Surprise Action: USS Oregon (BB3) 1898

This blog has been inactive for awhile.  This is mostly because I simply have not done much gaming in the last year to report on.  Like most the pandemic has cancelled many events in addition life has kept me busy as I prepared to retire from the Army after 30 years.

This past week I was invited by a friend to run Naval Thunder for a small group that has been gathering weekly to game while social distancing.  Last week we met for the first time and I ran three scenarios for them to teach the mechanics of Naval Thunder and get them started.  The three scenarios are classic battles from the rule book and great for teaching: Battle of River Plate, Battle of Denmark Straight, and 1st Guadalcanal.  The three players had such a good time they asked me to come back this week and do it again.

This has given me the opportunity to go through the book and dig through my collection of WotC War at Sea miniatures to out together more scenarios.  I have added Operation Catapult, Battle cruisers and war, and a Mediterranean brawl.

I addition, I decided to dig out my Pre-Dread collection.  I own the complete Russo-Japanese OoB as well as the Span-AM war OoB in 1/2400.  I have done all the Russo-Japanese battles at conventions in the past and they are a bit big for this group to accomplish in a day.  The historical battles for the SPAN-AM war are so one sided they really do not make for much of a game.  This lead me to explore what-if scenarios I have wanted to try.  

I own several Avalanche Press Naval games including 1898 which includes several what-if scenarios.  one of which if the hypothetical scenario of the Spanish Cruiser Squadron intercepting the lone USS Oregon as she made her way from the west coast around South America to join the fleet in the Caribbean

This is a scenario I have wanted to try for some time, but I was not sure how well it would play out using Naval Thunder Rise of the Battleship.  I was able to give it a test play today and was surprised by the results.

Spanish Squadron

Spanish intended to intercept USS Oregon South of Cuba before she could join the remainder of the Atlantic Squadron off the coast of Cuba.  Apparently this was a real concern for the American at the time.

USS Oregon

At daylight on the morning of May 24th 1898 the USS Oregon spots the Spanish squadron closing fast on her position as she steams North Easterly across the calm Caribbean seas.  Initial contact is made at a range of about 24,000 yards.  Oregon makes a slight course change northward in hopes of keeping the lighter guns for the Spanish at range as long as possible.

The outnumbered Americans open at maximum range and land the first blow

Once sighted Cervera knows he must close the range with the American Battleship as quickly as possible and attempt to cross the T in order to bring all his slightly lighter 11" main guns to bear over the American's 13" and 8" guns.

The faster Spanish close the distance 

USS Oregon opens fire with her forward guns and scores a hit on the lead ship Infanta Maria Teresa scoring a hit and starting a fire which immediately begins to spread.  The lead two Spanish ships return fire with their 11" main battery, but fail to find the range.  

Oregon's gunners are deadly accurate with the 2nd salvo

As the Spaniards continue to close the distance Oregon turns to bring her full broadsides of 13" and 8" main guns to bear on the Spanish Column.  In an amazing feat of gunnery all four 13" shells find their mark on the Spanish Flagship starting more fires, flooding and knocking out secondary battery guns.  Spanish damage control is struggles and manages to put out one fire while the original one rages and the Maria Teresa starts to take on water. 

Armored Cruisers unleash full broadside

The Spanish column starts to find the distance and hit the Oregon multiple times, but the 11" shells fail to penetrate the heavier American Battleships armor and only cause light damage.  Meanwhile the Marie Teresa is visible in distress an fires rage and if they do not contain the flooding the fire problem will take care of itself.  As a result, the American gunners shift fire to the second undamaged Spanish cruiser Vizcaya.   A combination of 13" and 8" shells find their mark causing serious damage to the Spanish Armored Cruiser including a major flood.

Spanish Flagship Succumbs to fire and flooding Fires start on Oregon

The Spanish flagship unable to bring the fire and flooding under control slips under the waves as Cervera prepares to move his flag to the undamaged Cruiser Alimrante Oquendo.  The highly motivated gunners aboard Oregon shift fire to the undamaged cruiser with a full broadside causing damage and a fire before Cervera can transfer his flag.  At the same time the two Spanish destroyers have managed to significantly close the distance well withing the secondary battery range of Oregon's gunners who quickly send the Pluton to the bottom.

