Islands of Destiny: RA 5.0 Japanese Side

[obvert]

His Brit numbers must be suffering from this continuing battle over Ramree. He'l have plenty of the P-40s, but it's not great to give your guys 3:1 kills for a long duration of tuns in 42. Those pilots will be pretty good after a while here. Keep it up!

[John 3rd]

September 13, 1942

Operation Shimakaze begins today. Though Japan loses over 100 planes for the day the results set-up what could be a spectacular day tomorrow. As expected the weather did its level BEST to screw things up for the attacks along the Burma coast stretching from Ramree to Cox's Bizar. Here are the highlights:

AM
The battle begins when a strong raid of 48 Zero and 78 Betty--Nells leave Rangoon and attack shipping at Cox's Bizar. I am TERRIFIED when I see a total of 133 Allied Fighters flying CAP. HOLY CATS! Surprisingly the Zeros easily fend off the attackers at the cost of 4 Z and only 11 Bombers. The remaining 68 Torpedo Planes bore in to shipping there. Guess what is there? BRITISH BATTLESHIPS!

The results look pretty darned good: BB Royal Sovereign takes 4 TT and Ramilles takes 4 TT as well. These are OLD BBs. Perhaps it is enough to sink them? Three SS are on either side of Cox's and so there is a chance they might get a shot tomorrow.

Strikes bore in to Akyab and many are shot down but they do get through...NO Tojos fly the entire MORNING. THANK YOU USELESS God's of the Weather! [:@] Still...the BB Revenge takes a couple of Bombs and a Torp.

PM
Tojo finally flies and SWEEPS the HELL out of all Fighters over Akyab (no opposition over Ramaree).

Strikes come in and manage to put a pair of TTs into the most EVIL and VILE warship in the world---USS BOISE! [:D] One or two APDs are sunk and several AKs are also hit.

The weather ruins about 50% of the strikes. Mini-KB flies NOTHING for the PM.

Summary
Two old Brit BBs might be sunk. They are, at a minimum, crippled. Another is damaged.

Allied Fighter morale MUST be in the CRAPPER.

Naval PLANS:
1. Mini-KB moves one hex east (staying blue water but far from LBA danger) and will fly strikes tomorrow.
2. Detach a DD TF to sweep the coast from the hex above Cox's Bizar down to Akyab. Set to REACT: 6 hexes.
3. The CA--CL TF (4 CA and 2 CL) are sent in the clear the path for the BIG BOYS going into Akyab.
4. Fuso, Yamashiro, Ise, and Hyuga set to BLAST the pogees out of Akyab. Sorry: GEEK factor. I loved POGEES when the original Battlestar Galactica coined it. My GEEK son uses FRAK periodically. It garners attention but doesn't get him in trouble...


There are mines here but what the HELL! Damn the TTs! Full Speed ahead...

Air PLANS:
1. Tojo to Sweep both Akyab and Cox's Bizar.
2. Move in another full Daitai of fresh Bettys and a full Daitai of fresh Kates.
3. Rotate out a banged up Kate and Val Daitai.
4. All IJN Aircraft armed with TTs.
5. Over 80 IJA Bombers to hit Akyab's AF.

How about that??!!

BANZAI BABY!

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: zuluhour

Are you using any "Flying Circus" style Chutai, stacking the deck as it were, with the A-Team? Leading LBA ace? I am of the "romantic" mind when it comes to action reports as well as the "hard" facts.

I have a Chutai of Zero (Tainan A--OF COURSE!) with 12 Pilots all in the high 70s. They go into the Shimakaze Maelstrom tomorrow.

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: obvert

His Brit numbers must be suffering from this continuing battle over Ramree. He'l have plenty of the P-40s, but it's not great to give your guys 3:1 kills for a long duration of tuns in 42. Those pilots will be pretty good after a while here. Keep it up!

Totally concur.

I neglected to mention that reports of nearly 40 Allied Fighters down for the day add a bit more luster to the event.

[pws1225]

This is gonna be fun. Go get'em John.

[John 3rd]

Forgot to mention that the KB has safely reached Eniwetok. I decide to disband the TFs and let everyone get some R&R.

Am moving my Emily around looking for things in area I haven't for a while. Nothing amazing yet.

Just got a passel of freshly repaired SS at Noumea. They had been at Japan and now will deploy around New Zealand and towards the east. Want to look about and see what is moving around...

[John 3rd]

Dan and I are having connection issues. He cannot get the 001 to run. I sent him the Combat Report and new files but no luck so far.

