All My Painted British Ships - Oct. 19, 1941 (aka The battle of "Napatam Epac")
Scenario rationale and constraints (which influenced the rationale )
The title says it all. :-)
But I will spell it out just in case it wasn’t completely obvious. This was my first foray into the Mediterranean Sea and I ran into a problem building a scenario: I just didn’t have that many painted British ships. The few I did have were from the ‘standard’ scenarios Hood vs. Bismark, Battle of River Platte, and the few Pacific scenarios I had done. So not enough destroyers or light cruisers and no Queen Elizabeth class: Barham, Warspite ,ect. And I didn’t even own any ships of the Royal Sovereign class. So I started looking on line for a solution and was relieved to see that HMS Rodney had actually been in the Med for a few months in 1941. So then it was a case of just scanning the lists participating ships in the battles that had actually happened… And then making up something entirely different. Because none of the actual battles really lined up with what I had available (other than the Rodney of course). For better or worse, this is the result.
FYI: Because the software I'm using to manage the ship damage process needs to identify ships independent of their names you'll see notation like "Trento(3)" or "Berwick(D)". Which represents the Ship name and then the id tag in parentheses. More importantly, those id tags match the id tags on the bases. So if you zoom in on the pictures hopefully this will help those who aren't experts in ship recognition (i.e. not modellers) figure out who's who.
OOB
Great Britain:
1x Rodney BB - Rodney (B)
1x Kent CA - Berwick (D)
1x Fiji CL - Ceylon (C)
1x Tribal DD - Zulu (A)
2x J&K DD -
Juno (E)
Kelvin (F)
Italy:
1x Littorio BB - Roma (4) -- "What do you mean she wasn’t completed in 1941 ?" :-)
1x Trento CA - Trento (3)
1x Abruzzi CL - Garibaldi (6)
1x Navigatori DD - Tarigo (1)
2x Soldati DD -
Corsaro (2)
Alpino (5)
Game scale
Game Firing / spotting scale: normally 1" = 250 yards; but, on a table top like this this one the scenario is using 1 cm = 250 yards. The rules use Range Estimation by the players to determine hits. For this game I also I switched to centimeters for movement. Movement rate: 1 cm = 1 Kt. (moves are plotted in terms of knots. [ The rule system is CFA (aka Clear For Action) and the software adaptation is my own.]
Play area edges: The referee eventually decided that the game could scroll to the North only. And that didn't really help much. (See post game analysis at the end for details).
Scenario setup and comments on the setup.
Scenario date: October 19th 1941 (during the first, very brief time that the Rodney was in the Med.) The Italians enter from the West side of the map, the British from the east, but both forces are on a northerly leaning course.
Each side is split into two groups. For the Italians, Trento is leading Roma, with Tarigo sailing on the starboard side of Trento. the about 20 cm (approx. 8 inches) to port, Gariabaldi is keeping pace with Trento, while further to port, Corsaro is a bit ahead of Garbaldi leading Alpino. [ See Picture ] All ships maintaining an initial speed of 16 Knots
For the British,...Apologies Berwick and Zulu are are on the Wrong Base for the initial positions picture. (Berwick should be on base D, Zulu should be on base A. The referee was so desperate to get the game started that the pictures were not redone. In the foreground Kelvin-F has barely gotten on the board. On her starboard side in diagonal formation are, from rear to front: Berwick, Ceylon and Zulu. All ships are maintaining an initial speed of 12 Knots (in deference to Rodney probably).
The narrative for this scenario requires the Rodney to be last in line when the British deploy. (Shouldn’t be hard to justify, given her max speed). I also thought about a variation on this scenario that substitutes another CA on each side in place of the Battleships in case I started to feel guilty about violating the sanctity of actual History. Obviously I got over it pretty quickly, as I ran the scenario with the Battleships.
