Americans at Jutland

I have just returned from a very enjoyable two days at the National Maritime Museum in London where I took part in an unusual "refight" of Jutland.

Not the 1916 battle we all know and love of course, this was a hypothetical "Second Battle" set in 1918 and featuring some of the US battleships that formed the 6th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet. The occasion was a game staged by the staff of the US Naval War College and was using the NWC's rules from 1922 (astute readers will recall the NWC ran a refight using the rules on the centenary of the battle). The game formed the evening entertainment within the museum's "First World War at Sea - Conflict, Culture and Commemoration" conference and whilst the umpiring team were all seasoned wargamers form the US and the UK the players themselves (with one or two notable exceptions) were the learned ladies and gentlemen from the conference who had probably never experienced wargaming before.

We closed up on Wednesday evening for an umpires' training session during which we became intimately familiar with the rules. Deterministic by nature, there is no rolling of dice in this game. Which initially sounded a bit stale and not conducive to a good time, but we soon found out in the game itself that the injection of the "human factor" more than made up for any perceived issues on the "fun front". Between admirals with very definite plans and shades of micromanagement through poor handwriting leading to miscommunication of orders, signals going missing, smoke screens laid in the wrong place, confusion over which ship an admiral leaving his stricken battleship was going to set up his flag and captains "taking the initiative" (or as we saw it, disobeying orders) there was more than enough confusion and hilarity to keep us all going. Oh, and an endless supply of nibbles and drinks provided by the museum staff.

The rather large (and lovely) movement templates

The High Seas Fleet, arrayed for battle (numbers of ships were limited to the number of players)

Each player had a ship control sheet - and a badge to make it easy of us hard-working umpires to find our respective ship's captains

The nerve centre of the operation, where all record keeping was conducted

Rear Admiral Jeff Hardy, USN, 56th President of the Naval War College, opens the event

Peter Pellegrino takes centre stage....

The view from the gallery 

Jim Wallman receives vital operational updates (maybe...)

The German planning conference - Scheer lays out his complex plan

The result of his complex plan (chaos!)

The end of the evening - fewer ships on the floor, note the solid, disciplined Allied line....

As the night drew to a close so then did the battle. Who won? The Germans were definitely on the end of a hiding, their complex plan and dodgy use of smoke contrasting with the ruthless efficiency of Innes "Jellicoe" McCartny's handling of the Grand Fleet. Despite losing two battlecruisers early on the RN and their US allies coolly dished out retribution on a regular basis, with five German ships sunk at the end of turn 4 and others in a poor way.

German scoreboard....

And the Allies

But it wasn't about the winning, it was the taking part. This was a historic occasion, watched over by such maritime luminaries as Nick Jellicoe (grandson of the Admiral himself), Professor Andrew Lambert and Professor Geoffrey Till. And from the US Naval War College, Peter Pellegrino made an excellent senior umpire and an awesome Master of Ceremonies. a presentional and teaching style that was quite inspirational.

So, a lovely night, enjoyed by all. And it was great to be there with good friends Stuart Machin, Bob Cordery, Nick Bradbeer and Jim Wallman. We are all looking forward to the next one :)

Si Vis Pacem

Today is the 102nd anniversary of the return home of the fleets from Jutland, and yesterday the anniversary of the battle itself. The occasion was marked with the release from LFG of "Si Vis Pacem", the fast play rules (developed by myself and Stuart Machin from my "Broadside and Salvo" rules) used in the Berkeley Vale Jutland refight (see the previous post), and Clash of Giants", the campaign material that Stuart put together initially for the NWS centenary game, but developed for the BV game.

SVP wasn't originally on the LFG plot, at least not for this year, but "Jutland in a Day" became something of a cause after the centenary game. That prompted my initial work on the subject and JIAD became a reality early last year as numerous battlecruiser actions were fought out in my campaign headquarters (ok, my shed). Stuart's enthusiasm for the rules saw them developed faster than I expected, culminating in the BV game last month. Stuart has done a grand job, especially on the campaign pack which will be of value to players of any WW1 naval rules, not just SVP.

As usual, both are available via Wargame Vault.

