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Campaign Overview
After Action Report: Solomon Islands…
(Text in Italics is from the Japanese player side, regular Text is from the US player side)
Day 3
Looking at targets for this turn, I’m actually relieved to see the Japanese will finally have some targets. I decide to protect Guadalcanal with 4 fighters, Bougainville with 2 Corsairs and I’ll attack a task force off Munda with 2 SBD’s with 2 Corsairs for escort. This will leave all of my fighter pilots at least somewhat tired for the last turn, but I have to start gaining some points somewhere. I hate to see a juicy 6-point target at Rabaul go by without attacking, but it would be suicide to send any of my other extremely fatigued bombers out this turn. Making sure I have actually allocated all of my aircraft this time, I (with some trepidation) click the Execute button…
Good target mix. I’ve got some juicy ones to go bomb! Good targets in all regions. The bad point is, my fighters are tired. To cover my own targets I’m going to have to send in lots of unescorted bombers. If he sends fighters to those areas a lot of my bombers are going to die.
For the most part I’m going to try and steal a few easy points here and there and hope he decides to rest in preparation for the last Day. I’ve noticed that the second to the last Day is a good time to sneak away with some points as people are usually resting their guys for the final Day. With luck, I can gain enough points this turn to put my victory out of his reach on the last Day.
I’m resting my M5 element and Tony element in preparation for turn #4. The last turn is always big with lots of planes in the air. My own pilots are starting to get thinned, as I feared at the start. A combination of being fatigued and getting shot down a lot is reducing my pilot roster.
Wow, Dan went all out this turn, sending aircraft to every sector of the map. He gained 3 points by default in Rabaul and Santa Isabel, as I didn’t challenge him there, but I can pick up 7 points in the other zones. And better yet, I’m the one attacking unescorted bombers, and I can only hope his fare as poorly as mine did.
Battle 1 – Guadalcanal - 4x Corsair vs 4x Betty
As the Betty’s droned over Guadalcanal, my Corsairs ripped into them in a most effective manner. As Dan had done unto me, I did unto him and sent 3 of his bombers crashing into the jungle below. One managed to evade long enough to drop its ordnance though, which damaged the target enough to cheat me from getting any points here. Two of his crews went into the jungle with their aircraft, which means 2 less Betty’s to worry about on the final turn.
Battle 2 – Munda – 2x SBD, 2x Corsair vs 2x A6M2
My Corsairs proved their worth yet again, shooting down both interceptors as my Dauntlesses made it through to the target unscathed and sank a Destroyer. The pilots of the downed Zeros safely bailed out, so I’m sure to meet them again on the final turn. Things are finally looking up now.
Battle 3 – 4x Corsair vs 4x Kate
With my fighters starting at High and Very High altitude, it took a few precious turns for them to be able to engage the low flying torpedo bombers. What should have been a turkey shoot ended in disaster, as despite downing two bombers the Corsairs were unable to save a Destroyer from going to the bottom. There goes my very short winning streak.
So the end of Turn 3 leaves us with a score of 10 to 7 in Dan’s favour. I hate to keep complaining about my own stupidity, but those 8 points from the second turn Rabaul mission sure would be nice to have right about now.
Not bad at all. I lost a fair number of pilots and bomber crews, but I should still have enough to hang on to the lead. By flooding the map with aircraft I was able to come away with some extra points.
My bombers actually did better than I had hoped. Their defensive fire was better than average and his fighters were looking a bit tired.
