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I am prepping for Sand Wars here in Mesa, AZ on May 18-19.  In order to tweak my Cruisin' for a Bruisin' scenario and get back in the groove so to speak, I decided to run a couple of games at Imperial Outpost which is an FLGS in Glendale, AZ.

The first game was played this last Saturday, April 13th.  I had only 2 players for the game this time with Matt W. taking the role of the British and Jeffrey M. taking the role of the Germans.  Each player had a reduced company with the Germans having 10 Panzer IIIs with 3 being "Specials" and the British side with 11 Crusader IIs.

We played through 4 turns before the game was called but there was a lot of action.  The British got the worst of things but did manage to kill a few German tanks including the German HQ tank.  The British also lost their HQ tank as well.

Both players were fairly new to the game.  Matt had played in the game I hosted in October while Jeffrey had never played Mein Panzer before.  They enjoyed the game and want to play again so I consider it a success.

The next game will be on April 27th at Imperial Outpost.  I think I may have more players for that one.

Here are a few pictures of the game from Saturday.

A Night in Bharu and Singora Too

It was midnight with a Quarter Moon, but the overcast made the moon like new. The wind was a Force 4 Southerly at 15 knots. There were no squalls or sea haze, so it was a dark but not stormy night and smoke was still an option.

0000 hours. Force Z was at sea heading due North at 25 knots looking for those Sons of Nippon. The Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere was reported to have landed another Beach Party at Koto Bharu the RN intended to voice its objection at this blatant repeat of earlier trespasses at this same location.

The steward brought Admiral Phillips a cup of tea with a bit of brandy in it. It was after all a new year and that called for a bit of cheer. HMS PoW (Prince of Wales) the flagship led a column of cruisers (1^st Div. Exeter, Mauritius & Emerald; 2^nd Div. Danae, Dragon and Durban) under RAdm Palliser. There was a destroyer division in column to the port and to the starboard of the central column respectively. Repulse had been left in port. This would be a torpedo ambush if Phillips had his say. He might not have Enterprise, but he did have Emerald, and he intended to boldly go where he had not gone three weeks ago.

Unbeknownst to Phillips, the invasion convoy was still at sea and was closing on Force Z from the NE on a heading of 225 degrees at 11 knots. That made for a closing speed of about 36 knots. Also unbeknownst to Phillips was that the Port IJN destroyer column could see 16.000 yards (I rolled a 1!) which equaled the best (DesDiv 1) RN radar return but DesDiv 1 was to port of the central column. Those Sons of Nippon would get first peek. This would allow the IJN to accelerate and maneuver to port opening up their arcs.

0012 hours. PoW and Electra both made radar contact some 12,000 yards off PoW’s starboard bow. This was the exact opposite of Phillips’ expectations, whoops. PoW fired star-shell from her SS SB and illuminated the second and third ships of what appeared to be a 4-ship division of destroyers.

0015 hours. Phillips accelerated Central column to 29 knots and turned 2 points to port. He had DesDiv 1 accelerated to 35 knots and for it to take station ahead of the Central Column. Phillips had DesDiv 2 (S&T class) fall in behind the Central Column. PoW now engaged the first illuminated DD with it SS SB and whiffed completely. Mauritius fired at the other illuminated DD and hit it 6 times.

But PoW found herself under fire from very large guns indeed, the Nagatos were putting in their two cents.

The Isonami took a hit to her DC racks that started a minor fire. She also lost 2 turrets, had a bulkhead damaged and suffered critical hits to her bridge and engineering. PoW was straddled but not hit with shell splashes that went as high as her main mast.

0018 hours. Phillips turned the central column and DesDiv 2 away together under smoke to break LOS and used DesDiv 1’s SWR to keep situational awareness. This was not the fight Phillips had hoped for.

0021 hours. Phillips turned back into column on a heading of 340 degrees and continued to smoke. He needed to get them within 8,200 yards to torpedo them and he needed to do it without them shooting his cruisers and destroyer to pieces before they could launch. It was obvious that at least some of the Japanese could see as far his radar. DesDiv 1 could still see the damaged DD. It had put out the fire but still had 2 EDR fires burning.

0024 hours. Phillips decided to separate PoW from the cruisers. PoW radar was currently good out 12,000 yards and her SB could fire star-shell that far. He’d light the DDs up again at 12,000 yards and pray that the Nagatos were further away when he did it. If he could get lucky and avoid damage, he might just be able distract the IJN while he slipped his cruisers and DDs within 8,000 yards. If he could pull that off then he would launch torps and let the chips fall as they may. He was going to get Napoleonic on the Japanese, engage, then wait and see.

0030 hours. PoW illuminated another contact at 12,000 yards that turned out to be anther DesDiv of 4 Asashio class DDs.

0033 hours. PoW engaged the lead illuminated DDs with her MB and her SS SB. PoW MB inflicted 4 hits on the Oshio and her SB hit Arashio once. Oshio took a hit to her DC racks that started a minor fire, lost her fore turret and two engineering hits that threatened to knock her DIW. Arashio took a hit in her DC racks and a minor fire. PoW was fired upon by the Nagatos and they missed again.

0036 hours. Phillips had his cruisers and DDs turn together towards the gun flashes that he believed were the Nagatos and turn back on course together while moving the last half of their movement straight ahead. He then had DesDiv 2 fire star-shell in an attempt to illuminate what he believed were the Nagatos. PoW engaged the DDs again with her MB & SB. PoW hit Oshio 4 more times but missed Arashio. Oshio took 3 hits to her hull and a bulkhead. Nagato hit PoW once knocking out a TB and a SL. DesDiv 2 illuminated Nagato and Mutsu.

0039 hours. PoW engaged Nagato with her MB and Arashio with her SB. Nagato returned fire. PoW missed and Nagato hit her once damaging her hull. Several IJN DDs fired at DesDiv 1 & 2 without effect.

0042 hours. All the RN cruisers and DDs fired their torps off at the Nagatos at 8,000 yards. All of Force Z then turned away under smoke to break LOS.

0045 hours. Phillips continued with Force Z almost in a line abreast away from the Japanese under smoke while Electra kept track of them on radar.

Nagato took 5 torps from the 31 fired at her from DesDiv 1, Exeter, Mauritius and Emerald. Mutsu took 4 torps from the 26 fired at her by Danae, Dragon, Durban and DesDiv 2. Nagato took 11 hull and sank after 7. Mutsu also took 7 hull and sank. Admiral Yamamoto went down with Nagato, never to rise again and that was a first for me.

0048 hours. Phillips knew that he had gotten hits but did not know how many or what he had hit. Phillips withdrew and 3 WAF invasions convoys succeeded. The Singapore Index moved to 4.

2nd Vella LaVella continued.

2300 USN begins some radical turns to port and starboard aiming to evade torpedoes. This was initially successful until an 8 point turn to port placed the Selfridge in the path of one of Kazekumos spreads at just beyond 5000 yards. This shot did considerable hull damage and another engineering hit. Quick and effective reaction by the damage control teams restored power but the ship was still limited to 23kts due to the hull damage and previous engineering hit.

Gun fire continues with Kazekumo now taking the brunt. She ultimately takes 15 5” hits leaving her without guns or torpedo tubes and down to 19kts.

Kazekumo attempts to disengage under the cover of smoke while Samidare accelerates to 30kts hearing due north. The USN formation settles on course 270 and just becomes aware of the Transport Group DDs. These old DDs moved to the south to assist their modern sisters who were being roughly handled up to this point.

