"Strike–Repeat–Strike": Impressions of Gameplay in "Carrier"

Opening setup for Learning Scenario 5.

Last week I generally introduced Carrier as a game, and went over some of the basics of the game. As of this writing I've played the six learning scenarios and am currently playing through my first scenario of the full game. So with this post I'll mostly be making observations about mechanics I've noticed so far.

The Scenarios

The replayability of the Carrier design is built into the way the scenarios are constructed. Once you get past the learning scenarios, the Standard Scenario is almost infinitely variable. There's a sequence of tables you use to roll up Japanese objectives, time period, your own available forces, etc.

And even when you know roughly how much strength the enemy is committing to battle, you don't know the actual ships involved until your forces physically spot them. In the historical scenarios this can lead to ahistorical situations–Akagi might show up at the Battle of the Coral Sea, for instance.

Which may sound like a minus if you're a historical purist, but these possibilities put you, the player, in a highly historical state of uncertainty about the situation as it develops. With subsequent playthroughs and write-ups I'll dig into this idea more, but one of the standout features of this design is the way it incorporates the uncertainties and partial information that defines carrier warfare in World War Two.

Air Search

One of the main purposes of the first playthrough of a solo game is to get all the boneheaded tactical mistakes out of the way, so you won't make them when you're playing for keeps.

Air search is naturally going to be a major part of any carrier game. With Carrier, the search system is fairly involved and can lead to all sorts of unexpected results. In the game I'm currently playing, a Japanese force I was worried about turned out to be a false contact, while the one I was much less concerned with ended up being a striking force of three light carriers.

Successive searches gradually give you a better idea of what you're facing, so this isn't a game where you spot an enemy force and don't bother searching for the rest of the game. You're always having to balance your allocation of spotter aircraft and strike aircraft, making for some wonderfully agonizing decisions.

Learning Scenario 6 in progress.

Enemy Force Movement

As a solo game, Carrier has a set of rules for how enemy forces move and behave. Japanese forces appear on the map as force counters, representing spotting reports from PBYs, coastwatchers, etc.

As the American admiral, you have a general idea of what the Japanese are trying to do in any given scenario–it's assumed your carriers were dispatched because the Navy had intelligence that the Japanese are trying to land reinforcements on Guadalcanal, for example. But there's randomness built into that system, and the Japanese will respond differently when they get near to your forces. The rules for this are fairly complex, but intuitive once you get the rules down. After you've done it a few times it's an easy mechanical process, and it really produces a strong mix of uncertainty and intention in the simulated opponent.

This isn't a solo game where you're running charts and passively deciding where to shoot. It really feels like Admiral Nagumo is on the other side of the table, trying to get the better of you.

Air Strike Contact

One of the shortcomings of many carrier games is that they can't adequately simulate the sheer difficulty of finding your target in 1942. A game like Flat Top can't give you things like the Flight to Nowhere at Midway, or McCluskey’s miraculous spotting of Kido Butai at the same battle.

With Carrier, these things can and do happen. The very first strike I launched in the game failed to make contact and had to head back to Hornet without landing a first surprise attack on the Japanese carriers. It was my own fault for launching too early, when the Japanese force was only Approximately Located, rather than Located.

And the fact that things like that can happen in this game delights me to no end.