Good luck and good hunting as you play the Mohammad Ali to his George Foreman the first few rounds. If you want an all out defense of Darwin then I would suggest moving the 18th British Division there, as it is already at sea and you won't have to wait for the Aussie Divisions to show up at Aden later and ship them there. Also ship all the fuel and supplies you can from DEI, there will be enough left for whatever you plan to hold a little while there. You also have some other units afloat, like a Ghurka Bde that you can send somewhere other than India or Burma to hold on, Maybe Palmebang to make him try harder to take it and deny him that oil for awhile or Ceylon and maybe Wyndham. I have never played a game with 2 day turns and the idea frightens me as I have enough problems dealing with life one day at a time. If he doesn't bomb Manila to sink your sun fleet consider using them for mining his bases until the mines run out then use them with their nearly worthless torpedoes. The old S-boats have better torpedoes and the Dutch subs even better. Use them in the more restrictive waters of DEI to hunt the mini-KB. Putting one or two down there with subs really makes anyone nervous. What are you plans for your carriers in the early months of the war?
Thanks, Bif! I had been considering sending the 18th Brits to Ceylon, but I think it will be fairly well garrisoned with the unrestricted Indian Rgts. The 18th is on it's way to Darwin as the first building block of the defense.
It's been a long time since I played with 2 day turns, except about 2 months of an AI game. It takes some adjustment to how you perceive your own capabilities. [;)]
ORIGINAL: Bif1961
If you want an all out defense of Darwin then I would suggest moving the 18th British Division there, as it is already at sea and you won't have to wait for the Aussie Divisions to show up at Aden later and ship them there. Also ship all the fuel and supplies you can from DEI, there will be enough left for whatever you plan to hold a little while there.
I'm in a game with Mike Solli now. There were a couple of things I did to him early on that were effective. The most effective move was bringing all of the S boats and Dutch subs and placing them north of Darwin and covering the areas south of Lae and Rabaul, to keep him away from Port Moresby. He lost his first carrier in that area in late Jan 42.
Next, I brought the British 18th Div to Perth, then overland to Townsville, and then to PM. He never landed but boy that would have been a surprise [:D]
Finally, after PoW and Repulse were sunk, I made single ship TFs with the destroyers and let them run amok in the South China Sea. Mike hunted most of them down, but not before they trashed several invasion TFs. I delayed his Singapore plans by a couple weeks if I recall correctly.
Mike's a good opponent. This will be a game to watch.
Thanks, Ted! Mike always speaks highly of you as an opponent. I hope I can manage to hold my own as well. [:D]
I've had the turn since late afternoon on Saturday but had a couple of previous engagements take up some of my time since then. I am working my way through the looooong Allied Turn 2. [:D] Turn 1 was not bad for the Allies at all. We had the game set for 1 day turn for that first one, and from now on it will be 2 days. I'll post more details about the opening attacks once I get finished with the turn and send it off. Game first, AAR second. [:'(]
Thanks for the patience, guys! [:D] My Turn 2 went off to Mike this afternoon. First, a quick recap of Turn 1.
Pearl Harbor carnage was pretty light compared to many I've seen. Mike hit the airfields harder than most Japanese players. He did lots of damage, both to the base and planes, but he didn't close the airfield. He destroyed 16 Catalinas but only a couple of any other plane type. He did lose 16 Kates in the attack to balance out the Cat losses a bit. At the port, BB California went down, along with a DM and a PT boat. That's it. More than likely, BB West Virginia will be joining California in the mud on the bottom of the harbor. She has 40 System and 98 Flotation damage with 22 fires still burning. It doesn't look good for her. Of the other BB's, Tennessee will be completely repaired from her paint damage in 4 days. The other 6 will be a couple to several months repairing, but none will sink. Only 4 cruisers took damage and only CL St. Louis will take longer than 2 weeks to be completely repaired.
