The Balkan League
forces have a new admiral after the death of Admiral Senyavin at Salonica. He was killed when his flagship the Poltova
exploded during a short range gunnery duel with the Ottoman flagship. The new Admiral Pavel Ivanov is not deterred
by the drubbing his fleet took above Salonica and orders a fresh Offensive into
the Aegean (Admiral Ivanov has a Command rating of 1? Gulp!) .
Admiral Al Reis of the Ottoman
League force is also confident after destroying so many Russian ships aligned
with the Balkan League. He also orders
his forces back on the Offensive, despite failing to breakthrough at Salonica
leading to the loss of the city.
Both forces have
begun to fan out across the Aegean. The
Balkan League is trying to capture and destroy troop ships, while the Ottoman
League is trying to stop these attempts.
Per the rules for Campaigns, both sides choose Offensive
strategies. Admiral Ivanov rolls up a
Patrol mission where the Balkan League is the attacker. This will be a 6 turn engagement with any
classes of ship up to 25 Armor points.
Forces
Balkan League
To ease pressure on Russian assets, Admiral Ivanov has
ordered the allied ships to take a stronger role in these Aegean patrols.
French:
Brennus Captain:
Theo Aube Command:
4
Class: Charles Martel Category:
Heavy Cruiser Armor:
8
Primauguet Captain: Jean de
Vienne Command:
4
Class: D’iberville Category:
Cruiser Armor:
7
Greek:
Class: Vettor Pisani Category:
Armored Cruiser Armor:
8
Total= 23 Armor Points
Ottoman League
Prince Eugen Captain:
Anton von Sterneck Command:
2
Class: Tegethoff Category:
Battleship Armor:
9
Bravo Captain: Anton Pock Command:
4
Class: Huszar Category: Destroyer Armor: 6
Volta Captain: Ludwig Brommy Command: 1
Class: Huszar Category: Destroyer Armor: 6
Total= 21 Armor Points
Looks like a rematch between the Prince Eugene and the
Brennus from Salonica!
Mission:
This battle takes place south of Thasos but north of
Lemnos in the Aegean Sea. The Balkan
Fleet is attempting to locate any troop ships on route to the mainland, while
the Ottoman League forces are attempting to locate and eliminate any Balkan
League ships in the area.
This battle will be a relatively straight forward affair
with both sides trying to eliminate the other as they come across the
enemy. There are no complications and
the battle will take place on a 4x4 table. The fleet with the most Armor points
left after 6 turns is the winner.
The Brennus is the Balkan Command ship, while the Prince
Eugene is the Ottoman League flagship.
No ships are in squadron.
Set-up:
The Austro-Hungarians are in the center of the table with
the Prince Eugene leading the two destroyers.
They are all going speed 3 and at mid-altitudes. The French are coming on from the North side
at speed 5 and mid-altitudes as well.
Turn 1:
Initiative: The Balkan League wins with 3 successes to 2. They decide to go first.
Movement:
The Primaugaut stays low, slows down and heads forward to
use her air torpedoes. The Brennus and
the Georgios Averoff split towards opposite edges to try and get the
Austrio-Hungrians into a kill zone between their broadsides.
The two Austrian destroyers race forward and didge down
to screen the Prince Eugene from the expected Torpedo barrage from the French cruiser. I was unsure how to play this, should the
Prince Eugene just try to take the barrage and have the Destroyers race off to
attack a target or try to screen the bigger ship? This time, I decided to try and screen and
see what happens.
Battle:
The Georgios puts a burst on the Bravo, while the Brennus
locks-on. The gun batteries fire and hit
the Bravo twice and cause another burst.
The Primaugaut fires a brace of 6 forward air torpedoes
at the Prince Eugene despite the Destroyers trying to screen her, they can not
intercept the torpedoes. The Prince
Eugene’s point defense systems take out one, and three more slam into the ship’s
armored belt and fail to cause damage. Two
other harmlessly miss and detonate.
The Austro-Hungarian destroyers hold fire. However, the Prince Eugene fires its main
batteries at the Brennus and fail to hit due to burst and elevation
differences. Ammo is good. They also fire a brace of 4 air torpedoes at the
Brennus. The French Point Defense takes
out one, and the other three streak across the ship’s bow and miss.
