Noob Campaign May 1916 Room 40 German

[Drauf_Seydlitz!]

May 1916 campaign with Room 40

After Action Report
To: Vice-Admiral Scheer
From: Vice- Admiral Hipper

The Scouting group set out to bombard Great Yarmouth as ordered,
but has returned to base following a night action with British light forces.

The British were spotted within our screen, so I ordered SG1 to move ahead at full speed.
Our forces began firing, but refrained from lauching torpedoes into the close range melee.

As we came upon the first group of British destroyers we were forced to evade their torpedo
attack. Lutzow was struck in the stern, jamming her rudder to the right, leaving us moving
in a circle at 22 knots!

The remainder of SG1 disappeared into the night for some harrowing minutes as Lutzow bravely
blasted enemy ships to port and starboard at extremely short ranges! The enemy seemed determined
to finish my flagship, but we received little additional damage other than two 15 cm guns being
disabled by two 28 cm shells from SG1 as they attempted to assist!

During this time, Lutzow sank numerous British destroyers and, oddly enough, a seaplane tender!

After a harrowing 25 minutes, rudder control was re-established and we signalled Frankfurt's division
to follow us.

After the battle, we had lost 16 Torpedoboote, and had sunk a light cruiser, a seaplane tender and
approximately 25 destroyers.

 

[Drauf_Seydlitz!]

May 1916 campaign with Room 40

After Action Report
To: Grossadmiral Tirpitz
From: Vizeadmiral Scheer

Great Yarmouth has been reduced to rubble by the guns of the Hochseeflotte!

After the Scouting forces turned back after their night battle with the Harwich Force, I undertook the assignment personally. The Hochseeflotte arrived without incident at Great Yarmouth.

Once there we were opposed by a lone British monitor, which following bombardment by all of our ships with guns of 30.5 cm, was torpedoed
at 600 m by the Rostock.

According to the British papers, this was indeed the "Dread Monitor Roberts"!

Following the sinking of the monitor, the Hochseeflotte commenced an extensive bombardment of Great Yarmouth by 22 battleships.

 

[Drauf_Seydlitz!]

Conversation on board His Majesty's Monitor Roberts

Captain: I say! Isn't that the High Seas Fleet?
XO: I do believe you are right! Jolly unsporting, what?
Captain: True, our two 14" guns are larger than any of theirs!

Info bubble: MN Roberts
Targeted by 59 ships

 

[Bullethead]

According to the British papers, this was indeed the "Dread Monitor Roberts"!

But it turns out your monitor friend here is only MOSTLY dead :clown:

 

[Von der Tann]

- "I say, this is indeed rather unsporting, old fruit."
- "Indeed. But we can't sit around on our hands, now, can we? Jasper, would you be so kind as to inform the officer of the watch to ready the good man for battle?"
:clown:

Does anyone remember the movie League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Wasn't all that good, but in a weird way, it was very interesting and entertaining. As Quartermain is hunted by the evil minions in Africa, one of his big game hunter pals remarks on the enemies having armour and autonatic weapons: "Jolly unsporting. Probably Belgians!" And I remember that on an occasion when the Germans used 8,8cm Flak to smash a British tank assault in North Africa, the use of this weapon was called "unsporting" as well...

 

[Drauf_Seydlitz!]

Hmm...what color is the dot over the ship when it is MOSTLY dead?

Yes, I do remember "The League", and it did have its moments, sort of a Victorian X-men...

Now certainly, it should be self-evident that an 8,8 cm FLAK gun is meant for shooting at aeroplanes, not tanks, a clear misuse of equipment, and certainly not cricket!

Hmm...use of an 8,8 cm Flak gun certainly would make for a much "bloodier" cricket match!

 

[Drauf_Seydlitz!]

Flanders Follies

I decided to send the Flanders Flotilla out for a bit of minelaying near the English coast. But no sooner had we set out, then we ran into the Light cruiser Undaunted and her brood!

We fell back to Oostende and our shore batteries had a "jolly good time" at the expense of the English! However, one our destroyers and one TB were damaged and tried to put in at Oostende.

Apparently, the port was full, as I received messages about captains dying and the ships sinking, and then they disengaged from the battle. I should have preferred that they simply disengage, without all that sinking and dying!

Another destroyer was just after torpedoing a monitor, which alone amongst the Allied Armada, had the good sense to stay out of range of the shore batteries. The monitor only received moderate damage from the torpedo, but as they say, she was MOSTLY dead! She foundered shortly thereafter.

My forces were largely out of ammo, so a later attack drove them back to Antwerp. I think I hit end battle to finsh off some enemy TB, and my ships seem to like shore leave in Antwerp!

