Speedy vs Fabertong - time to smack back the Penguin

[crsutton]

Speedy,

Good timing. I just completed my game with Viberpol only a few days ago. August 1, 1945, on the day of Russian activation. We started our game when AE first came out and have been playing for four years. Ours was much different from yours but quite fun. Thanks for the great AAR. Good job by Fabertong as well.

I am thankful for Ark because good opponents are hard to come by.

[Speedysteve]

Thanks a lot for the thoughts and congrats guys[:)]

JocMeister - no problem at all. I'll provide a summary in the next 24 hours or so.

Crsutton - interesting. We must have started our games at very similar times then!

Any other questions or wants guys?

[Speedysteve]

Hi All,

Here's a summary of the game.

Early Phase - SRA Conquests
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Faber's moves in the first 6 months were the standard SRA Conquests and opening moves. No major surprises here except I managed to sink CVL Zuiho and BB Nagato with TB's based in Batavia in mid-January 1942.

Mid-End 1942
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Faber's moves post SRA conquest were focussed on northern Australia and the occupation of the New Hebrides and New Caledonia c.June 1942 time frame. The Allies didn't contest these.

The first major and decisive CV Battle took place west of the Aleutians in early August 1942. As seemed to happen in our major CV actions I got the luck of the draw and managed sink CV Kaga, Akagi, Hiryu and Soryu. I received no major damage in this engagement. 2 weeks after this the next decisive action took place near Midway when Faber attempted to launch a sneak raid on suspected Allied TF's heading to/from the West Coast. Once more I got the luck of the draw, spotted his TF and intercepted them with my CV's. CV Shokaku, Zuikaku and CVL Ryujo and Shoho sunk and once more no major Allied vessels were lost. 1/2 of my CV's did receive major damage though so were in the Shipyards until early 43.

From this point the Japanese were on the back foot but no major Allied invasions could take place until my CV's were repaired.

Allied fight back - 1943
-----------------------------------

The first re-conquests took place at Wake in March 1943 and Marcus Island in April 1943. Faber once more tired a CV Battle here and CV Taiho, Hiyo, Junyo and CVL Ryuho were lost. Once more Allied CV units took damage and CV Hornet was lost when she foundered returning to the US for repair. CV Wasp was lost to a Sub attack in mid-March.

This again led to a lull as Allied CV's needed to be repaired before continuing the fight back.

In October 1943 The Allied struck against the other side of the Empire, whilst awaiting the arrival of more Essex CV's, at Cocos and Christmas Islands. They were easily taken and a small CV engagement sank CV Unryu and Amagi. CV Enterprise was sunk by a Jap Sub off Cocos Island.

First half 1944
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From Cocos and Christmas Islands the Allies took Siberoet and then invaded Sumatra at Padang and Benkoelen in early 1944 and effectively cut off Japanese oil supply from Sumatra. Whilst the land forces began to dominate and spread across Sumatra up to mid 1944 I launched the biggest failure of the Allied war effort - a land invasion through Burma. Faber had placed 4000-6000 AV worth of Troops which skilfully stopped the Allied assaults south of Prome and Toungoo. I could not get through here so stopped the offensive and began to shift troops to the Burmese coast for future operations leaving a holding force in Burma.

Second half 1944
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The Allied CV Force shifted back to the Pacific during the 2nd Quarter of 1944 for the big invasion of the Mariana's. En route to the Marianas they escorted invasion fleets to re-occupy a sparsely occupied Southern Pacific - New Caledonia/Hebrides and Papua New Guinea. Troops were easily landed and bases quickly fell right up to Lae.

With no real Jap CV Threat the Mariana invasions went fairly smoothly and over the course of 3 weeks heavy fighting the Allies occupied both Tinian and Guam before B29's flew in by the end of September. CV Wasp II was sunk by a Sub off Saipan (Tidbit Japanese subs accounted for 3 of the 4 US CV's sunk throughout the war!)

After the Mariana's Allied forces hopped over from Sumatra to Malaya and re-took Singapore. This as a major move in the region and opened up the Western SRA to Allied vessels. Coupled with this was a rapid Allied move into the Southern SRA against Ambon, Sorong and ultimately Mindanao.

