Capture the Flag scenario

Hey, guys. I had an idea for a scenario that might make for interesting gameplay with transport ships. It goes a little like this:

All transport ships must be under 30,000 tons standard displacement and travel at the minimum speed (for WWCC, that is 25 knots). Ships are divided into two teams with warships and transports evenly distributed. Two ports (one blue and one red) are set some distance apart, and a clearly marked convoy course requiring 3-5 minutes to complete must also be present.

In order to capture the enemy's flag, a transport must complete one lap around a predesignated convoy course, and then enter the enemy port. Upon entering port, the ship may claim the opposing team's flag. Note that there is only one flag per team, and the flag does not need to be displayed, so long as the Combat Director knows which ship has the flag. Thus, if two transports enter the enemy port, only one of them gets the flag, but the enemy team does not know which of the transports has the flag.

Once a transport has the enemy flag, it must do one more lap around the convoy course, and then enter home port, thus gaining possession of the enemy flag. Once both the enemy flag and friendly flag are in one team's possession, then that team has "captured the flag". Note that if an enemy transport is carrying the friendly flag, then no friendly transports may enter home port, to prevent standoffs with both teams holding the opponent's flag in their home port.

If a transport carrying a flag is sunk, then that flag is considered recovered and returned to its appropriate port. If a flag is captured, then it is also returned to its appropriate port.

scoring: sinking any enemy ship (warship or transport) earns your team 1 point. Capturing the flag earns your team 3 points. The team with more points at the end of the game wins. End of game may be based on number of captures, time limit, or team surrender.



What do you guys think? Would you be willing to play a game like this?

 

Sure! I've been involved with similar scenarios. Personally, I like to have a lot of game-play involved - I think it keeps things fresh & interesting. The basic "capture-the-flag" idea can be modified in any number of ways.

Speaking of scenarios in general, it might be a worthwhile addition to this site to add a forum (too lazy to look & see if there is one already!)?

JM

 

Yeah, a scenarios section would be a nice addition. I'm kinda curious what other scenarios other clubs run, as well as how they do normal battles. I personally love variations on normal gameplay, because variations usually encourage team play and more strategies than "smash the other team 'till there's nothing left to smash". Of course, the other extreme (last man standing) is great fun as well

 

We in the Ausbg run a scenario where damage and sinks are not counted, but convoy runs are.
Suprising how long it takes for the "hunter/killer" warship captains to realise that sinking the opposition's Yamato has no bearing on the final score.
However, protecting that little hog island tramp can make all the difference.......puts the value back into the merchants.

 

Unfortunately game balance is thrown out of whack when you have 71,300 ton passenger liners travelling at 32.2 knots, and my local club just happens to have not one, but TWO of these titans. Queen Mary was recently launched, and has not been combat-tested yet. Normandie was the only cargo vessel to successfully complete cargo runs last year. Other merchants fell prey to a lack of escort against raiders and torpedoboats.

 

NTXBG had a Kronprinz Wilhelm (German WWI-era) liner that did about 31kts & was, for all practical purposes, unsinkable. We shredded that poor thing, & forceably removed just about every topside do-dad on it. That enormous, slab-sided hull was impossible to miss & I can't remember what any of the final damage scores were, but it logged damage points only - never sunk. It had a chunk of railroad rail for ballast, & didn't even bother with a pump! It might be interesting to see how one of these might fare against one of the dreaded torpedo cruisers.

Running a liner or carrier would get old pretty fast, for me. The prospect of failure always makes success all the more sweet. While I'm generally in favor of diversity & the right of every captain to run whatever ship type they want to, within the scope of the time period, I'd discourage anybody from putting either of these ship types into combat.

JM

 

We did have a few instances of super-size liner vs torpedo-cruiser, and the results were unsatisfactory. In several instances, cruisers attacked the Normandie with mines. Both times, the mines disabled both shafts on one side of the ship, which reduced speed, greatly affected maneuverability, and prevented the Normandie from completing its course. However, we still couldn't sink it and both times the battleship captains (who could now catch up) failed to blast every square inch of balsa from her barn-sized broadsides. There were even a few times when torpedo-cruisers reduced the Normandie to sinking condition, pumping hard, listing severely, and visibly low in the water. However, even then it would not sink in 15 minutes, and survived every sortie it ran in.

 

I really like your basic idea. I think this would be a GREAT way to simulate a carrier raid, such as the Pearl Harbor raid, and the early 1942 USN carrier raids or the Doolittle strike. I've always wondered exactly how you could get carriers more involved, and this seems like a perfect use for them!

Mike D

 

[blue]sounds like alot of fun, pass it around, and it will get around faster that you can say ' whatch how fast i can ram that transpot over '[blue]

 

We actually had a Lusitania running under this scenario, and although it was hard to kill, killed it was. Perhaps because we run battles of up to an hour in duration, not 15min. sorties.....

 

I know this has nothing to do with it but i know im new but my friend does this and evry time he gives up he yells white flag i was thinkin mayby people could design some sort of surrender system so ur ship doesent have to sink and go to the bottom of the pool

 

Not many clubs do this, but the WWCC allows ships to surrender. There is a huge penalty (sink points plus a lot of extra), to discourage frivolous surrender. It also doesn't ensure your ship will survive, if it has already received fatal damage. Basically the way we use it is to allow disabled ships to bow out of the fight before getting shredded. I have also seen plenty of instances where a partially disabled ship *should* have surrendered but tried to fight instead, and the accumulated damage was even worse than the surrender penalty.

 

Fast Gun allows for declared sinks, worth double sink points but if used correctly can save a lot of points, not to mention patching. ;-)

 

It's the pumps. Pumps improve Big Gun transport survivability dramatically. They tend to last a lot longer when it takes more than a single hole to start sinking.

 

Yep, and big merchants have BIG pumps.
Even with an hour long battle, it can be quite a challenge to put a merchant under sometimes, especially when you only have a scale 2 knot speed advantage, they can out-turn you and have a large bouyancy reserve.
However, the "golden BB" rule still applies, and it is possible to score a sink with one well-placed salvo.