 

[Drauf_Seydlitz!]

Flanders Follies Part Deux

I decided to return the Flanders Flotilla to Zeebrugge, but when they got there I found The Royal Aviation Corps and their escorts spoiling for a fight!

Fortunately, the six monitors decided to withdraw! I guess they had heard about what I do to monitors!

Unfortunately, some of these enemy ships were quite superior to mine!
They had a Flotilla Leader and some DDs with 6" guns! I had 8,8 cm and 5 cm guns!

I managed to save two TB in the end, and all the nasty English bedwetters were sunk! Plus two more or those French TBs.

I have some interesting screenshots where Ghurka rams a TB! It really highlights the size difference in those ships! Ghurka carried her quite a ways on her bow.

The really interesting ramming however, was when the AV Riviera ran down her escort DD Viking from behind! Viking had been damaged and slowed by the shore batteries, so that Riviera hit her squarely on the stern.

Riviera then enveloped the Viking entirely, and the <expletive> her out the stern! I took a few shots of that too. Didn't seem to bother Riviera much, but Viking was done for. I wonder if the shells hitting while they were coincident counted against both ships?

I suppose I could station a couple of light cruisers here, though I'm tempted to heavily mine the area just north of Oostende where the monitors like to lounge!

I tried very hard to get my ships to enter Zeebrugge's "anchor" during the battle, to no effect. At least one of the English destroyers crossed it too.

The way the English charged in, I assume they were making an amphibious landing!

The shore batteries are much more effective then the AI gives them credit for, so I guess I should make certain that I keep bait here! A good job for Roon, but I guess she's busy in the Baltic.

A PreDread would be to big for the port, I think.

 

[Drauf_Seydlitz!]

Channel Raid

Since Lutzow and Seydlitz are in the shipyards hands, I created task force 20 with Derfflinger, Moltke and Von der Tann. I also included Elbing, Regensburg and eight of the longer ranged DDs.

We encountered three DDs which suffered greatly from the big guys, and then one lone one, the DD Desperate, which Elbing took care of. Four other DDs ran for cover and we let them go.

We then passed between Dover and Calais, drawing fire from some shore batteries, as my formation was a bit too wide for there.

I also had a bit of a mishap when I "crossed the streams"! Don't ever cross the streams!

Regensburg and Elbing crossed wakes, and some of the DDs kept avoiding collison for a while, until the didn't!

Damage wasn't too bad, but I'll have to be more careful!

I was busy sinking four more monitors with the BCs, off Le Havre, I believe.

I did manage to mine a port, Newport I think.

Now I'm deciding whether to circumnavigate England, raiding all the way, or to head back to port.

I hate to leave my fleet with so few BCs (Lutzow and Seydlitz could sail as they aren't that bad off), but, on the other hand, I have yet to see anything larger than a light cruiser or a monitor. Of course, it has only been a week.

Besides, I'd love to see the headlines in the British papers when I start sinking ships in sight of Liverpool!

In other news, Brummer captured a merchant carrying Bristish contraband while laying a minefield north of Great Yarmouth!

 

[Bullethead]

Re: Channel Raid

Hmm...what color is the dot over the ship when it is MOSTLY dead?

It takes Miracle Max to tell the difference between the black of mostly dead and the black of all dead :clown:.

Now certainly, it should be self-evident that an 8,8 cm FLAK gun is meant for shooting at aeroplanes, not tanks, a clear misuse of equipment, and certainly not cricket!

Hmm.... You might not have noticed, but most of the newer German ships have 8,8cm Flak L/45 guns, which they are more than willing to fire at ships. So don't be a hypocrite here

My forces were largely out of ammo, so a later attack drove them back to Antwerp. I think I hit end battle to finsh off some enemy TB, and my ships seem to like shore leave in Antwerp!

I need to fix that. It used to be that Antwerp was realistically off limits to German warships due to Dutch territorial waters cutting off the estuary leading to it--only merchants could use Antwerp. Somewhere along the line, that changed in the game and I have no idea when or why. But I'll soon put a stop to this .

I managed to save two TB in the end

The German A1-type TBs are the most useless ships in the game. They're too slow to run away from a 25-year old French AC and have only 1 small gun which only covers the rear arc, as if they might actually be able to run away from anything. To top it off, they have only 45cm torps. And the Germans actually built these hunks of junk after the war had started! What were they smoking? :smoke:

After a disastrous sortie in 1915 in which the leader of Torpedobootflotilla Flandern was killed along with 3 of his so-call warships, these things were relegated to minesweeping and defensive minelaying around Zeebrugge. When the MKF got some real DDs from the HSF, MKF laid up double that number of A1 TBs to man the DDs.

