Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Commander Cody

Nice. Good analysis. Looks like he's winning the air war attrition game, but well done on the CV tally.

Cheers,
CC

It's as painful as it looks. I keep waiting to have the air force of my dreams to counter him with...43 better be a good year. [8D]

Glad to see you are going again and didn´t let your last PBEM get you down! [:)]

Still suck at this game? Really? [:)] You have done fantastic imo! That incursion into the Kuriles is going to gobble up resources for him. He will have to pour everything he has into trying to kick you out or at least contain you.

Also, still having parts of China in 43 is quite an accomplishment!

You are way too modest! [:)]

I agree your position looks great. i would take if I were playing this game.

If you can hold an exploit the Kuriles landing, you'll put a huge amount of pressure on him, especially since he is so obviously focused on Burma, where you have the advantage of lots of territory and good troops on the way.

Those CV losses make his position much less tenable since you have those landings in Cent Pac and No Pac completed.

Looking forward to the rest! [8D]

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The Navy department reports that naval aviators from the aircraft carrier Shangra-La fended off an naval bombardment by Japanese superbattleships Yamato and Musashi as they attempted to attack the American outpost of Onnekotan-jima in the Kuriles.

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Navy aviators claim 5 bomb hits and one torpedo strike into the side of the enemy warship.

In other news Burma continues to be a slow grinding battle as Imperial soldiers continue to press slowly into India driving British commonwealth soldiers back. The lack of control of the skies of Burma allows the Japanese air commander to pick which airfield he will destroy each day...much to the dismay of the Allied commanders on the ground.

China also continues to grind up men and materials as the enemy pushes ever closer to the Chinese capital.

Carrier Bane lives!

Tuned in.

Not a giant amount to report that is new. But this was some happy news.

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Yamato was caught by dive bombers and avengers during her ill-fated attempt to hit my airfields in the Kuriles.

Taiho was just dumb luck caught by USS Whale trying to support Yamato.

Anvil is reaping rewards currently.

ORIGINAL: rroberson
I keep waiting to have the air force of my dreams to counter him with...43 better be a good year. [8D]

Perhaps it appears in 45? [:D] I´m in May -44 and I´m still fighting my pools more than the enemy!

ORIGINAL: rroberson

Not a giant amount to report that is new. But this was some happy news.

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Yamato was caught by dive bombers and avengers during her ill-fated attempt to hit my airfields in the Kuriles.

Taiho was just dumb luck caught by USS Whale trying to support Yamato.

Anvil is reaping rewards currently.

Were there additional hits to the 5 bombs/1 torp reported earlier? That is not going to sink Yamato unless you hit a magazine!

How many torps hit Taiho? Were there any secondary explosions?

Yeah, unless your VP's climbed, I would tend to doubt they are sunk.

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

Yeah, unless your VP's climbed, I would tend to doubt they are sunk.

Yeah I was surprised.. let me celebrate a bit before throwing cold water on me.

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: rroberson

Not a giant amount to report that is new. But this was some happy news.

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Yamato was caught by dive bombers and avengers during her ill-fated attempt to hit my airfields in the Kuriles.

Taiyo was just dumb luck caught by USS Whale trying to support Yamato.

Anvil is reaping rewards currently.

Were there additional hits to the 5 bombs/1 torp reported earlier? That is not going to sink Yamato unless you hit a magazine!

How many torps hit Taiho? Were there any secondary explosions?

Sadly no magazine explosions, frankly I think she made it to port...but hey at this stage the good guys need to celebrate about something.

With Taiho, she took two torpedoes, I tend to think she went down, Japanese CVEs aren't exactly robust with damage control.

Anvil continues to pay dividends.

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USS Scamp had a very good day. She attacked a four battleship surface group who the day before hit the Anvil airfields in the Kuriles.

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She got beat up but is claiming hits into not one but two Japanese heavies.

In other news the air war over Burma continues to go to shit. He smashed the airbase at Ledo, catching all my Mitchells on the ground and tearing it up. His ability to put 100 plus Sallys in the air over Burma and China is killing me as I cannot put up enough fighters to counter it. PDU off is driving me mad. The Royal Air Force is fairly useless and mostly grounded due to lack of frames. Needless to save with China rapidly collasping I will have to shift my Army air corp squadrons from China and back to Burma to help out.

Things continue to go...not so well...in China.

