Turn 12: Vignettes from a war

1 — 8 March 1942

No real overarching theme or narrative for this week. Instead, here are glimpses of some of the stories that have unfolded over the first three months of the war.

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USS Trout (SS-202)

Remember Trout? She kicked off the war for the Silent Service on 7 December by turning up a Diligent Escort as the very first target revealed in the game. She was damaged in the encounter, but escaped with her life—barely. She remained on station near Midway for another week (per orders) but returned to Pearl on Christmas Eve.

She remained there, under repair, through January, and put to sea for the Marshall Islands on her second war patrol on 8 February. That patrol was brief and fruitless; she encountered no enemy shipping and returned to port just ten days later.

She commenced her third war patrol on 26 February, again bound for the Marshalls. Just this week, she was finally able to fire her first torpedoes of the war—and she made them count. In her first encounter with the enemy since being damaged in the opening hours of hostilities, she hit (but failed to damage) one small freighter and then sank a second. It was only a 3,000 ton score, but given Trout’s difficult war career to date, it was a meaningful contribution.

Turn 3: A quiet week (mostly)

24 — 31 December 1941

Shirts: optional.

As foretold, this week saw very little action.  It was characterized mainly by most of the fleet returning to port after failing their endurance rolls last week.  At least there were no Transit Events worth noting.

Of the seven damaged boats that were at sea at the beginning of the week, three made it to Pearl Harbor, with three more due in next week.  USS Trout—hit by that Diligent Escort in the very first combat action of the war—made it in, and her damage was found to be moderate.  USS Skipjack, who scored the service’s first kill, also made it; she was found to be more heavily damaged and will be out of action for a number of weeks.

I only sent one of the damaged boats (USS S-41, SS-146) to Manila.  As a general matter, I hate sending boats to be repaired there.  The Philippines, inevitably, are going to fall, and it could happen at any time.  Boats under repair (at least the ones in the R2 and R3 boxes) when that happens will have to be scuttled.  Moreover, the facilities at Pearl are so much better that it’s almost always worth an extra week of transit to send them back to Hawaii, in my opinion at least.  Luckily, S-41’s damage was found to be minor enough that she could put to sea in the event of an emergency evacuation.

Only six boats were on station to conduct combat operations this week.  All encountered the enemy, but five of the six failed to score a hit.  The experience of the USS Sailfish (SS-192) was particularly frustrating—first, she missed (by a mile) a 10,000 ton maru, and then a 10,000 ton AC.

Unbelievably, yet another boat was damaged by a counterattack, the USS Permit (SS-178).  This time, it had nothing to do with being overaggressive—just perfect execution and/or luck on the IJN’s part.  {It was the attack round, revealed ASW was 0, and I rolled a 9 on the counter.  Nothing you can do there.}

Turn 1: It could have been worse...

7 − 17 December 1941

Because of the way the scenario is set up, Turn 1 is a bit of an odd duck.  It is characterized largely by the frantic deployment of the boats that start the war in port in Manila.  A few subs begin the war at sea, though, with excellent chances of seeing early combat.  And not just any combat — it’s all D-Column, Task-Force-only stuff.  That means a lot of capital ships are going to show up in the crosshairs.  A good draw can lead to juicy targets with little or no ASW presence.  One lucky shot can have a major impact on the early game and bag a significant portion of the first career longevity milestone.  One lucky shot.

Of course, that's the hope.  In practice, it's not exactly fish-in-a-barrel stuff.

USS Trout (SS-202)

Take, for example, the experience of the USS Trout.  At sea in the vicinity of Midway when the IJN struck Pearl Harbor, Trout was the first boat to make contact with the enemy upon commencement of hostilities.  Sighting warships on the horizon, she maneuvered to set up an attack—and was almost run over by an aggressive IJN destroyer before she ever even identified a target.  A vicious depth charging left her significantly damaged.  She managed to limp away—lucky to survive the encounter—but she remains underway, and in significant peril.  {In game terms, the very first target flipped in the game was a Diligent Escort.  You have got to be kidding me.  Rolled a 7, yielding a “Damaged” result.}

Things did not immediately improve much.