Carnage in the South China Sea

Prince of Wales overwhelmed by Japanese air power.

Had a great day of playing Victory at Sea with Jon last Friday, when he rather gamely took charge of Force Z in its defence of Malaysia against the Japanese.

Historically, the Royal naval force courageously sallied out from Singapore to attack the Japanese invasion fleet but without any air cover, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse were sunk by Japanese land based bombers.

Using a linked set of scenarios discovered by Mark we attempted to recreate the fight but with HMS Indomitable, an aircraft carrier that should have been part of the force, boosting Jon's forces.

However, the first scenario has Force Z bump into the cruiser and destroyer screen used by the Japanese to protect their landings.

Chokai, Jap cruiser and flag ship of the screening force.

This first scenario was at night and the Japanese have the advantage of superior night fighting skills and the long lance torpedo.  Although Repulse and Prince of Wales have radar they were only able to pound the largest cruiser for a few turns before 4 cruisers and 10 destroyers launched their long lance on the Force Z.  Unable to spot the Japanese before it was too late, both Royal Navy battleships and Indomitable took damage, whilst the six destroyers which escorted Force Z were unable to check the Japanese onslaught.  However, the Japanese did lose a cruiser to short range fire from Repulse and in return the British lost a destroyer.  After two hours of game play the Japanese were reinforced by the Invasion escort of a further eight destroyers.  At this point Jon decided to break off the engagement as he was receiving more damage than he was dishing out.

We both thought this scenario was unbalanced against the British, with Indomitable unable to make any difference at night.  However, we got into the rules which we haven't played in ages and the Royal Navy ships are tough, especially Prince of Wales which is a monster.

Next up was a daylight encounter with Force Z re-engaging the Japanese within sight of the most southerly Japanese landing.  We carried on some of the damage from the previous encounter and rolled for possible Japanese aircraft each turn.  In addition, the Japanese were reinforced by the battle cruisers Kongo and Haruna.

Kongo! says it all.

In this second action, Indomitable made her prescence felt with her aircraft inflicting losses on the Japanese each turn.  I thought the swordfish were bad, but the Albacores are worse.  Japanese AA was effective to a degree as there were so many destroyers but one flight of Albacores was more than enough to take out a destroyer and could probably take down a cruiser in a single attack.  I had been rather impressed with my rolling for Japanese aircraft, but Indomitable also carries sea hurricanes which made mincemeat of my Mitsubishi Bettys.

No prizes for looks but it packs a punch!

However, Japanese numbers dominated proceedings, and with Kongo and Haruna trading long range shots with Repulse and PofW, the Japanese cruisers and destroyers pushed past the weak Royal Navy destroyer screen and launched their long lances with predictable devastation.  Even so, Pof W managed to fire off its bow torpedoes (a battle ship with torpedoes!) before sinking beneath the waves.

With most of his fleet crippled or sunk Jon called it a day.  The third day would have seen an allied reinforcement of American, Dutch and Australian cruisers but there would have been no Force Z to help.  These scenarios are unbalanced with the entire Japanese force out numbering the British by 22 ships to nine!

However, Jon and I discussed the idea of a small campaign.  Indomitable gives more balance to Force Z and with hidden map movement which we used in Coral Sea and Midway, the British could get themselves into a winning a position.  In addition, the Japanese players should be worried about three landing beaches to defend, precious troop ships that will be needed for further invasions, convoy routes that need protecting to enable the invasion forces to proceed from the landing beaches, and a very tight timetable that the Japanese need to keep to if they are going to attack Burma and the Dutch East Indies.  Therefore, unlike these scenarios, the Japanese should find it very hard to concentrate against Force Z.

So, with this in mind, I am planning to put on a small naval campaign in the not too distant future.