Guadalcanal: Road to Legend (M&M vs Arnhem) Jpn Side

[Cribtop]

Kewl screenies. Consider me aboard.

I second Koontz' suggestion - send those subs after the USN CVs!

[MikeS4269]

Cribtop - we have a group of five subs covering the GC area. I don't know if I want to put all we have on chasing them. It sounds too much like the Japanese original doctrine which failed miserably with a few notable exceptions.

In my last game with Michael, one of my patrol subs hit the CV Wasp by chance, and it put her out of the war for weeks at a key time. It was a bright spot for me after I had lost my entire carrier force in a carrier duel east of Guadalcanal.

[MikeS4269]

Michael got some guys out of Tulagi and was quite happy about it (as was I!)

[Cribtop]

I think five subs is about right, actually. I just have fond memories of whacking both the Enterprise and Wasp in a 48 hour period in a Guad game I played. That was a few patches ago and subs aren't quite as uber, but still, it's about all you've got for a week or two in this scenario.

[MikeS4269]

[center]Wavering at Rabaul![/center]

VADM Mikawa left the office of Naval Headquarters in an uncharacteristic rage today as High Command denied him the chance to take his gathered naval forces down (the soon to be named) Slot and strike out at the Allied shipping he could find.

"You are fools!" boomed the incensed Vice-Admiral as he gestured to the background with his gathered heavy cruisers. "You are giving up the chance to stop this invasion at the start! This will have long term consequences!"

The outburst came after a heated 20 minute discussion where Mikawa had strongly argued that it was best to strike hard and fast and knock out the enemy transports while they were still fully loaded.

Naval Headquarters would not budge from their position that what was happening on Guadalcanal was just a minor set back and that the true focus at this time was the planned invasion of Milne Bay and then the following landings at Port Moresby.

"Soon the Combined Fleet will arrive," they countered. "We will have our carriers and be able to sweep aside any resistance to your advances."

At this point, one of the staff tried to make light of the situation with a joke.

"You can't possibly think the American carriers would just let you in, do you? Do you think they have just turned around and fled the area leaving those transports virtually unprotected off of Savo Island?"

Mikawa took this the wrong way and in an unusual burst from him (which would rival the American Admiral Ted Turner) shouted "You have just denied me the chance to give the Americans the worst defeat in their naval history!!"

History may never know what would have happened had Mikawa been allowed to follow through with his plans. As for now, the move on Port Moresby still remains top priority for those in planning circles.

(VADM Mikawa shown here in his usual calm self)

[MikeS4269]

The above blurb comes from a multiple-text session Michael and I had yesterday at lunch time. He was tempted to make a run on the transports even though testing vs the AI and strong warnings from me had told him it was a bad idea. We passed messages for a while and he admitted that our initial plan to move on Milne Bay was the way to go at this point.

I don't blame him. I almost did it in our own two player game. I held back and never regretted doing so. Those heavy cruisers became the backbone of my southern raiding force and caused him a few problems along the way.

Mikawa was one very lucky guy on his night off of Savo Island. Had the carriers had been there, he could of gotten hit hard both coming in and going out and the element of surprise could have been lost. Also, any cripples would not have made it back up the Slot without dive bombers all over them.

We have to assume that Arnhem has moved his CVs somewhere close by and it preparing for just this. For all we know, he could be about to try his own run up the Slot before the Combined Fleet shows up in a few days.

(If he does, we have a strong air gathering to fight with him! I say let him try it!)

[MikeS4269]

Oh, Arnhem is away on reservist training until Friday night. Michael and I are feeling a great let down that we just started and had to pause like this. Arnhem had warned us, but the Inbox looks so empty without a turn sitting in it to be processed....

Withdrawal symptoms are already starting!

[MikeS4269]

--

[MikeS4269]

The only action for the entire day was when a lone APD with 200 supplies bound from Truk to Kavieng (and the Rabaul) got a visit. No air or ground combats at all.


AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Aug 12, 42
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack near Truk at 111,112

Japanese Ships
APD-36

Allied Ships
SS Greenling



SS Greenling launches 6 torpedoes
Greenling diving deep ....
APD-36 fails to find sub, continues to search...
Escort abandons search for sub

[MikeS4269]

August 13th

I had some 'expendable' xAKLs who were trying to rescue the 1000 being held hostage at Talasea. They had a visit from some high level bombers. I need to talk to Michael about this: let those supplies go (the safe option) or give our LCAP a work-out to hit down some unescorted enemy bombers.

All else was quiet again.

Where are his CVs?

August 13th Orders

I am setting all subs to home port in Kavieng.
I upped the level of search by the sub seaplane off of Noumea.

I set two groups of army soldiers to prepare for Tassaforanga to throw off his SIGINT.

To Michael:

I advise we quickly follow up the Milne Bay bombardment by some form of display off of Guadalcanal. We need him to think that our main objective is not for PM at this stage.

If you want to LCAP Talasea with Zeroes, please do so

If you want to wait, please get those transports moving to safer pastures this turn

[MikeS4269]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Aug 13, 42
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Talasea at 103,125

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid spotted at 46 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 15 minutes


Allied aircraft
Beaufort V x 5


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
xAKL Hachirogata Maru



Aircraft Attacking:
5 x Beaufort V bombing from 10000 feet
Naval Attack: 4 x 500 lb SAP Bomb

[comte]

Cool AAR man [8D]

[MikeS4269]

Thanks, Aces8!

Michael decided to keep those transports under the enemy air umbrella loading, and if they make it another day, he will apply some LCAP over the target to intercept them.

We also have a Milne Bay bombardment mission going out today, so we might have even more fireworks soon.

[MikeS4269]

We had a golden opportunity for a slew of turns this weekend. Michael and I were around both Saturday morning, Saturday night, and pretty much all of Sunday. We got only two...

The attached picture is what it looks like when Japanese players cry.

Real life is moving faster than our game. At this rate, we won't finish the 'short' Guadalcanal scenario in 2010.

We have yet to have worked out the rhythm between the three of us.

I seem to be hovering within reach of both phone and PC at all times. Lost WitP AE time makes me sad. [:(]

[MichaelU]

Hmm, how much effort do we put into making him think we're going for Guadalcanal. Tokyo Express runs, try to set up an airbase somewhere in the slot, prep lots of troops for Tassafaronga, that sort of thing. I remember playing against Mike was ridiculously easy -- you'd start to get messages saying 'xxx unit is preparing for Tassfaronga', and eventually 'xxx unit is loaded on transport and heading for Tassafaronga'. It was a matter of some ease to make sure my carriers and every dive bomber available was waiting.

I've set the APDs to run into Lae this turn to drop off some more aviation support, and also set some Zeros into Lae to cover them with LR cap. The bombardment run on Milne Bay will continue -- once the fleet is out there it is too late to pull it back. They were set to bombard a turn ago, but moved one hex out of Rabaul and then stopped. I assume this puts them at a perfect distance to make the run in next time, but it's still a bit of a pain.

Yes, where are those carriers? In fact, where are the turns? We've received one in the last week.

[Cribtop]

Just to confirm, it appears the enemy has seized Tulagi, Lunga and Tassafaronga (which is a very doable and wise US move early on). Your AAR entry said "captured the island of Guadalcanal" which I assume means both bases.

One way to deny the Allies sigint on convoy destinations is to set the initial destination as a rendezvous point in the ocean. Then the enemy just gets a "xxx unit is loaded on transport and headed to sea" or somesuch. Then you set the final destination a day or so later while at sea. I believe this particular form of sigint is designed to cover radio intercepts of port traffic, and once at sea it is very unlikely the change of destination will be intercepted. Even if it is, the enemy has less time to prepare a response.

I personally would make some demonstrations in the Guad theater to throw the enemy off.

Best of luck getting a turn - I feel your pain on that.

[MikeS4269]

Cribtop, sorry I wasn't totally clear. I think my inability to spell Tassafaronga makes me not use it much in AARs. [:)]

We have a few thousand men huddling in Tass...a and they had about 80 supply last I checked. When I get the turn up and loaded, I will try for a screen shot.

It seems that some reinforcements came in to the island just moments before the attack. We had like 120 assault factors on an infantry unit. In my game vs. Michael, he never managed to drive my troops out, and I even managed to boost them a bit with supplies and reinforcements. We never called it "Starvation Island" in our earlier game.

In this current game, both Lunga and Tulagi have fallen.

[Cribtop]

That's good news. In my AAR you can read several (hopefully) humorous entries concerning my struggle to spell the names of various Dutch bases. One option for diversionary action is an extreme range CV raid on Henderson Field when Combined Fleet shows up. Just stay out of SBD range!

[MikeS4269]

The situation at GC.

[MikeS4269]

August 14th

Our forces did their raid on Milne Bay. It was a modest group of heavy cruisers and a few destroyers. It is hoped that these bombardment attacks will start to bring down some supplies there for the future amphibious operation to take it.

We are three days out from when the combined fleet shows up. Things will change then...

Our APDs went into Lae with the aviation support group, braved some enemy air attacks, and... didn't unload. Partner play is a challenge to coordinate (but quite fun!). I think the APDs might have been left on 'do not unload' from an earlier order / mission. I need to investigate.

We have some ships in Truk converting to APs. We will manage to get five done in the next 21 days. This will be the backbone of the Port Moresby invasion.

Sub I-16 got some attention off of Noumea. No damage to either side. I am moving it back another hex since it was sighted.

We had 48 B-17s visit Buna. Only six Zekes rose to match them.