KDonovan vs Miller41 Scenario 13-Nik Mod 5.0 (Allies)

[KDonovan]

Woohoo!!...my first AAR....

This is actually a "continuation" of a previous PBEM game i had with Miller41 that we started back in September. In that game we were using Nik 3.1 Mod, which was great, however with the new ASW routines in the 1.795 patch, and Nik's modified ASW routines in 3.1, it became next to impossible to kill subs. We were at Mid-April 1942 at the time, so when i saw Nik's new mod 5.0. I suggested to Miller41 that we start a new game in May of 1942 (scenario 13) using Nik's new mod (since he took out his ASW modifications). My oppenant agreed, since in our last game he was basically progressing along historical timelines, so there wouldn't be that much of a difference b/t our last PBEM and our new PBEM.

So here it is....i'll be playing the Allies

Scenario 13 (May-42-->Mar-46)
Beta-v1.795. Nik Mod 5.0
Allied and Japanese Sub doctrines - OFF
Allied Damage Control - ON
Historical 1st Turn - OFF
Player Defined Upgrades - ON
Reinforcements - FIXED
2 Day Turns

House Rules
No moving of Kwantung LCU out of Manchuria unless PP are paid (air units are the exception)
No Allied upgrading 2E bombers to 4E bombers
No basing of 4E bombers in China
No Chinese Incursions into Vietnam or Japanese Incursions into China from Vietnam

Now since we are playing Nik's Mod 5.0, here's a "quick" summary of changes he has made:
- Oscar and Nate a little more dangerous
- A2A less bloody
- Increase in Japanese starting pilot pool
- Reduced bomb load of hvy bombers
- Reduced B17 production
- Daily supply gain reduced on WC and Karachi/Bombay
- AKs/APs/TKs capacity pretty much 1/2 across the entire board
- Major Modification - Land based AA increased (leading to inborn house rule of no bombing above 25,000 ft). Flying missions below 10,000 feet is now very dangerous. Unfortunately this effects Dive bombers greatly since they attack at 2,000ft (hard coded), therefore Dive Bombers are negated in Land Based Attacks. Makes AA units more effective in the game, thereby the need to bomb at more historical altitudes
- Forward Chinese cities at Fort level 9
- Elimination of Uber-CAP (bombers will get through)
- Hurricane range increased to 4/5
- Devestator range increased to 3/4
- Spitfire range increased to 3/4
- Indian/Burna frontier bases airfields are reduced so that no base can be built up base level 4
- British carriers now have Marlett II's instead of Fulmurs
- Reduced resource centers in Burma (except Ragoon) make's an early Allied offensive in the area difficult

thats pretty much the major modification's that i feel are important...there are lots more listed, but you'll have to look them up yourself [;)].

Anyways, while i await the 1st turn, i'll be posting a "Grand Strategy" later on as i mull if over eating Doritos and watching "the Simpsons - Season V" on DVD

[Rob Brennan UK]

Good Luck KD ..

hope you realise your playing version 5 has made me upgrade too ! .. no idea of any consequences mid game though.

It will be interesting to see the effect of the reduced allied DEI and PI AA guns .. was too high in version 4.2 imo.

and beware the buffalo is the new Nate ! .. useless (apart from range) .. so they can fly further before being shot down [;)]

and Good luck , i'll be following along closely and almost certainly giving bad advice [;)].. have fun !

[Nikademus]

no impact if "upgrading" since OOB info is only accessed at the beginning of the game.

Poor Buffalo.....so misunderstood. [:D] Actually put some veteran pilots in them and they will become more dangerous, especially to Nates.

[KDonovan]

Thanks for the support Rob

Ok...so here's the Situation Report

Overall i'm still looking at a defensive strategy for the next 4-5 months with a KB intact (if somehow i get lucky and knock out a couple carriers..then things will change [:D])

India - Looks like i'm in good shape here, i have 4 good Inf Div (non-Indian) on hand, nurmerous Bde's and 3 Tank Bde's! Looks like i won't have to worry about any invasion with this force. The only concern is Ceylon where i have the Aus 6th Div and 1 Indian Div. A determined attack here can take the island, so I think i'll reinforce it with a Tank Bde. I'm still too weak to mount any major offensive in the SEA thearte so the boys can have their R&R. In the future Burma is looking like a quagmire, esp. without those resource centers. Looks like a concentrated attack down the trails will have to wait until i get some serious Air Transport capacity in the area. Akyab and Andaman Is. look like probable area's for a counter offensive, since i can supply them by sea. Also the west coast bases of Sumatra look interesting. In the meantime looks like i'll have to just establish air control over burma, and be as pesky as i can with my british fleet

