Having received and painted up some ships for the Med, young Henry and I played out Cape Spada last night. As number 1 daughter was on a sleepover at a friend's it was a nice change for a bit of father/son bonding over the deep blue tablecloth.
Hen decided he'd be the Italians (best national anthem and cool barber's pole stripes to make the ships look pretty) and I accepted my commission to represent the British and Commonwealth forces.
Set up was fairly straight forward; on a 5' x 3'6" table in 'portrait' format I set up my destroyers in two columns of two – Hyperion and Ilex heading SW and Hasty and Hero heading S. HMAS Sydney and HMS Havock were to arrive on move 5 on a throw of 6, move 6 on a throw of 5 or 6, etc.
The Italians set up mid way along the western edge. They had a choice of fighting or exiting the SE corner to safety. Naturally, young Henry followed RAdm Casardi's example and decided to engage; his cruisers were set up pretty aggressively heading NE.
The first move was a little surprising; Henry won the initiative but decided I should move first, so I moved one column S to get behind the Italians and cut them off from safety, while the other headed off W. The Italians surprised me though by splitting their forces; the Bande Nere heading N and the Colleoni heading E. I was out of range at this stage and the destroyers were impossible to hit, so we played on.
In the next few moves I swung Hasty and Hero back around to the NW while Hyperion and Ilex closed with Bande Nere, my intention being to overwhelm Bande Nere, get a quick kill and then withdraw to the N to wait for the Sydney.
The plan worked better than expected; Ilex did receive some damage but the British destroyers proved virtually impossible to hit while taking evasive action: Henry needed 6s to hit but due to the evasive action these had to be re-thrown, needing a 6 again. This, if my probability mathematics is correct, means he had a 1 in 36 chance for each gun – pitiful odds!
Colleoni was out on a limb to the S and Bande Nere isolated in the NE corner, when Ilex and Hyperion swung round at around 6" range to present their broadsides and fire their torpedoes. I didn't even need to work out Hyperion's – Ilex's torpedoes did more than enough damage to leave Bande Nere sinking.
Henry felt at this point that the game was up; turning Colleoni to the SE under cover of smoke he retired as HMS Sydney arrived with HMS Havock (a lucky throw of '6' for me). I was far too far North to stop him so the remaining Italian cruiser was able to escape.
In the post battle analysis I was really impressed to hear Young Henry recognising his mistakes; he had split his forces whilst I was able to concentrate mine.
That said, I think we were both surprised by how powerful destroyers are in VaS: when weaving they are nigh-on impossible to hit, even at close range, and the punch they pack with the torpedoes is truly brutal. I'm not sure how convinced I am by this; torpedoes stand a very good chance of hitting which I am not sure is reflected in what I have read of historical actions.
All in all though, good fun and a nice chance for me and Young Henry to throw some dice, which is the whole point. We will refight this action – though Henry has elected me to be the Italians next time!
Equal speed, charlie london
Jonesy
