gascan
Member
I have a few screenshots here to go with a more complete description of the Battle of Great Yarmouth and the related actions. Everything started on Jan 23, when the Scouting Force was sent to patrol off Dunkirque. At 2040, they spotted a column of destroyers and engaged, sinking twelve DDs for the cost of one DD. This one casualty was due to friendly fire from the secondary battery of a BC that continued to fire at a sinking ship. After this encounter, Seydlitz and two CLs were detached to run through the channel and raid merchant shipping on the west coast of Britain and Ireland. The remainder which stayed behind encountered a second force of small craft at around 0415, and by 0525 they had sunk eight more DDs while losing five DDs (I pressed "end battle" when all enemy ships on the screen were sinking, but a final one showed up immediately after I pressed the button and infilcted ridiculous casualties. Lesson learned: never use "end battle" for any reason). As the sun rose on the 24th at around 0700, the Seydlitz and her escorts sighted a force led by a French AC that had chased them through the channel. The AC put a shell into one of my CLs (slowing it by two knots) before they all turned and ran. Seydlitz turned to pursue and landed some heavy blows on a DD which sank early in the four and a half hour chase. The AC was caught and sunk shortly before noon, but so much ammo was spent that I ordered Seydlitz home. In hindsight after seeing ammunition levels in the fleet battle that followed, I think she probably could have stayed out and been fine. On the way back through the Channel she bagged another CL and a DD at 1430.
I ordered the HSF out as far as Yarmouth to cover the retreat of Seydlitz and the SF. Looking back, I did not need them to go that far, and it allowed the GF to catch me in the next day. The Battle of Great Yarmouth began at 2015, as the HSF neared their destination when my scouting DDs encountered two columns of CLs. I lost six of my DDs while bringing my predreads into play. I had sunk the 5th Cruiser Division earlier in the month with my predreads, and was impressed with how they could withstand the gunfire from the CLs (they are battleships, after all). The old BBs were able to sink five of the CLs handily before the British retreated. I realized I had been fighting the BCF, and decided to push hard to get to the British BCs. My scouting DDs encountered the BCF again at 0045 on January 25. I lost another five DDs while pulling them back to the old BBs and only sank two CLs in return. At this point I rearranged my formation. Although I had pulled my forces in close together at nightfall, I was only finding CLs in the front of the British formation which decimated my scouting DDs. I put the DDs in back with the old BBs in front to fight the British cruisers with the modern BBs held in reserve for the fight ahead. I got to test my idea when I encountered the BCF again at 0245, and the difference was obvious. I sank an AC, a CL, and twelve DDs. The only damage I took was a torpedo hit on two old BBs (I could have avoided them if I'd been paying attention) that dropped their top speed by two knots and slowed the cruising speed of the whole task force.
After this battle, I sighted the GF on the campaign map and started to run. In a brief engagement in the pre-dawn murk at 0630 I sank an AC and three CLs northwest of Amsterdam that were too close when the sky began to grow light. At 1140 the daylight fleet action began when four BCs came within range of the HSF. Fortunately for me, the British engaged me piecemeal, with only a small part of the fleet in combat at any one time. The BCs were all alone, so I formed a line heading northwest to cross the T and quickly sank these four, although one of my DDs was nailed by a miss and sank. Before I could disengage, the three QEs attacked and stayed at long range while a chunk of ten or twelve BBs came up. I pulled a battle turn (I was getting too far west) and engaged the main line on a reciprocal course at 10-12km range. Both sides took damage, but the British caught the worst of it, losing a couple dreadnoughts (including Dreadnought herself, IIRC) while two of mine took heavy damage. As the British main line fell into confusion after Superb exploded, I began to pull back and focus fire on the QEs which pressed on. Barham exploded and the others were sunk by 1600, but Kaiser was lost, Prinzregent Luitpold only had her two wing turrets operational, and most ships in the line were damaged and running low on ammo. While pulling back, the British sent some light forces forward while I sent CL Rostock back to keep a watchful eye on them. My battleships managed to explode an AC, but the British scored a lucky long range hit on Rostock which eventually slowly doomed her. The British also sank a straggling DD as the bloody red sky darkened into a very bloody night.
