The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[Canoerebel]

Two questions:

1. Can ships withdraw from Colombo if it's a level 9 port? (I think so, but it's been a long, long time since I had to actually know....)

2. Can Colombo shipyard handle Wasp? She's 14,700 tons. As best I can read, Colombo can handle 40,000 tons total. But I can't figure out if she can handle Wasp - I've apparently forgotten how to interpret ship repair informaton.

Wasp is probalby bound for Capetown, but if Colombo can handle her, I'll give it consideration before making the decision.

[Mike McCreery]

If you click on Columbo and then click the anchor for ships anchored at Columbo it brings up the naval screen where the repair capacity is listed on the right side.

The capacity in my game is 40,000 tons but it differs between scenarios.

Yes, if it says 40,000 tons then Columbo can handle almost anything besides the big fat BB's. The 40,000 tons refers to max ship size. You can overstack the repairs in port.

[Canoerebel]

Thanks, Wargmer. Perhaps I'll send Wasp to Colombo, where her remaining aircraft can unload and be of use.

CV Illustrious is a week overdo to withdraw. Can I withdraw her from Colombo? I think so, but I'm not positive.

[catwhoorg]

from the readme

Allow ship withdrawals at any on map level-9 port and some
smaller ports with no enemy nearby. Ships can always be withdrawn from any offmap
port or from any TF that is currently off map. Ships that are not badly damaged
can be withdrawn from some on-map ports or from TFs in certain on-map regions.
For on map, ship may not be on fire, total damage may not exceed 99 and no
individual damage type (system, floatation, engine) may exceed 50. Ships may not
be withdrawn from any on-map location where the enemy has air superiority. The
intent is to prevent withdrawal as a method of saving a ship that stands a good chance
of being lost or further damaged. On map withdrawal ports are set based on the
historical exit locations for ships leaving the Pacific:
1. Any level 9 port.
2. National home ports of the United States, Canada, India, Australia, and New
Zealand (with no port level requirement)
3. Any level 7 or larger port on the US or Canadian West Coast.
4. Any level 7 or larger Indian port East of Ceylon (including Ceylon itself)
5. Any level 7 or larger port in South Eastern Australia, plus Perth.
6. Any level 7 or larger port in New Zealand

That East of Ceylon should be West I think. But Yes a level 9 Columbo should allow withdrawls.

[Canoerebel]

Thanks, Catwhorg!

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth
I feel the Geico Peter Pan commercial......"Dan? ......is that you? I have not read this AAR report in over 2 years!"......wow, this is back on. Welcome back. Hope all is well with you and yours. Waht an unexpected Christmas pleasure. Thanks for getting the band back together

It's fun to be back after this long. It's great to see posts from so many "original readers," including you, John.

P.S. I haven't seen the Geico commercial. I haven't seen any commercials. (No televsion at the Canoerebel house.)

[Canoerebel]

January 7 was a pretty quiet day.

KB moved SW. It is possible that John will sprint to catch some of the shipping that fled west from Sabang two days ago. But he won't if fuel is a concern.

Mini KB is a hex from Port Blair. So John isn't offering battle.

Lots of Tojo sweeps and some Betty raids at Sabang, but they find no CAP and the ships targeted (mainly SCs) too small to hit. I'll put up CAP again tomorrow.

Death Star to retire to Colombo, where Wasp will repair and Illustrious will withdraw.

The past week has been fairly successful for the Allies.

The bugout from Sabang went far better than it might have, especially considering the departue coincided precisely with the arrival of the KB right in the sea lanes! BBs Washington, Maryland and West Virginia made it safely. Almost unbelievably, CVEs Copahee and Long Island made it while sailing naked and in proximity to KB. The was The Immaculate Evasion. Allied combat ships bedeviled Japanee fleet carriers, scoring some hits. And at least 100 KB aircraft were downed.

On the flip side, KB did score some hits. The biggest lost is CA Frobisher. And Wasp suffered moderate damage.

