Against the Wind: Cuttlefish (Japan) vs. Q-Ball (Allies)

[fflaguna]

A present for a wonderful thread: Someone's favorite DD in full color. You can find more here: http://blog.livedoor.jp/irootoko_jr/

[Capt. Harlock]

A marvelous piece of work! But it would go better in Cuttlefish's other AAR, "Lives for the Emperor".

[fflaguna]

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

A marvelous piece of work! But it would go better in Cuttlefish's other AAR, "Lives for the Emperor".

Reopening old wounds?

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

ORIGINAL: Miller

The early Tojo and Tony are worse than the Oscar II in my opinion. All you get is an extra pair of 7.7mm guns and a higher top speed at the expense of greatly reduced range and manouverability. Until the later versions appear in mid/late 43 I will be sticking with the Oscar.

This may well be true. I think I will go ahead, though, and upgrade at least one unit and test them in combat before I decide. The Oscar is a good plane in AE but with that gun value of 6 they sometimes resemble a swarm of moths trying to bite something to death.

Of course, the Japanese have been known to come up with some mighty big moths...

I'm pretty sure that moths do not have mouthparts capable of biting...

True. (I was an entomologist in a former life.)

[ckammp]

Bump.
 
And Mothra can, in fact, bite.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: ckammp

Bump.

And Mothra can, in fact, bite.

I thought Mothra had some sort of sonic wave attack coupled with wing downdrafts that blew Godzilla off its feet?

ETA: Please see attached. Once again, Mothra doesn't bite, but looks as though her larvae are dishing out a can of whoop a**.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bhoWfC1L9k

ETA II: What a lame-o enemy for Godzilla. [8|] Bring on Rodan or Monster X, for goodness sake.

[NormS3]

I think some people know too much about this subject . . .[:D]

[Cuttlefish]

Okay, moths can't bite. Understood. I guess Oscars can't be like moths, then, because they no longer suck in AE...

[Canoerebel]

Can we change the topic to the proboscis?

[Cuttlefish]

[font="Arial"]The large ground organization of modern air force is its Achilles’ heel.[/font]
- B.H. Liddell Hart: Thoughts on War, 1943

10/19/1942 – 10/28/1942

Much has happened since I last had a chance to update this. The focus of the war remains in the Timor area but there have been developments in Burma and China as well.

In Timor the situation, broadly speaking, is unchanged. Q-Ball’s forces have invaded Lautem but have so far been unable to take the base. My efforts to draw him into a carrier battle on my terms have been unsuccessful and so I have been concentrating on what seems to be his weak point in the area, his fighters. Meanwhile he is expanding facilities at captured bases and is no doubt contemplating his next step.

After my carriers attacked some of his tankers off Australia his own carriers lunged out of the Sulu Sea into the southern reaches of the Java Sea. I had anticipated this and had made sure my own shipping had cleared the area but he caught some of my warships that were too slow moving up the Makassar Strait and sank CA Mogami and DD Murasame. The loss of Mogami marked the sinking of first Japanese capital ship of the war.

My carriers moved back to within strike range of his base at Waingapu. He launched an air strike from there that cost him about 10 Kittyhawks and 35 Dauntlesses for no gain at all, then, when my carriers pulled back a little, sent an xAK out to see if they were still there. They were, the AK was lost, and my carriers remained in position for a turn to see if Q-Ball wanted to give battle. He declined so they returned to Soerabaja to refuel.

Meanwhile Allied heavy bombers raided Ambon. The first attack cost him 10 or 11 of the escorting P-38s. The second attack came in unescorted and he lost about 6 heavies. After that the attacks stopped. That’s when my own bombers at Ambon, who I had tried for several turns to persuade to attack his invasion force at Lautem, finally struck. Unfortunately most of the Zeros didn’t fly and the ones that did lost contact with the raid and turned back. I lost over two dozen Bettys to no result. Ouch. The fighters were set to the same altitude and everything, but sometimes even if you set everything correctly things go wrong. Fortunes of war and all that.

