Matrix Games Forums

I must agree with Alfred the plan stated pretty much hands the initiative to the allies you are following the obvious plan so you are playing his game.
 
Japan did not do this , Ceylon became a raid only because the army pulled out . Midway was designed to draw the US fleet to battle etc .
 
The most important choice for Japan is air , sure you can replace your Nates with Tojos and build at 43 levels in mid 42 but you are burning through your resources which can haunt you in 43 and 44.  On the other hand a quite air war allows the allies to train excellent pilots and give you a lot of grief.
 
IMHO the best options is to have an efficient air production program ( eg keep building Nates till you are through the engines , build Sallies instead of Helens/Lillies , Nell instead of Betty and Mavis instead of Emily) and only a few Tojos to handle B17 , especially be conservative with 2 & 4 engine planes .  More important you want to fight significant attrition battles over your bases , this is difficult but the best way to do this is to loose on the ground and be cornered so he will commit air  :-) 

CF, I think you meant "December 8, 1941 and December 9, 1941." [:D]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

CF, I think you meant "December 8, 1941 and December 9, 1941." [:D]

It would appear that someone is so busy planning for future Japanese victories that they've lost track of the current date! [:'(]

Happens all the time, I've done it myself. Of course, we JFBs live the first 6 months of the war under the time gun - quite stressful and I often feel pushed to launch improperly prepared or escorted invasions as a result.

I would like to find an appropriate venue to engage JFBs on Albert's post without clogging up the AAR. I've always been intrigued by how best to define, and then pursue, "victory" for Japan in a war that is fun to play out but essentially unwinnable in any traditional sense. I agree with Albert that it is possible to keep smashing Allied naval strength enough to keep the enemy at bay for some time; but I also agree with CF that in the end, even the grandest of early to mid-war victories ring hollow as one Essex class CV after another comes off the ways. CF gave the example of PzB's first game vs Andy Mac, I would add to it the game CF narrated in "Small Ship, Big War" [&o]. He won numerous victories and had a chance at a victory on points (not that that matters other than pride) as late as November 1943, IIRC.

Anyway, I'm considering starting a new thread in the War Room, but wonder how best to keep AFB eyes out. Any thoughts?

reporting for duty sir! limited duty that is, until the world cup is over
In short you are:
going stalemate in China
taking what you can in Burma
Singapore, early and often
fuel, fuel, fuel
bypass things to go deep
protect a certain destroyer

good luck!!

This will be my third AE game as Japan. The first was against Q-Ball and if you read “Against the Wind” then you already know that I got beaten in that one like a red-headedstepchild.

[:D][:D] Good hunting.

December 10, 1941 – December 11, 1941

It is interesting how slow the first week of a game in AE can seem compared to the old WITP days. Without the automatic first turn warp-speed move for all Japanese task forces it takes time for invasion forces to load and move to their destinations. But slowly plans begin to unfold and things begin to take shape.

Philippines/DEI: this area heats up on 10 December. Two Japanese DDs chase away half a dozen PT boats at Vigan, no hits scored on either side. A more significant but still inconclusive clash occurs in the Celebes Sea when the Japanese destroyer division led by CL Nagara meets four US destroyers (what I think of as “John D. Ford and the Three Ps”). A few scattered shells hit the American force (fires are reported aboard John D. Ford) and DD Kawakaze takes a single hit. The forces separate and the US ships slip away into the darkness.

CA Houston is spotted just two hexes from Ryujo in the day phase. Ryujo’s Kates expend their few remaining torpedoes but score no hits and Houston also continues south. CA Chokai and DD Sagiri sink two xAKs off Jesselton.

Japanese submarines go on a rampage across the region. TK Semiramis escapes two attacks but AVP Valk, TK Talang Akar, a small Dutch oiler, an xAK, and an xAKL are all sunk.

On 11 December things are a little more quiet. The Japanese cruiser force blockading Manila Bay intercepts a total of eight MTBs, sinking two, and Japanese submarines sink another xAKL. Landings begin at Aparri and Vigan. The 21st Division boards transports at Shanghai, bound for Luzon.

