Our visit to Miniature Market Rock Hill this week was a game to run through our group effort on WWII naval night spotting using “Nimitz” rules and some 2400 scale ships. The scenario took the arrangement of the Battle of The Java Sea and moved it to a night action with most of the other original pieces left intact. Java Sea being an early war battle seemed to be a perfect tool to use to get a feel for our attempt at making a simple to use system that added a bit of flavor to night actions.
Our two teams IJN (Ravi R, Steve T and Mark J) vs ABDA (Jay C, Greg D and DJ) took up their respective commands. The goal was for the ABDA Allied force to break through the north edge of table and the Japanese were naturally hoping to prevent such and outrage as their transports lay in that direction.
The rough starting positions with the ABDA in the upper right of the table and the IJN spread across the other side.
The ABDA took a hard turn to starboard and tried a direct run at the map edge.
The IJN moved to intercept as fast as they could but with forces starting spread out that wea not easily accomplished. It would be Mark J’s force of Destroyers that made first contact and that did not go especially well for his formation.
Steve T’s DDs from above moving at flank speed.
We found that the night spotting rules added another level of decision making by the players as they found themselves being careful about spotting attempts and firing as ships that fired were automatically spotted. It took some consideration as the players balanced which formations or ships to activate in what sequence to maximize their best chances to inflict hits on their opponents.
As the battle drew to an end it became clear that the ABDA player would likely break through, but not without having received some hits. Ships were heavily damaged and some lost including some fantastic last turn torpedo attacks by both sides sending some cruisers to the bottom.
A tactical victory for the ABDA based on ship losses which were heavily weighted against the IJN. The Dice had a lot of “ones” today for both sides particularly the ABDA. Torpedoes were generally ineffective as it is just hard to get a torpedo hit, but when they do……
Thanks to all the players who helped with this work through and to Miniature Market Rock Hill for their continued support.
