Recklessness Abounds - Cruft vs Alikchi

[Captain Cruft]

7th - 8th March 1942

Preparations continue for the on-going further conquests in the DEI. It will be at least a week before anything new happens. A deliberate attack has been ordered at Palembang on the off chance that the odds have changed for no reason since the last attempt.

Air-wise the supposedly superior Japanese continue to get their butt spanked all over the place. Mega grr.

In Burma fighter sweeps by Buffalos out of Akyab and the AVG out of Rangoon claim several Nates for no response. I have all fighter groups in Burma at 10% CAP to lessen the hurt but still it pains me. To the point that I very nearly ordered the flattening of Mandalay operation for this turn, which would have been premature. Hopefully in a couple of turns time ...

At Darwin I suffered from eyes bigger than my belly syndrome. The port is chock full of ships so I ordered a Port Attack by Betties from Amboina. The US CVs were nowhere to be seen so why not? Well, we discovered the reason why not - CV fighters installed at Darwin airbase. The F4-F Wildcats kicked butt badly, even my high exp Zero pilots seemed to struggle. I can't remember the exact figures but it was something like 4 or 5 to 1 in the Allies favour. No bombers got through to the port either. Total air to air losses for the two days were 36. Ouch ouch ouch ...

After this I doubt I will attempt offensive operations against Darwin again, even if it does go back into Wirraway mode. I will move the remaining Zeros and Betties to Kendari (along with 21st Air Flotilla) and "save up" for defensive ops in the future. The IJA can take over Amboina airbase.

With all this I am suffering badly from pilot shortage already. Reluctantly I will start taking steps to use up the groups which start in the Home Islands as replacements via disbandment. This was not part of the master plan but hey ho.

Elsewhere, there has been a slight change of plan with respect to the Rufes. I have one group so far (FF6/Yokohama Chutai) with another (FF7) on the way. Rather than send them south to the Marshalls I will instead install them at Paramushiro Jima. It's a lot quicker to get to and the opposition should be less capable. Kiska Island is at size 2 already so there is a chance of (unescorted) bombing raids starting fairly soon.

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Forgot to mention. First air attack out of Rabaul on AKs unloading at Port Moresby. No CAP for some reason, torps successfully delivered into 4 ships.

Reminds me of UV days ...

[Grotius]

This is a terrific AAR. I like the way you set the stage with annotated maps at the beginning. And your reports since then have been well-written and compelling. Interestingly, you tell a complete story without giving us the combatreport.txt readout, which can sometimes make my eyes glaze over.

I'm curious: is your opponent not monitoring this thread?

Also, a newbie question from someone who's been playing this game for six months: you mentioned that you disbanded (or was it withdrew?) an air group. Why did you do this? Did you have too few pilots or too few planes or both? I think you mentioned it may have been for training purposes. Maybe I need to re-read the Mogami technique on training, but I just don't understand how disbanding/withdrawing helps with training.

Anyway, I don't want to hijack your thread; just curious about your opponent and about disbanding. Please feel free to ignore me and press ahead with your campaign!

[Captain Cruft]

ORIGINAL: Grotius

This is a terrific AAR. I like the way you set the stage with annotated maps at the beginning. And your reports since then have been well-written and compelling. Interestingly, you tell a complete story without giving us the combatreport.txt readout, which can sometimes make my eyes glaze over.

Thanks! I feel the same way about the combat report hence why I don't use it. Big CV or BB battles would be an exception (we haven't had any yet ...). More maps will be forthcoming at some point, they're just very time consuming to do.

I'm curious: is your opponent not monitoring this thread?

No. We are following the dual threaded private AAR format. I am still keeping a few secrets though. Walls have ears.

Also, a newbie question from someone who's been playing this game for six months: you mentioned that you disbanded (or was it withdrew?) an air group. Why did you do this? Did you have too few pilots or too few planes or both? I think you mentioned it may have been for training purposes. Maybe I need to re-read the Mogami technique on training, but I just don't understand how disbanding/withdrawing helps with training.

The point of disbanding units is to move good pilots from one group to another. I am having to use it a lot in this game where I have two battered groups of the same type. Basically, when they are both below 50% strength you merge them together to make one more or less complete unit. The disbanded unit will then return in 90 days with totally untrained pilots.

The point is to avoid filling your frontline units with untrained pilots, which is what happens when you just Accept Replacements with an empty pilot pool (the IJN pilot pool has been empty for ages).

I have yet to receive any "returnees". When I do, if they are bombers they will go somewhere for Naval Search training, and if they are fighters I'm not sure what to do really. The actual Training option is far too slow to be of any use. My own personal house rules prevent me from using IJN air units in China for example.

Anyway, I don't want to hijack your thread; just curious about your opponent and about disbanding. Please feel free to ignore me and press ahead with your campaign!

