Cruel Seas in 1-600 Scale

[Ithoriel]

TURN 1 - The End Of The Beginning? or The Beginning Of The End?

In Cruel Seas rolling "to hit" uses D10s and the lower you roll the better.

Whereas rolling damage uses D6s and high rolls are better, with a 6 causing critical damage.

The British D10s seemed to have nothing higher than a 5 and the D6s nothing lower than a 4, for the Germans it was somewhat vice versa.

[Ithoriel]

TURN 2

The turn sequence for Turn 2 was Brit (me), German S38, German S100, other Brit, chewed up S100

I opened fire on the S100 with the damaged rudder and did considerable damage with my 6pdrs but no further crits.

The S100 with the damaged engine and the S38 fired on the other Fairmile and inflicted a few points of damage.

Return fire from the Fairmile chopped chunks out of the S100 that fired on it, damaging it's rudder.

The S100 with the damaged rudder slowed to Slow speed and attempted a repair - clearly someone on board knew where to "'it it wiv' an 'ammer!" and the rudder was fixed and a few holes patched too. The crew are considered to busy with this to fire weapons.

My ad hoc damage chart seemed to work OK and may become a permanent feature (with some tweaks). What is difficult to see in the pictures is that there are black and dark brown blocks for the two S100s

[Ithoriel]

TURN 3

Turn sequence was S38, S100 with engine and rudder damage, Brit (me), Brit ....

The S38, aware of being the weakest boat in the fight kept it's distance, peppering the sea around my companion Fairmile but failing to hit (three 10s).

The S100 was force to carry straight on by the jammed rudder and scored a single hit with one of it's LMGs - 2pts of damage scored.

The Dog Boats then closed with the other S100 to a point where they were so close they were unable to use their 6pdrs but, struck by two twin 20mm, two twin HMGs and two twin LMGs and suffering multiple criticals, including two fires, the bullet riddled hull of the S100 slid beneath the waves.

Causing a fire on a diesel boat requires a roll of a 6 rather than the 4+ for the British so suffering two fires in a single turn was just the icing on the cake of German misfortune.

With one boat sunk, one damaged and only their weakest boat still intact the Germans decided discretion was the better part of valour.

As one of the German players commented during the game, "There's something wrong with our bloody ships to-day."

Despite that, everyone seemed to enjoy the experience and were keen to play again, even Mr Snakes and Ladders

[paulr]

Sounds like jolly good fun, looks good as well 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice one Ithorial,
For thevrematch, try Vospers, a lot harder game!

[Ithoriel]

Heh! For the rematch the guy who ran the S38 wants to try out the F-Lighter. 20mm steel armour, 100mm concrete armour, two turrets with either an 88mm AT gun or a 105mm artillery piece in each, two twin 20mm cannon and a 20mm flakvierling. A step up for sure. Hard as nails but slow as a very slow thing when it's slow

[fsn]

Are they the ones you have to depth charge?

Before I get "funny" remarks.

Wasn't it a tactic with them to scoot by and drop depth charges at minimal depth setting? The resulting explosion attacks the (b)lighters from beneath.

[Raider4]

In Cruel Seas rolling "to hit" uses D10s and the lower you roll the better.

Whereas rolling damage uses D6s and high rolls are better . . .

Urghh. I can't tell you how much I hate this!

Consistency, people. Consistency!

[Ithoriel]

Are they the ones you have to depth charge?

Before I get "funny" remarks.

Wasn't it a tactic with them to scoot by and drop depth charges at minimal depth setting? The resulting explosion attacks the (b)lighters from beneath.

Yes, those and Siebel Ferries.

Indeed, dropping a well-timed depth charge when closely pursued was a well known, if not frequently used, tactic when dealing with E-boats too.

[Ithoriel]

Urghh. I can't tell you how much I hate this!

Consistency, people. Consistency!

Normally I'd be right there with you but for some reason the fact that it's different types of dice means it doesn't grind my gears nearly as much as usual. Odd, I know.

[Ithoriel]

Latest painted items - still to be varnished.

Final two additions to the German ship roster, a trawler and the F-Lighter already mentioned.

Well, final two until Heroics & Ros are open again, then ... who knows?

British stuff plus Stukas and Arados to do in the meantime.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice Mike

[Steve J]

Very nice .

[paulr]

 

[Womble67]

Looking good

Take care

Andy

[Ithoriel]

Still to be varnished but otherwise done.

Three Vosper II (Late) MTBs

Fast and fragile, but I expect to see them on the table regularly.

Just the British Steam Gunboat "Grey Wolf" to go. It's sold as "Grey Goose" (shown below) but everyone does "Grey Goose" due to it's connection to Peter Scott.

Armed with a single 3", two 6pdrs, two twin 20mms , two twin HMGs and a couple of LMGs and with a top speed of around 36 knots she will be a formidable opponent.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Very nice

[paulr]

 

[Ithoriel]

Steam Gun Boat itself painted but base still to be finished off, label applied and varnishing done.

First of the Arado 196 floatplanes assembled, based and undercoated.

Eleven torpedo markers created using a Pendraken MDF base chopped into 20mm x 5mm bases with a Tumbling Dice torpedo mounted on it. May prove a little small for our fat fingers. We'll see!

Discovered a pack of H&S LCMs and one of LCAs while looking for something else in the lead pile! A scenario based on Operation Tiger could be in the offing.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Good progress old fiend.
Interesting how these rules and their figures have caught peoples attention, whereas so many other small ship rules have not.
Good marketing or right place and time? Discuss.
Blood Red Skies hasn't done as well to be sure.