Empire of the Sun - DesertWolf101 (J) vs Andy Mac (A)

[RedTeamFred]

Wow, that was amazing.

Many people are under the impression that Japan should seek "The Decisive Battle". It's the same mindset that Japan had during the war, and against the Allies here and in RL, it's a failing strategy. Most of the more successful players seem to me IMHO have better results with tough, tenacious fighting on land and slashing attacks at sea, together with the occasional deep raids on supply lines and aggressive use of subs (for awhile). Slowing him down is a valid goal. John III is one of the deep raiders, and his play often shows such successes, but also the game-changing failures, of this approach. Your success here, while it won't stop him, will definitely make him more mindful of his assets. LOL he needs to cover his assets IOW.

KB is definitely the Terror of the Merchant Marines when used wisely.

I'm glad to see mind_messing and Ranger Joe frequenting your AAR. They have a very good understanding of the game. M_m has a deep conceptual grasp, and RJ is tricksy and thorough.

You caught him with his trousers down. No way a convoy of that size should be so lightly guarded. If he's talking about not being competitive in two years real-time, that's one thing. If he's talking about not being competitive in game time, that's mid 1944! Rainbow Team is on a deadline at some point to bring the pain to Japan. You may have him on the back foot for awhile at least. It's a compliment you deserve. I would look for a counter by land or a deep raid of his own. A hearty Banzai to you!

Two questions:

What were the events that brought about this great raid? Did you have intel, like from Glen subs or radio info, or was it a blind raid? I'm interested in how this all came about.

And how much time have you spent with the game before you entered into your first grand campaign?

Fred

[Naskra]

Damn shame about that damaged Kate - otherwise a lovely coup. It's certain to put a kink in any plans he may have had in the Pacific; no escorts indicates he is heavily committed elsewhere. He'll recover soon enough, but it will cost him combat tonnage to be more cautious.

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: RedTeamFred

Wow, that was amazing.

Many people are under the impression that Japan should seek "The Decisive Battle". It's the same mindset that Japan had during the war, and against the Allies here and in RL, it's a failing strategy. Most of the more successful players seem to me IMHO have better results with tough, tenacious fighting on land and slashing attacks at sea, together with the occasional deep raids on supply lines and aggressive use of subs (for awhile). Slowing him down is a valid goal. John III is one of the deep raiders, and his play often shows such successes, but also the game-changing failures, of this approach. Your success here, while it won't stop him, will definitely make him more mindful of his assets. LOL he needs to cover his assets IOW.

KB is definitely the Terror of the Merchant Marines when used wisely.

I'm glad to see mind_messing and Ranger Joe frequenting your AAR. They have a very good understanding of the game. M_m has a deep conceptual grasp, and RJ is tricksy and thorough.

You caught him with his trousers down. No way a convoy of that size should be so lightly guarded. If he's talking about not being competitive in two years real-time, that's one thing. If he's talking about not being competitive in game time, that's mid 1944! Rainbow Team is on a deadline at some point to bring the pain to Japan. You may have him on the back foot for awhile at least. It's a compliment you deserve. I would look for a counter by land or a deep raid of his own. A hearty Banzai to you!

Two questions:

What were the events that brought about this great raid? Did you have intel, like from Glen subs or radio info, or was it a blind raid? I'm interested in how this all came about.

And how much time have you spent with the game before you entered into your first grand campaign?

Fred

Thanks Fred!

In terms of how the raid came about, I carefully tracked radio intelligence patterns which suggested significant activity in and close to the US West Coast. I further used that intelligence to narrow down likely naval movement paths and positioned Glen subs to tighten the search. So basically 80% signals intelligence and 20% submarine scouting lead to this result.

I bought the game in either November or December 2019 and dived straight into a PBEM after testing out what a CV clash looked like in the Coral Sea Scenario.

My first campaign is this one: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.a ... t&#4819071

I then started the Empire of the sun campaign which is my second game and the first as the Japanese.

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: Naskra

Damn shame about that damaged Kate - otherwise a lovely coup. It's certain to put a kink in any plans he may have had in the Pacific; no escorts indicates he is heavily committed elsewhere. He'll recover soon enough, but it will cost him combat tonnage to be more cautious.

I don't think he expected a raid so close to the West Coast. Not sure escorts would have done him much good against a carrier strike though. Hopefully this will lead him to station more forces close to home and away from the frontlines!

[castor troy]

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

It's certainly a good thing for me to bag so many ships. I lost track but I think in total I have sunk eight large tankers and almost a hundred Liberty cargo ships in three game days. I can't help but wonder however whether this will do anything whatsoever to help my cause. Certainly in 1942 shipping for the Allies is significantly more scarce and I even made it a priority to target their sea lift. But in 1943 the floodgates really open and the Allies don't seem to lack for standard cargo ships.