The airfields in the PI were hit pretty good, but not a lot of planes were destroyed. No ships in Manila were damaged. It was a similar story at Singapore. Force Z, already being at sea, was allowed to be issued orders and I sent them out of harm's way toward Soerabaja for now. There were no landings in Malaya, but I've spotted at least 4 TF's in a hex together 4 hexes from Kota Bharu and 5 hexes from Mersing. They could hit either base tomorrow.
As for plans, I've ordered the 18th Brit Div to Darwin and have some supply and fuel heading there from various DEI spots as ships evacuate the theater. Some troops, mostly engineers and support troops will also head to Darwin from the DEI and PI. I'll be marching one of the Aussie home guard divisions up to Darwin also, along with various smaller units and support units. Time to dig in here as I get ships organized and heading to Capetown to send a big supply TF to Darwin.
In the South Pacific, I've decided to defend in force as far forward as Suva and will send at least a division of GI's there. Pago will also be defended, with at least a Marine Rgt and Defense Bn. As I secure these bases, I'll make plans for the Americal Div to head to Noumea.
On Java, I'm planning to defend heavily at Soerabaja, leaving only token forces at Batavia and a few other spots. Most other Dutch forces will fight and die in place.
In the PI, I'm going to try to leverage the urban defensive terrain of Manila to make my stand. Perhaps Mike won't expect it and will spend lots of energy bombing a mostly empty Bataan base for a while.
In Burma, the only thing I consider to have value in the early game is the Burma Road. I can't win a fight here once Mike decides to visit in force, so I'll attempt to screen him from breaking the rail line around Pegu to gain a couple of extra days of 500 supply/day into China.
China itself will see most of the units able to change commands heading for the road to India. I'll buy them out as they get to the border over the next several weeks. I want to get them into the well supplied bases in India and then start filling them out. They don't take away much fighting power from China at the start by leaving, and they can build into a pretty strong fighting force later on for my counter attack, all the while not using the scarce supply in China. I'll do the same for almost all the Chinese Air Force. Their starting planes are almost useless, except as trainers. I'll let them sit and fly circles in India to train some Chinese pilots for later on when semi-useful planes start arriving. The one exception is the two DB-3M squadrons, with about a half dozen bombers between them. They withdraw in only a couple of weeks, so I won't spend PP's on them. They moved to Wenchow and will attempt to hit the small oil fields on Formosa at Taihoku. Nothing but a nuisance to Mike, but it will tweak his logistical focused nose a bit. [:D]
I'm planning to build up two big air training bases in India at Bombay and Delhi. Chinese squadrons will go to one and Commonwealth squadrons will train at the other. Engineers are on the move toward Calcutta, Dacca, and the frontier bases leading up to Ledo. I want Ledo ready to start flying supply to China once the Burma Road is cut.
I just got the Turn 2 replay back in my inbox, so I'm off to watch the movie. [8D]
I'm back from a trip to New Orleans and a visit to the National WWII Museum there. Much fun was had by all and it's back to reality now, and the reality of the Allies getting kicked all over the map for the first several months. [:D]
On the Dec 8-9 turn (2 day turns now) it's safe to say the Japanese forces used a lot of ammunition. Multiple sweeps and air raids in the PI and at Singapore did quite a number on my meager fighter defenses in both places. Japanese troops came ashore in pretty large numbers at Mersing where I kept only 1 Aussie Bde defending. I don't have hope of defeating the invasion, but only to hold out long enough to allow some other LCU's in Malaya to slip past and into Singapore. Many of my "up country" LCU's packed up into Strategic Movement mode yesterday, so they may be able to rail into Singers in time. Maybe I can score a couple of torpedo or bomb hits on his shipping, too. The invasion of Northern Luzon is also going well for Mike. I managed to get a PT TF to attack one of his landing zones, but a SC TF with a couple of heavy cruisers made short work of 4/10 of them and the rest retired. I need some storms in the hex to hide my approach better. I've flown out fragments of a couple engineering units to rebuild at Darwin and all the B-17D air groups flew out to India to prepare to hit the oil fields in Burma (Magwe?) as soon as Mike captures them.
Over at Pearl, the poor WV continues to remain afloat, but she's getting worse. Fires are increasing and up to 48 now, and they are causing more system damage. No additional flooding damage.... yet. I imagine she will succumb to her wounds over the next 2 day turn. The KB didn't stick around, as expected with the increased exposure that 2 day turns adds. AF damage is getting cleaned up and some planes are being repaired. There are ships heading home to port here, and there are a bunch of spotted enemy subs around the area. Time to get a bunch of DD ASW TF's out and about.
Nothing major is going down in China yet, but I did forget to turn off industry repairs at Chungking and Changsa. Over 2 days, that cost me about 10k supply. They are off now. [:D]
The mass scattering of shipping from the Hong Kong and PI regions is always a crazy time. Any ships that get out and can be put to use in the war effort are generally to be considered a bonus. Well, my bonus will be pretty small in this game. [:D] Mike did the best job I've ever seen of casting his net around the region and bagged around 20 merchants. The 3 British DD's that start at Hong Kong were able to get a one day head start at Full Speed since they were already formed into a TF on Turn 1. They actually crossed paths with a small returning amphib TF that had dropped troops on Jolo. With only a PB as escort, the 3 DD's beat up on 5 merchants pretty well before making their "escape" to Balikpapan. None of the Jap ships shows up on the sunk list yet, but I expect to see one or two there in a few days. Happily, I don't think I lost a single combat ship in the region while escaping. Most will be forming up into combat TF's in the DEI after this next turn. A couple of ships were also lost between Java and Malaya to Jap subs. Naval Search aircraft are going up in larger numbers this turn, and there are fewer un-escorted merchants still at sea in the area. Most merchant shipping in the DEI area is grabbing what fuel they can snatch up and bugging out to Oz or Colombo.
Troops, planes, and ships are on the move everywhere! [:D] I can't wait until many of the troops on the ground reach their assigned destinations, especially in Oz, India, and China. It will make the turn much faster to evaluate and issue orders.
At Pearl Harbor, the planes damaged in the initial attack are repairing nicely. I've got a bunch of them flying Naval Search and ASW Patrol, along with most of the squadrons from Lex and Enterprise. There are about 10-12 ASW TF's also working the waters in the area. The reason is the 20 spotted Japanese subs in the area. [X(] There are probably a couple more that are not spotted yet. Even if I don't kill them, my squadrons and DD's will gain a little experience as they attempt to attack, the subs are burning up torpedoes by shooting at my DD's, and I did get one depth charge hit on I-4 (identified as such but who knows which sub it actually was). The goal is to chase off most of these subs so I can start shipping into and out of this region more safely. WV continues to fight off the inevitable. Her fires increased this turn to 78, despite flooding dropping from 98 to 97. Only a matter of time now.
In the PI, Mike continues to land troops and advance. I'm still slowly pulling back to Manila for my stand. My planes here were routed so effectively on the first day that they have not been able to offer token resistance since. At least I did manage to buy and fly out 2 squadrons of B-17D's. More merchant shipping was lost here today but a good couple of handfuls will make their escape to safer waters. My S-Boats stationed just north of Luzon and just south of Davao scored a few hits on transports and put two torpedoes into CS Mizuho. Some empty and some with troops aboard. I've run into a glitch with a sub TF of the more modern subs that I sent north to patrol off of Formosa. I put about 15 subs into the TF and sent it to a patrol point as I have frequently done. When they arrive at the destination, I split them up into single sub TF's and spread them out. This particular TF won't let me select any ships to put into a new sub patrol TF. Strange. I'm going to send another sub TF to the same hex and see if having a second TF there will allow the ships to be moved and split. If not, I'll send them to the nearest port to disband the TF and reform them as single subs.
In the DEI, a powerful 3 CA Jap TF caught and sank several of my xAKL's just north of the straights between Borneo and Celebes. I'm moving Force Z to the area from Soerabaja, reinforced with Marblehead and a few US DD's. Boise and a few more US DD's will merge with them from Balikpapan. With 2 day turns, they won't quite reach the last location of the enemy SC TF, but could be within reaction range. If the enemy moves any distance closer to Balikpapan, they could be in for a nice surprise.
In Malaya, the enemy troops that landed at Mersing routed the Aussie Bde defending and pushed them back to Johore Bahru. Two enemy tank Rgt's pursued them to try to cut the rail line into Singapore. I had a bunch of ground forces who were railing to Singapore and already arrived at Johore Bahru including 3 Indian Bde's, some Artillery, and an AT gun Rgt. They are all unpacking to combat mode over the next 2 day turn and I'll attach the exposed tanks next turn. I think I'll be able to hit them before any Infantry can move into the hex along the dirt road.
At Singapore I also corrected a big mistake I had made. To date, no TB's have flown against the shipping at Mersing. I realized that the number of airgroups active at Singapore was over the base Admin limit, despite having plenty of room at the AF and plenty of AV support. I know Mike must be wondering where my TB's went. Hopefully he will find them the hard way next turn.
In China, my handful of DB-3Ms and Hudsons managed to damage 2 of the 9 oil centers at Taihoku on Formosa. Mike commented that he's never seen Chinese bombers so effective. It's only a nuisance, but it will likely force Mike to move a fighter squadron to defend, when he wants to use them elsewhere. As soon as he does I'll stop hitting him there, but until then, bombs away! At least one place on the map where he is reacting to me.
The turn went back to Mike yesterday evening, so I might see a replay before the weekend is over.
Bomb his infantry at Mersing to change the status from movement to combat to slow them down so it will take a few extra turns for them to come to the support of the fast moving armored units, to give you time to change your forces to combat mode and attack the isolated tank units.
... I've run into a glitch with a sub TF of the more modern subs that I sent north to patrol off of Formosa. I put about 15 subs into the TF and sent it to a patrol point as I have frequently done. When they arrive at the destination, I split them up into single sub TF's and spread them out. This particular TF won't let me select any ships to put into a new sub patrol TF. Strange. I'm going to send another sub TF to the same hex and see if having a second TF there will allow the ships to be moved and split. If not, I'll send them to the nearest port to disband the TF and reform them as single subs...
Can you post a screenshot of (a) the sub TF info screen and (b) the location of the TF?
...At Singapore I also corrected a big mistake I had made. To date, no TB's have flown against the shipping at Mersing. I realized that the number of airgroups active at Singapore was over the base Admin limit, despite having plenty of room at the AF and plenty of AV support. I know Mike must be wondering where my TB's went. Hopefully he will find them the hard way next turn...
Screenshot of the relevant TB units please. If you are relying upon the Vildebeest there are possible other factors in play such as you ordering them to fly with drop tanks.
Bomb his infantry at Mersing to change the status from movement to combat to slow them down so it will take a few extra turns for them to come to the support of the fast moving armored units, to give you time to change your forces to combat mode and attack the isolated tank units.
Bif, a good suggestion that I didn't order before sending the turn back to Mike Saturday afternoon. [:D]
With 2 day turns, my troops will all be unpacked next turn and ready to make a deliberate attack. I'll order some LB's to hit his infantry at Mersing next turn, so maybe it will make a difference then if they are very close to finishing their march.
... I've run into a glitch with a sub TF of the more modern subs that I sent north to patrol off of Formosa. I put about 15 subs into the TF and sent it to a patrol point as I have frequently done. When they arrive at the destination, I split them up into single sub TF's and spread them out. This particular TF won't let me select any ships to put into a new sub patrol TF. Strange. I'm going to send another sub TF to the same hex and see if having a second TF there will allow the ships to be moved and split. If not, I'll send them to the nearest port to disband the TF and reform them as single subs...
Can you post a screenshot of (a) the sub TF info screen and (b) the location of the TF?
Alfred
Ok, here is a screenshot of the Sub Patrol TF with it's location on the map as the selected TF:
When I click on the Form new TF button, the Select Mission panel opens with no missions available. Then, if I continue by clicking Done, proceed to ship selection, there are no ships available.
