New AAR - but not as good as Snigbert's

[Mike Wood]

Hello...

The Narwhale is not in the game, but will be in War in the Pacific.

When you drop the platoon off on a deserted island, they check it out and declare it secured. They can spot ships or enemy troops that come into the area. Sadly, the flag icon (or in the case of a location with no base, the dot icon) changes to your color. The enemy intercepts your radio transmissions, is told by friendly (to him) natives from that or neighboring islands or finds out by some other means.

The player will not know what, if any aircraft, ships or troops are at a base, unless spotted by a search plane, recon flight bombardment flight, fighter sweep, ship sailing close to the location or using friendly troops to spot them. Small ships, like PT Boats or barges are very difficult to spot from the air, if in a shore hex. It is assumed that they can camouflage the boats. In addition to ship size, the number of ships in the task force is a factor. Larger task forces are easier to spot. Small numbers of troops ashore can also be difficult to spot from search planes. I have found the most effective ways to spot are as follows:

1) Fly a Recon mission in the hex. It will spot better than other air missions and will reveal something about the troops, aircraft and ships in port. Fly two missions for more detail. It will at least let you know if there is anti-aircraft artillery or CAP.

2) Bomb the location or sweep and strafe and see what the aerial photos reveal. This will reveal some details concerning the location. It will also let you know if there is anti-aircraft artillery or CAP.

3) Sail a destroyer along the shore and if they are fired on, you know there are shore batteries there. The destroyer may also spot troops, aircraft and the like. If you do not want your destroyers being shot at, you can gain some Intel by doing the same thing with a submarine.

4) Make a raid on the location by fast transport or submarine transport.

Yes, Japanese subs can carry small numbers of troops around.

One squad of engineers can build a rather nice airfield or major port, given enough years of time, if accidents, malaria, some other dread disease or enemy actions don't get them first.

All ships are refueled using the fuel item. Aircraft are refueled using the abstracted supply item, which includes aviation fuel.

Hope this Helps...

Michael Wood
____________________________________________________

Originally posted by Mogami
Ah the old Argonaut, the crew of this ship will think themselves related to the Flying Dutchman when I am the US (doomed to a life at sea) Is the Narwhale around also? Would simply dropping the platoon off with supply have been of any value (coast watcher type spotting of enemy TF/air craft?
When you occupied the empty base did the Japanese become aware simply by a flag icon change or does it stay unknown
(can you tell an empty from a occupied base?)

Can IJN SS be used for troop movement too? (or just supply)
What is the smallest group of engineers that can preform construction? (no matter how slow)

What is needed at a base to refuel a ship/floatplane/sub

[mogami]

Sounds most excellent.

OK TF containg CA Aoba and 2 DD's moves to within float plane range of US base. Sends recon mission over base. Can you post a example recon report (does a recon do a recon for everything or would it be "fly recon search ships in port/LCU/AC"
I am mainly concerned with ships in port.
Altitude effects on recon
weather effects

It is not sad about Icon changing but somthing that I was curious about. Icon changes could be usefull.

replacements are they generic? (Marine platoon receives from same pool as engineer) or are they type sensitive? (you can run out of one type while still having others)

[IChristie]

Continued from the first post in this thread...

29 may - The New Guinea invasion forces are embarked. Decision Time. I want to make hay while the American CV-less sun is shining so I decided to invade Gili Gili (Milne Bay). Buna appears to be unoccupied so I should be able to pick it off whenever I want. The invasion convoy sails from Rabaul carrying two strong independent brigades. A third brigade sails from Truk as reinforcments. As well a base force and engineering battalion also sail from Truk.

31 May - More Naval reinforcements! BB Haruna, and CA Mogami arrive in Truk with several DD escorts. I form a new TF and send them off to Lunga to reinforce the depleted force on station there.

A convoy is spotted leaving Port Moresby. I sortie the CV TF to see if I can catch it in the Coral sea. The CV's will also cover the Gili Gili Landing.


1 June - CV's in the Coral sea find a US CA TF to the southeast (covering the Convoy? Trying to intercept the landing at Gili Gili?). In a day of unrelenting air attacks 2CA a CL and a DD all badly damaged by torpedoes and bombs.

