The Calimari War - Cuttlefish Gets Charbroiled

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: FatR

Hopefully, you are accelerating Unryus for some months now... in this case your opponent might continue to pay for overaggression in the strategic direction that is the least immediately threatening to Japan. Othwerwise you are likely to face a total collapse in the Pacific and Allies in Marianas before 1944.

Yes, I have been accelerating Taiho and the first three Unryus for some time now. I should have Taiho by May or June '43 and at least two Unryus by the fall of '43.

[Cuttlefish]

Events in China

June – October 1942


When last we saw the valiant forces of Japan they had captured Nanyang and turned north (well, west, really) with the goal of capturing Sian. The drive had stalled below the city as I tried to wear down the defenders blocking my way.

At this juncture events in the other game I am currently playing caused me to rethink my strategy. That game, against the diabolically capable Erstad, has reached August 1944. There my forces in China are being relentlessly submerged by a rising tide of Chinese. His losses have been horrible – in real-life terms the Chinese have probably suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties – but there seems to be no end to them.

I did not know or guess the Chinese had the ability to mount such an offensive. So I decided to give up my siege of Sian in this game in favor of a new goal – stop aiming for specific bases and try to inflict as many casualties as possible on the Chinese.

I pulled back the bulk of my forces to Nanyang and sent them up the nearby secondary road towards Ankang, targeting concentrations of troops. I routed about a dozen Chinese corps and cut off and destroyed two more. The slaughter left Ankang open, so I took it. The Chinese defenders of Sian then advanced on Nanyang. They do not have nearly enough strength to threaten the base there so I am concentrating units to force them out. This should smash another nine corps.

The south of China, by contrast, has been static lately. I am going to focus on building up forts across China (Chinese die like flies against high fort levels) and keeping the bulk of my forces mobile, shifting around and targeting vulnerable concentrations of enemy troops. If I’m clever I can continue to do this under the guise of maneuvering against enemy cities like Sian or Changsa, encouraging Charbroiled to try and keep troops in my way.

I am also going to be wary about what forces, if any, I pull out of China.

I don’t know if my new China strategy will prove effective or not. I’m still getting used to the idea of a WITP world where Chinese forces are a major threat. Ideally I would starve the Chinese of supply but the ability of Allied forces in this game to mount a major offensive in Burma as early as the spring of ’43 makes this strategy dubious, I think. I would welcome speculations and opinions on the matter. I should also check some AARs that are in the late war and see what is happening in China there.

The situation in China, early November ’42:

[FatR]

Chinese forces actually are relatively vulnerable to attrition. Even after the last patch they get only 350 infantry squads/month, and 50 or so cavalry squads. Japan gets over 700 early in the war. Their greatest source of the reinforcement initially is the recovery of the squads that start the game disabled. Of course, any totally destroyed units will return at 1/3 strength in 3 or 4 months, making absolute destruction highly undesirable except as a means to achieve immediate operational advantage.
Still, allowing Chinese to build their strength can potentially be disastrous late in the war, when Allies will resupply China through Burma. I'm all for keeping continual pressure on them. Japanese losses, in absence of serious mistakes leading to routs, will mainly be disablements, and these just recover over time. Japan is not really short on supply, and can feed this war as long as needed. In the best case, the Chinese army will eventually collapse, in the worst case it at least won't be able to mount a major offensive when Japanese have their hands full on other fronts.

[Cuttlefish]

Events in Burma

June – October 1942


At this point I would like to describe the exciting battles and campaigns in Burma in the latter part of 1942. But I can’t. There has been no campaign. No battles worthy of the mention, either.

As Japanese forces moved north they forced Commonwealth units out of Moulmein and then encountered three divisions, two Indian and one Australian, guarding the crossings of the Salween River and blocking the path to Pegu and Rangoon.

This force, in jungle terrain, proved too powerful to dislodge. No problem. Japanese forces tried flanking them, heading for Tuang Gyi and Toungoo. There too several divisions were found blocking the way.

Well. Any Allied player who deploys enough force forward in ’42 to stop the Japanese advance in Burma is just asking for trouble. The standard response to this for Japan is to land up the coast and cut off the entire army. And this is what I planned to do. But then most of my carriers ended up decorating the floor of the Pacific and such a landing became, in my estimate, far too risky. The RN carriers aren’t great but they can still ruin the day of a vulnerable transport convoy.

There are still good prospects against such a deployment for Japan, I think, even without an amphibious attack against India. But then I started thinking. In both of my previous AE games, against Q-Ball and Erstad, I was blown out of Burma by the summer of ’43, washed away by a flood tide of Commonwealth units. Given that, what was in Burma that I wanted or needed?

