Post by fannyhil on Oct 29, 2012 21:38:51 GMT -5
We played a game of Naval Thunder last night. We opted to play Savo Island. I pulled the game straight out of the Naval Thunder historical scenarios. The standard night rules applied. In addition, unbeknownst to the Japanese, the Americans were Exhausted. They couldn't fire at any ship until it fired or was within 10". The Americans had to roll each turn to see if they received the radar benefit based on their command rating (6). If we remembered, we usually missed the roll so radar played very little part of the game. We also played with the rules upgrades for destroyers being a base "10" to hit and evasive is -2" of movement for everyone. I added two rules based on historical information:
1. illumination shells had a range of eight inches and
2. American radar ranges were cut down to 10" (25%) when silhouetted against land. The American commander wasn't very pleased but that was the way it was.
The scenario started with the Japanese already having penetrated the destroyer picket line and 30" from one American force (Chicago, Astoria & two dd's). The second American force was off at a 60 degree angle and further away.
Since the Japanese historically had intel from air raids, subs and a float plane, the Americans set their ships on table before the Japanese deployed. The Japanese commander took three heavy cruisers and gave his sub-commander two heavy cruisers and the two light cruisers.
The American set up was two destroyers in front with the cruisers about seven inches behind. The Japanese had free set up. The Japanese deployed in three lines abreast.
I was expecting the Japanese to take a hard right taking them much further away from my force and fall on the American commander's smaller group hard and then turn to take on me. That didn't happen. The Japanese drove right down the middle of our groups and engaged us both at once. So the American commander's two heavy cruisers and two dd's ended up engaging the Japanese commander's three heavy cruisers and one of the Japanese sub-commander's heavies while the remaining Japanese heavy and two lights ended up taking on my three heavies and two dd's.
During the "surprise" round, the Japanese opened up with their main guns at medium range because they didn't know the Americans were under visibility restrictions.
The Japanese scored a hit on the Astroria lighting her on fire the first turn. They also severely damaged one of American commander's dd's. One of my dd's also took heavy damage.
On turn two the Americans could fire at anybody within 20" or at any enemy ship on fire with no night penalties.
The American commander and I both tried to run the dd's in but the Japanese didn't want any of that and turned their main guns against the dd's. Since the American commander's dd's were closer, both his damaged and his undamaged dd went down in a hail of bullets. The Astoria was hit several times from two Jap heavies and one of the Japanese cruisers launched long lances at medium range but missed. The Chicago traded shots with two Jap heavies. My damaged dd went down but my other dd was missed but wasn't close enough to launch.
On my side I pounded the Jap heavy putting six critical hits into her. A fire broke out. I took several critical hits. I was fortunate all night. I kept rolling "11's". The American commander even commented that I was lucky. I lost a lot of secondary batteries and when I did get a fire, rudder, flooding, I fixed it at the end of the turn EVERY time. I was very lucky. The two overall commanders were not as lucky.
My last dd closed to within six inches of a jap light cruiser only to go down in a hail of gun fire. I finished off the heavily damaged Jap heavy cruiser while the Japanese commander finished off the Astoria.
Next my three heavies turned their attention to the two Japanese light cruisers. We traded blows for one turn and then one them went away. The same thing happened the next turn.
The American commander lit up a second of the Japanese commander's three heavies with a crit fire allowing me to fire as if it was daylight at medium range. I began pounding on two of the Japanese commander's heavies as I struggled to close the distance. At this point the battle was moving directly away from me.
At this point it was obvious that the Japanese weren't going to meet their victory conditions of sinking or forcing alll of the American heavies to retreat while not losing three of their own heavies. . While they had only lost one heavy cruiser so far, one Japanese heavy cruiser was within two hits of going down while another had less than half its hull points left, was on fire and was about to get twenty plus tubes of 8" love. We called it a game.
After the game we talked. I mentioned how I have played Savo about a dozen times with several different rules systems and the Japanese have never even come close to their historical performance.
The Japanese commander mentioned that the ships are so brittle. He suggested that the hull point totals should be increased by a factor and suggested 33%. Some destroyers might even survive to launch torps before being sunk.
