Courtenay's solitaire AAR

[Courtenay]

This is good enough for 4X, a D, and 3 A. The US puts the first X on the Shokaku, even though it doesn't have any planes. She is still a large, fast carrier. She rolls a 9, and is damaged. The Japanese put the second X on the damaged Yubari. She rolls a nine, which does not save and does not matter; the Yubari goes down, and would have on any roll. The US does not put the third X on the Shokaku, but rather on the best Japanese cruiser, the Chokai. Not expecting this unwanted attention, the Chokai rolls a 1 and sinks. The Japanese put the fourth X on their worst remaining cruiser, the Naga. She rolls a four and sinks. The US now puts the D on the Shokaku. She rolls a 1, and sinks. The Japanese have been using the word "sink" an awful lot. The Japanese put an A on their best cruiser with one AA, the Tone. She rolls a three and aborts. The US puts an A on the worst Japanese cruiser with the best AA, the Abakuma. She rolls a 9, and sticks around. The Japanese puts the last A on the Mikuma, identical to the Tone. She rolls a six, just missing a save, and aborts.

[Courtenay]

On to round four. The search rolls were Japanese 4, US 1. Yes, exactly the same as round three. The US sends the same ten planes, again. The Japanese AA has gotten worse, though. It starts out at one of one, and the US reduces that to lowest one of two. Something doesn't make sense in my records, because I recorded Japanese rolls of 7, 3, and 1, but they should only have rolled twice. I don't know what happened here; in any case, the Japanese only got a one point reduction. Any number from 1 to 3 would have had the same effect on the US bombing.

[Courtenay]

With only four ships left, the Americans inflict 3X, 2D, and an A. They put the first X on the more fragile of the better Japanese cruisers, the Kinu. The Kinu rolls a 6, and sinks. The Japanese decide that AA strength is more important than gunnery, and put the second X on the Furataka. It duplicates the Kinu's performance, rolling another six and also sinking. The Allies want to maximize the chance of sinking something, so put the third X on the most fragile Japanese ship, the Abakuma. The Abakuma does not cooperate, though, rolls a 9, and is only damaged. The Japanese put the first D on the Maya. It rolls a 4, and is damaged. The Americans attempt to finish off the Abukuma, and do, as it rolls another 9. The Japanese have no choice but to put the A on the Maya. The captain demonstrates tenacity, if not good sense, rolling a 10. The Maya stays in the four box, damaged.

[Courtenay]

The fifth round, the Japanese roll a 5. The US rolls its third 1 in a row. The US picks the two box this time. There is one Japanese CVP left in the sea area. The US feels that the Japanese AA fire is far deadlier than the plane, and sends the Black Widow as a bomber, while sending enough CVPs as fighters to get a plus four. The air-to-air combat is over quickly, as the Allies roll a 9, good enough for a DA. At +3, that roll would have been no effect. The Japanese retaliate with an 18, DX PX. A Dauntless and its pilot die. The US is not killing its high air-to-air value CVPs.

[Courtenay]

The Americans use all four surprise points to reduce the Japanese AA strength from lowest 2 of 5 to lowest 1 of 2. The Japanese respond with a 10 followed by a 9! The Black Widow is aborted, and four points are knocked off the remaining bombers. The Black Widow of course returns to Saipan. 18 bomb points get through.

[Courtenay]

The US gets 3 X and a 2 A. The US puts the first X on the remaining Japanese carrier. The Hiyo rolls an 8, which is not quite good enough, and sinks, along with her plane and pilot. The Japanese put the X on a cruiser, the Kinugasa, which rolls a 6 and also sinks. The US puts the last X on the Yamato. The Yamato sneers, and nonchalantly rolls a 1, which of course saves. The Japanese put the first A on the Yamato, which rolls a 10, saying that it is not leaving. The US puts the last A on the Yura, which also rolls a 10, and stays. The Japanese ships are very tenacious. They have rolled a combined 29 on the last three abort rolls.

[Courtenay]

The sixth round is profoundly annoying to the Japanese. The US rolls a 6, and does not find the Japanese. However, the Japanese roll a four, and do. They don't have enough surprise points to cancel the combat, and the only ship of theirs that finds the US is the stupid damaged cruiser in the four box. If that ship did not exist the battle would be over. The Japanese want to scuttle the thing on the spot. The US only assigns five CVPs as bombers; that will be more than enough. There is zero chance of the cruiser surviving, so the Japanese use their two surprise points to raise their AA value, to lowest one of four. It does not help. The first number the Japanese roll was a 1. The others were 2, 7, and 4. In another demonstration of the meaning of the word "overkill", the US gets 2Xs and a D to kill one damaged cruiser. The Maya succumbs easily, rolling a 3. I forgot to take a screen shot. This is one way to empty a sea zone.

[Courtenay]

Round seven, the Japanese roll a 10, and are horrified. What will happen now? The US rolls a five. For a moment, I think the US has missed. MWiF informs me that the search by the US was successful. Oh. Three box plus CVP bonus plus CP bonus equals five. The Japanese misery continues. The US again picks only the two box; they want to finish off the Yamato. The US sends everything as bombers, and, with six surprise points, uses all of them to reduce the Japanese AA from lowest 2 of 5 to lowest 1 of 3. This was the correct decisions, as the Japanese AA gunners roll a 10, a 7, and a 4. Thirty bomb points get through.

[Courtenay]

This is just enough for 4X, a D and 3A. Note that any Japanese AA result from 1 to 4 would have had the same effect. The US puts the first X onto the Yamato, to finish it off. 65,000 tons of warship slide beneath the waves. The Japanese put an X on a cruiser; they figure that if they put an X on a battleship, even if it saves, the US will finish it off. The Nagara rolls an eight and sinks. The US picks a good Japanese cruiser to eliminate. The Kumano does not resist; it rolls a 2, and sinks. The Japanese don't know what to do, and put the X on their last cruiser in the sea box. The Yura rolls a 8, and sinks. Now the US attempts to damage the weakest Japanese battleship, the Haruna. It saves with a 7, and is aborted. Now the Japanese puts an A on the Yamashiro. It saves, with an 8. The US decides to send ships home, and puts their A on the Yamashiro also; it saves, but this makes no difference, as it has to go home. The Japanese put the last A on the Mutso. It saves with a 10, again demonstrating Japanese tenacity.

[Courtenay]

Round 8. Eight! The Japanese roll a 2, and the US a 5. Again, the Japanese outroll the US, but not by enough to cancel the combat. The US sends all of its planes as bombers. The Japanese shift up their AA, to lowest 1 of 2. They roll a 5 and a 10, shooting down a US CVP. I made a mistake on the screen shot, making it only after the US destroyed a CVP. They destroyed a 3-3 Dauntless and its pilot.

[Courtenay]

The US inflicts 3X and a D on two identical battleships. It makes no difference who chooses what; if the Japanese make all their damage rolls, one ship survives, aborted damaged; if any but the second X are missed, both ships are sunk. The Japanese makes all four damage rolls, rolling a 10, 4, 6, an 9. The Mutso sinks and the Hyuga is damaged.

[Courtenay]

Round nine: Jap 3, US 3. Round nine! The US puts three planes as FTRs and uses its four surprise points to raise its air-to-air value by 1 and lower the Japanese, to a +2/-2 result. It turns out that this was unnecessary, as the Americans rolled an 18 on their first attack, AX PF, killing a 6 pt range 9 land-based Zero and its pilot. The Japanese rolled a 9, AC, doing nothing to the Americans.

[Courtenay]

On lowest 1 of 3, the Japanese roll a 2, 6, 5.

[Courtenay]

20 points of bombers get through, causing 3X, a D and an A. The US decides to concentrate on Japanese CPs. The first and third X's kill a total of four CPs; the second X kills the Natori. The Japanese put the D on the Nagato, hoping to get out without damage, but the Nagato rolled a 2, and was damaged. The US aborted the Isuzu, with its 3 strength AA factor, with the last A.

[Courtenay]

Round 10. Ja 4, US 10. Combat finally ends.

I have never seen a naval combat like this in WiF. Ever.

[JeffroK]

Its about time the superior numbers of the USN got its act together!

[Centuur]

To me, it looks like the Japanese went on a suicide mission. That has probably something to do with the lack of fuel, so they left with the bunkers half filled, hoping to get a shot at the US CV's

Anyway: the Japanese fleet is done for...

[Courtenay]

I made the classic horror movie mistake of splitting the party. I should have put all the Japanese forces in the two box, except for one ship in the four box. If the Axis in this game was not already completely dead, I would start the naval movement phase over again, redo the Japanese movement, and redo the naval action.

As it is, I will live with this result, and keep this lesson in mind for future games.

[Courtenay]

The Italians rail a unit from Palermo to on top of Cavellero, and the Germans rail a GAR from Rome to on top of Manstein.

The Germans decide to abandon the Ruhr. One flipped INF corps has to stay in Essen, and the Italians realize that action limits cause them to have to leave the Rome MIL behind in Dusseldorf. Oops.

The Finns reposition themselves to prevent the Russians from driving behind them to put them out of supply. This allows a full two hex attack on the main Finish position, as opposed to a 1 1/2 hex attack over a river out of Leningrad, but the Finns feel that it can't be helped.

[Courtenay]

The Italians pull two planes out of Italy, and German rebases its few unflipped planes. Japan is out of air actions.

The Japanese reorganize 2 CPs and the Junyo using transports in the Sea of Japan.