WitP mod v903 Ngineer(Japan) vs. Feinder(Allies)

[Feinder]

No peeking Ngineer!

So, Ngineer and I, are both excited about this game.

Ngineer is one of my younger brothers, and he's soundly clobbered me in both of our previous games at WaW (both as Axis and Allies). I'm sure he's in it, to give me another much needed dose of humility. :^)

As for me, my time dates back to "Pacific War" (yes, the really old one), to "Uncommon Valor", to "Witp", to 'Witp AE".
However, Japanese production was always too much for me in WitP. Having to keep track of even the engine types, just made my brain hurt. So I'm excited to see Ellissar's stunningly beautiful adaptation onto this engine of the WitP.

So there you have it. Ngineer now has the game (as Japan), and I await my first clubbing.

[Elessar2]

Rock and roll. Any changes I had planned were relatively minor. I did like the one suggestion about Fortification tech, but that may have unintended consequences (and as said trying to think about such things just increases my sinus pain). Since it was mentioned in the release thread, am interested to see if the National Morale effects will be lessened this time around.

[Feinder]

Oh! We have an audience! There's nothing quite so motivating as a public flogging!

The usual messiness that I would expect...

Wake falls. Guam surprisingly held, I reinforced just to see if it can hold a little longer. KB sinks 4x BBs.
I'm not sure if he'll go for a second strike, so I went looking for him with the Med Bomber and Subs.
Was able to establish, "he around here..." and decided to move off to the SE. Fighters into Hawaii, and some screens until I establish that he's headed away from Pearl. Moved up the PBY to island SW of Pearl. Allowed me some visibility and shifted the Northern CV group from CentPac, and the CV from West Coast to the retreat PH ships. And scattered a few subs to try to keep him cautious.

[Feinder]

In China, he pushed in Center and South. I found a InfDiv in the north that the Com-Chi could pummel to get his attention.
China researching InfWeaps and InfMorale.

[Feinder]

Dutch East Indies

Sarawak and Brunei fall. He sank Prince of Wales, Repulse and the DD, and landing north of Singapore. Not sure I can do much about that, so I reinforced Sing as well as I could. Tried pushing the Dutch CL against his transport, but got stopped.

I'm going to try to relocate that Inf-Div in Sumatra, down to Java. Also pulled the Inf-Div Celebes and landed him in central Java (I figure he'll probably try to land there). You can also see the invasion waiting to come ashore in Balikpapan.

[Feinder]

Philippines

I was less than successful in getting the USN out of PI. He destroyed the B-17s, and then landed north of Manilla. He had actually pushed me out of the town in the north of PI, but I presume not enough points to move in, so I waked back in. He had also killed HQ at Bataan, but no entry. So I pulled the PI-Div from the south and parked it in Bataan, maybe it can help Manilla. If figured if I just leave it in the south, and PI surrenders, he dies anyway; so brought him north to squat on the supplies in Bataan. Parked some subs on the (to be) shipping lanes. If they get the chance to move against some of the surface ships, so much the better. Evac'd the fighters in the south, to Pearl.

[Feinder]

The Solomons...

So he's going to go for Solomons and Port Moresby.
I figured I'd change some things up little, maybe see if I can spoil if he thinks it'll be easy (who know, maybe it WILL be easy). So I pulled the Oz-Corps sent it to PM. Shifted the PM-Div, sent it to Lunga. I'll reinforce them as best/soon as I can. I figure I'll need to get somebody across the mountains from PM, but for now, that's all I've got. Enterprise (southern CV from CentPac), moved to Phoenix Islands. If he comes light to Lunga, I might catch something. The plan will also be to bring the rest of CVs (and fleet?) to Noumea if opportunity to push back presents itself.

