The NT1 variant is modified by replacing the Basing Uncertain rule as follows: "18.3 Rushed Reinforcements: During Allied basing, the Allied player may pay POC to allow any ship listed as 'Basing Uncertain' to base at any red Allied port. The first ship selected costs 2 POC; subsequent ships cost 1 POC each.  POC is paid by increasing the IJN score.  Basing Uncertain ships which are not selected arrive at Pearl Harbor with Turn Two reinforcements."

Game 1

Game 2

Game 4

Game 5

Game 6

Game 7

Game 1

Joe: I really like your plan to make Vassal the future default. It is a huge time saver!  Also, I like your change to the POC cost to 2,1,1 from 2,3,4.

Tim: The reduction in the score rather than the bid is a good way to move carriers, but in this case, I still think it should cost 2 POC for each carrier.  Let's see how it plays out.

Joe: Turn 1 ends with Tim's IJN having a net of 2 POC. With only one LBA (backed up by I-Boat), I raided Marshalls. During round one, night, I-Boat disabled Enterprise. Lexington stayed and took 3d in round 2 but return fire shot down LBA. With Marshalls open I elect to base 3 CV's at Pearl and not pay any POC to base at Australia, which only leaves Enterprise as a threat to Indonesia.

Tim had excellent Pearl only allowing two crippled BB's and 1 CA to escape and shooting down 7AF in round 2 but losing Hiryu to return fire. I also lost DeRuyter raiding Marianas against 3 1-2-7's. Tim suffered no losses in Marianas. I thus have a very weak surface force and only 2 LBA and 4 operational carriers for turn 2.  This game should be interesting.

Tim: Both sides were aggressive on turn 1. The IJN left the Marianas and Japanese Islands weak and Marshalls to tempt some Allied forces and got a cruiser, crippled a US carrier but lost an LBA.

Despite the full commitment to Indonesia of 4 LBA, the IJN let the Prince of Wales escape.

With the Marshalls hole, the IJN will need to ensure the conquest of the Philippines this turn.

If I was going for the 7AF, I probably should have allocated at least 6 shots against it on round 1.

The IJN take a risk by putting 1 LBA in the Marshalls, planning to back it up with the I-boat if US carriers venture there. Had the US patrolled a cruiser in the Marshalls, it would have attracted 2 LBA. Forces in the Marianas and Japanese Islands are also short 1 ship each, hoping to tempt the Allies into some early ventures.

At the end of turn 1, 2 crippled battleships and 1 cruiser escape Pearl, but the USN has broken control of the Marshalls, opening a big hole to the Japanese interior. Both sides have taken an extra LBA casualty, with the Japanese getting the 7th AF at Pearl, not before losing the Hiryu, and the Allies shooting down the 1 Japanese LBA in the Marshalls.

Turn 2

Tim: Turn 2 has ended with the score +11 IJN.

The Japanese went with a 2 area attack and sent the Shoho, Junyo, Sasebo to the Marianas.

Dodging the main Japanese offensive, the Americans sent 3 carriers to the Marianas to save the Philippines.

In the ensuing battle, Sasebo was stopped but it cost the US not only two carriers sunk but 4 CAs as the Shoho survived the exchange.  Despite the Americans getting a day/night action on round 5, they couldn't manage to remove the patrolling IJN force.

Philippines and Singapore fall on schedule, but Lae, Attu, and Midway remain unconverted.

Turn 3

Tim: At the end of turn 3, the score is +24 IJN.

Turn 4

Joe: My Allies concede near the end of turn 4 combat. Tim has maxed out POC, recovered most bases and annihilated my fleet.  Tim played well and I don't recall a game where I whiffed as often with my 4 bonus shots from my carriers. A deadly combination.

Tim: Thanks for playing. you had me on the ropes after breaking control of the Marshalls on turn 1 and then saving Pearl on turn 3. I was surprised at the daring risks that the US carriers took. Unfortunately the US CV's got the worse of the exchanges, though by end of turn 3, you had also sank 6 IJN carriers.

I thought that you needed to put at least 2+ LBA in Hawaii on turn 4, otherwise I was sending my CVs in, which I did. Yes, I do think the dice were with the IJN especially those two whiffs by the US carriers.

Regarding NT1, I still don't see it affecting the bid by more than 1 POC. I'd still bid up to 3.5 for the IJN even using NT1!

Game 2

Bob: My quick NT1 game is just about over. We didn’t give a report yet I see but NOTHING really happened out of the ordinary.

