My first - help and pointers welcome

[JudgeDredd]

After just picking this up again, and being told that the smaller scenarios are more punishing due to losses being permanent, I've taking the advice of someone, who shall remain nameless, and jumped in to the biggie.

I am comp[letely new to this game. I've had it for ages, and wanted to get into it, but the lack of decent tutorials and indepth manual always put me off....but here I am again. I guess that shows my interest in the strategic aspects of war.

I am posting this AAR for two reasons.
1. I want to keep notes on what I'm doing and so why not share them
2. I want as much input as possible so I am gratefully going to accept pointers and criticisms...but please, do not reveal to me any known inadequacies of the AI...I have no desire to cheat by removing the FOW from AI shortfalls. I'm sure, over time, I will discover them myself.

But feel free to help out.

The first turn, including Alt-Tabbing to write the notes took about an hour...as I said, I'm very new to this and so I have to check and recheck stats several times.

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Scenario Duration - May 1st 1942 – December 31st 1943

Allied Objectives
Port Moresby – Deny to Japanese

Phase 1
Seize and hold Guadalcanal, Tulagi and islands near
Phase 2
Seize and hold Solomon Islands, Lae, Papua and Salamana
Phase 3
Seize and occupy Rabaul and New Guinea and New Ireland

Intel
Major Japanese thrust into Solomon islands and Papua New Guinea
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Turn 1 - May 1st 1942
Weather - Thunderstorms

Turn 2 Orders Phase

Notes
NA

1. Noumea
Take the CV TF 201 OFF React to Enemy – as this is what got my CV’s destroyed on my last game!
Also, load the 10 Airocobras onto Yorktown (Didn’t know you could do this – but they are now listed under Yorktowns aircraft assests)
Set the Replenishment TF 202 to follow TF 201
Load Fuel on TF 202

2. Brisbane
Create new Transport TF 204 with 9 AKs and 11 APs and load the following
7th Aus Div HQ
46th Eng Regt
197th Coastal AA Regt
18th Aus Bgde
21st Aus Bgde
25th Aus Bgde
112 Base Force Eng
and send these to Lunga and Tulagi. DON’T set to Load only troops, so supplies can be loaded, also.
When load is complete and TF is ready to move, set the TF 203 (Surface Combat) to follow TF 204 – also set TF201 (CV TF) to follow TF 204 for security
Transfer N0.33 Sqn RAAF and No. 23 Sqn RAAF to Rockhamptom…and continue moving to Port Moresby

3. Rockhampton
Move 28th BS, 30th BS, 435th BS and 93 BS to Cairns ready for helping out PM

4. Charter Towers
Move 13th BS, 90th BS and 89th BS to Cairns for helping out PM
Move 114th Base Force to Cairns for supporting aviation requirements

5. Townsville
Send 40th BS, 2nd BS, 19th BS and 8th PRS to Cairns ready to move to PM

6. Cairns
There’s a lot of aircraft being transported here which will eventually move onto PM….for now, I’m moving No. 11 Sqn RAAF PBYs to PM for naval search to maximise my warning of IJN intentions

7. Cooktown
Nothing here really. Worth bothering about? They are short on support – Support level is 272 and Support Required is 283. From what I can gather from the manual, this will slow down the effects of fatigue – I guess that means fatigue will grow…but this is a kind of empty place at the moment…I’m not going to do anything here at the moment.

8. Port Moresby
She is desperately short of aircraft, in particular fighters. This is a worry because I don’t know how to get fighters to her and she will be constantly under attack from Rabaul. The distance between Cairns and PM is too far for fighters. What do I do?

As for the current aircraft there, I’m going to stand them all down, except the largest unit, 36th FS, so I can reduce their fatigue this round

9. TF211 SS
Move to west of New Ireland and just north of Rabaul

10. TF212 SS
Move to south east of New Ireland

11. TF213 SS
Move to north of Vila at the top end of The Slot

12. TF214 SS
Move into The Slot

13. TF215 SS
Move to north of Buka

Key points
1. Try to move as much aircraft as possible to PM
2. Rest aircraft on PM this turn and rest/train other air units in other areas
3. Move troops and supplies to Lunga/Tulagi
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[toraq]

You only send troops to Lunga or Tulagi so soon when you play the AI. Otherwise it is very risky. Use your CVs wisely, in the scenario you´re playing japanese CVs are VERY powerful. If the AI finds you, you may lose your carriers...
As soon as you can upgrade your AA values by sending them to Hawaii and wait for the Avengers so you can meet the enemy carriers in equal terms!

