WW2 Naval Campaign - The Last Day

WW2 Naval Campaign - Final Day

Well we finally got our Naval Campaign finished this week, shifts have meant a change to game time as Sundays have proved a bit tough to organise, so we have chucked a couple of cheeky Thursday evenings in.

This the final phase of the Campaign sees reinforcements to both sides, the Japanese Convoy has arrived on table, a mix of 12 merchants and troop carriers escorted by the light cruiser Sendai and 10 destroyers.

We got a mighty Convoy, rocking through the night

Added to that was the survivors of the previous games, 3 of the Japanese Heavy Cruisers were looking a bit weary. 2 had already lost their range finders and were on half hits maximum, the other was a bit leaky.

British and US back up arrives

British hopes were raised with the arrival of 2 Heavy and 1 Light Cruiser with 6 escorting destroyers. Of the other ships Repulse was down on speed after a torpedo hit in the last game and one destroyer had limited ammo.

First choice was to determine when the game took place, I let the players decide, if both sides went for day or night it was easy, half each would have led to a day night game however both went for the daylight option with limited air power (3d6 a turn a 6 bringing flight of 6 aircraft on table).

Repulse leaves the action

Things were gradually going the way of the Brits initially, the extra power of Prince of Wales taking its toll on the Japanese Battle cruisers Kongo and Hiei. The Japanese where just about to throw the towel in when Repulse got hit in the bridge, a d10 was rolled, the result the loss of the ships Captain and an immediate withdraw order. That made it a bit more interesting.

Limited air power didn't have much effect in the game

The Brits made a limited attack with three destroyers however the Japanese had separated Sendai and 6 destroyers who met them before they could launch torpedoes at the convoy.

A short and very bloody close range Destroyer action

All three British Destroyers were sunk, Vanity ended up with a Rudder jammed hard left leaving it going round in circles, this lead to a collision with 2 Japanese Destroyers sinking the Vanity and a Japanese ship. Kashmir exploded from a magazine hit the blast taking out the already badly damaged Lance.

Kashmir explodes taking Lance with her

After constant fire from PoW and Repulse Kongo finally sank

With the losses over the turn the Brits didn't have enough to press an attack on the convoy, PoW was getting isolated and Repulse was limping off the table. The withdraw was ordered, smoke deployed and the Brits steamed away. The Japanese Navy had taken a bit of a beating, one Battle cruiser sunk, 1 sunk and 4 badly damaged Heavy Cruisers (one with only 10 points if damage left from 1500) and 4 sunk Destroyers however the convoy was intact. Brits had a badly damaged Aircraft Carrier and Battle cruiser and losses of 2 light cruiser and 6 Destroyers.

A good balanced campaign which seemed to work well, nicely balanced both sides had chances for a knock out blow, everyone who played seem to enjoy the games as well even though Naval isn't their usual bag. Load up the khaki shorts and the Desert Wellies as the WW2 stuff gets its first outing in 2 weeks time.