Cruel Seas two for two

 Friday and Saturday games put Greg and I on the table and running through the basic first scenario,  chance meeting.  Fast, furious and totally fun, it also was a quick lesson in play balance. 

I tried 2  Vospers Boats against three Japanese M______ boats.  Quickly getting into gun range, the damage to the much smaller boats (15 to 35 hull points) quickly set the Rising Sun fleet without any loss to the Vospers.

The second game was after the PT Boats set was delivered was the Convoy Run scenario,  one oiler, armed with a 3 inch gun, manned by an inexperienced crew, and one Elco type PT Boat.  In this outing, we....well mostly Greg, used the torpedoes in earnest.  

The game called for the oiler to get across the playing surface,  or be blown away, depending upon which side you played. 

Turn 1 saw both sides closing, with long range shooting proving ineffective. Blast, the oiler is limited to 8 to 12 inches a turn, the tables is 4 foot across. The pt and Japanese ships move 20 inches the first turn,  so turn 2 saw troubling damage on a Japanese boat, but the boar did launch a torpedo.  The return fire upon the US boat would have caused a critical hit causing a torpedo explosion, but a skill check by the US crew prevented such a  problem.  

The torpedoes are just coming out of the tube and now must run straight at 40 cm a turn.

The second and third boat from Japan launched  two torpedoes each, it did not look good for the tanker as the range was about 40 cms, the speed of the torpedoes in a turn.  

The third turn was vicious,  as the Elco crew put fire on the first enemy boat, turning it into splinters. Then the second boat was destroyed by the heavy fire from the PT's arsenal, and the third boat would only limp back, if at all.

But 5 fish were streaming to the target. One ran behind the oiler's stern to obscurity,  as did two just forward  to the oiler's bow. 

That left two torpedoes.  Even when the fish connected,  there was an accuracy check, and only one fish hit the tanker, the other ran low and missed. 

The final torpedo ran true, struck the tanker, and turned out to be a dud.  

We called the game there. The final Japanese boat had no torpedoes and only about half its hull left.  The sheer firepower of the American PT  Boat meant flight was desired. 

Down to the wire, good game. Greg will no doubt sharpen the skills needed to use torpedoes,  although he was scary out of the box. I can't assume the dud torpedoes will always save me. Merchants are large and bigger targets will find it hard to maneuver out of harm's way.