Gary vs. VSWG (Martin DON'T READ)

[GaryChildress]

This will be a game between myself and Martin (a/k/a VSWG). I'm playing Japanese and VSWG as Allies. Martin is new to PBEM (although he's done a lot of practice against the AI and is ready to kick b*tt). I am new to running (or will it be ruining [:D]) Japanese industry so it should be an interesting game.

Game settings are as follows:

WitP version 1.801
CHS scenario 155 (Andrew's "extended" map)
Turn cycle = 1 day

Allied sub doctrine = off
Japanese sub doctrine = off
fog of war = on
advanced weather = on
Allied damage control = on
historical 1st turn = off
player defined upgrades = on
vary setup = off
December 7 surprise = on
reinforcements = variable +/- 15 days
auto sub ops = off
facilities to expand at start = off
automatic air upgrades default = off
air and ground replacements default = off

House rules are too numerous to mention but we're trying to keep things realistic and out of the realm of fantasy. We'll be using some of Halsey's suggested house rules and some of Andrew Brown's suggested house rules for CHS.

EDIT: PS please don't discuss VSWG's plans in this thread nor my plans in VSWG's thread. Thanks! [:)]

[DuckofTindalos]

Hey, you finally got CHS up and running! Nice one, Gary!

[GaryChildress]

As Historcal First Turn is turned off I hope to make some major victories early on. The Imperial command has been planning for months to make it's move in the Pacific and has started the gears rolling well in advance.

On the South China Sea Front my main strategy is to isolate the South China Sea and turn it into an imperial pond. To do this I intend upon captuing Kuching, Brunei, Miri and Jesselton in the first few turns. Kuching will be the real key to success or a long protracted campaign. Among the infantry units, I've included an aviation rgt in the landing force as well as construction engineers. I hope to turn Kuching into an operational airfield almost immediately, thereby shutting off the entrance to the China Sea from DEI as well as putting a halt to oil gathering activities in Palembang and Batavia, also making life in Singapore a major downer. From Kuching I should Also be able to foil attempts to move troops and resources in and out of Balikpapan and Tarakan.

As soon as I can get Brunei up to speed, I'll start the first flow of oil back to the mainland. I hope to accomplish this within the first week or so.

To start off the Singapore campaign, I'll be landing quite an array of engineers, artillery, tanks, base forces and, of course, infantry at Singora. Most of them will have their planning points set for Singapore. I'm hoping to fight my way down the main railway and by the time I reach Singapore I hope to have some substantial planning points built up.

With the South China Sea almost completely secured I hope to capture and make Palembang operational within the first month.

Following is a map of initial operations in the South China Sea:

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Hey, you finally got CHS up and running! Nice one, Gary!

Yeah, I have to admit that using Andrew's installation utility works much better than trying to install each file "by hand". I don't know what I was doing wrong but Andrew's utility seems to have fixed it for the most part. I still have a few minor problems with teleport operatioins. I'll have to see if regular movement is affected. But I'm pretty optimistic at this point. [:)]

[DuckofTindalos]

Good luck to you...

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Good luck to you...

Thanks Terminus! [:)]

[DuckofTindalos]

I like this focus on Northern Borneo. Seems like a sound plan, and you should have more than enough aircraft to base at Kuching to make it work.

[GaryChildress]

Along with the standard invasions of Aparri, Vigan, and Legaspi, Naga will be assaulted by the 16th Division. Simultaneously engineers, artillery and armor will be landed on Legaspi prepping for Manilla. While all this is going on airborne troops will land at Tuguegarao and take the base on the first turn with a shock attack. In order to take back Tuguegarao, the Allies will have to cross a river, in which I hope to inflict a few losses on them.

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

I like this focus on Northern Borneo. Seems like a sound plan, and you should have more than enough aircraft to base at Kuching to make it work.

Nells and Bettys should be able to harrass half of the DEI from Kuching I hope. Probably the Zeros stationed in French Indochina will follow them as escorts and to perform a few fighter sweeps at extended ranges. Oscars I'll probably keep around the Malayan peninsula as escorts. I'll probably have to station a sentai of Nates temporarily in Brunei to provide air cover there. Otherwise I intend to utilize as few Nates and Claudes as possible as they'll be nothing but death traps for my precious few pilots.

