So far into the action, both fleets had taken serious damage. On the Azurian side, Amiral Duperre had been sunk, along with a torpedo boat. Though all Hellenic vessels were still afloat, Georgios Averof and Hierax were in a near-sinking condition, the armoured cruiser barely under way, and the destroyer dead in the water. Psara was also badly damaged enough to force its withdrawal from the action, escorted by Hydra. Lemnos had also not long before this taken heavy damage from a torpedo hit. But...
... To reach safe haven they would have to pass by their respective adversaries. The action was not yet by any means over. 
Seeking once and for all to put Averof under, torpedo boats TB3 and TB4 set off in pursuit. This was a risky enterprise, Averof still having three of its four main guns in action, and all of its secondaries. The destroyer Leon was also escorting the battered cruiser northward. TB3 unable to launch its torpedo, the reliance was being heavily placed upon TB4 to complete the mission.
The risks were to prove too high. Both torpedo boats took heavy damage from incoming fire. TB4 had its torpedo launchers wrecked before it could fire off the projectiles, and their popgun armaments failed to score any hits. Their mission a failure, both torpedo boats turned away from their more powerful adversaries, and began to seek a way out of the battle.
Meanwhile, exchanges of gunfire continued between the surviving capital ships, with some damage being inflicted on both sides. Although crippled, with its speed reduced, Psara still had teeth and could use them with effect. The Hellenic battleships set a course to the northeast, whilst Hoche and Carnot fetched a wide circle to try and put some distance between themselves and their enemy before settling upon the opposite course.
So the action might have ended here, both sailing off out of the strait. However, Admiral Poliomyelitis was not yet prepared to let the matter rest. Ordered 'to engage the enemy more closely', Hydra closed the range towards Carnot. Both sides took heavy damage. Hydra having so far taken more hurt than had Carnot, was the sooner forced to break off the action. For its part, Carnot was better able to absorb the punishment, but apprehending the approach of Lemnos still adding its big guns to the carnage, was also interested in getting away.
At this point only Lemnos of the Hellenic fleet was in a condition to take the fight, if it chose, to the enemy. On the other hand, Hoche and Carnot, despite considerable damage, were still able to maintain their battle line and to give Lemnos a tougher fight than it would want. Hoche had taken so far only superficial damage from a couple of hits. The encounter with Hydra had inflicted more serious hurt upon Carnot, but not enough to keep it out of a fight with Lemnos if it came to that...
Hoche and Carnot - the latter's speed unimpaired by the torpedo hit (5FP) just taken - slipped by Lemnos, the range between enemies widening rapidly as they sailed on opposite course. TB2 long having departed, it remained for the remaining two torpedo boats to thread their way by the Hellenic fleet to escape. TB4 didn't make it...As expected, Athenae trumpeted its victory over the vaunted Azurian Mesogesean Fleet. It was hard to deny that the Hellenic Fleet had scored a significant tactical victory, and a strategic one, too. The failure of the Azurian 'show of strength' in favour of its Turcowaz ally was undeniable. A capital ship and two torpedo boats sunk against no loss the the Hellenes would be hard to explain away - which didn't stop the Lutetia Lucifer mentioning the fact, in large headlines. The damage to Azuria's most powerful vessel, and its early departure from the action, also drew notice.
But it was not all brimstone and treacle for the Azurians. Three of Hellenia's four capital ships would be in drydock for months - possibly years, given than country's lack of major naval repair facilities. Lemnos itself was in a battered state that would require weeks in port, at least. Azuria still had Hoche, which could repair and replenish at sea, and the two flatiron gunboats that Admiral Ganteaume had carefully kept out of the battle. Let the Athenae owl crow, thought the Admiral - no ornithologist, he - Azuria was still in a position to give seagoing support for the Settee Empire, and Hellenia barely in any position to hinder him.
