Imperial Japanese Noob: rattovolante (J) vs. hartwig.modrow (A)

[bklooste]

Thats true but the escort TF should go first and the convoy follow.

ORIGINAL: rattovolante

I don't think the AE engine allows for the escort TF to "join combat" if the convoy is attacked... otherwise we would have seen some examples in months of playing

so the amphib TFs are on their own if the SCTF doesn't intercept in the first place

[bklooste]

What happened at Ambon ?

[rattovolante]

The AAR is now a full week behind the actual game. Since, by chance, most game events reached a sort of conclusion within this same week, I will abandon for the time being the strict (and boring) day-to-day chronological order I used so far, reporting intead on the evolution of events in each area of operations for the week.

I started this as a way to make reporting a whole week easier, but I think it's way better from a narrative point of view than my previous, boring day-to-day chronicle. I'm considering to stick to it for the future, or maybe to alternate between day-to-day and theater-based reports according to what's happening.

Of course, the most important operation of the week was the capture of Ambon, so let's start from there...

BATTLE OF THE MOLUCCAS - DECEMBER 22 TO 24, 1941
22 December 1941:
IJN BBs Hyuga, Ise and Nagato bombard Ambon. Good losses reported to Allied forces - but also 42 runway hits (!)
First IJA troops land at Ambon. For some reason, only the followup TF (which was supposed to land after the main task force) lands.
This means the landed troops are undersupplied fragments of 3rd JNAF AF unit, 4th Engineer Co, Sasebo 8th SNLF, and III/66th Nav Gd. To make things easier, they're immediately bombarded by the defenders.
Luckily I will later discover the BB shore bombardment had apparently devastated allied units.


Night between 22 and 23 December 1941: Battle of the Banda Sea
BB Fuso bombards Ambon. As many losses are reported as the previous night's bombardment (which had three times the firepower). I think this meant the previous bombardment left a lot of disabled/fatigued units.

Main invasion TF (including BB Haruna) finally lands
xAKL Sagoland (apparently docked at Ambon) manages to flee port escaping the IJN surface combat (escort) TF (BB Hyuga, 2 DDs, 3 TBs).

While the surface escort was busy looking for Sagoland, and luckily after the troops had landed, an Allied CL TF attacks the Japanese transports still unloading supply...

• Allied TF: 4 CLs (Danae, Dragon, Durban, Boise), 1 DD (Barker)
• Japanese TF: 1 BB (Haruna), 1 CM, 2 DMSs, 6 PBs, 9 xAKs
• Allied Losses: CL Danae (heavily?) damaged
• Japanese Losses: 1 PB sunk, 3 PB heavily damaged, BB Haruna and 1 DMS damaged.

The allied TF (except the damaged Danae) then proceeded to engage my ASW TF. I guess my surface combat TF was still looking for xAKL Sagoland...

• Allied TF: 3 CLs (Dragon, Durban, Boise), 1 DD (Barker)
• Japanese TF: 4 DDs (Hokaze, Kuretake, Fuyo, Karukaya)
• Allied Losses: DD Barker sunk
• Japanese Losses: DDs Kuretake and Karukaya heavily damaged (both later sank from the damage)

A second allied TF then engaged Haruna's TF (again). The IJN surface combat TF was still nowhere to be seen. SS RO-33 had tried to torpedo one of the allied destroyers but missed.

• Allied TF: 5 DDs (Vampire, Piet Hein, Van Ghent, Encounter, Isis)
• Japanese TF: 1 BB (Haruna), 1 CM, 2 DMSs, 6 PBs, 9 xAKs
• Allied Losses: DDs Isis and Van Ghent sunk
• Japanese Losses: 1 of the damaged PBs sunk, BB Haruna heavily damaged, 2 xAKs heavily damaged (they will sink within the next day)

Haruna and the other damaged ships broke out in their own escort TF, and another combat ensued between the Allied DDs and what was left of the invasion TF:

• Allied TF: 2 DDs (Vampire, Encounter), 1 DD on fire (Piet Hein)
• Japanese TF: 1 CM, 1 PB on fire, 6 xAKs, 1 xAK on fire
• Losses: none

Luckily the Japanese TF managed to evade combat. I guess the allies weren't exactly eager to investigate if Haruna was still there...
And yes, the IJN surface combat TF didn't act again...

Lastly I-124 caught the retreating CL Danae and torpedoed it. It probably sunk because later air naval search didn't find it (it was crippled so it couldn't go far without being detected)

23 December 1941:
ABDA planes from Kendari bombed japanese troops onshore at Ambon.
At last, IJN carrier planes sortie to avenge the daring Allied raid on Ambon's fleet! Guess what Allied ship they find, attack and sink? Yes, it's xAKL Sagoland. The Allied warships retreat unmolested (well, except Danae)...
Allied ground bombardment causes some losses to Japanese troops. Japanese troops still didn't attack due to supply issues.

Night between 23 and 34 December 1941
I had to split some ships from the (so far unengaged) surface combat TF to reinforce the (now escortless) amphibious TF.

The reduced IJN surface combat TF finally engaged an Allied DD hunting for stragglers:

• Allied TF: 1 DD (Encounter)
• Japanese TF: 1 BB (Hyuga), 1 DD (Yugumo), 3 TB
• Allied Losses: DD Encounter sunk
• Japanese Losses: none

This was the usual night engagement at 1000 yard, which started badly with Encounter scoring 5 gun hits on Hyuga. I was afraid it found the range and might torpedo the BB. So when the "torpedoes in the water" message appeared I was surprised to find out that the ship hit was Encounter. Yugumo had hit it with a single torpedo, Encounter sank instantly.

Boise then engaged the amphibious TFs again (they had merged into a single, lightly escorted TF) before they merged with the DDs detached from the surface combat TF. The japanese ships anyway managed to escape after a few rounds of fire without any hits.

• Allied TF: 1 CL (Boise)
• Japanese TF: 1 CM, 1 DD, 1 PB, 7 xAK
• Losses: none

SS Seawolf torpedoed the damaged DD Karukaya but torpedoes didn't explode. Karukaya will anyway sink later from previous damage.
DD Vampire bombards Japanese troops at Ambon, strangely without encountering any TF.

24 December 1941: Battle of Ambon
ABDA planes from Kendari bombard japanese troops at Ambon again. Some Claudes from Hosho and Zuiho were on LRCAP but they achieve nothing at all.
Kates from Zuiho find the retreating DD Vampire and try to torpedo it without result.

Finally, since on dec. 23 the amphibious TF had managed to land enough troops and (more importantly) supply before being attacked, the Japanese forces shock attack the Allied positions at Ambon.
The Ambon defenders surrender. Interestingly enough, the defending units were Molukken Garrison Battalion, 4th Coastal Gun Battalion, Gull Battalion, Sorong Det. Base Force and Ambon Base Force.
I was surprised to see Gull Bn there, looks like Hartwig had committed to reinforcing/holding Ambon.
The very good news is that on the japanese side the only destroyed squads were 3 non-combat, everything else is just disabled.

