Strategy in 'U.S. Navy Plan Gold'
Scenario #1 — French Invasion: Day 2
By Doug McNair
October 2006

The French invasion of America’s Caribbean holdings begins in earnest with today’s installment of my U.S. Navy Plan Gold replay. As the first day of the scenario came to a close, French subs had torpedoed (but failed to sink) an American scout cruiser as she left the Panama Canal naval base at Colon. More French subs tried to do the same to another scout cruiser outside Guantanamo Bay, but were sent to the bottom by escorting destroyers.

The French light cruisers out of Port Louis had taken a Raid mission and disappeared northeast of Puerto Rico, while the French invasion forces out of Fort de France had split in two, with three fleets headed northwest toward Puerto Rico and St. Thomas and four more fleets headed southwest toward the Venezuelan coast. Both sides had repositioned their air units to be ready to hit enemy fleets or fly CAP over friendlies on Day 2, and an American fast battle cruiser squadron was closing fast on Puerto Rico in hopes of hitting the French invasion fleet before it makes landfall.

Day 2

As the second day of the French invasion begins, the score is France: 2 (for 2 hull boxes on Erie), USA: 8 (two subs killed). The game continues.

Turn 7

The weather remains clear, and the American player decides to put two steps of MB-2 bombers out of San Juan up on a Search mission for the day. This leaves the vast majority of San Juan squadrons available for a strike on the French, and even with only two Search steps up the odds are good that the Americans will spot the French before nightfall. For their part, the French have all ten of their GL-22 fighter steps out of Port Louis fly CAP over the St. Thomas invasion transports and their escorts.

All fleets move, and the American search planes spot the French invasion fleet just off St. Kitts. The American player reports it contains two capital ships, ten light ships, and transports. The strike planes take to the air, but since they’re six zones away the bombers won’t be able to hit their target until next turn.

Turn 8

Fleets keep closing on their targets, and the airstrike locates the invasion fleet and the French CAP as well. The two American fighter units go in as escorts and engage the five French fighter units, and three American fighter steps are destroyed to just one French step destroyed. The four undamaged French fighter units then attack the three American torpedo bomber units, destroying three of the six American bomber steps. The remaining three TBs go in to attack the fleet, which is revealed to include all 50 slow transports from Martinique.

The bombers can’t expect to sink more than two out of those 50, so rather than doing insignificant damage to the transport fleet they decide to attack the battleship Lyon instead. Lyon and her accompanying warships get four anti-aircraft shots at the incoming bombers, and they destroy one bomber step before the other two attack. The American player rolls boxcars, and Lyon takes two torpedo hits which do a total of 4 Hull in damage. Not much, but it gives the inbound battle cruiser squadron a head start against the most powerful French battleship escorting the invaders. The few American survivors (one fighter step and two bomber steps) head home.

The French killed two air units (three half-strength ones remain) for 4 VPs.

Turn 9

Tahoe lays a minefield on the boundary between zones AM16 and AL17 northeast of Colon, and the battle cruiser squadron out of Gitmo skirts the northwest coast of Puerto Rico. Then the search planes out of San Juan spot the raiding fleet of three light ships ten zones northeast of San Juan. It’s way too far from Port Louis to have any French CAP, so the two surviving American bomber steps from the invasion fleet strike take off to hit the French raiders next turn (they leave their fighter escort behind because they don’t have the range to get there).

Turn 10

A bad day for the Marine Nationale: a French battleship explodes.

The Gitmo battle cruiser squadron reaches San Juan, but the bombers out of San Juan roll a 6 and fail to locate the raiders, even though the San Juan search planes maintain contact with them. They return home before dark. But then, the American sub flotilla stationed off St. Thomas makes contact with the French invasion fleet, and the two subs in the flotilla opt to attack the battleships. Both make it through the French destroyer screen undetected, but both torpedoes miss their target.

Turn 11

It’s nighttime, and the weather turns misty. Air units don’t fly at night, so the only chance for combat this turn is another American sub attack on the invasion fleet, which is now clearly heading for St. Thomas. The subs fail to contact the French, so on the last night turn of Day 2 . . .

Turn 12

The mist clears, and the French invasion fleet arrives at St. Thomas. The St. Thomas Coast Guard Station spots the French, and the Gitmo battle cruiser squadron charges in, hoping that the battlecruisers can keep the French battleships busy while the light ships slip by in the dark and attack transports.

Tactical Combat

Setup: The French get initiative, so the Americans set up first in the center of the map. They place the battlecruisers Macedonian and Insurgent together in the same hex with the light cruisers Pensacola and Salt Lake City. The three Clemson-class destroyers that sank the French subs off Gitmo take up position in the neighboring hex to the south.

