Denmark Straight - some Naval gazing

There was a suggestion in May that it would be nice to try out the Denmark Straights around the anniversary using different rules and compare results. True to form our gaming group managed to be so disorganised that it took until late June to hit the table at Asgard Wargames in Middlesbrough (purveyor of fine toys for the discerning war gamer).

We set up using Dave Manley's suggested start positions (see Dave's excellent Blog here) and we had three players. Player one - Mark playing Bismark\Eugen , player two (me) playing Hood (aka "the Big Firework") and Prince of Wales (PoW), and Paul playing the shadowing cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk. Rules are the venerable GQ2 - complete with rusted staples holding them together, models Navwar\Davco from Marks collection.

An aside here - Mark is of the general opinion we should follow each recorded decision \ event faithfully whereas the others tend to say "bugger that" and want to try other options. What happened tonight was really interesting. Up to the point in game events prevented it, both British players followed the historical decisions made by their historical counterparts and "Mr Scripted" tried to deviate. I think this was because when faced with the situation, the British made the right decisions but in real life they didn't pay off. When our RN players faced the same circumstances the decisions were remarkably similar to their historical counterparts.

Anyway back to our story. Hood sighted Bismark and Eugen and it was game on. The British immediately tried to close the range and Hood targeted the lead enemy (Eugen) and PoW shot at Bismark. This is of course historically accurate. Admiral Holland on Hood knew that his vessel was particularly vulnerable to long range plunging fire so wanted to get closer to avoid that. Of course that meant sacrificing half his firepower as he would have to steam straight at the Germans and mask his rear turrets, but that was a risk that had to be taken. As for shooting the wrong ship, Hood allegedly got confused because they were expecting Bismark to lead, and both German ships have remarkably similar outlines. With their first salvos the RN achieved nothing, and it was with some trepidation that I handed the shooting dice to Mark. Both his ships targeted Hood, and Bismark scored a critical hit. There was a sense of dread in the air as he rolled his crit result - it couldn't happen, could it?

Hood is hit

Actually no. Hood emerged from the pall of smoke and spray with some bulkhead damage and one turret out but refused point blank to blow up. This felt like a major victory. Norfolk tried a speculative long range shot at Eugen but missed.

Turn two and the Germans turned slightly towards the British, and again concentrated fire on Hood, and a second hit dropped her to half speed. Hood fired again at Eugen, and there was one of those "Ouch" moments when a couple of 15" shells tore through the cruiser inflicting serious damage to hull and turrets. To make matters worse for the Germans PoW landed a solid hit on Bismark that damaged a turret but the critical hit on the hull failed to penetrate the armoured belt. Norfolk missed, but Eugen got a straddle in return.

Norfolk is straddled

Turn three and Hood was now moving slow enough due to damage to force the Admiral to detach her. Mark was also thinking about detaching Eugen. Initially he had planned to deviate from the script and try a torpedo run but the damage suffered dissuaded him and Eugen starter to turn away. Hood and PoW now completed turns to open their A arcs and get all their guns to bear on the clearly identified bulk of Bismark, which was stolidly holding her course and still allowing the range to drop.  British gunnery now kicked in - big. Both Hood and PoW scored heavy hits on Bismark, and the range was short enough to ensure that this time they were getting through the German armour. Fires broke out but were quickly extinguished. Bismark fired at Hood again, and another hit saw her steam lines ruptured and speed fall away. Norfolk straddled the departing Eugen.

Eugen turns away

A arcs open - "Shoot!"

Turn 4 and it was clear pithy messages to the Fuhrer were going to be needed. Hood and PoW hammered Bismark with relentless accuracy, hitting turrets, Bridge and Fire Control. Return fire was now weak and caused no additional damage. Eugen and Norfolk exchanged fire as Eugen tried to disengage, but in doing so the German inadvertently ran towards Suffolk. Hood had got her boilers up again and was making a respectable 15 knots, even though the old lady had taken a beating. Bismark was now reduced to a single main turret and was low in the water.

That's a Paddlin! (tm) - British dice doing their thing

Turn 5 and it all ended for Bismark when again the British Battleships scored very damaging hits, and burning from stem to stern she slowly rolled over and sank. Eugen ran, but her top speed was reduced due to damage and she was outnumbered 2-1 by Suffolk and Norfolk. Both sides straddled the targets but with no hits.

The end

Turn 6 & 7 and Eugen was desperate to escape, and for a while it looked like she may just manage it, then a hit to her machinery slowed her again and the British Cruisers closed in to batter her into submission. The killing blow actually came from Hood, who landed what was now a very speculative shot from long range.

So a resounding victory for the Royal Navy. Tactically Mark made one mistake in trying to close the range when he would have been better served to have maintained it or even tried to open it a bit. That decision was with hindsight a crucial one as he sacrificed his better armour and weapon range. Stat wise Bismark is clearly better than both Hood and PoW, but the margins are not enough to allow her to shoot it out with both at the same time, and the early hits on Eugen that forced her to try and disengage meant that was the position she was in. Hood had managed to reach the point where she could start causing serious damage with most of her main battery intact, and after that the sheer weight of fire of two Battleships against one really told. Historically this was Admiral Holland's plan, though he never lived to complete it. British dice rolling was also very good \ lucky, German not so much.

What we left out. PoW entered the battle with some serious defects in her main battery and should have been firing with her main armament reduced by one level to represent this. When we thought about this we realised that this really would not have changed the result as due to a quirk in the rules if firing with full value (30) or reduced (24) the dice rolls PoW was making were so good the damage would not have been any different. We also didn't represent the apparent advantage the Germans had with their position  making it easier for them to spot targets.

Great game and a lot of fun. I feel dangerously motivated to try another.