Of Rabbits, Dogs, and Windmills.........Quixote vs Ctangus

[Quixote]

February 25 through March 1

Central Pacific - This theater has been very quiet since the opening week of the war. No Allied shipping or movement to speak of, and even sub activity has been minor at best. So surprise, surprise (or supplies, supplies ala Mandrake) Ctangus goes and bombards Tabiteuea with several of those US BBs he has to play with since I didn't hit Pearl Harbor. Since I didn't have many planes there I -

A) didn't spot him coming, and
B) didn't lose many planes in the bombardment.

He did wipe out most of the island's supplies, but that was about the extent of the damage. At this stage in the war, I'm not really expecting him to try and take anything here yet, but who knows. He does have assets, and if he thinks he knows where my carriers are he may elect to give it a shot. I could always take back almost anything he invades for now, but it would buy him some time and keep me occupied here when I could be making better use of my forces elsewhere.

Phillipines - Bataan falls. There is much rejoicing. Cagayan remains in Allied hands on Mindanao, and I still have to take Illiolo and Cebu, but these shouldn't last long. I'll use a few of the troops from Luzon as soon as they're rested and ready.

Java - The last base on Java falls (Buitenzorg). The Japanese are rejoicing, but I think the Dutch may be irritated. There are now four pockets of Dutch left, and two of those pockets never even fought or lost a battle. Since they have no bases and supplies now though, it's just a matter of time. I'd estimate that Java will be clear of Dutch troops in week, excepting the small group that retreated into a mountain hex with no road access. They'll probably end up as target practice for bomber pilots in training for a while. Christmas Island (IO) fell unopposed to paratroops, and is getting it's own base force next turn. Early recon (only one turn, and from Mavis float planes) shows the Cocos to be empty as well. Since I have a whole division prepping to take them, that operation could end up being a bit anti-climatic...

China - The last of my trapped forces (two regiments) by Nanning continue to erode, and will soon be guarding Tokyo when I buy the cadres back. On the plus side, I finally caught the AVG in a fight that was advantageous for the Japanese. I've had a large group of VERY experienced zeroes in Central China trying to pick a fight with the remaining AVG for a while now with no luck, since this is all I have that can now beat all those AVG double-aces (all those free bomber kills from earlier in the war hurt.) On March 1rst, I got him in a sweep over an impending land battle and took out a dozen or so of the AVG planes. I'm hoping that I got at least half of the pilots, too since his nearest base was 4 hexes away, but he had enough troops in range that I probably just unhorsed them for a bit.

Solomons/Noumea - Nighttime on the 25th, two US BBs show up at Noumea, presumably to bombard my troops, but end up running into a SCTF headed by a couple of my CLs and filled out with DDs. There was a lot of firing, but not much in the way of hits on either side. One of his BBs took a single torpedo and a few smaller caliber shells, but that's it. Daytime arrived, and Vals sunk (probably) two more AKs here. After a short stop for fuel and ammuntion, the KB turned back for Noumea to help finish it off. After making a pit stop east of Oz to sink a few Allied cruisers that were trying to help reinforce or resupply Horn Island, as of March 2nd they are now two days out from New Caledonia escorting what I hope is enough troops to finally take the island. Noumea is now down to fort level 1, but has been going more slowly than I had hoped.

[Quixote]

March 2 through March 7

Solomons/New Guinea - Horn Island falls. Engineers are on the way there now to begin working on the forts and AF.

Java - The first few Allied troops have begun to surrender, but many more of them remain, mostly outside of Tjilatjap and Buitenzorg. Deliberate attack, bombard, repeat. I'm hoping they go away sooner rather than later, but even the 6-1 attacks haven't been causing incredible casualties yet so we'll wait for the odds to get higher as the last of his supply disappears and his disorganization mounts. I've got probably three and a half divisions worth of troops mopping up here that I'd like to use one last time before the landing bonus expires - It'll be close.

China - Not much change. I brought in 1000 AV at Shanghai and marched them down to Wenchow on the coast. I'm guessing it'll take me a week or two, but I should be able to pick up the base there. The "small" flanking manuever all the way up north in China seems to be drawing more troops from both sides as the days wear on. Everywhere else, there is minor back and forth, but no major pushes at the moment.

Burma - My small forces have been stopped along the Toungoo-Taung Gyi line. They are now waiting for the Imperial Guards, an HQ, and some tanks to break this line and push forward - probably in the next week.