I decided that the answer was nothing. So I stood down the impressive force I had assembled, nine infantry and two tank divisions, and began fortifying the Burma-Thai frontier. Moulmein is now a fortress, as is Chaing Mai. The coast of Malaya is being fortified, with full divisions at or en route to Tavoy, Mergui, and Victoria Point. Sabang at the tip of Sumatra is also getting an impressive array of units. Supporting all this are seven crack daitai of Oscar and Tojo IIa fighters and an array of Netties, Sallys, and Helens.

Hunkering down and fortifying like a badger kind of feels wrong. It may be a huge mistake. For one thing it’s giving up the initiative completely, which is not usually a good idea. But then I look at the map from the Allied point of view and I think again that it might be a good idea. Any Allied attack against Thailand, Malaya, or Sumatra looks really unappealing. It’s either attack jungle bases with level 7+ forts and over 1500 AV of Japanese troops, with unassailable supply lines and divisions in reserve, or land in the face of heavy defenses and strong Japanese air power somewhere along the coast. Allied units could try infiltrating, I suppose, but they’d have to come through the jungle and I would have literally weeks to move my reserve tank divisions to meet them.

Time will tell if my decision is a good one or not. But given that my overriding goal is to keep the oil flowing from Palembang for as long as possible, I think that throwing up as well-crafted a shield to defend it as I can devise may not be a bad way to go.

Situation map:

[witpqs]

So the Burma Road remains open?

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

So the Burma Road remains open?

Yes it does. I don't like that but since I've come to view Burma as a giant, jungly death-trap for Japan I don't think I'll be doing anything about it.

[Alfred]

If your opponent thinks about the benefits of holding Rangoon, he will realise that he can pump supply overland to China. With this supply (which is additional to the Burma Road supply), the Chinese hordes can be unleashed. When that happens, the Japanese losses in China will dwarf whatever might have been the cost incurred in capturing Rangoon.

IMHO, it might just be possible to rationalise that Burma is not essential to Japan's well being but leaving Rangoon in Allied hands is just a mistake.

Alfred

[Cuttlefish]

Dec. 8, 1942

After a pretty quiet November the Allies began to stir again in the Pacific. Recon flights over Eniwetok and ship movements around the Marshalls convinced me that Eniwetok was targeted for invasion so I sent my remaining carriers that direction to try and do something about it. I don’t have much of a carrier force left but I decided to go ahead and commit them while they still faced something like even odds.

I moved my carriers, in two task forces, from Truk towards a position six hexes northwest of the atoll. They arrived at the same time the Allied invasion force did. North of the island were two American carrier groups, and the battle was on.

The Japanese had two groups, one with Ryujo and Shoho, the other with Akagi, Hiryu, and Soryu. With them were two SCTFs, one based around Musashi, the other with four heavy cruisers.

The Allies had two carrier TFs two hexes north of the atoll and heavy surface forces at Eniwetok itself. One of the two Allied groups reacted towards the Japanese, ending up only three hexes away.

The first action came from Japanese land-based air Ponape. Sallys attacked enemy TFs at Eniwetok. They scored no hits but Japanese fighters tangled with fighters from the southernmost of the two Allied carrier groups. The Allied CAP suffered losses. Then the first Japanese carrier strike went in. This went after the southern carrier TF, the one that didn't react. Allied CAP was almost non-existent and the Japanese strike did heavy damage. Confirmed sunk were CV Enterprise, CVEs Altamaha and Nassau, BB Indiana, and CLAA Juneau. I think that CVE Prince William and CLAA San Diego will also sink - both took two torpedoes and were listed with fires and heavy damage.

I'm pretty sure what happened here was that the carriers tasked with covering the invasion (Enterprise and the CVEs) had almost all their fighters on LRCAP over Eniwetok. This group was left naked when the other US carrier group reacted away and that is why the Japanese attack wreaked so much havoc. Does anyone want to bet that Halsey was in command of the carriers that reacted?

Both Allied groups launched separate attacks. CVL Ryujo was sunk and CV Hiryu was heavily damaged.

The only damage Japanese planes did in the PM phase was to finish off Indiana and sink a troop-laden AP off Eniwetok (heavy casualties from the US 25th Division were reported). An xAK was also heavily damaged. There was no strike from the southern Allied carriers but the Allied strike from the northern group finished off Hiryu and damaged my remaining three carriers.

