Happy new year..at the coast!

Well, here we are at the start of 2013, and the start of the new campaigning season!

This Saturday, we decided to intruduce Gareth, our newest club attendee, to Coastal forces.

We did another S-Boat attack on a coastal convoy, we randomised the size of the escort so we were not sure how many, or what types of escort the convoy would have.
Historically, many east coast convoys had minimal escorts, often 1 or 2 trawlers only!
To make a game, we opted to weight the random escort to provide a slightly more potent force....

First, sorry the post is late, I have had terrible trouble with Blogger! - it steadfastly refused to allow me to upload pictures from my computer - I had to upload the files to Picasa first and download them from there! - hope it sorts itself out soon or I will be displeased!

As usual, there were 2 lines of merchantmen with a line of escorts between them and the German side of the table, we had no idea of which were real and which were dummies!

 Lawrence had his 2 boats near the middle of the convoy..

Gareth had his near the convoys rear.. 

Mine were close beside his (The red markers ar to show which ships we have spotted)

 Phil, in command of our flotilla today deployed on my right at the rear of the convoy.

As usual, the most time was taken moving the convoy markers at the start of the game! 

Immediately, one of our boats spotted an escort..an Isles class trawler. 

Another escort..another trawler..was at the front. 

 Near the rear, a large flotilla, consisting of a trawler, a Hunt class 3, and an Algerine class minesweeper appeared, the whole of the possible escorts! - so much for a random selection!!

 Having spotted the Hunt, I shot a torpedo to try and break up the line of escorts before we were spotted by them.

 Mercifully, they seemed content to drink their cocoa!

 As we closed, stealthily, on electric motors a medium collier was spotted beyond the escort line.

 The Hunt spotted my torpedo..and too late increased speed and turned to try and 'comb' the torpedo track.

 More merchantmen were spotted by Lawrence at the front of the convoy.

 Gareth shot some torpedoes, mixed with dummies to confuse the escorts.

 Lawrence stayed silent, and waited for an opportunity to shoot a high value target.

 The Hunt steered desperately to avoid my 'fish'.

 

 The torpedo exploded close by the Hunt, causing serious damage topside, and causing a 50% loss of speed from leaks in the engine room. 

 Gareth's torpedoes destroyed a trawler. 

 Phil's torpedoes hit the Algerine, but one exploded in the ships wake, causing minimal damage, and the second scraped along the ships bottom and continued.

 Another of my torpedoes damaged another trawler, I had aimed at the collier!

 The merchantmen, now aware of the threat, managed to avoid some torpedoes.

 But more kept coming!

 By now, 3 of the rear escorts were damaged or disabled.

 Gareth managed to hit and damage a collier...another near explosion.

 With the convoy scattered, Lawrence spotted the tanker, a prize target!

 His boats shot all their torpedoes and dummy markers!

 With all our torpedoes shot, we all sped off back to France!

 At last, one of Gareth's torpedoes hit and sank another collier.

 Lawrences shoal of torpedoes nearly hit a freighter, but it managed to evade..just!

 The final act .. Lawrence's torpedo hit the tanker..which disappeared in a huge flaming explosion. Aviation fuel most likely.

It was an odd game! - random force generators sometimes give a force too much strength, and this was definitely the situation in this game. Next time I will modify the selection of possible escorts somewhat!

Additionally, having 6 boats at the rear of the convoy was a mistake, it prevented a lot of juicy ships being targetted, especially as the majority of merchantmen were randomly placed at the front of the convoy where only Lawrence could get at them!

Still..Its good to be back at the club after Christmas..Yay!