Fear God and Dreadnought! |
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Cuban Commissar
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Post subject: Fear God and Dreadnought!  Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2005 3:32 pm |
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| Purestrain |
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Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2003 4:32 am
Posts: 2934
Location: Colorado, USA
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I satyed up till 3:00 AM this morning, but I still have 2 of the 11 ships to go. Darn German ships with their cranes.
So I was weak...
I'll try to finish them tonight.
Oh by the way while youe gret greeat detail with GHQ ships. Your going to be spending a lot, I mean, a lot of time fixing gun turret barrels.
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Tas
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Post subject: Fear God and Dreadnought! Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2005 11:36 pm |
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| Brood Brother |
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Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 10:01 am
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Location: Sydney, NSW
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Looks like the yard dogs are getting really motivated by all the latest war propaganda and are working overtime in the graving docks!
We look forward to seeing your Fleet in Commission, Sir!
_________________
Tas
My General blog: http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/
My VSF Blog: http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/
My ECW Blog: http://declaresir.blogspot.com/
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Cuban Commissar
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Post subject: Fear God and Dreadnought! Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 6:43 pm |
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| Purestrain |
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Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2003 4:32 am
Posts: 2934
Location: Colorado, USA
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In the book I'm reading Castles of Steel I just finished reading the chapters on the Battle of Coronel and the Battle of the Falklands.
Overall it was a very sad read because both of the defeated sides where completely destroyed.
It is very horrifing to realize that when a ship sinks it takes most of it's crew with it.
In the case of the SMS Scharnhorst, HMS Good Hope, HMS Monmouth. They where lost with all hands, 800+ men each.
In all cases the ship's crews acted with great courage often fighting unitl the bitter end.
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Tas
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Post subject: Fear God and Dreadnought! Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 2:30 am |
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Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 10:01 am
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Location: Sydney, NSW
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Remember too that when HMS HOOD exploded, only 3 of her crew survived.
Massive crew casualties duting a sinking is the norm, not an exception...
Glad you are enjoiyng the book!
_________________
Tas
My General blog: http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/
My VSF Blog: http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/
My ECW Blog: http://declaresir.blogspot.com/
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Cuban Commissar
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Post subject: Fear God and Dreadnought! Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 8:20 am |
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| Purestrain |
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Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2003 4:32 am
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Location: Colorado, USA
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Yes...
rule number one don't get your ship sunk.
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Tas
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Post subject: Fear God and Dreadnought! Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 10:55 am |
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Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 10:01 am
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Location: Sydney, NSW
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I rule I wholeheartedly agree with and live by! 
_________________
Tas
My General blog: http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/
My VSF Blog: http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/
My ECW Blog: http://declaresir.blogspot.com/
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dafrca
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Post subject: Fear God and Dreadnought! Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 11:37 am |
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Location: Burbank, CA, USA
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| Quote (Tas @ 26 2005 June,02:55) | | I rule I wholeheartedly agree with and live by! ? |
I could see the wisdom in following that rule. 
dafrca
_________________
"Every Man is a But Spark in the Darkness"
- Cities of Death, page 59
Come fight me, if you dare...... http://dd-janks.mybrute.com
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Cuban Commissar
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Post subject: Fear God and Dreadnought! Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 12:26 am |
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| Purestrain |
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Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2003 4:32 am
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Location: Colorado, USA
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Ok Fleet fans round two of Luis's sea related misadventers...
The Battle of the Yellow sea.
Well after a week of inticipation I sat down to take command of a large flotilla of ships.
This was the largest battle to date with over 30 ships on the board.
The Russians had 6 battleships, 4 light cruisers, and 8 destroyers
The Japenese had 4 battleships, 4 old battleships/Cruisers (I don;t know what to call a ship that carries one 13" gun), 6 cruisers, and 18 destroyers.
The problem we had with the game was lack of players. we only had 3. So we where all a little overworked to command such large forces. I love being the underdog so I choose to command the Russian fleet.
As the battle started the Russian battleships where steaming north in an attempt to breakthrough the Japanese blockade and meet up with the rest of their fleet.
The Japanese battleships where moving to intercept but started at extreme range of my Port side. The older Japanese battleships/cruisers Where also to Port aspect but more to the south. The Japanse cruisers where to my starboard and the bulk of the Japanese Destroyers where right in front.
The Russians moced at a regular 15 knots as to get the best grom our gunnary. As the older battleships/Cruisers were the closest target mt battleships targetted them first. One battleship turned it's guns to Starboard to strike the lead ship of the Japanese cruiser squadron.
I also sent my own light cruiser squadron directly told these older ships to close and engage.
I kept my destroyers and their one Flotilla leader, the Light Cruiser Novik, close to the battleships in a hope to protect me from the Japanese destroyers.
The battle opened well for me. I scored a number of hits on the Japanese the old battleships and one hit on the Japanese cruiser Isama, which caused a slight fire.
As the Japanese closed to engage they where having hoorible luck trying to hit my ships. But the Destroyers where moving at high speed for a torpedoe run.
My cruisers moving as fast as they could and started to inflict great damage on the older gunboats (for a lack of a better term). I discovered they had the armor of a cruiser and my 5" guns where doing great harm. At one point the lead of my cruiser squadrom fireing a seven fun broadside in one of the ships.
unfortuately one of these 4 gunvoats was really a battleship. The Cheyan was an ex Chinese battleship. I disovred to my horroe that I could not penetrate her armor in at close range. Oops! 
