Rules 1.5 beta: overpowered defenders in air battles

Fleet special rule cards have also been added to the command station cards folder on the Onedrive.

Ok, I've refreshed the rulebook in the Onedrive and made the changes we discussed to try out. I also added some quick Fuel tokens to the tokens .pdf

Last on my list for now is to make the changes in the database and the fleet builder. All carriers need to be changed to include the launch/land capacity text in the special rules section.

Thank you.

We tried the new rules, we see some problems with it.
For simplicity, let's say we have a 1-on-1 carrier battle. Let's call the first discovered carrier the defender. As soon as the defender is revealed, he can have 2 flights CAP in the air. It does not make sense for him to chase the scout who revealed him, he would rather stay in the air as CAP (I am not sure about how much fuel he has according to your rules, but let's say he has to land the next turn). Then the attacker decides to do a First Strike normally with 6 flights (becuase of launching limit). The defender will play a CAP order, thus will have 4 CAPs in the air. He can also launch two more flights with 4 fuel that will perform CAP from next turn on. This means defender is having a least 4 CAP every turn.
There is no way the attacker attacks against such force, especially with First Strike which has the risk of failing. We ended up with no attacks.

I still feel that most problems could be solved by allowing flights/groups to move in the activation phase, just as ships can maneuver. This would be clean and simple, plus aligns with ships movements. I vote for simplicity.

Crap, I typed a very long post and then lost it because of a timeout...

Short recap:
Allowing movement in the activation phase will not help against the problem you described. You will still face 4 CAP. I did not think through that the CAP order and the rule for the CAP in the air enforced each other. Removing the initial CAP rule or reducing both the rule and the order to 1 flights would come a long way to solve that first strike problem.

The bigger problem is that you can't keep a player from keeping a max CAP up after the first turn. So ways have to be found to subvert that. If he keeps such a large CAP up he cannot launch any strikes, so why not send along more fighters in the attack? Or group up a larger force over more turns to overwhelm the CAP?
The key lies in attrition of fighter flights.

I'm going to set up some gaming situations myself when in the coming days and game it out some more. I'll let you know what I find.

That sucks

Sorry, I was not specific enough: I meant flight moving in activation phase together with having to designate CAPs at launch time (they get fuel for 1 turn then). That way defender cannot keep more than 3 CAP flights in two consecutive turns (with limited capacities for land/launch).

Anyways, please do run tests with your suggestions. I am sure there is a solution that will fit nicely. If you can, please combine them with hidden deployment - that caused us headaches (like we do not see how revealing the enemy first gives real benefit. Best tactic seems to be do nothing and prepare for strong air defense ).

So, I’ve made a test-run with Shokaku + escort vs Enterprise + escort
I maxed out the fighter loadouts, so both carriers have 5 fighters.
I made 2 changes up front to try out. I reduced the allowed CAP upon discovery to 1 flight with 1 fuel token. And I used a rule that allowed the side that discovered the opponent first to immediately gain the ‘Battlestations!’ order token.

The Japanese sighted the US first, so they started the turn with 3 order tokens (rear admiral+squadron+Battlestations!) vs 2 american (rear admiral+squadron). Both sides start with 1 fighter flight in the air.

