Splashing the Divebomber

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

I appreciate the advice, especially about the planes from OZ: So it shall be written, so it shall be done. A significant number of surface combatants are in and nearing the theater, but Dive has the KB moving back and forth from Sitka to Adak Island, so I dare not commit valuable ships right now. I am working out a plan where I may send a small sacrificial surface TF to raid from the east so Dive might be lured away from his Sitka base. If I can make this work, I can run in with my CV’s and wreak some havoc.

The big news is that mainland North America has been attacked!!! A Jap NLF landed at Nome, but unfortunately for Dive is I have an RCT sitting there fully prepped for Nome. U.S. forces are counterattacking this turn. Additionally, some SBD’s have been sent to Nome, so hopefully I will sink the AP(s) unloading the troops. Dive has been regularly bombarding Adak Island so I imagine landings are not too far behind. Unfortunately there is not much I can do about it with KB parked in the vicinity. I have decided to make Anchorage a major defense point and am embarking troops from PH to land there. Also, a large BF in SF is loading on ships to go there also.

Spoiling attacks in Southwest China will begin in earnest next turn as the remaining ground forces reach their attack points next turn. I may be able to clear the railroad near Wuhan with the Chinese. This turn I evicted the northernmost Jap unit into the hinterlands, and am moving those successful troops southward.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

Twas a bloody turn indeed for young Divebomber. Firstly, he lost a DD in the South Pacific to two sub-laid mines at Efate, and then lost another to LBA just northwest of OZ. Dive seemingly wanted to send a Bombardment TF against one of my bases there, and got smacked around by bombers. A bunch of bombs bounced off the armor of a CA, but inflicted damage to three DD’s, one sinking immediately. The next bad news was his landing force in Nome was wiped out by my RCT. I will get back to that in a minute. Dive also landed a Div at Adak Island, suffering numerous hits from artillery on his ships and troops. Additionally, an AP hit a mine.

Now for future planning: I have decided on a bit of subterfuge. The TF that landed the NLF at Nome is in the Nome hex, I assume loading the now defunct Jap unit. A fast SC TF is running towards a point that will hopefully cut off the TF near Nome. Frankly I don’t much care if I catch them, I just want to attract Dive’s attention and have him send the KB north. If the TF is spotted, which I hope it is, it will fragment and run Hell-bent for leather south while my CV’s run North to Sitka. I hope to accomplish a hit and run on his shipping there. More bait is heading to Dutch – a small BB TF. Let’s hope Dive spots one or both worms. Either way, both TF’s will be running away more next turn. Another small BB TF is going south of Dutch who will run in towards Adak Is., if Dive spots the bait. Yes I am splitting my forces in the face of a superior enemy, but it worked for Bobby Lee and Jackson a few times, and since the historical commander in the theater was Simon Bolivar Buckner, the son of a Western Theater Confederate General, I intend to honor his, and his father’s memory with my audaciousness. If it fails, I will claim that it is a re-building year like the AU Tiger football team and look forward to ’43.
WDE

Many reinforcements, minelayers, and supplies are loading/heading for Anchorage. That is my schwerpunkt now in the Northern Theater, IF reinforcements can get there in time.

In southwest China, most of my troops are in position to begin more attacks on Jap troops on the railroad.

[ny59giants]

FYI -
I read in the "Must Read" thread section about HQ's and their influence on units accepting replacements being strongly influence by the base itself, the Command HQ, and the LCU all being under the same command. I can see the difference so far at San Fran for WC LCU's and at Pearl for Central Pacific LCU units. As the Allied player, I am now looking a a cheap base to change over to SW Pacific (Brisbane is too expensive) and South Pacific.  You will also need at least 1 LCU of the command you want to change the base itself over to present in that hex. This may not help you out immediately, but something to be aware about. [;)]

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

Apparently my plan is working, at least to a point. A Glen definitely spotted the Tennessee south of Dutch, and probably the BB’s at Dutch were spotted by scouting overflights of the base. The light SC TF heading towards the Nome TF was not spotted by my ops reports, and it also stopped two hexes short of paydirt, maybe it will blast the landing force next turn, the TF certainly can’t retreat at this point. Anyway, this is a brief post because I need to be paying attention elsewhere this evening.
The BB’s were spotted so now adds another dilemma…. The weather will suck, so will the CV’s get aircraft off? Should I split the CV’s into three hexes? In the end, no. Dive might not go for the bait so the three CV TF’s will remain in the same hex for mutual protection. The F4F’s are on 80% CAP, and both BB TF’s are running like Hell for the middle of the ocean. May all Allied FB’s wish me luck!

