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

[KDonovan]

sorry..for the lack of updates, Miller's business trip was longer than excepted. Anyways, since its been a while, let me just briefly update whats been going on in the game up until this point...

May/June - japanese take Port Moresby, BB Nagato takes 4 torp hits and is seriously damaged
July - japanese attempt to invade NW-australia, but fail in the ultimate objective of taking Darwin. Only Whydham was taken, and now there are 120,000 japanese troops stuck at Darwin. The CV Soryu and CV Junyo take 2 torp hits each and are seriously damaged. Also the japanese manage to lose 20 AP's in the attempt
Aug - i lose the BB North Carolina to an retirement order error. the ship was part of an marine raider operation near Lunga. the operation was cancelled shortly afterwards
Sept - Andaman Is and Akyab are taken back, with 4 british cruisers taking torpedo hits, moderately damaging them. Mandalay is reduced to rubble, and Rangoon continues to be operational, despite losing 100 betties to naval bombardment

and that brings us to Oct where things have quited down...

Oct 14th - Oct 21st - Japanese launch another assault on the fortifications at Darwin, and are easily driven back. Fort levels are now at level 6 and rising. Meanwhile B17's from Derby have been hitting Koepang and Whydam airfields, while medium bombers from Derby and Darwin have been hitting enemy ground troops at Whydam. 30,000 allied troops are now prepared to assualt the town of Whydham.

over in the Burma theatre, construction continues on the Akyab AF to bring it up to level 4, at which point the destruction of Rangoon by air will commence.

over in China, the japanese continue to hit heavy industry and resource centers unimposed by air, however there is no evidence of any push on the ground by enemy troops at the moment

elsewhere, preparation for the invasion of Lunga started, as 60 AK's and 20 AP's needed for the invasion started to move to there jumping off points. Will take about a month to get everything together and implace.

meanwhile i've i have planned a diversionary B24 strike and naval bombardment mission on Tarawa for the time being

[Nikademus]

sounds like your gaining the initiative.

[KDonovan]

sounds like your gaining the initiative.

yeah..i think the tide has turn. Darwin broke the japanese offensive power in the whole pacific, as miller has lost 4 div's worth of troops. Now i have to figure out how to managed mutliple offensive planning with my abudence of aircraft, troops, and ships. Its gonna be quite a headache. I wish i had a general staff to help me plan..but my wife is more into "Dawsons Creek" than WITP

[Nikademus]

at least you don't have to manage the Japanese economy. [:D]

[Rob Brennan UK]

"Dawsons creek" ! .. yikes ..

thats even worse than orange county .. almost as bad as 'neighbours' ..

[KDonovan]

Oct 22nd - 25th - not much to report other than the reconquest of Whydham by allied forces. All the jap's commited suicide or banzai charged, so i won't have to chase them around the desert forever and ever. Now i just i need to repair the airfield (that i bombed) and bring in some aviation support units, then the suppression of the japanese troops at Darwin can begin. I hope to have around 400 planes hitting the japs around the clock in a couple days.

[Alikchi2]

In short, PP's break down where small and/or depleated units are concerned. Now as Mogami has long pointed out, the "sir Robin" defense and it's varients come with their own problems but removing a few weakened units doesn't reallychange the scheme of things much during that period, but they can really impact things later in the war such as early/mid 42 when the Allies are still gearing up and everything is in demand....particularily AV points for air bases....Dutch ENG units in particular are great for accelerating this.

Recall now...all the above is just my opinion....not trying to tell anyone HOW they should play. Thats like saying NEVER ATTACK MANILA ON TURN 1 YOU GAMER! In the end it all depends on what kind of game the players want. Me? i like immersion based on what i've read (but not a repeat....i can watch history channel for that) As Allied, i never move Dutch units out of the SRA unless the base/island etc is lost and maybe there's a chance to evac some defeated units. Never use subs.....too gamey IMO even though now at least the exp drop issue has been fixed. (again though, that wont mean a wit to an ENG unit. exp 20, exp 80, those AV points work the same)

Sorry to drag up an old post, but how do you feel about moving Dutch units aroudn within the DEI?

[Nikademus]

Don't have an issue with moving redeploying Dutch assets in the defense of their territory though it can be a dicey move if the other player is aware of your intentions.

[Grotius]

Enjoying this AAR, KDonovan. You've done a nice job of managing your forces. I was actually rooting for Miller to attack Noumea because I wanted to see how it would play out. In most AARs involving an invasion of Australia, the Japanese player lives to regret it, no?

I'm following this one, and Nik-Bombur, in part because I might want to try Nik Mod 5.0 myself. It looks like it's working well. You're doing well, but I'm not seeing Allied airpower completely decimating enemy airbases in one turn in mid-1942.

One question for Nik: I notice you said something about decreasing the armor on Japanese CVs. What's the rationale for that change? Does it partly explain KDonovan's success in his LBA attacks on IJN CVs off of northern Australia?

[Nikademus]

all warships in the game have deck armor ratings based on their primary armored deck. Problem with carriers is that this armor deck is usually either at the hanger deck level or lower. The flight decks are wooden planked except in the case of "true" armored carriers such as the UK bunch which have armored flight decks. Carriers are most vulnerable to hits into their hangers. Because they had armored deck ratings based on the lower armored deck, unprotected carrier types such as the Japanese and US types were behaving in the game like UK armored carriers. (bouncing 500lb and 250lb GP bombs) Mod fixed this by giving them deck armor values based on the flight deck instead of the lower armored deck.

