Armchair Dragoons Forums
Wargaming => The Modern World => Topic started by: judgedredd on January 25, 2020, 12:55:28 PM
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Right. I've got it in my head that I would like a naval game. Preferably with carriers. Doesn't really matter if it's WWII or modern.
You all know the score. Chits. Decent graphical chits and maps (so kinda modern). Solo.
Thanks
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First thing I thought of was Fleet Commander Nimitz from DVG but it';s out of stock right now. You might be able to find it at a reseller. There's a VASSAL mod that DVG sells also, which I think is stand-alone (no physical copy needed). B_C has played it and done an AAR, IIRC.
https://www.mcssl.com/store/danverssengames/vassal/pdf-games/1-players/fleet-commander-nimitz
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I’m really enjoying Coral Sea from Avalanche Press. Carrier combat is fun and I like the fact that your spotter planes can send back incorrect sighting reports. Solo rules available on BGG.
I also really like Fires of Midway. Lighter card driven game but surprisingly good. It’s got solo rules.
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Thanks Stagger and SDR. I should've mentioned I have FC:N...haven't played it in a long time. The counter count is just phenomenal and I can't play it with my current setup.
I'll give Coral Sea a look.
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ooooh. Thank you
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I didn't know Coral Sea had solo rules. I have the game myself. I'll have to track those rules down.
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They’re pretty basic (almost random) and could do with some tweaking but they’re serviceable.
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Have to go with The Fires of Midway. After all, it has a Final Countdown USS Nimitz vs Imperial Japan Navy scenario....
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Have to go with The Fires of Midway. After all, it has a Final Countdown USS Nimitz vs Imperial Japan Navy scenario....
I thought that was in Carrier? ???
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The only Pacific naval game I can remember playing is Flattop - and that was quite a few years ago. One of my buddies had SPI's 'War in the Pacific' but we never had enough room to set it up and leave it that way.
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I picked up a copy of Flat Top a couple of week ago from ebay for $40.03US. All the counters are there, it looks like it was punched and never played.
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Carrier by VG from back in the day is excellent. Gary Krockover (GJK over at GH) is a nice guy and runs a FB group called "Fans of Victory Games' Carrier." He's done work to redo the maps and counters and sells them for about $30 to augment the game, I think - it's been a while since I've asked him. But if you like the game (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1679/carrier), you'll find a lot of support in that forum.
Blue Water Navy (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/220508/blue-water-navy-war-sea) by Compass is something I've wanted for a while, too.
The Hunt for Red October (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2903/hunt-red-october) is good, if you can find a copy of it (it's one of those older TSR wargames; I found it through Fine Games and Collectibles).
3rd Fleet, 6th Fleet, or any similar titles by VG (again from back in the day) are good. It's my understanding Compass is re-doing them, though.
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I received my copy of Arctic Convoy today. It's part of AP's Second World War at Sea series. I'm a little disappointed that it turned out to be the 1st edition even though it was listed on the store website as 2nd edition. Can't complain too much as the store I bought it from is going out of business thanks to the virus and the lockdown. Someone on the FB forum was kind enough to scan the updated charts and tables so I'll be able to print them out and replace the horrible pink cardstock eyestores that came in the 1st edition.
Love the map!
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49807251033_22944a315b_k.jpg)
Hate the cardstock!
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49807277378_81eb643e3c_h.jpg)
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Arctic Convoy is one of the AP 'war at sea' games I don't have.
I imagine that u-boots and land-based air power (as in FW-200s) play a much larger role than in other AH games. How uber is the Tirpitz v. the Allied escorts, assuming that the KM lets it out to play?
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I had my eye on Arctic Convoy several times over the last few years, but never pulled the trigger on it as I think the map is too big for my table. Also don't think it's too well suited for solo play.
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That is a pretty map. :applause:
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I had my eye on Arctic Convoy several times over the last few years, but never pulled the trigger on it as I think the map is too big for my table. Also don't think it's too well suited for solo play.
There's a 3rd party solo AI system. It's pretty basic but it's fun. I haven't tried it with the Atlantic stuff so I don't know how well it works. It was designed for the Coral Sea/SOPAC titles.
Also, I've only glanced through the scenarios but I think Arctic Convoy suffers the same problem as Bismarck. If you're playing the Royal Navy, there are just too many task forces to comfortably keep track of and most of them are really just destroyer pickets that can't really accomplish much but act as spotters/target practice for the Germans.
For me, Coral Sea is the best of the series as the scenarios are manageable with each player only having to control 5-8 task forces and those task forces are generally interesting to control because they usually have carriers which can conduct search operations and can reach out and punch. The north Atlantic scenarios seem to rely a lot more on luck due to the garbage weather. The last two games of Bismarck that I played saw the Germans and RN sailing right past one another repeatedly with zero contacts due to heavy rain or fog.
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Be interested to hear you thoughts on it once you've had a chance to get it on the table.
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Finally got it to the table with a friend today.
