PAW 1941-45 me (Axis) vs warspite1 (Allies)

[Szilard]

A few little things about Australian stuff in this scenario:

- The 8th Div only had 2 brigades in Malaya, not the 3 shown in this scenario. I think by Dec 1941, the 23rd Bde had been split up into 3 battalion groups, to provide weak garrisons at Timor, Ambon and Rabaul.

Having the 23rd Bde in Malaya at the start might give the Allies an unhistorical advantage there; on the other hand, the Japanese should have to fight some slight defences in Rabaul, Timor and Ambon.

- The "49th Brigade" starting in Port Moresby in New Guinea was actually the 49th Battalion, and in Dec 1941 it was joined with two other CMF (ie militia) battalions to form the 30th Brigade. The other two battalions arrived in Moresby in Jan 1942 I think. In this scenario a 30th Brigade starts in Melbourne but it would probably be better to just have the two battalions starting in Oz.

These CMF units were badly equipped and trained at this stage. Apart from the 8th Div in Malaya and the 1st Armoured in Oz, I think all of the Oz land units on the map at the start were militia with generally poor equipment and training - too strong & too proficient in this scenario.

The high-quality 6th & 7th divisions were en route back from the Middle East at this stage, clawed back by the govt in a tussle with Churchill. He wanted them to divert to Burma after the Jap onslaught but the Oz govt insisted on their return to Australia despite pressure from him and from FDR. It might be a bit interesting to include a what-if Burma option in the scenario. The other non-militia division, the 9th, stayed in the ME until after El Alamein, again the subject of a tussle between Oz and the Brits & the US.

There were legal restrictions on the deployment of militia units outside of Oz, to start with - might be worth a house rule limiting deployments to New Guinea in 1942 to one brigade at any one time or something. Grigsby's old PacWar had something like this.

- The 1st Armoured Division only had a few tanks in Dec 1941, equipping with Stuarts and Lee/Grants later in 1942. The scenario has it starting with 150 Shermans (!) and Lee/Grants. A house rule prevents you from moving the division out of Oz, which is good, but on the other hand, various sub-units were in fact sent out during the course of the war (eg one regiment of Stuarts to New Guinea in 1942; they were useful as the only tanks at Buna/Gona). I think the scenario as it is doesn't give the Australians any tanks outside of Oz. The division itself was dissolved in 1943.

- Canberra's location is completely off; it's inland, not on the coast.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Szilard
A few little things about Australian stuff in this scenario:

- The 8th Div only had 2 brigades in Malaya, not the 3 shown in this scenario. I think by Dec 1941, the 23rd Bde had been split up into 3 battalion groups, to provide weak garrisons at Timor, Ambon and Rabaul.

Having the 23rd Bde in Malaya at the start might give the Allies an unhistorical advantage there; on the other hand, the Japanese should have to fight some slight defences in Rabaul, Timor and Ambon.

- The "49th Brigade" starting in Port Moresby in New Guinea was actually the 49th Battalion, and in Dec 1941 it was joined with two other CMF (ie militia) battalions to form the 30th Brigade. The other two battalions arrived in Moresby in Jan 1942 I think. In this scenario a 30th Brigade starts in Melbourne but it would probably be better to just have the two battalions starting in Oz.

These CMF units were badly equipped and trained at this stage. Apart from the 8th Div in Malaya and the 1st Armoured in Oz, I think all of the Oz land units on the map at the start were militia with generally poor equipment and training - too strong & too proficient in this scenario.

The high-quality 6th & 7th divisions were en route back from the Middle East at this stage, clawed back by the govt in a tussle with Churchill. He wanted them to divert to Burma after the Jap onslaught but the Oz govt insisted on their return to Australia despite pressure from him and from FDR. It might be a bit interesting to include a what-if Burma option in the scenario. The other non-militia division, the 9th, stayed in the ME until after El Alamein, again the subject of a tussle between Oz and the Brits & the US.

