Imperial Japanese Noob: rattovolante (J) vs. hartwig.modrow (A)

[krupp_88mm]

BANZAI.. congratulations on the attack.. looks like only three badly damaged BBs remain

[rattovolante]

ORIGINAL: krupp_88mm

BANZAI.. congratulations on the attack.. looks like only three badly damaged BBs remain

well, in general I don't trust the reports very much. As elpaco pointed out, CL Raleigh has been reported sunk twice already.

In this case, anyway, in my opinion having all BBs heavily damaged is more important than having 4-5 possibly sunk - between repairs and upgrades I guess they won't be available for a year or so. And while I'm not sure any were sunk, I do believe all received some relevant damage.

So, whether sunk or damaged, the important thing from my point of view is that if USN starts island hopping early (let's say mid-1942), they won't have reserves. I think this allows me some flexibility.

[loricas]

ORIGINAL: rattovolante

thanks vicz
actually I think my image editing skills are still lacking, some other AARs have extremely clear pics, my ones are a bunch of crisscrossing arrows

8 x D3A1 Val diving from 10000' *
City Attack: 2 x 60 kg GP Bomb

Noticed this only now. Apparently some planes switched to city attack on their own initiative? I gave no city attack order.
Also note Vals flew at extended range since KB did not reach the target hex :\

i think it's the part of port strike that hit Repair Shipyard

[rattovolante]

Update: we already processed next turn and the animations problem disappeared, so we are keeping the PH results. I will quickly bring up the thread to date to the current turn

Pearl Harbor area, dec. 12
Nothing to report. No trace of USN CVs. Subs are trying to locate them. KB directed to Wake.

Marshall islands area:
Nauru secured. Why bother with Palembang's oil when you can have Nauru's guano?
Wake invasion troops loaded on transports. The invasion TFs will now combine, then wait for KB support.

Truk area:
Guam falls. AM Penguin sunk.
Hollandia occupi-- liberated.
Troops about to land at Manus (no escort) and Kavieng (Guam's CA escort is here).

Formosa
On dec. 11, a British MTB raid on Pescadores is repulsed by 2 IJN DDs. No losses for either side. The MTBs are now retiring to some Luzon port instead of Hong Kong.

Luzon:
Dec. 11:
RN DD Thanet attacks a IJN ASW TF. 1 IJN SC heavily damaged.
Thanet then proceeds to bombard Laoag, no significant effect.
Finally, Thanet is intercepted by a IJN surface combat TF and sunk. IJN DD Matsukaze moderately damaged.
6 USN PTs raid Vigan. All PTs sunk, no japanese losses.
Escorting Zeroes lose contact with bombers on a raid on San Fernando. Sweep: 30 zeroes meet 1 P40, no losses for both sides. Subsequent bombing raid: 25 now unescorted Lilies meet 13 P40s, 14 Lilies lost [:o]. Decent damage reported to the LCUs bombed, but Lilies' pilots morale was halved...

dec. 12:
3 USN AMs show up at Vigan (doing what?), and meet my bombardment TF (2 CAs, 1 CL, 1 DD). 2 AMs sunk.
Then the same TF meets 3 USN DDs. 1 DD sunk.
Nells lose cohesion on a strike on Vigan - again, first strike escorted by 18 zeroes meet 1 P40, second strike with 24 unescorted Nells meet 6 P40s. 6 Nells lost, unit morale collapses.
I expected a fierce counterattack on Vigan by 11 PA division vs. Kanno detachment and 1st Sasebo SNLF coy plus a few tiny fragments of other units still unloading. Surprisingly, after 11 PA division reached Vigan it apparently turned back and started to retreat back to San Fernando. I have been hitting it with everything available (naval bombardment, air strikes, etc.) in the last 2 days, so I might have seriously disrupted it.

Default Legaspi invasion should land in 2 days at Atimonan, unless recon reports any danger nearby.

Road to Ambon
Troops ashore at Jolo, should be secured tomorrow. So far the only reaction from the enemy was a weak and ineffective naval strike by dutch bombers. Next stop Manado, ETA is 15 or 16 December.
At Naha and Babeldaob I am building up a reserve for future operations on Timor, Darwin and/or Java. So far I have most parts of 2nd and 56th divisions and 65th Brigade.

Hong Kong:
Battle has started. 2 days of bombardment on British positions.

