Pacific War: a Fleet Commander Nimitz AAR

[BanzaiCat]

Battle of New Guinea
Part 3: The Actual Battle

Okay, hopefully Photobucket will behave now. Though I haven't minded a little pause. This is going to be a big battle...and I think I'm worried about two things. One, having my ass handed to me. Two, nothing happening. We shall see.

Dogfight
There's opposing aircraft in the Japanese Ocean Area, Island Area, and US Ocean Area.

Japanese Ocean Area Dogfight
The only ones that can dogfight are Japanese planes.



I roll a '10' for the A6M - that's a big miss. Next, I roll an '8' for the Ki-27...another miss! Whew. All four of my groups get through!

Island Area Dogfight
Things don't look too good for the RAAF group since they're facing off against several Japanese air groups that have a Dogfight rating.



Kanoya Kokutai (6/3) - rolled 8...miss!
Genzan Kokutai (6/3) - rolled 4...one hit.
A6M (8/4) - rolled 3...two hits. The RAAF unit will be destroyed.

In retaliation, I roll a big fat '7,' which is a miss, so the RAAF squadron is eliminated, with no loss to any of the Japanese.

I can't use the Barrel Roll BP as it only eliminates one hit, and only eliminates said hit at the time it occurs. I could have spent it to remove the first hit, but the following two would have killed it. Same goes for the two hits received...I can't win. The RAAF group is unfortunately going to go down.

US Ocean Area Dogfight
My F4Fs are the only ones that can attack.

First F4F (5/3) - rolled 1...two hits!
Second F4F (5/3) - rolled 8, big miss.

However, I'm going to expend my Furball BP to get one extra hit, which will damage the remaining D3A.

Good enough, I guess...I eliminated one of the D3A dive bomber groups. One left, and it's damaged, so it's chances of hitting later are greatly reduced.



AAA
I'll start with the US Ocean Area.

I line up the Wasp and Saratoga in one row, and their escorts in the other. Since only one Japanese aircraft is attacking, it can only be attacked once from the CV row and once from the Escort row. I'm not sure if I did this right in the Midway battle. The rules can sometimes be difficult to interpret. In this case though, I think I just totally missed the two-row thing. I don't even remember, it's been a while since that Midway battle.

In any case, it doesn't matter which CV fires, so I choose the Wasp. I roll an 8. They might have hit the ocean with their AAA fire, but nothing else.

For the escorts, I choose the DD unit. It doesn't matter since they both have an AAA value of 3. And that's what I roll - a '3.' A hit on the damaged D3A sends it spiraling into the ocean. Fortunately, my carriers won't get hit during this battle.



Now, to the Japanese Ocean area.

I roll several times for the Japanese CVs and their escorts (four AAA rolls, one for each attacking group), and get high each time (9, 8, 10, 4). Looks like our bombers are going to get through...

Bomb Runs
Since Photobucket is still being an issue, I'll have to postpone this for now. I have no idea what their issue is but my uploads keep getting stuck at 90%. Stay tuned.

[BanzaiCat]

Well, if it isn't Photobucket being a pain in the ass, looks like these forums like logging me out magically after I've already typed 1,000 words and just before I click Save. Nice. So I get to redo this entire update. Hope I can remember all of what happened.

AAA (Part 2)
I realized that I forgot to do the AAA for the Japanese Coastal Area.



The Japanese ships got one hit in, but I double-checked my Damage Control BP and saw that it doesn't just work for ships, but for ANY of my forces...it cancels one hit at the time of the hit. So I gladly cash that one in to deflect the hit that the BB Kongo/Haruna put on one of my bomber squadrons. Whew.

Bomb Runs (continued)
This was much more dramatic when I was able to type it all out as it happened. I recall what happened and will try to reconstruct it.



One of the TBD squadrons missed, but the other three hit. Adding my Diving Attack BP to the mix, means FOUR hits to the Japanese.

I have to apply hits to the lowest-cost forces first, and have to destroy damaged ships before I can damage others. So, these four hits mean the CVL Zuiho and CVL Hosho go to the bottom of the ocean!



Next, I move to the Japanese Coastal area. This is about where my last long-ish update went belly up and was destroyed by the site. I'm copying my text to be safe from here on out.



My SBDs don't let me down...

SBD #1 (4)...rolls 3, one hit.
SBD #2 (4)...rolls 1, one hit.

Couldn't ask for a better result...well, except for adding another hit through a Battle Plan, but I'll take the sunk carriers.

Unfortunately I have to put the hits on the CRU, since it is the lowest-cost force in the Area. And that means I sink it, because I have to destroy it after that first hit. Not too bad.



Naval Guns
Since there are no submarines in this battle, we skip both the Torpedoes and Depth Charges steps.

First, I'll roll for the Japanese.

BB Kongo/Haruna (5)...rolls 3, one hit.

Before I apply that hit, I'll roll for my two CRUs.

CRU Portland/Indianapolis (4)...rolls 10, can't miss more than that.
CRU Chester/Louisville (4)...rolls 4, barely gets a hit. Plus, I add my Ranging Shot BP, so that's actually two hits.

I need to damage one of my CRUs, since they're the lowest-cost units in either the Island or Coastal Areas. I randomly roll and it's on the CRU Portland/Indianapolis.



There's a thread on BGG that describes some frustration as to how to interpret the rules for Naval Guns, and I've come away with the understanding that both the Island Area and the Coastal Area are considered one Area for the purposes of allocating hits for Naval Guns. Therefore, the lowest-cost unit application applies to both collectively. This means the Japanese land units get hit.

I randomly select and thankfully get the 6th Base ground unit as my target, and have to apply both hits, so it's destroyed. I'd much rather have sent those hits to the BB, but its cost of 3 means it would get to wait a while before hits apply to it.

There is no opposing infantry in the Island area, so that step is skipped.

Infantry Advance
Everyone hits the island now. The Japanese have five Battalions and two larger infantry units, whereas I have the 2nd Marines and the 32nd and 43rd Infantry Divisions.

Positioning doesn't matter as this is the one and only turn for battle, but you can at least see their dispositions. Next time, these guys will all be in foxholes.



New Guinea doesn't look like it was the scene of a victory. In fact, it looks like there's more Japanese forces there than when we started. Can't forget now that two Japanese CVLs are toast...that's four of their flattops sunk to none of mine (sure, damaged, but not sunk!).



I'll do the housekeeping bits in the next post. Photobucket has been a big pain today and I'm done dealing with it for now. But I hope you guys are still enjoying this write-up.

[bbmike]

I had no idea you could move the battle marker to a battle and then have it send the units to the battle board.  :o
Thanks for that tip, BC!
Also, one rule I don't quite understand. When you place a carrier in the ocean (either side) is it required to have an escort ship placed with it (if available)?

[BanzaiCat]

I had no idea you could move the battle marker to a battle and then have it send the units to the battle board.  :o
Thanks for that tip, BC!

Yup. In VASSAL, the Battle Marker is on the Battle Board. You click-drag it to the Area on the main board where the Battle is, then right click on the marker, and select Send To Battle Board. It'll shuffle off all the forces in that Area to the Battle Board, though as I mentioned, you still have to manually move 'em into the proper area according to the rules.

Also, one rule I don't quite understand. When you place a carrier in the ocean (either side) is it required to have an escort ship placed with it (if available)?

As the US player, it's up to you where you place your escort ships (BBs, CRUs, DDs). Your CVs have to be placed in the US Ocean Area, but you can choose which of your other ships go where. Totally up to you. I generally place my highest rated AAA ships with the CVs, if there's a lot of Japanese air power. The ships with higher Surface Attack ratings go in the Coastal Area. Sometimes you have to make tough choices because you might have a ship that's good at both, at least when compared to all the other ships you have present, so you'll need to decide where to put it.

As for the Japanese, when they have carriers (of any type) present, they go in their Japanese Ocean Area. Then I think you alternate placing other ships between the Coastal Area and the Ocean Area. I think the rule says you start by placing a non-CV ship on the Japanese Coastal Area that has the highest Surface Attack rating. I can't recall offhand, but I do know you alternate placement. It also specifies where you place Japanese ships should there be no CVs present in the battle, too.

[FarAway Sooner]

Freaking awesome stuff, Cat!  I seriously am jonesing for this game now.  It's your fault!!!   

[BanzaiCat]

Note: As soon as I make more headway in my Pool of Radiance AAR, I will DEFINITELY be getting back to THIS one.

O0

[FarAway Sooner]

The game looks fascinating.  Only one question/concern as relates to replay value:  Having Japanese forces randomly slosh all over the board makes a lot of sense and provides plenty of suspense in 1942, when the Japanese had the most powerful navy and the Allies were on the defensive everywhere.

However, by 1943 and especially 1944, it seems like that sort of randomness would be much more silly.  Do the move rolls change year-by-year, or are you as likely to get an Attack result in 1994 as in 1942?  Having a depleted Japanese fleet steaming mindlessly out to do battle in American home waters versus an American navy 3x its size seems kinda anticlimactic...

[BanzaiCat]

The next time I'm in the game I'll have to take a closer look at the force structure to be sure, but I'm pretty certain the Japanese are still not a pushover even in the '43 and '44 scenarios.

Consider at heart that this is a game, then with that in mind, understand that the forces portrayed herein are pretty much taken on an as-is basis. In other words, I don't think there's a lot of accounting of veteran pilots/soldiers getting killed in the early game; this could probably be due in part to the fact that this game might unfold ahistorically to an extent, but also because, as a game, it has to be made challenging. So, the Japanese CVs you face in 1944 might have, in the real world, been loaded with crap pilots with no training (if that), the ones in FCN are taken at face value no matter the year of the Campaign.

Like I said I'll have to look at the Campaign sheets to let you know for sure. Since they spell out the exact number of air units for each CV/CVE/CVL on the Japanese side, I'm assuming they change in the later years.

Another big factor in this game that I think would very much impact how it plays is the fact that the US player has to return all ships to Pearl Harbor at the end of each turn. Infantry and Land Based Air can stay where they are, but the ships have to go back. In the '42 Campaign, this is only a one-turn proposition, but this increases in time the later the Campaign. Sure, it's not exactly historically accurate, as the US and the other Allies had plenty of forward bases loaded for bear for them to keep pressing the Japanese up close...but the thing is, it's exactly as you say. If the Americans could keep their ships on station in this game, the Japanese would have no chance in those later Campaigns. And by increasing the transit time back to Pearl the later your Campaign, the more hard decisions you're going to have to make as to deployment of ships, which ratchets up the in-game tension significantly. This makes it all a challenge.

Once I get done with this '42 Campaign, I might look at the other ones too.