[Consim-l] Cone of Fire: Battle of the River Plate

[Mike NotSpecified]

"Cone of Fire" is Avalanche's latest entry in both it's Great War at Sea and 
Second World War at Sea series.  Yes, two games in one box.  6 maps covering 
the southern end of South America, ships from both era's, both sets of 
rulebooks etc.  It looks pretty good.  I didn't have much time, so I refought 
the battle of the River Plate just to get my feet wet.

You can read about the battle on BGG at:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/4398946#4398946

or here is the text.

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SWWAS:  Cone of Fire
Battle 1:  Battle of the River Plate
Dec 2009


The German Armored Cruiser (AC) Graf Spee is spotted off the coast of  Uruguay 
by a British force consisting of the cruiser CA Exeter and two light cruisers; 
CL Ajaxand CL Achilles (manned by New Zealanders).  Historically a running 
battle developed, with AC Graf Spee damaged and finally putting into 
Montevideo, where she was subsequently scuttled.

The scenario notes state the designer’s opinion that Graf Spee was overmatched 
by the three British cruisers and would have had a hard time either fighting 
it out or fleeing.  Let’s see what happens this time
.

Set-up
Let’s look at speed first.  AC Graf Spee was on a commerce raiding mission, 
her goal in this fight should be to evade, fighting with British naval units 
was to be avoided and the scenario victory conditions reflect this.  But AC 
Graf Spee is slower than the British ships, being rated a 2+ to their 3’s.

The scenario lasts for four rounds, each round having twenty two impulses.  A 
speed 2 ship like AC Graf Spee moves on three of those impulses, while the 
speed 3 ships of the British move on four of the impulses.  So the British 
will be able to close the range eventually.

The ships start 5 hexes apart, which is important for two reasons.  First is 
sighting range.  Since this battle takes place during daylight and good 
weather, the sighting range is 6 hexes.  In poor weather, or night, the ships 
would not have spotted each other.  The second important range consideration 
is the range of the guns.  Primary guns fire 6 hexes, secondary guns, 4 hexes 
and tertiary guns and torpedoes are limited to 2 hexes.  Starting 5 hexes 
apart, it is only the primary guns that can engage at this range.

Which brings us to the ships.  Listed below are the key statistics for each 
ship, how many Primary, Secondary and Tertiary guns, Torpedoes and Speed.

AC Graf Spee – 4, 2, 1, Torp =1, Speed = 2+
CA Exeter – 0, 4, 1, Torp = 1, Speed = 3
CL Achilles – 0, 3, 1, Torp = 2, Speed = 3
CL Ajax – 0, 3, 1, Torp = 2, Speed = 3

So you can see that if the Germans can hold the range at 5 hexes their primary 
guns can engage and the British won’t be able to shoot back.  But the British 
ships are faster and they obviously want to cut the range to at least 4 hexes 
and get their secondary guns into action.

Battle
CA Exeter is operating by herself, the two British light cruisers are grouped 
and two hexes away and AC Graf Spee makes up the third point of a very skinny 
triangle, being five hexes away from all three British ships.

In the first round AC Graf Spee concentrates on CA Exeter.  While the British 
cruiser is marginally more dangerous than the two light cruisers the real goal 
is to disable her enough that AC Graf Spee will have more options in terms of 
possibly turning.  As it is, the geometry forces her to run directly y away 
from the British, as a turn to either side would allow either CA Exeter or the 
light cruisers to close.

In the event, the German primary guns are not very effective, scoring only one 
hit on CA Exeter (knocking out one gun) before the British ships have closed 
to range 4.  But the British secondary guns are terrible, failing to score at 
all.

In the second round (of 22 impulses remember), AC Graf Spee continues to focus 
on CA Exeter.  Exeter loses two gun sections, and continues to miss the German 
ship.  The British light cruisers fare only marginally better, knocking out a 
secondary and tertiary gun on AC Graf Spee.  Then CA Exeter takes an 
engineering hit, knocking her speed down to 2.

The Germans briefly consider continuing to fire on CA Exeter, but the bigger 
threat is the faster light cruisers so they shift fire to the CL Ajax.  The 
light cruiser is quickly in trouble, first losing speed, then being sunk on 
another tremendous barrage.

In the third round, CL Achilles continues to try to close the range.  AC Graf 
Spee switches from running straight away and begins to bend around to the 
north, keeping CA Exeter in range as their blood lust is up and the prospect 
of sinking yet another British ship causes Capt. Langsdorff to forget his 
primary mission.

Another exchange of guns between CL Achilles and AC Graf Spee causes some gun 
hits on both ships, but neither has lost a hull section or seen their speed 
reduced.  CA Exeter meanwhile has lost all her guns, but continues to try to 
close, which with the German ship’s turn gives her a chance with her sole 
torpedo, which misses.

Again AC Graf Spee fires, and this time she knocks out the last guns on CL 
Achilles.  With CL Ajax sunk, and neither CL Ajax nor CA Exeter possessing any 
functional guns, the British are ready to break off.  AC Graf Spee has lost 
all of her secondary and tertiary guns, and one of the primaries. But she 
still retains three primaries and her hull/speed is untouched.

Capt. Langsdorff recalls his commerce raiding mission and decides to break off 
himself, while his ship is still fully capable of hunting down the Allied 
merchant ships.  This move is roundly criticized post-war, it certainly 
appears that he could have held the range at 4 hexes and battered both 
remaining British ships under.  His only real risk would have been if either 
had been able to close and use torpedoes, but the risk seems slight.

Nevertheless, one ship of the Royal Navy sunk,  two badly damaged, and the AC 
Graf Spee still on the loose is a definite win for the Germans.

Some Comments
So this game reflected neither the historical result, not the designers 
expectations.  That is not necessarily a problem, a game with a pre-determined 
outcome wouldn’t be much of a game after all.

What did happen was some average dice for the Germans and substantially 
sub-par dice for the British.  The British had trouble scoring on the AC Graf 
Spee and when they did, they tended to hit relatively unimportant parts like 
the secondary and tertiary guns, the later of which never got off a shot. For 
their part the Germans got a nice distribution of hits, knocking out the 
secondary guns on CA Exeter and CL Achilles, and outright sinking CL Ajax.

Probably I should have stayed with it, I think AC Graf Spee would have sunk at 
least one more British ship before the scenario ended, but we were down to 
nothing but die-rolling and without the context of an operational scenario or 
broader war I just wasn’t that interested.  But this battle scenario does 
provide an important cautionary tale for the operational scenarios.  Even with 
a 3:1 advantage in ships, an advantage that resulted in a British victory 
historically, the players need not assume things will turn out that way in a 
game.  And the luck of the dice seems justifiable, certainly things could have 
gone differently that December 13th off the coast of Uruguay, and certainly 
they could again in a future game.