Third Battle Squadron - German BCs are tough!

smithcorp

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Here's a brief AAR with images from the Third Battle Squadron scenario. I played as British and as the scenario starts, my old BBs are in line, heading north off the east coast of the UK. Elements of the Harwich Force (DDs and CLs) are off the west coast of Germany, also heading north, positioned to cut off marauding Germans aiming to bombard east coast towns.

My BBs are supported by some Armoured Cruisers and DDs. The ACs are out front scouting and soon identify German Cruisers to the east of the BBs.



I turn my ACs towards the east to push through and get a closer look, as my line moves on.






Soon my ACs identify German battlecruisers in line, heading inexorably east.



Time to get organised. I recall my ACs, head them north and start getting them arranged into a single line of three ships. I keep my destroyer escort close by my BBs and begin manoeuvring my line of BBs so as to place myself across the enemy line of advance and aiming to "cross his T."

I call the Harwich Force ships west for support, aiming to distract supporting CLs and DDs I can see with the German raiding force, shaking them out into three strong columns, led by CLs.



I have turned my BBs south and shuffle the DDs to the disengaged side. I push the ACs in the north a little eastward to react to any moves by enemy DDs. However, one of the ACs, moving to join the end of the AC line, has come in range of the German BCs and takes some damage.

However, the German BCs soon have more to worry about. I have crossed the enemy T and my BBs open fire on the approaching German line at extreme range.



German return fire, which starts after a while is ineffectual, but my brave jack tars start punishing the German line.



Derfflinger, second in the German line, in particular starts to take multiple hits. So far, none of my ships has been hit.



As the German force nears, they begin to turn south, aiming to form line broadside to my BBs and bring more of their guns to bear.

Quickly, I aim to spoil their move and turn my line east, so that as the German line begins to turn the corner to the south, my line bends towards them, forming a broadside line to their rear ships, which are still heading west. The effect of this is to allow my BBs to continue to punish all of the German line, while the German BCs that had begun the turn and are now heading south, have my line over their shoulders with their fire blocked by the rest of their line (I wish I'd taken a screenshot of this).

They reacted quickly, bringing their line back to head east (but with a big kink), but my move spread disarray. The range was quite close and my BBs hit the German ships again and again. The Von de Tann towards the rear of the German line must have received a hit in the steering gear because it fell out of line and careered towards my line, getting hit repeatedly at short range before regaining control and returning to the very disorganised German line.

However, now my BBs were being hit by some of the German BCs and the difference between fragile British AP (I play with it on) and strong German ship design began to tell. Damage to my BBs quickly became serious, while despite the multiple close range hits on the German ships, their damage remained only light (though more than half the German BCs had their main armament out of action for much of the fight due to the punishment they received, they still sailed and sailed fast).





Meanwhile, in the north, the German DDs attempted an attack to the north, I imagine to get in the rear of my BBs. I sent the ACs and their supporting DDs against it and the real worth of the ACs showed itself. They devastated the German DD attack, leaving the German ships sinking and lurching out of the fight. My Harwich Force DDs and CLs also joined the fight in time to disrupt another German DD attack to the south. While the battle of the light forces was dfinitely going my way, the same couldn't be said of the fight between the big boys.




Once the German BCs got reorganised, their superior speed and relative lack of damage meant that they could dictate the tempo of the fight. They moved up broadside on, closed to torpedo range and hammered my BBs. In desperation I sent the BB's attending DDs on a suicide torpedo run, but the German BCs' secondary armament smashed the attack before any damage could be done (though their line was forced to break up to avoid torpedoes).

 
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smithcorp

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Now it's only a matter of time. My ACs, CLs and DDs are breaking up DD attacks and sinking German light forces with relative ease, almost without loss in the more matched battle, but I throw two more DD groups at the German BCs in one-two torpedo runs, hoping to do some serious damage, but without success. All I achieve are smashed DD groups.

Rapidly, my BB line falls into disarray as ships are sunk or fall out of control, while the Germans rampage unchecked.





I also find out that ACs are no match for BCs -they lack the speed to get away from the faster German ships, which, returning east, casually demolish them in passing.

Lessons learned? German ships are strong and their BCs are fast and well-armoured. If the Third Battle Squadron had come up against these guys, I don't doubt the result would have been the same as in this game - a devastating reverse for the British.

Hope you enjoyed it.

smith
 
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MoToM

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Excellent, tried that scenario myself to test the new patch.
I'm afraid to say the result was a humiliating defeat for me, much like you describe those BC's can take HUGE punishment and carry on regardless. I also play with fragile shells on and could barely touch them, my DD attacks seemed a bit more successful, crippled one BC but only by distracting him with my BB's, losing two in the process.
 

gascan

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Has any British player won this scenario? Smithcorp, it sounded like you had a good start. Excellent battle report and great screen shots.
 

Bullethead

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Has any British player won this scenario?
Forget what the score says, IMHO the Brit player wins if he sinks any German BC :).

This scenario was never intended to be balanced. This situation is one of the big "what-ifs" of WW1, because it could have happened but never did. As such, it's been a staple of miniatures games all my life and doubtless long before. I daresay the Brits must have played this out with Jane's miniatures rules back at the time, which is why they somehow kept forgetting to tell 3BS to sail when the HSF was out :).

IOW, this scenario is something of a tradition amongst WW1 naval wargamers. In fact, it was requested more than once LONG before we released the game. That's what I made it for Jutland.
 

Firestorm

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It should come as no surprise that the German BC's are tough. Tirpitz's philosophy was that "the supreme quality of a shipis that it should remain afloat." Derfflinger was as well protected as the Iron Duke. Combine that with the fragile shells turned on and the German BC's can take a beating and keep on fighting. In my campaign right now my Scounting Forces encountered the 3rd BS and one of my BC's took at least 25-30 12 inch hits. The worst damage was one of the main turrets was destroyed and got at worst 5% fires and 10% port flooding. Quite frankly as the Germans I have no fear of any British ship with 12 inch guns.
 

Sunflare

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Funny thing is when I played a Brit campaign I decided to recreate the 3BS, but with much heavier AC support. Total of 10 AC's in all. On one sortie they ran into the 1SG at night and what a brawl it was. Unlike it the daylight setup the predread's better acuracy showed early and allowed me to hammer the BCs hard. I sank the 1SG (4 BCs at the time) and lost 5 predreds, Dreadnought herself, and 2 ACs. Still I coudn't belive the amount of punishment they took and kept on sailing. Derffy took atleast 50+ hits!!!
 

rgreat

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I managed to win as British in this scenario (though i lost all capitals except Dreadnought itself).
The catch is to keep HMS Dreadnought little behind of predread line and concentrate fire on one BC at a time.
Also it is usefull to keep speed low.
 
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