Your points on China are quite salient to my experience with the theater during this campaign Alfred, with perhaps an exception or two that we can hopefully discuss in more detail when it shows up later. Overall however, it seems to me that your operational advice on China is certainly the right one to follow....
The brilliant commander is the one who spots the conditions which support a deviation from the book. The rest of us just hope we have fully comprehended the book and have implemented it correctly ... and we're not up against a brilliant commander.
Alfred
Well said Alfred, hopefully we can all get to experience a moment of brilliance every so often with this game.
Just off Palembang, I-158 got the first kill of the night by sinking my fuel laden cargo ship, AK Tai Sang, with three torpedo hits.
I had dispatched the AS Fulton unescorted from the West Coast to Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians to set up a forward submarine base. Along the way, the Fulton ate a torpedo from I-3 but was surprisingly in good shape after the attack. She safely made it to Dutch Harbor a few turns later.
Near Iba, SS-36 sighted the damaged AK Azumasan Maru and engaged, hitting her with a single torpedo, which was sufficient to end her misery.
SS Sculpin, another rare survivor from Pearl Harbor, was on its patrol route in the South China Sea when it sighted I-121 at 1,000 yards. It launched a spread of two torps – the first Mk14 duded as expected, but happily the second one struck home and mortally wounded the Japanese sub. If I am not mistaken, I-121 is one of the valuable mine laying submarines, so I was happy with my first ever sub-on-sub kill.
SS KXII went after a heavily escorted convoy south of Saigon, putting a torpedo into AK Nanko Maru but suffering a severe depth charging that left it limping back to Singapore.
Philippines
Yet another Japanese landing came ashore at Luzon, this time in Mauban.
I combined the surviving MTB and PT boats into one squadron under an aggressive leader with good naval skill and sent them out into the night once more. They interrupted the landings at Iba, where they courageously braved the withering fire from the Japanese escorts and closed to 2,000 yards. Three torpedoes (one dud) were sent into the side of AK Maebasi Maru, sending her to the bottom. A torpedo hit another merchant ship but that torp malfunctioned as well. They even sprayed the merchant ships with .50 caliber machine guns. The post action combat summary showed that 4,613 troops had gone down the Maebasi Maru, with hundreds of squads destroyed and disabled. Unfortunately, on the way back to Manila the torpedo boats were intercepted by a large IJN destroyer squadron which sunk four of them, leaving six survivors overall.
Having heavily damaged Clark airfield with his carrier wings the last turn, I had pulled out all of my fighters to Manila. Even so, my opponent must have really wanted to close down the airfield as he sent another massive carrier raid to crater it.
My opponent also set to work on Manila’s airbase with his LBA. The first raid of 21 Bettys escorted by 19 zeros from Formosa was met by 35 fighters which heavily damaged the raid, striking a 2 to 1 kill ratio in our favor. A follow up raid of 17 Nells was weakly escorted by just 4 Zeros, allowing the still robust CAP of 19 Warhawks to brush aside the few Zeros and home in on the Nells, knocking out about 8 of them. In the afternoon, 15 Warhawks were left, and they met a relatively small raid of 4 Nells escorted by 9 Zeros. Half of the Zeros and Nells were shot down, for the loss of a few allied fighters. Finally, 9 unescorted IJA Sally bombers showed up to be met by 9 Warhawks, who severely shot them up with only a couple of bombers making it back.
The reason behind the relatively weak zero escorts for the Manila raids became apparent when my Catalinas and B-17Ds once again went after his convoys only to be met by a wall of IJN fighters. 10 Catalinas and 8 B-17Ds were lost during the turn.
A few OS2U-3 Kingfishers did make it through to an unprotected convoy, putting a 250lb bomb into the AK Igasa Maru which was still loaded with troops. Furtermore, 6 B-17Ds managed to push through the fighter CAP over another landing area to score a 500lb bomb hit on AK Takao Maru. I must have been luckily with these B-17 naval strikes from 10,000 feet during this phase of the conflict, as I was never able to replicate this type of success with heavy bombers later.
Malaya
Japanese mobile tank and recon regiments take Alor Star from the Indian battalion I left there as a rearguard force.
Borneo
My coastal defense guns at Tarakan finally woke up this turn and engaged the ongoing Japanese landing, putting 9 hits into AK Mexico Maru. Unfortunately, a shock attack later in the day takes the place.
I had previously placed 8 Swordfish torpedo bombers at Sinkawang, and this turn they sighted and went after AK Tihuku Maru, sinking her with 8 500lb bomb hits.
Burma
Japanese troops occupied Victoria Point, but I had already evacuated the base force back to Rangoon in a daring (foolhardy?) naval evacuation.
