Steven Lohr
Recruit
I’ve started a May 1916 Campaign game (with Room 40). I am playing the British, and thought I’d do an AAR. I have the default optional rules selected, with the addition of the Poor Ammuntion Handling and Fragile Shells. I intend to simply edit to this initial message as the game progresses to make the reading easier.
The scenario starts with no ships at sea, and no news. My goals are to:
1) Maintain the North Sea Blockade
2) Coastal Defense
3) Protect the Shipping lanes
4) Destroy the High Seas Fleet
1) To accomplish these goals will require intelligence of German activities. I will depend on Room 40 for indications of a High Seas Fleet sortie. However, I will back this up by establishing a scouting line. I will begin with a line of submarines right outside of the Helgoland minefields. I deploy the 5th, 4th and 8th Submarine squadrons in a line covering the approached to the Blight. I also deploy some mine laying submarines to lay a field at 54, 28, closing the far eastern approaches out of Wilhelmshaven.
2) I establish a second submarine scouting line in the mid-North Sea, using submarines from the 7th squadron, which is based on the Western coast of England. I’ll have these subs change base to an eastern coast port at the conclusion of their patrol.
3) I order a large squadron of destroyers to sweep up the middle of the North Sea. The purpose of this is to find any German Subs, and to sweep up any blockade runners, as well as provide warning of any surface units at sea
4) I order two additional squadrons of DDs to sweep the east coast of England, to clear the area of submarines
5) Two squadrons of cruisers are sent from the Shetlands (Lerwick) to patrol the Northern North Sea and interdict any German shipping.
6) All other units of the Royal Navy will remain in port to await developments
Initial Deployments 15 May 1916
15 May 1916
1945 Zeppelin is sighted off the coast of Norway. This may indicate a reconnaissance prior to a High Seas Fleet sortie. The destroyer flotilla in the mid-North Sea is sent further east to recon this area.
Situation at 1945 on 15 May
16 May
0600 I received two Room 40 reports of sinking German destroyers during the night of 15-16 May. I have no indication of the cause or location of their sinking.
1228 Received report that the Armed Merchant Cruiser Patia was sunk. This was one of the ships based out of Lerwick sent to enforce the blockade. No word on location of the sinking or cause.
1338 Mines were successfully deployed at the Northern entrance to the Helgoland Blight.
2000 The minelaying squadron in Dunkirk is ordered to reinforce the minefield off Helgoland Blight. Two squadrons of Destroyers from Harwich are sent in support of this force.
17 May
Nothing Significant to Report
18 May
0400 The naval situation is depicted on the chart below. The minelaying squadron and the supporting DDs are beginning to withdraw from the Blight. However, because of the lack of German reaction, I order them to continue their patrol to see if a reaction can be provoked. A scouting line of submarines is in place.
1453 The minelaying force comes into contact with the Elbe Protection force. Estimated enemy composition is 1 CL and 3 DDs. However, my minelayers are only armed with torpedoes and 47mm guns, so a sucessful engagement is unlikely. Additionally, the supporting DD squadrons are too far away to be part of the battle scenario created by the computer, and so do not appear in the battle. I elect to run to SW, while staying out of range of the CL’s guns. As the weather is rain/sea state 3, I should be able to prevent an engagement. After disengaging, I’ll attempt to redirect the supporting DDs to the area later to deal with the with the German force. Note to self: supporting forces need to be in close proximity to appear in campaign game battle scenarios.
19 May
I apparently miscalculated the ability of my minesweeping forces to run away. Although most of them had a top speed of at least four knots greater than the pursuing German forces, one of the vessels (the PLUTON) had a speed of one knot less than the German forces. I tried splitting off the faster ships with the hopes the German forces woudl pursue them. However, the AI wisely went after the PLUTON. After a nine hour stern chase, they finally caught up and sank her. In retrospect, I should have had the faster forces double back towards the Germans with the hope that I could draw them off. They could have gotten to within approximately 10000 meters before they were fired on. With luck, the Germans would have turned towards them and allowed the PLUTON to escape. However, I didn't attempt that plan, and instead simply ran, leaving the PLUTON without any cover. Another interesting point is that the game accurately simulates the extended twilight conditions that prevail during the spring and summer months in the higher Northern latitudes. Nightfall was not until approximately 2300, by which time the German forces were too close for the PLUTON to avoid being seen. Her end is depicted below:
I attemtped to have the supporting British forces catch up to the Germans, but they were too far behind. Of note, the German forces appear to be using the Southern channel into the Blight. I'll have to mine that later.
