Aussie Affair, Beta's Twilight

[Andy Mac]

Or what about a raid on each of the SOPAC bases in succession hit Suva hard then Canton make him think you are heading for Pearl 2 then double back and hit Noumou

[52nd Lowland]

Or raid succesive the eastern Ozzie ports and airfields.At the early part of the campaign there aint much there in terms of air opposition and if there is its not v well trained.Think Aussie raid instead of Indian Ocean or maybe both

[Luskan]

hrm . . . cant expose my strength too early on or he'll know where i'm not sort of thing.
the whole bombarding perth has merit though, and i've almosy got bases close enough for it to become a real possibility.

Going to start preying on that us oz convoy route never fear - just not yet!.

[Raverdave]

Ok, the Allied joint chiefs of staff conferance in Honolulu is going well. Well have thrashed out the areas of responsiblitys are and where the main thrusts will be on our long and hard mission of taking the Japanese home Islands.

I have had losts of inspections while I have been here, and have had a great look around at Pearl, most of the damage seems to have been repaired and I have only just said good bye to the crew of the USS Bowfin.

I am lucky enought that I have had lots of spare time to do some R&R and have found the locals to be very receptive......I have only had two nights that I could not remember and one of those involved waking up in the right room of the correct hotel, not knowing how I got home. [:D]
But the beer is cold and the girls are warm.......what else could you ask for?

I am off tomorrow for a 5 day inspection of the big Island and then back to honolulu for another 5 days.

I'll drop in now and then just to keep my eye of that ratbrained banananana boy!

Aloha from Raverdave![8D]

[Raverdave]

Raverdave reporting in again.

The tour of the big Island of Hawai'i was a success..........if only I could find a way to get Luskan to land on those lava fields then It would be a very simple matter of crushing him ! Better yet, try and get him to invade when the volcanoes are erupting.
I am still making a huge dent in the Islands beer supply and the girls here are still smiling at me so I guess that I am yet to wear out my welcome. I now have five more days in Honolulu before heading back home and resuming the war against Luskan, but with everything that I have seen here I am now sure that Luskan can and will be beaten.

Aloha from Raverdave !

[Luskan]

Ha! While Raver's been drinknig andpartying in true infidel fashion, I have been using my other PBEM games to try out brilliant new strategies. Silly ole Raver will have forgotten what the hell he had planned when he gets back. I had the presence of mind to write everything down before that last turn.

Probably a big CV battle in the not too distant future.

[Raverdave]

I have returned !

And as Luskan has stated I am somewhat confused as to why I have ships going to what seems silly points on the map. It is going to take me a few moves to sort out what is going on.

[52nd Lowland]

Let insults commence...as well as battle.[:D]

[Luskan]

Things were a bit hairy on my side as for about 15 minutes I frantically searched for KB (about to start screaming bug!). Remembered what I had wanted to do with them and why, and then managed to reason out where they should be so I could find them. Should have just used one of the menu buttons at the top.

A quick summary to remind everyone:
China: I've gained lots of ground but no points. Raver's saved his army, and aside from a failed paratroop attack behind his lines, things here are on a low simmer that will boil over at the beginning of 44.

Burma: After taking rangono adn pounding the snot out of akyab for a while, I've advanced up and taken Tyang Ghi (sp) and Pagan will be next turn. Raver, as expected has drawn his troops up behind the river at mandalay. Recon reports 14 enemy units, probably 6 of those base forces, 6 of them little inf units from burma and 2 of them bigger indian divisions. Raver's armoured spearhead at akyab is still there, preventing any quick amphib op to steal it. However - that said they've copped over a dozen heavy BB bombardments and have paid for it.

PI: Mine. Garrisons in place, engineers building forts around the place, and increasing all base sizes for a: garrison comfort, and b: no spoilage.

Malaya: Mine. Progressing well here, with garrisons and forts all built to satisfaction. I've got a major airbase at Singapore that I was hoping Raver would attempt to hit with his navy but no luck.

Borneo: Mine.

DEI: I hold Bali, and all of northern and eastern sumatra. Western sumatra ahs a few bases and there is that big T! base at the southern end of the island Raver still holds. He does have about a dozen units trapped inland on Sumatra that are starving. Also a few on Borneo.

Solomons: I still have Rabaul, and I still spot aussie ships raving past GG up to gasmata (evacuating the troops I kicked out of rabaul?). Major expansion planned here just as soon as my DEI plan fruits. Raver has shipped troops and planes into PM and my subs have had some success here.

India: His, but LOADS of empty coastal bases.

