392 replies to this topic

[Peter M. Skaar]

That is a great AAR, Healey.  Very engaging and shows how bad luck can undo even the best of plans.  I have a thing for WWI ships.  I still need to get more of mine painted one of these days.  Coronel and The Falklands are calling me....from a distance right now for sure.

I appreciate the time and effort you take to design and play these games and write the fine blow by blow description of the action.

[healey36]

Thanks, Peter. We wanted to play something on a relatively small table with 1/2400-scale ships. The only real way to do that was to keep the ships small and introduce something that would cut down the range, so we opted for winter months with heavy weather. Using a table only 31 inches wide meant that squall conditions would be rather compressed. While we purposely oriented the forces to approach each other on the table's long-axis, we initially thought there was a chance they might pass each other without ever seeing anything. Fortunately this didn't happen and the Germans spotted the northern edge of the convoy through a gap between two squalls.

 

While general visibility started at 19000 yards and improved over the course of the game, visibility for the squalls (snow, being February) ranged between 1000 and 3000 yards. There was a bit of confusion regarding this rule; we interpreted it to mean that if a target was inside a squall where visibility was limited to 1000 yards, that meant that one had to be within 1000 yards of the target in order to see it, regardless if the spotter was within or outside of the squall. As we didn't have an umpire, everything was on the table, so a bit of rationale had to be used regarding plowing headlong into a squall while knowing there likely could be enemy vessels approaching. This lead to numerous close calls and a lot of evasive action. It's interesting that the two major collisions in the game occurred out in the clear where visibility was good. I learned a valuable lesson...a light cruiser doesn't hold up well in an inadvertent collision with an 8000-ton freighter.

 

HMS Partridge was able to execute a torpedo attack on Stettin as the German attempted to circle back on the convoy; only poor die-rolling saved her from an equally ignominious fate. 

 

We believed Rostock's direct attack on the convoy would serve to break it up, but the convoy commander was steadfast and generally maintained his course. German gunnery, as is generally the case around here, was atrocious, Stettin scoring one hit in nearly two scale-hours of play. Missing a big freighter at near point-blank ranges proved a die-rolling fiasco. While they scored no hits, one had to be wary of all of those 4-inchers on the fantail of the merchants. 

 

Most of our naval battles here are WWI. With the technology substantially less than that of WWII, things tend to be a bit less complicated. The entire evolution of the fleets from pre-dreadnought to dreadnought configurations is pretty interesting, but if I'm honest, I find cruiser actions more entertaining, and we're just starting to look at the capabilities of the early destroyers and torpedo-boats. We're still learning.

[healey36]

Nice action, especially in terms of weather effects and gunnery under the circumstances!

 

Thanks...it was fun, as always.

 

The squall action tended to be very compressed in volume given the table size. If we'd used a surface approximately twice as wide, things likely would have been much less obscured. Using wax paper to represent the squall footprint worked well. Semi-transparent and easily cut to shape, one had a good sense of the effect. Moving at 15 knots, they tended to quickly advance across the table (although they didn't drift vertically very much).

 

Can't say I came away with a good sense of tactics when faced with this kind of weather. 

[healey36]

Remembering all of my mates this 11-11...thanks to every one of you.

 

[Kenny Noe]

Remembering all of my mates this 11-11...thanks to every one of you.

 

 

Amen.

[W. Clark]

Health and long life to members and former members of the 1st, 4th, 7th and 16th Cavalry as well as the 10th Infantry, 35th, 63rd and 77th Armor. I miss you.

 

WMC

[healey36]

A glass candy container found at the local antique mall:

 

 

On the game table, this ship would qualify for a two column shift to the right on the Dark Acquisition table.

 

Playtesting other topics has gotten me interested in night actions; a few guys are coming over today and we'll try to squeeze in a North Sea dust-up.

[W. Clark]

Clearly, it qualifies.

 

WMC

[healey36]

HAHAHA...

 

Wrapping up the FAI DD night action this evening...AAR to follow.

[simanton]

Anticipating with bated breath!

[healey36]

Clash at Cleaver Bank

23 April 1916

 

Order of Battle

 

Royal Navy

1st Division – 10th Destroyer Flotilla

(Captain Wilmot S. Nicholson)

 

HMS Nimrod (Commander Rafe G, Rowley-Conwy)

HMS Mischief (Commander Cyril A. Ward)

HMS Menace (Lieutenant-Commander Charles A. Poignand)

HMS Marmion (Lieutenant-Commander Edward Brooke)

 

High Seas Fleet

4th Halbflottille

(KKpt Adolf Dithmar)

 

SMS B109 (KptLt Victor Hahndorff)

SMS B110 (KptLt August Vollheim)

SMS B111 (KptLt Heinrich Schickhardt)

SMS G103 (KptLt Fritz Spiess)

SMS G104 (KptLt Georg von Bartenwerffer)

 

General Situation

 

Nicholson’s 10th Flotilla departed Chatham on the evening of 19 April 1916, his orders to execute a sweep of the fishing grounds at the southern end of the North Sea, an area increasingly patrolled by German units intent on interdicting British intel-gathering, mine-laying, and mine-sweeping operations. The patrol was planned for four days with a return to base late-afternoon of 23 April.

