WiTP:AE - Guadalcanal. Egan(J) v CCIP(A). BANZAI! - Page 22

Egan · 03-05-12, 03:46 PM

14th Dec

I've a confession to make: I've had the flu for the last couple of days, which may have had some bearing on my hair-brained "Everything flies, don't come home if you sink nowt" Betty scheme...

As it was, the Allied ships vanished into the Fog of War again and my boys didn't have anything to sink within range so they all slept late and wrote letters home instead. Probably a good thing. I've stood them down for a couple of days. They've taken a few losses recently against the Lightnings and could do with lowering a bit of fatigue.

Elsewhere, things were quiet. Subs and Destroyers swapped munitions without anything being damaged and even the tiny, daily Liberator raids over Rabaul didn't achieve anything.

I wonder where all his ships went. South, I reckon. I've a huge proportion of my remaining subs plying the waters between PNG and Oz and I think I would have spotted something if it was inbound to Milne Bay.

Egan · 03-10-12, 12:08 PM

15th Dec

The major thing to report is that CCIP has troops on the march towards Tassafaronga from Lunga. I have to admit, I'm not sure how far they have gone as I haven't really been paying attention to Guadalcanal for a while. I am stripping several existing task forces of destroyers at the moment in a bid to run a massive fast transport relief effort to the island. I have a number of troops there so any attempt by him to take the base should be fairly costly, especially as I have my men behind a number of forts. I need to get more supplies to them, though.

He has begun daylight raids again over Rabaul. I don't mind this as it means my fighters can see what they are shooting at. I think he would need a really huge effort to do any real damage here and, at the range he has to fly, that's pretty hard to do as coordination penalties tend to have a greater effect on long range raids than shorter - somewhat obviously perhaps. Even though my fighters are gradually worn down, my pilots often survive. His don't, because they either bail out over the ocean or over my base. Things even themselves out I guess.

An Allied TF is tooling around somewhere south of Townsville. Who knows what it is. Not I!

We apologise for the delay. CCIP is expected to actually do some work at his job occasionally. Slave drivers!

Falkirion · 03-12-12, 05:40 PM

While you guys are swapping turns can you kick his butt into updating his thread on this little war you two are fighting.

What's your next objective since you've now got Milne and Moresby is basically boned given enough time?

Egan · 03-13-12, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Falkirion

While you guys are swapping turns can you kick his butt into updating his thread on this little war you two are fighting.

What's your next objective since you've now got Milne and Moresby is basically boned given enough time?

I'm not so sure about Moresby...well....I am but it's going to be very costly. Once that's out of the way I reckon I'll march into Brisbane and Sydney....

If the game lasts that long I aim to head back down the slot in strength. I have been looking at some real estate in Northern Oz recently, though. Cairns could be a most interesting location.

Yes, I just noticed he hasn't updated for a while. He has mentioned it a couple of times so I know he is aware of it, but his work is really battering him just now, amongst other things. We've all been there. Except me, that is, because my job now requires all the spare intellectual capacity of a slice of toast.

16th/17th Dec

A double header mainly notable for the arrival of the 6th Air Fleet at Wewak. This HQ brings with it a truly mammoth 120 in Aviation Support and I've been slowly building the base up over the last month or two in order to use it for bomber missions. I have two groups of Lillys here now, and some recon aircraft.

On Guadalcanal, a quick check of my forces reassures me about any action CCIP may be considering. I have about 230 AV behind 6 forts, a not inconsiderable amount. I wonder how much CCIP will bring to bear? Unless he brings a huge bunch of troops it's going to be costly for him. It seems a bit late in the day now for such an attack, especially considering the real fight is over PNG. He won't even pick up that many victory points for taking Tass. On top of this, he is failing to blockade the naval base, meaning I can get my Fast transports in with relative ease.

Egan · 03-14-12, 01:50 PM

18th Dec

What a strange turn.

Firstly, my first bunch of Oscars have arrived at Rabaul. I've been looking forward to them very much and plan to use them quite heavily over the next week or two.

