Part 4: 16:05 - 16:20
Grey Hunter posted:
quote:
10.V. and 14. VII Half-Flotillas turn in succession to 005 and increase speed to 18.
5.III Battlesquadron and following battleline turn in succession to 005 and increase speed to 18.
9. V. and 13.VII Half-Flotillas maintain heading 000 for 10 minutes, then turn to 005 and increase speed to 18.
Rostock and 5.III Half-Flotilla turn to 005 and maintain speed.
Scouting groups turn to 005 and maintain speed.
16:20
Woops! I should have checked down here sooner, as it seems that the course change for the battle line didn't go in!
This is easily fixable, but embarrassing. The UI on this game is amongst the worst I've ever used, but I really should have checked sooner.
[quote]
2nd Leader of Destroyers
Change heading to 175, change speed to 25 knots, SMS Regensburg to fire at the closest enemy destroyer if in range, otherwise to target the closest enemy battle cruiser, DDs to hold fire.
11.VI Half-Flotilla Orders
Turn all ships bearing 175 at full speed
I Scouting Group
Still shift Von Der Tann's fire to Lion, the New Zealand is probably going to be too hard to hit right now given it's in the middle of the enemy fleet and might be out of range.
Trim speed to 23 knots anyway (I'm worried about ending up out of the battle due to British running away...),and come about to heading 145 (currently 135, right). Signalsunchanged, I think, and hope that the commander of II SG realizes he needs to run away from the QEs by himself.
II Scouting Grp
Turn to heading 120 degrees, increase speed to 27 kts. Launch torpedoes at enemy battleships if the opportunity presents itself and range is less than 8km; use 15cm guns to fire on battleships should they come into a range of less than 10km.
II Flotilla
Wiesbaden will turn to 135 and maintain 27kt speed.
DD B112 will turn to 090 and make whatever speed she can while
engaging in DC efforts. I can safely assume getting smacked by a
torpedo has caused a lot of flooding.
The rest of II Flotilla (B97, B98, B109, B110, B111) will fall in
behind B98 (the flotilla leader), set course 285, maximum speed
(34kts?). They will make a torpedo attack on the flank of that group
of British Battle cruisers (everything but Lion), and then my ships will
turn the hell away back SE.
16:05
The Battle cruisers begin to adjust their course, as they do the Seydlitz and Lutzow take hits, again the damage is reported to be minor
16:07
The V69 reports that she has begun to sink. She reports that she will be going down in five minutes.
She is hit again, and less than two minutes later she has slipped beneath the waves.
The II Scouting group being to move away from the enemy at a good speed, while opening fire on the New Zealand.
16:09
The V45 is hit by a six inch shell, and this hastens her demise as well.
16:11
The British fire is becoming more accurate, out battle crusiers take multiple heavy caliber hits.
The Lutzow is a good example of the damage, most of the hit ships have lost the odd smaller gun and a few crew, and are taking on some water, but as yet the damage is nothing critical.
The British Battle cruisers are in a similar state, although more of them are damaged.
Only one group of our ships still moving north is the 12.VI Half-Flotilla.
This quickly leads to these ships being the favorite target of the destroyer force moving northwards.
16:18
Three battle crusiers have moved into V formation and are moving south, following our ships.
The Lion is now so far south of its fellows, now 14 Kilometers ahead of the main body, and it getting pounded by lots of our ships. - 15 in total.
By now, she is only seen to have fired once in two minutes of observation.
16:20
So this turn ends, here is your battle map for the turn.
For Main group
The east most ships are the QE battleships, the Lion is the furthest ship south, and the other group is the three battle cruisers.
For 12.VI Half-Flotilla.
The Southern ships are the QE battleships, the group to their west are the three battle cruisers. To the north are the last two battle cruisers (the west most ships) and the destroyers.
Messages
2nd Leader of Destroyers from 12.VI Half Flotilla:
V.45 DESTROYED. V.69 CRITICALLY DAMAGED. ENEMY BATTLECRUISERS WITHIN 5000 METRES. SITUATION EXCELLENT. AM ATTACKING. WILL RESUME SCREENING II FLOTILLA WHEN BACK FROM HELL.
Scheer to (Hipper):
AM HEADING 005 SPEED 18 REPORT ENEMY HEADING AS SOON AS REASONABLY POSSIBLE
Scheer to (Fleet):
ENEMY CONTACT EXPECTED WITHIN 45 MINUTES BELAY ORDER TO CHANGE TO COLUMNS REMAIN IN LINE ASTERN
Scheer to (Paladin5):
YOU HAVE FREEDOM OF MANEUVER IF ENEMY SIGHTED REST OF BATTELINE WILL FOLLOW YOU AIM TO CROSS THE T ACKNOWLEDGE
Lost Messages
11.VI Half-Flotilla Orders to 2nd Leader of destroyers:
11.VI ACKNOWLEDGES. AM NOW BEARING 175 ATFULL SPEEDAND ATTEMPTING TO REGROUP WITH 12.VI TO COVER II FLOTILLA
4.IV Scouting Group to Stettin:
INCREASING SPEED TO 23 KNOTS, MOVING TO 8KM AHEAD
OF MAIN FLEET. NO CONTACTS.
So, did I mention how terrible the UI is for this game? it made me think I was giving orders to the whole battle line, when in fact only the first squadron got them.
Not much to say at this point, the fighting is fairly fast and furious as both sides fire at each other, but the chaos won't last. we're giving out more damage than we're receiving in the battle cruiser stakes.
Everything looks good so far.