It is baseball playoffs but I managed to dust off Coastal Patrol by TFL and the late Mr Schmidt and give it another go. These rules are fast play but give a very satisfying game. I made some modifications to the damage model on scratch paper so wanted to try a scenario out to see if I remembered them. Last year I created a Japanese coastal force and talked about it on my May 2023 post.
I rolled up the scenario "barge busting" per Flotilla Forward and got normal seas with visibility 1 mile.
Unusually, I didn't roll up or use any characters. Two regular PT boats out looking to do damage.
Our two boats moving slow looking for trouble.
The moon must be behind clouds because no one is seeing anything! [ rather than card activation I use the die activation from Cruel Seas and added one US die for the better training and surprise.]
The US finally spots the first blind which is nothing and then a second off to port which is a patrol boat. Knowing barges always stick closer to shore they veer closer to shore and keep their eyes peeled.
"Barges dead ahead!" Two minutes later everyone sees everyone. Who will be the first to react?
The PT boats roar to life and start a "straffing run" of the barges. These boats have 20mm guns fore and aft; not a 40 mm aft.
The Japanese patrol boat is slow to respond with it's poor crew [ love the dice mechanism to roll for number of actions!] They do get some shots off at the second US craft.
The PT boats circle the convoy and come up the back side causing fires on two of the barges!
However, from the rear a Japanese type "C" barge appears and the second PT boat starts to take damage.
The Japanese escorts finally sandwich the PT boats in. The PT boats continue to fire at the barges; their primary mission. Suddenly, the Captain on the second PT boat is hit. In enemy waters at night, taking fire from multiple directions, the crew is not at all pleased with their situation.
As the PT boats escape the gauntlet the second PT boat starts to take on water! The lead boat orders "Come around" which the second boat missed with all the chaos going on. The Chief Petty officer...
calls it a day. He orders the crew to make smoke and to leave towards the rally point. they can work on repairs and see if the captain is okay.
The lead PT boat comes around and attempts one more pass at the enemy barges. The escorts switch their fire to the lead boat.
The pass is made and the PT boat decides...
they have caused as much havoc as they can for one night.
Great game that played in 40 minutes. 2 barges sunk with another damaged. What I did was the barges needed 2 flood and 2 fire hits instead of 6 and the PT and patrol craft required 3. I think this makes the smaller craft more fragile.
Enjoy!
Joe
