Against the Wind: Cuttlefish (Japan) vs. Q-Ball (Allies)

[ckammp]

re: Noumea

You have 3 divisions plus 3 Art Bns, complete control of the air, and KB with many, if not all of the IJN BBs and CAs; what more is needed?

Sending an additional division will take ships, and time.
Ships - needed to transport Eng/BF units to Noumea once it's captured, and always subject to a (un)lucky torpedo from a sub.
Time - needed to prep the division. I've noted prep makes more of a difference in AE than in WitP.

In the end, perhaps a representative from Cuttlefish HQ could be sent to talk to the unit commanders at Noumea; perhaps to remind them of their Duty, and that a quick victory would go a long way towards setting the Mind of His Imperial Majesty at rest!

[BigBadWolf]

Any chance of bringing some LBA into the fray? If nothing else, make him burn some supplies on airfield repairs and prevent him form rebuilding forts.

[Cuttlefish]

[font="Arial"]Do you come from a land down under?
Where women glow and men plunder?
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover.[/font]
- Men at Work: Land Down Under

7/4/1942 – 7/12/1942

As we get deeper into summer the pace of operations in the game has slowed, though Japan still seems to retain the initiative. Many of my moves now are essentially defensive in nature, however, as behind the front lines I prepare for the inevitable Allied onslaught.

Defense in this game is going to be interesting, given the limits on atoll defense and the fact that there are so many more bases in this game, many of them capable of supporting sizeable airfields. A good case in point is the chain of islands off the coast of Sumatra. Almost all of them, even the dot hexes, can support a large airfield. There is no practical way to garrison them and all of them have the potential to threaten the absolutely vital base of Palembang. The best that can be done, I think, is to send a unit around to capture them all and then maintain control of the air and sea in the region from a couple of key bases. A lot of Japan’s defense will have to be done this way. This mirrors the real war and I think gives the Allied player a lot of the same decisions the Allies faced in real life.

Burma: I don’t know whether the addition of AA guns at Mandalay did the trick or if Q-Ball stopped bombing there for some other reason. He’s still bombing Myitkyina. But the airfield at Mandalay is repaired and next turn I will move in about 70 fighters and we will see what happens.

Noumea: the siege continues. Not much else to say here except that I am growing more convinced that additional forces will be needed to capture the base. A large convoy which includes a tank regiment and engineers is on the way from Manila to Rabaul and I will probably send some of those units on to Noumea.

China: nothing new to report here. I am realigning my forces and chasing away infiltrators. Some of these infiltrating corps have been forced to retreat several times and consist of only a few guys and a maybe a beat-up gun, but they block a road as well as a full-strength unit. The supply situation for Japan here is really poor post-patch; it is difficult to sustain attacks.

Down Under: the invasion force is en route to Australia from Soerabaja, with Derby and Broome as the initial targets. I have mini-KB and some battleships poking around Port Hedland, which is out of my recon range, just to make sure there are no surprises there. I noticed recently that Q-Ball had built up the airfield there to level 6 but so far there is no evidence that planes are based there. My suspicion is that he is prepping it as a 4E bomber base for use against Timor and points west. All the more reason to capture the place, if so.

Under the Sea: pretty quiet, though a Q-Ball’s subs sank their first tanker, a small one doing the Palembang-Singapore run. Losing any of those hurts. Given the fact that Japan’s ASW forces seem incapable of sinking submarines I fear what will happen when Allied torpedoes start working properly.

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: ckammp

re: Noumea

You have 3 divisions plus 3 Art Bns, complete control of the air, and KB with many, if not all of the IJN BBs and CAs; what more is needed?

Sending an additional division will take ships, and time.
Ships - needed to transport Eng/BF units to Noumea once it's captured, and always subject to a (un)lucky torpedo from a sub.
Time - needed to prep the division. I've noted prep makes more of a difference in AE than in WitP.

In the end, perhaps a representative from Cuttlefish HQ could be sent to talk to the unit commanders at Noumea; perhaps to remind them of their Duty, and that a quick victory would go a long way towards setting the Mind of His Imperial Majesty at rest!

Your reasoning is sound and ordinarily I would agree with you. For whatever reasons, however, the job is just not getting done. The US 41st Div. seems able to take the constant pounding from land, sea, and air and keep on fighting.

