View Full Version : WiTP: AE...An AAR: Egan(A) versus Happy Times(J)
A couple of people have asked us for an AAR of our game with this fine strategy title so as we are a couple of turns in now I thought I would jot down a few things. I won't update this every turn but as things happen which are worth commenting on - we shall see how it goes.
I'll mainly try to show how the game works for those thinking about buying it or those struggling to get to grips with it. The main thing to remember is that it isn't so much complicated as it is a fair bit of work.
One of the strengths of WiTP is that just about anything is possible - as long as you put the work in to make it happen. Virtually nothing is done for you; supplies, troop movement, operational planning and air training are all your responsibility. Logistics, for example, are not carried out by some abstracted routine; if you want a base supplied you have to load all that stuff onto a ship and move it there, and then unload it. Of course, that also means you need secure shipping routes, escorts, and tiny little virtual people to make it all happens. Phew...
Anyway, First up, here are our settings and the House Rules we have chosen to use:
HOUSE RULES:
POLITICAL POINTS
Permanently Restricted Units must not cross national Borders.
Full PP for transfer of units from restricted HQs
i.e. PP to move out of Kwantung/Manchuko, India & China.
No switching land unit to air HQs etc. to do this cheaply
Full PP to transfer units from restricted HQs to allow movement across borders.
Thai forces can not move out of 3 hexes of their national frontier.
AVG must remain in Burma or China.
INVASIONS / LAND COMBAT
No sub invasions.
Only allow landings/invasions at dots hexes or bases.
No use of portions of parachute units to seize hex's
No unit fragment to cut off retreat, Units blocking retreats must be of realistic size (brigade or above).
Only airdrop a unit on a target if it has at least 40 Prep Points on the target it’s dropped on.
STRATEGIC BOMBING
No strategic bombing in or out of China until 4/43
No Chinese City bombing until 1944.
No bombing of Chinese Industry.
AIR COMBAT
Sweeps to be restricted to no more than 30 000ft.
SETTINGS
FOW: On
Adv Weather: On
Allied Dmg Control: On
PDU: ON
Historical 1st Turn: Off
Dec 7th Surprise: On
Allied Reliable Torps: Off
Realistic RD: On
No Unit Withdrawals: Off
Variable Reinforcements +/-15 days
Expansion at start: Off
Auto Upgrade: Off
No X-wing fighters on the Long Island.
1 Day turns
We shall see how we get on with this set up. It should be fun. In the next post I'll talk about my first moves, the PH attack and my plans.....
Oh, one last thing: Juha, If you're reading: Stop right now! This is for the those brave heroes of the Allies only! Within are my the fruits of my stupendous (or merely stupid,) planning! Go and bother the Philippines or something! :O::D
Has he gone? Then we shall continue.....
Happy Times
03-29-11, 02:25 PM
I think it is great that Gordon will do his AAR in Subsim, i hope it will bring more people in to this game.
As the first turns have showed you cant have total control of the events and luck and chance play a role also.
But usually it is a realistic mix of planning, intelligence and random factors, Midway being a prime exsample.
I wish a good game for Gordon and the readers of his AAR and look forward to reading it after this conflict has ended. :up:
Bact to the HQ, the situation requires my attention.:salute:
Well then...Here we go.
First Orders
We're using Historical Start OFF, which allows orders to be given before the war starts. I use this turn to several things. Firstly, virtually all squadrons across the map are set to training at 100% and zero range (to minimize operational losses,) and have their pilot numbers padded out to maximum. Every few weeks I shall go through a lot of these squadrons and send pilots with 50+ experience to the pilot pool that the front line squadrons draw their manpower from. Hopefully, this will mean that the guys at the sharp end aren't entirely green. Fighter squads are set to 'escort' training, bombers to either low level naval attack or general training and patrol air craft to either Naval search or ASW training.
The only squadrons that are left combat ready are those who will be fighting straight away in South East Asia, the Philippines and Pearl.
Once this is done I start giving orders for bases to be built up: Ports, airfields and defences everywhere from San Fransisco to Vladivostok are set to expand.
I also use this phase to give orders to Force Z out of Singers. They will now head south towards Java instead of north to their almost certain death. I've had good success in these waters with Force Z in the past as a pirate raiding force. Hopefully I'll get the chance again.
Finally, I give orders for several Marine units in San Diego to move to SF from where they will head to Pearl and then on to the South Pacific. I'm also moving several bomber and fighter squadrons across the continental US by rail road from New York to SF. It will take them a few days to arrive but once they do they will be shipped out to Pearl as well.
Starting Considerations.
Although I've got a bit more experience with the game than Juha, this is my first PBEM so it's very much a learning experience for me too. Challenging as the AI can be, it won't be anything like playing against a human opponent and I'll have to up my game considerably to fight this war.
My initial plan is simple. Beat Japan. :D
I think there are two ways to do this: By starving him out of the war by hitting his oil supplies and destroying his economy, or by getting bombers within range of the home islands and bombing him until he bleeds. Both are going to be long and costly.
My initial thought is to follow a fairly historical strategy of island hopping across the central Pacific before whacking his industry with B-29's. This is a long way in the future, though. The lack of any shipping with amphibious capability makes such a strategy pretty difficult until mid '43 at the earliest so I'm going to need to do something else until I have the gear in place.
From past games, I know that New Guinea will provide good sized bases than can be built up further. I would like to get Hollandia at some point and use that as a jumping off point for various operations. Likewise, I am seriously considering trying to hold on to the major oil producing port of Palembang for as long as possible. A lot of that will depend on how aggressive Juha is in the DEI.
In the Pacific I would like to hold on to islands Baker and Canton as long as possible but not to extent of losing carriers over them. I have found these islands to be quite important because once they are taken the main shipping routes from Pearl to Oz and NZ lengthen by 10 -14 days. it also gives him somewhere to base patrol aircraft on, place sub tenders and generally make a nuisance of himself. I'm not bothered about Wake particularly, but I may attempt to rescue the Wildcat Squadron from it.
As for Midway, I am undecided. I don't really want it to fall but, if it does, it will be fairly easy to take back. It would be a nightmare for him to keep supplied, and I would soon enough be able to flatten the place with 4 Engine bombers. B-17's are fun!
I'll fight delaying actions in Burma and try to stop them from entering India. I've already diverted the task force carrying the British 18th division to Bombay and once they arrive they will be sent forward. I'm quite keen to rescue the Gurkha unit from Malaysia as they are proper infantry rather than militia and are there for worth their weight. I also have 2 Oz brigades just outside Singers. I am thinking very strongly about evacuating them to either Palembang or Perth.
OK, I think that's it for now. My thinking is a bit all over the shop but in my defence I've had an absolute horror of a hangover for the last two days on top of a nasty cold. Let me tell you, the Pearl Harbour raid just isn't fun with all that on top of it.
So, as I leave you now, the sun is setting over the pacific on December the 6th 1941. Is it also setting on the ambitions of the United States and the British Empire? Join us for the next 14000 turns and find out....
Takeda Shingen
03-29-11, 03:33 PM
Grand campaign with one-day turns. Oh man, this is going to be a long one. :D
Krauter
03-29-11, 03:38 PM
Sounds like a fun game.
However.. I'm not good with acronyms.. so.. what does..:
PBEM, DEI, etc, etc mean?
Raptor1
03-29-11, 03:53 PM
Sounds like a fun game.
However.. I'm not good with acronyms.. so.. what does..:
PBEM, DEI, etc, etc mean?
It means: Play by Email, Dutch East Indies, et cetera, et cetera
I would follow this, but I refuse to because of the no X-Wing rule. :O:
7th December 1941
The Pacific at the start of the war:
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/5784/worldmapdec61941large.th.jpg (http://img52.imageshack.us/i/worldmapdec61941large.jpg/)
As my little virtual blokes go about their daily lives, a great big cloud of Japanese aircraft appears out of nowhere. The attack lasts what seems like forever.
Quote:Weather in hex: Clear sky
Raid detected at 129 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 48 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 72
B5N2 Kate x 72
D3A1 Val x 135
Allied aircraft
no flights
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 7 damaged
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed by flak
B5N2 Kate: 14 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 3 destroyed by flak
D3A1 Val: 5 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
B-18A Bolo: 3 destroyed on ground
B-17D Fortress: 2 destroyed on ground
P-36A Mohawk: 3 destroyed on ground
PBY-5 Catalina: 6 destroyed on ground
SBD-1 Dauntless: 3 destroyed on ground
P-40B Warhawk: 4 destroyed on ground
B-17E Fortress: 1 destroyed on ground
F4F-3 Wildcat: 1 destroyed on ground
R3D-2: 1 destroyed on ground
A-20A Havoc: 1 destroyed on ground
O-47A: 1 destroyed on ground
Allied Ships
BB Pennsylvania, Bomb hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CA New Orleans, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1
AV Tangier
BB Arizona, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
BB Nevada, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
SS Cachalot, Bomb hits 1, heavy damage
BB West Virginia, Bomb hits 6, on fire
BB Oklahoma, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
DM Ramsay
CM Oglala
BB California, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DM Gamble
AV Curtiss
BB Tennessee, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 2, on fire
xAP St. Mihel
BB Maryland, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
AVD Hulbert, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DM Breese, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
DD Phelps, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
AV Wright, Torpedo hits 1
CL Detroit, Torpedo hits 1
Allied ground losses:
10 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Airbase hits 40
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 133
Port hits 9
Port fuel hits 7
Port supply hits 1
I'll be quite conservative when posting chunks of the combat report. AARs that use them heavily tend to be quite difficult to read IMO, and seldom tell you much more than the technical details.
As you can see from this one, though, plenty of torps and bombs get through to hit Battleship Row. The damage however, is lighter than I could hope for:
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/5034/editbattleshiprow.jpg
By lets_all_fight (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/lets_all_fight) at 2011-03-29
Only California and Oklahoma are badly, badly damaged. All the battleships are going to need time in shipyards. With those two, they will need work ASAP to take down the flotation damage and not sink. Once they are stable I plan to send them to the west coast, probably to the big shipyard at Seattle.
I'm fairly pleased with this, though. Nothing has sunk which is always a good thing. The problem will be if Juha decides to keep the KB around for another day. I decide to send out several Surface Combat Task Forces and vector subs towards his location. Hopefully we can get a torpedo into one of his flat tops or even scare him away. I put out a couple of ASW TF's as well as Pearl is a sub magnet. They are fairly lousy at this time of the war but are better than nothing.
I also set all the fighter squadrons at Pearl to fly CAP missions at 15,000 feet. The one dive bomber squad is set to naval attack at 13,000 which is smack on the middle of the height band it needs to perform dive bombing. I don't imagine they'll any hits but you never know. The runway has taken a lot of damage and that will have an impact on how many frames I can put up. However, I'm optimistic I can do something. Every pilot from the KB that gets shot down now is one less to worry about later. They are probably the best quality pilots on the map at the start and between my CAP and Flak I hope to knock a few down.
DEI/Philippines
Juha hits Manila with several high sweeps to take out my CAP. It's partially successful and his port strikes sinks several subs as they sit at dockside. I don't like losing subs because even with the dud torpedos they are something of a force multiplier. The S boats and the Dutch boats in previous games have provided me with plently of delight and I'm hoping they do the same in this one. I also notice the Baby KB has been committed and is heading down the east coast of the PI. I am trying to evacuate high quality cruisers like the Boise from the area so I hope they don't cross paths.
Virtually all my shipping in the region is set to run to one of three places: Soerbaja in Java and Perth and Darwin in Oz. once at these ports warships will combine to create two or three decent quality raiding fleets which I hope to hurt his advance down here, and all other ships will make their way to places like Melbourne, Sydney or even Colombo.
I'm building forts in Manila, Clarke Field and Bataan. I plan to fight it out here although I probably won't move to many supplies in. This early on I simply don't have enough to spare anyway. The Cavite Island base force is told to start packing as it has 200 squads of naval support that will come in very handy later on. I'm tempted to rescue the 4th Marines as well but as they return later (much later) I'm not too worried. There is a facility in the game now to rebuild lost Land Combat Units for a PP price. I may well make use of this as time goes on. it certainly beats the older tactic of rescuing fragments of units in order to have them slowly build back up.
I send out all my subs from Manila to annoy his invasion fleets in the area. Some of them have orders to mine likely invasion beaches.
Elsewhere
Juha starts landing troops in Northern Malaysia. I'm already pulling troops back to form defencive lines outside of Singapore.
Force Z heads south and his attacked by a flock of the dreaded Betties. I hate them. They have extreme range and, when coupled with a source of torpedos like a large enough base or an Air HQ, they become real ship killers. The one good thing about them is that they are made of matchsticks and rice paper and can be brought down easily. Seriously, we're talking Stuka Party here. The problem is you never seem to have enough fighters to deal with them all.
In Sumatra troops begin moving towards Palembang.
And as I just deleted the entire blooming post by mistake and had to start again I think I'll take a break....:D
All in all, I've had worse first turns. Juha sent me the combat resolution turn already for the next round and I have to say, ouch, I made a silly mistake which cost me.
It means: Play by Email, Dutch East Indies, et cetera, et cetera
I would follow this, but I refuse to because of the no X-Wing rule. :O:
Lol. Yeah, and I could use something to counter the infamous Japanese DeathStar that is the KB (oops, there's another one for the glossary. KB stands for Kido Butai - the Japanese carrier fleet.)
Torplexed
03-29-11, 07:31 PM
Who says Europeans have no interest in the Pacific Theater? :D
Force Z heads south and his attacked by a flock of the dreaded Betties. I hate them. They have extreme range and, when coupled with a source of torpedos like a large enough base or an Air HQ, they become real ship killers. The one good thing about them is that they are made of matchsticks and rice paper and can be brought down easily. Seriously, we're talking Stuka Party here. The problem is you never seem to have enough fighters to deal with them all.So, did Prince of Wales and Repulse get away undamaged? If they did you're off to a good start. :ping: In my game against the AI, the POW took nasty flotation damage from the Betties and after a few weeks of hasty repairs in Singapore, managed to limp to Columbo, always on the verge of sinking. I starting calling it the Prince of Pails.
Raptor1
03-29-11, 07:37 PM
Whenever I started a campaign, Force Z tended to bite it on the very first turn. Though admittedly I usually either sent them the historical way or used the historical first turn option. If Force Z makes it out intact, I suppose it can be quite a pain for the Japanese later on.
I never played a game as large as this in PBEM, must take quite a long time to complete one. Maybe I should try finding an opponent for WitE, though I think I'm the only one around here that has that...
Who says Europeans have no interest in the Pacific Theater? :D
So, did Prince of Wales and Repulse get away undamaged? If they did you're off to a good start. :ping: In my game against the AI, the POW took nasty flotation damage from the Betties and after a few weeks of hasty repairs in Singapore, managed to limp to Columbo, always on the verge of sinking. I starting calling it the Prince of Pails.
so far. they should make Java in a day or two. i have a lot of warships heading to Soerbaja: Dutch,US and RN. They are mostly destroyers but a number of cruisers will hopefully be present as well.
Torplexed
03-30-11, 05:12 AM
so far. they should make Java in a day or two. i have a lot of warships heading to Soerbaja: Dutch,US and RN. They are mostly destroyers but a number of cruisers will hopefully be present as well.
Are you planning on using them to interfere with Japanese operations in the Dutch East Indies or saving them for later? Or would you prefer to keep future plans a secret? :D
Are you planning on using them to interfere with Japanese operations in the Dutch East Indies or saving them for later? Or would you prefer to keep future plans a secret? :D
Use them if and when the chance arises. I've had good times with them in the past but that was against the AI.......I'm concerned about the appearance of the baby KB east of the Philippines; if it moves further west it can block the exit routes to Darwin so we shall see.
I'm not worried about keeping future plans a secret. In fact, I'd be happy if anyone has any ideas they would like to share. Doing an AAR is great because it forces you to think about what you are doing instead of merely clicking buttons. So don't feel the need to keep quiet, guys: just jump right in.
Anyway, I've got Juha's next turn now so lets see how it works out. When I get back I'll explain what I said earlier about my first mistake.
8th/9th December
I made a bad mistake. I set up several surface task forces to harass the KB and provide ASW support in the waters around Pearl. Mostly, this went ok - except, as luck would have it, to the one that had three cruisers in it.
I did one thing wrong. I set the darn task force to patrol an area, rather than simply sally forth to where the KB had been and then return home. What this meant was that the TF was in the wrong, wrong place when dawn arrived - about 100 miles from where I wanted her to be. She was well outside the air umbrella from Pearl, which had been pulled in fairly close to help fight incoming attacks.
Well, the KB, which is currently heading NW, found her and hit her with two powerful strikes. The one in the morning was bad enough but the one in the afternoon finished her off. I lost USS San Fransisco and two destroyers, and Both St Louis and Minneapolis are badly damaged. St Louis has 91 flotation damage and probably won't make it home. Minny is burning like a roman candle but may make it home if her crew get the fires under control. It was a stupid and costly mistake. The allied player certainly will never lack for cruisers but it's a long time until they start arriving in any numbers. I could have used all three of those ships.
I set the orders after setting up a bunch of ASW TFs on Area patrol. It was automatic and if I had spent even 10 seconds checking before I did something else I would have seen it was likely to go a bit wrong. Oh well, lesson learned.
In other news today:
Phillippines
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/5696/phillippinesinvasion.jpg (http://img13.imageshack.us/i/phillippinesinvasion.jpg/)
He's coming heavy, that's for sure. I'm hopeful I'll get a couple of subs mixing it up and causing trouble. Maybe even I'll have some minefields in place for when the bad guys arrive.
Australia
I've begun to prep a couple of units for Noumea and pulling disparate units together to form their Divisions. For those of you new to the game, Preparation means what it sounds like: you order a land unit to start preparing for a new location or base. Preparation is out of 100 and can take a few months to get up to high enough levels. it especially important for landing at Atolls and islands - too low a prep level and they are likely to be cut apart by the enemy. I've never found it quite so important for land based warfare but a well prepped unit is still likely to have an edge over a lesser prepped one.
Once I have a couple of spare engineer units I'll send them north to Coen and Normanton. Coen can be built up to a size 9 airfield, which means an unlimited amount of aircraft can be based there. It's in a useful position as well and once I get enough B-17s in theater I'll hopefully do Japan some damage as the try to rampage down New Guinea.
Normanton, on the gulf of Carpentia, is important for another reason: it will become a major transport hub for keeping Darwin supplied. The dirt track that runs across continental Oz is simply incapable of keeping this isolated and important outpost in the beer and shrimps to which they are accustomed. It requires a major effort to do this and I doubt it will be much before mid or even late 42 that things really get going.
New Zealand
I've never done much with NZ before, but i plan to build up Aukland this time and use it as a major hub. I want to get various ships like aircraft and destroyer tenders down here and a plentiful supply of fuel - enough to support carrier ops. A full carrier TF can suck down a stunning amount of fuel when it comes into port and I don't want to let them down.
I also want to use Kiwi troops much more than my last time out. In my last game I kind of ignored them until the spring of 45 by which time it was too late to do much (the war ended on 18th June that summer.) this time I want to have them prepped and ready for action in the Solomons or New Guinea.
Elsewhere.
Many landings in northern and central Malaysia. I had a screenie but it kind of screwed up. I'm going to have to get FRAPS downloaded again I think. It makes life a bit easier. Force Z will arrive and refuel in Soerbaja tomorrow. There are a lot of ships there now so I'll await Boise and then build a pirate force. Shiver me timbers etc.
What's that? China did you say? China? You don't want to know about China: China is a mess.
Carriers
I've two carriers in the Pacific just now: The Enterprise and Lexington are steaming southeast towards Palmyra just now. From there they will either turn north to head home to Pearl, or head west and see whether they can cause trouble. I am hoping to launch a few raids here and there on isolated outposts over the next month or two, mainly to get my pilots some experience. There are a lot of threads about Allied carrier usage over at Matrix but I don't really want to hide them away. Maybe I can draw Juha into doing something rash. Saratoga is still at San Diego. I may keep her there until Yorktown arrives in about a months time.
Other News.
Juha took Makin. I imagine Tarawa is next.
There are many, many subs out there now. All coloured red. Smashing.
@ Torplexed.
Your point about European interest in the PTO is a good one. Going into a bookshop here in Britain (except, perhaps the amazing Foyles in London,) tends to back this up. There will be literally dozens of books about The Battle of Britain or the Eastern Front but maybe three or four about the PTO. It drives me mad. :)
10.12.41
Malaya.
Juha continues to land troops on the east coast of Malaya. There isn't terribly much I can do about it. Some of my Hudsons fly from Singapore with the aim of disrupting his shipping but a stiff CAP stops the attacks dead.
http://img862.imageshack.us/img862/8094/malay10dec.jpg (http://img862.imageshack.us/i/malay10dec.jpg/)
Kota Bharu falls. The troops I had there are given orders to get back to Singers as fast as possible.
Burma
A raid by a bunch of Sallies is taken apart by my CAP - heartening in the extreme. They lose 7 aircraft and I lose none. Burma is very quiet. Even if a Japanese player doesn't wish to push into India, Burma provides oil and resources for his economy. At the very least, it provides a buffer against the Commonwealth steamroller the Allied player can eventually field here.
Philippines.
My subs launch a lot of useless attacks against his shipping. From almost every conning tower the cry of 'Dud Torpedo!' goes up. Plenty of hits but not much else. not a single warhead explodes.
On the plus side, B-17s flying from Manila whack several of his ships landing troops at Vigan. I've never had much success with 4E naval strikes before so this is good news. I'll be doing it more often as I lack anything useful in the way of dive/torpedo bombers for a long while to come.
Betties hit the convoy carrying the Cavite island naval support force. Not too much damage done but enough that I'm wary of following up my original plan of getting supplies back in to Manila. There is a strand of thought that suggests that if I can keep them supplied, it could well throw Juha's timetabe well out Is it worth it though, in terms of shipping I'm sure to lose? It would make the Malta convoys look like a walk in the park.
Convoys.
Convoys carrying fuel and supplies have left San Fransisco heading for Pearl, from Pearl heading to Christmas Island and from Seattle to the Aleutian islands. NoPac is not an area I've really bothered about before but, in this game, everything is being considered.
Small convoys are fleeing the DEI towards Oz, laden with fuel. The Baby KB seems to have retreated north again to help cover the Japanese landings there. That's a good thing as far as I'm concerned, as it gives my some space in the Java sea to get my act together.
More convoys will leave Sydney in the next couple of days to feed supplies to Suva which will become a major base in the coming months. I also need to get troops and gear to Noumea but that is going to be tricky as I don't have anywhere near enough Political points to change the commands of all the units at this time.
Sinkings
All three of the cruiser that the KB thumped yesterday have gone under. The blame rest solely with me. I've lost a total of 19 ships now, which is actually remarkably light. Only 6 of them were warships, several were subs and the rest xAK class merchants. I've seen far more than that lost on a single bad attack on Pearl or Manila.
Subwar!
Several of my subs are heading to either Brisbane or Pearl just now, some in need of repair, some in need of torpedoes. I've given a handful of boats at Pearl orders to sail for Imperial waters to interdict shipping in and out of the Home Islands. Pearl and Brisbane will be my two primary sub bases for the next year or so. Once I think Midway is secure I'll move a tender and repair ship there and hopefully knock a week of the turnaround time.
The dud torpedo problem will continue until 43 and is infuriating but, as we all know, utterly realistic. The S boats, and Dutch and British subs are fine but, IIRC, the USN torpedo bomber use the same type of torps as the big fleet boats. The US begins at a real disadvantage in carrier aircraft, and things don't start getting better until much later on. Hellcats are things of beauty but no more than a pipe dream just now...*sigh*
My own ASW TFs picked up several contacts in the waters north of Pearl but never managed an attack. I've tasked some more patrol aircraft to ASW. Hopefully things will start improving soon.
WiTP Essentials
My expensive moleskin notepad is filling up with naval based gibberish. I'll need to buy a cheap pack of jotters at the weekend..:D
Political Points.
Several factors control any advance undertaken: Shipping, enemy strength, logistics - and political points.
PPs are best described as the ability to transfer command of combat units and bases from one HQ to another and there are three sorts of commands.
Permanently Restricted: If a unit is in one of these commands, the HQ name shows in the unit's info screen as greyed out. You cannot click on it. This means that unit can NEVER move from the land mass it is on, so no transferring it by ship or airlift from, say, Oz to Noumea for example.
Temporary Restriction: the unit is tied to an HQ that is itself restricted but can be bought out and moved to a command that is free to move. Shows in the info screen as a hyperlink with (R) at the end.
Non Restricted: The unit is commanded by an HQ that is itself free to move wherever you want it to go. This means the unit can also be moved.
Many units start the game with Temporary restrictions in command. To change them, you have to go to the relevant screen and expend PP to 'buy them out'. As the Allies never get more than 50 PP a day this puts a brake on the massive free movement of units you would otherwise undertake.
Costs can vary wildly: Squadrons can be moved fairly cheaply, but a full Marine division can cost nearly 2000 PP. That's right: 2000. It becomes almost a sub game as you try to balance the cost with your 'income'. You will try to move them to the most suitable command, only to find later that they should have gone somewhere else. There are ways around: attaching units to a Temporary Restricted HQ makes them cheaper to buy and the HQ itself can be transferred at a later date to a free command. When that happens, all the units underneath it also become free.
Usually, this is seen as a bit gamey. I feel there are times when it's fine and it depends on a number of factors, but mostly it's frowned upon.
Now, there is another PP cost which is even more irritating. The game models the withdrawal of squadrons and ships as part of the Allied 'Europe First' strategy, where units are transferred to the ETO. Air units can be withdrawn from wherever they are (mostly,) but ships have to go to a big enough port first. This is OK if you keep on top of it, but for every day after their Withdrawal date they are still in theater, you pay a political point penalty, and they can quickly add up. There is nothing worse than discovering that a ship underway in a convoy has to withdraw in three or four days when it's three weeks from a suitable port.....
Personally, I don't think that the Allies get enough. 50 a day is simply too few. the consensus seems to be that 60 would be the sweet spot. It can be easily modded from scenario to scenario but most of us just grit our teeth and get on with it.
For those of you who are interested, the reason we have the house rule about restricted units paying their full PP cost before crossing national borders is that the game doesn't recognize borders as anything other than lines on a map. Many Indian units, or IJA units in Manchuria start in restricted commands but can romp anywhere as long as they don't have to be loaded onto a ship. forcing the players to pay a PP cost basically gives the borders the same effect as water. There are other reasons but this is the main effects. Units with restricted commands shouldn't be able to cross borders. It's perhaps the most common house rule used.
Torplexed
03-31-11, 07:55 PM
Shame about losing San Francisco, Minneapolis, and the St. Louis. But it's made up for to some extent by still having all your BBs afloat to some degree. You'll have an impressive force for shore bombardment duties when the tide turns. :D
The British battleship HMS Warpsite is at the Bremerton Navy Yard near Seattle undergoing repairs at the start of the game. Any plans for her? I've always debated which is quicker route to get her back with her Eastern Fleet mates. Across the Pacific and south of Australia to the Indian Ocean, or through the Panama Canal to Capetown?
I reckon that sending her via Panama is best. The difference in distance is negligable, imo, and you have the advantage in the journey being much safer as the game doesn't model hazards during off map travel.
but none of this matters for my Warspite, for the battleship with the coolest name in naval history will be heading to Oz to join up with various commonwealth cruisers, and helping to provide a reaction force once Emperor Happy Times starts moving into the region. Hopefully Repulse and POW will also be there to lend a hand.
Speaking of battleships, all the damaged wagons at Pearl are either at pierside reducing dadamage before heading back to the big yards in the states, or they're in the shop in situ. All should be back in service in less than a year. I got lucky with Pearl...:)
I think we're going to try and get a few turns behind us over the next couple of days. I was going to write a post about strategy this morning but i'm stuck at work and writing this on the world's suckiest mobile phone so I'll leave it just now.
If you lose the Warspite there will be trouble. She's my precious. :yep:
Just watch out for her steering problem...probably best that she doesn't go through the Panama Canal, she'd wind up doing it sideways... :haha:
Warpsite gets withdrawn at some point. I remember ending up sending her all the way to the Falkland islands to try and get her to leave in a previous game. I lost hundreds of PPs because I hadn't realized I could have just sent her to Sydney and done the same thing.
Anyways.....
12th Dec (I think,)
Not much happens. Well, Vigan and Appari in the PI both fall and he's started landing troops at Iba too, neatly bypassing a minefield I had there. I'm going to try run a convoy into manila, I think, to up supply but it will have to come from Soerbaja so it won't be getting there any time soon.
A couple of Indian Brigades have disembarked at Colombo where they will stay for the foreseeable future. A Gurkha brigade (Part of the 17th div for those who have read 'Quartered Safe Out Here,' and another couple of brigades are heading to Madras from where they will head to Chittagong and Cox's Bazaar. the 18th Div is still a couple of weeks out but will also prepped for the Burmese border when they arrive.
A convoy is loading for Suva right now and the 8th Marine regiment at SF is prepping for the same location. I checked the PP cost for changing to an unrestricted command: 330. I have 300 in the bank so far.....and I'm going to need a bunch of them to unlock some of the squadrons in the PI. Those B-17 squads are going to be very important in the coming months.
Speaking of which, the two B-17 squads at Butuan on the big island of Mindao (?) have been given order to hit the port at Babeldaob (crazy name! crazy place!) where a dozen ships have been reported. I had been hoping that was the Baby KB I picked up but it seems to be north of Vigan covering the landings.
I'm going to have to get some fighters into Oz ASAP too. At the moment it appears all air power there is concentrated on a 2 seater biplane crewed by Mr. Jimmy Eccles of 17 The Gardens Canberra, and an Alsatian called Kevvo. It probably won't be enough, as brave as Kevvo is.
