Carrier warfare in the Coral Sea 1942 ('Pacific Command')

Within the ‘Amsterdam6Shooter’ Wargame Club we tried out the Pacific Command Rule Set for WW2 carrier warfare. Within Naval Wargame, battles between carriers are always a challenge as they normally fight outside visual or radar range. So, at your traditional 4 x 6 ft ‘battle space’ you require a scaled range to be able to fly hundreds of miles…how? And… ships, even Task Forces, can ‘hide’ in the vast empty spaces of the Pacific Ocean. How to mimic/play this? ‘Pacific Command’ uses a ground scale of 1 inch to 10 nautical mile. So a traditional 4 x 6 foot sea mat represents 480 x 720 nm. (most strike aircraft can reach to 160—240 nm.). Your Taskforces (TF’s) are initially represented by round colored fiches (with the TF name on it; a Fiche has a diameter of 15 nm.) and those navy assets are to be hidden in stacks of multiple dummy fiches. So both sides have a couple of stacks of unmarked same-color fiches and the other side can’t see where the TF’s actually are. So you have to start the game with the reconnaissance proces. Within those stacks a referee has issued additional fiches with ‘surprise events’, like ‘the enemy was able to read your radio transmissions’ or …. The air wing of carriers is represented by red (CAP aircraft) and black (strike aircraft) playing cards; the numbers on the cards don’t mean anything. And each side gets a number of ‘Command Fiches’ each turn. You need a Command Fiche to move a stack, conduct a reconnaissance action or send out an attack package, etc.

We played the historic scenario of ‘Coral Sea’; 1942 (level 3; 6 turns). I played the USA side. I had 1 Task Force, consisting of 2 Fleet carriers, 7 Heavy Cruisers, 1 Light Cruiser and 11 destroyers. My combined Airwing consisted of 8 squadrons of fighters (for CAP and/or reconnaissance) and 24 squadrons of strike aircraft (for strike and/or reconnaissance). I had also command of Tulagi Airfield on one of the Solomon Islands, with 10 fighter squadrons.
My opponent (Japan) had several TF’s with in total 2 Fleet carriers, 1 Light carrier, 3 Amphibious Groups and a lot of cruisers and destroyers. Japan had to take the Airfield and proceed south with those Amphibious Groups (to attack Australia in a next phase of the war).
As this rule set was new to us, we had lengthy discussions about how to understand the rules, in order to deploy our forces to the best. Later we found out that the best deployment (to win the game on victory points) was not always the same as a military sound deployment. So USA deployed 4 stacks of red fiches (only 1 stack contained US TF01) near the islands, in order to defend against the expected Japanese attack. However, Japan deployed her 3 white stacks (containing 5 TF’s) over the full 720 nm. length of the sea mat… And they only had to sail 480 nm. south to gather Victory Points. Oops, I didn’t see that coming.
With hind side (while writing this report) I realized that according to the Task Force Sheet some cruisers could launch aircraft from their catapult, but apparently those ships were not credited with aircraft? 

