Wargame Wednesday – SWWAS Eastern Fleet OpScen 1 – Come in, Rangoon!

HMS Warspite – Indian Ocean 1942 (wikipedia)

Situation: The time is early March, 1942 and the Japanese are sweeping through Burma. The British have ordered the evacuation of Rangoon while the Japanese are landing forces along northern Sumatra. Covering the Japanese landing is a powerful cruiser force of five cruisers and four destroyers. The Royal Navy is covering the evacuation with a single carrier (Formidable), the battleship Warspite, two cruisers, two light cruisers, and four destroyers.

Strategy: VPs are accumulated based on landing transports; so the transports are the targets.

Battle Resolution: The RN transports are located by air search the first turn and attacked the next. Lucky hits by the G4M Betty bomber results in sinking of two transports. Not an auspicious start for the allies. The RN surface force fakes north then turns to the south and dashes towards the Japanese landing beach arriving one turn ahead of the covering force. All the Japanese transports are sunk. While the RN surface force slips away the Japanese covering force is harrassed by Swordfish torpedo planes off Formidable. Surface action is avoided. The Japanese covering force starts a high-speed dash towards the Rangoon transports and easily outruns the British. While loading in Rangoon, the transports are savaged by the Japanese cruisers. Both sides retire after losing all transports.

Comments: Ugh. Not a very fun scenario. The victory conditions create an unrealistic situation. The ONLY British focus should be the evacuation of Rangoon. The Japanese need to stop the evacuation. Both transport fleets are bogged down by speed 1 escorts which slow them tremendously.

Suggested Changes: Delete the Japanese 1st Southern Expeditionary Fleet. Start the British transports in Rangoon (historically the evacuation of Rangoon started 6 March) and depart 7 March for Calcutta. The RN covering force starts anywhere north of maprow Z, the Japanese Malaya Force anywhere south of maprow AB. For Victory Conditions change to read “The Allied player receives double the usual number of VPs for transports that unload in Calcutta and the usual number of VP for transports that unload in any other allied port. The Axis player receives double the number of VPs for every transport sunk.”

SWWAS – Coral Sea Session Report 20 Sep

Finished my SWWAS-Coral Sea Operational Scenario 2.  After fueling, the US fleet moved quickly across the Coral Sea and struck the Port Moresby Invasion Fleet until the transports were sunk.  IJN Shoho proved ineffective as they could not mount a sufficient attack against the US carriers.  By the time the heavy IJN carriers arrived it was too late.  The US carriers were able to stay away from the IJN long enough to survive.

SWWAS – Coral Sea: Set-up and Planning Phase

Started a game of Second World War at Sea – Coral Sea.  Playing Operational Scenario 2 which is a 60-turn (10 day) scenario taking one from 1-10 May 1942.

Historical Accuracy: The set-up seems historically accurate for the most part.  Comparing the task force division to Paul Dull’s Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy one can see that some groups were combined but all the units are present.

Initial Setup – Japan: The Japanese start out with four task forces; the Port Moresby invasion force in Rabaul, the Tulagi invasion force at sea NW of Rabaul, the Close Covering Force (carrier Shoho and assorted cruisers) and a scouting force (seaplane tender).  The scouting force is far to the SE, near the area of the US carrier set-up. The Carrier Strike Force (two heavy carriers) will not arrive until turn 10 (end of second day) along the north edge of the map.

Initial Setup – US: The US starts out with four task forces; two carriers (one at sea and another inport Espiritu Santo), the fleet train (two oilers and escort) and the seaplane tender Tangier (far to the north).  A surface force of several cruisers, light cruiser and destroyer arrives Turn 15 (near end of Day 3) along the southern edge of the map.

Strategy – Japan: Victory conditions are driven by the need to invade Tulagi and Rabaul.  Both need to be invaded for scenario victory.  Both invasion forces have Large Transport (3 landing points which take a total of 18 turns to land).  Ideally the invasion forces should wait for the Carrier Strike Force to arrive before sailing.  In keeping with the historical situation, the Japanese order both forces to immediately sail by near-direct routes to their invasion beaches.  The Tulagi Force will sail along the northern edge of the Solomon Islands but approach Tulagi from the west using the straits.  This is a risk but needed for the most direct approach.  The Port Moresby Force will sail just offshore (two spaces) but for the most part direct from Rabaul to Port Moresby.  The Covering Force will sail south from Rabaul and be ready to cover either invasion force.  This placement puts the Tulagi Force closest to the US carriers with little search coverage beyond what they organically provide.  It is hoped that the scouting force will provide early tracking of the US carriers and provide intelligence as to the direction and intentions of the US commander.  (Bottom Line: Invade and hope to pick up some additional points by sinking US ships.)

Strategy – US: Carriers to rendezvous west of Espiritu Santo and refuel from fleet train.  Stay to the south and east to intercept and destroy Tulagi Invasion Force.  Land-based air from Townsville will be used to attack Port Moresby Invasion Force.   In order to maintain covertness for the carriers Tangier’s seaplane will be used to track the Tulagi Invasion Force.  (Bottom Line:  Sink the Tulagi Force and stay away from Japanese land-based air and carriers; Port Moresby is expendable.)