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

[modrow]

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: Anachro

Jan 19-20 1942

The last two days I send some DD raiders to get some undefended cargo units spotted south of Kwajalein where they manage to hit one in the night and cause some minor damage. They will try to hit some more as they head home. John is also recon'ing Baker Island, either to see if I have stuff there or maybe to eventually take it so he can do deep patrols into my SoPac trade routes.

ight Time Surface Combat, near Ocean Island at 132,126, Range 2,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
xAKL Shonan Maru #8
xAKL Toyotsu Maru, Shell hits 2
xAK Nitiyo Maru, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Penang Maru, Shell hits 4
xAK Uji Maru, Shell hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage

Allied Ships
DD Worden
DD MacDonough

In the DEI, I send the Dutch bombers to bomb Singapore from Singkawang. Hopefully, they actually manage to fly and find an undefended port. We'll see.

Looks like you're causing some problems. [;)]

All of these little actions add up, and it slows him down. He won't like to cover every transport or invasion. He wants to use the IJN to hunt. So keep making him pay and take what he gives.

+1, good job and probably the most effective way of slowing him down. Also, don't forget the experience gain (which is what you need to make surface battles more balanced).

Curious to see (no need for you to tell now) whether you will pounce with your carriers (I wouldn't) and if so the results. In the result from your other game you posted previously you got very good strike coordination/coherence, much better than what I typically get. But that may well be my fault.

Hartwig

[Anachro]

@Obvert I'm trying, but I've been a little lacking in my defense of the DEI more than I should've been. Both miscalculations on my part and laziness. Hopefully, it doesn't hurt me when he tries to invade India.

@modrow I will definitely try a pounce if the opportunity arises, but it would require him to make his carriers exposed in a bad position that provides opportunity for simultaneous surface intercept and/or my carriers operating under LBA cover + very good DL on his carriers. I believe the reason why the strike coordination on my previous one was so good was because I had the area saturated by patrol search aircraft and had multiple days of 10/10 DL on my opponent's KB unit.

Jan 23-24, 1942

Singkawang falls and troops land south of Soerabaja. I would imagine John should be able to rap up a lot of conquest by the end of the next 1.5 months in the DEI, 2 months if I'm being optimistic. This does not give me much time to reinforce India. Troops going to Capetown from the East Coast by Strategic Movement seem to take 45 days to arrive. Is it possible to do this with faster with speedy transports? Maybe. CV Yorktown only takes 24 days to get to Capetown going the same distance.

1/3rd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment is loaded on a Akasi Cargo class xAK moving to Port Blair.

One potentially interesting event going forward are that I have an ambush setup to hit John's invasion TF heading for Port Blair if things appear favorable and he does not have it well-escorted. No nav search has spotted the ambush TFs and John appears to only be recon'ing Port Blair itself, showing a 9/10 DL. I have Hermes set to try and hit with Torps while I have 2 CL/DD fleets also ready to pounce. I'd imagine he should escort with his nearby surface forces and potentially carriers. If he does so, I'll probably retreat. But if its only a weak cruiser force or none at all (!!!), I will try and cause some damage. I am a bit intrigued that he would be sending Mountain guns to Port Blair; this could very well be deception and those boats are actually going somewhere else, like India.



In SoPac, his fragment carrier force seems to have joined up with his sister unit and seems to be heading east towards my trade routes and Hawaii. I'm not quite sure where to yet, but it should be well-watched by the patrol craft I've set up. Needless to say, I don't think i'd try to take on this force when its combined unless the circumstances were very, very favorable. Let's hope John divides them at some point in the future.

[Anachro]

Current Strategic Map

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Imperial Guards is one of his strongest divisions. It doesn't seem likely he would waste the prep time on a unit he needs to put to work, so I think that is good SIGINT.

Au contraire mon frère.

That is not the complete Imperial Guards division. Unless there is signit that the division is embarked, it would be easy to give a small terrestrial fragment a false target. Besides the location is not a particularly good choice for an Indian landing.

Alfred

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: GetAssista

ORIGINAL: Mahrgell
Two phases? I think you should have went with LoBaron's bottomline instead of making up your own.

The above is the main reason why DP high caliber guns expend more ammo. They a) usually fire in three phases instead of one, and b) also fire against a/c attacking other ships in a TF.

See the difference?

So how again are the AAA contributing to fleet air defense, except in the case of someone sending his Nells in at 6k for I don't know what reasons?

