Savo Island refight with Naval Thunder

A few weeks ago Greg, Ben and myself refought the Battle of Savo Island using General Quarters III, thsi was a resounding victory to the Allied forces.

Having had a couple of games of Naval Thunder last week with Quinton we decided to give the battle another go with these rules.

We used the "Battle of Savo Island" scenario from Bitter Rivals Quinton would use the Japanese while Greg and Ben would take on the Allies. I would generally facilitate and get in the way.

Things started well for the Japanese, they sneaked undetected to within close range of the southern group and let leash. Chicago, Canberra and Patterson were all badly damaged by gunfire with only minor damage  to the Japanese. However subsequently all the ships in the Southern Group turned their guns on Aoba which was raked by effective fire and sunk, but not without the loss of both Chicago and Patterson. Long Lance torpedoes thudded into Canberra and she was also stricken but did cause severe damage to Kinugasa in return.

By now the southern group was reduced to Bagley who was putting up a doomed but game fight. Only a single American torpedo found its mark and that proved to be a dud - damn those magnetic detonators!

The Northern Group was now into the melee, Vincennes took heavy damage in the initial salvo from the Japanese 8" guns, but Kinugasa was delivered the Coupe De Grace. As the engagement drew to a close Vincennes was accounted for and Quincey badly damaged but Kako was also severely damaged in return.

As is likely to be expected one American destroyer - Helm - was sunk by friendly fire in the confusion.

The final state was:

• Chokai - Moderate damage
• Aoba - Sunk
• Kinugasa - Sunk
• Furutaka - Undamaged
• Kako - Heavy damage
• Tenryu - Undamaged
• Yubari - Undamaged

• Chicago - Sunk
• Canberra - Sunk
• Patterson - Sunk
• Bagley - Sunk

• Astoria - Light damage
• Vincennes - Sunk
• Quincey - Heavy damage
• Helm - Sunk
• Wilson - Undamaged

• Blue - Moderate damage
• Ralph Talbot - Moderate damage

All in all a great game that ended in a draw, a lot better result than the last time when the Americans did far too well.

Sorry for the quality of the photographs, Victoria was using the 'main' camera so I made do with the rubbish iPhone one.

Allied Northern Group

The Japanese cruisers

On fire and badly damaged Bagley goes in with the torpedoes