An 80's Naval S.A.G.A (Surface Action Group Affair).

The last Saturday in August saw another semi-regular gathering of the TWATS and in a sublime case of history repeating itself, I was in the chair for a game of Shipwreck and once again taking advantage of Steve's collection of Cold War floaty boats. If we do the same thing for the last Saturday in August next year, this could become a tradition. 

Iiiiiiin the Red corner!!!

There were five in attendance so I'd come up with an asymmetric scenario of four British destroyers and frigates against a lone Soviet cruiser. I had not counted on Steve being busy with his brushes and bring the Americans to the table. Oh well, best laid plans and all that.

Aaaaaand in the Blue corner!

Instead, we had a straight forward slug-fest, albeit it with a little room for tactical shenanigans. Andy and Shaun took control of the Soviet surface group made up of a Kirov-class battlecruiser, two Sovremmeny-class destroyers, an Udaloy-class destroyer and a Krivak II-class frigate. Paul and Steve had the American fleet, centred around an Iowa-class battleship, two Ticonderoga-class cruisers, a California-class cruiser and a Perry-class frigate. Yep, each side has a sacrificial target, but would they use them wisely?

In the middle of the area of operations were two small islands and each side basically had to get past the other. There were no aircraft to get in the way of the ship to ship combat. 

The Krivak in the distance looks kinda lonely.

The early turns were a selection of single and double moves to eat up the distance between the two forces, with the Americans switching on the Iowa's surface search radar but neither finding anything nor being detected itself. During this period, the Americans stayed in formation whilst the Soviets pushed the plucky little Krivak II out in front and eventually warmed up its radar, yet still detecting nothing. Someone had been thinking...

Turn 9 (these were very quick movement turns at this stage of the game) saw the Americans detect the Krivak's emissions and loft four speculative Harpoons from the Iowa. This led to the first combat phase, and with the Krivak beam on to the approaching US ships, it was able to use both its SA-N-4 mounts to take down the quarrelsome quartet in two combat turns (CT's). 

Back to the movement and the US go to flank speed. The Krivak got a radar fix the US's port wing consisting of a Tico and the OHP, yet still the US still hadn't picked up a hard lock on the Krivak. Even so, more missiles went a-flying. 

A pair a piece from the Iowa, port Tico and the OHP should have been enough, yet some deft Soviet missile fire (and some absolutely cracking dice rolls from Shaun) saw the last of the Harpoons downed without too much sweat, whilst the Soviet return of four SS-N-14's at the port Tico did raise eyebrows as the last of them was taken out by the cruiser's Phalanx. 

Vampires ahoy! (and guess who can't count!)

It was time for the gloves to come off, and with a good data link back to the main fleet, the Krivak did what it was supposed to do and let the gang know exactly where the Iowa, port Tico and OHP were. Each of the Soveremmeny's fired all eight of their SS-N-22's, one octet at the port Tico, the other at the OHP (overkill, I know, right?). The Kirov, having none of this "which is better?" bollocks, rippled all 20(!) of its SS-N-19's (no nukes in game, btw) at the Iowa.

Our American friends decided that the Krivak had lasted long enough, tasking the OHP to fire the last of its Harpoons at the offending frigate. Since they had not detected the main Soviet fleet, that was their only possible response. This began that last CT phase. 

The eight Harpoons were whittled away by the Krivak's dwindling supply of SAMs, with all but one of the SSM's succumbing to defensive missiles. It was at this point that the fortunate frigate ran-afoul of the flurry of fire, and some duff chaff dice rolling led to a single hit, bad enough to cripple the ship, yet not destroy it. Heroes of the Soviet Union medals all round me thinks. A tally of the remaining SAM rounds revealed a total of 2 remaining for the front mount - it was that close. 

Hard right turn, Clyde!

The American's were too busy to celebrate their first (and only) win as they had to deal with the incoming horde of SSM's. Both Tico's got in on the act, with the port ship proving the most capable as expected as they were an actual target, and it was never really in doubt that they wouldn't avoid some Sunburn issues. 

However, as the port Tico was busy saving itself, that left the OHP on their own, and that single arm launcher counted against it. They managed to down four of their Sunburn's, yet ineffective Phalanx and chaff dice rolls meant that it took four direct hits. The Krivak had been more than avenged as the Soviet claimed the first sinking of the game. Yet the game wasn't over yet...

Vampires ahoy! (With the right count now!)

There were still the issue of twenty "Shipwrecks" (not 22 according to one photo... oops! That was corrected before anything important happened though), and despite some truly fantastic AEGIS directed defensive shooting, nine still made it to CIWS range on the Iowa. Phalanx accounted for two of those, as did chaff, but the remaining five found their mark. Even with "on the fly" amendments for the presence of an armoured hull, there were too many well rolled hits and the Iowa was gone. And with that, the two fleets parted to lick their wounds, with the Soviets definitely the better off. 

Oh, Heavens Preserve us!

This was another fun game using Shipwreck and the addition of Steve's naval know-how demonstrated the benefit of having an umpire and players who know their stuff. Tis a game more than just about dice rolling. 

That being said, your humble umpire did offer both sides the opportunity to expand the game (to either or both side's benefit) via the liberal application of a fine single malt (there were several behind the bar) to the umpire, yet neither side did. Has there ever been a more fitting example of fair play from two competing sides? Probably, but hey, if you don't offer, you'll never know! Also, damn them!

A tough little ship, that one!

One thing that was was quite clear was that when the vampires were loose, there was a lot going on and much to keep track of, leading to my muttered comment of "Next time, can we do f-ing muskets?" 

I might return to the asymmetric scenario for our next naval game, but that'll be a while off yet (next August bank holiday weekend, gents?), as there are many more periods we can play with before a return to Cold War naval is warranted, and a benefit of being in such a varied group of TWATS.