Banzais Don't Make Victories - Anachro (A) vs John 3rd (J) BTS 5.7

[Anachro]

He also gets 10 CD regiments.

[Bearcat2]

This scenario has 40 additional CD units compared to sc1. There are 4 static CD's that appear that have 8-36cm at Saipan, Takao, Singapore & Bataan.

[Anachro]

Feb 6th, 1943

Amidst all my recent sub successes, I still get turns like this. Oh well. Sigint shows John focusing on reinforcing his interior. The IJA 32nd Division seems to be on its way to Iwo Jima.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Feb 06, 43
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack near Dadjangas at 77,95

Japanese Ships
CVL Ryukaku
DD Naganami
DD Nenohi
DD Yamakaze

Allied Ships
SS Blackfish

SS Blackfish launches 4 torpedoes at CVL Ryukaku
Blackfish diving deep ....
DD Nenohi fails to find sub and abandons search
DD Yamakaze fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Yamakaze fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Yamakaze fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Yamakaze fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Yamakaze fails to find sub, continues to search...
Escort abandons search for sub

[Anachro]

Feb 7th, 1943

First appearance of the Jack in the skies over Akyab on Feb 7th, 1943. The J2M2 performs okay but not great against sweeps, though I don't bring CAP down fully before my bombers arrive. How much longer until John has the J3m3a variant on his carriers?

[jwolf]

It's weird that he gets the Jack before you get the Hellcat. Such is life with his mod.

As for your subs, they'll score against some CVs soon, I am sure of that.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Anachro

He also gets 10 CD regiments.

Insanity.

Do the Allies get a similar bump in quality and number of CD gun units? In stock the Japanese get the one Wake CD gun unit with 20cm CD guns, plus another few base forces with 20cm guns, but most others are 15cm CD and 12.7cm DP.

You might be better off landing off-base in some areas if these are present, but they're going to be most effective on atolls.

[Canoerebel]

When Erik says "Insanity," I sit up and take notice.

The one fun thing about John have all these things will be to find places/bases where you know he hasn't posted them, never letting them get in the whacks he envisioned. You'll know, both through SigInt but also as your knowledge of John's styles and proclivities increase.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: obvert
Insanity.

Do the Allies get a similar bump in quality and number of CD gun units? In stock the Japanese get the one Wake CD gun unit with 20cm CD guns, plus another few base forces with 20cm guns, but most others are 15cm CD and 12.7cm DP.

You might be better off landing off-base in some areas if these are present, but they're going to be most effective on atolls.

I might be not OK with that particular monstrosity, but in general I was always wondering about the lack of generic CD units in the Japanese OOB, or CD guns in the TOEs of bases in the game. In RL Japan had smaller caliber CD guns (up to 12.7cm or smth) seemingly everywhere in the Pacific - they are cheap, you just transport them, put them on a pedestal somewhere on the jungle hill slope facing the sea and voila. They can be serviced by manual labor and can be pretty effective in case of invasion.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: GetAssista

ORIGINAL: obvert
Insanity.

Do the Allies get a similar bump in quality and number of CD gun units? In stock the Japanese get the one Wake CD gun unit with 20cm CD guns, plus another few base forces with 20cm guns, but most others are 15cm CD and 12.7cm DP.

You might be better off landing off-base in some areas if these are present, but they're going to be most effective on atolls.

I might be not OK with that particular monstrosity, but in general I was always wondering about the lack of generic CD units in the Japanese OOB, or CD guns in the TOEs of bases in the game. In RL Japan had smaller caliber CD guns (up to 12.7cm or smth) seemingly everywhere in the Pacific - they are cheap, you just transport them, put them on a pedestal somewhere on the jungle hill slope facing the sea and voila. They can be serviced by manual labor and can be pretty effective in case of invasion.

Unless you get a good triangulating rangefinder setup to go with the gun, it will be pretty inaccurate against moving ships. Hitting beached craft is kinda late to influence the landings.

[Canoerebel]

How many times in the war did Japanese CD guns actually inflict material damage to inbound assault ships? Never?

The prep time is the great equalizer when it comes to Allied invasions. Combine the need to prep with strongly fortified enemy bases and you have a challenge.

John is employing this band aid because he perceives that he has all kinds of vulnerabilities in his interiors. He leaves holes, and this seems a quicker way to address them than to modify his style of play, attending to his defenses in depth.

