MEK-OP Game Night: Naval Thunder

Tonight I was all prepared for an all-out brawl, fighting the surface engagement of 1st Guadalcanal on a set of four tables. But apparently we were too close to final exams, and so attendance was greatly truncated. Instead, we played out a quick daylight engagement between a few forces from the official order of battle.

IJN Hiei's historical fate: crippled and hunted down

The Imperial Japanese Navy (me!) ended up with

• Battlecruiser Hiei
• Two destroyers

The US Navy took

• Two heavy cruisers (Portland and San Francisco)
• Two light cruisers (Atlanta and Juneau)

 It was probably a good thing we scaled things back, since the fight still took most of the evening. By sheer luck, I think, it was a remarkably balanced scenario.

Both destroyers went down quickly as they attempted to close to torpedo range. In hindsight, I think it actually makes more sense to hold the destroyers behind the battlecruiser and use them to engage anything that tries to close range, rather than detaching them. Using the larger ship to block line-of-sight doesn't "feel right" historically, but on the other hand, it might have been the correct lesson to learn from 2nd Guadalcanal!


The Japanese battlecruiser took a long time to kill. It knocked off two cruisers before it started taking fire control criticals, but still had plenty of hull integrity left. At that point the battle slowed to a grind, with the lighter American cruisers mostly unable to penetrate heavy armor, but the Hiei's main battery effectively blinded.


Superstructure criticals eventually took their toll. By the end of the battle, the Hiei was reduced to about 20 hull points (two good hits away from death), and was suffering from serious fire damage. A lucky bridge critical finally drove it from the battle, leaving the Portland as the sole survivor... with less than a quarter of its hull strength remaining, and half its guns silenced.


In a few situations, the battle could have swung in a radically different direction. The Juneau missed with both its port and starboard torpedo volleys, which could have ended the engagement quickly. But the Hiei suffered from poor long-range gunnery that allowed the battle to even last long enough for the range to close. Still, we present the victor of the battle, whether by tenacity or luck: the Enterprise's faithful handmaiden, USS Portland.

• Two destroyers

The US Navy took

• Two heavy cruisers (Portland and San Francisco)
• Two light cruisers (Atlanta and Juneau)

 It was probably a good thing we scaled things back, since the fight still took most of the evening. By sheer luck, I think, it was a remarkably balanced scenario.

Both destroyers went down quickly as they attempted to close to torpedo range. In hindsight, I think it actually makes more sense to hold the destroyers behind the battlecruiser and use them to engage anything that tries to close range, rather than detaching them. Using the larger ship to block line-of-sight doesn't "feel right" historically, but on the other hand, it might have been the correct lesson to learn from 2nd Guadalcanal!

The Japanese battlecruiser took a long time to kill. It knocked off two cruisers before it started taking fire control criticals, but still had plenty of hull integrity left. At that point the battle slowed to a grind, with the lighter American cruisers mostly unable to penetrate heavy armor, but the Hiei's main battery effectively blinded.

Superstructure criticals eventually took their toll. By the end of the battle, the Hiei was reduced to about 20 hull points (two good hits away from death), and was suffering from serious fire damage. A lucky bridge critical finally drove it from the battle, leaving the Portland as the sole survivor... with less than a quarter of its hull strength remaining, and half its guns silenced.

Image Source: http://grzegorz-nawrocki.com/

In a few situations, the battle could have swung in a radically different direction. The Juneau missed with both its port and starboard torpedo volleys, which could have ended the engagement quickly. But the Hiei suffered from poor long-range gunnery that allowed the battle to even last long enough for the range to close. Still, we present the victor of the battle, whether by tenacity or luck: the Enterprise's faithful handmaiden, USS Portland.