1940 - The hunt on the Scharnhorst ...

 ... or how the Royal Navy lost by points.

Well, after my death ride of my Tirpitz last game seem to have made a veritable impression of the fans of the RN - it wasn't allowed back on the table again, what a bummer! 

So the scenario was that, I don't know ...  go get the British (Tim, Peter, Alisdair and Gordon) again, even though they were already concentrated on the centre of the table and we (da Germans - Bart, me, Andy and Mike) came in from all four corners of the winds ...

What could possibly go wrong.

The Brits tried to concentrate on Mikes Scharnorst and tried the whole time to sink it - while we Bart and me shot some smaller vessels at the periphery and f*** off while we had the chance. Mike wanted to fight with his Scharnhorst, but really couldn't because his, well, everything was blown away from board... BUT

... they didn't get him in the end. He made it to the table edge. 

Remember, guys to concentrate fire! And to throw better! The rest of the Kriegsmarine left the table mildly amused.

Point wise a German victory. Strategy wise a German victory. Gunnery wise a German victory. But the British catering was a exquisit.

The Royal Navy huddled together ...

The Kriegsmarine coming in for the kill ...

Scharnhorst under attack ...

The RN in line to catch and destroy it ...

But the Scharnhorst is still capable ...

They did not hit well today ...

So we left with a point victory the field ...

Anglo-Dutch Wars - somewhere in the Mediterranean - lets have a barbecue!

Campbell finished his beautiful paper collection ships in god knows what size ... aaand they look MARVELOUS! I 'm one of the heretics that would choose this kind of naval era over the Napoleonic (shocker, I know!)...

So we had actually a historical battle background where the British tried to break free off Leghorn the Dutch awaiting them and some more British are coming to the rescue.

Me and Bart were the potato-eaters with two big and two smaller ships while John tried to break free and Alidair tried to rescue the ships for his majesty - it never happened.

John tried to break free very quick, but confused Napoleonic tactics with Anglo-Dutch and got "boarded" with both of his ships. Then came Alisdaie, even with a "hidden" fire ship, but Bart welcomed him with some salvoes that two ships caught fire, one even exploded - and it wasn't even the fire ship... Bart (as the Dutch Admiral) told me then to set fire to my prizes and we left with the wind.

Dutch victory over the British - clear cut! Its not so easy in the Napoleonics, I guess. ;)

In the end it was sooo good, that we decided to have a go at it again next club night.

my ships and stats

The position of the Dutch before the harbour at the start

We are closing in

Many Dutch ships ... hmmm

Our future prize ... British ships

circling around ... two pronged advance

the fire fight starts

first all against the sails

Then boarding - I had my crews ready - John not!

second boarding

the rest of the British arrive at the horizont

and Bart turns for a meet and greet

aaand fires salvoe

after salvoe

after salvoe and one ship explodes!!!

by that time I had all of john ships and were off sailing with the wind

BUT as the rest of the British got nearer

I had to torch my prize

We then left for some pints at Mallorca

1943 - Small boats and big boasts! Azzurro ...

Or at the end of the WW2 the Italians, played by me obviously, had enough and wanted to escape the German fleet, played by Bart,  to find refuge in the arms of the British/US Navy.  I had a Mine-sweeper, super fast Groceries boxes and a "big ship" all equipped with super thin pasta torpedoes that would disolve with contact on water, while Bart had 2 Schnell-Boote and two Torpedo-Boote armed to the teeth and equipped with real torpedos. On top of that I had the Italian Adriatic coast behind me (long edge) which decreased my manoeuvrability while Bart was coming straight towards me on the other long side. Campbell was the umpire. And what I didn‘t know was that he had also 2 Stukas coming for me... what could possibly go wrong?

I went full speed ahead directly towards the Germans. Now I could boast that was my master plan from the beginning, but it wasn‘t. I just rationalised that, if I was amongst my enemies thy could shoot me, but not send thy wrath against me. Wrong! Bart send the first off and hit my big ship and destroyed the (only) big gun and wrecked my engine, but did not sink me. The Umpire the mentioned that I should acquaint myself with the WW2 naval basics. Bart smelled blood and I shot back ... with a lot of 1s ... duh!

Everybody was smiling and telling me I should not moan etc... so I decided to leave the big ship and send all my small boats straight through the middle full power ahead. That they didn‘t expect - or liked it at all. You cannot leave the big ship with the commander behind, surely?  Ma Certo! What an italian hero! 

