Avast there Landlubbers

[bobcockayne 20723xp 2]

Just a quick message to give everyone who wants a bit of background on British Coastal Forces for Cruel Seas in my project.
If people like it I may also do potted breakdowns for other nations.

Bob C’s Breakdown of British Coastal Forces particularly Dogboats

[oriskany 60771xp 0]

This is great, @bobcockayne!  I totally missed this project before, so good job on cross-posting it here in the Forums as well.

I’m going to find the MTB information especially interesting, as it might be useful on the upcoming St. Nazaire project.

So are you angling for the position of Historical Editor?  😀 😀 😀

[bobcockayne 20723xp 1]

I’d have to have big boots for that @oriskany.
I wanted to do a quick breakdown for those getting into Cruel Seas, and the British forces are probably the most complicated to get your head round if a newbie. Only done the basics , if you get stuck on the Naval side ask and I’ll have a dig if I dont know.
This is actually my third foray into the subject and am going back over stuff I did back in the lat 90’s when writing my own set of rules for it aptly named ‘Dogboats’.

[bobcockayne 20723xp 1]

At ST Nazaire there was one MTB 74 a 72.6 Vospers which was modified with the torpedoes moved to the bow to fire over anti-submarine nets provisionally sent to fire them into the U-boat pens(or e-boats not sure) one MGB 315 a Fairmile C and 16 Fairmile B Motor Launchs upgunned with some given torpedo tubes to attack targets of opportunity.
The ML’s sailed under there own steam but the MTB and MGB hds to be towed, and of above on 4 ML’s returned home.

[limburger 21707xp 0]

More content for games is always great 🙂

‘Cruel seas’ looks like it is both a fun game and a subject that hasn’t been done before or in a format that makes it fun for those of us who aren’t historical experts.

@bobcockayne : you could do what @oriskany did with Darkstar and publish those ‘dogboats’ rules of yours.
It might give players of ‘cruel seas’ an alternate rule set.

[bobcockayne 20723xp 0]

@limburger I would if I’d still got a copy or could fine, aieily sure the master file has disappeared a couple of computers ago.
Thought they were not really an introductory set to coastal warfare, where shooting was effected by speed , ship to ship aspet etc, though we had developed a table to help work it out, though we had got a historically accurate (according to accounts) effect. Their were also a couple of bugs to work out, and the torpedoe rules may have needed tweaking as those are always the hardest to sort for tabletop, as they either move as they do historically and everybody avoids them or end up as super guns.

Cruels seas is fairly a basic set, and I will probably move over ideas from Dog Boats as optional rules.

[bobcockayne 20723xp 0]

I’ve now added some notes on actual tactics used in coastal wargames and will be adding to it with ideas on how to play it,
which will be a bit of the fly on whole as I ponder how to do it.

[limburger 21707xp 0]

@bobcockayne : losing any kind of project you’ve worked on is always tough.

It’s always interesting to read about how the type of terrain and gear affected the battles and tactics as war progresses.

I think Warlord have chosen an excellent subject, so I hope there’s more to read in the future.
Heck, I might add it to my collection despite the fact that there’s no chance of ever seeing a Dutch list within this setting.

[phaidknott 7023xp 1]

One thing that did surprise me when I started about reading on the historical background for Cruel Seas was the use of American PT boast and the US Navy in the Mediterranean and UK shores (I thought these things were only used in the Pacific and crewed by Hollywood Stars…typical ignorance from me).

https://www.deepfriedhappymice.com/C_Cmd_Scenarios.pdf

Above is the best summary, they also built them in my home town

http://www.hartfordcivicsociety.org.uk/p/oddments.html

No idea what boats were constructed in the Pimblott Shipyard, however given the location on a river I’m assume they would be the smallest class. Might be interesting to see what these flat bottomed “Puffers” ammo carriers were for use in D-Day?

[damon 7525xp 1]

@limburger check out the Dutch crewed MTB flotillas that served with the Royal Navy

http://www.netherlandsnavy.nl/Special_mtb.htm

[limburger 21707xp 1]

@damon : cool … I didn’t know that. The only thing I knew was that a few ships had either escaped to the UK or been sunk by their own crew (to prevent capture by the Germans).
damn … now I need more info, my wallet hates you 😉

[bobcockayne 20723xp 0]

The ‘Dogboat’ rule files have been located and thanks to @laughingboy have been converted into something we could open as they were so old they were in Amipro. The redoubtable Kevin has now converted them into word, they are in a series of tables and individual files so am now putting them in order so that I can re-write them. I also have to figure out what the hell I was on about , they were written for a different time a emphasis than today and are not designed competition or dinner table play. The bigges problem was they were compiled rather than written for a group of players who knew what the tables were for without explanation so will take me a bit of editing for a wider audiance/

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