Fleet update and hunt for the Bismarck (alt.)

I bought the Pacific Ocean last weekend. It's a lovely shade of blue and only cost me $22. What a bargain.

Another step in 'capacity building' so as to be able to work through, chronologically, all of the naval actions of the Pacific War. So too is the construction of 1/700 ships that has occupied much of my hobby time since my long latent interest in carrier actions was kicked into action in April. I have a goodly number now assembled (i.e. 'launched') and now being 'fitted out'.

Julian and Stephen came here yesterday and we played out an alternative scenario of the hunt for the Bismarck that Julian had devised. I took advantage of the cleared table and placement of my sheets to represent 'northern' oceans to do a photo shoot.

1/700 Japanese ships that I have 'launched' (made) since April, now being 'fitted out'. From port to starboard: Kongo, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku, Zuikaku, Tone, Haruna (fore) Taiho, Junyo, Ryjo, Furutaka, Kinugasa, Taiyo, Shinano, Kiso, Yahagi (aft).

I have also made my first scratch-build ship: HMS Tenedos. She was an Admiralty 'S' class destroyer of First World War vintage that did not have a long career in the 'Second War', having been sunk in the destruction of Force Z by the Japanese in late 1941 (better known as the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse)*. As such, and since I could not find an appropriate kit, it seemed a perfect subject for scratch-building.

[*No she wasn't, I mis-rememebered. She detached and was attacked by Japanese planes, but was unharmed. Her sinking was in April '42 during 'Operation C' off Ceylon (Sri Lanka)]

HMS Tenedos scratch-built. Scaled image printed on light card, stuck around a hull cut from mdf, with plastic parts used for boats, guns, search lights and mast/flag poles.

The gaps for the water to come in (😳) are not as obvious to the eye as they are in these photos!

It's nothing like the fabulous pre-dreadnoughts that people like Ion and Jim build and I 'cheated' and used scaled, printed images on card as the basis, but I am pleased with the result, nonetheless. Some of the 'spares' that are provided with 1/700 ship kits were perfect for some of the 'fittings and fixtures', making adding those details much easier.

I have scaled and printed images to build HMAS Yarra and HNLMS Tromp as my next scratch-builds. Similarly these had brief careers in the Second World War. HMAS Yarra was involved in an heroic but ultimately doomed attempt to protect the Tjilatjap convoy, 'charging' at the larger and superior Japanese forces of three Takao class cruisers and two destroyers in a valiant but ultimately futile attempt to defend her charges that had been told to scatter. An amazing story in the annals of the RAN and one that I look forward to recreating on the tabletop.

Scaled sides and deck of HMAS Yarra, cut out ready to glue onto the mdf hull that I have cut out.

HNLMS Tromp, scaled and printed.

HNLMS Tromp was part of the ill-fated American-Dutch-British-Australian (ADBA) command which was effectively wiped out at Java Sea, Sunda Strait and second Java Sea as part of the Japanese sweep south in early '42. She was 'lucky' being badly damaged by the Japanese destroyer Asashio during the Battle of Badung Strait, she was sent to Australia for repairs and survived the war. Once again, I could not find an appropriate kit for this ship, so scratch-built it is.

Hunt for the Bismarck (alt.)

Julian devised a fictitious scenario for us to use as a further test/familiarisation with Seekrieg 5. The Bismarck and Prinz Eugen successfully evaded the Hood, Prince of Wales and co. and have made to the Atlantic in search of convoys to prey on. They found one, 'cept it has HMS Revenge and Cornwall as escorts. These RN ships head out to intercept the German raiders so as to protect their charges.

HMS Revenge ahead of HMS Cornwall, with Bismarck (to starboard) and Prinz Eugen aft or her 18 000 yards distant.

