There is a tendency for that to happen in that part of the world.

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? General Quarters 1 & 2
2) What armies were confronted? US Navy (with HMAS Hobart) v IJN in Iron Bottom Sound September 1942
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? very
4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? No
5) How many players were in the game? 5, 3 Japanese and 2 Americans



The game hypothetical with the players picking from three plausible and approximately balanced forces.

It was a night action, hence the star shells and close ranges, in some cases under 5,000 yards

The Japanese Battle cruisers had approached down both sides of Savo Island and did significant damage to the the USN Light cruisers which also suffered from IJN torpedoes

As the eastern battle cruisers turned to face the rapidly approaching USN battleships (Washington & South Dakota) the Hiei was overwhelmed by close range radar controlled broadsides from both battleships. This combined with a torpedo hit was enough to sink her

The remaining IJN battle cruisers withdrew narrowly avoiding more USN torpedoes.

The IJN destroyer division I was commanding was still approaching from the west along the coast of Guadalcanal and covered the withdrawal of the other IJN ships

A solid USN victory with both US commanders promoted and the IJN commanders transferred to shore commands

That looks great fun.

Cheers - Phil

That looks cracking. I saw the piccy and thought it wasn't going well for the Japanese there! Write up sounds like I was correct Well done the allied superweapons of radar and tactics

No Japanese battleships? In what way is this balanced? Or are they on their way?

Looks like four BC's to two BB's - I'd have to look at the GQ actual stats (which are in the loft, somewhere...) but both sides should give each other a good run for their money!

4 battlecruisers, by the look of it, to 2 battleships not that imbalanced at that range. The Japanese tended not to send battleships down The Slot as US airpower made it unlikely they'd make it back.

I hope the South Dakota had some rule in place to allow for it's Chief Engineer pulling the plug on the electrics in the middle of the action!

Nice pic, good AAR, thanks.

Excellent idea for a game.

As noted 4 BCs to 2 BBs was roughly even, the Japanese also had more destroyers. Unfortunately half of them were still working there way along the Guadacanal coast and never got into action

Splitting the BCs meant that two of them were effectively fighting the American BBs on their own for a little while. I deliberately had 3 players on the Japanese side to encourage them to split into multiple forces as the Japanese often did.

The commander of the eastern BCs managed to consistently miss his straddle roll by one for several turns which meant he was doing any damage to the US BBs which certainly didn't help

All US radars had several chances to fail, one of the light cruisers lost hers before the battle started

Fond memories of GQ. Would love to give it a go again  but so many projects on the go already......

MeG again tonight, Later Roman Civil War, my British Usurper vs Eastern Imperial.
Big win for the little Britions!

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - Star Wars Armada
2) What armies were confronted? - Bad guys v Good guys (your call)
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Sort of (very rusty)
4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? - Not quite
5) How many players were in the game? - 4 plus a scenario coordinator

Unfortunately our scenario coordinator has not learnt the value of "less is more" so our weekday evening quick game was presented as 9 capital and supporting fighter/bomber squadrons plus specials per side! And not a duplicate ship in sight. . .

Needless to say we did not complete the game. . .

Apparently the sides were balanced because one was more manoeuvrable (we were toe to toe, wing to wing on the table) - a considerable defacto advantage to the heavily armoured side.

Still it looked very fine with lots of (frikkin lots) of stuff on the table but overall rather unsatisfactory as a game.

Next week Star Wars RPG for a one off.

I agree, less is more!

Talking of less is more, last week I played McPherson's Ridge as a RF&F scenario.It took 3 1/2 hours to put up and take down, plus 2 1/2 hours playing time. Some of the regiments, on both sides were between 14 and 18 bases in size. At the end I was totally knackered. This week, same battle with different rules:

1. Piquet - Field of Battle 2

2. Union cavalry and artillery v.  Confederate infantry and artillery

3. Very comfortable with these

4. I use these rules regularly with another player in our C19th imagi-nations campaign

5. Two players

For a start only four bases per unit, except artillery who have two bases per battery. Put up and take down was 1 3/4 hours whilst game time was 2 hours - still had a creaky back at the end though. Will post AAR tonight with photos.

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - Honours of War
2) What armies were confronted? - Jacobite & French vs British & Hanoverian during the '45
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Very
4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? - No
5) How many players were in the game? - 2

Absolutely cracking game with AAR to follow.