PBEM - Battle of the River Plate Turn 6

"Achilles is burning from bow to stern, Sir! She is listing heavily."

"Thank you Midshipmen Graham... I can see!" 

"Helm – Hold your course, now port rudder and full ahead." 

"Lieutenant Burton, begin firing!"

The Exeter had managed to close in on the Spee, and readied the guns that had been out of range for the majority of the battle.

The earlier damage sustained and the engines running at full capacity had caused havoc to the gun sights calibration, the salvo was a bitter disappointment.

The Ajax fared little better, having the same level of success with the main guns and torpedoes.

The Spee meanwhile had no such failures, the main guns found their mark on the Exeter, crippling her.

And the secondaries against the Ajax were even more successful...

...leaving very little left. (Note this photo is the HMS Barnam exploding after a U-Boot attack.)

A (very) marginal victory to Ara and the Germans. Most likely the Spee would limp to Montevideo and history would repeat itself (though this time it was a tactical victory but a strategic loss).

Months later, the Führer was still pleased with the effort of the Spee, and had the Reichskulturkammer (Reich Culture Chamber) commission a painting to deride the efforts of the War Artists' Advisory Committee. The result was 'Revenge for Falklands', a reference to Maximilian von Spee's defeat at the Falkland Islands in 1914.

In the silent ocean under a cool midday sun the Exeter moved through the flotsam of the Achilles and Ajax, picking up the few survivors before turning back slowly to the Falklands.

PBEM - Battle of the River Plate Turn 5

“Achilles has take a pounding.. Sir!”

“I can see that, midshipman, Graham.”

“Helm – Port rudder, full ahead.”

While over on the command deck of the Graf Spee, Captain Langsdorff shook his fist across the waves at the allied ships;

"Bah, those lucky Englisch Schweinehünde! They have damaged my beautiful ship! They will pay for that!"

The Achilles was still belching smoke, but Parry aligned his ship with the course Woodhouse had steered the Ajax. Both were closing in, with Exeter still trailing some distance behind.

The Achilles opened fire, scoring only one hit (remembering that 4s don't count when crippled). Not enough to cause any damage. (It's worth noting that these photos would be the first time the players would see the results.)

The Ajax added to the thunder of guns, scoring a hit! The Spee was crippled! Cheers went up amongst the crews on all ships. (Her torpedo attack however missed its mark.)

As the noise died down the silence was broken as the Spee's shells whistled through the air. Heavy heavy shells crippled the Ajax, while the 15cm secondaries managed to rip through to the aft ammunition store of the Achilles to break her in half. She sank in less than 10 minutes.

In commemoration to the sinking of the Achilles, Harrison Reginald St Normanby was commissioned by the War Artists' Advisory Committee to paint a tribute to the men that served with her. His piece 'Achilles' Return to the Styx' has received praise for its sombre tone.

The Graf Spee was bleeding, could the Exeter and Ajax exact revenge?

Next post, turn 6.

PBEM - Battle of the River Plate Turn 4

"Helm – Starboard, full ahead."

"The Scheer is engaging both Ajax and Achilles now... Achilles has been hit!"

"Those big guns of the Scheer are a damn advantage we sorely need. Give me a battlecruiser any day!"

As the allied ships continued to pursue the German pocket battleship, the Spee turned to port to allow her front battery an arc on the Achilles.

What would follow would be a (relatively) lucky round for the Commonwealth forces.

Rolling a total of 4 on 3 dice (with a 13% chance of success), the Ajax landed a hit on the Graf Spee while firing at half capacity with her main guns. Her lone torpedo attack was ineffectual.

This damage meant that she wouldn't now have the extended range that she had been enjoying all battle.

Achilles attempted to add to this damage (firing for the first time), but wasn't quite able to get enough to cause damage.

In return the Spee split her fire between the Ajax and Achilles.

The Spee's main guns got 8 hits on the Achilles (a 9 would’ve been an automatic sinking). However the Achilles is now crippled. This means her Movement is reduced to 1, armour is weaker (by 1) and guns need a 5 or 6 to hit (with a 6 still counting as two hits). This was clearly showing the potential of the 28 cm guns.

Meanwhile in frustration Captain Bell (Hookie to his friends), launched one of the ship's Supermarine Walrus seaplanes to get a better idea of what was happening (or was it to get closer so he could hit the Spee with his sword?). Historical note: with her third salvo the German ship straddled the Exeter; shrapnel from the near misses killed the crew of the starboard torpedo tubes, started fires amidships and damaged both the Supermarine Walrus seaplanes.

