Treasure Hunt

Three of us played Fjord Serpents last night. We tried the Salvage scenario, and adapted the initiative sequence for three players. Each of us had one big snekkja and one small karvi.

Here's my ships set up. 

Terrain was two islands towards the edges of the board and one shipwreck in the centre. The islands had one loot counter each, whilst the wreck had lots. In the background Ralph's ships head towards the wreck. Caesar and I sent our little karvis to the islands for a quick pickup. Our snekkajs headed for the centre. I could see that Caesar was aiming form my snekkja with the intention to board, so I raised the sails and sped away from him 

I passed alongside Ralph's karvi.

Caesar rammed it and initiated boarding, with his berserkers to the fore, led by a hero. The hero dies in the first round of combat.

Ralph was collecting loot. I ran aboard his snekkja with mine, looking to capture it and take the loot he had collected. 

A couple of long fights ensued. Caesar slowly whittled down the crew of Ralph's karvi with weight of numbers. Meanwhile Ralph and I saw our snekkjas locked in a stalemate of a fight, with neither side inflicting much in teh way of casualties. My hero sang heroic songs and inspired his crew, but couldn't translate all that work into actual hits. Ralph's hero let his crew fight and simply repaired damage. 

Eventually Caesar took Ralph's karvi. And Ralph scored some hits on my crew. But at that moment my karvi came up in support ...

... and we had to end the evening. Caesar and Ralph had both collected a fair bit of loot each, but Caesar looked set to wait for the fight between Ralph and I to end before swopping in and taking stuff off the victor. 

It was all good clean fun, although the lack of frequency with which we play this game meant that we still had to look a lot of stuff up. The rules are a little unclear in places, and the mechanisms for combat, whilst clever, do take a bit of time to get your head around. 

It was nice to have a break torpedo boats for an evening.

The Adventures Of Harvey Knight - 10

The 12th MTB flotilla was soon out on another patrol, heading for one of its hunting grounds off the coat of France. Knight's MTB 413 was accompanied by Orion James' MTB 430 and the green crew of Lennox Dean's MGB 91. This would be good experience for both Harvey Knight's and Dean's crew.

But as they approached the French coast an ominous shape was spotted in the darkness. Heading straight at them, making no attempt to hide on its approach, was a German destroyer!

The British boats poured on the speed as the destroyer closed with frightening rapidity. 

And then opened fire.

With two green crews the British escape was disorganised. So disorganised that whilst my brain told me that one boat was MTB 430 and that another was MGB 91, I actually swapped them over in terms of models. Which is my way of saying that in the following pictures the part of MTB 430 will be played by MGB 91, and vice versa. 

Anyway, the destroyer kept firing and a hit on Knight's MTB 413 damaged the engines. There was little changes of outrunning teh big German vessel now. 

Dean's MGB 91 was ordered to run for it as it had little hope of damaging the destroyer. Meanwhile Orion James brought MTB 430 round to engage the destroyer with torpedoes, hopefully buying the damaged MTB 413 time to escape.

Torpedoes away! But they missed. 

The destroyer continued to engage Knight's boat as he sought cover in a patch of mist. 

A near miss on MTB 430, but no damage. 

The destroyer was fast, and was soon ahead of MTB 413, blocking its escape. Knight turned sharply away and headed away from the German vessel, trying to buy time. Maybe he could line up a torpedo run of his own. 

Orion James came up again. He had no torpedoes, but he did have an reasonably experienced crew and some depth-charges. In desperation he sped towards the German vessel. It fired at him, and a fire started on the little MTB. Putting the helm over James attempted to pass teh destroyer's bow and drop depth-charges as he did so. 

The manuever failed, and the little boat was run down by the destroyer and smashed to pieces. Amazingly most of teh crew survived, clinging to life-rafts. But the impact had badly damaged the bows of the destroyer as well. MTB 430's sacrifice might yet not be in vain.

The damaged destroyer kept up its aggressive attack on Knight's limping MTB 413. And it was inevitable that the frantic dodging and weaving ... 

... would lead to another collision. Knight's boat was now seriously damaged, whilst the destroyer escaped unharmed. But Knight had depth charges too.

Despite its damage Knight pulled his stricken boat past the destroyer and fired off charges as he did so. They hit, and the already damaged destroyer began to list and sink. 

There was no hope of continuing with the night's patrol. Knight coaxed MTB 413 over to the remains of MTB 430 and picked up the survivors (Orion James among them), and then headed for a rendezvous with MGB 91 and the trip home. 

Knight's reputation didn't improve off the back of this encounter. Yes, he was praised for sinking an enemy destroyer, but it came at the loss of yet another MTB, as well as the serious damage done to his own boat. And things got worse. The repair crews were already stretched and whilst they got MTB 413's engines back into working order they were unable to do little more in the way of repairs. And in addition there were no replacement boats available for MTB 430 or MTB 418. On the plus side, James' crew were recovered so they wouldn't lose their accumulated experience, and all of the boats picked up valuable experience as well. However the 12th MTB Flotilla was now down to one functioning MTB, with a second badly damaged and two others waiting to be replaced. For the next mission they would be relying on the two MGBs. 

