The Power of Inexperience / GreyJoy(A)-Rader(J)

[CaptBeefheart]

As Flounder said in "Animal House": "Oh boy, is this great!" Looks like we have the mother of all battles coming, gents. Good luck GreyJoy.

Cheers,
CC

[jmalter]

heh, i'm also glad the vacation's over, 'cos i'm on the edge of my seat with anticipation & want to find out how the Guad & India battles develop!

[GreyJoy]

Rader's holiday should be over today while mines will last till next sunday ...but i'll be able to do at least a turn per day! I'm sure the next month will be thrilling!!!!

[GreyJoy]

back on track!

Mar 28,29 1943

A quiet turn.
We sent 2 DD TFs to sweep Thousands and Russell. Got a couple of APDs and 1 AMc...the other ships managed to flee away. The next morning 16 vals attacked but only managed to damage one of my DDs...nothing serious. All my DDs got safely back to Karaikira under the umbrella CAP. Tomorrow we'll deliver to Tulagi a big convoy containing 2 arty regiments and 1 AA unit. The convoy will be escorted by 10 DDs and will find a 200 fighters umbrella CAP. The KB is at Rabaul at the moment.
One of our sub attacked at torpedoed another TK west of Truk, while south of it another sub sunk a PB and duded on an E class... we're getting better...

[GreyJoy]

Mar 30,31 1943

Ok, i think he's ready.
Now Georges and the new A6M5s are online. He sent 130 of these new monsters against my CAP at Karaikira, sweeping the base, defended by 100 wildcats, p40s and P-39s... The enemy got the upper hand as foreseen obtaining a 2-1 ratio... At the same time betties and Vals, escorted by not less than 300 second generation fighters (tojos,georges, A6M3s) attacked my convoy at Tulagi. My CAP fought weel, obtaining a 3-1 kill ratio. He got 5 XAKLs and damaged a DD but everything was unloaded safely.
Then my 4Es attacked Thousand...but arrived there piece mail and, against a stiff CAP resistance, did manage to destroy only 38 enemy planes and didn't close the AF.
Now the KB is only 1 hex north of Russell Island, with all his CAs and BBs close-by...that means he's ready to bomb the hell out of my bases before the upcoming invasion. I don't wanna fight a "all-in-one" battle right now so i'll move back my fighters and bombers to Ndeni and wait to see what is he up to, leaving the defence to my PTs, DDs and LCUs for the moment.
Tomorrow we'll start producing Hellcats...so i hope in 2 weeks we should be able to get back en masse with a costant CAP over the Solomons.
The overall air result of the turn is 85 planes lost for me in A2A against his 118...not bad considering his better quality. 25 pilots KIA however are hurting a lot

[House Stark]

He's finally managed to start achieving positive kill ratios on sweeps it seems with his new fighters...2 days before your next generation of fighters enters production. So long as he's on offense, it's gonna be rough for him in the air. As with India, he might be a little too late.

When do your next carriers, fast battleships, and cruisers arrive? If he starts running those "nuclear" cruiser and battleship bombardment runs you might need to meet him with some powerful surface units of your own. Also, I wonder if some night CAP would help against spotter floatplanes?

Good luck!

[GreyJoy]

The Georges are fast, well armed and armoured. No surprise he won hands down against my wildcats. But a 2-1 it's not a nad result overall. I lost only 10 crack wildcats pilots, while the rest managed to get safely on land. With the wildcats i will finally be able to have a fighter at least equal in terms of speed with his best ones...which is indeed a HUGE improving.
My BBs and cruisers are close but i will use them as a last-ratio weapon...first i want him to tangle with my PTs and DDs

[crsutton]

Your hellcats will do just fine. They are better than the george and kill tojos fairly easy. You will be OK until he gets the franks in late 43.

BTW, a good tactic is to note the base that sweeping georges fly from. If you have a big fighter battle then just like your P38s, a lot of his georges will be out of service and grounded. (service rating 3 sucks) Hit that base with your bombers the very next turn and you will be sure to kill a lot of georgies on the ground.

[GreyJoy]

APRIL 1,2 1943

150 georges and zeros swept again Tulagi and Karaikira findind no opposition. I moved back my fighters to Ndeni.
20 enemy subs popped up near Suva sinking 1 DD. Another DD was sunk at Karaikira hit by Vals and Emilies.
His BBs are still on station at Russell...didn't move today.

Still waiting for the upcoming storm...

[GreyJoy]

.

[GreyJoy]

I'm sorry the updates are not so good but i'm still on vacations and i have very little time to play and to update...i'll be back on sept the first and the AAR will start back as it used to be

[GreyJoy]

Few thoughts aboard my boat...

At Rabaul the number of units present has decreased to 30...and also the ships spotted in port are far less than it used to be...he must be ready to invade...but what is he waiting for? Lots of units (divisions,bdes, regiments and HQs) are preppinh for Tulagi, Lunga and Tassafaronga...is he fooling me?!? Is he landing somewhere else? ...but if so...where?!

[JeffroK]

He could be looking at other bases in the area, are Ndeni, Noumea, Efate, Suva secure?

Or going for a bigger target, is Northern Australia safe?

[GreyJoy]

Apr 03,04 43



A quiet turn...the KB and his BBs are on station just one hex north of Russell Island. No signs of bombardment runs. No base sweeping this turn...very strange.

There must be something boiling in the kitchen but i still don't get the smell...
For ex...the 8th Area Army HQ is prepping for Tassafaronga...i got lots of reports about that...but it's also moving to Calcutta...
2 more Divisions are reported to be moving to Calcutta aboard of Marus...what does this mean?! Is he moving back his units to India!? Is he fooling me again?!

