Voyage of the Bismarck is released.

[bru888]

Voyage of the Bismarck is released. See what you think. Bear in mind one thing: Although I tried to be accurate as to ships and positions, I had to take some artistic liberties for the sake of balanced gameplay versus the AI.

As straight history, I played it over and over again and, frankly, the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen had no chance. To send those two ships out alone was suicidal, at least in hindsight, when faced with the might of the British fleet that pursued them.

So, in this semi-fictional scenario there are some escorts; not warships, but some support. There are some specialisations added which probably are not historically accurate. Above all, I provide both ships with a temporary shield of "enhanced armor" which, believe me, is not infinite and can be used up quickly.

Anyway, I was finally able to beat the scenario on middle difficulty so, out to the showroom it goes!

Screenshot 2.png (1.56 MiB) Viewed 4790 times

[Andy2012]

Okay, first the Unit Navigator and now this. Those are two great additions - right after the holidays when I have to return to tedious work. Damn you, capitalism. I will try to have a look.

[steevodeevo]

Great work Bru, how do you want feedback on this? I'm a little loathed to comment here as it may spoil if for some people as there are comments that could easily provide clues on to how to win.

I would like to provide some feedback as I've been waiting for this one for a while and enjoyed my first play through but have some (hopefully helpful) comments.

Some observations first that I'm sure can't spoil it or assist anyone -

- I played on medium difficulty and it was pretty easy, the auto-armour is pretty powerful..
- I enjoyed it!
- If there is a plan to make a version with German AI vs. UK Player controlled? I think this could be significantly better from a game-play and challenge perspective as the UK seems to have a much greater challenge on its hands (from a scenario perspective), as it has to coordinate units against a formidable foe and has to find the darned Bismark first.
- I love the way you push the game engine with the message updates and historical images to create immersion, particularly early on.
- The North Atlantic, in my view, should feel quite a bit 'bigger'... This may be related to playing as Germany, as I wasn't required to look hard for targets. The sea planes could cover the entire ocean..
- ... Playing as the Brits on the other hand, I would hope that a key game play element would be finding the 'needle in haystack' Bismark in the vastness of the North Atlantic and then mustering a strong enough combined fleet from far and wide to deal with it in time*
- *I really enjoyed the 'against the clock' elements, more player feedback could potentially make this even more pressing as I had plenty of time, again, the Brits could easily find this more of a challenge, sinking the Bismark vs protecting the convoys so as not to lose..
- Could more be made of weather? Visibility, speed, damage?

Hope you don't mind my comments, as I love this battle, loved the movie and was really excited you were making this scenario.

[bru888]

Steevo, I love your comments! I'm at work now - let me get back to you in detail tonight. Quick question: Did you think this was too easy?

[GabeKnight]

Hi,
first of all: Thanks for this scenario. Having just played this, I'll give you some comments from my perspective:

*may contain spoilers!*

- As "steevodeevo" mentioned, I found this sceanario quite easy, even on the first try (level 3 diff.). I just rushed south with no plan at all, found myself surrounded by battleships and carriers and torpedo planes, and I still got out full strenght with all primary and sec. objectives achieved. I'm not a scenario editor crack like you, but from what I've seen, both my capitol ships get repaired 10 times if strenght <10. At least for me, something like 5 times would be better. And/or set the trigger to activate at a strenght loss >2. Mostly I had like 1 damage done to my Bismarck from enemy vessels and it was quite unneccesary to get the auto-repair at that stage.
- So far I can tell, all (winning) triggers and popups/pictures worked. At the end my Bismarck finally was damaged for real by a destroyer escorting the final convoy, and the objective's change and popups worked, vice versa also.
- There only was a small error while escoting the "Prinz Eugen" to Brest. I got the arty and the ship was taken off the map, but then I got *both* popups: one for docking at Brest and followed by another popup saying the ship sailed to the South Atlantic.
- I suppose the 4 torpedo planes (each) hovering over London and St.John's all the time would've activated if I came closer? At least in my case, they were not moving, just landing.
- And please don't get me wrong: while easy to *win*, this scenario was still fun to play! Most of the turns I was occupied quite nicely and I almost even missed one objective (I miscounted the remaining transport ships). The size of the map and the 60-turn limit is adequate and well done IMO.