For the record, here is an abridged summary of damage to the respective fleets
Azuria:
Amiral Duperre - 17/12SP damage (sunk)Charlemagne - 15/16SP (12 from torpedoes)
Carnot - 10/16SP (5 from torpedo)
Hoche - 2/14SP
TB1 - 7/5SP (sunk)
TB2 - 4/5SP
TB3 - 4/5SP
TB4 - 5/5SP (lost, sunk)
Hellenia:
Georgios Averof - 11/12SP damagePsara - 8/12SP (6 from torpedo)
Hydra - 10/12SP
Lemnos - 13/20SP (5 from torpedo)
Leon - 1/5SP
Panthir - 3/5SP
Aetos - 4/5SP
Hierax - 2/5SP
The Hellenic destroyers surely bore charmed lives in this action!
A couple of post action points to mention:
- The effect of the torpedoes was devastating in this battle: every roll for effect being a 5 or a 6, the latter predominating. But that gives rise to the question: suppose the 'effects rolls' been 1s and 2s instead. I am now inclined towards an alternative method of determining the effect of a torpedo strike: adding the other two green dice. The minimum damage would be 2SP, the maximum 12 (three 6s on the three dice), and the mean 7SP.
- But that in turn raises the question of whether torpedo hits are too easy to obtain. Scoring at least one 6 with 3 dice is less than a 50-50 proposition - a little over 42% - but still seems a bit high. In this last action, both sides were fairly lucky with their torpedo attacks, especially the Hellenes. I'd probably leave it as is, simply because the torpedo boats and destroyers are under-represented compared with their historical naval antecedents.
- Questions remain as to whether a torpedo may be launched in each of successive turns from the same vessel whilst projectiles remain and launchers remain serviceable. I find it difficult to determine the arrangement of torpedo launchers upon these vessels, and whether torpedoes may be launched (leaving aside spar torpedoes) forward or in broadside. As a convention, I am leaning towards the following:
- If there is an odd number of launchers, ONE may be launched forward.
- All other torpedoes are launched abeam.
- Exception: Romanian torpedo boats have twin tubes firing forward only.
- All torpedo carrying craft have limited numbers of projectiles: one per launcher only. This number is given in my table of ship 'stats'. - I discover I had forgotten the effects of waterline hits upon target vessels. That had a considerable effect on the battle: as fought Georgios Averof would have gone under shortly after the rest of the fleet turned up. I'm not going to worry overmuch about that, but methinks a hardcopy printout of this schematic might be worth keeping by!
Well, so much for my overture to the upcoming - I'm not yet sure how soon that will be - Little Great War...
Great conclusion to the action Ion. Do you have a Campaign rule for length of time to repair vessels?
ReplyDeleteMaudlin Jack -
DeleteSo far, no campaign rule for repairs, but I imagine the FP damage would require some multiple of days, or maybe a week per, with some add-ons for 'critical hits'. Reliant upon foreign builders for their ships, the Hellenic fleet would require a deal longer. It is always possible that the Azuria might snaffle replacements from their Nordic Sea fleet. They might as well, as that fleet is no match for the Ruberian. But Ruberia itself might well send one of its battle squadrons into the Mesogesean...
I will simply HAVE to draw up some kind of map - a scaled down and distorted Europe and Middle East stretching from Ruberia (England) to Medifluvia (Mesopotamia). There will be a land border between Anglophone Ruberia and Francophone Azuria that runs through the Lazia river valley a.k.a. La Manche.
The distance between the western and eastern theatres will have to be ... erm ... truncated somehow.
Something to think about anyhow!
Cheers,
Ion
That was an excellent battle Ion, very gripping and believable and the rules worked really well. I don't know what to say about the torpedoes, any weapon system which is so dependant on extremes of luck is going to be hard to model well in what is essentially an attritional combat. In a huge battle the luck would average out, but not with a dozen ships engaged.
ReplyDeleteMartin -
DeleteThanks for your comment. That was probably the fiercest naval action of any I have played out so far under this Portable Naval Wargames system.
I did forget some of the 'critical hit' effects, which no doubt will create interestingly volatile outcomes in the next naval action, wherever that might be!