2 June - The Gili Gili invasion is underway. The invasion Fleet is attacked by A-24's and P-39's from Port Moresby with no effect. Zeros from carriers provide long range CAP while vals and Kates continue to maul the cruiser TF putting more torps into a cruiser and bombs into a CA and two DD's

3 June - With the Gili Gili landing going well the reinforcement convoy enroute from Truk is diverted to land troops at Buna instead. The Base forces and engineers are continue to follow invasion fleet to Gili Gili

4 June - The Haruna TF arrives at Lunga. I am no longer concerned about another surface engagement of Guadalcanal!

All Troops ashore at Gili Gili. US airstrikes from Port Moresby hit a seaplane tender but do no other damage.

5 JUne - Gili Gili Falls. The defending US RCT was outnumbered about 4 to 1 and obviously had not had time to build substantial fortifications. When the base force arrives this will give me another operational fighter airfield and an excellent patrol plane base.

6 June - More naval reinforcements arrive at Truk, Ryujo, 4 CL's and more DD's. More tankers and transports as well. The Buna landing force is attacked from Port Moresby by P-39's. Zeros and Rufes from Lae provide CAP and there are no casualties

7 June - Buna Falls. Ryujo and escorts sent to Rabaul to marry up with other carriers and CL's with DD screen sent to Shortland.

8 June - The CV TF in the Coral Sea are low on fuel I send them back to Rabaul. The base force has arrived in Gili Gili so I can move some fighters down to provide cover for the convoys which are still unloading supplies

Good news! The submarine fleet continues on the path to glory as a SS torpedoes USS Chicago - one of the survivors of the Coral Sea Massacre.

Also more naval reinforcements arrive in Truk including the Yamato and the Mutsu. WOW! Them's some BIG units. Probably a little too big. I am starting to grow concerned about the fuel situation in the combat zone. Rabaul is down below 50% of the starting fuel reserve. I form a TF for the new heavies but leave them in Truk for now.

10 June - Another Convoy is spotted approaching Port Moresby. The newly expanded CV's sortie. Just as an experiement, I Also send the CL TF from Shortland to GiliGili. I figure that if I get really brave I might try to bombard Port Moresby and catch the transports in port.

11 June - A New US TF appears - with a CV! The Carriers sent in pursuit, a single US CV should be raw meat for my 3 carriers even with reduced a/c complements. I decided to give the bombardment idea a go (figuring that the CV's will be a more inviting target for any airstrikes anyway) and the CL's are send off to Port Moresby.

12 June - OOOOOPS! Followed by OUCH! Apparently rumours of Hornet's demise have been greatly exaggerated. She is alive and very much kicking! The US CV TF has two CV's (Enterprise and Hornet). Together they actually have more a/c (around 180) than I do on all three of my carriers (around 140). In an exchange of airstrikes both Zuikaku and Shokaku are damaged. The Shokaku a/c have to relocate to Gili Gili. In return the US CV's escape entirely unscathed. A very bad day for the IJN.

With discretion definitely the better part of valour (common or uncommon) the CV TF retires to Rabaul. I beef up the fighter cover in Gili Gili - moving a zero's and Claudes down from Rabaul.

In the chaos, the CL tF (which was instructed to retire if necessary) has returned to GiliGili rather than risk being at sea with enemy carriers so close. In fact, they CV's are so close (<90 miles) that I decide to try a sortie (with air cover) to attempt to catch the enemeny in a surface action

13 June OK, that had predictable (and unsatisfactory) results. The US CV's move toward Port Moresby and neatly evade the Cruiser sortie. Despite LRP from Gili Gili the CL's are damaged by carrier strikes.

On the positive side a US CA TF observed ready to make a run at Lunga. I am anticipating great carnage when they run into Haruna and her 14" guns.

14 June - The knife fight off Lunga exceeds my wildest expectations. The US force is demolished. Vincennes and St. Louis and 2 DD's are sunk outright. Some other DD's damaged. IJN suffers one CL badly damaged and some light damage to DD's. The Haruna and heavy cruisers are hardly touched.

