From: Joseph.Keller@rossnutrition.com Subject: Great War at Sea Replays On Labor Day, Steve and I got together to play GWAS, Vol. I. We started with Battle Scenario 7. I lost the British BC Indomitable as the Goeben's primaries cut right through her lightly armored hull like it was butter, but was fortunate to knock out 4 of the Goeben's primaries and slow her to speed 1, enabling the BC Indefatigable to stay with her and finish her off, thus winning the game. Then we played Battle Scenario 3. The Goeben closed range and obliterated the first Russian light cruiser Kagul on the first gunnery combat impulse (6 hull hits on a hull of 3 boxes, due to plunging fire and primary hits on light armor). On the second combat impulse, the Goeben sent the second Russian CL Pamiat Merkuriya to the bottom, then trotted off the board without my Russian battleships doing any significant damage to it, winning the scenario for Steve's Germans. Finally, we played the Eastern Operational Scenario 2. Again, I took the Russians. I figured that I needed to keep all my ships together to be able to stand up to the Goeben, but he could then just avoid me and win the game, for I needed to win by 10 points. So I sent the 2 slow Russian Bs to bombard Zonguldak, and formed 2 intercept fleets (1 with 1 B and 1 CL; the other with 2 Bs and 1 CL) (the scenario limits these Russian fleets to escort and intercept missions) to go after the 4 Turkish ships. I planned to avoid the Goeben. Steve played the scenario masterfully. Admiral Souchon saluted his men as he departed the Goeben and boarded the Turkish CL Hamidieh, leading it and the Turkish GB Berk-I-Satvet on a raiding mission, hidden from view. The 2 Turkish Bs were a second fleet, sent to bombard, and the Goeben and Breslau (leaderless) formed an intercept fleet. By sheer coincidence, 2 of my fleets both bungled onto Souchon's hidden Turkish raiding fleet at the same time. But I assumed it was the Goeben and Breslau, and let them get away. Thus I threw away my one chance to do some serious damage. The Goeben/Breslau fleet moved at speed 1 until it found the first Russian fleet. It sank the 2 Bs and 1 CL. Then they moved at speed 2 and were able to successively close with the other 2 Russian fleets. Russian gunnery was half decent, scoring about 3 or 4 critical hits on the Goeben that resulted in a lot of hull hits, but hits on her primaries were woefully lacking. By the end of the game the Goeben had lost 10 of 12 of her hull boxes, but only 2 of her primaries, so during the game the Goeben was able to continue engaging and almost single handedly sent every Russian ship to the bottom. No German or Turkish ships were lost. The Scenario writeup succinctly expresses the Russian's woes--the Goeben can easily sink any small Russian fleet and easily run away from any big one. All this took less than 3 and 1/2 hours. Real nice. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Friday night Mike and I sat down to play GWAS2 North Sea Scenario 3: Helgoland Bight. (or: Helgoland Bights the Dust.) ( I had a Vol. 1 scenario picked out, but I left the scenario book at home, so we made a quick switch to a Vol. 2 scenario and started punching out some counters.) We used Vol. 2 rules, but no Advanced Rules. This was Mike's first Operational Scenario and only my second so we were still feeling our way through some of the rules. We wondered why the German got the minesweepers since he had no mines to sweep and the British got none though they had mines to sweep. We figured they were there for cannon fodder. I immediately sailed my 3 British fleets into one area and kept them together (though I forgot to put them in one fleet). I sailed due east to the Denmark coast and tightly down along the coast, successfully avoiding Mike's German hidden mines. On turn 4 (of a 12 turn game) I was scheduled to sail into Cuxhaven port (S18) and shell the 3 German BBs that were struggling to get up steam, but 2 of the BBs sailed out and we met just north of the port (R18). All 3 British Fleets (all with Intercept missions) found the German fleet. The British BCs had a surprise sighting so got to set up at 4 hex range, instead of on the blue ring (5 hex range). Weather was Fog, so I had to close to 2 hex range to fire. I kept my CLs out of the action to avoid losses and the DDs weren't able to get close enough to engage until the very end, when the outcome was certain, so I kept them out to avoid losses and save their torpedoes for another battle. The whole action was fought between the 5 Br BCs and the 2 Ger BBs--that was 34 Br primaries to 10 Ger primaries. Mike had played only a few Battle Scenarios. He split his fire against the 2 most powerful Br BCs, then concentrated on 1, then concentrated on the weakest Br BC. The 5 Br BCs concentrated on the Ger BB Helgoland and sent the crew swimming, then concentrated on the Ger BB Ostfriesland. The later did manage to sink the Br BC New Zealand, just before joining the Helgoland on the bottom. Score was 132 to 38 