[GaryChildress]

Speaking of covering DEI from the air, I've also moved a daitai of Nells and one of Bettys to Palau. Since Martin and I are in agreement that the Japanese will only be able to attack bases within "line of sight" and within 15 hexes of the nearest friendly base, I'm moving a landing force for Kendari just east of Manado near Morotai. From there the TF will make it's way to Kendari. The landing force is also composed of a base force and Kendari should be overwhelmed within a turn or two after landing. As soon as Kendari falls, Nells and Bettys from Manado will transfer there and isolate DEI from Northern Australia. There's a base force in the initial landing force for Menado, which should fall before Kendari, therefore, I intend upon stationing the long range bombers there first, then shifting them to Kendari.

[GaryChildress]

Phase two of turn 1 will be the marshalling of my forces, getting them to advantageous locations for further campaigns.

The first thing I did for this phase was to set Baby KB to assemble at Pescadores. I upgraded all Claudes to Zeros, stationed a daitai of Zeros from Formosa on Taiyo and will transfer a second chutai of Kates to Hosho and take the Claudes off that carrier. Thus Baby KB will be completely outfitted with modern a/c from the get go.

[FeurerKrieg]

Best of luck Gary, I'll try to pop in and check up on you now and then. [:'(]

[GaryChildress]

Glad to see you around Bob! Hopefully I won't loose all my carriers in this one. [:D]

[ny59giants]

I haven't seen in a non-historical 1st turn of the Japanese player placing a sub blockade south of PI to catch all those fleeing AK's. Rather,most of tried to use mini-KB or try to take Jolo or Davao and place Betty/Nell there.
Unfortunately, I am a Allied player, but I wonder why someone doesn't divert all those subs going to Hawaii to here and around the straits off of NG and north Oz. Safer than facing all those DD's at Pearl.[:D] 

[FeurerKrieg]

ORIGINAL: Gary Childress

Glad to see you around Bob! Hopefully I won't loose all my carriers in this one. [:D]

Hehe... yes, well, you certainly made my day back then. Did you ever get to read my AAR for my lovely narration of those events?

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: Feurer Krieg

ORIGINAL: Gary Childress

Glad to see you around Bob! Hopefully I won't loose all my carriers in this one. [:D]

Hehe... yes, well, you certainly made my day back then. Did you ever get to read my AAR for my lovely narration of those events?

Hi Bob, yes I did. I also read Alikchi's reply saying "Poor Gary"! At least someone felt my pain! [:D] Besides it was all imperial propaganda anyway. My carriers actually struck reefs and sank on their own.

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

I haven't seen in a non-historical 1st turn of the Japanese player placing a sub blockade south of PI to catch all those fleeing AK's. Rather,most of tried to use mini-KB or try to take Jolo or Davao and place Betty/Nell there.
Unfortunately, I am a Allied player, but I wonder why someone doesn't divert all those subs going to Hawaii to here and around the straits off of NG and north Oz. Safer than facing all those DD's at Pearl.[:D] 

Hi ny59giants! As a matter of fact you partly read my mind! I actually did vacate the area around PH on the first turn. I sent half of the subs to Kwajelein to prepare for operations in the South Seas and the other half I sent toward San Diego to see if they can get a shot at Saratoga coming out. The RO subs I pulled out and sent to Truk to get reay for operations in the Bismarck Arch. The subs near the Malaya peninsula I encircled Singapore and plugged the the straits of Malaca with. Finally I sent the 4 subs docked at Kure to blockade the PI along with two other subs.

[GaryChildress]

Just a quick rundown of some of my non-historical 1st turn redeployments and then I'll go into the outcome of the initial turn. In these deployments I took advantage of the new, 1 day only, Imperial Warp engines to send forces to the far reaches of the empire.

BBs and Baby KB: I've assembled Baby KB in Pescadores along with 2 BBs to make up a second bombardment force for the Southern Area. Also 7 AOs have been transfered to Amoy in order to fill up on gas. They will comprise Baby KB's replenishment force.

