Sen Toku part 1 - the horror of war

As I write this it’s almost 11 months since I ran the first remote game for our Sheffield based group (& friends).  Since then we’ve managed a game (sometimes two!) each week since and seen a variety of games presented by at least ten different people.  For this week’s game I dug out Tim Price’s ‘Sen Toku’  - a committee game set in 1944 Japan in which the players have to plan and execute a dramatic mission with four of the huge new I-400 class submarines.  This game was first seen at COW some years ago and features in ‘Innovations in Wargaming Vol.1’ as published by the History of Wargaming Project.

Most of our regulars signed up and I drafted in a couple of ringers for special roles.  Players were emailed the briefings the day before and encouraged to bring silly hats and suitable flags. 

The Boss (Wednesday only)
Fleet Admiral	Nagano Osami	Imperial General Staff	John B
The Operational Strike Committee (in strict order of military seniority)
Captain	Kameto Kuroshima	Senior Staff Officer and Chair of the Committee	Simon W
Captain	Chikao Yamamoto	Staff Officer (later OC, I-404)	John A
Captain	Tanaka Ariizumi	Sen Toku Force Commander, OC I-400	Russell K
Commander	Yasuo Fujimori	Submarine Staff Officer of the Naval General Staff, responsible for the I-400 design (later OC, I-402)	Jack W
Commander	Teuhisa Komatsu	experienced submarine warfare commander, OC I-401	Martin R
Commander	Takeo Sugai	OC, 9th Special Naval Landing Force (Marine special forces)	Mark F
Commander	Soemu Toyoda	Nanao Naval Base, Support, Construction and Maintenance	Tim C
Technical Major	Teiji Takada	Number Nine Research Laboratory (Secret Weapon Projects)	Pete S
Minister	Nobusuke Kishi	Commerce & Industry (Industrial & Materiel Support)	Jerry E
Mr	Subaru Mitsubishi	Dockyard Superintendent, Nanao Naval Base (meeting facilitator and procurer of competitively priced Geishas for the Admiral)	Tim G

 On the Tuesday evening - our normal session times are 1945-2115 – the committee met to discuss their options.  Capt. Kuroshima had devised a scoring spreadsheet which he used to evaluate the several plans.  He did mention later that it had been “hard work….”

Coming next - enter the dragon Admiral