From: Bowden Russell Subject: Re: COMP: Pacwar update; Guadalcanal scenario turn 4. Darren Percival and myself are in our second game of a Guadalcanal scenario in Grigsby's Pacwar. Like our last one, this is very exciting. The last one had the Americans (me) down to one damaged Carrier, the Enterprise and the Japanese down to one damaged Carrier (which I don't know ). We had played about 3 months (12 turns ) by the time we called it a draw. It was very historical since at about the same point in history both combatants were down to one carrier! For this next game we have switched sides and we are playing the same scenario: Turn 1: T1 is an American suprise turn, Japanese get no orders phase although Japanese air units can respond. They did respond, Betty's from Rabaul which were promptly shot down by American Cap from TF50 with 2 CV's commanded by Halsey. The 1st Marine Division took the airfield at G.Island routing my brave engineers. T2. Japanese orders find all the Carriers ordered from Home Island waters to Truk and Rabaul. TF1 contains a CVE and numerous DDs. TF 2 contains the Hiyo, Junyo, Ryujo and a CVE (Taiyo?) with escorts and BB's for Flak. TF3 contains the Zuikaku, Shokaku and two CVL, with escorts. All proceed at flank speed to Truk and Rabaul. Submarines are ordered to base in shortlands, Buin, New Georgia and Rabaul for deployment into the waters around Guadalcanal, Noumea and Espiritu Santo. A TOKYO EXPRESS mission from Rabaul is ordered to rush the 7 SBF into Guadalcanal. 2 CLs, and 4 DD's will accomplish the mission. They depart Rabaul in the early afternoon for their night arrival at G.Island....... T2 air combat: Zeros and Bettys from Rabaul blast Port Morseby. Zeros slice easily through P39's. Minimal losses due to CAP. Fighters and bombers from Lae and Buin add their firepower to the airbattles over PM. B17's from P.Morseby respond by Bombing Rabaul destroying G4m's on the tarmac! Zeros don't do much damage to B17s. T2 Naval Combat: Our Tokyo Express mission arrives at G.Island dropping off the 7th SBf. Yikes! Darren has placed about 16 PT boats which are sunk or damaged by the Express! Unfortunately another American TF is also present and they sink a CL and a couple of DD's! The remnants of this Express mission are sunk in the morning by SBD's from the TF 50 lying 1 hundred miles off of G.Island. Well, at least they landed the 7th SBF.... American TF 50 remains on station at the end of turn two. This will be critical in the next turns. Turn 3. The Carriers are ready. TF1 with the CVE sails from Kwajalien. TF2 (Junyo, Hiyo) sail from Truk and TF3 (Zuikaku ,Shokaku) sail from Rabaul all with orders to remain 1 hundred miles off of Guadalcanal Island. A CA/CL/DD surface group commanded by ADM Nishamura are ordered to clear the waters of that pesky allied TF which dispatched our Tokyo Express mission. Also a transport mission from Rabaul will move supplies down the slot to aid our brave soldiers. Two Zeros groups fly from Truk to take up position at the newly expanded airfield at Shortlands. They are under orders to sweep the skies of the American CAP. This is going to be the big one and I'm going to chop some wood! T3 air combat: pretty much the same as last turn. G4m's and Zero's pummel Port Moresby and B17's respond from Moresby blasting more Japanese planes on the groud. Lae, Buin and Baku also launch fighter sweeps over Morseby. T3 Naval combat: TF 50, commanded by Halsey with two CV's hold the seas around Guadalcanal. Thus since my carriers are moving into his Air zone of Control and he will get the first shot. Halsey sends his SBD's and TBF's against TF2 damaging the Junyo heavily. The Counter strike from TF2 does no damage to TF50. Than TF1 moves into TF50 zone and another strike which sinks my lone CVE in the Task force! TF3 (Zuikaku,shokaku) send their strike in against TF50 with 40 Zeros and 90 Bombers! The Japanese Escorts devestate TF50's wildcats but the cats and Flak down 25 bombers and only 3 hits over two carriers are scored for little damage! TF50 launches a counter strike against TF3. Japanese CAP shoots down most of the Planes but enough SBD's get through and sink a CVL!!!!! Halsey in taskforce 50 have been the boys to chop wood today! A last Japanese counterstrike from TF3 burn through the little remaining wildcats and score a couple of hits for one star damage on his second CV in TF 50 (each star is approximately 20% damage). Surface combat on T3 finds Nishamura's CA/CLs destroying a PT group and engaging in a bloody combat against a smaller American task force. An American CA, CL and 2 DD's are sunk due to Japanese Long lances! Little damage is done to the Glorious Nishamura task force! Somehow though the Americans sneak on a raider battalion and two engineer battalions! It would have been nice to have caught those boys in their ships so they could have drowned. Land combat on T3 finds a huge American attack which wipes out the Japanese units on the Island. Gen. Sakai commits Seppuku. Japanese Zeros from Shortlands fly a CAP sweep against TF50. Only 