[John 3rd]

September 14, 1942

Wow. Holy Cow. I don't know whether I should exult or curl up in a little fetal ball and sunk my thumb! Well...there was action. A whole BUNCH of action. I told Dan that it took me an HOUR just to watch the turn. Add another 45 minutes to do orders. Now we sit at the AAR...

Night: AKYAB
The best way to describe the evening action is that there was only 17% moonlight. It is a DARK night. As detailed earlier I had ordered a TF of 5 DD to Sweep ahead of the two bigger TF. After them (by TF number) were the 4 CA, 2 CL, and 5 DD who were to pave the way for the 4 BB, 1 CL, 6 DD to PLASTER Akyab's AF. That was the PLAN. Didn't happen.

The BBs go in first and find a TF of British CLs and DDs with CA Vincennes and a pair of US DD. Adm Ching Lee is in charge. The 1st Battle of Guadalcanal holds little to this wild fight. The Allies get the drop on the Japanese at 5K yards, it then closes to 2K, and continues for nearly 20 gunnery rounds. Wild crazy and NUTS describe this as Vincennes, 3 CL, 1 CLAA, and 4 DD effectively fight off a force immensely larger and more dangerous. CL Tenryu and 2 DDs go down (DD Akatsuki due to a mine explosion). The Allies see all the cruisers hit and Vincennes badly damaged along with a pair of DDs in sinking condition. The BBs slide by this defense with only Ise having any issues. She took 11 Shells and a TT. The heavies continue in to continue their mission...

The Allied TF moves a hex west of Akyab fleeing the pummeling they took only to stagger into the 5 Japanese DDs moving in to the area. DD Shirayuki gets sunk by 6" shells, however, a pair of TTs sink CA Vincennes. NICE! Do we kill Ching Lee? That would be FANTASTIC!

All 4 BBs open up on the AF and PLASTER it destroying nearly a dozen planes and damaging nearly 50 more. NICE!

There are now 3 BBs running away WITH NO ESCORT! These ships run into a CA, CL, and 5 DDs. What little ammunition is left on the BIG BOYS is used fending off this TF and they make good their escape.

Moving in LAST are the 4 old Aoba/Furutaka Class CAs, 2 old CLs, and 5 DDs. These venerable ships run into something just as venerable in the form of BB Revenge (plus a CA, CL, 3 DD). Revenge's guns are HOT and DANGEROUS. Her 3 DDs are effectively dealt with but she sinks CL Abukuma, CA Kingugasa, and CA Kako. This fight runs 18 rounds and the STUPID Japanese Admiral refuses to give up keeping the fight running as his ships get blasted. Later in the day CA Aoba and CL Kuma go down. SUMMARY: 3 CA and 2 CL are sunk in exchange for pummeling 3 DDs. Not exactly something to brag about. Rather depressing actually.

DAYLIGHT
Once AGAIN weather plays a terrible hand. All those 150+ Tojo in Magwe sit out the day. NICE! [:@]

No Allied bombers rise to attack the warships trying to leave the area. This is GOOD. Japanese Strikes go in and score a pretty good tally:

CL Helena is hit by 1 TT, CA Pensacola takes a pair of TT and is in sinking condition, CL Mauritius takes another pair of TT and looks to be in sinking condition, CL Nashville takes a single Torp but BLOWS UP from a Magazine Explosion.

Aerial Losses are not terrible. They aren't good EITHER. Lose about 45 planes in exchange for about an equal number of Allied Fighters.

Totals for two Days of Action
Sinkings:
Japan: 3 CA, 3 CL, 3 DD
Allies: BBs Royal Sovereign and Ramillies possibly sunk, CA Vincennes, CL Mauritius, CL Nashville, several DDs, and a pair of APDs

Damaged:
Japan: 1 BB moderately damaged (Ise) and 4-5 DDs banged up.
Allies: CA Pensacola (possibly sunk), 5 CL (Boise 2TT, Achilles 1TT), 1 CLAA, and 6-8 DDs

The Mini-KB didn't launch ANYTHING for the 2nd day in a row.

Planning
Withdraw all damaged warships but keep Mini-KB in place for one last day. We'll try to get something of the cripples. Tojo to fly--theoretically--SWEEPS over Akyab. Pull back more beat-up Bomber units but still have over 100 TT aircraft available with good morale to fly from Prome and Rangoon. One more day and then we conclude this monster.

[John 3rd]

I plan to get in a pair of turns with Dan this afternoon. Got called in to the store for a short 2-3 hour shift.

Brain stewed on the last turn for a bit while sleeping. How many of you have THAT happen?

