33LIMA

Random scenes and despatches from the middle campaign... I’m not sure why, but so far I’m doing rather better in this second Royal Navy static campaign, than I recall from my first pay-through. And both times, I’m finding it lacks the frustration of the RN dynamic campaign. The German version is excellent, but playing the British side, there's an excessive frequency of U-Boat ‘area ambushes’ of fast-moving warships in open ocean. Coupled with excessive torpedo accuracy, this is frustrating...though now that I think if it, I will turn on the 'dud torpedoes' option, to help simulate a greater probability of a miss than exists now. Back to the static campaign, and this time, I got so far ahead in the ‘arms race’ that I had plenty of renown points in hand, even after buying several battleships. I had two or three of these by the time the Germans had started to appear with heavy cruisers or ‘pocket battleships’, and four or five by the time the Scharnhorst or Bismarck class began to appear. As well as Revenge and King George V, my battlefleet now features three 16-inch gun battlewagons - sister ships Nelson and Rodney, and the USN's North Carolina. So I’m having fun, smashing my through the opposition, and while it's an unequal fight, there is definitely a certain satisfaction to be gained in using the 'from firer, to-shell-in-flight, to-impact' camera option to get a good view of the effect of a well-aimed 15-inch salvo on some hapless destroyer... I'm also getting valuable gunnery practice in windy conditions..and occasionally getting a fright, when the Luftwaffe shows up without warning, as it its wont. Even then, a single bomb or torpedo hit is not enough to seriously hurt the three battleships I now generally bring to every fight - as seen below, where, guns trained out, Revenge leads Nelson, with 'KG Five' at the rear of the line, turning to port. Except when the enemy has U-boats. Even one U-Boat. As they had in one mission, against two heavy cruisers, Hipper and Blucher and a U-boat, U-37. Rather than risk surface vessels, I bought another two ‘T’ Class subs to join the one I had already acquired to replace the late lamented Triton - another Triton (seems you are not prevented in 're-ordering' a lost ship). I pitched all three subs into the fight, three being the maximum from your total allowance of ten ships at any point. Better a partial victory, than run needless risks. Unfortunately, the automated force deployment didn’t place any of my submerged subs in a good firing position on the cruisers, and the U-boat was no-where to be seen/detected. The good news was that I had a single airstrike available (you soon get used to the the fact that the wargame mechanics deploy these like an on-board weapon, launched at an enemy by the ship or sub which has the strike in hand). Less good was that this strike was a rocket-equipped Liberator. I have been attacked by these but never deployed one myself. A bunch of ballistic rockets may be fine against a surfaced U-boat or unarmoured surface ship, but against heavy cruisers, was not likely to achieve much. I sent in the B-24 against the cruiser nearest one of my subs, in the hope that she might take enough damage to slow her down, or might be persuaded to turn towards me. Once you have selected your target ship and oriented the target marker to set up the attack direction, you click the ‘Launch’ button and in goes your plane, straight and level, a few seconds out from the target and already under AA fire. Your sole task is to his the spacebar to start the final attack, having judged the right position from the external viewpoint (no bombsights involved). For rockets, doing this causes the plane to begin a steep dive, hopefully towards your target. A second keystroke fires the rockets. Leave it too late, and your plane auto-aborts the attack! That’s assuming the defending AA doesn’t auto-abort your whole aircraft, first. This time, lo and behold, I got it right and most of the Liberator’s rocket salvo smacked into my target cruiser, roughly amidships. I was so surprised i didn't take any screenshots! This didn’t seem to have any observable effect, but the chance long range salvo which followed from the nearest sub sent Hipper to the bottom, which I did manage to snap. The other cruiser escaped and the U-boat pottered about without coming into view let alone range. Happily, the single warship kill got me through to the next mission. I really like the damage modelling in Atlantic Fleet. On-board fires can often be put out by your invisible and entirely AI damage control parties, or lists halted. Conversely, fires or torpedo, gun and bomb hits can result in delayed internal explosions, evidenced below by the rising, dispersing fireball over Z-31 as she tries to escape under cover of smoke. I still get caught out, sometimes, by enemy airstrikes, but at this stage I'm relying mainly in the ability of my big battlewagons to shrug off most bomb hits... ...IF they land a hit, that is, which they don't always... ...or don't get shot down in the attempt, which can certainly happen... Night actions can be fun, and though using radar estimates for ranging is possible, unless you fire starshells, the enemy, until close enough, can be invisible in the 3d world and just markers with no ID or course, on the map, which is a neat 'fog of war' feature. Below, North Carolina goes one way while Nelson and KG Five go the other, in a night fight in murky weather. By the time Bismarck showed up, I was well ready for her... ...and she and her consorts soon succumbed to my usual battleship pincer movement... I have now got to Mission 30 out of 50, and an having a blast, in various senses of the word. I now have a top- (battleship-) heavy fleet, well able to take the worst the Kriegsmarine can thow at us, even when they come in the form of 'H-39' Class battleships with 16-inch guns of their own. These gave me some serious concern in my first RN static campaign, but with battlewagons a-plenty and renown points to spare, I am already looking forward to the extra rum ration that will doubtless be issued to celebrate my eventual victory...I hope..!