I messed up and did not quite understand the NT1 rules (totally my fault) – I didn’t patrol Hawaii – I did buy a carrier for Australia only to have one of the initial carriers go under to I-boat attack as I went to USM. We are entering turn 7–raider phase for USN.

The POC is 29 – the bid was 2.5. IJN still has pretty good fleet – Still has Hawaii – flagged without USN base on turn 6, IJN took the North corner last turn with both NFL units…..looking kind of hopeless…we are just playing it out but I’ll give you the final number for AREA – should be within the next couple of days….

Eric: At beginning of turn 7 IJN at max no hope for US as IJN is guaranteed 4 poc so max 8 for US. Bob has conceded and it is done.

Bob: Good game, I messed up on T1 with that Pearl thing> (3 POC) but some of your "damage rolls" were KILLERS...

Game 4

Ed: Normally, I max out around 3 POC when bidding. Since the NT1 rules allow the USN to keep the 3 POC for HI, and since I very rarely see a game get maxed out at +29, I figure bidding 0 for the Japs is a wash.

Ed: Stephen and I finished turn 1 today.  My ship movements were fairly standard...  3 patrollers to Japan, 3 patrollers to Marinas, 1 patroller to Aleutians.  Ryujo, Hosho and a large escort to CPO.  The rest of the fleet to Hawaii.

The big question mark for me was what to do in the Marshalls (1 LBA or 2?)

If Stephen had put a patrolling CA into the Marshalls, I would have responded with 2 LBA. I couldn't afford to have a USN flag block Truk to Hawaii movement on turn 2.

But since Stephen didn't put any patrolling CAs in the Marshalls,  I did only 1 LBA. (4 LBA to Indo as usual).

It was a risk. Or it was bait. I don't know. If Stephen were to put both of his raiding CVs in the Marshalls, then I could loose 1 LBA, 1 POC and open a passage to the Marianas for turn 2.  But I was willing to risk that for a chance to kill a CV or two.

Anyway, Stephen took the bait, or the risk, and went for it.  My LBA disabled Enterprise. The I-Boat did 1 damage to Lexington.  His 8 factors of air power shot down my LBA. Bummer.

With that, the IJN has a mere 2 POC lead and no sunken CVs for his troubles. 5 BBs and 2 CAs sunk at Pearl is not enough compensation for the debacle in the Marshalls.

Turn 2

Ed: IJN control Japan, SPO, Hawaii (7 POC)
USN control BoB, Indo, Marshalls (3 POC)
all other sea areas have nobody in control!

So at the moment, IJN has a 6 POC lead.

Turn 3

Stephen: My feeling at present is that there were (are) several turning points in the game that were potentially pivotal either way. If the Allies place 2 LBA in Marshalls, and 2 LCVs in CPO, the game goes quite normally, but with reduced POC for the Japanese. As you said at start, around 3-4 below par, which is what experienced players might bid anyway. So this probably makes the game quite balanced over many playings without handicap, and the rule plays well and naturally. The extra 1 POC for NPO makes a difference, but the Japanese gain the chance to place the I-boat as usual which is helpful.

Even with Marshalls lost on turn one, if IJN place more LBA in Indonesia or place one or two from SPO in the Marshalls or simply win the fight in Indonesia anyway on turn two then the game stabilises - and is no more erratic than the current turn one rule with 1 means CPO for location uncertain leading to odd games. Even, then a couple of day rounds in Hawaii turn 3 (reasonable odds) swings the game to IJN. On the other hand, if Yokosuka had not taken Johnston, the Allies would be looking good as early as turn 2. And so on. All in all, and despite the low POC and island control for IJN at this stage in our game, I think the new rule provides about the right amount of incentive to play Allies without too much. Perhaps not allow patrol of NPO turn 1, and to compensate, make the I-boat place earlier in the turn. But this would change the purity of the 'normal' turn philosophy so perhaps better avoided. Maybe in future people would bid 1 POC to play Allies?

Ed: IJN controls US Mandate and NPO (3 POC).
USN controls BoB, Indo, SPO, Marianas, Hawaii (7 POC).
IJN lead now cut to two.

My turn 3 attempts to recover from the turn 2 disaster in Indo were unsuccessful. So needless to say, I'm in bad shape.  But this has little to do with the NT1 variant we're playtesting.

What impact the NT1 variant did have however, does have a domino effect into the following turns. On turn 1, I only put 1 LBA in the Marshalls, Stephen shot it down. So on turn 2, I had one fewer LBA to play with; which could have made a big impact on the Indonesia battle...

Bottom line, I agree with Stephen. If the IJN puts 2 LBA in Marshalls, 2CVLs in the CPO and ignores NPO, then turn 1 behaves very much like normal.
The differences are...

