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Article
The First Of Many
by
Brandon Smith
The sun was warm, the grass was wet and the pond was clear as glass. We arrived at Prado Lake and began unpacking the tools of war. Tables, tape, glue, coolers, and at last the mighty warships of the SCRAP fleet. Soon the other captains arrived: Brian Eliassen, Steven and Tanner Thrall, and Todd Olson. The captains began getting their ships ready for the first battle. This would be the Thrall's first time on the water battling, but Konig and Von der Tann appeared to be ready. Brian's South Dakota seemed to eat its radio and would have to sit out. Fortunately, Ty's Warspite and Inflexible were ready to battle. The fleets became Axis/Allied as the Royal Navy battled the High Seas Fleet!
Team Allied
Captain Ship Units Speed
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Brandon Smith Inflexible 4 26
Ty Siouxpancic Warspite 5.5 26
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Team Axis
Captain Ship Units Speed
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Steve Thrall Konig 5 28
Tanner Thrall Von der Tann 4 26
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Sortie 1 : The battle began with the Allies on the right side of the pond and the Axis on the left. The Axis seemed to want to concentrate on Warspite and were mostly leaving Inflexible alone. Within the first moments of battle, Konig was out of sterns, having emptied them in the direction of Warspite. Meanwhile, Von der Tann and Inflexible circled each other trying to line up shots. Eventually Konig and Von der Tann rejoined and again attacked Ty's Warspite. Ty seemed to come out of the engagement with little damage, while Konig was pumping lightly. Both axis ships called five and ran from one end of the pond to the other until the sortie was called and all the ships were recovered. And when I say ran, I mean it. Both the Von der Tann and Konig were quite a bit faster than both the Warspite and Inflexible with the Konig, what should have been the slowest ship on the water, actually being the fastest. After the sortie, it appeared that Inflexible was undamaged, Warspite had fewer than five holes, Konig had been damaged lightly and Von der Tann had been hit below the water line twice. It was decided to make this battle a 3 sortie affair since damage was so light so I changed the batteries in Inflexible.
Sortie 2 : The second sortie began as the first, with the Allies to the right and the Axis to the left. When battle was called, Konig rushed in to attack Warspite and was joined by Von der Tann. After a few passes, Von der Tann backed out of the fray to find Inflexible had peppered her with stern gun shots from medium range. The two Battlecruisers circled, trying to line up shots but finding few. Meanwhile, the two Battleships exchanged fire further out in the lake. Warspite landed several good hits with dual sterns before Von der Tann was able to shake the Warspite off. The two German ships again concentrated on Warspite until Inflexible came in to the melee, this time dropping several haymaker shots into Von der Tann. As the battle came closer to shore, the Allies tried to trap Konig against the shoreline, but the slippery (and fast) german escaped and called 'five.' The Allies tried to run down Von der Tann but only managed a few more hits before both Axis ships made it off the water. After the second sortie, Konig had several more hits near the waterline on the bow and had taken a few belows from her exchange with Warspite. Inflexible finally had a few holes, likely from her running battle with Von der Tann. The rest of the ships changed their batteries.
Sortie 3 : The last sortie started with Warspite and Inflexible closing in on Konig, trying to keep her from running into open water. The Allies 2-1 advantage was spoiled as Von der Tann joined in, freeing Konig from being straddled for too long. Then it was Warspite who found herself fighting both Axis ships. Ty twisted and turned, managing several good exchanges with Von der Tann. Brandon backed Inflexible into the fight and found a home for some haymaker shots in the side of Von der Tann. The Axis made one more attempt to isolate and pound on Warspite but were unable to inflict serious damage before running out of stern guns. A long chase of Von der Tann began, lasting several minutes as both Allied ships tried to pin down the slippery (and fast) battlecruiser. In the end, the German took only a few more hits before escaping and rejoining with Konig. The battle unfolded into separate engagements between Konig and Warspite and closer to shore Inflexible and Von der Tann. Ty managed to land a few convincing shots with his dual sterns, causing Steve to worry if his ship was in danger of sinking. However, Konig seemed to be pumping fine and battle continued. Von der Tann scored a number of hits on Inflexible but was rewarded with a close pass and a flurry of splashes from Inflexible's haymaker. The Axis had emptied their magazines and called five, running from the pursuing allies all the way across the pond. In the end, both German ships made it off the water without suffering much more damage. It was time to pack up and head to Brian's garage to count the scores of SCRAP's first regular battle in a long while. There were many smiling faces and a great time was had by all!
Damage was counted and these were the totals:
Team Allied
Captain Ship A O B Pen Sink Points
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Brandon Smith Inflexible 10 0 3 0 0 506
Ty Siouxpancic Warspite 35 1 0 0 0 569
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Total 1075
Team Axis
Captain Ship A O B Pen Sink Points
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Steve Thrall Konig 18 2 6 0 0 331
Tanner Thrall Von der Tann 22 1 6 0 0 294
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Total 625
High Damage went to Ty and the Warspite with 36 holes.
It was a great day of battling at a new site and it will be the first of many.
Copyright © 2008 Brandon Smith
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