Making Lemonade: JocMeister (A) vs. SqzMyLemon (J) BabesLite-B

[JocMeister]

Ah, sounds like things might not go "boom" then! [:)]

Waiting for a turn from obvert I managed to finish Sopac and Oz. Only PH and the WC left to do! Then I´ll probably will have to wait a few days since Joseph is out of town!

[JocMeister]

So I´m mostly done with the turn (finally!)

I´m going to send it to Joseph later today if no one has any more tips and tricks to add!

I prepared a small surprise for Joseph on Canton Island! [:D]

This little baby will go sit there and wait for him. I hope this will mess up his landing enough to force him to do a second landing later on buying me time. I have a AA unit and and Marine Defense battalion slated for the islands too.

[ny59giants]

You'll like the AA in DBB vs stock. [;)] That is why as Japan I take my Zeros off strafing the AF at Pearl. Ouch!!

AA units - Make sure you allow just those AA units that stay for the whole game to upgrade to the newer AA guns. Don't have them sucked into those that are withdrawn. In my Scenario 30, i don't see the big AA reinforcement "CD Convoy" showing up at Eastern USA on July 1st 42.

[JocMeister]

I sure hope I will. I´m really starting to get annoyed by the vanilla game. Lalaland comes to mind at times...

Good advice on the AA units. Will check if they arrive in Scen 28! [:)]

[JocMeister]

Michael,

In Scenario 28 the arrive on 2nd of July! Good news for me.. [:D]

[JocMeister]

Just sent the turn to Joseph but it will be a while before he responds since he is on vacation.

I feel pretty good about the turn. Mostly gathering stuff up and trying to get away from Manilla with as much shipping as possible!

[JocMeister]

December 10th

Nothing much to report. 2 SCTFs started cleaning up among the shipping fleeing from Manilla. Must have been some pretty poor commanders in charge!

Day Time Surface Combat, near Balabac at 69,83, Range 21,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CL Sendai
DD Shikinami
DD Ayanami
DD Sagiri

Allied Ships
xAP Candioa



Maximum visibility in Partly Cloudy Conditions: 28,000 yards
Range closes to 19,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 19,000 yards
Japanese TF attempts to evade combat
Range increases to 21,000 yards...
Both Task Forces evade combat

[:D]

First sweeps went over Manilla. Lost 20 P40 Es and Bs for 7 Zeros. Pretty happy about that but its unsustainable at this time. I have bought two squadrons out and the rest will stand down for now.

First convoys left for Sopac/Canton.

KB disappeared to the North. Will see if I can find it with the PBYs stationed at Midway.

A bunch of CAs/CLs and DDs left Pearl for Sopac and possible SRA. They will rendezvous with Ent and Lex at Christmas. Still undecided where to go with them.

Usual bombings over China has started in earnest. The "escape key clickfest" as I think of it... [>:]

Very few landings so far. Appari and something something east of the Celebes Sea. See screenshot.

The exodus continues!

I´m not going to send in any surface forces to the Celebes sea right now. I´ll see if I can scare him away with the 10 something subs I have on its way here. In my other game Erik had a 4BB TF running amok here and I don´t want to waste anything precious defending non vital shipping.

Surface forces in SRA is standing by to pounce on the expected Singkawang landing.

[JocMeister]

12/6 -42

After a relative quite turn on the 11th with only minor losses in shipping a Cruiser force broke into the fleeing swarm and caused some serious havoc! See screenshot for the shipping losses of the day.

Landings on Sorong, Ternate and the dot base SW of Manado.

The first offensive Allied surface action are planned as Marblehead and Boise together with 5 old US DDs will move into the Celebes sea. I´m not expecting much from this but I want to give him some pause. I still have valuable shipping stuck at Sandakan and Tarakan. Hopefully his CA is low on ammo after the rampage.

His landings seem to indicate he wants to cut off the SRA from Darwin. I don´t want that just yet. Gull battalion and 20 P40s will reinforce Ambon. If there is time I will try and move in more. Supply has been dumped and forts are approaching 2.

Elsewhere

Two CAs are spotted in a 4 ship TF NW of Singkawan. Hunch says this is the two Kongos. Force Z is within striking distance. Not yet decided if I want to risk them against the Kongos. Just the presence of these ships somewhere in the SRA will force him to protect all convoys heavily. Don´t want to reveal their position just yet I think.

Kunatan is invaded. The Indian BDE got its 3 days of movment left so its pretty much toast.

