A good night with "Bobbi" Walther; English Channel

Happy New Year!     Hope everyone had a great holiday season.    I received several new ships for Cruel Seas including 2 Fairmile Bs.  Have been waiting for these for a long time as these were the workhorses for the british.  Wanted to get them, my second tanker and my corvette on the table.  Decided to run a british convoy and have my S boat squadron attack.   They are a good flotilla that have had some recent success but haven't gained a reputation yet. 

Characters

OLzS "Bobbi Walther      careful/govt     former enlisted        Avg       +1   well liked
 slave (wingman) LtzS Jennewein   glum/govt       former enlisted      Avg

LtzS Bareuther      cultured/ govt       leadership trait       Avg
slave (wingman) LtzS Wehneit   pessimistic/govt    reckless   naval academy     Below avg  disliked by the other boat captains because of his recklessness.

FregatKaptain Froshler promised flotilla help this mission.

Visibility good.  1.2 miles
Beaufort 5

Bobbi started engines.   They should have seen the convoy by now.  He decided his small band of boats would have to start moving closer to the lane to make sure their navigation wasn't off.

How the board set up using Flotilla Forward.  One small squall that was fast moving due to the breeze moving left to right.  Each hex 100 yards.  Spotting rules as per Crueler Seas.

A look at the British convoy heading into weather. 

SLT Perkins RNVR spots 4 shapes off to starboard.  He radios the information, makes smoke to cover the tankers, trains his guns but doesn't fire.  Jerry is moving straight ahead.  Maybe he will pass us by.

[ This is one of my new Fairmile Bs.  You can outfit it as Warlord did but armament varied widely.  Often a 20mm was midship as I have depicted.  Late war a 6 pounder was often aft.  Early war there was often a 3 pounder fore and aft.  Speaking of the 3 pounder, it was of WW I vintage, hand loaded and not very good.  If you want more realism treat it's damage dice as a 20mm not a 3 pdr.  This also goes for the armed trawler.  For Crueler Seas that's 2d6.    While we are at it the Fairmile B wasn't that big and made of wood.  It's HP should probably be reduced a bit; 60 is still generous.  ]

 Bobbi sees a small patrol craft off to starboard and orders the line to turn and have a closer look.

Situation after Bobbi spots.  Perkins has turned since it is obvious Jerry has seen him. 

Bobbi sees the smoke and knows there must be a convoy behind the screen.  He orders the line to break into pairs and "seek out and destroy" the enemy. 

Situation next turn.  Perkins starts to fire.  S-boats advance.    Corvette works his way around the squall.  2nd fairmile advancing towards the enemy.  Tankers "racing" towards the squall. 

At this point  for some reason the lead tanker turns to run away from the oncoming S boats. [ cool random event.  Skipper panicked. ]

Close ranged action as Perkins puts his boat in the path of the oncoming S boats.   Bobbi has to turn hard to starboard to avoid a collision. 

Current situation.  Bobbi has made a hard turn to starboard.  Jennewein is continuing straight.  Perkins is badly shot up.  The corvette has cleared the squall and has started to fire at Bobbi.  [3 and 4 in guns have an additional -1 to hit fast moving targets.] 


Just after Bobbi turns to avoid a mad Englishman a large corvette appears out of the dark dead ahead and starts to fire.  In the melee Bobbi figures one in the hand is worth two in the bush and orders torpedoes readied as he aims.   

2 torpedoes are released at 700 yards just as the corvette starts to turn.   It is a low probability shot  18% but right in front of him!

Bobbi's crew is rewarded with a loud explosion and fire! 
[ My poor brand new corvette!   This is actually armed with either a 3 or 4 inch gun forward and a twin 20mm aft not the 40mm mentioned on the card.  It is a large ship and should have 150 HPs.  ]

Meanwhile one tanker has made it into the squall.  The other captain is still trying to outrun the S boats. 

Just then the promised reinforcements show up for the Kreigsmarine.  Not much to shoot at though with the corvette sinking and the tankers on the other side of the squall. 

The final act- LtzS Jennewein releases 2 fish at the only tanker he could see at 900 yards.   His crew was shaken badly at this time by the loss of his SNCO during the gun battle with Perkins.  The fish miss.  [ actually a dud but he wouldn't know that.]

Needing to leave before light the S-boats head for home with 1 corvette sunk and a Fairmile badly damaged with no S-boats lost.  A good night. 

Fun battle that played in about 2 hours.  This is the first time a squall was significant terrain; made it more interesting.  Now that I have upped the HP of the larger ships I need to further up the torpedoes.  Fitz, would love your suggestions here.  Right now I am thinking of 20 d6  +50 damage and a flooding critical.

Post battle the flotilla is greeted warmly and their reputation finally goes up. Now they are "known" in navy circles.  Unfortunately Jennewein and Barether's boats are not repaired in time for the next mission.  Jennewein's morale is still low so his boat drops to inexperienced.  [ For those of you with Crueler Seas they failed their morale check after the critical hit.]  Finally, OLtzS Walther meets a nice french lass, Mademoiselle Rennison.    Will see where this leads.  

Enjoy

Joe