In the air Japanese strike coordination finally breaks down a bit and Allied fighters get a crack at some unescorted Bettys – four are lost. But Japanese fighters continue their work and air opposition is steadily weakening.

Malaya: Japanese forces begin to move inland. The Imperial Guards arrive at Singora and more transports leave Sendai for Malaya. So far there has been no sign of wide-scale British movement south.

Since I have seen no sign of attack by Allied surface forces I am cutting loose the battleships and cruisers assigned to protect the invasion forces. The battleships will make a run into the Java Sea to look for trouble and the cruisers will hunt for the enemy off the west coast of Java.

Pacific: landings begin at Guam on 11 December. The heavy cruisers assigned to support that landing were instead sent straight to Truk, where they took on fuel and will proceed south to look for prey in the Solomon Sea.

The bombardment force nears Wake, where my transports are standing off to the southwest and waiting. KB is moving west about a dozen hexes north of Midway. A Japanese submarine contacted what might have been an American carrier near Johnston Island but the sub couldn’t get past the destroyer screen.

China: units are moving all over the place, mostly rearranging garrisons to free up infantry divisions. It will take a little time for anything to come together in this region.

Edit: Whoa, second time a post of mine has transported itself! [:-]

At any rate, disregard and am looking forward to seeing your plan be further unfurled!

December 12, 1941 – December 13, 1941

The early days of the war continue to go well for Japan. So far my policy of holding back the transports and sending in the warships has paid off well. And I’ve had a couple of breaks go my way as well. Of course, swift and overwhelming force tends to create its own luck.

Japanese Losses: Japan has begun to lose ships, however. The first Japanese ship of the war to be lost (other than the five midgets lost at Pearl) was xAK Keiso Maru, sunk by SS Sargo in the Luzon Strait. The convoy carrying the 33rd Div. from Sasebo to Bangkok was attacked by Vildebeests out of Hong Kong. Two APs were hit by bombs and one has sunk, so the division will arrive in a bit of a reduced state. Other Japanese ships have been damaged, as will be recounted shortly.

Carnage in the DEI: on 12 December Admiral Kurita's four heavy cruisers and their escorts arrived at Brunei. There they found Thracian, Thanet, and Scout. Thracian went down in a hail of shells and torpedoes but the other two escaped until the day phase. Then, in round two, Thanet went down but not before DD Arashi took a couple of shells and some heavy damage. Scout was lightly damaged but escaped not only these encounters but also another meeting the next day.

I had wondered where those British destroyers had gotten off to. I think they were probably lurking in Brunei waiting for a Japanese invasion force.

Things turned really ugly on 13 December. A Japanese destroyer division led by CL Natori had been placed at the narrows in the center of the Makassar Strait to intercept ships fleeing south. What they found instead, just a few hours after sunrise, was a very powerful Allied force coming north, led by POW and Repulse. Included were Houston, seven light cruisers, and fourteen destroyers. The Japanese force did the intelligent thing; that is, they turned tail and ran.

Meanwhile, not far away, four Japanese battleships – Nagato, Fuso, Ise, and Hyuga – were descending on Tarakan. These ships had been dispatched from Japan at the outbreak of the war with four destroyers, all that were immediately available. Allied ships had been spotted at Tarakan the day before and the battleships sent there in hopes of picking off a ship or two.

What they found instead was a harbor packed with Allied ships. The result was carnage. Warning: the following snippet from the combat report is not suitable for small children:

[font="Courier New"]Day Time Surface Combat, near Tarakan at 67,91, Range 14,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Nagato, Shell hits 4
BB Fuso, Shell hits 1
BB Ise, Shell hits 1
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 3
CL Yura
DD Wakatake
DD Kuretake, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Sanae, Shell hits 1, heavy fires

