The I-Boat Raid and CPO Withdrawal adjustments are in play.
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USN Report: Not the best Pearl raid, with 5 damaged
BBs (2 crippled) plus the 2 CAs all making it out alive. In Indo, the crippled
Repulse limps away. Interestingly, Joe invades Dutch Harbor with Yokusuka SNLF.
3 CVs make it to base in Australia.
USN Report: Japan patrols all three USN home areas with 3-4 surface ships, but only backs up the HI raid with CV support after I place 3 LBA in the USM. I put all 5 CVs in the SPO, looking to possibly back up my lone patroller and control the area as well as conserving my carrier force and saving Lae, while aiming for positive surface attrition in Coral Sea and NPO.
I get Night against the flag in SPO, but after I sink Hosho, the I-boat sinks Yorktown, and IJN LBA accounts for Hornet before I bag both LBA and control the area. Surface attrition doesn’t go quite as well for me as I’d hoped for, either; after getting Day and running in USM, I have 15 CAs vs. 4 CAs between USM and NPO, but in several running battles Joe sinks 4 of my CAs while losing only 3 in return. POC ends the turn at +15 to the IJN before the bid.
USN Report: In relative terms, Joe patrols the Marianas surprisingly heavily (BB + CA + Hiyo) but HI fairly lightly (2 BB + 4 CA), with 3 more CA patrolling USM. With his three SNLF left with only LBA protection (3 LBA and 1 SNLF in Indo, 1 LBA and 2 SNLF in SPO), Joe raids into HI with everyone available to him against my 6 LBA. After much pondering, I raid the CVs into SPO, leave a bare minimum of surface ships behind in USM (2 BB + 1 CA) to deal with the 3 patrollers, and dump everyone else into HI to more or less guarantee saving Pearl.
On the left half of the board, my British and American CVs sink two SNLF and disable the third, preserving my bases, and also shoot down one LBA at the cost of losing Hermes and another CVL and the Enterprise being crippled. In the USM, one IJN CA is sunk, and at the end of R1 we’re left with 1 IJN CA vs. 1 USN BB, but Joe doesn’t press his luck and chooses to retreat. In HI, it’s carnage after the preference result comes up as Day/Night. In Day R1, Joe abandons any pretense of converting Pearl and targets my surface fleet very successfully, sinking 3 BB and disabling + damaging 3 more. My LBA target the IJN CVs and do rather well, sinking 1, crippling another and disabling 3 move to more or less guarantee Pearl’s safety. But I still have to weather a round of Night combat, and it’s pretty lethal: I lose 6 CA sunk, leaving me with only 5 CA in the area, while I only sink 2 CA and damage 2 CA in return. Thankfully for me, Joe decides to retreat at this point, which I think was a bad decision; another Night round (and remember, he had the flag) could have utterly decimated what was left of the USN surface fleet, whereas a Day action wasn’t likely to be too painful anyway. POC ends the turn at +20 to the IJN before the bid.
USN Report: Joe patrols the CPO quite heavily – or rather, he tries to, but his 3 BBs make speed rolls of 6-5-6 and leave him with only 1 CA on patrol. Oddly, we’re again drawn into a big battle in HI that looks quite similar to the previous turn (as I look to protect my three repairing ships at Pearl), but on a smaller scale.
Again, that battle starts with a D/N action – this time, our dice are both generally quite cold, which allows my surface fleet to limp away without too many additional casualties. Wasp and Kaga even manage to only disable each other. Elsewhere, two intriguing battles in the Coral Sea and USM are decided when both of my lone LBA manage to disable the lone IJN CV in the former (after an IJN miss) and the lone IJN patroller in the latter (after Junyo had shot down my LBA). In NPO, Shokaku can’t target both of my Marines, so one sneaks through to retake Dutch Harbor, while I control Indo and sink a CV and an SNLF unit at the cost of Saratoga. POC ends the turn at +23 to the IJN before the bid.
USN Report: Joe chooses to patrol many areas minimally, leaving a relatively small raiding force behind – this plays into my hands somewhat, I feel, as I can plan how to use my small surviving surface fleet from the time I’m planning my patrols and LBA rather than having to wait and see where Joe’s raiders will go. In the end, Joe strongly defends Indo (4 LBA), CPO (strong surface with 2 carriers) and SPO (strong on both sides against my 3 LBA), leaves the Marshalls relatively unprotected, and leaves his patrols in Indo and JI with no air cover. In response I scatter my smallish fleet to create 10 battles on the turn, figuring that I have a decent chance of getting lucky in some areas rather than chancing my luck on fewer, surer things. This includes raids against JI and Marianas with lone CVs backed by bare CA covering forces, a strong push into the Marshalls, and sending my two strongest BBs to take out uncovered CAs in the NPO.
