From: Markus Stumptner Subject: Carrier replay #2 I posted a replay of a Carrier game some months ago where I suffered a massive defeat at the hands of the Japanese. I was fairly incensed by this, and so played another game fairly soon after, trying to redeem my fortunes in the South Pacific. Took me some time to write this game up, but here is how it went... Since I wanted similar conditions as in the previous game, I again chose Guadalcanal as the Japanese objective, in late 1942. The commitment dieroll (DR of 4) gave me Japanese limits of 14/20/4/33, with 2/31 for myself. This time, luck seemed to be on my side. The draw gave me Enterprise and Hornet as carriers, ensuring maximum aircraft capacity. I spent my 31 points on 15 DDs, 2 CLAAs, 1 BB (turned out to be Washington again) and 1 CA (Portland). The land-based dieroll (8) gave me a fairly hefty force: 7F4F, 7 SBD, 2 TBF (or, in real world terms, 28 F4F, 28 SBD, 8 TBF), and 18 fuel points. The Japanese rolled a 4: 14 air points (112 planes) at Rabaul. This time I decided to use a completely different strategy from the one that had failed me in the previous game. Put all ships in one TF for maximum defensive power. Stay east of Guadalcanal, but close enough to detach the BB and all other available surface forces in the late afternoon so they could defend Henderson Field during the night. At 5:20 in the morning, I launched 16 SBD search planes (4 steps) from my carriers, followed at 6:20 by 16 more from Guadalcanal. By 6:00 I also had 48 CAP planes (12 steps) cycling over my carriers, and 16 F4F's (4 steps) ready to scramble on the runway at Henderson Field. The carrier planes found only dummies, but at 6:40 the Guadalcanal planes reported a probable Japanese carrier force, approximately 70 miles SW of Ontong Java, and some transports in that vicinity as well. 20 minutes later, the carrier sighting (task force C1) was confirmed by a PBY. So far, so good. C1 was far beyond the range of my carrier planes, but I started readying bombers on Guadalcanal and at 7:40 a 28-plane strike left Henderson Field for C1: 12 SBD, 8 TBF, 8 F4F (3,2,2 steps). At 8:00, another PBY detected another Japanese carrier force (C6) 300 miles NNE of San Cristobal. At 8:20, my carrier search planes on their return trip amplified that to a sighting of a L2 3+CV task force, with a medium TF nearby. With this force marked by 'US Advantage', that was my chance. A massive 64-plane strike (40SBD, 16 TBF, 8 F4F [10,4,2 steps]) was launched at 9:00. It looked as if I could really pull off a surprise attack this time. Unfortunately, the advantage condition did not hold for C1, and the very next turn, at 9:20, the first wave (6 points - 48 planes) from C1 struck my carrier task force, with 40 more one the way. However, the strong defensive deployment paid off. Half the attackers were destroyed by my CAP, brought to maximum strength (16) by scrambling the remaining fighters, and the rest by AA fire (more than 60 points strong). Nonetheless, those who managed to release their bombs and torpedoes before being shot down did their job. With a dieroll of 9 (+1) they scored four hits on Enterprise, destroying 24 planes [6 steps] that had been readied on the hangar deck for my second wave against C6. Hardly had the smoke cleared from the sky (save for the cloud rising from the stricken Enterprise) that another group of planes appeared over my carriers, this time from C6! So I had really not managed to surprise either of the Japanese forces. Luckily, this attack turned out to be weak (24 planes [3 points]), since the Japanese, together with the massive attack from C1, had reached their carrier commitment limit. Again, my CAP and AA fire summarily dealt with the threat, leaving none to return to their carriers. Those that did release their bombs at their chosen target (the freshly burning Enterprise) did not cause additional damage (DR3->2; no hits). Contemporaneously, several hundred miles away, strike 1 (from Guadalcanal) hit C1, which turned out to be a 2CV task force, escorted by a Lg BB force. Japanese AA fire was very exact, costing me a TBF step (DR 9). My bombers struck, and with a DR of 4(->5) managed 4 reported hits on a carrier identified as Zuikaku. At 9:40, what remained from the second wave was launched from Hornet: 8F4F, 8TBF, 8SBD. The repair crews on Enterprise did a splendid job, repairing two hits (DR 9->10) and