PEARL HARBOR 1941 AAR

[Curtis Lemay]

This is an AAR for analysis of my test of my “Pearl Harbor 1941” scenario. This is basically a solitaire scenario, for the Japanese player. I’ll play that side and just help out with the very little that the American side has to do upon its turn.

Before we start, let’s review the scenario. This scenario simulates the Japanese surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet at the start of the Pacific War. It is intended to let players get some easy experience with carrier vs. surface naval combat under the new naval warfare features. It was played with TOAW version 3.6.0.88 and so, benefited from those features. Of course, the scenario is not yet available to the public. When played, though, it should be played using New Turn Order Rules and have the TOAW Log recording. It doesn’t particularly matter what supply rules are used, but I used New Supply Rules.

Here’s the overall view, using the microscreen. Note the Jap navy in the upper right-hand corner, and the Hawaiian island of Oahu at the bottom. American forces are shown in and nearby Pearl Harbor, at Wheeler field, Hickam field, Bellows field, Haleiwa field, Ewa MAS, and Kaneohe NAS:

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Here’s a shot of the Jap Fleet. Note that there are six CVs and each has three air groups onboard: a Zero group, a Val group, and a Kate group each. There are also two BBs, two CAs, one CL, and eleven DDs. None of the ships can move in the game due to being in Garrison.

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Those air groups are split into two strikes. Here’s the First Strike formation. Note that there are two fighter groups, two torpedo groups, two level bomber groups, and three dive bomber groups. The fighters are Zero aircraft, the dive bombers are Val aircraft, the torpedoes are Kate aircraft armed with a type 91 torpedo, and the level bombers are Kate aircraft armed with an 800kg naval shell.

The fighters are generally only useful against airfields or ground targets. The Val aircraft are also useful against airfields or other ground targets, but could be used against ships other than the battleships. Only the torpedo and level bombers can take on the battleships as only they have shell weights great enough to penetrate their armor. But there is a house rule that prevents the torpedo planes from being used against ships in anchorage hexes (those would be ships shielded from torpedoes by wharves or other ships). So they are designed to be used just against the outer row of battleships while the level bombers target the inner row of them.

Note that the battleships all have agilities of 1, so it is possible for level bombers to hit them. Other ships will likely have too much agility to be targeted by a level bomber.

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Here’s the Second Strike formation. Note that there are no more torpedo groups and the level bomber groups are no longer armed with the 800kg naval shell but with a suite of 2x250kg and 2x150kg bombs. So, there’s nothing left that can really take on the battleships. Those, therefore, need to be sunk by the first strike. This strike is intended to mostly target ground targets or the other ships.

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Here’s a shot of Pearl Harbor. Note that the map is at a scale of 625 meters/hex to allow it to be adequately depicted. Battleship Row is circled in red (note that there is one non-battleship, the repair ship USS Vestal, in it). One battleship (the USS Pennsylvania) is located in the Dry Dock hex – circled in orange. The Tank Farm is circled in black. The Pearl Harbor NAS on Ford Island is circled in brown. Hickam air field is circled in grey. Finally, Ewa MAS is circled in pink. Clearly, all ships are in Garrison and cannot move during the game.

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This shot shows the East Coast with Kaneohe NAS and Bellows air field.

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Finally, this shot shows Wheeler air field and the Schofield Barracks. Note that ground units (other than a few AAA units) are not depicted in this scenario.

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Now let’s get started. Here’s the set up for the first attacks. While the dive bombers and fighters are targeting Wheeler air field, the level bombers and torpedo bombers are targeting battleship row. The level bombers are targeting the battleships on the inside row (shown in yellow in the shot) and the torpedo bombers are targeting the outside row (shown in red in the shot). Note that the level bombers must be set to conduct a “Port Attack” in order to target the ships in the hex and not the ground units in it. This is true for any ships in an anchorage hex.

All air units are set to Ignore Losses. This ensures that there is the maximum chance that the air units will carry out the attack even if they take losses from AAA. It’s important to get the maximum number of attacks. The MRPB is 2, so only two combat rounds will be consumed. (If I had set the MRPB to 1, then the tenth combat round could never be executed). Therefore, five combat phases will occur and have to be planned each turn (note that there is no chance of a Force Proficiency failure since the Jap FP is 100). Each phase will consume two combat rounds.

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After the attacks are executed, the player has to exit the game (after saving the turn, of course) and open the TOAW Log in order to see what happened with the targeted ships (therefore, the scenario should be played with the TOAW Log turned on). Here’s a snippet of the TOAW Log from the first round attacks. This shows the attack on the inner row stack of the USS Maryland and USS Tennessee. It shows three bomb attempts being resolved. The first two target the Maryland and the third targets the Tennessee.

