Mongoose goes 1:1800 scale

HMS Achilles from Mongoose Publishing

Mongoose Publishing, which publishes Victory at Sea, says it will be releasing the first set of its new line of 1:1800 naval miniatures in September with a boxed set depicting the classic Battle of the River Plate.

According to the Mongoose announcement the boxed set will be available at retailers while the company will offer by mail order the sister ships of the various ships that appear in the boxed set.

As regular readers know, 1:1800 is the same scale as the Axis & Allies War at Sea miniatures, so this is good news. But, as the picture shows, the Mongoose miniatures are going to come with a base, and will therefore not be directly compatible with the War at Sea line. This is unfortunate, but not a complete surprise. I suspect Mongoose decided to do this in order to head off the problems the War at Sea line had with the smaller ships when they were not based.

Still, more ships in 1:1800 are a good thing and it's possible that determined players will be able to get around the problem if Mongoose should happen to fill in any notable gaps in the War at Sea line. All the ships at the River Plate have already appeared in War at Sea and the next announced set is The Battle of Denmark Straits, which is also pretty well covered by existing War at Sea ships.

There is no indication that the Mongoose models will be pre-painted, so purchasers will probably have to do that themselves. There is also no indication of the pricing.

The Mongoose blog also mentions that the new edition of Victory at Sea won;t appear until the middle of next year, although no reason is given for the delay. They also recently published a supplement for their World War I version of the game, so Mongoose seems to be making a concerted effort with historical naval gaming. This is a bit of a departure from their usual fare, which is general fantasy and science fiction. (Although they do also have Battlefield Evolution modern tactical rules and miniatures as well).

This looks promising

Mongoose Publishing reports on a reboot of its Victory at Sea naval miniatures rules, possibly for later this year. this looks to be a much bigger book than the original set.

The tentative index includes:

Basic Rules
Introduction
The Turn
The Movement Phase
The Attack Phase
The End Phase
Special Actions
Special Traits

So far, so familiar for those who are currently playing the existing edition, though there are already many, many differences between the basic rules fo the two games. For example, Critical Hits are now mainly progressive, as in A Call to Arms: Star Fleet and Noble Armada, but they also have the ‘sudden death’ potential as well, allowing for rudders to be knocked askew on an otherwise relatively undamaged ship, or to allow for the ‘Hood effect.’

Advanced Rules
Advanced Rules: This is a catch-all chapter for all the advanced stuff that does not deserve its own chapter – things such as bad weather, radar, evading torpedoes, and so forth.
Aircraft: Born again hard in this edition, along with rules for (possibly) keeping carriers away from the front line in a ‘deep deployment’ rule. ‘Aircraft only’ forces will be permitted, allowing you to play out the likes of Taranto and Pearl Harbour.
Coastal Forces: PT Boats and the like will this time be fully integrated into the main rules, and will include harbours and coastal defences.
Submersibles: No longer allowed within the ‘core’ fleet engagements, games involving submersibles will form their own scenarios as they harry convoys and ambush forces steaming towards a battle over the horizon.

Battles at Sea: This is the ‘scenario’ section of the book.
Scenarios: A primer on how to read and use the subsequent scenarios.
Victory at Sea: This is the ‘default’ and perhaps tournament scenario for the game, but it is now much more than just ‘basic deployment, set up your fleet and go!’ You may now have to contend with bad weather and night-fights, and there is now a scouting phase before the battle where you can detach aircraft and ships to watch for the approach of the enemy. Effective scouting will allow you to have a more advanced deployment area, to ‘deep deploy’ your carriers, and also gain benefits such as initiative bonuses.
Tactical Challenges: General/generic scenarios that will allow you to use any fleet in a variety of tactical situations, both based on real engagements and hypothetical confrontations of your own devising.
Battle of the River Plate: The first of the historical scenarios. Each of these is treated with an in-depth commentary on how the battle came about and how it was fought, before presenting you with the relevant forces and any special scenario rules. Think you can defeat the Royal Navy in this engagement? Think you can sink the Graf Spee before it reaches port (difficult!)? This is your chance to prove it!
Battle of Calabria
Attack on Taranto
Battle of Matapan
The German Battleships at War: A medley of battles, charting the history of the great German battleships of the war, and each of their major engagements, from the Attack on the Northern Patrol (the Allied player must try to survive for as long as possible with the HMS Rawalpindi) to the death of the Bismarck.

Though we have concentrated on the Atlantic and Mediterranean up to now, we will also have plenty of battles from other theatres (just starting work on Pearl Harbour right now!), allowing you to wage the war across the oceans during any period.

The War at Sea: This section looks at the history of the war in naval terms, what factors affected the fighting, how technology came into play, and so forth. The following lists what we have done thus far, but there is much, much more to come.
The Washington Treaty
Ruling the Waves: The Royal Navy: We have done a chapter on every major fleet that took part in the war, looking at their tactics and philosophies, and the obstacles they struggled to over come. There is also, for want of a better term, a ‘card file index’ in each chapter, detailing the statistics and history of what we are hoping will become every military ship that floated during the war, along with some ‘hypotheticals’ (such as the N3).
Commerce Raiders: The Kreigsmarine
A New Empire: The Regia Marina
The Sleeping Giant: The US Navy
Banzai: The Imperial Japanese Navy: Yes, we really need a better title than that!
Fight for Freedom: The Marine Nationale
What Might Have been: The Military Maritime Fleet of the USSR
A Thankless Task: Civilian Shipping
Where Were the French?
War in the Mediterranean
The Atlantic Convoys
The Submarine War
Carrier Operations

Fleet Lists
The Royal Navy
The Kreigsmarine
The Regia Marina
The US Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy
The Marine Nationale
The Military Maritime Fleet of the USSR
Civilian Shipping

Appendices
The Royal Navy Order of Battle
The Kreigsmarine Order of Battle
The Regia Marina Order of Battle
The US Navy Order of Battle
The Imperial Japanese Navy Order of Battle
The Marine Nationale Order of Battle
The Military Maritime Fleet of the USSR Order of Battle
Historical Carrier Complements

Not cautious enough

HMS Ramillies

Today is the 70th anniversary of an interesting incident during the German commerce-raiding campaign. On Feb. 8, 1941 the German battlecruiser twins Scharnhorst and Gneisenau came across the "fast" transatlantic convoy HX-106 with 41 merchant ships, a scenario depicted in both Atlantic Navies (Clash of Arms) and in Bismarck (Avalanche Press). The Atlantic Navies scenario is called "Excessive Caution," but this may be a misnomer as it turns out.