Air Losses
http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/6412/losse.jpg (http://img64.imageshack.us/i/losse.jpg/)
Totals so far. Not too bad.
Other News
My subs are being strangely quiet. I've altered a few patrol zones now but I'm not sure what's going on. Never had this problem before.
Both the Big E and the Lex are at Palmyra awaiting orders but everything seems quiet...too quiet. No sign of any attacks at Wake or even Guam yet. It's a little bit disconcerting.
@Oberon: What's the story behind your comment about Warspite's steerage problem? I promise I'll try my best not to replicate it in-game. :)
12th Dec (this time!)
Invasions at Nauru, Guam. Nauru falls. Again, not much I can do about them.
Dutch Sub KXI sinks a minesweeper off Malaya but gets hit bad by Depth charges in return. She'll have to pull out for repairs. North of Pearl an ASW TF attack I-4 without much success.
My B-17 strikes at Babeldaob hit an xAK but all my flights in Malaya are hemmed in by bad weather, although a few sortie in the afternoon for no effect.
An invasion fleet seems to be on it's way to Davao. Maybe time for Force Z to get busy...
Thoughts
Glad to have a sub hitting something. There are a bunch of boats heading to Pearl from the west coast so I'm optimistic I can start hitting his shipping in the near(ish) future.
@Oberon: What's the story behind your comment about Warspite's steerage problem? I promise I'll try my best not to replicate it in-game. :)
The Warspite had a steering problem which dogged her throughout her entire naval career. It started IIRC at Jutland where during the battle her rudder got stuck and her captain decided to keep at speed and circle until the problem could be fixed, at the same time, nearby, HMS Warrior was under heavy shelling but the shelling subsided as the German fleet started targetting the more tempting Warspite, Warriors crew thought that the Warspite was steaming around her on purpose to save her but Warspite couldn't do anything else! :haha: The problem was eventually fixed but it would keep coming back throughout her life, at one point IIRC whilst she was being towed out of the Med after catching a Fritz-X she broke her towing lines and landed up drifting sideways through the Straits of Messina.
Quite a colourful ship, read a fantastic book on her once, alas can't recall the precise title, but it's a terrible shame she wasn't saved like the Belfast was. Still, at least she didn't go quietly into the scrapyard. :up:
Lol....Cool, drifting sideways. I was doing that last Sunday night after the pub. Maybe that's why she starts in the shipyard in WiTP.
Lol....Cool, drifting sideways. I was doing that last Sunday night after the pub. Maybe that's why she starts in the shipyard in WiTP.
:haha: Her in the shipyard has a bit more to do with these guys:
http://www.world-war-2-planes.com/images/Ju88_infl_550.jpg
She took bomb damage during the Battle of Crete, so she was sent to Bremerton for repairs in August. The repairs finished in December and there she is. :salute:
Why Bremerton, out of interest? Seems a very long way to go to get patched up. My knowledge of a lot of the RN during WW2 is woefully short. I really must rectify that.
Well, I'm sitting here waiting for Juha to send me the next turn. For some reason the Japanese player has two files to send: the combat resolution file and the actual turn. The resolution file generates all the various intel and combat reports for the next turn and is pretty interesting in itself. It's actually kind of cool because it allows the Allied player to view the results and formulate his moves before he even receives the next turn as long as the Japanese player sends them out separately, of course.
So, where will he strike next? It would seem that he is following the traditional route through the Philippines and into the DEI. From there he has several options: Attack northern Australia, go for New Guinea, or turn west and go for India. The question is: is he going for a better than historical outcome or is he going for autovictory?
Autovictory is achieved when a player gets a certain amount of points. I think in 42 it is activated when one player gets 4 times what the other has. It's not that easy to achieve and, usually, if the Japan does not get it by the start of 43 there is really no chance.
Points are gained by taking bases, destroying military assets and so forth. Various strategies are thought of as good for Autovic wins: Taking Australia should generate enough points eventually, as would taking India (which has never been achieved as far as I know.)
I have a suspicion - a gut feeling really - that Happy Times may go for Australia. It might not be for Autovic reasons, but I just have this recurring thought. That might be my own paranoia playing up as it is far too early to say. we are only a few days in, after all, and everything is still to play for.
Myself, I am happy enough to have got the bulk of the shipping out of the DEI and PI. I lost more against the AI in fact. I am torn between reinforcing Palembang (The Festung Palembang gambit is garnering interest from some of the games better known players over at Matrix,) and reinforcing Oz. I don't want to go into a full 'Sir Robin' Defence at this point but it's difficult not to. The role of the Allied player, after all, is to be the whipping boy for Japanese aggression for the first six months.
So many choices!
I think she was due to go over to the Far-East squadron for a bit post repairs, that and Bremerton was one of the safer locations, being relative far away from any of the fighting, plus she could have done her post-repair trials in the Pacific, relatively free of uboats. That's just my guesswork, there were reasons for it, but I can't recall them off hand. I think a few of our ships went to the states to be fixed up, pretty sure the Illustrious went there too. *reads* Yeah, she went to Norfolk for her repairs after some Stukas banged her up off Malta and then she got bombed in port as well at Malta. So eventually they managed to withdraw her to Egypt, and then send her to the states.
Well, Juha got my last turn but couldn't open it. I've sent it to him again but I don't know what the problem is. worst that happens I guess is I run the turn again from the last save I got from him. Didn't do too much anyway so shouldn't take long: B-17s switching from naval strikes to see if I can slow down his advance in the PI and Force Z heading towards Davao for what looks to be an under defended amphibious convoy. Hudsons at Singers switched to land attack because they are truly awful at naval strikes. The rumour that the Australian minister of defence is suggesting arming pigeons with sticks of dynamite is nothing but slander....
My resent turn worked and Juha sent me the combat report which, fittingly for Subsim.com was full of subs....
Highlight was the Dutch sub KXVII operating of the east coast of Malaya. She hit a XAK carrying artillery and vehicles with two torpedoes which is usually enough to put them under. Even better, as she was clearing the area she stumbled into a small task force and put a torpedo into a light cruiser. Beer all round when the crew get back to port! :yeah:
In comparison, there were a pile of attacks by US fleet boats in the crowded waters around the PI. so many dud torpedo hits that it must have sounded like a Caribbean Steel band playing death metal.
Pickeral took some damage but should be able to get back to Pearl.
From the other side, I-4 tried a couple of attacks near Pearl but had one dud hit and a miss. My ASW guys kept her down but no hits were registered.
I-123 hit a fleeing xAKL in the DEI and put her under. Not a major loss but a reminder that he is beginning to task subs into the area.
I-166 was caught in the shallow waters off Osthaven in southern Sumatra. I don't think she's going home. She bottomed out and was properly battered by a Destroyer.
Landings.
Guam fell, which triggered Tokyo Rose talking nonsense, as she is want to do. The invasion cover (several cruisers,) sunk a tiny minesweeper trying to get out of dodge. Rose claimed we had lost several Carriers and a Battleship. :D
Airstrikes
B-17s hit and hopefully sank a fleet oiler at Babledeboob or whatever it's called, but it seems I forgot to change the Hudson tasking out of Singers and they got cut up. Later on, in the afternoon, a lone swordfish spotted the mighty BB Kongo off the Malayan coast and tried to sink her with the good old British standby weaponry of irony and wry understatement. Kongo is impervious to such hi-jinks, it seems, and blasted the little thing out the sky.
Not bad, all things considered: a couple of merchies, a sub, a cruiser probably going to the yards for a while all for a little tramp steamer.
Krauter
04-01-11, 07:28 PM
Just a question, whats an XAK or xAKL?
Torplexed
04-01-11, 08:03 PM
Just a question, whats an XAK or xAKL?
An xAK is a civilian cargo ship. An AK is a military cargo ship. The game differentiates between the two since a ship designed from the keel up to carry military equipment and supplies is generally more efficient at it than a converted civilian vessel. xAKs also get no amphibious bonus when off-loading troops or cargo in an invasion, or in an undeveloped port or anchorage. An xAKL is just a lighter civilian cargo ship.(Or, like Egan suggested, a tramp steamer. :03:)
The amount of different ship designations and their descriptions has a ten page appendix all of it's own in the manual..:) There are a couple of mods now that further add to the confusion.
Big ships are fine, it's when you get down into the murky world of YMS, YP, HDML, APc, YO's etc it starts hurting my head..
Actually, is 'tramp steamer' the same thing as an xAKL? I dunno, but I just love the term. It always makes me think of the Millennium Falcon for some reason.
I've been thinking about what I said about Juha's future plans. I had a feeling that he might try and go for Australia early on, perhaps not for auto victory reasons but because it's a useful gambit for the IJN player to use that shuts down access to the DEI if done right. I never really thought that he would try to take Brisbane or Sydney because even as a relatively new player I'm sure he knows that doing such a thing would probably trigger the massive Allied reinforcements that come along in such a situation. Isolating northern Oz, though, by taking Darwin, Horn Island and closing the Gulf of Carpentia to me would add perhaps 6 to 8 months onto the war. It's a good move although one that is obviously not without risk to himself as I think he would have to go after Suva or even New Zealand in an attempt to deny me the supply routes I would need to combat such a proposition.
Well, looking at the map this morning in the cold light of a night where I didn't sleep very well (still fighting a horrible cold,) I realized a couple of things I hadn't really thought too much about so far.
Firstly, there has still been no attack at Wake island. This in itself is no big deal; it's a tiny rock that has a stacking limit of 6000 personnel as it is rated as an atoll, and is far easier for me to keep supplied than the other way around. It's main use for the IJN player, I think, is to base patrol aircraft, use as a forward sub base and generally provide a bit of an irritation factor - mostly the same sort of things I would use it for in fact.
Not attacking Wake is not entirely unusual; lots of IJN players skip it and use those troops and transports elsewhere. But there is another factor that is making me a little bit nervous.
That factor is simple: My patrol aircraft flying out of Midway are still reporting the Kido Butai away to the north. I would have expected him to clear off by now, either to port in the Home Islands, or to the DEI/PI to support the landings.
Now, there are a couple of things he could be doing: Refueling at sea from his fast fleet oilers or simply waiting for something. Perhaps he is coming after Midway right off the bat, which would be an interesting move. Perhaps he's going to sweep back to Pearl in the hope that my carriers are there (they're not,) but that would be fraught with danger for him and he would likely lose at least two flat tops to my forces.
Of course, I could be reading far too much into this. By his own admission Juha is still a novice at the game (as am I in fact, even though I've been playing it for a while,) and he could well have simply overlooked the KB with everything else that is going on.
And as if on cue, the next combat replay has popped up in my inbox. To war!
14th Dec 41
Not a good day. All win for him.
CenPac
Tarawa fall. No surprise there. It's the next step after Makin, after all.
PI
Davao falls. Force Z is steaming in that direction as I speak. I'm too late to stop the landings of course, but I'm hoping for an opportunity to batter his shipping. There seems to be a task force between Mindanao and Peliliu, though. Maybe nothing; B-17's hit Boobledabeep for the third day running but the port seemed to empty so he's perhaps decided to vacate the area. Could be the Baby KB, though, and Force Z could be heading into a trap.
Malaya
A swarm of Nells all but destroy a task force at Georgetown which was loading the Punjab Battalion who were going to evac to Madras. Well, here's the comabt report from the morning strike:
No Japanese losses
Allied Ships
xAK Ellenga, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
xAP Kelantan, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Demosthenes, Torpedo hits 1
xAP Hong Siang, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAK Wing Sang, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
Allied ground losses:
906 casualties reported
Squads: 34 destroyed, 45 disabled
Non Combat: 35 destroyed, 44 disabled
Engineers: 4 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 7 (4 destroyed, 3 disabled)
Vehicles lost 2 (2 destroyed, 0 disabled)
A couple of rowboats are picking up the few survivors. Not good. I had hoped the unit would have loaded a little bit quicker than it did and would have been away by now
Sub War
The failure of my fleet boats to engage shipping around the PI continues to frustrate me. Not that it would help if they did because every torpedo hit is greeted with a comedy 'BOINGGG!!!!' noise from a Loony Tunes cartoon.
Other News
I've dispatched supply boats to both Wake and Johnson, and I need to start thinking about building up some of my other CenPac bases. I have lots of cargo ships but a lot of them are in fairly useless places. There are a couple of dozen in Sydney, for example, that I need to get to Pearl but can't really risk as I have nothing in the way of escorts just now.
The Royal Australian Cruisers are heading north to jolly up the troops of Lark Battalion at Rabaul. In Sydney, Leander and Achilles have just arrived from NZ.
Interesting snippet in the sigint read out which I missed:
2/113th Infantry Regiment is loaded on a Japanese xAK moving to Babeldaob.
113th Infantry Regiment is loaded on a Ansyu-C Cargo class xAK moving to Babeldaob.
II./4th Infantry Battalion is loaded on a Japanese xAP moving to Peleliu..
Heavy Volume of Radio transmissions detected at 84,93.
2nd Engineer Regiment is loaded on a Aikoku Maru AMC class AMC moving to Peleliu.
I'm guessing that's what I'm seeing and not the Baby KB. Phew. Still, I can't confirm until I get get the turn back.
Hong Kong
I seem to have a blind spot for Honk Kong for some reason, and have just realized I've said nothing about it. Well, I have some Canadian and Brit troops sitting behind level two forts fighting off what seems to be an underwhelming IJA attack. He hasn't brought enough to the party so far but I imagine that will change over the next week or two.
China
Everything scarper. Hide in trees.
CenPac
My carriers, which had been loitering at Palmyra, have been ordered to move towards Tarawa. Hopefully, they can hit his landing ships as they get supplies onto the beach. They are a couple of days away so I can always change my mind if it looks dicey. They're a little bit under fueled but that's not too much of a problem. I have a horrible feeling I've left Enterprise's airgroups set to training. I'll check next turn. At best, the landings are being covered by the Baby KB but I've seen no evidence of this. Best case? we sink some ships and disappear into the wild blue yonder. worst case? I'll lose two carriers and feel a right mug.
PI
The task forces between Mindanao and Boobledoopbap remains unidentified. As Han Solo would say. "I've got a bad feeling about this."
Housekeeping
I've started the laborious process of sorting out which of my cargo ships are able to upgrade to more useful types. In real terms, it means finding all the ships that can convert to AKA and APA's (military cargo and landing ships with organic amphibious capability,) AE (Ammunition tenders are important for supplying big ships like BB's at small ports,) and AKE's (The same as previous except they can do it while at sea.)
The Allies never get enough of any of these ships, even when they start rolling out the shipyards later on. I need to get them stuck away somewhere safe until they can upgrade. I have plenty of other ships anyway so It shouldn't really hurt me too much.
Convoys
Supply convoy loading at Sydney for Darwin and a small convoy loading at Soerbaja for Manila in which I don't expect anyone to return from. It's only comprised of xAKLs anyway so if I lose them I won't lose too much sleep.
Football
The mighty Glasgow Rangers lost 3-2 to a jammy last minute Dundee United goal. I'm not best pleased and it's probably why I'm going to try sink some of the Tarawa invasion fleet with my carriers.
15th Dec 41 - (I've kind of lost track a bit...)
Quiet turn. The carriers steam towards Tarawa but it looks like they may have missed their chance. Difficult to say, though, as I was counting on coast watchers in the absence of aircraft, subs or troops to keep an eye on the area. I'm sending an AV (an Patrol aircraft tender,) to Baker Island and plan to base a squadron of Cats down their until the bad guys come calling, which they will.
Force Z should arrive in the waters off Davao tomorrow. No idea what they will find - could be cruisers and battleships or it could be a junk out catching shrimp.
A big troop convoy is assembling at San Fransisco; it will carry the 34th and 161st Infantry regiments, the 2nd USMC Para battalion, 8th Marines and a couple of base forces to pearl. The Marines will probably move of from there to Christmas island as soon as they can. On the other side of the world lots of ships are being collected at Sydney prior to heading towards Pearl. Just waiting some Destroyers from Soerbaja where there are lots.
B-17s hit an AO at boogoloodoop. The same one. Sucks to be him.
15th Dec - For Real!
Meh,
Davao
Force Z arrives ready to rock and finds......two lowly minesweepers. Force Z sinks them both out of frustration.
Hong Kong
IJA launches a deliberate attack with 26,000 or so men. Only one infantry outfit, the 38th div, is involved although there are lots of engineers. He reduce forts to level 2 with odds of 1:2, but loses 900 men in the attempt. I expect he'll either try a shock attack next round or let them recover from disruption.
PI
B-17's from Clark Field bomb IJA troops at Aparri, killing about 150 of them, which is none too shabby. B-17's again hit bongolybumph and hurt an AK this time. I'll probably stand them down now as I need to think about swapping their command and moving them to Oz.
Sub War
8 or 9 attacks by fleet boats around the PI cause not a single hit. This is pathetic. Surely the law of averages would suggest that at least one blooming torpedo should have done what it was made for by now and actually blown something up.
On the plus side, my ASW teams out of Pearl continue to torment poor little I-4, a submarine almost as useless as mine. She launched two attacks against destroyers without success.
Fog Of War
I've just noticed that the light cruiser that KXVII torpedoed is listed in the ships sunk sections as a sunk ships. Haven't recieved points for her yet so the chances are that she survived and this is a false report.
Torplexed
04-03-11, 08:22 AM
I seem to have a blind spot for Hong Kong for some reason, and have just realized I've said nothing about it. Well, I have some Canadian and Brit troops sitting behind level two forts fighting off what seems to be an underwhelming IJA attack. He hasn't brought enough to the party so far but I imagine that will change over the next week or two.
Did you pull the three British destroyers out of Hong Kong yet? With all there is to do, I always tend to overlook them too. As for the slow shipping docked there, it's pretty much doomed with all the Japanese naval bombers in the neighborhood. The MTBs might be able to make the Philippines.
The mighty Glasgow Rangers lost 3-2 to a jammy last minute Dundee United goal.Ow. Almost as bad as losing a carrier.
Yeah, I got them out. They had a fun time running at flank speed through the Betty hunting grounds of the South China Sea but miraculously escaped unscathed. They refueled at Soerbaja, joined up with several US destroyers and Dutch cruisers, and are about to get underway for Sydney. The merchant ships that were in Hong Kong are toast, though. Most of them are too damaged to do anything but await the end.
Juha's busy today so no new turns, although we did get a final one done late last night.
16th Dec 41
PI
Mindanao continues to be the focus of Juha's current attacks, with landings ongoing at Davao and a new invasion at Cotabato. During the night, S-38 closed one of the Japanese Task Forces and put two torpedoes into the light cruiser Kashima. The crew later confirmed the sound of her hull breaking up so we have a confirmed sinking of a CL which is great news.
Force Z is still haunting the waters to the south and I had meant to withdraw them but, perhaps stupidly, I've decided to send them back in again to tangle with the Cotabato invasion. Maybe they'll have more luck this time.
Worryingly, A new TF has appeared on the other side of Mindandao. I don't know what it is. Could be the Baby KB again, which would cause problems for Force Z. If it was me I would definitely be covering these landings with carriers. I've tasked some recon aircraft to have a sniff. At least if they get shot down by Zeroes I'll know for sure. I've also reset patrol waypoints for all the subs in the area so that they will hopefully cross paths with whatever the ships are. Below is the current map:
http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/2339/pirs.jpg (http://img856.imageshack.us/i/pirs.jpg/)
Singapore.
I've evacuated four Indian Brigades from Singers with orders to sail to Osthaven to start with. I had planned to use them in Palembang but I'm leaning towards sending them on the India instead. There are still some units at Singers I want to get out: The two Australian Brigades still stuck there are high on my list, but as it would cost me a combined 700 PP to change their command I don't know whether I've got the time. I'd also have to send more ships to pick them up and I don't know whether that's going to be possible.
I'll start moving aircraft out some time soon. The torpedo bombers who are there might has well go as they aren't getting any action. I'd much rather have them available for the defence of Australia.
South China Sea
A Dutch Patrol aircraft bombed a troop ship north of Sinkawan in NW Borneo. it's also been confirmed that there are a lot of ships moving out there and heading south. Time to evac some planes from the area I think.
PNG
Another IJN TF appears north of Admiralty island. I expect that this is the invasion fleet for Rabaul. If it is then it's bad timing as the RAN cruisers were in those waters two days ago. They are nearing Townsville and should hopefully refuel during the night and head back out tomorrow. I'm not sure how big a force Juha's sending here but once Rabaul goes the Japanese usually spread like a virus through the area. Troops at Port Moresby are on high alert, as are Mr Eccles, Kevvo the Alsatian and their biplane.
Thoughts.
I have a lot of subs arriving at Pearl in the next couple of days. All the S boats will be sent to Australia and the Fleet boats will receive various tasks: Patrol Imperial waters, patrol off Truk, and provide picket duty on various approach routes. about a dozen destroyers and a cruiser are also on their way from Panama to Pearl just now. Destroyers are always a godsend, no matter how many of them you get.
My thinking just now is a bit more uncertain than I'd like. I had been thinking about the Festung Palembang gambit but am now unsure. It would require me stripping all available troops from elsewhere in the DEI, and the good quality Commonwealth troops like the Australian and Indian Brigades are, IMO, better off being used on other fronts. I don't think Palembang could ever be anything other than a speed bump anyway and I'm simply temped to use it as an airfield as long as possible and move the good troops on to other pastures.
On the whole things are going OK. A lot of ships lost but nothing really vital aside from those three cruisers. I've saved a lot of cargo hulls and destroyers in the DEI and am optimistic that I can put up a fight. My main strategy is still to go across CenPac but that is a long way off.
17th Dec 41
A bit of a frustrating turn, as i told Juha. Grrrr.
PI
Force Z steams into the water off Cotabato to find no ships but lots of Japanese soldiers on the beach laughing at them. The base fell without any trouble. They have also started landing on the north side of Mindanao. I've sent Force Z back to Davao once again. If they don't find anything this time they will go back to Soerbaja to refuel and then probably head off to Sydney.
The mystery TF which I though might have been the Baby KB seems to have only been a supply convoy. See below for details.
Borneo
Landings at Miri and all points east on Borneo's north coast. Patrol aircraft suggest he's taking these landing seriously because he's sending in cruisers and battleships. I'm not going to fight here - nothing to fight with for a start.
Singapore.
I've simply been deciding which units I want to get out: Some armour, the Ozzies, some more Indian troops and that's about it. Probably too much to evac, though. I sent fresh orders to the convoy carrying the troops who left two days ago; they will refuel at Java and then head to Madras.
CenPac.
The Marine convoy out of SF will now only refuel at Pearl before heading on to Christmas island. The next troop convoy from the west coast will do the same. The first supply and fuel convoys should reach Pearl tomorrow which makes me feel a little bit more secure. I just need to get that fuel south to Suva and New Zealand now. The next thing on my list of priorities is too start moving fighters down that way.
Sub War
I-4 continues to annoy my ASW ships at Pearl. There were 6 different attacks on her today without. Well, I say attacks: not a single DC was dropped which is pretty lousy. Some of the Destroyers on their way from Panama have better ASW ratings so hopefully I'll be able to something about this irritant.
Better news from Mindanao: The mystery TF ran into Seawolf during the night and our intrepid sub launched a surface attack. She shot off 6 torpedoes without any success (All duds...) but seems to have sunk an AO with gunfire! Brilliant!
Questions.
How soon is too soon to get troops onto islands like Guadalcanal? I have a real limit on the amount of base forces, engineers, air support groups and fighters I can use to cover all of this, to say nothing about infantry to actually hold the place. still, a part of me is looking at the Solomons and thinking "What if..."
More meh. Only seen the combat replay so far as Juha just home.
18th Dec 41
Wake
A whole bunch of Nells appear out of nowhere over Wake island. The wildcats sortie and shoot down 5 for no loss, which is good. I have nothing else here, though, so the island is his for the taking. I wonder why he didn't fly an escort? I have two subs on picket duty to the west. I'll retask them to cover the southern approach.
If I'm remembering right, the Japanese historically split two carriers from the KB to cover the landings here so I'm wondering whether this is the whole deathstar or just a fraction. The KB was last seen way to the north of Midway a few days ago now but I had assumed they were going home.
Hong Kong
Deliberate attack reduces forts to one but he took 1000 casualties in doing so. A shock attack will probably do for the city.
Malaya
Victoria Point in the north falls. Aside from this it has been very quiet here. I still control the railways so it's going to take a while for his troops to march down towards Singers.
Borneo
Miri and Jessellen both fall. This allows him to move a substantial naval force elsewhere. Nuts.
Sub War
I-156 attacks xAKL Shinai on the surface just east of the island of Balaton. The ship goes down. The sub captain stands on the bridge with his hands on his hips singing 'We are the champions,' Ha! I have the last laugh: that song hasn't been written yet!
Air War.
Not much going on anywhere on the map, to be honest. A handful of attacks in China, and we continue to swap bomber blows in the Philippines. I would have expected him to have started sweeping over Singers and Rangoon by now in a bid to clear the air before the bombers go in but so far nothing.
Force Z
No report of Force Z doing anything in the latest installment of a supremely disappointing patrol. It's annoying because I know there were ships at Davao when I sent the turn off. I have no idea why Force Z isn't engaging. They had plenty of ammo left after their mighty victory over the two minesweepers. Never mind. I'll withdraw them from action for the time being. Things are going to get sticky in this area very quickly. I may start mining places for a bit of a laugh.
Torplexed
04-04-11, 09:05 PM
How soon is too soon to get troops onto islands like Guadalcanal? I have a real limit on the amount of base forces, engineers, air support groups and fighters I can use to cover all of this, to say nothing about infantry to actually hold the place. still, a part of me is looking at the Solomons and thinking "What if..."
It's tempting early in the game to grab an empty base with future potential like Guadalcanal, but I'd stay away. Even when the US took it in August 1942 after having devastated the Japanese carrier fleet at Midway it was a bit of a reach and a shaky equilibrium ensued for six months where the Japanese ruled the seas by night and the USN by day. If you take it now with the current dearth of seasoned Allied combat troops he could come in with all six fleet carriers and isolate it, or drive you out with a fresh division from China. You might end up with a lot of decent engineers, naval and air support troops living in the Guadalcanal jungle on nuts and snails.
Yeah, I think I agree with all of that. Allied strength is best spent in securing some of the bigger islands in the SoPac area such as Suva and Pago Pago in order to safeguard convoy lanes. At this moment in time I have about 2 divisions worth of US troops available to me to do with as I please, a couple of Marine units and two whole divisions which would cost me nearly 4000 PP to buy out.
I never really appreciated exactly how little was committed to the PTO until I played this game. I mean, there is a lot of stuff available in terms of shipping and that sort of thing, but actual ground units are pretty thin on the ground until, what, mid 43? after D-day the amount of units available increases dramatically. The Commonwealth are actually a lot better off but their units are fairly limited. I need the British units in India. End of story. The Australians and the Kiwis will be relied on quite heavily for most of 42.
Also, you raise another point which I have been thinking about. In the real war the Japanese carrier fleet took a beating at Midway and arguably never recovered from the losses. In the game, Japanese players tend to horde the KB and seldom commit it unless it's in the classic 6 flat top format. This makes it a formidable opponent for far longer than it was in real life. I don't know what can be really done about it but it's a fine counterpoint to the IJN players who moan about the allies hiding away their flattops for periods of the game.
Anyways. I went to the gym after work and then came home and got stuck into the turn. We both had substantial housekeeping duties to attend to in game so it's unlikely there will be another turn today but you never know.
Highlights of today were convoys going here, there and everywhere. More fuel from SF to Pearl and a great big empty convoy leaving Oz to head to Pearl where all the tankers and cargo ships can actually do something useful. At SF I'm loading a convoy with fighters, bombers and two squadrons of dive bombers which will head south as soon as possible. A big convoy just arrived at Anchorage in Alaska and has started unloading. I'm trying to keep up on which peripheral bases need supply - it can be a nightmare. Pago Pago, for example, badly needs a delivery but it has to wait for supplies to reach Suva, unload and be reloaded on another ship before they arrive. It all takes time.
I have started looking at the Dutch forces still in Java and wondering whether some of them might not be better elsewhere. I'm beginning to look at Merauke on the gulf of Carpentia. I've used this base extensively in the past as it provides a good location for air cover if I'm moving ships between Normanton and Darwin. I definitely plan on using this base, it's just a question of how soon I move on her.
Other housekeeping fun involved retasking some more subs to better patrol patterns and keeping an eye on wake. I don't know what sort of range the nells have but I wonder if they may have flown from a base to the south. It's quite a reach, I suppose. But I'm seeing no sign of ships out there. I've moved a Cat squadron to Christmas Island to cover those approaches but am awaiting the arrival of a seaplane tender at Baker Islands which will be a lot more useful.
19th Dec 41
PI
US Torpedo boats found a HUGE landing fleet at San Fernando but withdrew from combat. Fair enough, there was 0% moonlight so I guess it was too dark but I expected a bit more as I had just paid PP to give the task force an aggressive commander.
An IJN sub chaser hit one of the mines I laid at Batan island. I'm pretty sure she sunk.
B-17s hit Japanese troops concentrations in the north of the Philippines causing 127 casualties. A few more attacks like that and I'm sure they'll just go home...:O:
Singers
A big sweep came over but resulted in only one aircraft lost each. Juha didn't follow up with a bombing raid, though. I wonder whether weather was a factor.
Java
Force Z should be back in the early hours and will refuel. I'll keep her here for a little longer just in case a juicy target shows up. An empty troop convoy is about to get underway for Singapore to pick up a couple more units. Hopefully they'll get in and out without too many problems.
