Just wanted to take the time to post some info on the Hinckley battle. Mark was kind enough to give me a ride up to the event, so that I could get a little sleep. Roland had his Bismarck, and I had the Lutzow. Mark had his Roanoke, and Chris had his Russian destroyer Tashkent. Bob H. was able to drop in for a while before having to head off for some family stuff. He had the French super-destroyer Le Terrible. Matt and Phill were planning to attend as well, but that fell through. First battle. Bismarck (Roland), and the Tashkent (Chris) on one team, against the two heavy cruisers. Roanoke (Mark), and Lutzow (Mikey). As the battle started, the cruiser team seemed to give a little attention to the Bismarck (which we couldn't miss), and a lot to the speedy little Tashkent (which we almost couldn't hit). As it turned out. Chris had a knack for avoiding shots from our stern cannons. But our bow cannons seemed to be able to find the target quite often. That is not to say that we were able to work him over with the bow mounts. Just that he seemed to give me more shots with my bow gun than I expected. It was great fun for me, as I am not really a huge fan of stern guns. Early in the sortie, the Bismarck was having some problems with the ship systems, and retired from the area, and the Tashkent found herself on her own. But Chris did well, and pounded on the Lutzow pretty good. Eventually the Russian ran out of ammo, and that pretty much ended the sortie, as I think the Roanoke was already on five, and my Lutzow had absolutely no chance of catching the destroyer. The Bismarck had to withdraw from the second sortie with radio issues just before the battling started. So the cruisers claimed a victory. That left the two cruisers, and the Tashkent on the water with some damage on all ships. And when it came to picking up teams one of the others jokingly mentioned allies against the axis. It seemed like there were only two possiblities. One being allies against axis, and the other being a free-for-all. Well. I have been involve in more than my share of free-for-alls. And the one thing that one must know is that if you are running the slowest boat on the water in a free-for-all, it can quickly become everyone against you. So I took up the challenge, and launched my attack. I tried to give both of my opponents some attention, but it wasn't long before my pump stream slowed, and I took on a list, and was starting to sink. I headed in towards the shoreline, but one of the sorry allied dogs stopped off to one side, and gave me one of those target opportunities that I can never pass up, so I turned into them and fired off several shots as the Lutzow rolled over and sank about 8 feet from shore. I had to go wading a little. But what a fun battle it was. So the allies scored a victory. Mikey