I decided to try it out using the Victory at Sea naval miniatures rules by Mongoose Publishing, with models from Axis & Allies War at Sea! The Scharnhorst is shown below.

Given that mix, I'm not sure which game deserves the most credit, but I'd call it primarily a Victory at Sea game.

The unusual thing about this battle is that the Germans, despite having a powerful force, called off their approach when they discovered the convoy was being escorted by the old British battleship HMS Ramillies. Adm. Luetjens was under strict orders NOT to risk engaging any British capital ships and so the German squadron fled. This scenario explores what might have happened if the Germans risked a battle.

The two German ships have several advantages over the Ramillies, especially speed and gun range, having about a third more of each.

What they don't have is unlimited time. Given enough time the British convoy could either escape or at least disperse. The German ships couldn't just hang around at extreme range to try to pick off merchant ships. That would cause a prodigious expenditure of main gun ammunition because of the difficulty of hitting small targets at very long range. This was never the practice of German raiders. generally they closed the range enough to cause the targeted ship to stop and then finished it off with secondary guns or torpedoes. German capital ships, in fact, carried large batteries of torpedoes, in contrast to any other navy. While the game doesn't track ammo, a time pressure was added by placing the convoy 15 turns away from the board edge.

One odd thing about the scenario as presented in Atlantic Navies is that the British are given four H-class destroyers as an escort. I found this suspiciously strong, especially when I noticed that none of the British ships were named. In comparison, the same battle in Avalanche Press' Bismarck shows the convoy escorted by just one armed merchant cruiser in addition to the Ramillies. A little Google research led me to a fantastic site which provides the exact composition of every World War II numbered convoy! This revealed that not only did HX-106 never have four H-class destroyers in its escort, even the armed merchant cruiser had left by Feb. 8! The sole escort for the convoy was the battleship. On Feb. 12 a half dozen ASW escorts joined up as the convoy neared the British isles, but on Feb. 8 it was the Ramillies alone.

I decided to go ahead and leave the four DDs as depicted in the book because I thought the British needed the help, but my judgment is that they're merely a game balance/interest addition by Clash of Arms and were not actually present.

The British were faced with a dangerous approach strategy by the Germans. The Gneisenau was off to the northwest of the east-bound convoy while the Scharnhorst was due south, splitting the British response. Each battlecruiser was 38-inches from the center of the convoy, well within their extreme gun range of 45 inches.

The 41-ship convoy was represented by three "immortal" merchant ship models. As each merchant was sunk it would be immediately replaced by a new target in the same place. As about half the historical convoy was transporting petroleum of some sort, there was a 50/50 chance whether any particular targeted convoy ship was a tanker or a freighter. The four destroyers were on station at the four corners of the convoy box, with the Ramillies slightly south of the convoy.

Portraying Adm. Luetjens was Game Store Tony, while I took the British command.

The German strategy was straightforward. The Gneisenau would close on the convoy to shoot it up while the Scharnhorst kept the Ramillies busy. The destroyers would be watched, but Tony did not consider them a major threat.

I started off by peeling off three destroyers to make a run at the Gneisenau while the Ramillies turned to deal with the approaching Scharnhorst. One destroyer remained close to the convoy. The first turn the destroyers made smoke but a check of the rules revealed that the radar-equipped Germans wouldn't be hindered and so the destroyers concentrated on maneuvering instead.

The battle on the northern side went moderately well for the Gneisenau. It managed to land one 11-inch hit on a destroyer that caused some light damage (passed through, I suppose) and two damaging hits on freighters, knocking out the engines on the Kheti (a 2,700-ton freighter carrying sugar) and crippling the freighter Temple Arch (5,100 tons carrying lumber and wheat). The Gneisenau dodged a torpedo salvo from one destroyer while closing on the convoy. Unfortunately for the Germans, events on the southern side decided the action before the Gneisenau could do more.

The Scharnhorst's intention was to close within long range (for better gunnery) while staying outside of the Ramillies main battery range but the closing speed was misjudged (realistically, in my opinion) and the Scharnhorst found itself under fire from the Ramillies. The two ships spent a few turns dueling with the Scharnhorst definitely coming off the worse. While the Scharnhorst was able to land multiple hits on the Ramillies, the lack of hitting power of the German 11-inchers and the heavy armor for the old British battlewagon mitigated the damage. In four turns the Ramillies lost 8 of its 34 hull points for 23.5% damage -- significant damage but not devastating. A couple of fires were started but quickly doused and the ship's fighting ability was so far unimpaired.

On the other hand the heavy-hitting 15-inchers on the Ramillies were able to land a series of punishing blows on the Scharnhorst for 19 points of damage or 54%. Even worse, there were a couple of serious critical hits. The first one hit the Engineering Vital System, knocking out the Scharnhorst's ability to conduct damage control. This proved to be devastating when, on the following turn's critical, the Scharnhorst had its Engines Disabled, dropping its speed to zero -- and unrepairable!

At this point the Germans were defeated, as no amount of future damage to the convoy could make up for losing the Scharnhorst. We agreed that the Gneisenau would undoubtedly withdraw at high speed to avoid compounding the disaster and that the British destroyers would have called off their pursuit in order to guard the convoy. While it would tempting for the Ramillies to finish off the crippled, dead-in-the-water Scharnhorst, I believed that the realistic course of action for the battleship would be to also pull away and return to protect the convoy as well. After all, the Gneisenau was still in the vicinity and it certainly wouldn't do to risk the welfare of the convoy in order to sink the doomed Scharnhorst. And the Scharnhorst was clearly doomed, with its engines disabled and sitting just 700 miles off the coast of Canada, it would be just a matter of time before another British force arrived on the scene to finish it off.

The outcome of the battle suggests that the German high command's caution was not necessarily unwarranted. As I noted, while the Germans had a range advantage in good visibility, good visibility can't be counted on during the North Atlantic winter and extreme range gunfire was a very inefficient way to sink merchant ships. Therefore the German raiders had to risk getting closer and any misjudgment could easily bring a ship into the range of the old British ship where it's hard-hitting shells made every salvo a potential catastrophe. Any significant damage would require ending the raiding cruise at least and held the prospect of losing a capital ship. Just a few months later the Bismarck experience would show how relatively minor damage could have fatal consequences.

If I were to replay the scenario I think I'd leave out the destroyers. They were not actually present and they don't really add much to the British defenses anyway.

Operation Catapult at sea

HMS Hood

While it's too involved a rules system to easily use with the Game Store Crowd, the Admiralty Trilogy's Atlantic Navies provides good scenario fodder for simpler games such as Victory at Sea.

