Wednesday, 7 November 2012

Tiger, tiger, burning bright.....


A diagram of the huts sustained by H.M.S. Tiger at Jutland - note the fact that nearly all of them were above the waterline.

After the Portable Wargame-fest of the last few days I have decided to go back to finishing off the typing up of the Jutland play sheets in order to run a game of the same. I am also working on a version that incorporates my own ideas and will be, for all intents and purposes, a more conventional set of naval wargames rules. The game I intend running is really a nod to all those games I fought back in the early '80s although in this case without the map movement.

I am planning to acquire models for use with these rules and have decided that 1/3000th will be the preferred scale simply because the range available from Navwar is as large as I am ever likely to need. Of course it will mean that under the 'normal' rules I am devising based on the Jutland set will mean that any games I fight at home will be relatively small affairs in respect of the numbers involved - however, there is always the club tables and so that will be something to look forward to in due course.

So, off to the grey wastes of the North Sea then....


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8 comments:

  1. Peter Douglas7 November 2012 at 17:38

    DC

    Much is written of the fragile British battlecruisers, but Tiger shook off a number of heavy hits and was fully operational at dusk.

    Cheers
    PD

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  2. David Crook7 November 2012 at 17:46

    Hi Peter,

    She was certainly the best of the British battlecruisers - the Japanese thought so anyway, with the Kongo class being based on her design.

    I am looking forward to fighting with battlecruisers again - I have not done that for some time.

    All the best,

    DC

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  3. Peter Douglas7 November 2012 at 19:14

    DC

    I thought it was the other way round, the Japs ordered Kongo from a british yard and the UK press was horrified to see that she was much better than HMS Lion. Thus Tiger got a quick redisgn to fix the issues Lion had.

    Cheers
    Pd

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  4. Paul O'G7 November 2012 at 19:39

    Some great Damage Control efforts there by her crew.

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  5. David Manley7 November 2012 at 21:14

    Much of that fragility is pretty much a myth. When you look at the various hits on capital ships at Jutland significant differences in armour actually played very little part. The "fragility" was in the propellant for the main guns. If we'd used German style propellants it is unlikely we'd have lost any of the BCs. Conversely if the Germans had used ours, Scheer would probably have said something like "Es ist etwas falsch mit unserem blutigen Schiffen heute" on at least one occasion in his career.

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  6. David Crook8 November 2012 at 07:47

    Hi Peter,

    I stand corrected - that will teach to rush my research!

    All the best,

    DC

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  7. David Crook8 November 2012 at 07:50

    Hi Dave,

    Good point, well made and many thanks for the German quote!

    Glad you are back old chap!

    All the best,

    DC

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  8. David Crook8 November 2012 at 07:51

    Hi Paul,

    The sellotape, string and chewing gun were certainly much in evidence!

    All the best,

    DC

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