Australia - looks great also, with 8 powerful Inf Div and 10 Bde size force's...Australia shouldn't need anymore reinforcing (if anything it has too much forces). Even the dreaded Australian lack of AV support units is not a factor with 3 Aviation Rgt's in thearte. I'll probably shift another Bde up to Darwin to keep Miller honest, and reinforce PM with another Bde and AT Rgt. I don't plan on getting bogged down in PM, but i want him to fight hard for it. Long term...nothing fancy, recapture of New Guinea will be in the works

SOPAC - here's where i'm a little worried. Noumea looks allright with 1 USA Div and 1 Tank Btn, but could probably use another Inf Div considering the amount of victory points it has. So i'll probably send a SWPAC Inf Div (if McArthur lets me) from Aus. ASAP to reinforce. That should be "good enough" (just want enough there to stop a 3 Div + 1 Bde invasion). NZ will have to hold with what it has...3 Bde's + 2 Cav Bde's on the main island (i'll probably move the other Cav Bde from Christ Church to the main island as soon as i get enough PP). Suva and Pago have a Bde and RCT b/t them and that will have to do other than possible reinforcement of a couple USMC-CD units. Then theres Canton Is, oh how i'm obsessed with this little mound of dirt in the middle of the pacific. As of now theres only 1 BF on the island. I'll be sending the USMC 2nd Div ASAP to reinforce to prevent a SNLF quick grap, hopefully they will get there in time. Eventually Canton Is. (if held) will be a major base pointing a dagger at the gilberts.

CENPAC - Nothing crazy here. Midway will get the majority of reinforcements (scare him into reinforcing wake). Midway will also be built up as a major submarine base as it was historically. Palmyra and Johnston Is. i really don't care too much about. Will build up the airfield at Hilo and Lahiana with some reinforcements, just in case he makes a lunge for PH which i doubt it.

NOPAC - nothing big, just shuffling up of forces. Will establish a PBY base on one of the Aluetion Islands

China - since i suck at land combat, i'll be fighting a purely defensive war. I will attempt to take Nanning and threaten Hanoi, but other than that...i don't want to take the war any further, as long as i can hold him back behind my level 9 forts.

Carriers - here's the, big question, what to do with the carriers. I really have no idea. If he sorties just the Zuikaku, Shokaku and Shoho, is it wise to head up against that with just the Lex and Yorktown as it was historically? Or should it be avoided at all costs? If the entire KB comes in play, i'll run, cause i'm not ready to head up against it without the Wasp (even then..i would like LBA support). Right now i'm leaning towards establishing a forward PBY base on the Santa Cruz Is. and bringing the Lex/Yorktown to Espritua Santo (sp?) to pounce on any move to Lunga. The other 3 Carriers will report as the situation warrents, as its to early to tell where they will be needed.

[kellyc]

Be careful with early use of your Carriers. From the AARs I've read, they tend to die gloriously with very little return. They're just no match for the KB during the early years.

Good Luck...
Sincerely
Kelly

[Fishbed]

Cool another nik mod AAR.
Have fun you two

[KDonovan]

thanks for your commet Kellyc

You are right, early action by US CV's usually means certain death. However with Nik's mod, the advantage isn't completely on the IJN side anymore. Example.....

In the past when 3 IJN CVs met 3 Allied CV's..the end result was usually 1 IJN CV lightly-Moderately damage to 3 sunk Allied CV's. With niks new mod...that same battle will look more like 1 IJN CV moderate-heavy damage, 1 IJN CV heavy-sunk vs probably 3 Allied CV sunk (maybe 1 heavly damage). At least this is what i saw in Nik vs Speedy AAR. In the end 3:1 or 2:1 ratio of carrier losses is probably not bad

[Rob Brennan UK]

Good plan KD .. but remember reinforcing midway to provoke him to defend wake will only work if he is reconning midway else he'll not have a clue whats there [;)]

Noumea looks weak imo .. and is a definate alternative to PM for his next assault. any old rubbish in luganville and/or lunga you can get back ?

I have'nt played this scen so my knowledge of the set up is pretty feeble. hows the PP situataion ? start from scratch ? or do you have a pool ? and whats the policy on brit withdrawl ? now the DEI has gone maybe PP's arent nearly as valuable as they are early game.

anyway , yup looks like Nik's mod has been rather popular . wonder now many people use it ? many many more that us who post i suspect. anyway not attempting to hijack the thread [:)]

Good Luck KD .. !

P.S sack MacArthur ! .. or even better load him into a PT boat and sent it to Rabaul ! [:D]

[Nikademus]

Kido Butai still retains a big advantage via her torpedo squadrons which have the skill and equipment to put your carriers under quickly. USN CV's will have to rely primarily on their dive bombers which have a great capacity to damage or even cripple multiple IJN flight decks but will have a harder time sinking them. The TBD's remain vulnerable and their torpedoes are suspect but they can at least take some of the heat off the dive bombers. My last 5.0 CV encounter resulted in 4 badly damaged IJN CV's (1 cripple was sunk after battle by a well placed submarine) in return for 1 Sunk USN CV and 1 cripple (later sunk by Rabaul airpower....would probably have foundered anyway)

(4 CV vs 4 CV + 1-2 CVL)

[KDonovan]

Noumea looks weak imo .. and is a definate alternative to PM for his next assault. any old rubbish in luganville and/or lunga you can get back ?

agreed...i'm moving the 32nd Inf Div from Brisbane over for that reason. There is an RCT on Eftate (sp?). Not sure what to do with that. Adding it to Noumea seems like overkill, since there will be 2 inf. Div and 1 tank btn there. But having it sit there (without a BF) seems pretty useless also. Maybe i'll send it to Canton Is. considering there is just 1 BF there at the moment, and the 2nd USMC div due there..won't arrive for about 3-4weeks.

I have'nt played this scen so my knowledge of the set up is pretty feeble. hows the PP situataion ? start from scratch ? or do you have a pool ? and whats the policy on brit withdrawl ? now the DEI has gone maybe PP's arent nearly as valuable as they are early game.

PP is at 100 at the start of the game...which pretty much sucks. Whats worse is that Brisbane, Townsville, Charter Twrs, Cairns, Cooktown, and PM are all under the SWPAC flag, therefore i can't move in Australian Command Aircraft (as its a restricted command) into those airfields. So i got to spend most of the PP changing the planes to SWPAC. When i get enough, i plan on changing the bases back to Australian Command (so screw you McArthur)

PS: 1st turn sent today...hopefully will see some action on the AAR later

[KDonovan]

Unlike the 1st turn of the Scenario 15, the 1st turn (or in this case 1st two days) was rather boring...

May 1st - nothing of importance. On odd thing though, Miller recon'd Hengchow. That that was kinda wierd, considering he'd have to go through Changsa or Wuchow to attack it. Maybe he's planning a para drop to cut that rail link?...i only have a BF there, but reinforcements of 4 Chinese Corp's are on the way and will be there in 4 days

May 2nd - Jap landings at Tuliga in the solomens and Invasion TF sighted 180 miles off of Buna. That TF (off Buna) was attacked with my P39's and Wirraways out of PM, resulting in 1 Bomb hit on a DD that set it on fire. For some reason no combat animation appeared during the turn so i was unable to ascertain the type of damage on the DD, so i'll have to talk to Miller and see if he's got his animations turned ON.

Plan for Next Turn - 1) bombing raid over Mandalay with 95 Bombers planned (24 of which are LB-30's). Unfortantley no escorts are available, so the the British planes will have trouble, but the LB-30's should be able to handle themselves.
2) about 30-B17's sent into PM to guard against probable landings at Gili Gili
3) 3 DD TF sent from Luganville to intercept probable landing at Lunga
4) expecting raid over PM next turn, so i have 30 Kittyhawks at 15,000ft + 48 P39's at 10,000ft on CAP. Hope the Kittyhawks can keep the Zero's off the P39's backs so their 37mm cannon can rip through those betties [:D]

[KDonovan]

forgot to mention this in my last post, but an enemy force of a CV+CA were spotted near rabual. Here's the Screen Shot.