The French set up their ships in a column steaming in from the east, with the battleships Lyon and Gascoigne in the lead, accompanied by the light cruisers Mulhouse and Colmar. Four destroyers flank them in the hex to the south, and in the hex behind them to the east is the destroyer leader Admiral Seines plus nine slow gunboats. Then farther east are the 50 slow transports, with the battleships Languedoc and Flandre bringing up the rear behind them (they have a bombardment mission and must avoid firing or taking damage to avoid aborting their mission).

Round 1

Segments 1 – 4: The French destroyers head straight for the American battlecruisers, hoping to make a torpedo run. The Americans counter by having their battlecruisers and light cruisers break northeast and the destroyers southeast. This means that if the French destroyers want to follow through with a torpedo run on the BCs, they’ll have to let the American DDs get by them and into the French rear, where they’ll be a danger to the transports.

Segments 5 – 8: The destroyers decide to let the gunboats do their job and protect the transports, and make their run on the battlecruisers. The American ships open a murderous fire and sink three of the four oncoming French destroyers (USA: 18 VPs), leaving only DD Orage to launch torpedoes at the battle cruiser Macedonian. One torpedo hits but does only 1 Hull in damage.

Segments 9 – 12: The Clemsons hold course to the southeast while the larger American ships turn due north, putting more distance between them and the Clemsons. This means the French battleships will have to stay out of sighting range of the Clemsons if they want to pursue the battlecruisers. They do, so little Orage will have to take on the three Clemsons herself.

She closes on the Clemsons while the French battleships and their light cruiser escorts break out of the darkness to fire on the battlecruisers. Lyon (though previously wounded by American bombers) scores several hits on Macedonian, causing 3 Hull damage and taking out one Primary and Tertiary each. Gascoigne only lightly damages Insurgent, and the lightly-armed French light cruisers do only minor damage to Pensacola. Both battlecruisers fire on Lyon and do three hits (not enough to affect her much), and the relatively heavily-armed American light cruisers take out all of Mulhouse’s guns and do one Hull to her. DD Orage takes out a Clemson’s gun, but the Clemsons hit Orage three times and kill both her guns, rendering her harmless since she’s already shot her torpedoes.

Salt Lake City takes enormous damage.

Segments 13 – 16: The Americans have a tough choice to make. They’re still badly outgunned by the French battleships, and the light armor on the BCs does not stand up well to French Primaries. They would like to keep the BBs at arm’s length, but doing that would mean continuing to steam to the north, which would let the BBs just disappear southward into the darkness and blow the Clemsons out of the water while the transports steam toward landfall. That’s no good. Turning northeast while the Clemsons steam southeast keeps up the pressure on the French, but it will let the French BBs move adjacent to the battlecruisers and hit them with a point-blank fusillade. That’s no good either, unless the Clemsons can heave to and charge north for a torpedo run on the Frenchies while they’re trying to sink the battlecruisers. Each Clemson carries four deck-mount torpedoes, so if they get through the French escort fleet may evaporate very quickly.

The Americans go for death and glory. The battlecruisers steer southeast to hit the battleships head-on, while the Clemsons come about right into the teeth of the gunless Orage. This keeps them out of range of the nine French gunboats which steam westward, leading the transports and the bombardment fleet toward their target. The battleships steer due north to put distance between themselves and the Clemsons while keeping the battlecruisers at point-blank range. The Americans must hope the BCs can do enough Hull damage to Lyon to strike her dead in the water (making the Clemsons’ torpedo run a sure thing) while the light cruisers knock out as many of Gascoigne’s secondaries as possible.

The Clemsons sink Orage (U.S.: 6 VPs) . . . and then the slaughter begins. Lyon hits Macedonian numerous times and takes her down to just two hull boxes, with most of her guns gone and her speed reduced to 1. Insurgent fares even worse, taking a critical hit to her speed and then being struck dead in the water when more than half her hull boxes are taken out. Both battlecruisers fire on Lyon, but they only do one Hull. Salt Lake City takes a gun hit from Colmar, but she replies by taking out two of Colmar’s hull boxes while Pensacola sinks Muhouse (U.S.: 8 VPs).

This is good, because that only leaves Colmar’s one deck-mount torpedo, which hits Insurgent and does 2 more Hull, leaving her just barely afloat. Then the two American CLs launch their own torpedoes at Lyon . . . and one hits, rolling an 11 for “3 Hull, lose all movement!” Lyon is dead in the water, and all of a sudden the Americans have a chance.

Segments 17 – 20: Leaving the unfortunate Insurgent behind to pound Lyon with her dying salvoes, Macedonian, Salt Lake City and Pensacola streak southeast to within sighting range of the transports. This leaves the transports with no choice but to flee eastward into the darkness, and the bombardment fleet does the same. The Clemsons deke northwest to stay in the dark ahead of the nine French gunboats to the east. Those gunboats and the destroyer leader with them are of no use against the oncoming Americans cruiser and battle cruiser, and they’ll never catch the Clemsons before they reach Lyon, so they head east with the transports. Gascoigne and Colmar head southeast on a parallel course with the Americans, leaving Lyon behind to finish off Insurgent and then try and take out the Clemsons before they launch torpedoes.