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: toraq

You only send troops to Lunga or Tulagi so soon when you play the AI. Otherwise it is very risky. Use your CVs wisely, in the scenario you´re playing japanese CVs are VERY powerful. If the AI finds you, you may lose your carriers...
As soon as you can upgrade your AA values by sending them to Hawaii and wait for the Avengers so you can meet the enemy carriers in equal terms!

Thank you...how do I know when I can upgrade AA values? Does the game tell you?

[toraq]

Nop, there is someplace or some document (maybe in the spooky´s site) that tells you the upgrade paths of the aircrafts...and I got some information about the upgrade paths for ships in the WitP (in UV should be the same).

Anyway, a fast way to know that a ship needs to upgrade is to look the AA guns. If it has 20 mm guns or 0.5 machine guns, then send it to PH. They will replace them with 40 mm bofors guns...the best AA gun!

[tedhealy]

I am relatively new to UV also and I like the start of your AAR. Please keep it up After around a month with the game I am finally coming to grips with most of the game mechanics. I'm trying to learn more of the strategies and details now - like upgrading the AA guns on ships...and patience. I tend to push my CVs into battles I shouldn't after a couple of weeks without any combat. Good luck holding out.

[JudgeDredd]

************************************************************
Turn 1 Resolution Phase
Nothing to report

Turn 1 AAR for May 2nd 1942
Nothing to report

Turn 2 - May 2nd 1942
Weather – Partly Cloudy

Turn 2 Orders Phase

Notes
Taking the advice of someone on this board, I’m going to try and keep my CVs at arms length until I locate the enemy CV TF…so I will not set TF 201 (CV TF) to follow the troop transports from Brisbane…instead I will move them close enough to Lunga to provide cover for the landings.

Also, I will increase recon PBYs around the Lunga area

14. Noumea
TF204 (troop transport TF at Brisbane) is not completely loaded. It’s loading supplies now…so I will keep TF 201 in Noumea for the time being
TF 202 (replenishment TF) is still loading fuel anyway

15. Brisbane
TF 204 (troop transport TF) has loaded all troops and is now loading excess ships with supplies. As stated in previous post, these will be moving to Lunga.
There’s nothing else to do in Brisbane but wait.

16. Rockhampton
Move No 23 Sqn RAAF FB Townsville and No 33 Sqn RAAF Tr to Cairns

17. Townsville
Move the following units to PM
40th FS
No 20 SQN RAAF PBY
No 76 Sqn RAAF Kittyhawk

Move the following units to Cairns
22nd TCS C-47
21st TCS C-47

Keep the following units at Townsville
29th TCS C-47

I’ve just noticed that the Aviation Support available compared to the Aviation Support Required means there’s a deficit at PM – so I have used the C-47s I have left at Townsville to transport the 113th Base force to PM. This now leaves Townsville with no Aviation Support and 50 required…so the unit I was sending from Charter Towers (150 aviation support) will now move to Townsville…Lucky I spotted this early – they hadn’t travelled far!

18. Cairns
I was going to move the air units from Cairns to PM now…but being as PM is under resource for Aviation Support I’ll leave it this turn. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not as I’m unsure of the consequences of flooding an under-supported airbase with more aircraft – but it makes sense to me not to do it.

19. Port Moresby
She now has the following air assets (and more will be on the way when the 29th TCS in Townsville starts to move the Base unit to PM)
47 P39D
17 P40E
16 Hudson
14 A24
19 PBY

Hopefully this will be enough to stem the force from Rabual which will surely come this turn.

The P39Ds seem to be woefully inadequate though!

