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Battle of the River Plate
Mojarn Piett
 Post subject: Battle of the River Plate
PostPosted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:43 am 
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My son wanted to play some war game with me. As I had just purchased the supplement (Order of Battle) to Mongoose's Victory at Sea naval rules I decided to take to the sea. Funnily enough it was the first time for both of us to play a Naval war game as well as being the first time my son played any kind of war game.

We played the Battle of the River Plate scenario from the rulebook. I used the rules amendments form Order of Battle where they applied but did not use Special Actions or Aircraft as I did not want to overload my son with too many rules.

I took command of the Royal Navy squadron for the simple reason of it being easier for him to control just one ship.

And so it began...

Turn 1
Initiative: Germans.

Graf Spee turned and steamed at full speed towards Ajax and Achilles while the main turrets turned to point menacingly at Exeter. The Kriegsmarine gunners showed their superb training by managing two critical hits to Exeter. The plunging shells ruptured fuel lines reducing Exeter's speed to half and triggered a magazine explosion crippling the ship before it had fired a shot!  :O  Exeter lost  both A and B turrets and was prevented from firing for 2 turns. 6 fires were started on the unlucky British ship.

Ajax and Achilles turned their broadsides towards the pocket battleship and prepared for revenge but they were still out of range.

In an astonishing feat of firefighting the Crew of Exeter managed to put all the fires out.

Turn 2
Initiative: Germans
Graf Spee continued to close on Ajax & Achilles. The pocket battleship's turrets swivelled  to bear on Ajax causing two hits of which one was critical. The hit triggered multiple explosions causing more damage and killing 3 crew. The secondary weapons then opened fire causing 2 more criticals(!). Ajax' turbines were damaged reducing her speed by one and she suffered a hull breach. Yet another British ship was crippled without firing a shot. Ajax lost three of her four turrets in the exchange.  The remaining turret returned fire causing one point of damage to the German ship. Achilles then fired and scored a critical triggering multiple explosions. Graf Spee suffered 6 damage and lost 4 crew and 2 fires were also started. Was the luck finally turning? Exeter put on more speed and bravely tried to join the battle again despite having only one functioning turret.

Graf Spee failed to put out any fires and lost 2 more crew.

Turn 3
Initiative: British (finally!)
Ajax was one hit away from sinking and withdrew from battle with all the speed her damaged engines could muster. Exeter closed on the battle but was unable to fire as her last remaining turret was to the rear. Achilles then fired but the two hits simply bounced off. Graf Spee yet again demonstrated the effectiveness of her main batteries by scoring 2 criticals on Achilles. The shells totaled some secondary guns as well as shredding the engineering section. No more Damage Control for Achilles (Oh my God, they killed Scotty! You B*stards!).

Graf Spee managed to put out only one of the fires and so lost one more crew while Achilles put out the only one started this turn.

Turn 4
Initiative: Germans (again...)

Again the main turrets of Graf Spee spoke with murderous efficiency. Again two criticals on Achilles.  :angry:  Multiple explosions shook the British ship as she slowly listed and sank beneath the (now) blood red waves, few dazed survivors clinging to bits of wreckage the only trace of her passing.

Exeter turned to bring her sole functioning turret to bear on the German ship. Angered by the treatment she had received in hands of the Kriegsmarine guns the turret scored a critical rupturing Graf Spee's fuel lines and reducing her speed by 3 but causing only a disappointing one additional damage point.

Graf Spee finally managed to put out one fire as well as to repair the engine damage she suffered.

Exeter also repaired her engines.

Turn 5
Initiative: Germans

Both sides maneuvered and fire was ineffective. Graf spee closed on Ajax while Exeter tried to hang on.

Turn 6
initiative: British

Realising Ajax was ulikely to escape with damaged engines her captain put on a stiff upper lip and turned to fire on the pocket battleship but the shells bounced off.
Exeter then fired and again managed to get a critical damaging Graf Spee's props and reducing her speed by two. It was not enough. Spee's A turret fired on Ajax while her Y turret fired on Exeter. The shells penetrated Ajax' waterline and she began to sink. With heavy heart her captain ordered all hands to abandon ship. The fire from the Y turret damaged Exeter's props and she began to sink as well.

To add insult to the injury Graf Spee then proceeded to repair the prop damage and sailed off badly damaged but still functional.

Conclusions:

I lost to a 7 year old.  :blush:

My son definitely is a VERY aggressive commander as he pounced on me like a district attorney. On top of that he has an uncanny ability to roll criticals. In a game lasting six turns he only failed to roll crits on ONE turn.

While I was mainly concentrating on teaching him the rules the fact remains I lost focus. I should have just grit my teeth and closed with both Ajax & Achilles to fire some torpedoes. That way I could have at least taken Spee with me. Of course, practically losing Exeter on the first turn was no pleasant surprise.

