Wait, I can't read Cuttlefish's new AAR? - Cribtop (J) vs CF (A)

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

Gents,

As we turn our eyes to Western (true)/Northern (map) Sumatra, Cribtop HQ is considering using MKB to launch a surprise port attack at Colombo. CF has so far clustered his merchies at "historical" ports, and the haul could be beneficial. However, the enemy probably has had no intel about MKB for weeks now. Is it worth revealing our location to try this (after Sabang falls)? We will recon the port with Glens before a final decision, but assuming arguendo that we find a lot of ships there, how do you vote?

Not sure if I'm too late to chime in.....

My thought is to preserve KBs pilots unless there is a definite reason to potentially lose some. Your little Nettie nest at Pt. Blair can close down Allied merchant shipping in the area. Sure you can potentially kill a lot of Allied merchant ships at Colombo, but you stand to lose a lot of wonderful pilots in the process. I didn't know about that heavy AA Bde. Ouch. That would be too scary for me. I vote no, but I'm pretty conservative.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: SuluSea

Mike or C-top , do you guys monitor your merchant shipyards and cycle some  off when X amount of points are accumilated and/or running in consistant excess?

Thanks!

(Cribtop, sorry for the invasion of your wonderful AAR.)

Sulu, I don't increase my merchant shipyards and I don't accelerate anything they feed. Early in the war, there is a huge surplus of merchant points. Later in the war, that surplus will get eaten up with new builds. Some people like to accelerate CVEs and/or TKs. I don't. CVEs are not too useful (in my opinion). Sure they serve as best they can. If you have to rely on them, you're probably hurting anyway and one good hit and they're usually done for. TKs - yes, they are extremely useful. They're the only ships that can haul oil. Fortunately, there are a bunch of xAKs (the STD- Series) that can be converted to TKs. I prefer to do that. There is another argument that all the mid and late war xAKs are useless and just provide the Allied player with VPs. Personally, I don't even look at VPs. I play to play, not to garner VPs. If you feel that way, halt the ship 1 day from completion. If you need it, it's only 1 day away.

[FeurerKrieg]

ORIGINAL: SuluSea

Mike or C-top , do you guys monitor your merchant shipyards and cycle some  off when X amount of points are accumilated and/or running in consistant excess?

Thanks!

I don't know about MS & Ctop, but in WITP I used to pretty much shut down merch yards right away keeping just enough turned on to build the accelerated CVEs. However in AE, it seems additional Tankers and even AKs (depending on early war losses) are actually needed to keep the economy going, so I tend to build up a larger surplus since a lot of the construction doesn't kick in until mid-42. Looking at the numbers it can be tempting to turn off the merch yards in early 42 since you have a daily surplus, but several TKs start in the summer and that can push your daily need up over daily output, thus it is good to have the surplus. This is all assuming you accelerate your CVEs, which is pretty standard ops for me.

[Cribtop]

Mike,

Invade away! The scribes in Cribtop HQ's Copyright Infringement Division have copied much of our economy from you anyway. Further knowledge is appreciated. You are also forcing me to comment more on the economy which I haven't done much due to the 3 month old daughter.

On merchant points: I don't halt them as I concur Japan needs the points and the TKs later.

On APDs: No conversions yet but we're thinking about it as APDs are useful ASW and FT TF assets in the defensive phases. Not very interested when the conversion drops a ship to 19kts however.

On fuel: We're not shipping it from the Home Islands. Balikpapan is tasked with providing fuel to Truk and, via Truk, Kwaj.

On bird poop: My gut agrees with yours. It doesn't use too much fuel if you use the right ships and the return hauls from Truk are going to happen anyway. Might as well have resources for the trip home.

[Cribtop]

April 18, 1942

Subs

I-17 misses her old friend DD Walke near Pearl. I joked in e-mail to Cuttlefish that their skippers must be in the same bridge club by now. I-175 is attacked by DDs in what appears to be a small SCTF based on CL Adelaide near Noumea.

Our wolfpack near Fiji is still tracking the enemy CVE/DD TF. We have 3 I-boats astride their path and one in pursuit. Next replay could be interesting. The new sub patrol locations are definitely bearing fruit in the form of contacts. Hopefully the kills will follow. All the activity around here makes it pretty apparent that CF has chosen Fiji as his main SOPAC base.