Nevertheless, it seems the scale of the recent destruction may have had an outsized impact on Allied morale. I got this message from their HQ today:

"I am not sure this game is fixable to be honest we are going to have to play 2 years before I am competitive I will keep going no worries just not sure of the point as you have clearly won this one which is impressive for a scen 1 game truly impressive"

It would have way more influence in real life than it has in the game. Painful to watch during the couple of replays but almost forgotten for the Allied player a week later.

[29000Kevin]

I can say I'm impressed of the amount of Merchants loses the Allies have suffered in just a few turns, granted the Allies have a 1000+ more Liberty Class ships incoming, but still you got great EXP for your Bomber Pilots.

Andy Mac's usual style of Submarines I remember is to grouping them into large groups or "Wolfpacks" and move to the area he wants them to be in and then after arrival splitting them up at the area they ended up in, because he didn't like sending them orders for individual Submarines or units in general.

How I know this is thanks to a YouTube video of the Combat Replay on the Allied side of Andy Mac accidently moving an entire "Wolfpack" group of IJN Subs into the Minefield off the Singapore coast...
The constant Explosions and alarm noises from the submarines becoming temporary Minesweepers was painful to hear.

Alongside the Submarine sinking sounds which are unique from the ship sinking noises for obvious reasons.

So its pretty obvious that Andy is a fan of concentrated transportation, which explains for the reasons for why a 100 Liberty ships are now dead.

[Rusty1961]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

Thank you Alfred.

Joe

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: 29000Kevin

I can say I'm impressed of the amount of Merchants loses the Allies have suffered in just a few turns, granted the Allies have a 1000+ more Liberty Class ships incoming, but still you got great EXP for your Bomber Pilots.

Andy Mac's usual style of Submarines I remember is to grouping them into large groups or "Wolfpacks" and move to the area he wants them to be in and then after arrival splitting them up at the area they ended up in, because he didn't like sending them orders for individual Submarines or units in general.

How I know this is thanks to a YouTube video of the Combat Replay on the Allied side of Andy Mac accidently moving an entire "Wolfpack" group of IJN Subs into the Minefield off the Singapore coast...
The constant Explosions and alarm noises from the submarines becoming temporary Minesweepers was painful to hear.

Alongside the Submarine sinking sounds which are unique from the ship sinking noises for obvious reasons.

So its pretty obvious that Andy is a fan of concentrated transportation, which explains for the reasons for why a 100 Liberty ships are now dead.

Andy is definitely a fan of concentration and in many cases that has translated to very positive results for him. His concentrated flak for instance makes his key airbases virtually immune to my bombing attacks, and he did not take any half measures with his operation in India which forced me out. Everything has a counter though and his concentration in one area weakens others.

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: Rusty1961

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

Thank you Alfred.

Joe

Uh, am I missing something here? [&:]

[Rusty1961]

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

Well done on the battle of Socotra ! Down to the bottom of the sea go his last two CVs. Wasp, with three torpedoes, HF/HD, is probably doomed.

The fact that he used his CV here mighty betray his intention to concentrate his forces in India, rather than Australia. This feeling is reinforced by the appearance of the Soviet bombers.

Thanks Ambassador. CV Wasp also took another four bomb hits in the afternoon strike and suffered two fuel explosions, so I would be pretty amazed if it survived.

Yes, I am also pretty convinced he is going all in with India. I have been scouring the sea lanes to Australia from both west and east and the amount of maritime traffic there is paltry at best. India on the other hand receives massive convoys.

Just curious-but aren't you bored at some point. I mean you're top-notch, so is Andy, but while Andy inherited a bad hand, you're still not even remotely challenged as of 12/7/42 when you blasted the Wasp.

Isn't it anti-climatic at some level?

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: Rusty1961

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

Well done on the battle of Socotra ! Down to the bottom of the sea go his last two CVs. Wasp, with three torpedoes, HF/HD, is probably doomed.

The fact that he used his CV here mighty betray his intention to concentrate his forces in India, rather than Australia. This feeling is reinforced by the appearance of the Soviet bombers.

Thanks Ambassador. CV Wasp also took another four bomb hits in the afternoon strike and suffered two fuel explosions, so I would be pretty amazed if it survived.

Yes, I am also pretty convinced he is going all in with India. I have been scouring the sea lanes to Australia from both west and east and the amount of maritime traffic there is paltry at best. India on the other hand receives massive convoys.

Just curious-but aren't you bored at some point. I mean you're top-notch, so is Andy, but while Andy inherited a bad hand, you're still not even remotely challenged as of 12/7/42 when you blasted the Wasp.