Apparently the watchmen on both sides a bit sleepy after the battle earlier because six British CLs appeared in the middle of my DD formation as a new battle began at 1720, only five minutes after the last one ended. As they began to devastate the light forces I had worked hard to preserve, my old BBs opened up to exact revenge while a couple Brit ACs appeared at the edge of the formation and added to the suffering of my DDs. Although four of the CLs were sunk by my BBs and one was blown up by a torpedo, the CLs scored torpedo hits on Schleiswig Holstein and Deutchland and caused massive damage to my DDs. To make matters worse, the ACs managed to keep out of reach of the BBs and still pick off my DDs while I tried to pull back and reorganize. Then, Hessen, which had been separated in a botched turn and was way out of position, spotted gunflashes from Grand Fleet looming out of the darkness and took heavy hits while turning as fast as possible to escape. Fortunately my battle line was nearby and caught the attention of the British dreadnoughts, many of which had suffered damage during the battle in the day. The Brits turned directly for my fleet, forming an L shape for the critical exchange of gunfire, while my line stayed straight and crossed the T of the leading enemy ships. In the following brutal exchange of close range fire and torpedoes, I sank every single British battleship at heavy cost. Since my kaisers were out of ammo and my Konigs had taken damage, I had my Helgolands in the lead. The first of my casualties was Markgraf, which exploded. Next up was Thuringen, which took a series of heavy hits at the waterline from King George V and rolled over quickly. Helgoland's rudder was jammed to port and she took fire from the ships in the back of the line. Grosser Kurfurst took heavy fire from Iron Duke and she succumbed to flooding at the end of the battle. Ostfriesland, at the head of the line, somehow evaded heavy damage from the BBs, but took a torpedo from a group of destroyers and almost brought her flooding under control when the battle ended. There was one final encounter a couple minutes later, where I sank a few more DDs, but the British backed off and I escaped into the night, returning to Wilhelmshaven at 0216 on January 26.
The final butchers bill and score card shows that the Scouting Force sank 1AC, 1CL, and 22DD while losing only 6DD, mostly due to the "end battle" button. The High Seas Fleet sank 17BB, 4BC, 5AC, 19CL, 1CV, and 58DD. They paid the heavy price of 10BB (7 dreadnoughts and 3 predreads), 1CL, and 36DD. While the Scouting Force was battling, the score shifted from British+ to ++, then to +++, but once the High Seas Fleet returned to base the score was German+.
About how long does it take to repair a heavily damaged battleship? I know I'm going to be out of action for a long time, but I'd like to get some idea since this is my first time returning with capital ships that need major work done.
I ordered the HSF out as far as Yarmouth to cover the retreat of Seydlitz and the SF. Looking back, I did not need them to go that far, and it allowed the GF to catch me in the next day. The Battle of Great Yarmouth began at 2015, as the HSF neared their destination when my scouting DDs encountered two columns of CLs. I lost six of my DDs while bringing my predreads into play. I had sunk the 5th Cruiser Division earlier in the month with my predreads, and was impressed with how they could withstand the gunfire from the CLs (they are battleships, after all). The old BBs were able to sink five of the CLs handily before the British retreated. I realized I had been fighting the BCF, and decided to push hard to get to the British BCs. My scouting DDs encountered the BCF again at 0045 on January 25. I lost another five DDs while pulling them back to the old BBs and only sank two CLs in return. At this point I rearranged my formation. Although I had pulled my forces in close together at nightfall, I was only finding CLs in the front of the British formation which decimated my scouting DDs. I put the DDs in back with the old BBs in front to fight the British cruisers with the modern BBs held in reserve for the fight ahead. I got to test my idea when I encountered the BCF again at 0245, and the difference was obvious. I sank an AC, a CL, and twelve DDs. The only damage I took was a torpedo hit on two old BBs (I could have avoided them if I'd been paying attention) that dropped their top speed by two knots and slowed the cruising speed of the whole task force.
