GWAS Russo Japanese War AAR - A Fortunate Catch - Battle Scenario 1

[goosebrown]

In February 1904 a Russians cruiser force sallied forth from Vladivostok to raid the Japanese. In real life they went west to the Tsugaru Strait to access the shipping on the Japanese East Coast. In this scenario the Russians took a right hand turn instead and accessed the Yellow Sea through the Tushima Straits and found an inolated Japanese cruiser force doing mean things to a Russian gunboat, the Mandjour. Time to take action! Insert some Russian Jingoist statement here.

The Russians caught the Japanese force (my force) of three cruisers a few miles off the Chinese Coast and moved directly in to dispatch them. The Protected Cruiser Bogatyr, and Armored Cruisers Rurik, Rossia, and Goromboi readied their guns and commenced firing at their maximm range doing no damage in the first gunnery round. Russian guns have to confirm every hit and although one got a 6 the confirmation roll was a miss. The Japanese return fire, while light compared to the Russian guns, has no confirmation rolls so will get hits more regularly.

My opponent and I had played once earlier and switched sides so we knew enough not to close to torpedo range, zero hexes per the specisl rules, the Russians hovered at maximum range for their secondaries and the Japanese manouvered to do the same. The Russian gunnery though was actually acceptable and the heaiver weight of fire started to take its toll leaving one japanese Cruiser, Suma, with a speed loss after losing one hull box. Rossia then took one hull hit which was not enough to slow it down. The Russian Flagship, Rurik then took a fairly severe 2 hull hit with a speed loss, but the other two cruisers were untouched. The Idzumi then took a secondary hit putting here out with no guns. The Japanese return fire was jusst too light and they only scored a hit on Rurik taking one of her four hull boxes. Barely enough to slow her. But the next round was enough when the Russian player, my opponent, got a catastrophic hull hit on the Akitsushima and down she went. One ship with a very reduced speed to 1s, the other with no guns, the Japanese decided to strike their colors and stop the useless effusion of blood.

Not every battle was going to go Japan's way it seems and their war was off to a bad start.