Sunday 29 May 2016

World Eaters HQ

 With these my WE are finished (for now). From left to right: Kârn "the bloody" (not yet the traitor), Angron and Surlak, a new OP apothecary.















Wednesday 25 May 2016

Jutland 2016-1916

 With the Jutland bicentenary real close it was time for another refight. For those that know not it was the major naval engagement of WWI when the germans finally ventured out of their minefield and the british sailed to recieve them, forewarned as they were by intercepted communications.
 In the first turn only the two exploration groups can be played and the rest comes in from the second turn (the british Great Fleet as a whole and the german Hochsee fleet turn by turn in a long line).

 The english got first turn and steamed ahead beginning the exchange of fire
 Taking the worst of it as the Malaya dramatically explodes
 The lion also goes down under the downpour, as do some british destroyers
 Thankfully the Great Fleet comes in

 The Von der Tann is the first german ship to be wrecked
 The battered german cruisers still have fight in them, sinking the New Zealand with torpedoes
 The german high seas fleet has also joined the fray by this point, and their guns take a heavy toll on the british ships, wiping out the "Queen Elizabeth" battleship squadron: the Bahram goes down with admiral Evan Thomas
 As do the Valiant
 The warspite
 And the Tiger
 The hochsee fleet showing the superiority of german training
 The lone Moltke, unable to escape due to engine damage, recieves the retaliation of the Great Fleet and is sunk
 Admiral Scheer soon orders his ships to form a double line ahead of the main british fleet
 The last ships of the british scouting group are hunted one by one, caught in a crossfire between the advancing german reinforcements and the remains of their scouts. Princess royal...
 ...Indefatigable...
 ...and Invincible (not today!) are destroyed, while the Great Fleet is still too far to give any help. Those lobsters ans their fancy names...

 Only one british destroyer remains, surrounded by the hulks of its comrades
 The british cruiser screen forms a gun line
 Hood's squadron sails around his burning flagship
 The lone destroyer HMS Defender still has teeth tough, and sinks a german cruiser with a well placed torpedo
 The germans artfully manoeuver their ships to cross the briritsh T
 With all its towers disabled, Köning and admiral Behncke move to the rear to deny the brits their victory points
 The german destroyers race through no man's sea (?) for torpedo delivery
 A hit on Queen Mary...
 Helps the guns bring her down
 The british light cruisers suffer their first loss also
 Answering to the german line, admiral Jellicoe forms in two arms that reach towards the germans

 Massed battleships! Albeit only half of them within range
 This new formation opens up on the germans: a destroyer
 And their flagship goes down, the germans hope that Scheer's plan brings them a posthumous victory
 Since most battleships are out of range the new german arrivals decide to close the distance
 The german destroyers make a run for it

 But only sink one light cruiser: the Duke of Edinburg
 The guns have better luck: sinking the Inflexible
 And the Orion
 At this point we run out of time so we left it there. General view at the end (german precision vs british...pudding?)
 British
and german survivors
Final score: Germans 63, British 19. A sound german victory helped by the early sinking of the "Queen Elizabeths"
Finally a pic of the HMS Lion & crew that always die in this game, the life of both scouting groups can be measured in minutes exposed as they are between both main fleets. Besides, admiral ships always have a big ¡shoot me! target flag flying over their heads.