This was a nasty, brutal turn for the Allied forces in the Philippines. My opponent sent in a BB TF, a CA TF and a DD TF to hunt down my transport TFs. I lost 30 ships due to surface combat, with a dozen more damaged but still afloat, likely because the Japanese ships probably ran out of ammo. My few DDs did put up respectable fights, but "respect" doesn't do a lot for you when you are at the bottom of the ocean.
My opponent also commenced an early invasion of Cagayan. I had expected that and so I had positioned a 4-ship PT TF in Cagayan to intercept the incoming Japanese invasion fleet. But the invasion fleet was huge, and although my PTs sank a Japanese DMS and an AKL, and damaged other Japanese ships, they just couldn't drive off the invasion fleet, so Japanese troops started to land at Cagayan anyway. Simlutaneously another invasion fleet landed at Davao.
The Davao invasion was immediately followed by a successful attack and capture, but there was no attack on Cagayan, so I guess that my PTs did succeed in postponing the inevitable. But this put me into a quandry because I wanted to use Cagayan as the main base for my B-17s, and now I can't. So since I don't have enough PPs to convert the B-17s to a non-restricted command I had to send them back to Clark Field. I've decided to use them to attack the airfield at Vigan in order to slow down the movement of Japanese air power on Luzon - we'll see if I have any success at that.
Otherwise it was a pretty normal early turn for the game. The KB still hasn't shown up anywhere, which is good news and bad news. Pearl Harbor continues to clean up the disaster of the first turn and the airfields are finally completely fixed, although the air support facilities aren't. I'm getting sick of the Japanese subs that are hanging around off of Pearl, so I am sending out three 4-ship ASW TFs next turn to try to discourage them. Having useless naval ASW and useless airborne ASW at the same time makes things quite frustrating but I still feel that I have to try something.
Last Stand at San Diego (no Richard please)
Moderators: wdolson, MOD_War-in-the-Pacific-Admirals-Edition
Burning Bunker C
After a Christmas break I got back to my PBEM today as the 121241 turn came into my mailbox. My opponent informed me of a second hot fix, but he didn't install it for this turn. I'll find it and install it for the next turn.
This turn started out with a lot of sub-hunting by my ASW ships, and finally one Japanese sub stayed near Pearl Harbor a bit too long so one of my DDs was able to drop a depth charge on it. There likely wasn't a lot of damage, but this certainly felt good for a change. In contrast, my subs were pounded by the Japanese ASW forces quite well again this turn, and a Japanese sub sank yet another HDML off Sumatra.
Once daylight came the Japanese air war continued in a similar fashion as before – Japanese bombers attacked Allied ground units in forward positions, but didn't challenge any of the Allied air bases. So air-to-air losses have been negligible over the past few turns. But the Allied land-based air forces struck back for the first time as the B-17s in the Philippines took off from Clark Field and hit the undefended airfields at Vigan very hard, causing a fair amount of damage. I'm ordering those B-17s to hit the airfields at Aparri next turn. It will be interesting to see if my opponent decides to send his bombers against Clark in an attempt to stop my attacks.
The Naval air war took a very nice turn for the better for the Allied side this turn as the Japanese Replenishment TF was found by the Lexington way up in the far north Pacific, and hammered quite hard. USN divebombers hit four AOs and 3 DDs with 1000 lb bombs. One DD was reported sunk. I had sent the Lexington TF north towards the Aleutians after they scared off the attempted Japanese invasion of Wake Island. I wanted to keep the Lex away from the KB, and also my Patrol planes at Midway had reported that the Replenishment TF appeared to be heading north. So I lucked-out in two ways.
I still don't know where the KB is hiding, but I did get an unconfirmed report of 7 ships off to the northeast of Midway, so that might be the KB. At least if my opponent were trying to interdict TFs coming from the US West Coast to Hawaii that would be a reasonable location to hide. So I put more long range air units on Patrol in the region and also put my fighter units at Pearl back on alert.
Speaking of Pearl, the airfields, air support facilities, and port were back in full operating condition this turn. Now I only have to wait the 7 weeks or so for the Shipyards to be fully repaired and Pearl will be back in proper order.
Otherwise, things were relatively quiet with no particularly unusual attacks or invasions. My opponent landed at Shortlands, Madang, Wewak and Hollandia, and also captured Guam. His attack on Hong Kong failed again, but the fortifications are now down to Level 1, so HK won't last much longer.
My opponent's TFs in the Philippines appear to have run out of ammo finally, so only a couple more AKs were sunk this turn, although several more ships sank due to damage from previous turns. All-in-all my opponent did a good job of shooting my fish in the barrel in the region. Never-the-less, I'm still busy filling up every ship that I can in the DEI with fuel and sending them down towards Australia. By the time my opponent starts to push on Java in a serious manner I should have most if not all of my ships out of harm's way.
In the meanwhile I still haven't sent any ships out of the West Coast. My philosophy is that if my opponent really wants to invade most anywhere early in the war there is little that I can do about it, so I don't want to send out weak forces in a piecemeal manner, particularly since I still don't know the overall strategic intentions of my opponent. (Plus, I have no intention of sending transport TFs into traps this early in the game.) So I'm essentially fighting with what I have on hand at the moment at the front lines, and I'll let my reserves build up and train in the far backwaters until I'm confident that I can send them out safely and use them wisely.
This turn started out with a lot of sub-hunting by my ASW ships, and finally one Japanese sub stayed near Pearl Harbor a bit too long so one of my DDs was able to drop a depth charge on it. There likely wasn't a lot of damage, but this certainly felt good for a change. In contrast, my subs were pounded by the Japanese ASW forces quite well again this turn, and a Japanese sub sank yet another HDML off Sumatra.
Once daylight came the Japanese air war continued in a similar fashion as before – Japanese bombers attacked Allied ground units in forward positions, but didn't challenge any of the Allied air bases. So air-to-air losses have been negligible over the past few turns. But the Allied land-based air forces struck back for the first time as the B-17s in the Philippines took off from Clark Field and hit the undefended airfields at Vigan very hard, causing a fair amount of damage. I'm ordering those B-17s to hit the airfields at Aparri next turn. It will be interesting to see if my opponent decides to send his bombers against Clark in an attempt to stop my attacks.
The Naval air war took a very nice turn for the better for the Allied side this turn as the Japanese Replenishment TF was found by the Lexington way up in the far north Pacific, and hammered quite hard. USN divebombers hit four AOs and 3 DDs with 1000 lb bombs. One DD was reported sunk. I had sent the Lexington TF north towards the Aleutians after they scared off the attempted Japanese invasion of Wake Island. I wanted to keep the Lex away from the KB, and also my Patrol planes at Midway had reported that the Replenishment TF appeared to be heading north. So I lucked-out in two ways.
I still don't know where the KB is hiding, but I did get an unconfirmed report of 7 ships off to the northeast of Midway, so that might be the KB. At least if my opponent were trying to interdict TFs coming from the US West Coast to Hawaii that would be a reasonable location to hide. So I put more long range air units on Patrol in the region and also put my fighter units at Pearl back on alert.
Speaking of Pearl, the airfields, air support facilities, and port were back in full operating condition this turn. Now I only have to wait the 7 weeks or so for the Shipyards to be fully repaired and Pearl will be back in proper order.
Otherwise, things were relatively quiet with no particularly unusual attacks or invasions. My opponent landed at Shortlands, Madang, Wewak and Hollandia, and also captured Guam. His attack on Hong Kong failed again, but the fortifications are now down to Level 1, so HK won't last much longer.
My opponent's TFs in the Philippines appear to have run out of ammo finally, so only a couple more AKs were sunk this turn, although several more ships sank due to damage from previous turns. All-in-all my opponent did a good job of shooting my fish in the barrel in the region. Never-the-less, I'm still busy filling up every ship that I can in the DEI with fuel and sending them down towards Australia. By the time my opponent starts to push on Java in a serious manner I should have most if not all of my ships out of harm's way.
In the meanwhile I still haven't sent any ships out of the West Coast. My philosophy is that if my opponent really wants to invade most anywhere early in the war there is little that I can do about it, so I don't want to send out weak forces in a piecemeal manner, particularly since I still don't know the overall strategic intentions of my opponent. (Plus, I have no intention of sending transport TFs into traps this early in the game.) So I'm essentially fighting with what I have on hand at the moment at the front lines, and I'll let my reserves build up and train in the far backwaters until I'm confident that I can send them out safely and use them wisely.
The KB Shows Up at Wake
The early morning of the thirteenth of December, 1941 saw a number of Japanese invasions continue or start – Raboul, Cagayan, Madang, Wewak, Brunei, San Fernando, Legaspi, and most interestingly, Wake Island. My opponent is obviously moving quickly to establish positions in all of the major theaters. A foursome of my MTBs attempted to interfere with the San Fernando landings, but after being shot at a lot by the multiple escorts of the invasion fleet, the MTBs retired without hitting anything with their guns or torpedoes. The CD unit at Wake, in contrast, hammered an xAK and a PB in the invasion TF there.
The sub wars continued with the Japanese subs moving further afield. One or more Japanese subs attempted to interdict my ships that were heading out of Batavia and into the Indian Ocean, but after an inconclusive scuffle with one of my escort ships the main Japanese attacker suffered repeated problems with its forward torpedo tubes and my ships sailed off unharmed. I ordered some ASW ships to patrol the area next turn.
My returning ASW TFs off of Pearl chased more Japanese subs without any luck, good or bad. So I set more ASW TFs to head out next turn. I also sent some of my DMs to mine the Hawaiian Islands so that there are fewer places for Japanese subs to roam freely.
And finally, during the day phase my Patrol planes off of the West Coast started to spot some Japanese subs for real. I don't have any shipping out there at this time, so the subs are free to roam around, use up fuel, and help my LBA practice airborne ASW techniques. I have a lot of restricted bombers on the West Coast, so I am more than happy to set them all to ASW and let them fly around to their heart's content.
Speaking of flying, my opponent sent in a high altitude sweep of Zeros over Clark Field this turn. My P-40s engaged and shot down a number of Zeros, although the end result was around 2:1 for my opponent. But I don't mind trading Philippine P-40s for Zeros at this stage of the game, and no bombers accompanied the Zeros, so my B-17s flew off again and hit the airfields at Aparri nice and hard. For next turn I have set the Fortresses to hit the ground troops at San Fernando – that will help my ground troops there, and it will keep my opponent guessing where I will bomb next.
Speaking of bombing, my opponent left me a very nice little “temptation” at Miri this turn – ships in the Port. So I moved some Dutch 2-E bombers into range and gave them orders to do Port attacks. The Allied LBA can't hit anything that is at sea in this game, but stationary, non-naval targets are easy pickings as long as there isn't any CAP. We will see how this goes.
Part of the KB finally showed up this turn as a moderate quantity of Naval Air hit the airfields at Wake Island. I suspect that my opponent has split the KB at this point, so I'm not taking any chances with my TFs. Thus the Lexington and associates continued along its way away from the Central Pacific and didn't attempt to hunt down the Japanese AOs that were damaged last turn. However, my Patrol AC in the Canton-Pago Pago region spotted a 2-ship Japanese TF just about half way between those two islands. That TF is heading West, and the Enterprise is sitting at Pago Pago, so I ordered the Big E to head out and see if that Japanese TF happens to be a pesky AMC TF or not. Of course, if it happens to be part of the KB I will be in real trouble, but that's how these things go.
Elsewhere, my opponent continues to use massed LBA to hammer my troops at Alor Star. I don't expect the troops there to hold anyway, so I am just glad that those bombers aren't hitting elsewhere. In China my opponent is using the opposite approach and is hitting multiple Chinese LCUs with small air strikes. I haven't put the AVG into action yet, but I will once my opponent shifts his attacks further away from the main Japanese bases in China. We also both exchanged bombing runs over Ichang. I sat down my Chinese bombers afterwards because I expect my opponent to put some more serious LR CAP over Ichang in light of this.
Speaking of China, so far things are fairly quiet there with the exception of Ichang where it appears that my opponent will stand and fight. That's a bit of a pain, because I don't really want to contest the base, but I don't want to pull back and leave it to him either. Oh well, at least this means that my opponent is committing troops there and not somewhere else. In the meanwhile the rest of my re-disposition of Chinese forces is progressing as planned.
The Japanese land attacks this turn worked out better for me than I expected. The most entertaining attack was at Wake where the Japanese landing force was whacked with 1:11 odds on its Shock Attack. And that is despite the fact that I have been flying out troops to Midway with Catalinas since December 8! Elsewhere, Hong Kong was bombarded again, which was fine by me because it meant that I got to fly out yet more Canadian troops into China. Eventually, once HK falls, I'll march the Canucks to Burma.
In another surprising contest, Cagayan held against a strong Japanese attack. The fortifications are now gone and the base will likely fall with the next attack, but this bought me time to fly out the remaining B-17s that had just repaired at the air field. So those two planes joined the others back at Clark. Elsewhere, my opponent bombarded my troops at San Fernando and Raboul. This allowed me to continue to fly the Raboul garrison out to PM.
But my opponent easily captured Victoria Point and sent the Base Force there up the coast. I'll fly the survivors out via Flying Boat and let them rebuild elsewhere. There is no point letting them be run down or starved in the jungle.
In other news, I finally scuttled the burning DD in Pearl Harbor. The fire damage wasn't getting any better so I threw in the towel. Now my forces at Pearl can focus on repairing all of the other ships that are sitting there.
The sub wars continued with the Japanese subs moving further afield. One or more Japanese subs attempted to interdict my ships that were heading out of Batavia and into the Indian Ocean, but after an inconclusive scuffle with one of my escort ships the main Japanese attacker suffered repeated problems with its forward torpedo tubes and my ships sailed off unharmed. I ordered some ASW ships to patrol the area next turn.
