Hairy Yankee Reports: Q-Ball (A) v Greyjoy (J)

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

... your strategic plan is sound and working well. ... consider this a very good game.

+1

[Banzan]

I have to agree with crsutton and PaxMondo, very nice to read. And opposite to you two, we have to joy of reading the AARs from both sides![:D]

[Q-Ball]

Thanks for the kind words! Appreciate folks watching

This game is on hold for a few days; Greyjoy apparently has a real work emergency. He's a lawyer, so I don't think he's in trouble, but somebody is.....involves the police or something like that

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Thanks for the kind words! Appreciate folks watching

No kind words here! Die, Yankee dog! Babe Ruth go to Hell! You die now! BANZAI!!!

[Q-Ball]

12-3-43: Battle of Molu

Turns have been slow due to Greyjoy's RL issues at work, but the last couple turns we have done featured a rather large naval battle off Molu.

Situation:

Greyjoy had lost 1500 aircraft over the preceeding few days; I landed an Army Corps at Kai Island the day before. This featured 400 IJN aircraft being shot down over the transports, and a field day for my guys.

Afterwards, my air units were a bit tired; the plan was to rest a day, then advance with new transports to land at Babo, which already fell to para assault.

So, I moved my surface ships to Molu, to cover a TF loading there, and moved my CVs back just a bit; there were alot of subs in the area, so I set my DBs to 40% ASW to clean them out. Plan was to do that, then advance on the 5th.

Night Phase:

To my surprise, Greyjoy attacked all the shipping around Molu! I think he planned a bombardment, followed by airstrikes. Here are the combat reports with my comments:

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 2,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CL Naka
CL Jintsu
CL Nagara, Shell hits 2, and is sunk
CL Natori
CL Abukuma, Shell hits 4
DD Yugumo
DD Hagikaze
DD Hatsushima
DD Shikinami, Shell hits 1, and is sunk

Allied Ships
BB Washington, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1
BB Massachusetts, Shell hits 10
DD Bullard
DD Chevalier
DD Barton, Shell hits 4
DD Warrington, Shell hits 7, on fire, heavy damage

Those CLs did a good job; took on BB shells, even got a torp hit, without suffering too much damage.
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Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 3,000 Yards

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
OS2U-3 Kingfisher: 2 destroyed

Japanese Ships
BB Nagato, Shell hits 2
BB Mutsu, Shell hits 1, on fire
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
CA Chokai
CA Kumano
CA Aoba
CA Kinugasa
CA Furutaka
CA Kako, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Fuyuzuki
DD Tamanami
DD Onami
DD Hamanami
DD Asashimo
DD Hayashimo
DD Akishimo, Shell hits 1
DD Arashi
DD Tanikaze

Allied Ships
BB Washington, Shell hits 14, heavy fires
BB Massachusetts, Shell hits 30, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Bullard
DD Chevalier, Shell hits 2

Low visibility due to Thunderstorms with 39% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Thunderstorms and 39% moonlight: 2,000 yards
Range closes to 24,000 yards...
Range closes to 18,000 yards...
Range closes to 12,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese radar detects Allied task force at 12,000 yards
Range closes to 9,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese radar detects Allied task force at 9,000 yards
Range closes to 7,000 yards...
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 7,000 yards
Range closes to 5,000 yards...
Range closes to 3,000 yards...
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 3,000 yards
Lee, Willis "Ching crosses the 'T'
BB Massachusetts engages BB Hyuga at 3,000 yards
BB Mutsu engages BB Washington at 3,000 yards
DD Chevalier engages BB Mutsu at 3,000 yards
BB Massachusetts engages CA Kako at 3,000 yards
BB Massachusetts engages DD Tamanami at 3,000 yards
DD Chevalier engages DD Fuyuzuki at 3,000 yards
Range closes to 2,000 yards
BB Massachusetts engages BB Mutsu at 2,000 yards
BB Mutsu engages BB Washington at 2,000 yards
BB Nagato engages DD Chevalier at 2,000 yards
DD Fuyuzuki engages DD Bullard at 2,000 yards
BB Massachusetts engages CA Furutaka at 2,000 yards
Range increases to 4,000 yards
BB Massachusetts engages BB Hyuga at 4,000 yards
BB Massachusetts engages BB Mutsu at 4,000 yards
BB Nagato engages BB Massachusetts at 4,000 yards
CA Kako engages BB Massachusetts at 4,000 yards
Range increases to 5,000 yards
BB Massachusetts engages BB Hyuga at 5,000 yards
BB Mutsu engages BB Washington at 5,000 yards
DD Fuyuzuki engages DD Chevalier at 5,000 yards
BB Massachusetts engages CA Kako at 5,000 yards
DD Chevalier engages DD Akishimo at 5,000 yards
Range increases to 6,000 yards
BB Massachusetts sunk by BB Mutsu at 6,000 yards
BB Nagato engages DD Chevalier at 6,000 yards
Lee, Willis "Ching orders Allied TF to disengage
Range increases to 7,000 yards
BB Washington engages BB Hyuga at 7,000 yards
DD Chevalier engages DD Fuyuzuki at 7,000 yards
BB Nagato engages BB Washington at 7,000 yards
BB Washington engages CA Kumano at 7,000 yards
DD Hamanami engages DD Bullard at 7,000 yards
Task forces break off...
My somewhat weakened BB TF under Ching Lee then SUFFERED; MASSACHUSETTS sunk outright, and WASH damaged. This was a VERY large IJN TF, and they did well.

