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

[Egan]

8th Dec

A day of mixed results.

CCIP has been flying B-26 Marauders against my troops at Milne. I wasn't having much luck with CAP until I massively reduced their altitude. I think we shot down 7 this turn, and about the same amount yesterday. Not bad.

The Allied TF to the south has turned out to be some sort of carrier group right enough. They flew bombing raids against Milne and got the better of my fighters. From the number of aircraft my intel claims it has, I suspect that he has a fleet carrier here - Enterprise? I have no idea if the Allies receive another flat top or not.

Interestingly, they have a following task force rich in destroyers and APDs. He surely isn't trying to invade Milne with the limited number of troops fast transports carry, is he? their general direction is North east but I'm wondering whether they will split off and head towards Moresby instead. I've order some Betties to naval attack.

He is also flooding the waters south of Rabaul with subs again. Is he merely using them as pickets, or is he planning something major?

[Egan]

9th Dec

Turns out that it wasn't fast transports at all but a huge bombardment group:

Night Naval bombardment of Milne Bay at 101,133

Allied Ships
BB Indiana
BB Colorado
BB Maryland
CA Canberra
CA Vincennes
CA Quincy
CA San Francisco
CA New Orleans
CA Salt Lake City
CA Pensacola
CA Chicago
CA Chester
CA Portland
CL Honolulu
CL Helena
CL Hobart

Japanese ground losses:
182 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 22 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 1 disabled



Airbase hits 5
Airbase supply hits 7
Runway hits 7
Port hits 6
Port supply hits 2

BB Indiana firing at Milne Bay
BB Colorado firing at Milne Bay
BB Maryland firing at 2nd/4th Inf Regiment
CA Canberra firing at Milne Bay
CA Vincennes firing at Milne Bay
CA Quincy firing at 2nd/4th Inf Regiment
CA San Francisco firing at 38th/229th Inf Regiment
CA New Orleans firing at Maizuru 4th SNLF
CA Salt Lake City firing at Milne Bay
CA Pensacola firing at 38th/229th Inf Regiment
CA Chicago firing at Milne Bay
CA Chester firing at 38th/229th Inf Regiment
CA Portland firing at 2nd/4th Inf Regiment
CL Honolulu firing at 2nd/4th Inf Regiment
CL Helena firing at Milne Bay
CL Hobart firing at Maizuru 4th SNLF

The bombardment lasted an eternity but did surprisingly little damage for the amount of ships involved. I wonder if he had them too far off the the shore thus neutering some of the guns on the cruisers. Maybe not.

Elsewhere, routine missions over Moresby did about average (some strp damage and a couple of aircraft destroyed,) and that's about all.

Checking my carriers shows that although they are building their fighter and dive bomber groups up nicely, there seems to be a massive shortage of torpedo bombers. I have a squad of them at Truk undergoing training just now, but even if I move them onto a ship I'll still be massively short. This isn't good enough@ The Japanese torpedo bombers should be feared massively my the Allies at this sage in the war, and I don't have enough to frighten a pod of dolphins.

[Fincuan]

No spotting aircraft and little recon is my guess on that bombardment. It would have been great to see that TF run into the Yamato group

[Egan]

Originally Posted by Fincuan

No spotting aircraft and little recon is my guess on that bombardment. It would have been great to see that TF run into the Yamato group

I'm still in two minds whether I should have sent them in when I first spotted the task forces. What I think would have happened is this: We would have engaged the battleships and done some damage and then the carriers would have brought dive bombing revenge...

I think, given the presence of carriers, discretion was the better part of valour here. Had my carriers been escorting Yamato I would have gone for it, no doubt. But without a stout CAP it was asking for trouble. Yamato would have survived but everything else would probably be sinking.

Yes, it was a failure of spotting. The location of the southern tip of PNG was simply too far for the majority of my recon aircraft. The base at Milne is taking longer to build up than I though and although I could theoretically base another squadron there, I would immediately run into stacking problems.

