The Battle of Sarigan, 1910

For most of the last week I've been in the grip of a nasty little bacterium whose malign influence is only now beginning to wane.  As a result it's only now that I can report on January's Saturday Afternoon Wargame.

This was the first time I'd introduced Perfidious Albion to the Saturday Afternoon crew.  Given that we had four players, two of them youngsters, I decided to keep the number of ships to a minimum and leave out some of the rules.

Our scenario was based on the idea that Carruthers, at the end of his adventures with Davies in the  Frisian Islands (see Erskine Childers' The Riddle of the Sands), reported back the the Foreign and Colonial Office on their discoveries. His account was leaked and caused a public outcry.  How dare the beastly Hun attempt an underhand attack on dear old Blighty?  Something must be done! When our game takes place, the Admiralty has given orders to all Royal Navy ships at sea to engage and sink any Kriegsmarine vessels they encounter.

Our game took part in the Philippine Sea where Rear Admiral Woodward's (Gus's) squadron was to form up at the uninhabited island of Sarigan before seeking out the German East China Squadron (Rear Admiral Krähfeld, me).  Woodward's flag was carried by HMS GOOD HOPE and he was accompanied by the light cruiser GLASGOW. At Sarigan he was to rendezvous with the rather slow pre-dreadnought battleship CANOPUS commanded by Capt AJ Woodward (Arthur).

By an improbable coincidence, the main striking force of the East China Squadron (two modern armoured cruisers) was also to rendezvous at Sarigan. Krähfeld (in SCHARNHORST) was to form up with GNEISENAU (Capt. von Fluhwitz, Leo).

Starting positions were determined by some simple cards I made up at the start of the game. GOOD HOPE and GLASGOW would begin at anchor at the island whilst Canopus would enter from the south eastern corner of the table.  SCHARNHORST would enter from the southwest and GNEISENAU from the northeast!

This gave Gus the potential to concentrate his forces against a single German vessel but the anchored ships would take a while to get to full speed and CANOPUS, though carrying the heaviest guns, was the slowest ship in the action and would take time to join the fray.

Scharnhorst, foreground, with Good Hope and Glasgow
visible near the island and Gneisenau beyond.

Gus, perhaps taking the view that I, having played the game before, was the greater threat, moved GOOD HOPE and GLASGOW towards SCHARNHORST and a gunnery duel soon began.

Scharnhorst prepares to meet the British

Glasbow and Good Hope get under way

The sailed rather too close to the island under the rules as written but
I hadn't mentioned that to them so I ruled that the volcanic island
lacked the usual 3" surrounding area of shallows. 

A turning duel developed between SCHARNHORST and the two British cruisers and the German ship's superiority in big guns (a broadside of six 8.2" guns compared to GOOD HOPE's two 9.2s and GLASGOW's two 6" guns) began to cause damage to the British ships. The British players began to refer to their flagship as the No Hope!

At this point the 12" guns of CANOPUS began to find their range.

Canopus (far distance) begins firing on Scharnhorst

As CANOPUS closed the range, SCHARNHORST began to take damage. Her excellent amour was no proof against 12" shells.  Suddenly there was a mighty explosion and the German cruiser disappeared in a cloud of smoke. When it cleared there was nothing to see but a little floating wreckage.  A 12" shell from Canopus had struck her aft magazine!  

Scharnhorst explodes just as Gneisenau (right)
enters the battle area

At this point von Fluhwitz would have been well advised to withdraw as quickly as possible, albeit he'd have to do so by sailing in between the converging British forces.  But he couldn't resist slowing for one more shot at sinking one of the cruisers and he payed a heavy price.  A close range shot, and a lucky dice roll saw another magazine penetration and GNEISENAU too was lost with all hands. An observer on the bridge of one of the British ships was heard to mutter, "There seems to be something wrong with their damned ships today".

So a clear victory for the British.  There's likely to a knighthood in it for Admiral Woodward.

The rules were enjoyed and I think the decision to keep the number of ships to a minimum was a good one. Gus grasped the mechanisms quickly and was able to help Leo and Arthur with understanding their ship cards. Leo did spot an inconsistency in terminology - what are flooding boxes in the rules are flotation boxes on the charts.

Gus had to dash off to mark some finals papers so I took advantage of our early finish to teach Leo and Arthur the basics of X-Wing. We'll certainly play Perfidious Albion again soon but I think a bit of X-Wing may well feature in next month's Saturday Afternoon Wargame.

Trying Perfidious Albion

Having mostly finished painting the 1/3000th scale ships Jamie bought me for my birthday at the Vapnartak before last (and with this year's Vapnartak less than a month away) I decided to remind myself of the Perfidious Albion rules.

I've got the fleets required to refight the battles of Coronel and the Falkland Islands from 1914 but I thought I'd better start with something smaller (I'd only previously tried the rules very briefly using paper cut-out ships).

Choosing about 30,000 points a side gave me two flotillas - the Germans have the armoured cruiser Gneisenau and the light cruisers Nuernberg and Leizig whilst the British have two armoured cruisers; Cornwall and Monmouth.

The date is 1910 and I'm assuming that a secret German plan to invade England has come to light.  The Admiralty has ordered any British ships at see to engage and sink any German vessels they encounter.

As you can see I'm playing on a suitably blue carpet rather than occupying the kitchen table.

The weather is heavy and visibility is limited to 2000 yards; 12 inches game scale. The two flotillas have passed each other on opposite courses and the Germans are now turning about to pursue the British.  The latter are sailing away as Cornwall is currently unable to turn due to steering gear damage.

Leipzig's crew, meanwhile, are busy fighting a fire that has broken out belowdecks.

I've cut out the ship charts from the rules or from the Fighting Fleets supplement, attached them to 105x148mm inkjet cards, and sealed them with my laminator before cutting them to size.  As I play I'm also finding additional bits of information that could usefully be put on the cards - tonnage and turning circle come immediately to mind. I need to find a better erasable pen to make off hits.

I've made an error and made this first scenario harder to play than I should have. I diced for the weather conditions and decided to go ahead despite the sea state being "heavy".  This adds complexity to the combat resolution.

In the case of Leipzig with the damage she's taken above, firing broadside at point-blank range in heavy seas, the sum is as follows.  Four F-type guns at 60% chance to hit gives 240%.  But because lower-mounted guns are harder to fire when the ship is pitching and rolling with waves breaking over the superstructure, we deduct 10% for each of the guns at level 2 and 20% for each of the guns at level 3. This gives a modified total score of 180%.  That means one automatic straddle and an 80% chance of a second.  For each straddle you then roll a d6 and a d10 to determine the hit location.  After that you need to compare the shell's penetration with the armour, if any, on the hit location. If the armour is penetrated the location is destroyed.  

My first impression is that I wouldn't want to give novice players more than a ship or two to handle.  Overall, though, I like the game at first sight.  I suspect there are more realistic pre-Dreadnought era rules out there but not being an expert on the period I'll probably stick to these for now.

Having done more reading on Coronel and the Falklands, though, I might stick to fictional scenarios as both are one-sided affairs. Also I rather fancy going earlier; perhaps the 1880s when there are some really weird ships around.