December 25 to 28, 1941
Some inconclusive ASW-SS skirmishes, and ABDA bombers trying to attack japanese warships at Ambon without effect.
Surprisingly enough, Blenheim IFs (the units in Malaya at the start of the war?) showed up escorting the bombers.


Aftermath
Damage to Ambon infrastructure is 41 port, 44 service and 81 runway. Strangely enough, it didn't repair at all so far (I captured the island on Dec. 24, it's now December 29). A construction unit is on its way to help repairs.

I discovered that apparently service/runway damage affects (non-amphibious) floatplanes/patrols too (operational damage/repair rate) - even if they can properly operate from bases with no airfield at all, operating from a base with a damaged airfield will impair their performance.

So I can't use Ambon to immediately secure air superiority over the Banda sea as I had planned. I guess my CVLs will have to remain in the neighbourhood for a while...

Japanese ship losses are:

• 3 Ansyu PB (10 VP each)
• 1 Aden Cargo xAK (10 VP)
• 1 Std-C Cargo xAK (6 VP)
• 1 To'su PB (1 VP)
• 2 Wakatake DD (4 VP each)

Ships with major damage are (as of Dec. 29):

• BB Haruna (see pic) - at Ambon
• DMS W-14: 35 system, 41(20) flood, 2 engine - at Ambon
• PB Kenkon Maru: 15 system, 15(1) flood, 2 engine - at Ternate
• xAK Ansin Maru: 9 system, 1(1) flood, 4 engine - at Ternate

Presumed Allied losses are:

• CL Danae (23 VP)
• DD Barker (5 VP)
• DD Isis (6 VP)
• DD Van Ghent (5 VP)
• DD Encounter (6 VP)

AR Akashi is at Babeldaob, I might move it to Ternate when the situation gets safer there (it still gets bombed from time to time by planes from Kendari)

Haruna is currently docked at Ambon itself. It will need to return to the Home Islands and spend quite some time (and supply) in drydock (see pic below). I think it might have been reported as "sunk" by my opponent's FoW.

The battles Haruna got involved in played out be more or less as "Haruna vs. Rest of the World". It received a total of 49 shell and 2 torpedo hits. I consider myself lucky they took place in thunderstorms, as I think stormy weather reduces torpedo accuracy - some more torpedo hits might have sunk her.

[Smeulders]

What's your opinion of the fight, feels like a victory or a defeat ? If I'm correct his losses were 4 DD and a CL ? Most of his DD were pretty obselete (especially the dutch), so I'd rate it as a draw or minor allied victory. Merchant and escort hulls are very important for the Japanese and the BB will be in the yard for some time.

The destruction of Gull batallion does show the relative uselessness of sending units forward to defend the DEI. If the Japanese player is somewhat prepared, he'll have more then enough troops to capture a base, despite the reinforcements the allies can bring in.

[rattovolante]

ORIGINAL: Smeulders

What's your opinion of the fight, feels like a victory or a defeat ? If I'm correct his losses were 4 DD and a CL ? Most of his DD were pretty obselete (especially the dutch), so I'd rate it as a draw or minor allied victory. Merchant and escort hulls are very important for the Japanese and the BB will be in the yard for some time.

Well, I don't know, I'm not very good at adjudicating things from a "victory" point of view.
The naval battle was certainly a minor allied victory. Minor since while I had more losses, it happened too late to affect my main goal (landing troops at Ambon and conquering it).

The land battle was clearly a Japanese victory. I had relatively little losses.

My main goal of securing Ambon and the Banda sea is so far partially accomplished. I say "partially" because for whatever reason the airfield is not repairing so far.
I will try to send more supply and repair units, if it still won't repair, the whole operation was a partial success at best (it did succeed in negating the airfield to the enemy...)

As (unfortunately) made obvious by the sheer amount of firepower I brought at Ambon, it was a key objective in my overall plan, so, well, I might gladly accept a partial success if everything else goes well.

Another thing to consider is that Hartwig had substantially reinforced Ambon. It's not just Gull Bn, he also moved some unit at Namlea (the base 1 hex NW of Ambon), and had moved to Ambon a number of surface combat units from as far as Singapore (and apparently the Blenheim escort fighters moved from Malaya to Kendari). So I think Hartwig was planning something rather large-scale in this area - I have no idea what role Ambon had in his overall defense plan, but I think I might have seriously messed with it.


So, all in all, while my losses were (relatively) high, they might have been worth the conquest of Ambon and possibly ruining my opponent's plans, whatever they were.



BTW I don't think setting up a forward defense at Ambon was a bad move for the Allies. Keep in mind that I went there with something like 6 BBs, 2 CVLs, 1 CVE, a number of CAs etc. A lot of these didn't take part in the combat due to in-game randoms (for example, bad weather meant the CVLs were pretty much pointless), but the invasion succeeded through sheer firepower (land combat was decided by the first day BB shore bombardment).

In other words Hartwig was unlucky that I placed a high priority on Ambon, had prepared enough reserves at Babeldaob to break my way through, and was willing to risk them to break through his defenses. I don't think many Japanese players would make such an "investment" on Ambon this early in the game, against a "normal" Japanese strategy it might have been effective.

for what it's worth, I think a similar scenario is going to take place in Burma - Hartwig appears to have heavily reinforced Rangoon, but I currently have the Imperial Guards division at Moulmein... which I don't think he expected to show up there so early. I didn't expect such a fast reinforcement of Rangoon as well, but I also have more recon planes in the area so I think I have a better grasp of the situation.

[rattovolante]

In the meanwhile, a number of hexes away...

The invasion of Rabaul, December 22-28, 1941

December 22:
The Australian navy raids the Japanese outpost at Shortland.
A somewhat funny night engagement follows:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Shortlands at 109,131, Range 1,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
PB Koei Maru

Allied Ships
CL Adelaide, Shell hits 1



Reduced sighting due to 14% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 14% moonlight: 1,000 yards
Range closes to 8,000 yards...
Range closes to 4,000 yards...
Range closes to 1,000 yards...
Range increases to 2,000 yards
Range increases to 3,000 yards
CL Adelaide engages PB Koei Maru at 3,000 yards
Task forces break off...

Combat animation showed "task forces break off" as soon as Adelaide was hit. Just imagine the scene

(ok, this was for laughs... Koei Maru is actually a largish PB; Adelaide was engaged beyond sight range, so it could have mistaken the PB for a AMC or CL. Not entirely unreasonable that it didn't press the attack)

Adelaide bombarded Shortlands the same night, destroying a Jake.

During the day Adelaide and Koei Maru met again, but since Adelaide was still on bombardment mission (not surface combat) it avoided combat. Adelaide bombarded again during the day, no losses reported.

December 23:
Another shore bombardment on Shortlands, no losses reported.

December 23-24:
Australian bombers perform ineffective bombing runs on Kavieng and Shortlands.