Later in the day, the German light forces patroling off of the Belgium coast caught a French torpedo boat and a British cargo ship and dispatched both. French light forces patroling off the Dutch coast likewise caught a German cargo ship. Some French torpedo boats returning to Dunkirk were engaged by German shore batteries off of Ostend, with one TB sunk. Of note, the blue semicircles that appear on the map off the German ports on the battle chart are not range circles for the shore batteries, as the TBs were outside of these circles when they were engaged. I'm not sure what the semicircles outside the harbors.
In the afternoon, the situation is as follows
Although not depicted in this slide, the two German Zepplins that appear demonstrated some interesting movements. The northern Zepplin later proceeded to the approaches to the Battlecruiser base at Rosyth and the second transited up the eastern coast of England. I am concerned that this is a reconnaissance prepatory to a bombardment of the English coast. To both guard against this and to bushwack any force that attempts such a bombardment, I order the Grand Fleet and the Battlecruiser force to set sail. I will position them off Dogger Bank during the night with the intent of cutting off a bombardment force from Helgoland. If no German activity occurs, I'll have the force do a sweep of the North Sea before returning to port. I also order submarines to patrol off the likely targets off the English coast. Finally, I order the Channel battleforce and monitors to the area off Belgium to bombard the German port facilities there.
20 May
The German fleet did not make an appearance, so I've ordered the Grand Fleet back to base. The Monitors and Channel Battleforce successfully bombarded the German positions in Belgium. However, I am uncertain as to how effective the bombardment was, and what effect it has in terms of the game. In support of the bombardment force, I ordered a squadron of light cruisers, and two squadrons of destroyers to raid the German naval base at Zeebrugge. I had the computer automatically resolve the battle. It ended in a British victory, with 17 German torpedo boats and destroyers sunk, for a loss of 3 RN destroyers. This should neutralize the German navy in the Channel, freeing my units there to go on patrols in the North Sea.
The German navy appears to be more active on this date. There have been several U-boat sightings, including one that may be positioning itself near Scapa Flow. Also, 3 Zeppelins were spotted today. The increased activity may indicate that something is up. However, I don't have enough historical data on German activity to determine whether this is really unusual, or just a product of more allied forces being at sea and in a position to spot the German patrols.
The situation at the end of the day is shown below:
A couple of observations about the simulation of intelligence in the game: IMHO, Room 40 is very quiet. Historically, Room 40 was very effective at reporting German movements. In the game, aside from a couple of notices of sinking German ships early in the game, there has been no intelligence provided. I would recommend the designers change that. One suggestion is that a "chatter meter" be put into the game to show increasing/decreasing amounts of radio traffic as German units prepare to sail. Talonsoft's Battle of Britain used this concept to show increases in radio traffic prior to German air raids launching. Effectively, it would give a crude form of traffic pattern analysis to the player, something the real life Room 40 did. Additionally, some form of daily intelligence briefing would be good.
An additional note on gameplay: I haven't yet figured out how to use the aviation support ships. Historically, they weren't of much help to the British. However, they are in the game, yet they do not appear to have any aviation function, i.e., they don't launch aircraft.
21-23 May
Additional losses were incurred over the past three days. I received notice that a German torpedo boat had been sunk by a torpedo. That indicates to me that my submarine patrol line may be having some effect. I also lost another merchant cruiser and a destroyer to unknown causes. The lack of information on location and cause of the sinking makes it difficult for the player to make informed estimates of enemy positions. I recommend that this information be included on the strategic map.
I sent the Battlecruiser squadron on a sweep of the North Sea, mostly to see what the German reaction would be. I did not deploy the Grand Fleet, effectively leaving the Battlecruisers unsupported. Although an unwise move, I wanted to see what the German reaction would be. The Battlecruisers were sent to run along the Helgoland minefields to see if they could entice a German reaction. There was no observable sortie of the High Seas Fleet. However, the Battlecruisers had two encounters with U-boats, with neither side firing a shot.
A submarine minelaying force also mined the southwestern entrance into Helgoland. I'll check in a few days to see if the mines need to be re-seeded.