Noumea - New Caledonia turned into a small meat grinder for both sides for a few turns. Ctangus landed paras behind me at La Foa to cut off my supply. I responded by landing my reinforcements directly at La Foa instead of walking them down from Koumac. Ctangus moved planes back in (both fighters and SBDs) despite the risk of losing Noumea to ground attack, and sank 6 AKs and a DD - most of them after they'd already discharged their troops, thankfully - then lost a bunch of his planes the same turn attacking a second TF of DDs covered by many more zeroes. The following turn, I ran BB bombardment group into Noumea hoping his planes would still be there, and launched a shock attack. Bonzai! A more costly operation for me than I'd planned for, but worth it for the Allied units I took out and for the time it should buy me later. That said, I really don't plan to defend the island heavily when he decides he wants it back in four or five months - I'll be content with trying to sink a bunch of transports and escorts with mines and dive bombers, and then pulling back to the Solomons.

[Quixote]

March 8 through March 20

I've been slightly delinquent with my updates during holidays, but this post should bring things current.

Phillipines - Cebu is now the sole remaining Alllied base in the P.I. I've got a regiment ashore here already, but am waiting on a second regiment to land before taking the base. Ctangus still has those good old Stearmans operating out of here, so they have about two more turns of spotting for subs left in them, then it's curtains.

Java - The last of the Dutch around my bases surrendered, leaving just a few troops stuck in the mountains with a regiment of IJA infantry keeping them company until they disappear. As of the March 20, all three Japanese divisions on Java are all at Batavia resting up and waiting to load themselves onto transports.

New Caledonia - I picked up one or two more dot bases close to Noumea, and started fighter sweeps against Norfolk Island. Subs torpedoed and sank CL Concord near Norfolk between the 14th and 15th. Norfolk Island has a garrison of around 4000 troops, but the AF is still level 1, and Ctangus hasn't had much time to mine it since Noumea fell. I believe I have enough assets in the vicinity to take it, but I'm not sure I'm quite ready to yet.

Central Pacific - It's been a ghost town since Ctangus sent some of the old Pearl Harbor BBs to bombard Tabiteuea. Except for the recons that have flown over Tabiteuea since then. It's only a guess, but I have a feeling that Chuck is looking for someplace to put his old BBs to good use, and that the Gilberts area, even this early, might just be it.

Rangoon - Funny how a full IJA division will change things (every place but in China, anyway.) The stalemate in Burma has now been broken, and Ctangus is in retreat. Toungoo fell on the 17th, and Magwe was taken (uncontested and in perfect shape) on the 20th. As of the 20th he's still moving backwards, so we'll see where he choooses to make his last stand in the Irrawady Valley.

China - Holy cow, I made some modest progress here without suffering any major setbacks. Wenchow and its industry fell to the IJA on the 18th, inflicting 300+ destroyed Chinese squads/devices, and I managed to whittle away at the AVG again in the air near Nanchang that same turn. Since I was blocking roads at Wenchow, his survivors were forced to retreat in an unfavorable (for Ctangus) direction. I may now be forced to tempt fate and push on to Chusien...

Indian Ocean - Port Blair seems to be set up very nicely as a roadblock to Japanese I.O. expansion, boasting almost 20,000 troops and a level 4 airfield. My soon to be expiring amphibious bonus aside, Port Blair also makes a very tempting target. I've already run a couple of fighter sweeps, using some of the best pilots and planes I have in the game, but with only mixed results. The first time was a tie (which makes it a loss for me), while the second time I won with a 4-1 kill ratio. Current fighter play notwithstanding, this will be a major operation when I decide to pull the trigger. Nearby at Trinkat, I landed a base force to secure the dot base and to pick up an advanced position for my search aircraft. Somewhat to my surprise, Ctangus had a Brit CV covering Port Blair from the rear, and its torpedo bombers were more than happy to sink a few of my happless AKLs. Alas, these things happen, but no great loss. Until I forget to re-route my follow-up TF the next turn, and lose another three AKs to the same CV group. Not exactly stellar play on my part here...

[Quixote]

March 21 through April 10

Between work and actually playing the game, I've fallen quite behind with the AAR. In the past three weeks of game time, we've had several unilateral CV strikes, significant movement in Burma and China, a few minor invasions, and two major invasions. Picking up where I left off, right after the fall of Noumea I split the KB. Half went to cover an invasion of Midway, while the other half went to cover an invasion of Port Blair. I'll do a post for each theater to bring things back up to speed. We'll start with the Indian Ocean.

Airfield attacks and sweeps on Port Blair started on 3/21. Minesweeping started on the 25th, and abruptly ended later that day when a Brit CV TF showed back up and sank a pair of AMcs. Japanese carriers waiting (for several turns) off of Sabang hoping the Brits would return, and into the fray they went on the 26th. The Brit CVs were clouded in, so the Japanese carrier planes attacked a BB group instead, putting a torpedo each into BB Ramillies and BB Resolution, sinking an AMC, and damaging a couple of CLs. The following turn, my CVs stayed in the vicinity of Port Blair while Ctangus pulled his CVs back towards India. No CV engagement....[:(] On the 3/27, a small Allied CL TF sank a couple of DMS at Blair. Chuck also ran a heavier SCTF into Blair (looking for the invasion forces, I guess), and on it's way out BB Warspite took two torpedoes from a Japanese sub. When the sun came up, Warspite took three more torps from Kates and went down, along with a group of 6 AKLs too slow to flee from the CVs. On the 28th, three IJA divisions came ashore at Port Blair, capturing it two days later causing over 13,000 Allied casualties. Things then quieted down for several turns, except for one sub attack on CV Formidable just outside Trincomalee. Only one torpedo hit, but there was a "Fuel Storage Explosion" message. She showed up next turn on my Sunk Ships list, but I didn't really believe it. I decided to take my CVs and raid Trinco to see if I couldn't finish Formidable off in her damaged state. Ctangus spotted a SCTF one turn away, but not the CVs, so I elected to send in the raid anyway. There was no Formidable in port, but CVL Hermes was there, and so took the bulk of the raid. Unfortunately, with that one turn of warning I gave Chuck (or maybe they were there already), Ceylon had every Brit TB in the game waiting for me. Five different raids came in on the half-KB, four of which were swatted away. I wasn't so lucky with the fifth one, though, as he put several torpedoes into both Kaga and Junyo. Four turns later both are still floating. They're now headed slowly back to port, being hunted by every sub Chuck can muster and supported by every piece of ASW I can give them. We'll see who wins this one in four or five more turns....

[Quixote]

March 21 through April 10

Cent Pac - Ctangus continues to show interest in Tabiteuea. Recons are frequent if not daily, and he's run a couple of BB bombardment TFs in. As the Japanese CVs are busy elsewhere, I decided to reinforce the island with a Naval Guard unit. Unfortunately, both my timing and my luck were terrible. I had the Guard unit loaded onto two AMCs, and I ran them into Tabite purposely during daylight hours, so that even if Chuck bombarded that turn I'd miss his forces. As it happened, Chuck did bombard that turn. Per his email, he also miscounted hexes, so his BBs ended up hitting during the second phase - right after they sank my entire reinforcement TF. Sigh...

On a larger scale, Japan invaded Midway. Subs reconning the island on and off for weeks reported just two units present. Two days before my air strikes were to begin, APDs were spotted in transit to Midway, so literally the day before my attacks began Chuck shipped in another defending unit.... Air attacks began on 3/27 from four Japanese CVs (Akagi, Zuikaku, Hiryu and Soryu) and ran for three days. Landings took place on the 29th, following a large bombardment by Japanese BBs. The results were beyond pathetic. I had one negative combat modifier, Ctangus had five. Straight AV was 152 to 83. Adjusted AV was ZERO to 52. Mind boggling. (My one negative modifer was disruption - looking at the landing results disruption wasn't too bad.) The attack thus went off at 1-99, and I pulled my landing forces back the next turn and headed for Kwaj. I've had a few good dice rolls in the game thus far, but Midway certainly was not one of them...

[Empire101]

Good job on Port Blair Quixote!!

I have a very similar problem in my game ( similar numbers at PB ). You took it in two days!!
Banzai sir!! Well done.

Its a shame you did'nt have a couple of spare Div's for Midway.

Are you planning to invade Ceylon and deny ctangus Trinco and Columbo?


I shall be watching with interest the saga of Kaga & Junyo.....I hope you get them back to drydock.

[Quixote]

Thanks Empire. Good luck with Blair in your game as well. With Midway, unfortunately we're playing Scenario 1 - I don't have too many spare divisions lying around quite yet. I'll make sure to update the AAR when Kaga and Junyo either make port, or when they make a terrific target for one of Ctangus' subs. As to your question about invading Ceylon, I'm strongly considering it. I have units prepping (one or two over 50 already) for this, but I haven't completely decided to pull the trigger yet. I'm still mulling a move on Calcutta for the HI, and might do this in lieu of Ceylon.

