WitP mod v903 Ngineer(Japan) vs. Feinder(Allies)

[Feinder]

Sept 12th, 1942

China.

More seal-clubbing in China.

He destroyed my Comm-Chi Inf-Corps (ouch). And an Inf-Div just south of Changsha.
One token of amusement was I had some partisans spawn behind some Tac-Bmbrs, and did 2x SPs damage to him.
So Phhhtttt. I actually forgot to check his tech levels with his bombers, to see if/what tech he's at. Opportunity lost.

But I know the post you're really looking for, is now to follow...

[Feinder]

Sept 12th, 1942

Coral Sea

There's blood in the water. A lot.

He came straight at my screen of destroyers, with strikes from his CVs.
My LBA did a good job of intercepting, and remain in pretty decent shape. It only resorted to one intercept by one of my CVs, which cost 5 SPs from one of my CV air-groups.
He made the coup de grace, by pushing up several CAs, and BB/BC. He sank 1x RAN DD, and 2x USN DDs.
He also spotted, chased, and sank my Sub that was approaching his back-field. That being said, I feel like it siphoned off several attacks that would have been otherwise directed at my main fleet. (* moment of silence *)

I don't think he really knew/knows what he's up against.

My counter-attack directed my BBs against his Heavy Cruisers. My Heavy Cruisers vs. his Light Cruisers. And then air-strikes vs. his Battleships. After several airstrikes, including support from my Med-Bmbr, he ran out of intercepts. He also had 2x Subs on his flanks that could have pushed up on my task force, so I took the chance and successfully drove off both subs (I don't think they'll be back).

We'll call (His) Strike and (My) Counter-Strike, in the win column for me.
It does kind of depend on whether he sticks around and comes back again. I've got RN Malaya and 2x DDs that will have been spotted by his CVL (beginning of his turn). I put up the DDs, because I'd rather lose the DDs, than Cruisers. You can see he's got 1x DN, 1x BB, 1x BC in striking range. I don't know if/what other heavies he got behind them. I don't THINK he has much more than those 3. If he pushes up to engage Malaya and the DDs, he exposes his heavies to pounding and possible sinking.

But, my CV air-groups are pretty shot-up. Out of 70x SPs to start, I'm down to just 35x SPs remaining. I've also got USS Wasp inbound (about a turn or two out), with a full air-group. My Mari-Bmbr took 8-SPs going after his CVL. I know I pasted it pretty hard, probably 6x SP of damage. But my Mari-Bmbrs are down to 2 SPs, so they're just Spotters for now. My Med-Bmbrs are still at 8x SP. And I just transferred in another Med-Bmbr from Pearl (but I put it in the north, because I'm going to need it to hit Port Moresby.

Am I also to noting that... I see that he's got a DN there. If he had built one, it wouldn't be available until 1943. So am I to surmise that he took the 3x DN option, instead of CVs? If so, that's very interesting. I assumed he would have taken the CVs.

The butcher's bill (thus far)...

Allied Losses
1x USN SS
2x USN DD
1x RAN DD
(my air-groups are at about 1/2 strength)

Japanese Losses
1x BB
1x BC
2x CA
2x CL
2x SS (both heavily damaged)
1x CVL (heavily damaged)

I'd actually like for him to retreat, so I can take my advantage and cash out my chips.
But he has a tendency to be uncooperative in the regard.

[Feinder]

September 12th, 1942

Admin Stuff

Research, Production, Losses, and Economy

No new funding spent on Research. Progress is never fast enough.

Bought 4x USN DDs, because he just sank 3 of them. Also, Australian Fighters, because I seem to need every fighter that I can buy. Next turn arriving is a USMC-Div, and I think/hope that's a Chinese Inf-Corps, and Soviet Inf-Corps.

Losses as shown. First round to the Good Guys.

The economy shows the flux from the 75-point refund from Radar. So it's really a wash.

Whether he sticks around for a fight (and has more stuff to bring to bear), or whether he retreats, will determine whether we can call this one a victory. Frankly, it should probably be called, "The First Battle of The Coral Sea", because I'm fairly certain there will be others.

[Elessar2]

What is the current US National Morale? I ask this because when I launched a first-strike massive attack with all of my CVs, I only got 1 of his, damaged another, and took it on the chin with his riposte. The CV I killed required EIGHT hits. He was so confident about cleaning my clock that none of his counterstrikes were escorted. And most of my strikes completely decimated my air wings-most were at or near zero after their two attacks.

Anyway, if you NM is still reasonably healthy then you were able to do a fair amount of damage against him. But he still has his turn coming up...

[Feinder]

National Morale...

That's actually why I was looking to get in to some kind of fight BEFORE 1943.

I think you said before that, National Morale starts to decline 1943, if he's holding Singapore, Port Moresby, Lunga, etc.
I figured that it's not really going to be any better than this morale-wise. It seems that Morale is more important than your techs in 1943. It's also why I'm going to try to re-take PM before 1943, and Lunga if I can swing it.

As far as my CV-strikes go... I ran all of mine on Mixed, including the CVL. We're abiding by your suggested rule of no only-CAP for CVs. Frankly, I'm not great at wrapping my head around the mechanics; I wasn't sure if having a Mixed strike meant that, "will it also take ESCORTS from nearby CVs that are in range?" So I actually moved up 2-3 CVs, launched strikes vs. his BBs, and then pulled back. I noticed that my CVs still said "escorts 2" at the conclusion, so I don't think a MIXED flight pulls escorts. At least that was my observation. I'm not saying it's broken, it was a test because I didn't know what would happen, and now (I think) I know.

Were my CV strikes effect? I guess so. I'm not complaining. His CVs were out of range, so I never/couldn't try hitting him. Out of 70 possible SPs to start, my CVs were probably at 68 or 67 for CAGs. I saw the once intercept on his initial strike from a US CV. It lost 4-5 SPs in the intercept, was a 5 SPs at beginning of my turn. So I started my MIXED strikes with say, 63 SPs. They were down to 35 after my strikes. So I lost 28 SPs to AAA and intercepts. I'd say mostly intercepts, because I don't think his AAA tech has increased yet. I was hitting his BB/BC, which have a Carrier-Def of 2 as I recall. In hind-sight, I could/should have switched to BOMBER mode, when I saw he ran out of intercepts, that would have been 1-2 BOMBER strikes. Oh well.

I don't know what condition his CAGs are in. I presume/hope they're pretty shot up as well. On the plus-side, my CVs and most of my fleet is still within land-based Fighter cover from Oz. I had to move up to get my strikes in, but then pulled back and reformed "the blob" as much out of his LBA detection range and within my LBA fighters as possible. BB-Malaya just didn't quite have enough points to get out of spotting range of that CVL. I tried hitting his CVL with Mari-Bmbrs, but couldn't sink/blind him. I wend "two deep" (escorts) around my CVs. His heavy battle-line is in hitting range, and I don't really want him shred USS Hornet with that DN. It might mean sacrificing those DDs and Malaya if he come back. But the plan was to protect the CVs which, esp given the depleted state of the CAGs, at least they're under fighter umbrella from Oz.

I'll post the National Morale numbers (and whether he counter-strikes), when I get the turn back.

[Feinder]

Ok. I finally got the turn back.
Might be a day or so before I complete it myself.

He did attack my main TF in Coral Sea, and the smaller group north of the main TF. He sank some cruisers, and I think he's withdrawn back into his land based fighter cover. I've re-watched the replay a few times now (as difficult as it is), plotting last known positions and inventorying what he's got, before making any decisions.

Deleted a few more Chinese Corps/Divs.

He also landed in Southern India, so I've also got to figure out what I'm going to do about that.

So anyway, might be a day or so on the turn and next update.

That being said, Ellissar, you asked for the National Morale numbers...

UK ... 88% ... 88,331 / 100k
US ... 78% ... 86,196 / 110k
Ru ... 63% ... 95,000 / 150k
Ch ... 66% ... 86,764 / 130k
In ... 95% ... 95,260 / 100k
Au ... 97% ... 97,191 / 100k

Jp ... 108% ... 119,697 / 110k

[Elessar2]

Then the 40% figure for India several pages back must have been a typo.

[Feinder]

September 30th, 1942

Burma

He hit my Inf-Div dug into the Mountains by Akyab pass fairly hard with LBA and ground assault. He basically de-trenched it, and did 3x SP, and wrecked it's Ready/Morale. So instead of pulling reinforcements into the hex, I pulled it back. I don't think he'll be able to occupy the mountains, and I didn't see the point of just "feeding" him SPs to kill since the entrenchment/ready/morale are trashed.

