From: "Jim O'Neil" Subject: TGWAS vol 1 - Goeben Hamstrung Last night I finally got around to trying out the tactical system for The Great War at Sea. We used Battlescenario 9 which pits Goeben and Breslau against four old French Pre-dreadnoughts, a little coastal battleship, and 4 DDs escorting twelve merchants full of French Colonial Troops. I will tell you now that a certain aberation quickly appeared ... The German player was my 21 year old son Patrick, while I played the French, assisted by James my 6 year old. James likes to roll the dice, and since I'm an awful dice roller, I let him. The Central powers get the initiative on a 1-4 and the Allies on a 5 or 6 ... James rolled - "5". The Germans had to set up first, and then the Allies set on at max range. The Allies got to fire first [damage is simultaneous, so it's not a huge deal] and crashing salvoes of 12"/40 Cal went sailing ...at long range the French hit on a "6", while the Germans hit on a 5 or 6... James rolled for the 12 French fire factors [a "3" per ship, so he rolls 12 D6] and gets *five* hits... 40% accuracy on the first salvoes!! Admiral Souchon is astounded by the accuracy of French long range fires ... all his secondary guns are put out of action , as are his tertiary guns... he takes a hull hit as well. Goeben shudders as a full broadside answers [6-D6] churning the Med into froth around the French BB Charlemagne ... but _no_ hits. The speedy German ships split, with the Breslau racing around the rear of the French battle line, just out of range, while Goeben works around the front. The two leading French BB's fire again, and again the two leading French BB s, Charlemagne and St. Louis, score [the two trailing ships are now out of range] with 3 out of 6 factors hitting! Goeben takes two primary gun hits and a hull hit. The Goeben fires back at Charlemagne and gets two hits taking out half of the secondary guns and all of the tertiary guns, [remeber she is rolling for 5&6s and gets to use all her 6 fire factors for this turn, since damage is marked off after all gunnery is done] ... again the German ships attempt to work around the slow French BBs using their speed advantage [the German ships get 4 impulse moves of 2 squares each, while the French BBs get 2 moves of one square each]. The 2 lead French BBs , Charlemagne and St. Louis, make their move, closing back into extreme gunnery range, Commandante James fires his guns at maximum elevation again and scores only two hits, another hull hit and a critical hit ... Admiral Souchon feels the Goeben heave and slow as if an anchor had been dropped ... a quick glance aft confirms his worst fears as live steam and black smoke billow from the ships center ... speed is falling off quickly and Admiral Souchon immediatly orders the Goeben to turn away ... her best speed is only slightly better than the old BBs now, and she must escape if she can... Souchon runs accross to the other bridge wing to signal Breslau, just in time to notice that the two trailing French BBs , Gaulois and Suffren, have turned and are chasing her [James has taken command of these two to "get his big brother"] ...the Gaulois fires (at extreme range) and Breslau takes a hit from the old 12 inchers (gee he only rolled 1 hit out of 3 dice, I wonder what's wrong...) her main battery [of secondary caliber guns] is destroyed, then Suffren fires and to Souchon's everlasting horror, Breslau just explodes, the roar of cold sea water on red hot boilers fills the air along with the thunderous clap of Breslau's magazines exploding [critical hit- lose five hull boxes, five primary gun boxes and all movement factoers...since she only had 3 total gun boxes and 3 total hull boxes, this is pretty catastrophic]... and we haven't even resolved the other hit... Decisive French Victory. Comments: a) James' die rolling skewed the game so terrifically that no sort of opinion can be drawn on the tactical rules .. and since both sides used the same dice, you can't say they were loaded... b) the tactical map seemed very small, making it hard for the Germans to maneuver around the old French BBs while staying out of their range. c) If a tall for his age [53"] 6 year old wants to roll your dice, make sure he is rolling for you -not against you! He was averaging close to 40% at rolling "6"s instead of the 18% probability expected... Admiral Souchon is now in the difficult position of having a seriously crippled warship in the Western Med ... in August 1914 ... things do not look good, Turkey is vacilating over joining the Central Powers ...the RN has two BC's looking for you...and you need to let the Imperial Navy know about this French Secret that allows such amazing gunnery at long range ... this could be a serious problem for the High Sea's fleet if the RN were to gain this technology! jconeil@primenet.com (Jim O'Neil) The reason the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices it on a daily basis. from a post-war debriefing of a German General