I wasn't really expecting you to be able to repeat that, I doubt that I will ever repeat it either and I am sure my opponent won't.
But it does point out that the Dutch airbases can be deadly for the Japanese if you can set them up. I think your more likely to get something like the battle Blackwatch and I had for Menado I had some Beauforts there and sunk an AP or two before he got the invasion force ashore. Then I bugged the airplanes out and he took the place.
One Month at War - a Summary (ZonkerH vs ADavidB)
Moderators: wdolson, Don Bowen, mogami
RE: Ides of March
ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter
I wasn't really expecting you to be able to repeat that, I doubt that I will ever repeat it either and I am sure my opponent won't.
But it does point out that the Dutch airbases can be deadly for the Japanese if you can set them up. I think your more likely to get something like the battle Blackwatch and I had for Menado I had some Beauforts there and sunk an AP or two before he got the invasion force ashore. Then I bugged the airplanes out and he took the place.
Zonker tried something a bit odd after he took that base on the East side of Timor. A turn or so later, my LBA in Oz attacked Zonker's BB-task force halfway between Timor and Oz. I suspect that he was trying to sneak in to blast the airfield at Darwin, from which my B-17s have been hitting his air bases. Next turn he had gone back to Timor. If this were my game with Tophat where I have grounded Dauntlesses at Darwin Zonker might have been sorry about that move. But as is, I suspect that the AI aborted a bombardment attack just because my planes dropped a few bombs. We'll see what transpires. (Zonker has been busy with a four-letter-word, "work", recently, and it is getting in the way of his game time. [:(] )
Dave Baranyi
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ZonkerHarris
- Posts: 83
- Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2004 1:14 pm
- Location: Walden Puddle
RE: Ides of March
Too right -- I've been busier than the probverbial one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest, and will probably stay that way for the next few weeks. Ah, the things we do to put bread (and wargames) on the table.
My TF off of Darwin had actually been gunning for one of Dave's CLs that was damaged off Timor. I spotted one limping off towards Oz, but I guessed wrong about the port they were heading for (it was a 50/50 shot). Not a big deal, but it would have been nice to give my BBs some "exercise with the great guns".
I have been very careful about air cover in the SRA, but for all that I've had two BBs torpedoed by biplanes (one off Malaya in the first couple of turns, and one just now off Timor). Neither came close to sinking, and I have more than enough surface combat power to do without them at present. Yamato will commission soon, too (I'm sure there's a thread somewhere about why she arrives so late, but I must have missed it -- this always puzzles me).
Over all, I'm pretty happy with the state of the war. My economy is in the black and growing nicely, and my relative success at ASW has allowed me to ship oil and resources where needed without any significant interference. My hasty assault on the Burma road stalled, so I'm pulling back to Mandalay to regroup. I may return in greater force at some point, or I may just hit softer, and more rewarding, targets elsewhere. (The Burma road only provides 500 supply points a day to China, which isn't going to make much of a difference there.)
All in all, to paraphrase Mel Brooks, it's good to be the Emperor.
My TF off of Darwin had actually been gunning for one of Dave's CLs that was damaged off Timor. I spotted one limping off towards Oz, but I guessed wrong about the port they were heading for (it was a 50/50 shot). Not a big deal, but it would have been nice to give my BBs some "exercise with the great guns".
I have been very careful about air cover in the SRA, but for all that I've had two BBs torpedoed by biplanes (one off Malaya in the first couple of turns, and one just now off Timor). Neither came close to sinking, and I have more than enough surface combat power to do without them at present. Yamato will commission soon, too (I'm sure there's a thread somewhere about why she arrives so late, but I must have missed it -- this always puzzles me).
Over all, I'm pretty happy with the state of the war. My economy is in the black and growing nicely, and my relative success at ASW has allowed me to ship oil and resources where needed without any significant interference. My hasty assault on the Burma road stalled, so I'm pulling back to Mandalay to regroup. I may return in greater force at some point, or I may just hit softer, and more rewarding, targets elsewhere. (The Burma road only provides 500 supply points a day to China, which isn't going to make much of a difference there.)
All in all, to paraphrase Mel Brooks, it's good to be the Emperor.
"All right you primitive screwheads, listen up. See this? This is my boomstick!"
March 23, 1942 - Stats
Things continue to be quiet in our game. Zonker is busy in Real Life which has slowed down Game Life a lot. At the same time, game-things are also pretty quiet. I'm still licking my wounds and wondering when I start to get anything worthwhile to work with. Zonker is probably preparing for some major offensive somewhere or another. Certain he has been taking it easy at Timor. I had expected him to whack the whole island, but he is just seemingly taking it easy while he shrugs off the occasional feeble attack from my leftover Brit or Dutch planes. Obviously, I'm not going after his transports with my little CL/DD fleet while he has a battleship group parked there.
