Saturday Gaming!
I really needed a weekend like this - I haven't gotten this much gaming in quite a while. Ziggy came over early Saturday and we gave Infinity a go. He used Junior's minis - Junior was busy with other things and didn't mind. We used the basic starter rules and were simply trying to work through game mechanics. I'm not going to do a full AAR because we had some rules inconsistencies but the big point is that we enjoyed it and I think Zig is going to pick up a squad of guys for himself. A few pics...
Later in the evening, Dennis came over and we (including Junior this time) played a game of Shipwreck. Here's the scenario information:
June 1982
Sovremny and Krivak II escorting 3 transport ships to Tartus Syria. No more than 1 mile separation between ships. 60-70 miles from the coast, heading east. Speed 3. The Sovremny has 1 Ka-27.
Kidd and Perry are on blockade duty, 10 miles apart 10-15 miles from the coast, Heading any direction chosen by the player. Speed 3. Both ships have 1 SH-2F.
- Soviets will not fire first. Americans have orders to prevent re-supply to Syria and to stop the transport ships.
- Helicopters may be launched by either side at any time.
- No ships may increase speed to 5 until weapons are fired.
- Transports are rated at 10,000-25,000 tons, are -1 on all damage rolls (lots of ammo on board) and have a max speed of 4. Transports cannot repair their engines on a Heavy or Crippled damage result. (THIS WAS ADDED AFTER THE GAME - PLAYTESTING MODIFICATION)
- Soviets have already been warned to turn around - the threats have been ignored.
Special rules - Cold War hesitation: The US and Soviet Captains are very nervous about firing on Soviet ships. Orders are orders, but this might start World War 3! At the start of his turns, the US player must roll a d10 to see if the Captain overcomes the hesitation and just pushes the button. On turn 1, the roll must be a 1 in order for the US player to fire weapons. The roll needed increases by one each turn until the situation goes hot, at which any and all ships may fire weapons without restrictions. This roll may be done in secret with a witness so the Soviets aren't really certain what the situation is.
Victory Conditions
Major US Victory - No transports reach Tartus, no ships sunk on either side. Damaged ships are acceptable,
US Victory - No transports reach Tartus, some Soviet ships sunk.
Draw - No transports reach Tartus. Ships sunk on both sides.
Soviet Victory - Some transports reach Tartus. 1-2 Soviet ships sunk.
Major Soviet Victory - All transports reach Tartus and US fires shots.
We randomly determined who got which ships. Dennis ended up with the Kidd, Junior got the Perry. Ziggy got the Sovremny and I drove the Krivak. The transports were sort of on auto-pilot, bee-lining for Tartus.
Dennis rolled a "1" on turn one so the Americans had an itchy trigger finger from the get-go. Grumble grumble. Both sides sent their helos up and went fishing for detections.
Somehow, some brilliant dice rolls later, the incoming American missiles are all either shot down, distracted by chaff, miss completely or fail to damage their targets. All of the missiles had been targeted at transports.
The board setup
Down the alley
My left flank
Later in the evening, Dennis came over and we (including Junior this time) played a game of Shipwreck. Here's the scenario information:
June 1982
Sovremny and Krivak II escorting 3 transport ships to Tartus Syria. No more than 1 mile separation between ships. 60-70 miles from the coast, heading east. Speed 3. The Sovremny has 1 Ka-27.
Kidd and Perry are on blockade duty, 10 miles apart 10-15 miles from the coast, Heading any direction chosen by the player. Speed 3. Both ships have 1 SH-2F.
- Soviets will not fire first. Americans have orders to prevent re-supply to Syria and to stop the transport ships.
- Helicopters may be launched by either side at any time.
- No ships may increase speed to 5 until weapons are fired.
- Transports are rated at 10,000-25,000 tons, are -1 on all damage rolls (lots of ammo on board) and have a max speed of 4. Transports cannot repair their engines on a Heavy or Crippled damage result. (THIS WAS ADDED AFTER THE GAME - PLAYTESTING MODIFICATION)
- Soviets have already been warned to turn around - the threats have been ignored.
Special rules - Cold War hesitation: The US and Soviet Captains are very nervous about firing on Soviet ships. Orders are orders, but this might start World War 3! At the start of his turns, the US player must roll a d10 to see if the Captain overcomes the hesitation and just pushes the button. On turn 1, the roll must be a 1 in order for the US player to fire weapons. The roll needed increases by one each turn until the situation goes hot, at which any and all ships may fire weapons without restrictions. This roll may be done in secret with a witness so the Soviets aren't really certain what the situation is.
Victory Conditions
Major US Victory - No transports reach Tartus, no ships sunk on either side. Damaged ships are acceptable,
US Victory - No transports reach Tartus, some Soviet ships sunk.
Draw - No transports reach Tartus. Ships sunk on both sides.
Soviet Victory - Some transports reach Tartus. 1-2 Soviet ships sunk.
Major Soviet Victory - All transports reach Tartus and US fires shots.
We randomly determined who got which ships. Dennis ended up with the Kidd, Junior got the Perry. Ziggy got the Sovremny and I drove the Krivak. The transports were sort of on auto-pilot, bee-lining for Tartus.
Our cunning formation. My Krivak II in the lead, the Sovremny close behind and a herd of transports escorting us! Ablative armor at its finest.
Dennis rolled a "1" on turn one so the Americans had an itchy trigger finger from the get-go. Grumble grumble. Both sides sent their helos up and went fishing for detections.
On turn 5, Junior has enough detections to get the party started and looses two Harpoons.
Dennis follows suit and releases all eight of his Harpoons.
Somehow, some brilliant dice rolls later, the incoming American missiles are all either shot down, distracted by chaff, miss completely or fail to damage their targets. All of the missiles had been targeted at transports.
The Perry had fired off two more Harpoons after its first salvo. One of those two did manage a hit on one of the transports and caused heavy damage, halting the ship.
One of my SS-N-14s gets a hit on the boy's frigate and scores a heavy damage result - but just netting the flight desk and a torpedo launcher. Bah!
At this point things got rather interesting because we were all out of cruise missiles. It was going to turn into a short ranged scrap. My frigate was the first casualty. I had raked the Kidd with gunfire but came out on the losing end when he turned broadsides on us firing one gun and two Standards at each Soviet warship. My Krivak went straight to the bottom after eating two Crippled results. Our destroyer fared much better and was not damaged.
Sadness.
A turn or so later, the Kidd and Sovremny passed by eachother, only a few miles apart. And exchange of gunfire later, the Kidd was a smoking wreck and the Soviet was still in good shape, taking just two light damage results (torps and one of its guns). The American frigate headed slowly south for Israeli waters and air cover after getting power back. One of the transports was unharmed and made its way to Syria. The other two would require towing.
So, all in all it was an entertaining game. I did make some changes after playing and discussing things with Dennis. The Americans had a hell of a time trying to damage the transports to halt them, especially with their rather limited numbers of missiles. I really did not expect the Americans to fire everything at the transports; I really thought they'd try to take out the warships first. The close-range gunfight was fun to watch, even though I had my ride shot out from under me right away.
I'm going to meet James to Morningstar games later today (Sunday) for another game of Shipwreck, so lucky me! I'll take some pics and do an AAR (duh!).
Good Gaming!
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