@Young:
LHoffman,
If you want Tokyo express 90% of the time as is, than why make the advantage stronger? Besides, Tokyo express was all about suppling and reinforcing islands already held by the Japanese, so it’s historically correct as is. As for the destroyer aspect, I have been having difficulty creating a game play friendly destroyer into transports that will stand up to long lance torpedos, and other problems involved with it, so I decided to turn transports into destroyers for the purpose of tokyo express. I like the non combat limitations on transporting 3 to islands because I don’t want either choice to be a “no brainer”.
COW Marc,
I felt that limited action was good due to their inability to bombard in a strategic landing operation like amphibious assaults, but could in tun defend themselves on their way home for repairs.
5B - Tokyo Express
All Japanese transports now become surface warships with a defense value @1. Also, during their non combat movement phase, Japanese transports may now transport 3 units (2 infantry + 1 land unit) provided they are unloaded on a Japanese controlled Island (must still be last removed).
I originally hadn’t done more than glance at this rule, so I didn’t really pay attention to the details until I saw your above post. I won’t address the game play elements, but in terms of historical accuracy there’s a minor issue and a major one with the rule as it now stands.
The minor issue is the concept of having all Japanese transports become surface warships. If this simply means (in real-world terms) that they were drafted into the IJN, that’s fine since it’s simply a matter of paperwork. What I’m wondering is what the defense value @1 represents. If this means giving them some defensive weapons like AAA guns and 3-inch guns, this would be fine – it’s is basically the concept of the armed merchant cruiser, which the British and the Americans used. If this represents armour, however, it wouldn’t work: merchant ships aren’t armoured, armour can’t be added after-the-fact to a ship unless you rebuild it, and the added weight would greatly slow its speed.
Which brings me to the major issue. Destroyers were used for the Tokyo Express because they were the only ships fast enough to do the job during the Guadalcanal campaign. The Japanese, who controlled the islands at the northern end of the Solomons chain, needed to reinforce their position on Guadalcanal; they could only do this at night because in daylight the Americans had air superiority over the southern Solomons. Japanese destroyers therefore had to race all the way down The Slot to unload their troops on Guadalcanal and then race all the way back up to the northern Solomons, all during the hours of darkness, to avoid being attacked by US aviation. Destroyers could do it because they could steam in the 30-to-35-knot range. Transport ships couldn’t do it because they were too slow. As a point of reference: in the Battle of the Atlantic, freighters capable of a speed between 9 and 13 knots were considered fast ships for convoying purposes; the ones assigned to slow convoys could only manage between 6 and 9 knots. The only troop- transport ships that could operate at really high speeds were converted passenger liners like the Queen Elizabeth, which could steam at 26 knots – and I don’t think Japan used any such vessels in the Solomons.