2309 with Selfridge starting to feel the results of her cumulative damage, Walker orders smoke and a 90 simultaneous port turn to the south. At the same time Samidare takes a Parthian shot with 8 Type 93s (2 groups of 4 each). At just short of 4800 yards they just miss astern of Chevalier but intersect O’Bannon just to starboard. O’Bannon is hit by 1 torpedo from the 1^st spread and unluckily (or not if you were the IJN) 3 more from the 2^nd spread! Hit by 4 Type 93’s O’Bannon disintegrates.

A longer shot of the O’Bannon hits with Kazekumo on fire and trying to disengage.

Additional gunfire erupts between the Transport Group DDs and Walkers formation. The Fumizuki is roughly handled but Selfridge takes another engineering hit and this time she can’t repair the damage. She begins to coast to a stop. At 2309 Yunagi fires 6 old 21” torpedoes and after a run of 3000 yards hits Selfridge 3 times. Selfridge can take no more and Commander Walker is going for a swim.

The Larson formation is closing the action but will arrive too late to do anything but rescue Selfridge and O’Bannon survivors if any, and perhaps pick up some Japanese prisoners. The IJN recall the small craft leaving the garrison to their fate.

The waters off Vella Lavella are still again with 3 IJN and 2 USN DDs on the bottom.

After a few months naval gaming pause we got back to the Central Solomons Campaign. This was the 8th action of the campaign and is based on the historical action off Horaniu. (OOBs are slightly different due to losses in previous campaign actions).

1^st Vella Lavella 8/18/1943

Ref:        “USN Against the Axis” pg. 195-198

                “Dark Waters, Starry Skies” pg 384-392

Time: 0040-0130

WX: Squalls (1x D6 in area with a max of 4), light breeze glassy = Force 2. 6 Kt wind. Smoke last 2 turns. 2 days past full = Full Moon.

USN Forces                                                                                                         IJN Forces

O’Bannon (flag) DesDiv 41                                                                           Sazanami (flag) DesRon 3

Taylor                                                                                                            Arashi

Chevalier                                                                                                      Kawakaze

Jenkins                                                                                                         Isokaze

                                                                                                                     15x barges (5 groups of 3)

                                                                                                                     4x PT {2 groups of 2)

                                                                                                                     2x PC (1 group of 2)

USN Mission: Interdict enemy supply mission. By sinking at least 50% of enemy small craft traffic.

IJN Mission: Deliver troops/Supplies to Horaniu on Vella Lavella to establish a barge base. Small craft must exit south edge. DD escort to exit west edge.

Notes: Torpedo dud rate: USN = 1-3 (D12), IJN = 1 (d12).

USN may launch torpedoes on radar contacts.

IJN has 1xPete floatplane in the air. A roll of 1-2 on a D12 in the detection phase indicates the Pete has located the USN task force. Once located the Pete may illuminate 2x during the game. If illuminating the Pete may be attacked by short range AA fire but only ODD results on the AA table will have effect due to night. AA fire will reveal a ships position but not count as illuminated for gun fire purposes. It will cause a 2 columns left shift for visual detection.

Small Craft are engaged using the AA tables. Due to night engagement only ODD results have effect (unless targets can be illuminated).

Setup:

Vella Lavella is on the south edge of the table with the small craft formation due north at 12k yards.

The USN formation with O’Bannon in the lead bearing 100 at 21k yards from the small craft formation. USN formation in column with course between 270-340 and speed between 25-30 kts (at player’s choice).

IJN Approx. 9-10k yards bearing 020 from small craft formation. Kawakaze and Isokaze in column, Sazanami and Arashi in column echelon to port of Isokaze. Course parallel to USN formation. Speed 20-25 kts (player’s choice).

IJN DD formation initially detected by radar indicated by markers place on contact blips. Small craft to the west of the DDs. Even with a full moon spotting these would prove to be very difficult for the USN player.

USN formation sprinting toward the radar contacts at 30kts. As the models are on the table it indicates they have already been spotted by the IJN formation

The USN visually acquires the IJN formation which has consolidated into a single column and begins a starboard turn. The USN formation is about 15K yards away. Still too far for effective shooting by either side. But visible in this shot is the Pete searching for the USN formation.

Sazanami, Arashi and Kawakaze between them launch 14 torpedoes assuming the USN would continue moving to the west. Unfortunately the US DDs execute a well timed 90 degree turn to starboard causing all torpedoes to miss. In the pic you can see the torpedo markers off the port side of the US formation. Their launch points are visible at the top of the pic. Sazanami's Type 90's lag behind the faster Type 93's fired by Arashi and Kawakaze.

USN illuminates and opens fire concentrating on Kawakaze. Pete manages to find the USN formation and also illuminates. All IJN gunfire misses the mark, but the USN tags Kawakaze 3 times taking out both aft 5" mounts and the aft torpedo mount. (A search light was also lost). The IJN held one mounts worth of torpedoes in reserve and Isokaze prepared to launch another spread of four type 93's.

The USN held course prepping for their own torpedo launch but paid the price with the Jenkins taking a type 93 from Isokaze's spread of 4 sinking her outright. 

Isokaze pays the price for her success by becoming the favored gunnery target. She takes 10 5" hits. She lost 2 5" mounts a torpedo mount her DC rails a fire, bulkhead and bridge critical were added to her woes. Ultimately reduced to 19Kts due to progressive fire and flood she was fortunate that the bridge crit locked her on course toward the cover of a squall. At this time in the action the USN also launch 15 torpedoes on the 33Kt long range setting.

Fortunately for the IJN they were fast enough to outrun all these torpedoes (markers visible in lower right corner). The small craft commanders were less than thrilled when the DD's tore through their formation while heading for the cover of a squall line. 

The action ends with the IJN DDs reaching the cover of the squall line. Isokaze manages to control the fire and flood and the small craft are never actually detected by the USN. Unknown to the IJN the US force was out of ammo firing prodigious amounts of 5" using rapid fire rates the entire action. Even had the US remained in the area to hunt for small craft they would have been limited to close range AA weapons. 

Thought I would use this thread to post photos of my miniatures, many of which have previously appeared in my AARs posted in the AAR thread.

The latest additions to my Toy Box are these GHQ Panzer II Fs.

The full platoon:

In the paint shop:

There's been precious little action around the table of late, so very little to share. Hoping to host a few clashes in the next month or so heading into Historicon. New pup here's been sucking up every shred of spare time. Behavior training starts this week...should be fun.

Ok, I guess we've finished that conversation. Ran two games this month of Mein Panzer and planning to run three more next month.Two of them will be at Spring Offensive Convention in North Carolina.  So far response has been very positive and all had a good time. 

I am a user of both GHQ Individual Infantry and Heroics & Ross infantry.  I have tried Adler, C-in-C and Scotia as well, but settled on GHQ and H&R.

For basing I have chosen US Pennies (1 cent coins).  19mm across (about 4/5 of an inch). Good sturdy metal, takes paint well enough, low cost (I get 100 for as little as $1!), and plentifully available (I have never yet had to wait to finish a unit because I ran out of pennies).

I have arranged my stands based on:
- 4 figures on a base to represent a "standard" squad. Major armies of WW2 were usually populated mostly by a standard squad organization.  As long as all of the squads are standard, it hardly matters what figures I put on the stand -- they are only there for the look of it.

