Coast Watchers – Session Report – “The Airfield”
by Volko Ruhnke
Here is a peak at play in Coast Watchers – Volume I in my Recon Series. You can get more views of the production game set in InsideGMT here.
In this case, I took in the finished components in action by setting up a Situation and playing it out as both sides. I just did my best to make choices as if I did not know the other side’s hidden information, occasionally drawing Allied Asset cards to make some critical location choice via the Scatter spaces on the cards. I have a little lazy Susan that I put the board on so that I could just sit on one side of the table and spin the board back and forth to play an Allied or Japanese phase.
You can read about the game’s full array of 15 Situations in my scenarios preview here. I chose to play Situation D – “The Airfield”.
The scenario sheet for Situation D.
Allied view of Situation D, after drawing cards and placing Coastwatcher blocks and Japanese Patrols.
Situation D portrays the period of the South Pacific campaign in which the Japanese have knocked the Allies out of the Solomon Islands (the east half of the map board) and US forces have not yet landed on Guadalcanal.
Situation D is unique in the game in that the Japanese can score piles of victory points if they can place Construction “Buildups” in the Central Solomons or Guadalcanal on the first that never get Observed and Reported by the Coastwatchers, while any successful Allied Report of such Construction will cancel those Japanese VP. That represents the possibility that the Japanese might have finished their airfield on Guadalcanal before a US invasion could seize it, as happened historically.
Special Situation D “Airstrip Grading” Mission cards deliver a lot of Japanese VP – IF the Japanese can keep the construction work hidden!
The Japanese Mission card draw proves most interesting: they unusually draw neither any Operations – in this Situation, Japanese air or sea strikes against the Allies’ Port Moresby base in New Guinea (dark blue marker at upper right) – nor any airfield work.
These Japanese Mission cards show the unusual draw of no Airfield Grading and no Operations.
Not knowing that no Solomons airstrip is in prospect, the Coastwatchers make a heavy commitment to the Central Solomons and Guadalcanal to hunt for any airfield work and just two active Stations to protect Port Moresby.
The Allies deploy coastwatchers to scour the Solomons.
Good news for the Alles then that there will be no New Guinea strikes. But the Japanese did not draw any Airstrip Grading either, so the Japanese plan is to let the CWs expend themselves observing the Solomons while using Barges they drew plus Construction Troops to speed local mission Buildups elsewhere.
Yellow or orange Patrol markers show where the Japanese are active trying to find Coastwatchers. So those Japanese choices are known to the Allies and can serve as an important clue – or misdirection – as to Japanese Mission Buildups that the Patrols may be protecting.
Here, the Japanese put one of their initial Army Patrols at Gasmata (roughly board center) – on the way from their main bases at Rabaul and Kavieng to New Guinea – just to spoof the possibility of a New Guinea Operation and thereby keep the Allies guessing about that.
For demonstration purposes, here laid out are all the Buildup markers that might score Japanese VP from the Mission cards drawn. In addition to the Construction Battalions Asset card always available in this Situation, my Japanese randomly drew Barges – both promise help in getting a lot of these Buildups out there. So I decide with the Japanese to build up to the maximum, even though the more I put out there, the more there is for the Coastwatchers to Observe and Report for even more Allied VP.
The full suite of Buildups that can score VP from the Japanese Missions drawn
The Asset cards that are to help get the Buildups done
Japanese Turn I Preparations – maximum Buildup
In this photo, you see the Buildups from the Japanese Preparations phase of Turn I. (The yellow-boxed markers are face up just for exposition – the Allied player would not see these.) During this first phase only, the Japanese are able to place up to 4 Buildups. In later turns, they may only add or adjust 1 Buildup each. But in this case, the two Asset cards at left add another 2 Buildups.
Note that the Japanese have so far entirely avoided the Solomons area – the upper left or southeast area of the map – where the Japanese player would expect Coastwatchers in this situation to hunt for airfield construction.
The Playbook’s “Intelligence Brief” for Situation D shows the Mission cards that the Japanese might have drawn: at top, the Allied player is reminded that chances are 2 in 3 that the Japanese can earn a hefty 12 or 15 VP for hidden Construction in the Guadalcanal or Central Solomons Region. But in this game the Japanese drew the Improvements Mission instead, which can earn a smaller VP reward for Construction at a wider swath of “Rising Sun” locations.
A page from the Playbook’s Situation D Intelligence Brief
Turn I – 1stAllied Intelligences Activities phase
Returning to the Allied player’s view of the South Pacific, the aqua pawns show actions taken in the game’s first Allied phase. First, in some housekeeping, Catalina and Boats (bottom left) Deliver Resupply to add Evasion chits to the Patrol cup. This will make it easier for Coastwatching Stations to stay hidden. The 2 blue “Nothing Sighted” chits displayed here at the Boats Asset card came from that Delivery cup draw: the Station receiving the supplies remained Hidden, as no Japanese sighted the boats.
