Intellectus Ex Nihilo (Wal-Mart on Ice)

[adarbrauner]

BBFfanboy exhausted everything I wonted to write;

just to be sure, the 2 AOs were torpedoed by the sub, right? not by its floatplanes....what a shame and a waste for the I 400s... a sign of the desperation, along with the use in first line of the Katori and Kashii CLs...

I have to say, and repeat for the 4th time, your opponent is a first class fighter, his aggressiveness is amazing...an example of how a Japanese player should behave...

still, the use of the I 400s was such a waste and shame..instead of using them to harass your long logistic line...

He's in the Yamato last suicidal sortie mode, he must be also dreadfully low on fuel.


I guess in next reiteration, if you'll do it and hope you will, he will be more coordinated in his actions, he's already been in last months;

and hopefully, will change his usage of subs...

So typically Japanese...

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

An enemy I-400-class put a TT into CV Victorious and died. The carrier has four FLT damage, nothing more. Several other enemy subs sunk.

He appears to be misusing his I-400 boats as U-boats instead of submersible aircraft carriers. That class is just too big to maneuver well during ASW attack.
Do the sinking reports include the 10 aircraft they can carry?

TEN AIRCRAFT? How the hell did they get a capacity like that?

I have a model of one and there is room for THREE planes in the hanger and ONE on the flight ramp.

[T Rav]

Hans,

I thought the same thing, I had to look it up. They could carry three, and they had to be assembled after being pulled out of the on-deck hanger/storage compartments.

T Rav

[BillBrown]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

An enemy I-400-class put a TT into CV Victorious and died. The carrier has four FLT damage, nothing more. Several other enemy subs sunk.

He appears to be misusing his I-400 boats as U-boats instead of submersible aircraft carriers. That class is just too big to maneuver well during ASW attack.
Do the sinking reports include the 10 aircraft they can carry?

TEN AIRCRAFT? How the hell did they get a capacity like that?

I have a model of one and there is room for THREE planes in the hanger and ONE on the flight ramp.

And 3 is all that they can carry in a stock scenario 2.

[Canoerebel]

He lost ten of those I-400-type planes on "the ground" that turn, and I knew one I-400 class had been sunk by Allied ASW. Perhaps others had issues.

He lost another I-400-type a few days later, with three of those planes destroyed "on ground."

[T Rav]

The I-400 class was a great idea. They could've been a real pain; but probably too little, too late.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

An enemy I-400-class put a TT into CV Victorious and died. The carrier has four FLT damage, nothing more. Several other enemy subs sunk.

He appears to be misusing his I-400 boats as U-boats instead of submersible aircraft carriers. That class is just too big to maneuver well during ASW attack.
Do the sinking reports include the 10 aircraft they can carry?

TEN AIRCRAFT? How the hell did they get a capacity like that?

I have a model of one and there is room for THREE planes in the hanger and ONE on the flight ramp.

Someone mentioned ten aircraft in a previous post so I just repeated the figure. My bad - should have known it was a deliberate exaggeration.

[ChuckBerger]

ORIGINAL: T Rav

The I-400 class was a great idea. They could've been a real pain; but probably too little, too late.

The I-400 class was a great idea. They could've been a real pain; but probably too little, too late.

Kinda. The I-400s prefigured the strategic nuclear subs that were so prominent in the cold war, but in truth the technology of the day just wasn't up to it. Four floatplane bombers were never going to have enough hitting power to do real damage. Bombs don't destroy even lone merchant ships as effectively as torpedoes, and of course a single CVE would be more than enough to ward them off a convoy. And even three subs with a total of 12 float plane bombers were never going to do any real damage to a strategic target. Damage to the Panama canal would have been superficial at best, even assuming all 12 got there and got off OK and achieved total surprise. In practice, subs turn out to be not so great aircraft carriers, and launching & retrieving at sea was always plagued by difficulty, especially if the weather was a bit up.

I'd say a nice idea in theory, but ahead of its time. And symptomatic of Japan's obsession with war-winning secret surprise weapons. Like Germany, Japan wasted too much effort on things like this, rather than tried and tested successes.

[Canoerebel]

2/7/45

Invasion of Luzon: Progress made today, as the Allies land in strength at Iba, take Lucena and some other vacant bases, and prepare to pivot (I think Dave won't expect this) from the Iba vicinity to the Lucena vicinity. Armies will land at both bases, isolating Manila. Already, the landing at Lucena has separated a 7-unit army at Atimonana from the main enemy army at Manila.

Only one sizeable enemy air strike today and it's handled well, with one kami hit on CVE Corregidor (minor damage).

Dave commits a CA/CL/DD TF and a CL/DD TF, towards Iba. They run into a variety of Allied TFs and air strikes and get pushed away by Allied light cruisers, destroyers and destroyer escorts.