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

Dive zigged when I thought he would zag. I was hoping to avoid a carrier battle but found one anyway. This air battle was a little like two drunks in a bar throwing punches wildly, without either seriously injuring the other. The Saratoga took 2 or 3 250 kg bombs, but managed to shoot down bunches of Vals and Kates with her AA.

Dive's engaged carriers were:
CV Junyo - 2 1000 lb bombs
CV Akagi - 4 1000 lb bombs
CVE Unyo - 4 1000 lb bombs
CV Zuikaku
CVL Shoho

I was surprised to see a CVL and a CVE mixed in with the CV's. Dive suffered for this mistake because his attacks on my CV's came in numerous small waves allowing my CAP and AA to achieve maximum damage.

The Saratoga is lightly damaged, but has suffered massive losses to her F4F's so I am ordering all of my CV's towards Dutch so the others can provided cover for her, and then I will go hunting transports with my other CV's, but I hesitate as I ask myself - Where are the rest of the Jap CV's?

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

The Saratoga after the fight:

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

I figured some might be interested in the air casualties suffered in the recent carrier battle, so it is posted here.

I was very fortunate to have come out of this battle in such good shape. I watched the replay a second time, and was surprised to count 5 bomb hits from Vals on the Saratoga. Her damage is remarkably slight for 5 bomb hits. I wonder it was the Fog of War showing 5 hits, I don't know. One of her escorts, the CL Honolulu was hit pretty hard by a torpedo from a Kate, thank goodness it was a CL not a CV. Dive's fragmented air strikes on primarily the Sara TF were escorted by small numbers of Zeros, but they performed very well against my Wildcats. It was painful to watch, but my large numbers of CAP allowed my fighters to get into the bomber formations and knock down a fair number of bogies. One of the 1000 lb'ers hitting each the Akagi and Junyo showed as "Critical Hits". I assume that meant they went far and above normal damage, but we will see tomorrow. Dive has an undamaged CVL and the CV Zuikaku left, so I can still be hurt badly. I will be happy to get away at this point. Unfortunately, all of the many submarines heading for the theater are too far away to intercept the damaged carriers.

After the 1st round of carrier strikes, the Japs were socked in by weather, so my few undamaged SBD's went after some of the transports, hitting three of them pretty hard. My light SC TF in the far north wiped out the northern two landing ships and a MSW, and returning to Nome to re-fuel. My BB TF's are returning to the area.

Every LBA bomber squadron in Dutch now has morale in the twenties because they went after a BB TF near Adak Island and got hammered by flak, not achieving a single hit on the TF.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

Dive complained about poor luck in his e-mail, and I won't argue with it. Our recent carrier skirmish turned out pretty well for me, including this turn because his ships were socked in, easily in range of my three carriers. Normally I would have been overjoyed to have three CV's tangle with his damaged fleet, but I lost an awful lot of planes last turn. I have ordered the Saratoga to Anchorage to refuel, and then will go on to SF for repair. The Lex is in port there, and has remained stable at 52 sys for three turns. No matter, in 18 turns, a raft of AR's will arrive in SF to aid in my repairs. My SBD's struck a SC TF in the same hex I vacated last turn, and bounced 1000 lb'ers off a couple of BB's, but actually nailed a CL for damage. Of Joy! A Jap CL will be out of the war for a while! (yes, sarcasm) The BB Yamashiro (sp?) took 6 armor hits, blowing off some AA guns, and a secondary 6" gun. Every little bit helps.

