Oh my, I think I killed an albatross... (No Roy2008)

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: FAsea

Thanks for the super detailed breakdown of your initial moves...very helpful to me as I prepare to try my first GC vs. the AI.

I remember reading rime of the ancient mariner around age 10 and wanting badly to go on a sea voyage  [:D]

Erm...Just be warned. I am a lousy player. In WitP Roy2008 now controls all of India, all of China save 3 cities, Northern Australia, and every island and atoll in the Pacific save Port Moresby and Noumea.
It should work a little better against the AI, atleast it did for me, but just be warned, there are alot of better players to learn from [:)]

Someone stole/borrowed all my CDs in my truck except a Maiden disk, so have been listening to their version for so long now that the title of this thread HAD to include the killing of an albatross. But I love the poem too, my favorite in english lit. during school.

Terje

[terje439]

December 9th 1941

Gentlemen, I was wrong. The Japanese did indeed decide to attack Manilla and Pearl Harbour today as well. Some ships were sunk at Manilla, but none at Pearl Harbour. Once more the Japanese lost alot of aircrafts over Hawaii, nevertheless I have decided to send our precious carriers on a route that will hopefully keep them safe from the Kido Butai. If successful our carriers will end up around Christmas Island and from there will slowly head back to Pearl Harbour.

Some of the ships heading for Soerebaja from the Philiphines and from Singapore were sunk, and the cowardly British captains are reported to be heading back to Singapore. Someone will pay for this, Singapore is a doomed city!

A few reports have been made available to you all today gentlemen, take a look at them and realise that we are fighting not only for colonial posessions, but for our lives.

[terje439]

Lost ships

[terje439]

Lost aircrafts
When it comes to aircrafts lost, my dog ate them I am afraid. No worries, the creature was hung for treason on the spot!
Well, we actually do well in the air. We shoot down the Japanese bombers in great numbers, but we admit that our fighters need to have an advantage in numbers/height/tactics to get even with the Zero.

So far the conclusions we can draw are these:
-our fighters are slightly inferior to the Japanese Zero fighter.
-while the Japanese bombers are lethal to our ships, they are easily shot down both by our planes, and by our anti-aircraft guns.

[terje439]

December 10th 1942

Sirs! I have some new reports for you to take a look at.
As you all know, our main problem at the moment is that the Japanese can hit us with superior numbers werever they chose. This cannot go on, so orders have been issued to abandon minor bases for now, and instead gather our forces so that we can better withstand the enemy onslought that is sure to follow for the next few months.
It might be of interest to you that the so called Kido Butai has left the Hawaiian Islands, Manilla harbour is still under aerial attacks however.

So, these are the movement orders that have currently been issued. I am pleased to announce that ABDA has realised that the NEI is a lost cause, and that ABDA troops are better used in the defence of Australia. However this is a severe prestige loss to the ABDA, so they are only slowly allowing their units to be rebased.
However, the following moves are the ones we are currently working on.

[terje439]

Introduction of "no-sail zones"

We keep losing ships to enemy land based bombers, it is therefor suggested that no ships will be allowed to sail within certain zones without aircover.

[terje439]

Talking about losing ships

These are the ships that were sunk today. Be warned that one of our Catalinas has reported to have scored a hit on the Japanese carrier Soryu. This is however not confirmed.

[terje439]

The war in the air

We are actually not doing too bad in the aerial war, however some of our older models are not up to the tasks they are supposed to perform, it is therefor suggested that we start upgrading our air units.

[khyberbill]

I read your previous aar now and then. I would advise that you garrison ceylon, diego garcia, addu (spelling?) and male. Your opponent cant waltz into northern india like he did last time without triggering a fresh supply of troops for you but he can play havoc with your shipping from cape town and also can invade southern india.

in china, build your forts to 3, consolidate your lines and for those troops not actively in battle, place them on rest mode. supplies are tighter in this game and you want to husband them as much as you can. send weak units to chungking to bulk up and then send them back to the front. i suspect that once chinese units beef up, they can stand and fight. i also suspect some japanese players will know that china is futile and will withdraw two or three divisions and send them to australia or burma or southern india.

good luck.
bill

[terje439]

Hi again [:)]
Great minds think alike (atleast that is what we claim is it not [;)]) I allready have units and supply enroute to Ceylon and Diego Garcia. The main issue right now in India is finding the troops to send, the need to keep Garrisons is forcing me to really look at what I can send and where. Also for a few more turn shipping is an issue, but in a few turns alot of ships are done converting and that problem goes away.

Terje

[terje439]

December 11th 1941

I have to say gentlemen that I feel like a firefighter having to put out 10 fires at a time singlehand.
Well, today I have some concerning news, some updates and some good news.

The good news is that our battleships Arizona and California will soon be ready for duty again, the dockworkers at Pearl estimate that all repairs should be done tomorrow.
The Japanese have invaded Rabaul, and we will not be able to hold, furthermore the Imperial Japanese Navy is getting increasingly bold, they have now sent a small carrier force close to Soerebaja, what they are up to we do not know, but if they move any closer they will be targeted by all available aircrafts based at Soerebaja.
We continue to lose some ships today, but this had to be expected, any ship that escapes from the Philliphines or the NEI is a bonus, so we do our best.
We have also gotten some reports that the Japanese are heading for Attu in the Kuriles, we have nothing to spare as it is, so we will simply have to let them take it. It is only a small piece of rock, and if Tojo wants to keep some of his soldiers there, let him. Fewer troops to face elsewere.

