BB1.4 THE BLUNT EDGE-->Lexington Sunk in wild multi-CV battle

[n01487477]

Ok, welcome all, except Grognerd & now NY59Giant … my name ‘n01487477’ just rolls off the tongue doesn’t it ? It's my nom de plume / alias for my real name Damian ...

I'm currently living and working in Sth Korea / Fusan on this map (Busan in real life)

Anyway, Grognerd and I have been playing for about a month, he has played PBEM before and is kind enough to provide advice and general information that I hadn’t thought about. Always good to have someone who just wants a good game…

Neither of us had played BigB1.4 with AB extended map, (we started this PBEM just after its release) --- I thought this would give you a good idea of how it plays.

This is my first PBEM / AAR ... using RYBECK's house rules, because they seemed ok ... my failures are already apparent, but I hope to include snippets of strategy stuff I’ve read from the forum, my DATABASE REPORTS & other snippets… to help other newbie PBEMer’s. IT REALLY IS A DIFFERENT GAME V AI.

INTERESTING STUFF
Check out my ACCESS DB (from csv files generated by WITPDecoder) ... comments ???

BORING STUFF to follow!

Settings:
1. Sub doctrines off
2. Fog of War on
3. Advanced weather on (wish I hadn’t used this one ! )
4. Allied damage control on
5. Historical 1st turn off
6. PDU on
7. Variable setup OFF
8. Dec 7 surprise on
9. Variable replacements +/- 15 days
10. Auto subs on
11. Auto facility expand off
12. Auto airgroup upgrade off
13. Accept air/ground replacements on


House rules
1. No more than 6 ships per ASW TF.
2. No more than 6 PT boats per TF, and maximum of 2 PT TFs in a hex.
3. Invasions allowed only on base or beach/dot hexes. No troop landings/invasions by submarines.
4. Japanese Kwantung Army forces must pay PP to leave Manchuria, and Japan’s units in China must also pay PP to leave. Likewise Allied forces in China and India must also pay PP to leave their respective theaters.
5. 4E bombers must operate from airfield of at least size 4. 4E bombers may not bomb below 10000 feet.
6. B-29s must operate from a minimum size 6 airfield. B-29s may not perform naval attack missions.
7. No overstacking at air bases. Stick to a maximum 115% of (50 aircraft x airbase size) except for transiting/damaged aircraft. So a size 4 airbase can have a max of 230 planes.
8. Japan may not upgrade light/dive-bomber army air units to Sallys or Helens, only to Lilys. Allies may not upgrade 2E air units to 4E bombers.
9. No Corsairs on US carriers until 1/44.
10. No Japanese strategic bombing against targets in China. Apart from AVG and Chinese air units, no other Allied air units to operate FROM Chinese bases.
11. Only 1 port attack on turn one. Also on turn 1, I will NOT conduct any “magic teleport” attacks. Will stick to the usual targets – Malaya/Philippines and maybe north Borneo. I will also NOT target the US carriers in the Pacific.
12. On turn one, only Allied units in China and Malaya may move/redeploy.
13. On map “training” of air units is fine, but no exploiting the supply function to train bomber squadrons. Flying supplies into China (or wherever) with bombers is fine, but flying supply from San Francisco to Sacramento is not.
14. Corridor of 2 hexes, between Australia and India, for safe passage of troops.

Overall Strategy: Take what I can while I can. Sink as much as I can early. 1 outta 2 ain’t bad - so far...