Second, CCIP is running a big operation at Moresby. Carriers, cruisers and destroyers all seem to be running around and being annoying without seeming to do anything very much. There don't even seem to be any supply transports but, seeing as my recon totally missed them, I can't be sure about that.

Oh yeah, they did one thing: Dive bombers sunk an AVP of mine that has just arrived at Milne to provide support for a float plane squad I was going to move in. This irritated me no end.

The other thing that has annoyed me is the fact that he seems to have completely repaired the damage to the airfield at Moresby. It was 100% damaged about 4 days ago and now it's brand new. The one useful thing I can get out of this is that he must have a power of engineers there to repair that quickly, and that sort of intel is worth it's weight in gold.

The Yamato raid from a couple of weeks ago seems to have really shaken him up. He had no idea it was happening until those bus sized shells started raining down on him and I think it's informing his tactics here, and probably quite heavily too considering this is virtually the same place I creamed his carrier fleet all those months ago. To take the same risk suggests he has got his recon working better now, and he's up to something big....

On the plus side Tassagforonga has finally got itself enough supplies. Fort building has resumed and I hope the base to hit 7 forts long before his exhausted marines arrive.

Egan · 03-17-12, 01:27 PM

19th Dec

Even by recent standards this was a very, very quiet turn. I think both of us are suffering major logistic issues at the moment with fuel being at a premium. Aside from a brief airstrike by dive bombers on Tassaforonga absolutely nothing happened. At all. Anywhere.

CCIP had a number of ships at Moresby but it remains difficult to ID them properly. It looks like warships with a battlewagon. I wondered whether he was going to try and invade Milne but I think that would be almost suicide for him. it's within range of virtually everything and I could bring carriers to bear without them even leaving my LBA cover. As for his own carriers, they disapeared yet again. That is driving me crazy, as it seems that they simply keep sailing past all my subs without anyone seeing anything.

elephantium · 03-25-12, 10:18 AM

Have you made any more progress? I've enjoyed following this game

Egan · 03-25-12, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elephantium

Have you made any more progress? I've enjoyed following this game

Well, I just sent back a turn. Here is the summary:

20th Dec

Nothing happened. At all. A flight of B-17s bombed Tassaforonga.

Worth the wait, wasn't it?

Really, there is only a little bit more to add. I'm moving troops and supplies around in a bid to be ready for the next stage, which will be the invasion of Moresby. CCIP is holding a number of ships at Moresby for some reason. Trying to bait me, I think. He could be unloading lots of troops, but I'm not sure how many he actually has spare.

CCIP is really snowed under with work just now, hence the irregular updates. Myself, well, I'm going to escape the warmest Scottish March weather in HISTORY (seriously, it's beautiful here. I've been wondering around in shorts all day, and it's been the warmest March day here since records began,) and head to Madrid for a bit so there won't be any updates for a week at least. Hopefully, CCIP will get back on it by the time I get home, but I think he's heading off for a well deserved break of his own at the end of April. He said he would also try and update his AAR while I'm away.

Anyways, Adios troops! Back soon after stuffing myself with Jamon and rioja and all that jazz.

Egan · 04-02-12, 07:45 AM

OK! I'm back from Madrid where I have been feasting on Churros, tiny prawns and gigantic oysters all washed down with a well chilled Alberino. It's CCIP's turn so I'll chase him up when I get home from work tonight.

Egan · 04-04-12, 01:06 PM

20th Dec

A large number of ships are still clustered at Moresby and, well, to be frank, they are irritating me a bit. I've ordered my bombers from Rabaul to go and cause trouble. In preparation I've moved my brand new squad of Oscars to Lae to provide some escort duties although I'm not overly concerned about losing aircraft. In fact, I'm hoping we do run into some sort of heavy CAP because that should tell be whether his carriers are still in the area. My subs are patrolling up and down the coast of PNG but have so far failed to turn anything up.

I mainly want to find his flat tops because sometime in the next few days I want to start moving some units into PNG via Buna. These troops will then move along the Kokoda trail. I don't expect them to achieve much in the time frame but it would be nice if CCIP could oblige me by beefing up his defence in the mountains somewhat.

