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

[rattovolante]

I don't think the AE engine allows for the escort TF to "join combat" if the convoy is attacked... otherwise we would have seen some examples in months of playing

so the amphib TFs are on their own if the SCTF doesn't intercept in the first place

[rattovolante]

Dec. 16, 1941
No major events this turn

Central Pacific
KB approaching Wake, invasion TF assembled and waiting for air cover from KB.
a IJN TF of 4 DDs scouting for enemy carriers is attacked by 2 F2A-3 and 5 SBD-2 near Midway. I guess they might be land-based planes from Midway itself. 1 SBD-2 shot down, 1 DD moderately damaged with 54 sys, 23(14) flood, 9(4) eng, 6 fire.

Southern Pacific
I have Okamoto Det (with Claudes) on a xAK at Manus, but they won't unload. I guess it might be due to the fact that Manus has no airfield (0-level), I'm trying to build it but it will take some time with the current number of engineers there
Troops should land at Shortlands tomorrow.

Luzon
SS S-38 torpedoed a SC (!) near Formosa but torpedoes did not detonate (this was lucky, as S-class boats use reliable torpedoes)
A number of sweeps and dogfights over Luzon. Losses according to combat report are 1 Zero for 4 Warhawks, but actual losses among Zero pilots are 3 KIA and 1 WIA. I guess enemy losses might be higher than reported as well.
No combats in the second front at Atimonan.

Manado
Zeroes from Jolo sweep Manado and encounter 5 Dutch Hawks 75. At least 2 enemy planes downed (might be even all 5), no Zero losses.
Manado garrison resisted first day of combat, although Japanese losses were light (troops 2297:1954, base AV 72:63, modified AV 11:45, odds 1:4, fort 1, losses 108:138). I think I will bombard with some CAs and try again tomorrow.
Troops should land at Davao tomorrow.
I assigned the Ternate invasion to follow the wrong surface task force, and it ended following one headed to Babeldaob to replenish... I am considering the idea of landing at Ambon before Ternate.

Malaya-Burma
More air strikes on Georgetown airfield. Slow advance to Taiping continues.
56th Inf. reg advancing from Kota Bharu made contact with enemy along the railroad to Temuloh.
Advance to Moulmein continues. Recon reports the enemy is evacuating Tavoy by sea. Will send subs and planes to "investigate"

China
Last day of bombarment of Hong Kong. Tomorrow IJA will attack.
Near Hangchow, 88th Chinese Corps is attacked and routed. And with routed, I mean routed:

Japanese ground losses:
      39 casualties reported
         Squads: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
         Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
         Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
 
Allied ground losses:
      1699 casualties reported
         Squads: 71 destroyed, 1 disabled
         Non Combat: 56 destroyed, 4 disabled
         Engineers: 2 destroyed, 1 disabled
      Guns lost 2 (2 destroyed, 0 disabled)
      Units retreated 1

If anyone wonders, assault odds were only 2:1, but I had been bombarding the unit unopposed for days with planes and artillery - so I guess even before the attack disruption was high and morale was extremely low. Also, while I guess the 1699 losses are FoW, I expect a very high amount of desertion/disruption in any case.

[rattovolante]

a pic of the situation in the Manado area.
A mess of arrows as usual

[rattovolante]

Turn rate slowed down quite a bit due to real life - I'm quite busy and Hartwig is on vacation (I envy him )
Anyway, the game calendar keeps moving forwards, the liberation of south-east Asia from western barbarians nears!

December 17, 1941
A quiet turn overall, I will use it to define the next plans.

I had 4 CAs and their DD escorts bombard Manado to soften up the defenses. New deliberate attack scheduled for today. Ineffective naval strikes by ABDA bombers on the last invasion transport still unloading supplies.

Naval search showed at least 2 submarines near Ternate, I guess he's expecting a landing there so I have sent the invasion fleet back to Babeldaob. I can land there later on, not a main objective.

Troops landed at Davao, I expect to secure the port today. Flying fortresses finally showed up at Atimonan but failed to do any damage; Atimonan should get a level-1 airfield in a day or two. Anns from Jolo sortied against two different xAKLs without hitting, but at least I have identified the ships as being no threat (and having no value).

