Cruel Seas: Bat Rep and more missions
Cruel Seas by Warlord games is a WWII naval skirmish game for PT boats, coastal cutters, and smaller craft. Within our gaming group, the rules have seen renewed interest so time for more battle reports and some highlights of how we keep the game fun.
We played this game at D6 games in Rochester Minnesota just before the holidays.
We used the More Missions document which is a player-created set of random missions that allows you to roll up everything from terrain to what it is your fleet is being asked to do. This can be found on the .
In this mission, the Germans are having to push supplies into this little island and the British are trying to catch and repulse their efforts. Conditions are clear and it’s during daylight, a daring resupply for certain! Prior to the game, the Germans placed the island within a zone that is between 2′ and 3′ from the British edge and more than a foot from either long table edge. Then each player placed two rocky crags. Last the German player placed the dock for them to land the supplies (you can see it in red in the picture below) and the table was complete.
For British forces, I pulled out0 two Fairmile D’s (Vet) and three Type II Vospers (Reg). The Fairmiles are generally great with the 6pdr guns as well as having a decent amount of hull points, tho their downside is they are a bit slower topping out at 30knots max and being rated as medium-sized they don’t get the -1 to hit that the Vospers receive from being small.
On the opposite side were an S-38 rated Inexperienced that was carrying the supplies, a Minesweeper, and 3 S-100s. The Brits are definitely outgunned in this out however a torpedo hit or two and that’ll even the odds.
Turn 1/2 the Vospers hit the gas and get themselves under the shield of the island. The plan was to swing around and engage on the same side of the island as the Fairmiles were on.
While that 6 pdr is a great gun, the Germans were out of range until they would come closer. Unfortunately, the 3″ guns on the M-class German minesweeper have a specular range and with the benefit of a gun director, so they would get the first shots at range.
Rolling into turn 3, two of the Vospers receive quite a bit of love from the S-100s and with little to show for it in return. One Vosper is on fire and the other has taken a rudder hit. Disaster, given we have to be at slow speed in order to deal with crits. The first torpedo is in the water, however, but it’s looking and feeling a little too late. The S-100s have dropped torpedoes as well tho this is when we were reminded that shallow draft ships like the Fairmiles can’t be hit by torpedos. None the less, good practice for the German crews.
The Fairmiles manage to beat up on one of the S-100s (the closer) however it’s still quite viable for combat.
Next turn, the Vosper with the rudder hit, slows down, however, rolls a result that the rudder is jammed to the right and after taking its maximum right turns rams into the Fairmile and goes down. The Fairmile likewise takes a beating so it is close to sinking. The Vosper on fire is just barely holding on.
While the odds are looking very long, with two torpedos in the water it is possible the M-class could be sunk at least as a token blow to the German war effort. The thoughts of the British sailors turn to how the heck are they going to get out of here.
The last action shot of the battle, a British torpedo does manage to find it’s way to the M-class Minesweeper, but the torpedo is a dud failing to explode, tho it did hit. The second torpedo also finds its ways but on the roll to hit misses. The minesweeper escapes any meaningful damage.
Utter defeat for the British Navy, loss of 1 Fairmile, and 2 Vospers in exchange for zero Germans. Mighty tough luck tho the critical hits scored by the Germans were largely the deciding factor.
Mighty fun time as always. I’ll note that we do play with several “fixes” to the game. -1, +1 for Veteran and Inexperience crews. Max speed does not gain a negative, rather the negatives to the shooting are based on your speed only. So