On the run heading out to the battle site. Just wanted to post something short. Saturdays battles. FB#1 Hood (Mikey), Roanoke (Mark). Against.. Markgraf (Eric), Tourville (Phil), and Prinz Eugen (Vance). Hood was combat sunk in the second sortie. Vance had a 100 point penalty for ram damage on the Tourville. Victory for the axis. FB#2 Hood (Mikey), and Roanoke (Mark). Against.. Markgraf (Eric), Prinz Eugen (Vance), and Emile Bertin (Phil). Emile Bertin was combat sunk in the second sortie. Victory for the allies. More later.. Wish you were all here. Mikey
Just posting the short version for Sunday's battling for now. I will post more later today. Fleet battle #3 (Sunday morning). Allies.. Hood (Mikey), Roanoke (Mark), and Strasbourg (good Phil), (from Cinci). Axis.. Markgraf (Eric), Tourville (bad Phil), and Prinz Eugen (Vance). In the second sortie, the Strasbourg was rammed by the Markgraf for a 200 point penalty. Then the Hood sank. Then the Prinz Eugen sank. So a close victory for the Axis. The next battle was a free for all. Markgraf (Eric), Roanoke (Mark), and Tourville (on loan to good Phil). No sinks or penalties in the first sortie. In the second sortie the Tourville was back under the command of the other Phil (the bad one). Again, there were no sinks or penalties. Just lots of fun. Dustin was able to make it out with his brand new French battleship Richelieu. This ship is set up to big-gun rules, and sports a pair of quad 1/4" ball-bearing (rotating) turrets forward. She was painted in the camo scheme that was applied after her refit in the USA. She ran some sea trials early on, but later in the day she went to sea with the cannons armed and firing. It was great to hear those big-gun cannons firing. Mark had also built a 100 foot tug-boat, that was at Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack. And he had it out on the water running it around a bit. The he launched his Roanoke, with a line attached to the bow, and hooked it to the stern of his new tug-boat, and that nifty little craft was actually able to pull the cruiser around. It was very cool indeed. The last battle of the day was allies / axis again. Markgraf (Eric), and Prinz Eugen (Vance), against Roanoke (Mark), and Tourville (Phil), (the bad one). It was to be a one sortie battle. There were no sinks or penalties. That ended the combat stuff. I will post more later on the event. It certainly was a great time. Good weather. Good friends. Some airplanes flying up on top of the hill. Great food on-site. The moms brought the girls out. The paddle boat got it's usual work-out. Mikey
Fleet Battle #1 (Saturday) Axis Markgraf (Eric), Tourville (phil A.), and Prinz Eugen (Vance). Allies Hood (Mikey), and Roanoke (Mark). The allies would have been ahead of the game if we had decided to just leave the Markgraf alone, and avoid her. We could have just chased the axis cruisers around, hoping that one would sink. But I kinda felt that the Markgraf hadn't seen enough of the bottom of the ponds so far this year. So I decided to go after her. Roanoke could deal with the axis cruisers, and lend what help she could to the capitalship battle. Hood was set up with dual sidemounts to port in turrets A and B, and dual sidemounts to starboard in turrets X and Y. Roanoke was running a stern cannon aft, and an off-angled bow-chaser forward that also has some down-angle to it. When the sortie started, the old Hood engaged the Markgraf, and Eric seemed content to just let me follow him around while he off-loaded his stern guns, and then his stern side-mount. I was able to bring my port sidemounts into play only on occasion, and it wasn't long before the Hood was pumping steadily. Eric them brought his bow side-mount into play on my starboard side, and I was able to deal out a little damage with my aft side-mounts. The cruisers had the run of the pond, and when they did come around the battleship action, we would exchange shots. Mark seemed to be holding his own, so I left him to his business, and the sortie drew to a close. Vance backed into the Tourville, and had a 100 point ram penatly against him. In the second sortie, I decided to leave the Markgraf alone, and engage the cruisers with the Roanoke. But at the very start of the sortie, the Markgraf came around to play, and I flee in behind her, and started eating her stern guns again. What was I thinking?? It wasn't far into the sortie that it became obvious that the Hood was sinking. So I stepped up the pressure on the Markgraf, and continued the chase. Eventually, we both ended up in the smallish cove in the shallows, with Hood trying to bring her stern side-mounts into play, and the Markgraf just staying out of range, as the Hood sank by the stern with the cannons still firing. Roanoke was doing really well, and found herself up against the entire axis team at that point. And lasted out the 5-minutes. A victory for the axis.. Mikey