Oct-19-1941 Situation report:
It was a fine Autumn day in October of 1941 The Italian admiralty had gotten wind of a British operation to reinforce Malta with more aircraft. The Italian force sent to disrupt this effort failed to find the full Task Force containing the British aircraft carriers due to bad weather and bad information. (At least that’s what the commanding Admiral is going to write in his after action report). The Italian Force was still steaming along the day after the planned interception looking for something to expend their accumulated frustrations on, when at 1000 hours they spotted smoke on the horizon (No Search Radar sets were working.) Gradually, the lead ships of the British force came into view. Initially it was just Zulu, Ceylon, Berwick and Kelvin, so the Admiral on the Roma thought that they were finally going to have a good day. It wasn’t until 1003 that the Rodney wheezed (er, um,) sailed bravely into view with Juno patiently trailing along, that the Italians realized they were in for an actual fight.
And....Lights, Camera...ACTION !!!
-------------< 10:00 AM: Turn 1 >-------------------------------------------------
The respective fleets spot each other.
Rodney(B) is not yet visible, the Italians start dreaming large.
British (partial) force initial positions, looking East.
Italian force starting positions - Looking West
----------------< 10:03 AM Turn 2 >----------------------------
Rodney(B) waddles & wheezes...er, um, valiantly enters the board with Pennants streaming with her impatient, yet faithful escort, Juno(E) along side.
Despite the appearance of the Rodney(B) who probably wasn't spotted quite yet, the Italians feel lucky and Roma(4) squeezes off 3 rounds, aiming at Ceylon(3). But they fall short and cause no damage (except for the undergarments of the sailors on Zulu(A) as three 15" shells fall 500 yards off of her starboard bow).
Italian view point, end of turn 2
British view point, end of turn 2
View looking "North" (at my Bike) for a clearer picture of the starting positions with all ships on board. (pun intended). Italians on left (West), British on the right (East).
--------------------< 10:06 AM Turn 3 >-------------------------------
More movement, both sides oddly are aiming for the same place in the ocean, an invisible “X” somewhere north of the game boards physical edge. The Referee thinks to himself that this will not lead to anything good.
First Blood!
Rodney(B) fires at Trento(3) but is long by a country kilometer. Trento(3) also fires at Zulu(A) and just barely misses, over by 300 yards. But, Roma tries again to hit Ceylon(C), with 6 shells this time. Roma's shots are long...but just long enough that Berwick(D) sails under the salvo and takes a 15" round in her rear. Literally. Not much visible damage, but from the crew's perspective, it was definitely a spanking.
[ Referee Adjustment]: Moved ALL SHIPS 19.25 cm to the South to keep the battle on the map. And finally decided North is where my Bike is and that the opposite (South) edge of the map is NOT extensible
Italian viewpoint.
British Viewpoint w/ (out of scale) Shell splashes
----------------------< 10:09 AM Turn 4 >----------------------------
Italians come up empty. Close...but empty. The British on the other hand finally do some damage. Berwick(D) is to be commended for getting 2 hits from an otherwise short salvo by crossing the T on Trento(3) who gets formally spanked, once in the Stern (see following comment ) and more importantly in Boiler room #2 causing a loss of 12 kts. of speed. Garibaldi (6) takes one in the stern from Ceylon(C)
“What is it with all of the Stern hits? “ muses the Referee
Momentarily, things are looking up for the British.
Italian Situation, Turn 4
British Situation Turn 4
"Drone Cam"- Turn 4
[Awkward Referee Interlude]: The Referee had to make an 'adjustment' of moving all ships south to keep them on the board. This is how Juno(3) went from the middle of the board, to almost sailing off of it in one turn. And how the Italian ships wound up back at the South edge of the board
Italian View after adjustment. (Looking East)
British view after adjustment. The base of Juno(E) is being propped up with a plastic spacer.
----------------------< 10:12 AM Turn 5 >--------------------------------
Both sides are still steaming headlong for that mythical X in the sea.
