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

[Cuttlefish]

[font="Arial"]I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.[/font]
- U.S. Grant: Dispatch to Major General Halleck, from Spotsylvania Court House, 11 May 1864

7/19/1942 – 7/22/1942

Our game is now patched up to the 1.00.95 official version. On with the war!

The siege at Noumea continues. He either had a huge stockpile of supplies there or is managing to fly in enough to keep his troops in beans and bullets. I haven’t managed to intercept anything flying in, though, so I don’t know. But I am going to keep it up until he either lifts the siege by force or his units surrender.

There are more units on the way. I have broken off attacking lately because on of the divisions there, the 53rd, had become almost entirely disrupted. It is back at La Foa now, resting. I’m not sure why it got into such a state; my other two divisions there are in good shape. When the 53rd is back on the line along with the new troops I hope to compel a swift surrender.

Burma: I am getting more and more worried about this area. Aside from infiltrators there are lots of troops at bases just over the border and if Q-Ball initiates a general advance I will be hard-pressed to stop it. The Imperial Guard Division is disembarking at Rangoon now, however, and more divisions are on the way, so my position should be more secure soon.

I don’t think I have to worry about amphibious assaults down the coast yet, maybe not for a long while, but it bears thinking about. I should at least start building up the forts at places like Tavoy and Victoria Point. You can get forts to level 3 in this game practically overnight but getting forts above that requires a lot of time and engineers. I like this change from WITP a lot, by the way, even though I think Japan is the side primarily affected.

Down Under, Redux: I am sending mini-KB, along with the Nagato/Fuso battle group, on a long run through the Indian Ocean to the southern Australia coast. They will wind up at a point between Exmouth and Perth, close enough to the coast to attack anything transiting the area but far enough from any major air bases to avoid attack.

The move is not without risks. My last foray Down Under stung Q-Ball a bit and it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility that he might have some carriers in the area. The RN carriers in particular seem like a possibility. But no risk, no reward, and maybe it will provide some of the those fireworks Capt. Harlock wants.

Under the Sea: no sooner did I put my newly trained ASW air groups into operation around the Home Islands when not one but two Sallys put reported putting bombs into SS Gudgeon off Sasebo. Could be fog of war, of course, but it’s an encouraging sign. I have the groups flying at 60% ASW, 20% rest, altitude 2000 feet. I need to keep an eye on them, as flying at that frequency and altitude seems to generate a fair amount of fatigue.

The Shipping News: as I mentioned earlier in a reply to Mike Solli I have some of the Std-class xAKs converting to TKs. By now a total of 10 are undergoing conversion, with the first group due back in action any day. These will join the smaller TKs in the DEI, hauling fuel to Singapore. Right now I have three TFs hauling fuel from Palembang, one from Miri, and one from Balikpapan. I will add another TF to the Balikpapan run and assign another to work where ever fuel is piling up. Right now there is no way I can haul fuel away faster than it accumulates.

Resource and HI levels are slowly but steadily climbing again. It takes a lot of work. Hauling resources is almost kind of a mini-game in itself.

I was looking at converting some of the t-xAKs back to cargo hauling. For the moment I am not too pinched for cargo space, though, so I have decided to put it off. I’m still moving large numbers of troops around and the extra troop capacity is handy. Later, when my posture is more defensive and subs are taking their toll on my convoys, I will probably do these conversions.

[erstad]

These will join the smaller TKs in the DEI, hauling fuel to Singapore. Right now I have three TFs hauling fuel from Palembang, one from Miri, and one from Balikpapan.

Why are you hauling from those locations to Singapore? I could maybe see shipping some of the Palembang fuel to Singers if Medan isn't giving you enough, but Miri and Balikpapan to Singers is going the wrong way - seems like that would increase overall fuel consumption.

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: erstad

These will join the smaller TKs in the DEI, hauling fuel to Singapore. Right now I have three TFs hauling fuel from Palembang, one from Miri, and one from Balikpapan.

Why are you hauling from those locations to Singapore? I could maybe see shipping some of the Palembang fuel to Singers if Medan isn't giving you enough, but Miri and Balikpapan to Singers is going the wrong way - seems like that would increase overall fuel consumption.

It seemed like that to me too when I first thought of it. In practice, however, it is faster and more efficient than anything else I've tried.