Then they send their 2 Stukas to dive bomb my wooden ships of the Adria, but ... Bart did not hit. In fact I shot one of his planes off damaged back to Italy - pronto! That was the last time my 4 small boats were seen by the Germans.

Now Bart encircled my big ship and tried to hit it with all he got. The ship was just at half speed and the front was cleaned of any guns, seconds later the back as well - but again it didn't blow up. Rather the two Schnell Boote were too eager to come too near, so I shot them to oblivion with five 6s in a row!!!. One to return werecked and the other wrecked and with a fire on board.

Now just imagine a slow Italian big ship with two Torpedo-Boote encircling around and not hitting much apart from metal and armour. Clink-Clank- Clunk .... It could go on for ever, so Bart did rolled out his last 3 torpedoes, which my boat was too slow and cumbersome to evade ... but what should I say it didn‘t blow up, it just didn‘t. They couldn‘t hit an elephant in red and white pyjamas!

So all the German Hochseeflotte could do was chewing their caps and hats while even my Big Ship escaped! Ecco Fatto!

Naturalmente, due to the absolute non–biased umpiring, it was a clearly only a "minor Italian victory" - riuscite a crederci! But, boy did I had fun - my smile could envelope a spaghetti sideways - easily!

For a real victory, I should have evoked a heart attack in the Germans with my pasta torpedoes or just sung them to death! Everybody: Azzurro, il pomeriggio a troppo azzurro e lungo ...

https://youtu.be/ckWLcTrKzaw

The Germans on turkey shooting with Italian targets ...

And the main target is the BIG BOAT!

Already damaged and silenced

 .... from relentless German fire ...

then on the horizont 2 Stukas arriving ....

Heading for the my small boats ...

The first torpedo hit on my Big Ship!

... whiped out the big gun - basta!

while my small ones look that they reach the horizont ...

A German boot comes too near to my big boat for comfort

the last thing you saw of the Italian small marine - good bye, Mussolini!

The victims of my Italian sharp shooting ...

Then the second ship had to turn home (FIVE 6s made her set on fire!)

The last German torpedo attack ...

went straight through ... they couldn‘t hit an elephant in red and white pyjamas!

Torpedo fun, WW1 and new grenadiers and landsknechte ...

Apologies upfront this is a bit of a mix, as lately I was busy working! (yeah, almost forgot what that feels like ...) 

First the previous club game which was the second test of my Guns of August WW1 test game. we went until February 1915 and had some fun with offensives at the eastern front. The simplified supply system works a treat, so we will keep that for the grand campaign. The boys also learned the rules (the few there is) so I guess that was successfull as well. Maybe we could kick off the grand campaign with a Sunday game on end of November?

Then the last club game: A WW2 small vessel naval game, narrow seas, Campbell introduced into the club. Me playing some Americans, Campbell some British while Bart was defending the fortress europa. I just went in very speedy and was very lucky not to be shredded to pieces, while I managed actually to sink a big transporter with a torpedo!!! (me being the German at the table...). The rules seem to be less complicated and the damage track system is easy and comprehensible - and it has speed, torpedoes and you can ram or collide - what else do you need more for a good naval game?

Also from last post the super scrimpers from ebay didn‘t want to pay me for my efforts  of painting my landsknechts sooo, I will keep them, as the dogma goes, one can never have enough of them...

And last but not least I finally finished my Austrian Seven Years Army by finishing the last German grenadier unit - the box is full.

All quiet on the western front? Never!

Brest-Litovsk has fallen

Campbell conquered Monte-Negro

Romania advanced until Odessa

And the Russians are in retreat

Battles in the Karparthians ...

and Bulgaria joined the central powers

And the British take Antwerp

The Germans and  Italians come in ...

The Americans hunt them followed by the Brits

Veni, vidi and shot a lot of torpedoes ...

somebody shot back

But the torpedoes are on their way

my amis in the thick of it

but my first two torpeodes seem to be duds ...

lost of fire fighting

and more fire ighting

In principle we the allies get a lot of metal

but we manoeuvered the Germans into a position where they collided with them selves

but they were too efficient to sink them selves ...

then another opportunity for my last torpedos ...

aaaand its on the right track

and it hits ...

and it explodes ...

and sunk the damn transporter, no sausages for Rommel anymore!

Landsknechte, based and included into my army

The Austrian Infantry box ... now full