It was time for WWII and we opted to play another VaS scenario before we switched to the next genre for a while. We did not have the ships for any of the scenarios, so we just through together a what if scenario for the evening.
The basis of the scenario was that part of the covering force for TF8 was separated from their carrier during a storm. The ships were on their way to rendezvous, but were intercepted by a Japanese force covering the area. The scenario started with two Japanese heavy cruisers leading two task forces. The first was a group of destroyers and the other three WWI era light cruisers. The US forces had one heavy cruiser, two light cruisers and four destroyers.
The US force needed to exit their force off a table corner. The Japanese had to stop them. The switch was that the exit point the Japanese were told was wrong and would not be corrected until turn five. This would give the US force a bit of an opportunity to outmaneuver the larger Japanese force.
I added a special rule for the game that all Japanese ships carrying long lance torpedoes would automatically get a critical on a damage roll of six (no follow on roll required). This represented the danger of their oxygen fuel systems wan taking damage historically. I think this somewhat balances their other advantages.
The winner of the scenario would be based on points won (enemy ships sunk or crippled). The US would also get points for each ship they exited off the table.
We set up each fleet and got started. The game started with the US ships hugging one of the table edges that lead to their real exit point. The Japanese went forward to ty to close the distance and encircle the Americans. Early gunnery was mostly ineffectual.
As the US closed with the Japanese light cruiser force, the damage started to pile up on both sides as things turned into a knife fight. The other Japanese force stayed at range and tried to circle around. However, this resulted in the Light Cruiser force being eliminated in total, but not without costing the Americans their heavy cruiser and most of their torpedoes (most of which failed to detonate).
At this point, it looked like the Americans were in the clear and they raced to exit. While running, they engaged in a long range gun duel with the chasing Japanese. With a slight speed advantage, the Japanese started to make up some lost ground. Then disaster, a lucky shot from the Mogami and the US was down a light cruiser. It was a hilarious extreme die roll event. A single hit with a 6, then a damage with a 6, then a critical with a 6, followed by the critical result of a 10 and then a critical result of a 6! One shot, straight to the magazine and the ship blew up.
The US still held the points advantage and were within a single move of victory. However, the Japanese shot their last bolt with a Long Lance attack. They needed sixes to hit and managed two. They then rolled above average and sunk the pristine cruiser. What a shot. With that, the Japanese had pulled out a minor victory. I guess one would rather be lucky!
- Manteuffel