Things began to snowball for the Japanese now as B29's hit Japanese cities frequently and heavily from the Mariana's whilst Allied CV's could roam freely right up to Japan and up to Formosa from Singapore. Heavy losses were sustained on Japanese merchant shipping by CV Air.

With Japan on her knees, Industry failing, no resource/oil supply from the SRA from mid-1944 and Japanese cities burning she sued for peace in mid-January 1945.

Through all of this I have to mention the Allied Submarine arm. They performed wonders for me throughout the war sinking about 45% of the sunk enemy vessels and were about as effective as I could make them to be.

A last point on the summary is that it's very apparent to me how crucial and how luck played a key role in the 2 key CV Battles of August 1942. The Japanese lost 6 x CV's for no Allied loss. Who knows but the war may have gone very differently if not for these 2 battles.

If there's anything else you would like to know let me know otherwise I hope Fabertong contributes his thoughts shortly before this AAR slips off the pages and goes into the files of old AAR's.....thanks again for reading and contributing.

[Crackaces]

I read through the AAR but I might have missed the initial starting options. In particular, advanced weather? On or Off? PDU?
My thought on Advanced weather is that the IJ fought CV battles in low detection areas and Advanced Weather makes float planes worthless ...

[Speedysteve]

Hi Crackaces:

Advanced Weather on
PDU on
FOW on
Allied Damage Control on
Reliable US Torpedoes off
No unit withdrawals off

[Crackaces]

Advanced Weather on

I do not have the same experience level as others on this forum but in 4 games playing Allies with Advanced Weather on and a CV battle taking place within my LBA Patrol zones...
Things have not turned out so well for the IJ ... I wonder if your opponent dedicated any DB's to search? It appears that Advanced Weather turns Earth into the planet Hoth [8D]... making it far more likely that a big storm grounds float planes but does not affect CV based air search .. at least not as much ..

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

A last point on the summary is that it's very apparent to me how crucial and how luck played a key role in the 2 key CV Battles of August 1942. The Japanese lost 6 x CV's for no Allied loss. Who knows but the war may have gone very differently if not for these 2 battles.

And yet, how close to reality this played out ... just a month or two later ... I really think it is all about damage control ... or lack thereof.

[Speedysteve]

Crackaces - never really looked in to that element of it to be honest but it could have been a part of it for sure. I cant remember if Faber had DB/TB on search. It's so long ago now.

PaxMondo - Indeed. The irony of it is it's different locations and slightly different timelines but same bad results for Japan with no Allied loss. From memory the number of hits the Japanese CV's sustained would have led to their loss even with Allied DC. However, the Allied hits could well have led to their demise if they had Japanese DC!

[witpqs]

One factor to keep in mind is that we never get to see ships' status after damage is sustained but before damage control is applied, because there are damage control steps that take place before the end of a turn. Just adds a possibly large dose of uncertainty when evaluating things.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

One factor to keep in mind is that we never get to see ships' status after damage is sustained but before damage control is applied, because there are damage control steps that take place before the end of a turn. Just adds a possibly large dose of uncertainty when evaluating things.

Let me help you 'pierce the veil':

Damage before end of turn on Kaga:
Sys: 20
Flt: 10/8
Eng: 10/6
Fires: 8

at end of turn with IJ damage control applied:
Sys: 40
Flt: 30/28
Eng: 20/16
Fires: 38

I think they use AvGas! [;)]

Damage before end of turn on BigE:
Sys: 20
Flt: 10/8
Eng: 10/6
Fires: 8

at end of turn with allied damage control applied:
Sys: 10
Flt: 4/4*
Eng: 3/3*
Fires: 0


* Special rule: allied damage control can repair 50% of major damage in first repair turn. [;)]

[:D][:D][:D]
All observations are from Yamamoto's perspective....

[witpqs]

Yeah that looks about right! [:D]

[Speedysteve]

Hi All,

I'm not sure if Faber will end up having the time to post his thoughts and views in here. I hope so but if not once more thanks for reading and contributing.

I'm not sure I'll have time to post another AAR for either of my current games (Allied vs apbarog in July 42 and about to start once as Japan vs my Dad!) but if I do I'll see on the forum soon!