Still, He did very little damage for the amount of bang he had with him.

I haven't heard from CCIP in a couple of days. He's due to send me back a turn but I imagine he's busy with work again. I'm sure we'll be back on it over the weekend.

[Fincuan]

Agreed on the carriers. The spotting and recon comment was directed at CCIP. It might be something that explains the low number of casualties.

[Egan]

Originally Posted by Fincuan

Agreed on the carriers. The spotting and recon comment was directed at CCIP. It might be something that explains the low number of casualties.

I know from what he told me in an E-mail that Yamato's attack on Moresby came as a complete surprise to him. How you can miss several hundred thousand tonnes of warships steaming towards your base I don't know...I think closing down the airfield prior to the bombardment was what did it. Anything else was probably an oversight on his part, which given how busy he has been recently is probably easy to understand. Townsville should be in PBY range, I think, but I don't know if he has developed any of the other Northeastern Australian bases. In a full campaign I always try to get Cohen built up to a level 9 airbase (it's pretty essential, I find, for any defence of that entire region,) but from I remember from playing this scenario before it can be hard to keep even the primary Oz bases supplied when your stretching your forces up through Noumea, Luganville and then Guadalcanal.

Mind you, if his dedicated recon aircraft are anything like mine, he probably can't even spot the pub down the road from the airbase.

[Fincuan]

The northern Oz bases start at ok levels in the Guad scenario, but most of them have a very low SPS making further expansion hard and expensive. In my experience scouting efficiency is extremely good with the latest patch, and if the search arcs are set up properly nothing should be able to make it into Moresby wihout being spotted well inside the Solomon sea. As you probably know from Grand Campaigns Cats flying out of Moresby reach well into the Bismarck Sea.

As far as bombardments go, I know there's at least two things one can do to improve their efficiency:
1) Use recon assets before the bombardment to raise the target's detection level as high as possible
2) Assign one of the TF's floatplanes to recon the target during the bombardment. It should act as a spotter for the ships, and this also shows up in the combat report.

[Egan]

Your second point there is a very good one, and it's one that I myself always overlook. Actually, I think ship borne spotter aircraft is a part of the game that doesn't get the love it deserves.

Do you set individual arcs for ship carried float planes? I don't often bother but am wondering whether it's worth effort. In most cases I think it's probably preferable to leave them on default but I guess there are always special cases.

[Fincuan]

I also keep shipborne planes flying around the whole 360, and 99% of the time ASW patrol. Just something I haven't bothered to micromanage yet. Now that you said it I might actually try to set up arcs for them so that the TF as a whole covers 360 or 180 forwards, not each plane on its own.

[Egan]

10th Dec

My subs trail the retreating Allied cruisers but fail to hit anything but neither did they take any damage. CCIP seems to be basing them out of Townsville, which is in Betty range......I'll have to have a think about an attack that far from home. I have no fighters able to get that close and if I use carriers to provide CAP I run the risk of running into what may well be a very large amount of dive and torpedo bombers. Unescorted Betties are, of course, likely to burst into flame the moment they pass over the Australian coast.

CCIP has also begun daylight bombing raids on Rabaul again, but at least I have the advantage of a CAP who can actually see the bombers in the daylight.

My daily bombing raids over Moresby continue to whack his airfield, although not as strongly as before. probably because it's mostly rubble now.

CCIP is probably going to be quite busy over the next little while so I'm not sure when the next turn will be. We'll get on with it when we can.

[Egan]

11th Dec

Another quiet turn in which virtually nothing happened. Bad weather stopped any raids on the airfield at Moresby, which should have provided CCIP's engineers with a brief window for making repairs. I've ordered every bomber at my disposal to go back in tomorrow and close the airstrip down again.

Finally, after what seems like an eternity, I got some replacement Kates for one of my carriers. At this rate, it's going to take months and months for the various units to fill out again. I'm pretty much up to speed with the Vals, and Zero replacements are coming along nicely, but my real death dealers are the torpedo bombers and they are as rare as hens teeth.

