The Kaiser's High Seas Fleet - The Great War at Sea 1914-18

 

This was another Christmas arrival which I'd pre-ordered some months ago and been looking forward to playing.  It's a development of the good old War At Sea system so I expected it to be a fairly straightforward play.  The components are very nice.

We begin with the obligatory shelling of Hartlepool

The Goeben dodges about in the Med.

The French find the Austrian U-boats. The hard way.

GT2:  a major engagement in the Baltic

Meanwhile the cocky Italians fall into a trap of in the Adriatic

The RN catches up with the Goeben in the Aegean...

...but the Goeben sinks the Indomitable and makes off to Constantinople!

GT3. Der Tag! Carnage!  Of the ships engaged, only one RN and 4 Boche are undamaged! But the RN always has more ships…

End of 1916.

End of 1917 and it’s all still to play for. But I’ve had a complaint from a Davy Jones saying that his locker is filling up with broken dreadnoughts….

By war's end it was all very close.  I need to re-read the rules and have another go before long.

Olympic games? Part 1

If building dodgy old plastic kits is ever recognised as a sport by the International Olympic Committee I think readers of this blog could put up a pretty strong team. Though turning up in a cloud of polystyrene cement fumes might cause issues with the drug testing equipment...

Anyway, on to this dodgy old kit.  Purchased from the COW bring & buy a few years ago with no particular plan in mind, it seemed like a useful thing to have in stock.  Inspiration struck a few months ago, meaning I'd have to build the thing.

The original USS Olympia is perhaps best know as the US flagship at Manilla Bay in 1898.  Decommissioned the following year, she returned to service as a training ship in 1902 and subsequently saw service in the Great War.  Perhaps her most poignant voyage was made in 1921 when she carried the remains of the US's unknown soldier home from France.

So much for history.  I have two game ideas which require this model - in neither of which will it be a US warship...  But rusty old battleships all look similar and that meets my consistently low standards.

The build was not without challenges - forgivable in view of it's price and antiquity.  As you can see, a lot of masking tape was used to hold it together while the (copious amounts of) glue dried.  So now it's starting to look like a ship.

The Great Herring War of 1912

 THE GREAT HERRING WAR 1912 (2022 after taking into account inflation)

GENERAL BRIEFING

Shamelessly plagiarised and mangled by BTG from original notes by PHW.

SCENARIO

The expression ‘flogging a dead horse’ has never been more appropriate than in the case of the  ‘Herring War’.  But first. Some history….

The 1909 Herring War Campaign followed a tense standoff in the Skagerrak between the fishing fleets of Norway and Denmark.  War was declared in early December, with the stronger Norwegian forces aiming to blockade, or close, the ports of SKAGEN and HITSHALS.  The Danish defenders had the task of keeping these ports open and stopping the blockade. 

This campaign saw two brief but bloody actions at sea, followed by a coastal engagement and a rather abortive Norwegian landing.  See more here (these games were played three years apart so expect some continuity errors!):

https://megablitzandmore.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-scrap-in-skagerrak.html

https://megablitzandmore.blogspot.com/2016/01/dawn-breaks-over-skagerrak.html

https://megablitzandmore.blogspot.com/2013/09/nordic-but-nice-herring-war-resumes.html

https://megablitzandmore.blogspot.com/2013/09/dastardly-danish-defence-part-1.html

https://megablitzandmore.blogspot.com/2013/09/dastardly-danish-defence-part-2.html

Now, three years later, a series of scandalous articles in the Norwegian press have called into question some of the er, personal habits of the esteemed Queen of Denmark, Brigitte the Foxy.  The Danish response was swift and took the form of a concentrated disruption of the Norwegian herring fleet.  It always comes back to fish, doesn’t it?  A declaration of war has followed from MOFFF (The Ministry of Fish, Foreigners and Fighting) in Norway’s capital, Kristiania.

Objectives remain much as per the earlier conflict.