Our main headache today is a Japanese task force that seems to be steaming towards Darwin in Northern Australia. This could be one of two things, either a surface raid, or an invasion force. Either way we have sent a task force of 1 heavy cruiser, 5 light cruisers and 11 destroyers to interfere with this task force. All we can say to these brave sailors is - goodspeed!

[terje439]

December 12th 1941

Sirs, the availability of ground troops is a major concern. I have talked with Churchill and FDR about this, we need divisions not mere brigades. Unfortunately it will be some 11 weeks before an entire division is made ready for us, so for now we will have to make do with mere droplets.

Today we had a few naval losses, these were merchants trying to flee Hong Kong which is now also under attack, but naval losses have declined the last few days, mainly due to the fact that we have gotten the ships away from danger areas.

The situation at Soerebaja gives ground for some concern however, there are not enough fighters protecting the base, and we have to contemplate withdrawing aerial units from Singapore and Manilla into Soerebaja to protect the ships present.

[terje439]

December 13th 1941

Sirs, again we lose merchant shipping. But only the ships trying to escape Hong Kong. So it was to be expected. The city of Hong Kong itself will likely fall tomorrow it seems from my reports, and there is nothing we can do to help those poor sailors.
As usual our main concern is that we do not have the ammount of troops were we want to have them, instead we have a lot of troops were we do not want to have them. The Japanese is making the most of the situation and are invading several places in Borneo and Java. Our patrol crafts in Singapore is now flying Commonwealth troops to Soerebaja, and from there troops are flown south towards Australia. We hope that when Singapore falls, atleast some troops will be saved.

The port at Manilla is in effect shut down, and there is not much we can do for the ships there, the enemy controls the airspace around the Philliphines and any damaged ship trying to escape is likely to be sunk before reaching very far.
A warning has again been sent to Pearl Harbour as the Kido Butai once more is spotted at Johnston Island heading EAST. They could be heading back to try to end what they started, if so our carriers will be ordered to land their planes on the island and move to safety in an attempt to try to stiffen the defenses in the air at Pearl.

The only semi-pleasant reading I can give you is the report on total air losses so far.

[aprezto]

139WH-3 losses - ouch. That's the AVG isn't it?

[SireChaos]

ORIGINAL: aprezto

139WH-3 losses - ouch. That's the AVG isn't it?

No, they´re Dutch bombers. AVG is using something called H81 or so.

[aprezto]

So it is. my apologies

[terje439]

Yea darned Dutch fighter pilots complained about having to keep their fingers in a ditch or something and did not have time to escort the bombers...And ofc Roy2008 had zeroes on LRCAP...Pretty much a slaughter.
But what I really like about those numbers is the fact that Val+Kate=135, now that is a good number this early.

Of my 299 aerial losses, some 50 or so has been on the ground, in the air I am more or less on 1:1 so not too bad IMHO.

[terje439]

December 14th 1941

Gentlemen, the war has now lasted for one week. There can be no denying that during the past week the Japanese has made a large dent in our forces, espesially in our shipping. However all things considered we shall feel that we have gotten away rather easy, none of our battleships were sunk at Pearl Harbour, all our carriers escaped undamaged, and unlike what was feared, the Japanese has not landed everywhere at once. This might have to do with a lack of shipping, or it may be some sort of ruse from the Japanese.
What we do know is that every day that goes by we grow stronger, and ships are sailing as we speak, to reinforce areas of importance all over the Pacific. Some sacrifices has to be made, and forces deployed in Singapore, NEI and the Philliphines will bear the brunt of the Japanese assaults, and surely many a good man will end up in POW-camps. The only thing we can do to aid these men is to strike back at the enemy whenever and whereever we can.
However we must carefully plan our attacks, we cannot fight this like a bar-brawl. Instead we must use the finesse of a fencer, quickly deliver a small but stinging riposte when we see an opening.

The only event of importance these last 24 hours is that the Japanese has invaded Johnston Island, and the garrison there does not recon they can hold for too long. Unfortunately the so called Kido Butai is guarding the invasion so we cannot simply send in our carriers to sweep the attackers off the surface of the sea. We have also located another Japanese task force to the west of Johnston Island, the nature of this force is unknown, although we expect it might be a task force whos sole purpose is to refuel and rearm the Kido Butai. If that proves to be correct, this might be a very high value target. It does not seem likely that the Kido Butai has refueled so far, and they should now be low on fuel. If we could sink their tankers, the enemy carriers would be sitting ducks.

[aprezto]

Where are your carriers then?
 
Is there still a cohesion penalty for flight ops of carriers if they are in a base hex? I know that LRCAP over carrier TFs is neutered.
 
 

[terje439]

Two of my carriers are at Pearl awaiting the third one to join up.