All the air units on PM were fatigued to around 30%, so I’ve put them all on rest (Training and Training Level 0). I am hoping, by doing this, that they will rest but go airborne if attacked…but I couldn’t find it in the manual anywhere.

20. TF211 SS, TF212 SS, TF213 SS and TF214 SS
All in place protecting The Slot…I don’t have enough subs to patrol all the areas I want. I wish I could select a sub unit and give it patrol orders between two points – that way I wouldn’t have to concentrate them! Is there a way?

21. Lunga
I very stupidly, moved 5 PBYs of VP-9 from Efate Port Vila to Lunga. I did this so that I could have early warning of the enemy TF…unfortunately, I forgot to remember that there is nothing at Lunga – so they are left there without any support and, most likely not able to do anything!!

Key points
1. Transport the 113th Base Force from Townsville to PM
2. Re-order the 114th Base Force heading towards Cairns to move to Townsville
3. Still move as much aircraft as possible to PM – I am almost there – there are some at Cairns that I want to move
4. Rest ALL aircraft on PM this turn
5. Move troops and supplies to Lunga/Tulagi
6. Try and maximise recon to locate enemy TF
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[spence]

Here's a little somethin to try when you want to be sneaky reinforcing PM. Since all the Nip subs start off in Truk at the begininning of scen 17/19 you can get away with this quite well at the beginning of those scenarios:
Form a single ship transport TF with one of your 18 kt APs (4 of them in Brisbane). Set them on PATROL/DO NOT RETREAT, click LOAD TROOPS OR LOAD ONLY TROOPS, and give them a destination hex 2 hexes W or SW of PM. If you form more than one such TF make sure you give each ship a different destination hex. When they arrive at that hex they will be in a perfect position to move during a single night to PM and unload the bulk of their troops (supplies are will take the day though). If there is only one ship unloading at a time it may escape detection altogether or the IJN may just declare it unworthy of an attack. Anyway the next day order that ship to return to Brisbane and order another one in. With variations this can work elsewhere too. Sometimes you can slip an engineer/supplies into Irau, Nevea, Rossel Is (or some other good spot that can be developed into a medium bomber base) without being noticed in this way. Do have to watch out for the IJN carriers though. They will attack a single ship in port if they're in range; the Bettys and Nells from Rabaul probably won't unless there's more than one ship there. If you suspect the carriers are nearby hold the single ship TF somewhere down along the Great Barrier Reef til they go away - usually after a turn or two of pasting PM.
Or you might use FT TFs to do the same thing. Those 3 cruisers and 2 DDs that start in Brisbane can get most of a Bde into PM and then clear off by the AM of turn 3 I think.
In scen 17/19 you kinda don't wanna offer up a gigantic convoy with a whole division embarked in one place.

[toraq]

A couple of things:

- If you want to rest your pilots and still protect your base, put them on CAP 50 (that is escort with 50% CAP) or below. This way they´ll get some rest.

- When LCAP from a carrier, your squadrons get tired and lose morale quite fast. Use them wisely, fatigue and morale play a big role in UV

Another strategy for invading Lunga without risking too much: FT a Rgt (or elements) and a BF there. Wait until the engineers build a airport size 1 and then move your fighters there. Now you have CAP over your big convoy! [:'(].

Anyway, try the way you´re doing...so you can learn new things by your own

[JudgeDredd]

Turn 2 Resolution Phase
A CV was reported spotted north of New Ireland – so those babies are moving.

Only one combat sequence – I was surprised at the low level of abuse I received from Rabaul – maybe in the big campaign it’s not as built up as in some of the smaller missions.

