Youtube AAR: Like sheep to wolves (if sheep had aircraft carriers that is)

[Timotheus]

This might take some getting used to....

Edit: Here's the playlist, it grows day by day:
Youtube Full War in the Pacific 1941-1945


For first turn we decided that I will play somewhat historical. Everywhere in the world is peaceful, pilots are going through their training routines, ships going about their business, with only the wary British deciding to implement some sort of combat air patrol as there is some inkling in the slimes' hut about some kind of Japanese action off the coast.... but no one believes them, although orders are orders - CAP will be implemented during the short in between breaks of drinking Tiger or Asahi beer.

The whor... err, houses of ill re.... err, houses of pleasure are mighty busy in Pearl Harbour, Singapore, Hong Kong.... sailors and soldiers are tanning, birds are singing, women are strip... err, enjoying the weather... lets just say there is a mighty amount of peaceful activity typical on military bases.

Lets read the news, shall we?
December 6, 1941 newspapers

All in all, American men and women are concerned about Japan, but the news coverage is split between the great Nazi defeat in front of Moscow and the battles on the eastern front and the looming threat of the Empire...

Incidentally, Great Britain has just declared war... on Finland.

Meanwhile, the great, unbeatable fortress of Singapore in Malaya is on full alert as the British defenders assume ready posture.

Then again, there are the REALLY important articles. The REALLY important matters. The baseball tables for both divisions are here!

New York Yankees lead the pack, chased by the Boston Red Sox in their division. In the National, the Brooklyn Dodgers have won only 1 less game than the NYY (Brooklyn has won 100, NYY 101!).

December 6 baseball standings

In the National Football League, there were some rules changes:
"Whenever a player is ejected from the game, his team is penalized 15 yards" and "A personal foul committed by the opponent of the scoring team is enforced on the ensuing kickoff.".

In Chicago, at Comiskey Park, the great Chicago Bears bear down on the Chicago Cardinals and win against their town rivals, 34-24, on December 7, 1941....

And, lest we forget, the most important factoid of today: THERE ARE ONLY 16 SHOPPING DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS!
Buy your darling some real Havana cigars, or splurge on a nice prime suit for $35. Better yet, if you really love her, open up that wallet and buy her a genuine alligator bag for $10!

Tidbits and factoids (this is a great article, well worth reading).

Technology is advancing, and a new gadget - the FM radio - is now being tested. Perhaps more importantly (depending on where you live and work), air conditioning is now almost a common thing in many office buildings.


Lest any one doubt this great nation, this United States of America, preparedness for war, our troops are on war maneuvers practicing their fighting skills.

The morning papers showed Hank Greenberg, the Detroit Tigers' slugger, leaving Fort Custer, Mich., after 180 days' service. The same day, cavalry troops on maneuvers at Camp Funstan, Kan., had used eggs for hand grenades.

And that's news, folks, on this December 6, 1941!





Before the storm, peacetime, December 7 1941, very early morning:

Peace time December 7 1941...

Feel free to laugh at my ineptness, praise my opponent and/or (if you take pity) give me some help, either on youtube video or here.

Cheers.

[Aurorus]

I am watching the video now. Your English is very good: completely fluent.

It is your AAR, and you should do it however you like. May I make a suggestion, however. I think it might present better if you write up most of your planning decisions and so forth like a normal AAR. Then screen capture, via video recording, all of the important combat replays and then post the replays on youtube with links in the AAR, so we can watch the action as your decisions play out in the game. This will reduce the length of the video, and reading about your plans allows someone following the AAR to think a bit more about what you are doing.


As I say, however, it is your AAR, and you should do it in the way that your prefer.

[Timotheus]

@Aurorus - I will try the combat report video with all the battles and animations in that day and then the next video will be Strategy - no clicks, just me explaining what I am doing and why.

First blood is drawn, Japanese Empire strikes on December 7, 1941.