making her flight deck operable again - in time to bring my CAP strength back to full for the next attack. At 10:00, with my strikes still moving towards C6, the second wave from C1 arrived. Of 5 airpoints, 2 were shot down by CAP (DR 5), and 3 by AA fire (DR 9). So far, the attacks had come in at a fearful price to the Japanese fliers. But they again showed incredible determination and planted another two hits on Enterprise - with 4 hits (strength 13, DR4->5) she was back in the state she had had after the first attack. My repair crews were getting tired, but still managed to repair one hit by 10:20. But finally, the time for revenge arrived. At 10:40, I launched another strike from Guadalcanal against C1 (8F4F, 16 SBD [2 and 4 steps]), and both my strike groups made contact with C6, within the space of just a few minutes. This was due to the fact that the Japanese carriers had kept moving southwards, causing my first wave (strike 2) to double back to catch up with them. The first contact was made by Strike 3, the supposed second wave. (This was a game decision - I wanted to try first with the weaker force, so that the stronger first wave could attempt contact with a positive modifier.) And what they achieved was complete surprise - the Japanese carriers (now identified as a L3 3CVL force escorted by another Lg BB force) with their remaining planes on deck! The Japanese CAP (strength 3) scored no hits (DR 7), and neither did their AA fire (strength 29). The attackers went in with a +6 modifier and with a strength of 12 and DR of 4 proudly reported scoring 8 hits on Junyo. They had really laid the groundwork for the following Strike 2 - or so I thought. When Strike 2 arrived immediately afterwards, the picture had changed. The Japanese were no longer surprised, and Junyo was found to be sailing with the task force with only minor damage (DR9!! Only 2 hits out of the 8 were confirmed). The other carriers were identified as Zuiho and Taiyo, with Kongo, Haruna, Takao, Tone, Maya and 6DDs making up the escort. Luckily, the two heavy escort groups meant the Japanese had already exceeded their surface commitment limit as well. No large bombardment groups would be threatening Henderson Field that night, all my surface force would have to do was to keep the transports at bay (as if that was necessarily an easy job). The CAP missed again, the AA fire shot down 4 TBFs (DR 4->5, 1 step lost). With an attack strength of 43, the planes went into screaming dives onto their targets (well, the divebombers at least). I could have screamed when I saw their results - they were so bad that they were obvious to the pilots themselves. Junyo (DR1->3) and Zuiho (DR 2) were unharmed. Only Taiyo, the weakest, had a satisfying 6 hits reported (DR 8). At 11:00, the Enterprise repair crews finally managed to improve the ship's condition again, bringing her down to light damage and an operable flight deck. At the same turn, the first attack frome Rabaul arrived at Henderson Field (strength 6 - 48 planes). 3 CAP steps shot down 1 (doubled to 6, DR 9), and AA fire another one. The bombers scored two hits on the airfield (repaired within 20 minutes), but damaged no planes since none were on the ground. The battle now entered a calmer phase. At noon, another 16 search planes were launched from Hornet as the afternoon search. Strike 4 (the second strike from Henderson) missed C1, and the other strikes returned. At 13:20, the Hornet search planes regained contact with C6 and C1, finally providing better information about the composition of C1, which contained Shokaku and Zuikaku, with 2BBs, 3 CAs, 6 DDs as escorts. At 13:40, it turned out that the next attack from C1 had gone for Henderson - 32 planes (4 points) struck the airfield, scored another 2 hits on the field and knocked out 4 refueling F4F's (1 step - actually, they scored 4 hits but again almost no planes were on the field). 