Parry and Spar, or is it... Reluctant Admiral 4.2 Fulkerson(J) vs Moore (A)

[moore4807]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Jan 29, 42
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Finally I feel I'm getting somewhere with the ASW attacks, hes still hurting me but a few DD's doing ASW will make a difference!

ASW attack near Palmyra at 170,133
Japanese Ships
SS I-16, hits 4
Allied Ships
DD Mugford
xAK Hoegh Merchant
DD John D. Edwards
DD Edsall


ASW attack near Palmyra at 170,133
Japanese Ships
SS I-24, hits 1
Allied Ships
xAK Hoegh Merchant
DD John D. Edwards
DD Edsall


Submarine attack near Palmyra at 170,133
Japanese Ships
SS I-24
Allied Ships
xAKL Tennessean, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

Submarine attack near Palmyra at 170,133
Japanese Ships
SS I-24
Allied Ships
xAKL Mapele, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damag


ASW attack near Palmyra at 170,133
Japanese Ships
SS I-172, hits 3
Allied Ships
DD Talbot


Submarine attack near Johnston Island at 164,112
Japanese Ships
SS I-20
Allied Ships
xAK Shooting Star, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage

Sub attack near Johnston Island at 164,112
Japanese Ships
SS I-20, hits 4
Allied Ships
DD Dent
DD Litchfield


Congrats to Larry on the bombardment, I dont think I can move the fighters anywhere else but back to Manila.

Night Naval bombardment of Cagayan at 79,89
Allied aircraft
no flights
Allied aircraft losses
P-40B Warhawk: 5 damaged
P-40B Warhawk: 1 destroyed on ground
O-47A: 5 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 4 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 1 destroyed on ground
B-10B: 1 damaged
B-10B: 1 destroyed on ground
Japanese Ships
BB Haruna
CA Aoba
CA Myoko
CA Chokai
CL Abukuma
DD Karii
DD Ayanami
DD Amatsukaze
Allied ground losses:
544 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 9 disabled
Non Combat: 8 destroyed, 52 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Guns lost 9 (1 destroyed, 8 disabled)
Vehicles lost 6 (2 destroyed, 4 disabled)
Manpower hits 5
Fires 1287
Airbase hits 12
Airbase supply hits 4
Runway hits 49
Port hits 13
Port supply hits 2

This IS NOT how its supposed to happen! LOL

Sub attack near San Diego at 226,80
Japanese Ships
SS I-19
Allied Ships
YP-197, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
YP-343

Ha! Dutch treat!

Sub attack near Billiton at 53,95
Japanese Ships
PB Aso Maru #3, Torpedo hits 1
Allied Ships
SS KXIII

Probably the biggest torp strike yet for the USN to date.

Submarine attack near Manus at 103,119
Japanese Ships
xAP Manzyu Maru, Shell hits 13, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
Allied Ships
SS Searaven, hits 1

Celebrations in the Streets of Chungking!!! CAF has finally done damage to the hated Japanese...

Morning Air attack on 21st Ind.Mixed Brigade, at 68,56 (Hanoi)
Weather in hex: Overcast
Raid spotted at 4 NM, estimated altitude 20,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 1 minutes
Allied aircraft
SB-III x 2

No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
13 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

This is where I'll admit I lost track of a TF, I don't remember putting PT boats protecting a TK...

Morning Air attack on TF, near Tjilatjap at 51,102
Weather in hex: Heavy cloud
Raid spotted at 14 NM, estimated altitude 8,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 9
B5N2 Kate x 15

No Japanese losses

Allied Ships
TK Talang Akar, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
PT TM-5
PT TM-4

Not much for Orphan Anne to crow about tonight!
Japanese forces CAPTURE Maumere !!!

[Simonsez]

New to game, but have been lurking in the forums for quite some time now. For what it is worth....[8D]

Both of you have mentioned that ASW attacks seemingly are succeeding more often at this point in the game. Keep an eye on the Detection Level (DL) of your subs. As DL increases, enemy subs will begin to appear on the map as evidence of their existence accumulates to your forces. As a direct result, ASW attacks will naturally start to achieve more consistent hits.

To decrease DL of your own subs, move your subs around a bit (don't sit in one place), set them up on patrol patterns or leave the area for a bit and come back at a later time once some of the DL "wears off".

To increase DL of enemy subs, allocate dedicated ASW naval patrols and allocate dedicated ASW air search missions (experienced players appear to recommend low altitude settings such as 3,000 to 6,000 feet for ASW - mileage may very). Once a sub is located, persecute it until you hit it, kill it or drive it away. From what I've read ASW is pretty poor on both sides until later in the game when technology evolves and upgrades can be applied. Don't expect a chance encounter in the early game to result in a damaged sub too often.

Furthermore, subs are easier to detect and attack in shallow water (obviously) and apparently the early Japanese Depth Charges have a rough time hitting subs in deep water as they tend to explode at relatively shallow depths - see allot of exploding above target messages in the combat reports.

Other factors. Damaged subs are supposedly easier to detect - makes sense. Aggressive ASW TF commanders can also increase the effectiveness of ASW patrols. Trained ASW Search pilots can also increase the effectiveness of ASW air search patrols.

I've barely scratched the surface of the game in playing against the AI (hope to have time to enter PBEM at some point), but the depth of this game as you are seeing, is truly overwhelming.

Regards,

Simonsez

[moore4807]

ORIGINAL: Simonsez

New to game, but have been lurking in the forums for quite some time now. For what it is worth....[8D]

Welcome Simonsez! We are just getting our feet wet using the Reluctant Admiral mod. SEVERAL changes vs. stock mods. We were just commenting on the differences we have noticed...

