Coral Sea – You be the Admiral.

Kick Off!

If you have been following along you know that we are planning to play Flat Top, using the Coral Sea short scenario via PbP (Play by Poll).

See previous posts here


Our goal is to have some fun, make higher level choices and let the Umpire sort out the details.

Note: that where you need to know some technical details, such as how long a plane can be airborne, or how many turns of combat it might have available you will get that data prior to making a decision.

Your focus should be upon achieving the goals and adjusting to circumstances as they reveal themselves, not if you have enough torpedoes.

The Umpire will try and drive a lot of that detail and present the information and choices back to you via REPORTS. Similar to: https://bigboardgaming.com/ndc-0800-1200-hr-poll-1-and-aar/

US Navy Plans:

The USN has its plan formulated, and plotted. Search patterns logged and now it is up to the IJA to plan their mission. – That is you!

IJA forces and USN forces:


IJA Goal Objective within 42 turns:

Historical objective was to capture Port Moresby (PMO).

Game Objective is to secure the most VPs.


  • Ships in port @ PMO earns VP’s via turns in port there, per AP (ship transport): 3 VP per turn per AP. Max 24 per AP factor.
  • Auto Victory 100 VP’s.
  • Allies receive 50 VP’s if the IJA cannot unload 50 pts in PMO.
  • Note the value of AP units sunk declines as they unload.
  • If the IJA unloads 150 pts to PMO game over for USN.
  • VP’s are also earned for sinking stuff see blue box above.

Proposed IJA strategy choices:

  1. Historical attack PMO [Plan Blue]
    1. Send two western most forces (TF# 3,4,5 + TF # 2 with CVL Shoho) to PMO using Land based air support and air cover from LAE.
    2. Use the two CV task forces (#6 & #12 Shokaku and Zuikaku) to find the USN CV’s and attempt to sink them as they steam towards PMO
    3. Landing to be done at night
  2. Delayed historical attack on PMO [Plan Orange]
    1. AP TF’s will hold in and around China Strait until enemy CV’s are found and engaged (delayed)
    2. LAE based forces will bomb PMO, and harass search craft looking for AP TF.
    3. CV TF’s will head West then to Russell Is. To stage and search for USN CV’s and support attack on PMO
      1. Landing to be done at night
  3. Staged attack on PMO [Plan Yellow]
    1. Send TF #3 with AP’s ( up to 40% of AP factors or 1 TF worth) to PMO supported as per plan #1 from LAE.
    2. TF#2 would search West to East looking for CV’s
    3. Steam TF #6 & #12 ASAP directly West to support secondary attack when USN reveal themselves to secure PMO.
      1. Landing to be done at night
  4. Fourth Way: Your call.

IJA Locations Choices are driven by each Strategy selected see below color coded Strategy 1 Blue, 2 Orange and 3 Yellow..

Here are the locations suggested for setup based upon strategy selected. Note these will be within a hex or as I count out paths to targets.


 

 


11 thoughts on “Coral Sea – You be the Admiral.

  1. I find this very intriguing. I plan on playing in the high level games at Origins someday.

  2. Hey, your victory points table doesn’t match up with the forces in this scenario– there is no Mutsu but there are points for losing it, and conversely we have the Shoho but points sched. doesn’t say what it is worth.

  3. Hmm, posted too soon. Sea based air seems off for both sides– 16 Zero, 14 Val and 17 Kates for -2- CVs and a CVL?! Obviously Naval Intelligence has been drinking too much sake, for surely the Americans, incompetent as they are, carry more planes than what is listed in the brief.

      1. My bad, I went to the ‘geek and saw that those are not actual aircraft numbers, but that each point represents 3 aircraft. That makes sense to me.

  4. Plan Orange all the way. As the Japanese we can count on being spotted first. Use Zeros at Lae to cover the APs until the Fleet carriers are in support range. US land based air is weak and will not be a problem. Priority mission for air is to find the American CVs.

  5. From a Historical perspective, the Japanese strategy was always too complex…..too many missions for too many ships, they were always looking for the one great surface battle with the US Navy which never occurred

    Plus the fact that US Naval Intellenge was reading their codes didn’t help.

    Go with Plan Orange…….just seems more straight forward.

    Good Luck Admiral Nagumo

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