Since 1909, both nations have striven to modernise their fleets, with larger battleships, monitors and modern cruisers much in evidence.

This time round the Norwegian Admiralty was headed by PHW, with John and Pete as his trusty admirals and Martin as the Austro-Hungarian Naval Attache.  (A-H had flogged them the ship designs).  Bob presided at the Danish Admiralty, with Simon and Russell as his chaps at sea.

The DK fleet: (This and all other ship data courtesy of: GOW’S FIGHTING SHIPS – SPECIAL HERRING CRISIS EDITION, ©The Lobby Press, Dundee, 1912)

Knusden Nyborg (Coast defence battleship)         2 H, 6 M, 2 TT

Sorensen Fonsmark (monitor)                                2 M, 2 L

Malling Friis (monitor)                                            1 H, 1 M, 2 L

Laugensen (modern cruiser)                                   8 L, 4 TT, 3 mines

Olsen (modern cruiser)                                            8 L, 4 TT, 3 mines

Larsen (TBD)                                                            2 L, 4 TT, 2 mines

Herkind (TBD)                                                         2 L, 4 TT, 2 mines

The Nor fleet:

Mestad Berg (modern battleship)               6 H, 6 L, 2 TT

Torp Norum (modern cruiser)                    8 L, 4 TT

Bo Morkid (modern cruiser)                        8 L, 4 TT

Heltberg Rygh (Monitor)                             2 H, 2 L

Vold (Torpedo boat leader)                         2 L, 4 TT

TB 1 / TB2 /  TB3 / TB 4                            1 L, 2 TT each

4 freighters

On Tuesday evening most of the players joined me on a Zoom call during which I plotted the movements of ships and squadrons as revealed to me by players in separate breakout rooms.  This produced the following rather confused picture:

I know, right?  To save your eyes, it turned out that much of the DK fleet had (accidentally!) concentrated against the Nor 'Flying Squadron', consisting of a cruiser, 2 torpedo boats and 2 (empty) freighters.  Patchy telegraphic messages relayed by the Nor airship had made the admirals aware of this and the Nor er, 'plan' was to draw the enemy onto their main fleet.

The original Herring War may be read about in this fine book:

Yesterday John and Simon joined me to fight the engagement(s) thus created with 1/1200 ships and a modified version of the 'Fistful Of Herring' rules I wrote for the games in 2016.  I'll let the photos tell most of the story.  They're not great as it has been very sunny here.

The Nor 'Flying Sqn'.

Danish flagship Knudsen Nyborg

Far to the east - the Nor airship.  Definitely not a 'Hot Wheels' blimp on a camera tripod.

While setting up I received a message from the A-H attache:  "Excellent! Funnily enough, I am about to board a mighty steamship bound for Oslo. I shall wave at our brave boys as they fight in the Skagerrac."

Danish TBs near the coast

Action stations!  Shells pound the Nor cruiser Torp Norum

Nor TB 3 sunk in collision!  Dk Laughensen sunk. Nor Torp Norum damaged!

Survivors take to the boats!

At this point night fell ("thud") and the action was broken off.  The Danes set off east towards the rest of their fleet and - unknown to them - the Norwegian main force.  The Nor sqn circled round and trailed safely behind, also heading east.

In the darkness the fleets steamed towards each other and then powerful searchlights pierced the gloom!

This was replicated by laser measured which players had to position before they were switched on.  Eventually both battleships were illuminated and the shooting commenced.

First to be hit was the Nor TBL Vold which exploded and sank!

At this point a further communique reached us from the A-H Naval Attache.  

I have to say, he didn't look overly concerned by the news. (photo by Martin)

...but then the sea was a lot calmer where he was! (photo by Martin)

The Norwegians concentrated a lot of firepower on the DK flagship.  Here the hand carved hit markers (they look a bit like golf tees) indicate hits by a heavy shell (blue) a lighter shell and two torpedoes.  But both the torpedoes turn out to be duds (1-2 on a D6, shells are duds on a 1).

