From: "Bliss, Gordon D" Subject: RE: Re[2]: Japanese Wargames and Japanese Gamers... I will attempt to do so based on my extremely limited understanding of the rules & descriptions - I may not be 100% accurate. Basically it is a game of the detailed operations of a specific engagement. Scenario lengths run from 20 minutes to 2-3 days. On the operational level, where you move task forces, each turn is 20 minutes. Not sure on the tactical level. Scenarios run from one-sided attacks such as those on the Prince of Wales & Repulse by the Japanese, and on the Yamato by the Americans; to full task force on task force actions such as Coral Sea, Midway, Philippine Sea, etc. There are 12 scenarios. There are 2 22"x34" plain blue maps that seem to be only for operational movement and then there is a mounted 17"x17" plain blue map for tactical. There is also a 8.5"x11" sheet of various size islands to cut out for the operational map. Search does not seem to be a big part of the game, if it is present at all. There is a big section with examples on how clouds and storms affect sighting and other activity though. The main effort seems to be in planning and executing your attacks on the opponent's ships. Counters are individual ships, aircraft, clouds, and ordnance. The aircraft ones are of a "make change" variety so you can a single F4F or 20 on a counter. There are 4 altitude bands modeled, H,M,L, & W (wave level). There are fair-weather cloud counters specific to each as well as storm markers. Each aircraft type is rated for the specific type of weapons loads it can carry, at the individual bomb/torpedo level, and bombs can be GP, AP, or NP. So a counter will represent a single torpedo, 1000lb AP bomb, etc. Ship and aircraft counters only have the name and top view printed on them, all the combat values are on charts and are specific by year (or part thereof - 42,43,44 are split into an 'a' & 'b' parts). Ship values change by class to reflect modifications as the war went on. Damage to ships is attritional in nature. They give you a pad of log sheets to fill in the ship values and track damage, and sheets to organize forces (by altitude for the planes) and keep track of aircraft cycling. If you have any other specific questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them. Gordon /* Gordon Bliss */ /* blissg@polaroid.com */ -----Original Message----- From: Markus Stumptner On Thu, 2 Sep 1999, Bliss, Gordon D wrote: Aircraft Carrier (WWII - has a higher complexity rating than Leopard II !) Very interesting; can you tell us about that one a bit? Time/map/unit scale? Scenarios? Never heard of that one before. Markus