Strategy Tips:- yes they are from the forum & things I've come to realise.
1. Use WitpDecoder ... it helps (Jap only)...
E.China,Korea,Russia has surplus of Oil and Res, IndoChina, Siam, Burma also have Res Surplus...the point is WitpDecoder can help you organise what is needed and where.
2. CL Oi & Katakami are the only radar equipped ships in the beginning, use them in your CV/CVL TF's...it gives an obvious bonus. Your next radar equipped ships are DD's about 200 days later ... advance them.
3. Accelerating ships costs its original points + 2* original points. So a DD normal = 22 ;accelerated = 66
4. Naval build points are for SS,CV,CVL,BB,DD,CL
Merchant for CVE,AR,AV,(all aux),CS,AS,AO,TK,MSW,AK,AP.
5. MSW's respawn.
6. Great debate about whether to use disband method to reinforce airgroups, and wait 90 days, or just to reinforce using fragments you create. The second is fiddly, but maybe it is the best ... I'll let you know,
7. Use leaders with high inspiration for training air groups. I've also found that dividing them can help, repair and improve skill. Or as some say take them to China and ground attack for 2-3 months.
8. Small groups of ships have a smaller detection level, sometimes you just need to sneak around.
9. Rarely use you CV groups at full speed, the sys dam increases dramatically. Always have a BB in you TF.
10. AO's should be rounded up early and used in conjunction with CV's.
11. Don't send APD's full speed to reach a SS, invariably you'll pay the price.
12. CA's can take good damage & should be included in a large scale invasion against coastal guns.
13. We started with reinforcement on, make sure you turn off what you don't need. For planes I add as needed. Esp.Zero's. Troops as needed. Armament points are not useless, but am investigating why a unit can be formed, but isn't at full strength even with surplus. Same with building units in a hex with 20K supply. more later.
14. Designate a rotation or port for ship types undergoing repairs. I think it helps. From reading, repair rates are determined by Port Size, Repair Size, Naval HQ, AR's, luck ... The first two seem to be the most important... upgrade accordingly.
15. Find what SS have search planes, use them for that purpose, they are valuable. Upgrade these to Jake's, better range.
16. Having too many planes in a carrier based squad can be caused by dividing and not setting replacements off. I divided because I wanted to see if it improved training. It seemed to. next time I'll turn replacements off and see if it doesn't cause the same problem. It solved itself eventually, with the a/c being moved back into the pool.
17. Check out this page for info on HQ's and reinforcements ... tm.asp?m=687039
More later.. .

Game Bug’s encountered .. out of synch once and loss of animation/combat reports twice.
Solution: I made a quick VB program which looks at two Combat reports and tells of discrepancies … it took me about 30 mins … it’s quick and crappy but if you want a look email me.
Animation solution: allies must check that inside their preferences on the main map screen, that it is on before sending back to IJN player.


That’s all until next time … enjoy the pretty pics if you don’t want to read my ramblings.

[n01487477]

OK, some tools I created to help ...
Firstly, the out-of synch bug checker ... quick and nasty VB application that checks two combat reports. I gave it to Grognerd so he could check his report vs. mine

[n01487477]

Also while I've been playing I decided to make a little Access DB application, I wanted to see what I could do with the CSV files from WITPDecoder ... I'm going to eventually incorporate them into WITPDecoder ... if the author allows ... (I've emailed but no reply)
My objectives were thus:- (haven't finished but here are some screens)
1. Look at ship yards with repair capability and determine their use more effectively (two screens combined here)

[n01487477]

Also Included a To do Report for printing ...
shows Production and Repairing information as well as training levels and leader inspiration ... also will be putting in dry dock info and other things ...

[n01487477]

Production by Base, which will eventually feed to another 2 forms:-
1. for Country Data & History
2. For Base History

[n01487477]

And Product by product, will also link TBO and other plane details

[n01487477]

Also looking at doing some other things regarding plane groups, those below full capacity. (was going to look at pilot training over time as well, but CSV's don't seem to have this information) but when I get in contact with WITPDecoder writer ... who knows ?

Also will be doing histories of Ship repair, checking damaged ships are returning to a base with a DDock, plane upgrade paths with TBO, plane production with TBO, a better plane comparison chart than I see from Excel spreadsheets (also mods use different stats)and eventually LCU's which are below strength. Histories will be done of things I think are worth tracking...

Lastly am looking at maximizing HI, making sure that all bases have adequate supplies of Oil and Resources ... I know the game moves things from base to base, but I'd like to make sure it's at full capacity.