So while things are quiet, here are the major stats for us as of March 23, 1942. BTW - as a reminder, we started out with a non-historical start, surprise on, and one day turns.
Overall Points:
Japanese: 12135
Allied: 3982
That whopping big lead on Zonker's part comes from the following components:
Bases:
Japanese: 197/2570
Allied: 251/2959
Zonker has everything that matters in the PI and DEI, and taken three Chinese bases, as well as all of non-jungle Burma and all of Malaya. There was nothing I could do about any of that - my guys fought to the last and ended up as follows:
Army losses:
Japanese: 128
Allied: 6559
That makes up three quarters of the difference between the two of us.
I'm reasonably happy with the Air statistics:
Aircraft Lost:
Japanese: 779
Allied: 1116
The top 12 plane-types lost are as follows:
A6M2 Zero - 138
P40B Tomahawk - 107
Li-48 Lily - 93
Buffalo 1 - 73
Martin 139 - 70
I-16C - 69
Brewster 339D - 69
Ki-21 Sally - 60
SBD Dauntless - 53
Vildebeast IV - 52
B5N Kate - 51
Ki-43 1b Oscar - 49
Both of us have lost a fair number of planes on the ground. I am generally avoiding throwing my planes away against Zonker's Zeros if I can. The naval plane losses are probably due as much to carrier sinkings as anything else. (Certainly for me.)
My top pilot score consists of two pilots tied at 5 kills apiece.
As far as ships go:
Naval Losses:
Japanese: 34/565
Allied: 104/1566
Zonker has lost one CVL and a cruiser. I've lost the Enterprise, two BBs at Pearl, and a couple of other cruisers during my initial departure from Pearl.
Dave Baranyi
So while things are quiet, here are the major stats for us as of March 23, 1942. BTW - as a reminder, we started out with a non-historical start, surprise on, and one day turns.
Overall Points:
Japanese: 12135
Allied: 3982
That whopping big lead on Zonker's part comes from the following components:
Bases:
Japanese: 197/2570
Allied: 251/2959
Zonker has everything that matters in the PI and DEI, and taken three Chinese bases, as well as all of non-jungle Burma and all of Malaya. There was nothing I could do about any of that - my guys fought to the last and ended up as follows:
Army losses:
Japanese: 128
Allied: 6559
That makes up three quarters of the difference between the two of us.
I'm reasonably happy with the Air statistics:
Aircraft Lost:
Japanese: 779
Allied: 1116
The top 12 plane-types lost are as follows:
A6M2 Zero - 138
P40B Tomahawk - 107
Li-48 Lily - 93
Buffalo 1 - 73
Martin 139 - 70
I-16C - 69
Brewster 339D - 69
Ki-21 Sally - 60
SBD Dauntless - 53
Vildebeast IV - 52
B5N Kate - 51
Ki-43 1b Oscar - 49
Both of us have lost a fair number of planes on the ground. I am generally avoiding throwing my planes away against Zonker's Zeros if I can. The naval plane losses are probably due as much to carrier sinkings as anything else. (Certainly for me.)
My top pilot score consists of two pilots tied at 5 kills apiece.
As far as ships go:
Naval Losses:
Japanese: 34/565
Allied: 104/1566
Zonker has lost one CVL and a cruiser. I've lost the Enterprise, two BBs at Pearl, and a couple of other cruisers during my initial departure from Pearl.
Dave Baranyi
RE: March 28, 1942 - back to war
As you can see, things slowed down a lot for us as Zonker was carried off by "real life". But we are slowly getting back at it.
Zonker has had all the "interesting" highlights. He invaded Port Moresby and caught my incoming RAN TF with part of the KB. There are now fewer RAN ships...
Then some Kates gave themselves away around Noumea. I'm not sure yet whether or not Zonker is just "fishing around" or going in to try to cut off Australia. Never-the-less I'm pretty sure that is a different piece of the KB than the guys who nailed the Auzzies.
In the meanwhile, I've interferred with Zonker's invasion of Timor by having some carrier-air of my own intercede. Zonker poopooed my dive bombers, but he did let discresion be the better part of valor and backed off once I got within torpedo range. The fact that so far only Betties have come in knocking suggests to me that much of the KB is off in the South Pacific rather than the DEI.
Only time will tell.
Dave Baranyi
Zonker has had all the "interesting" highlights. He invaded Port Moresby and caught my incoming RAN TF with part of the KB. There are now fewer RAN ships...
Then some Kates gave themselves away around Noumea. I'm not sure yet whether or not Zonker is just "fishing around" or going in to try to cut off Australia. Never-the-less I'm pretty sure that is a different piece of the KB than the guys who nailed the Auzzies.
