cap_and_gown(j) v witpqs(a) - no witpqs

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: Ketza

How long did his reconquest of Northern Aus take and were you defending it or just had a small rear guard there?

I had no one there. I did not fight at all. So his reconquest has taken as long as it takes to move his units from one base to the next.

My only point in taking these bases was to prevent them from being built up for a while as I built up my bases in the DEI.

I will now start working to keep Darwin from being built up through a combination of naval and aerial bombardments.

[CapAndGown]

March 11, 1943

Wallis Island was invaded today. From my spotting report yesterday it appeared that there was only one TF going to Wallis. So I set my Betty's at Suva to a range where they would reach Wallis, but no further. When the combat replay began, however, I was appalled at how many fighters had on CAP.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on TF, near Wallis Island at 142,156
Weather in hex: Heavy rain
Raid detected at 160 NM, estimated altitude 18,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 56 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 31
G4M1 Betty x 17

Allied aircraft
Martlet IV x 18
P-38G Lightning x 1
F4F-3A Wildcat x 7
F4F-4 Wildcat x 26
F4U-1 Corsair x 1

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
G4M1 Betty: 10 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Martlet IV: 2 destroyed
F4F-3A Wildcat: 1 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat: 1 destroyed

I was simply incredulous that the allies could have that many fighters on LRCAP. But when it rolled around to the orders phase, I found there were multiple TFs at Wallis, not just the one I saw yesterday, and at least one of them (probably 2) was a carrier TF. In looking over the combat report, it would appear there were 3 American CVEs and 3 British CVs. (BTW, all 17 Betty's were killed)

So: 1) We have found the British CVs. 2) Since it looks like there were only 3 American CVEs, it would seem that that report of a bomb hit on the Suwanee was real and the Suwanee is still undergoing repairs. 3) No US fleet CVs. Indications still point to the fleet CVs being at Pearl Harbor. 4) Also consider the indications that fuel likely remains a problem in Australia.

I conclude, therefore, that the allies will be conducting their main offensive operations in the Pacific and that the SRA is relatively secure. More specifically, I believe that operations will be conducted with the goal of capturing Fiji. These operations will be supported by LBA and the smaller allied carriers. I also believe that another offensive is probably on tap in the Central Pacific, most likely with the goal of securing the Marshall Islands. This offensive will be supported by the US fleet carriers.

[CapAndGown]

March 13, 1943

I have decided to try to kill some allied planes at Akyab through a naval bombardment. Recon indicates there are something like 300 planes there. The detection level of the base is 9/10. If my light cruisers can get a clear shot at the airfield, and assuming witpqs does not move anybody out, we can probably cause a good deal of damage.

There is no indication that he has spotted me. I created a small TF precisely in order to avoid detection. I kinda blew it, though, by not having their search AC stand down. The Jakes make a couple of spotting reports during the turn. I don't know what witpqs will make of that. Certainly, the TF itself was not spotted since it did not show up as an icon during the replay and there is no detection level on it. Even if he does get a whiff of it, maybe he will think it is ships heading to Rangoon.

He may also have surface ships there to run interference. There are two TFs of "2 ships" each. There are probably more ships than that and they are probably PTs. I don't feel good about endangering my cruisers by going up against PTs. But I would also like to damage his Indian airforce.

Anyway, the die is cast, the dice have been thrown.

Meanwhile, Port Hedland has already grown to be a size 2 airfield. When I left just a little while ago, it was a size 0. I am thinking of paying Hedland a visit with some Battlewagons. I will also start recon of Darwin tomorrow preparatory to naval and aerial bombardments.

[CapAndGown]

March 14, 1943

Our bombardment of Akyab came off without a hitch. Rather than finding PTs awaiting us, there were two single ship TFs made up of xAKLs. Both, obviously, were sunk before the cruisers moved on to hitting the airfield. The results were OK but hardly nuclear, especially considering how many planes were parked there. 4 Hurricanes, 4 Vengence, and 2 Warhawks were destroyed.