[n01487477]

Day 1-51, (ok, so it’s a jumble sale .. but the writings will get better after the catch up)
CPAC: launched 2 CV TF raids to PH, sinking 2 BB’s and heavily damaging multiple others. I broke them up into 2x3 CV units, so that I would get the maximum number of planes flying, and then recombined them on day 2. CV moved NW, then down to Kwaj for replenishment.

Wake Is. was captured, with a different load of Naval Guards, I always think the force set coming from Kwaj in the beginning is a 50-50, so I bolster it & after capturing it easily, I remove the guard, fly in some HK’s, and then ship in a base force. Wanted to get a bearing on those US CV’s … unfortunately the search was fruitless.

SPac: Day 1 Troops were loaded but not teleported toward Rabaul, eventually the invasion was a bit piecemeal, with troops coming from multi HI ports and Palau, but it didn’t seem to matter, he hadn’t had time to reinforce much. A quick invasion of Shortlands and building of an airport for recon. Then a cakewalk (actually a sea invasion) into PM after taking Lae to slightly stronger opposition.

Where was my opponent ? It’s the “Rumble in the Jungle” all over again… I thought.

[n01487477]

Philippines Troops invaded at San Fernando, Tuguegaro, Lingayan (main force), Lamon, a tricky Parachute drop into Puerto Princess (scuttling the first casualty of the war – an AV) all on Day 1 and another Drop into TayTay (day 2), subsequent invasions occurred in Jolo Island, & Dadjangas. Jolo was my search base for TF’s that my small KB could deal with.

Finding light opposition, I realised that my opponent, had withdrawn everyone back into well-fortified locations, he’s no fool .. Roper Dope ?

Then another invasion from the South, eventually working its way to Naga where it was stopped, and my snail paced troops from Lamon eventually cut off supply to his forces in Naga, where they surrendered …

Took Clark Field eventually, and brought in some more G4’s, with ASW at Baatan Is. But by the time I eventually got to pounding Manilla port, his subs had fled. Chalk that one up to experience … no we couldn’t bomb day 1 …

But he did mount some PT resistance, which did horrific things to some of my PG’s/DD’s at San F & Lingayen.

Island hopped everywhere south and left him holed up in Cagayen. I made a weak attempt to take it, failed and withdrew my troops back to Bataan. I walked from Tuguegaro to Davao, nobody was home again. Goldilocks will just have to settle in for a nap.

Now, I’ve been in Manilla for 2 weeks or more, his fort is 0, but my guys just can’t seem to get a 1-1 even with shock, what’s keeping those GI’s spirits high, I ask ? Ever been to Manilla ?

NB**Side note, one Allied PT, sank 4 of mine in one engagement, that skippers getting the Medal of Congress and maybe a nomination …

[n01487477]

Borneo: Landed forces quickly at Miri, recon of Brunei, decided I should invade by sea, I hate walking and left an NLF to guard. Captured Brunei pretty easily. Invaded Tarakan about the same time, and then jumped to Samarinda, the Dutch made a good account of themselves though … sinking or damaging many AP’s and some DD’s, even lost an APD.

NB** reminder to self APD’s are vulnerable, when set to max speed to reach a sub hex, invariably the sub attacks and sinks one … I’ve lost 2 now and 2 anothers are in Dry Dock, all in the same manner … makes sense, but CRAP !

Before I went for Balikpapan, I went for Kendari, had small KB do a long distance full speed ambush, as I knew his combined Dutch/UK forces were lurking. So I sent my loaded AP’s off and waited till they were near to Kendari, sent in small KB, full steam, and luckily bagged Hermes, but the rest of his forces retreated before I could clean it up. Fuel was the contributing factor to this generosity.

Somehow they evaded my picket near …. I tell you I had surface tf’s on the two hexes, max react, and his forces escaped to Ceylon … oops showing my age … I ran after him, even had small CVE try to locate, but he vanished, like my mates at the end of dinner but before the bill is settled.

