4 replies to this topic

[Adam H. Jones III]

This is an after action report of a General Quarters 3 game played at Recruits Convention in Kansas City, Missouri on March 27, 2010. This game was a historical naval battle between the French andBritish off of the coast of Lebanon during the invasion of the Vichy Frenchholding in the Middle East using General Quarters 3 naval rules. TheFrench had two large destroyers based at Beirut and the two ships were kept busyshelling the advancing Commonwealth forces and running supplies to French unitsto keep them fighting. The British finally got fed up with the irritatingFrench destroyers and sent two light cruisers and a squadron of four destroyersto find and sink the French. The battle fought was the first time the Britishfound and engaged the French destroyers. The two French destroyers: Valmy andGuepard(played by a KC high school student Alex), along with the minesweeper;Elan(run by ME)were returning to Beirut from a resupply and bombardment missionwhen the British destroyer squadron of four destroyers: HMS Hotspur, HMSIsis(run by a player from Omaha NEB..Pat), HMS Jackal, and HMS Janus(run by StLouisan Bill Doelling) intercepted the French before they could reach the safetyof the harbor. The French destroyers are bigger with better guns while theBritish ships have a faster rate of fire and are better trained. The gameopened with the two French destroyers leading the line with the minesweeper inthe rear. The four British destroyers entered the game board some 27,000 yardsaway. The British broke into two lines with HMS Hotspur and HMS Isis swingingwide across the front of the French line while HMS Janus and HMS Jackal turnedimmediately and charged toward the French. The British tactic was to put theFrench destroyers in between the two lines of British. The lead Frenchdestroyer Guepard broke out of line and attempted to cut off the two Britishdestroyers cutting across the front of the line while Valmy went after thecharging second line of British destroyers. Elan sped up to her 20 kt maximumand tried to be VERY SMALL with all of these angry British around. Valmy and HMSJanus and Jackal exchanged gunfire for about 30 minutes(five turns) with Valmyonly hitting the British ships ONCE; destroying a torpedo bank off of HMSJackal. St. Louisan Bill Doelling ran the two British destroyers: HMS Janus andJackal, fighting Valmy. Bill has played two previous games of GQ 3 with me andin the two games he has played, his ships had managed to hit their targets onlyONCE. In the Italian vs US game, his Italian light cruiser put a smack into aUS light cruiser that started a fire on the US cruiser. His force did not hitanything else. The next game, Bill played the US in the re fight of the Battleof the Komondorski Islands. Bill played the USS Salt Lake City and again wiffedagainst the Japanese for the entire game...what a run of bad luck. WELL,Saturday was a different story as Bill's two rapid firing British destroyers putthe smack down on Valmy. As Valmy closed the range, Bill uncorked a series ofrolls that just savaged the French destroyer. One turn, his two destroyers put7 hits on Valmy. As Valmy sliced by the British destroyers, Valmy was reducedin speed to 11 knots(two hull boxes left out of eight)..had no main guns turretsleft, no fire control director remaining, and all torpedo banks and all DC gearwere destroyed. French damage control was very good as they put out the threefires and repaired the Engine Room twice. Valmy had had enough;failed hermorale check and went limping off toward Beirut harbor. Right after Valmypassed HMS Jackal and Janus, Bill spied Guepard dueling the other two BritishDestroyers HMS Hotspur and Isis. The range was about 9,000 to 10,000 yds soBill(actually the NEB guy..Pat..plotted for the bathroom bound Bill) launchedtwo 5 torpedo spreads off of HMS Janus with the hope of hitting Guepard as shewas focused on her gun duel. HMS Hotspur and Isis had crossed Guepards' "T" andwas exchanging relatively ineffective gunfire with Guepard for the entiregame(Pat the NE guy must have found some of Bill Doelling's bad luck with therest going to the French player Alex). HMS Hotspur and Isis finished the gameundamaged while Guepard had had one main gun turret and one torpedo bankdestroyed along with her port searchlight. Guepard's damage control was alsogood by repairing the only hit on the Engine room.All of this changed when the one of the two 5 torpedo spreads fired from HMSJanus found Guepard with two torpedoes from the spread hitting Guepard andsinking her outright. The minesweeper Elan suddenly found itself in hostilewater with one French destroyer sunk and the other damaged. The British hadbeen ignoring the minesweeper and Elan had refrained from firing as well toallow the French destroyers a better shot( REALLY since the destroyers couldn'thit a carrier with those rolls). Elan's 20 kts did get her through the fight sofar so we called the game at that point with the British winning a convincingvictory. Pat from Nebraska showed that he is an experienced naval gamer and itshowed in his handling of his two British destroyers...he even ran a faketorpedo attack to spook the French player...I do not think it worked but it wasthe first time anyone in my games asked if that was possible...YES IT IS asthere are many historical battles where smaller torpedo carrying ships fakedtorpedo attacks to scare off or delay attackers...i.e the British escorts at theBattle of the Barents Sea come to mind right away. The French player, Alex, hadreally bad luck. If any of those 5.9" guns actually hit at the ranges he wasfiring at, he could have easily sunk a British DD. No complaints from the newguys and all said they had a good time. It appeared that all picked up the gamemechanics quickly which is a great testament for the rules.Adam Jones

[Dave Franklin]

Nice write up! Sounds like a fun little battle.Agree 100% that fake torpedo attacks are legit. Nothing as funny as having a guy turn away because he "felt a tremor in the force" (i.e., saw you put down the torpedo spread marker, or in the old GQ1/2 days, told him to put the torpedo template under his ship), then when the torpedo phase comes around, you just pick it up. They really hate it when you remind them to go up a row for the > 4-point turn too, as they're already only throwing the dice for their rear turrets!

[Adam H. Jones III]

co_diverI actually performed all of the torpedo functions just as if they were real torps. Had the French players turn away when I "measured" the route of the spread. As the game was small, it did not slow things down. Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.Adam

[Lonnie Gill]

G' Day Adam,I'd like to add my thanks as well. I really enjoyed your AAR. That was one of several clashes between the French and British during the 1941 Syria campaign that led to some interesting engagements. Hopefully, more gamers will give them a try.LONNIE

[Adam H. Jones III]

LonnieThanks for reading the AAR. I decided to use the Eastern Med as the actions are often ignored and the battles quite small which is good for a convention game. The prep time is small and teaching the new players is easier. By Turn 3, most of the new players had the system down and the game was basically running itself. Have gotten alot of good feedback here in St. Louis regarding GQ 3. Myself and another gamer have been carrying the flag in this area for the game. Our little group is starting a Coral Sea campaign and we will be using GQ 3 to resolve any surface actions that come up in the game...if any player allows one to occur. IF we do get a surface action, I will certainly post the AAR here.Adam Jones