Matrix Games Forums

Well I finally did it. I started the Grand Campaign on Friday night and boy let me tell you it was work! Things are going pretty well. I am playing the AI with Historical first turn, Surprise attack on, and AI to Hard. I lost Wake Island, which put a crimp in my plans but Hey, it is easier to supply Midway right? Japan is running wild in the Sulu Sea but I have them stopped short of Batavia. I don't know how much of that is I have them stopped as they are concentrating on the 85,000 troops and almost 100K in supply at Singapore. I ended the last turn last night at 1-26-42 and all seems to be working out. I am re-enforcing the Aleutians. Dutch Harbor is going to be my northern command post, with Kiska a forward surveillance base and to guard against an attack at Nome. This base will let me base subs very close to the Japanese home islands for raiding. In the south I am building up my bases at Christmas Island, Johnston Island, Pago-Pago and Fiji. Noumea is coming along as well. I am jamming HUGE quantities of supply into Hawaii as well as resources and oil. My Eventual supply chain to Australia will be well stocked, defended and redundant. West Coast to Hawaii, to Christmas Island, to Pago-Pago or Fiji, to Auckland (one of the depots Pago or Fuji that is) then Sydney. I thought about sending it to Brisbane but I think the southern route may be a better one, it gets the supplies to Sydney, and steers more south to make it harder for JP to interdict.

Java Sea and that whole fiasco, is being contained. I have pulled back most of the sea and Air forces, and am trying to consolidate the ground forces on the most likely invasion points. It takes time since the Inf formations need to march to the target. I am having a hard time deciding if I want to pull the base forces out of Sumatra and Java or not. Lots of PP's and I am not sure I need them that badly. On the other hand I pulled all of the aircraft so they are no performing as bad infantry units. Word of advice to future players. Do not change any of the aircraft that cannot fly all the way back to Australia to Australia command. It is a restricted command and you can't load these planes on a ship, ARGH! I am going to have to spend the points again to change them to SWPAC or some other command that I can move about. Live and learn.

I have pulled most of the Dutch subs into defensive positions and have had some success in hitting enemy convoys. I have them pulling back to Darwin and Kapang, which I set up as a Sub base, and plan to use them for forward slot defense. Once I get my West coast subs transferred to Australia, I plan to ship the Dutch boats back to San Fran. After that I plan to move them forward to operate out of Kiska and use there non-crap torpedoes in the home islands.

The PI:

Ok this is not going to well. It is Mid Jan and the Japanese have started their attack on Clark-Manila-Bataan defense network. Bataan is at Fort Level of 8 has 95,000 supplies and lots of support and gun emplacements. Manila is at Fort 6 and it has been reduced by 1. Clark is holding with a very small force and will be falling back within a week I am sure. The supplies in Bataan cost me nearly 6 AK's but it was worth it. I am hoping to make Japan pay for this island for at least a month. I still have small forces in the north that opposed the landings at Vigan and the one at the extreme north. I am consolidating and doing recon flights, while I still have planes, and plan to attack if they leave a small garrison force.

Misc.-

I have been raiding the Gilberts with my carriers and remaining battle ships. I only lost two, the Oklahoma and the Maryland to Pearl Harbor. 4 others were badly damaged but are now in San Fran repairing and it should coincide nicely with there 4/42 upgrades. I pulled them out of Pearl, since they were sucking up supplies and well the west coast gets a=many more repair points. This also leaves Pearl Harbor to do the light stuff that routinely needs repair. Also if I get caught by a sub or mine I have a chance to stop the serious damage if I keep the Yard points up.

I have changed over to 3 day turns, since I am not doing much. Lots of down time while convoys get to there destinations. I am not actively trying to stop the Japanese anywhere, simply because I cannot put enough forces together to do any good. I have plenty of supply and Support in Rangoon as well as nearly 60 fighters but I am getting raped daily by planes out of Tavoy. I tried a bombardment of Tavoy to slow them down and got away with one attack but my second trip cost me a CLAA crippled and on the way to Columbo for emergency repair before being retired to Karachi, and the outright loss of a CA. I just cannot muster enough air cover to do much.

Musing for the future.

I am looking at what to do with my carriers. The JP are running through New Guinea and Port Moresby is in danger. I cannot move troops from the other bases to re-enforce Pt. Moresby or start on Gilli-Gilli all of the local forces are non-movable. I wonder if I should move my Carriers from Pearl to Brisbane to help protect Fiji/Pago-Pago and maybe thwart any Japanese attempt at Port Moresby.


Will give more info as it happens.


UB

do you already have an offensive plan in mind?

Yes I actually do. I have about 5 different offensive plans in mind. They all depend on the answers to a few questions and to how the AI reacts to a few things I plan to try. I will not be doing anything offensive for 6 months Minimum. Raids will be the extent, along with aggressive sub ops around eth Japanese Home islands as well as the south Pacific and the home islands to stop resources.

What I gathered is that you need to get Oil to Australia to optimize their production. I will be building both Suva and Pago-Pago . I plan to load both of these up and start moving up the Gilberts as I can in mid '42. I plan to hammer the northern Home islands with Carrier and Surface group raids as well as Mines. I am building what I hope to be lovely Warm weather Month bases up in the Aleutians and use there bonus for cold weather to protect them in cold months. In the Central Pacific I plan to probe and possibly take WAKE back. As well as Makin and Tarawa before they get big. The Makin and Tarawa invasions will be more raids, with the plan to dislodge the Japanese from the islands but not keep them as supplying them at this early point would be a nightmare. It will however get rid of some A/C they have there as well as make it a feint. Anyway that is what is bouncing around my pea brain.