I think that now some land actions will have to ensue, another Medifluvian campaign in revenge for General Scarlett's disaster (an earlier Medifluvian campaign based upon that of Major-General Townshend); and revival of the Kavkaz Campaign, but with larger forces on land and sea, and a Ruberian Expeditionary Force landing on the Azurian coast. That latter might have to be escorted by the Ruberian Grand Fleet (Commanded by Admiral Sir Jno Jellybene). Will the Azuria Nordic Sea fleet come out to meet it?
I long ago came up with Dowman's Law of Chance in War Games: there is no such thing as a 'long run'. Even if, in a given single game, the dice rolls even out - and THAT is no 'gimme' - the effects are much less likely to do so. Here's a story.
A friend had a WW1 war game set in which who had the initiative was decided each turn, high roll 'winning' it. The initiative was a big deal in this rule set, conferring, inter alia, the privilege of shooting, with immediate effect, first. The particular game I'm about to relate ran to 11 turns.
I won the initiative in the first and third turns; and finally in the 11th. Three out of eleven was none too flash, but take out the first and last, I won just one out of the remaining nine. Nothing was going to keep me from a miserable and ignominious defeat. The thing was fixable of course, to mitigate the effects of the initiative rolls, which, on the whole, the Portable Wargames systems do.
But my point is that there is not really enough turns in a wargame to dampen extreme results. Bear in mind Granny Weatherwax's Probability Law: thousand to one shots crop up, nine times out of ten. You'd be surprised.
Having said that, I reckon I'll stay with the torpedo system as I now have it, and will codify the thing in a future post. If Bob does a Fourth Compendium, I may submit for his consideration something along these lines, with a small naval action by way of illustration.
On the sizes of my fleets, the largest possible action would probably involve six or seven major units the side (both sides allies), with about as many torpedo boats or destroyers. That would probably take all day to play out!
Cheers,
Ion
A really grand start to your campaign. There was far more, and longer action then I expected. Looking forward to future parts.
ReplyDeleteWEK 3 -
DeleteI think this is going to be a VERY complicated narrative. I have a feeling that there will be another naval action soon, pitting the Azurian Nordic Sea Fleet (bearing a remarkable resemblance to the Mesogesean Fleet) against the powerful Ruberian Royal Navy, escorting a surprise landing of a powerful invasion force upon the Azurian coast.
Cheers,
Ion
Great battle report. I agree that torpedoes seem to be too effective. Based on the results of this battle it would seem that the navies of this world would be concentrating on building torpedo boats and destroyers, much more bang for their buck.
ReplyDeleteMark -
DeleteAlthough there ought to be swarms of torpedo boats and/or destroyers surging around the big units, I think their whole combat mechanics would have to be revisited. Probably it would have much the same game effect as they stand, but with a lot more complication.
I'm inclined, then, to leave things as they stand, the one TB/D unit standing in, perhaps, for a group of, say, four or five. I've organised the Ruberian small craft into two 'flotillas' of 3, but they might notionally each represent 12-vessel flotillas. Maybe.
Tell you what: now that I have seen how boldly handled TBs can affect an action, it adds a whole new dimension, and tension, too, as you await the outcome of a torpedo attack. Mind you, I don't expect such spectacular results will be often repeated.
Cheers,
Ion
Really neat action! Such an interesting period.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with the theory that luck balances out in longer games is that it depends on circumstances. I’ve played some One Hour Skirmish games, when each player has a card deck as the randomizer so it HAS to be “equal”. Except when one player consistently draws a high card for initiative followed by a low card for number of actions!
N.E. Pete
DeletePredreadnought warfare has grown on me rather, beginning with my Blacklands War narrative based loosely on the First Balkans War of 1912. Starting out as simply a land campaign of battles, it eventually had city garrisons added, and, as the idea upon which it was based included small navies, finally, navies two of the warring countries got.
At the top of the column to the right is a link to a 'Table of Contents' for the whole narrative - start to finish. It goes to 30-something posts, several land battles and four naval engagements. Just the thing for a rainy afternoon...
The high card for initiative, low for action (and vice versa) has certainly occurred in my own games! But I've seen all kinds of oddities there, which lend a considerable sense of uncertainty about how a given battle is like to go. Great for solo action...
Cheers,
Ion