Meanwhile the US CV's loiter off New Guinea coast between Port Moresby and Gili Gile. I move some bombers to Lae to shorten the range but their strikes are completely ineffective. It's pretty much a standoff as I have enough fighters at Gili Gili to prevent the carriers from doing much damage bu I lack the offensive firepower to mount much of a threat. Since Gili Gili is still a size 1 base I cannot any dive or torpedo bombers out of it. Also the base only supports 40 a/c and with a chutai of patrol planes and the two Daitai's of fighters it is operating beyond capacity anyway.

More reinforcements arrive at Truk. More BB's and CA's along with DD escorts.

15 June - FInally more CV's (Akagi and Hiryu) arrive at Truk! They are accompanied by yet more CA's and DD's.

Well, this is a good point to stop and take stock of the situation. Six weeks of high intensity operation has stretched things to the point where some regrouping needs to occur.

On the positive side, I have a firm grasp on the strategic initiative. I have managed to secure control of all of the Solomons and all of New Guinea except for Port Moresby. My surface fleet has complete mastery of the waves and could counter any threat the enemy is likely to be able to mount.

On the negative side, the momentum is already starting to go out of the offensive. There are no more easy operations which I can mount. Anything more that I do will be within easy land based air range of some major enemy base. Also, although I have hurt the US carrier forces, there is still rough parity in the combat zone - though the reinforcements will help. The big hindrance right now is the lack of air power. The carrier forces are down to less than 75% complements of a/c and all the land based groups have suffered significant losses which have not been made up. There has been relatively little in the way of a/c reinforcement - a single daitai of zeros, I think. In contrast, I can tell that the allied air presence is already growing. The net result is that although I have good positions to provide serious interdiction of the enemies supply lanes, I lack the a/c to raise much of a threat. Also, the forward bases are not well enough developed yet to support offensive operations. However, even when they do, I will be hamstrung by a lack of support units which will preven really overwhelming forces from being deployed from anywhere but Rabaul.

The other potential issue is supply. The intensity of operations has not only depleted stocks at Rabaul but the diversion of all that shipping to carrying invasion forces (and invasion supplies) has meant that supplies are not arriving from Truk at anything like replacement rates. It will take a few weeks to replenish stocks. Fuel is the big issue right now. The reserve at Rabaul is dangerously low (18 000 tons). However there are substantial stocks at Shortland (50 000 tons) and Lunga (20 000 tons). Nonetheless, I think I will have to keep the heavy units up in Truk until a concrete task for them arises. I am going to move the carriers to Rabaul though.

[mogami]

:rolleyes: 4 weeks from start of campaign to the capture of Gilli Gilli and without using anything that would not be available in the straight historical setup. (note to self-include "Milne Bay Operation in planning")

How is construction at Lunga coming?

What LCU are there?

how long can the 20k tons fuel keep the BB TF operating?

If for example a BB was damaged and would have to return to Truk for repair is it possible to refuel other ships from it first (keeping just enough for the return trip)

[IChristie]

Lunga is currently garrisoned by the "south sea det" - basically a regiment strength unit along with 2 engineer detachments, 2 Coast gun units and 2 AA units. Total strength about 12 000, with 2200 front line troops.

The airfield at Lunga has progressed to size 2! This would allow divebombers and torpedo bombers to operate but not level bombers.

I'm actually not sure about the fuel numbers, I must admit I have not gotten out the calculator to determine fuel useage. One of the numbers gurus will have to answer that. I just know that I have gone through over half (closer to 3/4) of the stock in six weeks, and the number of ships in theatre has grown exponentially - so it's time to start paying attention.

You can use your heavy units to refuel smaller ships (at the cost of some operations points). The logic of how much is transferred is transparent to the player, you don't seem to have enough control to determine exactly how much to offload.

4 weeks from start of campaign to the capture of Gilli Gilli and without using anything that would not be available in the straight historical setup. (note to self-include "Milne Bay Operation in planning")

Like I said, you gotta make hay while the sun shines as the Japanese. Allied air power is already starting to make its presence felt.

[mogami]

Hi, making hay is ok as long as it's your mule that gets to eat it.

Reverse chairs with your allied opponent.

