Victory at Sea fans: Yamato movie

[Eisho]

Getting back to the movie, I found it interesting but ultimately a bit of a disappointment, probably because of the hype about it on some of the wargaming and naval Yahoo groups. As a human interest story showing the Japanese side of events and the cultural aspects of life on board it was good, but the "spotter" in me wanted to see more of the ship. The final sinking of the Yamato was, IMHO, an opportunity missed (one minute heeling but there, then an arty (but admittedly rather good) underwater shot, then a pillar of smoke. It could have been so much better. The CGI aircraft were patchy - sometimes good, sometimes performing manoeuvres worthy of a TIE fighter!

Like a lot of Japanese movies, Yamato suffers from a lack of sufficient comparative buget to something like, say, Pearl Harbour. I also would have liked to have seen more of the ship, but on the other hand, it's probably the best we can hope for. I doubt if an American production company are ever likely to make a movie about the Imperial Japanese Navy.

As for the subtitles, I saw it in the original Japanese. Some of it is hard even for a Japanese to properly understand (e.g. the discussion of bushido prior to the Yamato sailing to Okinawa). I don't know which bits are or are not good translations.

Overall, very much a worthwhile watch I thought.

Cheers,

Eisho

 

[Eisho]

I've always wanted to do Pacific theatre carrier battles but the system that I have been using has many, many complicated tables, calculations and what not. Hopefully the VaS system will make them far easier to use (as opposed to taking hours over 1 turn of aircraft moving). Thge reason I use these rules is that for historically accurate battleship fights they are great (what can I say the big guns do it for me, oh and the oppertunity to yell FIRE loudly). But I am looking forward to the presumably much faster play of VaS.

The original rules that appeared in S&P were based on the ACTA rules. If the final write up continues to lean heavily in that direction then I would say that large-scale fleet actions will be manageable in a decent amount of time.

With the exception of Man 'o' War (one of my all-time favourite games) my experience of naval games has also been that they are overly complicated and slow.

Cheers,

Eisho

 

[Eisho]

I just checked the blurb for the main rulebook, and it is definetly based on ACTA.

Oh happy days!!

Eisho

 

[oggie x]

I like being historically accurate but this in turn has to be in compromise with play speed for a good wargame. My wargaming group are generally sceptical about Naval wargaming for the very reason you mention. It would be good if with these new rules I could run a participation game.

oggie

 

[DM]

VaS will be ideal for quick intro games for non-naval wargamers, great for participation games. Our playtest sessions have been quite successful. Some of the playtest team have also been working on expansions for S&P, so hopefully you'll be seeing some interesting additions to the core rules and fleets shortly after the rules are released