Bigbaba y Ike99

[borner]

I think that is your most creative artwork yet!

[bigbaba]

we all know how the movie ends, or?[;)]

ike, you have mail by the way.

[Ike99]

we all know how the movie ends, or?

The shark sinks the boat though. [8D]

[Ike99]

¨Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief.

We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte... just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes.

Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by looking from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know, was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week.

Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin', so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like old squares in the battle like you see in the calendar named "The Battle of Waterloo" and the idea was: shark comes to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away.

Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a shark... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'.

The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces.¨

[bigbaba]

yes, the fate of the indianapolis was very tragic. the more inconceivable fact is, that the navy blamed the commander of the ship for the sinking although his request for escort-DD was rejected and he was not informed that a japs sub sunk an allied DE on the route of the cruiser few hours ago.

by the way we are talking about sinking ships... japs APD 39 and APD 36 were blasted into the water by allied bombers from PM today. beside that, nothing happend at 06/28/42.

ike is takeing the "long way" to PM through "the Kokoda Track", the way, that field marshall Hisaichi Terauchi took also in 2ns WW. we all know the results and how many japs troops made it alive back to buna.[:-]

edit:

ike attacked PM by his carrier based aircrafts..at NIGHT!

didnt knew, that japanese can manage night air operations by their carriers in UV. out of the 300 planes, he lost only 6. that seems not to be realistic. the japs lost 21 of 27 carrier planes in their only night air operation in 1942 in the battle of coral sea.

anyway, i should not whine here. we have no rules, so ike is only useing the game mechanisms. i was just totaly surprised to get a night time visit from 300 vals and kates.

[Ike99]

7-1-42

Aircraft Lost

Allies-252
Japan-125

Ships Lost

Allies-

2 Destroyers
2 Destroyer Mine Sweepers
1 Mine Sweeper
2 Submarines
1 Fleet Oiler
6 Transports

Japan-

1 Destroyer
3 Fast Transports
1 Mine Sweeper
1 Submarine
1 Sea Plane Support Ship
11 Transports

(other small minor ships, PC/SC not included)

Score

Japan-5,496
Allies-3,334

[bigbaba]

the next morning at PM:

[Ike99]

bigbaba still insist he will hold out at Port Moresby. The Japanese lead by the 17th Army will be bringing him back into the reality over the next few weeks.




Air attacks against the Japanese coming down the trail have been virtually nothing as most of his airforce has been destroyed or demoralized...

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 07/12/42

Weather: Clear

Air attack on 229th Regiment, at 11,39


Allied aircraft
A-24 Dauntless x 13
A-20B Havoc x 12


no losses

Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 21

Attacking Level Bombers:
12 x A-20B Havoc at 5000 feet

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on 141st Regiment, at 10,39


Allied aircraft
B-25D Mitchell x 12


Allied aircraft losses
B-25D Mitchell x 1 destroyed
B-25D Mitchell x 5 damaged

Attacking Level Bombers:
11 x B-25D Mitchell at 5000 feet

He was unable to interfere much with my landings over the last month. Shipping losses remain the same for the Japanese. A single destroyer for warships and 6 transports. It is now just a matter of time before Port Moresby joins the Empire.

[&o]

[tocaff]

Hmm, a Japanese move to take Noumea?  Not impossible, difficult.  It would all depend on the state of the Allied naval forces, disposition of LBA and the LCUs stationed there.  It would certainly ease the way if Luganville and EPV fell 1st though Luganville is an auto victory by itself.  Interesting and to my knowledge Noumea hasn't been done in a long, long time in PBEM.  

[bigbaba]

my 2E bombers are mostly intact and also my 4E ones (in the next 2 rounds i get a lot of new bomber groups). also, i have 6 carriers and also nearly all my capital ships while at least 2 of ikes BB are damaged (on fire) after torpedo attacks.

the americal divison is totaly intact and had no loses. at noumea, the 1st marine division will arrive very soon, so i have enough ground forces to hold Luganville and noumea.

also, i have a good air recon and know mostly exactly, where ikes carriers are, so no chance for him for a surprise visit.

so, attacking noumea while he has an "unfinished job" at PM will be hart for ike.

[Ike99]

You know the Allied airforce is routed when Float planes are bombing ships in Port Moresby. Most of the Allied airforce has fled to Austraila to avoid destruction. I counted just 34 bombers at PM last turn.

[Ike99]

Carriers...

WASP, Saratoga and Enterprise have been sunk along with almost 300 carrier planes destroyed. One Japanese carrier suffered 1 bomb hit for minor damage.



BANZAI!!!

[borner]

OUCH!  What happened?

[bigbaba]

50+ of my SBD decided to attack a CL/DD TF instead of ikes carriers, although the japs carriers were closer to my carrier TF.

[Ike99]

OUCH! What happened?

I noticed a pattern of bigbaba in how he was moving his carriers. I used this prediction with the games detection levels to smash those three carriers.

