A Wench in the Logistics Machine: Mike Solli (J) vs. USS Mike (A)

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: btd64

ORIGINAL: Uncivil Engineer

Wow. I stopped by to see if I could get some pointers from Mike on Japanese logistics and find I'm on the decolletage page! Some nice dirndls there! And the lady aren't bad, either. Four pages and turn 1 has not even happened yet!

Edit to add: What a Dumas I am - looking at the wrong AAR! Won't be much on Japanese logistics in this one.

It's the girls that attracted you....GP

Complaints, complaints.

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: Uncivil Engineer

Wow. I stopped by to see if I could get some pointers from Mike on Japanese logistics and find I'm on the decolletage page! Some nice dirndls there! And the lady aren't bad, either. Four pages and turn 1 has not even happened yet!

Edit to add: What a Dumas I am - looking at the wrong AAR! Won't be much on Japanese logistics in this one.

Hopefully, this will turn into a primer on how to disrupt and destroy Japanese logistics, but welcome aboard! [:D]

[USSAmerica]

The shooting has started! Got the turn back from Mike last night and watched the long December 7th replay.

The waves of Vals and Kates keep on coming at Pearl Harbor. When you think the end might be near, there are always more. LOL Fortunately for me, the damage was pretty light. All 8 BB's took damage, significant to severe in most cases, but none are in danger of sinking. Tennessee should be fully repaired in under 7 weeks! Maryland survived, but took 60 system and 87 flotation damage. She will spend the first year of the war in the shipyards, as usual. I'll post a screen shot of the carnage later. Mike seems to hit the airfields with more than the usual share of bombers. They caused lots of damage, but the key for me is that only a total of 4 PBY's were destroyed.

Elsewhere, moving at full speed, both Boise and Houston seem to have made it past the IJN net cast around the PI. I'm hopeful that both will make it to Balikpapan to form up with the other USN ships in the area. The 3 Brit DD's from Hong Kong were caught by a CA led SC TF and were sunk. They did a bit of damage to one of the IJN DD's, but that's really it.

The SRA is where the interesting developments took place. Mike landed at Singkawang and landed in force at Mersing. Intel shows no heavy escorts at Singkawang, so Force Z, who slipped out of port since they were already formed up, will try to make some noise there next turn. There are lots and lots of ships at Mersing, with some decent escort, but no apparent CV CAP coverage. I'm going to try to hit as much shipping there as I can from the air.

If I were playing Japan, I think I would always try the Mersing Gambit. With sufficient SC escort the Allies can't prevent a landing in force on Dec 7th. The cost is the only question mark for Japan. That will be determined by how much shipping damage I can do from the air. I will order all Malaya ground forces that are on a rail line to mount up and race for Singapore, but I expect that most won't make it before the rail line is cut. The Aussie Bde at Mersing will be ordered to hold as long as they can to keep the gates of Singapore open a long as possible. Japan taking Singers early means to me that they can move to take Burma earlier and cut off the back door to China. I just hope I can make Mike pay a high price for the gambit.

Now, I get to undertake the looooong process of issuing orders for all the forces that are "locked in place" for Turn 1 as the Allies. I hope I don't get Carpal Tunnel from all the mouse clicks, as I have an appointment to hoist a tasty beverage or two with a Thread Brother tomorrow afternoon!

[btd64]

Yes, you had a pretty good result for the first day. Who's the thread brother your meeting up with? I may have lunch with your opponent when he returns from Florida. He lives about 40 minutes from me. Another forumite lives 10 minutes from me. But he works during the week, so meeting up will be tough....GP

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: btd64

Yes, you had a pretty good result for the first day. Who's the thread brother your meeting up with? I may have lunch with your opponent when he returns from Florida. He lives about 40 minutes from me. Another forumite lives 10 minutes from me. But he works during the week, so meeting up will be tough....GP

Having lunch with rustysi and a buddy of his tomorrow. [:)] I knew you and Mike didn't live too far from each other. He and I have not yet managed to connect in person. Hope you guys get to!

[USSAmerica]

As promised, here is the BB and CA damage at Pearl Harbor. I got off pretty easy, especially with so little damage to my CA's and CL's. Time to start the slow process of issuing orders to almost every Allied unit on the map for Turn 2. [:D]

[btd64]

Yeah Mike, you got off real easy. Most of your BB's should be up and running during 42....GP

[Nomad]

Now if you can find fuel for them.

[RangerJoe]

Use the BBs up North in the Aleutians if there is action up there, they would then be close to the West Coast shipyards, fuel, and supplies.

[btd64]

Some can be used for escorts of important convoys....GP


9000

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: btd64

Some can be used for escorts of important convoys....GP


9000

Congrats on the 9000 milestone, GP!

