Carrier operations in the Pacifica Expanse

A Red Alert Fan Authored Campaign by William Postell

This is a campaign for the Red Alert: Fleet Battles game (and expansions) by Richard Borg. It is not a mod or variant; the games that make up the campaign faithfully use Mr. Borg’s rules as written (with one optional exception). The campaign is “historically inspired” by the 4 major carrier battles of 1942 in the Pacific Theatre during WWII.

I say “historically inspired” because, of course, a game of fleet combat in a far fictional future does not accurately simulate battles at sea in 1942. However, what I did try to capture in each scenario, was the moment of tactical decision, where the battle seemed to be at the tipping point. For example, the first scenario (the Coral Sea analogue), I selected the moment just before the American (Commonwealth) forces launch the carrier strike against the Tulagi seaplane base. The IJN (Confederation) has split their carriers, and they start the game somewhat out of position. Does the Commonwealth Admiral strike the seaplane base, and possibly give the Confed Admiral time to reposition? Does he strike at the Shoho instead? …or something else.

Something you will also notice is that there is a reasonable chance that ships in the scenarios will get into gun range. While one of the distinctive features of the carrier clashes of 1942 is that the combatants never actually did, Red Alert is a game where carrier strikes and gun duels exist side by side. I am fine with this, as the scenarios are just a nod to their historical origins, and I want to play Red Alert. I can play other games that are more faithful to history when I want a simulation.

Another challenge I faced was a “Flagship” issue. Historically, in 3 of the 4 battles, Carriers were the Flagship, (in the Coral Sea, the IJN Flag was on a Cruiser), this conflicts with Red Alert, as in the game rules, the “Flagship” is a ship type. I offer the optional rule to create a ship type called “Carrier Flagship”. A Carrier Flagship maintains the statistics of a Carrier, but gains the additional rules from the “Flagship” of ignoring a Red Alert rolled against it (and friendly ships in adjacent hexes, pg19), confirming the final hit to destroy the ship (pg18), and losing a random command card if the Flagship is destroyed (Unit Summary Card).

Within each scenario, I have included my design notes to give you some insight to my thinking and why I made certain choices. Additionally, at reader request, I have added the names of the capital ships in each scenario. At the end, I have included a Bibliography.

Pacifica Expanse – BD 42-0405 – BD 42-1027

Strategic Background

The Pacifica Expanse comprises a vast area of space well to galactic rimward of the Confederation and Commonwealth. Long considered a backwater outside the more profitable Commonwealth and Confederation trade and shipping lanes, the area is vast. Ships transiting the Expanse are at the limit of their operating range, and must stop at a series of poor isolated outposts to refuel and replenish.
High Command has recognized however, that if a campaign can be successfully executed to seize control of these outposts, they could be developed into bases that strategically threaten a long flank of enemy territory.
Central to viability of the campaign, are the Carrier Battle Groups that can operate far from major ports and control a wider range of space that their Battleship cousins.
The battle lines are drawn, the rest is history.

CAMPAIGN RULES

At the end of each scenario, players calculate CVPs (Campaign Victory Points) using the following table:

The “Carrier Damaged” point is awarded if any of the Fighters have been removed from the Carrier unit. It is awarded only once regardless of how many fighters are removed.

Campaign Victory Points are calculated only at the end of the scenario. Players do not accumulate points for first Damaging a Carrier and then Destroying a Carrier. At the end of the game a Carrier is either Undamaged, Damaged, or Destroyed and worth the respective CVP’s.

The Player with the most Campaign Victory Points after completing all four scenarios is the Winner of the Campaign.

CAMPAIGN SCENARIOS

CAMPAIGN DESIGN NOTES

The campaign rules are deliberately simple because I have found that the more complicated the campaign rules, the less likely the campaign is played to conclusion, and also the more likely players will get wrapped up in “gaming” the campaign rules to invalidate results on the table.

The Campaign Victory Points reflect that the most important objective for the American (Commonwealth) was to bleed the enemy in an attritional grind and the Japanese (Confederation) were trying to strike critical blows to demoralize the Americans into quitting.

It should be noted that historically, these 4 battles across 6 months of 1942 were so devastating to both sides that there were no major Carrier battles fought in 1943 at all.
…and of course, the IJN never recovered, period.