Foreward

This year marks the 70th anniversary of a number of pivotal battles from the Pacific War, the foremost among them being the Battle of Midway. To be honest, I had intended to write an article about this battle last month, but time got away from me! By way of apology, here is an excellent battle report from a War at Sea re-creation of the battle that was written by fellow Foruminian Shinnentai (re-posted here with his permission). Be sure to check out the many excellent custom paint jobs as  you read the report! Now, I’ll turn it over to Shin:

Introduction

Hi all, here’s another report of me playing as the Japanese against my brother playing as the Americans – this time the Battle of Midway.

I kept the setup fairly simple, although after reading Shattered Sword I was tempted to have the US carriers hold 4 squadrons each, but work in a special rule for Hornet and Enterprise’s squadrons to have a chance of arriving at their targets in waves rather than together – perhaps once I get more US planes! In the event the only special rule I used was that in turn 1 the Japanese had to fly off an air attack on Midway, but not allow them to fly off any further attack aircraft.

Forces involved (Midway squadrons were somewhat bodged together, and most unpainted to boot! Also note the Hiryu’s temporary base ^^) :

Read on to see how the battle went!

Setup

Here’s the setup at game start :

Kido Butai! :

Turn 1

The Americans lost no time in flying off strikes against both Japanese carrier divisions, and while most of the squadrons arrived on target, the Wildcats tasked with escorting the attack on Kaga & Akagi lost sight of their charges, allowing the CAP and AA fire to drive off the attackers despite the element of suprise :

Meanwhile the attack on Soryu and Hiryu lost a Dauntless squadron enroute, and those arriving on target faced an even heavier fighter screen, however Enterprise’s pilots pressed the attack through this and the curtain of AA fire to plant three 1,000lb bombs along Soryu’s centre-line, the flat-top’s flight-deck erupting in flame as the bombs detonated in the tightly packed hangar below :

Oblivious to the devastation being visited on their carriers, the Japanese planes attacking Midway went into their final runs, but the island’s fighters and AA defences, supplemented by a squadron of Wildcats from the Yorktown, were able to beat them back without any damage to the airstrip, the Japanese losing a third of their attack planes to the storm of defensive fire :

Turn 2

Recoiling from the loss of Soryu, the Japanese now spotted their planes on deck for a retaliatory strike on the American flat-tops which they now realised must be nearby. The first to locate the enemy were Type 97s from Kaga, homing in on Enterprise with unerring accuracy. However Enterprise’s AA gunners were ready for them, annihilating the torpedo bombers on their wave-skimming approach runs. Still, this sacrifice left Enterprise’s defences wide open for the Vals following up the Type 97s – each peeling off from high altitude to make their dives. Surrounded by geysers of water from near-hits, amazingly the Enterprise emerged unscathed :

Further north, the Japanese also located the Yorktown. Again, the first Type 97s closing on the US ships were greeted by a curtain of AA fire – shredding the planes and sending the wrecks cartwheeling across the waves. This time though, a second squadron of Type 97s managed to close on Yorktown and send two torpedoes into her side, putting her out of the fight (couple of things to note here – the destroyed Type 97 squadron had used the TP Hiryu card ‘Veteran Bomber’ SA. Little did I know it, but it soon became clear that this SA is jinxed – no sooner is it used than your opponent rolls a flurry of sixes! Also, the Type 97s which did get through were able to roll 7 dice : 3 + 1 for ET, +1 for Carrier Hunter, +1 for Chikuma, +1 for 10+ on initiative – shame no Emilys!) :

Turn 3

Out for vengeance, the newly re-armed aircraft on the surviving two American carriers and at Midway flew a retaliatory strike against Hiryu, however accurate AA fire and heavy fighter cover saw the attack off in spite of the determination of the American dive bomber pilots.