Each bomb is evaluated separately to determine: 1. Did the bomb hit the ship? There are two separate checks for this – I can’t really go into detail about it, but be aware that in these cases, it’s practically guaranteed to pass, due to the battleships’ very low agility. There is also a check for superficial damage to the superstructure that is sure to pass in these cases, but is limited to only a few damage points per ship. 2. If there was a hit did it penetrate the ship’s armor? This check compares the bomb’s shell weight to the ship’s armor thickness. 3. If it penetrated the armor, what damage did it cause? And, 4. If it penetrated, did it cause a critical hit?

You can see that the Maryland suffered a penetration on the first bomb causing 2 damage points (plus the 1 superficial point, for a total of 3). The second bomb only caused the 1 superficial damage point.

The Tennessee was penetrated and this caused 29 damage for a total of 30 damage. There were no critical hits.

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Now I can summarize the combat found in the TOAW Log. The attached shot shows the naval results. Note that the blue rows show the inner row of battleships and the red the outer row. Each cell shows the ship’s current damage level after each targeting.

The Arizona was targeted by four bombs and only suffered a total of 5 damage points.

The Tennessee was hit twice but only penetrated that one time for a total of 30 damage points.

The Maryland was targeted four times receiving 16 damage points. The Pennsylvania was never targeted (it was in a different hex).

The Nevada was targeted four times and totaled 10 damage points.

The Oklahoma was targeted three times for a total of 9 damage points.

The West Virginia was targeted twice for a total of 30 damage points.

Finally, the California was never targeted (it too, was in a different hex).

Meanwhile, Wheeler field was targeted and lost 37 aircraft at a cost to the Japanese of 5 aircraft.

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Here’s a snippet of the TOAW Log for the next combat phase. Note that the third bomb hit the Tennessee and not only penetrated its armor, but caused a critical hit too (modeling detonation of the ship’s magazine). As a result, the Tennessee was sunk, since its total damage was 30 + 32 + 39 = 101 damage. When a ship reaches 100 damage points, it sinks.

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Here are the results of the second combat phase. Red cells represent critical hits. So, the Tennessee was sunk (indicated by the black cell), while the Arizona was heavily damaged. Maryland, Oklahoma, and Nevada have serious damage as well.

Meanwhile Hickam field was targeted and lost 7 aircraft at a cost of 0 aircraft to the Japanese.

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Here are the results of the third combat phase. Now the Maryland has been sunk and the Arizona, Nevada, and West Virginia are near to sinking.

Meanwhile, Pearl Harbor NAS was targeted and lost 42 aircraft at a cost of 1 aircraft to the Japanese.

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Here is how the fourth combat phase attacks are set up. Since the Maryland and the Tennessee have both been sunk, that hex is now vacant. So, the level bombers have switched over to bombing the Pennsylvania in the Dry Dock hex.

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Here are the results of the fourth combat phase. Note that the Nevada, Oklahoma, and West Virginia have all been sunk. The Arizona survived and the Pennsylvania was lightly damaged.

Meanwhile, Ewa MAS and Pearl Harbor NAS were targeted and lost 14 aircraft at a cost of 0 aircraft to the Japanese.

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Here’s how the fifth combat phase attacks were set up. The level bombers continue to hit the Pennsylvania while the torpedo bombers have moved over to the California.

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Here are the results of the fifth combat phase. The California was quickly sunk in only four hits (one critical). Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania was heavily damaged.

Meanwhile, Hickam field, Bellows field, and Kaneohe NAS were targeted and lost 21 aircraft at a cost of 0 aircraft to the Japanese. The Japanese lost a total of 6 aircraft in the first strike while the Americans lost a total of 121 aircraft.

That’s it for the First Strike. There are no more planes properly armed to damage battleships, but some effort should be made to finish off the Arizona. During the American player turn, I put the air unit in Haliewa on AS and the newly arrived Enterprise flight at Pearl Harbor NAS on AS as well. Note that the American airfields have received some AAA reinforcements – this is why the scenario needs to be played using New Turn Order Rules, so that they won’t arrive at the start of the game instead.

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Here’s how the first combat phase attacks of Turn 2 were set up. The Second Strike level bombers (armed with 250kg bombs) and the Second Strike Vals (color-coded green) are all targeting the Arizona, in hopes of finishing it off. While the chances of penetration is low, with so many bombs targeting it and such a small amount of additional damage needed to finish it off, I thought it was worth taking the chance.

[Curtis Lemay]

Here are the results of the Turn 2 first combat phase. The Arizona was finally finished off, so, in that specific case, it was worth taking a shot at it. Of the battleships, only the Pennsylvania remains afloat.

Meanwhile, Ewa MAS and Pearl Harbor NAS were targeted and lost 8 aircraft at a cost of 2 aircraft to the Japanese.

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Here’s how the second combat phase attacks are set up. Note that the level bombers and the Vals have been shifted over to the USS Utah. This is still a battleship (of sorts) but so much older that its armor may be something those planes can penetrate. We’ll see. There is also a light cruiser (USS Raleigh) in the hex that may get some targeting attention.