Brandon wrote in message <9447mb$qmq$1@nnrp1.deja.com>... I just played a game from Simulations Workshop called SOLOMON SEA. Its an excellent game, 12 pages of rules, 2 half maps, double blind, playable and a good simulation. The game takes around 90 minutes per day, so a 3 day scenario takes 3-4 hours (or less if you lose some CVs). The system is simple, and well abstracted. It doenst lose much, and gives a good feel for the carrier battles. Hexes are 100 miles, turns are about 3.5 hours. Units are capitol ships, or 2+ ship units for CLs and below. Plane steps are 3-5 planes. The map covers the south pacific. There are 4 scenarios: Coral Sea, Santa Cruz, Eastern Solomons, night battle of guadalcanal. Each turn the players lay out their searches. Some long range planes (like the PBY) require the players to pre-plan their searches for several turns by placing markers representing where they will seach each turn. [search planes had preplanned search areas and unless they found a target wouldnt normally be resceduled] An air unit searches all adjacent hexes, but there is a possibility of search failure due to weather or poor training/coordination if a land based unit. Whats nice about this is you dont have to write anything, you just place several numbered chits for each of your long range search planes (typically 6-8 per side) at the start of each day. There is a posibility of false contact (the other player gets to lie!) or a more detailed contact. When sighted you announce if you have ships and CVs and Transports, plus the direction the task force is heading. This is important because the owner unrealisticly knows he's spotted, but can alter course too much to take advantage of that. He must move ahead or not move at all. Then he can change his heading. Air Strikes are relatively simple. Send in the waves, roll for arrivale (some will miss, more likely the farther away), CAP intercepts, AA fires, then ships are attacked. Combat consists of rolling 1d10 for each step. Hits are scored on a roll <= your combat value. Ships take 2 hits to sink, 1 to cripple. Its abstract, quick, and reasonably accurate. There is some nice chrome also: Variable Order of Battle, Subs, Oilers, Search & Strike. Many factors are abstracted into the game via die roll modifiers, rather than extra rules. A well done game. Boulder sells it for $16.80, pretty cheap by todays standards. Its desk Top Published, but very well done. You do cave to cut the counters, but they are already mounted on thin cardboard which is not a problem at all. Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Brandon Einhorn - 04:57am Jan 16, 2001 PST (#2522 of 2553) IMHO implied in all posts. Solomon Sea To further elaborate: I like the search system. beacuse its double blind you dont know where the enemy is. You send up search planes and they may fail to report anything because of the weather or if they are land based serch units, because of their training/lack of coordination & procedures. In addition its possible to get false results (lies0 and more accurate results. The only downside is you know when you've been spotted & you know when the enemy spots a false contact (because you get to make it up). But given the playability and simplicity of the system these are acceptible trade offs. I got burned because I never expected the IJN to sail south of Guadalcanal. I didnt search in the right area (the IJN was in my hex!) and got nailed. It pays to search a very wide area. And because of the posibility of missing a search due to weather and training it pays to keep search planes in reserve. The Americans had a problem at Santa Cruz because their bases were far away from Guadalcanal and couldnt search effectively. I took a risk and staged my search planes to Guadalcanal so I could try to find the enemy carriers (too bad they were behind me). The risk was that Henderson would be shelled and I'd lose some planes on the ground. Each turn is 3.5 hours. Say a plane can stay aloft for 4 turns (and land on the 5th). You place markers numbered 1,2,3,4 3 spaces apart. Each turn, strating with the lowest # counter for each search group, the space and all adjacent spaces are searched. Then the search marker is removed and the next turn the next marker is used as the search area. If you find a target you may rearange just that search groups search marker. This represents each search groups flight plan being predetermined, but allowing planes that found a target the ability to shadow. To form a straike you just launch planes and attack the target. Carrier planes have a 2 hex range, land based planes can have ranges of 5 or more. Many US bombers (B 25, B25) are based too far away to be of value other than in defending their base. Unlike Flat Top you dont spend a lot of time with detailed plane handling (which was fun but time consuming). To see if you find the target roll a die if the results is double the range or higher the wave finds the target, else it misses. Big strikes or multiple waves have a lower chance of finding the target. You roll 1d10 for each attacking step and hit if you roll the units combat rating or less. Carriers take 2 hits to sink. This is abstract and simple, but it does a decent job of modeling the battle in a short time. You can play the game in 3 hours! There are some chrome rules as well: Variable Order of battle (I was completely surprised that another Jap. CV showed up, i was wondering where the hell all those strikes were comong from, my god there were a lot of jap. planes) Search & Strike (sending armed bombers to search a 3 hex triangle and attack if they find anything) Oilers to refuel. Subs (I nailed a IJN CVL in guadalcanal! But his subs found me in the open ocean but my DDs screened me successfully) Its a very good game, and if you are interested in carrier combat you really should play it.