While I was putting a hurt on the other ships this one old and slow battleships with ancient guns was putting big wholes into my lead cruiser. At one point a shell hit of of my 5" guns and I barely avoided a magazine explosion.
The Japanese cruisers also discovered why light ships don;t mess with big ships as their 6" shell fire often failed to penetrate by Battleships armor.
The Japanese Battleships still moved to get within range but at long range thier one failed to do significant danage.
The interesting action was the Japanese destroyers. My battleships where surounded by the little boats as they moved for torpedoe runs. The Novik tried to fend them off, but their where to many of them. She severaly damaged one. and my destroyers tried as well but they failed to do enough damage.
I was forced to turn my secondary batteries upon. The destroyers. We also descovred that battleships have batteries of light guns. They are very helpful for fending off the little boats.
The Japanese launched their first wave of torps. Due to technology and range, pre WWI torp have a VERY short range and have a very hard time hitting, they all missed. You could here the collective sigh from the Russian sailors.
This little duel continued with the destroyers moving in and the big ships exchanging fire.
One of the last shots of the game was a hard blow for the Russians. As I enetered a phase of "I can;t hit the broadside of a barn" the Japanese got into a stride.
The Japanese Battleships had just entered medium range when two salvos of 12" shelss pounded my Flagship. Once gain it was the criticals that did the ship in. A major fire and flooding was caused within further danaged the ship. In one momnet the Russian flagship had been reduced in half now barely able to muster 9 knots. At such a slow speed any chance of escape for that ship was over. So the Japanese would have the Russian Admiral.
With those closing shots we ended the game.
Unfortualtely we had only played 5 turns compred to the near 15 we achieved last time. Considering the number so players vs. ships we should have paired down the forces. But we also wanted to see how the computger program would hold up. Which it did rather well except for one bug that came up. At one point my destroyers could not fire upon any target the computer saying I had 0% chance to hit for any tartget. So Lamont is woking on that one.
The game produced more discussion on the critial hit table. We'll see how that goes.
So talk has started on the next scenarion the chase of the Goeben.
pictures of the ships and some of the battle cab be found in the general miniatures section
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dafrca
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Post subject: Fear God and Dreadnought! Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 12:48 am |
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Joined: Thu Feb 13, 2003 6:02 pm
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Location: Burbank, CA, USA
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Sounds like it was a good game.
Thanks for sharing.
I will trip over and have a look see the pictures.
dafrca
_________________
"Every Man is a But Spark in the Darkness"
- Cities of Death, page 59
Come fight me, if you dare...... http://dd-janks.mybrute.com
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Tas
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Post subject: Fear God and Dreadnought! Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:09 am |
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Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 10:01 am
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Location: Sydney, NSW
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Great to read of your recent battle, those crafty Japanese can be tricky devils?
Its very interesting that you are (rapidly) learning very real tactical lessons from your games which speaks volumes about the rules you are using. ?A cruiser screen around your Line of Battle will keep away those pesky DDs (along with your BB/BC secondary armament). ?An outer DD screen will keep those enemy BCs from charging in and can be detached to act offensively also.
*** I don?t know what to call a ship that carries one 13" gun
Naming conventions throughout this period were not always consistent. ?I would say a ?Monitor? would be the best description.
The only other comment I had for you is that if are going to reduce the number of ships in a game, keep the rations of ship sizes the same ? ie divide everything by 2 rather than take away 3 BBs ? that way you keep the Fleet compositions consistent.
Great report- I enjoyed reading it and you are obviously continuing to enjoy your foray into this genre. ?Thanks for sharing!
_________________
Tas
My General blog: http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/
My VSF Blog: http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/
My ECW Blog: http://declaresir.blogspot.com/
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Dwarf Supreme
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Post subject: Fear God and Dreadnought! Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:16 pm |
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Location: Canton, CT, USA
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CS, thanks for the good read.
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"I don't believe in destiny or the guiding hand of fate." N. Peart
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dafrca
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Post subject: Fear God and Dreadnought! Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 9:01 pm |
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| Quote (Cuban Commissar @ 27 2005 June,10:17) | Well on a side note as I was doing some research for ship painitng I found and actual model of the strange Japanese one gun "Battleships." ?
Apparently it is called the Matsushima class and they protected cruisers, All three ships the Matsushima, Itsukushima, and Hashidate were invloved in our fight. ?I almost sunk the Hashidate and put some holes in the other 2. ?Reading the text I would have done the Japanese a favor if I had sunk them. ? |
Interesting, I had never heard of these before. Of course this is not an area I am gaming or researching.
Interesting to look at though.
dafrca
_________________
"Every Man is a But Spark in the Darkness"
- Cities of Death, page 59
Come fight me, if you dare...... http://dd-janks.mybrute.com
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vanvlak
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Post subject: Fear God and Dreadnought! Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 9:10 pm |
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Dwarf Supreme
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Post subject: Fear God and Dreadnought! Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 9:22 pm |
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| Quote (vanvlak @ 27 2005 June,21:10) | Incredible ship, that, CC, thanks for the site. Thanks for the report and pics here and elsewhere too. Really nice stuff  The Itsukushima was 'deleted' (scrapped?) during WW1, but her sister Hashidate, which you almost sank, actually survived until even after WW1 as a conscripts' training ship. This comes from Jane's, which classifies them as cruisers. |
Just out of curiosity, if the main armament was one 13" gun, what was the secondary armament and how was it arranged?
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"I don't believe in destiny or the guiding hand of fate." N. Peart
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