Destroyer Action - Naval Thunder AAR

After a week's break, Ted hosted a game of Naval Thunder this past weekend. 

This week's scenario was the Battle of the Yellow Sea, where a Russian fleet attempted to break past their Japanese opponents and form up with other Russian forces. Historically, the Russians were defeated after their flagship took a hit to the bridge; whereupon the rest of the Russian fleet followed the uncontrolled flagship for a period before realizing it was no longer actually leading them. 

This version of Naval Thunder is based on pre-Dreadnought fleets, with ships engaging in what could be considered "knife fighting" range. So any firing past 20" was incredibly inaccurate and almost not worth doing. 

Chip and I commanded the Russians (I had the battleship division and Chip controlled the various protected cruisers and destroyer flotillas), and Ted, John, and Steve commanded the Japanese (with a mix of battleships, armored cruisers, protected cruisers, and destroyer flotillas). 

For the Russians, the game plan was simple: the battleships would chug along in a relative straight line towards the far table edge, where they hoped to escape from, as they protected the lighter cruisers and destroyers. 

That game plan was almost immediately foiled when Steve rolled up with a destroyer flotilla, launched nine torpedoes, and immediately sunk the Russian flagship Tsesarevich, but not before firing their secondary batteries and getting a critical hit on the ship's bridge.

Now, technically, we did things wrong here. Ted later discovered that destroyer flotillas can only launch three torpedoes per side, per turn. Which likely would have saved the Tsesarevich. But it sure seemed like Fate was having a hearty belly-laugh at my luck. 

Since we didn't realize the rule error at the time, Steve was quite happy to use his destroyer flotillas' much faster speed to spin around to the other side, launch another volley of torpedoes, and sink the Retvizan. 

So. Only a few turns in, and the Russians had lost their two strongest ships. Ted's cruiser division was making its way on to the table, and Chip had moved into the battleships' shadows to engage Steve's cruisers. 

Slowly, inexorably, the Russian and Japanese battleships drew closer to their assumed climatic confrontation. 

Meanwhile, Chip and Steve had gotten to grips with each other, their cruisers duking it out at short range. 

Realizing that John's battleship division was positioned to cross my division's T, I had my battleships veer off to port. This would at least give me a chance to fire back, and perhaps the additional splash markers from John's firing would save my ships. 

Unfortunately, that didn't work. John got enough critical hits to knock out half of my ship's main batteries, and my return fire was dismal. Two ships ended up with engine room hits as well, slowing them down. 

With my battleships in such dismal shape (and with us running out of time), I decided to run up the white flag and surrender. Had we played another couple turns, John would have used his split division to surround and destroy my remaining battleships. 

It looks like we'll be playing this scenario again, especially after discovering that destroyer flotillas aren't quite the unstoppable juggernauts that they seemed to be. If Chip and I control the Russians again, our best bet will be to slow the battleships to let the cruisers get ahead, screening the larger ships from the enemy's destroyer flotillas. The Japanese battleships are still a concern, but a 6:4 (plus two Japanese armored cruisers) fight would favor the Russians. So we'll see how that goes!

Alea Non Est - Strength & Honour AAR

Warning: The title's not the only bit of bad Latin in this week's post. 

This past weekend, Ted invited me to bring my Strength & Honour forces for another game. I obliged, as I wanted a refresh on the rules, and it's going to be one of the games for this month's club meeting.

As my order from Korhyl is currently making its way from Italy to the States, I used the same units from my first game of Strength & Honour. Individually, the Roman Legions are more than a match for most of the Pontic Greek units, but the Greeks were more numerous and had three units of cavalry to the Roman's none. 

Last time the Greeks had received a decent beating, so I was interested to see how it'd turn out in this game. 

John and Ted controlled the Greeks, while Steve and I controlled the Romans. 

In the first couple turns the Romans largely advanced as a front, while the Greek cavalry surged forward, outpacing their infantry counterparts and forcing a unit of Roman Skirmishers to retreat.

And it was fairly early on that, if I were to latinze the appropriate idiom, stercus percussit flabellum. 