Since then Japanese fighters have swept both Waingapu and Koepang, shooting down about 26 fighters for a loss of 10 planes. The P-38s seem to have disappeared and the defense right now is being borne by Kittyhawks, Wildcats, and Hurricanes. I have ordered more sweeps and a bombing run at Waingapu, hoping to erode his air power in the area further.

Makassar has quickly become a viable Japanese air base and ground troops have reinforced all major Japanese bases in the area. Lately I have begun to eye the two unoccupied bases on the southeastern coast of Borneo, Sampit and Bandjermasin, with concern. If Q-Ball is able to advance again capturing one or both of these bases would put me in a bad position. I need more find some more troops somewhere to cover these bases. Too many bases, not enough units, that’s a major Japanese theme in AE.

Burma: some bad news here, as the Japanese 56th regiment was attacked and wiped out near Myitkyina. This event puzzled both Q-Ball and I. We have seen the tattered remnants of Dutch and Chinese units survive odds of 200 to 1 and then set off across several hundred miles of hostile territory in retreat. Why a Japanese regiment that still had some fight left in it would be annihilated by a 37 to 1 odds attack is a mystery.

Otherwise the situation in Burma has stabilized for the moment. He is sending troops around to Lashio but I have been able to reinforce there and I think he will be thwarted if he attacks.

China: the “sausage grinder” continues to grind away south of Changsa. Meanwhile Japanese troops (four divisions, engineers, and six artillery units) have moved into Liuchow and begun bombarding the sizeable garrison there while a smaller force has entered Kweilin to block reinforcements. The supply situation in China seems to have finally evened out with the last hotfix and the persistent yellow and red exclamation points over my bases are slowly disappearing.

Shipping News: having identified the patrol zones of Q-Ball’s submarines with some accuracy I have dramatically cut down on sub attacks against my shipping near the Home Islands by the simple expedient of routing all my task forces a little out of their old paths. No doubt Q-Ball with catch onto this before long but for the moment it is a relief to not have daily attacks against my poor merchant ships. One tanker was hit in the Luzon Strait but wonder of wonders the big ship survived the hit and made it to Hong Kong for repairs.

Meanwhile I have observed that it is hard for either side to hit a submarine in deep water, though Allied forces seem to be a bit better at it than Japanese forces (as it should be). Even Allied submarines caught in a hostile port, however, are lucky to escape unscathed. I have pounded a number of Allied subs in my bases lately and might have even sunk one or two, it’s hard to say.

The current situation in southern China:

[BrucePowers]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Can we change the topic to the proboscis?

Please don't[:D]

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: BrucePowers

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Can we change the topic to the proboscis?

Please don't[:D]

Awww....just when it was getting interesting...[:(]

[Cuttlefish]

[font="Arial"]Victory will come to the side that outlasts the other.[/font]
- Ferdinand Foch: Order during the battle of the Marne, 7 September 1914

---

10/29/1942 – 10/31/1942

Good news and bad around Timor and Flores. We have traded blows though none have been particularly telling. The war in the skies has been fierce and his losses heavy, but this kind of aerial trench warfare will favor the Allies in the end.

On 29 October Zeros from Makassar swept Waingapu, followed by Sallys and Oscars from Soerabaja raiding the airfield there, followed by a KB strike against shipping in the harbor. By the time KB’s bombers showed up his CAP had been swept from the skies and the Vals were unopposed in hitting an APD and three small Dutch APs. It is hard to assess enemy losses; I lost six fighters and six Sallys and put his losses somewhere around 15 fighters.

On 30 October my Bettys at Ambon finally struck to some effect, sinking two xAKLs and two more small Dutch APs at Lautem. A few Allied fighters on LRCAP went down, one Zero was lost.

On 31 October a Japanese destroyer division hit Waingapu in a night attack but were intercepted by four British battleships and escorts. CL Nagara and DD Kawakaze were heavily damaged and sunk the next day by planes from Waingapu (though Zeros did down a couple of Wildcats and a couple of SBDs). Aside from inconsequential hits on the BBs the only damaged ship on the Allied side was DD Jupiter. Japanese bombers from Ambon struck again but scored no hits, though around 5 Allied fighters went down.

Q-Ball then sent about 40 heavies against Ambon and though they were met by two dozen Zeros only one B-17 was shot down. Damage to the airfield was fairly heavy, though no planes were lost on the ground. A lot of the B-17s and B-24s were riddled with bullets, though, so with luck it will be a few days before that kind of force can fly again.

Right now KB is off Makassar covering transport convoys delivering an infantry regiment and supplies to the base there. I have them positioned just out of LBA range. His main force is in the Savu Sea. Both of us, I think, are trying to engineer a carrier battle on favorable terms (i.e, with the help of friendly LBA) and neither of us is succeeding. The situation very much resembles two fencers tapping swords and occasionally feinting but neither committing to an all-out lunge. It’s a fascinating duel, almost unique in my WITP/AE experience.

The harsh reality, though, is that I don’t see any hope of pushing him out of his ill-gotten gains. His LBA in the area was established with more speed that I thought possible – he must have brought a lot of engineers with him, aiming for exactly that. Even if I defeat his carriers now the best I can really hope for is to contain him and prevent him from expanding his bridgehead into the DEI. This would not be a terrible result, but it isn’t idea either. And of course as ’42 gives way to ’43 the fact is that the Allied juggernaut can only be contained for so long.

[InHarmsWay]

Cuttlefish,

From you comment, it sounds like he may be there to stay, what are your plans moving forward long term with oil/fuel. I would expect there is a tradeoff shipping wise between bringing up reinforcement and stripping the DEI of as much resources as possible. Have you "written off" any of the oil / resources bases yet as being too close to the action to risk convoys? and any thoughts on removing oil / fuel from palambang quicker than is usual? I would consider using the tankers to pull oil and rounding up a bunch of AKs to pull fuel. At the same time get as much naval support there as possible to expedite the loading. on the other side of the coin, thoughts on slowing the Japanese economy ( reduced merchant production, etc...) to help stockpile fuel?

Adm Harmasaki

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: InHarmsWay

Cuttlefish,

From you comment, it sounds like he may be there to stay, what are your plans moving forward long term with oil/fuel. I would expect there is a tradeoff shipping wise between bringing up reinforcement and stripping the DEI of as much resources as possible. Have you "written off" any of the oil / resources bases yet as being too close to the action to risk convoys? and any thoughts on removing oil / fuel from palambang quicker than is usual? I would consider using the tankers to pull oil and rounding up a bunch of AKs to pull fuel. At the same time get as much naval support there as possible to expedite the loading. on the other side of the coin, thoughts on slowing the Japanese economy ( reduced merchant production, etc...) to help stockpile fuel?

Adm Harmasaki

So far Q-Ball's gains do not pose a threat to any of my existing fuel/oil/resource shipping. The closest base that I am actively shipping fuel out of is Balikpapan and if he gets much closer that will be under threat, though. I am planning on draining much of the fuel there by the simple expedient of using it to refuel KB and the Combined Fleet, when it finally arrives from Japan.

As far as slowing down the Japanese economy, I am in a good position to do so. My losses this game have been relatively light and I don't need to be producing planes and merchant ships full-bore right now. Previous experience has taught me that the time to begin conserving is before the crunch hits, not after, so I have been gradually slowing things down and will continue to do so.

[Cuttlefish]

[font="Arial"]I had never heard of a battle in which everybody was killed, but this seemed likely to be an exception, as all were going by turns.[/font]
- Captain John Kinkaid: Adventures with the Rifle Brigade, 1815

---

11/1/1942 – 11/2/1942

We have fought our first carrier battle. Sort of a carrier battle, anyway. And I sort of won. Or maybe I sort of lost. It was a strange battle.

