Bismarck VASSAL module ready for beta

[goosebrown]

If you own a copy of the latest Bismarck from avalanche press, I am ready to start a beta test of the new vassal module and could use your help. If you have some time send me a message at hazencroftmatt@gmail.com and I can set you up. Put Bismarck in the subject line

There are a lot of counters in this game and I really need people to take a look over them and help me find the errors. Check them against the ship data shits.

It’s pretty exciting and it will be nice to be able to play this with counters I can actually see

[goosebrown]

Bismarck Battle Scenario Nine - Allied Forces

A mixed force of British and French forces try to head off the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau from returning to port after their sinking of the Rawalpindi. The Allied forces, headlined by the HMS Hood and the Dunkerque with a small destroyer escort found the returning Germans in the North Sea and dashed in to avenge the Rawalpindi.

For this battle I took the Anglo-French side and started to close on the two battlecruisers with no time to waste.

My opponent, Schoenwolf, had the requisite elán and charged in to the fray.

The gods of the dice were with me as we made contact and in the first first salvo, Hood made 5 hits right off the bat on the Gneisenau (1,1,2,3,4,5,5,6,6,6) with 2 primary and 2 secondary hits and a critical hit with a followup roll of 3 which yielded an additional hull and primary on a critical hit. Dang! What a start!
The Dunkerque likewise got a 50% hit rate with three hits on Scharnhorst with YET AGAIN, a critical hit. Damage on Scharnhorst was a hull and a primary and then from the critical hit damage table, three hull hits and 1 speed reduction.

Dang.

Bob fired back and got one hit on Hood and Dunkerque each. A primary on Hood and a secondary on Dunkerque which fell to a tertiary hit because she had no secondary battery.

With the speed loss on Gneisenau, the German player stayed put and the Anglo-French force charged on as though to come gunwale to gunwale to board. At range of three hexes in the gunnary phase, Hood Fired an another rather incredible three hits on Gneisenau knocking out a primary, a secondary, and the torpedo mount. The Dunkurque dealt a hit to the torpedoes and then in a near critical hit, two hull and one speed loss on Scharnhorst. With another speed loss, the German task group was going to be stationary again.
Schoenwolf fought back like a demon, but the dice were not with him. this time he inflicted some AA damage on Hood and a hull hit.

At this point the log ended due to some French develtry.

In the next phase the Anglo-French group barreled in to torpedo range.

The gunnery phase was productive for the Germans with more hits now starting to refer damage to the hull on both battlecruisers. German return fire yielded some results but not enough to slow the allies down.
In the Torpedo Combat Phase, at a range of 2, let go with everything. That is, 4 torpedo factors from the destroyers and the Hood. (and they said that torpedoes on a capital ship were useless...) Two of the torpedoes ran true and struck the Gneisenau and wreaked horrific damage leaving her with just three hull boxes left.



Schoenwolf refused to give up even as he was becoming Schoen-seewulf.

At the constant range of two hexes, the combat ended when the Hood and Dunkerque dispatched the Gneisenau with the three remaining hull hits. The victory conditions met, the forces disengaged and the grognards headed to pet their cats and goats as marriners have done since time immemorial.

This AAR is from the upcoming release of Bismark Second Edition's VASSAL module. We are still correcting typos, but be on the look out for us to release it in the upcoming week.

[goosebrown]

Bismarck Playbook Edition 2022 - Battle Scenario 7 - Mountbatten's Battle

I have always been a fan of Lord Louis Mountbatten so when I saw this scenario, I had to play it. Three German Destroyers and five J and K class British destroyers rushing to catch them. Since my opponent, Peter, and I were playing after work across two time zones (because we can with VASSAL) doing one of the shorter scenarios was appealing. A lot of the scenarios in Bismarck are larger and would take time to play.

So the battle starts with the Axis as the the non-initiative player entering from the northwest and the Royal Navy steaming from the south east in a head to head collision. The weather being cloudy and daylight, the spotting range was 6 hexes and so that is where we started.

The first movement phase we both proceeded in Nelsonian fashion to decrease the range to get into gun range of our tertiary guns. Since we were not in range yet the phase moved on and we decreased the range to two hexes with guns of both sides trained on the oncoming enemy, 8 destroyers each with a bone in the teeth waiting for the range to close enough for the guns, and it turns out, the torpedoes.

First shots from the Germans were good, with the Richard Beitzen and Hans Lody each hitting HMS Jupiter, one a primary and the other, a secondary hit. Through referred damage that ended up knocking out the entire tertiary battery of Jupiter.

The return fire from all five RN destroyers (since the guns on Jupiter don't get counted as destroyed until the end of the phase) started out bad with three ships firing on Beitzen and got worse with HMSs Jackal and Jersey on Hans Lody. Too fast? Drunk gun crews? Who knows but the fire wasn't accurate to even phase the Germans who focused with grim, Teutonic purpose.

In the torpedo combat phase, everything the guns should have done, the torpedoes did and more. All three German destroyers fired their full load down the throats of the British Destroyers and hit three! THREE! RN Destroyers which were all way, way, way over exploded. Off to the Allied Destroyed box. Even so the British fish were in the water and there were more of them...

Four fish at the Beitzen. Four fish at the Hans Lody. Two at the remaining destroyer. One hit on each of Hans Lody and one on Beitzen. And that was enough. Both over exploded too and off they went to the Axis Destroyed box. Now the worm has turned rather convincingly. One German DD with all its batteries ready vs two RN destroyers, one, HMS Jupiter, with no guns.

The British moved the Jupiter away so she wouldn't have to take more damage now that they were reduced to Enfields and Webleys for their main armament. The Jackal put herself side to side with the remaining destroyer and went out in a blaze of glory.

While Jackel had a chance in a one on one battle, it was not to be and she went down with her crew serving her guns to the lase.

My opponent Peter thrashed me soundly, but having lost 2 ships of maybe 20 total German destroyers, his losses might have been more significant, but the savor of four RN destroyers going down was pleasing even if there were a bazillon more RN destroyers to go.

And Lord Louis Mountbatten, member of the royal family, went down with his ship saving the Provisional IRA a job 30 years later.

I am resizing the screen shots here so they fit better, but they will be full size on www.was-fc.com for you to check out. Also I will have a download of the log file so you can click through the battle in the privacy of your own home and see how we fought it.

All available soon in the Bismarck Playbook Edition VASSAL module. Available for free to owners of Bismarck Playbook Edition at www.was-fc.com before July 15.

To get access, mail me at hazencroftmatt@gmail you know what goes there at the end... and state that you own Bismarck Playbook Edition and I will send out a link for you.

Note that this game includes all you need for Bismarck and the new Force de Raid. More modules coming till we run out of titles.