Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admiral)

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition >> After Action Reports >> Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admiral)

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Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admiral) - 4/27/2012 1:43:42 PM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
Status: offline

Hi,

So this is an AAR covering the Japanese side in the Reluctant Admiral mod version 4.1. It is me as Japan and PaulvonHindenburg playing the Allies. This is closed to the Allied commander so, Fredrik, if you're reading please stop here.

House Rules are:
FOW ON
Advanced weather ON
Allied DMG Control ON
PDU ON
Historical 1st turn OFF
Dec 7th surprise ON
Reliable torps OFF
Realistic RD ON
No unit withdrawals ON
Variable reinforcements +/- 60 days
Facility expansion OFF
Auto upgrade and replacements OFF
No strategic bombing before 2/1943 (4E attack on ships, troops, ports and airfields is OK)
No strategic bombing in/from China untill Allies has a lvl 7+ port in Vietnam or China
Allies may move any at sea naval TF�s on turn 1
No invasions in non-base or dot hexes.
Must pay PP�s for all restricted units crossing borders, exept if Japanese or Chinese

I think that covers all of them. The last one is interesting. Basically what it means is if a restricted Japanese or Chinese unit can march there it's allowed. I'm still not 100% sure about that one but I'm willing to give it a shot. Potentially we could see Chinese in India and Burma and we will see Manchuko units in China.

I'm working on turn 1 right now. I expect it to take a few more days. I haven't played a PBEM in a long long time but I have lurked here off and on for years. I'd appreciate any advice and/or suggestions at any time throughout the game.

I had best get back to working on my turn.

Joe

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< Message edited by ItsAMadhouse -- 4/29/2012 5:57:51 PM >

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry Reluctant Admiral - 4/27/2012 3:18:38 PM

John 3rd

Posts: 17178
Joined: 9/8/2005
From: La Salle, Colorado
Status: offline

Go GET 'EM!

Hope you have a blast.

My sister lives in Wichita and it has been a nice place to visit.

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry Reluctant Admiral - 4/27/2012 11:59:37 PM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
Status: offline

Since I need a break from Turn 1 (will it ever end?!?) I'll put another post here. I suppose we can go over a little of my thoughts, plans, and dreams. But first, thank you, John. I'm really looking forward to trying out your mod. I haven't played it before so it may not have been the best idea to come into my first PBEM in 6+ years playing a scenario I've never seen before but whatever. I too like Wichita. I'm stationed at McConnell AFB. Been there 5 years now! Where did the time go?

We'll start with my plans for my second least favorite place to be locked into a land war: China. Russia is number one by the way. Mainly because I hate to be cold and they're more technologically advanced than China so a tougher fight. Anyway, the China plan is don't screw up too bad. That's number 1. I also hope to utilize Manchukuo units and units already in China to cut off, encircle, and then destroy as many Chinese as I can. There's a couple areas in particular I'm thinking of but I'll go in further detail later when I post a map.

For the PI I want to get them pushed into Bataan as soon as possible and get the siege going so I can push harder and faster on the SRA. We'll have typical invasions at Aparri and Vigan should start us off nicely.

Down south it's interesting because I have the paratroopers on Peleliu. I have a feeling these guys will come in very handy in this area. There's several important locations in range. The question is how much I can send in one turn. Certainly Ternate and Manado are in range. Maybe even Kendari or Ambon. If they aren't they can be soon. To start I plan to use them to get a beach head on Mindanao. I'm leaning towards Davao. Any thoughts or suggestions on the best place to use these guys?

Moving to Malaya, I intend to do something of a Mersing Gambit. It won't be a magic move to Mersing on turn 1 because that's gamey imo. I'm going to form the fleet up around Soc Trang and use the Akagi/Kaga TF (KB2) to cover them on the way in. KB 2 is positioned a couple hexes south of the invasion fleet for now so should be able to intercept the RN if they stick their noses out too far.

My main goal for the beginning is to get the resources in my control and moving safely to Japan. So I do the Mersing Gambit for a couple reasons. One, if he smells it and retreats to Singapore I take the rest of the peninsula that much quicker and Singapore is under siege. If he doesn't Singapore is still under siege and falls that much quicker. The emphasis is on the speed of the operation. I want the resources before fortresses start popping up ie Fortress Palembang. Palembang should be safer and faster to take with Singapore under siege sooner so... I'm going to attempt the gambit.

Pearl Harbor. I've always attacked PH. I don't know how it'll go with just 4 CV's attacking and I do want CV's in the Pacific to cover Wake and Rabaul and such. I'm leaving this for last because I'm still up in the air. I lean towards PH but am considering using KB 1 on Manilla. It should assist in my stated goal of getting at the resources quicker by getting the sieges started sooner. I'll have to weigh this one. I'm not convinced one way or the other. Anyone have any thoughts? Experiences either way?

That's all the time I have right now, it's time to get ready for work. That darn job keeps getting in the way of my game time!

Joe

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 4/29/2012 6:13:03 PM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
Status: offline

Hi,

I just sent turn 1. I'm excited and a bit nervous! I haven't done a PBEM in a long long time. I wonder what I forgot to do on turn 1. I need to write up a checklist or something.

Turn 1 should see the standard invasions in PI and Malaya. There will be a para-drop on Davao with follow up troops on the way to unload once the port is taken. I also have a small force set to invade Dadjangas so I can focus in one less direction. I decided to go with the 4 CV strike on Pearl. The other 2 are headed to the Soc Trang area. The mini KB is going to cover the Mindanao ops. The CVE's will assist around Luzon.

Now to bite my nails until the turn arrives...

Joe

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 4/29/2012 9:12:23 PM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
Status: offline

Hi,

Well, I'm overall pleased with turn 1.

Pearl Harbor: The PH strike went well. Two of the Kate units carried torpedoes. Of course I hoped for all. We showed hits on all BB's including a magazine explosion on Tennessee.

Allied Ships
BB Nevada, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
BB Arizona, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
BB Pennsylvania, Torpedo hits 3, heavy damage
CL St. Louis, Bomb hits 1
BB California, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
BB Oklahoma, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
BB Maryland, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Detroit, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB West Virginia, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
BB Tennessee, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
CL Helena, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CA San Francisco, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AVD Thornton, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
AE Pyro, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
AO Ramapo, Bomb hits 1

Looks like 18 torpedo hits (Banzai!) on the BB's along with numerous bomb hits. Some of them were 250kg from the Vals but most were 800kg. I'm sure I've done worse with the full 6 CV's.

Malaya Landed at Kota Bharu and ordered the troops to attack.

The RAF came out to play and attacked my shipping in this area. The replay showed two 500lb hits on Fuso (I think) and they turned out to be FOW! Praise be to FOW! The RN looks to be playing Sir Robin. I'll have to watch for Force Z.

Philipines: We landed at Vigan. Should take it tomorrow. The attacks on Clark went well. My Zeros did great work. On the day P40E losses were 12, P40B 8, P26 7. All for the loss of 1 Zero on the day.

The para-drop took Davao as planned. Follow on forces are on the way.

The wheels are all in motion. I'm hoping to get another turn tonight. I'll certainly have time. I'm over in Europe at the moment, btw and I work the night shift. I don't have to work tonight so I'll have all night to work on it.

Joe

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 4/30/2012 12:06:33 AM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
Status: offline

Hi,

Ever find yourself re-learning lessons? I do. Two air raids in particular taught me lessons. Rather the same one just two times. The first was an attack of 27 Nells escorted by 27 Betties. Right into every P40 in the PI. The second was just 50 betties. Grrrrr!!!! The cherry on top was 40 Zeros showing up to sweep and running into the 4 P40s that hadn't used all their ammo on the Betties. Basically I lost a months production of Betties on day 2. Sigh. Lesson re-learned.