I tried very hard to get my ships to enter Zeebrugge's "anchor" during the battle, to no effect. At least one of the English destroyers crossed it too.

You can't disengage by entering a port during a battle, only naval bases. Likewise, the enemy doesn't blow up driving over your port symbol, because ports are assumed to be less fortified than actual bases.

The shore batteries are much more effective then the AI gives them credit for.

I'm surprised. I've been seeing the AI quickly pulling away from the enemy coast once the shore batteries open up.

I also had a bit of a mishap when I "crossed the streams"! Don't ever cross the streams!

Unless the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man is about to tear your skyscraper over...

Now I'm deciding whether to circumnavigate England, raiding all the way, or to head back to port.

I don't thnk any of the German DDs can circumanvigate the UK or even just the big island, so you'll have to split them off and send them back the way they came if you want to send the BCs and CLs on around.

 

[Drauf_Seydlitz!]

Teeny weent Torpedoboote

As division commander, I never actually ordered them to use the
8,8s...maintaining plausible deniability...

Yeah, those TBs don't even get an 8,8 cm, they're stuck with one rear-mounted 5 cm (and not much ammo; guess they aren't expected to last long enough to use it!). The rear mount makes sense as they should be running, but 20 knots isn't even fast enough to run from the British line of battle.

They do seem to make good bait. My shore batteries have killed a lot of British light craft. It really did look like their DDs were making an amphibious landing on the beach! Of course, they were, ahem, MOSTLY dead at that point. I'm certain that Max would concur.

After the first battle, I learned to keep them close to the shore, and drag the poor AI through as many "rings" as possible!

It certainly appears that a minefield just out of range of Oostende's guns might catch a few monitors.

Maybe I'll send those DDs to Zeebrugge and take the BCs and CLs round England.

I had Vista complain twice that the DG engine had stopped a few minutes from my latest save, so I'll try to send that in.

It ran fine when I started a new CG battle, check the matchup on Noob Adventures. This time the computer had predreads!

 

[Drauf_Seydlitz!]

Back in action with version 1.0.7.0

Now that I have version 1.0.7.0, I'm back in action!

I nabbed that pesky damaged TB that had eluded my shore batteries, as well as another that the Zeebrugge batteries spotted close inshore in the dark.

I also stopped a freighter carrying contraband.

This was Derfflinger, Moltke & Von der Tann with their screen (TF 20).

 

[Bullethead]

Re: Back in action with version 1.0.7.0

This was Derfflinger, Moltke & Von der Tann with their screen (TF 20).

In case you didn't know, you can rename your task forces. Just go to the Task Force Organization Screen and right-click on the TF's icon in the right column. This brings up a box allowing you to put in any name you want. I find it easier to keep track of my forces when I give them names I can remember.

You can also right-click on a TF's divisions in the central area of the TF Org screen. When you do this, you can not only rename the division but set it in line abreast or line astern formation, and change the spacing between ships in the division.

I find it quite useful to put my TBs at 250m apart, DDs at 300m, CLs at 400m, and everything bigger I leave at 500m. If you get them too close together, you run the risk of collision, but the above numbers work OK. The advantage of closer spacing is having more ships in range to fire during night battles. The downside is, it makes a barrage of torpedoes more likely to hit something.

 

[Drauf_Seydlitz!]

Bullethead,

Thanks for the tips! I enjoyed reading your battle tips.
Do you have a collection of campaign tips?

I find myself wondering whether it is worth (ammo,coal) chasing down the weak DDs I run accross, or how much is it worth to kill a monitor?

I left off last night in pursuit of HMS Ranger, a 24 knot DD with a 12 pdr, a torp and two smaller guns. What is the optimum range for my CLs to open fire? I'm thinking maybe 4-5k. Just want to cripple it, then leave it burning and sinking (sadistically chortling)... Don't want to take much damage, but don't want to waste too much ammo. Elbing is closer, but Regensburg and the BCs are catching up.

I sent my DDs home, as I'm planning a long voyage. I'm NW of Le Havre.
Been chasing it for about an hour of game time.

I'm getting better at using F3 to locate the enemy groups, though the biggest that I see now are the channel monitors (seven of them), but there are numerous lone DDs, TBs and subs.

 

[Bullethead]

Do you have a collection of campaign tips?

I don't think so, but other folks do.

I find myself wondering whether it is worth (ammo,coal) chasing down the weak DDs I run accross, or how much is it worth to kill a monitor?

Every little bit helps toward victory.

