Convoy support 2- A Batrep

So after the last naval game (linky linky..) i'd proposed a few changes to make it a little less one-sided and improve the experience.
In summary for this game we changed;

1. fleet deployed laterally across a line 20" from my board edge
2. enemy bombers deployed 6" off their own board edge, fighters within 6". Advantage as per "escort duty" mission
3. Fleet had their own pass at the end of the initiative pass.
4. Ships move 1" and can turn through 45 degrees at the end of their move
5. Ships can fire with 9" range as a defensive turret at end of activation
6. "Heavy flak presence" card x2 in the defender's deck as extras

British forces (defending)
Fleet:
Destroyer (Firepower 4) 3 cripple/5 sink
Minelayer (Firepower 1) 2 cripple/4 sink
Auxiliary ship (Firepower 1) 1 cripple/2 sink

CAP:
x6 spitfires, pilot ratings 5,4,3,3,2,2
x2 defiants, crew ratings 4,3

Axis Forces:
x6 bf109e, pilot ratings 5,4,3,3,2,2
x3 ju88, crew ratings 4,3,3

 My deployment as defender; element 1 led by veteran (4,3,2) on the west (left flank) nearest the destroyer. Element 2 led by ace (5,3,2) in centre nearest minelayer and auxiliary ship. Defiants on right flank, kept out of harm's way for late-game use







The germans opted for an intercept heading, allowing for the forward movement of my shipping and deploys hard-left on the edge of his DZ.

Battle stations klaxons sounded throughout the small fleet, men scurrying to their posts and standing, waiting patiently for the dots on the horizon to grow in size. It happened slowly at first, then rapidly, they gained form. The gunners checked their breaches and eye'd the ammo belts, mentally preparing for what was about to happen...

Pass 1
Starting advantaged because of scenario rules, the bombers advance up first with a dive to neutral(I rolled pretty badly for advantage levels and primarily started my higher ranking pilots neutral or disadvantaged.
My western element min-move and climb, with my R3 pilot passing his "great climb" check successfully. The central element boot it for the central cloud bank and B2T (burn to turn) to face into the path of the bombers's route. My defiants move up a small distance and climb to advantaged, hanging back out of the way. Lastly, his disadvantaged fighters all move up and climb. Mainly they head striaght up but two on his central section peel off and head to the central cloud bank area to intercept my second element.
In the ship pass, they all bank 45 degrees to port to head more toward my board edge.

"Get on them boys! give those 'Hun hell!!" The stick juddered with the rythmic disharge of the wingboard machine guns and tracer doused the ju88. "Blast....she's still up..."

 

End of turn 1 on the western flank

Pass 2
The defiants holding my ships' rear are already advantaged and sense a 109 breakthrough of the central cloud bank and elected to move more over the shipping's centre and nearer the cloud, covering each other with their 360 turrets.
My ace bursts out of the central cloud bank and playing the mission, goes straight for a bomber, lighting it up but is furious that it passed its dodge on the deflection shot. The rookie of my western element heads up and knocks the bomber down to disadvantaged with a good hit that wasn't dodged.
The BF109's engage now and the enemy ace moves up and outmaneuvers (OM) my R4 on my western element. He's promptly mobbed and shot down over successive attempts after he dodges the first shot. His wingman shoots at the disadvantaged bomber, misses and takes a chit from the defensive fire! Combat has only really just started and my RAF fighters are sat on 4 chits with a threshold of 5 :-(
My last R3 ducks and weaves, nimbly resisting 3 attempts to outmaneuver him by the 109's!

A furball erupts on my western flank, the R4 pilot here is not long for the world!!

Ships:
The deck guns on the destroyer light up a 109, chitting it with a deflection shot. They all turn slightly to port and keep heading toward my leftward DZ


Pass 3
Things havent gone well this turn, I'm danagerously close to my threshold and have to face a lot more turret fire and 109's yet. I've lost a plane and am yet to get a chit on a bomber. I'm definitely in need of some luck here...
The defiants get stuck in, knowing I need to draw some heat off the spits, I committed them as they're chit-free at this point. They miss their opening shots of their first ever game on the enemy R3 and ineffectively trade turret fire with the enemy bomber that began its dive into the back of the fleet

The western flank begins to pick up for a moment, my advantaged rookie burns to turn, tails an R4 109 and promptly splashes the fucker!!! The advantaged pass ends and my neutral ace gets to go first. He takes his initial shot at the sitting duck bomber and uses "accurate" only to miss. As usual.
He chucks a tight turn and pulls through the pack into a lovely little slot between two bombers and a fighter to draw a tail on an R3 but forgets about bombers being able to act as "wingman effect" so is forced to outmaneuver him for a pilot action, setting him up for my R3 pilot and trying to take him out of the order for a while. Seeing the play, the enemy ace now OM's my R3 pilot and sets him up for the bomber's nose gunner. The bomber chits him, but thankfully he passes his dodge test and isn't splashed yet. I am now sitting at threshold, one more chit and they're gone!
Sensing time running out, I commit my remaining planes from the central cloud into the bomber still sat at disadvantaged.

