Gamer's Notes - 8:00 - 8:05 PM - on jj Casualties
To recap for a moment, out of each 100 jj "standard casualties," 25 are deaths, 25 are seriously wounded, and 50 are "transitory casualties" (stunned or whatever).
Thus one-half of the jj "standard casualties" return to full duties over time. Generally, however, the engagements are short enough for the gamer to do the math on a lump sum basis at midnight and again at 6 am. While it varies a little, most return at midnight and the rest at dawn.
Now, when the casualties pile up, such that DC and other functions look to be threatened, those jj decisions have to be moved up. Specifically, the hits that inflicted the losses must be scrutinized and generally some casualties get credited as returning to full duty at that point. However, and this is important in jj, if the pace of the pounding is high and continuing, the return of those men is greatly hampered, or even prevented.
It is the last elements above that contribute to reflect that the effects of the rate of inflicted damage has its own effects. Another is that the die rolls for DC mitigation are done by units of elapsed time with the odds improved in the absence of the ship and crew still being under fire.
Thus, jj predicts that damage is more of a threat if inflicted in a short time, as it makes DC harder to accomplish, and high casualties degrade DC mitigation probabilities.
The 50% of the jj "standard casualties that can eventually return, include men who are stunned, grieving, etc. An entire small compartment with a dozen men might lay low for a few minutes. Men taking their wounded buddies to sick bay or giving them emergency first aid are both unavailable to stop that leak two compartments away or fight that fire up one ladder and over 30 feet. Such men ARE available in jj after some time and would NOT be casualties in any record. They simply are not available for DC at the moment. That the jj numbers of 1/4 dead and 1/4 wounded compare with official results of badly damaged ships at Jutland is not a coincidence. Those are the numbers I started with years ago in building jj.
For poor Temeraire in the Damage Table, it reads:
- pre ------ 450(150d)
- Last 12 -- 500(50d)
Her crew was about 900 - 950 total, historically in war, best the author could tell. Yet, a literal reading of the jj table has her with 950 "standard casualties" and another 200 dead. How can the author possibly explain that?!
Well, she was not fired at after 7:19 until 7:50, and took no real damage for another couple minutes. The deaths were localized from turret/barbette hit. One propulsion plant was lost w/o casualties in engineering --- it was a side effect of the turret/barbette hit, though she passed the GT roll. Those folk left engineering and joined DC efforts. Of the 200 - 250 non-permanent casualties, most were credited as back at their posts after 30 minutes --- about 150 or so.
So, when Tem came back under fire, it could have well been 100(150d), but the actual quantity of DC folk had been augmented some by port propulsion plant orphans. That the massive over-kill showed another 500(50d) should come as no surprise. It simply meant that damage was coming far too fast for DC to come close to keeping up with. Too many hits, too many fires, too many flooding, for the reduced crew to possibly cope with. Secondary explosions likely would have taken a huge toll on folks trying to do DC, but I never bothered to do those rolls. She was gone.
In summary, before going back to 8:00 - 8:05, the jj (perhaps poorly implemented, the author is making no deity claims here) "un-casualtied" men, returning them to DC duties over time. The final casualty total for her, in history texts, might be 950/4 + 200 = ~435 dead and 950/4 = ~235 wounded. A huge butcher's bill, to be sure, but no RN ship at Jutland took that many hits at such close range.
The Kaiserin hit (B - 7:56) inflicted many casualties in the remaining
manned propulsion spaces. A GrK hit (U - 7:57) took out the fighting top
folk. A Konig hit (D - 7:57) killed many of those still at the secondaries
in the casemates. Two other hits by GrK (SS - 7:56) hit and took out the
main bridge and the midships turret. The two hits by Kronprinz (SS - 7:59)
basically took out everyone left in the midships sections in separate
secondary explosions. In short, there was no pool of folk unaffected by
the storm of hits there at the end. Even shorter: just about everyone
not in the forward turrets was casualtied!
by Jim
To the Related Jutland Story at 8:00