herbie goes bananas again

[herbieh]

Well 2 days of postings today, as wobbly really is in his hole, I can see convoys running down the coast of Aus, looks like he is even taking troops from cooktown and cairns , and lunganville looks a bit empty too.
So Ive just occupied Tulgia, and will land very shortly at Irau, rennell island and lunga.
Heavy surface forces (4Ca) are covering these operations, but no CVs, still at Truk.

What then. This might disa point wobbly, but there will not be a massive invasion, just a continous threat of one, The CVs will lurk of wunpunko covering tiny raiding forces, hoping for a bite, as I dig in and build a defence in depth.
The BBs will remain firmly in Truk, until he invades.
This means of course that the game cannot be 'won" in the convential sense, but I see a incredibly fun game come 43 as wobbly battles solid defences, and his rampant victory disease.

In the meantime I must occupy the solomon chain, safely get a division to PM, a division to GG, and build a reserve army at Munda.
Any base in B17 range will not have airfields built, I pity the troops I will be sending to PM.
Last game I built heaps of small fields, this one Im thinking of just building 3 big ones, at Rabual, Munda and Sag sag..
If anyone is reading this, which do you find better to do?

[madflava13]

I personally prefer smaller fields - if you put all your eggs in one (or 3) baskets, you're liable to lose them or be grounded when his B-17s and other LBA get going... Plus I just like the tactical flexibility of multiple fields...

[PzB74]

Playing scen 19 in a purely defensive manner will cost a lot of patience Herbie! There will be almost nothing to post for 7 months and you might end up boring both yourself and Wobbly to death [;)]

I'd build many smaller/bigger bases if I were you - put em behind your defensive perimeter at Shortland, Gasmata and one of the islands behind GG is perfect to protect the former one in depth with. If Wobbly captures any one base like Irau, PM, GG - you're almost certainly toast anyway..... So why don't extend your perimeter to include bases he'll eventually build anyway - like the ones from Nevea and south to Wunpuko. Each time he invades, you'll have the opportunity to strike at him. In additon it'll look like you're going for Luganville, Port Efate - this should keep him in his hole for quite some time to come [:D]

Well, just a few thoughts

[herbieh]

I dont think it will be too boring, Im going to be trying every trick in the book to lure him into premature battle. Forces for early occupation of wunpunko, lunganville and espirito are being planned.
Will go with lots of little bases, a big reserve of troops at Munda, and a few other things [8|] that a evil imperialist can come up with.
Grabbing as many bases as I can is in the plan, but if it involves anything more than a regiment It wont be on.
Action for today, another MSW falls to a sub at lunga, Im being culled of a ship nearly every turn by them, very annoying[:@]
Irau and Lunga invasion fleets have arrived, I got the convoys mixed up, and they went to the wrong places , so now irau gets all the construction and base forces, lunga will have to wait a bit

Subs gathering at munda for all the garrison troops I plan to have them transport to points south, and a convoy enters the coral sea bound for PM carrying 8th naval garrison,its a bit of a tester to see how risky that tactic is at the moment
Appreciate the advice guys.
Hows wobblys AAR, since I cant read it

2 days until Midway ships arrive in Japan.

[herbieh]

Things begin to happen as the yazawa detachment capture irau,and the 21st ind land at Lunga.
Little else to report, troops at rennell island very hungry, must order some cut lunch deliveries!

[neuromancer]

ORIGINAL: herbieh

Things begin to happen as the yazawa detachment capture irau,and the 21st ind land at Lunga.
Little else to report, troops at rennell island very hungry, must order some cut lunch deliveries!

"Sushi to go! How can I help you?"
"We need enough Sushi for 5000 infantry! How much do you charge for delivery to the South Pacific?"

[PzB74]

I'm playing scen 15 against Wobbly as the Allies - he didn't have the transports for an all out invasion, so he's invading Wunpuko - and today I sent the whole kitchen sink after him......All 6 US carriers with upgraded fighters and only 1 sqd with Devastators left. Even the Long Island is there and got a marine dive bomber sqd loaded [8D]
520 ac in total + 50 Wildcats providing lrcap, all following a battleship tf - moving into the kill zone.

Guess he's going to take the results of this battle into account when you 'feint' him - cause that's much what's happening here.
So ask him tomorrow how the big clash went [;)]

[herbieh]

Thanks PZB

Yes, I really think we are influenced by the other games we play, and IM counting on that, Wobbly is coming of a game where the Japanese in this scenerio almost took Brisbane, so he is very wary, Im very very keen to hear how your battle goes, if you win, then for sure ( I bet) he will go for my fients. If you lose big time, no way will his CVs come out to play.

today 1000 sushi swandwiches dispatched to rennell island, and yet another transport is torped at Irau[:(], which will soon have a field.

