Shipwreck - Far Flung Seas!

James and I got together Sunday for a game of Shipwreck he's had in the works for some time now. It involved the US and two imagi-nations, Greyback (US-aligned) and Red Bamboo (AKA the Red Baboons). Also involved were the Red Guard, a radical Presbyterian organization, funded and supported by the Red Bamboo government.

The Reds have been harassing merchant traffic in the Greyback strait recently, going as far as mining the strait and attacking ships that they deem "unworthy." Two US LCS have been dispatched to the strait to protect "Freedom of Navigation" and certainly not specific American interests in Greyback oil exports.

A view of the strait. Two Greyback patrol boats are circled in red. They had to stay within 12 miles of the Greyback capital city. (They were about as useful as tits on a boar)

I think at this point all of the ships were on the table. The two yellow circled ships are US Navy. The orange are merchants. The near LCS is kitted out for surface combat, the far one is a minesweeper. James has a veritable horde of small craft in the strait.

Right away, the USS Fort Worth stumbles into a minefield but manages to avoid striking one. The captain notifies all shipping in the area.

The '60 from the Fort Worth manages to locate a Red Guard terrorist unit and neutralizes it with a Hellfire missile.

A nice shot of the stupidest vacationers in the ocean. A Red Baboon helicopter conducts a fly-by.

TRAGEDY as the USS Independence strikes a mine in the strait! That's one way to clear the mines I suppose. It isn't helping that its helicopter simply cannot get a positive ID on any of the suspicious boats in the area.

A bit of revenge is meted out on another Red Guard terror unit. Thanks Lockheed!

Somewhere in the distance a Red Bamboo vessel launches its payload of four SS-N-2 cruise missiles.

The burning USS Independence looses a SAM at one of the cruise missiles and knocks it down. The other three rockets strike a huge Exxon oil tanker creating a major ecological disaster for Red Bamboo and Greyback fishing in the strait. The tanker is heavily damaged but limps onward.

Things take a downward turn as the Independence succumbs to its injuries and becomes a man-made reef. Its helicopter has just IDed a Red Guard attack boat (as it was firing and attempting to board a merchant vessel. Nothing gets past our boys!) Three Hellfires later, the attack boat was burning. Thanks Lockheed.

There was a bit of excitement when a Red Bamboo trawler attempted to ram a tanker. As it turned out, the trawler's rudder had gotten jammed. It wasn't actually a suicide run as initially feared.

A Red Guard suicide boat DID indeed manage to run up to the Shanghai, a ChiCom cargo ship, but the explosion, although impressive, did naught but rid the world of a couple more terrorists.

The US Navy forces in the area attempted humanitarian aid pickups from a few burning Red Guard boats but the terrorists refused assistance. Oh well, there's just no helping some people. There were three sailors killed on the USS Independence. Others made it safely to life boats and were later recovered. Any stories that the Fort Worth fired at and sank a damaged and surrendering Red Guard boat are obvious lies and there is no proof to back those claims.

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This scenario was terribly entertaining. It was a great change of pace from the usual big-ship shoot-em-up with 32 cruise missiles in the air at a time. Although James only managed a "heavy damage" on a super tanker, killing a US Navy ship was a huge unexpected bonus for the Reds! My only critique is the utter uselessness of the two Greyback boats which were on a 12-inch leash all game. They wouldn't have made much difference anyway. Good game James!