I also received troop reinforcements at Brisbane at the end of Turn 2

Turn 2 AAR for May 2nd 1942
Weather: Partly Cloudy

Air attack on Port Moresby , at 10,40
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 27
G3M Nell x 13

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell x 1 damaged

Attacking Level Bombers:
7 x G3M Nell at 6000 feet
6 x G3M Nell at 6000 feet

Turn 3 – May 3rd 1942
Weather – Clear

Turn 3 Orders Phase
22. Noumea
TF201 (CV TF) is moving to west of Espiritu Santo and south of San Cristobal. TF 202 is set to follow for replenishment

23. Brisbane
TF 204 (troop transport TF) is fully loaded and I have set it’s destination to Lunga. I have taken off Retirement Allowed and React to Enemy. I have set TF203 (SC TF) to follow TF204 and I have removed Retirement Allowed but left React to Enemy switched on. Why? Because I don’t know how to play the game and I want to see the effects. Most likely the IJN CV TF will move close enough to bomb the crap out of TF203 and TF204…but if my CV’s are close enough (TF201) then maybe I can catch them on the hop….how many troops and ships I could lose only time will tell

24. Rockhampton
Nothing more to do here. Supplies are sufficient. There are only two ground units here 29th Aus Bde and 117th Base Force and some B17s being repaired.

25. Townsville
29th TCS C-47 is still moving 113th Base Force to PM. 114th Base Force (the unit I was sending to Charter Towers and then re-routed) is still on it’s way to Townsville

26. Cairns
I can move the following units to PM now that the Aviation Support in PM is picking up (due to the movement of 113th Base Force from Townsville)
408th BS B-26B
19th BS B-26B
28th BS B-17E
I have more bombers to move, but PM is at it’s limit of Aviation Support (again).

Cairns is fine for support levels.


27. Port Moresby
I am concerned at the lack of fighters I have…but I have none to speak of anywhere else…most of what I have (apart from 15 x Wirraways of No23 Sqn RAAF at Townsville).

I have 150 aircraft here, but these are split into the following groups:
20xFighters
48xFighter Bomber / Night Fighter
15xDive Bombers
45xLong Range Bombers
22xPatrol aircraft

Hardly enough…and they are still quite fatigued at the moment, even though I set them all to 100% rest!

No11 Sqn RAAF Patrol is set to 100% Naval Search…I need to know where the IJN CV TF is.

The following units are set to Naval and Ground Attack
8th BS A-24 Dauntless

The following air units are set to 100% rest due to fatigue
19th BS B-26B Marauder
408th BS B-26B Marauder
28th BS B-17E
No32 Sqn RAAF
36th FS P39D
40th FS P400
No 76 Sqn RAAF P-40E
No 20 Sqn RAAF PBY

The following units are set to Long Range CAP
35th FS P39D
No 72 Sqn P-40E

28. TF211 SS, TF212 SS, TF213 SS and TF214 SS
Subs are still in place strategically (yeah, right!)

29. Lunga
Those PBYs are still on PM with no supplies! Muppet!

Key points
The 113th Base Force is still being moved from Townsville to PM. This should be complete in a couple of turns…maybe 3.
The 114th Base Force is still moving to Townsville – it should be there in two turns
PM is at it’s limit for AC at the moment…not enough, but there you have it
Troops and supplies are on their way to Lunga and should be there in – 3 turns?

Turn 3 Resolution Phase
Enemy CV force (size undetermined) was spotted north of New Britain and it finally launched a strike at PM and is camped round about Finschafen.

Turn 3 AAR for May 3rd 1942
Weather: Clear

Air attack on Port Moresby , at 10,40
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 27
D3A Val x 21
B5N Kate x 25

Allied aircraft
P-39D Airacobra x 13
P-40E Kittyhawk x 5

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A Val x 1 destroyed
D3A Val x 8 damaged
B5N Kate x 4 destroyed
B5N Kate x 2 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
P-39D Airacobra x 1 destroyed
P-39D Airacobra x 1 damaged
P-40E Kittyhawk x 2 destroyed

FO J. Jacobs of 35th FS is credited with kill number 3

LT M. Yamaguchi of EI-2 Daitai bails out and is CAPTURED

Port hits 4
Port fuel hits 2
Port supply hits 2

Attacking Level Bombers:
6 x B5N Kate at 5000 feet
13 x B5N Kate at 5000 feet

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Air attack on 15th Coastal Gun Battalion, at 9,33

Allied aircraft
A-24 Dauntless x 13

Allied aircraft losses
A-24 Dauntless x 3 destroyed
A-24 Dauntless x 10 damaged
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