Don't like losing those old ships but they are, in fact, OLD ships. Two of the CLs were Training Cruisers. RA doesn't have the Katori Class in it. The Tenryu, Tatsuta, and Kuma all start as converted, down-scaled, CLs. The older CAs are tough to lose but they have no armor. Didn't want to lose them but 15" shells will go trough ANYTHING!

Since I am staying in the firefight for the next turn we shall see if the balance sheet tips more in one way or the other...

[GreyJoy]

How's the land war going on in Burma John?

[janh]

Though thing that naval mess. Agree about the CA, but also the DD are very valuable assets as Japan is always short on those. Not sure what to make of the final result, but looks pretty much like a draw so far. Not exactly in Japans favor.

What it really is will be shown in the next few turns. Maybe, or hopefully MiniKB can lay hands on a few cripples. But where the heck are the British CV???

[Chickenboy]

John,
 
Do you think your first naval foray's comparative lack of success was due to their setting for bombardment?  Would've been interesting to see them mop the floor with Vicennes, et. al., but for this setting.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: obvert

His Brit numbers must be suffering from this continuing battle over Ramree. He'l have plenty of the P-40s, but it's not great to give your guys 3:1 kills for a long duration of tuns in 42. Those pilots will be pretty good after a while here. Keep it up!

I always felt that if the Allied player is going to seek a fight in Burma that he need to move American Navy and Marine Squadrons to India as well as Army. You have just got to spread the load around and the Navy aircraft replacement rate gets better long before the army,s does.

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

John,

Do you think your first naval foray's comparative lack of success was due to their setting for bombardment?  Would've been interesting to see them mop the floor with Vicennes, et. al., but for this setting.

I think so. There is no reasonable idea for how 4 BBs were essentially bested by a CA, 3 CL, and 1 CLAA.

We're gonna answer that question coming up. The 3 BBs will reach Pt Blair reload and refuel, gain more escorts, and then go back for a Surface Mission...

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

How's the land war going on in Burma John?

It is...

I need to do a detailed Posting there. Haven't really focused on it and the ground warfare model is sooooooo borked it truly frustrates me.

Will detail later.

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

How's the land war going on in Burma John?

It is...

I need to do a detailed Posting there. Haven't really focused on it and the ground warfare model is sooooooo borked it truly frustrates me.

Will detail later.

John, the land warfare model isn't perfect, for sure, but needs to be understood. And once you understand the mechanics, it's pretty good imho to simulate things on large scale.
Burma is, basically, a ground theatre. To be honest, you're not gonna win here even if you destroy the whole RN in the bay of bengal. You need to stabilize this theatre ON GROUND...and, imho, you need to do it now

[John 3rd]

I totally concur.

Dan has entered US units into the fight. A US Army ID as well as some Artie have just appeared.

He 'walked' right through my defensive line I set in the jungle. The game didn't even show movement until there was ONE and then TWO damned Aussie ID BEHIND ME. Really torked me off to say the least.

[ny59giants]

Japan has too many Recon air units that can be divided into 3 to 6 planes each for you to be caught flat footed in a place like this. I would have close to 12 recon units total in theater. 6 to 9 for base recon and the rest doing non-base hexes. Go to a hex for two to three days straight and then move on. Come back in a week to 10 days.

[Paladin1dcs]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

I totally concur.

Dan has entered US units into the fight. A US Army ID as well as some Artie have just appeared.

He 'walked' right through my defensive line I set in the jungle. The game didn't even show movement until there was ONE and then TWO damned Aussie ID BEHIND ME. Really torked me off to say the least.

I've encountered issues with the land combat movement algorythims before, but I'm unsure if it's a quirk or if it's actually FoW. In my case, I was actually able to detect a LCU with a Naval Search pattern which happened to stray over a bit of coastline, so if the game takes into consideration this, wouldn't it make sense that it may take other aspects into consideration, such as the ability of a unit to misdirect an adjacent enemy LCU as to it's intented line of march?

Do you have a reason to suspect that this is actually a bug rather than the FoW feature working as designed? I mean, I'm unsure of how the game handles detection of LCUs, but isn't it possible that what you're seeing is a result of the game determining that there's a lack of Military Intelligence pertaining to those units?

I ask because if it's happening, then with enough understanding of the operating principles, it can be countered and, more importantly, can be harnessed as a tool for your own purposes.

[witpqs]

Enemy units that appear without movement indicators but are in fact moving is definitely a part of the game's FOW. Also, enemy units that are there will just 'disappear' for one or more turns from time to time. Look at my AAR for several examples over time of the Allies getting surprised in China by Japanese units' sudden appearances and unnoticed movements.