Sunday Shipwreck!

I met with James and Joe (from the Shipwreck Yahoo group) at Morningstar Games in Savannah Sunday afternoon for a game of Shipwreck. James set up the scenario and provided the ships. It was a modern day Aegean Sea mix-up, Turks versus Greeks. Here's a basic outline of the scenario:

The Turks are trying to reinforce their position on an island in the Aegean Sea. An LST escorted by a Barbaros class frigate are the quarry. There are also four civilian ships being controlled by the Turkish player. The Greeks have an old Knox-class frigate and a much newer Hydra as well as two civilian ships of their own. 

The scenario takes place at night and because of all the civilian ships, positive visual ID is required before weapons can be fired. The Turks must exit their LST off either the west or north edge. The Greeks are simply trying to prevent the LST from escaping.

It is worth noting that Joe and I didn't have any idea as to the force strength of the Turks.

I ended up with the Knox-class, the Ipiros. Joe drove the Hydra. James took the entire Turkish flotilla.

Joe and I decided to set up centrally so we could react in any direction. We dumped our helicopters out immediately. Both helos went south towards the nearest unknown contacts. Since his AegeanHawk was carrying a Penguin ASM, we decided to have my helo get close to spot a target first. 

My helo gets up close and personal.

The two ships were in a fog bank apparently because my helo was only able to ID the LST. The hidden Frigate locked onto my helicopter and buzzed it with its SeaZenith. My pilot didn't need any further encouragement and turned tail immediately.

About to get "real"

As the ships edged around the island, they were very close. Joe sent his helo to safe skies, figuring we needed better recon on the other four ships.

See, I wasn't lying.

The Turkish helicopter makes an appearance. It manages a visual on the cargo ship. 

A Stinger missile sends the helicopter on its way.

Moments later, we can see each other's ships.

No more cat and mouse games, it is go time! James and I launch a full salvo at each other's ships. His four are targeted on my frigate of course. I split my fire, two at the frigate and two at the LST. I really had doubts that my Harpoons would even make it through to the frigate, but the LST seemed like an easy, juicy target.

Missiles away!

Crappy AA defense all-around means there's no shots at short range! This is going to be a mess...

And at very short. His frigate knocks down one of my Harpoons. The LST avoids serious damage - two light hits. BAH! The frigate gets nailed with a crippled damage result.

Amusingly, the chaff from my frigate distracted two of the Harpoons onto the adjacent cargo ship. Boom, boom! Straight to Davy Jones' locker. The two Harpoons aimed at the frigate miss and go into the sea. What a disaster for the Turkish Navy!

A mess if there ever was one.

My frigate's engines roared to life as the ship went to flank speed to catch up with the transport. Captain James rolled his repair roll on the crippled Barbaros. A nine. Davy Jones gets some more souls. 

The LST and frigate exchange gunfire. My frigate takes a heavy damage result losing its gun and a Stinger launcher. The LST suffers three hits from my 5 inch gun and that's more than it can handle. Davy Jones is eatin' well tonight!

I told Joe to count me out for the time being since my offensive power was gone. He was just making contact with another pair of ships. James announced that there were no more Turkish warships and the scenario was over.

I had a good time which is easy when the dice are as good as mine were today. Joe had never played before  and I felt bad that he didn't get to blow up anything. And then there is James, his dice completely abandoned him. He did everything right, his two important ships were together and close to the edge. An even exchange of cruise missiles later and the whole thing goes off the tracks. 

I'm ready for a rematch any time! Thanks for the game.