The Adventures Of Harvey Knight - 9

After his escape from France, Harvey Knight was keen to get out on the sea again. He had a new boat and a mostly new crew, so they needed experience. And the same was true of two of his other boats. So supported by Stewart's MTB 414, Knight took out his own MTB 413 and Lennox Dean's now green MGB 91 on the next patrol.

Lurking off  the French coast they came across a small convoy - two transports and three escorts. They approached it under the cover of an offshore island and some fog. The escorts, already suspicious, turned towards the approaching British.

The convoy was moving rapidly down the coast, so Knight ordered all boats to attack at full speed. They immediately spotted the first escort - a destroyer!

The second escort was an R-boat. Stewart pushed forward, aiming to get a fix on one or both transports. 

The German destroyer sped up to avoid being torpedoed by Knight's boats and, with the R-boat, engaged MTB 414. Amazingly neither of the German ships scored a hit.

With the destroyer up-moon, Knight tried the best torpedo shot he could get on the destroyer , but missed. 

(German destroyers are C2, so are very hard to hit with torpedoes.)

Stewart identified a transport in the convoy, but couldn't get a line with his torpedoes, so contented himself by shooting at it. It had no effect.  The destroyer engaged him with its big guns, but missed once again. 

Stewart saw a chance to torpedo the freighter. With the destroyer still shooting at him, this would be his only chance. 

His torpedoes missed. 

Both British MTBs had fired off their torpedoes and, with teh destroyer in play, it didn't seem safe to hang around and try to use gunnery to sink a transport. The British turned for home. 

What of MGB 91 you ask? Dean had been bringing it around the rear of the convoy through the fig. But now he joined his SO in turning for home.

The third escort - a KFK - fired some parting shots as the British sped away. The destroyer was turning to pursue as well, but had to avoid colliding with the R-boat and the transports. 

And so the British disappeared into the night. 

Neither side had taken any damage, and the British hadn't sunk anything. But two crews had survived a close encounter with a destroyer on their first mission, so it was good experience for them. 

Obviously Harvey Knight didn't see any improvement in his reputation off the back of this encounter, but two crews picked up a little experience. Disappointed by his crews' failure to hit anything with torpedoes he organised some additional training in that area, but the green crews didn't really benefit from it. 

It would take at least one more mission to get the crews to a state Harvey would be happy with. 

More Ships

In the past week I have been spending odd moments doing some more vessels for Torpedoes & Tides. And here they are.

At the back are two British minesweepers. The designs are based on the Halcyon class, but the stats in the game cover a range of other vessels too, so I didn't get too wound up in trying to mimic one particular class of vessel. In front of them is another Siebelfahre. I started this with the first batch but wasn't quite sure how to finish it off. It's an up-gunned escort with 88mm guns.

In front of the all are two markers for rescue scenarios. I've been reading about air/sea rescue operations in WW2, and came across refuge buoys. These were developed early on by the Germans and then later used by the British. I made a German one and British one to use as markers when you find the downed airmen. 

Here's the British minesweepers in closeup. 

And a comparison with the German M 1935 class. I'm wondering how a game featuring minesweepers and destroyers would play out under these rules. 

The Siebelfahre. Not desperately exciting, but it adds a potentially nasty escort option - a shallow-draft vessel with a big gun. 

My Siebelfahre flotilla - three transports, one flak escort and one 88mm flak escort. 

The rescue buoys. The smaller one represents a German Rettungsboje. Around 50 of these were anchored in the English Channel in 1940. They contained bunks for four people, as well as supplies, a cooking stove and apparently even books and boardgames. Flags and lights were used to indicate that they were occupied and the German air/sea rescue services would check them every few days. Airmen and seafarers of both sides made use of them, although obviously any Allied servicemen found were made POWs. The striped one is a British Air-Sea Rescue float. Bigger than the German float it had bunks for six. Sixteen of them were made and moored along the routes bombers took too and from Europe. 

A British MTB checks out a German buoy, just to give you an idea of size.

The Adventures Of Harvey Knight - 8

The 12th Torpedo Boat Flotilla's previous mission had been a disaster. Diverted from a routine patrol to rescue some downed airmen all three boats had been lost and the surviving crews taken prisoner, the flotilla's commander amongst them.

However not long afterwards word reached the flotilla's SNO that all three captured commanders had evaded the Germans and were now in the safe hands of the French resistance. Details were sent of a rendezvous in order to collect them. The flotilla's three surviving crews set out to rescue their commander. 

The boats were:

MTB 414 under Edward Stewart
MTB 430 under Orion James
MGB 103 under Ewan McDonald.

The designated rendezvous point was on a section of coast covered by a small island and some shallows. A squall also covered the pickup point. However German patrols were active in the area as well. And to make things harder the pickup was on the night of a full-moon over the land, which would leave the rescuing boats more visible when close to the coast. 

The British went for a cautious approach past the island. Ominous engine sounds could be heard off to their right; something was out there ... 

I didn't use the SO rule for this mission. Although Stewart in boat 414 is nominally the flotilla's second most senior boat commander I reasoned that here hadn't been time for him to get the trait. The British boats straggled in their approach, with Stewart taking the rear. 