The naval arm of the navy did ok for me though. Some PT's sortied in the Phillipines. One was sunk for no losses.

Some PBY's managed to get through my cap and sink a transport at Vigan. It was already unloaded so not a major loss.

My subs did some good work. An xAP near Rangoon was attacked on the surface by I-126 and sunk. Another sub took a shot at CA Houston but the torpedoes didn't explode.

As expected Makin, Batan Island, Vigan, and Kota Bharu fell.

Nothing much else happened.

Joe

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 4/30/2012 12:24:02 AM

John 3rd

Posts: 17178
Joined: 9/8/2005
From: La Salle, Colorado
Status: offline

Good PH Strike using just 4 CV. I think four is enough to do what is needed and free-up two heavies for useful work elsewhere.

Too bad about the Betty/Nell.

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 4/30/2012 3:08:51 AM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
Status: offline

Hi,

I was certainly pleased with the Pearl Harbor results. Tennessee showed up on the sunk ships list. I figure that's an accurate report. Based on the replay it took some tough shots. My Netties did a decent job of making up for going in unescorted. Nells out of the IndoChina area sortied against 6 or 8 xAK's. The first attack sunk 4 outright. The next sunk one, showed heavy damage on another, and completely missed the last. 5 for sure. I'll take it. And if they keep running that way eventually they'll run into KB 2.

PI: I sent a CL/4 DD force to go after the PT's that attacked my invasion fleets. Missed the PT's but ran into to PG's and sunk both. They still have plenty of ammo so are staying around to see what other trouble they can get in. 6 or 8 more PBY's attacked. A couple got damaged and the rest turned back. Laoag was picked up by the rowboat corps. They did quick work. The landings at Aparri were delayed. They've begun now. Should fall tomorrow.

Down in Mindanao the Dadjanges invasion is one or two days out. Davao follow on forces are three or four. I've ordered the paratroops at Peleliu to attack Ternate. I'll see if I can't get some float planes headed out there to keep an eye on things down that way. Forces are prepping for several bases in the area. Manado, Ambon, etc. I'd like to see if I can't push far enough to get in range and coordinate a para-drop for the same day I attack around Oosthaven or Palembang.

Malaya: It's looking like a Sir Robin. That's fine. It just makes it that much easier. I'll be landing at Mersing in two to three days. I doubt I'll catch too many Brits there. They have the pointer showing they're leaving.

I'll have to allocate some aviation support types to Kuantan so I'll have a level 4 AF closer to Singapore. I want to start sweeping with Zeros as soon as I can.

Speaking of Mersing, I have the cruiser force that starts up around Singora or Patani following a large invasion fleet along with the BB force that begins up there, Fuso and Yamashiro, I think. Additionally the Kaga and Akagi TF is with them. They have the Akagi Vals on ASW. Dutch and Brit subs are surely in the area and I don't want their working torpedoes catching one of my CV's. The rest are on naval attack. I don't expect much in the area that would survive contact with all that.

Subs: The hero of the day was I 160. It's first of two attacks was the TK Iris. One torpedo hit and the "sinking ship sound" afterwards. It's second attack of the day bagged the xAK Kedah with 2 torpedo hits.

Additionally the RO 64 got a torpedo hit on xAK Macdhui, also followed by the "sinking ship sound."

Banzai gentlemen!

I got an email from Fredrik and he's working on the turn so hopefully one more before I go to bed. :-)

Joe

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 4/30/2012 4:52:54 AM

PaxMondo

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Joined: 6/6/2008
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quote:

ORIGINAL: ItsAMadhouse

Must pay PP�s for all restricted units crossing borders, exept if Japanese or Chinese

I think that covers all of them. The last one is interesting. Basically what it means is if a restricted Japanese or Chinese unit can march there it's allowed. I'm still not 100% sure about that one but I'm willing to give it a shot. Potentially we could see Chinese in India and Burma and we will see Manchuko units in China.

Welcome!

Potentially? Uhm yeah, I think you can count on seeing a lot of Chinese units in Burma. If I were the allies, I would simply move ALL of my units there to keep them in supply. So, you need to plug that dike and quickly. Those units trained and with supply would be murderous. The typical Chinese Corps is about 780 AV when fully constituted, almost 50% over an IJ division.

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 4/30/2012 5:10:32 AM

Cribtop

Posts: 3890
Joined: 8/10/2008
From: Lone Star Nation
Status: offline

Good luck!

Definitely agree with Pax. Keep the Chinese in China. Then use your Manchurian forces to put China in a box.

I have a secret method to avoid the sweep problem. I'll PM you tomorrow.

BANZAI!!!

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 4/30/2012 11:02:32 PM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
Status: offline

Cribtop:

I appreciate the advive. Good gravy. Who has been in teh militaryh and been in a dreinking contest. I have. :-)

Joe

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 5/1/2012 1:52:52 PM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
Status: offline

Man, what a night! Promotion parties!

Well, back to the game. We've advanced a few more days since the last update. There has been good and bad luck on both sides.

We all knew it was a risk getting that close to Singapore before attrition could wear down the RAF. I think it was only three or four Swordfish that got through but they lined up on Kaga and put a torpedo in her. She can still make pretty good pace and I hope to avoid the pack of subs sitting outside Saigon. Damage is 21 sys and 41 float.

I think she should make it though. Unless a sub gets to her. I have 4 ASW TF's with her as well as 5 DD's in the escort TF. Additionally ~100 Netties are flying ASW out of Saigon and all the Vals and Kates on Akagi.

But, the troops are on the peninsula and it has been cut in two. We shall see what we've cut off and find out whether it was worth it or not.

Meanwhile out in the pacific, an Allied CV paid a passing visit to my invasion fleets around Tarawa and Ocean Island. It's an interesting situation because KB is in the area so we'll see if we can catch it and maybe get a little vengeance for the Kaga! We need to gas up so we're going to stop and Jaluit and see which way he heads.

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 5/1/2012 5:35:24 PM

Prydwen

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Joined: 2/23/2009
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Pacific: Looks like the Allied CV will get away. KB must have distributed fuel amongst it's ships because it ended one hex short of Jaluit and didn't get any gas. Meanwhile the CV steamed further to the SW. Bummer but we will get another shot sooner or later. KB will gas at Kwajalein now and move N to cover the Wake invasion.

Speaking of Wake Island, in my Air Force travels I scored a trip out there! It was a gorgeous island and was one of my favorite trips I've ever been on. The island is covered with bunkers, an 8" coastal gun still in it's mount, a couple memorial sites, and the POW rock. It was a great place to visit. Only military and contractors go to the island so it isn't easy to get to but if you ever get the chance, I'd take it.

PI: The conquests in the PI are moving along. He saved me the trouble of running down one of his units on Mindanao by marching it to Davao. All my follow on forces landed there so I feel pretty secure. By pretty secure I mean 100%. We're going to shock attack and crush them.

Malaya: Tanks are moving up the peninsula and I have some infantry and armor moving down the other direction. 4 divisions are in strat move and following along as quickly as bases are taken.

The Kaga actually repaired 1 point of flotation damage. That puts it at 21 system 40 flood and 15 engine. I decided to send her to Cam Ranh Bay instead of Saigon. It's a bit further but doesn't have half a dozen subs parked in front of it. Kaga should make it there day after tomorrow I'm guessing.

