Metro east Gaming Association

January 13, 2007

We played the Avalon Hill Game Submarine tonight. We used the large hex mat and 1/1200 ships and submarines. I had played this many years ago in Tom Sparhawk's basement in Lebanon, IL. Unlike the board game we do not use twin boards and blind movement. Instead we use dummy submarines that are deployed at a 1 real to 2 dummy counters. The dummies are put out at the beginning of the game and when the escorts lose sonar contact after a depth charge attack.

The British convoy consisted of eight freighters and one tanker. The escort force was made up of three Flower Class corvettes lead by a class L-M destroyer. The German attacked with two Type VIII submarines. The time frame was 1942.

The U-Boats attacked from the front of the convoy. They maneuvered for several turns before making a massed torpedo attack by firing all tube over the course of two turns. After the attack they dived deep to 200+ feet deep to avoid the ensuing depth charge attacks from the escorts. The torpedoes missed their intended targets because the convoy had zig zagged the same turn the U-Boats launched their weapons. All of the torpedoes missed when the convoy turned the other way. With the sighting of wakes in the water the escorts honed in on the suspected locations of the U-Boats. The U-Boats, though, immediately dived deep to escape the expected depth charge attacks.

After eliminating the dummy counters the corvettes attacked both submarines. Repeated depth charge attacks seem to not do any harm as the u-boats attempted to escape. One of the attacks included a Hedge Hog attack that may have damage one of the U-Boats. One of the U-Boats moved toward the starboard side of the convoy as the escorts chased them down. Another series of depth charge attacks were made on the Germans. The subs had been rising after reloading their tubes. They both launched another attack and this time hit the tanker and a freighter. The freighter was slowed to one half speed while the tanker only suffered minor damage.

After the attack both submarines attempted to hide inside the convoy's perimeter. The escorts chased their sonar contacts into the convoy hoping to sink them before the u-boats could get off any more shots. Making attacks on u-boats within a convoy is very dangerous to the escorts. The result of this was a cargo ship collided with one of the corvettes; both ships were dead in the water. A turn later one of the u-boats, attempting to get inside the convoy, was spotted on the surface. It was the sub that was hit by the Hedge Hog attack. The damage was enough to drive the sub to the surface. As the escorts guns were being brought to bear on the surfaced sub a cargo ship collided with the u-boat and sank it. The ship steamed on with some minor damage.

The other u-boat was still inside the convoy. The L-M destroyer moved down the lines of cargo ships readying its attack on the sub when the convoy made another turn and a freighter collided with the DD stopping both dead in the water. Collisions were doing more damage than enemy on the Allied ships. The Sub did get off another salvo of torpedoes. Two freighters were hit leaving both dead in the water.

The remaining two corvettes raced in to attack the u-boat while he was still near the surface after the attack. A large pattern of depth charges and Hedge Hogs were drop and fired from both escorts. The water churned with multiple explosions of the depth charges. As the water calmed from the violence of the attack debris was seen floating on the surface. The U-boat was sunk.

The tally after the battle made it look like a pyrrhic victory. The Allies lost three freighters, two escorts and two more ships were damaged all for two u-boats sunk. The rest of the trip to England was going to seem long indeed with only two escort's left providing protection to the convoy.

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January 27, 2007

Hornet's Nest

I was asked by Bill Johnson to run a Civil War game for his 7th Grade history classes. The scenario lent itself to a large number of players 8 each side and was played by two his two 7th grade history classes. Each student commanded a brigade and through the judicious modification of entry times all the first period students were playing within three turns of the start. Each class would play for about 90 minutes each. I ahead sent Bill a set of beginners rules for Johnny Reb 2 and they had to read them as an assignment. With that preclass work done we did not have to go into a lot of detail explaining the rules.

The game progressed about like the previous games had for this scenario. The Union regalements with longer ranged rifle muskets held off the Confederate forces. It was when the Rebel artillery showed up that the problems started for the Union side. The artillery began to reduced the Union regiments and routed a couple away. A couple of weak Confederate charges were repulsed handily.

A Charge by several regiments gained a hold in the sunken road on the Union right flank. Three or four Confederate regiments dislodged the defenders and though a real cluster of units ensued the Confederate players were the first to sort out their units. An abortive counter charge by a Union regiment failed and threw into disorder the other three defenders as the unit retreated. On the next turn a Confederate regiment charged the flank of the Union Line. The charge distance was about fifteen inches. A Union regiment was caught changing formation to protect the flank of the line. It was also one of the units thrown into disorder. It failed its fear of charge, inflicted minimal casualties on the charging unit and lost the impact roll. Its retreat back down the line disordered three of five units and left two with shaken morale. The Union was in trouble and as the Confederate Regiment with two more in support charged down the sunken road it left routed units in it wake. By the end five Union regiments were routed an equal number disordered or shaken., and the Union Line broken and in full retreat.

We ended the game at this point. The students all had a great time and boy and girls were very enthusiastic about the game and the results. It was clearly evident in the after game discussion that the Union was a in a bad way and needed to reform a new defensive line to the rear. The Confederate break through would make that task very difficult.

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February 10, 2007

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February 24, 2007

Blue Bomber

Played a game of Blue Bomber. We had a good time using the convention rules meaning a player had bomber and attackers.

