An Aussie Affair: Luskan vs Raverdave

[Drongo]

Raverdave,

Re your poor performance in night combat.

I forgot to mention that, before each battle, you need to write a poem about cherry blossums and the sea (it doesn't have to rhyme).

Then threaten to recite it aloud to your crew unless the buggers pull their finger out. It works for me.

[Raverdave]

"If one is to fight bravely, he must not be held back by the silly nonsense of survival stuck in his head." -Hagakure, The Book of the Samurai.:rolleyes:

[Luskan]

See, Raver's troops aren't performing because they don't trust his leadership and actively dislike him. See, he's sacrificed troops in suicide missions and has abandoned another 10k troops and 100 guns (who have feelings too) to die horribly on Wupenko, outnumbered, out gunned, out of supplies and bombed senseless every day. 500 died to kill 11 of my troops in a shock attack, and my deliberate attack cost me 50 men and them 250. This doesn't even count the 50 foolish samurai my marine raiders turned into fertilizers at Base-Poya.

Mutiny is in the air.

[Luskan]

Yet again the allied defenders at Wupunko have demonstrated their dominance. Again the japanese troops are massacred.

The soldiers and bombers who have contributed to this historic event, the first allied victory over the japanese in WW2 have earned a well earned rest. The japanese advance has been stopped in its tracks (as per my operational orders). Now we can begin to roll them back, out of PM, and back to their backwards little islands near china somewhere.

Raver's generals are probably off committing Seppuku. I wish them all the best for the next life.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 07/31/42

Air attack on Townsville , at 10,62

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 4

Allied aircraft
Wirraway x 6

no losses

no losses

Attacking Level Bombers:
4 x G3M Nell at 6000 feet


Thank heavens for those wirraways huh??

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on Cairns , at 7,56

Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 6

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty x 2 destroyed
G4M1 Betty x 2 damaged

Attacking Level Bombers:
4 x G4M1 Betty at 6000 feet

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on 8th Naval Garrison Unit, at 51,51


Allied aircraft
SBD Dauntless x 13
Hudson x 4
P-400 Airacobra x 13
A-20B Havoc x 12


no losses

Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 120

Attacking Level Bombers:
4 x Hudson at 1000 feet
12 x A-20B Havoc at 1000 feet

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on 8th Naval Garrison Unit, at 51,51


Allied aircraft
B-25D Mitchell x 6
B-26B Marauder x 6


no losses

Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 72

Attacking Level Bombers:
6 x B-26B Marauder at 1000 feet
6 x B-25D Mitchell at 1000 feet

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on 8th Naval Garrison Unit, at 51,51


Allied aircraft
Hudson x 8
B-17E Fortress x 14


no losses

Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 111

Attacking Level Bombers:
4 x B-17E Fortress at 1000 feet
3 x B-17E Fortress at 1000 feet
4 x Hudson at 1000 feet
4 x Hudson at 1000 feet
3 x B-17E Fortress at 1000 feet
4 x B-17E Fortress at 1000 feet

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Wunpuko

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 6663 troops, 66 guns, 52 vehicles

Defending force 4388 troops, 96 guns, 0 vehicles

Allied assault odds: 6 to 1 (fort level 0)


Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 5221
Guns lost 106

Allied ground losses:
Men lost 10

Allies are now the sole occupants of Wupunko. <Gloat>.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Raverdave]

I am only but testing you...............didn't you ever watch "Zulu'?;)

[Grotius]

This is a very entertaining AAR. On the question of penalties for large Bombardment TFs: one of the rules, and/or a patch message, mentions that large TFs (over ten or twelve ships, I forget) suffer a penalty in the effectiveness of their anti-aircraft fire. Maybe the same sort of penalty applies to surface actions. I suppose the theory is that too many ships get in each other's way??

[Raverdave]

Yeah maybe.................but the mental image of Six BB steaming in line-astern was too much for me to resist:D

[mdiehl]

Raver, does that mean Luskan has to sing a Welsh battle hymn?

[Luskan]

I don't think more than ten ships gets an AA penalty per se, I think it is:
10 ships in a tf, each ship contributes 100% of its AA "value" to the protection of the tf.
More than 10 ships in a tf, the "first" ten ships contribute 100% of their AA value to the protection of the tf, and all subsequent ships (11-25) just lower percentages of their AA value to the protection of the tf.

A 25 ship tf made up of all the same type and class of ship isn't going to have 2.5 times the AA coverage of a 10 ship tf of similar ships. But it is still going to have more AA cover.

Is this right?

6 battleships probably aren't that easy to shoot past if the nifty allied destroyers get up close and personal. Raver may have got a penalty for having too many big ships in the surface action, but 7 BBs is guaranteed to wipe an airfield out if the bombardment goes home.


Desperately have to reorganise Luganville. Raver's attack might have failed but it has completely stuffed my plans up. Half of my planned ops have to be cancelled or put back because the troops I'd wanted to use were rushed left right and centre all over the place - and now half of them are battle weary and in need of r+r. ATM I don't have that many troops to go around so I will be consolidating/rotating troops etc. before any allied offensive gets launched.