At this point, I’m going to make a brief digression into how the game handled the U-boat encounters. In both cases of the encounters with the Battlecruisers, the U-boats were spotted at approximately 28,000 yards. Apparently, they were running on the surface at the time, which is realistic. At this point, the game switches from the strategic game and sets up the tactical scenario. However, I would be surprised if U-boats were ever seen at that distance. Effectively, this allows the player to completely avoid the U-boat by a simple change in course. If this is the only way the game handles U-boat encounters, it is in my opinion unrealistic. The British were very fearful of the possibility of a U-boat attack on their Battleships. Historically, Beatty was very reluctant to have his Battlecruisers sortie even for gunnery practice because he was unwilling to expose them to the possibility of a U-boat attack, a important factor in there poor shooting at Jutland. Based on the way I have observed the game handle them, they are not a threat to warships. However, it is possible I am missing something here. As I previously noted, I have lost ships with no indication of the source of their loss. If it is U-boats, then it is possible for a U-boat to make a stealthy attack in game terms. I would be curious to hear of other players experiences in this regard.
One other minor criticism of the game-during the U-boat encounters, there was also one Zeppelin present on the tactical map. After the encounter was completed and the game switched back to the strategic map, neither the position of the Zeppelin or the U-boats was marked. I believe any German units that are encountered in a tactical situation should have their positions marked on the strategic map.
24 May
Still no encounters with the German Fleet. I lost two torpedo boats and the AMC PATUCA today. I received no information on the cause of the loss of the AMC or one of the torpedo boats. The other torpedo boat was caught by two German destroyers near the Dutch coast and sunk. Nothing of significance to report in that action, other than it was observed by a Zeppelin, whose image is below. I like that picture....
The Germans laid a small minefield in the English Channel, probably by submarine. It will be easy to avoid. It appears that the game extracts some attrition on minefields. Based on the two fields I laid, it appears approximately 5% per day loss in player laid mines. Also, I managed to get the size of the tactical battlemaps-they appear to be approximately 213,000 yard in the north-south axis and 214,650 yards along the east-west axis. Based on this, I would estimate that supporting forces should be within approximately 50 nautical miles of each other in order to provide support, and possibly closer depending on the situation. That would keep them over the horizon from the enemy forces, and still within 1.5 hours or so of reinforcing each other, while remaining on the tactical map so the player can control them when the game switches to tactical resolution.
I've added Rgreat's log analyzer, available here:
http://www.rgreat.ru/tmp/Jutland/LogAnalyser.exe
Hopefully, it'll help me figure out how a combat results are calculated.
The Third Battlesquadron has deployed to the Channel and North Sea without any escorts in an attempt to draw the attention of Uboats. Although I would not do this in a competitive game, I really am at loss to explain how submarines operate in the game.
The situation at the beginning of 25 May is shown below:
25 May
It was a relatively quiet day. The various operations of the Royal Navy are summarized below:
Losses-Lost one DD to a submarine torpedo attack. No location given.
Channel Monitors-successfully bombarded Zeebrugge without incident
3rd Battlesquadron-conducting unescorted operations in the Channel and North Sea in an attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of U-boats and instigate a reaction from the German High Seas Fleet. No contact with Uboats or the HSF.
Light cruiser patrol off Helgoland-In an additional attempt to provoke a reaction from the HSF, I sent a CL squadron to sweep outside the Helgoland minefields. They had two contacts of interest. The first contact was with a German DD patrolling independently off the western edge of the minefield. Although this DD outran the CL squadron, its behavior is worth noting. On the tactical map, it travelled north, skirting the western edge of the minefield, without penetrating the field. In my mind, this is significant in terms of game play. The shortest distance from the DD to the safety of Helgoland was to the ENE, though the minefield. If the game allowed safe German transit (i.e., simulated secret transit lanes through friendly fields), the DD would have likely taken one of those. The fact that it moved along the edge of the field indicates that, in terms of the game, transit lanes do not exist. This in turn means that the only way for the HSF to leave is through either the known channels in the northern and western edges of the Helgoland field. Because I only observed the DD for approximately 15 minutes, it is possible that if there are safe lanes in the fields, but the DD had not yet reached them. However, given the location of the encounter, I tend to doubt this possibility.
The second encounter of note was with the unescorted German CL SMS Acona. The CL squadron rapidly dispatched the Arcona without suffering any significant damage. A screenshot of the Acona’s final moments is below:
Of note, the SMS Arcona had been the destroyer leader of the squadron that sank the PLUTON. I personally felt a degree of satisfaction in extracting this retribution. The fact that the game is sufficiently immersive to elicit those feelings is a credit to the designers.
One final note-During one encounter, the CL squadron spotted a British merchant deep in German territory. See the image below. At this point in the war, merchants deep in enemy territory simply would not exist. I recommend the designers alter the shipping routes to reflect this.