[Feinder]

So that's the end of my first turn.
I absolutely HATE the ever-declining-no-way-to-recover National Morale mechanism for Allies. But that's a separate soap-box. So I plan to push back wherever I can, to maybe slow him down. I have no idea how successful I will be (or not). Obviously "pushing back" comes with the added risk of "getting sunk". I'm also figuring out the new Naval Combat Style, I've heard great things about it (and Jon is positively in love with it). So I'll just need to get a feel for it quickly. We'll see.

For research...
For China, India, and USSR, I put in Inf-Weaps and Inf-Morale.
For US I did Radar, and Productions. Maybe LR-Air, I can't recall.
For UK I spent all their money on upgrading their ships.
For Oz, I think I put into Inf-Weap and Inf-Morale also.

I was also looking at the how the Allied convoys basically pushed PPs in a big circle, with UK being the end-point from India. US -> Oz -> India -> UK. So in the end, it seemed like a lot of opportunities for Japan to intercept supplies flowing between my 4 majors on the way to UK. Since I'd rather have US have PPs than UK, I decided to turn off all the convoys so that US can keep their PPs, and Churchill can fend for himself (all blessed be his ornery self, ref my avatar). WTH. Why not.

By my nature, I would "turtle" this as Allies. And I'm sure that's what he expects me to do.
So thus, the strategy for 1942 will essentially be to try and keep him somewhat off-balance/cautious and hopefully slow him down, without costing me my fleet.

I have NO IDEA if that will work. Worst that can happen, is that I chalk up another in the "loss" column.


Oh! PS - Ellisar.. Was wierd. When my turn ended, the production numbers were only there for a blink. Screen popped up, and blinked out. Uploading to PBEM server... So I actually have no idea what my production looked like. I doubt that was a "feature" of the mod. So, I'll see if it does that again next turn, hopefully not. Will certainly let you know.

[Elessar2]

There are a few ways to get some Allied NM back early on, such as the Doolittle Raid. The turn by turn NM clickdowns shouldn't commence until 1943, when in vanilla it did right off the bat.

Here is the main AAR from 2 years ago between OCB and myself:

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 0&t=373680

Don't discount the Australian Navy, early on the US can certainly use their ships.

Hope that income box thang wasn't something that demonstrates an incompatibility between the mod and the newer patches...

[Feinder]

Thanks for the feed-back Ellissar! January starts with more bloodshed. No surprise there.

1. Guam fell. Posthumous Silver Stars all around.
2. He moved up on Java/DEI and made short work of the Division there. DEI surrendered. The guys I had loaded in transports from Sumatra, never made it to help defend the capital. Oh well, it was worth a try (at least that's what I'm telling myself).
3. KB is north by north-east of Canton Is. It blasted my PBY squadron there. Grr.
4. I presume he was scouting Phoenix Islands with his Maritime Bombers, and hit CV-Enterprise for 2 points of damage. Another lesson learned. Enterprise and TF continues towards Australia.
4. I've got Garrisons on transports, hopefully can land at Midway and French Frigate Shoals.
5. Moved fighters into Pearl Harbor, and brought in several for upgrades and repairs. If he bounces back to Pearl, at least I have 3 fighters there, I guess we'll see if they're effective.
6. Setting my subs to "Silent". He seems to be spot them frequently, and I don't want to waste them.

Strategic Map:

[Feinder]

China.
1. Comm-Chi pushing in the North. Trying to force attrition where I can.
2. A modestly successful attack in the center. Reduced his Div down to 1pt, but couldn't get the kill. Also spotted his AirCraft. I looked at the attack, but it wasn't favorable, and decided to keep the line intact and not risk getting cut off.
2. He's definitely trying to cut-off the Chinese in the South. He landed some additional Div/Corps in the South, to try to squeeze them. I'm trying to shift some guys meet him.

[Feinder]

Singapore will probably fall next turn, along with Manilla. But they're doing what they can. Even the guy in Bataan, managed to damage his SF-Div, every little bit helps, esp from the guys who are destined to surrender.

I expect transports to show up off Borneo next turn.

[Feinder]

Like I said, there's a risk he will hit Pearl again, but we flipped the coin, and we'll see where it lands.

