Saladin;
About once every two-years (it takes a long time to schedule a whole weekend for us old married guys with diverse jobs) a long time group of friends of mine get together and use modified CV/Flattop rules to fight a Pacific carrier battle. Each Task Force commader has his own map, and sits in a separate area. There are separate task force commanders for each side and, most importantly, a judge. The judge handles everything and disseminates know (or believed) information to each commander individually.
Each commander is also required to plan his activity well in advance, and must use written "doctrine" that is based on actual USN/IJN doctrines in the 1942 period. All movement is plotted in advance and if changed, nothing away from the Task Force (i.e., aircraft) are aware of it unless radio silence is broken.
While it is extremely time intensive (takes all of a whole weekend to play), it has lead to wildly realistic battles where, often, at key moments neither side had a clue what was actually going on. No one that has played one of these finds the results of 7 May 1942 in the Coral Sea very strange anymore.
I have also played Fletcher Pratt naval miniatures battles, specifically Java Sea and a couple of fantasy engagements, where a small group of judges did all the actual laying of shells and torpedoes outside the presence of the players, and the individuale ship commands sat in separate areas and were not allowed to talk – only to write radio messages that may, or may not, get through. Orders were written several turns in advance and damage results were, often, very disconcerting.
I recall specificly when the second ship third ship in a line of five suffered a severe hit forward that opened her bow to the sea and drastically slowed the ship. The commander behind him, told that he was suddenly gaining on this ship, waited several seconds before ordering a turn and, suddenly careening in front of a destroyer that was way to close aboard the main line, was rammed full in the engine room. The resulting confusion turned a sure fire winning situation into a losing one.
In another engagement, a night destroyer battle, when elements a one force decided to change course without informing the rest of the force, three of four ships were torpedoed by their own side which was, shall we say, a tad disconcerting!
In the night action, commanders of each division were in different rooms with only the models they could see. The judges had the actual batle in a separate room.
Mark E. Horan
