Banzais Don't Make Victories - Anachro (A) vs John 3rd (J) BTS 5.7

[RangerJoe]

He might also decide to have SCTFs to cover any potential target, slowing him down to assemble the required shipping with protection, concentrating on a more narrow vector to be able to protect it all, and maybe even not advance as far. Although the last may not be optimum since he would then have less to defend later.

[Anachro]

@RangerJoe Usually the advantages of stopping expansion outweight the negatives of a more narrow, stronger defense of smaller area, but with the extensions to the Japanese OOB in this mod, I'm not so sure.

@Panther Bait My main aim is to frustrate and buy time!

@T Rav Thanks! I enjoy it.

Feb 4, 1942

Positions in the South Pacific as of Feb. 4th. I do believe John is making a push for either Suva or some other nearby islands. The positioning of KB, moving slightly west each turn, as well as the direction of his transports and recon'ing of Suva all points to this. If his transports had waited one more day to move down, my carriers would be in prime position. As it is, it will be a tight window of opportunity unless his carriers continue to move west. My carriers will move directly west and should still be out of range given their end position is still 22 hexes away from the Japanese carriers' present position. Interesting times ahead. Causing havoc to his transports will seriously hurt his ability to expand in the SoPac for the present. He should have ~200 AV on the transports.

Part of me wants to full speed towards his transports, but there's the chance KB moves north AND I need to conserve fuel as my path of retreat will be towards Pearl Harbor.



In the Aleutians, he tries a shoestring operation with ~15 AV for Adak, but I have ~44AV there at the moment being reinforced soon. He seems to be sending another fast transport of DDs from the nearby island that should bring his forces to parity (~30-40AV). I have two bombardments coming in to strike the island and disrupt his forces. BB Warspite and Colorado should make their appearance.

In the DEI, he runs into some mines.

TF 14 encounters mine field at 49,89

Japanese Ships
xAKL Kashi Maru, Mine hits 1, heavy damage



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TF 8 encounters mine field at 49,89

Japanese Ships
TK Eiyo Maru, Mine hits 1, heavy damage
PC PB-59
PC PB-58
PC PB-56

5 mines cleared

[Anachro]

I forgot to mention that my one seriously damaged destroyer is one hex away from Midway, not spotted, and even managed to recover some flotation damage. DD Crane is a fighter, that's for sure. If she doesn't get recon'd over the next turn or so, I might send in an escort force to help nurse her back to Pearl Harbor. If she does make it, I'm sure the new nickname for her will be "the Unsinkable Crane."

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: Anachro
In the Aleutians, he tries a shoestring operation with ~15 AV for Adak, but I have ~44AV there at the moment being reinforced soon. He seems to be sending another fast transport of DDs from the nearby island that should bring his forces to parity (~30-40AV). I have two bombardments coming in to strike the island and disrupt his forces. BB Warspite and Colorado should make their appearance.

It is February and the surf is icy up there. He probably forgot about painful cold zone disablements, them bringing his AV down sharply. The second wave will also suffer

[RangerJoe]

@RangerJoe Usually the advantages of stopping expansion outweight the negatives of a more narrow, stronger defense of smaller area, but with the extensions to the Japanese OOB in this mod, I'm not so sure.

@Panther Bait My main aim is to frustrate and buy time!
That was my point, frustrating him and buying time by keeping him from expanding where he doesn't have sufficient power for protection.

I think that you are doing a good job frustrating him. [&o]

I haven't seen this mod I am playing RA 8.1 right now, so I don't know what additional goodies each side receives.

[Anachro]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe
I haven't seen this mod I am playing RA 8.1 right now, so I don't know what additional goodies each side receives.

I don't know. After reading the various mod descriptions, I still can't tell the difference between BTS, RA, etc. John uses the same setup description for all of them.

[jwolf]

The Crane's system damage is relatively low. It has a chance, if the Japanese don't hit it.

[adarbrauner]

ORIGINAL: Anachro



reinforced soon. He seems to be sending another fast transport of DDs from the nearby island that should bring his forces to parity (~30-40AV). I have two bombardments coming in to strike the island and disrupt his forces. BB Warspite and Colorado should make their appearance.

In the DEI, he runs into some mines.



TF 8 encounters mine field at 49,89

Japanese Ships
TK Eiyo Maru, Mine hits 1, heavy damage
PC PB-59
PC PB-58
PC PB-56

5 mines cleared

[/quote]


Where did the tanker find mines?

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: adarbrauner

ORIGINAL: Anachro



reinforced soon. He seems to be sending another fast transport of DDs from the nearby island that should bring his forces to parity (~30-40AV). I have two bombardments coming in to strike the island and disrupt his forces. BB Warspite and Colorado should make their appearance.

In the DEI, he runs into some mines.



TF 8 encounters mine field at 49,89

Japanese Ships
TK Eiyo Maru, Mine hits 1, heavy damage
PC PB-59
PC PB-58
PC PB-56

5 mines cleared

Where did the tanker find mines?

[/quote]
In the water. At 49,89. [;)]

[adarbrauner]

didn't want to open the game - and check coordinates;

so kind to tell the position more or less?

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: adarbrauner

didn't want to open the game - and check coordinates;

so kind to tell the position more or less?

I opened the game and checked, it is at the NW corner of Banggi Island which forms the start of the channel leading to Palembang.

[Anachro]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy
I opened the game and checked, it is at the NW corner of Banggi Island which forms the start of the channel leading to Palembang.