8 planes (1 point) were shot down by CAP. (Apparently my attack on C1 had been a sufficient annoyance to the Japanese to divert their effort. :-) Also, the course of C1, which now had it brought moving southeastward, made Guadalcanal the closest target.) At 14:20 my carriers had finished refueling the returning strike planes and launched another wave. I was determined to finish off the light carriers first - they were closer, they were easier targets, and their air complement had not yet suffered as much as that of the two big carriers to the northwest. And if I could not knock out the small ones, taking on the big ones would have been hopeless anyway. :-) So I launched the 60-plane strike (Strike 5) against C6. At 14:40, another strike from C1 hit Henderson Field, taking no losses, but destroying only 4 F4Fs (1 step). Good- they were still busy in the wrong direction, since I moved northeastward, trying to keep my distance to the big carriers. Simultaneously, the next strike from C6 hit my carriers. Since it would have been launched after my attack on C6, I checked for hit confirmation to determine the size of the wave - and only 1 of my 6 hits on Taiyo was confirmed!! This was really bad luck. One and a half deckloads launched against a CVL task force, and two CVLs lightly damaged was all I had to show for it. Again, my defense performed far better than my bombers. Of 32 planes (4 points), 16 were shot down by CAP, 8 by AA fire. And again some survived to close in for the attack. And again they landed two hits on Enterprise (strength 13, DR 4). The repair crews were temporarily stymied. This could be serious. I abandoned all plans of detaching my surface forces before dark - I would keep them for defense as long as needed, and if they appeared too late before Guadalcanal to stop the transports, too bad. TF18 now closed in on C6. At range 3, my returning search planes could search again, detecting C6 again and guaranteeing an automatic contact result for my Strike 5. At 15:00, one hit on Enterprise was repaired. At 15:20, another attack from Rabaul hit Henderson Field. This time, they did not lose planes and destroyed 12 F4Fs (3 steps) on the runway. Henderson Field was ringed by Japanese putative transport forces, waiting at a range of roughly 100 miles for darkness to fall. But at the moment, the carriers were still busy. The next wave from C6 arrived, and the early warning table allowed me to get all of my next wave (Strike 6) into the air, again towards C6 (8 F4F, 8 SBD, 8 TBF [2 steps each]). Again, of 32 attacking aircraft, half were shot down by CAP (DR 8), half by AA fire (DR 10). There could not be many planes remaining to the CVLs now. And (for once), while they attacked Enterprise again, they missed. While the last gasp of C6 was thus shredded in the air above my carriers, Strike 5 went in to the attack. 1 TBF step was lost to AA fire, CAP was ineffective, and the resulting attack strength was 41 (+1 for weak AA). Either the pilots were ashamed at their earlier failures, or my threats of their spending the rest of the war in the Aleutians had stuck in their minds, but this time they seemed to do their job well, reporting 10 hits on Junyo (DR10->12), and 8 each on Zuiho and Taiyo (DRs of 9). The good news cheered up the Enterprise repair crews, which brought her back to Light damage (for the third and last time that day) and an operable flight deck. To keep up the pressure, I launched another strike at C1 from Guadalcanal on the next turn (15:40). Those 24 planes (8 F4F, 16 SBD) had brought the fuel reserves on Guadalcanal down to 1.5 points. And Strike 6, my second wave of the afternoon, went in against C6 and found out that Strike 5 had indeed done its job. Only the heavily damaged Zuiho (4 hits confirmed) was still afloat - Junyo (5 hits confirmed) and Taiyo (4 confirmed) were quietly slipping beneath the waves. The pilots attacked Zuiho, but (hindered by the smoke of her fires?) scored no further hits. There was no CAP left over the TF, and they suffered no losses. With no operational carriers left, C6 would be retreating northward now, but the repercussions went farther than that. The Japanese retirement index had reached 34 points, and on a DR of 3 at the end of the turn, the Japanese decided they had lost the battle and started to retire. That also included the transport forces clustered near Guadalcanal, so that sending the surface ships there was now unnecessary (and they would probably have been too late). But that did not mean all was over. Even while retiring, C1 still had a large enough airgroup that they could attempt another strike at my carriers and do serious damage. So I remained cautious. Since my strikes against C6 had gone in at point blank range, the returning planes had lots of fuel remaining and I kept them in a landing pattern, waiting for C1 to be activated on this turn. The activation