DANG 2013 – Operation Landcrab Recap

DANG (Dave's Annual Naval Game) for 2013 was “Operation Landcrab – The American Invasion of Attu” with American and Japanese forces squaring off in the Aleutian Islands. The game was based on a General Quarters 3 mini-campaign (available for download to registered owners of the game). The GQ 3 game sets the stage for a hypothetical battle between American and Japanese battleships, but if you exclude the hypothetical forces (the Japanese battleships and carrier) you could still have an interesting more-historical scenario.

Everyone began arriving at my place just after 9:30 AM and we spent a little while catching up on things, talking about the projects we are all working on and planning. After that we split up into the sides with Mark, David S, Arthur, and Paul taking the Japanese while Dale, Scott, Kevin, Dave C, and Charlie taking the Americans. Each side got their briefing and began planning their actions.

The US Navy players

Japanese Navy players

To set the scene, the Americans were already ashore on Attu with a supporting Task Force (which included three older battleships and an escort carrier) at the island. The escort carrier only carried fighters, which could only be used to support the troops ashore and to defend the ships from air attack. They also had two cruiser covering groups (one with light cruisers and the other with heavy cruisers) patrolling west and south of Attu. The Americans also had a good number of land-based bombers, fighters, and search aircraft spread over two airfields, although none of these were really equipped to attack enemy ships. The primary missions for the Americans were to support the landings (off-loading supplies and ground support) and maintain control of the area around Attu. The Americans also had the option of adding a cruiser Emergency Reinforcement Group to their forces, but decided not to expend the victory points needed to bring them in.

The Japanese had three main naval groups – a battleship group with three older battleships and a light carrier, a cruiser group with three heavy cruisers, and a resupply group (made up of a seaplane tender, heavy cruiser, light cruiser, and escorting destroyers) for the island of Kiska. The resupply group was trying to from some A6M2-N ‘Rufe’ and F1M ‘Pete’ floatplanes to the island and historically turned back for port when word got out about the American invasion of Attu. The Japanese also had some supporting bombers and search planes back at Paramushiro (off the west edge of the map). The Japanese had an optional resupply group with a light cruiser and some destroyer transports that could enter on the second day to take supplies to Attu or Kiska, getting the supplies through would give victory points and the Japanese chose to take the group and planned to send it to Attu.

The map below shows the basic starting positions for the starting forces on May 15. The game would run until May 20, but I think everyone expected it to be over before then.

Operational map with starting positions

The basic Japanese plan was to have the battleship and cruiser groups make their way toward Attu while the Kiska group sent planes to Kiska. Then all three groups would converge on Attu and attack the American forces there. The Americans planned to keep the support Task Force around Attu, with the covering forces patrolling west and south of the island, while land-based air and submarines searched for the Japanese.

American planning session

Japanese planning session

On the first day of the campaign poor weather grounded the planes from Amchitka. During the morning the Japanese loaded torpedoes on their G4M ‘Betty’ bombers in Paramushiro and sent them to attack the Americans around Attu. The bombers were able to avoid the fighters from the American escort carrier to make attack runs on the battleships, carrier, and transports. But the anti-aircraft fire from the ships was heavy, shooting down or driving off most of the bombers and only one transport was sunk. Meanwhile American search planes from Adak found the Kiska group and part of the battleship group during the mid-day turn, but there were no spare bombers available to make attacks.

In the afternoon the Americans sent their southern heavy cruiser group toward Kiska to watch for the Japanese cruisers reported in the area, while the light cruiser group operating southwest of Attu turned to stay close to the island. The Japanese spilt their light carrier off from the battleships so it could launch an air strike while the battleships moved south of Attu. The air strike caught the American light cruiser group southwest of Attu. Nine B5N ‘Kate’ torpedo bombers attacked the four cruisers (one Cleveland class and three old Omaha class) heavily damaging the new Cleveland class and sinking an escorting destroyer.