The future: We are going to begin some of the next phase of invasions. I want to get moving into S. Borneo and Celebes. Specifically Tarakan and Manado. Next turn I'll start loading for both invasions. They will be covered by mini KB. If I have enough shipping handy we'll load up the Balikpapan invasion too.

Additionally I want to get to Singkawang. Having Kaga taken out of the fight will slow us down a bit here. I'm going to wait for the CVE's to arrive. They're a day or two out from Cam Ranh Bay and they'll join Akagi. We'll load up some extra fighters. This time I really don't want any Swordfish getting through.

Once KB is done up at Wake she'll head to the south pacific to cover the invasions at Kavieng and Rabaul. We'll possibly run forward and snag Lae while we're out there.

I have one of the IJN Assault Divisions prepping for Port Moresby but that will come later.

Based on the direction his CV is going I expect he's going to gather them up in Australia (Brisbane or Sydney) or more likely IMO they'll transit the Torres strait and make for the DEI.

Joe

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 5/1/2012 11:33:41 PM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
Status: offline

Hi,

So, where to start?

Pacific: Wake will be invaded next turn. KB plastered the runway. Looks like no acft there. Unless a naval target comes along we'll hit the ground troops tomorrow in support of the invasion. Afterwards KB will head down south to take care of the Rabaul invasion. I'm really weak in airpower down that way. It needs fixed next turn. I should have taken care of that awhile ago. Extra units will probably be pulled from the PI theater.

PI: That unit at Davao turned out to be a battalion. It was destroyed in the attack. Another unit seems to be headed that way as well. They'll find about 80-120 AV waiting if they get there before my units can march to Malaybalay. Cotabato was picked up by the rowboat corps.

Up on Luzon a PI division was crushed at Lingayen. The combat report showed over 200 squads destroyed for 1 squad destroyed! Banzai!

Sweeps over Manila and Clark found no cap. His P40's and P26's have been escorting in the neighborhood of 25-30 PBY's to attack my transports and surface groups unloading at Vigan. Now that I have some decent aviation support there I moved in 60 zeros and 30 Nates. The cap trap drove off all of his escorts and damaged some of the PBY's. roughly 20 attacked but scored no hits on the Cl/DD force I left as bait.

China: We saw Hong Kong fall today! I've been attacking forces along the roads and railroads, trying to clear them and cut off enemy units. I have an army of mostly Manchurian units totaling around 2400 AV (~400 AV is armor) working to encircle Loyang and Chengchow. It looks as if he may be pulling out. If so I'll take the easy win and move on. 1 hex NE of that stack is a 1000 AV army moving in the same direction just down the other rail line.

Malaya: About 50 Zeros out of Kota Bharu swept Singapore. They ran into the AVG flying a mix of H81-A3 x 19, P-39D Airacobra x 13, and P-400B X 19. The Zeros did excellent work driving off the entire group. Losses showed 3 Zeros and 5 Allied fighters with an unknown but, according to the combat replay, several additional Allied fighters damaged in the attack. Total losses for Zeros on the day (Malaya and PI) were 9 Zeros vs 17 P40's, 5 P39's, and 4 P400's.

A tank Rgt shock attacked 3 unknown units at Malacca. It was a bit of a gamble, not knowing what the units were but it turned out that it was 3 Bn's. They were driven off taking 685 casualties versus no Japanese losses. Two bases down south and one up north and the rail line will be clear. Then we see how the Singers invasion goes...

Joe

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 5/2/2012 7:17:45 PM

Prydwen

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Joined: 2/23/2009
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Quick update because I have to leave for work in ten minutes.

Last turn was a pretty slow one. Not much went on. My big stack of Manchurian units is about to attack 2 units around Loyang. I have my tanks set to pursue so if they retreat away from the bases they're done for. If they go into Loyang or the other one, I can't think of the name at the moment I'll consider an attack with the tanks. Any suggestions there? Roughly 400 AV of tanks against about 10 unknown Chinese units. AV unknown. If we can circle around the two bases there we should cut off 20 or so units. I looked back in the combat reports and since the war began roughly 700 Chinese squads have been destroyed.

The landing at Wake will start next turn. KB has softened it up nicely. I expect it to fall.

I mentioned getting some airpower to Truk. Some Nells arrived and I set some of them to search. At least I have some eyes in the area now. I didn't realize how bare I was down there. Some Claudes were upgraded in Japan the other day and have all repaired. They're island hopping out to Truk. Should be there in one or two turns. I feel much better about the area now.

I forgot to mention a couple turns ago one of my subs torpedoed the CL Dragon and scored 2 hits. She shows up as sunk which is good news. Other than Pearl Harbor BB's that CL is the biggest warship sunk. He's done a massive Sir Robin with his surface forces.

The Menado invasion fleet is under way. Two to three days and they'll arrive. I'll move my Mavis unit there so I'll have eyes on the whole area. Should see anything coming all the way out to Java.

And that's the news for Dec 17th.

Joe

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 5/3/2012 6:27:32 AM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
Status: offline

Hi,

So another turn down. Where to begin? Let us start with our submarine arm.

Subs: It was a good day for our subs. I-159 sunk the AVP Arend near Java.

The unfortunately empty of troops AP Hugh L. Scott was hit with 2 torpedoes near Pearl Harbor by I-21. Two wasn't enough for the 21's commander (Kawakami or something is his name) so he attacked again and scored two more hits. Nice work. A valuable AP is gone.

I-164 scored 1 hit on the xAP Dunera near Rangoon. Hopefully she'll sink. Although she was also empty of troops. Too bad. I much prefer to drown the enemy army over fight them fairly.

Malaya: Troops are moving, trying to get the entire railroad so we can strat move all the way down to the gates of singapore! Tomorrow we sweep Singapore. We haven't in a couple days.

In the area, the Singkawang invasion is about a day out. Both CVE's and Akagi are covering. We've added 36 extra Zeros so hope to be safe from air attack. Surface cover is provided by the Fuso and Yamashiro TF that begins around Singora.

No enemy ships have been seen in the area or anywhere really. Like I said in the last post, only the CL Dragon has been sunk around the Makassar straight. It seems Fredrik is pulled back for the defense of Java or perhaps as far as Oz and India? I have never played Fredrik. In fact he's from Sweden and I live in Kansas. I have no idea how he will act or react. We're still in the figuring each other out phase.

PI: The past couple turns I forgot to turn my Nates off of sweep over Clark. So, 10 to 15 Nates would show up to no opposition. I remembered to turn them off of sweep but, since his PBY's had stopped their naval attacks, I decided to give my Zeros something to do and had them sweep Clark. 30 showed up and did a pretty good job of knocking down the cap that had been absent for the past few days. They were followed by a further 27 Zeros. On the day we lost 7 Zeros air to air with a further 6 ops losses. His totals for P40B/E were 28 including ops losses. Also we shot down 2 P26's. Tomorrow we sweep with the Zeros and Nates.

China: We saw one battle here today. Two Chinese Corps were attacked by 4 Divisions and a Mixed Bde. They lost an amazing 250 squads in one day! 3200+ casualties to our 500. As anticipated but not hoped for they retreated into Loyang. I did not order my tanks to attack. We're waiting for the 4 divisions and mixed Bde. Once they arrive we'll attack again and let the tanks pursue like they did in the last battle. Unless. If he looks to be retreating out of Loyang we'll send him on his way. I'd rather wear him down with my infantry and destroy him with my tanks on the second day.

I'll add a map. The red arrows show the planned axis of attack so we can cut off everybody in the red oval. Everybody in the blue oval is cut off already. The blue arrows are what will completely seal them off.