On July 6, 1940 the British attacked and devastated the French fleet in harbor at Oran, but it didn't have to be that way. The French had time to sortie.

This scenario assumes the French capital ships went to sea and were intercepted by the British Force H. For scenario purposes it's assumed the respective light forces cancelled each other out and we just looked at the opposing battle lines. The French order of sail was Dunquerque, Strasbourg, Bretagene and Provence. Force H was Hood, Resolution and Valiant. The British also had three flights of Swordfish torpedo planes from the Ark Royal.

The victory conditions were straightforward. Historically one French BC escaped, so if the French did better than that, they would win. If no French capital ships escaped the British would win.

Game Store Tony took the French and followed a policy of concentrating all fire on one ship at a time, starting with the Hood. The British tried to spread the damage, hoping to slow down enough ships to keep the French from scooting away. While some damaging hits were landed that slowed the French temporarily, good French damage control prevented those hits from changing the result Good shooting by the French buried the Hood in a deluge of shells and it was the first to go down, followed by the Valiant. Meanwhile the Swordfish attack was completely ineffective, despite the anemic French AA fire.

Both the Strasbourg and Dunquerque eventually escaped. Dunquerque had 50% damage, but the Strasbourg was unscathed, having never been shot at. The two old French battleships were not as fortunate and both eventually succumbed to British fire. The surviving British battleship, Resolution, was also heavily damaged by the end, taking 60% damage, leaving it nearly crippled.

All-in-all it was a clear French victory and suggests the French lost an opportunity historically. The two French battlecruisers were speedy enough that the British Force H was ill-prepared to deal with them. Only the Hood could keep up, but it didn't have enough of an edge in combat power to defeat them.

The game was played using Axis & Allies War at Sea miniatures, Victory at Sea rules with Order of Battle supplement, on a Hotz mat and scenario information from Atlantic Navies. It took about an hour and a half to play.

Franco-Italian showdown using Victory at Sea rules

Another recent session at Arkham Asylum involved a hypothetical battle fleet clash using the Victory at Sea naval rules (and Axis & Allies War at Sea miniatures).

This scenario assumed that the outbreak of World War II was delayed a bit but that France and Italy did fight a naval war around 1941. The opposing battle fleets were comprised of roughly equal forces. For the French the battleship Richelieu, battle cruisers Strasbourg and Dunquerque, the old battleship Provence, the heavy cruiser Suffren, light cruiser Gloire and two Le Fantasque fast destroyers. The Italin fleet had the new battleships Littorio and Vittorio Veneto, the old (but extensively rebuilt) battleships Gulio Cesare and Comte di Cavour, the heavy cruisers Trento and Bolzano and one Navigatori-class destroyer. The two forces were exactly the same in War at Sea points, which I used a s quick and dirty balancing mechanic.

The scenario assumed an encounter just before dark to encourage aggressive play and yet end the battle within the time available. The only experienced player was myself, so I took the lesser half of the Italian fleet. The Italian CinC was a veteran wargamer, albeit new to Victory at Sea while the French fleet was controlled by a game store vet (in other words, a Magic; The Gathering player) who had played Victory at Sea once before. Game Store Tony provided tactical advice as "chief of staff."

The French fleet was basically in a line abreast (searching?) formation while the Italian fleet was in a "mob." The French commander took advantage of the peculiar French capital ship layout (all main guns in front) to close aggressively at high speed in what was essentially a cavalry charge. I formed my three-ship division into a line ahead while the rest of the Italian fleet milled around. The poor Navigatori class destroyer attracted a deluge of battleship fire and was overkilled. This aided the Italians, however, as it gave them first blood in the battleship duels.

As dusk fell the Littorio exploded with a magazine explosion, but it was, in truth, about to sink anyway, but the rest of the Italian fleet was (except for the destroyer, of course) either unscathed or very lightly damaged. Meanwhile both French battle cruisers were sunk and both destroyers crippled, while the Provence was 25% damaged. The Richelieu had a few scratches and the two cruisers were unhit, but overall it was clear that the Italians had a big edge with three fresh battleships against one.

The Victory at Sea system, while not the last word in simulations, certainly provides and entertaining and fast-playing way to play decent-sized naval battles. The whole battle took less than three hours to play.

Victory at Sea session -- 1940 battlecruiser clash

The first encounter of battlewagons in World War II came on April 9, 1940, during the initial stages of the Norway campaign. Shortly before 4 a.m. the HMS Renown (6x 15-inch guns) ran into the German Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, (9 x 11-inch guns each) in bad weather off the Norwegian coast.

This encounter is one of the given scenarios in Mongoose Publishing's Victory at Sea simple naval miniatures battle rules. With just three ships it seemed like a good introduction to the game to bring to the local game shop, where Game Store Tony is always willing to try out something new.

The initial setup given in the rulebook is shown below and right off the bat I saw I'd have to make at east one adjustment and rule that despite the bad weather the radar-less HMS Renown could still see the German ships at Extreme Range. I felt this change was justified by the historical fact that the Renown opened the action by firing on the Germans first and by the game consideration that strictly following the rule would make the scenario unplayable as the British ship would never be able to fire if the Germans followed a strategy of running away.

With that change, we started playing. I took the HMS Renown while Game Store Tony commanded the Gneisenau and another store denizen took the Scharnhorst. One reason why Game Store Tony is always a tough opponent is that he has a very commendable focus of the victory Conditions. While many players would be sore tempted to turn the two German capital ships towards the Renown and force a showdown, Tony noted that he could also win by withdrawing off the left map edge. He, as squadron commander, ordered that both ships should turn hard port and make for the board edge and stuck to that plan despite events that might have shaken the resolve of others.
The course of the battle therefore followed a more or less historical result. The leading Scharnhorst turned to port and made a beeline for the edge, using Flank Speed often, unmolested by the Renown. The Scharnhorst's return fire was negligible. The Flank Speed threw off its aim and it had just one turret to bear and so hits were few and those few failed to penetrate the armor of the Renown. So the battle was really a duel between the Renown and the Gneisenau.
That duel for a while looked to go against the German ship. While most of the time the Renown had only four guns bearing, the range was long and bad weather all hindered the British chances of hitting, those 15-inch shells that did hit were quite damaging and a couple of critical hits reduced the German ship's speed dangerously. Meanwhile the German return fire was spare and did little damage when they did hit home. In total the Renown took four points of damage, or just over 10%. In contrast the Gneisenau limped off with 14 points of hull damage and 23 dead crew factors for damage levels of 40% and 33% respectively, as well as 33% off its maximum speed. But the Gneisenau did limp off the map and escape, and so the Germans won the scenario. This was mostly due to successful damage control by the Gneisenau's crew, which was able to restore enough lost sped to make it off the map before the ship took a crippling level of damage.

