Well, the labor day battle was.. interesting..
Our pond was really more of a mud hole as they were prepping to dredge and had diverted the waterflow upstream and broken out the dam that builds up the pond itself. As such it turned into a bit of a knife fight in shallow water and tight quarters.
We had the Warspite, Richelieu, North Carolina, Scharnhorst, Inconcievable and Derfflinger on the water, Blue team was warspite, i-boat and Richelieu, red team was North Carolina, Derfflinger and Scharnhorst.
We also had a photographer from the News Tribune out. His gallery is here, the associated article is here.
The first sortie the Warspite grounded almost immediately in an area we thought was deeper and was punished harshly as the red team swooped in like vultures and let loose a barrage of bbs until the Richelieu could come interpose itself. Near the end of the sortie I managed to impressively ground the Derf in a nearby location and took some hits in my now exposed red area that would nearly sink me next sortie before it even began (forgot to turn the pump on, looked over and was almost to decks awash).
I dropped my radio in the water while being unintelligent and has to swap with the Maru’s, which led to having a reversed rudder channel for the rest of the day.
In later sorties…
The I-boat sank itself on a rock, somehow finding the only spot deep enough that her masts didn’t poke out of the water to sink.
The Richelieu also sank as we perforated her grey area before she developed a list and plunged to the bottom, also in the one deep spot. The sink traumatized her aging radio box and she was done for the day.
The Derf ram-sank the Warspite, for which I apologized profusely.
To the photos!
The Derf got some new details before the battle – turret covers, 88mms on the 2nd level of the super and dummy barrels. Here she is pre-battle.
By the end of the first sortie, both the Derf and the Warspite were stuck in the mud. The Derf’s situation is made more ridiculous by the angle of her bow.
The Warspite paid for her grounding early in the sortie by being brutalized by the Derf’s stern guns. This damage would have been a slight concern had he been able to get out of the mud as any settling would have put some large holes below the waterline.
Other ships sail by freely in the channel while the Derf and Warspite sit, hopelessly stuck.
The Derfflinger isn’t sinking here, she just ships alot of water over her stern while driving in reverse. Do this long enough and you will sink though.
Uh-oh, the I-boat goes under
The big French Battleship Richelieu has an unhealthy looking list, shes got a lot of grey-area holes, this may not end well.
Nope, not ending well for the blue team.
Some ‘glam’ shots for the camera – love those reflections
I-boat fires a bit late.
Scharnhorst shoots ahead of the I-boat.
Derfflingers forward sidemount fires on the Warspite, but probably to no effect, that gun was firing really weak for some reason.
Derfflinger’s aft sidemount opens up on the I-boat.