I've also moved my carriers out 'just in case'. They will sortie to point about halfway between PNG and Rabaul and will return to port as soon as they complete this little patrol. Again, it's mostly to see whether CCIP brings anything out, or even whether he gets a bit spooked - which I doubt.

Supply ships are running around but I feel like I'm on the losing side here. As soon as supply ships finish unloading it seems they have to do the process all over again. Getting decent stockpile limits at the outlying bases is becoming increasingly frustrating. All those red exclamation marks get to you, even if you know you can ignore some of them.

OK, I'm out of town again from tomorrow until the start of next week. We might get another turn or two in before I go. CCIP says he should find it easier to get turns in over the next few weeks so hopefully we should be able to up the pace a bit.

Fincuan · 04-04-12, 01:19 PM

Ain't that scenario a bitch supply-wise?

If it helps in any way, trust me it's not jolly good time for Allies either. Both supply and fuel limit ones operations to just the necessary ones with only the necessary ships, and then you also have keep a few big airbases over 20000 supply for upgrades and airframe replenishments.

Egan · 04-04-12, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fincuan

Ain't that scenario a bitch supply-wise?

Oh man, It's unbelievable from the Japanese side. With so little coming in via Truk a Japanese player would be totally screwed if the allies got subs with decent torps. What's sick is that there is a modded scenario out there somewhere that limits the supply even more.....no thanks...

Quote:

If it helps in any way, trust me it's not jolly good time for Allies either. Both supply and fuel limit ones operations to just the necessary ones with only the necessary ships, and then you also have keep a few big airbases over 20000 supply for upgrades and airframe replenishments.

From my one time playing the allied side in this one I remember all the red exclamation points over eastern Oz. it took me a while to stop worrying about most of them. To be honest, I've been surprised that my subs hadn't picked up that many convoys running up and down the coast keeping places like Townsville in Fosters and vegimite. I seem to remember relying on the road and rail networks to be a highway to irritation.

The allies do, however, get more supply and fuel, though, and from two locations. That alone makes things a lot easier, I think. Supply runs leaving from Noumea cut about a week off the turn around time for outlying bases like Lunga. Having said that, the Japanese are fairly compact in most of their supply network so I guess it's swings and roundabouts.

Japanese problems are compounded though by two other factors: Lack of any serious amount of Aviation support and lack of even the most rudimentary of shipyards. Fair enough, I have had some real luck in terms of losing ships (only one cruiser has had to return to Osaka,) but I would have very much liked somewhere to patch up some subs. I'm really missing them now.

The AV thing makes it virtually impossible to set up any secondary airfields. In a full campaign game I would have spent a lot of time and effort moving engineers and AV units into this theater if the war went that way. As it is moving engineers around to build up airstrips is pointless if there are no guys in overalls to fix up the birds. As it is, I barely have enough to cover Rabaul. Truk has long since been stripped of everything but a skeleton crew and I am loathe to move my single big unit (6th Air Div) from Wewak as I am trying to build it up so I can use it for bombers flying against Moresby.

Fincuan · 04-04-12, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Egan

What's sick is that there is a modded scenario out there somewhere that limits the supply even more.....no thanks...

If I'm not mistaken a heavily limited version comes with the game as the default Guadalcanal-scenario(or came with one of the patches) nowadays, so you're playing it right now. There's a readme called SCEN4_Guadalcanal.txt(or something similar) in the SCENARIO-folder.

Egan · 04-04-12, 06:05 PM

No, I think there was a version done for either the 'Reluctant Admiral' mod or the other big one - the name of which escapes me just now - that further strangles things. In the same way that 'realism' mods just don't seem terribly appealing to me any more, this just sounds horrible. Maybe I'm getting old.

You might be right about the version that comes with the game, though. It's been a long while since I looked through all the little txt files in the folder.

bobdina · 04-08-12, 05:30 PM

Just wanted to let you know because of the AARs you guy's have done I went out and bought the game. I was sitting on the fence for the longest time because of the price but after playing a short time I'm kicking myself in the butt for not purchasing sooner. Between this and SH-4 I'm totally immersed in the PTO.

