herbie goes bananas again

[herbieh]

Forgot to check, Im about 4200 ahead

[herbieh]

Thunderstorms hid my CVs, but I think wobbly was Sus about them, heavy heavy CAP over efate.
My Zeros brushed it aside[:D][:D][:D][:D]
1st strike, 106zeros, 83 kates,85 vals, 75 wildcats
only 2 bombers lost

The 1st raid hammers canberra, Caa Juneau and at least 7 dds
the 2nd raid 25 kates, 3 vals and 10 jakes encounters 21 wildcats, and puts a torp into cl boise. Washington and carolina dodge torps amongst the burning wrecks.
3rd raid returns to the canberra and co, more DDs hit, I make it 9 , at least 4 sunk, canberra and the claa are sunk
the last raid attacked the pt boats[8|]

Somehow his 2 BBs, washington and North carolina escape attention.
Grrrr
I now run away
I lost 28 zeros, only 9 vals (YES,YES,YES), and 21 kates.
Losses can be made good easily[;)]
he lost 50 odd fighters
2 cruisers
and probably 7 dds
and a DMS


Cooktown fell
Kirishima returned home
Nevea is almost empty, big air forces move into irau.
Its going to be a long , long war.

[herbieh]

Kb appears to run away fast to the north, Im hinting in E mail to wobbly about tired ships ect, and running away. All propaganda and he will see through it[8D]
but you know.....
Anyway wobbly commented in the mail that all his wildcats were a trap, so he definately saw me coming.
Pity the trap had no teeth[:D][:D][:D]
Anyway, the next part of his plan, hit me when my CV planes are tired, reduced, appears to be underway.
A big, fat surface force is spotted about 6 hexes south of my slowly crawling north "invasion fleet" KB is some distance away, but will now hammer due west at full speed. This will stuff Kaga beyond on map repair with system damage
never mind.
Close the range, if there are carriers there to the south they must be attacked!
Attack
Attack
attack[:@][:@][:@][:@]
oh, we are running away at nevea, Irau LBA set to night port attack efate, as his BBs linger there.
cross fingers.[8|]
CV Hiyo leaves tokyo[:)]

[herbieh]

getting the feeling WITP has killed of poor old UV. But while we wait to get it, we continue the war....[:@]
That task force dissapeared, but some CVs finally spotted at nuomea
ALL PLAYERS VS WOBBLY
NOTE
Immediately after a battle wobbly delights in moving in, and once again he does it. Those 2 #@$%^%$ BBs that got away sweep intp lunganville, sink a single DD I was trying to sneak some supplies in with, sink her and deliver a massive bombardment
I am abandoning the place, troops will march to the hex north, where some supplies remain, and hope for rescue
KB is ordered to Truk, she is very very tired

I feel I will have to give away lunganville, and nevea before she will be ready again
Irau is the "they shall not pass" line.

[herbieh]

30 nells and 15 betties visited efate during the night, hit an AV
MSWs galore at cooktown, and B26s have a look at nevea
KB passes into the iron bottom sound, on her way home for some R and R

Wobbly is quiet, Im sure more evil brewing[:(]

And thats it, Im building woodlark into a fortress, I intend it to be the lynch pin of the defence, not PM or Lunga.

[herbieh]

Not much this day, Ive got yammato and mushia with 1 CVE as cap lurking of nevea, Im feeling that wobbly recon of nevea means something, and with KB spotted retiring, Im sure he wont resist the temptation
of a visit.
We will see.
More craters in lunganville, I wonder if he knows the place is almost empty now.

[herbieh]

kb retires still
My BBs spotted north of nevea
His capital ships sculking at efate
and his MSWs are busy at cooktown
Im unloading massive amounts of fuel at lunga, and supplies
Currently the highest piority of the fleet is now to get all engineering troops I have back to Truk for some R and R, they are all very disrupted, I know I will need them again.
Ball back into wobbly court
South sea detachment mostly recovered, and at Truk, or en route.
They will make a fine counter attack force in a few months time.

[neuromancer]

Oo, violence!



Until Matrix fixes the font in WitP, I'm going to have to stck with UV. Eyestrain isn't one of my favourite recreational activities.