Kota baru leaves Japan, not all of it, Ill wait for the rest.[8|]

Tanaka sends angry letter to Cin C , complining of lack of Bushido spirit. C in C awards him Command of another CA, Long Lances are polished.

[PzB74]

It's all a giant game of chess - the best part of it is that you can plan and prepare everything to perfection, and still fail miserably as commanders, weather and bad luck lets you down....[&:]

I had a hard time trying to decide whether to go in with 6 carriers on 90% CAP - bur decided against it because I wanted a chance to strike unexpected. Last turn the KB launched massive strikes at a DM and 3 cvl's + cs's are providing lr CAP for the invasion fleets. So I think it's 6 Jap cv's vs 6 US - I'm eagerly waiting for the reply - wars can be lost in battles like this!

This game is great

[PzB74]

Well, I don't think Wobbly will hesitate taking your 'feint'..... He went in with he got in our scen 15 game in 8/42, but couldn't gain air superiority. He beat up my cruiser and destroyer tf's pretty bad, but when I sent in 6 cv's and all the rest of my af - he got into serious problems. The Wasp is seriously wounded and limping back to port, but should make it. The Lexington took 4 bombs and 1 torp and damage is in the mid 20's. Tough old Lady He also sank some transports, damaged dd's and 2 AO's. For these achievements I sank 3 CVL's and a CS + other lesser vessels. 300 Jap cv ac shot down and the 7 cv's of the KB retiring. (They launched long range uncoordinated strikes that got slaughtered, he refered to it as the Marianas Turkey shoot.)

I'm following with 5 cv's to either get a shot at the KB or the mass of shipping retiring towards Lunga. I might still get hammered, but I still got a substantial force left.
But it was as both me and him suspected, an offensive towards Luganville is very very risky if the US player got all his resources intact.

[herbieh]

The cheek of it all, the absolute cheek!!
A submarine in truk harbouir, not lurking outside , but in the place like he owns it!

Well.

well

Well.

Actually not sure how to handle it, no ships to attack it

Anyway, as we await the death star yet another maru wears a torpedo at irau, but the convoy to PM arrives safely.
Not much else, forming convoys, loading supplies, the usual evil planning. That sort of stuff

[herbieh]

A day of plusses and minuses.
On the minus I am forced to scuttle a Maru of Irau ( Im a poet but didnt know it), but ss 44 got greedy, and is definately sunk, 1st sub to go this war.
One of my subs claims a tanker confirmed killed inside the reef of townsville.
Nice.
Rennell island fast food sushi run continues to unload, and the poor 8th naval garrison B17 bombing target unloads unmolested at PM, me thinks wobbly may even be pulling out of cairns and cooktown, if thats the case who's to argue, Ill take the cheap points.

Still awaiting transports to move all the troops, Kota baru sailing south from japan.
Hey PZB, how'd you go up against the kiwi fiend in your CV battle?

[neuromancer]

ORIGINAL: herbieh
me thinks wobbly may even be pulling out of cairns and cooktown, if thats the case who's to argue, Ill take the cheap points.

Oy! That would be very bad... unless it is a trap. Once you've got a serious foothold on Australia, peeling you off again would be very difficult.

But it could be a trap... Mined harbours, bombers, subs and lots of troops waiting for you to try your landing (cannot be the CVs, they would have to be hiding out of sight until you came in, and that wouldn't be easy). Then when you go for it, he pummels your ships with the subs and bombers, bombs your landing troops, and moves up a couple divisions to contest the landing.
Very risky though if it is. If he isn't successful enough, you are on the Australian mainland, and able to work south towads Brisbane.

Very interesting...


Heh, in his blog for this game, he even called himself the "Timid Kiwi Admiral"!

[Philwd]

Actually I think Wobbly is doing exactly the correct thing for Scen 19. With the troops available to the IJN player you must consolidate your ground forces in the 3 victory cities. If Herbieh were to get a non-malarial base like TV and garrison with 100K troops Wobbly would be hard pressed to take it back before '43.

I also think Wobbly must remember his Scen 19 game with Condor. Wobbly as IJN took Brissy before the end of the summer. Condor was unable to respond before Brissy fell. Wobbly needs to be ready and consolidated as fast as he can to avoid a similar fate. Of course he has no idea of Herbieh's real plans. He just knows what others have accomplished.

Northern Australia is a long way to supply unless you are going to use it as a springboard for TV. I found out the hard way just how easy it is to shut down Cairns and how difficult it is to re-supply.

Quark

[Nomad]

I concurr, Cairns and Cooktown are not worth putting up much defence for the Allies in senario 19. Making sure you hold Townville( and Carter Towers) is important. The allied medium bombers can bomb the heck out of both bases and it is
a long way to truk for supplies.

[neuromancer]

Hmm. Fair enough, fair enough.