Lilys begin air Ops out of Balikpapan and Samarinda. We need to clear the Makassar Strait of subs in order to safely ship fuel and oil out of these bases.

4th Fleet

A SigInt report catches a whiff of convoy in the Line Islands. The CVE Raiders will be in range tomorrow.

SE Fleet

The Feni Islands are invaded and will be the last conquest of our DBCL warriors in the Pacific AOs.

14th Army

DA Iloilo takes the base with 3:1 odds, casualties725(115) vs 15(0). We'll finish off Panay in a few days and move on to other Central PI targets. Good to note the enemy troops had a supply(-) adjustment as this lowers the chance CF has been sneaking in kamikaze xAKs here.

16th Army

Lack of a movement icon indicates CF's force from Tennant Creek may have given up the chase in NW Oz. DA Broome takes the base with 24:1 odds and retreats 2 base forces into the desert. Casualties 128(13) vs nil. As a nice bonus we capture approx 7400 fuel points in the base.

25th Army

DA Madioen takes the base with 106:1 odds, a base force retreats with 375(15) to nil losses. This action cuts off 2 more LCUs from escape to Soerabaja. CF did move out the planes overnight, however. A sensible decision on his part. In nice bonus #2 today, we capture 8500ish supply points here.

The Western Sumatra invasion is ready to go and sorties tomorrow.

15th Army

I've given some thought to nygiants59's warning of the super AA unit at Colombo. We will perform further Glen recon and only consider an attack if it appears the 3 BBs damaged at Nicobar Island are sheltering there. If there are no high value targets we have other uses for MKB (cue evil laughter ).

Assets are just about in place for the commencement of Operation Hamstring, the air offensive against Assam. Objectives of the offensive are two fold: 1) Attrition of Allied air force in the region; and 2) cutting the air bridge to China.

China

DA against the isolated HQ in China again achieves a 1:1, casualties 16(0) vs nil. Our little cav unit just doesn't have the punch. We'll convert this HQ into a bombing target.

Other

Truk and Rabaul hit level 4 forts on the same day. How cute.

Readers may have noticed that our operational code names have changed from Japanese sounding letters (e.g. Operation SG) to more stylized names (e.g. Operation Red Dragon). The reason for this is that we needed so many Phase I code names due to the numerous invasions that we just used the first letter of the bases to be attacked. Phase II ops will be more carefully thought out and fewer in number. Thus the cool names, which serve as a reminder that the harried Phase I is ending. Operations in Phase II will be more strongly opposed and require careful planning. Since the character of ops is changing, it seems appropriate the naming convention change as well. Either that or Cribtop HQ is just insanely anal. Probably both. [:D]

At the risk of rambling, and in defense of my OCD tendencies, I will say that for the most part they kept us out of stupid game mechanics or "oops, I forgot to switch them to do not unload" type errors in Phase I. Knocks wood.

[Cribtop]

April 19, 1942

Victory in China [&o]

Go Horns and Gamecocks!

Subs

Convoy escorts chase off Shark in the Makassar Strait, but K XVIII torps a big, empty xAK. She should make Balikpapan barring another encounter.

We have 3 I-boats waiting in the path of the enemy CVE TF near Vava'u, but the enemy sails right through the cordon with no contacts. [:@]

4th Fleet

The CVE Raiders are sailing SSW, attempting to intercept the CVE/TK convoy that our subs can't seem to find.

SE Fleet

The Feni Islands fall, concluding DBCL work in this AO.

14th Army

No change.

16th Army

Fenton falls. Darwin is next. The enemy LCUs pursuing our armor south of Daly have either given up or just fallen behind.

25th Army

We sweep Soerabaja but no CAP. Singapore makes level 4 forts.

15th Army

Continuing to put a/c in position for Operation Hamstring. Our ground units have nearly arrived at Myitkyina and Kalemyo.

China

DA Lanchow easily takes the base with 5:1 odds. Banzai! [&o]. 1 LCU destroyed, while 2 base forces and an HQ are forced to retreat with casualties 2406(218) vs 56(0). Facilities taken with only 2 points of damage each. China's Oil is now owned by Japan and her Heavy Industry is rendered useless. We won't go much farther in this direction, in part because there is little worth taking (other than the industry heavy base 2 hexes away) and in part because supplying further advances into the depths of China seems too ahistorical for our taste.

