ImagiNations Dreadnought Wrap-Up

After the battles and losses from the previous month, both sides looked to incorporate what had happened into their future plans.Nordland had won all three of the major missions of the month, successfully controlling the sea between the two nations and getting a troop convoy through to the front lines on the disputed islands. Nordland had 8 battlecruisers (1 in repair) to Tierra Del Sur's 4 battleships (1 in repair).

The Nordland admirals were happy with the results of the first month and felt confident that the fast battlecruiser strategy would continue to pay off. But there were concerns from the fleet that the battlecruisers would not be able to stand up in a sustained fight. At the start of the month, the Nordland Admiralty Board decided to refit the Hurtig class battlecruisers that was still in repairs newly designed guns. The refit would extend the time the ship was in the shipyard, but the new guns would almost double the range and improve the hitting power by another 50%. So it seemed like a good risk.

 

The losses during the first month of war forced the recently installed Tierra del Sur Admiralty Board to rethink how they were using the fleet. The board wanted ships similar to Nordland's, but they had not been in charge long enough to make the changes. One admiral was heard to say "you have to fight with the ships you have, not the ones you wish you had." With only four active battleships, the admirals decided to move up the commissioning and deployment of the first Veloz class fast battleship. They also knew they had to have a victory soon or the war could be lost.

 

The second month of the war had 3 major missions; a sea sweep, a Nordland troop convoy, and a Tierra del Sur troop convoy. Both sides decided that the convoy missions were the most important and only allocated light forces to the sea sweep. Nordland assigned the 4 Rask class battlecruisers to escort the troop convoy and their other 4 battlecruisers (2 Hurtig and 2 Kaftig) to intercept the enemy convoy. With only 5 battleships available, Tierra del Sur decided to concentrate on getting their own troop convoy through. So the Nordland troop convoy would get through without opposition.

Nordland battlecruisers departing port

The sea sweep engagement was indecisive and the real action for the month would come down to battle around the Tierra del Sur troop convoy. This time the battle was played out using the Dreadnought VASSAL module, instead of using miniatures. So there are a lot of screen shots to share.

The Tierra del Sur admiral in charge of the convoy escort was worried that the faster Nordland battlecruisers simply move around his ships without engaging. So he split his battleships into two groups that would be close enough to (hopefully) support each other, but far enough apart to make it difficult conduct the end-around action. He also planned to release the fast battleship Veloz to block the Nordland moves. As suspected, the Nordland admiral did plan on maintain range and trying to move around the enemy battleships to get to the troop convoy. 

Good weather favored Nordland, allowing them to engage at long-range while limiting the number of ships exposed to enemy fire. Each side took some damage, but the Tierra del Sur battleships were able to keep themselves between the Nordland battlecruisers and the convoy. With time to intercept the convoy running out, the Nordland admiral decided to attempt to breakthrough the Tierra del Sur line and then use his higher speed to escape the battleships to get to the convoy. This maneuver put the battlelines in close contact. Luck (and the dice) favored Nordland as they were able to sink 2 Tierra del Sur battleships and damage the other 3. But 2 Nordland battlecruisers were heavily damaged in the exchange.

A Tierra del Sur battleship sinking

The other 2 Nordland battlecruisers were able to complete the breakthrough and scatter the convoy (along with sinking several ships), while the damaged ships continued to pound away at each other.
 

The success of the Nordland convoy coupled with the failure of the Tierra del Sur convoy allowed Nordland to take control of all the islands between the 2 nations. The loss of 5 of 6 missions and only 3 battleships in service put Tierra del Sur in a bad position. At the end of month 2 the del Sur government decided they had enough and request peace terms, ending the ImagiNations solo campaign. 

It was a fun little mini-campaign and I enjoyed trying to design ships and come up with the naval doctrine for both sides. Also, the Dreadnought rules play very quickly and having a VASSAL module saved a lot of set up an take down time.