December 25:
Santa Cat gets on her sled and brings presents to the IJN.
The australian catalina Is (version without torpedoes) bomb an ASW TF at Kavieng sinking 1 PB

December 26:
Catalinas strike again at Kavieng, this time sinking a xAK (which was loading troops for Rabaul) and another PB.

December 27:
Catalinas strike again at Kavieng. I had lost my patience and moved a couple of AA-heavy CAs there - 5 out of 6 planes damaged, no hits on ships
After the xAK sinking on the previous day I decided to press the Rabaul invasion on before the Catalinas sunk every transport in the area :p
The 144th inf. regiment is thus landed at Rabaul - almost alone, as most of the other units that were supposed to join in the invasion are still at Kavieng
To my surprise (and relief) the allied bombardment upon my landing show that many of the defenders had already been evacuated.

December 28:
2 PBs and 1 xAKL are damaged by CD while the amphibious TF finishes unloading
IJA secures Rabaul. Most defenders had been evacuated, only 30 nominal AV was left.

[rattovolante]

Many hexes to the north-east, another battle was fought

Invasion of Wake, part 2
This had already started some days ago, plagued by one bug and a couple of unexpected game mechanics that combined to cause the almost complete loss of a Naval Guard unit.

December 22:
CM Okinoshima and CM Tokiwa, which were in the amphibious TF still dropping supplies, are damaged by CD guns.
Allied ground bombardment fails. Problem is, Japanese shock attack fails too, and what was left of 61st Naval Guard is virtually wiped out (a large part of the unit sunk with its transport, see some posts above...)

December 23:
CD keeps pounding on the amphibious TF dropping supply. AMC Kongo Maru and AMC Kinryu Maru are (lightly) damaged.
More shore bombardment of Wake by every CL and DD I have there (12 ships). No effect reported, guns are probably too small calibre.

As said above I had split KB in 2 TFs, one carrying torpedo bombers, and the other dive bombers. The dive bombers' TF struck Wake with 99 Vals, without causing many losses but probably raising disruption. Hopefully this also created the illusion that the whole KB is near Wake (I usually don't send Kates to bomb land targets, they're not very effective)

At the turn's end things seem to get better for the Axis. Japanese deliberate attack causes roughly equal losses but drops forts to 1. Allied ground bombardment has no effect.

December 24:
More of the same - CLs, DDs and Vals bombard again. AA shots down 1 Val
Finally, a new deliberate attack forces the defenders to surrender. Wake is finally captured, more than a week beyond schedule and with much higher losses (a xAK and virtually a whole Nav.Gd. unit) than expected.

[rattovolante]

Well, this is an attempt to revive this AAR, some 6 months after I stopped updating it.
The main reason for the stop was that the dreaded real life had hit my schedule... and unfortunately it kept hitting quite hard in the following months, to the point that after about 6 months of real time, our game has only progressed a little more than a month of game time! But in any case, we are apparently are sort of comfortable with such a very slow-paced schedule (read: crawl-speed), so we are going on. I am sorry for Hartwig (my gallant opponent), since by this pace he probably won't ever be able to play the fun part for the allies, namely mid to late war. I want to mention here that he was extremely comprehensive with the delays, which were almost entirely my fault (or actually my real life's fault )

So, game date is now February 2 1942, last AAR update was late December 1941. What happened in January? The quick answer is of course "very little of what I had planned" - my initial plan was somewhat flawed (not entirely unexpected, since this is my first PBeM), and the lack of time due to real life constrains made things much worse, as I often sent back turns without having enough time to properly consider every move.

In the end this meant that my main operation (Java landing) is way beyond schedule (about a month!), and dangerously close to the end of the Axis amphibious bonus window - but more of this later. Let's first review what happened so far, only mentioning the interesting parts...

[rattovolante]

FROM AMBON TO KOEPANG (JAN 1-24, 1942)

Part 1. the aftermath of Ambon

Last days of December and first days of January see many allied air strikes on Ambon trying to sink the damaged Haruna anchored there. Ambon's airfield is a mess, my Zeroes have a bad time trying to fly from the cratered runway (though they score a number of kills too). Haruna's deck armor proves to be too resilient for the bombs available to the allies, but she takes a lot of damage to weaponry, so it will be under repairs for a long time (and I still have to move her to the HI anyway).

On Jan 7, SS Tarpon sights the (heavily escorted) convoy evacuating Haruna to Ternate. I moved a bunch of Zeroes to Ternate, just in case... also, the air base here actually works!

On Jan 9, SS KVII spots my support convoy entering Ternate, containing AR Akashi, AKE Kashino and an AS. This pretty much equals to informing Hartwig that I am building a main base in the Moluccas...


Part 2. The invasion of Kendari

Jan 4
Kendari invasion begins, but finds the allies prepared.
Bombardment TF meets PTs, sinking 2 boats before they disperse. Anyway, this prevents a night bombardment from taking place.
During the day Allied planes attacked the bombardment TF, luckily without serious results. Intel gathered during the (daytime) bombardment showed Sparrow Bn was there (well, looks like gunshells can identify the unit they hit...).


Jan 5
PT boats try another couple of runs at the bombardment TF, losing 1 boat without scoring any hits.
SS-38 is sighted by the amphibious convoy escort and damaged.

Landing begins overnight - but an an Allied surface combat TF engages the amphibious convoy during the day. Unfortunately, the surface combat escort had withdrawn, and the amphibious TF was caught unloading! As I found out, this has a very bad effects on all ships - you know, I thought that the game would only model the transports to “be unloading”, with the warships staying battle-ready and covering the landing ships. But especially Ise's performance was so dismal that I now believe that all ships in the TF take the “getting underway” penalty – in other words, I should have formed two Tfs with the same ships, an amphibious one and a SCTF. At least, all troops were already on shore...

Japanese Ships
BB Ise, Shell hits 5
CA Chokai, Shell hits 16, heavy fires, heavy damage [see below]
CM Itsukushima, Shell hits 5, heavy fires [fires out of control, had to be scuttled]
DD Kuroshio
DD Sawakaze
DD Tachikaze
DD Hasu
DMS W-13, Shell hits 8, heavy fires, heavy damage [will sink later]
xAK Tarayasu Maru
xAKL Yagi Maru, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
xAKL Fukuyo Maru, Shell hits 2, and is sunk
xAP Tango Maru, Shell hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage [will sink later]

Allied Ships
CA Australia
CA Canberra, Shell hits 17, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
CL Dragon, Shell hits 3, on fire
CL St. Louis, Shell hits 1
DD Ralph Talbot, Shell hits 1
DMS Southard, Shell hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage

More air strikes on my TFs after this (no hits). Later in the same day SS KXIV torpedoes and sinks the crippled CA Chokai.

First day of ground bombardment shows a larger concentration of enemy troops that I had anticipated:

Kendari Garrison Battalion
Sparrow Battalion
Kendari Base Force
107th RN Base Force
Ternate Det. Base Force /2
Manado Base Force /1

Since my units onshore are just 16th Naval Guard Unit and 9th JNAF Coy, they are pretty much stranded there. Anyway, the naval bombardment probably disrupted Sparrow Bn enough to prevent it from launching a counterattack


Jan 6 to 10
Many Allied air strikes over Kendari - and I could not provide adequate air cover. Anyway, no land counterattack takes place, which is good.