End:
The Bravo takes two hits, and its screw is fouled!
The Austro-Hungarians remove the Bursts from the Pirnce
Eugene and the Balkan League removes it from the Brennus.
Turn 2:
Initiative: French earn 2 successes, and the Austrians
earn 1. The French decide to go second
and see what the Austro-Hungarians have in mind.
Movement:
The Austro-Hungarian fleet began to wheel slowly to the
west, the Volta leading the way. The
Volta decided to blow smoke, while the Prince Eugene re-loaded her
ordinance.
The Georgios Averoff slowed to stay in front of the Austro-Hungarian
fleet and keep them in her broadside arc.
The Primaugaut dived to stay out of the way and reloaded ordinance,
while the Brennus moved to engage the Prince Eugene in a Broadside duel.
Shooting:
The Volta and Bravo both fired their light batteries at
the Greek ship, but missed.
The Prince Eugene fired her bow Air Torpedoes at the
Primaugaut trying to get below the fleet.
Two are destroyed by point defense, one misses, and the last one bounces
off the ship’s armor and explodes harmlessly.
The Prince Eugene’s big batteries fire on the
Brennus. The French ship is shocked as
the Austrians roll 9 hits! The French
captain hurriedly orders a Brace to try and save his ship from a pounding! Say good-bye to that gunnery duel. The Brennus makes 4 Brace saves! Remarkably, only one hit manages to get past
the Heavy Cruiser’s armor.
In reply, the Brennus returns fire but only inflicts 3
bursts as the shells bounce off the Prince Eugene’s armor. The Georgios Averoff puts a single burst on the
Volta.
End:
The hit in the Brennus only peels away some armored
plate.
The Balkan League removes the bursts off the Brennus and one
from the Primaugaut. The Austro-Hungarians
remove the bursts from the Prince Eugene and the Volta.
The bravo can not repair as she still has two bursts on
her.
Turn 3:
Initiative: Balkan
League 2 and Austrians 1. The French
decide to go first this time.
Movement:
The Balkan League continues their circling maneuver. However, the Austro-Hungarians will have none
of it. The Destroyers stoke their
boilers and rapidly speed-up to break through the Balkan League line. The Prince Eugene decides to put up a
smokescreen to help protect herself as she slowly builds up steam to escape.
Shooting:
The Greeks are not eager to let the damaged Bravo go so
easily so they lock-on and fire at the destroyer at short range. Two more bursts and a hit on the Austrian
Destroyer.
The Brennus also locks-on and fires with her broadside at
the Prince Eugene. The Smokescreen
provides little protection as the Heavy shells strike home. However, at the range they are at, none of
them find a weak spot on the Austro-Hungarian ship.
The return fire from the shrouded Prince Eugene manages
to put a burst on the Georgios and the Brennus.
End:
The Bravo loses another point of armor.
After Burst removal, the Prince Eugene is the only ship
with one left.
The Bravo manages to repair her screw!
Turn 4:
Initiative: Balkan League wins with 4 successes and the
Austrians 1.
Movement:
The Brennus successfully Comes About in an attempt to
pursue the fleeing Austrian Battleship.
The other Balkan League ships do the same. However, the Austrians are content to flee
the battle, the Destroyers look like they will escape next turn, with the
Prince Eugene trudging along behind.
Shooting:
None of the Balkan League ships have the range to damage
the Prince Eugene, so are hold their fire to avoid Ammo checks.
The Prince Eugene does not feel the same way, and fires
on the Georgios Averoff with a broadside.
They even lock-on. The Greeks
Brace. The result of the fire is two
bursts and a hit!
End:
The Austrians shot managed to jam the rudder on the Greek
armored Cruiser.
All bursts are removed.
Turn 5:
Initiative: Austrians win with 1 success and Balkan
League have none! Austrians elect to move first.
Movement:
The Destroyers escape off the board. The Captain of the Austrian Battleship is satisfied
with the range and uses a Come to New Heading order to turn back into the
fight! Seeing this, the Balkan League
fleet tries to stay out of the field of the guns with the Greek’s going up one
altitude band and the Brennus going down one.
Perhaps the tables have turned?