Considering the given presets and limits of the scenario, it was still well achievable with the small german fleet & air force you provided - and fun to play. So, in terms of gameplay writing and design, I must congratulate you. I'm sure it was quite difficult to balance this sceanario out. Thinking about this and having not tested it, I'm not sure if my above suggestions would even make sense. Because having just two attack vessels, damage >5 done to even one of them would probably result in the loss of the ship and battle.

Thanks again and keep up the good work

[steevodeevo]

Steevo, I love your comments! I'm at work now - let me get back to you in detail tonight. Quick question: Did you think this was too easy?

Well, I'm baffled to say yes, as I did find it fairly straight forward to win at level 3 despite not being a great OoB player. I tend to play at Lieutenant (2nd) level, having tried 'mid' (3rd) level, where others say the best and fairest challenge is found, and I found that a little too hard.

I lost a support ship early on which was entirely my fault and very silly of me, but I found after that I didn't need the support ships at all due to the self repair. After that I didn't lose a ship or a plane or come close to it.

I like where Gabe is coming from with suggestions for limiting the repair. During my play through I had similar thoughts and in fact I wondered whether there was a mechanic such that a level of damage in a battle over 50% of strength (so from 10 damage greater than 5 for example), where the capital ship could not then repair back to the maximum on its own, and would need the support ships, thus making the support vessels more important to defend.

For example, .. if you were damaged from 10 to 5 or more, you could then only self repair back to 8 reflecting more substantial structural damage not repairable by the crew. Then subsequently, if you went from 8 to 4 or less in a battle, the maximum would then be 6.. without the help of a support ship... and so on.

Maybe Gabe is right about the physical size of the map, indeed 60 turns seems ok, and the timing of the West to East convoys clearly needs this scale for the overall scenario timings. If it were longer and players found themselves mainly wandering around an empty ocean seeking targets, some of the dramatic tension could be lost. That said, the range of the sea planes make the North Atlantic feel quite small and the drama of finding targets and avoiding hunters arguably isn't quite cranked up to the max.

[bru888]

Great work Bru, how do you want feedback on this? I'm a little loathed to comment here as it may spoil if for some people as there are comments that could easily provide clues on to how to win. This is good, thanks.

I would like to provide some feedback as I've been waiting for this one for a while and enjoyed my first play through but have some (hopefully helpful) comments. You bet they are helpful.

Some observations first that I'm sure can't spoil it or assist anyone -

- I played on medium difficulty and it was pretty easy, the auto-armour is pretty powerful. Too easy. I scaled it back; see my responses to Gabe.
- I enjoyed it! I am glad.
- If there is a plan to make a version with German AI vs. UK Player controlled? I think this could be significantly better from a game-play and challenge perspective as the UK seems to have a much greater challenge on its hands (from a scenario perspective), as it has to coordinate units against a formidable foe and has to find the darned Bismark first. It's funny you said this because that it the way it was originally planned but I could not find a way to make it interesting. One of the the cardinal rules that adherbal once set forth for scenario design was "action early and often!" (Paraphrasing.) I may revisit this idea, though.
- I love the way you push the game engine with the message updates and historical images to create immersion, particularly early on. Aside from map-making and scenario balance testing, the third thing that takes up so much time is doing the research and finding the imagery for this kind of stuff. It's also the most satisfying, perhaps.
- The North Atlantic, in my view, should feel quite a bit 'bigger'... This may be related to playing as Germany, as I wasn't required to look hard for targets. The sea planes could cover the entire ocean.. Going back to adherbal's wisdom, if the map was bigger and you had to sail any longer distances, boredom would ensue.
- ... Playing as the Brits on the other hand, I would hope that a key game play element would be finding the 'needle in haystack' Bismark in the vastness of the North Atlantic and then mustering a strong enough combined fleet from far and wide to deal with it in time* That would be a good reason for a larger map but again, I would worry about tedium and boredom.
- *I really enjoyed the 'against the clock' elements, more player feedback could potentially make this even more pressing as I had plenty of time, again, the Brits could easily find this more of a challenge, sinking the Bismark vs protecting the convoys so as not to lose.. I hear you. As I said, I'll think about this from the British perspective.
- Could more be made of weather? Visibility, speed, damage? Feh, I am reasonably sure that weather in this game, so far, is merely cosmetic. FOG would be great, someday.