In the Marshalls, I get Night against the flag in R1, invading Kwajalein and leaving an easy battle of Enterprise and Victorious to take out an LBA with 2 damage points on it. Alas, I go stone cold, whiffing on 14 attack dice and seeing both of my CVs sunk in response, so Kwajalein flips back. Also, one round of 20 IJN attack dice proves enough to shoot down my 3 LBA in SPO, that after Joe finally manages to take Lae with his SNLF. Otherwise, though, I do OK; my LBA in the Aleutians disables the SNLF trying to take Dutch Harbor, I manage to slip my own Marine into the Philippines (after Night in Indo), and I break control in JI and Marianas (though not without a few scares). At the end of the turn, I’ve gained 2 POC and the tally stands at +21 to the IJN before the bid.
USN Report: Joe again scatters patrollers across the whole board, this time including the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean. This forces me to be somewhat cagey and defensive with my patrols and LBA placements – I really need to guarantee the POC for my home areas. With his raiders, Joe defends the CPO strongly and, with most of my fleet on the right half of the board, he makes clever raids into the British areas, looking to knock the RN out of the game and possibly protect Indo and JI by blocking access to them from Australia. After ensuring that I can remove the SNLF in AI and preserve my patrolling LBA based out of Dutch Harbor, I’m faced with two choices: take the readily available POC in the Marshalls or raid both the Marshalls and SPO with decent but far from guaranteed shots at victory, and either defend BoB and IO with my two CVs in Australia or raid Indo to open up a sea lane to Japan and trust that my meager surface forces can unblock IO and/or save the threat against Ceylon. I choose the riskier courses of action in both cases – there will be 11 battles this turn! – although my odds in SPO take a hit when both of my raiding 565s from Pearl fail their speed rolls. I base them at Guadalcanal.
In the Marshalls, my gamble comes good as my 4 CVL kill both IJN LBA in one salvo. However, the SPO is a disaster, as the I-boat takes out a CV after a Night action, and in the subsequent Day action both of my CVs are taken out and I fail to shoot down the IJN LBA (so Joe controls the SPO) or remove Kaga (I got two hits for only 3 damage, and Kaga then air raids Guadalcanal to sink Alabama). We swap SNLF for Marine at the Philippines as I decontrol Indo but Joe removes my LBA to control the Marianas, and then it comes down to the action with the Brits. In BoB, we get D/N; after Akagi cripples Royal Sovereign, I have three shots to remove Chikuma and roll 1-1-2, two of the Brits sunk and the other disabled. In IO, Joe gets a Day action to disable Oklahoma and then a Day/Night action: Shoho sinks one of the two Brit CAs, but in the following Night action my sole survivor in the area – Shropshire – sinks the patrolling Tone on her own. A big roll, that one…POC comes out even for the turn (still +21 for the game), but I retain a good raiding lane into Indo and JI. Still, everything to play for with two turns to go…
USN Report: I really expected Joe move across to the left side of the board in strength, away from my T7 reinforcements and toward BoB, IO and Indo (plus maybe JI). Instead, Joe followed his same strategy of the previous few turns, with lots of lone patrollers; even in Indo and JI, it looked all too easy for me to knock out his patrollers. Indeed, he patrolled with so many ships that I was tempted to make a strong play to control JI (or at least send my lurking Marine in Dutch Harbor on a mission to take Okinawa), but in the end I decided not to arouse his suspicions. Joe did raid into BoB and IO against my LBA, but otherwise I figured I was in a strong position after all of our units had been deployed.
And at the end of the turn, helped by some odd targeting decisions in which Joe went after my raiding CVs instead of my POC-earning LBA, I was in a game-winning position. Pretty much everything went right for me: I captured Midway and decontrolled the CPO after a tense two-round fight; after a longer-than-expected fight in JI, I disabled the final IJN patroller (the damaged Yamato); I sank Shokaku, Shoho and a damaged LBA unit in one round of 10 attack rolls in Indo, guaranteeing me control of Indo; my 1 LBA unit in IO sank Kaga at the second attempt without getting scratched; and to crown it all off, my 2 LBA plus the F-boat sank Shokaku and disabled Soryu in R1 without either of my LBA getting shot down, and in R2 they sank Ryujo to guarantee the safety of Ceylon. I had gained 13 POC for the turn, controlling every area except JI, CPO and the Marianas; with no raiding lanes into my home areas (including BoB and IO) and only a lead of 8 POC before the bid (3 POC after the bid), Joe sensibly decided to throw in the towel.
IJN Endgame Report: Congratulations to Darren's Allies. There is no way that I can sustain a measly lead of 3 POC after the bid going into turn 8. This was one of the most difficult games I have ever played. Darren's SPO raid on turn 2 seemed to keep me in the hole for the entire game. I was only able to reestablish a perimeter on turn 5. On turn 7, there were seven contested areas where I felt that I had a 35-40% chance of controlling but prevailed in none.