Von der Tann
Schlachtkreuzer
This Sunday's battle was originally supposed to be a Big Battle, with a fight the size of Jutland. The scenario of choice was to be Showdown off Terschelling, but since we were only seven players, we agreed to do something a little bit smaller. So we decided to do Dead of Winter instead, which had been quite entertaining the previous week when the Royal Navy was about to give the Kaisers finest the slip, but we were hampered by too many people dropping.
Once again, I took command of the German fleet, while Invincible was in charge of the Royal Navy. Fighting with me were Anav and saddletank, while Invincible teamed up with Rich M, Bryn and First Sea Lord. I took charge of the battle fleet, while Anav set his flag on the battlecruisers and saddletank had a command made up of many cruisers and torpedo boats. Initially, I drove the battle fleet escorts myself, but handed most of them over to saddletank later, as I needed to concentrate on the battleships and command. ACH settings were fixed this time, and due to the great number of British ships armed with 15" guns and an expected pitched battle in low visibility conditions, I chose to leave the Greenboys at home, but the No Smoking signs in the RN magazines were observed.
At first, I was at the rear of the action and could only see what was going on through the ships of my fellow players, The battle line was forming up as usual, with Bayern falling in line behind the Königs and followed by the Helgolands, while the Nassaus were in the rear. After sending out scouts in various directions, it became clear that the Royal Navy was racing to get past the Norwegian coast this time and didn't try to go round the back, This was particularly helped by the fact that, despite severe rain and fog, the visibility just kept on rising. Pretty soon, we could see most of the British battle force steering towards N, and Anavs battlecruisers were doing their very best to stop them. His BC were hit quite severely, several turrets were lost, and most ships were only good to make 22 kts after the RN vanguard was finished with them. Similar events were taking place when König got into range of the enemy, and despite the bad weather, visibility continued to rise and rise, so the Royal Navy got to use its range advantage. Although no turrets were lost, König was showing more than 70% flooding on the starboard side and had to leave the line without having the opportunity to retaliate. Limping away with 15 kts, she was retreating towards W.
After Markgraf assumed the role of lead ship, a course change to 000° was ordered, after our BL had tried to close the range on a course of 20°. The remaining Königs were still getting pounded with 15" shells, but with little effect. Around the same time, we spotted the British battlecruisers with their escorts heading south, where they engaged our rearmost ships in a battle and were probably trying to get us between two fires by passing south of us. Saddletank was there with his escorts and kept enemy destroyers at bay, while the Nassaus were leaving the battle line and took up the fight with the battlecruisers. Despite being rather slow and undergunned, their long-reaching 28cm guns proved adequate in keeping the splendid cats and the Renown class BC at bay. Their robust construction served them well against the heavy calibres of the BC, and when the capital ships were beyond their range, they directed their fire against destroyers and cruisers with some effect. As the main BL still had little to shoot at, they took it out on a passing formation of CL, all except for Bayern, which was the only ship able to return the well-aimed 15" fire.
Further ahead, Anavs battleruisers were still fighting on and took numerous hits, but not without dishing out as well. The first British ship to be lost was Agincourt, followed by Marlborough and Benbow, all of them going down to catastrophic magazine eruptions despite poor ammo handling turned off. The British battlecruisers, on the other hand, wer holding out well despite many hits, even the thin-skinned R class BC showed little sign of damage. Their escorts were not so lucky, however, and several DD and CL were lost in the 28cm fire of the Nassaus. König, after repairing some damage and being able to do 18 kts again, joined in and proved to be a valuable addition. The battle line now chose to retreat from the British line, as there was little chance of catching them with the lead ships being pummelled with 15" fire and unable to answer, and so we turned to 220° and strolled back towards Kiel. The RN battle force kept going and left the battlefleid, while the BC were slowly overtaking our southern forces.
The visibility on this cold midwinter afternoon had now reached a crystal-clear quality- Despite rain pouring down and fog wallowing over the water, we got up to 36 km. This is to be called uncanny, and this sort of thing shouldn't happen...
As there was little chance of getting another action, we called it a day there. The game was considered a modest victory for the Germans with much damage taken but few ships lost, while the Royal Navy had to leave no less than five BB behind (two of which sank after the battle), apart from many DD and two CL.
