BatRep: Road to Rabaul Campaign Book, 1st Mission: Air Raid @ Darwin

First of all, I apologize.  This is my 2^nd attempt at this battle report.  Sadly, I lost most my notes due to a computer failure and am working off the Maneuver Sheets (which I hadn’t cleared off yet)!  Fortunately, the pictures survived!

This is the first mission of the Road to Rabaul Campaign book.  Graham and I played the first mission a week or two ago.  Once again, Graham decided to play the Allied Air Forces while I played the Japanese.

 

Mission Description:

The Japanese attacked Darwin in hopes of forcing the Allies to defend Australia, rather than try to retake the islands that the Japanese had just secured.  The Australians were unable to re-allocate resources fast enough so the Americans moved a force to protect Darwin while the Australians re-organized.  The Japanese, expecting light to no resistance were caught by surprise…

 

The Japanese launched 3 flights of 3 Val Dive Bombers to attack shipping in Darwin Harbor.  (My Dystopian War Fleets provided the convenient targets!)  Escorting the Vals are two flights of 3 Zeros.  The Americans had a flight of 5 P40 Warhawks providing CAP over the Harbor.  Another flight of 3 P40’s were quickly climbing to the Combat Altitude Level the Japanese were flying.  They would arrive Turn 2.

The P40s would make quick work of the Vals unless the Zeros could stop them.  Unfortunately, the mission begins with the Zeros all to the west of the Vals and the P40s more or less straight ahead.  The P40s would decimate the Vals in a head-on pass with their 6 Heavy Machine Guns.  Fortunately, a Japanese ace was just flying back home and was in the same area as the American CAP, so he would be able to “distract” the Americans (I hoped!).  While the American Cap was set up pointing more or less at the Japanese bombers, the Ace Zero setup flanking the American formation!

 

Mission Objectives:

Standard CY6! – earn more Victory Points than your opponent! 

Damaged fighters and bombers were worth 1 point each, destroyed were worth 4.  Extra 2 VP for a veteran shot down or +3 for an ace shot down.  Finally, the Japanese would get 1 VP for every point of bomb damage to a ship, 6VP if they sank a ship (each ship would take 3 hits to sink).  The Bombers would be carrying a Medium Bomb load and would make a Dive Bombing attack – flying out of the combat zone after the dropped their bombs (and dropped below TAL1).  The ships would get 2 “free” Light AA attacks on each bomber as it made its bombing attack below TAL1.

 

The Game:

 

Initial Game Setup
Counters were used for the P40s and Val Bombers.
Two-sided tape kept the counters attached to the flight stands.

Japanese Ace "bouncing" the Allied CAP

After Turn 2: Ace forgot to drop altitude so couldn't shoot!
Two fighters from the CAP break off  the formation

Japanese Ace gets his first kill!

Japanese Ace failed to damage CAP as they do Airframe Damage to a Val

Japanese ace causes Engine Damage while another VAL takes Airframe Damage!

Japanese escorts engage the Reinforcements, causing Engine Damage to one!

The P40s with Engine damage disengaged by diving,
The Japanese Ace failed to shoot down the damaged P40
while a Val is shot down in another formation!

Another P40 shot down while a Val takes Airframe Damage

Vals sink a ship!

The Furball fully developed!

P40s get another VAL
A number of damaged fighters and fighters without ammo have disengaged

The P40s attack the Vals while the remaining Zeros are out of position

 

 At the end of the game, 1 ship was sunk and 2 were damaged.  The last few dive bombing attacks missed completely!  The American fighters all disengaged when the last of the Vals completed their Dive Bombing. 

 

Three American fighters were shot down or crashed on landing.  Five Vals were Shot down or crashed but all the Zeros survived.  Sadly, I lost track of which aircraft were damaged...

 

The final score was a win for the Americans!  (Sorry, I lost the score sheet!)

 

It really was a close game.  The Japanese would have won if they had sunk another ship or even inflicted 4 more hits on the ships (which they missed in the last 2 turns of the game).  The Japanese Ace ran out of Ammo late in the game, but if he hadn't disrupted the CAP at the beginning, I'm pretty sure the Vals would have suffered more losses before they could have made their attack runs.

Product Review: CY6!’s Campaign Book “Road to Rabaul”

As those who have read this blog know, I enjoy the air combat game “Check Your 6!” and the Guadalcanal Campaign Book.  So it was with great eagerness I started to go through what I thought would be the follow-up: Road to Rabaul.

