General Patton v. Larry Fulkerson Scenario #76

[Andav]

TF 138, which I have redirected to loiter at Georgetown for a day or two

It looks like this TF is set to Unload. If you do not want them to Unload at Georgetown, you should change this setting. Just make sure you change it back when they leave the port for Sabang. Nothing worse then getting to the destination and having the guys not unload and then you wonder way and then you realize they were doing exactly what you told them to do and then like a good commander you blame the staff ...

What are your recon levels at Sabang? Do you have an idea of what the garrison looks like?

Wa

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Andav
It looks like this TF is set to Unload. If you do not want them to Unload at Georgetown, you should change this setting. Just make sure you change it back when they leave the port for Sabang.

Good catch my friend.

ORIGINAL: Andav
Nothing worse then getting to the destination and having the guys not unload and then you wonder way and then you realize they were doing exactly what you told them to do and then like a good commander you blame the staff ...

I've had this happen to me. The troops that went to Tarakan had one 'practice run' before they landed finally.

ORIGINAL: Andav
What are your recon levels at Sabang? Do you have an idea of what the garrison looks like?

I thought maybe I should put together a picture showing the situation. TF 110, the TF at the bottom center of the image, is one
of the transports caught a torpedo and is limping into the next nearest port, Malacca, and will probably make it. The escorts for
the group headed for Sabang are approaching from the south. Sabang itself is defended by a pretty stout group of people. I'm
going to need some bombardment to take it I'm pretty sure.

Many thanks for asking though, you made me look up the answers, which is good for the game.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Brian just now. I'm watching the combat replay and one of my subs has put a torpedo into an AKE between Pearl
and Palmyra. Looks like he's trying to staff up his bases with offensive equipment already. This is March of '42 and still early in the
war and he's thinking offensively. I'm impressed. He's lost two carriers and I've lost one and a couple of my BB's are in the shop
but there's plenty of fight still left in the old girls. I have no idea what I'm talking about but it sounds salty.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's happening now. I've made several new landings in the Celebes, on Sumatra, and on the north coast of Java. I think the
Java invasion is too early. Those tank regiments don't have any AA, no ENG, and no INF to back them up and they don't have any
air cover and they have been getting pounded from the air constantly since they have been there. I'm assembling some back up and
air cover for them but it's still going to be a couple of days until help arrives. They may not be there then. So I'm toying with the idea
of moving all the troops to Singapore to assemble them together, put some of the pieces back together to make divisions again and
get some AF dudes into position and move some planes into the AO and THEN do a proper invasion.

I'm going to make Rabaul one of my minor hubs and I'd like to grab more positions yet closer to Tahati but I'm not sure there's enough
troops for that. Java and Sumatra have priority right now.

[larryfulkerson]

Now here's something you don't see every day. I noticed that the troop transports didn't have much in the way of escorts and I
wanted to merge a SCTF into it to give them some self defense when they invade and I had given the troop TF a patrol point
near Boela where they were to hover until the SCTF arrived and merged. So I got a message from the game engine that I couldn't
unload there. I ignored it since I didn't intend to unload there. But I forgot to toggle the "unload cargo" button to "do not unload
cargo" and that's the state the switch was in when I sent my moves to Brian about an 2 hours ago. So he did his magic and sent me
some moves, this is the next day from what happened earlier. The SCTF has merged with the troop transport, the troop transport
has downloaded all but a few of the supplies and are practically empty now, I'm sending them back to Manila for another trip
south. So I've got the troops moving toward Boela and they seem to have ample supplies......I'm wondering if they can carry
all those supplies with them into the Boela hex. And it turns out that indeed you CAN unload there. I've never seen that happen
before. I'll have to keep that in mind. Use it somewhere else too.

EDIT: Oh, and I wanted to say that I was thinking of breaking off most of the escorts and do a night naval bombardment of Boela
while I had them down there so close.

[ny59giants]

Oil, Oil, Oil!!

That is priority #1 for you until the end of March when your invasion bonus goes away. I've taken some of your game pace away as I've been on vacation this week so Brian has had to divide his turn flipping rate. I'm two months ahead and only Magwe is left to capture and finish repairs at Miri.

Burma - Brian sent 18th UK Div to Magwe and 1st Burma Div to Meiktila. I didn't bring ANY AA with me, so I got hurt from the air and had to pull back. Just a heads up as he may try the same with you. I had just two divisions, but now have five. [:)] It took a month to get the extra AA rgt and BFs from Japan there and in place.

Western Australia - I landed at Geraldton just before the end of March with three divisions. Now in early May, I have 5 brigades trapped in Perth while the 6th Aussie and 27th Division are both at Kalgoorlie and another 4 brigades are tied down three hexes to EES on the rail line by 8 tank rgts. Six divisions are there now with two more in route. I want to destroy them and force him to take a hit to his Aussie replacements.

