Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A)

[Anachro]

Masterclass for the Japanese and a huge mistake by the Allies. Congratulations on your victory. Parallels to Midway but with the sides switched around. He sends his carriers where they have no search and reconnaissance capabilities beyond the carriers themselves while you can saturate the area and setup a masterful one-two punch ambush.

In a way, this is Mr Kane's "Midway Moment," but probably not as he envisioned. [:D]

I cannot understand what he was thinking by sticking around when his carriers were spotted. It will be interesting to see how the Allies recover going forward.

[Lowpe]

Holy smokes?[&o]

I was anticipating at least a 600 fighter CAP.

Super well done.

[JohnDillworth]

I've rarely seen such a well coordinated strike. Yes, an absolute monster. Lots of cripples......anything left for a 2nd day or are you going to retire with no damage to your ships? Really unprecedented at this stage of the war. This is the fantasy of every Japanese player

[Canoerebel]

Yikes, its Armageddon!

Poor Mr. Kane. Poor guy. He'll feel about as low as a plyer can possibly feel.

This should buy you a lot of time. He won't be able to steam into heavily defended enemy waters for a long time to come.

[Bif1961]

Just goes to prove even in 1944 if the Allied player makes a mistake he can be forced to pay a very heavy price. This isn't over yet he still has to try and save the damaged vessels. You just gave every Japanese player struggling in 1943 hope for 1944.

[PaxMondo]

[pws1225]

Wow! Nicely done!!

[LargeSlowTarget]

Caught with pants down

[RangerJoe]

Very nicely done, excellent timing.

Even if you don't go after him on a second day with your carriers, your subs and LBA could take out a lot of the crippled ships. A lot of his carrier decks probably can't fly aircraft, so I would go after him and chastise his fleet some more.

Any SCTFs available to help polish off the cripples?

Now might be a good time for kamakazes if they are available.

[Miller]

3rd-7th Feb 44

Well through crafty manouvering and my need to refuel slowing me down it looks like Kane has got the majority of his damaged ships out of danger. I do manage to finish off 5 or 6 badly damaged DDs, some of them giving a bit of target practice for Yamato and Musashi. His less damaged carriers are now just north of Kiska and I'm 18 hexes away from them, so its time to break off for home and hopefully one of my posse of subs nearby will get a shot at them. Now I have given myself a bit of breathing space I may as well upgrade some of my ships that are overdue at home and give the crews some well deserved R&R.

Just looking over the replay and report of the big day I've revised down his losses slightly. Definitely sunk are the CVs Coral Sea, Essex, Hornet and Intrepid, 2 CVLs, 2 CAs and about 10 DDs. Probably sunk (90% certain) are the CVs Bunker Hill and Enterprise, 4 CVLs, 2 CAs plus a handful of DDs. A mighty victory indeed.

I have to ask several questions to myself here:

1) What was the purpose/goal of this raid? He didn't even launch any strat bombing attacks for the two days he was in range before the battle.

2) Where was the rest of his fleet? I can understand none of his CVEs being there due to their slow speed, but no sign of Lex or Saratoga (upgrading perhaps?) and his fast BBs. I think he has 6 in play now and they could have soaked up a lot of bomb hits without damage, saving a few of his CVs in the process....

3) Why did he have 100% of his strike planes on search/asw?, my sub threat has been high all game but surely 10% would have been enough to keep their heads down. And where were his subs? As soon as I got the first sighting of his fleet I sent the entire KB after it. It was based at Babeldaob, so it had a 5/6 day transit period and during that time my search did not pick up a single sub en route, a sub sighting/being sighted could have given him warning of what was to come.....

[witpqs]

Could it be he expected to devastate your air groups without losses to ships?

[Miller]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Could it be he expected to devastate your air groups without losses to ships?

Not with only a 250-300 plane CAP. Even a 1000 plane CAP is no guarantee in this game.

[GetAssista]

[X(] [X(] [X(]
Woah, I did not think this kind of butchering could still happen in WITP PBEM live.

Congratulations on the historical victory!

[obvert]

Well played.

Your questions make me think for sure. Something is really not right there. Why such a small CAP? Why no strikes set? Why there at all if no target was attempted?

I guess he could have had a port/strat strike on that was called off for weather but didn't set naval as first priority?

After the LBA got him he should have turned and gone home. What a huge blunder all around. Hope you hear about it someday and can fill us in and what really happened.

Now. What are you planning for 46? Jets? Ki-94-II? Do you have those little IJA eight plane CVEs building for your whirly-birds?

If he doesn't quit this will mean a truly epic game that may reach some new territory. I bet jet kamis are pretty tough. [:)]

[Miller]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Well played.

Your questions make me think for sure. Something is really not right there. Why such a small CAP? Why no strikes set? Why there at all if no target was attempted?

I guess he could have had a port/strat strike on that was called off for weather but didn't set naval as first priority?

After the LBA got him he should have turned and gone home. What a huge blunder all around. Hope you hear about it someday and can fill us in and what really happened.

Now. What are you planning for 46? Jets? Ki-94-II? Do you have those little IJA eight plane CVEs building for your whirly-birds?

If he doesn't quit this will mean a truly epic game that may reach some new territory. I bet jet kamis are pretty tough. [:)]

I don't want to ask him what he was thinking in case he takes it the wrong way. He isn't quiting, his turns are as quick as usual.

No real big plans for the rest of the game. I'm building everything that floats apart from Shinano and the useless transport subs. I already have two of the small CVE's, although I see them in the decoy role later in the game. Jet Kami's sound nice, but I won't see them till late 45 if I last that long....

[Bif1961]

If all the ships you believe are sunk with 90% confidence that means he has lost 700 AC worth of carrier decks. It will take him more than a year to replace all those loses, less CVEs, which are brittle and poor substitutes for CV. CVLs.

[Anachro]

I still believe Allies can conduct operations even without their vaunted CVs. Their other advantages are just that good. He just can't be as blatant in his invasions, has to be more careful in his operations, and deliberate in his actions. Perhaps he should stick within range of his LBA and look to start squeezing the DEI and your oil.

[Canoerebel]

But this narrows down Allied options considerably. The DEI is perhaps the most likely vector, but Miller knows that (and the others, as well). Miller is one tough customer when defending in the DEI, as I can vouch from personal experience about nine or ten years ago.

[RangerJoe]

And being able to reinforce with the KB, if properly done and I am sure that the JFB knows how, the Allied LBA can be overwhelmed while the KB ships can be relatively safe. Of course, that is a brittle but sharp weapon. He doesn't need to go after the carriers because he can wreck havoc with the landings if he so chooses.

[Anachro]

One can always invade over land...through Burma. It will be a grind. I, for one, hope this game sees 1946. That'd be fun.