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Having said all that......


Jan 31st 1943.........

Speedy hits Buna with an 84 strong B-17 raid.....and then hits Shortlands hard as well......I doubt he'll push to Invade....but he seems determined to make the end as painful as possible for me.....

Lost a CL on Fast Trans duty off Buna......

Sho and Ryuho have made Truk......both will do basic repair and then return to the HIs.......

Landing troops on Buka........just to keep me busy.....

as Speedy and I have settled back...like two tired boxers after a hard fight.

Looked like plenty of action and damage this turn to me! Pity there weren't any "tokyo express"-type surface actions...[;)]

Hi Guys.........


It's Feb 6th 1943.....

Both Speedy and I thought the game ended on the 7th of Feb......but have learned (another thread) that it goes on until late spring....so we have decided to stop the game at this point........


Another fine victory for Steven.....he stayed at least 1 step ahead of me during the whole of this game........and has proved....yet again....what a fine opponent he is........I can hardly wait for Patch 2 when we will start our GC.......as this has been a tense hard fought battle.....great fun.

Here are the points.......which should be correct ....some of the other stuff may be FOW......

Here are my Major ship losses.........

As far as I know.......I sank 2 US fleet carriers.....hurt another 2 badly.....sank 2 CVEs..... 2BBs...gave as good as I got with CAs.....maybe Steven can post his true losses at some point

Faber, things look pretty even to me.  What a roller coaster the game was. [:D]
 
Have you started your first turn yet?  Just curious as to your take on how to start things.
 
I assume there'll be an AAR.....

The game has thrown up some interesting thoughts about AE........one being what a fine game it is.......but also how Old WitP strats....are just that....old.....and best left in the past.......I'll try to post some more thoughts later......after I put the kids to bed.......

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Faber, things look pretty even to me.  What a roller coaster the game was. [:D]

Have you started your first turn yet?  Just curious as to your take on how to start things.

I assume there'll be an AAR.....

Hi Mike........I haven't started Turn 1 yet.......was waiting for the patch......would I have to restart after patch?....I don't know.....so I've just been 'Bluesky thinking'....

There will be an AAR.....and I'll put my opening move thoughts there....as I expect I'll allow Steven to read this AAR if he wants.....but the new air-model(which I think is great) does make for some hard thinking about how to procede........I currently feel I'm about 30% across this game.....so will take my time on turn 1.........Speedy and I have agreed a slow start....due to RL....and us both finding our way....

Faber, I've heard the devs say (several times) that no restart will be required for patch 2.

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Faber, I've heard the devs say (several times) that no restart will be required for patch 2.

Thanks Mike..............I'll make a start tonight......if I can agree the final settings with Steven.....we've already agreed no HRs to start.....but as always we will be adaptable as the game continues......

You had better get started soon.  It's gonna take awhile.

Faber, things look pretty even to me. What a roller coaster the game was.

It's clear that the Allied margin of victory was on Base Points. Do the Allies get an advantage in this scenario? Are there bases almost impossible for the Japanese to hold, or are there different point scores for the same base, depending on who has it?

No. IIRC the points scored for the major bases PM, Milne Bay, Tulagi and Lunga are about the same for each side. The advantage that the allies have is that PM is relatively secure at the start of the scenario (at least compared to Lunga and Tulagi).

I'm playing Guad scenario now.  Tulagi and Lunga are very hard for the Japanese to hold at the start, while PM can be defended pretty easily in the first month or so.  Don't know about beyond that yet. 

The points are very different for the two sides for the 4 "target" bases:

Base         Allies      Japan
Port M.     2000       8000
Miline B.    400        1600
Tulagi       300        1200
Lunga       1200       4800

Ruling out Noumea, Truk, and the big Oz cities, these 4 bases pretty much decide the winner.  Mynok and I are almost a month into the game, and I hold all 4 as the Allies.  They give me a 6381 - 269 point lead.  The rest of the scenario will be fighting over these 4 places. 

USS.....is right.......because of the point values...it is a fight for those four bases.......

It is very hard to stop the allies from taking Lunga/Tulagi.......unless your subs get lucky and tag a USN CV early on.......

My plan was to concentrate on NG......but I didn't move quickly enough......PM is weak early on.....but it would take a brave man to go there by sea until MB is secured.....so that means the hump over the mountains........I still think this is do-able in the scenario.......but you must move quickly.......

I Ignored Lunga/Tulagi (until the end).......largly on the belief that by the time I had the strength to shift the Marines at Lunga Henderson would be up and running....and it was .....I perhaps didn't disguise my intentions well enough.......siginit certainly played it's part......and by the time I moved on MB....Speedy was also moving there in strength.......

Hi all,

Faber kindly allowed me to view his AAR to post my thoughts on how things went. Firstly, I can honestly it's been the most exciting and pulse racing scenario I've ever played in neither WiTP or AE. There was almost constant parry and counter parry throughout the scenario.

I would say that Faber shaded the first half or the scenario and me the second.

During the first half I was reactive and the Japanese had a good amount of air projection from Rabaul. This meant that my reinforcement attempts in New Guinea were hard and costly. This isk was increased by the quality of the Japanese pilots. When they got through moe likely than not a fish or several would find the lumbering freighters and tranports.

This leads us to our first carrier battle! Now that was tough for me to take I must say [;)] As some probably read on the forum I was APPALED at the hit rate of my experienced naval aviators. I'm still a little sceptical of the hit rate as our 2nd carrier battle also saw a poor hit rate. Anyhow I digress.......

I HAD to use my CV's to cover my reinforcement of MB. It was needed since I was losing too many ships without CV cover. Faber never knew how close he could have taken MB. At it's lowest point (just when the first Japanese were ashore) I had 2 Aussie Bde's and only 200 supply left! It was well in the red and if he'd attacked straight off he would have taken the base IMO. Over the following 2 days though I used every B17 and PBY to bring in supplies. I literally crept up to over 1000 supply just as the Japanese attacked leading to their fierce rebuttal! That was the lowest point and from there forth the reverse occured IMO. I had the initiative then. I managed to get a further 3 Bde's and oodles of supply in over the following 2 months. Coupled wiht this was the attrition of Japanese airpower by P40's and experienced F4F pilots. Whilst that was occuring I started to receive P38's and Spitfires. From this point the Japanese, although still able to inflict damage on my shipping, were on the backfoot in the air war.

From that point forth the Allies had the initiative. I was able to reinforce my bases with adequate air cover. That allowed me to comfortably hold the key bases in the scenario.

The carrier battles turned into a slugfest IMO. Rather than being clear sided victories both sides took damage and losses during both battles.

It looks as though Faber only lost 2 x CVL's in total. I also thought I had sunk either Zuikaku or Junyo but that's good old FOW playing effect (which I love by the way).

During CV Battle 1 I lost CV Wasp. Good old US Damage control made sure Enterprise was ok (I'll post screenshots later).

CV Battle 2 was very short and sharp north of Guadalcanal. Hornet was heavily damaged.

During CV Battle 3 I lost a CVE to an I-Boat (the only major ship to be taken out by one in this scenario). Saratoga was hit and heavily damaged by 2 torpedoes.

It would be good to see Faber's status of his CV's? It semeed that most were hit by at least 2 1000lb bombs but none were sunk?

Quickly on my subs. Acting historically of couse but there performance was woeful. They probably launched 50-60 attacks throughout and maybe hit 7-8 times sinking a couple of freighters. Missed Japanese CV's 3-4 times.

All in all a FANTASTIC scenario (congrats Nik), very playable, competitive. I LOVE the A2A model, logistics models, damage control etc.

Points:

Major ship losses:

Damaged Capitol ships:

Plane losses:

Any thoughts? Comments? Questions?