Over at Savusavu, 36 B-17s attacked the airfield. We are having real problems there getting our fighters into the air in a timely manner, reducing the overall effectiveness of the CAP. I need to bring in a Ta-Chi 7 equipped unit to improve our response time. One Sentai has seen its morale drop into the teens. I have pulled it out and flown in a fresh set of Tojos. Overall, 5 Tojos were lost on the ground, 2 operationally and only 1 B-17 was shot down. B-24s will probably fly tomorrow. Witpqs is obviously determined to shut this field down. If things get too bad, I will fly LRCAP out of Suva to cover the field.

Our search planes have spotted an allied TF heading to the Elice Islands. I have never occupied these islands since they are all 0/0 SPS. I have seen that even the allies, with their super abundance of engineers, are not able to build 0/0 bases quickly, and of course they cannot be built very large. Perhaps he is just setting up a patrol base.

[bklooste]

With the way the allies are landing the tactic to delay them via far flung bases is / was sound however the use of single regiments and SNLF maybe dubious since his attacks are  always division sized so maybe just defend at company ( Battalion?) strength or Divisional strength .
 
Are you going to challange teh Marshalls or Fiji with KB ? 6-9 more months and KB wont be much use.

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: bklooste

With the way the allies are landing the tactic to delay them via far flung bases is / was sound however the use of single regiments and SNLF maybe dubious since his attacks are  always division sized so maybe just defend at company ( Battalion?) strength or Divisional strength .

Are you going to challange teh Marshalls or Fiji with KB ? 6-9 more months and KB wont be much use.

The KB needs to be employed before June since that is when the allies receive significant carrier reinforcements. For now, however, I plan on holding off on using it unless a critical sector is attacked. In my mind, the critical sectors are the arc running from Timor up through the Kra Isthmus and the Kuriles. The Marianas are also a critical sector, but I do not think he would attack so deeply into the empire since he would have extreme difficulty maintaining his line of communications.

I would prefer to commit the KB only after the allied carriers had suffered several days of attrition to their CAP from LBA. While I was hoping I could stage such an attrition battle in the Marshalls, it is looking less likely that I can do that due to a lack of aviation support. That may change as more aviation units arrive over the next month. Of course, I could just say the hell with it and stack up my AC well beyond the aviation support available and now that I think about it, that is what I may do. I just hate seeing those red numbers on the base info screen. [;)] In this scenario, only a token bomber force would be used in order to get a large number of escorts to fly. Instead of aiming for the ships, I would be aiming for the CAP. Hmm, have to think about that.

At any rate, I wonder what my opponent is thinking about the lack of carrier opposition. This "fleet in being" approach may be making him more cautious and slowing down his advance. OTOH, I am not sure he is being cautious enough. Maybe he knows where the KB is based and so he is not that worried, but his invasion of Wallis Island looked quite vulnerable since all he had were US CVE's and RAN CVs. If the KB had chosen that moment to show up, he would have been in a world of hurt.

As to his division sized invasions, I suspect he knows just how big my garrisons are (allied sigint plus recon) and so is using right-sized forces. If the garrisons were smaller, his invasions probably would be too. OTOH, if he were to hit the DEI or the Solomons, such an invasion would be contested to a much greater extent and rather than evacing anyone, I would be trying to feed in reinforcements. With Somoa and Fiji I would much rather pull people out than try to make a determined stand. Indeed, if I can keep pulling out cadres as he advances, I will become stronger and stronger as he advances. Already Fiji is much more strongly held than previously because of the units I got out of Somoa and rebuilt. Once he moves on Fiji I plan on evacing cadres to the New Hebrides. (The garrisons on the Tonga Islands are write-offs since they will go poof in about 200 days anyways.)

[FatR]

Now that you know your opponent's axis of advance, contesting landings with the might of Combined Fleet makes sense. Japanese now have their last window of opportunity for a game-changing naval victory.

As about the overstaking, in short term it doesn't pose much problems, unless the airfield is bombed. Again, I think that you shouldn't be as conservative with your planes when contesting landings as you seem to be. Planes are replaceable and, to a lesser extent, so are pilots. Small raids like you're launching only cause losses without getting results, to slow Allies down you need massive air attacks. Alternatively, just don't contest them, unless you're fairly sure that you can launch such an attack.