In the east, the Japanese split the Kiska group sending the seaplane tender on toward Kiska, while the other ships turned to rendezvous with the battleship group. (On a side note, the seaplane tender would be sunk by an American submarine shortly after arriving at Kiska.) Late in the afternoon, the American heavy cruiser group picked up contacts on their radar, launched their floatplanes, and turned toward the contacts; setting us up for the Battle of Kiska.

Japanese forces consisted of the heavy cruiser Maya, the light cruiser Kiso and three destroyers.

Japanese ships for the Battle of Kiska

Low visibility conditions allowed the Americans force, with the heavy cruisers Wichita, San Francisco, Louisville and four destroyers, to surprise the Japanese.

American ships for the Battle of Kiska

The first American shots caught Maya unaware and caused flooding that would eventually sink the cruiser. The Japanese tried to get off some shots, but quickly decided it would be try to escape than to continue a losing fight and turned to retreat, launching torpedoes as they turned.

Japanese turn and launch torpedoes with the burning Kiso at the end of the line

The American cruisers, not wanting to lose a chance to inflict damage on the Japanese, turned to follow. Just as Maya was sinking, the torpedoes reached the pursuing Americans. The Americans tried to comb the wakes of the torpedoes, but there were too many of them and both Wichita and San Francisco took multiple hits, sinking the cruisers. Louisville was able to finish off the damaged Kiso, but this was definitely a Pyrrhic victory.

As night fell and we started the second campaign day, the Japanese moved their cruiser and battleship groups together and headed for Attu. The Americans moved their battleships to meet up with the remnants of the cruiser groups and headed west of Attu, leaving on the escort carrier and several destroyers at Attu, but hoping to stop any Japanese force before it could reach the island.

Around 0500, the American met up with the Japanese west-southwest of Attu. Both sides spotted each other at about the same time (thanks to US radar), so neither side was surprised at the start of the Battle of Attu. Both sides set slowly converging courses toward Attu. The Japanese were looking to get into position to shell the American beachhead in the morning, while the Americans wanted to block the Japanese.

Getting the US ships ready for the Battle of Attu

The Japanese battleships and escorts

The Japanese battleships Yamashiro, Fuso, and Mutsu traded shots at long range with the American battleships Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Idaho, with each side taking some hits and slowing the battleline. Each side had battleships catch fire, making them prime targets at night. The Americans were able to put out their fires relatively quickly, but one Japanese battleship would burn for several turns. The lighter forces skirmished around the edges resulting in several damaged and disabled cruisers and destroyers. The Japanese tried to close for torpedo shots, but even with their long-range torpedoes, they were finding it hard to get close enough for a good shot against the American battleships.

Fuso lighting up the night

Japanese taking their torpedo shots

US light forces maneuvering to keep the Japanese destroyers away

As game time was running out and players needed to leave, we decided to abstract the final battleship and torpedo shots. Two American battleships each took one torpedo, but the damage was not as heavy as it could have been and they were able to stay with the formation. The Japanese continued to take hits from the American battleships, but they too were still able to stay in formation. Since there were no decisive blows by this point, I made the referee decision to have both sides roll for morale to see if they would continue or withdraw (I used the standard GQ3.3 morale ratings, which gave the Japanese a slight advantage). Both sides rolled - the Americans passed but the Japanese failed (obviously, the American admiral remembered what happened to the men in charge after US Navy withdrew from around Guadalcanal the previous year and decided it would be better to fight on).

The chaos of battle as the Japanese fail their morale roll

With the Japanese forces retiring, we decided this game was a Japanese tactical victory (since they had damaged or sunk more American ships) and an American strategic victory (since they still controlled the battlefield).

Putting this into a historical context; Attu would still fall, both sides would have lots of ships to repair (although only the Americans had the shipyard capacity to really do it), and the timetable for the Kiska invasion would be thrown off a little (still allowing the Japanese to evacuate the island before the actual invasion). The Japanese battleship Mutsu would still blow up in port in June (only now it would be blamed on poor ammunition handling after reloading from the Battle of Attu instead of sabotage) and, due to damage sustained at the battle, Yamashiro would miss being sunk at Surigao Strait only to be sunk by American bombers near the end of the war. The American battleships Pennsylvania and Nevada would stay in the yards the next few months, delaying their participation in some campaigns, but still end up being sunk during the A-Bomb tests after the war.

