Night Action in the Adriatic - 1905

Attack on a Convoy off the Dalmatian Coast

As readers of the thread over on The Wargames Website will know, I have been planning a fictional naval campaign involving the pre-dreadnought fleets of Italy and Austria Hungary set in 1905. The fleets are painted, and I'm in the process of thrashing out the mechanics of the campaign. I'll be posting more details in the not-too-distant future.

In the meantime here's a little one-off game using the Fire When Ready rules.

Setup

The 6'x4' table represents a section of the coast of Dalmatia, and for the purposes of this game the left edge of the table is North. A small Austro-Hungarian convoy is hugging the coast heading for Pola, and is about to be intercepted by an Italian squadron.

To keep things simple I made all commanders and crews average.

Time: 01:30
Sea State: 2
Wind: Gentle breeze
Visibility: Hazy 4000 yards (40cm)

Austria-Hungary

The convoy consists of 3 coasters, 2 drifters and 2 trawlers, all of which can make 10 knots. As a House Rule, I've decided that all merchant ships make no initiative roll - they just move first before any other ships.

Ahead of them is the protected cruiser Zenta and the old 1880s barbette ship Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stefani (or 'Stef' as I like to call her). On the left flank are the destroyers Huszár and Magnet.

On the right inshore flank, (far back in the photo above), is a small armed merchant which I stuck in there simply because I wanted to find a use for the Tumbling Dice 'Armed Yacht' model. I couldn't find anything in Conway's that seemed appropriate, so I just invented a ship. I gave her an ADV of 4, two 4.1" turrets (probably a little generous but whatevs), one quickfirer factor each side, and a speed of 12 knots. I christened her Korčula. May God save her and all who sink in her. She is destined for great things.

Italy

The Italian force comprises three cruisers - the Marco Polo, Vettor Pisani, and Lombardia - and six Partenope class 'torpedo cruisers' (large torpedo boat/destroyers).

01:36

First sighting. The lead ships run into each other at a combined speed of 22 knots. The searchlights fire up, guns open fire, and in the space of a couple of minutes the range is less than 2000 yards.

Marco Polo and Stefani exchange torpedo fire from their forward firing launchers. Both miss.

01:39

Chaos. The convoy turns away and the Austro-Hungarian destroyers do their best to screen them. Both sides fire torpedoes, all of which miss.

 

The Zenta finds herself sandwiched between the Italian cruisers and destroyers and comes under heavy fire.

01:42

Marco Polo sinks both of the Austrian destroyers and opens fire on the convoy, while fire is exchanged between Lombardia and Zenta, and between Vettor Pisani and Stefani. Two of the Italian torpedo cruisers are crippled and turn away.

The mighty Korčula

The Korčula opens up with her 4.1" pop guns at the Vettor Pisani and gets a spectacular lucky hit, igniting the cruiser's secondary ammunition and causing severe damage. She is now only 1 ADV point away from her 1/3 threshold when she'll be reduced to half speed and be forced to take a morale check.

Boom!

01:45

The confused melee continues and the sea boils with shell splashes and torpedo tracks. All the torps miss, as usual. The Vettor Pisani's captain decides to protect his ship and pulls away from the main action.

Knife fight in the dark

Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stefani under heavy fire, viewed from the masthead of the Vettor Pisani.

01:48

Both Stefani and Zenta suffer heavy damage reducing them to half speed. On the right, the two remaining Italian torpedo cruisers push on into the heart of the convoy, but both take serious damage from quickfirers, preventing them from launching torpedoes.

01:51

Marco Polo swings behind the stern of the Stefani and disables her with brutal raking fire. Her crew prepare to abandon ship. The Zenta does good work with her 6" guns - the Marco Polo's helmsman is hit forcing her to hold her current course next turn, and the Lombardia has 2 of her port side 4.7" guns knocked out. The Lombardia opens fire at the little Korčula with no effect.

01:54

Marco Polo replaces her helmsman and will be able to manoeuvre normally next turn. Vettor Pisani hides in the darkness, lobbing shells at the illuminated Zenta, but fails to score any hits. The Zenta lands good hits on the Marco Polo whose upperworks are now starting to look a bit tatty, but Zenta is now hanging by a thread and will not survive another hit.

Some of the smaller merchant ships turn back southwards. The plucky little Korčula attempts to buy them time, going head to head with the Lombardia at point blank range, scoring hits on the cruiser whilst evading all damage.

01:57

Marco Polo's guns find their mark and Zenta is reduced to a smouldering wreck. Now only the tiny Korčula stands between the three Italian cruisers and the scattered convoy.

The Lombardia crosses the Korčula's T at point blank range but all her guns miss.

The last moments of the Zenta

02:00

The weather changes, dropping to Sea State 1, calm with fog patches. The visibility drops to 3000 yards (30cm), and only 1500 yards for small ships. This is a potential godsend for the merchant ships, some of whom may now be able to slip away in the fog.

Lombardia closes in on the fleeing trawlers, with the Korčula snapping at her heels like an angry terrier. No damage is inflicted by either ship.

Vettor Pisani turns back to the south to support the somewhat battered Lombardia. On her way she shells the wreck of the Stefani in order to hasten her sinking, but all shots miss.

Meanwhile, to the North, Marco Polo goes to work on the coasters.

02:03

Lombardia and Korčula continue to circle one another, with both failing to land any hits, while Vettor Pisani closes in from the North.

Marco Polo cripples the leading merchantman.

02:06

The duel between Lombardia and Korčula continues, with the Vettor Pisani steadily closing.

Marco Polo heroically continues to blow the crap out of the defenceless unarmed merchant ships.

02:09

Finally the Korčula's luck runs out. The gallant gunboat is hit by two 6" and one 4.7", disabling her in one blow. Amazingly this is the first time she's been hit.

With all resistance neutralised and the merchant ships still visible, the outcome is inevitable. The remaining merchantmen are overhauled and surrender.