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BATTLEFLEET 1900
PRE-DREADNOUGHT NAVAL WARFARE:
1890-1905
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Ship Log
Overview
This guide outlines the three basic sections of the
standard Battlefleet 1900 ship log, how to fill it out and how to use it during
a game. In order to conserve screen space on your computer monitor, the ship
log has been split into two sections with an individual summary for each
section.
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The figure at upper left shows the
left side of a sample ship log for the British battleship Majestic. The ship's
name, size, vital-upperworks armor values and stability rating are all entered
in the correct places. The "Boat Guns Manned" box has been left unchecked,
which means that the Majestic's boat gun crews are below the armored deck
(ships with unmanned boat guns avoid multiple losses from any one shell hit).
The three left armament boxes have been filled in to show the status for the
Majestic's three types of guns: main, secondary and tertiary. The main guns are
30cm (12"), the secondary guns are 15cm (6") and the tertiary guns are boat
guns (12 pounders). Along with each gun is recorded the pertinent data from the
ship value section., including the gun size, rate of fire (ROF), armor piercing
penetration (Pen) and the type of gun position or pattern (Pos).
In the
right half of each box is a diagram depicting the layout of the guns and their
distribution. A very important detail to note is how these diagrams are drawn.
Guns grouped in lettered positions always appear as individual entries
down the center of the box, and each value is fully marked off if damaged or
destroyed. Guns located individually in patterns instead of positions
are recorded as single entries which are then sequentially reduced as their
numbers decrease. In this case the Majestic's main guns are in positions (A and
Z), and her secondary and tertiary guns are in patterns (type 1 and 0
respectively).
Also on the chart are recorded the Majestic's five
torpedo tubes. She has four tubes using beam pattern 0, which means she has two
on each broadside, and one torpedo tube in her bow. The two patterns are
entered separately for convenience, although they could also be entered in a
single box to save space.
The figure at right shows the same part of
Majestic's ship log after some battle damage has occurred. Her boat gun crews
have been mobilized for use. Her aft main gun turret has been permanently put
out of action (destroyed). Her port side secondary guns have received several
hits, one of which was repaired, only to be hit again. At this point there are
only three secondary guns left in action on her port side, with two of those
out of action having been completely destroyed. She has also lost two boat guns
on the same side of the ship. The port side torpedo box shows that the ship has
either fired one torpedo or that one launcher has been damaged.
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The figure at upper left shows the
right portion of the Majestic's sample ship log before a battle. The Upperworks
Protection and Flood Protection ratings are entered into the correct areas
along the top data line. The flood compartments are blank for now because there
not yet any damage to the ship. The propulsion boxes beneath the Speed header
have been filled in based on data from the Master
Scale Table and shows the ship's maximum available speed as 8.1 inches.
There is nothing else to enter in the Damage & Hits section at the start of
the game, because its sole purpose is to help track damage to the ship. The
lower portion of this section is composed of boxes which can be checked off as
those features sustain hits. The number of boxes are also indicators of how
many of a certain item are available for use. For example, there are six DC
dice available for use each turn, and there are six boxes on the DC line of the
log. There are two searchlights (LT) available on the ship, each with its own
box in the log. A ship can only suffer two funnel hits worth of damage, so
there are only two FU box. Note that at the same time the FU box is checked
off, the player must also destroy one propulsion box. The FU box is merely to
remind players that a ship has already suffered FU hits. Next to the check
boxes are three rows of checkable reference hits that are associated with
certain types of damage or conditions. These are Steering (ST), Rudder (R) and
Uneven Flooding. At the right side of the log is a stylized cross section of
the ship for recording external (e) and internal (i) fires
The figure at
right shows how this part of the Majestic's log might appear with battle
damage. The ship has suffered two propulsion box hits, one of which has
destroyed a box and one more which has damaged a box. These two hits reduce the
ship's maximum available speed from its original maximum of 8.1 inches per turn
down to 5.4 inches per turn. The ship also suffered a light flooding hit on the
port (left) side, and then later suffered a severe flooding hit in the same
compartment. Note that each compartment only records the worst level of
flooding current for that zone. So the previous light flooding entry was
crossed out when flooding on the port side became severe. Because of the severe
flooding, the Majestic's commander ordered counterflooding in order to prevent
the ship from capsizing. He counterflooded the starboard (right) section with
light flooding, which was just enough to prevent a stable ship like the
Majestic from turning over. Later in the game, the starboard section suffered
battle damage in the same zone of the ship, bringing flooding on the starboard
side to medium. At this point, the Majestic had a total of six points of
flooding present on the ship: four points for the port side severe flooding,
and two points for the starboard side medium flooding. The ship has also
suffered one damage control die destroyed (DC). Both searchlights (LT) are out
of commission, with one of those having been destroyed. The uneven flooding
that the ship suffered earlier in the game (recorded in the flooding
compartments in the left side of the log) was originally shown as having both
TR and MM hits (turning radius extended and all main guns silenced). After the
uneven flooding was reduced, the MM underline was erased, leaving only the TR
hit due to a slight uneven flooding condition still existing. There are also
two external fires burning on the ship, and sometime earlier in the game there
had been an external fire that was extinguished. |
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