British 1916 Campain

bill44

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Well, this campin is going somewhat better than the last when the Germans didn't show at all.
I'm certainly rounding up the merchants with no trouble, even capturing one with a TB for heavens sake.
Anyway I sent the AC's Donegal, Hamshire, and Lancaster out to see if I could bag some of the HSF small combatants, I knew I had the advantage as in an earlier battle I'd sunk 2 CL's, and 6 DD's with a sinngle AMC.
I ran in to the HSF's scouting forces NNW of Amsterdam, and immediatly opened up on the cruisers, as expected my 6 inch guns reduced them to wrecks quickly, the DD's rushed in to attack only to be smashed to pieces as well.
Prior to the battle spawning I noted the the HSF BB's were out, and knew once the battle started that they would be after me.
I hung around too long, soon Donegal was taking heavy and accurate fire, then the Germans appeared I reversed course, with the remnants of the scouting forces after me, Donegal's speed was cut so I cut her loos at this stage Lancaster was also being hit by heavy rounds and her speed was falling.
Hampshire was the only ship to escape, but 39 enemy ships are on the bottom.
I deployed the entire BC fleet and headed towards the battle and at the moment they are engaed with light scouting forces.
I have also had succes with torpedoes for the first time, sinking a CL from a hit in the stern, seeing that they do actually manage to hit the target was great.
 
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saddletank

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Those old ACs are a lot of fun to use; excellent CL killers. Pity the KM had so much bad luck with theirs, having only 1 left by 1915. Strangely I found that Donegal was the first to be hit of these ships when I used them too.
 

martin worsey

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Those old ACs are a lot of fun to use; excellent CL killers. Pity the KM had so much bad luck with theirs, having only 1 left by 1915. Strangely I found that Donegal was the first to be hit of these ships when I used them too.
Lets hope that SES do a 1914-15 game then we would get to use them.
 

bill44

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Part II
Well things are not going as planned my BC force has caught up with the HSF BC's, unfortunatley, my cruisers ran in to them first.
I had been chasing down the German CL's with my cruisers and the AC Antrim, the German CL's were being chewed up good and proper, when to my horror the BC's appeared out the darkness, all I could do was reverse course and oreder full speed for the hapless cruisers, and my BC's.
Added to this Antrim had taken a torpedoe hit, I realized she had been torpedoed when I noticed 90% hull damage, I revesed course and ordered cease fire, though she was down to 13 knots, and doomed, this loss was hard as it was a 21 inch mark II, a friendly that hit her.

My BC's intercepted a CL, and blasted it to pieces, a stray torpedoe disrupted my battle line, leaving Lion, Princes Royal and Queen Mary to take on the Germans this eventually allowed the German BC's to escape.

Birmingham was hit by 50cm G7 torpedoe fired by Derfflinger, and sank 20 minutes later.
The Germans zeroed in on Lion and hit her with 69 28cm shells, von Der Tann at the rear of the German line came in for some heavy hits, as did Moltke and Derfflinger, Seydiltz was untouched.

I broke contact as there was no real chance of catching the Germans with the rest my group and Lion was in a bad way.

Tally:
British Losses
1 AC, 6 CL's,
German Losses
5 CL's
The Battle continues.
 

bill44

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Part III
The HSF BC's have evaded total destruction yet again, these ships seem to have
charmed live's.
My CL's again made contact with the HSF DD's, my cruisers began shooting up the DD's, who launched torpedoes, then as before the HSF BC's loomed out of the darkness at 24 knots, my light forces would have to run, ringing up full speed and heeling over to starboard in a long 180 degree loop their lives depended on a quick escape in the darkness

It wasn't to be, the BC's led by Seydiltz, began blasting them to pieces, Inconstant was the first casuality, hit by a 28cm shell which wrecked her propulsion and cut her speed, sucessive hit left her burning and in a sinking condition. Phaeton crossed in front of Seydelitz, firing her guns at the brute, numerous hits smashed her propulsion, a shell touched off her magazine and doomed her.
Whilst this was happening my BC's were racing to the aid of the hapless cruisers, though I had ordered Lion to the rear, she had two turrets out of action, port and starboard hull damage and over 200 casualties, she was clearly not in a fit state to carry on the fight. I began scoring hits on Seydiltz, and turned to starboard I intended to rake the German line with full broadsides, but it was not to be.
Yarmouth was hit repeatidly and a 30cm shell set of her magazine, she was gone in a minute, not soul aboard survived. Birkinhead suffered a magazine explosion from a heavy shell, then just two minutes later one of Derfflinger's G7 torpedoes found it's mark setting off another magazine blast, she slipped under six minutes later. Cordelia and Fearless were also lost to the BC's guns, but worse was to come for the British.
Seydilitz was smashed by the British BC's, and reduced to a sinking condition, she staggered out of line.
More to follow.
 

