The Solomons Campaign 2017

Started by paulr, 16 July 2017, 12:03:26 AM

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paulr

To mark the 75th anniversary of the actual campaign we are re-fighting the naval campaign in the Solomons focused on Guadalcanal.

The campaign began with the capture of Henderson airfield on Guadalcanal by US Marines on 8 August 1942 and lasted until 9 February 1943 when the Americans realised the last  Japanese had evacuated Guadalcanal two nights before.

We are using Old Dominion Games "The Solomons Campaign" but are using General Quarters I/II as for the battles as we prefer them to the more complex GQ III.


http://www.odgw.com/products/generalquarters3/gq3tsc.html

We first played this campaign in 2013 http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,10531.0.html when I umpired and Pierre the Shy commanded the Allies.

This time around Pierre the Shy is kindly umpiring, I am commanding the Allies and Roy, our regular Saturday host, is commanding the Japanese.

We started the campaign on 10 August 1942 after the battle of Savo Island and made the decisions for the first turn last night. The first game will take place next Saturday

We are now nervously waiting to find out what that battle will be...  :-SS :-SS :-SS
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paulr

Pierre the Shy has performed his umpiring duties and the first game will be a night action near Lunga Point deep in Savo Sound (soon to be renamed Iron Bottom Sound if our campaign is anything like history) :-SS :-SS :-SS

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Duke Speedy of Leighton

Sounds a lot of fun! Good luck all!
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pierre the shy

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moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are.

paulr

Good to know the umpire is having fun ;)

The players are more nervous  :-SS :-SS :-SS
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paulr

The umpire dropped a little surprise on me yesterday :o

He pointed out that only some of the US destroyers had radar. I had assumed, WRONGLY, that they all did :-[

This has lead to a historically accurate disregard for radar when assigning roles to the various US Destroyer Squadrons #-o #-o #-o

I hope the two SC surface warning radars in my key destroyer squadron are working tonight :-SS :-SS
The other six destroyers in that squadron have no radar ~X(

All the destroyers in the other Destroyer Squadron that may be involved tonight of course have radar X_X
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Duke Speedy of Leighton

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paulr

Thanks Lemmey, both radars worked :o :D

It was an 'interesting' game, a very calm night with heavy fog and visibility of 3-5,000 yards

The Americans with good radar detected 3 large and 7 small Japanese ships approaching Lunga Point from the north west and warned the remaining ships by TBS

This was about the maximum number the American force was willing to engage but the limited visibility would mean any engagements would be at almost suicidal ranges :-\

Some of the American ships moved west towards Lunga Point while the remainder continued to patrol between Lunga Point and Koli Point (to the east), visibility if anything worsened

The Japanese were aware of the presence of American ships, hearing the TBS radio transmissions. They opened fire at long range in the general direction of Henderson Field and after 20 minutes or so withdrew to the north west
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paulr

That 'engagement' brought the month of August to an end

There had been no actual contact between naval or air forces during the month :o

Both the Allies and the Japanese had bombarded the enemy on Guadalcanal twice during the month and may have also managed to deliver some supplies, can't say too much ;)

So we made our decisions for next month and Pierre the Shy will work out what we are fighting next week :-SS :-SS
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Duke Speedy of Leighton

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Ithoriel

I look forward to the progress of the campaign.

As an erstwhile "admiral in the Imperial Japanese fleet" who lost the battlecruisers Kirishima and Hiei, the heavy cruiser Takao, the light cruiser Nagara and the destroyer Yayoi in exchange for a single US destroyer in the opening battle of our Guadalcanal campaign I commend the caution of both sides!
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paulr

Quote from: mad lemmey on 22 July 2017, 10:35:24 PM
Sounds like fun.
It actually was quite tense wondering:

  • what the Japanese had, those large ships could be anything from a light Cruiser to the Yamato
  • if the fog would clear
It is interesting how different a campaign feels from a one off game :-\

Quote from: Ithoriel on 22 July 2017, 11:09:28 PM
I look forward to the progress of the campaign.

As an erstwhile "admiral in the Imperial Japanese fleet" who lost the battlecruisers Kirishima and Hiei, the heavy cruiser Takao, the light cruiser Nagara and the destroyer Yayoi in exchange for a single US destroyer in the opening battle of our Guadalcanal campaign I commend the caution of both sides!
Ouch, that didn't go well for the IJN X_X

It looks like September might be a more active month...  :-SS :-SS
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