Imperial War Chronicles - CarnageINC(J) v WirrawayAce(A)

[CarnageINC]

Once again into the breach we go, and once again I start another AAR. May I be luckier with this game then the last AAR I tried. [:D] Wirraway_Ace was kind enough to take me up on a duel AAR, his will be called "Allied War Chronicles" I believe. I will be doing a similar AAR to my previous ones, this one I hope to make more informative than the previous ones. Hopefully both of ours together can be entertaining enough and also a good learning tool for other players.

AAR CLOSED TO Wirraway_Ace

Scen. 2 'Hakko Ichiu' 2 day turns

Options: FOG-on, AWE-on, ADC-on, PDU-on, Surprise-on, US Torps-off, R&D-on, NUW-off.

House Rules: Japanese have surprise attacks, no allied movement changes first turn except Chinese air/ground, No 4E below 10k (except Nav. Search, Transport and ASW), No Chinese industrial bombing until 1944, no para/invasion of non base/dot hex unless occupied by enemy, invasions by complete whole units, restricted commands must pay Pol. Pts. to cross boarders(Manchuria, Thai, Chinese, some Indian), only soviet units in soviet bases/territory, open for any other rules or to change certain rules.

No gamey moves or tactics, keep it realistic.

Good luck to my opponent and may we both have fun doing this! [:'(]

[Fletcher]

Hello CarnageINC,
I wish you best of lucks with you new game !... [:)]
Regards.
Ramón

[CarnageINC]

Thanks Fletcher [;)]

Okay gentlemen, time to take a seat and let me present Operation 'Phoenix Rising'. This will put us in a much better economic position, a position our that is our nations destiny. Order of Battle will be presented for each supporting operational summary.

[CarnageINC]

Here is Operation 'Just Cause', our rightful claim to these lands in China will be seen by all of the world once we show them that we are better rulers than the Chinese.

[CarnageINC]

Now on to Operation 'Eastern Shield'. This area is necessary cushion for any American idealism that they can 'come riding to the rescue' Once they have been beat once or twice they will come to the negotiation tables.

[CarnageINC]

Final, what this expedition is all about. To exile the filthy Dutch and liberate the Southern Resource...I mean Dutch East Indies. These people have lived under the tyranny to long, they will open their arms in joy with our coming.

[Fletcher]

CarnageINC,
Amazing! keep up with excellent work! I´ll follow closely your AAR.
Your planning map are very nice!
Regards

[cantona2]

Im a fan of your colourful AARS Carnage, so I'll be following, but rooting for the AFB's [:'(]

[CarnageINC]

Thank you gentlemen, I hope to be more informative this time around instead of just eye candy [:D] In fact, your guys AAR's inspired me to ask if Wirraway Ace to do a duel AAR also. So he should be getting his up and running soon. [;)]

Here are my sub dispositions for the eastern side. Zones A,B,C are old hunting grounds, but I'm trying out D,E,F for the first time. I might not keep A and B because of distance, that's why I'm trying zone D out. Zone A is only for hurrassing any shipping in the area. I don't know if zone D is a good idea or not or if I'm throwing enough subs into there to make a difference. I hope to keep Wirraway Ace from going north of zone D by having Betties out of Rabaul and Shortlands when I get them up and running. If D nets any results I will relocate A and B forces there as they come off station to refuel or rearm. I also might try a new area in February, but we will see when the time comes. [;)]

[CarnageINC]

Here is my western side sub dispositions. Zones 1, 3, 4 are new hunting grounds so I'm not sure what to expect this early in the game. Zone 1 and 2 are just in case Wirraway Ace decides to evac Singapore. Zone 3 to try and catch any fleeing ships from PI and zone 4 is more or less to harass any shipping in the region.

[CarnageINC]

Here is my SRA Surface Fleet Patrol Zones. No hard OOB is going to be given to any TF, I need to be as flexable as possible. My main concerns for this stage of the war is to protect my invasion forces; try and destroy as much shipping as possible; and to prevent reenforcement/retreat of ground forces in the order given.

KB Bravo will consist of all CVE and CVL's at this time and will sortie to areas A, B, C when necessary only when airfields a,b,c are taken to provide additional CAP so all on board fighters can escort the bombers. Additional fighters are being placed aboard Bravo for Emergency Zone 5 plan.

Zone 5 is a special case zone that I will use if I determine that Wirraway Ace is reinforcing DEI at any point any where. KB Bravo will receive additionally forces to over come any British surface fleet that can possibly sail against me. The TF will stay far enough away from land so Swordfish can't launch.

[CarnageINC]

Here is a brief report on the Pearl Harbor attack.

[CarnageINC]

Other theaters I have moved from 4th Army in Manchuria the 1st, 20th, 26th Recon units to North China Area Army for the drive north to threaten Yenan and Sian so 1st Army might have an easier time moving against opposition in their area of operations.

Bombing of Chengchow has begun from Sallies stationed out of Port Arthur.

5 Submarines that were to go to WPZ D, E, F are temporarily put onto screening duties for Midway.  Midway invasion changes are as follows: 53 Nav. Gd. unit and 61 Inf. Group (Tokyo) to be included in attacks.
This will put off the invasion for a week or so but after getting my arse handed to me in another pbem game I figure that more is better even if Wirraway can bring in more troops in that week.  KB will be close by because it will be screening the Wake invasion and will be slotted to screen the Midway invasion so I should be able to stop any potential reinforcements.

[CapAndGown]

May I ask why you are going for Midway?

Also, what is your strategic objectives here beyond securing the oil and establishing a perimeter? What are you looking for in your perimeter? What is you vision of how to achieve victory?

[CarnageINC]

CRAP! [X(] POP QUIZ! [:(]

ahh...errr....[&:]

Hi C&G, I'm honored your asking me some questions. I'm planning on a little less aggressive campaign then what I see your doing [:)]

Your first question: I'm primarily pushing toward Midway and Johnson to take away Aces forward eyes and to have a nice forward resupply for my subs.

My primary strategic objective: Create a strong forward defensive perimeter to allow my fleet assets to sortie forward to slow the enemy advances. I think that those will be in Timor region, that seems to be the 'place' to go lately.

What I want from my front is to have a tight perimeter and 'secure' supply line. I'm looking at having overlapping aerial coverage for bases. My 'Betties' will be a main striking weapon against anything less than a carrier group. With those I plan on using KB Alpha and KB Bravo in addition to the Betties and surface fleet if possible.

My vision for victory is the old 'seek the decisive fleet engagement' I need to maintain carrier superiority, so I will seek that engagement at every chance that I can. That's why Johnson will be very important to me, eyes to spy into the waters around Pearl. If there are no carriers there can only be at Australia's eastern coast or preparing for action in the SRA. I think this will give me a good direction to prepare for any future offensive Ace may plan on. On the case I loose most of my carriers it will come to fighting as best I can to prevent the SRA being cut off. I'm willing to trade space for time but that will only work so so.

Here is what I would like my front to be on the eastern edge.

[CarnageINC]

Here is my Western front that I would like to see.

[CapAndGown]

I would reconsider reversing the roles of the Gilberts and Marshals. The Marshals are difficult to build up to a decent level. The one advantage they offer is the CD gun installations. The Gilberts, OTOH, can be built up with a nice interlocking set of bases. The Tarawa/Abemama group offers 4 bases that can be built up to size 5, the group around Tabiteau can also be built up to 5 as well, and there are 5 bases adjacent to each other there.

Also, the problem I foresee in just holding the New Hebrides/New Caledonia is that he will be able to use 4E bombers out of Fiji to blast your airbases. The reason I went for all of the Fiji/Somoa/New Caledonia group is because if I left any one of those out, then the allies could use one of them to stage 4E bombers to attack the ones I did hold. Now, witpqs will still most likely start bombing Somoa from the Cook Islands, but there are not that many useable 4E bases there and the distances are very great, so I would expect a high level of ops loses. It was not a matter of aggression on my part that made me want to take all those bases, but the reality of the geography.

As to Timor: these games were started prior to the current version. With the new max supply draw feature Darwin is probably not a great staging area any more unless the allies can resupply it by sea. Supplying it over land is possible, but it will take a major engineering commitment to build up the bases between Alice Springs and Darwin to increase the supply draw there. My opponent actually abandoned Darwin because his supply problems there were so bad. Nevertheless, I would go ahead and take Darwin as a forward defensive line. Be sure to get down to Timor fast to prevent allied reinforcement of Darwin. Do not save it for after Java. Taking Timor and the adjacent bases is going to make taking Java easier since the allies will not be able to fly in reinforcement AC once it is secure. My opponent told me that my taking of Timor so quickly prevented him from flying in the reinforcements he had planned.

Also, since you don't seem to mind taking islands so close to Pearl, why not go for Christmas Island right away? This will force allied shipping to divert a long way around to send stuff to Fiji/Somoa/New Zealand.

[CarnageINC]

C&G, you have me a lot to think about for the central Pacific. I might have to rethink my defensive line around New Caledonia, I may fall back just to the Solomons, I feel uneasy about having a far forward defense such as yours. But I will consider it. The supply draw is something I'm not fimilar with yet so I will look into it some. As far as Christmas, that is a no go, that is way to far to supply and support if need be, plus it will be a easy bombardment target and the first to fall for sure IMO.

Here are some quick updates

[bklooste]

You dony need to heavily defends these areas ( Fiji , New Cal etc )
 
Maybe Fiji put 400 AV and fort 4 as you can always get it out  ( via Truk or Marshals)  the rest just a few battalions , most of the defence will be Netties , Cruisers and maybe KB / CVE. It is a great point to raid the lines and he will take losses trying to take it. If he attacks thats great as he is not attacking your core.

[CarnageINC]

Saipan Island early Dec. 16th, 1941
15th Ku K-1 G4M1 Squadron Communication Shack

"Sir! Just received 'Critical' message from a TF northwest of here...it says their under carrier attack!"

"WHAT! Let me see that!.....Gods, the Americans are striking deep! Launch the aircraft now!"





Wirraway Ace sure surprised me, more to come as I put it together [;)]