"Battle of Samar rules recommendation" Topic

I want to try gaming the Battle of Samar and am looking for the right set of rules to use. I normally play Naval Thunder which I find to be a good set of rules generally. Their biggest handicap for this battle is that aircraft are placed on the table. I want a set of rules that I can bring to the club and run the game with people who have never played the game before. I can do this with Naval Thunder but not with some of the other rules I've read.

So my question to my fellow TMPers is what rules would you recommend and why? The why is very important to me so please include that in your answer. Details are appreciated.

I ran the battle using Sea Wars Fleet Actions by A & A Game Engineering. Rules worked out fine. Battleships/Escort Carriers/Air strikes all ran well.

The challenge is more about putting together a good fun scenario. American players can easily be defeated and will walk away from the table pretty unhappy using just a scenario with historic OOB. If I was to run it again, I've thought about having all the players on the Japanese side or maybe a hypothetical scenario. Does the scenario/OOB need to be even on both sides…no…but it has to be fun for all players.

I had a player on the Japanese side figure out what to do that the Japanese did not do in the battle, and the result was even more devastation on the US ships.

How do you fool the Japanese into thinking the ships they are facing are much bigger than they think they are?
Plus, as soon as you tell the players that this is "The Battle off Samar", anyone with even a LITTLE knowledge of the battle knows what not to do.

John the OFM; You are right and that will be difficult to overcome. I found that some of these suggestions may help: TMP link
I know I won't tell anyone the scenario name, nor will I put the names of the ships on the bases for all to see.

Schlesien; I will look up those rules. I'm not familiar with them.

Any other suggestions out there?

How about putting larger carriers and battleships on the table at the beginning? Or just use markers in place of models. Don't mention the name of the battle and only reveal the real ships when they are spotted. the Japanese player might be outfoxed again.

Even while the US destroyers were being fired on, the Japanese thought they were firing at cruisers. The carriers on the other hand would look weird to see six US fleet carriers on the table. Some sort of fog of war would help.

Once even a novice player figures out what the battle is, then its over for the US side. Period. Full Stop. This is one the most difficult battles to do because: A) EVERYONE knows it, B) Its so incredibly lopsided, and C) There is no way you can reproduce the IJN command's state of mind. Tried to game this battle a couple times and it flopped horribly. Have seen others try it with the same miserable results. There's just no way to make a balanced or interesting (especially for the USN) game of it.

Several things: frequent squalls, often just as Japanese get the range. US radar assisted gunnery keeps landing hits even during squalls. Constant US airstrikes, from Taffy Three and after the first hour, from Taffy two loaded for bear.

It is hard to get Kurita's frame of mind. He had been fished out of the ocean a couple days earlier when the Atago was sunk under him. He had also seen the Musashi sunk by airstrikes. Perhaps have the Japanese player stay up all night and be hung over?

It wasn't just luck – 4 of the 6 Japanese cruisers were knocked out of the fight during the two plus hours.

The Yamato was out of the chase after ducking a torpedo attack.