The ships engaged one another at 18 000 yards, pairing off as Bismarck-Revenge and Prinz Eugen-Cornwall. Julian and I played two turns of firing before Stephen arrived. Just as well as it took us a little while to re-calculate the scale for movement and ranges and then to get our heads 'into gear' with the charts, but after the first fire that we tested (from Revenge as it turned out), we were off and running and it flowed brilliantly from then on.

We actually, incorrectly 'fired' twice the number of shells in the first turn, so counted this as two. This produced effective shooting by both sides, with damage inflicted on all by all, most serious of which was a small fire on Bismarck and damage to her rudder. Yes, the rudder again, just like in the historic action!

Bismarck (to port) with smoke from the small fire in her superstructure.  One of her rudders was also damaged.

Fortunately, I was able to extinguish the fire on Bismarck and we happily proceeded straight ahead, so this did not affect the German side too much, for now.

The exchange of fire and hits continued. This time Bismarck managed to knock Revenge's 'Y' turret out of action (turn 3) and followed this by knocking out a boiler (turn 4). For her part Prinz Eugen, despite some of her shells passing through Cornwall's weaker armour, caused flooding to one of the latter's engine compartments and knocked out her 'A' turret.

For their part the British ships inflicted minor damage on the Germans (turn 3) and most of their shells missed their targets (turn 4). Accumulated damage was building up on the British ships and the German commanders were confident that the action would soon come to a successful conclusion.

'Twas not to be. The British found their targets again, taking out Bismarck's D battery and temporarily suspending command with a hit to the bridge (both Admiral Lütjens and Captain Lindemann unharmed). Prinz Eugen was not spared, losing 'C' turret.

The pounding went on, each on the other, but, a chance shot from Prinz Eugen produced a magazine explosion on Cornwall. Stephen had rolled a 01, yielding table 100 as the damage effects table. Just like at the historic Denmark Strait, except that it was a hit from Prinz Eugen on Cornwall rather than Bismarck on Hood.

Ka-

boom! HMS Cornwall's magazine explodes.

Thick, black smoke soon filled the air.

This left Revenge alone, now with only two effective turrets with which to respond.

Furthermore, the damage to Revenge was increasing (she had reached tier 10, the top level in Seekrieg). The ship was falling apart, fire control gone, command suspended, crew casualties mounting and then, uncontrolled flooding. She settled in the water and would sink, 20 minutes later, the order to abandon ship having been given and carried out.

Having dispensed with the British ships, the Germans planned to go in search of that convoy. Or at least, Prinz Eugen would. Bismarck had also suffered from hits and accumulate damage. In addition to her damaged rudder and 'D' battery being out of action, she had flooding in some of her compartments, resulting in her listing to starboard. She would make for port in France, hopefully protected in her progress by a cordon of U-boats, but with the Royal Navy and Air Force sending out 'everything' in hope of intercepting her. 

Once again we enjoyed greatly the sensible detail and narrative aspects of Seekrieg. They are 'involved', as I have mentioned previously, but not difficult. There are a lot of dice rolls; to hit, hit location, damage, possible critical hits (damage effects) and which specific damage effects table is to be consulted, but they are dice rolls with a purpose (and two D10s read as a percentage), not merely grabbing a handful of dice and counting 5s and 6s, or whatever, in a completely random manner.

Details

Rules

Seekrieg 5 (2004). Seekrieg https://www.seekrieg.com/Seekrieg5IntroPage.htm

Ships

1/6000 scale Figurehead Ships.

Operation Z or planning Operation AI: constructing the Kido Batai (2) the pleasure of little things

When I first began acquiring these 1/700 models, I wondered why there was such a range of prices for, seemingly, the same model of the same ship. Then I realised that some are more detailed than others. Fujimi in particular seem to specialise in the detailed end of the spectrum (with associated higher prices), but even within the same manufacturer there are standard and 'deluxe' versions of the same kit.

Being a cheap skate and only wanting 'wargame standard' models, I purchased the cheapest kit that I could find for each of the ships. As I became aware of the differences and since I was struggling to find any of the 'basic' versions available, I decided to splash out and purchased the Fujimi version of Soryu—added incentive was that is was available at a discounted price 😁. I have enjoyed and at the same time struggled with construction of this more detailed kit. 

