KDonovan vs Miller41 Scenario 13-Nik Mod 5.0 (Allies)

[Rob Brennan UK]

With regard to CV reaction range etc. I belive it only applies if enemy CV's are spotted no surface TF's .. It's a bit odd BUT when you think it through. an enemy could lure a CV TF close with single ships then pounce when the enemy was fatigued and out of OP's points. Imagine the wailing then [:D]

Great move with the night surface engagements, notoriously tricky to pull off .. Congrats . and the multiple TK's is a real bonus there. [&o]

[KDonovan]

With regard to CV reaction range etc. I belive it only applies if enemy CV's are spotted no surface TF's .. It's a bit odd BUT when you think it through. an enemy could lure a CV TF close with single ships then pounce when the enemy was fatigued and out of OP's points. Imagine the wailing then

good point Rob, haven't thought it about that way. I guess the lesson is, if your gonna set a trap like this, you should position your CV's in the path of retreat of a surface TF.

Anyways, back to the game. Sorry for the lack of updates, just nothing much has happened. Turns were slow this week, and those sent were pretty boring. So here's a quick update...

Sept 20th/21st/22nd/23rd - nothing much to report. Japanses continued air attacks in China, while my own airforce continued to pound the empty AF at Mandalay (the plan is to keep it that way).

Plan - still getting forces in position to retake Darwin. But its taking a while, even with the rail system in Australia. Should expect to attack in 3 weeks game time. Meanwhile, i've moved 50 B25's to Darwin with escorts to strike the little AF north of there. It is believe the japanese forces there comprise of only a squadren of Zero's off one of the damaged carrier's in the last battle. So i'm looking for some easy kills.

Elsewhere, i continue to move troops around in the south pacific with eyes on an invasion of Guadacanal in about 2 months.

So with Miller probably on the defensive for the rest of war, and the Allies still gearing up for the offensive, this game may get somewhat boring for a little bit. In the meantime, i'm feeling the need for more action, i'm gonna load C&C Generals and blow some sh-t up.

[Nikademus]

Retake Darwin?

I thought you were still holding the town?

[KDonovan]

Retake Darwin?

I thought you were still holding the town?

you're right Nik...i misstatement on my part, what i meant was that i need to take out the 120,000 troops besigieng my base. [:D]

I guess i don't have to do that as i don't think Miller can take it with the forces he's got, but politically it has to be done

[Rob Brennan UK]

Looks like the Darwin attack was a mistake for Japan after all. Should really have brought the kitchen sink and/or taken derby 1st. Interesting to see its taking you so long to get the australia command units up there. are you leaving a lot in the south ? Given that hes got a lot of troops tied up in the north, I'd have thought it would be safe to almost denude the south ( not perth tho).

just my 2p

[KDonovan]

Looks like the Darwin attack was a mistake for Japan after all. Should really have brought the kitchen sink and/or taken derby 1st.

definitley true, but it doesn't look like Miller is gonna give up on his little adventure just so soon, as you'll see....

Interesting to see its taking you so long to get the australia command units up there. are you leaving a lot in the south ? Given that hes got a lot of troops tied up in the north, I'd have thought it would be safe to almost denude the south ( not perth tho).

Yeah that would've been smart, i pretty much brought everything though. The only thing left on the E.Coast is 2 Div's and 2 HQ (SWPAC, AusCommand), plus various BF's. At Perth i'm leaving just a brigade to defend.

Anyways here's the next turn...

Sept 24th/25th - my B25 raid on that small island north of Darwin (called Tenimbar) failed to yeild any results. However, i was able to score some success with my subs. The SS Sargo spotted a Japanese replenishment TF southeast of Kendari and put a fish into an Oiler setting it afire.

Plan - reading the txt. file that i hit an oiler confused me as to why there was one in that area. When i opened the game though, i saw why. The Japanese fleet is returning to Darwin. Looks like there is a CV TF, Bombardment TF, and Tranport TF heading to Darwin. In lue of that i'm withdrawling all my combat planes to Derby as i don't want them to be caught on the ground. Lucky for me though, Darwin just recieved 4 PT boats and 2 submarines for defense. So we'll see what happens. Also over at Derby i set my B17's (about 80 of them) to naval attack, so hopefully they can score some hits. I'm pretty surprised at this move, as i'm sure this is really putting a strain on troops levels in DEI. This may make rethink my pacific offensive, where istead going through the central pacific i may want to switch to the soft underbelly of the DEI. Or maybe this whole thing is a "dunkirk"....or are you not allowed to withdrawl troops that are embattled??