Overall I´m happy so far!
Some general ideas: (I have been reading Q-balls AAR and have been blatantly copying him on many things. So thank you Q-ball! [:D])
I´m buying out all fighters from the Philippines. Most will go to Singers.
I´m building minifortresses on Ambon and Horn Island. These will hopefully slow him down. I will also try and slow him down as much as possible in Singapore. Hence the fighters going there.
I´ve sent 1 squadron of the AVG to China. They will try and ambush one of the gazillion bombings there. Sole purpose is to force him to heavily escort everything slowing him down. If I can delay the fall of China until the later part of 42 I will be very happy!
If he goes for Canton Island he will be in for a very nasty surprise unless he comes in the coming week! [8D]

The KB
No sightings from Midway. Moved some Catalinas to Guam to have a peak in Truk. I´m used to know where the KB is from my other game. Don´t like this feeling. I postponed some stuff going to NoPac. Will send a divided Catalina unit to Wake to a have peak around there too. Very concerned about my convoys going to Sopac right now.

"Secured" Addu and Diego Garcia with the Burma and Singers reinforcements. Really don´t want to loose them in an early grab. Will see if I can find something to put in Port Blair to prevent an easy Para capture.

Hm, Guess thats about it right now I think! Overall still happy with the beginning. But its a bit too quite for my liking!

[ny59giants]

Suggestions -
Move one of the two Air HQs from Malaya over to Palembang. Then some TBs to surprise his landing at Singkawang. Or get it over to Balikpapan to do the same. Those old Swordfish and Vildebeest can be a serious pain when carrying torpedoes. [:D]
Spread out your PBYs to maximize your naval search. You cannot avoid trouble if you don't see it coming. I move them through Dutch Harbor and Midway to Pearl and beyond from the West Coast and leave only 2 or 3 on West Coast.
You have a few good torpedo carrying British CLs like the Enterprise to group together to go after shipping. Risk them in small SC TF.

Thundering Herd - Your lost 5 semi-valuable ships from Manila. Not that bad. Sacrifice the small slow xAKLs to get the important ships through

[JocMeister]

Thats an excellent idea! I will start moving them next turn. I bought out the 21 Transports from Burma/China(?) so they are already in Theater moving dutch units! Will put them to the task right away! Hopefully there is time. All TBs are pulled back to Java training [:)]

CL Enterprise is repairing some minor sys together with some DDs at Soerebaja. Really, really short on DDs everywhere. I have some 10 or so moving from PH to OZ but it will be two weeks or so before they will arrive. Have 3 more british cruisers arriving in about a week. But I have no DDs for them...

[ny59giants]

But I have no DDs for them...

SO!!!
Send them without them. 2 to 4 in a SC TF. The British CLs were designed to patrol the oceans alone. Force him to keep his CA/BB to escorting his transports after he knows you are willing to send in CLs against his transports and their DDs.

Air HQs require shipping to transport the torpedo carrying part of the unit. Just an FYI.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

But I have no DDs for them...

SO!!!
Send them without them. 2 to 4 in a SC TF. The British CLs were designed to patrol the oceans alone. Force him to keep his CA/BB to escorting his transports after he knows you are willing to send in CLs against his transports and their DDs.

Air HQs require shipping to transport the torpedo carrying part of the unit. Just an FYI.

I´ll give it a go! [:D]

Very good info on the Air HQs! Didn´t know that. Thank you! [:)]

[Dan Nichols]

Often times torpedoes will miss CLs that have excellent maneuver speed. It is a bit like using the Queen Mary without escorts, subs have a hard time lining up a shot and then the speed makes it hard to hit.

[JocMeister]

Northern China

[JocMeister]

Southern China

[JocMeister]

Malaya:

Nothing out of the ordinary. He toasted a few AKLs trying to bring supplies into Singers. Will set up a CAP trap in a few days. Need to get some P40s in first.

The fleeing horde

Have mostly made it to friendly ports! I lost another bunch of AKLs but I´m not to worried about that. 76 Allied ships so far lost. I don´t think that is too bad taking into account Babes Lite have more small ships. The short legged ones will take on fuel and go to OZ. Longer legged will go to India.

New Britain
Canberra, Leander and Perth together with 2 DDs are moving into position to intervene with the inevitable landing at Rabaul. Perhaps his CVL went to support this? Need to be careful!

Java
See attached screenshot.

KB
Still no sign of it. [:(]
Perhaps he actually went home? Gathered most AC in the states to cover SF and LA in case he tries to be funny. Not much there in terms of shipping though. Everything has left for SoPac. Redirected the SoPac convoys even more south. Will add travel time but rather that then sunk.

That feeling of "too calm" is still lingering. Only 35k troops ashore in Malaya and only 3k(!) on Luzon. WTH?
OZ? PH?(!)

[ny59giants]

Extreme Northern China - Don't forget to move troops further south and slowly move BFs down to get your fighters down to Lanchow at least. Keep just enough for garrison, but shift them south and prep for Lanchow.

Small xAKLs - some of them have a little troop carrying capacity, so they can be useful shifting troops around in the SRA.

Fuel - anybody leaving the SRA carries one load away. You get enough for what you will need to do.

Dutch - don't forget to upgrade to PBY-5s. You don't get Replacement pilots, but you get some air groups with extra pilots to put into Reserve and then can draw them out as needed.

