Nomad (J) vs ADB123 (A) - Last Stand at Balboa

[Canoerebel]

Good post, ABD.  Ah, the fun of being a commander in the Pacific War!

[ADB123]

December 29, 1941 -

The only night action this turn was one of my US subs firing dud torpedoes at a Japanese ship off of the coast of French Indo China. Nomad is likely planning some major operation, and I'm not operating any surface ships in the battle zone other than a few PT boats, so things ought to stay this way for a while.

Daylight brought back Japanese fighter sweeps followed by bombing runs over Clark and northern Malaya. Nomad is now focussing his air attacks with combinations of sweeps and escorted bombing runs, so there are no easy pickin's for me at this time. And given that the weather is fairly lousy all over the top third of the map I don't have good reason to send out many air attacks anyway. The only Allied attack this turn was a squadron of Chinese light bombers hitting some Japanese troops out in the open near Ichang.

The only ground action was at Georgetown where a Japanese armoured regiment easily defeated the defending troops who surrendered. That armoured unit is now free to move down the coast to the next lightly defended base.

In central Malaya the 18th Division showed up a hex away from Temuloh. The 8th Indian Brigade needs one more day to get ready and then one more day to ship out on the railroad to Singapore. I really want to get them back to Singapore so that I can recombine that Indian Division. In order to try to help get those two days for the 8th Brigade I moved another squadron of B-17s to Singapore and ordered them to attack the 18th Division. It will be interesting to see how much LR CAP Nomad has over his troops. (It's a good thing that Nomad didn't send an armoured regiment down that road to Temuloh or they would have caught and hammered my retreating troops long ago.)

In Luzon Nomad continues to build up his forces at Clark Field. It looks as if he doesn't want to take any chances with a long siege. However, he hasn't cut off Clark yet, so it will be interesting to see how this unfolds.

BTW – Cagayan continues to be left alone. The fortifications are now up to Level 2. Unfortunately, the terrain is bad, so the four little outlying units are taking forever to march to the base. But a nice byproduct of the tardy Japanese invasion will show up in two days – another sizable Philippine infantry division. I should end up with several hundred AV worth of troops there by the time Nomad finally decides to invade.

The Big News for me is that the first Reinforcement TF arrived at Pearl this turn. An Army regiment, a Marine Regiment, and several base forces will unload and start to immediately contribute to the defences of the Island. I also sent off a second repair TF towards California. Again there are several ships with minor damage that will be best repaired in the West Coast ports, along with some large transports that are too big to be useful at this time.

BTW II – Yorktown arrived at San Diego this turn, but I have no escorts there so the CV will have to sit and train its pilots.

BTW III – Saratoga dropped out from view of the Japanese subs that are sailing around the Pacific Northwest. The damage remains minor, so I am sailing it away from Sub Alley and will find a safer port in which to repair the damage. Nomad commented upon his encounter with Sara by writing; “I guess that I didn't cause much damage”, to which I replied, “Nah, it went down like a rock”... [;)]

[ADB123]

December 30, 1941 –

This was a turn in which the invisible might of the Japanese showed its hand ever so slightly and yet still caused complete and unexpected devastation of an Allied effort.

The only night action was some reports from a US sub of Japanese ships off of Kavieng. So the long awaited Japanese move into New Britain and surroundings is about to begin. I assumed that would be it for the turn, but at the very end of the turn, during the Air Transport phase, I received a series of reports that my Australian Catalinas and C-47s from Port Moresby were being intercepted and shot down over Rabaul.

The devastation was complete! Both of the Catalina squadrons and the C-47 squadron were wiped out totally. I ended up just withdrawing all three air units because there was nothing left to from which to rebuild. Nomad obviously has a lot of very good Naval CAP sitting over Rabaul.

Now, I have been withdrawing troops from the various regional bases back to Port Moresby right from the very beginning, but I still had hoped to get out most of the remaining troops that could be flown out. Now there is no hope. And despite this sacrifice, Port Moresby is still essentially indefensible at this time. There are only 167 AV in place, and any serious early Japanese invasion will push the defenders into the jungle in no time.