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 2,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Nagato, Shell hits 10, Torpedo hits 3, heavy damage
CA Kumano
CA Aoba
CA Kinugasa
CA Furutaka, Shell hits 3, on fire
CA Kako, on fire
DD Fuyuzuki
DD Tamanami
DD Onami
DD Hamanami
DD Asashimo
DD Hayashimo
DD Akishimo, on fire
DD Arashi

Allied Ships
CA Minneapolis
CA Sussex, Shell hits 15, and is sunk
DD Anthony
DD Duncan, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Frazier

SUSSEX sinks, but no big deal; she was due to withdraw anyway. Good damage on NAGATO

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 1,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Kumano, Shell hits 4
CA Aoba
CA Kinugasa
CA Furutaka, Shell hits 7, on fire
DD Fuyuzuki
DD Tamanami
DD Onami
DD Hamanami
DD Asashimo
DD Akishimo, on fire

Allied Ships
DD Bailey, Shell hits 5
DD Henley, Shell hits 1
DD Warramunga, Shell hits 10, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Kortenaer


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 2,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Kumano
CA Aoba, Shell hits 1
CA Kinugasa
CA Furutaka, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Fuyuzuki, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Tamanami
DD Onami
DD Hamanami
DD Asashimo
DD Akishimo, on fire

Allied Ships
DD Fletcher
DD Abbot
DD Brown, Shell hits 6, heavy fires


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TF 254 encounters mine field at Molu (79,116)

Japanese Ships
DD Asashimo, Mine hits 1, heavy damage



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Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 3,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Kumano
CA Aoba, Shell hits 10, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Kinugasa, Shell hits 2
DD Fuyuzuki, on fire
DD Tamanami
DD Onami

Allied Ships
CL Honolulu
CL Montpelier, Shell hits 2, on fire
CL Birmingham
CL Mobile
DD Chauncey
DD Cotten
DD Kidd, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Gansevoort

The number of our TFs are starting to tell; AOBA sank. No real damage for us.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 2,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Nagato, heavy damage
CA Kako, Shell hits 5, on fire
DD Hayashimo
DD Arashi

Allied Ships
BB South Dakota, Shell hits 2
BB Alabama, Shell hits 2
DD Aulick
DD Bache, Shell hits 1
DD Beale, Shell hits 1
DD Brownson, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Considering that his ships were already in round 4 or so, and mine were fresh, bad shooting by my guys

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 30,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Furutaka
DD Hamanami
DD Asashimo, heavy damage
DD Akishimo

Allied Ships
BB South Dakota
BB Alabama
DD Aulick
DD Bache
DD Beale
DD Brownson, on fire, heavy damage

Reduced visibility due to Thunderstorms with 50% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Thunderstorms and 50% moonlight: 2,000 yards
Range increases to 30,000 yards...
Range increases to 30,000 yards...
Both Task Forces evade combat


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Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 29,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Mutsu
BB Hyuga, on fire
CA Chokai
DD Tanikaze

Allied Ships
BB South Dakota
BB Alabama
DD Aulick
DD Bache
DD Beale
DD Brownson, on fire, heavy damage

Reduced visibility due to Thunderstorms with 50% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Thunderstorms and 50% moonlight: 2,000 yards
Range increases to 29,000 yards...
Range increases to 29,000 yards...
Both Task Forces evade combat


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 29,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Mutsu
BB Hyuga, on fire
CA Chokai
DD Tanikaze

Allied Ships
BB South Dakota
BB Alabama
DD Aulick
DD Bache
DD Beale
DD Brownson, on fire, heavy damage

Poor visibility due to Thunderstorms with 50% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Thunderstorms and 50% moonlight: 2,000 yards
Range closes to 26,000 yards...
Range increases to 29,000 yards...
Range increases to 29,000 yards...
Both Task Forces evade combat


All in all, my guys I think could have done better; the TF commander of SOUTH DAKOTA was Daniel Callaghan, not sure why he kept trying to break off; would have loved for him to unload on those ships!

