Description

"Bay of Bengal" simulates the World War II carrier struggle for control of the northern Indian Ocean. It includes the historical Japanese Indian Ocean Raid, but also examines other hypothetical options, in the period from April to November 1942. One player commands the Allied (largely Commonwealth) forces and the other the Japanese. Victory is obtained by destroying the opposing fleets, bombarding ports or airfields, interfering with merchant shipping, and possibly even supporting amphibious invasions or decoy operations.

Based on the system of the prize-winning Solomon Sea, Bay of Bengal is a double blind 2-player game, which means each player moves his task forces, air strikes, and search planes on his own map, and tells the other player about the hexes he searches. Combat is resolved by a series of dice rolls. Each hex represents a diameter of 100 nautical miles, with 3 hours per turn. Each counter represents 6 to 10 planes, individual carries, or groups of smaller ships. Historical chrome includes rules such as radar equipped planes for night search and strikes, rescuing of survivors, leaking battleship boilers, armoured flight decks, and the secret British naval base. Eight historical and alternate-history scenarios are included.