Battle of Dong Hoi

Sunday, me and my friend Christian played another game of Ship Wreck. The scenario, surprisingly NOT from Harpoon, was the battle of Dong Hoi in 1972. The battle of Dong Hoi was fought off the coast of Vietnam between the Vietnamese and the US Navy. Using a random selection method I ended up being the Americans, while Christian controlled the peoples navy. My mission was to bombard a number of unit headed South along the coastal highway. I had 2 cruisers and 2 destroyers.
Christian for his part had several torpedo boats, two shore batteries, and could call for air support. Unfortunately for him, he fail the special unit roll that would have also given him a Komar missile boat.

A picture of the battlefield prior to the start of the game. My ships can be seen in the bottom left.  My targets can be seen all along the coast with several unknown contacts between us and them.

Turn 1: My ships move towards the coast. The USS Lloyd Thomas detects two surface contacts. But they are to far to identify.

My fleet. The destroyers USS Lloyd Thomas and USS Higbee. The missile cruiser USS Sterett and the 7th Fleet flag ship USS Oklahoma City.

 

 Turn 2: My ships split into two groups. Sterett and Higbee continue to move due west. Mean while Lloyd Thomas and the better armored Oklahoma City move northwest towards the shore batteries. Sterett's SH-2 is able to identify the earlier contacts as Vietnamese P-6 torpedo boats another detected contact turns out to be a civilian fishing boat.

Turn 3: My ships continue to move towards the coast.

Turn 4: A torpedo boat attacks Higbee, firing two unguided torpedoes. Both torpedoes miss. In response the Higbee cripples the torpedo boat with its guns, taking out all the boats weapons.

The torpedo boat HQ-12 firing torpedoes at the USS Higbee.

The torpedo boat HQ-13 burns after being hit by multiple 127mm rounds.

 Turn 5: The Higbee is once again attacked by a torpedo boat. Once again the torpedoes miss. This time the enemy boat is sent to the bottom by the Higbee's gun.

The torpedo boat HQ-13 is blown out of the water while the US naval forces move to bombard the North Vietnamese Dr. Pepper supply.

 Turn 6: The action moves north as Lloyd Thomas is attacked by yet another torpedo boat. This time the torpedo boat came close enough to use its forward guns as well as its torpedoes. The Lloyd Thomas is hit with a torpedo. Luckily the torpedo only does light damage somehow taking out the helipad. The Lloyd Thomas for his part destroys the torpedo boat with gunfire.

A civilian fishing boat watches as the Lloyd Thomas get hit with a torpedo after destroying the Vietnamese PT boat HQ-11.

 Turn 7: My ships are finally within range of the coast. The Higbee bombards the first shore target successfully disrupting it. Meanwhile Christian has finally gotten hold of peoples air force.

The USS Higbee bombards a truck convoy, while USS Sterett moves into position to attack another.

 Turn 8: The crippled torpedo boat finally goes under. The Oklahoma City come within range of the first shore battery and begins to bombard it with its big guns. The shore battery only takes light damage this turn, losing its AA gun.

Fishing boats watch as Oklahoma City bombards the first shore battery

   Meanwhile in the South three MiG-17 fighters attack the Higbee. At first they tried tossing the bombs from just outside the Higbees AA range. The bombs miss and Sterett shots down one MiG with a terrier missile. The remaining two MiGs decide that to go to the deck and drop their remaining six bombs on the Higbee. All the bombs miss and the MiG-17s run for home.

MiG-17s attack the USS Higbee.

Turn 9: As usual I didn't get any pictures of the last turn. The Higbee launched his QH-50 Dash to help spot targets. The Lloyd Thomas moved in close to the shore to help bombard the shore battery and is damaged again, losing its aft gun mount. The Oklahoma City then disabled the shore battery with its 152mm guns.

    It was at this time that we decided to call it. The game was pretty much a draw. Christian had gained a victory by damaging one of my ships. However, with the loss of the shore battery and no mobile units left, I could bombard the land units I needed for victory at my leisure. Over all the game was good and close to the actual battle. (Although in the real battle it was Higbee that lost the aft turret).

What Christian could of done better: Spread the shore batteries out to cover area and group the land units closer to the batteries to be protected.

What I could have done better: Moving the Lloyd Thomas up to engage the shore battery was unnecessary and only resulted in the ship suffering more damaged.

Anyway I not sure what I'll be doing for my next game. I'm still working on units for my Megablitz East Front scenario and I also have a few ideas left for Shipwreck.

Trench Warfare

For the past month Morning Star Games have been hosting several World War I games, it being the 100th anniversary of the Great War. I had been hoping to get in on Chris's game of Victory at Sea but I had to work. Finally last Saturday, I managed to get in on all this Great War goodness by playing in Mike's Warhammer Great War game. I've had these rules for a while but hadn't had the time or money to paint the miniatures for a game. The scenario mike set was for a basic trench assault. There were 4 players, with me being one of the German players. Here are the old timey photos of the battle.

The enemy objective/

The battle field prior to any troop placement.

My forces setup. I had two platoons, both of which I placed well forward in the trench line.  I also had various support weapons including a HMG (seen in the entrenchment above), a light mortar, and a medium mortar.

Mike's set up of his forces. He had pretty much the same thing I had. He however only had one of his platoons in the trenches. The other was set up near the objective as a reserve. You can also see our one field gun.

The enemy set up. They had almost twice a many troops as we did as well as the feared tank.

 

A look at the enemy from the trench line.

The enemy  moves forward.

After sustaining heavy casualties, moves the tank forward. Due to an error we made reading the rules, we came under the wrong impression that the tank could only be hit with a side shot. This would nearly cost us the game.

Under heavy fire  from both the tank and an HMG team, I take several hits all but losing one of my entire platoons.



The enemy forces slowly move forward, but are still taking hits from the right.

The end of the game my troops start withdrawing from the trench. We may of lost the trench but we were able to hold the rear objective, thus giving our side the victory.

If we hadn't misread the rules, our field gun could have blown that tank to hell. Making living allot easier for us. I hope to play this system again soon. As for the immediate future, I've started gathering stuff for a new Megablitz unit and I hope to do my next early Cold War Shipwreck scenario soon.