The Sun in My Eyes Mk IV, EOS from the Allied Perspective

[goodboyladdie]

First things first, why oh why did I allow my sense of fair play to intrude when Mike offered to turn surprise off? The major impact can be seen from the air loss screenie I think. The ship losses screen will be another excellent demonstration, but I'll post that when I get to the PI...

[goodboyladdie]

The sorry tale of the tape for turn one.

[goodboyladdie]

The KB hit PH really hard. The major Naval damage is posted here. The only sinking was the scuttling of the MSW Robin at Johnston Island, which fell along with Wake Island. Every ship that can make good distance in one turn is sailing, but most will have to stay as they used 1000 ops points replenishing. They will do me more favours by drawing Mike on to my AAA, even with most of it disabled. If I can damage Mike's air striking power it may put him off long enough for me to run bravely away in the best traditions of my countrymate Sir Robin...

[goodboyladdie]

Here you can see how hard he hit my AF.

[goodboyladdie]

I have sent subs out to mine the landing beaches. Subs should also arrive to patrol off the same beaches this turn. I have PT boats off to raid Lahaina too. I am glad I changed my mind about Wake as the CVL KB is off Midway. His Wake tf took a hammering from the shore defences, 2 CLs being hit (no fires), 3 APs (two on fire) and two DMs (both on fire). Enterprise launched a strike against the Johnston invasion force but did not find the target. I think she must have been in bad weather. Lady Lex launched a strike from the west and hit two AKs once, one AK four times and the Light Cruiser Iwate 19 times. She has the Jap replenishment group just to the east of her so hopefully they'll still be in range to hit them tomorrow morning because that will stop the KB from being able to chase me too hard if Mike decides he wants my CVs more than he wants to hit PH. I have moved the Patrol squadron from Midway to Palmyra, but only 5 out of the 11 flying boats were ready to move.

Edit: The KB is in the active hex btw...

[witpqs]

A 12-hex high speed run puts him right there amidst your carriers, young Laddie. Be careful...

[goodboyladdie]

Thanks mate [:)]. They were going to run down to Canton at full speed so they would have stayed ahead of the KB. I just noticed he has flown Nells or Bettys into Johnston already so I am going to have to change plans anyway. I think I will have to split them up and run off at tangents to get as far away from Johnston as possible while opening up distance from his CVs. At his fourth attempt he has finally put my CVs in danger! Damn the restarts...[:(]

This turn will probably take me a couple of days as I do not have a lot of time, but I'll be doing the AAR as I go.

Edit: Here is my planned track for Lexington. It takes her way from the KB and the Baby KB equidistant from Johnston Island and Kwajalein. He still has bombers on the islands to the west, but it is the best pick of a bad bunch...

[goodboyladdie]

Enterprise is in far more danger as heading off to get distance from Johnston puts her in range of the KB at daybreak, if the KB comes south. I have had to use a more southerly track to try to gain her some space from Johnston while maintaining some distance from the KB. Yet again the best pick of a bad bunch... (and this is of course if the tf goes where I tell it to. When I go back after a save for another look the tracks have been doing those funny detours they do when there is something in the way!)

[goodboyladdie]

2 AKs (both "Steels") were taken in hand for conversion to ARs in SF. Most vessels are being gathered in SF, as are the LCUs available for early deployment (the USMC units from San Diego, 40th US Infantry Division [severely understrength] and 161st RCT). The screenie shows a potential ambush by two CAs at Tarawa. I need to cause some distractions for Mike to give my CVs more of a chance to escape.

[goodboyladdie]

Here is the sunk ships list for the Allies on day 1. As you can see, Manila was very hard hit with four raids on the port. Another reason I wish surprise had been off after all...

[goodboyladdie]

Part one of the damaged ships at Manila...

[USSAmerica]

Wow, that's some carnage!  [X(]

[goodboyladdie]

And part two...

Anything that can sail even one hex is going to sea. Ships and subs with very heavy flood damage are running to disband in Bataan. The 51st P Div and a tank btn are going south to Naga to hold up Mike's force landing at Legaspi. He brings too much in there these days. Clark was hit once. Damage is 30/38 but a lot of planes were destroyed on the ground. The planes are dispersing to other fields. I'll reveal where when I have time in later turns. All HQ units have been transferred to SW Pac and are making for Manila, as are spare base forces.

