Starvation Island--Scenario 4 "Learning Curve"

[Galahad78]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd
Will do that only after a couple of days Sweeping the base. Those with AE experience---Does that sound like a good idea? Seems that Sweeps work well to soften up the target's skies.

From my limited experience with the game (only against the AI, btw), this is a good idea as the japanese. Your Zeros and pilots are of far better quality than whatever the Allies could throw to you at this stage (mainly Kittihawks and P-39D in that area).

I'm currently finishing my first Guadalcanal scenario, so it's very interesting to see the things "from the other side", and from the hand of such experienced players!

[John 3rd]

Thank you for the comment and thoughts.

Combat Report
August 15-17, 1942

I am wholeheartedly SICK of American Subs! On the 15th, DD Yuzuki is torpedoed TWICE by S-37 NE of Shortlands and sinks. Grrr... Gonna create some ASW TF.

The Japanese SS get into the action on the 16th by MISSING a DMS near Luganville.

Milne Bay
My attention remains here. No ships have arrived and my minefield in the this hex hasn't been hazarded yet. I hit the base with 17 Zero and 19 Betty on the 17th, encounter no aerial opposition and destroy 1 P-40 on the ground. The base is also swept by 22 Zero prior to the AF attack.

Munda
Lesson learned here. Couldn't figure out why I wasn't seeing AF construction with my two Construction Bat there. The base has nearly 8,000 supply so I got a little frustrated. Then I LOOKED at the units and saw that they were still in Strategic Mode. OOoopppsss! Stupid John! Shifted them to unpack and immediately saw trees begin to fall as the AF gets started.

US Fleet
A couple of TF are spotted approaching Lunga on the 16th. They are a day away on the 17th. High Command debates arming Bettys with Torps at Rabaul but are ordered to wait due to arrivals in Truk.

Kaigun Arrives!
I'll let the TF arrive on the 18th and NAIL the TF on the 19th with CarDiv1! Always consider CarDiv1 to be Akagi/Kaga but after Midway they were redesignated into Shokaku, Zuikaku, Ryuho. The CVs are immediately reformed into TF and sent SE to attack the American TF. This is their disposition:

Shokaku (Admiral Nagumo Chuichi) 75 Planes
CA Tone/Chikuma
CL
6 DD

Zuikaku (Admiral Yamaguchi Tamon) 72 Planes
2 CA
CL
6 DD

Ryuho 37 Planes
2 CA
CL
6 DD

Surface TF (Admiral Tanaka Raizo)
2 BC
1 CA
6 DD

The CVs Air Groups have:
1. Fighters set at 17,000 Ft, Range 7, CAP 40%, and Rest 20%
2. Vals at 14,000 Ft, Range 7, and all set to Naval Attack
3. Kates at 9,000 Ft, Range 7, and all set for Naval Attack

Float Planes are set for normal Air Search and Petes are on ASW 1 Hex.

Any experienced comments regarding my disposition of aircraft here?

Current situation:


Given two days of movement we should have a bit of a FIGHT!

[LoBaron]

If you think the Allied subs in this scenario are a pest just wait till your opponent has found out
how to maximize his ASW efforts. I already lost close to 15 subs, not all were sunk but the IJN does not
own a repair yard in this scenario, so every major damage beyond 5 and your sub leaks like a broken plate
for the rest of the game or has to be sent home.
Thats a major rule for every Japanese combat vessel: +5 major damage and its on the way to HI or a secondary asset.

Also be careful with your CV´s. If you want to fight it our with the US CV´s don´t forget that they have 3 heavy carriers
at the beginning compared to your 2 1/2, and that means nearly double strengh in AC. Youd really want to
coordinate with other assets to give them the best chances possible.

Nice move on Munda btw, could really help the Tassa force, I think its not so easy to dislodge if you are lucky.