[RUPD3658]

ORIGINAL: KDonovan

I wish i had a general staff to help me plan..but my wife is more into "Dawsons Creek" than WITP

You mentioned having a cat. Every evil genius needs a cat in his lap while planning world domination. Wives are more concerned about how the conquered territories should be decorated. [:D]

[KDonovan]

Enjoying this AAR, KDonovan. You've done a nice job of managing your forces. I was actually rooting for Miller to attack Noumea because I wanted to see how it would play out. In most AARs involving an invasion of Australia, the Japanese player lives to regret it, no?

I'm following this one, and Nik-Bombur, in part because I might want to try Nik Mod 5.0 myself. It looks like it's working well. You're doing well, but I'm not seeing Allied airpower completely decimating enemy airbases in one turn in mid-1942.

One question for Nik: I notice you said something about decreasing the armor on Japanese CVs. What's the rationale for that change? Does it partly explain KDonovan's success in his LBA attacks on IJN CVs off of northern Australia?

thanks Grotius for the comments. I too thought that Noumea would be his next target, as it would've brought the full strength of his carrier and bombardment groups to bear on my tiny outpost. At that point Luganville and Efate were not yet built up to level 5, so B17 attacks would've been out of the question, only medium bombers, which he could easily decimate (as he did at Port Moresby). More so, reinforcements of supply and troops would've been deadly.

When Miller attacked Darwin i was so surprised, i remarked in an email to him (half joking) "didn't Yamamoto tell never to get involved in a land war in Australia" Sound advice as i haven't seen a successful invasion of Australia yet in a PBEM

anyways, Nik's mod is great. I wish i could've of used it in my other PBEM, but alas i was desperate for an oppenant, and needed to get my ass handed to in a PBEM. [:D]

[KDonovan]

You mentioned having a cat. Every evil genius needs a cat in his lap while planning world domination. Wives are more concerned about how the conquered territories should be decorated.

hahaha, would be nice if my cat stayed in my lap. It keeps jumping up on the keyboard putting in orders such as "patrol/do not retire" when i need "retirement allowed". I'm not a huge cat fan, my wife is. I would get a dog, if i didn't live in an apartment the size of a Chevy Suburban in center city philly with homeless people pissing on my building, with the crack of gunfire in the backgr......oops i'm rambling [:D]

[Rob Brennan UK]

Sounds like a nice neighbour hood KD [;)].. Reminds me of a place called Gary , just south of chicago .. even had burning tyres and fires in barrels .. soo much like starsky and hutch slum land , was 1/2 expecting to see huggy bear swaggering along .. however we sped up so as not to get shot/robbed ..

[KDonovan]

Oct 26th/27th - you wouldn't believe this, but Miller is coming back to Darwin. Spotted 300 miles NW were 2 jap CV TF's, a BB TF, and a transport TF. And he couldn't come at a better time too. First, just a week game time ago i moved my CV froms Perth back to Sydney, so now they are out of position. Second, with an approaching BB TF and no PT boats at Darwin (were 4 days away), i was forced to move out all my planes (some 200) out of Darwin so they aren't flattened by 14in shells. Third, Whyndam AF still isn't repaired, so i cant use that as a medium bomber base. Lastly, my B17's out of Derby just launched a raid on Koepang the day before, and now they are fatigued and 1/2 are damaged, so they will have to sit out. So basically Miller will be unchallenged.

I wonder if this is a rescue mission?? Are you allowed to move troops out if they are in battle. I hope not, don't want any of these troops to leave there "prison camp" [:D] Seems likely though, as i don't he'll commit even more troops to the war zone.

Anways not much to report this turn, but i'm sure next turn will be more interesting

[ny59giants]

I have been able to transport out troops that were in the same hex as the enemy. I don't know if there is some ratio needed to be able to do so. I think you just pull up, load them up, move them out. [:D]

[Rob Brennan UK]

He can evacuate 'dunkirk' style , and if i was him thats exactly what i'd do. well covered mass AP convoy with good escorts. BB group to shell the airfield . you might attack when he;s loading as his assault value will deplete rapidly as inf squads seem to load before the support troops.

good luck

[Nikademus]

I'm betting evacuation

[KDonovan]

sorry for the lack of updates. Miller has been very busy, and so have i. Therefore we've only been able to do a couple turns a week. I sure hope i didn't lose to many readerships, as i know a slow down in an AAR can spell its death nail.

Oct 28th/Oct 29th - anyways here we go. As expected the Japanese bombardment TF hit Darwin with all its might. The super battleship Yamato lead the TF, along with 2 other BB's. Luckly the level 7 fort at Darwin, greatly diminished the effect of the bombardment as only a couple planes were destroyed on the ground, and only minor damage was done to the airfield. As stated be other's it looks this is indeed a rescue mission as no troops were landed this turn, and the transport TF remained offshore. In response to this, i've moved in every plane i can get my hand on, to Darwin. I'm hoping the japanese bombardment TF, shot its load and won't be able to cause significant damage next turn. In all i'll have about 200 Medium bombers, and 100 fighters at Darwin. Supplementing this force well be about 100 heavy bombers operating out of Derby. So next turn should be exciting

Meanwhile, i'll be moving in about 100,000 allied troops into Darwin next turn. As Rob stated, i hope to hit the besieged troops when he starts to load them, as this should decrease his AV.

In other news, a fast BB TF will hit Tarawa tommorrow, for no reason as to keep Miller thinking that Tarawa is my next target, when in fact it will be Lunga. [:D]

btw...forgot to mention this, but the CV Junyo finally sank 3-4 turns ago, the result of a Beaufort torpedos back in September.

[Nikademus]

I'm still reading....don't worry. [:D]