Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Guadalcanal Missions 2, 3, 4 & 5!!! Pilot Debrieffing


So – Lucky us! We managed to pull off 4 missions this afternoon!
(Actually, we only played 2 games. The 3rd and 4th missions were actually “Role-Playing” scenarios. I had to complete these after the fact as Graham had no interest in them.)

Second Mission of the Campaign was “The Bait”.
 
The Japanese plan was to bait out the hiding the American carriers by launching a raid using the light carrier Ryujo. The remaining Fleet Carriers would then locate and attack the American carriers. Of course – it was more or less a suicide mission for the Ryujo…

The Japanese launched their Kate Bombers (5 – all Skilled aircrew) escorted by 8 Zeros – led by Ace Vidlersan, with 5 skilled pilots and 2 green replacements. The Americans would intercept with 8 Wildcats, led by Ace Logan, a veteran pilot, 2 skilled pilots and 4 Green pilots.

The Kates were in a V formation, 2 elements of 3 Zeros – one on left side, one the right and the ace with his wingman following closely (3 hexes) behind the Kates. The Americans were in two waves – all Green pilots in a line abreast formation in the first wave, with the Skilled, veteran and ace pilots in the second wave, 2-3 hexes behind the 1st formation.

It was a rather quick and brutal affair – game ended turn 5. Basically, the formations closed on each other. Turn 3, the Kates tried to dive under the Wildcats, and actually avoided the Green crews in the first wave, while the Zeros attempted to hit the Wildcats on the flanks. The Kates got shot up by the second wave of Wildcats in a series of Head-on engagements: 1 Kate exploded from Critical hit, 1 pilot was killed and crashed by a lucky hit and a 3rd plane was badly damaged. The Japanese Ace and his wingman managed to share a kill and shot down one of the green pilots, but the remaining Zeros all missed their targets. Turn 4, the Americans successfully anticipated the Kates trying to dive away next turn, plotted Split-S for all the fighters and destroyed the remaining Kates. The Zeros, having failed their missions, climbed away and ended the game turn 5.

Campaign results: Loss of a Green Pilot reduced US Aircraft availability down to 27 planes. Japanese troops on the island remain at 300 strong.

As the Japanese commander, I had made quite a few bad errors. I miscalculated the turn that the planes would close into firing range and my fighters in the flanks were not in position as a result. Worse, I made an assumption that by forcing the Americans to do head-to-head attacks, the Americans would miss as they would suffer a -2 penalty to hit my Kates. I expected a lucky hit or two, not the devastation that Graham managed to inflict in a single head-on pass! I should have planned to attack and break up his charge on the bombers before they reached the bombers rather than hit them as they hit the bombers. I then forgot to dive my Zeros after the Kates and Wildcats in Turn 4, so I was hopelessly out of shooting range (2 Altitude Levels – can only shoot 1 level difference) by end of movement in turn 4. By the end of shooting phase of turn 4, I had already lost all the Kates and the mission was over.

Graham and I handling that many aircraft became kind of tedious. Fortunately for me, the Bombers basically maintain their same plot so there’s little or no change. Handling 8 fighters by oneself is cumbersome and problematic. The more formations, the more difficult it is to track and keep everything straight. I actually had to roll Crew Checks for Zeros on the 1st mission because I misplotted and 2 fighters ended up in the same hex at same altitude – twice! Also, at one point, we had 16 fighters, and 5 Kates in a mass about 8 hexes wide and 3 deep – multiple hexes with multiple planes. A very congested situation – we had to be twice as cautious to avoid confusion.

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Third Mission was a Role-Play mission. Enterprise was badly damaged as a result of the previous day’s “bait” mission, so transferred aircraft to Henderson Field (+10 US Aircraft = 37 Total).

The Japanese tried to rush a convoy to the island during the day. The Americans were able to discover the run and attacked, successfully hitting the convoy – forcing it to return to Port. In the battle, the Americans lost 3 more planes in the actions over the convoy. The Americans also managed to launch a successful B17 Raid that hit the Japanese forces on the island, causing the Japanese to lose 100 troops!

