Well, the Battle of the Big Red Sky is over. A force of two Nassau-class dreadnoughts, two Helgoland class dreadnoughts, plus three scout cruisers and eight destroyer escorts, encountered a division of two King George V class dreadnoughts and four Orion class dreadnoughts, accompanied by three light cruisers and eight destroyer escorts. Both sides virtually annihilated each other in an storm of battleship destruction.
The Big Red Sky scenario is basically the same as the Red Sky at Morning scenario, except additional forces have been added. The advance scouts were increased to three light cruisers each, and two half-flotillas of destroyers were added to each group of battleships. While the German battleships are smaller in number and have fewer guns of smaller caliber, they also have much better DCC, which makes for a very close match.
Taff and I played British, and Von Der Tann and Paladin played German. Taff led the scouting force, and I took the battle squadron. The battle began with a little chaos, with the battleships attempting to re-form a line on the aft-most ship in the line, but a quick re-assignment of the division leader fixed the issue without incident.
Taff took the scout cruisers forward on an aggressive scouting mission, to try and break past the German scouts and locate their battleships. While he took more damage than he received, Taff's aggressive scouting soon located the enemy battleships heading west, and he then turned away to the south. I took a quick look at the wind and weather, and sent the battle squadron racing southeast, to try and sneak around their BBs and steal the weather gauge from them. To conceal my maneuver, I sent one of my escorting destroyer squadrons north then east, in the hope of buying more time for me to gain the advantages of wind and sun.
Finally I felt I was in position, and the German capital ships were still heading west-southwest. I turned my ships north to seize the initiative and begin closing for the gun fight.
I had barely completed this maneuver, however, when Von Der Tann turned his battleships around and sent his entire fleet steaming to reclaim his weather gauge. This set the two fleets on a very tight convergence.
Neither side was willing to turn away and let gunsmoke hurt its accuracy, so the two fleets continued to close, hammering each other into scrap as quickly as they could. First Nassau exploded, then Centurion was crippled, then King George V took several full broadsides right at the waterline and capsized. Conquerer went off like a party popper, and the damage on Heligoland and Ostfriedland built up to a fatal level. The destroyer screens and cruisers were desperately trying to batter the other side's escorts out of the way to launch torpedoes and force the other fleet to flinch, and both Paladin and Taff poured their light forces into the crucible without restraint.
Finally, with the British and German battleships within spitting distance of each other, a lucky hit on Centurion's rudder forced me to flinch. I turned the line hard a-starboard to reverse course, and hopefully not sacrifice too much of my accuracy to gunsmoke and sun. Then another broadside landed below Thunderer's waterline, splitting seams and fatally wounding the ship, and turning an orderly turn into a rout. Orion and Monarch, my two surviving battleships, turned to disengage. By this point, most of the British light forces were expended, but Paladin had kept alive several of the German light cruisers and destroyers, and these ships closed in for the kill. HMS Monarch succumbed to their torpedoes, but by then the fighting had mostly subsided and HMS Orion was well on its way to safety, so Von Der Tann and Paladin ordered their ships to stop and rescue survivors from the many broken and shattered wrecks.
In the end, both sides had one surviving battleship. Escorts and scouts on both sides were devastated, but Britain only had one CL left, while Germany still had several CLs and a few DDs. The computer called it a draw, but considering the survivors of the battle, I would call it a German victory. The fight itself was tons of fun, and we discussed the scenario afterward and suggested a few improvements to Gascan. He has incorporated the changes two the force composition and weather and should be posting the scenario for download as soon as it can receive further testing. All in all, I think this is an excellent small scenario for about four players. There is a period for scouting and maneuvering, where commanders can attempt to seize the advantage for the intense battleship action that follows, wrapped up in a package small enough for a few players to handle. Gascan has mentioned that he has ideas to expand scenario again to make it suitable for six to eight players.