New AAR - but not as good as Snigbert's

[mogami]

I am really amazed Ron has not yet showed up at his neighbor IChristie house with a case of Molsen and talked him into a head to head battle. I have been looking at a map to see how long it would take me to walk to Ottawa to get into one. Any play testers in Ohio? (I do windows)

[Ron Saueracker]

Iain and I just realized we were in the same artillery unit together. He transferred in just before I was leaving so we are still trying to remember if we ran into each other. That was over ten years ago. Be a little tacky to bring Molson, anyway. That's an any occasion beer. Got to bring something a tad different and special, like a case of Duchstein or Bavarian Pilsner, if I was to pull something like that. Having UV just down the road is not like having Dana Delaney moving in next door in need of a hug, but it's close.

[IChristie]

More news from the front. The dog days are fast approaching and the AI continues to play hard ball.

28 July - A quiet couple of days. A couple of Irving recon a/c show up. I decide to base them at Lae where they can spy on Port Moresby. I also move a chutai of Mavis's to Nevea from which they can actually do recon all the way down to Noumea. Now I can start to get some info on the real state of things

Gili Gili airbase reaches size 4 and can now base level bombers. I move some Betty's there from Lunga to try to pick off a convoy apparently headed for Port Moresby. The convoy is definitely in range but bad weather has kept them on the sidelines for a couple of days.

30 July - The action is shifting to New Guinea. My first Recon flights indicate that US fighter strength is actually pretty low in Port Moresby (19 planes) so I try a couple of fighter sweeps from Gili Gili. I fly them in high 30000' to take advantage of the P-39's and P-40's. Despite outnumbering the allied planes by 2:1 I still lose twice as many (or more) a/c - mainly due to flak. So we cancel that idea.

The Betty's finally take a crack at the convoy with no results.

Just to keep things interesting I have moved a minelayer to Gili Gili and I send it to lay mines of Port Moresby. I use fighters from Gili Gili for cover, but of course the weather grounds them and leaves the TF swingin' in the breeze. Luckily the Boston's continue to demonstrate why they are NOT anti-shipping weapons and the TF escapes unscathed.

1 Aug - More excitement on the Lunga front. Another US CV TF steams right up to Guadalcanal and spends two days trying to sink a seaplane tender. I move Betty's (a new Chutai arrived at Truk on 28 July) and Nells down to Lunga. They have a go at the TF and accomplish exactly the square root of... well you get the picture. Once again the CV appears to be the Enterprise and her luck continues.

In New Guinea the bombers from Gili Gili finally decide to go after the convoy - once it has arrived in Port Moresby and can enjoy the protection of friendly CAP and Flak. SOme guys just have to do it the hard way. In two days of attacks one of the transports is sunk and severaly planes are lost or damaged.

2 Aug - The Big E and company continue to camp off the Guadacanal coast. We exchange raids again. This time I manage to put a torpedo into the Enterprise and I have an APD sunk. As well a convoy outbound from Lunga to Nevea is caught and has an AP sunk. I also notice that a CA TF is coming up from the south so maybe the CV TF was supposed to provide diversion/cover for this force

In New Guinea the pace of air operations has picked up. The allied air force obviously got a major reinforcement. Port Moresby now sports over 40 fighters and probably the same in bombers. In addition the new arrivals are the heavier B-25's and B-26's. Gili Gili is raided four separate times. Once again the Betty's attack the convoy in port and once again they achieve nothing but more flak holes in the aircraft.

3 Aug - OK, I think that was whay they call, in the vernacular, "A good day". At night a US force of 3 CA's and 10 DD's attempt to bombard Lunga. My heavy covering force (moved back down after a refuel at Shortland) comes out to meet them and hands out spectacular punishment. All 3 CA's are sent to the bottom as is one DD. In return I lose a DD and the CA's Chikuma and Mogami are damage heavily enough that they will have to return to Truk. The BB's (Kirishima and Kongo) are not touched.

When day breaks the Big E and company are spotted moving south. An airstrike of SBD's raids the ships at anchor and achieves nothing. In return a force of Betty's and Kates manages to put another torpedo into Enterprise and reports that she is "heavily damaged". I think I have now managed to torpedo every US CV in the theatre at least once. I wonder how long that will keep them busy.

On a more ominous note - the raids from Port Moresby are getting to be huge. A force of over 50 bombers has a go at convoy in port and although they get no hits, it is a frightening vision of things to come. The latest recon reports over 250! aircraft at Port Moresby. I'm hoping that the photo analyst at Lae is delusional from Malaria!