My R3 and R2 both empty their belts into it for no result, it passes any dodge tests it is called to make! I'm fuming at this point and fail to see how bombers will ever get shot down!!
 The defiants start to take some heat, the R4 getting OM'd twice by lower ranked pilots (the sluggish trait is painful!). He gets lit up but manages to dodge to prevent being splashed.
At the end of the disadvantaged pass my western element R3 activates and plinks some more shots on the bomber only to have them dodged!
In frustration at how impossible the bastard thing is being to take out, I grab the rulebooks and have another good read, slapping myself about how we shouldn't have been adding pilot rating to dodge tests at all. It should have been well dead now!! blah, never mind....
Ships: The deck gunners on the destroyer knock an engine off a JU88 and cheer FINALLY!!!
The Spitfires then bug out due to accumulated chits

A roar erupted from the decks as the 20mm batteries and the AA pintles opened up, only briefly dimmed by the roar of Merlin engines as a wing of spitfires buzzed overhead. The crew shouted encouragement as a huge scrap erupted overhead. The apparently unhurt bombers broke through and minds sharpened as adrenaline raced through the gunner's veins

Pass 4
With only the defiants left and the bombers largely intact it is not looking good for the sailors. I'm needing some good luck here with the deck gunners and for my opponent to have bad luck with his bombing runs!
My Defiants move to engage the bomber starting his run on the Minelayer, taking and discarding a chit from the defensive turret thanks to home advantage (where was that card two turns ago!?!?!).
Things are not looking good for the destroyer as both bombers begin their runs but lady luck finally throws me a bone and both attempts result in nothing more than wet sailors.
Unfortunately my response fire from the deck guns fails to hit the bombers and they'll be able to use the last of their 250lb bombs in the next pass :-(
The swarming 109's smell blood, sweeping from my western flank once the Spitfires bailed and now engage the Defiants. The sluggish trait hurts a lot here as both are thoroughly outmaneuvered down to disadvantaged. Thankfully any shots that land on target are dodged thanks to a spurt of lucky 6's.

 "Brace, Brace, Brace!!!!" The ju88 screamed as it tore through the air, seemingly impervious to the deck gunner's best efforts to shoot the fucker down. An explosion from the bow is rapidly doused with a column of brine from the near-miss that landed just next to it as damage control teams hurtled bow-ward

My minelayer is not spared the same opener as the destroyer and takes a chit (light damage) from the ju88's first bomb attack. The deck gunners miss in return fire and all ships miss their attempts in their own pass at the end of the turn.

Uh oh....

Pass 5
The board is looking suspiciously devoid of spitfires now and the defiants are in no shape to turn this around. My hopes are resting on failed ordnance from the gerries and good rolls from the deck gunners!
The defiants are horrendously outmatched, outnumbered and outgunned and are driven off after the R3 pilot is unceremoniously splashed by a rookie after being lit up and toyed with by the enemy ace. The R4 barely escapes with his life, an extremely poor run of dice for my opponent and good rolls by me mean that any shots that did land were successfully dodged. He boots it for the northern board edge and the bombers complete their attack runs.
Both western bombers land bombs on target, causing 2 chits (light damage) onto the destroyer, taking an engine chit in return. The minelayer survives another near-miss and the deck gunners also miss their opportunity to retaliate.
We close out the game with the last ship pass and the destroyer shoots the final engine out on one Ju88 to end the game but the auxiliary ship and minelayer miss their attempts on the other wounded bomber.

Final tally:
Allied losses: 1 Spitfire, 1 Defiant
Allied Damage: Destroyer damaged, Minelayer Damaged

Axis losses: 1 Ju88, 1 BF109
Axis Damage: 1Ju88


Wrap up:
So this worked an absolute ton better. Ships having their own pass made it much more engaging and if we'd have played it right earlier on with the bombers, the defence would have held a lot better too.
We need to tweak the bombing dice pool though to represent dive bombing accuracy as with only one squadron of bombers, the heavier ships aren't realistically going to get taken out without a ton of luck. Its an easy fix however and we're looking forward to the next game!