An Alternate History of World War I

(British time and measurements used, because they are consistent with the jj model and most data.)

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Reading the Letterstime Damage Tables (Incl. DC Symbology)

Each ship is represented by two horizontal lines. The first one is the status of the ship before the last 6 minutes of battle. That line is labeled "pre" for status "pre-"round. The second line is the results of the "last 6" minutes only. Some ships have "Special" line entries for specific items like lost turrets, engine damage, etc.

The "Hits" entry indicates how many hits, both "pre" and "last 6" (or "last 12," or "lat 29") minutes, the ship has taken prior to and during the last combat period, respectively

The Distribution (Bins) column indicates where each hit was "placed" on the ship, in sequence. Here, U=Upperworks, S=Superstructure, D=Deck, and B=Belowdeck (hull).

In jj, damage inflicted by hits are Fires, Floods, and Casualties, with many hits inflicting Casualties in addition to Fire/Flood damage. The size of the Fire or Flood damage is either Small (S), Medium (M), or Large (L). Some (rare) very damaging hits get a "V" with the L to represent extensive additional effects --- such that a "VL" might include a secondary explosion.

The "GT" means, of course, a "Golden Twinkee" hit that is a one hit kill, like a cordite explosion, or a magazine detonation. Some hits demand a GT die roll for ship survival after certain hits. If a ship survives a GT roll, she may still suffer additional collateral damage (e.g., engine loss).

In Casualties, hits inflict losses in groups of 50; a hit with only a few dead or injured is considered effectively 0 casualties in jj. The jj breaks normal casualties into four groups. The first group is equal to one-fourth the value and represents deaths. A second fourth equals long-term wounds that maim, etc such that the crewman will not be functional for the rest of the battle (and may potentially be out of the war). The last group is the remaining one-half of the number, and these men can return to service after some time of first aid, etc. Those one-half generally return automatically in die rolls at midnight (gamer convenience), assuming the ship is not in action. They are actually back before then and, if it becomes a battle factor, the gamer analyzes their return at that time. Any number in parentheses with "d" means those men were killed outright, most often in a turret/barbette hit, but sometimes in an engineroom hit. The size of a crew is by class and a large number of casualties degrades DC chances (die roll input).

A hit that impacts an area already damaged generally does no additional harm. Such a hit is indicated by brackets. For example, if a L hit area for flooding took a later M hit in the same place, the table would be: L[M]. If the M hit was first, then the L hit, it would be: [M]L. The latter case indicates that additional damage occurred, but only to the extent that an M area was further damaged up to the L level.

Note, however, that if a topside (D or S) hit is placed on or near an active fire, then there is a good chance that DC teams took casualties. Damage control in jj is vital to avoid additional damage or destruction. A look at the "Cent" (Centurion) entry shows an example where so much fire damage took place so quickly and with additional hits taking out firefighters, that Centurion blew up on a magazine explosion.

One other point, a torpedo hit on a K class dreadnought or HSF BC is treated as a flood L hit, with subsequent chances to cause additional flooding. A torpedo hit is treated as a GT die roll hit by pre-Dreadnoughts. The RN BBs start with the flood hit being L, and roll for additional flood damage by class. Results like those of Marlborough historically are likely, but older ships might actually be sunk. Such losses, though, would not be GT (like the HSF pre-Ds) but cumulative with time and DC die roll chances.

In jj, damage control (DC) can mitigate fire damage, but some effects remain. Fires that are put out or reduced are shown within "{ }" ‘s. For example:

---- Ship takes fires, say, SML (Small+Medium+Large)
---- DC efforts succeed, the fire status might later be "{SML=M}"
---- "{SML=M}" means that there is still an active fire of "M" size, but others are out
---- each fire must drop one class at a time: (V)L to L to M to S to 0
---- Periods NOT under fire improve DC odds
---- Note, that the damage from the fires still remains, even after the fire is out
---- Ships lose combat ability, accuracy, DC response, etc from residual fire damage

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