Here are more updates to the map, once again opinions on which setup you prefer would be epic. (This is mostly on whether or not changing the hexes here and there should or should not be done).
I think this looks really good. It is similar to SWWaS and it is very much in line with the campaign rules that I'm working on (based on A&A Guadalcanal) - your delivery of Vital Cargo pts to build airfields is very close to what I'm doing! A&A Guad gives additional build points ($$$) for each island they control with ground forces, that may be worth looking at.
10 spaces for a patrol bomber is on the low end; 12-14 would be more accurate for the types in this campaign. Or you could consider having them stay airborne for 2 turns (e.g. move 12-14 on turn 1, stay on map for air return, move 12-14 on turn 2 back to base - maybe that's too clunky though. Could treat air return as 2nd air move phase, 6 + 6 turn 1, then again on turn 2).
I give carriers -1 Vital Armor per rearming aircraft to reflect ordinance and fuel on deck.
Can airfields, etc. be attacked?
I think the victory conditions can use a little tweaking - if Japan conquers Port Moresby and sinks 7 US capital ships, but loses just 1 cap ship they won't win? The US could concentrate on sinking a cap ship early on then the only Japanese path to victory would be to conquer the entire Solomons. Japan could have a VC inverse to US #2: Build airfield on Bougainville AND control Choiseul, New Georgia and Guadalcanal. What if US achieved VC #2 but lost 10 cap ships? You could add something like "sink at least x more cap ships than your opponent". It's always hard pinning this kind of stuff down to account for all the possibilities. Just throwing out some more food for thought.
btw, the scenario I'm working on now for a Feb game con is the Battle of San Bernardino Strait - TF34 vs. Center Force...
I think this looks really good. It is similar to SWWaS and it is very much in line with the campaign rules that I'm working on (based on A&A Guadalcanal) - your delivery of Vital Cargo pts to build airfields is very close to what I'm doing! A&A Guad gives additional build points ($$$) for each island they control with ground forces, that may be worth looking at.
10 spaces for a patrol bomber is on the low end; 12-14 would be more accurate for the types in this campaign. Or you could consider having them stay airborne for 2 turns (e.g. move 12-14 on turn 1, stay on map for air return, move 12-14 on turn 2 back to base - maybe that's too clunky though. Could treat air return as 2nd air move phase, 6 + 6 turn 1, then again on turn 2).
I give carriers -1 Vital Armor per rearming aircraft to reflect ordinance and fuel on deck.
Can airfields, etc. be attacked?
I think the victory conditions can use a little tweaking - if Japan conquers Port Moresby and sinks 7 US capital ships, but loses just 1 cap ship they won't win? The US could concentrate on sinking a cap ship early on then the only Japanese path to victory would be to conquer the entire Solomons. Japan could have a VC inverse to US #2: Build airfield on Bougainville AND control Choiseul, New Georgia and Guadalcanal. What if US achieved VC #2 but lost 10 cap ships? You could add something like "sink at least x more cap ships than your opponent". It's always hard pinning this kind of stuff down to account for all the possibilities. Just throwing out some more food for thought.
btw, the scenario I'm working on now for a Feb game con is the Battle of San Bernardino Strait - TF34 vs. Center Force...
Thanks!! I don't know about giving moniz for islands, though. The islands themselves weren't actually resourceful and if things got desperate, more assets were sent into the theatre, not less.
I know, but I also want it to be difficult to just bomb the other end of the island chain, particularly for the Japanese player who starts with an airfield on Bougainville. Perhaps dividing patrol bombers into attack bombers like G4M's and B-25s and true patrol bombers like PBY's and H8K's is necessary.
That's an excellent idea. Will definitely make using your carriers more nerve-racking.
Yes, I forgot to write about that. I don't think they should have armor/vital armor values though, since they can be rebuilt within a few days since it's just a flat strip of dirt, so maybe taking a number of successes from a bombardment and using that to determine how long until it is flying out aircraft again would be a good idea. Giving a bonus to Haruna for her SA will also be cool.
I made a simple typo that was HEAVILY misleading on that count. If Japan gets Port Moresby and Guadalcanal they win, or if they sink 7 cap ships for no losses they win. I like the way the ship loss victory conditions look though, since the US ended up replacing its losses very quickly during 1943 and Japan... did not. Regardless, I think that ship losses will not be the cause of the game ending, since if even a small few are badly damaged and sent back for repairs, those repairs may last past the end of the campaign, and it won't be possible to sink enough cap ships (this happened IRL, with Saratoga, Enterprise, Shokaku, and Zuikaku all being forced to leave the theatre, causing the rest of the naval combat to be cruiser and destroyer engagements). The "at least x more" is a good idea, though. It must also be said that Japan has a big head start to conquer the entire chain since they had troops on quite a few of the islands at the start date. The way I wrote these win conditions was to give each side a sort of ethos; the Japanese go for a swift victory while the Americans have to try and drag it out, but actual playtesting is undoubtedly necessary.