The campaign isn't over yet, but it is winding down.

The overall situation at Sumatra doesn't change much. The Allies will put up a fight as long as possible, but in the near term I think the Allied airforce will have to retire. Let's see.

[BBfanboy]

John's hyper-aggressive play has got him in trouble in the past and may do so again.
I would not discount the possibility of him attacking Colombo if he knows your CVs are there, even if you have lots of fighters there.

[Canoerebel]

John is aggressive, but he will not send the KB against a hardened target. His style is limited to using the KB on deep, epic raids (around Oz, etc.) and to hitting major Allied ports early in the game (Sydney being a good example). In that case, he knows Sydney has little real fighter protection.

If he sniffs an opportunity to hit an unprotected major port later in the game, he'll do so. But he won't take that chance if it's a hardened target. He doesn't like blunting the tip of his speer that way.

[Canoerebel]

The outcome of the Battle of Sumatra will be determined over the next few weeks. I'm going to do my best to juggle the air force and use the Navy to maintain status quo. There's a chance the Allies can hold, though it's going to be very difficult.

What happens if Sumatra falls? I don't think John will transition to the defensive. He'll have seven to ten divisions (or more) to commit to offensive operations. Ceylon would be a possibility (for that reason, I have to be careful in ordering upgrades to carriers as they might get hung up too long). More likely would be a landing at Vizagapatim or Chittagong in an effort to islolate the big Allied army in Burma. There are other possiblities, but I consider them very remote.

I'm going to try run a feint, making it appear that Viz and Chittagong are relatively week, but establishing a defense that can move forward and occupy both bases just on the eve of invasion.

Meantime, the Allies have been preparing for future operations in the Pacific, though nothing sexy is going to happen anytime soon.

[Canoerebel]

Battle of Sumatra

To reinforce or not to reinforce...to fight forward or not...are the questions I'm debating.

I am aware that players of a certain caliber could take the situation the Allies have in Sumatra and use it to good advantage, feeding in reinforcements (land and air) and manage to keep John at bay. Doing so successfully would preserve the dagger in John's side that an Allied Sumatra represents. Doing so successfully would also mean that I wouldn't have any real concerns about Ceylon, NE India and Burma.

The problem is that I am a player of a different and somewhat lesser caliber. I have a hard time envisioning a scenario in which such a campaign would offer reasonable odds of success.

If I abandon caution and choose the aggressive defense, hoping that through hard work and application of thought, I could win, there is a prospect that I'll actually be reinforcing defeat at catastrophic cost. Most of the Allied Army in this theater is now committed forward in Sumatra and Burma. If I bring in additional reinforcements (which will mainly come from Ceylon, which has roughly 350 AV available), I leave the cupboard bare. That's bad for defense, but it also means going forward the Allies will have little to fight with for a long, long time.

The same thing applies to combat ships and some merchant ships. I've lost quite a bit in this campaign to date and losses could become prohibitive, affecting operations well into the future.

These are things I'm mulling over. Fight aggressively or fight defensively are the two options.

[witpqs]

Ground reinforcement would be a bad idea, as you outlined. Advancing in Sumatra would require that, and so should wait. Merely keeping the lodgment viable is a success because of what it ties down and the position it holds for later use.

Air reinforcement is called for to the point of holding. Obviously at this point the Allies are hard pressed for aerial resources, at least fighters, which are what matter there.

Is this game new enough that it has the AA re-calibration that JWE did? Some of that applied to land, also, IIRC. And Michael did make some changes or a change a couple of years back that improved the performance of land AA (don't recall the nature of it). Depending on what is already there, some ground reinforcement of AA units might be in order.

I understand the time of game and that nothing spectacular is imminent in far off fronts. In Patton's "Grab them by the nose and kick them in the ass!" this is the nose you've grabbed, and holding it is an objective in itself. In this case, holding it is doing something.

[HansBolter]

I agree completely.

Cutting and running would likely entail huge losses in ground troops and ships.