4 Wildcats come up to meet them. This is good. Now I know that Halsey's TF is depleted in CAP strength. Darren makes a mistake and leaves TF 50 on station instead of bringing them back to port to replenish TF 50's CAP (which can be done in port-later when american CVE's are present Replenishment TF's can rebuild carriers fighters at sea) at the end of the turn. TF3 (Zuikaku, Shokaku) do go back to Rabaul-replenishig their fighters!!!! :->. TF2 (Junyo,Hiyo) remain on station. Japanese Submarines take up position in the sea lanes between Guadalcanal, Noumea and Espiritu Santo. I mean LOTS of Japanese submarines. I know the Americans have their submarines heavily in the slot. Next turn will be interesting. T3 summary: Halsey (Darren) kick my butt this turn. Aside from my lone victory in a surface combat off of Guadalcanal it was a devestating turn, losing a CVL, CVE (with a couple of DD's) and heavy damage to the Junyo ( who is still at sea mind you ). T4 Orders: TF1 from Rabaul (Zuikaku,shokaku) with their rebuilt Airgroups are to sail back to Guadalcanal (fully knowing that the American TF50 has little CAP left ). TF2 is still on station with the Damaged Junyo and Hiyo. A bombardment TF composed of 4 BB's are sent to Guadalcanal with many CA's and DD's. Nishamura's CA/CL group are also sent to Guadalcanal. A Transport group from Rabaul is also sent down to the canal to land troops carrying two SBF groups. Another group is sent from Truk. A DD group is sent from Kwajalien (remenants from TF1 and the sunk CVE ) to the canal. I am fully aware that Darren knows that I am coming down the slot this week due to his "Magic" intelligence. The only question is, will Darren bring up his last CV TF (which Emily's have shown me to contain one CV ) to aid the depleted TF50. T4 aircombat: As with last turn, the expanding airfield on Rabaul has tremendous forces. This time American P40s rise up to meet the Zeros and give as good as they get! Not much damage is done to the airfield by my strikes (which also come from Lae and Buin and Baku ). In return B17's from Port Morseby blow up 21 G4M's and 3 Mavis search planes on the ground and in the water! I need more fighters on Rabaul to deal with these Devil planes from Seattle. T4 naval combat: TF3 joins TF2 off of the Canal. TF50 remains where it is. The geniuses commanding the Japanes TF's launch attacks to shut down the new Airfield at Guadalcanal! TF 50 launches the first strike against my task forces doing little damage since he had few escorting fighters! I shoot down most of this Bombers and they score only minor damage. A Japanese counter-strike from TF 3 hit the second American Carrier for two stars of damage ( that is at least 40% when added to the 20% of the previous turn he is at least 60 % thus this CV can't launch any planes! ). No further airstrikes are launched. T4 naval combat: No naval combat occurs since the Americans didn't send in any TF's (knowing that their carriers had no fighters to protect them ). The BB group and Nishamura's CA/CL group pound Henderson into oblvious. I feel it is safe to assume that Darren has little or no supply left since the supply dump was hit early and often by the bombardments. The 1st Mardiv is dropped down a couple of notches. This lack of supply ensures that the airfield cannot expand its capacity to 3 squadrons ( one needs 1000 supply and 1000 fuel to do so ) from 2. T4 return phase. TF50, with no fighters to speak of has to head home to Noumea. Well on his return his task force is subjected to about 7 SUBMARINE attacks. The last attack is a beauty! Two torps hit his first undamaged CV sinking it and KILLING ADM HALSEY. Thus TF 50 is down to one crippled CV!!! This is glorious as we have killed the main nemisis of the Japanese Navy, ADM Halsey. I credit him for the thrashing my CV TF's took from TF 50 on turn 3. Now he is in hell where he can brush up on his Japanese. T4 Summary: Darren is down to at least one CV ( Which I haven't seen in action yet ) and a damaged CV from TF 50. I Believe he has 2 CV's coming in, one of them the WASP. Thus, Darren has or will have at least 2 and maybe 3 CV's to my 3 CV's and 2 CVL's. This is a close game and as usual very exciting. I cannot begin to say how exciting this game has been and for it's 6th year it continues to provide challenges in person vs. person games. We'll keep you updated. Bowden Yamamoto Russell From: "D.Percival" Subject: COMP : PACWAR update : G'Canal scenario Turns 1-3 Greetings all, in response to the kind invites I now submit an alternative view to the conflict going on around the water's of Guadalcanal. My apologies I was meaning to post earlier but the requirements of work took first place. As Bowden has already mentioned : We have swapped sides and I am playing the Americans. Turn 1 is the suprise American turn. Turn 1 : With the decision to launch the amphibious operation against the Japanese held island the 1st Marine Div is tasked to make the initial landings. HASLEY is ordered to sail from Noumea in TF50 with the Enterprise and Saratoga. The