Shots fired!

After a few sessions of F2F testing against Jérémie it’ll come as no surprise to anyone that I dropped the flag orders portion of my homebrew naval rule set. They looked nice, they worked okay (ish) but they added extra and unnecessary “chrome” that the game seems none the worse without. I’m sure that most of those who write their own rules will have experienced something similar at one time or another.

Since everything else seemed ticketyboo and was explainable to a Frenchman (through the medium of dance when my French failed me) I’ve moved forward with my alt history Mediterranean naval campaign.

For those who can’t recall the setting and are too lazy to go back a post, the French and the Austrians have had a fallout over France’s attempt to control Morocco. Supporting Germany’s secret plan to provide troops for the Sultan’s defence an Austrian troop transport hits a mine and is lost with all hands. Shortly after and perhaps in retaliation a French merchant ship disappears off the coast of Albania.

Both sides demand satisfaction and the calling of a second international convention to arbitrate the matter. Unfortunately, before the convention can be arranged the French navy begins boarding and searching Austrian flagged merchant ships in Moroccan waters.

Naturally it didn’t take too long for the Austrians to start organising convoys and adding escorts to deter the French, and equally naturally it didn’t take long before a miscalculation saw shots fired. 

Wounded national pride meant that damage to two Austrian escort cruisers could not go unanswered and all thoughts of an international convention were kicked into the long grass as we start this campaign in July 1906 with the following fleet action plans.

My acme mission planner. French on the left, Austrians on the right. Opposed missions call for a battle to be fought and victory points to be won as a result of the outcome. Vessels from the opposing fleets are assigned to different tasks. I chose the French ones but the Austrian ones were done by random dice roll. This represents a month of “in game” conflict. First up (though they could be done in any order) was a coastal defence versus shore bombardment encounter.

Shore Bombardment vs Coastal Defence 

Austria has opted to “send a message” by shelling a largely unpopulated  area of French Corsica with two major warships. The battleship Habsburg and the Armoured Cruiser Kaiser Karl VI approach the coast which unknown to them is being patrolled by three Motor Torpedo Boats (Tempête, Orage and Cyclone). 

Three French Torpedo Boats on patrol. Each hex has a stacking capacity which is not related to vessel size but to the sea room required to safely travel and manoeuvre without fear of collision. 3 Torpedo Boats can share a hex, 2 Destroyers and only 1 Battleship or Cruiser. Ships that share a hex are always counted as being in formation (which brings combat benefits) but they also make a concentrated target for enemy gun or torpedo attack.

The mission occurs in calm seas with good visibility (the Torpedo Boats would have had to return to port if rough seas had been rolled for) and one side of the board is designated as coastline. The bigger Austrian ships stand a chance of running aground if they get too close to the shallows but their mission is to get within the 8 hex range of their main guns and fire off three salvoes into French territory. 

Ship data tiles for both sides on Turn 2. The Austrians hold the initiative (higher score on the black dice). The red dots denote which of the vessels on either side are the lead ship and the red ❌ is a notification that the Austrians have spotted the patrolling Torpedo Boats, while the French still remain ignorant of the Austrians. Until an opponent has been spotted no firing or changing of course is allowed.

Enemy coast ahead! The Habsburg engages the Torpedo Boats with its heavy guns. Until this point the French, who had still not spotted the Austrians, were doomed to continue pootling ahead at the same course and speed. The water spout thrown up by the first Austrian shells soon changes all of that. (A firing fleet automatically gives away its presence). Only a vessels heavy guns produce the water splashes, which, while on the board add a positive modifier to any other heavy gun shelling from other ships. Medium and light gun batteries have shorter ranges and fire in a flatter trajectory so don’t produce them. In this case the forward guns of the Kaiser Karl VI cannot fire because the Habsburg is in its line of sight and arc of fire. The Habsburg missed but because of the French ships close proximity to each other diced to see if it hit one of the others instead. Dammit…Missed again. It wasn’t to be the Austrians day.

Sacré Bleu!