Turn 1 (Japan initiative)
At the beginning USA and Japan got their ‘Command Fiches’. Japan got 5, USA got 6 Fiches.  Japan deployed her airwing above her carriers (but that is only made visible on the JAP Task Force Sheet, not on the map/stacks). USA deployed her CAP’s around the airfield and her airwing around her 2 carriers (only visible on USA Task Force Sheet, not on the map). Japan moved her furthest away stack 8 inch (80 nm.) forward (to the south. Cost: 1 Command Fiche). USA conducted a reconnaissance task from the Tulagi Airfield on the nearest Japanese stack (no detection, due to bad dice. Cost: 1 Command Dice).
Second Command Fiche: Japan moves her second stack 8 inches to the south. USA (Tulagi airfield) conducts a second reconnaissance attempt against the nearest Japanese stack and reveals that this is JAP TF 02 (Light carrier). However also ‘unexpected event nr 3’ has been revealed with this action, so USA is now ‘punished’ with the fact that US radio codes have been expose to the enemy…
Third Command Fiche: Japan and USA moves each one of their stack 8 inches. Although the Japanese stack of TF 02 is revealed, an US strike against it is out of range. Tulagi airfield has only fighter squadrons and the strike aircraft of the US TF 01 are out of range.
Fourth Command Fiche: Japan conducts reconnaissance (probably from one of her 2 previous moved stacks) on the US stack to which US TF 01 belongs, but sees only 2 dummies… In return, USA (Tulagi Airfield) conducts a third reconnaissance on the stack of JAP TF 02 and reveals the Amphibious Group, destined for the airfield. During this reconnaissance proces I revealed also an ‘unexpected event’, resulting in a 6-inch repositioning (backwards) of the revealed Japanese TF 02 near the Solomon Islands. So the Japanese TF 02 was fully revealed and almost back to her starting position. But still out of range of US strike aircraft…
Fifth Command Fiche: Japan conducts a reconnaissance on another US stack, but finds only a ‘unexpected event’; resulting in 1 loss of an US ‘Command Fiche’ and 1 JAP gain of a ‘Command Fiche’! USA moves 1 stack 8 inch forward (to which US TF 01 belongs, but the opponent doesn’t know that).
Sixth Command Fiche: only Japan has a sixth Fiche. During a JAP reconnaissance on an US stack it encounters an ‘unexpected event’ and looses a  ‘Command Fiche’ (which she doesn’t have anymore this turn). USA gains a Command Fiche and uses this to move a stack 8 inches closer.

Turn 2 (USA initiative).
USA gets 6 Command Fiches, Japan 5. All Airwings are deployed again.
First Command Fiche: USA and JAP stacks move closer towards each other.

2nd Command Fiche: USA closes Japanese stacks. Japan conducts reconnaissance on an US stack full of dummies.
Third Command Fiche: USA conducts a successful reconnaissance on the nearest JAP stack. It finds JAP TF 01 (with 2 fleet carriers), but as this is still out of striking range, I decided to put this TF 01 Fiche back in the stack and not disclose this succes towards Japan. Japan conducts reconnaissance on an US stack full of dummies.
Fourth Command Fiche: USA reveals during reconnaissance an ‘unexpected event’ and looses (again!) a ‘Command Fiche’. The JAP Amphibious Group hides themselves in ‘the fog of war’ and is not visible anymore (and can not be attacked unless revealed again). The Japanese now have 1 extra ‘Command Fiche’.
Fifth Command Fiche: Tugla Airfield is unable to reveal the advancing JAP stack. The JAP stack comes closer and with their 6th (gained) Command Fiche, Japan attacks Tulagi Airfield. USA personnel destroys the remaining US aircraft and equipment, but the US presence on the Solomon islands is terminated… Two victory points for Japan!

Turn 3 (Japan initiative).
USA gets 6 Command Fiches, Japan 5. All Airwings are deployed again. What is the situation on the map? Given the fact that unrevealed stacks can only travel 8 inch/turn, it is near impossible for Japanese Amphibious Groups to reach the southern border of the map in the remaining turns…So the best option to gather more JAP Victory Points is to sink USA carriers. They are in range (JAP aircraft have a range advantage over USA strike aircraft) and have become more ‘visible’ as most US ‘dummy’ stacks now have been revealed.

First Command Fiche: Jap TF02 and Amphibious Group leaves Solomon islands and tries to rendez-vous with other JAP stacks. Note: this makes sense in a military way, but doesn’t help gathering Victory Points. USA fails to conduct a successful reconnaissance on a JAP stack.
Second Command Fiche: JAP stack (with 2 fleet carriers; USA knows this but didn't told JAP) and US stack (with 2 fleet carriers; officially unknown to JAP) closes each other.
Third Command Fiche: JAP reconnaissance attempt by 1 strike package reveals both US fleet carriers. As the USA ships are detected by strike aircraft on a reconnaissance mission, within striking range (and the fact that JAP is allowed within the rules to conduct coordinated attacks), the whole JAP airwing (18 attack squadrons) is allowed to deploy at once (!). US TF 01 is allowed to defend this reconnaissance-turned-into-attack by 8 fighter squadrons (CAP, in the picture as Fokker G-1 fighters) and AAW fire from her surface combatants. The outcome of the fight is determined by loads of dice.

