Steel Typhoon 1 Steel Typhoon 2012 Standard The Second Half of the Pacific War November 1943 - September 1945 designed by Ed Kettler, Adam Adkins, and John Kettler edited by Larry Bond and Chris Carlson published by The Admiralty Trilogy Group Copyright © 2012, 2014, 2015, 2019 by the Admiralty Trilogy Group, LLC, Ed Kettler, Adam Adkins, and John Kettler All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. Made in the USA. No part of this game may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. Command at Sea is a registered Trademark by Larry Bond, Christopher Carlson, and Edward Kettler, for their WW II tacti- cal naval wargame. The Admiralty Trilogy is a registered Trademark by Larry Bond, Christopher Carlson, Edward Kettler, and Michael Harris for their Twentieth-Century tactical naval gaming system. ThisSample version of Steel Typhoon has been updated to include all corrections from errata through 13 Octoberfile 2019. The designers of Steel Typhoon and Command at Sea are prepared to answer questions about the game system. They can be reached in care of the Admiralty Trilogy Group at [email protected]. Visit their website at www.admiraltytrilogy.com. Cover by Tim Schleif 2 Steel Typhoon Table of Contents Page Table of Contents 2 Scenario Notes 3 Dedication 3 Acknowledgements 3 Map of the Pacific Theater 4 Battleship and Cruiser Floatplane Availability 5 Japanese Naval Aviation Units 5 Hourly Event Table 6 Operation Cartwheel: Breaking the Solomons Barrier Raid on Rabaul 5 Nov 43 Carrier attack on Rabaul 7 Rabaul's Defenses in November 1943 9 Second Air Battle of Bougainville 8 Nov 43 Air counterattack against landing 12 Rabaul Revisited 11 Nov 43 Attack on Simpson Harbor 14 Rabaul's Riposte 11 Nov 43 Japanese counterattack against TF 50.3 15 Christmas at Kavieng 25 Dec 43 USN air raid on shipping 16 Operation Kon: First Biak Reinforcement 2 Jun 44 Hypothetical night battle 18 Operation Kon: Battle off Biak 8 Jun 44 Cruiser/destroyer night action 21 Operation Kon: Third Biak Reinforcement 14 Jun 44 Hypothetical night battleship/cruiser action 22 Battle Drones 27 Sep 44 TDR-1 drones attack shipping 24 Opening the Central Pacific 25 Wolf in the Fold 24 Nov 43 Makin submarine counterattack 26 The Gibraltar of the Pacific 16 Feb 44 USN air raid against Japanese bastion 27 Operation Hailstone: Sweep Around Truk 16 Feb 44 Battleship/cruiser/destroyer action 30 Operation Hailstone: Counterattack 17 Feb 44 Kates vs. USN carrier task force 31 Truk’s Defenses 32 The Battle of the Philippine Sea: Introduction 35 Japanese Airfield Data for Philippine Sea Area July 1944 38 Unexpected Visitors – Plan Johnny 11 Jun 44 US carrier task force vs. Guam’s air facilities 39 Battle of Philippine Sea: Ozawa's Raids 19 Jun 44 IJN air vs. USN TF and CAP 41 Battle of Philippine Sea: Turn on the Lights 20 Jun 44 USN afternoon carrier attack 43 Battle of Philippine Sea: Night Pursuit 21 Jun 44 Hypothetical night pursuit by USN 45 The Indian Ocean: Introduction 47 Carrier Raid: Sabang 19 Apr 44 RN carrier operations 48 Something is Wrong With Our Bloody Torpedoes 26 Mar 45 Destroyers attack convoy 50 Battle of Malacca Strait 15 May 45 IJN Haguro meets her fate 51 Leyte Gulf, The Greatest Naval Battle: Introduction 53 BaitDiv/CripDiv 17 Oct 44 Hypothetical: IJN cruiser force hunts crippled cruisers 55 Battle of the Sibuyan Sea 24 Oct 44 Halsey's USN air hits Kurita's force 57 Battle of San Bernardino Strait 24 Oct 44 Hypothetical night surface action 59 Battle of Surigao Strait 24-25 Oct 44 Oldendorf vs. Kurita night battle 61 Battle off Cape Engaño 25 Oct 44 Halsey's USN air vs. Ozawa. 63 Battle off Samar 25 Oct 44 Taffy 3 vs. Kurita 65 San Jose Penetration Force 26 Dec 44 IJN cruisers attack landing force 68 The Long Road to Lingayen 2-6 Jan 45 Forced passage of Lingayen attack force 70 Maru-Ni at San Juan 9-10 Jan 45 Hypothetical night attack by suicide boats 72 The Road to Tokyo: Introduction 74 Enemy in Our Midst 20 Nov 44 Midget sub attack against Ulithi 75 Operation Iceberg: Counterlanding at Kerama Retto 27 Mar 45 Hypothet. Japanese defense of Kerama Retto 78 Operation Iceberg: Tembu (Heavenly Warrior) 8 Apr 45 Hypothetical Japanese battle for survival 81 SampleOperation Iceberg: Kikusui 1 6 Apr 45 Coordinated kamikazes file off Okinawa 82 A Glorious Way to Die: Operation Ten-Ichi 7 Apr 45 Yamato's last sortie 87 Operation Iceberg: Sweepers, Man Your Brooms 4 May 45 RN TF 57 attacked by kamikazes 90 Surface Sweep 20 Jul 45 Hypothetical post-typhoon surface action 92 Steel Typhoon 3 Page Special Rules for Handling and Fighting the Maru-Ni 94 Special Rules for Air Group Attack Integrity 95 Bibliography 97 Annex