- 3 figures is squad-sized, but not a standard squad.  Here the figures matter, to tell me what the base represents.  But they are far fewer than the standard squads so that's workable. Examples of 3-man bases:  8-12 man gun crews, combat engineer squads, 8-12 man HQ / command units, etc.

- 2 figures is a half-squad / team / crew sized stand. Again the figures might matter.  Examples of 2-man bases:  infantry support weapons, small command teams, artillery observation teams, vehicle crews.

Separate from that I use a marking style to identify command units.  I use small stripes/dots on the back rim of the stand:  3 = platoon command, 2 = company command, 1 = battalion / battlegroup command.  The dots are done in a dark paint similar to the dominant color on the stand (dark green for temperate zone units, dark brown for desert units).

Here are some pics of various units from my active forces:

This is a US Army armored infantry platoon, dismounted from their halftracks.  3 rifle squads (4 man stands).  By doctrine the platoon commander would ride and fight with the 1st squad.  There are 3 MG teams (splitting up the MG squad).  There is one 81mm mortar squad.  In this case the figures are older H&R castings.

Here is a Romanian rifle squad.  I use a prone LMG and loader figure with each squad, but the figures hardly matter, as every rifle squad had an LMG.  My Romanian infantry figures are all GHQ.

The Romanian army was very short on infantry anti-tank weapons.  So each platoon would have an individual who might carry any sort of improvised explosive, and a team of SMG gunners would support this tank hunter ("vanatori di carre").  Here I have re-purposed a grenade throwing figure, clipping off the stick grenade, bending the arm, and attaching a teller-mine (a random circular bit from the extras bin), and made a 2-man stand with an SMG gunner.

Here is a platoon commander.  Romanian officers did not travel and fight with the squads.  But platoon resources were thin, so it is only a small team.

Here is a company commander.  A full squad of men supported the company HQ.

Here is an infantry battalion/battlegroup HQ.  There is a command squad, a commo team (communications equipment was rare in the Romanian army, and should not be assumed to be available if not specifically provided), and a medical aid team.

Here are my Romanian AT guns. For big guns I tend to base the crews, and leave the guns loose. That way I can manage the casualties and moral of the crews separately from damage to the guns, and I don't have to do as much work, as I will usually have more gun choices than I would use in a typical game.  You see that demonstrated here -- I have 4 gun crews, and show here 4 different types of guns that they may use (late war Resita 75mm guns, mid war Pak97/50 75mm guns, early war Boehler 47mm and Bofors 37mm guns).  The kneeling gun crews are H&R.  The guns are H&R (Resita, Boehler), GHQ (Bofors) and C-in-C (Pak97/50).

This is a Romanian artillery battery.  The same crews can be used for French 75mm guns (H&R) or Austrian/Italian 100mm howitzers (GHQ).  There is a full squad battery HQ (with embedded commo) and an LMG security team.  The LMG figures are GHQ, the HQ squad has 2 standing GHQ artillery crew figures and one kneeling Scotia radioman, and the gun crews are a mix of GHQ and H&R figures.  I do not find the GHQ infantry to be out-sized too much, and generally have little hesitation in mixing them with H&R, even on the same stand when it suits my purpose.  The Scotia figures, however, are indeed too big, and I only occasionally use them, in particular using kneeling figures as that tends to hide their extra height.

Here are my Italian combat engineers.  The squad sized (3-man) units have riflemen and kneeling figures with satchel charges.  The flame throwers and supporting LMGs are on team-sized stands.  Figures are a mix of GHQ and H&R (new castings).

Hope that helps.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Springtime for the Kaiser

March 1915 (Part II)

The other actions this day (and the day following) were pitifully documented. While I was up to my elbows trying to extract Bradford from his (my) misguided challenge of Gadecke, the rest of Beatty’s charges were sent hither and nigh desperate for a scrap with the HSF. Other than a few notes on scraps of log sheets, copy paper, and envelopes scavenged from my wife’s recycle stash, together, with some disjointed snaps of the maps by the umpire, there was precious little to make sense of. Still, after a few phone calls and the personal recollections of the other players, I was able to cobble together what I think is a fair representation of the proceedings.

Bradford attempted to regroup even as he slipped away in the gathering gloom. Gadecke and his first-gen dreadnoughts had hastily turned south. Grant’s Third Cruiser Squadron, having arrived late to the scene of the fight, made a feint toward the Germans that went unnoticed by Gadecke; it was a move that could have ended disastrously had it been a bit earlier in the evening. By 2100, Britannia had a tow on Hindustan, and together they moved off at an agonizingly slow three knots.

Beatty was left to take stock of the general situation. With the exception of half of Bradford’s Third Battle Squadron, his force was intact, albeit seemingly scattered. With little useful intel, he was left largely blind as to what laid before, or possibly behind him. He decided to make a few uneducated guesses and push on into the night.

His first action was to remand Bradford’s orders for the balance of Third Battle Squadron to rejoin what remained of his battered column. Alexander Lowndes, appointed by Bradford as commander of the detached units (now designated Force G), was ordered by Beatty to turn back onto an eastward heading and to proceed on a slow sweep toward the Danish coast. Beatty was willing to sacrifice Lowndes and his old battleships on the chance they might encounter elements of Hipper’s force and reveal their position. Hilariously, or tragically depending on one’s viewpoint, Lowndes misinterpreted the order, or just screwed up, instead continuing on a southwestward course.

Lowndes sent scout-cruiser HMS Blanche to take the point some 4000 yards ahead of the main column (Hibernia, Africa, Dominion, and Zealandia). Chugging along at ten knots, he ordered the watch doubled and the crews to maintain action stations. By 0200, the early hours of the 12th, the weather had improved substantially and the stars were out.

Beatty simultaneously signaled Pakenham to bring his battlecruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers northeast to join Brock’s Force W at a position some 65 miles north-northwest of Heligoland. There Beatty hoped to be in position to catch/challenge the Germans as they made their way home. If he missed them, or if they were already south of that position, he had no interest in pursuing them further into a corner of the North Sea populated by an ever-expanding and largely unmapped mine belt.

The dearth of meaningful sighting reports struck me as a peculiar circumstance, one that had me wondering if the gamemaster’s random events table was flawed. Being 1915, it was understandable that the sea was not actively patrolled by aircraft (other than the occasional Zeppelin), but the fishing fleets were active, numerous U-boats patrolled, and the efforts of the minelayers/sweepers were just coming into their own. I made a note to review the historical record for such things.

The British fleet commander now attempted to organize his search routine to enhance the likelihood of success. He adopted a carefully developed scheme, one that on the face of it reminded me of the tactics we used as children when playing the old “Battleship” game, i.e. no need to search every square on the grid, just every second square (no ship occupied less than two squares), and do it on a diagonal (ships could only be positioned north-south/east-west, not on a diagonal). This method effectively reduced the search coverage by fifty-percent. With this in mind, he set the positional bandwidth at three hexes between units for his search width (roughly 40 miles across), which yielded a 20 mile range to port and starboard. It seemed, to him (and me, if I’m honest), unlikely that anything could slip through (as long as the weather held up).

