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AAR - AC fight 1914 South Atlantic


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#1 Doug Barker

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Posted 15 October 2010 - 02:18 PM

After a couple of games with the Hochseesflotte BCs squaring off against their RN counterparts we decided to give some weaker ships a go, so it was off to the Falklands for a hypothetical battle between armoured cruisers. The Germans had Scharnhorst and Gneisenau along with three CLs ([Rostock, Strassburg and Stralsund) being intercepted in a Force 5 sea with 14,000 yards visibility by HMS Warrior, Cochrane, Black Prince and four CLs (Birmingham, Birkenhead, Nottingham and Southampton). The selection of ships were arbitrary within the limits of the toys available.I drew the short straw and got the RN. Advantages were numbers and superior armament on the CLs. The main disadvantage was having to deal with the DCTs on Scharnhorst and Gneisenau when all my guns were on local control. A random set-up had us on converging courses coming from roughly ENE for the RN and from NE for the Germans. I split into two squadrons, the CLs heading straight for their enemy counterparts while the ACs sped up and tried to close more gradually. Cochrane took an early engineering hit and her squadron slowed down to accomodate. After a couple of turns this was repaired but engineering hits were going to be a recurring theme. The Germans stayed in a single squadron, but maintained a relatively low speed to avoid having coal smoke interfere with their firing.The range closed quickly, I had anticipated that the Germans would stay out of my range but was wrong. Unfortunately, they found a "sweet spot" where my ACs could get pounded but couldn't reply to much effect. Things were different in the battle between CLs, the 6-inchers of the RN ships were tearing into the hulls of their opponents while the 4.1-inchers on the German ships lacked much punch to do anything. Pretty soon the last German CL turned turtle after several bulkheads failed (another recurring theme).Scharnhorst and Gneisenau turned their attention onto the RN CLs to relieve some of the pressure on their own lighter ships. In short order Southampton had lost most of her starboard guns and Birkenhead had hauled out of line with bulkhead failures (both repaired in the nick of time). This allowed the RN ACs to close to more effective range, forcing Scharnhorst and Gneisenau to start engaging them again. In the meantime another German CL went down.Warrior started to take a pounding to go along with the earlier thumping she had received from Scharnhorst, and hauled out of line. As she was the flagship I thought it reasonable that the rest of the squadron would follow. Unfortunately their turn away from Scharnhorst and Gneisenau brought them past the last German CL which had been in an almost immobile state for the last couple of turns. This gave us the wonderful opportunity to try out the torpedo rules. The torp turned out to be a silver bullet, hitting the Cochrane which promptly did her best impression of a brick being dropped in a bathtub.With the two sides disengaged we gauged it as a minor German victory. The RN had lost an AC sunk, and one AC and two CLs heavily damaged in exchange for three sunk German CLs and Scharnhorst moderately damaged (hull reduced to half by bulkhead ruptures, but no significant damage to her guns). Other than turning broadside to a ship with torpedoes at close range I don't think there was much else I could have done better. It was demoralizing to get pounded by ships with DCTs and not seeming to do much in return, but maybe I should have run in even closer to try to win the dice fight faster. Overall a lot of fun and a good system for a naval newbie.

#2 Lonnie Gill

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Posted 19 October 2010 - 04:42 PM

Doug,Thanks for the After Action Report. Sounds like it was a great scenario in an interesting location that others can also try. Getting away from the usual battleship and battlecruisder focus provides some interesting new challenges and a nice change of pace. The old armored cruisers provide an especially wide spectrum of capabilities, which a commander must consider in deveoping his tactics. Well Done.LONNIE




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