Noob Adventures

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A pair of computer generated battles:

After Action Report:

Both ACH on.

Computer generated game:

Konig & Kronprinz (me)

vs

Renown, Repulse, Hercules & Agincourt (Commodore Computer)

We passed in line in opposite directions, I concentrated fire on Renown & Repluse,
inflicting mortal wounds on the waterline, but they took too long to sink. Kronprinz
went down fairly early, but Konig hung in while dooming Agincourt, but I only
lightly damaged Hercules (The holes were just above the waterline). In retrospect,
I probably could have got her too, but I spent too long on the R's (I wanted those
15" guns silenced) and Agincourt.

Once you see them start to list, they are in big trouble.


Result: All lost except the lightly damaged Hercules.






After Action Report:

Both ACH on.

Computer generated game:

Barham, Valiant, Warspite & Malaya

vs.

Bayern, Deutschland, Pommern, Hannover, Schlesien, Scheswig-Holstein, Hessen,
Braunschweig, Elsass & Lothringen.

I was a bit surprised to find my latest BB leading the nine pre-dreads!
I tried to preserve Bayern by swinging her around behind in a circle to
let the pre-dreads catch up, but in the end she took a hit to the forward magazine
and sank fairly early (not immediately, but quickly), without being much help.

Meanwhile, Deutschland and Pommern had to fall out of line, Deutchland mortally wounded,
Pommern managing along at 13 knots. After that things went well, including sinking Barham,
until we ran out of 28 cm ammo!

About that time, Elsass blew up and sank. I decided that it was time to run!
This wasn't easy given a six knot disadvantage!

The damaged Braunschweiger turned and charged, but went down fairly quickly, nonetheless
buying a little time. Lothringen was in much better shape when she turned back, and did
an excellent job of herding the British. I'm not sure whether it was her torpedoes
(pathetic range on those) or my 17cm secondary that they were afraid of, but they kept their
distance as I drove them northwest, as the my remining five ran between east and south.

In the end, they were over 44000m from my nearest ship, so we escaped!

Result:
Lost: Barham, Bayern, Deutschland, Braunschweig, Elsass & Lothringen.
 

rgreat

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By the way, i think Bayern is a very weak ship in game.

His large turrets are prone to get hit alot, which can lead to magasine explosion or stripping her from main battery pretty fast.
And her large 380mm artillery is also surprisingly innacurate.
Crew count on Bayern is kinda small and it leads to quite low damage control capability compared to other German BB's.

All of this lead to my preference to choose ANY other German dreadnought over Bayern... even including old Nassau's.
 
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That was my first use of Bayern, but your points ring true in my one experience!

I'm mostly done with another random scenario, they do provide interesting, if somewhat oddball matchups:

This time I'm the British:

Repulse, Hercules & Agincourt (these seem to be favourites of the random game generator, but, hey, everyone should see Agincourt fire a broadside!).

versus

Braunschweig, Elsass & Lothringen
Eight modern light cruisers (all 6", I think)
Six DDs (35 knot at least)

I kept the distance at ~10k for the most part, the predreads seemed to hold their fire with the 28cm, perhaps to conserve ammo (no fun running out as I did previously)!

My secondaries have been damaged mostly, little other damage. They are hit me a lot with 15 cm and 17 cm.

A nice change from HPS Jutland, where light cruisers whittle you down 1% at a time.

The last of the predreads, Elsass, is about to sink and Agincourt is out of 12" ammo. I brought her about so that her undamaged starboard 6" battery can work on the cruiser division which stayed with Elsass. Konigsberg II has also sunk.

The second crusier division is running with Repulse in pursuit. She also seems quite inaccurate with her 15" guns. But I did keep her a little further back, since she has less armor. We'll see if she gets any better up close with the cruisers.

Hercules had to dodge some torpedoes from the destroyers, but is heading back to help Agincourt.

I noticed that Agincourt generates a nice spread along the line of fire, so even if she is a little over or under with a salvo, some of the shells will hit.

My report to the Admiralty will definitely recommend a well protected 6" secondary, as open 4" secondaries have a hard time against modern destroyers and light cruisers.

Of course, escorting our capital ships would probably help too!

Also, I am again impressed with the German predreads, they definitely can hang in for far more than five minutes. What they can't do, is dictate the range, and thus they are usually destroyed from outside effective range of their 28 cm guns, which at closer range, with their high rate of fire, might be a quite different story.

On the other hand, at close range, they might only last five minutes!
 
