Schnell rules for Schnellboote Destroyer Down!

I set up another scenario for SRFSB this afternoon, with a destroyer on convoy escort intercepting a lone S Boat as it tried to penetrate the convoy defences. The destroyer was a Hunt class I, HMS Exmoor, while the S Boat was an S-38 class, S-47. The Kriegsmarine were given three dummy markers, which would only be revealed after being spotted, while HMS Exmoor was deployed as normal. The idea was to represent a typical night time encounter somewhere in E Boat Alley c1941.

In Turn One the three dummy S Boats deployed in line abreast at the Eastern end of the table, while HMS Exmoor positioned herself at the Western end on a course at right angles to the approaching torpedo boats. There was no spotting as both sides were almost a metre apart, so well out of range. In the movement phase, HMS Exmoor moved first as a Very Large ship, performing a 15 point turn to starboard which brought her onto a reciprocal course with the enemy. The three S Boat markers advanced at slow speed toward the convoy screen, with the southern most boat accelerating to Fast in order to gain a lead.

No doubt alerted by the engine noise from the last S Boat manoeuvre, or perhaps from a radio intercept by the HEADACHE W/T operator, the captain of HMS Exmoor ordered a star shell to be fired by the forward 4'' guns. This burst in between two of the S Boats after deviating by 20cm to the South West of the intended target. So far, so good for the crafty Kriegmarine but the destroyer captain was definitely onto something.

In Turn Two the afterglow of the star shell enabled a successful automatic spot attempt for the Royal Navy, with the range now down to 75cm. I rolled a D6. Using an ad-hoc approach, I determined that on a roll of 1-2 the target would be the real thing but on a 3-6 it would be a dummy. The result was a 2, so the dummy markers were removed and S-47 was revealed. I suppose I could have kept the other two markers on the table but, as I was playing solo, I went with the easier option. 

Now the fun started, with the Royal Navy moving first due to the relative size of the destroyer compared to the S Boat. The captain ordered a 15 point starboard turn to bring HMS Exmoor onto a right angled course, crossing the bows of the approaching enemy. This would enable all guns on the destroyer to bear at the risk of exposing the flank of the ship to a torpedo attack. The commander of S-47 increased speed to Fast and accelerated toward the destroyer, ready to fire a salvo of torpedoes before the enemy had time to realise the threat and could blow his craft out of the water.

In the firing phase the S Boat was out of range but the destroyer could bring both 4'' twin mounts into action, the quad Pom Pom being also out of range. The range was 40cm requiring a modified  10+ on a D20 to hit. The aft gun crew scored an unmodified 1, so failed miserably, but the forward crew rolled an 18, which was modified down to a 12. A Hit!

The damage dice were rolled then modified due to target size and weapon calibre, to give a score of 5 and 15 for the hits from the twin 4'' mounting. This caused a Heavy Damage and Wrecked result so, taking the highest level of damage sustained, I rolled for the impact on weapon mounts, speed and manoeverability. All the gun mounting on S-47 were knocked out, probably due to flying splinters and blast, whilst speed and manoeuvre ratings were reduced two levels to medium. Ouch!

However, the immediate torpedo phase meant that S-47 could fire a spread of two 21'' torps directly into the path of HMS Exmoor, at a point blank range of just under 40cm. I decided to use the alternative torpedo rules, so placed two torpedo markers 15cm in front of the S-Boat, in a spread pattern based on the triangular template I had pinched from Action Stations. These would hit home next turn.

In Turn Three, the captain of HMS Exmoor realised the danger and ordered an immediate hard turn to port, in order to comb the torpedo tracks. This looked like it was going  work as the destroyer was now positioned neatly between the two oncoming torpedo markers. In an attempt to get away as fast as possible, the commander of S-47 ordered a full starboard turn of 18cm, with a final 2cm forward move away from the on-rushing destroyer. With all of the 20mm guns knocked out, the S Boat was incapable of defending herself so could only hope to out run the enemy (I would have laid some smoke floats at this point, if they were in the rules).

A salvo of forward 4" fire splashed into wake of the S Boat as it disappeared into the darkness. I had rolled a measly 5 to hit, which when modified down to 3 for the small target, meant that the shells had missed. Perhaps the gunners had been put off their aim by the sudden  swing to port, or by the two torpedo tracks that were bubbling their way down the port and starboard sides of the ship. Who knows?