decision is made to hold the Hornet in reserve until the Wasp fresh from Dry dock on the American West Coast can link up and provide a potent second Carrier group. A major supply convoy is readied to support the brave boys of the 1st MarDiv. The 1st MarDiv hit's the beach and rout's the Japanese engineers holding Henderson field. American CAP shot down the puny air strikes launched against the carriers. Next turn will be different. Turn 2 : Early morning air strikes from RABUL and other bases hammer at Port Morsby, luckily I have staged only a single group of B17's here and they suffer minimal damage before launching there strike against RABUL they catch some Bettys on the tarmac and there rugged construction allows them to stand up well against the Zeros flying CAP. My plan here is to rush Enginers to Port Morsby to enlarge the airfields allowing more fighters to defend the landing strips of the B17 groups that will reach out. (B17's from PM had a devastating effect in our last game and I hope to emulate this). I send two flotillas of PT boats (18-20 in total)to the Island hoping they could score against the expected TOKYO EXPRESS mission. On the first night the make contact with a Japanese Surface group. They get the first strike in severely damaging the lead CL, but they have bitten off more than they can chew, the enemy force contains at least 2 CL's and several DD's inflicting large amounts of damage. Yet they are still forced to retire. Daylight finds them still in range of the carriers and Hasley launches full strikes sinking all but one of the DD's. Somehow more Japanese troops land (7th SBF?). Supply and a RANGER Battln lands for the Americans. Hasley remains on Station with his two carriers. The WASP continues to make its way across the Pacific as do large amount of American sea power. American Submarines take up position in the "slot". So far it is proceeding well I have captured the island and suffered negligible losses. And I will be in a position to launch first strikes should any Japanese carries appear. If as expected Bowden sorties all of them I will be outnumbered but as I will have first strike any I sink will not be able to launch strike's of there own.I will trust to CAP and the gunnery of the Support ships to defend against the others. (I think I can use the other two CV's as an "ace in the hole") Turn 3 : It opens with the expected Bettys from RABUL searching for the B17's at Port Morsby. But is accompanied by fighter and light bomber strikes from Buin, Lae, Buka.... American CAP accounts for its fair share without being dominant and the B17's return the favor at RABUL. I plan to make the big move and add two engineer battalions to the island this turn (if they can build up the airfield I will have a big advantage as I have Marine Wildcat and SBD squadrons ready to fly in.) this decision is risky as although Airpower has continued to allow normal convoy operations to supply the island if the engineers are caught in there ships it could be disastrous as I am shipping both Engineer battlns and a Raider battlion on the same convoy. Also MAGIC intercepts indicate Carriers at RABUL!!, Well I will trust in Hasley. Hopefully the BB's and the WASP will arrive soon I need the BB's to beef up the Surface action group I am committing this turn (It only contains CA's) and well the WASP speaks for itself. Gulp!! watching the turn resolve I spot not one, not two but THREE Japanese Task Forces approach the island. All of which reportably contain CV/CVL class ships. As they are moving into my Air Zone I get first strike. HASLEY manages to get almost all of his SBD's and TBF's into the air, Enough penetrate the Japanese CAP that I am disappointed when the strike returns with the news that they only managed to score a hit on one of the CV's and a CVL although this is reported as heavy but not fatal. The return strike manages to avoid most of the American CAP but suffers heavily to FLAK and inflicts minimal damage. A ground offensive against the remaining Japanese is launched and clears the island of enemy forces. General SAKI in command does the honorable thing having failed the Emperor. (Excellent I now control the island unmolested). Suddenly a small number of KATES appear over the TF50 they are quickly dispatched and a counter strike is readied, again HASLEY launches all of his Aircraft. The escorts blow away the meager Defence and allow the SBD's free reign against what turns out to be an escort carrier (CVE) and some destroyers. In a night action my PT flotilla runs afoul of a Japanese surface group consisting of CA's and CL's, they open well scoring damage against the lead CA but plywood is no match for 8" shells and they are all sunk. They did manage to radio a position report and an American Surface force wades in. American shooting is good inflicting damage across the board, unfortunately Japanese Torpedo shooting is better and _4_ ships are sent to the bottom including a CA. Damm those torpedos. This allows more IJN forces to land under the cover of darkness and a SNLF is put