The scenario starts with no ships at sea, and no news. My goals are to:
1) Maintain the North Sea Blockade
2) Coastal Defense
3) Protect the Shipping lanes
4) Destroy the High Seas Fleet
1) To accomplish these goals will require intelligence of German activities. I will depend on Room 40 for indications of a High Seas Fleet sortie. However, I will back this up by establishing a scouting line. I will begin with a line of submarines right outside of the Helgoland minefields. I deploy the 5th, 4th and 8th Submarine squadrons in a line covering the approached to the Blight. I also deploy some mine laying submarines to lay a field at 54, 28, closing the far eastern approaches out of Wilhelmshaven.
2) I establish a second submarine scouting line in the mid-North Sea, using submarines from the 7th squadron, which is based on the Western coast of England. I’ll have these subs change base to an eastern coast port at the conclusion of their patrol.
3) I order a large squadron of destroyers to sweep up the middle of the North Sea. The purpose of this is to find any German Subs, and to sweep up any blockade runners, as well as provide warning of any surface units at sea
4) I order two additional squadrons of DDs to sweep the east coast of England, to clear the area of submarines
5) Two squadrons of cruisers are sent from the Shetlands (Lerwick) to patrol the Northern North Sea and interdict any German shipping.
6) All other units of the Royal Navy will remain in port to await developments
Initial Deployments 15 May 1916
15 May 1916
1945 Zeppelin is sighted off the coast of Norway. This may indicate a reconnaissance prior to a High Seas Fleet sortie. The destroyer flotilla in the mid-North Sea is sent further east to recon this area.
Situation at 1945 on 15 May
16 May
0600 I received two Room 40 reports of sinking German destroyers during the night of 15-16 May. I have no indication of the cause or location of their sinking.
1228 Received report that the Armed Merchant Cruiser Patia was sunk. This was one of the ships based out of Lerwick sent to enforce the blockade. No word on location of the sinking or cause.
1338 Mines were successfully deployed at the Northern entrance to the Helgoland Blight.
2000 The minelaying squadron in Dunkirk is ordered to reinforce the minefield off Helgoland Blight. Two squadrons of Destroyers from Harwich are sent in support of this force.
17 May
Nothing Significant to Report
18 May
0400 The naval situation is depicted on the chart below. The minelaying squadron and the supporting DDs are beginning to withdraw from the Blight. However, because of the lack of German reaction, I order them to continue their patrol to see if a reaction can be provoked. A scouting line of submarines is in place.
1453 The minelaying force comes into contact with the Elbe Protection force. Estimated enemy composition is 1 CL and 3 DDs. However, my minelayers are only armed with torpedoes and 47mm guns, so a sucessful engagement is unlikely. Additionally, the supporting DD squadrons are too far away to be part of the battle scenario created by the computer, and so do not appear in the battle. I elect to run to SW, while staying out of range of the CL’s guns. As the weather is rain/sea state 3, I should be able to prevent an engagement. After disengaging, I’ll attempt to redirect the supporting DDs to the area later to deal with the with the German force. Note to self: supporting forces need to be in close proximity to appear in campaign game battle scenarios.
19 May
I apparently miscalculated the ability of my minesweeping forces to run away. Although most of them had a top speed of at least four knots greater than the pursuing German forces, one of the vessels (the PLUTON) had a speed of one knot less than the German forces. I tried splitting off the faster ships with the hopes the German forces woudl pursue them. However, the AI wisely went after the PLUTON. After a nine hour stern chase, they finally caught up and sank her. In retrospect, I should have had the faster forces double back towards the Germans with the hope that I could draw them off. They could have gotten to within approximately 10000 meters before they were fired on. With luck, the Germans would have turned towards them and allowed the PLUTON to escape. However, I didn't attempt that plan, and instead simply ran, leaving the PLUTON without any cover. Another interesting point is that the game accurately simulates the extended twilight conditions that prevail during the spring and summer months in the higher Northern latitudes. Nightfall was not until approximately 2300, by which time the German forces were too close for the PLUTON to avoid being seen. Her end is depicted below:
I attemtped to have the supporting British forces catch up to the Germans, but they were too far behind. Of note, the German forces appear to be using the Southern channel into the Blight. I'll have to mine that later.