AR, AKE and Air HQ arrived at Babeldaob - it's now a fully operational forward base.

Many small air skirmishes over Malaya and Tavoy but very light losses reported for both sides. Near Kota Bharu 56th infantry regiment catches up with the retreating Federated Malay States volunteer brigade, which surrenders.

First assault on Hong Kong, the base resists but fortifications are reduced to 1. Surprisingly low losses for both sides (362 vs. 604) are reported (fow?).

First IJA troops enter Wenchow, but find the Chinese are still there and outnumber them 3:1. Bombardment fails, now they'll dig in and wait for reinforcements. 32nd Division enters Kweiteh and kicks out two chinese corps, clearing the railroad line to Kaifeng.

KB should strike Wake today.

No trace of enemy CVs. Hartwig told me they are not at Midway (there was a possible bug in combat reports, I received what I think was a report intended for the Allied player giving out the position of VB-6). No, I didn't ask, actually I'm somewhat sorry he told me as his feint was working very well (he had left VB-6 and VF-2 at Midway to "fake" a carrier presence there).

[rattovolante]

I spent some time drawing plans for the next 2 weeks or so. Here is part I: Pacific Ocean, Papua to Midway.

KB/1 strike at Midway
I want to entice my opponent to react, so I will try to expose the position of KB in a out of the way but believable location: Midway.
I plan to use 3 carriers (exactly which ones will be decided later, based on sorties left and damage).
They will carry as many Val units as possible, Kates will be moved to the other carriers or left in the Marshalls.
Hopefully it will appear that the whole KB is raiding Midway, but that only Vals flew ground/airfield/port attack missions (I'll place some kates on naval search/attack just in case)
The other carriers will load mostly Zeroes and Kates in a pure anti-ship role and move to support a Port Moresby invasion in early January.

Timeline:
Raid should hit (i.e., expose carriers) on december 30 or 31.
This date should allow some replenishment at Kwajalein and is scheduled to be roughly contemporary to the projected Timor invasion.

Assets:
3 CVs
misc. escorts
3-4 submarines



Southern Pacific feint
The idea is to feint an advance in the southern pacific, hoping to draw reinforcements in the area.
If all goes well, any reaction should find no invasion fleet but a lot of submarines.
Not sure about the target yet, possibly Canton, Baker of Samoa. Will depend on nav search and recon info

Plan:
Secure Makin and Tabiteuea before dec 25.
Set the LCUs on Makin and Tabiteuea to prepare for Pago Pago (just in case SigInt picks it up)
Move AV and a Mavis unit to Tabiteuea, use them to recon & nav. search
Swarm the target area with submarines
Bring a bombardment TF and make as much noise as possible

Timeline:
Bombardment should start shortly after KB/1 is sighted at midway, so on jan. 2 or something like that.
Adm. Hartwig could be enticed to react to my feint since "KB" is too far away to support the "invasion".

Assets:
2 Kongo BBs (detached from KB escort)
2 AMCs (fake invasion fleet, actually surface raiders)
misc. escorts
4 midget subs + carriers
8 other subs (may recall more from patrols near Line Islands if needed)



Port Moresby Invasion
You know what the basic idea is

Plan:
Secure Shortlands (troops are ashore already)
Move AV and floatplanes at Shortlands for nav.search
Land at Rabaul before dec. 30
KB/2 (the CVs not at Midway) should reach the area around dec. 30
Secure Tulagi
If all goes well, 144th inf. reg. should land at PM on jan. 3 or later (in other words, just after the feint in the Samoa area).

Assets:
3 CVs
4 CAs (the ones from Guam invasion)
misc. escorts
3-4 submarines
144th inf. reg + a bunch of minor LCUs

[rattovolante]

December 18, 1941
Very good news from the Chinese front today, so I will start the AAR from here.

First and foremost, Hong Kong was liberated and returned to the Chinese government. The age of unequal treaties is over, and prosperity is returning to China! According to the new really-equal-treaties it will soon be moved to Shanghai and shipped off to Japan for the glory of the empire.