March 21 through April 11

New Caledona - Most of the action here (real action, anyway) has been by Ctangus. With the KB split and headed to different areas, I still wanted to keep Chuck's attention on this area - making him think I would soon to be going after Norfolk Island, Fiji, etc. For several turns, I had many small AKLs running around Noumea, along with a dozen CAs and CLs with DD escort. Recons taking pictures of Norfolk, the occasional fighter sweep, etc. On March 22nd or 23rd, one of my subs just north New Zealand was spotted by an SBD, and I decided it was time to get the more valuable actors out of harms way. All but one of the cruisers headed back to the Solomons. I left CA Kinugasa with two DDs to keep things interesting, and on the 24th they raided Norfolk Island. A small surface skirmish with some Allied CLs took place there, but nothing decisive. When the sun came up though, Ctangus struck. He had two or three full US CVs (hard to tell with the losses he took at Noumea - I'd guess three CVs, but who knows) parked off of Noumea, and they promptly sank Kinugasa in the morning, then hit Noumea in the afternoon. Since everything else big was gone, Chuck ended up bombing a couple of DDs and PBs with all his planes. Since they're tough to hit, he ended up hitting very little - I think he sank one DD and damaged a couple of PBs. From his emails, I know he was pretty disappointed by the strikes, but I don't think he realized that he did get to attack the best ships I had here, but that they purposely weren't very good. Knowing for sure at this point where his CVs were on the other hand made me a lot more comfortable with my decision to split the KB, and more confident in my pending attacks on Midway and in the I.O.

Burma - As of last turn, Burma is mostly Japanese - only one non-dot base left to take. See below.

[Quixote]

Two things. First, Kaga and Junyo made port two turns ago. Screenshot below, looks like both will live to fight another day which makes the raid semi-worthwhile. Second, Ctangus lives in Boston. I live in Baltimore, which is perfect if you happen to follow football, since the AFC Championship game was today. We had a "Lobster vs Crabcake" bet. I believe I just won a lobsta', though since we had no weight limits established this may end up being a crawfish. Either way, go team, go! Any AARs mirroring Baltimore vs San Fran? I'll have to check them out if so.

[Quixote]

March 21 through April 27

China - Last major theater to catch up, but China updates are easier to look at over a period of weeks rather than daily anyway - you get more of a sense of flow and progress (see below.) I pulled some forces from the Nanyang area and brought in a few of the Phillpines troops to supplement a push through Central China, taking Wenchow, Chusien, then moving aside some of the resistance to finally put a division into Changsha. All the circled Chinese units are now either low on supply, have been routed at least once, or both. The 17K near Chusien have been completely enveloped. Just south of the Changsha block of cities, I've got 1000+AV cutting the rail and road to Kukong and contemplating a shock across the river to the north. On the northern part of the map, Ctangus went on a cross-country trip with 150,000 of the troops he had near Ichang to cut off my units just off map at Ankang. I threatened his supply line (I had enough to break through and take Ichang if he did nothing) so he turned the stack around and is headed back to the cover of those woods. Almost every bomber in China has been harrassing him on the way, and I've got a stack of 1600AV trying to catch up to his stragglers - I'm hoping to catch at least a couple of corps. Off map, he now has Ankang surrounded, but I've got the supply and forts to last long enough (I think) to mount a relief effort. His first (and only) attack there went off at 1-2 with no reduction in the fort level.

[Quixote]

State of the Empire - May 1, 1942

We're now more or less five months into the game, and neither of us has managed to lose the war quite yet.[:'(] Japanese progress has slowed (somewhat intentionally) everywhere but China the past couple of game weeks. The Allies at Little Andaman were eliminated, Akyab is now filled with Japanese troops ready to march north along the coast, and all the small bases on the north coast of Oz have been occupied (leaving only Darwin for now) but that's been it outside of China for the month of April. Inside China, things have really picked up. Changsha is now threatened from the rear, Nanning has a sizeable force headed its way from Indo-China, and Hami to the north fell on May 1. Took a while to get moving here, but things are starting to look much better. As China was the one area of the game where Ctangus had been doing relatively well, I think this has demoralized him just a bit (and it may get worse, since I don't think he knows about the troops two hexes from Nanning yet...) but such is the fate of the Allies in the early going. I'll post some additional shots of shipping losses and victory points etc. later this evening, but here's a map of how things stand as of now.