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A modest victory

Once again the CG game gave me nine German predreadoughts, but this time no Bayern, perhaps because I questioned her abilities in my earlier post, but more likely because this was ~43000 points worth.

The British had Defense, Warrior, Black Prince and Duke of Edinburgh, so far so good, and Repulse and Renown.

I concentrated on R & R hoping to hole their thin skins and start fatal leaks.
I only lightly damaged them, despite numerous shockwave hits, though I did kill Renown's rear turret, which was actually rather useful, since they spent so much time running away!

Their Armored Cruisers decided they wanted a piece of me, so i adjusted a few ships over since R & R were running, and 4 or 5 ships targetting each was making spotting hard. We didn't do a lot for a while, but then Black Prince blew up, followed shortly by Warrior.

Duke of Edinburgh got up close and sank slowly, which was midly annoying, as I was saving ammo for R & R.

Defense tried to run with R & R, but ended up with a nasty fire which killed her propulsion and ultimately sank her very slowly, as a starboard hole a little above the waterline took "sips".

There turned out to be no need to conserve ammo, as R & R bugged out after the two ACs blew up. I thought they might return, and they did swing by to see how Defense was doing, but then left for good, without firing.

Defense finally sank ending the battle. Braunschweig was still afloat, but was hopelessly burning. All three of my losses were due to uncontrollable fires.

My remaining six ships had very little damage at all.

Final score:
German: 18295/18295
British: 13882/13029

A modest victory, but I'm bragging anyway:bite:
 
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Night Action!

Thanks!

For a change of pace, I chose a random hour for my next CG game.

The action began at 9 pm.

Bayern, Konig & Kronprinz went out for a little night training, when who should we meet?

The British Battlecruisers (well, mostly)!

At first, we only saw their first four ships, Lion, Queen Mary, Hercules and Agincourt! We opened a brisk fire with Bayern firing at Lion, Konig at Queen Mary and Kronprinz at Agincourt.

Lion blew up almost immediately, followed shortly by Queen Mary. Kronprinz took a number of hits, and had to dodge torpedoes.

As we switched to new targets, Hercules was heavily damaged, but charged our line. Agincourt suffered an explosion, but didn't sink for about 15 minutes.

By now, the rest of the line had emerged from the darkness: Australia, New Zealand, Indomitable and Inflexible.

We switched targets to cover these new foes, but they began turning away!

Except the heavily damaged Hercules, who forced Bayern to evade torpedoes, and blew up Konig, which had refused to yield to Hercules charge!

Once Hercules was disposed off, we pursued the fleeing battlecruisers. Fortunately Australia had been damaged and it took her awhile to get her speed up.

Inflexible was badly damaged and slowly sank. A little while later, New Zealand blew up! Indomitable lasted a long time, and almost let Australia get away, firing a torpedo and numerous 12" shells at Bayern.

Bayern was able to keep up, and eventually repairs enabled her to get her speed back up (from 14 knots at the slowest, to 16 knots by the end of the battle).

Australia doggedly fled south, seeking the safety of the night, as star shells and 38 cm shells fell around her.

Kronprinz came up at 18 knots and later 19 knots and finally spotted the fleeing Australia (doing 16 knots, she had been down to 13 knots earlier).

With both Kronprinz and Bayern hitting her, Australia finally slowed, and as we passed her port side, we poured shell after shell along her waterline until she finally rolled over and sank!

It is definitely possible to make a sinking ship sink faster, but it can take some real pounding!

Result: All British ships and Konig sunk. Kronprinz and Bayern lightly damaged.

German: 69173/69173
British: 33288/30364

This actually would be fairly plausible if Hercules & Agincourt were replaced with Princess Royal and Tiger. Assuming that both sides light forces were having their own party!

Bayern performed well this time. Her 38 cm guns blew up the British quite handily at 2-3 km! And despite a steady rain of 12" shells, she didn't lose a turret. Her damage control also performed well, putting out the fires and plugging the leaks.

Night action definitely has a different flavor, and is quite exciting as you take risks trying to keep the fleeing enemy in sight!
 
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Yellow Sea

I just purchased DG 1.5 and decided to start with Yellow Sea as the Russians.

Admiral Vitgeft
Commanding aboard Tsesarevich
Seeing the Japanese in every direction, I was tempted to return to the safety of our minefields and shore batteries, but no, I could not tolerate any further besmirchment of my name with the Tsar!

