Speedy vs Fabertong: Death to the Penguin!

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

My Cv's are about 1/2 way to Baker Island now. The screenie below shows them in transit........

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In the meantime the only action is my LBA attacking IJA troops at Mandalay on a daily basis and my lovely submarines:

SS Pompon blew the tiny MSW Wa 13 out of the water east of Mindanao.

SS Pompano sank the empty transport Kashiwa Maru 120 miles SE of Jaluit Island. 2 out of 2 torpedoes hit home[8D]

Pompano is 1 of 4 additional submarines posted around Tarawa to interdict enemy traffic before the invasion.

SS Wahoo absolutely destroyed the empty transport Meigen Maru when she surfaced and hit her with 4 torpedoes + gun shells as she quckly sank beneath the waves 180 miles SE of Okinawa.

SS Puffer en route to a position inbetween Sulawesi and Borneo found and hit the loaded AP La Plata Maru with a torpedo. PC Fukue used her 'advanced' ASW weaponry to land some nearby projectiles causing 8 SYS damage.

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2 x AK and an LST arrive at San Francisco tomorrow.

[Mike Solli]

Holy Cow, Speedy! [X(]

[Speedysteve]

Death to Faber Mike. There will be no mistake this time. I will stay around until everything is dead or has surrendered[8D]

[Mynok]

Down here in the southron regions of the USA, we would call that a "whoopin stick". [:D]

[Speedysteve]

Interesting little tidbits. Over the past month:

Points:

Japanese + 506 points
Allies + 677 points

Planes:

Allies lost: 166 planes
Japanese lost: 189 planes

Troops:

Allies lost 81 points
Japanese lost 227 points

Ships:

Allies lost 1 ship - AVD for 6 points
Japanese lost 27 ships - 237 points. All of these are from my submarines. Good work lads[8D]

Some context on this. It's been a very quiet month overall with me resting and preparing for my next offensive. As such almost all of the plane losses for me have come from ops and a few from flak.

Most of his losses are also from ops but about 60 of them will have been accounted by my British Corsairs during the Palembang raid.

Troop losses are interesting. He has lost almost 3 times as many as me which shows the effect the land and air bombardments have had in Burma.

Of course this next month will have a lot more air losses when my CV's move towards Tarawa......[:)]

[Sneer]

how many subs on station ??
IMO it is more than excellent result?
do you have ideas why ?
what is japanese doctrine, convoy density, convoy size and escort ???

[Speedysteve]

Hi Sneer,
 
Let me tally this up from my mind. I remember where most of my subs are and some of their names etc................
 
In the SRA I have:
 
South China Sea - 9
Borneo/Sulawesi region - 4
Okinawa/Luzon/Mindanao - 12
 
Pacific:
 
Central/East Phillipine Sea - 5
Bonin's/Mariana's - 12
South Pacific - 4
Kuriles - 3
 
Total submarines: 49
 
I have about 50-60 in Darwin/Midway/Columbo my submarine bases.
 
I do focus on sub warfare which probably helps my results. As such I tend to look at my sub positions every day. I move them frequently if they are not finding the enemy or if Faber has moved in some heavy ASW assets. I have also tracked the routes he uses for convoys etc which helps in placement/planning.
 
My subs are also well trained now with the majority in the 70's experience. This must help.
 
As for Faber's convoys I am not sure on TF size. He is rarely (if at all) shipping individual ships. His resource/oil TF's tend to be escorted by MSW/PG/PC (some of the newer Fukue type are now active) where as his AP TF's tend to have fleet destroyers in them. He seems to regularly be moving stuff around since my submarines are almost spotting something somewhere on a daily basis.
 
I have noticed he rarely has more than 5-8 escorts per TF.
 
Over the past 4 months he has implemented a lot more air assets to ASW. These planes appear to be based in Palembang/Formosa/Okinawa/Morotai and throughout the Mariana's/Iwo Jima. They have hit maybe 4-5 submarines in that time - 1 a month on average I guess.
 
Whenever I receive 2 x SS I move 1 on patrol and 1 to either Midway or Darwin.

[Sneer]

i my game i'm able to inflict losses to allies and force them to leave important sectors
fukae class PC are very good in H-K groups
I don't think I lost >20 ships to subs during whole 18 months
you have impressive results with subs - probably close to historical ones

[Speedysteve]

Hi Sneer,
 
Agreed. The high ASW value ships (PC Fukae/APD class) and high experience ships (Fleet Destroyers) + aircraft can kill Allied submarines. I have found that playing as the Japanese (especially in my game vs swift. In that game he has totally halted submarine operations in favour of sub minelaying missions).
 
I believe the key to ASW success and on the flip side submarine success is EXPERIENCE. Also key with surface ASW groups is a skilled and aggressive commander.
 
As mentioned in this game my submarines are very skilled now. That coupled with SJ Radar, correct placement, constant shifting does lead to success.
 
