Turn 1

Turn 2

Turn 3

Turn 4

Turn 5

Turn 6

Turn 7

Turn 8

Turn 1

IJN Report: The IJN sink all 8 USN BB's in Hawaii and the 5th AF in Indo. The British fight back and sink the Mutsu with no losses in return.  The score is the usual 7.

Turn 2

IJN Report: A fairly quick turn as my ships went down quickly! Larry's carrier fire(20+) was blistering as they sunk 4 IJN flattops and Sasebo on 8 hits with perfect distribution. My 9 carrier shots across 4 USN CV's managed a single hit to sink the Hornet. The I-Boat came through to cripple the Enterprise. IJN nets 9 POC for the turn to lead by 16 after T2.

Turn 3

IJN Report: On this turn I am trying to capture Pearl while taking a shot up in the north to capture DH. Minor BB raids into the CS and USM are meant to keep the USN CV's from straying or risk the POC being knocked out.

AI-Hiyo sinks Yorktown while Yorktown sinks the Kure NLF. Not wishing to lose my patroller, the USN CA's are free to go.

CS-I get 2 breaks here. First is a night action in which I sink the patrolling Australia. The second is being disabled away!

USM-A day action sees my BB disabled. I-Boat misses.

HI-A D/N action allows the marines to be destroyed after the day portion of the battle. I shoot down 2 LBA while he disables Akagi and hits Shok for 2d. Being able to gang up on rd 2, I shoot down 3xLBA while he sinks Kaga, cripples Zuik and disables Shok(2d). After he retreats, my airraids manage to sink NC and CO in port.

A gain of 8 more POC takes me up to 24.

Turn 4

IJN Report: My main goals here are to secure Indo and try to finish off the bases in the north and try to take Guad. Since Attu and DH are both surrounded, I patrol each with 2xCA's. I doubt Larry will use up one of his 3xLBA in this situation as I can raid his LBA and knock it out before he can get BOTH of my CA's.

JI-The USN raid ends after Zuiho sinks New Orleans while my LBA sinks Pensacola.

USM-Mik and Mog are sunk for no cost to the USN

CS-The Big E sinks Chikuma before being disabled by the I-Boat

HI-This battle is interesting as the USN is trying to control the area for a possible invasion of Johnston next turn. However, for me, it is a chance to sink some USN CV's which will make holding the perimeter easier on turn 5. It dose not go to a second round as I cripple Wasp and disable both Lexington and Saratoga (which also takes 2d). The USN fireback comes up just short as it sinks both Junyo and Ryujo while putting 2d on the 23rd. Whew!

A very good turn as 3 bases fall and the POC hits 29. My perimeter is decent enough as well with just the Marshalls hole left.

Turn 5

IJN Report: My board position is pretty good and I feel in control of the game. I decide to bunker down in the key areas of Indo, SPO and HI. I send a single damaged LBA into the Marshalls to try and stop a possible marine landing that I feel is sure to be attempted. The turn is quick as I shoot blanks in the Marshalls and he takes Kwajalein. Fighting is fierce over at Guadalcanal as the USN finally invades at a cost of 2xmarines and Yokosuka for the IJN. POC still at 29.

Turn 6

IJN Report: We have a long pause in our game as the VITP dice server goes down and we explore options on that front. My goals for the turn are to try and keep the POC as high as I can and to prevent Truk from being surrounded, thus avoiding giving the USN easy basing for T7. I only have 5 IJN carriers left compared to 4 for the USN. He also has based his slow BB's at Kwajalein at the end of T5. I'd like to head to Hawaii but I don't think I can hold him off there. I decide to go to Indo with my fleet and send LBA/2xCV's/4xBB to the Marianas. I also send a lone LBA to Hawaii to try stop the 4th marine.

Indo-Larry decides to hope for a bunch of day rounds and sends 3xCV here. If successful, it could turn the war. However, an opening night round would pretty much end the war for the USN. The first round is a day/night action. We both shoot well as the 3 big CV's, for each side, sink each other! Meanwhile, the Brit CVL's do their part. Hermes sinks Kirishima and Formidable cripples Kongo! The IJN superiority during the night action sees only the Formidable, Hermes and Dorsetshire sunk. The Brit BB's are heavily damaged and disabled away along with 2xCA's. All in all, a good round of night fire. In the British fireback, the Hermes steals the show from the BB's as she sinks Furutaka. The BB's sank Ashigara and disabled 3 other ships. In pursuit, a crippled Ramilles and Exeter are sunk with no further damage done to the IJN.

