Battle of the Denmark Strait

A Scenario for General Quarters III

SETUP

Hood and Prince of Wales set up in the SE corner of the table, heading 300° at 28 knots. Hood leads, with PoW 800 yards behind and slightly to starboard.
Prinz Eugen is on a bearing of 335° from the Hood, heading 220° at 27 knots. Bismarck is 200 yards astern of the Prinz Eugen.
Wind is from NNE at 12 knots. The time is 05:53.
If using 1/6000 scale models and a ground scale of 1cm=200 yards (half the normal GQ3 scale), this can be easily set up on a 6'x4' table like this:

Click on the image to enlarge

Note Bismarck is off-table and will enter in the movement phase of Turn 2. She is still eligible to be fired upon by PoW in the gunnery phase of Turn 1

SPECIAL RULES

British Gunnery

All RN gunfire is shifted up one row when firing northwards (anywhere in an arc from NW to NE). This is due to the weather gage - the effect of spray obscuring the rangefinders.

Prince of Wales

PoW may not fire her A turret in the forward arc. This is due to the heavy swell and the PoW's lack of flared bow.

When the PoW fires using her A or Y turrets (the quadruple turrets), any 12s rolled cause a gun malfunction in one of her quad turrets. Roll 1D12:
1-4 One gun in A turret disabled
5-8 One gun in Y turret
9-10 All guns in A turret
11-12 All guns in Y turret
In the repair phase roll 1D12 for each turret with malfunctioning guns:
1-5 Repair all guns in turret
6-11 Fail but may try again next repair phase
12 Fail, gun(s) permanently disabled

Hood

An 'Ammunition' critical hit is an automatic magazine explosion. No roll is made on the Damage Control table.
Any penetrating Main or Secondary Turret hit forces a roll on the Ammunition column of the Damage Control table (i.e. 1D12: 1-9 ok, 10-12 Boom)

Hood has misidentified the Prinz Eugen as the Bismarck. In the gunnery phase of Turn 1 Hood must fire on Prinz Eugen. From Turn 2 onwards roll 1D6 and add the current turn number. On 6+ the crew realise their mistake and she may fire on either target for the rest of the game.

German Gunnery

German long range fire was extremely effective in this engagement. All gunnery rolls in the 21,000 - 30,000 yard range brackets are made on D10s instead of the usual D12.

Concentration Fire

Both sides may use sequenced concentration fire for their main batteries. (They suffer no negative for firing on the same ship). See GQ3 optional rule 1.5.14

Rule 1.5.13 is also in effect - Ships that are not engaged (i.e. fired on) get a bonus shift one row down on the Gunfire CRT.

SEQUENCE OF PLAY

Turn 1

There is no movement phase on Turn 1. The game starts with the Gunnery phase.

Hood must fire on Prinz Eugen, Pow may fire on either target.

Both ships must fire through their forward arcs and may not use their aft turrets. (Note this means that PoW can only fire with the 2 guns in B turret). I only include this because, depending on how carefully you've set up the table, and how generous your rules are with firing arcs, you might find that the British ships should be eligible for a full broadside even though historically they were only able to bring the forward guns to bear. This only applies on Turn 1; from Turn 2 onwards you can measure your firing arcs normally.

The German ships may not fire on Turn 1.

Turn 2

In the movement phase all ships on both sides must hold their course and speed.

All ships may fire (Hood must check to see if she can switch targets).

Turn 3

All ships move and fire normally. (Hood must continue to test until she successfully identifies the Bismarck)