A photo from the air crew showed that the Achilles wasn't faring well,

Things were starting to heat up.

I need to iron out that mat, as the photos aren't as great (or maybe I even just use my dark blue map for photos and add more hexes to the virtual map). We'll see, I haven't got as much time as I would like as work is actually pretty busy, so I shouldn't complain.

Next post, turn 5.

PBEM - Battle of the River Plate Turn 3

"She is turning, Sir! Could she be running for it?"

"She won’t want to get between  Ajax and Achilles... or us."

"Helm – Full stream ahead. Engine room – Give me everything she has. Got to shorten this range."

"Gunnery Officer – Engage the Scheer, as soon as you are able. Fire at will!"

"Signalman – Signal Ajax and Achilles – I am pressing my attack. Can you slow her down or turn her?"

"The Scheer is firing on Ajax... She has her range... Geez... Ajax has taken one in her midships, Sir!"

The Graf Spee turned again in an attempt to thwart her pursuers. Would she turn to face them or flee? (We had decided not to have a floating map, meaning that if any ship moved off the edge they would be considered as have fled the battle.)

The Ajax found herself out of arc, but in turn out of arc too, to the Graf Spee. Her main guns unsurprisingly only caused superficial damage, while the Graf Spee returned fire with her secondaries and while good rolling (getting a total of three), was not enough to cause further damage on the Ajax.

In an effort to spread the damage around the Royal Navy taskforce, The Graf Spee now switched her main guns to the Achilles, that had not taken an active role but was also closing in. The batteries opened fire, and a hit landed on the New Zealand ship.

Each of the Commonwealth ships had now taken damage, while the Graf Spee had managed to avoid being hit. While technically a heavy cruiser because of the calibre of her guns, the Exeter was a scaled-down version of the County class, designed within the limits of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and wasn't as robust as the two Leander class ships accompanying her.

The Graf Spee in 1936

Where would the Graf Spee turn to next?

Next post, turn 4.

PBEM - Battle of the River Plate Turn 2

"Christ! We are in for it now, Number One!"

"She will want to concentrate on us as much as she can, before Ajax and Achilles get into range."

"Helm – Starboard rudder, ahead full!"

"Gunnery – Fire as she bares!"

"Signalman – Signal Ajax and Achilles – Come on fast. Can’t take much more of this. Need assistance now!"

The Admiral Graf Spee swung to port away from the Exeter, but Captain Bell ordered his ship ahead full speed and have the guns ready to take aim on the Graf Spee. Commodore Harwood responded to the call to close in after the Exeter had taken a hit, and the Ajax and Achilles steamed in line to the south.

Ajax lined up her A and B turrets (rear turrets not being in arc), and fired off ranging shots. (Liam had elected to roll his own dice, but at the time was only able to find one easily. He rolled the dice and told me the results. The excitement has been recreated for posterity.

All shots miss!

The Graf Spee's turrets slowly rotated to port to meet the threat. First the secondaries responded, but all not enough to succeed (needing four successes).

But then the primaries opened up ('Anton' and 'Bruno'), and their combined fire was more successful.

A hit on the midship, but for now the Ajax was undaunted.

The noose was closing, but the Graf Spee had only begun to fight.

Next post, turn 3.

PBEM - Battle of the River Plate Turn 1

"Helm, starboard – Ahead full."

"ACTION STATIONS, NUMBER ONE!"

"Guns to bear, 060 - Fire when the target is in range."
 
"Radio – Message to Flag – Have sighted the Admiral Scheer, I am closing to engage."

The Admiral Graf Spee and Exeter turn in starboard towards each other at full steam. Ajax and Achilles both turn to port to close in on the Graf Spee.

The gunnery officer aboard the Graf Spee sees that the Exeter has strayed just into range for her main 28 cm (11 in) guns. Both turrets open fire.

A hit! (Each 4 and 5 counts as one success, while a 6 counts as two.) The Exeter takes one point of hull damage to the forward upper deck.

Can the Ajax and Achilles close in to provide assistance in time?

Next post, turn 2.

PBEM - Battle of the River Plate Deployment

Before the game I provided every player a briefing to the battle, that included the His Majesty's Stationery Office (HSMO) chart for the battle:

Along with the initial deployment positions (the ">" indicates direction of travel), based on the rough positions at 6:30 am:

Free reign was provided to the players on how to tell me their movement orders (giving the option for Brett and Liam to confer before notifying me). Remember rotation happens first (though players could choose to rotate at the end of a ship's turn if they chose to not use the ship's full movement).