Malaya: 3 Invasions tasked, Mersing, Kota Bharu and Singora. All successful landed, KBharu took a few days to take, but then I had good airfields and CAP/G4M1 to do their pounding. Air HQ in support.
Mersing was a bit of a mistake, I wanted to race across to Johore Bahru and cut off his retreat … I didn’t take enough troops initially, I won through eventually after 2 weeks + of fighting, but it had given him enough time to retreat behind that Fortress. I even invaded Johore Bahru after about 2 weeks but it was too late … and that is when Mersing eventually fell.

My force in the north, jumped across to Georgetown and down to KL, hotly pursuing his forces, damn, I shock attack with pursue, he jumps 60miles, I go 5-10. They get to Singapore for a cuppa. My troops were breathing heavily, without a comfort woman in sight.

Georgetown becomes another airbase for Sally’s / Lilys.

Singapore Took alternate days pounding Singapore by air, while resting my troops with good supply, but maybe Malaria is keeping them being reinforced much …. then walked into a hornets nest … wow, this is going to be a long battle, and not enough troops. Found some in China, assigned to Southern Army, what the hell are they doing there? And I’m not talking about the ones in Hanoi.

[n01487477]

Burma: not much to tell (on the ground) really it’s taken two game months to walk troops to Moulenheim … I know sometimes resetting works but this has been a slow WW1 style inch by inch progression.
Airwar over Burma
The biggest and most costly defeat happened here … I took my G4M1’s to Bangkok for some R&R, got drunk, and thought lets bomb the hell outta Rangoon…
I sent a bomber force with limited support (Oscars), which got clobbered, I thought ok, I’ll be smart, one 27 bomber force and 70+ A6M2’s all with plenty of experience.
And another force of A6M2’s to do some low-level sweeps … (ok the low level was a mistake) … THEY ALL GOT HAMMERED…

My opponent told me that my forces met “The Fighting Tigers” in their Curtis H81-3A, I was so shocked I looked it up in the DB, they are formidable … better than the Zero by far. And that group has great experience, which deployed with radar support as my opponent had done, are a bad Bruce Willis movie title. IT WILL TAKE ME MONTHS TO RECOVER … IF EVER .

[n01487477]

Back to the Sth West Pacific for my last bringing you up to speed report. I intended taking Palmyra fairly early, but by the time I got there after my CV’s had refreshed at Kwaj, he had already sent troops and supplies, facing enormous CGun opposition, from the recon I did. After days of indecision and pounding the shore with BB’s CA’s etc and my mobile shark fest just beyond search range … I thought no dice … my CV’s with AO support blockaded Palmyra for days, I wanted a CV battle. Losing planes and getting vulnerable, I retreated but took Canton Is instead.

NB** don’t use carrier planes to attack ground targets, it’s a waste … lesson learnt.

Grognerd told me later that his CV's were 8 hex's East of Palmyra, guarding a large reinforcement force. Lucky for me he didn't attack at this time as my CV's were vulnerable, due to aircraft damage.

He reinforced Palmyra again and I caught him with his pants down, but alas too late to stop his troops disembarking. I currently have Jake equipped subs watching Palmyra and Johnson.

NB. I switch patrol planes early, Jakes are better than Glens. (see production noted later)

Anyway, after the action, I realized I’d have to wait and corner him into a battle of my choosing, and thinking he was either at PH or maybe Suva / NZ, painted 2 CV’s white and went north to Attu, invading and capturing the Islands, he will be back for them soon.

The other 4 CV’s (yes divide and conquer has two edges), went south, with a force to take Pago Pago (light resistance) and Funafil (no resistance) …

So here we are day 51, he is completely intact and I’ve been rushing around burning fuel/supplies and accruing sys dam. It’s going to be a long cold summer in the tropics.

[VSWG]

Hi n01..., [;)]

ORIGINAL: n01487477

15. Find what SS have search planes, use them for that purpose, they are valuable. Upgrade these to Jake's, better range.

This is somewhat controversial, since only Glens were small enough to operate from these subs. I'm no expert though, I'm just repeating what I've read several times on this forum.

Most of my forces are around Kwaj, unfortunately the Soryu has 12 sys dam and the radar CL Katakami is 12. I'm not sure how much damage I should allow before sending for repair, but it will be soon as my operations in the East are completed.