Jan 10
I attempt to reinforce the beachhead with a large fleet, including separate Tfs for surface combat, air combat (Ryujo, Zuiho and Hosho), bombardment and ASW. Again, this found the Allies prepared, I guess the operation was given away by Allied recon or intel.

The SCTF got under attack, first by PTs (1 PT lost, no hit on axis ships), then by SS O20 (no hits), and finally by a largish Allied surface force:

Japanese Ships
CA Atago, Shell hits 2
CA Myoko, Shell hits 13, on fire
DD Akikaze
DD Shiokaze

Allied Ships
CA Indianapolis, Shell hits 2
CA Australia
CL Marblehead
CL St. Louis, Shell hits 1
CL Honolulu, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Phelps, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Alden
DD Edsall, Shell hits 1, heavy fires
DMS Dorsey

Combat ended up quite well for me, as the Allied commander had managed to cross the T.

Later the same day another submarine was spotted and engaged by my ASW TF
Anyway, the separate SCTF worked, since later in the same day, the bombardment TF and amphibious TF reach the beach unopposed. After the landing was over, the bombardment TF had to fend off the usual PTs (1 boat sunk, no hits), but SS KXVI sunk a xAK.

11 Nells tried to torpedo Indianapolis without results. Zeroes from the CVE/CVLs shot down a Dutch Buffalo, two WH139-3s and two Vildebeests.


Part 3. Allied raids on Ambon

Jan 10
At the same time I was unloading troops at Kendari, an Allied bombardment TF attacked Ambon, sinking two PB, two SC, one xAK and one xAP. The SCTF I usually had at Ambon had moved to Kendari to support the operations there...

Then... a small disaster struck. I had moved the three Katoris in the Moluccas area, planning to use them as raiders in the Indian ocean. The Katori are quite light weapon- and armor-wise, but have a remarkable fuel economy ratio and a floatplane, so they make very nice raiders IMO. Unfortunately, their react setting was too high (I had already set it to their “raiding” value of 6), and they reacted to the Allied TF while cruising between Ambon and Darwin, trying to reach the Indian Ocean. They managed to surprise the Allied ships and to launch Long Lances, but missed with almost everything they had. Engaging proved not to be a wise decision...

Japanese Ships
CL Katori, Shell hits 16, heavy fires, heavy damage [will sink later]
CL Kashima, Shell hits 11, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage [will sink later]
CL Kashii, Shell hits 17, heavy fires, heavy damage [will sink later]
DD Hatsukaze, Shell hits 3
DD Natsushio, Shell hits 1
DD Hayashio, Shell hits 2, on fire [will sink later]

Allied Ships
CA Minneapolis, Shell hits 4
CL Java
CL De Ruyter, Shell hits 3, on fire
CL Tromp, Shell hits 1
DD Vampire, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Vendetta, Shell hits 3
DD Witte de With, Shell hits 4, on fire

Result... all 3 Katoris sunk at 24 VP each. Most disappointing thing was that the raiding plan had to be scrapped after I had already grouped the other units allocated to it (some smaller ships, a small AO, a couple of glen submarines...)

Since I had moved away the SCTF defending Ambon, I had placed IJNAF on alert, but the results were quite disappointing...

Morning raid:
8 Zeroes, 3 Nells, 9 Betties tried to hit the retreating allied TF, but scored no hits, losing 1 Nell and 1 Betty (in exchange of a Demon).
11 Nells attacked the allied TF at Kendari instead, with no hits.
5 Betties attacked a small TF docked at Koepang, with no hits.

Afternoon raid:
8 Zeroes and 9 Betties scored a single torpedo hit on CA Minneapolis, shooting down a Demon in the process
9 Nells attacked the TF at Koepang again, with no hits

At least, SS RO-34 torpedoes CL De Ruytier, which was lagging behind the rest of the TF, having received engine damage during the battle with the Katoris.


Jan 11
As an example of the kind of bad decisions I make when I don't have enough time to plan turns, I had sent DD Hayashio to engage the crippled CL De Ruytier (which by now I knew was traveling very, very slowly). Slow known target against a fast torpedo-armed destroyer, what can go bad? Well, for example, the destroyer firing its torpedoes at maximum range and missing, then closing up, only to be mauled in very few hits by the cruiser's guns...

Japanese Ships
DD Hayashio, Shell hits 4, heavy fires [will later sink]

Allied Ships
CL De Ruyter, Shell hits 10, on fire, heavy damage

Back in Kendari, the first Japanese deliberate attack failed, with low losses on both sides.


Jan 14 to 18
From now on Kendari was hit by allied air strikes on an almost daily basis, which prevented my units to recover disruption. Of course I did the same with Betties. Neither side managed to provide decent fighter air cover...

Second Japanese deliberate attack on Kendari failed on Jan 13, this time with heavier Axis losses.

On Jan 16, more reinforcements land at Kendari, and on Jan 17 the first successful japanese attack is made, bringing forts down to 1. The next attack was repulsed by the Allies with heavy losses (axis:allied at 1:2 ratio, losses were 93:344). By now the forces on the field were:

Assaulting units:
Kendari Garrison Battalion
Sparrow Battalion
Kendari Base Force
107th RN Base Force

Defending units:
15th Naval Guard Unit
Sasebo 3rd SNLF
III./4th Infantry Battalion
16th Naval Guard Unit
9th JNAF Coy

At Ambon, the lone DD Piet Hein bombarded Ambon on Jan 15. A daring move, but effective – it destroyed a Zero on ground and sunk three PB that engaged it. I suppose CL Durban was initially supposed to take part in the bombardment as well, but it ended up being too near my Koepang invasion fleet and had been sunk by Kates the day before (see below). Another PB was lost to a submarine.

Piet Hein, still alone, was finally sunk by I-156 on Jan 18 near Kolaka – no idea where it was headed, possibly another raid.


Part 4. Invasion of Koepang
The invasion of Koepang was initially planned to begin after Kendari was secured, but the stall there as well as the vulnerability of my rear lines at Ambon induced me to hit it sooner, drop the troops and let them work it out on their own. I assembled a large fleet, using many of the warships that supported the reinforcement landing at Kendari of Jan 10.


Jan 13
Betties and Nells launch a strike on allied shipping at Koepang, torpedoing a TK and sinking a xAK. I tried to make this look like a routine air raid, but it probably caused every good cargo ship in the harbor to flee south.


Jan 14
The bombardment TF finds some shipping in the harbor and sinks two AM and a TK, and causes serious damage to the runway – which anyway was empty of enemy planes.

Some Betties, which were supposed to support the invasion, find CL Durban near Lautem (on the other end of Timor) and attack it without results; anyway a second wave of Kates from Zuiho torpedoes and sinks it.


Jan 15
The real invasion begins.
Pre-invasion bombardment showed a surprise since the previous day... 55th British Brigade is at Koepang. I guess the Allied plan was to repeat the Kendari stalemate on a larger scale, but I felt I have enough firepower to handle this...
The unloading of IJA 65 Brigade is a mess though, and I get 149 casualties reported. Very important thing to note: it is new moon (3% moonlight)!

The surface combat TF (this time quite big, 12 ships including Hyuga) sinks the last transports leaving Koepang (1 xAK, 2 xAP)

I was trying to trap as much shipping as possible in Koepang, but a large number of transports had already left Koepang in the previous days, because Ryujo, which was acting as forward scout (a role that was originally assigned to the now-sunk Katoris...), had a quite close encounter with...

Day Time Surface Combat, near Sawoe Islands at 64,117, Range 20,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CVL Ryujo
DD Yugumo
DD Amatsukaze
DD Tokitsukaze

Allied Ships
AM Wollongong
xAP Rochussen
xAP Rooseboom
xAP Siberg
xAP Speelman
xAP Van Neck
xAP Van Rees
DE Sutlej

Maximum visibility in Partly Cloudy Conditions: 28,000 yards
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 20,000 yards
Japanese TF attempts to evade combat
Range increases to 20,000 yards...
Both Task Forces evade combat

Ground combat showed the defending units in Koepang to be:

Timor Garrison Battalion
Dili Detachment
55th British Brigade
Den Passer Base Force
107th RN Base Force /2
102nd RN Base Force /1
100th RN Base Force
Manado Base Force /2
Koepang Base Force
Kendari Base Force /1
Asiatic Fleet /4
Mataram Base Force /1

Jan 16:
A large number of Allied submarines converge on Koepang. My ASW TFs manage to keep them at bay, though.


Jan 17:
DD Van Nes tries to raid Koepang and stumbles into my very small bombardment TF.

Night Time Surface Combat, near Koepang at 68,118, Range 8,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Kongo, Shell hits 1
CA Tone
DD Ushio

Allied Ships
DD Van Nes

...It is remarkable to note that my TF had surprised Van Nes – only to fire long lances on it and miss... are those guys aware of how much 61 cm torpedoes cost, anyway?

The funny thing is that during the day, Van Nes struck back:

Day Time Surface Combat, near Koepang at 67,117, Range 16,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Kongo, Shell hits 1
CA Tone
DD Ushio

Allied Ships
DD Van Nes, Shell hits 2

...but only on the third attempt my surface combat TF finally decided to react!

Day Time Surface Combat, near Koepang at 68,116, Range 20,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Ise
CA Haguro, Shell hits 1
CA Ashigara
CL Kinu
CL Kiso
DD Kuroshio
DD Hatsukaze
DD Natsushio
DD Hibiki

Allied Ships
DD Van Nes, Shell hits 11, and is sunk

Part 5. End of the Moluccas campaign

Koepang
After Van Nes' raid, no relevant Allied actions took place at Koepang, except for long range air strikes, not very effective in any case.
The huge disruption caused by the new moon landing forced my troops at Koepang to wait for reinforcements, which arrived on Jan 20. The first Japanese attack took place on Jan 21, reducing forts to 1. A second attack on Jan 23 reduced forts to 0; Koepang was finally captured on Jan 24.


Kendari
Air raids from both sides continued. Allied forts were reduced to 0 in the Japaneseattack of Jan 20, but both a shock attack on Jan 21 and a deliberate attack on Jan 22 failed to capture the base (each time reducing forts from 1 to 0...). Finally by Jan 23 the forts had not rebuilt to 1, and Kendari fell.


Pursuing the Koepang transports
After the close encounter with Ryujo, I had sent a number of units trying to sink those fleeing ships, with somewhat disappointing results...

Kates from Zuiho sunk xAP Van Neck, xAP Van Rees, xAP Rochussen and xAK Hanyang (RO-33 failed to torpedo the last ship the day before)
Jeans from Hosho (yes, I'm keeping Jeans on it, trying to mimic the historical limits of the ship) sunk xAK Gogra.
I-157 sunk xAP Siberg.

I had sent three DD on patrol south of Koepang in search of escaping cargoes, but...

Day Time Surface Combat, near Broome at 61,121, Range 17,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DD Kamikaze
DD Asakaze
DD Yakaze

Allied Ships
xAK Taiyuan
AVP Arend
AG Albatros

Maximum visibility in Overcast Conditions: 20,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 17,000 yards
Allied TF attempts to evade combat
Range increases to 17,000 yards...
Allied Transport TF evades combat

In the end I decided to substitute the Katori cruisers with Ryujo, and slipped it west of Koepang after the invasion... but I kept forgetting to give new orders to her resting Mabels, until...

Day Time Surface Combat, near Christmas Island IO at 48,114, Range 20,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CVL Ryujo
DD Yugumo
DD Amatsukaze
DD Tokitsukaze

Allied Ships
TK Marpessa

Maximum visibility in Partly Cloudy Conditions: 28,000 yards
Range increases to 20,000 yards...
Both Task Forces evade combat

Ryujo has since reached my secret base in the Indian Ocean along with a few submarines. Even if it was spotted twice by enemy transports near Koepang, I think my opponent is still unaware of its presence west of Java!

[rattovolante]

Trying to revive this thread again (with yet a different format). The main reason for doing this is that I'm somewhat stuck in game. My plans didn't go too well in game, although I think I should be satisfied with the outcome considering this was my first game overall (I had played the AI for a month or so before starting the game, but it proved somewhat boring)

Some preliminary considerations:

• Turn rate is very slow - this more or less suits both players anyway. After about a year of real time, game has only advanced to late February 1942. The game did speed up greatly in the last month or so as I was unemployed, but that will end in 2 weeks from now...
• Flaws in the Japanese strategy are apparent by now, but - well, this was my first game, duh. Also, some of the strategic choices that might have had some sense in the first patch (such as rushing Imperial Guards division to Burma in December 1941, to prevent Allies razing the industry there through partisans) are completely pointless by now. Well, at least I didn't send KB cruising through Singapore's hex in early January 1942, as I managed to do in my first game vs. AI (I set "direct route" and forgot to set a waypoint bypass around the CD)
• No signs of Allied carriers even since the war started. I have no idea what they are up to, but apparently they missed more than one occasion of wreaking havoc on Japanese forces (and only some of these occasions were “carrier bait”...). So I'm beginning to think they're waiting somewhere... which brings the question: what are they waiting for?

January 1942, IJN raid in the Pacifc
Premise: in the first days of January I experimented a bit with SSX and submarine-laid mines at Pago-Pago, with very little results (i.e.: they both appear to be useless – this means I will have to experiment more of course [8D]). Anyway, the subs involved spotted a number of cargo ships in the area, which led me to conclude that Pago-Pago is a major USN base in this game.

