Banzais Don't Make Victories - Anachro (A) vs John 3rd (J) BTS 5.7

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

John will be back. He just needs to cool off. This was a pretty big defeat, it may take a while but he will be back.

I'm sure he will. "Floozy Dan" always keeps him coming back for more. [:D]

[JohnDillworth]

Well, if I was a mean spirited soul I would go into the opponents wanted sub and announce the Anachro vs. Floozy Dan death match

[Cheesesteak]

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

Well, if I was a mean spirited soul I would go into the opponents wanted sub and announce the Anachro vs. Floozy Dan death match

Floozy Dan, my favorite Steely Dan cover band.


Anachro can't commit to another game now; I'm going to requisition him. Someone has to save the Allies in my game.

[Anachro]

ORIGINAL: Cheesesteak

Floozy Dan, my favorite Steely Dan cover band.

Anachro can't commit to another game now; I'm going to requisition him. Someone has to save the Allies in my game.

I have a second game going on as Japan (which I made an AAR for). I might post more of that, but I have to admit that I feel woefully inadequate as a Japanese player. It requires an attention to detail I'm not sure I have. You can get away with a lot as an Allied player: the logistics mostly takes care of itself, so you can focus more on ops planning and big picture stuff.

I'll prob send the turn to John in a few hours. BBs and BCs will bombard Kwajalein before moving east towards Pearl Harbor. Carriers will move east immediately.

Regarding the game now and the strategic situation for carriers, by mid-1944 the IJN should be able to field 10 fleet carriers and 10 light carriers. It's losses so far are as follows:



In contrast, the Allied fleet should be able to field 19 fleet carriers and 15 light carriers by mid '44. THis means that John certainly has the carrier capabilities going forward to inflict damage if I make a mistake or if he achieves surprise in an advantageous position. Losses are as follows:

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

Well, if I was a mean spirited soul I would go into the opponents wanted sub and announce the Anachro vs. Floozy Dan death match

Man. Word is really getting around fast!

[Anachro]

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

Some of those CA's don't look so good but unless you got deck penetrations they may live with lots of yard time. Destroyed turrets take forever. Not sure who carries what float planes but keep an eye on the aircraft loss screen. John loves his CA's as much as he loves his caboose.

The frustrating thing about having no replay thanks to the sync bug, I can't actually watch the bombs hit and see what happens (it was my hope to be able to see this for my Midway moment so I can geek out and roleplay it a bit). Do they cause good damage? Do they hit the armor? Do they destroy gun mounts? Etc.

The turn is away and a BC/DD and BB/DD SCTF will both bombard Kwajalein. Let's see what happens. I have decided to send my carriers due east with heavy CAP coverage. Nav search is heavy at Wake Island, etc. to spot any TFs John might be sending from Truk. It'll be awhile before I get the turn back. John sent a reply to my turn email immediately saying he was still in Denver where he had training all day.

Haven't left a very rainy/snowy Denver yet...

[CaptBeefheart]

As I sort of hinted at a couple of comments back, for some reason he didn't seem willing to commit his KB1, that it was not up to taking on the DS. You'd think he would have had KB1 and 2 meet around Umboi or something. It would be interesting to know why he didn't.

Cheers,
CB

[BBfanboy]

You had your CVEs heading east to join up with DS and then the Battle of the Marshalls finished KB2. Where are your CVEs going now - back toward Milne Bay? Onward to the Marshalls? NW to demolish KB1?

[Anachro]

Given where KB1 was last seen, I judged it safer to move away from Truk towards Pearl; moreover, Death Star is a little low on fuel and PH is closer. As for my transports and CVEs, in order to take them out of danger while Death Star is away, I have moved everything back towards the Australian mainland. In the mean time, a number of DDs, BBs, and CAs that were overdue for upgrade will get their refits in (I think the days in port will range between 7-30 days for the ships upgrading). If I get a pin on KB1's location and judge things to be safe, I'll move on Lae under cover of LBA and CVEs. I plan to have Death Star back in theater ASAP though to help with the defense of Manus and isolation of surrounding Japanese garrisons.

[adarbrauner]

ORIGINAL: Anachro

I might post more of that, but I have to admit that I feel woefully inadequate as a Japanese player. It requires an attention to detail I'm not sure I have. You can get away with a lot as an Allied player: the logistics mostly takes care of itself,

Are you sure. even during first years, with a menacing japan fleet that can interdict;

When playing solo against myself, I have a hell of time coordinating escorts for allied logistic and transport shipping

[Anachro]

Carrier Battle Postmortem

A bit chaotic, but here's a graphic I made while I await John to send back the next turn. It shows the various pathways of the three carrier task forces on hand during whats already being called in the media The Battle of...well maybe I'll let the peanut gallery think of a name, since the battle encompassed combat east of Bougainville and in the Marshalls.



Needless to say, John's initial warpspeed move on Aug 22nd from Horn Island was questionable, highly risky, and put him in a bad situation. The real critical day was August 23rd when he could have moved north past Umboi Island, or towards Rabaul. Given KB1's positioning on Aug. 22, both of these options could have had him feasibly link up with KB1 with its immense fighter coverage while also giving him the benefit of multiple nearby large airbases from which he could have provided heavy LBA CAP cover. Instead, he chose to go east, which perhaps was the worst pathway to choose if he wanted to minimize risk from an aggressive movement by Death Star, moving him both away from KB1 and away from his LBA fighter coverage.