Kirishima did not have such a lucky escape though, as bombs from the seemingly obsolete Midway Vindicator squadron found her magazine in a hugely violent explosion :

The limited airstrike on Enterprise that the Japanese were able to launch this turn was again turned back with heavy losses to the torpedo bomber planes (jinx…) :

Finally, the vanguards of the two opposing fleets had sighted each other, the Benham suffering a hit from a long lance torpedo but miraculously surviving, albeit crippled :

Turn 4

The Americans were now aware that the attrition suffered by the Japanese aircrews had blunted their potency, so concentrated their own airpower against the remaining Japanese battleship, hoping to repeat their previous success on her squadron mate. However they were to be disappointed, as devastatingly aggressive defenses shredded both of Enterprise’s Dauntless squadrons, many of the planes being brought down by accurate fire from Hamakaze (8 successes on 5 dice!). To make matters worse, Hornet’s Devastator squadron was also brought down in an attack on the Nagara :

With the fleets now in range to engage directly, the ships on the left of the Japanese line dueled with their opposite numbers on the American right flank, the area soon covered in smoke from gunfire and the sea stitched with torpedo tracks :

Although Haruna’s gunners had failed to place their shots in Portland’s vitals, it soon became clear that the Japanese had the better of this opening engagement, with the Americans losing a cruiser & 2 destroyers plus a further cruiser and 2 destroyers crippled, while the Japanese suffered 2 destroyers lost and 2 cruisers plus a destroyer crippled. However, with the US enjoying the numerical advantage, the Japanese knew that they could ill-afford to continue to trade ships in this way :

Turn 5

The Japanese were now down to just two squadrons of Vals, which they flew off against the Pensacola. Pressing the attack through the US AA fire, they succeeded in swamping the cruiser in explosions, leaving her a wreck. Once again though, far fewer Japanese planes would be returning to their carriers (rolled a ‘1’ on press the attack XD) :

In response, the American air attacks were concentrated on the Haruna, and although heavy fighter cover turned back most of the dive bombers, the inexperienced Dauntless squadron flying out of Midway pressed the attack and went into their glide-bombing runs, landing a bomb on Haruna’s superstructure and crucially putting her main armament directors out of action.

Once again the Japanese had the measure of the Americans in the surface engagement, darting attacks from the destroyers sinking 4 American destroyers and finishing off the Portland, all without losing any of their own ships, although two more destroyers were damaged :

Turn 6

Now it was the Americans feeling the attrition to their airforces, with the single carrier-based Dauntless squadron still operating easily being beaten off from its attack on Haruna :

The Japanese destroyers continued to harry the American task forces as they retreated towards Midway, taking down four more destroyers for the loss of two of their own ships :

Turn 7

Even as things were looking grim for the Americans though, the still-intact Midway squadrons attacked Haruna again, and with the Japanese fighter pilots and AA gunners suffering near exhaustion and low on ammunition by this point, the dive bombers were easily able to penetrate their defences to land bomb after bomb on Haruna, battering her into a crippled wreck, easy pickings for the USS Barb which was to finish her off later :

After acquitting themselves so finely, the Japanese destroyers were finally succumbing to their losses, this turn only able to sink one US destroyer in return for losing another of their own :

Turn 8

The Americans had now drawn the remnants of the Japanese fleet into easy range of Midway, and her squadrons once again struck out, this time sinking Chikuma in the face of increasingly ineffectual Japanese resistance (zero aborts in two turns of AA defense?!) :

Result

While the Japanese destroyers covered the retreat with the destruction of two more American tin-cans, the remnants of the Kido Butai cut their losses and headed back to the main body. The Americans had eked out a minor victory, with both forces losing a carrier, most of their screening forces and carrier airwings, but the Japanese suffering the loss of two of their useful Kongo battleships :

Conclusions

Quite a close game, although the early losses amongst my Type 97s really limited my airpower, especially galling as I rolled a fair few 10+ on initiative once I had no torp planes left! I should also point out that the Americans did not win the initiative once in the entire game, which goes some way to explaining how my surface forces were able to do relatively well – I generally stayed out of range of the US cruisers. Just a shame Kirishima got taken out so quickly (hmm, maybe I shouldn’t have let the Vindicators use EB2 XD) and Haruna lost her ER4 (to press the attack glide-bombing! – I’d judged that the Midway Dauntless sqn would only hit on 5 or 6s due to the fact they were pretty inexperienced and used glide-bombing rather than dive-bombing. Pressing the attack meant they only hit on sixes – and what comes up? 4 sixes of course!..

Still, a fairly close game and one that I’ll probably play again at some point. Next time I’ll likely include CruDiv7 in the mix to – they weren’t inconceivably far away and 4 cruisers will give the Japanese some more potency in the surface action (even if one is somewhat unlucky XD), which would make the Americans more cautious in closing, as would declaring night rules after say, turn 6. Also, I should have made it clear that the game would be decided by numbers of carriers lost – the destruction of a lot of the carrier aircraft in addition to the two forces being close enough for a surface action actually made the carriers less important targets than they should have been historically.