Nimitz: Battle of Ofotfjord 1940

 

The theme this Thursday at the Wollongong Wargamers was naval, so Darren and I persuaded folk to go large - 1/700th scale! We are not completely insane - we doubled all the distances in the Nimitz rules.

So a peaceful morning at the head of a idyllic Norwegian fjord. German warships just chilling out, minding their own business (apart from having just invaded a peaceful neutral country, that is). Nothing to see here...

But trouble is heading their way...

The German fleet hastily raises steam and makes a bid for the open sea...

But they will have to run the gauntlet of British, Polish and Canadian destroyers first!

German gunnery starts off well, as is to be expected, but then becomes wildly inaccurate; whilst their unreliable torpedoes, with dud pistols and dodgy depth keeping, unaccountably wipe out a couple of their antagonists. But British gunnery steadily improves...

Or more precisely, Polish gunnery is bang on target - the Konigsberg blew up due to a Double 6 critical caused by shooting from a Polish destroyer. That's a third of the German points gone right there...

The Germans grit their teeth and continue to head to open sea, but the pounding of four inch shells whittles down the survivors...

A torpedo salvo sinks the last surviving Zerstorer. Oh well, a quick game is a good game!