Pacific: Wake is mine and is going to stay that way until Raver makes a major attempt. Going to be a costly invasion that one. My island strongholds are CV-proof (I did some testing) and so with large forts and loads of supply and CD units, I'm safe there for the moment. This will all change come 43 and the corsair.

Aleutians: I've been expanding northward slowly and carefully. Not a lot of firepower there to be honest, but I've got enough to hold Raver off until reinforcements can arrive if needs be.

Home Islands: Mine. I've got the biggest oil stockpile in the known world at the moment, and my resource stockpile isn't too bad (set up some CS missions and shipped all the oil to the home islands and all the resources to places like hong kong, Saigon, hanoi and canton etc. Have been swapping things around to achieve a balance.

Economy: Powering along. I came close to wiping myself out of the game entirely very early on, but a few mammoth convoys got through unscathed and saved me. Closest I've been to loosing the game was right then. Research and production are up, and my new repair ports all around the world are coming up to 100% effectiveness. I had to spend lots of supply expanding these.

Prediction: Raver has a plan. At least I hope he does. He's been impatient for so long. If he waits long enough, and times it right . . . well his conservation of troops in china and conservation of his cvs so far sort of mean that the longer he waits the more frightened I become. I'm getting a little stronger as the games goes. If he doesn't start loosing major fleet assets and armies soon, come june 43 he'll open up the garage door and hit me for six (I ran a few tests - if you've been a clever allied player and be patient, 6/43 you are not only unstoppable but lightning fast. Japs just cant ever react fast enough to hurt you).

I'm hoping to force a CV battle, the sooner the better - before 6/43 and unbeatable numbers of corsairs and lightning at the very least. Sort of hoping that as I take the DEI Raver will appear with his CVs to have a go at sinking some of my troops.

[Ron Saueracker]

Hey, Luskan. Why not use your IBoats in an attempt to whittle down his CVs?[8D]

[corona]

Hey,

I'm new to WITP and war gaming in general but I love reading your AAR. It's interesting because you two obviously have some gaming history together and the posts have a certain personality that other AAR's lack. It's fun and informative to see what kind of strategies you both have at work.

Luskan, I was just wondering if you could expand on a couple of things you mentioned in your last post.

Pacific: Wake is mine and is going to stay that way until Raver makes a major attempt. Going to be a costly invasion that one. My island strongholds are CV-proof (I did some testing) and so with large forts and loads of supply and CD units, I'm safe there for the moment. This will all change come 43 and the corsair.

CV Proof? please explain (if it doesn't give away too much strategic detail). Also, other than the fact that the Corsair is one of the more manouverable allied planes, why is it going to tip the scales in favor of the allies?

(I ran a few tests - if you've been a clever allied player and be patient, 6/43 you are not only unstoppable but lightning fast. Japs just cant ever react fast enough to hurt you).

Is there some significant piece of hardware that comes along in 6/43? And by clever do you mean like force preservation wise?

Cheers

[Luskan]

CV-Proof means that CVs can't raid the place - even a 6 cv tf isn't going to handle the number of fighters and betties I have at places like truk, Kwajalein, Saipan etc. No allied player will pass his cvs within zero range of such a base. Sure, I'd loose lots of planes in any attack, but he'd loose cvs.

As for the 6/43 - that is when (more or less - variable reinforcement etc) the corsair arrives. It isn't the manouvreablility of the damned thing, it is the armour. They are nigh unkillable for lightweight zeros and as soon as they're on CV decks in real numbers, the allies can suddenly send their uber cv group wherever the hell they want and there is NOTHING I can do about it. Which is why I need to sink Raver's CVs before then.

Soon as you play a game long enough to fight corsairs . . . well you'll know what I'm talking about!

[Raverdave]

Well the biggest problem that I have faced since returning form my long holiday in Hawaii, is sorting out what I was going to do. The state of the map looks like some idiot has been running the game for the last three months.......but a closer look shows that I have done a reasonable job.............word of warning, never go on holidays without leaving detailed notes on your current games.[:-]

The current focus of Luskan-the-pretender is the DEI, he needs to close that campaign soon as it is holding up his operations elsewhere. For the last two months I have been able to send transports in with little or no hinderance, and as Banananana boy will soon find out he is in for a big shock. I have had well over 4000 PPs to spend and I have used them well.

PNG is likewise in a very good condition and it will take at least a 4 division invasion to take the place all the time under hostile air attack.

All of my carriers are at sea with the exception of the Lady Lex which during it's trip upto the Bay of Bengal a few months ago, hit some bad weather and had a few damage points (15) which need to be fixed. She is currently at Pearl and should be ready for action in a few weeks if the current rate of repairs continues.

In the meantime here are some pics of me inspecting my fleet at Pearl[8D]

[52nd Lowland]

Planning on firing Luskan out the torpedo tube ?

[Raverdave]

And another.

[Raverdave]

I was thinking about it, but on reflection, I am certain that is ego would not fit in the tube.[;)]

[Luskan]

Can't see a battleship from that angle without thinking of Cher on drugs

I got some great photos of the victory. Of course with my crappy camera, and even backed up as far as I could go, it still took two panoramic sized photos to fit the ship in lengthwise.

[Raverdave]

And here I am in my command chair ! "Luskan is thataway" !

[Raverdave]

The 20th of April 1942, and things are looking somewhat good for the allies at this point considering the blows that have been dealt out so far.

Burma is holding at this point but the are signs of jap activity along the front lines with at least three brigades making a probe towards Mandalay/ Pagan. It is still to be decided if it is in the Allies favour to hold or fall back as there is the issue of supply lines which are along slow jungle tracks. The meeting in Hawaii recently of all the Allied high commands, agreed that this area of operation should continue to be under UK control and so the final decision will come from Whitehall.

China is somewhat static at this point with the Japs not willing to do much more than chase the chinese recon units after their failed attempt at taking Kunming with paratroops. There is little for the japs to gain by even trying to push deeper into China as it will only cause heavy casualties to them and with the high operational tempo across the pacific, high casualties is not what the japs are looking for.
The Japanese have been forced to keep more troops in China than they would have otherwise wanted mainly due to the Allies brillant tactics of trading ground for time and troops. The Japanese are yet to land the killer blow that they have so badly wanted.

The DEI is in as state of flux with the nips nibbling at the outter rings of the DEI, however Java is yet to be hit or even shelled, and although an invasion will come, it will be expensive of the yellow barstards......the beaches and jungles will run red with jap blood.

Australia is well defended and the last five months of the war have seen a massive buildup in troops and supplies from both locale and US mainland. Mining operations are almost full complete as are the construction of fortress and airfields. The only factor that is still hampering an otherwise smooth defence is the serious lack of trained ground crews. This has caused southern areas to be stripped of aircraft and personel to defend the north leaving only ASW squadrons in the south, but is a calculated gamble.

The Southern pacific, which also includes PNG are also being brought upto strength and so far have not seen any serious incursions from the japs. This is expected to change once the DEI campaign has come to a close, but the spirted defense of Java will bleed the japs to such a point that operations against the south pacific will not be as harsh as they could be.

The Central pacific is also a quite place with little action being seen in the last few months. It is still being thrashed as to who will take command of allied operations in this area....the US Navy or the US Army. In the meantime Hawaii is the focus of the build up for future operations.

The Northern Pacific has seen little or no action since the war began, which has allowed the allies to build forces in the north using Dutch Harbour, Kodiak and Anchorage and the main focal points. The extreme weather and lack of strategic points that could help the Japanese war effort in this area are the main reasons for little action being seen here to date.


The main problem currently effecting the allied war effort is the serious lack of APs for troop transport. This has meant that LCUs have had to be ferried in AKs which is grossly inefficent and also then removes those ships from being able to haul supplies. This situation will not even come close to being fixed until at least the end of '42 and maybe not until early '43.

[Luskan]

*Erm a slight mishap when I accidentally used my beta testing version of WITP to do the turn and corrupted the file. Was all Raver's fault.

Raver seems to be staking the outcome of all theatres on the battle for Java. If he looses badly there . .. well he'll only loose troops he can afford to loose. Its the loosing of CVs that I'm trying for.

In other news my asw fleets off Burma smacks one of Raver's subs, and the BB Fuso rejoins the battlefleet. Also, my troops have started unloading on western sumatra, and exterminated about 2500 rodents on the island of Sinkwiang (south of singapore) for the cost of 67 lightly wounded troops.

In truth the Java invasion has been held up by something I should have thought of better. I'm not going ashore with recon, but I don't want to telegraph really stupidly, because I've already decided which places I'm going ashore and why. So although taking Bali and Palembang should have been all the precursor I've needed, I've messed around and am taking other nearby small bases while I wait for hastily shipped out base forces and recon planes to arrive at designated bases in range of java to do some blanket reconning. I have a backup plan if my original plan doesn't work, but I hope I don't need to use it.

As soon as this invasion is over, I'm going to have to tell you all exactly what my plan was and why. I'm sure someone out there has guessed what I want to happen at Java by now??