My Indian fighters did their to intercept (twice), then began to get attention/strikes directly against them and HQ(Slim). I've pulled Slim back to within the cover of the AAA unit (will rebuild if/when points allow). And the fighter pulled back to rebuild also (if/when points allow).

He pounded the heck out of Ceylon. Reduced a 10-pt city 2 supply, and port as well. He then attacked with his SNLF, fortunately city held. But my UK Inf-Corps ready/morale is in the 30s. My RN SS tried moving away to west, to try to circle on any of his heavies. But he's got it locked down with DDs. If it survives next turn, I'll flip it back to Silent and try to escape again.

He scouted the coast with a CV, then dropped a SNLF-Div. I railed in the two Tank-Divs and pushed up the Inf-Corps. I was planning to move the Inf-Corps and Tank-Div to Ceylon, but I've now got to get him off the continent first. I've also moved up a Fighter and Tac-Bmb. I figure with his CV about, I'll get one, maybe two escorted strikes with the Tac-Bmbr before he shreds my escorts. So I've set my Fighter to ground this turn and hopefully out of range of all his eyes. If there's a target of opportunity for the Tac-Bmbr, great. Otherwise, it might be just as, or possibly more important to hit his port on the continent so that he can't reinforce. But I feel like I need to beat his SNLF-Div on the continent first (either kill or him evac), before I can help Ceylon.

[Feinder]

September 30th, 1942

China

I had a (regular) Chinese Cav-Div holding part of the line near Yenen. "Had" being the operative word. He pounded it with LBA, then deleted it with his ground units. Same to a unit of partisans that spawned in his back-field.

He then turned similar attention to Chinese Inf-Corps that was dug into the forts south of Changsha. Deleted.

I didn't really want to just move in an Inf-Div into the forts. But that hex keeps him away from Changsha, so I ordered another Inf-Div to their soon-to-be deaths.

Slow pound/march in the far west of the Chinese line. He forced the retreat (without SP loss), so I pulled the (retreated) Inf-Div back to the town, and the Inf-Div just south of town remained in place, dug in.

I don't know if he was scouting, or deliberately pulling my RAF fighters. He couldn't run his Fighters all the way to Chungking. But he ran several missions on the other side of the main line, drawing the RAF Fighters. It worked. I lost 6x SP of RAF, vs. appearantly none of his. That, I'll grumble about. That RAF squadron was 95% ready/morale. Fighter-2 (probably same as his fighters). I lost 6x SP, he lost none. I'd love to see the math on that one.

[Feinder]

September 30th, 1942

Coral Sea

Well, that clash ended with slight disappointment. As I was kinda expecting, he did have vis on the on the small group of CAs north of my main Task Force. He hit them with his CVs, and LBA, and a CL. Sank a USN-CA and a RAN-DD. He moved up that damaged CVL towards my main TF to scout it, then backed off (certainly a good idea). Then ran several strikes of Med-Bmbrs and Mari-Bmbrs against my Main TF. He managed to cripple a USN-CA (down to 2x SP), but his strikes were otherwise fended off (and most of his effort was directed against he northern group).

Since he didn't really engage any of my ships in surface combat, he's got lots of action-points to withdraw. I feel very strongly that he's pulled his fleet back to either just north, or east of Rabaul.

I think he was/is trying to draw me into a kill-box with the LBA (New Guinea, Rabaul, Solomons). I would only have my much depleted CV CAGs as air-cover, and he'd then be within escort range of at least two Fighters and his CVs now in Solomons. Basically try to kite me with his LBA and CVs. So that being said, I can't imagine that he would have left any real targets south of Rabaul (note the one DD spotted off New Guinea). So I don't really see any benefit to pursuing him.

It annoys me that he got the last word, but I'll still claim victory.
He lost bigger units than I did. And he left the field first. So yay.
I'm sure his next message will be a taunt for not following him. Whatev.

Final losses Coral Sea Round #1

Japan: 1x BB, 1x BC, 2x CA, 2x CL sunk. 1x CVL and 2x SS damaged.
Allies: 1x CA, 4x DD, 1x SS sunk. 1x CA damaged.

My fleet has retired to the ports around Brisbane. I'll repair and replace my air-groups.

So cue the Strat Map.

I've decided to strengthen India. Of Irony, the Oz and Kiwi troops are actually "better" than my US troops, do the effects of National Morale and leadership. My Oz HQ is a 6, as good as US-HQ. My Oz and Kiwi troops have NatMorale in the 90s. US troops have NatMorale in the 70s. Techs are all the same, to Oz and Kiwis are going to head to India. The US Army troops can hold Oz. The USMC will still be my hitters in South and Central Pacific.