USA fighters shoot down 3 attack squadrons and the AAW fire from the escorts shoots down only 2 attack squadrons, so 13 attack squadrons throw a lot of dice, resulting in hits on both USA carriers (throw of ‘6’) and hits on 3 destroyers. Carriers and destroyers sink, giving Japan an additional 2 Victory Points (1 for each carrier).
What can the USA still do? The revealed USA TF01 now only consist of cruisers and destroyers and can only attack the JAP TF01 by gunfire. However, it has no speed advantage over the Japanese fleet so it can’t come closer than the current 16 inch (160 nm.). Every future Command Fiche step the USA TF will be attacked by the Japanese carrier aircraft, until all USA ships are sunk…. So the only way is to try to sail away?

Anyhow, we decided that Japan won this Naval Wargame (and that -if this was for real- it probably had major impact on the next historic battle ‘Midway’! Or the intended JAP amphibious landing on North Western part of Australia…  

Verdict
The actual playtime of this naval wargame was approx. 2 hours. Personally I consider myself a tactical & miniatures Naval Wargamer with interest in simulations. Although I really appreciate the thinking proces of the game developer how to get the vast distances of carrier warfare and 'the fog of war' into the game, I missed the technical play of more tactical games. And the marvelous pictures in the Game book (see below) puts you on the wrong foot! As a player you're not standing on the bridge of a high value unit. The focus of the game is to achieve victory points (VP) on a very big map. USA started this game with 5 VP. According to the rules, USA retained at the end 5 VP’s but Japan had only gathered 4 VP, as there was no time left during the last 3 turns to get additional VP’s for getting JAP Amphibious Groups to the southern edge of the ‘battle space’. But everybody understands that Japan had won this specific Naval Wargame; not only tactical but also strategical: 2 USA carriers sunk and the Soloman islands free to occupy by JAP.

In the aftermath discussion I was advised that it probably was better if I had revealed the presence of the JAP TF 01 in turn 2 / 3rd Command Fiche. Because a revealed TF/stack can only sail with a speed of 4 inches/turn (vs. 8 inches/turn for an unrevealed stack). However… with the aim to get Amphibious ships from the Northern edge of the battle space to the Southern edge (with the solely reason to get VP’s) and my military sound (?) efforts to try to defend the Solomon islands by concentrating my stacks in that corner - which didn’t make sense in the play… I have my doubts if I like this kind of (almost) board game. Maybe I can get used to it? It has definitely positive things: you can play this quick, it requires much thinking and has a good detection phase. But you can't play this solo.

Vulcan MR: a possible maritime patrol aircraft (what if..?)

Because I am fond of the 1950’s Avro Vulcan strategic bomber (the shape, the sound…) and I have this book, ‘Nimrod’s Genesis’ (see the picture), I decided I needed a ‘What if....?’ Vulcan miniature for my modern Naval Wargaming. Not as a strategic nuclear bomber, but as a Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA).

The book describes the history of the British ‘Operational Requirement 350’, the replacement proces of the Avro Shackleton Maritime Reconnaissance (MR) plane of the 1950s and 1960’s. One of the possible replacements was apparently an adapted Avro Vulcan B2 bomber, as ‘Vulcan MR’. Anyhow, ‘Requirement 350’ stirred up some discussions so a better OR was issued in 1963: OR 357. And another, OR 381… Finally it was decided in 1966 to develop the Hawker Siddeley ‘Nimrod MR’ out of a civilian airliner, the ‘Comet’. And the rest is history as they say.

As I mostly use the ‘Naval Command’ rule set for modern Naval Wargaming, I tried to develop some statistics for the ‘Vulcan MR’ (as this is obviously not in the fleetlist UK). The ‘Vulcan MR’ was developed with a 9-person crew (including 2 pilots) with forward and rear-looking radars, 120 sonobuoys and 8 torpedoes. The data is not conclusive about which radar would be used, so I decided to take a radar rating between ‘Shackelton’ (+1), S-2 'Tracker' (+2) and P-2 ‘Neptune’ MPA’s.

EW-value: 8; Defence: 9 (mainly because of high speed); Air-to-Air: 0 (speed); Air-to-surface: 0; Radar: +2; ESM: 1 (?)

Loadout: ASW; 8 x Mk 44/46 torpedoes or depth charges. Sonobuoys (Sonar: +1, 4 turns on scene); possible MAD (pod under the wing?)

What do you think?

The other pictures are of 1:600 scale models of Vulcan bomber (painted as a Vulcan MR) and a Nimrod MPA.

Actually... in the 1970's Vulcan B2 bombers have been used a couple of years (1973-1976?) in a 'MRR' role (Maritime Radar Reconnaissance). The H2S Mk9 (bombing) radar of the Vulcan could perform wide area surveillance from high altitude to provide a 'surface' picture. This was very handy to keep an eye on the expanding deployments of the Soviet Navy, control the Exclusive Economic Zone and during the 3rd 'Cod War' (with Iceland). But those Vulcans had no additional operators on board or anti-submarine capability as the 'MR' version would get...

Battle Report: 1942 Indian Ocean Raid ('Naval Thunder' Rule Set)

This Naval Wargame is a scenario that could have happened in the Spring of 1942. The Indian Ocean raid, also known as ‘Operation C’ or Battle of Ceylon in Japanese, was a naval sortie carried out by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) from 31 March to 10 April 1942. Japanese intentions to mount a major offensive into the Indian Ocean were placed on hold in March 1942; strong naval forces were needed in the western Pacific against the United States, and the Japanese Army refused to allocate troops for an invasion of Ceylon. In response, the IJN developed Operation C, a plan for an aggressive raid into the Indian Ocean in early April. Operation C aimed to destroy the British Eastern Fleet, and disrupt British lines of communications in the Bay of Bengal in support of the Burma Campaign.

This Naval Wargame is not 100% historic accurate, but an possible engagement between a Japanese Taskgroup and a British Taskgroup. Both Taskgroups consist of 1 Battleship, 2 heavy cruisers and 2 fleet destroyers. No submarines or aircraft are involved. As we used the Naval Wargame Rules of ‘Naval Thunder’ the intention was 2 Taskgroups of comparable strength. We started ‘building’ those Taskgroups with comparable points within the limits of ship types. 
Battleships: the 16-inch gun 1920s Japanese ‘Nagato’ (not limited by any Treaty; re-engined and re-armoured in 1934-’36; 668 points) vs the 14-inch gun 1940s ‘King George V’ (limited by the Washington- and London Naval Treaties; 663 points).
Heavy cruisers: the 8-inch gun 1930s Japanese ‘Nachi’ (within limits of the 1922 Washington Treaty; 198 points) and the 8-inch gun 1920s scout-cruiser ‘Furutaka’ (re-armed and re-engined in 1930s; 127 points). The British heavy cruisers were the 8-inch gun 1920s ‘Kent’-class HMS Berwick (Washington Treaty limits; 161 points) and of almost similar design HMS Norfolk (Washington Treaty limits; 142 points). The Japanse cruisers had the advantage of carrying a longer range heavier torpedo and (together) had a little more points than the radar equipped British.
Fleet destroyers: the Japanese had 2 destroyers of 1940s ‘Kagero’-class (not limited by a Navy Treaty; 68 points each), equipped with six 5-inch guns and the Type 93 ‘Long Lance’ 24-inch torpedo. The British had 2 destroyers of the 1940s ’N'-class (London Treaty limits; 65 points each), equipped with six 4.7-inch radar guided guns and standard 21-inch torpedoes.
So the British Taskgroup had a more ‘standardized’ group of ships, but the Japanese had this 16-inch gun battleship, more potent heavy cruiser ‘Nachi’ and long range torpedoes… Britain had 1096 points; Japan: 1129 points.

