A War to be Won - DesertWolf101 (A) vs Wirraway_Ace (J)

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

That must have been a nail biter for both sides to watch! [:D]

Yes indeed, these big gun brawls are always tremendous fun. [:)]

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: JanSako

Certainly can't argue with the results!
Trying to understand the reason though.

There were 2 enemy task forces & 4 yours.
Why split yourself up?

If you don't, there would be one large TF of yours vs 2 smaller (relatively) of his.
- the total ammo pool is the same in both cases
- bringing all your guns & all your ammo against 1/2 of his should be better no?
- if you have all your ships in one place, the damage received is spread out more, so more of your ships keep firing back for longer, inflicting more damage (in your first battle, I bet your CL's just stopped firing back (effectively) after a certain damage threshold
- after one battle your TF can retreat home & does not have to face another fully intact TF (subject to luck & settings, of course!)
- the risk is if you get caught after the first battle, it would be bad, but the idea was to inflict maximum damage even if you lose your ships.

Maybe I am missing some sort of game mechanics?

The Japanese actually had three big task forces (check the combat above, two cruiser and one battleship TFs) and I had six smaller ones (although one never engaged). Why go with smaller task forces? The short answer in this case is that it's because his ships are significantly stronger so the best engagement outcome I can get is when their shells and torpedoes are severely depleted. If I had sent a bigger task forces against equal numbers there would have been fewer engagements and thus none where the Japanese fleet is with very low ammo. Under different circumstances I would have gone with different strategies.

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Well done.

Another victory for the MST Tactic (multiple small taskforce).

You are becoming quite the adept at using it, especially as the Allies. Did you hang back at port specifically to engineer a daytime encounter or to prevent detection or a bit of both?

Appreciate how the care taken in staging the encounter, especially the ordering.

Thanks. [:)]

Yes it was for both those reasons. I was looking to ensure only daytime engagements and I was concerned about his naval search. Over the horizon flank runs are my go to....

[JanSako]

If I had sent a bigger task forces against equal numbers there would have been fewer engagements and thus none where the Japanese fleet is with very low ammo. Under different circumstances I would have gone with different strategies.

That is what I meant. Your combined units were stronger than any one of the enemy TF's, so if you only engage one, you should have the upper hand. Wiping out any one of the 3 enemy TF's would have yielded about the same result. Of course if you then get 'reacted on' by any of the other fresh ones...

I am not sure if the fact that the game engine 'doesn't know when to stop shooting' which then results in unrealistic ammo depletion makes this MSF tactic gamey or not. [&:] (i.e. the first battle against 3 CL's) I would imagine there is a 25 pages long topic about this someplace.

No mater which, this was still brilliantly executed & it shows that you can hurt the enemy bad even without the air forces!

[paradigmblue]

ORIGINAL: JanSako

That is what I meant. Your combined units were stronger than any one of the enemy TF's, so if you only engage one, you should have the upper hand. Wiping out any one of the 3 enemy TF's would have yielded about the same result. Of course if you then get 'reacted on' by any of the other fresh ones...

If we're just counting hull types, sure. But engaging Japanese heavy cruisers as the allies in 1942 is always a risky proposition, as all things being equal, they will usually come out ahead vs. allied cruisers. Wolf created a situation that maximized the chance of a positive outcome from the engagements and also was able to control which of his ships were most likely to be sunk, whereas steaming the entire force to Port Morseby could have been disastrous if long lances connected with the wrong ships.

[DesertWolf101]

March 20, 1941

Most of my fleet retired to the south but two task forces remained to see if they could engage the now retreating enemy. This however resulted in only a single brief engagement with a couple of Japanese destroyers to little effect. Unfortunately, the fires on Indianapolis took a turn for the worse and even with great Allied damage control I now suspect she won't make it.

There was some very good news during the night however when S-23 put another two torpedos into BB Fuso which finished her off!

Submarine attack near Port Moresby at 96,129

Japanese Ships
BB Fuso, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS S-23

BB Fuso is sighted by SS S-23
SS S-23 launches 4 torpedoes

The Japanese also launched their second attack on Port Moresby and it looks like the base will fall soon. It has already more than served its purpose however, both strategically and now with the naval battle off its shores.

[witpqs]

Great battle!

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: witpqs



Great battle!

Thanks!

[DesertWolf101]

March 21-26, 1942

Almost the end of the Japanese amphibious bonus!