[Nikademus]

Surrendering the initiative is always a hard choice for the Japan player because that means the Allied player will get his balance all the quicker and start dictating where/when the next action will take. If its a place unanticipated, could be even more trouble. I'm thinking Miller probably feels that its way to early to start thinking Tanaka Time. He could still pull it off though it might end up being a pyriffic victory, esp with Derby and W. still in Oz hands.

If any PBEM opponent ever invaded Northern (or even western) Oz i'd still always be wary of a feint even if they commit multiple divisions. South and Eastern Oz remain the most vital areas.....i'd always leave them well stocked. Northern Oz can always be retaken later. Then again, i have to have that mindset given that i have a history of hitting my opponent's rear area bases.....many players denude their rear area bases in favor of stacking everything a the sharp end of the spear, especially when it comes to airpower.

[KDonovan]

many players denude their rear area bases in favor of stacking everything a the sharp end of the spear, especially when it comes to airpower.

guilty of that here. [:D]. While my ground forces are spread pretty evenly around the entire map. I would say 90% of my airforce is located in 2 areas. One being the Indian/Burma border, and the other at Derby. Defending the E.coast of Oz is only a few A-20 squadrens and 1 B26 group. While defending the entire SOPAC i have only a couple Beauforts/SBD's/F4Fs/ Then in Cenpac i only have 2 bomber groups present...1 B25, 1 B26. I'm hoping the threat of multiple lvl 5 airfields in the area is keeping Miller from launching a second front.

Also regarding seapower, i have a 6 CV group about to arrive at Perth, which leaves only my BB's to defend the entire south and central pacific.

[KDonovan]

Sept 26th/27th - well here we go again. In the middle of the night my 4 boat PT squadren intercepted a japanese bombardment group consisting of 2 BBs, 4 CA's, and 1 CL heading to Darwin. Heroically, the commander attacked the enourmous force, but was annihliated, with all four PT boats sunk. Their sacrifice was not useless though, as the night battle disrupted the japanses formation, thereby diminishing the effect of the following bombardement, which only scored a few minor runway hits. Over the next 2 days the japanese started to land elements of the 19th Inf Div and a heavy AA btn. This came at a price though as my CD-guns were able to score hits on 7 AP's and 1 PC, sinking the patrol boat. My CD-guns weren't the only ones giving the japanese merchant marine headaches, as B17's from Derby managed to bomb hits on 3 AP's.

Sept 28th/29th - in a surprise move, the japanese launched a 100 plane bomber raid on Andaman Is. Unfortunately for Miller it was a disaster, as my 50 plane CAP desimated the force, shooting down 21 Zero's and 25 Helen's, with 5 more Helens being destroyed by AAA. Only minor damage was done to the airfield. Nearby my night beaufighters had a rough 2 days losing 3 planes to triple A over Rangoon.

Meanwhile at Darwin, the japanese launched another assault, but failed to make any progress. In fact fort levels actually rose from 4 --> 5

Plan - Over at Andaman Is. i got pretty lucky, as last turn i noticed that my 60 P40B's based there were set to "training" and not on CAP, which i changed. Had miller attacked the turn before then, he would've got my fighters napping. Anyways....over at Akyab i fast transported a Indian BF to repair the airfield their. Once repaired, i'll start to C47 troops and supplies in to a make the base into a forward bomber base for Wellingtons.

Over at the Darwin theatre, i've moved in 50 B17's from Derby to hit shipping retreating from the area. Also as stated above, my CV's will be arriving at Perth tommorrow. Haven't decided their role yet....but i'm sure whatever it is, it will be a nasty surprise to Miller.

[KDonovan]

Sept 30th - very quite day. Only action was the bombing of SS I-123 by a Coronado north of Luganville, and another repulsed Japanese assault on Darwin. Even though japan got 0-1 odds and the fort level remained the same, i actually suffered more causalties than japan. So i'm wondering if my troops are starting to feel the strain. Reinforcements are 3 days away if needed.

Oct 1st - B17's out of Darwin hit an approaching bombardment TF. They managed to hit the BB Hyuga with 4 bombs, knocking out two 5in gun mounts. Meanwhile Churchill was unimpressed with the BB raid on Rangoon this month and wants another BB for himself. Not sure what his problem is, but he'll get what he needs as i don't have the political power to fight with him.