Wake
At Wake nothing happened. But it happened suddenly, mark you! I might send a Marine defence unit to the island. It is rated as an atoll so can only hold a maximum of 6000 troops before over-stacking penalties kick in. There are several sizes of islands and Atolls are the smallest. It tends to make invading them very difficult indeed because over-stacking penalties are most keenly felt with the inability to supply troops adequately.
I wonder if I was right about where the air raid came from. I may move a Cat squadron down here even though I'm lacking enough support to have them and the wildcats here at the same time.
I don't really have any strategic wisdom to add here, but I just wanted to say that I enjoy following this thread immensely. Gripping stuff :salute:
I don't really have any strategic wisdom to add here,
Damn! That makes two of us! :D
but I just wanted to say that I enjoy following this thread immensely. Gripping stuff :salute:
Great stuff.:up: Glad you're enjoying it. I'm finding it fun to write. It's turning into the highlight of my day, in fact. I recommend that anyone playing WiTP should seriously consider doing an AAR: it allows you space to actually think about what you are doing and crystallizes tactics and strategies in your mind. Whether you remember to actually DO any of it is a moot point....
I've sent Emperor Happy Times my turn and I'll be back in a bit with some exciting screenies and the details.
OK. Not much to report today.
Oz
Big news is that 2 squadrons of US divebombers have arrived in Brisbane. If only they were something other than A-20 Banshees. Nevermind, they have gone into a crash course of naval attack training so they might be able to do something when the bad guys show up.
Below is a map of the northern Oz area:
http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/1334/northozcopy.jpg (http://img713.imageshack.us/i/northozcopy.jpg/)
Between Coen, Normanton and Merauke I plan to build a nicely interlocking umbrella of air supremacy. Normanton is central to my plans for northern Austrlia and, later, the DEI because it is so easy to get supplies and troops too. Going overland to Darwin is a non starter. I plan to get some coastal defence guns into place as soon as I have some as well as some AA. Cavite Island naval force, who are currently heading for Perth, will end up here.
India
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/8245/burmafrontiercopy.jpg
The main line of defence along the border will receive the bulk of my troops in India. The four bases will be built up as large as they can get, will have a heavy fighter presence and will be supplied by air during the Monsoon season when transport by roads pretty much halts. Of course, the way the game is modeled means that air supply is likely to be affected my the monsoon as well but I won't have any real option but to try.
The Mandalay area in Burma will be Juha's aim. It would be mine. I see no reason to push beyond these towns; they have oil wells and resources which are important to his industry, and north of them nothing much other than unpleasant biting insects and snakes. Of course, he could decide to go for India but He will know the chances of doing anything here are pretty much nill. Experienced WiTP players have come a cropper here. I refer interested parties to look over the now abandoned AAR of Canoerebel versus Q-Ball (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2508477) over at Matrix. Q-ball is a very experienced IJ player and although arguments could (and have) be advanced that he made some fundamental mistakes I still think it is too difficult a proposition.
The Royal Navy
I've said little about the RN so far. The main RN base is at Colombo in Ceylon. I can easily see Juha trying a strike here with the KB at some time in the next few months. There are currently a light carrier (Hermes) and half a dozen cruisers here, but no destroyers. Great.
I've always struggled to use the RN ships in the past. Usually they end up isolated from the real war being fought elsewhere but I am determined this time to actually use them as much as possible. One of the big problems, though, with regards to their carriers, is that the RN seem to have had a rather, err, avant-guard approach to carrier air groups. The USN flat tops are great: uniform aircraft of decent size and type, more than able to go toe to toe with the best the Japanese can throw at them. The RN? Well, who else thinks that sticking a squadron of 6 swordfish on a carrier in 1944 represents great military thinking. Of course, the USN takes time to get good and the RN certainly improves as the war goes on also, but nowhere to the extent that I would trust them to go up against even the Baby KB without losses.
I've always felt that the RNs thinking on carriers was muddied at best. It seems odd to me that a country with such widely scattered and important assets as the British Empire would, for the larger part of their existence, seem to think of threats in terms of what was floating near by on the North Sea. Still, the RN has the best ship names ever, so kudos for that! :salute:
http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/4841/xwing.jpg
This is a good reason for not having X-wings on the Long Island. There was some problem with the arrestor cables. Should have used Snow speeders, IMO; those harpoon thingies could have come in useful.
Well I remembered the screenshots but forgot the details.
Pearl
The big supply convoy that got there yesterday has unloaded and started heading back to SF. The dock worker laddies, (if anyone knows what those dudes were officially called please let me know - I've forgotten,) must have been going for some sort of record because I don't think I've ever seen a big convoy turn around that quickly before. The fuel convoy will probably take a couple of days.
Enterprise and Lexington will arrive home during the night, barring anything like a last minute sub attack.
PI
The PT boat task force have been sent back to see whether they can do anything against the landing fleet this time around. You never know, maybe the Japanese ship will get spooked and crash into each other.
Oz
Ships move around and that's about it. I would love to take advantage of the fact nothing has arrived in the Coral sea area and get some units into Moresby, but I simply cannot afford the PP cost just now. The troops there already will have to make do with supplies coming in. The Australian cruisers are still at Townsville awaiting orders. I'm surprised Juha hasn't moved on Rabaul. My air patrols spot ships moving north of the admiralty islands now and again but nothing has actually made a move yet.
Java
Force Z due in tonight. A minelayer is planting a field between Batavia and Oosthaven in order to try and block off that route into the Indian sea to enemy subs.
Thoughts
Two things come to mind:
1: Where are his submarines? I've had reports of Glens off the west coast but this could easily be over enthusiastic spotters misidentifying US aircraft. I've not seen a single boat east of Pearl yet and aside from Pearl I've only seen them around Java. My ASW air patrols aren't up to speed yet but I would have expected to see more of them by now. Even at Pearl I have only had trouble with I-4. What's he up too? poor tasking away from my prospective routes? In transit? Difficult to say, but I'm happy enough for the time being.
2: Softly softly catchee monkey? Juha is taking his time, it seems, in various places. If I was him I would have had the Baby KB down towards the Java sea hitting scarpering ships as I attempted to clear the area. I would certainly have moved on Rabaul by now. Mind you, knowing my luck the moment I commit troops to the defence of Moresby the Japanese deathstar will turn up and sink the lot of them.
20th Dec 1941
PI
The PT boats run into a destroyer screen and lose two of their number without doing any damage to the enemy.
At dawn a powerful naval bombardment is launched against Lingayen by the Japanese as they begin landings. Allied forces shell the landing beaches to little effect. He has elements of a tank regiment and two infantry regiments on the sand so far, with more to follow. B-17s out of Clarke are ordered to do what they can.
Sargo is driven under by destroyers near Viggan and takes some depth charges for her troubles. Damage is light and she remains on station.
Betties from Bootledebomp attack a small convoy fleeing the Philippines. I had forgotten about them but they got away unscathed. Hopefully they can clear the area and make for Soerabaja.
Singapore.
Several sweeps are launched and we lose 7 Buffaloes to 1 all day. Not good enough.
The remaining ships at Singers receive orders to run for it. Batavia first and then on the Oz.
The three torpedo bomber squadrons have been transferred to Batavia and will move on to Darwin as soon as they can. It'll take a few days as they don't have great range and will need to hop from base to base.
Oz
Another quiet day, mostly. The big convoy that is heading from Sydney to Pearl has a moment of excitement when An xAK zigs instead of zags and slaps into HMNZS Achilles. Damage is fairly light, which is good. It would have been an inglorious end to a ship that tangled with the famous Graf Spee two years before. The steamer skipper will be soundly beaten by irate Kiwi sailors I imagine.
Many of the ships fleeing the DEI have arrived at Perth. Something like 70,000 tonnes of fuel will be unloaded here in the next few days. I may send some tankers north again.
Pearl
The aircraft carriers make it home and are refueling. Lexington may start upgrading dive bombers if there are enough of them.
CenPac
Convoys supplying Christmas island. The Patrol plane tender is about a day away from Baker. As soon as she arrives I'll transfer a squadron of cats from Christmas. They'll be living in tents on the beach but it can't be helped.
The Wake resupply ship is a couple of days back. There have been no repeats of the air raid from a couple of days ago.
China.
Horrible. I'll say something about China when I've worked out what I want to say about it. Some SB-IIIs bombed a few IJA troops near Wuchang but inflicted few casualties.
Java
I-156 attacks but misses a steamer off the coast of Soerabaja. The small ASW force I had on patrol is, and please pardon my French, fannying about to the north of the sub. When they get back to port, there will be some shouting.
West Coast
The aircraft carrying convoy at SF is loaded but is awaiting a fleet oiler filling up before she leaves. I'm adding the AO because I want her to get to Australia and a couple of her ships are pretty small. This allows her the convoy to refuel on the way, although ships will take fuel for each other if they need it and there is any spare, this method is quicker.
SUBS!
My sub related witterings in the last post have come back to haunt me! :D
Sub spotted off San Diego.
Sub spotted off Noumea
Sub spotted off MIlne bay (PNG)
Sub spotted in Bismarck Sea.
All I have available on the west coast just now are small Yard Patrol boats whose ASW capabilities seem to be a rating dropping hand grenades over the side. Still, it's all I've got and I've formed a few patrols up and down the coast. Two Canadian KVs will do the same further north. Theyu have a ASW rating of 4 and are actually pretty good, if I'm going on past experience.
Slyguy3129
04-06-11, 06:16 PM
Hey Egan, as an up and coming WitPAE player (playing allies) I am very thankful for the effort you take in writing this up.
I'm now understanding what there about I need to do in order to set myself up and seeing as I have played through the 22nd I may restart and snag your ideas a bit early. Time will tell though and good luck on the high seas!
Slyguy3129
04-06-11, 07:34 PM
Hey got a question. Does the number of engineers make any difference with the speed in which ports or airbases are built? In other words if I am wanting to build up a main base somewhere in the DEI would it behoove me to have quite a few engineers? Also what ships would help in this?
If you want to build a base up quickly I believe you need 200-300 engineers present. I'm not sure whether this represents an optimum number or not but is the one i've seen mentioned a couple of times. Also worth remebering that engineering vehicles are equal to five engineers and are therefor worth their weight. By mid 42 you're going to have a few seebee units available and they are absolutely invaluable.
Also worth remembering that it takes a long time to build a level 0 port or air strip to level 1: remember to plan ahead.
as for ships, none directly help you build bases up bit you wil need good supply to construct.
In the DEI early game i would hold off building anything more than forts, unless you're planning to stand and fight long term. The ports and airfields should be enough for you're needs just now and anything else is just doing Japan's work for him.
This is quite an amazing AAR, and I'm really enjoying reading it. :yep: It's the pondering of what he's going to do next. I imagine he is trying to figure the same. :yep:
Torplexed
04-07-11, 07:21 AM
This is quite an amazing AAR, and I'm really enjoying reading it. :yep: It's the pondering of what he's going to do next. I imagine he is trying to figure the same. :yep:
Yes. the question always uppermost in an Allied players mind at this point is where are those big Japanese carriers? They disappear for a few days after the Pearl Harbor raid. But when they show it's generally together and can be quite devastating and out of the blue. One of the biggest mistakes the historical Japanese ever made was breaking that winning combination up. Starting with the Coral Sea battle their fortunes declined.
What he's doing next is flooding the Philippines with invasion fleets...:wah:
I lost track of the KB a few days ago. One of the real problems with the game from allied side is that we can't have a sub conduct harbour recon. It would make it easier to keep tabs on some of his big ships.
There are several places he could use the KB now: Come down hard on the Coral sea/SWpac area, to provide cover for invasions in the DEI, or raid shipping lanes in CenPac. I don't think it's the last one and I have a gut feeling the next time I see it will either be off Rabaul or Darwin. Besides, it's the Baby KB I'm worried about just now. I have no idea where it is. It WAS off the Philippines but it has been gone for the best part of a week now and it never came too far south. He could have picked off a lot of shipping if he'd pushed a bit further.
22nd Dec 41
Singers
Sweeps take out 5 more Buffaloes for the loss of 3 zeroes. In the afternoon a bunch of sallies came over and attacked the port, sinking an HDML. My Hudsons continue to refuse to fly. It's been raining pretty hard, I suppose....
PI
His main thrust is here for the time being. B-17s from Clark bombed the invasion fleet at Viggan and scored hits on two xAK, and a cat got a lucky hit on a destroyer there as well. Further south he has begun landing troops at Panay.
The PT boats at Manila are being sent out again to see whether they can do a bit more than last time.
CenPac
I-26 attacked the SF-Pearl convoy as it headed back to the west coast. She took a hit but damage will be light. The convoy is fine so far.
The Seaplane tender has reached Baker island and a squadron of cats arrived later in the day. For some reason the ship's organic air support isn't showing up under the islands totals. I check again next turn. This is important because without functioning air support I'll soon end up with a lot of grounded aircraft. The cats have patrol patterns that will allow them to see over Makin, Tarawa and other islands in the area.
Oz
Subs off Brisbane. Every boat with even a small ASW capability is being sent out to patrol up and down the coast.
I'm thinking of airlifting a couple of independent companies to Moresby but I haven't decided yet. One of them is embarked to travel to Townsville by rail in possible preparation.
Hong Kong
A couple of air raids are followed up by a ground attack in which Juha loses another 750 troops. I think he needs more infantry here because the guys he's got aren't doing much.
West Coat.
Another sub appears near San Diego. I really wish I had some decent ASW assets here.
Subs
My fleet boats have been rubbish. Aside from the torpedoes they are failing to engage in any strength and that is driving me crazy. I seem to remember that the USN went through a period after he start of the war where many of the sub skippers were replaced by more aggressive men. That's what I'm seeing here. I need better skippers. I plan to start looking at it as soon as some boats get back to port.
Thoughts.
Not much to do but build up and sit tight. Bases across the map continue to improve their defences and facilities. I'm thinking of a raid somewhere with my carriers in order to at least feel I'm being proactive. I won't risk much, it'll be no more than a quick in and out, but it might throw some doubt Juha's way.
I think he's playing a solid, methodical game so far. There are a couple of things I would have done sooner but if he continues to throw the same sort of overwhelming force at the DEI he as thrown at the PI, things could get sticky very quickly.
Oh, I forgot: A task force was 'spotted' south east of Japan. I have a feeling this was the KB but I can't prove anything. Now, if it was the KB, is she going home or coming out? Hmmmm...
Carriers
In WW2, US carrier pilots had a simple motto found scrawled on bits of paper in various locations on board their ships. The motto was simple: 'Get The Carriers!'
The Japanese carrier fleet in WiTP is the empire's premier form of force projection. The full 6 flat top Kido Butai is awesome to behold, and eminently capable of ruining your day, your week or, indeed, a large part of your war. In real life, of course, the Japanese carrier fleet took some licks early on and never recovered the initiative. The Coral Sea and Midway battles seem even more important in hindsight, I suppose, and every half decent IJN player in the game knows how important it is to keep the 6 big ships together.
Tethered to this is an element of the game which has caused a certain amount of controversy: The Japanese player in the game seems able to keep pumping out good quality pilots for far longer than could be done in real life where as, the Allied player tends to struggle to train Naval aviators. I am currently using float plane squadrons to train USN pilots in fighter tactics. Yes, it's fairly gamey, but the consensus is that there is no other real method available. In this respect, the game is a bit unbalanced. That's life, however, and an Allied player must do what he can to keep training new men.
There is a second issue. The Japanese player has almost full control over important elements of his economy. He can concentrate on building far more carrier capable aircraft than could ever be done in the real war. Again, the Allies are hamstrung here. If i am supposed to get 10 Helldivers in March 44, I will never get a single airframe more or less than those 10 Helldivers in March 44. Tie-ing the Allied player to historical figures when the IJN player is far less limited doesn't really seem overly fair to me, but it is the decision the dev team went for and there isn't really anything I can do about it.
My one big advantage is in numbers. By the end of 43 I will have Essex class carriers arriving on an almost monthly bases. I will also have RN carriers arriving fairly frequently and literally dozens of escort carrier plus a few light carriers too. The air craft I will start receiving such as Corsairs, Hellcats and Helldivers are some of the finest seen in the PTO. But until then I don't get nearly enough of anything.
I will receive Yorktown in about 14 days. By the summer of 42 I will - god willing- have six fleet carrier and a couple of escort carriers available to me. Even then it will be all but impossible to go toe to toe with the KB. It will remain strong far longer than it did historically and proves a problem when it comes to strategic planning.
I plan on limiting the use of my carriers to small scale raids until I need to cover invasions. when I do move them, I hope to use them under a substantial umbrella of land based air. Interlocking bases and 'dirt' carriers will be the only way I can usefully operate for a long, long time. Whenever a Japanese player moans about Allies running away and hiding their carriers I wonder 'But what else can we realistically do?'
I am well aware that the US operated with only one carrier in the Pacific for while. I don't want to do that. I want to attrit his flat tops and I want to attrit his flight crews too. Anything to even things up. Once I get Marine dive bombers and torpedo aircraft, They will be going to those interlocking bases. There may also be times these types of aircraft will be removed from carriers altogether and based somewhere were they can do harm. Hopefully, this way, I can keep up my own force projection in the PTO until the big, beautiful Essex Class start coming out of the yards. From that point on the Japanese are mine for the taking, but that's a long way away.
23rd Dec 41
CenPac.
The supply ship reaches Wake and starts unloading. To the south, in Baker, I can't seem to get the AV's organic air support to work. I am trying a couple of things so we'll see next round.
Singapore.
Japanese sweeps continue to play havoc with the buffaloes and another three get shot down without answer. On the plus side the Hudsons' finally fly and bomb IJA troops away to the north doing - wait for it - 5 casualties! Maybe they fell off their chairs in surprise at the Hudsons doing anything. I know I nearly did.
More importantly at Singers, I finally ponied up the PP to buy out the two Australian brigades. They are loading onto some Dutch xAP along with another Indian brigade and some anti-tank units. They will head to Darwin to start with (or Perth depending on whether anyone unpleasant descends upon the Java sea.) The Indian unit will eventually get back to India. This may take a while.
Now we wait to see whether they load up and scram before more bomber turn up and ruin everyones morning.
Borneo
A TF turned up outside the British base of Kuching. I have moved one of the Vilderbeast squadrons from Soerabaja to Singkawan where they can hopefully knock some sense out of the Baddies. There isn't enough supply at the base, nor is ther an air HQ, so no Torpedoes. Let's hope they remember how to drop bombs.
Australia
I'm getting anxious without any air cover. Kevvo is a lovely dog but should be sleeping on a shaded porch instead on howling at silhouettes of Zeroes in Mr. Eccle's aircraft recognition guide. The big convoy on the west coast will leave tonight with orders to refuel at Pearl and then steam onto Oz. I don't usually like to force a convoy to go the entire way across the pacific but I need those fighters ASAP.
Once the two independent companies reach Townsville they will either be airlifted or sail to Moresby. I would like to send the two Singapore Oz brigades here but I have a feeling they will be needed in Darwin.
Subs.
I just discovered that I had 'Auto sub ops' switched to ON in the game preferences. I have no idea why I had it set like this as I have never used it in my life. I only noticed because several subs had disappeared off on patrols I hadn't remembering ordering and, sure enough, when I checked, a number of them were set to COMPUTER CONTROLLED. Hmm. I'm going to blame my utter lack of any sub success so far on this. Oh yes I am.
Question.
Does anyone with the game know what key allows you to see all ordered patrol areas at the same? I know it came in a patch so it's not in the manual but I can't for the life of me find it written down anywhere.
We might get in another turn tonight but I don't know. We'll see.
Having just stopped smoking once again I find myself with a bountiful supply of nervous energy, even though I haven't really been a heavy smoker for a few years now - except when I get a couple of drinks inside me in which case I go through a packet of tabs like the Conservatives going through the welfare state..:D
Anyways, in a bid to stop clicking the synch button on windows mail every few seconds and screaming 'SEND ME A TURN!' at the top of my voice I will try to do something constructive. Thus:
Convoys and supply
At it's heart, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, WiTP is a resource management game like many RTS I'm sure we have all played over the years. In WiTP world there are 4 sorts of resources we get to haul around:
Resources: This is the raw materials used to construct stuff like ships or aircraft or supplies. Mostly it's important to the Japanese player although there are a few occasions when it behooves the Allies to get involved. In my case, most of my resources are to be found off-map and I don't have to worry about them as they are converted into the end products elsewhere.
Oil: Again, more important for the Japanese. Most of my oil is automatically turned into fuel in places like Abadon or the west coast. it is also used in the creation of supply. There are proper figures of how much is needed to do what but I am not overly converse in it. Remember that scene in 'Kelly's Heroes' where Oddball's Sherman breaks down and, when asked by Kelly what's wrong with it, Oddball replies "I just drive it, baby, I don't know what makes it go." That's me that is. I also do a great barking dog impression. :DL
Fuel: Makes ships go. Without it ships don't go. See? Channeling Oddball. Aircraft, tanks and such like have their fuel requirements abstracted into supply so I don't need to worry about that. A full Carrier task force can suck down something like 30,000 tonnes of fuel if it's nearly empty so it's important to keep ports stocked.
Supplies: Guns, boots, ammo, biscuits and rum. an army marches on it's stomach so supply is essential. If you wish to replace aircraft or torpedoes or battleship ammunition a base needs to be a certain size and have at least 10,000 tonnes of supply. It may not sound like much but when there are betties stalking the shipping lanes, anything is welcome.
Convoy Routes
On the West Coast my primary transport hub is San Fransisco. Most US troops and aircraft will embark from here and most supply convoys will leave from here. Fuel shipments will also mostly leave from here although some will leave from LA.
From Seattle, convoys will deal with outlying bases in the Canadian coast and head all the way to Alaska and the Aleutian islands.
From the west coast most convoys will travel to our main pacific hub in Pearl where they will mostly unload and head back again. Occasionally, as in the case of the convoy leaving SF tonight with aircraft, it will only stop in port long enough to refuel before heading off to Australia. It's a very long journey and one I do not like doing as the chances of something nasty happening, like ships plowing into each other, or subs attacking, tends to increase.
From Pearl, smaller convoys will head to places like Christmas Island, Johnstone, Baker and Wake (while I still hold them.) The big convoys will head off to Oz and New Zealand. It will take me another few weeks to get these ones up and running as I need ships with long legs and good speed and I simply don't have them just now. Many are on route from Oz but it will be at least a fortnight until they arrive.
From Oz I will supply Suva, the Solomons, New Guinea and so forth. From Suva and New Zealand I will endeavor to keep other islands in the region well fed. I won't name them all just now I cannot remember them all. Some players prefer to use some smaller islands as dumps so task forces can load up easily. I will be doing that too but would much rather concentrate on feeding the bigger bases for the time being.
On the other side, in the Indian ocean. Convoys will ply the lanes from Capetown to Perth and Colombo and Abadan and Aden to India proper, and Ceylon if it needs. it. Every so often a strange type of automatic convoy will arrive in these ports and break down into various gear that feeds my device inventory. This is stuff that allows my units to upgrade. I Just have to haul it onto the map.
Haulage
xAKL - the little tramp steamers, will mostly be used for short range convoys to close in bases such as those around the Australian coast. For big convoys I need the large XAK types. These are my work horses. For fuel I will be using tankers (TK,) and, ealry on, fleet oilers (AO.) the AOs are too useful and rare to be used permanently for convoy duty as they are mostly meant for refueling task forces at sea.
As I never get enough of either TK or AO, convoys containing these ships will be protected as much as possible. For Juha, his economy runs on oil he has thieved from the DEI and other locations So I will be wanting to sink as many of his tankers as I possibly can in a bid to close down his refineries.
23rd Dec 41
Borneo
Landings at Kuching. The Vildebeasts along the coast fail to take off. Hopefully they'll get going next turn.
Singers
The convoy carrying the Australian units is attacked by Betties about 100 miles out to sea. A flight of Buffaloes on CAP catches them and shoot down 4 for no losses! The convoy is untouched. I take back all my negative thoughts about the Buffaloes.
CenPac
A cat hits a sub loitering near Pearl. Hopefully an ASW tf can finish her off.
PI
Landings at Jolo. I've dispatched Force Z to see what they can do. I had meant to send her last run when I first spotted the fleet but I, err, um, forgot. it'll take two days for her to arrive so, knowing Force Z's rotten sense of timing, she'll find nothing more than Japanese soldiers standing on the beach laughing at them again.
I have a strange feeling Force Z might see some action this time and that it might not be for the best....
Indian Ocean/Capetown
The convoy carrying the British 18th Infantry division is on the map and should make Bombay in about 4 days. Once they arrive they are on their merry way to Calcutta.
West Coast
Sub attack on an ASW TF in the Pacific northwest. Neither side achieves much more than scare a few fish and a Cadborosaurus.
Torplexed
04-08-11, 08:43 PM
When I played the game, it was often with a pad of paper nearby. You'd form up a convoy in San Francisco or Aden and two weeks of game turns later you couldn't remember why you had dispatched it and what it was carrying, or sometimes where it was. If nothing crosses their path they just plod silently on over the vast Pacific. I had to jot down notes to refer to when the convoys finally reached their destination, as to what I wanted done with the contents when it got there. Air groups for instance. In many cases I had earmarked them for flying west the rest of the way to Australia on their own once reaching New Caledonia.
Early in the game it's fairly easy because you only ever have a few convoys to worry about, but you're right: later on it can be a real hassle.
One of the nice things is the ability to rename task forces so my convoys carry simple names that helps me work out where things are going and what is on board. SF-P:S, denotes a San Fransisco to Pearl convoy carrying supply, P-S:T would be Pearl to Sydney carrying troops and so on. Of course, it doesn't help you remember what you want to do with the cargo but it is a start.
24th Dec 41
Singers
A good day all in all. A bomber raid came over early in the day and did it's job but was ambushed by Buffaloes on their way home, losing 9 Sallies to none. Later on, Two separate Oscar sweeps led to more victories, 4 more losses for none. 13 shot down today without reply. Excellent tally and a nice early Christmas present.
PI
B-17s spot and bomb IJN crusiers Suzuya and Mogami north of Palawan but do no damage. I'm not sure where this task force is heading. It might have been at Jolo yesterday or it might be on it's way there. If it is it might get interesting as Force Z should arrive some time tomorrow.
CenPac
ASW TFs attack a sub north of Pearl but don't seem to cause any damage. The big troop convoy from SF should arrive during the night. It will refuel and then head onto Christmas island. Another smaller convoy carrying Engineers, Arty and a naval support detachment is loading right now and will probably leave on Boxing day, also for Christmas Island.
The travails of the seaplane tender at Baker continue. Apparently, a base needs some supplies present before they work so I'm trying to unload some of what the AV is carrying onto the beach so we'll see whether there is any improvement. In the meantime the seaplanes has been transferred to Canton Island where the aircraft can receive some maintenance and the flight crews can eat some canned turkey tomorrow.
Hong Kong.
Still deadlocked in the wonderfully nicknamed Honkers Fiddy. A Japanese shock attacked was repelled with losses. I lost less than Juha but he can replace them - I can't. They Japanese knock down the fortifications during the day and my troops build them again at night. I don't think HK will hold out for too much longer, though.
Oz
The Cavite base foce which arrived in Perth two days ago is now riding a train across the whole of southern Australia. They will head, at first, to Townsville and from there they will make their way to Normanton and start the laborious process of turning it into a proper base.
Other News
HMS Warspite has completed her repairs in Seattle. I will keep her here for the time being as I have no escorts for her just now. Her destination will be SWPac when she does eventually set sail.
The Convoy carrying the Aussie brigades is well out at sea now. I've been thinking about it all day and I keep having this strange thought: Juha hasn't gone for Rabaul yet. What if he arrived and found nearly a division of Australian troops plus an Indian brigade and artillery awaiting him behind several forts. I could easily keep it supplied for the time being, and consolidating New Britain would cut of hopeful invasion routes to Moresby and other points - perhaps even force him to rethink operations in the Solomons. I have about a week before I have to decide one way or the other......
I forgot to say, Kuching on Borneo fell on the second day. The Vildebeasts based along the coast in Singkawen had once again failed to fly which was odd as the weather was only overcast. They have been withdrawn to Batavia for the time being.
Outside this, the operations against Borneo seems to be following the same slow and methodical pattern Juha has used for the Philippines and other targets. There has been little movement against Burma, nothing in the DEI so far and outlying CenPac islands also remain untouched. Is he husbanding his forces carefully or is he just trying to get to grips with the enormous amount of troop movements the Japanese have to do at the start of the war?
Also, Juha has strategically bombed both Singapore and Hong Kong on two different days. This is fine as it does not contravene our Strategic bombing house rules but is a strange one because he is targeting manpower, starting fires and harming industrial capacity in cities he is going to take sooner or later. once he does take them he is going to have to spend industrial points to make essential repairs. Strategic bombing within the game means to give bombers the 'city bombing' option. Choosing that opens a sub menu where you can choose what sort of industry you want to target and in which city. I'm wondering whether he is confusing the 'Manpower' bombing option,(in effect, bombing civilians I think,) for military manpower. EG: the combat units themselves.
Of course, it's probable that he isn't making any mistake here and it is deliberate. I know in my last game I bombed oil production across a number of cities I later retook, so I'm not ruling anything out.
Personally, I would be ground bombing the Hong Kong and Singapore garrisons every day in order to disrupt them as much as possible. At Hong Kong in particular he would seem to need more infantry to achieve critical mass. His attacks are piecemeal and although he is slowly grinding down my forces here, a stronger attacking force would be able to roll right over them.
Another consideration here is that as Hong Kong is an urban hex, it contains a nice x4 modifier to the defence - IIRC - which gives me a little bit of breathing space. It won't last too much longer, though. I imagine the city will be his by new year.