Also I'm not going to risk my cvs against ravers battle veterans until they've had a chance to beat up on some easier targets.

[XPav]

Originally posted by Luskan

More than 10 ships in a tf, the "first" ten ships contribute 100% of their AA value to the protection of the tf, and all subsequent ships (11-25) just lower percentages of their AA value to the protection of the tf.

I don't buy that, because it implies some sort of hidden ordering in the ships. I'd guess that for each ship above 10, the overall AA percentage is reduced by a certain amount.

[Admiral DadMan]

Actually, IIRC it's 1-10 @ 100% AA, 11-15 take a small reduction, and 16-25 are further reduced.

[Luskan]

Originally posted by XPav


I don't buy that, because it implies some sort of hidden ordering in the ships. I'd guess that for each ship above 10, the overall AA percentage is reduced by a certain amount.

Good point - but there might be a hidden ordering of the ships (most AA first?). Try putting ten ships of ten different types in a tf - they don't all just go into the next tf in the order you click them in or do they? Could just be the funny menu thing.

Not much action in the last few turns. Raver bombs Cairns at night, and three times now his carrier borne zeros (usually about 60 of them) launch from Lunga and try to lrcap or sweep or something at Luganville. Unfortunately, three times in a row, none of his 60 or so fighters has managed to find Luganville. Much to the relief of the smacked up p-400 squadron there which is finally getting replacements. The wildcat squadrons have arrived and have temporarily drained the replacement pool of the planes I needed to get my CV wildcats back to 100%. Irritating.

[Raverdave]

Things have slowed down....a lot. The speed of my advance has shocked me, as I am used to playing as the allies making slow methodical moves, and now I have a huge logistical foul-up to contend with. This is causing no end of arguements amongst my front line commanders, whom are divided 50/50 as to should we push on or wait for the supply train to catch up. It is a difficult possition to be in. The allies are at their weakest right now, and will only get stronger, so the longer the offensive is delayed the less chance of success my troops have.
Time to flip a coin.

[Luskan]

Hang on Raver - what do you mean push on? You've already tried it!!!

You tried to take Wupunko with the better part of 20,000 troops, among them artillery, infantry, engineers and a hq. They were supported by half a dozen carriers and 7 battleships, not to mention a gadzillion zeroes and betties to shut down all allied airbases in the area and to chase my ships out . . . and it didn't work.

I'd say you should wait for a supply train

[Raverdave]

The coin was flipped...heads it was! Luskan me ol' mate.....you've got some hard rain coming you way!:D

[Luskan]

yawn :p

[mogami]

Hi, I love this AAR. Did the Japanese go "A Island too far?"

Whats that Aussie drinking game

one red hen, two cute ducks, three brown bears, etc called.
I knew an Aussie Chief Gunners Mate back in the 80's and we used to play that at the enlisted club to get drinking money from all the young american sailors. (money went into pitcher and person who could take it kept it. And he could drink a lot more beer then the 21 year old sailors)

[Raverdave]

Originally posted by Mogami
Hi, I love this AAR. Did the Japanese go "A Island too far?"

Whats that Aussie drinking game

one red hen, two cute ducks, three brown bears, etc called.
I knew an Aussie Chief Gunners Mate back in the 80's and we used to play that at the enlisted club to get drinking money from all the young american sailors. (money went into pitcher and person who could take it kept it. And he could drink a lot more beer then the 21 year old sailors)

More like "an island not fast enough". Like I said before, I was some what shocked by the speed of my own advance, and paid the price with not enough logistical back-up to support the operation.

I know of a lot of drinking games, but coming from a infantry background could not tell you what the game that you describe is......those navy blokes are all a tad "strange";) .

I am more than happy to show you the drinking games that I know......but you have to supply the grog and the birds.

[Raverdave]

Originally posted by Luskan

You tried to take Wupunko with the better part of 20,000 troops,

You need to take your shoes and socks off...........closer to 6,000.

[Luskan]

Pretty quiet few turns. I am still hankering for Cvs and BBs from Pearl (since I haven't lost any yet they are wondering what I need more for, but anyway) while Raver has been content with a couple (or just one active one with lots of torps) at Wupunko which hit one of my APDs, and a couple of my APs, but all of the ships made port IIRC - and no troops were lost. I have cycled battle damaged troops out of Wupunko and replaced them with fresh (green) troops from Noumea. Some rather tired Aussie troops trudged into Cooktown today to reinforce my coastal defences just in case Raver gets daring and brash.

Raver's "big push" hasn't happened yet (a propoganda thing to convince the emporer he should keep his head?) - although he is set on taking all of the islands in the solomons and santa cruz chains (every single one) with small forces he deposits, picks up and moves to the next dot etc. So far I've repeatedly spotted an AP with a CA up around the Nevea region (now Japanese holiday destination I'm afraid) but seeing as most of my own CAs are either damaged or in Australia, and the fact that all Raver's cvs were sighted at Lunga I'm not sure I'm willing to risk a move to sink them and retake the islands. Santa Cruz will be mine eventually.