The French Foreign Ministry decided that their colony in Indo-China had an excellent strategic positions via-a-vis the British interests in the South China Sea. Despite the advent of Airships, the South China Sea was still one of the busiest trading routes in the world. Both air and naval ships travelled through the area carrying valuable cargos.
In addition, the area saw a regional war in 1893 that allowed the French to gain further territorial concessions from Siam. However, the Siam Government had appealed to the British for aid. At the time, the British left it a local matter between Siam and France. However, if an opportunity arose like that again, the French government was not so certain the British would not intervene.
Therefore, the French Government decided to send the French Airship to their base at Tourane (Da Nang) in Indo-China. The old Pre-dreadnought Battle Ship the Camot was sent on station. A battleship class airship in the area, even a pre-Dreadnought build, was a definite escalation of military might in the region.
Such a move made the British Colonial office very nervous. A Colonial official in Australia partnered with Captain Trilby in the South China Sea and devised a scheme to ambush the Camot en route to its new station. Their goal was to force the Camot to return to France for drydock and repairs. They used the Siam government as a cover for their operation and flagged their vessels deliberately to obscure the actual attackers.
Mission:
Today, instead of randomly rolling up a mission. We decided to play the Raiders scenario from the rule book. This is a scenario that had caused issues during play testing, and that I completely re-wrote. Therefore, I was eager to try it out to see if the changes made it more competitive.
In this mission, the British forces are trying to cripple, sink or destroy the Camot via any means necessary. They score extra points for damage done to the French Battleship. The French are trying to drive off the attackers.
Forces:
L'Aire National
Camot- Captain Aubre- Command 4
Charles Martel Class Heavy Cruiser
Tourane- Captain
de Genouilily- Command 2
Descartes Class Cruiser
Fantassin- Captain Valjean - Command 4
Chasseur Class Destroyer
Rapier- Captain Sault - Command 3
Chasseur Class Destroyer
Royal Navy (of Siam?)
HMS Archeron- Commodore Trilby- Command 2
Duke of Edinburgh Class Cruiser
HMS Bellerophon- Captain
De Selby- Command 3
Warrior Class Cruiser
HMS Medusa- Captain Butler- Command 2
Active Class Light Cruiser
HMS Lancer- Captain Montejoy- Command 4
Bull Finch Class Destroyer
HMS Corsair- Captain Montgomery- Command 4
Bull Finch Class Destroyer
Set-up:
This battle will be played on a 48 x 48 MU board where 1 MU equals 1 inch. It will primarily take place over water. We used the normal terrain and complication generator in the main rules to determine additional details.
In this battle there will be no Complications.
For terrain we generated two island with low hills (alt 1) on the north side of the board. On the South side we have two features with no impact on play.
The French will be on the west side of the board. The British take the opposite side.
The French Battleship is coming in the center flanked by the two destroyers. The Camot is at Alt 4 going speed 3. The two Destroyers are matching speed and at 3 and 5 respectively. The Tourane is to the North at speed 3 and alt 7. They signal the approach of the enemy forces to the rest of the fleet.
The British are in line abreast. From North to South it is the HMS Archeron, HMS Bellerophon, HMS Medusa, HMS Lancer, and HMS Corsair spread across the edge. They are at speed 4 to start. Archeron is at the highest altitude at 6, then 5, 4, 3, and 2 respectively afterwards to try and cover the board with firepower.
In my last couple of reports, I used dice to acts as markers and tokens. This game, I am doing something different and going with 0 on table tracking components. Instead, both sides are documenting on a normal piece of notebook paper to see if we run into any complications using that method.
I foolishly forgot to take the pictures of our initial deployments.
You can read the full battle report on my blog:
https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2021/04/battle-report-castles-in-sky-big.html