Everyone enjoyed the scenario and it only too about an hour to play
This battle also appears as a scenario in Atlantic Navies, the Command at Sea series game from Clash of Arms and it's interesting to compare this game's more detailed treatment with the Victory at Sea scenario. Here's the initial situation according to Atlantic Navies:

The first thing to note is that the historical British force also included a bunch of destroyers. The very bad weather precluded them from taking a meaningful part in the battle, however, so ignoring them seems to be a reasonable design decision.

On the other hand the initial configuration of the capital ship's is also radically different between the two. Given its attention to detail, Atlantic Navies seems to be the more reliable source and the initial deployment shown even matches the VaS scenario description better because it notes that "During a break in the weather, the (German) battlecruisers were sighted by HMS Renown, which closed the range and opened fire as soon as she was able." This sequence of events isn't really possible with the VaS as written while it does match the Atlantic Navies setup (which includes a rule that visibility is one table better to the East (in the direction of the German ships) which accounts for the Renown sighting the Germans first. Note also that Atlantic Navies has the two forces on reciprocal courses while the VaS scenario shows them on parallel courses.

The point of this is that scenario designers for simpler wargames have to play close attention to the scenario parameters in order to avoid the blunder where a scenario becomes unplayable as written. Whereas a detailed game like Atlantic Navies can expect that its internal procedures will account for the important factors that affected a battle and it will wpork out naturally a simpler game such as Victory at Sea doesn't have that back up. Unless a sceanrio special rule is used the British fleet can't enagge the German fleet before it escapes. In addition, the scenrio seems to have satrted the two fleets much too far apart, which again defeats the scenario's design.

While a veteran gamer can be expected to make the adjustments required, the idea of a simpler wargame is to be accessible to new and inexperienced players who may be thrown for loop when confronted by a flawed scenario, so for this reason I don't think the presentation of this scenario was successful. A btter setup would be for the two German ships to be setup reversed, heading toward sthe "bottom" of the sceanrio map and the distance between them and the Renown should be reduced to the maximum sighting range of 30 inches and should start with the British attack phase. (In other words, both sides have already moved for the turn and the British won the inititative. The Germans, being surprised, don't get a shot.). Thes mininal changes would bring the scenario closer to the actual event.

Flukes at sea

Bismarck as depicted in Axis & Allies War at Sea

A fluke can be a fish, the fin on a whale or a part of an anchor in a nautical context, but it's also a recurring feature of naval warfare in the sense of a stroke of unusual luck.

Land and aerial warfare involves innumerable interactions between actors, weapons, environment and the laws of chance so there's a tendency for things to average out. Fluke events tend to be of local impact, although there are exceptions, of course.

HMS Hood from War at Sea

But naval combats are much rarer than land and sea engagements and comprise many fewer moving parts as well, so each battle is full of unique events. The famous Battle of the Denmark Straits which was fought on this date in 1941 perfectly illustrates this.

While a very popular topic for naval games, indeed, nearly every naval wargame seems to include this fight among the scenarios, it's a hard battle to replicate.

From a strategic point of view, the engagement represented a major British success. Their cruiser patrol meant to detect a German breakout attempt succeeded in finding and following the German raid force. The British countermeasure of deploying a powerful surface action force of battleships also succeeded, with the interception of the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen by the battleship HMS Hood and the new battleship HMS Prince of Wales.


It's true that the two British ships, individually, had flaws that put them at a disadvantage compared to the Bismarck, but together they should have been more than a match for the German ship. Especially when considering that the British had to merely achieve some damage the German raider to force it to abort its raid.


So it was truly an amazing fluke when the Bismarck landed that fatal blow on the Hood that exploded the ship within the first few salvos. While the venerable British battlecruiser had a design flaw, it's also true that that design flaw only represented a vulnerability for a limited amount of time and for a limited set of circumstances of range and geometry. The Prince of Wales problems were less of a matter of luck, being mostly self-inflicted breakdowns caused by the ship's incomplete state. Still, under most circumstances the Hood and POW could be expected to score some damaging hits on the Bismarck before being KO'd and in many cases they will outright defeat the German ship.

Despite the disastrous turn of events for the British on May 24th, the essential soundness of their strategy was borne out by subsequent events. Before being forced to withdraw, the Prince of Wales did manage to land a hit on the Bismarck. While not a particularly damaging hit by battleship standards, it was sufficient to end the Bismarck's raiding voyage and send her heading for France. (The undamaged Prinz Eugen departed to begin a raiding cruise).

A few days later, after being harassed by carrier aircraft and destroyers, the Bismarck was intercepted by another 2-battlewagon British task force that wasn't much stronger than the Hood/POW combo. The HMS Rodney and the HMS King George V had no difficulty pounding the Bismarck into ineffectiveness in a relatively short time, which makes one wonder how things might have been if fate had given the Hood a little more time.

River Plate using Victory at Sea

Continuing my series of River Plate refights using different rules sets, today I tried out Victory at Sea by Mongoose Publishing (not to be confused with the 1972 game of the same same I used in an earlier refight.)

Right off the bat, I decided to modify the scenario as given in the Victory at Sea corfe rulebook because it seemed to allow the British cruiser to start right on top of the Graf Spee. I'm not sure if this was a deliberate decision made for play balance or an oversight, but it's a very poor match for the actual situation and forces the Graf Spee to give up its main advantage --range.

So instead I started the British cruiser at the Graf Spee's maximum gun range of 40 inches, with the Ajax and the Achilles in line abreast on the Graf Spee's port quarter and the Exeter on the Starboard Quarter. The British squadron leader, Sir Henry Harwood is specifically listed as one of the "Admirals" in the Order of Battle supplement, so I deiced to include him in this refight. His flagship is the HMS Ajax and his "Traits" are Tactical Genius, Master of the High Seas and Defensive Tactician. These add some interesting special abilities. Master of the High Seas allows each ship in the fleet to use Flank Speed once per game without counting against the One Special Action per turn limit. Tactical Genius provides a +3 bonus to initiative and Defensive Tactician allows the use of Evasive Action.