Well done, gentlemen! A good battle with unexpected turns of events, shame the low visibility thing didn't work out at all.
Once again, I took command of the German fleet, while Invincible was in charge of the Royal Navy. Fighting with me were Anav and saddletank, while Invincible teamed up with Rich M, Bryn and First Sea Lord. I took charge of the battle fleet, while Anav set his flag on the battlecruisers and saddletank had a command made up of many cruisers and torpedo boats. Initially, I drove the battle fleet escorts myself, but handed most of them over to saddletank later, as I needed to concentrate on the battleships and command. ACH settings were fixed this time, and due to the great number of British ships armed with 15" guns and an expected pitched battle in low visibility conditions, I chose to leave the Greenboys at home, but the No Smoking signs in the RN magazines were observed.
At first, I was at the rear of the action and could only see what was going on through the ships of my fellow players, The battle line was forming up as usual, with Bayern falling in line behind the Königs and followed by the Helgolands, while the Nassaus were in the rear. After sending out scouts in various directions, it became clear that the Royal Navy was racing to get past the Norwegian coast this time and didn't try to go round the back, This was particularly helped by the fact that, despite severe rain and fog, the visibility just kept on rising. Pretty soon, we could see most of the British battle force steering towards N, and Anavs battlecruisers were doing their very best to stop them. His BC were hit quite severely, several turrets were lost, and most ships were only good to make 22 kts after the RN vanguard was finished with them. Similar events were taking place when König got into range of the enemy, and despite the bad weather, visibility continued to rise and rise, so the Royal Navy got to use its range advantage. Although no turrets were lost, König was showing more than 70% flooding on the starboard side and had to leave the line without having the opportunity to retaliate. Limping away with 15 kts, she was retreating towards W.
After Markgraf assumed the role of lead ship, a course change to 000° was ordered, after our BL had tried to close the range on a course of 20°. The remaining Königs were still getting pounded with 15" shells, but with little effect. Around the same time, we spotted the British battlecruisers with their escorts heading south, where they engaged our rearmost ships in a battle and were probably trying to get us between two fires by passing south of us. Saddletank was there with his escorts and kept enemy destroyers at bay, while the Nassaus were leaving the battle line and took up the fight with the battlecruisers. Despite being rather slow and undergunned, their long-reaching 28cm guns proved adequate in keeping the splendid cats and the Renown class BC at bay. Their robust construction served them well against the heavy calibres of the BC, and when the capital ships were beyond their range, they directed their fire against destroyers and cruisers with some effect. As the main BL still had little to shoot at, they took it out on a passing formation of CL, all except for Bayern, which was the only ship able to return the well-aimed 15" fire.
Further ahead, Anavs battleruisers were still fighting on and took numerous hits, but not without dishing out as well. The first British ship to be lost was Agincourt, followed by Marlborough and Benbow, all of them going down to catastrophic magazine eruptions despite poor ammo handling turned off. The British battlecruisers, on the other hand, wer holding out well despite many hits, even the thin-skinned R class BC showed little sign of damage. Their escorts were not so lucky, however, and several DD and CL were lost in the 28cm fire of the Nassaus. König, after repairing some damage and being able to do 18 kts again, joined in and proved to be a valuable addition. The battle line now chose to retreat from the British line, as there was little chance of catching them with the lead ships being pummelled with 15" fire and unable to answer, and so we turned to 220° and strolled back towards Kiel. The RN battle force kept going and left the battlefleid, while the BC were slowly overtaking our southern forces.
The visibility on this cold midwinter afternoon had now reached a crystal-clear quality- Despite rain pouring down and fog wallowing over the water, we got up to 36 km. This is to be called uncanny, and this sort of thing shouldn't happen...
As there was little chance of getting another action, we called it a day there. The game was considered a modest victory for the Germans with much damage taken but few ships lost, while the Royal Navy had to leave no less than five BB behind (two of which sank after the battle), apart from many DD and two CL.
Well done, gentlemen! A good battle with unexpected turns of events, shame the low visibility thing didn't work out at all.