Somewhere in the Atlantic in 1941……..

Now we have had several practice games of gradually moving from a destroyer v destroyer to adding cruisers in games to learn the rules a bit. So as our local club Wellington Warlords had cancelled Saturday games as the hall used on Saturdays has been requisitioned as a Covid testing station, I decided to move a Thursday game to Saturday. It would also allow a full days gaming rather than 3 hours at night.

So for this game it was the Germans v the British. Russ and SteveT would be the Germans with SteveC, Goldie and Robert the British. I was on drinks and assisting the BossLady with lunch duties.

After rolling up the scenario the Germans with the Bismark, Tirpitz, Scharnhorst and Gniesnau would square off against the Hood, King George V, Warspite who had company in the Ark Royal(with Swordfish), 3 cruisers and 3 destroyers. The Germans had to exit the table and inflict more damage than they suffered. Simple enough.

Below we see the Kreigsmarines finest steaming full ahead. The Tirpitz and Bismark are the 2 larger vessels.

And here is a close up of the Tirpitz. Russ paint jobs.

This is the picture on turn 2. The British has deployed in line facing left on the top table edge with the line led by the destroyers, then the cruisers and the biggies in the rear. The Ark Royal was off table but had some Swordfish flights in the air. She has 15 flights. Now I didn’t agree with the British set up…but being an unbiased(well sometimes) umpire it didn’t seem the best position to be in facing a group of 4 Battleships…..a remark that was ignored as most of my comments tend to be LOL. So below we see the Germans going full speed to the right to get off table….the British destroyers and cruisers who are torpedo armed and need to get in close the the Germans…like right alongside…..to fire off their torpedoes with any effect…are going to need a miracle…..to catch them. The British battleship group is moving to intercept the Germans…the Warspite being rather old and slow is starting to fall behind. Some Swordfish are flying over them… however they are REAL slow for planes!!

A close up of the British Battleships with the Swordfish flying by.

Here is the Ark Royal sitting off table…launching one flight a turn…which move only marginally faster than the German Battlegroup.

Close up of the King George V (model says Duke of York..but…no one wants to play with the Duke of York!)

Battle scene below…Germans racing for table edge….British Battleships moving to intercept…Swordfish closing in on Germans…and British Destroyers and Cruisers trying to catch up. More flights ofSwordfish are joining the action.

Russ and SteveT had the Germans in formation so nice and compact and can unleash a lot of firepower. Players ignore size of model…you measure from the model bridge …so there is no blocking of shooting angles.

The unusual formation of the the British smaller ships……

Something for the German ships to worry about……well…..hopefully anyway….there is a lot of dedicated AA and light guns on those 4 ships to get through.

Remember the Hood… it had the misfortune to be closest the the Germans.. the red marker is her burial spot.

Remember the King George V…the red Marker is his burial spot.

But…some Swordfish’s made it to the Bismarck brought her to a halt(a chance to get underway again) and

the Scharnhorst…. and did some serious damage with all main guns being taken out. The Tirpitz and Gniesnau were relatively unscathed. The British had lost the Hood, King George, the Warspite was 1 hull point away from critical damage, they had lost a cruiser and a destroyer and a number of flights of Swordfish.

So in balance…I feel the Germans won it…….the picture below was a bit earlier ,,,,the red marker in the Hood…the King George about to get one as well.

So that was a fun game…we all got better acquainted with the rules , introduced battleships and carriers to the mix. Also need to get some of the battle card holders that Russ has. One of gamers at another local club is making them for Victory at Sea…makes admin side of game SO MUCH EASIER!.

Looking forward to the next game already. I have had a supply of Japanese planes and ships arrive from Magpie Promotions so will post an update on them and my Team Yankee force am working on next.

Next Group game is 2 weeks away….. will be a return to 1812.

Bye for now.

Terry.