Grey Christmas

For our regular Wednesday evening game Mrs Kobold and I played Torpedoes & Tides. I wanted to try one of the new scenarios in the book, and she was happy to give it a go because it features the naturalist Peter Scott.

It's an action from 1943 in which two steam gunboats from Scott's flotilla encountered a couple of German S-boats .  In order to play it I had to make a couple of steam gunboats. So here's HMS Grey Owl and HMS Grey Wolf. 

The action was fought on a moonless night and the only terrain is a patch of fog. It's a simple 'shoot up the enemy' mission. Catherine took the British, whilst I took the Germans. We both had one regular and one veteran vessel. Here we are at the 'Still On Blinds' stage. 

I hid one S-boat in the fog, but the other was soon spotted. In return I located Grey Owl. 

With gunfire starting it was time to stop hiding and get stuck in. Initial fire from one S-boat caused the crew of Grey Owl to take cover. The other S-boat swung round in a wide arc ...

... and running  hail of fire from both gunboats launched a pair of torpedoes at Grey Wolf. 

A hit! The British were now down one ship. 

The first S-boat veered off to reload its torpedoes. It had taken some light damage and lost a gun as well. The second S-boat came in and fired its torpedoes, but Scott's Grey Owl was a harder target thanks to its veteran crew, and they missed. 

I tried to line up some gunnery on Grey Owl, but Catherine kept up a hail of gire from it. The gunboats have heavy guns and a couple of hits soon showed that a straight gunfight wasn't going to end well for the Germans. 

One S-boat caught fire, but it was quickly extinguished. However damage is damage. 

I kept trying to get in a shot on Grey Owl. but couldn't. However my veteran S-boat had reloaded its torpedoes and was looking to make another attack. I couldn't get a good line on Grey Owl, though. 

With both of my boats taking hits from the 3" gun on Grey Owl I decided to cut my losses and ran for home.

The Germans won the scenario, sinking one British vessel, and only taking damage in return. It would have been nice to have sunk Grey Owl as well, but I didn't think I could get into a good torpedo run position without being sunk, so it wasn't worth it. I quit whilst I was ahead.

I reckon for this scenario that the Germans need to get in fast, fire off a salvo of torpedoes at the lower quality British vessel, then scarper. If they don't sink it then they stay at long range, reload and then have another go. And then scarper for sure. I reckon the British need to evade and keep their bow/stern to the Germans as much as possible to throw off the torpedo attack, and then use their longer range guns to fire as many shots as possible at the Germans, regardless of odds. They only have to get lucky a couple of times. The Germans aren't going to win a straight gunfight.