More Little Boats (and other things) at Tring

Keiron wanted another try at Cruel Seas, so I put together a simple scenario for a game at the club last Friday. A British frigate had suffered engine damage from an air attack and was try to return to base, escorted by two Fairmile B motor launches. A steam gunboat had been dispatched in support. In the meantime German raiders were closing in, in the shape of a pair of S-boats and a Type 34 torpedo boat.

The Fairmiles veer off to engage the S-boats while the frigate plods on.

The steam gunboat rushes forward at full speed.

The Type 34 torpedo boat closes in from one side....

...while the S-boats attack from the other.

The first S-boats launches her torpedoes, not a moment too soon as she take heavy damage from the combined fire of the Fairmiles (2 crits, a rudder hit and an engine hit, not good!).

The Steam gunboat throws two fish at the Type 34, whilst blasting her with the forward 6 pounder.

One of the SGB's torpedoes lines up on the Type 34, but it misses!

The SGB gets in even closer, now she is under minimum range for the torpedo boat's 4" guns, but at point blank range for her own rear mounted 3" gun! The German's 20mm guns do some damage, but nothing compared with the direct hits from both the 3" and 6 pounder guns (including a critical crew hit which means the Type 34 cannot fire in the next activation).

The combined fire from the two Fairmiles add up and one of the S-boats sinks beneath the waves.

Unable to respond, the Type 34 takes another devastating short range volley form the SGB and starts to sink....time to abandon ship!

In the next turn, taking fire from three sides from the Frigate's escorts, the last S-boat just manages to launch torpedoes before blowing up. Unfortunately all the German torpedoes missed the Frigate, so an east win for my Royal Navy.

We had time to replay the scenario, this time Keiron tried different tactics, including trying to made use of the 6 (yes 6!) torpedoes his Type 34 was carrying.

But he only managed to get the first salvo of three off before he was hit by one of the Frigate's 4" guns and took a torpedo hit from the SGB. It was still afloat after all that but left taking on water and with a rubber and engine damaged, so it vessel sank at the start of it's next activation.

Collision time! A crash was only avoided by the S-boat being blown out of the water by the combined British guns.

Despite losing two of his ships Keiron managed to score several hits on the frigate and catch her in a

lovely criss-cross of torpedoes which she couldn't avoid. Game two to the Germans.

A lot of fun playing both games.

Also on offer at the club:

A superb Black Powder game set in the 2nd Afghan War.

Two different Warhammer 40K games on adjoining tables.

And a Sharp Practice game pitting a RN landing party against the Revolutionary French.

More Little Boats (and even smaller boats)

Colin and took our Cruel Seas boats for another outing at club on Friday, joined by Keiron who seems to be in danger of catching the CS bug.

A British raiding force of 2 Fairmile Ds, each supported by a pair of Vospers were attacking a small harbour where a Type 34 Torpedo Boat and a Tanker were moored up. It will take 2 moves for the Germans to come to action stations, at which point they can fire and cast off, but not move until the following turn.
As the arrived at the target, they saw a small convoy of three merchantmen, escorted by 3 Kriegfischkutters approaching the harbour. At this point the British divided their forces, half the boats heading for the original target, whilst half veered off towards the convoy.

The German convoy enters the table.

The German Torpedo Boat and tanker, moored in harbour, are unaware....

...of the approach of the British raiders.

The little Kriegfischkutters veer aware towards the oncoming British.

Whilst casting off, the Torpedo Boat manned the forward 4" turret and took a long range shot (and I rolled a 1!). After a direct hit from a 4" shell there isn't much left of a little Vosper.

The convoy starts to scatter and the lead Kriegfischkutter exchanges shots with the closest Vosper, both ships taking damage.

Shocked by the early loss of a Vosper with it's full load of torpedoes, the British start to put fish in the water in the direction of the Torpedo Boat.

As the Type 34 pulls out of the harbour she starts to turn to avoid the spread of torpedoes....

...and succeeds in narrowly getting out of the path of the torpedoes....

...then I roll another 1 with the 4" gun! Having already taken damage, it almost wasn't worth rolling the damage dice.

And the Type 34 took out a third Vosper with it's secondary guns.

As the torpedoes move closer to the convoy, the ships continue to take evasive action.

A merchantman and a Kriegfischkutter almost collide in the confusion and as a torpedo strikes home, damaging the ships engines.

Now one of the Fairmiles explodes!

Trying to line up a torpedo on the Type 34, the last Vosper gets careless and runs into the Torpedo Boat. Then a critical hit on the Type 34 sets off one of it's torpedoes and damages the steering.

A second torpedo hits the first merchant and send her to the bottom.

A second merchant takes a hit.

It's not a dud!

The Type 34's 20mm guns finish off the last Vosper (not much was needed after the earlier collision).

A torpedo hits the tanker as she starts to pull away from the dockside, but this one is a dud!

The Luftwaffe finally make an appearance, but the Stuka misses the last Fairmile.

Who its the third merchantman. This time the British score a "broken back" on the critical hits table and the vessel rapidly sinks.

Out of control the Type 34 veers around and takes a double hit from the Fairmiles two 6 pounder guns, with is enough to finally sink the torpedo boat.

Turning their attention back to the convoy, the last British crew take out one of the Kriegfischkutter escorts.

But in the following move is sunk in turn by the last undamaged escort.
All the British raiders were now accounted for, but the Fairmile still had fish in the water...

.....one of which scored a second hit on the last surviving merchantman which sent her beneath the waves.

The situation at the end of the game, The Germans have 2 Kriegfischkutters left (well one and a half really) and the tanker makes it's escape.
Working out the VPs for this scenario, the game was a draw. 100 VPs for each merchant, 75 for the Type 34 minus 50 VP for each British boat lost. They needed 100 VPs for a win, zero or less would have been a German victory.

No one minded, because we had had a lot of fun!

Other games at the club that night.

A Necromunda game (or Kill Team, I forgot to check).

A 6mm Sci-fi battle with Futurewar Commander.

A WW1 naval engagement with much smaller ships (I think by Tumbling Dice).

WW2 US vs Japanese Chain of Command game.

I thought Banzai charges across open ground were a Japanese tactic?

Not fair, using real tanks against the Japanese tin cans in tracks.