New AAR - but not as good as Snigbert's

[Sinjen]

heh I'm reading, can't wait to hear the next report.

Size 9!

That can support your level bombers right???

Wow get that fully operational and supplied and your way to air superiority is greatly enhanced.

[IChristie]

15 Sept - Koumac is up and running. Minimal base forces have transferred in. Enough to let me operate a sentai of Oscars for at least a while. The flying boat express is keeping the troops from starving (just) while the APD's return with supplies. The first resupply will reach Koumac tomorrow.

In the midst of all that the US sends another bombardment force North. It moves to a position to threaten either Nevea or Lunga and when I move to block it from Lunga (with the CL's from Shortland) it heads for Lunga. It wreaks havoc on the patrol boats and minelayer TF's at anchor in the sound. The heroism of the DD Yagumo drives the force away from the tankers unloading at the port and none of them is touched. The Nagumo manages to torpedo and sink a USS DD and hits a CA and CL with gunfire. SHe herself is badly damaged but still afloat in the morning. In the morning the birds of paradise go into action and damage teh CL achilles of the South coast of San Cristobal. They catch her again the next day in port and put another couple bombs into her.

The invasion fleet is assembled and refueled in the conentration area. It's show time!

[Sinjen]

Sounds like the Captain of Yagumo rates a personal decoration by the Emperor.

We await to hear more glorious reports. I sense a building momentum. You definetely have the initiative. Barring some terrible disastor I think you may pull this off.

[IChristie]

16 Sept - The invasion fleet is spotted about a days sailing out from Luganville. The LBA swings into gear with raids of about 50 planes. The combination of close air support CAP from and LRP from Nevea does significant damage and no ships are hit. As expected the strikes concentrate on the two carriers and ignore the transports.

17 Sept - Arrival at Luganville. The air action gets really exciting as the AI throws everything including the kitchen sink and several bathroom fixtures at the invasion force. Once more the carriers get all the attention and Unyo is eventually hit by two 1000lb bombs dropped by SBD's That puts her out of commission and her a/c divert to Koumac of all places. I'll need to step up the LRP now.

LBA has been totally ineffective because of weather, grounded every day!

In a naval action off Luganville the heavies (and I mean heavy) go to work on a tanker convoy at 12000 yards. First they sink the escorts and then all three oilers go to the bottom. Then they turn their sights on bombarding Luganville. They damage several a/c and do 143 damage points to the runway. That ought to put a damper on the fly boys tomorrow.

Now, time for the army to do some work for a change

[mogami]

Hey can you just dump everything to your new size 9 airbase?
Did you say it counts as a Victory base so all you need do is hold on to it till Jan (I need to look at a map again I do not know where any of these bases are)
Events are moving faster then I can keep up with, you have already (Sept) started your invasion of Luganville?)

[ratster]

Where is Koumac in relation to Luganville? Whats the Allied base at Efate Port Vila like? The meat grinder is warming up!

[mogami]

Hi, It seems one must read every thread in the forum to get an idea of what is happening. Kourmac is his diversion to draw the AI into send LCU away from Luganville. It is part of New Cal and the AI can march his LCU there from the southern base. SO he really does not want to put anything there. (its just bait)

[ratster]

Ah, I see. I'm curious to see what happens when the weather clears.

[mogami]

Once we all have this fantastic game I think I will be interested in being the Allies in the long May start Campaign and the Japanese in the Aug Start.

[IChristie]

Things moved quickly tonight as I got a free domestic evening! Sorry about the short notice

Well the AI didn't seem to be taking the bait so I went ahead and attacked Luganville anyway. I figure this gives me two irons in the fire. While it will be tough for me to keep two supplied. It will be tougher for him to attack in two locations. Especially since I have a significant part of his LCU bottled up in Luganville right now.

Either one of Luganville or Koumac will give auto victory.

Koumac was easier to take but will be tough to resupply if Luganville is in enemy hands

19 Sept - The army is ashore. We start with a bombardment attack and find that we have 33 000 troops ashore (in two days!) but the enemy has 47 000 and fortification level 5. This is going to be every bit as interesting as we thought. The 2nd division is on it's way from Shortland to add more offensive weight. After that I can pull more reinforcements from Rabaul and Truk. I'll be interested to see how big the invasion force is once it's all ashore. It should be in excess of 50 000.

Despite orders to remain on station the Ryujo makes a break for it. All this does is get it out from under the LBA provided CAP and it is holed a couple of times by Hudsons. It is badly damaged enough that it a/c debunk to Koumac. The av support situation at Koumac needs to be addressed I only have a bare minimum there now (like 5). I was moving support from Gili Gili, but now it's closed down again and the flying boats don't seem to be able to get out - arrrghh!

The heavies stay on station and continue to pound Luganville airport. Putting that out of action would be a good thing. I may also consider pulling some LCU off to go capture Port Vila (if it is lightly held) to put its airfield out of commission as it is also becoming a major pain.

So far, so good. No transports have been lost to enemy air and I am managing to keep about 30 fighters in CAP over the fleet.

Well, that's all for tonight. I have to go wring out this shirt and change my underwear

[ratster]

Yes, temporary leave has been authorized.

[juliet7bravo]

What kind of LCU force is in Noumea? Any chance of taking it as well? The US infantry reinforcements are around there somewhere...any idea where? If they're at Luganville you're in a world of hurt.

That's about another 25+% of their oilers. If you take Luganville, that's going to make it extremely tough on the Allies until they can take back the airbase at Koumac.

Ya know, if you pull this off it's going to be a shame if the game just flat ends Jan '43...talk about interesting times for the US trying to make amphibious assaults to recapture major built up bases in the teeth of your LBA. Next stop for you would be Noumea and Port Villa before they can build up troops and supplies?

[bradfordkay]

Well, you may have landed too early at Luganville, but this gives the allied player a quandary. Does he split his forces to try to push you out of both locations or just concentrate on one? Is the AI trained to react to an impending automatic victory? It's possible that he might try to save Luganville and forget to reclaim Koumac....

Have your heavies come into contact with the North Carolina? I'm interested in seeing how the Showboat performs against the Yamato. The North Carolina was the first battlewagon I ever saw or set foot upon, and so she holds a sentimental value for me as well as for Boomboom, but in the interest of winning this game I'm all for sinking her....

[juliet7bravo]

Ouch, 47K of troops and level 5 fort...guess that answers where the US troops are at. My guess Port Villa and Noumea are lightly held in that case. Taking out Port Villa would be a priority...with your carriers and bombardment TF's you can make sure they don't get reinforcements and supplies if you own the air over the beachhead.

[mogami]

Reservations concerning operational plans should be voiced before the operations commence. Hence I will refrain from any comments except for ones that might contribute to success.
After the US surrenders I will bring up some thoughts for future class's of the IJN acadamy.
Item

1. Reinforcments to Luganville. It is Sept withhold all troops not already ashore in Truk to reduce supply requirments on Lunganville. Let the allies start the land combat there and use their supply. We can not supply that many troops at the present so we must,
a. build up supply at closest bases I would think at least 150k tons at Shortland or Lunga in excess of what these bases require.
If I had the supply rules I could whip out my trusty slide rule and give a better estimate (I am sure we will find out shortly based on what Lugancville consumes)
b. maintain supply to troops already ashore. In addition to stockpiles for the future.
c. cut supply to allied units at Luganville. This is the paramount requirment to victory. We can never outnumber the US enough to win a headbutting contest. The Americans must be forced to run out of ammo and let nature be our ally in their destruction. The more troops they have out of supply the faster the effects will show. We must prevent the attrition of our troops till the time comes for their heroic effort.

Approx 90 days to victory check. Prearations for all out land offensive and reinforcment would need to be complete not later then Nov 15th to allow 6 weeks to capture base. (US troops can still be at Luganville as long as we control the base)

[HOTB]

Just a newbie de-lurking to say how much I've enjoyed reading this. It seems like every few hours I come back to see if there's been an update.

My question is: Can you set up something like routine convoys to shuttle supplies from Truk, or does each supply run have to be given orders to pick up supplies and then ordered on their way? I'm asking because with all the excitement with the invasion down south, I'm thinking it would be easy to forget about routine orders on the other side of the map.

[mogami]

Greetings, While our fearless Theater commander catches up on his sleep I am going to wax philosophical for a while before posing a question to my fellow UV anticipating forum mates.

Japanese War Aims and Strategy and the Allied Response.