My returning ASW TFs off of Pearl chased more Japanese subs without any luck, good or bad. So I set more ASW TFs to head out next turn. I also sent some of my DMs to mine the Hawaiian Islands so that there are fewer places for Japanese subs to roam freely.
And finally, during the day phase my Patrol planes off of the West Coast started to spot some Japanese subs for real. I don't have any shipping out there at this time, so the subs are free to roam around, use up fuel, and help my LBA practice airborne ASW techniques. I have a lot of restricted bombers on the West Coast, so I am more than happy to set them all to ASW and let them fly around to their heart's content.
Speaking of flying, my opponent sent in a high altitude sweep of Zeros over Clark Field this turn. My P-40s engaged and shot down a number of Zeros, although the end result was around 2:1 for my opponent. But I don't mind trading Philippine P-40s for Zeros at this stage of the game, and no bombers accompanied the Zeros, so my B-17s flew off again and hit the airfields at Aparri nice and hard. For next turn I have set the Fortresses to hit the ground troops at San Fernando – that will help my ground troops there, and it will keep my opponent guessing where I will bomb next.
Speaking of bombing, my opponent left me a very nice little “temptation” at Miri this turn – ships in the Port. So I moved some Dutch 2-E bombers into range and gave them orders to do Port attacks. The Allied LBA can't hit anything that is at sea in this game, but stationary, non-naval targets are easy pickings as long as there isn't any CAP. We will see how this goes.
Part of the KB finally showed up this turn as a moderate quantity of Naval Air hit the airfields at Wake Island. I suspect that my opponent has split the KB at this point, so I'm not taking any chances with my TFs. Thus the Lexington and associates continued along its way away from the Central Pacific and didn't attempt to hunt down the Japanese AOs that were damaged last turn. However, my Patrol AC in the Canton-Pago Pago region spotted a 2-ship Japanese TF just about half way between those two islands. That TF is heading West, and the Enterprise is sitting at Pago Pago, so I ordered the Big E to head out and see if that Japanese TF happens to be a pesky AMC TF or not. Of course, if it happens to be part of the KB I will be in real trouble, but that's how these things go.
Elsewhere, my opponent continues to use massed LBA to hammer my troops at Alor Star. I don't expect the troops there to hold anyway, so I am just glad that those bombers aren't hitting elsewhere. In China my opponent is using the opposite approach and is hitting multiple Chinese LCUs with small air strikes. I haven't put the AVG into action yet, but I will once my opponent shifts his attacks further away from the main Japanese bases in China. We also both exchanged bombing runs over Ichang. I sat down my Chinese bombers afterwards because I expect my opponent to put some more serious LR CAP over Ichang in light of this.
Speaking of China, so far things are fairly quiet there with the exception of Ichang where it appears that my opponent will stand and fight. That's a bit of a pain, because I don't really want to contest the base, but I don't want to pull back and leave it to him either. Oh well, at least this means that my opponent is committing troops there and not somewhere else. In the meanwhile the rest of my re-disposition of Chinese forces is progressing as planned.
The Japanese land attacks this turn worked out better for me than I expected. The most entertaining attack was at Wake where the Japanese landing force was whacked with 1:11 odds on its Shock Attack. And that is despite the fact that I have been flying out troops to Midway with Catalinas since December 8! Elsewhere, Hong Kong was bombarded again, which was fine by me because it meant that I got to fly out yet more Canadian troops into China. Eventually, once HK falls, I'll march the Canucks to Burma.
In another surprising contest, Cagayan held against a strong Japanese attack. The fortifications are now gone and the base will likely fall with the next attack, but this bought me time to fly out the remaining B-17s that had just repaired at the air field. So those two planes joined the others back at Clark. Elsewhere, my opponent bombarded my troops at San Fernando and Raboul. This allowed me to continue to fly the Raboul garrison out to PM.
But my opponent easily captured Victoria Point and sent the Base Force there up the coast. I'll fly the survivors out via Flying Boat and let them rebuild elsewhere. There is no point letting them be run down or starved in the jungle.
In other news, I finally scuttled the burning DD in Pearl Harbor. The fire damage wasn't getting any better so I threw in the towel. Now my forces at Pearl can focus on repairing all of the other ships that are sitting there.
Brave and Skilllful Gunners at Wake
December 14, 1941 brought more smiles and grimaces to me. My biggest smile came from the continuing success of the CD guns on Wake, which shot up more AKs and patrol ships in the invasion force, both at night and at day. Then in the combat portion of the turn the Japanese invaders only attempted a bombardment attack which accomplished nothing. If I had left more troops on the island they could have kicked the invaders off.
The grimaces came as another Japanese sub sank two more stragglers off of Tarakan, using torpedoes and gun fire. I certainly managed the attempt to escape from the Philippines poorly. I'm not taking a chance on another repeat so I am moving everything that sails out of the DEI early, with the exception of cruiser/destroyer TFs which I have left sprinkled around just in case my opponent forgets to send some cover along with his invasion TFs.
PT boats certainly work oddly now. (We're at Patch 2, Hotfix 2). I sent a flotilla of MTBs into San Fernando and they scared off the invasion force for a bit, but then the MTBs turned around and headed back towards Manila, and so the invasion TF set back up and continued to unload troops. No shots were fired. I'll try to rest the MTBs at Manila and the send them out again with a new leader.
I got a very surprising message from the North Eastern Pacific – the Regulus, still on its long journey away from Midway and towards Alaska fled from a “Surface Combat TF” at 167,62. That's south of Dutch Harbor. Unfortunately I don't yet have any air support in Dutch Harbor, so I can't fly a PBY in to see what is going on. The Lexington TF is now sailing north of the Aleutians, but I don't want to send it to check this out just in case the Regulus fled from a sizable portion of the KB and not just some surface ships. In any event I redirected some subs up that way to see if they can stumble upon anything.
The day portion of the turn brought a big strike of Bettys, Nells and Zeros on Clark Field. My P-40s faced up to the overwhelming odds and did quite well for themselves. There were also a number of follow-up bombing raids where no Zeros came along, so my fighters did get a chance to score some kills on unescorted bombers. The overall damage to Clark was minor, and my B-17s took off and had a good hard strike on the Japanese troops at San Fernando.
But the “fun times” are over now, and I can see the presence of an Air symbol at Vigan, so my opponent obviously intends to CAP anything of value. My P-40 squadrons have also ended up with rather low morale and high fatigue, so I am resting most of them this turn. With all this I decided that it was time to pull out the B-17s and I sent them to Soerabaja to rest up and wait for more opportunities to strike.
Speaking of opportunities – my Dutch bombers did get to surprise some Japanese ships in port in Miri, and put bombs into an APD and a TB. So this turn an Air symbol turned up over Miri too, and I therefore pulled back my Dutch bombers. There is no point being silly and getting whacked when trying a trick a second time.
BTW – that small enemy TF in the South Pacific between Canton Island and Pago Pago has moved further to the east. It is surprisingly quick, but I have already redirected my TFs out of that region, with the exception of the Enterprise TF which is attempting to sneak in behind the raiders. Just to add to the fun I also moved some land-based divebombers to Palmyra just in case the raiders turn to the north.
In invasion news, I was entertained to see that the amphibious invasion at San Fernando had some amount of difficulty – I received reports of Japanese tanks falling off of ships and into the water, and numbers of troops drowning. But that might have been wishful thinking on the part of my SIGINT folks, because the subsequent Japanese attack easily kicked my troops out of the base.
Hong Kong also fell this turn, so I pulled back the transport planes to Chungking and started the survivors of HK on their way along the Chinese railway system to eventual redeployment at Lashio. They should turn out useful in Burma if they get there before the Japanese troops. Legaspi, Cagayan, Brunei and Tuguegaru were all captured this turn. Surprisingly, Rabaul held, again despite the fact that I am flying out troops every turn.
The grimaces came as another Japanese sub sank two more stragglers off of Tarakan, using torpedoes and gun fire. I certainly managed the attempt to escape from the Philippines poorly. I'm not taking a chance on another repeat so I am moving everything that sails out of the DEI early, with the exception of cruiser/destroyer TFs which I have left sprinkled around just in case my opponent forgets to send some cover along with his invasion TFs.
PT boats certainly work oddly now. (We're at Patch 2, Hotfix 2). I sent a flotilla of MTBs into San Fernando and they scared off the invasion force for a bit, but then the MTBs turned around and headed back towards Manila, and so the invasion TF set back up and continued to unload troops. No shots were fired. I'll try to rest the MTBs at Manila and the send them out again with a new leader.
I got a very surprising message from the North Eastern Pacific – the Regulus, still on its long journey away from Midway and towards Alaska fled from a “Surface Combat TF” at 167,62. That's south of Dutch Harbor. Unfortunately I don't yet have any air support in Dutch Harbor, so I can't fly a PBY in to see what is going on. The Lexington TF is now sailing north of the Aleutians, but I don't want to send it to check this out just in case the Regulus fled from a sizable portion of the KB and not just some surface ships. In any event I redirected some subs up that way to see if they can stumble upon anything.
The day portion of the turn brought a big strike of Bettys, Nells and Zeros on Clark Field. My P-40s faced up to the overwhelming odds and did quite well for themselves. There were also a number of follow-up bombing raids where no Zeros came along, so my fighters did get a chance to score some kills on unescorted bombers. The overall damage to Clark was minor, and my B-17s took off and had a good hard strike on the Japanese troops at San Fernando.
But the “fun times” are over now, and I can see the presence of an Air symbol at Vigan, so my opponent obviously intends to CAP anything of value. My P-40 squadrons have also ended up with rather low morale and high fatigue, so I am resting most of them this turn. With all this I decided that it was time to pull out the B-17s and I sent them to Soerabaja to rest up and wait for more opportunities to strike.
Speaking of opportunities – my Dutch bombers did get to surprise some Japanese ships in port in Miri, and put bombs into an APD and a TB. So this turn an Air symbol turned up over Miri too, and I therefore pulled back my Dutch bombers. There is no point being silly and getting whacked when trying a trick a second time.
BTW – that small enemy TF in the South Pacific between Canton Island and Pago Pago has moved further to the east. It is surprisingly quick, but I have already redirected my TFs out of that region, with the exception of the Enterprise TF which is attempting to sneak in behind the raiders. Just to add to the fun I also moved some land-based divebombers to Palmyra just in case the raiders turn to the north.
In invasion news, I was entertained to see that the amphibious invasion at San Fernando had some amount of difficulty – I received reports of Japanese tanks falling off of ships and into the water, and numbers of troops drowning. But that might have been wishful thinking on the part of my SIGINT folks, because the subsequent Japanese attack easily kicked my troops out of the base.
Hong Kong also fell this turn, so I pulled back the transport planes to Chungking and started the survivors of HK on their way along the Chinese railway system to eventual redeployment at Lashio. They should turn out useful in Burma if they get there before the Japanese troops. Legaspi, Cagayan, Brunei and Tuguegaru were all captured this turn. Surprisingly, Rabaul held, again despite the fact that I am flying out troops every turn.
ASW on the Attack (sort of)
15/12/41 – We both installed Hotfix 3, so now subs will only react 1 hex. Time will tell if this will be a blessing or a curse for my plans. I did enjoy seeing my subs hound enemy TFs all over the map, but I can understand the rationale for stopping that.
I'm going to segue a bit here and write about how I approach a turn. First off, I watch the Combat Replay. For some reason, when I hit the “End” button at the top of the animation screen it only speeds up the animation and doesn't end it like it does when I play against the AI. I'm assuming that is a function of how my opponent has the game set up from his end, and it isn't too much of a bother, so I haven't attempted to hunt down the source of the discrepancy.
I also make notes during the Combat Replay. I find that there are always some things that I notice while watching the CR that don't really show up afterwards in the Combat Report or Operational Report. And sometimes it's just a matter of writing down general gut-feeling observations so that I remember them later.
I then prepare a page with six areas on it: Ships, TFs, Bases, AC, Attacks, and Troops. I use this page to make detailed notes on what is reported in the various reports when I run the turn. Next I start the turn and make the first of a series of temporary saves that I will make as I set up the turn. I do that so I can go back if I goof something up badly and don't want to start the turn from scratch.
I next look at the main Info table and compare the Air Combat results on it against the Air Losses table and consider both against what I watched during the Combat Replay. I also check the Air Withdrawal and Ship Withdrawal tables to see what is coming up for withdrawal. I check the Ground Withdrawal table much less frequently because not as much is withdrawn, and most of that is not for quite some time.
I then look at the SIGINT table and scan it for any reports of “Planning Attack”, or any Japanese units that are reported to be heading toward any of my bases that aren't part of the usual Japanese targets at this point of the game. If I find any such reports I note them in the “Attacks” section of my prepared sheet.
I then go to the Operational Report and go over that carefully. I note all activities for my ships, such as arrivals at bases or repair status in the “Ships” section of the page that I prepared. I note the arrival of all TFs in the “TFs” section as well I note of any of my TFs are being reported as low on fuel. I note the arrivals of Air Units in the “AC” section, and the arrivals of LCUs in the “Troops” section. I also note upgrades of my bases in the “Bases” section.
I also go over the Air Search reports if during the Combat Reply I noticed a report of a spotting where I wasn't expecting to see one, either an unexpected spotting of an enemy force, or an unexpected spotting of one of my forces by an enemy that I wasn't aware of.
I now have my working sheet ready for doing the turn. I go through all of reports one-by-one and adjust my forces based upon the current situation. I also check the status of all of my submarine TFs and individual subs, and send home those subs which have sustained damage or have shot off at least half of their torpedoes.
I then do all of the usual micromanagement of LCUs, Aircraft, Ships and TFs. So a normal turn at this point in the game usually takes be a couple of hours to complete, and I will have around 10 interim saves before I do the final save and send the turn back to my opponent.