[Laxplayer]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish
Your reasoning is sound and ordinarily I would agree with you. For whatever reasons, however, the job is just not getting done. The US 41st Div. seems able to take the constant pounding from land, sea, and air and keep on fighting.

Does "reserve" mode affect naval bombardment the way it affects land artillery bombardments? In other words, does that mode render the unit immune to bombardments? And if not immune, possibly better protected?

I know as an allied player in China, nearly all of my LCUs engaged with the IJA in a hex are in this mode to avoid the artillery death stars.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish
Under the Sea: pretty quiet, though a Q-Ball’s subs sank their first tanker, a small one doing the Palembang-Singapore run. Losing any of those hurts. Given the fact that Japan’s ASW forces seem incapable of sinking submarines I fear what will happen when Allied torpedoes start working properly.

Cuttlefish, have you tried to convert any of the Std class xAKs to TKs? You start the war with 17 Std-C class. I believe they can convert starting in Jun 42.

[jwilkerson]

BTW repairing airfields does NOT burn supply - we've said that 50 times - we will say it another 50 - repairing airfields does NOT burn supply! [:D]

I'm interested in Cuttlefish's Burma air war - though I can't really discuss here - and he can't really discuss in my AAR either - so we will just have to both watch and learn! [:)]

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: Laxplayer

Does "reserve" mode affect naval bombardment the way it affects land artillery bombardments? In other words, does that mode render the unit immune to bombardments? And if not immune, possibly better protected?

I know as an allied player in China, nearly all of my LCUs engaged with the IJA in a hex are in this mode to avoid the artillery death stars.

I confess I don't know the answer to this question.

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Cuttlefish, have you tried to convert any of the Std class xAKs to TKs? You start the war with 17 Std-C class. I believe they can convert starting in Jun 42.

Yes, I started converting eight of these at the beginning of July. I am counting on them to supplement the small tankers in the DEI hauling fuel to Singapore.

I'm interested in Cuttlefish's Burma air war - though I can't really discuss here - and he can't really discuss in my AAR either - so we will just have to both watch and learn!

Just for you, Joe, I am going into a little extra detail in my next post about recent developments in the Burma air war. [:)]

[Cuttlefish]

[font="Arial"]Movement generates surprise, and surprise gives impetus to movement.[/font]
- B.H. Liddell Hart

7/13/1942 – 7/15/1942

It seems I spoke to soon about there being no sign of aircraft at Port Hedland. There are, it turns out, a lot of aircraft there.

On the night of 13 July Fuso, Nagato, and their escorts slipped into the harbor there. All they found was a single AMc, which they sank. The task force then retreated successfully. When day came mini-KB, cruising seven hexes off the coast, detected a convoy to the southeast. Kates attacked and sank two troop-laden APs. Following this several waves of well-escorted bombers from Port Hedland attacked my carriers. But the defending Zeros were up to the job, shooting down about 26 enemy planes at a cost of 6 planes and 2 pilots. Though a number of bombers did break through to release their bombs none scored any hits.

As an interesting coda to this action, on 15 July submarine I-153, cruising not far away off Cararvon, hit BC Repulse with two torpedoes. Sadly the submarine was depth charged, forced to surface, and then sunk by gunfire.

As successful as my foray was the presence of so much air and naval strength in the area is rather daunting, not to mention the evidence that troops are being moved in (though at least some of them didn’t make it, heh heh). I have halted my invasion transports well short of their targets; Broome and Derby are within range of Port Hedland.

Burma: the RAF had fallen into something of a pattern over Mandalay; daily sweeps at 21,000 feet by two squadrons of Hurricanes and, once every two or three days, an attack by about 18 bombers and a couple dozen assorted escorts. There are enough Japanese engineers there that the airfield is kept in decent shape so on 13 July I flew in about 50 Zeros and 20 Oscars.

I set the Zeros to 22,000 feet and the Oscars to 16,000, all on 70% CAP.On 14 June in came the Hurricanes as usual and I chewed them up pretty good. I shot down 12 at a cost of 3 Oscars and a Zero and left most of the survivors damaged. What seemed to happen is that the Zeros dove on the Hurricanes, which mixed it up for a bit, then the Hurricanes would dive on the Oscars, which mixed it up for a bit, and this allowed the Zeros to dive on the Hurricanes again. It seemed to neutralize the enemy fighters pretty well.