This review assumes you already know about the “Check your 6!” game and principles, so I will concentrate on my overall impressions of the book.

 

One of the unique features of the 1^st book (Guadalcanal) was that it included a Narrative campaign.  There were decisions that were part of a story that would affect how the missions and the end result worked out.  Road to Rabaul is not written this way; it is simply a series of missions that when connected together form a “Grand Campaign”.  This campaign is split into 4 “Mini-Campaigns” of 5 to 7 missions each.  Each mission uses Victory Points to determine the winner of the mission.  Players get “Campaign Points” for each Mini-Campaign by winning more missions than their opponents and the person with the most Campaign Points wins the over-all Grand Campaign.  So those that wanted another narrative campaign may be disappointed; the structure is a more traditional “He who wins most, wins!” As such, it's not really the next chapter of the campaign, but an entirely new campaign, in structure and time frame.

Another difference in the books is the historical participation within.  While the Guadalcanal Campaign was predominately US Navy and Marines against Japanese Navy (with 4 American Army P400 thrown in once in a while for variety), Road to Rabal splits each campaign into a different chapter of the defense of Australia and the beginning of the Island-Hopping campaign.  The First mini-campaign is the US Army Air Force rushing to the defense of Darwin against the Japanese Navy as the Australians try to bring their own fighter groups online.  The Second mini-campaign is the Royal Australian Air Force defending Port Moresby, again, against the Japanese Navy.  Third Campaign is the US Army Air Force again – this time starting their offensive: Operation Cartwheel, fighting mostly against the Japanese Army!  Finally, the last campaign is the US Navy and Marines in their standoff against the Japanese Navy forces operating from Rabaul.

The book includes a brief historical overview of the time period, trying to compare the strategic plans of both the Japanese and Allied forces at the time.  This is followed by a brief description of the forces and tactics used in the campaign.  Then there are the general and specific campaign rules for the book.  Finally, the missions – all 26 of them!

 

So, what I liked about the book:

As a list of missions and a brief history – it seems quite complete.  There is a natural progression in the history of the campaign and while many of the missions appear repetitive (Fighters vs Bombers or Fighters vs Fighters), there is enough variety in the missions special rules and objectives that you aren’t constantly playing the same mission over and over.

Another thing I liked, was this is one of those Campaigns where the P40 Warhawk was a major combatant.  I know the P40 was obsolete and never the best at anything at the beginning of the war (other than controlled and uncontrolled “falling from the sky”), but the Tiger-Shark mouth of the Flying Tigers and the fact that the P40 fought throughout the war in multiple Air Forces in multiple theaters in multiple mission types, well, it makes me happy to see this proud warrior get some respect!  She’s always been one of my favorites! 

Finally, I was able to use most my aircraft from the Guadalcanal Campaign again – saving me a few bucks here and there.  I had the Zeros and Betties already.

 

What I didn’t like:

So, one of the things I liked about the Guadalcanal was that (in spite of the large numbers) there were not a lot of different “types” of aircraft.  You needed just Wildcats and Aircobras for the Americans, then Zeros, Betties and Sallies for the Japanese.  Sadly, this is not the same in the New Book.  It’s probably the only thing I DON’T like about the new book.  Too many different Fighter types for both sides in large quantities.

Road to Rabaul uses P40 Warhawks, P38 Lightnings, F4U Corsairs, SBD-3 Dauntless (8 of EACH!), as well as B25C/D Mitchells and B24D Liberators (6 each!).  The Japanese are worse!  A6M2 Zeros (9), A6M3 Hamps (8), Ki-43 Oscars (12!), Ki-61 Tonies (9), A6M5 Zeros (9), D3A1 Vals (9) and G4M1 Betties (9)!  That’s a total of 109 planes if my math is right!

My advice if you want to buy models yet save money: Buy regular A6M2 or A6M5 Zeroes for all the Japanese fighters.  There’s only a single mission that uses 2 types of Japanese fighters in a single mission.  In fact, only 1 mission uses 12 fighters.  The rest use 9 Japanese fighters or less. 

Better still – just make/get/buy some counters for some of the less used aircraft.  For example, the Dauntless is used in only 2 missions in the entire book’s 26 missions: I wouldn’t waste the money buying 8 for two missions unless I had a use for them somewhere else.  Similar to the Dauntless, the Mitchells and Liberators are only used in 4 missions or less.  Same with the Japanese Army Fighters – they’re all used for less than 4 missions of the 26: use counters instead!  I would buy 9 Zeros (or less), make counters for the rest and use those for all the Japanese fighters.  If you want to save a lot of money, I made counters for the P40s, and the Vals for the first mission and intend to use them for the rest of the campaign.  Search Google for some over-head pictures and copy / paste into any word processor program.  Then print out as many counters as you require.  You could make counters for all the aircraft this way and not need to buy a single model.

 

Overall, I like the book as a collection of missions and may end up running the Mini Campaigns as individual, unrelated campaigns over time.  It is also a good collection of individual missions that you can pick and choose from as needed. 

Watch out for the 1st Mission Report!  Good Flying!

BatRep: Covenant of Antarctica vs Prussian Empire (1000pts - played Length-wise)

Admiral Von Shtupp had a smile on his face.  At Last!  Back at sea again.  And once more, back on the latest Dreadnought SMS Knesebeck.  Von Shtupp had reason to be happy using this famed ship once again as his flag.  The Emperor didn’t normally allow such a large task force this far out of the Baltic, let alone a Dreadnought.

The mission was simple: the government was fed up with the Covenant of Antarctica’s meddling.  Intelligence reports indicated that the CoA had a task force in the area (doing what was not so important).  Von Shtupp was to “interfere” and cause as much “confusion and destruction” as possible.

Now if only we can find those pesky tin heads…

“Admiral!  Large Antarctica Task force spotted by the Pflicht Scouts!  They’ve spotted us and have turned to intercept!”

“Battle Stations!  All ships turn to engage.  Have the carrier launch Dive Bombers and Recon Flights as soon as possible!”

Too bad it’s so late in the afternoon.  I hope the light lasts long enough…

---

So, in an attempt to catch Graham off-guard, I brought the Prussian Fleet instead of my Russians.  Unfortunately, Graham had the same idea and brought the CoA instead of his British fleet.  Dang!  Hate it when a plan back-fires like that!

For a change of pace, we decided to play length-wise on a 6’ X 4’ table and randomly rolled terrain.  Once again, we got more terrain than we expected…

 

Prussian Empire (PE) Deployment: (Top to bottom)

Squadron of 4 Stolz Destroyers

Squadron of 4 Arminius Frigates

Recon Flight from Carrier

A Rhine Carrier

Flight of Dive Bombers

Squadron of 4 Arminius Frigates

Squadron of 2 Reiver  Cruisers

Flight of Fighters

Squadron of 2 Pflicht Scout ships (Obscured)

Flight of Fighters

Blűcher Dreadnought (1 Tesla & 1 Shield Generator)

 

 

Covenant of Antarctica (CoA) Deployment:

 

Squadron of 4 Diogenes Frigates, with a 2^nd Squadron of 5 Diogenes Frigates behind

Squadron of 2 Ptolemy Bombers

Flight of Fighter Drones

Squadron of 2 Plato Cruisers with a 2^nd Flight of Fighter Drones

Epicurus Sky Fortress (drones still on board)

Daedalus Large Skyship

Prometheus Dreadnought

 

Both sides rolled a ‘1’ for the mission objective – both sides were forced to take the 70% casualties or captured!

Long stretch of open water in the middle...

 

Turn 1:

CoA won initiative for the first turn.

As we were playing length-wise, First turn was pretty much juggling for position and moving forward.

Things of note:

• 1 Squadron of CoA Frigates went over the sand bar at ½ speed
• 2^nd Squadron of CoA Frigates went the wide way around – towards the board center.
• PE Recon flight moved forward at maximum speed (hoping to be able to spot for Turn 2)
• All other PE tiny Flyer (TF) Tokens flew at ½ speed to conserve fuel
• PE Pflicht Zeppelins moved forward while still at Obscured level
• CoA Skyfortress launched a squadron of Dive Bombers  before moving.

 

The distance is getting smaller...

 Turn 2:

PE won the initiative for Turn 2

Second turn was mostly jockeying for position, though there were some shots fired…

• CoA Frigate Squadron was stuck moving forward at ½ speed as they were still in the Sand Bar
• CoA Fighters shot down the PE Recon Token when it strayed a little too far forward, for the loss of 1
• CoA Large Skyship managed to damage one of the PE Pflicht Zeps
• Both PE & CoA Dreadnoughts move passed their respective islands and started turning towards the center
• PE Frigates managed to shoot down 1 TF Token and damaged 1 CoA Bomber
• CoA Cruisers managed to move and turn to the left, damaging 2 frigates as Turrets & Broadsides came to bear
• CoA Frigates torpedoed a PE Frigate Squadron, sank 1 and damaged another – the PE Squadron Broke!
• PE Carrier managed to use its Bombard to damage a CoA Cruiser after moving into range – Direct Line of Sight

First Blood to the CoA!

 

In the End Phase, the PE Frigates rallied successfully.

Losses:

PE:          61

CoA:      0

 

 

Turn 3:

PE won the Initiative for Turn 3!

Now things started to get really nasty!

Prussian Cruisers started things off.  Moving forward at Maximum speed, they got in to range of the CoA Skyfortress and Crit it (Hard Pounding – 3 AP left) with turrets which caused the Fuel Stores to catch fire.  The PE cruisers then shot down 2 Dive Bomber tokens with AA, fired their Teslas independently at a bomber (2 AP and 2 HP left).  Good Shooting, Cruisers!

 

The CoA Bombers turned and retaliated by dropping their mines between the PE Cruisers and fired their guns at the Zeps – but both guns and mines failed to damage anything.  The PE Zeps turned and fired back at the bombers, but only managed to damage the previously damaged bomber.  CoA Dive Bombers attempted an attack run, but AA shot down all the tokens before they could drop their bombs!  The PE Dreadnought turned and brought all their turrets and Teslas to bear on the Large Skyship, getting a Crit (ANOTHER raging fire!) and then successfully captured a nearby CoA Bomber!

The Prussian Dread speaks out! 

The CoA Skyship turned to bring their turrets to bear on the PE Cruisers, dropped a mine and shot their turrets at a Cruiser, causing a Crit (Weapons Damaged)!

CoA Skyship attacks the Prussians!

 

The PE Frigates on the right moved forward and shot a CoA Cruiser, causing a Crit (ANOTHER Weapons Damaged?!?), then did something DUMB!  After I had started to move the Frigates, I “saw” only 1 AP left (there was another 4AP counter on the other side that I missed), so I attempted to board the Large Skyship.  First, only 3 Frigates were close enough to attempt to board.  Second, the Skyship split its AA across all 3 Frigates and in a brilliant display of AA gunnery, shot down 7 of the 9 Boarding Parties.  Finally – with only 2 AP left in the attack, the remaining 5 CoA AP destroy all the remaining boarding parties!  The 3 Frigates are all out of AP!  :O

Now that wasn't supposed to happen!

 

The CoA Cruisers moved forward, fired on 1 frigate, damaging it, captured another frigate (3AP left on the Cruiser), then fired their broadsides at another frigate squadron (which failed to damage).  PE Fighters moved forward at full speed and managed to shoot down 3 CoA Fighter Drone Tokens for a loss of an extra fuel (3 fuel left).  The 5 ship CoA Frigate Squadron made a torpedo run on a Cruiser (1 had its Line Of Sight blocked by other members in front), causing 1HP of damage, then fired their broadsides out both sides – and sunk a frigate in both squadrons!  Both PE Frigate Squadrons passed their Break Test!

CoA Frigates doing what they do best! 

A PE Frigate Squadron moved forward and damaged a CoA Frigate with their return fire.  The CoA Dreadnought moved forward and right, sank 1 Cruiser (Double-Crit) and a Frigate.  Both PE Squadrons passed their Break Tests.

The CoA Dreadnought speaks!

 

PE Fighters moved at max speed to intercept the last CoA Bomber, but caused only a single HP of damage.  The CoA Skyfortress launched another flight of Dive Bombers, then turned towards their own Dreadnought.  The Skyfortress managed to damage a Cruiser and sink a Frigate.

 

The Skyfortress tries to hide...

PE Dive Bombers hit the gas and moved forward at maximum speed.  CoA Fighters managed to intercept the Dive Bombers and shot down 1 Bomber Token for no losses.  The PE Carrier turned and fired its Bombard at the Large Skyship, causing a Crit (Hard Pounding – 2AP left).  The CoA Frigate Squadron attempted to move and torpedo the PE Carrier, but found they were just out-of-range.  PE Destroyers came out from behind the island, formed a line between the CoA Frigates and the PE Carrier, successfully screening the Carrier.  That ended the last PE Activation.

The Final CoA Activations had the remaining Drone Fighter Wing attack and destroy 1 Dive Bomber Token for a loss of 1 of its own, while the CoA Recon Token moved on top of a hill.