Hong Kong
A second shock attack goes in, getting a 4 to 1 result and forcing my garrison there to surrender. The first major objective falls to the Japanese.
China
30 Betty bombers struck my forces massing around Ichang. My opponent must have been concerned enough about them to bring in these valuable naval bombers.
Central Pacific
Following the Enterprise strike on the Tarawa landing force, my opponent detached two of the surviving Japanese destroyer escorts and sent them brazenly after my carrier task force. They connected during the night but after a short inconclusive exchange of torpedoes and shellfire, (in which the Enterprise opened up with its own guns) the task forces broke off. This was a good reminder of how I needed to be more careful – next time these two destroyers could be a cruiser force.
Japanese forces Capture Guam
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The gravy train of successful airstrikes on his convoys landing in the Philippines looks to be decidedly over now. It was very good while it lasted. Still, the deviation of significant fighter strength to cover his ships allowed me to rack up some significant kills on his bombers. Given the odds, I would say things could be a lot worse in this theater.
My opponent suffered from air coordination problems, with 21 Bettys coming in to strike Manila airfield but without escort. 19 allied fighters rose up to meet them, tearing them to shreds with only a few bombers surviving to tell the tale. The next raid of 29 Nells faired much better as it met a reduced CAP and more importantly, was escorted by 16 Zeros. I lost several fighters to the escort for only a couple of kills on his fighters.
During the night, Japanese cruisers shelled Iba, wrecking the airfield. This was followed in the morning by another huge carrier air raid on the base force there. A bit of overkill, as his troops easily managed to take the base in the subsequent shock attack. 5 damaged P-40E fighters that were stuck there were destroyed.
Borneo
To the west of Sinkawang, my Dutch patrol aircraft had detected a large Japanese naval force heading into the Karimata Strait. I was in the process of setting up a Dutch PT boat station at Billiton, so I decided to send them out to intercept. This turned out to not be a great idea, as they encountered a Japanese force of two battleships, three cruisers, and six destroyers. In three separate running engagements, I lost 5 of the PT boats for not hits on the Japanese – at least the PT boats heavily depleted their ammo!
The Japanese SAG then encountered the Dutch destroyer Van Nes escorting the small tanker AO TAN 2, sending them both to the bottom.
A substantial Japanese landing force came ashore at Sinkawang. My opponent also bought along airfield service troops with the intention of quickly staging his air power from the base.
China
A Massive raid of 45 Betty bombers came in to pound my concentration of troops at Ichang. I put up 12 H81-A3s on LRCAP however, destroying about 15 of them. I did note he had put 12 Nates on CAP over the base but these did not engage our intercepting fighters. 21 IJA bombers escorted by 29 Nates followed this raid. I still had 7 flying tigers on duty and they did a number on the Nates even if I only managed to get one bomber.
At Kanhsien, the Japanese 51st Recon Regiment overextended itself a bit by coming into the base where I was gathering substantial forces for a disruptive raid his coastal towns. A deliberate attack on the regiment got 50 to 1 odds and sent it reeling back with heavy vehicle losses.
On the flip side, a very ill advised deliberate attack by two Chinese Corps on the Japanese 16th Mixed Brigade and attached armored car company at Tsiaotso was repulsed with 700 casualties sustained.
South Pacific
Japanese troops came ashore at Wewak and Kavieng.
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I was starting to figure out what was and wasn't possible in China. Over the last two turns, I shutdown fortification construction and infrastructure repair in a number of bases to preserve supply, and turned off replacements to most units. The exception to this was in Ichang were my offensive was getting prepared and in the Loyang/Chengchow area which was clearly going to be the focal point of a significant Japanese offensive, and where I resolved to make a stand.
I sent a few submarines to Sinkawang in an attempt to disrupt the landing force there. The Dutch sub SS KXVIII was set upon by escorts and received moderate damage. SS KXIV had more luck, first hitting AK Thames Maru with a single torp for heavy damage before sending two torpedoes into AK Hakodate Maru, sinking her.
Philippines
My last surviving PT and MTB boats set off from Manila for yet another foray into dangerous waters. The bad news was they ran into the Japanese destroyer squadron first this time, losing three of their number. The good news was they succeeded in punching back, sinking DD Hatakaze with a torpedo hit.
I noticed from my recon that my opponent had disbanded some ships at Legaspi, so I dispatched 7 B-17Ds from Cagayan to see if we could sink any of the vessels there. The bombers were met by a dozen float planes on CAP and 7 Zeros, but succeeded in pushing through to score a single 500lb bomb hit on CS Chitose! She is unlikely to sink, but the heavy fires from the hit should hopefully knock her out for quite some time.
The KB strike of the day went after the 81st PA Infantry Divison at Cebu. I don’t really comprehend the rationale behind this decision, I would imagine such a strike would have been much better aimed at Cagayan or Manila.
