I dropped by Mike Welsh's nice house for a game
  of LGNCG on Monday night. Mike has redone 
  the map and ship units -- it seems like everyone 
  has, by now!  -- and they look very nice. 

Mike had everything set up and wanted me to be the 
  Japanese. I inferred (maybe incorrectly) that he 
  thought "we" didn't have a chance in the game.
  Uh huh.  :-) 

I started the battleline (consisting of YAMATO, 
  MUSHASHI, NAGATO, ISE, HYUGA, FUSO, and YAMASHIRO) 
  in Brunei, along with the AOBA fast transport.
  ZUIKAKU, KONGO, HARUNA, and the 3 cruiser units
  I had off-board in the North. 

Land-based air units and the ISE/HYUGA seaplane unit 
  I held back at Brunei, Hong Kong, etc. 

Mike likes to use hidden submarines, and I deployed 
  mine in the coastal hex on the east shore of Luzon 
  and the hex NE of that, to harrass his carriers 
  trying to hit targets west and northwest of Luzon.
  (Despite me designating them "Passive," USS ENGLAND 
  was apparently on the scene, because both were 
  quickly sunk.)  Mike's USN subs were ... 
  typically ... in the bottleneck hexes SW and NE
  of Palawan Island.  (Unhistorically, they too got 
  no hits.)

Naturally, I used all 7 of my task force markers 
  immediately, actually sending out only FUSO and 
  YAMASHIRO in "Southern Force," to get them moving 
  since they are so slow.  Mike had his fast carriers
  and IOWA, NEW JERSEY, and AUSTRALIA/cruiser 
  (groups) moving around ENE of Luzon as I expected. 
  However ... to my astonishment ... my Brunei-based 
  land-based air search discovered his other 4 modern 
  battleships with fleet carrier Task Force 38.1 --
  new WASP and HORNET? -- sortie-ing around the
  south of Mindinao Island and east of the 
  archipelago! ... activating my additional land- 
  based air unit per turn reinforcement and the 
  additional Kamikaze (when *they* became available). 

At first, luck was with me, because I not only 
  spotted/confirmed the group but when I attacked 
  TF38.1 with my (very flammable) Betty, I DAMAGED 
  it!  Mike was perturbed, to say the least, 
  especially when he saw new task force markers 
  issuing from Brunei like Komodo dragons. 

I had indeed sortied the Main Body, and meanwhile 
  my Bettys went berserk again, sinking TF38.1 (and 
  incidentally destroying its also-valuable if now-
  weakened air unit). Meanwhile, Main Body is closing 
  in on Mike's overeager task force. 

Without air cover for Mike's marauders and with
  me reinforcing my land-based air on Brunei, I
  next scored damage on MASSACHUSSETTS -- which I 
  singled out purely for political reasons -- and 
  Main Body is all the time getting CLO-SER.

Meanwhile, I've sortied the fast attack group down 
  from the northeast corner of the board, but Mike 
  was more suspicious of a task force marker coming 
  out of Hong Kong to the west of Luzon instead. 

With the Main Body now identified and bearing down 
  on him, Mike left the crippled MASS behind ... 
  to "catch up," he said ... :-) ... and withdrew
  his surviving 3 modern battleships through Surigao 
  Strait to join his old Pearl Harbor battleships in 
  Leyte Gulf.

Having scouted and verified my "A Force" in the north
  being real, Mike's naval air units attacked it, but 
  ZUIKAKU's naval air attack crippled Taffy 3 -- 
  Clifton Sprague's historically heroic escort 
  carrier unit.  ZUIKAKU and then cruiser (group) 
  ASHIGARA were crippled, and for the following day's
  sailing, I split up my A Force into cruisers (ATAGO
  and KUMANO) cutting west and then south toward 
  Leyte -- overrunning crippled TAFFY 3 in the 
  process, which wounded KUMANO as it went down 
  fighting -- and KONGO and HARUNA heading south
  down the east side of the theater, to later cut 
  west and go in for Leyte (and MacArthur's 
  transports) too. 

(After he had them finish off ZUIKAKU and ASHIGARA, 
  Mike had IOWA and NEW JERSEY come back west to 
  finish off KUMANO before heading down to the 
  upcoming big action ... but KUMANO managed 
  to damage/cripple NEW JERSEY! before being finished
  off itself.) 

So it transpired ... *perfectly* ... that on the 
  afternoon of October 23, 1944, all 3 of my attack 
  groups with all my surviving ships rendezvoused
  at Leyte Gulf to fight 9 U.S. Navy battleships
  and get MacArthur! 

My luck was still HOT: US naval air "couldn't hit a 
  bull in the butt with a bass fiddle" and on the 
  first battle round, YAMATO and MUSASHI both rolled 
  6s and vaporized ALABAMA and WASHINGTON!  Mike was 
  looking decidedly ill and fatalistic (presumably 
  recalling similar runs of my good luck in our past 
  games) -- Hey! They were his dice! -- while I was 
  happily chomping away on his wife Pam's excellent 
  popcorn and guzzling Pepsi -- a favorite here in 
  the Midwest. 

And then everything went BAD.  Japanese shooting went 
  off -- I am convinced my luck with his dice had 
  been because I was using both hands to roll them, 
  instead of one-handing them because of popcorn 
  butter on my right hand. 

Losses were proving even, and Mike suggested we call 
  it an evening since tornado watches were out,
  so we counted up our victory points. 

They were fairly even except for the penalty against 
  me for losing most of the Japanese battleline 
  (including Y and M) -- only FUSO and YAMASHIRO
  survived the game, having been too slow to make
  Leyte Gulf so quickly -- and then I remembered that 
  after the first battle round I *could* have just 
  bypassed his battleships to have gone on in and 
  annihilated his transports to win a STRATEGIC
  VICTORY.  

So although I had surpassed the historical Japanese 
  surprise and success, I had still lost the battle 
  for the very same reasons the Japanese had lost 
  Pearl Harbor: I was mesmerized by the prestige 
  battleship targets! 

I'm an *historian*.  We of all people are supposed to 
  LEARN from history!  -- AND *I* designed the game!

Mike was disappointed that US naval air power had 
  been so unproductive against my warships but I 
  reiterated my contention (in the historical summary 
  and design analysis) that it was very hard to hit 
  or cripple fast-moving warships from the air.
  The only serious Japanese loss prior to the 
  decisive day, historically, was the sinking of 
  MUSASHI in the Sibuyan Sea, when all the aircraft 
  of all our first-line carriers mobbed that ship
  and finally sent her down ... and there are lots
  of photos of ISE and HYUGA and even old FUSO and 
  YAMASHIRO nimbly evading both bombs and torpedoes
  during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Of course, once a ship *was* crippled/SLOWED, it 
  became easy meat for finishing off in a variety of 
  ways.
 
Anyway, it was a memorable game which had lasted 2.5 
  hours until the decisive moment ... and then a 
  severe storm watch was declared in real life!

By the way, Tetsuya says his Japanese (language) game 
  magazine edition is right on schedule and will be 
  out in June.  I have little understanding of how 
  they have changed it ... lost in translation? ... 
  but it is *pretty*, so who cares?

:-)

 ***

LEYTE GULF NAVAL CHESS GAME is available for FREE
  as an eduational game at
http://lcoat.tripod.com/leytpage.htm

Lou Coatney, Macomb IL             
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