saddletank

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I seem to have been lucky in my campaign in that the two times my cruisers bumped into 1SG in the dark they got away without being hit except for Falmouth who took quite a few 11" hits and has been in dockyard hands now for three weeks. I do make a point of turning away and *getting* away rather than staying around a second longer than is necessary to shoot back which I would think would be fruitless and bad for their health.
 

bill44

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Part III Continued:
Myline of BC's led now by Princess Royal, managed to blast away at the their German adversairies, after reducing Seydiltz to a wreck I opened up on Defflinger, but again a rouge torpedoe disrupted my battle line, worse I was rapidly heading in the wrong direction to the Germans.
I ordered a 180 degree turn to port, the German BC's now were hammering away at Lion, whose speed was rapidly falling off, and the indefatigbles were unable to keep up with the cats.
The situation was becomming desperate, I was hitting the Germans but the stout design of the BC's was saving them from destruction.
Von Der Tan took a torpedoe, though it hardly seemded to bother her, fires were burning on her and Derfflinger, what was saving these ships, Lion was pounded by 28 and 30 cm shells, in desperation I ordered my DD's launch torpedoes at Lions tormentors only to see them blasted to pieces.
Lion eventually succumbed to the enormous damage. I got more hits on the BC's mostly from Princess Royal, but she was hit hard too.
Tally:
British Losses
1 BC, 6 CL's, 5 DD's
German Losses
1BC, 3 DD's
Damage to 6 British BC's, and 3 German BC's.
 

saddletank

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The German BCs truly are tough dudes.

I, as the RN, now choose to not fight the German main fleet. I'm of the view that you actually do not need to. The RN should be able to win the campaign by maintaining the blockade and capturing merchant ships so this is what I do. It is the HSF that has to come to you to beat you to lift the blockade and win the naval war, so why bother giving him what he wants?

My policy now if I do meet heavy German units is to damage them a bit and clear off, maybe sink some light forces if they let me, but time spent in port repairing hurts them more than it hurts me.

This campaign is like the Russo-Japanese War one in that regard, it is not about fighting battles at all, unless you're the KM.

It makes for a rather boring campaign but it is pretty much a guaranteed win unless the Germans conduct lots of shore bombardments and get the politicians all uppity.

Another comment of yours about the Cats going faster than the I Class BCs is interesting - you phrased it as though it were a complaint yet it is something you caused. Just because a ship can do 27 knots does not mean you have to drive it at 27 knots, in fact doing so can cause you to lose battles because as you found out, your formations become disrupted when some ships can't keep up. Also formations that are at flank speed all the time that become broken by ships turning away to avoid torpedoes cannot be reformed.

If you read accounts of Jutland, you'll see that in the run to the south both Hipper and Beatty were doing only around 22 to 24 knots at times for these reasons. When I play I never use flank speed unless it is a chase situation, keeping your divisions at about 2 knots below their maximum (which in the BCFs case means 23 knots tops) makes your fights easier to manage.
 
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bill44

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No complaints mate, I actually think the damage that the I's sustained was the factor that kept them way behind. At the start they were doing 25 knots, by the time I turned the formation the I's were down to 19 knots and never got above that even after the line straightened up. Correct me if I'm wrong here but they do wash off speed in turns, correct ?
 

saddletank

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Yes they do, quite a bit. The way the game appears to conduct turns demands it I think, since each following ship takes a shorter course and therefore has to go slower which is not how the manoeuvres of the day were intended; a following ship should turn in the wake of the ship in front but in 'Jutland' the following ship has a 'lock on' green line always attached to the ship it is following so as the lead ship turns the following one slightly starts to turn as well, thus turning well inside the leader so taking a shorter line. Simple maths dictates it has to slow down to avoid getting too close to the ship in front. I didn't write the game code of course but watching it happen this is what appears to be going on.

