From Across the Pond….

A brace of Wildcats, a Typhoon and a Sturmovik

Some more additions to the Axis and Allies: Angels 20/Bandits High collection. Delighted to have scored these for a very reasonable price - these days if the items are below the cost of the shipping it is a good result - and it means that I now one Wildcat away from having the four destined to be repainted into Fleet Air Arm colours as the Martlet. 

I am on the lookout for another Typhoon - along with a pair of Spitfire Mk 9s - but at this stage am unsure about what to do with the Sturmovik. I do not possess a single native Russian fighter although I have four Hurricanes that are destined for the Red Air Force with a repaint. More trawling through eBay is in order methinks, in order to bolster the forces of the Rodina.

Torpedoes and Tides

Torpedoes and Tides - the new WW2 Coastal Warfare rules inspired by Galleys and Galleons and  written by Thomas Brandstetter, along with a couple of books for research and inspiration. There are a few others en route to Maison Crook….

WW2 Coastal Warfare using MTBs, S Boots and the like is an enormous amount of fun but for some reason I have only dabbled in it infrequently. I flirted briefly with Warlord Games Cruel Seas but, at 1:300th, the models were a little on the large side for my taste and so the sprues I had acquired for this were quietly disposed of. I had never really looked at the ex Skytrex now Heroics and Ros range of 1:600th scale ships etc but this has now been happily rectified.

A really fun set of rules that for me have been woefully underused! (Note to self: I must get something done with these and the ‘Pirates of’ ships at some point)

Winding back a little, one of my favourite fun naval rule sets for pretty much everything prior to dreadnoughts etc, is Nic Wright’s Galleys and Galleons rules published by Ganesha Games. I have used these rules not nearly as much as I should have - a criminal oversight that I hope to address at some point by using the ‘Pirates of’ ships formerly available from Wizkids. 

I digress. 

Torpedoes and Tides by Thomas Brandstetter is a WW2 coastal warfare variant that uses a similar rule system to the aforementioned Galleys and Galleons but obviously with all important period tweaks. They look really good fun and I note that the esteemed Kaptain Kobold, who was involved in the play-testing of the rules, as well as being enormously fond of Galleys and Galleons, has already been gaming with them and you can read about it here, along with the developmental back story, which is also on his rather splendid blog.

The rules include specifications for ships from a number of nations including Great Britain, Germany, USA, Japan, Italy, USSR, Norway, Poland and even the Yugoslavian Partisans - some 160 profiles. As most coastal actions took place at night there are full rules for limited visibility with the use of counters for hidden movement. This encourages careful manoeuvring and when someone gets spotted or opens fire it all gets very frantic, very quickly and with the possibility of ‘blue on blue’ friendly fire for good measure! At first glance are they super detailed? No, but they have all the right things in the right places, plenty of ships to use and a set of rules for running a campaign, along with some scenarios to try out. In my opinion these would make a great set of rules for a club night or for use with non naval gamers. I am looking forward to giving them a run out as soon as I can get some models ready.

For a more detailed coastal warfare experience then of course, the indefatigable Mr Manley has a set available called Narrow Seas and available from his Longface Games label on Wargames Vault. There is even a grid based version available as an expansion to the old Battleline/Avalon Hill game Submarine. This means that in the short term I have immediate access to the aforementioned Torpedoes and Tides, Narrow Seas and a rather more limited submarine based boardgame expansion. That should do nicely methinks, at least for the rules.

Another title for the coastal wars section of the library. This really is a lovely book, full of photos and plans etc.

The former Skytrex 1:600th range, now available from Heroics and Ros, was my first port of call, simply because the Reaction Games models were initially only available in 1:500th. They are now available in 1:600th and 1:300th along with the original size. The range is quite small and thus far is very UK centric which is a shame. 1:600th it is then, from Heroics and Ros. I have opted for an early war 1940/41set up rather than later (needless to say I will get to the late war period in due course!) so two tube 70ft Vospers, Fairmile Bs, S38 type S Bootes and R Bootes will be the weapons of choice. I have also added a trawler to each side and finally three generic merchantmen - two tramps and a tanker - as targets.

In the meantime though, I need to crack on with the book and so the next post will feature the plan for the first of three battles that will appear in it.

