The German objective was to take out the two merchant ships which were defended by a Corvette, an Armed Trawler and two USN PT boats.
The convoy comes into sight as the E Boats ready themselves to strike:
The escorts defend the merchant ships:
The convoy spots the Germans and starts to scatter!:
The first E-Boat starts an attack run, firing a torpedo into the mass of ships and raking an American PT boat with fire:
A second E-Boat joins in, concentrating on the already damaged PT boat. The PT boats have a massive amount of firepower for their size so the Germans aim to sink it quickly:
The German plan is to concentrate on the rear of the convoy as it seems poorly defended especially if the rearmost PT boat can be knocked out. The third E-Boat joins in and finishes off the American PT boat:
The Americans return fire from the Armed Trawler and the Corvette. One E-Boat takes some damage. The fourth E-Boat launches two more torpedoes and heads for the middle of the convoy:
The Corvette and the surviving PT boat gang up on the E-Boat heading for the middle of the convoy and sink it. The E-Boat has succeeded in it's task of drawing the escorts away from the merchantmen and has also managed to get it's torpedo's away!:
The torpedo hits home! Cheers turn to curses for the Germans as the torpedo fails to explode, probably sabotaged by French dock workers:
More torpedoes are launched at the merchantmen while they also come under heavy gunfire. Another E-Boat has been badly damaged but continues to fight on:
The escorts are now out of position to defend the convoy. The Armed Trawler has taken a lot of hits:
Another torpedo strikes home will it explode this time?:
This time the torpedo does explode sending the merchant ship to the bottom:
The three remaining E-Boats close in on the second merchantman. More torpedoes are launched:
The damaged E-Boat now has two guns out of action and it's hull is barely holding together. The American PT boat and the Armed Trawler pour fire into it. None the less it manages evade almost all of the incoming fire and inflict enough damage to sink the Armed Trawler!:
The slow moving merchantman is unable to avoid the two torpedoes smashing into it's stern. Again the Germans wonder if they will actually explode:
German precision engineering has not been sabotaged this time and both torpedoes go off obliterating the merchant ship:
With both merchant ships sunk and two escorts down the Germans have achieved their objective for the loss of one E-Boat sunk and one heavily damaged. The Corvette and the remaining PT Boat are undamaged for the Allies and have substantial firepower. Having used up most of their torpedoes the Germans break off the attack and return home.
I must admit I enjoyed this game more than I thought I would, the experience of the first game helped and it played much quicker as I was more familiar with the rules.
My plan to distract the slow moving escorts with one E-Boat while sending the other three rapidly to attack the merchant ships from the rear paid off. The torpedoes provided some added drama especially after the first failed to explode (which also happened to me in my first game!).
Mike was unlucky with his shooting, the damaged E-Boat that survived living a charmed life as it avoided fire from all around and even managed to sink the Armed Trawler.
So all in all it was well worth painting up the ships and I might even buy a set of the rules and a few merchant ships......
No comments:
Post a Comment