25th Dec 41
Christmas day brings little in the way of Festive spirit. In the Soviet union, the German army is deep into that horrifying first winter and in the Pacific it's business as usual. The lads in Singers and Hong Kong get no Christmas truce or football in no-man's land.
Hong Kong
Another attack by the Japanese is repelled once again. We're doing better than in the real life, I suppose. His casualties are about double mine. I'm down to about 5000 bodies in HK and Juha has about 4 times that. I think we'll hold out a while longer but not too much.
PI
IJA attack Allied forces at San Fernando but they fail to dislodge the unit defending. B-17s are again switched to ground attack in a bid to disrupt the enemy as they move south.
DEI
An interesting situation is developing. Two task forces are moving towards Manado on the edge of the Celebes Sea. Force Z is currently clearing the straits of Makassar to the west and has been ordered to try and intercept any possible landing.
Aside from Force Z, I have several submarines in the area. During the night, S-38 attacked a cargo ship a little to the north but missed with both torpedoes. Several of these boats have been retasked to bring them into a picket like across the middle of the Celebes sea. Hopefully we'll hit a couple of transports any second wave, or from the first wave as they head north again.
The cruiser task force I mentioned in the last bulletin is heading south-east through the Sulu Sea. Unless Juha's going to try a little raiding, she has to be moving into a position to protect the landings. I don't know why she is moving so far behind, though. My hope is that Force Z can thump the landing fleet and then scarper before the SCTF makes it through.
PNG
Sorong in what is technically Dutch New Guinea has a task force appear beside it. I expect landings will begin tomorrow.
West Coast.
Several units are prepping for various locations in SWPac. Currently there are about 4 full divisions and several smaller formations that can be shipped out the moment the PP cost is payed. In Seattle, a mountain regiment is prepping for the Aleutians. As I've said before, I've never really bothered with NoPac. Due to the way the weather works, I won't be able to do much up here until winter ends in March. The good thing is neither will he.
Capetown
Several AA units and a squadron of Hurricanes are being loaded onto transports. They will head to Bombay and then onto the front. I also have a couple of units in Aden to move once I can scrounge up a few transports.
India
Build up is slow but ongoing. The units that got out of Singapore should make landfall in another 3-4 days. Supply probably won't be much of a problem except at the front, especially when the monsoon season starts.
26th Dec 41
Juha sent the combat replay to me. Interesting turn.
Celebes sea
Force Z gets to flex it's muscles.
Night Time Surface Combat, near Donggala at 70,96, Range 9,000 Yards
Japanese Ships
TB Otori
TB Kasasagi, Shell hits 1
TB Hiyodori, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
TB Hayabusa, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
TB Kari, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
Allied Ships
BB Prince of Wales, Shell hits 1
BC Repulse, Shell hits 8, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CA Houston
CL Danae
CL Mauritius
CL Marblehead
CL Boise
DD Alden
DD Barker
DD Bulmer, Shell hits 1
DD Edsall
DD John D. Edwards
DD Paul Jones
DD Parrott
DD Whipple
Maximum visibility in Partly Cloudy Conditions and 53% moonlight: 11 000yards
In two following engagements Force Z sinks the last two Torpedo boats. I'm pleased but wish it had been something more than Tbs which are pretty much small corvettes, I think. Certainly smaller than destroyers so maybe destroyer escorts is a better fit.
I don't know how badly Repulse is damaged. She took three more shells after this battle so I may have to send her to Sydney a little earlier than I hoped. If she sinks I'll put this down as a tactical defeat as they weren't worth the cost.
Juha has used his screening forces well so far. They've stopped PT attacks from reaching invasion fleets on a couple of occasions, and a couple of sub attacks too. If they hadn't been there, Force Z might have been able to close and attack something more valuable - like troop ships. Still, a victory is a victory. I won't be able to see how bad or good things are until I get the turn back. Once I check how Force Z is for ammo I'll decide what I'm going to do. He knows I'm there though, and I wouldn't be surprised if he vectors that cruiser force onto my escape routes.
Borneo
Landings at Tarakan are partially disrupted by dutch aircraft sinking one xAK and damaging two more. The port is mined so I hope to get lucky.
PI
San Fernando falls.
HK
Another attack fails to achieve much other than to grind down my forces.
CenPac
Forts at Wake are up to 3. It's going to be pretty bad for him if he lands now. He's going to have to bring a lot of supply. I may move a Marine defence unit in.
An interesting snippet of information from an air patrol:
PBY-5 Catalina sighting report: 7 Japanese ships at 150,136 near Baker Island, speed 16, Moving Southwest
Might be nothing. Then again.....
Sub Wars
I-123 sinks a fleeing tanker in the straits of Makassar. I don't like losing tankers...
Well, it looks like I came out ahead. we'll see what state Repulse is in when I get the turn back.
When I left you last, Repulse had eaten a torpedo, and Force Z had beat up on a poor TB screen. I thought Juha might vector a SCTF onto my ships as they cleared the area. Well, I was half right; a powerful looking task forcs was bearing down on me when I got the turn back but I was relieved to see that Repulse, although damaged, wasn't crippled. System Damage at 22, Flotation damage at 38 and engine damage at 12. Bad but not life threatening. She had detached from the rest of the task force and had received orders to get back to Oz for repairs. Force Z would bring up the rear and it looked like there was going to be an almighty paga in the Straits of Makassar.
I moved a squadron of Vildebeast to Balikpapen just in case they felt like flying..(they didn't but that's another story,) and a few subs were told took keep an eye out too. And with that I sent the turn and went to bed. Awakening in the middle of the night - true unfortunately, and an indication of how the game gets under your skin - with the name Repulse on my lips and fearing Force Z were sailing into a trap. I also dreamt of giant spiders hiding in a car but I'm not sure that was connected. They were big spiders, though.
When the turn arrived this morning I opened up the email and was greeted with the words 'RIP Repulse.' I haven't even had my coffee yet. As it turned out, I think Juha let fog of war get the better of him as Lovely Old Repulse was steaming on just nice......
27th Dec 41
DEI
The big cruiser force I thought was bearing down on me contained a CV apparently. I think this might have been a float plane carrier as nothing nasty flew against Force Z. Even better, the SCTF pulled away to the east leaving Force Z to escape along the straits of Makassar without a single shot being fired.
Repulse, slightly further to the south, was attacked by a sub - the same one who sunk the tanker two days ago. Luckily she missed both shots and the big battle cruiser got away. If I was Juha I would be sending orders out to my subs and getting them onto her possible lines of escape.
Looks like this misadventure may be over for now. I got off far lighter than I could have. If Juha had pressed harder with the SCTF he would have found Force Z low on ammo and probably done me a lot of damage.
Borneo
Aircraft from Balipapen flew against the landings at Tarakan. The Vildebeasts did not fly, which is annoying. I know they have no access to torpedoes here, but they are capable of carrying bombs so I don't know what the problem is.
The coastal defence guns at Tarakan made up for it by sinking one, maybe two more ships. The base probably won't last more than a couple of days but if I can tear up his fleet a bit more I'll be happy.
I-157 of Soerabaja takes several hits from an ASW TF. She's probably not too badly damaged but will hopefully slink off somewhere else for the time being.
India
18 division arrives at Bombay. I've started moving troops up towards the front line in earnest now but what I really need are engineers to build up airstrips and forts.
Phew. Thank goodness HMS Repair is alright. :rock:
Torplexed
04-10-11, 11:53 AM
Phew. Thank goodness HMS Repair is alright. :rock:
Yeah, if I'm keeping track properly, I'd have to say that Egan has been pretty blessed on his battleship luck so far. :03:
Yeah, if I'm keeping track properly, I'd have to say that Egan has been pretty blessed on his battleship luck so far. :03:
Yeah, no doubt about that. No BB lost at Pearl was a great start. Prince of Wales is in good shape, Repulse should be OK but will be in the yards for at least a month-6 weeks, and Warspite is at Seattle awaiting the USN BB there to finish her upgrade, (can't remember the name of her right now.)
So, once all are repaired that gives me 12 battleships available for operations.
The BB at Pearl are mostly still at pier side getting damage down before heading back to the big yards on the west coast. One or two of them are in the yard at Pearl but it's not a big place and there are several other ships there needing repairs. Smaller ships like Subs or destroyers are going to have to be dealt with by repair ships for the time being but there is a limit to what sort of repairs they can do. Only yards can repair major damage.
A break down of my capital ships just now shows me 3 BB (including Repulse,) 14 heavy cruiser, 27 light cruisers, 3 carriers and a RN light carrier. There will be plenty more on the way. By the end of May I will have a total of 6 USN carriers, 3 RN carriers, a RN CVL and CVE Long Island plus several more cruisers and battleships. From May until the end of 42 I will receive another 4-5 USN CVE as well but that's it until May 43 when Essex arrives. Yorktown arrives in two days.
More importantly for me just now are the arrival of Marine Dive bomber and torpedo squadrons. They remain something of a rarity for many months yet so I'm going to have to get as many 2 engine attack bombers into SWPac as I can. I have another convoy loading with aircraft at SF just now; it's mostly carrying bomber with some fighters as well.
Christmas Island will receive it's first major delivery of troops within the next 48 hours. After this I think she'll be safe from any attack. Suva in SWPac remains my biggest worry just now as there are only a couple of Kiwi battalions there at the moment to provide defence.
Rabaul continues to look enticing to me. There has been a lone sub haunting the waters near Buna in PNG for three days now so I'm assuming it's there to keep an eye on shipping in the region. I've been thinking that when he does move on New Britain he'll take his flat tops with him to start a Solomons campaign in earnest.
As for me, the beginning of the game is always a difficult time for the Allied player. I'm trying to come up with a couple of raids just so I can feel good about things. Somewhere in the Gilberts or the Marshals I think; Bomb an airfield, attack some shipping (if there is any,) and get back out again.
Saratoga and Yorktown will be moved forward as soon I can scrounge up some escorts from somewhere. A huge proportion of my plentiful cruiser force are scattered here and there in convoys and task forces. I've already started pulling them together so in a week or two some of them will head to the west coast and pick up the flat tops.
Actually, I'll need to think about moving some of them down to SWPac sooner rather than later. When he finally makes his move I want some dive bombers there to annoy him.
China
I hate China. In the game that is. It's a huge mountain of pure suck where good players go to die.
On turn one I gave orders to virtually every unit to run as fast as they could to good, defensive terrain. Most of them managed this, a few are still getting there and a few more are virtually trapped behind Japanese lines.
http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/9840/chinafront.jpg (http://img576.imageshack.us/i/chinafront.jpg/)
The red line is what I am going to pretend is my Main Line of Resistance. Unlike the Main Line of resistance in India, the one in China will be manned by the rotten low grade Chinese forces and a concerted push by the Japanese will break it apart. The Chinese units are plentiful but poorly equipped with low moral and experience and fairly awful commanders. Placing them in hilly or forested terrain, such as sort that the proposed MLR runs through, should mitigate some of these disadvantages.
The four circles on the MLR are where the bulk of my troops have been told to get too. Sian and Chungsha are both well defended with good levels of forts. Both have getting towards 3000AV of troops in them. The other two locations are much less than that but, given a little time, won't be far off. other bases on the MLR will be built up once I've sorted out exactly who I want to go where.
Chungking in the rear is my big Chinese base. It it important above everything else for a single reason. When a Chinese unit is destroyed by the Japanese, the destroyed unit will reappear here 30 days later. It needs supplies and equipment and men to be built back up but it represents the nearly inexhaustible supply of man power available to the Chinese. Units that are destroyed by attrition do not get replaced. If ever I've heard a good incentive to suicidal attacks against superior numbers it's that.
A word on the term 'AV'. This doesn't represent an seaplane tender, just to confuse the issue, but means 'Assault Value' EG, the effective combat strength of a unit. Now I'm not sure exactly what figures are used to arrive at the AV of a unit but I do know that 3000 Chinese AV is not the same as 3000 Japanese AV. In real terms it's worth less. The Chinese forces, as I said, suffer from several problems that the Japanese and other do not. In my experience they do much better on the defensive than attack.
Thoughts
I don't know how seriously Juha is planning to take China. Might well be he has enough on his plate this time around and will make only a few moves. There are resources available, and fuel, which I don't want to lose so if he moves against them I'll react. Unless that happens I'm happy to sit behind my defenses and wait. Any units trapped behind the lines will essentially become partisans and will try to disrupt his supply lines until they are destroyed.
Later on, much later on, I will launch a couple of major operations. It would be nice, eventually, to have a couple of bases within B-29 range of the Home Islands. This is far away from now, though, so I'll sit and wait...
before heading back to the big yards on the west coast.
Yards? Plural? I thought Bremerton was the only big yard for BBs on the West Coast? :hmmm:
Big yard, for me, means anything over size 50 or so. Bremerton is the biggest on-map yard. It's rated at 200 which means it can handle 200,000 tonnes of shipping. SF is 140, Mare Island and LA are both 90 and Portland is 70. There several others on the west coast between 50 and 3.
Of the non west coast but on-map ship yards the three biggest are Pearl (100), Colombo (40), and Sydney (30). Major damage repair can only be carried out at bases of thirty or above.
The biggest base of all is the Eastern USA, which is rated at 300. The UK is 100 with Capetown close behind on 80.
I would prefer to keep all the battleships at Pearl for repair but the 8 of them would far exceed the 100,000 tonnes limit and slow down work considerably so I have no choice than to move them on once flotation damage is under control. Bremerton, SF and Mare Island will receive most of them, I expect. The most badly damaged will remain at Pearl for a long time yet but I would rather have her clear for the future.
To be honest I hadn't realized Pearl had as large a Yard as she does. I thought it was about 50 or so. Still, all that space is getting used up quick.
By the way, Repulse will go into the yard at Sydney, I think. Should be enough to handle her. Mind you, I think the smaller a base is the longer it takes, and I believe naval support squads are also a factor. But then, I have to factor in transit time to Pearl or Capetown and the extra risk involved plus expenditure of escorts, extra rum rations.....No, Sydney it is. :D
Ah, so that's how they work it. Good idea. Allows the expansion of existing bases to accommodate more ships at a standard rate of repair and refit. :yep:
28th Dec 41
Singers
Several sweeps come over ending with three lost apiece. My bombers fly pointless attacks against IJA troops in the north.
Looking at the troops still in Malaya shows me a few units I would like to save but, if I'm being realistic, are probably going to have to stay behind. Most of the good quality infantry is gone now, a sole Indian brigade to the north of the city represents the last drop. There are a couple of battalions of British regulars left in Singers but they aren't strong. If I lose them I will rebuild them, I think. But until then they fight and die here.
Burma
My bombers attacks Japanese columns to the east without any success. Juha hasn't launched a raid on Rangoon since before Christmas. Knocking out my forts and disrupting troops before his guys arrive is surely better than trying to launch an attack across a river and into an entrenched defence so I wonder what his plan is.
PI
Landings here, landing there. Mostly at undefended bases which fall straight away. Quiet aside from this.
Celebes Sea
Somewhat strangely, there have been no landings Manado. Maybe he's pulled back fearing Force Z are still in the area (they'll be docking at Soerabaja tonight). His big TF containing battleships has taken up a position about 150 miles north but are not making any movement south for the time being.
China
A deliberate attack at Chansha makes me sit up and take notice. It was about 900AV against a Chinese defence of 2300AV and he lost 1800 men to my 250. Forts here are at 3 but still building. Chinese bomber will attempt to disrupt his forces in the area tomorrow. I could do with some more troops here because China's only strength is in numbers but am loath to weaken any other strongpoints along the MLR. I may well pull troops forward from rear areas and I may also bring down a few fighter squadrons from the north where they are doing nothing but training.
CenPac
A TF was spotted south of Eniwetok but that is all the information I have on it. Could be the KB or it could simply be a supply run to his outlying islands. For the time being I'll say it was the second.
29th Dec 41
Hong Kong.
The end came at dawn.
In the drizzly and grey half light the men of the Rifles of Canada battalion, their brother Canadians in the Winnipeg Grenadiers and the brave soldiers of the Kowloon brigade manned the barricades, bunkers and casements for the last time. It had been a quiet night; stories and songs had been swapped along with a few last mouthfuls of whiskey as they awaited the attack they knew would come before the sun had dragged itself into the sky.
When they did finally come, they came in a strength they had failed to muster before. A huge barrage, fired from 9 different artillery battalions shook the commonwealth forces like the spiteful wrath of a childish god denied it's due. As the barrage lifted, Japanese infantry poured forward, knocking out the commonwealth OPs and gun positions with a rage amplified by the sureness of their victory.
James McVicar, a private not even 21 years old, watched Japanese bombers passing overhead to add their evil to the fires burning in the heart of the city. Around him his comrades readied themselves to fight until the end came but a hoary old sergeant appeared beside him and pointed down the road behind, and said 'That way, son. It's over now. We're to fight in the streets, I reckon. Orders came in before the lines were cut.'
Those last firefights crackled for a few hours yet, until ammunition grew as scarce as able men. By the time the Commander of the Commonwealth forces gave the final order for his men to lay down their arms, Orphan Annie had been filling the airwaves with her poisonous bile for some time.
Hong Kong has fallen. God Save the King.
Borneo
Brunei fell, it's refineries along with the city.
Sub Wars
Spearfish, Snapper and O-19 all attack Japanese ships without a single hit.
I've started the task of replacing skippers for men with higher aggression ratings. Hopefully we'll start getting some kills soon.
30th Dec 41
Sub Wars
Dutch boat KXV battle surfaces and engages an xAKL with her guns off the coast of north west Borneo. The steamer gets beat up pretty bad but whether she'll sink or not I don't know.
Celebes Sea
Japanese landings at Manado and Ternate. Now that the north coast of Borneo has fallen and he doesn't really need any combat shipping for the Philippines I expect him to move in force. Time to set the last ships in the DEI to scarper mode, I think.
Singers
The Hudsons actually inflict some casualties on the Japanese. I've been having real problems getting aircraft to actually do what they're paid to do but I don't know what I'm doing wrong this time out. A couple of sweeps end with me slightly ahead in kills.
Elsewhere
Reports of a Japanese task force north of Midway. I've only seen the combat replay so far so this could - and probably is -nonsense. Won't no for certain until I get the turn though.
I've got a tanker convoy getting ready to sail for either Sydney or Aukland. Sydney would be better but Australian industry sucks down a lot of fuel to keep it going so I'm unsure whether I want it to go there just now. Plenty of time to decide one way or the other.
So here's the deal. I hurt my knee pretty badly at the gym on Sunday and when I went to the doctor today she put my on a course of a painkiller called Tramadol along side anti-inflammatory drugs, and told me to rest it. If any of you have taken Tramadol before you know they tend to...well, zonk you right out would be the term.
So if anyone think my in game moves are getting a bit crazy or weird, it's the Tramadol playing rather than me. Should make for an interesting few turns!
But it's the Axis who were mostly on drugs, not the Allies!
But it's the Axis who were mostly on drugs, not the Allies!
:har:
My knee really, really hurts. Please don't make me laugh because If I Roll On The Floor Laughing I won't be able to get back up again. :rotfl2: I have what is called Bursitis which is what you get for overusing the leg press machine when you haven't really used it for a couple of months. It's Latin for 'Idiot showing off to himself'.
I'll be fine in a few days I hope. It won't last though; since last October I've twisted my ankle during the snow at Christmas time and hurt my other knee by tripping over a blanket whilst clearing some junk out of our bedroom. My knees and ankles are pretty much knackered as a result of a youth spent skateboarding so I'm basically reaping what I sowed.
During my last course of Tramadol about 4 years ago I spent an entire afternoon just staring at the same web page because I was too wurzled to move the mouse. This may lengthen my turns somewhat.
Biggles
04-12-11, 10:52 AM
During my last course of Tramadol about 4 years ago I spent an entire afternoon just staring at the same web page because I was too wurzled to move the mouse. This may lengthen my turns somewhat.
This sure made me laugh, sorry :haha:
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/k02000/k02924.jpg
"Dude...that plane...is like a little dot...but through these it's so big..."
"Sir...isn't that a Zero?"
"So far...and yet so close I could touch it...and it's like hovering there..."
"Sir...should we go to action stations?"
"Wait...waaaait...wait...it's like...so far away, but is it close?"
31st Dec 41
PI
Japanese troops bombard Clark Field. This is more likely an attempt to determine my AV strength than any precursor to an attack. I have 521 AV here behind 3.16 forts against 344 AV. He's going to need more troops and probably some engineers.
To the south, on Mindanao he attacks Cagayan. My 125 AV against 43 so I'm confident the base will hold a little longer. I don't think he has too many troops on the island and those he does have are the other side of the central mountains so it will take them a while to arrive.
A Battalion of Philippines infantry retake Cotobato which he had left vacant after landing here. That'll learn him!
Borneo
Quiet for the first time in a week. Juha continues his attempts to take Tarakan but the small force here are no pushovers. The coastal defence artillery put shells into another steamer. Several escort ships fire back but the port is still mine.
Aircraft out of Miri fly across central Borneo and bomb the airfield at Balikpapen. The currently useless Vildebeast squadron have two aircraft destroyed on the ground. They transfer back to Soerabaja later that day.
Celebes Sea
Manado is still holding out but Ternate falls. There was nothing but a small base force here anyway.
Malaya
Kuala Lumpar falls. I only had a single battalion here so the city's demise is hardly a surprise. The battalion will move down to the next base and set up defenses there. The more bases he takes, the faster he can move his troops south by using the railroads. Troops on trains are far more vulnerable to air attack that at any other time so I'll be concentrating by bombing on units I see moving along those thick black lines.
Burma
A small supply convoy is unloading at Rangoon. If I have time - and I think I do - I'll get a larger one prepared. I have to be careful with my choice of ships as the larger steamers cannot navigate the river into the city. I'm planning to use xAKL for this operation anyway as I'm not overly bothered about the prospect of losing them.
A flight of KI-30 Anns is ambushed by fighters south of Rangoon. My boys shoot down 8 and damage another for no losses. A good days work.
CenPac
I-126 is still haunting the waters north of Pearl. She's stuck herself right on the convoy route to the west coast. So far she has shown herself to be as useless as my boats but it's only a matter of time until she gets lucky. Several ASW task forces are taking it in turns to steam around in little circles without doing anything useful.
The codebreaker boys at Pearl actually got their hands on some useful information today:
Maizuru 2nd SNLF is planning for an attack on Wake Island.
This is the first indication I've had that he is planning an attack here. The island is at three forts and I've bought out an infantry battalion on the west coast for use here. It's not much but I want to add a further base unit to increase the amount of aircraft I can fly from here so space is at a premium.
I assume there are more units than just this one prepping. On it's own it wouldn't stand a chance. Of course, It could also be that this is just a leftover from a scrubbed operation and this unit will be somewhere else. I'll keep an eye out.
Christmas island is building up nicely now. I've paid the PP cost for the 2nd Marine regiment in SF and they, along with a Marine raider battalion and some flak units will be the next ones sent out here.
Coming attractions
HMAS Nizzam arrives at Aden tomorrow with several other Australian destroyers. She was a legend in my last game; over a period of a year or so she single handedly sank 9 Japanese submarines. I'm hoping she can do the same again given the opportunity.
And the last minutes of 1941 tick away. I wonder what the New Year will bring?
"Dude...that plane...is like a little dot...but through these it's so big..."
"Sir...isn't that a Zero?"
"So far...and yet so close I could touch it...and it's like hovering there..."
"Sir...should we go to action stations?"
"Wait...waaaait...wait...it's like...so far away, but is it close?"
:D
I've refrained from sending the Enterprise to get me some munchies. You know, some of those little pacific atolls would make a fine place for watching the sunset. Just imagine all those beautiful colours, maan.....
WOOFWOOFWOOF...That's my other dog impression. :|\\
I think I'll have to watch Kelly's Heroes tonight and take notes.
Happy New Year! :woot:
1st Jan 1942
CenPac.
A task force containing several cruisers appears out of nowhere and sinks the supply ship and her escort at Wake. Just after dawn a raid of Nells from a base on one of the atolls to the south bombs the airfield.
Here's the thing: the first thing i look at after watching the combat replay and loading up the turn is Wake - no sign of any IJN ships in the area at all...:hmmm:
Could simply be a raid but I don't think so. The attempt to bomb the airstrip points to a probable assault and he's trying to neutralize the Marine wildcats stationed here. Patrol Aircraft at Midway, Pearl, Canton and Johnston are alerted and vectored to the area his ships will have to pass through if they are planning to get up to more mischief. Lexington and Enterprise are ordered to head towards Johnston where they will hold until I know better what's going on.
I've several convoys in the area (two outbound to Sydney and one inbound from same,) and raiders are not welcome. The two southbound convoys are ordered to move towards Christmas island which will add a day or two onto their journey but hopefully keep them safe. The northbound one should come under the protection on land based air and the carriers by tomorrow.
Borneo
Tarakan falls but not before the guns of the CD unit put big holes in some more of Juha's transports. I doubt any will sink but I bet it's been far more costly than he expected.
DEI
Ladies and gentleman, May I present to you the one and only BABY KB!
She appeared about 120 miles north west of Sorong and is on a southerly course. Every patrol aircraft I have in the vicinity is ordered to shadow her to make sure there's really a light carrier there and not simply a float plane carrier. Naval wise, she is 40 miles north of two subs returning to Brisbane with damage. Several other boats will move in to new positions too. All shipping at Soerabaja is making way for Perth. Force Z will head that way too, for the time being. All three Vildebeasts squadrons are readying themselves. They haven't sortied once against the numerous targets with range of them and I'm pretty annoyed about that. They have a chance to redeem themselves....I expect great things.
PI
Another 200AV of troops arrived at Clark and joined in the attack. The base held OK and every day I hold on and every casualty I inflict here is a bonus.
Sub War
I cannot believe how lousy they've been. The only good thing is Juha's boats have been pretty toothless too. Even my normally reliable Dutch boats have been missing. Hopefully, when the bulk of the boats have new skippers things will improve - but that's costs political points and they're as rare as hens teeth. I need to find enough to replace Kimmel with Nimitz as commander of the Pacific fleet but that will have to wait just now.
Thoughts
He's left it late to send the baby KB out. There's virtually no shipping in the DEI. He could be coming to Darwin. I'll start evacuating ships next turn. Should have done it this turn but my brain is mush. My big worry here is the troop convoy carrying the Australian brigades should arrive tomorrow.....
The Wake raid was unexpected. Is it possible it's a decoy and the Japanese deathstar is prowling around hoping to catch my carriers by surprise? The 140 PP I spent on releasing that infantry battalion now looks a bit of a waste. Shame, I could have used those points.
The 140 PP I spent on releasing that infantry battalion now looks a bit of a waste. Shame, I could have used those points.
http://www.danavenell.com/ODDBALLSAYSsilkscreen.jpg
;)
Torplexed
04-12-11, 07:42 PM
Borneo
Tarakan falls but not before the guns of the CD unit put big holes in some more of Juha's transports. I doubt any will sink but I bet it's been far more costly than he expected.
I'm kinda surprised Juha didn't land at Tandjonengselor and march overland on Tarakan. A bit time consuming, but a lot less costly in ships than landing directly at Tarakan and getting your transports chewed up by coastal defence guns. Historically, the Japanese avoided directly amphibious assaults in favor of landing on some deserted beach or port near their objective and marching overland. The whole Malaysian campaign being a grand example.
http://pyxis.homestead.com/Tarakan.jpg
Well, so far he's avoided the death traps created by the big guns at Manila and Singapore which often catch less experienced Japan players. At Tarakan I reckon he's lost three transports with perhaps another three or four damaged to greater or lesser degrees, which is a great showing from the small garrison I had there. Batavia and Soerabaja both have decent CD battalions, as well as bombers and much stronger garrisons So I'll be interested to see whether he does something similar when he gets to Java. Almost all the troops on Java are concentrated in the two ports.
I had wanted to pick up some of the Dutch units and move them to Merauke but it's unlikely now because, A: I can't afford them, and B: The baby KB is likely to interdict any shipping moving east towards PNG.
I think I have a CD unit on the west coast that can be bought out. It is set to withdraw is about 2-3 months but I'm wondering whether it would be any use at Wake. Of course, If he comes for the atoll now it's all going to be academic.
I might move one of the carriers over there to pick up the wildcat unit and replace it with some PBYs. Eyes over the ocean are more important just now than guns.
Something I remembered about Political Points: I can 'earn' more of them by withdrawing units before their scheduled departure date. It won't help a great deal but I'll probably get enough to change some sub skippers. I think I'm going to change the commanders of the three Vildebeast squadrons too.
http://www.danavenell.com/ODDBALLSAYSsilkscreen.jpg
;)
The Infantry battalion would agree with you, it seems. They think the best place for them is to be held in reserve in case the Japanese threaten Seattle or even New York. :DL
I meant to post this link a few days ago but it slipped my mind:
Race for the decisive weapon: British, American, and Japanese carrier fleets, 1942-1943 (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JIW/is_1_58/ai_n13824762/?tag=content;col1)
It makes some interesting points and comparisons. As is often the case with academic papers the writing could do with a bit of sharpening but that's just me being picky.
2nd Jan 42
CenPac
Juha begins amphibious landings at Wake. Being an atoll, his troops are forced to shock attack as soon as they land, taking 580 casualties. He doesn't touch my forts which remain at 3. CD guns hit a light cruiser, setting it on fire, and a steamer. Good work fellas!
Only part of his SNLF unit is ashore but hopefully Wake will last for a couple more days at least. He might feel the need to rest his troops tomorrow, but having looked at a photo of Wake I'm not sure where - maybe they'll hide behind a seagull or something?