Dec 7 1941 WAR!!!
Staff meeting, main points of interest: Gentlemen, this is a top secret meeting. We are at war. The forces of the Allies - the Brits with their whole Commonwealth, Dutch, Australians, Chinese, us, the Americans.... everybody is to be considered as of now an active enemy of the Japanese Empire. We don't have time, you have to get back to your units. So far these are the main strategic points for discussion:

1) Zuikaku Shokaku Akagi located - they are bombing Manila, NE Philippines 1/2 Kido Butai near Phillipines, no idea where the rest of their carriers are
Intelligence GUESS: other CV will go to Dutch East Indies?????

2) Mersing invasion; we are seriously fucked. Lots of amphibious Task Forces; no air cover noticed so far. No nearby carriers spotted. So far only a light cruiser is bombarding Mersing.
Intelligence GUESS: The Japanese must have at least a small escort carrier task force to provide a defensive air umbrella?

3) Brunei invaded, next to Miri, which is the main refinery in northern Borneo. 91 Nav Guard division, special Japanese naval landing commandoes SNLF are assaulting there.

4) The hell??? Midget sub penetrated Pearl Harbour and torpedoed one of our battlewagons! Where did that come from?

5) Pearl Harbour was NOT bombed.

Notes:
Japan is always bombing from 9000 feet
Japanese fighters strafing at 100 feet

Confidential Army/Navy newsreel:
Combat turn. December 7 1941: War! The Empire strikes!

[rustysi]

As said above it is your AAR, but I as a somewhat more experienced player will offer suggestions from time to time, or ad nauseam, which is more likely.

OK, for starters. Don't get too involved with reality and the game. Yes, the game is good, but its not reality. So, for instance supply will flow pretty well as long as there is a path, RR or no RR. Doesn't mean the RR won't help its just not that necessary. Now if there's no other route roads and railroads are great.

So you want supply to flow from Changsha... Well it won't as I noticed that it was set to stockpile in the city screen. This means supply will flow to units in the field that can be reached, but it will not move the adjacent bases.

Another thing, China will almost always be choked for supplies. The only effective thing you can do early is to move as many supplies to Rangoon as possible before your opponent cuts the route. Once the supplies are in Rangoon they should 'flow' to where needed, i.e., China. The other more limited supply effort you could make early on is to fly supplies from India into China. With the limited assets that are available this won't amount to much.

Don't use aircraft to move supplies around within China, unless you're trying to supply something that's isolated. Even then I'd probably not do it. As a matter of fact its best to move your Chinese Air Force as far from the front as possible. The lone exception would be the AVG, a very powerful, but limited force early on. ASAP get your Chinese air out of China to train and equip, this will get it off your supply headache. As it stands you have neither the experience nor replacements for the Chinese air to play an effective role anyway. All you're going to do is make a lot of Japanese Aces.

As for the land campaign in China, good luck against an experienced Japanese player. While I would possibly defend in the Changsha region its the only area I would consider outside of defensible terrain. For the Chinese Army that means any terrain with a 3X's bonus or more. There's no exception to that rule whatsoever, until possibly late game . No exceptions unless you wish to lose China completely. Even then it'll be a challenge to hold. Once gone Japan has many units to move from China to defend the Empire and you don't want that.

BTW, your idea looks interesting, but please keep in mind that our time for viewing is limited. I hope a balance can be struck and look forward to further viewing.

Of course the above is JMHO, but I hope some of it will be of use.

[rustysi]

Another thing that just came to mind is your plan to build airfields and fortifications. Airfields, no way, you won't have the supplies. Forts to a degree, but a large effort will be a strain as well. Units in terrain outside of bases will fortify automatically and these are not reduced as a result of combat. In conjunction with good terrain the combo may stop Japan.

[rustysi]

OK, just watched the replay. First off don't be terrified. A number of non-historical games will start something like this. The 'Mersing Gambit' is usually expressly forbidden in this type of start, but not too much to worry about here as the Allies still will ultimately overwhelm Japan.

