Questions regarding solitaire rules

[kirkoa]

I was playing the Vella Lavella scenario and three questions came to mind.

1) In regards to the enemy disengaging, it is a +4 mod if it has "heavy" damage. Is this per damage type, or combined? In specific, I was the Americans and a Japanese DD had 2 flotation and 2 structural damage...basically a wreck at that point. Would the 4 DLs count as heavy damage, or would another flotation or structural DL be needed to count as heavy?

2) The torpedo phase on turn 2 came around and the two divisions were 2 bands apart allowing torp attacks. None of the US DDs were damaged. In firing torps, I am reading that the mounts on a ship are counted seperately. This is all good, as the rules seem very realistic in the ability to hit the target, and the resulting damage they do. The Kagero DD has 2 mounts of 4 torps each, so I would attack a US DD two times with 4 torps each and not one attack of 8. This all makes sense, but at the range (a -1 modifier to the roll) combined with just four torps made it so they weren't going to hit a DD with it 2 size and 6 speed. Do the Japs have to attack with the torps even though they cant hit the target? Would they have to fire both mounts if they can hit?

3) I was using the advanced firing rules, and like them alot with it going back and forth with a ship or two firing, depending on the die rolls. I was confused with the rule stating that the Japs have to fire at the largest PV target though. What happens when all ships (3 US DDs in this case) have the same PV? Does each Jap ship fire at the same ship until it is damaged, or do you randomly select?

[William Miller]

I was playing the Vella Lavella scenario and three questions came to mind.

1) In regards to the enemy disengaging, it is a +4 mod if it has "heavy" damage. Is this per damage type, or combined? In specific, I was the Americans and a Japanese DD had 2 flotation and 2 structural damage...basically a wreck at that point. Would the 4 DLs count as heavy damage, or would another flotation or structural DL be needed to count as heavy?

2) The torpedo phase on turn 2 came around and the two divisions were 2 bands apart allowing torp attacks. None of the US DDs were damaged. In firing torps, I am reading that the mounts on a ship are counted seperately. This is all good, as the rules seem very realistic in the ability to hit the target, and the resulting damage they do. The Kagero DD has 2 mounts of 4 torps each, so I would attack a US DD two times with 4 torps each and not one attack of 8. This all makes sense, but at the range (a -1 modifier to the roll) combined with just four torps made it so they weren't going to hit a DD with it 2 size and 6 speed. Do the Japs have to attack with the torps even though they cant hit the target? Would they have to fire both mounts if they can hit?

3) I was using the advanced firing rules, and like them alot with it going back and forth with a ship or two firing, depending on the die rolls. I was confused with the rule stating that the Japs have to fire at the largest PV target though. What happens when all ships (3 US DDs in this case) have the same PV? Does each Jap ship fire at the same ship until it is damaged, or do you randomly select?

Kirkoa,

Some answers to your above questions:

1) The rule as written requires 3 Levels of Structural damage or 3 Levels of Floatation damage, you would not combine levels of damage for that rule. Of course you can always modify the rule if you like...requiring 4 combined (2 Struct + 2 Float) levels would be a reasonable additional condition to add.

2) As a general rule, if an enemy cannot possibly hit the target with an attack then it will attempt to attack the nearest target that it has a chance to hit. If there are no targets that it can hit then it will not fire.

3) If all eligible targets (i.e. your units) are of equal PV, the nearest such target is attacked by a single enemy unit first, then the next nearest target by a single enemy unit, and so forth until all enemy units that can fire have done so. If the enemy side has more ships firing than you have elgible targets then cycle back through the nearest target and repeat the process until all enemy ships fire.