The 60 Turn War: GC vs. Quixote - (no Quixote please)

[GaryChildress]

The purpose of this AAR will mostly be to gather help and advice from others. It's been a while since I've played WITP and my first real go at AE. So I'll probably need all the help I can get.

The scenario is the Thousand Mile War authored by Terminus and available in the stock game's list of scenarios.

I will be playing Japanese and Quixote will be playing Allies.

The scenario is only 60 turns long and the forces and resources for both sides are rather small and limited so it should be a good time to learn how to fight on a shoestring budget. No carriers will be involved. Aviation support is also rather limited for both sides so airpower probably won't play an enormously significant role.

1st turn has been sent.

[GaryChildress]

OK. So the first thing I notice as Japanese is that I have no reinforcements of any kind coming. Basically what I have is what I'm starting out with. I do know that the Allies (Americans and Canadians) are going to be a formidable foe. They'll get reinforcements and actually I believe they will get one CVE at some point in the game.

As Japanese I have the following:

Stationed at Kiska:
6 SSXs
6 Jake seaplanes
18 Rufe float fighters
Total AV for all LCUs = 117

Stationed at Attu:
Total AV for all LCUs = 101

Stationed at Paramushiro-Jima
2 CL
3 DD
10 SS
1 AMC
1 AS
1 AV
1 AR
1 AO
4 APD
1 AKE
3 xAP
5 xAK
36 A6M2 Zero
9 Oscars
Total AV for all LCUs = 55

I know the allies have some CAs and quite a few DDs in the scenario so the only offensive actions by the IJN will probably be submarine ops.

OPENING MOVES:

1. Basically the first thing I did as Japanese was move the 36 A6M2s from Paramushiro-jima to Attu. On turn 1 I have set them to airfield attack Adak Island where I know the Allies have a bunch of P-40s stationed. Maybe I'll catch the Americans by surprise or maybe I'll get slaughtered. We'll have to see.

2. I've set up all 6 SSXs at Kiska into 6 separate TFs and undocked them and left them there to meet what I'm guessing will be the first Allied invasion.

3. the 6 Jakes at Kiska are all on Naval Search with the arcs set fanning out in the general direction of Adak Island.

4. the 18 Rufes on Kiska are all set to ASW again with their arcs set fanning out toward Adak.

5. I only have 8000 supply at Paramushiro-jima with daily increse of 1000/day. I've set up my single AMC in a "fast transport" TF to head to Attu first thing with a little over 3000 supply. After that I will probably rely mostly on my APDs to make fast transport runs to Kiska and Attu.

6. The only thing I am expanding on my bases is "fortifications". Airfields and ports will remain as they are.

7. I set up 6 subs in 6 separate sub patrol TFs and put 2 subs in a sub minelaying TF. The minelayers have 24 mines total and are headed to Kiska and the other subs will head toward Dutch Harbor.

I'll probably do the bulk of my naval fighting with my subs and the CLs, DDs, and APDs will primarily be used in "fast transport" runs to resupply Attu and Kiska.

[GaryChildress]

Well it appears I was wrong about reinforcements. The Japanese do get some and some good ones at that. A bit later in the Scenario I'll get Zuikaku and Shokaku and Musashi. [X(]

Thank you Terminus for firepower. [&o]

Right now we're on turn #14 or so and so far Quixote is pounding me with daily airstrikes from Adak and repeated bombardment attacks with his cruisers and DDs.

1. He sank an AMC full of valuable supplies headed to Attu in about turn 4 with one of his subs.

2. I returned the favor sinking one of his DDs with I-7.

3. So far my 6 midget subs at Kiska seem to be making good depth charge fodder. Not much success there. Basically they're just contributing to his point score right now.