Malaya
25 Ki-43a fighters swept over Johore Bahru, encountering nothing but clouds. I put some Buffalo LRCAP over my retreating troops from Kota Bharu however as they were consistently pounded by unescorted Japanese bombers. Unfortunately, not many Buffalos showed up and only a few bombers were shot down here over the day.
Celebes
Another large Japanese landing force came ashore at Kendari.
Borneo
In another attempt to disrupt the Sinkawang landing, I sent in the Dutch PT boats that tangled with the battleships last turn. An Escort task force first stymied them however, losing three in the process. The surviving four then made it through to reach the unescorted transports but refused to engage, and I even lost another PT boat to a shell from a Japanese AP!
The trifecta that I had used to go after his convoys thus far was PT boats, submarines, and LBA. The third leg came over with 9 Blenheim I bombers from Singapore to start, failing to score any hits. 2 Dutch Catalinas came in next, putting 2 bomb hits into AKL Hidaka Maru and inflicting heavy losses to troops onboard.
On the other side of the island, 11 Kate torpedo bombers from CVL Ryujo came in to sink three of my Dutch minelayers next to Balikpapan. 5 Dutch 139WH-3 bombers did try to strike back but missed the light carrier.
On the north side of the island, I had attempted to pull out a base force from Jesselton but the three AKLs transporting the troops were sent to the bottom by some Kates from yet another Japanese light carrier force.
Japanese troops landed at Kuching while Sinkawang fell to a Japanese shock attack.
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I noticed that the heavy damage to his convoys had weakened several of his units landing in the Philippines. His troops while very strong overall were weak in certain locations such as San Fernando. I also noted that his infantry units at Iba were quite depleted. In keeping with my aggressive strategy, I started moving my forces towards Iba from Clark in an attempt to mount a counterattack and throw them back into the sea.
Near San Francisco, I-9 turns YP-114 into matchsticks.
Philippines
My opponent routinely pounded the 11th PA Infantry Division at San Fernando with unescorted IJA bombers. I decided to LRCAP the base this turn but unfortunately this was the turn the Japanese decided to come in heavy with 76 Netties escorted by 36 Zeros in three waves. My 12 Warhawks still fought valiantly taking down a few Zeros before being pushed aside. Once my LRCAP was gone, the usual unescorted IJA bombers then decided to show up to no opposition.
I sent in some more Catalinas and Seagulls for a sneaky attack on Legaspi port but only found two coastal minesweepers, which quickly sank.
Having wrecked the Filipino division at San Fernando with bombers today, the Japanese attacked and took the base.
Not aware that I was moving a heavy concentration of troops into Iba, the Japanese shock attacked to drive what they likely thought was a rearguard force only to smash into some of my best troops on Luzon, including the two tank battalions. With odds of 206 to 1 in my favor, the already weakened Japanese forces at Iba suffered almost 1,300 casualties for a few dozen of my own.
Celebes
I attempted to disrupt the landing at Kendari by sending in the Dutch destroyer Piet Hein. I found out that my opponent had covered his troops very well when I encountered a large SAG of heavy cruisers and destroyers. I was lucky the low moonlight allowed DD Piet Hein to escape with no damage. Kendari later fell in the day to a Japanese attack.
Borneo
Another Dutch 139WH-3 raid, this time escorted, targeted the Ryujo. The B-399D escorts brushed aside the meager Claude CAP but the Dutch bombers failed to score any hits. I had better success with a Catalina raid from Singapore on his landing ships at Kuching, scoring a 500lb bomb hit on AK Atago Maru.
Japanese forces landed at Balikpapan. To the north, the Japanese took Kuching and a recon regiment that pursued the retreating forces from Sinkawang last turn took Sambas.
South Pacific
I had evacuated the small but elite company at Kavieng with my flying boats, but given my inexperience I thought I had to move them there before I could transport the troops back to Port Moresby. Three Catalinas which were down for maintenance were lost when the Japanese took the undefended base.
China
Having had enough of my Flying Tiger ambushes in China, my opponent brought in a large number of zeros to finish them off. 30 zeros swept the skies of Changsha but encountered Chinese I-15IIIs instead of the Tigers. I lost about 6 of the biplane fighters but managed to shoot down a Zero.
My Flying Tigers were meanwhile once again on LRCAP over Ichang, where an IJA bomber raid came with Nate escort. The Nates once again suffered at the hands of the Tigers but their sacrifice allowed the Lily bombers they were escorting to get through unscathed.
For the defense of Changsha, I had assembled a significant Chinese Army of almost 2000 AV and moved it to the forested hex just east of the city to block an incoming Japanese force (also around 2,000 AV) coming in from Wuchang. The Japanese shock attacked this turn for 1 to 1 odds. The casualties were decidedly in my favor however, with 7,219 Japanese lost to 2,441 Chinese.