The Lexington and Yorktown are moving up the Australian coast to support the landing of a Australian Tank Rgt and Australian AT rgt at PM

[KDonovan]

May 3rd - New Jap landings at Gili Gili and Lunga (as expected). Only 40 of my 95 [&:]bombers got off the ground to attack Mandalay causing minor damage, no losses either side. Lastly Japanese capture Tulagi. Also B17's at PM fail to attack any shipping due to poor weather [:@]

May 4th - 76 bombers out of Calcutta attack Mandalay causing moderate damage and destroying a couple of Oscars and 1 Sally (thats more like it) [:D] Once again my B17's out of PM are grounded due to rain

Plan - 1) My DD TF failed to find any shipping in near Lunga, so i gonna send them back for another run to see if i can get lucky. 2) Gonna rest my bomber's at Calcutta, but gonna send in the AVG for a fighter sweep of Mandalay at 15,000ft. 3) The enemy CV TF spotted last turn moving south, is now spotted moving north [&:]. Lots more ships spotted this time though in the taskforce...therefore this is probably the Zuikaku, Shokaku and Shoho. Gonna stop and refuel my CV TF at sea, before proceeding to the area for possible engagment [:D]

[Rob Brennan UK]

. Only 40 of my 95 bombers got off the ground to attack

Have you got an Air HQ there ? makes a lot of differance (25% more a/c fly)

[KDonovan]

Have you got an Air HQ there ? makes a lot of differance (25% more a/c fly)

Actually i don't have a RAF HQ in Calcutta, but i do have one at Dacca. I was under the impression that Air HQ's had a range of 5....is that not the case??

Anyways things are starting to heat up with the arrival of the Shokaku and Zuikaku to the Rabual Thearte.

May 5th - 61 P40B's of the AVG swept over Mandalay encountering 18 Nates and 16 Oscars. My pilots took out 9 of the enemy planes, while only suffering 2 losses. Gili Gili fell to Japanese attacks this turn.

May 6th - Air attack on the SS Drum outside Tokyo bay resulted in a bomb hit causing 50% float damage, may not make it back to base. The AVG returned to Mandalay to finish what it had started, taking out 5 more enemy planes while only losing 1. Meanwhile 22 B17's finally flew out of PM attacking that nice transport TF off Buna, however no hits were scored [:@]. During this turn the Shokaku/Zuikaku TF was sighted just west of Kiriwina Is. and proceeded to launch an airfield attack on PM. Lucky for him i grounded all my P39's last turn, so only 21 Kittyhawks came up to face 32 Zeros, 39 Vals, and 46 Kates. About half my Kittyhawks were shot out of the sky, and i lost 11 planes on the ground (mostly P39's) However, Miller's bombers did suffer...losing 16 aircraft to flak (thank you modified AA [:D]). Miller later told me it was a unwanted raid, because he forgot to take his carrier planes off secondary target "airfield" [:-]. In the end i don't think it will hurt him that much, considering he caused moderate damage to the airfield which will use up precious supply at PM to fix (only got about 2500 supply pts at the moment [:(])

Plan - 1) in China, where the air war has been quiet, i'm planning a SB-2 and IL-4 raid on Japanese Brigade west of Nanning. 2) In India i disembarked the 4 "R" class battleships with lots of cruiser escort to bombard Andaman Is. The carrier Formidable will provide air cover. 3) I have a convoy about 2-3 days out from PM with supplies and a US tank destroyer btn. With the Shokaku and Zuikaku near by, i've ordered the convoy to scatter and make full speed for PM..."god speed little doodle". 4) PM is reinforced with 1 Kittyhawk sq, 1 P40E sq, and 2 Beaufort sq.(love those torps) 5) After refueling the Lexington and Yorktown, i've split them up into 2 separate TF. They are proceeding at flank speed to attack the Shokaku and Zuikaku, should be in range in 2 days. 6) 32nd US Inf Div just disembarked at Noumea, solidifying that island's defences. 7) The Enterprise and Hornet are currently sailing from Canton Is. to Luganiville for possible action in 1 week

[Nikademus]

remember the tricks for tactical attacks on well defended airfields. TB's alone, set to high alt (20,000) can do very well with acceptible losses. Another trick is to bombard the target base with surface ships just before hitting the field with aircraft. Disruption will greatly reduce AA effectiveness.

[Rob Brennan UK]

OOPS yes i forgot the range for the HQ .. I'm not convinced it works though. [;)]. I tend to just use a LOT of british air HQ's in the dacca/chandpur area .. also i believe the air skill of the base commander will help. ( well worth checking imo) as some 'standard' CO's are rubbish.