[Q-Ball]

12-3-43: DAY PHASE:

I won't post 1 mil combat reports, but in a nutshell, our day phase was OK; not great, but OK

The good was that Greyjoy set a whole bunch of attack A/C, including KB. THAT was surprising! I did not expect KB to be re-loaded so quickly, and ready to roll, after suffering such large losses lately.

He lost nearly 400 planes, though, as they impaled themselves again on my CAP. He didn't succeed in bombarding Molu, if that was what he was trying to do, though that TF fought great anyway. Still, that left all kinds of CAP around, which chewed up his planes.

We launched a couple strikes that did enough damage to sink HYUGA, and cripple NAGATO and MUTSU. We also sank 2 CA, and some DDs.

KB did finish off a wounded WASHINGTON, and also sank SUSSEX.

12-4-43:

Next day, we decided to attack; I figured he had to be about out of strike planes (Maybe?) after having expended nearly 2000 over the last week or so, but he still had lots of fighters. I figured I would lose strike planes, but oh well.

I set my Corsairs on the CVs to sweep Ambon, where I figured he would CAP from. They did a good job, downing something like 50 George.

But I lost something like 250 planes to uncoordinated strikes. I would post the combat report, but we are out of sync, again, which is happening very regularly. We did sink NAGATO with 3 torpedos.

I can't complain, because Greyjoy had has numerous uncoordinated strikes that end up dead; I just had the same thing. I'm not sure either of us is ever going to sink a CV at this rate, because CAP just chews-up strike after strike.

Total Damage:

Allies:
2 BB, 1 CA, and 6 DD

WASHINGTON and ALABAMA sunk; this hurts, and is the gravest loss of this battle. I can recover, but ouch
CA SUSSEX: No big deal....she had a withdrawl day anyway. Sorry, London!
6 DDs: That's about a months production right now from US yards.....no biggie
300 Total Planes: I have the planes in the USN pool for the most part.

Japan:
3 BB: NAGATO, MUTSU, and HYUGA; all confirmed
Coupled with the loss of MUSASHI awhile back, this means YAMATO is the last IJN ship with more than 14in guns. So, I should have a qualitative advantage in any fight, this is a good thing. I like to see the 2 16in guys at the bottom....
2 CA sunk and confirmed
1 CL sunk and confirmed; another 2-3 maybes, and I know at least 2 are dead in the water off Ambon, and really really hurting
6-10 DDs
About 500 planes

He also had a couple more CAs damaged, and CLs

What Next:

While I think the Darwin raid that Greyjoy did was the wrong idea, I think this for him was the right idea. Probably one of his last chances to go toe to toe on the surface.

The strange thing is that I think Greyjoy executed the Darwin raid very well, it was just a bad idea; in this one, I think his TF composition was a bit off, or he could have REALLY dished out some punishment. He had all his ships in 1 TF. I had several TFs, but despite this, I think his ships fought very very well.

Anyway, the only real loss I suffered was the 2 Fast BBs. That hurts. I am about to get 5 more BBs in the next 30 days, and I need all of them (The IOWAS, VALIANT/QE, and RENOWN). I probably have to put REPULSE and RENOWN in the battle line, but YAMATO is the only large IJN BB left. I've only sunk 4, but at least we got MUSASHI and now MUTSU/NAGATO. So that's good.

The IJN DD losses are getting very high; I estimate he has lost at least 50 Special-Type DDs or later. IE, the good ones. That's a ton. Many are due to mine hits at Molu, he lost the 8th one this turn to that alone. At some point this has to hurt him, I would think.

I still need to open another axis of advance, as this one is crowded and slow, but he also has a ton of troops now isolated around Molu.

There are about 30,000 guys at Taberfane/Dobo, another 30,000 or so at Samlauki, another 10,000 at Babo. I just wiped out 10,000 at Kai Island, which fell easily. So, he has alot of ground troops committed.

I think he'll run out there, I hope, making future advances easier.

[crsutton]

Those Allied BBs that come before the end of the year will still have anemic night fighting skills. Those that come after 1/44 will have excellent night fighting skills and will be the ones that you will want to use in knife fights. Turns out the Duke of York and Reichlieu are total kill wagons..[;)]

But I am discovering that radar does make a difference and continual upgrades of Allied ship radar makes even the lower skilled crews effective. You are going to be amazed how quickly your surface forces become dominant over the next half year. And with the higher skills, your DD torpedo will become a real threat. Life just gets easier and easier for the Allied player.

Your island snatch north of Saumlaki turned out to be a good move. In spite of your losses, it has become his "tar baby."

And it goes to reinforce what I just said in his AAR. If the Allied player keeps his cool and hangs on to his carriers, he will be hard to defeat.

