A little revenge

Just to demonstrate the advantages of knowing the enemy OB, I solitaired three iterations of the following 100-point British fleet against the 99-point German force that beat up on the 98-point Soviets.

It comprised the Warspite, three Truculents and three Martlets.

One time the Germans were able to pull out a narrow win by sinking the Warspite while still having the crippled Scharnhorst afloat. The British had awful luck with initiative.

But the other two battles were decisive British wins, with all three German ships going down with no British losses at all (not surprising of course, as the Germans have nothing that can shoot down the Martlets and have a low chance of success in ASW and are vulnerable to being picked off by the Martlets. The Warspite took damage in both battles, but that was it.

Generally the Germans could get two objectives but that was the extent of their scoring.

This does not suggest that the Warspite/Martlet/Truculent build is a good one. It has obvious vulnerabilities, but it has a very good chance of beating that particular German build.

98-point Soviet Fleet rematch

So the Soviet fleet and the Scharnhorst/Scheer squadron had a rematch.

This time I had the Soviets concentrate on trying to eliminate Germans ships, on the theory that this was their only hope of avoiding eventual destruction by air units.

This worked somewhat better for the Soviets, although they were still no where close to winning.

The Soviets charged ahead at maximum speed to close on the German fleet as quickly as possible. This time around the air strike luck was pretty normal. There were few aborts and the German bombs generally fell true. Despite that the Soviets were able to grab one objective and sink a Scheer before being wiped out, so the final score was 198 for the Germans (One objective for 50, surviving for 50 and 98 points for sunk Soviets) and the Soviets got 70 (20 for a sunk pocket battleship and 50 for an objective). The third objective was unclaimed.

I am not sure whether this result says that the Soviet fleet is too weak or it just points out that it's always possible to build a fleet that can kill another fleet if you have the luxury of knowing its order of battle beforehand.

The main problems for the Soviets were two-fold.

First, they have no real counter for the German airpower. The Soviet AA can't hope to do more than occasionally abort the German bombers, which means they will eventually lose if the game goes on long enough.

Secondly, the Scharnhorst is a tough nut for the Soviets to crack. If they could get in to torpedo it they might stand a chance, but the German air units will usually kill off enough torpedo armed ships to prevent an effective swarm. The only ship with sufficient gunnery power to get through the Scharnhorst armor of the Okt. Rev., but it can't win a gunnery duel against the German ship.

The mine special ability isn't easy to use in a Standard Scenario Fleet action, although it might be an interesting tool for a convoy raiding fleet.

More adventures for the 98-point Soviet fleet

A commenter over at the FuroMini site suggested a German fleet to defeat the 98-point Soviet Fleet. To recap, the Soviet Fleet comprises one Okt. Rev. Battleship, two Kirov cruisers and nine Gromkiy destroyers. This happens to be all the Soviets I have, but it's also happens to be a reasonable build for a 100-point Soviet Standard Scenario fleet.

With only 100 points it's hard to build anything resembling a balanced fleet, but knowing the composition of the Soviet fleet is an advantage. Actually, simply knowing that they are Soviets is a big advantage because the Communists don't have a lot of options. They have no aircraft or subs yet.

So the German fleet comprised one Scharnhosrt, two Adn. Scheer, two Kondors and one JU-88. The commenter suggested that the aircraft would savage the Soviet DDs while the surface units dealt with the larger Soviet ships and objectives.

And so it played out, although it was a stiff fight. The Soviets attempted a control-the-objectives strategy, but the Germans were aggressive to at least deny objective control, if nothing else. As it turned out the air units were very effective at decimating the Soviet DD forces, even with some fortuitous die rolling by the Soviets which aborted an unexpectedly high number of German attackers and poor rolls by the Germans which left some destroyers crippled instead of sunk outright.

Because of this enough Soviet forces survived to get close enough to eventually take out both German pocket battleships, although at the cost of almost all of the rest of their number. The Scharnhorst, on the other hand, was virtually untouchable and ended the battle with just a single hit. A few mines were sown in the late game as last ditch attempts to do something but no mine hits were scored, even has the Scharnhorst deliberately risked one to claim the last objective on the same turn the aircraft finished off the last of the Soviet surface fleet.

The final German score was 298 points (98 for sunk Soviets, 150 for three objectives and 50 for last surviving surface fleet) The Soviets managed just 40 points for the two sunk pocket battleships.

Tough Soviets in Flank Speed

So I tried a little solitaire matchup today to see how my 98-point Soviet Fleet (all I got) might match up against an Axis 100-point fleet. To reduce any possible bias I grabbed a 100-point German build off the ForuMini site.

With small fleet builds I suspect that general purpose builds may be at a disadvantage against all-or-nothing fleets.

In this case the matchup was as follows:

Admiral Hipper (16) U66 x 2 (24) U510 x 2 (22) Graf Zeppelin (18) BF109 (7) Ju-87 (7) Fw 200 Kondor (6) (100) The actual ForuMini build had two Bf109s but I subbed a Ju-87 for a better balanced fleet.

Okt. R. (24) Kirov x 2 (20) Gromkiy x 9 (54) (98)

This seemed right off the bat to be a tough situation for the Germans to me. It seemed liked there was little prospect of challenging the Soviets over objectives and the sub-heavy German fleet was facing a lot of ASW.

And so it proved. A lucky shot from a DD took out the Stuka early, but the Bf 109 did OK strafing DDs, crippling two by game end. The Kondor's glide bomb attack missed the Soviet BB.

The Germans subs were simply overwhelmed by the Soviet DD swarm. The submarines' wolfpack and Kondor pinpointer benefits were no match for all the ASW penalties from the destroyers and most of their torpedo shots were reduced to one die. One DD ended up being sunk by a sub while three f the four U-Boats went down and the fourth was left crippled.

So the Soviets swept up all three objectives and closed in on the Graf Zeppelin and its escort, the Admiral Hipper. The rush by six DDs, the two Kirovs and the battleship was Zulu Dawn-like. The two German ships managed to take out three destroyers and cripple a fourth before going down in a blizzard of torpedoes and shells.

The final score was 223 for the Soviets and 24 for the Germans. One crippled U-boat and two German aircraft survived. Two of the three surviving Soviets DDs were crippled and one of the Kirovs had a hit.

Special abilities used in the battle:
German: Anti-Ship Missile (missed), Pinpointer, Land-based, Wolfpack, Extended Range 4
Soviet: High-speed Run, Slow 2.

I'm going to try one more FuruMini build against the Soviet fleet and see what happens.

I'm sure it was a coincidence

Sept. 1 was the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II AND it was the release date for the Flank Speed expansion for Axis & Allies Naval Miniatures.

One of the interesting ships in Flank speed is the German pre-dreadnought battleship Schleswig-Holstein. This ancient warship fired some of the very first rounds of the war when it opened fire on the Polish garrison of Danzig on Sept. 1. One wonders if there was some symbolism in this, because the Versailles Treaty had stripped Germany of all its more modern ships.

In the game it's given the interesting special ability of Early Deployment. Obviously inspired by its role in the opneing hours of World War II it's also an interesting game effect. The other special ability of Shore Support also is clearly related to its historical role.

While some mistakes have crept in, overall I really think the Axis & Allies naval miniatures have done a credible job of popularizing World War II history.

Good fortune with Flank Speed continues

Just on a whim I picked up a Flank Speed booster at the local store. The best possible result would be to pull a second Intrepid. I wanted a second won in order to be able to field a historical 1944-45 USN carrier task group (which generally had two Essex-class CV and two Independence-class CVL). But it looks likely that Intrepids will be highly sought-after in the secondary market and I really didn't want to pay $30 for one ship.

And amazingly a second Intrepid is what I pulled! I think my Flank Speed collection is just about complete.

War at Sea -- Settling on a happy medium?

It's not unusual for the cards associated with collectible miniatures games to undergo format changes. Dungeons and Dragons miniatures, Heroclix and the land version of Axis & Allies Miniatures have each see significant format redesigns.

The Axis & Allies War at Sea naval miniatures system has been very consistent for the data side of the cards, as shown by the three different Fletcher-class destroyers that have appeared so far across the base set and two expansions:

The only ship class that has appeared in all three sets is the American Fletcher class destroyer, although it's not the only sculpt that has appeared in all three sets. Each set so far has also included a version of the Japanese Zero fighter.

On the other hand, the decorative side of the card has swung like a pendulum from nice to awful to acceptable.

In the initial War at Sea set we were treated to nicely done line drawings of the ships and planes, along with historical notes. Here's the Fletcher from the War at Sea base set:

It appears that Hasbro/Avalon Hill/Wizards of the Coast decided to cut back on the creative cost of making the next set, however, because instead of original line art the ships and planes were represented with pseudo-line art obviously derived from photographs of the models. While the models are pretty good for wargame purposes they are nowhere near good enough to serve as the source for line art illustrations, as the card art for the Destroyer Hoel from the Task Force expansion demonstrates:

Fortunately Hasbro/AH/WOTC does appear to listen to the fans, at least sometimes, and the Flank Speed expansion has returned to actual line art, in this case profile views of the ships. The profile views do not have artists' credits, so I assume they are derived from official drawings or other technical and/or public domain sources. This is a very traditional form of illustration for warships. often found in books, reference works and wargame rules, so it seems like an acceptable compromise to me. It's not quite as nice as the line illustrations done by Langdon Foss in the first set but it's a huge improvement over the butt-ugly pictures of models from Task Force. The USS Kidd from Flank Speed illustrates the latest version:

I hope that Hasbro sticks with this approach for the promised Set IV and any subsequent sets. Ideally it would be nice to see Foss re-employed of course, but failing that the profile views are attractive enough.