Methinks you pull wrong conclusion out of the LoBaron's "usually".
Anyway, I've tested it just now to clear the misconception.
On a naked map with 3 Vals coming in on 10k attacking a TF of Lexington stripped of his planes + 6 Omahas. No other planes except 41k flying navsearch to have DL on the US TF.
Bottomline: all of Omahas fired their 6000 ceiling Bofors, and even some of their 4000 ceiling 20mm. Which should not've been possible if AAA fire only on planes atacking the ship - there are 3 planes and 7 ships. Case closed

There is an important point which has been overlooked.

1. On approach to the enemy TF, all enemy TF ship flak which can reach the raid's altitude will fire. This is subject to the quality of the CAP positioning.

2. On the attack run which is against a specific ship, only the target ship's flak will fire if it has the altitude and is facing the attacking aircraft. Thus if torpedo bombers are approaching from starboard, only the starboard flak can fire; the port flak cannot fire.

3. After delivery of the ordnance, the egressing raid can run the same flak gauntlet it faced on approach.

Alfred

[Anachro]

@Alfred Now, you are making me worried. My only chance of defeating an Indian invasion is defeating it early and near the location of the landings. It will be a few months before American reinforcements arrive and the changes made in the mod to garrison requirements for Indian cities make it hard to use a lot of the troops that are already there freely.

Jan 25, 1942

A cruiser force seems to be roving around Port Blair and made a run into Rangoon last night with a destroyer taking a mine. I surmise this to be one of his "heavy" CL/DD fleets. That is, one with a Furutaka-class cruiser or some other variant. It somehow ended up north of Rangoon in an exposed position that provides opportunity, but his invasion fleet seems to also have appeared south of Port Blair. Times of decision. This force could be heading for Rangoon or Port Blair or somewhere else. Not too sure yet, but recent sigint points to PB.



In the South Pacific, he seems to making a push east of south east from the Marshalls towards either Johnston Island or perhaps towards Canton, Palmyra, etc. Canton and Baker Island have been under surveillance, so these might be his target. I'm relatively powerless to stop it, but my carriers are close by around Pago Pago and perhaps I can tread the line and somehow hit his transports while staying out of range of the carriers or hit stragglers.

[Anachro]

I forgot to mention that the last turn was a good turn in the air for the Allies, mainly because of China. Those Flying Tigers are starting to rack up some nice kills from the unescorted or poorly escorted Japanese bombers there.

[modrow]

ORIGINAL: Anachro

@Alfred Now, you are making me worried. My only chance of defeating an Indian invasion is defeating it early and near the location of the landings. It will be a few months before American reinforcements arrive and the changes made in the mod to garrison requirements for Indian cities make it hard to use a lot of the troops that are already there freely.

You may call me a defeatist, but I do not think you can defeat it on the beach unless this mod improves your OOB or TOE significantly. You need time until you can prevail in India. Trade space for time, do a fighting retreat, do not get flanked, make him march all the way.

Do not get confused by AV numbers, look at anti soft and anti hard values of you troops (I.S.F militia has 5/12 in stock, Ind Inf. 5/14, i.e. they correspond to Chinese and Chinese '43 squads, respectively, and in stock their morale and experience are just as bad if not worse than the ones of the Chinese and like the Chinese they start with significant disablements, meaning the units break quickly and lose devices quickly). Imagine you are fighting in China, just without the numbers of the Chinese. Do not try to use the "tank units" before they have tanks, your improvised AFVs have 1/5 anti hard/anti soft and are not effective for me.

I look at both squads and "tanks" are placeholders to allow for a quick upgrade of units. If you get them shredded, that chance is gone, and teh rebuilding of the Indina army will take a long time given the available replacements.

As always, just my view.

Hartwig

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: modrow

ORIGINAL: Anachro

@Alfred Now, you are making me worried. My only chance of defeating an Indian invasion is defeating it early and near the location of the landings. It will be a few months before American reinforcements arrive and the changes made in the mod to garrison requirements for Indian cities make it hard to use a lot of the troops that are already there freely.

You may call me a defeatist, but I do not think you can defeat it on the beach unless this mod improves your OOB or TOE significantly. You need time until you can prevail in India. Trade space for time, do a fighting retreat, do not get flanked, make him march all the way.

Do not get confused by AV numbers, look at anti soft and anti hard values of you troops (I.S.F militia has 5/12 in stock, Ind Inf. 5/14, i.e. they correspond to Chinese and Chinese '43 squads, respectively, and in stock their morale and experience are just as bad if not worse than the ones of the Chinese and like the Chinese they start with significant disablements, meaning the units break quickly and lose devices quickly). Imagine you are fighting in China, just without the numbers of the Chinese. Do not try to use the "tank units" before they have tanks, your improvised AFVs have 1/5 anti hard/anti soft and are not effective for me.

I look at both squads and "tanks" are placeholders to allow for a quick upgrade of units. If you get them shredded, that chance is gone, and teh rebuilding of the Indina army will take a long time given the available replacements.

As always, just my view.

Hartwig

If he lands in India give a LOT of space. Just pull everything you can back to Bombay and Karachi. Those are the bases you need to survive. You will not, and I mean absolutely will not, save Calcutta. Or Madras. Or Ledo.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: obvert
If he lands in India give a LOT of space. Just pull everything you can back to Bombay and Karachi. Those are the bases you need to survive. You will not, and I mean absolutely will not, save Calcutta. Or Madras. Or Ledo.

Just try not to pull out too soon and make him waste time. It is a lot of fun for the Japanese player to capture empty bases with paratroopers and rail in vanguard divisions right the next turn.

[Anachro]

Jan 26-27, 1942

Don't have much time to report, but I'll give a brief rundown of what happened the last turn. I elected to keep my cruisers and the Hermes in reserve to strike his force approaching Port Blair. Port Blair will still probably fall next turn given that he landed ~400 AV, but it seems I created a nasty little surprise for my opponent. For the price of 2 British light cruisers and a destroyer, I sank a battleship, a number of transports, a couple destroyers, and potentially seriously damaged another. A fun day, that might make him bring out the big guns for any future invasion into India.

Cruisers have a series of engagements with his PB invasion fleet during the night and during the day before Hermes strikes later with her air complement. I'm happy with the engagement and will seek to my extract myself during the night. I might try to continue to his transports with some undamaged cruisers in the night before retiring.

Night Time Surface Combat, near Port Blair at 46,58, Range 1,000 Yards

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
Walrus II: 1 destroyed

Japanese Ships
BB Ise, Shell hits 1
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 23, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
DD Natsugumo
DD Yamagumo, Shell hits 2
DD Minegumo, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Asagumo, Shell hits 1
xAK Kamogawa Maru
xAK Yamahagi Maru
xAK Tonan Maru
xAK Mikage Maru
xAK Manko Maru
xAK Senko Maru
AMC Saigon Maru, Shell hits 1
xAK Ikushima Maru
xAK Kasuga Maru #2, Shell hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Hiyoshi Maru
xAK Kozan Maru, Shell hits 5, heavy fires
xAK Hankow Maru
xAK Yamagata Maru
xAK Amagi Maru
xAK Rokko Maru
xAK Maebasi Maru
xAK Mito Maru
xAK Teihoku Maru
xAK Tarayasu Maru
xAK Asuka Maru
xAK Atago Maru, Shell hits 1
xAK Meiyo Maru
xAK Hakonesan Maru
xAK Hakubasan Maru
xAK Hakakisan Maru
xAK Ikuta Maru
xAK Okuyo Maru
xAK Seikai Maru
xAK Santos Maru
xAK Taiko Maru
xAK Yomei Maru

Allied Ships
CL Achilles, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
CL Glasgow, Shell hits 20, and is sunk
CL Colombo, Shell hits 7
CL Caledon
DD Encounter, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Isis, Shell hits 1
DD Javelin

Japanese ground losses:
795 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 34 disabled
Non Combat: 11 destroyed, 35 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 7 (3 destroyed, 4 disabled)[/quote

Day Time Surface Combat, near Port Blair at 46,58, Range 7,000 Yards

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
E8N2 Dave: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Walrus II: 1 destroyed

Japanese Ships
BB Ise, Shell hits 17, on fire
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 27, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Natsugumo
DD Yamagumo, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Minegumo, Shell hits 8, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Asagumo, Shell hits 23, and is sunk
xAK Kamogawa Maru
xAK Yamahagi Maru, Shell hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Tonan Maru, Shell hits 7, and is sunk
xAK Mikage Maru, Shell hits 1
xAK Manko Maru, Shell hits 1, on fire
xAK Senko Maru
AMC Saigon Maru
xAK Ikushima Maru
xAK Hiyoshi Maru
xAK Hankow Maru, Shell hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Yamagata Maru
xAK Amagi Maru
xAK Rokko Maru
xAK Maebasi Maru, Shell hits 15, and is sunk
xAK Mito Maru
xAK Teihoku Maru
xAK Tarayasu Maru, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
xAK Asuka Maru
xAK Atago Maru, Shell hits 4, heavy fires
xAK Meiyo Maru
xAK Hakonesan Maru, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Hakubasan Maru
xAK Hakakisan Maru, Shell hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Ikuta Maru
xAK Okuyo Maru
xAK Seikai Maru, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAK Santos Maru
xAK Taiko Maru, Shell hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Yomei Maru