Finally, the long awaited offensive at Ichang began. The first attack got 1 to 1 odds, but reduced the fortification levels from 3 to 2. I lost 3,423 troops to 1,268 Japanese, but given my much larger force assembled there I could better afford those losses.
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Things were heating up in China. I was very pleased with the solid stand at Changsha, and was bringing up some additional reinforcements there to make sure they hold while I push elsewhere. I felt that Ichang was also within my grasp, but what of the massing Japanese armies at Kaifeng….?
It appears your aggressive defence has upset his invasion plans and made him start to react to you - a strategic victory! He diverted much of his strength to the Philippines and invasion convoys there, and to the Ichang area in China. That has slowed his advance in Malaya, giving you time to consolidate a bit and strike back against his shipping there. Good show!
No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
I see a lot of merit in turning Changsha into the Chinese equivalent of 1945 Festung Breslau. I prefer the Chinese to fight inside Changsha rather than outside it for these reasons.
1. LCU preparation only applies to a base, not outside in the field. Having more units with Changsha as their objective allows their Preparation Points to offset to a certain degree the greater firepower of the IJA.
2. Substantial Chinese forces start in the immediate vicinity of Changsha. Bringing them into the Festung allows their aggregated engineers to build up the fortifications. This is actually a more effective fortification building exercise than dispersing the forces to several outside hexes where the field fortification effort is dispersed.
3. With the substantial Chinese forces in the area are found several Chinese HQs. By bringing them back into the base itself allows their support devices to spread their "goodness" to the infantry units which are short of support devices. LCUs with surplus to their own requirements support devices only share their excess support devices with deficient LCUs inside a base, not outside a base.
4. The reason why Changsha is an excellent candidate for the Festung mindset is because it has a significant amount of auto supply generated daily which can never be interdicted by the enemy. Better to have the base experience a yellow "!" as that ensures all the local supply (both auto and industry production) goes only to units defending inside the Festung rather than risking some of it leaking out to other units.
5. Ultimately I am prepared to have Changsha completely surrounded and all defenders destroyed there. The distance between Chungking and Changsha means that there is a good chance destroyed units will automatically resurface at Chungking before the victorious IJA units recover and reach Chungking.
Alfred
Alfred, would it be advisable to fly in to Changsha some 37mm A/T guns from India via Chungking?
The Changsha Triangle is easily contained. I normally would leave it for last rather getting to Chungking and the Western Mountain passes first if it were strongly held.
It appears your aggressive defence has upset his invasion plans and made him start to react to you - a strategic victory! He diverted much of his strength to the Philippines and invasion convoys there, and to the Ichang area in China. That has slowed his advance in Malaya, giving you time to consolidate a bit and strike back against his shipping there. Good show!
Thanks! I did seem to get less pressure in Malaya, and the deviation of the IJN airpower to China certainly did not hurt either. As shall be seen however, there were still many lessons for me to learn.
I see a lot of merit in turning Changsha into the Chinese equivalent of 1945 Festung Breslau. I prefer the Chinese to fight inside Changsha rather than outside it for these reasons.
1. LCU preparation only applies to a base, not outside in the field. Having more units with Changsha as their objective allows their Preparation Points to offset to a certain degree the greater firepower of the IJA.
2. Substantial Chinese forces start in the immediate vicinity of Changsha. Bringing them into the Festung allows their aggregated engineers to build up the fortifications. This is actually a more effective fortification building exercise than dispersing the forces to several outside hexes where the field fortification effort is dispersed.
3. With the substantial Chinese forces in the area are found several Chinese HQs. By bringing them back into the base itself allows their support devices to spread their "goodness" to the infantry units which are short of support devices. LCUs with surplus to their own requirements support devices only share their excess support devices with deficient LCUs inside a base, not outside a base.
4. The reason why Changsha is an excellent candidate for the Festung mindset is because it has a significant amount of auto supply generated daily which can never be interdicted by the enemy. Better to have the base experience a yellow "!" as that ensures all the local supply (both auto and industry production) goes only to units defending inside the Festung rather than risking some of it leaking out to other units.
5. Ultimately I am prepared to have Changsha completely surrounded and all defenders destroyed there. The distance between Chungking and Changsha means that there is a good chance destroyed units will automatically resurface at Chungking before the victorious IJA units recover and reach Chungking.
Alfred
Compelling points Alfred. Generally I avoided packing too many units into a base hex for fear that his bombers would wreck the resulting supply buildup there. In China where supply is scarce this is not as much of a concern however.
Off the coast of Victoria (Canada), I-3 obliterates a coastal minesweeper with a torpedo.