There was no bombing attack during the turn and on 15 July I withdrew my fighters to Rangoon again.

It will be interesting to see what Q-Ball does now. He has enough air power across the border to flatten Mandalay again, and he might. But keeping the airfield suppressed will mean accepting ops and flak losses. There are three Japanese AA units at Mandalay now, which is my self-imposed limit for a given base (putting in more starts to feel gamey). But three is enough to inflict some damage and losses. If he doesn’t keep the airfields there wrecked and returns to penny-packet attacks he runs the risk of another aerial ambush.

Aces: the aerial battles over the past few days have given the Japanese their first double ace, Lt. Kaneko of Shoho. Below is the complete list of Japanese aces. The first thing I notice is how many of them come from the CVLs. The second thing is how many of them are still alive; only one Japanese ace has been lost and he was killed in a landing accident.

Other Stuff: Japanese forces have invaded Den Passar, just east of Java (like Krakatoa!) which has some defending troops (and more annoyingly, the surviving Dutch search planes) and Terapo, up the coast from Port Moresby. Terapo was undefended; the Port Moresby survivors that were there seem to be in the nearby jungle making their way towards some of the empty Japanese bases near Lae. Poor devils, I will have to arrange for some naval guard troops to be there to welcome them when they finally get there. To hand out chocolate and rice and stuff, you know.

[d0mbo]

Looking at the ace list......
 
I thought the Chitose was an floatplane tender.... I take it you have converterted her to a CVL?
 
 

[Smeulders]

He couldn't have done that yet, it takes a 360 day delay for the conversion to be completed and even disregarding that I don't think he has even hit the conversion date yet.

[d0mbo]

Then is the Chitose Ku- unit not linked to the ship but rather to the city?

[ChezDaJez]

I thought the Chitose was an floatplane tender.... I take it you have converterted her to a CVL?

Chitose is the name of the district from where the unit originated and/or is administratively controlled. It does not refer to the ship. The same with the Tainan Ku S-1 group. It is from the Tainan district on Formosa (Taiwan). BTW, the Tainan group was Saburo Sakai's group. These groups are land-based but are carrier capable.

Chez

[jwilkerson]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish
Burma: the RAF had fallen into something of a pattern over Mandalay; daily sweeps at 21,000 feet by two squadrons of Hurricanes and, once every two or three days, an attack by about 18 bombers and a couple dozen assorted escorts. There are enough Japanese engineers there that the airfield is kept in decent shape so on 13 July I flew in about 50 Zeros and 20 Oscars.

I set the Zeros to 22,000 feet and the Oscars to 16,000, all on 70% CAP.On 14 June in came the Hurricanes as usual and I chewed them up pretty good. I shot down 12 at a cost of 3 Oscars and a Zero and left most of the survivors damaged. What seemed to happen is that the Zeros dove on the Hurricanes, which mixed it up for a bit, then the Hurricanes would dive on the Oscars, which mixed it up for a bit, and this allowed the Zeros to dive on the Hurricanes again. It seemed to neutralize the enemy fighters pretty well.

There was no bombing attack during the turn and on 15 July I withdrew my fighters to Rangoon again.

It will be interesting to see what Q-Ball does now. He has enough air power across the border to flatten Mandalay again, and he might. But keeping the airfield suppressed will mean accepting ops and flak losses. There are three Japanese AA units at Mandalay now, which is my self-imposed limit for a given base (putting in more starts to feel gamey). But three is enough to inflict some damage and losses. If he doesn’t keep the airfields there wrecked and returns to penny-packet attacks he runs the risk of another aerial ambush.

Thanks for the Burma air war description - I'll put more detail in my AAR as well on this topic so we can see the differences in tactics and planning!

[BrucePowers]

You put in very nice descriptions of what seems to be happening. It helps me do a better job of visualizing what is oing on.

[Cuttlefish]

[font="Arial"]The military value of a partisan’s work is not measured by the amount of property destroyed, or by the number of men killed or captured, but by the number he keeps watching.[/font]
- John S. Moseby: War Reminiscences, 1887

7/16/1942 – 7/18/1942

A look at the benefits and risks of an operation against Australia have convinced me to call off the invasion there. I wasn’t paying enough attention to Port Hedland and hadn’t realized how large a base it was becoming. I think that in a future game as Japan I might make neutralizing or capturing that base a priority. It can be built up nicely and is very hard to reach except by sea.