Turn 1. The British win the initiative with a roll of 8 +3 for 11 to the German roll of 5. Harwood elects to have the Germans move first. The Graf Spee wastes no time and attempts the Special Action of Come About! in order to bring its main batter to bear with a turn to Starboard. This requires a Command Check die roll. A roll of 1 plus the Command level of 4 equals 5, which is not enough for success, so the Graf Spee moves ahead 3 inches and then turns 2 "points" to the right, and moves 3 more inches. Harwood expects the Exeter will not come under fire this turn, being out of arc for the Graf Spee's rear turret, so the Exeter orders Flank Speed! for its Special Action, making its speed 9 inches for the turn. The Exeter moves 4.5 inches and then turns 1 "point" to port and moves 4.5 inches. For the Ajax and Achilles the order is also Flank Speed! and both cruisers dash forward 10.5 inches.

The Graf Spee fires its main battery at the British flagship Ajax. The range is 29.5 inches, making it just close enough to qualify as Long Range, so there is a -1 to hit for that. The target moves over 7 inches that turn, for an additional -1. The Graf Spee has six attack dice, needing 5s to hit. The -2 to the die roll means the Graf Spee has no chance of scoring a hit. The Ajxa and the Achilles are out of range. The Exeter is in range, but the -1 for Long Rnage and -1 for going Fl;ank Speed mean it also has no chance of scoring a hit.

Turn 2. This key initiative roll also goes to the British. Both sides roll 5s, but Harwood's Tactical Genius trait's +3 bonus means the British win again. And once again they force the Germans to move first. The Graf Spee continues its starboard turn, this time succeeding in its Come About! Special Ability attempt. moving ahead 3, turning 3 points to starboard and moving 3 more inches. Harwood decides to have the Exeter slow down and turn to port while continuing its Evasive! Special Action. He intends to have the Exeter duel with the Graf Spee to keep its attention while the light cruisers continue their dash. He decides that avoiding damage from the Graf Spees guns is more important than inflicting hits at this stage. Unfortunately the die roll of 3 combined with the Command level of 7 is short of the 8 required and the Exeter is unable to perform Evasive. The Exeter moves ahead 3 and turns 1 point to port to bring its broadside to bear, finishing its move with 3 more inches ahead. Meanwhile the Ajax and Achilles continue their dash at Flank Speed! moving 10.5 inches.

The range between the Graf Spee and Exeter is now 23 inches. Graf Spee has 6 attack dice of main battery. It's still long range, so there's a -1 to the hit rolls, but the Exeter is beam-on for a +1, so there is no modification. A four is needed to hit the Exeter. The Graf Spee rolls 2.3,5,6,6,6 for a total of four hits. Very good shooting. Four Damage dice are rolled and compared to the Exeter's armor protection of 3. Because it's Long Range there is +1 to the damage roll. The rolls are 2,3,4,6 modified to 3,4,5 and 6 so four points of damage are inflicted on Exeter. The 6 is also a Critical Hit. The roll on the Critical Hit table is a 9 (weapons) and the follow-up roll of 2 means the AA weapons are damaged, which will have no effect in this aircraft-less battle.

The Exeter returns fire with 3 dice, with -1 for Long Range and +1 for Graf Spee showing its broadside canceling out. Needing a 5 to hit, the Exeter rolls 4,5,6 for two hits. The Graf Spee, despite having battleship-scale guns, is really a cruiser and the Exeter will cause damage on a 4 or better, with a +1 to each die roll due to the Long Range. It turns out to be feast or famine for the Exeter with damage rolls of 1 and 6. The 1 is an automatic bounce but the 6 is a Critical Hit. dice roll of 5 shows that it was the Crew that took the hit. A follow up roll of 5 is a Hill Beach, adding 2 to the damage and knocking out 5 crew. Total damage to the Graf Spee is 3 hull and 5 crew. While the Ajax and Achilles are now within range, the -1 for Long Range and -1 for Flank Speed mean they still have no chance of scoring a hit.

Turn 3. German hopes of winning the initiative by rolling an 11 are dashed when Harwood also rolls an 11. The Graf Spee decides to try to KO the Exeter while keeping its distance from the light cruisers, moving ahead 6 inches. Exeter makes another attempt at Evasive, succeeding with a die roll of 6 (+4 command level to a 10, 8 was needed). Exeter moves 6 inches ahead. The light cruisers continued their Flank Speed march, another 10.5 inches.

The range between the Graf Spee and Exeter is 21 inches, so it is still Range. Both ships are still broadside to each other, but this time the Exeter is performing the Evasive special action, meaning any hits it scores or that are scored on it must be rerolled. The Graf Spee's 6 attack die rolled are 1,3,4,5,5,5. The Target roll is 5, so there are 3 potential hits. The rerolls are 3,5,6, so two are confirmed hits. The damage rolls are +1 for Long Range still, so a roll s of 3 and 4 become 4 and 5 for hits, but not criticals. The Exter is down to 5 hull. Another turn like that will leave it crippled. The Exeter's return fire is still 3 dice, unmodified. A 1,1 and 5 means one potential hit. The follow-up roll of 5 confirms the hit. A damage roll of 2 would normally be a bounce, but the +1 for long range means it penetrates and does another point of damage to the Graf Spee, dropping it down to 13 hull. The Ajax and Achilles are close enough now to have a chance of a hit, being just 15 inches away. Each ship has just its two forward turrets bearing, so each will roll 2 attack dice. The only modifier is a -1 for Flank Speed. The Ajax rolls first, getting Snake Eyes! All missed. The Achilles shot is marginally better, a 2 and a3, but nowhere nearly good enough to hit.

Turn 4. Graf Spee rolls a 9, Harwood rolls an 8, modified to 11, so the Germans once again must move first. The German captain decides he's close to finishing of Exeter and will continue straight ahead, but will attempt the Evasive! special action now that the light cruisers have demonstrated they are close enough to be a threat. His rol of a 3 isn't enough to succeed, so he will have to rely on bad die rolling by the British. Exeter bravely continues straight ahead, taking Evasive action as it does so. The Ajax continues closing at Flank Speed, while the Achilles hauls off to port 2 points to bring its broadside to bear, while still going at Flank Speed.

The Graf Spee and Exeter had been on slowly converging courses and had now closed to 17 inches, so it was no longer a long range shot. Graf Spee's six attack dice were 1,1,12,3,5, for some pretty poor shooting. Even the +1 for a broadside target wasn't enough to have more than once chance for a hit -- and the confirming roll of a 3 meant the Graf Spee missed with its main battery. The Ajax was within range of the Graf Spee's secondary, however. Three attack dice, -1 for target speed, with rolls of 1,2 and 6 result in one hit. That hit is "weak" with a -1 to the damage roll, so the 4 was modified to a 3 which causes 1 hull point of damage to the Ajax.

