kotori87
Member
Hey, folks. Battle report from my first play-through of the custom scenario The Morning of the Battlecruisers. This scenario was made by Graf von Spee, and is available in the main forum. It portrays an encounter between the British and German battlecruiser squadrons, with an escorting group of destroyers and cruisers. I opted to play the German side, the first time through.
I started out with cruisers scouting ahead, and destroyers within a safe distance of my battlecruisers. Soon enough, the cruisers spotted British cruisers dead ahead, and several minutes later the battlecruisers appeared. The British battlecruisers opened fire at max range, and the shots fell uncomfortably close, so I turned my cruisers back for safekeeping. When the range fell to 30 kilometers between the two battlecruiser squadrons, I turned my group to port, crossing the enemy T and positioning myself "with the wind in my face". I'd heard somewhere that that helps gunnery, so I was always conscious of the wind throughout the battle. Can anyone verify this claim?
The British battlecruisers opened up on my line at maximum range. I held fire until 17,000 meters, when they scored their first hit on Von Der Tann. Having the wind positioned to clear the gunsmoke from my sights (and clouding those of my enemy's), and crossing the enemy's T proved a decisive combination. The gun crews cheered as Princess Royal blew up spectacularly at 5:53 AM, just as their battle line was turning parallel at a range of 10,500 meters. Six minutes later, our morale soared again as their flagship Lion also detonated in fine British fashion. This completely shattered their fighting spirit, and the remaining four battlecruisers turned to run. Not without cost, however, as Indefatigable and New Zealand took several hits below the waterline, forcing a reduction in speed to 22 knots. Queen Mary and Tiger split off from the slower ships, and headed 90 degrees to them, so I had to choose between the two groups. Indefatigable and New Zealand were already damaged, so I ordered a general chase for all ships and the race was on.
The range between Indefatigable, New Zealand, and my line abreast of battlecruisers slowly dropped from 11,000 meters down to 10,000, and ammunition in both fleets dwindled. Unfortunately I had forgotten to watch my destroyers, and around 7:00 I remembered them, just as they began to cut through my line abreast of battlecruisers. The first warning I got was when Moltke suddenly increased speed and veered drunkenly towards Von Der Tann, avoiding a collision by mere meters. That's when I spotted the destroyers, and when I looked back, Moltke was taking another swing at Von Der Tann while the other three played musical chairs. Luckily Moltke missed again, and I was able to back the destroyers off and send them around the side, but my line was in chaos. Then I watched as, magically, each ship formed back up, right where it had been before the destroyers plowed through everything. This came as a surprise to me, because I don't recall them ever doing that in DG.
Ammunition was low in the forward turrets, so at 7:40 I ordered my battlecruisers to turn broadside and take one last chance to slow them down with gunfire, and let the destroyers close at 28 knots. At 7:55 they ceased fire, and resumed general chase. Then at 8:05, the destroyers were in position, parallel to the enemy and closing the range. At 4,000 meters I ordered gun bombardment, and was surprised to see no return fire from the battlecruisers. As best as I could figure, any guns still working had already sent their ammunition towards my own battlecruisers, so I continued to close before firing torpedoes. 2,000 meters, and the enemy still hadn't shot at my destroyers. 1,000 meters, and the enemy STILL hadn't shot at my destroyers. I ordered an initial volley from my lead pair of destroyers at 750 meters. These missed, and then I saw return fire from the battlecruisers' torpedo tubes. What followed was an intricate dance of destroyers and torpedoes, as I tried to bring each torpedo tube to bear while dodging the enemy's torpedoes. It cost me two destroyers, but New Zealand was hit by two torpedoes at 8:31 and sank by 8:49. I then maneuvered my destroyers in for a coup de grace on Invincible, delivering four torpedo hits and two duds from less than 250 meters. She sank at 9:15.
Overall, I lost two destroyers to sink four battlecruisers, with light damage to three of my own. The result was proclaimed a "modest victory", with raw/adjusted scores of 35851/35851 to 7144/4604.
screenshots:
The first two images show Princess Royal sinking, followed by Lion blowing up. Next we have my battlecruisers in fine form for a chase, and the destroyer line that caused so much mischief. Fifth is the battlecruiser line re-formed (without any input from me, YAY!). And finally, we have boarding parties away when destroyer V28 comes within spitting distance of Indefatigable. Actually, V28 fired the final fatal torpedo volley while backing away from this close encounter.
