A newbies assessment ...

[vonSchnitter]

Hi Gents !

I am almost "done" with a second run of the first month in the war against the AI playing in Yamamotos slippers in the light of CHS. Would you care for a kind of narrative ?
Touching the "Zen" aspect of things ?

Funny enough "Tora, Tora , Tora" was aired on TV last WE ... over here

Cheers

[Ron Saueracker]

Why not? Better if it was a PBEM though.[;)]

[TheElf]

Yup. Will it be in the AAR section?

[vonSchnitter]

Well Gentlemen,

I cannot claim to be a WitP pro or Pacific War buff. Far from it, even though I think I have come to terms with most of the "game mechnics".
While the new units and the numerically incresed variety of units gives the whole thing more "debth" - at least more things to explore - it is of course the map and OOB changes which alter the course of things by a very wide margin.
Any movements by sea - and many moves on terra firma - are much slower now. This new "timing" requires much more carefull planning. There is no possible rushing of units to a tight spot, which was quite possible with the stock campaigns.
I am not sure whether it is just this game - i.e. the rolling the dice component - or the changes coming with patch 1.75. But it looks to me, that small tactical engagements can have a huge impact on strategy in CHS, just because the movements take longer, more things can happen on the way. Esp. in the presence of enemy air.
Just an exsample: Landing the first regiment of the 16th Division at Legaspi usually spells doom to any allied units on Luzon. Since chances to drive the Japanese into the sea at this place are becoming quite remote and comitting a larger force to it may end in desaster for the allies, if the IJN makes a landing at Naga - cutting off the units at Legaspi. Now - since the IJN ships take longer to get there (at least one more day of sailing in reach of enemy air), chances for any enemy air assets to score a hit on the TF are increased (the Bombers at Cagayan). Since the Bombers have one more day, the chances for one of them to stand in for the Medal of Honour - i.e scoring a chance hit on a transport is greatly increased. That is the possibility of more sorties to a target increase the probability of a hit and - since the dice are still around - of hitting hard. At this juncture, sinking one transport or even slowing down the TF for just one day may decide the issue at Legaspi.
Besides the rather logical "probability of hits versus sorties" issue, I have a feeling, things have become more "dicey".
Exhibit A: A single torp hit on the CA Exeter near Manila exploded a magazine and the ship was sunk. Never seen this before.
Exhibit B: CVE Taiyo was part of TF bringing the rear of the 16th Div to Legaspi. A CAP of 12 Nates and 9 Zeros intercepted a Raid of 3 B-17s, damaging two, but the third scored two hits on the Taiyo - which got away with some 10% sys damage.
Exhibit C: A CA in TF 5 (including 6 ASW capable DDs) was hit by a torp from a sub near Saigon. While the rest of the subs managed little more than to sink a PC and to damage a Transport or two till the end of the year.
Even though it may just be my luck or lack of it, if this "trend" continues, I think it is a very good thing. It would just add to the "feel".
Anyway, if I am right, the whole logic of naval war-fare has changed.

Some of the - at first glance - small changes on the map, require a massive change of strategy compared to the stock campaigns.
Example: The stretches of dirt track around Moulmein. This slows down any IJA advance towards Rangoon, causes much more wear and tear on the units finally arriving there . And of course, since supply lines have less capacity, may stall the first phase at Moulmein. Till the 33rd Div. arrives from Shanghai ! And in the long term it means sending supplies to the area by sea, which gives the RN quite some nice opportunities to engage the IJN in this area. What is more, this scenario makes it way more difficult to close the Burma/Ledo road and will delay it anyway, changing the things in China probably to some extend....
Since there is a chance now to bring in enforcements to Rangoon for the allies in an attempt to hold on to the place - and I can see a chance of success for this, or at least of forcing the Japanese player to accept a war of attrition in the air for quite a while, if Bangkok has been "developed" in time - it is of great importance to stop the allies from evacuating troops from Singapore. By taking the risk of landing at Kuching early and turning it into a Betty/Nell base. And so on ....

While in the past any hide, rush and hit with numbers stratagem had a high probability of success, the many map and OOB changes, the slowing down of operations and so on should make this a very high risk proposition on most areas of the map.

A few findings:

Since I am not quite sure about the efects of relocating/redistribution of some of the resources/Oil locations on Japanese production, I have slowed down AC upgrades for the time being as compared to the stock campaigns.
Therefore the obsolescent IJA dive bombers will have to soldier on for a while. While these things are utterly useless in a ground combat role of any kind, they really shine against allied shipping. In numbers, they just behave like a swarm of angry wasps stinging with high accuracy and many times over with very, very low losses to themselves. In ASW, they are not as good (because of bomb sizes), but their numbers still have effect. Lillies are utterly useless, except for ASW.

CVE Taiyo has earned itself a streak of „mentioned in dispatches“ and Battle Honours. I would think Radm. Tashiro, the TF boss, would/should be in for a promotion by now. The Tayo is part of a large transport TF with fast APs for long range hauling of valuable troops trough still contested waters. It is accompamied by two slow Katori Class CLs and the usual mix of ASW ships. It has 9 Zeros, 9 Kates for naval attack/ASW (from Shanghai) and 9 Susies for ASW.
To my surprise, the Kates tackled a Dutch Cruiser TF and sunk two CLs while the TF was unloading at Legaspi, it survived to 500pd Bombs with little damage, survived a chancy transfer to Shanghai with two PGs for escort (!), repaired quickly, rejoined the rest of the TF at Shanghai and is on its way again. And the Kates scored again, at least damaging a Sub !
I have never seen a CVE performing that well - I had the impression in fact, that AC on a CVE would not participate in naval attacks ?

As far as my campaigning goes, the most remarkable stunt was pulled by the KB off Hawai. The first day raids went well, sinking one BB and damaging a few more to a large extend. I had intended to keep the KB in the area to try and sink some ships when leaving port. To my great surprise, the Lex TF headed straight for the KB north of the islands, scored two hits on Kaga and was sunk for its troubles. Searching for the remains of this TF somewhat to the north, contact with a Carrier TF at extreme range was accomplished - and sure enough, the Enterprise was caught with pants down i.e. beyond the range of her attack aircraft - 40 bomb hits later, she was gone. I have never achieved anything near, and it was shear luck.
That should give me the time and slack to explore the situation in the island chanes south of Kwajalein for a while.

Thats it for now. This and a very big „THANK YOU“ to all, who have contributed to CHS. A whole new and much improved experience.

Cheers

[Mistmatz]

Regarding PH attack I noticed that Lady Lex and Eterprise are usually moved back from the AI towards PH.

This means if you stay another day or two to finish some of the BB's off it's quite likely that those single CV TF's will run into KB and of course get massacred unless you set KB's planes to Port/AF attack and not Naval which means KB might get massacred. [:D]

I'm not very experienced, but I played a bit around with Japan in CHS 1.06 and always got this result. I guess it's the same in vanilla WitP because the stupid AI doesnt seem to avoid KB with their carriers. To achieve a somewhat historical start I suggest leaving PH after first strike in a direction were chances are low that you run accidentaly into allied CV's.

[vonSchnitter]

Well Mistmatz,

I really dunno about the PH stats. My first go at it in CHS had the KB in a streak of two or three days of bad wheather, and a CV TF almost wiped out my AO TF north of Midway. KB just made it back to Tokyo with fuel levels just short of ordering any rating aboard to piss into the tanks in order to really „scratch the barrel“.
In the „stock“ campaigns, I never got beyond one CV TF off PH.
In reality both USN Carrier TFS got orders to seek out the Japanese forces. I am sure – at least according to his testimonies before more than one Congressional board – Halsey would have gone for it. With little doubts about the outcome. Taking out one USN CV is quite within limits. IMHO.

Anaway. This story has a hero. Right ? Let me continue the story of VADM Toshiro, TF 49 and CVE Taiyo. Or the „ZEN“ aspect of managing long range invasion TFs.

As mentioned above, Taiyo was send ahead of TF 49 to Shanghai to mend the damage inflicted by the B-17. Taiyo made harbour without incident and rejoined TF 49 a few days later, when loading of the 33 Div. was almost done at the same harbour. 33 Div. was set to plan for Mersing on Malaya – just as a safeguard, if things went wrong there, even though the plan was to deliver the live cargo to Bangkok and send them off to Rangoon.

At the time of departure from Shanghai, TF 49 was comprised of the Taiyo (with the former compliment of AC aboard, with 5 Sys damage). Two Katori Class Cls, 4 Minekaze Class DDs, 3 Shumushu Class (long range) PCs, 2 PGs, 2 APDs and 8 APs – the slowest ship at 17 knots. Kates and Susies went for ASW. Remember, TF 49 was about delivering valuable cargo into or through contested waters – at no time, it was contemplated to use it as an invasion TF. And here the ZEN starts.

In a way, the 33rd was held in reserve to deal with any contingency in the Malaya campaign, any delays in the move on Singapore are considered to have very serious long term effects. And this is where VADM Toshiro steps in – all of a sudden asked to lead his TF into the eye of the storm. Toshiro had to do some quick and precise calkulations ...

The first part was to get the TF through the Sub infested waters around Formosa. Toshiro made it, including an attack on S-39 to the West of Formosa with three hits scored by the escorts (even though S-39 was sighted for two days after, it vanished after that ....).
Now things get complicated. The advance of the west coast troops (Imperial Guards and 5th Div plus a number of auxilliaries) was starting to bog down due to fatigue. The 18th Div had the same problem. A landing at Mersing to head off the troops from the North heading for Singapore is now a certainty.

TF 49 is now heading for the eye of the tiger ... and any delays are to be avoided. That is: Maintaining the rate of sailing is of the first importance.
The first thing TF 49 needs is minesweepers – just in case. Four long range MSWs head out from Taichu on Formose to Saigon for refuelling – pretty much on a parallel course to TF 49 – this TF meets and joines TF 49 just one (!) hex before the landings.

A minelayer TF with extra long range MSWs heads out from Takao (Formosa) to replace the medium range MSWs at Bangkok later on and to lay mines immediately after the taking of Mersing. (Facilitating the release of close cover TFs)

TF 5 with 2 BBs and 2 CAs is send ahead from Saigon to bombard Brunei – to pave the way for another landing – and will meet TF 49 on the return and stay with it (follow TF plus Patrol/do not retire). TF 11( four CAs ) and a CL/DD TF will move ahead of TF 49 out of Saigon to Mersing on Bombardment tasks at Mersing – TF11 will meet and accompany TF 49 on the way in to Mersing – about one day out. The surface TFs serve three purposes: a. - to defeat any enemy TF trying to intercept; b – to eliminate any enemies lingering at Mersing and c – to deflect any enemy air form TF49. (The CL/Destroyers will shepherd at least one of the secondary TFS after refuelling at Saigon)

A Zero Group goes to LRCAP for TF 49 two days out from Saigon, a Second Zero group (Alor Star) takes over 1 day out and stays with it. The group from Saigon switches to secondary TFs (TF 49 is short of supplies – coming from Saigon and Kompong Som after the landings). A Fast TF with a naval guard unit is supposed to meet TF 49 one day after the first landing. Just to keep watch, while the 33rd moves to Johore Bahru to seal off Singapore from the North. And yes, a TF with a Base force will bring up the rear .. Three of them arrived just the same day from Tokyo at Saigon, when the 33rd disembarked at Mersing ... [;)]
Well, the whole operation went smooth as silk – with no losses. Even though High Command had alloted forces to Toshiro in excess of what turned out to be required – the critical nature of the task covered this. None of the TFs involved missed the schedule by more than one hex ...

It just takes „getting the rythm“.

Next is about China . Which has become a mine field ...

Cheers