The Exeter fires back with its 3 attack dice, +1 for broadside target but needing confirmation due to firing ship's Evasive action. The first rolls of 2, 4 and 5 result in two potential hits, with follwup rolls of 3,6 confirming 1. That hit's roll of 2 is a bounce, however. The Exeter has secondary guns, but they are out of range. The Ajax fires its two forward turrets at a range of 9.5 inches, which brings a +1 to hit, but rolls of 2,2 are not good enough. The Achilles fires 4 turrets at a range of 14 inches with rolls or 1,3,4,6 for 1 hit, which subsequently bounces off the Graf Spee's armor.

Turn 5. The Graf Spee's can't beat Harwood's roll of a 10, so the Graf Spee goes first. It decides it's time to face around to deal with the light cruiser, so the Graf Spee turns 2 points to port (a Come About attempting having failed. The Exeter and Achilles maintain course while Ajax swing port across the rear of the Graf Spee. Given the configuration, the Graf Spee elects to keep firing on the Eexter with its main battery while firing the secondary at the Ajax. No ships are going flank speed or using Evasive. Graf Spee fires 6 dice, 1,1,2,4,4,6. The +1 for Broadside aspect means there are 3 hits. A 1 is a miss, a 5 penetrates and a 6 causes a critical hit. A 5 is on the Crew, starting a fire, knocking out 2 Eexter Crew. The Exeter is Crippled and on fire. Turret Y is knocked out. The Graf Spee fires 3 dice of secondary at Ajax., getting two hits (rolls of 1,6,6). Damage rolls of 3 and 4 are modified to 2 and 3 for a toatl of one more poit of damage to Ajax.

Exeter fires back with 3 dice, 2,3,3 being misses. Ajax fires dice at close range, 2,2,2,6 for one hit, which penetrates for a point of damage. The Achilles is a little further way, but the Graf Spee is broadside to it, so the hit chances are +1. Four rolls of 1, 4,4,5 are modified to 5,5,6 for three hits, two of which penetrate the Graf Spee armor.

At the end of the turn the Exeter is able to put out its fire.

Turn 6. Harwood continues to win initiative. The Garf Spee continues its turn to port. Harwood's Ajax takes a position directly astern of the German ship while the two other cruisers remain broadside. Graf Spee switches targets to the Achilles. 1,1,3,5,6 is two hits, one of which bounces. On epoint of damage to the Achilles. The Graf Spees secondaries fire at Ajax, getting one hit that bounces. Exeter fires its two remaining turrets, missing with a 2 and a 4. Ajax fires four turrets at close range, 3, 4,4,6 for three hits. One bounces one penetrates and one scores a critical hit. Normally "weak" guns don't cause critical hits, but if the target's armor is a 3 or less then the weak gun can score a critical after all. The critical hit damages AA guns. At this point the Graf Spee is down to 8 hull. Achilles fires 3,5,6,6, scoring three hits, all of which penetrate, one critical. That critical hit hits the engines, causing a Turbine Damaged result, -1 off of speed. This damage is also enough to leave the Graf Spee crippled, with its Y turret KO'd.

At this point, with the Graf Spee crippled, down to 2 inches speed and surrounded, I called the fight.

Compared to some of the other systems I used this was a much tougher fight for the Graf Spee. While the Exeter was crippled, the two British light cruisers were still in decent shape.

Sometimes you need to fill a gap

I enjoy Axis & Allies War at Sea naval miniatures as a game in its own right, as well as a good source for painted ships suitable for other naval wargames, including Larry Bond's Command at Sea system, represented in my collection by Atlantic Navies. But Bond's game is not for the faint-hearted or casual gamer. What I really lacked was something in between the two.

Or, more accurately, something in-between them that I'd likely get someone to play. My previous gap fillers comprised Panzerschiffes TG-2 and ArmourSoft's Shipbase III computer-assisted rules -- both of which are now really obscure. The Shipbase III game is a DOS-based computer program that's awkward to try using on newer machines. And Panzerschiffes replaced the dice-based TG-2 with a card-based TG-3 some time ago. I got a lot of good gaming out of both titles, but they're out-dated now. I also have some "antique" naval rules, Fletcher Pratt's and a set called "Victory at Sea" from 1971, but neither is playable by current standards.

So I picked up Mongoose Publishing's Victory at Sea (no relation to the 1971 game of the same name) which seems to hit around the same spot as far as complexity goes while being reasonably popular these days. I'm aware of some criticism on realism grounds, but it seems pretty passable on that score. If needed I'm sure I can borrow a rule or two from Command at Sea, but if I need a detailed simulation I'll use Bond's game anyway.

A&A War at Sea is really a board game that uses miniature ships, so it doesn't really fill the need for a real naval miniatures game (although the model ships do). So I decided Victory at Sea was my best choice among the similar titles out there. Now I need to play it a couple of times to see if I'm right.

Battle of the River Plate -- 70 years ago today

The Battle of the River Plate figures prominently in the public memory of World War II. Partly this is because there was a certain amount of inherent drama about the whole affair -- the gallant German captain who managed to ravage British shipping without killing merchantmen, and who took his own life in defeat. The apparently even nature of the fight. The fact that it's final stages played out in the glare of the international media, among other reasons.

But I think it also played an outside role in the public perception of the war because it happened to be the first major battle involving the Western powers in the war, so it got an extra amount of attention. Few had any inkling that the world was about to see nearly five years of the most intensive naval combat in the history of the world -- combat so intense that many larger, bloodier and more important battles from the war are nearly forgotten today. In the end the Battle of the River Plate was merely a cruiser action between an overgunned German heavy cruiser, an undergunned British heavy cruiser and two light cruisers of average power.

The "pocket battleships" of the pre-war German Navy got a lot of attention in the press, and had a certain amount of glamor in the public eye, but naval professionals were well aware of the type's weaknesses. It's no accident that the British hunting groups formed to find and neutralize the Graf Spee contained two cruisers each -- it being judged that two cruisers should be a match for a German raider that was far from home -- it wasn't necessary to sink or even badly damage the Graf Spee. It was only necessary to force it to use up most of its ammunition and cause an irreparable hit or two that would compromise her ability to continue.

In his ground-breaking set of naval miniatures rules The Naval War Game (1942), Fletcher Pratt remarks that "The battle off Montevideo was not too much of a surprise to some of the players who had participated in a floor game in which the Admiral Graf Spee was pulled down by lighter ships -- though at the time the result of the floor game was discounted."

In the Axis & Allies Naval Miniatures War at Sea game the Graf Spee is awarded a point value of 21, which is pretty good for a cruiser -- but the HMS Exeter at 12 and the HMS Ajax at 13 already match it -- and that's before adding in the Ajax's sister ship Achilles which is not in the game yet, but we can assume would also be worth 12 or 13 points.

