"ST. MATHIEU – 9th AUGUST 1944 (Joe's pics)" Topic

ST. MATHIEU – 9th AUGUST 1944
A WW2 wargame scenario & Battle Report

This fictional scenario is designed for easy adaptation to your personal favorite set of WW2 wargaming rules. Although it is intended for 8 players and 1 Umpire, a lesser or greater number of players can be accommodated by combining or dividing the appropriate commands.

ST. MATHIEU (PART 1)
link

ST. MATHIEU (PART 2)
link

All comments welcomed

One of the most impressive tables I've ever seen. Are the buildings scratch built or commerical models. I think I recognize some of them.

Jeff

I don't think that I'll ever have the wherewithal to undertake such an impressive effort. Beautiful table. Thanks for all the pics.

A well thought out and imaginative scenario that could be condensed for smaller forces and fewer players.

Excellent tabletop. Everything well done! I've very impressed with the whole thing.

I'm glad for you that there didnt have to be any adjudication as to damage to the U Boat. Their round pressure hulls were so tough, that there was not a gun on that tabletop that could have penetrated it! Not even the Panther. You'd have needed a 5.5" firing AP or something similar.

But of course you could have blown everything off the top off the pressure hull!!!!

Brilliant, brilliant table, great work.

I think I see some Hovels buildings in there and some Grand Manner? The GM buildings do look great but are out of my price range! Are they worth it though? I don't recognise some of the other urban apartments though, are they scratch built? Great mix of figures (Artizan are great) and vehicles too.

What was the over all dimension measurements of the entire game board?

24ft x 6ft (8m x 2m)

That takes the cake. Absolutley incredible.
Tom

24ft x 6ft (8m x 2m)

Yep…that's impressive alright!

You sure about the U-Boat Mal?

The Coastal Command 'Tetse' Mosquito mounted a 6pdr and by all accounts was more than capable of ruining a Kapitan's day.

Building something capable of resisting 156psi (water pressure at 100 metres) is completely different from something capable of withstanding a 6lb steel rod moving at twice the speed of sound.

Very sure Chieftan. But the 6pdr was an exception and singles were mounted on the Bridge wings of a few Flower Class corvettes. There is no record of them having actually done anything in action though.

But in general it was found that nothing smaller than a 4.5" or 4.7" would penetrate a U Boat pressure hull. As a result the British developed a special shell called 'Shark' which could be fired by the 4"gun. It was issued late in the war, but its only real test was at the sinking of surrendered U Boats during operation Deadlight in 1945 when it was found that it did penetrate them.

The problem with a U Boat pressure hull was the shape. It was round and very hard for smaller shells to strike with sufficient power to penetrate before being deflected off. Even the heavier shells could be deflected, its just that many of them had a greater chance to do some damage. The steel of a pressure hull was not actually armour, but it was of very high quality. Indeed it needed to be. Thus given its shape, it was very hard to crack by direct blow. Like all such things it was more vulnerable to nearby explosions cracking the joins, that it was to direct hits.

But as I said. Most of the guns could shoot everything off the top of the U Boat if they got the chance. British escorts used a storm of fire principle to cause serious top side damage, by belting the daylights out of a U Boat with every weapon that could bear. Most of those on the surface were scuttled by their crews, rather than being actually sunk by gunfire.

A Tetse would therefore give any U Boat one hell of a headache, but some other intervention would be needed to sink what was left. A rocket or two would do the job nicely!

So now I know!

Thanks Mal – I was under the impression they were rather fragile to gunfire.

Rgds

Dunc

I was under the impression they were rather fragile to gunfire.

Most people are. Heck even the surface navy thought they would be. But they learnt quickly that those round pressure hulls were a very tough proposition to actually penetrate.

Ok, now you are just showing off!

the table seems to be gaming paradise.

The battle reports are great and the scenario is very well designed.

How long did it take you to finish the game?

What system do you use?

Looks really excellent. It's really great to see a beautiful game being played out like that.

A pleasure to view.

Craig

Hey Joe!

Any chance you might someday get a few shots of the room itself? It is always fun to see where these things happen!

To Lord Ashram:

Here's the link to some 'Behind the Scene' photos of the games cabin and wargames scenery workshop.

link

A nice dedicated wargames facility!!!

And Mr Monks in there, for eye candy!

Hey Joe,

Thanks much! No wonder you guys have such beautiful scenery, that is a serious workshop! Color me jealous:)

Woah! That's as big as my house!

Thanks a lot for sharing John, really impressive.

May I ask you a couple of questions, please?:

- Which ruleset did you use for your game?.

- Who manufacture those German quad Ack-ack?.

Looks very nice table and lovley range of figures. And on top, a great scenario.

If the table builders are on here, would be nice to hear a bit about how they put it all togather. Looks like a range of makers and bits, but made to fit well togather. Top marks.

I keep coming back to look over the photos of the table and keep seeing something new. It would be good to hear how this was put together. Would it be possible to list the manufacturers of the various buildings and terrain (maybe based on the map description?), etc.? I for one would be very interested. I use a lot of the timbered PCM (or is it PMC?) resin buildings but I've been looking for something more 'urban'. I'm even getting tempted to save up for some Grand Manner stuff. Thanks.

Ron Ringrose has kindly consented to answering any questions you may have about the terrain, buildings, and scenery that feature in this battle report. Please feel free to contact him by email at the following address:

susan@susanringrose.wanadoo.co.uk

Ron also undertakes custom scenery and building commissions. If you have any specific requirements in mind, please be sure to include them in your email, together with your delivery location (so that he can give you a shipping cost estimate).

I have only just finished scraping my jaw off the floor…

It looked like great fun

Excellent terrain, great report. Thanks for taking the time to write it up and post it.

PS: which rule set did you use to play this game?