Plan - withdrawling B17's from Darwin, as its about to get hit by Japanese BB's. Other than that....nothing much going on besides forces continued to be moved around (geez...its a lot of work/time). Good news though..its Oct..which means P-38 Lightings baby! First group to get them will be one of the 2 P40B groups i have, since their replacement rate is pathetic.

[KDonovan]

sorry for the lack of updated information. My friends have been hounding me to play them in Command and Conquer Generals. They really aren't into turn-based games like me, so explaining how labor intensive WITP is gets me nowhere except remarks like "your game sucks". Therefore i've devoted some time to playing C&C instead.

Anyways, turns have been sent...and i actually have 6 days of action ready to report. I will give 2 hints on what to expect

1) Betties....[:@]
2) Night Surface action....[:D]

report to come tommorrow...

[KDonovan]

Oct 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th - not much to report for 4 days of action. The japanese launced two separate assaults on Darwin, and still failed to knock down any forts, despite a 3:1 advantage in troops. Elsewhere a ASW hunter/killer group was attacked by 3 Betty's off the coast of Cairns, but were all shot down by a covering group of P-36's. Nope thats not a typo, i'm still using P-36's in October. The replacements rates for P40's are too low, so i had to downgrade some of my P40 groups to P36's inorder to fill out other front line groups.

Anyways..back to the game. On the 5th of Oct. a japanese transport group was spotted at Guadacanal. A surface group of 1 Omaha class cruiser and 5 DD's are being sent from Lungaville to intercept. Meanwhile over in the Burma theatre, unhappy with the pace of the repairing of the AF at Akyab, i'm dispatching another fast transport TF consisting of most of her majesties cruiser to transport another BF there.

Oct 6th - my fast transport TF at Akyab ran into a bit of bad luck today, as there was a delay in getting troops unloaded due to rough sea's. Therefore the TF was spotted by Japanese recon planes in the morning. Soon after a group of 54 Betties with escorts out of Rangoon attacked the defenseless ships. Flak from the ships were able to down 7 Betty's, but this was not enough as they the japanese managed to slam a torps into 1 CA and 4 CL's

Allied Ships
CL Mauritius, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CL Newcastle, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CA Devonshire, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CL Emerald
CL Sumatra, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CL Glasgow
CL Dauntless, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage
CA Hawkins
CL Birmingham

Oct 7th - limping back from the yesterdays air attack. My fast tranport TF was hit again, just 120 miles outside Chandpur (unfortunately my fighters there were on escort and not LR CAP). This time the CL Mauritius was singled out and took 2 torpedo hits.

Meanwhile, over near Guadacanal my surface TF intercepted a group of 15 barges before daylight. The CL Concord opened up at 6,000 yards and started scoring hits immediately. Several DD's soon followed. When all was said and done 6 barges were sunk (with a 7th being sunk by a PBY in the morning). At this point the commander decided to retreat south, as their were reports of enemy carriers nearby.

Reports of carriers turned out to be true, as a transport TF unloading a RAF BF on the island of Ndini in the Santa Cruz was spotted, and attacked by planes from 2 jap CVE's. A flight of NZ Kittyhawks managed to intercept the incoming strike, but was out number 3:1 and managed to only shoot down a Zero and Val before retreating. The japanese bored in on the defenseless transports and sank a subchaser boat, and seriously damaged a small troop transport so much it had to be beached. The rest of the TF retreated south unable to complete its mission.

Lastly, my sub S-37 surfaced in daylight (thats guts) to attack a Japanese AP in "the slot" with torpedos and deck gun. The torps missed, but the sub managed to throw a 4in shell into the side of the transport before it had to dive deep as a jap Rufe buzzed overhead.

Plan - whew..that was a busy last turn. Allright, it looks like i probably won't lose any of those brit cruisers that got nailed last turn. The most seriously damaged is the CL Mauritus which has about 70 sys, 70 flt, 40 fire, but is 1 hex away from Chandpur. So i've set it to go there with the heavily damaged CL Dauntless, to "auto-disband". The level 8 port should be able to keep the cruiser from keeling over. I've also moved in some AA-guns and fighters to protect the striken cruiser while its in the harbor. The rest of the TF will retreat to Diamond Harbor. The good news is that they were able to complete there mission and deliver the RAF BF to Akyab. Anyways in retaliation to this humilation, i've ordered a huge strike to hit Rangoon AF. First will be 2 P40B fighter sweeps of Rangoon totalling about 60 planes each. Then this will be followed up by a 45 LB30 bomber raid and 120 Wellington/B25 raid. That will teach the Japanese not to mess with the British.