I started out with cruisers scouting ahead, and destroyers within a safe distance of my battlecruisers. Soon enough, the cruisers spotted British cruisers dead ahead, and several minutes later the battlecruisers appeared. The British battlecruisers opened fire at max range, and the shots fell uncomfortably close, so I turned my cruisers back for safekeeping. When the range fell to 30 kilometers between the two battlecruiser squadrons, I turned my group to port, crossing the enemy T and positioning myself "with the wind in my face". I'd heard somewhere that that helps gunnery, so I was always conscious of the wind throughout the battle. Can anyone verify this claim?
The British battlecruisers opened up on my line at maximum range. I held fire until 17,000 meters, when they scored their first hit on Von Der Tann. Having the wind positioned to clear the gunsmoke from my sights (and clouding those of my enemy's), and crossing the enemy's T proved a decisive combination. The gun crews cheered as Princess Royal blew up spectacularly at 5:53 AM, just as their battle line was turning parallel at a range of 10,500 meters. Six minutes later, our morale soared again as their flagship Lion also detonated in fine British fashion. This completely shattered their fighting spirit, and the remaining four battlecruisers turned to run. Not without cost, however, as Indefatigable and New Zealand took several hits below the waterline, forcing a reduction in speed to 22 knots. Queen Mary and Tiger split off from the slower ships, and headed 90 degrees to them, so I had to choose between the two groups. Indefatigable and New Zealand were already damaged, so I ordered a general chase for all ships and the race was on.
The range between Indefatigable, New Zealand, and my line abreast of battlecruisers slowly dropped from 11,000 meters down to 10,000, and ammunition in both fleets dwindled. Unfortunately I had forgotten to watch my destroyers, and around 7:00 I remembered them, just as they began to cut through my line abreast of battlecruisers. The first warning I got was when Moltke suddenly increased speed and veered drunkenly towards Von Der Tann, avoiding a collision by mere meters. That's when I spotted the destroyers, and when I looked back, Moltke was taking another swing at Von Der Tann while the other three played musical chairs. Luckily Moltke missed again, and I was able to back the destroyers off and send them around the side, but my line was in chaos. Then I watched as, magically, each ship formed back up, right where it had been before the destroyers plowed through everything. This came as a surprise to me, because I don't recall them ever doing that in DG.
Ammunition was low in the forward turrets, so at 7:40 I ordered my battlecruisers to turn broadside and take one last chance to slow them down with gunfire, and let the destroyers close at 28 knots. At 7:55 they ceased fire, and resumed general chase. Then at 8:05, the destroyers were in position, parallel to the enemy and closing the range. At 4,000 meters I ordered gun bombardment, and was surprised to see no return fire from the battlecruisers. As best as I could figure, any guns still working had already sent their ammunition towards my own battlecruisers, so I continued to close before firing torpedoes. 2,000 meters, and the enemy still hadn't shot at my destroyers. 1,000 meters, and the enemy STILL hadn't shot at my destroyers. I ordered an initial volley from my lead pair of destroyers at 750 meters. These missed, and then I saw return fire from the battlecruisers' torpedo tubes. What followed was an intricate dance of destroyers and torpedoes, as I tried to bring each torpedo tube to bear while dodging the enemy's torpedoes. It cost me two destroyers, but New Zealand was hit by two torpedoes at 8:31 and sank by 8:49. I then maneuvered my destroyers in for a coup de grace on Invincible, delivering four torpedo hits and two duds from less than 250 meters. She sank at 9:15.
Overall, I lost two destroyers to sink four battlecruisers, with light damage to three of my own. The result was proclaimed a "modest victory", with raw/adjusted scores of 35851/35851 to 7144/4604.
screenshots:
The first two images show Princess Royal sinking, followed by Lion blowing up. Next we have my battlecruisers in fine form for a chase, and the destroyer line that caused so much mischief. Fifth is the battlecruiser line re-formed (without any input from me, YAY!). And finally, we have boarding parties away when destroyer V28 comes within spitting distance of Indefatigable. Actually, V28 fired the final fatal torpedo volley while backing away from this close encounter.
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