We talked about how it was not a bad scenario, but it is tough for the Japanese to do near historical. My suggestion was to tweek the crew ratings. I suggested the Japanese should be -1 at crew rating at night while the American's should be a +1 at night. Keeping in mind the Japanese already get a modifier for night gunnery and torpedo attacks.
1. illumination shells had a range of eight inches and
2. American radar ranges were cut down to 10" (25%) when silhouetted against land. The American commander wasn't very pleased but that was the way it was.
The scenario started with the Japanese already having penetrated the destroyer picket line and 30" from one American force (Chicago, Astoria & two dd's). The second American force was off at a 60 degree angle and further away.
Since the Japanese historically had intel from air raids, subs and a float plane, the Americans set their ships on table before the Japanese deployed. The Japanese commander took three heavy cruisers and gave his sub-commander two heavy cruisers and the two light cruisers.
The American set up was two destroyers in front with the cruisers about seven inches behind. The Japanese had free set up. The Japanese deployed in three lines abreast.
I was expecting the Japanese to take a hard right taking them much further away from my force and fall on the American commander's smaller group hard and then turn to take on me. That didn't happen. The Japanese drove right down the middle of our groups and engaged us both at once. So the American commander's two heavy cruisers and two dd's ended up engaging the Japanese commander's three heavy cruisers and one of the Japanese sub-commander's heavies while the remaining Japanese heavy and two lights ended up taking on my three heavies and two dd's.
During the "surprise" round, the Japanese opened up with their main guns at medium range because they didn't know the Americans were under visibility restrictions.
The Japanese scored a hit on the Astroria lighting her on fire the first turn. They also severely damaged one of American commander's dd's. One of my dd's also took heavy damage.
On turn two the Americans could fire at anybody within 20" or at any enemy ship on fire with no night penalties.
The American commander and I both tried to run the dd's in but the Japanese didn't want any of that and turned their main guns against the dd's. Since the American commander's dd's were closer, both his damaged and his undamaged dd went down in a hail of bullets. The Astoria was hit several times from two Jap heavies and one of the Japanese cruisers launched long lances at medium range but missed. The Chicago traded shots with two Jap heavies. My damaged dd went down but my other dd was missed but wasn't close enough to launch.
On my side I pounded the Jap heavy putting six critical hits into her. A fire broke out. I took several critical hits. I was fortunate all night. I kept rolling "11's". The American commander even commented that I was lucky. I lost a lot of secondary batteries and when I did get a fire, rudder, flooding, I fixed it at the end of the turn EVERY time. I was very lucky. The two overall commanders were not as lucky.
My last dd closed to within six inches of a jap light cruiser only to go down in a hail of gun fire. I finished off the heavily damaged Jap heavy cruiser while the Japanese commander finished off the Astoria.
Next my three heavies turned their attention to the two Japanese light cruisers. We traded blows for one turn and then one them went away. The same thing happened the next turn.
The American commander lit up a second of the Japanese commander's three heavies with a crit fire allowing me to fire as if it was daylight at medium range. I began pounding on two of the Japanese commander's heavies as I struggled to close the distance. At this point the battle was moving directly away from me.
At this point it was obvious that the Japanese weren't going to meet their victory conditions of sinking or forcing alll of the American heavies to retreat while not losing three of their own heavies. . While they had only lost one heavy cruiser so far, one Japanese heavy cruiser was within two hits of going down while another had less than half its hull points left, was on fire and was about to get twenty plus tubes of 8" love. We called it a game.
After the game we talked. I mentioned how I have played Savo about a dozen times with several different rules systems and the Japanese have never even come close to their historical performance.
The Japanese commander mentioned that the ships are so brittle. He suggested that the hull point totals should be increased by a factor and suggested 33%. Some destroyers might even survive to launch torps before being sunk.
We talked about how it was not a bad scenario, but it is tough for the Japanese to do near historical. My suggestion was to tweek the crew ratings. I suggested the Japanese should be -1 at crew rating at night while the American's should be a +1 at night. Keeping in mind the Japanese already get a modifier for night gunnery and torpedo attacks.