China:
Some action has started. This would require screenshots, but I can't provide them now, so you'll have to wait

Miri:
Lots of ineffective Dutch bomber strikes on the TFs involved in the landings at Miri.
Claudes from Ryujo are involved in a lot of small dogfights. On dec. 11, Dutch Hawk 75s accidentally sweep Miri (they were escorting bombers but lost cohesion) and shoot down 2 Claudes. On dec. 12, Ryujo's Claudes are reported to have shot down 2 Martin 139s, 1 Demon and 1 Hudson, losing 1 Claude in the process.
Including operational losses, this means in 2 days Claudes have had 2 KIA, 2 MIA, 1 WIA for 4 "confirmed" kills (and a few more damaged planes, enemy losses might be higher). Unfortunately, the unit is now down to 3 ready planes and 9 damaged ones. About 50% sorties left, torpedoes exhausted, so Ryujo needs to replenish, and if possible to upgrade Claudes to Zeroes as well.
Miri secured on Dec. 12. It was empty, dutch Dorniers were intercepted evacuating the last RN personnel until the last minute.
Judging by the troop losses on unescorted transports hit in the area, I suppose other North Borneo ports might have been evacuated as well. Troops are expected to land at Brunei tomorrow.
I left 2 CAs at Miri to protect the oilfields/refinery from surface bombardment.

Bangkok:
A new bombing raid on Dec. 11, 3 unescorted hudsons damaged, no other result. The Tojo unit is now at Bangkok.

Malaya
The only relevant news is that I secured Victoria Point. This should prevent any reinforcements to reach Singapore through the Malacca Straits.
I had to reorganize a lot of stuff here, as a result invasion timetable slowed a lot, but the enemy seems in preemptive sir robin anyway.
I'm now planning a Mersing landing, but it doesn't have a defined date yet. 4 CAs available to cover this landing. 2 more BBs are on their way but they might arrive too late to help.
Troops are still unloading at Singora. I will move most reinforcements by rail through Bangkok as I'm out of escorts.

Submarine warfare
Lots of activity all over the map, from Palmyra to Bali.
A IJN sub sinks a transport loaded with troops near Kuching - evacuating the base?

Naval bombing
Nells from Babeldoab sink 2 transports south of Davao.
Kates from Ryujo sink 2 transports near Jesselton, apparently evacuating the base force.
Naval search locates a concentration of ships (trapped transports?) at Cebu. Kates from Zuiho (east of Legaspi) sink 2 of them.

Too many reported sinkings, I don't actually trust them, the important thing is that I'm locating only transports, no trace of enemy cruisers.
This means I'll have to heavily escort the Manado/Ternate/Ambon invasion TFs. I have 2 BBs (Kongos, so more similar to BCs...) and 2 CAs available, 2 more BBs expected in time for Ternate invasion.
If serious need arises I could send the depleted Ryujo back to Cam Ranh Bay (or Babeldaob) and use its escort (2 CAs) for the transports instead.

[rattovolante]

Overview of North China
red arrows are my troop movements, both past and current

[rattovolante]

Overview of south China

yellow dotted line is Chinese 10th Group Army HQ retreating after being shock attacked by IJA 22nd/B Division. Looks quite ugly, I know

[krupp_88mm]

whats your plan for approaching sian? is it possible to approach it directly freom the east across teh river instead of moving on it through the woods.. that way you could maybe flank nanyang and his other bases but.. im not sure if you could maintain supplies.. GL

[rattovolante]

the original plan was more or less
1- secure sinyang
2- capture nanyang
3- use artillery and air support to smash through the rough hexes along the nanyang-sian road

Kaifeng was meant to be a diversion while I moved artillery to Sinyang.

Anyway, Chinese troops north of Kaifeng seemed to be retreating west even before any contact with my troops, so I've started to push west from there. I might manage to disrupt/rout them and breakthrough to the clear hexes east of sian. supply shouldn't be a problem since there's a rail line from chengting.

In any case, that's just this turn's idea. Situation seems to be very fluid, so I have no definite plans for this area other than "secure Sian".

[rattovolante]

December 13, 1941

Pacific Ocean
No trace of USN CVs. KB steaming to Wake. Wake invasion fleet loaded up, waiting in port for KB.

Troops landed at Kavieng with high disruption, so I'm ordering a naval bombardment in support.

Troops and 3/4 of Shinwa Maru's hull landed at Manus:

xAK Shinwa Maru hits underwater rocks while attempting to unload at Manus

Damage is 4 system, 83(74) flood, 26(13) engine, 0 fire. I had an AR already enroute to Truk, we'll see if it reaches Manus in time...