The 4 remaining BBs of combined fleet have been sent to Truk. From there they can be utilized in the Bismarck Arch or in bombardment groups for the South Pacific.

Supplies: Substantial supply and fuel convoys are making their way toward Palau, Truk, and Kwajelein, the three main bases in the Central Pacific which will act as springboards for further conquests. For the moment the Southern Area is fine and should be able to sustain itself. In order to sustain the PI campaign I'll be pulling supplies from Okinawa and other islands on the western fringe of the home islands. There is a pretty good store of supplies on those islands.

Construction Bns: Construction Bns from Formosa have been dispatched toward Truk, Kwajelein and Palau as follow ups for invasion groups there.

Base forces: Base forces are being sent to major outlaying bases as well. I'll be needing BFs of all shapes and sizes for garrisoning my newly conquered territory.

Tankers: The majority of my tankers are gathering at Camranh Bay, ready to start harvesting valuable oil from the SRA as soon as bases are captured.

ARs: Repair ships are being dispatched to Palau, Kwajelein and Truk in order to give these bases greater capability of reparing the casualties in the coming months.

ADs: Japan has 3 destroyer tenders (ADs) and that's all we'll get for the rest of the war. I've sent one toward Camrahn Bay, one toward Palau, and one toward Kwajelein. They will be invaluable in replenishing torpedos for my destroyers where there are no bases large enough to do so.

AVs, AMCs and CSs: I intend to use these ships (at least the ones with seaplanes) primarily to seek out enemy supply convoys headed toward OZ from Southeast Asia and the US West Coast. The ships will be sent to patrol the waters through which such TFs are expected to be running. Thus most of the AVs are either in the Southern Area to be deployed in the DEI later on or toward Kwajelein ready for my push into the South Pacific.

Kwantung Army: Martin and I are in agreement that Kwantung army units must stay in Manchukuo unless transferred to another HQ. However, I am assembling most, if not all the construction Bns, Engineer Bns, and Arty Bns from the region toward the extremities, toward either the Korean Peninsula or toward the border with China. As I accumulate poltical points I will start reassigning these smaller units to other HQs and ship them off to other campaigns. Construction, artillery, and engineer Bns will be invaluable in the coming months and are relatively cheap to convert. As I conquer territory I intend upon deploying construction Bns to build up fortifications and in some cases airfields and ports. However, I'm going to go lightly on building up installations as the Allies will simply use them in later months to get back at me. Therefore islands on the edge of the empire will be little more than seaplane bases for patrol duty.

Objectives: My primary objectives will be pretty obvious to any Allied fanboy. I'll be moving in a pretty historical manner. First off I need to capture the SRA as quickly as possible. Also on the agenda is the Bismarck Arch. which includes Rabaul. I hope to capture Noumea at the earliest possible moment in an attempt to isolate OZ from the US West Coast. I'll also try to capture as many of the small islands in the South Pacific as possible to use as a buffer against the Allies retaking Noumea, and as added insurace that I make life difficult for Allied convoys. Once the DEI is secure I intend upon capturing Christmas Island off the coast of Java. I'll base patrol planes there to watch for convoys headed to OZ from SEA.

Coming up soon on my agenda is the invasion of Midway. I already have some units in starting locations for the campaign. The Allies will be hard pressed to take it back since it is out of range of heavy bombers from any other island including PH.

Next to come will be a presentation of my initial plans to cut off Singapore from the rest of the world as soon as possible.

[GaryChildress]

Singora and Kuching can easily be turned into air bases in the first few turns. I'll split my Nells currently based in French Indochina among these two bases, effectively forming an air blockade of Singapore. I already have a base force unloaded at Kuching. Hopefully I've sent enough infantry to make it a short fight.

Singora is of course already in Japanese possession. I have a base force in the process of disembarking there as well. It has a size 3 airfield so it should barely be able to opperate some bombers.

[jeffs]

I think the question for the Allies and Midway is what can the IJN do from there?
 
If you can threaten allied shipping, then he might be forced to react at some point...But if not it might make sense to annoy it...Let`s face it, the only thing you can use it for (as the allies) is for recon and to attack Wake...But Wake is too small to be useful. So outside of it as a recon base, it is not particularly useful IMHO.