Further north is the purple arrow that is the infantry moving to attack Loyang. Just far enough north of there to be cut out of the picture is another 1000 AV moving west. They're going to try to complete the encirclement and reduce the 20 units that should end up trapped in Loyang and Chengchow. The note in white should read 500 AV of tanks vs 11 Chinese units. It's open terrain and two of those units just lost 250 squads so I'm seriously considering an attack with the armor without waiting on the rest. If that's 11 corps we could be looking at 9 at approx 200 AV each totaling 1800 AV. That's worst case but can Japanese tanks take on Chinese infantry at 3-1 odds? My tanks in Malaya were outnumbered roughly 1.5 to 1 as far as raw AV numbers were concerned and they smashed three battalions of British troops. I'll weigh my options and any input anyone else wants to add. I've never played with the Manchurian troops available right off the bat like this so I've never really concentrated my tanks like this. I should think they would do well. I think we'll attack tomorrow.

CV Kaga: Fredrik went hunting for her. He sent B17's in a port attack on Saigon (Kaga is safely sitting an Cam Ranh Bay) that hit a couple of TK's that start the war in the area. None sank but will need some repair time. I don't need them just yet but it'll hurt if they get in again. He also sent PBY's to attack Pescadores. Some xAK's were hit with 500 pounders. Kaga is looking at 15 more days according to the estimate. She's already down to 20 system, 28 flood (all minor damage repaired) and 10 engine (7 major).

And that brings us to 730ish in the morning with me having been up all night. It's about time I get some sleep.

Stay vigilant!

Joe

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 5/5/2012 11:07:24 PM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
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Hi,

I haven't updated in what feels like a week. It's been a busy couple days for me. I love being on call 24 hours, 7 days a week. :-P

So, where to begin?

How about China? Why not China? It is December orders phase for Dec 24th, by the way.

China: I am continually amazed by the number of troops there are here. I can't be the only one. We had an attack in the last turn that inflicted just under 13,000 casualties on the Chinese. It included 405 squads and 405 non-combat squads. Actually I'll just post the combat replay.

Japanese ground losses:
127 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 13 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 43 (2 destroyed, 41 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
12899 casualties reported
Squads: 405 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 405 destroyed, 164 disabled
Engineers: 55 destroyed, 1 disabled
Guns lost 41 (41 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 5
Units destroyed 2

What is that? 100-1 loss ratio. Keep it up!

We have 22 Chinese units trapped in Chengchow. 9-10 of them were just in the battle I just quoted so they're pretty much done.

Lets go to... Malaya.

Malaya: One more hex and the rail line will be clear all the way down to Singapore. We're marching that direction and should have it clear in a day or two. I made some mistakes here. I should have had the siege started at least a week ago. I played it more cautious than I should have. I should have been more aggressive than I was. I sent too much up to Singora to come down the rail line. If I'd dropped more at Mersing I would be clearing the rails at my leisure and Singapore would be under siege. Live and learn.

Speaking of this area, we landed at Singkawang. Took the base and flew in some fighters to cover the base. It was all good until we found Force Z. They came in, along with some Dutch and American forces, and bombarded the place. The following day all the air forces that he's been conserving in the area plastered the air base. It is officially closed.

Pacific: Not a lot has gone on here since his CV came through and wrecked me at Tarawa and Ocean Island. We've spotted a force showing six ships. The only type that shows up on the mouse over are xAP. They're on a course due West that heads right for Ocean Island. I have 4 PB's that were left over from the invasion force that was destroyed. They're covering Ocean and a force of 3 CL's and 8 DD's is the only force of note, except my Netties which haven't flown the entire war... sigh...

I'd like to pay him back for what he did at Hollandia and Aitape. My patrols missed it completely. He outplayed me here. I hate showing just combat replays in AAR's but here's what he did to me:

Japanese Ships
PB Toshi Maru #3, Shell hits 9, and is sunk
PB Tama Maru #8, Shell hits 8, and is sunk
AV Kamoi, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAKL Muko Maru, Shell hits 10, and is sunk
xAKL Kanaiyama Maru, Shell hits 5, and is sunk
xAKL Shoyu Maru, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
xAKL Honan Maru, Shell hits 6, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CA Indianapolis
CA Northampton
CA Louisville
CA Chicago
CA Minneapolis
CA Australia
CL Achilles
CL Trenton
CL Concord
DD Perkins
DD Smith
DD Preston
DD Flusser
DD Alden
DD La Triomphant

Japanese Ships
PB Takunan Maru #5, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
xAKL Indus Maru, Shell hits 7, and is sunk
xAK Kotobuki Maru #5, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAKL Shoan Maru, Shell hits 30, and is sunk
xAKL Konsan Maru, Shell hits 16, and is sunk
PB Sento Maru, Shell hits 10, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CA Indianapolis
CA Northampton
CA Louisville
CA Chicago
CA Minneapolis
CA Australia
CL Achilles
CL Trenton
CL Concord, Shell hits 1
DD Perkins
DD Smith
DD Preston, Shell hits 1
DD Flusser
DD Alden
DD La Triomphant

All I can say is, at least they were mostly unloaded. It will take forever but we'll march overland to the neighboring bases and take them that way. It is all part of my devious plot to force him into submission by running him out of ammunition! If he's out of bullets he can't shoot me!!! :-P

Plus KB is at Truk. Maybe we can intercept and sink the lot! That would be nice. I'll look on the bad side and assume we won't but you never know...

Additionally we've finally landed at Menado. I tried to send a TF that way almost a week ago. I have no idea why but they seem to have refused to get on the way. In fact, I think they still haven't left. Somebody else I decided to send was up to it. We'll take Menado tomorrow and a follow on force with some aviation support will land. Fritos are good. Even stale, eating them from the chow hall in Spain Fritos are good. I should quit drinking...

Covered by mini-KB and a CL/DD force is an invasion fleet headed for Tarakan. They're 1-2 days out.

Philippines:

He's doing fortress Clark. Manilla fell. Whatever. Most of his guys are in Clark. Hell, all of them probably are. We'll get him sooner or later.

I got nothing else.

Joe

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Post #: 17

RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 5/6/2012 5:13:58 PM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
Status: offline

Merry Christmas to me! I mentioned KB was at Truk and going to try for an intercept. Well, it worked out. The results went like this:

CA Louisville 6 Bombs No Torpedoes
CA Northampton 3 Bombs No Torpedoes
CA Minneapolis 2 Bombs 2 Torpedoes magazine explosion showing up as sunk
CA Chicago 5 Bombs No torpedoes
CA Indianapolis 9 Bombs 2 Torpedoes massive explosion showing up as CA Portland but presumed sunk
CA Australia 2 Bombs 4 Torpedoes showing up sunk
CL Achilles No Bombs 1 Torpedo
CL Concord No Bombs 1 Torpedo
CL Trenton 2 Bombs 2 Torpedoes showing up sunk
Additionally 2 DD's were hit with 1 bomb each. One had a magazine explosion and shows up sunk.
All bomb hits were 250 kg.

Nice!

Joe

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Post #: 18

RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 5/7/2012 11:08:20 PM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
Status: offline

Hi,

So, I haven't been updating because I've been busy with work. They've been running me all over. Waking me up in the middle of the day when I'm trying to sleep. Sending me all over the country to go fix jets at other locations.

Alright, so I exaggerate slightly. They did send me out to fix a plane though. And I was trying to sleep when they told me I was going.