I mention what is happening in Burma and western Australia to give you a heads up as we are playing with daily PP rate bumped up to 100/day. So, we are both getting about 1200 PP per month beyond what is normal. Expect to see a few extra divisions in your way. [:-]

Focus, young Jedi!! [:D]

Note: Std-C Class xAKs can upgrade/convert to small TKs in June. I would find them and steadily sent them to Japan to be used in safer waters until you can convert.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm using Tokyo as the logistical thermometer to tell me how things are going because Tokyo seems to change as the levels change in
the home islands and most of the goodies levels are fine as they are but all the month of March is seeing a steady drop in the oil
level. And that's troubling. It seems I have captured Miri, Tarakan, and Balikpapan in the nick of time. I've started pulling oil out of
Miri but it's going to be a while before a sizeable stockpile adds up to justify a trip to the home islands with a load. I've been putting
the Miri oil at CRB and the Tarakan and Balikpapan oil is going to go to Babeldoab. Palembang oil is going to CRB of course. I'm
thinking of using Singapore as a Main hub instead of CRB as the action of the war is moving south now. But Singapore is within the
range arc's of some Allied bombers still, probably.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Oil, Oil, Oil!!
That is priority #1 for you until the end of March when your invasion bonus goes away.

Roger that. I hear you. I've already seen the signs of a drop of oil in the home islands
and the need to step up the gather rate. Fortunately, I'm about half way through moving
troops to new targets but AK's can't carry oil IIRC. I'm going to need a bunch of TK's
and AO's to haul the black gold. I'll get the longer ranged ones busy moving it from
the hubs to the home islands. The trip from the spokes to the hub might turn out to be
tricky. I'll look at the inventory of TK's and segregate them according to range and
distribute them to the hubs and get them busy right away.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
I've taken some of your game pace away as I've been on vacation this week so Brian has had to divide his turn flipping rate. I'm two months ahead and only Magwe is left to capture and finish repairs at Miri.

You're two months ahead......cool. Fresh news like this will help out around here. I
appreciate that you're keeping US in the loop.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Burma - Brian sent 18th UK Div to Magwe and 1st Burma Div to Meiktila. I didn't bring ANY AA with me, so I got hurt from the air and had to pull back. Just a heads up as he may try the same with you. I had just two divisions, but now have five. It took a month to get the extra AA rgt and BFs from Japan there and in place.

Yeah, he's doing the same thing to me. I'm moving AA units up there but supply isn't
quite getting all the way up north as far as Pegu. I'm going to pull those troops back
to refit and resupply and then try it again.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Western Australia - I landed at Geraldton just before the end of March with three divisions. Now in early May, I have 5 brigades trapped in Perth while the 6th Aussie and 27th Division are both at Kalgoorlie and another 4 brigades are tied down three hexes to EES on the rail line by 8 tank rgts. Six divisions are there now with two more in route. I want to destroy them and force him to take a hit to his Aussie replacements.

Wow, exciting. I wish you guys were doing an AAR about it.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
I mention what is happening in Burma and western Australia to give you a heads up as we are playing with daily PP rate bumped up to 100/day. So, we are both getting about 1200 PP per month beyond what is normal. Expect to see a few extra divisions in your way.

Yeah, he bumped up the PP rate for our game too.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Focus, young Jedi!!

I'm using history as my rough guide and mostly playing it by ear.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Note: Std-C Class xAKs can upgrade/convert to small TKs in June. I would find them and steadily sent them to Japan to be used in safer waters until you can convert.

Oh wow. Many thanks for the heads up here. I'll be sure and do it.

[larryfulkerson]

Look at what's happening at Manila now. I've been forgetting to set the TF's to load troops only and it's been sucking the supplies
right off the dock as fast as they can deliver them. And so many ships have been though there that Manila has run out of fuel too.
D'oh. I hadn't planned for this and it shows. Word to the wise. I'll try to remember this for the next big push.

[paradigmblue]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Oil, Oil, Oil!!
That is priority #1 for you until the end of March when your invasion bonus goes away.

Roger that. I hear you. I've already seen the signs of a drop of oil in the home islands
and the need to step up the gather rate. Fortunately, I'm about half way through moving
troops to new targets but AK's can't carry oil IIRC.

Yes, they can. They're not ideal, but they'll do the job in a pinch. The transport 1/2 their normal cargo capacity in oil.

[larryfulkerson]

All of the damage at Balilkpapan in the way of runway damage and service damage and port damage etc. has been repaired and now
as soon as I can accumulate about 10K supplies the boosting of the airfield and sandbags can commence. I'm tempted to run some
supplies in there so they will be over the limit sooner. I see though, that the oil level has risen back to a safe level, high enough to
justify taking another load out of there. You'd think I'd not try to take all of oil all at once but I'm in a hurry to get as much oil as I can
while I can so the oil level goes dangerously low when I take a load out of there.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: paradigmblue

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Oil, Oil, Oil!!
That is priority #1 for you until the end of March when your invasion bonus goes away.

Roger that. I hear you. I've already seen the signs of a drop of oil in the home islands
and the need to step up the gather rate. Fortunately, I'm about half way through moving
troops to new targets but AK's can't carry oil IIRC.

Yes, they can. They're not ideal, but they'll do the job in a pinch. The transport 1/2 their normal cargo capacity in oil.

