Yamamto's Knife Fight in a Shoebox - A New Player's PBEM (J)

[RangerJoe]

Here is a more recent AAR with discussions on the Japanese research . . .

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 5&t=337389

[Icechuck]

Sadly we'll be going on pause, my computer's motherboard appears to have failed and is inoperable for the time being. Until the warranty can do its job and a replacement arrives, I'm unable to do anything, let alone play games.

[RangerJoe]

My condolences on your loss.

[BBfanboy]

You may be able to make a zombie computer by installing the old hard drive in a new motherboard. Back from the dead! If you do it yourself just remember to be very well grounded before touching any computer equipment.

[Icechuck]

Surprisingly, the warranty process is going well and a replacement is being shipped. I'll have to configure everything and format the drives again but then we'll be back in business hopefully by the end of the week.

[RangerJoe]

Surprisingly, the warranty process is going well and a replacement is being shipped. I'll have to configure everything and format the drives again but then we'll be back in business hopefully by the end of the week.

Why do you need to format the drives? You should not have to do that.

[Icechuck]

Surprisingly, the warranty process is going well and a replacement is being shipped. I'll have to configure everything and format the drives again but then we'll be back in business hopefully by the end of the week.

Why do you need to format the drives? You should not have to do that.

Prior to the motherboard outright failing, I was having instability issues and opted to reinstall Windows and clean my drives, in hopes it was a software issue.

[BBfanboy]

Computer repair places usually have a program that can bypass the hard drive controllers to read the data on the drive. They can retrieve the saved files from different folders if they know what they are looking for. You could get your game saves and modded scenarios back.

[Icechuck]

Computer has been restored, operations will resume once I figure out where I left off.

[Icechuck]

We're back. While I can't access the data for some past turns and have been putting off this update, I will give an update regarding Japanese forces as of December 21st, 1941.

Subs

The sub-war has continued as is. Lots of incidental kills by the IJN, with one of the E-Classes from Force Z taking a torp and going under. Today, AO TAN 1 was shelled and torpedoed 3 times as it fled into the Celebes Sea, and DM Sicard took 1 torpedo off Hawaii.

Since the last posting, no Allied subs have scored kills due to strong ASW measures and defective fish.

China

China has continued to be slow and violent. At Ichang, neither side is able to seize the initiative as the 100,000 Chinese troops face down the 13th Tank Regiment, 13th Division, 34th Division, and a variety of artillery units. In the north, Japanese tanks have reached Chengcha and are awaiting their trailing infantry. Loyang is also under pressure from the army. Chinese forces are descending on Sinyang to try and disrupt supply, but are failing to seize ground and are losing time before IJA reinforcements can arrive.

In the south, Wuchow fell to the 104th Division, which is now moving north towards Kweilin to try and further isolate Western defenders and put more pressure on Changsha. At Nanning, an Independent Brigade and Regiment are laying siege, and preparing to assault. In Hong Kong the defenders continue to suffer rising losses from air and artillery, with Japanese assaults continuing to wittle them down. The city will fall hopefully within the week.


Philippines

Japanese forces are preparing to land at Davao. Reinforcements in the form of tanks, artillery, engineers, and infantry are arriving at Aparri to reinforce the forces in Luzon. I've determined the likely enemy B-17 base is Cagayan, so KB will bombard that base as it enters the Celebes Sea.

In Luzon, the enemy has made his stand in Cabanat. 7,000 US and Phillipino troops are blocking my advance, and are being pounded from the air. In the air, a disaster struck today with 8 Sonias being ambushed after losing their escorts in poor weather. Manila has been re-established as a P-40 base, so Zeroes will resume sweeps.

Borneo

Landings will take place at Balikpapan tomorrow. Further landing forces are en route to take Kuching and Tarakan. Lots of enemy shipping has been destroyed fleeing in the Celebes sea, as a TF led by Kongo and Haruna block the Makassar strait. Kido Butai will enter from the East, and close it off entirely to destroy the remnants of the Asiatic fleet.

Malaya

Taiping has fallen, and more Japanese troops continue to stream ashore and march south to Singapore. Japanese troops have also reached Alor Star and are bombarding the defenders to determine AV.

5th Fleet

Some small units have been transferred to the 5th Fleet, with the intent to launch a diversionary invasion of Adak and Dutch Harbor. I believe my opponent isn't focusing his efforts up there, and by taking both bases I can create a mutually supportive airfield and raiding base to disrupt commerce and spread his forces thing. There is no date for the invasion yet.

Rabaul
Units are starting to be earmarked for landings at Rabaul, the Shortlands, and the Guadalcanal area. No date for the invasion has been set yet, as I'm still awaiting some ships to free up from other duties.


I'm sure I'm missing stuff, but this about sums up the major developments this turn. I'll be trying to get back into the swing of writing this all down, so expect updates to resume.

[Icechuck]

December 22nd, 1941

Well, I made a pretty notable error this turn that will cost me a few support vessels, but before we get to that we'll go over the rest of the theater.

Submarines

Starting off with our checkup on the submarine war, it was fairly uneventful. I-25 was suppressed by DMS Elliot off Lihue, suffering no damage. Multiple enemy subs were detected off Mindanao.

A Kate from Kaga claims to have sunk Dutch Sub KX near Badeldaob, and another Kate from the same CV reports a hit on KXVIII. Besides these hopefully real hits, it was a quiet day.

China

Poor weather grounded almost all of my aircraft in China today, but evidently, the Chinese didn't suffer the same fat. A handful of Hudsons, SB-IIIs, and DB-3Ms attacked the 13th Division at Ichang, suffering one damaged DB-3 and scoring minor hits.

An accidental attack at Chencghow disrupted my preliminary units there, but nothing substantial occurred to punish my error. At Nanning, a bombardment failed to inflict any real damage to the enemy and revealed that I have only marginally more AV than they do presently. I'll need to soften this area up or continue to bombard it before attacking in force. Finally, in Hong Kong, another DA was repulsed, but casualties were in my favor and the defenders continue to grow weaker. We will rest for a day or two and then go in for the kill.



Malaya

Alor Starr has been reached and will be taken. With this seizure, we'll start packing all the artillery onto trains and shipping them to Taiping to stage for the move to Singapore. Speaking of the Fortress, recon indicates a large air presence, but so far no attempts are being made to disrupt my sweeps. I will start moving more aircraft into positions to bomb the city and try to score some on the ground kills. Taiping seems like a good candidate to build up to a level 4 AF for this goal, and the later goal of bombing Sumatra and the general sea area.

Philippines

In Luzon, the men continue to march to enemy positions while more reinforcements are coming ashore. The next reinforcement convoy should arrive tomorrow at Luzon, with another headed to San Fernando in a few days.

While that's going on, the Miura Detachment is loaded onto transports and headed to Davao. In support, Kido Butai is passing through the area and will launch airstrikes, and, the BBs Kongo and Haruna are also passing by and will provided bombardment, just incase Gorilla has decided to shore up his defenses there.

Borneo

The troops at Miri are going to reach Brunei next turn to continue to displace the enemy defenders. I'm growing appreciative of how powerful roads are after seeing how long this 1 hex march took.

In the south, I messed up some orders and my Battleship division failed to bombard Balikpapan, this ended up causing me a bit of a headache. Elements of the 4th Infantry Battalion went in for their landing approaches, and, without naval gunfire cover, took effective enemy coastal return fire. The landings went off fine, however, the DD Shirayuki was hit multiple times and may sink, alongside one of the xAKs that was involved in the landing. A few other transports got hit, but those two took the brunt of it. This will mark the first loss of Japanese ships to something other than a submarine if they go down. That's what I get for not double-checking my orders, and for underestimating the power of Dutch troops when supported with coastal guns. I will certainly not make any errors in bombardment for the landing at Davao.

Landings (with bombardment forces) have begun loading for Kuching, Singkawang, and are planning for Tarakan.

Burma

The 14th Tank Regiment is driving up to Moulmein to clear the way for the main Burmese army, and should blow right through the base. A cavalry force is being detached from the main body to take Tavoy and Mergui.



Next turn should have a lot of combat resolutions in China, and hopefully, the fall of Balikpapan. It's definitely a cool experience to learn the Japanese (and the game in general) on the fly like this, but I dread next month when the basic primers I've read on how to start the economy venture into the "gotta figure it out yourself to adapt to the situation".

[Icechuck]

December 23rd, 1941

It was another decent day for the Japanese Empire. No more disasters like the one at Balikpapan.

Submarines

All quiet on the Submarine front, with no hits or notable attacks.

China

I launched another bombardment at Ichang to gauge what new units the enemy had. I've got 900 AS there to the Chinese's 1107, as more Corps seemed to have moved in. I intend to just hold Ichang in place and go around it because I believe that's most of his offensive power right there.

South of Nanchang, another Chinese death-ball is assembling and is only blocked by 2 independent mixed brigades. Reinforcing divisions are marching to cut that area off and pin the enemy Corps down. AS is currently 250 to 976 in the Chinese's favor.

At Chengchow, after an unintentional shock attack, my men are across the river and have an advantage in AV. We will be doing a deliberate attack to route the Chinese and take the city.

At Chuhsien the 21st division is preparing to assault the base and overrun the paltry garrison.

Finally, I have a large force of 25,000 moving to Changsha. With the large development at Ichang, my recon is indicating that Changsha isn't heavily garrisoned, so I'm hoping I can just waltz into the city and take it after a few bombardments. If this works, I'll secure a nice industrial area in China, and be in a position to encircle and then bomb the Ichang battlefield.

Malaya

Alor Starr falls to the Japanese, the rail-line to Taiping is now complete, and lots of Japanese units are going to strat-move to Taiping and start descending the road.

Over 25 Buffalos have moved into Singapore, as sweeps today encountered resistance. 3 enemy aircraft were lost for 3 Oscars. Zeroes are being redeployed to Patani in order to assists. That does bring up a question for the veterans here, if I equip drop tanks on my Zeroes do they fight as if they were at extended range by default?

Borneo

Despite the mishaps in the landing operations, Balikpapan is taken decisively. 49 Japanese losses to 1140 Dutch troops. My men are pursuing the survivors straight into Samarinda. Up north, the men based at Miri have reached Brunei. Enemy B-17Ds bomb Miri and the oil wells. I am nearly positive the oil wells are based at Cagayan, which brings us to the next point.

Phillipines

Boac is captured. In the north, no major developments have occurred on the frontline, but, lots of good news elsewhere. At Appari, the first reinforcement convoy has arrived, with 2 more on the way for other landing areas to bring AA, arty, and more troops.

For the planned invasion of the South, things are coming together. The Kido Butai is lurking just outside of detection range near Davao, waiting to strike. The plan is to slam Davao and, ideally, detach some of the CVs to hit the airfield at Cagayan, and ensure those B-17s can't evacuate out of the Philippines. Recon will be sent in once the amphibious TF is loaded up to identify enemy positions and forces. The bombardment group will be in range today, and will join in the preliminary strike once the troops have set off.

[Icechuck]

December 24th, 1941

A relatively quiet day, but quite a few things have been set up to happen tomorrow and in future turns. I think I'm doing decent thus far in the opening month of the war, especially as I've never touched the Japanese in singleplayer, nor have I studied the Allied OOB outside my existing knowledge.

Submarines

Another day of nothing.

China

Hong Kong continues to be the greatest frustration point to the Empire. It has come so close to falling every time. We're attacking again to try and take it on the historical date.

At Chengcha, my misunderstanding of river crossing rules has left most of the units disrupted. A new division has crossed over the river without being compelled to attack, and the forces will rest because we nearly beat the Chinese in the last assault. After two or three days we're going back in.

7,000 Japanese troops suffered 2k losses and withdrew from Chuhsien. The 21st Division will march south to Wenchow to seize the heavy industry there.

Malaya

All quiet. I misclicked on the Zeroes so they didn't sweep Singapore, but instead an empty base. 3k enemy troops are held up at Georgetown, but I am just going to leave a holding force behind to ensure they don't cut the rail-line. T he march south continues.

Borneo

Brunei falls.

Phillipines

Davao was slammed by battleships and took heavy damage. Another bombardment will occur tomorrow to ensure the landing site is clear, and the landing force has departed Badeldaob. The Kido Butai will strike Cagayn (for the airfield) and Zamboanga (reportedly a cruiser is docked there, according to 7 recon flights. I think this is fake but I'd rather bomb nothing than be surprised later). They will proceed north as they do this attack to target Manila, as a reported 29 ships are still based there. After this, KB will be sent to Truk for replenishment and rest, and then to support landings elsewhere.

Zeroes from Formosa will also sweep Manila, and Bettys will strike the port to verify the claims.

Atimoanan falls to the IJA. More troops come ashore at Appari, and the reinforcement convoy bound for San Fernando is nearly there.

Burma

Moulmein has been reached by armor, they'll conduct a DA tomorrow, and then either win or await the rest of the army. The rest of the force is probably a week behind, so ideally the armor can take this solo.

A handful of transport ships are sighted in Rangoon, and a few ships were spotted departing Singapore a few days ago. I suspect that these may be ships evacuating elements from Singapore. A squadron of Bettys are rotated to be in position to strike just outside Rangoon and hopefully harass any future convoys. Depending on the composition of these ships, and whether or not they're actually transports and not just cargo ships offloading supply at Rangoon, I will mentally brace for a harder assault there and perhaps a less fortified Singapore. As a side note, I'm putting one squadron naval attack in Saigon with a reduced search capacity, and a range to be just outside Singapore fortress.

Home Islands

A handful of ships are finishing up conversions to AKEs and being sent out to bases like Badeldaob.

[Icechuck]

December 25th, 1941

It was a frustrating turn. Hong Kong will not fall by its historical date.

Subs

British Destroyer Jupiter and AM Ballrat off Singapore damage I-156. The damage isn't crippling but her patrol is over.

SS Permit fire spreads at the dangerously named Sinko Maru off Sendai but missed. ASW TFs are being vectored to suppress the sub.

China

Hong Kong falls below 6,000 defenders today; another attack will go in tomorrow. My new goal is to take the city before the end of the year.

Ten thousand Chinese troops attack Cavalry forces in Paotow. They fail to get through, and I just plan on bombing these forces to drain their supply.

At Kanhsien, the Chinese bombarded the 19th Independent Mixed Brigade and 102nd Infantry Regiment. An IJA division is entering the hex tomorrow to repel this Chinese blocking force.

Malaya

In between Taiping and Alor Starr, the 109th RAF Base Force is destroyed to stop it from blocking the rail line. Now that the rail line is open, new units are being railed from the landing sites to the Western half of Malaya.

Borneo

The 2nd Recon Regiment shock attacks over the river at Samarinda and takes the base with 9 casualties. 707 Dutch troops are made casualties, some units retreat deeper into Borneo. 13 B-17Ds attack Miri.

Burma

Moulmein is taken by the 14th Tank Regiment with 0 losses.

Phillipines

Davao is shelled again, and fires rage throughout the city. The bombardment group will return to Truk for replenishment and to be tasked with the bombardment of Rabaul soon. The landing force has departed from Badeldaob and will land in Davao shortly.

The Kido Butai strikes Zamboanga and Cagayan. At Zamboanga, as I suspected the CA report was false, and the 15 Zeroes and 12 Kates found nothing. The port is struck a few times. At Cagayan, the sun is blotted out by IJN Aviators, and 31 Kates, 123 Vals, and 72 Zeroes descend on the base. 13 B-17s are reported damaged, 2 lost on the ground outright, and 43 hits are scored on the runway. Sadly, this doesn't appear to have knocked it out of commission (thanks small sized bombs), and another strike will occur tomorrow as KB continues to move northwards in preparation for the strike on Manila. My rationale here is to destroy the airfield if possible to prevent Gorilla from evacuating his B-17s to another base before the IJA can reach the airfield.

5th Fleet

An SNLF Company is transferred from China to 5th Fleet HQ, and is headed to Shanghai to board a transport and head to Hokkaido. They're planning for Adak to ensure the newly named Operation AD can go smoothly.

[Icechuck]

December 26th, 1941

To celebrate boxing day in 1941, the IJA finally takes Hong Kong Fortress, but first, some other news.

Submarines

No hits today, multiple attacks around PH. Many subs are RTB'ing to Kwajalein for reloading.

China

Bombardment occurs at Ichang, nothing of note happens though.

Near Nanchang, the Japanese attempt a DA but the dice aren't in my favor. We lose despite 2:1 odds and suffer high losses. 1179 IJA casualties to 560 Chinese.

In Hong Kong, the UK finally falls and the city is taken. All units are immediately being sent northwards to help near the Nanning area, or to arrive south of the Ichang battle.

Malaya

More troops are taking the train to the west coast, and barreling south from there.

Burma

Allied airstrikes at Moulmein, the armor is holding until the main army arrives.

Phillipines

Davao suffers more bombardment as the amphibious force lands, an attack will occur tomorrow.

Poor weather prevents a second strike on Cagayan. The KB is moving north to hit Manila. Land Based Zeroes will sweep Clark and Manila to ensure less resistance for the main strike. The strike at Manila will focus primarily on the targets in port, but some Vals are being tasked to hit the airfield as well.

20,000 IJA troops land at San Fernando and Aparri to reinforce the battle there.

[Icechuck]

December 27th, 1941

Loving the rate of turns me and Gorilla have been having lately, he's proving to be a worthy and timely opponent.

Submarines

Another day of no action. A couple of attacks are made against PH, but that's all. Allied subs continue to be suppressed.

China

Chinese fighters attempt to defy IJA CAS near Ichang but lose aircraft and fail to prevent the strikes. They then send out Hudsons, DB-3Ms, and SB-IIIs to retaliate, but take losses to LRCAP.

An xAKL, the Kanchow, is struck by Kates as it attempts to flee Hong Kong.

Chengchow and the 19500 Chinese troops fall to an assault of 46,000 Japanese troops. The IJA suffers 1169 losses to the Chinese's almost 4,000. Three Corps are among the routed units. The force will shift north to take Loyang without a river crossing, and then pursue the enemy to Sian.

The hex east of Ichang is occupied by 3 Chinese Corps, where I originally thought there was only 1. The 58th Infantry Regiment suffers high casualties but holds.

Borneo

4 139WH-3s attempt a night bombing of Balikpapan but fail to land any hits amid the thunderstorm.

Malaya

No changes.

Burma

More airstrikes on the forces at Moulmein.

Phillipines

The KB has to refuel its destroyers so the strike on Manila is delayed by 24 hours.

593 Phillipino men are lost in defense of Davao, no Japanese losses are sustained. With Davao secured, convoys are loading up to ship armor and artillery to the beachhead.

No changes on Luzon, as I'm waiting for the last of the men to unload and the airstrikes to occur before kicking off the offensive surge.


All in all, a decent if not quiet turn. Important gains in China enable more maneuvering in the north, and the enemy is still unable to engage me effectively elsewhere. As we near the end of 1941, I feel pretty good about my progress, as new objectives will kick off the new year with a bang once some more ships are freed up.

[Icechuck]

Another sad update.

It seems that somewhere along the reinstall of my game on the new PC, a few database issues or other issues arose. This first manifested itself in all submarines missing some front tubes to minor system damage. It now appears, upon my check in, that the Japanese economy was tweaked in a way I didn't want and some of his units newly arriving are coming in damaged or otherwise missing features. Because of this, we will be restarting the campaign rather than risk future disasters in a much later period of the war. I'll start a new AAR and hopefully have no more unfortunate disasters arise.