A lot of players repair ships as soon as sys damage reaches 10, since from then on they can be detected by planes and subs more easily. However, sometimes you just cannot afford to repair every ship as soon as it has 10 points of sys damage. Myself, I woud send Soryu to port now, because 12 sys damage on a carrier means that in a CV vs. CV battle the Allies would need one bomb less to close her flight deck.

Q…Hey does anyone know why Cebu & Georgetown, you can’t disband tf’s ? Cebu has a small repair yard.

I'm not familiar with Big B's mod, but you can disband ships only in size 3 ports (or larger).

Manila: It's an urban hex so the defensive assault value is quadrupled! If your opponent was able to retreat to Manila in good order it is very unlikely that you will take the base until he runs out of supplies. Even with constants bombardment attacks from land and air this will take a while, and the first Japanese assaults will be bloody no matter what. Same goes for Singapore, although this isn't an urban hex.

Good luck! [:)]

[n01487477]

Update: 5 Feb 42
Northern Area: No action to report, although I've sent fuel and supplies to my outposts on Attu & Attak Is. Building airports there.
Southern Area: Manila continues to be a war of attrition, although I sent a Inf Div on the Eastern Chinese mainland which was assigned to the Southern area --> sent them to Lingayen, hopefully they will be the tipping point.
Malaya: Singapore is another problem, his forces there, although under attack have built up another fort point. I have decided to bomb port and airfield to reduce his supplies. Maybe take an Inf Div out of Hanoi and deploy it there, problem is I'm not sure if his 4 Inf Div 2 hex's East will realise this...
Also took Victoria point, and am supplying and build 1 more airfield point.
South East: Having taken Pago Pago, he deployed search capability to Wallis Is, as I had 4 CV's monitoring my invasions, waiting for any sign of his Air Combat TF which at the time I thought was lazing around Suva, I decided to take Savaii from Pago and Wallis from Nukufetau... both op's went easily enough, and I hope it place more pressure on him to bring out his CV's soon.
Tulagi was also taken this week with my Seabees, going to prep them now for a push south.

Akagi is in dry-dock in Tokyo undergoing repairs after steaming around the Pacific and giving cover to my Northern forces .
I have a total of 3 BB's, 5 CA's, 4 CL's and my DD's which just upgraded in Dry-dock. Good news Akagi went from 12 -> 8 in three turns. It is the only ship in Tokyo with damage. Will wait until it's 5-6 before deploying again.

Most of my forces are around Kwaj, unfortunately the Soryu has 12 sys dam and the radar CL Katakami is 12. I'm not sure how much damage I should allow before sending for repair, but it will be soon as my operations in the East are completed.

I plan to make a feign for Noumea, maybe making him move his CV's and then strike Palmyra with the Inf Div I converted from Korea and have been shipping for the last 10 days, supported by bombardment, 5 CV's and the new CVL I just acquired. Unfortunately, many of my fly boys are green, my mistake to flatten Palmyra, in my first attempt to invade.

[n01487477]

Game Date 16/2/42 maps and pics coming ...

Malaya/Burma: Mustered my forces and took Palembang with my surplus SNLF and NLF's aided by 2 paratroop drops and an armoured force. I encircled his forces and none of them got away. Had to make a secondary Para drop to Benkolen, west of Palembang to stop his recon flights. After capturing it in 5 days, I loaded my troops and sent them off to Medan, his base for all the recon in that area. I hadn't dare move my small KB Tf out of KL, without some secrecy this time. He has a large wolf pack roaming the straits between Vict Point and Sabang in the north. Anyway, Sabang fell quickly, but I hadn't encircled and he has now 6000+ troops in the wilderness between Sabang and Bankha ... my forces are in full advance ...

[n01487477]

Having slowly walked up the road from Tavoy, and another force from Bangkok, which had been under sporadic ground attacks I finally engaged the enemy at Moulmein ... I also snuck some troops in by sea, much to my opponents changrin ... anyway the long of the short is that I've taken the city and am now preparing for my assault on Rangoon.

