"Midway 75" Topic

My latest blog entry recounts the fun and games at the 75th Anniversary refight of Midway, held yesterday in Gloucestershire…….

link

My latest blog entry recounts the fun and games at the 75th Anniversary refight of Midway, held yesterday in Gloucestershire…….

link

Nice report

Wish I could have made it

I have similar, smaller scenario that we could do sometime

Excellent write up, thanks for sharing.

Thank you!

Nice AAR. I do hope more photos turn up, but I can't blame you for not getting any. I'm like you – I never get pictures to show off my own games. :-(

I didn't see any mention of the rules used. How many different sets of rules were used, and how many were published (as opposed to just being David Manley ad-hoc creations…). I've always wanted to play or even run a big carrier battle game like this, so I like to hear how other people have pulled it off.

- Ix

Did something very similar years ago using the AH "Midway" board game and then did a variant called "Bermuda" which was a similar yet very hypothetical battle in the Atlantic.

Of course any Midway game gives the Japanese players the huge advantage that they KNOW the American carriers are nearby.

Has anyone ever tried a game where the situation is what the Japanese THOUGHT it was supposed to be: the American carriers back at Pearl Harbor? You could have the whole game with the Japanese players frantically searching for carriers that aren't there. :)

That might be a fun game to run once, if the GM is about to enter a witness protection program and disappear… :-)

I always though the best way to short circuit historical foreknowledge would be to randomize the forces or deployments just a little. There was plenty of fog of war obscuring the force locations and composition at Midway, and there could have been more.

Some example American adjustments: remove Yorktown but put her air groups on Midway; assume Yorktown *did* sink at Coral Sea and replace her with Ranger & Wasp; assume Lexington didn't sink at Coral Sea either, and put her in the battle wounded and patched; bolster US forces with Saratoga; etc.

One could play around with the Japanese OOB too, assuming the Japanese get a bit of a break on the intelligence leak (e.g., they replace their code book much earlier) and make a few last-minute adjustments to the Japanese OOB or plan, e.g.: the Japanese come in from the south or west; Yamato decides to pull the whole fleet closer together for mutual support; Shokaku and Zuikaku come along; cancel the Aleutians diversion and move some or all of it to Midway; etc.

- Ix