Victory at Sea Run Through Battle

 

Decided to have a quick run through battle with a small Victory at Sea force. Downloaded Battle Scribe to save me Navy lists to. I'm really liking the potential apps have in the wargaming world. The Fallout Wasteland Warfare app is brilliant and many games could benefit from apps. Simple as army lists or a bit more complicated battle trackers, allowing you to keep track of unit wounds and victory points etc. Some games it wouldn't be easy or feasible but others it would be ideal. Victory at Sea would be great with an app that you could keep track of your ships, their damage and the progress of the critical hits etc but I digress!

Right back to the matter at hand, I gathered up a small force of 380pts. The Imperial Japanese Navy brought a Mogami Heavy Cruiser (The Mogami) and 2 Fubuki Class Destroyers. The US Navy brought 2 Northampton Class Heavy Cruisers (USS Chicago and the USS Northampton) and 2 Fletcher Class destroyers. I then aimed to play a simple battle no fancy missions just last force standing!

The US Force and there ship cards

IJN Force and ship cards

The battle  would be over 8 turns. I put the fleets at opposite corners to each other and rolled fir the initiative,  Now disclaimer this is my first ever game so mistakes were made and the pictures aren't great so my apologies. 

The fleets face off

The fleets headed towards each other, the US fleets decided to spilt to try and attack both flanks of the IJN. The IJN headed straight towards the USN.

The USN starts to manoeuvre

 

The Mogami started hostilities by firing on the USS Chicago but with both fleets moving and facing each other the shots went wide. The Chicago returned fire causing 1 point of damage on the Japanese heavy cruiser. All other forces were out of range.

USS Chicago fires upon the Mogami

Turn 2 

 The 2 forces manoeuvred a bit more now with the IJN trying to counter the flanking moves by the USN.

Destroyers head to counter each other while the cruisers head towards each other.

The US destroyer (Who shall be named Fletcher A for the purposes of this blog post) and the Fubuki (Fubuki A) exchanged fire and the Fletcher A caused 1 point of damage while Fubuki A missed. The USS Chicago opened fire on the Mogami once again hitting with 4 shells causing 3 damage. The Mogami returns fire hitting 5 times and causing 5 damage.

The Mogami fires a broad side at Chicago

The Mogami also launched several torpedoes, one of which struck Fletcher A and destroyed it (Torpedo's in Victory at Sea are absolutely devastating when they hit but are really hard to hit unless you are super close). The USS Northampton opened fire splitting its fire between the Mogami and  Fubuki A. 2 damage was inflicted on the Mogami but the Fubuki A was missed. Fubuki B  fired at the Fletcher B and Fubuki B  exchanged fire casuing 1 damage on each other.

Turn 3

The ships are starting to get close now so torpedoes will be a lot more dangerous now

Its turning into a knife fight now!

The IJN took the intuitive which crucially means they get to fire first. The Fubuki A's light guns caused one damage on the Chicago. The Chicago ignored the destroyer and fired on the Mogami again causing  4 damage. The Mogami had 2 US heavy cruisers closing in, It fired on  both cruisers, 2 damage was caused to Chicago and 3 damage plus a critical hit to the Northamptons weapon systems, The Mogami also fired off 6 torpedoes but they all missed. 

The cruisers all exchange fire at close range

The Northampton returned fire and hit the Mogami for 3 damage. Its other guns missed the Fubuki B. The Fubuki B returned fire causing 1 damage to the Northampton followed by releasing a spread of torpedoes at the Northampton. 2 Torpedoes struck  the side of the Northampton and exploded causing massive damage (27!!!) sinking the Northampton there and then.

The Fletcher B  seeing the sinking broken hull of the Northampton sailed close to the Mogami unleashing a broadside (of light guns so not super impressive) causing 1 damage but crucially the destroyer also let loose 3 torpedoes. Now American navy torpedoes pre 1943 (I learnt this from the rulebook) were terrible it seemed. To reflect this you have to roll to hit as normal then roll a 5 or 6 to see if the torpedo actually detonates . Thankfully for the US  2 out of 3 torpedoes detonated causing a whopping (Not used that word for a while) 21 damage sinking the Mogami.

Fletcher B sails past the Mogami at great risk and torpedoes the Japanese cruiser

Turn 4

The IJN held the initiative again but with the loss of their heavy cruiser the 2 destroyers had to be a lot more careful now, They had torpedoes so were in no way outgunned but needed to watch out.

The IJN destroyers are still in the fight 

The Fubuki B manged to send 1 torpedo into the side of the Chicago causing a huge 12 damage crippling the ship. The Chicago was horribly damaged and now only has one working turret. That turret fired at the Fubuki B but missed the crew obviously shook up from the torpedo hit. The Fletcher B is at extreme range but managed to cause 1 damage to the Fubuki B.

Turn 5

The Chicago's Captain ordered and emergency  90 degree turn and fired whatever guns they had left at the Fubuki B. 2 damage was caused but this was enough to cripple the destroyer, The Fubuki B returned fire causing 1 damage but missed with torpedoes

The destroyers circle the US Cruiser

Turn 6

The IJN again had the initiative, the Fubuki B fired its sole gun causing 1 damage on the Chicago. The US ship returns fire and destroyers the Fubuki B with its remaining turret and its light guns scored 1 damage to the Fubuki A

The USS Chicago's remaining turret tracks and strikes the Japanese destroyer sinking it

The Fubuki A out of torpedoes is making a desperate last stand. Its guns hit the Chicago but no damage. The US Fletcher B  scores 3 hits which result in 1 damage on the Fubuki A

Turn 6

The Fubuki A went for a last ditch attack but missed the Fletcher B from point blank range. The Chicago fired at the Fubuki A causing 1 damage and a critical hit to the ships guns. The Fubuki A was now crippled. The Fletcher B sailed in and finshed the Fubuki A off with a broadside

The Fletcher class destroyer sails close and fires its weapons sinking the Fubuki A

That was it the, USS Chicago and a Fletcher class destroyer were left but the Chicago was on 1 HP so was super damaged. 

Overall a great game and the rules were quite simple to get a grasp off. I forgot a few things like orders I could have used them more and I wasn't entirely sure of what torpedoes I had fired. Things I aim to do to make the games easier, laminate the ship cards so I can use an easy wipe marker to keep track of damage and torpedo use etc. The cardboard sliders to track damage are cool but just wont last at all so I want to laminate them so I can write on the card. I'm also thinking of using cocktail sticks with little flags that have the ship names on for when I do a blog battle report, in my head this will make it easier for you guys to see what ship is what. 

 Can't wait to try a bigger game. Stay safe all!