03-05-12, 03:46 PM	#316
Egan Admiral Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 2,020 Downloads: 15 Uploads: 0	14th Dec I've a confession to make: I've had the flu for the last couple of days, which may have had some bearing on my hair-brained "Everything flies, don't come home if you sink nowt" Betty scheme... As it was, the Allied ships vanished into the Fog of War again and my boys didn't have anything to sink within range so they all slept late and wrote letters home instead. Probably a good thing. I've stood them down for a couple of days. They've taken a few losses recently against the Lightnings and could do with lowering a bit of fatigue. Elsewhere, things were quiet. Subs and Destroyers swapped munitions without anything being damaged and even the tiny, daily Liberator raids over Rabaul didn't achieve anything. I wonder where all his ships went. South, I reckon. I've a huge proportion of my remaining subs plying the waters between PNG and Oz and I think I would have spotted something if it was inbound to Milne Bay. Last edited by Egan; 03-05-12 at 05:15 PM.

03-10-12, 12:08 PM	#317
Egan Admiral Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 2,020 Downloads: 15 Uploads: 0	15th Dec The major thing to report is that CCIP has troops on the march towards Tassafaronga from Lunga. I have to admit, I'm not sure how far they have gone as I haven't really been paying attention to Guadalcanal for a while. I am stripping several existing task forces of destroyers at the moment in a bid to run a massive fast transport relief effort to the island. I have a number of troops there so any attempt by him to take the base should be fairly costly, especially as I have my men behind a number of forts. I need to get more supplies to them, though. He has begun daylight raids again over Rabaul. I don't mind this as it means my fighters can see what they are shooting at. I think he would need a really huge effort to do any real damage here and, at the range he has to fly, that's pretty hard to do as coordination penalties tend to have a greater effect on long range raids than shorter - somewhat obviously perhaps. Even though my fighters are gradually worn down, my pilots often survive. His don't, because they either bail out over the ocean or over my base. Things even themselves out I guess. An Allied TF is tooling around somewhere south of Townsville. Who knows what it is. Not I! We apologise for the delay. CCIP is expected to actually do some work at his job occasionally. Slave drivers!

03-12-12, 05:40 PM	#318
Falkirion Ace of the Deep Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Melbourne, AUS Posts: 1,043 Downloads: 34 Uploads: 0	While you guys are swapping turns can you kick his butt into updating his thread on this little war you two are fighting. What's your next objective since you've now got Milne and Moresby is basically boned given enough time?

03-14-12, 01:50 PM	#320
Egan Admiral Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 2,020 Downloads: 15 Uploads: 0	18th Dec What a strange turn. Firstly, my first bunch of Oscars have arrived at Rabaul. I've been looking forward to them very much and plan to use them quite heavily over the next week or two. Second, CCIP is running a big operation at Moresby. Carriers, cruisers and destroyers all seem to be running around and being annoying without seeming to do anything very much. There don't even seem to be any supply transports but, seeing as my recon totally missed them, I can't be sure about that. Oh yeah, they did one thing: Dive bombers sunk an AVP of mine that has just arrived at Milne to provide support for a float plane squad I was going to move in. This irritated me no end. The other thing that has annoyed me is the fact that he seems to have completely repaired the damage to the airfield at Moresby. It was 100% damaged about 4 days ago and now it's brand new. The one useful thing I can get out of this is that he must have a power of engineers there to repair that quickly, and that sort of intel is worth it's weight in gold. The Yamato raid from a couple of weeks ago seems to have really shaken him up. He had no idea it was happening until those bus sized shells started raining down on him and I think it's informing his tactics here, and probably quite heavily too considering this is virtually the same place I creamed his carrier fleet all those months ago. To take the same risk suggests he has got his recon working better now, and he's up to something big.... On the plus side Tassagforonga has finally got itself enough supplies. Fort building has resumed and I hope the base to hit 7 forts long before his exhausted marines arrive.

