Sixth Fleet play by email campaign

A while ago I came across a series of posts by Brad over at Hexsides and Handgrenades, the subject of which was Victory Games' Sixth Fleet.  At the time I knew nothing about this gaming institution, but I was intrigued by Brad's updates and so resolved to track down a copy for myself.

As Brad is another Japan resident and a dedicated moderns wargamer we got in touch and made plans to get a PBEM game underway 'some time'.

Well, it's taken us nearly two years, but that time has now arrived, and last night we kicked off the first scenario.

Brad knows the game fairly well but was kind enough to go easy on me and let us begin at the beginning.

Lord knows I need it!

So far I have managed to lose USS Drum and see USS Baltimore badly damaged, but the Soviets have been given a bloody nose as well, thanks to some Orions on ASW duty and the VASSAL modules' ability to roll three sixes in a row at a crucial point.

It's no lie to say that I've only been kept in the game by those dice rolls.

My planning has been pretty poor, and even though Brad has had only one decent sub against my two he has outplayed me throughout.  I do hope I'm beginning to get a better handle on ASW tactics now though, and if the activation rolls go our way we might just escape with a draw, which would be celebrated here as a Claudian Triumph, though without a full-sized elephant, naturally.

And the game? I'm loving it, and it's going to be well worth the learning.