BurtWolf wrote: ↑Fri Oct 29, 2021 7:48 am
So why didn’t GHQ ever do a combat command for its micronauts? You know, like both sides in a box to give you the ships for a specific battle? Or would that be too many ships and variants?
I want to jump in it at some point but seems like an expensive proposition to do a proper, high profile battle, esp. WW2
I tried to respond to this on Thursday but got an Error 505(?) and my link crashed. I was not home so it would have been a more general resopnse but since I am home I can give a more useful response. Well, I think it is anyway.
In the interest of full disclosure: I am a modeler not really a gamer. I am closing in on every ship that fought from Pearl Harbor through Coral Sea & Midway through the end of the Guadalcan'l Campaign. I think I will cover the rest of the Solomon Islands Campaign next before possibly getting a couple of Omaha's and a few DD's / DE's and covering the South Atlantic on the lonely patrols there. Aside from the warships I am working on including the AO's that kept the ships going. Maybe even see if one of the two Hog Islanders gets close to an AE in appearance. I have not modeled any IJN vessels. Doubt I will but if I decide to game I will get the ones for one of the surface actions and replay that encounter several times and see how I do with either side.
It would be easy to model the ships needed for one of the several battles in the campaign.
With the purchase of one Northampton, three New Orleans, one Atlanta, three RN cruisers and four packs of DD's (Bagley x2, Benham x1 & Gleaves x1) you deploy the Allied Task Force 64 as at the First Battle of Savo Island. Price, with GHQ shipping, approximately $156.10. I am a bit vague with the "three RN cruisers" because when I started my Micronaut modeling was about twenty years ago and at the time I purchased the three models they were not correct for either Australia and Canberra or Perth but I forget which right now. Something I will have to address when I return to Micronaut building.
With the purchase of Washington, South Dakota and four packs of DD's (Mahan x1, Benham x1, Sims x1 & Gleaves x1) you can play another interesting encounter as at the Second Naval Battle at Guadalcan'l. Like the one above another one that is difficult to recreate a historical outcome because of the fog of war factor. While you purchase sixteen DD's you will use only four. One from each class. Why? Because It was these four DD's from four different squadrons that had the needed fuel already onboard to make the trip and remain in battle without running out. There was not even time for the six ships to refuel if they were to get to the scene in time to intercept the IJN forces. We were that scattered. And that depleted. Price, with GHQ shipping, approximately $90.95.
I model the carriers as well but am primarily interested in the Surface Action groups. But if you want carriers but something different from Coral Sea or Midway the Battle of the Eastern Solomons gives you a place to build your task forces. Task Force 11 and Task Force 16 fought the battle but Task Force 18 could be included in a "What if?" due to its being assigned to Task Force 61 but was off refueling, it being the lowest of the three, when it was believed, incorrectly, that no action was imminent.
A long way to go to say that there are small historical battles that you can model or play without a huge investment. The IJN regularly had more total ships at each but seemed to be fascinated with sending them off in multiple directions and expecting them to link up at just the right time at just the right place and do it seamlessly. Unfortunately for the USN, they did do it often enough. So modeling the historical forces for the IJN would be a bit larger investment.
Currently at ninety-six warships and three AO's. Set up a task force on a blue base in formation and they do look cool! And since they often were approximately 1000 yards apart when in line they really do not use a huge amount of space.
Something to think about anyway.
"It is a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step into the road and, if you do not keep your feet, there is no telling where you might be swept off to."
Bilbo Baggins to Frodo Baggins.