Good luck, we Japanese need it in this scenario. (I already used up most of mine... [;)] )

[LoBaron]

And forgot to add: not sure how you gonna fight it out but I commonly add some of the fast BB´s
to my carrier TF´s. Up to now they just shrug off the 1000lb GP bombs so a nice additional defense
for your flattops and don´t forget the AA.

[WITPPL]

Hi,

Keep Your BBs at bay. They obviously burn a lot of fuel. You are very short of fuel in this scenario.

TF based float planes doing searches will give your opponent an early warning of Your fleet presence.

If You want to sneak around you should ground them not to fly any missions at all.

Search can be done by "flying boats"

It works here.

Why split carriers?

[John 3rd]

Let me begin by answering questions from the earlier postings:
1. CV TF---I am experimenting with a different Japanese CV Organization. The Allied players always separate their CVs into 1 CV TF during 1941/1942 and early-1943. They do this to lesson the chance of a catastrophic attack catching more then 1 CV at a time.

In this campaign I will try the same thing. Japanese AA SUCKS so that isn't really a factor to speak of. The CVs all pool their CAP so that is OK. To me it appears to be a useful organization that provides strength yet minimizes danger.

If this APPEARS to work in the campaign I will use it in my AE Campaigns.

2. BB TF---Fuel is an issue. I moved nearly ALL of Truk's fuel to Rabaul and Shortlands at the start of the Campaign. This has served well as my initial operations have not had any fuel issues to date. Will have to keep a close watch on things though.

The BC stay with the CVs (to gather attention) and BB Mutsu is at Shortlands ready to move down the Slot when needed.

Combat Operations
August 18-24, 1942

The Combined Fleet arrives and rapidly makes its presense known to the Americans. It appears that Michael was running in supplies and Base Force reinforcements to get Henderson Field operational. My CVs put a slight crimp into that operation!

On the 19th, the 3 CV launch a series of shipping strikes against American shipping in the Guadalcanal area. The results are pretty decent: CA Vincennes, CL Hobart, a DMS, and AP Barnett are sunk. Another DD and AK are hit and seriously damaged.

This set of aerial attacks see the Japanese lose 3 Kates and 4 Vals to AA while another 3 Kates and 5 Vals are operational losses. The pilot losses are quite light. A total of 4 Kate and 4 Val crews are lost.

After the attack, the CVs return to Shortland for fuel and R&R.

BC/BB Bombardments---The 20th, 21st, and 22nd see the BCs (20th/21st) and BB Mutsu (22nd) bombard the Marine Perimeter. The attack on the 20th also nets an AK to the screening Japanese DDs. Unfortunately the results are quite meager. The big ships inflict some casualties but NO DAMAGE to the AF, supplies, or aircraft.

Michael explained to me the much greater important of Recon within AE. I'll begin daily Recon of the base and add more Naval Search down the Slot to improve detection levels. This is a good lesson to learn HERE and not in the full war campaign.

SS Action
I feel like I need to re-read Silent Victory or Frank's magnificent work to fully grasp the amount of SS activity. EVERY DAY features American SS attacks, ASW fights, and a few Japanese attacks. Some high/low-lights:

19th Ro-33 hit by 8 DC in Lunga hex (makes it to Shortlands)
20th Near Truk SS Greenling sinks an AK
I-21 hit by 2 DC between Noumea and Luganville
21st SS Grayling sinks an AK IN TRUK! Brassy...
22nd I-17 misses a DMS
SS Grayling misses a DD
23rd S-40 hit by ASW Air from Shortlands
Two US SS miss targets between Shortlands and Truk
24th SS Grayback hit by 2 DC SE of Truk
SS Gudgeon misses PG between Shortlands and Rabaul
I-17 hit NE of Noumea by 3 DC and then 5 DC (damaged and heading to Shortlands)

US Action?
A whole 'flock of Seagulls' did Naval Search on the 23rd. They spotted shipping at Rekata Bay and Munda as well as Shortlands. Have to see if US CVs are making an appearance. My CVs remain at Shortlands through the 24th as I debate on moving into the Coral Sea on a raid...