Once again, I have a lot of ships in need of triage. The fighting has been very heavy. But thus far only Allied CVEs and some small combat vessels have been damaged. The big carriers, the big combat TFs and the amphibious assault TFs are in great shape. AEs are replenishing, so the fleet is one the scene, appears to be stabilizing things, and will commence larger landing ops tomorrow.

The loss of the CVEs has been tough from a points standpoint. I think the Allies are head in this ops by a slight margin - perhaps 1.25:1 or 1.50:1. I haven't handled my ships particularly well but the long term prospects for success are good. Dave's lost more fighting power and he's going to lose a big army and the big bases on Luzon.

I think the Allies now have the positions and strength to fully address Singapore, Manila, some of China, and to engage in fruitful strategic bombing. And I think that should be enough to drive the Allies to victory in the medium term - three or four months. If necessary, I'll take another step forward once the time is ripe but I have some hope that it won't be needed.

Dave is a tenacious gritty fighter.

[Lovejoy]

I just wanted to say that those 4 Barracuda II pilots probably felt pretty darn good about the size of their fighter escort. My math may be off, but that had to be a ratio of at least 30 fighters to 1 TB/DB.

[T Rav]

Chuck,

I "kinda" think that's what I said.

Sorry for the hijack CB,
T Rav

[Canoerebel]

2/8/45

Invasion of Luzon: After one mostly quiet day, Dave releases his air and sea forces (including KB) again. This turned into a rollicking, noisy series of battles, with both sides getting in good licks. It went this way:

1. Allied forces retired from Iba, pivoting to land major units at Lucena.
2. As a strong rearguard, the Allies posted a bunch of combat TFs at and near Iba, anticipating further enemy combat TF attacks. That's exactly what happened. Enemy cruisers and destroyers came in big numbers. They ended up sinking a bunch of DEs but got whacked in return. Dave lost at least six DDs with another half-dozen heavily damaged.
3. Dave has ASW TFs working on the northern tip of Luzon. They sank at least three USN DDs.
4. LBA and carrier-based air sortied in big numbers and got chewed on. But late in the day a sizeable package found a modestly-CAPed CVE TF and did some heavy damage, I think sinking two, damaging others, and heavily damaging BB Royal Sovereign.
5. Dave lost 400+ aircraft; I lost 80+.
6. Major Allied reinforcements come in at Lucena and the adjacent base (Batangas?), including base forces and engineers. Lots of LBA fighters move in, so CAP and security will be enhanced considerably.

This has been a really tough and costly campaign in terms of points (purely from an operational standpoint and achieving the goal of landing at and near Luzon in huge numbers it's going very well).

I'll post a detailed map with major combat reports shortly.

[jwolf]

Dave has ASW TFs working on the northern tip of Luzon. They sank at least three USN DDs.

Is that supposed to be subs that were sunk?

This series of ops has been fascinating to watch. Each time Dave strikes, it looks like he has shot his wad and has little to nothing left ... except that he always has more for the next time. Do you ever expect him to run dry?

[Canoerebel]

2/8/45

Battle of Luzon: Here are the surface combat clashes (carrier situation will be covered in the next post).

[Anachro]

The losses aren't fun, but in the strategic picture looks like a grinding war of attrition to whittle down the Imperial Navy while securing a valuable base to help constrict flow of goods to the Home Islands. Do you envision a Downfall scenario in this game?

[Canoerebel]

The Allies are only about 15k or 16k from auto victory. I think Singapore, Luzon, China and Strategic Bombing are sufficient to cover that in the medium term, as I've noted above. If things begin to drag out in unexpected ways, the Allies would next tackled Formosa. IE, the game should end before a move on the HI is necessary (unless Dave wants to play on after AV).

[Canoerebel]

2/8/45

Battle of Luzon: The Japanese do heavy damage to another CVE TF and pay for it with heavy air losses.

With DS untouched and with two Allied airfields operational now, I think the Allies are now in a position to begin asserting local dominance. I expect the threat from enemy air to recede shortly, but he may continue committing combat TFs until I really have the region locked up more tightly.

[HansBolter]

Sometimes I think you take the Spruance style reticence to pursue the enemy carriers cause you don't want to expose your carrier strike planes to a CAP trap approach just a tad too far.

Your DS is parked 7 hexes from his carriers and they have been allowed to freely strike with risk only to their air wings and not their hulls.

Then again, you have major land air bases to defend against in conjunction with the enemy carriers so you likely have your carriers heavy with fighters and light with strike aircraft and have made the right decisions.

This combination of carrier and major LBA making your invasion costly is a good picture of what things would be like if you tried to invade the HI in your game against Obvert.

[BBfanboy]

If that sighting of 7 BBs with his carrier TF is accurate, that could be a major challenge if he decided to throw them at you. He must know your carrier TBs are not numerous and have not performed well in recent clashes, so only your subs and your own BBs would be good counters.

[Canoerebel]

I don't think he has seven BBs left. And he only has four CAs left. His Navy is really hurting.

I haven't tallied CL losses. He's lost about 152 DDs. That's a lot too, but I haven't checked to see how many he gets.