Tactical situation:
It is Spring 1942. The Japanese Surface Action Taskgroup is sailing in the Indian Ocean, in front of their carrier Taskgroup, looking for British warships. British intelligence has got knowledge of this and the Royal Navy has dispatched a Surface Action Taskgroup to find the Japanese. All British ships are radar equipped. The Japanese still rely on their visual fire control means.. No air support is available.
Set Up:
Rules: Naval Thunder Battleship Row (& ‘Bitter Rivals’ extension). We didn’t use any optional Rules. The Rules don’t roll for ‘initiative’; manoeuvres and gun battles are supposed to happen simultaneously. 1:3000 scale ships (NAVWAR & Fijimi). Seamat: 6 x 4 ft. Distances in inch. Starting positions: 38 inches apart. There is no specific detection phase and we figured out that the distance scale in use is approx. 1 km. per inch? Following the suggestions within the Rules, the ships can open fire from turn 1. A big difference compared the Naval Wargame Rules for post-WW2 engagements: finding the enemy and building a ‘recognized maritime picture’ is a key feature of those Games. 

Turn 1

HMS King George V (blue flag) sails towards the enemy. On her port side is a British line-formation of 2 ’N’-class destroyers followed by 2 heavy cruisers. At the horizon a Japanese battleship is visible, accompanied with several smaller warships. The bigger Japanese ships change course to port, in order to be able to use all their heavy guns. Two Japanese smaller ships, probably destroyers, speed forward, towards the English line formation. The British battleship fires with her 10 x 14-inch guns at her opponent battleship, taking out 1 main

battery turret of ‘Nagato’. In the same time Nagato fires with her main battery (8 x 16-inch) at the cruiser HMS Berwick, hitting her, resulting in a minor flooding (blue droplet counter). Her (older) secondary battery also fires at HMS Berwick but miss. HMS Berwick fires all her 8-inch guns at medium range at the incoming Japanese destroyers and hits ‘Kagero’ 3 times, destroying the ship at once. HMS Norfolk fires at long range at the second ‘Kagero’-class destroyer and hits her in the engine room, resulting in a speed limit. The Japanese cruisers fire also at the British cruisers: the ‘Nachi’ fires her main guns (10 x 8-inch) at long range and secondary guns at HMS Berwick, resulting in multiple penetrating hits and mounting damage… ’Furutaka’ fires at HMS Norfolk at long range with her 6 main guns and destroys her torpedo mount on port side. Both British destroyers and 1 remaining Japanese destroyer fire at each other, without hitting.

Turn 2
The British formation continuous course and speed. The Japanese adjust their course a little to improve shooting chances.
HMS King George V fires her 10 main guns (radar guided) at medium range at battleship ‘Nagato’. Two penetrating hits results in rudder damage, fire and flooding.. Firing with her secondary battery against Japanese cruiser ‘Nachi’ missed. ‘Nagato’ fires for a second time at HMS Berwick with her main and secondary guns but all missed! (bad dice).
The damaged cruiser HMS Berwick fires at medium range (22,5 inch) with her 8-inch guns at the remaining (damaged) ’Kagero’-class destroyer and sinks her. HMS Norfolk had trained her guns on this target as well, but the Japanese vessel was already a sinking wreck…
‘Nachi’ keeps firing at HMS Berwick at long range, but missed with all 10 guns! The older ‘Furutaka’ fires again at the last British cruiser in the line-formation and hits her twice, resulting in flooding.    
The 2 British destroyers fire with their 4.7-inch guns at the ‘Nachi’ at extreme range, but all miss. 
During the Damage Control Check, HMS Berwick has accumulated a lot of damage (38 hull points out of a total of 44 during 2 turns) and conducts a command check: positive; so remains in the formation. The flooding of HMS Norfolk results in a severe list, influencing her speed and weaponry. The ‘Nagato’ manages to repair 1 rudder but the other rudder will play havoc with her maneuverability…

Turn 3

The damaged rudder of ‘Nagato’ forces the battleship 90 degrees to port, away form the British Taskgroup. Both Japanese heavy cruisers adjust their course to keep their guns towards the British. The British line-formation is broken up: the damaged cruisers turns port towards the ‘Nachi’ and both destroyers speed forward at max. speed towards the enemy and prepare for a torpedo attack.