Okay, now for the turn. The only night phase invasion was the continuation at Wake where my CD guns once again happily shot up a PB and an AK. Then during the day phase the CD guns got going in a major way and put shells into two CLs and two more PBs. BTW, one or more Japanese CVs were still hanging southwest of Wake and sending in bombers during the day.
There was a lot of ASW action this turn because I sent a lot of ASW TFs out from Pearl. One DD was sunk by a sub, but the rest were able to duck the Japanese torpedoes and then attempt to depth charge the enemy. There were no reported hits, but at least my commanders got in some live training.
As an aside, I've observed that speed is a crucial factor in ASW ships surviving encounters with enemy subs. When I send out slow ASW TFs, such as TFs containing AMs, they often get hammered by the subs. But DDs tend to “duck” the torpedoes more often. All-in-all, my opinion is that the subs in the early game are too good and the ASW too bad, but that appears to be WAD, so I have to learn to live with it.
I finally got a small TF of MTBs to engage the enemy at San Fernando, but unfortunately they ran into a big Surface Combat TF instead of a transport TF. Surprisingly, my MTBs were able to close in and fire without being destroyed. However, they didn't hit anything, so I have them retiring to Manila to reload and try again later. The only good thing about this is that I now know that there is a big Japanese SC TF at San Fernando that contains CAs, CLs, and DDs, and that they aren't elsewhere.
My opponent sent in a bombing attack against Clark again this turn, and once my my P-40s did quite well. Fortunately, the attack was smaller than the last one and caused negligible damage, so I was able to repair and fly out two more B-17s to Soerabaja. I've got the B-17s resting up there. I'll use them for low level aerial searching for a while until new ground targets open up.
Elsewhere my opponent continued his heavy bombing of LCUs in China and northern Malaya. This is nice because it is allowing me to reposition my air units and start to train them up. As part of this training I am continuing with hit-and-run air raids. Other than a raid on the Japanese troops at Ichang my bombers were quiet this turn, but I'm sending some British bombers against Japanese troops in northern Burma next turn. The 2-E bombers don't do a lot of damage against LCUs with the latest Patch/Hotfix changes, but air attacks still work to slow down ground units, and in general this makes my opponent spread out his air defences more, which helps me.
BTW – one of the AVG squadrons finally got into action as it ambushed first an Ida attack and then a Lily attack over Kweilin. I then moved the AVG squadron just in case my opponent tries a retaliatory sweep by Zeros next turn, but the important result is that this will make him move more escorts to cover his bombing raids.
There wasn't much land combat this turn. The Japanese did their daily artillery attack on my troops at Ichang, as did the invaders at Rabaul. And Wake finally fell to a land attack, but the skeleton crew there did their job very well, and the rest of their compatriots are now rebuilding at Midway.
BTW – as far as China goes, so far I have been successful at repositioning my troops to more useful positions. I have all of the Chinese artillery units on the move away from Chungking and towards the Front, and I am also moving all of the small LCUs back to Chungking so that they can rebuild and eventually be reunited. The stalemate at Ichang is getting worse, but I don't want to pull out because that will simply allow my opponent to split my forces. So I am committed to moving more and better units into the battle and also into position to try to cut off the Japanese. I'm also hoping that this keeps my opponent's attention there and not elsewhere in China.
I'm going to segue a bit here and write about how I approach a turn. First off, I watch the Combat Replay. For some reason, when I hit the “End” button at the top of the animation screen it only speeds up the animation and doesn't end it like it does when I play against the AI. I'm assuming that is a function of how my opponent has the game set up from his end, and it isn't too much of a bother, so I haven't attempted to hunt down the source of the discrepancy.
I also make notes during the Combat Replay. I find that there are always some things that I notice while watching the CR that don't really show up afterwards in the Combat Report or Operational Report. And sometimes it's just a matter of writing down general gut-feeling observations so that I remember them later.
I then prepare a page with six areas on it: Ships, TFs, Bases, AC, Attacks, and Troops. I use this page to make detailed notes on what is reported in the various reports when I run the turn. Next I start the turn and make the first of a series of temporary saves that I will make as I set up the turn. I do that so I can go back if I goof something up badly and don't want to start the turn from scratch.
I next look at the main Info table and compare the Air Combat results on it against the Air Losses table and consider both against what I watched during the Combat Replay. I also check the Air Withdrawal and Ship Withdrawal tables to see what is coming up for withdrawal. I check the Ground Withdrawal table much less frequently because not as much is withdrawn, and most of that is not for quite some time.
I then look at the SIGINT table and scan it for any reports of “Planning Attack”, or any Japanese units that are reported to be heading toward any of my bases that aren't part of the usual Japanese targets at this point of the game. If I find any such reports I note them in the “Attacks” section of my prepared sheet.
I then go to the Operational Report and go over that carefully. I note all activities for my ships, such as arrivals at bases or repair status in the “Ships” section of the page that I prepared. I note the arrival of all TFs in the “TFs” section as well I note of any of my TFs are being reported as low on fuel. I note the arrivals of Air Units in the “AC” section, and the arrivals of LCUs in the “Troops” section. I also note upgrades of my bases in the “Bases” section.
I also go over the Air Search reports if during the Combat Reply I noticed a report of a spotting where I wasn't expecting to see one, either an unexpected spotting of an enemy force, or an unexpected spotting of one of my forces by an enemy that I wasn't aware of.
I now have my working sheet ready for doing the turn. I go through all of reports one-by-one and adjust my forces based upon the current situation. I also check the status of all of my submarine TFs and individual subs, and send home those subs which have sustained damage or have shot off at least half of their torpedoes.
I then do all of the usual micromanagement of LCUs, Aircraft, Ships and TFs. So a normal turn at this point in the game usually takes be a couple of hours to complete, and I will have around 10 interim saves before I do the final save and send the turn back to my opponent.
Okay, now for the turn. The only night phase invasion was the continuation at Wake where my CD guns once again happily shot up a PB and an AK. Then during the day phase the CD guns got going in a major way and put shells into two CLs and two more PBs. BTW, one or more Japanese CVs were still hanging southwest of Wake and sending in bombers during the day.
There was a lot of ASW action this turn because I sent a lot of ASW TFs out from Pearl. One DD was sunk by a sub, but the rest were able to duck the Japanese torpedoes and then attempt to depth charge the enemy. There were no reported hits, but at least my commanders got in some live training.
As an aside, I've observed that speed is a crucial factor in ASW ships surviving encounters with enemy subs. When I send out slow ASW TFs, such as TFs containing AMs, they often get hammered by the subs. But DDs tend to “duck” the torpedoes more often. All-in-all, my opinion is that the subs in the early game are too good and the ASW too bad, but that appears to be WAD, so I have to learn to live with it.
I finally got a small TF of MTBs to engage the enemy at San Fernando, but unfortunately they ran into a big Surface Combat TF instead of a transport TF. Surprisingly, my MTBs were able to close in and fire without being destroyed. However, they didn't hit anything, so I have them retiring to Manila to reload and try again later. The only good thing about this is that I now know that there is a big Japanese SC TF at San Fernando that contains CAs, CLs, and DDs, and that they aren't elsewhere.
My opponent sent in a bombing attack against Clark again this turn, and once my my P-40s did quite well. Fortunately, the attack was smaller than the last one and caused negligible damage, so I was able to repair and fly out two more B-17s to Soerabaja. I've got the B-17s resting up there. I'll use them for low level aerial searching for a while until new ground targets open up.
Elsewhere my opponent continued his heavy bombing of LCUs in China and northern Malaya. This is nice because it is allowing me to reposition my air units and start to train them up. As part of this training I am continuing with hit-and-run air raids. Other than a raid on the Japanese troops at Ichang my bombers were quiet this turn, but I'm sending some British bombers against Japanese troops in northern Burma next turn. The 2-E bombers don't do a lot of damage against LCUs with the latest Patch/Hotfix changes, but air attacks still work to slow down ground units, and in general this makes my opponent spread out his air defences more, which helps me.
BTW – one of the AVG squadrons finally got into action as it ambushed first an Ida attack and then a Lily attack over Kweilin. I then moved the AVG squadron just in case my opponent tries a retaliatory sweep by Zeros next turn, but the important result is that this will make him move more escorts to cover his bombing raids.
There wasn't much land combat this turn. The Japanese did their daily artillery attack on my troops at Ichang, as did the invaders at Rabaul. And Wake finally fell to a land attack, but the skeleton crew there did their job very well, and the rest of their compatriots are now rebuilding at Midway.
BTW – as far as China goes, so far I have been successful at repositioning my troops to more useful positions. I have all of the Chinese artillery units on the move away from Chungking and towards the Front, and I am also moving all of the small LCUs back to Chungking so that they can rebuild and eventually be reunited. The stalemate at Ichang is getting worse, but I don't want to pull out because that will simply allow my opponent to split my forces. So I am committed to moving more and better units into the battle and also into position to try to cut off the Japanese. I'm also hoping that this keeps my opponent's attention there and not elsewhere in China.
AMCs on the Attack (and being attacked)
16/12/41 – Luck was on my side this turn. Things didn't start out promising as one of my PT TFs ran into a Japanese TF off of Cagayan, but my TF broke and ran even before a combat animation screen appeared. I've decided that I've got to pull those guys out of the Philippines and probably disband them for now. They aren't contributing.
But things got much more interesting during the day phase when the Japanese raiders that were prowling in the area between Canton Island, Pago Pago, Christmas Island, and Palmyra finally caught up with one of my TFs. But in this case the hunter became the prey because the TF that the two-AMC raider TF found, during daylight, was the Enterprise TF. And here is where my luck turned for the good, because it was a daylight intercept instead of night time, so the two CAs in my TF started to shoot at the AMCs while the AMCs were still out of gun range, and all of the escort ships in my TF eventually got into the fray and protected the Big E.
One of the Japanese AMCs was hit a dozen times or so, and the other one only twice. CA Chester had the back luck of getting hit twice in the superstructure with 6 inch shells from one of the AMCs, but the damage turned out to be minor. Eventually, after exchanging fire for some time the Japanese commander decided to break off and did so successfully.
However, since my TF was a CV TF, the Naval Air units on the Big E eventually got into action in the afternoon phase. The first wave of dive bombers sank the more damaged AMC which could only get a hex away from the CV TF. The second less damaged AMC got further away, but it was spotted by a Vindicator from Canton Island, so more of the dive bombers from the Big E caught up to it and put two more 1000 lb bombs into the ship. I don't know if the second AMC sank, but it isn't going to be bothering me for a while with that damage.
BTW – I have no intention of trying to hunt down the wounded AMC. If the Vindicators at Canton get a chance to attack, that's fine. But I'm sending the Enterprise TF back to Pearl for repair and replenishment. They did their job well and I don't want them to sail into a trap. It's enough that my opponent now knows where the Big is located.
Speaking of traps, something very odd is going on in the North Pacific northwest of Midway. My SIGINT report said that there were a lot of radio signals coming from 147, 83. I looked up there and sure enough, there was the mark of a Japanese TF. However, passing my cursor over the TF didn't give me any more info on composition or direction.
Hmmm – what could it be?
- Whatever scared the Regulus a few turns back?
- The part of the KB that had been hitting Wake? (If so it certainly travelled a long way very quickly.)
- A Japanese TF that is returning from prowling the “dead zone” in the Northeastern Pacific where my patrol planes can't reach?
- An invasion TF trying to sneak up on Midway from the north?
In any event I don't have anything of value at risk up there, so I'll keep my eyes open and see what happens. Never-the-less, I am also sending out of Pearl anything that can't stand and fight, just in case my opponent has been inspired by all of the other reports of early Japanese invasions of Hawaii.
In other news, my daytime luck continued in the Philippines as a squadron of Bettys flew at Clark Field unescorted, and so provided a number of nice kills for my P-40 pilots. Similarly, Lilys and Babs flew over Kweilin unescorted again this turn, and so provided some nice kills for the AVG again. And my Chinese bombers flew successfully against Ichang again today, despite the presence of a couple of Nates on CAP. I wonder if I send some AVG fighters on a sweep over Ichang they will intercept any of those Nates? (I don't believe that the Nates are actually stationed at Ichang.)
The one place where my air strategy didn't work was over Alor Star where my British bombers were intercepted by a couple of Oscars and one of the bombers was shot down. The attack was shaken enough that the bombers didn't hit their target. I'm moving that bomber group out to rest and rebuild.
There were only two ground assaults this turn, the regular Japanese bombardment at Ichang, and an unsuccessful attack on Rabaul. However, the forts are now down to 0 at Rabaul, so I expect the next assault to capture the base.
But things got much more interesting during the day phase when the Japanese raiders that were prowling in the area between Canton Island, Pago Pago, Christmas Island, and Palmyra finally caught up with one of my TFs. But in this case the hunter became the prey because the TF that the two-AMC raider TF found, during daylight, was the Enterprise TF. And here is where my luck turned for the good, because it was a daylight intercept instead of night time, so the two CAs in my TF started to shoot at the AMCs while the AMCs were still out of gun range, and all of the escort ships in my TF eventually got into the fray and protected the Big E.
One of the Japanese AMCs was hit a dozen times or so, and the other one only twice. CA Chester had the back luck of getting hit twice in the superstructure with 6 inch shells from one of the AMCs, but the damage turned out to be minor. Eventually, after exchanging fire for some time the Japanese commander decided to break off and did so successfully.
However, since my TF was a CV TF, the Naval Air units on the Big E eventually got into action in the afternoon phase. The first wave of dive bombers sank the more damaged AMC which could only get a hex away from the CV TF. The second less damaged AMC got further away, but it was spotted by a Vindicator from Canton Island, so more of the dive bombers from the Big E caught up to it and put two more 1000 lb bombs into the ship. I don't know if the second AMC sank, but it isn't going to be bothering me for a while with that damage.
