“Der Tag, 1916” by Minden Games is a solitaire WW1 strategy game depicting the naval conflict in the North Sea between British and German fleets.
Game 1. No optional rules were used. 1:6000 scale ship models and a 2010 North Sea map were used instead of the game components.
Turn 1
The initial British base assignments were fixed since first turn reassignments is an optional rule.
Scapa Flow: 9 second generation dreadnoughts, 9 dreadnoughts, 3 battlecruisers, 5 armoured cruisers.
Cromarty: 8 second generation dreadnoughts, 4 armoured cruisers.
Rosyth: 5 second generation dreadnoughts, 6 battlecruisers.
Dover: 1 dreadnought, 7 pre-dreadnoughts and 3 armoured cruisers.
The Action Card “RAID” was drawn. North Sea weather was average in the north, poor in the center and south. German ships available were 3 battlecruisers, 1 second generation dreadnought and 5 dreadnoughts. The action location was Dover (in the south, thus poor weather). British forces intercepted from Dover. No British ships were unavailable due to repair. The Dover force arrived at the battle location on battle round 2, so the combat phase started with that round.
Battle round 2: The British achieved 3 hits and 2 saves. The Germans achieved 1 vulnerability hit and 5 saves. This gave 1 damaged British pre-dreadnought which sank.
Battle continuation failed so there was no battle round 3.
The Germans received 2 victory points for the raid and 2 for sinking a pre-dreadnought.
Turn 2
The British base assignments were modified as follows:
Scapa Flow: 6 pre-dreadnoughts and 4 armoured cruisers.
Cromarty: 2 second generation dreadnoughts, 10 dreadnoughts, 9 battlecruisers.
Rosyth: 20 second generation dreadnoughts.
Dover: 8 armoured cruisers.
The Action Card “TIP & RUN” was drawn. North Sea weather was excellent in the north and center and poor in the south. German ships available were 5 battlecruisers, 3 second generation dreadnoughts and 2 dreadnoughts. The action location was Hull (in the center, thus excellent weather). British forces intercepted from Rosyth and Dover. 2 second generation dreadnoughts from Rosyth and 2 armoured cruisers from Dover were unavailable due to repair. The Rosyth force arrived at the battle location on battle round 2, so the combat phase started with that round. The Dover force would arrive at the battle location on battle round 3.
Battle round 2: The British achieved 6 hits, 1 vulnerability hit and 2 saves. The Germans achieved 1 hit, 1 vulnerability hit and 2 saves. The British had 1 second generation dreadnought damaged. The Germans had 2 second generation dreadnoughts damaged, 1 second generation dreadnought sunk, 1 dreadnought damaged and 1 battlecruiser sunk.
Battle round 3: The British achieved 8 hits, 2 vulnerability hits and 2 saves. The Germans achieved 2 vulnerability hits and 1 save. The British had 1 second generation dreadnought damaged and 1 armoured cruiser damaged. The Germans had all remaining ships damaged and 1 battlecruiser sunk. The rules do not state how to apply 9 damage results to a force of 5 ships so the extra results were ignored.
The Germans received 1 victory point for the tip & run. The British received 13 victory points for sinking 1 second generation dreadnought and 2 battlecruisers.
Turn 3
The British base assignments were not modified. The Action Card “NO ACTION” was drawn. The British received 3 victory points.
Turn 4
The British base assignments were not modified. The Action Card “BOMBARD” was drawn. North Sea weather was average in the north, poor in the center and average in the south. German ships available were 1 battlecruiser, 1 second generation dreadnought and 1 dreadnought. The action location was Scarborough (in the center, thus poor weather). No British forces intercepted. The Germans received 5 victory points for the bombardment.
Total victory points were British 13, German 10, a British victory.
The player made one decision in the game which had any effect on play, the assignment of ships to bases for turn 2. The assignment decisions for turns 3 and 4 were immaterial since there were no combats. Everything else that occurred was the result of random die rolls. Use of some of the optional rules would potentially give the player more decisions.
Game 2. Optional rules used: Play as the German side, Withdrawal.
Turn 1
The Action Cards “RAID” and “DER TAG” were drawn. “DER TAG” was selected.
North Sea weather was average in the north, poor in the center and south. All German ships were available: 5 battlecruisers, 9 second generation dreadnoughts and 8 dreadnoughts. The pre-dreadnoughts and armoured cruisers were inadvertently left out. The action location was Center (poor weather). British forces intercepted from Scapa, Cromarty and Rosyth. 3 British ships from Rosyth were unavailable due to repair, 1 battlecruiser and 2 second generation dreadnoughts. The Rosyth force arrived at the battle location on battle round 2, so the combat phase started with that round.
Battle round 2: The British achieved 3 hits and 2 saves. The Germans achieved 7 hits and 7 saves. This damaged 3 British second generation dreadnoughts and 2 British battlecruisers. 1 British second generation dreadnought and 1 British battecruiser sank.
Since the Scapa and Cromarty forces would arrive for combat round 3, the German force withdrew (using the optional rule).
The Germans received 9 victory points for sinking ships.
Turn 2
The Action Card “NO ACTION” was drawn. The British received 3 victory points.
Turn 3
The Action Cards “TIP & RUN” and “BOMBARD” were drawn. “BOMBARD” was selected.
North Sea weather was average in the north, poor in the center and average in the south. All German battlecruisers were available: 5 battlecruisers. The action location was Scarborough (poor weather). British forces intercepted from Cromarty. 2 British ships were unavailable due to repair, 1 armoured cruiser and 1 second generation dreadnought. The Cromarty force arrived at the battle location on battle round 3, so the combat phase started with that round.
Battle round 3: The British achieved 2 hits and 2 saves. The Germans achieved 2 vulnerability hits and 3 saves. This damaged 2 British armoured cruisers. 1 British armoured cruiser sank.
The Germans received 5 victory points for the bombardment and 1 for sinking an armoured cruiser.
Turn 4
The Action Cards “AMBUSH” and “RAID” were drawn. “AMBUSH” was selected.
North Sea weather was average in the north, poor in the center and average in the south. All German battlecruisers, second generation dreadnoughts and dreadnoughts were available: 5 battlecruisers, 9 second generation dreadnoughts and 8 dreadnoughts. The action location was Rosyth (poor weather). British forces intercepted from Scapa and Rosyth. 2 British ships from Scapa and 1 from Rosyth were unavailable due to repair, 2 second generation dreadnoughts and 1 dreadnought. The Rosyth force arrived at the battle location on battle round 2, so the combat phase started with that round. The Scapa force would arrive on battle round 3.
Battle round 2: The British achieved 4 hits and 1 save. The Germans achieved 5 vulnerability hits, 8 hits and 5 saves. This damaged 5 British second generation dreadnoughts and 7 British battlecruisers. Unlike the first game, damage in excess of the number of ships was allocated as equally as possible, thus several ships made 2 rolls on the damage table. 2 British second generation dreadnoughts and 5 British battlecruisers. sank.
Battle round 3: The British achieved 1 vulnerability hit, 6 hits and 7 saves. The Germans achieved 5 vulnerability hits, 2 hits and 5 saves. This damaged 1 British second generation dreadnought , 3 British dreadnoughts, 1 British battlecruiser, 1 German second generation dreadnought and 1 German dreadnought. 1 British dreadnought, 1 British battlecruiser and 1 German dreadnought sank.
The British received 5 victory points for sinking a dreadnought. The Germans received 39 victory points sinking 2 second generation dreadnoughts, 1 dreadnought and 6 battlecruisers.
Total victory points were British 8, German 55, a German victory.
