Custom Scenario Name:                 DOGGER BANK
Scenario Starting Date:               January 24 , 1915
Maximum Scenario Duration:            11 turns (4days/turn)

Scenario Author:                      RhinoBones
Author's E-mail Address:              RhinoBones@aol.com
Last Scenario Revision Date:          February 22, 1999
Version 1.0

Background:

During the last few months of 1914 the German High Seas Fleet carried out a small number of 
naval raids upon the Eastern British coast. The opposing fleets played cat and mouse and little 
of military value was accomplished.  The British public though, was outraged and rightly grieved 
by the deaths of a number of their fellow Islanders.  

The raid which Hipper planned for January 1915 was to be a quick hit and run affair, bombard a 
coastal installation and escape back to the safety of the High Seas Fleet anchorage at Wilhelmshaven.  
Unknown to the German command though was the fact that British admiralty had earlier captured both the 
German code books and the secret Enigma machine used to encode/decode naval message traffic.  
The admiralty was well informed and planned to trap Hipper's cruiser force.  In the area of Dogger Bank, 
Dogger Bank is a shoaling area (shallow water generally less that six fathoms in depth) off the 
British coast near Scarborough, Admiral Beatty waited with a battle squadron of five new armored 
cruisers.  A second force issued from Harwich and was intended to close the trap from the South.

Hipper and Beatty met along the North edge of the bank and after a quick assessment of the situation, 
Hipper ordered his battle cruiser about for a quick trip home.  Good decision since the Beatty easily 
outgunned Hipper three to two in weight of broadside.  The British fell upon the old cruiser SMS Blcher, 
sank her, received a mean lesson in German naval gunnery and allowed the remaining three cruisers to escape.

During this brief encounter two events occurred which would come back to haunt the British at the Battle of 
Skagerrak (Jutland).  The first was an apparent design defect in the armored cruiser which permitted the 
flash of a shell strike on the main turrets to enter the powder and shell storage below decks.  When hit, 
HMS Lion was nearly lost as a result of the ensuing secondary explosions.  The second event was the 
inability to transmit and receive signal from Beatty to his subordinate commanders.  The misinterpretation 
of Beatty's flag signals caused the four remaining British cruisers (Beatty's ship Lion was out of action) 
to concentrate on the helpless Blcher while the remaining three of Hipper's cruisers escaped.  The British 
should have easily been able to bag Hipper's entire squadron.  With tragic results, both of these failures 
would be repeated at Skagerrak. 

Scenario Notes:

For a German victory, Hipper's Battle Cruiser squadron must evade and/or fight it's way past Beatty's armored 
cruisers in order to return to Heligoland Bight and the safety of Wilhelmshaven.  Entry of Hipper's crusiers 
is symbolized by the destruction of the Allied troops deployed on the Wilhelmshaven hexes and the landing 
of the two German garrison troop units located on the near by transports.  The heavy guns of the crusiers 
will be needed in order to eliminate the Allied units.  .  .  therefore, at least one (probably more) of 
Hippers crusiers must escape the British.

This scenario introduces mines and mine laying transports.  Mines have a movement of 1 and can be used 
to block and/or attack enemy shipping.  Several transports carrying mines are also available.  The 
transports may be moved to the positions where enemy ships are expected to be transgressing and deployed.  
The mines will probably not sink a capital ship, however, the damage inflicted may make the capital ship 
unable to be effective in a fair fight with an undamaged enemy ship.

This scenario is designed to be played in the solitaire mode from the German side.  Solitaire play 
from the Allied side is possible but will not provide a challenging game.  German victory conditions 
for Cheyenne PBM games is the return of a minimum of two of Hipper's armored crusiers to Wilhelmshaven.  
In the Cheyenne mode the German player does not need to recapture Wilhelmshaven, docking in an adjacent 
hex is sufficient.

Regards, RhinoBones

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Scenario Prepared for Tortoise Page
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