Today we had a 14 player naval game taking up the whole hall.
Fletcher Pratt first published his naval wargames rules before WWII, covering naval combat from WWI. He later created rules for WWII. These are included in John Curry's book, who is club member and ran the game.
The scenario is that WWII breaks out in 1941, the German fleet is on it's way to shell British shipbuilding facilities when it is intercepted by the British fleet at Dogger Bank.
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| German Fleet |
The sandbanks are between the fleets and the bigger ships have to keep their distance from them to avoid running aground.
The Royal Navy squadron included Hood (the model was actually Vanguard), The Duke of York, Queen Elizabeth, Rodney and Prince of Wales.
The big German ships massively out-ranged the British but had smaller shells. The Bismark, Tirpiz, Prinz Eugan and Sharnhorst kept well back and were able to fire without any danger until the end of the game.
HMS Hood was their prime target and survived multiple hits.
Players estimate range and then shots fall in a line from that point. Red is a hit, blues are misses.
The British past between the sandbanks engaging the enemy as they came into range, first destroyers then cruisers.
Several German destroyers were sunk and a cruiser. Some of the smaller British ships were also lost. The Hood here was struck by one torpedo.
As the British battleships and heavy cruisers finally got close enough to hit the Germans principal ships the Germans elected to make smoke and withdraw.