Whatever the reason for their poor aim, the torpedoes now found their mark. In the alternative torpedo rules if a torpedo travels within 5cm of the target a potential hit could occur. I rolled a D20 for each of the torpedoes, modifying the score for target speed and size, with a final result of 11 and 21. I needed  14+ so one of the torps had hit, perhaps as  result of its magnetic proximity fuse actually working for a change. A damage modifier of +11 minus 4 gave  a base modifier of 9. I rolled 2 on the D6, giving a total damage score of 11. This was just enough to blow the bows off the destroyer and send her to the bottom. 

I really enjoyed this game and thought it gave a very historical outcome. In fact, the real HMS Exmoor was sunk by a torpedo hit from S-30 in February 1941 in just this way, although with a hit to the stern rather than forward. It was great to try out the rules for torpedoes which seemed to work very well and to have a go at using a destroyer sized ship, rather than just small coastal craft. I didn't have to work anything out either, which meant that there was no head scratching involved. 

Thanks again to David Manley for a cracking set of free fast play coastal warfare rules!

(I forgot to take any photos again so here's one of HMS Exmoor instead)

Into the Jaws of Death

It's the Easter holidays so time to catch up on some reading, with this optimistically titled book at the top of the reading list. I have Mike Snook's book Go Strong into the Desert, which is brilliant, so I'm looking forward to this one, especially as a source of inspiration for colonial skirmishy wargaming. Yet another use for my desert terrain or even that dusty box of plastic zulus?

Tumbling Dice British Pre-Dreadnoughts

You may be interested to know that Tumbling Dice have just added thirty two British warship packs to the 1/2400th scale Age of Battleships range. There are no pictures on the website yet but I'm sure they are just as nice as the Japanese pre-dreadnoughts I already own.

The Royal Navy packs include battleships, armoured and protected cruisers, light cruisers and destroyers. I may well get some of these instead of the Russians, to use in a fictitious Anglo-Japanese naval conflict, even if that would have been extremely unlikely to the point of being a bit daft:

http://www.tumblingdiceuk.com/product-category/12400-naval/age-of-battleships/british-abb

Schnell Rules for Schnellboote Solo Scenario

I played an enjoyable solo game of Schnell Rules for Schnellboote this morning, although I forgot to take any photos. The action involved a returning rotte of two S-38 E-Boats being intercepted by three Vosper 72'6 MTB's somewhere off the Hook of Holland c1942. I used dummy markers for both sides with an extra one thrown in to add some confusion. At the start of the game the Kriegsmarine were advancing at slow speed in line abreast from the West, while the Royal Navy were crossing the Germans T in line astern at the Eastern end of the table.

In Turn One and Two both sides approached to just outside spotting range, so nothing much happened. In Turn Three the Germans spotted the dummy MTB, which was removed from play, followed by a real MTB which was successfully 'de-cloaked'. The British then spotted all of the S Boats due to their larger size. Both sides then opened up but the range, speed and target sizes made hitting anything other than a barn door a waste of time.

In Turn Four the range closed to medium and the two forces ended up in a turning fight in the middle of  the table. At this point, with several multiple weapon mounts blazing away, I decided to reinterpret the firing rules to speed things up. I rolled one D20 to hit regardless of the number of barrels per mount firing, which seemed to make sense, but multiple D6 damage and fire risk dice, determined by the number of barrels in action. This made more sense to me than rolling individually per gun mount to hit.

In the firefight, the 20mm cannon of the S Boats were concentrated in a cross fire on MTB 76, which took a pounding to be 'Wrecked' with all gun mounts knocked out and speed plus manoeuvre reduced to medium. Luckily for the crew a fire was avoided but, nonetheless, the boat was a total write off and had to make best it's escape. The S Boat commander decided to let it go, choosing instead to hunt down the other MTB's, which had failed miserably to hit anything and were heading in the opposite direction by the end of Turn Five.

The Royal Navy had clearly decided to cut and run, realising that twin HMG's were no match for multiple 20mm cannon. As they raced for the Southern edge of the table at Very Fast speed they were persued by the S Boats, which attempted  cut them off at close range. Unfortunately, some bad dice rolling and the difficulty of hitting the very small MTB's with their foot down, meant that they were able to slip away into the darkness undamaged by the end of Turn Six.

This was a definite win for the Kriegsmarine and an embarrassing defeat for the Royal Navy, which lost one wrecked MTB without even scratching the paint work on the S Boats. In their defence, the British were outgunned and would probably have been better off avoiding contact in the first place. No wonder this was a job for the MGB's in 1942. It also highlighted the mutiple gun mount glitch, which I've resolved by reading the rules in a slightly different way. The game was good fun and gave a realistic result, despite having  to interpret the rules here and there, so I'll be setting up another one soon.