Overall, I think everyone had an enjoyable time with the game. There were enough decisions to keep the players involved in the game and the two battles were interesting. The onus was on the Japanese to force the action and they did. The Americans could be more passive, but still needed to have a solid idea of how to react to Japanese moves.

From a referee point of view, most things moved along pretty smoothly. I was happy that we got in two battles and two air strikes (although I was hoping for more of those), which wasn’t too bad for a one-armed referee. I do need to figure out better ways to handle decisions and record keeping for aircraft for future games (I think this task was tough for the Americans), while still letting players feel they have control of those assets. On another note, the photographer for the day (my lovely wife) asked that we use larger ships in the future so she can get better pictures.

A Few Book Reviews

It is one week away from DANG and I’m currently recovering from my planned shoulder surgery (I needed to have a tendon repaired and part of a bone shaved off), so this post was done by one-handed typing. The recovery time has given me the opportunity to read and re-read many books and I thought I’d share them here. The first two are naval books, while the last doesn’t really have anything to do with ships or wargaming, but was a good read.

Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal by James Hornfischer 
Hornfischer has done some really great work in his previous books of creating personal narratives about sailors at war and Neptune’s Inferno continues that habit. Unlike land combat, where the object is to kill/wound/demoralize enemy troops, naval combat is all about the ships. That is where most books concentrate their story, on the ships as objects of war while the men that crew those ships (except for the admirals and captains) often sit in the background, out of sight. While Hornfischer does talk about the ships in battles and what the admirals/captains were doing and thinking, he also takes you into the turrets and below deck to see what the other officers and sailor were doing.

The book also covers higher levels with accounts of Nimitz, Ghormley, Halsey, and the Marines on Guadalcanal. Hornfischer also touches on the Marines denouncement of the Navy for abandoning them, while also pointing out the Navy suffered three times the casualties as the Marines and adding several stories about positive Marine-Navy interactions.

Overall, Neptune’s Inferno is an engaging book with lots of good stories. While I would have liked to have seen more about the Japanese sailors too, that is a minor quibble and certainly doesn’t make this book any less worthwhile.

For gamers this book will make you want to pull out a naval game and play it. There isn’t a lot of new information here, but it vividly illustrates the chaos and command/control issues inherent in battles. It might even give you some ideas about throwing some chaos into your games.

Islands of Destiny: The Solomons Campaign and the Eclipse of the Rising Sun by John Prados 
John Prados starts out this book saying that he is out to show that the Solomons Campaign, not the Battle of Midway, was the real turning point during World War II in the Pacific. Prados goes through the list of Japanese forces available after the battle to show that while Midway was bad, it wasn’t devastating and that the Japanese forces were still on par with (or even slightly better than) American forces. The book goes on to cover the actions in the Solomons and the decisions behind the actions from both the American and Japanese point of view.

There isn’t much new information about the battles themselves, but there is a lot of new and really interesting stuff on the intelligence efforts on both sides. This information does a great job of explaining how the battles were shaped and why they happened when they did. There is a lot of new information from American and Japanese sources and Prados writing makes it a thought-provoking read.

As far as his argument about Midway not being the turning point of the war, it is solid but I’m not convinced. I see his point, but (in my opinion) without Midway the battles around the Solomons don’t happen and the American turn to offense probably doesn’t happen until 1943. That said, I still enjoyed the book and highly recommend it, especially now that it is out in a paperback edition.

From a gamer’s point of view, the information on intelligence resources for the Americans and Japanese should prove valuable for setting up your own mini-campaigns/scenarios and knowing how much information to give the players. I know it already influenced what I’m doing for the upcoming DANG game.

The Victory Season: The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball's Golden Age by Robert Weintraub 
The Victory Season is ostensibly about the 1946 baseball season, but there is really so much more to this book. Yes, it has a description of the season and exciting seven-game World Series, but it also has stories about what was happening in the United States in the year after World War II ended. It includes stories about labor unrest and the general shortages as the country shifted from a war-time to peace-time economy. It also has the account of Jackie Robinson’s year with the Dodger’s minor league team in Montreal.