OK I am interested purely in the war-game aspects not the political or historic. I speaking solely about a person playing the Japanese side in a war-game who wants to meet the games victory conditions (not win the real WW2)
I think it is a good thing to have it possible for the Japanese to achieve some sort of automatic victory (Allied auto victory should also be possible)
The long May campaign is a microcosm of the larger war. Japan has a material advantage, the enemy is on the defensive. But these conditions are not indefinite. If the Japanese player does nothing time will pass the initiative to the allies and he will find himself faced by overwhelming numbers.
In order to just maintain the status quo he has to win repeated victories at little cost. Exchanges favor the Allies and a major defeat can quickly result in others rapidly following.
So the question is always what means are there to insure the Allied player will commit his out numbered forces to battle rather then trade space for time while he receives the reinforcements that will guarantee victory. Auto victory conditions such as those being included in the game are the answer of course I was amused by the fans on the side lines who were in favor of meeting the auto victory conditions even if doing so required loss that would mean certain defeat in a larger scale game (Witp)I guess I have a hard time separating the South Pacific actions from their impact else where. It certainly would be a disaster for the US player if the Japanese player is able to capture Espirtu Santo and destroy a Marine division in the process (the idea behind this victory condition is the threat of future Japanese operations that accompany such a capture) but if in so doing (remember up to this point the Allied player will have not had a Midway scale victory) He gives up his most dangerous weapon (his CV's) Then the allied recapture is only a matter of time and a new Marine Division will be raised to replace the lost one. And the threat that the Victory conditions imply are empty. You can only throw everything (including kitchen sinks) one time.
I am not a programer so I do not know the difficulty of implementing this idea. I might in fact be the only person who even worries about such things. The current victory condition is south of hex row 52 on Jan 1 43. I would suggest this line move up or down according to score or have a proviso attached
If Japan controls a level 5 base below hexrow 52 on 1 Jan 43 and has double the supply and (insert here) a points ratio of (to be determined) they are awarded an automatic victory.
Have you ever seen a SPWaW battle where near the last turn one or both players start throwing units away trying to grab a VH? (move trucks or shot up sqds onto them knowing they will die but they will change possession of the hex first)
My basic point is to be awarded an auto victory based on how meeting those conditions would have lead to a victory in the larger war implies the side being awarded the victory will have the means to follow it up. The conditions could be as simple as something like (if Japan lost 4 CV the game is over) or some point value in Warships of all flavors (this could be the very Allied Auto victory I was referring to earlier)
I certainly don't want to make the game unwinnable for the Japanese player. But I also don't want to play PBEM games where the most successful players are the ones who simply start moving everything below the 52 hexrow no matter what the cost.
What do you all think?

[juliet7bravo]

I think this auto-victory routine is gamey. Look at the discussion over using 50% damaged carriers (in '42!!!) as stalking horses to absorb air attacks away from the transports!

I've never played the game (obviously) but it means the Allied player (or computer) has to have every level 5 base manned and fortified to resist a last ditch/last minute "below hexrow 52 Banzai charge". The IJN player guesses right, and hits a lightly defended base with 50K troops it's all over with. Means Guadacanal and the Solomons really ain't important at all except as "way stations", the IJN player can strip/expend everything to use in a mad dash south.

It means the Allied player can't just "do all right" through '42, he has to attain and maintain an overwhelming fleet supremacy. If the IJN player keeps a fleet in being, manages his supply adequately, and keeps sufficient transport available he can always "roll the dice" as 1943 starts looming in front of him.

That said...there should be a way for the IJN to actually win. Plodding along till the end of '43 in this one confined theatre, it seems to me the end is fairly predictable unless the Allied player is a putz or has some really lousy luck.

Thoughts...Maybe he'd have to take a base by Jan '43, and HOLD it for like 3 months total, and have to hold certain key bases above hexrow 52 as well. I think the IJN player (to achieve auto-victory) should have to simutaneously hold Port Moresby as well...the IJN goal to begin with, plus it actually would put him in a solid tactical/strategic position where expansion south would make sense. Dunno...without playing the game, don't know how difficult any of these would be.

Other thoughts...how much fuel has he been using/stockpiling (and projected to use)? I suspect it's waaaaaay more than they had available historically. I think we're also seeing the problem with Truk having unlimited fuel available. What's the capacity limit on Rabaul for storage?

[Caltone]

As another who keeps a constant vigil on these forums and this thread in particular, let me add something to the auto victory question.

Auto victory is a key piece to the game play. I think this could still be achieved however while still factoring in some of the politcal and off map situations.

Mogami is on the right track. The Japanese player should be required to have a viable threat after taking a major forward base (his naval air arm). Without this we are basically back to May 42 with the battle lines just having been redrawn. Some sort of point advantage needs to be part of the auto victory calculation.

Perhaps in this situation, the Pacific theater could require the US to devote enough resources from the European theater to keep the Germans viable. A strong Japanese CV force could theorectically do this, especially if they continually wrecked havoc on resupply TF's.

Just some thoughts and I voted for Luganville in the poll Good Luck!

[Kadste]

Maybe the auto victory conditions should be picked before the game starts.

As the Japanese, you could pick let's say two (or three, or even more) victory hexes above hexrow 52 AND one victory hex below hexrow 52. This would be your strategic plan and you would have to follow it.

You could do something similar for the US.

Also, I agree that you should have to hold the base. The closer the base is from your original front, the longer you have to hold it.

Just some thoughts,