Coral Sea or Somebody up there likes me...

[Henri]

Here is an AAr I posted today on the Usenet war-historical forum, for those of you who don't go there.

After spending 4 hours reading the manual on the screen (no paper manual), despite my mind boggled by rules that would make a lawyer run for help, I decided to try the first and short scenario. I had previously played the tutorial scenario without reading the manual, which is good for learning the interface, but I was not too clear on what was going on. Although the rules are very complex, it is not as bad as it sounds, since the explanation for most rules are only to help the player understand what is going on under the covers. Most but not all operations can be automated, although the player may not always be happy with the decisions of the AI, especially if the Task force under question is commanded by a 40-point nincompoop who thinks that CAP is a waste of good planes that could be out causing havoc 300 miles away...

Anyhoo, I was and am still fuzzy about many things, but whadahell, Halsey and yamamoto didn't win battles by waiting until they had all the information that they wanted, so off I went into the battle for Gili Gili!

This scenario is a short 1942 scenario where the Americans have Port Moresby, Gili Gili, Buna and Lugan, but the latter three have no troops defending them, and the japanese have decided to take them on the way to take Port moresby. As the US, I have an Air Combat Task force consisting of the Carriers Lexington and Yorktown with some destroyers, and a surface combat force of three cruisers with some destroyers. My main supply bases are Numea and Brisbane. Port Moresby is well-supplied and defended, as well as most cities on the australian coast, some of which, however, have little or no planes. Buna and Gili gili are not very far from Port Moresby, and within reach of Australian bases, but Luanga is way off by the slot. Gili Gili is right on the point of land pointing into the Coral Sea, so it is a critical base.

The first order of the day is probably to send some troops to Gili Gili at least, but I end up instead sending some supplies along with an empty transport, not too smart a move ("...would you believe it was a decoy, gentlemen of the court martial?...".

I have read enough to know that at this point in the war, the American carriers are no match for the Japanese ones, who have more of them and better pilots to boot. The Japanese also had better surface combat forces. But I'm not going to win this war by staying home and playing cards, so I send off my carrier task force to a point near Gili Gili where it can protect both Gili Gili and Port Moresby, while threatening the Japanese bases to the NE. I am well aware that this may put me within range of the long-range Jap fighters, but whadahell, I can always restart. I send a replenishment fleet following the carrier task force so that it can refuel without having to come back to Noumea. I send the surface combat task force to a point closer to Gili Gili, perhaps it can bag some of the invasion force surely coming at Gili Gili.

I had forgotten about Luanga, and I am still not sure if the japanese took it or not, but it played no role in the following battle anyway (except for one important thing mentioned later).

I organized a few supply convoys at Brisbane and Nouema and set them on automatic so that their commanders would take supplies where they were most needed and save me the work of micromanaging them. I did the same for some submarines, giving them only their initial objective and letting their captains decide after that.

I played around with the CAP levels on the carriers and on Port Moresby, since this is not totally automated and I didn't want all my planes in the air at the same time to wear out the pilots. Their main objectives were all set to Naval Attack, and I left them there since I figured that I would be fighting mostly fleets invading Gili Gili and Buna.

As my naval fleets moved up, Port Moresby planes attacked some convoys coming for Gili Gili, defended against air attacks on its airfield and port, and dropped a few bombs on some nearby japanese bases. Eventually the Japanese invasion forces reached Buna and Gili Gili and after fighting with some shadows, captured the undefended bases. By this time my planes from Port Moresby were filling the ocean with bombs, few of which hit any ships. But as the scenario went on, they were hitting more and more, mostly cargo ships and accompanying destroyers. When my carrier fleet got close enough they also joined the fray and Japanese cargo casualties slowly climbed without any major losses to me.

Suddenly my surface fleet with the three cruisers met two Japanese cruisers and all hell broke loose. Piece 'o cake, I thought, three cruisers and three destroyers against two cruisers, I'll have them visiting the sea bottom in a jiffy. Well, my ships musta been crewed with the dangest bunch of crosseyed gunmen you ever saw, because they failed to get a single hit on the Japanese cruisers, who blithely sent one of my cruisers to the bottom and set the two others on fire, as well as one of the destroyers! The flaming survivors limped back to port. So much for my surface fleet, and I would have no more in this scenario. I forgot to check who the commander of this fleet was before I sent it out, and it must have been a 30-point political appointee who didn't know the stern of a ship from the end of a desk...

Now it appeared that all would depend on what would transpire between my carrier fleet and the japanese one. I had no idea where the japanese carriers were, so my planes had jolly good fun dropping bombs on the Japanese fleets trying to supply Gili Gili, with only token interference from japanese interceptors from nearby bases. Well it turned out that the japanese carriers were in the slot waiting for me to try to defend Luanga, which of course I had luckily completely forgotten about.

When the scenario ended, despite the Japanese holding three of their four objectives, I got a marginal victory due to sinking about a dozen enemy ships and losing only a couple. Except for the sinking of the Cruiser Hobart, my victory would have been much more decisive.

"That was brillint strategy, sir, letting the Japanese carrier fleet think that you were going to make a major effort at Luanga by not sending anything there so that they would think that it was a feint, thus keeping them out of the real battle. How did you know they would bite?"

Well, son, part of that information is classified, but let me just say that the art of making war is always thinking one step ahead of the enemy...". (sucks on pipe with a knowing look...

Henri

PS: Afterwards I tried this scenario with the computer controlling both sides. This time although the surface fleets did not meet, the carrier fleets did, and it was a bloody battle. The Lexington was sent to the bottm and the Yorktown severely damaged and was burning fiercely when the scenario ended. Two of the Japanese carriers were on fire and headed for port, but the carrier Soiho was undamaged. The japanese got a marginal victory , but in a longer scenario the sinking of the Lexington and the damage to the Yorktown would leave the Americans without any carrier support at all for a long time, leaving the japanese with a decisive advantage. Whether or not port Moresby could hold out under such circumstances is open to question, and remains to be resolved by playing one of the larger scenarios.