Turn 1
Prep phase
- IJN launches an air group of 6 (2 zero’s, 2 Val’s, 2 Kate’s)
- USN tries to scramble CAP, is disrupted and rolls a 1. No extra CAP. He launches 2 Wildcats instead.
- IJN plays Kido Butai, is disrupted, but rolls successfully. He launches 1 extra Kate, 1 Val and one Zero. The Kate and Val join the airgroup, bringing their number to 8.
- Enterprise launches 4 more flights, 2 Wildcats and 2 Dauntlesses.
- Next the IJN plays First strike and is successful. The airgroup moves near Enterprise.
Activation phase
- IJN air group attacks Enterprise. They lose a Zero to the CAP, a Val breaks off. 6 Flights attack, 3 more are chased off by AA.
- Enterprise plays Evasive Action successfully. All hits are halved, but the attackers still do 4 damage and damage the DP guns on Enterprise.
- US airgroup moves near Shokaku
End phase
- Enterprise fails to fix her DP guns
Turn 2
Prep phase
- Enterprise has half launch/land capacity due to evasive maneuvers. Launches 2 Dauntlesses and lands the CAP wildcat.
- IJN lands the CAP Zero.
- US plays first strike, but fails.
Remaining actions
- IJN airgroup returns to Shokaku
- US first airgroup circles near shokaku, the US Dauntlesses and one Wildcat (with 3 remaining fuel) move towards the airgroup and merge into an airgroup (with hindsight I should have done this next turn as it is an activation) of 7. One Wildcat stays with enterprise.
- Enterprise repairs her DP gun.
Turn 3
Prep phase
- IJN scrambles, is disrupted. Only one Zero launches bringing her CAP to 3.
- Japanese land 5 of the 6 incoming flights. Remaining flight has 1 token left so can land next turn.
- US launches 4 more aircraft in new air group.
Activations phase
- The first US air group attacks the Shokaku. CAP swoops in and kills a wildcat and breaks off a dauntless. Loses 2 Zero’s in return.
- IJN AA is effective and breaks off a further 3 flights. 2 Dauntlesses attack and cause 3 damage and a fire.
Remaining actions phase
- IJN plays All hands on deck! But fails. Also fails the damage control roll with a 1 so gains one further fire.
- US Air group returns to Enterprise
Turn 4
- IJN cannot land or launch due to fire. They will lose the loitering Kate due to fuel shortage at the end of the turn.
- US lands 6 flights
Turn 5, called the game because of time and because I tested what I wanted.


In the end it was quite an exciting game with a lot of action. I tried to play it defensively for the US at the start, but a failed Scramble order together with having only 1 CAP flight made that difficult.

The extra token for the sighting player was quite an advantage as I could get Kido Butai off for the IJN, giving them a larger airgroup to attack with.

In turn 3 the US did encounter a full 3 flight CAP but handled it pretty well.

Of course I need to play some more testgames, but this one seemed to work quite well with only 2 minor tweaks.

Thanks for giving such a detailed battle report. These examples really help us understand the rules better. For example, until now I thought landing/launching all flights for one carrier is one, single, atomic move. Never thought I can launch/land flights one-by-one, alternating with my opponent. Now I understand what you meant by a bit of book keeping. I like how it adds an extra dimension of strategy. That's great!

And adding an extra token to the one who discovers first is a great idea.

About the test run:
- doing a Kido Butai order in a balance test is not fair It really changes the dynamics.
- as I see from this test, independently of rolls, the battle comes down to both sides attacking each other, basically at the same time (not like an action-reaction, but in consecutive turns). This leads to an open-helmet, exciting game, but in my opinion this should only happen when both sides reveal each other at the same time.

From the test it is not obvious to me how the IJN gained real advantage by revealing the US first. Maybe I am wrong, but what I was looking for in these asymmetrical carrier clashes, is that the one who finds the other first, should immediately attack, and the defender side in that case would mostly focus on defense. If they survive and get a bit of breathing room, they would normally counter attack as soon as the enemy attack is over. Something like what happened at Midway. But I may be thinking in the wrong direction. What do you think?

Well, as soon as you launch an attack, your position is obvious, so only confirmation is needed. The US attacked the following turn. It did focus on defence, but with the reduced initial CAP, and failing their Scamble! order, there was not much else he could do but save an order token for evasive action and get planes up in the air.

The advantage was for the Japanese as they had more order tokens and could launch their strike. I do think that I need to add to the hidden deployment rules that as long as you haven't found the enemy fleet, you cannot launch flights except to keep the CAP up (I have to think this further through). This will put the found player at a disadvantage because he risks to reduce his launch/land capacity because of the enemy attack (either by fire or evasive maneuvers) but cannot yet launch an air group himself.

I want the advantage of finding first and having the first strike to be a bit nuanced. In real air warfare, the one that got underway first had a good chance to win the battle by default, it just happened that at almost every carrier battle, both sides found each other almost simultaneously. Except for Midway, with the result that of the 4 IJN carriers, only Hiryu got to launch an attack... Which, exciting as it may be, does not make for a great gaming experience. If the player that found the other first got much more bonuses, the game would be decided before any strike is launched.

It's funny how we think similarly. We had a house rule just like that: only CAP allowed until enemy is revealed. It however raised another problem - what if you found only a destroyer squadron? Can you launch groups then and after moving divert the attack if the carriers are revealed in the meantime?