Rules to include 2 of the most famous raids in history; Pearl Harbor and Doolittle Raid
Pearl Harbor: If the Japan is not at war with the US. Japan can stage a Hawaiian surprise attack against sea zone 26. This attack is air attack ONLY, no Japanese ships can be included. In round 1, US ships defend with a roll of 1, and the US can scramble 1 plane only.
To represent the shallow harbor, US ships take an extra hit without being sunk. Thus, a CA would not be sunk with 1 hit, it would take 2. However, ships with an extra damage point cannot move and defend with a roll of 1. Each damage point takes 1 turn to repair.
If Japanese player decides to continue battle after round 1, ships get their normal defense and 2 more fighters can scramble.
Doolittle Raid: The US player can launch 2 TB from 1 carrier after war has been declared with Japan against the territory of Japan - it can only be done if at war at start of US turn. The bombers can target the industrial complex and they can move 6 but cannot land on any carrier. As an option the carrier can carry the planes 1 zone before launching and then get 1 zone in the non-combat phase. Japan cannot intercept the bombers with fighters.
I’m not sure I understand the concept of a Pearl Harbor attack involving no Japanese ships, since the whole operation revolved around the use of a Japanese carrier strike force to bring the attacking aircraft into range of Pearl Harbor. Japanese aircraft in 1941 didn’t have the range to fly all the way to Hawaii from Japan and all the way back again. The closest that Japan ever came to doing anything like that were one or two very small bombing raids carried out against Hawaii by (if I recall correctly) a couple of flying boats from Kwajalein Atoll. These flying boats – Emilys, I think – were big and slow and clumsy, could hardly have done much damage, and would have had to fly unescorted since no Japanese fighters had the equivalent range.
As for the Doolittle Raid, it was carried out by B-25 Mitchell medium bombers, not by tactical bombers. The rule section about these normally land-based planes being carrier-launched is correct (they used special training and techniques to launch from a flight deck), but the rule would have to be more precise than just saying that “The US player can launch 2 TB from 1 carrier” because it doesn’t restrict the location of the carrier and it doesn’t specify that the planes have to fly a one-way mission. In the actual raid, Hornet had to get close enough for the planes to launch, hit their targets and continue to China. The planes didn’t have the range to return to the carriers, and in any case could never have made a carrier landing; the techniques they used to launch from a carrier couldn’t work in reverse to land on one.
@CWO:
I’m not sure I understand the concept of a Pearl Harbor attack involving no Japanese ships, since the whole operation revolved around the use of a Japanese carrier strike force to bring the attacking aircraft into range of Pearl Harbor. Japanese aircraft in 1941 didn’t have the range to fly all the way to Hawaii from Japan and all the way back again. The closest that Japan ever came to doing anything like that were one or two very small bombing raids carried out against Hawaii by (if I recall correctly) a couple of flying boats from Kwajalein Atoll. These flying boats – Emilys, I think – were big and slow and clumsy, could hardly have done much damage, and would have had to fly unescorted since no Japanese fighters had the equivalent range.
As for the Doolittle Raid, it was carried out by B-25 Mitchell medium bombers, not by tactical bombers. The rule section about these normally land-based planes being carrier-launched is correct (they used special training and techniques to launch from a flight deck), but the rule would have to be more precise than just saying that “The US player can launch 2 TB from 1 carrier” because it doesn’t restrict the location of the carrier and it doesn’t specify that the planes have to fly a one-way mission. In the actual raid, Hornet had to get close enough for the planes to launch, hit their targets and continue to China. The planes didn’t have the range to return to the carriers, and in any case could never have made a carrier landing; the techniques they used to launch from a carrier couldn’t work in reverse to land on one.
Also, the pearl harbor attack included Jaanese subs. It wasn’t a pure air attack.
