[Mikinton]

I’m still going to try and incorporate a way of bringing about a ram or collision during the course of a depth charge attack, by giving the target a short out-of-sequence move if it successfully rammed the depth charger. (The move would only be a maximum of 5cm i.e. the distance the depth charger needs to get within to make the attack.)

Anyway, the one reference I could find to depth charge attacks in any of my 4 books was in Peter Dickens’ “Night Action” where he unsuccessfully tried to depth charge a burning MTB and all he succeeded in doing was dousing the flames for while.

While thinking of all this, it did occur to me that a larger ship may deliberately put itself in a position where a smaller ship could not avoid colliding with it. Say the larger ship was a German minesweeper and the smaller ship a British MTB. That’s just 2D6 off a ship with a hull value of 105 against 6D6 off a ship with a hull value of, say, just 40. It sounds like quite a good, if “gamey”, tactic – “gamey” as I’m not sure anyone would do it in real life. Is anyone aware of such a thing happening either in real life or a game.

[Mikinton]

As you say, Nat, as clear as mud.

I’m going to play that they can be dropped at any point in the move. Otherwise the attacker would have to hope that his full speed move left him within 5cm of his target’s prow, which might make carrying out the attack a little difficult. (Also, while the rules state that torpedoes can only be launched when a ship has completed all its movement, there’s no similar requirement for launching depth charges.)

Can DCs be released in addition to firing? Again, there’s nothing in the rules so why not. If we knew who’d be responsible for releasing DCs and what they’d otherwise be doing (firing guns, preparing torpedoes) then we could build in a restriction, but until then …

Is it a ram or a collision? Well I don’t see the activated ship as bringing about a collision/ram. They’re a Veteran crew after all. I see it as something that the target vessel may try either as a defensive or aggressive response to the DC attack. They’ve still got to pass their Skill Test and hope the activated ship fails theirs for the ram to succeed.

Anyway, that’s how I’ll be playing it though whether it’s what was intended is anyone’s guess.

 

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by Mikinton.

[Mikinton]

Yes, that puzzled me as well, Stefan.

I’m just putting together my own Quick Reference Sheet, and the way I was going to play it was to stipulate that the depth-charging ship (“the Attacker”) had to have enough movement to clear “the Target” having passed within the 5cm as per the rules. If the Attacker failed its Skill Test, it would be moved to a position across the bows of the Target, and the Target would then be given the option to ram the Attacker. If it decided to ram (and this could be by a veteran, regular or inexperienced crew), it would then have to pass a skill test. If the Target passed the Skill Test, the Attacker could then decide to Dodge. If it succeeded by passing the Skill Test (or the Target had failed its Skill Test), the Attacker would then complete its move clear of the Target; but if it failed, then it would be rammed, and you’d move the Target into contact with the Attacker (“T-boned”).

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by Mikinton.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by Mikinton.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by Mikinton.

[Mikinton]

I played my first game last night, and it went very well even though both of us were new to ‘Cruel Seas’. I think the main ‘action point’ I took away from the game was to make the QRS a bit friendlier, maybe taking a virtual scissors to the one supplied and sticking all the gunfire related stuff on one side of A4 and everything else on the other. (I’d already modified the original QRS to get it all onto 2 sides of A4 by sticking my own Critical Damage table over the St Nazaire picture.)

The other main action point was to make dice rolling for gunnery a bit more streamline – roll first, work out what you need to hit later when it’s obvious you’ve not hit or missed. And make modifications for range the last part of the process as crew, target size and the speeds of the two vessels will be the same regardless of which gun is firing.

[Mikinton]

Coastal actions are skirmishes rather than pitched battles – the naval equivalent of a wild west shoot-out – so the mechanics are going to be different. It’s not like Trafalgar …. or Jutland, where your “Indefatigable” gets blown up but, because the move is 5 minutes long, it still manages to get off several salvoes before being taken off the table.

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