IJA losses during the liberation of Hong Kong were surprisingly low, it looks like the British garrison surrendered. I am posting the reports from the last 2 turns:

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Dec 17, 41

Ground combat at Hong Kong (77,61)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 26421 troops, 321 guns, 218 vehicles, Assault Value = 642

Defending force 6965 troops, 109 guns, 73 vehicles, Assault Value = 179

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2

Japanese adjusted assault: 894

Allied adjusted defense: 345

Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 2)

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), leaders(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
362 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 34 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 33 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled


Allied ground losses:
604 casualties reported
Squads: 25 destroyed, 16 disabled
Non Combat: 16 destroyed, 41 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 20 (11 destroyed, 9 disabled)


Assaulting units:
66th Infantry Regiment
19th Ind. Engineer Regiment
38th Division
20th Ind. Engineer Regiment
5th RF Gun Battalion
2nd RF Gun Battalion
10th Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
2nd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
1st Hvy.Artillery Regiment
3rd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
2nd Mortar Battalion
20th Ind. Mtn Gun Battalion

Defending units:
1st Middlesex Battalion
Rifles of Canada Battalion
Winnipeg Grenadiers Battalion
Hong Kong Fortress
Kowloon Brigade


AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Dec 18, 41

Ground combat at Hong Kong (77,61)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 25962 troops, 321 guns, 218 vehicles, Assault Value = 618

Defending force 6050 troops, 107 guns, 66 vehicles, Assault Value = 143

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 0

Japanese adjusted assault: 429

Allied adjusted defense: 85

Japanese assault odds: 5 to 1 (fort level 0)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Hong Kong !!!

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
No Allied losses

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), leaders(-), disruption(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
108 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 15 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Vehicles lost 1 (0 destroyed, 1 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
11891 casualties reported
Squads: 332 destroyed, 41 disabled
Non Combat: 348 destroyed, 70 disabled
Engineers: 25 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 163 (161 destroyed, 2 disabled)
Vehicles lost 92 (88 destroyed, 4 disabled)
Units destroyed 5


Assaulting units:
66th Infantry Regiment
19th Ind. Engineer Regiment
38th Division
20th Ind. Engineer Regiment
10th Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
1st Hvy.Artillery Regiment
3rd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
2nd RF Gun Battalion
5th RF Gun Battalion
2nd Mortar Battalion
2nd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
20th Ind. Mtn Gun Battalion

Defending units:
1st Middlesex Battalion
Hong Kong Fortress
Winnipeg Grenadiers Battalion
Rifles of Canada Battalion
Kowloon Brigade

My first impression was that my losses were too light. But maybe this just means that Hong Kong surrendered. I have been bombarding (and rotating my troops to rest) since dec. 11, with more or less constant air bombardment since dec. 7. I know gen. Hartwig has evacuated some troops from Hong Kong since I found the Rifles of Canada in Luzon some time ago, maybe he weakened Hong Kong too much?

Moreover, even with the long siege and bombardment, no serious damage was inflicted to the infrastructures:
no port nor airfield damage
manpower (1)x4
resources (1)x59
HI (2)x78
LI (6)x214
Repair shipyard (1)x49

I think it might have been a somewhat extreme dice roll result... but still I wonder if my losses were too light. I would be interested in knowing what more experienced players think, this is my first PBeM and results against the AI seem to follow different rules anyway. Any comments?



Overview of southern China after the fall of Hong Kong. Note that I have started a large-scale operation to isolate the rebel units in the Wenchow area. So far, I have been unable to detect any enemy reaction to my plan. The rebel Chinese forces seem very passive in the whole theater, I expected far more harassment and resistance here from my experience vs. the AI (but then again, I think the AI has way lower supply and reinforcement problems).

[rattovolante]

December 18, 1941 - off the US coast
The sub patrols off the West coast report interesting activity.



the "ASW attack" was actually a failed attempt at torpedoing Diamond Head. The big question is of course what is Diamond Head doing out there, headed west? I would really like to sink some of those annoying Marines, should she carry any...
Needless to say I'm sending a few submarines to "investigate": 2 on the suspected refugees from PH, and 6 on the Diamond Head convoy (I expect only about 4 out of these 6 to be able to reach the area in time)

[rattovolante]

December 18, 1941
Wake Island
KB's dive bombers (121 Vals) attacked the ground troops at Wake.
I used only Vals (and their Zero escort) on purpose, Kates were covering the TFs with naval search/naval strike/rest.
I plan to strike with a similar number of Vals at Midway at the end of the month, but with only half KB. The other half will be carrying the Kates and move to the Rabaul area.
Hopefully this previous "visit" at Wake will reinforce the illusion that the whole KB will be employed at Midway.