[Ike99]

The battle for Port Moresby is beginning in earnest now as elements of the 4th Army have arrived there. In another week there will be around 30,000 more Japanese in Port Moresby who are currently still coming down the Kokoda track.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 07/29/42

Weather: Partly Cloudy

Sub attack at 11,52

Japanese Ships
SS I-28

Allied Ships
CA Pensacola, Torpedo hits 1, on fire

----------------

Air attack on Port Moresby

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 16
G4M1 Betty x 47


Allied aircraft losses
PBY Catalina x 1 destroyed
PBY Catalina x 1 damaged


Allied ground losses:
Men lost 16
Guns lost 1

Airbase hits 10
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 21

----------------

Air attack on 170th Regiment

Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 11

Allied aircraft
B-25D Mitchell x 8
B-26B Marauder x 7

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero x 2 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
B-25D Mitchell x 8 damaged
B-26B Marauder x 1 damaged

Attacking Level Bombers:
5 x B-25D Mitchell at 1000 feet

----------------

Air attack on 170th Regiment, at 10,40

Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 11

Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 14

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero x 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress x 1 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 10

----------------

Ground combat at Port Moresby

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 49014 troops, 660 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 36967 troops, 278 guns, 98 vehicles


Allied ground losses:
Men lost 15

----------------

Ground combat at Port Moresby

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 22913 troops, 199 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 52524 troops, 691 guns, 21 vehicles


Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 4

----------------

[bigbaba]

ike is landing another 10.000-20.000 men at buna via his warships. the battle of PM is going on and my position is better then at the beginning of the battle.

more troops and supply are flooding in into PM and i still have a number of divisions in australia to counter his troop reinforcements. the war of attrition the US fought at guadalcanal is going on at PM in our game:

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/04/42

Ground combat at Port Moresby
 
Japanese Deliberate attack
 
Attacking force 59061 troops, 746 guns, 17 vehicles
 
Defending force 45466 troops, 351 guns, 107 vehicles
 
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 5)
 
 
Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 75
 
Allied ground losses:
Men lost 33
 

[Ike99]

8-7-43

Bigbaba has placed all the Australian divisions in PM by fast transport. The only Australian divisions he has in Australia to counter my troop movements are those of the home force and they can´t leave Australia. [:D]

Yes, his situation may be better at PM now but, what about the rest of the board? By committing the entire Allied navy and ground forces to PM I have been given free reign everywhere else.

There can be no invasion in the very long term future anywhere else because the ground forces are tied up defending PM. In my game with borner the only way I was able to make such progress up the Solomon chain was because I had pulled the Australian divisions over. That is the most fast route to Allied victory.

This is impossible for him now as he has committed them to New Guinea and lost 3 carriers in it´s defense. I myself feel the resources could have been much more effectively used in another manner and over the whole, this move is good for the Japanese as he would have eventually taken PM back anyways. I think now it will act as an anchor holding him there and slow his advance down actually.

But we shall see how that plays out.

War of attrition...hmmmm. Japanese losses are incredibly light.

The points situation, PM or no PM is the same for the Japanese as in any other situation at this point in the game.

Losses

Aircraft-

Allies-645
Japan-389

Navy-

Allied

Carriers-2
Light Cruisers-1
Destroyers-3
Destroyer Mine Sweeper-2
Mine Sweeper-1
Fleet Oiler-1
Subs-4
Transports-6

Japan

Destroyers-3
Fast Trasnports-3
Mine Sweeper-1
Mine Layer-1
Transports-12
Tanker-1
Submarines-3
Float Plane Support-1

Points as of 8-7-43

Japan-7,045
Allies-3748

[Ike99]

As the siege of Port Moresby continues....

Ground combat at Port Moresby

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 57537 troops, 742 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 47846 troops, 275 guns, 107 vehicles

Allied ground losses:
Men lost 28

The Japanese continue to disperse it´s power in other areas, stockpile supplies and build fortifications for the eventual Allied air offensive. Lay mines of course too.

As can be seen from the picture, the Allied total concentration on Port Moresby is going to come at a very high price later in the game.

Any attempt to capture Lunga or Tulagi now, or in the far future by the Allies would be a gift. Catastrophic losses to them. And the defenses are only getting stronger from week to week in the Solomon chain.

This is where my ¨theory¨ of Japanese play differs from everyone else it seems. I disperse the Japanese power rather than concentrate it and try to keep mobility. This is the practiced method of warfare when facing a superior force. By concentrating, say at Lunga with an airforce of 200 airplanes it would eventually be smashed easily for him. Over the long time period of play my opinion is it is better to disperse these 200 airplanes over 5 or 6 bases. That I believe gives him much more problems and is much more time consuming. He closes one base, it´s ¨OK¨, I have 5 others. He closes one airfield and switches to close another, the first will be back open in a day or two. It´s guerilla warfare. But we´ll see.

[;)]

[bigbaba]

dear friend,

i am not totaly concentrated on PM. i still have a lot of aircrafts and more then two intact division in the solomon area.

the point is, that i can not start a attack at irau or lunga for now with your 9 CV only waiting to wipe out my invasion force.

so i do, what the best thing is:

i keep your best samurais (assault regiments) trapped at PM, so they can not run amok somewhere else.