ANOTHER UPDATE
Not sure who is reading here, but I'll continue with the postings.
NOVEMBER 8th
Hyuga was not doing well. The ship, as previously reported, had taken two torpedo hits during Tanaka's second raid and while the ship was'nt in danger of sinking her speed was very slow. Since luck had been riding with me, I pushed it -- for the past few days my carriers had been falling back to around GG but I let them stick around and sent my remaining carrier planes into battle, trying to buy time for the Hyuga to escape.
For very minor damage on the Allied fleet I had a CVL blasted almost to the point of sinking and a second CVL and a CV damaged. I was willing to have some damage to my carriers because of my 300 plane losses -- what planes I had left I could easily put on a few carriers. Especily with time running out. Not wanting to lose all of them, though, I finally decided to split the fleet and bug out, putting all my remaining planes on ASW to try to get through the sub net Drex had put in.
Despite some sightings, no American sub attacks were made during the trip home, much to Drex's chargin.
NOVEMBER 9th
Having left Hyuga to her fate, it came as no shock to me the American carriers closed east of GG and attacked the ship, sinking her and her escort DD. That was now two BB's I had lost, although this was a older one. Lunga was not quite shut down, but none of the level bombers attacked. PM was shut down for the most part, and all I could do was try to offer resistance to some of the daily bombing raids coming in.
Transports carried troops to Buna and northern NG to ensure that even if Drex did take PM he would'nt be able to push past it.
American troops landed at GG. This base, weakly held since I took it at the start of the game, would easily fall. I was'nt terribly concerened about that.
NOVEMBER 10th
GG fell to the Americans. I also noticed some American troops at Russel Island base. However, the Americans were in for a rude shock -- I had just recently transported some troops there (those two things still having a lot off) and I knew I could hold the base easily enough.
The last of the cripples made it home from the week long naval battle off of PM. I shuffled my remaining 150 planes around my healthy carriers, fueled up the ships, and started sending FT's out with the best ships, sending the cripples on to Truk. Since I thought maybe the US would be bold enough to come raid Rabul, I wanted them gone. Luckily, after sticking around one more day, the American war fleets seem to have returned to Australia.
A crippled US CL sank today, indicating that there was some lasting effects from our battles. The best was yet to come, though......
NOVEMBER 11th
Because I received a report today of the Nevada sinking off the coast of Australia! The second BB that had been crippled in my surface battle with them. Now we both lost two BB's and it made me feel a whole lot better.
The first American troops marched down to PM from the Allied landing base at Lae Lae (they are still working on turning that into a base).
Meanwhile, I continued to work with plans to try to make sure that PM holds -- or at least if it falls, to delay it as long as possible.
SUMMARY OF BATTLE
In retrospect, I don't know if I won or lost this battle. My objective was to try to delay the Americans from landing troops on NG, once it became clear that was his main target. In that, I failed, despite Tanaka shooting up a number of transports and drowning a small number of troops. PM is well garrisoned and defended but it is now cut off and I don't have the strength anymore to force it open. That does'nt mean I can't fight anymore -- luck was with me a lot doing these battles and many healthy units remain.
My secondary objective was just to delay the Allied forces as much as possible. In that goal, I did what I could.
Drex has told me a little about things from his side (we tend to be honest with one another once things like this wrap up), so I'll share what he has confirmed and what is just still educated guesswork on my part.
Japanese losses were two battleships and five destroyers, along with a sub. Three more battleships, three heavy cruisers, two light carriers, two fleet carriers, and four destroyers were damaged to varying degrees -- some will return to Truk and Japan, others will stay and see if they can't get patched up. Carrier airplane losses were about 300. Add in the PM and Lunga air losses and that's about another 150 more during the last two weeks.
Confirmed American losses are two battleships, three escort carriers, four light cruisers, two destroyers, and a sub, plus about a dozen support ships (MSW's, AK's, SC's, etc.) sunk. Estimates on damaged ships are three battleships (confirmed by Drex), two fleet carriers (not sure about Intrepid, but I know Victorius was hit hard), two light carriers, one escort carrier, two light cruisers, several destroyers, and a sub. Estimated American plane losses from both land and carriers during the last two weeks are about 200.
The Japanese navy is defentily in a weaker position, especily the carrier air arm. However, I may have bought enough time to make sure I did'nt lose the game. The American navy is a little weaker as well. I defentily had some luck with the weather and the AI attack routines in this one (helped him as well as me).
Drex said that he had put his CVE's in with the transports to help protect them and act as bait. It worked, but at what cost? If you look at the naval battle from the points aspect alone, then I won that. American ships are worth more points then Japanese ones. Two American BB's and three CVE's are worth a lot more points then two Japanese BB's. If he wants to overtake me in points, he failed to do it in the naval battle. It will have to be done on land.
Looking forward to what the last weeks of game play have.
'll post a game file after the next turn is run.
The US Navy could probaly win a war without coffee, but would prefer not to try -- Samuel Morison
:rolleyes:
