The Return of Miller The Killer

[tocaff]

Another couple of days gone by and PM is in Allied hands.  The cost was huge in terms of shipping.  For all intents and purposes this game is over because my lift capacity is almost gone and there is no Allied navy left to speak of.  I continue the fight just to see what, if anything, can be accomplished.

[Miller]

Mid March saw the start of Todd's comebcak, sending his invasion fleet to PM. This was no suprise to me as my recon had detected most of his fleet sitting in Townsville harbour for weeks. PM was never operational after I took it, and the only troops I had left there was a single Rgt.

Over several days a series of night surface actions, carrier battles and raids from Lae and North Aus based LBA saw us lose the following:

Todd: CV Essex, 3 CVEs, BBs Maryland and Tennesse, CL Columbia, about 12 DDs and 20 tranports.

Myself: BB Fuso, CAs Maya and Suzuya, CL Naka and about 10 DDs. In addition 2 CVLs were badly damaged and out of the rest of the game along with several smaller warships. My carrier air was all but wiped out.

Todd landed many troops at PM and my Rgt was forced to retreat towards Buna on the first attack, I could not build any forts prior to the invasion due to the constant bombing by Todd.

Although he has taken heavy losses, Todd now has a foothold and all my bases in the vicinity will soon be craters. I sent a raid to PM covered by over 100 fighters and about 30 Corsairs on CAP shot down over 40 without loss[X(] A shape of things to come?

[tocaff]

Paul is very kind and paints a rosy picture for me.  The reality is that between sunk, damaged and future anticipated lost ships keeping an offensive going will be a difficult proposition.

Corsairs are doing very well supported by Lightnings and I've now got lots of both.  I'll have to grind my way towards reducing a huge VP gap over the next 8 months.

It's do or die and I will not quit without making life very difficult for my opponent.

Phase 1 surviving 1942 - check
Phase 2 (re)taking my new forward base - check
Phase 3 expanding on my possessions and closing the area to Japanese shipping - in the works

[tocaff]

Nope, phase 3 is dead.  Paul is bombarding PM with old and slow BBs and I'm helpless to stop him unless you want to count 250 lb bombs chipping paint as retaliation.  To really stick it to me the IJN raided, with impunity, just off the coast of Oz (Townsville) and managed to sink or cripple what little shipping I have left.  My LBA won't fly against his CVs even though there would be escorts (P-38s).  I have offered my surrender, darn it, to Paul as I can't keep PM safe or supplied and I'm 5 months away from getting a real CV.  Yes I get the RN's flat top and all of her 27 planes along with 2 CVLs in late April, but that is not enough for the task at hand & they don't carry supplies.  Allied reinforcements are to little, to late for me to have a chance at hauling in the VP differential.

Congrats to Miller the Killer on another well deserved victory.

[Miller]

Glad to say Todd has had a change of heart and the game continues.

[RGIJN]

How about the current situation, VP spread and ship losses so far?
Also glad to hear it will go on folks! This AAR reads like a pretty dogged war is running...

[tocaff]

I can't divulge my losses as the intel would cause dancing in Tokyo.  They have been very heavy and the VP point spread is, ya know I don't know!  I'll post it tomorrow after tonight's turns.

[Miller]

I'll save you the trouble Todd. Game date is 10th April 43.

VPs

Japs 11419
Allies 5078

Ships sunk

Japs: 1 CV, 3 BB, 2 CA, 2 CL, 25 DD, 12 SS, 40 AP.
Allies: 5 CV, 3 CVE, 3 BB, 3 CA, 6 CL, 40 DD, 7 SS, 30 AP/AK.

Aircraft losses are almost even at around 1700 each.

Strategic situation (I would do a map but it is a bit too technical for me!)

Apart from PM, Japs own everything in the New Guinea area. Likewise, everything from Irau northwards is held by the Japs in the Solomans.

Todd is limited in what he can do during the next three months or so due to a lack of carrier based air cover. He will have to use LBA from PM to cover any advance in the New Guinea area. Many units have arrived on the outskirts of Buna after marching over the mountains from PM.....they will get a warm reception[:-]

[tocaff]

If Paul only knew the real state of the Allied forces he'd be amazed. Let's not forget that his totals aren't current as a sunk ship might not be reported to him for an undetermined length of time and he doesn't know how many or how badly the ships are damaged.

[Miller]

Well, after another carrier battle south of PM in which Todd came off worse he has called time on this one.

He has had little luck in any of the carrier battles and felt he could not protect his supply convoys to PM. He had learned a lot since our first encounter but his sea and air units simply failed to perform this game.

We will be starting another game shortly.

[tocaff]

Thanks to Paul's astute handling of his forces and having an excellent plan it seems that though I did what I wanted things constantly went sour.  To lose all of your CVs, CVLs (save 1 that's crippled) and all but 1 of the CVEs and only sink 1 small carrier of your opponent's fleet is a recipe for disaster.

I think that I'm getting stale with UV.  My plans have become to predictable.  I feel that though I truly love UV it's scope has become a bit to limited as there really isn't much you can do in the way of surprise as the area is to small for the forces involved.  I never thought I would ever say that!  I'm not knocking the game of UV as it's been the greatest investment of my entertainment dollar ever.

My PBEMs in WPO left me intrigued, but luke warm on the game and now I'm playing my 1st PBEM in WITP (scenario 4) to get a better handle on it.

Paul & I will start a new game in about 1 week.

[decaro]

How many different, simultanous games are you playing?

[tocaff]

Let's see I have the following

The game just lost to Paul
Our game
A game against another Paul
A game with Stephane
I'm playing Merrill also

The above are all UV

I'm playing against Wayne in a WITP short scenario (4) and we do turns from 0 to about 4 per day.

It's great being retired and having an understanding wife.  [:)]

It's not to much as the games are not all very active, Merrill & I do about 4 turns per week and Stephane & I get 1 to 5 turns per week in.  Believe it or not the only time I take notes on my plans are when I'm going to do a large scale invasion.  There's nothing in my head so there's lots of room for game info.