Convoy Attack/Defense
I play fast gun and so that’s what this was intended for, but I don’t see why it couldn’t be modified to work with big gun rule sets. Sinking is what makes this sport truly exciting and different and this scenario should grant plenty of carnage regardless of the caliber of gun you use.
Unfortunately, my club isn’t the biggest so when you combine that with a modern pump and a high performance motor it usually takes some sort of failure or gross tactical error to send someone swimming. And when you are short on captains it is painful to ask a captain to make cargo runs instead of manning his or her normal battle stations in order to run a campaign battle.
This scenario allows smaller clubs to conduct a limited campaign type battle without requiring warship captains to step down to a rusty old freighter. However you could use guests or even spectators (when available) to run cargo vessels to get people hooked without the risks associated with handing over an armed vessel to someone you might have just met. Unarmed merchant vessels are cheap to build and also make great loaner boats. And in this scenario, merchant captains get to contribute to their cause in a meaningful way.
Setup:
Split the combat warships into two teams.
The defending team is given command of at least 3 merchant vessels that might have appeared in a convoy. The more targets…err…merchant vessels on the water the better. Merchant vessels are given a very small pump (7/8” max diameter impeller and a maximum of 60 milliamp motor but no restrictor is required) and may be either under r/c command or attached to an anchor. This gives them a pumping capacity of around .5 gallons a minute but uses very minimal battery capacity.
Merchant vessels at anchor are to be spread out to allow room for maneuvering but not so much that they cover the entire pond. The merchant vessels are granted pumps on the assumption that they are going to take hits, especially those at anchor, but not so large a pump that they are impossible to sink. Merchant vessels may have a foam bumper added to the bow to protect against ramming by inexperienced captains.
Game play:
Cargo vessels are free to maneuver but have to make runs around the convoy and a floating buoy and then return (forming a loop) to score points. Attackers may attack the cargo vessels or the defending warships. The defenders should attempt to defend the transports however they see fit. Battle till everyone is sunk/on five or for 20-30 minute time limit.
Scoring:
Counting bb holes is boring and tedious so don’t bother. Instead, count the exciting part of this hobby--count how many ships sunk!
Merchant ships are worth 1 point per full 12” of length. That makes a liberty ship worth 3 points. R/C merchant ships that survive a cargo run add one point per full 12” of length to their team. Warships are worth 2 points per battle unit.
Points are likely to end up uneven, but that is ok because you just switch sides, rearm/repair and go at it again and then compare the scores to see who really ruled the waves.
Simple, easy, and for most folks shouldn’t require a calculator.
Like most things in life, this is not a “fair” scenario in that all things are not even. The attacking team is likely to achieve more points than the defending team. But if you reset and the attackers and defenders switch roles then you can compare the points from the two sorties and then you have a fair comparison.