(Apologies for the lack of photos)

The Men Who Would Be Kings

With my change in jobs this year, to be an educational mercenary, I've been forced to cut back on my wargaming projects and significantly reduce my expenditure. This means that I have been looking for ways to double up or even triplicate the use of terrain, rules and figures in order to squeeze out the last drops of time, money and effort, rather than starting anything new.

The current focus has been on using my existing desert terrain as a platform for skirmish level games in both 28mm and 15mm, with an emphasis on the latter to keep the cost down. This is one reason why I've been planning the No End In Sight based project for post-war platoon level campaigning in Aden and other hot locations in the Cold War.

Today I had another idea. This would involve re-repurposing the 15mm Peter Pig colonial figures that I amassed (no exaggeration there!) for Patrols in the Sudan over a decade ago. I actually have a Madhist army for PITS and played a few games back in the day, but haven't used it for ages due to a lack of interested opponents at the club.

I do have plenty of spare figures for the British and Mahdist, however, including Hadendowah, Camel Corps, a Naval landing party, British and Egyptian infantry, artillery and some extras like heliograph teams, engineers and baggage. Quite a lot in fact. So, I thought to myself, why not use them for colonial skirmish games with Dan Mersey's The Men Who Would Be Kings rules?

It's just an idea at the moment but it would be virtually cost free and would help to reduce the lead mountain, without the need for loads of painting or vast numbers of bases. I'd like to have a crack at PITS again or possibly even Death in the Dark Continent with these figures but, as a realistic project, the skirmish option is far more likely to fit.

I'll have to dig out the figures and work it out!

More 15mm Blotz Middle Eastern mdf

I was really impressed with the Blotz 15mm middle eastern compound that I ordered a couple of weeks ago so, as it was pay day yesterday, I've ordered a wider selection from the range including some single storey buildings and a couple of the smaller walled features. I will now have enough for a proper built up area for modern skirmish games in North Africa or the Arabian Gulf, as well as other uses like near future sci-fi or AK47.

Radfan Firefight 1964

This very useful site has an excellent account of operations in the Radfan by the Parachute Regiment and Royal Marines in 1964:

https://paradata.org.uk/articles/radfan-firefight

TD Japanese Pre-Dreadnoughts: The Battleships

The Imperial Japanese Navy battleship ASAHI

As promised, here are some pre-assembly photos of a selection of the Tumbling Dice 1/2400th scale Japanese pre-dreadnoughts from the Age of Battleships range. These are the four battleships available in the ABJ range, which includes thirty packs covering most of the Japanese warships for both the 1894-1895 Sino-Japanese and the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese conflict. These larger models are £3.60 each, which is expensive compared to 1/3000th scale but with the added value of greater detail. I will post some pictures of some of the Japanese armoured cruisers and light cruisers to follow the battleships, as soon as I've sorted them out of the packs.

ABJ1 Fuji

ABJ2 Shikishima

ABJ3 Asahi

ABJ4 Mikasa

Tumbling Dice Pre-Dreadnoughts

I've been slowly accumulating a small fleet of Tumbling Dice 1/2400th scale pre-dreadnoughts from the Japanese range, with a view to using them with Rory Crabb's Rise of the Battleships naval rules at some point later in the year. I promised to post a review of some of the models here on the blog but, due to real life diversions, just haven't had the time to get around to it.

The battleships and armoured cruisers are multipart models consisting of a hull with separate upper works and masts, which you need to assemble prior to painting but the light cruisers and destroyers are one piece castings. The smaller vessels including destroyers and torpedo boats are also cast with integral bases. The models themselves are well detailed, cleanly cast and require minimal clean up.

I only have a selection of the Japanese warships but they are all excellent models, if a bit on the pricey side compared to the 1/3000th scale alternative. I think they're worth it and will definitely be getting some additional ships and probably a matching Russian, French or British fleet. I have no pictures yet but will add a photo review of some of the different models over the next couple of days.

http://www.tumblingdiceuk.com/product-category/12400-naval/age-of-battleships

A Postcard from the Protectorate

I've been scouring the internet for inspirational images of Aden and the Radfan, with a focus on colour rather than black and white, of which there are plenty of photos to choose from. The range of colour images is a bit more limited but they are out there if you search around. I also discovered that the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry were stationed in Aden in 1966, which connects very well with my existing interest in the 5th Battalion Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry of the Second World War, albeit it in a roundabout way.  It also looks like I can have at least one FV432 and a couple of Stalwarts, not to mention a Hawker Hunter FGA9 for air support...cool!