After this battle, I sighted the GF on the campaign map and started to run. In a brief engagement in the pre-dawn murk at 0630 I sank an AC and three CLs northwest of Amsterdam that were too close when the sky began to grow light. At 1140 the daylight fleet action began when four BCs came within range of the HSF. Fortunately for me, the British engaged me piecemeal, with only a small part of the fleet in combat at any one time. The BCs were all alone, so I formed a line heading northwest to cross the T and quickly sank these four, although one of my DDs was nailed by a miss and sank. Before I could disengage, the three QEs attacked and stayed at long range while a chunk of ten or twelve BBs came up. I pulled a battle turn (I was getting too far west) and engaged the main line on a reciprocal course at 10-12km range. Both sides took damage, but the British caught the worst of it, losing a couple dreadnoughts (including Dreadnought herself, IIRC) while two of mine took heavy damage. As the British main line fell into confusion after Superb exploded, I began to pull back and focus fire on the QEs which pressed on. Barham exploded and the others were sunk by 1600, but Kaiser was lost, Prinzregent Luitpold only had her two wing turrets operational, and most ships in the line were damaged and running low on ammo. While pulling back, the British sent some light forces forward while I sent CL Rostock back to keep a watchful eye on them. My battleships managed to explode an AC, but the British scored a lucky long range hit on Rostock which eventually slowly doomed her. The British also sank a straggling DD as the bloody red sky darkened into a very bloody night.
Apparently the watchmen on both sides a bit sleepy after the battle earlier because six British CLs appeared in the middle of my DD formation as a new battle began at 1720, only five minutes after the last one ended. As they began to devastate the light forces I had worked hard to preserve, my old BBs opened up to exact revenge while a couple Brit ACs appeared at the edge of the formation and added to the suffering of my DDs. Although four of the CLs were sunk by my BBs and one was blown up by a torpedo, the CLs scored torpedo hits on Schleiswig Holstein and Deutchland and caused massive damage to my DDs. To make matters worse, the ACs managed to keep out of reach of the BBs and still pick off my DDs while I tried to pull back and reorganize. Then, Hessen, which had been separated in a botched turn and was way out of position, spotted gunflashes from Grand Fleet looming out of the darkness and took heavy hits while turning as fast as possible to escape. Fortunately my battle line was nearby and caught the attention of the British dreadnoughts, many of which had suffered damage during the battle in the day. The Brits turned directly for my fleet, forming an L shape for the critical exchange of gunfire, while my line stayed straight and crossed the T of the leading enemy ships. In the following brutal exchange of close range fire and torpedoes, I sank every single British battleship at heavy cost. Since my kaisers were out of ammo and my Konigs had taken damage, I had my Helgolands in the lead. The first of my casualties was Markgraf, which exploded. Next up was Thuringen, which took a series of heavy hits at the waterline from King George V and rolled over quickly. Helgoland's rudder was jammed to port and she took fire from the ships in the back of the line. Grosser Kurfurst took heavy fire from Iron Duke and she succumbed to flooding at the end of the battle. Ostfriesland, at the head of the line, somehow evaded heavy damage from the BBs, but took a torpedo from a group of destroyers and almost brought her flooding under control when the battle ended. There was one final encounter a couple minutes later, where I sank a few more DDs, but the British backed off and I escaped into the night, returning to Wilhelmshaven at 0216 on January 26.
The final butchers bill and score card shows that the Scouting Force sank 1AC, 1CL, and 22DD while losing only 6DD, mostly due to the "end battle" button. The High Seas Fleet sank 17BB, 4BC, 5AC, 19CL, 1CV, and 58DD. They paid the heavy price of 10BB (7 dreadnoughts and 3 predreads), 1CL, and 36DD. While the Scouting Force was battling, the score shifted from British+ to ++, then to +++, but once the High Seas Fleet returned to base the score was German+.
About how long does it take to repair a heavily damaged battleship? I know I'm going to be out of action for a long time, but I'd like to get some idea since this is my first time returning with capital ships that need major work done.
. Beautiful pics, too.