Over near Lunga, there seems to be lots of japanese shipping in the area. Looks like Miller is seriously reinforcing the island and brought along a couple CVE's as escorts. Of course none of my CV's are in place to hit back as they are all over at Perth. The only surface forces in the area are 2 Fast BB's, 6 CA's, 5 CL's and numerous DD's at Noumea. Powerful indeed, but with the threat of Betty's from Rabual, they will have to stay parked at Noumea, and i'll have to let the Japanese reinforce Lunga unimposed. Where are all my 4E bombers you might ask. Well they are in the Darwin theatre, therefore are unavailable to hit the japanese from Luganville....grrr.

So here's so good and bad screenies.....

[Rob Brennan UK]

I like the old planes ,, and any fighter with a decent pilot can down unescorted betties [:D]. Nice

Poor old RN .. [:(]. so abused just to deliver a few mechanics to a lowly malarial base. [:D]. I'm suprised you didnt lose more to be honest, got lucky there. I dont think you'll forget LR cap in the near future .. buffs work well till you get P38's in numbers.Range 8 makes them useful at deterring unescorted raids at least.

You'll need to be careful round the solomons, and im pleased your not planning on using the old battlewagon any thime soon. she'd be points fodder unfortunately.

Well done and keep up the good work ..

P.S C&C sucks .. I hate RTS type games.

[KDonovan]

Poor old RN .. . so abused just to deliver a few mechanics to a lowly malarial base.

hahaha..isn't that the truth. Probably would've been better using sacrifical transports. But i was embolden by the fact that a similar fast transport mission succeeded a few turns back. So i gave it another shot...and paid for it. I did leave when it was "raining", but i guess there was a break in a clouds for the betty's.

buffs work well till you get P38's...for LRCAP

oopps, ugraded the 1 Buffalo squarden to Hurricanes. Oh well, probably wouldn't have mattered as the 1st strike had 25 Tojos as escorts, which can take out anything in the sky.

You'll need to be careful round the solomons

thats the truth, especially with Rabual being a super base of at least 100 betties. I do have troops prepped for Lunga/Tulagi/Tasssforgana (sp?). So i do intend to tangle in the solomons eventually, but i'll definitly need my full CV supports, which is impossible because they are down near Perth at the moment, ready to move up to the Darwin theatre.

P.S C&C sucks .. I hate RTS type games.

yeah i'm not crazy about RTS games either. Not much strategy involved, especially with C&C. Basically the strategy in that game comes down to building masses amounts of tanks and just plowing into the enemy base. Not realistic strategy IMO.

[KDonovan]

Oct 8th/9th - looks like my retalitory raid on Rangoon worked. I got off 3 fighter sweeps and 4 bombing raids, which resulted in 47 jap fighters shot down and 23 planes destroyed on the ground. Only 22 P40's were lost in the operation. Most were from the AVG which is now down to 1/2 strength which kinda sucks. But no worries as i plan on upgrading that group to P38's ASAP.

Elsewhere the Japanese finished off the beached transport near the Santa Cruz Is with 7 more bomb hits. 4 Kittyhawks and 3 Zero's were lost in the operation, but lucky for me all the troops were able to land before the ship capsized.

Lastly my inept ASW forces near Cairns finally scored some major hits on a I-boat lurking about. No confirmation on its sinking though.

Plan - looks like if the Japanese escort carrier group that pounded that transport, is heading off to the east. Not sure where though. Possibly to interdict my shipping lanes. I hope thats not the case as i have no long range bombers to counter such a move, just a bunch of SBD's and Beauforts. Either way i've sent the ships in the area scattering.

Elsewhere, not much happening as my airforces in India will be stood down for much needed rest.

here's a screenie...

[KDonovan]

Oct 10th/11th - nothing much to report other than a sub laid mine at shortlands hit a barge, and there was another failed assault on Darwin.

Plan - of note. Seems to me there was a mutiny in the Indian theatre as i've lost the 16th Chinduit Bde. It was supposed to be transported by air from Calcutta to Akyab, but they never arrived, and is now gone.....sorta. By that i mean, when i check the infantry count at Akyab, there are too many infantry(especially comabat inf) there to account for the 2 BF's and Carbineers Rgt currently there. So it appears that the 16th Chinduit Bde is there in body, but not in name. I hope i get it back. Either way, i've suspended air transport missions and will have to bring in troops by ship. Very dangerous as Rangoon has been heavily reinforced. Latest intel of Rangoon shows that there are 130 fighters, 20 bombers, and 130 Aux aircraft. I wonder what Miller is up to.