For next turn or three, I'll be repairing my aigroups (I'm going to be annoyed if I can only get them up to 8). I'll then have to decide what will escort the India convoy, and what will stay in South/Central Pacific. I'm tempted to try to lop-side the fleet into India, there could be an advantage there. But most of my offensive plans are South and Central Pacific. We'll see. Plans can change. I've got a few turns before making a call. I've noted on the StratMap, known IJN fleet units and LBA. I'm including LBA as well, because his LBA is brutal, and I've got to keep it tracked as well his major fleet units.

Any perceived parity in LBA strength (I have posted my own), should be taken with a huge grain of skepticism. For example, of my 5 fighters in Burma/China, all but one of them is are in bad shape, and he (seems to) trade losses at about 3:1 or 4:1.

But who knows. Maybe he's on the verge of surrender, and his next turn will be to concede.

[Feinder]

September 30th, 1942

Admin Stuff

Research, Production, Losses, and Economy

Nothing new spent on research. I'd really, really like it Industrial Tech would hurry up and complete.

Bought a Canadian Fighter. When he arrives, he'll operate to wherever the active front is. Two USN Mari-Bmbrs, because eyes are good. Kiwi garrison, because I'm going to pull the Kiwi Div and Corps and send them to India. And the Comm-Chi Corps because he keeps pushing in the North. No reinforcements next turn . Two turns out is USMC-Div. They'll head to Pearl Harbor when they arrive.

Losses last turn, were all against me. Ugh. I hate zeros on the board, but following him towards Rabaul would have probably just ended up with several damaged CVs (at least right now, it's only my CAGs that are depleted, my CVs are actually fine).

Economy. The usual. Again, Industrial Tech would be welcome.

[Feinder]

October 18th, 1942

Burma

He continues to push the India/Burma border. Pounded by LBA and relentless ground attacks, I need my Corps/Div units there to hold just a little while longer... I moved the Chine Inf-Div down from the north, to give him something else to think about. I don't think they'd be very effective, but maybe they'll be ok vs. the Thai troops. If they siphon anything off vs. Burma, it will have served its purpose.

Attacks on the continental invaders on southern tip were fairly successful. You can see that SNLF-Div is down to 3x SP. I'm thinking he evacs him this coming turn. I can live with that (also wastes his MPPs). Plan would then be to next send something to Ceylon, and/or reinforce the front along Burma.

I didn't have the points to replace my RIAF unit(s). On the plus side, I also got the tech-message that India now has Fighters-2. So, hopefully that'll help once they're upgraded.

[Feinder]

October 18th, 1942

China

He continues to press Communist China. That corner by Yenen. They held, so that's good. He also sent his LBA vs. my HQ, and Engineers, the usual story about high-value target(s). The engineers are heading to Comm-Chi, to see if they can help there.

RAF squadron took replacements. I'm moving up an Inf-Div to guard Chungking. I feel that if he paras in/nearby that a single Garrison will be insufficient.

I bought a Chinese Inf-Corps, since there is rare opportunity to do that. I thus wasn't able to replace the step losses in Comm China or anywhere else. But occasional reinforcements are good.

He moved some guys up, in the far west, but thought better of it, and turned around. I can live with that.

[Feinder]

There really wasn't much else going on around the rest of the Pacific. I think we're both licking out wounds. The big fleet is parked around Oz, taking repairs and upgrades. I've moved six of the old USN BBs to New Zealand, to take upgrades as well. Kiwi units also upgraded, and convoy for India should be ready to leave next turn.

I expect that, anything of KB that doesn't need repairs/replacements is at Truk. Anybody else is probably heading back to cycle to the repair yards in Japan (ref BB in transit found by intel).

My plan with my 5x USN-SS... I feel like I need picket(s) off Hawaii. I don't want to keep a large fleet in Pearl, because then it's just sitting. But invading Hawaii is something he'd do, if anything to spook me. There's a USMC-Div arriving next turn, it'll get loaded and head to Pearl, where it will encamp in Hawaii until they get assault orders. So with HQ, 2x Inf-Div, and USMC-Div, I'm not really worried about him capturing Hawaii. That being said, a picket-line of subs available might be a good thing to have around. Or... I'd love to employ them against his economy. But I'm just not confident in their ability to get into the Dutch East Indies, much less survive long to do much harm, once they're there.