With the flagship gone the Spanish decide they lack the nerve to continue the fight

With the flagship gone and two of the three remaining cruisers damaged, on fire or flooding the Spanish decided they have had enough for the day and decide to withdraw.  The Commander of the USS Oregon who is now busy fighting fires of his own is more than happy to oblige and allow them to leave as he does not have the speed to maintain a long pursuit.

Spanish still need to deal with ongoing damage before they withdraw

As the Spanish make their run away they must still deal with the on going damage.  It would not be a good day for Spain.  The Vizcaya soon developed a severe list and then turned turtle and capsized while Oquendo could not gain control of the fires of flooding and soon vanished below the waves.

Spanish damage control is overwhelmed by fires

This left the lone armored cruiser Cristobol Colon (lacking main guns) and destroyer Furor to retreat North back toward Cuba.  Despite the major victory at hand over the Spanish Squadron USS Oregon still had a fight on its hands against the on going fires that still raged.  It would not be a easy battle as fires initially spread igniting ready ammo.  Eventually the Americans were able to prevail and the badly damaged Oregon continue her voyage and limp north.  

In the end only the undamaged Cristobol Colon and Furor escape

USS Oregon will require major repairs and a refit and will not be available to the intended blockade of Cuba.  As a result of her stunning victory over Cervera's Squadron taking out the three strongest ships that blockade may no longer be required and easily handled by the American Atlantic Squadron. 

Span-AM Collection plus Germans for future What-ifs

Some of the Atlantic Squadron including USS Maine

US Asiatic Squadron

Spanish Cruisers

The results of this battle surprised me a bit.  Based on points in Naval Thunder the Spanish outnumbered and were stronger on paper than the lone American battleship.  Clearly the superior gunnery (Lucky die rolls) early on by the Americans played a huge part in the outcome.  The Spanish failing to make command checks after the flagship went down were just the nail in the coffin.  Even then the outcome was not clear as it took awile for the Americans to control the fires while the Spanish dice again continued to fail them causing the loss of two more cruisers one of which was still in fair condition except for the on going fire.

I look forward to giving this scenario another trail again soon and it seems very playable and not as lopsided as I initially suspected.

The Northern Front Episode 8

Prior to leaving for vacation Brian, Phil and I recorded the latest episode of the Northern Front Podcast which published while I was gone.

In this Episode we cover down on a number of items including:


What we have been doing in the gaming hobby
Naval Thunder rules overview
Spanish American War
Initial thoughts on Bolt Action V2
Upcoming events

You can check it out here:


The Northern Front EP 8


Enjoy!

Spanish American War -Future Plans

Now that my Pre-Dread fleets are coming off the slips at a furious pace I am making plans to put them into action using Naval Thunder Rise of the Battleship II supplement.

Add caption

Almost three years ago I completed the OoB for the SPAN-AM fleets, but soon found that gaming the actual battles were extremely one-sided.  As a result I started to build the additional units for historical hypothetical scenarios for the same time period using Americans, Spanish and even Germans.

American SPAN-AM OoB

I have had several ideas for scenarios, but this past weekend I stumbled on the Avalanche Press game 1898, which focuses on the SPAN-AM war naval actions.  The beautiful thing is it comes with a scenario book which includes the two historical battles along with several hypothetical engagements.  Some of the hypothetical scenarios are exactly what I was thinking with proposed OoB.

Expanded Spanish Fleet

The scenario book even goes a step further to include some Post RJW American vs. Japan engagements.  Basically the IJN to include re purposed captured Russian ships vs. Great White Fleet.

Basically my gaming concepts have been validated and I now have some OoBs to work with to put together some engagements with all these models I have built.

1898 Map

If you are not familiar with Avalanche Press they offer a great line of both WWII (SWWAS) and WWI(GWAS) line of naval games that all include beautiful counter, maps and scenario books.  At one time I owned just about all the titles with aspirations of using them to play out campaigns.  I realized my dreams were probably a bit to big and I sold off my collection.  Now many of the titles are out of print, but every so often you can still find OoP editions in excellent condition as I did with 1898.