The Italian light forces Corsaro(2) and Alpino(5) are practically on top of Zulu(A) & Ceylon(C), Berwick(D) is a bit farther away. It's starting to look like the Italians are winning this game of Chicken, but we'll know better when the Italian torpedoes hit the water.
Roma(4) & Rodney(B) do their best imitation of blindfolded Giants with base ball bats, meaning both ships fire at each other but both salvos all thousands of yards short. But the other Italian guns actually do some damage, Berwick's A turret is smoking and the crew is bailing out of it; she's looking a tad bit low in the water. Zulu(A) is missing a .50 cal. mount and the crew no longer has to worry about fixing her Fire Control Radar as the already fragile set was reduced to splinters in what’s left of the radar room. The only bright spot for the British is that Ceylon(C) bounced both 6" shells from the Garibaldi(6)
Things are looking a bit precarious for the Brits as Italian torpedoes do indeed hit the water.…
Italian position, end of turn 5
British position, end of turn 5
Overall view, end of turn 5. (More from the "Drone Cam")
---------------------< 10:15 am Turn 6 >----------------------------
The crew of the Berwick and Ceylon(C) utter comments unbecoming British sailors (something about "bloody unsporting of Italians to speed up their torpedoes”) as 4 torpedoes scream right behind their respective sterns at 49 knots. The rest of the crew of Berwick(D) is frantically scanning the water on their port side based on Ceylon(C)'s signal of "The [really unprintable] buggers fired slow ones too!"
Surprisingly, none
of the torpedoes hit. The Referee is sad.
Italian view turn 6
British view turn 6
Overall view, turn 6
[The Next Awkward Referee Interlude]: The ships kept bumping up against the "top" [North edge] of the board and the battle was not staying condensed enough to allow for shifting everything downward (South) to resolve the issue. Additionally, there were now a bunch of torpedo markers on the table. So in an act of desperation (desecration?), the Referee decided to pivot all ships by 90 degrees to their EAST (toward the wall with the Stereo ) This was deemed the solution to the “X marks the spot” problem that had the best chance of preserving some sense of what the scenario was about. Not that there ever was a strong sense of what the scenario was about (more about that in the post game analysis). This turned the battle into something resembling a ‘Stern Chase’ reversal of Cape Matapan; with the Italians now chasing the British and having a better chance of actually catching up to them because the Rodney was the slowest ship in the battle. This also explains the other part of the scenario title. :-)
End of turn 6, *Before* the 'Big Switcheroo' - the white strip of paper is the newer and smaller torpedo marker.
AFTER the 'switcheroo - Torpedo marker has been removed.
-------------------< 10:18 AM Turn 7 >--------------------------------
Some mutual sledgehammering finally ensues, with the British getting the better of the exchange. This is mainly because, unlike the crew on the Roma, the gun crew of the Rodney's secondary guns remembered to load HE shells before firing at their target. Both Rodney(B) and Juno(E) team up to put a total of seven hits into the Tarigo(1). Honestly, it's a mercy she sank because there really wasn't much left after a Bridge hit, two fires, Y turret put out of action and #4 Boiler being disabled. More troubles for Trento(3) as Ceylon(C) landed four 6 inch rounds and as a result, Trento's rudder was firmly jammed in place. The only good news for her Captain is that her course was straight last turn.
Contrast that result with how Ceylon(C) bounced two 6" shells from Garibaldi(6) and one can see the wisdom of not scrimping on armor. (OK, so yeah the British may have skimped on armor too, but the Italians were worse). However Tarigo(1) gave back about as well as she got, putting four rounds into Juno(E), one of which hit near enough to the ammo hoist for A&B turrets that the magazine had to be flooded. And finally the Roma(4) hit Zulu(A), with two rounds from her secondary and tertiary guns. Sadly, as mentioned previously, the crew loaded AP in to the 6" barrels and the 3.5" pop guns weren't enough to fatally damage Zulu(A), those Tribal class destroyers are tough. And Zulu(A) still has all her torpedoes.