Mike landed North and South on Luzon, but nowhere else yet. He came in at Rabaul, Kavieng and Guam too, taking damage at Rabaul from shore defences (1 CL hit, 1 APD hit and 2 DMs on fire). South of Tarakan the sub I-153 was attacked by four of my four stackers. USS Alden got four hits and the sub sank.

[goodboyladdie]

ORIGINAL: USS America

Wow, that's some carnage!  [X(]

Tell me about it...

He threw almost every bomber that could reach at Manila. He hates my subs because I use them aggressively. I will need to use the ones I'd normally launch early offensive action with to help evac units from the PI so the effects of these raids will cast a long shadow into 1942.

[Ron Saueracker]

It is hard enough to endure the seemingly endless hammering an Allied player suffers in PBEM without agreeing to all the breaches of plausability like attacking all ports and exploiting the turn one move bonus by Japan. The first turn needs house rules...actually the game should never have been released with the first turn move bonus allowable by every Jap TF...it was made for the PH TFs and sub TFs only but since it was every Japanese player thinks it it the way it should be. . Never get me to play these sort of games as either side. Must like pain my man. Ever pay for a spanking? [X(]

[goodboyladdie]

ORIGINAL: Ron Saueracker

It is hard enough to endure the seemingly endless hammering an Allied player suffers in PBEM without agreeing to all the breaches of plausability like attacking all ports and exploiting the turn one move bonus by Japan. The first turn needs house rules...actually the game should never have been released with the first turn move bonus allowable by every Jap TF...it was made for the PH TFs and sub TFs only but since it was every Japanese player thinks it it the way it should be. . Never get me to play these sort of games as either side. Must like pain my man. Ever pay for a spanking? [X(]

Never paid, Ron...[;)]

Mike and I agree that the surprise aspect with this level of build up is implausible. This is our fourth attempt with this mod so we were running out of ideas of how to mix up the start. Mike wanted to try EEO this time, but I wanted to give EOS one last go after Cid's changes (EEO starts with a similar set up so the problems would have been the same). He offered surprise off, but I said it was ok to have it on. I did not expect him to throw quite so much at Manila admittedly, but I did not say he couldn't so it's my fault. He is a fair and balanced player, which is why I want to keep hold of him as an opponent for when AE comes out. The four starts is the real cause of the problem, hence me running out of things to do with my CVs and the fact that he has not made his normal early move on Brunei, Miri and Kuching (it cost him a lot of ships last start).

[goodboyladdie]

SS I-121 hit a Mk6 mine at Batavia. DD Van Nes hit a Jap mine at the same place and is badly damaged.

Edit: I forgot to say I have minesweepers out in Batavia and a small ASW force. He appears to have two subs in the hex.

[goodboyladdie]

I am moving spare base forces to Singapore as quickly as possible. I like to get my Aussies out too, so am moving a lot of shipping to Singapore. It will be vulnerable once he has finished with Manila as the Buffs really get beat up in this mod. I will move the AVG down as soon as possible. I may not make any India moves as I desperately want to get this back to Mike...

Edit: I moved very little in the CBI Theatre. I have run out of time and Mike is not a lunacy player so one day should not make too much of a difference. I am pressuring Shanghai and it's surrounding cities, moving more into Wuhan and am moving on Nanchang. It will be a couple of days before I can get back to the AAR anyway as I have other turns waiting and have a midwide appointment tomorrow afternoon. I am sure you can get the bad news before I do by keeping an eye on Mike's AAR...

[ny59giants]

Unless this mod is very different from the other RHS mods, you should be able to be very aggressive in China. Use your barges at Chungking to supply your troops as they march on Ichang (looks to be lightly defended and not connected overland). Find your BF's there as your infantry engineers are combat not able to build up AF and forts.
 
Use your surviving subs from Manila to evac frags to Soerabaja. Then use that nice port size 9 to pick up and drop off mines at various spots on their way back to Manila. Use your AKs to get some of the fragments out as they build up to some degree. Having Soerabaja, Manila, and Singapore all size 9 ports should make mine warfare very lethal for you. [:D]
 
Mike read my AAR before my game ended, so he knows about the CDs at Ambonia. Thus he will want to send a large BB TF there to surpress them. It could be beneficial for you unless he has air superiority.
 
I hope this game gets into 42 soon. [;)]

[goodboyladdie]

Thanks for the tips Michael [:)]. I am planning to mine heavily. I was going to try to keep mine availability real, but he has been very vicious ([:@]) so I have got to do something to try to hurt him and slow him down. I have been sent the movie. I'll post a screenie as a taster if I get the time to watch it tonight (highly unlikely!).