No worries. The more the merrier, as long as it's on topic

[Captain Cruft]

9th - 10th Mar 1942

Quickie, no time.

Successful attack on Akyab airfield by Sonias & Oscars from Pagan. Several Buffalos destroyed on the ground.

Successful attack on shipping at Lautem (Timor) by Betties from Amboina (yes I have spares ). Escorting Zeros shot down loads of CAPing P-40s as well, which was nice.

This was the first turn I have won in the air for a long time.

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35th Brigade should be landing at Palembang soon.

[Captain Cruft]

11th - 12th Mar 1942

The Flattening of Mandalay is on for next turn! I am totally fecked off with the AVG sweeping over Pagan and killing my Nates. Luang Prabang is not quite at size 5, but I'm optimistic. 95 DBs and 190 LBs should make quite a mess. Weather forecast is Overcast.

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Now I failed to mention it last turn but I had spotted a "BB DD" task force in the Celebes Sea, heading east. Very surprised I was! The search contact wasn't very good so I played it safe and assumed it was some CVs come out to play again. The CVLs were despatched at full speed to east of Menado so as to remain out of TB range and all servicable DDs were sent off toward Palau.

Well, as it happened it was just the ABDA fleet on its way to bombard Davao. Which it did, sinking 3 AKs & 1 TK and destroying 1 Nate on the ground. In the morning, my Naval Search was working much better. Nells from Davao and Amboina delivered about 3 torpedos successfully whilst the CVLs added 4 250kg AP bombs at long range. The Allied cruisers now look like they're heading back to Soerabaja.

Once again my opponent has surprised me. I would never in a million years have done anything so reckless. I guess this is what makes it all fun

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Over in New Guinea, Port Moresby has activated. Warhawks and Beauforts attacked a small transport convoy unloading the 25th Special Base Force at Lae (no hits). Finally I can start to play the "getting supplies to Lae" game that I understand from UV, rather than all this strange invading the DEI stuff

Since the base force has now unloaded I have despatched F2/Tainan Daitai from Rabaul to fly CAP over the base. Should be fun, these guys are good and have thus far avoided being beaten up, unlike all my other Zero squadrons ...

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One thing I noticed from the Intel report. 10 Sea Gladiators lost to Op Losses. Since I have not seen sight or sound of the Hermes I can only assume these planes were on an AK that has been sunk. They had previously been on CAP at Batavia and Soerabaja.

This is the second time I have sunk planes on AKs. The only AK I saw sink this turn was between Timor and Java, and it was one of the ones torpedoed at Lautem last turn. This concerns me a bit - my opponent does not seem to understand the fundamentals of dealing with serious float damage - i.e. head to/stay in port and unload, do not head out to sea. I suppose it's good for me but I find it a bit unsatisfying to be honest.

[Grotius]

Of course, you have to have a size 3+ port nearby, and size 3 doesn't really seem to repair much FLT damage. But yeah, any port in a storm.

I'll be interested to see how you do supplying and maintaining Lae. I'm just finishing a short PBEM of Scenario 3 (Coral Sea), and while I won on points, my opponent's bombers out of PM did a great job of turning Lae into a moonscape. That was May '42, and his Warhawks proved to be more than a match for my A6M2. Hmm. You maybe have more engineers onhand at Lae than I did, repairing the runway?

[Gen.Hoepner]

What are your plans for DEI and SRA? It seems like you are a bit late with the usual timetable for that key area

[Captain Cruft]

ORIGINAL: Grotius
Of course, you have to have a size 3+ port nearby, and size 3 doesn't really seem to repair much FLT damage. But yeah, any port in a storm.

Even a size 0 beach is better than the open sea. The point it is, if you are carrying important cargo like aircraft then you can get them unloaded before the ship sinks.

I'll be interested to see how you do supplying and maintaining Lae. I'm just finishing a short PBEM of Scenario 3 (Coral Sea), and while I won on points, my opponent's bombers out of PM did a great job of turning Lae into a moonscape. That was May '42, and his Warhawks proved to be more than a match for my A6M2. Hmm. You maybe have more engineers onhand at Lae than I did, repairing the runway?

Yes Lae will be very difficult to keep active. Although I have temporarily put some Navy Zeros there it will be an Army base in the long term. I know a lot of engineers are needed, some construction battalions be on their way in a little while. What I absolutely will not do is commit substantial ground forces to New Guinea. My plan is to run the airbase until it is no longer viable them evacuate what I can via Madang or even Wewak. Which is all far in the future now of course

[AmiralLaurent]

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

ORIGINAL: Grotius
I'll be interested to see how you do supplying and maintaining Lae. I'm just finishing a short PBEM of Scenario 3 (Coral Sea), and while I won on points, my opponent's bombers out of PM did a great job of turning Lae into a moonscape. That was May '42, and his Warhawks proved to be more than a match for my A6M2. Hmm. You maybe have more engineers onhand at Lae than I did, repairing the runway?