[center][/center]

My raiding CVs (Zuikaku, Shokaku and Soryu) attacked Canton Island on Jan 10, hitting a lone xAK and the base force there. I had swamped the area with submarines, wishing to provoke an Allied reaction, but nothing materialized. Apparently Hartwig has not reinforced or developed the base.

In the meanwhile, SigInt had catched up heavy radio from Suva, and since I had carriers and subs right there, I decided to check it out... The raiding carrier TF manouvered around Suva and attacked it from the west on Jan 19 and Jan 20. In 2 days the consolidated report was:

• Sunk outright:
  • 3 DDs (Tucker, MacDonough and Hull)
  • 1 xAK
• Heavy fires, heavy damage
  • 3 xAKs
  • AP Tasker H. Bliss
  • AE Lassen, 2 AGs (J.L. Luckenbach, Sirius), AVP Avocet, AVD Ballard
• Other damage:
  • 1 xAK “on fire”
  • 2 APs: U. S. Grant “heavy fire”, AP Henry T. Allen “on fire, heavy dmg”
  • AKE Cynthia Olson “on fire”, AS Fulton -heavy fire
• Other ships spotted:
  • AP Wharton: 1 bomb hit, but no dmg/fire reported
  • AD Dixie: 2 bomb hits, no dmg/fire reported
  • AM Grebe: no hits

I was also reported having sunk 44 vehicles on board of the transport - but these probably were motorized support rather than tanks.

Unfortunately, after the first day of strikes, the allied had flown in a number of Airacobras at Suva, so the second day was somewhat less pleasant, as I met 41 P-39D. Anyway, I suppose the Airacobra pilots were fatigued by the transfer as they were not as effective as they might have been.

Cumulative air losses for the two days (as reported in combat report, so FoW is on also for the Japanese side) were:

• A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed
• B5N2 Kate: 4 damaged
• D3A1 Val: 9 destroyed, 58 damaged
• P-39D Airacobra: 2 destroyed

Note that onboard the carriers I had only 1 group of Kates but 5 groups of Vals. I did not expect to fight battleships, so the Val payload seemed more efficient. A number of damaged planes crashed on landing but pilot losses were less than I feared.

Since my raiding TF was still only made up of 3 CVs, I was somewhat afraid of being intercepted by USN carriers. So, after studying the situation a little, I decided that the best route out of Suva would have been crossing south and east of it, in the process showing up at Pago Pago which I already knew was a busy port. It was somewhat of a gamble since I didn't know (and still do not know!) the whereabouts of enemy carriers, but I supposed that he wouldn't imagine my CV TF withdrawing east.
I was quite lucky with my findings... I encountered a small CAP of 5 P-40B, but I found:

• CL Phoenix -heavy fire, heavy damage
• DD O'Brien -no hits
• DD Dale -heavy fire, heavy damage
• DD Walke -no hits
• AK Procyon -sunk
• AKV Kittyhawk -heavy fire
• AKV Hammondsport -heavy fire, heavy damage

Air losses:

• A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
• D3A1 Val: 3 destroyed, 47 damaged
• P-40B Warhawk: 4 destroyed

The interesting thing is that the intel screen showed a very large number of P-40E destroyed on ground, so I suppose at least one of those AKVs was loaded.

Suva and Pago-Pago appear to be key bases for the USN, while Canton Island apparently isn't. Later sigint reported heavy radio from Tahiti as well, so Hartwig appears to have taken a rather southern route for his convoys. Recon during and after the strikes reported about 22000 troops, 200 guns and 150 AFV at Suva, and some 3500 troops at Pago-Pago. Suva now has an airfield size 4, too.

The main problem now was to disengage the carriers soon enough to have them available in Java by the middle of February, but no enemy ship showed up in pursuit.

[rattovolante]

The overall SRA plan
Premise: the plan for expansion in the Southern Resource Area was based on the resource/oil overland movement system of patch 1, which was very different and extremely less forgiving than the current one.

In any case, back when I drew up plans I was convinced that:

• I could not afford shipping out oil and fuel on a large scale until a safe perimeter around the SRA was established (i.e. no reload centers for SSs and DDs).
• Night level bombing of industrial centers can not be effectively stopped by night CAP or AAA.
• Since (at least in this game) minefields proved unable to stop surface raiders, the only way I could think to protect a captured Palembang from a surface bombing raid from Batavia appeared to be placing surface units of mine there. This meant placing them for an indefinite amount of time within range of enemy naval search planes, and it is doubtful whether Betties would have been able to adequately protect such a stationary task force from enemy ships (just wait for a thunderstorm...)

Now, I don't know if these points made sense even in patch 1, but well, I had to start from somewhere when planning something out for my first game

In any case, flawed strategy or not, I resolved to only capture Palembang after securing or neutralizing both Batavia and Singapore. In turn, this meant that Batavia was actually more important than Singapore, as the Straits of Malacca are interdicted almost from the very start of the game.

Thus, my first “important” objective was Java. Singapore could wait, while the important goal in the Philippines was to deny use of Manila harbor to reload SSs.

I also resolved to take an unusual route to Java, namely through Timor and then landing at Tjiltjap. While the disadvantages of the approach are quite numerous and obvious, the main points were:

• a very early push to Timor might appear to be focused on Darwin rather than Java, and take my opponent by surprise.
• if I managed to catch my opponent offguard I might be able to trap enemy tankers or warships in the Java sea and/or Makassar strait
• this route allowed me to place advance bases in hexes with no oil or relevant industry, so there was no risk of collateral damage (or night bombings on industries, again)
• finally, landing in Borneo and Sumatra after Java is neutralized, I should not encounter any relevant air or surface threat.

The advance through the Moluccas are (verbosely) reported above, and not much happened in the Philippines or Malaya. Eastern Borneo was to be invaded after Java, just like Sumatra.

So, skipping over the other details, here is how the map looked like on Feb 1st, 1942.
Note how little advance has been made in the resource area, and that Manila, Clark Field, Bataan and Singapore still stand (and are probably entrenching in).

[rattovolante]

Solomon Islands, Jan 1942
I had noticed that Hartwig tended to react to “obvious” landings with capital ships. So I made a little experiment and diverted to Tulagi the remaining KB carriers (Kaga, Akagi and Hiryu) returning from Kwajalein. I left them cruising between Nauru and Tulagi while sending in a (quite light) landing force to capture the island.
The trick seemed to work, as on Jan 1 carrier planes spotted and sunk CA Louisville, CL Leander and CL Achilles approaching the landing beach at Tulagi
After that, allied submarine activity heavily intensified in the Solomon islands over the next weeks. I don't know if they were looking for the carriers, but I lost a xAK at Tulagi on Jan 14, a PB at Rabaul on Jan 16, a xAKL at Tulagi on Jan 20.

West Borneo, Jan 1942
2 Jan: I bombard Singkawang from the sea and land troops. Singkawang is secured the next day. Allies bomb Singkawang from the air in response.