Later in the day, the German light forces patroling off of the Belgium coast caught a French torpedo boat and a British cargo ship and dispatched both. French light forces patroling off the Dutch coast likewise caught a German cargo ship. Some French torpedo boats returning to Dunkirk were engaged by German shore batteries off of Ostend, with one TB sunk. Of note, the blue semicircles that appear on the map off the German ports on the battle chart are not range circles for the shore batteries, as the TBs were outside of these circles when they were engaged. I'm not sure what the semicircles outside the harbors.
In the afternoon, the situation is as follows
Although not depicted in this slide, the two German Zepplins that appear demonstrated some interesting movements. The northern Zepplin later proceeded to the approaches to the Battlecruiser base at Rosyth and the second transited up the eastern coast of England. I am concerned that this is a reconnaissance prepatory to a bombardment of the English coast. To both guard against this and to bushwack any force that attempts such a bombardment, I order the Grand Fleet and the Battlecruiser force to set sail. I will position them off Dogger Bank during the night with the intent of cutting off a bombardment force from Helgoland. If no German activity occurs, I'll have the force do a sweep of the North Sea before returning to port. I also order submarines to patrol off the likely targets off the English coast. Finally, I order the Channel battleforce and monitors to the area off Belgium to bombard the German port facilities there.
20 May
The German fleet did not make an appearance, so I've ordered the Grand Fleet back to base. The Monitors and Channel Battleforce successfully bombarded the German positions in Belgium. However, I am uncertain as to how effective the bombardment was, and what effect it has in terms of the game. In support of the bombardment force, I ordered a squadron of light cruisers, and two squadrons of destroyers to raid the German naval base at Zeebrugge. I had the computer automatically resolve the battle. It ended in a British victory, with 17 German torpedo boats and destroyers sunk, for a loss of 3 RN destroyers. This should neutralize the German navy in the Channel, freeing my units there to go on patrols in the North Sea.
The German navy appears to be more active on this date. There have been several U-boat sightings, including one that may be positioning itself near Scapa Flow. Also, 3 Zeppelins were spotted today. The increased activity may indicate that something is up. However, I don't have enough historical data on German activity to determine whether this is really unusual, or just a product of more allied forces being at sea and in a position to spot the German patrols.
The situation at the end of the day is shown below:
A couple of observations about the simulation of intelligence in the game: IMHO, Room 40 is very quiet. Historically, Room 40 was very effective at reporting German movements. In the game, aside from a couple of notices of sinking German ships early in the game, there has been no intelligence provided. I would recommend the designers change that. One suggestion is that a "chatter meter" be put into the game to show increasing/decreasing amounts of radio traffic as German units prepare to sail. Talonsoft's Battle of Britain used this concept to show increases in radio traffic prior to German air raids launching. Effectively, it would give a crude form of traffic pattern analysis to the player, something the real life Room 40 did. Additionally, some form of daily intelligence briefing would be good.
An additional note on gameplay: I haven't yet figured out how to use the aviation support ships. Historically, they weren't of much help to the British. However, they are in the game, yet they do not appear to have any aviation function, i.e., they don't launch aircraft.
21-23 May
Additional losses were incurred over the past three days. I received notice that a German torpedo boat had been sunk by a torpedo. That indicates to me that my submarine patrol line may be having some effect. I also lost another merchant cruiser and a destroyer to unknown causes. The lack of information on location and cause of the sinking makes it difficult for the player to make informed estimates of enemy positions. I recommend that this information be included on the strategic map.
I sent the Battlecruiser squadron on a sweep of the North Sea, mostly to see what the German reaction would be. I did not deploy the Grand Fleet, effectively leaving the Battlecruisers unsupported. Although an unwise move, I wanted to see what the German reaction would be. The Battlecruisers were sent to run along the Helgoland minefields to see if they could entice a German reaction. There was no observable sortie of the High Seas Fleet. However, the Battlecruisers had two encounters with U-boats, with neither side firing a shot.
A submarine minelaying force also mined the southwestern entrance into Helgoland. I'll check in a few days to see if the mines need to be re-seeded.
At this point, I’m going to make a brief digression into how the game handled the U-boat encounters. In both cases of the encounters with the Battlecruisers, the U-boats were spotted at approximately 28,000 yards. Apparently, they were running on the surface at the time, which is realistic. At this point, the game switches from the strategic game and sets up the tactical scenario. However, I would be surprised if U-boats were ever seen at that distance. Effectively, this allows the player to completely avoid the U-boat by a simple change in course. If this is the only way the game handles U-boat encounters, it is in my opinion unrealistic. The British were very fearful of the possibility of a U-boat attack on their Battleships. Historically, Beatty was very reluctant to have his Battlecruisers sortie even for gunnery practice because he was unwilling to expose them to the possibility of a U-boat attack, a important factor in there poor shooting at Jutland. Based on the way I have observed the game handle them, they are not a threat to warships. However, it is possible I am missing something here. As I previously noted, I have lost ships with no indication of the source of their loss. If it is U-boats, then it is possible for a U-boat to make a stealthy attack in game terms. I would be curious to hear of other players experiences in this regard.