China

Maneuvering, delaying and withstanding massed Japanese armored and air attacks. Lots of Japanese forces are now on the move towards Changsha and even further west to Nanning. Supply is becoming more of an issue but Chinese forces are plentiful.

SRA

Japanese forces have finally secured Malaya and Padang in Sumatra and now look to be preparing to take Bandoeng, the last Dutch fortress on Java. Wirraway has finally discovered my Shangri La - I have moved forces into Cocos Island and plan to turn it into a painful thorn on the Japanese side if he fails to take it.

New Guinea

Port Moresby finally falls to the Japanese after doing a magnificent job of holding out for months against more than 4 Japanese divisions and hundreds of aircraft. I really struggled to supply the base so I had to turn to mass use of fleet submarines to bring in supplies on a daily basis. The American artillery units will be bought back to be reequipped with 105mm guns instead of their middling 75mm ones. I might also buy back some of the Australian units but I haven't decided yet. I currently have 150 Australian squads in the pool which might be better used in reinforcing my existing divisions in Australia.

The time I have gained to prepare my defenses in India and Australia thanks to the garrison's resistance and that of the other Allied forces in the SRA is invaluable. Both my Indian and Australian troops are fully upgraded, well rested, and very rapidly gaining in experience. In fact, I now very much doubt there will be any attempt to capture major parts of India or Australia beyond the usual occupation of northern Australia.

Instead of waiting around, I am planning an early push into Burma. Three American divisions are on their way there to join the 6th and 7th Australian and 18th British. I am leaning towards using these forces to advance while leveraging the maturing Indian army, various British Regiments/Brigades, and Allied airpower to hold against any sneaky landing behind my front.

[DesertWolf101]

It's an Oil War

From the start of this campaign I have put a lot of emphasis on targeting the Japanese economy and especially their oil. Through operations against Palembang and the recent carrier strike on Medan, I have knocked out approximately 650 oil wells. This is a very significant portion of the approximately 2,500 oil wells that are available to be captured in the SRA. If you count the wells that already start out damaged (Miri especially) and some that have been damaged during the conquest, Wirraway now has to repair 25% of the oil wells in the SRA to reach full theoretical extraction capacity.

The next obvious oil battle is going to revolve around Magwe. Allied intel has shown that Wirraway is bringing a very large host of anti-aircraft units and it is clear that he will try to move in with these and defend Magwe's oil as soon as it is taken. Guns or no guns, I plan to go all out against this target and I have been preparing my forces and building up my airfields accordingly.

Another more long term threat to Japanese oil production is my position on the Cocos Islands. If Wirraway does not take it back or fails to stop me from building it up, I could use it as a staging base for heavy bomber strikes against key oil targets such as Palembang.

[DesertWolf101]

Unfortunately it seems that with the transition to the new forum format all my previous date entries for my AARs are lost - sigh....

April 5, 1942

I have been quite busy in real life with the events in Ukraine but Wirraway and I have still managed to do consistent if not frequent turns. Did not have much time to update the AAR but not much has actually happened since the last update. Wirraway has finally moved forward and captured Magwe which triggered the Allied operation to bomb the oil fields there. Before that occurs in the next turn, my bombers plastered the Japanese Chiang Mai airfields for some good bombing practice. The Japanese air losses are reported as 42 aircraft destroyer during the day, but the actual number is always on the right, which for today was 32. Still a good day given no Allied plane was lost the entire day!

Test

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[witpqs]

Unfortunately it seems that with the transition to the new forum format all my previous date entries for my AARs are lost - sigh....

April 5, 1942

I have been quite busy in real life with the events in Ukraine but Wirraway and I have still managed to do consistent if not frequent turns. Did not have much time to update the AAR but not much has actually happened since the last update. Wirraway has finally moved forward and captured Magwe which triggered the Allied operation to bomb the oil fields there. Before that occurs in the next turn, my bombers plastered the Japanese Chiang Mai airfields for some good bombing practice. (I tried to attach the image but it won't work )

B-17s.jpg

Your prior post showed an image, but this one does not (just like Lowpe's posts now). Instead it shows "B-17s.jpg" at the bottom.

[DesertWolf101]

Thanks witpqs, it seems to be working now - I uploaded the graphic above.

[DesertWolf101]

April 6, 1942

Another very good day for the Allies, this time with a bit more excitement!