 

Dithmar’s 4th Halbflottille had slipped the Jade at 1520, 22 April 1916, his orders to drive off enemy mine-laying activity near the western end of the Frisian Islands. These operations were believed to be a renewed effort by the British to interdict German supply/support operations into and out of occupied Belgium and northeastern France.

 

German torpedo-boats.

 

At 0100, 23 April 1916, Nicholson’s DDs are headed home after a largely uneventful patrol. They had sunk a pair of German trawlers on the morning of 20 April, their position likely reported.

 

Dithmar’s orders were for an out-n-back patrol, the western end of which being a point just east-northeast of the Norfolk Banks. At 0100 on the 23rd, Dithmar’s torpedo boats are sailing due-east on a return heading, expecting to be back in Wilhelmshaven late that evening.

 

Day (Night) of Battle

(written from the German POV)

 

Conditions are good, with seas gentle and a quarter-moon yielding visibility of up to 8000 yards.

 

At 0106, there is a report on B 109 of a ship spotted off the port-beam with an estimated speed of eight knots on a southeastern heading. Given its position and heading, there is some presumption that this is an unfriendly vessel, but a request for identification is sent. Failing to receive an immediate reply, Dithmar orders B 109 to engage the target which then quickly identifies itself as the small German freighter Pinnau.

 

SS Pinnau.

 

Dithmar orders a cease-fire, but remains skeptical, wondering why a German freighter at this position is sailing from the northwest. He orders his column of torpedo boats to press on, maintaining their eastward heading and current speed of 20 knots. At 0121, multiple sightings are made of gun-flashes from an approaching column of ships on the port bow. These ships are observed firing upon the German freighter which is now broad on the port bow. Dithmar orders B 109, B 110, and B 111 to open on the lead ship (flotilla leader Nimrod). At a range of slightly more than 6000 yards, no hits on the enemy are observed.

 

Pinnau takes a bulkhead hit between her cargo holds amidships. Despite the damage and some flooding, she is able to maintain her speed of eight knots. Her captain inexplicably orders a turn southward, which will take her directly into the path of the approaching enemy. The turn will, however, allow use of the three-inch on her fantail.

 

The British DDs, now aware of the column of German ships quickly approaching, are able to shift their fire. While the range is now just under 4000 yards, the difficulty of shooting in darkness pushes the gunnery charts to the outer band of effectiveness. In the lively, mostly ineffective exchange, B 111 manages a single hit on Mischief.  

 

At 0127, with the columns of DDs rapidly approaching/passing each other, the trailing pair of TBs, G 103 and G 104, dropped their torpedoes in the direction of Nimrod. House rules limits the fan-shaped firing angle of the German torpedo mounts, preventing firing solutions for the first three. All of the torpedoes pass safely behind Nimrod, but one of G 103’s 19.7-inch torps slams into Mischief (next in line), blowing her in half. The following flurry of German gunfire yields no hits, but G 103, G 104, and B 111 all take 4-inch engineering hits.

 

Destroyer leader HMS Nimrod.

 

What follows is a rotation of sorts, as both columns of DDs try to turn back on each other while maintaining contact. Menace, third in line just behind the now departed Mischief, plowed headlong through her sister’s debris field, earning herself 100 demerits. Nicholson orders a turn to the north.

 

Dithmar orders a corresponding turn to the north-northeast, hoping to close the range on the British column. B 109 no sooner completes her 60-degree turn than she is struck by a torpedo loosed by Marmion. The fish strikes in her forward engine-room, flooding that compartment and the adjacent two. Dithmar, Hahndorff, and most of the others on the bridge are thrown off their feet, but uninjured. Her speed quickly drops to a 16-knot maximum, but she remains afloat and on the point of Dithmar’s column. She avenges herself with a pair of 4.1-inch hits on Marmion.

 

Continuing to turn, the DDs begin to close on one another again. At 0142, G 104 attempts to illuminate the British column with starshells, but no hits are scored in the subsequent round of gunnery and the lights grow dim and go out with no favorable effect.

 

Pinnau, unable to get her flooding under control, rolls over and sinks a few minutes later, her crew able to get away in the boats. In the darkness, one of the boats finds and is able to pick up a few of Mischief’s survivors.

