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Also, I send a roving cruiser task force to hit transports my PBY's spotted heading for his newly acquired Canton Island, where I suspect he was planning to put a base unit + AV for nav search. In a series of engagements, both day and night, I manage to sink the transports and cause a number of casualties. This actually caused more casualties than my CV strikes, I believe. The CVs were attacking transports that were in the process of landing or had already landed troops.

Night Time Surface Combat, near Canton Island at 153,143, Range 10,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
PB Tama Maru #5
PB Fumi Maru #3, Shell hits 1
PB Kyo Maru #6, Shell hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
PB Kyo Maru #7
PB Shonon Maru #11
PB Takuna Maru #6, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
PB Takuna Maru #7, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Hamburg Maru
xAK Havana Maru, Shell hits 4, on fire
xAK Yosyu Maru, Shell hits 2, on fire
xAK Nisso Maru, Shell hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Tensyo Maru, Shell hits 1
xAK Zuisyo Maru

Allied Ships
CA Minneapolis
DD Trippe
DD Stockton
DD S.P. Lee
DD Oreleck

Japanese ground losses:
343 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 21 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled

Day Time Surface Combat, near Canton Island at 153,142, Range 23,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
PB Tama Maru #5, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
PB Fumi Maru #3, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
PB Shonon Maru #11, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Hamburg Maru, Shell hits 13, and is sunk
xAK Yosyu Maru, Shell hits 25, and is sunk
xAK Tensyo Maru, Shell hits 7, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Zuisyo Maru, Shell hits 21, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CA Minneapolis
DD Trippe
DD Stockton
DD S.P. Lee
DD Oreleck

Japanese ground losses:
2576 casualties reported
Squads: 29 destroyed, 84 disabled
Non Combat: 51 destroyed, 79 disabled
Engineers: 3 destroyed, 3 disabled
Guns lost 32 (14 destroyed, 18 disabled)

The most important part of this? Ship night experience levels going up! CA Minneapolis below:

Elsewhere, John decides to go in for another bombardment of Manilla, with some destroyers taking mine hits and now being listed as unofficially sunk. In the DEI, a sub of mine actually manages to sink a DMS. Finally, John lands additional troops at Adak using a fast carrier transport, but he is as of yet unable to overwhelm the garrison, especially with 2 almost 3 forts.

Sadly, despite recovering flooding damage the last two days, the DD Crane succumbs to her wounds before she could make it to the nearest atoll. I had an AR and DDs on the way to help too. [:(]

TF 6 encounters mine field at Manila (79,77)

Japanese Ships
DD Suzukaze
DD Oshio
DD Arashio, Mine hits 1, on fire

3 mines cleared

TF 6 encounters mine field at Manila (79,77)

Japanese Ships
DD Kawakaze
DD Yamakaze
DD Yudachi, Mine hits 1, heavy damage

4 mines cleared

TF 6 encounters mine field at Manila (79,77)

Japanese Ships
DD Oshio
DD Arashio, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

2 mines cleared

Ground combat at Adak Island (162,52)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 1092 troops, 20 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 40

Defending force 1962 troops, 32 guns, 4 vehicles, Assault Value = 64

Assaulting units:
3/153rd Infantry Battalion
37th (Sep) Infantry Rgt /1
808th Aviation Engineer Battalion
15th Base Group

Defending units:
2nd China Assault/C Div /7

Ships Listed Sunk for Day

also"The mighty Crane goes down!" [:(]

If you can rename a DD, how about Crane II?

A good job on all of those sunken transports. [&o] That should help slow any resupply down until he replaces them as well as the units. Every little bit helps. It was also good life fire exercise training for your air units involved.

Great job on your part, and I really wonder what John was thinking? I guess he assumed he had a free hand in the South Pacific. Where did he think your carriers were, and what did he think they were doing? [&:]

Now, I need to extract my carriers. They are a little light on fuel and will head back towards PH. An AO is coming to meet them midway. He might try to chase with his carriers, but they are 14 hexes away and have also been steaming around a lot of the SoPac and should be light on fuel as well. It's a shame his CAs moved northwest. They were all sitting at Vaitupu last turn and I'd hoped they stick around to cover the landings, especially given my roving cruisers all around over the last few days.

According to sigint, John is bring more troops to Adak. I have DDs and BBs on the way to bombard/cover and will try to reinforce with a Inf Regiment.

@jwolf Like you said, I'd imagine John would expect more passivity given the mod, augmentations to Japan, and usual Sir Robin strategies. I have noticed a bit more deception this time around, such as his faint for Palmyra before moving back west.

As for where he expected my carriers, given the large amount of activity and ships he has spotted at Australia, he might have guessed they were somewhere in the area, but this was his first time actually seeing them all game, in combat or otherwise through scouting/recon. But in the absence of clear scouting, one should be prudent.

I, for instance, know that half his carriers are in the SoPac. However, the other half haven't been seen since they moved up towards Singapore with it's taking about half a month ago or more.

Man, his hair to be all gone by now [:D] How you are able to position everything JUST RIGHT has to be giving the poor man nightmares. Maybe you should let him sink something, for morale...






Naw

ORIGINAL: Lecivius

Man, his hair to be all gone by now [:D] How you are able to position everything JUST RIGHT has to be giving the poor man nightmares. Maybe you should let him sink something, for morale...


Naw

Don't mind me. Just doing some light reading at the moment. [:D]

I admire the vigor of your forward defense! You're really making him pay for every bit of real estate, and these hit-and-run raids on his amphibious TFs must be driving him crazy (they would do that to me).

