Into the Maelstorm: February 2014

"As the german ships started to surge from the mist one after the other, all the british ships, wose range was evident, opened upon them a terrifying fire. The ones in the german first rank, the formidable Königs, dominated all the horitzon as far as the eye could reach with the help of the searchlights. The shock of the storm of shells impacted fully upon the on the german ships"

Winston Churchill, the mundial crisis

Re-fight of the battle of Jutland with a wargame of my invention, if anyone interested i'll post the rulebook and templates.

The disposition for the battle, Scheer will appear in the german first turn and the Great Fleet in the second british turn, they appear as firstly deployed, and start moving in their next turn (2nd for Scheer and 3rd for the great fleet)

Beatty's fleet

Hipper's

The battle begins: the british player seize the initiative and start moving Alexander Hood's fleet to support Beatty

Thus deployed, the whole Beatty force starts opening fire with their main guns

Sinking the Seylitz

Their smaller armament manages to destroy one of the german destroyers

SMS Moltke also recives severe damage from the queen elizabeths

And another destroyer is sunk

In the german turn, Scheer comes to help a severely compromised Hipper at the vanguard of the Hochseeflotte.

Now the german guns fire back with lethal accuracy

A shell penetrates one tower, igniting the cordite and incinerating the ammunition magazines of the Lion blewing up the ship alongside with Beatty

Taking advantadge of the gap in the british line that the destruction of the Lion has created , the remaining german battleships open fire turn the Barham and Evan-Thomas into a ball of fire with another lucky shot.

The secondary armament destroy the two closest british destroyers with its massed volleys

Finally, the Grand Fleet appears in the horitzon

Jellicoe expresses his concern at the so sudden loss of two battleships and their admirals

The british go inmediately into the attack launching a savage charge with Beatty's destroyers, but their torpedoes fail to impact the germans

The remaining ships of Beatty's force continue to fire, sinking a heavily damaged Moltke

In the german turn, Scheer keeps advancing, appearing now the most deadly weapon in the german arsenal, the Helgoland battlesips

General view of the movements in turn 2, the british launch two of Hood's battleships against the stern of Hipper, whose last ship (Von der Tann) suffers heavily and is inmobilized. Hipper responds with a blue veer, turning around 180º and converting his rearguard in vanguard. Then, with the increased firepower of Scheer now at their side they open fire...

The british ships begin to blow up like firekrackers, first goes the New Zealand

and then the Princess Royal, destroyed by two sucessive explosions of their magazines

The remaining ships from Beatty's fleet recieve hard punishment too

The grand fleet cruisers start to recieve the first rain of shells, which inflicts one hull damage to their flagship, the Defence

The ponderously advancing Hochseeflotte destroys with ease the destroyers in front of it

In the british turn, the cruiser fleet moves forward, opening up with their frontal turrets

Hipper tries to shelter himself behind his sunken ships

In the third turn, the british player move Beatty's fleet forward

The Von der Tann finally succumbs to her many wounds

Scheer's destroyers attack the advancing Beatty ships with their torpedoes, but without any sucess

In the fourth turn, the british stop their advance and continue firing

An impressive show of the accuracy of the british gunners

The Köning sunks at the head of Scheer's fleet

And also does one of the german destroyers under the guns of the Warspite

After circumnavegating Beatty's ships and their own lines, the four german destroyers attack frontally the line of british cruisers sinking HMS Defence and admiral Keith with her

Hood's flagship falls prey to the german heavy artillery

Followed by the queen Mary

And Valiant's guns are silenced. More and more british ships began to sunk as the german fleet brings more and more firepower to the battle.

General view of german movements in the third turn, Scheer sails paralell to the britsh line while more german ships enter the fray following his bow, meanwhile their destroyers engage alone the british cruisers

In the fifth turn the british columns at port and starboard of the Great Fleet move around the cruisers to engage the enemy

while Beatty's force remains inmobile, exchanging fire with the germans

Port battleship column

And starboard's

Hipper aboard Lützow falls victim to the concentrated british fire

In the german turn, the destroyers launch another attack, sinking Duke of Edinburg and Cochrane

Taking the chance offered to him by the advancing battleship column, Scheer moves forward and crosses its T

Inflicting serious damage at it's leading ship, HMS Marlborough

Meanwhile, in the center, a total of eight ships (including the Helgolands) open fire upon Malaya sending her to the bottom.

The ships at Scheer's rear finish off the silent Valiant

View of the german movements during turn five: the main Scheer line moves at full speed to the north, while it's advanced squadron crosses the T of one of the british columns, in the center, the remaining ship of Hipper (SMS Derfflinger) moves amongst sinking hulks of both sides

In the british sixth turn, the Indefatigable charges singlehanded the german battleline

Realising it's mistake, the british column veers to port to present its boardsides tot the germans

At the british starboard, one column is moving forwards while another veers to starboard

Having had eonugh of the destroyer's punishment, the british cruisers veer to open fire on the germans with their boardsides, next to them the Great Fleet's own destroyers charge in column the german advanced squadron. At their bow, the remaining british columns move slowly forwards.

The Grand Fleet destroyers

General view of the british movements in turn six

The british fire concentrates on the Nassau and send her and admiral Mauve to walk the plank

One of the german destroyers is sunk by concentrated fire from two cruisers

In the german turn, their cruisers envelop the helpless indefatigable destroying it in few seconds

the Black prince is also sunk by a torpedo

Followed by the warrior, who collapses under the german heavy guns

Who also tear to pieces the already too damaged Marlborough

The secondary armament opens up against the upcoming british destroyers, but only Fortune falls to their merciless attentions

In the seventh turn, light starts to diminish as the sun sets in the sea, the mists also begin to rise indicating thus that the battle is coming rapidly to an end. The british will just have one turn to inflict as much damage as possible to the germans before darkness and confusion falls upon the battlefield. Accordingly, due to the fading sunlight all the shooting in the seventh and last turn will be subject to a -1 to hit.

Taking advantage of the last moment of the day, the british destroyers move in contact with the german battleships, while one of the central british columns moves parallel to them

the starboard column continues to advance, opening fire at extreme range into the german main line

General view of the movements in turn seven

Another of the central columns veers to port to get agood angle at the german fleet

The british centermoves parallely tot Scheer

And so the fire begins

First to fall is the Derfflinger, the last of Hipper's fleet

The Kaiserin folows swiftly, dying under the fire of 14 british ships

The Kaiser also goes to the bottom, its line pierced by torpedoes

View of the battle at the end of the british turn

The german player moves his cruisers ahead, cutting across the britsh front to get the maximum number of guns to bear

The remaining ships of the advanced squadron turn to port to achieve the same

The indomitable falls to the cruisers

the Minotaur to a torpedo

And the Hampshire to the battleship's guns. And thus, with the night falling over the place the battle of Jutland come to an end.

View of the battlefield at the end of turn 7 from the north

The outcome

To calculate who is the winner, we summed up the total tonnealge points lost by both sides wit their dead admirals, the result was:

Royal navy: 66pts lost

Kriegsmarine: 42 pts lost

So a decisive and clear victory for the kriegsmarine for 24 points of difference. No doubt that, with more battles like this one, the queen of the seas would have been no more