The Adventures Of Harvey Knight - 7

I was asked when Harvey Knight was coming back. I said that he would if I could find the paperwork for the campaign.

I found it.

So today I played the next mission in the campaign.

Whilst heading off on patrol Harvey's squadron received a call about some downed airmen off the French coast. They were ordered to rush to their assistance with all speed, but be wary of enemy boats in the area.

Harvey was in MTB 413 as usual. With him were. Brian Porter in MTB 418 and Lennox Dean in MGB 91.

(Setup was a standard Rescue Mission. Terrain was a patch of fog, some shallows and two rocks. Harvey's squadron approached from the south with a partial moon to the east. The Germans had three vessels, whose nature would be determined when their blinds were revealed. One was automatically small and I would draw cards and then dice for the others as per this set of rules)

Luck was with the British as the first marker checked was the airmen. MGB 91 started the job of taking them on board. With only six actions required there was a good chance they could do the rescue and be away before teh Germans knew what was happening. 

The two MTBs, on blinds, moved up to cover MGB91. The Germans were approaching rapidly from the north. 

Very rapidly. They first vessel to loom up out of the darkness was a KFK that took MGB 91 under fire.

Porter's MTB 418 surprised the second German vessel, an S-boat. 

The third vessel was quickly revealed as an R-boat. So no really nasty surprises in the opposition (a destroyer was a remote and worrying possibility). MTB 418 laid a smokescreen to confound the Germans. 

The Germans were not confounded and pushed through the screen, guns blazing. 

In this picture you can see Harvey Knight's MTB 413 lurking in the patch of mist. He'd gone off on a sweep around the German flank in case the third escort turned out to be something nasty. It wasn't, but now he was badly out of position. 

The German attack was fast and aggressive. They seemed unable to fail activation rolls and hammered MGB 91 with gunfire. Just as it completed the rescue it was battered ...

... and then sunk by close range fire from the KFK.

The other two British boats had a choice. Run for it or try and rescue the airmen and Dean's crew. They opted for the latter. Dean had stabilised MGB 91, which was not going to sink for now. Porter amd Knight closed with the Germans and fired some shots hoping to inflict some hits and drive off teh opposition.

The KFK was damaged, but otherwise the British fire had no effect. Harvey made fast alongside the stricken MGB 91 and started the evacuation. The Germans shot at both boats, damaging them. Things were looking grim for the British. One bright spot was that they'd only need four actions to do the transfer of teh airmen and Dean's crew to Harvey's boat. 

Brian Porter's boat shot up the KFK some more, but it doggedly kept fighting. 

The R-boat came in and inflicted catastrophic damage on MTB 418. It too began to sink. Harvey Knight had to decide whether to rescue his crew as well, but saw Porter wave him away. As the only boat left, and with plenty of rescued individuals on board already, it was better for Knight to cut his losses and escape. 

But a shot from the KFK inflicted more damage. Including the engines on MTB 413. 

Knight coaxed his boat away from the action with all of the speed he could muster. The R-boat and S-boat would need to come about in order to pursue, but the badly damaged KFK was already on Knight's tail. 

Harvey Knight almost hade it. But some accurate fire from the pursuing KFK smashed his boat to pieces. 

The end. All three British boats were sunk. The Germans took some damage, but only the KFK was significantly shot up. 

The British survivors were all rescued and taken prisoner. All three commanders survived uninjured.

I ran the aftermath of the mission, despite none of the boats coming back, and as expected Harvey Knight's reputation went down. 

At this point I could have ended the campaign, with Knight as a POW. But I ran the Hollywood Heroics section of the campaign for him, and he escaped. Picked up by the Resistance he can return to duty if the remains of his flotilla can pick him up from the French coat. That will be the next mission. 

The Germans were outstanding in the scenario. I made a mistake with the British in sending Harvey Knight wide to intercept them instead of supporting teh rescue boat more closely. But all three German boats got two or three actions every turn, and used them to sit close up to the British boats and send in a hail of deliberate aimed fire. A few early shots rolled a 6 (and were therefore subject to the Hard To Hit rule), but eventually they just scored damage and more damage. And nearly every critical they got scored extra hits. 

Maybe a better tactic would have been to have engaged the Germans first to damage them and drive them off, then perform the rescue afterwards. 

Postscript: I diced for the other two commander, Brian Porter and Lennox dean. On a 1-2 they would have been killed, otherwise they were considered to be POWs. They were both taken prisoner. I then ran the Heroics test for them, counting all three of their attributes as 4s. Amazingly both escaped but would need rescuing, so it appears that the next mission will see an attempt to bring back all three boat commanders.