Inter War USN Planning - WWII War Plan Orange Evolution

I can highly recommend this talk from Peter Pellegrino (of NWC fame) with respect to teh evolution of the US naval strategy against the IJN aka, War Plan Orange (see below, Peter never disappoints):  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXal8JUqAfQ

00:30 - Introduction 03:25 - Wargaming Misconceptions 07:04 - War Plan Orange Explained 12:05 - Schools of Thought 13:55 - WW2 Naval Strategy 30:36 - Recap of Myths 32:08 - Interwar Wargaming 34:23 - 1932 USNWC Curriculum 36:08 - USNWC Influence 

40:45 - Conclusion

Especially valid in putting into the correct perspective the "Nimitz Quote" (see below, not using wargaming as the oracle's tool - but rather as a tool that could sharpen a commander's mind):  

War Plan Orange (Japan):

• Phase 1: Protect Western Coast of USA!
• Phase 2: How do you get to Japan ["The Hard Bit"]?
• Phase 3: Defeat and Invasion of Japan?

Fantastic though, the NWC finally goes Rainbow (see below, why have one plan when you can have four+, one of them has got to work, right?):

But at the heart of it all was the concept and practice of adversarial "gaming" .. 318 games [scenarios] .. and by god they did it every day when they were at the NWC .. learning how to play (a month of the school year) ,, both at a tactical, operational and strategic levels (see below, including multi-aggressor [even RN "Red"], multi-discipline [Sailors, Marines and Aviators] multi-spectrum [even testing out hypothetical ships] - respect and well done, that shaped the senior officer cadre for WWII): 

"And" they always finished with "The Battle of Jutland" (RN v HSF), turned on its head and into "The Battle of Sable Island" (RN v USN). Something I can perhaps aspire to use as a background campaign or scenario development for my 1/3000 Navwar fleets ;) 

Note: I did take "War Plan Red" as an "Atlantic Chase" influenced mini campaign to CoW in 2021:) 

Avalanche Press: Great War at Sea System - War Plan Red

A funny thing happened when I was on the Leisure Games web-site looking for "Captain Sonar" - he says after running through a mere thirteen pages of War Games aka boardgames (some annoyingly with the "Out of Stock" sticker on them), "I/he" managed to find something else "I/he" was interested in (well several others to be fair). What were the chances of that?  In teh end it was a toss up between the ASL Starter Kit #3 (the one with the 88mm on the cover - the third one with the tanks was annoyingly "Out of Stock") and Avalanche Press' - War Plan Red .. and seeing as I had just put on a version of "War Plan Red" at CoW 2021 it was the winner (see below, a ziplock so slightly more affordable than boxed game so 

The other thing going against ASL Starter Kit #2 is that I have not as yet played ASL Starter Kit #1 (even though, quite sensibly, the ASL Starter Kits are games in their own right - not a modular expansion building on each other). This expands my collection of The Great War at Sea - Vol 1 and 2 (also including the Russo Jap War). 

To my knowledge they have other "US Plans" (War Plan Black [versus a successful WWI Germany and an expanded HSF], War Plan Crimson [US Invasion of Canada and a naval war on the Great Lakes] - not sure if they did the War Plan(s) Orange-Rainbow versus Japan) however the one I am keeping my out for is the WWI Cruiser Warfare game when it is reprinted!