A failed discipline test saw the only Veteran Legion, which had been a powerhouse in the previous game, instantly rout. Not only that, but the Legion lost their Eagle as well; a double Disaster Card result. 

With Steve's Experienced Roman Legion keeping the flank protected from the Greek's Skirmish Cavalry, his Raw Legion was facing both the Pontic Cavalry and Cataphracts. I swung my own Experienced Legion to hit the Cataphract's flanks, but was then flanked by one of Ted's Imitation Legions. And my own Raw Legion was staring down the length of a wall of pikes. 

One early result may have sealed the Roman army's fate early on. Now Steve and I were on the back foot, trying desperately to find some sort of equilibrium. 

Of course, my own traitorous dice weren't having any of that. 

To try and stem the Pontic tide, Steve and I both used our Skirmishers to head off enemy units. Unlike last game (where one unit of Skirmishers routed two Pike Phalanxes), this was more in line with how skirmishers should act in a game. 

Unfortunately, my one Experienced Legion was still stuck with an Imitation Legion in its flanks (thanks to a failed maneuver test), and my Raw Legion was pushed back and Disordered. The Romans were accruing Setback cards at an alarming rate.

While somewhat scatted, Steve's unit were at least hanging on. My Raw Legion managed to rally, and while Disordered the Experienced Legion at least ended up next to its Raw counterpart which had successfully reformed.

Distressingly, I was utterly outnumbered on the Roman right flank, and it was only due to a couple Greek Reversal of Fortunes that had kept my lone Experienced Legion from being overrun. 

Of course, that didn't much matter much after my Experienced Legion in the center failed to reform and instead routed and lost its Eagle (for two more Disaster cards)! 

John and Ted finally took pity on the poor, beaten Romans and called Homonculus Est. The final tally was 34 points against the Romans, and a measly 2 points against the Pontic Greeks. 

This was an even worst disparity compared to the last game! Here it seems like the Romans couldn't get anything right, as though the entire army had managed to drink the same soured wine the night before. 

At the very least, Ted's ordered Germans and my reinforcements should be arriving soon, at least the variety of armies I'll be defeated by will soon increase. 

Burning Troubridges - Naval Thunder AAR

The usual crew gathered a Ted's place this past weekend for a change of scenery. Instead of the usual scenery, we found ourselves on the high seas; in the Mediterranean, to be specific, and about 40 years in the past. 

The scenario was a refight of what, historically, ended up as the debacle of a pursuit of the Goeben and Breslau, the two ships that Germany gave to the Ottomans to coax them into World War 1. In reality, the British let the German ships slip by, refusing to engage. We would play the engagement out and see if the outdated armored cruisers of the British could defeat the heavier armed and armored Goeben. 

For this scenario, I was controlling the Goeben and Breslau. I could either gain a tactical victory by escaping off the far board edge, or a major victory by sinking three of the four British ships. John, Ted, Chip, and Steve commanded the Defence, Warrior, Duke of Edinburgh, and the Black Prince, respectively. 

Unfortunately, I missed the first couple turns of movement as we were working out the rules. The British ships stayed in a single line of battle, moving at an angle to intercept the Goeben and Breslau. 

I decided to stay on that course for a couple turns, then had the Goeben break to port as the Breslau continued onwards, hoping that the British ships would have to take a turn or two to regain their bearing. 

Unfortunately, I didn't account for how freely ships can move in Naval Thunder (although this does mean less hassle when actually playing, so I see why it's done). 

The British ships split into two separate divisions, with the Duke and Black Prince splitting off to intercept the Goeben, and the Defence and Warrior moving to intercept the Breslau. The light cruiser didn't last long against the two British ships, and was quickly sunk before it was able to fire a shot. 

Now it was a 4-on-1 fight, that that might have been what kept the Goeben alive for so long. Each British ship that fired on the Goeben added a splash marker to the combat, representing the ships calibrating their ranges by the splashes of missed shells into the ocean. With four ships firing at the Goeben, it became exceeding difficult for them to actually hit. 

The Goeben, on the other hand, didn't have this problem, and her massive 11" guns could really do some damage if they managed to hit (if being the operative word. John's Defence lasted for most of the game thanks to some well-done maneuvering and my poor dice rolls). 

I was going to have to go through the gauntlet to get the Goeben off the table, so I ended up splitting the difference between the Duke and Black Prince.

While the Goeben could deal out some nasty damage with its 11" main guns, I quickly learned that the secondary batteries on the British ships were something to be feared. They ignored the splash markers that the main batteries had to deal with and their rate of fire at closer ranges made it far easier to hit their target, i.e., me. It seemed like the Goeben was going to face a death of a thousand cuts if I couldn't make it off the table. 

And then, disaster! For the Germans, at least. A lucky critical on the Goeben meant that she had a stuck rudder, which was likely to spell disaster if it didn't get stuck in the forward position. It also didn't help that another critical hit started a fire, which increased the damage that was slowly being chipped away bit by bit.

The Goeben's rudder ending up forcing me to turn to port for at least a turn, which left me facing the oncoming British ships. At that point, I decided to skip the tactical victory and go the major victory, or sink trying. Steve's Black Prince took a broadside dead-on, and ended up being the first British ship to sink. 

And as luck would have it, the British scored another rudder hit on the Goeben! 

Forced to turn again, the Goeben found herself surrounded by British ships. John's Defence, the main target of most of the Goeben's firing throughout the game, took another broadside and was sunk. But she wasn't going alone, and the combined weight of fire from the Duke of Edinburgh and Warrior was enough to finally sink the Goeben. Admiral Troubridge himself was likely dead with the sinking of the Defence, but instead of a court-martialed disgrace, he was going to get a hero's funeral. 

Most of my naval gaming experience has been with General Quarter's 3, but I found Naval Thunder to be a fun set of quick-play rules. I could easily see each player operating with a division of 3-5 ships in a relatively fast game, all things considered. Expect to see more posts about it in the upcoming weeks. 

'Advance' to Hill 192, Part 2 - 'O' Group AAR

The usual crowd assembled at Ted's this past Saturday to finish the ongoing game of 'O' Group. As Chip unfortunately couldn't make it, John stepped in to take his place as the third American commander. 

With less than half the allotted turns left to cause 6 more section losses to the Germans, Ted suggested a strategy of using our orders to focus on one flank per turn; sort of a 1-2 punch solution, rather than diluting 

We started by tackling the platoon in the BUA that had nearly wiped out one of my platoons. A couple turns of focused fire reduced the German platoon to a single stand (and forcing another FUBAR onto Steve), but it tenaciously hung on. John and I readied our platoons for an assault. 

Meanwhile, a poor morale roll saw my platoon that was assisting Ted's company retreat behind the woods in had been taking cover in. 

John managed to remove another stand from one of Steve's platoons with a long range engagement from his Sherman platoon. 

With both battalions having lost two order dice each, the turns were moving fairly rapidly; this could have meant a victory for the Germans if the Americans didn't do something to break the stalemate. 

It was Ted who led the attack, suppressing the German platoon that had been holding the industrial BUA for most of the game and then risking a sprint across open ground. 

With a roll of 11" for movement, his platoon leapt into the assault and managed to beat the German defenders, removing another stand and forcing the Germans to retreat.  

Steve spent his orders rallying his troops and firing back at the Americans who now occupied the industrial BUA. 

With only a couple turns left before the end of the game, John and I readied our companies for an attack on the remaining German forward position (which Steve and reinforced with another reduced platoon and one of his two company commanders). 

Unfortunately, a tactical error (i.e., forgetting one of his orders) left a suppressed German platoon out in the open. The Americans spent their last remaining HQ orders to order the Shermans to fire twice at the platoon, which removed the final two sections that the Americans needed to win the game!

Had Steve moved that platoon into the cover of the nearby woods, this game may have ended in a German victory. While I didn't do much (all of the action ended up on the flanks), I did at least pin down some of Steve's platoons which allowed Ted, Chip and John to focus on engagements that favored the Americans. Even so, Steve's dice rolling and defensive tactics meant he was able to hold out against a determined attack for 17 of 18 turns. 