I forgot about damage to the I Class - sorry! Usually if a ship is slowing a division down significantly I'll put it in a division of its own and take it out of the battle line but in big actions its easy to miss this or just not have the opportunity because you're busy elsewhere, which was probably the case with you in that battle. Knocking an I Class down from 25 to 19 knots is major damage so if it happened suddenly without you really noticing it, it was most likely a torpedo hit.
 

bill44

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I think what might have happened was that a torpedo sighting caused the leading cats to break formation as seen in the 1st screen shot, note the I's are pushing along at 25 knots.
Twelve minutes later there is a substantial distance opened up between the cats and the I's, and damage to QM, Tiger, Australia, Indomitable, and Inflexible.

Note also in the first screen shot that Lion is making 26 knots, the Germans singled her out later and at one stage her speed was down to 13 knots, though I missed seeing her go under, I had my hands full trying to reorganise my fleet and destroy the ememy.

I put on full speed to try and save my CL's, though in hindsight my idea of raking the Germans with my battleline on the original course was flawed, I probably should have turned the formation to port and crossed the German T, this may have saved Lion.
Time elapsed from the first shell to hit her to her going under was just 10 minutes, Beatty is listed as missing presumed drowned, and Hipper was lost with his flagship.
 
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bill44

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Part III Continued:

What a disaster this night has been for the RN.
The HSF BC's, were running, I pounded away at Von Der Tann, with the ships that could engage her PR, and QM her speed was 19 knots, she turned off to starboard, and Defflinger and Moltke turned to port , it looked at though they were going to engage me.
My formation was now spread out in a "S" shaped line, I turned to port, hopefully all my ships would be able to engage the last two BC's.
I concentrated fire on Derfflinger, and hit her again and again, but the brute gave back as good as she got, and Moltke was hitting my ships with an accuracy that was making me nervous.
Disaster struck when a 30 cm shell penetrated one of Inflexibles 12 inch mounts, she was gone in minute. This battle was slipping away form me, how could this be.
I continued to pound away at Derfflinger, but the two ships were heading away, and I had lost the heart to continue the battle.
QM's plight worsened, her speed was now just 13 knots, flooding was becomming worse, wand with over 500 casualties her damage control capacity was was a measly 20%, add to that a fire level of 75% , she was doomed.
In light of her damage, I cut her loose from the formation, the last contact I had with the HSF were the DD V70 and CL Rostok who blundered in to my squadron, both were dispatched quickly.
 

bill44

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QM rolled over and sank, I also lost CL Galatea, and DD Badger.

Final tally for this phase of the battle:
British Losses
2 BC, 1 CL, 1 DD

German Losses
1BC, 1 CL 2 DD.

Boy will the shizen hit the fan when the BC's get home, Churchill will not be happy
 
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Bullethead

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At the ranges of night battles, no capital ship armor then aflloat could withstand even the lightest heavy shells then afloat. Also, DDs and CLs get vaporized by capital ship 2ndary batteries the moment they are spotted, and any torps that manage to get in the water are going at high speed so are very hard to dodge. Even with WW1 tech, night battles usually end up being bloody brawls just like in Ironbottom Sound. And if you're playing with ACHs on, then the RN is at even more of a disadvantage than it is at long daylight ranges.

As such, I try hard to avoid night battles. Even as the German player, things can go wrong very quickly depending on how the forces come into contact. I especially run from night battles as the RN :).
 

saddletank

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I count myself lucky then. The night battle I had on 13th January in my campaign which was mostly cruiser action was the best battle I have ever fought in Jutland/Distant Guns against the AI. Though it was mostly a process of attempted disengagement by one side or the other at various times.
 

Bullethead

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I count myself lucky then. The night battle I had on 13th January in my campaign which was mostly cruiser action was the best battle I have ever fought in Jutland/Distant Guns against the AI. Though it was mostly a process of attempted disengagement by one side or the other at various times.
Glad you enjoyed it. Night battles are extremely fun, but they're very risky :).

I send ACs out at night all the time to harass DD patrols, but with my main fleets..... :crosseye: Yet I'm forced into them sometimes to keep tabs on the enemy during the night so I can try to bring him to battle 1st thing in the morning. These are very nerve-wracking affairs which I try very hard to confine to light forces only. But it's worth it come the dawn sometimes :).
 
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