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#Post#: 78--------------------------------------------------
E19 Operation Meridian I
By: pilotofficerprune Date: September 12, 2018, 10:12 am
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Date: 1 Sep
Playtester: Gordon Christie/Andrew Brazier
This is a bit late but Andrew & I have run through this & are
happy with it as it stands. Sole suggestion would be to add a
further flight flak A unit in V0.
Played well & felt reasonably balanced. Final bombing was
remarkably good resulting in excellent bombing scores.
FAA lost 11 bombers & 1 fighter (5 or 6 bombers to flak &
balloons) against 5 Japanese SE fighters & 3 TE fighters for
essentially balanced AtA losses..
Bombing was remarkably effective (IIRC no rolls below 10-despite
some disruption & flak modifiers) with 22 hits on U0 & 6 on V0
for +48 VP & a solid British win although the result would have
been far tighter with more average bombing rolls.
Scenario played differently from Meridian II & the late arriving
IJAAF fighters arrived in time to complicate British decision
making about going after the balloons & flak & threatened the
bombers effectively.
Overall though apart form the minor change with the addition of
another light flak unit we’re happy.
#Post#: 711--------------------------------------------------
Re: E19 Operation Meridian I
By: pilotofficerprune Date: December 12, 2018, 5:11 am
---------------------------------------------------------
(This is Rick's AAR)
Scenario: E19 Operation Meridian I
Version: v0.1
Playtesters: Rick McKown (British) vs John Lawton [Kyloth]
(Japanese)
Report: The Japanese player placed his Veteran marker and both
Experten with his Ki-44 squadrons and sent these high where they
were able to use the Sun position to make it difficult for the
Corsair Sweep Wing to Tally them. The Ki-44 squadrons each
tallied one of the Corsair Sweep squadrons (they were not
tallied in return), then each squadron split and sent its flight
which had the Experte against the Corsairs. In spite of the
Ki-44 flights' advantages their initial attacks were
disappointing; one of the other Ki-44 flights joined in,
however, and within three turns the Corsair Sweep squadrons had
lost a total of six aircraft and one squadron was broken, while
the three Ki-44 flights lost a total of five aircraft but all
three flights broke. The fourth Ki-44 flight ultimately engaged
the Corsair Escort squadron, which took two losses and was
broken (the Ki-44 flight suffered no loss but also broke). The
Ki-43s went for the Avengers but did not split; both squadrons
were stopped by Hellcat Escort squadrons that rolled successful
reactions, and after two turns of combat each Ki-43 squadron had
lost one aircraft and broken (the Hellcats took no losses,
although one squadron was disrupted). The Firefly squadron,
meanwhile, attacked the barrage balloons in V2, downing all
three but losing one aircraft to the Light Flak. So by the
start of Turn 8, as the lead Avengers began their bombing runs,
all of the Japanese interceptors had broken and run away. The
initial steep bombing attacks (Turn 8) on U0 from U3 were very
successful, each aircraft rolling 50% hits (= 14 hits for 24 VP)
with no losses, but the second bombing attacks two turns later
on V0 from V2 were much less successful, each aircraft rolling
10% (= two hits for 1 VP) with one Avenger being shot down by
Flak. When the Avengers began their runs on Turn 8 the Wildcat
Escorts had begun to circle in R7 and T7, positioned to react if
the Ki-45s tried to attack the bombers. The Japanese player,
seeing that the Ki-45s would be no match for the Hellcats and
would give the British player 1.5 VP for each Ki-45 shot down,
opted to have them RTB.
Victory:
British: 7 VP for aircraft kills + 1 VP for balloon kill + 25
VP for bombing = 33
Japanese: 10 VP for aircraft kills = 10
Net: 23 VP, Draw
Recommendations: John's tactics against the Corsair group
worked fairly well, getting the jump on them and ultimately
preventing me from splitting my only Veteran squadron; the loss
ratio was in favour of the Japanese (five Ki-44s were lost
taking out eight Corsairs, counting the Corsair Escorts),
although one Corsair squadron was still operational (and not
even disrupted). His tactics against the Avengers and Hellcats
did not work well - he admits he should have split the Ki-43
squadrons, waited 'til all flights had tallies on Avengers, then
tried to use two flights to tie up the Hellcats while two hit
the Avengers. I will try that when we change sides on Thursday.
Our general feeling was that the Ki-45s arrive too late and too
low to do any good; if the British player still has Escorts and
Sweeps (as happened here) they can cover the Avengers'
backsides. If the Ki-45s arrived a few turns earlier, when the
Escorts and Sweeps are "busy", they might make a difference.
