Tuesday

Monday was a day of shame for the Allies. After defeat in Monday's first battle the fleets were divided. Now it was the Maulers vs. the Rainbow warriors. And after a pitiful Monday loss in round one of the new fleets, the Rainbow Warriors vowed to strike back.

Tuesday's morning battle went the same as Monday's afternoon battle. With no clear strategy except "sink the other team" the battle quickly developed into a furball of death. Tremendous damage was being done to all sides as ships switched from one target to another. Confusion and close quarters were the rule of the day. Frank Pittelli learned that sometimes a poorly secured superstructure was a bad thing after being washed under by the wake of the USS North Carolina of David Ricci. And Don Fisher noted that the dock is not your friend as the Espana hit the launching dock and sank. Thus early on the Rainbow fleet had lost two ships.

Then everyone noticed something. Something big. Something in the middle of the furball. Chris Decker's Kentucky. Already hurting, it soon became the major target of most of the Maulers on the pond. Driven towards the shore, the mighty battlewagon took a tremendous pounding before going down. However, the sortie ended soon after as the Kentucky ate up most of the mauler's remaining ammunition. Decker didn't even bother cutting the silkspan into small pieces to patch- he used whole sheets.

In the second sortie, the battle developed into a furball again. But this time the punishment was spread around more evenly between the ships, resulting in only a single sink Tom Tanner in the Hindenburg sent the Houston to the bottom despite the best efforts of the crippled Von Der Tann of Matt Moury to defend the cruiser. But it was a pathetic gesture against the heavy casualties the Rainbow Warriors had suffered in this battle. The Maulers won by 4330 points. The Rainbow Warriors then pinned all their hopes on campaign.

And they had a significant advantage. Two convoy ships vs. only one in the possession of the Maulers. Thus the maulers had to sink twice as many convoy ships as the rainbow warriors to come ahead. Unlike fleet battle, both sides actually used strategy here. The Maulers plans were to sink the enemy convoy ships as quickly as possible, while denying the rainbow warriors the luxury of reloading. A powerful force would stay behind to ensure the safety of the Mauler targets, while a crack sharpshooter squad equipped with high-firing weapons took out the Rainbow targets. With the new campaign rules this was a sound strategy, as the ability of ships to reload was now related to whether or not the targets were still standing.

The Rainbow Warrior strategy centered on efficient hunting of convoys. With the aid of a new rule allowing only one attacker to attack a convoy but prohibiting defending ships from intervening, they felt that it would be easy enough to sink the Mauler convoy. A whole string of class fours was assigned this duty, stretched across the pond. They sent only token forces to guard their own targets and to shoot the mauler targets.

The battle began with a scramble to get convoys in the water, as well as some early squaring off of the warships. The Mauler target squad took aim at the targets immediately with deadly effect, while the mauler defense force of David's North Carolina and Nathan Blateau's Musashi wrought havoc with the rainbow target squad. But in the important (and decisive) area of convoy runs the Rainbow Warriors were king. Right off the bat they completed two convoy runs, while the mauler convoy encountered technical difficulties and sank.

The Mauler convoy ship however had one other notable effect. The poor quality transmitter bled onto a neighboring frequency causing the North Carolina of David Ricci to loose control. After control was partially restored the ship then went on a rampage and during it's five out of control period sent the Okinashima of Tom Tanner and the Andrea Doria of Carl Camerauti to the slimy deep.

Elsewhere the Maulers continued to prove their combat superiority, as the North Carolina of Dave Voughtman and the Phoenix of Dave Lewis were both sunk. But all these warship sinkings and the massacre of the rainbow targets could not outstrip the many convoy runs of the rainbow fleet, as despite heroic efforts the maulers failed to launch another convoy ship. To add insult to injury, the rainbow margin of victory was made even greater as Nathan's Musashi plowed Frank Pitelli under in a vicious ram sink. The rainbow fleet won by 6,225, thus completely erasing the morning's gains for the Maulers and even making up for some of the previous day's whacking.

All in all Tuesday was great battling and everyone had fun. That was a victory for everyone.