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He attempted to flank my main body of chinese troops in the east forcing me to retreat again. Right now he is sweeping aside the piecemeal troops I am tossing at him just south of Chungking in a vain attempt to slow him down somewhat so I can can get the 100K worth of troops north to Chungking and untangled from him in the southwest of the map. China remains a big old hole of disaster. He crushed the Chungking airfield so I can no longer fend off his air attacks on my retreating troops. If he breaks through at the river line then it will be game over in China...which is not good.

The only bit of good news is on the west part of the map where he has slowly but surely been forced back from Kunming and I have dropped the Chindits on Paoshan attempting to cut off his avenue of retreat and starve his retreating troops. I noticed it was fairly lightly defended though my British troops havent been able to take it yet.

At some point we hit another CVE off of Kuriles and it popped up on my sunk ship list today.

The war pretty much grinds on on the rest of the map...he has another bombardment group inbound to the Kuriles and my bombing groups gave them a bit of an airshow with no hits.

Enterprise should leave the San Francisco yards tomorrow which will give me one fleety...I may go north with her and have her help my baby carriers make a resupply run to the Kuriles. I am still set to hit Entiwok in 30 days, by then I will have 3 fleet carriers ready for action. Based on my recon, he has very limited airpower in that region, further he has ZERO airpower at Truk. I am sorely tempted to try to slide in and see what kind of mess I can make of that port. Maybe as part of the Entiwok run.

The Naval Battle of Omnekotan-Jima

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CP has been running cruiser groups (with the occasional battleship or two) to lob shells at my airfields in the Kuriles. About a week or so ago I slipped my CVE group west to support an oncoming supply run out of Attu, I also sent Enterprise screaming north to support the move (this would prove to be a mistake). Because while the 5 CVEs I have on scene are nice...they will die quickly under the torpedoes and bombs from either Kaga or Akagi which continue to prowl the area (despite me putting bombs into both a few weeks ago).

At any rate, as I slid my forces over I spot yet another bombardment group inbound to my Kurile bases, this time I moved my own surface group based around 4 Battleships, the USS Colorado, West Virgina, Tennessee and Idaho from Attu and begun to stalk him. I actually mistimed his move and dropped my heavies off of Onnekotan-Jima a day too soon. Needless to say, my PT Boat crews (who have suffered pretty horribly to the constant cruiser attacks) were very happy to see big brothers prowling the Onnekotan coastline. When he didn't come on the 31st I debated pulling out because while he has not struck my shipping with Bettys since he lost 88 planes during the early days of anvil, Bettys eat battleships for lunch. I decided to stay and I'm glad I did.

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It's rare when I will sit and watch a surface fight play out, but I enjoyed this one. I was surprised because my radar sets didn't detect CP's forces until they were on top of us at 5K yards. I am presuming weather played a role in that (helps for immersion).

Needless to say the first volley between heavies went off at 3K yards!
Musashi opened up first with the first volley of the battle lighting up Idaho. Then West Virgina (going on badly reconstructed notes) struck the first American blow smacking two of his destroyers with 5 inch guns leaving them burning. IJN Aqano latched on to Indianapolis and beat her up and I believe was responsible for the torpedo strike which crippled her. Indy responded as did West Virgina and Colorado both striking Agano. Musashi and Nagato then turned on Colorado hitting her several times...then the range closed to 2000 yards!

Colorado and Musashi dueled for a bit and the range begun to grow and reached 5K when the battle, as swiftly as it begun. Ended.

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I have to say I lost the night battle, not a bad thing, facing the Imperial navy at night, never an easy thing. Indianapolis is a cripple and limping back to port Idaho and Colorado are shot up but not very badly. I did cripple Agano, Akiguno, and Kazeguno which didn't allow them to get out of range of my bombers and the next morning all 3, plus an escort destroyer were sunk. Sadly, Musashi and Nagato, the main targets of this party got away with fairly light damage.

All in all though a rousing success for the American navy. Hopefully this will force CP to cover his bombardment groups with airpower and bring his carriers back out to play.

One bad note, Enterprise fresh out of the San Francisco yards, so concerned that I would not get her in range prior to this battle I ran her hard and fast and now...she (and her group) have 20ish system damage and need yard time again. That being said she probably wont get it before Arrow goes down.

Other parts of the map life is not so cheery. He has moved his lone pair of heavy tank units ever so close to Chungking. It won't be long now as I cannot move troops in front of his break through fast enough. Worse, I have something happening I really don't understand.

