AAR - Cruising the Gulf of Finland
Baltic Bob created a scenario where the Soviets attempted an amphibious assault on Estonia. The Soviets had a 30 point gun ship with four B-firing machine guns, two 10 point troop ships each with one B-firing machine gun, and a Soviet Sopwith Snipe for air cover. The Estonians had two Sopwith 184 torpedo airplanes, and a Sopwith Camel and Sopwith 1-1/2 Strutter for machine gun attacks on the ships.
Bob - Gun ship
Craig - black troop ship
Mike (a new player at our location but he does have some experience) - gray troop ship
BobP - soviet Snipe
John - Sopwith Camel
Jim - Sopwith 1-1/2
Todd - Short 184
Myself - Short 184
BalticBob was referee and rules arbitrator.
Here we see the Soviet forces arrayed for their attack. BalticBob made all the ships. The gun ship (the Commandant Pilsudski) is approximately 1/288 scale. I don't about the troop ships.
One of the Short 184 takes off with its torpedo (please ignore the national marking). You will note it is very close to the water.
The Soviets had to deploy their forces first, and then the Estonians could place their aircraft.
I didn't get a photograph, but shortly into the game Jim drew the BOOM card. Bob let him respawn at the back edge of the mat left of the docks so he would have some distance to travel to rejoin the action.
Todd gets close enough and drops his torpedo in an attempt to sink Craig's ship.
You can see the white torpedo card in front of Todd's airplane. I am trying to swing around Todd's plane so I can launch my torpedo at Mike's ship. Meanwhile the gun boat is hammering at me.
Another angle to clearly see the torpedo card. The gear chit represents Jim's 1-1/2 strutter that went down.
Craig drew two C-damage cards for the torpedo, but got a four and a zero. Todd swung around so his rear gunner could pepper the troop ship at close range and Craig drew another four-zero combination. The damage is adding up. Also note that BobP's Snipe is smoking.
And my Short 184 crashes into the Gulf of Finland. That first 'Wounded Crewman' card killed by observer who was also the torpedo dropper. So I couldn't drop my torpedo or fire my machine gun. Talk about a lame duck.
John puts the final hit point on Craig's troop ship.
And Todd hits the drink.
Todd and Jim's combined machine gun action took out Mike's troop ship. Since the Soviets could not invade without troop ships we called the game.
However according to BalticBob's numbers the Soviets actually won the scenario!
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