The Coastwatchers’ first “Operate” action then off the bat “Clears” Buin – a key Japanese Base at the north of the Solomon Islands chain. The lefthand pawn of the pair at upper right shows the Patrol cup draw for that Observe action: 1 Evasion and 1 Patrol. The Coastwatchers got their Report off, but they were spotted doing so. Therefore the Allied player got to look at the Buildup marker at Buin and mark Buin with the “Clear” flag on the Reports display at lower right (for 2VP if that information remains current) – but they had to do so “Openly”. The Japanese player got to watch all that, so knows that Buin got Reported Clear and might now Secretly alter that Buildup to cancel Allied VP for the Report. Moreover, the Coastwatcher at Buin got Revealed and becomes vulnerable unless using another action to Evade.
The Allied player next used a Hideouts Asset (the lefthand canted card displayed along the bottom) for a free Observe action by the Coastwatcher at Salamaua (left edge of the map, the Coastwatcher at that point still Hidden). Drawing no Patrol chit, just Evade, from the cup to resolve the action, the Coastwatcher stays Hidden and the Allied player gets to inspect the Buildup marker at Salamaua and Report it Secretly. The marker shown at “Salamaua – New Guinea” on the Reports display (at the board’s lower right edge) will earn 5VP for the Allies if still accurate at game end. Importantly, the Japanese player knows that the Allies succeeded in Secret Observation somewhere, but not where!
A third Observation logs a Report of the Japanese Construction Buildup at Lae in New Guinea (center left edge of the map) – another potential 5VP for the Allies. This one used Spies (pawn at the canted card at lower right) to enable that same Coastwatcher at Salamaua to Observe into the nearby Lae. With no Japanese Patrol at the target, only 1 chit is pulled from the Patrol cup to resolve the action – but this time it’s a Patrol (as displayed here on the Spies card), so again the Observe is Open, and this time both the Inactive Station block at Lae and the Coastwatcher at Salamaua get Revealed!
Nevertheless, Observing the Construction at Lae is a boon not only for the VP. The Allied player could now deduce that the Japanese hold the Improvements Mission instead of any Airfield Grading goal, as only Improvements would reward Construction at Lae. In theory, of course, the Japanese may have undertaken construction at Lae as a ruse – in hopes that the enemy would find it and call off any hunt for a Solomons airfield!
Having used 4 of 5 available actions on Deliveries and Observations, the Allied player can now Evade with just 1 Coastwatcher. They do so with the one at Buin (pawn on the again stood-up block at upper right). This leaves Salamaua’s Coastwatcher exposed – only a small risk, as the Japanese are not yet Patrolling there and would need the right Asset card to get a Patrol going there ahead of any immediate Search.
Player aid Turn Sequence summary – The Allies during their phases must commit to all Deliver and Operate (including Observe) actions before they Evade exposed Coastwatchers. The Japanese must complete all Searches for the enemy Coastwatchers before they can Deploy new Patrols for Searches in a later phase (unless they use an Asset that breaks that sequence).
Skipping forward, over the 3 turns of play, the Japanese do not manage to Take (capture) any Coastwatchers – even with the aid of counterintelligence officer Ishimoto and the draw (by Augment action) of Pro-Japanese on Bougainville. But the Construction Battalions help fill in Construction at Buin, which the Japanese know the Coastwatchers earlier Reported as Clear, and where those Pro-Japanese Bougainville Police help protect the fact of new Construction against further enemy Observation.
More Japanese Assets – these helpful for catching Coastwatchers
In the end, the Coastwatchers manage to scope out all possible spots for what turns out to be non-existent airfield work. And they do find troops on Vella Lavella by using The Kupers at a Station that Japanese Search pressure had succeeded in deactivating (removing the Station block there). …
A suite of Allied Assets aiding the Coastwatchers in Observing enemy Buildups
Scoring – The Allies have lost no personnel and get credit for some Rescued Refugees, accurate Reports at Salamaua and Vella Lavella, and 8 active Stations in enemy territory. The Japanese earn points for Buildups serving the 3 Mission cards shown at center bottom.
Unfortunately for the Allies, not only their Buin Clear Report but also their valuable Report of Construction at Lae is no longer up to date – the Japanese reacted and called off their work there! (The Japanese player on a later Buildup action pulled the Construction marker from Lae.)
The score here is a tight 18VP for the Allies to 19VP for the Japanese. Perhaps the Allies should have taken the hint at Lae that no Solomons airfield was in work and diverted their effort to keeping their other Reports up to date!
Volko