Cribtop
Posts: 3890
Joined: 8/10/2008
From: Lone Star Nation
Status: offline
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February 17th – March 14th, 1942
I posted the paragraph below in my other AAR as well to explain the radio silence.
Hello? Is this thing still on? Many apologies to you all for my long absence from the boards. I had a lot of family stuff around the holidays sandwiched between two big work deadlines, one before Christmas, one after. However, the main detriment to posting has simply been the challenge of keeping up with two simultaneous games. I’ve never done that before, and it’s taking some getting used to, but it’s very important for my continued participation in this wonderful game. Why? By nature I’m a perfectionist type player, quite capable of spending 3 hours on a single turn even when I don’t have a big Op going. I’ve read of other players flipping seven turns in a day with amazement. I took two games on purpose, knowing that if I can’t force myself to move through a turn faster, I simply won’t have the time to play anymore. It’s been very difficult to keep up, but in both games I’ve gone in deep enough that I know mostly where things are and I’m starting to feel more confident making thing go a bit faster.
I definitely want to catch up but time constraints will force me to change the format to more of a weekly or even semi-weekly review of each AO. So with that, let’s look at the mostly good, little bad and one BIG ugly that has occurred in the last month of game time.
5th Fleet
Over the course of several Ops, we have secured everything up to Adak Island and occupied a few islands further by rowboat. An IJN air wing and over 20K supplies are at Amchitka, the main base now occupied by the Karafuto Brigade, engineers and an Air HQ. Michael’s resistance has been nominal although he is building Umnak and Dutch Harbor according to our recon flights. He did recently bombard Adak with a force of CLs and DDs. Our intention here as elsewhere is to tempt him into counterattacking too early, which is why we didn’t land at Dutch or Umnak.
4th Fleet
Little action but we are building up everything, with especial focus at Ponape and Tabitauea or however you spell that. I usually just refer to the base as “TB.” We have begun production of Emilys and have worked to set up a chain of nav search running from Paramushiro Jima all the way around to Port Moresby.
SE Fleet
Port Moresby, Lae and Milne Bay all fell without much incident and the IJNAF is currently pounding Horn Island with the intention of invading very soon. We bought out a second division to serve as a reserve in this AO and to form the basis for a possible Op in the New Hebrides in the coming months.
14th Army
After reducing Manila to a state of siege, 48th Division split up and moved south into the Visayas and Mindanao. Mindanao is secure save for Cagayan, which we will soon take. All the bases on Iloilo have also fallen. Cebu’s airfield has received attention from the IJAAF after Michael cleverly snuck in a few Vindicators and sank a couple of transports as an element of 48th Division was leaving Iloilo.
16th Army
On the whole, we did well here despite the constant threat from Michael’s Allied Death Star of carriers and surface groups lurking near Java. We have captured Kendari, Makassar, East Timor and Denpasar using paratroops and FT TF invasions and are now working to clean up the isolated enemy oil centers at Balikpapan and Tarakan.
However, in February I pulled what has to be the most spectacularly bone headed move in my WiTP/AE history. Basically I had loaded 90th Regiment and a base force on an amphibious TF and was feinting at Koepang in order to draw the Allied Death Star away from Batavia (more on that below). It appeared that Michael had totally vacated the area and I thus somehow convinced myself to go ahead with the feint and grab Koepang on the cheap. In fact, the enemy was lurking just outside of Mavis/Emily range in the Indian Ocean and raced back in with perfect timing. The ENTIRE task force was sunk in a deluge of enemy air attacks despite the heroic resistance of about 18 Zeroes on a wholly inadequate LRCAP mission.
The stupidity of this move still leaves me amazed at myself. First, why not feint with empty ships? Second, why turn the feint into a real effort on sketchy evidence the enemy had left? Third, why so lazy and nonchalant about the known threat of the enemy CV Death Star which has haunted the waters around Java almost from game start? This is why I can’t buy nice things. Ugh. Bottom line is I am getting just what I want strategically and not accounting for it at the operational and tactical levels. I want to encourage the enemy to counterattack too soon and in the process damage his fleet before it becomes a Death Star nothing can cope with. Michael is doing this but I’ve just stubbornly failed to account for his aggressive use of carriers in my early invasions. Time to be smarter.