[CapAndGown]

March 16, 1942

Witpqs continues to hit Savusavu. Last turn saw sweeps by P-38s as well as bombing attacks by B-17 and B-24s. This turn it was just the heavies. Runway damage is up to 70. Not sure why he is so intent on shutting this particular field down. There are a bunch of others there as well that I can use. Its not like I am going to pull out just because he is bombing it. My only real problem is getting replacement for the planes I lose. My supply at Suva dropped below the magic 20,000 that I need, so I have a supply convoy heading down there to restock the place.

There is a bunch of shipping over at Somoa. His next invasion is obviously not that far away.

Port Hedland is rapidly building up. Not cool. [:-]

[CapAndGown]

March 18, 1942

Air strikes continue against SavuSavu. P-38s sweeping at 30,000 feet (our house rule limit) did a number on my CAP. The airfield is now at 97% damage. I don't even know if the planes there are flying. I suppose I could examine the combat report more closely to find out. I am pretty sure most of the CAP there is made up of planes flying out of Suva.

I did get a hint as to why I couldn't get reinforcement planes there. My squadrons on Fiji itself were able to take reinforcements this turn, even though supply is below the magic 20,000. So now I am thinking it may be the runway damage that is preventing reinforcements. Doesn't matter at this point, though, since I will not be taking any reinforcements for the squadrons there until the runway damage comes down and they can start flying in larger numbers, or until I pull them out of there, whichever comes first.

Actually, a thought comes to mind: pull them back to Suva, but leave some damaged fragments behind to make it appear as though they are still there. Then have them LRCAP the base. Of course, a close examination of the combat report would reveal what I was up to, so that might not work.

[CapAndGown]

March 21, 1942

The allies captured Hoorn Island just east of the Fiji group yesterday. In order to try to delay the construction of an airfield there (SPS of 4) I decided to port attack the island with some Helens at Suva. I figured that witpqs would be expecting such a move, so I also set a Sentai of Tojo's to sweep the place to clear out any LRCAP before the Helen's arrived. It worked like a charm: 2 Corsairs were shot down, a number of Wildcats were damaged, and the Helen's made their bombing run unmolested.

It now appears that the allies are about to deliver base forces and engineers to the island. So for tomorrow, I will not only sweep and port attack, I also have a sentai of Helen's trained on lownav set to naval attack at 1000 feet and another sentai of Betty's set to naval attack, this time, hopefully, with a Zero escort.

I am now experiencing the full glory of Japanese lack of aviation support: all my bases around Fiji are stacked up with more planes than aviation support. I imagine we can expect to have a bunch of damaged planes sitting on the runways after today. [:D]

In other news, the allies made a paradrop on Baker island. This seems excessive to me. I don't think my opponent has twigged to the idea of using some DDs as fast transports to move in little fragments to capture bases. One or two DDs can carry enough troops to capture any unoccupied base.

[Wirraway_Ace]

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown



In other news, the allies made a paradrop on Baker island. This seems excessive to me. I don't think my opponent has twigged to the idea of using some DDs as fast transports to move in little fragments to capture bases. One or two DDs can carry enough troops to capture any unoccupied base.

Allied DDs cannot carry any troops; at least early in the war (I have not made it into 43 yet). He has a handful of APDs that can conduct Japanese style fast transport missions.

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: Wirraway_Ace

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

In other news, the allies made a paradrop on Baker island. This seems excessive to me. I don't think my opponent has twigged to the idea of using some DDs as fast transports to move in little fragments to capture bases. One or two DDs can carry enough troops to capture any unoccupied base.

Allied DDs cannot carry any troops; at least early in the war (I have not made it into 43 yet). He has a handful of APDs that can conduct Japanese style fast transport missions.

You mean the Japanese actually have a capability the allies don't? [X(] Now I just need to find a Japanese equivalent of the A-Bomb and I've got this thing in the bag! [:D]

[Wirraway_Ace]

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

ORIGINAL: Wirraway_Ace

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

In other news, the allies made a paradrop on Baker island. This seems excessive to me. I don't think my opponent has twigged to the idea of using some DDs as fast transports to move in little fragments to capture bases. One or two DDs can carry enough troops to capture any unoccupied base.

Allied DDs cannot carry any troops; at least early in the war (I have not made it into 43 yet). He has a handful of APDs that can conduct Japanese style fast transport missions.