The added detail comes in the form of more and smaller parts to the kit that provided a more accurate and detailed representation of parts of the ship. Part L48 is an example. These are fire controllers which go on each ack-ack platform, and elsewhere.

A section of the instructions showing placement of two of part L48.

Here they are on the sprue. Tweezers for size. Other detailed parts on this sprue include the ladders at the ends of various gangways around the top of the hull, below the flight deck (parts L16–L32).

There were 21 pieces of part L48, the little darlings, to glue on to various platforms and other fixtures below the flight deck and a couple on and near the island. Fiddly in the extreme, but they were not as difficult to fit in place as I had thought they would be when I saw the size of them. The nature of the polystyrene cement, which becomes 'tacky' almost immediately was a great aid to this, allowing one (me in this case, haha) to simply drop them on top of a dot of glue and then slowly and carefully adjust the position and make sure that they were vertical. Remarkably none of them went 'ping', propelling out of the grip of the tweezers, flying across my table never to be seen again. This has happened several times with parts from each of the other kits that I have made—particularly the wing floats of the float-planes, which were the smallest parts (2–3 mm long) that I had handled prior to L48. Perhaps I was especially careful when handling these controllers? 

Fortunately, most of the models that I have made are of the ilk of the more pragmatic Aoshima Hiryu.

Note the little vertical bits moulded on part A7, a more stylised representation of the fire controllers!

There was some added detail in the Soryu kit that I decided not to attempt:

I wondered at first what the millimetre sized parts on these small sprues were. A small information box at the end of the instructions exclaims: "Upgrade parts for precise reproduction of machine guns!"

I later saw the photo on the outside of the box: "Includes 25mm machine guns (triple, twin, and single), bulletproof plates, and ammunition boxes".

Nah. Too small and fiddly for me. I stuck with the basic, moulded version of the machine guns that was provided (part F2).

While pleased to have bought one of these more detailed, Fujimi, 'proper scale modellers' models, I was equally pleased that I only bought one (plus the two Kongo battleships that I had already built and which were far less fiddly).

With the six carriers built, it's time to stop building and do some painting, for a needed change of pace! 😁

Operation Z or planning Operation AI: constructing the Kido Batai (1)

Preparations for recreating the attack on Pearl Harbor in miniature have begun apace; a slow one!

Fun with 'pagodas'. The Kongo-class had these crazy-tall superstructures nicknamed pagodas that came about, as far as I can tell, through successive stages of modernisation adding features of fire control, communications and, eventually, radar. This aspect really comes through in making the kits. Also in the photo: showing that the manufacturers of the kits have a sense of humour. Not satisfied with having tiny-wee parts to remove from the sprue and try to glue on—without having them 'ping' into oblivion as they spring from the tweezers that one is using to put them in place—in this case, they moulded the ones for the float planes, including tiny wing floats, in that translucent, pseudo-glass-plastic!

I have decided on a bit of naval jargon for my ship building. Purchasing the kit—a.k.a. the easy bit—will be 'laying down the keel'. Beginning construction (particularly the hull) will be 'launched'. Completing construction of the model will be 'completed' and finishing painting it will be 'commissioned'. As with the real thing, the period of 'fitting out' between the second last and final stages takes some time! 😊

Two Kongo-class battleships 'completed'. The kits are for Kongo (foreground) and Haruna (background), but I will happily use them for others of the class. For the Kido Batai for Pearl Harbor, they will be Hiei and Kirishima respectively.