We played operation scenario #3, (Self Abuse) which covered convoy PQ 13's attempt to run supplies from Hvalfjordur, Iceland to Murmansk, USSR (as well as PQ 9's return to Iceland after offloading supplies at Murmansk) light cruiser Kenya is tasked with bringing lend-lease gold payments from Murmansk to Scapa Flow. It takes place from Mar 12-31, 1942. Pack ice covers much of the map so there's only a narrow corridor through which the Brits must run the gauntlet. The Germans have several Z-class destroyers out raiding and a large fleet comprising the Tirptiz, the Adm. Hipper, the Adm. Scheer, and several destroyers which are at anchor in Norway but can be sent out should the raiders find any juicy targets. There are also bucketloads of U-boats and Luftwaffe planes on call. The Brits have thinly stretched escorts guarding the convoys (destroyers and a few light cruisers), scant air cover in Iceland, and a large reaction force comprising the carrier Victorious, the BB's King George V and Duke of York as well as the BC Renown and a dozen destroyers. The Soviets have a few destroyers patrolling around Murmansk and some land based fighters and bombers. There are a handful of RN and Soviet subs available too.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50070851947_1d65f7e8ea_h.jpg)
Pack ice. Everywhere north and east of the white markers is covered in pack ice and is impassible to task forces without an icebreaker (Neither side has access to ice breakers in this scenario).
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50070598801_f0f9eb7a15_h.jpg)
PQ13's start point in Iceland.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50070037948_a74b9a8d6e_h.jpg)
Crappy pic of PQ9's start point at Murmansk.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50070851977_7909c0353d_h.jpg)
Luftwaffe air groups (not yet assigned to bases. Bombers along the top, recon along right, fighters along the bottom)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50070037938_840c11a40b_h.jpg)
Allied task forces and air groups.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50070909727_00b3d1580b_h.jpg)
It was a tense and fun game. PQ 13 left Iceland and was immediately set up by wolfpacks. The merchant marine captains in this convoy were a poorly disciplined lot and were constantly breaking off from the convoy in an attempt to go it alone. The U-boats managed to sink 5 while losing one sub to a Sunderland basked in Akureyri, Iceland. PQ 9 waited until the cover of night before slipping out of Murmansk. They managed to evade the raiding German destroyers but had bad luck as there was a brief clear patch of weather in the morning. The convoy was spotted by the Luftwaffe and attacked by long range bombers a few hours later. Two transports were severely damaged and were subsequently scuttled as they could barely make 5 knots headway. A third was also hit but damage was light.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50070851957_abeb45d2a8_h.jpg)
The weather played a huge factor in the game. Lots of snow squalls and short days make spotting extremely difficult. A German raider (Z25) stumbled into the Soviet destroyer patrol. The snow prevented the German from taking advantage of its better guns and spotting equipment. It was sunk from a combination of torpedoes and gunfire.
The RN managed to get very lucky when the Tirpitz's task force came within range. The subs penetrated to the centre of the task force and managed to get 2 torpedoes into the Tirpitz. It inflicted a fair amount of damage but sadly, nothing critical.
The game came to a head when the Adm Hipper and Scheer managed to close into gun range with PQ 9. The main Brit reaction force was out of position as its destroyers were having trouble in the heavy weather and were going through fuel and an alarming rate. They were forced to slow down and conduct underway refuelling which meant the Fulmars and Albacores from the HMS Victorious didn't have the range to give PQ 9 cover. It all came down to a game of cat and mouse in the snow and fog. Radar allowed the RN to detect the Kriesmarine and stay outside of visual range. (this cause a fair amount of rage against RNG from the German player and sighs of relief and chuckles from me.)
The Germans decided to call it a day and return to port rather than give chase as it would've brought them within range of the Victorious and the British battleships.
We'd played for about 4.5 hours by that point and decided to call it a day.
Fun game but the weather made successful detection very chancy and I can see how frustrating it must've been for my opponent to spend 4 hours developing and implementing a good plan only to have it fall apart from 3 missed die rolls.
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:bigthumb:
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Looks cool!
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Looks cool!
(https://creative-ads.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/i-see-what-you-did-there-meme.jpg)
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Very Nice SDR. :bigthumb:
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Looks cool!
(https://creative-ads.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/i-see-what-you-did-there-meme.jpg)
Let's just all agree to pretend that I meant to do that
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Let's just all agree to pretend that I meant to do that
Brant needs us to fake it for him.
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(https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/5b7eb7b6-c488-45f9-8351-c7f3f4c369b7/d56qsic-2a2e0c4d-5337-48fd-a0de-ed5c761307f1.jpg/v1/fill/w_786,h_1017,q_75,strp/the_face_of_utter_disapproval_by_a_dawg13-d56qsic.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpc3MiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwic3ViIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl0sIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiIvZi81YjdlYjdiNi1jNDg4LTQ1ZjktODM1MS1jN2YzZjRjMzY5YjcvZDU2cXNpYy0yYTJlMGM0ZC01MzM3LTQ4ZmQtYTBkZS1lZDVjNzYxMzA3ZjEuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTc4NiIsImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTAxNyJ9XV19.FLPFT3q_VwrKp62R8-FSy54uy86DEp8Cl52lyoKK824)