Allied decisive victory

[AdmNelson]

ORIGINAL: veji1

Could you post a summary of the game finished ? As usual I think all other players and the Matrix guys could learn lots from this experience ?

thanks and congrats.

Yes, we plan to do a summary about the game. For me, it will be about a lot of my mistakes.

[Swayin]

We started the game in Aug 2004. We were playing pretty slowly the first year. At one turn days, that is a lot of turns.

pretty amazing! [X(]

[Sonny II]

We started the game almost right out of the box - in July(?) 2004. At first we had to decide with each patch whether we would start over or not. After a while we had too much invested in the game to start over. So we patched when each patch came out but never started over.

As the Japanese I took the advice on the forum and let the economy take care of itself for several months. When I did get into making changes to the Japanese economy I made the mistake of building too many airframes and far too few engines. I did not realize it for quite some time.

The first major action I remember was KB raiding the Allies supply line in the south/central Pacific around Canton Island. The US carriers tried a daring raid behind KB trying to sink their tankers. The problem was there were no tankers there and KB caught and sank all of the starting US carriers - plus a BB which recon said was an AK.

I had (and still have) a problem remembering to set the objectives for my troops. That plus other things I forgot (like where my transports were) delayed my invasion of the SRA until early '43. It was very costly. By that time the Dutch were flying B-25's which shredded the AKs and APs of the invasion force. Even KB support only helped a little because the P-40s at Soerabaja had their way with the cream of the crop Navy Zero pilots. This is when I realized that I could not replace the lost aircraft as fast I needed because of the lack of engines. Also had several problems with bombardment TFs loitering around at attack distance to get bombed an additional turn. While the TF did not get decimated the fact that they did not eliminate a lot of the LBA when it was critical did make a difference. Once all the troops were ashore it did not take too long to complete the task.

In late '43 or early '44 about a dozen(?) Allied CVs tried an attack on Saipan. Not sure if the Allies knew KB was in good repair and stationed at Saipan - I think it was a surprise. In any case the Allies moved into position and battle was joined. Unfortunately the US air boss was asleep and forgot to tell the bombers to attack KB. KB plus a few LBA creamed the Allied TF and sent many of the CVs to the bottom. Because the Allied bombers did not launch, all of the fighters were available for CAP. Even though KB creamed the Allied force the Allied CAP devastated the first attack wave. The last of the Allied CVs which were sunk were hit by very few navy aircraft. While the japanese CVs were in good shape they had no attack force. The lack of engines kept the KB under strength for most of the rest of the game.

The Chinese campaign was no more successful. Eventually I reached Chunking but was never able to take it. In fighting around Chunking was where the most of the problems/frustrations occurred. Japanese troops would be engaged and wish to withdraw to a Japanese controlled hex but were unable to do so. This cost a lot of troops.

Eventually Allied power proved too much and progress was made in Burma and the South Pacific. Truk and Java were never taken by the Allies. They did not need to take them. Once the Malay peninsula was retaken by the Allies the oil flow from Palembang was cut off. And as the Allied took SouthEast Asia Borneo was cut as an oil supplier. Central China held out while the Japanes were being pushed back along southern China. Once Saipan was captured the B-29's raided the Home Islands almost with impunity at first. Once the George's were in production they did have some effect against B-29s. But they were too few to prevent the raids. Though I must say that in overall losses the Zeros and Nates were the only aircraft to lose more than the approx. 1200 B-29s which were lost.

The last straw was Shanghai. Once that was taken it was just a couple turns before the taking of cities along the north east of China pushed the point total to 2-1 in favor of the Allies.

I delete all the game turn files except the last one and the one previous so all of this is from memory. And at more than two years distance my memory might not be too accurate - plus several other games have been going on since July 2004.. Anyway that is how I remember it. My esteemed opponent will fill in the blanks (probably with more accuracy).

That about sums it up from my side.

[AdmNelson]

The one thing about the game was we were just starting to play WITP and a lot of lessons were pre all of the AARs that many read. The game started 8/2004

Allied outlook 1941 and 1942: As for me- I just jumped into the campaign game with with some Uv exp. First day of the war a dutch sub put a fish into a heavy IJN cruiser. At this point I was saying GREAT EASY GAME. Then the war really started. We had the one port air strike rule, and Sonny choose Singapore, well so much for Force Z. After that it was bloody: the KB found both US carriers and now US naval air power was sitting on the bottom of the ocean plus most of the cruisers that were escorting the carriers. Dec 1941 was a tough month.

Malaya: Held out a little longer that historical. I made a decision to fight as long as possible. British LBs and TBs did a lot of damage to IJN transports both bringing supplies and troops and leaving Malaya.

Phillippines: Held out till May 1942

Burma: Manalya fell and a push to Myitkying at which was the rarest in the Burma/India area the Japanese advanced.

New Guinea/Solomons: As I recall all fell including Port Moresby.

South Pacific: Baker Island fell early but Canton Island remained in American hands.

DEI: Java wasn't attacked till late 42 and it was very bloody for both sides. American and British battleships were sunk in the area. British carriers were able to give air support as well as many American LBs that could transfer from OZ.