May 29th Japan has occupied Lunga and built a size2 airfield
occupied Gilli Gilli
receiced large Naval reinforcments

suffered large loss to air arm both carrier based and land based (with new CV's available to replace somewhat)

questions I would ask (as US boss)

When do I get BB
How much fuel can Jap have based on level of activity
Can my CV's get to the TF guarding Lunga
Subs?
LBA to hit supply depot (both Gilli and Lunga)

the idea being to force the Jap to continue fuel use

essence being can mr Jap keep his gains?

What is still in the barn? Is the US hurting enough to prevent a reponse? The next few weeks will be very interesting. When can we find out? (your not one of those people who require sleep every night are you?)

[Ron Saueracker]

WHOA!!! OK, well. With reference to my desire to play Mogami after a couple of days "getting to know the Interface" now seems like suicide. He's up and running already. (Mogami appears to be more of a Spruance type than a Halsey) It looks like I'd better get a more thorough feel of UV and OOB's and develop fully planned and flexible strategies prior to going head to head with that warlord. Geez, Mogami, go get some sun.

Yeah, of anyone posting here, Mogami should be a WITP playtester, but only if the design team can handle the "in box" paperwork I'm sure Mogami would generate!:D

Looks like I'll be spending my recuperation period pouring over charts and such "preparing" for our duel, Mogami. Don't worry, when I go back to work, I'll still have enough off time to to provide you with a relatively uninterupted campaign. I for one also dislike waiting too long for PBEM.

Hey, Mogami! Go walk your dog, man!:p

[mogami]

I do not spend all my time planning for the release of UV. Just the few odd idle minutes between on line battles of SPWaW (one each last 2 days) PBEM games of PacWar and SPWaW, working on a France 1940 campaign for SSI's old West Front game, My fantasy baseball teams at Yahoo, chess at Yahoo, writing silly stories about adventures with an invisble chess playing beer drinking cat, ........So there:p

[Ron Saueracker]

I like cats but my rotty/black lab cross might not. I'm not sure if I should get one...

Iain Cristie seems to be doing quite well in his campaign, especially with no 1st Carrier Fleet having even been available.

I can't wait any longer.....aaahhh!!! Get a beer, must calm down. Should have started dating a cutie before this bum back came calling, going to the fridge is a real bitch! So is walking a dog that likes to walk you!

[IChristie]

Well here's a few more days worth of the campaign. Progress is slower now as I am spending alot of time getting the supply system sorted out.

18 June - The American CV TF spent 3 days fruitlessly beating up on Gili Gil before heading home. On the way south they found one of my seaplane tender pickets and suck it with all deliberate speed.

Reinforcements continue to pour into Truk. 2 Infantry divs have now arrived. I decide to defer moving them to the combat zone until the supply situation is sorted out. Several convoys are loading in Truk to resupply Rabaul, including a total of more than 40 000 tons of fuel. I also upgrade many of the convoys, replacing PC escorts with DD's. The PC's seem to slow down convoy progress because time must continually be spen refueling them.

I notice that the carrier air fleets are slowly being rebuilt. Port Moresby is now mounting daily raids on Gili Gili using P-40's and A-20's. With 25 Claudes and 15 zeros stationed at Gili Gili these raids are mostly ineffective.

20 June - The supply system is kicking into high gear as convoys arrive at Rabaul to rebuild stockpiles. The US CV's seem to be headed back to Noumea. I thought for a day that they might be headed for a strike at Lunga so I moved a daitai of zeros there, but nothing materialized.

A convoy carrying another base force and more engineers for Gili Gili is attacked repeatedly by Bostons from Port Moresby. I tried protecting it with Rufe's based on a CS, but all this achieved as a couple of bomb hits on the CS. Other than that, the attacks have been completely unsuccessful.

I have initiated a couple of small raids on islands south and east of the Solomons. The idea is to provide havens for AV ships that can operate float planes in range of Espiritu Santo. I think I have come to the conclusion that these ships do not fly planes unless at anchor - I could be wrong. The raiding parties will be carried by APD ships based at Shortland.

I also note another small US CA TF apparently headed for Lunga - they can't be serious? Can they? I decide to move a couple of daitai's of bombers to Lunga to see if they can pick off stragglers. First the zeros will have to come out to make room - oh for another base force!

