Mynok is an experienced Japanese player, and is familiar with CHS. I’m new to CHS, and pretty inexperienced with WitP. It should be a good match. At least, it will be great fun! [8D]
We’re playing CHS scenario 155, which has no Nikmod or Soviet fleet added. PDU is on, and historical 1st turn is off, however Mynok will start with a “historical” set of moves to start. Our house rules are very minimal.
My goal for the game is to avoid the Japanese auto victory conditions on 1/1/43, and then try to make Mynok pay. My goal for this AAR is to discuss ideas and plans for the Allies, and then document how they worked out. My second goal for this AAR is to solicit advice for the Allies. [;)] I promise to post only very minimal Combat Report snippets, and want to get some good screen shots included when I can to add interest. Mynok plans to write his own AAR for the Alien perspective. We will not read each other’s AAR’s.
With that in mind, it’s time to start with my ideas for the different regions, but first, some
West Coast:
I’m loading up a bunch of LCU’s and airgroups to ship out right at the start. I’m also prepping 1 RCT and some smaller units from the Panama area to eventually ship to Pago Pago. 2nd Marine Div and the 2nd Marine CD Bn are heading to Noumea, as is the 808th EAB. The 2nd Marine Para Bn is mysteriously absent from San Diego and the reinforcement list. Several folks I’ve asked about this have seen this happen or not. Can’t lose sleep over it. If they show up, great. 153 RCT and a FA Rgt are bound for Canton Island, and 161 RCT with a FA Rgt are heading to Johnston Island. The 40th USA Div starts very disrupted at LA, so I’ve already reassigned them to SWPac HQ while they are cheap, and I’m shipping them to Suva.
The 7th Div is split into 3 Bde’s and one each will garrison SF, LA and SD. The same goes for the 41st Div at Seattle, which will also cover Prince Rupert and Vancouver.
In CHS, much of the resource and oil production in the US starts damaged, to simulate the ramp up of production as they get repaired. I’ll keep an eye on this, but don’t think it will affect my plans too much in the first several weeks of the war.
NOPAC:
Here is where my first potentially “gamey” move is. I’m marching 2 base forces, 2 Bde’s, 1 AA unit, and the Canadian Command HQ from various Canadian bases to Anchorage. I’m packing up 2 RCT’s, 2 AA’s, the 802 EAB, and the 23rd Base Force from Anchorage and shipping them off to Midway, where I will also send the NoPac HQ.
CenPac:
Mynok got in a pretty good lick at Pearl Harbor on 12/7, but it’s possible that none of the ships will actually sink. Here is the Combat Report for the Pearl attack:
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Day Air attack on Pearl Harbor , at 114,72
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 42
D3A2 Val x 118
B5N2 Kate x 157
Allied aircraft
P-40B Tomahawk x 1
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 5 destroyed, 4 damaged
D3A2 Val: 11 destroyed, 47 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 4 destroyed, 38 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
P-40B Tomahawk: 23 destroyed
A-20B Boston: 2 destroyed
SBD-3 Dauntless: 5 destroyed
C-47 Dakota: 4 destroyed
P-26A: 2 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 4 destroyed
PBY Catalina: 20 destroyed
P-36A Mohawk: 14 destroyed
B-18A Bolo: 8 destroyed
F4F-3 Wildcat: 2 destroyed
OS2U-3 Kingfisher: 3 destroyed
B-17D Fortress: 2 destroyed
B-17E Fortress: 3 destroyed
Allied Ships
BB Arizona, Bomb hits 10, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
BB West Virginia, Bomb hits 13, on fire, heavy damage
DD Selfridge, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Detroit, Bomb hits 3, on fire
BB Tennessee, Bomb hits 12, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
BB Oklahoma, Bomb hits 11, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
BB Maryland, Bomb hits 8, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Case, Bomb hits 1, on fire
BB Nevada, Bomb hits 10, on fire
BB California, Bomb hits 11, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
BB Pennsylvania, Bomb hits 7, on fire
DD Hull, Bomb hits 1
DD Schley, Bomb hits 1
CL Raleigh, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DM Gamble, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DM Montgomery, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CL Honolulu, Bomb hits 1
CA New Orleans, Bomb hits 1
AR Rigel, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AV Curtiss, Bomb hits 1, on fire
Allied ground losses:
143 casualties reported
Airbase hits 55
Airbase supply hits 4
Runway hits 247
Priority number 1 here will be to keep track of the KB to see what kind of trouble Mynok wants to cause with it.
As long as the KB is not near, my 2 starting carriers are steaming to intercept any Wake Island invasion force. He did not hit it on 12/7. The subs at sea around Pearl will attempt to hit the KB, and then my S boats will go on patrol around Kwajalein, while those with Mk14 duds will drop lots of mines there. I’m forming up several ASW tf’s to try to pick off a few of the Alien subs that start around Hawaii, once the KB clears the area.
I’ll then start loading up and shipping out LCU’s to defend several of the islands including Midway, Johnston, Palmyra, and Canton. I intend to make Midway a fortress and eventually use it to launch my Central Pacific offensive.
SoPac:
Here, the plan is to hold Pago Pago, Suva, and Noumea. Lots of engineers are heading to Noumea, along with the Marines, to accelerate it’s expansion and fortification. If I get all these in place and there is no immediate threat, I will then move to hold or retake Efate, Luganville, and Lunga.
NG/Solomons:
I’ve decided to try to hold Port Moresby, or at least fight for it. My hope is that this will allow time to build the airfields in NE Australia into threats before Mynok can start using PM. To this end, I’m immediately evacuating the units at Kavieng and Rabaul via ship and air transport to PM, and shipping in each of the Australia Command LCU’s that start at Darwin. I’ll also try to get as much supply into PM as I can before the air threat develops from Rabaul, but the starting supply situation in Oz does not leave much excess to send to PM.
Oz/NZ:
I’m marching the units starting at Adelaide to Perth The 3rd Division from Melbourne heads to Darwin to replace the units shipping out to PM. Much of the rest of the Oz LCU’s will head North along the coast, with several BF units gathering at Brisbane for AV support and construction duties.
DEI:
Java ground forces will gather at Batavia and Soerabaja. Any ground forces on Sumatra that can reach Palembang will head there for defence, and in the hope that the engineers can cause some destruction to the Oil and Resource industry there when it falls. I’ll try to evacuate the two British BF units at Brunei and Kuching to Java.
Most of the shipping will be used to grab as much oil as possible and ship it to Perth, resources to Soerabaja, and supplies into Singapore while I can. I later intend to haul as much resource and oil as I can from Java to Oz, mostly to deny them to the Aliens. I’ve decided against reinforcing Java, other than some air units from Singapore. I’ll keep some AK’s at Java to ship out any air groups that can’t fly out before it falls. I may run a supply convoy or two from Aden to Java before things get hot there. I’m bringing in the British MLE from Trincomalee to Soerabaja to help mine everything in sight, but to especially bury Palembang harbor in mines.
Force Z from Singapore will steam to Java to combine with the British Eastern Fleet. They will try to cause trouble in the DEI area until Singapore falls, then will fall back to Ceylon to defend the IO.
I’ll buy the two Dutch air transport units early and send them to Mandalay to help air evacuate fragments from Malaya back to India. Some other Dutch air groups will be withdrawn into condensed groups because the withdrawn units return in 60 days with a full compliment of planes and assigned to SWPac HQ. They will be handy to help defend Northern Oz.
Malaya:
Most of the ground units here are immediately retreating to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. The 6th Indian Bde at Alor Star will poke their noses into Singora to see if it is left undefended, and then will attempt to hold at Alor Star for a bit. I’m hoping the engineers left to defend K. Lumpur will be able to damage some of the massive Resource industry there. All the air groups are gathering at Singapore and will try to hit some shipping and provide CAP for my shipping before fleeing to Java.
I am going to fly out fragments of the Malaya Command forces with patrol planes to Burma, and then on to India to slowly rebuild. I will leave all but fragments to defend Singapore and hold out as long as possible.
India/Burma:
Most ground forces will fall back to the Chittagong-Imphal-Kohima-Jorhat-Ledo line, while a rear guard force will garrison Rangoon, until threatened by ground forces. I then hope to retreat back up the rail line to Mandalay and then to India. I want to try to sneak out as much oil and resources from Rangoon as I can before the air threat becomes too great. I’m shipping the SEAC HQ from Colombo to Calcutta and pumping in supply to fill out ground forces with replacements.
I’m concentrating my BF units at Calcutta, Dacca, and Chittagong to build AF’s for a future bombing campaign against Alien held industry in Burma.
I’m pretty confident that I can hold against a good punch from the Aliens here, and then go on the offensive to reopen the Burma Road to China. Each of the Indian coastal bases will be garrisoned. The AVG will fly CAP at Mandalay or Rangoon, and then pull back to India. They may make a few short trips to China for hit and run missions, but I want them available for the inevitable air battle over Burma and India.
In addition to the “bonus” supply and fuel generated at Aden each turn, there is excess oil produced there. Aden also has a shortage of resources. So, I’ll run regular supply convoys from here, but will also ship out some oil to Bombay or Calcutta where it can be put to good use, and send some resources back on the return trip.
China:
I will generally gather my forces in cities to rest and make use of the engineers to build forts. My guerillas will scatter to the four winds to cut supply lines and tie up as many Alien forces as possible.
In the North, I’ll build forts at Lanchow, Kungchang, Sian, Yenan, and Honan, with the AF at Sian next up once it’s forts are maxed out. I’m shifting 3 corps from Sian to reinforce Yenan.
In Central China, I’m mostly pulling back to dig in at Chungking, while shifting a corps from Chengtu, and 1 corps and 2 Art units from Chungking to all reinforce Sian. I’ll max out the forts at Chungking, and then build out the AF.
The South of China will see me try to occupy Nanchang, allowing the forces around Wenchow to pull back through Nanchang to Changsa while the bulk of the Alien forces are still tied up fighting guerillas. I’ll build forts at Changsha, Wuchow, Hengchow, Luichow, and Kweiyang, and then build the AF at Changsha.
Chinese air units will all relocate to India to rest and draw replacements before moving back into China.
PI:
Nothing fancy planned for the PI, other than making my last stand at Manila instead of Bataan to take advantage of the urban terrain defensive bonus. All of the engineers will head to Manila to start building forts. I hope to evacuate fragments of several units, mostly by patrol aircraft, via Manado to Oz. Air groups will eventally be reassigned and head to bolster India/Burma via Chinese bases.
My PT’s will try to hit the invasion tf’s at Legaspi, while the subs will head to the waters off Northern Luzon. Surface warships will gather at Balikpapan to try to cause some damage, and the merchant shipping will attempt to evacuate to Oz, carrying as much fuel as they can to deny it to the Aliens.
The first punch has been landed by the Aliens, and I’ve sent my 12/8 turn back to Mynok. He’s having a little computer trouble at the moment, but I expect things will be moving along pretty soon.
Anyone and everyone, please feel free to speak up with ideas or advice as the war moves along. [8D]
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