ashore to continue the battle, the 1st MArDiv must continue to fight. A strike from the unengaged CV Task force which I assume contains the _Big_ IJN Fleet carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku appears, 40+ Zeros and 80+ Bombers. A massive battle ensures and the Americans escape with only light damage to their carriers with only three hits being reordered (I count this a lucky). A counter strike is quickly readied and is understandably small considering the action that has taken place. The enemy Zeros take a fearful toll on the Americans destroying many, until a Brave SBD Pilot manages to place a 1000lb bomb in a critical place on a CVL (Four stars damage means she wont be moving far). Later reports from patrol aircraft show that it went to the bottom. With daylight running out the Japanese Fleet commander manages to get 48 VALS and KATES into the air and they find TF50 with no CAP (This could be disastrous) good AA shooting and superb helmsmanship sees all evaded except for two lucky Jap planes that manage to hit both American CV's (Both take a star of damage - With each star roughly equilv to 20% flotation damage these are critical in measuring damage). The turn closes with reports that the Engineers manage to improve the HENDERSON airfield to size 2. This is important as I can now base combat aircraft not just Patrol aircraft there. SUMMARY : The turn has been good from my point of view I have definatly sunk a CVL, CVE and heavily damaged a CVL with any luck it will sink on its return to port. I have taken some damage but not too much. I would have preferred to have sunk/damaged some of the big IJN carriers but I wont complain as I think I gave better than I got. The engineers have built up HENDERSON field and I have some Wildcats and SBD'sready to move there. My supply lines are open to Guadancanal and I will have some American BB's ready to sortie next turn. Additionally the WASP will soon arrive having been forced to detour around a suspected submarine location and as a bonus I will have more B17's ready to fly against RABUL hopefully numbering near the 100 mark ;-) NOTE : Later analasys will show the critical mistake that was made when HASLEY did not receive orders to Return to Base at the end of this turn. But at the moment this is unknown and the above view stands. These initial turns have been fasinating from my point of view and I am enjoying the human vs human tension that this game is providing. I again wish to say this is a great game and if you get the chance, play it person v. person it it fantastic. Thanks for reading and Ill post the next instalment soon. Darren "Nimitz" Percival From: Bowden Russell Subject: Re: COMP : PACWAR update : G'Canal scenario Turn 5 Well we've got turn 5 (or 6 ) under the belt. Airphase: Zeros and Betty's swarmed over Henderson to do minor damage to the supply depot (dammit! ). The zero's easily cut through the Wildcats. I desperately need to keep Henderson's supply down to below 1000 for failure to do so will result in Henderson increasing its airfield capacity! That would be bad (obvious understatement ). Zeros from shortlands and Buka also add their voice to the fighter sweeps over Henderson. Japanese army planes from Lae and Buin and Truk attack Port Moresby in an attempt to destroy the devil planes from Hell (Seattle ). Nothing but fighter losses and betty losses are the result (although 4 Ki-45's do catch 2 P-40's on the ground ! ). American Air phase: Well as expected the B17's, 108 of them, arrive over Rabaul. 86 zeros rise up to meet this swarm shooting down 12 of them for the loss of ONLY 30 of their own. 17 zeros and 30 Betty's are caught on the ground by the B17's. A further horror is found when B17's from Espiritu Santo fly to our newly expanding airfield at Shortlands. They do little damage, this time. Shortlands is a critical airfield since it is only 4 hexes from Henderson and when it reaches level 4 it can handle G4M's along with the severly depeleted Zeros. This will allow these Betty strikes to be escorted by Zeros when the American Carriers show themselves, thus increasing the chances of Betty's making it through to the Carriers. Naval movement: Not apart of our game (we've set the non-solomon Island's HQ's on Computer control ) finds the British CArriers smashing a Japanese attempt to resupply Rangoon. Henderson: After a blooy American land assult resulting in many dead US marines an American TF bombards Japanese forces on Guadalcanal. Massive disruption amongst Japanese forces. ADM Hirose, the new commander of Japanese land forces holds of the Giajen. Return phase: The American CV's, TF 58, return to Noumea. A Japanese submarine takes as shot at one of the CV's and misses. Drat. At the end of the turn the bloodthirsty American's, not satisfied with their previous deaths launch another land assult which is also repulsed. Go ADM HIROSE! Well Turn 6 is now coming up and I'm sure the American carriers have gotten their wildcat strenth up to snuff. The next turn could be interesting. Bowden "Yamamoto" Russell