Lieutenant-Commander Richard Jennings, HMS Exeter's gunnery officer remembers from the battle:  

"As I was crossing the compass platform [to his Action Station in the Director Control Tower], the captain hailed me, not with the usual rigmarole of 'Enemy in sight, bearing, etc', but with 'There's the fucking Scheer! Open fire at her!' Throughout the battle the crew of the Exeter thought they were fighting the [sister ship] Admiral von [sic] Scheer. But the name of the enemy ship was of course the Graf Spee."

Movement was limit to the map above, though in a virtual environment I could do a floating (hah! get it?) map. I also left victory conditions vague - as each captain would have their own idea of success. Let's see how this goes. (Steady, I hope.)

Next post, turn 1.

Battle of the River Plate using Email and War at Sea

Like many wargamers COVID-19 has thrown up some interesting challenges to being able to play games. At the League meeting in March there was a slight unease in the air, and isolation and lock-downs that followed weren't that surprising given the developments of the virus globally over the last couple of week and months.

The WWII Eastern Front Play By Email (PBEM) game that Brett was running has stalled for this reason (games to be played on the tabletop), but it gave me an idea to run a game of my own. There were a fair few blog posts, forum threads and YouTube videos that gave me some ideas.

I settled on WWII naval, using a Hotz Hex felt mat that I bought years ago for running WWII aerial games at Little Wars Melbourne. Ara, Brett and Liam expressed an interested on testing whether my ideas would work.

While we had all played WWII naval games together in the past with Mongoose Games' easy to play 'Victory at Sea' (no one mention the train wreck that Warlord Games' refreshed version appears to be), I decided to use a beer and pretzels game I played around 10 years ago - Wizards of the Coast's Axis & Allies Naval Miniatures: War at Sea. It's a collectable miniatures game (CMG) that I have a lot of ships for. They're bendy plastic, but I love them as it introduced me to WWII ship classes quickly. For that I will always have a soft spot for the game and the miniatures.

Yes - the rules are relatively simple, but this means larger fleet actions could be manageable in the future (I'm a wargamer, I am already thinking of campaigns). However, this meant the players would have easy grasp of the rules quickly in isolation. The only main changes I am going to make is to the movement ability of ships, their shooting arcs and stacking limits. At Ara's suggestion we added blind movement (one thing that would be harder to do on the tabletop). The change from the offset grid to hexes made no difference to the game.

For movement a ship can't move in any direction as per the rules, but instead its facing dictates its options. Turning doesn't expend any of a ship's movement allowance.

In the example above the ship is facing towards 0707. Turning of 60 degrees left or right is allowed before moving a hex. So with a movement of 2 the ship in the example could turn to face 0706; move into 0706; turn to face 0705; move into 0705. I decided on turn then movement (as opposed to many rules that require forward "energy" to be expended before allowing turns) as the ground scale is larger for this game and add some level of unpredictability for the opponent. Destroyers would be able to turn up to 120° as they would be more nimble.

Modification to the shooting rules would have the number of dice for shooting (including torpedo attacks) directly over the bow or stern halved (rounding up). Refer to the diagram below (noting that some ships get a range of 4 for their main guns).

For stacking limitations each player would be allowed to only have one ship in each hex, but two destroyers. Movement through a hex by either side would be allowed.

Some of the players questions included whether we'd be doing group emails or just ones between each player and myself. I was planning on an email chain for the Axis and one for the Allies. [edit: this became a email to all players with current positions and I received individual responses and then I'd send out again for targets and post a link to the relevant blog post for outcomes, etc.]

While all of us have other commitments, I assured everyone that I wanted this to be fun above all else turnover time for email responses weren't expected on the same day, I was imagining 1-2 days per turn.

Players wouldn't need to track their own turns as I had converted the felt mat (6' x 4' with 4" hexes on a 12 by 18 hex grid) in Photoshop to a virtual one with hex ID numbers using a Battletech template I had found online. I would email every turn the map with every ship's current position.

Brett and Ara were happy to have me, as GM, roll their dice. As Brett put it: "Happy for you to do all my die rolls for me and applying them to the target - A Captain doesn’t get involved in the aiming and the firing of the ships guns. That is the Gunnery Officers job!"

For something easy, and a popular introduction scenario for WWII naval gaming in many games, we settled on the Battle of the River Plate, with Ara commanding the Admiral Graf Spee, Brett the Exeter, and Liam the Ajax and Achilles.

Next post, deployment.