Shooting:
At long range, the Prince Eugene manages to put one more
hit on the Brennus! The French Heavy
Cruiser takes the punishment and holds fire with her own guns, the range being
too great to cause damage.
End:
The Brennus loses another Armor Point.
The Greeks repair their damaged Rudder.
Turn 6: Final Turn
Initiative: French score 2, and the Austrians 0. French
decide to go second.
Movement:
The Austrians are content to steam ahead. The Brennus dives to go below the field of
the Prince Eugene’s guns while the Georgios Averoff is content to scoot
away. The Primaugaut sneaks up behind
the Prince Eugene for a torpedo attack using a Come About special order.
Shooting:
The Prince Eugene fires at long range on the Greeks, but
misses. The ammo roll is passed.
The captain of the Primaugaut lined up to fire his burst
of torpedoes. However, since the
Primaugaut had to use a Come About order the torpedoes may not be fired this
turn.
End:
No bursts need to be removed, and no one needs a repair
roll.
Conclusion:
The battle forced
the Turkish command to hesitate and begin to re-think their strategy in the
Aegean. Instead of sending their
troopships across in loose groups, they instead decided to launch a coordinated
attack on the island of Thasos. They
began to marshal their air and naval assets for the attack. Meanwhile, the new Balkan Admiral was buoyed by
the success of his offensive strategy and began to lay the groundwork for his
next offensive.
The Balkan League and the Ottoman League bash at each
other above the Aegean. Both sides lost
3 Armor Points, so the Balkan League scores a narrow win since they started
with a couple more armor points. It was
up to the Austrians to land a few more decisive blows. However, I was more concerned about getting
out of the kill zone than causing damage.
I am unsure if it was wise to move my Destroyers so aggressively
the first turn. If I hadn’t the Prince
Eugene would have taken the brunt of the Balkan attack, and probably weathered
it fine. However, At Salonica I had seen
how powerful the initial torpedo barrage had been and wanted to avoid that fate
for the Prince Eugene. In the end, it didn’t
really matter and the Bravo took a pasting it may have been able to avoid with
speed.
In addition, I grabbed the two Austrian destroyers for my
list hoping to have some torpedo snipers of my own, but was disappointed when I
realized that the Huszar class is armed with Air Mines instead. I didn’t really get a chance to use them this
game. The French D’iberville class
cruiser’s air torpedoes were terrifying to me since I knew they could
effectively snipe my larger battleship and not endanger herself to my guns. I am lucky she couldn’t give me that parting
barrage in the final turn. I am very
happy with how the Prince Eugene performed in the battle, doing the brunt of
the work and shrugging off the heavy guns of the Brennus.
Campaign Stuff
The Ottoman League is still in the lead with 3 Campaign
Points to 1. This time, the Balkan
League holds onto the point. They have
now won two of the last 3 battles, but barely.
Damage:
The crew of the Bravo manages to repair 1 armor point,
bringing her to 4. They then use two of
4 Strategic Assets to repair the rest back to 6 armor.
The Brennus repairs 1 armor with crew, and 1 with a
Strategic Asset back to full armor.
The Georgios Averoff’s crew repairs her back to full
armor.
The ottoman’s Bank their remaining Assets to give them a
bank of 7, while the Balkan league has a bank of 1.
Experience
Bravo= +1 (5)
Volta= +1
Prince Eugene= +4 (8)
Brennus= +2 (4)
Primauguat= +2 (8)
Georgios Averoff= +5
No ships earn enough for an experience upgrade.
The Balkan League’s
successes on the ground maybe short lived as the Ottoman league’s success in
the air is causing concern among the Balkan Command. Admiral Al-Reis has begun to plan operation
to fortify and secure the ottoman position on Thasos to allow the Ottoman
troops a safe haven and assault point to the mainland. Such a move would put the Balkan League’s latest
gains in peril and secure the ottoman’s a chance to grow their reinforcements
in Europe.
In the meantime,
Admiral Ivanov was pleased with the French efforts in the Aegean and has begun
to plan his own operation towards the Dardenelles. Captain Aube and his staff find such a maneuver
to be fool-hardy, but the Russian Admiral will not be dissuaded so close to
fulfilling Russian ambition in the region.
Only a few weeks into the Uprising, and the decisive battle still looms
in the future.
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