So from what you are saying, Cairns and Cookville could safely be abandoned, and if the IJN did grab them - unless immediately following up with an invasion of Townsville - would become a graveyard of IJN troops and material - especially if the allies then made a point of destroying any shipping that came anywhere near the two.

Hmm....
I don't think I would be inclined to let him have either for free, make him pay for them. But not make it so expensive that a direct assault on Townsville or Brisbane or Noum was more desirable. And then if he did land, continue to make Herbie pay as described.

Of course, as Herbie is trying to lure a major confrontation, and Cairns or Cooktown won't be where it will happen, he won't lose that much.

But oh well.

[Nomad]

Without an attack and capture of Townville, Carins and Cooktown become allied bombing ranges. I have one game where my IJN opponent took Cooktown( and still holds it ). Right now Cooktown is a mess, airfield is 100 damage, port is 100 damage, and my A20s and B26s have been bombing his troops. Experiences for my bomber groups runs from 68 - 85, with the low ones being ones that just got there. Now I have reocupied Carins and am flying P-39s against his troops and they are gaining experience. BTW, he did the same for Luganville, the marines are having fun flying from Port Vila.

You have to be careful defending Cooktown and Carins, expecially in a senario 19 game. The IJN gets a lot of good troops early and can put the 2nd and 38th divisions at Townville by the end of June. Thats about 850 - 900 assault strength which will take more than a full Australian Division to withstand. Counting forces, you start with only 3 divisions of Australian army and you get one more within a month. Thats four divisions and you must hold Brisbane. Lose too much trying to defend up front and the IJN lands in Brisbane. oops.

[PzB74]

ORIGINAL: herbieh
Hey PZB, how'd you go up against the kiwi fiend in your CV battle?

Well, the battle is over!
Wobblys plan was to capture Wunpuko and then Luganville in a second stage.
I managed to foul the first part, killing part 2 in the process.

Our Kiwi foe handled his forces very well and didn't commit any mistakes, but
the appearence of 6 US cv's proved decisive. Without having a base closer than Lunga, he fought
at a disadvantage.

My carriers killed his support cv tf - sinking 3 CVL's and possibly a CS for very few losses to my
naval aviators. The KB was hidden under a squall when this happened, and on the following phase
several strikes hit one 2 of my cv's. (I had divided the 6 into 3 tfs) The Wasp was severly damaged
but will make port if not a sub gets her. The Lexington caught a torp and 3 bombs, but only 25 sys damage.

On the turn after the KB launched several long range strikes at my cv's that were poorly coordinated.
The majority of his bombers were shot down without any further hits on my carriers.

This was when he ordered a full retreat and I went onto the offensive. All my level bombers at Port Efate
were ordered to attack and my cv's moved to within 6 hexes of the Jap tf's. They were all gathered in one
hex and clear weather gave me hopes of inflicting severe damage. I still had 330 cv ac with morale in
the 80-90's.

Then the worst performance so far witnessed by the USN took place....( My 3 cv tf's launched 10 smaller strikes,
mostly WITHOUT escorts. (I had 150 fighters on my cvs on 50% CAP) Only 1 of the 10 strikes with 10 Avengers
targetted his cv's. More than a hundred were lost and the ones that got through attacked everything but the cv tf.

We actually ended our game here because we had reached a stalemate for the time being. I still had a very strong hand
with my 5 cv's, but I would have to spend a long time preparing to go onto the offensive before anything more would happen.
Wobbly's lack of transports ment that he could no longer hope to win anything but a defensive victory.

I then suggested that we played a shorter 1943 scenario instead that would end by the time WitP comes out [:)]

So if you feint an attack towards Luganville, or even tries to invade it - Wobbly will be there to greet you!! Bet one it,
but you'll need both a good plan as well as luck against his cv's to pull it off!

[herbieh]

It is a real pleasure having you guys share thoughts about this humble game, you have given me much to consider.
I will try to grob cooktown, cairns, but only with very small forces, delivered iether by sub, or fast transport.
yes, I hope wobbly will come out and fight a CV on Cv battle, will need to be very careful.
For the big plan , the BBs I will get are the valuable ships, as couter strike vessels.
I still will try to bluff wobbly that I am coming like a frieght train, while I dig in deep, and grab cheap real estate.
I still think the timid kiwi will come out too early, especially if I tell him the results of the inevitable CV on CV battle were a japanese disaster. Just love fog of war.

In the real battle, wobbly sinks a tanker with a sub of truk, evening up that account.
Finally getting transports, loading construction troops and heading south.

Very pleased that 8th naval garrison bombing target arrived unmolested at PM.

[herbieh]

2 days of not much action this posting, the troops are finally starting to flow to their dig in positions, Irau is now a base, but plane less, hope just its precence will worry the kiwi

Ordered recon of cooktown and cairns this turn, must get the kiwi worrying

A man needs a phycology ( however you spell it )degree for this game....[8|]