If he’d stuck to his plan, there might have been a chance of making contact with much of his force in striking range; unfortunately, the British fleet commander quickly grew frustrated with the immediate lack of success, abandoning his attempt to concentrate his forces and the associated search regimen. Instead, he sent Brock’s Force W roaring off to the northeast on the suspicion that the German might be maneuvering on a westward arc toward the English coast. His subordinates argued that this was unlikely, given the German’s distaste for a fight. They opined that it was more likely that, given the dust-up between the old BB’s just two hours earlier, the German main force had likely turned for home. Undaunted by their pleas, the misguided decision effectively removed Brock’s three battlecruisers and its associated light cruisers and destroyers from the mix.

Pakenham’s Force A had made its big turn east-northeast while just 60 miles northeast of Norwich. His orders were to proceed on this line with the outside chance that, if the Germans had indeed turned for home, Force A might be in position to head them off. At 22 knots, his best sustainable speed, he’d be just south of Heligoland by midnight. He could have sent the light cruisers ahead, but he chose not to, instead directing them to parallel his course and speed 15 miles north of his line.  He received no sighting reports and no further direction from the fleet commander. By 1900 he was operating in darkness (both optically and intel-wise).

A postwar (Nov. 1920) photo of Vice-Admiral William Pakenham (courtesy of the Library of Congress)

The good news was that there was a bit of moonlight and the seas were relatively calm. This would make the luminescent bow wave and wake of a ship a bit easier to spot (should they encounter one). Pakenham and his staff pored over the charts, speculating on whether to tweak their course but, in the end, decided to continue on their present line until they reached the southern waters of the Bight.

At 2236, the light cruisers passed within twenty miles of Eckermann’s south-bound 1st Battle Squadron, Hipper’s westernmost cover force for the German withdrawal. Goodenough, pacing the bridge of HMS Southampton, barely missed an opportunity, instead plunging on into the night unawares.

At 0024, 12 March, Pakenham sent a message to the fleet commander that he had reached the area south of Heligoland. They had seen nothing in over ten hours, had received no reports, nor intercepted any German signal activity. Beatty ordered Force A to turn south, proceeding no more than 25NM to a position likely on the very edge of the German mine-belt. Pakenham ordered Force A into a quarter-line formation and proceeded south at 15 knots.

At 0054, the umpire reported to Pakenham that there were ships moving due south directly ahead of him at a range of roughly seven miles, or approximately 12100 yards. Given the funnel-glow, moonlight, and sea conditions, he was advised that he could begin attempting to acquire a target once he closed an additional few hundred yards. A one on a d12 was required to acquire, and at 0112 he had closed to within 11800 yards and began his dark acquisition attempts.

The German player was similarly alerted, but elected to ignore the trailing enemy ships as he would reach the safety of the mine-belt within twenty minutes. Knowing that the British player would have to acquire a target, range his shot, then fire a salvo likely with bow guns only, and using a d20 (British battlecruiser penalty) at that, he felt relatively safe. His notions proved well-founded.

Eighteen minutes passed without any success at locking onto a target. By 0130, the German had reduced speed and entered the channel through the mine-belt. One final series of acquisition die rolls yielded no contacts, forcing Pakenham to break off or crash headlong into the German field. Choosing not to risk that, he instead turned away to the west, hopeful that he might catch a bit of the cover force as it made its inbound voyage. However, the search proved fruitless and by sunrise, the sea appeared bright and empty. The fleet commander signaled that the operation was at an end and that all ships should return to base.

Results

After a long afternoon on the game table and nearly 40 hours of elapsed scale time, precious little was achieved (not unlike many of these operations historically). The umpires did a reasonably good job of managing the game, and other than the frequently heard complaint of “bad dice”, things seem to work fairly well. While there was precious little “coming to grips with the enemy”, one can still have quite a bit of fun thrashing about operationally.

That said, I think we’ve learned much of what we set off to do with these exercises, that being an understanding of how large numbers of ships might put to sea in a relatively confined area, yet fail to make contact. It happened repeatedly during the war, and we’ve managed to replicate much the same here. I don’t think we have the background intel part of it quite right, but then the results seem to largely track to those of history…who knows.

Which then brings us back to the notion of a scripted campaign, a premise we’d been feeling uncomfortable with, but now acknowledge that if the point is ships on the table, then perhaps that’s the best way to go. At this point, I leave it in the hands of the game group brain-trust. We’ll see what they come up with next.

I am prepping to run a North Africa game at our local Sand Wars Convention in Mesa, AZ in May.

I am adding more Panzers for my Afrika Korps, in this case more Panzer IIs and IVs.  I realized that prior to this, I only had 5 Panzer IIs for the whole battalion and 3 of the short Barreled Panzer IVs.  I added 5 more Panzer IIs and 3 more Panzer IVs in this batch with 4 more Panzer IIs and 3 more Panzer IVF1s currently in the works.

Here are a few pictures.

USS Gambier Bay 

Task Force 5

GT2 DTMB 1-15 January 1942

USN Sweep vs Japanese Invasion Convoy & Escort

RAdm Glassford looked at the ship’s chronometer, it was 1200 hours and he was already coffeed out. Task Force 5 had sortied from Surabaya the night before. Intel said that there were Japanese invasion convoys at sea. That was a real help. Where else would invasion convoys be? What would have been nice was some clue as to where they were going but the Intel Types had been just as clueless as he was on that subject. Glassford rejected trying for Ceram or Celebes. He would leave that to Crace and the ANZAC Squadron. He would stake his claim on the east coast of Borneo. Tarakan or Balikpapan was his best guess but he would look in on Banjermasin in passing.

Task Force 5 was the USN in this part of the world. The ABDA was still forming so, he still did his reporting to the USN Asiatic Fleet under Admiral Hart and Hart had told him to find something Japanese and sink it. Glassford took that instruction to heart as Hart had gone out on a limb for him to augment his force by pirating Pensacola from convoy escort. He’d try and return her in the shape they borrowed her in but that was not guaranteed.

Task Force 5 was steaming North at 25 knots led by DesRon 29 (John Paul Jones) and DesDiv 57 (John D. Edwards, Alden, Edsall & Whipple) in line abreast as a screen. They were followed by the cruiser division (Houston, Pensacola, Boise & Marblehead) under Glassford. DesDivs 58 (Stuart, Parrott, Barker & Bulmer) and 59 (John D. Ford, Pope, Peary & Pillsbury) were in divisional columns to port and starboard respectively of the cruisers.

Task Force 5 was a series of that’s OK and that’s not so good with later outnumbering the former. On the plus side was that it was daylight and Japanese LBA must be some where else. The Clemsons had all made the trip so far and given their age that was unexpected. And they had 10 more 8-inch guns than normally. Then there was the minus. This was a much longer list that we’ll save for another time.

The wind was a Force 2 from the North at 4 knots. Who rang up this weather. Glassford didn’t mind wind. He just didn’t like wind from the North or anywhere near there. It did not help him at all. He’d have been very happy with wind from the East or West and ecstatic over wind from the South. At least smoke would last a bit if he ran into more than Task Force 5 could handle. The sky had at least 3 layers of clouds and the overcast probably was the real explanative for the absence of LBA. There were squalls (he could see 3) dotted over the sea to the north and crawling towards him. There was also Sea Haze to the North and he was sure that he could not see North as well as someone could looking South. Glassford would turn out to right as the fog reduced visibility northward 2,000 yards. Otherwise, visibility was about 27,000 yards. Too far as far as Glassford saw it.

Glassford decided to launch FP. He’d look into the Borneo ports and if nothing was there, he would recover his FP and RTB to Surabaya.

1400 hours Banjermasin and Balikpapan had been clear, now for Tarakan and home. 1406 hours Glassford’s FPs reported enemy ships bearing 45 degrees on course for Tarakan. Glassford ruefully thought; you always find what you’re looking for in the last place you look.

Glassford ordered Task Force 5 to flank speed but kept the same relative formation until he had a better idea of what he was facing.

1412 hours FP reported 4 cruisers, 12 destroyers, 8 APs, 1 AV and probably a partridge in a freaking pear tree. The Japanese formation mostly mirrored his but a cruiser now determined to be light led the bunch at about 11 knots.

And now for said the weatherman. The wind had freshened to Force 4 and veered to the Northeast (worse and worse thought Glassford). There were more squalls but they were not going to help him coming from dead behind the Japanese. At least the haze was gone.

Glassford would have liked to get his flush decks involved but their 4” popguns were useless and their torps had short legs and there was no cover. Nope, this was daylight gun fight and he was as well off as he could expect to be. Glassford turned Task Force 5 to a 90-degree heading and stationed his destroyers fore and aft to his unengaged side. DesRon 29 with DesDivs 57 & 58 would lead and DesDiv 59 would trail.

1418 hours FP reported that the Japanese were increasing speed appeared to be reforming along the same lines as he had. They must have a spy in the sky Glassford thought. Well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

1430 hours The Japanese came into sight with a light cruiser leading 8 destroyers followed by 3 heavy cruisers and then 4 more destroyers. 30 eight inch to his 19 gave him pause but he considered Marblehead a match for any Japanese light cruiser and Boise’s fifteen six inch surely redressed the balance to some degree. What was it some Army puke had quoted from Napoleon. Oh, yeah “First you engage and then you see”. Glassford tried to forget Nappy’s naval record even as he followed his advice.

1430 till 1442 nether side opened until the range had come down to 21,000 yards. Then the Japanese heavies opened on their USN counterparts and Boise. The USN cruisers fired back and Marblehead engaged the light cruiser, who returned fire.

The Japanese missed Houston, Pensacola and Marblehead and bounced off Boise’s fore turret. Houston hit the lead heavy (later identified as Haguro) thrice, and Pensacola did the same to the second heavy (later identified as Myoko). Boise and Marblehead missed. Haguro had her FP facilities damaged and a fire and minor damage to her hull. But Myoko lost her fore turret and suffered minor hull damage as well as a bounce off her belt.

1448 hours Haguro failed to put her fire out and that minor damage when coupled with earlier damage slowed her to 30 knots. The range came down a bit but not enough and both sides engaged as before. Haguro hit Houston twice. Myoko missed. And Nachi hit Boise once while Jintsu missed Marblehead. Houston hit Haguro once as Pensacola hit Myoko. Boise hit Nachi once and Marblehead missed.

Houston lost her fore turret and suffered an engine hit. Nachi’s hit bounced off Boise’s belt. Houston knocked out another fore turret on Haguro. Myoko had damaged FP facilities and a fire started. Nachi had her FP facilities damaged and a fire started.

1454 hours Haguro failed to put out her fire and suffered further minor hull damage. Myoko and Nachi put their fires out. Houston fixed her engine hit. The range had come down to 18,000 yards. This (per the CRT) was supposed to make things better for IJN. It did. Haguro hit Houston twice. Myoko hit Pensacola once. Nachi missed Boise and Jintsu missed Marblehead. Houston missed as did Pensacola. Boise hit Nachi twice and Marblehead missed Jintsu.

Houston took another engine hit and hull damage slowing her to 29 knots. Pensacola lost her fore turret. Nachi lost a secondary and suffered minor hull damage.

1500 hours. Haguro failed to fix her fire and that slowed her to 26 knots. The range was coming down but still exceeded 15,000 yards. Both sides engaged their previous targets. Houston missed and Pensacola hit Myoko once. Boise hit Nachi once. Marblehead hit Jintsu once. Haguro hit Houston twice and Myoko hit Pensacola twice. Nachi hit Boise twice. Jintsu missed.

Houston lost a secondary and her last fore turret. Pensacola had her FP facilities damaged and a fire and lost her fore turret. Boise had her FP facilities damaged and a fire set and a bounce off her fore turret (which was starting to dent). Myoko suffered minor hull damage that slowed her to 30 knots. Nachi lost a TT and had a major fire set. Jintsu lost a TT and had a major fire set.

1506 hours Houston failed to fix her engine and slowed to 21 knots. Pensacola put her fire out but Boise failed to and suffered minor hull damage that slowed her to 26 knots. Nachi failed to fix her fire and suffered hull damage that slowed her to 30 knots. Jintsu also failed to put her fire out and suffered hull damage that slowed her to 28 knots.

1512 hours Houston’s black gang broke her engine (now needs a dockyard) so no Golden Monkey Wrench Award for them. Boise put her fire out. Nachi fixed her fire but Jintsu failed and slowed again to 21 knots. The range was now down to 15,000 yards. But Glassford had had enough and got while the getting was still possible. Task Force 5 turned away under smoke and the Japanese let them go. Tarakan fell. Naci and Jintsu both burned for several several turns (3 and 2). Haguro, Nachi and Jintsu are gone for repair and unlikely to return.

Glassford couldn’t understand it until a gunnery guru explained that 8 inch was 3 to 2 against cruiser armor and when you get a hit you need to then roll odd to get a second hit. The Japanese understood this and got two hits to Glassford’s one almost every time.

As for the Intel Types it turned out that they too had recently received a bottle of sake and a D12. A rueful remark that die was worth a dozen trying for 12 was overheard.

WMC

I thought I might return to this old thread to post 'em up, to inform, entertain ... those who see the topic and open the thread.[/quote]

I am returning to the thread to post one more tidbit.  This is more along the lines of entertaining, but may also be valued as informing those who are interested...

The platoon consisted of 3 rifle squads, an MG support squad with 3 MGs (2 x .30cal, 1 x .50cal), and an 81mm mortar squad.  Here you see them all dismounted and ready for action.

This past weekend I visited, for the first time, the Charles M. Schultz / Peanuts Museum in Santa Rosa.  Just a Sunday outing, but certainly a worthwhile destination for a few hours of weekend enjoyment if you are in the area.

In the display on Schultz's life story, I read that he was a Sargent in the US Army in WW2.  I was interested to find out he was the leader of an MG squad in the armored infantry regiment of the 20 Armored Division in ETO during late 1944 and 1945, in that division's advance across France, Austria and Germany.

I always enjoy doing research on my gaming units, to make sure I get them right!

Respect to you, Charlie!

-Mark

(aka: Mk 1)

Scenario 1 - Hide and Seek (Continued)

When it was working (and that was a huge if) and your target was at least 800 yards away and no one was jamming the radio signal; it worked like a charm. Just as easy to hit with as a TOW in my experience. And mechanically, the Sheridan was better than a M113 IMHO. But that all changed with the first conventional round you fired. Firstly, the shock almost aways unseated some of circuit cards in a box behind the TC's seat knocking out the ability to fire the missile. I always immediately after firing a main gun round unlatched the box cover and patted the 10 to 20 (I'm old and don't remember exactly how many) circuit cards back into place and at least one if not many more would need it. After we had fired a couple of main gun rounds, I would be out on the rear deck with engineer compartment hatches open and a 9mm box wrench tightening the bolts that held the engine and transmission together. And that does not take into consideration all the other things that could come lose from the kind of shaking the recoil subjected the entire tank too. The testimony to the vehicle's mechanical reliability IMHO was that it was the primary vehicle that OFOR used for its mockups of Soviet vehicles in the National Training Center at Fort Irwin in the Mohave Desert. It was fast and it ran better than any other vehicle I ever crewed including jeeps. I loved it in peace and was deathly afraid to take it to war. 

I remember at Ft. Riley (I was in 1/4 Cav) the Army (OK, DOD) had bought up a bunch of farmlands including their buildings. 1st Engineers was out there blowing stuff up for fun and officially for practice. I thought if they can do it why not me? Of course, I didn't have anything on hand that went boom. but I did have my Shank (the shortened nickname for the Sheridan that we called a "son of a Tank"). So, I drove it through a silo and of course the silo collapsed on my shank. But my shank didn't care, and I drove out the other side. So, I'm sitting on a pile of brick that covers the front slope of my shank using the tube for an arm rest when the Lt. walked by. He asked me where my shank (actually A-28) was, and I replied that I was sitting on it. His response was "great camouflage job" and that was the end of the matter.  I really liked that Lt. We affectionally called him "Peaches" because that was the only part of C-rations that he would eat.

WMC

Force du Raid

France’s what if contribution to the Norway Campaign

The First and Second Battles of Narvik had come and gone. Britain could claim that she had gutted Germany’s pre-war destroyer force (although at great cost), but she had not fulfilled her objective of closing the port of Narvik to iron ore shipments bound for Germany. German Gebirgs infantry held the town and the port. Of course, that is not the whole story. The Germans were short of ammunition and had not landed the bulk of their heavy weapons before the ships carrying them had been sunk. They therefore determined to remedy that situation with a new convoy bringing ammo, support weapons and an entire regiment of Gebirgs infantry. The Allies had divined their intent and it was France’s turn to stop their new effort.

The French engaged in no half measures. They committed all of Vice Admiral Gensoul’s Force du Raid except for the Second Ligne Division (the Bretagne class being considered too slow for the mission). The Germans responded with just about their entire surviving fleet. This set the scene for the largest surface action the North Sea had seen since Jutland.

VAdm Gensoul was on the bridge of his flagship, Strasbourg, trailed by Dunkerque.  The six La Galissoniere class cruisers of Cruiser Divisions 3 and 4 under RAdms Marquis and Bourrague followed astern. The Second Legere Squadron and the Second Destroyer Squadron under RAdms Lacroix and Dorval made up the light forces. The French Navy had a great many ships under repair or refit and four Contre-Torpilleur and three destroyer divisions making up the two groups were almost all short a ship or even two. Nevertheless, the nine Contre-Torpilleurs and six destroyers present were bound to exceed what Germany could muster. The seaplane tender, Commandant Teste held the French to 20 knots, but also provided aerial reconnaissance as long the North Sea’s legendary bad weather allowed. Gensoul’s mission was to keep the Kriegsmarine from getting anything resembling aid or comfort to the Germans at Narvik.

Vice Admiral Lutjens commanded the Narvik relief force from the bridge of his flagship Scharnhorst and her sister Gneisenau followed astern. A cruiser force (Admiral Hipper, Koln, Konigsberg & Karlsruhe) under RAdm Schmundt trailed the battle cruisers. The eight remaining destroyers (in 2-four ship divisions) provided the screen. The transport Duisberg and the cargo ships Saar and Adolf Luderitz carried the troops, ammo, food and heavy weapons intended for the garrison of Narvik. As Lutjens made clear to his subordinates; the Fuhrer had ordered him to deliver the convoy and its cargo to Narvik and Lutjens had never failed to carry out an order in his entire life.

The Germans were steaming due north just off Utsire Island at 12 knots (the best speed of the Duisberg). The French were closing from the west on a northeast converging course. Float planes from both sides had reported each other’s course and approximate speed.

The Weather God had rolled the customary D12 and D6 with a 5 and a 4 as a result. Thus, we had a Force 4 wind from the north (another DR) with 2 layers of clouds. Spotter a/c were going to have to get a bit closer than they would like to spot shots. The visibility was 18,000 yards at noon when the fleets sighted one another. Smoke could only be expected to last few minutes in the prevailing wind.  Two squalls were visible on the northern horizon about 36,000 yards apart. There was no sea haze. Both sides launched their remaining FP and got ready to shoot each other up.

Or at least the Germans did. Gensoul had other ideas. He had turned the 1^st Ligne Division together as soon as he saw the Germans and now heading due north in a quarter line. He had Strasbourg make smoke and that covered Dunkerque. Gensoul also ordered his cruiser divisions to take station on his port (unenaged) side where they too were covered by Strasbourg’s smoke as well as being beyond max visibility. Gensoul ordered an increase in speed for the Strasbourgs and the cruisers to 29 knots. He ordered the contre-torpilleurs to flank speed and to stay beyond 18,000 yards for now. The destroyers would escort the AV until Gensoul had a clearer idea of what the German reaction would be.

 At 1206 hours Strasbourg opened on Scharnhorst while Scharnhorst and Gneisenau fired back. Strasbourg hit Scharnhorst once. Scharnhorst missed, but the unengaged Gneisenau also hit Strasbourg once. Strasbourg suffered the loss of a search light while Scharnhorst was hit on the fore turret and the shot bounced off.

At 1212 hours Lutjens realized from the various spotter a/c that several French destroyers (the contre-torpilleurs) were forging ahead just out of his sight at something like 30 plus knots to his 12. He ordered Schmundt to flank speed with his cruisers to keep them from heading his line. Meanwhile the duel between Strasbourg and the Scharnhorsts continued. Strasbourg hitting Scharnhorst again and Scharnhorst returning the favor. Strasbourg bounced another round off the Scharnhorst’s fore turret (Oh the ringing in their ears) While Scharnhorst devastated Strasbourg’s search lights.

By 1218 hours the French FP had reported the increase in the German cruisers speed and Gensoul ordered his cruisers forward at flank speed to assist the Contre-Torpilleurs. For the next 12 minutes Strasbourg and the Scharnhorsts exchanged fire without effect except for some slight damage to Strasbourg that did not affect her speed.

The Contre-Torpilleurs were restrained to 31 knots by Lynx and Tigre. These Chacal class ships were a bit long in the tooth and had lost some of the speed they had been built with. But at 32 knots it was going to take the Kriegsmarine cruisers some time to catch up given the head start by the Contre-Torpilleurs. The French cruisers at 31 knots were not going to catch up either unless the Contre-Torpilleurs slowed down. Something RAdm Lacroix had no intention of doing.

At 1230 hours Strasbourg was finally finding the range and hit Scharnhorst twice, knocking out 2 of her starboard secondaries. German return fire was ineffective. Gensoul had reduced speed to match the Germans rather than pull ahead of them too much. Gensoul radioed the Contre-Torpilleurs and his cruisers and ordered them to close with the German cruisers once they had left the German BCs far enough behind to prevent their interference. He realized this would take some time and he resolved to keep the German BCs busy with Strasbourg while his light forces got into position.

Gensoul had not forgotten his destroyers, but he did not see them having the numbers, speed and fire power needed to take the German destroyers on by themselves. He wanted to keep them intact until his CTs and cruisers had had a chance to take the German cruisers out.