For now, since it is already loaded and heading east anyway, I am sending the 48th Division to Noumea. The reserve division, the 2nd, will head for Burma. I haven’t decided about the other two divisions yet. I may station them on Java and Sumatra as defenders.

Burma: speaking of Burma, Q-Ball quietly moved a small unit over the mountains to the dot base between Mandalay and Myitkyina. There they intercepted and destroyed (with the help of air attacks) an AA unit that was moving by rail to Myitkyina. I can picture it quite clearly; the train moving through the jungle and coming under air attack, then the raiders that called in the attack swooping down to blow up what’s left. A small unit like my AA battalion would be easily destroyed.

Q-Ball is very good at infiltration tactics. He does it all over the place in China and keeping his units off my rail lines takes a fair amount of effort. Which is the purpose, of course, to tie down my troops. Fortunately there are a lot of small units available to me there for security work, though they can’t handle anything close to a full-strength Chinese corps.

Air attacks have resumed against Mandalay, though not in enough strength to close the airfield. If they keep up I will try another aerial ambush in a turn or two. Meanwhile the AA guns there have bagged a couple of Blenheims.

Under the Sea: an Allied sub (Finback, I think) sank an xAK on the Port Arthur – Hiroshima resource run. It launched torpedoes at two other ships in the same convoy but they came up duds. Fortunately some of the air units (Vals and Sallys, mostly) that I started training on ASW warfare months ago are approaching competence and I am taking them off training and putting them to work around the Home Islands. I am hoping that it will at least force his subs to keep their head down a little. I don’t expect hits from pilots with an ASW experience of 55 or so but they’re at they point where they will improve faster against live targets than they will by training.

I had a Betty report hitting Shark near Ambon a few turns ago but Q-Ball informs me that the sub was not in fact damaged.

Hey, I have an idea! I’ll put a destroyer in the Bungo Strait with a really good ASW commander. With it I’ll have a submarine lurking and air assets nearby. My intelligence screen will inform me when enemy submarines are in the area (maybe by finding their dumped garbage or something). It will become a death trap for US submarines!

[Caliban]

Hey, I have an idea! I’ll put a destroyer in the Bungo Strait with a really good ASW commander. With it I’ll have a submarine lurking and air assets nearby. My intelligence screen will inform me when enemy submarines are in the area (maybe by finding their dumped garbage or something). It will become a death trap for US submarines!

Cuttlefish,

I am curious as to what skill levels you would consider as being "really good" for an ASW commander.

Caliban

[Alikchi2]

For now, since it is already loaded and heading east anyway, I am sending the 48th Division to Noumea. The reserve division, the 2nd, will head for Burma. I haven’t decided about the other two divisions yet. I may station them on Java and Sumatra as defenders.

Does that mean that the time for expansion is over? No flinging divisions at New Zealand? [;)]

Kudos to you in showing restraint in re: Australia, anyhow. I know that when I plan out an invasion and get everything ready, the inertia of the operation keeps me trying at it even when it's clearly not worth the risk.

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: Alikchi

For now, since it is already loaded and heading east anyway, I am sending the 48th Division to Noumea. The reserve division, the 2nd, will head for Burma. I haven’t decided about the other two divisions yet. I may station them on Java and Sumatra as defenders.

Does that mean that the time for expansion is over? No flinging divisions at New Zealand? [;)]

Kudos to you in showing restraint in re: Australia, anyhow. I know that when I plan out an invasion and get everything ready, the inertia of the operation keeps me trying at it even when it's clearly not worth the risk.

I felt the force of that inertia, for sure. It was an effort of will to turn back the transports. But I think it was the right call. The invasion might have succeeded in April or May but by this time it seems Q-Ball has had to much time to prepare a warm welcome.

The question about the expansion phase is an interesting one. I realize that I really don't have a handle on what Allied offensive capabilities are at this stage of the game and how fast they will grow. It's my first AE game and not many PBEMs (those with AARs, anyway) have gotten this deep into a game yet. As a result I'm feeling my way along and that makes me more cautious than I might otherwise be.

Expansion may be over, though I am prepared to be opportunistic. We will see.

[Capt. Harlock]

Kudos to you in showing restraint in re: Australia, anyhow.

Granted, it may be the right call, but I'm disappointed. There would have been fireworks!