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I have about 80-thousand troops "stuck". Not trapped, stuck. I don't get it. I control all the hexes north, north east and northwest of the units but they are trapped and cannot move. I have gone as far as moving a brigade south of the battle attempting to free them up. I need these guys, badly to help with the defense of Chungking. I'm unsure how to move them or what the deal is. I'm assuming I'm simply missing a game mechanic somewhere but without these guys he will take Chungking within a month and worse once he reaches the valley it is in fact game over for China.

In even worse news I got lazy and he made me pay for it at Ledo. I had gotten good about stick and move with my bomber forces in Burma, because I have learned if I leave them on the ground too long 100 Sallys later and there are a bunch of broken airframes. My error cost me 33 birds on the ground.

Finally, I attempted to cut off his retreating division at Paoshan with the Chindits. He finally detected what was happening, pounded them and managed to retreat into the town. It was a close thing and even closer as the predator became the prey. 5 Chinese Corp came to the rescue (I had been pursuing him across the mountains) and it looks like the Chindits will live to fight another day, even if they failed to take down a single tiny outpost of Imperial troops.

It is 1 Febuary and in my next update I will toss up statistics of the game.

I think you should look a bit more at your SCTF composition! I´m pretty sure you would have done a lot better exchanging the CAs for DDs instead. I would go 4 BBs + 8 DDs.

Here is a good thread on the subject!

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Since it's been about a week (and a month game time) since I posted...decided it was time for an update or 3. First a few stats...cause everyone loves the numbers.

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Since the last time a posted a scorecard (Jan 43) I have lost 750 planes to his 438. Not good. I attribute this to the quality of his pilots versus mine as in many cases I have sent under trained pilots against him out of desperation to contest him over the various fronts.

He has absolutely pounded my airfields. Between bombers and warships he has destroyed 278 of my planes on the field. Several times in the last two months he has caught my bombers on the ground in Burma with his massed 100 plane strikes. Lately, he has been strolling in with Battleships in the Kuriles and hammering the airfields there. I have destroyed just 40 of his on the ground with my various and poorly conceived air campaign. I need to do better here.

In warships I have lost 72 to his 51, however that number includes 54 PT Boats lost defending the Kuriles from Japanese Battleships. So, with that I have lost just 18 ships to his 51.

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My aces remain largely in the same place as two months ago.

In terms of shipping sunk, I claimed both Hosho and Taiyo during the ongoing Kuriles battle. The battleships Fuso and Yamato have been claimed as sunk also during the Kuriles battle. ANd finally Kuriles has claimed 3 cruisers the Agano last month and Mukima and Mogami both met US submarines off of the Kuriles in the last few days as both were caught leaving after a bombardment run. I have sank 5 of his destroyers all off the Kuriles.

My warship losses since January have been just 3 destroyers...two off of the Kuriles.

Onto some maps

First the Battle of the Kuriles rages on.

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For most of February I controlled the skies over the islands. Anytime he sent planes or warships I stung him pretty hard. That changed a couple of weeks ago when he changed tactics. Now he is sending massed warships in to pound the islands. He hits each of my bases with a battleship group and then follows up with cruisers. When the sun comes up he tosses up to 80 Betty bombers against the airfields at will, knocking them out for a couple of days until the seabees can do their thing and get them running again. The problem is, I have lost my fighter coverage and he is hammering my planes on the ground with the airfields being shot up from the bombardments. Currently, I have no solution to this. Further, my patrol craft are getting beat up and he is able to penetrate deeper and deeper into "my air space" with his warships and I am no longer able to launch attacks against in coming warships. My submarines have claimed a pair of his cruisers in the last week (damaging a third) but realistically the islands are at his mercy until I send my naval forces north again, which I cannot do because they are currently involved in Operation ARROW (more about that in a bit). I am moving 3 Battleships and a medium size surface group north, but will not send them in until I can free up a couple of my carriers to provide air cover. Battleships and Bettys don't get along very well.

I have an idea but it will be a few weeks before I cant try it out.

That being said, operation ANVIL is working very very well. It was my hope to tie up his naval and air forces there and I certainly am. I have beat up more then a few of his surface naval forces and early in the battle his air force was being carved up. I know he has (according to sigint) moved multiple divisions into the region who are prepping for a landing. All in all with the exception of him still beating up more besieged Chinese. The early grabbing of these islands has been well worth the price tag.

China is collapsing.

