Saturday, November 1, 2014

Axis & Allies Naval Miniatures Battle: Allied Link Up

Played a large Axis & Allies Miniatures Naval Battle today after work with "Admiral B" featuring an old scenario I've played before but with many more forces involved.

This game's scenario charged the Allied task forces (Anglo-British and American) with conducting a link up at a set coordinate which served as the game's objective in the middle of the table.
Snazzy Litko A&A Naval Markers!  First time in use!
The Japanese know the exact timing and are sending a "significant force" to disrupt the link up and counter the balance of forces in this corner of the South Pacific.
Japanese Forces!  

2 Japanese Heavy Cruisers

Japanese Destroyer escorts. 

The British fleet steaming to their rendezvous point as ordered!
 The American and British task forces entered from opposite sides of the table and Admiral B moved them full steam ahead towards their objectives with no tricks or fancy maneuvers!  The Japanese did their best to thwart the Allied plan and sent Betty patrol bombers towards the Brits on the first turn.  The resulting AAA fire from HMS Cossack was enough to make the Bettys turn for home!

Betty Patrol Bombers abort mission due to heavy AAA fire from HMS Cossack!
The American planes, stationed on a carrier off-map didn't show for a few turns however the Americans had at their disposal deadly Corsairs and Avengers loaded with either bombs or torpedoes.
The American force steams towards the objective!  The flagship is the USS Montpelier flanked by numerous destroyer escorts and the venerable USS San Diego!
 The game took quite awhile for the forces to close with one another and the Japanese plan started to materialize - "Admiral W" of the Imperial Japanese Navy decided to drive a wedge between the 2 advancing forces and utilize the heavy and longer ranged guns of his cruisers.
Japanese force spotted by an American reconnaissance patrol plane!


The Japanese are having horrible luck getting anything by the Allied gunners and the Betty sorties are constantly being turned back.

Japanese destroyers spot the American force and head straight for the flank!

Meanwhile the Japanese cruisers continue to head towards the small British force in the hopes of annihilating it!

The American Avengers have other plans, launching torpedo and bomb attacks against the Haguro!

American bomb-runs manage to do some damage to a Japanese cruiser and by now both of the fleets have closed and the gunnery commences along with the air missions continuing.  The Japanese finally manage to get a Betty sortie through British AAA screens, only to have the attack miss!
Damage to the cruiser!
 A swirling air battle develops around the Haguro and planes drop out of the sky left and right!  Meanwhile the Japanese destroyer screen launches an effective torp attack against the American destroyer.  The San Diego fires back with its main batteries and 2 ships go to the bottom that turn!

Another Japanese Destroyer, sinks and the destroyer screen evaporates.  The remaining destroyer is crippled and heads for home.

Meanwhile on the left, the HMS Belfast is on its last legs and gets pulverized by the Japanese guns.

Before this round is over 2 cruisers and another destroyer are sent to the bottom and the outcome is almost decided.  Japanese ships try to turn and run for Tokyo

The sole surviving Japanese destroyer racing away from the Allied retribution!  Admiral B on the Bridge of the Montpelier notices and orders that destroyer sunk!  (which it later was by a stunning "box cars" torpedo attack where Admiral B rolled 2 sixes equating to 4 hull points of damage and this ship could have been killed 2 times over)
 The last effort of the day is to finish off the Japanese submarine lingering around the rendezvous point.  HMS Cossack with its 5 Depth Charge attacks and a US Destroyer are up to the task and finish him off after 2 attempts.  The Japanese force has been eliminated and the British have lost a large chunk of their fighting force.  Still though, the war rages on!

Japanese submarine running for home!

LESSONS LEARNED AND FINAL THOUGHTS:
It's great to get a game in and when I get to play against a live human being all the better!  Axis and Allies Naval never disappoints - always there when you need it the only problem was I didn't have all of the cards or ships I needed as they are in a separate container SO you go to war with the Navy you have and I think Admiral B did a fine job dispatching the Japanese cruisers while still linking up with the British and accomplishing his mission.

Here are some tactical pointers if you find yourself in this position - make sure you mass your aircraft against targets.  AAA is a nightmare and the bigger ships get 9D6 (nine six sided dice) to shoot at you with!  6s are two hits!  The Yanks lost an Avenger squadron towards the end going up against the Haguro heavy cruiser.

Mass your forces.  Bigger ships can always cause at least 1 damage point against a target and your smaller corvettes and destroyers most likely have torpedoes they can use to finish off stubborn ships that dont seem to want to sink!

A fun game that I will definitely play again.  I'd like to base these miniatures and maybe add a light wash to them.

As if I didn't have enough projects - Axis and Allies Naval would make a fun project to convert to moderns!!!!

2 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. A&A Naval are a ton of fun. Also - they are pre-painted, light-hearted, and cheap! I like the system and have modified it for play on a tabletop as opposed to the fold-out map that comes with the game.

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