It takes big tankers too long to load at the small ports and the Home Islands are out of range of the small tankers. The port facilities at Singapore are so good that the time saved in loading/unloading more than makes up for the extra time spent en route. The regional task forces unload there and get out in a single day, while the task forces of large tankers making the Honshu-Singapore run (there are four of these currently) load in just two days.

So at any given time I have about 120,000 tons of fuel en route from Singapore to the Home Islands. An average of two small convoys hit Singapore a day, unload 15,000 tons, and get out. Singapore maintains an average of about 75,000 tons stored, which bobs up and down as the big convoys arrive and load up. So far it is working very well.

[Chickenboy]

No USSHenrico or Crimguy reading please....
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How do you feel about using Brunei as a local dump for small TKs from Miri? Brunei's port can be significantly expanded (plus it needs some transport for its petro production). Shouldn't a small handful of 1250 capacity TKs be able to shuttle back and forth to Brunei on a daily basis and keep Miri supply down enough? Larger TKs can then shuttle from an enlarged Brunei to the HI.

I'm debating how to handle Miri and Brunei shipments in my PBEMs as well-this is what I'm thinking of...

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

No USSHenrico or Crimguy reading please....
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How do you feel about using Brunei as a local dump for small TKs from Miri? Brunei's port can be significantly expanded (plus it needs some transport for its petro production). Shouldn't a small handful of 1250 capacity TKs be able to shuttle back and forth to Brunei on a daily basis and keep Miri supply down enough? Larger TKs can then shuttle from an enlarged Brunei to the HI.

I'm debating how to handle Miri and Brunei shipments in my PBEMs as well-this is what I'm thinking of...

Brunei can be built up to a level 6 port. With a port or shipping engineer unit there larger tankers might be able to load at acceptable speed. But the difference between the way ships load at a level 6 port and a level 9 or 10 like Singapore is significant. I think it would be faster to ship from Singapore even if it is two or three days sail further from the Home Islands but it would be interesting to actually try it and compare.

[Cuttlefish]

[font="Arial"]The defeat of the U-boat is the prelude to all effective aggressive operations.[/font]
- Winston Churchill: To conference of the Ministers of the Crown, 11 February 1943

7/23/42 – 7/30/42

Summer wears on. The war has been fairly quiet the past week but there have been some developments of note.

The War in the Air: the air war has been pretty active lately. In Burma the RAF is bombing both the regiment garrisoning Myitkyina and the airfield there. They are also launching heavy air attacks against the 33rd Division, advancing north from Mandalay. Japanese fighters are once again based at Mandalay and on one turn they attempted to interfere with the bombing. It went pretty well. The Allies lost 10 or 12 planes to 7 Japanese. Since then, however, I have restricted my fighters to the sky above Mandalay (no leakers, love that fix).

Every day since my attack Q-Ball has sent his fighters in to sweep the sky over the 33rd. Each squadron comes in separately, one at a time, all at precisely 21,000 feet. I am tempted to interfere but have resisted. The only real effect these attacks are having on the 33rd is to inflict a bit of disruption and to make them move more slowly by forcing them to stay in combat mode. Move mode under would not be good; neat lines of troops and vehicles along a narrow jungle road are a dandy target for air attack and game results reflect this.

The other aerial action has been over Noumea, where a whole bunch of P-40s and P-39s ambushed one of my bombing runs. It didn’t go as well as Q-Ball deserved; the escorting Zeros shot down 4 fighters at no loss and he only got two Bettys. His pilots did not seem to want to press home the attack with any kind of energy or vigor. Given their losses in the campaign this is perhaps not surprising.

The War at Sea: the only thing to report here is mini-KB, hanging undetected and motionless off the southern Australia coast waiting for prey. But so far nothing has come along.

The War under the Sea: both sides have scored here lately. Japanese submarines sank DM Preeble well southwest of Hawaii and xAP Silksworth near Pago Pago. The transport was full of troops and I love sinking those converted Clemson-class DMs (this was the fourth to go down). They are versatile and useful ships for the Allies in ’42.

Allied subs responded by sinking xAP Baikal Maru, which was loaded with 2nd Division troops heading for Rangoon, a subchaser near Sendai, and an xAK near Rabaul.

A word about ASW combat, since this has been the subject of some discussion lately. So far my experience has been that the only nation actually capable of sinking an enemy sub via ASW attack in ’42 is the British. The Brits, of course, already had a great deal of experience hunting subs by the start of the Pacific war, so that makes sense. It also argues that as the war progresses American ASW forces and, to a lesser extent, Japanese ASW forces will become more capable. For now, however, trying to sink enemy subs is largely an exercise in frustration.

I have found some measure to be effective, however. I started training some ASW air groups early. They are by now competent. They aren’t good enough to actually hit anything (that takes a very high level of experience and my guys are in the 55 – 65 range) but they do make a lot of attacks and force a lot of crash dives. This seems to go a long way towards reducing the number of submarine attacks in patrolled areas.

The second measure I have found effective is minefields. Only in ports, of course, but a minefield of even 200 mines is deadly to submarines that come poking around. I have put down minefields in all my most active ports by now and Q-Ball has learned to keep his submarines out of these ports.

The third measure is less reliable but potentially deadly; set submarines to hunt submarines. I have only sunk one Allied sub this way so far but that is one more sub than my ASW forces have sunk. Around the Home Islands I have recently set a number of short-range subs to patrol areas known to be frequented by enemy subs. We will see if anything comes of this.

The War on Land: the 48th Division, an army HQ, engineers, and more artillery have all landed or are unloading at Koumac right now. Soon these units will join the siege at Noumea, along with the rested 53rd Division. Then the attacks will resume in earnest.

The only other ground combat of any note is in China, and lately there hasn’t been a lot of that. I am completely reorganizing my forces here and as part of this I am pulling back from my attack at Liuchow. I don’t think major combat here will resume for a least a month.

Of course it is worth asking what I really want to accomplish here. I have seized nine Chinese cities so far and cleared out everything anywhere near the coast. With the new patch China is a sinkhole for supplies and advancing seems rather difficult. I do not feel a compelling urge to keep trying to advance in this area, though I don’t think I’m willing to stand down my troops just yet.

Patch Notes: so far the biggest difference I have noticed with the 1.00.95 final version is that my resource and HI levels are moving upward at a faster rate. I had not realized just how many resources I was losing to wastage in transit and it’s a big relief to have that corrected.

[stldiver]

I have noticed it in my PBEM that the Nicks with Vet Pilots will eat up his bombers! Plus they can intercept at high altitude. They also have success vs P-38's, albeit when they come to me and thus fly further. I usually fly them solo or with Oscar's, who also reach high altititude.

Good Luck I enjoy both yours and Qballs AAR's.

[Smeulders]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

The third measure is less reliable but potentially deadly; set submarines to hunt submarines. I have only sunk one Allied sub this way so far but that is one more sub than my ASW forces have sunk. Around the Home Islands I have recently set a number of short-range subs to patrol areas known to be frequented by enemy subs. We will see if anything comes of this.

I seem to remember from somewhere that sub on sub attacks are linked to local air superiority. The side with air superiority will run it's subs on the surface and is therefore usually the one being attacked. If this is correct (again, I'm not sure), subs around the HI are more likely to be sunk than sink an enemy sub.

[stuman]

ORIGINAL: Jones944

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

[font="Arial"]Resources exist to be consumed. And consumed they will be, if not by this generation then by some future. By what right does this forgotten future seek to deny us our birthright? None I say! Let us take what is ours, chew and eat our fill.[/font]
- CEO Nwabudike Morgan: The Ethics of Greed

Lol! Loved that game at the time it came out.

Was that Alpha Centauri ?

[stuman]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

No USSHenrico or Crimguy reading please....
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How do you feel about using Brunei as a local dump for small TKs from Miri? Brunei's port can be significantly expanded (plus it needs some transport for its petro production). Shouldn't a small handful of 1250 capacity TKs be able to shuttle back and forth to Brunei on a daily basis and keep Miri supply down enough? Larger TKs can then shuttle from an enlarged Brunei to the HI.

I'm debating how to handle Miri and Brunei shipments in my PBEMs as well-this is what I'm thinking of...

I think you mentioned that elsewhere and that is exactly what I am experimenting with in my AI game. I don't have my timing down quite right but it makes some sense imo.

[Jones944]

ORIGINAL: stuman

ORIGINAL: Jones944

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

[font="Arial"]Resources exist to be consumed. And consumed they will be, if not by this generation then by some future. By what right does this forgotten future seek to deny us our birthright? None I say! Let us take what is ours, chew and eat our fill.[/font]
- CEO Nwabudike Morgan: The Ethics of Greed

Lol! Loved that game at the time it came out.

Was that Alpha Centauri ?

Correct!

[Cuttlefish]

[font="Arial"]The better part of valor is discretion, in which better part I have saved my life.[/font]
- Shakespeare: Henry IV, Part 1

7/31/42 – 8/3/42

The first carrier battle of the war occurred on 2 August 1942. As it turned out it really wasn’t much of a battle. In fact it was scarcely a battle at all.

What did happen went like this: on the morning of 2 August the Japanese light carriers, Ryujo, Shoho, and Zuiho, were lurking off the southern Australia coast between Exmouth and Carnarvon. They had been there several days. A small convoy of about 7 xAKLs was detected coming back from (probably) Port Hedland. Bad weather hampered the Japanese strike and only one carrier launched Kates, all of which missed their targets.

At this point a previously undetected enemy task force a couple of hexes off Carnarvon launched 13 Albacores at my carriers. Nine of the unescorted Albacores were shot down by Zeros and flak got one or two more. No hits were scored.

That was it. I think mini-KB could easily take a single British carrier, especially one with most of its torpedo bombers gone. Two or three carriers would be problematic, however, so I ordered my ships out of the area. The 3 August turn was quiet.

Midway it wasn’t. The interesting question is what his carriers were doing there. Planning a raid of their own? Trying to secure an important sea lane against exactly the kind of attack I was trying? The world may never know. Correction: I may never know. The rest of you can go read Q-Ball’s AAR when he posts next and find out.

The other interesting development during this period is that two turns ago the daily Allied air attacks in Burma abruptly stopped. He may just be trying to rest his pilots for a few turns. There had been a notable increase in Allied ops losses recently, most of them involving fighters of the kind doing the daily sweeps, so that makes sense. If so the attacks will probably resume shortly.

[Wirraway_Ace]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

[
The first carrier battle of the war occurred on 2 August 1942. As it turned out it really wasn’t much of a battle. In fact it was scarcely a battle at all.

What did happen went like this: on the morning of 2 August the Japanese light carriers, Ryujo, Shoho, and Zuiho, were lurking off the southern Australia coast between Exmouth and Carnarvon. They had been there several days. A small convoy of about 7 xAKLs was detected coming back from (probably) Port Hedland. Bad weather hampered the Japanese strike and only one carrier launched Kates, all of which missed their targets.

At this point a previously undetected enemy task force a couple of hexes off Carnarvon launched 13 Albacores at my carriers. Nine of the unescorted Albacores were shot down by Zeros and flak got one or two more. No hits were scored.

That was it. I think mini-KB could easily take a single British carrier, especially one with most of its torpedo bombers gone. Two or three carriers would be problematic, however, so I ordered my ships out of the area. The 3 August turn was quiet.

Midway it wasn’t. The interesting question is what his carriers were doing there. Planning a raid of their own? Trying to secure an important sea lane against exactly the kind of attack I was trying? The world may never know. Correction: I may never know. The rest of you can go read Q-Ball’s AAR when he posts next and find out.

But surely this is simply fog of war. In reality, the IJN achieved a smashing victory, sinking 3 hapless RN CVs and a few BBs for good measure...

[Grollub]

I believe the correct wording would be;

"The IJN has achieved another smashing victory near Carnarvon, with the sinking of two carriers, a battleship, and numerous cruisers and destroyers" [;)]

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: Grollub

I believe the correct wording would be;

"The IJN has achieved another smashing victory near Carnarvon, with the sinking of two carriers, a battleship, and numerous cruisers and destroyers" [;)]

[:D]

[Capt. Harlock]

At this point a previously undetected enemy task force a couple of hexes off Carnarvon launched 13 Albacores at my carriers. Nine of the unescorted Albacores were shot down by Zeros and flak got one or two more.

One other interesting question is why they weren't escorted. It's not like British CV's don't carry any fighters. (A wild mix of types, yes, but the point is they exist.)

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

At this point a previously undetected enemy task force a couple of hexes off Carnarvon launched 13 Albacores at my carriers. Nine of the unescorted Albacores were shot down by Zeros and flak got one or two more.