Allied Ships
DD John D. Ford, Shell hits 4, and is sunk
DD Peary, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
DD Pillsbury, Shell hits 8, and is sunk
DD Pope, Shell hits 8, and is sunk
PG Isabel, Shell hits 9, and is sunk
PG Asheville, Shell hits 4, and is sunk
PG Tulsa, Shell hits 7, and is sunk
AS Holland, Shell hits 6, and is sunk
AS Otus, Shell hits 5, and is sunk
AS Canopus, Shell hits 9, and is sunk
AV Langley, Shell hits 5, and is sunk
AVD William B. Preston, Shell hits 4, and is sunk
AM Finch, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
AM Bittern, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
AM Tanager, Shell hits 7, and is sunk
AM Quail, Shell hits 10, and is sunk
AM Lark, Shell hits 4, and is sunk
AM Whippoorwill, Shell hits 8, and is sunk
AO Pecos, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
AO Trinity, Shell hits 6, and is sunk
TK Mindanao, Shell hits 7, and is sunk
xAP President Madison, Shell hits 17, and is sunk
xAP Rochambeau, Shell hits 7, and is sunk
xAKL Sagoland, Shell hits 15, and is sunk
xAKL Paz, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
TK Gertrude Kellogg, Shell hits 22, and is sunk
TK Manatawny, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAKL Anakan, Shell hits 2, and is sunk
xAKL Bisayas, Shell hits 5, and is sunk
xAK Capillo, Shell hits 8, and is sunk
xAKL Compagnia Filipinas, Shell hits 9, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Corregidor, Shell hits 7, and is sunk
xAKL Dos Hermanos, Shell hits 8, and is sunk
xAKL Elcano, Shell hits 5, and is sunk
xAKL Escalante R, Shell hits 10, and is sunk
xAK Ethel Edwards, Shell hits 7, and is sunk
xAK Governor Wright, Shell hits 4, and is sunk
xAKL Palawan, Shell hits 9, and is sunk
xAKL Princess of Negros, Shell hits 10, and is sunk
xAKL Sarangami, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
xAK Si Kiang, Shell hits 38, and is sunk
xAKL Taurus, Shell hits 3, on fire
xAK Tantalus, Shell hits 4, and is sunk
xAK Yu Sang, Shell hits 1
xAK Ravnaas, Shell hits 17, and is sunk


Japanese Ships Reported to be Approaching!
Allied TF begins to get underway
Poor visibility due to Rain
Maximum visibility in Rain: 15,000 yards
Range closes to 17,000 yards...
Range closes to 14,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 14,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 14,000 yards[/font]

I think the Allied plan was to collect all the refugees from the area and then escort them to safety using the most powerful force that could be gathered, one that could defeat any Japanese force likely to be encountered. Though that is just speculation on my part. At any rate things weren’t quite done going wrong for the Allies.

Zuiho (armed with torpedoes) had joined Ryujo (now armed only with bombs) in the Celebes Sea. They attacked the Allied force and did some damage: POW took two torpedoes and light cruisers Durban and Boise each took a couple of bomb hits that penetrated their deck armor.

Japanese forces, including the transports still unloading at Jolo (which was captured) have been ordered out of the area. Meanwhile, by chance, Admiral Kondo’s Southern Force is entering the western end of the Java Sea. Things could become very interesting.

Pacific: Guam has been captured. Wake was bombarded and invaded; the first attack failed at 1 to 1 odds but more Japanese troops are landing tomorrow and the base will probably fall. The coast guns there started fires aboard CL Kashima and an xAK.

Poor AM Penguin ran into one of the invasion forces heading towards Wake on 12 December; the luckless ship was sunk by the light cruisers in the escort.

Hong Kong: after a couple days of bombardment the first Japanese attack came off at 1 to 2 odds. Japanese forces will bombard for a day and then try it again.

The situation around the Makassar Strait:

Quite a lucky break for the Empire. I think this excellently illustrates perils of both doing evacuation by ships from so close to possible Japanese points of advance and concentrating so much stuff in a single place.

BANZAI!

Wow Caught them getting underway in port ...
 
Timor anyone ....

That was a nice hit at Tarakan! The only losses there though that might hurt the Allies at all is the 3 AS. Everything else is just hull types the Allies have plenty of. Still, better at the bottom of the ocean than in an Allied port.

Keep pushing, you can't go too fast in the DEI.

Madre de Dios! What carnage! The problem is concentrating the sheep and hoping a couple of prepubescent shepherds with slings can keep away a pack of wolves.

Of course, when you try to get them out in penny packets the carnage is bad as well...just not that bad. It is best to scatter them about by different routes (including East toward Midway, East of Mindanao toward Sorong, the Makassar Strait and East of Sulawese and even along the Northern coast of New Guinea). The Jap CVL's cant be everywhere.

Only an experienced player can be on the receiving end of that and not get discouraged.

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

The first was against Q-Ball and if you read “Against the Wind” then you already know that I got beaten in that one like a red-headed stepchild.

someday us redheads are gonna do something about this... [;)]

I think this conclusively proves that Q-Ball cheated. [:'(][:D]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Madre de Dios! What carnage! The problem is concentrating the sheep and hoping a couple of prepubescent shepherds with slings can keep away a pack of wolves.

Of course, when you try to get them out in penny packets the carnage is bad as well...just not that bad. It is best to scatter them about by different routes (including East toward Midway, East of Mindanao toward Sorong, the Makassar Strait and East of Sulawese and even along the Northern coast of New Guinea). The Jap CVL's cant be everywhere.

Only an experienced player can be on the receiving end of that and not get discouraged.

Fortunately Charbroiled is an experienced player. Not only that, he's a big Seahawks fan, so he's used to lopsided defeats.

ORIGINAL: Kwik E Mart

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

The first was against Q-Ball and if you read “Against the Wind” then you already know that I got beaten in that one like a red-headed stepchild.

someday us redheads are gonna do something about this... [;)]

The interesting thing is, no one is sure exactly where that phrase comes from. Are red-headed stepchildren beaten? If so, why?

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish


The interesting thing is, no one is sure exactly where that phrase comes from. Are red-headed stepchildren beaten? If so, why?

They're gingers. 'nuff said.

December 14, 1941 – December 15, 1941

One of the fascinating things about the early stages of a game against a new opponent is trying to get a “read” on your opponent. It’s not unlike using the first few hands of a game of poker to do the same thing. How aggressive is he, how subtle? If you bluff convincingly will he fold or is he going to make you show your cards? Does he like to bluff and if so can you figure out when he does?

It’s possible to stretch the analogy too far. But I think there’s something to it. I don’t have a read on Charbroiled yet, but there are some clues out there.

His units in the PI and Malaya are not in full-scale retreat but have instead taken up blocking positions. He did not only not pull back his surface assets, he combined them into a punch that with a little luck would have done serious damage. So far, at least, I get the feeling that he does not like to move and jab; he likes to slug it out.

Okay, I've moved from poker to boxing. That's enough analogies for the moment.

Hunters and the Hunted: the massacre of merchants continues in the DEI. Admiral Kondo’s Southern Force did not find the Allied surface fleet; it got past them and has been spotted in Soerabaja. But Kondo did find seven xAKs in the Java Sea and sank them. I have decided not to send Kondo into Soerabaja after the Allied surface ships. That base is infested with mines and there are better places to slug it out with what is actually a superior enemy force.

Another Japanese surface force caught five xAKLs in the Celebes Sea and wiped them out. Japanese submarines sank tankers Semiramis and British Motorist in the Java Sea as well as an xAK off the US West Coast.

Japan has lost two more ships; the other xAP hit off Hong Kong sank and an xAK mined at Jolo also went down.

Landings and Conquests: Altimonen, on the east side of Luzon, was occupied and forces are driving up towards Manila. Brunei and Miri have both been invaded and out in the Pacific Wake fell one day behind schedule. It seems I had left one of the invading task forces on “do not unload.”

Industrial Light and Magic: so far I have been cautious with changes to Japanese industry, but some moves have already been made. Vehicle production has already been expanded. Shinano has been cancelled. I’ve started building a few Kates and will expand the factory further when the first expansion is complete. And production has been halted on a few aircraft types, such as the Ida. I will keep producing Nates until there are 100 or so in the pool.

I’m going to start shutting off some of the smaller armament centers within a month or two and when levels get close to 100k the large centers will be shut down as well. This really helps the HI reserve expand quickly.