Lex and the Big E are steaming towards the island at flank speed. rescuing the Marine squadron is my priority. Sinking ships would be nice too, though. I've also transferred 3 PBYs to the island because the landing ships keep disapearing and I want to know whether there are any flat tops loitering with intent. I don't think so though. At least, I hope not. otherwise my carriers are going to have a rather unpleasant day or two.
Singers
A strange one. A bunch of Oscars come over and get taken apart. He loses 7 with another 7 damaged. Juha sent me an email about it because he's certain those Oscars were set to Sweep but in the replay they clearly undertook a bombing mission. A bombing mission at 100 feet, in fact. We've looked at several possibilities for why this might have happened but can't come up with anything concrete. I don't think it's a bug, though; it's more likely it is simply the game mechanics kicking up something strange.
Personally, I think he may have had them set to ground attack as a secondary mission and if the sweep got scrubbed due to weather they would possibly fly a bombing mission instead. Juha doesn't think they had a secondary mission, though, and it doesn't explain why they were flying so low.
Still, that's a bunch less Oscars for me to worry about!
PI
Up and down the island attacks take place with little result. The Filipino units are proving well impressive so far. If only I could transfer some out but unfortunately they all have permanently restricted commands.
Burma
Japanese troops are nearing Moulman (SP?) at last. Far to the north on the Indian border, various units are beginning to arrive and get into place.
DEI
The baby KB turns east and passes the tip of PNG. She could be moving into position to cover landings at Rabaul. either that or she'll turn north east and head to Boogillydoo for refueling.
Sub War
It's a big game, you know. Sometimes things get forgotten. Like the two S boats currently bobbing up and down in the sea 200 odd miles east of Brisbane having run out of fuel. :oops: Not too big a problem but embarrassing nevertheless. Hey, at least it wasn't an aircraft carrier, right?
Japanese Forces
Aside from a brief session as the IJN on the Guadalcanal scenario I've never played the Empire, so much of the game from that side of things remains a mystery to me. A few months ago, though, I started a scenario 1 campaign so I could have a peek at what is available at the start. It's pretty daunting..:DL
6 fleet carriers, 2 CVL and 2 CVE provide the IJN air power on 7.12.41. They are aided by 10 BB, 18 CA, 20 CL and quite a few destroyers. They also have about 60 submarines at the start, bolstered further by mini subs of which I don't think I've seen a single one so far.
This is a fairly strong force and, at the moment, it's more powerful than mine. The difference is that I will get much, much stronger. For Juha, I think he will gain about two more CV and several more CVL and CVE by mind 42, but then that's it for a long time.
If Japan has a weakness in her navy it is with escort vessels. At the moment we are probably about equal for destroyers but by 43 I will be receiving dozens of them on a regular basis where as he will increasingly have to rely on other small ships to carry out those duties. In some ways this shouldn't be too much of a problem for him. Should we get that far, the E class patrol ships he gets later on become incredible sub killers.
In my previous campaign I had lost 10 US subs in total up until March 44, then it was like somebody had thrown a switch. every few days I was losing a boat or having one crippled. At it's worst I lost 7 boats on a single day. when the allies start losing subs faster than they can be replaced something is out of whack. I know several people over at Matrix have been looking at this problem but whether any of their research will make it to an official patch I don't know.
Raptor1
04-13-11, 10:40 AM
E class patrol ships? I don't recall such a class, what are those?
Or do you mean the dedicated Escort (E) type ships that show up after (IIRC) 1943?
Yep. Sorry for not being clearer. There are several classes of E which tend to all get lumped in together, hence the 'E class' tag. There's a good thread about the ASW issue here (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2736715).
For me, the issue of late war Japanese ASW is one of major imbalance, and it's something I would like to see rectified in a patch. I am still not 100% exactly what the issue is, or how it would be fixed - there are several suggestions - all I know is that come spring 44, the US sub campaign pretty much ends.
3rd Jan 42
CenPac
Thank the lord for those 3 patrol planes I moved onto Wake yesterday.
About 200 miles northeast sits what appears to be the KB itself. Although it's on a westerly course I'm assuming it's actually on a patrol pattern whilst the landings continue on the atoll. Lexington and Enterprise would have reached the KB's exact position tomorrow. They're heading back to wait at Johnston instead of running into almost certain death. Wake isn't worth losing two carriers over.
He doesn't attack today. I'm hoping his supplies are lower than he would like, and I'm hoping the KB slinks away long enough to allow me to et in there and pick up the wildcats.
Two of the ships Wake's CD guns fired on yesterday, including the light cruiser, are listed as sunk. Fog of war might be playing it's part but i'm reasonably certain they both went down.
South China Sea
A squadron of British torpedo boats which escaped from Hong Kong made it to safety along the coast. They were ordered to take a run into Hanoi to see if they could cause any bother. They did: one xAK confirmed sunk and another as good as dead. One of the torpedo boats was sunk. They're heading back tonight as intelligence suggests there are a couple of tankers there.
PI
Lucena to the south of Manila falls but elsewhere the Allies hold out just fine. I bought out and transferred the last B-17 squadron in the Philippines. It's on it's way to Townsville. I would like to move some of the fighters but I don't have enough PP just now and I'm not certain they could reach any safe bases anyway. I'll have another look tomorrow.
Burma and Malaya
An infantry battalion has moved into vacant Moulmein. This should slow the Japanese advance by, oh, 15 minutes or so. at least it'll stop me losing victory points due to me not meeting the garrison requirements.
Georgetown the last Allied base north of Kuala Lumpar is attacked but they hold out. I don't have many troops here after the attempted evacuation of the garrison a couple of weeks ago.
Three Swordfish sortie against ships east of Singapore but a token CAP by Zeros shoot down two of them.
DEI
Force Z heads back to Soerabaja. I may move some more ships back up again and try and get some fuel out from Java.
Thoughts
Surprised but not really by the appearance of the KB. I almost stumbled into a nasty ambush there. He had it right on the main route down from Pearl so he was expecting me to contest the landings with either combat ships or carriers. It wold have worked to if it wasn't for those pesky Catalinas. Yay me!
Very close, very close indeed. Thank god for Catafarks...I mean Catalinas.
He's being very reserved with the KBs, then again the Pacific is a big place and I guess the only way he can be assured of running his KB into a CVBG of yours (I don't know what the pre-Cold war term is :haha:) is to put it on likely transit routes and hope he gets lucky. Of course in about a year or two the tables will turn and you'll be hunting him, but right now he dictates the battlefield. :hmmm:
Yup. Close call. Halsey wouldn't have been happy. Neither would I, for that matter; I'm an Enterprise fanboi.
The air groups on both carriers have mostly upgraded but Lex
is still carrying those Brewsters. Not enough Wildcats to go around. Even so, they wouldn't have been a match.
4.1.41
CenPac
The KB hammers Wake but does little damage. Still no ground attack. I assume he's waiting for disruption to reduce. Only the one unit here. I don't know if it will be enough.
Malaya.
Georgetown falls. The Japanese now control everything up to the Burmese border and down to about Mesring. Once all combat units pull back into Singers I should have about 500 -600 AV there, hopefully behind 4 forts. Should hold him for a while. I've been pulling supplies out of the rest of the country and have about 70,000 tonnes so far.
Borneo
Landings at Singkawang but the base holds. Those Dutch troops are pretty darned thrawn. I've been impressed with them so far. Bombers from Singers have been tasked with annoying his shipping.
PI
IJA attack Cagayen on Minandao. It's well defended, though, and well fortified so he loses 700 troops.
West Coast
Warspite and Colorado left Seattle yesterday and will head to SF where they will join up with the carriers and a cargo convoy before heading out towards Pearl. I've got some units that need moved too, including a beefy looking CD regiment. They will go to Christmas island.
Sub Wars
Busy one today.
Dolphin engages an xAKL on the surface near Wotje in the Marshals. She expends all her ammo, though, so the ship probably doesn't sink. She's burning nicely though.
Salmon attacks a pair of PB off Mussau island on the edge of the Bismarck sea. These two ships have been here a few times recently but merely seem to be keeping an eye on the area.
Sealion attacks an xAK on the surface SE of Truk. She fires six torpedoes without a single detonation, but pumps a lot of rounds into her with the deck gun. She takes a couple of shells in return but should be ok.
I-26 gets depth charged north of Pearl and actually takes some hits!
It's heartening to see my subs finally showing a bit of spirit but I would prefer to get a couple of torpedoes working. I don't think I've ever had such bad torpedo luck as this, even taking the dud rate into account. The process of swapping skippers continues.
Thoughts
I hope the KB will stay near Wake for a couple more days. knowing where she is is invaluable information. It might sound funny but it's not 'harming' anyone where it is. Patrol aircraft have also spotted a CVE at pier side at Badlebeebloop so I'm assuming the rest of the Baby KB are in that area too. I might well use the freedom to run some raids with Force Z around the DEI or get some Hq units out of Singers.
It's been a good day. I know where the bad guys are that's a great thing.
Falkirion
04-13-11, 07:07 PM
I am really enjoying reading this. Never knew there was a grand strategy game like this.
I am really enjoying reading this. Never knew there was a grand strategy game like this.
It's the Grandest Strategiest game I've ever played. :DL
Just wait until the shooting starts!
Aircraft and losses
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/6674/losses5jan.png (http://img707.imageshack.us/i/losses5jan.png/)
No surprise to see the Buffalo 1 at the top of the list although it's worth pointing out that nearly a third of the 67 come from operational losses. I've had them flying at extended range from Singapore in a bid to escort my bombers as they take on Japanese ground units. This naturally leads to more losses than you would normally want but I don't really have any option just now. The air to air losses reflects the first week/ten days of the war when I had them flying lower than they are now. They are never going to be high altitude interceptors, but performance has improved.
It's good to see the Zeros taking losses in straight air to air combat, as it is to see the various marks of Oscars, Kates and Sallys getting hit too, but I'm slightly concerned by the fact that the Bettys are relatively low down the list. This reflects the fact that I have not actually seen a great deal of them yet and I'm concerned Juha may be keeping them on a tight leash, perhaps to use them in the Coral/Solomon sea area where they are proven ship killers.
The Bettys have such extraordinary range that a squadron based at Rabaul can cause an Allied player grief as far out as Guadalcanal and mainland Australia. One of my fears is that he take Canton Island in CenPac and bases some of these horrors there. It would force me to extend my convoy routes considerably to stay out of their range and perhaps add a week onto transit times. Once I get some escort carriers I will think about adding them to high risk convoys, but that is still at least 6 months away.
Air Strategy
The bulk of my US fighters are going to SWPac and SoPac until later in the war. Australia just now has a solitary P-40 squadron who are making their way towards Darwin. Hopefully, some of the Fighter squadrons in Singapore can escape and, if they do, they will head to Oz as well.
India and Burma have a grand total of 5 fighter squadrons just now, to be joined by some Hurricanes in three weeks or so once the next convoy from Capetown arrives. The Hurris are darn good aircraft and very effective against enemy bombers, but they have no range at all - A normal operational radius of 4 hexes which is 160 miles means that they will have to be used on a purely defensive basis.
I am not expecting Juha to come after India in any big way so I'm not planning to divert too many fighters here from other theaters. My long term strategy is still island hopping across the pacific and I would like to have as much in the way of long legged fighters as I can by that point. Roll on the Corsairs, P-47s and P-51s.
I must be a glutton for punishment. I've just started a Japanese game against the AI. :DL
No AAR for this one but I will say this: the first couple of days are the closest I've ever seen to a first person shooter in a strategy game! I'm only doing it because I want to work out how the economy side works. Anyway, back to work:
Where We Are So Far: The First Month
We're coming up to the 1 month mark in the game so I thought I would talk about where it seems to be going. where it's been and what the Allied plans are, at least those I know.
Emperor Happy Times has so far proved to be a competent player who, if his attempt to bait my carriers into action yesterday is any indication, has a few tricks up his sleeve.
So far he has played quite conservatively. His troops are moving down through Malaya, are beginning to lay siege to the big PI bases and have all but taken Borneo. If I had been in his shoes I would have done almost the same. I may have tried to move my troops a bit quicker towards Singapore, and I would certainly be advancing on Rangoon a bit more, but aside from that he's doing well.
Borneo should be important for him. The oil production facilities across the islands are invaluable to the Japanese player. I'm sure once he has prepped enough troops he will move on Balikpapen, Makassar, Kendari and Ambon which would pretty much close of the waters of the DEI to my surface ships. From Kendari and Soerabaja he will be within Betty range of Darwin and other north Oz cities - not that any of them are worth much aside from Darwin.
Once this stage is complete, I imagine he has to move on Java and Sumatra because this is where the big oil producers are, Palembang especially. As regular readers may remember, I had thought briefly about A 'Festung Palembang' gambit but I don't think I'm a good enough player to pull it off. I would need to have emptied most of the DEI of troops to garrison this one city, as well as diverting air units from India and SwPac to provide cover. Supplies wouldn't have been a problem as Palembang is fairly self sufficient in this respect.
So where does he go next, once the oil is secure?
Well, New Guinea remains untouched, as do the islands of the Solomons and New Britain. depending on how fast he moves, it is quite possible for him to take Rabaul, Luganvilla, Port Moresby and Noumea in quick order. While non of these bases are essential for my survival in the region they close down several routes in and out of Australia. Noumea and Moresby are the two I would like to hold on to the most. Taking Moresby allows Juha to close of supply routes to Darwin from the east coast of Oz and even if I get Normanton up and running, long rage bombers will be an ever present problem. Mind you, this is going to be an issue once he eventually gets around to taking Timor anyway.
Noumea is worse as it is directly on my main shipping route from Suva and Pearl. Should Noumea fall then my first point of business will be to get it back - an operation I'm already prepping troops for. I would also commit the carriers to Noumea should I need to as it is just isolated enough to make it impossible to cover with land based air.
Aside from the KB currently covering the Wake landings Juha hasn't exactly been overly keen on committing his carrier. The light carriers that form part of the baby KB have popped up occasionally and them vanished again, which I don't really understand because he had a golden opportunity to hit some of my big ships in the DEI, almost all of which have now escaped. Still, the less he wants to use them the better it is for me.
And me? Well.....I'm busying myself with moving supplies and fuel around and getting shipping to the right ports. It's not the most glamorous of jobs but it needs done. Once I have Yorktown and Saratoga at Pearl I will feel a bit better about committing ships to operations.
As I've said before, I would like to use the carriers for a few little raids. I've actually selected my first target but will refrain from saying anything until I'm certain I won't be running into a trap.
I have plenty of cruisers around Australia, and once Force Z arrives I should have the basis of a good sized force who should be able to tangle with anyone other than the KB. I wish I could have used Force Z better as I have in the past but their timing - and mine -has been appalling.
The first fleet boats have now reached imperial waters where they will begin to attempt to strangle the Japanese economy. More boats are on their way back to Pearl and Brisbane where the current crop of overly cautious commanders will be moved on to fresh pastures.
All in all it's been quite a tight game so far. Neither of us knows exactly what we are doing but that just adds to the fun. I'm just glad I don't have to put up with the economy stuff as well.
Edit:
So Juha just PM'ed me asking whose turn it was. It seems that when i sent my last turn away last night I accidentally sent it so SubSim's automated mail server.....An entire day wasted because I'm whacked on painkillers...Oh well. :(
5th Jan 42
Just the combat replay so far. Here are the scores:
Malaya
Malacca falls when a lone Japanese soldier shout 'BOO!' from behind a tree. The two battalions here, the Mysore and the Hyderabad battalions, will fall back to the next defensive positions. The town fell to two armoured regiments.
What's worse is that Malacca is on the rail line so he can move troops down here from up north faster.
CenPac
Japanese shock attack achieves nothing. The forts are still holding at 3. I'm scared of saying I've got a good feeling about this because when I get the turn back I know the island will have sunk into the ocean or something...
The KB didn't strike today. Whether it's still in the area I don't know; it's sometimes difficult to tell these things from the combat replay. It's a long way to send her for a brace of air raids, though....
Elsewhere
Attacks on bases on Borneo, The DEI and the PI. All bases hold. Singkawen and Minando will probably go next, though. The bases on the PI are all well defended and well supplied. They will hold out for some time yet and are in no immediate danger.
Sub Wars
I've been kicking around SubSim for nearly a decade now, so the profoundly underwhelming performance of my subs is something of an embarrassment.
Pompano, S-40, O-16 and KXV and a couple of others all make failed attacks. Pompano has an excuse, I suppose, as she is hamstrung with rotten torpedoes, but the other three should have hit something. It is becoming most annoying. :nope:
Carriers
The KB has disappeared, which fills me with dread. Pretty sure it isn't moving east, though; I've got pretty good coverage of the approach to Pearl, Midway and Johnston by catalinas. Last time I saw her she was heading southwest so I think Truk is a good probably destination. Several subs in the area have been ordered to patrol north east of the island just in case.
The Baby KB is prowling around off the eastern coast of Luzon. I assume this is in case Macarthur has a break down and decides to try to swim back to pearl...Whether the combined might of 60 odd dive bombers could sink his ego is another question entirely!
My own carriers are still loitering at Johnston. In another day or two, if the KB doesn't reappear, they'll head to Wake to bomb the Japanese unit there.
Palembang was bombed as well. There has been a sub hanging around in the area as well so this is probably preparations for landings on Sumatra.
Convoys
The first load of empty ships from Sydney is about a day out from Pearl. It contains lots of tankers so I'll be able to get a second fuel convoy to SWPac set up fairly quickly - as long as the KB doesn't show up. A second convoy of empties is a coupe of days past the Solomons so it'll be a while until they arrive. The convoy carrying aircraft southward is about to pass Christmas. I had to change their route slightly because of the KB but they hopefully won't have lost much time.
3 Squadrons are traveling across the continental US to SF where they will join about six others and some bombers on yet another convoy. All of them will go to Australia.
Hopefully we'll get a few more turns in tomorrow than we managed today - medicinal idiocy not withstanding.
Torplexed
04-14-11, 10:57 PM
I'm almost afraid to ask, but how are things going with that clickfest known as pilot training?
I'm almost afraid to ask, but how are things going with that clickfest known as pilot training?
I'm glad you asked....:wah: Pilot training will be the subject of todays sermon. But first:
6th Jan 42
Another fairly quiet turn.
CenPac
Not much activity at Wake. His troops are staring down my troops. Although Air patrols have spotted a couple of task forces in the wider area, neither of them appear to be the KB. I still don't know whether this is good or not. I've ordered some cats from Midway to fly in supplies to the Wake garrison. In a couple of days I may risk a supply ship with a carrier escort.
China
A Japanese attack comes off at Chengchow, causing me 4800 casualties. The men have pulled back to Loyang which is now at about 1000AV. It should - hopefully - last a bit longer. These are important towns as they are the sleeping policeman on the road to Sian and it's oil wells.
South China Sea
My Pirate torpedo boats strike another blow for freedom against the evil Japanese empire. The attack two xAK, sinking one and badly damaging another. I imagine Juha won't let it continue for too much longer but there is little he can do about it right now.
PI
Various battles on Luzon don't achieve much. I don't think he has enough here to seriously threaten everywhere important. The easy bases have all mostly fallen, the harder ones will last for some time yet.
On Mindanao, the Japanese once again attack Cagayan and lose another 600 troops. Such loses all mount up. My biggest problem here is one of supply but I have a couple of plans in the works.....
Troop Movements
The Indian troops who are at Darwin are boarding transports for Madras where they will move forward and join up with the rest of the 11th Indian division.
the first brigade of the 6th Australian division is at Aden. The rest of the division is supposed to arrive within two weeks so these guys will remain here for the time being. I'm undecided where they will go, although I'm leaning towards sending them home.
Sub Wars
S-38 and Gudgeon both continue the our fine submarine tradition of missing everything. well done.
Pilot Training
Some people might say that asking the player of a game that covers almost every detail of the Pacific war - from the largest campaign down to individual mines in the sea - to involve himself in what virtually amounts to the manual training of every single pilot who finds himself in-theater is possibly asking too much. They may have a point.
WiTP players are divided into two groups: those who enjoy the micro-management of pilot training and those of us who hate it with a passion. It involves enough mouse clicking to give you RSI, is only a little bit faster than glacially slow, and is unfortunately of paramount importance to anyone who wants to be able to win.
All Squadrons start with a number of pilots of differing degrees of skill or, to be accurate, skills. They also each have an experience rating.
Green pilots can be drawing out of the pool and into squadrons but their skills and experience will be rather low, hence the need for training. It's not my intention here to talk in detail about the best current theories on pilot training; anyone looking for a detailed breakdown on various training stratagems should mosey on over to Matrix and have a look through one of the many threads that has been written on the subject. One thing I will point out is that you should always fill out those training squadron with as many pilots as possible, and it's also worth noting that they train as well with one aircraft as they would with 20 so you can turn replacements off for those squads and have airframe replacements go somewhere they are actually needed.
So, what have I done with my guys?
Most of my bomber squadrons who are not currently involved in combat are training in one of three area: General training, Low level naval bombing and ground attack. I could also train them in port or airfield attack, for the time being, these three are the better choices.
Patrol aircraft squadrons are training on ASW patrol or naval search. At some point I'll swap them over to train them on the other. I may even train a few on naval attack as well just in case an opportunity presents itself.
Fighters are all set to train on escort as I think this gives a better selection of all round skills than Sweep.
Float plane pilots are being trained in fighter sweep. It sounds strange but they are really the only place I can train up fresh carrier pilots so I have to use them some what unrealistically.
When a pilot in a 'training squadron' reaches 50+ experience, he will be removed and placed in the pilot pools from which other squadrons draw their personnel. Below is an example of a sqaudron whose pilots are reaching the transfer point:
http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/313/editpilottrain.jpg (http://img851.imageshack.us/i/editpilottrain.jpg/)
Green numbers mean that the pilot has trained in that skill in the last day, orange that he has trained in it over the last month.
As it is somewhat difficult to improve pilot experience beyond 50, or a skill beyond 70 without actual combat experience, this is a natural point to 'cull' training pilots. In another few days I will begin the laborious process of going through my training squadrons and sending all pilots I think are good enough into the pilot pool.
The squadron pictured above is one of the better ones training wise, and as you can see from the text at the upper left hand side, it is attached to IV Us Fighter Command which is permanently restricted, meaning that this squadron isn't going over seas which makes it perfect for training. I use all restricted command squadrons for training, that includes temporary restricted units until they eventually ship out.
I am no expert on pilot training, and I find it pretty difficult to keep abreast of it as I play the game. In previous campaigns my approach has been rather hit and miss but this time I am determined to do it better.
NoPac
In previous games, the North Pacific theater is the one I've probably ignored the most. The Aleutian islands are far away from anywhere, difficult to keep supplied and of dubious use to either side.
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/9692/nopacedit.jpg (http://img34.imageshack.us/i/nopacedit.jpg/)
In several AARs I've read however, the Aleutian islands are given a level of attention that mystifies me. I'm aware that the western most islands are within decent range of Northern Japanese islands but that isn't a route I would like to take. Attu Island is only capable of being built up to a maximum port of size 4 and a similar sized airfield which puts the brakes on the place if I were to use it for building up a massive invasion or wanted to base big 4e bombers there.
I do not know whether Happy Times is planning to move into this area. I have seen no submarines this far north - not that I have a great deal to spot them with if he did - and because of the way winter weather this far north is modeled it will be March before he is able to do much in the way of attacking.
I have a couple of units at Seattle and Tacoma currently prepping for Attu and Adak but I'm loath to spend the PP on them when there are so many other units I need to buy: I'm still thinking about reinforcing Rabaul and that's going to cost me a few points.
In most other theaters I have a fairly good idea of what I want to do, and when but with this one all I can do is shrug. So should I just pony up the points and move units in? or should I just leave it and see how it goes? At some point, maybe by the summer, I have plans to operate a sub tender at Dutch Harbour and use several boats to patrol the waters off northern Japan but aside from this I'll just send up the occasional convoy and see what happens.
7th Jan 42
South China Sea
Juha gets wise to the pirate boat raids into Hanoi and has a couple of destroyers waiting for the plucky lads. The destroyers sink a couple of them and the rest retreat in various states of damage. Fun while it lasted, and something to try again elsewhere.
Singers
Several big raids come over, targeting he airfield. He loses 6 sallies and 2 Oscars with 8 more Sallies damaged. I lose three Buffalo, tow of them on the ground. Damage to the airfield is minimal so I'll happily take those scores.
His troops are about 60 miles away now, I have troops transports heading back to Singers from Darwin as I would like to get a couple of units out. The base should hold for a while I imagine he's stiffened his air patrols in the area so it's a question of whether the ships can get in without being smashed by betties.
PI/DEI
Still holding at all points. An xAKL is torpedoed as it heads to Balikpapen. This was one of the damaged ships that escaped from Hong Kong when the city fell and I was going to load it with supplies and see whether I could get it back into Manila. No real loss.
At Cagayen Juha loses another 600 odd troop. He keeps throwing them against my defences and they keep getting battered. The base will fall sooner or later but will it have been worth the cost?
China
Chuhsien falls. Where? Quite.
CenPac
A cat hits a sub north of Pearl, which was nice, and several convoys ready to head north and south. A big fuel convoy is getting ready to head for Aukland. A supply convoy will join it in a coupe of days, I'm just waiting for some escorts to arrive.
Wake is still holding out but supplies have dropped a fair bit. I'm thinking about sending a supply run in, covered by the carriers. The KB is no where to be seen but a pair of ships are loitering about 120 miles from the island. Sure they are either destroyers or minesweepers. I still don't understand why he sent the KB all the way out here for a single days worth of ground attacks. seems a waste of fuel to me. I still believe the intention was to bait my carriers. Of course, it very nearly worked.
Oz
I now have two fighter squadrons in Australia now. Several more should arrive via convoy in 10 days/two weeks. The build up continues.
8th Jan 1942
PI
The Japanese fly several attack on shipping near Manila. For a single xAK damaged they lose 8 Betties and 4 Nells with several more of each damaged. No Allied aircraft were lost.
Burma
The first blows of the Burma campaign are traded when a strong Japanese force takes Moulmein from a single battalion of Burmese troops. Losses aren't very heavy and the battalion falls back to Allied lines. The Japanese will find it harder, they have to cross a river into the teeth of a fairly strong Allied defence. Their losses should be high.
CenPac
Japanese troops on wake launch a deliberate attack on the Marine defenders, losing 604 troops to no allied loses. He can't continue with such losses and not reinforce. These troops (An SNLF unit IIRC) should be well prepped for Wake, unless he's got more trained and hidden away somewhere it's going to take him another month or two to get them ready,by which time I will have reinforced the island, added dive bombers and built even more forts. If Juha wants to take Wake, it's now or never, unless he wants to expend major resources on taking this rock.
A supply ship is loading up with a stout escort at Pearl. I may add some troops on it too. The Wake garrison is fairly small and I can add another 4000 troops before I hit the stacking limit. Lex and Big E are loitering north west of Johnston preparing to cover the small convoy. Still no sign of the KB and the two ships from yesterday are heading south again. I suspect his troops are receiving supplies by submarine. If so, there shouldn't be enough to feed him, let alone let him continue fighting.
At Pearl repairs on the battleships are continuing:
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/2377/bbrepairslarge.jpg (http://img135.imageshack.us/i/bbrepairslarge.jpg/)
The first few battleships have their estimated repair time in red (quite blurry I'm afraid. All these ships are at pier side just now and the red shows the time until minor damage is repaired. For major damage, these ships will have to go to a yard. Some of them will go to the west coast once all repairs that can be done here are complete. As you can see, though, West Virgina and Maryland will both be ready for action in 45 days.
Elsewhere in CenPac, Sigint picks up heavy radio transmissions from Kwajalein island in the Marshals south of Wake. It would seem that something heavy is going on. Is it the KB? it's last known course would have taken her past here.
Manado
The Japanese battleships Yamashiro and Fuso lead a bombardment of the island base taking out 430 men and damaging several of the facilities. He follows it up with attacks from his troops that still fail to make the breakthrough. Every day of stalling Juha's forces up here is another day of fortifying bases further south.
Reinforcements
A quick glance at my reinforcement schedules fills me with joy. 4 more fighter squadrons should be arriving in Australia over the next 7 days and over the next month I should start getting a lot of unrestricted units arriving including a substantial amount of infantry plus my first SeeBees unit.
The aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable arrived at Aden. She will move out once escorts arrive for her. Unfortunately she is only in-theater for about 140 days before she is withdrawn again. When she does go I may keep a hold of her three air groups as the commonwealth remain short of naval attack aircraft for virtually the whole war.
Two large and empty convoys departed Perth last night for Capetown. I have been surprised by how many ships I managed to get out of the DEI. This was no doubt made possible by Juha's reluctance to use the Baby KB in those shallow, confined waters.
9th Jan 42
Quite quiet again. Lots of battles in the Philippines which achieve nothing. Even the last, lightly held bases in north west Borneo are holding in the face of repeated attacks and bombings.
Malaya
The 22nd Indian Brigade are east of Kuala Lumpar and has just closed down the rail link to the south. Hopefully this will slow the Japanese advace, although he has a couple of advanced units not far from Singapore.
Sub Wars
Many of my subs are returning to their home ports for replenishments and command changes. I start getting more boats from the states over the next couple of weeks, beginning with Gato tomorrow.
A Japanese sub was spotted in the waters off Sydney for the first time, but most of his sizable submarine fleet has been conspicuous by it's absence.
Long Distance Flight
Half a dozen B-17 squadrons left a couple of days ago on the first stage of an epic flight that will take them to Sydney. Their route is Pearl -Christmas - Suva - Sydney. They are at Suva just now and will make the final leg in a day or two.