03-17-12, 01:27 PM	#321
Egan Admiral Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 2,020 Downloads: 15 Uploads: 0	19th Dec Even by recent standards this was a very, very quiet turn. I think both of us are suffering major logistic issues at the moment with fuel being at a premium. Aside from a brief airstrike by dive bombers on Tassaforonga absolutely nothing happened. At all. Anywhere. CCIP had a number of ships at Moresby but it remains difficult to ID them properly. It looks like warships with a battlewagon. I wondered whether he was going to try and invade Milne but I think that would be almost suicide for him. it's within range of virtually everything and I could bring carriers to bear without them even leaving my LBA cover. As for his own carriers, they disapeared yet again. That is driving me crazy, as it seems that they simply keep sailing past all my subs without anyone seeing anything.

03-25-12, 10:18 AM	#322
elephantium Bosun Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 62 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Have you made any more progress? I've enjoyed following this game

04-02-12, 07:45 AM	#324
Egan Admiral Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 2,020 Downloads: 15 Uploads: 0	OK! I'm back from Madrid where I have been feasting on Churros, tiny prawns and gigantic oysters all washed down with a well chilled Alberino. It's CCIP's turn so I'll chase him up when I get home from work tonight.

04-04-12, 01:06 PM	#325
Egan Admiral Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 2,020 Downloads: 15 Uploads: 0	20th Dec A large number of ships are still clustered at Moresby and, well, to be frank, they are irritating me a bit. I've ordered my bombers from Rabaul to go and cause trouble. In preparation I've moved my brand new squad of Oscars to Lae to provide some escort duties although I'm not overly concerned about losing aircraft. In fact, I'm hoping we do run into some sort of heavy CAP because that should tell be whether his carriers are still in the area. My subs are patrolling up and down the coast of PNG but have so far failed to turn anything up. I mainly want to find his flat tops because sometime in the next few days I want to start moving some units into PNG via Buna. These troops will then move along the Kokoda trail. I don't expect them to achieve much in the time frame but it would be nice if CCIP could oblige me by beefing up his defence in the mountains somewhat. I've also moved my carriers out 'just in case'. They will sortie to point about halfway between PNG and Rabaul and will return to port as soon as they complete this little patrol. Again, it's mostly to see whether CCIP brings anything out, or even whether he gets a bit spooked - which I doubt. Supply ships are running around but I feel like I'm on the losing side here. As soon as supply ships finish unloading it seems they have to do the process all over again. Getting decent stockpile limits at the outlying bases is becoming increasingly frustrating. All those red exclamation marks get to you, even if you know you can ignore some of them. OK, I'm out of town again from tomorrow until the start of next week. We might get another turn or two in before I go. CCIP says he should find it easier to get turns in over the next few weeks so hopefully we should be able to up the pace a bit.

04-04-12, 01:19 PM	#326
Fincuan Admiral Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Suomi, sauna, puukko, perkele Posts: 2,346 Downloads: 39 Uploads: 0	Ain't that scenario a bitch supply-wise? If it helps in any way, trust me it's not jolly good time for Allies either. Both supply and fuel limit ones operations to just the necessary ones with only the necessary ships, and then you also have keep a few big airbases over 20000 supply for upgrades and airframe replenishments.

04-04-12, 06:05 PM	#329
Egan Admiral Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 2,020 Downloads: 15 Uploads: 0	No, I think there was a version done for either the 'Reluctant Admiral' mod or the other big one - the name of which escapes me just now - that further strangles things. In the same way that 'realism' mods just don't seem terribly appealing to me any more, this just sounds horrible. Maybe I'm getting old. You might be right about the version that comes with the game, though. It's been a long while since I looked through all the little txt files in the folder.

04-08-12, 05:30 PM	#330
bobdina Watch Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 17 Downloads: 130 Uploads: 0	Just wanted to let you know because of the AARs you guy's have done I went out and bought the game. I was sitting on the fence for the longest time because of the price but after playing a short time I'm kicking myself in the butt for not purchasing sooner. Between this and SH-4 I'm totally immersed in the PTO.