(i.e. you’ve got to play both sides at some time during the competition.)
DARKNESS
Many surface engagements in all theaters took place at night. Fighting at night drastically changed the shape of naval warfare, presenting fleet commanders with a variety of difficult challenges. Airplanes remained grounded. Gunnery ranges dropped to a few thousand yards, and ships of all sides could fall prey to crucial misidentifications of their targets and mistakenly fire on friendly ships.
Fleet Construction
Decide whether you’re fighting in Darkness conditions before you construct your fleets. Airpower is absolutely useless, so we’ll assume that you keep your carriers well away from the threat of enemy contact and send in surface forces to seize the objective.
Air Mission Phase
All Aircraft cannot fly missions in Darkness conditions. They remain at their base.
Illumination Phase
Add this step immediately before the Surface Attack Phase. You decide whether your ships will turn on their searchlights to illuminate nearby targets. The First Player places all of his illumination markers first, and then the Second Player places all of his illumination markers.
Searchlights have a range of 2. All destroyers, cruisers, and battleships have searchlights (but carriers, auxiliaries, and torpedo boats don’t).
Each ship can illuminate one enemy ship. If you decide that your ship is illuminating a target, place an “Illuminated” marker on both the illuminating ship and the illuminated target.
Surface Attack Phase
Darkness affects Gunnery attacks as follows:
* Gunnery attacks of range 3 or greater are prohibited.
* Gunnery attacks against non-local targets take a –1 penalty per die (so 4 is a miss, 5 counts as one hit, and 6 counts as 2 hits).
Special Exceptions
Several conditions or special abilities counteract the normal Darkness penalties on Gunnery attacks:
Illuminated/Illuminating: Any ship firing against a ship that is either illuminated or illuminating suffers no attack penalty (but the range limitation still applies).
Damaged Ships: Any ship firing against a ship that was damaged in a previous turn suffers no attack penalty (but the range limitation still applies).
Night Fighter: Ships with the Night Fighter special ability ignore the attack penalty (but the range limitation still applies). This advantage replaces the effect of Night Fighter, so ignore the normal effect of the special ability.
Radar Fire Control: All US ships in 1943 or later scenarios ignore the range limitation (but the attack penalty still applies).
End of Turn
Remove all Illuminated markers.
There you go! I hope some of these ideas help out your "simulation value" and gameplay without adding too much complexity.
UPDATE VERSION TWO
This is the version we've been looking at for the last couple of weeks. It rolls more protection into the Small Ship Evasion rule, but ASW Threat doesn't stack and there's no strafing rule.
ASW Threat
The presence of ASW ships and planes interferes with a submarine’s ability to attack. A Submarine takes a –1 die penalty to torpedo attacks (to a minimum of 1 die) if any of the following is true:
* An enemy Aircraft made an ASW attack against the Submarine during the Air Attack phase (use a token to mark it if you need help remembering);
* An enemy Ship with an ASW value of 1 or better is local or adjacent to the Submarine during the Torpedo Attack phase.
Multiple ASW Threats don’t stack; even if you have several destroyers nearby, you only reduce the Submarine’s torpedo attack by 1 die. Apply this penalty before you apply any bonuses or other modifiers. For example, a U-boat firing at range 2 normally gets 2 torpedo dice; an ASW threat reduces it to 1 die, but its Wolfpack special ability would increase the torpedo attack back to 2 dice.
Small Ship Evasion
Destroyers and Torpedo Boats are naturally evasive and hard to hit.
* Air Attack: All aircraft take –1 per attack die (or –1 torpedo attack die, to a minimum of 1) against Destroyers and Torpedo Boats.
* Gunnery Attack: Battleship main battery attacks take –2 per attack die against small ships (only hit on a 6, but 6 still counts as 2 hits). Battleship main battery attacks can’t hit Destroyers and Torpedo Boats at range 0 or at extended range.
* Torpedo Attack: Torpedo attacks take –1 die against Destroyers and Torpedo Boats. This is cumulative with the ASW Threat penalty and Crippled ship penalties. (Regardless of your normal torpedo attack value or the penalties that apply, you always roll a minimum of 1 die on a torpedo attack.)
The most important effects are protection for Destroyers against Aircraft attack and Sub attack. Note that this effect is cumulative with ASW Threat.
How to Win
The first player to score 150 points wins the game. Check your score at the end of each turn.
You score points in three ways:
* When you destroy an enemy unit, you score points equal to the cost of the unit.
* When you seize an objective sector, you score 50 points.
* If your enemy has no Ships remaining in play, you score 50 bonus points.
It’s possible that both players might reach 150 points or more in the same turn. In that case, the player who achieves the higher score wins. If at any time your opponent has no units left at the end of a phase, the game ends and you win.
Last edited by RichardBaker : 06-20-2007 at 11:07 AM. Reason: To separate gameplay changes from advanced rules
SpecialMissions
1) Coastal bombardment.
Budget 90 points.
You must choose at least two cruisers or larger. Free choice in other areas.
Place two islands at least three squares inside the other player's half. Either one of these is your target.
Your mission is to assist your land forces fighting on these islands. To win you must get your two cruisers into range. Both must bombard one island for one move to claim victory. If one cruiser is sunk, the other must bombard for two moves to claim victory. Claim mission at end of the applicable firing phase.
2) Enemy unsure of your intentions
Budget 90 points.
Free choice of any ships, subs or aircraft up to this total.
Place two islands at least three squares inside enemy half of the table. These mean nothing but will confuse him. [see 7, 11 &12]
Enemy intelligence in this area is poor. You may exploit this by fielding at least two cruisers and appear to be attempting a coastal bombardment. In reality you are seeking a moral victory. Sink three vessels of destroyer size or larger and immediately claim the mission.
Budget 80 points.
Free choice of submarines and land-based aircraft only.
Place two islands at least three squares inside enemy half. These mean nothing but will confuse him. [see 7, 11 &12]
Your submarines may start up to 5 squares from your base edge. Kill two largest ships in other fleet to claim mission.
4) Commando raid
Budget 90 points.
Free choice of any ships, subs or aircraft.
Place two islands at least three squares inside enemy half. One of these is your target.
Nominate one named ship [in writing] to be carrying a commando landing team. This ship must be destroyer sized or larger. Your mission is to get this ship in contact with an island for one clear move during which that ship is not sunk. At end of that move declare mission objective and claim the win.