BTW – I have no intention of trying to hunt down the wounded AMC. If the Vindicators at Canton get a chance to attack, that's fine. But I'm sending the Enterprise TF back to Pearl for repair and replenishment. They did their job well and I don't want them to sail into a trap. It's enough that my opponent now knows where the Big is located.
Speaking of traps, something very odd is going on in the North Pacific northwest of Midway. My SIGINT report said that there were a lot of radio signals coming from 147, 83. I looked up there and sure enough, there was the mark of a Japanese TF. However, passing my cursor over the TF didn't give me any more info on composition or direction.
Hmmm – what could it be?
- Whatever scared the Regulus a few turns back?
- The part of the KB that had been hitting Wake? (If so it certainly travelled a long way very quickly.)
- A Japanese TF that is returning from prowling the “dead zone” in the Northeastern Pacific where my patrol planes can't reach?
- An invasion TF trying to sneak up on Midway from the north?
In any event I don't have anything of value at risk up there, so I'll keep my eyes open and see what happens. Never-the-less, I am also sending out of Pearl anything that can't stand and fight, just in case my opponent has been inspired by all of the other reports of early Japanese invasions of Hawaii.
In other news, my daytime luck continued in the Philippines as a squadron of Bettys flew at Clark Field unescorted, and so provided a number of nice kills for my P-40 pilots. Similarly, Lilys and Babs flew over Kweilin unescorted again this turn, and so provided some nice kills for the AVG again. And my Chinese bombers flew successfully against Ichang again today, despite the presence of a couple of Nates on CAP. I wonder if I send some AVG fighters on a sweep over Ichang they will intercept any of those Nates? (I don't believe that the Nates are actually stationed at Ichang.)
The one place where my air strategy didn't work was over Alor Star where my British bombers were intercepted by a couple of Oscars and one of the bombers was shot down. The attack was shaken enough that the bombers didn't hit their target. I'm moving that bomber group out to rest and rebuild.
There were only two ground assaults this turn, the regular Japanese bombardment at Ichang, and an unsuccessful attack on Rabaul. However, the forts are now down to 0 at Rabaul, so I expect the next assault to capture the base.
A Quiet Turn
17/12/41 – Ah, a reasonably quiet turn for a change. I like quiet turns – it means that my plans are working reasonably well. There were no overnight invasions, and no other overnight actions either. The only new invasion showing up in the day phase was the appearance of some ships at Shortlands.
The day phase was generally quiet too. My opponent did send a couple of Zero sweeps over Clark Field that shot down a few P-40s without any losses to themselves. But I had most of my P-40s resting so that wasn't too bad. The only follow-up bombing raid was some Bettys attacking an Allied Armoured unit at Clark – the Zero sweeps did their jobs and the Bettys got through without any interceptors present.
Some Zeros showed up in China and Malaya this time, so my air raids appear to be causing my opponent to spread out his air units, as I had hoped. There were still only a couple of Nates over Ichang when my Chinese bombers came in this time, so my bombers went past the Nates and hit the defending Japanese troops well. But I am resting those bombers this coming turn because of a forecast of poor weather and also in case my opponent does send some Zeros in on Patrol.
There were only two ground attacks this turn, a Deliberate Attack captured Alor Star easily, and another Deliberate Attack at Rabaul failed again. I certainly don't understand how my remaining units at Rabaul continue to fight off the Japanese troops. Each turn I pull more troops out, so the number left to fight continues to dwindle. I guess that my opponent is having a run of bad luck, but I expect the base to fall any time.
I'm starting to wonder just what my opponent is up to in the short term. He has not followed up on his early attacks in the Philippines, Malaya and DEI to any great extent, and from what my Recon and Intel can tell me, it doesn't look as if he has overwhelming forces in those areas. It seems like he is keeping “just enough” to make progress and to keep me busy. However, my Intel is suggesting that my opponent is moving a lot of forces towards the Southwest Pacific. I wonder if he is planning a blitzkrieg into the SWP in order to cut off Australia?
Interestingly enough, my opponent still hasn't gone after Makin and Tarawa. I guess that the presence of the Enterprise group, as well as the early ambush at Wake has made him cautious. But I suspect once he has refuelled and re-armed the KB I will see some serious movement into the South Central Pacific.
BTW – the TF that was spotted to the northwest of Midway last turn disappeared this turn. I'm still not keeping anything at Pearl that I don't need to keep there. It's too easy for a serious raid to come back and trash the place.
Otherwise, I am busy moving LCUs in all of the theaters in order to recombine as many of those small fragments into bigger units as I possibly can. As far as I can tell from playing against the AI, small units are pretty much useless on defense, so I may as well try to avoid having them destroyed piecemeal.
The day phase was generally quiet too. My opponent did send a couple of Zero sweeps over Clark Field that shot down a few P-40s without any losses to themselves. But I had most of my P-40s resting so that wasn't too bad. The only follow-up bombing raid was some Bettys attacking an Allied Armoured unit at Clark – the Zero sweeps did their jobs and the Bettys got through without any interceptors present.
Some Zeros showed up in China and Malaya this time, so my air raids appear to be causing my opponent to spread out his air units, as I had hoped. There were still only a couple of Nates over Ichang when my Chinese bombers came in this time, so my bombers went past the Nates and hit the defending Japanese troops well. But I am resting those bombers this coming turn because of a forecast of poor weather and also in case my opponent does send some Zeros in on Patrol.
There were only two ground attacks this turn, a Deliberate Attack captured Alor Star easily, and another Deliberate Attack at Rabaul failed again. I certainly don't understand how my remaining units at Rabaul continue to fight off the Japanese troops. Each turn I pull more troops out, so the number left to fight continues to dwindle. I guess that my opponent is having a run of bad luck, but I expect the base to fall any time.
I'm starting to wonder just what my opponent is up to in the short term. He has not followed up on his early attacks in the Philippines, Malaya and DEI to any great extent, and from what my Recon and Intel can tell me, it doesn't look as if he has overwhelming forces in those areas. It seems like he is keeping “just enough” to make progress and to keep me busy. However, my Intel is suggesting that my opponent is moving a lot of forces towards the Southwest Pacific. I wonder if he is planning a blitzkrieg into the SWP in order to cut off Australia?
Interestingly enough, my opponent still hasn't gone after Makin and Tarawa. I guess that the presence of the Enterprise group, as well as the early ambush at Wake has made him cautious. But I suspect once he has refuelled and re-armed the KB I will see some serious movement into the South Central Pacific.
BTW – the TF that was spotted to the northwest of Midway last turn disappeared this turn. I'm still not keeping anything at Pearl that I don't need to keep there. It's too easy for a serious raid to come back and trash the place.
Otherwise, I am busy moving LCUs in all of the theaters in order to recombine as many of those small fragments into bigger units as I possibly can. As far as I can tell from playing against the AI, small units are pretty much useless on defense, so I may as well try to avoid having them destroyed piecemeal.
Too Quiet for Comfort
18/12/41 – Hmmm... another relatively quiet turn. There was no night action again, other than one of my PTs hitting a Japanese mine at Tarakan, and even then the mine did amazingly little damage. (Was it a mine, or just a sake bottle? [;)] ) There were no invasions and no night raids on sea or in the air.
The day phase was almost as quiet, other than the usual bombing raids on some of my troops in Malaya and China. A couple of Zero sweeps shot down a few more P-40s over Clark, but more of my P-40s took off to ambush a Sally raid over Lingayen, so things evened out.
There were no naval actions, and in fact few Japanese TFs showed up anywhere. Even sub action was light with most Japanese subs disappearing out of my patrol areas.
And the land action consisted only of lackadaisical artillery bombardments at Ichang and Rabaul, and the Japanese troops at Rabaul took the bulk of the damage from the artillery exchange.
So just what is my opponent up to? I keep on getting the feeling that he is setting up a massive assault into one of the key regions. But which one? My SIGINT continues to be pretty much useless, so I have to just prepare for any eventuality. The key, of course, is to avoid having a number of forces caught unprepared, so I am routing my TFs even more carefully than I usually do, and maintaining my combat forces in locations where they can prevent small nuisance raids but can also flee any major assaults.
However, having seen all of those AARs where Japanese players are happily blitzing through the Hawaiian Islands in early January 1942 I've decided to move up my major transport plans a couple of weeks and start a mass transit of forces to Hawaii in about 2 days, instead of the middle of January like I do against the AI. We'll see how it goes. (And I'll also use waypoints away from the usual shipping lanes.)
The day phase was almost as quiet, other than the usual bombing raids on some of my troops in Malaya and China. A couple of Zero sweeps shot down a few more P-40s over Clark, but more of my P-40s took off to ambush a Sally raid over Lingayen, so things evened out.
There were no naval actions, and in fact few Japanese TFs showed up anywhere. Even sub action was light with most Japanese subs disappearing out of my patrol areas.
And the land action consisted only of lackadaisical artillery bombardments at Ichang and Rabaul, and the Japanese troops at Rabaul took the bulk of the damage from the artillery exchange.
So just what is my opponent up to? I keep on getting the feeling that he is setting up a massive assault into one of the key regions. But which one? My SIGINT continues to be pretty much useless, so I have to just prepare for any eventuality. The key, of course, is to avoid having a number of forces caught unprepared, so I am routing my TFs even more carefully than I usually do, and maintaining my combat forces in locations where they can prevent small nuisance raids but can also flee any major assaults.
However, having seen all of those AARs where Japanese players are happily blitzing through the Hawaiian Islands in early January 1942 I've decided to move up my major transport plans a couple of weeks and start a mass transit of forces to Hawaii in about 2 days, instead of the middle of January like I do against the AI. We'll see how it goes. (And I'll also use waypoints away from the usual shipping lanes.)
Two Weeks, No Game
Although this pbem has been going at a relatively glacial pace up until now, it is going into a real Deep Freeze for the next two weeks as I will be away from my game computer.
What does one do for two weeks without AE? [X(]
What does one do for two weeks without AE? [X(]
Back at it, Finally!
December 19, 1941 – I’m back after two weeks away from the Game. When I looked over the turn it felt like I was looking over someone else’s PBEM; I couldn’t remember any of my plans. Oh well, maybe that’s for the better.
This was a good turn to return to because there were no bad surprises waiting for me. My opponent is being methodical in most areas and has some big surprise offensive coming up somewhere, but for now things were pretty much as one would expect.
The night phase brought a Japanese invasion TF to Kuching. I’ve had a Dutch PT TF waiting there for a number of turns. I’ve been stationing PT TFs openly at a number of key bases and waiting to see what my opponent would do. In this case he made the effort to put a CA and a couple of DDs in the invasion TF. When the Japanese TF first arrived my PT TF took off without engaging the Japanese, but set up to return. Later on in the turn the PT TF did return and had an inconclusive minor gun fight with the escorts in the invasion TF before sailing off again. This allowed the invasion TF to eventually offload some troops at the end of the turn. The CD guns at Kuching exchanged fire with the Japanese CA and got one hit in on the CA’s armor, but didn’t cause any damage.
Kuching always falls easily, so I have been busy for a number of turns flying out troops to Sumatra. Once the Japanese invasion troops finally do assault the base they will take it even more easily than usual, but I would rather have my troops helping out in Sumatra than slogging around in the jungle in Borneo. Also, I moved a B-17 squadron to Batavia and I will have them bomb the Japanese troops at Kuching next turn, both for practice and also to keep my opponent from feeling too complacent. Once my opponent captures Kuching I will bring more B-17s to Batavia and start a bombing campaign against the air fields at Kuching. It will be interesting to see if my opponent attempts to counter this with some decent fighters.
At this time it appears that most of my opponent’s decent fighters are busy sweeping Clark Field and Manila. I lost a few more P-40s to these sweeps this turn without getting any kills against the Japanese in return, so it appears to be time to give up on the air defence of those bases. I withdrew another fighter group this turn and I am resting the remaining groups for next turn. I expect that my opponent will send out the “sweepers” again next turn before he sends bombers back, and I want air-unit markers at my bases to keep him guessing.
Speaking of fighters, I withdrew or disbanded all of my old obsolete fighter units and substituted those essentially useless planes for better planes in restricted units that are in West Coast bases. I’d rather have a handful of half-way decent fighter groups in Pearl than have the airfields filled with useless planes that are piloted by rookies. At this point I don’t want to give my opponent the opportunity to train his pilots against my pathetically weak air units – my most effective “weapon” right now is to let my opponent lose planes and pilots to Operational damage or flak.
Japanese bombers continued to harass my retreating troops in northern Malaya and northern China. I’m leaving my British fighters at Singapore and the AVG in Central China for now until I see some opportunities for air ambushes.
Speaking of air ambushes –my Intel may have prevented me from suffering from a naval air pincer movement in the DEI. It appears that a CV TF is hanging off of the Kuching invasion, and another CV TF is sailing off of the north-western tip of New Guinea. I’ve had cruiser/destroyer TFs sitting at forward bases across the DEI, so I ordered them back a bit until I see just where the CV TFs are headed. However, where I may have some pain anyway is at Palembang where I just sent in some TKs in an attempt to “steal” some of the fuel that is building up there. It will be hard to save those TKs if my opponent keeps some CVs in the area.
BTW – the CV TF off of Borneo may be headed onwards with one less DD because one of my Dutch subs put a torpedo into a DD in that TF and the Intel reports are telling me that the DD went down. My sub escaped unharmed.
My opponent has brought more troops to Ichang, including an armoured unit and two artillery units. He continues to do artillery attacks each turn, but the results are fairly light and even between both sides. I’ve got a couple more LCUs that are about to join in the siege, and maybe even cut the road, so it will be interesting to see how this goes. In any event I am quite happy to see a stalemate build at Ichang while I move my other Chinese units to more sensible and defensible positions.