As I mentioned in my previous post, Wirraway captured Magwe which triggered a bombing effort to destroy the oil fields. Weather was a bit of an issue, not so much over the target itself as the skies were mostly clear, but over some of my airbases that I was using for the attack. In the end, 80% of my fighters and 50% of my bombers did not take off, but that did not prevent the rest of the force from knocking out 135 out of 300 oil wells!

Wirraway did put up 100 Ocars and 40 Zeros, but he staggered them in a non-optimal way, with all the Zeros above 30,000 feet and the three Oscar sentais staggered at 9k, 15k, and 38k - way too high for my bombers coming in at 4,000 feet. This meant that while my largely unescorted bombers took some considerable losses, enough survived to plaster the critical target. Only a single P-40E and a single P-400 fighter squadrons on LRCAP were available during the morning phase when all the bombers flew, with two squadrons of Hurricanes flying in the afternoon on sweep. Total air losses can be seen below, with 30 Japanese aircraft lost for 97 Allied for the day. These were mostly either fighters or older/less capable airframes, with not a single B-17E or Liberator amongst them. Very much worth the damage done to Magwe. Another big effort tomorrow, hopefully the weather holds!

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[DesertWolf101]

April 7, 1942

It always feels great when everything works out exactly as planned in this game. The weather held up really nicely and the air coordination went exactly how I wanted it to go, with all squadrons flying as ordered. Fighter sweeps grinded down the Japanese defense over Magwe to such an extent that only some tired fighters were left to take on the waves of Allied bombers that came in next. I'm even pretty sure I shot down Saburo Sakai, but he may have survived the incident. In the end, the Magwe oil fields were hammered and 263 out of 300 oil wells are now knocked out! Losses for the day were also a lot more even:

Magwe.jpg (108.12 KiB) Viewed 1350 times

[DesertWolf101]

April 9-10, 1942

Burma

With the oil wells at Magwe torched up, I turned my attention to the Japanese 1st tank regiment which was in a clear terrain hex at Meiktila. A two day effort of intense low level bombing resulted in the complete destruction of the unit. I caught Wirraway by surprise on the first day. He recovered and put up a decent number of fighters to protect his tank unit on the second day but that was still not enough to stop my bombers.

China

In China I continue to hold on as best I can against the Japanese hordes. Intel indicates he is rushing even more reinforcements into the theater, with a large number of Naval Guards having arrived in the past few weeks and unrestricted divisions previously in the SRA now making their way into China from Indochina.

On the 10th of April the Chinese bravely stood their ground against a Japanese attack that was preceded by the usual intense aerial bombing (More than 200 Sallys!).

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[DesertWolf101]

April 13, 1942

Pretty quiet since the Burma strikes. Wirraway sent four battleships to bombard the Cocos Islands though, so I am curious to see if he will try to take it.

China remains the focal point of the Japanese effort. Wirraway continues to pour resources into the theater in hopes of a breakthrough. I am holding pretty well in the center and in the north, but my forces around Liuchow in the south will have to eventually pull back as he brings in his unrestricted divisions. Here is an example of a defensive battle that just took place in the north:

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[DesertWolf101]

April 16, 1942

Wirraway tries another attack at Changsha, this time with armor only and of course preceded by another huge wave of Sally bombers. Nevertheless, the Chinese defense holds its own.

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[DesertWolf101]

April 17, 1942

I decided to send my own bombers into action. I picked out Rangoon as a target due to an apparent lack of fighter cover. Heavy bombers hit it hard knocking out a decent number of Japanese transport aircraft and bombers on the ground.

I'm a bit surprised that Wirraway has not landed in northern Australia yet. The Japanese are focusing heavily on China, but I was expecting at least a secondary push elsewhere at this still early stage. It might yet show up sometime soon.

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[DesertWolf101]

WTF?

Ok I have to admit I am pretty annoyed. I was going through the AAR just now and I noticed that essentially all my attached air losses screenshots are completely different and are in fact from my other games?? I have no idea how this happened but I am guessing that this occurred during the transition to the new forum somehow. I was a bit frustrated when all the game dates for my entries disappeared but now this too? Anyone notice something similar in their AARs too? I'm going to go check my other AARs and see if they are affected as well. Kinda defeats the purpose of writing AARs if the entries are nuked in the end....

EDIT: Yes, same issue with my other AARs. It seems that many of the screenshots that existed prior to the transition to the new forum are switched around somehow. I hope it gets fixed somehow, it would be a shame if it stays this way.

EDIT 2: They fixed it!