First game of the year!

Hi everyone!

Well this past Wednesday I played my first game of 2015.  It was a good game of Naval thunder with Soren, Jesper and myself.  We played a what if scenario with the US and the British fighting a German force that included two Zeppelins.  Soren came up with the scenario and also the rules for shooting down the zeppelins.

The scenario description

The rules for shooting and hitting the Zeppelins

The map

We meet up at our favorite burger place near the club and then we headed to the club and dove straight into the game.The initial set up had was per the map and the US player, me came in on turn 3.

The German force of two Battleships, two Battlecruisers, and two Zeppelins

On the left side of the zeppelins are the Battleships Fredrich Der Grosse and Ostfriesland. To the right are the Battlecruiser Derfflinger and Moltke

The USS squadron coming on board, USS NY in the lead followed by USS AZ and in the rear is USS RI

The British squadron of Battlecruisers, with HMS Indefatigable and HMS Lion

We started to maneuver our ships and the British was set to take on the zeppelins that were being protected by the two Battleships as the Battlecruisers broke formation and headed out to slow the American squadron coming on from the NE corner of the board.

The Germans starting to break up there fleet

The target for the Zeppelins

 I was not long until we all started to fire and find our targets. At long range there were not many hits, but that was going to change soon.

The shells started to rain down early and often in this game

US Ships under fire for the first time

The British did a great job of holding off the Zeppelins and the Battleships

Still steaming along heading to the coast

 First blood was scored by the British on the Battleship Fredrich Der Grosse and a normal flooding situation turned bad for the German Battleship. Because of heavy flooding she began to list to port and this reduced her speed and ability to accurately hit targets.

Massive flooding damage!

Here you can see the British and US Force at the far end of the board, the coast on the left of the picture and the two groups of Germans as they head to the coast

 Because of the flooding and reduced speed the Battleship Fredrich Der Grosse had to break out of formation to allow the zeppelins the speed they needed to reach the coast before the American Battleships could get close.

To slow!!!

Wrong turn!!!

 This is the first game we experienced Rutter damage and it added some unique situations for both the British and German fleet! in the end the US Squadron was the only ones able to maintain formation throughout the whole battle.  The USS NY started to take damage and an engine room hit meant the US squadron could only move at a rate of 3 instead of 4. This prevented the US from getting to the coast to help the British deal with the German force.

Steady as she goes!!!

The British also lose control of there steering.

Here you can see the British Battlecruiser Indefatigable with 4 rudder damage markers, that was the least of her worries as she was taking massive damage from the German Battleships

 As you can see from the image below the British were trying to slow down the German force heading for the coast and the US Squadron was engaged in a gunfight with the German fast Battlecruisers.

A view from the American Battle wagons on a German Battlecruiser

The Zeppelins are getting close to the coast. The HMS Lion moves in to shoot at the zeppelins

 With damage adding up on all sides the ships started to sink, the first was HMS Indefatigable. Here you see one of my newly made sunk ship markers being used.

Abandon ship!!!

The Germans keep coming on!

 After some time the HMS Lion was able to score some hits on the Zeppelins and eventually one of the blew up and created a second sun for a short period of time.

One of the Baby Killers is taken out of action!

Only one Zeppelin left to complete the mission!

 The US Squadron was having a hard time hitting the fast German Battlecruisers and they were slowed down again from additional damage to the USS NY.  Things were looking like the British would not get any help from the US Squadron.

A view from the German side on the American Line of Battle

 Shortly after scoring a killing shot on one of the zeppelins the HMS Lion is also sent to the bottom by the German battleships. At this point two British Battlecruisers had been sunk and only on Zeppelin had been destroyed by the allies.

The British grave yard

 Soon things were going to change the German Batlleship Fredrich Der Grosse had another problem with flooding and the ship capsized ending the German winning spree.  Here is a shot of the sunk ships near the coast.

All three of my new markers in use. I should make more.

At this point we were all tired since it was the first day back to work here after the holidays and it was getting late. We tallied up the damage and it was agreed that the Germans would have lost the two Battlecruisers as they had taken a lot of damage from the American Battleships.  It was also agreed that the last German battleship would survive and the Zeppelin would reach her target and make it off the board.  The US Squadron was too slow and too far out to stop the battleship and zeppelin from going off board.

We tallied up the points and it ended as an allied victory. I did not look so good for the allies but the point value of the lost Zeppelin and the Battleship and Battlecruisers made it an Allied Victory.

Here is a chart with the starting and ending hull points for each ship in the game.

Here is the German Data

British Data, not so good for the British....

Here is the US Data

Here is the overall starting and end hull points for all the forces involved in the battle.

You can see here the Germans lost the most Hull points in this battle.

Well thank you for reading my blog and have a great weekend.

Cheers!!!!
Mark