As another example of experience making a difference in a game versus Pompack I am Allies upto end of July 1942. My submarines have NO SJ Radar yet and are between 55-65 in experience. I am placing them and moving them among his shipping routes but achieve few attacks. Pompack is hunting more aggressively, compared to Faber, but due to me moving submarines about hasn't sunk many either.

[Speedysteve]

Just occured to me NOT all 27 Japanese ships were sunk by subs - 3 of these (1 x TK and 2 x MSW) were lost to RN Avenger's at Palembang. That leaves 24 sunk by submarines.

[Capt. Harlock]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

Interesting little tidbits. Over the past month:

Points:

Japanese + 506 points
Allies + 677 points

Planes:

Allies lost: 166 planes
Japanese lost: 189 planes

Troops:

Allies lost 81 points
Japanese lost 227 points

Ships:

Allies lost 1 ship - AVD for 6 points
Japanese lost 27 ships - 237 points. All of these are from my submarines. Good work lads[8D]

Some context on this. It's been a very quiet month overall with me resting and preparing for my next offensive. As such almost all of the plane losses for me have come from ops and a few from flak.

Most of his losses are also from ops but about 60 of them will have been accounted by my British Corsairs during the Palembang raid.

Troop losses are interesting. He has lost almost 3 times as many as me which shows the effect the land and air bombardments have had in Burma.

Of course this next month will have a lot more air losses when my CV's move towards Tarawa......[:)]

Seems a little odd. You gained only 171 points overall, yet you gained 231 points on ships alone. Faber must be doing some impressive construction on bases and industry.

[Speedysteve]

Hi Capt,
 
Yes Faber made about 250 more points on base construction over the past month.

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

A quiet day with bad weather preventing any offensive air missions in Burma and China.

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In preparation for my upcoming offensive in the Paciifc a further 5 fleet submarines left Midway bound for the Marshall's/Mariana's area.

SS Halibut spotted but failed to attack ML Hoko 180 north of Pagan.

SS Plunger fired 4 torpedoes at AP Tohuku Maru 180 miles NW of Eniwetok.....all 4 missed[:-]

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4 x AK and an SC arrive in theatre tomorrow.

[BrucePowers]

Speedy;
Are these transport losses starting to impact his ability to move supplies and resources?

Bruce

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Hi Bruce - I don't know exactly but from my play of the Japanese it is highly unlikely he is suffering with any ability to move resources/supply. The Japanese have hordes of AK's.....fuel/oil COULD be a different matter. I have tagged quite a few TK's. I personally doubt he is any danger at all as yet but it all helps towards final victory.

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The S-Boats S-18 and S-32 encountered a few ASW vessels in the Southern Kuriles. They easily evaded detection.

SS Puffer reportedly put 2 torpedoes into PG Muro Maru inbetween Borneo and Sulawesi. If so the ship should sink.

SS Grouper hit the large oil laden Tanker Fukisan Maru with a torpedo 240 miles SE of Camranh Bay

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Heavy bombing of IJA positions around Mandalay

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My CV's/BB's should be at Baker Island in about 2 days.

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My first AGC, Blue Ridge, arrives at San Francisco tomorrow.

[scott64]

[BrucePowers]

Okay, slightly off topic question. Is the only game you are engaged in against T, TOAW?

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Hi Bruce - correct. At present just a Campaign for North Africa 40-43 scenario against T. Before TOAW we went through a lot of Steel Panthers scenarios. It was pretty close on them either 50-50 or maybe just 55-45 in my favour on them.

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I'm looking forward to smacking the Japanese again now. After a month's convalesence it's nearing that time. All being well my CV's/BB's should be at Baker Island tomorrow. They will stay until fully fueled and then head out when the time is ready.

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There was no submarine activity during the night but the daylight hours saw a nice little frenzy throughout the Pacific.

SS Seawolf missed AK Tazima Maru with 4 torpedoes 120 miles NE of Morotai.

SS Shark II had a great day in sinking 2 x AK's from the same convoy in the space of 2 hours. This action took place 80 miles SE of Guam. Her first victim was Seiki Maru. Her second sank within minutes; Noborikawa Maru. Both ships were hit with 2 torpedoes.

SS Barb hit the empty TK San Ramon Maru with a torpedo 180 miles ESE of Batan Island.

SS Sturgeon received a very thorough working over today. 3 of the new Fukae PC Class dropped DC's for hours in her vicinity. One of the most determined attacks to date. The sub was left heavily damaged and at 68 FLT. She is to return to Darwin for lengthy repairs.

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A massive reorganisation took place at PH today. The men of various divisions and regiments were given a days shore leave before re-embarking and making their way to Baker Island. The men have been embarked on 100's of ships inlcuding AK's, AP's, LCI's, LST's and LSD's.

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CA Sussex left Karachi today to join the RN fleet at Columbo.

An LCI arrives at San Francisco tomorrow as does a Buffalo (!) squadron at Darwin.

[Wellard]

Why is it that whenever I read this AAR I get the Tune of "American Patrol" running through my mind.

[Speedysteve]

American Patrol?