• 3 POC and the flag in Hawaii. The flag will impact turn 2.
• 1 POC and the flag in NPO. The flag is not likely to impact turn 2.
• One less CVL in the Pearl Harbor raid will reduce USN losses a smidge.
• One less LBA in Indonesia will reduce RN losses a smidge.
• Allowing the LBA in Pearl to shoot back on round 2 may draw fire away from the BBs and therefore reduce USN losses a smidge.
• Having to roll day/night dice for rounds 3 and 4 may save bottomed ships if both come up night. But they're still sitting ducks for turn 2 air raids should the IJN come in force on turn 2 as usual.
• With the strong IJN forces in Marshalls, CPO and Hawaii making the USN not engage, five CAs based at Johston are free to move to the Mandate (having used 2 to patrol Hawaii and 1 to patrol NPO). Combining these with the Australian and Samoan based CAs on patrol in USM/CS, there are now 9 CAs based in New Hebrides to start turn 2 (instead of the usual 4). Having these 5 CAs being able to range from CPO to Indo on turn 2 is a big advantage for the USN. Normally, these CAs would be positioned in a port where they could cover CPO or Indo, but not both.

Bottom line, I see a 4 or 5 POC advantage given to the USN here. So, if you usually bid 4.5 to play the Japs, you now have an even game. But for those of us less skilled at playing the Japs, those of us that stop bidding around 3, then these rules don't create an even game, it's now +1.5 for the USN.

Ed: My game with Stephen is over. I (the IJN) have resigned after turn 4.  We will switch sides and begin a new NT1 variant game shortly.

New Game -- Switching sides

Ed: Turn 1 completed. IJN has a +3 POC advantage.

It seems that 2 CVs in Australia (Enterprise and Lexington) is sufficient for us. In neither game did we spend any valuauble POC for early basing any additional CVs.  However, had the USN engaged (or risked the I-Boat) on turn 1 and lost a CV, I might have to seriously consider paying for a replacement.

Stephen: Ed Paule and I have now finished our second quick round game, now with me as the Japanese and he as the Allies. The Japanese won by KO in 5. By end of turn 6, Allies are around 24 POC behind and unable to re-capture either home base before game end. Again it was a great and tense game up until the somewhat unexpected capture of Samoa - a lot of fun.

Again, I don't think much of what went on relates to NT1 (apart from my own 'barking' opening!). NT1 seems to add interest to turn 1, and recoups about the same amount of POC for Allies as might anyway be bid for the Japanese, making the game fairer, but without fundamentally changing the game. As this result shows.

New Game -- Switching sides again!

Ed: Stephen and I have completed a third quick round game.  This time, I played the IJN.

As before, no POCs were bid and no POCs were spent on basing turn 2 CVs.

I put 2 LBA in the Marshalls on turn 1 this time. This kept him from engaging any of my forces.

The third and fourth air raid rounds were both night actions, so all his bottomed ships lived to fight another day. Combinded results for Indonesia and Pearl Harbor were a dismal 2BBs, 2CAs, 2LBA sunk.

On turn 2, Stephen sent his whole fleet to protect Hawaii.  Although he knocked out all my patrollers and all my carriers (thereby denying me the flag and a chance to airraid his 2 bottomed BBs); he lost all 5 of his CVs and many of his CAs in the process.

With him not having any USN carriers on turn 3, and only 1 on turns 4 and 5, I was able to build a 29 POC lead and keep an intact perimeter.

My Japanese victory was secured on turn 6 after defeating his fleet in the SPO.

Game 5

Greg: Frank and I are just beginning turn 2. Greg bid 1 for the IJN.  Frank gave Greg 2 PoC for rebasing the Saratoga to Australia. The PoC is at +5 for the IJN.

Frank: As USN, I made sure that I had two patrollers in NPO, HI, USM, Coral Sea, Indian Ocean & BoB to prevent the I-boat from stealing a POC.

Though it is tempting to patrol the Marshalls and then commit the two USN CVs there to try to seal USN control on turn 1 (and thereby preventing IJN patrols of HI) I feel that risking the USN CVs on turn 1 is too risky...and if the CVs don't follow up the Marshall patrols it also risks 1-2 CA needlessly...

The mere threat of this move however would make me send two IJN LBA to Marshalls and three to Indonesia -- which is what happened in our game. This then helps improve the odds of some of the Brit ships surviving the Indonesia air raids (which is what happened in our game).

As the IJN I would concentrate all the LBA on killing the 5th AF before switching my sight on the Prince of Wales and Repulse.

I felt that paying the two POC to base the Saratoga in Australia is worth it (but less so for one POC each for the other CVs) because three CVs in Australia present a viable threat to Indonesia on turn 2 (in conjunction with the Brit CVs & LBA) but still provides enough flexiblity with the USN position (ie two CVs at Pearl) to threaten/support operations in other locations -- the Pearl CVs and support ops in the northern part of the board -- Aluetians, NPO, CPO and/or Marshalls/USN/SPO/Coral Sea while the Australian based CVs can also support ops in Marshalls/USN/SPO/Coral Sea if not commited to Indonesia. But this is of course dependent upon the IJN patrols & LBA placements (plus the IJN raiders).

But again, they do constitute a viable threat to Indonesia based in Australia and I feel the IJN will have to commit at least 3 LBA in Indonesia (and possibly reinforce with the turn 2 IJN CVs) to counter them. If not, Indonesia may be too tempting to resist, but again the threat is enough to hopefully siphon off enough IJN resources to make another area (or two) weak to USN CV raids.

Greg: I just got lucky with rolling the sixes against your LBA in the US. I did have 10 carriers and you only had 4 LBA AND the 5 carriers. But I got rid 3 of those carriers in the Night Action before they ever got a shot off. That was lucky too.

I guess we proved a point that the best IJN defense against three carriers in Australia in turn 2 is to patrol heavily in the US and HI and force the USN carriers to attack there instead. But that sure negates the giving 2 PoC to put a third carrier in Australia.

Things might have been different though if you had not lost an LBA in the Marianas and in the US Mandate on turn 2. If you have 6 LBA plus 5 carriers in the US to start turn 3, even my 10 carriers are outgunned.

Nice game, Frank. It could have gone either way at the end. I was anxious! I appreciate you as a player. If you want another game, I'm always ready.

Game 6

Lee: Bob ended with Japan at +11 due to me bringing all CVs early as well as not patrolling Bay of Bengal and the Hawaiians.  Light losses in Pearl.

Turn 3: Japan is up to POC +19.  Another quiet turn with minor skirmishes in BoB.

Turn 4: The fourth round was completed, and Japan has 21 poc.  A very quiet turn with just a 1-0-7 dying on Japan's side.

Turn 5: Japan inched up to 22 VP. America broke a hole in line at Marshalls.  UK a non factor with just one CC left. America on the losing end of the CV exchange, but won on surface attrition.

Turn 6: The sixth round is completed with Japan dropping to an 18 POC lead.  Massive bloodshed with CV losses about even. The bulk of the Japanesse surface fleet is gone, as there are only 4 BBs left at sea.

Turn 7: Japan resigns at the end of round 7 with Japan under American control.

Game 7

Stephen: Have started the game with Jim Eliason, with me playing as Allies. End of turn 1 - he is 3 POC ahead, but has bottomed/sunk only 3 ships in Pearl.

Jim: My IJN defeated Stephen Gorard's Allies in our quick round game.

No POC were spent to enter ships early, so it ended up a "standard" NT1 game with two USN CVs starting turn 2 in Australia.

Highlights:
Turn 1: Indo was wiped out, but 8 of 11 units escaped Pearl.

Turn 2: The USN won a huge battle in HI but lost 17 Allied ships to 10 IJN and lost 6 bases.

Turn 3: Allied LBA held HI and the US fleet won in USM thanks to a first round night, killing 2 IJN CVs and crippling two more for the loss of only one BB and three CAs. But the perimeter was established and a single IJN CA controlled CS, briefly cutting the USN position in half. The POC went to 26.

Turn 4: All British CVs were gone and a single d3 LBA held IN. The rest of the perimeter held when the USN basically declined to send his four CVs against LBA or a superior surface fleet in CPO. The Allies recaptured Guadalcanal with two marines, but the POC maxed.

Turn 5: An invasion of Dutch Harbor was repulsed, but the big battle was in the SPO. The USN won the area but lost four CVs (perhaps justifying his turn 4 caution), killing only two marines and Hiyo. POC stayed maxed.

Turn 6: Dutch Harbor was recaptured but two marines were repulsed trying to take Lae. A big battle in IN, a CV raid into BB, and two withdrawals reduced the British to one CA. I held the Marianas with three surface ships and the CPO with three LBA. The USN gained only 1 POC.

Turn 7: The IJN easily won battles in JP and IN with a big advantages in both forces and luck. The IJN had a 21 POC lead (bid of 0.5) and would have had more CVs than the USN on turn 8 (though of lower quality). The Allies sensibly resigned.