Turnaround? Lowpe (J) vs Tiemanj (A) Stock

[Lowpe]

Egads, another nail biter of a turn...the suspense, the pressure, this game can be unbelievably good at points --- as we all know. Heck, it is my wedding anniversary today and Valentines day and my youngest son is swimming at High School championships (seeded 2nd in 500 yard) trying for an upset and qualify for States and I am really worried whether the Yamoto will make good their bombardment and getaway....and can my cruisers catch the Allied task force at Port Blair and Rangoon. I am so lame!

"Gee, honey what you thinking about on this big day" says the wife. "Um, err, the Yamoto...oh, you know, that Japanese dinner out all those years ago."

In the digital world Japan is:

Sweeping mines at Trinkat.
Bombarding Port Blair and Trinkat with super heavy BBs.
Racing to catch two Allied convoys at some significant risk.
Flying every fighter in Burma and area I can get my hands on.
Positioning more BBs at Trinkat for tomorrow.
Sending the Tone back to Singers for some slight repairs (rs forward torpedo tube damaged).
Racing reinforcements to the dirt road east of Chiang Mai.
Sending subs all over after the Allied convoys.

Praying!

[Lowpe]

September 30, 1943

No night bombing. I have a squadron of Emilies on night naval but they haven't flown yet. Maybe some month.[:D]

Here begins the lesson...to stabilize an area send in the heavies. Musashi and Yamoto are at Trinkat in separate task forces with a handful of destroyers each. Well, the Yamoto is short of Trinkat, closer to Sabang, so she will be tasked with bombarding the airfield at Car Nicobar.

The Mushashi and a light crusier escort will dash up to Port Blair to see what we discover. I had thought there was a good chance the Allies would simply vacate the area since they spotted the buildup at Trinkat last turn.

Shows what I know...the plan goes wrong halfway to Port Blair....the light cruisers come across two destroyers spoiling for a fight and are bested![X(] The Light Cruiser commander, a cautious type, decides with 22 system damage on one ship they did their duty and promptly turn around and head for Trinkat and hopefully safety!

As if anyplace is really safe with mines popping up like weeds.[:)]

[Lowpe]

Well, that leaves task force Musashi to soldier on alone to Port Blair and their commander isn't a shrinking violet. Far from it!

Just shy of Port Blair the IJN is surprised. Expecting a milk run and bombardment Allied cruisers rush to defend Port Blair and engage.

After bouncing a few hits off the Musashi, and one nasty hit on a destroyer, the IJN gets down to work landing some very large holes on almost every cruiser.[:D]

[Lowpe]

That was invigorating...and one side decides to engage again. This time the IJN isn't caught napping, and we leave some really big holes!

I assume this is the Musashi's doing, as all these ships were damaged just previously. The Sumatra is running scared with other undamaged ships. I have tons of night search up, and the Musashi has I think a 2 reaction range.

[Lowpe]

Well, if the Tone could have several engagements why can't a battleship. Look what is in the harbor, I bet they were scared!

[Lowpe]

The Yamoto vists Car Nicobar....

[Lowpe]

But now, Task Force Musashi is watching the sun climb, and down to one destroyer escort, as one destroyer ate a torpedo and sank, and two others detached when damaged.

Now they will all race for the relative safety of Trinkat....but Port Blair's airfield is full to bursting with planes.

But before they can even get away...more Allied ships spotted! Pity saved the Allied ships here...pity we ran out of ammunition![:D]

During the end of the night phase all Allied shipping seems to be on alert, making way, reacting, retreating, quite a thing to see...some of it was due to a Cruiser force north of Mergui, and some due to the Musashi.

[Lowpe]

Finally, back at Trinkat the Musashi is subject to several air attacks and one large 70 plane Thunderbolt sweep from Port Blair. Pity she ran out of big ammo for the airfield, it would have been spectacular.

Luckily, the Japanese fighters are mostly up for the challenge until they get shredded like wheat when the jugs arrive.

Once the air raids are over...the Musashi takes stock. One destroyer lost, one wounded, for a heavy cruiser, a light cruiser a destroyer sunk and several small ships with several light cruisers going to need plenty of work!

A good day! 21 separate hits registered on the Musashi...must have been demoralizing having 8 inch shells bounce off like ping pong balls.[:D]



Look at the experience on the Musashi...I think she started the day a little lower!

[Lowpe]

The theatre of action:

Those two IJN Cruisers didn't follow instructions, but their presence caused all sorts of Allied shipping to get underway out of Rangoon, or in the area.

[Lowpe]

Here is the Musashi at Trinkat fighting off Allied air attacks. I think only three planes made it thru...

[Lowpe]

On the down side, the Allies bomb Sabang, and I only had one squadron of Georges on CAP (oversight I thought I had 4 squadrons of Georges must have missed the click[&:]), and they get depleted fighting off the Lightning sweeps. I lose about twice as many planes as the Allies, but very few pilots.