[USSAmerica]

Just a quick update. I'm still slowly working my way through the Allied Turn 2 orders. It sure helps that I did some planning ahead of time, but still takes forever to issue all of those orders. Fortunately, Mike is still on his vacation, so he's in no big hurry to get the turn back. [:)]

[btd64]

ORIGINAL: USSAmerica

ORIGINAL: btd64

Some can be used for escorts of important convoys....GP


9000

Congrats on the 9000 milestone, GP!

Glad I could do it in your thread Mike....GP

[USSAmerica]

The cat herding of Allied Turn 2 is finally complete and the turn went off to Mike late last night. I'm hopeful that the action will increase in pace from here and that it will include lots of Japanese defeats. Ok, maybe in a few years the second part will become more regular. [:D]

[btd64]

ORIGINAL: USSAmerica

The cat herding of Allied Turn 2 is finally complete and the turn went off to Mike late last night. I'm hopeful that the action will increase in pace from here and that it will include lots of Japanese defeats. Ok, maybe in a few years the second part will become more regular. [:D]

Patience....GP

[USSAmerica]

Got the turn off to Mike, so now it's time for a Turn 2 summary. Bad luck was the rule of the day for the Allies almost everywhere, but no catastrophe.

Starting with Malaya, bad weather cancelled all of my Dec 8 air missions from Singapore. This really stunk for me. The only real cost to the Japanese player for attempting the Mersing "Gambit" is excessive shipping losses before they can get good air cover in place. Since none of my bombers flew on the 8th, a large part of this risk has already been passed by Mike's ships. He got enough ground troops ashore in the first two turns to successfully throw out the one Aussie Bde defending the place this turn. That means there will likely be fighters in place to fly CAP as of the next turn. I have to try to hit him anyway and hope for the best. From my perspective, as a Japanese player, I would always go for the Mersing Gambit. It will likely enable the capture of Singapore weeks earlier than otherwise, freeing up troops to move on Burma and cut the Burma Road that much sooner. As the Allied player, I just have to make the price tag as high as I can.

PT boats are always hit or miss. This turn in the PI and South China Sea there were several encounters with my PT's and Mike's forces. One of my groups found a CA with several DD escorts and gallantly charged in to their death. Another group stumbled across CVL Ryujo and her escorts, which I'm sure upped Mike's pucker factor for a minute. [:D] They also charged in bravely but were ineffective and broke off after losing one boat to an 8 inch shell from a CA. Another group did catch a very large troop and supply TF unloading at Lingayen and sank 3 of them. No mention of any troop losses, so I suspect they were all already ashore. Still a nice success for the PT corps!

Force Z was ordered South from Singapore toward Batavia on Dec 7th. That same day, Mike made a landing at Singkawang. I didn't see any hint of heavy escort in the reports from the 7th, and Force Z was within 5 hexes so I ordered them in to pay their respects. My unlucky streak held true again as the bulk of the Japanese shipping had departed. PoW and Repulse made an example of the lone xAKL that remained there!

All across the Pacific my ships were scattering to the wind. Mike caught a few in his net trying to escape Hong Kong or Manilla, and he'll probably catch more, but many seem to have made it past the first line of the encirclement. Houston and Boise both made it safely to Balikpapan, running at Full Speed. They are picking up some DD escorts there and heading in the direction of Ambon Island, where I have spotted 3 or 4 small enemy TF's. I might be able to pick off one or two of these before Mike is able to organize them better with surface escort and air cover.

At Pearl Harbor, the KB didn't stick around for a second day of attacks. Almost all of the base damage has been repaired and planes that were damaged are starting to repair as well. Many ASW TF's will flood the waters around the Hawaiian Islands to chase off most of the subs lurking there. Both CVTF's seem to have avoided the KB and are steaming in the direction of Canton Island until I can be sure the KB has cleared the Hawaii area.

[btd64]

What is your take on ASW TF composition? I've heard a lot of stuff but I'm curious as to how you will handle it....GP

[USSAmerica]

GP, I tend toward 3 ship TF's. I know 4 is more, but with only 1 ship attacking in any given combat, 3 ship TF's give me more coverage. DD's if I have them available, as well as KV and AM's. Early on, I'll put anything in an ASW TF that has any ASW value, as long as they are somewhat agile enough to make a tough target for the subs. If they shoot at my ships enough and still miss, that becomes a mission kill as they have to return to base to rearm. Flooding the waters around Pearl Harbor will accomplish this, as it's a long way back to the nearest base for the subs.

[btd64]

Mike, my thoughts exactly. I've used 3 and 4 ship TF'S. Do you set react distance? I set it to 1. Seems to work sometimes. I've actually had multiple ASW attacks on the same sub. Your experience may vary [:D]....GP

[USSAmerica]

I generally set the react distance to 6, but just assign a 1 hex patrol zone. Yeah, sometimes several TF's will react to the same sub contact, but it's better than none of them reacting. [:D]

I'm pretty sure any time there have been multiple ASW attacks on the same sub, it was from multiple TF's contacting it, or the same TF in multiple phases of the day. I don't think I've ever seen more than 1 ship of the ASW TF attack a sub in the same combat instance.