Bat-rep : Cruel Seas – Operation Eagle in the Water
By Tom Gall
Now that our local group has a few games of under our belts, we wanted to get in a larger game that was scenario and point driven. Each side built a 650 point list and cast away their lines. Set off the coast of France, British airmen are in the water and our little flotilla needs to go and pick them up. We played this one at D6 Games in Rochester Minnesota, USA.
The Allies were sporting three type II Vospers, with two having regular crews and 1 having an inexperienced crew. Last we have a Fairmile with a regular crew.
Putting a little terrain out on the table, giving our intrepid Captains some things to steer around and we’re nearly ready to go. The last little detail being where the aircrew is located. I decided to keep it easy and skip the “search” part of this rescue.
If you look closely you can just see the crew next to the taller of the two islands
Off in the south west corner (top left in the picture above) are the Germans hoping to spoil the party. They’ve 2 S-100s both with Regular crews. In addition Raymond decided to bring on his M-class minesweeper to complete his force, also Regular.
On the allied side the immediate plan was to have the inexperience Vosper crew make a run for the downed airmen. The remaining Vospers and Fairmile would try and engage the Germans depending on how they came at us.
The big question the allies had was which direction was the minesweeper going to go? Ideally they’d like to get eels in the water as soon as possible. The 3″ deck guns on that boat are a beast with their superior range and damage. The allies needed to quickly getting into range for their own guns or at least get into effective range to drop eels so there would be little chance for the minesweeper to evade.
The Fairmile activating earlier in the round guessed wrong while all the Vospers went starboard. Captains on both sides were hitting the gas pedal very hard in order to get to the downed pilots. This had the interesting side effect that the German minesweeper was being left behind.
Initial fire due to full speed modifiers was unsurprisingly highly inaccurate. For this game we decided to utilize splash markers for 20mm shells and above. We also had a house rule where splash markers are a negative to shooting. The theory cemented from other naval rule systems where over concentration is a negative. This increased the utility of splash markers.
Moving forward, the British dropped their first volley of torpedoes into the water, a straight on shot but using torpedoes to encourage an enemy to move on a particular direction isn’t a bad idea! One of the S-boats charged fully in the fight and close quarters fire was exchanged, tho plenty of misses were recorded. The inexperienced Vosper crew was closing in on the downed pilots. They seemed to be the perfect crew to assign the task of picking up. Given the -2 modifier to shooting just for being inexperienced, it was pretty unlikely they’d be contributing much to drive off the Germans.
Concentrated fire at the S-boat that had driven in close was landing damage, importantly a crew hit was landed setting their course for a bit while they dealt with the damage. The inexperienced Vosper having slowed down to get ready to pick up the pilots was attracting fire which given their slow speed gave Raymond an extra +1 to his shooting. Hopefully the Fairmile next turn could successfully intervene.
Germans got the first activation die and gave that to their minesweeper which then altered course lining up to use the island as a shield. Mother nature does make good torpedo netting. Even then the British torpedos weren’t timed quite right and were still short of their intended target.
Next the British Vosper crewed charged with picking up the pilots reached their goal and stopped dead in the water, plunking up the pilots and repairing a little damage. They also started to make smoke, at least obstructing fire from one direction. One of the German S-Boats maneuvered around the Fairmile but courses were such that a collision could not be avoided. At this point after a slight break while we tried to figure out what was the appropriate aftermath of the collision, do both parties just stop? The rules were a little unclear and thankfully . We ruled that both parties would be stopped at their current location but as it was glancing blow they’d continue on next turn.
In a whirlwind of events, the Vosper crew tasked with picking up the pilots went down so more fellows in the water to be picked up. The Fairmile moved in to pick them up, tho at very uncomfortable range from the minesweeper. Thankfully at that range tho the Fairmile had very good shooting. The two S-boats while both damaged raced around the island and a Vosper started to give chase in hopes of finishing one off. Last the Vosper that had dropped torpedoes earlier at the Minesweeper sped by dropped smoke and hoped for the best. Bad news, the big guns on the Minesweeper have both a gun director and radar.
The Fairmile took some significant hits so it too was about to contribute to the population of fellows in the water needing a ride back home.
Anyone going our way? Anyone? It’s a long way to paddle back across the channel, just sayin’.
The Minesweeper was in equally straights. Plenty of accurate British fire meant that it too was going to slip beneath the waves. At the top of the game the British were pretty sure they’d get this boat with Torpedoes and that there was no way it’d be sunk due to 20mm etc fire. Damage adds up tho, especially when it comes from a critical hit due to a fire.
Nearly at a resolution, the S-boat which had several turns ago changed the British line was sunk. It was down to 2 Vospers vs the one S-Boat.
The Britsh were able to get first activation that yielded enough damage that the last S-Boat would make a run for it, we called it. The 2 remaining Vospers would have some very full decks as they picked many comrades as well as the downed aircrew they were originally dispatched to pick up.
Lessons Learned
The British players were particularly worried about the German Minesweeper thinking the big guns would really ruin their day. It was more the S-boats that were dealing very effective damage. Torpedoes were as much as a factor in this game as the British players would have thought.
Using the inexperienced Vosper crew to be focused on the core mission was a good choice. Given the -2 minus to their shooting it’s not likely they’ll be able to contribute much.
Smoke and terrain are a factor and something you want to use to your advantage when you can. Not all games will even have terrain on the table, but it does seem to make it more fun!
The point costing system to put together a “fair fight” seemed to work well in this game. Both sides seemed to have good chances to win the day. There was some shooting that with just a bit better dice the victory would have gone to the Germans.
All in all a fun time!