Needle in a haystack II

As I mentioned I had started a second Goeben campaign to run alongside the first, I overloaded myself a bit with all my small projects, painting etc. and running two campaigns but they were both highly enjoyable and certainly gave me something to do.

The second involved Dan (Milne), Stuart (Troubridge) and Stewart (Souchon), I was learning more as we went along, Dan was a hands on CinC which left Stuart merely to sail his ships as ordered, I talked to Stuart and we decided if Troubridge met the Germans he would actually have the last say on whether to engage or not, not the CinC. If I did it again I would only have two players, British and German. A French gentleman on Facebook informed me that the French had several modern ships available in the Med so you could if you wanted add a French battlegroup, I however did not and if Goeben had met the French would have strongly advised her to sail away, in real life they didn't meet hence they were under the control of the umpire.

This time the British CinC concentrated his ships at Malta  and once informed of the bombardment of Phillipeville made for the Tunis-Sicily Gap while sending light forces to scout ahead. HMS Chatham and four destroyers were sent to keep an eye on the Straits of Messina. The urgent signal from the British Embassy in Rome informing Milne that Goeben was coaling at Messina set the game afoot. Sadly for the British Goeben only had a few hours left to finish coaling and their ships were too far away to catch her. Nonetheless forces were sent north and south of Sicily just in case.

Because of this Chatham and her destroyers made a brave effort as Goeben exited Messina to damage and slow down the German ship. Chatham was severely damaged and was forced to withdraw as the Germans sped past, three destroyers went to the bottom but not before two had launched torpedo salvos at Goeben. Of the eight torpedoes fired only two hit and exploded, although damaged, Goeben's armoured belt reduced the effect of the explosions enough that her speed was not compromised. She sailed off for the fleshpots of Constantinople.

HMS Chatham

Typical WWI destroyer

Again another excellent little game and a hard task for the British, I have played this several times since 1987 and the worst thing to happen to the Germans is that the Breslau gets sunk, Goeben has always managed to evade the British battlecruisers. This has inspired me to fight a what if at the club when I am allowed out again, to see just how the Goeben might have managed against the 1st Cruiser Squadron or perhaps the battlecruisers.

I have started a solo game of Chain of Command but the sun is out and I may be suffering from locked up syndrome so I am going to get some fresh air and clean and wash the car after which I may get on with the game. My new Soviet organisation is going really well against the panzergrenadiers.

Looking over my terrain as I put the table together I noticed a few greens did not match up so I now cannot leave it alone and have ordered up two boxes of the static grass I use to eliminate this problem, should have done it ages ago. I also noticed that my lovely shell holes have no bottom, so if you put them in a corn field, you see corn surrounded by earth, daft, so they too are getting a facelift.

Nine figures started so they will get finished next week just in time for my Seven Year War generals to turn up, so for the third week of lockdown, I am unsure how many at the mo, I will set to on my industrial buildings of which there are half a dozen.