Death Ride of Spud Jones, 22 April 1937

[MengJiao]

  In a what-if scenario from Shattered Armada, Spud Jones, having borrowed funds from his landlady, tries to run 3 tramp steamers loaded with potatos and
arms and ammo into Bilbao.  The Nationalist navy tries to block him and the Hood and two destroyers back him up.  In the real action, the Nationalists backed off when Hood trained its guns on them -- but if the Nationalists had fired or attempted to ram Spud, things might have gone differently and Hood might have blown up in 1937 instead of 4 years later.  Hood is off the map to the NE of Spud's three tramps.  Two RN destroyers are lurking behind the very smoky line of tramp steamers.  One Nationalist battleship, one cruiser, two gunboats and a destroyer are ready to intercept Spud:

[MengJiao]

  In a what-if scenario from Shattered Armada, Spud Jones, having borrowed funds from his landlady, tries to run 3 tramp steamers loaded with potatos and
arms and ammo into Bilbao.  The Nationalist navy tries to block him and the Hood and two destroyers back him up.  In the real action, the Nationalists backed off when Hood trained its guns on them -- but if the Nationalists had fired or attempted to ram Spud, things might have gone differently and Hood might have blown up in 1937 instead of 4 years later.  Hood is off the map to the NE of Spud's three tramps.  Two RN destroyers are lurking behind the very smoky line of tramp steamers.  One Nationalist battleship, one cruiser, two gunboats and a destroyer are ready to intercept Spud:

  Nine minutes into the confrontation, a Nationalist gunboat fired in the reaction phase.  At 5,000 yds with a 3-inch gun, she missed.  The next turn, 12 minutes in, everybody fired.  I've only resolved the fire of the two capital ships (both missed) and the cruiser.  The cruiser hit Spud at 2000 yds with a full broadside of 6-inch guns.  Spud's tramp is a wreck: 50% sunk with 4 critical hits: 2 in the potatos, one on weapons (none) and one jammed the rudder.  If the rudder were not jammed Spud could maybe turn around, but at the moment he is on course for Bilboa and not likely to stay afloat:

[MengJiao]

  Nine minutes into the confrontation, a Nationalist gunboat fired in the reaction phase.  At 5,000 yds with a 3-inch gun, she missed.  The next turn, 12 minutes in, everybody fired.  I've only resolved the fire of the two capital ships (both missed) and the cruiser.  The cruiser hit Spud at 2000 yds with a full broadside of 6-inch guns.  Spud's tramp is a wreck: 50% sunk with 4 critical hits: 2 in the potatos, one on weapons (none) and one jammed the rudder.  If the rudder were not jammed Spud could maybe turn around, but at the moment he is on course for Bilboa and not likely to stay afloat:

18 minutes into the action, Velasco has a major fire and only one 4-inch gun working.  Spud is still afloat and the Nationalist cruiser has just rammed and sunk a Nationalist gunboat.  The Capital Ships have not hit anything:

[MengJiao]

  Nine minutes into the confrontation, a Nationalist gunboat fired in the reaction phase.  At 5,000 yds with a 3-inch gun, she missed.  The next turn, 12 minutes in, everybody fired.  I've only resolved the fire of the two capital ships (both missed) and the cruiser.  The cruiser hit Spud at 2000 yds with a full broadside of 6-inch guns.  Spud's tramp is a wreck: 50% sunk with 4 critical hits: 2 in the potatos, one on weapons (none) and one jammed the rudder.  If the rudder were not jammed Spud could maybe turn around, but at the moment he is on course for Bilboa and not likely to stay afloat:

18 minutes into the action, Velasco has a major fire and only one 4-inch gun working.  Spud is still afloat and the Nationalist cruiser has just rammed and sunk a Nationalist gunboat.  The Capital Ships have not hit anything:

Two rounds of gunfire later, Espana is out of action (major flooding, no functional main armament etc.), Hood has a minor fire and the remaining gunboat and cruiser are still in position to finish off Spud:

[MengJiao]

  Nine minutes into the confrontation, a Nationalist gunboat fired in the reaction phase.  At 5,000 yds with a 3-inch gun, she missed.  The next turn, 12 minutes in, everybody fired.  I've only resolved the fire of the two capital ships (both missed) and the cruiser.  The cruiser hit Spud at 2000 yds with a full broadside of 6-inch guns.  Spud's tramp is a wreck: 50% sunk with 4 critical hits: 2 in the potatos, one on weapons (none) and one jammed the rudder.  If the rudder were not jammed Spud could maybe turn around, but at the moment he is on course for Bilboa and not likely to stay afloat:

18 minutes into the action, Velasco has a major fire and only one 4-inch gun working.  Spud is still afloat and the Nationalist cruiser has just rammed and sunk a Nationalist gunboat.  The Capital Ships have not hit anything:

Two rounds of gunfire later, Espana is out of action (major flooding, no functional main armament etc.), Hood has a minor fire and the remaining gunboat and cruiser are still in position to finish off Spud:

  I have to say, this did not all turn out well.  Spud and a gunboat had a glancing collision, but then the gunboat was blasted to bits by two destroyers.  The only remaining functional Nationalist ship is the CL.  She could go after Spud, but the Hood is faster and very likely to sink the CL in a few minutes if she opens fire.  So I think Spud will end up being towed into Bilbao after all.  I was pretty sure he was going to be blown out of the water pretty fast.