Philippines
My opponent started shifting back the focus of his IJN airpower to the Philippines, as a large raid came over Manila in the morning. 44 Netties escorted by 39 Zeros met 42 allied fighters. My fighters traded about even numbers with the Zeros but the Zeros largely succeeded in keeping my flyboys off his bombers. Enough of my fighters survived the first battle however to devastate a subsequent unescorted air raid 20 Betty bombers – leaving only a few of them limping back to base. Yet another wave of unescorted bombers lumbered in, this time of 18 Nell bombers. Once again, my fighters earned their keep, shooting 5 of them down. Last to arrive were 11 IJA Sally bombers (always late to the party, are they slower than the Netties?). About ten of my fighters remained in the air, and they trashed the bombers and forced the survivors to withdraw. Unfortunately, it didn’t all go my way, as some of the heavily damaged submarines repairing at Manila took further hits, sealing their fate.
At Iba, my shock attack went in against the weakened Japanese forces, which were largely made up of artillery units after most of the infantry component was sunk en route. The attack did very well, recapturing the base and inflicting more than a thousand casualties, including the destruction of 60 guns and 100 vehicles. Interestingly however, the loss of the base did not result in the destruction of the now trapped Japanese forces.
Borneo
The AK Kaiko Maru and AK Eihuku Maru took a number of severe hits from my coastal guns at Balikpapan, leaving them on fire and with heavy damage. A Japanese deliberate attack however silenced the guns for good and seized the important position.
Fearing the development of Sinkawang as a dangerous airbase on my flank, I sent three British light cruisers on a night bombardment mission to slow things down a bit. They did good damage, registering a couple dozen hits on the runway and airbase facilities. During there escape back to Java, CL Dragon was hit by a 250kg bomb from a Kate, but took the hit well on its belt armor. I followed up this bombardment with a raid of 37 Blenheim I and IV bombers on the airfield during the day, adding another couple of dozen hits and destroying a Ki-46-II Dinah on the ground.
The most exciting but ultimately disappointing event of the turn occurred here. I had withdrawn the American Catalinas from the Zero infested Philippines to Singapore over the last couple of turns. I set them up for some naval strikes hoping that they would replicate their good record further west. 4 of the Catalinas snuck it at low altitude under the cover of severe storms to hit the CVL Zuiho task force covering the Sinkawang landings. The pilots did great, putting a torpedo in to the Zuiho and two into battleship Hyuga. Unfortunately all three torpedoes were duds!
China
A large number of Zeros still remained in China, and they escorted massed IJA bombers to hit my troops at Ichang. I kept my Flying Tigers on the ground however, resting them up for further battles.
Despite the best efforts of their air comrades, the Chinese deliberate attack at Ichang further reduced the Japanese position there, scoring a 2 to 1 result in my favor and taking the fortifications down to 1. Hopefully tomorrow Ichang will be mine.
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Unfortunately, I lost sight of the KB - where are they going now??
I plan to occasionally do a deep dive into a particular battle and analyze the dynamics behind it and seek to draw some lessons. I will do this for both my successes and embarrassing losses. I of course cannot speak to my opponents thinking and can only make presumptions in that regard. Needless to say, these thoughts are not gospel, and I welcome any disagreements or agreements with my analysis.
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A key principal in conflict is to strive to maintain the initiative. At its essence, the initiative, or the ability to dictate events to your favor, is about maximizing your ability to take advantage of favorable openings/opportunities and denying those same to the enemy by keeping the opponent reacting to your moves instead.
There are also different layers to initiative. The Japanese at the start of the Pacific War strongly hold the strategic initiative and there is no realistic way to quickly shift that to the Allied side, as Tokyo will ultimately get to decide which theaters to focus their invasions on. That doesn’t mean that the Allied side could not seek to maintain the initiative at the tactical (and in more rare cases even the operational) levels. To be able to do so however requires action. If the Allies go completely to ground, they cede the ability to dictate events, allowing the Japanese to go about their plans and take advantage of their opportunities.
All this background theory aside, the reason for my success in the air over the Philippines (at least for now!) is in large part because operationally I adopted an aggressive approach that allowed me to seize the initiative at the tactical level. I don’t mean to imply that this is always the smart path forward, as the reality is this could have backfired and only really succeeded due to a key mistake on my opponents side.
My opponent elected to concentrate heavily on the Philippines in what I presume was an effort to quickly defeat my forces there and free his for further conquests. I also presume that the commitment of the KB there was part and parcel of this strategy. Instead of a relatively concentrated effort however, my opponent came in with a widely dispersed approach at seven separate landing zones. While this maximized his ability to seize terrain quickly, it created too many vulnerabilities that could be exploited by an aggressive player.