A sub spotted transports unloading at Pago Pago. Might be a hint of what the Allies will fortify - and where the Marines are directed.


Jolo area
Zuiho's kates intercept TK Manatawny steaming alone west of Davao and bomb it. Fuel cargo burning, I guess it will sink.

SS I-123 attacks SS Sealion near Jolo but misses.

Near Jolo, xAKL Luzon steaming alone stumbles into Kongo and Haruna covering the Manado invasion TF. Predictable outcome, too bad my opponent now has a confirmed sighting of IJN BBs in the area. Apparently Luzon had some troops onboard.

4 Clemson DDs try to raid the landings at Jolo and are repulsed by CA Takao, CA Atago and DD Inazuma. DD Whipple sunk, DD John D. Edwards seriously damaged; but on the other hand I had moderate damage to Takao and Inazuna, and the TF is low on ammo.
I will merge them in the Manado invasion TF, even if low on ammo CAs might still scare away lighter raiders.

2 more Clemson DDs manage to intercept the Jolo invasion TF but it disengages.

No trace of ABDA cruisers.

Jolo is secured even if enemy units were airlifted (?) in during the night. Weird combat report:
defending force reported as 237 troops, 6 guns
defending base assault value 20, adjusted 1
defender combat modifiers: terrain(+), op mode(-), preparation(-), morale(-), experience(-) (how did they get a negative op mode? I don't think they were transferred in strat mode by a transport TF)
and especially:

Allied ground losses:
689 casualties reported
Squads: 38 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 8 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 14 (14 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 2

689 casualties out of 237 enemy troops on the island?

Anyway, Jolo secured. I didn't realize Hartwig could airlift troops in at the last minute like that. Lesson learnt, and without losses too

Ryujo is heading back to Cam Rahn Bay to replenish, its CA escort will cover Manado landings

[rattovolante]

December 13, 1941

Luzon and Formosa
no relevant news.
USAAF keeps bombing Aparri airfield everyday. Since this meant that in 2 days I lost 3 Nates and 1 Ann, while my troops were allowed to keep marching on unmolested, I'm not trying to change their mind.

China
The attack on chinese forces along the Sian-Chengting road failed. Trying again today.
More bombardments at Hong Kong.

North Borneo
Invasion TF reached Brunei, but I had forgot to turn off "do not unload". Whoops...
3 Zeroes from Miri intercepted 4 unescorted Swordfishes over Brunei. Results were what you may imagine

Malaya
A sweep on Georgetown showed that the suspicious-looking Chinese mercenaries are now in Malaya... at least 2 H81-A3 and 1 Buffalo destroyed, maybe more. 1 Oscar pilot MIA.
RAF keeps bombing Kota Bharu airfield, I'm moving an Oscar unit to try to contain them (the Zeroes from Soc Trang are now defending Miri's refinery and oilfield).

[rattovolante]

current overall plan, except China (situation too complex to fit in such a small map).

Note: only TFs are shown on the map.

[rattovolante]

First week of war (dec 7 - dec 13) ended. Just for fun, some screenshots of reported losses.

Japanese air losses

14 Nells were lost in the attack on Force Z. Other heavy Nell losses come from the bombardment of Wake, and from a strike on Clark field that lost coordination with escort.

14 of the 15 Lilies lost were shot down in a single bombing raid over Vigan that lost contact with its escort.

Most B5N2 Kates losses are due to the second attack on Pearl Harbor on December 10.

[rattovolante]

Allied air losses

Note how the fighter A2A losses compare:
23 Zeroes
5 Nates (I'm using them as first line fighters)
7 Claudes (Ryujo's, were hit badly by dutch landbased fighters)
9 Oscars
total: 44 fighters

33 Warhawks
12 Mohawks
11 Buffalos
3 H81
total: 59 (+ 16 second line planes: 6 P26, 6 P35, 1 Texan, 3 Demons)

[rattovolante]

Japanese sea losses

Quite limited so far.

[rattovolante]

Allied sea losses

In addition to the ships shown, the following are also reported sunk:
7 PTs
1 DM
1 DMS
3 AM
1 ACM
5 xAK
18 xAKL

The pic doesn't show it but IJN submarines were very active. I have 12 ships reported sunk by sub torpedoes and 2 reported sunk by sub gunfire.

[rattovolante]

December 14, 1941

An all quiet on the Pacific front kind of day.

