6 replies to this topic

[Jim O'Neil]

FWIW I coughed up the money to buy a copy of Avalanche Presses NORTH SEA 1914 to see if the many scenarios they claim to have, would translate to the table top. Unfortunetly much of what they have as scenarios looks like "put all your ships on the table in some location to fight". There does not seem to be any loss of ships for previous battles, although I may have missed that.

Anyway, save your money.

 

I have found some ideas and a few parts that could make an interesting battle or two. I'll work on adapting those for our use.

Generally Wikipedia offers ideas and clicking on other battles mentioned finds a few more usable scenarios and some more dead end "wouldn't be fun at  all" battles too.

 

If others have found anything, please let us know. 

 

AFTER MORE READING I HAVE FOUND A FEW MORE POSSIBLE SCENARIOS. I am still thinking it is not worth $33 for whaat we miniature gamers would get from it; it is very definitely written for their board game.

[healey36]

We have found the Yarmouth Raid of November 1914 and the subsequent Scarborough Raid of December 1914 to be fertile ground in the early going, and we have played these a number of times. We never allowed ourselves to be bound by the historical participants, but instead expanded the OOB and the map to what was in play at the time. Luck, weather, and questionable decision-making played a great part in preventing these actions the opportunity to have developed into decisive engagements.

 

The Cuxhaven Raid of late December 1914 similarly offers an opportunity for an engagement by relatively light forces. Even a small detachment of the HSF could certainly have beaten up the Royal Navy's operation had they put to sea.

 

As far as Avalanche Press' Battle Analyses go, we have found a number of them interesting. Dr. Benninghof's Jutland: Dogger Bank is a favorite; it covers a number of actual, as well as potential, scrapes from September 1914 through March 1915. If nothing else, they offer some terrific food-for-thought. They are, however, as you point out, a bit pricey.

[Jim O'Neil]

I concur as far as some interesting possibilities, but was very put off by having each fleet as a response force to any and every action.

Both fleets would take close to an hour to raise steam and then it's a long time before they can get to the site of the action. My take is if it isn't at sea, you aren't going to get support from it.

I'll make an exception for CL's and smaller, Harwich force seems to have been quite responsive generally as are the German CLs around Helgoland.

 

I haven't gotten to Cuxhaven yet, but have rewritten  The Battle of Texel into something more balanced. I am also trying to use the German ACs some before Jan '15 when they went to the Baltic and were decommissioned fairly quickly there after.

[healey36]

Jim, take a look at Yarmouth (November 1914) and Lowestoft (April 1916). Both of these, together with Scarborough (December 1914), had supporting heavy fleet units on the move. My understanding is that the earlier actions were two-fold in intent, one being to lure elements of the Grand Fleet out in response where they could be engaged and defeated by the lurking HSF battle squadrons. I believe there was also the notion that these actions would pressure the Royal Navy to station more of their heavy units in bases along the coast where the HSF hoped to be able to catch and destroy them incrementally. 

 

Beatty always seemed to be late to the party in these baited operations. By the time he and his battlecruisers were well on their way to engage, the HSF's Scouting Squadrons had made the turn and were headed home. Accelerate Beatty's departure by even a few hours and you have a radically different set of circumstances.

 

Just my two cents, but we've had quite a bit of fun with such suppositions. Best played with umpired movement on strategic/operational maps, moving to the table once contact is made. Of course, one can script engagements as well and avoid all of the operational aspects. It's all fun. 

[Jim O'Neil]

That does sound worth a bit of work in digging out the involved units and their arrival.

 

FOR EVERYONE -  OSPREY has just released a booklet on the Austro-Hungarian battles with the Italians supported some by the British.  Italian Adriatic Fleet 1915–18: The fierce naval war with Austria-Hungary (Fleet, 15)

Italian Adriatic Fleet 1915–18: The fierce naval war with Austria-Hungary (Fleet, 15)

 

​On review, there are only a few ship on ship actions with CLs or larger on both sides. The vast number of surface actions are with DDs and smaller on craft least one side and often on both. 

[healey36]

JIm, here's William Croft's write-up from GHQ's Tac News archives that offers a sense of what might have been in play during December 1914's Scarborough Raid:

 

https://cdn.shopify..../sepoct1997.pdf

 

It's an interesting article providing quite a bit of background info, and Croft clearly lays out how closely run the engagement was (and might have been).

 

Another resource that might offer a good glimpse of North Sea action (certainly a fun read regardless), I have found GHQ's Tac News archive a good resource.

[Jim O'Neil]

Thank you for that! Quite interesting.