War of the SCs - SireChaos vs SubCaptain

[SireChaos]

I have just started my first ever PBEM game, as Japan playing against SubCaptain. We´re doing 3-day turns, so I expect the game to be progressing relatively rapidly.

SubCaptain is reading this thread, too, and will hopefully also contribute to it, so do not expect me to reval anything that I want to keep secret from him.

Dec 7th to Dec 9th, 1941

I sent Kido Butai to attack Manila rather than Pearl Harbour - I just cannot afford to have KB so far from where the bulk of the action is, and in particular I cannot have it linger in the Hawaii area for three days. Besides, considering my opponent´s nick, I thought I could throw a bigger spanner into his works by sinking some of his subs.

So far, invasion forces have taken Batan Island, Tarawa and Makin, and have landed at Khota Baru, Kuching, Miri, Brunei, Vigan, Aparri, Laoag and Wake Island. However the Wake Island invasion was brutally beaten back by the interference of a US carrier; losses in ships and troops were heavy. Losses elsewhere were minimal.
In Manila, 12 subs are confirmed sunk, and most or all of the rest have been severely damaged; an accidental hit on the repair shipyard probably does not hurt, either (hurt me, that is). Other ships were also hit, most importantly the sub tenders Otus and Holland.
Off Malaya, the BB Prince of Wales ate four torpedoes on the 7th, and was not seen again; although unconfirmed, I consider it sunk for now. Unfortunately, BC Repulse was not hit, but it seems to have returned to port with its escorts by now.
Otherwise, there have only been minor clashes so far; a midget sub was sunk at Pearl Harbour and its carrier damaged, and another sub torpedoed an AVD somewhere east of Hawaii; a CA was reported hit by a bomber on Naval Search in the Philippines, but the extent of the damage is unknown. Bombers have reported sinking a motor launch and damaging some freighters in Rangoon port.

So far things seem to be going well, except for the Wake Island debacle, which however is just a minor inconvenience on my way to total domination of Southeast Asia.

[SireChaos]

Dec 10th to Dec 12th

So far, Kido Butai has remained near the Phillipines, hunting shipping in concert with land-based bombers. Victims include CA Houston, AS Canopus, two oilers and a destroyer, plus an ample number of large and small freighters, and many more ships damaged. The sunk subs count from the Manila air raids now stands at 18, I think. At least one sub escaped undamaged, however, and torpedoed one of my AMCs between Luzon and Formosa.
BB Prince of Wales is now confirmed to have been sunk on the 8th; however, land based air has wrecked one of my landing forces, at Singkawang after it had already put its troops on shore, and has scored the occasional hit on ships elsewhere. My ships retreating from Wake Island have also been hammered, especially the light cruisers.
In other news, all the invasions begun the turn before have been completed successfully. Troops have landed at Legaspi, Singkawang, Kavieng, Shortland, Tulagi and Guam.

[SireChaos]

Dec 13th to Dec 15th

Kido Butai has left the Phillipines. This is a relatively quiet turn, with only the Dutch AVP Poolster sunk, in a surface engagement near Singkawang. The Allied ships from the Phillipines have been spotted around Mindanao, apparently continuing their retreat.
The invasions of Guam, Legaspi, Kavieng, Shortland and Tulagi have succeeded, and troops have landed at Lunga. Troops from mainland China have attacked Hong Kong, but so far the base holds.

[SireChaos]

Dec 16th to Dec 18th
 
KB has split up and is moving south. Carrier-based aircraft have annihilated a convoy of 1 CL and 5 merchants of various types at Singapore, probably an attempt to evacuate troops there; the combat reports states that numerous vehicles were destroyed.
The previously confirmed sinking of SS S-41 was incorrect; the ship has been spotted in the DEI. In the light of this evidence of fog-of-war, I have decided to treat BB Prince of Wales and CA Houston as not yet sunk; however PoW at least should be out of it for the remainder of the offensive in the DEI. Meanwhile, some obnoxious seaplanes operating from the Phillipines have sunk one of my APDs, and Betties from Formosa have sunk one of the British DDs still lingering around Hong Kong.
Invasions of Lunga and some island whose name I can´t pronounce south of Tarawa have succeeded. There has been fighting in China, and Chinese troops have been pushed back with heavy casualties. Also, Victoria point in Malaya has fallen to my troops. Fighting at Hong Kong continues, but is so far inconclusive.

[SireChaos]

We have decided to stop the campaign and start over, using 1-day turns this time. For the sake of simplicity I´ll put the new AAR in this thread, too.

War of the SCs - 2nd Take

Dec 7th, 1941

My troops have taken Batan Island, and landed at Khota Baru. (no surprises there)
KB has struck Manila, more successfully than I could have hoped for. I counted 20 SS, 2 AS, 1 AO, 3 DD plus small stuff hit; 11 of the subs are reported sunk. Land-based planes have hit the ports in Rangoon and George Town as well, doing minor damage to ships there.
Changes to the previous game so far include that Task Force Z does not sail north to be slaughtered.

[SireChaos]

Dec 8th and 9th

KB leaves the Phillipines. CVL Ryujo´s planes hammer (and IMO probably sink) CA Housten. Land-based planes from Formosa sink a DD and about 8 xAK/xAKL trying to escape from Hong Kong.
My troops capture Khota Baru, Batan Island, Makin and Nauru. The landings at Brunei, Vigan and Aparri are proceeding well.

[SireChaos]

We managed three turns yesterday - quite an achievement I think, considering how much there is still to do each turn so early in the war.

Dec 10th to Dec 12th

Very little happened at sea. My opponent has begun ordering fighters to attack ships - and a Dutch fighter promptly hit and sank one of my APDs with a 60kg bomb. My ship losses now stand at 1 APD, 2 xAK/xAKL. But the action has picked up; by now Allied forces have spotted elements of KB sailing south into the Java Sea.
My forces have now taken Vigan, Aparri, Hong Kong, Miri, Kuching, Tarawa, Tabitauea, Hollandia, Wewak, Aitape, Nauru, Ocean Island, Kavieng and Shortland, and have landed at Legaspi, Laoag and Guam.

[SireChaos]

Looks like I am a bit behind on this AAR. Sorry.

Dec 13 to Dec 16th
KB, split into two groups, has made an appearance, sailing up and down both side of Java and sinking anything they could find, including at least a dozen coastal minesweepers at Soerabaya, and an entire convoy carrying fuel that was apparently about to leave Tjilatjap. Repeated airstrikes hit dozens of ships in Batavia, but I am not sure how many of them will sink.
His strategy of using his Dutch fighters as improvised bombers around Borneo seems to have bitten my opponent in the rear end, because during their essentially non-stop bombing campaign, my planes were opposed by not even a single fighter on CAP.
For what it´s worth, up to now, KB has lost 1 A6M2, 4 D3A1 and 2 B5N2, and many of these to accidents rather than enemy action; in exchange they have sunk at least 11 submarines, probably 2-3 destroyers, maybe a dozen auxiliaries, and maybe 20 merchants, and seriously damaged at least about that many. My total shipping losses so far are 1 APD, 3 xAK and 1 xAKL, compared to 50+ Allied ships reported sunk.

On other fronts, submarines stationed off the Western Seaboard have attacked what was probably and ASW task force, and sank a PC and the destroyer Cummings, in exchange for one sub being heavily damaged.

My ground troops are advancing from their beach heads on Luzon and down Malaya. There have also been several battles in China so far, which generally went well for me.

[SireChaos]

Dec 17th to Dec 19th

Both parts of KB continue smashing their way through the DEI, sinking anything in their path. Well, most of anything. A bunch of PT boats at Ambon, a destroyer plus some merchantmen off Mindanao, several MTBs north of Borneo... it adds up.
The only fly in the ointment was a port attack against Singapore; 25 Buffalo I flew CAP against 24 Zeros and 27 Kates. 5 Buffalo were shot down, but in this battle I lost 9 Kates, as many of KB´s aircraft as I have lost in all the time before that battle. And there apparently weren´t even any ships in port, either.
I-121 torpedoed CA Houston west in the area between Mindanao and New Guinea; reportedly that cruiser had been sunk days before, but I suppose this time it is sunk for real - 3 torpedoes tend to do that to an already seriously damaged ship.
My opponent continues to to aggressively use both fighters and level bombers against my ships in the DEI, but recently has not had any sucesses, and between fighters and flak, this tactic is costing him valuable aircraft.