Marianas-3out of 4 Allied CA's are sunk.

HI-Unlike last turn, my LBA comes through and disables the 4th marine with 1d. Sweet!

The POC ends at 28.

Turn 7

IJN Report: I decide to scatter my forces around and make the USN's job very difficult. I want to make his basing for T8 as difficult as I can. To this end, I send a suicide CV into Indo. I also send in 2xNLF's into Indo and another into the SPO (and possibly deny a POC). I secure JI with 4xLBA. I send my 5th, and last, LBA to the NPO. My fleet and scratch CVL's would go to the CPO. I figured that my fleet would be fairly safe as I thought that the USN would go to pick off my NLF's and destroy my NPO LBA. They could also set up their basing into Japan for T8. That would end the turn at 20 POC with my fleet based out of Midway. I could then, I figured, hold the NPO on T8 for the win. There was only one problem, the USN did not get the memo! Larry figures all this out and goes strong into the CPO/NPO but kinda light into Indo. In the SPO, he hedges his bet and tosses in the Indiana. When I see this, I am OK with it so long as I can hold the Phil's. If the Shokaku(2d) removes the 4th Marine(1d), the game is all but over. This is due to the USN having only 4 ships max that could patrol the Japanese Islands on T8.

Then the pref rolls came in...all for the USN, including the critical Indo roll! Not good!

NPO-I whiff and he sinks the Oi. I retreat my LBA for next turn.

CPO-The opening day action sees the Bunker Hill sunk and 2xCV disabled. The USN fire-back is deadly sinking all 5 CVL's, Yamishiro, Haruna and Hiei! It also cripples Nagato(5d). Knowing what is going on in Indo at this time, I elect to retreat individually. Larry then follows in 7 groups and continues a hot hand, sinking all 7 targets (2xBB/5xCA) over 2 rds. I manage to sink a lone CA. A crushing 15 to 2 ship exchange for the USN!

SPO-A night action sees the Kure disabled back to Japan.

Indo-The interesting thing is that even during a night action, the Allied forces are not that great. Larry must stop my NLF's but also has Shokaku(2d) to deal with. If he just disables the NLF' into the Phil's, he can't invade. That will give me another chance at getting a day action to remove the 4th Marines. Or to target CV12 so he can't air raid my NLF's, assuming I get one or two of them in there. In the end, Larry lines up the MA on the Sasebo, 7 non-bonus shots on Yokosuka and a single shot on Shokaku. I would have done the same. Unfortunately, he disables the Sasebo into the Phil's with 3d. Then Yokosuka is hit for only 1d (which the F-Boat later disables) and lands in the Phil's. I am extremely happy until the lone USN CA disables Shokaku(2d) (Shokaku's night fire hits MA for 6d!). That means that the game will pretty much lie in the hands of CV12's air raids. It gets one hit to send Sasebo down but it's second air raid manages only one hit as well to put Yokosuka at 2d. The 4th exchanges for Yoko at the end of the turn. A real nail-biter!

POC ends at 19. I am not sure I played that turn the best. I seemed good enough when I made it, but the pref roll results combined with the CPO carnage make me second guess it. I was fortunate that the Phil's ending up holding. I think I was just another USN Indo-area CV from losing the Phil's and possibly the game.

Turn 8

IJN Report: I pretty quick turn. We both know the battle is in Japan. After the Indiana misses its speed roll (from Lae), the USN has only the Lae-based Wichita and CV12 as patrollers into Japan. An initial day round sees both of them sunk. Larry correctly ignored patrolling the Marianas as it was unimportant. The final tally had the IJN ahead by 2 POC after the bid.

Larry played a strong game after I thought I had it pretty much locked up. Great job! Good luck in your remaining games!

IJN Endgame Comments: Whew! This game is over...tough game. The final POC count is 7-5 bid=2 POC.

Thanks for the tough battle. I tried to lose the game last turn but, fortunately, the Phil's held. The T8 pref roll would have allowed me to shoot during a night had the Phil's fallen but I am not sure who would have won. It would have been close though...

Best of luck in the rest of your games!

USN Endgame Comments: I enjoyed the game...you played excellently as usual...I could never overcome the NPO/Aleutian capture...those POC just "eat" away at the USN POC total...good luck in the rest of the tournament.