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Z31 jinking furiously to avoid British shells. The firing arrow in the centre marks one of Z31's torpedoes. |
The Germans emerged from the mouth of the fjord with Z31 making smoke. The superior range of the Scharnhorst's 11 inch main battery was soon finding targets among the RN force while British salvos were heading the other way.
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RN DDs were also laying smoke - but some of those German shells have found the range. |
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One of the RN DDs expires in a fiery blast! |
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British DDs launch torpedoes while Z31, still making smoke takes hits. Lots of them. |
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By now, Scharnhorst was well within range of RN shellfire. |
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An overview of the action. Scharnhorst has slowed down as the RN force draws nearer. |
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Another overview photo. |
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Meanwhile, Gneisenau and Z32 had been heading north. The preoccupied Royal navy players didn't notice them until Gneisenau opened fire! |
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| Kev Tingle, the commander of Z31 places his final firing arrow before taking to the boats |
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Endgame. Scharnhorst pictured just before she sank gracefully beneath the waves. |
According to the ship cards I retrieved (all but one of the British DDs), the final score was as follows:
Scharnhorst - sunk
Z31 - sunk
Gneisenau - untouched
Z32 - untouched
Glory-less - sinking
Suffolk - minor damage (c20%)
Kent - untouched
Leander - sunk
Ajax - sunk
Afridi - one third damage
Cossack - two thirds damage
Bedouin - sunk
Ashanti - minor damage (c15%)
A bloody business all in all, but player enthusiasm remained high and many asked me to run further such games. I plan to get in another F-P game during January.
18 comments:
It could have been GLORIOUS !!!
Hi Tim,
Great pictures and it looked like a whole lot of fun. I will certainly look forward to some more later on!
All the best,
DC
A good result, balanced on a knife edge stuff.
The smoke looked quite effective as well.
Naval wargaming as it should be ! love the idea of using the floor as a gaming surface.
Stephen Thomas
As one of the few to keep your job after the game, you've no grounds for complaint!
David Crook
It was great fun, albeit quite hard work as an umpire. We'll definitely be doing more such games.
Paul
The trouble with this range estimation lark is that as soon as you get it right both you and the target move. Very tricky. The smoke was provided by Martin who never seems to travel without a big bag of it.
Mosstrooper
I like to think it was a reasonable homage to F-P himself.
Looks like it was a great game- though not one to try at home. Playing on the floor takes me back to being 12 again....
Cheers,
Pete.
spprojectblog
I seem to recall laying around on the floor - and specifically getting up and down - being a deal easier when I was 12!
Tim
Great stuff!
PD
Peter Douglas
Thanks - it certainly provided some laughs.
Looked a great game. The Pratt rules are the finest for modelling a fleet level game. Confusion, tension and the feeling of being very frightened while commanding a destroyer.
John Curry
Confusion? Tension? Fear? Yes to all three - and that goes for the umpire team as well!
Kapitan Leutnant von Tingle had no fear, calmy putting four torpedoes into HMS Bedouin before he went down.
Wg Cdr Luddite
Indeed. The boy done good.
Fantastic game Tim
I hope there is a repeat
Geordie
A further F-P game is planned for Jan 25.
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