Si Vis Pacem

Clash of Giants

Jutland in a Day

Yesterday whilst most of the UK wargaming population were at Salute I took part in another refight of the battle of Jutland. This was run at the Berkeley Vale club in Slimbridge and was organised by Stuart Machin from the Naval Wargames Society. Stuart and I have been working on a WW1 set of fast play rules for a while now, drawing on my "Jutland in a Day" project, "Broadside and Salvo" (my pre-dreadnought rules) and the extensive work that Stuart put in to organising the NWS Jutland game at the NMRN on the battle's centenary.

Setup was completed at 1000, first moves at 1030 once a few players had downed a hearty breakfast supplied by the venue (the Tudor Arms pub in Slimbridge, home of the BV club and the site of a very nice skittle alley which serves as the games room). The initial setup was not quite as the actual battle as Stuart had run a pre-came mini campaign to determine starting positions. In the end things were not that different from reality, the main difference being that the German pre-dreads were left to guard Horns Reef, rather than being dragged out to slow down the fleet and act as a liability. Thus the High Seas Fleet looked rather small when compared with the Grand Fleet.

The Grand Fleet deployed in squadrons in line ahead. The ships used were Stuart's collection of 1/6000 Hallmark models, so no sneezing!

Ahead of the Grand Fleet, Beatty's battlecruisers and the supre-dreadnoughts of 5th BS probe towards the Germans. Contact has already been made between the light forces of both sides.

The High Seas Fleet - the German plan was to maintain much closer liaison between the main fleet (closer) and the battlecruisers (middle top). This was to prove to be a most useful decision

Initial exchanges proved costly to the light cruisers of both sides, which at times were the only targets for the enemy's battlecruisers. Echoing Heligoland Bight they were often rapidly dispatched.

Pillars of smoke denote the final resting place of two British light cruisers....

To the right of the shot the battlecruisers prepare to engage each other.

Between the line of the German BCs (lower) and the RN's BCs and 5th BS (top) a vicious destroyer melee is fought out. Both sides attempted to launch torpedo attacks on the heavy ships of their opponents, but these were frequently frustrated, the few attacks that were launched all failed at this stage of the battle. 

The battleships of the High Seas Fleet turn in echelon towards the battlecruiser action, seeking to engage 5th BS

Inexplicably, and against the best traditions of the Royal Navy, Beatty turns away from the Germans and opens the range. There will be some busy redrawing of track charts in the official histories (or maybe not....... 

5th BS in trouble. Despite roughing up the head of the HSF's battleline the QE superdreads came in for some punishment themselves. Barham, training the line, was heavily damaged, suffered a "fire" critical hit result and was unable to stem the flames. Damage escalated and the ship was lost! If nothing else this represented a severe moral blow to the RN, and the cheers of the Germans could be heard throughout the pub!

Despite their success at putting one of the QEs on the bottom the HSF found itself in a pickle as the  Grand Fleet hove into view. Discretion now being the better part of valour the decision was made to head for the hills (or at least for Horns Reef) and darkness (night was 3 hours away). However, several of the German dreadnoughts and battlecruisers had been damaged and their speed reduced slightly as a result. A tail chase was about to ensue.

A second disaster for the RN! Beatty decided to re-engage to sow the escape of the German battlecruisers. Lion found herself under heavy fire and she succumbed to multiple salvoes that sent her to the bottom. Beatty himself went down with his ship (so in the event no need to amend those charts!)

At that point your intrepid reported was forced to take his leave as emergent domestic requirements forced me to be elsewhere. Final details of the subsequent action are eagerly awaited from Scapa and Wilhelmshaven!

The game itself ran very well. The objective of fighting "Jutland in a Day" was ably achieved as I was informed by one of the players that the game drew to a suitable conclusion. And the rules worked very well, just one or two minor glitches hat were easy to resolve. Once a few turns ha been played everyone knew what to do and we progressed without many hitches (mostly caused by food and drinks breaks and inadvertent shifting of the tables!). So I think a great success.
 

Jutland 100 - Portsmouth

It was an early start for Laura and I on Tuesday May 31st as we headed to Portsmouth for the NWS centenary refight of Jutland. This is just a short report with a few pics since Stuart Machin, the game organiser, is working on a full AAR.

