Spanking Lowpe (NJP72 vs Lowpe (A))

[Lowpe]

June 6th, 1943

Doing pretty well....moving forward.

Aitape invaded with 100 landing craft...lost one. Troops in perfect shape.

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[Lowpe]

Running an HB campaign eats up a ton of supplies...overbuilding the runways, keeping the beasts fed, etc....I doubt I can do it all that well at present. But I can build the bases to size 5 and conduct sporadic raids but more importantly I can threaten Japanese shipping lanes with destroyers eventually cutting the magic rail line.

Japan hasn't really built anything up...and we can expand without waiting for prep. To take a dot base I will just convert a 100 prep something or other to the dot base, and get 25% and take it. Or use paratroopers and forget the prep.

At some point we will trigger the KB response...

Our supply line is Pearl, Christmas/Canton Islands, & Australia to Shortlands/Hansa Bay and then up the New Guinea coast to Sansapor (or Sorong when I take that nice port).

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[Lowpe]

June 7, 1943

Another good day....destroyed a submarine with depth charges. Lots of troops unloaded and supply situation stabilizing. IJN Navy split with large concentration at Ambon. 20+ subs will take up a nice chokepoint pattern should any of them come at Sansapor which has CD guns, PT boats, heavy AA and lots of engineers and an AD.

Meanwhile our APAs will move to pick up forces to land on Morotai, northwest of Sansapor to aid in taking the Moluccas. Need Sorong....our infantry is only 40% prepped against 3k IJN troopers in one unit. Doable I think.

Aggressive forward is the name of the game for now...Cracked the IJ perimeter and now to push as far forward as I can.

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[Lowpe]

June 8th, 1943

Always a tough tactical problem for Japan...I am sure the super heavies are here for Japan. Will they bombard Sansapor? I think Biak is too far.

I am tempted to simply counter with sub concentrations...Sansapor has forts 1 and two CD units. Japan will have to travel back to Ambon or Peleliu/Bab for rearming....and I can send a fresh invasion task force off to Morotai and the Moluccas on the following day.

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[Lowpe]

Have you guys had good success using submarines to patrol owned base hexes as a method of defending against bombardments?

[JanSako]

Not as Japan & lurking at the base. I still try though when I know they are coming; one of the smaller boats or an SSX if I have one.
U know it is really hard to hit an escorted warship & IJN boats love to try shooting DD's... one time each...

I would rather make them run the gauntlet of subs as they come in & go out. Bagged an old USN BB a couple of months back... 2 fish one day, then the sub caught her the next day & sink her with 2 more. Quite a fluke though & my opponent stopped using slow BB's to bombard afterwards.

[Encircled]

Have you guys had good success using submarines to patrol owned base hexes as a method of defending against bombardments?

In short, no!

[Lowpe]

thanks guys....that has been my experience also!

[RangerJoe]

Use a lot of two PT boat TFs, more if you have an HR about that. Especially with favorable weather and/or moonlight.

[Lowpe]

Use a lot of two PT boat TFs, more if you have an HR about that. Especially with favorable weather and/or moonlight.

No HR on it...but too gamey for my tastes against a player.

[Lowpe]

June 9th, 1943

Looks like Japan is looking for a big naval battle....IJ has around 200 fighters providing LR CAP, and since they have flown for two days at range, I bet they are exhausted.

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[Lowpe]

Losses for the day...Corsairs sweep Babo and then a squadron of B24s hit the runways....

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[Lowpe]

Japan's thrust just seems wrong to me...on so many levels.

[RangerJoe]

Use a lot of two PT boat TFs, more if you have an HR about that. Especially with favorable weather and/or moonlight.

No HR on it...but too gamey for my tastes against a player.

Well then, make as many larger ones or just one but usually only when the conditions are favorable. Otherwise small DD TFs with low aggression setting to launch torpedoes and flee. Or PT Boats and then the DD TFs.

Minefields may help or ones at straits but not his bases so he does not automatically detect them. The minefields could also be used to damage cripples even more when they are retreating.

[CaptBeefheart]

Interesting situation. Perhaps all of those SAGs are bait to shred your carrier air power, to be followed by a KB strike. I see you have resisted the urge to hit them.

Cheers,
CB

[Lowpe]

Turn is away, egads it was a lot of clicks.

We shall see what happens, and Cap you are correct in thinking Japan wants me to shred my CV planes against his surface fleets.

I think I came up with a decent basic plan....

[Lowpe]

If I was Japan, I would use multiple small task forces with low aggression threat settings....but we aren't. So I didn't.

I tried to swing the DS into position where they can hit damaged ships...or be in position for cleanup on the following day. So if damaged ships retreat from DS, they will hopefully have to zig zag their way thru our sub infestation.

Just north of Sarmi along the coast, we have two slow battleships, CVE, ASW, and troop transports for Morotai...

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[Lowpe]

June 10th, 1943

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[Lowpe]

Hmmmm....

A couple of failed submarine attacks against IJN destroyers....but Japan is definitely short destroyers.

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[Lowpe]

A couple of more misses, and then this...

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