To support her destroyers to get closer to the enemy, HMS King George V fires with all her main guns at ‘Nachi’ at medium range: only 1 critical hit, taking out one of her secondary guns. Her secondary guns hit a secondary gun of ‘Nachi’. ‘Nagato’ can, due to her rudder manoeuvre only fire with her aft turret but misses at King George V.
HMS Berwick fires with 2 forward 8-inch turrets at medium range at ‘Nachi’ and takes out 1 main turret.. However at the same time the very capable ‘Nachi’ returns fire with four 8-inch turrets at medium range at HMS Berwick. The 2 penetrating hits, resulting in fire and additional flooding, finishes her off and HMS Berwick sinks with the loss of many crew… HMS Norfolk, under severe list, fires also at ‘Nachi’ with her 2 forward turrets. Only hitting once… ‘Furutaka’ fires at HMS Norfolk and hits a main battery turret (white square counter)!
Both British destroyers are closing the enemy. They fire their 4.7-inch guns ‘Nachi’, resulting in smaller damage.

      During the Damage Control Check ‘Nagato’ repairs her second rudder and is maneuverable again! HMS Norfolk, the remaining British cruiser, is unable to keep the ongoing flooding within limits. The severe list remains, her speed is halved and her weaponry is limited.
So, the Japanese Taskgroup lost her destroyers in the battle, but has still an operational, slightly damaged battleship and 2 operational heavy cruisers. The British have an undamaged battleship, 2 destroyers and a very damaged cruiser…

Turn 4
Both battleships turn to port and continue a course so they can fire at each other at medium range. 1 British destroyer speeds towards ‘Nagato’ and the other towards both Japanese heavy cruisers. Both Japanese cruisers, now close together, focus mainly on HMS Norfolk, partly because their 8-inch guns have a challenge to penetrate the very robust armour of HMS King George V.
‘Nagato’ 6 remaining 16-inch guns miss HMS King George V at medium range, but her secondary battery fires succesfully at 9,5 inch at the fast closing British destroyer and sinks her! HMS King George V fires her 10 x 14-inch guns at medium range at ‘Nagato’, resulting in 4 devastating penetrating hits: flooding, fire, destruction of a secondary gun and damage in an engine room… 
Her secondary battery fires at medium range at ‘Nachi’, resulting in fire and rudder damage!

HMS Norfolk fires also at ‘Nachi’ at medium range and damages a 8-inch main turret and adds flooding… ‘Nachi’ returns fire at HMS Norfolk with 3 remaining 8-inch turrets and damages another sec. battery and torpedo mount onboard the now crippled cruiser. ‘Furutaka’ fires at HMS King George V at medium range with 6 x 8-inch guns without being able to penetrate her armour…
The remaining British destroyer (picture above, right hand corner) opens fire at short range with all her 4.7-inch guns at ‘Nachi’: 5 hits. Fire spreads, all sec. guns of ‘Nachi’ starboard side are damaged. At 4 inch distance the destroyer launches 2 salvo’s of 5 x 21-inch torpedo’s at the smoking heavy cruiser.. ‘Nachi’ launches almost simultaneously her 24-inch long-range torpedoes at HMS King George V…. A whopping amount of 6 British torpedo’s hit ‘Nachi’ and she sinks.. The Japanese torpedoes miss HMS King George V. 
During the Damage Control Check ‘Nagato’ (picture below, left side) has accumulated a lot of damage lately: her remaining speed is ‘1’ and therefor is not allowed to make any course changes… HMS Norfolk is still floating (just). The Japanese Taskgroup is now severely handicapped and limited: her battleship is crippled in enemy territory and will have great problems to reach a safe harbour for repairs. She can only be escorted by the heavy cruiser ‘Furutaka’ (in the middle of the picture), which seemed out-maneuvered for the end-fase of this naval wargame. Battleship HMS King George V is almost not damaged, in full fighting order. Unfortunately British destroyers don’t carry torpedo reloads onboard, so she cannot finish off the Japanese battleship or heavy cruiser. And the torpedo mounts of HMS Norfolk have been hit during this battle…

