Hairy Asian Experiences - GreyJoy (J) vs. Q-Ball (A)

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: koniu

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

Supplies are running really short in Japan (less than 400k now)...think i'll soon have to ask Brad to send our game to Michealm to add the extra fuel and supplies that were missing at the beginning [:(]

About what numbers You are talking. If i understand well there was some king of bug in mod you are playing?
I am sure Brad will give You green light with that. I see no reason he shouldn't
Lucky we have Michealm[&o]

Yes, this mod was missing 2Kk fuel and 2kk oil points at the beginning...

[veji1]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

For those of you who are wondering "why is he risking so much for a place like Saumlaki?"...i can tell you that i've thought about it a lot.

Saumlaki is decisive. It's what Guadalcanal has been in RL but with the "plus" of being exactly on a direct vector to the very heart of the DEI, the japanese "treasure".

I know i won't be able to push back the 25th American Div from Saumlaki. That's not my goal. My goal is to slow his advance as long as i can and force him to committ a lot of forces and assets for that piece or real estate. Without Saumlaki Molu remains very voulnerable. We've shown him we can close it and bomb whenever we want, no matter how many subs or mines he places there.
And untill he has secured that area and conquested Saumlaki he won't be able to move any real further in the southern DEI...not with the full KB operating in those waters.

So yes, i think it's well worth the risks we're taking

True. There is nothing worse (well sure getting all your CVs wiped out and such) for an allied player than having quality assault troops stranded on a beach having failed to take the base. They need supply, suffer, you need to either feed the meatgrinder with extra troops you wanted elsewhere or evac, in the meanwhile you can't do anything with them and you are not building up a new base..

Shame that he got Molu, but a single base can always be controlled, even if it requires a costly investment in LBA/surface assets. once he has expanded Molu to a 2/3 bases cluster you are fucked, he can mass and get start to get the ball rolling. With Molu, your dam has been cracked, but the water is just leaking. With Saumlaki the dam just exploded and the water pours. You have to fight somewhere, this is a good place to do it, at least for a few months.

[Canoerebel]

GJ will turn this into an early, very drawn out version of Okinawa for the Allies.  IE, the Allies will eventually prevail, but at what great cost!  By the end of '43, Q-Ball's going to be urging his Manhatten Project folks to make good on delivery of a working atomic bomb by March '44.

[ny59giants]

Olorin (Nick) and I sent a turn to MichaelM to modify the game file in regards to the missing supply and fuel that this mod was short a few weekends ago. I know we brought this up after both of us had gotten into this mod and it was fixed in later versions. MichaelM need you to run the turn as Japan and then send him the game file before you do orders to make the changes. We had him add 1.8 million supply and 2 million fuel. Nick felt like it was Christmas. [:D]

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy
My goal is to slow his advance as long as i can and force him to committ a lot of forces and assets for that piece or real estate. Without Saumlaki Molu remains very voulnerable. We've shown him we can close it and bomb whenever we want, no matter how many subs or mines he places there.
And untill he has secured that area and conquested Saumlaki he won't be able to move any real further in the southern DEI...not with the full KB operating in those waters.

So yes, i think it's well worth the risks we're taking

Good for you, GreyJoy. Bleed him white for inconsequential malarial fens. [&o]

Where do you think he's going to go next (or try to go next) in the DEI? What are your plans and preparations for that?

[GreyJoy]

July 19, 1943
 
The operation was a success!
It went almost 100% smoothly. We dealed with lots of PTs, sinking 9 of them at Molu forcing 10 more to retreat from Saumlaki.
a full regiment and an AA bde was delivered, along with some 5000 supplies (not the 15k i had hoped for but still....).
Now we have 500 AVs at Saumlaki, with an Army HQ, some AA and a 150mm field guns artillery unit. Not bad.
He will need quite a lot of efforts to dislodge me from here.
 
We also downed 64 Beauforts over Saumlaki, losing 34 A6M2s over Selroe... that was a rookie unit and i have to blame myself to have involved it into the fight when those guys were far from being ready[:-]
 
 
ChickenBoy, i think his next moves will be:
1-SOPAC-SWPAC: a landing at Lunga, Torokina (or Shortland) and Finshtafen. All these places are constantly bombed, reconned and swept so i think he will make, sooner or late, a move here.
2-DEI: i think he will try to land somewhere south of Java...near Bali...but now that he knows my KB is pretty close i think he will think twice. The alternative is in western Sumatra, but again, with the KB so close that would be a risky operation.
3- CENTPAC: i think he may try for Wake or Marcus. Lately we've recieved a lot of radio traffic trasmissions from Midway. I am as prepped as one could be there. He will need a lot of bombings before trying to invade on both of those locations...
 
Still think his CVs are located somewhere in the I.O....i guess it's Perth where he's massing his amphib units

[GreyJoy]

Now the KB can retire, untouched, to safer waters. I'll try to hide it once again in the shadows, hoping to keep Brad wondering where it is.
 
This is also a good chance to give the Hiyo some deserved R&D time. The Katsuraki, along with 3 upgraded CVLs (Soho, Ryuo and Zuiho) just arrived today at Ambon and will rejoin the KB, while the damaged CV (Hyio) will get back to Tokyo for some refitting (she was hit 2 months ago by a 500lb bomb near Taberfane) and for the 4/43 upgrade (radar! and AAs).
 
Pretty happy to have escaped his subs in this operation. We managed to rush in unseen and doing everything in one night. I think Brad wasn't expecting this move...[;)]

[veji1]

If i was him I would follow through with a strategy of pin and outflank. you are partly pinned around Molu and in the DEI, what could he do not to land a decisive blow, but to pin you elsewhere. Think "where could he land on 2 mutually supporting bases simultanously with a reasonnably big assault force and from there get the ball rolling ?". classic SWPAC doesn't fit the bill as it is very far, but maybe he could land on 2 or 3 three north NG bases simultaneously ? Not very practical, but just thinking out loud.

South Java and west Sumatra make lots of sense as well in that respect.

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: veji1

If i was him I would follow through with a strategy of pin and outflank. you are partly pinned around Molu and in the DEI, what could he do not to land a decisive blow, but to pin you elsewhere. Think "where could he land on 2 mutually supporting bases simultanously with a reasonnably big assault force and from there get the ball rolling ?". classic SWPAC doesn't fit the bill as it is very far, but maybe he could land on 2 or 3 three north NG bases simultaneously ? Not very practical, but just thinking out loud.

South Java and west Sumatra make lots of sense as well in that respect.

Yes. For those reasons i had heavily garrisoned everything north of Wewak. Untill that point he can invade at will...and i don't really matter. i'll fight, obviously, but he can take those bases (and accept the risks) if he really wants to. But Vanimo has a full division, Hollandia a reinforced regiment and it's all guarded up to Biak. Untill he neutralizes Rabaul that won't be, however, an easy trip. And the KB can be moved there in no time.
Consider also that he will need a full CV support to move any further than Finshafen...

Sumatra is well defended imho. I have created a very interesting "triangulation" between Sebang, Palemang and Benkoleng. I have more than 100 planes (Emilies, Mavis, G3N3s and Dinah-IIIs) searching the waters around Sumatra and i think i'll have enough pre-warning to be able to react properly.

At the moment the real "blind spot" is CENTPAC and NOPAC...but NOPAC is very well guarded and CENTPAC means for him to try a risky atoll-landing against well prepared defences and without any LBA aid. Moreover i still think most of his APA/AKAs are in SOPAC and Northern Oz at the moment

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Olorin (Nick) and I sent a turn to MichaelM to modify the game file in regards to the missing supply and fuel that this mod was short a few weekends ago. I know we brought this up after both of us had gotten into this mod and it was fixed in later versions. MichaelM need you to run the turn as Japan and then send him the game file before you do orders to make the changes. We had him add 1.8 million supply and 2 million fuel. Nick felt like it was Christmas. [:D]

Yes Micheal, that's exactly what i'll ask Brad ASAP[:)]

Don't know if it will be enough to stop the bleed of supplies of late war caused by the refineries not producing supplies, but it will certainly help us getting into 1944 at least [:D] At the present status i'm losing 5,000 supplies daily [:(]

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

GJ will turn this into an early, very drawn out version of Okinawa for the Allies.  IE, the Allies will eventually prevail, but at what great cost!  By the end of '43, Q-Ball's going to be urging his Manhatten Project folks to make good on delivery of a working atomic bomb by March '44.

well dan, don't know. I'll try to force him to invest in the Saumlaki adventure but i guess Brad is too smart for that....I think the lack of Brad's activity during this operation is probably related to the fact that he already abbandoned the idea of rescuing that division at Saumlaki...he can efford to sit there for a long time knowing that i will never have the force to push him out.
However this situation suits me well. As Veji said i need to keep his vector here as stopped as possible and the best way to do that is to keep Molu isolated...

[GreyJoy]

July 20, 1943
 
Now we can say the whole operation "Saumlaki" was a success. We managed to deliver 10k more supplies, without losing a single ship! Brad didn't do anything, apart from sending some 16 Mitchells strafing my DDs at Saumlaki. We had 15 A6M5s on low naval CAP and we tangled with the escorting corsairs, losing the match (10 zeros lost), but the enemy bombers didn't score a single hit.
 
The KB is back in the shades....[8D]
 
Over Burma we ambushed once again one of his daily bombing runs... 90 enemy planes downed for 25 of my own (only 9 pilots KIA tough).
 
No sign of enemy's CVs...
 
Saumlaki is now secured for some more months me thinks...
 
The 1st Guards Division is now fully delivered to Vanimo (NG).
 
The KI-84a had its baptism of fire over Burma today. Did very very well![&o]

[GreyJoy]

Oh and it seems like a good bunch of the RN (mainly DDs i'd say) is docked at Colombo....along with several TKs....we may think to pay a visit here somewhere in the near future....[;)]

[ny59giants]

The KI-84a had its baptism of fire over Burma today. Did very very well! [&o]

He recently got three groups (75 planes) of P-47s at Eastern USA. It will be interesting to see which way they went - USA or Cape Town.

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

The KI-84a had its baptism of fire over Burma today. Did very very well! [&o]

He recently got three groups (75 planes) of P-47s at Eastern USA. It will be interesting to see which way they went - USA or Cape Town.

For sure there are P-47s at Vella La Vella and around Darwin. Then there are not less than 50 P-47s in Burma...

[GreyJoy]

 21 July 1943
 
I've lost stupidly 4 more DDs.... forgot them 2 hexes south of Selroe without any CAP...and they got mauled by enemy's SDBs....lost too many DDs so far...gotta be more carefull[:o]
 
For the rest...a very quiet day.
 
Allied APA/AKAs spotted at Rekata Bay
 
 
Sumlaki now has 24,000 men. NO PASARAN![8D]

[ny59giants]

Most of the American 18 plane FP groups can upgrade to SBDs. I count about 12 of these groups right now (April '43). I would put the -5 models on my CVs and use the -3 models for these groups. That's over 200 additional SBDs to worry about. [;)]

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Most of the American 18 plane FP groups can upgrade to SBDs. I count about 12 of these groups right now (April '43). I would put the -5 models on my CVs and use the -3 models for these groups. That's over 200 additional SBDs to worry about. [;)]

to be honest Michealm, it's not his SDBs i'm fearing of. Those dive bombers are nasty but you can deal with them if you don't go overconfident and stay clear of enemy bases. Moreover, once his campaign in SOPAC will be over, those LBA SDBs will be useless untill he conquers a new base in the Mariannas

[GreyJoy]

600k Oil/fuel are unloading at Sasebo today. The flow of fuel and oil is still too slow... the "convoy system" has prooved to be perfect against his subs, but not so much against the running time. Despite my efforts it seems to be almost impossible to use the convoy system and, at the same time, have a steady and fast flow of fuel/oil from the SRA to the motherland.
Our convoys now is basically composed of 3 CVEs (with 70 higly trained Kates), 5 AVs (with 45 Jakes on night duties) 15 Es, 7 DDs, 25 PBs, 80 TKs and 60 xAKs... but all these ships move slowly...and their load/unload ratio, even using different ports, is always pityfull slow....
The secret, so far, has been changing the plotted course of the convoy at every voyage...and QBall hasn't been able, yet, to determine where to place his hunters

[Saros]

Are you going to get Michaelm to add in the missing HI/LI? I recall there was a significant chunk of that missing as didn't you end out getting the Scen 1 industry totals with the Scen 2 forces?