The last two Chutai flying Nates on the front line in China have upgraded to Oscars. The Nate is now only flying as a trainer in rear area bases.

[Cribtop]

April 20, 1942

Subs

K VIII duds (even Dutch subs dud in this sub wasteland of a game) on a DD in the Makassar Strait. An ASW TF DCs Gudgeon to little effect near Truk. Escorts of the Western Sumatra invasion TF DC and score 2 penetrating hits on SS Salmon in the Malacca Strait. Ann on ASW patrol out of Singers reports a hit on a sub between Borneo and Malaya. We are using ASW aircraft to try to make the waters near Singapore and Balikpapan very unwelcoming for Allied subs.

I-4 puts 2 TTs into the BIG AO Platte near Sydney and sinks her with the always fun massive explosion damage result. The crowd goes wild. [:D][:-]

4th Fleet

Still hunting toward the TK TF. Estimate intercept in the next 48 hours if it's going to happen. Emily recon of Canton shows a TK in port there. We will try an extreme range port attack from TB.

SE Fleet

ALERT! 18 B-17Es bomb the airfield at Port Moresby, the first sighting of the monsters for months. They get a Jake on the ground, err, dock and cause 4 runway hits. More to come I'm sure. We're actually glad that Cuttles is choosing to use them in the Pacific instead of Burma.

14th Army

No change.

16th Army

At least 6 enemy LCUs appear to still be chasing our tanks to Daly Waters.

25th Army

DA Tjepoe by the 2nd Raiding regiment, fighting as infantry, takes the base from a fleeing support unit with 36:1 odds, casualties 18(4) vs nil.

15th Army

Tandjoengbalai invaded without incident. Port Blair makes level 2 airfield and will soon open as a full blown Netty Nest.

China

No change. A rare quiet day here.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

ALERT! 18 B-17Es bomb the airfield at Port Moresby, the first sighting of the monsters for months. They get a Jake on the ground, err, dock and cause 4 runway hits. More to come I'm sure. We're actually glad that Cuttles is choosing to use them in the Pacific instead of Burma.

Ineresting as I am just the opposite. I prefer to see the 4E's in Burma early in the war. In the PAC, I cannot mass enough fighters to kill them. In Burma, I can get the fighter mass I need to kill some. Since they can't afford much in the way of losses, sting them a few times and they go back into hiding. Hitting PM, unless the other bases have been builts up (Lae, Buna, etc) it's so hard to get enough fighters up to hit'em. OTOH, if you have those bases built up .... CAP trap for those big buggers! He may not be reconning those back AF's and might miss the fighter build up and walk right into 100 Zero's. 100 Zero's .vs. 18 B-17's will give you the kind of result that you will like. [;)]

[Cribtop]

A strong analysis but it just so happens we're building Lae, Nadzab and Buna as we speak. [:D]

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

A strong analysis but it just so happens we're building Lae, Nadzab and Buna as we speak. [:D]

BANZAI!!!

[zuluhour]

beware Crib, Its Jan 25th in my first pbem and I have the whole 19th Bomb group with two more complete 8 plane groups combining in Cairns for a total of 45 B17s. Theres two more squadrons five to seven days out. I believe I can hit everything but Rabaul in normal range and I intend to do it at night.

[Cribtop]

zulu, no doubt they are nasty, and if they come in numbers greater than 18 things can get dicey. We'll try to stop the monsters with LRCAP from Lae for now, but are definitely not taking the 4Es lightly.

[SqzMyLemon]

Get your Nick's in there, or do you have them yet? I find if you can get enough Nick's together they can mess with the unescorted B-17's a little. You just need to get good pilots into them and a decent number of fighters in the air. I've had the best success with them against the 4E's, but even that has been minimal. Since the B-17's are so reviled by JFB's it's a great feeling even shooting down one of the buggers!

[Cribtop]

No Nicks yet, but we're working on them.

[Saros]

There's not much point in building the first nick model as far as I know. In scen 1 only one unrestricted 12 plane unit can upgrade to them. I think you get more squads around the time the second model comes out.

[jrcar]

ORIGINAL: Saros

There's not much point in building the first nick model as far as I know. In scen 1 only one unrestricted 12 plane unit can upgrade to them. I think you get more squads around the time the second model comes out.

The 13th Sentai can upgrade to Nicks, it is a 42 strong unit.

84th I.F Chutai, 12 aircraft, can also upgrade.

The 4th Sentai can also upgrade, but it is a restricted unit.

They are useful

Cheers

Rob

[ny59giants]

Many of the B-17 air groups that are withdrawn have the planes and pilots go back into the pool, so they can aid in building up their numbers beyond the 15 produced per month. In Scenario 2, the B-17F and B-24 come out in July and August. It will go from bad to worse for Japan in Feb 43 when the second generation of B-24s come out as this basically triples their monthly production (15 B-24s come in as Production, but convert over to B-24D1 and add in another 33 as replacements [X(]). The B-24s carry 10 x 500lb bombs so your AFs will have lots and lots of holes. [:D]

[Cribtop]

4Es - the JFB nightmare. About to run the next replay. If CF comes again the Tainan Air Group will have a go at the monsters. From a game analysis perspective, yesterday's little raid, combined with the units acting aggressively in NW Oz and the build up of troops in Assam are indicators to Tokyo that Cuttlefish is done with running and preparing, slowly but surely, to fight. Cribtop Intel bets that the game gets a lot more interesting over the next few months. There may even be some value in trying to get CF to try a counterattack before he's really ready. Hmmm.

[Cribtop]

April 20, 1942

Subs

Finback fires 4 or 5 volleys (8 or 10 torps, presumably) before finally getting a boom that sinks our kamikaze xAK returning from supplying Nukufetau. Never seen a replay like it, with one torpedo launch sound after another and duds galore. A Nell reports a hit on an S boat near Denpasar. Our air units in the Makassar and Malacca Straits are starting to make life uncomfortable for the enemy. Salmon shows up as sunk in Tracker. This may be the real deal as she took 2 penetrating DC Mod-2 hits a few days back.

4th Fleet

The CVE Raiders are spotted with a "enemy carriers" report. We tried to thread the needle between Cats at Canton and the Line Islands but failed. We have lost track of the big TK convoy but presumably they will flee south or SE. Instead the raiders will hit the port of Canton Island as a tanker still shows up in harbor there.

TB airfield makes level 4.

SE Fleet

13 B-17s come for PM. Bad weather and perhaps the 4 hex range to Lae cause only 13 Zeros to fly on LRCAP. Not nearly enough to execute the "multiple passes" strategy. Despite this, and despite damage to 5 Zeros, we lose no pilots and Tracker shows 3 B-17s lost to A2A or Ops. Decent attrition but we need to amp it up. Only 1 runway hit is scored by the bombers.

14th Army

We arrive at the last base on Panay and should force a surrender tomorrow.

16th Army

Our armor again outruns the Allies in NW Oz. The main body will reach Darwin soon.

Our tankers have dodged enemy subs in the Makassar Strait and are off to deliver needed fuel and oil to Truk and Home Islands.

25th Army

Tandjoengbalai falls. 18th Division is finished unloading and will march up the good road all the way to Sabang.

15th Army

Almost in position to launch our air offensive. Waiting for a day of weather other than Thunderstorms.

China

We are bombing Chinese units in the open in both the northern and central fronts and reaping hundreds of casualties per turn. Not sure how long CF can afford to sit exposed.

DA by our cav unit against the isolated HQ achieves 5:1 odds and forces a retreat. Casualties 233(12) vs nil.

[princep01]

Crib, based on my experience in a couple of games as the Allies, when an American sub does what Finback did, it usually means that the sub expeneded ALL torpedos. Sometimes the sub will actually get a hit, sometimes it doesn't. I'd bet a dollar to a donut that Finback is out of torps and will retire to port.

As to your ASW, the chance of both those DC "hits" actually being real hits is small. Possible, but small. In the last game I played (thru exactly 6 months of game time), the Japanese sank 3 subs....2 Dutch and one S-Boat. One Dutch boat died to DC attack, but the other two kills were via CV ASW planes. So, I suspect that you did not sink that sub, only damaged it. IJN surface ASW is pretty lame even in shallow waters.

In that period almost all the US DDs upgraded their ASW to 6 from 2. In the process, they sank 7 I-Boats, 1 RO Boat and 4 midgets (with the midgets usually imaling themselves on obstacles or rocks or ate a mine). Going from 2 (where almost all the IJN DDs are) to 6 is a deadly jump in ASW ability.