'U.S. Navy Plan Gold'
Developer's Preview
By Doug McNair
August 2006

Alternative history is the guilty pleasure of all wargamers. In a recent e-mail, a fan of Great War at Sea and Second World War at Sea wrote that on occasion he would simply set up two huge fleets and throw them at each other to see what would happen. Something tells me this behavior may be more prevalent than all would be willing to admit. So when I started developing U.S. Navy Plan Gold, I wanted to make sure players had maximum flexibility to explore all variations on what a war between the U.S., France and/or Weimar Germany could look like, from small-scale merchant raiding all the way up to simultaneous invasions of rich foreign territory.

Three-Way War

The Caribbean offers players a host of lightly-defended and valuable strategic objectives, all within a short distance of each other. Inject three very different navies into this setting and you’ve got the ingredients for a fascinating mix of scenarios.

The United States Navy is large and powerful, but spread very thin to protect the all the U.S.-controlled ports in the region. The French fleet of dreadnoughts and battle cruisers outguns its U.S. counterpart but is hampered by low fuel capacity and a dearth of coaling ports. And while Weimar Germany can field only two battle cruisers and two light cruisers, they are fast and powerfully armed, and thus well equipped to wreak havoc on the rich American and French merchant shipping lanes around Florida, Cuba, Martinique and the Panama Canal.

To highlight the differences between the opposing fleets in Plan Gold, I mandated the use of the fuel consumption rule (which is normally optional). This requires invasion fleets inbound from France to stop at Port Louis or Martinique for refueling, or to attempt entry at a neutral port and purchase fuel before heading on to their invasion targets. This gives American defenders an extra opportunity to hit the French before they reach land, and lets the French do a bit of deception by splitting their inbound fleets and sending them to various ports so the Americans won't know from where the invasion is coming.

To compensate for low French fuel capacity I also imported the supply mission from Bismarck, which allows colliers and oilers to set up and move off board like raiding fleets. This allows raiders to burn the fuel they need to locate and chase down American merchant ships on the Merchant Location Table, then disappear and link up with hidden colliers and oilers so they can refuel and raid again.

But while this gives the French and German players a freer hand, they have to walk a tightrope of keeping their supply ships away from American patrols while not straying too far from them with their raiders. A French or German player who puts his supply ships in harm’s way can easily lose them and find his raiders caught too far out to make it back to port before running out of fuel.

Operational Scenarios

“Operational Scenario 1: French Invasion” gives the French player ample opportunity to exploit the main American weakness of being spread too thin to cover the entire Caribbean basin. As the scenario’s historical notes state, “Defending key United States possessions from enemy invasion, in particular the Panama Canal, obsessed American war planners. The canal represented an enormously valuable strategic asset, but also a liability as it tied hemispheric defense plans to one location.”

The French player starts with an invasion fleet having arrived at Martinique, but he has complete flexibility as to where to send it. Taking the Panama Canal would be a huge coup, but so would taking Puerto Rico or mounting successful attacks on the U.S. mainland. The American player has to keep the French from mounting successful invasions at key points while at the same time guarding against French merchant raiders inflicting a massive blow to U.S. Caribbean trade.

“Operational Scenario 2: Plan Gold” presents the U.S. response to French threats in the region. The Navy planned to send the Marines to conquer Martinique and Guadeloupe, thus depriving the French of their only ports and coaling stations on the west side of the Atlantic. But the historical Plan Gold didn't go into much detail as to how such a war would be fought, nor did it have detailed plans as to how to deal with a French counter-invasion. So I let the American player choose between three different war plans, each of which relies on differing levels of overt and covert action to get the Marines in and consolidate their defensive positions before the French counter-invasion arrives.

Send in the Marines!

The scenarios that focus on French and German commerce warfare let players explore all possible strategies for disrupting U.S. trade, with and without convoy systems in place, and with and without aircraft carriers for scouting and air-strike duty. Political meddling plays a big role here. French and German bombardment of American ports can force the U.S. Government to call in ships for coastal defense duty, or it can cause public outcry and demands for retaliatory raids against Martinique and Guadeloupe. Or it can cause both at the same time.

As always, such meddling just makes the job of the American commanders harder, so the French and Germans can stretch the Americans in multiple directions by going in for coastal raids and waiting for the political fallout before attacking on the high seas. There's even a three-player scenario that lets Germany dive into a conflict between France and America, laying waste to both their merchant shipping to get a leg up on them in the post-war world.
French designs on other Caribbean targets like Hispaniola, Cuba and the rich Venezuelan oil ports drive the remaining scenarios.

Given the potential for simultaneous French and American invasions of multiple islands and ports, I added rules for ground combat between landing forces and garrisons. Simple “roll for sixes” combat between opposing ground forces gives players more options for mounting and relieving invasions, thus adding more variability and realism to the game.

U.S. Navy Plan Gold gives players plenty of variants and many tools and options for achieving their objectives, and that gives gamers lots of replayability for their money. I hope you have as much fun playing it as I did developing it. Enjoy!

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