Several years ago naval campaigning in St. Louis meant one thing. A hexagonal map with six island nations producing huge naval and air fleets on paper that no one in the area could come anywhere near putting on the game table in miniature. The game did includ economics which forced the use of merchants but allowed players to field forces that could not even fit onto the island nations that they commanded and had no touch with reality in that players could build whatever ships they wished so that a WWII Japanese Carrier steamed right alongside a British Cruiser and a mix of German and American Destroyers.
It just wasn't for me. So off I went as done many a gamer before me to do it "better" myself. What. developed was a semi-historical (I'm not a perfectionist) semi-solo campaign that both the players and I felt worked.
I based the game upon WWII Pacific Theater. The time frame was 1942-ish with both Japanese and Allied troops in New Guinea, locked in a land battle for the island. The US controlled Australia, Midway, and Hawaii along with a few islands inbetween. The Japanese held Japan, the Philippines and the Solomons.
Supply and repair rules were generalized to a degree to reduce the never-endless campaign paperwork trail. We wanted a game that would have action; no pencils and erasers. Victory was based upon a point system for sinking enemy ships. Aircraft, ground troops, and installations became generalized also for the sake of playability; no use we thought, of having lots of complicated "realistic" portions of the game if we never finish more than a turn or two at best.
The chain of command brought about some difficulties at first but also brought to the game a true fog of war. The judge, "me", represented the national governments of both Japan and the US. The judge established reinforcement schedules taking into consideration requests from the Theater Commander which positions were filled by two old friends that now live in different parts of the country.
Theater Commanders, one living in Illinois, one in California, had the responsibility of dividing the initial forces into fleets, initiating operations, and begging the judge for reinforcements. The theater commander each had maps and basically became board gamers for the duration of the campaign but since neither at the time lived in communities with large gaming populations, this was an opportunity to enjoy the hobby that was previously lacking.
When the fleets put out to sea to fight the good fight, they moved across the open ocean (map) until a contact occurred which could be a scout plan report, an actual fleet sighting or whatever. At this point, the Fleet Commander assumed the responsibility for the fleet action. Fleet commanders were St. Louis gamers that were each assigned to a respective side and a fleet in that command structure. The Fleet Commanders could not write orders and indeed had no idea of what was going on until the phone rang at their house and they heard "Scout plane reports enemy task force 200 miles NNE consisting of... What are your instructions?
It was the Fleet Commander's position to fight his fleet as he saw fit. The judge would read him his initial instructions from the Theater Commander, his forces, and other pertinant information. He was then on his own, no C-in-C was looking over his shoulder. He might get some help if another friendly fleet was in the area but as we know, you never can find a "cop" when you need one. So, off he would go to either launch an air strike, close for surface action, or try to evade contact if he felt that best.
Theater Commanders received the results of their two week period turns and then found out what their fleet commanders had done with their best laid plans. I often received anguished long distance calls from the C-in-C's wanting to know hew the devil did this or that happen. My answer usually was "Well, the fleet boss decided to do it that way."
Same great battles ensued from this format. A single Essex class CV held off an entire IJN battle fleet off the coast of Australia by some fast thinking on the part of a particular fleet CO. He managed to use land based naval aircraft to supplement his air wing and ran three carriers worth of planes off of one flight deck, causing the loss of several Japanese capital ships. A IJN Fleet Boss, through some quick thinking, managed to out guess a US plan and sink a US heavy carrier and battlecruiser after they had made a bombardment run en the Phillipines. The players enjoyed the campaign which finished up in just ever a year •f real time. The Theater Commanders suffered through the fog of war as they had no idea what to expect from either the enemy or from their own subordinates. Once the orders were cut, the fleets were pretty much on their own. The Fleet Bosses had no paper work what-so-ever as the Theater CO's did that; their job was to fight the enemy when they met him and that they pretty much did, but they had no idea of the overall plan of the Theater Commander. They could and did, however, send suggestions along with the turn results to the Theater CO's. Fleet Bosses could participate as much or as little as they wished. If they were busy when contacts were made, they could delegate a subordinate to take command from the other Fleet CO's. They could come fight the miniature battles or simply issue instructions to those who cane to push the ships and enjoy a naval battle done miniatures sytle. When the game ended, it was the consensus that we had achieved what we set out to do. Establish a game that some of our out of town friends could participate in; reduce the campaign paper work (so that judge could still see his family on occasion); introduce more fog of war; and most importantly, have a game that could reach a conclusion. Which, by the way, was an American Victory by 25 points or the value of one destroyer. We were happy with this format and hope that it helps others in their campaigns.
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© Copyright 1986 Hal Thinglum
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