Did You Know I Used to Drive a Rollercoaster?: Apbarog(A) vs OPilot(J)

[apbarog]

31 Mar 44

Sub Aspro hit E-boat W-7 with a torpedo, sinking the ship off the coast of Vietnam.

Kyushu invasion shipping is moving to the northern ports on Luzon. Follow-up support units are now loading at Manila, Batangas and Naga. Other task forces have formed up, such as minesweepers and minelayers, and ASW. Most will rendezvous north of Luzon.

The first B-29 strike is ordered. About 33 B-29s will hit Fushan, flying from Taihoku on Formosa. Fushan is either in or near northern Korea, just east of Mukden. The target is 55 oil production. It's a daylight raid at 10,000 feet.

[apbarog]

1 Apr 44

B-29s made their first attack at Fushun. 12 oil hits reported in light rain. Mouseover at Fushun shows no hits, but there was no recon done. I wanted to hit a decent oil center with my first strike, but oil has to already be beyond critical for the Japanese. I'll switch to other targets soon. I want to start to force enemy fighters to defend bases away from southern Japan.

Kyushu invasion shipping will now rendezvous at Batan Island, north of Luzon. It will be a major task sorting out my combat ships, deciding what to use for bombardment and what to use for force protection. There can be no doubt that enemy combat ships will move to the invasion spots this time. This will be a big knock-down drag-out fight. I have 5 invasion spots to cover. The carriers will be split up. I'm considering going fighter heavy on the carriers. Having lots of naval bombers probably won't help much. Enemy combat ships will have so many big base nearby. They'll hit at night and be back home in the day. Do I want big naval strikes going to places like Hiroshima, with a huge CAP? I think the threat will have to be dealt with using surface ships. The carriers need to cover the invasion spots.

[Bif1961]

Castor had naval superiority which helped him and also air superiority. If you have both of those in the landing area then you should have enough with a total of 15 Divisions+. However, you need good recon to estimate his forces and remember because of rail roads he can reinforce quickly.

[apbarog]

Naval superiority, yes. Air superiority, no. My nearest base is Amami Oshima. It is almost a size 2 airfield. Not enough to project massive airpower. OPilot has some Frank and George units that are as good as most of my Thunderbolt squadrons. And my Hellcats get shredded by them. So it's going to be a challenge. I'm hoping for local superiority over the beachheads.

A quick capture of Oita would allow armor to cut off the rail line from the rest of Japan. That would take a day of landing at Oita, a day of capturing it (at best), and 2 days of armor movement to the rail line hex. Best I can do, barring a para landing on the other island, one that wouldn't be strong enough to take the base, and would be a suicide drop even if it was successful.

[apbarog]

2 Apr 44

Enemy air attacks at Ichang. Not unusual. I'm not willing to commit much of my airpower to China at the moment. They will get heavy use over Japan very soon. More important than trying to protect the Chinese from occasional random air attacks.

Invasion shipping now north of Luzon.

[EDIT: I should have mentioned that the LCTs in the graphic have supply loaded. They will unload at Saishu To after the paras take the base.]

[apbarog]

3 Apr 44 - The Approach to Japan

[BBfanboy]

Tense times ...

[Evoken]

Looking forward to landings , good luck!

[apbarog]

Question about Kurume

Kurume can be entered by ships from two directions: the southwest and the northwest. I plan on invading from the southwest. My question is, can my ships landing from the southwest be engaged by enemy ships entering the hex from the northwest?

I think the answer is yes. I don't think the game differentiates between the two. The ships have entered the hex, so yes. In reality, the land mass blocks such an engagement.

This complicates my landing plan. My ships would be much more vulnerable if the enemy didn't have to go around Nagasaki. I could protect Kurume with ships at the base to the southwest of Kurume. But I think the landing could be attacked from the northwest.

It's a very small thing in a big game. But ships shouldn't be able to enter Kurume from the northwest, from what I can see on an actual map of Japan.

I'd post this outside of my AAR, but I don't want to bring attention to the issue with my landings about to occur.

