349 replies to this topic

[Peter M. Skaar]

Very interesting battle and a great AAR Healey!  It is great to see some of the old battleships get some attention and use in a game.

[simanton]

Absolutely concur, Peter!

[healey36]

Thanks for the read, guys. I think we satisfied ourselves that the model we built will bring ships onto the tactical table in clashes that result from actions/decisions on the operational map. The decision-making process often has one "tilting at windmills", which, I guess, is realistic given the way things played out historically. For the HSF, the notion of being careful to not lose anything makes it quite difficult operationally - if the RN chucks a BB/BC or two, well maybe that's acceptable, but if Scheer/Hipper sheds one of their top-tier assets, the Kaiser will be most displeased, which than only serves to make things even harder for the next go-round. 

 

Trying to attrite the RN's ability to develop and maintain a blockade of the German homeland probably isn't even a strategic consideration in the early going of 1914/1915, but it certainly begins to take form by 1916. Attempting to deliver a hammer-blow without the bending of a few nails seems a pretty tough requirement. The HSF really needs to inflict a major defeat on the RN with losses running at something like three or four to one, maybe even greater, in order to have a strategic chance, and the notion that Jellicoe couldn't win the war in an afternoon, but very well could lose it, would/did generate caution on the RN side as well. 

 

One of the game group members suggested that we bag the whole notion of trying to replay history through 1914, 1915, and the early goings of 1916, just accept the historical outcomes and replay Jutland starting on the operational map. Presume that all of the things that brought the great clash into being have occurred and start things on the operational map at some moment where there can still be considerable variability in maneuvers and the decision-making process. Fight the fight, accept the outcome, then play the balance of the war in view of that result.

 

If I'm honest, it would require a staggering amount of effort, but I suppose I'm up for anything. There's a part of me, however, that says I've already done this maybe a half-dozen times, but that was some fifty years ago with a bunch of school mates on the basement floor of my parents' house using Avalon Hill's/Jim Dunnigan's Jutland.

 

Those were heady days and a long time ago, but count me in for an FAI replication. I think I still have some of those homemade measuring sticks somewhere

 

Paul R.

[healey36]

Is it my imagination or is the ODGW site mucked up? Clicking on "Forums" on the home page takes me nowhere. Usually I'd get the entire forum "tree".

[Begemot_]

Both Pete Skaar and I have recently had this problem. In both our cases clearing our web browser's cache took care of the problem. I suggest you give that a try. But I have no idea why three separate computers should develop the same problem on the same website.

[healey36]

Thanks for the tip, I’ll take a look. I did notice that I don’t have the problem when using the tablet.

 

Edit :: Went into Chrome and cleared all of the stuff...worked like a champ. Never ran into this issue before. Thanks again.

[healey36]

The game table has been deadly quiet; absolutely nothing going on. I fear the game group has disbanded, or worse, they've dropped me from their ranks, lol. I can't raise anyone. Maybe it's vacation time, who knows?

Debby rolled through here this past week and drenched the place, although if I'm honest, the front three days before dumped more. Nearly nine inches of rain in four days. I'll be cutting grass three times per week for awhile once we get back to normal August heat/sun.

I helped a friend of mine with a bit of genealogy recently. His mother was Welsh, married an American in 1949, an ad exec from New York. My friend, an only child, grew up in New York City, living in a ritzy high rise apartment building in Midtown. He's a great guy, very humble and soft-spoken (unusual for a native Manhattanite in my experience, lol). He said his mother had told him that his grandfather, her father, had been killed in the war. She knew he'd joined the navy, but that was it. We poked around in a number of places online, but couldn't find anything. I have a college roommate, an expat living outside of London who used to work as an economist for the Office for National Statistics. I gave him some info and asked to see if he could dig anything up.

A week ago he came back with word that he'd found her father, my friend's grandfather, in the National Archives. He'd been born in Wales in 1895, one of nine children, and that he'd gotten himself a job with the London & Northwestern Railway at the ripe old age of 14. He'd married and enlisted in the Navy shortly after the balloon went up. My friend's mother was born in May 1915.

Once he had the guy's name and some other ancillary information, he was able to find him on a series of ship's musters, specifically for HMS Invincible, the last being for May 1, 1916. His last noted rank was that of Armourer's Mate.

[Peter M. Skaar]

Wow!  That is a very interesting story, Healey.  It is too bad he did not survive. 

[simanton]

Yes, indeed!  The only survivors I am aware of from Invincible were in the fire control top.

 

I hope things pick up for you soon, Healey

[healey36]

It’s a horrific story, one of a number during the war, which bears some resemblance to the fate of Hood some 25 years later. It’s hard to wrap one’s head around 1000+ guys wiped out in a matter of seconds.

Ironically, I had a distant relative, a Scotsman, that served as a stoker on Inflexible. He was fortunate to have survived the war, living well into his nineties. Makes ya think.

I’m hopeful the game group finds itself in the fall.