There were legal restrictions on the deployment of militia units outside of Oz, to start with - might be worth a house rule limiting deployments to New Guinea in 1942 to one brigade at any one time or something. Grigsby's old PacWar had something like this.

- The 1st Armoured Division only had a few tanks in Dec 1941, equipping with Stuarts and Lee/Grants later in 1942. The scenario has it starting with 150 Shermans (!) and Lee/Grants. A house rule prevents you from moving the division out of Oz, which is good, but on the other hand, various sub-units were in fact sent out during the course of the war (eg one regiment of Stuarts to New Guinea in 1942; they were useful as the only tanks at Buna/Gona). I think the scenario as it is doesn't give the Australians any tanks outside of Oz. The division itself was dissolved in 1943.

- Canberra's location is completely off; it's inland, not on the coast.

Wow...Thanks a heap for your information. Maybe Thomas Harvey will make some changes to the scenario to make it more accurate. I had no idea about any of this stuff. Good thing it's playable as it is.

[larryfulkerson]

The weather is perfect for invading. There's some T-storms in the northern part of the country but I dare say I don't think it's going to be a problem. There's some clouds over Manila Bay that could hide some Allied ships but I'm thinking that it won't be much of a problem either.

[larryfulkerson]

A lot of the aircraft squadrons have but a single aircraft of the type and
that's unhandy. I'm going to have to give them a turn or two to fill up with
planes. This is an Oscar fighter squadron and the Oscar is my #2 fighter.
The Zero ranks first, followed closely by the Oscar, and lastly the Nates.
I've been flying the plane-poor squadrons to the home islands to refit.

[larryfulkerson]

Originally the plan was to sail into Manila harbor by defeating Corregidor
with my BB's and then take on the Allied ships that are surely in Manila
harbor and then bombard Manila and assault it. But I've had a better look
at Manila and I don't think it's the pushover I was hoping for. I'm not
sure I can get ashore with the forces I will have available. I've found
an empty port on the north end of the island and that argues for a landing
on the north shore.

[larryfulkerson]

I decided to use the 56th Division at Formosa to move to Aparri ( we captured
it with the subchaser earlier ). I've got elements moving out on both sides of the
island to try to expand the perimeter. There's no airfield for my planes yet
and I guess that's the next thing I need to work on.

[larryfulkerson]

I found some units on the home islands that voluntered to sail all the way
to New Guinea to Salamua as a set up for Rabaul next turn. Now I have some
airfields and a port and can operate from there to grab a lot of the smaller
islands.

[MikeJ19]

Larry,

Have fun. I think Warspite will give you a good battle. This is going to be fun to watch. I'm glad both of you are posting!

Good luck,

[larryfulkerson]

I found an aircraft unit flying the Mavis and Emily, two of the longest range
aircraft I have...so of course I flew it out to Kwajalene and put it on Sea Int.
It can reach out almost to Pearl from there. The Sea Cap
remaining is l9596 / 35000 so there's room yet to stage a raid on Wake.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: MikeJ19
Larry,

Have fun. I think Warspite will give you a good battle. This is going to be fun to watch. I'm glad both of you are posting!

Good luck,

Thanks for the good luck. This might just be an epic battle because Rob tells me he loves naval scenarios best of all and this is the biggest, longest, most recent naval scenario and I think it's going to be fun for the both of us. I'm already having fun just putting my first turn moves together. I'm deploying the aircraft before I get serious about moving any units just in case Rob has any of his aircraft on an active mission. This scenario is one of my favorites and I've been through it before so I have a rough idea of what to do but something tells me that Rob is a student of Pacific War history and will be a great opponent. I'm looking forward to the game. Now if I could just finish my first turn moves. I've been working on them since late last night and it's about 4:40 pm the next day. This is one huge scenario. The unit count is low however, so the turns usually go fast.

I'm glad we're both posting too. The readers will get an extra bonus from getting the straight skinny from both sides of the conflict. And since it's a friendly game I won't get heartburn over the occasional OPSEC lapse. Sometimes it happens.