In the slightly more detailed Avalanche Press Second World War at Sea series game Bismarck we see a similar disparity. While the Graf Spee is not in the game, her sister ships Lutzow and Adm. Scheer are, and they're worth 37 points each. The HMS Exeter is credited with 23 points. Neither the Ajax nor the Achilles in the game, but their sister ship the HMS Neptune is, rated at 20 points.

More detailed games don't normally try to assign point values for ships, but the same rough calculation holds, the Graf Spee is dangerously overmatched when faced by three cruisers.

I had my introduction to that state of affairs nearly 40 years ago when, as a teen attending my first wargame convention, I got to play a then-new set of rules called Victory at Sea (not to be confused with the later Mongoose Publishing game of the same same). I had the good fortune to command the British cruiser force in the second round of a 3-round tournament using the rules. My opponent was probably more experienced than I was (as I had no experience at all) but there was little he could do as I merely had to sensibly continue to close the range and roll the dice in order to win. (I had won my first round game, a refight of Denmark Straits, by repeating the Bismarck's good fortune by getting a magazine hit on the Hood! My luck ran out in the final round as I drew the luckless British side at the Battle of Coronel).

So to commemorate this battle on its 70th anniversary and relive a bit of my youth, I drafted my Stepson to help me refight this scenario from Victory at Sea.

The initial set up has the Ajax and Achilles in line ahead 24,000 yards off the port bow of the Graf Spee, while the Exeter (oddly enough mispelled 'Execter' ) in this game was 22,000 yards off the Graf Spee's starboard bow.




On turn 1 the Graf Spee turned to starboard to unmask its batteries. I decided to try to get early hits on each British ship and see if I could get a speed advantage to allow an escape. In Victory at Sea non-penetrating hits cause NO damage, which actually seems inaccurate to me. Many armored ships took important hits that didn't penetrate the armor and a more modern set of rules would take this into account. But in this 1973 rule set the British light cruiser 6-inch guns had no chance of doing damage to the Graf Spee unless they closed the range to less than 12,000 yards.

Graf Spee fired at the Ajax with two turrets at 21,00o yards, which provided "12 chances in 36" of a hit. Victory at Sea uses a very unusual system to determine hits. In the early 1970s the only sort of dice available were 6-sided. Dungeons and Dragons and the invention of polyhedral dice was a few years in the future. A modern set would use percentile dice. Victory at Sea approximates the effect of percentile dice by using a table that breaks out the "chances per 36" of achieveing a hit. In this case 12 chances per 36, doubled to 20 chances per 36 because the Graf Spee is "crossing the T" of the Ajax, about a 55.5% chance. 20 chances per 36 translates int0 die rolls of 5 through 8 being hits when rolling a pair of D6.

The German ship's results were as expected, 1 hit on the Ajax. Taking into account rate of fire, number of guns firing and the armor of the target, all computations normally done by the game scenario designer ahead of time, but in this case published for us in the rules, the Graf Spee normally would do 6,120 points of damage. to the Ajax. Due to the range, however, only 50% of that damage is inflicted, so the Ajxa takes 3,060 points of damage. This is enough to knock out one 6-inch turret and reduce its speed to 24 knots, slower than the Graf Spee. The Graf Spee's 11-inch gun was also entitled to draw a card from a standard deck of cards to see if it inflicted a critical hit - needing a spade. None was drawn this time and, as a matter of fact, the Graf Spee didn't cause any critical hits in this battle at all.

Meanwhile the Exeter fired her two front turrets on the Graf Spee at 16,000 yards and managed to land a hit on the Spee's deck armor. For the Graf Spee's shots on the British ships the armor hit was of no import because all the British ships had identical 2-inch thick armor on decks and belts. But the Graf Spee's belt armor was much thicker at 4 inches than its deck at 2.5 inches, so it was fortunate for Exeter to hit the deck, a 50/50 shot at 16.000 yards. This did 1,935 points of damage to the Graf Spee, which wasn't enough to affect the ship's fighting ability. All damage is cumulative, however, so this hit was important.

On Turn 2 the British ships continued to close as best they could, although they angled away to bring guns to bear and avoid the "Crossing the T" penalty. Graf Spee changed targets for its main guns to the Achilles and got one hit on the Achilles, reducing that ship by the same 3,060 points as its sister for the same loss of speed and destroyed turret. The Graf Spee's 5.9-inch guns fired on the Exeter, getting three hits for 1,620 points. This also had no effect on the Exeter fighting power. Unfortunately for the British, the Exeter rolled very poorly, much to the frustration of my young commodore., getting no hits despite having a 47% chance per turret. The battle would undoubtedly have unfolded differently if the Exeter had even average luck this turn.

On Turn 3 the Graf Spee turned its attention to the Exeter, now that it had achieved a speed advantage ouver the two light cruisers. This time it was the German ship's turn to shoot badly., missing with both 11" turrets, although three of the 5.9-inch turrets scored. The Exeter's return fire again landed a penetrating shell on the Graf Spee's deck. This brought the Graf Spee's cumulative damage to 4,837, reducing the German ship's speed to just 20 knots and knocking out two 5.9-inch guns. The British light cruisers could again catch the Graf Spee and would have to be dealt with! The German 5.9-inch hits did reduce the Exeter a bit, though. The British cruiser's cumulative damage dropped its speed to 24 knots and it lost one turret.

Turn 4 was a brutal turn as the Exeter and Graf Spee slugged it out at 12,000 yards. The Graf Spee landed another 11-inch hit on the Exeter and both remaining 5.9-inch guns also hit, bringing Exeter's cumulative damage over 8,000 and leaving the heavy cruiser dead in the water and weaponless. The Exeter's two remaining turrets also fired true, slamming into the Graf Spee's belt and causing another 5,130 points of damage, bringing the pocket battleship's total to 9,967. This was a serious level of damage, disabling the rear 11-inch turret and reducing speed to 14 knots. The Graf Spee would have no choice but to turn about and face the light cruisers.

The next three turns saw the British lights try to get close enough to penetrate the Graf Spee's armor. They were too close to run away from the Graf Spee's 11-inch guns and had little choice. Both ended up being sunk, with their only hit bouncing off the Graf Spee's belt armor.

So the battle ended with the Graf Spee afloat and all three British ships sunk or dead in the water, so at first glance that might appear to be a German victory. As was pretty common in 1970s rules sets, there was no attempt to define victory provided by the scenario. You were supposed to argue about it afterward, just like real admirals!. Still, knowing the Graf Spee's strategic situation, losing a main gun turret and, especially, half the ship's speed would have to be considered fatal damage. While the Graf Spee succeeded in mauling the British, she didn't succeed in escaping.