4. I-21 has been a fearsome little sub. It hasn't hit anything yet but by God it's probably caused Quixote a bit of consternation on a few combat replays, it doesn't have many torpedoes left. Most of the rest of my subs seem to be missing the show. I-21 took a shot at one of his CAs this last turn. Hopefully that'll upset breakfast a little for my sleeping opponent right now. lol [:D]

5. I've played a bit with search arcs and they seem to be working pretty well for me. I had my Jakes at Kiska fanning out in a general northeasterly direction. Most of his attacks seem to be approaching from the north of Kiska.

6. I had a daitai of Zeros stationed on Attu. I've pulled them back to Paramushiro-Jima (my home base) for now while they patch their wounds. Quixote's daily airstrikes are beginning to take their toll.

7. My squadron of Rufes at Kiska have temporarily taken over the naval search role from the Jakes which I've also pulled back to home base for rest and repair.

I've attached a screenie of the current situation:

[GaryChildress]

Quixote should see this for breakfast tomorrow! Hope he doesn't choke! Well, I-21 missed but she's been a busy little sub. [:D]

[Cribtop]

Banzai! Good luck.

[GaryChildress]

Banzai Admiral Cribtop! [:)]

[GaryChildress]

CAs Nachi and Maya arrived in Paramushiro-Jima today. Finally something to fight with! I have a DD coming next turn. As soon as it arrives I'm putting together a "Tokyo Express" run with the CAs for a cover force. I'm pretty sure his surface combat force is parked off Attu waiting for me to try to supply or reinforce the island.

I also managed to mine Adak Island today, however, it came at a cost I-169 got depth charged and sustained about 40+ system damage and a bit of flotation damage. It's limping back on its own to home base now.

I know my opponent is massing troops on Adak. A couple turns ago he accidently landed a small detachment on one of the deserted Islands just east of it. I'm guessing he forgot and left "unload" on while directing them to a safe location.

Another thing to note, several turns back I set all my subs to patrol zones around his bases and around my bases. Patrol zones seem to be working well in game. I can keep my subs moving around to keep ASW TFs guessing and I don't have to micromanage them. Kudos to the AE team for the patrol zone thingy. [&o]

[Cribtop]

In this scenario, can you send badly damaged ships back to Japan, or are you stuck with P Jima's repair capacity?

[GaryChildress]

I believe I'm stuck with P-Jima's repair facilities (or lack thereof), unless there's some game feature I'm not familiar with. Mainland Japan is off map and even if it weren't 60 turns is probably too short to repair anything very badly damaged and get it back into the fight.

=================================================

Finally my little DD arrived and I've put together two TFs to get supplies to Attu. One TF I've labeled "Paramushiro Express" contains 2 CLs, 4 APDs and 2 Escort vessels, totalling maybe a bit over 1000 supply. The other TF I've labeled "TF Tanaka"-consists of CAs Nachi, Maya and 4 DDs. While TF Tanaka engages the Allied surface combat force just off Attu, TF Paramushiro Express will feign a run to Kiska, only to turn north at the last minute and drop off its goods to Attu.

I've returned my Jakes to Attu to serve the role of naval search again. Hopefully within the next 3 turns there'll be some fireworks.

PS I have my best TF commander, Tanaka, in charge of TF Tanaka so hopefully he will be able to affect a good outcome to the battle.

[Cap Mandrake]

Gary;

Here is a summary of mirror tournament style game of 1000 mile with commetns from the peanut gallery.

Might be useful. Subs are very important in this scenario. Also, don't get too close to the northern map edge. Ships can fall into ship limbo.


tm.asp?m=2758430&mpage=1&key=attu

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Gary;

Here is a summary of mirror tournament style game of 1000 mile with commetns from the peanut gallery.

Might be useful. Subs are very important in this scenario. Also, don't get too close to the northern map edge. Ships can fall into ship limbo.


tm.asp?m=2758430&mpage=1&key=attu

Ahhh...some great information. Thank you Cap Mandrake! I'll keep away from the edge of the world. My sailors still believe the Earth is round! lol

EDIT: Awesome job on the AAR BTW.

