Historical Background
The Confederation fleet is on the move and sending 4 Fleet Carriers to seize control of the space around Midpoint Station. This will be closely followed by an invasion force and draw the Commonwealth Fleet into action.
Unfortunately for the Confeds, the Commonwealth has intercepted their plans and sent all available Long Range Fighters to Midpoint to boost the garrison and dispatched their 3 available Carriers to intercept and destroy the Confed invasion fleet.
The battle lines are drawn and you are in command. The rest is history?
Battle Notes
Victory
First side to 18 points, or the side with more Victory Points at the end of 8 turns. The difference must be greater than 2 VP’s, otherwise the battle is a Draw.
Special Rules
• Deployment and forces are as shown in the map. Players may mutually decide to modify deployment by replacing all units with deployment markers and placing units using the hidden deployment rules (pg28). EXCEPT the Space Platform must be deployed in the space indicated on the map.
• First Turn is determined by using standard rules from the main rulebook (pg12, Step 10).
• Carriers are used as per the “Carrier Starship Escalation Pack”
• The “Carrier Flagships” marked on the deployment map are optional as per page 1 of this Campaign Pack, and players can use standard “Flagships” instead. Inclusion (or not) should be by mutual player agreement
• The Space Platform cannot move but still generates 1 VP per turn per “Logistics & Space Platform Escalation Pack” (pg2). As per the rules, the VP’s are lost if the Platform is destroyed.
• The Space Rift rules are in effect as per the “Space Rift Escalation Pack”.
Further Player Options
If the players only have the basic game or lack any of the listed Escalation Packs (or simply by player agreement), the following modifications can be used:
• If the number of carriers are not available, simply use Battleship Models as substitutes (placing 3 Fighters alongside as normal). Additionally, deploy the Battleship Counters with the VP point side face up to remind players that the unit represents a Carrier
• If the “Carrier Starship Escalation Pack” is not available, replace all Carriers with Battleships.
• If the “Logistics & Space Platform Escalation Pack” is not available, the Space Platform can be replaced by a one hex planet and using the “Planet Control Scenario Objective” rule from the main rule book (pg26). Deploy one of the adjacent Commonwealth Fighter Units on the Planet instead of the hex on the map.
• If the “Space Rift Escalation Pack” is not available, the Rift hexes can be replaced by Asteroid Field hexes. Leave the hex occupied by Rift Hex “1” open. Asteroid terrain rules from the Main Rulebook are used instead (pg29).
Scenario Design Notes
The crucial moment at Midway, and the one that gets all the attention in both movies on the battle, is when the Japanese planes return from their opening strike on Midway Island. The planes are armed for a second strike against the island, but then, the location American carriers is finally discovered. The Japanese decided to take the time to reconfigure their planes for a shipping strike. This requires the crews to remove all of the “land” bombs from their bombers, and replace them with Torpedoes and Armor Piercing bombs. Doing this resulted in all the Japanese carriers caught with fully fueled and armed planes onboard when the American strike rolls in.
I chose to represent this possibility using 2 mechanics. One, the Japanese carriers are again deployed in an awkward formation and cannot mass their attack either against the Island nor the American Carriers without time consuming repositioning. I know this creates a travesty against the actual geography of the battle, and my only excuse is that decisions must be made for the sake of gameplay. Second, using the Space Rift hexes generates some very unpredictable relationships between the fleets and creates the potential for either side to suddenly be able to “leap” at the enemy. We found the Rift mechanics to be quite enjoyable.
Many/most of you may not have the Space Rift pack, and I have to say, when we created this scenario, I only used Asteroid hexes to disrupt the spacial relationships between the fleets. I envisioned these hexes as squalls that were mentioned in accounts of the battle. I changed over to the Space Rift feature because it represents the unpredictable nature of weather a little better. If the players do not own the Space Rift Expansion, the scenario works just fine by converting the Rift Hexes to Asteroid Hexes and removing the “1”.