Hope you don't mind my comments, as I love this battle, loved the movie and was really excited you were making this scenario. I tried to make it as true to life as possible but I could not make it just two German ships against the entire British Home Fleet, which essentially is was IRL, because that was no-win. Hence the subtle tweaks of enhancing German power and not including every darned British ship that was involved in the chase!

[bru888]

Hi,
first of all: Thanks for this scenario. Having just played this, I'll give you some comments from my perspective: Please do.

*may contain spoilers!* Good to mention. New Bru players are warned!

- As "steevodeevo" mentioned, I found this sceanario quite easy, even on the first try (level 3 diff.). I just rushed south with no plan at all, found myself surrounded by battleships and carriers and torpedo planes, and I still got out full strenght with all primary and sec. objectives achieved. I'm not a scenario editor crack like you, but from what I've seen, both my capitol ships get repaired 10 times if strenght <10. At least for me, something like 5 times would be better. And/or set the trigger to activate at a strenght loss >2. Mostly I had like 1 damage done to my Bismarck from enemy vessels and it was quite unneccesary to get the auto-repair at that stage. Agree. And you were very perceptive; the armor enhancement count was set for 10 for both ships. I cut it back to 8. So far. It may be asking a lot but maybe could you try again on middle difficulty and see how it is now?
- So far I can tell, all (winning) triggers and popups/pictures worked. At the end my Bismarck finally was damaged for real by a destroyer escorting the final convoy, and the objective's change and popups worked, vice versa also. Good. I worked like a bustard (a large heavy-bodied chiefly terrestrial game bird capable of powerful swift flight; classified with wading birds but frequents grassy steppes) on them.
- There only was a small error while escoting the "Prinz Eugen" to Brest. I got the arty and the ship was taken off the map, but then I got *both* popups: one for docking at Brest and followed by another popup saying the ship sailed to the South Atlantic. Heh, you're not buying the Prinz Eugen getting a quick make-over in Brest and then scooting off to the South Atlantic right away? No? Well, you're right; I forgot to turn off the other trigger on each possibility so that if one fired, the other would not. It's fixed now, thanks.
- I suppose the 4 torpedo planes (each) hovering over London and St.John's all the time would've activated if I came closer? At least in my case, they were not moving, just landing. I want to take a look at that. They are supposed to be patroling and discouraging you from shenanigans like sailing straight for London and St. John's to ambush the convoys. To do so would have been very inadvisable IRL and here as well.
- And please don't get me wrong: while easy to *win*, this scenario was still fun to play! Most of the turns I was occupied quite nicely and I almost even missed one objective (I miscounted the remaining transport ships). The size of the map and the 60-turn limit is adequate and well done IMO. As I said, I dialed back the enhanced armor thing a bit. Don't forget that the convoys are constantly moving to their destinations and if you waste too much time wiping out British warships, you may miss out on the sinking Allied shipping objectives.

Considering the given presets and limits of the scenario, it was still well achievable with the small german fleet & air force you provided - and fun to play. So, in terms of gameplay writing and design, I must congratulate you. I'm sure it was quite difficult to balance this sceanario out. Thinking about this and having not tested it, I'm not sure if my above suggestions would even make sense. Because having just two attack vessels, damage >5 done to even one of them would probably result in the loss of the ship and battle. Thanks, I tried. Would you try again too and let me know?

Thanks again and keep up the good work Will do.

[steevodeevo]

Great work Bru, how do you want feedback on this? I'm a little loathed to comment here as it may spoil if for some people as there are comments that could easily provide clues on to how to win. This is good, thanks.

I would like to provide some feedback as I've been waiting for this one for a while and enjoyed my first play through but have some (hopefully helpful) comments. You bet they are helpful.