Munda
I have now moved 2 SNLF and 4 Construction Battalions to the base and have stockpiled 10,000 supply. I have a Fast Transport bringing in the Base Force that I rescued from Tulagi to provide aerial support. The AF Construction is picking up speed and I will post its construction rate in the next update.

Shortlands
Also have about 10,000 supply with Port and AF construction moving pretty fast. Port is halfway to 3 and that'll help. AF is taking much more time to build. The port has 2 AV there to take care of the seaplanes flying recon from there.

Planning???
Am thinking of various possiblities right now. Want to get Munda Operational ASAP. There is a HQ due at Rekata Bay in about 3-4 days. I will move it to Munda to add more support there. Rekata, Munda, and Tassafaronga are the obvious triplines for Michael to fixate on while I decide about making a real try to wrest Milne Bay from the Allies. Think this will surprise him and force his attention in a different direction.

The CV Raid will help here too. Once I make this raid then then CVs will return to Truk for a bit. Here is a picture of their good work on the 20th:







Learning Areas:
1. Air Search needs to be refined and improved to raise detection levels. Simply more planes and specific recon of bases?

2. ASW Combat---same thing here, I need to better raise detection levels and then use ASW TF to try to hit American SS. They are being a BIG pain right now.

3. Port Work and Ships---I noticed some damage accruing on my CAs and CLs do I disbanded into Truk, and figured out how to begin repair work on them. Took a little bit but this feature was fairly intuitive.

[Q-Ball]

Michael is right about Bombardments. Overall they do less than in WITP, but for sure they do squat unless you heavily recon the base. Even then, don't expect the results you used to get.

When I send a TF to raid shipping during the night phase at an enemy base, I often set the ships to bombardment; does that impact my surface combat ability, anyone know?[&:] I do that so in case the enemy moves all the ships out, I do SOMETHING.

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Michael is right about Bombardments. Overall they do less than in WITP, but for sure they do squat unless you heavily recon the base. Even then, don't expect the results you used to get.

When I send a TF to raid shipping during the night phase at an enemy base, I often set the ships to bombardment; does that impact my surface combat ability, anyone know?[&:] I do that so in case the enemy moves all the ships out, I do SOMETHING.

Hey Sir!

After the disaster losing 3 CA due to the program leaving them at Tulagi after a Surface Attack in DAYLIGHT I am relying on Bombardment as my surefire way of getting them in and out safely at night.

[WITPPL]

Hi.

I am quite sure that You will NOT be able to move Recata Bay HQ.

[WITPPL]

Hmm, never happened to me. What was the reaction range settings?
WITP AE gets "confused" so to say when you mix movement (instead of patrol) with the reaction range set to more than 1.

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Michael is right about Bombardments. Overall they do less than in WITP, but for sure they do squat unless you heavily recon the base. Even then, don't expect the results you used to get.

When I send a TF to raid shipping during the night phase at an enemy base, I often set the ships to bombardment; does that impact my surface combat ability, anyone know?[&:] I do that so in case the enemy moves all the ships out, I do SOMETHING.

Hey Sir!

After the disaster losing 3 CA due to the program leaving them at Tulagi after a Surface Attack in DAYLIGHT I am relying on Bombardment as my surefire way of getting them in and out safely at night.

[John 3rd]

For the moment I am sticking with either Fast Transport or Bombardment because they are working.

I am going nuts on how (seemingly) I cannot get TF to load ONLY troops. The dratted TF always pick-up supply as well. Am I missing a button or further control to simply 'loads troops only?'

Rekata Bay HQ will not move. They are perminent so that plan goes out the window.

Have done the August 25-26th turns with NO action. No attacks or events to speak of whatsoever. My Bettys have been spotting SS and I've gotten the SS Hit message twice but am not sure if I should believe that or not.