And Rabaul finally fell this turn, after an unexpectedly strong stand by an ever-diminishing number of Australian troops. Almost all of the defenders of Rabaul are now in Port Moresby and I will pick up the remainder over the next turn or two. BTW – I have no intention at this time of trying a major stand at PM, but I will attempt to keep it supplied and let it act as a general nuisance.
This was a good turn to return to because there were no bad surprises waiting for me. My opponent is being methodical in most areas and has some big surprise offensive coming up somewhere, but for now things were pretty much as one would expect.
The night phase brought a Japanese invasion TF to Kuching. I’ve had a Dutch PT TF waiting there for a number of turns. I’ve been stationing PT TFs openly at a number of key bases and waiting to see what my opponent would do. In this case he made the effort to put a CA and a couple of DDs in the invasion TF. When the Japanese TF first arrived my PT TF took off without engaging the Japanese, but set up to return. Later on in the turn the PT TF did return and had an inconclusive minor gun fight with the escorts in the invasion TF before sailing off again. This allowed the invasion TF to eventually offload some troops at the end of the turn. The CD guns at Kuching exchanged fire with the Japanese CA and got one hit in on the CA’s armor, but didn’t cause any damage.
Kuching always falls easily, so I have been busy for a number of turns flying out troops to Sumatra. Once the Japanese invasion troops finally do assault the base they will take it even more easily than usual, but I would rather have my troops helping out in Sumatra than slogging around in the jungle in Borneo. Also, I moved a B-17 squadron to Batavia and I will have them bomb the Japanese troops at Kuching next turn, both for practice and also to keep my opponent from feeling too complacent. Once my opponent captures Kuching I will bring more B-17s to Batavia and start a bombing campaign against the air fields at Kuching. It will be interesting to see if my opponent attempts to counter this with some decent fighters.
At this time it appears that most of my opponent’s decent fighters are busy sweeping Clark Field and Manila. I lost a few more P-40s to these sweeps this turn without getting any kills against the Japanese in return, so it appears to be time to give up on the air defence of those bases. I withdrew another fighter group this turn and I am resting the remaining groups for next turn. I expect that my opponent will send out the “sweepers” again next turn before he sends bombers back, and I want air-unit markers at my bases to keep him guessing.
Speaking of fighters, I withdrew or disbanded all of my old obsolete fighter units and substituted those essentially useless planes for better planes in restricted units that are in West Coast bases. I’d rather have a handful of half-way decent fighter groups in Pearl than have the airfields filled with useless planes that are piloted by rookies. At this point I don’t want to give my opponent the opportunity to train his pilots against my pathetically weak air units – my most effective “weapon” right now is to let my opponent lose planes and pilots to Operational damage or flak.
Japanese bombers continued to harass my retreating troops in northern Malaya and northern China. I’m leaving my British fighters at Singapore and the AVG in Central China for now until I see some opportunities for air ambushes.
Speaking of air ambushes –my Intel may have prevented me from suffering from a naval air pincer movement in the DEI. It appears that a CV TF is hanging off of the Kuching invasion, and another CV TF is sailing off of the north-western tip of New Guinea. I’ve had cruiser/destroyer TFs sitting at forward bases across the DEI, so I ordered them back a bit until I see just where the CV TFs are headed. However, where I may have some pain anyway is at Palembang where I just sent in some TKs in an attempt to “steal” some of the fuel that is building up there. It will be hard to save those TKs if my opponent keeps some CVs in the area.
BTW – the CV TF off of Borneo may be headed onwards with one less DD because one of my Dutch subs put a torpedo into a DD in that TF and the Intel reports are telling me that the DD went down. My sub escaped unharmed.
My opponent has brought more troops to Ichang, including an armoured unit and two artillery units. He continues to do artillery attacks each turn, but the results are fairly light and even between both sides. I’ve got a couple more LCUs that are about to join in the siege, and maybe even cut the road, so it will be interesting to see how this goes. In any event I am quite happy to see a stalemate build at Ichang while I move my other Chinese units to more sensible and defensible positions.
And Rabaul finally fell this turn, after an unexpectedly strong stand by an ever-diminishing number of Australian troops. Almost all of the defenders of Rabaul are now in Port Moresby and I will pick up the remainder over the next turn or two. BTW – I have no intention at this time of trying a major stand at PM, but I will attempt to keep it supplied and let it act as a general nuisance.
Subs on the Attack!
12-20-1941 – Hmmm, my opponent has been hinting at some devious plan, and I just may have spotted it this turn, thanks to my penchant for checking all over the map. After spending several hours doing this turn, much of that due to the fact that I finally decided to implement Search Arcs for my LBA, I decided to review what I had going in the Soviet Union.
I started building Soviet fortresses right away in this game, and I also redistributed the Soviet air force just in case my opponent might decide to take a swipe at Stalin's rear. So things were progressing nicely and quietly. But I happened to notice that one of the Japanese border bases seemed much darker red than usual. I put my cursor over the base, and lo and behold, it read 30 units there! I checked a few other border bases and there were several more with 14 or 15 units in each. When I looked over the rest of Manchuria I noticed that most of the other bases looked empty.
Is my opponent planning an early Winter blitz of Eastern Siberia? I'm not certain, but just in case I set all Soviet troops to "Combat", and also turned on Replacements for all of them. This will definitely change the flavour of the game if a Soviet Gambit is in the cards.
Otherwise, the turn was fairly benign, other than a few of my subs becoming surprisingly active and successful around Borneo. Two out of four subs got off successful attacks, and only one sub was hit in return.
My Dutch PTs at Kuching attempted a feeble attack there, but ran off when they encountered the enemy. They then ran into a BB/CVL/CVE TF and once again ran away successfully. If that area isn't part of the "Yellow Sea", it ought to be…
In addition to the Kuching invasion my opponent made a quick landing at Singkawang. The Dutch sub that was there laid some mines, but was hit was depth charges afterwards and is limping home.
My B-17 raid on Kuching ran into one persistent Zero on CAP. The Zero couldn't shoot down the Fortresses, but they couldn't shoot it down either, and the bomber squadron was distracted enough that they missed the target. So I sat down that squadron and brought another fresh one to Batavia. Next turn their target is Singkawang.
My opponent sent another sweep against Clark Field this turn, but I was resting my P-40s, so he came up empty. I decided to move the P-40s to another PI base and I have set them to try a Naval attack next turn. There are plenty of Japanese transport ships at Cagayan, and an air attack there would definitely surprise my opponent a bit.
Otherwise, the rest of the Japanese air attacks followed the same pattern as recently, with my retiring troops in Malaya, Luzon, and China all being hit. I did get an air strike in myself on the Japanese troops at Ichang, so my opponent doesn't have the skies entirely to himself. BTW – I may be able pull off an encirclement of Ichang if my opponent isn't careful. We'll have to see how it goes.
At the end of the day my opponent captured Kuching, Naga, and Laoag. All-in-all, things haven't gone too bad so far for me.
BTW – this turn I finally sent off my first transport TF from San Fran to Pearl. I loaded a couple of infantry regiments and a couple of coastal defense units. I set a couple of waypoints in order to avoid subs and any wandering enemy surface units. Once I get those troops to Pearl I will feel a lot better about the situation there.
I started building Soviet fortresses right away in this game, and I also redistributed the Soviet air force just in case my opponent might decide to take a swipe at Stalin's rear. So things were progressing nicely and quietly. But I happened to notice that one of the Japanese border bases seemed much darker red than usual. I put my cursor over the base, and lo and behold, it read 30 units there! I checked a few other border bases and there were several more with 14 or 15 units in each. When I looked over the rest of Manchuria I noticed that most of the other bases looked empty.
Is my opponent planning an early Winter blitz of Eastern Siberia? I'm not certain, but just in case I set all Soviet troops to "Combat", and also turned on Replacements for all of them. This will definitely change the flavour of the game if a Soviet Gambit is in the cards.
Otherwise, the turn was fairly benign, other than a few of my subs becoming surprisingly active and successful around Borneo. Two out of four subs got off successful attacks, and only one sub was hit in return.
My Dutch PTs at Kuching attempted a feeble attack there, but ran off when they encountered the enemy. They then ran into a BB/CVL/CVE TF and once again ran away successfully. If that area isn't part of the "Yellow Sea", it ought to be…
In addition to the Kuching invasion my opponent made a quick landing at Singkawang. The Dutch sub that was there laid some mines, but was hit was depth charges afterwards and is limping home.
My B-17 raid on Kuching ran into one persistent Zero on CAP. The Zero couldn't shoot down the Fortresses, but they couldn't shoot it down either, and the bomber squadron was distracted enough that they missed the target. So I sat down that squadron and brought another fresh one to Batavia. Next turn their target is Singkawang.
My opponent sent another sweep against Clark Field this turn, but I was resting my P-40s, so he came up empty. I decided to move the P-40s to another PI base and I have set them to try a Naval attack next turn. There are plenty of Japanese transport ships at Cagayan, and an air attack there would definitely surprise my opponent a bit.
Otherwise, the rest of the Japanese air attacks followed the same pattern as recently, with my retiring troops in Malaya, Luzon, and China all being hit. I did get an air strike in myself on the Japanese troops at Ichang, so my opponent doesn't have the skies entirely to himself. BTW – I may be able pull off an encirclement of Ichang if my opponent isn't careful. We'll have to see how it goes.
At the end of the day my opponent captured Kuching, Naga, and Laoag. All-in-all, things haven't gone too bad so far for me.
BTW – this turn I finally sent off my first transport TF from San Fran to Pearl. I loaded a couple of infantry regiments and a couple of coastal defense units. I set a couple of waypoints in order to avoid subs and any wandering enemy surface units. Once I get those troops to Pearl I will feel a lot better about the situation there.
Sub vs Sub
December 21, 1941 -
So close, and yet so far... I-162 was cruising along at night on the surface and S-36 caught it in its sights. The S-boat fired off 4 torpedoes at 4000 yards. They were duds! I-162 continued along its merry way and the crew of S-36 wondered what they had to do to get some luck. Actually, they were luckier than the crew of SS KVIII, who were forced to the surface at Menado and then sunk with gun fire. Add to this a couple of other unsuccessful Allied sub attacks, and this turn wasn't one that most Allied submariners wanted to remember.
The invasion of Singkawang continued. The Dutch PT TF sailed in again, spotted the Japanese invasion fleet in the darkness, and immediately retired without firing a shot. It's too bad that the game doesn't give an option to court martial TF commanders...
The day phase brought plenty of Zeros out sweeping the skies over the Philippines. But there were no Allied fighters there to oppose them. I waited and waited for my “ambush” with the P-40s to go off, but nothing ever happened. Then I got a vague memory, and when I checked the turn afterwards, sure enough, I had moved the squadrons to Cebu, which is only a level 1 air base. Oooops... I then disbanded the P-40Bs because they don't carry bombs, and I moved the P-40Es back to Manila where they will once again get a chance to try to surprise my opponent.
My opponent continued with his level bombing of Allied ground troops in Malaya and northeastern China. My Chinese bombers flew again this turn (because I forgot to rest them) and they were lucky to face only one Nate over Ichang. So the Chinese bombers were able to hit their target and not take any losses. This time I specifically checked to make certain that I sat them down for next turn.
Next, my fresh B-17 squadron at Batavia flew in and hit the invading troops at Singkawang.
However , that wasn't enough to affect the outcome of the subsquent ground attack and the Japanese captured Singkawang easily. But to my surprise, the Allied troops retreated to Sambas to the east instead of into the jungle to the south. I've never seen that against the AI. This is actually better for me because the additional troops in Sambas means that it will be a little bit harder to capture the base, and my opponent will have to use more than some garrison unit. Never-the-less, I am still pulling troops out of that region, so I moved a third naval patrol group to Palembang to allow me to remove more troops from Sambas to Sumatra.
Finally, my opponent surprised me with a daylight invasion of Lingayen. My CD unit battled bravely and put shells into a CL and two SCs. But the Japanese invasion force was substantial and the lone Philippine division there collapsed and fled at the first attack. In addition, my opponent's other troops in Luzon captured Bayombong this turn too.
As far as the Soviet Union goes; there still haven't been any Sigint alerts about units preparing for Soviet targets. However, those big stacks of units are still sitting at the border. So I left everyone on alert, and I also upgraded a group of Soviet biplanes to Mig-3s. I want to stay prepared.
So close, and yet so far... I-162 was cruising along at night on the surface and S-36 caught it in its sights. The S-boat fired off 4 torpedoes at 4000 yards. They were duds! I-162 continued along its merry way and the crew of S-36 wondered what they had to do to get some luck. Actually, they were luckier than the crew of SS KVIII, who were forced to the surface at Menado and then sunk with gun fire. Add to this a couple of other unsuccessful Allied sub attacks, and this turn wasn't one that most Allied submariners wanted to remember.
The invasion of Singkawang continued. The Dutch PT TF sailed in again, spotted the Japanese invasion fleet in the darkness, and immediately retired without firing a shot. It's too bad that the game doesn't give an option to court martial TF commanders...
The day phase brought plenty of Zeros out sweeping the skies over the Philippines. But there were no Allied fighters there to oppose them. I waited and waited for my “ambush” with the P-40s to go off, but nothing ever happened. Then I got a vague memory, and when I checked the turn afterwards, sure enough, I had moved the squadrons to Cebu, which is only a level 1 air base. Oooops... I then disbanded the P-40Bs because they don't carry bombs, and I moved the P-40Es back to Manila where they will once again get a chance to try to surprise my opponent.
My opponent continued with his level bombing of Allied ground troops in Malaya and northeastern China. My Chinese bombers flew again this turn (because I forgot to rest them) and they were lucky to face only one Nate over Ichang. So the Chinese bombers were able to hit their target and not take any losses. This time I specifically checked to make certain that I sat them down for next turn.