Damage control efforts on behalf of both sides were lackluster as usual. But the referee was noticeably cheered up, observing that now THREE ships are on fire and Tarigo(1) is going to be replaced by an oil slick as soon as her captain lays down a torpedo marker. Nope, Rodney is not out of the woods yet!
Italian viewpoint, Yes Kelvin(F) has fired torpedoes at Roma(4)
British viewpoint ('Drone Cam') Sorry about the shiny oil slick that used to be Tarigo(1). The white marker under it means more Torpedoes!
Overall viewpoint. - Notice the spiffy new smaller bases for the DDs. Should cut down on issues with figure bases overlapping each other.
--------------------< 10:21 AM - Plotted Turn 8 >----------------------------
Aug. 11, 2021: Due to a number of
issues including trying to match some 30 year old paint to use for new,smaller ship bases and also lack of a laptop battery, we're just now
getting back to this. But at least we are on a 6 week Sabbatical from Work.
:-)
Aug. 21, 2021
Turns out we did not feel like doing anything game related on Sabbatical. Because it's Sabbatical week Five and we're just now finally moving turn 8.
------------------< 10:21 AM Turn 8 (Finally!) >---------------------------------
But...it was worth the wait! Based on positions after movement, it looks like this will be Collision-a-palooza next turn. Plus some torpedoes have finally hit!
The Referee lets out a Very Dejected Sigh...Turns out our enthusiasm for torpedoes was misplaced. The result of all of that effort is: Diddly. Squat.
That's right, nothing. Except some deflated/flooded torpedo bulges. The British 21"
torpedo is next to useless with only a 500 lb warhead. Or at least
that’s what it feels like after spending a couple of years running
Pacific scenarios with the Japanese Long Lance torpedo. But a lot of
fish are still in the water and now they are pointed at smaller
ships, so it could still be interesting. And there are still gunfire results to report.
Garibaldi(6) picked on Zulu(A). As a result, Zulu(A) is a bit lower in the water and a bit slower, after a 6” Shell made itself a new home in #1 Boiler room. Alpino(2) scratched some more paint off of Ceylon(C), damaging “critical” systems like her Searchlights and Radio. The last shell bounced off of Ceylon’s helm.
Roma(4) put two
more 15” shells into Rodney(B), killing a damage control party
and making the Bow leak "for real this time“ as one member of
Rodney's crew perpetually manning the pumps put it.
Zulu(A) returns the favor to Garibaldi(6) with less promising results, managing to wreck her searchlight put a hole in Garibaldi’s bow. However, Ceylon (C) manages to do some real damage to Trento(3) landing 6 AP hits, one of them bounces, but most do not and Trento(3) is on fire, has a perforated Bow and is missing her Hanger and the Aircraft that used to live there. (Three guesses as to where that fire started – and the first two don’t count)
Berwick(D) tries to join in the fun but merely bounces one AP round of of Trento’s Helm.
Damage Control efforts were uninspiring for the British, but the Trento(3) managed to put one of her fires out.
[The Referee reminds players that the option of setting torpedoes to run Deep (under bulge protection) does exist, but they need to remember to USE it ]
Italian View - Italian commander snickers..."Looks like Berwick might hit Rodney"
British View - British commanders snickers..."Looks like Corsaro might hit Trento"
Drone Cam View -- the Referee mumbles "Collisions, Torpedoes and Fires, Oh, My!"
-----------------------< 10:25 PM Turn 9 >----------------------------
Collisions! Torpedoes and Guns! Oh, My!
Berwyn(D) and Rodney(B), in a fine show of British seamanship, manage to avoid colliding, sliding by one another with about 250 yards to spares. by both slowing down. (We won't mention the fine seamanship that got them into this mess in the first place - something about Italian torpedoes off of the Rodney's port side). But, as a result, Berwick(D) is masking Rodney(B)'s field of fire to Roma(4) and Rodney(B)'s other intended target Alpino(4) So Roma(4) will get a free shot at Rodney(B), let's see if the Italians can take advantage of the British situation.
Zulu(A) continues to do a pretty good imitation of a small , annoying, dog attacking a wolf by hitting Garibaldi(6) with 2 more HE shells and starting a Fire.
Trento(3) and Corsaro(2) are not so fortunate as the British ships, as Corsaro(2), slows down, but still slams into the starboard side of Trento(3) just behind her Bridge. Corsaro(2) has a crumpled bow and is stopped dead in the water. Trento(3) scrapes on past the now stationary and bruised Corsaro(2) but has a new and annoying hole in her side, which is allowing water into #1 Boiler room. As a result, #1 Boiler room had to be abandoned until the flooding can be abated – meaning the next time she visits Dry Dock. Trento(3) is down to a max speed of 12 knots. But, there is good news in all this; because Trento(3) slowed down to try to avoid the collision, the remaining 2 torpedoes fired by Kelvin( F) two turns ago slide by, right in front of her port bow.
In other Italian Epic Fail News, they failed to land hardly ANY gun hits this turn. Thus wasting the "Freebie" they got when Berwick(D) masked all of Rodney(4)'s shots. Meanwhile Berwick(D) continues the beat-down on Trento(3), landing four more 8" AP hits and knocking out X Turret. And obliterating any remnants of Trento(3)'s already missing Hanger and aircraft. Twice. Trento(3) is definitely look at bit worse for wear at this point.
The only good thing to happen for the Italians was that miraculously, Trento(3), finally fixed her Rudder and can perhaps make a difference in the battle besides drawing lots of fire from Allied ships.
And in Breaking Damage Control news at the very end of Turn 9…Ceylon(C) has fixed it’s Search Radar! ...the Referee yawns.
Italian View - Italian commander wonders "Why is Berwick parked in front of the Rodney?"
British View -- British commander wonders "Who keyed the Trento on her port side? "
Drone Cam view
---------< 10:28 AM Turn 10.... is trying to start.. >------------------
...but first we have
[Yet Another Awkward Referee Interlude]: The referee found an error with the hit resolution process. It turns out that Roma(4) did in fact hit Kelvin(F) with Secondary and Tertiary guns so we are going to (as an experiment) exit the software, copy the game journal file, and then edit it to allow those hits to be processed, and then put the remaining records belonging to turn 9 back and restore the game. So the shots described below are actually adjudicated for Turn 9 by having the Referee swapping hats temporarily to be a Software Engineer and executing some computer related sleight of hand. The results are rightfully filled in and belong in, Turn 9.
The experiment was a Success! ... for the Roma(4) anyway. The Commander of the Kelvin(F) was less than pleased as Kelvin(F) is now at half speed having lost her #2 engine to yet another 6” AP round as well as #2 boiler room, Y turret and yet another Stern hit to some 3” HE shells – which actually hurt worse that the 6” round. Kelvin(F) is also Lucky as the Italian player seems to have A&P stores in the brain or something, because once again her 6” secondary batteries fired AP ammunition at a lowly destroyer.
-------------< 10:27 AM Turn 10 - For Real this time. >-------------------
\
The Italians failed to find the massive Barn Door that consists of all of the British ships, again. Nope, no hits. Not a single one.
Rodney got a hit on Alpino(5) and Alpino(5)’s #1 Boiler room is out of commission. But meanwhile the rest of Alpino(5)’s crew was busy putting more torpedoes in the water. So next turn should be fun at least.
Zulu(A) is losing the battle with her fires, sadly, one DC party can’t be everywhere at once.
[ Referee moved ships back (to the West ) 80 centimeters to keep the action on the board.]
Italian View
British View
-------------------< 10:30
AM Turn 11 >--------------------------
The Referee: "Finally! Torpedoes that actually damage something."
Some torpedo action and for a change, Italian gunnery is better than British, except that Roma(4) missed the Rodney(B). However, the Rodney(B) doesn't really do squat to Roma(4), other than puncture her bow in return, kind of a draw for this turn.
Zulu(A) and Ceylon(C0 are both disappointed when their single HE hits bounce off of their respective targets: Corsaro(2) and Garibaldi(6).
Then…
Kelvin is mauled really badly by both Corsaro(2) and Trento(3).
One of Corsaro’s two HE hits lands in #1 Boiler Room...again.
Five
HE hits from Trento(3) leave Kelvin(F) dead in the water as they land
in #1 & #2 Engines and #2 Boiler room. Amazingly one of them
bounces off of Y Magazine. Not that it matters, as Kelvin(F)
succumbs to the explosions of those HE shells and decides that life is better lived as a coral reef at the bottom of the sea. (Hew captain and crew disagree and choose to abandon ship instead)
Garibaldi(6) manages to level some abuse at Ceylon(C), landing hits with both a single 6” AP and HE shell. The HE shell bounces of of A Turret, but the 6” AP shell does Not bounce off of A Turret and Ceylon(C) will have to live without its services until fixed. Also Ceylon’s Main Director is not very directional any more, having collapsed onto the deck. Which is what happens when a 6” round goes through it.
Alas poor Juno(E) We knew you well. But, not any longer. What took far, far to long to accomplish because the Roma’s gun crew either cannot read or just does not care and kept on loading AP ammunition, finally came to pass. Three 6” AP rounds hit Juno(E)’s Helm, #1 Boiler Room, and start yet another fire. The three 3” HE rounds penetrate Juno(E)’s #2 Engine, Y Magazine and #1 Boiler room (What? Again!). The resulting explosions are too much and Juno(E) also gives up the ghost to become a matching coral reef. (Her captain and crew also decline the change in lifestyle and abandon ship). But not before putting more torpedoes in the water headed towards Roma(4)
In other news Berwick(D take a serious torpedo hit in the bow from Alpino(5). Serious meaning that there is not much of the bow left any more and while Berwick is technically still afloat, she is substantially down by the Bow, much reduced in speed and thus not capable of too much more offensively.
At this point there are 5 separate spreads of torpedoes in the water.
The British exit this turn with their bookkeeping problems much reduced. Both Kelvin(F) and Juno(E) sink under the onslaught of Secondary and Tertiary shells from Roma(4), Trento(3) and Garibaldi(6) respectively. However, the British left a parting gift of spreads of 5 torpedoes in return. And this time the crew of the Kelvin remember to set the fish aimed at Roma(4) to run Deep.
Italian View
British View
Overall view
Bonus picture of torpedo resolution closeup - not quite accurate as Berwick eventually only took one hit in her bow.
------------------< 10:33 AM Turn 12 >----------------------
Lots More torpedoes.
Roma(4) takes two teeth of the comb aimed at her and while the torpedoes hurt, she is certainly not sinking. However she is not really moving any more either as she was hit in #2 Boiler room and more painfully in #1 Engine. Her speed is noticeably reduced and it’s probably 3 to 6 months in Dry Dock to fix this kind of problem.
Trento(3) luck really runs out as she takes two torpedoes from Juno(E) that might have been originally intended for Roma. Regardless, they still hurt. One hits the Bow which is manageable, but the second torpedo opens up a hole allowing water into both #2 Boiler room and #1 Engine space, rendering both spaces unusable. This is where the lack of good layout and compartmentalization really hurts. So Trento is back down to less than one half max speed until/if she can reach a drydock.
Ceylon(C) eagerly fires four torpedoes at 49 knots, but they run just
in front of Garibaldi(6). The referee is disappointed, but not as much as the British commander.
Alpino(5)
was preparing to fire torpedoes at Rodney(D), in the meantime Rodney(B)
applies premature revenge by dropping three 6" and three 4.7"
HE shells on Alpino(5), taking out: A Magazine, #1 Torpedo bank
(someone *really* doesn’t want Alpino(5) to fire torpedoes) , her
Helm - cutting turning radius in half and the mandatory pair of Stern
hits. But more importantly to her captain and crew, the explosions cause enough damage to seal her fate
and send her to the bottom.
I
say “ Alpino(5) was going to fire torpedoes” because at this
point, with a wounded Battleship, and a close to sinking Heavy
Cruiser - Trento(3), the Italian commander decides to abandon the chase.
It became too expensive now that Roma has been torpedoed.
For their part, the British, having their own set of problems (Berwick(D), are
happy to let the Italian task force sail away and let each force retire to
lick their respective wounds. And, of course, claim a Victory over the opposing force.
[Referee clarification: Gunfire and launching Torpedoes are considered to be simultaneous in the turn. So DDs that are sunk due to gun fine will get to fire “Revenge Torpedoes”. Torpedo Tubes damaged in this turn still work until the start of the Next turn. ).
Final positions:
Italian View
British View - notice the plastic spacer used to prop up the base of Garibaldi.
Final Drone Cam view.
After Action Thoughts.
First:
A question for the readers of this post. I’ve been including the
Tags assigned to each ship when I reference the ship for example
“Rodney(B)” as opposed to just “Rodney” because the Tags are
on the bases. And thus they appear in the Pictures. Is this
helpful? Or Confusing?
And now for the analysis. So the final score is: Almost Mutual Destruction (See charts below). The only advantage that goes to the British is that the Rodney was not actually hit by Torpedoes. but that’s an artificial result because the game was arbitrarily picked up before Alpino’s last salvo had a chance to hit Rodney.
The
Referee was very impressed with the Garibaldi class “CL”s. Also
the Trento is tougher than was first thought. However, the Referee
is very irritated that the Italian and British player took far to
long to realize that their respective Light and Heaver Cruisers
actually carried Torpedoes. “You guys spent too much time playing
in the Pacific Theater!" he yelled.
Next scenario we will try a more complex scenario deployment scheme that gets ships in range much sooner. It’s almost a necessity with the low speed of the British Battleships.
Also as compared to an earlier scenario like Atlantic Dreams I can really see the value of providing a definite set of Goals and constraints to the Players. We are going to put more effort into avoiding the “Let’s start Playing and the Referee will figure out the objective later” syndrome. It leads to lackluster and/or problematic maneuvering among other things. Or, to put it another way, If you’re going to spend as much time as you do spend, on creating a scenario and getting it going; consider protecting your “investment” and also spend some time on the scenario’s Goals and Objectives.
But a bonus is that after some additional fixes, the Reports are finally ready for use and are included for the first time. The numbers seem to support the conclusion that the British achieved what one might call a “Tactical Victory”.
[12/29/22] Update: While looking through the problem reports, I discovered that the range interval for all guns was one to large. Meaning that the immunity zone was 20 cm larger than it should have been. This is a bigger issue than I first thought because (IMHO), well commanded ships will spend a lot of time in or beyond their immunity zone. So there are probably a number of shots that should have penetrated. No worries, I have fixed the Gun data file and am in the process of queuing up another scenario to run, probably in January, once I finish painting more British ships.
Notes on the charts below:
-
All loses are in terms of tons of displacement (flotation) removed from a ship.
-
Each shell causes a set amount of “tons displacement” lost. Then there is a die roll to randomize the explosions of the shells.
-
Steering reduction units are degrees of turning radius.
-
Number of Salvos is the # of Salvos where at least one shell hit the target. I am not (yet) capturing player order data. Thus the computer has no way of knowing a salvo was fired unless at least one of it’s shells hits the target.
-
Permanent Speed loss is based on overall displacement loss, It’s being tracked but I still need to add it to the report. It will be in terms of knots of speed lost. I’m not reporting speed loss from hits to Engine/Boiler spaces yet because those are repairable, so I need to be careful to avoid over reporting. (Also not sure it’s that useful).
Axis Report of damage inflicted on Enemy (Allied) Force.
Allied Report of Damage inflicted on Enemy (Axis) Force:
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