The biggest frustration for the Japanese player was to see that
the scenario would ultimately be won or lost largely on the
basis of the British bombing rolls: if we had used the Optional
Bombing Rule on pg 45 the British would have had 2x DR = 8 (net
+1 DRM, bombing value x 25%, three hits each) and 2x DR = 7 (net
+0 DRM, bombing value X 10%, one hit each), for a total of eight
hits = 12 bombing VP, which would have been a net 10 VP for an
unambiguous Japanese victory. We noted that if the Japanese had
chosen to send all the fighters home and we used the Optional
Bombing Rule, the British player, against no fighter opposition,
would have to get a net +1 DRM on all four bombing rolls to earn
24 VP for a Draw, and would have to get 2x +1's (25% BV) and 2x
+3's (50% BV) to get a win. It seems that British victory in
this scenario ultimately depends on rolling better than average
on the bombing dice rolls; unfortunately that creates a sense
that the fighter action is of secondary importance. Haven't got
a concrete proposal other than suggesting that the Ki-45s need
to arrive sooner, to encourage the Japanese player to commit
them - and probably give the British player some VPs when they
are shot down!
We plan to change sides and re-play on Thursday evening, .
Ciao,
Rick
#Post#: 718--------------------------------------------------
Re: E19 Operation Meridian I
By: Elias Nordling Date: December 14, 2018, 10:44 am
---------------------------------------------------------
The Japanese need split limits in this scenario, as there aren't
enough Ki45 counters to split since one is in use at start, and
there aren't enough Ki44 flight counters to split all of them.
#Post#: 720--------------------------------------------------
Re: E19 Operation Meridian I
By: Rick McKown Date: December 14, 2018, 6:22 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Scenario: E19 Operation Meridian I
Version: v0.1
Playtesters: Rick McKown (Japanese) vs John Lawton [Kyloth]
(British)
Report: As with our previous playtest the Japanese player (moi)
placed his Veteran marker and both Experten with his Ki-44
squadrons and sent these high to use the Sun position; on Turn 2
these squadrons followed the same pattern as before, tallying
the Corsair Sweep squadrons, not being tallied in return,
splitting, and sending the flights with the Experten against the
Corsairs - and once again, in spite of the Ki-44 flights'
advantages their initial attacks were disappointing - actually
even worse this time as within two turns of combat they had lost
three Ki-44s and all four flights had broken, while the Corsair
Sweep squadrons lost only one aircraft each and only one
squadron was disrupted, none broken. The Ki-43 squadrons also
used Sun position and on Turn 3 they tallied the lead Avengers
without being tallied by the escorts, and split, but the flights
with tallies held back until their second flights could also
tally on Turn 4 (one of the latter failed, however), then, on
Turn 4 the three Ki-43 flights with tallies went for the
Avengers; two flights were stopped by the Hellcat Escort
squadrons that rolled successful reactions, and each of these
Ki-43 flights had lost two aircraft and broke in the initial
combat (the Hellcats took only one loss total, and one squadron
was disrupted). The third Ki-43 flight got in among the
Avengers, but it had been tallied by one of the Corsair Sweep
squadrons which followed it into the scrum; that Ki-43 flight
also lost one aircraft and broke in its initial combat, while
the Corsairs and Avengers were unscathed, but in Turn 5 the
Ki-43s, in desperation, flew through their own Flak barrage to
escape and the Corsairs, too cocky by half, followed them in,
lost one aircraft and also broke. The fourth Ki-43 flight,
without a tally and powerless to impact the slaughter, stayed
above the fray, then headed home (so as not to present the
British player with more VPs). On Turn 5 the Firefly squadron,
meanwhile, attacked the barrage balloons in V2, downing two but
was itself broken by the Light Flak. So by the time the lead
Avengers began their bombing runs, all of the Japanese
interceptors had gone away and left the game decision to the
Flak and the dice gods (i.e., the bombing rolls). The initial
round of steep bombing attacks, on U0 from U2, were overall very
successful, with one aircraft rolling boxcars for 100% hits
while the other rolled 10% hits (= total 14 hits for 24 VP) with
no losses or cohesion failures, but the second round of bombing
attacks one turn later on V0 from V2 were less successful, with
one aircraft rolling 25% , the other 10% (= total four hits for
6 VP) with two Avengers being shot down by Flak. When the
Avengers began their runs the Wildcat Escorts had begun to
circle, positioned to react if the Ki-45s tried to attack the
bombers, but, as before, the Japanese player, seeing that the
Ki-45s would be no match for the Hellcats and would give the
British player 1.5 VP for each Ki-45 shot down, opted to have
them RTB.