Lyon sinks Insurgent with one salvo (France: 4 0VPs), but Insurgent does 3 Hull with her last shots, leaving Lyon with only 4 Hull remaining. Gascoigne would love to sink Macedonian, but right now the American light cruisers are far more dangerous. They’re faster than Gascoigne and can outrun her to chase down the thinly-protected transports next turn (the transports must exit the battle at the end of this round since they fled out of sighting range before making it to the shaded ring of hexes).

So, Gascoigne opens up on Salt Lake City while Colmar fires at Pensacola. Gascoigne destroys all of Salt Lake City’s secondaries and more than half her Hull boxes to slow her to a speed of 1. Salt Lake City’s fire fails to penetrate Gascoigne’s armor, but Colmar misses Pensacola and is promptly sunk by return fire (U.S.: 8 VPs). Macedonian, not under fire for the first time since battle was joined, hits Gascoigne twice for 2 Hull. Nobody currently firing has any torpedoes, so the round ends with the French transports exiting to the zone east of St. Thomas along with the gunboats, and the bombardment fleet doing the same.

Round 2

Destroyer destroyed. The wreck of the Clemson-class destroyer S.P. Lee.

Segments 1 – 4: The French get initiative again, which is very bad for the Americans because it means they can fire before Pensacola can pull away. Lyon sinks Macedonian (France: 40 VPs), which fires back before dying but does no damage. Then Gascoigne fires on Pensacola, taking out all but two of her Hull boxes and slowing her to Speed 1. Pensacola, knowing she’s doomed, fires on Lyon instead and takes out her last two Secondaries, meaning the Clemsons only have to worry about her Primaries on the way in.

Segments 5 – 8: The Clemsons move north to within sighting range of the stricken Lyon, and Lyon fires on them while Gascoigne tries to finish off either of the light cruisers. Lyon misses the Clemsons clean, and Gascoigne takes out most of Pensacola’s guns but fails to sink her (she has one hull box left). Pensacola returns fire and takes out one of Gascoigne’s Secondaries and then gets a critical hit that actually penetrates heavy armor and destroys one Hull box.

Segments 9 – 12: The Clemsons charge up to Lyon and prepare to launch. Gascoigne can move, but closing range on the Clemsons would just tempt them to fire at her instead of Lyon (and if she’s struck DIW then both French BBs will be fodder for the next American destroyers that happen by). So, she stays put and fires at the Clemsons instead of the cruisers. The destroyers bob and weave, and fire from the two BBs knocks out all their guns, but they’re afloat with all their torpedoes as they come into range. The Clemsons get a +2 bonus on their roll against the dead-in-the-water battleship, and since Lyon has only 4 Hull left, the Americans take a chance and have just one DD fire her four torpedoes. Three of them hit! Lyon goes to the bottom (U.S.: 105 VPs), and two DDs with eight torpedoes are all set to steam right up Gascoigne’s aft.

Segments 13 – 16: The Clemsons charge into the cruisers’ hex and the cruisers move away, putting the Clemsons between themselves and Gascoigne. Gascoigne runs, and the cruisers are saved! The French spit curses as they fire on the insufferable DDs, sinking one of them (conveniently, the one that fired its torpedoes to sink Lyon; France: 8 VPs).

Segments 17 – 20: The Clemsons keep chasing and Gascoigne keeps running as the cruisers limp westward into the dark. They sink another Clemson (France: 8 VPs), but that means there’s still one left for . . .

Round 3

The French get initiative again, and Gascoigne gets a free shot at the Clemson...and misses! The DD closes in for the kill — and is sunk by French gunnery before she can launch (France: 8 VPs). French honor is saved (not to mention Gascoigne).

Day 3 will dawn with Salt Lake City and Pensacola heading west and trailing noxious clouds of oily smoke, but giddy over their repulsion of the French invasion (at least for now). There are three more American fleets from Key West and Guantanamo on their way eastward, and Gascoigne and the gunboats are the only escort ships left.

The French have to hope that at least 15 of their 50 transports can unload and take St. Thomas before the Americans arrive. Also, if the French raiders can start destroying lots of merchant shipping, that’ll draw at least some forces away from the invasion. Finally, the French bombardment fleet has to get back to Port Louis fast once it’s done its job at St. Thomas so it can get an Intercept mission before too much trouble arrives.

The score stands at France: 110, USA: 153 (thanks to the Clemsons’ sacrifice so the two light cruisers could escape). Tune in next time for Day 3 and beyond!

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