came at 16:40, and indeed C1 was sending another 2-wave strike my way (32 planes in each wave -still an impressive force). However, so far they were not any luckier than their predecessors. Three steps (24 planes) were shot out of the sky by my CAP (DR 9), the rest by AA fire (DR 3). They missed Enterprise again (DR 4->3). After it was over, I landed Strike 5, so the planes would be belowdecks when the second wave arrived. Strike 6 kept circling above. The second wave hit at 17:20, suffered annihilation like the others (DRs 5 and 1 for CAP and AA) and, for the first time choosing Hornet as its target, missed again (DR3->2). No matter what happened to the strikes that were still in the air, or what other hits would be confirmed, this meant that I had won a clear victory. Strike 7 had gone in against C1 at 17:00. 1 SBD step was lost to CAP, but (with DR of 7) 4 hits were reported on Zuikaku. So I decided to spend the last of my fuel on Guadalcanal for launching Strike 8 (12 SBDs) at Zuikaku, landed Strike 6 on the carriers (finally), and at 18:00 launched the last strike of the day (Strike 9, 64 planes) against C1 (whose position was only approximately known by that time). It was obvious that another wave could not reach the Japanese before darkness, so the remaining planes were moved to the hangar. At 19:00, Strike 8 hit C1 (on the second contact attempt), and confirmed 3 hits on Zuikaku from the last raid (with a DR of 1), which was sufficient to give her heavy damage status. There was still CAP (strength 1), and it scored quite heavily: 8 SBDs (2 steps) were shot down. With no hits to show in exchange, the survivors landed at Henderson Field at 20:40, just as Strike 9 failed to find the Japanese carriers in the gathering darkness (contact dierolls of 5 and 6) and started the long return trip to the carriers. At 21:00, the carriers retrieved their CAP, and only 40 minutes later did Strike 9 arrive, with a flight time of 12 (the endurance limit of the F4Fs). 12 SBDs and 4 F4Fs (4 steps total) were lost on the flight back or did not manage the night landing. But the failure of this last attack did not alter the outcome. The disaster of my previous game had ben avenged. Sunk: CVL Junyo, CVE Taiyo Heavy Damage: CV Zuikaku, CVL Zuiho Light Damage: CV Enterprise US air losses: 28 (112 planes) Japanese air losses: 31 (248 planes) The Japanese scored 9 points overall: 2 for the hits remaining on Enterprise at the end of the day, and 7 for the US air steps lost (15 steps lost off the carrier complement, 9 at Henderson Field, 4 in the night landings). The US scored 15.5 points for air losses, 18 for the two sunk carriers, 14 for the two heavily damaged ones, and finally 10 for forcing Japanese retirement, for a total of 57.5 - an overwhelming victory. Looking back at the battle, my strategy really paid off, in particular since it kept being supported by good or even great CAP and AA fire dierolls. The Japanese were not that bad at scoring hits, but herculean damage control dierolls, er... efforts negated that effect. Repeatedly, Enterprise had her flight deck repaired just in time to allow my CAP to exert full strength against the next incoming strike, and there was not a single special damage result. So, while the Japanese repeated choosing Enterprise as target with uncanny accuracy, it did them no good. On the other hand, both my hit and damage confirmation dierolls were not enticing early on, but evened out in the "second round" during the afternoon. The attritional contest in the air clearly went my way, so I just had to go on hitting - the risk to my carriers decreased constantly and eventually something had to give on the other side. One thing I noticed was that for a late year scenario, there is actually too much time in a day - I recall a US strike returning in pitch darkness as early as 18:30 during the Battle of Santa Cruz, so my last, ineffective strike at C1 would never have been launched in the real world as it would have been clear that the enemy would not be found any more. Anyway, we'll see if I dare to try the more difficult earlier periods the next time. Perhaps a Japanese assault on the New Hebrides? Hmmm... Markus Last 3 games played: Pacific War, Semper Fi, Champs de Bataille -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "All naval battles are filled with blunders, illusion, and surprises" -- Capt. Tameichi Hara