A Terrible Resolve
Rules for Midway Version 2

Fast Play Rules for Students

by Matt Fritz

Sequence of Play:
1. Japanese Land Planes
2. Americans Land Planes
3. Japanese Move Planes
4. Americans Move Planes
5. Japanse CAP Attacks
6. Americans CAP Attackse
7. Japanese Carrier Attacks
8. Americans Carrier Attacks
9. Japanese Launch Planes
10. Americans Launch Planes
11. Japanese Planning Phas
12. Americans Planning Phase
13. Japanese Repair Damage
14. Americans Repair Damage

Land Planes:
A carrier can land planes only if it has a clear flight deck (no planes waiting for take off), and has planes in the Waiting to Land Box. Each carrier meeting the requirements can land 20 strenght points of planes (up to four full strength groups).

Move Planes:
Planes that are being sent to attack the enemy move in a circuit. Planes may choose to stay in their box, or advance to the next box. The sequence of movement: Moving to Attack Box, Ready to Attack Box, Attacking Box, Heading Home Box, Waiting to Land Box. Fighter planes that are put in the CAP box move differently. See the CAP section below for details.

CAP attacks:
Fighter squadrons that are assigned to fly CAP are initially placed in the center circle of the CAP Box. Each fighter squadron may attack enemy planes in the enemy's Ready to Attack Box. If there are enemy fighters in the Ready to Attack Box the attacking player must allocate an equal number of his fighters to battle them. Remaining CAP fighters, if any, can attack the bombers. Attacks on fighters and bombers should be resolved separately. Roll 1D6 for each fighter strength point in the dogfight, bombers do not get to fire back. All hits are considered simultaneous. Cross out one strength point on the opponent's base for every 4, 5, or 6 rolled.

The attacker can decide how many of the bomber hits are inflicted on torpedo or dive bombers. After a fighter squadron flying CAP has made an attack it is moved out to the next ring in the CAP box. Fighters in the last ring of the CAP box are moved to the Waiting to Land Box. They must land to refuel and rearm. They may be launched again on a later turn.

Carrier Attacks:
Each bomber group must choose which carrier it will attack and must be placed in the appropriate section of the Attacking Box. Fighters do not attack carriers, they should be moved to the Heading Home Box. All attacks against a carrier are resolved simultaneously for all the bombers that have been designated to attack it this turn. All the squadrons attacking one carrier are called an attack wave.

Resolving AA: The player controlling the carrier under attack rolls dice to see how many planes in the attack wave are shot down. The dice are rolled only once against the entire wave, not against each individual bomber group. The Ship Data table indicates how many dice are rolled (Soryu 6, Akagi & Hiryu 7, Kaga 9, Hornet & Yorktown 12, Enterprise 12).

The Carrier scores one hit for every 4, 5, or 6 rolled. The attacking players may choose which bombers are eliminated. If they can't agree then the hits should be distributed evenly, with the player with the most attacking groups receiving any extra hits. The surviving bombers in the attack wave then resolve their attacks against the carrier they are targeting.

Dive-Bombers - Roll 1D6 for every surviving strength point. Every 5 or 6 scores one hit against the carrier. Re-roll any 6's and if it comes up 6 again score another hit against the carrier. Continue re-rolling 6's and scoring hits until there are no more 6's.

Torpedo-Bombers - roll 1D6 per surviving strength point. A roll of 6 scores 2 hits on the carrier. Re-roll all 6's, and score one additional hit for every 6 rolled. Continue re-rolling 6's and scoring hits until there are no more 6's.

Bombers that have completed an attack run are immediately placed in the Returning Home box. They must land and re-launch before they can make another attack run.

Launch Planes:
A Carrier may launch planes only if it placed the planes on its flight deck during the previous planning phase. Bombers should be moved to the Moving to Attack Box. Fighters can either be placed in the center ring of the CAP Box, or placed in the Moving to Attack Box so they can protect the bombers.

Planning Phase
A carrier may launch up to 20 strength points of planes OR land up to 20 strength points in one turn. If the player is going to launch planes next turn he must put them on the flight deck of the carrier. If he wishes to land planes next turn he must leave the flight deck empty.

Repair Damage:
Each carrier that has sustained damage may attempt to repair one damage point by rolling one die. A carrier may never have more than ten unmarked damage circles. Only one damage point may be repaired on each carrier each turn. A carrier that has been sunk may not be repaired. Japanese carriers may repair one point if they roll a 6. The Enterprise and Hornet may repair one point if they roll a 5 or 6. The Yorktown may repair one point if it rolls a 4, 5, or 6.

Damaged Carriers:
Carriers are crippled when they have taken 7 or more hits. A crippled carrier can no longer launch or land planes. Any planes on the flight deck may not be launched. A crippled carrier can be repaired during the Repair Damage phase. A carrier that receives 10 points of damage is sunk and cannot be repaired.

Special Rule:
Finding the Japanese Fleet. At the start of the game the Americans are looking for the Japanese Fleet. When the first wave of bombers is ready to move into the Ready to Attack Box they should be divided into 4 search groups. One die is rolled to determine which of the four has found the Japanese Fleet (re-roll if the die reads 5 or 6). The lucky group is immediately placed in the Ready to Attack Box. The other three groups must stay in the Moving to Attack Box. During their next turn the planes may move normally.

A Terrible Resolve Midway Version 2

Back to Table of Contents -- Junior General Report # 5
Back to Junior General Report List of Issues
Back to MagWeb.com Magazine List
© Copyright 2004 by Matt Fritz.
This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles covering military history and related topics are available at http://www.magweb.com