[Rysyonok]

A picture is worth a thousand words

[SireChaos]

All right, let´s if this gets better with pictures.

This picture, *if* it works out, is to show my esteemed opponent´s greatest sucess up to now. A Dutch submarine in the Sunda Strait got lucky, but as you can see, things aren´t too bad.

[SireChaos]

It is the 1st of January, 1942, right now, and I thought I´d give a little summary of how things have been going so far:

[SireChaos]

As you can see, I have not sunk too many warships so far - not on this list part of the list are about a dozen destroyers and submarines.

My own ship losses, so far, have been 19 xAK/xAKL, 1 APD, 2 PB, 1 PC. It looks like the LPD Shinshu Maru is going to sink as well; she went from 99 to 98 floatation today, but somehow I don´t think her luck is going to last for the week or so it will take to get her to a good port. Otherwise, the only notable damaged ships are CV Hiryu and 4-5 submarines; most of the latter should make it back to port, even though they have been damaged off the US West Coast.

[SireChaos]

My esteemed opponent´s policy of using everything he can get his hands on as bombers has cost me a number of ships, but now that I have established fighter cover at most captured bases, it has begun to take a steady toll on his squadrons. My fighters have shot down several dozen P-40E, B-339D and CW-21 fighters as well as Kingfisher and Seagull float planes trying to bomb my ships. And just a few days ago, half of Kido Butai wiped out most of the bombers and Buffalo I fighters in Singapore when they flew several doomed attacks against the carriers.

[SireChaos]

I am a bit reluctant to give too many details, considering that my opponent reads this thread, too. However, this is the current situation in Malaya. My troops are driving the Commonwealth forces before them, and I hope to have confined the enemy to Singapore by the end of the month.

[SireChaos]

This is what Luzon looks like on January 3rd. One Phillipine division just surrendered at Iba, and I have maybe two more Phillipine divisions plus small change in Manila and further south, cut off from the main body at Clark Field. I intend to defeat those in detail while my opponent watches helplessly, then concentrate my forces and smash the main body.

Elsewhere, Rabaul just fell, and I took Balikpapan and Tarakan some time ago. Operations against my next target are already underway, but I do not intend to reveal that target here, where my opponent can read it.

[SireChaos]

Those are my own ship losses. Shinshu Maru sank just after I posted the last summary.

Notice the two xAK and the APD sunk by 50kg GP bombs; those were hit by fighters, most likely Dutch B-339D given the location. LSD Shinshu Maru was torpedoes by Vildebeests at Mersing, along with those three xAKs you can see, but would have made it home if not for a Dutch submarine (I think it was O20) finding her a day later.

[SireChaos]

And while we are at it, this is from today´s combat reports. My opponent has the disturbing tendency not to provide CAP for important ports.
 
Afternoon Air attack on Colombo , at 29,48
 
Weather in hex: Moderate rain
 
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 15 minutes
 
Japanese aircraft
      A6M2 Zero x 13
      B5N2 Kate x 67
      D3A1 Val x 61
 
 
 
Japanese aircraft losses
      B5N2 Kate: 11 damaged
      D3A1 Val: 15 damaged
 
Allied Ships
      BB Prince of Wales, Bomb hits 9,  on fire,  heavy damage
      BC Repulse, Bomb hits 5,  on fire
      DD Electra, Bomb hits 1,  heavy fires,  heavy damage
      DD Encounter, Bomb hits 1,  heavy fires,  heavy damage
      CL Danae, Bomb hits 1,  on fire
      xAK Michael Livanos, Bomb hits 1,  on fire
 
 
Allied ground losses:
      10 casualties reported
         Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
         Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
         Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
 
 
Repair Shipyard hits 2
Port hits 5
Port supply hits 1

[khyberbill]

This AAR has been quiet for several days. Has the game ended?

[SireChaos]

No, it´s still going. I was kind of discouraged by the lack of feedback, though; if there is any interest, I will continue the AAR.