Troops should land at Wake next turn.


Ambon area
At the last minute before completing the turn I decided to send the invasion fleet to Ternate even if there were enemy submarines detected in the area. I reasoned that if I fail to secure Manado I really need Ternate to give LRCAP over the Ambon invasion.
As I feared, Manado didn't fall last turn, and an USN submarine torpedoed and sunk APD Hagi at Ternate. Anyway, all troops are safely ashore.
I guess Manado will fall next turn, forts are down to 0 and I have intercepted Dorniers apparently evacuating troops (or sending supply in?).
Davao is occupied. Supply is low, so I am rerouting the last transport at Manado to Davao.

Luzon
A new reinforcement TF has arrived, attracting naval strikes which were met by Zeroes and Nates on CAP. Many planes were reported shot down (5 out of 6 P-35, 3/6 Seagulls, 2/7 B-17, 0/4 P-40), only one of the B-17 strikes managed to reach the ships, but scored no hits.

Troops advancing on San Fernando found 2 armored units there, so their probing attack failed (1:8 odds, 421:81 casualties). They'll try to dig in and await reinforcements (friendly tanks are being unloaded one hex away). This turn I will order an air bombardment with everything available on San Fernando. That should be a LOT of bombs, the only concern is that I am low on fighter escorts due to fatigue. I don't think my opponent's fighters are in a better situation anyway.

Home Islands
First loss of a transport on convoy duty (as opposed to invasion TFs); xAKL Dori Maru was steaming alone from Amami Oshima to Tokyo (it would have then continued to Sapporo), but "south" (mapwise) of Kobe it was torpedoed and sunk by SS Sargo.
Reported count of submarine activity in the Home Islands so far is 2 SS sunk for 1 xAKL sunk... nice ratio, but I guess it's FoW.

Malaya
More routine bombardments. No advance on land, troops are still marching slowly.
Naval search spotted some interesting TFs in western Malaya (I guess they're evacuating troops). Time to activate the torpedo bombers. From Kompong Trach I can set their range so as to avoid both Singapore and Rangoon and still hit the transports.

[rattovolante]

December 19, 1941

Off the US coast
A number of submarines were trying to converge on the TFs spotted on Dec. 18.

During the night I-26 makes contact with the TFs heading towards San Diego. Previous Glen naval search reported 6 ships sighted, including 1 CL and 1 DD.
Interception provided some interesting info on the TF.

First, the axis operations report says:
Previous report of sinking of CL Helena incorrect. Ship sighted and engaged at 221, 90

Although Helena doesn't show up in the subsequent submarine attack:

ASW attack near San Diego at 221,90

Japanese Ships
SS I-26

Allied Ships
DD Dale
DD Ward
DD Litchfield

I-26 diving deep ....
DD Ward fails to find sub and abandons search
DD Litchfield fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Litchfield fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Litchfield fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Litchfield fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Litchfield fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Litchfield fails to find sub, continues to search...
Escort abandons search for sub

Note that the "ASW attack" is actually a failed submarine attack, I-26 tried to torpedo DD Dale but missed:



Helena was reported sunk on Dec. 9 even if previous combat reports showed no damage ("CL Helena, Bomb hits 3, on fire").

The interesting thing is that the sunk ships panel now reports Helena sunk on Dec. 19 by a 800 kg bomb at 226, 79.

Sunk? not sunk? who knows? who cares?

[rattovolante]

The following pic places everything in context.
My best guess is that Helena received some low amount of major damage and couldn't be repaired at Pearl Harbor due to shipyard size (which had to be allocated to unseaworthy capital ships). I doubt it sank, as it appeared to still be capable of high speed in order to cover 12 hexes in 2 phases - so flotation damage had to be low until very late in the day. I don't think a single temporary repair failure event could inflict enough flotation damage to sink it, and there isn't time to have more than 1 event happen so close from port.