Continuing aggressive expansion is beyond your pool depths in men, planes and ships at this juncture.

Holding tenaciously is the order of the day.

Make him commit resources in the effort to dislodge you.

Feed in only enough to hold on ala...Stalingrad.

Time is on your side. Use it well.

[Canoerebel]

01/09/43

No turn from John since yesterday morning. But I didn't post an update on yesterday's activity, so here goes:

KB: Retired strong SSW to a point NW of Sabang. It's almost as if John is aggressively pursuing the chicks that fled Sabang to the west. If he continues, he can catch up to some of the slower vessels, and his search picked up some of them. The major ships - fast BBs South Dakota and Something-Or-Other-I-Forget-Which-State are in the clear, as is slow BB Resolution. The APDs and DMs are also clear. But an AE and AS or two plus a few xAP are in harm's way. None of my suface combat TFs, including CL Helena, succeeded in intercepting.

Mini KB: Retired from Port Blair to a point NNW of Sabang, separated considerably from KB. Mini-KB flew a strike against Sabang's CAP. The strike got chewed up.

IJN Carrier Dispersal: John has his three carrier TFs separated, which is risky behavior in enemy waters. Had I forseen how he would do this, I would've moved to fight KB in detail. But from my viewpoint, the rational action was for him to mas his carriers together, so I acted on the assumption he would act rationally. I was willing to give battle when so many intangibles were in my favor (as when I offered it near Ceylon a few turns back), but not further south where several of those intangibles are considerably reduced.

On the Ground: A big stack of IJ divisions defeated the Allied army south of Medan, gaining a 3:1. This surprised me. I thought Verndergrift's Marines plus supporting units would hold in jungle terrain. This means the Allies will lose Medan and that the ground campaign will shift over the next week or so towards Langsa.

In the Air: Big Tojo sweeps versus mostly Army Air Cap at Sabang. The Army does pretty well. John is having a hard time winning this battle, which comes as a bit of a surprise too. When we restarted the game with the 1/3/43 turn, I figured Sabang air defense would be shut down by now.

Burma: The Allies will put up meaningful LRCAP over two stacks of ground units near Magwe. This is their first appearance in weeks (and years, real time, given our hiatus from the game). John's been sending in scores of naked Helens, Salleys, etc., so I hope to pick some off.

Pacific and Elsewhere: I'm looking hard at longterm plans here. I have very long range objectives that begin with tiny steps ongoing now. But this is so far off into the future that there's no need to go into detail. Suffice to say, the Allies will eventually kick Japan's booty out of Sumatra or Java or New Guinea or the Aleutians or the Marshalls or some exotic place.

[Canoerebel]

1/10/43

Battle of Sumatra: Massed Tojo sweeps at Sabang result in roughly 1:1 losses, a result that isn't sustainable for the Allies if Japan can keep up the pressure. The Allied forward armies are trying to consolidate at Medan, the first step towards withdrawing into the jungle near Langsa.

Battle of Burma: Allied LRCAP trap works to perfection, downing a bunch of Helens, etc. over the Allied stack near Magwe. John will react strongly, so I'll have to cross him up tomorrow.

Air Losses: The Allies continue to win the air battles while somehow losing the air war. In the last week, Japan has lost 529 aircraft; the Allies have lost 247. For the game, Japan has lost 8,523 and the Allies 5,662. Despite P-39s facing Tojos, the Allies are even winning the a-2-a combats overall.

KB: Retires "into the shades," as the legendary Greyjoy would say. Lots of Allied subs concentrating at the Sunda Straits, but John may send his carriers around the long way. All the chicks fleeing west from Sabang look safe. Some will exit the map and make for Capetown. Others are heading to Colombo.

Death Star: Wasp will retire to Capetown. The other carriers are going to Bombay to upgrade, where available.