There are stories about player experiences during World War II. Not just the experiences of the stars, but of the minor leaguers and players that would become famous. There is a story about an ETO ‘World Series’ played after the war ended in a converted Hitler Youth Stadium. The Victory Season also mentions Japanese ballplayers, many which served and died during the war. There aren’t too many books that talk about Japanese players and even though it is a short mention (around a page), it was nice to see.

The main things I liked about this book was the way it interwove the story of the baseball season into what was happening in the United States in 1946 and the wartime experience, not leaving each as a separate tale. The book skips back and forth a lot, making it seem a little disjointed at times, but overall it works. I picked this book as an e-book from the library and was really happy with it.

Preparing for DANG - Tiny Little Ships

I was really happy to see the Figurehead 1/6000 scale ships when they came out many years ago. Figurehead had a lot of ships from different eras, the ships were very affordable, they were easy to paint, and it would let you do battles in something close to real scale. The line has a good number of American and Soviet Cold War ships (more than any manufacturer except NavWar) and the World War I and II lines were pretty close to complete. I ended up buying a bunch of these ships and they have been my ships of choice when doing larger scale actions.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I needed to get a few more ships and paint them up for this year's DANG. The main ships I was missing were some older Japanese battleships and some of the refitted American battleships and escort carriers (no one was sending the really new stuff to the Aleutians).

Here you can see the painted up Japanese and American battlelines, along with some other ships I've had for a while. I am still amazed at the level of detail on most of the ships (you can click on the images for a little closer look).

The older Japanese battleships and a light carrier

Japanese cruisers and destroyers

American battleships and escort carrier

An American light cruiser and destroyers

The new thing this year is mounting the ships on wooden bases to give players something to grab onto and to give me a place to put ship identification.

The biggest problem (or maybe it is the smallest) with the Figurehead ships is that they are pretty small. Even the big World War II battleships and carriers are less than 2 inches in length in this scale. While the small size does allow for bigger battles and a better representational scale, even the most knowledgeable sea dog would have trouble distinguishing a Japanese Fubuki class destroyer from a Kagero class destroyer, much less keeping track of individual destroyers. That is why I needed to have a way to identify the ships.

One of the first games I played with the 1/6000 scale ships was World War I in the Adriatic. While the game worked well with the battleships and cruisers, the tiny destroyers and torpedo boats were hard to maneuver and see, much less identify. I'm hoping that adding the bases will make it easier for players to move and keep track of their ships, while letting them know what the enemy has available.

I still like the 1/6000 scale for the larger actions, but there are times I wish I had all these ships in a larger scale too. If (when?) I do games where the largest ships are cruisers (and there aren't many of them), I will probably invest in some 1/2400 scale ships. But for now, the tiny little ships will do the job.

Planning for DANG 2013

With a busy November coming to an end, I am starting to prepare for my yearly naval game: DANG (Dave's Annual Naval Game). We ran through the voting in October and this year's voting ended in a tie (for those of you keeping track, this is the third year in a row that the voting ended in a tie) and the winner was decided with a coin toss.

This year’s game is “Operation Landcrab – The American Invasion of Attu” and here is an overview of the game situation:

It has only been a month since Admiral Koga took over the Combined Fleet due to Admiral Yamamoto's untimely death and now word has come that the Americans are invading Attu. With (unhistorical) decisiveness, Admiral Koga activates Operation K-Go saying “The Navy will take action to apprehend and destroy the enemy’s surface forces.”

Japanese battleships preparing to get underway

Japanese troops occupy Attu and Kiska, but US air strikes over the past several months have battered installations and eliminated the few Japanese planes stationed there. Reinforcements and relief must come from naval forces and airbases at Paramushiro, 700 miles west of Attu.

The U.S. Navy's Task Force 51 ready to support the Attu landing

The US has built up a substantial invasion force and there are US air bases at Adak, Amchitka, and Umnak, but the variable Alaskan weather will limit the effect of airpower and it will be up to the U.S. Navy to protect and support the invasion of Attu.