Despite the loss of a transport the US division stormed Eniwetok and easily captured the atoll from the small garrison. The worst part about the whole battle is that many Japanese planes had diverted there and were of course lost. Other planes went to Ponape and some went to Truk but that’s still a lot of good pilots lost that didn’t need to be.

Allied aircraft losses were around 170, including about 90 planes that went down with their carriers. Japanese aircraft losses were about 200, the large majority of them destroyed on the ground at Eniwetok.

Tactically the Allies succeeded in their objective, capturing the atoll. Ship losses heavily favored Japan but for all practical purposes this was the end of Japanese carrier power for some months. With newly arrived Ryuho I am left with two CVs and two CVLs, three of them damaged. The Americans have at least three undamaged carriers in the Pacific, with more (of course) on the way.

If I peer at this battle from a certain angle it almost kind of looks like a victory. It probably wasn't, at least not from a strategic point of view, but at least my forces did a lot of damage. Some days, as Japan, that’s about as good as it gets.

[Capt. Harlock]

Confirmed sunk were CV Enterprise, CVEs Altamaha and Nassau, BB Indiana, and CLAA Juneau.

Wow -- any battle that results in those sinkings has to be considered at least a morale boost for the IJN!

[ny59giants]

It may be a tactical victory, but IMO it was a strategic defeat. Your carrier situation is bad enough already and CVL Ryujo is your largest CVL. This will hurt you in the long run.

[JeffroK]

A major problem for the IJN, when the USN hits the Marianas what force will you have ?

Same goes for when the USN hits Iwo Jima & etc.

KB, and therefore IJN power is so brittle, you can see why many hide it as much as is possible.

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: JeffK

A major problem for the IJN, when the USN hits the Marianas what force will you have ?

Same goes for when the USN hits Iwo Jima & etc.

KB, and therefore IJN power is so brittle, you can see why many hide it as much as is possible.

On the other hand, hoarding one's CV power just so it can annihilated by an overwhelming force of Essex-class carriers off the Marianias isn't always a great option, either, though I admit there is value for Japan in preserving Kido Butai as a "fleet in being."

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

It may be a tactical victory, but IMO it was a strategic defeat. Your carrier situation is bad enough already and CVL Ryujo is your largest CVL. This will hurt you in the long run.

Oh, absolutely. It's a classic example of a tactical victory but a strategic defeat.

[Cuttlefish]

November 1, 1942 – January 15, 1943

Greetings, sports fans. We’ve moved from 1942 to 1943 in the game. Things overall don’t look too bad for Japan at the moment. Let’s get caught up on events in various theaters, including the important home front.

China - Land War in Asia

Japanese forces evicted the large force of Chinese interlopers from Nanyang in November. This inflicted an appalling number of losses on the Chinese, including 1400 squads destroyed. I tried to pursue this force up the road to Sian but they were reinforced by a handful of fresh units and my troops could not force them further back. I was taking too many casualties in trying so I pulled my units back and am sending them back up to Ankang.

If I can break the ring of Chinese around that city then I might be able to either cut off Sian or, possibly, threaten Chungking and the other cities in the Sichuan Basin. Either way there would be good prospects for engaging and mauling Chinese units on clear terrain.

Ordinarily I would bombard the troops blocking the road to Sian but that of course is not really a viable option. I’m using air attacks instead. These don’t do a lot of damage but at least they don’t hurt me more than they do the Chinese.

I’ve read the debates in the forum about artillery and at the moment I am still confused about exactly what a bombardment attack is supposed to represent now. In its present form it seems to be the “inflict casualties on yourself while training up the enemy troops” option. If the designers are satisfied with the current state of affairs in this area I would recommend removing bombardment attacks from the game. They really serve no purpose and probably confuse new players, who think that they are supposed to represent something they are not. Heck, they confuse me, and I’m not new.

Then again, I’m easily confused.

Burma/Thailand – The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Yeah, I know, there are no lions there. There are tigers. But that isn’t how the song goes.

This theater has been almost dead quiet. Nine British and Indian divisions came down the long and winding road from Tuang Gyi. Three split off and moved towards Chiang Mai but stopped. The other six continued down the road and ran into two Japanese divisions. They tried a shock attack but my defenders had the advantage of jungle terrain and the attack failed. In the month since then the nine Allied divisions have just sat there. I moved a tank division up from Rahaeng to bolster my forces and watch for leakers but so far it hasn’t been needed.

I’m curious to see what approach my opponent is going to take in this theater. A frontal assault would be a messy business. Moulmein has 1500 AV and the forts there are almost to level 7, so I don’t see the Allies breaking through there any time soon. Chiang Mai has level 4 forts and 1000 AV and jungle terrain. He can try going through the jungle around those bases, as he did on the road near Chaing Mai, but I have reserves and his movement would be glacially slow.