I may have been struck by a little Victory Disease, because instead of running away more with my last two undamaged CV's, I am sending them north to hit Adak Is. shipping; IF, and I mean IF, Dive's damaged CV TF continues its course towards Nippon, my naval bombers will do good work. Next turn my two BB TF's will dock in Dutch to refuel, and I will likely combine them into one TF to blast the ships my CV's don't sink. My light SC TF in Nome has refueled and has been ordered to Dutch. I may use some of the ships in the TF for future Ops, but they have been on the run for a while and have system damage that needs addressing, so most will head for a safe haven.

Last turn I mentioned my subs were too far out of position to try to catch Dive's carriers returning to Japan. I had forgotten about a Sub Mine-Laying TF whom just completed its mission in Paramishiro. The nine fleet subs in the TF have been split up and are running south at max speed. I have little hope for doing much because my torps don't work, and sub doctrine is ON for the Allies, but I have to try.

Southwest China: I have given serious thought to making a run for Bangkok's resources, and still might, that would be a serious coup for me, but Canton is now showing 9 units in the city, so I am hesitant to have very many Chinese troops so far out of position. As tempting as Bangkok might be, it would hurt me far more to lose my southern defensive line than it would hurt Dive to lose Bangkok temporarily. I believe my little counterattack on the RR has pretty much run it's course. I may still make a run at Nanning and Pakhoi for the fun of it once my troops consolidate outside of Canton. We will see.

By the way, way down in southern Australia, the exiled British Indian squadrons have been repaired, and are coming together for the long trip north to the Indian Ocean. Recent ground reinforcements in India are traveling southward from Karachi towards Dacca via RR. The light at the end of the Burma tunnel can be faintly seen.

EDIT: Dive mentioned time conflicts between RL and WitP, so turns may be coming slower for a while. C'est La Vie.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

My carriers have over stayed their unwelcome in the Aleutians. I know Dive has other carriers out there, and if I know him they are steaming full bore towards my CV's. Looking at the map, if they were in Japan when our carrier battle occurred, they could be getting to the battle area this turn, thus I am sending my carriers to Dutch for fuel, and then to the West Coast to await their 7/42 upgrades, the Wasp, TBF's, and the Saratoga. Repair on the Lex is going slowly, too slowly to expect her anytime soon. Although I am running with my carriers, I am sending the BB's, now combined into one TF and commanded by Chester W., into Adak Island. The TF's AA value is 9670, so if I do run into carriers, it will cost them. Leaving Anchorage now is a DM TF I hope to send there also to lay fresh mines. A few turns away is another BB TF coming in to help defend the mainland.

Southwest Chinese troops have entered Canton's hex, and have found 8 units present and 6560 apparent troops on duty. All of my available Chinese in the area are running there now, and a bombardment attack is set for next turn to see exactly what is lurking there. After my bombardment, I will decide what further to do. A unit is on the road west of Swatow obviously moving to Canton. The weather in this part of China is going to be somewhat nice, so I have delegated some B-17's to hit a likely airfield, and have given orders to some Chinese bomber units to hit troops moving in the open.

[ny59giants]

Repair on the Lex is going slowly, too slowly to expect her anytime soon.

A couple of suggestions to help this along.
1) Form a TF with her and wait a few turns before disbanding it again.
2) Form a TF and send it out to sea a couple of hexes and have it set to disband when it comes back to port (one day out and one day back).
3) Form a TF and sent it to LA for a few turns and see if it starts to decrease its sys damage while disbanded there.
4) Do a Google search to inquire about the proper sacrifices you need to make. [:D] [:D]

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

How does forming TF's help?

LA is out, I moved the other moderately to heavily damaged boats from SF to the other cities on the coast to help prioritize the Lex. Besides, I get my AR's in less than three weeks, and that should help I imagine.

