4 hits. Except that was 8 Equivalent Damage Rolls for 11" vs. cruisers. Amongst other damage, Achilles rolled two Engineering hits, then because of no UE rolled two more dice with bad results, so Achilles went DIW without the ability to repair her Engineering, and could not train/fire her main battery. That wasn't the worst however. A single 5.9" hit on Ajax resulted in a Critical Hit – Ammunition that could penetrate her CL armor. The roll to flood the magazine failed and Ajax blew up! With Achilles helpless, we assumed Graf Spee would close in somewhat to finish her off, and she would probably abandon ship and scuttle. A Decisive Victory for the Germans, with Kapitän-zur-See Hans Langsdorff being awarded the Knight's Cross!
I still think it is a good scenario – where average shooting by the British should result in Graf Spee eventually having to break off and run into port. The pictures I took came out blurry, but I attached the scenario. For some reason it wouldn't let me attach the SDSs, which are in Excel - said I wasn't permitted to upload that kind of file.
Dave
Attached Files
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River Plate2.doc 96.5KB
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