The real question is why. Some have said John didn't feel confident tangling with Death Star using KB1, but this doesn't jibe with the facts. KB1 had ~350 fighters in addition to ~120 bombers based on recon. Combining it with KB2 would have resulted in only a narrow margin of inferiority (~750-800 Japanese A/C vs. ~900 for Death Star). Moreover, with nearby LBA protection, the ability of Death Star to cause major harm would have been certainly curtailed and one needs to only look at Death Star's difficulties with its initial strikes on an isolated KB2 on Aug. 24th to understand a combined KB would have been far more difficult to cause harm to. Of course, any carrier action near Port Moresby and Milne Bay would have also afforded me the ability to provide LBA CAP to my carriers; and John might simply have not felt confident with the above facts regardless, especially given the lack of full knowledge and the fog of war.

So why did John move east? Perhaps the more interesting question: why did KB1 not once throughout this dangerous period attempt to move closer to KB2? I believe the answer is simply it did not have the fuel; and on top of that, John did not expect me to pursue so aggressively out east of Rabaul. Why do I think this?

1. KB1 had already been at sea for over 10 days and had conducted some air strikes against Milne Bay - she probably was low on fuel and op points.
2. KB1 did not move once towards KB2. It had a 2 day window in which to do this under the protection of LBA CAP (Aug 22. and Aug 23). It did not move south even after the carrier action on the 24th - it kept its beeline for Truk.
3. No SCTFs or KB1 moved south from Truk immediately after the carrier battle on the 24th. Perhaps given the numerous capital ships John had been employing, the fuel situation at Truk was also critical.

On top of all this, there is what John was seeing from his perspective. From Aug 22-24, John saw a heavy fleet of transports (clearly an invasion force), coming up behind my carriers, as well as 5-6 SCTFs. This would all obviously point to invasion, bombardment, and surface protection duties. It could very well be the case that on August 23rd, a moment of incredible danger for KB2 given that it had chosen the worst path to take, John assumed that the Allied commander would remain to cover his invasion force that was clearly heading for Milne before moving on some invasion target. He also probably assumed that he was both far enough away and that the Allies might think so as well. Why would I make that supposition? Because of the pathway he took. Moving directly east would have been his safest option; instead, KB2 went northeast on a meandering route towards Truk, a route which gave Death Star the possibility of getting in strike range.

All of this created the situation for a strategic victory. Admittedly, it's also all conjecture. Perhaps someone would be so kind as to ask John in his thread what his thoughts were for the critical turns of Aug. 22-24.

[Anachro]

And yes, I'm bored at the moment.

[Bearcat2]

ORIGINAL: Anachro

Carrier Battle Postmortem

The Battle of...well maybe I'll let the peanut gallery think of a name, since the battle encompassed combat east of Bougainville and in the Marshalls.

......................................

The battle of: A Banzaii too Far

[JohnDillworth]

Sorry, This will be forever know as THE BATTLE OF FLOOZY DAN

[BBfanboy]

Your analysis looks quite thorough to me. I would only add that John has so many irons in the fire of his life that he must play hasty turns while nearly exhausted. That does not lead to clear thought and good judgment.

Since John did not get to shout Banzai! about anything recently, I cannot support Bearcat2's otherwise excellent suggestion.
How about the battle of OJ (Ontong Java)? We have a meandering attempt to escape in full view of the good guys (DS) and news helicopters (your AAR posts). We have a visible trail from place to place and a bloody mess at the end. Everything points to OJ...

[JohnDillworth]

You may be waiting a bit for that turn. Care to try the above illustration in embroidery? You will have time

[Anachro]

We'll see. I just got an email from John so he's alive. However, he appears to be having turn file problems.

I’ve tried to run this turn twice and it keeps crashing. STUPID! Could you re-send the file to me? Thanks!

[Anachro]

I was perusing CR's AAR from his old match with John, trying to find his Midway moment to see how it happened and John's reaction in the days/weeks after. I still haven't yet pinpointed it because that AAR is long, has lots of action, and CR is quite verbose. However, I did find a very interesting post from Mr. Mandrake:

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

This bluster is exactly how John is. This playing style is exactly how John is. It is as predictable as the rising of the sun.

I played him once in WITP. He ran all over the Pacific with the KB shooting up transports and the like until a divided KB was defeated by USN carriers near Tahiti. Even after that he attacked Perth but Sigint picked up the prep and the attack was stopped with big losses. Then in January 43 the Allies landed behind a big Jap Army at Moulmein and ran wild until he gave up the game.

I don't think he is constitutionally able to prepare for a solid anticipatory defense.

Sounds familiar.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

Sorry, This will be forever know as THE BATTLE OF FLOOZY DAN

The Battle of Floozy Dan and the separated legs of Kido Butai? [X(]

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy
Everything points to OJ...

Does Halsey wear a size 9 Bruno Magli shoe? [;)]