I bet Anachro is finding all kinds of holes.

[Anachro]

Well, from my readings so far, he has at least one CD unit at both Colombo and Trincomalee, probably also at other coastal bases on Ceylon. I very much want to take this as it makes deeper penetrations towards Burma or the DEI easier, opening up a broader front.

As.for holes, there are areas he seems to be neglecting. In his zealousness to Garrison Burma and Ceylon, as well as CenPac and SoPac, there seems to be opportunities on the treacherous southern parts of the DEI, Guinea, and Northern Australia. I think in a stock game, you can bypass a lot, as allied naval supremacy makes it not much of an issue, but in this game the Japanese carrier strength makes that more precarious.

[Anachro]

Beyond Rabaul, there are many opportunities to move up along the coast of Guinea, staying away from the Mariana's that John is heavily focusing on and going directly for the Philippines, etc.

Again, doing something like in your game CR where you went directly at Sakhalin, bypassing the outer islands, this strategy I feel is tougher in this game unless I can won a good victory against his cavalry arm beforehand.

[Anachro]

Heh. Cavarly arm, that was my inner perception of John as Jeb Stuart coming out. I meant his carriers, of course. Forgive me, I'm also typing this on my phone while on a train. My pc battery died

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Anachro

Heh. Cavarly arm, that was my inner perception of John as Jeb Stuart coming out. I meant his carriers, of course. Forgive me, I'm also typing this on my phone while on a train. My pc battery died

Jen Stuart? I didn't know Jeb's wife rode with him![;)]

[Canoerebel]

Gender fluid Confederate cavalry officers.

I agree with you about "going deep," Anachro. It's fun, it can work wonders, but generally it's just a new way of creating turmoil for both sides. There may be better ways to create turmoil.

[Anachro]

Feb 9-10th, 1943

On the 9th, John spotted an unaccompanied transport carrying a Port Maintenance unit north of Addu; simultaneously I spotted a fleet through nav search identified as 3 vessels including a "CS" ship. Expecting John might try and pursue, I brought a CA/CL/DD fleet down south, unspotted, and it manages to run into this smaller Japanese force and do some damage. Unfortunately, I forgot to look at leaders and the TF commanders were rather poor. Furthermore, John's sub does very good work and I take some losses for my trouble. Nonetheless, I'll take any exchange that causes attrition to the Japanese fleet.

In a series of battles, we lose a DD to Japanese torpedoes and a CL and CA are also damaged by torpedoes. However, we also outright sink a Sendai-class CL and further damage another one (perhaps sunk as well). I think two Sendai-class CLs are sunk based on the game showing 2 E13A1 Jake's destroyed on the ground (with 1 shown destroyed in my combat log from sinking during combat). My intelligence also estimates 2 Japanese CL's are sunk. Unfortunately, following the battles, a Japanese submarine puts a torpedo into CL Caledon, sinking her, as well as another DD (damaged but not in danger of sinking at the moment). CA Frobisher, which also took a torpedo, isn't too badly damaged.

We place 20 Beaufighters at Trivandrum with a range of 13 on naval attack to see if we can hit John's fleeing surviving ships tomorrow.



John has lost a good number of his older CL's so far in this game, as he seems to be fine risking them out on his peripheries while holding his better, newer units back for any potential heavy engagements.

[BBfanboy]

HEY! Frobisher's Captain is D. Cochrane! Did John load up the leaders list with his uncles and other kin so that they will throw the battle in his favour? The world wonders ...

[Anachro]

I double checked and apparently the Sendai-class can only carry one float plane, so I do think both of his CLs sank since 2 were destroyed on the ground (unless I destroyed one on an airfield somewhere else). Surprising, as the combat showed CL Sendai as not being in too bad shape, but perhaps the fires were bad. Perhaps John scuttled? Don't know. John has lost 34% of his CLs so far, not including additional he gets over the course of the game. How many can I sink in '43?

[BBfanboy]

Perhaps the Sendai can only operate one aircraft but can carry a spare in game? I think the ship screen would show only one aircraft allowed but the air unit screen allows you to add a reserve aircraft.

[Anachro]

The combat report would show 2 destroyed on ground then. It only said 1 if you look back up at image.