Against the Wind: Cuttlefish (Japan) vs. Q-Ball (Allies)

[Cuttlefish]

[font="Arial"]However absorbed a commander may be in the elaboration of his own thoughts, it is sometimes necessary to take the enemy into account.[/font]
- Winston Churchill

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4/24/1942 – 4/26/1942

It seems my suspicions that Q-Ball might try something at Luganville were not unfounded. From the Ops report for 26 April:

[font="Courier New"]Allied Carrier Aircraft sighted over Luganville
Allied Aircraft sighted over Lashio
SB2U-3 Vindicator sighted over Luganville[/font]

There were no Japanese ships there, as mentioned in my last report, but no doubt that was what my opponent was hoping to find. Suspicion, move, countermove…this is a great game.

What I anticipate now is that Q-Ball will pull his carriers back quickly, probably to Pago Pago. I have ordered several submarines to try and intercept in case this is what he does. If he is feeling bold, though, and is willing to risk a carrier battle he might send his carriers northwest. Luganville is not yet an active airbase and Lunga so far is only a level 1 airfield, so KB and surface forces would be the only threats he has to worry about (of course, those are considerable threats). I have ordered my shipping in the area to pull back a little, just in case.

Nicks and Dings: submarine I-174 sank 2 xAKLs off Exmouth, one with torpedoes and one with gunfire. Both ships were loaded with fuel. My guess is that Q-Ball was using the surviving short-range Dutch AOs to pull fuel out of Java and storing it in northwestern Australia, and that now he’s using what’s available to move the fuel to the Pacific side.

Four Allied PT boats hit Batavia and sank two of three Japanese minesweepers there. The PT boats got away clean. In the Java Sea a submarine put a torpedo into DD Kamikaze; the destroyer should survive provided no further hits are scored. Already another submarine has bounced a dud off her as she limped towards Balikpapan. And on the same turn Japanese ASW forces damaged a sub right in the harbor there.

Trust: it seems that Q-Ball has a habit of occasionally forgetting to close out turns before sending them. To make things easier if he does this he sent me his password. That is quite a gesture of trust. I think it says more about the quality of my opponent than it does about my reliability.

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish
Trust: it seems that Q-Ball has a habit of occasionally forgetting to close out turns before sending them. To make things easier if he does this he sent me his password. That is quite a gesture of trust. I think it says more about the quality of my opponent than it does about my reliability.

Says alot about both of you.

[Cuttlefish]

[font="Arial"]The large ground organization of a modern air force is its Achilles’ heel.[/font]
- B.H. Liddell Hart: Thoughts on War, 1943

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4/27/1942 – 4/30/1942

Q-Ball seems determined to do what he can to hinder my developing Luganville into a large base. Carrier planes have been seen scouting the place again and some cruisers came up from the south on a bombardment run. They probably came from Auckland, which is interesting given the recent discussion here about the place. So far his efforts have been successful. While the aviation company already there has raised the airfield to level 1 the follow-on troops, a naval guard unit, a construction battalion, and another aviation company, have been kept circling up near Lunga until KB returns to reassert control of the area.

And KB is returning. The carriers are about halfway back from Truk, having restocked on torpedoes there and replenished their airgroups. With them comes a fast battleship TF based around Haruna and Kongo and a slower TF with four battleships. It will be interesting to see what happens when they arrive. Will Q-Ball fight or pull back? I know he is not a fan of engaging the Japanese carriers in the first half of ’42 but he obviously sees my advance in this area as a major threat. I’m betting he will continue to use hit and run tactics but he might be persuaded to give battle. We shall see.

Java: Buitenzorg fell on 28 April and Japanese forces on the western half of the island are following the shattered Dutch units east. It looks as though Q-Ball will make his final stand in the west at the mountain base of Bandoeng. On the eastern half of the island the 48th Division has joined the 38th at Soerabaja and the assault there will start next turn.

China: Wuchow fell easily to the first Japanese assault. Japanese forces have now turned southwest, where they can threaten both Kweilin and Liuchow. A regiment has been detailed to head south and capture the coastal bases of Pakhoi and Kwangchowan.

Meanwhile, far to the northwest, Japanese forces have invested Loyang. So far they are bombarding, preparing for the first attack against a fair number of Chinese defenders. Q-Ball has responded by moving a unit into the critical road junction linking Loyang, Chengchow, and Kaifeng, threatening to cut off my attackers. I only have a couple of regiments in reserve at Kaifeng so he might succeed in making things interesting.

Cebu: the invasion of Cebu began on 30 April. While there is a full PA division here their listed AV is shockingly weak, so I expect a quick conquest. Cebu has a modest amount of resources and light industry but maybe the poor troops there have been eating lizards and boots for months anyway.

Of Mines and Men: I have been converting some of my Kiso and To’su class xAKLs. The Kisos make reasonably good PBs so that is what most of them have been converting to; I am always short of good escort ships. The very small To’su class ships remain very small no matter what one does with them, so I have been converting a few into PBs and some into ACMs. All the ACMs Japan has at the start of the game are not enough to maintain the existing minefields and Japan’s production of mines is not such that new minefields can be created and allowed to go to waste. Thus, more ACMs are needed.

Interestingly, twice so far in the game I have received messages to the effect that such-and-such ACM has suffered a mine handling accident. The damage in both cases has been substantial. What a great level of detail this game has.

As everyone knows well by now, Japanese mine production is low. But there are substantial existing minefields at the start of the game and most or all of the mine layers are fully loaded. Used carefully Japan can lay or maintain a fair number of defensive minefields. Nothing like the old WITP days, but the old WITP days were ridiculous in that regard. The first minefield I am putting down is at Tabiteuea. An ACM is already there, disbanded in port, to handle it. That’s another reason to convert some more ACMs – the ones in forward areas pretty much have to be regarded as expendable, I think.

New Arrivals: Junyo will arrive in two turns. The accelerated Hiyo is only be a week behind and Yamato will be along on schedule. This will give me timely extra firepower for the campaign in the South Pacific. I know a lot of people are fond of postponing or cancelling Yamato, but I never do. To the people of Japan that battleship was a powerful symbol. In the game it might be just a poor use of shipyard space and a big floating bag of points for the Allied player but to me it somehow feels wrong not to complete it.

Odds and Ends: the Dutch units that retreated from Palembang and ended up at Djambi have been eliminated. I took the time to block all the roads out of the base before attacking and they finally surrendered. Stricken DD Kamikaze suffered another sub attack, the third in as many days, but that one missed and the destroyer made port safely. A Japanese sub sank an xAKL off Perth and an Allied sub returned the favor against a Japanese xAKL near Truk. And I failed to move I-174 after it sank two Allied ships near Exmouth and almost paid for it; a British DD showed up and clobbered the sub, which barely survived and is limping back to Saigon.

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Here is the victory points screen for the end of April 1942:

[Mike Solli]

Cuttlefish, what's your take on finishing the Musashi?  Several of us have been discussing that.  Just curious what you think.

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Cuttlefish, what's your take on finishing the Musashi?  Several of us have been discussing that.  Just curious what you think.

I don't have the same sentimental attachment about finishing Musashi. I've been known to delay her construction to accelerate Taiho or other carriers. I will say this, though. Q-Ball has observed that he thinks surface combat plays a larger role in AE and I believe he is correct. The possible presence of both Yamato and Musashi would give almost any Allied player something to think about when contemplating surface attacks. I think that in this game, at least, I will allow Musashi to complete on schedule.

[Panther Bait]

Plus, if you don't build Yamato, what will Star Force use against the Gamilons?

[rattovolante]

ORIGINAL: Panther Bait

Plus, if you don't build Yamato, what will Star Force use against the Gamilons?

Space Battleship Yamashiro, I guess. [:'(]

[jwilkerson]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Cuttlefish, what's your take on finishing the Musashi?  Several of us have been discussing that.  Just curious what you think.

I don't have the same sentimental attachment about finishing Musashi. I've been known to delay her construction to accelerate Taiho or other carriers. I will say this, though. Q-Ball has observed that he thinks surface combat plays a larger role in AE and I believe he is correct. The possible presence of both Yamato and Musashi would give almost any Allied player something to think about when contemplating surface attacks. I think that in this game, at least, I will allow Musashi to complete on schedule.

I've delayed Shinano (indefinitely) and Taiho (briefly) but have kept Yamato and Musashi on schedule. I've also delayed many submarines though I expect to finish every ship in the line up eventually.

Unfortunately in my game there is a bug which prevents accelerated ships from advancing (with 2-day turns) so I cannot advance anything - but at least I have plenty of spare naval points! I think this bug will be fixed eventually.

[Cuttlefish]

[font="Arial"]There's no better place to experience the Pacific with a taste of France than New Caledonia, where Melanesian tradition blends with French sophistication.[/font]
- Lonely Planet Guide to New Caledonia

5/1/1942 – 5/4/1942

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A couple of turns back none of the information screens in the game would display a lower-case letter L. The map was fine, it was just the info screens. The next turn everything was normal again. I’m glad, because it was disconcerting dealing with “pi ot ski s” and “Q-ba vs Cutt efish.”

Kido Butai has returned to the waters near Luganville. The destroyer screen prosecuted a sub contact two hexes north of the base and the combat results screen showed eight destroyers and Kirishima, so Q-Ball probably knows KB is back.

With Kido Butai’s return the Koumac invasion force is now at sea. The Japanese 4th Division is en route from Rabaul and the 53rd Division will be picked up from Luganville and sent there as well.

Java: Soerabaja fell on 2 May and with that the Allied presence in Java is down to two mountain redoubts, one in the east half of the island and one in the west half. I am sending two infantry divisions after each. I continue to do well capturing industy centers. The ones at Batavia were captured 100% intact and the ones at Soerabaja were captured 90% intact.

China: the unit Q-Ball had at the Kaifeng-Chengchow-Loyang road junction moved up and took Tsiaotso, the dot base across the river from Loyang. This isolates the large Japanese force besieging Loyang. Can’t have that, so I have a couple of units moving in to try and take it back.

Other Places: Cebu was captured. Over in Burma I tried to cut off the mixed Chinese/British force that retreated awkwardly from Lashio but failed. Though I battered them a bit I could not force them to retreat off the Paoshan trail again and so they are now past my units and moving towards Paoshan.

The situation near Loyang:

[Cuttlefish]

[font="Arial"]Nothing is more worthy of the attention of a good general than the endeavor to penetrate the designs of the enemy…[/font]
- Niccolo Machiavelli: Discorsi, 1531

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5/5/1942 – 5/6/1942

As I feared, the sub sighting of Kirishima tipped off Q-Ball that something was up. He doesn’t know what, exactly, so it’s hard to guess what his reaction, if any, will be. In any event, troops will begin landing at Koumac tomorrow and then he will know what’s going on.

I’ve spotted some Allied ships at Noumea. A battleship force consisting of Mutsu, Yamashiro, Ise, and Hyuga will pay a visit there next turn. The Kongo/Haruna force is moving down to cover the western approaches to New Caledonia while Kido Butai remains on guard to the east. A force with three heavy cruisers is at Koumac to cover the landings themselves. To stir the pot a little more Zeros based at Luganville will do a sweep of Noumea.

If Kongo and Haruna find nothing to fight they and their escorts will continue south with an eye towards pulling off a raid on Auckland.

The current situation:

[Mike Solli]

Very nice little operation you have planned, Cuttlefish. [:D]

[Smeulders]

Will the BBs raid Auckland on their own or will they have support from the KB ?

[aprezto]

Hi CF;

Just note you are utilising KB as a single TF. I know things are short for the IJN such that they can't always create multiple TFs to spread the carriers around, but after being caught twice by surface forces against my carrier forces, with predictable outcomes, I always at least try and have a surface combat TF that the carriers follow around.

my 2 cents worth

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: Smeulders

Will the BBs raid Auckland on their own or will they have support from the KB ?

They will raid Auckland on their own, at least for now. I don't like to have KB tangle with large groups of land-based aircraft and Auckland has a level 6 airfield. The fast battleships can get in, hit hard, and be well away from the base by dawn.

ORIGINAL: apretzo

Just note you are utilising KB as a single TF. I know things are short for the IJN such that they can't always create multiple TFs to spread the carriers around, but after being caught twice by surface forces against my carrier forces, with predictable outcomes, I always at least try and have a surface combat TF that the carriers follow around.

I think this is sound practice. Right now, however, I have a lot of SCTFs in the area and am moving KB every turn to minimize the prospect of an intercept. And KB does still have two battleships. I think the risk is acceptable.

[Cuttlefish]

[font="Arial"]Never get involved in a land war in Asia.[/font]
- attributed to General Douglas MacArthur

[font="Arial"]Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia" - but only slightly less well-known is this: "never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line"![/font]
- Vizzini, last words

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5/7/1942 - 5/10/1942

Remember those suspected cruisers at Noumea? They turned out to be four AKs and a small escort vessel. Hitting them with four battleships was kind of like dropping a grenade on a rabbit but at least there is no doubt that all of them sank.

Japanese troops are now at Koumac and beginning to move south. I still don’t have much idea what ground strength Q-Ball has there. I’m guessing that it is either a.) considerable, because he does not want to lose Noumea, or b.) slight, because he does not want the island to become a large Allied POW camp. How’s that for definite?

So far the operation has met with little interference. There have been a few attacks at Koumac by Vindicators flying out of Noumea but no ships have been hit. Zeros have swept Noumea and flown CAP over Japanese shipping and this has cost Q-Ball a fair number of fighters and a few bombers. I estimate about 20 Allied planes lost for 5 Japanese.

Java: this battle is essentially in a mop-up phase now. There are large stacks of Dutch units at two mountain bases and these are slowly being reduced. When they are gone it will pretty much all be over there.

China: two Japanese brigades retook Tsiaotso, allowing supplies to once more flow freely to the units attacking Loyang. Supply in northern China is generally low right now, however. I have dispatched a couple of convoys from Honshu to take care of the problem. The Home Islands are stuffed with supplies right now – over 900,000 at Osaka and Tokyo alone – and I need to move some of this largesse out to other areas.

Fueling Around: Almost every one of Japan’s small 1250-capacity tankers are working the DEI right now, moving fuel to Singapore. I love these little guys and wish I had twice as many of them. I’m using them in groups of five or six. A convoy of six carries 7500 units of fuel and loads very quickly even at a tiny port like Miri. Large, well-protected convoys of big tankers call at Singapore with its wonderfully large port and take fuel to the Home Islands or wherever else it is needed. This system is working very well so far. And it needs to: the Noumea operation, for instance, has 150,000 units of fuel allocated and I will need all of that and more.

Odds and Ends: the minefield I put down at Tabiteuea paid off almost at once when a mine there sank submarine Grayling. With luck this will make Q-Ball a little more cautious about having his subs go poking around in my ports. Submarine I-155, which is so far my most distinguished ship of the war (with a submarine, a large AP, and the hit on Enterprise to its credit) sank an xAKL off Exmouth. Enemy PT boats engaged Japanese minesweepers at Sourabaja, with one DMS and one PT boat ending up sunk.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

Hitting them with four battleships was kind of like dropping a grenade on a rabbit but at least there is no doubt that all of them sank.

That would be:

[Capt. Harlock]

Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia" - but only slightly less well-known is this: "never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line"!
- Vizzini, last words

Nice quote from "The Princess Bride". (Wallace Shawn was badly miscast, reducing the role almost to comic relief.)

And that's an impressive plan for getting the DEI's fuel to where it's needed. How are the small tankers at rapid unloading? Would it be useful to send them to farther ports than Singapore?

[Wirraway_Ace]

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

And that's an impressive plan for getting the DEI's fuel to where it's needed. How are the small tankers at rapid unloading? Would it be useful to send them to farther ports than Singapore?

I think the problem is, they burn nearly as much fuel as they carry over long distances.

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: Wirraway_Ace

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

And that's an impressive plan for getting the DEI's fuel to where it's needed. How are the small tankers at rapid unloading? Would it be useful to send them to farther ports than Singapore?

I think the problem is, they burn nearly as much fuel as they carry over long distances.

They unload at Singapore in a single day, so the turnaround time there is excellent. And Wirraway Ace is correct. The fuel capacity of the small tankers is something like 3750 (their own capacity, not their cargo capacity) so they don't have the legs for long-range hauling and it wouldn't be cost-effective even if they were used that way.

[Cuttlefish]

[font="Arial"]Although Yamato had participated in the Battle of Midway, these battleships were ‘mystery ships’ to the world at large; but the CINCPOA and Seventh Fleet Intelligence officers, by piecing together scraps of information, had a good idea of their size early in 1944, which was confirmed by a talkative officer prisoner in September.[/font]
- Samuel Elliott Morrison: History of United States Naval Operations in WWII, vol. XII

5/11/1942 – 5/22/1942

Yamato is on her way south from Yokahama with a couple of destroyers for escort. She will rendezvous with the Haruna/Kongo battle group now operating around Noumea. It’s interesting, but I never realized before just how little the Allies knew about Yamato (and Musashi) at this stage of the war. No one seriously thought they mounted 18” guns, mostly because theories about her displacement were way too low – 35,000 to 50,000 tons, mostly.

Junyo and Hiyo are already at Rabaul. They will proceed from there to join Kido Butai in the waters around Noumea.

Noumea has been isolated for about three weeks now and Japanese troops are now nearing La Foa. Noumea will not fall easily. I’ve identified the US 4th Infantry Division there. There are two Japanese divisions on New Caledonia and a third on the way, so it’s shaping up to be quite a fight. I would give a lot to know how much supply Q-Ball has.

A-Raiding We Will Go: on 21 May Japanese battleships raided both Auckland and Trincomalee. Auckland harbor was empty. At Trincomalee Fuso and Nagato found and sank CM Abdiel and AM Lismore, but that’s all.

Java: despite being battered by previous defeats the units defending at Bandoeng proved surprisingly stubborn. With the 3x defensive bonus granted by the mountain terrain it took several attacks to force them out. They are now falling back on Tjilitjap, the last Allied base in Western Java, where they should be fairly easy to destroy.

China: supply is now flowing into northern China from the Home Islands, allowing the attack at Loyang to resume. There are a lot of Chinese units there now; the siege has become wonderfully destructive on both sides. But I have lots of supplies and I bet that Q-Ball isn’t as well off.

In the southeast four Japanese divisions are attacking Liuchow. Q-Ball is trying to slow me down by infiltrating behind me everywhere I attack. This tactic is partly successful. My own units are not really threatened by this but where he can interrupt my supplies it does slow down my attacks.

Northern Exposure: I am a little less paranoid now about an Allied attack in the Kuriles. Sakhalin is pretty well defended, Paramushiro is building up rapidly, and there are naval guard and construction units digging in at Onnekotan-Jima and Shimushiri-Jima, in the middle of the chain. With Paramushiro-Jima and Bihoru as anchors with plenty of aviation support any attack in this area will face stiff resistance.

Other Operations: Four regiments recently landed at Tandjoengbalai (say that three times real fast – heck, say it at all) in northern Sumatra and are moving north. The next stop, Medan, seems to be the last real Allied stronghold in the DEI. I spotted the remnants of the ML-KNIL there and a couple days of fighter sweeps and airfield attacks seems to have destroyed them.

In the Philippines I am slowly clearing the last occupied Allied bases in the Archipelago. Tacloban fell a few turns ago and Bacolod is next. They could just be left to rot, I suppose, but my motto as Japan is “defend early and defend often” and I want to start fortifying this area for defense. Cap Mandrake has taught me, in the “Feels Like An Eternity” WITP game, all I will ever need to know about what happens to Japan when these islands are left ungarrisoned and unfortified.

Under the Sea: Q-Ball has suffered through another one of those periods where his subs launch nothing but duds, though an S-boat did sink an AO from KB’s refueling group near Koumac. Another took a shot at Soryu a few turns ago and missed. Japanese subs have made their presence known, with Glens regularity scouting Pago Pago, Canton, and other bases, but have found few targets of late.