Today the second of two Kongo-class battleships was 'completed'. The models of these battleships are the first Fujimi kits that I have purchased. They are generally too expensive for my tastes (about double the price of other kits). I was able to get these two on sale, so similarly priced to others that I have bought. I can see why they are more expensive. They are far more detailed than the other kits that I have done. This is beaut for scale modellers, but not particularly needed (nor really desirable?) for wargame purposes. Nevertheless I enjoyed making them and am pleased to have all that extra detail in the finished models. Like all of these kits, I hope that the delicate parts will survive use on the tabletop. I guess we are a bit more gentle with them than a kid 'sailing' around on a bedroom floor, but it is still more use than merely sitting on a shelf or in a cabinet.

This means that I now have Shōkaku and Zuikaku being 'fitted out', Tone and the two Kongos 'completed', ready for 'fitting out', and Kaga's 'launched'. 'Only' two more cruisers, another Tone class (Chikuma) and the light cruiser Abukuma, plus three more carriers, eight destroyers and some representations of tankers to go! 😳😀

What a carrier-obsessive wargamer sees

We've had a drought this year. Not no rainfall, everything dying-level of drought, but a prolonged period of below-average rainfall nonetheless. This was alleviated to a great degree last month with some good falls and a total of just over 80 mm. This provides me with a couple of nice 'snaps' that I have taken and can include here.

Good rain across the system meant that the Avon River near us went from a dry river bed, to a trickle, to water flowing from bank to bank.

It has also given the crops around the place a big boost.

We 'all' (I think) have a tendency to see potential terrain in packaging, things around the garden or elsewhere in 'the environment' and look at the lay of the land, potential good ground for cavalry or for sighting guns, when walking in open spaces (or bush).

Some crops on hilly country or paddocks that have become too wet are sprayed from the air.

Now, when I see a plane, I am counting the seconds and imaging how long it would remain in the sights of my carrier's anti-aircraft batteries. Oh dear!

(I counted about 9 seconds for the one pictured above; 1 1/2 turns!!)

Attack on Shōkaku

Yesterday we tested the system for a detailed air to sea attack and it worked a treat! Like so many plans, it had been in 'gestation' for a while, then came about quickly.

Yorktown's Scouting Five (SB-5) approach Shōkaku, which is closely followed by Kinugasa and Furutaka. The models were simply placed on the table at this stage and adjusted to the scaled distances before we began.

After our second go at Denmark Strait and successful initiation into the world of Seekrieg 5, Julian and I had planned to have a catch up for a build 'n chat session and/or perhaps a first go at a carrier action. Then, opportunity knocked. We were both available on Sunday and Thursday. We used the latter for the former and the former for the latter—clear?

Amongst all this I had made a bit of progress with how to do a carrier action in detail. It was/is chiefly a downscaling of Seekrieg 5, with added Scramble! for air to air combat, plus a few house rules for taking off and landing and to allow for the reduced time scale. Finding two sensational videos helped this immensely:

USS Yorktown: What Life Was Like Onboard An Aircraft Carrier During WW2

Flight Deck Crews: Landing & Re-Spotting World War 2 Aircraft Carrier Planes

I came across these gems in response to a search trying to determine how long it took for various operations on a carrier. There is some amazing footage in these, but also a key observation: six seconds. Counting as the video played and/or looking at the time track, I realised that so many things fitted into this time (or multiples of it). Launching planes, landing a plane, dive-bombing, fall of bomb. I had been going to use 10 seconds per turn, the nominal length of a turn in Scramble!, but six will be the number of the counting and the number of the counting will be 6. That's 20 turns of this for a turn of Seekrieg 5 and near-as-damn-it the same as a nominal turn in Scramble!

Epiphany achieved, there was much to do. Firstly, forming ideas and notes into a sensible set of rules/guidelines to use. I produced a first, rough draft by Sunday, but it required that extra effort for the last 10%. Then there was the 'equipment' for the tabletop; stands already constructed (fortunately), but still planes to be painted and mounted so as to go on the stands, ships to be painted and the details of the historic action extracted from my sources. A little bit more pressure was added since we'd be three.

With a game planned, I let Stephen know and asked if he'd be interested to join us, telling him that it would be a test and that we are deliberately taking a detailed approach, each turn representing six seconds. He was a willing to be a 'bunny' too. Marvellous. But, given that he was travelling the 100-odd km for the game it had to be worth his while.

The stands were completed previously (well known to readers of this blog).

Planes needed to be painted and have bits of magnet glued on so as to be able to sit on the stands. A first coat of paint completed the night before, gluing the morning of: JIT* logistics!
(*Just in time)

Ships had been assembled, but could do with more paint. Only a bit more was done in time, so would have to suffice for the occasion—not quite JIT. Left to right: Kinugasa, Furutaka, Zuikaku and Shōkaku.

My 'resource gathering' for this entire recreation-in-miniature of the naval actions of the Pacific War has been chiefly focussed on the ships. A lot of good quality information, first-hand accounts and declassified reports (in English) are available on the interweb on sites like the Naval History and Heritage Command, US Naval Institute, plus websites compiled by enthusiasts, including the NavWeaps and the Imperial Japanese Navy Page. I have found some excellent articles from journals such as the Naval War College Review on these sites and others, but you still can't go past a good book. For the early war, John B. Lundstrom's two volumes "First Team : Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway" and "The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign : Naval Fighter Combat from August to November 1942" are the duck's nuts. The relevant pages of Volume 1 would be our guide for the action.

Lundstrom's sensational The First Team: our tour guide for the day.

The Japanese fleet, 'steaming' south at 30 knots so as to reduce the gap to their attacking planes, had become terribly strung out. "Taking the lead were three destroyers; then came the heavy cruisers Myōko and Haguro of the 5th Cruiser Division. The Zuikaku sailed about 10 000 meters [sic.] ahead of the Shōkaku, and nearly the same interval separated the Shōkaku from the heavy cruisers Kinugasa and Furutaka bringing up the rear" (Lundstrom p. 228). So, at our scale of 1:700 Shōkaku would be the only ship on the tabletop.

Seeking shelter from the in-coming planes, Zuikaku sailed into the front to the south...

and disappeared from view, taking the four Zeros that she was yet to launch.

Around 10 000 m north, Shōkaku her remaining two Zeros ready to launch.

She was not entirely alone, "at low level were five Zeros in two shotai led by PO1c Minami Yoshimi and PO1c Miyazawa" (Lundstrom p. 228). Another two Zeros circulated at nearly 13,000 feet (~4 000 m) above Shōkaku and PO1c Iwamoto Tetsuzō with his two wingmen from Zuikaku were also aloft.

Having circled for sometime, hidden in clouds to the southeast of the Japanese carrier, Burch's Scouting Five prepared to attack.

Seeing the SBDs dive to the attack, Iwamoto' shotai plunged after them.

Iwamoto "...ripped into a firing pass on the lead bomber, which happened to be Burch's Dauntless, opened with his 20-mm cannons at close range, and flashed past, certain that he had downed the American" (Lundstrom p. 230). 

Action a plenty. Burch and Jorgenson have dived on  Shōkaku, Iwamoto and co. attacking them as they did. Shōkaku launched the first of her remaining fighters, as the Zeros defending the carrier circled overhead.

In the historic action, Iwamoto missed, but in ours he hit, causing 8 points of damage (against a possible 17) peppering Burch's machine with holes and increasing its stall speed. In the historic action, it was Burch's wingman, Ens. John H. Jorgenson, attacked by Iwamoto's wingmen, whose plane was damaged, but he escaped unscathed in ours. As with history, the two Dauntless completed their dives and released their bombs which fell in the Coral Sea around Shōkaku, escaping the anti-aircraft fire from the carrier as they attacked.

Shōkaku launched her remaining Zero. Beautifully captured by Vice Admiral Stephan-san.

The next three Dauntless dived on the carrier, similarly missing,... 

but not all escaped the AA fire—a 1 in 100 hit! One of the Dauntless, badly damaged, disintegrated moments later, her crew successfully ejecting into the Coral Sea.

There was more happening. One of the Wildcats escorting Scouting Five dived to attack the defending Zeros, missing his mark. The four Zeros from Zuikaku entered the 'arena', The remaining pair of Dauntless from Scouting Five prepared to dive...

What a marvellous thirty seconds that was! Not a heap of photos, but plenty going on. We had planes attacking carriers, in air to air 'jousts', anti-aircraft fire from the carrier, planes taking off, some damage and a plane lost.

We debated for a while the fate of the pilot and gunner of that ill-fated Dauntless. Would a Catalina or such be sent to their rescue, or were they to be casualties? I expected the latter, Julian argued strongly that a search would be sent once the entire battle was complete "the morale effects of 'no man left behind'". It remained unresolved and a story for another time...

With set-up, discussions, lunch and then getting right into the swing of it, there was not time to bring in the remaining 17 Dauntless, nor the 9 Devastators, but the test was enough to show that the system would work. A few tweaks and adjustments had been indicated in this first outing, but it had survived first contact with the 'enemy'. With better preparedness, a complete (part) action such as the attack of the Yorktown group on Shōkaku could be carried out in a single session. It is unlikely that the attack by the Enterprise group could also be done—although you never know, I guess—but that's fine. The attack of the two groups occurred over some 40 minutes (400 turns!), so I'd expect at least two-sessions to complete it.

Julian said to me afterwards, "You must have been worried that it would not work and  pleased that it did?" In fact, I was not. More dangerously, I was convinced that it would work—so set up for disappointment. Part of that confidence was that it was based on a sound footing (Seekrieg 5) with added/adapted bits based on historic information.

This test completed and 'resources' gathered(ing), it's time to systematically get on with construction of the fleets, terrain (firstly Pearl Harbor, which we'll do chiefly at 1:6000) and making notes to produce a scenario/guidelines for each action from 7/12/41 on—at a slow but steady pace.

Construction of the fleets will continue, systematically by action, at a slow but steady pace.

Details of the game

Scale

Models are 1:700, each turn represents 6 seconds, 1.5 mm = 1 yard, planes and ships travel 5 mm per 1 knot (10 mm per 2 knots).

Vertical scale nominally 1:20 000, except for 'wave-top' height which is represented at 1:700.

Rules

A descriptive game adapting Seekrieg 5 to reduce the length of a turn from 2 minutes to 6 seconds, all assessments and movements done by individual plane (and ship), torpedos tracked with the effect of any potential hits (intersections of course) conducted per Seekrieg 5, bombs falling according to the relative location of the plane and target ship with affects of any hits according to Seekrieg 5. Probabilities of hits from anti-aircraft fire determined according to Seekrieg 5, but by plane. Mechanics from Scramble! used for air to air combat and assessment of the effect(s) of anti-aircraft fire.

Denmark Strait; straight on once more

I headed to Julian's on Wednesday for our long-awaited second go at Denmark Strait and, more importantly, our first test of "Seekrieg 5".

Hood leading followed by Prince of Wales

As with the first re-fight of this action, the floor of Julian's wargames room transformed into the Denmark Strait and we set the Prinz Eugen/Bismarck and Hood/Prince of Wales at the appropriate distance, at 1:6000 scale, to represent the situation at 0537. Once again, we moved the ships, at 28 knots (1 cm per knot), according to their tracks in the historic engagement, with turns conducted according to the mechanics in the Seekrieg 5 rules.

Map of action "The Battleship Bismarck" by Ulrich Elfrath and Bodo Herzog, from Don Hollway's Pursuit of Bismarck website.

Hood turned, slightly less than 45º to starboard on the first turn. The Prince of Wales following her two minutes later. The two continued on this new course for a further  eight minutes (four turns), then, at 0549, they turned a further 10º to starboard so as to better intersect the expected tracks of the German ships.

HMS Hood began the action with a salvo from her A and B turrets.

