The (Ultrashort) Battle of the River Plate

Last weekend I got together with Christian to play a game. I decided to do Victory at Sea. The scenario was the Battle of the River Plate. Christian and his son Christian Jr. played the British, while Ziggy play the Germans and I refereed. The battle went something like this...

Turn 1
The Germans and the British moved towards each other. The British launched their scout planes. The Germans had engine trouble and couldn't launch theirs.  Both sides take pot shots at each other but score no hits




HMS Achilles and a misplaced HMS York. I was using HMS York in place of HMS Exeter and it apparently end up in the HMS Ajax's position. The is HMS York is actually supposed to be on the other end of the table. Christian still played the ship using HMS Ajax data.

The Admiral Graf Spee moving forward.

HMS Ajax starting in HMS York's position.

Turn 2
Everyone turns their radars on and almost every ship is detected. The British and German's continue to close with each other. Shots are exchanged, the firing is mostly ineffective.

The Light cruisers closing on Graf Spee, in the back ground one can see "HMS York" also moving in. (The die behind HMS Achilles signifies performing evasive maneuvers.)

Turn 3
Disaster for the Germans, as a lucky shot by Christian Jr. disables the Graf Spees engines. Ziggy fails the damage control roll and the Pocket Battleship is dead in the water.

The cruisers continue to close in as a lucky shot from "HMS York" disables Graf Spee.

Turn 4
Both Graf Spee and "HMS Ajax" exchange torpedo and gun fire. "HMS Ajax" takes a beating but survives. The disabled Graf Spee takes two torpedo hits and sinks.

Graf Spee and "HMS Ajax" exchange torpedo and gun fire.

Admiral Graf Spee burns after being struck by two torpedoes.

The game was shorter than I planned for. Lesson learned, when doing an introduction game have multiple ship's on each side. Unfortunately I didn't bring any other ships and I was also on a time limited (it was a work night). So we finished the day playing a couple of games of Munchkin and a short game of Zombies. I hope to return to this someday with a larger scenario and more ships.