N South Pacific Random Weather Generator 102 The 2012 Damage Point Standard This version of Steel Typhoon has been updated to use the “2012 Standard” to calculate a ship’s damage points. This method, described in the April 2012 issue of the Naval SITREP (hence the name) matches historical results more closely than the older “2006 Standard” used in earlier versions of this supplement. All of the ship damage points in this supplement have been changed. Other, smaller, corrections and updates have been made throughout the booklet as well. If you are using ship data from more than one Admiralty Trilogy publication, make sure that the damage points have all been calculated using the 2012 Standard. Scenario Notes This supplement provides scenarios for the second half of the Pacific War, from November 1943 until VJ-Day. The attrition warfare in the Solomons gives way to the island-hopping campaigns of the Central Pacific and up the northern coast of New Guinea. The clash of naval titans in the Philippine Sea, Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, drives the once unstoppable Japanese empire back to its home islands. The Japanese resort to increasingly desperate measures to break the will of the Allies before the empire completely crumbles. The first half of this drama was covered in Rising Sun. Larger battles, such as the Philippine Sea, are broken down into a set of smaller scenarios. Players can choose to play the scenarios individually, or can start at the historical placement with the forces and proceed through the entire battle. We have tried to provide a balance of scenarios to help depict this struggle, not only between enemies, but also the hostile environments in which it was fought. There are surface, air and submarine actions, but also the special attack units that added a new dimension to the horrors of war. The naval battles in the Pacific were fought to destroy, isolate, disable or capture enemy bases, and it was boots on the ground that wrested control from a tenacious and dug in enemy. Some of the scenarios are fictional, variants or hypothetical to provide opportunity to evaluate “what if” situations but also to keep the opponents from having a “God View” of the scenario and provide some fog of war. Hypothetical scenarios are identified in the introduction to the scenario, and variations are suggested near the end of some of the scenarios. There is a wealth of sources about World War II in the Pacific, and research is opening new areas and new perspectives. For example, John Parshall’s Shattered Sword revealed that several of the widely held Western views on the Battle of Midway are flawed. Sources sometimes conflict with each other, and often only basic data exists, but not the operational constraints. We have used the best sources and cross-checked to “fill in the blanks” to provide an accurate picture of the forces, the environment and objectives for each scenario. Victory conditions are a challenge for some of the scenarios, as the outnumbered, out-trained and materially weaker Japanese player needs to be able to extract some measure of personal satisfaction even though the scenario is unbalanced. There are many people who have made all or part of World War II a lifetime passion. Some served in the war and remember these battles as much more than maps and lists of units. They will probably spot errors or gaps in the information on these pages. Please contact us through Clash of Arms and share what you know, or at least point us to a reference we may have missed. We always answer the mail. Dedication To Lorenzo Pandes, Philippine guerilla, career US Navy petty officer, and a wonderful husband and father: 1925-2009. To Lieutenant Commander Leo Bauer, Sr., USN (Ret.), WW II VP pilot, teacher, mentor, husband and father: 1917-2011. Acknowledgements:Sample file This product would not have happened without a lot of hard work, perseverance, late nights and several playtest sessions as we worked on some of the aspects of naval warfare unique to the Pacific. Special thanks to Pat Hreachmack, my brothers John and George, Adam Adkins, Andy Doty, Peter Grining, Dave Schueler, Steve Thorne, Jay Wissmann, the Admiralty Trilogy Staff and team, and to my loving and devoted wife Mercy who puts up with my many hobbies. 4 Steel Typhoon Sample file Steel Typhoon 5 Battleship and Cruiser Floatplane Availability In many cases, the historical records do not list the Roll once for each ship. All the floatplanes will be types of floatplanes carried on warships during a battle. of the same type, although that was not always the Where we have such information, it in included in the case historically.