Some observations first that I'm sure can't spoil it or assist anyone -

- I played on medium difficulty and it was pretty easy, the auto-armour is pretty powerful. Too easy. I scaled it back; see my responses to Gabe.
- I enjoyed it! I am glad.
- If there is a plan to make a version with German AI vs. UK Player controlled? I think this could be significantly better from a game-play and challenge perspective as the UK seems to have a much greater challenge on its hands (from a scenario perspective), as it has to coordinate units against a formidable foe and has to find the darned Bismark first. It's funny you said this because that it the way it was originally planned but I could not find a way to make it interesting. One of the the cardinal rules that adherbal once set forth for scenario design was "action early and often!" (Paraphrasing.) I may revisit this idea, though.
- I love the way you push the game engine with the message updates and historical images to create immersion, particularly early on. Aside from map-making and scenario balance testing, the third thing that takes up so much time is doing the research and finding the imagery for this kind of stuff. It's also the most satisfying, perhaps.
- The North Atlantic, in my view, should feel quite a bit 'bigger'... This may be related to playing as Germany, as I wasn't required to look hard for targets. The sea planes could cover the entire ocean.. Going back to adherbal's wisdom, if the map was bigger and you had to sail any longer distances, boredom would ensue.
- ... Playing as the Brits on the other hand, I would hope that a key game play element would be finding the 'needle in haystack' Bismark in the vastness of the North Atlantic and then mustering a strong enough combined fleet from far and wide to deal with it in time* That would be a good reason for a larger map but again, I would worry about tedium and boredom.
- *I really enjoyed the 'against the clock' elements, more player feedback could potentially make this even more pressing as I had plenty of time, again, the Brits could easily find this more of a challenge, sinking the Bismark vs protecting the convoys so as not to lose.. I hear you. As I said, I'll think about this from the British perspective.
- Could more be made of weather? Visibility, speed, damage? Feh, I am reasonably sure that weather in this game, so far, is merely cosmetic. FOG would be great, someday.

Hope you don't mind my comments, as I love this battle, loved the movie and was really excited you were making this scenario. I tried to make it as true to life as possible but I could not make it just two German ships against the entire British Home Fleet, which essentially is was IRL, because that was no-win. Hence the subtle tweaks of enhancing German power and not including every darned British ship that was involved in the chase!

Thanks for taking the time to have a look at my ramblings .
I will play again with the reduced auto repair, maybe that's all that was needed?
I agree with comments on the 'action early' I may have a slightly different take on things, I play Decisive Campaigns, Gary Grigsby's War in the West/East, etc.. so I'm used to slow thoughtful turns, I would imagine most folks playing OoB wouldn't be happy with 'empty turns' its not that kind of Operational game format..
I wonder however if simply reducing the range of the planes a bit (50%? or less?) may make the ocean bigger but without causing it to feel like a slog... I'd be glad to test it.

[bru888]

Well, I'm baffled to say yes, as I did find it fairly straight forward to win at level 3 despite not being a great OoB player. I tend to play at Lieutenant (2nd) level, having tried 'mid' (3rd) level, where others say the best and fairest challenge is found, and I found that a little too hard. That's all the more reason why I should dial back the enhanced armor module. So far, it's reduced from 10 hits to 8. Does it make a difference and make it a bit more difficult?

I lost a support ship early on which was entirely my fault and very silly of me, but I found after that I didn't need the support ships at all due to the self repair. After that I didn't lose a ship or a plane or come close to it. That is supposed to be why the support ships are there. That enhanced armored thing again . . . Gabe recommends 5. I wonder, but I don't want to cut back too much. Believe me, without it, the scenario was unwinnable.

I like where Gabe is coming from with suggestions for limiting the repair. During my play through I had similar thoughts and in fact I wondered whether there was a mechanic such that a level of damage in a battle over 50% of strength (so from 10 damage greater than 5 for example), where the capital ship could not then repair back to the maximum on its own, and would need the support ships, thus making the support vessels more important to defend. No, Gabe nailed it. If you are interested, I could show you the trigger involved.

For example, .. if you were damaged from 10 to 5 or more, you could then only self repair back to 8 reflecting more substantial structural damage not repairable by the crew. Then subsequently, if you went from 8 to 4 or less in a battle, the maximum would then be 6.. without the help of a support ship... and so on. You're overthinking it. Basically, the trigger said, for 10 times (now eight), at the start of each turn, see if either Bismarck or Prinz Eugen are below full strength and if they are, make them whole again.

Maybe Gabe is right about the physical size of the map, indeed 60 turns seems ok, and the timing of the West to East convoys clearly needs this scale for the overall scenario timings. If it were longer and players found themselves mainly wandering around an empty ocean seeking targets, some of the dramatic tension could be lost. That said, the range of the sea planes make the North Atlantic feel quite small and the drama of finding targets and avoiding hunters arguably isn't quite cranked up to the max. Yes, that was what I was thinking in both aspects. This is a game, after all, and it has to be fun to play with action early and often. Distances too far = too much unit moving, ho hum. So yes, you also have airplanes that can almost cross the Atlantic like Lindbergh's Spirit of Saint Louis (which was modified to be like a flying fuel tank)!

