Matrix Games Forums

18-19 August 1942

Solomons
Don't see any American ships in the area - though I-121 did torpedo a Amphibious ship NE of New Caledonia - our intel thinks we sank the ship but with only 2 torpedos hitting - and us being the (front line) Japanese - we are skeptical!

Tass has 600 supply, Shortlands 2600, Rabaul 18000 supply, 15000 fuel, Kavieng 1100 supply

Papua
Our fast transport element was unable to unload and clear Finschhaven quickly enough and we were hit by repeated air strikes which sank one PB and damaged another (we call these "APD" in the game). Looks like we will have to find another way to get supply to Papua!

Buna has 3200 supply, Lae 1700 and Finschhaven 1500

Truk has 6800 supply, 8900 fuel

Plans
Our carrier force is moving south in three groups

01 - CVL, CS,, BB, 6 CA, 2 CL, 12 DD

02 - CV, BB, 4 CA, 2 CL, 10 DD

03 - CV, BB, 4 CA, 2 CL, 10 DD

We have 2 AO deployed forward and a third is now loading up.

We are dispatching 3 newly arrived glen boat submarines into the Coral Sea to provide forward scouting for the carriers.

We will dispatch a single "APD" to finschhaven to see if one vessel can unload and get out of the port quickly enough to avoid attack. We will also send the vessel at FULL SPEED to see if this helps.

We see some enemy ships at Milne Bay and having nothing bigger we will send a pair of Patrol Craft to investigate.

We will activate an air unit of 6 Jakes at Lae to help get better spotting data against the enemy ships at Milne Bay. We put them on 100% search at 10 hex range, 6000 feet between 90 degrees and 210 degrees.

We have 59 Bettys and 17 Zeros at Rabaul on Naval Strike at 11 hex range, 20% search, 11,000 feet with orders to carry torpedoes.

Here is a pic of one of our ships under attack off Finschhaven.

And here is a pic of our submarine attacking the enemy transport off New Caledonia.

20-21 August 1942

Solomons
No sign of enemy shipping. Our Carriers refueled to the North of Green Is.

Papua
Big B17 strike on Lae - caused some damage to the runway. Our single APD fast transport got in and out of Finschhaven and delivered 300 supply. The Patrol Craft we sent towards Milne Bay did not make it much more than half way there - guess they are too slow. We no longer see any shipping there - so we will turn our PCs back towards Rabaul.

Rabaul
We now have 83 Betty's and 17 Zeros on Naval Strike.

Plans
We will sortie the Carriers SE along the North side of the Solomons - basically looking to show ourselves - if the American carriers are fairly far North (which I doubt since we can't see them) then there might be a battle - but otherwise we will withdraw back to the NW at the end of the turn.

We flew the Emily unit down to Kavieng this turn - the Emilys will beef up the air search in support of the carrier "thrust". The Betty's and zeros at Rabaul will switch to maximum escorted range (14) also in support of the carriers. All are at 11000 feet, the betty's are at 20% air search - 90 to 210.

In the carriers - the zeros and kates aboard Shok and Zuik are at 7 hex range, Vals are at their max of 6, everyone is at 15,000 feet, the bombers are on 100% naval strike the Zeros are 50% CAP on the escort mission. Aboard the Ryujo the Zeros are at 100% Cap the Kates are at 100% naval search 9 hexes. The Ryujo is the lead TF with Mutsu and Chitose - and Nagumo commanding - the Shok and Zuik are trailing 2 hexes to the rear with Kirishima and Hiei. All the Petes in the fleet are at 1000 feet ASW range 4. All the other float planes in the fleet are at their max range naval search 100% at 6000 feet.

Two more AO are loading up at Truk - the two at sea all ready gave up 40% of their gas to the one refuel the carriers did - Truk only has 5000 fuel. You do not have enough fuel in this scenario to operate continuously - you go out - try to do something and then all the fuel on the map is gone - and you have to RTB until a reserve builds up.

Rabaul has 20000 supply and 15000 fuel - but Rabaul is the feeder base for both the Papua front and the Solomons front - so we need to build up the supply and fuel there.

ORIGINAL: jwilkerson

This screen shot is from a DIFFERENT GAME. This is from the campaign game I'm playing with Nik - just to show that a high EXP Japanese unit can hold its own. Most the planes this unit has shot down are unescorted bombers (maybe all) but a record is a record.

is there a reason behind the fact that the ranks and names have different colours in this screenshot? I guess so... [&:]

Castor,
 
In a previous thread one of the devs said the names in white are without planes and the ones in yellow are assigned a plane. Not sure about the rank coloration.
 
Pete

ORIGINAL: Tallyman662

Castor,

In a previous thread one of the devs said the names in white are without planes and the ones in yellow are assigned a plane. Not sure about the rank coloration.

Pete

thanks Pete, must have missed that one. And surely a lot of other excellent changes that were done too... [:D]

23-24 August 1942

Solomons
No carrier battle. Our I-122 tangled with the American carriers about 15 hexes South of Lunga - to our detriment - but at least we know where the Americans were. Our carriers lunged South towards Guadalcanal but not even sure we were spotted.

Two smallish groups of our Betty's came South and hit some Allied shipping unloading in the Lunga hex - we think we got 2 small patrol craft and two AK.

The second supply convoy moving supply from Ponape to Shortlands finally completed loading.

The airfield at Shortlands is now 6% complete.

Papua
The big action was at Milne Bay - several groups of Betty's - some of which were escorted by Zeros came South. The Allies had a number of warships protecting transports - so probably troops unloading this time - oh well. The flak was very heavy and we did not do much damage - we think we hit one transport.

One of our submarines tried to attack the enemy ships unloading at Milne Bay but accomplished nothing and took heavy damage.

A single APD of ours was attacked while unloading supply at Finschhaven - but the Allies missed this time.

Truk
Just South of Truk the USN Grayling torpedoed one of our empty TK returning from Rabaul. The ship will probably survive but will be out of the scenario. We have a number of TK sitting at Truk with nothing to carry - so having a TK knocked out is of no consequence.

The second pair of AO are still loading up fuel to head South to support the carriers. The first pair of AO with the carriers are empty now at the end of this turn. It takes a long time to load because we only get 4000 fuel per turn - so we have to load for 4 turns to fill up two AO.

Summary and Planning
Well the day did not go well for the Empah - we lost 28 planes (19 Betty and 7 Zero) and sank 2 AK in return. We will have to stand down the Naval Strike Force this turn to recover from the exertions.
The carriers tried to show themselves - not sure we were spotted - but we will hover North of Green Island this turn to await events.
Submaries don't seem to be doing too well in offensive activities - so we will continue to shift more and more to carrying supply to Tass where we are struggling to stay near 600 supply - we would need many more supply than this to hold the hex if the enemy tries to attack us.

We have 4 SNLF now preparing to land at Milne Bay - but probably at least another Brigade is there now - so our chances would be slim if we land. But we will continue to plan for this - there is no other real offensive location to try to attack.

There will not be enough fuel to remain South of Truk for long enough to launch the attack on Milne Bay - so next turn we may head North - build up some more fuel reserves and assemble to attack troops at Rabaul before trying the landing.

Here is a pic of our largest strike going in to Milne Bay.

You guys are cruel and inhumane to keep teasing us with this.
 
Keep it up.
 
 

Great Stuff! [&o]

I'd like to complement Joe on his reports in this AAR. [&o][&o] They give a clear picture of what is going on without the need to go through tedious reams of after action reports pasted directly from the game. The game's reports are useful when playing the game but useless when trying to get a quick idea of what is happening in a game someone else is playing.

His summary and planning section adds greatly to the strategic understanding of the particular game.

my favourite AAR, concise and to the point... and the latest rather poor Betty showdown brings to mind the historical Guadalcanal landing counterattacks, which had similar results if I remember correctly. 

Jwilkerson, what is the ETA on some of your larger ground troop arrivals?

ORIGINAL: Akitsuki

my favourite AAR, concise and to the point... and the latest rather poor Betty showdown brings to mind the historical Guadalcanal landing counterattacks, which had similar results if I remember correctly. 

Jwilkerson, what is the ETA on some of your larger ground troop arrivals?

Yes the historical attack at Guadalcanal was a downright disaster. My attacks this last turn were not so bad as that - but definitely made me think of the historical attack. The effect of the flak from the warships was the single biggest reason I hit only one ship at Milne Bay - many Betty's were shot down by the flak and most were damaged. At Lunga there were no warships and no fighter cover - so the feel of that attack was much more like stock - and 2 AK (and 2 tiny auxillaries) were sunk. So flak and fighter cover makes a much bigger difference in AE.

The 2nd and 38th Divisions arrive at roughly the historical time table.

24-25 August 1942

Solomons
Very quiet day. Only action was just North of New Caledonia - our I-121 was run over by a big USN TF and sunk.

Papua
Relatively quiet - the usual Allied airstrikes on our Army troops in the mountains and another attack on our APD unloading at Finschhaven which missed.

Plans
This turn we will surge the carriers South towards Woodlark Island in the central Solomon Sea. If anything is lurking near Milne Bay or East of the Louisades - we should pick it up. Might be a carrier battle if the Americans are surging north.

Jakes, Emilys, Bettys and Zeros will support the carriers - everyone will have the same setting as in the previous surge - which are described above.

We have a 2300 supply point convoy from Ponape heading to Shortlands. We have another 2 submarines departing Truk with supplies for Tass which is now at 600 supply. We have a construction engineer heading for Gasmata - and another loading at Truk for Shortlands (to join the one already there).

Preparation for Milne by the 4xSNLF is averaging about 20 per unit. We will not try the landing until they are all over 50 - so it is about a month out before we will try the landing. For the landing to have any hope of working we will have to come up with ways to reduce the ease with which the Allies can move supply and troops to Milne Bay - and do it in such a way that we do not tip our hand too much.