A good fighting withdrawl action much like what a Cavalry unit would do.

Anachro,

great job beating up undefended soft targets again.

Did you elect not to use torpedoes and everyone just bombed or didn't you get any torpedo hits?
Sorry, just noted the reference to the extreme range in your post

Do you know the reason why there was no afternoon attack ? Did you blow the TF completely out of the water, so that there were no targets left in range, were there weather issues or what else ?

Hartwig

@Modrow I don't know the reason for no second attack. Perhaps my commanders weren't aggressive enough. Weather shouldn't have been a factor as it was listed as "heavy clouds." As for my torpedo bombers, they were set to naval attack with torpedoes on, but seemed to use bombs instead. This might be because they were at a distance of 5 from the targets and that is their extreme limit. Remember these are Devastators, not Avengers.

ORIGINAL: CaptBeefheart

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

I know a Commander Cody, I don't know a Capt. Beefheart. Hello to you, good sir! What forced the name change? Technical difficulties or something else? I notice a lot of people on matrix forums randomly undergo namechanges.

ORIGINAL: Anachro

ORIGINAL: CaptBeefheart

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

I know a Commander Cody, I don't know a Capt. Beefheart. Hello to you, good sir! What forced the name change? Technical difficulties or something else? I notice a lot of people on matrix forums randomly undergo namechanges.

I recently went to the members page to download a game and a dialog box came up which more or less forced me to use CaptBeefheart, which I guess was my name on the Slitherine Forum (which I rarely visit). Since I use that name as well for gaming purposes, it's not a problem as far as I'm concerned.

Cheers,
CB

As I understand it, Slitherine ad Matrix databases are being merged.

ORIGINAL: Lecivius

Man, his hair to be all gone by now [:D] How you are able to position everything JUST RIGHT has to be giving the poor man nightmares. Maybe you should let him sink something, for morale...

Great job, Anachro. As frustrated as he has to be on the surface, I bet he's having a great time deep down.

Besides as a master raider himself, he deserves getting a little of his own medicine back every once in a while. [;)]

Besides as a master raider himself, he deserves getting a little of his own medicine back every once in a while.

Amen brother!!

ORIGINAL: Anachro

@Modrow I don't know the reason for no second attack. Perhaps my commanders weren't aggressive enough. Weather shouldn't have been a factor as it was listed as "heavy clouds." As for my torpedo bombers, they were set to naval attack with torpedoes on, but seemed to use bombs instead. This might be because they were at a distance of 5 from the targets and that is their extreme limit. Remember these are Devastators, not Avengers.

The aircraft info screen says Devastators will carry torps to range 4, but I have never seen them carry them beyond range 3, and only if the launch weather was perfect. They were just too underpowered.

I will add my Kudos to the shouting from the peanut gallery. Looks like your cruiser TF got a regiment and an AA unit (or, could also be artillery, but I think AA is more important going to a base he has already taken).

Sinking those transports will mean he has to get emergency supply to Vaitupu and get enough shipping to move his troops forward again. Japan's tight schedule to expand before April 01 and the end of the landing bonus is thoroughly screwed. He may have trouble bringing enough to go after Noumea or Suva after this! Well done! [&o]

John seems to be making the same mistake he did against Canoerebel - loudly showing where his carriers are while not being able to locate the Allied carriers.
I think the huge expansion he tries to do with limited ability to follow up with search planes is a weakness for the Japanese side. But he really wants to get Autovictory by taking the most valuable SOPAC bases. Now he can't.

Feb 7, 1942

Note on date: last turn was actually Feb. 6th, not the 5th

My carriers move northeast and suffer no attacks from John's carriers, which also move northeast and are now northwest of Vaitupu. It's a good thing he didn't move much closer, as my TF admiral elected to do some self-replenishment during the middle of the night. Still, my carriers find a transport and patrol boat out in the open by Baker Island, as well as a torpedo boat sitting in port at Canton Island.

As for John's transports, they seem to have moved on from the Vaitupu area and could be heading for Luganville or Guadalcanal / Tulagi. I have heavy surface raiders moving in from Australia if opportunity presents itself.

Morning Air attack on TF, near Baker Island at 149,137

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid spotted at 18 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Allied aircraft
SBD-3 Dauntless x 16

Allied aircraft losses
SBD-3 Dauntless: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
xAK Havana Maru, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
PB Kyo Maru #7, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk

Japanese ground losses:
318 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 4 destroyed, 37 disabled
Engineers: 7 destroyed, 4 disabled
Guns lost 22 (3 destroyed, 19 disabled)

Afternoon Air attack on Canton Island , at 153,143

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid spotted at 34 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 13 minutes

Allied aircraft
Albacore I x 11
Fulmar II x 17
SBD-3 Dauntless x 46

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
TB Sagi, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage

At Adak Island, he bombards and lands more troops and now has ~200 AV to my 30. I don't think I'll hold next turn and my bombardment fleets are still a few turns away. My reinforcements cannot be landed while his cruiser hover on the hex. If I lose Adak, I'll just keep bombarding it.

Your success nailing that PB/xAK TF and TB are good things, but he now can guess your line of retreat and will move subs in your path if there are any hanging around that area. Perhaps some devious routing to PH is in order?

Yes, I'm expecting subs to be lined up on my path of retreat. The AO should meet me midway and give enough fuel to allow a more circuitous route to Hawaii. ASW in the air has been trained up and will be reinforced to spot subs before my ships do. Japanese sub commanders are quite good. Even my ASW task forces manage to become the hunted instead of the hunters.