We arrived about 0830, spent 20 minutes getting into the dockyard and then took a short tour of the base so that Laura could see some of the various warships that were in. Then across to the "Action Stations" hall where the game was running.

The game was run using 1/3000 models and General Quarters 2 rules, with most of the active players and umpiring team (of which I was one) being very familiar with those rules. The positions of the ships were those at 1530 on the day of the battle, with play proceeding from that point. Players were encouraged to broadly follow the lines of the battle at the behest of the museum. That said, light forces were used aggressively in the early part of the game with destroyer flotillas hunting out the enemy's battlecruisers and each other, and scoring some early hits, and 5BS made a dramatic entrance decisively spanking the rear of the German battleline

As is the way of things we only really managed to recreate the "Run to the South",  and as the time allotted to the game drew to a close the leading elements of the High Seas Fleet and the Grand Fleet were just entering the play area. 

We had a steady trickle of members of the public popping in to see what was going on, as well as some familiar wargaming faces, so there were plenty of opportunities to chat and discuss both the battle and wargaming in general,

Some added colour was brought courtesy of the Sea Cadets, with a number of youngsters from Newham (Cornwell VC) Sea Cadets joining in as ship movers, die rollers and aides to the players. They certainly seemed to have a good time, and were especially pleased when HMS Chester entered the battlefield.

In the quiet moments Laura and I visited the new Jutland exhibition in the museum. A very well put together exhibition with a good combination of artefacts, models and audio visual displays. The piece de resistance was the bell from HMS Hood, beautifully displayed at the end of the exhibition.

So, only a portion of the battle recreated, and alas Stuart's command and control rules were hardly used given the nature of the game. However, the interest sparked in the game amongst the players on the day and others means it is likely that a weekend game with long playing time on both days is hopefully going to take place later in the year. Watch this space!

Jutland 100 - First Game

Yesterday I attended the first Jutland centenary refight at Bristol's naval reserve centre, HMS Flying Fox. This was a charity event organised by David Miller, played out using Hallmark 1/6000 scale models and MGP's "Age of Dreadnoughts" rules (which for obvious reasons I was quite pleased to see :) ). This was also a charity event in support  of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity who I think benefited well from the game entry fees and donations.

The game was played with hidden movement in the initial stages as far as the opposing teams were concerned.  A large screen was rigged between the two teams with vague sighting reports passed as the fleets closed, and a lone "pilot" from Engadine allowed a brief opportunity to walk over to the German side to draw a quick sketch of what they saw. Communication between the main body of players (who took the role of squadron commanders) and their fleet commanders was also limited to signalling which could be by signal (possibility of interception or garbled transmission) or semaphore (definitely garbled!). Despite this the fleet commanders built up fairly accurate pictures of the relative positions of the  enemy's fleet (and their own) . So it was interesting that when the screen came down there was an audible shock from the German squadron commanders as they realised their battlecruisers were sailing into the apex of a "V" formed by Beatty's battlecruisers and 5th BS on one flank and the leading squadrons of the Grand Fleet on the other. Battle was joined and it was not long before Von Der Tann and Barham as the leading ships of their respective squadrons began to take some heavy hits

The calm before the storm - British to the left, Germans to the right

The Grand Fleet divides, seeking to catch the German BCs in a pincer movement. To the left, German light forces look at the odds and decide that discretion is the batter part of valour, departing under a smoke screen

The five German battlecruisers (bottom middle) realise they have bitten off more than they can chew

Alas other commitments meant I couldn't stay long after lunch, but in a post action communique from David yesterday evening it was reported that the German battlecruisers were savaged, all five ships being sunk, with the British losing Barham, Seeing their fast arm destroyed the High Seas Fleet sought to disengage and the battle was declared a British victory.

Semaphore in action - players were also encouraged to wear anti flash gear!

Communications distances weren't great, but were still tricky!

This was an exciting and quite enjoyable event for all concerned from what I could see, and made better since many of the players were not wargamers. and even better considering this was the first mega game that David had organised. A most impressive feat.

David was also presented with a most wonderful cake on an HMS Erin theme  - something that should be a feature of every naval wargame :)

Te very proud recipient of a very lovely cake

So, with my first foray into Jutland on the wargames table complete thoughts are turning now to the NWS game as the National Museum of the Royal Navy tomorrow......