One other minor criticism of the game-during the U-boat encounters, there was also one Zeppelin present on the tactical map. After the encounter was completed and the game switched back to the strategic map, neither the position of the Zeppelin or the U-boats was marked. I believe any German units that are encountered in a tactical situation should have their positions marked on the strategic map.
24 May
Still no encounters with the German Fleet. I lost two torpedo boats and the AMC PATUCA today. I received no information on the cause of the loss of the AMC or one of the torpedo boats. The other torpedo boat was caught by two German destroyers near the Dutch coast and sunk. Nothing of significance to report in that action, other than it was observed by a Zeppelin, whose image is below. I like that picture....
The Germans laid a small minefield in the English Channel, probably by submarine. It will be easy to avoid. It appears that the game extracts some attrition on minefields. Based on the two fields I laid, it appears approximately 5% per day loss in player laid mines. Also, I managed to get the size of the tactical battlemaps-they appear to be approximately 213,000 yard in the north-south axis and 214,650 yards along the east-west axis. Based on this, I would estimate that supporting forces should be within approximately 50 nautical miles of each other in order to provide support, and possibly closer depending on the situation. That would keep them over the horizon from the enemy forces, and still within 1.5 hours or so of reinforcing each other, while remaining on the tactical map so the player can control them when the game switches to tactical resolution.
I've added Rgreat's log analyzer, available here:
http://www.rgreat.ru/tmp/Jutland/LogAnalyser.exe
Hopefully, it'll help me figure out how a combat results are calculated.
The Third Battlesquadron has deployed to the Channel and North Sea without any escorts in an attempt to draw the attention of Uboats. Although I would not do this in a competitive game, I really am at loss to explain how submarines operate in the game.
The situation at the beginning of 25 May is shown below:
25 May
It was a relatively quiet day. The various operations of the Royal Navy are summarized below:
Losses-Lost one DD to a submarine torpedo attack. No location given.
Channel Monitors-successfully bombarded Zeebrugge without incident
3rd Battlesquadron-conducting unescorted operations in the Channel and North Sea in an attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of U-boats and instigate a reaction from the German High Seas Fleet. No contact with Uboats or the HSF.
Light cruiser patrol off Helgoland-In an additional attempt to provoke a reaction from the HSF, I sent a CL squadron to sweep outside the Helgoland minefields. They had two contacts of interest. The first contact was with a German DD patrolling independently off the western edge of the minefield. Although this DD outran the CL squadron, its behavior is worth noting. On the tactical map, it travelled north, skirting the western edge of the minefield, without penetrating the field. In my mind, this is significant in terms of game play. The shortest distance from the DD to the safety of Helgoland was to the ENE, though the minefield. If the game allowed safe German transit (i.e., simulated secret transit lanes through friendly fields), the DD would have likely taken one of those. The fact that it moved along the edge of the field indicates that, in terms of the game, transit lanes do not exist. This in turn means that the only way for the HSF to leave is through either the known channels in the northern and western edges of the Helgoland field. Because I only observed the DD for approximately 15 minutes, it is possible that if there are safe lanes in the fields, but the DD had not yet reached them. However, given the location of the encounter, I tend to doubt this possibility.
The second encounter of note was with the unescorted German CL SMS Acona. The CL squadron rapidly dispatched the Arcona without suffering any significant damage. A screenshot of the Acona’s final moments is below:
Of note, the SMS Arcona had been the destroyer leader of the squadron that sank the PLUTON. I personally felt a degree of satisfaction in extracting this retribution. The fact that the game is sufficiently immersive to elicit those feelings is a credit to the designers.
One final note-During one encounter, the CL squadron spotted a British merchant deep in German territory. See the image below. At this point in the war, merchants deep in enemy territory simply would not exist. I recommend the designers alter the shipping routes to reflect this.
Last edited:
. But anyway, to look in the logs for sub successes, search for "...torpedo strikes target". For mines, look for "struck a mine!". This will show things you really shouldn't know due to FOW, but because it's the only current way to know what you should know despite FOW, I figure it's a wash.