Shipwreck Sunday

I actually manage to get the time to play a game. Me and Christian met up at Morning Star Games to play some Shipwreck. The scenario was based on one from Harpoon, in which a small German force had to intercept a small Soviet Amphibious Assault Group. Both me an Christian roll to decide who got which side. I ended up with the Soviets. I had two cruisers, a Kara and Kresta I, and one frigate, a Krivak II. They were escorting a group of 4 LSTs. Christian got a Ex-US Charles F. Adams missile destroyer and a Bremen class frigate. Both sides also had air support on the way.

The game started with bad weather, rough seas and light rain. In addition the war had just started and there was lots of civilian shipping traffic. Radar search was hindered by the bad weather and ESM wasn't effective due to the fact that all the civilian vessels had their navigation radars on. The civilians were also running with their lights on, making them easier to spot visually. Here's some pictures of what happened.

A pair of Civilian vessels spotted early by my Ka-25 helicopter, just before it was shot down by a standard missile.

A contact detected with radar from the German Lynx. There was a special rule that allowed for groups of ships that were close together could be represented by a single marker. (A group of markers in formation, would have been a dead give away,)

On turn 3 both sides received air support. Christian got a pair of Tornadoes. They check a some possible contacts only two find a tanker and a ferry.

Meanwhile my MiG-21s had better luck. Spotting both the German destroyer Rommel and the frigate Emben. 

A short while later his Tornadoes find my LSTs and fires 4 SSMs at two of the ships. Igla SAMs on the ships manage to shoot down 2 of the missiles. One missile missed the rear LST but front LST was hit suffering heavy damage and losing its gun and rear Igla launcher. 

The next turn the Lynx fires a Sea Skua at my Kresta I.

The Sea Skua hit destroying my port torpedo launchers. At the same time the Lynx was shot down with a missile from the cruiser Kerch. 

The tornadoes then fired off their remaining missiles the rear LST. This time the missiles hit sinking the ship

My remaining MiG-21 (the other had been shot down by a standard missile) tried to intercept the Tornadoes on their way out. Unfortunately it was no match for the more advanced planes. 

The next turn the ships started firing missiles at each other. My Kresta I fired two SS-N-3s will the Kara fired a single SS-N-14.

The Germans for their part fired five harpoon missiles. Three at the Kresta I and two at my Krivak II. 

The Krivak managed to shot down one of the missiles with an Osa SAM, but then one another was decoyed on to it. Both missiles hit sinking the Frigate. The Kresta took a hit that took out one of her guns and a ASW mortar. For my part, the SS-N-14 missed the destroyer, but both SS-N-3s hit the frigate. Being heavy missiles they made short work of the Emben. 

After that last turn, my phone battery gave up the ghost and died so I don't have anymore photos. The final turn the seas finally calmed down. The Kara fired another SS-N-14 at the German destroyer. Meanwhile the Christian fired three Standard missiles, at the heavily damaged Alligator. The standards hit the Alligator first sinking it; and they had just gotten repaired too. Shortly after the Selix hit the Rommel taking out its missile launcher and crippling it. This was when we called it. Christian won but it was a pyrrhic victory with the loss of a very modern frigate and the potential loss of a DDG, of which the Germans had only three.

It's been a long time since I've played any shipwreck and mistakes were made in both game play and the scenario, which was made up a bit rushed. But over all the game was really enjoyable. I really should have given the Russians four MiGs instead of two, or may something more modern then MiG-21s. I also might look into the weapons arches for some of the ships, particularly the Russian cruisers.

    The game also gave me some useful insight on my future invasion game. The biggest thing being the playing area. I'll either have to increase the table size/length or use centimeters instead. If I can get the players, I'm thinking of trying the invasion game on first weekend of June, it being the 75th anniversary of D-Day and what not.