Tale of the Sheep! - JocMeister (A) vs. Lowpe (J)

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Victory Points[/font]
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We continue to catch up at a steady pace.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Rabaul[/font]
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Jeff continues to fight here and steadily reinforce with more troops. The last attack dropped forts down to 1 though and allied artillery is causing a lot of damage. Jeff is countering this using bombardments from the sea. 2 BBs + some CAs as bombarding almost every turn but damage is slight.

I´ll do one more attack here before I land the armor and 25th ID. Once the 25th is landed I will pull out the Americal. They have other work to do. The armor and a fresh division will surely be enough to tip the balance.

The fleet will soon be in position to start clearing the mines at Rabaul. Just need to pick some stuff up at PM first.

[BBfanboy]

Nice pressure on his Burma AF, but with the rail lines he can move out his damaged aircraft before you can pound them again. [:(]

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Nice pressure on his Burma AF, but with the rail lines he can move out his damaged aircraft before you can pound them again. [:(]

Yeah, not to worried about him getting the aircraft out though. Main thing was closing the airfield (fingers crossed I did).

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Burma[/font]
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Got the turn back. Losses a little higher than I expected but Magwe seems closed! [&o]

[obvert]

He won't be happy wth 47 Franks hit on the ground. you also probably damaged anything left for the next few days, so even if he were to try to support from nearby bases most of these groups would be out of action.

Your sweeps did well. Curious if he's using the low CAP settings? All below 10k and layered?

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: obvert

He won't be happy wth 47 Franks hit on the ground. you also probably damaged anything left for the next few days, so even if he were to try to support from nearby bases most of these groups would be out of action.

Your sweeps did well. Curious if he's using the low CAP settings? All below 10k and layered?

They were layered at different altitudes with the Franks stacked on top @30k. But only 70 where available as Jeff had been doing lots of offensive actions with the Franks sweeping here and there for a couple of days.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: obvert

He won't be happy wth 47 Franks hit on the ground. you also probably damaged anything left for the next few days, so even if he were to try to support from nearby bases most of these groups would be out of action.

Your sweeps did well. Curious if he's using the low CAP settings? All below 10k and layered?

They were layered at different altitudes with the Franks stacked on top @30k. But only 70 where available as Jeff had been doing lots of offensive actions with the Franks sweeping here and there for a couple of days.

Interesting. I was wondering, now that I'm on the Allied side again, how you're getting such good results against the low CAP settings he normally uses. I guess he's now experimenting with other things.

Good to see the AAR up and running more regularly. I know what it takes now to try and do this with a young one in the house! Not easy. And you have a few!

If you get a chance I think you might like Siren Brewery's IPA. Seems your style. Big and hoppy and full of flavours.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: obvert

He won't be happy wth 47 Franks hit on the ground. you also probably damaged anything left for the next few days, so even if he were to try to support from nearby bases most of these groups would be out of action.

Your sweeps did well. Curious if he's using the low CAP settings? All below 10k and layered?

They were layered at different altitudes with the Franks stacked on top @30k. But only 70 where available as Jeff had been doing lots of offensive actions with the Franks sweeping here and there for a couple of days.

Interesting. I was wondering, now that I'm on the Allied side again, how you're getting such good results against the low CAP settings he normally uses. I guess he's now experimenting with other things.

Good to see the AAR up and running more regularly. I know what it takes now to try and do this with a young one in the house! Not easy. And you have a few!

If you get a chance I think you might like Siren Brewery's IPA. Seems your style. Big and hoppy and full of flavours.

Thanks for the tip! I´ll look into it. Always on the lookout for a good IPA! [&o]

[Lokasenna]

Lucky for you that your P-47s arrived first on the sweep, instead of the P-38s [;)].

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Lucky for you that your P-47s arrived first on the sweep, instead of the P-38s [;)].

They didn´t. Hellcats arrived first. [:)]

[JocMeister]

Jeff is really busy with IRL stuff so it might be a few days without turn.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Rabaul[/font]
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With Darwin secured and everything back in order its now to take on Rabaul in earnest. Fleet move in backed up by the airforce. Weather isn´t the best and this probably saves 2 BBs for Jeff.

First a naval battle of Rabaul itself as an allied screening force run into the main Japanese battle group. Results are very good.

Day Time Surface Combat, near Rabaul at 106,125, Range 29,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Hiei, Shell hits 3
BB Nagato, Shell hits 5
CA Tone, Shell hits 3
CA Chikuma, Shell hits 7, on fire
CA Mikuma, Shell hits 8
CA Kumano, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Teruzuki
DD Kazegumo, Shell hits 2
DD Kagero, Shell hits 1
DD Hamakaze
DD Hayate
DD Tadeshiwa, Shell hits 1

Allied Ships
CL St. Louis, Shell hits 3, on fire
CL Helena, Shell hits 9, on fire
CL Boise, Shell hits 7
CL Nashville, Shell hits 5, heavy fires
DD Fletcher, Shell hits 2
DD Chevalier, Shell hits 4
DD Conway, Shell hits 1
DD Cony, Shell hits 3
DD DeHaven, Shell hits 1
DD Jenkins, Shell hits 1
DD Frazier, Shell hits 2, on fire
DMS Chandler, Shell hits 9, and is sunk
DMS Wasmuth

After this the forces disengage only to clash again later in the day.

