Gorn's just want to have fun! vontiger(J) vs. geofflambert(A)

[geofflambert]

Wouldn't be much fun for the allies, either. vontiger wants to start over, which is fine with me, and he allows for human control of submarines (which I really like), but he doesn't want realistic R&D. He can't make A-bombs can he? Anyways I'll have to continue being ungenerous with the info I let out, as it might bear on our future campaign. Anyways I will say that Yorktown was at 70% flotation which means it might have survived. I cant believe it took 4 torpedoes and still floats, but I probably would have sent it to Aukland where I have a repairship. If it made it without sinking I suppose it would've been 3 months or more to get it in good enough shape to go to PH, and then 6 months more to repair everything. Hornet was in transit to SF. The 3 CVs I had left untouched would certainly have tried to hunt down his surviving CVs and maybe I would have done something about Rabaul right then!? I had a large reinforcement force for Port Moresby as well as a force to retake Milne Bay with my CVs. I don't know, I might have gotten super aggressive and sent it all there to recapture it, accompanied by carriers who were virtually unapposed, of course.

I regret I cannot talk about what I did before, because I might (or might not) do the same thing over again. Let's just say that I was agressive (in the PO) but he was a smite too aggressive himself. I will now take bets on whether he will be more aggressive now or will be more circumspect. The allied player can make lots of mistakes and still prevail. The Imperialist vontiger will have learned from his errors, I'm sure.

I'm not sure what I'll call the new AAR, how about Gorn to be wild?

I would say one thing about it all, cryptically of course, TFs matter.

The "sunk ships screen" says Kaga (and Shoho) sank. I'm pretty sure those reports are unreliable, and Kaga received only one bomb hit. If it ended up sinking (the 1000 lb bomb would normally have penetrated to the hangar deck), well, that's really something, isn't it? As always (in my experience) the IJN attack arrived first, but my attack wave was already airborne. Almost all of my CV squadrons were trained to the level 70 or so, which I believe is quite adequate.

In any case, like Sisyphus, we can push this boulder up the hill endlessly, and always be delighted by it.

[geofflambert]

Here's an exchange we had on technique. His initial email is on the bottom and my reply is on top.


Dutch subs yes, they have torpedoes that work. The USN subs were almost exclusively used for supply. Rabaul was receiving shipments every day without your DDs etc detecting them. On the southern swing of your carriers however, almost all my subs were tracking them. On two occasions your CVs passed through hexes containing wolf packs without any contact. Yes, some of those float planes can be very nasty, and you wouldn't think so. No point fighting over ground you will lose anyway at the cost of enormous casualties unless you must delay them. Four CVs against your six still gives you an advantage though (Hornet was on the say to SF) but I knew you were preparing to invade Port Moresby and I couldn't tolerate that. I thought you should be having fuel problems, though. How were your sorties remaining at the end? I wasn't sure what your resupply capabilities were at Truk, or Babeldaob for that matter. That "consolidating forces" thing didn't work perfectly in China, did it? I've got to improve there.

You were vastly better than the AI. I played the campaign scenario to the end once, and evicted the Japanese from all of Asia and built about 16 major airfields in Korea before landing on Kyushu. Then time ran out. Wanted to play it without the A-bomb.

Gird yourself well.



-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Tegg <jason.tegg@gmail.com>
To: geoffel <geoffel@aol.com>
Sent: Sat, Apr 21, 2012 11:03 pm
Subject: Turn 1


Hi Geoff,

I want realistic R&D off so I can change producing factories to R&D factories.

I am happy to discuss past implemented strategy as you know it takes a few days for the first go. I guess I don't know where to start? Strategies I saw:
Subs in ports- we both did it and worked to good effect except when lots of ASW
Float planes bombing ships- works a treat (pissed me off no end) until I had CAP then they would get shot up pretty hard
I found your strategy of pulling back hard off putting, never seen it before. AI doesn't do that lol.
Consolidating your position in certain areas- Singapore, Manila, Bataan, Soerabaja, Batavia, Rabaul and Port Moresby
Waiting for all your carriers to arrive then having 1 big group


I really enjoyed doing AAR with you and appreciate that we can do it again. I have learnt alot from the last game!!


*****
me again - I read on one of the other threads someone saying that in '42 the Japanese cap wasn't as good as it was later because they didn't have radar on their ships. I'll be sure and mention that to him.

If someone wouldn't mind, what is the abbreviation KB stand for? Carrier battlegroup?

[vontiger]

So to finish this post off:

Soryu was sunk... however with all the hits no fuel left.... It was nasty, I should have had over 200 fighters covering, only 40 showed up....

For my 100 bombers that attacked, no Vals hit and only 4 torps on 1 CV and 1 DD sunk.... The other 100 bombers did not show up to attack.... It was the weirdest Carrier strike I have ever seen.

So I move on to the next battle- I dont believe I did too bad for my first PBEM game.

[geofflambert]

Beyond the IJN CAP problem from no radar, there was quite a bit of weather in the area, both in my vicinity and his, storms or overcast. This may have made it easier for my strike to sneak up on him before being spotted, and perhaps at the same time made it harder for his strike squadrons to find me. I'm not sure but I may well have had more land based search planes operating in the area. There were thunderstorms over my fleet when his strike arrived and light cloud over his when mine arrived. Based on his new avatar it would seem he was attacking me with thunderbolts and messed up his own air attacks. I'm surprised that my strike got off so well and arrived in an organized fashion unless they left before the storms arrived.