The game will use the General Quarters 3 scenario (with a few twists) and cover operations from 15 May 1943, just after the U.S. Invasion of Attu, until around 20 May 1943. Both sides will have a number of older battleships, along with cruisers, destroyers and transports to complete their missions. Aircraft will also be available (each side has land-based air and a light carrier) to help with searches and attacks, but you can expect the weather will have a major impact on air operations.

We will be using the General Quarters 3 rules (with the latest updates) and 1/6000 scale ships. The game will happen on December 30 and, as always, it should be a lot of fun. I have a few new ships to paint up (I hope to post pictures) and the various forms and background information to create. I also have to go in for shoulder surgery, which will take me out of action for a little while, but (hopefully) won't impact DANG.

This is DANG’s twelfth year and here are links to recaps of games from before 2010, the Lepanto game from 2010, and the American Civil War river game from 2011, and last year's 1812 Lake Ontario game. 

Recap NHMGS Game Day at the Flying Heritage Collection

Last Saturday (November 16), NHMGS held a game day at the Flying Heritage Collection at Paine Field in Everett, WA. It was a great chance to interact with the public, but it was also a little bit of a challenge to put this on since we just had the event at the Museum of Flight a couple weeks ago. NHMGS is hoping to have more of the events at the Flying Heritage Collection, but also hoping to shift the date so it isn’t quite so close to another event.

The Collection has some really nice aircraft, such as this P-40C done up in Flying Tiger colors (the description plaque said this plane was actually in Soviet service, but I can understand them going with the more well-known AVG markings). 

We were set up in the Flying Heritage Collection’s second hanger, the one with the tanks guns, and split into a couple areas.

A photo of the main game area with a Sherman tank overseeing the action

Setting up the Kursk game table with a Hetzer and Flak 88 in the background

And with the T-34 on the on the other side

It was interesting to see games being put on with some actual World War 2 vehicles looking on.

Kevin and I put together a couple small coastal force actions, one in the Pacific and one in the Mediterranean, for the event. So I was pretty busy throughout the day. But I did manage to grab a few photos of the games and items around the Flying Heritage collection.

A game of Fire and Maneuver getting ready to start

A Check Your 6 game getting set up

A photo of the dogfight

The afternoon Check Your 6 game featured Gladiators (shown above) against CR-42s

A Bolt Action Pacific battle featuring Marines against the Japanese

It seemed like it didn't go too well for the Japanese

The Kursk game had several walk-up players(including the young fellow in the blue-striped shirt)

The afternoon session also had another Flames of War game

Along with an Axis and Allies Air game

The morning Action Stations game was an attack on a Japanese barge convoy

The game started out well for the Americans as they were able to knock a bunch of weapons on the escorting subchaser, but the dice turned against them in the later part of the game 

 

In the afternoon we switched to the Mediterranean, with a Italian/German convoy being attacked by a mixed British/American force

Running the larger vessels turned out to be a little different than smaller Pacific barges, here an Italian sloop dodges some British torpedoes

The German barges were sluggish, but hard to hit with torpedoes

Overall, it was a fun day and I’m looking forward to the next one.

2013 NHMGS Game Day at the Museum of Flight Recap

Sorry I haven't been posting more, work and home internet issues have been limiting my time and ability to get new posts up. However, I was able to sneak this one in.

Last Saturday (November 2) NHMGS had its annual Game Day at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. This year we were in the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery (there was a scheduling conflict with our usual spot under the Blackbird). The Space Gallery is across the street from the main museum area and houses the full-size Space Shuttle flight trainer.

Here is a view of the gaming area with the Shuttle trainer in the background

We set up our information table and five gaming tables near the trainer and around 25 NHMGS members and guest show up for the games. I spent the morning at the information table, but to a little time to grab some photos of the games.

The gaming area from a different angle.

Setting up the information table.

