AEHGP2 Traskott (A) vs. Seydlitz (J) Japanese side AAR

[cantona2]

Your heart must have skipped a beat when you saw his CVs!

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 94 10 March, 1942

I run the tanks virtually dry on the ships, but with the third turn of high speed running, my ships will be able to reach the waiting tankers by the evening. This will mean performing tactical refueling in the middle of enemy waters, due east of Brisbane, with disaster if we are discovered before or during the operation. I have only enough fuel for about two more turns at cruise speed.

However, again I escape without being spotted.

[seydlitz_slith]

ORIGINAL: cantona2

Your heart must have skipped a beat when you saw his CVs!

Absolutely... I held hope that some of my planes would have leaked through his cap and damaged at least one of the carriers, but when that didn't happen and I realised that he had stripped my strike force of bombers and torpedo planes, I was quite worried. In fact, I even considered sending the battleships on a mad dash to engage his carriers but I realised that that would not be smart since the carriers would react away one hex from a surface TF and the battleships would react one hex away from an air task force, leaving them to be torpedoed by Devastators. That thought was just too much to bear.

[seydlitz_slith]

Half a world away, the Kido Butai has been at sea on a secret mission. Knowing that I had either damaged or sunk the Yorktown off Pearl Harbor a month ago, I figured that I would pay a visit back to Pearl. With the knowledge that all of his active carriers were down by Australia, I commenced my high speed run in to make a morning attack.

[seydlitz_slith]

Off Soerbaja, I-166 goes on station and immediately kicks off her patrol by putting two torpedoes into the freighter Gard.

[cantona2]

ORIGINAL: seydlitz

Turn 94 10 March, 1942

I run the tanks virtually dry on the ships, but with the third turn of high speed running, my ships will be able to reach the waiting tankers by the evening. This will mean performing tactical refueling in the middle of enemy waters, due east of Brisbane, with disaster if we are discovered before or during the operation. I have only enough fuel for about two more turns at cruise speed.

However, again I escape without being spotted.

Did they eventually catch up? If they didnt it must have been soul destroying for traskott to know he came soooo close.

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 95 11 March, 1942

Several things happened this turn.

First, Kaga, Akagi, their escorts, and the battleship strike force completed the dangerous tactical refueling maneuver and are now sailing for Truk. There is a slim chance that he could still spot me, but I am wagering that he went too far south initially and has lost too much ground. Hopefully he would also have fuel issues if he tries to conduct a long run to the north since I doubt that he has a fleet train following him around.

My earlier tanker relay that was also almost out of fuel is hugging the coast of Antarctica, moving slowly past the southern tip of new Zealand. I hope to find a good, isolated anchorage where I can put in and have the ships hide until I can get a tanker down to them to bring them home. Luckily it is summer in the southern hemisphere.

Next, the Kido Butai located a major convoy northeast of Pearl Harbor and only 200 miles from the carriers. Accordingly, about half of the strike force went after these ships, sinking 9 AKs.

[seydlitz_slith]

Next came the strike on Pearl.

Figuring that there would be a lot of fighters, I ordered the majority of the zeroes to conduct a sweep over Oahu. Wouldn't you know it, but I
had about 100+ zeroes sweep the place in five waves and not a single fighter was spotted.

Then along comes my strike force, only to find the whole American air force in the skies ready to fight. Even worse, several of my units of kates lost co-ordination and went in without escort. All told, I lost 34 Kates for 1 bomb hit each on the battleships Arizona, California, and West Virginia.

[seydlitz_slith]

Next turn, I will pull my carriers back to about 10 hexes out so that my kates and vals won't attack the harbor. This is also outside the strike range of all but his B-17s, which I believe are in Australia. I will then send 80% of my zeroes on a fighter sweep over Pearl to see if I can kill some enemy fighters.

After this, it is back to Japan to take on replacement aircraft and then south to the DEI for my next phase of operations there.

With the enemy carriers known to be off Oz, I need to move to that theater to support my next wave of landings. These will be coming soon, as I finished my Philippines campaign by taking both Bataan and Malabalay (the last holdout on Mindanao) this turn.