21 June - Well, I guess the AI is smarter than I am. The relatively modest force of 1 CA, 1CL and 7 DD's inflicts serious damage on Haruna and one DD and escapes with the loss of a single DD. Oh well, I figure I'll get them from the air in the AM, but they slip away undetected. I hastily arrange for some more surface units to move to Lunga to shore up the covering force.

22 June - In some good news, the base at Gili Gili has reached level 2 so I move some Kate's and Val's there to see if I can intercept a couple of fat convoys headed for Port Moresby.

23 June - The planes arrive in Gili Gili but do not sortie against the convoys - out of range maybe? The CA TF does not reappear - apparently they got clean away.

More to follow....

[Sinjen]

Great AAR-


Looking forward to the next report from the front. What type of hits did the Haruna take? Was most of the damage done by the CA's main battery or did they swarm it with torps. Haruna was probably the biggest and resultingly easiest target for any to hit.

Since the American force was consisting mostly of faster ships, it might have negated your superior firepower and torpedoes somewhat. Especially if they engaged at night. American's had Radar then??? Not sure if they had radar gundirectors yet. Engaging at night would definetely make for closer ranges allowing the US DD's to atleast get off their torps.


Or the U.S. could have just gotten lucky.

Keep it coming

[tanjman]

Great AAR's IChristie. Don't have any questions, but I do enjoy reading Mogami's and your answers. Can't wait to play UV.

[Ron Saueracker]

This game sounds so engrossing. I believe AVs such as Kamikawa Maru, Kimikawa Maru, and Akitsushima must be achored to operate their aircraft complements Iain...historically anyway. They have no catupults, just hoisting cranes and service facilities.

[madflava13]

I had a quick question if any of the testers has a minute to answer it -
Do minefields affect subs? (Can I lay defensive fields in the hopes of sinking lurking subs?)
Thanks for your AARs, they're quite interesting and I really enjoy reading them.

[IanLister]

These AARs are absolutely brilliantly fascinating......I've been waiting for this game since the seventies. This campaign and the Med campaign are obsessive for me because of all the interrelated factors you have to deal with. Can't wait!!!!!!

[Joel Billings]

Iain's AAR is great reading. As for the mines, yes, I've seen subs listed as sunk by mines so I assume they can hit a mine like any other ship. By the way, the sunk ship list gives the name of the largest weapon that hit each ship that is sunk. That way you get a sense of what did in the ship.

Joel

[mogami]

Hi everybody!;)
One thing I have seen no mention of in any of these excellent AAR's is who is commanding the various TF when the combat takes place. I am greedy for info so when a TF is put together please also include the TF commander. Can someone post a short list of the leaders availabe with some of the ratings so we can get an idea of this. Base commanders also would be nice.

[Ron Saueracker]

Hey, Mogami. Was it you who mentioned a chat room should be opened up?

[mogami]

Hi, I said if they had a chat about UV it would not have a problem finding quests. I for one would live there (and try to keep queit and just listen:eek: )

[IChristie]

Well things started out slow, but got really interesting at the end. Needing to sleep is such a PITA.

Enjoy.

BTW, tactical or strategic suggestions are welcome

24 June - The vals have a go at one of the convoys and manage to put a bomb into three separate transports. More transports arrive in Truk.

25 June - The Kates take on the stragglers from the convoy and sink one transport with a couple of torpedo hits. The US CV task force appears to be at sea again. Loitering in the middle of teh Coral Sea. This plays a bit of havoc with some of my convoys who "retreat from enemy carriers" until I switch them to "do not retire". For the most part, I am happy to let them cruise around burning fuel. All of my major assets seem to be well protected with LBA.

I lose a couple of transports to US submarines just south of Truk for the first time. I doubt they will be the last. ASW is one part of the game that I have not really got a good handle on yet.

27 June - The US CV TF makes a move toward Gili Gili and then I lose them. The new CV's arrive from Truk. I sent them to Shortland to use the fuel reserve there. I move the 4 CV's from Rabaul over to Shortland as well to allow me to make up new TF's in case I want to go after the american carriers

B25's have evidently arrived in Port Moresby as the bomb Gili Gili at night. My Betty's at Lae finally get active (after a successful resupply - I forgot offensive air ops need a big stockpile of supplies). While the Claude's hold off the CAP they go to work on the convoy and damage three ships. The Vals from Gili Gili join in the mayhem and put bombs into a couple of transports as well.