Victory:
British: 8 VP for aircraft kills + 30 VP for bombing = 38
Japanese: 6 VP for aircraft kills = 6
Net: 32 VP, British Victory
Recommendations: The tactics John used last game were less
successful this time, and splitting the Ki-43s had no effect.
Again, our general feeling was that the Ki-45s arrive too late
and too low to do any good; if the Ki-45s arrived a few turns
earlier, when the Escorts and Sweeps are "busy", they might make
a difference. The biggest frustration for the Japanese player
was once again to see that the scenario would ultimately be won
or lost on the basis of the British bombing rolls: if the
Japanese fighters had stayed on the ground the outcome would
still have been 32 VP (30 for bombing + 2 VP for the Avengers
shot down by Flak). If we had used the Optional Bombing Rule on
pg 45 the British would have had 1x DR = 10 (net +3 DRM, bombing
value x 50%, seven hits), 2x DR = 8 (net +1 DRM, bombing value x
25%, three hits each) and 1x DR = 7 (net +0 DRM, bombing value X
10%, one hit), for a total of 14 hits (six on U0 and eight on
V0) = 24 bombing VP, which would have been a net 26 VP for a
Draw, and if the Japanese had chosen to send all the fighters
home and we used the Optional Bombing Rule, the British player,
against no fighter opposition, would have still had 26 VP (24
for bombing + 2 VP for the Avengers). From the Japanese player
perspective my fighters (especially the Ki-43s and Ki-45s) are
not able to compete with the British fighters and are more
likely to give the British player more VPs than they earn for
me; my best bet at winning (or at least not losing) is to send
my fighters home and hope that my Flak shoots well while the
British roll poorly on their bombing. Frankly, that does not
make for a very interesting scenario. Perhaps, like in scenario
E11, the Japanese player needs a VP incentive to go after the
Avengers, although given the difficulties in getting at the
Avengers the incentive needs to be heftier (maybe 2 VP each
air-to-air combat involving Avengers); combine that with the
Ki-45s arriving a couple turns earlier (maybe Turn 7?) and the
British player will be under serious pressure. The extreme
fluctuations caused by the bombing rolls (under the regular
rules), however, still make victory much more a function of the
Flak plus those four dice rolls than anything the fighters can
do, which, for us, is a source of dissatisfaction with the
scenario.
We plan to play E19 again next Tuesday evening.
Ciao,
Rick
#Post#: 721--------------------------------------------------
Re: E19 Operation Meridian I
By: Rick McKown Date: December 14, 2018, 7:28 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Oops,
Re Japanese split limits, I must confess that since we always
play WL on VASSAL we never thought to check the physical counter
sheets for the number of flight counters. If there are not
sufficient Ki-44 flight counters for even two squadrons that
limits the Japanese even more severely.
Rick
#Post#: 722--------------------------------------------------
Re: E19 Operation Meridian I
By: Elias Nordling Date: December 15, 2018, 1:31 am
---------------------------------------------------------
If the Japanese have a fair chance of disrupting at least one
avenger, it makes sense for them to attack, but as you say the
score must be rigged so that the British can expect to win if
the Japanrse bug out.
#Post#: 730--------------------------------------------------
Re: E19 Operation Meridian I
By: Rick McKown Date: December 15, 2018, 12:30 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Have been mulling over E19 and wondering if keeping the Japanese
fighters on-board but holding them back as a "fleet-in-being"
rather than aggressively engaging might have some promise -
realized after all our "bug-out" talk that bugging out would
simply give the Brits the freedom to use all their fighters as
Sweep to attack the balloons and strafe the Flak, delaying the
Avengers' bombing runs until the defences had been suppressed -
bomber attacks at lower altitude would increase their
effectiveness. Keeping the Ki-44s and Ki-43s on-board and
tallying (but not engaging) would allow the Japanese to avoid
suicidal fighter-vs-fighter scraps (especially with the Ki-43s)
and also keep the British player from leaving the Avengers
unprotected. Maybe putting the Ki-43s below the clouds could
position them to tally the Fireflies, making an attack on the
balloons less attractive. Need to try this version of the
pudding recipe.