[Evoken]

I tested in game , yes they can get to Kurume from NW entrance. You can put a lot of Destroyers in single ship task forces or in pairs and put them out as a blocking force to the NW or in Kurume itself.They should grant you pretty good cover against any surface forces and coupled with a few large task forces as a backup for if anything manages to get through. Just make sure cover forces have smaller task force number as they are the ones meet the enemy first

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Evoken

I tested in game , yes they can get to Kurume from NW entrance. You can put a lot of Destroyers in single ship task forces or in pairs and put them out as a blocking force to the NW or in Kurume itself.They should grant you pretty good cover against any surface forces and coupled with a few large task forces as a backup for if anything manages to get through. Just make sure cover forces have smaller task force number as they are the ones meet the enemy first

Iki Island has a fortress, but I don't think that is considered restricted waters like a river or strait. Your DDs should be able to operate there without much interference from the fortress.

[apbarog]

Thanks to you both. It'll be easier just to keep the guarding ships with the invasion shipping. Otherwise they will be out on their own, unprotected by the carriers. Maybe a few destroyers could do it and take their chances.

4 Apr 44 - The Final Countdown

[CaptBeefheart]

It probably wouldn't hurt to land at Kagoshima to tie down his forces there. Your units will be in pretty good terrain. I'd say skip Kanoya unless you have a good feeling your prepped forces would take it easily. His troops at Kanoya will be out of the picture for a while since they can only use dirt roads to get out of there.

Cheers,
CB

[apbarog]

A big advantage to landing at them all is to prevent retreats. Once I block the rail line north of Oita, there would be no retreat, if I landed at all locations. Nagasaki, not an invasion target but probably heavily defended, would be completely isolated.

[CaptBeefheart]

True. Hopefully Oita is lightly held. You can block a lot of hexes from there. Don't forget to send one unit into the one interior hex.

One Kyushu piece of advice: I've had TFs inadvertently or advertantly go through the straits of Shimonoseki and get shredded by CD guns there. For instance, a Fukuoka shore bombardment mission might retreat that way for some reason. Just something to keep in mind and try to avoid.

Cheers,
CB

[apbarog]

5 Apr 44 - Preturn

First, the summary of the last turn.

Dutch sub KXII was patrolling the Vietnamese coast just southwest of Cam Ranh Bay, in shallow water. It spotted an AS with an E-boat escorting. 4 torpedoes were fired at AS Nagoya Maru, and 2 hit, causing fire and heavy damage. E W-25 hit the sub with a depth charge. Despite the sub's damage (SYS 8/FLOT 12-1/ENG 0/FIRE 0, it was lucky), KXII attacked again, firing 4 more torpedoes at the damaged AS. 2 torpedoes hit. 1 was a dud. But it was enough to sink the ship, judging by the audio. A nice day for the old Dutch boat. Previously, KXII had sunk a patrol boat and damaged an xAK and another patrol boat.

Yesterday, paras dropped on Saishu To, near Korea. Today, Sallys with Tojos and Georges attacked its port, causing minor damage. The island has no airfield, and the paras have no engineers. 2 US subs were unloading supply there. The base will not be reinforced and will serve as a distraction for a little while longer.

My carriers covering the feint towards Korea launched strikes on sub chasers west of Nagasaki. I had limited the naval bombers' range to 5, to keep them from flying to any enemy bases, but OPilot had a ranged CAP up and intercepted my strikes to the west.

Morning Air attack on TF, near Fukue-jima at 100,57

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 8 minutes

Japanese aircraft
N1K1-J George x 22
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 7

Allied aircraft
FM-1 Wildcat x 18
F6F-3 Hellcat x 40
SB2C-1C Helldiver x 28
TBM-1C Avenger x 18

Japanese aircraft losses
N1K1-J George: 2 destroyed
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
FM-1 Wildcat: 4 destroyed
F6F-3 Hellcat: 4 destroyed
SB2C-1C Helldiver: 1 damaged
TBM-1C Avenger: 2 destroyed, 2 damaged

Japanese Ships
SC CHa-47, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
SC CHa-30, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
SC CHa-32, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
SC CHa-48, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
SC CHa-45, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
SC CHa-29, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
SC CHa-46, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk

30 Helldivers then went without escort and were intercepted by 18 Georges near Nagasaki. Some bombers were lost, and no bombs hit either SC that was attacked. Total air losses were 19 SB2C-1Cs, 12 F6Fs, 8 FM-1s and 4 TBMs. 9 Georges and 2 Tojos were shot down. Costly. Hopefully it will reinforce the notion that Korea is the target, and hopefully the planes can be replaced by nearby replenishment squadrons.

