Scen 16 to January 1943

[DrewMatrix]

This is a short summary of the situation January 1943 in my game. This is Scenario 16, AI = Hard, Version 1.21, me playing as the Allies.

The AI has played aggressively (ie taken risks) which I regard as an admirable accomplishment. In most computer games the AI is too cautious. But the Japanese AI side has lost, or will inevitably lose from this point, and lose earlier than in the Real Life campaign.

The key to the game has been (as was my experience in Uncommon Valor) Allied land based air units (LBA). The allied LBA are numerous, with lots of replacement A/C and pilots, lots of engineers and lots of supplies to enlarge airfields and provide ordinance for bombers.

The bombers and fighters are not all of the allied LBA, though. The C-47s have probably been the units which have had the greatest effect on the entire game, allowing me to move by air transport reinforcements to key areas which are threatened or from which I see a weak spot towards which I can advance. That too was the case for me in Uncommon Valor. The C-47s have completely unraveled the Japanese positions in Burma and New Guinea.

The score is Japan 16,798, Allies 14,466 on January 18, 1943.

In summary by areas, starting on the east side of the map:

See Separate posts by map area below

[DrewMatrix]

North Pacific: Anything assigned to the North Pacific I have left assigned to NORPAC. They are piling up supplies, building up bases in the Aleutians and basically not accomplishing much. But I figured that was ordered from Washington (why else would they have assigned those units to NORPAC) so I am not transferring them to more active fronts nor trying to invade the Kuriles.

West Coast: Shipping supplies and fuel west as fast as possible, limited only by the need to keep enough shipping at home to move pending LCU and Air Unit reinforcements. The Second Marine Division was transferred to CentPac about July or August 1942. Other WestPac units I have left attached to WestPac.

[DrewMatrix]

CentPac: I have advanced from Canton Island to Tarawa and vicinity, built Tarawa up to the max and then taken Maleolop and (very recently) Wotje. All these invasions have been covered sequentially by land based air and (Tarawa only) by CVs (all 6 of them in 3 TFs of 2 CVs/TF). Kwajalein is getting pounded by air regularly. It has lots of LCUs but little air strength. Likely I will move around Kwajalein, taking other smaller atolls in the group, then threaten the Mariannas and Truk. That will likely take much of 1943, but by late 1943 I should be looking across open ocean towards Guam and Saipan. I am not sure I will actually invade Kwaj (with no hope of resupply and its air strength diminished it may not be worth the cost. There are about 7-9 LCUs there.)

SoPac: A rather quiet sector. I made Lunga/Guadalcanal my fall back position at the beginning of the game, sending a small Inf and an Eng unit there, and building it up (I basically left the units at Rabaul to their fate). By the time the Japanese advanced to Shorlands etc Lunga was a fairly big base with lots of Land Based Air and the Japanese never invaded. I have since taken Munda (unopposed) and very recently Buin (which was pounded flat by LBA and taken with very little resistance). The Japanese have about 5-7 LCUs at Shortlands but effectively no air strength and little hope of resupply.

[DrewMatrix]

SWPAC/New Guinea: This has been the main area of combat, and a disaster for the Japanese. On turn 1 I sent Sparrow force (a tiny allied unit) to Buna. It arrived in a week or two. I moved another of those small forces (Gull Force) to Gili Gili but Buna was the more important base.

I then moved units as fast as possible from Australia to Port Moresby and from PM to Buna. The PM to Buna movement was by air (C-47s). Some of the Oz to PM movement was by air as well. By the time the IJ attacked Buna I had most of the 6th Australian division in Buna. It did not slog slowly across the Owen Stanley mountains, but got there much faster by air transport. And, never spending turns sitting on a trail in the mountains, it was always available for air evacuation back to PM on a moment’s notice, should that seem wise. When the IJ finally got an invasion fleet to Buna I had enough A/C at PM to damage it some, and the fleet only landed a few squads on the first turn. The 6th Australian shock attacked the Japanese the next turn (while they landed a few more) and the (small) IJ contingent which landed was driven out of the Buna hex. This was mostly due to the substantial force I had in Buna, but in part as well to all the LBA at PM (I had no air support and no air units at Buna nor at Gili Gili.