This was an interesting (and as always, fun!) scenario to compare to the other's I've played in. Those scenarios usually had the defenders set up in a multi-sector BUA. Having a more strung out setup meant that the defenders couldn't stack their units all into one area, but it also meant that the attackers couldn't concentrate as well. 

If we were to revisit this scenario, I'd like to see it played out with the more standard "2 forward, 1 back" approach that was used during the war, instead of attacking on a broad front.

'Advance' to Hill 192, Part 1 - 'O' Group AAR

We've continued to play 'O' Group at Ted's, slowly mastering the set of rules as we try different scenarios with a variety of forces. 

This time, Ted set up a scenario from the "1944: The Battle for Normandy" booklet, "Advance to Hill 192." 

This scenario sees an American infantry battalion attacking the town of Saint Georges d'Elle, which is defending by a worn battalion of German paratroopers. 

Unlike other scenarios, the BUAs that make up Saint Georges d'Elle are strung out separately as seven individual sections. To achieve victory, the Americans have to cause 3 FUBARs to the Germans within 18 turns. If they can't, then the Germans win. 

Ted, Steve, Chip and John had already plated another version of this scenario, with a worn American paratroop battalion defending against a German attack. Apparently it went rather quickly, with the American's under Ted's command folding quickly against the German blitz.

Chip, Ted, and I took command of the Americans. I had the center company with Chip on my right. 

Ted had the left flank. 

The Americans advanced with a mix of infantry platoons and combat patrols, moving quickly and hoping to find where the Germans had taken up their defenses. 

We didn't have to wait long. Steve revealed a number of hidden platoons, opening fire on the Americans. There weren't any losses, but Steve was happily handing out plenty of shock to the American platoons. 

I brought on another infantry platoon to assist Ted's attack on the left flank, and Ted received the first of two Sherman platoons that were assigned to the battalion. 

Chip's main effort was attacking the remote farmstead that was defended by a German platoon and an attached machine gun. With one platoon moving to take cover in a copse of trees, Chip sent out two combat patrols to further surround the objective. 

That quickly turned into the largest engagement on the table, as both sides deployed infantry platoons in support. Steve had two platoons against four American platoons (Chips' entire company and my last deployed platoon).

Unfortunately, even with a double set of re-rolls, the Americans failed to call in a potentially game-changing divisional artillery bombardment to soften up the Germans. 

On the American right, Ted was busy dealing with a StuG that had turned up along the road bisecting the table. Not wanting to expose the Shermans, Ted instead opted for the integral AT weapons in the infantry platoon taking cover in the orchard. Unfortunately, it couldn't make the range and missed. 

This was the table about halfway through the game. 

The American advance had stalled, as the Confident German infantry was difficult to shift.

I had made a mistake when deploying an infantry platoon to support Chip, which gave Steve an excellent chance to deploy a platoon into the BUA on the close side of the road and mow down the American platoon. 

Ted's infantry had been forced to fall back, and one of his own platoons had similarly been reduced to a lone section. 

Chip, however, was doing the necessary work and assaulted the farmstead, slaying the defending German platoon and routing the other platoon which had deployed in support. 

Ted could also count a victory, with his AT gun knocking out the StuG, which gave his Shermans the opportunity to advance. 

A lucky round of rolling saw one of Steve's platoons retreating. This ended up being a boon for him, however, as it meant that the Americans couldn't put more hits on the platoon and try to knock out more sections. 

With the farmstead secured, Chip diverted his platoon of Shermans to assist with knocking out the Germans that were pinning down my platoon. 

The left flank had remained fairly static, with both sides trading fire. 

We ended the game on turn 11. The Germans were down 6 sections, while the Americans were down 9; a fairly bloody battle that had seemed pretty peaceful in the first half. 

We'll continue the game this upcoming weekend, and it seems like it could swing either way. The Germans are halfway to losing the necessary 12 stands to end the scenario, but Steve still has reserves left that could hurt the American troops. The Americans have been beaten up, but they still have their tank platoons in good order. They need to be wary of German anti-tank weapons, but they've got the superior range to anything the Germans currently have deployed. 

So we'll see how this ends next week!