Off the coast

 Today, we had a Coastal Forces game again, and as usual we had E-Boats against a British convoy in the channel.

As usual, we set up a random mix of escorts (the right hand lane) and 2 of merchantmen. Having added a lot of dummies and discarded half of the counters, this meant we had no idea of where any ships would be, how many escorts, and what type of ships! 

I took the left (at random)

Phil was on the right...

...and Lawrence in the centre.

I turned left slightly to approach the front of the convoy. We wee using our electric engines for stealth so were not going very fast!

Lawrence also turned to parallel me.

Phil's boats went straight forward towards the centre of the British line.

These were going forwards and several went off the edge of the table, and safety during the game.

We tried spotting but all we got at first were dummy markers, was there any convoy here at all?

One of Lawrence's boats spotted something!!!

Yek, an armed trawler!

My boats spotted something soon after, and I shot off a 'Fish'.

A 3000 ton freighter, a worthy target.

My other boat also spotted something...

...Another 3000 Tonner.

He also ordered 'Torpedo...Los!'

We were going to alert the British when the 'Fish' hit, but we stayed on electric for now and looked for new targets.

The British were asleep, where were their lookouts?

Lawrence was soon joining in.

His ships had seen one of my ships...A 2000 tonner...and the Tanker!

In our points system, a Tanker is worth twice as much as a 3000 tonner!

His ship shot off their last two torpedoes...

Before turning for France.

Phil was struggling, there was nothing there! - all one of his ships saw was a small collier carrying Newcastle coal!

Ja, the British ARE asleep!

The Torpedo struck the freighter amidships.

Wump! - an explosion split the quietness of the night. The Freighter was fatally stricken and began to roll over as her crew took to the boats.

My other ship hit the other 3000 tonner too, and this one broke in two before sinking!

One of Lawrence's torpedoes hit the 2000 Tonner...

An explosion as the torpedo exploded in the ship's wake, a lot of water, but the ship survived...

...until 30 seconds later another torpedo broke her bow off, sending her to the bottom!

The ship probably went down taking most of her crew with her.

I had shot my last torpedoes at the Tanker, and one hit!

A dud! - and the other missed!!!

Phil decided to go close and use his cannon to shoot up the collier.

Both boats joined in, and succeeded in killing the bridge crew!

His lookouts did spot a straggler at the back of the convoy, another 3000 Tonner!

Phil turned his boat, and eschewed any flanking move, preferring to shoot at the big ship's bow.

One of the Torpedoes hit the ships bow, but only caused minimal damage.

The other boat shot his 'Fish' at the tanker, but the ship turned...

...allowing the torpedoes to pass safely alongside.

Amazingly, the Tanker survived, but we got a fair haul of tonnage between us!