By 1330 hours Strasbourg had hit Scharnhorst once more while Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had hit Strasbourg 9 times in return. Strasbourg’s hit had caused some damage. But at 12 knots who could tell what it had done. Strasbourg’s searchlight platform continued to be hit and she lost her forward starboard side secondary and her starboard quad secondary; as well as two hits that bounced off her fore turret. Her bridge suffered 2 hits that failed to penetrate, but her gun director was not so lucky and that probably explains her abysmal shooting.

At 1336 hours RAdm Lacroix figured that he was far enough ahead of the BCs and turned 45 degrees to starboard with the Chacals leading and making smoke. RAdms Marquis and Bourraque followed suit, including the smoke.

At first only the fore turrets of Admiral Hipper could be brought to bear and shooting at 18,000 yards at a DD (a large DD, but still a DD) resulted in no joy for the first salvo. Schmundt changed course 45 degrees to starboard also. The French turned 45 more degrees to starboard in response and were now heading 90 degrees.

Schmundt continued on a course of 45 degrees to preserve his gunnery and opened up on Lynx with everything that could bear. The range was coming down and Lynx was engaging both Admiral Hipper and Koln to keep them under fire. Admiral Hipper and Koln between them hit Lynx thrice at 15,000 yards. Karlsruhe and Konigsberg were farther away and not hitting yet. Lynx suffered damage to her hull, including a bulkhead and her fire control. Lynx slowed to 25 knots and the Mogadores and La Fantasque class DDs surged around her rapidly accelerating to 38 knots. Lynx repaired her damaged bulkhead.

The range was down to 12,000 yards and Schmundt’s ships had changed to firing at Mogadore. German gunnery at this point went straight to bad and all 4 cruisers missed (that was a lot of 4-9 results with 16 D12 with a few 11 & 12 by the ships still beyond 12,000 yards). Mogadore fired at Koln and hit her twice knocking out her fore and second 5.9” turrets. Lynx was now firing at Admiral Hipper and Konigsberg to keep them busy. Schmundt upon learning of Koln’s problems was heard to say; “That really is a super destroyer”.

The range was now down to 9,000 yards or less when the French cruisers who had been making smoke also stopped and steamed out into clear. Schmundt hurriedly ordered a change of targets for his cruisers to the new threat.

Marseillaise and her division (Jean de Vienne & La Galissoniere) all targeted Hipper while the 4^th CruSqdn engaged opposite numbers against the German light cruisers. At the same time the CTs turned another 30 degrees to starboard and were threatening to cross Schmundt’s Tee while closing the range quickly.

Marseillaise hit Hipper twice while her sister ships missed. Hipper lost all her post side TT. Georges Leygues hit Koln once damaging her hull. Gloire hit Konigsberg once, knocking out her port secondary. Montcalm hit Karlsruhe once damaging her hull. Mogadore hit Koln thrice, knocking out her catapult and her aft turret. Lynx hit Koinigsberg once, further damaging her hull.

Hipper hit Marseillaise 5 times, Knocking out her catapult, her fore turret and hull. Marseillaise also took 2 hits in her engines and went DIW. Koln missed Jean de Vienne. Konigsberg hit La Galissoniere thrice, knocking out her fore turret, damaging her hull and a bulkhead. Karlsruhe missed George Leygues.

Marseillaise failed to repair her engines and her petrol stores now caught fie causing further damage. La Galissoniere failed to repair her bulkhead and took further damage. Koln also failed to repair and her petrol stores for her FP caught fire causing further damage. But Koln was still in the fight (she rolled a 1 for morale).

Schmundt belated realized he was too close to the Contre-Torpilleurs and tried to reverse course together. The French cruisers and Contre-Toprilleurs had now stopped making smoke and they all opened up on the Germans. Mogadore and Volta got end on fire against Hipper inside 6,000 yards. Between them they hit Hipper 4 times, knocking out her aft turrets, a hit to a magazine damaged a third turret and she took a hit in her engines slowing her to 21 knots. The 5 Fantasques all fired at Hipper and hit her 5 times, knocking out her aft starboard side TT, her remaining turret, damaging a bulkhead and her engines again making her DIW.

Lynx and Tigre hit Koln once to no effect. Jean de Vienne and La Galissoniere hit Hipper 8 times, damaging both her catapults, knocking out a starboard secondary, stirring the rubble of a turret, damaging her hull twice and hitting her twice more in her engines. Gerorges Leygues hit Koln once, taking out another secondary. Glorie hit Konigsberg once, knocking out her fore turret. Montcalm hit Karlsruhe once, knocking out anther turret.

Hipper shifted targets to Jean de Vienne and missed all together. Koln’s secondaries were ineffective. But Konigsberg rapidly firing hit La Galissoniere 5 more times, Damaging her second catapult twice, her starboard fore secondary, her hull and another bulkhead. Karlsruhe firing rapidly hit Georges Leygues once in the bridge. Schmundt kept his head (he rolled a 6 for morale) and by now was desperately trying to disengage.

Marseillaise fixed one engine and got under way, but her fires caused more damage. La Galissoniere failed to repair a bulkhead as well as her fires and took quite a bit more damage to her hull. Koln put out her fire. Hipper failed to repair and took quite a bit more damage.

The German cruisers that were not DIW all made smoke and tried to retire at their best individual speed. But none of them could exceed 32 knots when in good shape and the Contre-Torpilleurs were rapidly over taking them at 38 knots. The good news for the Germans was that the French 4th CruSqdn was compelled to steam straight because of the bridge hit to the Georges Leygues. But Jean de Vienne turned to pursue the Germans as did Tigre.

Over the next 18 minutes the Mogadores and 5 La Fantasques overtook and sank all the German light cruisers (The Germans were rapid firing and could not roll a 1,2,3,10,11 or 12 to save their lives) . The Contre-Torpilleurs seemed to have a knack for knocking out 5.9” turrets. The Germans eventually started failing morale, but they were over 10 knots slower by then and that did not save them. Lynx took her revenge on Hipper by steaming up to her and putting a torpedo in her at point blank range which with her bulkhead and other hull damage was more than enough to sink her.

By this point the German BCs were starting to poke over the horizon and the Contre-Torpilleurs turned away under smoke. La Galissoniere failed to repair the second bulkhead and she sank. Marseillaise eventually made her repairs but was too damaged to reengage and limped back to Brest. The French cruisers were now reduced to 4 and some of them had some damage.

 Lutjens by this point realized that his cruisers were gone and that there was a substantial French force of cruisers and destroyers between him and Narvik. He was also concerned about the French destroyers trailing this whole mess.

But what of his duel with Strasbourg? Strasbourg had hit Scharnhorst 4 more times during last hour. And Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had collectively hit Strasbourg 17 times in return. Scharnhorst had lost 2 more secondaries and some hull damage. Strasbourg had also suffered some hull damage, but the bulk of the hits were on her turrets, and they failed to penetrate. So, stalemate so far. Gensoul was thinking about making torpedo attacks from the front and the rear as close together as he could make it happen. The trouble was that he was running out of daylight.

Lutjens was also praying for dark. Lutjens was in a quandary. He was not sure how strong the French force in front of him was, but he figured it was stronger than his 8 destroyers. He had counted on his cruisers to clear the way and that was not going to happen now. He was well aware that there were 6 more French destroyers behind him and he was at a loss on how to deal with both threats at the same time. And he was still faced off with the Strasbourg and her consort.

Lutjens belatedly rolled morale for the loss of his cruiser division and rolled a 12 solving his dilemma; he would retire breaking his here to perfect record of always obeying his orders.