Both of you have mentioned that ASW attacks seemingly are succeeding more often at this point in the game. Keep an eye on the Detection Level (DL) of your subs. As DL increases, enemy subs will begin to appear on the map as evidence of their existence accumulates to your forces. As a direct result, ASW attacks will naturally start to achieve more consistent hits.

Very true, however playing as the Allies I have both noticed turn to turn the detection level varies widely, much more then "stock" scenarios.

To decrease DL of your own subs, move your subs around a bit (don't sit in one place), set them up on patrol patterns or leave the area for a bit and come back at a later time once some of the DL "wears off".

Already Done, Larry was commenting recently about the advantages of three "stop" patrols over two 'stop" patrols. I believe the answer is a straight line pattern (two stop) or an area pattern (three stop) the sub performs based on the selected area. The other thing you might have seen is me staying in Makassar port for multiple turns. I was doing it in retaliation for Larry sitting his subs outside ALL of my outlying ports - Japanese subs are MUCH more capable than thier USN counterparts early in the war!

To increase DL of enemy subs, allocate dedicated ASW naval patrols and allocate dedicated ASW air search missions (experienced players appear to recommend low altitude settings such as 3,000 to 6,000 feet for ASW - mileage may very). Once a sub is located, persecute it until you hit it, kill it or drive it away. From what I've read ASW is pretty poor on both sides until later in the game when technology evolves and upgrades can be applied. Don't expect a chance encounter in the early game to result in a damaged sub too often.

True - just the Japanese air has the ability to build up experience in thier backyard more quickly than Allies as we get beaten up and destroyed in 42... Or you have the Hobson's choice of drydocking your DD's in Jan & Feb of 42 to upgrade your ASW. and watching the IJN run roughshod over any AP/AK/AKL's running around. Keeping the DD's out of drydock generally is worse IMHO because the experience the Japanese player gets while you eventually still have to drydock the survivors of the escort runs.

Furthermore, subs are easier to detect and attack in shallow water (obviously) and apparently the early Japanese Depth Charges have a rough time hitting subs in deep water as they tend to explode at relatively shallow depths - see allot of exploding above target messages in the combat reports.

Agreed - just not as many failures of the IJN in the Reluctant Admiral mod, I'm not complaining though, its much more realistic so far.

Other factors. Damaged subs are supposedly easier to detect - makes sense. Aggressive ASW TF commanders can also increase the effectiveness of ASW patrols. Trained ASW Search pilots can also increase the effectiveness of ASW air search patrols.

I've barely scratched the surface of the game in playing against the AI (hope to have time to enter PBEM at some point), but the depth of this game as you are seeing, is truly overwhelming.

Simonsez please feel free to post anytime. Your situation is similar to mine, I started my first 2 PBEM's this summer after playing the A.I. for almost 2 years.

I'm very fortunate to have Larry as my opponent - skilled is he in the map & paste visuals!
I try to keep some humor and more of a narrative in my first try writing an AAR.

Several experienced players cautioned us to do seperate AAR's so each would get more advice without upsetting OPSEC gameplay. We have decided to do this as a joint AAR and I'm pretty happy with it. especially with over 8K reads and several have commented here both giving and asking advice - which is what Larry and I started out to do.

Regards,

Simonsez

[larryfulkerson]

Hey Simonsez: welcome aboard dude. Feel free to ask any question you like. I can answer any question. Sometimes I have to say
"I don't know" but hey, that's an answer.

It's 08:03 on Sat. 15Sep2012 and I've gotten Jim's moves so here's some new combat reports:

I got some more hits on a sub so I must be lucky.

[larryfulkerson]

Operation SKIDDING CAR is proceeding with the continuing bombardment of Cagayan. I'm wondering if the Allied forces there have
been softened up sufficiently to allow a successful Direct Assault. Maybe I should try one and see what happens. What could possibly
go wrong.

[larryfulkerson]

Hits on a sub are so rare that I'm surprised that it happened again to a different Allied sub. I must have good Karma or something.

[larryfulkerson]

I-24 took a couple of hits but none are major so I'm going to stick around and see if I can't plant some torps.

[larryfulkerson]

A swing and a miss. None of my Betty's can hit the broad side of a barn.

[larryfulkerson]

I haven't been reporting much on the combat going on in China but this one involves a port so I thought I would.

[larryfulkerson]

Operation BEAT DOWN continues at Manila. I'm thinking of putting together some kind of surface force to see if I can apply some
ship-to-shore bombardment to Bataan somehow. Some DMS's and some BB's and lots of escorts. Stay tuned.

[larryfulkerson]

Operation SHINEY BUICK is finally getting started. It's the bombardment of the Allied forces at Port Moresby. No damage was done by
this raid but maybe future raids will be more successful.

[larryfulkerson]

More action in operation BEAT DOWN. Every little bit helps I guess.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm hoping that all these air-to-ground raids will slow him down enough so my guys get to Mersing before he does.

[larryfulkerson]

And here's an Allied raid on Port Moresby. I was hoping for more from my Zero's.

[larryfulkerson]

Seems as though I ought to turn off the attacks by these Betty's. This group got slaughtered.

[larryfulkerson]

Finally, the Betty's get a hit on a ship. I guess surface forces will have to finish the job.

[larryfulkerson]

I just did this bombardment to see what kind of result a DD would get on a bombardment mission. Not much it turns out.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought I'd try to land some more troops at Cebu to help out those already there.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what happened on the ground at Manila. More air attacks are on order. Too bad I can't get a ship in there to bombard.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the result of a Jap ground bombardment. More softening up is indicated. A lot more.