Yes Lae will be very difficult to keep active. Although I have temporarily put some Navy Zeros there it will be an Army base in the long term. I know a lot of engineers are needed, some construction battalions be on their way in a little while. What I absolutely will not do is commit substantial ground forces to New Guinea. My plan is to run the airbase until it is no longer viable them evacuate what I can via Madang or even Wewak. Which is all far in the future now of course

Lae and PM are both difficult to supply and it is a match to see wich side will keep its base operationnal longer.

In Scen 3, PM had the advantage.

[Captain Cruft]

ORIGINAL: Gen.Hoepner
What are your plans for DEI and SRA? It seems like you are a bit late with the usual timetable for that key area

Yes I am Dithering, which is an English word meaning "to take too much time over something" This is based on the theory that, since I a) cannot possibly out-produce the USA and b) cannot produce a fraction of the trained pilots I will need, it essentially does not matter too much whether I have all that oil or not. I need some of it but I could live without taking all of it. **

Having said that I am confident that all the remaining oil/resource producing bases will be mine before too long. The end of April is the target date.

My plan is to invade all areas apart from Timor. Alikchi is fortifying this island like crazy. Let him have the problem of supplying it and stopping his troops from getting malaria ...

** Another way to look at this is "Japan has no chance whatever it does so concentrate on winning battles rather than the war."

[Captain Cruft]

13th - 14th Mar 1942

A total disaster. I lost 181 planes in the air over the two days and only managed to destroy 26 P-40s on the ground. I am absolutely gutted. Two Nate squadrons have been whittled down from 36 planes to 2 apiece.

My mistake was in assuming, despite knowing that the Nate and Oscar are completely useless planes, that sheer weight of numbers would overpower the defenders (40+ Hurricanes as well as the AVG). I was wrong, it just gave them more targets.

Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch & more ouch.

A change of plan is in order. Nates and Sonias will all go to China and stay there for the rest of the war or until they can be upgraded to something resembling a useful aircraft. Of course with the Sonias they are the end of the line so in China they will stay. There's just no point in throwing away these planes against Anglo-Saxon defenses. I am sorely tempted to use them on ASW patrol but my house rule against using IJA planes for Navy tasks prevents me. Maybe when I get really desperate ...

Oscars and anything else which can occasionally shoot down something will stay in Burma and try to hold the line. Mass raids out of Luang Prabang will be scheduled in for August time when I get some Tojos. In the long-term I must try and suppress Mandalay for as long as possible.

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Elsewhere we did get some consolation prizes. The Davao suicide jockeys had made their way to Balikpapan, where they were visited by the Betties of Kuching Force. British cruisers CL Dragon and CLAA Colombo both succumbed to magazine explosions whilst the US CA Houston and CL Marblehead just received some "*Critical Damage*" torpedo hits. Meanwhile, Amboina Force (to be moved to Kendari as soon as the 21st Air Flotilla can be airlifted from Manila) discovered CA Louisville at Dili and successfully delivered some similar cylindrical presents there.

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Over in China bombardment attacks start at Kuchang next turn. The base should be in our hands soon, there are only 46,000 odd Chinese there.

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Lots of sub activity noted around Wake Island. Which, on the face of it, would seem a bit pointless as the place only needs to see a boat every six months or so to keep going. On the other hand, perhaps the subs are invasion precursors? Or perhaps they are just passing through the area on their way to the main shipping lanes? Who knows.

[String]

Nates are totally useless.. they can only manage against dutch and chinese fighters... and even then barely.

But Oscars can be of use against hurricanes and others if they are supported by zeroes..

[Captain Cruft]

15th - 16th Mar 1942

That's about all that happened. Betties from Amboina finishing off jobs started earlier

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Things are afoot - it's time to stop arsing about.

[Captain Cruft]

Just to clarify - I will not now be attempting to invade Mandalay. Certainly not in this initial offensive phase anyway.

Plus, I forgot to mention that Bataan fell a few days ago.

So ... that leaves the following objectives to be taken:-

Medan (paras will drop from Georgetown within next week or so)
Bankha
Palembang (soon, soon my precious - 35th Brigade will be landing next turn)
Batavia
Soerabaja
Balikpapan
Tarakan (preparatory bombardment scheduled for next turn)

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Production

The HI pool is still creeping ever upward - it's over 198,000 now. All warships are on Normal production now except for the lovely Taiho which is on Accelerated. I need this ship to arrive in less than two years time. Armament factories are at about 690.