[Schlemiel]

Does anyone know if playing with reinforcement variability affects the 1944 crew experience demarcation line? Like if Iowa somehow got delayed into January would it have better experience, or if NJ ended up in 1943 would it still be the 1944 experience version? I would assume the starting experience is hard coded, but I could see a slim chance of reinforcement variability playing a factor.

[PaxMondo]

Brad,

You're starting to get in rythm now ... bad times for the IJ goign forward.

[Q-Ball]

12-10-43:

Akyab: We managed to get 50,000 troops to Akyab unnoticed, far as I could tell, and attacked; JUST short of a 1-1 unfortunately, and we didn't drop any forts. Drat!

We'll keep trying, but I don't plan a major advance in Burma, not until I can get air superiority, which is not possible as long as there are 500 fighters there, more than I have available

Defenders are 15,000 troops, mostly a single IJA Division

DEI:

We did land at Gorong, a dot base 2 hexes from Boela, without losses. A Base Force and Construction troops are there. Kai Island is already lvl-1 airbase, and with plenty of supplies and troops, will quickly be a major base.

IJN Planes sortied against the landing, but we shot down about 110 of them for no losses at all; mostly Jill and Judy, with some A6M3 escorts.

We have another landing or so in this area, then I am pulling the CVs back for a new landing elsewhere......

[Q-Ball]

12-14-43:

Akyab:

Second time's a charm, somehow; another couple days of bombing and bombarding, and this time a 4-1 attack drops the forts to 2, and disables about 40% of the Japanese Combat squads. It should fall pretty quick now.

This may FINALLY get me unstuck in Burma. To be fair, I haven't put max effort there, with minimal air reinforcement and hardly any naval support. But taking Akyab, this will allow me to get an airbase closer to Rangoon.

I have some follow-up plans that don't involve attacking through the Jungles of northern Burma. Greyjoy may feel it's time to just abandon Burma, which might not be a bad idea; I prefer he stick around Katha, because I think I can get them stuck up there.

Gorong:

Occupied, and almost to level-1 already; we are also landing at Kaimana.

Japanese fighters attempted to sweep Gorong, but suffered 75 losses for maybe 20 of my guys; Greyjoy said "I guess sweeps won't work for me now", so he probably won't do too many unless it's part of a big attack. His GEORGES in particular did poorly, and were chewed-up by my Hellkitties.



We are starting to move faster in the DEI, so Greyjoy may also start pulling back a bit here.

[PaxMondo]

Its early to say for sure, but it looks as though your opponent has not defended in depth. If so, you may be on a rampage ...

[Itdepends]

Beware the advice of posters with Japanese avatars whispering sweet nothings in your ear [8D]

[JocMeister]

I have found the George to be pretty much crap against anything except unescorted strikes and P40s. I don´t use either. [:D]

How are your pools looking? Fighter pools in particular?

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

I have found the George to be pretty much crap against anything except unescorted strikes and P40s. I don´t use either. [:D]

How are your pools looking? Fighter pools in particular?

How are the aircraft pools? They are all nearly empty. I have alot of F4F and P-40E, and SBD-3, and RAAF Kittyhawks, but that's about it for pools over 50 planes.

Even the F6F, I've spent PPs to convert several Marine units to F6F, so even at 130 planes a month, the pools are under 50 planes.

We've had a pretty bloody air war; I've lost over 10,000 A/C, which is alot, though Greyjoy is approaching 14,000 losses.

For the most part, my fighter units are filled-out with decent planes, but I still have a number of bomber units that are training on old models. I could use more 4E, 2E, really anything that can fly and carry a bomb for USAAF.

Akyab:

Akyab has fallen; even better, the units there did NOT retreat to the West. Why? I would like to know from the gallery.

Akyab has only one hex to retreat to, and though Greyjoy controls the hexside, I have 30,000 Chinese in that hex (facing his troops). Is that why?

Regardless, we are going to destroy the IJA 13th Division which is defending Akyab. Another Division gone, so Greyjoy has to start worrying about his ground losses.

Taking Akyab is going to open up a couple more things in Burma, and I wonder if he is going to start withdrawing from Northern Burma now

[Canoerebel]

I take it you don't mean "west" but "east"? Retreating west would mean their feet would get wet.

As far as I know, units cannot retreat into a hex occupied by enemy troops (even if the hex also has friendly troops and the hexside is friendly).

[Q-Ball]

I just made yet another mistake, and lost 3 CVs, a CVL. More later, but not good.

I may just resign at this point

[Canoerebel]

Nah, you can't do that! Soldier on, Brad!

[JohnDillworth]

I just made yet another mistake, and lost 3 CVs, a CVL. More later, but not good.

I may just resign at this point

You were just picking up stream. Take some time to think it through and regroup. You have a bunch of folks who are enjoying the game

[ny59giants]

Look at all those 'toys' you will get in the late war period now. [;)]