Based on the number of A/C in the Manila strike the entire KB was there, so you know where it is.

Keep in mind that Japanese Naval Guard and SNLF units are actually are about the size of a regiment, ~1500 men.

The midget sub attack is a vestige of the historical start and are set to hit Pearl anyway, so that's where they came from. There's actually evidence now that IRL one Japanese midget did attack and hit a BB. The last one was recently discovered with its torp tubes empty, and appears to be in a photo of the harbor during the attack.

Oh, and make sure you turn 'repair' off for the Hong Kong shipyard, you don't want to fix the yard for him. One reason I don't like to make port attacks on bases with repair yards, as they can be damaged during the attack. Besides there's really nothing of much value in the port of Hong Kong.

This also presents you with a small opportunity. Its likely the KB will continue toward the DEI, even if not you should have ~3 days before it'll be back in the SE area of operations. There are many small forces headed for the Gilbert Islands that will be totally exposed unless he drew them back. You could send you carriers to the area to strike. I assume you could set things up to properly protect your force from the limited assets he has in the neighborhood. This will at least show him you will be active while the 'cat (KB) is away'. It probably won't change his plans, but will let him know you won't just roll over. Remember though strike and leave. Hanging around can get you slaughtered. If nothing else you could pick up some experience for your planes and crews.

In case you are not aware the reference to the 'cat is away' is from a US saying. "The mice will play while the cat is away".[:D]

Anyway just my 2 cents. OK, maybe a dime.

[Rio Bravo]

rustysi-

I am enjoying your sense of humor and AAR.

Best Regards,

-Terry

[rustysi]

I am enjoying your

AAR.

Its not my AAR. I'm just trying to help Timotheous, to whom it belongs. He seems a bit frazzled and its only day one.[8|]

[Timotheus]

Frazzled? I am cool as a cucumber.... in a frying pan.

Thanks for commenting guys, and thank you for all the help rustysi. China is a pain, looks to me like airpower might be a huge issue as each bombing can disable my poor Chinese troops (especially in clear terrain) and of course that eats up lots of supply to rebuild/heal them...

Burma also scares me, as I have nothing there bar a few local Malay guys sharing a few rifles in between them...

Am thinking of making a stand at Rangoon, but that would require supplying it by sea (it will inevitably be surrounded by the enemy), and to protect the SLOC I would need to commit my UK fleet... with its ultra modern biplanes on a carrier... Do not think stringbags and Fulmars will go a long way in 1941-42...

Here's the video:
December 8 Operational Phase

Sorry about the mouse offset, I got it to record fullscreen, with non jerking animations, but the issue is now the 16:9 monitor resolution and 4:3 game resolution make the mouse cursor very much offset.

The plan now is to record my Operational video (where I talk nonsense and click a lot) in 720p, while the Combat video (where I don't click but watch pretty combat) in full screen. Should work.

[rustysi]

OK, all your ideas are sound and well thought out. They also will not work.[:D] Sorry. As for Wake Island, your Widcats and PBY's probably have such low naval strike abilities they'd be lucky to hit the broad side of a barn. B-17's need an AF of about size 5 to operate at full efficiency, and probably lack adequate training as well. AF size for level bombers is 4+(BL/6500) rounded down. Page 163 of manual. Small bases and lack of pilot experience will result in higher op losses. In addition, their replacement rate is low so it'll be difficult to replace losses.

You have a healthy fear of his subs when it comes to your carriers, this is good early in the game. Its why I suggested earlier to head for the Gilberts as Japan has ~2 dozen subs around Pearl Harbor to start the game. Its dangerous to go wading through these. I'd make for the Gilberts. If you don't like that idea go to the Fiji Islands to hide out for now. Your idea for the devastators while sound, again won't work. You need skill levels of 60-70 in ASW before much will happen. And yes your destroyers are poor as well, at least experience wise. So personally I'd avoid Pearl Harbor and try to get some of his subs out of the vicinity before moving my carriers there.

