I recently played my first War at Sea game in a long time. The game was with my friend Seth (wargamer55), and it was a classic Pacific War matchup: Japan vs United States!
Forces
Here were the two builds that we played with. Since Seth was hosting the game, he graciously picked both fleets and provided the minis.
USN
- USS New Jersey
- USS Essex
- USS San Diego
- USS Laffey x3
- USS Barb
- Aircraft:
- Helldiver
- Corsair
- Avenger
- Hellcat
Japan
- Sho-go Yamato
- Haguro
- Agano
- Oi
- RO-50
- Aircraft:
- George
- Emily
- Jill
- Betty x4
- Kamikaze x3
I picked the IJN force based on a die roll after I arrived. Here is a link to a copy of HapHapablap’s spreadsheet that has been set up for these two forces, in case you wanted to examine them in more detail. As you can see, these are two fairly well balanced fleets. Both sides are anchored on a massive 6-hull point BB. The IJN force is all land based, and heavily swung towards offense. The American air is carrier-based, making it more flexible. However, the high cost of late-war US planes means that they will be heavily outnumbered in the air. Balancing that, though, are the excellent AA values of the U.S ships, and the fact that all the surface combatants in this force have Heavy AA, allowing them to protect adjacent sectors. Overall, I have to hand it to Seth; he came up with two builds that have some interesting tactical options, and “feel” right in terms of what both sides could historically bring to the fight in 1945.
Set-Up
Here is how we started the game:
Turn 1
Given that we were out of range for surface fire, Turn 1 naturally turned into an air battle. I did not have my Kamikazes available yet, but my Bettys and Jill made a strike on the Essex and her escorts. Though I didn’t lose any, my attack planes over the carrier were all aborted. The two Bettys I sent after the San Diego and her accompanying Laffey dropped bombs instead of torps and managed to do a point of damage each, though!
In reply, Seth sent his air wing (minus the Hellcat) at the Yamato and Haguro. I aborted the Helldiver and Avenger, but since I was forced to commit the George to escorting the Bettys, there was nothing to stop the Corsair from coming in and bombing the Haguro for a point of damage.
Turn 2
In the second turn, I continued advancing my forces up the left side of the map, towards the objective. In a stroke of luck, I managed to ready all 3 of my kamikazes at the end of turn 1, but I decided to hold them back while the rest of my air force was rearming. As a result, the only plane I had up this turn was the Emily, which provided some timely ASW support when Seth’s Barb got too close to the Yamato. For Seth’s part, shifted his offensive air to the Oi and Agano, while the Hellcat came after the Emily.
The results were somewhat disappointing for Seth; the Emily’s Light Defensive Armament allowed her to shrug of the Hellcat’s attack, which allowed the Emily to go on and cripple the Barb (the valiant sub’s torpedoes would later miss too). The Oi and Agano, in an inspired display of AA prowess, aborted both the Avenger and Helldiver. Once again, the Corsair made it through to put a point of damage on one of my ships, the Oi this time.
Turn 3
This turn, I advanced the Yamato and Haguro to the left objective, and started sending the Oi and Agano to the Middle. I used Oi’s Torpedo Run ability to get her on to the objective. Having won initiative, Seth was content to hang back with the New Jersey and use his Extended Range 5. He did advance the San Diego to the right objective, however.
This air phase was a big one for me, since I had all my planes available. The Emily finished off the Barb, while three Bettys and the Jill were escorted by the George in an attack on the Essex. This attack managed to get enough planes through the CAP (with the Corsair helping the Hellcat this time) to put two torpedoes into the big flat-top. My Kamikazes also managed to sink the exposed San Diego, overwhelming her formidable air defenses. It wasn’t completely one sided, though. Seth’s Helldiver got through to obliterate the Oi, denying me the center objective. This, in turn, freed the New Jersey to shoot at the Yamato. He managed to hit her at extreme range, striping Yamato’s own long-range ability.