Allied Ships
CL Hobart, Shell hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Enterprise, Shell hits 2
CL Emerald, Shell hits 7, and is sunk
CL Capetown, Shell hits 3
DD Jervis, Shell hits 1, on fire

Japanese ground losses:
211 casualties reported
Squads: 8 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 17 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Morning Air attack on TF, near Port Blair at 46,58

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid spotted at 19 NM, estimated altitude 9,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes

Allied aircraft
Swordfish I x 9

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
BB Ise, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
xAK Yamagata Maru

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Port Blair at 46,58

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid spotted at 17 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 10 minutes

Allied aircraft
Swordfish I x 15

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
xAK Okuyo Maru
xAK Atago Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
AMC Saigon Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK Teihoku Maru

Ships Sunk for Day (Est.)



Current Situation

[jwolf]

Wow! Kudos to your TF commander and their brave crews! I suppose the bigshot admiral giving all the orders should get a few nice words too. [:)]

[Lecivius]

BANZAI! I know, I know, but something like this deserves more than an 'Atta boy!" [:D]

[BillBrown]

Hip, hip, hooray!!!!!!
Hip, hip, hooray!!!!!!
Hip, hip, hooray!!!!!!

[modrow]

Congrats, another nice surface battle.

I think John LOVES his (combat) ships. He will hate losing that BB. You may be getting under his skin.

Hartwig

[Lecivius]

ORIGINAL: modrow

He will hate losing that BB. You may be getting under his skin.

Hartwig

Ya think? I'm 65 miles away, and I can see the hair fly from here

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: modrow

Congrats, another nice surface battle.

I think John LOVES his (combat) ships. He will hate losing that BB. You may be getting under his skin.

Hartwig

He doesn't love em that much to set a TF up like that!! Big, unwieldy, BBs embedded and no surface cover force? Huh? [X(][:-]

I think attention to detail is going to do well for you this game, and you may have bought a lot of time with this one!

[jwolf]

I'm a little surprised the Japanese didn't use at least a CVE/CVL type of group for air cover with this op. In this mod it seems like they have plenty of carriers to go around. It would be ironic if the deep raid toward the US came at the expense of safeguarding the Port Blair op.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: jwolf
I'm a little surprised the Japanese didn't use at least a CVE/CVL type of group for air cover with this op. In this mod it seems like they have plenty of carriers to go around. It would be ironic if the deep raid toward the US came at the expense of safeguarding the Port Blair op.

I'm more surprised Japan did not use adequate covering SCTFs. Placing BBs inside amphibious TF for a landing against no opposing arty or CDs, why? Combat ships always underperform in surface battles when in transport groups.

Great naval victory! That will surely leave a mark on John's psyche for this game [:)]

[Anachro]

SoPac
For the next turn, the transports lagging behind the Japanese carrier task forces in the SoPac (shown in previous images above) have turned south towards Baker Island. The carrier TF's continued east towards Johnston Island.

I suspect this might be a trap and the Japanese carriers will turn south to cover the transports heading towards Baker Island. Nonetheless, I have small cruiser task forces in position to intercept these transports and they will try to do so at flank speed next turn before moving away to the southwest to avoid the Japanese carriers if they turn south.

The 3 USN CV / 1 British CV force is gathering at Pago Pago.

India
I, too, was surprised by the lack of at least a surface escort TF. Keep in mind, there was a cruiser fleet roving around earlier. Maybe this was the escort fleet and it got sidetracked chasing some stray cargo ships. A DD ran into a mine at Rangoon 2 turns ago. I regret sending the British BBs to Australia because they would have ensured a bloodbath.

Oh, and it appears one more British CL will probably burn up in the night, something I didn't notice this morning. A shame. THey did well. I had hoped my first CL fleet would do a day intercept, and had lengthened their route to ensure so, but it seems I miscalculated. I will attempt to hit the fleet once more in the night before fleeting back to Ceylon. Maybe I can get a lucky torpedo against the Ise. I worry that he has an undetected carrier or cruiser TF that will hit my fleeing forces on their way back.