Parry and Spar, or is it... Reluctant Admiral 4.2 Fulkerson(J) vs Moore (A)

[larryfulkerson]

The Nates I have at location codenamed Ruthole are no match for Jim's AVG group.

[larryfulkerson]

Another airfield strike went into Samarinda. Not great results but better than nothing.

[larryfulkerson]

I did another expensive raid on Singers.

[larryfulkerson]

I got a few hits on a few ships. I'm thinking maybe they might really be sunk.

[larryfulkerson]

It was a matter of time really, before any of these aerial attacks hit their mark and here's one example. This happened after about nine such attacks.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought I'd get one of my subs to wonder into port and see what happens. Here's what happened.

[larryfulkerson]

It appears that I need to move some more arty tubes into Clark Field to help out with the reduction of the Allied formations there.

[larryfulkerson]

The Japs are badly outnumbered at Iloilo. I'm going to have to ship in a bunch of more troops to help out there.

[larryfulkerson]

Tulagi fell so this is what the South Pacific Operational Area looks like now. I moved some Zero's to Lae for air cover and I have some more planes headed this way.

[moore4807]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Dec 29, 41
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm using up a lot of ships lookin for these pesky varmints!

ASW attack near Pearl Harbor at 181,106
Japanese Ships
SS I-17

Allied Ships
DD Bagley
DD Mugford

SS I-17 launches 2 torpedoes at DD Bagley
DD Mugford fails to find sub, continues to search...
Escort abandons search for sub


ASW attack near Pearl Harbor at 179,108
Japanese Ships
SS I-175

Allied Ships
DD Litchfield
DD Chew

SS I-175 launches 4 torpedoes at DD Litchfield
DD Chew fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Chew attacking submerged sub ....
SS I-175 eludes DD Chew by diving deep
DD Chew loses contact with SS I-175
DD Chew cannot reach attack position over SS I-175
DD Chew fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Chew fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Chew attacking submerged sub ....
SS I-175 eludes ASW attack from DD Chew
DD Chew cannot reach attack position over SS I-175
DD Chew cannot reach attack position over SS I-175
Escort abandons search for sub


Sub attack near Lihue at 178,105
Japanese Ships
SS I-172

Allied Ships
DD Sands
DD Humphreys

SS I-172 launches 2 torpedoes at DD Sands
I-172 diving deep ....
DD Sands fails to find sub and abandons search
DD Humphreys fails to find sub, continues to search...
Escort abandons search for sub


ASW attack near San Francisco at 218,71
Japanese Ships
SS I-7

Allied Ships
PC Jackson

SS I-7 is located by PC Jackson
I-7 bottoming out ....
PC Jackson fails to find sub, continues to search...
Escort abandons search for sub


ASW attack near Pearl Harbor at 180,106
Japanese Ships
SS I-172

Allied Ships
DD Sands
DD Crosby
DD Humphreys

SS I-172 is located by DD Sands
I-172 diving deep ....
DD Sands fails to find sub and abandons search
DD Humphreys attacking submerged sub ....
SS I-172 eludes DD Humphreys by diving deep
SS I-172 eludes ASW attack from DD Humphreys
DD Humphreys loses contact with SS I-172
DD Humphreys cannot reach attack position over SS I-172
DD Humphreys cannot reach attack position over SS I-172
DD Humphreys fails to find sub, continues to search...
Escort abandons search for sub

Not bad for a single plane...

Morning Air attack on TF, near Bandjermasin at 59,100
Weather in hex: Overcast
Raid spotted at 8 NM, estimated altitude 4,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 3 minutes

Allied aircraft
139WH-3 x 1

Allied aircraft losses
139WH-3: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Hyuga

Aircraft Attacking:
1 x 139WH-3 bombing from 3000 feet *
Naval Attack: 2 x 300 kg SAP Bomb

Larry is right, after at least 9 tries theyre still missin the boat!

Morning Air attack on TF, near Tandjoengpinang at 53,86
Weather in hex: Moderate rain
Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 6,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 13 minutes

Allied aircraft
Vildebeest III x 3

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
CL Jintsu

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x Vildebeest III launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Mk XII Torpedo
1 x Vildebeest III launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Mk XII Torpedo


Morning Air attack on TF, near Djemadja at 53,84
Weather in hex: Light cloud
Raid spotted at 10 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Allied aircraft
Swordfish I x 2
Vildebeest III x 3

Allied aircraft losses
Vildebeest III: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
DD Nowaki

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Vildebeest III launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Mk XII Torpedo
2 x Swordfish I launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Mk XII Torpedo

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Kuantan at 52,81
Weather in hex: Heavy rain
Raid spotted at 13 NM, estimated altitude 8,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 8 minutes

Allied aircraft
Swordfish I x 2
Vildebeest III x 3

Allied aircraft losses
Vildebeest III: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
CA Mogami
CA Suzuya

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Vildebeest III launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Mk XII Torpedo
2 x Swordfish I launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Mk XII Torpedo

F I N A L L Y !!!

