Despite the worst traffic jam since Santa brought his Coke Wagon to Broughton, we managed to get it a VaS battle of Americans vs Germans (presumably an Atlantic skirmish).
The day before I'd discussed a plan to whup Mark's American fleet by cunning use of U-boats. I thought Mark would have a couple of big ships at the back and use destroyers to hunt down our big ships. As they would undoubtedly come on at flank speed to get to grips early doors, we decided to use submarines and hide them in the area the Americans were coming onto.
We had the Scharnhorst, Prinz Eugen and two M-Plan light cruisers (the latter of which proved pretty ineffective). In hindsight, a couple of better submarines (the type XXI) would have proved more use.
The plan was for the subs to engage the big ships - the American destroyers would have to turn to engage the subs and then the German big ships would take them out at distance while they were sub hunting (as they couldn't go at flank speed). The M class would have been ideal for doing so but no destroyers meant the plan went awry immediately.
The plan both worked and didn't work. The subs made short work of one big ship and crippled another - but against the big battleships the torpedo belts proved too hard to crack (and the submerged speed didn't help as they just crawled along at just 1").
Still, we managed to kill the extra destroyer (which should have been mopping up subs but instead just helped stop some 11" shells from hitting the water). Russ and Mark also managed to ram islands without incurring any damage!
But once the shooting started, the Americans showed the imbalance in some ship stats as the armoured decks meant that hits just didn't register and could also deliver significantly more damage than their opponents.
At the end, both sides had lost a major ship, the Americans were looking healthier as they were virtually impregnable but I suppose at 10:30 a draw was a fair result. Another turn may have seen the subs wreak havoc on the Yanks but similarly they were inflicting damage on all and sundry.
A good nights work - especially the subs.
Next week - Italians vs Germans
The day before I'd discussed a plan to whup Mark's American fleet by cunning use of U-boats. I thought Mark would have a couple of big ships at the back and use destroyers to hunt down our big ships. As they would undoubtedly come on at flank speed to get to grips early doors, we decided to use submarines and hide them in the area the Americans were coming onto.
We had the Scharnhorst, Prinz Eugen and two M-Plan light cruisers (the latter of which proved pretty ineffective). In hindsight, a couple of better submarines (the type XXI) would have proved more use.
The plan was for the subs to engage the big ships - the American destroyers would have to turn to engage the subs and then the German big ships would take them out at distance while they were sub hunting (as they couldn't go at flank speed). The M class would have been ideal for doing so but no destroyers meant the plan went awry immediately.
The plan both worked and didn't work. The subs made short work of one big ship and crippled another - but against the big battleships the torpedo belts proved too hard to crack (and the submerged speed didn't help as they just crawled along at just 1").
Still, we managed to kill the extra destroyer (which should have been mopping up subs but instead just helped stop some 11" shells from hitting the water). Russ and Mark also managed to ram islands without incurring any damage!
But once the shooting started, the Americans showed the imbalance in some ship stats as the armoured decks meant that hits just didn't register and could also deliver significantly more damage than their opponents.
At the end, both sides had lost a major ship, the Americans were looking healthier as they were virtually impregnable but I suppose at 10:30 a draw was a fair result. Another turn may have seen the subs wreak havoc on the Yanks but similarly they were inflicting damage on all and sundry.
A good nights work - especially the subs.
Next week - Italians vs Germans
1 comment:
I'm bringing by Belgian rowing boat next week with armoured deck and torpedo belt.
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