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There is no happy way to say it. I will be thrilled if there is a China by the end of April. I have completely ceded the skies to him here. For a while I was contesting it but I cannot keep air groups supplied and flying. Once he broke through the forest areas it was game over. I am standing in place now in the Northeast...dying and fighting there. South of Chungking I have a bout 80K troops trying to reach the capital for the last stand. But, it will be a short one as I am very very low on supplies everywhere due to his incredible bombing campaign in Burma nailing Ledo and Imphal and destroying many cargo planes. I have many more coming but since I am unable to control the skies of Burma it will be difficult to get much through.

Burma and Northern Australia remain static.

In Burma we have fought (and I am losing) an vicious air campaign. He continues his massed two bomber attacks which are always preceded by a day or two of sweeps by 40 to 60 tojos. With me still sending up P40s and Hurricanes you can see the results. He has also well protected his two main fields (Mandalay and Katha) and while I can slip in for a day and hurt him there a bit...it's nothing substantial. What Burma needs is 1943 to become 1944 and perhaps then I can field a decent amount of fighters and regain the air.

Northern Australia remains quiet. Some occasional submarine activity but I don't expect much action in this area anytime soon.

Northeast Australia is a different story. I have been sending bombers out to hit Port Moresby on a fairly regular basis. Doing some damage, but since he has been basing all his fighters and bombers at Buna...nothing major. Recently he started hitting Cooktown and causing some losses to aircraft there, but I had a solution and based on the last 48 hours of game time it has worked very well.

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Operation ARROW. This was planned months ago. The idea was to close the door on CP's troops in the Marshall Island's converting it into a giant POW camp. I had previously taken Makin, Tarawa, Kusaie and Nauru Islands building airfields capable of basing attack planes so I could slowly whittle done his forces located in and around the Marshalls. But I needed to "close the door" as it were to prevent him from supply the islands from Truk as he has done a time or two (I have caught him supplying Ponape twice with my surface forces). Eniwetok is a perfect place to slam that door shut.

I actually conceived this plan way back in October of 42 and my intention was to kick it off at the same time as ANVIL betting that his navy couldn't be in two places at once. Sober minds took over when I realized neither could mine, so I put it off until I was sure that his navy was busy concocting schemes to push me out of the Kuriles. As I began heavy recon of the entire region I noticed that it was a rare day when he had any airpower whatsoever based out of Truk. (Long range scout planes really are handy). I have patiently waited for months to get a crack at that undefended port, further with all his bombers and fighters in and around Papua and the Solomons awaiting my southern thrust (and he will be waiting a very long time indeed) I knew I could get in and out with carriers and shoot up Truk.

With three fleet carriers (Saratoga is laid up in San Francisco) 7 CVEs and Victorious just for show, I feel pretty certain I can take on his remaining carrier strength should they pop up out of no where. I am betting that they are lurking off the Kuriles waiting for an opportunity to pop my shipping attempting to support ANVIL. Further a month or so ago I beat his carriers up off the Kuriles and my yards are better then his so I am also betting some of them are still laid up since I havent seen them off of the Kuriles recently.

At any rate, the first part of the operation was to hit Truk and I did...the strike itself was disappointing as we banged up a few transports (sinking a couple of minelayers) but not scratching a single sub (there were as many as seven anchored)that was in port. BUT, as you can see by the graphic he moved a ton of fighters and bomber back to Truk in an effort to catch me with a second wave the next day.

I disappointed him as I moved east quickly to support my invasion fleet which is now about one day away from Eniwetok. Supported by a pair of baby flattops 8 battleships, and a host of cruisers, destroyers, mine sweepers etc. I hope to land 4 Marine and 2 Army regiments (and a host of other support units) using my brand spanking new LST/LCI fleets. With no air threat at all from the Marshalls (an interesting decision on his part) the only real worry I have is where exactly are his carriers. Either way, by this time tomorrow (real time) the Marines will have landed. Hopefully I can take his garrison down in no more then a week's time. I'm a bit worried about this since it is my first actual landing using LSTs/LCIs having really never gotten to play with them before. Im sure IM screwing this up somehow.

Either way, if this succeeds then I will be well ahead of schedule for the war due to Chris not really defending the Marshalls and while I don't see me making another landing anywhere in the next four or five months, it is nice to be ahead of the game.

Once this operation is completely and assuming I lose at most one fleet carrier. I intend to send the bulk of my navy north again for a showdown over the Kuriles.