[bru888]

Thanks for taking the time to have a look at my ramblings .
I will play again with the reduced auto repair, maybe that's all that was needed?
I agree with comments on the 'action early' I may have a slightly different take on things, I play Decisive Campaigns, Gary Grigsby's War in the West/East, etc.. so I'm used to slow thoughtful turns, I would imagine most folks playing OoB wouldn't be happy with 'empty turns' its not that kind of Operational game format..
I wonder however if simply reducing the range of the planes a bit (50%? or less?) may make the ocean bigger but without causing it to feel like a slog... I'd be glad to test it.

No, thank you, steevo. For now, if you could just see how it goes with that reduction in enhanced armor hits (eight, down from ten, each ship) does, I would appreciate that. It really is a convenient way to adjust gameplay balance and if both of you guys think it was too easy at ten, I certainly agree because my victory was rather easy on middle difficulty as well.

[bru888]

New version 1.1 uploaded:

- Fixed issue where Prinz Eugen escape messages were doubled up.
- Scaled back the "enhanced armor" effect to make the scenario more difficult to win.
- "Enhanced Armor" is now explained to the player the first time it works for either Bismarck or Prinz Eugen:

Screenshot 1.jpg (51.57 KiB) Viewed 4652 times

[bru888]

I found this sceanario quite easy, even on the first try (level 3 diff.). I just rushed south with no plan at all, found myself surrounded by battleships and carriers and torpedo planes, and I still got out full strenght with all primary and sec. objectives achieved. I'm not a scenario editor crack like you, but from what I've seen, both my capitol ships get repaired 10 times if strenght <10. At least for me, something like 5 times would be better.

Gabe, if this is any indication, you have a good eye for gameplay, at least with OOB. Not only did you correctly numerate the amount of "enhanced armor" iterations each ship enjoyed in version 1.0 (10 hits), you also nailed the optimal amount for balanced gameplay, I am now convinced (5 hits).

I dialed it down to 5, played it again, and this time not only was this thing much more of a challenge (middle difficulty), it was also a manageable challenge. That is, I sailed and fought the heck out of this and darned near came away with a victory. I needed to be just a bit quicker... if only I had done this or that...

As you can see, I came within one transport ship of winning! I just spent a bit too much time wiping up British warships before breaking away and pursuing the last two convoys.

Screenshot 8.jpg (117.08 KiB) Viewed 4551 times

This . . . THIS is how close I came to winning! This is the final transport ship that I realized to my horror was about to get away (it disappears when it "docks"). I almost got him with my fighters:

Screenshot 4.jpg (55.25 KiB) Viewed 4551 times

I actually went through the "Bismarck approaches Brest" thing, which I never thought I would get to do, and I successfully engaged in the artillery duel to cover her:

Screenshot 5.jpg (250.57 KiB) Viewed 4551 times

First, though, I had to sail the Prinz Eugen to safety:

Screenshot 6.jpg (30.65 KiB) Viewed 4551 times

Heh, as you can probably tell, I am very excited. This was the most fun that I have had playing one of my own scenarios and that's after dozens of run-throughs. I am proud of this one.

Here's the replay file if you care to go through it:

ReplayBismarck.zip

(26.18 KiB) Downloaded 145 times

[bru888]

New version 1.2 uploaded:

- Dialed down enhanced armor effect even further to restore gameplay balance.
- Corrected the egregious spelling error that I just noticed above: "Bismarck Approaches"
- Fixed popup message error in which Admiral Lutjens refers to his "supply ships" instead of "support ships."
- Added two historical events for a bit of flavor. **Spoiler alert: Below is a zip file of the events in case you are interested.

Added Historical Events.zip

(124.05 KiB) Downloaded 135 times

[steevodeevo]

Very good now, has a 'classic' feel to it as you have to play it 'right' to win, play it 'wrong' and you can be obliterated, like I was today on my first attempt at 1.2.