No matter how you slice it, Gili Gili is clearly not going to be a fun place to spend the next few months.


One other note on ship repairs. I have been keeping all the CV's at Rabaul as I see no need to risk them at this point with Lunga and Gili Gili operational. I have noticed that they all repaired their flotation damage within about a week, but the systems damage does not seem to be coming off at all (yet). I'm actually thinking of sending some of them back to Truk for refit. I don't have the a/c to load them fully anyway.

[Ron Saueracker]

The AC replacement at PM is daunting. How are your replacements doing? Sounds like new Guinea is a lost cause already. It's going to be tough to keep supplying your Imperial Army zealots with rice and canned crab from now on. Lae will soon become untenable given the meat grinder you are facing in the air. Rice cakes float for awhile though...fast DDs or subs?

[IChristie]

Well so far what is saving my bacon is the fact that the US bombers can't seem to hit the broadside of a transport.

I can still mount a pretty substantial CAP and even though I don't knock down alot of bombers it seems to knock them off their aim a bit, but resupply is going to start to become an issue. I do have a fair number of fast transports if I collect them all up, but they won't be enough to supply all of the New Guinea bases.

I seem to be replacing zeros pretty quickly - and Betty's as well. The other bombers are not coming back nearly so quickly and they seem to determined to hurl themselves into the path of enemy CAP rather than taking out easy targets in mid-ocean.

[Ron Saueracker]

Have you received any Army aircraft yet, or are they all Navy. ie Oscars for New Guinea?

[bradfordkay]

Iain, are you still giving orders to attack that convoy in PM? Or do you have to order the bomber chutai to stand down?

I'd pick to two or three least damaged CVs to remain at Rabaul as a reaction force while the others go to Truk for refit. Just a thought...

Do you have control over how much repair the ships receive (as in sending Yorktown to Midway rather than getting a complete refit)?

[Ron Saueracker]

Ignore that...its only Aug 42.

[mogami]

Hi, not advocating one just asking if possible. Can IJN CV attack Noumea or is it off limits? Can the USN attack Truk? Would keeping the hvy bomber /or any airgroup at Truk help them recover? I would be concerned with having a rotation of airunits between Shortland/Lunga/Truk and only keep limited fighters at Rabaul to deal with B-17 attacks. I wonder if Gilli has enough targets to justify Betty loss when their main goal should be to prepare a blow at US CV when time comes. If there are 3 groups 1 should always be at each of those three bases. The forward ones (Shortland/Lunga) to discourge US TF and the third (Truk) rebuilding to max strength to replace one of the others if needed.
Any vessel that expects to be out of service for more then a week should also move to Truk. Could Vals/Kates do a proper job at Gilli? Do we have subs picketing Nomeua and other large allied bases? (3-4 each) how many subs are in theatre and how long are they able to remain on station?

[Snigbert]

I've never attacked Noumea or Truk, but there isn't anything preventing a player from doing it.

[gus]

I have enjoyed reading theses AAR's quite a bit and I can't wait to play this game. Thanks to Snigbert and IChristie and others for keeping us so well informed!

I do have a few questions about how air operations are handled. How much control do I have over Air Ops? Given the pedigree of the designers/developers of this game am I wrong in assumming that Air ops will be a similar to PacWar,, more like BTR or a hybrid/alternate solution?, i.e. are missions assigned in the abstract ala PacWar where target and composition are determined "by your staff" or will you be allowed to pre-plan strike composition, marshalling points, entry point, exit point etc. ala BTR?

The reason I am asking is that in IChristie's last AAR post, he indicates that an anti-shipping mission was sent into a known heavy flak area ( not to mention CAP ) at PM. This sounds like PacWar. If the air ops system is more like BTR would you be able to indicate to your air units that certain areas are "no-fly-zones". In this manner the given air raid would only attack convoys that were enroute to or from PM but not actually under its AA umbrella, and would only have to cope with the convoy's AA and whatever LR-CAP could be afforded by nearby bases.

Also can air-raids be planned to occur in a serial fashion from the same base? i.e. can I schedule multiple raids from Rabaul to Lunga Pt. to occur at different times on the same day, forcing the fighter air units at Lunga Pt. to sortie multiple times which should affect their readiness and ability to coordinate their defense against the later strikes.

From the AAR's it appears that I can set the altitude of a given air unit but it is unclear whether or not I can position fighter escort relative to its assigned bombing formation.

If these questions have been answered elsewhere in this forum just point me in the right direction.

Thanks in Advance

-g

[IChristie]

I can only give you my impressions based on reading a very early draft of the manual and playing the beta version of the game that I have. I should also indicate that I have only a passing familiarity with either PacWar or BTR.

When you set a mission for a given airgroup you can select the type of mission:

Naval Attack
Airfield Attack
Port Attack (which may attack ships in port)
Ground Attack
Sweep
Escort
Long Range CAP
etc. (there are quite a few others)

In the case of naval attack you cannot specify a target. It is always left to "commanders discretion". I assume this is because naval attack sorties are planned based on the latest available recon three times a day (Night, morning, afternoon). It is this fact that led to the errant raids on Port Moresby. I had set the bombers to Naval Attack and despite having several days opportunity to strike the convoy in mid ocean they waited until it was in port and under the protection of CAP and Flak. I could have prevented the problem by not setting the bombers to attack once the convoy had made port. But then they wouldn't be available for other naval strikes either. In fact, in one weird twist, a small group of Nells from Lunga ignored the US CV TF off the coast of Guadalcanal and proceeded to attack the convoy in Port Moresby!

For the other types of attack you can either specify a target or let the commander decide.

As far as timing of raid, it does not seem to be something that can be planned. I believe that the AI will try to send all a/c headed for a given target in the same raid, and will even combine strikes from different bases. However, the raids can also end up fragmented for unexplained reasons - and with disastrous results (unescorted bombers getting massacred by heavy CAP). A/C can fly multiple sorties in a day. Particularly in CV engagements there are often two sorties a day.

In addition to all of this you can set a variety of secondary tasks as well. Bombers which are set for naval attack can be given a secondary mission including a specific objective.

Also fighters performing tasks other than LRP can be directed to dedicate a proportion of effort to CAP and bombers can be directed to spend a proportion of effort on Naval or ASW search.

Hope this answers some of your questions

[gus]

Thanks Iain,

Yes it does answer my question(s) quite well.

The game sounds like it will be tons of fun to play and I can't wait for it to ship. As soon as I get it and become familiar with the game mechanics I will be out on the wargamers.com UV ladder!

Hope to see you there

-g

[IChristie]

Just trying to kill some time at work and musing on strategies for my current UV campaign. Simply put the situation is this:

Let's divide the map into two operational areas - East (Solomons and other island chains) and West (PNG, Coral Sea, Australia).

In the East. I clearly have a hammerlock on the situation. I can reach all the way into the US rear area with recon and strike forces if I decide to. I have beaten up on the US carrier force (though not decisively), I have crippled the surface fleet and disabled or sunk a large part of the oiler fleet. The only way for the US to advance is by amphibiou assault and that just seems unlikely right now.

On the other hand further advances on my part are not really attractive, not because of difficulty with mounting the operation, but rather because of the problem of supplying any beachead. Even the Rennell I. outpost is proving problematic to supply because every time the US CV's come out they stop long enough to hammer it and sink any shipping headed that way. I have lost a couple APD's that way.

In the West things are not as clear. I have a good strategic position and can easily interdict resupply convoys approaching Port Moresby. I also have the naval resources to do just about anything I want in the Coral sea. Even the coast of Australia could be raided easily.

However, the allies have enough airpower to interdict my supply convoys and make me very nervous about any naval units that wander into range. Real experience proved time and again that in a battle of carriers vs. land based air. Land based air usually wins if there is anything like parity of resources.

Basically right now we have classic case of contraction on to interior lines. The allies have only one real offensive focal point - Port Moresby. They can throw their ever increasing resources into that one attack and I will neve be able to counter it. On the other hand, I have to keep a credible defense over a much larger area in the off chance that a new offensive does appear. To some extent this problem is eased by the extreme mobility of air groups (they can transfer and carry out ops in the same day) so air forces can be assembled quickly. It is this fact which is currently causing the problem in New Guinea because at the first sign of major activity from Gili Gili, they concentrated everything in an effort to close it down.

So I have been trying to think of a way to exploit my strong position in the eastern theatre to bolster the position in the west. Clearly some sort of operation that forces deployment of air resources away from Port Moresby would be ideal.

So perhaps that would be a good reason to try either a major raid on Noumea or the establishment of an advanced base in a location that the US could not ignore.

A major raid would hopefully force the redeployment of some of the bombers from Port Moresby (although, latest recon says there is a sizeable bomber force in Noumea). The raid could be timed to coincide with a major resupply of the New Guinea bases so that the AI will have to choose between taking on the transports and attacking the raiding force.

On the other hand, Wunpuko on the northern end of Espiritu Santo is a good landing spot. It is close enough to Luganville that the AI will have to respond and will have to put more air resources into Luganville to protect the base there. Wunpuko is capable of supporting a fairly large airfield (size 4?) IIRC. The question is: can I spare the base forces and logistics to support something so far forward? Or maybe that isn't the question. Maybe the point is that just establishing the beachhead will make the AI defend somewhere other than New Guinea and that even if I end up sacrificing some LCU or transports in the process, that will make it worthwhile.

Comments, questions, suggestions?

[Joel Billings]

Gary and I have been following your AAR. He mentioned to me today that we should encourage you to try to achieve the Japanese Automatic Victory Conditions. To do this you need to do the following:

On or after the January 1, 1943 turn, Japan wins if it holds a size 5 or greater airfield with double the supplies needed for that base, and the base is south of row 52, the game ends and the Japanese player wins.

Basically you have to take Luganville, Noumea or one of the Australian bases (Luganville or Cooktown are the easiest). Now if you don't have the carrier strength available (and with a strong advantage over enemy carriers), this is a very bad idea, but from a test point of view, Gary and I would both like to see how the AI reacted to your assault. Although we tested the auto win routines several months ago and they seemed to work, I don't think we've ever heard of a tester successfully triggering an auto win in the May campaign (or even trying to achieve the auto win). I would go for Luganville given the situation you've described, but I don't remember your on board carrier strength. Of course, feel free to ignore this and enjoy your game.

For all those out there watching this game, I thought you would be interested in this auto victory condition. Some may say it is Gary's way of encouraging an aggressive IJN commander into an ambush, but it's in the game if you want to go for it. If you don't, (or if you do and fail) 1943 can be a very long year for the IJN.

Joel

[Sinjen]

Go for the Big win! Imagine the personal praise of the emperor. Military parades in your honor. You being promoted to Fleet Admiral in charge of the overall IJN Pacific forces.

The American's and Britts forced to sue for peace on Japan's terms.


or....

Your carrier force is decimated along with a large portion of your logisitics and surface action groups. You fall back into a defensive stance and are forced to fight an inevitable battle of attrition as the Americans inexorably advance towards Japan no matter how hard you fight with what you have left. Their material superiority cannot be overcome with the sheer bravery of your pilots as they strap themselves into their planes with no intention of ever returning to land.

[madflava13]

Besides supply, I believe initiative is everything in battle. I would recommend taking Luganville if only to keep the Allies reacting to you, instead of the other way around...
My $.02

[byron13]

I like the way Gary wants to use you as a "New Guinea Pig." Har. :rolleyes:

I gather the the auto victory is not in the players' manual. I say go for it! Like Joel says, no playtester in the history of UV-dom has ever, ever triggered an auto win. Why, it's almost inconceivable. Not only will you be promoted, Matrix will plaster your picture all over the website. You'll get rich on UV endorsements and selling tactics manuals.

I'm green with envy. Go, Iain, go!

[IChristie]

I'm pumped!

Cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war.

Once more into the breach good soldiers of Nippon;
or line the bottom of Luganville sound with our dead...

Just as soon as the kids are in bed

I shall send despatched from the front when once again I am in contact with the enemy!

[mogami]

Greetings, OK Automatic victory in Jan 43. That means you have till Sept-Oct to capture the base and then with everything you have defend and build it.
Pull all everything back to Truk to reduce supply demands, (except of course for required defence units)
The number one piority will be to build the forward bases to max cap to assist the offensive. Supply has to be stockpiled in amount to have the required double supply near by for rapid trasfer once the base reaches level 5.
Maintain a reaction TF of 2-3 CV in battle area while the rest repair/refit so they are as near 100% when the time comes to begin operation. Replace the reaction TF if able to repair them as well. It would appear the NG bases should be left to dilute the allies but not be given more then the barest support from your resources. Don't telegraph your punch by raids into the landing area before the major effort begins.
Basicly rest and refit everything, build up as much supply forward as possible and use light forces to stand guard then hit with everything. Time the blow to allow the engineers to build the new base to required level.
What force to you think will be needed to capture the base? How many engineer units can be sent at once? AV-support move surplus to closest base for rapid redeployment.
This sounds like it could be fun.

PS I am in favour of Noumea (even if Lugaville is easier) but this is because New Cal fits better into my Witp plans. (I would think an Aussie base to be easier for the allies to recapture. All they need do is move forece to another base and march. NC requires amph operations to recapture but most likely will have more defenders to start. Are there any other Islands south of row 52 that can support a level 5 base?)