Signal Intelligence
For the Allied player SigInt is of real importance. It can let you know if there are troops prepping for targets, where various units are located and in what strength. Sometimes you can even get lucky and find out the location of a carrier or battleship.
reports of heavy radio traffic is often greeted by me with a slight burts of nervous excitement. It can often mean the location of a big task force or convoy, or lots of units preparing for something. today I got word of heavy radio traffic at co-ords 109, 98 which puts it south east of Guam and, sure enough, it appears to be a task force of some description. Heading and composition remains a mystery. Wait and see is the order of the day.
India
I have three divisions worth of troops plus a number of other units on the Burmese border now. What I need are two things: Aviation support groups and engineers.
Supply Issues
Although there are quite a few convoys moving around now I am running low of things in various locations. Australia is down to less than 100,000 tonnes of fuel. It's partly my fault; I hit the button that ordered all shipping at Sydney to be refueled. That drained a lot. Never mind, these things happen.
10th Jan 42
Sub Wars
Thresher misses etc.
An ASW Tf out of Sydney engages I-19. The sub gets damaged in the morning but the TF re-aquires her later on and forces her to the surface. I-19 bravely tries to torpedo her way out of trouble but the destroyers keep their distance and put round after round into her. Eventually, with all the smoke from the fires, the destroyers lose visual contact with her but sonar on board Electra claim they hear the noises of the sub going down. Seems a confirmed kill. It's worth bearing in mind that Electra and Express both have ASW ratings of 8 - substantially better than anything else I have just now.
PI
14th army are preparing for an attack on Manila, according to information collected by our code breakers. It doesn't mean much because I know there are several units preparing for the siege.
My PT boats find and harass a large convoy at it tried to land at San Fernando. Hopefully that will put any supply unloading back a day or two.
DEI
Manando falls, wiping out the garrison there. 50 odd survivors from the base force flee into the jungle but won't last long without supplies.
Burma
Bombers from Rangoon will attack Moulmein tomorrow in an attempt to disrupt the Japanese units there before they move north. A small convoy is about three days out from Rangoon and carrying supplies. I don't know how many more of these I'll be able to get in before his aricraft close of the port.
Pacific Aces
Ladies and Gentleman, may I introduce to you Warrant Officer HH Griffith of 453 sqn RAF. This Australian pilot, currently based at Singapore, has become the first Allied fighter ace of the pacific war with 6 kills to his name. Several more of his squadron are nearly there as well, reflecting the intensity of the aerial combat over the city.
11th Dec 42
I just went and deleted this entire post by mistake. I'm a little bit annoyed.
CenPac
Lex and Enterprise are on their way back to Pearl to refuel. This is unfortunate because PBYs from Wake have spotted two task Forces containing at least two battleships and two heavy cruisers moving north about 250 miles south of the island. I expect he's going to try and bombard the defenders into the sea.
I'm intrigued that he is willing to expend high level assets like the KB and battleships plus the attendant fuel costs on taking Wake but only seems to have one solitary and understrength unit available to actually occupy the place. Does this point to Juha assigning Wake a particular importance and, if so, why? Is an invasion of Midway on the agenda at some point? Or is it simply that he has not planned adequately?
Singers
More Oscar Sweeps further deplete my Buffaloes. They're fine little aircraft but utterly out of their depth against the strong Japanese airforce.
The Japanese advance is checked at Johore Bahru on the outskirts of Singapore. Once all available troops fall back into Singers I'll have about 500-550Av available and plenty of supplies behind 3 forts. It should hold for some time.
Borneo
Singkaweng falls. This strategically important base will allow Juha aerial access to a large part of Sumatra and Java and, once he moves in Betties and Nells, he will be able to effectively close the area down to surface vessels. I have troop ships heading towards Singers at the moment where I hope to pick up III Indian Corps and a pair of RAF air HQs but I don't know how possible that is going to be. I may have to evacuate cadres by air and rebuild them later instead.
SWPac
He has a lot of shipping at Badeledoodop, including a number of minesweepers. Our code breakers intercepted a communication about elements of the 4th division traveling to Truk. I'm assuming these are troops bound for either New Britain or the Solomons. There has been plenty of radio traffic at these bases in the last few days, as well as several reports of convoys. It looks like he's readying to expand further south.
Thoughts
Some aggressive moves coupled to obvious build up in the south. It's difficult to know what his actual intentions are but I'm certain he'll go for The Solomons as soon as he can. I'm moving two more battalions of Australian infantry into Port Moresby and as much in the way of supplies as I can. Once the Betties start rolling in I won't be able to do that very often.
Torplexed
04-17-11, 04:50 AM
In previous games, the North Pacific theater is the one I've probably ignored the most. The Aleutian islands are far away from anywhere, difficult to keep supplied and of dubious use to either side.
I've always wondered which was the more dubious move in the Pacific in World War II. The Japanese capturing these miserable Aleutian islands of fog and bog, or America expending any effort to get them back? :O:
I'm moving two more battalions of Australian infantry into Port Moresby and as much in the way of supplies as I can. Once the Betties start rolling in I won't be able to do that very often. I always try to pack Port Moresby with supplies and fuel early in the game, but that tiny port handling capability makes it harder. The groceries usually have to go in as amphibious TFs.
Biggles
04-17-11, 05:14 AM
I've always wondered which was the more dubious move in the Pacific in World War II. The Japanese capturing these miserable Aleutian islands of fog and bog, or America expending any effort to get them back? :O:
I remember the good ol' news report in SHIV.
Japanese troops have landed on Aleutian Islands. One week and they'll want to give them back.
:haha:
I've always wondered whether there's some psychological issue involved when it comes to the Aleutians in the game, particularly with American players. After all, Attu island was the only part of US soil to be occupied by the Japanese during the war so perhaps some players tend to exaggerate it's importance? I guess if there was a ETO version of this game I would do the same if the Shetland islands were occupied by the Germans. Fair enough, with careful planning and lots of supply you can occupy some of the most northerly Japanese islands but 9 times out of 10 you're going to end up losing everything..
I've seen players commit aircraft carriers and thousands of troops to the area, which always seemed excessive; surely it's better to send those soldiers to other theaters and leave northern defence to specially trained garrisons of Kodiak bears. Those things look like they could open up a tank easier than i could open a can of beer.
I always try to pack Port Moresby with supplies and fuel early in the game, but that tiny port handling capability makes it harder. The groceries usually have to go in as amphibious TFs.
I have about 35,000 tonnes of supply there just now with another 50,000 tonnes leaving sydney tomorrow. I'll try and get it up to 100,000 or so and then see whether I have more time. With the two extra battalions I'll have just under a division of troops there, which will slow up an invasion but won't stop them from taking it if they want it. I'm still thinking about moving troops into Rabaul but am aware that i don't have unlimited time to decide.
Juha's lack of any activity in this region is slightly surprising. I haven't even seen any evidence that he is carrying out recon; a couple of subs off the coast of Oz, a small regular surface patrol out of Truk to the north of Kavieng and that's been it. As I said, there is evidence that he is beginning to build up in the SWPac area but as he haven't even taken Rabaul yet it's going to be a while before he's in a position to do much. Still, once he comes, he'll probably move fast.
12th Jan 42
PI
Batanges, south of Manila falls, which surprised me. I thought it would hold a while longer, the troops have orders to fall back to the big city.
Elsewhere my garrisons continue to frustrate the Japanese.
Malaya
More sweeps over Singers but they fail to do much. A couple of aircraft lost from each side but nothing drastic.
CenPac
The two IJN task forces are holding off Wake. One of PBYs got lucky and put a bomb onto an Armed Merchant Cruiser this morning. Probably not done much damaged but may slow him up. I don't know what they're waiting for; are there more ships on there way?
Lex and Enterprise will reach Pearl at sunset, will refuel, and be on their way by morning, I hope. If no flat tops are spotted, my CVTFs will move in and see if they can harass him. If they are, Wake might be on it's own. The base is runnning low on supply now. I have a ship loaded up and ready to go but it will take three or four days. He hasn't attacked in a while - either allowing disruption to lower or waiting for a supply run to arrive i guess.
Withdrawals
4 bomber squadrons were withdrawn from Fresno today, for use in the ETO. It's a little bit irritating as I had been using them for training. I'll get more though.
Raptor1
04-17-11, 07:25 AM
I've seen players commit aircraft carriers and thousands of troops to the area, which always seemed excessive; surely it's better to send those soldiers to other theaters and leave northern defence to specially trained garrisons of Kodiak bears. Those things look like they could open up a tank easier than i could open a can of beer.
Well, them Japanese tanks are probably not as well armoured as a can of beer in any case...
Well, them Japanese tanks are probably not as well armoured as a can of beer in any case...
Just pray they never get their hands on a Chi-To or Chi-Ri... :doh:
Torplexed
04-17-11, 09:32 AM
Well, them Japanese tanks are probably not as well armoured as a can of beer in any case...
Attention Kodiak Bears. Japanese tanker, now available in the one man slam can.
http://pyxis.homestead.com/Japanese-One-Man-tank.jpg
Attention Kodiak Bears. Japanese tanker, now available in the one man slam can.
http://pyxis.homestead.com/Japanese-One-Man-tank.jpg
:DL
I remember walking in the Yosemite back country about 15 years ago now, carrying those huge, heavy bear barrels to keep our food safe. We hauled them up and down mountains for a nearly a fortnight and I personally cursed them every step of the way. we got back to Yosemite village and a park ranger said to us: " You know, the bears here have figured out how to open those. They just roll them off a big cliff and if it's high enough the lid usually just gets smashed off."
Never underestimate a bear. If the Japanese take tanks to invade the Aleutians, i expect the bears to be driving them within a week...:yep:
Solomons, New Guinea and All Points South
Once the Japanese have neutralized The Philippines, Malaya and most of the Dutch East Indies it will be time for them to look towards phase two of their expansion. Usually, but not always, this mean the invasion of the Solomons and New Caledonia.
http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/9397/solomonseditnmma3.jpg (http://img823.imageshack.us/i/solomonseditnmma3.jpg/)
The three red circles are the bases he will likely move on first. Both Shortlands and Gaudalcanal are important, allowing him to build up overlapping fighter cover to provide escorts for his long range air out of Rabaul, as float plane and recon aircraft bases and as fuel and supply dumps for his fleet. The last is particularly important, I think, if he is planning to move against Suva , down to the south east. Suva is already on it's way to becoming one of my largest bases in the region and it's loss would hurt me.
Rabaul provides good sized anchorage for his shipping and the airfield can be built up to level 9, making it one of the largest in the region and allowing an unlimited amount of aircraft to be based there.
The three green circled bases on New Guinea represent my most important. Moresby and Buna can, like Rabaul, be built up to size 9 and both can be built up to good sized ports. Moresby is also important because whoever controls it goes a long way to controlling the Torres strait to the west.
Milne Bay is not as vital as Morseby but I've found it useful in the past as a fighter base and a location for a sub tender, allowing the S class boats to extend their range out towards Truk and the Marianas.
Timelines
Happy Times may wait until he has all of the DEI, Singapore and the Philippines under his control before moving onto Phase 2. This could take him a while as he is probably at the stage of prepping troops to deal with places like Batavia, Soerabaja and Palembang. He may also be counting on using troops from the Philippines for operations in the Solomons.
I expect landings at Rabaul within a month and the base, if I don't reinforce it, to be under his control by the 1st of March at the very latest. A late spring offensive is probably about right for New Guinea, with the Solomons being targeted in early summer. This should give him plenty of time to move assets around and prep troops for new locations. This is all based on what I would do, of course, with a nod to his relative speed and caution so far.
After this he may sit in, or press on with a Phase 3. Taking Suva and Isolating Oz would be a strong precursor to an invasion along the northern coast: Darwin most likely. I am trying to get as many supplies into Darwin as I can. The Indian units who were supposed to be on there way to Madras have not left yet. I am leaning towards keeping them where they are just now. I am also considering moving several armoured units to the north to help with defense.
13th Jan 42
Bit frustrating as I've only seen the combat replay and Juha is probably going to be busy until tomorrow. I wouldn't mind getting stuck in and correcting a few things.
CenPac
The Japanese land elements of the 52nd Naval Guards on Wake, taking their AV up to 75 against my 30. The AMC that took the hit from my PBY yesterday is peppered with shells from the Marine guns and is burning merrily.
As Wake is an atoll, the new arrivals automatically launch a shock attack, which I'm not sure was what Juha was anticipating. They take 600 casualties and fail to break my forts. we take 130 odd making it imperative for us to reinforce. I am thinking an infantry regiment should do it. When they've refueled, I'll send the carriers here at flank speed. It'll cause some extra system damage to the ships - travel at top speed for more than a turn or so usually does - but I want them to get in and try and sink some ships. At the very least I want them dive bombing the troops on the island and force them to use up supply. It's a question of how long Wake can hold out.
One other point. I'm unsure how well prepped this new unit is likely to be. I'm not sure where they start but I suspect it's the home islands. I may well be wrong about that, though.
USS Anderson, patrolling as part of an ASW task force, is torpedoed by I-21 NW of Pearl. I'm beginning to become disgusted with the failure of the USN to land hits on enemy subs. However, this is the first ship in the area the Japanese have actually managed to hit in what amounts to over a dozen such attacks over the last couple of weeks.
Malaya
A couple of smaller bases in central Malaya which the Japanese had so far ignored were taken by the enemy. They hadn't much to defend themselves with; the remnants of a Base force at one and an AA battery at the other.
More Oscars fly over, taunting my brave Buffaloes. A couple of losses on both sides but Juha is definitely gaining the upper hand here. I give it another couple of days before he starts a full scale bombing campaign aimed at knocking out the airfield, increasing troop disruption and destroying as many guns and defensive positions as he can.
PI
Happy Times has a lot of units on Luzon but, so far, they seem slightly toothless. Now that I've said that I fully expect some dinosaurs with chain guns and tactical nukes to paradrop into Manila tomorrow, such is my talent for prediction.
Both Clark Field and Manila are fairly well defended and supplied. I would like to still have them in my hands come February. In RL I think Manila fell on Jan 2, so I'm doing better than Macarthur...so far.
Sub Wars
Grayling duds south of Japan. KXVI misses a minesweeper in the Sulu sea.
China
An increase in the amount of land battles and ground bombing in China would suggest that Juha has decided on a course of action. Hopefully he has enough on his plate to really pay attention to the theater.
Where's the KB and baby KB at the moment? Don't want to steam those carriers out of port and slap bang into the KB. :hmmm:
KB was last seen heading southwest from Wake several days ago. The Baby KB made an appearance off the east coast of the Philippines about a week ago and then vanished again. I've been constantly scanning the combat reports for references to 'Carrier Aircraft' but I've seen nothing.
I wish he would commit the Baby KB. It keeps appearing for a day here and there and then it's off again. So far it's not really traveled further than the central Sulu sea. Like I've said before, if he'd been more aggressive with it in the first week or two he could have denied me a huge proportion of the shipping I got out of the DEI so I'm fairly happy he seems unsure what to do with it. I hope he sends it to Wake; my carriers could take it on without many problems.
If the KB was in the immediate area, I think I would have spotted it. I've good cover all across the area now: Midway, Canton, Christmas, Johnston and Wake all have PBY squadrons. I'm not saying he couldn't sneak it in, but if it was loitering I would hopefully know.
I wouldn't move the carriers if I wasn't sure. Once they leave Pearl at flank speed it will take them two or three days to get to Wake. If anything shows up I'll turn them around again.
On a different note, the unit he landed at Wake, the 52nd Naval guards, appears to be the one that took Tarawa. This suggests to me that Juha was not expecting the resistance he's faced on Wake nor the fortifications, which is why he's hastily grabbed one of the nearest combat units to plug the hole in his plans. It also means that these troops are, as I thought, likely to be badly under prepped. For attacking an atoll, preparation needs to be as high as possible; We're talking absolute minimum of 50% and ideally above 75%. given the fact that this unit would have started prepped for another target, and the seeming haste it has been thrown onto Wake, I don't think it could be much more than 25%. Still, he has a decided advantage in numbers now, and if his battleship gets frisky it could be all over bar the shouting by the time the flat tops arrive.
Slyguy3129
04-18-11, 01:28 AM
Hey Egan looking ok so far good eye spotting that trap he laid.
I have a question I want to build up a base at Pao Pao what units do I need to purchase and move there to support and construct a large port? Just any ole unit with engineers or engineer units? Or Base Forces?
Engineers to start with. You'd also need units with naval support squads to help with loading/unloading, rearming warships etc, and I'd recommend a unit with aviation support too if you want to base aircraft there. Anything else like coastal defence battalions or HQs etc is up to you.
Might be an idea to add some tenders of various sorts as well, especially a seaplane tender and a destroyer tender if you can spare them.
Ok, I got the turn back. Interesting times.
Bismarck Sea
My rigorous scanning through the combat reports reports for any reference to carrier aircraft paid off. It seems one of my subs operating in the Bismarck sea was attacked by a Val which is usually found on Japanese carriers. A quick check of the map showed what appears to be a strong carrier force moving around on the pacific side of New Britain. Is it the whole KB? Don't know. Is it the same carrier force that covered the landings at Wake? Don't know but if I had to guess I'd say yes.
Celebes sea
Dutch patrol aircraft seemed to have spotted another carrier force operating in this area. It reports at least one CV but I'm not certain. I think it's one of his Seaplane carriers and escorts rather than a true flat top.
This is the problem with FOW in the game: you can never be entirely sure what you are seeing. Of course, the better trained the flight crews are, the better chance you have of actually being certain. Even with the aircraft carriers at Wake I still can't say for sure it WAS the KB - it's more of a gut feeling based on a number of factors.
CenPac
Only two Japanese ships reported at Wake just now. Lex and Enterprise have refueled and are on there way there. A combined amphibious and supply convoy is currently waiting for the 4th Marine defence battalion to finish loading before it moves out. I wanted to move and infantry regiment to Wake but I can't afford it at the moment.
Wake itself is running low on supplies. It's down to about 650 tonnes now. While I don't think it will fall today, tomorrow or the next day, the situation has obviously reached that point where it's put up or shut up.
Oz
Repulse reached Sydney where she will reduce her system damage before going on to Capetown to complete her repairs. I originally hoped to repair her here but she is too big for the yard.
Various small convoys in the area have been alerted that Japanese aircraft carriers are operating east of PNG. There is no immediate danger but these things can change awfully fast.
Torplexed
04-18-11, 05:42 AM
Early in the game the Allied players has the services of one of the best troop transports you could ask for--the xAP Queen Elizabeth--with a speed of 31 knots and a troop capacity of 8900. Her only disadvantage is that she has to be withdrawn by April 1942.
Been using her for anything special Egan? :D I always found her good for the San Francisco to Sydney or Noumea troop runs. Her vast size precludes her from effectively visiting the more primitive anchorages along the way.
Funnily enough I was just looking at her last turn. She's in Sydney just now but I think she'll go to Aden to start hauling those boisterous Australian troops into the map. She's huge. I think the queen Mary shows up as well at some point.
A bunch of troop transports should be about to reach SF in the next couple of day where they will pick up a whole load of troops for use in the SWPac area. I think I'm going to go ahead and start fortifying Noumea as soon as I can.
House Rule Change
We changed the House Rule governing the maximum allowed height for fighter sweeps. It was 30,000ft and now it will be set by the second best maneuver band for each aircraft, so instead of an arbitrary limit, it will now be controlled by the performance of each aircraft instead. We changed it because it was pointed out that A: the new method is more realistic and B: the original rule failed to take into account mid and late war aircraft.
Juha seems to be having problems. The turn he just opened was from the 6th of Jan when it should have been the 13th or 14th. No idea what's going on..:hmmm:
Looks like now is the perfect time to dash those carriers up to Wake and out again before the KB storms back over, although that being said, I presume you'll be sending the carriers off to a different port from where they started after they've covered the landings at Wake? Or is there a zero risk of him snapping his KB over to intercept the carrier group coming back from Wake to their home port (Pearl?).
I don't think he could sneak up on Pearl now. If the group currently sailing near New Britain is the same one that was at Wake then it's going to take him several days to turn around and come back and that's not taking into account the possibility he might have an important reason for them being there.
Besides, The skies are full of search aircraft and, while I don't want too trust too much in them, they should be capable of serving some advance notice.
I have two worries just now: being spotted by a Glen launched from a sub, and the fact that there are Nells based in the northern Marshal islands. I'll stay to the north of Wake in order to try and avoid land based air.
Once the carriers arrive the dive bombers will start launching ground attacks but a few will remain ready for naval strikes. All the torpedo bombers will remain ready to attack shipping.
Of course, at the back of my mind is the possibility that the KB has been split up into smaller divisions, and that two or three of them may be hiding in the Marshals. Well, I won't find out if I don't go!
14th Jan 42
New Britain
A large landing force is about to start putting troops on the beach at Kaveing and another sizable force is rounding the western end on New Britain and entering the Solomons sea from the Bismarck sea. Thus ends my scatterbrained plans for reinforcing Rabaul. Of course, this landing fleet may not be going there. Moresby, Shortlands and Gaudalcanal are all possibilities. It explains why the carriers were lurking about although, in the best traditions of Happy Times playing style, they have once again disappeared.....I doubt they will be far away though.
It seems I was right about the carriers in the Celebes sea, though. A seaplane carrier is pushing down towards Ternate with a battleship escort. I'm not sure where they are going as they don't have any bases further south than Ternate and they don't appear to have any troop ships with them.
CenPac
The last Japanese ship, the merchant cruiser, has left Wake and heading back to the Marshals where Saury put a dud into him. My carriers are on their way but it will be at least two more days until they are within range.
Singers
Another prediction of mine came true when a huge air raid came over and bombed the airfield. They did a fair bit of damage but didn't get any planes. I've transferred two squadrons of Buffalo to Batavia and I'll gradually reduce the amount of squadrons further over the next couple of weeks.
Sub Wars
The Silent Service excelled themselves today.
Gudgeon, Sculpin and Saury all duds, Tambor and SS-36 both miss. The last is expecially annoying because she had a huge troop ship in her periscope....one of the ships moving into the Bismarck sea.
Thoughts
I'm not sure what to think. I didn't expect him to move into the Solomons until more of the DEI was under his control. I still have the bulk of the regions oil production, the bigger air and navy bases and, most importantly, the sea lanes are still open to me.
His moves in SWPac seem premature. Unless he's planning an all out attack on Australia? Maybe he wants to close the door to the west coast before he attacks. Even then that leaves the door to the Commonwealth wide open. I would be happy to move troops from Aden and India into Australia or launch a massive counter attack in Asia if he does this....
Meh, it's maybe nothing to ponder too much about. Hmmm.
15th Jan 42
Rabaul
He's come for Rabaul - and how!
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/6734/rabaullandingsedit.jpg (http://img690.imageshack.us/i/rabaullandingsedit.jpg/)
That's a lot of ships. Carrier supports, cruisers, screening forces and at least two landing waves plus minesweepers. My subs have been told to get closer - for all the good they will do.
Options are limited. I'm seeing what air power I can scrounge up. I should have some Marine dive bombers in SWPac within a week which will be most, most welcome but until then I have a few squads of army dive bombers who'll have to step up. There are 5 P-40 squadrons in Oz now but they all have green pilots - Training takes time and only a handful back in the states are any where near ready. I don't want them going up against the cream of Japanese naval airpower but I might not have a choice.
CenPac
Gone from the headliner to a sideshow. The CVs are still on their way. Supply situation on Wake is stable as I now have three squads of Catalinas flying in from Midway every day.
India
Three Hurri squadrons are moving to Karachi from Aden as we speak. I'll feel happier once they arrive as we lack fighter badly in India. Now, if only I had some Air support units to maintain them when they arrive....
DEI
A stout battleship division is heading east towards Badlebedop, probably to refuel before heading to New Britain, and a buffed up baby KB is heading south through the Celebes Sea. I've scattered shipping to safe ports. I'm hoping he comes close to Soerabaja as I have several torpedo trimmed squadrons of Vildebeasts waiting.
There are actually several more task forces moving from the north coast of Borneo to the south, but it's too early to guess where they are going, although Balikpapen would probably be a good guess.
Wow...that's quite a sizable naval force...Rabaul is somewhat boned.
Yeah.....
Wait until you see what else he's doing.....working on the turn now.
16th Jan 42
Solomons/PNG/Rabaul
Cd guns at Rabaul chew up several ships including a destroyers and killing some men from an aviation support group but the landings aren't the worst of it. He's also landing troops at Lae on New Guinea and, even worse, at Port Moresby. This last one came as a massive shock to me. I expected landings but not so soon. I anticipated he would wait until he has Rabaul and some of the Solomons under his control. No such luck. None of these troop can be well prepped - not that it does me any good just now. He has some of the 4th division ashore at Moresby now with at least one cruiser in support.
DEI
And it gets worse:
http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/7186/deidieedit2.jpg (http://img577.imageshack.us/i/deidieedit2.jpg/)
Off the screenshot to the top are more TFs moving south. Ambon is pretty much gone, and the baby KB will be moving into position to block shipping east, west and north. Well, that's ok because there's nothing left for him to sink. Hopefully he'll move west to cover the entrance to the straits of Makassar in preparation of landings there. That should bring him into range of my torpedo bombers....
The Australian Question
Turns out I'm not so badly off for troops in Oz. I have the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5 division available and most of the 8th as well. on top of that I have 6 or 7 armoured units of various sizes so I'm not doing badly. Probably not enough to halt any full scale landings but at least enough to delay them until reinforcements arrive. All shipping in Darwin is running along the coast to the west and then down to Perth.
We're running low on fuel, though, thanks to the Australian heavy industry requirements. More should be arriving in a few days - along with fighters - but it's going to get hairy if I need to support naval ops on any scale. Not that I can whilst the death star is hanging around.
On a positive note, 30 odd B-17s based in Charter Towers and Townsville will hit The Japanese troops at Moresby tomorrow. Hopefully he has only a light CAP present.
CenPac
The carriers are still in transit. Aside from that, and some more convoys coming and going things are pretty quiet.
Thoughts
Taken me by surprise, so it has. Still, it's shaken me out of my Analyses and procrastination phase and now I have to do somethings.
OK: let's look at this properly. First, Japanese ships. If I take every sighting report from the Solomon sea and DEI on face value he will have about 60 heavy cruisers out there on operations. we know this isn't true because he simply doesn't have that many cruisers in total. Many of them have to be light cruisers and they are quite susceptible to torpedoes. The reports have also over estimated the amount of carriers he has. In total he has 6 heavies, 2 CVLs and 1 or two CVEs and they all seem to be committed. it's the same story for battleships. Even so, it's an impressive force he's sent out, but he can't have done it without leaving gaps elsewhere. I feel quite safe about Wake now. If I can secure it I doubt he'll be back.
The next point is this: how many troops has he committed? Has he pulled them from other theaters like Malaya or China or even the Philippines? When he lands in, say, Java, is he going to have enough to take the major bases of Batavia and Soerabaja? Or is he counting on shock and awe to cover the fact that he is landing small forces with low prep?
I am unsure whether or not he'll be able to carry out any more invasions in SWPac in the immediate future once these attacks are complete. I expect and increase in naval raids over the next few weeks, especially along the Australian coast. Once Lex and Enterprise complete their current task they'll go back to Pearl, refuel and head south.
When it comes to soldiers I've actually got enough to deal with him already, or I would have if I didn't have to buy them all out. That's putting a real block on my build up. But then, it's supposed too. Lovely.
If I'm learning anything in this game, though, it's that a human sure as heck ain't the AI. He's done well in many ways, but he's made mistake too. What I need to do now is to stop reacting and find a way to hurt him a bit. My timing has been crummy so far, and for the first half of 42 opportunities are limited, but I'm sensing he many have over stretched, even if it's just for the moment.
Falkirion
04-18-11, 06:45 PM
I'd be reinforcing Wake and maybe thinking about hitting somewhere he's weak that I'd be looking at. But the question is where is he weak?
Torplexed
04-18-11, 06:59 PM
One common ploy I've seen Allied players use at his point in events is a North Pacific raid. Send a few carriers backed up by replenishment tankers to hit the Japanese convoys carrying oil and resources from Sakhalin down to Honshu. Northern Japan, Hokkaido and the Kurile Islands are often poorly guarded with few dedicated aircraft and ships. The drawback is that it's a long trip there and back and those carriers will be unable to parry any threats elsewhere.
17th Jan 42
Not much to report, strangely. Lae fell quickly as there was only a company defending it. The landings at both Moresby and Ambon continued on but CD guns thumped a few of his ships. Unlikely any of them will sink but they'll need yard time.
Burma
Pegu, to the immediate east of Rangoon, fell on the first Japanese attack. I am furious about that because they should have held for three or four attacks before crumbling - they only had 100AV but were behind forts and a river. I put it down to the lousy quality of the Burmese soldiers.
The good news is Commonwealth forces along the Indian border continue to grow, with plenty more to come over the next few months.
Thoughts
Thanks for the suggestions, gents. Wake is indeed being reinforced - A Marine defence battalion is loading just now and I may add a base force so I can increase the number of aircraft there. I had been going to put a squadron of dive bombers there but it doesn't look like I'm going to have any spare for a while.
Once Lex and Enterprise have covered the resupply of Wake I am thinking of moving them down into the Marshals and Gilberts to hit his bases there. I don't think there is anything bigger than a couple of destroyers there but I'd like Juha to think he needs to start watching his flanks. I considered a raid up in NoPac but I can't spare the ships I'd need just now: At least two of my carriers will be heading to Auckland in the near future. I'm just waiting for the last regiment of the Americal Division to arrive in SF so I can buy it out and form it up. once than happens more troops will start heading south also.
18th Jan 42
Sub Wars
0-24 torpedoes a minesweeper north of Miri on Borneo. When the fish acrually hit the ship and exploded I nearly fell of my chair in amazement.
Landings
landings continue at Moresby, Rabual and Ambon. He's also started landing troops at Kendari. Evidence suggest he's kept his bigger units for SWPac as the ones in the DEI sappear to be quite small.
