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 of 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!"

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 the 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 the 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 the 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 made 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 the 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.