'Twas a dark and stormy night at sea ... I arrived at Mike Welsh's house last night at about 7:45 PM. I was the USN this time. I brought all the ships into the game on the same hex ESE of Leyte. I had the ships in the following groups: the old battleships, the escort carriers with the transports, the not-so-fast modern battleships, and cruiser, IOWAs, and the 4 fast carrier squadrons. I had the modern battleships, cruiser, and fast/fleet carriers head north into the hex adjacent to the east coast of Luzon to await any aircraft the Japanese might stage in there. I had two subs in the bottleneck passage SW of Palawan Island near Brunei and NE of the other end of it. Mike immediately deployed task forces and/or dummies. The nearest threat came on southward toward my fast ships. On the following morning, I got a search off at a range of ... 2 hexes? ... and got a very real contact ... with a shock: KONGO, HARUNA, ISE, HYUGA, ZUIKAKU, YAMATO, and MUSASHI themselves! In the meantime, I had encountered both of his I-boats which he had designated "active"/aggressive, and ENGLAND (presumably) disposed of them. Our converging forces made contact and our airstrikes passed each other in the sky. With maximum USN combat air patrol, ZUIKAKU's weak air and the ISE/HYUGA seaplane units flamed and splashed ... brushed off my steel cuff, as ADM Ugaki (or Nagumo or Yamamoto?) historically said. My 4 strong carrier air groups damaged both YAMATO and MUSASHI. In the next turn, multiple task forces blossomed from Mike's last sighted position, and I concentrated all my modern battleships and cruisers out in the path of one south-heading group: night battle! (We probably should have placed the ships out face down with their identities concealed, but I forgot that S,S,&J idea.) I found myself confronted by only KONGO and HARUNA and my modern battle squadron only damaged them both -- without loss to ourselves. Pam hadn't made popcorn for us -- not wanting me to be able to use buttered-fingers as an excuse for any bad luck with the dice, and at this point I wondered if Mike might get up and make popcorn for us himself ... and, if he made it, if I would eat it. At this point, I had eliminated his submarine and naval air threats and neutralized both of his superbattleships as well as both of his fast battleships. Nothing could stop me! Mike elected to withdraw, and I then elected to make the tactical mistake of the game -- which would prove to be a strategic one -- by pursuing. (Remember, that all these ship groups have attendant cruisers and/or destroyers packing full torpedo complements, and we learned at Guadalcanal the price of chasing "Long Lance"-carrying Japanese destroyers and cruisers. Thus IOWA was sunk and NEW JERSEY and ALABAMA damaged! Dumb, dumb!, DUMB!! Concerned about exposing my carriers and letting the barn door open -- i.e., allowing his land-based air to stage into Luzon -- and expecting him to continue to advance toward Leyte even with crippled ships in the Bushido! spirit, I did not send out my carriers to investigate and pursue his various task force markers. Meanwhile, my searches picked up all his other ships advancing from Singapore, north of Palawan Island nimbly evading my 2 subs SW of it. My sub NE of Palawan engaged this battle group of NAGATO, the 3 cruiser groups, AOBA's transport group. (FUSO and YAMASHIRO were following behind. I had designated my subs "active," and SS3 managed to damage ATAGO at the loss of itself. Also, the Japanese staged in aircraft to Luzon which my carriers pounced upon, but a couple survived to strike ... my wounded battleships! NEW JERSEY went down! My fast and escort carriers searched and struck out in all directions. They finished off ATAGO, and repeatedly attacked FUSO which ... now withdrawing and at extended air range ... shot down Fast Carrier Air Group 2! After repeated useless strikes on FUSO, I switched my attacks to YAMASHIRO and immediately sent her down. (Note to all air groups: Stay away from FUSO!) After additional days/turns, Mike had amassed enough airpower sometime after October 24th to stage them in to Luzon. From a hex away -- therefore only one airstrike per air group -- my carriers attacked them the following morning. From the face-down units I luckily picked out the Kamikaze! for destruction -- but some were left to attack the transports, one of which went down with victory points of its own as well as for following days. With little time to rebuild his air strength and even his crippled ships (safely) evacuated from the board, Mike suggested we count up Victory Points. They came out to 38 points apiece, tying at 0 -- a near-Strategic Japanese victory. There is no justice! I designed this game!! OK, Welsh! There, I said it. Enjoy! Mike pointed out that the game took us 2 hours flat, and both of us enjoyed the game ... and I will never again pursue wounded Japanese ships at night! I swear. Really. Mike and Pam have played the game together. He says that he misses being able to fire antiaircraft in a separate roll. (I have had both AA and bombing results in the same combat results table, in the interest of speeding gameplay, but ....) I'll see if I can find naval charts on the Net to double-check the un-navigableness of some of the island passes. Mike also showed me well-built Monogram models he has of the Hellcat and Avenger -- with all parts working. Beautiful pieces, but they should have done better in the game! LEYTE GULF NAVAL CHESS GAME is *FREE* on my webpage LCoat.tripod.com/leytpage.htm Back to Table of Contents -- Game! # 6 To Game! List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by George Phillies. 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