Jeff...Efate, Ndeni, Lungaville, Suva, Noumea are as safe as rear-bases could be...Noumea has 1000 AVs, Suva 560 AVs...Ndeni 2000 AVs...etc etc.... Forts are up to 6 (at least) everywhere...so no easy picking for him...and if he wants to move so deep into my territory he must rely only on his KB...and my CVs are at Suva waiting for a move like that...

No, i do think Rader isn't going to do anything so risky...at this point i'm not even so sure he's invading the Solomons...all those units moving back to India could mean he
feels he doesn't wanna risk a mass-landing at this point of the game and wants to contain me at Multan (90 units spotted there) and in Sopac... Thinking about that
this supposed strategy is probably the best one for Japan right now...He has created an impenetrable ring of bases around Rabaul that it could take me so long to dislodge him from there...so keeping me far away from Japan's heart (the DEI) for many more months...

What to do?! Keep reinforcing the Solomons and keep advancing towards Multan or begin to look for another theatre of operation?

However this turn the SS Sargo sunk an "E" class and an xAK full of troops south of Truk, while enemy subs keep on disturbing my com lines near Suva... The usual wave of 200 Helens stormed over un undefended Karachi

[ADB123]

A quiet turn...the KB and his BBs are on station just one hex north of Russell Island. No signs of bombardment runs. No base sweeping this turn...very strange.

Hmmmm - maybe the KB is covering the removal of units.

So if I understand things correctly, you've got a lot of your forces in the South Pacific, and more of your forces marching in India.

What do you have elsewhere? Do you have any mobile reserves?

What forces do you still have in Karachi proper? If a dozen Japanese divisions landed, how long would it take to get your main forces back from the Multan road?

On the other hand, he could just be pulling back to start to build up his defensive lines. You need to start to do some serious long range scouting and Recon over the rest of the Japanese lines so that you have a better idea of what is going on.

Here's my 2-cent suggestion of the day - if Radar does end up pulling back his Offensive forces from the Solomons and only leaves forts with nuisance defenders, don't bother trying to be John Wayne and fighting your way up the island chain. Just isolate and bomb what is there, and attack somewhere else that is more valuable, such as the DEI.

[Canoerebel]

He's probably using a ruse here.  He's set his transport convoys with a final destination of Calcutta, but he can either recall it or he can set a waypoint to the "real" objective with the ships set to unload.  Who knows what he's up to, but is it possible he thinks you have most everything in India and the Solomons, so that he might land in NE Oz (Townsville)?

[jmalter]

i agree w/ ADB123 - more scouting & recon! catalog your available forces & get those new F4Fs squared away.

[crsutton]

Well, I think that preserving your carriers has forced his hand. If he does not invade in the Solomons soon then the arrival of your new carriers and hellcats will pretty much end that threat forever. As suggested just watch him in areas where you are weak. He is obviously a creative player and won't just sit and wait. Barring a major Allied disaster, any massive force build up in the Solomons by the Japanese player risks encirclement by the Allied player later on. It does not seem like it now but rest assured you will be able to take air control there within the next few months. And he can't stay there with all that force as it means his perimeter will be weak elsewhere.

If this is scen #2 then you have until mid 1946 to beat him. The Allied player must always remember this-and in light of your heavy ship losses, it is a good idea to be a little patient. I said this before. As long as you retain your carriers, you are very much in this game and can recover from anything else.

[GreyJoy]

Thank you guys for your suggestions.
As far as i can tell and understand, he's playin a lot with the sign-in reports. I collected the last 20 reports (40 days) and analyzed them. It seems that Rader is doing two things: he's sending via Singapore quite a lot of reinforcements back to India (at least 2 Divisions and 2 Army HQs) and, at the same time, he hasn't moved back those units that were present in the Solomons...so I still believe he's going to counterinvade Tassa, Lunga and Tulagi (remember he still has 2000 AVs stuck at Tulagi since Jannuary).
I won't committ my CVs. No matter what happens, they will stay in port at Sydney. For the defence of the Solomons i'll simmply use my Air force and my Surface assets (5 fast BBs, 10 CAs, 13 CLs and more than 30 DDs). I have enough operative bases in the area to be able to substitute the carriers in their defensive role.
I've placed 1000 AVs at Noumea, behind 6 forts. Ndeni and the sourrounding bases are all well defended with CD Marine units and forts. I also prepared myself for a KB raid.
In India i decided to halt my offensive movements for the moment. My Eastern Army will stop 4 hexes west of Multan, waiting to see what happens...if he's really committing more forces in India i won't attack before i can re-gain the controll (or at least to be able to contest the controll) of the air-space over Karachi...and at the moment i have not enough reserves to do that. If those 100 units at Multan are as strong as i believe i risk to be stopped and defeated there (remember he has the complete controll of the skies there)...better to wait few more months if needed.
Tomorrow we'll start to have the first Marine squadron equipped with Hellcats...so happy about that!!!!!
I've ordered to reinforce Suva, Pago Pago and Lungaville....just in case.
Gotta be patient...the time will come
As CrSutton said...i have 3 more years to advance...no need to hurry

[ny59giants]

While the primary focus is on the Solomons and secondary is on India, what is the situation in the Aleutians?? I ask because if you have Adak, you can build up the port and place a AS and AR up there to start basing yours subs out of. Time to steadily send your new subs to patrol off of Japan and begin to interdict his convoys to and from Japan.

It sounds like your SeaBees (SB) have done great work around the lower Solomons and South Pacific expanding bases and building up your forts. You may need to redeploy some to where you want to start a third front to get them building.