In the meanwhile, I've interferred with Zonker's invasion of Timor by having some carrier-air of my own intercede. Zonker poopooed my dive bombers, but he did let discresion be the better part of valor and backed off once I got within torpedo range. The fact that so far only Betties have come in knocking suggests to me that much of the KB is off in the South Pacific rather than the DEI.
Only time will tell.
Dave Baranyi
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Tom Hunter
- Posts: 2194
- Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2004 1:57 am
RE: One Month at War - a Summary (ZonkerH vs ADavidB)
Glad to see you two back in action.
Your loss rate seems fine. The army losses can't be avoided and everything else is in line with what other people post.
I can say from personal experience that the allies can lose hundreds of PTs, AKs and APs without losing the war [:'(] though it does encourage one to be efficeint with the convoys.
Off Timor was it US CVs or British?
Your loss rate seems fine. The army losses can't be avoided and everything else is in line with what other people post.
I can say from personal experience that the allies can lose hundreds of PTs, AKs and APs without losing the war [:'(] though it does encourage one to be efficeint with the convoys.
Off Timor was it US CVs or British?
RE: One Month at War - a Summary (ZonkerH vs ADavidB)
Off Timor was it US CVs or British?
When Zonker sends some forces back, he'll find out...[:D]
(We're not "hiding" what we write here from one another. [:)])
Dave Baranyi
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ZonkerHarris
- Posts: 83
- Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2004 1:14 pm
- Location: Walden Puddle
RE: One Month at War - a Summary (ZonkerH vs ADavidB)
Like Dave said, the real world has been in the way (a business trip cost me almost an entire week of valuable WITP time) but we're still slugging it out.
Port Moresby turned out to be empty (as my recon showed over the last couple of game months), so it fell without a fight. The Aussie cruiser TF that attempted to intervene lost (by my intel, and assuming I'm remembering this correctly) CAs Australia and Canberra, along with an elderly USN DD. CL Hobart was also reported torpedoed, but probably made port. I may have hit another DD, maybe not. The attacks on this force involved only Zeros and Kates, and I also believe that only Kates were spotted both here and near Noumea. With my Vals remaining unseen, it is probably unclear to Dave whether any of my fleet CVs were present at either of these locations or if these were just an element or elements of KB Jr.
In Burma, my Zeros appear to be getting a grip on things, as the last P-40 sweep yielded results in my favor -- 7 Tomahawks reported destroyed against none of my planes. The B-17s have been less active recently here, too. I've pulled back from the Burma Road for now, content to let the Chinese have their 500 supply points per day.
Near Timor I've spotted the USS Lexington, which emerged unscathed from an attack by a Daitai's worth of Bettys. This serves as a useful reminder to me that we're not in UV-land anymore. I've known for a while that the Betty isn't as effective in WITP, but I think I've still been influenced by UV experiences, where an Allied player didn't dare send his CVs within Betty range of Rabaul if he wanted to get them back. (Or at least not without pasting Rabaul with heavy bombers for a few days in advance.) More happily in this region, my Zeros bagged a couple of F4Fs without loss to themselves, and I've laid siege to Batavia, home of the last significant Allied forces in the DEI. I did postpone the invasion of the western end of Timor, but I've plenty of time to come back while the "correlation of forces" (as the Soviets used to put it) remains in my favor.
The other useful lesson I've learned over the past few turns is that Dave's air recon is as bad as mine -- I was annoyed when his CVs managed to get close to Hokkaido or Kwajalein without detection, but now that I've been able to do much the same off North Australia and Noumea, I can take heart from the fact that this particular sword cuts both ways.
Setting aside the question of which CV division(s) was/were spotted in SoPac recently, I'm confident that Dave's forces haven't even sniffed a fair number of my CVs in recent weeks. And given what I know about Dave's dispositions thanks to the Timor engagements and the sinking of the Enterprise, I can be confident of having local superiority when they do show themselves. Sadly, these good times won't last, but early 1942 is Japan's moment in this war, so I've got to make the most of it.
Port Moresby turned out to be empty (as my recon showed over the last couple of game months), so it fell without a fight. The Aussie cruiser TF that attempted to intervene lost (by my intel, and assuming I'm remembering this correctly) CAs Australia and Canberra, along with an elderly USN DD. CL Hobart was also reported torpedoed, but probably made port. I may have hit another DD, maybe not. The attacks on this force involved only Zeros and Kates, and I also believe that only Kates were spotted both here and near Noumea. With my Vals remaining unseen, it is probably unclear to Dave whether any of my fleet CVs were present at either of these locations or if these were just an element or elements of KB Jr.
In Burma, my Zeros appear to be getting a grip on things, as the last P-40 sweep yielded results in my favor -- 7 Tomahawks reported destroyed against none of my planes. The B-17s have been less active recently here, too. I've pulled back from the Burma Road for now, content to let the Chinese have their 500 supply points per day.
