Now here is carrier combat:
- Japanese want to take New Britain as a forward naval base. The Allies are based out of New Caledonia and Papua.
2. The Japanese have to declare their moves. The entire fleet in Carolines will join up with the 3 battleships in Borneo and a transport loaded with an infantry from Nagasaki (not shown) in sea zone SP 2.
3. The Allies know the Japanese fleet is at sea because they entered a sea zone next to a port they control (New Britain). They will attempt an interception with the entire fleet from New Caledonia and the British battleship in Papua. No other planes have the range to make the interception. INterception will take place in sea zone SP 10 (New Britain) since those are considered home waters and the Allies get +1.
4. The interception rolls for the Allies are successful. These are the units that will be involved. Now we need to determine initiative. The Japanese win the initiative roll and choose to engage in carrier combat rather than surface combat.
5. Both sides must now prepare for carrier combat. Units must be arranged in groups of no more than 3 ships. Then the planes need to be assigned to either CAP or Strike. Both the Japanese and US fighters are held back for CAP duty, while all tac bombers are selected to do a Strike.
6. the Strike planes will pass each other and no combat will occur between them. Each Strike group has to get past the enemy CAP before moving on, however.
7. Since the Japanese won initiative, they get to go first. Combat is for 1 round. The US fighter scores a hit but is shot down in return.
8. Now the tac bombers can continue on. 2 tac bombers will attack the British carrier group while the other 2 will attack the US carrier group.
9. It is not over yet … . The ships in each group get to fire AA at the incoming planes. The British group scores a hit, but the US group misses. The hit plane is immediatley destroyed.