Operation Girl Scout Cookies 08Dec41

[larryfulkerson]

I got bored with the stock scenario #1 and talked my opponent into playing the BTS-L scenario, me as Japs again. I started my turn one setup this morning about 05:00 and it's 15:14 local and my wrist hurts a little from mousing around for so long. So I took an aspirin and I'm going to keep going. I've been doing the land-based aircraft one at a time, giving them a mission and more pilots as needed and I've found a few leaders to replace. I want to save most of the PP's to replace the ship leaders that need shore jobs. Instructor in a class on mess kit repair. Librarian in the on-base library for reshelving books. Lifesaver at the on-base pool. Chief of logistics in the chow hall.

Next I'm going to go through the ships and give each of them a mission and send the transports to their goodie-source spots and get the invading TF's moving. Start loading the 2nd wave troops. Also, this time I want to go through all the LCU's and move the ones who are out of supply to the nearest supply source. I've already set up all the cities for supplies and fuel and expansion of facililties.

There was a carrier group at Cam Rahn Bay that had several squadrons that had a specific target specified which was "Pearl". I didn't think I could deliver them to Pearl in time to take part in the strike so I gave them other targets.

I'm meeting a new ship type: the "YO" ship which means "yard oiler" I'm guessing. I'm going to load it with fuel and see if I can use it to carry miniscule amounts of fuel around. Something like 43 metric tons of fuel. Some small amount like that. I'm planning on using it for sub bait unless I can find some better use for it.

My wrist still hurts....I think I'll find something else to do for a while and come back to it.

[RangerJoe]

Use the YO with fuel loaded combined with tankers in small ports to refuel ships.

I believe that the magic moves can go 100 hexes in the magic move.

BTW, are you going to have the US Army Special Forces, aka snake eaters, sell the cookies?

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe
Use the YO with fuel loaded combined with tankers in small ports to refuel ships.

I believe that the magic moves can go 100 hexes in the magic move.

BTW, are you going to have the US Army Special Forces, aka snake eaters, sell the cookies?

Thank you very much for the info about the YO. I had no idea you could do that. It's a great idea and I'm going to use it. And the magic moves is 100 hexes you say. Alrighty then...I'll use that number. I'm not aware of any operations involving the US Army Special Forces, if there are any, and if I did I wouldn't be at liberty to talk about it. But about the "Girl Scout Cookies": They are a little expensive but are of really good quality. The dispensory will dispense to me an ounce at a time and I gotta make that last a week. So far so good.

I've gotten just about as far as I can do for today on the game. I'll go take a nap and hit it some more. Maybe some chocklate ice cream for supper. Washed down by a Dr. Pepper.

[BillBrown]

From the manual:
18.1.6 DECEMBER 7TH SURPRISE RULE
If the player selects a scenario that begins on December 7th, 1941, this option may be selected.
When chosen, during the Morning Phase only on December 7, 1941, the following occurs to
represent Allied surprise:
»» Allied air units flying patrols (CAP, search, etc.) have
a 50% chance of not flying any aircraft
»» If an air group passes this test and elects to fly, the
number of aircraft that will fly is reduced by 75%
»» The Allies will launch no airstrikes
»» Certain Japanese Naval TFs will move at twenty times
their normal speed to reach their destinations.
»» Aircraft making a port attack during any December 7 phase will attack
ships 100 percent of the time if there are at least 10 ships in the port
»» Aircraft hit on any Allied airfields suffer increased damage
»» Japanese ships on Turn 1 will not use more than 3 hexes
of fuel, representing their tanker support
»» Japanese Fast Transport TFs do not receive a bonus movement rate on Turn 1

[RangerJoe]

Thank you, I thought that it was 100 hexes but I did not look at the manual.

Sometimes US Army Special Forces are referred to Girl Scouts because of their headgear.

[larryfulkerson]

Sometimes US Army Special Forces are referred to Girl Scouts because of their headgear.

I didn't know that. I've got a lot of respect for those guys. Lots of times on missions over Laos or Cambodia or far western North Vietnam we would fly over those guys on the ground gathering intelligence. They would stay out there for about 5 to 7 days and hopefully the Jolly Green Giant ( painted pure black ) would go out there at night to a spot near them and pick them up. But sometimes the team would be compromised and then there would be a footrace to see who could get to the LZ first. The LRRP team would dispense boobytraps and "tennis ball" mines to slow down the following enemy squads and a call would go out to the team controller who would call in an airstrike or several and the aerial guys would do their level best to put their ordinance on target because they knew that the bad guys were chasing the good guys and without some timely good hits the good guys would likely get captured. Curiously, the Vietnamese pilots flying A-1E's went the lowest in altitude before releasing their ordinance. Must have a death wish. The US pilots stayed up at at least 2500 feet because of the artillery rounds that might be flying through their airspace. Because of the nearness of enemy air bases to some of the operating areas of the LRRP team there would be an F-4D/E/F on CAP up on top on the trip in to rescue the good guys. The F-4's flying CAP were replaced every 45 minutes or so before anybody went bingo on fuel. When an F-4 had to RTB because he went bingo usually his replacement was on station within minutes. Several teams were captured.