Next, my fresh B-17 squadron at Batavia flew in and hit the invading troops at Singkawang.
However , that wasn't enough to affect the outcome of the subsquent ground attack and the Japanese captured Singkawang easily. But to my surprise, the Allied troops retreated to Sambas to the east instead of into the jungle to the south. I've never seen that against the AI. This is actually better for me because the additional troops in Sambas means that it will be a little bit harder to capture the base, and my opponent will have to use more than some garrison unit. Never-the-less, I am still pulling troops out of that region, so I moved a third naval patrol group to Palembang to allow me to remove more troops from Sambas to Sumatra.
Finally, my opponent surprised me with a daylight invasion of Lingayen. My CD unit battled bravely and put shells into a CL and two SCs. But the Japanese invasion force was substantial and the lone Philippine division there collapsed and fled at the first attack. In addition, my opponent's other troops in Luzon captured Bayombong this turn too.
As far as the Soviet Union goes; there still haven't been any Sigint alerts about units preparing for Soviet targets. However, those big stacks of units are still sitting at the border. So I left everyone on alert, and I also upgraded a group of Soviet biplanes to Mig-3s. I want to stay prepared.
A Scary Mess
December 22, 1941 -
I'm back to my original pbem, and it is quite the shock. I'm looking at things and saying to myself, “Why did I do that there?” Why did I place that here?” “What in the world was I thinking?” I've made a huge mess of Malaya, China is starting to fall apart, TFs are running out of fuel, and I seem to have missed putting together any coherent strategy. Oh well, I'll soldier on.
This turn saw landings at Manado, Pakhoi and Mersing. I'm going to try to get my Dutch PTs at Singapore to interfere with the Mersing landing, but I think that the result will be the usual – running away at the first sight of the enemy.
My opponent is getting his subs back into action. One of them sank a TF off of Batavia, despite the presence of an escort. And one of my Dutch subs was whacked off of Miri.
There were lots of Japanese bomber attacks all over Malaya, China and the Philippines. My B-17s at Batavia actually flew and hit the air fields at Singkaway hard. I'm resting them now and waiting for another opportunity. My P-40s in Manila didn't fly their naval attack missions – I suspect that there are too many Japanese fighters in the region. So I set them to attack some ground troops in southern Luzon. I want to make some use of them before I disband them.
A Sally/Oscar air attack on Moulmein ran into a number of skilled British pilots in Buffalos. The Brits roughed up the Japanese planes with no loss to themselves. I wonder how long it will be before my opponent starts to sweep the air over that region.
I got some lousy luck on the Singapore road just outside of Georgetown. My retreating troops were attacked by an armoured column and easily defeated. But they retreated into Georgetown instead of further down the road. That's it for them.
My opponent now has two artilliary units at Ichang. The artilliary duels are still fairly even, and I have some of my own artilliary on the way.
A Japanese infantry unit attempted an assault on Tsiatao. My units there repealed it at a 1:2 result. Japanese losses were much higher than the Chinese losses.
Pakhoi was captured against no opposition. The Chinese unit there had been moved away long before. Now my opponent can worry about the Partisans there.
And there is a sizable Japanese transport TF sailing through the eastern DEI, and it appears to be heading toward Ambon. I've got several cruiser/destroyer TFs in that region so I'm sending them towards the area in case I get an opportunity to raid the invasion.
I'm back to my original pbem, and it is quite the shock. I'm looking at things and saying to myself, “Why did I do that there?” Why did I place that here?” “What in the world was I thinking?” I've made a huge mess of Malaya, China is starting to fall apart, TFs are running out of fuel, and I seem to have missed putting together any coherent strategy. Oh well, I'll soldier on.
This turn saw landings at Manado, Pakhoi and Mersing. I'm going to try to get my Dutch PTs at Singapore to interfere with the Mersing landing, but I think that the result will be the usual – running away at the first sight of the enemy.
My opponent is getting his subs back into action. One of them sank a TF off of Batavia, despite the presence of an escort. And one of my Dutch subs was whacked off of Miri.
There were lots of Japanese bomber attacks all over Malaya, China and the Philippines. My B-17s at Batavia actually flew and hit the air fields at Singkaway hard. I'm resting them now and waiting for another opportunity. My P-40s in Manila didn't fly their naval attack missions – I suspect that there are too many Japanese fighters in the region. So I set them to attack some ground troops in southern Luzon. I want to make some use of them before I disband them.
A Sally/Oscar air attack on Moulmein ran into a number of skilled British pilots in Buffalos. The Brits roughed up the Japanese planes with no loss to themselves. I wonder how long it will be before my opponent starts to sweep the air over that region.
I got some lousy luck on the Singapore road just outside of Georgetown. My retreating troops were attacked by an armoured column and easily defeated. But they retreated into Georgetown instead of further down the road. That's it for them.
My opponent now has two artilliary units at Ichang. The artilliary duels are still fairly even, and I have some of my own artilliary on the way.
A Japanese infantry unit attempted an assault on Tsiatao. My units there repealed it at a 1:2 result. Japanese losses were much higher than the Chinese losses.
Pakhoi was captured against no opposition. The Chinese unit there had been moved away long before. Now my opponent can worry about the Partisans there.
And there is a sizable Japanese transport TF sailing through the eastern DEI, and it appears to be heading toward Ambon. I've got several cruiser/destroyer TFs in that region so I'm sending them towards the area in case I get an opportunity to raid the invasion.
Miracles on the Water
December 23, 1941 –
Japanese invasion troops continued to unload at Menado and Mersing. Small escort ships such as PBs shot at the defending troops but there were no naval bombardments. There were no CD guns at either location to shoot back at the invaders. Dutch submarines continued to attempt to interfere with the invasion at Menado, but were chased off by the Japanese ASW. However, there were bravely lead PT boat TFs that attempted to disrupt the Japanese onslaughts.
First up was a group of three British MTBs that had been assigned the defence of the strategic base of Jolo at the border between the Philippines and the DEI. The British were ready for trouble, but not quite on the scale that came sailing in on them in the dark. This was a massive invasion TF consisting of CAs, DDs, assorted minesweepers, various patrol escorts, and of course the invasion transports. The MTBs sailed into the fight and the night was lit up with hundreds of shots being fired by the Japanese ships at the scurrying British torpedo boats.
The end result was something of a miracle; the MTBs sank a Japanese DMS with torpedoes while emerging unscathed. However, despite this show of valour and skill the Japanese still sailed on to their target and started to unload.
The second near-miracle occurred at Mersing where the half dozen Dutch PTs which had refused to engage in previous nights finally engaged the Japanese invasion forces. The Dutch found an even bigger Japanese force, complete with battleships, light cruisers, destroyers and all the rest of the ships required for a truly massive invasion.
Once again the Allied ships faced an immense hail of fire, but this time some of that fire hit its mark as one of the Dutch PT boats was sunk. Despite this the remainder of the Dutch PT boats were able to get off their torpedoes and sink an AK, as well as hit a PB with gunfire, after which the survivors retired to Singapore for replenishment. Again, valour alone was insufficient and the Japanese force shrugged off the attack and continued about their business without further interruption.
In one other ominous night time action, an Allied DD detected and attacked a Japanese sub off the coast of north-western Australia. This means that my current retirement route to Perth is no longer safe for unescorted TFs. I need to bring Air Search units to that area quickly.
The daylight hours brought a lot of air attacks from the Japanese. Heavy aerial bombardments hit Allied troops in Northern Malaya, the Philippines, and China. I’ve decided to move one of the AVG squadrons to north-eastern China in an attempt to discourage a bit of the Japanese aerial onslaught there.
In a somewhat surprising move, Nells from Cagayan bombed Dutch troops at Menado. This is a reminder for me that Japanese naval air power is now positioned to strike into the DEI.
Then there was an even more surprising air attack as Jakes flew in to Ambon from a Japanese TF to the north and twice attacked a US TF that was at the port. The second attack resulted in a 60 Kg bomb hitting the armour on CL Boise. A Japanese transport TF also appeared at Namlea and is likely planning to attempt to invade Ambon. I have two other surface combat TFs in the region, in addition to the US TF at Ambon, so I set all three to hunt that Japanese TF. So for now I will take my chances with aggressive Jake pilots.
The only Allied air attack this turn was in the Philippines where the Manila-based P-40s finally flew a ground attack mission against Japanese troops in Naga. The fighter pilots achieved no hits in heavy rain. At this point I looked at the unit, which currently consists of 10 P-40Es and 25 fairly well-skilled and trained pilots, and I decided to withdraw it because those pilots will be much more valuable to me in two month’s time then they are at the moment, and I see no good reason to waste them at this time. So the Philippines are now at the mercy of the Japanese Air Force.
There was some land action in China. The Japanese forces at Ichang fired off a more successful artillery bombardment against my besieging troops this turn. I have more troops and some artillery of my own marching towards the battle, but it will be a while before they get there, so I’ll have to revert to air attacks to try to even things out for now.
A Japanese unit moved into Tsiaotso and attempted an artillery attack this turn, but the attack was unsuccessful. However, my troops at the base fired off a very successful artillery attack of their own. It looks as if my opponent intends to contest the current frontier in China, so I am continuing to move my forces around to meet and confront his troops. I’m not keen on pursuing a war in China, but I will fight if forced to do so.
The other ground attacks this turn were at Mersing and Menado. At Mersing a very strong Japanese force consisting of two infantry regiments, one armoured regiment, one artillery regiment and a combat engineering regiment attacked and easily defeated the Malay battalion that I had left there as a place-holder. The Malays wisely surrendered. At Menado I was surprised to see that only two small and weak Japanese infantry units had partially landed. They attempted an artillery bombardment that failed with no results.
Otherwise, things are generally quiet. There has been no sign of the KB for some time, and Sigint is not warning of any surprise invasions.
Japanese invasion troops continued to unload at Menado and Mersing. Small escort ships such as PBs shot at the defending troops but there were no naval bombardments. There were no CD guns at either location to shoot back at the invaders. Dutch submarines continued to attempt to interfere with the invasion at Menado, but were chased off by the Japanese ASW. However, there were bravely lead PT boat TFs that attempted to disrupt the Japanese onslaughts.
First up was a group of three British MTBs that had been assigned the defence of the strategic base of Jolo at the border between the Philippines and the DEI. The British were ready for trouble, but not quite on the scale that came sailing in on them in the dark. This was a massive invasion TF consisting of CAs, DDs, assorted minesweepers, various patrol escorts, and of course the invasion transports. The MTBs sailed into the fight and the night was lit up with hundreds of shots being fired by the Japanese ships at the scurrying British torpedo boats.
The end result was something of a miracle; the MTBs sank a Japanese DMS with torpedoes while emerging unscathed. However, despite this show of valour and skill the Japanese still sailed on to their target and started to unload.
The second near-miracle occurred at Mersing where the half dozen Dutch PTs which had refused to engage in previous nights finally engaged the Japanese invasion forces. The Dutch found an even bigger Japanese force, complete with battleships, light cruisers, destroyers and all the rest of the ships required for a truly massive invasion.
Once again the Allied ships faced an immense hail of fire, but this time some of that fire hit its mark as one of the Dutch PT boats was sunk. Despite this the remainder of the Dutch PT boats were able to get off their torpedoes and sink an AK, as well as hit a PB with gunfire, after which the survivors retired to Singapore for replenishment. Again, valour alone was insufficient and the Japanese force shrugged off the attack and continued about their business without further interruption.
In one other ominous night time action, an Allied DD detected and attacked a Japanese sub off the coast of north-western Australia. This means that my current retirement route to Perth is no longer safe for unescorted TFs. I need to bring Air Search units to that area quickly.
The daylight hours brought a lot of air attacks from the Japanese. Heavy aerial bombardments hit Allied troops in Northern Malaya, the Philippines, and China. I’ve decided to move one of the AVG squadrons to north-eastern China in an attempt to discourage a bit of the Japanese aerial onslaught there.
In a somewhat surprising move, Nells from Cagayan bombed Dutch troops at Menado. This is a reminder for me that Japanese naval air power is now positioned to strike into the DEI.
Then there was an even more surprising air attack as Jakes flew in to Ambon from a Japanese TF to the north and twice attacked a US TF that was at the port. The second attack resulted in a 60 Kg bomb hitting the armour on CL Boise. A Japanese transport TF also appeared at Namlea and is likely planning to attempt to invade Ambon. I have two other surface combat TFs in the region, in addition to the US TF at Ambon, so I set all three to hunt that Japanese TF. So for now I will take my chances with aggressive Jake pilots.
The only Allied air attack this turn was in the Philippines where the Manila-based P-40s finally flew a ground attack mission against Japanese troops in Naga. The fighter pilots achieved no hits in heavy rain. At this point I looked at the unit, which currently consists of 10 P-40Es and 25 fairly well-skilled and trained pilots, and I decided to withdraw it because those pilots will be much more valuable to me in two month’s time then they are at the moment, and I see no good reason to waste them at this time. So the Philippines are now at the mercy of the Japanese Air Force.
There was some land action in China. The Japanese forces at Ichang fired off a more successful artillery bombardment against my besieging troops this turn. I have more troops and some artillery of my own marching towards the battle, but it will be a while before they get there, so I’ll have to revert to air attacks to try to even things out for now.
A Japanese unit moved into Tsiaotso and attempted an artillery attack this turn, but the attack was unsuccessful. However, my troops at the base fired off a very successful artillery attack of their own. It looks as if my opponent intends to contest the current frontier in China, so I am continuing to move my forces around to meet and confront his troops. I’m not keen on pursuing a war in China, but I will fight if forced to do so.