One other interesting question is why they weren't escorted. It's not like British CV's don't carry any fighters. (A wild mix of types, yes, but the point is they exist.)

Could be range. The British carrier fighters are very shor legged.

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

At this point a previously undetected enemy task force a couple of hexes off Carnarvon launched 13 Albacores at my carriers. Nine of the unescorted Albacores were shot down by Zeros and flak got one or two more.

One other interesting question is why they weren't escorted. It's not like British CV's don't carry any fighters. (A wild mix of types, yes, but the point is they exist.)

Could be range. The British carrier fighters are very short legged.

Range is my best guess. I don't know the range on the British carrier fighters but the engagement took place at about 7 or 8 hexes.

[Cuttlefish]

[font="Arial"]We have attacked fired upon and dropped depth charges on sub operating in defensive sea area.[/font]
- DD Ward, second message following attack on midget sub outside Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941

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8/4/1942 – 8/8/1942

Three Japanese submarines each launched a midget sub to attack Pago Pago on the morning of 7 August. They met the usual fate of midget subs, foundering, getting tangled in anti-sub nets, etc. Despite their dismal success rate I enjoy launching such attacks, though. It’s an interesting option to have and there is always the chance that one of the blind squirrels might find an acorn.

Q-Ball’s subs have been more successful. One sank a large tanker in the South China Sea and another sank DD Asagao in the Malacca Strait.

Noumea: almost ready to resume the attack here. The 48th Division is nearing Noumea and the 53rd Division is finally at less than 50% disruption. It is now in range of its parent HQ, the 14th Army and General Homma having arrived. I don’t think this will do anything to speed the division’s recovery – if so I couldn’t find it in the manual – but it will boost the attack when it resumes. There is more artillery there now too and the 19th and 4th Divisions are ready to go.

This siege needs to end soon. Keeping Combined Fleet in the area (over three months now!) sucks down a lot of fuel and if it goes on too long the tables will turn and it will be my forces trapped on New Caledonia, not his.

Burma: 33rd Division chased off the intruders on the Mandalay – Myitkyina rail line, restoring the flow of supplies. Allied air attacks here have halted completely. I think Q-Ball probably decided that it was costing him planes for no real gain. I expect the planes will come back when he is ready to resume the offensive. In the meantime I have control of the air over Mandalay again.

The Imperial Guards and the 2nd Division are now also in Burma, along with some other units, so I feel much more secure about this area.

Accelerated Developments: I am currently accelerating CV Taiho and two of the Unryu-class carriers. As of right now Taiho is due 12/43 and I can probably push that back until at least summer ’43.

I know there are good arguments that these carriers arrive to late to do any real good. I am not sure about that, though. In my experience playing Japan in ’44 – ’45 it is useful to have even two or three functioning carriers. They cannot give battle to the US fast carrier forces but just by existing they exert pressure on Allied seaborne supply lines. And by that stage of the game those supply lines are long and sometimes vulnerable. It forces the Allied player to be just a tad more careful.

All Your Base Are Belong To Us Department: I am still capturing bases as a pretty good clip, all of them in what are now my rear areas. Flores is finally being invaded, for instance, and a force is out in the Indian Ocean to take possession of Christmas Island. There are so many bases in AE!

I am kind of on the fence about the dozens of dot hexes still to be captured. On the one hand it does take time and a certain amount of fuel to capture them and most have no strategic importance at all. On the other hand they can provide my opponent with a bit of free intelligence if I get careless. And of course they break up the nice unbroken field of soothing red dots on the strategic map with their hideous green glow.

[jwilkerson]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish
I am kind of on the fence about the dozens of dot hexes still to be captured. On the one hand it does take time and a certain amount of fuel to capture them and most have no strategic importance at all. On the other hand they can provide my opponent with a bit of free intelligence if I get careless. And of course they break up the nice unbroken field of soothing red dots on the strategic map with their hideous green glow.

We are going to capture all the green glowers. We've found that our opponents like to "hide" large garrisons on them - and the only way to tell if the bad guys are there is to have them as friendlies. But there are lots of them - at the rate we're going - we will still be attacking them into 1943 !!!. Maybe one day we can extend the "auto-capture" feature a bit farther - to say 2-3 hex range - that would help a lot!!!