Malaya theater: I've just sent off the orders for the 31st of December. Overall I'm disappointed with myself. I had intended/hoped to be much further along. We have yet to start the siege at Singapore. I tried to do Mersing and play it safe at the same time, especially after Kaga took a torpedo. One or the other. Not both.

Kaga is doing ok, by the way. Almost all minor damage repaired and will be going to Hong Kong to use the shipyard in about 3 days.

Singkawang still gets plastered every day by his bombers. It's shut down. There isn't much I'll do until we expand our bases in that area.

I don't feel that Akagi and the CVE's are enough to cover further invasions in the area so mini KB is coming up from covering the invasion at Tarakan. They'll be along in a few days and we'll start back-filling North Borneo area and prepping for Palembang which I wanted to have at least a week ago. That's why I took Singkawang so I would have a little air power in the area to help out.

PI: We're almost done on Mindanao. We're down to taking Cagayen and then mopping up some isolated bases and one unit that's floating around.

Luzon has the siege begun at clark. We've achieved air superiority and begun the bombing campaign. I want to close the airfield if possible. If not at least keep forts down and burn supply/cause disruptions. I made a mistake and ordered a deliberate attack. Bad move. Losses were about 6k on my side, mostly disrupted, to 500 on his. If he has the supply he could maybe push me out. I don't think he will though.

Celebes area: We've taken Manado and have Mavis based there. I have enough av support there but they don't seem to be repairing. I'll run in some more. We took Ternate in a para drop. I sent in transports to pull the para's out and he sent in a huge force of CA's and CL's. There goes 1/3rd of that air assault division. Sigh. Tarakan should fall in a few days at most.

We'll be shifting KB to this area to take the place of mini KB which is headed up to Cam Ranh Bay to join KB 2.

Pacific: We've moved a bit slowly here too. I've had issues with transports not leaving for no apparent (to me anyway) reason. They're moving now. Kavieng is first, then Rabaul, and then Shortlands. KB will, as previously mentioned, move up to the Celebes area for the push down the Makassar straight. If those cruisers show up again we want to trash them like the ones at New Guinea at Christmas.

China: We've taken Loyang and Chengchow. 17 units got out of the hex before we could finish them. I was one day too late! We're pursuing with almost 3000 AV. Another stack of 1000 AV is in position to assist if necessary. We'll be in attack position in 2-3 days. The infantry will attack and tanks will pursue. I want to wipe them all out. 6 have surrendered or been destroyed already in that area.

Nopac: I haven't done anything up here yet. I'm siphoning forces to the area to get some guys moving in this direction. We have had little indication of his forces so he could be hiding something up here. I'll try to take some bases on the cheap. If we meet major resistance we won't be able to. So we'll get everybody loaded and use our surface forces to cover them one after another. This time I do want to move quickly.

That should cover it for now...

Joe

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Post #: 19

RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 5/17/2012 11:11:42 PM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
Status: offline

Ok, I haven't updated in quite awhile. I've traveled back to the states and it's good to be home! All the other military or former military know that there's a lot of things that take up your time when you get home. While deployed I just worried about work, eating, and sleeping. I've been busy with all the stuff that I haven't been able to do since I got home.

I'll just give a quick update because of the aforementioned time constraints and not that many people were reading anyway.

It's now late Jan. My timetable is wrecked but i've learned a lot in this game and I'm sure next time I'll play better. One thing I've learned is when in doubt, bring the hammer. And, always doubt.

PI is slowly being worn down. We're in full siege mode here. We hit Clark every day with approx 100 Netties. His airpower has been broken here and we're just waiting for the end. Mindanao is finally broken. We're pursuing the broken troops to the ends of the island so we can finish them off. We're also picking off unoccupied islands with a few TF's that have small SNLF units on them.

Pacific hasn't seen much lately except around PNG. We're taking the bases along the north coast and slowly running support into Rabaul and Shortlands. This whole area is basically on hold until we capture the DEI.

Malaya has us in siege mode as well. We've finally gotten the upper hand in the air war. We loaded up extra zeros on our carriers and came in to sweep Singapore. Some of our bombers went in and got shredded a bit but they got a torpedo in BB PoW. That comes into play later. All it cost was some CV air and one bomb hit on Zuiho. She should make it. Fires are out and float is around 12. She's almost back to Cam Ranh Bay to fix all that she can then off to the yards. Kaga is still repairing btw. Will be for awhile yet.

I haven't been keeping track of subs but they've done a great job for me. Especially a turn or two ago. I-169, I think, put two fish into PoW and then another into a CL. We heard the sinking ship sound and two Walrus showed up on as destroyed on the ground so I think we got her. Great work by the sub arm. I'm proud of those guys.

Palembang still hasn't fallen. Or even been attacked. With all my functional CV's and 8 BB's in the area I'm ready to make my move. Recon shows 14 units there. Troop count is low for that many units. I have a division, brigade, and regiment prepped and loaded. I'm thinking we may go for Oosthaven and march overland. We shall see. I want to try to plaster the airfield at Palembang because he's using it as a big air base. Hopefully that means those 14 units are mostly base forces and such. Either way I want his air power wrecked. He likes to bomb Singkawang every day so KB is moving to LRCAP. Last turn they went in unescorted. Hopefully they do again and we can see what 100 or so zeros can do to those bombers.

Burma. You know how karate movies are in slow motion for about half the movie? Burma is like watching a karate movie in slow motion. It's really really sloooooowwwwwwwww...

I probably ought to get going. Until next time, I'm your host, and this is everyone's favorite show about drinking your way through AE!

Joe

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Post #: 20

RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 5/25/2012 8:42:39 PM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
Status: offline

Hi,

I've gotten settled in at home pretty well and have a pretty good schedule as far as running turns is concerned. I need to add update the AAR to that schedule so, carpe diem! We'll start now.

I've made it all the way to Feb 10th.

Philippines:

Mindanao is all cleared up except for a couple units at Zamboanga on the very tip of the western peninsula. We've done some housekeeping and cleared off most of the small unoccupied islands in the PI.

Slightly further South we have Manado as a patrol base. If you recall it was taken in an early para-drop. It's covering everything from the South tip of Java to Australia.

On Luzon we're still besieging Clark Field. I thought it was almost over. We were getting 1-2 odds almost 1-1 when we had a bad attack. I don't know if I had bad die rolls or wasn't paying attention to the disruption and fatigue as closely as I should've. Or maybe he pulled some supply from Batan? It doesn't matter how but I had a 1-6 attack. It wrecked my forces there. I even had two small units destroyed. I've bought both back for 2 PP's each. In about 30 days we'll be rebuilding them.

Borneo:

North side of the island is all mine now except for Kuching. It's on the back burner for a bit.

South side of the island is barely touched. I've been sitting in Tarakan for quite some time. He pulled his troops out of the base to the SW. I have a unit going overland to take it. It's very slow going.

He's pulled several units into Balikpapan. We're moving slow here but the hammer is on the way. Troops have been bought out in Japan and are on the way. The last should arrive at Babeldaob on the next turn. Them plus the now free units on Mindanao should help to speed things up a bit in this theater.

Malaya:

Singapore has fallen today. This frees up about 6 divisions and an odd assortment of other troops. I'm shifting three of the least beat up to the North to assist in the super slow motion Burma campaign. The rest will push into the DEI. Troops and aircraft are moving to Singers to get into position for the big Palembang fight that's coming. Ships are on the way to sweep up the minefield.

