Experiment: Command station cards

Oh I like the thought of a brooklyn waiting for the remaining actions to send her 15 dice down range, she would draw fire like an Kitakami!!! What about dropping the caliber to less than 6" rather than limiting it to DDs? Wait let me rethink that, because then all german 5.9s would be in that, hmmm, what about only available to small ships? There are a couple of CLs you classed as small. I only comment because then it makes some of the WW1 era cruisers a little more potent, things like the IJN Nagaras, the RN C & D. Could the rule be balanced by limiting range, halving hits, or adding 1 to the target score? Also if you do score a hit, does that mean you can add a splash marker?

Thought about almost all of those and each time I hit an outlier that ruins the whole plan .

The only thing we could do is to extend it to ships with the 'destroyer leader' special rule. This would include most WW1 ships as those were frequently reclassed as such.

And yes, if you score a hit you can add a splash marker, so it is a very potent activation indeed.

I like the idea of adding it to the Destroyer Leader rule, in addition to all DDs. Quick clarification on the negative impact, when it says damage a random weapon system you would roll to see if it was primary or secondary, and then roll to see which location correct?

Damage a weapon system that is affected by the order. So if your secondaries are already rapid fire, they wont be affected, just roll for the primaries. If both are affected, do as you say, randomize primary/secondary first, then randomize weapon system.

Made a quick ninjafix in the 1.5 files. Command card now says 'small ships only' and the rules for Destroyer Leader have been expanded to include command station orders.

Nice! I will put this into effect in the next game on Sunday, Komandorski again, but I'll be US. My set up is the surprise encounter scenario. The IJN are comprised of the 2 transport groups, with 2 cover forces. The DDs and CL are close cover and the CAs distant. The US starts with all ships on table. Worked pretty well, as IJNs I lost one of the CLs, but was able to sink 2 DDs. The US player was allowed to retreat once the IJN CAs entered the table. I was using my house rules for torpedoes.

I came up with a couple of possible command station cards

Hard Turn 3+:- In place of a regular maneuver. The squadron is allowed to turn up to 180’ in one movement but must move half it’s movement rate before each turn. On a fail the squadron may maneuver as normal. On a base fail a random ship has it’s rudder jammed in a random direction.
Emergency Stop 2+:- In place of a regular maneuver. The squadron does not have to move this turn. On a fail the squadron must move as normal.
Dual Fire Control 4+:- In place of a regular gunnery attack activation. A ship in the squadron may fire at 2 targets with one weapon system. If any hits are scored the player must decide which target gets the splash marker. On a fail the ship must fire as normal.
Frantic Defense 3+:- In response to an air attack. All ships in the squadron may increase their AA ROF by 1. On a fail the squadron uses it’s normal ROF.
Airborne Spotter 4+:- Timed order before rolling attack dice. One ship in the squadron may add one to it’s ROF. On a fail the ship uses it’s normal ROF.
Go Down with the ship 3+:- Timed order before rolling a morale test. The ship may add 2 to it’s morale roll. On a fail the ship rolls as normal. On a base fail the ship automatically fails and breaks off.
Salvo Chasing 3+:- Timed order before any to hit dice are rolled. A ship targeted by ranging fire may reduce the number of hits by 1. On a fail the attack happens as normal. On a base fail the firing ship may add one to the ROF, not exceeding it’s normal ROF.
Ram! 3+:- Timed order after a movement activation. A ship may end it’s movement within 5cms of an enemy ship and ram! If successful both ships take D3 points of damage and a flood token, add one of each for each size differential. On a fail the ship must try and position itself out of 5cms of any enemy vessel. On a base fail the opponent chooses the orientation the ship.

I had 2 more ideas for command station cards.
Reserve tank or long range aircraft. Don't know if it would be an any navy or just for specific navies? But played as a reaction to removing the last fuel counter. Not sure how difficult either. Basically on a successful roll the flight/group of aircraft does not get removed this turn, but may remain in the air with no fuel token/s. On a fail the flight/group is removed as normal.
Counter flooding 3 or 4+. In reaction to a ship capsizing. On a success the ship remains afloat and gains another flood token, a fail and she sinks as normal.

My thoughts about these extra tokens is to give some extra flexibility in the command station make up.

I do like some of them, but they would require some playtesting. Do keep in mind however that you're only allowed to have 10 command station cards (down from 12 commands on the 1.4 command stations). I don't know if a lot of these orders will ever see play as I can't imagine I would have room to add things like 'Hard turn', 'Ramming', or 'Emergency stop' in my setup. It seems that those are so circumstantial and underwhelming that I would wonder if it would be worth the trouble of making cards for it...

I understand that. My opponent really wants to be able to do a 180 in a turn, so he would always grab that. I think a lot of it would boil down to the game/scenario being played and the forces involved. My other reason for trying to think of some other options that might be added was that as I put together the Komandorski battle, the US player only has 11 total cards available that would be of any use in a solely surface action. And 2 of those, Logistical Support and Work those guns are worthless and Station hypo has limited use. The Japanese player in this instance has a better field of cards to choose, 12, and is able to use al of them. In a situation where there would be aircraft the options increase significantly. My thought was just allowing more varied options.

Over the next couple of weeks I am going to run a few hypothetical games based on the Leyte Gulf battles. One will be that Oldendorf is able to intercept Kurita and the other is going to be that the Bull Run makes it back to intercept Kurita. I am happy to try out any/all suitable orders. Are there any you definitely would not want to include?