[rattovolante]

Dec. 19, 1941

Southeastern Pacific
Subs spot a lone xAK and a possibly convoy TF near the Line Islands. The xAK is attacked on the surface and heavily damaged, and now shows as sunk in sunk ships panel. Submarines are converging on the suspected convoy.
Another lone xAK is spotted somewhere between West Coast and Hawai'i, but torpedoes miss.

Wake, Marshall and Gilbert Islands
Invasion TF reaches Wake during the night but for reasons I don't understand it did not unload neither in the night phase nor in the day phase. I will try again unloading/assaulting tomorrow, I hope it's not a bug.
Anyway, bombardment TF shells the beaches, while KB found bad weather so Vals didn't take off to bombard Wake. KB is headed to Kwajalein to resupply and next turn it will be too far from Wake to strike.


Southern Philippine Islands
I-155 attacks on the surface an xAKL and seriously damages it (possibly sunk)

Fortresses bombed the port at Davao, but my invasion TF had already left, I only have a damaged xAKL disbanded in port.

On Dec. 17, I-159 had successfully attacked a xAKL on the surface, spending almost all gun ammo (only 1 "shot" left). So when it detected another xAKL last night it surfaced, aligned its gun on the undefended merchantman, found itself out of ammo, and submerged again without firing a shot.
This is the combat report, in the animations "SS I-159 attacking on the surface" was immediately followed by "SS I-159 low on gun ammo", no shots were fired.

Submarine attack near Cebu at 80,87

Japanese Ships
SS I-159

Allied Ships
xAKL Elcano

xAKL Elcano is sighted by SS I-159
SS I-159 attacking on the surface
SS I-159 low on gun ammo, Yoshimatsu, Tamori breaks off surface engagement and submerges

The submarine still has 100% torpedo ammo, so I guess the crew is a band of maniacs who like to pull pranks and scare to death poor Filipino sailors. Or maybe they had pity of them at the last minute, I don't know.

[rattovolante]

December 19, 1941 - the battle of San Fernando, day 2
Yesterday a probing attack at San Fernando was repulsed by a strong Allied garrison, which included US 192 and 194 tank bns.

I feared an immediate counterattack, I don't exactly know how these things are handled by the game but I was rather uneasy at the idea that japanese forces at San Fernando had exactly 14 37mm AT guns to fend off about 90-100 M3 light tanks...
To my surprise, the attack didn't materialize (yet...), and recon actually reports that at least some enemy units are now moving back to Lingayen!

In the meanwhile, I threw anything that could fly and carry a bomb at the enemy tanks. Unfortunately, the Zero sweep arrived after most of the bombers, so the losses were higher than necessary. USAAF attacked the same hex as well with Fortresses.

At the end of the day, losses were:
Anyway, over a number of strikes I have reported:

G3M2: 1 KIA
G4M1: 3 MIA, 1 KIA
A6M2: 1 MIA

Reported Japanese LCU losses: 1 non-combat disabled (I didn't bother to check if this is true)

P40E: 3-5 reported shot down
B17D: 1-3 reported shot down
(the numbers vary between combat animations, combat report or air losses screen)

Reported Allied LCU losses: 1 gun and 1 vehicle destroyed;
2 squads, 12 non-combat, 12 guns and 6 vehicles disabled

I don't know how to consider this outcome... probably inconclusive. I think the game classes motorized support as "vehicles", so I guess about half of the vehicle losses are motorized support, not tanks.
In other words, hardly a scratch in terms of actual losses, but I wonder what effects the bombing had on disruption.

[rattovolante]

December 19, 1941 - Malaya
I knew there were ships docked in Tavoy loading troops, and I tried to hit them last turn with a port strike, but discovered port strike won't hit docked ships.
I fail to see the logic here (docked outside port?), but anyway today Nells on naval strike and they heavily damaged 2 xAKL; 231 casualties reported. I guess that the ships will be scuttled if they didn't already sink, as they won't go anywhere with that damage. Hartwig will have to use planes to extract the Tavoy garrison, so I'm setting LRCAP there.

Betties torpedoed and obliterated 3 HDMLs near Georgetown. For some reason, I find the "obliterated" message funny - I guess the virtual HDML crew would disagree with me.

