Rising Sun or Shooting Star? Grotius-san (J.) vs. Cap_&_Gown (A.)

[Grotius]

Hai! I have the Japanese in Scenario 2, "Rising Sun," against Cap_and_Gown. We have agreed to maintain separate AARs and not to peek at one another's AAR, in the style of PzB and Wobbly (now Dave). That way we can discuss strategy openly. I for one need all the help I can get; I have very little experience with playing Japan in the opening months of the war.

This scenario runs from December 7, 1941 to mid-March 1942. Our settings are as follows:

Historical First Turn ON
December 7 Surprise ON
Allied and Japanese Sub Doctrines OFF
Allied Damage Control ON
Fog of War ON
Advanced Weather ON
Variable Reinforcements

Good luck to Cap-san!

[Grotius]

7 December 1941: The historical first turn is now history. We have landed troops on Luzon and Khota Baru, on the east coast of Malaya. Our ground forces easily overwhelmed the enemy garrison at Batan Island. Our air attacks on Clark Field were quite successful, destroying several dozen planes on the ground. The IJN also conducted a series of naval bombardments at northern Luzon and the east coast of Malaya.

Our map extends only as far east as the Philippines and Palau, so I have no Pearl Harbor results to report. Indeed, I begin the game with only one CVL; the main carrier strike force will arrive in a couple of weeks. Curiously, I get no air reinforcements at all; is this an intentional design feature? It worries me.

My short-term objectives are Hong Kong; Aparri, Vigan, and Legaspi on Luzon; and Khota Baru on Malaya. My medium-term plan is to concentrate my forces in Malaya and the Phillipines and to attempt to cut off the enemy in the process. I of course plan an invasion of the DEI, but only when I have the supply, troops and air cover to do it right.

[Grotius]

Here's a look at the situation in Malaya. I would like to find a way to cut off the northern part of the peninsula from Singapore, but I lack a convenient east-west highway. Perhaps Kuantan to Malacca.

[Grotius]

And here is Luzon. Again, I hope to encircle enemy troops at Laong and like places, forcing them to surrender rather than retreat.

[Grotius]

Finally, a look at the first turn's intel results. I did get many planes on the ground at Clark, including a few B-17s. Cap's Malaya-based bombers put one bomb on the deck of one of my BBs, but there was almost no damage at all -- SYS 1.

Note that I start the game more than 11,000 points behind the Allies. Banzai! Time to get busy.

[PzB74]

Good luck Grotius! It should provide a good learning experience for both of you.

Never played that scenario myself, so I can't really give you specific advice. I think it's smart to play hardball in the Phillippines and Malaya.
Try to divide the enemy, e.g trap half his men in Manila and the other half on Clark Field. This can be done by placing troops in both of these places, just
make sure you got enough at Clark to drive the men back into the mountain.

Same in Malaya, use the 'R' button and STAY ON the railroad line. No 'fancy manouvering' out in the bush - that's an hullo mr Livingstone experience [:'(]

The Allies best resources are their torpedo bombers and subs in the long run. The surface force can be pacified by placing strong Betty and Nell Daitais in key
bases like Kendari, Balikpapaan etc. Just make sure you provide Zero escorts for them. So don't wait too long before you secure these key bases as it will effectively
'shut the door' for the Allies in the DEI. Sea movement then becomes hazardous to say the least.

Even though you should be patient, but try to move as quickly as you can. Surprise is actually worth quite a lot..even in the opening stages of the war.
Ok, go get em [8D]

[Grotius]

Thanks for the advice, PzB! Much appreciated. This is gonna be fun.

[Grotius]

After spending about four hours plotting my first turn, I noticed that Canton is messed up. If you load the game in AI or Head-to-Head mode, Canton has 58,000 supply and 175,000 fuel, with no damage to the base. But after our first PBEM turn, it's got no supply or fuel and heavy damage to the base. I was able to reproduce the problem by reloading the turn, and I also reproduced it in one head-to-head game. On the other hand, I got a "healthy" Canton in a second head-to-head game and in an AI game.

I've posted about this in the support forum; I'm not quite sure what to do now. I hate to lose all my work on the turn, but on the other hand I hate losing 58K supply and 175K fuel more -- not to mention the use of the best airbase for bombing Hong Kong.

Here's a screenshot of Canton, Dec. 8, 1941, after no enemy attacks on it:

[Grotius]

Well, pry says it's a result of partisan activity in Canton. The manual says partisans are off in small-map scenarios! And there's no garrison requirement field listed in Canton. Also, I lost ALL supply (58K) and fuel (180K) at the base in one day -- that's almost 10% of Japan's total supply, and 20% of its fuel. That on top of 69 damage to port/airfield. So not only do I now have supply trouble in Hong Kong, but I also can't bomb HK from Canton. If partisans really are "on," then the "historical" first turn shouldn't remove my entire garrison from Canton automatically! [:@]

Had I known that this would result from the historical first turn, I would've asked for a non-historical start in which I was simply allowed to leave one unit to garrison Canton. Then I'd ship in one or two more brigades from Formosa to Canton and then to Hong Kong.

Anyway, now I have a question of PBEM etiquette. Do I request a restart with that arrangement, or soldier on? All we've invested so far is the auto-turn 1, plus a few hours of my plotting of turn 2. But who knows, some glitch might pop up again in five days, and we might never finish. What's your advice? Am I making too much of the loss of all this supply and fuel?

[AmiralLaurent]

I think it is worth a restart. The loss in supply and fuel is just too big.

I have never played this scenario so can't say if this partisan attack is usual or not.

By the way, bombing HK with planes is not really useful.

[Grotius]

Thanks for your advice. I think I will ask for a restart.

I guess I was thinking of a Port Attack to get those ships in port in Hong Kong, and maybe to disrupt a few Allied squads. And to give the pilots a little easy experience.

[Grotius]

Cap has graciously agreed to restart with the same settings, with one minor change: Historical First Turn is OFF, but we agreed not to alter any pre-existing orders except one: I was allowed to keep a garrison unit in Canton. We exchanged these turns, and the first day of combat largely resembled our initial first day.

For the second day, I've ordered some of my surface fleets at Malaya to return to Indochina to refuel and rearm, but one remains on station to guard against any surface threat from Prince of Wales and Repulse. Oscars are flying LRCAP over my two landings. Two squadrons of Lily's will bomb Alor Star's airfield.

One oddity: Phnom Penh begins the scenario with 90 aircraft at the base but no aviation support (forcing me to distribute the planes elsewhere). There's is a BF unit there (the 121st), but neither its unit screen nor its TOE show any Aviation Support. Is this a glitch, or will that unit fill up?

Several ground units are moving to the peninsula by rail; I have not yet decided whether to send any to Burma. I may try to surround Victoria Point before I take it, so as to destroy (rather than retreat) the troops garrisoning it.

In the Philippines, I've ordered my CVL away for a turn or two to rest and upgrade from Claudes to Zeroes. Deliberate attacks scheduled at Vigan, Aparri, and Legaspi. Most aircraft are standing down to rest after the first turn's air strikes. Meanwhile, reinforcements for all theaters are boarding transports at several of my major ports.

[pry]

ORIGINAL: Grotius

Cap has graciously agreed to restart with the same settings, with one minor change: Historical First Turn is OFF, but we agreed not to alter any pre-existing orders except one: I was allowed to keep a garrison unit in Canton. We exchanged these turns, and the first day of combat largely resembled our initial first day.

I assume the dreaded 1st turn sak of Canton did not reoccur??? The reason the partsains are on in that scenario as opposed to being listed as off in the manual is because any scenario that has Chinese bases utilized in the scenario the partsains are active because it is in the game code not the scenario data base. No Chinese bases no partsains...

One oddity: Phnom Penh begins the scenario with 90 aircraft at the base but no aviation support (forcing me to distribute the planes elsewhere). There's is a BF unit there (the 121st), but neither its unit screen nor its TOE show any Aviation Support. Is this a glitch, or will that unit fill up?

Will check it, it would help if you could post the unit number when a question arises it helps me zero in faster and fix instead of having to load the game find the unit in question then going to the data base and seeing what it up..

I'll try to follow this thread as time allows but if something comes up email me at pry-witp@houston.rr.com and let me know as I am trying to fix the little errors in the small map scenarios for 1.5

And to answer your question there is a error in the base force that I am fixing right now it has no avaition support and has support listed twice instead... So no it will not fix itself in your game

[Grotius]

Hiya Pry,

The unit number seems to be 1891 -- the 121st IJA Base Force, which begins the game in Phnom Penh. (Er, the unit number is the number you see when you hover the mouse over the base on the map screen, right?) Yep, you seem to have identified the problem: it lists "Support" twice, and no Aviation Support.

I'll deal with it. It gives me a little extra support, which is okay, I guess.

Canton is fine now -- all supply and fuel intact. I just manually ordered one of the three infantry units to stay there. You guys might want to consider doing the same for the "Historical first turn" orders.

[Grotius]

8 December 1942: My second day's operations went more or less as planned, except that I didn't catch any of Cap's shipping as it began to flee the Philippines. I just felt I needed to rest my Betties and Nells, which all had fatigue in the mid-20s as a result of the airstrikes first turn.

In the Philippines, I captured Legaspi, Vigan, and Aparri, bombarded Laong and Naga, and loaded more troops and supply at Formosa. Two of my regiments arrived in Hong Kong, but they await reinforcements from Pescadores.

In Malaya, my transport TFs continued to unload without incident. No enemy airstrikes appeared. I doubt that my Oscars deterred any bombers; more likely Cap (like me) was giving his bombers a rest. I did bomb Alor Star from the air, and further bombardment of Khota Baru is planned.

Here's a look at the situation in the PI. I dunno if I'll post screenshots every turn, but in the early going, what the heck. Is it bad form to post screenshots, or do most readers have the bandwidth to handle them?

[Grotius]

9 December 1942: Today one of my subs at last sank an enemy AK fleeing the Philippines. In addition, my heroic Jakes on board a CS patrolling at Legaspi actually landed three -- count 'em, three -- bomb hits on enemy ships. But my Nells and Betties, though set to Naval Attack, stayed quiet. And my CVL is at Palau, upgrading to Zeroes and refueling/rearming.

Here's a look at the path taken by the courageous Jakes from Legaspi, as well as the location of the sub attack.

[Grotius]

And here's an excerpt from the combat report, detailing the naval-air attacks conducted by my ... Jakes. Hey, what can I say, KB is still at Hawaii, off-map.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 12/09/41

[snipped bombardment of Khota Baru and various ASW attacks]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Dumaguete at 41,57

Japanese aircraft
E13A1 Jake x 7

No Japanese losses

Allied Ships
AK Dos Hermanos, Bomb hits 2

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x E13A1 Jake bombing at 2000 feet
4 x E13A1 Jake bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Dumaguete at 41,57

Japanese aircraft
E13A1 Jake x 7

No Japanese losses

Allied Ships
TK Manatawny, Bomb hits 1

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x E13A1 Jake bombing at 2000 feet
4 x E13A1 Jake bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack at 37,59

Japanese Ships
SS I-123

Allied Ships
AK Compagnia Filipinas, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

[Grotius]

One curiosity. Cap_and_gown has put five subs in one hex just northeast of Vigan. My sightings say these subs are all sailing northeast. As it happens, I have a TF to reinforce and resupply Vigan directly in the path of this wolfpack. As I recall, wolfpacks actually don't operate efficiently in WITP, so maybe I should just ignore it. But I'm still considering diverting the TF to some other destination. Here's a look:

[Grotius]

Well, I decided to reroute that TF. We'll see what happens.

Interestingly, Cap_and_Gown seems to be retreating down the Malaya peninsula. Khota Baru appears to have abandoned; unless I'm mistaken, I'll take it uncontested this turn. Likewise, my recon spots no planes at all at any base north of Singapore or Mersing. Perhaps he plans to make a stand at Kuantan. If he is pulling all the way back to Singapore, that will foil my plans to cut off the northern half of the peninsula, but it will also speed my advance and cut my losses.

On the other hand, he's actually moved a unit forward in northern Luzon, plugging the gap between Lingayen and the base two hexes east of it (Tuegulfero or some such). I had planned to occupy this hex to isolate Laong. But I still believe I can encircle his units in northern Luzon, once I just get in a tad more supply...

Screenshots to follow after we run the current turn.

[Grotius]

10 December 1941: Yep, he abandoned Khora Batu, and I took it without firing a shot at an enemy squad. I suppose I should've bombarded to keep his troops in the hex, but then again I don't really mind taking bases uncontested. I can still cut off his troops by invading Kuantan or moving down the west coast and cutting him off at the Malacca-Kuantan highway.

Likewise, he seems to have abandoned Tuguegarao, in eastern Luzon, and my troops are advancing on it now. He's certainly making it harder for me to encircle him. I hope to start moving more quickly now that I've gotten some supply ashore.

Cap split up his massive submarine wolfpack, and I damaged one with an ASW TF. I have about a half-dozen ASW TFs up and running at any given time.

Here's a look at the situation on Malaya: