D6 Naval War: Battle of the White Sea

I've never before celebrated International Naval Wargaming Day. However, after our last move, I've still had the large-ish remainder of my 1/2000 scale scratchbuilt WW1 fleets hidden in my wardrobe, so I thought I could take some of them for an outing.

The force compositions were entirely fictional, while trying to equalize both the technology level and the types of ships present:

German Squadron

SMS Kaiserin (flagship)

SMS Helgoland

SMS Nassau

SMS Seydlitz

SMS Moltke

Entente Squadron

HMS Orion (flagship)

HMS St Vincent

USS Florida

HMS Indomptable 

HMS Unobtainable

(both Invincible class)

All the battleships had the same movement, armour and armament, while the British BCs only had medium armour and slightly better speed.

The rules in use were a modified version of D6 Naval Wargame: Ironclads and Pre-Dreadnoughts, with unlimited heavy weapons firing and modified movement rates, as my table is small.

The title is just there to reflect on that I don't have a blue table mat.

The battle opened with the BC squadrons vying for a better position using flank speed, while the two main battlelines started closing range.

Seydlitz scores a near miss on Indomptable.

The faster British BCs cross the German's T and unleash their fire at Kaiserin.

For a while, again due to lack of table space, I just had the two battle squadrons stand in one place in line astern, slugging it out. I have to adjust the probability curves in the rules, as literally nothing happened for multiple turns while both fleets were in effective range.

As the German BCs also reach ahead of the Entente battleline, both fleets begin to maneuver again.

Kaiserin receives a boiler hit which limits her movement for the rest of the game, although repairs manage to stave off the worse effects. Moltke straddles HMS Unobtainable twice.

Here comes the turning point though, after much contest to take the lead, Helgoland's main battery delivers a blow to the already somewhat damaged Entente flagship. All it takes is another hit to finish her off, and Helgoland still has her secondaries within range...

Helgoland unleashes another salvo, and, courtesy of M. Bay, our special effects advisor, Orion goes up in flames!

The loss of the flagship has the desired effect on the remaining Entente squadron. They increase speed, and in a confusing action, manage to break through the enemy, who is content on taking pot shots at them, dealing further damage to Indomptable and USS Florida.

With nightfall, action is broken up, and the battered Entente ships steam back to safety beyond the net of their cruisers and destroyers.

Total tally of the day:

Germans: SMS Kaiserin moderately damaged, SMS Moltke requiring on the spot engine repairs

Entente: HMS Orion lost, HMS Indomptable moderatley damaged and requiring repairs to the superstructure, HMS Unobtainable and USS Florida slightly damaged.

All in all a good day for the Germans, despite the fact that I was not routing for either side.