Rick
#Post#: 736--------------------------------------------------
Re: E19 Operation Meridian I
By: Rick McKown Date: December 21, 2018, 3:00 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Scenario: E19 Operation Meridian I - 3rd Playtest
Version: v0.1
Playtesters: Rick McKown (Japanese) vs John Lawton [Kyloth]
(British)
Report: The Japanese player again placed his Veteran marker and
both Experten with his Ki-44 squadrons and sent these high to
use the Sun position; on Turns 2 and 3 these squadrons tallied
the Corsair Sweep squadrons, not being tallied in return, but
did not split, did not engage, and stayed high. The Ki-43
squadrons went low, under the clouds, and on Turn 4 one of them
tallied the lead bomber, while the other Ki-43 was tallied by
the Firefly but failed to get a tally of its own; the Corsair
Sweep squadrons, now alerted, dropped low to "support" the
Firefly, and the Ki-44s followed them down (in retrospect a
serious mistake). The first Ki-43 tried to come around and
attack the Avengers from behind and below, hoping to avoid the
Escort's reaction, but was unsuccessful in that endeavour, had
to face a Late Reaction, muffed its attack, and was broken. The
other Ki-43 was attacked by the Firefly but held its own (no
losses or cohesion failures on either side) and ultimately was
able to interfer when the Firefly tried to attack the balloons -
the Ki-43s took down one Firefly, Flak took one of each, and
both squadrons then broke. In Turns 5 and 6 the Ki-44s got
tangled up with the Sweep Corsairs and took five losses to snag
one Corsair; both Ki-44 squadrons broke, as did one Corsair
squadron. The Hellcat Escort which had reacted in Turn 4 stayed
in Sweep mode and also went for the balloons, getting two but
taking a loss to Light Flak and breaking. Once again the
Japanese fighters had been swept away by the time the Avengers
began their bombing runs, with one Corsair Sweep squadron and
two Escort squadrons circling above and behind the Avengers to
keep the Ki-45s at bay (the Ki-45s opted to keep their distance
and not to engage); at this point the British had downed eight
Japanese aircraft (a ninth was shot down by "friendly" Flak)
while the Japanese had shot down four British aircraft (two in
air-to-air combat, two due to Flak), so a net of +5 VP prior to
the bombing. Ultimately the game came down to the Flak rolls
and and the bombing rolls, and this time the Flak (Heavy +
Balloons used as Barrage, Light used as Direct Fire) rolled well
and the bombers rolled less well: two Avengers were shot down
by Flak and two squadrons were Disrupted, with the final bombing
DRMs being +0, -1, +1 and -4, which resulted in a total of six
hits on one target in the game (1x 25% for three hits and 3x 10%
for another three hits), worth 12 VP.
Victory:
British: 9 VP for aircraft kills + 12 VP for bombing = 21
Japanese: 6 VP for aircraft kills = 6
Net: 15 VP, Japanese Victory (but it didn't feel much like a
victory)
Recommendations: The Japanese tactics used were less successful
than I had hoped, but by saving the balloons did force the
Avengers to face both Barrage with a +1 DRM and Direct Fire,
although not splitting the Ki-43s and Ki-44s had little effect.
Again, our general feeling was that the Ki-45s arrive too late
to do any good; if the Ki-45s arrived a few turns earlier, when
the Escorts and Sweeps are "busy", they might make a difference.
The biggest frustration for the players was once again to see
that the scenario would ultimately be won or lost on the basis
of the Japanese Flak rolls and the British bombing rolls: if
the Japanese fighters had stayed out of the fight the outcome
would have been 14 VP (12 for bombing + 2 VP for the Avengers
shot down by Flak). If we had used the Optional Bombing Rule on
pg 45 the British would have had 1x DR = 8 (net +1 DRM, bombing
value x 25%, three hits), 2x DR = 6-7 (net +0 or -1 DRM, bombing
value x 10%, one hit each) and 1x DR = 3 (net -4 DRM, bombing
value X 0%, no hits), for a total of five hits (all on U0) = six
bombing VP, which would have been a net nine VP for an even more
lop-sided Japanese win, and if the Japanese had chosen to keep
all the fighters at a distance and we used the Optional Bombing
Rule, the British player would have had only four VP (six for
bombing - 2 VP for the Avengers). From the player perspective
the Japanese fighters (especially the Ki-43s and Ki-45s) are not
able to compete with most of the British fighters (Fireflies
excepted) and are more likely to give the British player a
larger number of VPs than they earn for the Japanese player; the
best bet the Japanese player has at winning is to keep his
fighter losses to a minimum, by avoiding combat if possible, and
hope that his Flak shoots well while the British player rolls
poorly on his bombing, while for the British player he will hope
for poor Flak rolls and good bombing rolls, and will want to
take down as many Japanese planes as possible as a hedge for any
poor bombing results. Frankly, after three plays we feel that
this does not make a very interesting scenario for either
player: for the Japanese player the frustration is that his
fighters will cost him more VP than they gain, so he really only
has Flak rolls to "win" the game, while for the British player
the frustration is that he must have better than average bombing
rolls or he will lose the game no matter how well his fighters
might do.