Otherwise, no relevant news - still advancing slowly.

[rattovolante]

December 19, 1941 - Moluccas
Manado falls. Damage during the three days of combat means the airfield is currently unusable, so a construction unit is being shipped from Babeldaob (I should have thought about this earlier!).
Failed allied submarine attack at Manado, no hits for either side.
Ryujo is now fully replenished at Saigon and will return to the Ambon area. Its air units upgraded to A6M2 and B5M1.

The battleship TF escorting Ambon invasion TF is detected by allied planes and attacked by dutch bombers. No hits, but they engage and positively identify BB Nagato. At the same time I forgot to reduce the range of Zuiho's Kates to their Claude escort's range, so they tried to torpedo ships at Ambon, 4 Kates lost

Overall result is that now Hartwig knows that I have at least 3 BBs and 1 CVL (I actually have 6 BBs, 1 CVL and 1 CVE *cough* and another CVL is on its way) and a number of CAs in the area. On the other hand, I discovered 3 allied TFs at Ambon - ABDA cruisers?

I could go ahead and let the allied ships engage my BBs... but moonlight is at 3% (I wished to bombard during new moon, to minimize CD accuracy), so I don't want to expose my BBs to torpedo-armed craft in a night battle. And during the day, Ambon still has CD guns. The safest route would be to send naval strikes first, but that would mean delaying the attack in order to rebase the planes first. I don't know yet what I'll end up doing.

[rattovolante]

Dec. 20, 1941 - The day IJN did nothing

As per post subject. Today's events were:

Wake: amphibious TF hits this bug fb.asp?m=2272493, gets 1 ship heavily damaged by CD, immediately aborts unloading and returns to Kwajalein. Back to step 1. In the meanwhile, the bombardment, asw, minesweeping and surface combat TFs are waiting at Wake. To kill time they depth charge SS Gudgeon in the shallow waters around the atoll... engine damage reported, I guess it'll be limping now. A second USN sub is there too.

Ambon area: Marblehead and Houston bombard Ternate and its airfield. The japanese submarine screen reacts but fails to engage them

Malaya: RN bombards Alor Star with 2 CAs and 3 CLs. Luckily my planes are based at Victoria Point instead, but the Nells there as well as Betties in Indochina fail to react to the cruisers.

China: naval bombardment of wenchow accomplishes absolutely nothing. AVG showed up yesterday in central China, and is playing hit and run escorting long-range bombers. Nates have difficulties in engaging them due to range, so I'm just taking the losses (mostly disablements anyway)

Borneo:
139WH keep bombing Brunei's port, which is empty. Too bad my Claudes' CAP fail to damage them every time.

Submarines: 3 japanese sub engagements; 1 miss, 2 fail due to this suspected bug: tm.asp?m=2274749.
Allied subs fare worse, SS Sculpin is found, depth charged, forced to surface and sunk by gunfire near Vigan

Air: The only japanese plane sortie that flew on the whole map was 9 sonias and 10 nates in Luzon. They found 4 P40s too, 1 nate lost. The bombers went through unmolested, at least.

[rattovolante]

December 21, 1942 - Wake Island
Yesterday I had split off most ships in the Wake invasion TF that aborted landing in their own amphibious TF, as suggested as a workaround in the tech support. For some reason (I suspect wishing to land overnight rather than in daylight) they are now taking 2 days to cover the same distance they covered in 1 day when they retreated.

The original TF was down to 1 PB (with 1000 cargo capacity, in order to pick up survivors if the xAK sunk) and the damaged xAK. It wouldn't stay in escort mission mode since the xAK only had 3 flood damage (but 50 fire). I can only guess what then happened during turn execution. Possibly something like:

1. xAK has low flood damage, so TF reverts to amphibious
2. but then xAK takes damage from fires, so, guess what? "Escort TF 268 (1 ship) formed from TF 15 and routed to Kwajalein Island" - meaning that a new escort TF is formed with no PB escort!
3. of course, the xAK then sinks. Since the PB I had assigned to pick up survivors isn't anymore in the sunk ship's TF, no survivors are picked up.