The other ground attacks this turn were at Mersing and Menado. At Mersing a very strong Japanese force consisting of two infantry regiments, one armoured regiment, one artillery regiment and a combat engineering regiment attacked and easily defeated the Malay battalion that I had left there as a place-holder. The Malays wisely surrendered. At Menado I was surprised to see that only two small and weak Japanese infantry units had partially landed. They attempted an artillery bombardment that failed with no results.
Otherwise, things are generally quiet. There has been no sign of the KB for some time, and Sigint is not warning of any surprise invasions.
Malaya looks bad...
December 24, 1941 –
My opponent is off on vacation but he still has the time to do the occasional turn. From the looks of the results, my judgement and planning seem to be “on vacation” in this pbem… [X(]
The night time saw troops landing at Jolo and Manado. A Japanese sub picked off an AK off of Sumatra. A Dutch sub hit a Japanese CM at Jolo, but SS Pike tried to sneak into the invasion at Manado and was whacked hard.
Daylight saw lots of bomber attacks in northern Malaya. But the bombers that counted were a handful of Kates that flew off of a CVL near Ambon and put a torpedo into CL Marblehead. I then thought about having Houston go off after the Japanese TF, but a late afternoon attack by three more Kates put a torpedo into Houston, so it was bye-bye to any offensive moves and hello to run-away-time.
Chinese bombers hit the Japanese troops at Ichang and some more outside of Chengchow. Japanese CAP over Georgetown discouraged Dutch Catalinas from evacuating more of the troops that are trapped there. Surprisingly enough, none of the Cats were shot down.
In land action, artillery bombardments at Ichang were a wash, and Jolo was captured unopposed. A Japanese attack at Manado failed 1:4 with the Japanese taking many more casualties. Manado appears to be a very tough base to take for some reason.
And most importantly, some Japanese troops from the Mersing landing have moved over and cut off the rail line. The rest of the troops in Malaya are on their own now.
Otherwise, I spent a lot of time scratching my head and asking myself “Why, why, why…” as I went over my previous moves. Nothing truly disastrous is occurring, but I am certainly set up to have my initial defences fall apart totally. Oh well, it’s a learning experience.
My opponent is off on vacation but he still has the time to do the occasional turn. From the looks of the results, my judgement and planning seem to be “on vacation” in this pbem… [X(]
The night time saw troops landing at Jolo and Manado. A Japanese sub picked off an AK off of Sumatra. A Dutch sub hit a Japanese CM at Jolo, but SS Pike tried to sneak into the invasion at Manado and was whacked hard.
Daylight saw lots of bomber attacks in northern Malaya. But the bombers that counted were a handful of Kates that flew off of a CVL near Ambon and put a torpedo into CL Marblehead. I then thought about having Houston go off after the Japanese TF, but a late afternoon attack by three more Kates put a torpedo into Houston, so it was bye-bye to any offensive moves and hello to run-away-time.
Chinese bombers hit the Japanese troops at Ichang and some more outside of Chengchow. Japanese CAP over Georgetown discouraged Dutch Catalinas from evacuating more of the troops that are trapped there. Surprisingly enough, none of the Cats were shot down.
In land action, artillery bombardments at Ichang were a wash, and Jolo was captured unopposed. A Japanese attack at Manado failed 1:4 with the Japanese taking many more casualties. Manado appears to be a very tough base to take for some reason.
And most importantly, some Japanese troops from the Mersing landing have moved over and cut off the rail line. The rest of the troops in Malaya are on their own now.
Otherwise, I spent a lot of time scratching my head and asking myself “Why, why, why…” as I went over my previous moves. Nothing truly disastrous is occurring, but I am certainly set up to have my initial defences fall apart totally. Oh well, it’s a learning experience.
Back from a break
December 25, 1941 -
My opponent in this pbem is back from vacation and it appears that we are also recovered from mixing up turns. Now all we have to do is figure out how to get back into some sort of regular routine for this game.
A lot went on this turn. This opponent is doing things quite differently from Nomad, but equally effectively, so it takes a lot of effort for me to adjust between the two different styles. And since now both pbems are roughly at the same point I am getting mixed up as to what I have done in which match. [&:]
In any event, Emirau Island was occupied this turn, Manado was invaded, one of my subs shot off a number of dud torpedoes at Japanese ships at Kuching, and a Japanese cruiser TF bombarded Ambon at night, causing a fair amount of airfield damage as well as damaging a number of Hudsons. I expected to see an invasion TF at Ambon once the day phase started, but instead the Japanese TFs had cleared the area. I guess that this and the CV attack during the previous turn were just raids with the intention of keeping me off balance in the area. In any event, both raids accomplished that and more.
I did have one offensive action, sort of, during the night phase. A small PT TF sailed from Singapore to Mersing and intercepted a Transport TF, but my PT captains turned and ran as soon as they made contact. Now a big Japanese combat TF is heading to Mersing, so there is no point in sending my PT boats back again against that.
There were a number of Japanese fighter sweeps and bomber attacks throughout the Philippines, Malaya and China. At Chengchow I applied the same AVG trap that I used on Nomad and this time the AVG caught a number of unescorted Sallys on a bombing run. The AVG had a good time and my opponent was ticked off because he had thought that he had stood down those Sallys.
Some of my Chinese bombers hit Japanese troops near Chengchow, and some B-17s attempted to attack the Japanese armoured unit that is blocking the road to Singapore, but the B-17s didn't have any luck.
The only ground attacks this turn were unsuccessful artillery attacks at Tsiaotso and Manado. There are a number of Japanese units in on the attack at Manado. I'm not sure why there are so many small units and not one large unit, but I'm certain that they will eventually capture the base if they persist long enough.
My opponent in this pbem is back from vacation and it appears that we are also recovered from mixing up turns. Now all we have to do is figure out how to get back into some sort of regular routine for this game.
A lot went on this turn. This opponent is doing things quite differently from Nomad, but equally effectively, so it takes a lot of effort for me to adjust between the two different styles. And since now both pbems are roughly at the same point I am getting mixed up as to what I have done in which match. [&:]
In any event, Emirau Island was occupied this turn, Manado was invaded, one of my subs shot off a number of dud torpedoes at Japanese ships at Kuching, and a Japanese cruiser TF bombarded Ambon at night, causing a fair amount of airfield damage as well as damaging a number of Hudsons. I expected to see an invasion TF at Ambon once the day phase started, but instead the Japanese TFs had cleared the area. I guess that this and the CV attack during the previous turn were just raids with the intention of keeping me off balance in the area. In any event, both raids accomplished that and more.
I did have one offensive action, sort of, during the night phase. A small PT TF sailed from Singapore to Mersing and intercepted a Transport TF, but my PT captains turned and ran as soon as they made contact. Now a big Japanese combat TF is heading to Mersing, so there is no point in sending my PT boats back again against that.
There were a number of Japanese fighter sweeps and bomber attacks throughout the Philippines, Malaya and China. At Chengchow I applied the same AVG trap that I used on Nomad and this time the AVG caught a number of unescorted Sallys on a bombing run. The AVG had a good time and my opponent was ticked off because he had thought that he had stood down those Sallys.
Some of my Chinese bombers hit Japanese troops near Chengchow, and some B-17s attempted to attack the Japanese armoured unit that is blocking the road to Singapore, but the B-17s didn't have any luck.
The only ground attacks this turn were unsuccessful artillery attacks at Tsiaotso and Manado. There are a number of Japanese units in on the attack at Manado. I'm not sure why there are so many small units and not one large unit, but I'm certain that they will eventually capture the base if they persist long enough.
Caught at PM early
December 26, 1941 -
I'm now down to one pbem, the original one that I started, so I spent some time to look over things carefully. It wasn't pretty at all. To a good extent it looked as if I had planned my original set-up as if I were playing the AI again, which is a Very Bad Thing to do against an agressive human opponent such as Richard. So I spent a LOT of time this evening re-planning, reorganizing, and doing a huge number of drop-back-five-yards-and-punt type moves all over the map.
Now down to the details of the turn. First off, the night phase. Burias was occupied automatically, after which landings kept on occuring at Manado. Then the first taste of the approach of my opponent appeared as a Japanese sub attacked and sank an AK near Wyndham. The sub commander was very persistant and stuck around to be attacked by some US DDs, and then to try to attack more DDs in turn.
Daylight brought Bettys plus Japanese Army bombers hitting the troops at Clark Field. There were also plenty of Japanese bomber attacks over coastal China. But then various Japanese aircraft started to show up in novel places, such as over Suva, and my own Patrol planes noticed some Japanese ships just south of Port Moresby.
Huh???!!!
Sure enough, later on in the day phase the Japanese TF near PM turned out to contain some CVs which happily launched some deadly short range Val attacks on the AM and AKL that were unloading supplies at PM. It's usually hard to keep PM supplied, but not usually THIS hard this early!
In ground combat there was an artillery duel at Tsiaotso that ended up with no effect on either side. There are also an artillery duel at Ichang that caused few casualties. It appears that my opponent is pulling back at least one unit from Ichang, but I don't think that he is giving it up to me yet.
And yes, Manado finally fell this turn. The garrison surrendered and the Base Force retreated to the nearby dot base.
Later, while I was working on the turn I found more interesting observations:
- There is a Japanese sub hanging around the south-west corner of Tasmania
- Japanese troops are marching up the road from Naga to Altimon
- Japanese troops appear to have stopped in Cabanatuon and Lingayen
- There is a big stack of Japanese troops crossing the jungle towards Moulmein but they aren't on the coastal road.
Right now it appears that my opponent is going to mix lighting naval raids with systematic ground attacks in order to keep me off balance. My forces are not currently set up to respond effectively to this approach, so I am pulling my forces further back while I take the time to come up with an appropriate response. I do not want to react piecemeal to my opponent.
I'm now down to one pbem, the original one that I started, so I spent some time to look over things carefully. It wasn't pretty at all. To a good extent it looked as if I had planned my original set-up as if I were playing the AI again, which is a Very Bad Thing to do against an agressive human opponent such as Richard. So I spent a LOT of time this evening re-planning, reorganizing, and doing a huge number of drop-back-five-yards-and-punt type moves all over the map.
Now down to the details of the turn. First off, the night phase. Burias was occupied automatically, after which landings kept on occuring at Manado. Then the first taste of the approach of my opponent appeared as a Japanese sub attacked and sank an AK near Wyndham. The sub commander was very persistant and stuck around to be attacked by some US DDs, and then to try to attack more DDs in turn.
Daylight brought Bettys plus Japanese Army bombers hitting the troops at Clark Field. There were also plenty of Japanese bomber attacks over coastal China. But then various Japanese aircraft started to show up in novel places, such as over Suva, and my own Patrol planes noticed some Japanese ships just south of Port Moresby.
Huh???!!!
Sure enough, later on in the day phase the Japanese TF near PM turned out to contain some CVs which happily launched some deadly short range Val attacks on the AM and AKL that were unloading supplies at PM. It's usually hard to keep PM supplied, but not usually THIS hard this early!
In ground combat there was an artillery duel at Tsiaotso that ended up with no effect on either side. There are also an artillery duel at Ichang that caused few casualties. It appears that my opponent is pulling back at least one unit from Ichang, but I don't think that he is giving it up to me yet.
And yes, Manado finally fell this turn. The garrison surrendered and the Base Force retreated to the nearby dot base.
Later, while I was working on the turn I found more interesting observations:
- There is a Japanese sub hanging around the south-west corner of Tasmania
- Japanese troops are marching up the road from Naga to Altimon
- Japanese troops appear to have stopped in Cabanatuon and Lingayen
- There is a big stack of Japanese troops crossing the jungle towards Moulmein but they aren't on the coastal road.
Right now it appears that my opponent is going to mix lighting naval raids with systematic ground attacks in order to keep me off balance. My forces are not currently set up to respond effectively to this approach, so I am pulling my forces further back while I take the time to come up with an appropriate response. I do not want to react piecemeal to my opponent.
Port Moresby Invaded! December 27, 1941
December 27, 1941 –
The might of Imperial Japan struck in a decisive manner this turn as what appeared last turn to be a raid on Port Moresby became a full-fledged invasion this turn. And my opponent is not fooling around with this attack; in addition to a contingent of the KB standing off the coast, the invasion TF includes BB Yamashio and a CL, and there is also a surface combat TF near by that contains BB Kirishima and another CL. There is no force that I have in the entire Pacific that can stand up to the power that is present at Port Moresby. One of my US subs did attempt an attack, but it couldn’t hit any of its targets.
Surprisingly, my Australian troops were able to hit the incoming invasion transports repeatedly, although there aren’t any dedicated CD guns at PM. But the various anti-aircraft guns were used very effectively and a number of Japanese ships were damaged at close range. Never-the-less, the Japanese 4th Division was able to land and my troops are no match for it.
BTW, one thing that compounded the surprise of this Japanese operation was that there have been no Japanese landings on the north shore of PNG. I presume that my opponent will pick up those bases later at his convenience since I already airlifted all of the Australian troops out of the region and into PM.
This display of force has convinced me that there is no hope at all at this time for my attempt to establish a Forward Defence since there is no way that I can bring into play any significant quantity of forces at this time. So instead of throwing away piecemeal my current forces I am pulling them back even further and regrouping. Port Moresby will fall in a turn or two, and afterwards there is no way I can stop a further Japanese advance like this outside of the US West Coast, or maybe the southeast corner of Australia or the Hawaiian Islands. North-eastern Australia and the South Pacific Islands cannot be held or even contested strongly at this time.
The other thing this emphasizes is the horrific position in Australia due to a lack of fighter units. Once my opponent captures PM he can bomb north-eastern Australia to his heart’s content and I have no means to stop him. It will take a month or more to move any US fighters from the West Coast to Australia, and even those P-40s that are due to arrive in Australia in mid-February are too weak and untrained to accomplish much. So I have decided instead to start to move the British fighters from Singapore to Oz. Singapore is already a lost cause and if I can get the British Buffalos to eastern Australia I can prevent unescorted bomber attacks from Port Moresby. But if my opponent lands in north-eastern Australia next, even the British Buffalos won’t help against Zeros on escort.
