Cruel Sea's United States Navy v Regia Marina

Another small series of Cruel Sea's games against Mike, this time with me using my newly painted USN and Mike his Italian Regia Marina.

This time, rather than use the scenarios from the rule books, we used some I found on a Cruel Sea's Facebook group which employed Mission Cards. Basically there were eight mission cards to choose from (Patrol, Convoy, Symbolic Act, Control, Interdiction, Recover the Spy, Lame Duck and Commando Raid) each of which gave you a points total for your fleet and some objectives. As you draw them at random and secretly you don't know what the opposition's mission is other than it isn't the one you have though there may be clues once the game starts!

The first game saw me draw 'Symbolic Act' which gives a 600pt force and requires you to sink one of the enemies biggest ships. It was rapidly apparent Mike had drawn 'Convoy':

The Italian ships are quite weak but the Siebel Ferry leading the escorts is dangerous being very well armed. Initial action saw a bunch of torpedoes being launched by the USN PT boats and a lucky shot from the Italians causing the USN Sub Chaser to catch fire:

The USN engage the Ferry hoping to knock it out quickly. One torpedo looks like it might hit the leading Merchantman but just misses:

The other torpedoes are unlikely to hit either:

The USN PT boats swarm around the Ferry and sink it with the crew being forced into lifeboats! The Sub Chaser is still on fire and taking more damage:

The small Italian MAS boats use their speed to get into close range and manage to knock out one PT boat that had been damaged by the Ferry before it sank. At this point I realised I'd worked out my points wrongly and all my ships would have to be inexperienced!:

The convoy desperately attempts to avoid the torpedoes while the MAS boats repeat their success taking out another PT boat:

The Americans are down to only two boats now, the on-fire Sub Chaser and a sole surviving PT boat. Being Inexperienced crews they find it hard to hit and have to shoot the nearest target so things are not looking good as, in addition, not a single torpedo has hit home:

The USN decides to retire before taking more losses and the Italian convoy gets through unmolested apart from the loss of the Siebel Ferry!:

For the second game I drew 'Interdiction' giving me 1,000pts to stop the enemy completing their mission. Unknown to me at the start but quickly given away by Mike he had 'Lame Duck' where one of my boats will get irreparable engine damage on Turn 4, his mission being to sink it. This time I worked my points out properly and went for a couple of veteran ELCO boats and an experienced one, a Higgins boat and the Sub Chaser again. Mike had a mixed force of MAS boats and heavily armed Lighters: 

The veteran ELCO PT boat shows that it is a very different kettle of fish from the inexperienced ones and quickly blows away one of the MAS boats:

Not to be outdone the other ELCO's put a second MAS boat out of action:

They quickly turn their attention to the dangerous Lighter and with some excellent shooting put that out of action as well:

One of the surviving MAS boats is forced to collide with an ELCO!:

The collision sinks it and with only an inexperienced Lighter left the Italians concede this time:

For the final game I drew 'Patrol' which game me 500pts and the objective of keeping a boat on table for the first five moves. It was hard to budget for this so I ended up with two veteran ELCO's and ( somewhat bizarrely) three LCM:

Mike had a huge force of Italians (more are behind the second island in the distance) supported by a couple of E-Boats. His objective was probably 'Commando Raid':

One ELCO runs up to full speed and attempts to outflank the Italian line. It is travelling so fast the Italian explosive boats stand no chance of hitting it!:

Four MAS boats, doubtless packed with commandos, fly forward on the USN left. Being faced with only two LCN it seems impossible to stop them delivering the men to the beach:

Again the veteran ECLO proves it's worth sinking the first of the Siebel Ferries but taking some damage doing so:

The second Siebel has more luck though and knocks out the ELCO with it's powerful 88mm guns. If they hit they certainly make a mess of the target!:

The remaining Ferry probably won't make it to the beaches on time so that is at least some commandos delayed:

On the other flank the second ELCO has been pounding an E-boat while the LCM engage in a firefight with the MAS boats with little damage on either side. The MAS are certainly going to land enough commandos to achieve their mission:

The first E-boat goes down and the Italian's will not be able to destroy the remaining ELCO before it completes it's five moves of patrolling. With both sides having achieved their objectives the final score is one win for the Italians, one for the USN and a draw!:

A close up of the heavily armed Siebel Ferry. It has 2 x 88mm guns, 1 x 37mm and a 20mm gun. If you could put a veteran crew on it I think it would be utterly deadly with a very long range and heavy hitting power. Even with an average crew it is certainly something to be wary of:

Very enjoyable games and the ability to choose your own force really helps though the points system is perhaps not the greatest and for the USN at least the lack of availability of cheaper ships (other than LCM!) is a bit limiting, it can be hard to make up the points with no filler. Having said that maybe that is one way the fleets balance better for the nations that only have poorer ships.

The scenarios worked well I think, it is a bit odd not knowing what your opponent is meant to do (though often it isn't hard to guess) but I reckon that, taken as a small part of a bigger picture, it does sort of make sense though.

For example, in the last one where I was trying to Patrol and Mike was trying to carry out a Commando Raid given the points difference (I had 500 while Mike had 1000) I was never going to stop him landing the commandos. However, that wasn't really my objective which was to find out what the Italians were up to which I was able to achieve. 

It might even be possible to link the games, so the next game after that one would be where the Italians having successfully landed them attempt to extract the commandos while the USN, having been warned by the patrolling boats, try to destroy them on the way home.

I also found another set of scenarios which were more traditional and had some interesting rules for weather, time of day and so on which we will take a look at. 

I've actually become quite keen to play Cruel Sea's now, it is an interesting game with a bit of variety and potentially different ways of doing things, the ships are easy to make and paint and there are a few people interested in playing it so I'm sure my fleets will see more action soon!