It was a good day of gaming at Miniature Market Cave Springs as Steve Lowry treated us to the General Quarters 3 version of his Leyte Gulf scenario.
The IJN ( Bill, John & Kevin) split into 3 forces of 2 BBs escorted by various numbers of destroyers. The US (Steve T & Mark with the heavy relief force) and Steve Lowry commanding Taffy 3 engaged made their way to engage.
The Aircraft rules were the same as we used in our previous Nimitz games in order to add a bit of flavor but not overpower the surface action aspects of the day. Steve had good luck rolling the number of strikes and did some damage to both the Kongo & Nagato slowing them down a bit. He also used smoke very effectively to keep the CVEs from getting hit by the IJN BBs.
John got a really good roll of 2 ones when firing the Yamato at a US Destroyer ending the career of that ship & captain and Kevin scored a couple of hits on the flattops from the Fuso group on the IJN right, starting a pesky fire in the hangar that kept rolling for damage control. Mark & Steve T made best possible speed towards the exposed Taffy 3 but the slow Battleships just couldn’t get close enough fast enough and it was the last turn before they had any chance at all to range in.
Taffy 3 landed a few well placed torpedos on the Nagato in the IJN center and a board of inquiry has been convened at the Japanese headquarters regarding torpedoing our own destroyer.
The game ended with a US victory as the CVE’s would certainly escape behind the smoke screen and the IJN was preparing to withdraw before the US BBs achieved effective range.
Thanks to Steve and the folks at Miniature Market Cave Springs for a fun afternoon.
What I loved is that not only did I need to roll 1 on two 12-sided dice to hit, but the damage control to prevent the explosion could have only happened on a 12 on a d12.
I maintain that this was a complete IJN victory as the Yamato did something, unlike its historical showing.