Fletcher Pratt on Grass - part 2

As we join the action again gunnery has broken out - and the 3 V/W class DDs from Gibraltar have joined in by opening up at really rather long range.  This is a ploy best avoided as it annoys the umpire team by making them adjudicate ineffective shooting!

 The outdoor firing arrows are plastic plant markers - £3 for a big bag them- with ranges written on using an OHP pen.

Several hits were scored on the French cruisers - but mostly from small calibre DD guns.

As usual my collection of bespoke hand carved hit markers was in use.  Reds were hits, yellow misses and white torpedo hits.  And yes, to the untrained eye they can look a bit like plastic golf tees...

Before long there were a number of torpedoes in the water.  I marked these using 12in lengths of dowell - 

one for each salvo rather then one for each torp due to dowell shortages!

Even the mighty HMS Renown lumbered out of port to join in the fun.

Some of the ships were so bunched that a decent salvo of shells was likely to hit something!

A scrappy melee soon ensued!

There were a lot of torps in the water at this point....

...and some found targets.  One French cruiser went down while the rest decided to press on.  We decided that probably 1-2 CLs and 2 DDs were likely to have made it through, and Renown wouldn't want to mix it with all those big DDs!
So a pretty successful game and a further vindication of the F-P system.