UB

have you fought any decisive naval battles yet?

You must be Joking! I am doign all that I can to avoid battle. I am using my Subs and what few strike aircraft I have to annoy the JP. I am husbanding my strength. I didn't loose but 2 BB's at Pearl but 5 of them are badly damaged in SF. My plan is to hit them where they ain't if you get my meaning.

With my 3 carriers (Lex, Sara, and YrkTn) I can't challenge the KB. All I am doig now is building my bunker and popping out now and again to see what havoc I can cause and gain experience for my crews. I am thinking some day in July 1942 one of the main production facilities in Japan will get hit up north by a Carrier strike. I am even toying with the idea of maybe Bombarding and leaving mines in a northern port. No, I will not be on the Offensive with Naval forces 'till probably 1943 at the earliest. I plan some small invasions of islands before then however.

Hi,

95,000 supplies at Bataan? How did you do that? Seems to be some miracle!

Oops that would be 35,000 supply at Bataan. I pulled everything I could from all of the out lying islands and I ran in a bit of supply from the DEI as well.

Seems I may have made an error. I lost Singapore Yesterday, 1-26-04. I had 37,500 Casualties. They attacked with 92,000 I had 40K to stop them fort level of 6 and good supply. They went through me like crap through a goose.

Not much else is happening, Just trying to build up my Supply points. I have a Sub screen in place around the PI and through the DEI. I have a plug of subs between Java and Malaysia headed in to the IO. I just hope that it will give me enough warning to get my transports laying in supplies at Akyab out. I won't even hope to get a hit on anything the JP is sending through the gap. I have one mine strike, actually it was 2 but on same ships in same combat. I have placed only 8 torps into various ships from subs and I have yet to hit anything with any plane dropped weapon. Oh well Victory in '44!


UB

you really think you can win in 44'?

i thought your navy was 'crippled?' so to speak!!

No my Navy is fine. What in my reports gave you the idea my Navy was Crippled? I have just not been looking for a fight. I was using Victory in '44 as a rally cry. The hope was to be on the offensive by 1943, with the loss of Singapore and what looks like my loss of Rangoon soon I don't think I will be ready to strike till '44 now.

UB

I was using Victory in '44 as a rally cry. The hope was to be on the offensive by 1943,i
ah ha! now i understand! i thought you meant complete victory!



i didn't mean that they were fully 'crippled' (I kind of used the wrong words there[8|])

...it just seems that the navy is weaken [8|]

Actually the Navy is in pretty good shape. It is still powerful but it is lacking the crucial Air Component. I have three carriers. The Japanese have I believe 6 Full Size and 6 CVL's. I don't know where they are. I can at this point try to conserve my forces and be ready to counter them if they move west. I need a minimum of one more carrier before I can think of being offensive someplace. Well I can but I would need to do it while in range of friendly ground Air forces. Hit and run raids to build experience are about al I can really do now. The time is coming.

well good luck with the navy, hope to hear an update soon!!

All I can say is, Soon All there base belong to Us! Make your time!

2/6/42 - Nothing new to report. Lost Kendari. I sank both the transports and evacuated supply and Submarine support but lost the port. I am looking at making a stand on Timor. I hope it is not a stand at Sydney

UB

After a consultation with my legal staff and the board of Health. I am goin gto be stopping the game I am in due to GREAT Strategic errors I have made due to this beign a , "Jump right in" game. I will be replaying this game with eth following changes.

I will write down the number and destination as well as the reason I sent that unit to what place in which convoy.

I will pay attention to what teh hell I am doing when I pull units out of PI/DEI and contemplate an actual plan of defense.

I will remember that this game operates on a much larger scale and time line than UV.

No further comment.

UB

No, you don't get off that easy in war. You have to lie in the be you make. What happened that was so critical to restart? Bad carrier battle?

Don't know what happened to UB, but I just learnt the hard way (end of April '42) not to tangle with the KB just yet. Sent a CV task force of Lex and Enterprise into the Coral Sea, and got a couple of recce reports both sighting Hiryu and Soryu, apparently just the two of them, with usual escort types, off the Solomons. A bit suspicious, I thought I'd wait around a day to check out more before I made my move or made off. Result, wave after wave of Kates and Vals, and scratch two US flat tops. And not even chance to get off an air strike in reply. Yes, it was the full KB.

Not the end of the war, but I guess my other CVs will be keeping a low profile for a year or more...[:(]

Mainly it was not any loss, it was just a Horrendous misjudgment on my part as to how supplies worked in this game. I was in a position that I was not going to be able to defend OZ in total, as well as leaving most of teh SOPAC and NZ wide open. NZ is starving to death, literally.

Basically it was bad planing and organization on my part. I have many TF's running around that I don't know what I was going to do with. I didn't write it down so I don't know what I was going to do with it.

I have restarted a game, and am leaving India to die or survive based on what the AI does. I will be posting a new AAR as I get it going. I have run turn 1, three day start BTW, to simulate being paralyzed and flatfooted after Pearl. So when I get home I will look at the Combat report and start teh AAR Mondy if not sooner.

UB

I agree, NZ is a darn nuisance. Doesn't contribute a great deal, and needs constant feeding. In the end I set up an Autoconvoy route and left them to it. They can always eat kiwis.....