Nimitz: Mayhem in the Med!

 

Thursday's Nimitz game was laid on by Darren, who provided all the model ships and cards, and provided a succinct rules refresher for old and new Nimitzers alike...

It would be an encounter battle between equal fleets. The Royal Navy flagship was HMS Warspite, escorted by two heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and four destroyers.

That grand old warrior lady Warspite would be meeting a much faster foe, the Vittorio Veneto!

Who enjoyed a comparable escort:

All of Darren's beautifully painted ships are 1/1800 scale XP Forge prints, 

lovingly based on Top Down Miniatures bases.

The scenario was generic - somewhere in the Eastern Med. circa 1940-'43 as the Regia Marina guards the vital sea lanes of communication south to North Africa, whilst the Royal Navy has more of a East - West focus from the UK to Suez and points east...

Geoff (left) and Peter (second from right) played the British. Darren (right) presided, and Bob (centre) is Declan's chauffer. Declan and I played the Regia Marina.

This was Declan's first game so we agree he would take the Vittorio and the two Zara class heavies as we thought they would take longer to get into action, whilst Dec could watch and learn from my mistakes early on with the DDs and light cruisers...

Below are the initial fleet dispositions. Nearest the camera are the Italian destroyers, split into two formations in line astern. In the centre the Vittorio and Zaras. Far out on the left flank the leading light cruiser, Abruzzi, can just be made out. The idea was to keep the two sets of torpedo carriers far apart for a subsequent 'anvil' attack...The Tommies seem to have reversed our formation, with their heavies protecting their destroyers?

As expected it didn't take long for the light forces to get into action - the British destroyers were clearly setting up to launch fish at the Vittorio so I wasted no time in crossing their 'T' and sinking their lead DD - the only one which had a firing solution on our big girl...

Unfortunately the London took umbrage and knocked my light cruisers around, destroying one of their precious torpedo launchers - Basta!

Soon the battlewagons were in range of each other but initial salvos were harmless enough...But the British destroyers, bravely launching their torpedoes to no effect...

were then caught in a crossfire between my light cruisers and Declan's heavies, and suffered!

Then it was Geoff's turn to cross my T and give me a severe stern rake - but his poor dice throwing saved me from serious harm!

After many turns of hard work and careful tactical manoeuvring I was finally ready to set up a torpedo anvil solution on the Warspite : fish from two light cruisers (their starboard launchers still intact)  and three destroyers were all set to criss-cross her patch of oggin....What a way to end the game this would be!

But Declan beat me to the punch, sinking the Warspite with the Vittorio and Zara's main batteries! Thanks Mate!

A very exciting and fun game with lots of craic and trash talking. To be fair to the British team I should say that Darren's Regia Marina dice are pretty devastating, especially when rolled by Declan...