We've played through the Battle of Otranto Straits at the local store twice now, and had a blast  each time

Actions like this one and Heligoland Bight were pre-cursors to the cruiser/destroyer battles of WW2.  And while the body count on May 15, 1917 didn't break 50 (totaling both sides), it included CLs, destroyers and floatplanes, all performing as they were intended.  I built the scenario and OObs (including the random arrival of Brandenburgs and the Italian license-built FBAs) off Halpern's book on the battle and a few web articles.

The first session saw The Austrians just get creamed.  The game is a modified stern chase, but actually starts with the Austrians and British cruisers (Dartmouth and Bristol) in gun range of Horthy's command because historically he allowed the two lines to close, mistakenly believing he was facing ships that didn't outgun him.

Dartmouth took  a 4" hit, not enough to slow her.  Bristol was undamaged....but Saida was hurt enough during the initial exchange that her performance dropped.  The British line got another lick in as they turned to port, chasing the healthy Austrian cruisers as they veered away -- using our tabletop conversion, the A-H light cruisers were able to widen the gap by an 1" each Turn -- both sides had MPs of 5, but the Austrian ships could manage 27 knots compared to Dartmouth's 25, so by playing without hexes we were able to tack an additional inch to the A-H movement each Game Turn. 

Saida now found herself targeted by the Mirabello group (a flotilla leader and three Bouclier class destroyers) that closed and polished her off with a torpedo 

The other Austrian ships managed to escape, and Dartmouth was bloodied further when a Brandenburg actually managed to hit her during a bombing run!  A CRIT hit resulted in a fire that didn't cause any further damage -- but was dramatic, regardless.  Still, sad day for the Kriegsmarine.

The second session saw the Austrians win the day, as we played a variant where Sankt Georg -- historically deployed to support Horthy's CL squadron -- arrived and managed to just HAMMER Bristol with a pair of lucky shots.  The Brit hull had already been wounded, so that was it for her.  The British player had a speed advantage over the old Armored Cruiser, and Dartmouth was able to pull back out of its reach, but the Austrian CLs were sheltered under its guns and so were pretty much safe for the remainder of the scenario.  The planes played no real part here, except for a FBA that got shot down ....and the Tatra class destroyers that came with Sankt Georg mauled the Mirabello flotilla.  Here the results were all based off my rolls more than my tactics.  The other guy just suffered from crappy, crappy tosses.  But I was happy to take the win.

There's another variant where Liverpool is available to the Brits.  She could have been there, in real life, if her captain had received a better heads up as to what was going on.  We might try that later.

Just had to let folks know.
Matt