[GaryChildress]

Operation....well...the operation that had no name seems to have worked so far! TF Tanaka engaged Admiral Quixote's surface combat squadron in the night just to the east of Attu as planned. Tanaka carried himself well in battle crossing Admiral Quixote's T! The results are below:

NOTE: I'll do a couple posts here to illustrate the day's (or night's) results.

[GaryChildress]

Looks like TF Tanaka claimed at least a CL and 2 DDs, of course FOW is still a factor here so the results could be more or less. On our side CA Nachi sustained 14 sys and 19 floatation damage, not enough to be of great concern. She may have to sit out a little while to make up the damage. She may be able to fight again before the game ends.

Here's a little bio on our hero of the day Rear Admiral Raizo Tanaka. With "leadership" 75 and "inspiration" 91, I'm convince this battle was entirely his doing:

[center][/center]

Raiz¨­ Tanaka (ÌïÖÐ îmÈý, Tanaka Raiz¨­?, 27 April 1892 ¨C 9 July 1969) was a rear admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during most of World War II. A specialist in the heavy torpedoes that were carried by all the destroyers and cruisers of the IJN, Tanaka mainly commanded destroyer squadrons, with a cruiser or two attached, and he was the primary leader of the "Tokyo Express" reinforcement and resupply shipments during the long campaign for the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands of the South Pacific Ocean. In his command capacity, Tanaka faced the surface task forces of the United States Navy and its few New Zealander allies many times, often achieving either a victory over, or a stalemate with, often larger enemy squadrons, mostly in night battles. From the Americans, Tanaka acquired the nickname of "Tenacious Tanaka" for his stalwart opposition.

Tanaka¡äs most outstanding victory was in the Battle of Tassafaronga in which his squadron of destroyers defeated a much larger force of U.S. Navy squadron that included four heavy cruisers and their supporting destroyers. In this battle, Tanaka¡äs heavily-outgunned destroyers, caught by surprise, used their Long Lance torpedoes to hit four American cruisers, sinking the USS Northampton and heavily damaging the other three. All but one of Tanaka's destroyers escaped the trap that the U.S. Navy had set for them, and they retired northward towards Rabaul.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raiz%C5%8D_Tanaka

Here are the recorded losses as of 4/30/1943.

[GaryChildress]

Here's the situation for 4/30/1943. Thanks to TF Tanaka, the path is now clear for TF Paramushiro Express...

[GaryChildress]

Well...ummm... I'm a little embarrassed. [:o] TF Paramushiro Express ran into the remains of Admiral Quixote's surface combat force at Attu. Unlike Tanaka the TF commander of Paramushiro Express, some captain appropriately named T. Ohno managed to f....oul up the works. Not only did he get 3 APDs sunk from under him in exchange for a few feeble hits on the Allied TF, he also forgot to unload his supplies (OK well it was actually me who had the TF set to "do not unload")!!

Tanaka is reported to have done a double face palm upon hearing news of his colleague's failure, exclaiming "Oh no!". No one is sure whether Tanaka was here expressing regret or refering to Captain Ohno by name.

[GaryChildress]

See...I'm not making up these names either! [:D]

[GaryChildress]

A little OT: the family cat (name is Simone: named her after Simone de Beauvior and Simone Weil) gave us a little scare this morning, starting wheezing like I do when I get bronchitis or like she had something caught in her throat. We observed her for a little while, and she seemed to be OK after about 10 minutes. But it really sort of caught me off guard and had me concerned. I hadn't realized how much I really love that cat until I saw her wheezing like that. I mean I've seen her vomit god knows how many times but this seemed a bit different. Just hoping it isn't a sign of onset of any kind of malady. I don't have any kids so I guess she and our dog are the closest things to that in my life. I don't take them to pet psychologists and all that stuff which I know exist out there for the fanatical, but they get pampered pretty well. Both were strays that we found in the neighborhood (or actually it was more like they found us).

Any other pet lovers out there in AE land?