Tactically, the key to the high kill count over the Philippines was to minimize enemy fighter sweeps. To do so I needed to tie up the deadly zeros in multiple tasks, reducing the number available for the one air mission that I had no strong counter against. I succeeded in doing this by targeting his dispersed landing zones, forcing him to commit heavy amounts of CAP (even the KB wings got involved in this). I also did this by creating a separate demand for strong fighter escort – this was in China with the commitment of the Flying Tigers in conjunction with offensive action that my opponent needed to stop with his bombers. Finally, I believe that the continued threat of my airpower in the Philippines drove him to press his effort to reduce my airfields with both KB strikes and long range bomber raids from Formosa, in spite of the reduction of available Zero fighters, ultimately creating the openings for my destruction of large numbers of elite Japanese aircraft and aircrew.
I plan to occasionally do a deep dive into a particular battle and analyze the dynamics behind it and seek to draw some lessons. I will do this for both my successes and embarrassing losses. I of course cannot speak to my opponents thinking and can only make presumptions in that regard. Needless to say, these thoughts are not gospel, and I welcome any disagreements or agreements with my analysis.
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A key principal in conflict is to strive to maintain the initiative. At its essence, the initiative, or the ability to dictate events to your favor, is about maximizing your ability to take advantage of favorable openings/opportunities and denying those same to the enemy by keeping the opponent reacting to your moves instead.
There are also different layers to initiative. The Japanese at the start of the Pacific War strongly hold the strategic initiative and there is no realistic way to quickly shift that to the Allied side, as Tokyo will ultimately get to decide which theaters to focus their invasions on. That doesn’t mean that the Allied side could not seek to maintain the initiative at the tactical (and in more rare cases even the operational) levels. To be able to do so however requires action. If the Allies go completely to ground, they cede the ability to dictate events, allowing the Japanese to go about their plans and take advantage of their opportunities.
All this background theory aside, the reason for my success in the air over the Philippines (at least for now!) is in large part because operationally I adopted an aggressive approach that allowed me to seize the initiative at the tactical level. I don’t mean to imply that this is always the smart path forward, as the reality is this could have backfired and only really succeeded due to a key mistake on my opponents side.
My opponent elected to concentrate heavily on the Philippines in what I presume was an effort to quickly defeat my forces there and free his for further conquests. I also presume that the commitment of the KB there was part and parcel of this strategy. Instead of a relatively concentrated effort however, my opponent came in with a widely dispersed approach at seven separate landing zones. While this maximized his ability to seize terrain quickly, it created too many vulnerabilities that could be exploited by an aggressive player.
Tactically, the key to the high kill count over the Philippines was to minimize enemy fighter sweeps. To do so I needed to tie up the deadly zeros in multiple tasks, reducing the number available for the one air mission that I had no strong counter against. I succeeded in doing this by targeting his dispersed landing zones, forcing him to commit heavy amounts of CAP (even the KB wings got involved in this). I also did this by creating a separate demand for strong fighter escort – this was in China with the commitment of the Flying Tigers in conjunction with offensive action that my opponent needed to stop with his bombers. Finally, I believe that the continued threat of my airpower in the Philippines drove him to press his effort to reduce my airfields with both KB strikes and long range bomber raids from Formosa, in spite of the reduction of available Zero fighters, ultimately creating the openings for my destruction of large numbers of elite Japanese aircraft and aircrew.
Spot on about the initiative (ties in to my commentary on Chinese displacements, avoiding static MLR).
Most AE players however erroneously conflate initiative with attacking. The two are different things. One can manoeuvre for position as a means for contesting the initiative. Threatening to achieve something valuable can be a very strong force multiplier which contests the initiative. Attacking just for the sake of attacking often is a force decliner, not just because of the loss of assets but because it identifies and clarifies enemy intentions. It is always much easier to handle a specific known enemy objective than having to take into planning account multiple enemy objectives.
This far into the war your opponent has been making some fundamental game mechanics air tactical mistakes. His focus should have been from day 1 to achieve air superiority. Nor it seems he has paid close enough attention to the game mechanics required to achieve air coordination. Generally speaking there has been a lack of imagination on his part to combat your tactics. For the fact is that there is always a counter tactic available.
Some of the arrows in his quill not used to date include:
paradrops to capture undefended airfields. Thence fly in aviation support to set up forward airfields. Reduces flying operational air losses, reduces pilot fatigue, allows participation of shorter range aircraft
focus on getting bombers to fly afternoon land targets rather than morning land targets. Get morning air combat to be primarily fighter on fighter combat to both whittle down the availability of Allied airframes for CAP but also limit Allied pilot experience/skill gains from shooting down unescorted bombers
disregard air convoy protection in order to focus on gaining air superiority. IOW task focusing is required. Obviously this means that a reduction (but not necessarily total cessation) in naval movements is necessary until the primary focus succeeds
stretch Allied capabilities by use of night air operations. This also doubles up as an initiative exercise presenting the threat element referred to previously
One cannot defend everything with passive defence. The objective should always be to threaten an enemies position/asset, whose loss to the enemy war effort/capability is more damaging to them than what they can similarly threaten you with.
I plan to occasionally do a deep dive into a particular battle and analyze the dynamics behind it and seek to draw some lessons. I will do this for both my successes and embarrassing losses. I of course cannot speak to my opponents thinking and can only make presumptions in that regard. Needless to say, these thoughts are not gospel, and I welcome any disagreements or agreements with my analysis.
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A key principal in conflict is to strive to maintain the initiative. At its essence, the initiative, or the ability to dictate events to your favor, is about maximizing your ability to take advantage of favorable openings/opportunities and denying those same to the enemy by keeping the opponent reacting to your moves instead.
There are also different layers to initiative. The Japanese at the start of the Pacific War strongly hold the strategic initiative and there is no realistic way to quickly shift that to the Allied side, as Tokyo will ultimately get to decide which theaters to focus their invasions on. That doesn’t mean that the Allied side could not seek to maintain the initiative at the tactical (and in more rare cases even the operational) levels. To be able to do so however requires action. If the Allies go completely to ground, they cede the ability to dictate events, allowing the Japanese to go about their plans and take advantage of their opportunities.
All this background theory aside, the reason for my success in the air over the Philippines (at least for now!) is in large part because operationally I adopted an aggressive approach that allowed me to seize the initiative at the tactical level. I don’t mean to imply that this is always the smart path forward, as the reality is this could have backfired and only really succeeded due to a key mistake on my opponents side.
My opponent elected to concentrate heavily on the Philippines in what I presume was an effort to quickly defeat my forces there and free his for further conquests. I also presume that the commitment of the KB there was part and parcel of this strategy. Instead of a relatively concentrated effort however, my opponent came in with a widely dispersed approach at seven separate landing zones. While this maximized his ability to seize terrain quickly, it created too many vulnerabilities that could be exploited by an aggressive player.
Tactically, the key to the high kill count over the Philippines was to minimize enemy fighter sweeps. To do so I needed to tie up the deadly zeros in multiple tasks, reducing the number available for the one air mission that I had no strong counter against. I succeeded in doing this by targeting his dispersed landing zones, forcing him to commit heavy amounts of CAP (even the KB wings got involved in this). I also did this by creating a separate demand for strong fighter escort – this was in China with the commitment of the Flying Tigers in conjunction with offensive action that my opponent needed to stop with his bombers. Finally, I believe that the continued threat of my airpower in the Philippines drove him to press his effort to reduce my airfields with both KB strikes and long range bomber raids from Formosa, in spite of the reduction of available Zero fighters, ultimately creating the openings for my destruction of large numbers of elite Japanese aircraft and aircrew.
Spot on about the initiative (ties in to my commentary on Chinese displacements, avoiding static MLR).
Most AE players however erroneously conflate initiative with attacking. The two are different things. One can manoeuvre for position as a means for contesting the initiative. Threatening to achieve something valuable can be a very strong force multiplier which contests the initiative. Attacking just for the sake of attacking often is a force decliner, not just because of the loss of assets but because it identifies and clarifies enemy intentions. It is always much easier to handle a specific known enemy objective than having to take into planning account multiple enemy objectives.
This far into the war your opponent has been making some fundamental game mechanics air tactical mistakes. His focus should have been from day 1 to achieve air superiority. Nor it seems he has paid close enough attention to the game mechanics required to achieve air coordination. Generally speaking there has been a lack of imagination on his part to combat your tactics. For the fact is that there is always a counter tactic available.
Some of the arrows in his quill not used to date include:
paradrops to capture undefended airfields. Thence fly in aviation support to set up forward airfields. Reduces flying operational air losses, reduces pilot fatigue, allows participation of shorter range aircraft
focus on getting bombers to fly afternoon land targets rather than morning land targets. Get morning air combat to be primarily fighter on fighter combat to both whittle down the availability of Allied airframes for CAP but also limit Allied pilot experience/skill gains from shooting down unescorted bombers
disregard air convoy protection in order to focus on gaining air superiority. IOW task focusing is required. Obviously this means that a reduction (but not necessarily total cessation) in naval movements is necessary until the primary focus succeeds
stretch Allied capabilities by use of night air operations. This also doubles up as an initiative exercise presenting the threat element referred to previously
One cannot defend everything with passive defence. The objective should always be to threaten an enemies position/asset, whose loss to the enemy war effort/capability is more damaging to them than what they can similarly threaten you with.
Alfred
Excellent points on the other options available to my opponent Alfred. The only point where he may not have much had much of an alternative however was in convoy protection, as he was already heavily committed and his transports needed immediate support from his fighters leaving him with little choice but to commit the CAP.
I-156 goes after a fleeing convoy off transports and tankers north of Batavia but is stymied by the escorting British destroyers. I-156 later tries again against the unescorted AK Bennevis but its torpedo duds (glad to see this occasionally happens to my opponents subs as well).
Meanwhile, I-17 poked its conning tower into the shallow waters of Johnston Island where it must have detected a resupply mission I had sent there from Hawaii. It paid the price however as the escorting AM Bobolink scored two penetrating depth charge hits on it leaving it with heavy damage.
Philippines
During the night, a fast transport of heavy and light IJN cruisers comes in to bring reinforcements to Iba.
After last turn’s heavy losses in the air and with the KB nowhere to be seen, my opponent rested his air forces today.
My shock attack went ahead in Iba, inflicting further losses on the trapped Japanese and destroying an artillery unit.
The Japanese landings had cut off my 51st PA Infantry Division at Lucena south of Manila. Nevertheless, the division still managed to maul the 16th Recon Regiment there this turn.
Malaya
With a number of battleship, cruiser, and light carrier task forces pushing into the Java Sea, it was time for thee rest of my shipping to get out of dodge.
My opponent had been regularly bombing my retreating troops from Kota Bharu. This turn I decided to LRCAP them with Buffalo fighters, but as it happens this was also the turn the Japanese decided to heavily escort them with Hayabusa fighters. 16 Buffalos tangled with 30 Ki-43a for a few losses on both sides but the escorting fighters kept me off the bombers.
Borneo
A Japanese light cruiser/destroyer task force finishes off my few remaining Dutch PT boats during the night.
My recon noticed that my opponent had docked a number of his ships at Tarakan, so I sent a dozen B-17D bombers from Cagayan to hit the port. I hit CA Haguro and CA Myoko with several hits each, but the 500lb GP bombs failed to penetrate the armor of the heavy cruisers. I did however score more damaging single hits on both DD Kuroshio and AK Mexico Maru, leaving both on fire and the latter with heavy damage.
China
Further raids of heavily escorted IJA bombers attempt to intervene at Ichang, inflicting a fair amount of casualties on my troops in the open.
Near Kanhsien, I had sent the 25th Chinese Corps chasing after the battered 51st Recon Regiment. This time it was my turn to be ambushed however, as my opponent reinforced with the 102nd Infantry Regiment and sent the 25th Corps reeling back with heavy casualties.
Sensing the weakened state of the Japanese troops at Ichang, I ordered a shock attack this time there. My troops did extremely well, throwing the Japanese 34th Division and 13th RGC Temp. Division across the river towards Hankow and inflicting 6,965 casualties for only 1,660 of our own.
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With Ichang in my hands, I had a strong desire to maintain the momentum by pushing for another target in China. Enhancing my lines of communication between the different fronts and degrading those of the enemy remained a key priority for me, so I decided to follow the retreating Japanese troops to seize Sinyang and control the rail line between the central front and the northern Chengchow/Loyang area that was increasingly under threat. This thrust would hopefully also draw some Japanese reinforcements and lessen the threat to Changsha until my reinforcements arrived there by rail from farther west.
With Ichang in my hands, I had a strong desire to maintain the momentum by pushing for another target in China. Enhancing my lines of communication between the different fronts and degrading those of the enemy remained a key priority for me, so I decided to follow the retreating Japanese troops to seize Sinyang and control the rail line between the central front and the northern Chengchow/Loyang area that was increasingly under threat. This thrust would hopefully also draw some Japanese reinforcements and lessen the threat to Changsha until my reinforcements arrived there by rail from farther west.
Probably a mistake, this offensive thrust. Depends how much you sent. You are doing very well so far[:)], and Japan is making many easy to fix mistakes like Ichang.
With Ichang in my hands, I had a strong desire to maintain the momentum by pushing for another target in China. Enhancing my lines of communication between the different fronts and degrading those of the enemy remained a key priority for me, so I decided to follow the retreating Japanese troops to seize Sinyang and control the rail line between the central front and the northern Chengchow/Loyang area that was increasingly under threat. This thrust would hopefully also draw some Japanese reinforcements and lessen the threat to Changsha until my reinforcements arrived there by rail from farther west.
Probably a mistake, this offensive thrust. Depends how much you sent. You are doing very well so far[:)], and Japan is making many easy to fix mistakes like Ichang.
I pretty much sent the whole lot Lowpe. What can I say, a combination of inexperience and bravado [:D]