Turn 4
Despite the success I had with my air, this was the turn where I began to feel the tide really turn against me. Seth won initiative again, ensuring he could keep the New Jersey away from the Yamato again. However, Seth was not careful enough with his placement, enablign me to use Yamato’s General Pursuit ability to get her within range of the Essex! During the air phase, the American air managed to finish off the Agano and Haguro, leaving just the Yamato to stand alone. The Yamato put numerous 18″ shells into the Essex, sending her to the bottom with a Vital hit. Fortunately for Seth, his airwing survived the sinking and managed to return to their land base. The New Jersey, in turn, put a second point of damage on the Yamato.
Turns 5 & 6
In turn 5, my air managed to get through to the New Jersey, putting another point of damage on her with a torpedo hit. I finally got the Yamato’s guns within range, and both ships traded shots, receiving a point of damage each. In the 6th and final turn, Seth used his surviving destroyer to capture the middle objective, after shooting down my Emily with it. His air managed to put another two hits on the Yamato, crippling her. The end of the game came when both battleships traded broadsides; the Yamato missed with her salvo thanks to her crippling damage, while the New Jersey’s return fire flew true and sent the mammoth Japanese battlewagon to the bottom!
Wrap-up
What a nail-biter! It really could have gone either way up until turn 4. Ultimately, I feel like two things tilted the scales in Seth’s favor. The first is that he was able to win initiative in turns 3 and 4, giving him valuable time to start whittling down the Yamato from beyond the range I could reply from. The second is that I just didn’t have enough available fighter cover to fully protect my fleet. That being said, I benefited from some above-average AA rolls (like the Oi aborting a Helldiver!) that helped me a lot. Thanks for the great game Seth!
Yes, it was an enjoyable game, and I felt it legitimately could have gone either way.
I tried to give each side a certain flavor in the build. The Japanese air was heavily geared to the offensive. While Andy clearly would have liked a second fighter, I’m not sure the trade-off would have been worth it. To stay within the point limits either two bombers would have been sacrificed or the surface forces made less effective. Maybe we could tweak it with a refight.
I agree that winning the initiative was critical. As it turned out, in both the critical turns, I won initiative by just one point, due to the New Jersey’s SA. Rarely does an SA like that prove to be so pivotal.
I liked both builds and I wouldn’t mind trying my hand with a refight with switched sides. I think the Japanese ability to swarm with the land-based air and the dangerous Kamikazes make this a powerful offensive Japanese fleet. If the Japanese can hit hard on Turn 2 things can get dicey for the USN quickly. Turn 2? Well, I would have considered forgoing the Turn 1 airstrike to get a Kamikaze or two to add in. As it turned out, Andy got all three on the first roll, but had to wait until Turn 3 to have the air cover to use them.
Yes, a refight would be interesting. The US fleet is well-balanced and powerful as they tend to be. The US Navy has a large menu of good ships to choose from. Any of the Iowas would be good, but I liked the New Jersey for the synergy it had with its SA and the Essex. The Essex with its four air unit capacity is awesome. And the Corsair was very useful as a bomber, although I did use it as a fighter at least once.
The poor Barb had a hard time of it, so I’d expect it to do better in a refight of the battle. The three DDs did their part, including capturing an objective, so they did more than earn their keep. The New Jersy was placed cagily, trying to avoid shot from the Yamato as much as possible, and keeping those shots that couldn’t be avoided as far away as possible on the theory that the New Jersey would prevail so long as it avoided being vitaled. This ended up being the case. The final close-range duel wasn’t as risky as it appeared because Yamato was crippled by then and could only hit on 5s or better.
As usual, Andy played a good game and I had to really work for the win.
Wow the models are lovely! WHere did you get the rules? What about the models? I would love to have a mini fleet one day.
Cool read mate 🙂
The models and rules are from Axis & Allies Naval Miniatures. Sadly, the game is out of print. Models are still available on eBay and a few boosters are still available from some online retailers. Sometimes you can find a few at local game shops.
As Seth said, the game is no longer in production, but you can still find it for sale without too much difficulty. It was sold as a CMG, but it is still quite easy to find singles from places like Miniature Market and on eBay.
As a CMG, though, many of the more desirable units are pricey or unavailable. Aircraft are especially in high demand and hard to get at sny price.
On the other hand, many are available through Shapeways, if you don’t mind painting.