If you extend the patrol bomber range Betty's, etc. would be able to attack but w/o fighter escort so they'd be vulnerable to local CAP. If fighter defense was strong enough it would deter unescorted bombing runs, making it necessary to build airfields within fighter range, which is exactly what the entire Solomons campaign was based on.
I really like reducing CV vital armor for rearming planes. It definitely adds another element. In my Midway scenario it led to lots of strategy and counter-strategy to try and catch the opponent's carriers while rearming. I did 1 rearming counter for <=10 sectors, 2 for >10 (long range rules w some mods). Here's another bit - CV or Airbase damaged by Bomb or Gunnery w landed Aircraft, Roll 2d6 per aircraft:
2-9, No Effect
10-11, Add 1 Rearming marker
12, Aircraft destroyed
Here's my current plan for A&A Guadalcanal airfield damage. In the board game you need 3 supply tokens to build an airfield, 1 supply will repair a damaged airfield.
To build an airfield, spend 60 points of Vital Cargo (VC) on an island zone that you control that has an empty airfield slot. Place an airfield marker on that island zone. (so 1 supply token = 20 VC). Capacity = 6 aircraft, capacity is lost as airfield takes damage.
Damage (VC)
Capacity
0
6
4
5
7
4
10
3
14
2
17
1
20
0
Attacks against airfields will be resolved using WaS. If defending shore batteries are present in the island zone, any ships attacking the airfield must end the preceding sea combat within gunnery range of the airfield. Attacking units roll their usual number of attack dice but score successes according to the table below [not shown, modified from normal 4+ for A&A Guad] (each 6 still counts as 2 successes). Aircraft may attack airfields during each Air Attack phase that they are assigned there. Every 2 successes (round down) cause 1 point of damage to the airfield. Maximum damage for an airfield is capped at 40 points. Units with the following special abilities gain additional dice when attacking an airfield: Battery Silencer +1, Bombard +2, Shore Support +2.
In A&A Guad, Attack Airfields is a different phase than Sea Combat but I'm thinking about combining it with that phase. In that case the airfields would be Installations WaS stats. here's what I used in Midway:
Seaplane Base, Cap 5, Armor 3, VA 12, HP 5, AA5, Installation 10, Coastal Facility, Seaplane Base, Efficient Facilities
Island Airbase, Cap 6, Armor 3, VA 14, HP 6, AA5, Installation 12, Coastal Facility, Airstrip
Each island also had a medium shore battery with another AA5.
For Guadalcanal/Solomons the armor would probably need to be increased or they'd be too vulnerable. For your campaign repairing 1 HP per day seems about right.
I thought there may have been a typo in your victory conditions. Makes a lot more sense now. I get what you're going for.
I'll definitely post my scenario when it's ready. I actually have 8 historical scenarios that I've run at game cons since WaS game out. I'll get around to posting all of them eventually!
Sorry, haven't really had time to do this stuff for a bit. Here's a few updates:
Japan has control of Lae on the F3 Hex. At the start of the game there are no installations there. (I'm not sure how I forgot about this place)
I still have to do a little research to see how many troops there should be at the start on each territory.
Land combat should take place once per strategic turn, making it significantly longer overall and shorter on a turn-by-turn basis.
I think that a normal armor/vital armor damage system for the airfields and airstrips may not work for this version. So, I propose the following damage system, which takes into account the fact that airfields, being large stretches of flat dirt, aren't exactly destructible (and are extremely easy to repair):
Airfields, airstrips, and seaplane bases can all be bombed and can be bombarded by surface ships if they are within gun range of the coastline. You may go into the map and conduct 3 gunnery rolls with each sea unit you seek to conduct the bombardment with and also has sufficient range to hit the installation (you may use primary, secondary, and tertiary gunnery, and 3 rolls of each, if available).
Add up all of the successes scored during the bombardment, every 8 successes will put an airfield or airstrip into need for 1 turn of repairs, during which it cannot service aircraft. This can also be done to airfields and airstrips that are already conducting repairs or are not yet completed. If it would take more turns to repair the airfield than to complete it from scratch, it is considered destroyed. Air units bombing an installation use the same means of damaging it, however, hi-level bombers score successes on 4s and 5s. Any single bomb or gunnery roll which includes at least three 6’s will have the will destroy one aircraft that is on the installation. The aircraft destroyed will be chosen randomly via dice roll.
This will count as one ammunition use for each ship that participates. If there are enemy ships in the sector, a naval battle will occur and if the player has a sea unit use main gun attacks against both ships and the installation, the whole encounter counts as 2 ammunition uses.
However, something similar to what you mentioned for Seaplane bases does make sense, since that would be equivalent to blowing up a bunch of fuel and ammunition storage which isn't easily fixed.
I'll be making extremely basic versions of the tactical maps shortly.
Other than that, I'd like to get a test match going sooner rather than later, if anyone is interested!
I have had quite a busy time, but yall can expect me to post basic versions of the tactical maps for the hexes in the Solomons chain (I'm excluding New Guinea and such for now) at some point next month. When I do this I'll post a thread in the Online Matches board and get two people who want to try (I'll play sort of like a gamemaster since I'll want to work out the wording in the PDF rules that I post along with it).