After I get the aircraft set up I'm going to deploy the invasion fleet for the Phillippines and Guam and I'd like to do Wake early, and Malaya of course. I'm going to try the broad-front approach to make trouble everywhere at once to overwhelm the defenders. Which in the early game period the defenders are few and in poor shape for the most part. The proficiency of the PI trooper is in the 40's I'm guessing. Mine are in the 90's. Plus there's a shock advantage for the Japs. Please feel welcome to post your ideas for either AAR.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's that shock advantage that I was talking about. The Japs are supermen.

EDIT: I have reviewed page two of the AAR and I deem it open to the public
including Rob.

[larryfulkerson]

I was moving units around and found a partisan quite by accident. I've moved
enough units into the AO to surround it now I just need to wait until a later
round to attack it. Attacking now would burn a huge portion of my turn.

[larryfulkerson]

I put together Task Force 1.0 whose mission is to mount an invasion of Wake
this turn. So I sailed it to near Wake and then reconfigured the TF so that
the Surface ships could challenge the Allied CD guns. I could just have stood
offshore and bombarded the guns first but I'm in a hurry and I needed them
taken out NOW and it was so important to me that I burned 30% of the turn and
lost 4 DD's an entire DD Division. It's going to respawn though so not all is
lost. There's left at Wake a squadron of Wildcats and a Marine Defense Btn.
I think I've brought enough firepower that I'll be able to push over the
defenders.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought I might ought to look at the places where the expected reinforcements
are going to arrive to make sure I own the hexes and I've found one near Hong
Kong that I don't own yet. I'll eventually drive somebody over there and grab
that hex. The rest of them look to be spawning in the home islands.

[larryfulkerson]

I loaded up a couple of divisions at the home islands and drove them to
Malaya and landed at Singora and Patani and they didn't have any MP's left
upon arrival so it'll be next turn before I can spread out and enlarge the
perimeter etc. There's 1116 / 35000 sea cap remaining. Just about enough
for a Bn to ship to one of the smaller islands or something like that.

[larryfulkerson]

I've landed in several places in the PI and I'm hoping to own several airfields
soon because I need to establish air superiority before I can start bombing
Manila seriously. Gotta get rid of the fighters at Manila first of all.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the Hong Kong area looks like now. I'm going to do a one-dot
attack at first to disentrench the target. I've started north to see
what else I can find. The idea is to stop up the Burma road and the Ledo
road. That's where China's supply comes from so it's important.

[larryfulkerson]

I flew a squadron of Zeros to near Saigon ( fron the home islands ) and then
curious as to it's coverage I took this screengrab. The Zeros can cover quite
a bit of real estate. I want to cover the PI especially so as to try to
overwhelm the Allied fighters at Manila and gain air superiority. I've got
to do that before I can start the intense bombing of Manila to soften up the
defenders. Once I've got Manila I'll go after Bataan.

[larryfulkerson]

I have two CVL's that want to launch their planes at some Allied ships but
none are visible worth bombing so I drove a CL south along the east coast
of Malaya and all of a sudden I get attacked by Allied Force Z. That exposes
them to the air strike by the carrier planes near Saigon. As well as some
of the Sally's and Betty's and what ever else I can find that has an anti-ship
value worth making a mission with it.

[larryfulkerson]

First making sure that I have bou cou air power near the northeast coast of Malaya for insurance I flew some paratroopers to an airfield near the center of the island where the action is going to heat up soon. THEN I flew a squadron of Sonias to the airfield because it's got an anti-ship value of 120 which is enough to scratch the paint badly so it'll be in the yards for a day for a re-paint job. That's good enough for a mission. So they are flying an airstrike on Allied Force Z with three-dots of determination. I need to fly some fighters into the field as well for a CAP. As a matter of fact it might be a good idea to remove the squadron back to the main airdrome at Saigon to refit, it'll need it.