In between the battles on Saturday, Phil was asking what everyone thought about the need for the internal armor, with the lower muzzle velocities used in Treaty. There were various oppinions. But most felt that it was probably a good idea still. So on to the second fleet battle on Saturday. Fleet Battle #2 (Saturday afternoon). Allies Hood (Mikey), and Roanoke (Mark). Axis Markgraf (Eric), Prinz Eugen (Vance), and Emile Bertin (Phil). This was the first battle for Phil's brand spanking new Emile Bertin. This little ship is perhaps the largest of the ships that can run 38 knots. The maximum ship speed in Treaty. So even though she is a cruiser, she can keep up with all of the destroyers. The real ship was laid down as a mine-laying cruiser. But she was generally used as a flotilla-leader for the French super-destroyers. She was built very light, and looks really nice cutting through the water at high speed, and throws back a really neat bow-wave. A real bone-in-her-teeth look. As the battle got started, I felt (again) that it would be best to leave the Markgraf alone, and try to team up on the axis cruisers with the Roanoke. But the temptation to try to sink that little German battleship was too much for me, and I again went after it. Roanoke seemed content with dealing with the pair of axis cruisers. The first sortie went fairly well, with the Hood getting shot up the most on the allied team, and the Emile Bertin getting away with little damage at all. Then in the second sortie, the Emile Bertin took two nice hits, way up in the bow. Apparently from the Roanoke's off-angled bow chase-gun. The two entry holes were just above the water-line on the port side. More importantly though, were the two exit holes in her starboard bow. They were just above the water-line, but right in her bow-wave. The exit holes were not so much like a bb hole. But more like a smallish door, that was left slightly open. Nobody paid much notice to the damage, and the Emile continued to race around the pond, being chased, but not actually caught, by the Roanoke. The Hood, and Markgraf went about their own business, of trying to sink one another, and the Prinz Eugen engaged the Roanoke, and Hood, as the opportunities presented themselves. Things were not looking too good for the old Hood. She was pumping pretty steadily, and a little low in the bow. She also had a slight list, which is a sure sign that it is time to back off, and take stock. The someone noticed that the Emile Bertin was sitting really low in the water. Then Phil informed us that the little Frenchie was out-of-control. She started running around in a large circle, getting lower on each pass. She was perhaps 30 feet from shore. And at that speed, nobody else on the water could catch her. It wasn't looking good. So we paused the battle, and the Hood headed out to sea. I then cut back in towards the shore, and when the little Frenchie passed in front of Hood, I cut through the middle of the circle-of-death, and waited for the out-of-control ship on the other side. The Emile Bertin came up hard on the Hood's port side, and with full forwards applied to the old girl, the Hood simply lead the little Frog boat into the shallows, where she sank by the stern. The Emile was pulled from the water, and the battle was re-started. The remaining four boats went on battling, with Hood trying to keep the pressure on the Markgraf. Soon the German battleship went on 5, and the Hood kept up the chase. It occured to me that I finally had the Markgraf just where I wanted him. He was out of ammo. On five. And pumping. The Hood had a fair amount of ammo on-board still. But was down by the bow. With a slight list. And was pumping really hard. She was on the verge of sinking. And if I kept chasing the Markgraf, there was a really good chance that I would sink again. Which would be bad. Considering the fact that we were currently winning the battle. So I did something that I generally do not do. I called 5 minutes when I still had ammo. And I sat still, and pumped out. So the sortie (and the battle) ended in a victory for the allies, due to the Emile Bertin sinking. After the battle was over, and all of the boats were off of the water, it was found that Phil had not installed the internal armor in the very bow of the Emile. So that kinda answered that question.. Mikey
