Reply To: Guadalcanal naval campaign 1942 project

[Admiral Hawke]

Apologies for my lack of updates about my progress with this project.

I conducted a small game to test the rules (posted here: https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/forums/topic/kawakaze-versus-blue-22nd-august-1942/). That revealed three flaws in using my chosen Grand Fleets rules (http://www.mj12games.com/grandfleets/) for the night fighting off Guadalcanal in 1942. I don’t generally tinker with rules, but three things bothered me, particularly when combined.

Sighting
The visibility rules in Grand Fleets are well developed. The range at which ships can be sighted depends on:

1. light conditions (whether it’s day or night and the state of the moon);
2. weather conditions (such as fog, rain and snow);
3. the size of the target (smaller ships are harder to see); and
4. the size of the spotting ship (lookouts are higher up in bigger ships).

However, the visibility distance is fixed by those parameters, so there is no element of chance and no reflection of the skill of a trained and alert lookout compared with an untrained, exhausted one. As written, Japanese and American ships of the same size spot each other at the same moment, which doesn’t reflect history.

Radar
In Grand Fleets radar plays a role in gunnery, but not in sighting enemy ships. The visibility rules take no account of whether a ship was fitted with radar or not. Yet SG radar, in particular, gave the American ships fitted with it, such as the cruiser Helena, the ability to spot approaching Japanese ships long before they were visible with binoculars. In practice, the American commanders often failed to profit from that ability. But radar ought to play a role in who spots who first.

Initiative
The initiative plays a crucial role in Grand Fleets. The side or squadron with the initiative moves last and fires first, giving a substantial tactical advantage. As written, the initiative is determined primarily by a roll of the dice, though more able commanders have an advantage (see page 8 in the demo game rules here: http://www.mj12games.com/grandfleets/gf3demo.pdf). I think the side that spots the enemy first should usually have the initiative in that first turn.

The problem that stems from these three is that, given the close ranges and high speeds of night actions, ships need to react to spotting the enemy as the range closes during their movement, rather than simply continuing on their previous course.

Overall, the rules are just fine for gaming an engagement between two fleets on a clear sunny day when both sides can see the other coming. The combination is not so effective for the night actions in the Solomons in 1942 (or daylight actions in the misty North Sea in 1914) when ships that spotted their opponents first were at a substantial tactical advantage.

So I spent some time thinking about how to tweak the rules to reflect the advantage that comes from spotting the enemy first.