[herbieh]

Whats this Oii violence stuff???
Im out to win this @#$##@!@ battle, not needlessly sacrifice for entertainment! (mind you Im pleased somebody is reading this!)
My poor old clunker of a computer takes about 20 mins to do one AI turn of WITP, sits at crew training for about 3 mins, so UV is still the fun game, WITP will be for the very serious time[;)]
Meanwhile not much happened today. Seroiusly KB is in no condition to fight, Ive really hammered her system damage wise, Ive seen less damage from a carrier battle. Glad wobbly aint reading this. She is almost halfway to truk now, and Kaga will go home, her airgroup can stay as a reserve, Hiyo will return KB to 4 heavy, 2 medium, 3 light CVs
33 nells in pool. Unbelievable.
Wobbly is the coward here, he has recieved so little damage his steamroller must be titanic by now, once it begins rolling only desperate things will slow it.
Still, If I bluff him for another month or so, my defences will be so much better.

[herbieh]

Evil Wobbly Strikes, and catches me with pants down. Really, Im not up to his standard at all, feel like a just slightly more intelligent AI program.
No CAP over Irau, as I wanted max escort for my so called killer anti invasion strike force of Betties and Nells.
Well a lot are scrap now, as 60 B17s, 12 hudsons levelled the place, destroying 10 nells, 10 zeros, 3 betties, and damaging 10 more nells
And the base is closed (Id forgotten how far B17s can reach)
if i get a chance to open it again[:@] (if) the bombers will go back to munda.
The southern areas have seen the last of the Japanese , wobbly should be pleased with that days effort.[8|]

[neuromancer]

ORIGINAL: herbieh
Whats this Oii violence stuff???
Im out to win this @#$##@!@ battle, not needlessly sacrifice for entertainment! (mind you Im pleased somebody is reading this!)

[:D]

If it makes you feel any better, as the allies in my PBEM I'm playing, I just tried to recapture P.M. in late August '42, and it was an unmitigated disaster.

Almost the entire First Marine division was killed!
My only carrier - WASP - was pounded to scrap by LBA out of P.M. (Saratoga and Enterprise are at Pearl until '43. Lexington, Yorktown, and Hornet are all dead - although he's lost several too, but his survivors are at least still in theatre).

Almost every ship I used to run troops in for the attack was sunk by surface groups or LBA. Something like a dozen transports, a half dozen escorts of varying types, and the escorts for the Wasp (several DDs, a CLAA, and a CL).

Mind you, I had done almost the same thing to him at Luganville, although he at least captured Luganville, but paid a pretty high price for it.

My poor old clunker of a computer takes about 20 mins to do one AI turn of WITP, sits at crew training for about 3 mins, so UV is still the fun game, WITP will be for the very serious time[;)]

Yeesh.

I think WitP has too many bugs at the moment, besides the font issue, I'm waiting until they sort out some more of them before getting really into it.

Its also just too dang big, no fun for AARs like this.

Wobbly is the coward here, he has recieved so little damage his steamroller must be titanic by now, once it begins rolling only desperate things will slow it.
Still, If I bluff him for another month or so, my defences will be so much better.

He should be warry of that. Time is not really the friend of the Allies. They have to wait for a while (something I am no good at), but once he's got the tools, he should start to use them or he won't have pushed you back enough when Dec. '43 rolls around.

[neuromancer]

Crunch.


That steam roller may be rollin'.

[herbieh]

Couple of days worth of post here, life has been a blur, too many essays due, and sermons, and sunday school and, and, and, and,.....WITP[:D] too

Anyway he has pulled a fast one, the bombing of irau closed it down long enough for a small regiment to capture liekur, the hex my forces at lunganville were retreating too[:(][:(]
They are doomed, by by the SNLF that is left, they are starving, no ammo, poor sods.
KB reaches truk, Kaga is 24 system damage, she lost 1 point immediately. Do I keep her, or send her home?
Ill keep her, but in reserve, she can at least train and train and train.
Not much else to report, Im still pulling shattered airgroups back to munda, the big boys to shortland
Suddenly I seem to have run out of ships.......
Hiyo comes tomorrow, with a bucket load of DDs and CLs, they are really , really needed.
We fight on

[herbieh]

Its gone as quiet as the grave, no sign of wobbly forces. Kaga is interesting, dropped another damage point today, Ill keep her after all[:'(]

Prediction, I have 3 weeks, by then lunganville will be gone, nevea gone, and Irau will be a big hole full of craters.
3 weeks though will see 200000 supply points delivered to lunga, bring it on wobbly.