[BillBrown]

As an extra to what I posted, above. TFs given a patrol hex order will not move a the bonus movement rate if they are eligible.

[RangerJoe]

Vietnam was before my time in the military and I DO have a lot of respect for them.

In fact, when my stepmother was in ICU due to a MD's error, there was a nurse who used to be a Green Beret medic. I respected his opinion much more than any Medical Doctors opinion.

No, I did not say snake eater with earshot of him nor did I ask him for Girl Scout cookies.

The A-1E is an awesome plane and it would still be useful today because of the long loiter time.

[larryfulkerson]

The A-1E is an awesome plane and it would still be useful today because of the long loiter time.

Here's a picture of some A-1E's moving along the taxiway headed for the arm/rearm area at the end of the runway. That's where they do one last lookaround of the aircraft and pull out the safety pins from the bomb racks. I used to work out there. It's extreamly boring unless you bring a football with you to work.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves in my inbox are the turn one moves from Elmer and here's the results of my turn one strike at Pearl. I sank the Arizona of course but only damaged the other BB's. D'oh. I'm thinking about a second strike to see if I can sink any of the rest of them. My losses were higher than I was hoping. The flak was terrific and heavy to say the least. I would hate to have to fly through that with my planes one more time. Maybe I should just sail away to the north and forget about another strike.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results of an airstrike on the airfield at Iba and it looks like several more strikes are in order. I'm surprised to find so many Allied aircraft there. As the satillite airfields get damaged he will probably move all his planes to Manila. Actually, I expect him to move his B-17's out of the PI entirely. Probably he will move them to Australia.

[Canoerebel]

You did good to get the Turkey. She can do 83 knots and is submersible with infrared-targeting, proximity-fused torpedoes. She carries to 16 caged carrier pigeons, two passengers pigeons, and one ivory billed woodpecker.

[Canoerebel]

P.S. Thanks for the details about your Vietnam experience. That makes very interesting reading.

One of the deacons at my little country church was a combat infantryman in Vietnam. He is the most soft-spoken, gentleman you've ever met. Another leader in the church was a combat veterinarian - he took care of the dogs guarding exposed US installations in Vietnam. He too is a gentle soul beloved by everyone who knows him.

It reminds me of Ambrose's point (I think in Band of Brothers) that a lot of returning combat veterans ended up being teachers and engineers and builders. They wanted to build and create after seeing so much death and destruction.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
You did good to get the Turkey. She can do 83 knots and is submersible with infrared-targeting, proximity-fused torpedoes. She carries to 16 caged carrier pigeons, two passengers pigeons, and one ivory billed woodpecker.

P.S. Thanks for the details about your Vietnam experience. That makes very interesting reading.

The Turkey...that's the Allied secret weapon I believe. They probably have more than one. And about the Vietnam war story.....I'll see if I can't remember some more.

If I strike the airfield at Iba I also have to strike Clark Field and I'm slightly disappointed in the results. Only about 20 planes destroyed.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's my one carrier strike at Manila. I managed to sink a ship. There weren't as many subs hit as I was hoping. Another strike is in order I believe. I'd like to get those subs before they can escape to open waters.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought I ought to get a headstart on bombing Hong Kong to make the takedown sooner. I thought I'd try to take out the airfield first then the port and then start bombarding the troops there. I've got a small group of LCU's headed to HK and they will arrive at HK probably day after tomorrow or at least soon and then the fun will begin. I'm thinking of sending them some 105mm recoiless rifles to help take down those adobe walls they have around the courtyard downtown. And that new little robot that has a camera on it. And maybe a shipment of flashbangs to help herd the civilians out of the way.

I heard a story from one of the correspondents: there was a civilan man holding his bible by the side of the road and as the people streamed north to escape the fighting this man was shrieking in Chinese something about the end is near, time to repent, come to Jesus, etc. One of the MP's was dispatched to encourage him to press on north with the crowd.

[larryfulkerson]

And here's the summary of all the raids and so on.

[larryfulkerson]

Out of the entire fleet only one of my ships is on fire so I'm attaching an escort to it and I'm sending it to Saigon to get repaired. It's already discharged it's troops but it's still got a sizeable load of supplies aboard. I thought about just hanging around Kota Bharu and docking there after we capture it but it's just a small fire so I believe they will put it out shortly and Saigon isn't all that far away.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

You did good to get the Turkey. She can do 83 knots and is submersible with infrared-targeting, proximity-fused torpedoes. She carries to 16 caged carrier pigeons, two passengers pigeons, and one ivory billed woodpecker.

Sounds like she was stuffed with capability! Not sure why the wooden pecker had to be paid for with ivory though ....

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

You did good to get the Turkey. She can do 83 knots and is submersible with infrared-targeting, proximity-fused torpedoes. She carries to 16 caged carrier pigeons, two passengers pigeons, and one ivory billed woodpecker.

Sounds like she was stuffed with capability! Not sure why the wooden pecker had to be paid for with ivory though ....

Watch out for the Turducken! She has even greater capabilities. Fortunately she is only available on Thanksgiving.