[n01487477]

Java : I haven't touched Java yet except to recon and do air suppression. My opponent tells me the Dutch a/force are on their last legs, but up until a few days ago, my recon tells me there are many fighters still in Batavia... I'm sweeping everyday, he took some losses early but I think he is lying low for now until the battle hots up here ... I also took the last step toward invasion today, with an assault on the small resource rich Is. of Tobali ... all goes well ... some R&R ... I'll be landing forces within 2 weeks. With Singapore having fallen.

Philippines: I hate Urban combat, I have so many troops there, I outnumber him 3-1, yet I'm miles away from a good result, daily attacks from air, port, airfield, ground attacks ... I just hope his supply runs out soon ..

Celebes: Having taken Kendari, a few game weeks ago, I've been just trying to do some ASW lately, his subs are taking a toll on my resource shipments and the invasion of Ambonia cost me 3 AK's to sub attack ... will need to send a base force to fix the damage to production.

[Mistmatz]

First of all have fun with your game and welcome to the board.

I wonder where the last three screenies come from, is this from a selfmade excelsheet or is this from WitP decoder? I haven't seen this kind of screens with the decoder, but I only checked as allies so far.

Regarding repair algorithm, it's pretty much known how it works. You might want to search the forums. Bottom line is big ships and the once you want back quickly to the big repair yards, rest to the smaller ones. And dont overload repair yards with ships that have minor damage. For example lots of AKs with litte damage in SF will prevent repairing BBs as quickly as it could be.

[n01487477]

Sorry should have said ... it's made in a access DB, from the CSV files generated by WITPDecoder ... I am looking at the structures first and then I will ask the author to allow me to incorporate it into WITPDecoder ...

South Pacific: My feign on Noumea, has become a full blown invasion .. After I worked my way down to Lungaville, with the Seabees, an NLF and a base eng unit, I found it open for the taking...
I thought that once I arrived there with troops escorted by my 4CV's and a CVL -- he would come out -- he didn't ...
I thought ok, how about taking Koumac (North of Noumea Is.) ... with long range cap from Lungaville I've just landed, but there are no troops here either ... I'm going to push through to Noumea if possible and I've just dispatched a Naval guard unit from Tulagi, which might help in the offensive ... The operation at Koumac saw one of my AK's catching a mine, it is slowly limping its way back to Rabaul ... I doubt it will make it ... It does make me worried though, where has he amassed all those troops?

I should say after taking Lungaville, I sent my CV Tf back to Canton Is, it is about to arrive for my push on Palmyra ... I decided to send CV Soryu for repairs, it is 3-4 days from port. Akagi is at 5 sys and I expect it to repair next turn to 4, then I'll send it to Palmyra ... question is do I wait ? 8-10 days is a long wait, and I don;t want to fight without my zero bonus...

Lastly, my operation on Palmyra ... let me get the details and outline them tomorrow ...

[n01487477]

Palmyra: what a dilemma ...

Tried to take it early on, only to lose my nerve ... now 1.5 months later, I have 2 CV's back in DDock. I don't know where his CV's are. Akagi, is ready for return to duty, with 5 sys dam, but is 10 days away.

I converted a full Inf Div, from Korea, and for the last 3 weeks it has been slowly steaming into position. I have nearly all my operational capital ships nearby, although 4 BB's are also being repaired, I still have a lethal force in the area.

Knowing he will have heavily mined Palmyra, I have some MSW's in each TF too ... but the big problem is time ... I'm losing my Zero bonus, my airgroups are already below the experience I would like, and he is growing in strength every day. Is this where he will make that great stand ... I think so.

For the last 2 days, I have started airfield attacks from Canton Is, and I have 6 Level bomber units in the area, which I plan to ferry in and out as their moral decreases. So far I've lost 10 planes a day, but I'm starting to damage him, just want to soften him up a bit before the Tf's start getting in range.

I even sent some empty Ak's to an island south of P, to see if his CV's would react ... he is being cautious. I'm worried this could be my Midway, but I'm hoping fortune favours the brave ...