[Canoerebel]

The Tortured Tale of HMS Ramilles

Ramilles continues her odd ways. Each turn, I issue orders setting Capetown as her "home port" and give orders for her to return. Each turn, the computer resets the home port to Colombo and sends her back into harm's way. I think this is a glitch in the game. If so, its the second to affect Ramilles. After she was torpedoed in the autumn of '42 during the Battle of Assam, she retired to Male Island to pump out water. A glitch occurred where I couldn't get her out of "pierside." That glitch was resolved when John and I upgraded last week. So Ramilles should've been in Capetown months ago but instead is stuck in the Twilight Zone.

This time I've set her destination and home port to Socatra in hopes of shaking free of whatever retracting beam has hold on Ramilles.

These aren't the only glitches that have bedeviled me in this theater. The biggest thus far was when the game manged to reset some of my Sumatra invasion TFs from "combat mode" to "strat mode." As a result, 27th USA Division came ashore in strat mode! This slowed down the opening moves of the invasion.

Another puzzling and harmful bug was that none of the Allied BBs would bombard the coastal hexes near Ramree Island. The Kaigun had to retire after losing several battles, which left the way clear for many bombardment runs against several vulnerable and key hexes held by Japan. I never did get that resolved. It's possible that those hexes are intentionally immune from bombardment by sea, but I never got confirmation.

The vagaries of chance in warfare!

[zuluhour]

There are non base coastal hexes which never receive the bombardment allowed in the orders. I do not believe this was ever changed. Those air losses look a bit "skewed".

[HansBolter]

Try disbanding Ramillies and reforming a new TF.

That ought to shake whatever hold was on the prior TF.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

Try disbanding Ramillies and reforming a new TF.

That ought to shake whatever hold was on the prior TF.

Ships with high floatation damage will seek the nearest port. This can be overcome by specifying routing Direct-Absolute and by ensuring the captain has high aggression stats 60+. Provision of an adequate escort (that can help with damage control) also helps convince the AI that it should take the risk. For a BB, another BB or at least a cruiser (preferably two) will offer better damage control support than a couple of DDs.
Aim for the border at the map edge and then if you want to return some of the escorts to Colombo you can, while Ramilles continues on to CT.

I doubt the AI will be impressed with Socotra as a port for repair of floatation damage!

Hans' idea is also worth doing in case it is a bug of some kind.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: zuluhour

There are non base coastal hexes which never receive the bombardment allowed in the orders. I do not believe this was ever changed. Those air losses look a bit "skewed".

Remember when you were trying to bombard Moulmein and could not get the bombardment to happen? One of the newer players (Mundy, I think) figured out the problem was the sea hex edge for Moulmein had a red border, meaning cliffs or something that prevents passage/landings. He found a way to get at Moulmein by having the bombardment TF pass through the base between Rangoon and Moulmein to bombard from a green hexside.

The coast around Ramree Island also has some dead spots, but use the F6 key to see the hex side details and see if there is a way to go around the dead spots, using waypoints if necessary.

Edit: Some corrections to my original (fuzzy memory) response:

jmalter was the poster who found a way to bombard a hex that turned out to be the one NE of Moulmein, not the base itself. Here is his PM to me:


hi BBf,

After some experimentin', I've solved by BombTF prob - bombarding the coastal hex (56,54) between Pegu & Moulmein.

CAs based at Rangoon (port 9(6), 36 NavSupp) must waypoint through Pegu. Threat Tolerance is Normal.

R-class BBs based at Pegu (port 3(0), 0 NavSupp) must waypoint 1 hex SW of Pegu, then through Pegu. Threat Tolerance is Absolute. They re-arm from 3 x 4200-cap AKEs disbanded at Pegu.

These 2 TFs are (finally!) consistently bombarding their Target during the 2nd Night phase of each 2-day turn. The Pegu beebs attract a lot of attention from IJ air, but it's a CAP-trap for my fighters based at Rangoon, Pegu & Moulmein.

Also, I had a look at the map and it does NOT show the red (impassable) hex side in areas that are resisting bombardment attempts. It must be hidden in the coding rather than something you can suss out.