[KDonovan]

well the expected carrier battle never materialized....so no major action this round

May 7th - My airstrikes in China didn't get off the ground due to bad weather. However 2 airstrike's, consisting of B17's and Beaforts, attacked the CL Yubari lead Transport TF and failed to hit anything[:@]. In return, Rabual launched a strike on PM (about time) with 11 Zero's and 32 Betty's. My CAP was able to make it through the Zeros (with no losses and downing 1 zero in the process) and took down 5 Betty's. The airfield suffered minimal to no damage and i loss 1 B17 on the ground.

May 8th - Betties and Zero's returned to PM and my CAP didn't do so well this time...losing 6 fighters to only 3 betties destroyed.

Plan - 1) British Bombardment TF to arrive off Andaman Is tommorrow. 18 Swordfish to be launched from the Formidable following the bombardment to attack the airfield installations. 2) The Jap Carrier TF has pratically disappeared from the area. My Catalina's did spot 3 CA's docked at rabaul, along with 88 Transports disbanded in port...so this may be the Shokaku and Zuikaku. Maybe they had to go back to refuel, or maybe they will be assigned to escort duty of the invasion fleet that seems to be forming at Rabual. Anyways my Carrier force is currently 120 miles south of Gili Gili. Due to the presence of Bettys in Rabual it has been decided to retreat from the area, since the Jap Carriers would be enough of a handful, with out Betty's around. My Carriers will head south at flank speed to refuel with some oilers. The Enterprise and Hornet are only a few days sailing time away, so i'm thinking of making a joint venture before heading back into the combat zone. However, there is concern of the rest of the Jap Carriers (Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu). They were in Toyko Bay at the start of the game (so what intelligence tells me), but they may well be soon in the area if they made a high speed run. Further plans of my carriers will depend on what my Catalina's tell me the next couple of days

[KDonovan]

Grrrr...still no sign of Jap Carrier's..things are starting to get scary

May 9th - ASW TF attacks the SS Cuttlefish south of Japan today, causing two hits, but barely any damage. My British Bombardment group lead by 4 BB's caused extensive damage to Andaman Is, destroying 2 Zero's and 6 Nate's on the ground. Bad wheather still over China, so no air attacks for me. However, the Japanese were able to get off a 70 plane bomber attack on my chinese forces. Luckly casualties were light. Also 20 B17's out of PM attack 2 Jap CL's and a DD near rabual causing no hits. (this must've been the "spotted 3 CA's" group last turn). And finally the Japanese captured Lunga.

May 10th - Another Japanese bomber raid on my chinese forces, once again cause light causalties.

Plan - 1) now that the Japanese carriers have fallen from my radar screen, its time to assume that he's gotten all 6 of them together (or will soon). I'm very concerned about this as i have lots of gaps in my search patterns in the Pacific that need to be filled soon.
Being that we are playing with 2 day turns, i need to be able to spot the KB well out to sea inorder to deploy defensive measures. Looking at the map, there are a few areas that need more coverage Therefore i plan on deploying PBY's at Koumac, Ndini, Nanomea and Norfolk. 2) in response to a the possibility of a large Japanese Carrier TF, i'll be retiring my carriers for the time being at Pago Pago

[KDonovan]

May 11th - Blen IF's out of Kohima finally succeeded in hiting something, destroying 1 Sally on the ground at Mandalay last night. Miller has step up his air attacks in China, causeing little damage, but i'm sure giving his pilots much needed training. Here's a picture from the Blen IF raid



May12th - Nothing of importance other than more of the same Jap air attacks in China.

Plan - 1) big airstrike on Mandalay airfield is planned. Gonna send in about 80 bombers from Calcutta, 20 of which include heavy LB-30's [:D]. The force will be escorted by 10 Hurricanes out of Chandpur. Preceeding this strike force (hopefully) will be 60 P40B's of the AVG on a sweep mission to clear the sky's of the incoming strike. 2) Surface TF formed near Cairns to proceed to the Solomns Is for a possible bombardment mission. Intel tells me there is some ships anchored at Shortlands, so this looks like a tempting target. The force is to include the CA Chicago and Australia, incompany of 2 CL's and 4 DD's. The presence of KB is suspected to be b/t Truk and Rabual, due to presence of Val DB reported by my subs, therefore the risk seems susceptable at this moment. Things may change, causeing a scrubbing of the mission. 3) with 88 transports still being reported in Rabual harbor and strike of 46 B17's will attempt a port attack at 15,000ft. No escorts will be provided, so good luck to them (if they even fly).