Central Pacific
USN CVs still nowhere to be seen.
SS Gudgeon torpedoes Hiryu, but torpedo doesn't detonate.
KB still on its way to Wake

New Guinea
Manus and Kavieng secured.
xAK Shinwa Maru sinks at Manus [:(]

Jolo-Manado
2 USN DDs stumble into CAs Takao and Atago returning to Cam Ranh Bay. 1 DD sunk.
Zuiho took the role fulfilled by Ryujo so far. 2 xAKLs sunk by Kates, Claudes providing some air cover.
The Manado invasion TF proceeds unmolested. Troops should land at Manado tomorrow. Davao invasion is approaching target as well.
SS Ro-34 torpedoes a xAKL SE of Davao with troops onboard (I wonder where they were heading).
Still no trace of enemy cruisers.

Luzon
Second front opened with unopposed landing at Atimoan. This cut off some minor units (base forces?) at Legaspi and Naga.
Troops entered Tuguegarao, evacuated by the enemy.
Bombing raids on Clark Fields with heavy air losses to both sides. My raids keep losing coordination, I think I'll switch to order only 1 bomber unit to raid per day.
Reported losses are 9 Zeros and 10 Betties for 17 Warhawks, 6 P-26 and 5 P-35. Enemy losses seem exaggerated, but the animations suggest morale of some P-35 and P-40E is low.
I would like to keep sweeping but Zeroes need to rest and Nates don't have enough range. I'm ordering a (unescorted) night bombing raid instead.

North Borneo
Troops ashore at Brunei.
SS O19 torpedoes AK Kaga Maru at Brunei. Moderate damage, will try to stay afloat until Brunei port is secured tomorrow.

Malaya
First troops enter Alor Star, completely evacuated by allies.
Bangkok visited again, this time by 3 Blenheims on ground attack. Tojos shoot down 2 and damage the third. I like these guys [:D]
Troops are marching along the road to Rangoon. This will take some time.

China
I'm reorganizing garrisons. Big mess.
Hong Kong bombarded again.
9 SB-III from Wenchow bombard Shanghai. To my surprise they caused 5 HI damage. The damage is limited (I'd say comparable to the loss of the supply-loaded Akasi class xAK that hit the rock and sunk at Manus), but I was surprised by the effectiveness of the raid (only 9 planes, long range, reduced load, probably no recon as well). I moved some Nates for air cover.
Routine minor combats and unit movements in the rest of China.

Home Islands
I get this combat report:

TF 283 encounters mine field at Kobe (108,59)

Allied Ships
SS Sturgeon, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
SS Stingray, Mine hits 1, heavy damage

Both subs appear in the sunk ship list. [X(]

[rattovolante]

December 15, 1941

A very quick/sketchy update.

Manado
Troops ashore. No serious damage from CD, only a PB in danger of sinking.
During the night DD Peary slipped through my surface combat TF escort, but the amphibious fleet included CA Nachi which damaged Peary and scared it off. In the morning Peary was bombed and hit by Kates from Zuiho, it might have sunk.
In the morning DDs Bulmer, Paul Jones and Stewart were intercepted and sunk by Kongo and Haruna before they could reach the transports.

Philippine Islands
Japanese troops secured Tuguegarao and Atimonan.
A TF of IJN CLs and DDs bombarded Iba, where they also encountered and sunk 2 AMs.
Very low air activity in the whole archipelago, no trace of counterattacks at Atimonan.

Borneo
Kaga Maru sinks overnight. Too bad, it was one of the few starting AKs (as opposed to xAK)
Brunei secured.

Malaya
SS Saury reported hitting the minefield at Saigon (!)
Alor Setar secured.
Japanese sweeps and airstrikes at Georgetown. Dogfight kills are unfavorable (1 Buffalo downed for 2 Oscars), but my 86 medium bombers manage to break through unmolested and bomb the airfield. 63 runway hits reported, I hope that's enough to close the airfield while my troops take the train to Alor Setar.

China
More bombardments at Hong Kong while the infantry rests and prepares.
89th Chinese corps, which had earlier retreated from Pengpu, is shock attacked (river crossing) and routed by 13th ind. mix. bde. Combat report mentions an unlikely 1100 casualties out of 830 troops. Recon now reports the retreating corps as having some 1400 troops.
Tsiaotsu and its light industry and resources are captured. It was abandoned by the enemy, so both res and LI are now at (9)x31 due to partisan action.