AAAAAARGHHH

I'm getting severely pissed off by the whole Wake operation. Losses are negligible, but losing assets (even if minor ones) due to unfathomable game behavior is annoying.

I have renamed the invasion TF accordingly. Next turn it will reach Wake, I sort of expect it to aground, hit some coral reefs, or self-destroy in some other bizarre way... Who said taking Wake was a walk in the park?

[rattovolante]

December 21, 1942 - Marshall Islands
Preparations for the next operations are underway:

• 2 AMCs should unload Tabiteuea tomorrow
• a barge TF should occupy Makin on dec. 23
• these TFs have no significant surface escorts but a number of subs are in the area and didn't report anything so far
• KB was split off (see below). 3 CVs will show themselves at Midway (or possibly Wake, if I keep failing to land my troops there!), 3 CVs will go to the Rabaul area, and the Kongos will raid some target in the Pago Pago area (sketch of the plan is in a previous post)
• I'm now short of fuel at Kwajalein, but is should still be enough for these operations. A tanker TF is now at Saipan.

The "main" carrier TF (TF 1, i.e., the dec. 7 KB) is leaving today for Truk. It is composed of CVs Akagi, Kaga and Hiryu, i.e., the fuel-hungry ones. The long-term plan is to make them a fleet in being, they're not very economical fuelwise to keep moving around.
Air wings onboard are 50 Zeros, 25 Vals and 109 Kates. I also have 2 Zero pilots and 2 Kate pilots onboard without their own plane, I plan to get some replacement aircrafts for them (plus the usual 4-planes buffer if possible) when I reach Truk.

The "decoy" carrier TF will probably depart tomorrow for Wake. It has 47 Zeros, 100 Vals and 12 Kates. I plan to strike Wake (or Midway) with the Vals, and keep the Kates on naval search to have them spotted.

[rattovolante]

December 21, 1942 - Approach to Ambon, or Do not Trust the Follow System

For the series "The struggle against game logic", we'll now show what happens if you let try anything complex with follow orders. Luckily no loss so far, although I fear this might mean rearranging the invasion orders again

After my BBs were spotted east of Ternate, I had decided to move the invasion fleet outside of the presumed navsearch sector. I knew the straits east of Ambon were safe because I had a submarine there unmolested since a number of turns, so I ordered the invasion fleet to approach Ambon from the south-east trying to get surprise.

I feared that with very low moonlight (new moon was 3 days ago) a single big TF was unsafe (even if not hit, there is a high risk of collisions between transports in a large TF). So I split it up in 6 smaller TFs, each with its own role and position in the convoy.

Results are shown in the pic. Groan [:o]

[d0mbo]

I feel your pain. Keep on clicking and hurray for the WTF!

[rattovolante]

I had to drop the AAR due to a nice streak of Real-World-itis...
first work deadline, then university deadline, then flu (oink!), then... no, wait, I hope it's over now. Luckily flu came last - was a pretty bad experience.

all this also had its effect on the game speed, we've only played 8 turns in the last 3 weeks. Let's try to look at it in a positive light... it sort of makes resuming the AAR easier. [:'(]

December 21, 1941 - other areas

Philippine Islands
A DD (with CL flagship) surface combat TF "sweeps" known allied MTB in Luzon. 1 MTB sunk, the 3 survivors retreat.
IJA troops secure San Fernando, which was abandoned by Allies the day before.

China
DMSs start clearing Hong Kong's port of mines.
In the south, 88th Chinese Corps is defeated and routed by 22nd IJA division. Battle seems a "case story" of how the current system works, for better or worse:

Ground combat at 89,56

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 4497 troops, 31 guns, 12 vehicles, Assault Value = 138

Defending force 4028 troops, 41 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 117

Japanese adjusted assault: 127

Allied adjusted defense: 12

Japanese assault odds: 10 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: leaders(+), disruption(-), morale(-), experience(-)
Attacker: leaders(+)

Note how the number of troops and nominal assault values were very similar. I knew the Chinese unit had been heavily disrupted before the attack. Reported losses were 1588:120

Burma
A night air strike on Rangoon's port hits 2 transports with troops onboard. Back then I thought they were evacuating troops, but on hindsight I now suppose they might have been unloading reinforcements.