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Djemadja at 53,84
Weather in hex: Light rain
Raid spotted at 8 NM, estimated altitude 6,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Allied aircraft
Vildebeest III x 1

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
DD Nowaki, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Aircraft Attacking:
1 x Vildebeest III launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Mk XII Torpedo

Finishing the night off with our favorite hits...the beat goes on!
Japanese forces CAPTURE Mauban !!!
Japanese forces CAPTURE Gorontalo !!!
Japanese forces CAPTURE Oroquieta !!!
Japanese forces CAPTURE Tulagi !!!

[geofflambert]

My advice to you Moo is that while sometimes it is wise to patrol the open sea with ASW, and you must patrol your important ports, at this early stage of the war the subs have the advantage of you. ASW ships with a rating of one or two are more likely to get sunk by a sub than to sink one. They are much more effective when they are escorting convoys than they are when simply patrolling. Those short range AMs and etc. with ratings of four or better are good for patrolling if you can afford them for that, but I like to keep them in pairs. When your DDs upgrade to 6s or 8s, the war is mostly over for the subs.

edit add: Those HDMLs the Brits have early on with ASW rankings of eight seem awesome, but you can't assign them to ASW missions. [&:] Anybody reading this who knows why please speak up. I just put them on surface action patrols and hope they perform as well.

edit more: When you use your ASW capable ships as escorts rather than as patrollers, they greatly improve the chances for you convoys, partly because they may detect the sub first, but also because they make it more difficult for the sub to set up a shot (I think) but perhaps most importantly, the sub will not come up to use its deck gun which is a great bane to unescorted convoys early on, before those cargo ships get armed to the teeth.

[larryfulkerson]

I needed to find another HQ for the 116th Div and these are my choices. Is it considered "gamey" to reassign this bad boy to an Air Division? Enquiring minds want to know.

[moore4807]

geofflambert,

Thats good advice, but either thru FOW or exceptional planning he's got about 10-12 subs inthe SF-PH shipping lanes... I'm running escorts with the convoys, I'm just getting multiple attacks from subs - since there are so many of them! Thats why i'm using the DD's right now - they are due for upgrading in the spring of 42 and I figured I'd get them some experience to boot!

edit: I noticed the HDML problem too in A.I. games. I just use them as sacrificial pickets now to warn when the Japs are coming... They occasionally catch a Jap convoy hitting Mersing or Kuantan...but not this time!

edit more: agreed - I'm auto convoying some TF's they seem to be the ones getting picked on by the subs... just takes forever to manually do every convoy...too lazy I guess.

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: moore4807
edit more: agreed - I'm auto convoying some TF's they seem to be the ones getting picked on by the subs... just takes forever to manually do every convoy...too lazy I guess.

Too lazy? The more you play this game the more you will realize the AI does exactly the wrong thing every time. Never let the computer do anything the game lets you do yourself. Auto convoying? Are you insane? Stop that right now!

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert
Auto convoying? Are you insane? Stop that right now!

I myself have played with Autoconvoying and I didn't like the effect it was giving me. I took over control of the convoys as a matter of policy.

EDIT: It appears that Jim has some TF's operating to the east of Tulagi that I may need to do something about. I've got some carriers that can be shipped there pretty quick so this may be an event that might produce a dicey situation here.

[larryfulkerson]

Hey Jim:

I've noticed a bunch of sweeping missions by your P-40's that aren't hitting anything and I'm wondering if they might be more profitably be employed doing airfield attacks instead? Just a thought.

[moore4807]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Hey Jim:

I've noticed a bunch of sweeping missions by your P-40's that aren't hitting anything and I'm wondering if they might be more profitably be employed doing airfield attacks instead? Just a thought.

Larry,

Yes - and no - I dont know if you know this as a JFB, but the *** P-40B's dont have bombing capability - drop tanks only... and I certainly dont want them strafing on the deck. Uses up too much supply to fix em!

***edit -for some reason I thought both P-40B & P-40E carried drop tanks... The P-40E carries 1 500lb bomb... (re)learn something new every day! ***

The fighters are stuck there and I'm using them as recon...you noted I disbanded the Stearmans, so I'm just sweeping to maintain some checkpoints. Who knows, you may take the bait and come after me...LOL [8D]

[larryfulkerson]

It's looking like we had a friendly fire incident at Miri. According to the Tracker alerts there was an LSD sunk by a 40mm AA gun at Miri. I own that base and have owned it for quite a while. Hmmmmm....

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the latest economy chart for the Jap side:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Jap aircraft production: