Von der Tann
Schlachtkreuzer
The American Memorial Day seemed the perfect date to do a big international MP battle, and the fact that the following day was the 94th anniversary of the Battle of Jutland made the choice of the scenario obvious: the whole battle, starting at 1530 hours.
Each team originally sported four players. The British team was all American, with Anav, Rich M, Invincible and Admiral Lynch, while the German team was all German, with Admiral Hipper, Bolitho, Jolly Roger and myself (Host). As it befits, Hipper was in charge of the Scouting Forces with Bolitho as escort commander, while I had overall command and was in charge of the battle line, with Jolly Roger as escort commander. ACH settings were Poor ammo handling OFF, Fragile AP grenades ON. A light wind blew from 280° with excellent visibility, which went as far as 36 km, very favourable for the Royal Navy with their long range.
The battle starts
At the start of the battle, the scouting forces clashed as usual, with Hipper scouting towards the north to find the Grand Fleet. The British BC suffered some damage, but none was lost, although Inflexible was last spotted limping off towards home, running only six knots. Right at the start, the High Seas Fleet changed course to NE in order to be able to cross the Grand Fleets T and keep their bases in their backs, and I also wished to prevent the enemy from having the sun in their backs.
Situation at 1608
Sadly, fate struck only twenty or thirty minutes into the game, and we lost our first player. Thunderstorms were raging over Germany at the time, and lightning struck somewhere close to Jolly Roger, causing a short power outage and him dropping from the game. The remainder of the players decided to go on with Jolly Rogers consent, and bolitho and myself took over his ships. Around 1715 Z we also lost Rich, which forced the British team to make some changes in their command structure as well.
Situation at 1634
While the scouting forces were engaged with each other further north, I lead the High Seas Fleet around them in a big arch to get in a forward position of the Grand Fleet. Due to the excellent visibility, our scouting forces soon spotted the BC Invincible, which was assigned to the Grand Fleet and came in from due N. Our scouting forces swung to SE in order to join up with the HSF, while the British looked for our battle fleet in vain due south, where Scheer had been 94 years ago. Despite the good visibility it took a long time ere the CL Fearless sighted our mast tops in the SE, and after that the 1st BCS came up with maximum speed from the NW to attack our badly protected rear with the pre-dreadnoughts, which caused our own BC to rush towards our back as well. To our north, the Grand Fleet was finally sighted, a truly majestic sight with 24 dreadnoughts swooping upon us towards ESE.
Situation at 1646
Situation at 1716
At this time, the HSF was still steering an NE course, after she had closed in to the enemy on a N and NNE course. Meanwhile, a technical problem had occurred: due to the very stretched battle forces, the 200x200 km battlefield was no longer large enough to contain all the ships, and the TB B 112 disengaged from the battle. As we were almost touching the NE map boundary with the HSF, we feared to lose more ships that way, but fortunately, that decision was no longer necessary when the Grand Fleet changed course towards S, apparently to attack our rear. Like our predecessors in real life, we did a Gefechtskehrtwende with the entire fleet and were now steering an SW course, closing in on the Grand Fleet. The 5th Battle Squadron had taken the lead, so that a line of 29 dreadnoughts was looming on the NW horizon... made me think of Scheers description of a horizon full of ships, all firing on him. Despite my efforts to get into a favourable position, we still had some issues with the sun shining into the eyes of our gunners, but as the enemy was standing in our NW and not our W, it could have been far worse. The wind was still blowing softly from W, which kept the smoke out of our sights.
Situation at 1751
Situation at 1831
Situation at 1852, shortly after the Gefechtskehrtwende
With the good visibility, we had to work our way to get into range first while being under fire from the enemy. After some time, all our dreadnoughts were in range, but were taking heavy fire from the enemy line. Especially the now leading ships of the Nassau class were almost obliterated by the spray and splinters from the shells falling on them. Nassau and Rheinland were soon showing more than 50% flooding on the starboard side, which caused me to take them out of the line, but they kept firing with their far-reaching 28cm guns. Thüringen suffered a bad hit into her propulsion unit and was no longer able to take orders, causing some confusuion in our line, but she kept firing on the enemy. Our scouting forces had trouble engaging their opposite numbers, as they were making use of their longer ranges. A German torpedo run ended in disaster, with several boats catching friendly fish, but together with the pre-dreadnoughts of II squadron, the British BC were driven off, enabling I AG to attack the GF tip. A RN torpedo run was parried by our torpedo boats, causing many losses in small craft on both sides. The Grand Fleet was also hit hard, especially the leading ships of the Queen Elizabeth class were taking terrible punishment, as our battlecruisers attacked the enemy tip as well. Further ahead, the old pre-dreadnought Schlesien went down after only two 13.5" hits, but the Royal Navy had her first major loss when Malayablew up, followed by Valiant only four minutes later, while the badly hit Barham was listing and had to leave the line.
Situation at 1944
Situation at 2030
After almost five hours of playing time, visibility was dwindling with the sun setting behind the Grand Fleet, and we decided to call it a day at sunset, especially since it was getting pretty late in Germany (after 2300). It was time to count our losses, and I ended the battle so we could have a look at the outcome. The game was now processing the losses, also taking into account all ships that were too heavily damaged to reach port. According to this, the Kaiserliche Marine had won a modest victory: the losses in light craft were about even, but the Germans had managed to sink four enemy dreadnoughts (Barham, Malaya, Valiant, King George V), while the British had sunk only one dreadnought (Thüringen) and one pre-dreadnought (Schlesien).
I. Aufklärungsgruppe heading for home, with the Hochseeflotte following
With four hours and 42 minutes playing time, it was a very long battle in the biggest scenario we have. The biggest success, however, is the fact that we managed to have a stable MP game with many players on both sides of the Atlantic for an extended period of time, enabling us to have a challenging and most rewarding game. It would have been even better without lightning strike, as we would have loved to have another player in the pitched battle towards the end. But I hardly dare to imagine what it felt like for RN with 50% more ships!
A hearty thank you to Admiral Hipper, who made several screenshots of the situation and put them online - I never think of that myself.
Congratulations, gentlemen, and well fought indeed!
Each team originally sported four players. The British team was all American, with Anav, Rich M, Invincible and Admiral Lynch, while the German team was all German, with Admiral Hipper, Bolitho, Jolly Roger and myself (Host). As it befits, Hipper was in charge of the Scouting Forces with Bolitho as escort commander, while I had overall command and was in charge of the battle line, with Jolly Roger as escort commander. ACH settings were Poor ammo handling OFF, Fragile AP grenades ON. A light wind blew from 280° with excellent visibility, which went as far as 36 km, very favourable for the Royal Navy with their long range.
The battle starts
At the start of the battle, the scouting forces clashed as usual, with Hipper scouting towards the north to find the Grand Fleet. The British BC suffered some damage, but none was lost, although Inflexible was last spotted limping off towards home, running only six knots. Right at the start, the High Seas Fleet changed course to NE in order to be able to cross the Grand Fleets T and keep their bases in their backs, and I also wished to prevent the enemy from having the sun in their backs.
Situation at 1608
Sadly, fate struck only twenty or thirty minutes into the game, and we lost our first player. Thunderstorms were raging over Germany at the time, and lightning struck somewhere close to Jolly Roger, causing a short power outage and him dropping from the game. The remainder of the players decided to go on with Jolly Rogers consent, and bolitho and myself took over his ships. Around 1715 Z we also lost Rich, which forced the British team to make some changes in their command structure as well.
Situation at 1634
While the scouting forces were engaged with each other further north, I lead the High Seas Fleet around them in a big arch to get in a forward position of the Grand Fleet. Due to the excellent visibility, our scouting forces soon spotted the BC Invincible, which was assigned to the Grand Fleet and came in from due N. Our scouting forces swung to SE in order to join up with the HSF, while the British looked for our battle fleet in vain due south, where Scheer had been 94 years ago. Despite the good visibility it took a long time ere the CL Fearless sighted our mast tops in the SE, and after that the 1st BCS came up with maximum speed from the NW to attack our badly protected rear with the pre-dreadnoughts, which caused our own BC to rush towards our back as well. To our north, the Grand Fleet was finally sighted, a truly majestic sight with 24 dreadnoughts swooping upon us towards ESE.