25th Army
Here we faced a dilemma – a very intelligent enemy defense revolving around the Allied Death Star jumping into position under LBA at Batavia and, on occasion, Tjilatjap or Soerabaja. It was crucial to separate the carrier air from the LBA in order to allow us to reduce the LBA in isolation. Efforts to sweep Batavia from Sinkawang were ineffective, but the carrier and land based strike planes made an easy attack on Palembang infeasible without heavy losses. I basically was loathe to commit KB into a fight against both LBA and the enemy Death Star. Thus, as detailed in previous posts, we landed paras at Djambi and flew in 21st Mixed Brigade, originally intended to serve as a Burma reserve and Rangoon garrison. This force was just sufficient to push the enemy defenders out of Palembang, which then opened the port to allow for rapid deployment of base forces and an Air HQ from Singapore. This in turn allowed for LBA to mass at Palembang in anticipation of the assault on Java.
In order to separate the enemy Death Star from Batavia’s LBA, we had KB escort a successful invasion of Port Blair as a feint of sorts to mask our real intentions. After the invasion, however, we swung out into the Indian Ocean and sailed down the far side of Sumatra, briefly eluding enemy nav search aircraft. We hoped to catch the Allied Death Star near Cocos or Christmas Island (IO) but for whatever reason Michael chose to withdraw. This allowed KB to move against Java and interpose itself between the enemy CVs and Batavia, simultaneously covering invasion and allowing for attacks on the airfield. To make certain of the enemy’s absence, a massive screen of DDs and subs in 3 rows was set out between southern Java and the approaches from NW Oz and the open ocean.
Finally, we were ready and a massive sweep of almost 200 Zeros and a few Tojos shot down at least 35 enemy fighters, decimating the LBA defenses of Batavia. This development allowed a combined FT TF and paratroop force to seize Kalidjati in advance of a 3 division invasion fleet that is now almost finished unloading. Intention is to reduce Java to siege (it appears Michael will hole up in Batavia) and release forces to invade NW Oz and to reinforce Burma.
Elsewhere in Sumatra, resistance has been minimal and we're about to take Sabang after seizing Medan. Southern Sumatra has also fallen and it looks like only Padang is still defended.
15th Army
Burma fell without incident, including Akyab and Ramree Island. We are just about to clean up Myitkyina and Lashio. The Allies have retreated into India.
China
A long and bloody fight for Ankang finally culminated on March 7th. On March 5th, an IJA assault reduced forts to 0 and Michael concluded the jig was up. He evacuated a few units over the next day or so and when we noticed his departures ordered an immediate DA that trashed the two remaining corps in the hex and took the base. Michael has piled a large number of troops around Ankang and now the other half of our pincer on Sian has emerged from the mountains to launch attacks on the critical hex at 86, 41. Hopefully this move has caught him out of position as we were not observed during the approach march. After an initial 1:2 attack, on March 14th we obtained a 2:1 and forced 3 of 7 defending units to retreat with heavy casualties (2 of the 7 are HQs, so really there are only a few combatants left). One more attack should see us on the plains and the race to Sian by both sides will be on. Meanwhile, we managed to sneak another division overland from the road to Ankang and are about to seize the critical hex just SE of Sian, which is surprisingly empty. If we can make this stick we will take Sian and cut off many KMT units defending the road net leading to Sian from the Loyang area. Very interesting stuff here – it will be a near run thing. I’ll post a screenshot soon to clarify the picture.
The Future
We will continue with the plan. Big R&D to bring the excellent planes in this mod online, no over-reach into Oz or India or SOPAC. Hope Michael underestimates me and counterattacks too soon to the detriment of his navy, and prepare for the long war. If he refuses battle, we will make a huge move on Noumea and the New Hebrides in hopes of bringing him out. I need to stop underestimating what the Allies are capable of in this mod as far as early air threat is concerned, but other than that we are on track.
< Message edited by Cribtop -- 1/20/2015 10:34:34 PM >
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