GWAS Russo Japanese War AAR - A Fortunate Catch - Battle Scenario 1

[goosebrown]

In February 1904 a Russians cruiser force sallied forth from Vladivostok to raid the Japanese. In real life they went west to the Tsugaru Strait to access the shipping on the Japanese East Coast. In this scenario the Russians took a right hand turn instead and accessed the Yellow Sea through the Tushima Straits and found an inolated Japanese cruiser force doing mean things to a Russian gunboat, the Mandjour. Time to take action! Insert some Russian Jingoist statement here.

The Russians caught the Japanese force (my force) of three cruisers a few miles off the Chinese Coast and moved directly in to dispatch them. The Protected Cruiser Bogatyr, and Armored Cruisers Rurik, Rossia, and Goromboi readied their guns and commenced firing at their maximm range doing no damage in the first gunnery round. Russian guns have to confirm every hit and although one got a 6 the confirmation roll was a miss. The Japanese return fire, while light compared to the Russian guns, has no confirmation rolls so will get hits more regularly.

My opponent and I had played once earlier and switched sides so we knew enough not to close to torpedo range, zero hexes per the specisl rules, the Russians hovered at maximum range for their secondaries and the Japanese manouvered to do the same. The Russian gunnery though was actually acceptable and the heaiver weight of fire started to take its toll leaving one japanese Cruiser, Suma, with a speed loss after losing one hull box. Rossia then took one hull hit which was not enough to slow it down. The Russian Flagship, Rurik then took a fairly severe 2 hull hit with a speed loss, but the other two cruisers were untouched. The Idzumi then took a secondary hit putting here out with no guns. The Japanese return fire was jusst too light and they only scored a hit on Rurik taking one of her four hull boxes. Barely enough to slow her. But the next round was enough when the Russian player, my opponent, got a catastrophic hull hit on the Akitsushima and down she went. One ship with a very reduced speed to 1s, the other with no guns, the Japanese decided to strike their colors and stop the useless effusion of blood.

Not every battle was going to go Japan's way it seems and their war was off to a bad start.

[treadasaurusrex]

A fine AAR,. Much better than I could have written.

[goosebrown]

A fine AAR,. Much better than I could have written.

Oh I would like to see yours though. That was a fun game and short enough to play both sides.

[treadasaurusrex]

In spite of: haphazard ship maintenance, poor morale, flawed deployment. lack of battle practice and ill-training - the Pacific Cruiser Squadron of the Imperial Russian Navy rules the waves of the Yellow Sea for an hour or two that day.

[Tony M]

I have the introductory game of GWAS and also the WWII game, Coral Sea I think it's called. I like the strategic maps, but the tactical maps are really ugly. I played a couple turns of the WWI game once. Beautiful counters, and I like the simple combat system. But because of the horrible tactical maps I won't be buying other games in the series. That's unfortunate, because I'm a long-time German battle cruiser nerd.

For me, the strategic maps look like ocean. But the tactical maps don't look anything like the sea, and maybe that's why they don't do anything for me. You have these beautiful ship counters with a top-down view, and then a tactical map with 2 shades of blue hexes, and a bunch of numbers that don't make sense.

[goosebrown]

For me, the strategic maps look like ocean. But the tactical maps don't look anything like the sea, and maybe that's why they don't do anything for me. You have these beautiful ship counters with a top-down view, and then a tactical map with 2 shades of blue hexes, and a bunch of numbers that don't make sense.

The tactical map is very abstract. I am going to do an "advanced" one at some point as an option and will make it look like ocean in VASSAL only. Checkout the Ironbottom Sound map and that is more what I want to have. Maybe some more elbow room, again like the Irobnbottom Sound map. Note that this is not an official thing, but a choice just for fun.

[Tony M]

The first time I tried to play a battle using Pacific Crossroads I couldn't understand how to use the tactical map. The different colored hexes, the numbers, huh??? So I just lined up the ship counters and started rolling handfuls of dice.

[goosebrown]

The first time I tried to play a battle using Pacific Crossroads I couldn't understand how to use the tactical map. The different colored hexes, the numbers, huh??? So I just lined up the ship counters and started rolling handfuls of dice.

Well that is not far off. The non-initiative player generally sets up in the center hexes with from 6-12 ships per hex. Then the initiative player sets up on the specified edge and play starts and you move toward each other or not and start rolling dice. It is pretty abstract. The meat of it comes in the operational game which is a lot more thinking. 

There is also an advanced combat system with more detail which I have not tried yet. That uses arcs from the counter and it allows you to be more accurate. 

Some of us were thinking of advanced air strikes that might be more fun as strike aircraft have to move to the ships and might get more AA as they do. All just ideas not in writing yet. 

I agree the counters are beautiful and I would love to get more coverage for them on a bigger board. 

The bite of reality is that naval combat is so expansive an affair that the ships this side would be what, 4? 5? feet away from each other if the scale is real. Other than the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal it was rarely ships side against side dealing damage. If you have say 24 ships in a hex being point blank that is still a lot of space in that hex.

Anyway I want to do a bigger map as an option and advanced airstrike rules to make at least the torpedo bombers avoid pickets or take damage from them. 

I won't try and convince you but once I have that programmed in, I will do a video AAR and post a link here so you can see what that looks like

[Tony M]

A bigger map? Oh well. I appreciate the effort, but a small footprint is essential for me. My game table these days measures just 32" by 21", so big maps are out for me.

But I hope a forum for the Avalanche naval games is added here. I will happily enjoy them vicariously through the AARs posted by others. PG-HQ is a good, friendly community. Through the forum, the PG AARs and personal emails from members my enjoyment of PG has been multiplied many times.

One reason the naval games appeal to me is the top-down view of the ships. I like rolling one die for each gun and then recording the damage results. To me this is a simple way to run quick naval battles, especially solitaire.

[goosebrown]

A bigger map? Oh well. I appreciate the effort, but a small footprint is essential for me. My game table these days measures just 32" by 21", so big maps are out for me.

But I hope a forum for the Avalanche naval games is added here. I will happily enjoy them vicariously through the AARs posted by others. PG-HQ is a good, friendly community. Through the forum, the PG AARs and personal emails from members my enjoyment of PG has been multiplied many times.

One reason the naval games appeal to me is the top-down view of the ships. I like rolling one die for each gun and then recording the damage results. To me this is a simple way to run quick naval battles, especially solitaire.

Well. I am not APL so this would not be for the printed game. I am the guy that does the VASSAL modules so this would only be on the computer and only as an optional feature. Your actual desk only needs to be big enough to hold your monitor. I cannot play the physical games at all so I have to get them onto the computer where I can play anyone, anytime. I can zoom in and out. I can keep the game up till I die if I like and have miy kids play it out for me later. No cat jumping on it or dust on the counters.

I have been working on the modules for the last year, but I am also working on a site which should have the AARs and all that for GWAS and SWWAS. However with all the module work, there hasn't been much work on the site. It is at https://www.was-fc.com

We have some AARs there but there is not a real community based around it yet although I hope to get that going. 

If you want to connect some time I can happily do a Skype screen share and show you how this all works. I love the top down ship views too and always have.