You mean the Japanese actually have a capability the allies don't? [X(] Now I just need to find a Japanese equivalent of the A-Bomb and I've got this thing in the bag! [:D]

Yep. Just to be clear, his cruisers can't carry troops or cargo either. Makes it tough to conduct emergency evacuations.

Very nice AAR by the way. I was not paying attention to the TOE upgrades for the base force units that can include coastal guns.

[CapAndGown]

March 24, 1943

Same old, same old.

I continue to sweep Hoorn Island with decent results. He has some CVEs parked next to the island that are contributing their CAP to the defense of the island. As a result, they are losing a bunch of Wildcats and Martlets. OTOH, I am not able to totally defeat the CAP, or else not all my sweeps arrive before the bombers, so they are getting kind of beat up.

Meanwhile, he has shifted the heavies from Savusavu to Suva and I just can't seem to hurt them no matter how large my CAP. I probably shoot down one heavy a turn. And they are flying every turn, yet don't seem to be raking up any ops losses. He is killing a bunch of planes on the ground and the runway is fairly beat up. I have fighter sentais at the satellite fields set to LRCAP Suva and just moved in another sentai of Zero's to help out. I am afraid what is happening is that as his bomber pilots grow more experienced, they are able to enhance the armor protection of their planes. [:'(]

Nevertheless, I will keep at it. I would like to make it so that he feels the need to keep feeding additional resources into this battle. If I can do that, and I don't know that I can, or just how many resources he has at this point, then maybe I can delay any moves on other axises.

[PaxMondo]

When you are setting CAP against the 4E with multiple Sqdrn, what altitude mix are you using?

[CapAndGown]

March 25, 1942

The turn began with several sub actions. A US sub tried to shoot at one of my escorts for a troop convoy sailing from Yokohama to Rabaul. It missed. One of my subs at the northwest tip of Australia sank an xAKL. More importantly, it also shot at a well guarded troop convoy heading either for Port Hedland or Broome.
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ASW attack near Exmouth at 50,128

Japanese Ships
SS I-153, hits 1

Allied Ships
CL Sumatra
CL Java
AM Bowen
xAP Morinda
xAP Van Neck
xAP Rochussen
xAP Mijer
xAP Camphuys
xAKL Sibolga
xAKL Schouten
DD La Triomphant
DD Stuart
AM Cootamundra

Witpqs is obviously concerned about surface raiders. He is going to get them too. I am sending down the 4 Kongo's and 8 DDs from Singapore to see if we can't do something about this. Probably won't work out since he will probably spot me as I set up for the run in. But I am going to give it a shot.

During the day phase, Hoorn was swept again and Suva was attacked. Some P-38s coming into Suva at 15,000 feet were butchered. 7 were lost A2A, 1 operationally. They were obviously meant as an escort but had become separated from the bombers. Then the heavies arrived. This turn, supposedly, 2 B-24s were shot down. Then a "real" sweep of P-38s came in, i.e. 30,000 feet, and exacted some revenge. Escorts for heavies? Hmm, I wonder if we are causing a little more grief than is apparent from the FOW?

It is time to start thinking about evacing cadres from Fiji before he can set up LRCAP over those bases.

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

When you are setting CAP against the 4E with multiple Sqdrn, what altitude mix are you using?

Basically, everyone is set to 30,000 feet except for one sentai of Zero's, which is set at 15,000 because it is dedicated to escorting Betty's also set to 15,000. We have a house rule limiting sweeps and CAP to 30,000 feet, so pretty much that is where everyone flies. Layered CAP does not really seem to work very well.

My biggest problem is my crappy radar that only detects the raids when they are almost overhead. The type 2 radar will not upgrade to the type 3 until October. Even then, the type 3 is not as good as the Ta-Chi 7. (I guess the navy got the short end of the stick on this procurement.) For this reason, I am spending some PPs to buy out some air defense regiments in the Home Islands that are equipped with Ta-Chi 7 radars. I am just now installing Ta-Chi 7 units on the three islands around Luganville. More units are on the way (the troop convoy I mentioned earlier was carrying three or four of these).