All outlying industrial centres (Singapore, Bangkok, Hanoi, Hong Kong & Formosa) are stuffed full of oil and resources (taken from Brunei and the Philippines). There should be no need to re-supply them for a few months. This means that as soon as Palembang falls I can do a monster convoy straight back to the Home Islands. 100 ships, large AKs and TKs, with about 500-600,000 tons capacity. Starting at Palembang, it will stop off at Toboali for resources and Brunei for oil before heading to Sasebo.

Something else I noticed - if you plan it right you can send a convoy from Singapore to Sasebo and only have to pass over a single deep water hex. This is by following the route:

Singapore->Saigon->Camranh Bay->Taan->Hong Kong->Shanghai->Sasebo

Definitely something to think about for later on when the US subs get going properly.

[Captain Cruft]

17th - 18th Mar 1942

This was at Palembang, where the convoy carrying the 35th Brigade has finally arrived. I suppose at some point my opponent will realise that subs don't do well in shallow hexes, but until that time I will continue to enjoy myself.

Other than that, just lots of recon flights. Java seems to be largely stripped of fighter and bomber aircraft now, it's all congregating on Timor at Koepang and Lautem. Highly vulnerable to a naval bombardment or two methinks

[Captain Cruft]

I forgot to mention (as usual) ...

Most of the 2nd Parachute Regiment has now been dropped at Medan from Georgetown. They suffered bad disablement losses in the initial automatic shock attack but I think they'll be OK after a couple of turns on the defence. The IJA transport fleet ("Topsy Force") is now split up into two parts, the smaller groups will carry the remainder of the 2nd Paras + supplies whilst Dash Forward Sentai will start dropping the 1st Paras. Unfortunately, most of the 1st Paras are still legging it to Georgetown from Khota Baru.

Georgetown is destined to become an important part of the defensive perimeter, nestling as it does at the top left-hand corner of Malaya. It does not need supplying since it takes all it needs from the "ammo factories" (i.e. Resources) at Kuala Lumpur and other Malayan bases. With an AS or two installed (and an MLE later) the port can be built to size 6 for major sub ops against the relatively weak Brits. Add the pre-existing size 4 airbase for Nell 'n' Betty torpedo strikes, a brigade sized LCU for defence and you have quite a reasonable "corner piece".

[Gen.Hoepner]

I agree. Georgetown is a very good place to build up a combined base. I use George town, Victoria and the base right in the upper corner of Sumatra ( do not remember the name) as air bases for my LRbombers in protecting Singapore and Malaya

[Captain Cruft]

ORIGINAL: Gen.Hoepner
the base right in the upper corner of Sumatra ( do not remember the name)

It's Sabang (SPS 2/3), and I don't fancy supplying it myself. No doubt the Brits will be landing there in 1943 ...

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Alikchi has promised an interesting turn for this evening. I will report back tomorrow (Thu 17th).

[Captain Cruft]

19th - 20th Mar 1942

Well, the interesting i.e. different thing for this turn was an attack on the Oil installations at Amboina. About 50 LB-30s and B-17s out on Darwin, unescorted. Since the main Zero/Betty force moved to Kendari last turn the CAP at Amboina is composed of an Oscar Sentai and F4/Toko Chutai (9 Zeros). They did quite well, damaging several planes for the loss of 2 Oscars. Damage to the Oil was light. I'm not overly concerned about this since Amboina doesn't really fit in to my convoy plans anyway - the damage won't be repaired.

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The 35th Brigade is now mostly landed at Palembang and a deliberate attack is scheduled for next turn.

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Paratroops of both IJA regiments continue to be dropped at Medan. Once they're all on the ground and undisrupted a bit we'll start some attacks.

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2 Allied subs were successfully depth charged by IJN destroyers entering the seas around Amboina. Some of these destroyers were escorting a ship called "CV Kaga".

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In Burma I am somewhat surprised that the Brits haven't tried some serious airfield attacks since effectively gaining air superiority after the Mandalay debacle.

[Captain Cruft]

21st - 22nd Mar 1942

The KB had moved itself into a position 5 hexes to the NNE of Lautem. In response, the ABDA air forces launched air strikes consisting of large numbers of fighter and a few bombers from the same base. 47 P-40s and several Dutch fighters & bombers were shot down over the two days. Cost was 12 Zeros lost (numpty pilots not l33t0rs) and no damage was done to the ships.

The KB will now move to the west to try and pull the same trick on the air forces at Koepang. Meanwhile the battle fleet (Mutsu, Nagato, 4 Kongos) under Adm Kono will move out from Kendari at full speed to bombard Lautem.

Fortress Timor will be suppressed.

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Elsewhere, Palembang fell (finally). The Oil facility is at 450 points with 250 damaged. Not brilliant but it could have been a lot worse.