The morning session had a Wings of War WWI game, our home-brew Golden Age Air Racing game, an X-Wing Fighters game, a Check Your 6 Jets Korean War game and some DBA games with winged Polish Hussars.

Early war Wings of War game with a burning Eindecker.

Air racers begin their race (these are 1/144 scale planes from Shapeways).

Imperial forces in the X-Wing Fighter game.

F-84s and Meteors defend the B-29s from MiG-15s over Korea.

DBA with the winged Hussars.

In the afternoon there was more Wings of War, an Axis and Allies War at Sea game, a Galactic Knights space battle, more DBA (and some Hordes of Things), and Kevin and I ran the “Hunting the Beast” Fleet Air Arm attack on the Tirpitz game (the same one we ran at Enfilade earlier this year). I got the most photos of the Tirpitz game, but I did get a few others.

Axis and Allies War at Sea game.

A small Galactic Knights game.

Some interesting troops for a Hordes of Things game.

The Fleet Air Arm strike force moves to attack the German battleship.

A wider view of the attack.

A Martlet and Corsair strafe Tirpitz.

The bombers attack, but only come away with one major hit.

We had fewer people walk by the games and stop to talk, but it was still fun to see the other gamers and talk with the museum visitors. The game day is always a good opportunity to show off the hobby to the general public and the museum is a really great forum for it. We always get questions from people that have never heard of the hobby. Everyone seemed to have a good time and we expect to be back next year.

This event also gets us primed for another game day at the Flying Heritage Collection in Everett. More on that soon.

Prepping for the Flying Heritage Collection Game Day

As I briefly mentioned in my last post, NHMGS has been invited to run a game day at the Flying Heritage Collection in Everett WA on Saturday, November 16, 2013.

The Flying Heritage Collection primarily focuses on World War II combat aircraft, but it also has some armored vehicles, guns, and V-2 rocket. Be sure to check out the list of items in the collection. There is some interesting stuff there. We will be set up in the Collection’s Hanger 2 and, because of the Collection’s focus on WWII, all the games will be WW II games. Here is a brief list of the planned games (I don’t have information on specific scenarios, but that will give you a reason to show up):

 Morning Session 
- Air battle using the Check Your 6 rules
- Skirmish game using the Fire and Movement rules
- Skirmish game using the Bolt Action rules (I think this will be a Pacific action)
- Coastal forces battle using the Action Stations rules (probably barge busting in the Pacific)

Afternoon Session 
- Air battle using the Check Your 6 rules
- Flames of War battle
- Air battle using Axis and Allies Air rules and pre-painted planes

Additionally, I think that Chris Ewick will be there with his Flames of War Kursk game during both sessions.

Kevin and I will be running the coastal forces battle and I’m getting everything together for that, but no new ships are in the works. 

I’ve also been working on some troops for use with the Bolt Action rules (I might even try to get them in this weekend’s game). Just to be a little different, I decided to do a force of Australian for the Pacific. I currently have around 2 squads, some support weapons, and a tank. The figures are from Brigade Games “Diggers in the Pacific” range and the tank is Company B’s Aussie M3 Stuart. I really like the figures; I think they provide some interesting poses and they have a lot of character.

Some of you might know that I have a real problem painting troops. I’m fine with ships and planes (and even tanks), but painting people just seems to petrify me (as could be noted by all the half-finished figures for my 15mm Age of Sail games). So, painting up a bunch of 28mm figures was a big step forward for me. I did take several photos of the painting progress, but in the end I decided to just post photos of the finished product (I still need to add some flocking or grass to the figure bases).

Here come the Aussies (you can click on the image for a little larger view)

I looked around for some suggestions on how to best paint up the figures and I settled on using the ‘dip method’. I followed the instructions posted by a number of bloggers on the best way to do this and now you can see the end results.

A closer view of the Stuart tank

First squad

Second squad

A supporting Vickers MMG (you can also see the Platoon Commander figure in the front and part of the Characters A pack in back)

The supporting 3" mortar

I’ll eventually have to get some Japanese figures to go up against the Aussies, but for now I’m just happy to have completed the figures.

I will post a recap and photos from the game day sometime next week.