You are correct. I noticed he was running tankers through those hexes and so placed Dutch mines. Running out of them though. Time to send the last of the Dutch subs and my AS in Batavia to Ceylon. Japanese forces are approaching Sorabaja. One thing I didn't mention also was the CL Sumatra randomly appeared in Sorabaja with 20 systems damage when I have already fled with everything else. She is making her way port by port to Batavia (arrived last turn) and then will move to India. John doesn't seem to be recon'ing the DEI anymore.

[Anachro]

China Situation

[Anachro]

Dutch East Indies



India

Nothing going on here yet. I am building up some of the important islands. I have also pulled back a lot of engineer units/army units to occupy bases in the interior. Forts are being built up all through out, as well as air bases as strategic area. I won't build air bases everywhere, as I want to deny their use to John when he takes them. Per advice from before, I will occupy certain bases with smaller units to keep his paratroopers from allowing quick movement of vanguard units to the front line by train. Difficult to entirely stop given the huge amount of railroads in India.

Intelligence Screen

[RangerJoe]

A suggestion, get at least small parts of those air support units to Australia where they can be rebuilt with universal devices. It would save time if you don't have them rebuilt where they show up in Aden. In fact, you might convert a dot base in NW Australia to Dutch so you can then transfer bits of other units to get rebuilt - if nothing else for extra support squads in bases.

[Anachro]

Might be worthwhile. I can certainly fly some out.

Currently have a bunch of stuff sitting in Bombay till I figure out where I want to place it. My main defensive lines will be in the mountainous areas around Bombay and Bhopal, but there is a lot of clear hexes in the Northeast on the way to Karachi.

[Anachro]

One thing I noticed in this mod, and this is a very serious defect, is that I can't customize any of the names of the carrier replacements. All the coming Essex's have unique names and none can be renamed! That is such a shame. It does seem I can still rename some of the coming cruisers...

I really get a lot of fun out of giving unique names to carriers, especially if I can name them after famous battles from the PBEM.

[Anachro]

Feb 5, 1942

Positions in the South Pacfic as of today. KB still north of Suva and does a little strike on Nadi today, but finds out I've already moved my ships. His forces land and are sitting at the Ellice Islands. I do believe I should be able to get a nice little strike in tomorrow or the next day. Unfortunately, if I move normal speed tomorrow I'll be at the extremities of the ranges needed for a strike - perhaps I should flank to closer? Elsewhere in the Philippines, he has removed mines and bombards Manilla with a lot of battleships.

[CaptBeefheart]

On the off-map convoys, I would set up East Coast to Cape Town and East Coast to Port Stanley (maybe some from the UK if there isn't enough supply or fuel at EC yet). There'd be no need to mess with Panama unless there's a bunch of supply or fuel sitting there in this mod.

Good luck with that SoPac maneuver.

Cheers,
CB (the artist formerly known as Commander Cody)

[Anachro]

Feb 6, 1942 - Allied Carriers introduce themselves



Today a number of things happen that are interesting, but perhaps not as successful as I would have hoped. As I expected, my carriers were able to conduct an effect strike again a number of John's transports. Unfortunately, he had just moved his cruisers out of range during the night northwest, presumably heading for Truk or Kwajalein. This means I wasn't able to sink his combat ships, but I did sink a number of transports with troops, including some Yusen-N's. John's quote from his email to me and the combat report below. Sadly, my torpedo bombers mostly don't fly with torps, despite being at the extremity of their range.

ORIGINAL:John 3rd
I had had a clue as to how you would play, I would have totally changed some things. Japanese frustration level is 9.8 out of 10. Well done…again…AGAIN

Morning Air attack on TF, near Vaitupu at 138,145

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid spotted at 18 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 41
SBD-2 Dauntless x 34
SBD-3 Dauntless x 36
TBD-1 Devastator x 45

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
xAK Tenyo Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Manila Maru, Bomb hits 6, and is sunk
xAK Tatuharu Maru, Bomb hits 9, and is sunk
xAK Seattle Maru, Bomb hits 13, and is sunk
PB Kaiun Maru, Bomb hits 5, and is sunk
xAK Yokohama Maru, Bomb hits 9, heavy fires, heavy damage
PB Kaikei Maru, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Yunagi

Morning Air attack on TF, near Vaitupu at 137,145

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms

Raid spotted at 11 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 4 minutes

Allied aircraft
Albacore I x 16
SBD-3 Dauntless x 16

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
xAK Venice Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
xAK Kogyoku Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Terushima Maru
xAK Nanman Maru
xAK Kohoku Maru

Japanese ground losses:
378 casualties reported
Squads: 10 destroyed, 14 disabled
Non Combat: 7 destroyed, 6 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 4 (2 destroyed, 2 disabled)

Morning Air attack on TF, near Vaitupu at 137,145

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms

Raid spotted at 10 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 3 minutes

Allied aircraft
SBD-3 Dauntless x 18

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
xAK Kohoku Maru, Bomb hits 1
xAK Kogyoku Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Venice Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Kamikaze Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage

Japanese ground losses:
532 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 12 disabled
Non Combat: 20 destroyed, 21 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Morning Air attack on TF, near Vaitupu at 138,145

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid spotted at 21 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Allied aircraft
Fulmar II x 17

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
xAK Yokohama Maru, Shell hits 1, Bomb hits 6, and is sunk
xAK Tenyo Maru, Shell hits 6, Bomb hits 11, and is sunk

In exchange, KB launches some long range, ineffectual attacks against Suva and Nadi, but I'd imagine he wishes he was more closely covering his transports and struck my carriers instead.