Ciao,
Rick
#Post#: 740--------------------------------------------------
Re: E19 Operation Meridian I
By: pilotofficerprune Date: December 22, 2018, 3:25 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for the tests, Rick.
(1) I hear you on the fundamental issue of the scenario running
on rails: the Japanese losing by getting stuck in with the
fighters, while the British are dependant on bombing die rolls.
(2) Bringing the Ki-45s in earlier might help, though there is a
danger it might also create a VP farm for the British. In
bringing them on in Turn 6 I have also had to move them leftward
a little. However, this places them right behind the strike,
with enough time to get some attacks in before the bombers reach
the target.
(3) The ability of bombers to score with average dice is a
difficult one, but can be handled by dropping the victory
threshold. Having crunched the numbers I’m going to try dropping
the draw window a little and seeing if that eases things on the
british.
(4) I will try to de-tune the flak a little by applying a -1
modifier to direct fire attacks.
I think I might ask Gordon and Andrew to take another look at
this.
#Post#: 743--------------------------------------------------
Re: E19 Operation Meridian I
By: Rick McKown Date: December 22, 2018, 2:06 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Hi Lee,
E19, 4th playtest (Rick solo), v01
Did a solo run through yesterday using the "fleet-in-being"
approach with the Ki-44s to discourage the Corsair Sweeps from
going down to aid the Fireflies in dealing with the balloons
(they were not needed as the Fireflies took out both balloon
counters before breaking), while the Ki-43s went below the
clouds, tallied the Avengers, split in flights, and came up from
behind through the clouds to reduce the odds of Escort Reaction
(actually rolled one "No Reaction" for a "free visit" to an
Avenger squadron - but got no results from it); six Ki-43s went
down (the rest escaped), with no losses to the British Escorts
(although the Escort Corsairs and one squadron of Hellcats
broke), but the Flak rolled high and took out two Avengers,
while two Avenger squadrons rolled very low on both their
Flak-generated cohesion rolls (one for the Heavy Flak Barrage,
one for the Light Flak Direct Fire) and broke. The "raw" bombing
rolls themselves were about average but with net +2, +0, -4, -4
DRMs produced only seven hits, all on one target. The Ki-44s
stayed above the Sweep Corsairs, tallied and played footsie,
threatening both the Corsair Sweeps and the Escorts but never
engaging; the Ki-45s actually threatened to engage the one
remaining Escort Hellcat that had pursued a Ki-43 flight
escaping to the left, but with no support at hand the Hellcats
dove away and the Japanese all retired.
Victory:
British: bombing seven hits (12 VP) + 2 balloons (2 VP) + six
aircraft shot down (6 VP) = 20 VP
Japanese: 2 aircraft shot down = 2 VP
Net: 18 VP (Japanese victory)
Recommendations: The Japanese were hit hard in the air-to-air
fighting, losing six aircraft and both balloon counters while
shooting down no British fighters in return (although the
Fireflies, the Escort Corsairs and one Escort Hellcat all
broke), but most of the Japanese aircraft withdrew in good order
and the Flak messed up the Avengers sufficiently to actually
make this "feel" like a Japanese victory (ironically, the VP
tally was higher than on the 3rd playtest - getting the Ki-43s
in among the Avengers, even without "scoring" felt worthwhile.
Sounds like you're thinking of degrading the Japanese Flak to
improve the British bombing rolls: simpler solutions might be to
either (1) move the clouds one altitude level higher (to 5) so
the British player can drop the Avengers below the clouds before
the bombing runs start (that removes the -1 weather DRM to their
bombing roll) or (2) use the "special training" mentioned in
SSR4 as a rationale to give the Avengers a +3 vice +2 DRM when
using steep-angle attacks. After finally figuring out how to
manage it, I would like to see the Japanese player get 1 VP per
combat involving the Avengers (per scenario E11) to encourage
the effort to go for them.
Rick
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