Minesweepers are now enroute to clear the approaches to Manila, and troops are heading that way for rest, refit, and to board ships for the next wave of landings in Borneo and Java.

[seydlitz_slith]

At Bataan, I took 2,812 casualties during the final assault, but I destroyed 37 enemy units inflicting 43,298 casualties.

[seydlitz_slith]

At Malaybalay, I took 238 casualties while destroying 9 allied units, inflicting 9,475 casualties. Since I need all of my troops in the coming battles, I think that I will leave the prisoners in the concentration camps run by Fletcher. I think that he will do a very good job.[:D]


I also predict that I will take Singapore by the end of the month. I already have the fort level down to 3 and I am bombing the supply away every turn.

[cantona2]

Cool plane top for the Texan, hadn't seen it before.

Some parallels between your game and mine vs Ramon.

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 96 12 March, 1942

The AVG attacked my Lillies over Hankow again, but this time I had Oscars escorting them. I lost two Lillies but shot down three P-40Es.

[seydlitz_slith]

The KB pulled away from Pearl and refueled this turn. The Kates and Vals finished off a Corvette left over from the convoy last turn, and the zero sweep over Pearl failed to encounter any opposition for the second consecutive turn.

Also, in the Coral Sea, Kaga and Akagi along with the battle line continued to sail towards the safety of Truk lagoon.

My sub based Glens have spotted several cruisers in port at Sydney. Not sure but it is possible that his carriers have put in there. I am going to recon the port again next turn.

[offenseman]

Want to know what really stinks?  Somehow my subscription for this stopped emailing me that new posts had been made.  Knowing your availability was limited this past weekend, I was not surprised to no new posts being made.  Posts that were actually being made!  The frustration! I would have enjoyed following along as this one played out. 
In this game you are using Kido Butai as a mobile force to wreak havoc rather than as a mobile force to supply supportive, projection of force. It is real interesting to follow along.  

[seydlitz_slith]

ORIGINAL: offenseman

Want to know what really stinks?  Somehow my subscription for this stopped emailing me that new posts had been made.  Knowing your availability was limited this past weekend, I was not surprised to no new posts being made.  Posts that were actually being made!  The frustration! I would have enjoyed following along as this one played out. 
In this game you are using Kido Butai as a mobile force to wreak havoc rather than as a mobile force to supply supportive, projection of force. It is real interesting to follow along.  

Well, it was pretty intense. Hopefully Traskott's side of the AAR documented the hunt from his side. I have no idea which way his carriers went on the turn that I made my full speed dash to the north, but it is stuff like this that makes heroes or scapegoats depending on how things turn out.

Yes, I like to use my carriers to wreak havoc and force the enemy to defend his rear areas. Japan has enough land based air power to project the support she needs during the first months of the war. I just wish that his fighters had been sucked into my two consecutive sweeps over Pearl. I wanted to reduce his P-40 stocks quite a bit. Instead he reduced my Kates. At least the losses were not critical. I have enough Kates to replace the losses as well as enough trained replacement pilots since I am already on my second wave of cadets in my training units.

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 97 13 March, 1942

The only significant thing that happened on this turn was that the AVG turned up over Hankow and shot down several of my Lillies.

Aside from that, I have developed a new synonym for my combined army twin engine bomber attacks. Since I prefer using Sallies and Lillies for the same missions, often in combination, I will call the combo "sillies". No different than Netties.

Correct usage:

I have been attacking Singapore every turn with the Sillies, trying to destroy his supply.[:D]

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 98 14 March, 1942

Off Soerbaja, I-166 put one torpedo into the smal coastal freighter Belawan, sinking her.

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 99 15 March, 1942

The DD Yudachi was torpedoed and sunk off Woodlark Island in the Coral Sea.
The enemy sent a commerce raider into the Shikuka area. This raider intercepted a convoy escorted by patrol boats and sunk three freighters before disappearing back into the mists.

Off San Diego, I-22 put two fish into the freighter San Angelo, sinking her.

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 100 16 March, 1942

I lost over 60 bombers this turn attacking Singapore. Traskott flew in a bunch of fighters where there had been none for about a month and they swarmed the incoming bombers. Losses were as follows: 19 Lilly, 19 Sally IIa, 18 Nell, 4 Betty.