Turn 5

‘Nagato’ is unable to turn towards a safe haven and prepares for her final battle. The crew can only hope that the Japanese carriers are in range and manage to send aircraft to attack the British Taskgroup… HMS King George V closes in on ‘Nagato’…
‘Nagato’ fires with 6 x 16-inch guns at medium range (23 inch) at HMS King George V. One penetrating hit, resulting in flooding. Her sec. battery fires at long range (24 inch) at HMS Norfolk, destroying a main battery and damaging her engine room! In return, the British battleship fires with her main battery of 10 guns at an almost stationary ‘Nagato’ at medium range. 6 hits of which 3 penetrating. Damage: main battery, sec. battery and minor flooding… The sec. battery of HMS King George V fires at 12 inch distance at ‘Furutaka’: 2 penetrating hits, damaging her sec. battery and generating flooding.
‘Furutaka’ tries to finish off HMS Norfolk: her 6 main guns fires at short range at the crippled HMS Norfolk, while HMS NorfolK struggles to defend herself. The severe list of the British cruiser prevents proper use of her main guns; only the sec. battery has the elevation to reach the Japanese cruiser. Only 1 hit on ‘Furutaka’, resulting in additional flooding. The Japanese cruiser has less problems hitting her enemy: 2 penetrating 8-inch hits on HMS Norfolk are the last nail on her coffin: she sinks. The sec. battery of ‘Furutaka’ fires at the British destroyer and damages one of her forward twin guns.
However, this British destroyer fired at short range at ‘Furutaka’ as well and hit her 3 times (penetrating)! The annoying destroyer managed to take out one of her 8-inch twin turrets, starts a fire and damage her engine room… 
During the Damage Control Check: the continuing flooding of ‘Nagato’ results in complete loss of speed! Her main battery is now halved (4 guns remaining). The fighting value of heavy cruiser ‘Furutaka’ is limited due to loss of some main guns, accumulating damage and engineering challenges. The British lost their crippled heavy cruiser and the only valuable asset they have is a fully operational, lightly damaged battleship. Her flooding is stopped. The N-class destroyer has very limited value: no torpedoes and 60% of her gun-armament left.  

Turn 6
Both Japanese ships can’t manoeuvre very much. HMS King George V maneuvers towards a favorable position to shoot at the dead in the water ‘Nagato’. 
‘Nagato’ fires at short range at HMS King George V. She can only use 4 main guns. One sec. battery is damaged onboard the British battleship. Although the 140 mm sec. battery of ‘Nagato’ hits the British battleship 3 times, non are penetrating. HMS King George V is determined to revenge the sinking of HMS Norfolk and fires with all she has on ‘Furutaka’ at a close range of 7,5 inch. 5 penetrating hits is the final blow to the older cruiser and she sinks, unable to fight back.

Turn 7
The only remaining Japanese ship is dead in the water. The British battleship fires her 10 main guns at short range: 8 hits, of which 4 penetrating. Another main battery is destroyed and twice the engine room is hit. Hits by the British sec. battery starts a fire, but that is quickly extinguished by the Japanese crew.. Although at the same time 2 main Japanese 16-inch twin turrets return fire at HMS King George V (damaging a British sec. battery) the situation is hopeless for Japan. At the end of this last turn the ‘Nagato’ has only 1 main twin turret left, speed 0 and no hope for survival… The British Taskgroup, at great cost, stopped the Japanese incursion into the Indian Ocean.   

Verdict
This was our second ‘Naval Thunder’ ruled Naval Wargame. Although both Taskgroups looked similar, we both were a little puzzled by the outcome. I feared the mighty 16-inch guns of ‘Nagato’ but bad dice of my opponent didn’t help those guns. Radar guided guns (like the British) made a difference probably? And destroyers can sink quickly (3 destroyers during this game), but with some luck and courage they can sink a cruiser or battleship!
Most gun duels were at medium range during this encounter. It really becomes dangerous for an opponent when you fire at close range… Nice to see how the torpedo rules actually worked.
I am still struggling making notes on the ships data cards (as I also made notes for this blog), so it was quite difficult to read my notes.