 

In the End Phase, the CoA started another fire on the Large Skyship (1AP left) and failed to repair the damaged Cruiser.  The PE Cruiser successfully rallied.

End of Turn 3!

 

Losses:

PE:          219

CoA:      219

 

 

Turn 4:

CoA Won Initiative!

The first CoA Frigate squadron made a torpedo run on the destroyers, but caused only a single HP of damage.  The PE Dreadnought activated, moved forward, Crit the CoA Dread (Systems Offline) and left the last CoA Bomber a Derelict (only 2AP left on the PE Dread!)

The Dreads face-off!

The Second CoA Frigate Squadron made a torpedo run on the last PE Cruiser, and sank it with a Crit.  On a long-shot, they fired a single Frigate’s broadsides at the PE Carrier but surprisingly managed to cause an HP of damage!

The Last Prussian Cruiser Sinks! 

The PE Frigates moved towards and fired on the CoA Skyfortress, causing an HP of damage, sank a Frigate with their rear-facing Teslas and in a desperate Boarding Action with only 3AP, left the Large Skyship a Derelict!  Though both remaining Frigates now had 0AP left!

The PE Frigates Last Hurrah!

 

The CoA Cruisers, out of anger, sank 2 Destroyers forming the Carrier Screen, then captured a Frigate from another squadron.

CoA Cruisers smash up the Carrier Screen! 

The PE Dive Bombers moved forward and made a successful bombing run on one of the CoA Cruisers, having sank it with a Double-Crit for no losses (3 fuel left)!

PE Dive Bombers avenge the Destroyers!

 

The CoA Dreadnought turned and caused a Crit on the PE Dreadnought (Hard Pounding – 0AP left!), and sank the last PE Frigate on the right.

CoA Dread fires back! 

The remaining PE Destroyers moved forward just enough to block as many CoA Frigates as possible from torpedoing the Carrier, then sank the last CoA Cruiser with a Crit!

PE Destroyers finish off the last Cruiser! 

The CoA Skyfortress fired on the PE Pflicht Zep, Critting it (Fusion Leak – 1 HP left)!  The PE Carrier managed to damage one of the CoA Frigates with its Broadsides, but the Bombard failed to damage the CoA Dreadnought.  Finally, the CoA Frigate Squadron attempted to avoid the PE Destroyer screen, but 2 Frigates collided with the Destroyers, 1 CoA suffering an HP damage.  The remaining 2 Frigates successfully avoided the collision and made a torpedo run on the Carrier, but failed to cause any damage.

Collisions and Torpedoes! 

The PE Pflicht moved forward, crit the Skyfortress (Hard Pounding – 0AP left!), and damaged 1 Frigate.  The CoA Dive Bomber Drones attack the damaged Pflicht and sent it from the sky in flames with a Double Crit.

No, it's not called Hindenberg! 

In the final moves of the turn, one PE Fighter Wing declared CAP on the Dreadnought and the other landed on the Carrier.

 

In the End Phase, the fires were put out on the Derelict CoA Skyship and the CoA Dreadnought was repaired

 

Losses:

PE:          515

CoA:      566

As it was getting late, we ended the game: A Draw!

End of the game!

 

---

Well, Von Shtupp accomplished his mission – that was a Bloody Battle!  We actually checked points twice as neither of us could believe that we hadn’t both lost the required 700 points to win the game!

On my side, I had a bunch of Frigates running around, firing torpedoes everywhere and just being a general nuisance.  On the plus side – all my Large Vessels were still in decent shape (though damaged – nothing was crippled) and all my flight wings were (more or less) intact.

On the CoA side, he’d lost his large Skyship, the Carrier was crippled and the Dreadnought was damaged.  He’d lost most of his “free drones” and the Carrier was crippled – reducing his ability to relaunch his drones.  On the other hand – he still had most of his frigates and their dang torpedoes…

We both think that whomever would have gotten initiative next turn would probably have won this game.  Both sides were too close avoid taking fire from the other side and both had the weapons to win it!

With regards to playing length-wise, I had suggested we play using the Alternate Deployment rules from the Hurricane Season book, but Graham wanted to keep it simple.  In the end, the game felt more “realistic” (as much as a fantasy game with giant robots and lightning weapons can…) as both sides jockeyed for their positions for 2 turns before really “going for the throat”.  It made the game more suspenseful.  I really enjoyed it.

Now I need to get out my paints and finish a fleet before the next box sets arrive…

Happy Gaming!