The occasional distraction is good for the soul, or so they say…. ;-)

Kickstartering Fighters of the Pacific

The base game and the two scenario packs

Way back in March of this year I posted about my acquisition of a board game called Fighters of the Pacific. You can read the post here: Fighters of the Pacific

I then was able to acquire the Coral Sea and Midway expansion packs but for completeness - especially a greater selection of aircraft - I was really keen to get a copy of the Kickstarter Stretch Goals pack. Finally, after much trawling of eBay, I have been able to get a copy!

I will let the pictures do the talking but suffice it to say that I now a selection of 24 aircraft types for the Pacific War including the infamous Japanese ‘Ohka’ manned rocket powered bomb.

The front of the box….

….and the back, including a list of the components. Note the PBY Catalina and yup, that is the Yamato!

The four counter sheets - these are double sided and in the case of the aircraft have a dark blue ‘sea’ side to represent low level and a white ‘cloud’ side for high level.

The new format aircraft data cards - the types above are for the base game

I ma really pleased to have gotten a copy of this stretch goal set as it really helps to round out the Pacific set. Aside from the additional counters there are also some scenarios that make use of them, including Aerial Recon - always an important part of carrier operations - and others.

The final counter set for this game features aces from both sides but this was only available for the full kickstarter pledge. I may be able to get a copy at some point but I am not holding out much hope that it will be anytime soon.

The European version - Fighters of Europe - is available and features the Battle of Britain, the Battle of France and US daylight raids over the Reich. I would be really keen to get a copy of this!

Meanwhile, back to the Russo Japanese War….

Avalon Hill’s Original Midway

An oldie but a goodie. The box is relying heavily on sellotape for its structural integrity but the contents are all present and correct.

I must admit to never having owned or played this version of the climatic battle in the Pacific in 1942. I have gamed the battle using CV - the S. Craig Taylor designed game produced by Yaquinto using his Flat Top system - and it is always a lot of fun. The US needs to keep hidden whilst the Japanese need to attack Midway island. 

Anyway, to cit a long story short I had the opportunity to acquire a copy of the base game at a price that was frankly too good to turn down - so I didn't!

As befits a game released in 1964 the rules are pretty straightforward but do not let that fool you because this offering has oodles of period feel and flavour. It is certainly simpler than Flat Top - which I am a huge fan of - and I would have no hesitation in trying this at the club. All the key elements of carrier operations are there - endless searches, assembling and delivering strikes and protecting the all important carriers. I knew that a number of fan based additional scenarios had been drafted and a chap on eBay produces them. These cover the familiar Coral Sea and Eastern Solomons campaigns (back in the day I played these to death using Flat Top) and also one that I have never looked at - Leyte Gulf in 1944. Both of these are now in the same box as the base game - acquired for completeness naturally!

The contents snuggly stored n the original box

The Midway search boards

The battle board - combat is odds based, how very old school!

The search boards for Coral Sea/Eastern Solomons and Leyte Gulf along with the scenario details and log sheets etc. There are two copies of each map, one for each side.

I must admit that for carrier games this collection is probably more likely to be used than either Flat Top of CV, simply because much as I love both of those games they do need a lot of time and dedication to play successfully. Maybe one day I will be able to persuade someone to give either of them a spin.

In the meantime though, the Avalon Hill game is a welcome addition to the collection and, as I recall, there is a Mediterranean WW2 version available featuring the RN and the Italian Navy using the same system. I will keep an eye open for that for sure!

Pacific Command - Carrier Battles

Carrier battles in the Pacific that are not boardgames? Hell yes! I should qualify that by 

As soon as I had seen this advertised I knew that I need to get a copy! A quick flick through as got me really excited at the potential of this system especially as I have a good selection of usable kit from the Fighters of the Pacific game (aside from the base game I also have the Midway and Coral Sea expansions) so would not need to invest in a ton of models. I even have the poker chips and decks of cards required for play!

I have played a lot of Pacific carrier boardgames via Flat Top, CV, Guadalcanal and Midway. These have given me some of my best ever gaming experiences over the years but I have never really considered it as being viable for the use with models. I flirted briefly with Axis and Allies: War at Sea range for the Pacific but never really made much progress with it - mainly due to the range of models being quite modest along with the scale being too large (1:1800th) for normal use. Pacific Command gets around this by the simple expedient of ignoring model scale entirely - a single ship represents a task force with all measurements being made from the conning tower. Purely representational indeed! I have no problem with this level of abstraction but some might so if you want formations of exquisitely painted models these rules, at first glance, may not be for you!