Some inconclusive submarine encounters, and no mine hits, but more sprout all over the place. Weeds.[:D]

Do you get the feeling things are escalating around the Andamans? The 4th Inf is unloaded safely at Trinkat, Allied transports and kingfishers are shot down over Trinkat, and I think those paratroopers' days are numbered.

Plus Car Nicobar is not a healthy spot to be at with no forts and plenty of ships bombarding.

Can Japan keep the initiative?

[Lowpe]

I am glad I split up the the super heavies...whenever I see them paired up one ship seemingly never fights much, in this case that might have been good for the bombardment of Port Blair might have really hurt, but I will take the results I got.

A couple of lesser battleships and cruisers are at Trinkat to resume the fight...worried a little about that BB sighting north of Port Blair. I think Prince of Wales should still be in drydock, along with Ramillies. Who could it be?

[JocMeister]

Cool to see the Yamatos in action. Only seen them a couple of times in all my games. [:)]

[njp72]

Nice work.

I have experienced the same problem as well when I have paired them up

Unfortunately I have found both to be torpedo magnets in 44 where they are just too large to avoid subs and destroyers. I think they are in their element when they are fighting Allied CAs with no torpedo capability.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

I am glad I split up the the super heavies...whenever I see them paired up one ship seemingly never fights much, in this case that might have been good for the bombardment of Port Blair might have really hurt, but I will take the results I got.

A couple of lesser battleships and cruisers are at Trinkat to resume the fight...worried a little about that BB sighting north of Port Blair. I think Prince of Wales should still be in drydock, along with Ramillies. Who could it be?

[ny59giants]

Valentine's Day Massacre!! Not as bad as what happened in Chicago decades ago, but at this point in the game you take what you can get. Your wife and family must be very understanding of your "AE addiction" to allow you to spend all this time taking and posting screen shots. If I was your opponent, I would be sending some Flecthers over here to restore the balance. The British DDs are OK, but not what I want in surface combat.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Cool to see the Yamatos in action. Only seen them a couple of times in all my games. [:)]

Didn't you get to see them quite a lot toward the end of ours? [:)]

They're good ships once in the battle, but if they get any significant damage it's costly, and the repairs are loooooonng. This is why they weren't around more.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Cool to see the Yamatos in action. Only seen them a couple of times in all my games. [:)]

They're good ships once in the battle, but if they get any significant damage it's costly, and the repairs are loooooonng.

That's my take on the Yamato's, and the reason why they've yet to see combat. If any serious damage is going to keep them in the docks for the best part of a year, I want them to be lobbing shells at a target that's really worthwhile.

Part of my problem is that I don't really know what I want out of the Yamato's. I can't quite decide if they're for bombardment duties only, or if they should be used to whack the hoards of Allied DD/CL task forces. They're nigh untouchable to the guns of all but the biggest Allied ships, but a couple of torpedoes can put them in the yards for the best part of a year.

The Musashi's first engagement is the sort of stuff that keeps me from using the Yamato's actively: surprised at 3,000 yrds by Allied ships with working torpedoes...

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Cool to see the Yamatos in action. Only seen them a couple of times in all my games. [:)]

Didn't you get to see them quite a lot toward the end of ours? [:)]

They're good ships once in the battle, but if they get any significant damage it's costly, and the repairs are loooooonng. This is why they weren't around more.

Yeah, but that was kind of bittersweet. First I got all the Iowas sent to the yards because of the AEs inability to handle movement properly and then you lost both Yamatos to the same thing.

Would have been a lot cooler to have them fight it out instead! [:)]

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: njp72

Nice work.

I have experienced the same problem as well when I have paired them up

Unfortunately I have found both to be torpedo magnets in 44 where they are just too large to avoid subs and destroyers. I think they are in their element when they are fighting Allied CAs with no torpedo capability.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

I am glad I split up the the super heavies...whenever I see them paired up one ship seemingly never fights much, in this case that might have been good for the bombardment of Port Blair might have really hurt, but I will take the results I got.

A couple of lesser battleships and cruisers are at Trinkat to resume the fight...worried a little about that BB sighting north of Port Blair. I think Prince of Wales should still be in drydock, along with Ramillies. Who could it be?

It seems every battleship is a torpedo magnet...I was really worried as the Musashi kept losing screens, but thankfully the Allied subs were all between trinkat and sabang.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Valentine's Day Massacre!! Not as bad as what happened in Chicago decades ago, but at this point in the game you take what you can get. Your wife and family must be very understanding of your "AE addiction" to allow you to spend all this time taking and posting screen shots. If I was your opponent, I would be sending some Flecthers over here to restore the balance. The British DDs are OK, but not what I want in surface combat.

He has some Fletchers over here, the Tone group sank one the other day. He made the mistake of mixing the fletchers with British destroyers and I was able to get a torpedo into her.

All my sunk Fletchers have required torpedoes to put down.