Killing all the patrolling old destroyers and TBs is useful in that it tends to blind the enemy. However, they're not a significant source of victory points, so if you've got better things to do, you're probably best leaving them alone. The guys you're sending out to the Irish Sea are going to find real trouble somewhere along the line, probably more than they want, so I'd save the fuel and ammo for bigger game. If you want to clean out the Channel, send something down there expressly for that purpose.

 

[Drauf_Seydlitz!]

Ranger and a freighter

Not much time last night, but I did leave Ranger burning and listing, and it sank about 40 minutes later.

I ignored the next two encounters as I had a report of a freighter, which I captured off the Isle of Wight.

The two British DDs decided that discretion was indeed the better part of valor, and sailed away.

I've noticed that some of these little battles involve large number of enemy ships that I never sight but disengage. Sometimes I get an extra kill. I'm guessing that sometimes they find one of my mines, or a U-boat.

Well, this weekend I hope to reach the Irish Sea, and we'll see what awaits me. So far, I have had no reports of British capital ship activity.

Perhaps my constant new orders to this task force (ala Churchill) are confusing Room 40.

Meanwhile Mowe has laid mines in the northern east-west allied shipping lane and is heading out to the North.

 

[Drauf_Seydlitz!]

Gruppe Magellan

Thanks to Bullethead's naming tip, TF 20 is now Gruppe Magellan.

Their voyage continues:

Regensburg captured a merchant off Southhampton, risking the shore batteries briefly, but coming away unscathed with the prize!

Later, off Pembroke, we sink DD TB 32, but afterwards are caught by the shore batteries as we investigate another DD TB (i.e. the battle started with us in range). The BCs turned line abreast and moved out of range before resuming line ahead (good practice for the noob).

Regensburg was less fortunate, getting caught by two 9.2 " shells before getting clear, damage was light leaving her with 3% persistent flooding on both port and starboard (automatic counterflooding ).

 

[Drauf_Seydlitz!]

The Pinch in The Minch

Gruppe Magellan rendevoused with Mowe west of Scotland, then proceeded to sail up The Minch (between Lewis and the Scottish Highlands) where, much to our surprise, who should be coming the other way?

You guessed it, Admiral Beatty and the whole BCF!

Forty-eight ships including two AVs (Engadine and Manx)!

We had six ships (including UB 28, who was closer to the BCF).

It was 7:10 pm, May 25.

I decided that the odds were not in our favor, so we came about and rang up 27 knots!

Since the sub was there, I took advantage to get a bird's eye view of the BCF!

Apparently, Admiral Beatty was even more excited to see us! In his haste to to get into action, it appears that he had managed to run down his own destroyer Onslow which was sinking.

Nice to know I'm not the only one who has trouble managing my light forces:clown:!

Lion and the Cats were headed my way at 28 knots! The 5th Battle squadron was coming from the east side of their formation.

New Zealand and Indefatigable were rushing back to form up behind the Cats!

Light forces were headed all over the place!

There was about an hour and a half until sunset. I figured that I could run until then.

Suddenly, Admiral Beatty sighted UB 28s' periscope! There ships all began turning about! UB 28 submerged, and the only ships I could see were some of the British cruiser screen.

And then it was over, Magellan 1, Beatty 0!

 

[Drauf_Seydlitz!]

Encounter during the night

It seems that Beatty was not satisfied with running down the Onslow, and he proceeded to pursue through the night!

At 2:32 am, May 26, the Elbing spotted a freighter at 262 km WNW of Stromness.

But, this was no ordinary freighter! This was the Armed Merchant Cruiser Virginian! Gruppe Magellan moved to attack!

Two minutes later, The Virginian (heh heh) was reinforced!

We knew that the BCF was nipping at our heels, but no, this was something else, approaching from the NW!

The Armed Merchant Cruiser Alsatian to the rescue!

Then they both turned and ran! But, the British had assumed that these two would be the hunters, and not the hunted, so they had no stern chasers!

The were big though, and Elbing used up a lot of ammo without much success.

What did work was to run Derfflinger up behind them to point blank range, and then blast them!

Scratch two AMCs!

 

[Drauf_Seydlitz!]

Breakfast with Beatty

Beatty and the BCF caught up with us at 9:58 am bearing 251 at about 25 km.

Our position was approximately 60 degrees N, 6 degrees W. Our heading was east.

The sea state was 5, with 3 meter waves and and 26 knot wind from the SSW.

We could see only the cruiser screen, and they were struggling in the heavy seas!

In the end they turned back, all except Falmouth and Yarmouth (who were the original rearguard at The Minch).

But it began to rain, and visibility dropped and by 10:12 am, we eluded the BCF once again!