I set up another test game of Torpedoes & Tides today. I'd promised myself I'd have a go at the False Nose Job scenario (covert operations), but I'd also got a yearning to run the S-Boats in an attack so I ran the convoy scenario again
Here's the vessels involved in a promo shot. The British have an east Coast convoy consisting of three small freighters escorted by two Fairmile B motor launches and an Isle Class armed trawler, HMS Sodor. The Germans are attacking with three S30 type boats.
As you can see, I've actually painted the ships now!
Here's the convoy on their blinds, heading north with the moon behind them.
The Germans hugged the coastline, planning to attack from the front so as to gain the benefit of the moon. Two boats would run along the coast to take advantage of the cover of the shoreline, whilst one would go directly in from the front to draw away the escorts.
The Germans quickly spotted one of the Fairmiles.
Even better, they found a freighter just beyond it.
The Fairmile moved to cut off the German run along the coat. An exchange of fire saw both vessels damaged.
A second S-boat was spotted, as was HMS Sodor. There was more shooting.
A splash of water off the bow of S-61 indicated that HMS Sodor was ranging in its 3.2" gun. One of the things I wanted to try in this game was the Large Calibre trait for bigger weapons. They get a penalty when shooting at small targets, but score more damage if they hit them.
S-61 launched a torpedo at the lead freighter, but missed. The marker is entirely for photographic purposes; it has no effect on gameplay.
S-47 had been damaged in the early exchange of gunfire with one of the Fairmiles. Spooked by the shooting from HMS Sodor its captain lost his nerve and headed for home.
All of the German vessels were revealed now, as were the escorts.
HMS Sodor scored a hit on S-58, rattling the crew and forcing them to abort their torpedo run on the second freighter (which I hadn't put on the board yet despite it having been spotted).
S-61 launched a second torpedo at the lead freighter ...
... and it hit! The freighter began to sink.
But S-61 hadn't left enough room to turn out of the way, and collided with it. Fortunately the damage was insignificant.
HMS Sodor closed in, its big gun throwing up water but scoring no damage.
The position about halfway through. The Germans have sunk one freighter and S-58 is lining up on one of the others. S-61 is rather too close to HMS Sodor for comfort. S-47 is sauntering along the coat to the right, away from the action. The British escorts now need to turn to keep the Germans under fire.
S-58 fired a spread of torpedoes at the third freighter, but was frustrated to see them both miss. Both of the remaining S-boats would need to reload torpedoes, or rely on gunnery now.
And what of the Fairmile that first engaged the Germans? Its captain ran it aground on the English coast, and we won't be hearing of him again.
Using their superior speed and agility, both S-boats moved away from the escorts and turned their attention to the third freighter. Each reloaded a torpedo as well.
The British had other problems, as HMS Sodor almost ran down the remaining Fairmile.
Would this torpedo hit? The answer was No.
There were a few minutes of relative inaction, but in that time HMS Sodor had come about and started firing on the S-boats again.
S-61 evaded the trawler and came alongside the second freighter. With no time to load its last torpedo it would have to rely on its guns and a lot of luck.
HMS Sodor scored another hit on S-58, who was now silhouetted by the moon.
The captain of S-58 opted for a bold counter-attack, and ran in fast, launching a torpedo at HMS Sodor. Once again the Germans saw a torpedo miss its target.
The 3.2" gun on the trawler missed as well.
Guns blazing S-58 collided with the trawler, taking damage, but not damaging the enemy vessel.
HMS Sodor's gunners couldn't resist a stricken point-blank range target and quickly sank the German vessel.
HMS Sodor finished the action picking up German survivors.
S-61 kept up a steady fire on the British freighter, but couldn't get a proper hit on it. And now the Fairmile was coming up astern.
The British gunners scored a solid hit on theGerman S-boat
Not a great outing for the Germans, who did manage to sink a freighter (and see a Fairmile go aground), but had one boat flee the fight and another sunk in return.
It's really hard to hit something with torpedoes in this game (or my dice-rolling has been exceptionally unlucky).
I was really pleased with how the game looked though.
It's really hard to hit something with torpedoes in this game (or my dice-rolling has been exceptionally unlucky).
I was really pleased with how the game looked though.
The boat look even lovelier now they are painted! Concerning torpedo hit probabilities: Dudley Pope in his book on coastal forces in the med states that British MTBs had a torpedo hit rate of bit less than 1/3, and I tend to suspect that this was actually an inflated number, as German reports often state that they hit nothing on a sortie. In the game, the key is to ramp up the modifiers: fire a spread (at least for the British, this was doctrine), fire into the beam and, if possible, try to get into a position so the target is up-moon. It still is a gamble but if you hit, the chances that you sink the target with one shot are very high.
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