That's welcome news. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I forget things a lot.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a TF that has just delivered the "A" part of the 33rd Division to Butuan and instead of just returning empty I had them load up
with RES and now they are going to move it to Hong Kong, one of my hubs, and then they are going to deadhead to Manila. I need
to undock them to get them started and I notice that they don't have any escorts. D'oh. There were none at Manila when they left.
I need to get them some now though. I'll look around.

[larryfulkerson]

Note: Std-C Class xAKs can upgrade/convert to small TKs in June. I would find them and steadily sent them to Japan to be used in safer waters until you can convert.

I found the Std-C class dudes that can convert to small TK's in June 1942. I have no idea how I'm going to remember this in June and
convert them. And I can hardly just let them sit in a port somewhere. I'd best make myself a note or something.

[ny59giants]

Std - A, B, C, D, E Class xAKs - If I remember right, it's been a long time since I played stock based PBEM, you can convert the A, B, C to small TKs in June. I would do so for all!! They are great for moving fuel and oil out of your smaller ports to larger ports were the ocean going TKs can take over along with moving it forward to smaller ports in the front lines. Make a note of this. [;)]

Philippine Archipelago - Once you take all these islands, you will find that you have 4 small Resource producing bases with size 2 ports (12k max). You will need to form 4 small CS Convoys made up of four Gozan Class xAKs and two Kiso Class PB to pick up the Resources and transport them to Naga (expand to size 4 Port). These TFs just fit in a size 2 port. [:)] Home port is the small bases with Naga as destination and Full Refuel in effect so they get their fuel from Naga. The Resource will migrate to Manila and later you can transport to Japan.

Miri - You can transport the fuel from there in the small 1250 capacity TKs to CRB, Manila, and over to Babeldoab. If you plan to repair the oil and refinery you may want to use some of the Std TKs that you convert.

More 'pearls of wisdom' to follow. [;)]

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Std - A, B, C, D, E Class xAKs - If I remember right, it's been a long time since I played stock based PBEM, you can convert the A, B, C to small TKs in June. I would do so for all!! They are great for moving fuel and oil out of your smaller ports to larger ports were the ocean going TKs can take over along with moving it forward to smaller ports in the front lines. Make a note of this.

I've already entered the image above listing the names of the ships I need to convert into
my todo list and posted in the AAR to remind me. It's an excellent idea.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Philippine Archipelago - Once you take all these islands, you will find that you have 4 small Resource producing bases with size 2 ports (12k max). You will need to form 4 small CS Convoys made up of four Gozan Class xAKs and two Kiso Class PB to pick up the Resources and transport them to Naga (expand to size 4 Port). These TFs just fit in a size 2 port. Home port is the small bases with Naga as destination and Full Refuel in effect so they get their fuel from Naga. The Resource will migrate to Manila and later you can transport to Japan.

I've already done landings at the RES centers and am pulling RES out of one of them but
I can't remember the name of it right now. I'm loading the second load right now.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Miri - You can transport the fuel from there in the small 1250 capacity TKs to CRB, Manila, and over to Babeldoab. If you plan to repair the oil and refinery you may want to use some of the Std TKs that you convert.

Yeah, great idea. I'm pulling fuel out of Miri with with little TK's and a little bit of
oil as well. I need to go easy on the oil because there's not much of an excess.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
More 'pearls of wisdom' to follow.

And they will all be received with appreciation.

[larryfulkerson]

When I'm not working on my moves for my game with Brian I'm usually tinkering with my anti-AI game where I'm the Allies and I play it
looking for insights I can use in my game with Brian. Here's how I'm doing as of 12Feb42 or so. I've had to shut down a lot of the
production of fuel and supplies because of the lack of oil and RES and Sydney is running dangerously low on fuel and I'm having a
really hard time keeping everything running and supplied and fight the war too. I'm having a blast. I've figured out that the bases in
the yellow boxes are some of those I think I can grab as the Jap player in my game with Brian and it amounts to about 1/3 of the total
production the Allies have and taking that away from the Allies will probably have a significant effect on their operational tempo. So
the earlier I can grab those the longer the war will be. That's the theory.

[larryfulkerson]

Sabang fell so the next step is to supply the base with some engineers and some AF dudes. You're probably thinking: why didn't I
think of those gentlemen and include them in the initial invasion instead of making a separate trip, I know I did. And then I remembered
that this was the TF that needed an injection of escorts to make the final run-in to the beach and they came from Tokyo or Manila
and the engineers and AF dudes are coming from Singapore. Sabang is going to need some supplies too in order to repair the
damage to the facilities and boost the airfield and port. More invasions further south along the coast are in order.

[larryfulkerson]

And while I was at Singapore and had the ships available, I put together a small TF to test the ports on the east coast of
Sumatra. The idea is to drive into the port far enough to trigger any mines if there are any but to avoid the CD guns that
may frequent the ports.

[larryfulkerson]

My attack at K-town collapsed and everybody got killed. Here's all the units that were destroyed in Java. I think I invaded too early
before my aircraft could support the troops and the initial wave didn't include AA units that would have been invaluable. This was my
fault and only proves that I'm still learning.