Sumatra:

We landed a few turns ago at Oosthaven. The base was empty so we took it right off the bat. 1 each, division, brigade, and regiment are marching towards Palembang. It was a pretty big undertaking. All my carriers, 8 BB's, and well over 100 transports were involved. We've left about 100 fighters, mostly Zeros with about 35 or 40 Oscars to provide a good CAP. I left a force of 2 BB's, 1 CA, 1 CL, and 6 DD's to cover the base from bombardments. I built my one and only MGB and it's in a TF there by itself too. Also I have 4 mini-subs in the hex. Why not? Fredrik has attacked here a few times. It's been a very good chance to attrition down his fighters somewhat. In the past few days he's lost 50-70 P40E's. Not bad. We also got some of his A24's. Got 20 of them in one attack, if recall correctly. His past couple attacks have lost a lot of escort but not many bombers. He's flying SBD's escorted by P40E's. He's not hit the surface TF I left but he has done some damage to my transports.

And to say the attack was a complete success would be inaccurate. We have taken our own losses. An attack of 11 Swordfish (the bane of my carriers existence) escorted by a whopping 9 Hurricanes got through a CAP of 129 Zeros and put two fish in CVL Shoho. Fortunately I happened to have a port very close by. In fact one hex over at Oosthaven. Shoho is disbanded there with 31 system, 74 flood, and 5 engine damage. She's ok at the moment but it says 40+ days to repair the minor damage. A port raid that gets through or even a bombardment TF could probably finish her off. Shoho is deep in Indian country.

Additionally one of those raids, the one that prompted me to remove my more important ships, was one of the A24 raids. They got through with extreme losses to escorts and put a 1000 pounder in Soryu. She's on the way back to Cam Ranh Bay. She's not really in any danger. Damage is 38 system, 3 flood, and 6 engine. Only 1 point of engine damage is major. It's probably from sailing around with little break since the war started. Hopefully she'll be back in the war soon.

I don't know if I mentioned it but Zuiho got hit too. The ships screen shows it was a 1000 pounder as well. I think it was an attack coming out of Palembang that got through while everybody was on the way to Oosthaven. I don't really remember. Anyway, she's at Cam Ranh Bay and all repaired except for 6 major flood damage. I'm probably going to get her back into the fight and repair that later. She's there with CVL Nisshin which arrived about a week ago.

Ship production:

I have Junyo arriving in 24 days. I'm tempted to accelerate and get her in 12... And, the mighty Yamato is set to arrive in 9 days. We'll be able to turn on the CB's that I shut down. I had shut down Mushashi but I'd rather get her done and have her naval points available so the CB's which show up later anyway, took the hit.

Speaking of acceleration, we've accelerated all the CV and CVL's that arrive in 44 or later. That leaves Junyo, Hiyo, and CVL Ryuho arriving in the next few months. There are three Shokaku Kai class that will arrive in 1943. Some of the CVE's have been accelerated as well. I'm a firm believer that you can never have enough flight decks. My reasoning can easily be explained by the way I keep getting them damaged.

Well, maybe I have another turn. If not I have plenty of things around the house I ought to be doing.

Later but hopefully not as long as the last time,

Joe

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Post #: 21

RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 5/26/2012 4:40:16 PM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
Status: offline

Hi,

Well, much has happened in the past couple turns.

China: I didn't cover China in the last update. We've continued to hit units in the open. The big army I had encircled fell some time ago. We attempted to encircle Nanyang but it doesn't take a genius to see what's coming and he pulled out before we got him encircled. We'll try somewhere else. Current plans are to clear the bases to the West and South of Changsha. Kukong is showing 16 units. We'll see if we can pull a fast one on him. Of course if he pulls out again we still get the base. I'd rather kill the units though.

Also, I've sent very little air forces to this region. I have some Lily's bombing an isolated unit. They're getting some good real world training and eventually they'll finish it off. Anyway, about a week or week and a half ago he started a heavy bombing campaign at Wuchang. Sweeps and escorts of H81's and those Chinese biplanes. A solid 60-70 SB-III's would come in to bomb. With nothing but a dozen Nates here and there I didn't really oppose him at all. I did get some Oscars together. About a hundred got moved into Hankow with more assembling. They were at 50% CAP and range 0 so they didn't stray into Wuchang. This past turn his H81's came to sweep Wuchang. They got murdered. I lost 4 Nates and no Oscars to his 25 H81's in air to air losses and a further 5 to ops losses. Nice work by the IJA!

DEI: Nothing really new to report here. No more air attacks at Oosthaven. Sallies are flying out of Singapore to keep the air base knocked down at Palembang. He's capping with whatever he can scrounge but the Zero escorts are knocking them down and keeping them from the bombers. Oh, one thing I saw a few days ago and forgot to mention. Some PT's attacked and were met by a BB TF of mine. I saw a PT boat sunk by a 36cm shell. What a shot!

KB: We're refilling units to make up for losses in the previous campaigns. Tomorrow we sail from Cam Ranh Bay around the East side of Borneo towards Balikpapan. He has some air there so we'll smash it and cover the invasion. I think he's weakened himself by diverting assets to the Palembang fight. Either way we're bringing the hammer. We'll para-drop on Samarinda which appears to be empty. As quickly as possible 53rd division, and Guards Mixed Brigade will land. Support units will arrive at the same time so we can fly in some air power. The infantry will be supported by 3 artillery units and a recon rgt. There will be a reserve of 1st Maizuru Assault Division and 51st Naval Guard. I don't want a long siege here. I want to push hard and fast. Hopefully the reserves won't be needed and we can push them on to follow on targets. The whole area is covered by search aircraft so I'm expecting little in the way of surface opposition.

There's another reason I suspect little surface opposition. I kept it for last because it's the most interesting thing to happen in the game yet. While KB was playing at Oosthaven he assembled his US carriers and massive surface forces and sneaked in with a big invasion force. Where, you ask? Rabaul. It's going to fall very soon. I only have one major unit there and that's 144th Rgt. Other forces are all engineers. They're facing 24th Infantry and 3rd Aussie Infantry. Along for the ride are two combat engineer regiments and I Australia Corps HQ. The nearest forces in the area are at Truk where I have 2 BB's, 5 CA's, and 3 CL's plus DD's. I'm not sending them into that mess. That would be VP's for the Allies. Everything that can sail is on the way to Babeldaob just in case he goes up that way before I can get there with support. Truk has about 50 Nells, 25 Zeros, and 25 Claudes. We've set the Zeros to drop tanks and the Nells to naval attack at the same range as the Zeros which is 14 by the way. It won't be enough to stop his CV's but we might get lucky and put a torpedo or two in one or two. Obviously I'll be watching this situation closely. Unless he invades Truk, and maybe not even then, we'll press on with the Balikpapan attack. KB will likely be on her way to that theater soon. We could see it all here! Carrier battles, big surface ships tearing each other up, massive invasions and counter invasions! I love it!

Joe

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Post #: 22

RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 5/26/2012 5:02:40 PM

John 3rd

Posts: 17178
Joined: 9/8/2005
From: La Salle, Colorado
Status: offline

Looks like things are going fairly well. Good work plastering those Allied cruisers with KB.

Glad you are building the CBs. I like them a lot. Nice to get a pair of fast, powerful escorts for all those new flattops!

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Post #: 23

RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 5/27/2012 9:14:55 PM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
Status: offline

Thanks John. Sending some Allied cruisers to the bottom was a pretty important win. Maybe caused him to hold off on his Rabaul adventure for awhile. I've seen flaws in my play, as I'm sure you have, but it has made me a better player. Next time my opening will be much improved.

And, by the way, thanks for the awesome mod! I'm really liking it.