At 0551, Hood opened fire with her A and B turrets, targeting the lead German ship (which, unknown to the British Admiral was the Prinz Eugen, rather than Bismarck, the two having change position during the previous night). The rules produced a credible 7% chance of a hit, with four rounds of fire (four rolls of percentage dice) in the two minutes of a turn. No hits were scored (as was the case in the historic action).

From k.bismarck.com: "Two 15-inch shells from the Hood land close to the Prinz Eugen during the initial phase of the battle of the Denmark Strait. This photo was taken by war reporter Josef Lagemann from the after 10.5-cm Flak position on the starboard side."

0553: Prince of Wales now opened up as well, targeting the rear ship (Bismarck) while Hood still fired at Prinz Eugen. Slightly better chance (around 17% from memory), but again, all misses.

Both British ships firing their forward turrets, while closing the range.

0555: Another salvo from each of the British battleships missed once more. Prinz Eugen opened fire on Hood (lead British ship), scoring one hit that did not penetrate the British battlecruiser's armour. 

I did not take any photos during this part of the game as I was enjoying the game, the rules, our discussions and laughing at my inability to roll anything lower than a 40 or so with percentage dice!

The critical point of the action: the British ships make a 20º turn to port so as to open up their broadside and hence enable their rear turrets to fire. This was the moment that sealed Hood's fate in the historic action, when a lucky shot from Bismarck pierced her deck and caused an explosion.

0559: Hood and Prince of Wales turned to port 20 degrees. Prinz Eugen fired on Hood once more, scoring two, non-penetrating hits, one to the deck, the other to a barbette; 80 points of damage. Bismarck opened fire... and missed. A divergence from history—as occurred in our previous re-fight of this battle. The British ships continued to fire on their German foes with the additional batteries (turrets) yielding immediate benefits. Hood scored two hits on Prinz Eugen, on the superstructure (110 points of damage) and knocking out a secondary turret (along with a further 100 points of damage). The Prince of Wales hit Bismarck, twice; on the belt and engine room. The latter hit started a fire and reduced the speed of the German battleship by 1 knot.

0601: The ships, now running parallel, exchanged broadsides. Prinz Eugen scored two hits on Hood, to belt and a turret. Once again neither was able to penetrate her armour; 40 points of damage. Bismarck also hit Hood—twice. The first on the belt failed to penetrate and detonate. The second penetrated and detonated in X turret, knocking it out. 

For her part, Hood, now firing on Bismarck, failed to hit the new target. However, the gun crews on the Prince of Wales had their mark, scoring four hits on Bismarck. A penetrating and detonating hit to the belt end, pass-through hit on the superstructure, a penetrating and detonating hit on a barbette and a second, penetrating and detonating hit on the belt end. A total of 400 points of damage but, more importantly, another fire, the loss of a secondary barbette and the hits to the belt caused her to list and left her, in the short-term at least, unable to fire her guns.

Hood and Prince of Wales both fired broadsides at Bismarck, the latter scoring four hits, starting another fire on board the great German battleship (just visible through the morning mist at top, slightly left of centre) and, temporarily at least, silencing her guns.

A zoomed view, showing the smoke from fires on Bismarck, Prinz Eugen ahead of her.

That ended the game/action for us. There was a little more to play out but I needed to get home and it was clear that Bismarck was 'gawn'. She was down to 27 knots and her guns were silenced for the immediate period. The British ships would close in again. Now, both having their mark, the likelihood of at least two hits each was extremely high. This would devastate Bismarck further, with no reply possible. If it did not sink her or force her surrender or, more likely, to be scuttled, then the British ships, aware of her plight, could slow, focus on their target and pound her to Davy Jones' locker. If, remarkably, the action continued long enough, the cruisers Suffolk and Norfolk would come into the action too. We assumed that, as per the later phases of the historic action, Lütjens would order Prinz Eugen to disengage and head to safety.