The Torpedo Boats split up and go to full speed, (3 hexes) approaching the Austrian interlopers from different angles. The Habsburg fires its light gun batteries at the closest one and misses but the Kaiser Karl uses its medium guns and inflicts a hit on the Orage’s steering. The Torpedo Boat cannot change direction now until the steering mechanism is fixed (one of only two damage types fixable at sea) but she can only take two pieces of damage in total before sinking so she’s already half way there.

By turn 4 the Orage has rigged a temporary rudder repair but her sister ships have now closed in on the bigger vessels and as one they launch their torpedos.

At such close range the torpedoes hit on a roll of 4, 5 or 6. Each successful torpedo salvo calls for three damage dice rolls. The results are pretty serious, but not yet deadly. The Habsburg is on fire, has had its speed reduced to half through propulsion damage and its rudder is jammed. The Kaiser Karl avoids a fire but a number of its gun mounts have been damaged (reducing its fire accuracy) and it too is having propulsion and steering problems. 

Here’s a close up of the ship data tiles. The yellow markers indicate that the Torpedo Boats have each fired one salvo of torpedoes (they only have two each). Damage to the Austrian ships is not critical but it triggers the fleets “bottle out” response. The two Austrian ships have a combined damage potential of 6+7 = 13. When greater than 50% of this value of damage has been inflicted across the fleet it must immediately attempt to withdraw from the battle. The kicker is that hits on the flagship count as double so here the Austrians have suffered 9 points of damage - and must attempt to withdraw via the nearest board edge.

During the next two turns both of the Austrian ships manage to repair their steering and the crew of the Habsburg manage to put out the fires before they reached the ships magazine. (2 fire hits present at one time = kaboom). Still struggling along at half speed they turn for home, exchanging ineffective light gun fire with the Torpedo Boats at close range. 

Ignoring the sporadic and inaccurate gunfire from the Kaiser Karl the Tempête closes again to launch its last torpedo salvo - with devastating results. 

This time the hits on the Kaiser Karl are terminal and she rolls over and sinks with huge loss of life.

The Kaiser Karl’s damage capacity is maxed out and she sinks.

Fleeing for the safety of the board edge the Habsburg lashes out with her light and medium batteries causing waterline and armament hits on two of the pursuing Torpedo Boats. With 3 hits out of 6 between them, the French boats have also reached their bottle out level and they break off the action and head for port.

I think I can safely chalk this game up as a French win which’ll score them 5 campaign points. With only 1 damage counter each the Torpedo Boats will be repairable within this 1 month window and available for missions in August. The Habsburg will make it home at half speed and will also during the month be repaired in time for actions in August. I suspect that the Captain will face an enquiry if not for the outcome then for not attempting to rescue the Kaiser Karl survivors!

Observations.

The Austrian ships were more heavily armed but slower and less manoeuvrable than the tiny French Torpedo Boats and this advantage allowed the French boats to press home their attacks  with their very destructive torpedoes. The bottle out mechanism allowed for a realistic “time to get out of Dodge” moment for both fleets so that was all good too.

The failures, if failure they were, were out of the players hands. Anything but a calm weather environment roll would have forced the Torpedo Boats back to port before any combat, thereby ceding the game and the mission to the Austrians. 

The Austrian decision to attack the French at long range alerted them to their presence. It’s unlikely the French boats would have just continued sailing along in ignorance until they left the board but if they had this would again have ceded the game to the Austrians. 

A better die roll on the initial Austrian fire could have caused significant damage if it had hit, which would have altered the dynamic of the encounter at a stroke. 

The assignment of vessels to missions by random die roll put the Austrians in an awkward spot. Attacking in daylight with two capital ships, unsupported by light screening vessels was a choice no competent Admiral should ever take. Another reason for a board of enquiry methinks!

All in all I was well chuffed. The game took 10 turns to complete and the playing time was a mere 50 minutes. 

Hopefully I’ll have some wreck markers made before the next mission. 

I appreciate that most of this blogs followers are not “naval types” but cheers if you’ve read this far. Take comfort that there’ll be a land based post coming up before the next maritime excursion.

Toodleooh.