[Quixote]

May 1, 1942

[Quixote]

May 2 through May 10

Central Pacific - After reinforcing Tabiteuea, I'm feeling comfortable with defenses in the Gilberts and Marshalls for this stage of the game. Just to keep Ctangus on his toes, I've started pushing out again and taking dot bases that I don't have much interest in defending, but which may serve as small tripwires when it becomes his turn to attack. One of these raids paid off with the elimination of a squadron of PBYs which had been flying recon on Tabite from an atoll nearby. At some point Chuck may decide to react (before I start taking Baker, Canton, etc.), but the fact that none of my CVs has been sighted in the past 25+ turns has probably been adding to his reluctance to commit here.

Aleutians - There's been no action in this theater at all since the second day of the war. On a very small scale, I've started to move forward with some completely expendable assets here, too - again just to keep Chuck on his toes.

Australia - I have the equivalent of roughly two divisions currently at sea, en route to Wyndham. Half of them will make port in the next day or two. No sense landing at Darwin when I can take it from behind with far fewer losses, and maybe capture a unit or two in the process. I've been bombing Darwin at will for a while now, and Ctangus seems to have pulled most of his search assets back. I'm not sure that he knows I've finally started to commit here yet.

Burma/India - Japan has worked it's way up the coast and taken Cox's Bazaar. The Brit division that had been the garrison at Cox's elected to withdraw instead of sticking around to fight the three incoming Japanese divisions. Akyab should be AF4 in a few more turns (and already has an Air HQ), and Cox's Bazaar should have a working AF1 within about the same time frame. Slow and steady here, until I decide to change gears.

China - The way I read things, China is ready to start really paying off after some early frustrations. Unless Ctangus has reserves that I haven't caught a whiff of, the Allies look to be on the receiving end of a rather large breakthrough in the not to distant future. How far back they'll manage to re-establish an effective defense remains to be seen.

[Quixote]

May 11 through May 18

Unfortunately, the game is now proceeding more slowly than the real war. I think we've managed two turns in the past seven days (with none in the last four days.) Ctangus tells me his work schedule has really ramped up (good for him in this economy, especially considering he's self-employed), and that he'll only be able to manage between 2-4 turns per week for the next few months. I'll post this update through May 18 (our current date in game) and another one in two or three weeks provided we continue creeping along.

CBI - At the India border, airfields at Cox's Bazaar and Akyab continue to grow, with more supply and support arriving daily, uncontested by either Allied sea or air. In northern Burma, one Japanese division is nearing Myitkina, the last Allied non-dot base in the country. Just across the border in China, another Japanese division with artillery, armor, and HQ support crosses the river and shocks Paoshan, lowering forts and achieving a 1-1. Two or three days of game time (or a week or two of real time) and Paoshan should be in Japanese hands.

Oz - Two divisions worth of troops landed at Wyndham and are now marching along the trails headed east in an attempt to take Darwin from behind. Wherever else Ctangus is thin, it doesn't look to be northern Oz. Recon of all his bases north and south along the Tennant-Darwin stretch show multiple defenders at every base. I have paras ready to go down here, but it doesn't look like I'm going to get too many good chances to use them.

CentPac - Nothing of consequence. I gobbled up 6 or 7 more small undefended bases and dot-bases with no response from Chuck, and moved one or two of my scout planes out a little further, but this is as far as I'll go. If he opts to try for Tarawa or Tabiteueau early, I should at least be able to see it coming a day or two ahead of time now.

China - China is still shaping up nicely. See below.

[Quixote]

Unfortunately, I think this game is now officially dead. Since Chuck's email three weeks ago indicating that he needed to slow the game down to between two to four turns per week, I've heard nothing else from him. I think 3+ weeks of silence is enough time that I can safely assume that he's done, which is too bad. Ctangus may not have been the craftiest player in all WitP, but he was/is a nice guy with a good sense of humor, and was fun to play with. Anyway, things happen, and I hope he's OK. On the bright side, although I was hoping it was going to be another year or two in coming, I guess I'm safe reading his AAR now. Chuck is the first guy I've ever played who did one, and I must admit that I've been dying to take a look ever since we started the war. After that, I guess it's back to the drawing board, and maybe another PBEM a few weeks down the road.

[Rapunzel]

What a shame. It was a good game. [&o]