Once again I strongly suggest you move supplies to Rangoon to help the China problem. You have the AVG, base it there and any Netties (short for Nells and Betties in case you don't know) will be slaughtered as he won't have fighters that can base within range.

As for Singers you are screwed.[:D] The problem with this is, with its early fall he will now have many troops freed up that would otherwise be tied down. In this case I would now attempt to create 'Fortress Palembang', something I wouldn't normally do or suggest. That is as long as you don't have an HR against it. Anything scheduled for Singers now goes to Palembang, along with every single engineer I could scrap up. Its time to 'play dirty'.[:D]

Hope some of this helps.

[rustysi]

Some things came to mind after I had signed off last night. Your fear of his Netties is a bit unhealthy. Yes you need to use caution when they're about, but there're certain things you need to keep in mind. Torpedoes are not omnipotent in the game. There must be an HQ in range to supply these to the Netties. These A/C require a size 4 airfield to operate at full efficiency. Without such they carry a reduced load which doesn't include torps. As level bombers against naval targets there about as useless as any other. In addition to all of that if they come near anything that has adequate CAP without fighter escort, well lets just say the slaughter will be grand.

So having said all the above, I again reiterate my suggestion of the Gilbert Island expedition. The nearest base that he has Netties at that may operate with torps from is Roi-Namur. Its fourteen hexes from Tarawa. Not a range that you will see many ops from, and that's if he can get a DL on you as there's nothing around to do it with. In addition to that he will fly into your fighters without escort. Not gonna happen.

The other reason I advocate such an op is that the AI did it to me. There was great slaughter amongst my meager forces in the area. In this case my KB had just slammed PH, as I play an historical start and it was headed in this general direction anyway, so I sunk his CV's because I was pissed. In your case his KB is nowhere near the Gilberts giving you a free hand to show your opponent you will be aggressive when and where you can.

I know I'm getting a bit forceful with my suggestions here, but I hate to see an opportunity wasted. I often like to take advantage of such opportunities in games and in life as well. I've had many people tell me that I was lucky on this or that occasion. My response to them is that my definition of luck 'is when preparation meets opportunity'.[:D]

I hope some of this may be of use. Your humble advocate.[:D]

[rustysi]

Oops, I forgot about Burma. Not too much you can do to save it against an experienced opponent. I'll just say the following which may have some impact. First, are you paying PP's to release restricted units? If you are it may be difficult for you to do this as I don't know what your priorities may be. You have ~12-13 ground units in China that may be brought out. Roughly 5 or 6 of them are infantry types. Buy out what you can and head them for Burma. This is historical BTW.

This will serve two purposes. One it'll put a couple of 'speed bumps' in the way of the Japanese. Don't expect too much form these units, but they can buy you a few days. The second thing this will accomplish is to get these units off the China supply t***y. After you're kicked out of Burma these units should retreat to India where they may be supplied, rebuilt, and trained (at least to their national level) for later use.

Again, hope this helps some.

[Timotheus]

Video link at bottom. Like horror movies? Then you'll like the video [:D]

"OK, all your ideas are sound and well thought out. They also will not work."

Welcome to the war, rookie. Enjoy the spanking [:D]

"You have a healthy fear of his subs when it comes to your carriers, this is good early in the game. Its why I suggested earlier to head for the Gilberts as Japan has ~2 dozen subs around Pearl Harbor to start the game."

... Aha, mm-mmmm. Pearl is infested by enemy subs. Enterprise ate a fish. I am terrified now. I will sortie Deedees from Pearl as ASW forces and run them to Enterprise TF. Don't know the damage yet... Will change it to cruise speed to not get more damaged as it sails?

"So having said all the above, I again reiterate my suggestion of the Gilbert Island expedition."

At this point, my opponent seems somewhat experienced, and I think I will just go with Lady Lex somewhere in the nowhere in the big blue ocean - a random spot away from everything... Then again maybe go for the Gilberts and see what mischief we can do.