Situation at 1646
Situation at 1716
At this time, the HSF was still steering an NE course, after she had closed in to the enemy on a N and NNE course. Meanwhile, a technical problem had occurred: due to the very stretched battle forces, the 200x200 km battlefield was no longer large enough to contain all the ships, and the TB B 112 disengaged from the battle. As we were almost touching the NE map boundary with the HSF, we feared to lose more ships that way, but fortunately, that decision was no longer necessary when the Grand Fleet changed course towards S, apparently to attack our rear. Like our predecessors in real life, we did a Gefechtskehrtwende with the entire fleet and were now steering an SW course, closing in on the Grand Fleet. The 5th Battle Squadron had taken the lead, so that a line of 29 dreadnoughts was looming on the NW horizon... made me think of Scheers description of a horizon full of ships, all firing on him. Despite my efforts to get into a favourable position, we still had some issues with the sun shining into the eyes of our gunners, but as the enemy was standing in our NW and not our W, it could have been far worse. The wind was still blowing softly from W, which kept the smoke out of our sights.
Situation at 1751
Situation at 1831
Situation at 1852, shortly after the Gefechtskehrtwende
With the good visibility, we had to work our way to get into range first while being under fire from the enemy. After some time, all our dreadnoughts were in range, but were taking heavy fire from the enemy line. Especially the now leading ships of the Nassau class were almost obliterated by the spray and splinters from the shells falling on them. Nassau and Rheinland were soon showing more than 50% flooding on the starboard side, which caused me to take them out of the line, but they kept firing with their far-reaching 28cm guns. Thüringen suffered a bad hit into her propulsion unit and was no longer able to take orders, causing some confusuion in our line, but she kept firing on the enemy. Our scouting forces had trouble engaging their opposite numbers, as they were making use of their longer ranges. A German torpedo run ended in disaster, with several boats catching friendly fish, but together with the pre-dreadnoughts of II squadron, the British BC were driven off, enabling I AG to attack the GF tip. A RN torpedo run was parried by our torpedo boats, causing many losses in small craft on both sides. The Grand Fleet was also hit hard, especially the leading ships of the Queen Elizabeth class were taking terrible punishment, as our battlecruisers attacked the enemy tip as well. Further ahead, the old pre-dreadnought Schlesien went down after only two 13.5" hits, but the Royal Navy had her first major loss when Malayablew up, followed by Valiant only four minutes later, while the badly hit Barham was listing and had to leave the line.
Situation at 1944
Situation at 2030
After almost five hours of playing time, visibility was dwindling with the sun setting behind the Grand Fleet, and we decided to call it a day at sunset, especially since it was getting pretty late in Germany (after 2300). It was time to count our losses, and I ended the battle so we could have a look at the outcome. The game was now processing the losses, also taking into account all ships that were too heavily damaged to reach port. According to this, the Kaiserliche Marine had won a modest victory: the losses in light craft were about even, but the Germans had managed to sink four enemy dreadnoughts (Barham, Malaya, Valiant, King George V), while the British had sunk only one dreadnought (Thüringen) and one pre-dreadnought (Schlesien).
I. Aufklärungsgruppe heading for home, with the Hochseeflotte following
With four hours and 42 minutes playing time, it was a very long battle in the biggest scenario we have. The biggest success, however, is the fact that we managed to have a stable MP game with many players on both sides of the Atlantic for an extended period of time, enabling us to have a challenging and most rewarding game. It would have been even better without lightning strike, as we would have loved to have another player in the pitched battle towards the end. But I hardly dare to imagine what it felt like for RN with 50% more ships!
A hearty thank you to Admiral Hipper, who made several screenshots of the situation and put them online - I never think of that myself.
Congratulations, gentlemen, and well fought indeed!
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