Total American Forces: 34 Planes at Henderson
Total Japanese Forces: 200 Troops on Guadalcanal
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Fourth Mission of the Campaign: “Bouncing Bettys”
In response to the attacks on their convoy, the Japanese launch a bomber raid (9 Medium-Sized Betty Bombers) on Henderson Field. The Bombers approached Henderson in a single V formation – with NO Escorts within 20 hexes of the western edge of the map (45 Hexes wide). The bombers were able to get a bonus of 6 hexes closer to the Eastern edge (Banzi!) and were allowed to dive from TAL 4 down to TAL 2 during the mission (“We’re going in!”). (Got both rules by rolling a 9.) Americans deployed within 15 hexes of south east corner and got “Trigger Happy” rule – all Green pilots MUST shoot if they have a possible shot.

Once again, Bombers just advanced forward – this time at Speed 2 - towards the Eastern edge every turn. With guns on the bombers facing all directions, I should be able to do something! I hoped…

The Betty bombers were more robust than the Kates (R1 compared to R0 – it seemed to make a HUGE difference!). Most of the guns on the Betty are Light Machine Guns (D4 damage - very hard to require more than a 4+ save on 2 X D6), but I was hoping for some Lucky Hits to help out (rolling doubles on the Robustness save causes a Lucky Hit). While I got a couple, Graham was able to pass crew checks to avoid the effects of most. He caught fire a couple times but put them out before the fire caused damage to his planes. The Rear guns on the Betty are a Low Velocity Cannon (D10 damage) and did most the real work for me.

The bombers managed to damage two Wildcats which crashed on returning home (both green pilots: -2 Aircraft availability = 8 Victory Points). In the end, 3 of the Betty bombers made it off the table to complete their bombing missions. Using Victory Points in a “single Mission” mode, a medium bomber was worth 8 points, so Graham would have 48 points for downing 6 bombers, whereas each bomber getting off the table was worth 10 VP for the Japanese for a total of 38 points for the Japanese. A win for the Americans. However, my 3 bombers successfully destroyed another 6 aircraft on the ground, for a total of 8 aircraft lost for the campaign in a single mission!

Americans: 26 Planes Left
Japanese: 200 Troops Left

With the Betty Bombers in the 2nd game, it was difficult trying to keep straight which bombers had shot which weapons and that caused some confusion. I thought I was clear, but a couple of times, Graham thought I had made mistakes – doubling up on bombers. Turned out he hadn’t realized I was shooting waist guns at different targets from the same bomber whereas he thought I had moved onto another bomber. While I was able to handle the plotting, the directing of Defensive guns for 9 planes really slowed down the game. Unfortunately, I don’t think it could really have been sped up with more people handling the load. You had to calculate shooting for each arc on each plane separately. That was Potentially 27 shots per game turn from the 9 bombers to track!
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5th mission was another Role-play mission.
Japanese were given option to send 1000 troops on fast destroyers or 4000 on slow transports. Having already failed to reinforce the island once already, I decided the fast destroyers were a safer bet – Especially travelling at night.

The Americans decided to send 10 aircraft out to search for the Japanese fleet, holding 16 aircraft back to launch a strike when the fleet was located.

Playing with the numbers per the instructions, rolling some dice, and the result was in:
American fliers would spot the fleet as dusk settles over the island, but looses the fleet in the darkness. They would not be able to attack the fleet.
The Japanese were able to unload 700 troops without incident.

Americans: 26 Planes Left
Japanese: 900 Troops Left
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So far - Campaign has been interesting. Definitely find the larger battles really should be played with 2 or more players per side, but it can be managed by a single person with patience.

Also, using 2" hex maps was better than 1.5" (size of the base of the flight stand we used were 1.3 - 1.5"). It allowed us to shuffle 2-3 planes in a single hex when we required it. While it shortened the play surface a bit smaller than the recommended 45 Hexes by 30 Hexes, it hasn't made a huge difference. Shuffling the starting positions usually works to get the same results.

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