Am letting supply build-up at Truk so I can fillout and improve my Flying Boats. I've pulled all my Mavis and Emily back to there until I can upgrade and grab more planes.

Munda is a bustling place at the moment. The AF is moving along at about 5% a day so it'll be operational within a reasonable time. There are two infantry units, four Construction Battalions, and the Tulagi BF as I mentioned earlier. As soon as it goes AF 1 I'll move fighters there.

QUESTION: In WitP a Lvl 1 AF could only support Fighters flying CAP. I assume that I cannot Sweep from a Lvl 1 AF? True?

[Canoerebel]

I have heard it said that in AE bombarding doesn't work, or that bombarding doesn't work without recon. That may be a good rule of thumb, but I've seen some very effective bombardments without recon.  I've also seen alot of wimpy bombardments with recon.

[Q-Ball]

AE seemingly has 2 settings for supply: None at all, or "Pick up everything at the base no matter what and stuff the transports full". I wish sometimes there was a button that said "Load SOME supplies, but don't drain the base dry", but such a button does not exist. Still better than WITP though.

[ckammp]

Any TF that is Combat Loading (Amphibious TFs) will always load 3 days worth of supply, even if "Load Troops Only" is selected.

[aprezto]

Hi John;
Started reading this AAR as you titled it 'Learning Curve'. Considering the author I doubted the authenticity of that, having seen your dash across half the western world with your Bushido hoards in vanilla WitP.
But then I noted the scenario. This is not an easy one at all for the legions of Nippon.
Since this was the first scenario I tried via PBEM, I thought I'd pass on a few hard learned experiences:
 
1. Supply - you've already noted it. Very tough to get over 20K in one location so that you can upgrade or replace ACs and also have enough reserve in forward locations. There is an island SE of Truk (name escapes me) with about 8k supply on it that you are very unlikely to need there - best go get it. Also, as you've noted, with the requirement to load 3 days of supply with an amphibious TF, even when load supplies has been turned off, it is very difficult to keep a 20K stockpile anywhere.
 
2. Fuel - this is a major headache. You may have the whole combined fleet, but filling the battlewagon's fuel tanks takes about 20-30K fuel. That's two weeks of your fuel alotment. Such sniping raids as the one you propose with sending your carriers into the Coral Sea might not fit with other operational fuel requirements. Not sure I'm saying 'don't do it' just think you have a fuel bottleneck and such operations tend to make your invasions more difficult to run.
 
3. Transport numbers - APs and other troop capable ships are in short supply early in the scenario when you have ascendancy. I found bringing enough AV to my target difficult. You may have to do two hops, in which case staging out of Rabaul is imperitive.
 
4. Additional to above. Make sure you set orders for your amphibious TFs to follow your guarding SCTFs. It appears that this way around has a higher chance of the SCTF initiating combat on interdicting enemy surface forces (don't worry - the SCTF slows down to keep pace with the slower amphibious TF). This is far more important now, as surface combat can occur anywhere along your tracked course rather than at the hex at the end of each phase, and, surface combat forces tend to butcher transport fleets - often to the last ship.
 
5. Heavy Bombers. Well there has been plenty of conjecture about how impossible it is to knock them down, so no need to cover that again, but watch out for their range in this scenario. Some variants can hit Truk out of PM, and Shortlands out of Luganville!!!
 
6. Mines. Yup, you don't get many. However, I found I really wanted a few later in the scenario. It 'might' be worthwhile looking at hanging on to the ones you have until a little later - potentially as defence at Milne Bay? As an aside, I found mines on board the CL Tatsuta (and another), which for the life of me (and with requests to the forums) I could not use. Might be an OOB mistake.
 
7. drop tanks. Watch out when using these - they seem to affect the ability of your zeros to fight well. You have to make a decision as to whether it is more important to keep your bombers/LRCAPed-naval-assets alive or your zeros.
 