Malaya
A couple of raids over Singers didn't achieve much. I'm flying in supplies from several places which should help bolster them a little bit. I have some ships readying themselves for quick runs in backed up with fighters on LRCAP should he get frisky.
West Coast
A number of troops and engineers are loading just now. They will go to Auckland and Suva. More will follow as soon as I can scrounge the transports together. Yorktown, Saratoga, Warspite and Colorado will also head to the south seas. I have more battleships arriving within the week which should start giving me a nice edge. I don't lack for cruisers either, but the bulk of my destroyer fleet are currently on convoy duty.
CenPac
Troops and engineers are loading here too for the same destinations. Lex and Enterprise should start their attack on his troops a Wake tomorrow. It's been very quiet there so far over the last couple of days.
Oz
B-17s bombed Japanese troops at Moresby. They will fly again tomorrow.
PI
Juha launched a major attack on Manila but lost 1650 men. I couple more like that and he's gong to have to bring in reinforcements. There seemed less than he had before, and none of the stacks I can see on the island are gong to be able to take my bases through anything other than a long, protracted campaign. Now watch as someone leaves the front door open and the Japanese wonder into Clark field and take it over. Me and my big mouth.
Thoughts
I am overcome by a warm feeling. That might just be panic. I'm planning to use the RN carriers in the near future but am not sure where. I may run them down and start using them out of Perth.
The size of the detachments doing the fighting in the DEI lend more evidence to my feeling that he doesn't have quite enough troops to go around. The bigger available units appear to be in the PNG/New Britain area with the rest still tied up in the PI and Malaya. I'll be interested to see what he brings to Burma. I don't think he can take everywhere at once and be successful long term unless there is something going on I'm not seeing....
Slyguy3129
04-20-11, 12:35 AM
Hey thanks for the help acre more questions here.
What if anything can I do about supply in China? I have planes that can't get fuel to them.
As far as units in china if I turn replacements on do the replacements come from there? I'm assuming it's nationality based replacements?
I have been reading this thread with great interest.
Don't have the game but am seriously considering getting it now. The only thing that gives me pause is the business with the subs/escorts. That seems to be a big fly in the ointment.
From what you have reported, your position seems pretty solid. No battleships or carriers sunk and lesser ship losses light. The only alarming thing I see, is the landings at Moresby. Will you be able to reinforce there?
Anyway, good AAR. :salute:
Slyguy: I don't really know enough about China to give you solid advice one way or the other. The entire theater is a nightmare as far as I'm concerned, especially if a Japanese player decides to be aggressive there.
China had a number of cities that produce oil, fuel and supplies, although probably not enough to do you. If the game can trace an unbroken overland route from Rangoon you should also receive supplies from the Commonwealth but I would do a search over at Matrix for the details on that one.
As far as I know yes, replacements is nationality based.
TorpX:
Well, the problem I have with subs just now is down to three things: Unreliable torpedoes on the fleet boats; low quality, low aggression commanders, and dice rolls not going for me. The first two are historically correct, of course, and the third is just bad luck so far. Normally I would have expected my Dutch and S-boats to have done a bit more damage but they have a lot of misses. That's how it goes.
If you are meaning the late war Japanese Super-ASW then , yes, I think it is a problem. I don't think it's one to stop you from buying the game, however. It'll either be fixed in a patch or in a mod. Either way, people are looking at it right now. Buy the game. I don't think you could be disappointed with it.
19th Jan 42
CenPac
The carriers should be in range by tonight. I've already flown a squadron of Marine Dive bombers onto Wake from Enterprise in preparation. Away to the north west is a Japanese task force containing what looks like cruisers - two task forces in fact. What's the bets there are carriers there and my flat tops go the way of Davey Jones Locker? Naah, I'm pretty sure there aren't any carriers there......
The wake resupply and reinforcement convoys are already on their way from Pearl but it will be a few days until they arrive.
PNG/New Britain
Rabaul fell, which was no surprise. Moresby continues to hold out. The KB launched a strike at a convoy I was trying to sneak past into the Torres strait to feed Darwin. Only one ship actually sunk which isn't too bad.
DEI
The Baby KB has disappeared but several battleships have appeared at Tarakan. I expect they're getting ready to invade Balikpapen. Force Z are on their way back up from Northern Oz to Soerabaja. Haven't decided where to commit them yet but I do seem to have a plethora of options in the area just now.
Burma
The force that took Pegu appears to be at least partially moving away to the Northeast. If he leaves the place relativity undefended I might try and take it back, cutting his supply line.
Thoughts
I am wondering how long the KB has been out there? Since before it turned up at Wake? has it refueled since then? I doubt it's lost many aircraft. I would think it'll have to withdraw within a week, but the question is, where too? Truk or the Home Islands?
His forces on the Malay/Burmese border seem weak. I wonder whether he is leaving this theater on the back burner at the moment until his commitments in SWPac come to some sort of resolution.
Don't you just hate it when you know you can't decide on a course of action? It's especially bad when it involves huge lumps of metal floating around the sea.
I like this quote. Right at the moment it's my favourite:
Maps encourage boldness. They`re like cryptic love letters. They make anything seem possible.
Mark Jenkins. I'm not sure which Mark Jenkins though. Is it the artist, the actor or the climber?
I'm not entirely certain the battle for Wake Island was what he had in mind, however. :DL
It's all about the boldness. Juha has certainly been bold. I'd like to be bold but I can't afford the political points. :haha:
This is exactly like when your trying to sit down to write something and it's something you really need to write but you end up pairing your socks or fixing that drawer which has been broken for a year or so and suddenly seems really important.....OK, OK, I'm going.........
No, I'm not drunk. Just thinking things through.
Ok, well, what's got me all worried and indecisive?
20th Jan 42
Yesterday the Wake PBYs reported a SCTF moving down towards the islands. At dawn the Marine dive bombers took off and flew out to meet these mysterious warships. for a few damaged airframes they managed to land a single bomb on top of BB Mutsi. Due to a number of factors like rain, poor communications and so forth, none of the carrier airgroups participated. It wasn't the best result.
A little while later, A gaggle of Nells launched an air raid from their base in the Marshal islands and were ambushed by a strong CAP from the carriers, shooting down 5 of the Japanese bombers for no losses. Normally this would have delighted me but all it did today was warn him that there are carriers in the area. Although I haven't been able to verify that any float planes from the Japanese SCTF has snooped the carriers I'm reasonably certain he knows where they are. Here's the current picture:
http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/9138/wakethingedit99999.jpg (http://img607.imageshack.us/i/wakethingedit99999.jpg/)
I had wanted to leave the CVs where they were for another turn but I am worried about his SCTF jumping in there during the night. So, as a compromise, they are moving to the east of Wake, at least for the next day. It means that they should hopefully be out the way of a grumpy battleships but probably won't be launching any attacks on them. As way of compensation I've ordered the 4 dauntless squadrons on board the flat tops to engage at maximum range (8 hexes,) They will be out of range of fighter support but shouldn't need it as there won't be any Japanese CAP.
As an added problem, the KB left the waters of the Solomon sea some time during the night. A TF is currently south of Truk and I'm guessing it's her. My fear is that she will head straight to Wake after she refuels. I don't want of my ships in the area if she does, which means I may have to pull back the little supply convoy and reroute the reinforcements which are a couple of days behind.
It's been a toss up between aggression and force preservation. I said from the start Wake isn't worth losing carriers over and I still believe that. At the same time I think it's probably time to upgrade this to a full scale Operation. Any suggestion for names greatly appreciated.
PNG
Moresby fell. No sign of him basing any aircraft there yet. when he does it will close off the route from Sydney to Darwin.
DEI
The Baby KB reappeared but seems to be keeping it's distance from any of the landing currently going ahead. Landings continue at Kendari. Torpedo boats from Makassar will head there tonight and hopefully scare some one. I think Juha's probably figured out I quite like torpedo boats.
Burma
Two supply convoys have reached Rangoon and are unloading. After this they will head back to Colombo, reload and try again. It slightly puzzles me that he hasn't tried to base a Betty squadron somewhere in order to stop me from doing this. Again, it's maybe an indication that he regards this theater as something on the back burner for the time being. That suits me fine.
Pacific Aces
We have a new ace! Step forward Squadron Leader W.F Allshorn of 21 SQn RAAF. This Australian pilot is based in Singers and has just shot down his 5 Japanese pilot in his Buffalo I.
Shipping news
Tennessee, Oklahoma, Nevada and Pennsylvania will all be sent back to the West Coast from Pearl within the next ten days to go into the big yards there. Hopefully they will all be available for action by the summer.
21st Jan 42
CenPac
First up, the battleships have disappeared which I don't like. I'm guessing the Dauntless attack either spooked him into thinking I've got a substantial carrier force present and he's pulled out just in case, or he's pulled back until his own carriers arrive.
His troops on Wake launched a deliberate attack which didn't do very much except kill a few seagulls.
The supply boat should arrive tomorrow. I say 'should' because he has ringed the island with subs.
PI
Another deliberate attack on Manila does not go well for him and he loses another 1588. my AV is actually about 100 higher than his now and, in fact, Juha's troops are the least of my problems as supply is finally running low. An xAKL beat the odds and arrived in the docks this morning carrying about 1800 tonnes but I'll need a lot more than that to survive.
He doesn't seem overly bothered about forcing the issue elsewhere in the Philippines. Maybe he's low on troops....
Malaya
The troops ships I'm hoping to use to evacuate some HQs out of Singers arrived and were promptly torpedoed by Nells. I have no functional CAP left in the city so I've transferred in a Hurri squadron from Batavia. I lost three ships but the ones I have left should be enough. I shall see how the hurris do with the inevitable follow up attack before I start loading.
More importantly. Japanese forces took Johore Bahru this morning. The Siege of Singapore has officially begun.
Sub Wars
I-165 surfaced and hit an xAKL with her deck guns near Palembang. As far as I know she went down. Between the various attacks over the last few days I've lost more ships this week than I have for a while.
22nd Jan 42
CenPac
A tale of screw ups. First, none of the Dauntless squads tasked with bombing the Japanese troops on Wake Island flew, and the supply convoy turned back because I had it set to 'Do not unload.' The reason for this is I had set all of them to do their thing but then discovered that the combat report had freaked out and not actually created any reports so I had to run the turn again. This time around I forgot to set anything....clever, huh?
Anyway, they're done now so we'll see what happens.
The Japanese attack again but didn't achieve anything. They're slowly grinding down their supply and damaging their unit coherence. My reinforcements - another Marine defence battalion - will be there in a couple of days. I also have some fleet oilers loading up at Pearl. They will be away in a day or so and will extend the carriers time on station should I choose to keep them there much longer.
West Coast
The final regiment of the Americal divsison was bought out leaving me with 59 political points but a full infantry division that will be heading south in a week or so.
I love this division; in my last game they had more battle honours than anyone else, leading the assaults into Guadalcanal, Shortlands, Rabaul, Timor, Kendari and Mindanao. When the Japanese surrendered they were prepping for Okinawa. I'll be following the actions of this unit closely.
Singers
Nothing. Nada, Nill. Very quiet....not even a bombing raid on the juicy shipping.
Burma
The supply ships got in and out of Rangoon without any problems. They'll go back to Ceylon and reload. I wonder how many aircraft Juha has up here. The bulk of his anti-shipping aircraft seems to be elsewhere. Is this an oversight or is he waiting more troops before he commits?
Oz
The aircraft convoy will arrive in Sydney tomorrow. It's carrying fighters, bombers and a couple of Marine squadrons. I'll sleep easier knowing that they are there. The tanker convoy will also be very much appreciated as Oz is running low.
Captain Vlad
04-21-11, 07:47 PM
Just gotta say; I'm enjoying this thread immensely.
Wanted this game forever.
elephantium
04-21-11, 09:10 PM
For Wake Island -
Operation Buttercup?
Krauter
04-21-11, 09:26 PM
http://www.withoutatraceroute.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/facepalm-300x240.jpg
Edit: Egan, could he be massing his troops for a mass attack on one area, say Wake or Singers? Could that mean he's stripped other fronts of their units.. perhaps this gives you an opportunity to counter attack
elephantium
04-22-11, 12:59 AM
Hmm, good idea. Egan should definitely go with Operation Facepalm!
@Egan:
You reported that Morseby fell, but you seem neither surprised nor alarmed by this. Isn't this a problem for your ops in PNG/Solomans, or have you planned around this?
Also, you have better success with the torpedo boats than subs. I take it that their torps are much better. Too bad you can't swap out the mk14 with mk10 or something better.
Krauter
04-22-11, 03:09 AM
As TorpX pointed out, if Moresby fell, which if memory serves me correct was the whole reason the Battle of the Coral Sea played out the way it did... shouldn't you be at least a little concerned?
Torplexed
04-22-11, 04:58 AM
As TorpX pointed out, if Moresby fell, which if memory serves me correct was the whole reason the Battle of the Coral Sea played out the way it did... shouldn't you be at least a little concerned?
It's not uncommon for Port Moresby to fall early in this game as Japanese players can often push more aggressively than their historical counterparts in some areas by sacrificing speed in others. Note that Singapore, Manila and most of the Dutch East Indies hasn't fallen yet. Even with this chokepoint lost you can still route convoys well enough south to keep the vital US to Australia supply line open. It does isolate Darwin and Northern Australia a great deal though. As the Allies you pretty much have to cede the Solomons once Rabaul falls anyway due to the aerial threat. All the remaining bases and anchorages there are very primitive at this point and would need months of investment with engineers to build up. Engineers you often don't have yet, or are still in the convoy pipeline.
I've been out celebrating Good Friday by eating oysters and drinking a very fine Muscadet and some gin and tonics. Things may go a bit slower today!
Torplexed is 100% spot on. It is received wisdom in WiTP circles that there is virtually nothing an Allied player can do to stop the Japanese taking Moresby much earlier than normal should they wish to. Am I concerned by it? Yes I am, but I am also realistic.
I have 4 whole divisions in Australia and most of another one. This sounds like a lot but there are two major reason I do not commit them to the defence of either Rabaul or Moresby: I can't afford the Politicial points and for the first year/18 months, those Australian division are largely composed of militia quality troops. Considering those soldiers were supposed to defend Australia properly in real life, rather than anywhere overseas - shortsighted policy or otherwise, I don't know enough to comment - various people do not think they should be used in-game in such ashistorical situations. I don't hold with that. If the Japanese can invade Moresby in January I don't see why I shouldn't use them If can can afford to change their command. Which I can't.
So, why didn't I? Well, I had actually started to move the best part of a brigade into Moresby before it was invaded. It wasn't enough. Even if I had moved a whole Australian division into the port it wouldn't have done more than held off the inevitable for maybe another week and I would have ended up losing a whole div. These troops, although militia quality at the start, upgrade into fearsome formations later in the game. As far as I'm concerned they are every bit the equal of US army, British or Indian divisions and better than any unit the Japanese have. I won't throw them away on unwinnable battles.
I had several cruisers I could have sent north to deal with the Japanese shipping, but the first notification I had that they were even there was when the landings had started. All that would have happened is that they would have been sunk by the KB.
Coral Sea was indeed about the Japanese attempt to take Moresby but there were two vital differences: the presence of US carriers and the fact that the Japanese did not keep the Kido Butai together. This evened things out. It also happened 5 months later. In five more months I will have 6 carriers (5 US, 1 RN,) available, plus a lot more troops and engineers.
We are not even two months into the war, remember. It won't be won or lost at Rabaul, or Wake, or even Singapore or the Philippines. I expect to lose all of them at some point (well, maybe not Wake,) and I expect to lose all of Burma, the DEI and perhaps even Northern Oz as well. Is there a line in the sand? yes there is but he isn't anywhere near that yet.
I don't think he's massing troops for Wake. The atoll can't support them anyway. The entire battle for that rock has a certain 'Carry On' film vibe to it so I'll keep operation Facepalm, I think. :haha:
I still think Oz is on the cards for an invasion. He could be thinking of going for Pearl but I don't think he will. India is another way for the Japanese to go for Autovictoy but I don't think he would be confident of it. I've seen some very, very skilled veteran players crash and burn there even though the consensus is that it can be done.
I know he's prepping troops for Shortlands on Buganville so I expect a major push into the Solomons pretty soon. The PI is still strong but the supply situation will start becoming critical in the next few weeks. Singers will hold out for a while yet.
Right, I've got a turn to play. Back in a bit.
23rd Jan 42
PNG
Landings at Buna at the other end of the Kokoda trail from Port Moresby. Not unexpected, of course.
DEI
Kendari falls, but not before Dutch Sub KIX slams two torpedoes into a troop carrying xAK. Dutch subs lead the way in tonnage so far. I think that's three light cruisers and several marus they've sunk.
Singers
A big bombing raid is ambushed by the Kiwi Hurricanes I moved in. Although none of the Sallies are shot down, 8 of them are damaged. The three units I want to move out should be finished packing their stuff for 'Strategic movement' tomorrow.
CenPac
The Supply ship is unloading at Wake. Again, none of the dive bombers wanted to fly and I'm unsure why. I'll have to look at this closely. As I had 'Ground Attack' set as secondary missions for all three squads I'm wondering whether the three commanders are hedging their bets. The weather has been dreadful too but not bad enough to scrub several missions.
The reinforcement convoy should arrive just after tomorrow (one hex out from making it next turn.) This is turning out to be an interesting affair.
Japanese troop numbers
Although these figures are subject to FOW, spotter error and failure to take into account differences between combat units and rear echelon support troops I think these make interesting reading re intentions: Moresby, 18160 troops present; Rabaul, 13100; Kendari, 4600; Ambon, 2540.
This is, I suppose, what we might expect and is consistent with Juha's strategy so far. An interesting correlation - and one that explains my Submarine fleets relative lack of action - is that the amount of convoys I've seen coming and going from the Home Islands have been quite low. This should be obvious because he doesn't yet have any of the really big producers in the DEI. Palembang, Soerabaja and Balikpapen are the three big oil producers in the game and the fact he hasn't even reconned them yet is a little worrying.
There is a simple domino effect that is quite often seen: To take India or Burma you need Sumatra. To take Sumatra you need Singapore....All of which are still mine.
Shipping news
Battleships New Mexico and Mississippi arrived in San Fransisco today, Idaho arrives tomorrow.
A question about Pearl:
Does your opponent know that he did not sink any of your battleships? (not that it matters at the moment)
A question about Pearl:
Does your opponent know that he did not sink any of your battleships? (not that it matters at the moment)
Good question. I know that Juha is aware his Pearl Harbour attack didn't achieve much because he hinted as much in an Email, but I don't know whether he thinks he sank anything at all.
One of the things about Fog of War in the game is how it affects confirmation of ships sinking. You can put three torpedoes into a battleship, and on the next turn the same ship might appear in the 'sunk ship' list, but until it's both on that list, and you have had a confirmation message about sinking it you can not be sure it has. I've seen it take over 18 months for a confirmation message to come through. You just can't be certain. Sometimes, however, a sinking is accompanied by breaking up noises. If you hear that you can usually
take it that the target went down.
I haven't heard from Happy Times in a couple of days. I know he was having connection problems so it's probably either that or enjoying the Easter weekend.
I managed to get WiTP Tracker working today for the first time ever. For those of you that aren't familiar with it, Tracker is a third party program that loads up turns and gives you a much more detailed break down of virtually everything that happens in your game. It's primary use is for helping you get the best out of the Japanese economy; it will tell you things like exactly how much of a shortfall in oil, of example, a base has each day, or tell you how many days your fuel stockpile will last for at current usage. It can help sort out what units upgrade to what and when, whether a task force has been detected or not, pretty much all the stuff in the game that can be a pain to find out. I never had much use for it before being a mainly Allied player, but loading up a turn from my occasional Japan v AI game has convinced me of it's worth. It is fantastic. For those of you thinking about playing as the Japanese I can't recommend it highly enough.
I know Juha couldn't get it to work either but hopefully we'll be able to sort it out for him. Not that he needs any more help..:DL
My Japanese game is worryingly fun. My Subs are like finely tuned weapons of instant death bringing destruction to the Pacific. I sank the Enterprise last night, though, and I still feel terrible about it. I don't think I'm cut out to be a Japanese Fanboi.
Andy Mac
04-24-11, 06:07 AM
You may not have Xwings but you do get the Vildebeeste and Stringbag use them wisely
(I find them the most potent early war allied aircraft in a lot of ways especially if a Japanese player is to aggressive)
Torplexed
04-24-11, 08:25 AM
You may not have Xwings but you do get the Vildebeeste and Stringbag use them wisely
(I find them the most potent early war allied aircraft in a lot of ways especially if a Japanese player is to aggressive)
Welcome aboard! Are you the same Andy Mac of Matrix fame who wrote WitPAE's AI scripts?:D
You may not have Xwings but you do get the Vildebeeste and Stringbag use them wisely
(I find them the most potent early war allied aircraft in a lot of ways especially if a Japanese player is to aggressive)
Welcome Andy.
Yes, I've found the Vildebeasts to be a godsend in the past. At them moment I have three squads of them in the DEI so I imagine I'll get some good use of out of them when Juha really begins to expand into the region. I have only one Stringbag left, I think, in the area. Their numbers took a beating due to some murderous CAP a while ago.
I've found some of the early war aircraft to be useful. The Dutch bombers, in particular, put the wind up emperor Happy Times on a couple of occasions, especially when he moved on Singkawen and eastern Borneo.
Speaking of Happy Times, I've still not heard anything from him. I hope he's not used the last three days to plot the mother of all turns. :wah:
Andy Mac
04-24-11, 11:42 AM
Just watch the swordfish you get a long period with no FAA Carrier Bomber replacements dont waste them Vildebeestes are good but the Swordfish you need later so dont waste them unless the payoff is good !!!
(yes same Andy Mac)
Just watch the swordfish you get a long period with no FAA Carrier Bomber replacements dont waste them Vildebeestes are good but the Swordfish you need later so dont waste them unless the payoff is good !!!
(yes same Andy Mac)
Well, it's too late for some of them...:), but the two squadrons I have on board the RN carriers remain untouched and with good quality pilots on board. Indomitable should reach Colombo in a day or two and meet up with Hermes and the rest of the fleet. I had originally planned to use them further south if and when an opportunity to hit some shipping presented itself but I'm leaning towards getting them hooked up with the USN carriers that will shortly be moving down to SWPac.
I think there are many early war aircraft that shouldn't be overlooked by the Allies. Even the Dutch bombers in the DEI have given a good account of themselves so far, even if they aren't as reliable as the early torpedo bombers. Mind you, I've had relative freedom in the region so far due to Juha's air cover being rather on the sparse side. Now that he has taken Kendari and Mandano I expect that will change pretty quickly.
Still no word from Happy Times. He doesn't even seem to have been on the boards since late last Thursday night. I'm sure he's alright; as I said before he was having Internet problems. He's been great at letting me know when he's been unavailable so I'm sure he'll be back whenever it's possible for him.
I just wish I hadn't been so keen to send him my last turn. I could have probably done it very thoroughly indeed! :)
I'll fire him off an email tomorrow and check up on him. Juha has been a great opponent so far. He's a really friendly, down to earth guy, and I'm really enjoying the challenge he's throwing out. For a relative new comer to the game he's certainly playing an interesting one.
We'll get back on it the moment he returns - hopefully. My own machine had a bit of a weird-out when it refused to launch windows and then went into it's repair mode, although it seems fine on the reboot. Anyone know what might have caused it? It's failed to load windows a couple of times but has never done this attempt at repairs thing before. I keep meaning to strip it down and change some stuff, reformat and so on but with a bit of luck everything's cool.
I hope your opponent gets back into it soon. This has been very interesting for me.
I can't offer any advice on your computer problem. When I encounter such a problem, I either reboot, or if it is more serious, use system restore (seldom, fortunately).
As nothing is going on ATM, I'll ask a question.
If, for example, you had very meager results with your subs and this continued, could you decide to scale back your fleetboat program and build other things instead, such as more cruisers or destroyers? Or is it a matter of you get whatever you get?
Another question occured to me.
If you were playing the Japanese, could you on Dec. 7, decide to attack and ravage British, Dutch and French posessions, but NOT go to war with the U.S.?
The shipping reinforcement schedule is set in stone for the Allies. The Japanese have more leeway; they can halt production of ship or accelerate them but i don't think they can actually commision anything new.
I don't think you can avoid going to war with America. I guess you theoretically could go through every single unit and have them avoid attacking any US targets but the game isn't rely designed to do
that sort of thing. The allied nations all count as one . Make for a pretty boring game i would imagine.
Submarines
In my last full camaign, I had great success with my subs up until the spring of 44 when Japanese ASW went into it's infamous overdrive period. I was losing such a huge number of boats that I was seriously in danger of having none left by the time 1945 rolled around. As a result of that I pulled them all back port, carried out repairs on the huge amount of damam ge a lot of them had picked up and waited until I launched my nexte major operation.
Now, the Japanese ASW effort was one thing, and it never really affected the devestation my subs wrought upon the enemy until I found myself unable to operate them without them being sunk. But when a new beta patch became available in December, promising some changes to submarines, I decided to upgrade.
Seeing as how I was very much in the 'end game' by that point I didn't think it would do much harm and mostly it didn't. One of the things that seemed to change was that my subs seemed to start missing targets again and even the number of duds went back up. Annoying as it was I just put this down to an unintended result of applying a beta patch to a running game and tried not to worry about it.
When we started the current game Juha and I agreed to continue using this patch rather than the latest beta version that is doing the rounds just now. AS regular readers will know, I have become frustrasted by the total lack of skill shown by any of my submarine commanders. There have been many duds so far, and that is eprfectly within the game, but there have also been a huge number of misses from across all available boats be they Fleet, S class or Dutch and it has reminded me of those little oddities from my last game.
Now, it's still very early and I'm still in the process of swapping commanders over to better men but I am still slightly suspicious of my lack of success with subs so far. As I said, I am not crying over duds or crappy commanders - those things are part of the game - but I am becoming a little wary of changes to the subs since I applied the patch back in December and I will be keeping a very close eye on the situation once we start playing again. Basically I'm worried the performance of my subs has something to do with the beta patch i am using rather than either my or my subs lack of skill. Well, at least partly. :)
Interestingly, in my test Japanese game against the AI, I see the things working perhaps a little too well; MY fleet of Japanese boats has murdered it's way across the Pacific so far, taking out battleships, carriers and cruisers with equal relish. The Allied subs under AI control have also proved to be better than their equivalents in the PBEM game.
I'm not really meaning any of this to come across as a rant but I just wanted to get something off my chest a bit. Being that much more interested in the sub war than in other elements it's a part of the game that I'm most interested to see pan out.
I would certainly feel the same way. I consider the subs to be an important part of the war. I don't really understand why the difference in the AI and the PBEM games though. Wouldn't the tactical success rate be the same?
I did read the thread that you linked to about the sub/ escort capability. I got the impression that it was seriously out of whack. If I read it right, they are not going to patch the code anymore, so it will be up to the modders to deal with the issue. (Gee, doesn't this sound familiar. :rolleyes: ) From what was said, late war Japanese escorts gained a big advantage in being able to make multiple attacks with a larger number of DC launchers, but the subs gained little in the way of being able to launch multiple torpedos; "end-arounds" and successive attacks on convoys, not being modeled.
Torplexed
04-28-11, 08:02 PM
I must admit I've never run into the infamous Japanese ASW overdrive. But that's probably because in my game against the Japanese AI, I had overrun Hokkaido and most of northern Japan by November 1943 and the Japanese merchant marine and any escorts it had was virtually gone. The 2nd Marine Division was parked just one hex outside of Tokyo by then. I decided to call the game at that point. Needless to say Japanese production was at rock bottom and the country was isolated from any resources from the outside world. If I recall correctly, the only Japanese carrier still afloat was the Kaga at Truk. And she had no fuel.
http://pyxis.homestead.com/Japan-Overrun.jpg
I would certainly feel the same way. I consider the subs to be an important part of the war. I don't really understand why the difference in the AI and the PBEM games though. Wouldn't the tactical success rate be the same?
I did read the thread that you linked to about the sub/ escort capability. I got the impression that it was seriously out of whack. If I read it right, they are not going to patch the code anymore, so it will be up to the modders to deal with the issue. (Gee, doesn't this sound familiar. :rolleyes: ) From what was said, late war Japanese escorts gained a big advantage in being able to make multiple attacks with a larger number of DC launchers, but the subs gained little in the way of being able to launch multiple torpedos; "end-arounds" and successive attacks on convoys, not being modeled.
I don't think there is any difference between the AI and player to be honest. I think a lot of it is probably in my imagination. Still, I'll keep an eye on it. I'm just amazed by what my Japanese subs in my other game are achieving, though. I think both Uncommon Valor and the original WiTP had an option to enable realistic Japanese Sub Doctirne (You know, warships are the primary target rather than merchies,) and I think it would have been nice to still have the option. The thing to point out is that Juha's subs have sunk less than mine in the current PBEM so, from that point of view at least, things are about equal.
I've lost track of how many attack my subs have carried out but the torpedo hit rate - taking into account both duds and misses - does seem rather low. However, as I have to remind myself the Dutch subs have generally done not too bad with three light cruisers and several other ships sunk but aside from Seawolf I don't think a single fleet boat has hit anything, and Seawolf's one victory was in a surface action.
Looking at tracker, I see three ships sunk by 53 cm W1 torpedo - the Dutch -a solitary MK 10 - S-boat I think? and one 21 inch MK 12 which i'm not sure about. Is it US or British? There should be another two or three torpedo kills there I think but FOW had not let them be confirmed. A couple of these are torpedo boat kills and there are another couple of kills from surface actions.
we are almost at the two month mark and I really did expect more sub based kills. Interestingly, I notice there are two or three threads about dud rates over at Matrix just now.