Current German forces

I am traveling for vacation the next couple weeks, but when I return I look forward to trying some of these out as well as finishing my remaining Americans.  I am also putting in a small order for a handful of other models to complete some of the scenarios so they will be here when I return.

In the meantime I will also be looking for an affordable copy of AP Great White Fleet which contains many more hypothetical scenarios for this time period.

Pre-Dread Project Germans (Part 2) Complete

Now that I have started again the ships are coming off the slips at a very quick rate.  Depending on the complexity of the masts I am able to complete 4 or more in a 2-3 hour session at night.

In two nights I was able to complete the remaining twelve Germans using a bit of an assembly line process so while one set was drying I was working on others.

SMS Braunschweig Class Pre-Dreads Battleships

Armored Cruisers

Gazelle class cruisers

Bremen Class cruisers

With 16 ships including 6 Battleships 2 Armored cruisers and 8 cruisers the Germans should be able to mount a serious threat.  My initial thoughts are a hypothetical campaign to reinforce the German Asiatic squadron to contest the Americans in the Philippines.

Complete German Fleet

Next up is to complete the Americans.  Good news on that front.  After soaking the American ships in "Simple Green" for several days I was ready to give up as try another method.  When I pulled out a ship I was able to scrap/peel off the primer in large chunks with my finger nail.

Good news for the Americans the bad primer will come off

Once I clean up all the ships I can start work on them as well.

Then on to either completing the full Great White Fleet or starting work on the Jutland project.

Pre-Dread Project - Germans (Part 1)

Time to move onto the Germans.  As stated earlier these will pose a hypothetical opponent for the Americans.  Historically there were tensions between the German Asiatic fleet and Commodore Dewey after the battle of Manila.  I plan to expand on that what if scenarios.

German fleet in dry dock

I plan to work on 1-2 classes at a time to expedite progress.  Tonight was the Pre-Dreadnought Brandenburg class of four ships.

Masts were pretty straight forward on these models with two sizes of wire.  Not much difference from one ship to the next except I was able to find painting of each showing that they had different red rings on the funnels which distinguished each ship of the class.

Brandenburg Class

Note the funnel rings

I was not real impressed with the Panzerschiffe model when I first saw it.  Now that I have seen drawings a pictures of the actual ships they are a decent rendition.  the masts and the inking really made them pop.

SMS Worth

If I can continue at this pace the Germans may be ready for battle after the weekend.

Pre-Dread Project-Spanish (Part 2) Complete

Well it took me almost 3 yrs to get back to these, but I was able to complete the Spanish Fleet in less than 2 days. 

The last 7 ships were only two different classes, but the masts were a bit more difficult with all the spars.  on the second group of 5 I did recall that painting the main mast first which helps with gluing on the spars tremendously and reduces the excess glue visible at the joint.  Will remember to do this as I move on to the Germans and then remaining Americans.

Cristobal Colon may be mislabeled

Less visible Glue at the joints on the masts

Also it appears I may have one of the small cruisers mislabeled, will have to go back and do a bit more research on that class.

Complete Spanish fleet

Now on to the Germans.....




German fleet entering dry dock

Pre-Dread Project - Spanish (Part 1)

Today I finally put words into action after a 3 year hiatus I built and painted my first ships.  My intent was to just do the Battleship Pelaya, but it all came back so easy I just kept going until diner.

Pelayo during mast construction

Completed Pelayo

As a result I was able to complete 7 of the 14 Spanish ships that were scheduled to join the fleet.  I am very satisfied with the results.  In some ways I think they even look better than the first ones I did as I have learned new techinques while I was away.  Last time I did not use acelerator for my gluing and that now make a big difference in speeding the projects along.

Cruiser Carlos V

The models are Panzerschiffe.  The sculpts are pretty basic, but with some inking, dry brushing and the addition of masts they definately give a good feel for the ship they represent.

Trio of Protected Cruisers

I attaked these largest to smallest and by class.  I only have 7 more models, but they are the smaller older vessels with losts of masts and spars, so may take a bit longer.  Assembeling 3or 4 at a time does make it move along though.

Seven new additions

Although these ships did not participate in either of the two historic Naval battles they will make for some interesting hypotheticals.

Full Spanish Fleet for now

With any luck I will complete the Spanish this week.