8. You'll know about enemy subs getting better once they sort out their torpedos, but the biggest enemy naval surprise to me was the danger posed by the upgraded allied DDs. Man O Man, when they get the '5 inch EBR' machine guns and radar, they can hurt all but your heaviest cruisers and BBs (although they still have torps), and with pilot drain they are almost impossible to hit with ACs. My opponent used them in TFs of 4 ships and they often devastated my SCTFs. Resorted to CA and BB only TFs to try and clear them out - very risky tactic with fully functional subs about.
 
All in all, I found that this is a very hard scenario as an introduction to AE for the Japanese player. Some of the hightlighted things to watch for are not prevalent in the bigger scenarios (no repair of major damage on the map being an important addition).

[John 3rd]

Combat Report
August 28-29, 1942

The Japanese CVs depart Shortlands on the 27th, are within striking range of Milne Bay on the 28th, are between Noumea and Aussieland the 29th, and will swing NE tomorrow. Sp far nothing to report for the forway. Keeping aware of the fuel situation, the CVs are moving at cruise speed so they don't burn up a bunch of fuel in this Operation. To this point, they have not been spotted by Allied Air.

SS Action:
28th SS Grayback misses a Jap DD SE of Shortland
S-38 sinks an AMC (damn!) in Shortlands Harbor
29th I-10 misses a US DD NW of Noumea and takes 3 DC

The damned S-Boats are killing me! Grrrr... Have organized three strong ASW Convoys (ASW around 30-40) at Truk, Rabaul, and Shortlands. Am making larger convoys so the AKs aren't easily picked off. Each convoy has an aggressive Leader so we'll see if anything positive comes of that.

Lae
There was a B-17 night attack by 14 of those EVIL aircraft at Lae on the 29th. They did some damage but not a lot.

Buna
Haven't mentioned the troops making the trek over the Owen Stanley's. They did not. The boys just reached Buna and the whole Strike Force is prepping for Milne Bay.

Milne Bay
I have decided to use the boys in Buna (HQ, Inf, Art, and Eng units) and the soon-to-arrive 2nd Inf Division in an assault on Milne Bay.

Planning
In deciding this everything now falls into place as to operational needs. Here is what needs to take place:

1. Withdraw the troops at Buna. I'll gather shipping at Shortand, load a couple of SNLF to replace what I lift off, and then cover the operation with every fighter I have. KB will provide escort and close cover. Michael will probably think I'm pulling these troops off in an effort to augment my Lunga Force.

2. Bring 2nd Infantry down to Rabaul in a large convoy.

3. Build-Up enough supplies (20,000) in Rabaul to sustain the Operation.

These steps should occupy the Japanese until mid-September. The Invasion of Milne Bay will be set for about September 21st. We shall know how realistic this is with a week or so...

[John 3rd]

September 8, 1942

Holy Cats! Look at this image...





I cannot believe I don't have time to describe this fight.

Let us simply say that a Jap TF of 2 BC, 2 CA, 1 CL, and 5 DD wander into the entire American CV Formation SE of Lunga on September 8, 1942 and they manage to plant multiple shells into not one, Not TWO, but THREE American CVs!!!

BANZAI! BANZAI!! BANZAI!!!

USS Hornet gets 2 14" Shells, has an Ammo explosion, and is REPORTED sunk.
USS Enterprise gets 2 14" shells and is 'on Fire.'
USS Wasp is hit with 3 6" and 1 14" Shells and is also 'on Fire.'

I will gladly write a full combat report when I get home later tonight!

[John 3rd]

Added an Edit to the last post.

[aprezto]

OMG!!! You jammy sod. How did you pull this one off. That is just awesome. I imagine your carriers were in close proximity too since these BBs usually run with them.

[DRF99]

Good job!

I presume it was a night battle.

I guess your opponent didn't have enough long-range search assets the day before to the south of Guadacanal. That you can set search arcs is great, but I it takes a lot of aircraft to do a 360 degree search and probably a lot of people don't bother.

Cheers,