So the overall situation looks grim and I am re-thinking all of my current plans. One major change that I am implementing immediately is that I will not attempt to set up a major defence of Ceylon. Instead I will move out my better units and put them in India. I am also re-building units all over India and Australia. There is no point in having lots of little broken-up base forces and infantry units spread all over the map because I am not going to be defending against small raids, but against Division-sized attacks. So I will give up territory in order to concentrate my forces into areas where I can form better and stronger defences.
Back to the turn, there were lots of Japanese bomber attacks throughout the Philippines and northern Malaya. My opponent is not giving any of my forces in those regions any time to rest and prepare. Japanese carrier bombers also attacked my forces at Port Moresby. There were lots of reports of damaged planes, but AA fire can only do so much. The only ground combat reports this turn were of inconclusive artillery duels at Tsiaotso and Ichang. And some dot-base named Vanimo was automatically occupied by the Japanese.
I’m only glad that I’m not playing Scenario 2!
The might of Imperial Japan struck in a decisive manner this turn as what appeared last turn to be a raid on Port Moresby became a full-fledged invasion this turn. And my opponent is not fooling around with this attack; in addition to a contingent of the KB standing off the coast, the invasion TF includes BB Yamashio and a CL, and there is also a surface combat TF near by that contains BB Kirishima and another CL. There is no force that I have in the entire Pacific that can stand up to the power that is present at Port Moresby. One of my US subs did attempt an attack, but it couldn’t hit any of its targets.
Surprisingly, my Australian troops were able to hit the incoming invasion transports repeatedly, although there aren’t any dedicated CD guns at PM. But the various anti-aircraft guns were used very effectively and a number of Japanese ships were damaged at close range. Never-the-less, the Japanese 4th Division was able to land and my troops are no match for it.
BTW, one thing that compounded the surprise of this Japanese operation was that there have been no Japanese landings on the north shore of PNG. I presume that my opponent will pick up those bases later at his convenience since I already airlifted all of the Australian troops out of the region and into PM.
This display of force has convinced me that there is no hope at all at this time for my attempt to establish a Forward Defence since there is no way that I can bring into play any significant quantity of forces at this time. So instead of throwing away piecemeal my current forces I am pulling them back even further and regrouping. Port Moresby will fall in a turn or two, and afterwards there is no way I can stop a further Japanese advance like this outside of the US West Coast, or maybe the southeast corner of Australia or the Hawaiian Islands. North-eastern Australia and the South Pacific Islands cannot be held or even contested strongly at this time.
The other thing this emphasizes is the horrific position in Australia due to a lack of fighter units. Once my opponent captures PM he can bomb north-eastern Australia to his heart’s content and I have no means to stop him. It will take a month or more to move any US fighters from the West Coast to Australia, and even those P-40s that are due to arrive in Australia in mid-February are too weak and untrained to accomplish much. So I have decided instead to start to move the British fighters from Singapore to Oz. Singapore is already a lost cause and if I can get the British Buffalos to eastern Australia I can prevent unescorted bomber attacks from Port Moresby. But if my opponent lands in north-eastern Australia next, even the British Buffalos won’t help against Zeros on escort.
So the overall situation looks grim and I am re-thinking all of my current plans. One major change that I am implementing immediately is that I will not attempt to set up a major defence of Ceylon. Instead I will move out my better units and put them in India. I am also re-building units all over India and Australia. There is no point in having lots of little broken-up base forces and infantry units spread all over the map because I am not going to be defending against small raids, but against Division-sized attacks. So I will give up territory in order to concentrate my forces into areas where I can form better and stronger defences.
Back to the turn, there were lots of Japanese bomber attacks throughout the Philippines and northern Malaya. My opponent is not giving any of my forces in those regions any time to rest and prepare. Japanese carrier bombers also attacked my forces at Port Moresby. There were lots of reports of damaged planes, but AA fire can only do so much. The only ground combat reports this turn were of inconclusive artillery duels at Tsiaotso and Ichang. And some dot-base named Vanimo was automatically occupied by the Japanese.
I’m only glad that I’m not playing Scenario 2!
Port Moresby Captured! December 28, 1941
December 28, 1941 –
The disaster at Port Moresby continued to unfold this turn as more invasion TFs started to land their troops. The valiant Australian defenders once again used their AA guns to fire at and hit the invasion transport ships, but the big guns of the escorts answered back even more. Then an additional show of force appeared – a Japanese bombardment TF containing three more battleships and two more light cruisers came in to hammer the defenders.
Daylight brought more air attacks on the beleaguered Australians from the carrier bombers offshore. Plenty of planes were hit by flak, but losses were light and the damage inflicted by the aerial bombardments was high. Then another part of the picture fell into place as a different Japanese transport TF started to land troops at Milne Bay.
By the end of the day the Japanese invaders were ready and with one massive attack they dislodged the Australian defenders, capturing Port Moresby and pushing the Australian troops up the jungle road towards Buna. I gave the Australian troops orders to march towards the unoccupied coast instead of towards Buna in the hopes of eventually trying to pull some troops out via seaplane. But as I went over the turn there was already an Aircraft symbol at Port Moresby, so the chances of pulling off any sort of rescue became even dimmer.
Things didn’t go much better elsewhere. Swarms of Japanese bombers hit my troops in the Philippines and northern Malaya. A Japanese sub followed and harassed a TF that I had retiring from Suva towards Auckland. My escort ships kept the Japanese sub at bay, but the progress and direction of my TF was made obvious by the pursuit of the persistent submarine. The only Allied sub attack this turn resulted in a missed attack by a US sub on a Japanese heavy cruiser in the Philippines.
The only other land combat was at Ichang where a single Japanese regiment attempted an artillery attack on the besieging Chinese troops. This was not a good idea and the Japanese troops took a number of casualties while inflicting none on the Chinese troops. As I had suspected, my opponent is pulling his troops back from his salient at Ichang. It makes sense, and once my opponent pulls out that last regiment I’ll capture the base and stabilize my lines in that region.
So I ended up spending almost as much time on this turn as I usually spend on the second turn of a Game. I gave marching orders to scores of LCUs, repositioned and changed orders for dozens of Air Units, and moved countless ships to safer locations in response to the changing state of the front lines. Already the Philippines are isolated, Malaya is cut in half and Singapore is isolated, Rabaul and Port Moresby are in enemy hands, and I still have no idea of where the bulk of the Japanese forces are currently located or are heading.
My opponent did a masterful job of feinting at Ambon while bringing his invasion forces to Port Moresby without my noticing them. Of course, one of the reasons that I didn’t notice the incoming invasion forces was that I had all of my Australian seaplanes flying troop recovery missions rather than being on Patrol. But then, even if I had seen the oncoming Japanese earlier I would not have been able to do more than I already did. I have no fighters in Australia or the South Pacific to provide air cover, and the only battleship that I have in the entire Pacific just got out of the repair yards in Seattle.
So I am continuing my attempt to find a way to set up some defensive lines. Right now my immediate plans include making stands at New Zealand, south-eastern Australia, Pearl Harbor, and mainland India. I will not actively contest Japanese landings at north-eastern Australia, the South Pacific, or Ceylon for at least the next few months. However, if Timor and Darwin are not subject to lighting raids during the next few days I should start to get some of the British fighter squadrons from Singapore into Australia.
I am doing the best that I can to amalgamate my forces in the Philippines, Dutch East Indies and Malaya. I will have my troops in those regions huddle back into a few strongholds and fight as best as they can against the eventual Japanese attacks. In Burma I’ve changed my plans totally and will no longer attempt a stand at Rangoon. Instead I am moving every unit that I can to India.
The disaster at Port Moresby continued to unfold this turn as more invasion TFs started to land their troops. The valiant Australian defenders once again used their AA guns to fire at and hit the invasion transport ships, but the big guns of the escorts answered back even more. Then an additional show of force appeared – a Japanese bombardment TF containing three more battleships and two more light cruisers came in to hammer the defenders.
Daylight brought more air attacks on the beleaguered Australians from the carrier bombers offshore. Plenty of planes were hit by flak, but losses were light and the damage inflicted by the aerial bombardments was high. Then another part of the picture fell into place as a different Japanese transport TF started to land troops at Milne Bay.
By the end of the day the Japanese invaders were ready and with one massive attack they dislodged the Australian defenders, capturing Port Moresby and pushing the Australian troops up the jungle road towards Buna. I gave the Australian troops orders to march towards the unoccupied coast instead of towards Buna in the hopes of eventually trying to pull some troops out via seaplane. But as I went over the turn there was already an Aircraft symbol at Port Moresby, so the chances of pulling off any sort of rescue became even dimmer.
Things didn’t go much better elsewhere. Swarms of Japanese bombers hit my troops in the Philippines and northern Malaya. A Japanese sub followed and harassed a TF that I had retiring from Suva towards Auckland. My escort ships kept the Japanese sub at bay, but the progress and direction of my TF was made obvious by the pursuit of the persistent submarine. The only Allied sub attack this turn resulted in a missed attack by a US sub on a Japanese heavy cruiser in the Philippines.
The only other land combat was at Ichang where a single Japanese regiment attempted an artillery attack on the besieging Chinese troops. This was not a good idea and the Japanese troops took a number of casualties while inflicting none on the Chinese troops. As I had suspected, my opponent is pulling his troops back from his salient at Ichang. It makes sense, and once my opponent pulls out that last regiment I’ll capture the base and stabilize my lines in that region.
So I ended up spending almost as much time on this turn as I usually spend on the second turn of a Game. I gave marching orders to scores of LCUs, repositioned and changed orders for dozens of Air Units, and moved countless ships to safer locations in response to the changing state of the front lines. Already the Philippines are isolated, Malaya is cut in half and Singapore is isolated, Rabaul and Port Moresby are in enemy hands, and I still have no idea of where the bulk of the Japanese forces are currently located or are heading.
My opponent did a masterful job of feinting at Ambon while bringing his invasion forces to Port Moresby without my noticing them. Of course, one of the reasons that I didn’t notice the incoming invasion forces was that I had all of my Australian seaplanes flying troop recovery missions rather than being on Patrol. But then, even if I had seen the oncoming Japanese earlier I would not have been able to do more than I already did. I have no fighters in Australia or the South Pacific to provide air cover, and the only battleship that I have in the entire Pacific just got out of the repair yards in Seattle.
So I am continuing my attempt to find a way to set up some defensive lines. Right now my immediate plans include making stands at New Zealand, south-eastern Australia, Pearl Harbor, and mainland India. I will not actively contest Japanese landings at north-eastern Australia, the South Pacific, or Ceylon for at least the next few months. However, if Timor and Darwin are not subject to lighting raids during the next few days I should start to get some of the British fighter squadrons from Singapore into Australia.
I am doing the best that I can to amalgamate my forces in the Philippines, Dutch East Indies and Malaya. I will have my troops in those regions huddle back into a few strongholds and fight as best as they can against the eventual Japanese attacks. In Burma I’ve changed my plans totally and will no longer attempt a stand at Rangoon. Instead I am moving every unit that I can to India.
A Dutch sub goes wild
December 29, 1941 -
This was a much less traumatic turn for me, and there was at least one dim little light at the end of the tunnel. The turn started out with Tioman Island being automatically occupied, and then a Dutch sub got into action near French Indo China. The sub first put a torpedo into a Japanese tanker, and then got into a surface fight with a Japanese AK. The Dutch sub eventually sank the AK through a combination of shells and torpedoes, although the AK did get on hit on the sub. But the sub will be okay and they will have much to celebrate when they get back into port for repairs and rearming.
Japanese air units were busy all over the Philippines, Malaya and China. My opponent had Zeros sweeping over Tarakan and Kendari for some unknown reason. Perhaps he thinks that I am going to try to set bomber traps there with my Dutch fighters. And the retiring Japanese CV TF sent off a couple of spectacular strikes against my retreating Australian troops in the jungles of PNG. That seemed to be an strange use of valuable aircraft, but I won't complain if the odd Kate or Val go down thanks to flak.
The only ground battles were artillery duels at Tsiaotso and Ichang. The battle at Tsiaotso was a wash, but once again the lone Japanese regiment at Ichang got the short end of the stick in it's attack. I'm getting a little tired of this so I am sending some bombers in to hit that unit next turn. And finally, Milne Bay was captured this turn.
This was a much less traumatic turn for me, and there was at least one dim little light at the end of the tunnel. The turn started out with Tioman Island being automatically occupied, and then a Dutch sub got into action near French Indo China. The sub first put a torpedo into a Japanese tanker, and then got into a surface fight with a Japanese AK. The Dutch sub eventually sank the AK through a combination of shells and torpedoes, although the AK did get on hit on the sub. But the sub will be okay and they will have much to celebrate when they get back into port for repairs and rearming.
Japanese air units were busy all over the Philippines, Malaya and China. My opponent had Zeros sweeping over Tarakan and Kendari for some unknown reason. Perhaps he thinks that I am going to try to set bomber traps there with my Dutch fighters. And the retiring Japanese CV TF sent off a couple of spectacular strikes against my retreating Australian troops in the jungles of PNG. That seemed to be an strange use of valuable aircraft, but I won't complain if the odd Kate or Val go down thanks to flak.
The only ground battles were artillery duels at Tsiaotso and Ichang. The battle at Tsiaotso was a wash, but once again the lone Japanese regiment at Ichang got the short end of the stick in it's attack. I'm getting a little tired of this so I am sending some bombers in to hit that unit next turn. And finally, Milne Bay was captured this turn.