Shapes in the darkness; three enemy vessels were approaching. 

The Germans approached rapidly, willing to be surprised by the British boat. The first German to be identified was a Verpostenboot. The crew of MTB 430 fired and caused the gun-crews to duck for cover. 

Oh no! The next German vessel to come into view was a minesweeper! 

This did not bode well for the mission. 

It opened fire, damaging MTB 430 which was the biggest threat. Still, the British boat had a clear torpedo shot on the big German vessel. 

But the British were stunned into inactivity with German vessels quickly surrounding them and fire coming in from all directions

More inactivity from the British. The chance to torpedo the minesweeper was lost and with Stewart's MTB 414 still struggling to get into the action it looked like an uneven gunfight was on the cards. 

The British were going to get wiped out again. 

The Germans kept firing MGB 103 was now damaged. 

Stewart came up in MTB 414 and launched torpedoes at the Verpostenboot. But they missed, adding to the British misery. 

In the confusion MGB 103 collided with the minesweeper. It went in with guns blazing! (The collision couldn't have been avoided even with a conning action, so shooting was the only option. As it was the MGB came within one point of suppressing the minesweeper.)

Both ships were damaged by the collision. 

The British flotilla in trouble. It looks like the end for Harvey Knight. 

And it got worse. Having survived the collision McDonald's dazed crew opened fire on MTB 430 in confusion. 

But what's this? Stewart's laggardly approach suddenly proved a benefit. Not caught in the melee he was free to shoot past it, round the rear of the Germans and toward the pickup point.

(The pickup can be from one of the yellow counters; the British can choose on the fly just to keep the enemy guessing.)

And surviving more fire from the Germans the other two boats finally sprang into action. The battered MGB swung between the KFK (you saw the KFK?) and the minesweeper, and headed close along the coat to safety. It was battered and not going to be worth keeping in the action. 

And MTB 430 managed a stunning high-speed run through the gap between the KFK and Verpostenboot!

Suddenly two British boats were heading for the rendezvous and all three German vessels were facing the wrong way. 

To make matters worse for the defenders, the captain of the Verpostenboot (me) misjudged a move and ran aground in the shallows. 

It goes without saying that things continued to go wrong for the British. The rattled crew of MTB 430 saw a boat running alongside them in the darkness and fired a few shots at it before realising it was Stewart's MTB 414. Oops. 

MTB 430 reached the rendezvous. And the dice dictated that it would be an easy pickup. 

The two German ships that still had water under their keels turned back towards the fight.

Stewart brought MTB 404 back around the squall towards the minesweeper. 

Wary of the approaching British torpedo boat the minesweeper still managed a shot at MTB 430 as it hastily took the fugitives on board. The shot missed. 

The Germans evaded MTB 414, not wanting to see their minesweeper torpedoed.

It was at this point that I remembered that MTB 414 had, in fact, fired its torpedoes and that MTB 430 (who was doing the pickup) was the one with torpedoes still on board. I'd genuinely forgotten. But whilst I hadn't fired any torpedoes off the back of this error I'd reacted with the Germans as if it was a boat capable of firing them. In the confusion they wouldn't have known.

In effect I accidentally bluffed myself. 

MTB 430 finished the pickup. The minesweeper now couldn't get a clear shot at it because of the intervening squall. 

MTB 414 roared around the squall to cover MTB 430's escape with smoke if necessary. 

But the minesweeper cleared the squall and got in one last shot with its big guns. A 6! Against a 1! Disaster!

Or not. The British boats have the Hard To Hit trait, and that 6 was converted to a 1. And that meantthe shot was a miss. 

And that was it. With a roar of engines the British boats roared out of the fight and headed for home. Harvey Knight had been rescued. 

The trip home was uneventful.

After the previous scenario I'd run the normal post game sequence for Harvey, and he'd obviously lost some reputation. Although he hadn't been actively involved in this mission, it was still his crews taking part, so I ran everything as normal again. 

The three boats involved picked up some experience, but still not enough to take them to veteran. Despite the success Harvey didn't see an increase in his reputation. Not unexpected really. 

All of the commanders were now back with the flotilla. The flotilla got an MTB and an MGB as replacements, so Harvey has a vessel again, as does Lennox Dean. However with both of their crews lost, both boats will now count as green and need to earn experience. Brian Porter is without a boat to replace MTB 418. 

(For ease of admin the new boats will just keep the same numbers as their predecessors) 

The repair crews fixed the minor damage on MTB 414, but Ewan McDonald's MGB 103 will still need a bit of work before it's fully repaired. 

Harvey Knight is back in command but the experience has been a serious strain on his mental and physical health, and as a result his stamina has dropped. 

(I rolled the 6-1 event, which meant the character was having trouble sleeping and needed mediation. The medication didn't work and caused stamina lost. I merely reinterpreted how hat result happened.)

So the 12th MTB Flotilla is back in action after an action that looked like it was going to go very badly for the British indeed. But as Harvey said to his CPO, "It's Easter, Theo. It's a time for miracles!"