Unfortunately despite pretty much having won the game on the second attempt (which is all about plotting your route, deciding how long to spend fighting Brit warships and how much on the mission objectives), I got into a situation where I could't win, as I inadvertently moved the Bismark onto a South Atlantic exit hex at around turn 45, and she left the map on the next turn, and despite completing all objectives, I couldn't win after this as she was at 9 strength (damaged) and the tweaked 1.2 objectives require a damaged Bismark to dock at Brest for repairs. And of course, I didn't have a save from a couple of turns earlier, as I was confident of victory by then.

Great scenario though, well worth playing. Just be careful at the end.

[bru888]

Very good now, has a 'classic' feel to it as you have to play it 'right' to win, play it 'wrong' and you can be obliterated, like I was today on my first attempt at 1.2.

Unfortunately despite pretty much having won the game on the second attempt (which is all about plotting your route, deciding how long to spend fighting Brit warships and how much on the mission objectives), I got into a situation where I could't win, as I inadvertently moved the Bismark onto a South Atlantic exit hex at around turn 45, and she left the map on the next turn, and despite completing all objectives, I couldn't win after this as she was at 9 strength (damaged) and the tweaked 1.2 objectives require a damaged Bismark to dock at Brest for repairs. And of course, I didn't have a save from a couple of turns earlier, as I was confident of victory by then.

Great scenario though, well worth playing. Just be careful at the end.

Thanks, steevo. Your comments helped make it better.

Yes, you must be careful that you don't exit the Bismarck in the wrong situation. If the Bismarck is damaged, it must dock at Brest to complete the objective of Saving the Bismarck. If the Bismarck is undamaged, it must exit to the South Atlantic to complete the objective of Sailing the Bismarck to Further Glory.

Only a fool would attempt to sail a damaged ship to "further glory," sir! And only a craven coward would dock an undamaged ship in Brest when further glory awaited it! ( )

So yes, the player must be mindful of those Bismarck objectives switching back and forth as the ship gets damaged and repaired, and of course an exit hex is an exit hex. Thanks for playing!

[bru888]

New version 1.3 uploaded:

- Added British (and Canadian) AA guns in port cities.
- Corrected an instance of omitting "HMS" in British warship names.

I figured the AA guns would make sense in that the player should not be able to chase convoys all the way to ports by air with impunity, same as by sea. Hopefully that is the last omission of "HMS" (by the way, I read someplace that the Kriegsmarine did not append such acronyms or titles to their warship names, hence they don't appear for Bismarck, Prinz Eugen, and the other German ships).

[GabeKnight]

Glad I could help. Just downloaded the new version, will play today or tomorrow and give you my feedback.

As you are fond of spelling errors, here's one for you, since I just glanced over the added historical events (file 22-May-1941-b.jpg): it should be "Gott im Himmel!"

[bru888]

As you are fond of spelling errors, here's one for you, since I just glanced over the added historical events (file 22-May-1941-b.jpg): it should be "Gott im Himmel!"

Well here's one spelling that I cannot miss, a word that is common to many languages perhaps: "D'oh!"

Now you see? This is what happens when one gets cocky. I typed that one from memory, thinking "I got this" and neglecting to double-check.

So here is your assignment, if you will: Please download the latest version so that when the message pops up, you don't smack your head and mutter "dummkopf!" (That one I did double-check just now.)

[GabeKnight]

Played v1.3 just now, and it's much better IMO. The second time around I knew the basic layout of the map and the position of the south shipping lanes; and to know that the ships get repaired 5 times in advance helped a lot, too, of course. Everthing else worked just fine (I mean triggers, AI behaviour, popups and objectives).

Even a second time it's still fun to play. This is really a good one!

I'll attach a replay, if you're interested. I moved the scout planes a lot, wanting to show you the behaviour of the other ships around. Maybe you want to make the destroyers a bit more aggressive, and not just staying at one place and "sonaring". And at least the first two destroyer groups (escorting the convoys) are always left behind, meaning that they don't support the transports/supply ships with AA. If that's meant that way, okay, it makes destroying the ships by plane easy.

Suggestions:
- I'd still prefer my ships to be repaired with damage greater 2 done to them! IMO the auto-repair's wasted on only 1-2 strenght points.
- Or... maybe you considered this even yourself, but would it be possible to let the player decide when to repair the ships? As with a question-popup at the beginning of a turn? Then, maybe you could dial down the auto-repair to even 3 times.

And again... thanks for this.

PS: Spelling error: just saw this in your screenshot of the minor defeat It should be "Kriegsmarine"