 

The closing stages.

 

There is another six minutes of gunfire exchanged, with G 104 hitting Nimrod twice and G 103 hitting Menace once. At 0209, with two thirds of his armament disabled and Mischief lost, Nicholson ordered his column to flank, off to the west, and into the darkness. Dithmar did not attempt pursuit.

 

What Did We Learn?

 

A hastily assembled small scenario for a night action in the North Sea, this was intended as an exploration of WWI fighting in darkness. The Royal Navy, considered largely inept at night-fighting, was at a disadvantage in both capability and numbers. They managed to sink a German merchantman that stumbled into their path, but lost one of their M-class DDs in the process. Their gunnery proved largely ineffective; it might have been improved by the use of starshells, but the RN didn’t have that capability in 1916.

 

The HSF came out intact (except for Pinnau), but their gunnery, as is so often the case on this table, proved abysmal. The 4.1-inch hits they did score were effective in wrecking numerous gun and torpedo mounts.  A lot of sharp turning prevented more and better use of their torpedoes, but there’d been opportunities; they simply weren’t taken advantage of.

 

In a month, Dithmar would take 4th Halbflottille to Jutland as part of the 2nd Torpedo-Boat Flotilla. Nicholson, who’d been in command of Hogue at her sinking in September 1914, would miss Jutland, a number of his destroyers temporarily reassigned to the 9th Flotilla.

 

The sweeps would prove largely ineffective, the trawlers, minelayers, and minesweepers back in the area within days.

[W. Clark]

The RN learned a lot from the sharp end during 1916 about the cost of not preparing for night combat and put it to good use during the period between the wars. That is why the RN is the class act at nighttime fighting of all the Allied navies during WWII. That reflects in GQ3.3's treatment. During a WWII scenario, give me the RN night acquisition, SW radar, RN torpedoes, RN start-shell and a middling die roll (or better) for radar contact and I feel like I have every advantage. Other Allied navies have pieces of the above, but not the complete package from the start.

 

WMC

[healey36]

Yup, I learned that lesson in other sessions 

[simanton]

Another extremely nice action!  Definitely illustrating the challenging limitations imposed on light forces in a night action in the low-tech environment of WWI.  I was very pleased to see a scenario using the newly acquired large torpedo boats obtained through taking over foreign ordered boats.  They were rather eye openers for the Germans!

[simanton]

Yup, I learned that lesson in other sessions 

I absolutely concur!

[healey36]

The 1/2400 fleet is predominantly, but not exclusively, cruisers and less. We don't have enough real estate here to do capitals justice at that scale. The big stuff sees a drop-down to 1/6000, and even that can be a stretch occasionally. Light forces/small actions are seen frequently...I enjoy watching DDs circling around desperately trying to lay a glove on their light opposition. I'm not sure it's the most fun for the players, but at least they come away with a different view of life as a destroyer captain.

[simanton]

Of course, since I use 1/1200 - 1/1250 I incorporate a ridiculous amount of compression.  One understands why, when gaming with 1/600 back in the 1930s, Fletcher Pratt would rent a ballroom!

[healey36]

When in college, we gamed with 1/700-scale stuff. I don't recall what ruleset we used, possibly something by WRG out of the UK. My roommate was in the National Guard, so we could occasionally get use of the gym in the armory. The playing surface wasn't very realistic looking, but one could have fun "driving the lane" with a division of IJN cruisers... 

[W. Clark]

I had a set of those rules, but I had not touched them since the 80s. I wanted larger engagements and ship or two per player (the most that be handled IMHO) was too limiting.

 

WMC

[healey36]

Ya know, this has been gnawing at me for the last few days, so I went back and did a bit of research, and I think we have this wrong - I can't find a set of era-appropriate naval rules put together by WRG. Either my memory or the rules list I'm looking at is flawed (likely the former). It looks like they had a hand in something for ancients (triremes, biremes, stuff like that), and maybe some modern-era rules, but I couldn't find mention of anything naval covering the 1900-1945 timeframe. WRG's stuff was pretty good and we used a lot of their work for land battles, but as rules, things were a bit skimpy. Looking back, it was kind of like the Pirates movies - not really rules, more like guidelines, lol.

At the risk of repeating myself, if you have interest in reading through old rulesets, get yourself a copy of Donald Featherstone's Naval War Games: Wargaming With Model Ships, edited by John Curry. The book is more of a compendium of various rulesets rather than just Featherstone's proprietary work. There's some terrific stuff here, especially if you have interest in making some house rules to use along with FAI regarding some of the more obscure topics. It makes for fun reading on a cold winter's night and, if nothing else, one quickly gets a sense of how far we've come.