Day Time Surface Combat, near Rabaul at 106,125, Range 29,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Hiei
BB Nagato, Shell hits 1
CA Tone, Shell hits 2, on fire
CA Chikuma, Shell hits 5, heavy fires
CA Mikuma, Shell hits 6, heavy fires
CA Kumano, Shell hits 1, heavy fires
DD Teruzuki, Shell hits 4, heavy fires
DD Kazegumo, on fire
DD Kagero, Shell hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Hamakaze
DD Hayate, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
DD Tadeshiwa, Shell hits 1

Allied Ships
CL St. Louis, Shell hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Helena, Shell hits 4, on fire
CL Boise, Shell hits 1, on fire
CL Nashville, Shell hits 3, heavy fires
DD Fletcher, Shell hits 6, on fire
DD Chevalier
DD Conway
DD Cony, Shell hits 1
DD DeHaven, Shell hits 1
DD Jenkins, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Frazier, Shell hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DMS Wasmuth, Shell hits 1, heavy fires

All in all a very good allied performance as 4 CLs dish out more than they get by 2 BBs and 3 CAs. Definitively an Allied victory even if St. Louis sinks. I havn´t even committed my capital ships yet! 4 Fast BBs and 12 CAs are still on standby awaiting the mines to be cleared.

Speaking of which. The poor AMs take a beating from coastal guns but about 140 mines are cleared during the day.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Rabaul[/font]
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Damned weather. My CVE force spot 2 lone Japanese BBs without proper aircover...this is the sad result.

Morning Air attack on TF, near Rabaul at 105,125

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms [:@]

Raid detected at 76 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 36 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2-N Rufe x 2

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 10
FM-1 Wildcat x 18
F6F-3 Hellcat x 30
TBF-1 Avenger x 46

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
FM-1 Wildcat: 1 destroyed
TBF-1 Avenger: 5 damaged
TBF-1 Avenger: 1 destroyed by flak

Japanese Ships
BB Hiei, Torpedo hits 1
DD Tadeshiwa
BB Nagato

Aircraft Attacking:
8 x TBF-1 Avenger launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 22.4in Mk 13 Torp.
7 x TBF-1 Avenger launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 22.4in Mk 13 Torp.
8 x TBF-1 Avenger launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 22.4in Mk 13 Torp.
8 x TBF-1 Avenger launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 22.4in Mk 13 Torp.
7 x TBF-1 Avenger launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 22.4in Mk 13 Torp.
7 x TBF-1 Avenger launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 22.4in Mk 13 Torp.

[paullus99]

Ugh....so close!

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]NORPAC[/font]
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Kodiak finally falls.

Ground combat at Kodiak (181,42)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 12913 troops, 192 guns, 139 vehicles, Assault Value = 346

Defending force 4146 troops, 22 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 114

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 0

Allied adjusted assault: 132

Japanese adjusted defense: 15

Allied assault odds: 8 to 1 (fort level 0)

Allied forces CAPTURE Kodiak !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+), preparation(-), fatigue(-)
experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
1374 casualties reported
Squads: 8 destroyed, 48 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 39 disabled
Engineers: 7 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 11 (8 destroyed, 3 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
237 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 36 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled

Assaulting units:
53rd (Sep) Infantry Regiment
50th Cmbt Engineer Regiment
22nd Marine Regiment
31st Infantry Regiment
5th Marine Defense Battalion
Provisional GMC Grp

Defending units:
65th Bde /4
302nd Ind.Infantry Battalion
Ichiki Det.

This effectively cuts Anchorage off and the 15k Japanese troops stationed in that area. Mopping up will commence shortly. Things will quiet down here for a while as I need to expand Kodiak to support the next push towards Cold Bay.

A bit disappointed Jeff didn´t fight harder here. I hope he will once we push further West. I want to draw him East.

[JocMeister]

Don´t have the turn file yet so I don´t really know the losses yet. St. Louis looks pretty bad though.

[Lokasenna]

Well, they were faster BBs. In my experience, unless it's a slow American BB you can't really hit it with an aerial torpedo until it's been slowed down or taken damage from something else (bomb or shell). Sometimes you get lucky.

Unless I think a CV battle is happening, I fly my TBFs with 2x500-lb bombs. More reliable.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Well, they were faster BBs. In my experience, unless it's a slow American BB you can't really hit it with an aerial torpedo until it's been slowed down or taken damage from something else (bomb or shell). Sometimes you get lucky.

Unless I think a CV battle is happening, I fly my TBFs with 2x500-lb bombs. More reliable.

Yeah, might try something like that too. In my game with Erik my TBs pretty much never did something useful. Switched them to pure search/ASW/Ground support at the end.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Losses[/font]
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Wasn´t the St Louis in danger but actually the Nashville who sadly sinks. My AMs also took a beating from the CD guns but this was to be expected.