6 January: An allied (bombardment?) TF is engaged by a roughly equal SCTF defending Singkawang:

Japanese Ships
CA Suzuya
CA Kumano, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Maikaze
DD Nowaki
DD Arashi, Shell hits 1

Allied Ships
CA Houston, Shell hits 3, on fire
CL Marblehead, Shell hits 2
CL Boise, Shell hits 4
DD Alden, Shell hits 1
DD Edsall
DD Parrott, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk

More Allied air strikes in the following days



On Jan 13 SS Swordfish engages my surface combat TF defending West Borneo, torpedoing CL Jintsu, which has to retreat to Saigon's repair yard.

Sambas is captured on Jan 8, Pontianak on Jan 14, Ketapang on Jan 17

Invasion of Billiton on Jan 18-19 did not go smoothly. A very small allied TF engaged my amphibious TF while it was unloading supply (troops were already ashore). It is notheworthy that being “unloading” seemed to affect warships too, especially CA Suzuya:

Day Time Surface Combat, near Billiton at 52,93, Range 19,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Suzuya, Shell hits 14
DD Oyashio
DD Maikaze, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Asashio, Shell hits 1
DD Yugiri
E Tsuta, Shell hits 10, and is sunk
xAKL Miiko Maru, Shell hits 12, heavy fires, heavy damage [will later sink]
xAK Nissen Maru, Shell hits 8, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CL Java, Shell hits 10
CL Tromp
DD Banckert, Shell hits 11, heavy fires, heavy damage

Billiton was captured on Jan 19 by the (now stranded) Japanese troops.

Kuching was invaded overland and captured on Jan 23.

On Jan 23 an ASW TF patrolling Pontianak was wiped out...

Night Time Surface Combat, near Pontianak at 56,90, Range 11,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DD Fubuki, Shell hits 9, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Yugiri, Shell hits 24, and is sunk
DD Hasu, Shell hits 21, and is sunk
DD Tsuga, Shell hits 18, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CL Tromp
CL Mauritius
CL Glasgow
DD Napier
DD Nestor

[rattovolante]

Burma, Jan 1942
Imperial Guards was spotted by a coastal bombardment while on its way to Pegu. The defense stiffened, and we basically stalled. Axis forces are under more or less constant harassment by air and sea, but there is not much I can do
The plan to move IGD was based on the release version of the game, when it was a pretty good strategy for the British to evacuate Burma and let the resistance destroy the industry there. Anyway, Hartwig had not evacuated Rangoon, so all IGD could do was to cut off the supply route to China quite early.

Pegu was captured on Jan 7. Toungoo captured Jan 13.

Malaya, Jan 1942
Air combat for the whole month, sporadic in the beginning, then escalating to more organized raids

Combat at Temuloh begins on Jan 5, will last for an entire month. Japanese air strikes on it intensified in the second half of the month, as more axis units arrived – at first I had a single LCU there, just to keep the defenders committed. More Japanese units only arrived from Jan 23, after the plan to cut off central Malaya by landing at Mersing failed.

On Jan 7 I unleash Betties. The result is that 13 Betties engage HDML Pahalwan. Actually, the very first group of planes score a torpedo hit, obliterating the unlucky boat, so the others just fly above the area, failing to find the target (well, duh...). Seemed a little overkill...

Kuala Lumpur falls on 9 January

I land at Mersing on January 10, apparently catching Hartwig off-guard! The base was secured the next day. This seriously threatened to cut off the units in Malacca, so the Allies started to bomb Mersing from the air quite heavily (those Vildebeests carry a quite large load!).

The battle escalates on January 14, when my surface combat TF defending Mersing is engaged by an Allied TF:

Japanese Ships
CA Mogami, Shell hits 3
CA Mikuma, Shell hits 5, on fire
CL Tama, Shell hits 5, on fire
DD Hagikaze
DD Asagumo, Shell hits 2
DMS W-2, Shell hits 6, and is sunk
DMS W-3, Shell hits 3, on fire
DMS W-5, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
DMS W-6, Shell hits 1

Allied Ships
CA Australia, Shell hits 3
CL Marblehead, Shell hits 6, heavy fires
CL St. Louis, Shell hits 6, on fire
CL Boise, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD John D. Edwards, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Pope, Shell hits 1, on fire

IJNAF tries to strike the allied TF which in the meantime has reached Singapore. The results sort of confirm my idea that Palembang can't really be defended until Singapore and Batavia are neutralized.
In the morning 18 Zeroes, 36 Nells and 26 Betties only manage to score 1 torpedo hit on Boise (with no “heavy damage” or “on fire” report) and to shoot down 1 Buffalo, moreover losing 1 Zero in the process. Marblehead is anyway reported as “heavy fires, heavy damage” (from the surface action, I suppose).
In the afternoon 15 Zeroes, 22 Betties and 36 Nells shoot down 1 Buffalo and sink a KV, a xAK (loaded with troops!) and a TK.

Note that this is the second time in this game that LBA engage a retreating raiding cruiser TF without being able to stop or at least hinder it (it had happened with the Ambon raid, earlier). So, in short, a Netty umbrella does not seem to me to be an effective deterrent for surface raids - I wonder if I'm the only one to think so, because the consensus appears to be the opposite.

On the same day, the annoying SS Swordfish engages twice the survivors of the battle without results, and a quite largish airstrike (31 bombers) hit Mersing to little effect.

On Jan 15 more harassment by Allied submarines at Mersing, without results.

Jan 16: a torpedo strike by Swordfishes on my two CA defending Mersing fails. Hurricanes show up, though! A IJNAF strike over Malacca fragments and the Betties arriving without escort take heavy losses.

The landing at Mersing was supposed to “scare away” the defenders at Malacca, and in fact this worked. Unfortunately, I messed up with the orders of units pursuing from Malacca and Kuala Lumpur, to the effect that the units at Mersing ended up having to cut off the retreat on their own... which didn't work out. By the time Malacca fell on Jan 22, the allied troops had already withdrawn in the next hex, and the Mersing units were unable to stop them:

Ground combat at 50,82

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 4657 troops, 30 guns, 42 vehicles, Assault Value = 165

Defending force 9761 troops, 119 guns, 36 vehicles, Assault Value = 400

Japanese adjusted assault: 68

Allied adjusted defense: 455

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 6

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
347 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 27 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 33 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 5 (0 destroyed, 5 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
186 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 22 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 26 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled


Assaulting units:
55th Infantry Regiment
22nd Recon Regiment

Defending units:
15th Indian Brigade
3rd SSVF Battalion
27th Australian Brigade
22nd Australian Brigade
6th Indian Brigade
2nd Argylls Battalion
112th RAF Base Force
137/155th Field Regiment

In the next few days, the retreating units were able to reach Johore Bahru

Betties raided Rangoon harbor on Jan 20 trying to catch the ships that had been bombarding IGD at Pegu, but only sunk some transports. Anyway, the british cruisers seem to have moved away from the area since then.

[rattovolante]

Confirmed allied ship losses up to Jan 31, 1942
Note that only "relevant" ship types are listed, and these are strictly the confirmed losses (meaning stuff "reported to have been sunk" in the joperationsreport_xxxxxx.txt files)

• 7 BB (Prince of Wales, Nevada, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Arizona)
• 1 BC (Repulse)
• 3 CA (Canberra, New Orleans, Louisville)
• 5 CL (Achilles, Adelaide, Danae, Durban, Leander)
• 25 DD (4 British, 1 Australian, 4 Dutch, 16 USN)
• 1 DM
• 1 DMS

• 4 SS (Trusty, O16, KXI, Sculpin)

• 5 TK (Strix, Angelina, Gulfhawk, Gertrude Kellogg, Hagood)
• 2 AO (Trinity, Pecos) + TAN 1 and TAN 2 that are really too small to count

• 2 AS (Pelias, Canopus)
• 1 AV (Tangier)

• 1 AK
• 1 xAP (President Madison)
• 8 xAK worth >10 VP

Japanese losses up to Jan 31, 1942
These are both the admitted losses (again as per joperationsreport_xxxxxx.txt) and unadmitted losses, so in theory the list should be larger than the allied one.
I am also listing all ships, not just the "significant" ones.

• 1 CA: Chokai
• 3 CL: the entire Katori class
• 8 DD (3 Fubuki, 1 Kagero, 2 Wakatake, 2 Momi)
• 3 DMS
• 1 E: Tsuta

• 1 SS: I-160 (it reacted into a known minefield in the old days of 6-hex react...)
• 7 SSX

• 1 AK
• 3 APD
• 5 xAK worth >10 VP
• 18 other xAK/xAKL

• 1 AO: Shirya
• 1 TK: San Clemente Maru (11200 capacity)

• 1 CM
• 8 Ansyu xPB
• 18 other PB/SC/PC
• 1 ACM

Notes:
I considered Tsuta as warship since whatever its (low) VP value and E "status" may be, it was an extremely good ship for 1942 Japan.
I was disappointed by losing all three Katoris. I know many people don't like them, but IMO they make really good long range raiders or scouts.
Shirya was almost impossible to save in patch 1 with historical start - it arrived alone and loaded with fuel at Midway on turn 1, so it was pretty much guaranteed to be a very flammable target for bombers on turn 2.
The Ansyus are listed separately because for some reason I fail to really underastand they are valued 10 VP each! After I realized that, I withdrew them from service unless absolutely necessary...


Evaluation
So, in the end, the main question is: apart from errors in execution (mostly due to having very little time to play my turns), was I too conservative? (although I should also post air and land losses to judge this)
Will the decision of only capturing oilfields at Miri cost me a lot later?
Or in other words, was the plan just bad from the start?

I really don't know how to judge the naval losses. I am more or less sticking to the historical Japanese plan of a war of attrition until the decisive naval battle (except that I expect the decisive naval battle to be carrier-based, not battleship-based). So I really wished to get a better exchange ratio of capital ships - excluding the ships sunk as a consequence of the historical first turn, the effective exchange ratio has been 1 CA and 3 CL sunk and 1 BB heavily damaged for 2 CA and 3 CL confirmed sunk; there might be more unconfirmed losses but frankly I doubt it.

PS: I had forgotten to paste in the burma/malaya part, so I edited the messages to paste them in. end result is that the SRA part ends up in the wrong place, but anyway...

[vicberg]

Looking at ship losses, you are doing great. As Japs, you want to hit the allied combat ships and tankers. You've done both. 40+ allied to 10 of yours. That's a good ratio. Don't know how your air is doing.

The problem right now is that you need to take java. ASAP. It's january and the longer you wait, the more troops and planes he will push into it. Thinking of a defensive circle, Burma -> Malaya -> Java -> Solomons -> Gilberts -> Marshalls is your defensive perimeter. Inside perimeter is Saipan, Iwo Jima, Luzon, Vietnam. These areas need to be captured, forts built, defense troops transferred, mines layed, mine tenders transferred, costal defense guns transferred and/or base forces that upgrade to CDs, airfields built up in order to have a fluid defense that takes time to destroy and causes losses while the allied attacks. You DESPERATELY need java and Samoa for the oil fields in addition to the defensive perimeter.

There are three axis of attack: 1) down from Singapore/Kuching (which assumes Singapore falls...I don't like that because it gives allied player too much time to build fortress java), 2) Balikpan (lvl4 airfield, produces fuel), 3) Kendari.....miri is a drop in the bucket. You do need to pick up the pace. You will lose the AK invasion bonus in May.

[rattovolante]

well game date is now Feb 22 - I still have to catch up with the AAR

I actually landed on Java on Feb 17. I took the Koepang - Tjiltjap approach. So far it's working decently, although I hoped better - mostly because 2 allied cruisers hastily leaving the area when my carriers showed up stumbled into Soryu, damaged it and escaped
On land I have a division at Tjiltjap, another at Semarang and a third one should make landfall this turn at Kragan. First goal is Soerabaja, Batavia appears to be heavily defended. Anyway, I'll try to catch up with the AAR in the next days - apart from the not-entirely-successful outcome in my case the Tjiltjap route to Java might be interesting.

As for the ships... the main problem is that I am doubting that a strategy of attrition before the decisive battle might work. Unless I am mistaken, I am still facing 9 BB (+2 damaged/possibly sunk), 13 CA (+2 damaged/sunk) and 24 CL (+3 damaged/sunk), while I have 8 BB (+2 damaged), 15 CA (+2 damaged) and 13 CL, and in any case Japanese CL really can't be compared with Allied CL in general.

As a side note, WitPTrackerAE reports this:

Code: Select all

Naval Summary
 
               Ships sunk/active:       Sunk          Player
                                    Japan  Allies  Active  Total
                                CV :   0      0       6      16
                               CVL :   0      0       3       5
                               CVE :   0      0       2      10
                             BB/BC :   0      8      10      12
                             CA/CB :   1      4      17      18
                        CL/CLAA/CS :   3      8      20      29
                             DD/DE :   8     29     105     230
                        AM/DMS/YMS :   3     12      17      30
                               APD :   3      0       5      36
                        AV/AVD/AVP :   0      5       8       9
                         CM/DM/CMc :   1      1      35      43
                                AO :   1      4      16      23
                            SS/SST :   1     26      57     221
                               SSX :   7      0       3      89
                       PC/PG/SC/KV :   4      1      57     174
                   AP/xAP/xAPc/APc :   2     12      49      62
       AK/AKV/AKE/AKL/AKA/xAK/XAKL :  24     91     826     1364
            AMC/APA/LSIL/LSIM/LSIS :   0      0      10      11
                             TK/YO :   2      9      63     239
  PT/PB/MGB/PF/YP/TB/MTB/ML/HDML/E :  26     32     186     650
                     Landing craft :   0      0      23     352
                         AS/AD/AGP :   0      4      10      10
                               ACM :   1      1      89      90
                         AR/ARD/AG :   0      5       8      11
                                AE :   0      0       0       0
                               AGC :   0      0       0       0

The insane number of sumbarines sunk is really unlikely. I don't think I even have spotted that many submarines!