Here we go... again.  Mein Panzer Tutorial.  We are now on Turn 6.  The action has been pretty intense so far.  The Russians have been taking a toll of the Germans but have suffered some significant casualties, especially in the 1st Company on the Russian left.

Both sides pass their morale checks this time.  Both sides will continue to fight.  For those interested, I published my own morale rules for Mein Panzer here a couple of posts ago.

The action on the Russian left was relatively quiet on Turn 6 as both sides, despite passing their morale checks, are pretty well spent.  The Russian 1st Company is now down to 2 fully functional tanks while the German 1st Platoon opposite them is down to the XO tank.  Some shots are traded but neither side has much gas left in the tank.


1st Company down to 3 tanks with 1 of those immobilized.  It can still shoot but not move.

Another view from the Russian left showing the 7 knocked out tanks from 1st Company.

A view showing what is left of the German 1st Platoon.  2 tanks are knocked out, 1 is brewed up, 1 is immobilized but otherwise functional, and only the XO's tank is fully operational.

On the Russian right, the action is a lot more intense as 2nd Company, despite a few losses, still has a lot of strength left. 


The Russian 2nd Company makes its big push on the right.  The action here is very intense and both sides take more casualties.


Another view from the Russian right.  The 2 immobilized tanks are now out of Command as the rest of 2nd Company moves forward.

The command distance for the Russians in this game is 2 inches between tanks of the same platoon and 12 inches to the Company CO.  In the case of these immobilized tanks, it is not a big deal as they can still perform their standard action during the turn.  Out of Command means they cannot use their bonus move but only perform the standard action.  Since they are immobilized and cannot move anyway this has no further adverse effect.
 

The German 2nd and 3rd Platoons have suffered very heavy casualties in the short range gun fight.


Here is a picture of the whole situation at the end of Turn 6.  The Germans have suffered very heavy casualties as well as the Russians.  Both sides are near their break point.


A view from the German right.


Another view.

Next, we will wrap up the game with Turn 7,8, and 9.

It is a gloomy morning in January 1915 and once again a German force consisting of the battlecruisers Seydlitz, Moltke, Derfflinger, and Blucher have succeeded in bombarding a port city on the British East coast.  With several groups of British ships looking to intercept their escape run back across the North Sea, heavy weather has resulted in reduced visibility of only 12,000 yards. It looks like the Germans are going to escape but then their luck runs out when they are suddenly confronted by a formation of British ships emerging from the gloom, and already at close renege!   They have managed to bump into a squadron of eight obsolete British pre-dreadnought battleships of the King Edward VII class. These ships are affectionately known in the Royal Navy as the "Wobbly Eight."  

The Wobbly Eight don't have much of a chance but their 12 inch guns are enough to inflict serious damage on the German battlecruisers. The Germans are in a battle column while the British are in a long line abreast to facilitate their search for the Germans.  The German ships turn North in an effort to maneuver around the British ships.  This almost succeeds, but it does take them a bit closer to a strong force of British battlecruisers who are nearby and closing rapidly from the North.   Both sides open fire at around 10,000 yards.  The Germans guns score hits on the Wobbly Eight, who also manage to get a couple of good hits on the Germans.  

The German turn to the North takes them very close to the British Division consisting of King Edward VII, Hibernia Hindustan, and Zealandia.  Three of these British ships eventually succumbed to the German fire, but the British ships, who had been concentrating their fire on the Blucher, managed to cause enough damage to slow her to only 11 knots.  

The German attempt to get around the Wobbly Eight by side stepping to the North is blocked by the squadron of four British armored cruisers consisting of the Hampshire, Argyll, Devonshire, and Roxburgh.  This event, plus the sudden arrival of the British battlecruiser force from the Northwest, forces the Germans to turn Southeast, putting them in close range of the second squadron of British pre-dreadnoughts consisting of the Africa, Britannia, Commonwealth, and Dominion.   In this exchange, the Dominion was lost but Seydlitz took enough damage to slow her to only 18 knots.   

The game was wrapped up at this point.  The Germans would of course claim victory when they returned to port, pointing out that they had sunk four British "battleships" even though the loss of those ships would have no real impact on the further conduct of the war.  On the other hand the German battlecruisers Seydlitz and Blucher, had been roughly handled and they slowed to the point where it was unlikely that they would make it home.  This would of course discourage any further German attempts to send the battlecruiser squadron to bombard the English coast.  So, in the end, the Wobbly Eight succeeded in accomplishing what they needed to do.  

Thanks for the kind words, Kenny.

I probably should have described my basing approach in the post above, to give readers an extra clue as to how to decode what they are looking at.  Better late than never, so if you are still scratching your noggin' about the captions to some of the pics (particularly the dismounts), here is now I base my forces.

I base on US Pennies (1 cent coins).  These are about 19mm in diameter. They are cheap and plentiful (I can get 100 for $1, and I can always fish between the cushions of the couch for a few extras if I run out while trying to finish a unit).

It is important to understand that each stand is not necessarily modeled to show the exact number and composition of the troops on that stand. Rather, they are just representative. 

Here is how they are organized and what they represent:

- I put 4 figures on a stand to represent a "standard" rifle squad.  If all the squads in the unit are the same, then the actual models don't really matter except for the look of it.

- I put 3 figures on a stand to represent a "special purpose" squad.  Here the figures might matter in identifying what kind of squad it is.  If you look at the HQ platoon pic, you'll see three different 3-man stands. One is the HQ squad, as can be observed by the RTO and the figure with binoculars.  The other 2 are squad-sized groups, each with a rifleman figure and two figures carrying ammo boxes, representing the maintenance and supply sections (who would be armed with M1 carbines).  You will also see that the 81mm mortar stands and AT guns have 3 crew figures, as these were 8 - 10 man crews (full squad sized), but were not standard rifle squads.

- I put 2 figures on a stand to represent a support team / half-squad. For the platoon's MG squad you will see 3 MG stands (2 x .30cals, 1 x .50cal) that have 2 figures.  These represent smaller 3-5 man MG gun crews.  In the HQ platoon you will also see a few 2-figure stands. These are the XO with an RTO, and 2 vehicle crews (jeeps, trucks, whatever).  Several vehicles which might not have a squad of men might need to have their crews represented.  The medic is based singly, just to make him a bit more obvious to my eye at game time.

My platoon leaders are with the rifle squads of the 1st Halftrack of each platoon.  So there are no separate platoon CO stands.  I identify HQ elements by placing dots on the back rim of the penny used as a stand. 

- 3 dots = platoon CO

- 2 dots = company CO (or 2IC)

- 1 dot = battalion / battlegroup CO.

The dots are generally done with a darker shade of similar tone to the dominant colors on the stand -- so with grass flocked stands this is usually a darker green.  It is very low visibility on the table to anyone but me, but from my position behind my force (it's on the back of the stand, facing me), and with me knowing that it means, it is quit easy for me to scan my force and see my command units.

Often I model or paint my command vehicles a little differently as well. In this particular formation I have used the HMG pulpit of the M3A1 halftrack to denote the commanders' vehicles, with the rest of the vehicles just getting the pedestal mounted MG of the M3 halftrack. Again, quite easy for me to find, but perhaps not entirely obvious to an opponent.

That might help y'all understand the pics a bit better. Or maybe it's just me yammering on for no gain. But if you are interested in at least one guy's approach, there you have it.

Good luck and good gaming.

-Mark

(aka: Mk 1)