Near Timor I've spotted the USS Lexington, which emerged unscathed from an attack by a Daitai's worth of Bettys. This serves as a useful reminder to me that we're not in UV-land anymore. I've known for a while that the Betty isn't as effective in WITP, but I think I've still been influenced by UV experiences, where an Allied player didn't dare send his CVs within Betty range of Rabaul if he wanted to get them back. (Or at least not without pasting Rabaul with heavy bombers for a few days in advance.) More happily in this region, my Zeros bagged a couple of F4Fs without loss to themselves, and I've laid siege to Batavia, home of the last significant Allied forces in the DEI. I did postpone the invasion of the western end of Timor, but I've plenty of time to come back while the "correlation of forces" (as the Soviets used to put it) remains in my favor.
The other useful lesson I've learned over the past few turns is that Dave's air recon is as bad as mine -- I was annoyed when his CVs managed to get close to Hokkaido or Kwajalein without detection, but now that I've been able to do much the same off North Australia and Noumea, I can take heart from the fact that this particular sword cuts both ways.
Setting aside the question of which CV division(s) was/were spotted in SoPac recently, I'm confident that Dave's forces haven't even sniffed a fair number of my CVs in recent weeks. And given what I know about Dave's dispositions thanks to the Timor engagements and the sinking of the Enterprise, I can be confident of having local superiority when they do show themselves. Sadly, these good times won't last, but early 1942 is Japan's moment in this war, so I've got to make the most of it.
"All right you primitive screwheads, listen up. See this? This is my boomstick!"
RE: One Month at War - a Summary (ZonkerH vs ADavidB)
Port Moresby turned out to be empty (as my recon showed over the last couple of game months), so it fell without a fight
I pulled those troops out quite a while ago. I would much rather have them building strength in malaria-free Australia then try to support them in PNG.
Dave Baranyi
RE: One Month at War - a Summary (ZonkerH vs ADavidB)
The other useful lesson I've learned over the past few turns is that Dave's air recon is as bad as mine -- I was annoyed when his CVs managed to get close to Hokkaido or Kwajalein without detection, but now that I've been able to do much the same off North Australia and Noumea, I can take heart from the fact that this particular sword cuts both ways.
Well, now my air patrols say that a Japanese transport TF is cruising around NE of Noumea. So unless that is the carrier TF that scouted Noumea earlier, Zonker is planning an invasion somewhere in the region. Since it's still March 42, I'm not going to do a lot about it at this point. (Taking over Wobbly's game has immediately taught me a LOT about over extending myself.
Dave Baranyi
March 31
This game is a real change of pace for me after taking over Wobbly's game. If I hadn't lost the Big E to a sub up in Alaska, and sailed the Aussie cruisers into a carrier trap off of PNG, there wouldn't have been much action at all in the past couple of game-months.
Right now Zonker is sailing one carrier TF on a "fishing trip" around the South Pacific, but there's nothing much there for him to see. Another of his carrier TFs (maybe the one that hit the Aussie cruisers) was last seen sailing up along the northeastern channel between Oz and PNG. I guess that he is setting up to try to catch the carriers that I've been using to hector his Timor invasion fleets.
Most everywhere else is quiet. Zonker is patiently working on the final touches to capture Batavia, and is going after the few pitiful fragments of Allied troops that are left in the PI. Things have quieted down in Burma. Zonker pulled back from my "invitation" to let his troops "enjoy" the wonders of the malarial jungle. He has also brought some decent fighters into central Burma to keep me from getting too much target practice for my long range bombers.
The main activity for both of us is that we are both trying to find ways to get our Air Patrols to see anything at all in front of their noses. General Magoo, my commander of Air Patrol, assures me that he has bought the thickest and highest quality Coke bottle bottoms for eyeglass lenses for his pilots. Somehow I have a feeling that he isn't kidding...[:(]
Dave Baranyi
Right now Zonker is sailing one carrier TF on a "fishing trip" around the South Pacific, but there's nothing much there for him to see. Another of his carrier TFs (maybe the one that hit the Aussie cruisers) was last seen sailing up along the northeastern channel between Oz and PNG. I guess that he is setting up to try to catch the carriers that I've been using to hector his Timor invasion fleets.
Most everywhere else is quiet. Zonker is patiently working on the final touches to capture Batavia, and is going after the few pitiful fragments of Allied troops that are left in the PI. Things have quieted down in Burma. Zonker pulled back from my "invitation" to let his troops "enjoy" the wonders of the malarial jungle. He has also brought some decent fighters into central Burma to keep me from getting too much target practice for my long range bombers.
The main activity for both of us is that we are both trying to find ways to get our Air Patrols to see anything at all in front of their noses. General Magoo, my commander of Air Patrol, assures me that he has bought the thickest and highest quality Coke bottle bottoms for eyeglass lenses for his pilots. Somehow I have a feeling that he isn't kidding...[:(]
Dave Baranyi