China - you have two corps that can eventually bought out (PPs) that I head to the west and eventually India. Cuts down on the number of mouths to feed and you will not miss them.

[JocMeister]

Thank you for the advice! Upgraded most dutch PAs to Cats today. One of the Chinese Corps are already on its way to the Burma border. The other one is wandering "Indian country" and I will try and get it away as soon as possible.

15th December

Not much happening...too calm!

China
The AVG Sq3 did great and wiped out a Betty unit over Kukong. Joseph didn´t sound to happy about that. I sent the AVG Sq back to central China to rest up. We´ll see what he does with his bombing after this. I have some 20 low exp Chinese fighters that can be used if he continues to send his bomber unescorted.

He spotted my circling Itchang and some units are moving back. If he gets there first I will abort. I did a shock attack over the river from Loyang. Did okeyish.

Ground combat at Tsiaotso (88,42)

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 27153 troops, 114 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 852

Defending force 5606 troops, 38 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 185

Allied adjusted assault: 766

Japanese adjusted defense: 493

Allied assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 0)

Allied Assault reduces fortifications to 0

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+), preparation(-)
Attacker: shock(+), fatigue(-)

Japanese ground losses:
221 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 35 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled


Allied ground losses:
841 casualties reported
Squads: 7 destroyed, 145 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 9 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 12 disabled


Assaulting units:
27th Chinese Corps
80th Chinese Corps
93rd Chinese Corps

Defending units:
16th Ind.Mixed Brigade

I will let them rest for a few day. 300 More AV coming from the south. So no shock attack.

SRA

Joseph got Netties with torps up and running from Kuantan. Lost more AKLs. Set a little CAP trap for him from Singers. If he chooses the next turn to start sweeping I will be in trouble. If not I can hopefully get his Zeroes while they are used for escort. Some 50 fighters will CAP Singers for the first time! I have a small Supply convoy approaching that will be bait!

Force Z got spotted so I had to pull back to Batavia. Boise and gang was spotted as well. Withdrew them a bit. Houston and 6 DDs are up and running. Thought that would take longer. No clue what I got that from. Sent them to Makassar to be ready to intervene if Jospeh moves for Ambon or Balikpapan.

A 4DD TF will be ready in 4 days. Might send them raiding. Still undecided.

KB

Still no sign. Starting to wonder if he is sending them to the SRA. That could explain his lack of activity. Not much I can do about it in case he does. Most slow shipping will leave the SRA in the coming week. I have a pretty good aircoverage up so I should be able to spot him in advance. Finding the KB will give me a good indication of what he is up to. B17s will recon baleopelop (the bla bla Island next to Peleliu) to see if they can find anything. Not spotted anything from Guam either...

Elswhere

No new invasions? WTH is he up to? [X(]

He Captured Manaus this turn. Guess he will use that to get some airsearch up before going for Rabaul. I have to CLs standing by to intervene but if he spots them I´ll move them out.

Todays losses

[JocMeister]

16th December

Some good news and some bad new. Good news is that I found the KB. Bad news is that I found the KB...

Still I should be very lucky I only lost 2 old DDs and three oilers. Loosing the oilers REALLY suck but loosing the 8th Marines or 11 Tankers would have been alot worse! [X(]

Everything nearby is split up and sent either back towards the WC or to Balboa. Crap! Pretty annoyed I did´t see this one coming. I counted on him not going so far south. Yes I´m an idiot and NO I won´t do that again...

My little CAP trap for his Bettys backfired ofcourse. I had a bad feeling he would start sweeping the same turns I put up CAP and sure enough... I lost some 30 Fighters (mostly Buffs) for 7 Zeroes... The Squadrons were wrecked and are sent back to Java. I will return though...Atleast I got the AirHQ out!

Other then that a pretty quite turn again! He stood down unescorted bombing close to bases within LRCAP range for me.

Oh, and CL DeReuter took a torp from a sub. Only minor damage but I will withdraw a bit.

[JocMeister]

17th of December.

Lots of stuff going on around the Celebes! See screenshot. Elsewhere still eerie quite.

Pacific

I lost track of the bloody KB again. Either he went back North or he has turned west towards Christmas Island where his subs have been crazy active the last 3 or 4 turns. I planning for the worst which would be if he hit Christmas Island. I have alot of stuff going on there including Ent and Lex. They were supposed to get refuled by the oilers that got sunk last turn...So everything will go into full flight mode heading wherever seem safest. Probably south. Really worried about the CVs fuel loads. [X(]

I have a crapload of shipping in deep Sopac right now. Some 200 ships going from OZ to WC. If he turns towards Fiji this could turn into a disaster. Scrambling to get airsearch in the area but there are BIG holes. But he has to refuel the KB soon right? How long range can he realistically have? Can he reach Fiji without replenishing his CVs and Oilers?

This CV raid really threw me off... I need to get back on track!