[CapAndGown]

March 26, 1942

This turn saw a little better results dealing with the 4E menace. 3 Liberators were shot down and one was lost operationally. I think it was the addition of a new Zero sentai with its 20mm cannons that helped. I have some Nicks up at Luganville that I may bring down as relief hitters. OTOH, B-25s from Wallis are now beginning to attack Savusavu. So far they are using an extended range load, since Wallis is only a level three so far, but this will only get worse. My sweep over Hoorn accounted for 2 F4Fs and 1 Martlet. Tomorrow Zeros are going to do the sweeping. I need to make those carriers go away so I can bomb the island. And the only way to do that is reduce their CAP; an outright naval attack would not work since I am pretty sure my bombers could not penetrate the CAP, and you can't directly sweep a TF. So I am doing the next best thing and sweeping a hex where I know their CAP will be.

[CapAndGown]

March 27, 1943

The situation around Fiji continues to deteriorate. His heavies hit one of my satellite fields and it looks like he may be setting up for a bombardment of either that field (Gau Island) or Savusavu. B-25s hit Savusavu again, and heavies attacked Suva. OTOH, my sweeps over Hoorn Islands are doing OK. I would send in some bombers tomorrow, except that I only have 14 pilots for 27 planes. It is taking forever for replacement pilots to arrive. I need to have more pilots in each group's reserve so I can pop them out instantly when needed.

For tomorrow I will sweep Hoorn again since that seems to be working well. I am also setting an LRCAP over Savusavu. B-17s and B-24s may be invulnerable, but I bet B-25s aren't. [:D]

I have also begun the process of pulling out cadres. They are being flown out to Luganville. from there, they will board transports and head to Rabaul where they will be rebuilt when their parent unit is destroyed. The Solomons are going to be one tough nut to crack should he decide to head that way.

[CapAndGown]

March 28, 1943

Yesterday, one of our ASW patrols reported attacking and hitting the SS Tautog. It came up on the sunk ships list. This turn I actually heard a sub sink and the Tautog came off the list. It would seem that we actually got the sucker. There is a slight chance that this was the sound of another sub that our escorts attacked two turns ago, but I think not, since we did not even score one hit in that case. So score one for the flyboys!

The situation around Fiji is not getting any better. Another 2 B-17s were shot down. And our sweep of Hoorn Islands netted a number of Wildcats. But our airfields continue to be beat up. I am afraid our engineering assets are just not up to snuff. I did bring down a Sentai of Nicks to help out. I am expecting a P-38 sweep tomorrow. I imagine that will hurt some. I have given up on sweeping Hoorn Island. My bombers are in no condition to make any attacks right now, so I have pulled them out. Having conceded that I am not going to be able keep Hoorn suppressed, it no longer makes sense to keep sweeping the place. Now I am just focusing on shooting down bombers.

The evacuation of cadres continues apace. More are being evaced today.

No sign of the allied fleet CVs. I am beginning to wonder if they are heading for the Indian Ocean via the Atlantic in order to keep their movement a secret. I still have a sub picket line down south that I feel rather confident would have picked up the movement of CVs down there. And I am sure the witpqs knows I have that picket line down there. Now I am getting paranoid again!

[CapAndGown]

March 29, 1943

The Nick's did OK in today's attack on Suva. The big advantage of the Nick's is their durability (36) and their armor. From watching the replay, these advantages showed up in the Nick's ability to keep flying even after taking damage from the 4E defensive guns. Unlike the Tojo's and Zero's which tend to abort after being damaged, the Nick's just kept firing until they ran out of ammo or had some other problem like low fuel or losing engine pressure.

OTOH, because of the game mechanics whereby the allied player can always see where the Japanese player has rebased his planes during his orders phase, witpqs attacked the airfield at Nadi, damaging of bunch of the Nick's on the ground. This is something I forgot about. A definite disadvantage for the Japanese side.

Despite the Nick's durability, they did not manage to shoot down any enemy bombers outright. They did damage a bunch of them and perhaps contributed to another 2 B-17E's lost operationally. According to the intel screen, the allies have lost 95 B-17E's.

Strategic Withdrawal

I have now made a major decision: I am going to evacuate New Caledonia. I have two regiments, a recon battalion, an air HQ, a naval guard unit, three engineer battalions, and 5 aviation battalions there. I am going to try to get everyone out except for two aviation battalions which will be left in place to service my patrol planes. Most of these units will be transferred to the Solomons, while some will be used to reinforce my cluster of bases around Luganville.