Mid to late 1942 all the rest of the remaining US carriers were gatherd at Noumea. The KB was raiding near Suva and towards Canton, in my haste I went after what I thought the AOs for the KB. I ended up finding the KB and 3 of the 4 US carriers were sunk with the Yorktown able to get to Pearl for about 4 months repair time. It was at this time in the game I started to build up land based air power. At Canton, Luganville and northern OZ

Finallly in about Oct 42 I retook Baker Island and built it up to L4. With P-38s now Tarawa was in range. This set the stage for 1943

[Sonny II]

Hmm, an August start? My memory is not what it used to be. I also did not remember any of the CVs escaping the "tanker" raid. But what do I know? Anyway it sounds right. Sometimes I think I am remembering action for one of the other 4 games I had going along with this one. Since I don't save any files or keep any records or do any planning it sometimes runs all together. This is all very interesting. I can hardly wait to see what is next.

[AdmNelson]

Allied outlook 1943:

China: Sian fell in 1942 and 400,000 Japanese descended on Chunking in late 1942 and early 1943. Over 250,000 Chinese were dug in at a level 9 base. Coupled with the investment of Kweiyang and Chungking at the same time I had my hands full. Many a Japanese were killed trying to over the entrenchments at both bases for almost 1 year plus.

Burma: Japanese were slowly pushed back to Mandalay. A large British Army built up at Mandalay and started the siege. In Mid 43 I made a major landing at Tavoy and bypassed the Pagan/Mandalay line. 3-4 divisions went north the rest south with lots of armor regiments. 120 miles south of Tavoy is a fork where you can either towards Bangkok or towards Singapore. The landing at Tavoy forced the either Burma Army to fall back to Rangoon where over time it was destroyed. Capturing the other bases along the coast allow more bases for the air support to fly from. Bangkok was captured in summer – fall43 then the race to Saigon and armor racing thru Indo China to Hanoi including most of the heavy armor units. Singapore and Saigon fell in either late 43 or early 44.

DEI: Invasions out of northern OZ started mid 43 with the capture of Kendari in early 44.

Solomons: I landed at Lunga with over 5 divisions in Mid 43, captured Gili Gili and most of bases around Gili Gili and started building lots of air bases. By late 43 there were some landing up the coast of New Guinea by both naval and paras units. Rabaul by late 43 isolated and hammered daily by air. That is when I started raiding with my carriers and sent 2 carrier group towards Saipan thinking lots ships in port and sink them. To my surprise the KB was there. It was not a fun turn to watch lots of Japanese air strike and none from the Americans. I believe I lost 4 CVs and CVLs. Fall of 43 I made a landing at Woleai with lots of engineers, base force,s and INf. That base gave me a base to start hammering both Palau and Marianias. Sweeps with P-38js over a long time started attiring the fighters in the area.

South Pacific: With the landing at Baker Island in late gave a great jumping off point to Apamana and Tarawa in mid 43. Kwajalein was either captured or completely invested by late 43.

[AdmNelson]

Should of posted this earlier.

[Sonny II]

DEI: Invasions out of northern OZ started mid 43 with the capture of Kendari in early 44.

For a while Batavia took some pounding late in the game. I think it must have been to give the Allies some training because once Singapore and Saigon fell the oil and resources from the DEI were cut off and there was no need to take Java.

[AdmNelson]

Allied Outlook 1944

Burma/Indo China: After the fall of Bangkok, the British Army pushed towards Saigon, armor units went around Saigon to captured Hue and then Hanoi. Saigon finally fell in early-mid 1944. At the same time there was a push to Singapore, its capture about the same time as Saigon. There were landings north of Palembang and its capture near Mid 44. The entire northern coast was secured in 44. I made a landing in Java at Malang with an Aus INF division and ran into a wall a Soerabaja. I never made another landing in Java for the rest of war, but I hammered the bases almost every day particularly Batavia.

China: With the fall of Saigon and the armor rush across Indo China, Japanese forces started falling back from Chungking, and Kweiyang. The Chinese forces finally moved forward, and by late 44 captured Sian. The Japanese forted up in Changsha, while Chinese forces captured bases all around Changsha. I know that there were over 60 units in Changsha. When I moved Chinese into Changsha they were quickly thrown out. British Army after capturing Saigon and Hanoi moved into China to Capture Hong Kong and all the southern bases of China.

Philippines: were finally in invaded in early 44 at the area around Davao and landings in Luzon coming in mid 44. It took the rest of 44 to capture all of Luzon.

Central Pacific: Wake and Marcus fell in early and mid 44 respectly. The capture of the Marianias came in mid 44(just in time for the B-29s). Palau was captured around mid 44. The invasion of Iwo happen near in end of 44


Notes: Once the capture of the Marianias and later from Iwo, I had air strikes almost daily on the HI (factories, ports, airfields, and man power). The IJN was in Tokyo harbor most of the combat ships took over 10-15 hits every few months.

[AdmNelson]

Allied Outlook 1945

Finally with the fall of Shanghai( Allied points 2700) the game ended. I had captured Formosa and Okinawa in late 44 and early 45. I was planning on landing either South Pacific, Central Pacific, and Southwestern Pacific ground units on Nagaski. That is over 20 Inf Divisions, plus supporting units.

Lastly: I enjoyed the game very much. Sonny was a great opponent to have. I know I made a lot of mistakes in this game and some days I didn't want to return the ove, particularly after losing carriers, but I still lioved the game.

[AdmNelson]

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