Mers el Kebir converted to Italian option

Just in case the French ships aren't available, we can do it with the Italian fleet.  I've looked at the points value for comparison.

Aircraft - use Macchi C.201 instead of Curtiss H-75.

Coastal batteries - 2 x  4 x 15" guns (ouch!).

French Ships

• Dunkerque – battleship (33)  
• Strasbourg – battleship (33)  
• Bretagne – battleship BB (36)   . 

• Provence – battleship BB (36)  
• Commandant Teste – seaplane carrier (9) 

• Mogador – destroyer (Mogador class) (7.5)
• Volta – destroyer (Mogador class) (7.5)
• Terrible – destroyer (Fantastique class) (5)
• Kersaint – destroyer (Vacquelin class) (5)
• Lynx – destroyer (Chacal class) (5)
• Tigre – destroyer (Chacal class) (5)

Trying to balance these out, I'd suggest the following (as I have the ships!)

1 x Cavour class BC : (39)

1 x Doria class BC : (36)

1 x Littorio class : (56)

2 x Trento class cruiser (14)

4 x Navagatori destroyers (5)

2 Etna Class cruisers (7)

The Littorio will add a bit of bite for the Italians as well as an element of survivability.  Similarly the coastal guns will give the British pause for thought!

Naval Scenario #11 - Mers el Kebir

3rd July 1940.  

The Attack on Mers-el-Kébir (3 July 1940) also known as the Battle of Mers-el-Kébir, was part of Operation Catapult. The operation was a British naval attack on French Navy ships at the base at Mers El Kébir on the coast of French Algeria. The bombardment killed 1,297 French servicemen, sank a battleship and damaged five ships, for a British loss of five aircraft shot down and two crewmen killed.


The combined air-and-sea attack was conducted by the Royal Navy after the Second Armistice at Compiègne between Germany and France on 22 June. The only continental ally of Britain had been replaced by a government administered from Vichy, which inherited the French navy (Marine Nationale). Of particular significance to the British were the seven battleships of the Bretagne, Dunkerque and Richelieu classes, the second largest force of capital ships in Europe after the Royal Navy. The British War Cabinet feared that France would hand the ships to the Kriegsmarine, giving the Axis an advantage in the Battle of the Atlantic. Admiral François Darlan, commander of the French Navy, promised the British that the fleet would remain under French control but Winston Churchill and the War Cabinet judged that the fleet was too powerful to risk an Axis take-over.

Ships : 

Royal Navy

• HMS Hood – battlecruiser – Flagship
• HMS Resolution – battleship
• HMS Valiant – battleship
• HMS Ark Royal – aircraft carrier
• HMS Arethusa – light cruiser
• HMS Enterprise – light cruiser
• HMS Faulknor – destroyer
• HMS Foxhound – destroyer
• HMS Fearless – destroyer
• HMS Forester – destroyer
• HMS Foresight – destroyer
• HMS Escort – destroyer
• HMS Keppel – destroyer
• HMS Active – destroyer
• HMS Wrestler – destroyer
• HMS Vidette – destroyer
• HMS Vortigern – destroyer

French Navy (Marine Nationale)

• Dunkerque – battleship – Flagship
• Strasbourg – battleship
• Bretagne – battleship
• Provence – battleship
• Commandant Teste – seaplane tender
• Mogador – destroyer
• Volta – destroyer
• Terrible – destroyer
• Kersaint – destroyer
• Lynx – destroyer
• Tigre – destroyer

Set-up 

Assume an 8x6 table with long edges denoting North and South.  Set up the French fleet about 2' up from the South end of the table.  

Force H comes from the North side of the table.

Coastal guns are in effect from Fort Santon and Fort Mers-el-Kebir. 

Aircraft are Swordfish and Skuas for the British, Curtiss H-75 fighters for the French.  

Swordfish can drop magnetic mines and/or torpedoes but not in the same attack.  

All French ships are stationary at the start of the battle.  Surprise by the British will mean that the French ships can only respond after d3+2 turns (3-5 turns).  Roll individually for each capital ship.

Coastal guns can return fire after 3 turns.  Assume equivalent of 13.5" guns - 2 per fort.  British ships can engage the forts coastal guns (check GQ rules).

Response means both returning fire and moving.  Note the tight confines of the harbour and the necessity of not fouling on the defensive boom means that French ships will move at a maximum 1/4 of their maximum speed until clear of the boom.

Ships can exit the boom in single file (capital ships) or side by side (destroyers).  If the British have mined the boom exit, roll for mine attacks for ships exiting the boom.

Once out of the boom French ships can aim to escape from any table edge.


Objectives / victory conditions

British
Sink / cripple 3 or more French capital ships

French 
Have 3 capital ships escape off table.


Referees Notes

The French player(s) will be up against it from the start so make it clear that they are not expected to win by engaging the British fleet directly but to escape to fight another day (although they will need to fight in the escape if only to reduce the amount of incoming fire!).  It is recommended to have more stoic players play the French.

Alternative Scenarios
a) The French have advance warning of British intentions and get underway from the end of Turn 1 

b) French warships dispatched from Toulon and Algiers in a reprise attack engage Force H as it returns to Gibraltar.  The French fleet consists of the remaining three battleships of the main classes of the French fleet with commensurate cruiser and destroyer escorts.  British ships are any remaining (and carrying over the damage) from the scenario above.

French ships at Mers el Kebir

Mogador runs aground after being hit by a 15 inch shell

Strasbourg under fire

Naval Scenario #10 - Rodina

Note : points factors based on General Quarters 2 attack and defence factors added together.  Pints are in parentheses.  Message for Russ, Ian, Mark and Jon - this will be the scenario for Thursday

1943.  The Russians are riding on the back of their stunning victory at Stalingrad and on all fronts the German forces are being pushed back.  Stalin has decreed that it time for the Soviet navy to add its strength to the struggle - for too long the naval forces have sat behind minefields and let the Germans control the Baltic.  No more!  Orders are received to roam into the Baltic and sink any German ships (or those of their allies).  An opportunity has arisen to do so - a major convoy heading from Gdansk into Turku to supply armaments and other supplies into Finland.

Scharnhorst

Alas, it is a cunning ruse cooked up by the Abwehr.  Not a merchant convoy but a heavily armed squadron comprising some of the best remaining German ships afloat and a new type of destroyer.  

But Russia has its own effective spy network and they too know the composition of the forces ranged against them.

In the desperation of all-out war, there can be no compromise.  Make no mistake, this will be a battle to the death!

8x6 table.  Denote one wide edge north and the other south.  Germans enter from the South. Russians from the North East corner.  Place all ships within 12" of their entry point in whatever formation you choose.

Sevastopol

Special Rules

Russians have initiative at the start of the battle.

Visibility is good (bright winters day)

Russian Forces

Battlecruiser - Sevestapol (44)

Cruisers - Kirov (11), Krasny Krim (9), Kasny Kavaz (9), Chervona Ukrania (9)

Destroyers - 4 Leningrad class destroyers (18 points)

Total : 100 points

German Forces

Battlecruiser - Scharnhorst (34) 

Pocket Battleship - Lutzow (18) 

Cruisers - Prinz Eugen (17), Nurnberg (9), Leipzig (9)

Destroyers - 3 x 1942 type (12 points)

Total : 100 points

Victory conditions

Russians - sink the Scharnhorst and any two major ships 

Germans - sink the Sevastapol and any two cruisers.

If time runs out, whichever side is closest to their victory condition wins.