That leaves a coastal landing. I have divisions at Tavoy, Mergui, and Victoria Point, with forts ranging from 3 to 5 and building. Even Georgetown has 200 AV and level 5 forts. I have lots of air power in the region so I don’t think that anything less than a massive, coordinated effort supported by carriers would succeed.

Perhaps his best approach, and one I worry about, would be to attack the southern coast of Sumatra. It’s a long coast and I don’t have a lot of troops there right now. It would not be a game-changer right away but it would allow him to threaten Palembang eventually. On the other hand, I know that most of the RN is in the Pacific right now so he may not be up to ambitious amphibious operations in the Indian Ocean.

It’s even been quiet in the air. Right now I have about 150 Tojo IIa at Moulmein and around 75 Oscars at Rahaeng. Bangkok has two groups of Nells supported by Zeros. Mostly the pilots are sitting around playing cards. Every now and then I send Helens from Rahaeng to bomb British troops in the jungle but that is the only activity.

Pacific – Attack of the 4E Beasts

A lull followed the December 8 carrier battle off Kwajalein. An Allied sub put a torpedo into Akagi near Saipan, extending the carrier’s yard time. A Japanese submarine made up for it by finding damaged CVE Prince William and finishing it off. The jeep carrier had put in to Roi-Namur for emergency repairs and I caught it sneaking away towards Pearl a month after the battle.

In early January Allied forces tried to extend their gains in the Marshalls by attacking Jaluit and Maloelap. Maloelap fell but the attack on Jaluit was messily repulsed. The Allied attackers suffered heavy casualties and re-embarked.

Most of the activity in this theater has been around the Solomon Sea. Allied 4E bombers have been attacking in force, trying to close my air bases at Lae, Rabaul, Kavieng, and Manus. It’s been messy but Rabaul is now closed and Lae and Kavieng are damaged. All of this has cost him some bombers but I’ve lost around 100 aircraft on the ground. I’m pretty sure this activity is a precursor to an invasion, probably at Buna, Shortlands, or maybe Lae. I’ve stationed surface forces in position to try and intercept an attack when it comes and am holding my bombers ready at bases out of 4E range, ready to move them in when necessary.

Charbroiled started out by escorting his bombers but, like all my opponents, quickly realized that his losses were lower if the bombers were unescorted.

The Allies seem to have two working carriers in the Pacific right now. This is not much but it is two more carriers than I have at the moment. I have to rely on SCTFs and land-based air for defense.

Ship losses – scorecard

Here are the warship losses at the one-year mark of the war:

Code: Select all

	Allies	Japan
 CVs	2	6
 CVLs	0	3
 CVEs	5	0
 BBs	6	3
 BC	1	0
 CAs	11	5
 CLs	10	7
 DDs	51	17

The carrier losses are really the story of the game. Charbroiled revealed recently that at one point, back during the Japanese invasion of Fiji, three of his carriers ran out of fuel near Canton Island while fleeing KB. I calculated that they were three hexes out of my detection range when I broke off the search. Heartbreaking.

The Home Front – Wealth From the SRA

Things look good as far as industry and production go. In this area, at least, I have made improvements in my game. HI reserves are at 863,000 and rising by about 70,000 a month. I have around 200k oil in the Home Islands with another 125k en route. There is almost 400k fuel at Tokyo and good reserves at all major ports. I’ve lost two big tankers to Allied subs but new construction has more than kept pace with losses to this point.

Tokyo has 5 million supply. I’ve shut off a lot of light industry as a result. Resource levels are very high. Tokyo alone has over 800,000.

For fighters right now I am building mostly Zeros and Tojos (the IIa model – I have not been impressed with the IIb and intend to skip making any this time around). Bomber production is focusing on Helens for the IJA and Bettys, Kates, and Vals for the IJN. I’ve been careful to shut off unneeded engine factories, as engine factories are among the biggest consumers of HI.

Vehicle production has been expanded by about 50%, and I have modestly increased naval shipyard capacity as well. The naval repair yard at Tokyo has been expanded from 10 to 80 and Chitose and Chiyoda are currently there converting to CVLs. Taiho is currently on schedule for July ’43 and the first three Unryus for early ’44. I hope to get at least a couple of these by late ’43.

The current scoreboard:

[FatR]

It's probably too late for this game, but there is a dot base with big airfield potential right across the straight from Rabaul. One can use it to create a supporting airbase, to help Rabaul withstand bombing campaigns.