I've ordered one of my last Glen carrying subs to recon Townsville. My lack of dedicated long range recon aircraft has become a slight problem so much of the Australian coast (particularly the northern bases) have been operating under FOW quite a lot recently.

Elsewhere we continue to swap tiny blows in the night skies over Rabaul. This turn I damaged a number of his Liberators but lost two Zeroes in exchange. It's funny, but the loss of two fighters probably wouldn't even register if I was playing the grand campaign. Here, though, every loss hurts.

[Egan]

12th Dec

Subs picked up a sizable bunch of Allied ships heading towards PNG from Oz again. They are just a few hours out of Townsville but consist of two Tfs, both containing some form of carriers. Intel suggests over 100 fighters, so that's a pretty stout force. I expect that they will head to Milne again so I have to decide whether or not to send the big guns in to deal with the new threat. I have left the decision until the next turn as I can get my forces there a lot quicker and it'll take CCIP a day or two to get close. Any counter on my part will have to be with carriers in support. This could be a major clash.

Elsewhere, I have come up against the first P-38s. They appear to be flying long range CAP out of Cairns but I can't be sure. My bombers did OK against them although I lost about 5 in total.

[Egan]

13th Dec

Although my bombers shut down the airfield at Moresby, it came at a cost. P-38s took out several Zeroes and Betties without losing any themselves. I should get my first group of Oscars in a week or two, which will relieve the much overworked Zero squadrons somewhat.

CCIP's mass of ships have pulled in at Cairns for some reason. I had expected them to make a dash across the Coral sea and attack Milne again. I have given orders for the majority of my combat ships at Rabaul to move to a point in the Bismark sea with the intention of being spotted by one of the submarines he has there. I want to see whether a large movement like this will force him to act. I've also taken the slightly (very, in fact) risky plan of sticking all by Betties on long range naval strike. If I can catch his ships at Cairns CCIP will not be able to put up a full CAP, as he is in a base hex. I think his flak might also be reduced due to the same rule but I can't be sure. It's a big gamble, and one that I expect to bite me badly, but if we can hit a couple of is capital ships it might just be worth it.

[Fincuan]

Originally Posted by Egan

13th Dec
If I can catch his ships at Cairns CCIP will not be able to put up a full CAP, as he is in a base hex. I think his flak might also be reduced due to the same rule but I can't be sure. It's a big gamble, and one that I expect to bite me badly, but if we can hit a couple of is capital ships it might just be worth it.

Just beware that the base's own CAP will also protect the ships. If it wasn't sufficient, with important ships in harbor and an attack being a possibility, I'd also be flying LRCAP from other bases. It's a good way to massacre unescorted Betties.

[Egan]

Originally Posted by Fincuan

Just beware that the base's own CAP will also protect the ships. If it wasn't sufficient, with important ships in harbor and an attack being a possibility, I'd also be flying LRCAP from other bases. It's a good way to massacre unescorted Betties.

I'd be surprised if Cairns has much in the way of flak. There are a lot of fighters at Townsville which is, what, 8 hexes away, but I have a feeling that there won't be much in the way of 'native' cover here and most of his long range aircraft (his P-38s) are flying mission over PNG.

Having said that, I fully expect to lose a whole mess of Betties. What do I want to achieve, then? Well, I think even if I only get a single torpedo hit on one ship, it will give him enormous pause for thought. I haven't launched any real attacks at Oz yet, so this should be a nice surprise for him.

Also, I have other bombers arriving over the next few weeks which reduces my need for the Betties a bit.

Anyway, the turn is gone already. He might have even moved them out by the time my bombers fly. There are so many variables it's impossible to predict.

On a side note, I've just read that the 250 Aviation Support cap was removed. Whether this was already in the beta I don't know but it does mean no more 250 AV to cover 2000 odd aircraft at a size 9 base....I don't know how this will play out in the long term. It will make life harder for the allies late war, that's for sure, and B-29 bases on places like Tinian are going to be a lot harder to keep going...