Some of the TFs moving towards Korea were spotted, but not the LCT task force. So the feint may not look as intended. Regardless, the carriers will now move to join the main armada to the southeast, and the LCTs will try to make it home on their own.

As for that main armada, there are 47 task forces in the hex just southwest of Amami Oshima. Just 2 were spotted today. A CVE task force and a big APA task force. Just seeing the APAs will probably get the alarm bells ringing on the Japanese coast. They only show up for the invasions.

I usually discuss the previous turn having just sent my next one. Today I'm showing the situation in Japan before I plot my turn. I did more extensive recon, while avoiding my primary landing objectives. I wanted to see what defenses Kagoshima and Kanoya had. The defenses aren't overwhelming, had these targets been my primary objectives, but I have just one division planned to land on each. That will not be enough to take these bases. I will probably keep those troops at sea and wait to reinforce another landing after the base is captured.

Enemy bases are well stocked with aircraft. It's tempting to want to hit them with slow battleships, but it may not be worth it. The bases probably have lots of mines. They do have ACMs, and CMs have been spotted in the area recently. And even if a bombardment is successful, that's just one base. There are so many others full of aircraft. It may be better to keep the battleships for the bombardment of the invasion targets.

I have the feeling that this operation is going to be ugly. OPilot has nothing to lose by using everything that he has left. He has a few battleships. He has many aircraft, and since our war hasn't had a great number of aircraft losses, he still has good pilots left. He's had since January to prepare kamikaze units. I haven't seen any yet.

I will probably lose more combat ships than I've lost in the entire war so far. I've lost no CVs, no CVLs, and 3 CVEs. I've lost no BBs and just a couple of CAs, if I remember correctly. I've lost no APAs. That will certainly change soon.

It's going to be quite a show. How it will turn out is a complete unknown at the moment.

I will work on the turn during the afternoon on Tuesday. I'll check to see if there are any comments before then.

[apbarog]

The turn is away. The big US carriers will move one hex west of Kanoya. The CVEs will move to the island base one hex southwest of Kanoya. That island base will be invaded by sea. If it is defended by more than the unit can handle, I have paras ready to go to support. Neither Kagoshima nor Kanoya will be invaded. Next turn, I will plot the invasions of the 3 hexes circled in yellow above.

B-29s will drop mines tonight in the hex southwest of Hiroshima and at Kobe. P-47s and P-38s will sweep Kagoshima and Kanoya. B-24s will bomb both targets, and B-25s will bomb Kanoya.

The dive bombers and torpedo bombers on Lexington and Saratoga flew off to Luzon, and were replaced by extra Hellcats and Corsairs.

Let's see what happens.

[CaptBeefheart]

Best of luck.

I'd be running shore bombardments from Amami Oshima against Nagasaki, Kagoshima and Kanoya. I'd use DDs, maybe four per TF with some spares in port, and possibly CLs if the danger seemed low enough. I'd have AKEs and an AD, and even an AR if possible, at Amami.

You're especially going to want to bombard those bases to knock ground units out of move mode once the landings have happened.

Cheers,
CB

[apbarog]

ORIGINAL: CaptBeefheart

Best of luck.

I'd be running shore bombardments from Amami Oshima against Nagasaki, Kagoshima and Kanoya. I'd use DDs, maybe four per TF with some spares in port, and possibly CLs if the danger seemed low enough. I'd have AKEs and an AD, and even an AR if possible, at Amami.

You're especially going to want to bombard those bases to knock ground units out of move mode once the landing's have happened.

Cheers,
CB

The initial round of bombardments will be at the invasion locations: Kurume, Kumamoto and Oita. I have AKEs and an AD arriving at Amami Oshima now. Amami is still small but is being built up. It does have a big port support unit (not the huge ones, just a big one).

I'm hesitant to bombard Nagasaki, but it does have over 300 aircraft there. I'll hit mines there, I'm sure. Once I've gotten the assault wave unloaded, then I can worry more about the surrounding bases.

[CaptBeefheart]

You'll get the odd DD hitting a mine at Nagasaki, but I don't think I've ever had one sink. I'd say it's worth it to keep all those aircraft suppressed.

With spare DDs, you can rotate the ones that hit mines or take CD fire back to a yard.

Cheers,
CB