[Feinder]

The Indian Division in Ceylon, was fully equipped, so I landed it in Burma, and we can see the lead elements of thrust. Also moved over some fighters and Med-Bombes into Burma, because I know he'll be throwing his LBA against me there.

The British CV and escorts have moved west from Ceylon for now. The rest of Royal Navy is on it's way; figured I'd avoid combat until I can rendezvous with the rest of the fleet.

[Feinder]

And lastly, the Production Screen worked fine this time.

[Feinder]

And research... The notation means (Number of Chits ... Date initiated ... Current Percentage ... Current Value)

[OldCrowBalthazor]

Damn great AAR so far! More please

[Elessar2]

6. Setting my subs to "Silent". He seems to be spot them frequently, and I don't want to waste them.

OCB & I struggled to make the sub war remotely historical. I tried raiding his convoys in the China Sea en masse, to no avail-perhaps because I gave him too many destroyers (note I also have destroyer escorts in the MTB slot), but they'd invariably swarm my subs to pieces. Catch 22 with silent mode-you can't Cruise in s.m., so the effective journey distance in s.m. is about a third that in Cruise mode. To better model the spotting of surface task forces I gave land-based air fairly hefty spotting ranges, but the game system doesn't differentiate between a huge battleship and a tiny surfaced sub. Plus "submerged" subs aren't all that stealthy anyway, esp. after they dive, as you intimated.

Diving sucks precisely because the subs don't go very far away and are easily refound (esp. if you use ships who have already used their attack-my higher ZoC penalties help a little bit there, but conk out once the sub is below 5 strength). The dive mechanism is hard-coded and the extra 2 spaces that I talked the devs into giving them turned out to be pretty useless because it only dives the max distance if all other closer hexes are within enemy ship spotting ranges. As a result I tried giving them a large Retreat distance, but that only works if they are surfaced...I may at some point give them a huge Retreat distance, tho they may end up "retreating" in an undesired direction.

As a result the IJN "tempo" for their ASW ships is much higher than it is for Allied subs-the former can just zip into a nearby port and come back out at full supply (if not full strength after a additional turn), while the subs have a long and dangerous journey back to their ports, where unless it is fueled by a primary supply source can only get them back up to 8 strength.

They proved to be fairly balanced vs. other ships.

[Feinder]

Thank you for the feed-back on Subs, good to know what to expect (or not to expect) from them. FWIW, I also got the "blinked out" of Prod screen, when trying to take the screen shot of Production this turn (again). I was using Cntl-PrtScn; I'm going to try Alt-PrtScn next time. It's a force of habit from my laptop (Cntl-PrtScrn), vs. I play this game on my desktop, so we'll see if the difference is Cntl-PrtScrn vs. Alt-PrtScrn. Frankly, I wouldn't expect that it has anything to do with your mod (and I wouldn't expect that you can do anything about it). But it is annoying, so if I can figure out how to NOT skip that screen, it'll make me happy.

So, what's not in the screen-caps to follow:
1. I think he's split off 3(?) CVs from KB and sent them south. I saw some CV-air activity in south-ish, probably to scout SoPac, Solomons, Rabaul etc.
2. Enterprise and attending TF has arrive at Brisbane. I'll try to patch the 100kg bomb hit in by her aft elevator from the hit in Phoenix Islands. Lex and Sara are staying fairly far south, en route to Oz.
3. He has his CVLs supporting the attack in the south of China. More on that later.

[Feinder]

CentPac.

He "bumped" my sub at the pier at Midway. Then sent some bombers after it. Fortunately, no damage. As before I have a garrison en route; so I pushed out to see what was around, and encountered that CL. Spread of torpedoes all missed, but was a least good to know he was there. I was however, able to land my garrison at Midway, and another at French Frigate Shoals.

Landed an HQ at Pearl Harbor, so that I'm able to repair my Squadrons.

Also upgraded a few Subs-Cruisers.