Herring Wars

Tim and Jerry have been participating in a PBEM campaign covering a hypothetical Norwegian-Danish War at the turn of the century. The various map based manouverings led to a naval encounter, which we resolved at the club using Tims 1/1200th toys. Tim had also put together a special set of rules to go with them, using his matchstick firing cannon to resolve combat, but I managed to avoid taking any photos of that bit!  

 

 The mighty Norwegian fleet, a torpedo boat, a coastal defence battleship bearing a distinct resemblance to the Schleswig Holstein and three, err, merchant ships. Two of them were serving as AMCs and one was loaded to top with explosives! We put that one at the back. Wicked Danes in the distance with three torpedo boats, a cruiser and a battleship. 

 

First blood to us. Our torpedo boat tore into the heart of the enemy fleet as the formed line of battle and torpedoed the enemy battleship, which promptly rolled over and sank. Well, these aren't dreadnoughts.

 

 

Night fell shortly thereafter and sadly our brave torpedo boat was overwhelmed by enemy gunfire, the crew taking to the lifeboats. Meanwhile the large ships broke out their searchlights (only our elderly battleship actually had any).

 Much to our amazement we succeeded in despatching most of the enemy fleet, Danish torpedos proving considerably less effective (or lucky) than ours. At the end of the action our fleet sailed majestically on, picking up the torpedo boat crew en route, while the one surviving Danish torpedo boat fled the scene carrying the dreadful news back to Copenhagen.