Flank Speed session report

I prepared a small 100-point game for use at The Citadel today in case I could persuade anyone to play. The one other gamer who showed up was game, so we played a match.

The idea was to keep it simple, so I cast it as a War Plan Orange fight with no subs or planes. The US force was made up of two Arizona-class Battleships, one Richmond-class light cruiser and, in order to fill out the 100 points, a Liberty ship. The Liberty ship played no role in the fighting, to no one's surprise. The Japanese force was the battleship Yamashiro, the battlecruiser Haruna and the light cruiser Jinstu. It was a 100-point standard scenario using the straits map.

I drew the US first. The Richmond headed for the northernmost objective, as did the Jintsu. Meanwhile all four battleships converged on the area between the central and southern objectives. The Richmond won its duel with the Jintsu, largely because of a lucky torpedo hit, which resulted in Richmond claiming that objective and sinking the Japanese CL, although the American ship was crippled.

The battleship duel also went the US way. The Haruna was overwhelmed and blew up, as battlecruisers often do, and the Yamashiro has little chance under the combined fire of the two Arizonas.

The final score was US 200 to Japan 0. (The US score was 100 points for ships, 50 points for one objective and 50 points for having the last surviving ships.)

We switched sides and this was a much closer fight. The US once again sent the Richmond north, but then backed off as bit as the combined Japanese force charged up the middle to meet the US battleships. Both cruisers ended up going down in a hail of secondary and tertiary battery fire from the battleships. Torpedoes were launched but none struck home. Once again the Haruna was quickly downed by battleship fire, but some failed speed rolls meant the US battleships couldn't prevent the Japanese from claiming the central objective. The Yamashiro then turned away and made a dash for the southern objective, with the slower US battleships following. The Yamashiro claimed that objective as well, and then in its dying breath was able to sink one of the Arizonas as she went down herself. Final score Japan 153 to US 150. (Japan got 100 points for objectives and 53 for sunk ships -- a BB and a CL; US got 100 points for sunk ships and 50 points for having the last surviving ships).

Overall the Arizona seems to be a cost-effective ship and I'd be tempted to pick it again. The Yamashiro is comparable, but I don't think the Haruna is worth its points. The Jintsu also seems pricey, but it's Long Lance torpedoes could have been game-changers if they hit.

Overall it was an entertaining match and it went quickly, with both battles being concluded in a little over an hour.

Two cases of Flank Speed

Here's what I got:

From two cases:

HMCS Sackville Common 4
Milan Common 5
Suffren Rare 2
HMNZS Leander Uncommon 3
HMS Belfast Uncommon 2
HMS Prince of Wales Rare 2
HMS Repulse Rare 2
HMS Saumarez Common 4
Martlet Mark II Common 4
SB2C Helldiver Common 4
USS Alaska Rare 2
USS Arizona Rare 2
USS Gunston Hall Uncommon 3
USS Intrepid Rare 1
USS Kidd Common 4
USS North Carolina Rare 1
USS Phelps Common 4
USS Richmond Uncommon 3
USS San Diego Uncommon 4
Gromkiy Common 7
October Revolution Rare 1
Kirov Rare 2
Ju 88A-4 Uncommon 3
Prinz Eugen Rare 2
Schleswig-Holstein Rare 1
T27 Common 4
U-47 Common 3
Aquila Rare 1
Gorizia Rare 1
Guiseppe Garibaldi Uncommon 2
Pegaso Common 5
Re. 2001 CB Common 4
A6M5 Zeke Common 4
Aoba Rare 1
B6N2 Jill Common 5
Nagato Rare 1
Oi Uncommon 3
Shigure Common 4
Soryu Rare 2
T1 Landing Ship Common 6

I got my last missing rare in the very last box I opened, so there was even some drama. The distribution was very even, with only the TI and the Russian DD over represented. I'm not sure how useful the T1 will be but having so many Russian DDs means I'm just 1 DD away from being able to field a 100-point Russian fleet (unbalanced to be sure, but not bad for a minor naval power.)

Link to Flank Speed's Opening Salvos

I've received word that my two cases of Flank Speed boosters have arrived at home -- but sadly I'm at work right now. I'm looking forward to seeing what the collectible fairy left me.

In the meantime I managed to come across War at Sea designer Rich Baker's Opening Salvos for Flank Speed, which Hasbro/AH/WOTC/whoever never actually managed to get published on the company Web site -- way to market there. Instead they are published at Baker's blog. The models previewed are the Helldiver, the new Zero, The Soviet cruiser Kirov, U-47, the Repulse, and the carriers Aquila, Soryu and Intrepid.

Anyway, they are worth a quick read.

With luck the official gallery will appear soon.

Being a boomer is hard

We're just not that good at delaying gratification.

Troll and Toad sent an email today that my two cases of Flank Speed are on the way, which was all well and good, but I knew that today was "Release Day" so I stopped the The Citadel and bought one booster of Flank Speed just to break the ice ...