Second Pacific Encounter

Mobeer

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I've just had a close call fighting as the Japanese against the Second Pacific Squadron.

Round 1
Five Japanese cruisers find the Russian fleet in the middle of the night, about 175km west of Tsushima. I didn't get any images, so I'll describe:
The Russians are in three columns - battlefleet in the centre lead by the Suvorov battleships, cruisers to the left and destroyers to the right.
Rather than withdraw, I decide to let my cruisers lose on the enemy destroyers. All five Japanese cruisers make an immeadiate turn, cross the front of the Russian fleet, then turn outside the Russian destroyers. Bad weather and distance makes the Russian battleships inaccurate, but my cruisers struggle to score repeated hits against the enemy destroyers.

I then made a definite mistake - since both sides were inaccurate, I turn my cruisers in towards the destroyers. Some damage was done, but the Russian battleships were now that much closer. Three Japanese cruisers were hit by battleships, whilst a fourth was chased down by cruisers. The last crippled Japanese cruiser slipped away in the night. Only two Russian destroyers were sunk.

If I had another chance to fight this battle, I would have put just a couple of cruisers on patrol, and used the remaining three cruisers to reinforce the 1st Squadron.


Round 2
Sai Yen leads 38 torpedo boats on a nighttime attack on the Russian fleet. The Russians are still deployed in three columns. Despite cruisers, destroyers and initial collisions, the torpedo boats get organised and swamp the Russia fleet:
View attachment 17317
View attachment 17318

Sai Yen tries to draw the attention of the Russian cruisers away from the torpedo boats, but succeeds rather more than is desired:
View attachment 17319
Sai Yen's main gun mount is disabled after a single salvo, and she lasts little longer than the torpedo boats.

To end the battle, the leading Russian battleships are damaged, but all are afloat, which given the number of torpedo hits (especially on Knyaz Suvorov) is a big disapointment:
View attachment 17320

The Japanese fleet losses make sad reading:
View attachment 17321

More to follow on the meeting of the Japanese First Squadron and Russian Second Pacific Squadron
 
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Mobeer

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Battle of the heavyweights pt1

After losing 44 ships in exchange for two destroyers, the Japanese battlefleet stepped in to crush the puny Russian reinforcement fleet. Unfortunately the battle didn't work out quite that simple.

At first things looked good. The Russians decided to dance their way to victory, whilst the Japanese looked cool and disciplined.
View attachment 17322
View attachment 17323

The Russian battleships rather misunderstood which part of the T they were supposed to try to be. Soon the Japanese battleships had the leading Russians under heavy fire:
View attachment 17324
In return, Mikasa was repeatedly hit:
View attachment 17325

The Japanese had a plan, and swung in a division of cruisers and a divison of destroyers for a torpedo attack.
View attachment 17327
 

Mobeer

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Battle of the heavyweights pt2

At first the torpedo attack looked good, but the torpedos mostly missed:
View attachment 17328

Soon the Russian battleships had to be put on the back burner, because more trouble was coming up to support:
View attachment 17329

Not everyone was so eager to fight however, as the Russian smaller craft held back:
View attachment 17330

The remaining uncommiteed Japanese destroyers were sent in on a torpedo attack against the lesser Russian battleships. I think Distant Guns needs a better way to handle small craft in a big engagement. As it was, to few destroyers made good attacks, largely due to their desire to keep formation no matter what:
View attachment 17331

A surprise was in store for the Japanese - the leading Russian battleships had once again found time to ready themselves for battle once again.
View attachment 17333

The Japanese were busy meanwhile with the Russian cruisers. While the battleships made their slow turn (and while Mikasa turned out of line, burning and flooding), the Japanese cruisers broke formation and closed with the Russian ships, taking considerable fire for their efforts.
View attachment 17334
 

Mobeer

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Battle of the heavyweights pt3

Two of the Russian battleships appeared to be fleeing:
View attachment 17335
They were then engaged by the Japanese cruisers, who began to wish the Russians had been more determined to escape. Two more Russian battleships would join the fight, and of the four Japanese armoured cruisers used here, only two would survive:
View attachment 17337
The badly damaged Adzuma was also picked on by battleship Aleksander III. Mikasa could offer no help and would later sink, but five of the Japanese battleships were closing at 18 knots.
View attachment 17338

By the time the Japanese battleships arrived, what few ships remained where in mess:
View attachment 17339

Order was restored by the five Japanese battleships, which slowly but surely knocked out the five Russian battleships in the area, but lost two of the their number in the process:
View attachment 17340

The weaker Russian cruisers survived for a while when all around them everything was sinking.
View attachment 17341
 
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Mobeer

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Battle of the heavyweights finale

This final Russian warships closed the range:
View attachment 17342

But the Japanese battleships demostrated how torpedo attacks are supposed to work, while the Russian guns could not hurt the Japanese battleships enough:
View attachment 17343
This was followed by some nice accurate gunfire from the one Japanese battleship that had ammuntion left (all praise be to slow firing guns).

Eventually the last four Russian destroyers fled after finishing off a Japanese armoured cruiser. All that remaining of the Russian fleet was the unarmed auxiliarys, four destroyers and a coastal battleship that slipped past the Japansese.

But claiming victory is hard for the Japanese. 44 ships had been lost even before this battle, in which the Japanses lost 3 battleships, 4 armoured cruisers, 4 protected cruisers and 19 destroyers.

For a while it appeared that the Russians would win the battle, when they possesed a reserve of undamaged ships. However the Russians would have been better off using those ships early on when their battleships were still afloat.

Japanese torpedo attacks were a continual disappointment. Hits were disappointingly low, the destroyers took too much micromanagement to work and the Suvorov class battleships seemed to be immune even when hit. The Russians came close to scoring some good torpedo hits, but eventually only scored two hits, one on a Russian battleship.

Gunfire from heavy guns wrecked the Japanse cruiser force. In particular the 254mm LP guns of some of the older Russian ships proved very accurate. On the Japanese side, the 203mm cruiser guns did much less damage. The Japanese battleships fought well together, but could not easily sink the Russians without torpedo support.

Round 5
As an afterthought, the Japanese gunboats chased down the remains of the Russian fleet. Unfortunately at this point the Japanese (i.e., me) didn't realise that a coastal battleship with 254mm guns had survived. It promptly sunk 10 more Japanese vessels, in exchange for 1 Russian destroyer.


The remaining campaign will be short, but could be difficult. The Japanese are very short on cruisers, and need the three damaged battleships repaired for anti-cruiser duty. The Russians have lost heavily, but the few crusiers at Vladivostock pose a threat to shipping that only the remaining Japanese battleships can snuff out. I think the Japanese can hang on for victory, but it will be close.
 

saddletank

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Great report, those big battles are just mad aren't they? You now hold the record for ‘most sinking ships seen in one screenshot’. I've stopped using any destroyers or TBs in open battle as they just don't live long enough. I keep them well back in reserve and just use them to finish off cripples.

It's only June in my Japanese campaign and all is quiet with Vladivostok now cleaned out totally of enemy and 5 BBs, 2 cruisers and 9 DDs (plus the odds and sods squadron) hiding in Port Arthur and they won't come out to play!
 
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Bullethead

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Damn! That was a Hell of a battle! Thanks for the report. I haven't gotten nearly so far in any of my campaigns yet, so am really looking forward to Der Tag when I finally get the chance. Reports like this keep me drooling in anticipation :).
 
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