Observations

The battle
Holland's brave and dangerous tactic to 'charge' the German ships so as to close the range and the extreme luck/bad luck associated with Bismarck's catastrophic hit on Hood in the historic battle stand in stark relief. We have now played out the battle twice and each time Bismarck has missed. This would not only have changed the result of the battle, but the careers/memory of the respective admirals, not to mention the lives of those on board the respective ships.

The rules

Once again the game was superb; even more so this time as the rules suit us far, far better. Seekrieg have a 'reputation' for being complex. They are not. One could say 'involved', but they flow beautifully. Neither of us had used them before, save for an attempt to work out the process of firing last time that we re-fought Denmark Strait. This had not been easy as we were switching between various pdf files (Julian had purchased the electronic version of the rules), which made it really difficult as we were fumbling around in a most unsystematic manner, trying to get from one step to another. This time it was different.

Julian had printed the rules. We took a bit of time to calculate measurements of movement and ranges in metric and it took us a while to work through the steps in firing/assessment of damage (chiefly to find the relevant tables to look up), but once we had that worked out the turns and the firing just flowed.

Many people assess a set of rules based on achieving the 'right' or at least a credible result. This is a key, but as important, or I would say more important, is the path to achieving the results.

With Seekrieg you determine chance to hit, location of hit, whether each shell that hits is capable of penetrating the armour at the location of the hit and, if it is, whether it detonates or passes through. This causes various levels of damage and, most importantly, 'damage effects' (what is commonly referred to as 'critical hits' in other sets of rules).

This sounds involved, but is not. Firstly, with Second World War naval one is dealing with a few or a handful of ships and each only fires a shot or three, so one can afford to be more detailed and still get through an action in a reasonable time (for us), to get the ‘right’ result, but also have a pathway to it that tells us more about how and why that result occurred. Secondly, the authors of Seekrieg have gone to a lot of trouble to make this process a series of simple steps, with simple addition and subtraction mathematics and a handful of tables to look up. The last of the steps in determining hits/damage is one of the best examples of this. The authors have devised Table M1. It took us a while to find it as it was not in with the other charts. Then Julian recalled and found it, in a separate file. This is because it is 17 pages long with 149 tables. The tables are grouped so that a set of them refer to hits at different locations on different classes of vessel. In fact, thinking more about the game and the rules I began to wonder, are Seekrieg too simple?

I went from answering "yes" to answering "no" to coming to an interim conclusion of "most likely not"! I was originally thinking "yes" as I thought, hang on, for the ‘key’ table H1 (determination of hits) one merely puts a few, simple modifiers on the most important factor of the ‘fire control solution’. How superior is this to the base 12%-type mechanic of "General Quarters"? Then I considered it more and thought, of course it is. The fire control solution is all about the firing ship, guns, range, speed of target, then the ’tweaking around the edges’ provides the rest of the modifiers to produce a factor which, with the number of shells (barrels) fired each round, produce the chance of any of them hitting. So I am at "no". Ah, but then the niggle came in. Hit determination is still a fairly crude ‘it’s raining shells’ do any of them hit the target? Could this be done per shell? Is that feasible or desirable? Hang on, once a hit is achieved then it *is* determined by each shell/hit. Big tick (and that was a beaut part)! So it is likely that they are detailed enough. Of course, the rules have also been better thought through than by me who has played one game and not read this version yet! 😳 So, my answer for now is "most likely not" (too simple). I shall be interested to see whether, with actually reading the rules and then using them a few more times, it moves to a firm "no" or shifts to "not, in the main, but I’d like some more detail regarding determining whether and where each shell from each round hits". We shall see and it is gonna be fun finding out!!

Details

Rules

Seekrieg 5 (2004). Seekrieg https://www.seekrieg.com/Seekrieg5IntroPage.htm

Ships

1/6000 scale Figurehead Ships.

Information about the action

Don Hollway's Pursuit of Bismarck website.

José M. Rico's brilliant The Battleship Bismarck website

The HMS Hood Association.