Jul 13, 2016

Coal and Steel playtest


While the Japanese are still WIP, I've had six ships at the ready and complemented them with two older warships of mine so that we could play some naval action. 
Both fleets had two squadrons, one with 4 Gunnery and Armor ratings and one with G[3] A[3], and the Japanese had a group of four destroyers with a cumulative Gunnery score of 4 and 1 Armor. Every ship had a Crew rating of 2. 
To make range finding more difficult for the opponent, we wrote our target ranges down, hidden from each other. This requires some honesty but makes the game more intense.




Hits begin to stack up on the Russian 1st Squadron while the Japanese suffer minor damage only. The Magical Hand appears to boost the morale of the Japanese.


The leading Borodino is the first to fall out of the line after the squadron receives seven hits and she is the one to catch fire first. By now both battleship squadrons are engaging the weaker enemy group instead of fighting it out between each other. 


The Japanese destroyers approach the Imperator Nikolai I and a pair of torpedo hits disable her(?) engines completely.


The crew of the now leading Borodino attempts to fight the fires with little success: the Russian 1st Squadron breaks up the Japanese 2nd, sinking two ships in a close-fought action, then picking out the rest as the remaining two have fallen out of line and fail to form up again.


With their 2nd squadron also torn up, the Russian battleships sound their retreat, at the same time sinking the old Japanese warship of the 2nd squadron.


The leading Borodino burns down and strikes colors. The other two manage to escape, the last in the line barely harmed.


The Imperator Nikolai managed to have her engines fixed and charged at the Japanese 1st Squadron. Of course the superior firepower finished her off, but the last long-range salvo of the Russian battleships also sank the Shikishima. 

Notes on the game: the current system is very lethal and perhaps not that favourable for maneuvering. Ships with the same attributes can cause serious harm in each other, while ships with less armor are very much threatened by greater firepower. I could make long-range shots more difficult to hit, and add a shell choice, where AP shells would be more likely to cause regular hits and HE shells would cause more critical damage.

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