Im starting to think seriously about using the south sea detachment for a big , big raid , and use it as a kamikaze unit in an effort to cull those B17s.
See how we go.

[Freddy Fudpucker]

I've not been by for a few days. Just checked back in to see how you're doing. Still playing cat and mouse eh?[:)]

[herbieh]

Baring the good Lord stepping in and calling this game to a halt, Im going to be playing cat and mouse to the end. Then when I look for a WITP opponent he will know exactly what he is getting, some one committed to play, even despite defeat.
(and Ill expect the same in return)
Kaga dropped another system damage point, now it is 22, glad I did not send her home.
Hiyo joins KB, back to 6 CVs, 3cvls, and 1cve at shortlands, with Kaga in reserve,
Experience is still pretty good as well.
No action again, I built 2 new light battle groups, 2cl, 4 dd each, and dispatch them to the front.
I am guessing Wobbly will concentrate on lunga side of the map, but invade iether GG or PM.
And Woodlark will be the key to that, base for rapid reaction forces.
144 regiment will ship to woodlark.
Tanaka at rabual is starting to look fit again as well.
Wish he would do something major[:(], surely he has guessed I have surrenderd the south areas.
Irau finally back together[8|], wonder where the B17s will visit next[:@]

[marky]

thats the spirit herbieh!

never say die!

[&o][&o][&o][&o][&o][&o][&o][&o]

[PzB74]

Seems like you've exhausted your offensive powers for now Herb!
I immediately saw that there were few options for you - if you didn't attack, it would be a long and dull game - especially from an AAR point of view...

If you did attack, you could create a lot of fuss but, it would still be a longshot in regard to a auto victory!
You've given us a lot of good entertainment though [8D]

Seems like it's time to turn into a turtle and prepare for the inevitable push.
If you're lucky, Wob will go the long way towards Irau. With a lot of luck and skill, it could then be possible
to stall until the game comes to an end.

Have you gotten started with WitP yet?
Guess you've noticed that me and Wob are playing an aar game according to your old 2 thread receipt!
I'm currently bulldozing my way through the Pacific - and is having a great time <G> At least until 1944 that is....

Good luck, and keep your guard up! [8D]

[herbieh]

Well Im reporting 3 days of "conflict" [8|] in this post, lots happening for wobbly Im sure, but like some have suggested, Im going turtle for a while

Kaga dropped to 21 system over 3 days, and several other ships dropped some as well. KB is in training at Truk, while a single CVE at shortland keeps getting reported as a CV. By E mail wobbly has eluded that he is worried about KB coming down to Lunganville.
No doubt!
His tactics are clear, B17 to dust threatening bases, then under massive cover, in go fast transport troops, transports to follow.
Plain but effective
So Lunganville will fall tomorrow, only one SNLF really left at the place
Irau was hammered again, it cost him dear, 6 B17s though

Its a boring battle so far, but if I am to win, I must smash at least an invasion, maybe even 2, so He must now come to me

Woodlark builds some more, 144 regiment on the way, lots of small surface groups coming south as well.

I have been thinking, what if I sent KB home to Japan, and left the planes here?
Positives: no way he can get points for high value carriers
I should recieve other capital ships (BBs), ideal for counterstroke/fast transport
at the moment, whether KB is on the board or not, it don't matter!
Negatives
Loss of flexibility
Loss of potential big strike
Loss of prestige[:D][:D][:D]

I truly am considering this move, I want to be able to pack 100s of zeros about my betties when it becomes time to strike the transports.

Thoughts guys?

[herbieh]

I wonder how many players actually go the whole way with this?, cause we have only just started!
Lunganville falls.
That is the last freebie he gets.
Nevea will be contested, as will Irau.
As will lunga, munda, shortlands, every island will be fought over.
I do not plan to pull out any troops other than base forces.
nearly 3 divisions await a chance to counterstrike.

Its going to be a long, long, road for wobbly.