VPs; big lead for the British. The British fleets sailed into S18 to attempt to shell the third Ger BB, but searched for the port at night in a squal and failed to find it. They sailed away and then back (my advance plotting forgot to take into account that I might not find the ships in the area on one try), but the third Ger BB had escaped to Wilhelmshaven (S17)--a major base which no British ships could enter. In fact, Mike decided to put all the rest of his ships in at Wilhelmshaven to avoid further battle. One Br BC did hit a mine. I was running the Invincible out in front of the rest of the fleet to check for mines. It was unwisely running at speed 2, but was very fortunate and only suffered 1 hull damage. The rest of the game yielded no more VPs. After learning how to play the game and seeing how the scenario played, Mike decided the best strategy would have been to keep his German ships in a major base to avoid battle, and to send out a raid to attack Merchant Shipping in order to garner a few points to win the game. Now that he understands the rules, he wants to replay the scenario. My additional thoughts were that the British should send out a raid to attack Merchant shipping, should run a ship or 2 in front of the combined fleet to look for mines, and should still see if he can attack the German BBs in port. I think the best use of the German mines would be to pile them up in front of Cuxhaven to make it costly for the Brits to go after the BBs that don't have steam up yet. All in all, a quick and fun scenario. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Last Friday evening at CABS Mike and I replayed GWAS 2: North Sea 3: Helgoland Bight. Mike headed into a major base with his small German ships, sent out a Raid mission, and tightened the mines around Cuxhaven this time, causing me to lose 4 DDs, 1 DL, 2 CLs and 1 BC to mines. But the mines weren't grouped tight enough and I determinedly pressed on. I was able to get my fleet into Cuxhaven and my 4 remaining British BCs attacked the 3 German BBs, sitting in port. His BBs had gotten up steam that turn and could have sailed out of port, but then they would have faced a swarm of torpedoes launched from my DDs. By staying in port they avoided that, but I had more guns to start with, a firing advantage (for I had the target not moving bonus), and my dierolling was really hot. I sank all 3 BBs without losing a ship (though one BC was extremely close to going down). Final score was Brits 209 to Krauts 92.5 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I finished my first game of PBEM GWAS. Andy and I played Vol. I, Eastern 16: The Third Balkan War. I took the Turks and sent a fleet composed of the 2 gunboats and 12 transports into the straits for safety until my Battlefleet had had time to deal with the Greek Battlefleet, to emerge later to unload the transports. I also sent a fleet of one DD into the straits for safety, to emerge later to bombard. The rest of my fleet I kept together and gave an intercept mission. This being Andy's first operational scenario, he viewed my bombarding and transport fleets as the threat, rather than my BBs. He split the Greek Battlefleet in two to try to prevent me from slipping by him. This proved disastrous. The Turk Battlefleet met the first half of the Greek fleet and sent everything to the bottom; the Turks lost DDs and CLs, but the BBs got away almost totally undamaged. The Greeks did meet the Turk Bombardment fleet and sent the lone Turk DD to the bottom. Then the Turk Battlefleet met the second half of the Greek fleet and repeated the slaughter. The 2 powerful Turk BBs were again able to quickly focus on and destroy the enemy primaries by sinking the battleships (2 Bs in the first battle, 1 BB in the second battle), then had enough time left to destroy the Greek DDs before they could close and launch torpedoes. It was amazing how fast the Greek BB Salamis went down--in just 2 gunnery combat steps. The Turk BBs opened up at maximum range and scored a 10 (for 2 hull hits by plunging fire (PF)), and an 11 (for 3 hull hits by PF under Vol. I rules), and knocking her dead in the water and a sitting duck. In the second gunnery combat step a 10 was scored (for 2 more hull hits by PF), thus destroying the small hull of the Salamis. (Under Vol. II rules the 11 would have only produced 2 hull hits.) Even if the Turk shooting hadn't been so effective, the divided Greek fleet would have been in trouble. Two Turk BBs firing on one Greek BB translates into the Greek losing her guns twice as fast as the Turks, and likely only scoring half as much damage as is scored on her. For the present, Alfred Thayer Mahan's doctrine of the big fleet seems to be confirmed by GWAS. One big fleet is much more effective in GWAS than the same ships in two smaller fleets. We shall have to see if the use of the Advanced Tactical Rules Supplement, which severely penalizes multiple ships for firing on the same ship, changes this situation. Victorious in the Aegean, Joe Keller