WWI Naval – Page 9

Seekrieg 5 – Falklands 1914

This weekend the local HMGS-South group played a WWI naval game using the Seekrieg 5 rules. The scenario was based loosely on the situation in the Falklands in December 1914, but with significant historical revisions to produce a more balanced battle.

The scenario deviates from history just before von Spee’s squadron reaches the Falklands. Von Spee is alerted to the presence of a strong British force, hides until dawn on 9 December and then uses the cover of fog to start for the Argentine coast. The British divide their forces to search, and one element finds the Germans. The scenario was scaled to give one ship to each of the five players.

Visibility 12,000 yards.

British: battlecruiser Invincible, light cruiser Bristol

German: armored cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, light cruiser Dresden.

The German ships (especially Scharnhorst) were given an advantage in crew quality to help the scenario balance.

The opponents are just coming into sight, having been hidden by the fog-shrouded headlands. A Lion class model is standing in for the Invincible.

On the left, Dresden leaves the formation and heads toward the Bristol using evasive maneuvering. On the right, the Bristol opens the range. The Invincible is beyond the visibility limit of 12,000 yards.

All ships are accelerating at their maximum rate. The Germans close, presenting a bow aspect.

Due to the poor visibility, most of the early fire is ineffective.

The fog bank blocks fire.

The blue stones indicate ships under fire for calculating over-concentration penalties.

Invincible turns to cross the German T.

… and keeps turning to close to point-blank range of Scharnhorst.

Positions at the close of the game. Scharnhorst is on fire.

After about 4.5 hours of play, we stopped play. Damage was about even, mostly to Scharnhorst and Invincible. No ship had been sunk or crippled.

Jutland 100th Anniversary – Windy Corner

For the 100th anniversary of the battle of Jutland, the positions of the fleets at about 6 pm were set up, and various options for the deployment of the Grand Fleet were discussed.

No formal game was attempted since it would have taken more time than was available, but the capital ships were run through the deployment with automated targeting while we talked. The light forces were mostly ignored, but several torpedo attacks occurred anyway due to the initial courses. Since the German fleet did not turn away, the damage was much greater than historically. The poor visibility, particularly toward the north and east, allowed several devastating torpedo attacks.

Scale: 1/6000 miniatures, 500 yards/in ground scale.

Computer code (described here).

Status at the end of the game: IO Windy

Damage output file: Windy output

Plot of ship movements: sk-plot-Windy

TV screen used to display the code’s plot.

WW1 Naval – 1/6000 Scale Japanese Ships

WWI Japanses ships by Figurehead miniatures.

Pre-Dreadnoughts and cruisers.

Dreadnoughts. The names for the ‘No13’ class were taken from battleships at Tsushima.

WW1 Naval – 1/6000 Scale Ships

A few recent additions to my 1/6000 scale WWI ships by Figurehead miniatures.

French Lyon class, French 1913 Battlecruiser class (with fictitious names), British G3 class.

British Armoured Cruisers.

German Gazelle class.

Kagas, N3s (fictitious names), British CLs, US ACs (Shapeways)

WWI Naval – Gulf of Finland

This weekend the local HMGS-South group played a WWI naval battle. In this hypothetical engagement, the Germans send a portion of the High Seas Fleet into the Gulf of Finland in an attempt to engage and destroy the Russian Baltic Fleet. The date is March 15, 1915. The scenario is similar to a previous test.

Scale: 1/6000 miniatures, 500 yards/in ground scale.

Rules: Computer code (described here).

Visibility 16,000 yards. Wind southerly at 8 knots. Seastate 2.

Status at the end of the game: Fin2-end-status

Damage output file: SK-Normal-Fin2-2016-1-23 excerpt.txt

Plot of ship movements:
All Fin2-plot-all
First 20 minutes Fin2-plot-1to20
20 minutes to 40 minutes Fin2-plot-20to40
40 minutes to end Fin2-plot-40toend

German CLs form up and attack the threatening Russian DDs to the north.

German DNs maneuver to avoid Russian torpedo attacks. The Russian boats are heavily damaged by German CLs.

German DNs and CLs evade torpedo attacks.

We quit at this point due to time. The damage was relatively even. The Russian destroyers and torpedo boats and the German light cruisers did most of the fighting. One dreadnought had been sunk on each side.