Over the years I have bought numerous rules sets with the expectation that the rules would be exactly what I was looking for. Most did not live up to their advertisements and ended up going on the pile of discarded rules. This article deals with a new rule set I have put together called Papa Tango. It is hoped that enough information about the rules can be given to help wargamers decided if the rules would work for them.

Papa Tango rules are for WWII PT boat actions in the "Slot" around Guadacanal. They were written as "beer and pretzel" rules giving me a good excuse to paint up and collect a bunch of PT's and Japanese naval craft. As with most rules that I put together there were a couple of design aspects that I wanted to try. First off I had always wanted to try a game in which all the gamers were on one side. Maybe I was just curious whether a rules lawyer type player would start arguing with himself, as there would be no one to blame for his bad luck! The second design aspect was the use of darts for the hit mechanism of the game. At one of the first Little Wars conventions there was a WWII naval game in which the game master used silhouette targets of the ships and threw darts at various ranges to determine hits. It was obvious in watching that game that the players were having a great time using this mechanism.

Joe Kelly through his "Deck Log" newsletter had gotten me interested in small craft actions so it was decided to take some time and make a rule set for this period. I had expected to spend a couple of months putting everything together. Wrong, wrong, wrong! It ended up taking me more than a year. This under-estimating time requirements has come more often lately. My son, Kevin, wanted a "N" scale train layout built. Estimated time was two months, actual time to complete was a year. My daughter, Megan, wanted a 1/12 scale doll house built. Estimated time to complete was two months, actual time to complete was over a year. As for Papa Tango I had made things a little harder by the scale of miniatures I choose. Everything I needed for the game was available in 1/600 or 1/700 scale. My problem was that the PT's in these scales are very small being only about 1 1/2" long. Not very good for detailed modeling. I decided to make my game in 1/300 scale which makes the PT's about three inches long. The problem here was at the time I started putting the game together there were no PT's in that scale. Not to worry I would just scratch build everything and make moulds as necessary. Took longer than I thought!

The Rules are for 2-6 players each commanding a PT boat in the fictitious "Lucky Seven" PT squadron. The Japanese forces are controlled by the game master through scenario maps which show the routes and speeds of various naval forces. Each game consists of 10 separate patrol actions, lasting up to 20 turns, in which the PT "captains" strive to protect Henderson Field from attack and to interdict supplies and reinforcements from reaching Japanese held islands. The game was designed not to see which side wins the battle for the "Slot" but to see how big of a victory the Americans can achieve. In other words the Americans always win! My kind of game. I am not expecting big sales in the Japanese markets!

Prior to the start of each mission, naval intelligence is provided. This is done by dice rolls with players getting up to six pieces of information. Information obtained will allow the CO to plan for the number of boats to send on patrol and the areas to be patrolled. The board set up depicts the "Slot", running from Guadacanal to the New Georgia islands. The PT's must first find the Japanese naval craft and this is made hard as their patrols took place at night and in some of the worst weather possible. At the start the PT's are place in their patrol areas with no enemy craft visible until discovered. The game master can check the scenario map each turn to see what might be coming the PT's way. As with the real boats patience is a key to the game. Sitting or patrolling slowly will always give you better results.

With the rules there are 8 charts depicting different PT's with different armament. PT 108 "Plywood Bastard" has a typical early war armament of two twin fifty's, one 20mm cannon and four torpedoes. PT 134 "Eight Ball" has some extra armament added by its crew consisting of two twin fifty's, two 20mm cannons, 4 torpedoes and a mortar. The PTers start the game with six boats available for patrols. Two replacement boats are available when a boat is lost. These are made up in a late war configuration. PT 369 " Sad Sack" is armed to the teeth with two twin fifty's, one 20mm cannon, four torpedoes, one 40mm Bofors, one 37mm cannon and radar. The boat chart has all the info the player needs to operate the PT including fuel, boat speed, boat damage, armament and critical hits.

When contact is made firing is done using darts thrown at silhouette ship targets. Different color darts represent various types of weapons. When a hit is scored dice are rolled to determine the amount of damage. The number of dice varies with the weapon. For example a fifty cal machine gun inflicts one die of damage with each hit-while a torpedo causes six dice damage. The darts are thrown at a distance between four to twelve feet with range determined by speed of both the shooting ship and the target ship.

On patrol the PTers can expect to encounter everything from barges carrying troops and supplies to destroyers making up the "Tokyo Express". The success of patrol is gauged by the shipping that you damage or destroy. Sinking a barge will credit the squadron with 50 points while sinking a destroyer earns 500 points. The squadrons success will be rated at the end of the game based on the total points scored. A low score can get you a court of inquiry with the higher scores receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor and a war bond tour!

Following a long night of patrolling the PTers must get back to their base at Tulagi by day light. Hopefully you have enough fuel for a speed run in. If not the Japanese airforce will make life very interesting. The game can usually be played in four hours or a half game of five patrols will take a couple of hours. Along the way I did add a few house rules. If your dart misses the dart board you do one die damage to your own boat! If your dart hits me I take your boat away from you!

If this overview has sparked an interest or some curiosity drop me a line an I'll sent out a copy. Cost is $18.00 which includes shipping. My new address is Orv Banasik, 395 West 33rd Ave., Marion, IA 52302.