[ny59giants]

Sometimes ships get "stuck" and their sys damage will not go down. I have BB California in Seattle with all the surviving BB's from Pearl.  She was "stuck" and I had to form a TF for a few days and then disband. It works, sometime. [;)]

Just like hitting something with a large hammer to get it working again. [:D]   Don't wait for the AR's. She could lose a good amount of damage if you try this. 

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

The damage went down by one this turn, but I may try what you suggest in a couple of turns. I am loading some troops in SF at the moment for transshipment to Alaska, and I sure don't want to create and disband a TF there right now.


I learned something about Naval Combat this turn. If you run a surface combat TF at Full speed to the furthest most hex it can reach, it does poorly in closing with an enemy. My BB's ended their sixth hex in the Adak Island hex. They managed to scare off a few TF's (arrived in daylight) and catch an AP TF for some long range bombardment (23K - 25K yards). I managed a few hits spread out over the TF, and hope for one or two to sink, especially since they will have to negotiate a submarine cordon returning west. Speaking of the submarines, I set them all to Full speed last turn so I should have about 20 subs standing picket duty west of the Aleutians and east of Nippon. By watching carefully, I should have some indication of CV's before they get to the war zone. There were none this turn.

I replenished the BB's shells (a darn good thing my supply guys laid in cache of 14" shells on Adak Island before the Japs showed up! Too bad they didn't drop enough fuel though.) I also replenished fuel, planes, and pilots for my two CV's in Dutch. They are heading out into the Bering this turn. Here is the plan: Next turn I will move my BB's to the northwest a few hexes, and move my CV's into cover them. Hopefully an opportunity for blood will present itself.

Canton has very few combat troops as my bombardment shows, however AP's have been spotted in the harbor. My long range Chinese bomber unit has moved within striking range of the base, and hopefully I can blast a ship or two. More Chinese troops are filing down the RR to Canton. I really don't have much hope of carrying the place frankly, although that really depends on what Dive can get there quickly, and how high the Forts have been built. If nothing else, it will have Dive reacting to me for a change. My Changsha veterans haven't moved a whit since Dive retreated from the city - I keep getting the occasional Intel report about Japs planning to attack the place.

This turn there was surprisingly good weather in China, so I had set nearly all my bombers to go off and hit something. Some did well, some didn't. Last turn Dive had sent a couple of un-escorted bomber raids against my troops in Canton, so this turn the nearly reconstituted AVG (with incredible pilots) managed to down 18 Sonias and Sallys over the city with no loss to themselves. Dive's latest pattern is to switch his attacks elsewhere when fighters show up somewhere, and he sent three attacks on the troops on the RR heading to Canton last turn - now the AVG is covering them. Next turn back to Canton. Repeat until capitulation. My first Spitfires are dribbling in, two Hurricane squadrons have been converted. I intend to keep these boys a secret until I can get enough to ambush Dive somewhere. He tends to attack more where the AVG ain't, needless to say I can set something up there.

So far in this game I have sunk 16 Jap MSW's; I am sowing sub carried mines everywhere.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

Dive is out of town this weekend so I have taken my time with this turn - a good thing because otherwise I might have missed an opportunity, or maybe have caused my destruction depending on the outcome of the next couple of turns.

Last turn many of my Chinese troops reached Canton. Wthout the time to think I would have launched an attack on the city that would certainly have failed. Dive is bringing in reinforcements by both land and sea so there is negligible hope I could take Canton. I have changed the axis of attack to Nanning, but I am leaving significant forces to maintain lines of communication with those troops. My cursor intel shows a single small unit in Nanning so I may be able to overrun the base. If and when I do that, I will send recon over Bangkok to check the defenses there. Maybe I will have a cheap and easy way to temporarily cut out 600 resources from Dive's production. This turn shows the first deployment of Spitfires for CAP which will be over Ichang.

The Aleutians is where I have been pouring forth most of my thought. I MUST preserve my two operational carriers at all costs because without them I will be at Dive's mercy until the Essex's arrive. Yet at the same time I want to delay Dive's progress in the North as long as I can because my forces will be buttressed significantly soon enough. I have beaucoup AV's and Aviation Support on the way to Anchorage, and if they can get there safely I will be pretty safe from Jap incursions into Alaska. Also, my new AR's and MLE's arrive in 15 days, and with them my abilities go way up - not to mention the imminent arrival of the Wasp, repair of the Lex and Sara, along with TBF replacements in about a week.

At the same time, Dive appears to be retreating westward towards Kiska and Northern Japan. This turn I sank a number of AP's with carrier air, land based DB's, and a submarine attack, and all intel shows the TF's in the region running west. Dive may be trying to sucker my ships west into a CV trap which is something I would likely do, but my many subs in the Northwest Pacific are showing zero Capital ships so I will risk ONE more turn of offensive operations before I retreat to Anchorage.

I have a raft of DM's at Dutch Harbor who were originally tasked with laying mines at Adak Is., but will do so at Umnak Is. instead. Why? It will increase the minefield there to over 1000, and the minefield at Adak Is. has already been discovered so the mine attacks would be reduced significantly there.

My big BB TF has been tasked to bombard Kiska at Full Speed and Patrol/Do Not Retire from Adak Is. The distance is six hexes so the TF should end the turn at Kiska. Should the TF encounter a TF on the way, it will not reach there, which is OK. I merely want to "show the flag" in the Western Aleutians before I retreat back to Southern Alaska. My two CV TF's will go to a hex northeast of the base to hopefully whack some more transports before they too retire. Very shortly I will have bunches of capitol ships in the region who should keep Dive cautions while my CV's begin their transition to the Allied Death Star.

If plans go awry, and the KB shows up for battle, the presence of my BB's will hopefully divert some of the strikes from my carriers, but I do not think the KB is any where nearby because my many subs indicate otherwise. Either way, this is the last hurrah of my CV's for a little while. I have resigned myself to the fact Adak Is. will fall - Dive has way too many troops there for it to be otherwise, but at least it will cost him, and I have slowed him down. If he wants the Aleutians, he can have them, but it will be damned expensive.

Ships are accumulating at Auckland to pick up the 2nd USMC Div at Noumea to retake Luganville.

[marky]

take her to a big west coast port, put in at least 2 or 3 ARs, empty the port of all other damamged ships, and wait

should make it go quite a bit faster [:)]

[bradfordkay]

About minefields, AU... it appears that each mining mission creates a seperate minefield, so adding mines to a base where they've already been detected does not mean that they'll just be automatically detected along with those already there. This doesn't mean that his minesweepers won't detect and sweep the new ones; it's just that they've a chance to damage more ships before being detected.



Oh, and about that sacrifice needed to jump start the repairs of hte Lexington - I believe that roasted gator tail is a proper choice...

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

Marky: Thanks for the input. In 15 turns I will have a gozillion AR's with which to do that, but for now I have to rely on the good graces of the existing shipyards.

ORIGINAL: bradfordkay

About minefields, AU... it appears that each mining mission creates a seperate minefield, so adding mines to a base where they've already been detected does not mean that they'll just be automatically detected along with those already there. This doesn't mean that his minesweepers won't detect and sweep the new ones; it's just that they've a chance to damage more ships before being detected.



Oh, and about that sacrifice needed to jump start the repairs of hte Lexington - I believe that roasted gator tail is a proper choice...

Thanks for the info on the minefields, I will remember that for the future for the die is cast for this turn. As to proper sacrifices: I imagine gator tail will drop a few points in desirability after recent developments, but I have read that slow cooked, preferably for an extra turn over a home fire, elephant snout is the best. I do believe certain Fighting Dawgs are particularly fond of that cut also.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

An afterthought: Lee Corso, an infamous critic of the Southern Epicurean Cuisine decreed yesterday that Elephant Snout was too large a meal for a Dawg to consume. Given a little extra time he was proved very wrong as he has been too often in the past.

[bradfordkay]

He does have a reputation for getting it wrong. I know that I felt relieved when he made that call...

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

ORIGINAL: bradfordkay

He does have a reputation for getting it wrong. I know that I felt relieved when he made that call...

[:D]
I know the feeling well.