WW2 Pacific Naval Action!

 Last night Dick hosted a WW2 Naval game using his Axis and Alies ships / planes and the Victory at Sea ruleset.  The scenario was a hypothetical capital ship slugfest in the Philippines. I was the Japanese 2IC and had command of the Battleship Division (pictured) which had 7 Battleships, including the mighty Mushashi and Yamoto.  As with all of Dick's games it was a grand evening and he and his wife were superb hosts.  Many thanks to Gary who brought Chili for dinner - although I was a bit suspicious that it was a cunning ploy to distract players later in the game ....

 The allied command staff - I'm sure they look much more impressive when they are wearing their Navy dress whites.

 The allies draw first blood as Les's battleship division savages the Nagato.  While the Nagato gave as good as she got, being the closest target to a group of 6 modern US battleships with 16 inch guns isn't as glamorous as one might think.  You can also see the developing air battle to the left.  This is the second time I've played Victory at Sea and the first with air and I really liked the simplicity of the rules.  Most of the players were new to the system and we all picked it up after a few turns.

 Japanese reinforcements show up in the form of the Northern command - heavy cruisers with deadly long lance torpedos.

 A few turns later, The Nagato has been sunk and the Mushashi engines put out of action - but not her guns!  In return the US has lost both the Maryland and North Carolina sunk and the Iowa and New Jersey have been reduced to flaming hulks.  We decided to call the game after another turn as the US losses were very heavy and the Japanese cruiser squadron was lining up for a torpedo run.  Many thanks to both Dick and Joe (the respective Cic's of the US and Japanese fleets) who spent more time tutoring the rest of the players on the rules than actually playing the game.

I know we made some mistakes, but as a learning game it was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to playing the rules again.  While they didn't cause any ship damage the air aspect was a lot of fun and really lent some atmosphere to the game.

 I was very impressed with the Axis and Allies ship miniatures.  They are not as detailed as GHQ but they look great on the table, are not as delicate as GHQ, come pre-painted and are very inexpensive.  The Plane stands are also very well done.  I have been know to be a bit of a miniatures snob and my preconceptions of these ships was way off- they are very nice miniatures.

One last picture of the Battleship division at the end of the game - big guns = lots of fun on the tabletop.