Some scenarios shot over by Herr Kevin have re-sparked interest in naval wargaming here in central Ohio.  A handful of sci-fi geeks have pushed IS aside for a while, at least, to try their hands at Grand Fleets (thanks mainly to the fact that we now have a decent playing surface in the form of a 48X36  1" hex playing mat).

We tried our hands at some Guadalcanal scenarios, and folks had a blast 

I also got to test reactions on one hypothetical battle set in 1929 between the U.S. and Japan.  One player took over the US force in the form of Salt Lake City, Cincinnati and Marblehead -- paired with a flotilla of Wickes class destroyers.  Had to fix a quick typo with a Japanese damage track, but then we were off.

Squaring off for the IJN were the Nachi, Haguro and Furutaka --along with the CL Kinu leading a flotilla of Kamikaze class destroyers.

The Americans were mostly outgunned -- their two CLs being no dire threat to the enemy CAs.  But the USA had support in the form of air cover.  A random roll at the beginning of the battle determined that seven torpedo planes launched from the Lexington would be available, arriving in pairs during each Turn's End Phase.

The Americans got some LUCKY rolls at the very beginning, with the Salt Lake City bruising Haguro at 11 nm (need a "10" then a "3" to hit, and managed to drive one 8" shell through her belt).  And some sloppy maneuvering by the IJN saw their cruiser division develop some gaps in the line during the early turns.  But eventually, Japanese firepower began to win out.  Moving along at high speed, both sides were pressed to land hits, and the Japanese had a range advantage over the two Omaha class CLs, which they maintained for the next few turns. The Kinu and her flotilla took some licks from the American destroyers, but were largely winning that fight as the two screening forces duked it out.

By the 4th turn, Marblehead had been forced to drop out of the line due to gun damage caused by Furutaka.  And my Wickes couldn't stop the Japanese destroyer flotilla from scooting in and plunking a pair of 24" torpedoes through her hull -- sending her to the bottom.

Revenge came with the torpedo planes, which had been massing to form a concentrated attack.  AAR ratings for ships in this era are pretty low, and if they were able to isolate one of the Japanese cruisers, the flyboys were going to do some damage.  The first four planes went in at once on  Haguro, which managed to evade all four 18" Mk.7s -- but the subsequent trio of planes put one in her hull, and the critical that automatically comes with a torp hit caused flooding that her crew wasn't able to contain until it inflicted another point of damage.  Coupled with salvos from Salt Lake City's 8" guns, Haguro went down.

This caused the Japanese division to be disrupted, and my remaining two cruisers, while dinged a bit, were able to cross the "t" and do some damage to Nachi, which was second in the line.  A crit here saw a fire break out, and when the scenario hit its time limit, neither side was looking really hot. I had arguably done more damage to the cruisers, but my Wickes had really taken a beating. And I had still lost Marblehead.

Fun time.  Air power was a presence, but it didn't dominate the game by any stretch.  We got to use some of the meatier rules in the game (air phase, flotillas, critical hits).  And the scenario size was right, as it was a relatively quick game. I just had no idea how to award VPs, as from what I've seen Kevin usually comes up with that after playtesting.