I kept my carriers next to Makassar while troops unloaded and on 1 November Q-Ball advanced his carriers into the Banda Sea (I think – I never saw them) to give battle. My carriers were attacked in four waves, two of carrier planes and two of land-based aircraft. No Japanese attacks were launched because, as I said, my search pilots must have all decided to take the day off.

On the plus side, however, no attacks meant that I had about 300 Zeros, including the ones based at Makassar, for defense. About half or a bit more of them flew, enough to shred the attacking Allied planes. The results were one-sided, to say the least. I shot down somewhere around 120 planes (the scoreboard said 125, the air losses screen said 131) at a cost of exactly 3 Zeros. Call it 55 bombers, mostly SBDs and a scattering of 2-and-4-engine bombers, plus about 65 fighters, Kittyhawks (the new K model) and Warhawks and Wildcats (mostly) and P-38s. Zounds!

As that was far from all the planes attacking me I took some hits. Kaga took one bomb and is at 20 sys damage. Junyo was hit three times and is at 44 sys/24 float/11 engine damage. These carriers have been detached and sent back to Singapore.

I left the remaining carriers about where they were for the next turn but Q-Ball’s carriers had gone away and the Allied LBA stayed at home. He did capture Lautem, though.

I think that two moderately damaged carriers is a cheap price for that many Allied aircraft. The battle, however, leaves me pondering several things. First, how did all my search planes, both carrier and land-based, miss him? That worries me. Second, it is clear that things are much changed in AE from what they were. I think that in WITP I would have downed even more of his planes, suffered more losses myself, and probably wouldn’t have taken the hits. What I had in this battle was as much of an Uber-CAP as Japan can ever expect to get and still about half of the attacking bombers got through (those SBDs are pretty good at defending themselves from Zeros!).

The last question I have is how many losses does it take before an Allied player feels the pain? Or is there perhaps no level of losses that hurts? I really don’t know what Allied aircraft production looks like in AE in late ‘42. I suspect the pain level probably varies from aircraft model to aircraft model. Pilot quality is another issue as well. All of my front-line Zero and Oscar pilots are highly skilled and based on the results his pilots are considerably less so. If losses like these help drive down the average experience level of his pilots the loss ratio might continue to run in my favor.

One can hope, anyway.

[d0mbo]

Cuttlefish,
 
At 3 bomb hits that CVL has relatively little damage, considering that CV's could (and would) sink after as little as one hit.
 
Where these 500lb or 1000lb hits?
 
3x1000lb of explosives should sink a CVL, i guess.
 
Bottom line: i think you shouldn't be too downhearted about this result and keep up the good work!
 
 

[Panther Bait]

From other threads on the forum, SBDs seem to be in short supply, so losing 50 of those must hurt some.
 
Mike
 

[FatR]

As far as I know, Allies don't automaticaly get lots of high-experience pilots late in the war in AE, so having carrier squadrons decimated must hurt. These are best Allied starting pilots and they had lots of time to train.

Also, do you intend to fly squadrons from retreating carriers to the local airfields, Cuttlefish?

[Laxplayer]

It will definitely hurt to lose the planes and pilots, but as long as he didn't go and upgrade squadrons left and right, he probably can accept those losses. The Wildcats (both 3s and 4s) are probably the roughest to replace. Warhawks, particularly the K model, have good replacement rates, so he may be fine with those. Depending on how many SBDs you shot down, and how many USMC DB squadrons he's upgraded to SBD-3s, this could either be a devastating loss that would take months to recover from (since the ability to downgrade USMC DB units to free up SBD-3s is pathetic at best), or... it could have simply emptied his pool.

For comparison's sake, I am currently just entering March 42 in a game I'm in where I have only upgraded maybe one or two USMC DB squadrons to SBD-3s and I am currently at 57 SBD-3's in my pool after 3 months.