Port Moresby attack... The plan to hit/recapture Port Moresby is still very real. I've got pretty much max-strength at this point, so I should send them in, before I send part of my fleet to escort the convoy to India. I'll have to see what sort of force allocation I can make.

[Feinder]

October 18th, 1942

Admin Stuff

Research, Production, Losses, and Economy

Was notified that India Fighters made it Level-2 at end-of-turn. Yah. Put another 300(!) point chit (a 3rd) into US Industry. I really want those extra MPPs. The extra chit will carry-over, and I want to keep Industry expanding anyway.

Built another USM-Div, and a Chinese Inf-Corps. I forgot to add the Inf-Corps to the screen cap. I get the Kiwi Garrison (hold down Kiwi-land) and a USMC-Div (will go to Hawaii for now).

Quiet turn. No losses. I'll call that a victory then.

Usual economic report, nothing much new. Japan's total MPPs are up to 355.

[Feinder]

And we're taking my son to a college tour this weekend (leaving in a few hours as a matter of fact). I got the turn out before we go. But probably won't get next turn/update until Sunday PM.

[Elessar2]

[Note after my talk with your opponent I no longer feel like I can give direct advice, so the following is purely from a designer's perspective:]

How close are you to hitting the fleet build limits? Will you just build out all remaining cruisers and other smaller ships when all the capital builds are used up?

[Feinder]

I've built all the CVs that I can. I've still got about 8 or 9 CVLs I can build.
For BB/BC/DN - I haven't built any new, so I have all those available in the Build Queue.
If I were to hit limits; yes, I would (likely) build out the smaller ships first. We'll if I started to get within range of the limits, THEN I'd worry about expanding the limits.

But I my player feed-back on build limits is - In the very least, even if dbl-chitted, the first build expansion of any tech (land, air, sea), would take 9 months. Frankly, I've got more important things to research, like NavAtk, Range,Fighters... That are already competing with MPPs for actual builds. Combine that with the inevitable "he's sinking stuff" (which allows the replacement back into the queue), means I have little incentive to expand my build capacity, when I can't even build out what I have.

Why haven't I built out more BBs? Because by my math, I've on parity/edge-above him on Fleet units. As long as I can more or less trade even-ish (or on the slight losing side) of capital ships, it should keep me ahead in the long-run. As in, if we more-or-less trade even, the available builds will return to the queues for both of us. But I (hopefully) I can replace my losses whereas he can't. I don't think I need to out-number his heavy units by 3:1 or whatever. I just gotta kill them, since he (probably) can't replace them.

[Elessar2]

Thus would a lower chit cost for the 3 build limit techs provide more of an incentive? My thinking was that to keep expanding her armed forces well into 1943 the US would be incentivized to invest in those very early on. Recall you haven't generally sent off much Lend-Lease to the Commonwealth countries so you should have the funds to spare.

[Feinder]

November 5th, 1942

Burma.

He continues to bombard/bomb/push on Ceylon. British Inf-Corps is pounded with heavy casualties. I've got pull it back so as to not give him a free kill (and in less than 5 supply, no easy rebuild). Indian Inf-Div is next line of defense, but I don't expect will hold long.

He pulled out out SNLF-Div (down to 3sp), and replaced it with a full 10sp Inf-Corps. With CV-support, and attacking with his new Inf-Corps, he deleted my Indian Inf-Corps. Admittedly, that was a bit intimidating. I was hoping he would just let go that beach-head. I tried bombing the port, but even with escorts, my Tac-Bmbrs were shredded; looks like he intercepted with his CVL (I know he's also got a CV there as well). On the plus side, my attacks by my Tank-Divs and Inf-Div wiped out 7sps (he's down to 3sp). So I expect him to evac those as well this turn. Hopefully, they won't be replaced.

He's also pushing on the India/Burma border. Including LBA vs. industry and HQ(Slim). My Indian Fighters took an upgrade, and are shot up anyway, so no intercepts. China was "quieter", so I pulled the RAF Fighters back into Burma, as they're needed there as well.

He's got an IJN-SS snooping along the India Coast. I expect him to come back to the Indian convoy/port with the red-hash-marks. So I put my RN-DD there. Hopefully, I'll get a shot or two off at his sub, before getting chased by rest of his fleet.