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River Plate, Introducing New Blood


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#1 W. Clark

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Posted 27 December 2015 - 11:44 PM

A pair of my nephews having showed up for Christmas; it seemed the perfect time to dust off River Plate to introduce the younger of them to Naval gaming the morning after Christmas. With that in mind I gave the choice of side to Chase (the younger) and he selected the Graf Spee leaving the Brits to James (much older and much more experienced).

 

I chose to go with historical visibility, deployment and starting speed. Chase having taken my pregame brief to heart immediately turned around completely to keep as much distance as he could between himself and the Brits while ending his move with them just in his broadside. James for his part choose to keep his cruisers together and went straight at the Graf Spee in line astern. Those decisions meant that German gunnery was going to suffer for the dramatic turn while the Brits' return fire was restricted to HMS Ajax's fore 6" turrets. Bad dice resulted in no hits on GT 1.

 

GT 2-KMS Admiral Graf Spee turned 2 points at the end of her move to keep the Brits in her broadside while the Brits angled just a bit and that unmasked the fore turrets of HMS Achilles and HMS Exeter in addition HMS Ajax. KMS Admiral Graf Spee suffered 2 hits (from Achilles and Exeter firing unengaged) but both bounced off her turret or belt armor harmlessly. HMS Ajax was not so lucky and received two 11" hits that knocked out both her fore turrets.

 

GT 3-KMS Admiral Graf Spee again turned dramatically away only to turn back at the end of her movement to bring the Brits back into her broadside. Graf Spee now shifted her 11" to Exeter and targeted Ajax with her port 5.9". Graf Spee hit Ajax in the hull and knocked out another 6" turret. Graf Spee also hit Exeter twice knocking out a fore 8" turret and a starboard 4" mount. Achilles firing unengaged hit Graf Spee in the hull for minor damage.

 

GT 4-KMS Admiral Graf Spee continued her turn away, turn back maneuver pattern but the range was closing. Graf Spee now used her 4.1" against Ajax, her port 5.9" against Achilles and her 11" against Exeter. The 4.1" missed as did the 5.9" (even with rapid fire) but the 11" hit Exeter 8 times sinking her. Exeter however struck back knocking out Graf Spee's rear 11" turret, her float plane (with its cracked engine block) setting her afire and reducing her speed to 23 knots. 

 

GT 5-Commodore Harwood with Ajax quite battered and having lost Exeter turned away under smoke and disengaged giving a tactical victory to KMS Admiral Graf Spee. Chase put his fire out, but was still alight with pleasure from his first naval war gaming experienced. As usual GQ III.3 provided for a good game with fun for all.



#2 simanton

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Posted 06 February 2016 - 11:01 PM

Nice action!  Good luck to KzS Langsdorff trying to make it home!






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