"I hope some of this may be of use. Your humble advocate."

It IS appreciated, believe you me.

"Oops, I forgot about Burma. Not too much you can do to save it against an experienced opponent."

It seems to me that's the case ALL over the map in December 1941, not just Burma. Japan runs roughshod and can do whatever they want, wherever they want, at the time of their choosing.

I feel like a clown forced to dance for the amusement of my opponent as he shoots the ground under my feet with his Colt revolver....

"You have ~12-13 ground units in China that may be brought out. Roughly 5 or 6 of them are infantry types. Buy out what you can and head them for Burma. This is historical BTW."

Makes sense. Was actually thinking about this, since Burma "defenses" (furious air quote here with my hands) consist of a few Malay guys sharing one rifle between themselves...

Here's the battle report:

December 8 1941 Nippon Ascendant



Edit: Is there a way to move those Chinese units to Burma (or anywhere) faster? There is no rail capacity in Free China, all I can do is march my guys sloooooowly towards their goals?

Quick thought: Maybe use airplanes to transport a unit or two? But a Corps has so many troopers, how can 10-30 bombers+transports cope...

[Timotheus]

My Singapore guys DO NOT want to fly naval / port attacks.... at all.... am pulling my hair out. The enemy ships are unloading at Mersing, RIGHT THERE, a stone's throw away from Singa..... AAaaaaaargh frustration.

But our PBY guys make up for the Brits sitting on their arses, spoiler [:D]

[Simonsez]

If he has heavily capped the beach and Task Forces, you may need to proved decent escorts in order for the bombers to "agree" to fly. Have you read the Air Mission Coordination guide sticky in the War Room? I mainly reference that as a guide to help optimize the potential to get good strike coordination between bombers and escorts that may come from differnt bases or be under different command. It's an art, not a science, all you can do is hope to optimize the chance that the behind the scenes die roles will tumble in your favor by not trying to confuse the combat engine with the orders you gave.

[Simonsez]

Regarding Chinese forces moving to Burma. Technically there are only a handful of non-restricted Chinese units that you can march to India without having to pay PP. Start marching them along roads and trails where you can and cut the corner to Ledo Via the mountains. It will be slow, but they will get there non the worse for the wear - you won't have any good use for them for a while anyway. I'd save your few transport planes in that area to fly supply into CHina just like the alies did in the war. Be sure to build up Ledo airfield and secure the villages along the rail line back to Calcutta so supply flows to Ledo. Eventually you'll loose hundreds perhaps thousands of transport aircraft flying the hump to China, but even the trickle of supply from this will help.

[Timotheus]

The plan is, we're trying to evacuate troops from everywhere and elsewhere and put them into our main bases. We are using cargo ships, passenger ships, aircraft to move troops from far flung outposts to where we want to make a stand.
Some of the routes that we took were... unfortunate.

Evacuate everything!


Edit: Thanks Admiral Ackbar for your input [8D]
This is surely it, I need to provide escorts... but this depends on who is leading them and on their morale, as you will see SOME air aquadrons fly without escort and heroically..... ah, I won't spoil it, you'll see in combatrep vid [:D]

Re: Chinese troops into Burma. I will happily pay PP to make them part of the British command, no problem. By the time they actually get into the area I will be swimming in PP

[Timotheus]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand battle rep.
This was an incredible, tense moment as our airboys spotted.... battleship and a carrier.
Our torps went into the water and they sped toward their targets.....

Bob, we found the enemy task force: battleship and carrier, we are attacking!

[Aurorus]

The videos of you watching the the combat replay are classics. Keep it up... very entertaining.

[Timotheus]

I am here for your amusement as I demonstrate my ineptness [;)]

Here's the December 10 planning session:
Dec 10 1941 planning phase

And the result, Dec 10 combat rep. Actually.... things went rather well, by my standards.
Dec 10 combat rep