Much Danish fire was directed against the Nor monitor the Heltberg Rygh which soon lost some speed and guns.

The gunnery range in action.  Matchstick firing cannon fire at targets whose size is determined by gun weight, range and target size.  And of course light conditions!

With a couple of hours of darkness remaining, both sides opted to slink off and run for home.

So what happened?  In a desperate night action a lot of ammunition was exchanged and some of it worked.  Each side has now lost a cruiser, and the Nor a TB and TBL  The Nor monitor is damaged, as is the DK battleship and a cruiser.  Both sides have decided to break off and run for home under cover of the remaining couple of hours of darkness.  A hard-fought action which may have saved - at least for now - the Danish fishing fleet but is likely to result in complaints to certain Austrian manufacturers about dodgy ammo and vessels.  A Nor Admiralty spokesman is quoted as saying "I hope we kept the bloody receipts..."

Acting up at Actium

This Wednesday John brought along a game he’d found on the internet. From long experience we know this is no guarantee of quality but we’ll try (virtually) anything once. 

Thus five players assembled under John’s supervision to shove around his 1/1200 galleys. The Romans were Martin (as Octavian - his own blog post will no doubt follow soon), Graham and Simon. The er, other Romans (and Egyptians) were led by Mark Anthony (Jerry) and the beautiful Cleopatra (er, your humble correspondent)

Our fleet was hugely outnumbered and our ships were slower but bigger. If your eyesight is up to it, the bases of the goodies are marked with letters, the baddies with Roman numerals.

We bid farewell to the Greek coast and floated off. We had to escape intact (some hope) or duff up the enemy fleet (even less hope!)

The overconfident Octavians were easily goaded into contact...

...and we had the best of the initial encounters. FYI, ships can take 15 hits. The white crosses are one each, yellow is a 5, red is 10.  

The action soon descended into what I believe the US military calls a ‘clusterf*ck’. Even Mark Anthony’s huge ship - beset on all sides by enemies - sank. 

At this point, the opposed initiative rolls  - ever more important - stalled. The pair of sixes was followed by another double as tension mounted. 

So who won?  Well me obviously!  Cleopatra’s pair of galleys slipped off  - much to Octavian’s distress!  We’ll draw a veil over the loss of the rest of our fleet.....

Dawn breaks over the Skagerrak

 Following on from the previous Herring War encounter (see this earlier post), as dawn broke the fleets were again in contact.  For this quick game Jerry played the Danes while I commanded the Norwegians.  The 'rules' were a slightly developed version of the single page we used last week.
Above can be seen the Danes appearing from the East (right) with a battleship, cruiser, and two TBs.  The Norwegian coast defence battleship has appeared from the South, accompanied by a small armed freighter.  In the NE corner can be seen a pair of Norwegian freighters heading West while three TBs have just arrived from that direction.

 Frantic manouevering soon began...

 The DA ships were clearly trying to 'sandwich' the NO battleship, while the latter had shielded it's TBs from DA gunfire.  Shells were soon landing close to the DA cruiser...

 The gunnery range in use again.  Pete was dragged away from setting up his own game to try it out.

 A hit on the NO battleship - happily the '1' meant it was a dud.  Don't buy your ammo from Masden!

 By now things were really hotting up!  The two hits on the distant DA cruiser resulted in it losing it's remaining guns and reduced to half speed. Meanwhile the NO TBs sail on through a hail of fire!

 The gunnery range.  The number of target sized has expanded from three to five to cope with a wider range of situations.

 The final reckoning.  While the Danes blazed away at them, my TBs got close enough to each loose off a pair of torpedoes.  All six hit...but four of them were duds.  A stiff letter has been sent to Whiteheads...

 As it happened, the remaining two were enough.  A double '1' rolled by an armoured ship causes a massive internal explosion and total loss.  Yes, just like the double '1'1 in the photo...

 As the Danes detonated we resolved their gunfire....

...which sank two of my TBs.  Still, not a bad rate of exchange!