A month later (about) the IJ tried again, this time with the KB. I saw about 5 CVs (Kaga, Akagi, Hiry, Soryu and Zuikaku. I didn’t see the Shokaku. It may have been damaged elsewhere or just not scouted. By that time I had about 200-250 A/C in PM, and about 40 each in Buna and Gili Gili. The KB tried a Coral See type battle (about August 1942) and lost horribly. All that LBA shredded the KBs air groups. The IJ lost some aircraft attacking PM, and some aircraft defending itself. The damage to PM and the ships of the KB were minor (I think I damaged one CV) but the KB lost 1/3 to 1/2 its planes and pilots in those battles.

While the KB was pounding its head against LBA in New Guinea I happened to have 5 CVs in Brisbane. All 5 sortied (3 TFs, all in the same hex) and managed to fight it out with the KB _after_ it had depleted its airgroups substantially fighting LBA but before it could escape back north (the KB was about 1 hex south of Gili Gili at the time). In that battle the KB lost 4 or 5 CVs and I had one CV damaged, none sunk. Sort of “Midway in the Coral Sea.”

Thereafter the Japanese fleet has been laying low. Massive LBA in PM and Buna now control the surrounding seas, and I just did an amphibious assault taking Lae (January 1943). The IJ are losing AKs trying to get supplies to the north coast of New Guinea. B17s and B24s at PM (and Lunga) have the air units at Rabaul completely suppressed.

[DrewMatrix]

DEI: I ran away. They took it. I have Darwin as a sub base with a lot of LBA in it. Nothing is happening here anymore. The DEI, by the way, was the area where the only surface battles occurred (while I was trying to move LCUs and Oil out, covering those forces with Cruisers and DDs). See conclusion.

CBI: Here I misjudged where I could hold (Mandalay) and got shoved rudely back. The IJ advanced to Imphal and Myityina, but that proved their undoing. With LBA at Dacca, Chandrapur and Diamond Harbor, and (under cover of that LBA) the British BBs pounding Akyab, I managed (after a long dreary attrition battle) to retake Akyab. Akyab was built up as a port and airbase. From Akyab I had LBA cover to do the same at Moulmein and Rangoon, and from Moulmein I took Rahaeng. This cut off 3 full divisions and about 55,000 total strength of IJ back in inland Burma. It took months to run them out of supplies and wear them down, but I am now ready to leapfrog forward from Rahaeing to Bangkok and Moulmein to Victoria Point (I should be ready to start forward early February 1943), under cover of air units redeployed forward to Rangoon, Mandalay and Rahaeng.

A _very_ important part of managing to (finally) hold near the Burma/India border and in outmaneuvering the IJ land units once they were cut off inland in Burma were the C-47s. A battle would start, and I could either air-evac people or quickly reinforce by air. The IJ had to slog slowly overland to get into or out of each battle. And, since I could move by air to any of several friendly bases, I had a reserve that was not committed. Once you start slogging down one of those long muddy trails between bases you might as well be off the map for two weeks. No way to suddenly change where you are going. A division which has moved 1/3 of its units by air, however, can move the other 2/3 somewhere else starting the very next turn.

In China I tried to take Hanoi. I lost a lot of people and was driven back. Not much has happened in China since.

[DrewMatrix]

Conclusions:

There was only 1 CV vs CV battle, and that a disaster for Japan since it occurred as the CVs were on their way home after losing A/C fighting LBA. The killer for the IJ was not (initially) losing ships, but losing Aircraft/Pilots. By the way I set my bases (land and CV) for maximum fighter defense, not offense, to create that depletion of enemy air units. I have Fighter groups, for example, on 70% or 80% CAP. I want the IJ to lose all its planes trying to fly into that.

There have been virtually _no_ surface ship battles, except a few skirmishes as I fled the DEI. LBA controls an area for one side or the other, and the other party just can’t send CAs or BBs into such an area.


Land Based air, particularly including ability to move troops rapidly between friendly bases has been extremely effective.

What was the single most devastating weapon in the game? C-47s!