Forget Episodic...Here's AAR of Battle Off Curacao

[justmatt101]

Winter, 1939 (Battle #5 in my campaign)
A pair of British “A” class destroyers, Acasta and Codrington, are escorting a large freighter when the rising sun reveals a trio of German warships on the horizon:
Z9 Wolfgang Zenker
Z25
Z27
The two formations approach each other head on, with the first salvos fired between Z25 and Acasta at ranges just under 8,000 yards. The British ships, if they're to stand a chance, will have to close as they're outnumbered and outgunned ...2,700 tons combined , armed with 4.7" guns against approximately 7,000 tons equipped with 5 and 5.9" turrets.

Seen below -- the map accessed through the tactical screen and the opening view of Z25 closing with the British.

[justmatt101]

Z25's skipper peers through his binoculars at the oncoming British line. The two destroyers are angling towards him as the merchantman breaks desperately to the south.

The captain isn't worried about his chances. The Kriegsmarine warships are faster and better armed. Within minutes, the Germans have drawn first blood as 5.9" shells from Z25 and Z27 smack into Acasta, igniting fires along her deck.

A chance to apply a quick coup de grace is lost to faulty munitions, however. Z25 closes to within 4,000 meters of the wounded escort to loose a salvo of three 21"" torpedoes. Indeed...one hits...but fails to detonate. Nothing quite as disheartening as the word "dud" flashing on your screen....

Shortly after that, Acasta lands a pair of hits, destroying Z25's D turret and incinerating a dozen crewmen in a massive explosion. Fire. Smoke...it's not quite the cake walk the Germans were hoping for.

[justmatt101]

Forgot to include screenshots.

[justmatt101]

The weight of fire is simply too much. Regardless of the Kriegsmarine's Dollar General quality torpedoes, the Acasta is saturated with fire and is sent beneath the waves.

Z27 angles towards the fleeing cargo ship, while Wolfgang Zenker lends support to Z25.

Soon enough sailors have extinguished the flames pouring out of D Turret. And the two vessels pound Codrington, up until the instant it's struck dead center by a torpedo. The result is enough to restore some of the sailors' faith in the factories back home.

[justmatt101]

Holy cow I'm giving up on AARs.....kept reducing the size of my images to make them fit. I didn't realize the total quota for screenshots is just 120 or so KB. Period. Like, for everything I do.

Jeesh. My bad.

Ne'er mind.

Anyway...this was just a half assed little AAR nothing like what I was trying to write previously. The German ships caught up with the freighter, beat on it until its engines were dead and it was just floating there. Then Z27 coasted up and finished it at 2,000 yards. Finis. 11,400 Renown and three ships KIA at the cost of medium damage to one of my destroyers.

Feel like I'm floundering around a bit. I'll see you guys later.