Other areas
no relevant news

The new problem and a warning for JFBs
Now, the new problem. I was not aware of this bug in the current build: tm.asp?m=2245381&mpage=1
In short, naval support from naval HQs isn't properly computed by the game, and as a result the naval HQ bases like Truk or Cam Ranh Bay can't reload big guns or carrier sorties.

This is a problem for my plans because I already have 6 CAs and Ryujo docked at Cam Ranh Bay waiting for a reload that won't take place. I won't wait for the next patch, so I need some major adjustment to the plans...

If anyone is playing Axis in PBeM, beware: you can't reload your BBs, CAs and CVs in French Indochina, but Allies can reload theirs in Singapore (or Java). Luckily I sunk Force Z on day 1, but this might be a big problem for some invasion plans, like "land at Java (or Palembang) on day 1".

[offenseman]

Indeed, reloading BBs is tough in the early going for the Japanese. I enjoy the new rules regarding reloads and it makes it more of a challenge.  Still more to plan. 

[rattovolante]

No news from the game yet - RL has conspired to slow down turn rate a lot.

In the meanwhile I looked at a few AARs and I was surprised to notice that my approach to convoy composition seems rather unusual. Apparently experienced players place all or most escorts in one surface combat TF and use it to escort their amphibious TF(s), while I place a somewhat large part of available escorts inside the amphibious TFs themselves. Since convoy composition is only mentioned in AARs after a catastrophic loss the statistics collected from AARs might be somewhat biased, but still I wonder about the pros and cons of each approach.

Just as an example, the fleet that landed at Manado last turn was composed this way:
Amphibious TF:
  1 CA (Chokai), 1 DD, 1 TB, 1 E, 3 DMS, 1 PB, 1 APD, 3 xAK, 2 xAKL

Surface combat (escort) TF:
  2 BB (Kongo, Haruna), 4 DD

Air combat (air cover) TF:
  1 CVL (Zuiho), CS (Chiyoda), 4 DD

Ternate amphibious tf (w/ "do not unload" orders) - following the Manado TF to benefit from the same SCTF and air cover:
      1 CA (Nachi), 1 DD, 2 TB, 1 DMS, 1 APD, 4 xAK, 2 xAKL

This was a rather "standard" composition for my invasion fleets so far, roughly about as many escorts as transports in the amphibious TFs, and one CA (or CL if I don't have any, but I don't like Japanese CLs very much) to draw enemy fire if there is need to (and to provide bombardment cover).
I'm starting to wonder if this kind of setup is too heavy, I guess that with the available forces a more conventional composition would have been to place the 2 CAs in the SCTF together with the Kongos.

Note that in this specific case I know that the Allies in this zone can muster  6 cruisers of assorted sizes, maybe up to 10 if they withdrew the RN ones from Singapore and Sumatra (Force Z is sunk). In the PBeM Hartwig seems in moderate-to-full Sir Robin, and I only encountered 4 DDs last turn... a first TF of 3 DD was intercepted by the Kongos and sunk,  but a second TF composed of a lone DD managed to slip through to the Ternate transports and was repulsed by Nachi... so I keep thinking that adding some "heavies" to amphibious TFs is a good idea.

Of course if instead of 1 DD the enemy TF was composed of, say, Houston-Boise-Marblehead and 6 DDs Nachi would have had a lot of serious problems... but the baisc idea is that my amphib TF would have been annihilated anyway by such a TF, Nachi or not... so I still don't see any drawback in including it in the TF (apart from having it sunk in combat, but I guess even in the worst case Nachi might sink a DD or two before going down)

I suppose there's some drawback I haven't spotted yet in this kind of fleet composition, otherwise I guess it would be more common in AARs.

I know the Kongos are lightly escorted, and I guess that a dutch and american cruiser TF might badly damage them, or even sink them... but that would mean sacrificing the whole ABDA cruiser fleet, as I expect they would take some heavish damage as well, and then subs, Zuiho and the Babeldaob-based Nells and Betties (even without torpedoes) would do the rest. So the loss of one of the Kongos might even be worth it, if that means I can just cruise to Darwin and Perth in January without having to recall Kido Butai...

[krupp_88mm]

I think you have the smarter convoy set-up .. i have sen alot of times the attackers manage to sail past the lead convoy and sink all the transports and then an hour later the main task force shows up.. so i think your escorts could probably hold of the attackers long enough for the main escort to arrive