Dark Night for Dog Boats AAR

Greetings! Doing the final moving from the US to the UK. Read Coastl Patrol rules in the Lardie special. They look like a fun quick play set of rules; good show Jim! Thus inspired, I dusted off my Release the Hounds rules and tried my take on the scenario from the book.

Lt Ian Evershiem (RNR) took stock of his boat one last time. Intel had a convoy coming down the coast tonight with a light escort. Hopefully trawlers, maybe barges but not F-lighters. Ian didn't have a good answer to those yet. Draft too shallow for torpedoes, Jerry had added armor and concrete to barges, then added 88s to create a force to be reckoned with .

British forces are 3 Dog boats ( Jolly Jack Tars)
Lt Evershiem
SLt Tompkins
SLt Smith

I did not roll for Jerry to try to play the scenario. I didn't mess with blinds but used initative similar to Squadron Forward.
Jerry
2 Patrol Boats 1 88 each Raeder's men (Avg)
4 Flak Lighters 2 Raeder's men 2 Hitler's men ( green)

Jerry creeping down the coast

Lt Evershiem on the Hunt

Lt Evershiem had his eyes peeled for movement. A half moon hung in the sky and visability was about a mile for barges. Despite the cool night air he was sweating profusely.

Suddenly the air errupted with light and exposions and his boat came under fire from his 11"o clock. KuJ 324's gunners opened up on the Dog Boats as they radioed to the fleet of the danger. As Ian gathered his wits, a fire errupted aft and his boats started taking a pounding from 88mm and 37mm shells coming a mile a way.

Dog 1 in trouble

Ian immediatly doubled back as Smith broke right and Tompkins broke left looking for the merchants. Fortunately the germans did not pursue Ian but went after Smith. Why became apparent 3 minutes later when Smith sighted 2 barges.

Dog 2 trying to find the range

SLT Tompkins had circled far left and was now trying to join the battle. Ian was still in retreat; trying to fight a fire aft before it blew his small craft to kingdom come. SLT Smith gallantly charged the barges hoping they were not Flak lighters.

SLt Smith charges the F lighters

KuJ 324 in pursuit at 15 knots!

They were Flaklighters! Blast! Well the 6 pounders could still do damage. Smith bobbed and weaved his boat on a gun run and managed to damage one of the F-lighters. In return his boat was damaged and flooding. He turned for home. Ian had put out the fire but with a boat 50% damaged it was foolish to go up against Flak lighters. Lt Tompkins meanwhile had lined up KuJ 324 for a torpedo shot. He let go his torpedoes early at a mile and turned his attention to the damaged F-lighter. A gun pass revieled no significant damage to either side. But then a huge explosion (20% chance!) cut through the night.

KuJ324 after the Torpedo hit

She sank in 15 minutes

With that the British withdrew savoring a minor victory!

Fun game! Would like to play it again to see what would happen if Ian's boat is not put out of action on the first turn. Will also change it to 1 Flaklighter and 3 unarmored barges.

Have actually started writing down Squadron Forward.

Talk to you next from the UK

Enjoy!

Joe