I lost to a 7 year old.

Victory at Sea is a very enjoyable set of naval rules. While it certainly isn't a simulation it does its job well enough (IMO) and allowed two first timers play a game within two hours. I'll definitely be getting some ships in the near future.

Did I mention I lost to a 7 year old?

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vanvlak
 Post subject: Battle of the River Plate
PostPosted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:42 pm 
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Heh - I think Tas might be wanting to recruit the new victor of the River Plate in the Aussie Navy :) :) :)

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blackhorizon
 Post subject: Battle of the River Plate
PostPosted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 2:32 pm 
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Sounds like fun!

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CyberShadow
 Post subject: Battle of the River Plate
PostPosted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 3:04 pm 
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Look at the bright side, if it had been a seven year old girl playing you, you would have lost absolutely and totally, making humiliation ultimate!  :D

I am sure that girls have a much more developed violence gene for this type of thing, and playstation games.

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blackhorizon
 Post subject: Battle of the River Plate
PostPosted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 3:06 pm 
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Oh thank you Cybershadow!

Reminding me of losing to my 3 year old daughter!

:p

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Legion 4
 Post subject: Battle of the River Plate
PostPosted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 4:27 pm 
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Beginner's Luck or Tactical Genius ? ???  :;):

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Reaver
 Post subject: Battle of the River Plate
PostPosted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 5:34 pm 
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Losing to your kids is fine - it's a parents job, after all. And you can always annoy him in years to come, by claiming you let him win, because you're such a nice guy!

Thanks for posting the report, BTW. I've got a real soft spot for the River Plate - I've been going to Scarborough since I was a kid, and they always re-enact it on the lake in Peasholm Park. Many a happer summer's afternoon I've spent, whooping joyfully as the Graf Spee takes another hit...

'Course, of recent years they've changed the name to something generic. They were getting a lot of complaints from German tourists, apparently!

Regards,
Reaver

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Dwarf Supreme
 Post subject: Battle of the River Plate
PostPosted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:48 pm 
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You have my condolences, Mojarn, for losing to a 7 year old. However, don't think of it as a loss, because you just introduced your son into the wonderful world of wargames and maybe you gained a new opponent. When my stepdaughters first discovered my Epic collection, they thought it was kind of neat that I painted them myself and I played one small game with them (just Land Raiders, I think), but they never took interest.

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ragnarok
 Post subject: Battle of the River Plate
PostPosted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 8:47 pm 
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Sounds like you had a great time

And it seems that i need to get a son, so I can play with my toy soldiers more. :D

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Cuban Commissar
 Post subject: Battle of the River Plate
PostPosted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 1:11 am 
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This is encouraging as a friend and I are about to try out those rules.

It good to hear they are fun.  

There are also many house rules for them.  Very slight changes that bring out some more realism in some cases.

House Rules

My four year old had hot dice in any game.
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Tas
 Post subject: Battle of the River Plate
PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:32 pm 
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(vanvlak @ Jan. 21 2008,20:42)
QUOTE
Heh - I think Tas might be wanting to recruit the new victor of the River Plate in the Aussie Navy :) :) :)

Indeed I do - now there is a budding Gunnery Officer if I ever saw one!  Bravo!

Dont worry Mojarn, I have lost to a seven year old.  Even worse, he was 5 when he did it the first time...

If its one thing I have leaenred from playign against my kids, their lack of tactcial doctrine, strategic knowledge and plain common military common sence, leads them to do things you would never exect...and so havent guarded against.  Its can be quite a challenge at time!

But Vicotries liek that keep them coming back.

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Justiniel
 Post subject: Battle of the River Plate
PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 4:37 pm 
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Sound pretty much as to what 'should' have happened to me, the Spee was superior in most things.
Great to see a naval game again and sounds like a blast for the young 'un. Pictures next time please.

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Legion 4
 Post subject: Battle of the River Plate
PostPosted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 12:12 am 
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Yes, but once again the Brits took a page from Sun Tzu ... War is a matter of Deception ... And the Brits were pretty good at it !    Or maybe like Tas said about kids ? :;):

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Kleomenes
 Post subject: Battle of the River Plate
PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 8:35 pm 
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(Reaver @ Jan. 21 2008,16:34)
QUOTE
'Course, of recent years they've changed the name to something generic. They were getting a lot of complaints from German tourists, apparently!

They've changed the names!?!?!? Thats an outrage!!!!!!!1 Is nothing from my childhood sacred anymore?!

(yes, that much punctuation was necessary, I am really upset about this!)

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Legion 4
 Post subject: Battle of the River Plate
PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 10:47 pm 
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21st Century Political Correctness has sunk the Graf Spee this time ...

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