Well, it's now Feb 17th.

Let's start at Sumatra since it's probably the most important fight of the war. We have 2nd division, 21st Ind Mixed Bde, and 4th Ind Mixed Rgt assembled and ready to cross the river into Palembang. I have mixed feelings. I think it might be better to go around so I don't have to shock attack across the river but I don't want to leave my lines open. One way or another three or four days will see what ground forces I need or don't need from Singapore. Either way I suspect I'll send two regiments and three more divisions. The other three I've started on the way up to Burma to hopefully speed things up there.

Oosthaven has been pretty bloody in the skies and on the seas. An Allied surface force came in and surprised my heavy ships. This is the result:

Japanese Ships
BB Ise, Shell hits 2
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 8
CA Nachi, Shell hits 7
CL Kinu, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Maikaze, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Arashio
DD Yamagumo
DD Shiratsuyu
DD Murasame
DD Ariake
DD Shinonome

Allied Ships
CA Houston, Shell hits 2
CA Canberra, Shell hits 1
CA Cornwall, Shell hits 3
CA Exeter, Shell hits 1
CL De Ruyter
CL Perth
CL Danae, Shell hits 3
CL Mauritius, Shell hits 1
CL Glasgow, Shell hits 2, on fire
CL Boise, Shell hits 1
DD Paul Jones
DD Parrott
DD Peary
DD Pope, Shell hits 1
DD Stewart, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk

Follow on air attacks have gotten through and put some bombs into more ships, including a port attack that hit the Shoho. She's still alive but I don't have high hopes for her. At least we sunk the Stewart!

I've upped my CAP percentage and shortened the range. Results in the air have been pretty good but the bombers are still getting through. Maybe the escort losses and higher CAP will be enough to get through and start trashing his bombers. I'm leaving all my DD's that can still fight and retreating my big ships out to the West to make a long trip around Sumatra to Singapore. Here's hoping they don't run into any opposition or I'll be out a couple BB's and CA/L's.

Meanwhile to the East the KB is one day out from strike position near Balikpapan. She'll take up a position six hexes away and trash the airfield which is showing fewer and fewer aircraft. I'm sure they're all over at Java hitting Oosthaven. Paras will take Samarinda and I'll continue to fly in as much as I can. Meanwhile the invasion force (details of composition are in my previous post) is steadily steaming closer. 3-4 days and they should be unloading in a Japanese occupied Samarinda. It'll be a short march across the way to Balikpapan. We're bringing along over 125,000 supply so we should be able to get right in to repairing any damage.

Recon shows very little on Celebes. Kendari appears to be the only base with any troops. If the floating reserve isn't needed we'll hit Madjene with the Naval Guard unit and Kendari with the Assault Division.

Rabaul: We have hit a few ships at Kavieng with our Nells based at Truk. Other than that no good news. Rabaul is toast and so is Kavieng. He landed another division there a day or two ago but bombardments and air attacks destroyed the unit there before he even attacked. Meanwhile he's landing at Shortlands. Should it come to a CV clash I've identified units from Yorktown, Lexington, Enterprise, and Saratoga. Hornet does not appear to have arrived yet and I saw no British aircraft or air units. By my calculations he should be able to field about 90 fighters, 150 dive bombers, and 50 torpedo bombers. Some of the fighters are still F2A Buffalo and the torpedo planes are TBD's. I don't have all the original starting units on my ships. If he's keeping track of air units he'll expect more than what I actually have available. Kaga will be laid up for a couple more months but her air groups are flying with the KB. Some of them anyway. I'll field 220 Zeros, 95 Vals, and 120 Kates. Strike aircraft are roughly equal but I have a huge advantage in fighter quality and quantity which has a quality all it's own.

China: It's interesting here. Both sides are moving a lot of forces a lot of different places. It really needs a map. I'll work one up and post it later today or tomorrow.

I don't think there is much else to add at this point. Thanks for reading!

Joe

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Post #: 24

RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 5/30/2012 1:57:16 AM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
Status: offline

Hi,

Wow! Some crazy awesome turns the past couple days! We've advanced to Feb 20, 1942, which, incidentally, is 38 years to the day before my birthday! Yay me! (Me and Sailor Jerry are celebrating. Who likes rum? :-D) I've taken my hits and so has Fredrik. I've probably taken worse than him but I'm still very happy. Bloodbaths like this are awesome fun!

I'll update all the areas and maybe post a couple pictures. We'll start with NoPac.

NoPac: Not a thing is going on up here. Not on my side anyway. Fredrik may have some evil plot brewing up here. If I posted about it you might recall we went in and took Attu, Amchitka, and Adak a week or two ago. There was no opposition. Still dead quiet up this way. It's nice. I don't seem to have to worry up here... yet...

Rabaul: He landed two divisions and change at Rabaul, one division on Kavieng, and I had thought he had gone to Shortlands too but he didn't. Thank God.

Before all is said and done there will be a great deal of blood here.

Borneo: We're two days out from landing at Samarinda. As you know we planned to (and did) para-drop there about two days ago. On the 21st we'll land our Balikpapan invasion forces at Samarinda. I hope they'll all unload in one or two days. Within a week or ten days we should be attacking across the river. By the way, we captured Samarinda with it's 100 oil completely undamaged. :-) Good news because God only knows what's going to happen at...

Palembang: This is where it's been crazy! I'm fairly certain I mentioned I had sent my big ships (damaged all of them) around Sumatra to Singapore. They're still on the way. I still worry a bit about them. They're certainly not out of the woods yet! I ended up leaving some DD's to cover Oosthaven. They didn't have the strength to defend Oosthaven and I should have pulled them and my airplanes out but I hoped we could stop the Allies. I was wrong. In the past three days or so we've lost about a dozen DD's (actually my first true warship losses) and, between the bombing missions and ship bombardments we lost the Shoho. :-( I should've risked sending her to Singapore. Water under the bridge. First CV loss is mine. Time to get some payback. Sooooo...

The past turn two 7 DD forces arrived in the Oosthaven area. The first one got smacked hard. The second got in close. It started at 1000 yards at night. My 7 DD's faced off against 4 CA's, 5 CL's, and 4 DD's. Over the past few days we've knocked down his destoyer escort a bit. That's the best we could do until today. For three more DD's we sunk CA Exeter, CL Caledon, and 2 DD's. We also got some hits on CL Boise. His bombardment TF still got through and smacked Oosthaven again but I liked seeing a good tough fight. Bloody, vicious and awesome! My kind of day. But we can't have too many more like it or we'll be out of ships.

His first bombardment destroyed pretty much all my airpower at Oosthaven. Over 100 aircraft were destroyed. Bummer. I hope to give turnabout in the Rabaul area. :-)

China: I promised a picture and we'll get one. Ichang only has two units so we're marching North to take the city. It should fall soon. Changsha has 36 units and Hengyang has 5. The other bases in the area have 1 each. Pingsiang, where we have a big stack (about 3400 AV), has 29 enemy units. 4 HQ's, 7 Artillery units, 2 Corps that have been divided (/A /B, etc.), and 16 Corps. 7 of the 16 have been shattered already and have AV below 20. His total AV is around 2400. 100 Oscars are providing CAP and escort out of Wuchang for 100 Lilies and Sallies. They're bombing this stack every day. It would be nice to reduce these guys but it'll take awhile and he has big reinforcements at Changsha. We're looking at a tough fight. The Ichang force has about 1200 AV so we'll likely press on and see if we can push past the North of Changsha and cut supplies to the area. Good stuff going on here. We could have a hammer and anvil situation setting up with the forces to the North and South.