I ordered up full speed on course 148, but the last Poltava and Sevastopol could only make 16 knots, so we slowed, so that they could keep pace.

And which of my staff is to blame for placing Sevastopol last, when her rear turret is not functional! Further, the Scouting Division is lagging! They should have formed on the battleships!

Four Japanese cruisers are closing quickly from the west! Probably that annoying little Admiral Dewa! They concetrate their fire on the Diana, starting numerous fires!

I order Askold to move between the battleships and Novik's destroyers, and to increase speed. This solves the problem after a time, and eventually Diana gets her fires under control. Sadly, the last of our destroyers is badly damaged, and perishes after a last ditch attempt to get to torpedo range.

That sick bastard Dewa fires on the men as they abandon ship!

I order Novik to increase speed to 25 knots, as the Japanese screening forces scatter before us!

We sight Togo just past Round Island. We have a good start on him.

Now we cross the Rubicon! There can be no turning back as the Japanese move to cut us off from Port Arthur.

Dewa's cruisers continue to hound us firing on Sevastopol and Poltava. I authorize return fire from the rear four ships.

Togo is slowed rounding the island, and stops to incorporate Chen Yuan and her monitors into his battleline. Mikasa becomes separated from the battleline for reasons unknown to us.

Fuji now leads the battleine at 13 knots, as we escape at 16! We cease fire and tend to our damage for a while.

We pull away, but gradually Dewa is overtaking us.

I decide on a bold course! Ordering Poltava and Sevastopol to maintain course, I swing back upon the now isolated Dewa with Tsesarevich, Retvizan, Pobeda and Peresvyet at 18 knots! Cleverly, I cross his bow on course 320 on a passing of starboard broadsides with the sun behind us, dazzling his gunners at the critical moment!

Within minutes, all but his flagship Yakumo are ablaze and sinking!
Dewa charges lauching torpedoes as we respond with our own torpedoes.

I turn Tsesarevich away from his torpedoes, and then continue the turn back to our original heading. Yakumo is froced to avoid our torpedoes, while all four battleships pound her to scrap. Pobeda and Peresvyet swerve to avoid additional torpedoes and we resume course 148 at 17 knots.

I order a cease fire, but the secondary gunners keep firing until the range opens. Yakumo is ablaze on her startboard side and listing to port.

We leave her to sink slowly.

We continue to leave the enemy behind for the next few hours, and pass Wei-hai-wei. We are then forced to alter course to port to avoid a headland! My cheif navigator will hear about this!

We lose sight of the enemy, except for two destroyers and an armed merchant cruiser which shadow us!

The headland gives me an idea! I signal Askold to bring the Scouting Division
around behind the headland and arrange a surprise!

Just as the enemy rounds the headland, out come Askold, Pallada and Diana, all guns ablaze! All three of the enemy are blasted to ruin in minutes!

Askold signals that the enemy battleline still follows, at 12 knots, then turns back onto course 148 at 18 knots.

Diana loses sight of them just before sunset.

I have successfully escaped the enemy blockade, with minimal damage to the fleet, have destroyed Dewa, and we are well on our way to Vladivostok, where there is no annoying Viceroy!

Gamer notes:

The AI seemed unwilling to engage us without the old Chinese battleship, maybe a fix is needed there. Once I destroyed Dewa's cruisers, I was free and clear. I killed the shadows, so I wouldn't be followed, and because it was fun!

Score:
Russia: 18 ships, 9 damaged, 1 lost. 7639/7864
Japan: 52 ships, 5 damaged, 7 lost. 1326/754

A modest victory. Mostly I just steered 148.
 
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Russian campaign

I hope you enjoy it. The campaign is more challenging as the Russians, I think.
And I won't feel so bad if I lose!

I'll probably either do that, or I'll start a full year British campaign in Jutland.

Right now, I'm taking a short break to play battles. I tend to get rather wrapped up in the campaign, as you have no doubt noticed!

I really love these games!
 
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British campaign

I generally play as the Brits without Room 40 and ACHs on. It forces you to plan and play carefully ;).
I'm planning to leave the ACHs on (ouch!), and use Room 40, just to play it out historically. I'm also curious to see how much Room 40 tells me.

Of course, maybe I'll ignore a lot of what they tell me, just to be historical:laugh:

Of course, with a Russian campaign, I won't have to deal with those darned submarines! They got four of my light cruisers, and I never did manage to come up with a good counter. Next time I play German - I'll definitely put some mines in the Bight entrances though!
 
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