Elsewhere, i've lost track of that CVE TF noted above. I'm still warry of its presence so ships in the area will continue to proceed with caution.

[Rob Brennan UK]

with regard to your inf dilemma . i have the exact same situation in mythilinka with teh 17th inf div .. listed ish as 17th/1 cant check a damn thing . alose tried airlifting bits out to see if the maon body reformed , didnt work ..

top tip i since learnt . when transporting by air make sure that the main unit ( not the /1 ) is the last to recieve troops. hope that makes sense. if necc . stop transporting when 1/2 have arived till the bigger unit recieves main status.

[KDonovan]

with regard to your inf dilemma . i have the exact same situation in mythilinka with teh 17th inf div .. listed ish as 17th/1 cant check a damn thing . alose tried airlifting bits out to see if the maon body reformed , didnt work ..

top tip i since learnt . when transporting by air make sure that the main unit ( not the /1 ) is the last to recieve troops. hope that makes sense. if necc . stop transporting when 1/2 have arived till the bigger unit recieves main status.

hi rob, kinda know what your talking about....but not completely sure. In my situation i had 150 C47's transporting some 4,000 troops. Would take about 2 days to accomplish, which unfortuantley is 1 turn, since i'm playing 2 day turns. Therefore there was never a chance for me to view a partial brigade unit (16th Bde/1). So for me the bde was located at Calcutta one turn....and supposed to be at Akyab next turn...which somewhat happened but not.

Thanks for the advice though, as i'll be looking out for your particalur situation in the future

[Rob Brennan UK]

Yes i see your dilemma.

Its an irregular bug i have only encounetered once so 99% of the time should be ok.

so bearing that in mind

either, live with the bug and ignore the consequences

or , use less planes so not all is transported in one phase, then check, u can always move multiple units at once so the transports are all used or use 1/2 for supply runs ..

your choice i guess.

[KDonovan]

Oct 12th, 13th - nothing to report other than bombardment attacks at contested base's/hex's and air attacks in China

Plan - looks like Rob's suggestion worked this time for the 5th Indian Div as i didn't try to airlift it all at once, and only did a partial move, as the unit didn't disappear on me....yay!. Anyways not much action....yet, but things will start to move faster in a couple of weeks as you shall see. In the meantime, Miller said he's going on a business trip for a week, so no turns will be sent, therefore no updates on the AAR for a while. But i will leave you with some upcoming ops i'm planning

These are the bases i plan on attacking in the near future, and the forces prepping for them.
Victoria Pt
- 2 UK Inf Div
- 1 Ind Tank Bde
- 1 UK FA Rgt
- 1 AA Rgt
- 1 Corps HQ
- 2 Eng Rgts
- 3 BF's
- 1 Aviation Rgt
Sabang (located at northern end of Sumatra)
- 1 Ind Inf Div
- 4 BF's
Darwin (still mine, but 120,000 enemy troops there)
- 3 Aus Inf Div
- 2 US Inf Div
- 4 Aus Bde
- 1 Aus Cav Div
- 1 Aus Cav Bde
- 1 Aus Tank Rgt
- 1 Aus AT Rgt
- 1 Corps HQ
- 1 Army HQ
Wyndham (not mine)
- 1 Aus Inf Div
- 2 Aus Bde's
- 1 Aus Cav Div
- 1 Aus Tank Rgt
- 1 US Army HQ
Gili Gili
- 1 Aus Bde
- 1 AA Rgt
- 2 FA Rgt
- 1 Aus Tank Rgt
- 1 Aus AT Rgt
- 1 CD-unit
- 1 US Corps HQ
- 3 BF's
Rossel Is (a dot base, located about 4 hex's east of Gili Gili)
- 1 Aus Bde
- 1 AA Rgt
- 1 CD-unit
- 2 AF-construction units
- 1 BF
Lunga
- 1 USMC Div
- 1 RCT
- 1 NZ Bde
- 1 NZ Cav Bde
- 1 US Corps
- 2 USMC Rdr Btn
- 2 USMC Para's
- 2 Eng Rgt
- 1 FA Rgt
- 3 BF's
Tulagi
- 1 NZ bde
- 1 USMC Rdr Btn
- 1 USMC Para
- 1 BF
Tassafaronga
- 1 NZ bde
- 1 BF
Wake Is
- 2 US Inf Div
- 1 Eng Rgt
- 1 AA Rgt
- 1 FA Rgt
- 2 BF's
- 1 CD-unit