The fact that my Japanese subs are doing really well leads me to think that my failures in the PBEM are the result of poor commanders (low aggression should lead to more misses I think,) poor torpedoes and a general lack of merchant convoy so far. We'll see where we are in another month or two.
Are you able to track contacts, so you could get an idea of your avg. rate of hits?
I see your point about it still being very early. U.S. boats certainly did not have great success in the first 2 months.
I must admit I've never run into the infamous Japanese ASW overdrive. But that's probably because in my game against the Japanese AI, I had overrun Hokkaido and most of northern Japan by November 1943 and the Japanese merchant marine and any escorts it had was virtually gone. The 2nd Marine Division was parked just one hex outside of Tokyo by then. I decided to call the game at that point. Needless to say Japanese production was at rock bottom and the country was isolated from any resources from the outside world. If I recall correctly, the only Japanese carrier still afloat was the Kaga at Truk. And she had no fuel.
Was your strategy brilliant, or is the AI just that wimpy?
Torplexed
04-29-11, 08:44 PM
Was your strategy brilliant, or is the AI just that wimpy?
I found out later that Hokkaido is a weak point with the AI script. An exploit that should be avoided if you want a challenging game. As it stands now once Japanese carrier power has been dealt with, you can invade there pretty easily from Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians, overrun the island which historically was poorly garrisoned from 1941-43 in a month or so and then turn it into a major launching pad for the invasion of Honshu. It's a dandy bomber base too. This should never happen with a human playing as Japan.
Hooray! Happy Times has reappeared! It seems he went away for a couple of days which then got extended to a week and even though he thought he'd sent me an email he had saved it to 'drafts' by mistake.
I've done the same thing before; I just got back in contact with my regular Combat Mission: Strike Force PBEM partner after realizing I'd sent my last turn to his old email address. He's been kind of busy for the last six months so we never even noticed...
Anyway, we'll hopefully get back on it soon.
Torpx: I can sort of use tracker (or even the ships sunk tab in game) to tell me what ordnance sunk a particular ship but I can't tell who sank it except from my notes. If I get the time I'll go through them and see if I can compile a 'tonnage' list.
As for the AI: I have found the AI to be pretty good, in actual fact. It won't challenge a player like a human will but it still makes for a fun game even for more experienced players. There are a number of scripts for the AI to choose from so it isn't limited to the same moves over and over again. It tends to work better if the player himself tries to stick to a more historical course of action and it doesn't really respond well if you try all sorts of crazy things.
Generally, though, it's pretty impressive. I enjoy playing the AI and recommend it for more than simple 'training'. You can get a great game out of it.
It does seem like a very interesting game. I used to play various board games and this reminds me of a game called '3rd Reich' . It was a grand strategy game, but was, at least compared to this, rather flawed. Much less detailed, of course.
I'll most likely buy this one sooner or later. I had to order some books though, they take priority, atm. :DL
In a bid to get my war-brains working again I thought I'd post about strategy.
Since the start of the game I have been considering a more or less historical island hopping campaign across CenPac with the goal of taking the air bases on Saipan, Tinnian and Guam. From there I'll fly B-29 raids against Japanese industry in the Home Islands and hopefully gather some rather nice, fat victory points. You can get a lot of these from a good strategic bombing campaign and it also has the nice effect of damaging Japan's ability to wage war.
I've never really tried this approach before, and from what I can gather elsewhere the majority of Allied players tend to go through the DEI/Philippines in a bid to cut Japans supply of oil at the source. I've done this in the past and it's a good way to play. The big disadvantage is that against a decent Japanese player the Allies are going to be facing a maelstrom of naval bombers and a huge amount of interlocking fighter cover from the myriad of big airfields in that region. It can be done but it's hard going. Taking the Pacific islands is easier in this regard as the Japanese shouldn't have quite as much interdependency with regards to air power. I won't have as much either but it should be mitigated to a large degree by my carriers. I'll have about 10 fleet carriers, a couple of light carriers and a bunch of escort carriers by the time things kick off in earnest and should be able to bring over whelming force to any operation.
The biggest problem is that I won't have anywhere near enough ships with amphibious capability until mid 43, and that's a long way away in the future. The other problem is that this is a best case scenario; I don't know what Juha is likely to do (although I have my suspicions,) and for quite a while to come my only real choice is to react to his moves rather than initiate my own. From the looks of it he is going to be moving into the Solomons fairly soon so I envision I'll be embarking on a pretty historical set of moves of my own by the Autumn.
I have thought for a while that Juha may try to take Australia, or even try to strangle any supply to the region. In both cases I think he has to take a number of objectives to ensure that reinforcements and supply take far longer than normal to arrive. Perth, Noumea, Suva and possibly Northern New Zealand would be the ones I would go for in order to force Allied convoys into far longer routes that had to be heavily protected. As a result of this, my own operations have to be carried out in order to keep Australia open for business. this will occupy most of my thinking for a while.
In India and Burma I would like to push forward whenever I get the chance. Whether it will be in 42 or 43 I don't know. The commonwealth tends to reach a critical mass in this part of the world by mid 43 and I would like to get as far as Bangkok for a start or maybe even Saigon. I think this is doable - very much so - and it may hopefully tie up a large amount of Japanese divisions and stop them from being used in other locations. Once I get into a good position I mean to cut south and head into Malaya.
Something else I have only really realised is that although Japan starts the game with the ability to use all xAK and xAP type ships as if they had amphibious capability, that bonus runs out at the end of march so if he's going to go for my jugular quickly, he'll most likely do so in the next two months. After that the scale and speed of his invasions should be cut back quite dramatically.
I guess we'll see how much any of this translates into the actual war. The best laid plans and all that....
Slyguy3129
05-02-11, 02:32 AM
In my GC as allies using the latest official patch (the fifth) I am having what I would consider decent luck with my subs. I even had one of the Dutch subs sink a BB I had wounded in a Surface battle earlier as it went back to the base just south east of the PIs. My s boats are doing better than my fleetboats but even still I am having luck.
The only real problem with my GC? Well two actually, I had all 5 of my carriers in or around Darwin messing with his invasion fleets in mid Jan, and was doing really well to, by conservative estimates I had destroyed 80% of atleast two invasion fleets. But I thought the super CVTF would be able to rearm at Darwin. No such luck and as I slowly made its way into Sydney, Jap took port Mo.
I was willing to play through what I would consider a strategic blunder, so I played through Feb. On Feb 22 I found out that I can load troops on ships other than AP.... Before I thought my troops could only be loaded and moved via AP but that isn't the case. I am fairly certain I learned that I this thread.
Not only that but I feel like I was kickin butt in China. But somethin funny happened along the way. The game doesn't feel quite so overwhelming as it did. I'm finally able to look at the map and grasp it. Info screen make more sense, and again I just do not get the feeling of bieng lost.
For those reading and wanting to try the game but fear the scale. I honestly can say that once you invest a bit of time in it, the game becomes increasingly familiar. I bought the game around the time this thread started and used it as a reference and tool. Not to mention it is just down right bloody addicting!
I though the Civ series had the "just one more turn" syndrome. This game, takes that and puts it straight to crack cocaine, lol.
Soon as a get a new motherboard I'm gonna load up another GC and take it to the Japs!
Also while I'm at it, do you have suggestions on good art mods? I'm looking for something that changes the most from stock/vanilla. I had found one a while back but lost it.
Nvm found it, it was Big Bs shipyard.
I was willing to play through what I would consider a strategic blunder, so I played through Feb. On Feb 22 I found out that I can load troops on ships other than AP.... Before I thought my troops could only be loaded and moved via AP but that isn't the case. I am fairly certain I learned that I this thread.
Bit confused here: you learned here that you COULD move troops by ships other than Aps here or you couldn't? If it's the latter I apologise; My strategy is going to be based around amphibious capacity more and more as the game unfolds so my thinking about troops shipping has mainly reflected that. It's going to become harder and harder for me to remember every detail as the game goes on so if you have any questions or if there is anything you're not clear on just let me know. Won't promise I'll be able to make it clearer but at least we'll look busy! :D
Troops can indeed be moved by xAps and xAPLs for invasion purposes but you get no amphibious bonus with them and they are virtually useless for invading smaller targets like atolls and small islands. By the time you get enough troops and supplies on to the shore you're going to have real problems. This is also the same for the xAK/AK/AKA classes.
The manual has a table in it somewhere that lists the various amphibious bonuses. It's also worth reading the sections dealing with reloading and rearming rates at the different port sizes. This has a profound effect on gameplay.
Actually, I advise reading the manual from cover to cover, over and over again until it you can recite in in conversation with normal people. it impresses them no end.
Not only that but I feel like I was kickin butt in China. But somethin funny happened along the way. The game doesn't feel quite so overwhelming as it did. I'm finally able to look at the map and grasp it. Info screen make more sense, and again I just do not get the feeling of bieng lost.
This is very true. Once you spend time actually playing the game a lot of stuff becomes second nature. That huge map doesn't seem anywhere near as big when you start learning to focus on the relevant sections of it as you need to.
I've never used any mods with the game. I keep meaning to but I've never got around to it.
To add to what I was saying about the various ships: I think I've mentioned this before in the AAR but it's worth pointing out again. There are a number of ships, mainly AK and AP classes but some others as well (such as the X versions,) that can be upgraded to APA and AKA class amphibious ships. There are also a number of others that can be upgraded to AGs, AEs and AKEs.
Of all of these, the ones that upgrade into ammo tenders (AE and AKE,) are the most important because the number the Allies receive is very, very small. Even at the start of the game you will have a lot of xAKs and suck like so a good strategy is to check what ships upgrade to these more useful sorts and move them somewhere safe like the west coast until they convert. with the amphibious ships you get quite a lot but you still want to save as many of the upgradeable ships as you can.
The one major problem is that you will probably find that you will need the APs and AKs you get in 41 and 42 for landing your first wave forces during campaigns in places like the the Solomons so you might well lose a few before they upgrade. I personally would be loath to commit these ships early on without MAJOR support in the shape of carriers and air cover. They are the only ships for the first year with decent unload rates over a beach head and need to be guarded.
Slyguy3129
05-02-11, 02:54 PM
Ha sorry for the confusion of my post. I've been up glued to the TV since 11 last night.
I learned that I could load troops on ships other than AP somewhere in this thread. I think you mentioned a convoy picking up guys and I noticed there were no AP and I was like :hmmm:. I had been wondering anyways how you were able to move them so much. With the movements you were doing and the AP numbers I had I just very very very slowly put 1 and 1 together.
You have been very clear and concise with your explanations and the only time I've scratched my head is because I was unsure of a game function or something along those lines.
Your AAR has been not only entertaining but an invaluable learning tool for me! Just want to thank you again!
My pleasure. I'm really enjoying writing it. Hopefully once Juha has 'recovered' we can get right back on it. Those guys at Wake must be itching to get off the troop ship by now.
You get lots of decent troops ships all through the game but it's never enough. Early war you'll spend a bit of time having to worry about the actual physical limitations of supply movement, particularly with regard to invasion forces. for example, if I was invading Guadalcanal I'd have my first wave loaded in whatever APs and AKs I had available so that when they arrive they get onto the beach quickly. My landing force would probably have Marines, maybe a Regimental Combat Team, Combat engineers and a naval support detachment (more about them in a moment,) my second wave would contain more supply and heavier units if I needed them like Armour, arty perhaps a base force and more infantry. I would expect the second wave would have a higher number of xAPs and xAks but I'd still like to have some amphibious capability if I could. You might also want some form of air support base force if you intend to get an airfield up and running straight away. A third wave would probably be engineer and support unit heavy as they aren't needed right off.
You might also have to look elsewhere to supply these bases if they are hotly contested. In my example, Guadalcanal is well within range of Japanese aircraft like Betties and Nells with their torpedoes and you might find you don't have enough time to unload slower ships. In this case I find the fast transports like the APDs (troop and supply carrying destroyers,) to be invaluable. They don't carry a huge amount, but putting them in a fast transport task force has a special move: They will get forward during the day and them sprint in at night to unload, hopefully avoiding airstrikes. By dawn they should be long gone. Submarines will also be important in this role. Although they obviously carry very little everything will be welcome.
During the game you will get small naval support detachments. I think you get about half a dozen through the normal channels and they usually have a support rating of about 30. it doesn't sound like a lot but that 30 score helps out a lot for speeding up unloading in the smaller ports. There are a few others scattered across the map at the start so you''l need to decide whether or not to leave them in situ or move them to where they might really be needed.
Slyguy3129
05-03-11, 01:32 AM
Ah now see that just the kinda of info I need. I don't really know much about how to compile an invasion force, but that certainly lights the way. I suppose just to clarify that you mean AK/P purposely without the x prefix? X is a Civy conversation right and not as good?
The Base Forces and what not are needed at places that are not very large? In other words I don't need those three BF units sitting in Diego and can move them elsewhere or do all bases need a minimum amount of units for support? And again does it matter where the support cokes from or does it need to be specifically Naval Support and Air Support to do any good for the base. In other words the engineers in an infantry div want do much or as much as NS or AS?
Torplexed
05-03-11, 07:10 AM
specifically Naval Support and Air Support to do any good for the base. In other words the engineers in an infantry div want do much or as much as NS or AS?
Generally, naval support helps ships load and unload and assists with ship repair. Air support helps keep planes flying and assist with the number of aircraft you can stack at a base without penalty. The engineers help expand a base and aid in it's repair from damage.
Slyguy3129
05-03-11, 08:20 AM
Excellent thank you TPX! I found out the hard way not to set the whole base to rest/training. I had a good numbers of units somewhere I forget, but there were plenty of engineers there but none were showing up listed in the base screen. So I fooled around a bit trying to figure it out, and noticed they were all "training" *read sleeping lol*. I thought :hmmm: I wonder and switched them to combat. Instantly they showed as listed in the has screen and when I finished the order phase I did a serious facepalm. In one turn they did about 10% wort of work on the ppets and airport. I had, had over 500 engineers there for almost two months doing nothing but eating and sleeping.
Reminds me of the pic and caption posted here whn Egan said he was on pain meds.
Wish I was on my pain meds today; my knee is killing me. I'm going to self medicate with beer when the Barca-Real Champions league game starts.
An interesting thing I've noticed about Air Support is that there seems to be a cap on it. EG: the most air support any base will need is 250 regardless of how big it is and how many aircraft are based there. I don't know if this is the way it is supposed to be, or if it as a bug but that's what I see in may games. You Simply don't ever need more than 250 points worth of air support at any airbase.
Re San Diego: One of the Base Forces is permanently restricted anyway so can't be moved but the other two are both attached to Pacific command and I would personally get them somewhere useful as soon as you can. As a general rule, if a unit is named something like 'San Diego base force' it is probably going to be permanently restricted. Even if it isn't I wold probably leave it in situ unless there is a really pressing need to move it. There are a lot of units in the DEI, like the 'Tarakan coastal gun battalion' which are temp restricted and you'll have to decide whether they are worth moving. If you remember, this very unit took out and damaged a number of ships when Juha's invasion fleet arrived so even though I've now lost that unit I think I got a good price for it.
I'm still not totally sure about when to use the rest/training setting. It seems to be the one you need for upgrading and obtaining replacements but whether it is essential or simply speeds it up I'm not sure. I really need to sit down with the manual and go through it again as a refresher course.
As for engineers in infantry division, often they are combat engineers and they are very useful for attacking well fortified bases. In general, though, I don't think too many division come with enough organic engineering capability to make an enormous difference.
I'm hoping Juha gets a turn out soon. Given that those Finnish boys have a reputation on a par with the Irish and we Scots for getting Jaked I feel nothing but awe for the level of holiday binging which leaves our lad needing a week to recover....:salute::D
I'll be going to Rome in about ten days for a week so I really hope we get some turns in before then. I'm sure we will. Bring it on.
I forgot: yes, any ship with an 'X' at the front is a civilian ship. Good for hauling stuff around but not so hot at the business end of an invasion.
Right well, i'm at work just now but Juha has broken cover to tell me he's sent the next turn. Hurray! I was beginning to get bored of falling out the sky in 'Rise of Flight.'
Now, where we we?
24th Jan 42
CenPac
In the couple of weeks he's been away Juha seems to have started believing he's playing as Germany or something! One of the regular supply convoys on the SF-Pearl route is attacked by a pair of Armed Merchant Cruisers about 300 miles north of Pearl. They fail to land any rounds on any of the ships in the convoy but are themselves left burning by the escorts. I'm not sure exactly how damaged they are but I'll be keeping an eye to see whether one of them goes down.
The reinforcement convoy arrives at Wake and starts unloading the Defence battalion. A submarine, RO-61 gets close and launches attacks during the night and again in the morning but takes a number of hits for her troubles. She is also reported to have caught fire but I don't know how accurate that report is likely to be so it's discounted.
The Marine divebombers actually get an attack in on the Japanese positions too but don't achieve very much.
SWPac
Japanese forces take Buna and start landings at Shortlands. My subs launch a couple of attacks here and there. Can you guess the results? :nope:
Singers
A big raid comes in but does very little. 11 of his bombers are reported damaged so hopefully some of them won't make it home. I lose two fighters which wouldn't have been a problems but we're beginning to run low. The Kiwi Hurris are the only truly combat capable fighter squad left in Malaya now and they won't last long under repeated attacks. I'll have to see what I can do about that but I fear the answer might be 'not much'.
Better news - well, mixed really I suppose - the 6th Tank regiment crosses the causeway towards Singers forcing a shock attack. The unit loses 93 vehicles (including 46 destroyed outright,) and will be out of the fight for a while. More Japanese units are approaching though so things are going to start getting dicey pretty soon. Even so, I have a lot of supply and about 500 AV behind 3.5 forts so I reckon I can hold out for a while yet.
Burma
Blenheims' sortie from Rangoon and pound Japanese troops at Pegu doing 127 casualties. I imagine they are in Move mode so are in road columns therefore presenting a nice target.
Thoughts
It's nice to be back. It's been a long couple of weeks without my daily fix. Things are going about as well as they were before the break. I may have a nice surprise for Juha next turn but I'll need to see whether it comes off or goes all Pete Tong. (Does anyone use that expression any more? Does anyone even remember who Pete Tong was? I'm not even sure.)
Torplexed
05-06-11, 08:01 PM
Good to see things rolling again. :yeah:
Yes, great to see this back in action! This thread is one of the things that re-ignited my interest towards the Pacific war recently. Sadly I have neither money nor time to get this now, so back to the 'list of things to get' it goes for a good while I guess :(
Cheers boys. Hopefully we'll get a few turns in this week before I go away but after that there's nothing to stop us. Well, except real life..
Thoughts
I was caught out by the AMC raid, although it turned out OK. I really wasn't expecting such an attack in this area, which was obviously a mistake. I think there has been a certain amount of complacency on my part at times due to playing against the AI for so long and then fighting against a human player. This is the sort of situation that an escort carrier or two would be ideal for as I have none I'm probably going to have to start using destroyers and/or light cruisers for some additional security. I'm not too surprised that their presence was missed by patrol aircraft; the attack point was a long way from anywhere and it was only two ships. I definitely came off better, though. I'm unsure how may AMCs the Japanese player gets but if it's anything like the Allies the answer is 'not many'.
I'm assuming the reason he sent them all the way out here on there own is that A, they normally have pretty good range, B, it's kind of cool in an early Atlantic war sort of way, and C, the majority of his decent ships are busy with more important business.
I'll have to be on my guard.
Well, sorry I've not updated much but there hasn't been anything to update. Juha seems to have disappeared so the game has stalled once again. Although he seems to have been around on the forums it takes a lot of time to actually do a turn some times so I'm assuming he's run off his feet and tied up with real life again. I sent him a note about my upcoming time away so I wonder if one of us made a mistake somewhere along the line.
I don't want to feel like I'm being pushy but I'll drop him a line later on and see whether he wants to put it on hold for a while - until after I get back from Italy at the least. If he's having a busy old time of it I would rather he worries about that than whether he's got the time to do a turn with me breathing down his neck.
It's a bit irritating because over the last few days I've begun formulating a devious plan....:arrgh!:
It's a bit irritating because over the last few days I've begun formulating a devious plan....:arrgh!:
http://www.stareditions.com/images/products/large/MIRRORPIX/WA/WA2824713.jpg
I was just watching that last night as well! I've always been quite taken with Baldric's explanation of the causes of World War 1: it started because a fellow called Archie Duke got hungry and shot an ostrich. :haha:
Ok. Seems to have been a comms mix up. It happens. Regular service will (probably) be resumed soon.
Look like the CMBN demo might be up tonight. What are the chances a big fat turn will arrive the moment I install the darn thing? :har:
Look like the CMBN demo might be up tonight. What are the chances a big fat turn will arrive the moment I install the darn thing? :har:
Tonight? Omfgomfgomfgomfg!!!!!
Raptor1
05-13-11, 06:38 AM
Tonight? Omfgomfgomfgomfg!!!!!
It's already out...
It's already out...
And here I am stuck at work... :(
Excellent AAR by the way Egan. Got me interested enought to boot up the game again and restart my work on a combat report viewer application. Never played PBEM though but might try and find an opponent just to give it a go.
I'm enjoying the demo. Wishing I was moving aircraft carriers around, though. :D
To be honest, I still prefer SF. SF delivered something very different and I can't wait SF2 whenever that might be. CMBN is certainly very nice, though; it's a worthy successor to the old games.
Daft: PBEM is definitely the way to play the game, I think. There are obvious pros and cons but it delivers a very different challenge. The AI in WiTP is generally very good, though, and I enjoy playing against the computer. I think it's good enough to provide a decent and challenging learner experience. It's also very useful for simply trying things out.
I don't know if there will be any more turns until I get back from Italy now. Think Juha is still tied up with this and that so I won't annoy him again until I get home. His last email a few days ago said he was taking his time on the current turn as it was 'very exciting'. I don't know what 'very exciting' means in Juha-speak but I'mm pretty certain it can't be good for the Allies. :DL
I'm enjoying the demo. Wishing I was moving aircraft carriers around, though. :D
To be honest, I still prefer SF. SF delivered something very different and I can't wait SF2 whenever that might be. CMBN is certainly very nice, though; it's a worthy successor to the old games.
Daft: PBEM is definitely the way to play the game, I think. There are obvious pros and cons but it delivers a very different challenge. The AI in WiTP is generally very good, though, and I enjoy playing against the computer. I think it's good enough to provide a decent and challenging learner experience. It's also very useful for simply trying things out.
I don't know if there will be any more turns until I get back from Italy now. Think Juha is still tied up with this and that so I won't annoy him again until I get home. His last email a few days ago said he was taking his time on the current turn as it was 'very exciting'. I don't know what 'very exciting' means in Juha-speak but I'mm pretty certain it can't be good for the Allies. :DL
Loving the BfN demo to be honest. Great feel to it.
As for WitP, I've restarted an AI campaign as the Allies and it really is massively fun just taking your time each turn and plotting the moves. Lots of book-keeping at times, but it's bearable. I'll probably start looking for a like minded PBEM opponent soonish, one that isn't demanding 1 turn a day commitments and stuff like that. A long, long term opponent. :) Also restarted the Combat Reporter development so we'll see how that goes. A nice little home project at least.
I'll probably start looking for a like minded PBEM opponent soonish, one that isn't demanding 1 turn a day commitments and stuff like that. A long, long term opponent. :)
Well, you see, it starts like that and you think you can handle 1 turn a day or so but before you know it it's 3AM, the ashtray's full and you're mashing the sync button on Windows Mail in desperation of your next fix....
Just sayin'....:haha:
Well, you see, it starts like that and you think you can handle 1 turn a day or so but before you know it it's 3AM, the ashtray's full and you're mashing the sync button on Windows Mail in desperation of your next fix....
Just sayin'....:haha:
Since I work that way with programming (although my poison is snus) I'll probably demand at least two turns a day from my opponent in due time. :D
- Egan walks in a looks around. He opens the curtains and blinks as weak daylight fills the thread. He coughs and screws his face up. Should have emptied the bin and the ashtray before I went on holiday, he thinks to himself. On the walls bits of paper filled with notes, half formed plans and threats to himself are stuck into place with blu-tac, beneath a huge mural that simlpy says "GET THE CARRIERS."
How do lads. I've been back from my hols for a week now and, although I've PM'ed the errant emperor of Japan I've yet to hear back from him. last time I spoke to him, about a week before I left, he said he was working on a turn and that it was a 'very exciting' one. I'm keen to get this game going again but there's not much I can do about that until Happy Times resurfaces. I don't know what the issue is; real life, lack of time, lack of interest. Maybe he sank all my carriers during that 'exciting turn' and feels too guilty about it...:D I wish I could tell you more, but there isn't anything else to tell. hopefully I'll hear one way or another in the next few days. I don't want to badger the poor boy so I'll leave him another week and then try and see whether he's around.
Anyway. When last we spoke the battle for Wake was raging, He had started landing at Buganville and Kevvo the flying dog was having a bit of a kip on his master's porch as several squadrons of US fighters had arrived in Australia. I hinted I had big plans but they were sort of malformed, scared little things at that point. Well, they're still a bit runtish but I'm still looking at what they might become.
I keep thinking about all I said about NoPac and how I couldn't understand why anyone would bother. I'm slowly coming to the conclusion NoPac could be a very useful theatre indeed. So far I've allowed Juha to decide his moves. I think it's time to force him to think about where he has to go and see whether I can catch him between a rock and a hard place. Further to this, I've been wondering how early an counter attack through Burma and into Japanese territory could take place. I have often said that there comes a point when Commonwealth forces can reach a critical mass in India and I still think that's the case, but I'm beginning to wonder how much lower that critical mass needs to be if he concentrates - or is forced to concentrate - elsewhere. I think he might hold off on a full scale invasion of Burma until spring time, perhaps even until the Japanese amphibious bonus runs out at the end of April. I hope we get a chance to find out.
Right. Update over. The Champion's league final is on and, as the only man on earth who apparently doesn't like Barcelona or their tippy-tappy-fall over-and-cry-a-lot style of football, I'm off to shout on big Alex and his lads.
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/8026/alexferguson1.jpg
:D
Superb. I'm putting that on a T-shirt!
Good game by the way. Even Barca are playing with a bit of oomph tonight.
elephantium
05-29-11, 08:14 PM
Welcome back, Egan. I don't have anything constructive to add, but I've been enjoying this thread.
I don't have anything constructive to add.
Lol, Don't worry - neither do the rest of us! :D
elephantium
06-19-11, 10:12 PM
Is this game dead?
I was enjoying the writeups :(
Funnily enough, I was just coming onto the forum to write a post about that very subject.
Situation is this: I haven't heard from Happy Times since before I went to Rome back in mid May. When I came back I contacted him via PM the day I got home but never received a reply. I emailed him a couple of days ago asking him to get in touch if he wants to continue the game or even if he wants to put it into hibernation for a while but if I didn't here from him within a few days I would take it that the game was dead. I still haven't heard back from him but it's only been two or three days so I'm willing to give him a bit more time.
I also notice he hasn't been on Subsim since the day I went to Rome. He always seemed to be a regular visitor before that so I don't know what the situation is. Obviously real life takes precedence over anything like this and I hope that he is OK and nothing serious is amiss. At the risk of annoying him with all the eager persistence of a spaniel wanting a walk, could anyone who is in communication with him maybe either have a word with him or drop me a PM to let me know he's OK.
Of the three options I would rather that the game either continues or stops, rather than goes into hiatus. The reason for this is if it doesn't continue I would like to start a new game (in which I would play the Japanese side this time) and there isn't enough time in life to play two WiTP games at the same time. I have no real experience of playing as the Empire but I would want to do an AAR here for it too because it's just too much darn fun not to. I won't be doing this immediately, though, as I want to give Juha time to come back if he wants to.
Anyways, that's where we're at. I was enjoying the game as well and it was just getting interesting. who knows, though. Maybe we'll come back stronger than ever. Let's hope so!
Any news?
I was really enjoying this AAR. Also, I bought this game and now am trying to figure out how to play it. I was hoping for some more tips here. I feel like someone who is attempting to manage the snowflakes in a blizzard. :haha:
I hope nothing bad happeded to Happy Times.
No, no news. :(
Likewise, I hope he's OK. I'm sure he is, although I am beginning to suspect he might actually have been on board one of those merchant cruisers I battered in the last turn.
I'm not declaring it dead yet. I'll give him another while but it's not looking very hopeful.
Krauter
06-28-11, 03:43 PM
http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com/
http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com/
Heh. That was the worst bit of a film I actually really enjoyed. You know what made it suck? They used edited bits of that last sequence for one of the trailers that was really cool.
'Lord Vader.'
'Yes master'
'Riiiiiise'
:up:
I sat through the entire film looking forward to it and then I get that stupidity with the Boris Karloff homage. Still, At least we got the bit with the twins sun over Tatooinne. Had to dry a tear away after that bit.
'Lord Vader.'
'Yes master'
'Riiiiiise'
:up:
I saw the trailer with those lines after the movie but man I was annoyed that it wasn't in the movie :damn:.
Biggles
06-29-11, 04:30 AM
I sat through the entire film looking forward to it and then I get that stupidity with the Boris Karloff homage. Still, At least we got the bit with the twins sun over Tatooinne. Had to dry a tear away after that bit.
Aye, that ending is friggin' beautiful :salute:
HunterICX
06-29-11, 06:14 AM
I saw the trailer with those lines after the movie but man I was annoyed that it wasn't in the movie :damn:.
Same :shifty:
anyway especially in Episode 3 Ian McDiarmid FTW :rock: but I've always liked the Emperor more then Darth Vader as the bad guy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKH9SlrYp98
HunterICX
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