[BigBadWolf]

Nice to see you back Cuttlefish. Can we not have these long brakes anymore, please?

[Cuttlefish]

January 16 – January 31, 1942

The Allies attacked in the Solomon Sea area, as I suspected they would. Under an umbrella of heavy 4E bomber attacks forces invaded both Lae and Gasmata. Lae fell fairly quickly; Gasmata is still in Japanese hands. The US carriers were present and they, combined with the damage to my airfields, prevented any significant Japanese aerial response. The only time my bombers flew they did so unescorted, resulting in no hits and the loss of about 30 planes. The only good side is that the effort to keep my airfields suppressed cost him around 12 to 15 B-24s. The loss of Lae will be a problem for me.

Meanwhile US forces also decided to invade Kwajalein. This went badly. The coast guns there sank four xAKs (one a day for four days) and damaged a couple of destroyers. The troops that did get ashore, elements of one marine and one infantry division, have suffered heavy losses so far, something like 150 squads destroyed.

With his carriers committed in the Solomon Sea I sent the Combined Fleet from Truk to the Marshalls. He saw me coming and withdrew his invasion force but an ASW group, two SCs and DD Humphreys, were too slow getting away and were sunk.

Elsewhere there has been no activity on Burma. In China my forces pushed back three Chinese corps near Anyang, destroying about 800 squads. That’s 2200 Chinese squads destroyed recently, or nearly one year’s worth of replacements.

In the northern Pacific I have been seeing occasional shipping in the Aleutians. I sent a small cruiser force over from the Kuriles to poke around and look for trouble. They found no shipping but were also completely undetected. They’ve returned to the Kuriles to refuel but I am going to send them back, if only to convince my opponent that leaving the Aleutians bare of air search assets is a bad idea.

The submarine war has been mostly quiet. A Japanese sub sank a large AS off Milne Bay during the period and Sculpin has been on something of a rampage for the Allies, sinking a small TK and two xAKs up around Sakhalin Island. I’ve sent ASW forces up there to look for the wily sub but so far they’ve been unable to damage it.


It’s going to be interesting to see where this game goes in ’43. Losing the bulk of my carrier force in ’42 has obviously limited my options and forced me into more of a defensive posture than I would like. But as a result I am concentrating on my defences more than in any previous game and the Allies do not have an easy job ahead. The Marianas, for instance, are already heavily garrisoned and fortified. Fort levels at places like Truk, Babeldoab, and Saipan are at seven and will probably be at nine before the Allies get there, and I know from experience that high fort levels make island invasions a nightmare.

The Allies have suffered heavy troop losses in the Pacific, with at least seven divisions getting pretty well mangled, and they’ve lost a lot of ships and planes. Allied strength in all areas will grow greatly throughout the year, of course. Will my opponent wait for his strength to build? I’m betting not. An aggressive defense might provide me with opportunities to bleed my foe and blunt and delay the Allied advance. And keep that oil and fuel flowing, of course. That’s really what counts.

[anarchyintheuk]

Not too familiar w/ the lcu repurchase rule . . . is the Kwajalein CD eligible for repurchase?

[FatR]

Well... good to see you soldiering on after such bad luck in carrier battles. Solomons/New Britania seem to be done for, though. But I believe you should start fortifying both Hollandia/Vanimo and Manokwari/Biak/Noemfoor base nodes hardcorely, while you still have the time. Allies don't need to challenge island defences in Central Pacific to ruin Japan's day. Your opponent might be tempted to do so by his naval superiority, but a shore crawl towards Mindanao/Eastern DEI is an easy and dangerous option.

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: FatR

Well... good to see you soldiering on after such bad luck in carrier battles. Solomons/New Britania seem to be done for, though. But I believe you should start fortifying both Hollandia/Vanimo and Manokwari/Biak/Noemfoor base nodes hardcorely, while you still have the time. Allies don't need to challenge island defences in Central Pacific to ruin Japan's day. Your opponent might be tempted to do so by his naval superiority, but a shore crawl towards Mindanao/Eastern DEI is an easy and dangerous option.

Manokwari is already a fortress and I am building up Hollandia, Sorong, Aitape, and a couple of other bases too. If I can hold him off until May '43, when I start to get a lot of troops, then I can occupy a lot of the dot hex bases in force as well and really give him fits if he tries the New Guinea route. I agree about the Mindanao/Eastern DEI option. It's the longer but more reliable way to go for the Allies, if only because there are just too many bases along the route to defend in strength.