Island Hopping

[petercooman]

EDIT: Goodness, I see I'm too late!  Well, thanks for all the hard work Peter, you're too kind!

I hope that was a list you had prepared earlier Peter

That is a list i lifted of the war at sea forum and that i trimmed all the A&A info out off, since that would probably just confuse someone who doesn't know that game 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Hood (+3) is because the other three units of her class were cancelled as they needed the steel for merchantmen, then the whole project was abandoned after the The Washington Treaty' (which probably saved an awful lot of lives). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiral-class_battlecruiser
Duke of York KGV class battleship) also served in the Pacific Theatre, taking the British part of the Japenese surrender. She was repainted from her 43 'North Cape' cammo into mid/dark grey with a lift blue bar along her torpedo bulges after she sailed to Sydney post DDay...

[petercooman]

I have a king george V mini from war at sea, excellent model!

here from left to right:

glorious, king george V, belfast, exeter

[petercooman]

But these are still my nicest ones (and biggest!)

left to right: bismarck, richelieu and vittorio veneto




You got any of their BB's Jack?

I had a yamato, and it looked very nice. I traded her for the Rodney with my buddy (he does pacific and i do mediterranean so was a good trade)

[Ace of Spades]

Some of my 1/700 scale ships we use for wargaming. Nor sure if the link for the picture works though so please reply if you do/don't see them... If it works I have some more 

Cheers,
Rob

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

That worked!

[Ace of Spades]

It's rather big though... let's see what I can do about that... :-

Cheers,
Rob

[petercooman]

Nice!

[paulr]

 

USS Independence CVL-22 & USS Atlanta CL-51 I presume

[Ace of Spades]

The Independence (CV-22) is correct Paul; the CL is the Oakland; I replaced the two twin 5" turrets on its sides with quad 40mm tubs to portray the Oakland class Anti Aircraft-CL's 

Cheers,
Rob

[paulr]

Nicely done mod to the Oakland

[bigjackmac]

Wow, excellent stuff guys, thanks for posting!  Those Axis and Allies minis can really do the job, at least for me, and yeah, I have a couple BBs per side, though I'm actually not too keen on using them, at least not yet.  We'll see how I feel when we get to the Solomons, where I'll be playing some real fights, but also working in some fictional ones.

Regarding the Island Hopping campaign, I've been busy.  I created three fictional fighter squadrons, one US Marine Corps, one US Army Air Corps, and one US Navy, which I'll be following throughout the war.  Each is beginning in the Dutch East Indies, then will split up, converging at various points throughout the war.  The Marines and Navy are starting in Wildcats, while the Army is starting in P-40s.  After DEI, the Army will head to Darwin, the Navy will be heading to the Yorktown for some Central Pacific raids, Coral Sea, and then Midway.  The Marines will show up in Midway, and then Guadalcanal.  The Navy will then show up at the Battle of the Eastern Solomons and the Battle of Santa Cruz, on the Enterprise, and each time the Enterprise is damaged they'll go spend a bit of time on the 'Canal.  The Army is going to show up at Guadalcanal too, for a bit (albeit in P-40s, not P-39s!), before transitioning to P-38s and heading to New Guinea.  The Marines will transition to Corsairs and move up the Solomons, the Navy will move to a new carrier (or carriers), and the Army will fight up through the Southwest Pacific.  The Marines and Army will probably converge again in the Philippines, maybe the Navy will show up there, too, on a carrier, and then as we get to Iwo Jima/Okinawa, the Marines and Navy will both be on carriers, maybe have the Army transition to P-47s and stay in the Philippines, or move to the Marianas and work over Japan?  We'll see how it all shakes out, but that's my plan.

And to that end, I've already played the first four dogfights with these three new squadrons (three Marine, one Army), with the goal of playing three fights per squadron for DEI.  My US Marine rifle platoon is currently in Palembang, so when we reach 13/14 Feb 1942 they'll have to fight some Japanese paratroopers, then withdraw to Java and make their way to Australia (the US Marine fighter squadron is up at P2 in Palembang; the Army squadron is currently at Makassar on Celebes, and the Navy squadron is at Koepang, Dutch Timor.  They'll all fight until they're overrun, then escape to Australia.  And I'll be mixing in the naval fights, Java Sea (in two parts) and Sunda Strait; I don't think they'll be escaping to Australia...

So that's the plan for DEI, then there will be some aerial fights in the interim, but no more naval or ground until 7 Aug 1942, when the Marines hit the beach at Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Gavutu.  I don't plan on any surface naval engagements until the Solomons, and I'm not going to play out carrier-only battles.

The only thing upsetting these plans (aside from all the other projects I have going on) is the fact I've been doing some reading up on the New Guinea campaign, and the more I read, the more intrigued I get, and the more intrigued I get, the more I want to create US Army and Australian rifle platoons to follow as well.  I don't have time for all this!

V/R,
Jack

[paulr]

Good plans Jack

Kokoda

[pierre the shy]

That's a lot of gaming Jack.

Looking forward to following the campaigns of your 3 fighter squadrons...always remember to check your 6!

We're off to the Solomons this weekend ourselves in our GQ campaign.....a night action around Savo Island.

[paulr]