More to come later.

Joe

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 5/30/2012 11:43:38 AM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
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I think that the optimal size for SCTFs is 8 ships. At least, I've always used groups of this size, and they generally kicked ass. Naval combat routine favors DDs firing on DDs and capital ships on capital ships if both are present, so I prefer either 8 DDs or 3-4 capital ships and 5-4 DDs per TF. Only 4DDs is, perhaps, preferable in combat, but can lead to capital ships detaching as escorts if anything is heavily damaged. Don't forget to handpick captains for everything from DD up, the default ones sometimes aren't very good. After PH and hit on the Pacific cruiser force, you should have surface superiority, so don't be afraid of the attritional fight at the moment, DEI is more important than a few ships.

As about the Allied counterattack at Solomons, simply land major forces with good air support in some of the surrounding bases and blockade their vanguard at Rabaul, once KB is released to the Pacific. You should be able to establish air superiority at the moment unless you're doing something very wrong, starve the Allied force and then overrun it. This attack is almost certainly meant to throw you out of the loop with an unconventional move - just continue to be cool, Allies don't actually have force to back up such audacity yet, unless the Japanese player does too many tactical mishap.

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 5/30/2012 3:19:00 PM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
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Thanks for the reply FatR. It's nice to get feedback and comments. And thank you as well for your work on the mod.

I'm not worried about the Allied counterattack at all. It's him trying to get into my head. We'll deal with the resource areas of the DEI and then we'll bring the sledgehammer. He's hit me with some bombardment TF's that have hurt my ground and air forces pretty badly. I'm looking forward to using the same on him in this area. :-)

Just a quick update. We're loading up 3 divisions, 1 regt, and 3 or 4 arty units at Singapore to send into the fight at Palembang. We'll be bringing another 1000 AV or so to the fight. Should speed things up there. Over on Borneo we should have the Balikpapan force all unloaded by the next turn. I think I've brought enough so I went ahead and sent the floating reserve towards Celebes. The naval guard unit has landed and will take an unoccupied base there this turn. The assault division will land tomorrow. They'll march all over the island trails and take the whole thing. It's good to finally have some movement in this area. Additionally we have units from the Mindanao campaign beginning to clear off the defended islands in the Philippines.

Joe

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 6/12/2012 8:03:57 PM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
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Hi,

No update in over ten days. Shame on me. I've been on vacation so we haven't gotten many turns in. I've been back to work two nights now.

Anyhow I'll give a fast update here.

Sumatra: We have our reinforcements landed and they're strat moving to Praboemoelih. The last units should arrive tomorrow and then it'll be three days for everybody to unpack out of strat mode. A few days later we'll all be in Palembang. That'll be a total of 1800 AV brought to the fight. My recollection is hazy but I believe it was around 750-800 AV that he has there. It may take a siege but we'll take it.

PI: Leyte and Panay are the last two minor islands to need captured. We attacked at Clark and he still inflicts more damage on us than we do on him. I bought out two Infantry Groups (approx 250 AV each) and am shipping them to the siege. They should get things moving along.

Borneo: We're pushing hard at Balikpapan. We outnumber him by about 6-1 in raw AV. Disruptions have hindered us here. We're going to rest a couple or three days and attack again. I expect it to fall within the week.

China: We have an interesting situation developing here. I'm posting a screenshot. What it shows is an attack force of almost 4000 AV pushing North of Changsha, 4000+ AV at Wuchang, a 3900 AV force pinning 33 units South of Changsha, and a 600 AV Armor force looking to close the back door out of Changsha. The red arrows are the current axes of advance. The blue arrow is a possible advance we can make to pin his units in Changsha. I'm debating about when to do this advance. Wait and he can pull units out which makes it easier at Changsha and tougher elsewhere. Do it now and it's easier elsewhere and tougher at Changsha but I also lose any sort of reserve I have in the area. He's shifted some units out of Changsha to the North to try to stop that thrust. We'll see who brought enough. My tanks should be able to go through the bases to the West of Changsha. My goal is to cut off all these units (over 50) and destroy them. A win here and we'll open up the entire road/rail line all the way to Singapore. And destroy 50+ Chinese units. Here's hoping we can pull this off! Edit: I forgot to mention. The numbers in the picture are the number of Chinese units in the hex.

Joe

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 6/19/2012 2:50:14 AM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
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Hi,

I have a couple questions for the peanut gallery. An issue has arisen in my game involving the wonderful overland supply mechanics that the game uses. I'll put in a picture. The units labeled tanks are about 650 AV of my tank units. Frederik, probably rightly so, thinks it would be quite difficult to keep those units supplied in the location they're at over the terrain it has to flow across. It would have to go through the rough and jungle terrain to get to the armor. Here's some of his views:

In 81/54 China I see you have the equallant of 2 Armor Divitions behind enamy lines, in a jungle hex without a rail or road based supply chain. The Fuel is probablly going to be very very hard to move through the 46 miles of rougth terrian and then into and through the
46 miles of rougth jungle terrein wihout the help of a road or rail link.

Was not sure what the intent was but I assume you are protecting your flank. The game does not simulate the supplies shortages for tanks ect when it has to be moved throuh extreme terrein so I think it has to be done by the human manually.

Fair enough. I didn't really consider it before doing it and it's probably not realistic. But we didn't have a house rule on supply flow logistics and it's not reality, it's a game. In the game the supply gets there so I didn't consider it being an issue. I haven't played a PBEM in over 6 years and the AI never complained.

And we have:

I see my troops near Icheng, in theori the army at Changtech (The 160 000) would probablly considerd surrendering or at least routing at this point as the Road feeding them has been cut off. The unit who cut it off are itself nearlly cut off, unless it can secure Icheng within a week or two max so that a line of supplies can be brought to it. Those units are only light infantry and consume very little compared to ie. Armor.
If they succseed however I think that the Changtech army should consider surrender if unable to brake out of the pocket.

I'll just say that's not going to happen. For one it assumes minimal supplies in Ichang and flowing there to Changteh. He doesn't know that's the case because I don't even know if it's the case. I haven't looked.

My question for you guys is what kind of response is appropriate? I really do want to be fair and not game the engine. And I certainly did not post every point he has raised. For the most part I agree with him. But, we don't have a rule on this type of issue and it only now comes up when I'm in a position to possibly do some real damage behind his lines. With tanks. They're supposed to do that sort of thing.

As I see it I have a few options. First and least likely; go back the way I came wasting all that transit time. Not a chance. They're here and they're going to do something before they leave. Second; press the attack on the base with 6 units and keep pushing. Third; turn south and go towards Kukong. What do you guys think? I'm going to hold on to the current turn until we have the issue resolved.

Thanks very much for any and all input.

Joe

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RE: Enthusiastically Sailing With Jerry (Reluctant Admi... - 6/20/2012 11:33:35 PM

Prydwen

Posts: 156
Joined: 2/23/2009
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Hi,

I made my decision. I said I would try to pay closer attention to the realities that the supply movement model doesn't cover as well as it could. Other than that it's game on. And we have an interesting situation down south of Mindanao.

It looks like two US CV's raiding. You can see my force dispositions on the picture. I'm thinking load Junyo up with fighters and hang back out of range behind a surface force (DD's or Yamato and DD's or transports) and provide LRCAP. Between LRCAP from Junyo and my LBA we should be able to do a pretty good CAP trap and knock down his striking power. Beat it down enough and Junyo may be able to pick off a CV or two. Or the surface forces in the area could intercept. We'll see what the next turn brings.

Joe

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