Personally, I am sold on the idea and cannot wait to try them out!

As a reminder, below are some pictures of the material that comes with the Fighters of the Pacific game along with the books I have for the period - 1942 

The plain sea side of the map board….

….and the side with some, ahem, terrain.

Aircraft counters - dive bombers, torpedo bombers and fighters - that I will be using. Pacific Command abstracts the recon floatplane types into the Recon phase so counters are not needed

Ships aka targets!

Fighters of the Pacific in action

Part of the library…

….another part….

….and the last part!

The full set of Fighters of the Pacific, about to be pressed into service for Pacific Command.

I have absolutely no excuse for not tackling this and am seriously thinking about running a game at the club once I am familiar with the rules. Who knows? I may even think about some ship models….

Turning the Tide in a Timely Fashion

 A useful title using previously restricted or classified naval reports found in the library of the Britannia Royal Naval College. Part of a series that includes operations in Norway in 1940, hunting the German raiders, the Bismarck chase, hunting the Tirpitz and Matapan

It never ceases to amaze me how wargaming synchronicity has played a not inconsiderable part in my enjoyment of our hobby. I could site numerous examples of this from over the years but will instead confine myself to the latest one.

In my last post I briefly described Fighters of the Pacific - a new board game covering plane to plane combat in the South Pacific in 1942. The emphasise is on Carrier Operations and whilst the rules are simple, there is a great degree of subtlety in the mechanics and they ooze the all-important period ‘feel’.

I have gamed carrier operations in the South Pacific many times using Flat Top, CV and now via the Smithsonian Avalon Hill games Midway and Guadalcanal. I also played an awful lot of Dauntless - the Air Force Pacific version - so it is fair to say that I have ‘form’ with the period.

My library is quite modest concerning the Pacific campaigns but in three fell swoops this has changed for the better!

The book you see above was acquired yesterday in the most surprising of circumstances. Laurel and I headed into the village (Rayleigh, where we live) to an antique valuation event at the local community hall. She had some gold jewellery that she wanted to dispose of wanted to get an idea of its value. After having done that we then ventured into the high street - Wednesday is the Rayleigh market so it was pretty busy - to see what a couple of jewellers had to say about the value. All this seems very mundane but for one significant detail. It was the first time that Laurel had been in Rayleigh high street since her surgery over three years ago. She is a not a fan of crowds - especially in her powered chair - but she coped admirably with crossing roads and negotiating some quite confined spaces. One of these was the Rayleigh indoor market which has within a magazine and discounted book stall. There was not much I was interested in but the title depicted above caught my eye and for - wait for it - £2.99 I immediately snapped it up!

The book is quite dry, using as it does official reports and such, but for all that it is really useful for planning scenarios for either naval or aerial actions. I am now actively looking out for the others in the series.

With grateful thanks to Mr Kightly - extremely timely for sure!

The second piece of synchronicity came about as a result of a gaming friend having a clear out of stuff - which I had offered to help with. The three Osprey titles you see are all penned by Mark Stille who leads me quite nicely into the third piece of synchronicity - one of my Christmas presents.

The final member of my Pacific library - the author has also penned a title on Leyte Gulf although my interest in the theatre is primarily 1942

So there you have it - a selection of relevant titles covering both the naval and the aerial side and which will stand me in good stead for Fighters of the Pacific, Flat Top, CV, Midway and Guadalcanal.

Once again my thanks to Mr Kightly for his most generous gift of the hugely useful Osprey titles!

Sirocco - Desert Raiders Battle Game

The rather garish box lid….

….and the underside.

The playing surface - note the use of offset rectangles. You can see the airfield and supply dump - vital for the basic game victory conditions.

One of the games that was included in the humongous bundle I acquired a couple of years back was Sirocco, published by TSR Inc. The game is described as follows:

“In 1943, General George Patton’s 2nd Corps fought a see-saw battle with Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps in Tunisia. The SIROCCO game allows two players to recreate a portion of this epic desert clash by manoeuvring plastic pieces representing German and American troops and vehicles across a game board depicting a portion of North Africa.”

It the goes on to state that in order to win the game: “The first player to move his general onto his opponent’s supply dump or airfield, or eliminate the opposing general, wins the game” although this applies only to the basic game, the ‘Masters’ version has victory points among the scenarios instead.

Samples of the command cards

The game uses cards to regulate orders and they tell you how far you are able to move so for example, a card that says ‘Tank 3’ means that you can move all your tanks three spaces. Players have a hand of five cards and a reserve of three. You can play two cards a turn or five if you call into play your reserve hand. Combat in the basic game is solely against adjacent enemy pieces and uses d6 (varying depending on the unit type) with only two outcomes - the attacker wins, in which case the enemy unit is destroyed or there is a tie, in which case the attacked player has to retreat two spaces. The advanced rules allow ranged anti tank combat, terrain modifiers, concentrated units (two units occupying a space opposed to the one in the basic game), supply, command ranges, minefields, troop quality and hidden units. there is also a form of step reduction in that a destroyed tank is replaced by a jeep which is in turn is replaced by a foot soldier. That would be easily changed by the simple expedient of reducing the combat dice for each loss rather than changing the troop type.

The components are basic and so alongside the mounted map board  - the map could have used terrain overlays rather than printed for more variety - there is a deck of 54 command cards, 6D6, and 82 plastic playing pieces: 20 tanks, 16 jeeps, 12 AT guns, 32 infantry and 2 generals. In truth these plastic playing pieces are truly horrible! 

These are the playing pieces - essentially thick profile views made from polythene. They are truly ghastly!

When you consider that when this game was released in 1985, Axis and Allies, with all those useful plastic pieces was also available. You have to wonder what TSR were thinking of releasing a game with such abysmal playing pieces especially as they had produced their own figures etc for other rules and games. Perhaps the production budget had been reached - who knows?

In many ways this game puts me in mind of Memoir ‘44 but without the ‘stuck with cards for the wrong sector’ effect - a cause of perennial angst amongst seasoned Memoir ‘44 players! Seriously though, in a light wargame way this game has much to commend it - fast playing, straightforward game mechanics and eminently suitable for expansion into other theatres.

So what am I going to do with this then? I will definitely be playing it although I have plans to replace the playing pieces with 3mm models which will improve the look immeasurably. I would probably replace some of the jeeps with lorries and factor in some transport and towing rules and would look to produce a play sheet at some point.

There you have it, a quick m cheap and cheerful light wargame for WW2 in the desert (it could easily be used for the steppe of the eastern front methinks) and certainly a game that was in many ways ahead of its time.

More on the Mediterranean in WW2

The Mediterranean naval library. 

Following on from my previous post and in the interests of completeness I thought it would be useful to show the modest selection of books in my WW2 naval library for the Mediterranean. Aside from a copy of the 1922 to 1946 Conways Fighting Ships I also own the above.

More than enough to be going on with for my needs methinks….

WW2 in the Mediterranean - Afloat!

Oh dear - here we go again…..

The back of the box

In truth I did not see this coming and as an aside I reckon that avoiding eBay would be a good idea - at least for a while anyway!

It is probably not a surprise to learn that I have fought actions in the Mediterranean but not for some time and even then it was using the 1:1800th scale models produced for the Axis and Allies: War at Sea game. The esteemed Mr Fox still has the Italians I believe but my own collection has long since gone. 

Anyways, it is fascinating period to game with plenty of surface stuff to get one’s teeth into along with the ever present aerial threat - certainly the Axis powers made full use of land based air assets to plague the Royal Navy throughout.

The operational maps - note the use of offset squares. 

I have little enthusiasm for raining model fleets for the period and in truth the same would apply to the Pacific. In the latter case I have the oft-mentioned Flat Top and CV to cover the fighting and indeed, the late S.Craig Taylor Jr, designer of these two games, had planned to use the system for a similar game based on the Mediterranean. I have no idea how far along the design of this he had got and with his passing I suspect that will it see the light of day. I believe that the Flat Top system would work really well for the Mediterranean but we will never know unless someone picks up the idea and develops it.

I have no experience of the Avalanche Press Second World War at Sea system although it uses much in the way of game mechanics as the Great War at Sea. Did I need to acquire this? Well, I have a smattering of titles in the library covering the war at sea in the Mediterranean so it has always been lurking there or thereabouts so I guess the answer is a yes, albeit needing to be fitted into my expanding project list!

The attraction of this system for me is that one has both the strategic and the tactical elements to consider along with a selection of mission types to undertake as well as plentiful scenarios - both historical and ‘what if’.

There is a whole pile of additional material available in respect of supplements etc for the SWWAS system  but to be honest I do not feel the need to avail myself of any of this - the coverage contained within the game is more than sufficient for my needs.

Send no wargamer ever…… ;-)

In the Air and on the Sea

Carriers, assorted other naval hardware and plenty of aircraft - what’s not to like?

The aircraft counters - there are quite a few less than Flat Top!

The great counter punch out continues! After having completed Bismarck and Submarine I turned my attention to the pair of Avalon Hill Smithsonian series games - Guadalcanal and Midway, both designed by S. Craig Taylor Jr and released in the early 1990s.

Guadalcanal was originally covered via Flat Top whilst Midway was originally CV which of course used the same system as Flat Top (although it was an updated version of the original Flat Top).

I never thought I would say this but at first glance I reckon that the two Smithsonian offerings may well be an evolved and better option for my gaming in this period than using Flat Top or CV, in the much the same way as Mustangs (the WW2 aerial game from the series) proved to be a similar step up from the earlier Air Force/Dauntless/Expansion Set series. Much as the earlier games will always feature in my inventory one has to move with the times and besides, these are more solo friendly or rather they have a much smaller table footprint!

In each case the counter count is a lot less compared to the 800 of the original Flat Top, 1,200 for the Avalon Hill version and even more for CV. Again, this is better as it means a quicker set and take down.

I have a whole pile of other games that will need counters punched, labels applied, cards sleeved and even miniatures to paint but for now ‘punching and bagging’ is the order of the day - and I must say that I am rather enjoying getting these ready for action and will look forward to getting them to the table.

Part of the French contingent of my WW1 collection - nothing major, 4 x SPAD 13 (only two here) and a pair of BR 14s. 

I did not plan to build a French contingent for my WW1 aerial collection - in fact originally the French models I owned were offloaded - but almost by a process of osmosis (a pair of SPADs were included in a job lot I acquired) I now have a representative selection for 1918. This means that for the Allies I have sixteen single seat fighters - four each of SPAD 13, SE5, Camel and Snipe. The pair of BR 14s join pairs of RE8, DH4s and Bristol Fighters.

I would love to tackle the 1916/1917 period but sadly the models, when you can get them, are usually really expensive. One could make use of non ‘official’ models but these would of course not have the appropriate manoeuvre  deck nor the specific base.

I must admit that I am enjoying all these ‘gaming administrative issues’ and am sure it will get me back to the tabletop sooner rather than later!

Grid Based (mostly) Naval Goodness

The game on the left is next for the ‘punching and sorting’ phase whilst Submarine is now ready for action - I may have to revisit The Cruel Sea for additional inspiration….

A boot sale bargain - not my usual area of interest but for 50p I could not really turn it down!

As part of my ‘front loading for retirement’ I managed to track down a number of board games from my, well, board game era - and these included the two you see above. Submarine is a detailed tactical level ‘submarine versus a convoy’ style game and was a great favourite of mine from ‘back in the day’. The RN and the Kriegsmarine feature, along with the US and Japan as well as Italy, France and Russia. the rules are very much of the time - the game was originally published by Battleline and was designed by Steve Peek (who worked alongside S. Craig Taylor Jr of Flat Top fame).

Bismarck needs little introduction from me and this version is the second edition published by Avalon Hill. The search system is very good and the game features most of the major vessels for the early war period with a tactical system that covers basic, intermediate and advanced options - the latter uses a tabletop rather than a grid. A couple of expansions were produced - one covering the operation against the Graf Spee and another which covered the ‘pre Bismarck’ period so Scharnhorst and Gneisenau took centre stage against assorted elements of the Home Fleet. All good fun and eminently gameable as relatively few models are needed.

The book you see was a cheeky boot sale bargain from this morning. Not my usual ‘bag’ but I will read it and would happily pass on to anyone with a deeper interest in the period.

On that note I will Finnish….. :-)

Either End of the Spectrum

Strategic in the top row, tactical in the bottom. One could make a very good case for a system that sits between the two levels - I like to think of that as being operational.

I am sure that many gamers of a certain vintage have dabbled at some point along their gaming journey in WW2. This could be land, sea or air or any permutation of the same and in all. Manner of mediums - figures, models, boardgames, tactical, operational or strategic - as a war it has it all. Like many periods where there is a multitude of theatres etc I am sure that most gamers have their own particular favourites. Mine are many and varied but this post is concentrating on just three of them!

The war in the desert, the Eastern Front and the Blitzkrieg era offer much in the way of variety and for me also have that strategic element which I find particularly fascinating. 

Of the games you see in the picture above the left and middle of the top row are the latest additions to the collection and I was really pleased to get copies of these two (unpunched as well!) as the system used makes for some cracking games with a truly strategic and period feel.

Overarching all of the above is the potential for the aerial dimension and maybe even naval but there is sufficient variety already to keep me occupied for some time to come. 

Using a common system across games in a series is also very helpful!

WW2 At Sea

Needless to say Volume 2 is now on the ‘to get’ list!

The moves leading to the destruction of the Bismarck

The rear cover - there are some very interesting looking titles there for sure!

I have a longstanding interest in WW2 afloat via many different rule systems and board games. The Pacific theatre I have gamed almost exclusively using boardgames - Flat Top mainly - whilst the North Sea and Atlantic have seen me using models far more. Having said that, the Avalon Hill game Bismarck has featured on more than one occasion.

I saw the above book at a price that was difficult to refuse - so I didn’t!

I would certainly like to get volume two and although this type of history can sometimes make for a dry read, the level of detail and the how, why and when of the decision making processes, make it invaluable for the budding tabletop admiral.

Do I need another naval project? Well, if I did it would not be a huge undertaking to cobble together a couple of representative forces for the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine so who knows?

I suspect you can probably guess the outcome…. :-) 

Further Thoughts on WW2 Aerial Games

The original starter set for Blood Red Skies. This is no longer available as it has been replaced by a version covering the Battle of Midway which includes F4 Wildcats and the Japanese Zero

The contents - not the painted aircraft.

Six of each - every time I see these two quotes from the Battle of Britain run through my mind!

I certainly did not see this one coming! A gaming chum of mine was having a clear out and so sent the above collection to me for dispose of as I saw fit. Imagine my surprise then when I realised that not only was it an unpunched and unused copy of Blood Red Skies but also that the six Spitfires and six Me109s were painted! It has presented me with something of a conundrum as these are scaled at 1:200th as opposed to the 1:100th of the Axis and Allies: Angels 20 collection or the 1:300th of my 1944 skies over the Reich/8th Air Force set up.

The extras. I will not need the box of Zeroes - mainly as I have the Midway version on order - but I will certainly hang on to the Saburo Sakai ‘ace’ box. I will get some opposition for the Mustangs - perhaps some 109Gs or FW190s, possibly even some Me262s if I was feeling brutal. A box of P47s for the Americans might be useful as well….

I must admit that 1:200th makes better sense in terms of a scale for WW2 aerial games and having three scales in my WW2 aerial collection probably does not!

The rules for Blood Red Skies, after closer reading, make a lot of sense but they should not be thought of as a set of plane to plane combat rules. They are more concerned with the use of formations and so for the veteran plane to plane aerial gamer they require a rather different approach. 

They are also not grid based which would be a first (actually a second if you counted my Wings of War/Glory WW1 collection) for me as all of my WW2 aerial adventures have been firmly hex based.

With the caution and careful forethought that I am renowned for (really!?) I have taken the decision to invest a little further in the game as I reckon it would better suit the types of action I want to recreate.

With this in mind I will probably offload the 1:300th and the Axis and Allies collection in due course but we shall have to see how this works out first.

The Circle is Now Complete….

Big, bold and beautiful - Flat Top does Midway, S Craig Taylor style!

At long last I have finally acquired a copy of the Yaquinto Games board game CV - A Game of the Battle of Midway designed by S Craig Taylor. I owned a copy of this ‘back in the day’ but it was moved on sometime back in the late 1980s as I recall and so it is a real pleasure to be reunited with it.

The game uses the Flat Top system but with, according to the designer, “reflects two more years of research, playtesting and just plain thinking and arguing about the topic of WW2 carrier operations.” It will be interesting to ‘ring the changes’ between this and the earlier Flat Top system

As a result of this acquisition I now own all of S Craig Taylors carrier games - Flat Top (both the Battleline and Avalon Hill versions), Guadalcanal and Midway (the Avalon Hill Smithsonian games) and now CV. This means that I can now cover carrier battles in the Pacific up to the end of 1942 at two levels of complexity - overkill perhaps but having the choice is important because it will mean that I can ease newcomers into the subject. As much as I like the Flat Top system it is a lot to digest for the inexperienced gamer so an easier introduction via the Smithsonian games would make sense.

Carrier battles work best with multiple players and work better still if there is an umpire to control the chaos. That is my ultimate goal.