"Gaming the Battle of Elli - 16 Dec 1912" Topic

Recently, I took my new scratch-built 1:2400 Ottoman and Hellenic fleets for a spin using the Grant Fleets (3rd Edn.) scenario for the Battle of Elli (16 December 1912) – the fist major naval battle of the First Balkan War.

Rather than the Greek Armored Cruiser Georgios Averof dominating the battle (as happened historically), this became a slugging match with he destroyer divisions of each side playing a decisive role (but paying the price).

I would like to send my thanks to Konstantinos Travlos (and his gaming colleagues) for the threads around The War that Never Was for peaking my interest in this period.

There is a AAR on my blog should you be interested. link

Great stuff, lovely to see some Naval Wargaming in a relatively unknown period.

Regards Ken
yarkshiregamer.blogspot.co.uk

I like this: maybe it will encourage me to finish the scratch built fleets I started long ago!

By the way, there is some film of a Spetsai class battleship underway on youtube: YouTube link

My Greek isn't remotely good enough to follow the narration, I'm afraid.

Grelber

Thanks Ken and Gerber,

I find this a really interesting period. Great for a scratch build too as neither fleet is too large – on that note, Ken, I tip my hat to you for you Jutland project! I also like the combination of ships from the (late) ironclad era (if you call it that) combined with the more modern ships from the pre-WW1 era. It makes for interesting scenarios.

Gerber, I'd love to see what you are working on. Naval scratch building has got its hooks into me. More to come. Thanks for the interesting link – to see the Spetsai or one of its sister ships under way is something special.

Cheers
Alan

Excellent report of a visually stunning game! Fascinating period – thanks for that Alan

Nick

Thanks Nick,

Appreciate your comments. The Litko markers really make for a bit of drama in what is a fairly basic table. I find this period to be fascinating too. It's interesting to get a sense of the politics and naval actions in the Aegean leading up to WW1.

I'm reading "Beneath the Dardanelles: The Australian Submarine at Gallipoli" by Vecihi Basarin and Hatice Basin (Allen and Unwin, 2008) at the moment link

It provides fascinating accounts of the AE2's passage of the Dardanelles on 25 April 1915 and subsequent action in the Sea of Marmara from the points of view of of Captain Harry Stoker, the Captain of the Australian submarine AE2 and (apparently for the first time in English) the account by Captain Ali Riza of the Turkish torpedo boat Sultanhisar, who captured the AE2 on 30 April 1915.

The connection being, of course, that a number of the old Ottoman warships that were at Elli (and later Lemnos) get a mention.

The Mesudiye was torpedoed by the British submarine B11 in 1914 near the Narrows.

The Barbaros Hayreddin was sunk (loaded with supplies destined for the Fifth army fighting the Gallipoli campaign) by the British submarine E11 in the Sea of Marmara on 8th August 1915.

The torpedo boat Basra took up the duties of transporting the German Commander of the 5th Army – General Liman von Sanders – in the early days of the Gallipoli Campaign, freeing the Sultanhisar to return to Istanbul. It encountered and captured the AE2 on that voyage.

Anyway, thanks!
Alan

Cheers Alan, I've got a follow on your blog now so ready if you do any more.

Regards Ken
yarkshiregamer.blogspot.co.uk

Thanks Ken, great to have you drop by occasionally!
Cheers
Alan

Thanks for the inspiration on your webpage Alan….

I ran a refight of the Battle of Elli last weekend using GQ2 and some homebrew pre-dreadnought mods one of our group has been working on.

They worked really well. For the record the Ottomans obtained a narrow victory, loosing two small TBD's but managing to quite badly damage the Georgios Averof and put a torpedo into one of the Greek coast defence battleships.

Good luck with your Jutland project Yarkshiregamer – thats a lot of ships you have there!! The ships and basing look amazing.

Cheers
KRO

My 'hat is off' to you guys, and any that do the scratch-built fleets. I would not even know where to begin.

Personally, I love a good (if you can call war good) Cruiser slugging match, but thats when I game WW II.
When it comes to battle wagons, theres just something about Predred's that I find fascinating.

Excellent. I am so happy to see this game, even if the Greek Navy did not gain the victory. Its great to see that one's own efforts incentivise others!

You might find this book very interesting

link