Still, the outcome suggest that there's at least some chance for the Graf Spee under these set of rules, so long as the German has decent luck while rolling dice and the British don't.

A session report from the dim mists of time

In 1965 I was among the thousands of Massachusetts schoolchildren who contributed my pennies to help bring "Big Mamie," the Battleship Massachusetts, to Fall River, Mass. as a war memorial and floating museum.

Naturally Battleship Cove wasn't as polished and professional then as it is now. I remember getting a tour conducted by a man who had once served on the battleship, but large parts of the ship weren't open to the public yet in the 1960s and the organization running the exhibit was still feeling its way around on how to best display it to the public. They were in the very early stages of their Scout sleepover program, which has since become the bread-and-butter for the museum. Since then Battleship Cove has expanded into the largest collection of museum ships in the world, with a destroyer, a submarine, two PT boats and a former East German Navy missile corvette in addition to the battleship.

There are a number of aircraft, a Japanese suicide boat and thousands of models as well as historical artifacts. It's well worth a visit.

In 1971 and 1972 the battleship was also the site for a couple of early wargame conventions, which was a tremendous break for me. I was a teen wargame newbie with limited funds and here was a "national" wargame con just a dozen miles away from my house!

Sponsored by the Spartan International Competition League, one of the first national wargame organizations, the 1971 con was attended by about 100 or so wargamers. The hobby back then was wasn't big enough to have split into niche markets, so there was an eclectic mix of activities.

Among the offerings was a tournament of Avalon Hill classics, some Napoleonic miniatures and naval wargaming.

The latter was what I had come for, being first attracted to the hobby by naval wargaming. I was primarily a board wargamer, but that was driven mostly by budget considerations and my friends' lack of interest in naval gaming. I had been entertained by lively battle reports in the Alnavco Log (an early naval wargaming journal) and was excited about the chance to actually play.

At that time the standard naval wargaming rules in use were still Fletcher Pratt's pioneering set from the 1940s, although usually modified. Just starting to make their appearance were some new approaches, among them was Victory at Sea, "Realistic Naval Miniatures Rules" by A.J. Morales. I think the Battleship Massachusetts convention may have been the "national" debut of the rules, and Morales was running a tournament to show off his rules and drum up interest. I have copy No. 186.

By later standards the rules are very sketchy, little more than an outline. This was long before the era of the "rules lawyer" and players were still expected to conduct themselves with restraint and good sportsmanship and not rely on picayune points of order for an advantage.

Still, despite their brevity, the Victory at Sea rules manage to cover a lot of ground, with tactical rules for surface, anti-air and anti-submarine warfare, mines and minesweeping, smokescreens and logistics. There were strategic rules for setting up battles. The rules covered everything from the pre-dreadnought era to nuclear submarines. -- in 14 pages!

Included in the booklet were three scenarios and that is what Morales used to organize his tournament, with three single-elimination rounds.

Battle of the Denmark Straits

We started off with the Battle of the Denmark Straits, 1941, the famous confrontation between the Bismarck and the British fleet.

Through the luck of the draw I ended up with the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, which as fortunate because this was my first-ever naval wargame. I was a 16-year-old rookie and I didn't have a much of a clue. I don't remember much about my opponent except that I think he was a little older and more experienced. Things got off to a somewhat dicey start for me when I tried to split off the Prinz Eugen to deal with the shadowing British cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk. My opponent said there ought to be a chance for a collision because the ship models got within a quarter-inch during the turn. I'm still not sure where he got this, as there were no collision rules in the game and realistically there shouldn't have been any chance of the two ships getting tangled up, the Prinz Eugen was faster and just making a simple starboard turn. Morales decided on the spot that his rules needed to consider the chances of a collision and ruled we should dice for for it. I still had beginner's luck and there was no collision. I don't remember what transpired between the Prinz Eugen and the British cruisers, but the German warship had a considerable range advantage and I suppose the British cruisers sheered off. They played no role in the battle.

My beginner's luck continued unabated. Within the first couple of salvos I got a critical hit on the Hood. In Victory at Sea the damage from heavy shell hits was checked with a card draw from a standard deck of cards for any additional effects. My draw was a jack of spades, which was, unbelievably, a magazine hit! The Hood blew up! I got a few more damaging hits on the Prince of Wales before time for the round expired. The Bismarck's damage was minor so I was declared the winner. Cool.

Battle of the River Plate, 1939

The second round was the Battle of the River Plate, which involved the German raider Graf Spee against three British cruisers. I drew the British. This one went quickly. I remember nothing at all about my opponent except that he made the mistake of closing the range right off the bat. While armed with battlecruiser-caliber main guns, the Graf Spee was otherwise really just a slow heavy cruiser and was quickly overwhelmed by a blizzard of 8-inch and 6-inch shells from the Exeter, Ajax and Achilles. I'm not sure if the British ships were even hit.This created somewhat of a conundrum for Morales, though, as there hadn't been an even number of players in the first rounds and he had to pick the top two for the finals. I clearly had less game experience than the other guys, but I had won my two battles most decisively. I the end I faced an older dude (well, he seemed older to me, he was probably no more than 30) who seemed quite annoyed he was playing against a kid.

Battle of Coronel, 1914

My beginner's luck left me at this point, as I drew the British. This was the encounter between the German cruiser squadron led by Admiral Graf Spee (for whom the armored ship in the previous battle was named) and an intercepting British force. The Coronel scenario departed from the historical battle by adding the pre-dreadnought battleship Canopus to the British force while subtracting the useless auxiliary cruiser Oranto. Even with these changes, however, the Germans were stronger.

I overheard my opponent telling a friend of his that he planned to keep the range long (which was clearly the correct plan as he had a broadside of 12 long-range tubes against just 6 for the British squadron). It felt somehow wrong to take advantage of this inadvertent intel, so I was disinclined to close with him at first. Looking back from across the years this was kind of a silly way to feel, but that's how the kid felt.

In any case, I didn't have a clear plan on how to cope with the German firepower advantage and it didn't take long for the Germans to chew up the Good Hope and Monmouth. With the Canopus too slow to catch the untouched German armored cruisers the battle was over.

I ended the night pretty satisfied with how things turned out. I won two out of three games I played and ended up in the finals for the tournament, which I didn't feel was too bad for a kid. It was a good convention.

Despite the passage of 37 years I remember a surprising amount of what happened that day because it was my first experience with a game convention or naval miniatures gaming.