Thanks for the AAR boss! Just two questions, a technical one and a strategic one

- About repairs: what are the options of the player in case of damages to one of the ships? Did the "send to PH/HI" button reappear, or will heavily damaged warships will still be stuck in Brisbane or Truk with no access to shipyards, like they used to in the early WitP?

- About you whole strategy: I didn't quite understand what were your priorities when it came to airfield building, especially in the Solomons. Why did you decide to give up Central Solomons so easily, not developping Munda into a respectable base which may more easily support Guadalcanal operations? And why did you decide to go for Shortlands, which has no easy building potential, instead of developping Buin and, to a lesser extent, Buka?

thanks in advance

ORIGINAL: Fishbed

Thanks for the AAR boss! Just two questions, a technical one and a strategic one

- About repairs: what are the options of the player in case of damages to one of the ships? Did the "send to PH/HI" button reappear, or will heavily damaged warships will still be stuck in Brisbane or Truk with no access to shipyards, like they used to in the early WitP?

- About you whole strategy: I didn't quite understand what were your priorities when it came to airfield building, especially in the Solomons. Why did you decide to give up Central Solomons so easily, not developping Munda into a respectable base which may more easily support Guadalcanal operations? And why did you decide to go for Shortlands, which has no easy building potential, instead of developping Buin and, to a lesser extent, Buka?

thanks in advance

I think he said because all the SPS ratings are changed - mostly to AF 0 Port 0. Too many supplies and too much time required to develop those bases to even a size 1 AF.

The changes are just for THIS SCENARIO though. In full campaign we will obviously have more options.
 
By the way, great AAR Joe. As others have said, the summary/planning style makes for a very easy to follow 'story'. Well done.

ORIGINAL: Fishbed
what are the options of the player in case of damages to one of the ships?

On the Japanese side an AR enters the game fairly early at Truk - this provides a very limited major damage repair ability. Right now I am using this ship to help reduce minor floation damage - to ensure the damaged ships do not sink.

There are no ship yards on the Japanese side in this scenario. Check with Nik in his AAR regarding the Allied capabilities.

what were your priorities when it came to airfield building

Well some where above in the posts is a list of all the SPS and starting base sizes. Essentially everything is a 0(0), 0(0) in this scenario except a tiny few well know bases - so everything in the central Solomons is 0(0), 0(0). Also Buin and Shortlands are combined into one base in AE.

So there were no better options than the ones I choose - at least I think not. My choices were based primarily on combinations of factors including wanting to have some distance AWAY from major enemy bases - so I would be likely to be able to use the base once built up - but also enough nearness to the enemy to be useful - and thirdly able to support forward supply delivery based on geographical location. So three bases I choose to build up were Shortlands, Gasmata and Finschhaven. I hope to be able to get them each at least up to 1(0), 1(0) far enough before the end of the scenario to be able to use them. Shortlands and Finschhaven will get two construction engineers - Gasmata will get one.

26-27 August 1942

Solomons
Quiet in the Solomons. Our LCU at TASS have all absorbed 100% supply now - but we only have 100 on the ground - more on the way. All supply deliveries lately have been via submarine.

Papua
We lost another submarine off New Caledonia - this time we did not even get off a shot.

Big Battles over PM. Unfortunately the only target available to our Naval Strike Force was an Allied convoy comming into PM - so the Betty's flew over 80 sorties during the two days with about 40 fighter sorties in support - but the Naval Strike Force was shredded taking 39 losses in Betty's and 9 Zeros. We sank 1 transport and damaged another. This will put the NSF out of action for some time.

Our carrier force surged South to Woodlark Island but there were no targets to be found.

Allied B-26s attacked our APD off Finschhaven and two of our AK off Gasmata which were unloading the construction engineer and some supply.

Planning
Due to lack of fuel the carriers will head back to Truk and let the fuel reserves build up for a couple of weeks. By then the forces preparing for the Milne Bay operation will probably be sufficiently ready and the NSF may have recovered enough to resume operations.

In the mean time we will work on our logistics: moving supply to finschhaven, shortlands and gasmata. More submarines will be shifted over to supply runs to Tass.

Truk has 15000 supply and 4000 fuel, Rabaul 20000 supply and 14000 fuel, Shortlands 3000 supply with a convoy holding another 2000 unloading, Gasmata has 700 supply and the construction engineer has just unloaded. Lae has 2000 supply, Finschhaven has 1000. Buna has 2700.

Here is a pic of our largest strike going in to PM - this is the one that sank the transport.

ORIGINAL: jwilkerson

the Naval Strike Force was shredded taking 39 losses in Betty's and 9 Zeros. We sank 1 transport and damaged another. This will put the NSF out of action for some time.

Wow, that is a horrific one-day loss! Why so bad? It appeared the CAP was mostly Kittys and P-39s

P-39s pack a mean stinger!
[:)]