Isn't it anti-climatic at some level?

Not at all. I was somewhat less motivated when I dominated early as the Allies in my first campaign since the endgame was pretty obvious. In this one though I know I will be facing a tidal wave of forces in the latter years and it is quite exciting for me to position myself as best as possible to see if and for how long I can resist when that happens.

[Rusty1961]

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

ORIGINAL: Rusty1961

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101




Thanks Ambassador. CV Wasp also took another four bomb hits in the afternoon strike and suffered two fuel explosions, so I would be pretty amazed if it survived.

Yes, I am also pretty convinced he is going all in with India. I have been scouring the sea lanes to Australia from both west and east and the amount of maritime traffic there is paltry at best. India on the other hand receives massive convoys.

Just curious-but aren't you bored at some point. I mean you're top-notch, so is Andy, but while Andy inherited a bad hand, you're still not even remotely challenged as of 12/7/42 when you blasted the Wasp.

Isn't it anti-climatic at some level?

Not at all. I was somewhat less motivated when I dominated early as the Allies in my first campaign since the endgame was pretty obvious. In this one though I know I will be facing a tidal wave of forces in the latter years and it is quite exciting for me to position myself as best as possible to see if and for how long I can resist when that happens.

Unquestionably, as of March 1943 you still have Calcutta and the Frozen North belongs to you. Every air combat report I have read favors you.

Good job, but I don't see this as being competitive from my perspective as you've won.

[DesertWolf101]

June 16-17, 1943

Japanese submarine I-10 did good work on its patrol around the Marquesas Islands, evading escorts and sinking two transports containing aircraft. One seems to have had a full SBD-3 squadron on it and the second had only a part of an A-36 Mustang squadron (Andy must have divided it into multiple transports). The question left unanswered for me is whether these ships were bringing these squadrons to the area or departing with them to elsewhere.

[castor troy]

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

June 16-17, 1943

Japanese submarine I-10 did good work on its patrol around the Marquesas Islands, evading escorts and sinking two transports containing aircraft. One seems to have had a full SBD-3 squadron on it and the second had only a part of an A-36 Mustang squadron (Andy must have divided it into multiple transports). The question left unanswered for me is whether these ships were bringing these squadrons to the area or departing with them to elsewhere.

Probably the full Mustang squadron, just not full complement of aircraft.

[DesertWolf101]

June 27, 1943

I haven't been posting much lately due to a busy schedule but also due to a relative lull in the game. The lull however was broken recently with some important action.

Over the last two weeks, the most important development was the finalization of the next chapter of Operation Furnace, the effort to seize Vladivostok. If you recall, my battleship task force had finally eliminated the Vladivostok fortress after consistent and repeated bombardments. Andy for his part moved the vast bulk of his forces in the pocket away from the line of fire of my battleships into Voroshilov where my single attempt at testing his defenses with a bombardment was very roughly dealt with by his massed artillery.

Given the above situation, I decided a while back to stage a risky direct assault on Vladivostok from the sea. I massed a large army in Voroshilov to keep Andy's attention and forces fixated there, but prepared a second smaller army for the seaborne invasion. I figured I had one chance to make it work - land the forces, and then immediately assault before Soviet reinforcements from Voroshilov arrived.

I landed six infantry divisions, one tank division, and several combat engineer regiments on the 26th of June. To ensure that all my forces disembarked in a very short window of time, I amassed a massive invasion force of some 300 transports and escorts. Andy immediately reacted by sending reinforcements from Voroshilov so I ordered a shock attack even though my troops were still pretty fatigued and disrupted from the landing. To make matters worse, the heavy air bombardment that I had prepped did not fly due to adverse weather over Vladivostok. Nevertheless, I had landed enough force, with stellar leaders and excellent support from naval bombardments and added paratrooper landings, that the assault succeeded despite level 9 forts.

[RangerJoe]

WOW! [&o][&o][&o]

[DesertWolf101]

Having taken Vladivostok, I offered Andy an end point for the game and he accepted. I didn't think it was fair to pressure him to continue if he truly felt there was no reasonable path forward left for him.

This has been an immensely exciting and illuminating campaign. I didn't get to go beyond mid-1943 but that's ok, I learned a tremendous amount regardless. Thank you all for reading, for your comments, and for your recommendations. I want to conclude by thanking Andy for being a great adversary.

[castor troy]

Excellently done! BANZAI!

[RangerJoe]

I have said that given the right opportunity, that the Soviet Union can be neutralized by Japan. But you had a tremendous start before that.

[Naskra]

Ye gods and little fishes! A bold and stunning move to slay the bear. A pity that you two won't continue into uncharted waters; great game.