And the completeness of the destruction of my Air Transport units strongly suggests that a sizable portion of the KB is to the north of Rabaul. This gives me very good reason to start to worry about how dangerous a raid the Japanese CVs could mount at this time against the East Coast of Australia and or the western South Pacific. And to make things worse my plans for remote air patrols have been scrambled because of the problem with AVPs not providing support for seaplanes at this time. It appears that I will have to pull back my naval forces further for now and just let Nomad do as he pleases as long as his fuel holds out.

But Japanese CVs are not just in the South Pacific. My remaining PT boat squadrons in the Philippines reported fly-overs by Vals this turn, so Japanese Naval Air has returned to that region. I’ve already lost most of my Naval Air patrol bases in the region, so I’m not able to locate the Japanese threat yet, but I suspect that Cagayan and southern Luzon are on the Japanese agenda.

Fortunately, the lack of an invasion of Cagayan up until now has allowed me to continue to build up my forces. Another Philippine infantry division showed up this turn and the AV at the base is now up to 372. Sure, those aren’t good LCUs, but they are behind forts that are still building and they have supply, so the Japanese won’t be able to take the base with a second-string combat unit.

In the air war Japanese fighter sweeps flew over northern Malaya and Luzon. Bombers followed and hit Taiping and Clark Field. The concentration of Japanese air forces is preventing me from attempting any hit-and-run raids in those regions.

I did get a couple of bomber raids off, but they weren’t successful. B-17s from Singapore flew at the 18th Division on the road to Temulah, but they were intercepted by a single Zero that distracted them enough so that they missed their target. And B-17s from Cagayan flew against the Japanese troops at Talaud-eilanden, but even in the absence of any CAP the rain caused the bombers to miss their targets. China was quiet this turn, but I am going to try some bomber raids against Japanese forces in the field, and will also attempt to back up the raids with some LR CAP provided by the AVG. We’ll see how it goes.

In other news, the 8th Indian ought to move out from Temulah next turn. They are the last piece of my defence for Singapore and it will be good to get them down there and integrated into a more substantial combat unit. It’s been a long, dragged out retreat for the unit and I’ll be glad when it is over successfully.

Speaking of success, it appears that the latest TF combination containing Repulse has satisfied the Game and the ship is being allowed to continue on to Cape Town. I’ll be even happier when Repulse is firmly set in the “transfer box” and out of danger.

My first reinforcement TF finished unloading this turn at Pearl Harbor. I feel much better with 807 AV at Pearl now. I am even starting to distribute out a few smaller units around the Hawaiian Islands to help out with the defence of some of the other bases, although I am leaving the main combat units at Pearl. The second reinforcement TF ought to reach Pearl in another day or two.

And finally, seven Japanese subs were spotted, tracked, and in some cases attacked, off of the West Coast this turn. My West Coast LBA is getting plenty of practice at aerial ASW. But I’m still glad that I don’t have any particular need to send many task forces out in that region at this time.

[ADB123]

After sending me the next turn my opponent sent me the following email message:

"After doing my turn this morning and sending it off I was thinking. I feel I should just surrender now.
I am not doing well and I am not spending any time to try and fix it. I have passed the point where I really care
And I am just going through the motions. I only spent 20 minutes doing my turn this morning. I have tried
But it just isn’t working out for me. I just do not seem to grasp all that I need to about this game. I am going
To leave the community for good now. Thank you for your patience"

I thanked him for the opportunity to play against him, expressed my understanding, and wished him the best.

It's too bad, but the Game takes a huge amount of effort to play, and we always have to keep in mind that it is just a game. And if you aren't having fun with the Game, you shouldn't force yourself.

[CapAndGown]

How disappointing. I was enjoying this AAR. 

[ADB123]

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

How disappointing. I was enjoying this AAR. 

Thanks - I'll have to try to pick up the pace in my other AAR.