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March 10, 2007

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March 24, 2007

Gibralter Run

This was a play test game for the upcoming Recruits Convention at Lees Summit, MO. With only two players we limited the submarines to two and three escorts. The convention game will have up to three sub commanders and five escort commanders.

The German U-boat commander had both boats submerged at a depth of 50 feet. The fast convoy of eight ships three escorts was thirty hexes away. The German commander on the port side of the convoy launched a salvo of four torpedoes first. These were going to be long range attempts. The convoy made its planned starboard turn and avoided all four torpedoes. The U-Boat then dived deep to avoid the coming escort attacks.

The U-boat on the starboard side of the convoy launched a staggered salvo of two and two one turn apart. The Convoy turned onto the paths of the torpedoes. Each underwater missile hit a target. Two ships were sunk and another two damaged. This sub then dived deep to avoid the escort attacks.

The escorts, one L-M class destroyer and two Flower class corvettes raced in to attack the subs. The first attacks did not have any effect on either sub. As both had gone deep, down to 500 feet depth. While avoiding the escort depth charge attacks the torpedo men in sub worked feverishly to reload the forward tubes.

When the tubes were all loaded both began to rise to the surface. One of the escorts came in and launched a Hedgehog attack. The rumbling from the deep confirmed that the sub was destroyed. Now all three escorts homed in on the remaining sub. Depth charge attacks were at first too shallow and then too deep as the sub rose up to torpedo firing depth. Hedge Hog attacks missed too.

At 100 feet depth one turn from getting into firing position one of the corvettes came in and launched a Hedge Hog attack that hit the U-boat. The damage was fatal and the u-boat never made its attack.

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March 31, 2007

Spring Recruits - Lees Summut MO

Played two games, and ACW naval attack on Ft. Henry and an ancients naval Battle at Artimeus. Both games were put on by Titan Miniatures which publishes the rules and produces 1/1200 miniatures for ACW ancient naval.

The ACW game was a Union attack on Ft Henry on the Tennessee River in 1862. Union Forces consisted of three City Class ironclad gunboats. An Essex Class ironclad and four gunboat steamers. Confederates had two ironclads and three gunboats steamers these were defending Ft Henry. I commanded two City Class ironclads. Early on I made a mistake on position and allowed Ft Henry to fire its howitzers on one of my ironclads. The falling shot disabled my ship and left it out of control for two turns. The Confederate ram hit the ironclad, sinking it. It was down hill after that for the Union Navy. I the end there were not enough Union ships to bombard and destroy the Ft even with the destruction of the Confederate fleet.

The Battle of Artemius refought the battle between the Greek and Persian navies during the Battle of Thermopylae. Both navies advanced on each other using and initiative system which varies the order of movement in the turn. The battle eventually ended up with two masses of ships grappled together fighting it out. Several other ships moved about the edges of the battle, the Greeks attempting to find away through or around the masses of ships and a few Persians trying to run down those Greeks still on the loose. In the end the Persian's won the battle and changed history.

Gibraltar Run Convoy

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April 7, 2007

World in Flames

We have decided to play World in Flames (WiF). We spent the week before Easter setting up the game and getting two impulses. Tonight we continued with three more impulses. We started with "Missed the Bus" which starts in July -August 1940. The allies tried to be everywhere at once while the Aix set up with planned objectives. Italy was trying to breakout of the Med and Germany was trying to close the Atlantic convoy route. Japan invaded the USSR at Vladivostok and advanced a little into the Eastern Siberia.

We are ending the game at this point. We have three more players and so we are going to restart it again with new players.

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April 28, 2007

Battle of Brown's Mill

We played a small cavalry battle taken from Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, Two brigades of Union cavalry are intercepted during their return to Union Lines. The Confederate force was two brigades of cavalry and a brigade of militia. The Union force had to exit the table while the Rebel forces had to stop the Yankee cavalry.

The Union got off to a good start but were slowed up by a couple regiments of militia. Surprisingly the militia held up well under fire. They had built hasty works which gave some protection from the Union cavalrymen. Two regiments of cavalrymen flanked the Rebel position forcing the Rebel militia away. A dismounted charge cleared the militia away. From the junction, but the militia did delay the Union force a couple of turns and enabled other Confederate units to get in place.

While using the militia to delay the Union column, the Confederate commander brought his two cavalry brigades in and set up a defence in depth. A Confederate artillery battery set up on the road slowed the Union column more as did a couple more regiments of militia. Four Union cavalry regiments attempted to flank the Confederate position. A series of charges and counter charges in a farm field left the Confederate flank open. A second attempt to move into a flanking position on the blocking regiments resulted in a route for one Union regiement and disorder for the other.

Meanwhile on the road a daring charge by three regiments of Confederate militia threw the Union column into disarray. The destruction of three wagons was bad enough, the Union artillerymen abandoned their battery and two Union cavalry regiments routed.. The fight was a disaster. The Militia were routed/captured but not before they had sufficiently delayed the Union column. That delay allowed the Confederates to set up a significant road block to the Union column that surrender or annihilation were the choices left.

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May 12, 2007

World in Flames

Worked on final set up of World in Flames. We went over the set up and forces making some corrections to the deployment of units etc.