28 June - The US CV's continue to play peekaboo. Aircraft from Lae and Gili Gili continue to maul the US transports on their way out of Port Moresby. I have not rec'd any official word of sinkings but I suspect that at least two have been sunk. Maybe more.

30 June - Slow couple of days. Other than the daily raid by Port Moresby Bostons and Mitchells on Gili Gili. Not much going on. I sink a submarine that attacks another convoy. The tankers are finally approaching Rabaul and supplies have been built up past the 40 000 ton mark.

I have also noticed that Kavieng has a base force unit that is being wasted so I am going to move it down to Lunga to allow more aircraft to operate there. I have formed two air combat TF's at Shortland, but I'm waiting for now to decide how best to deploy them.

4 July - Still not much going on. Fuel supplies in Rabaul now up to almost 100 000 tons. I send a small CS TF down toward Espiritu Santo to try to get some recon infomation.

5 July - SOme aircraft reinforcements are finally starting to arrive. A chutai of Emily flying boats arrived yesterday (deployed to SHortland - the modt fwd base with spare capacity) and today it's chutai of Betty's (to Rabaul).

Finally some action - a US CA TF is spotted making for Lunga again. The a/c from Lunga have a go at it at extreme range with no effect. I move the CL TF from Shortland down to reinforce the heavies patrolling off shore.

6 July - the American CA's do not materialize maybe the air attack scared them off. A submarine sinks (USS GRayling) one of my raider transports but most of them get ashore anyways.

Glory be! The Kaga and Hiryu arrive at Truk. I make a new air combat TF and send them off to Rabaul. But what to do with all that firepower?

I see that search planes have identified at US TF with no less than 4 CV's - can that be right? As they say in Texas, things are fixin' to get very interesting.

8 July - The US CV's disappear for a day and then show up again seemingly headed for Lunga. This catches me with one CV TF on it's way to Rabaul from Truk. One halfway to Rabaul from Shortland and one at anchor at Shortland. To complicate matters most of the air groups for the second TF have been operating from land bases so on CVL (Shoho) has no a/c at all. So a frantic turn as I send the Shortland TF halfway down the slot with orders NOT to react to enemy carriers (the las thing I need is half my carriers haring off after the enemy and getting past the LBA range). Bombers from Gili Gili are hurriedly re-embarked and the Rabaul bound TF is turned around and sent to RV with the first group. This should give me about 300 carrier based a/c plus the land based air at Lunga. The idea will be to keep my CV's far enought back that the enemy CV's will be within range of Lunga if they want to come after me.

Tried a large raid on Port Moresby this turn. I ended up destroying a fair number of planes in the air, but the attrition on my level bombers was pretty horrendous. I think we'll suspend any more raids for now.

9 July - Round 1 is a draw. Weather grounds the a/c at Lunga. The US CV's (2 of them - Hornet and Enterprise) launch at my first CV group (Akagi, Hiryu, Ryojo) 56 unescorted Dauntlesses manage to score a couple of bomb hits on Akagi but are mauled in the process losing over 50% destroyed and the remainder damaged. The return strike nets a couple bomb hits on Enterprise with somewhat smaller loss to the attackers which included escorting zeors.

The other two CV TF's are moving up quickly and especially with the heavy losses on the first day, I should have a substantial edge in a/c.

10 July - Complete Chaos at Guadalcanal. My heavy surface force manages to engage one US CV TF in a night engagement which basically ends up in us trading CL's. I lose one badly damage and the US loses USS Nashville sunk. The CV's escape without harm. When day dawns I find the first US TF is buggering off southward, but another CV TF is stationed south of Guadalcanal. This force, based around Saratoga attacks the Zuikaku TF and both Shokaku and Zuikaku are hit again. However, the combined efforts of the Lunga based air and the my two CV TF's put several bombs into Saratoga and she is burning fiercely by nightfall. The other TF gets away without further damage although the Lunga airforce has one go at them before nightfall - Whew! that was quite a turn.

Stay tuned!