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RE: April 5th, 1943 - 6/22/2019 2:05:27 AM   
BBfanboy


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Anachro

I feel like I can create a hardened target while getting select ships to safety. My CVs, for instance. I'd need to keep a decent amount of surface ships around to stave off bombardment.

I think I would be more concerned about his subs staking out the area around Trivandrum than any other threat to your carriers. True, a fast carrier at flank speed is going to be a difficult target, but there are so many subs ... and their torps work all too well.

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RE: April 5th, 1943 - 6/22/2019 2:33:44 PM   
Anachro


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From: The Coastal Elite
Status: offline 		I overload Trivandrum with 450 fighters. All ships head back to protect port. Shipping from Colombo flees to Trivandrum as well.

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Post #: 1232
April 6th, 1943 - 6/22/2019 3:56:40 PM   
Anachro


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From: The Coastal Elite
Status: offline 		April 6th, 1943

I guess it's a good thing I listen to reasonable voices like CR instead of following my gut. KB2 moves north. More importantly, I set my fighters to 50% CAP last turn for some rest. Meanwhile, my bombers and sweeps begin once again degrading and destroying Japanese fighters on Ceylon. John clearly is trying to gather aircraft for sweeps against Trivandrum. All my transports, except for some small riffraff, are safe for the moment in port at Trivandrum as well.



< Message edited by Anachro -- 6/22/2019 3:58:37 PM >

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Post #: 1233
RE: April 6th, 1943 - 6/22/2019 4:15:43 PM   
Canoerebel


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From: Northwestern Georgia, USA
Status: offline 		He's already feeling the pressure of "now what?" He's just lost a DD to an air attack on a TF that wasn't properly defended, KB is sailing around having accomplished nothing or next to it, and he'll figure you have lots of subs vectoring in. So what does HE do now? Does he feel like he should continue to gather strength to go against a hard target or does he decide it's time to withdraw. Having lost Colombo already should add to his concerns.

Does he have enough of an army marooned on Ceylon to make this an all-out Dunkirk-in-the-IO operation? Can he provide cover to transports to come in and withdraw his Ceylon units? If so, that's going to be his focal point and KB is mainly going to assume a defensive role. He'll strike if he has a good opening but he's not going up against a level eight airfield.

P.S. I wouldn't worry about overstacking to the N-th degree. Overstacking has modest affects that are far outweighed by the ability of your fighter corps to put up huge numbers, plus John's going to be further dissuaded if his mouseovers report 700 fighters there. I'd have just about ever fighter and fighter bomber posted there, including your fleet carrier fighters moved to LBA rather than sitting aboard ship in port.

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Post #: 1234
RE: April 6th, 1943 - 6/22/2019 4:24:58 PM   
Anachro


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From: The Coastal Elite
Status: offline 		Wow, that's a lot of PT boats! This kind of feels like the swarm of fast, small boats that the Iranians could potentially use against the USN in the Hormuz Strait. His carriers are awfully close to Colombo...



< Message edited by Anachro -- 6/22/2019 5:07:09 PM >

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Post #: 1235
RE: April 6th, 1943 - 6/22/2019 4:26:01 PM   
Anachro


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From: The Coastal Elite
Status: offline 		Yes, my fighters are already off the decks at Trivandrum and acting as LBA!

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Post #: 1236
RE: April 6th, 1943 - 6/22/2019 5:03:30 PM   
Lowpe


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Status: offline 		Japan is in a very vulnerable position...my advice would be to take the fight to the southern Ceylon ships with waves and waves ships and of course continue sweeping and bombing, and base your SAGs' at Colombo.

Where can he rearm at safely? Nowhere! Where can he replenish lost planes? Nowhere. Those carriers are toothless.

John is nuts, once surprise was lost he should have fled.



< Message edited by Lowpe -- 6/22/2019 5:05:02 PM >

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Post #: 1237
RE: April 6th, 1943 - 6/22/2019 11:01:21 PM   
Timotheus

 

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It is a joy to read.

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Post #: 1238
April 7th, 1943 - 6/23/2019 12:46:54 PM   
Anachro


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Status: offline 		@Timotheus Thank you!

April 7th, 1943

Not much to report today. Again no strikes, John's CVL fighter force doesn't even move west, it stays exactly where it was last turn. I think he is providing cover here first for what my sigint states perhaps, which is that...John seems to be reinforcing Ceylon with another division? I'm not sure what he's thinking here. I have 2-3 more divisions on the mainland which can come to the island quickly, plus more that can be called on because I have a port to land at now. Moreover, I have 1100 AV already on the island with more arriving by plane while I wait for John to go away. Once he does, I will bring in a LOT more. John already has 2+ divisions at Trincomalee and one at Koggala, plus 5-7k men in the other bases; troops at Trincomalee are moving northwest. He is sending more? Is he going on the offensive? Interesting.

My subs move ever closer. My PT boats will try again to hit John's force today before retiring to Colombo. 500 fighters at Trivandrum with more next turn.



< Message edited by Anachro -- 6/23/2019 12:48:43 PM >

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Post #: 1239
RE: April 7th, 1943 - 6/23/2019 12:57:03 PM   
Canoerebel


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Status: offline 		That's probably misinformation, intentional or accidental. He would have to bring an army if he really wanted to contest Ceylon. It seems too late and too uncertain for such heroics.

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Post #: 1240
RE: April 7th, 1943 - 6/23/2019 1:24:21 PM   
Anachro


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Status: offline 		Given that his CVL force is hanging around down there, it could very well be that he is planning an evacuation.

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Post #: 1241
RE: April 7th, 1943 - 6/23/2019 2:29:58 PM   
Anachro


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From: The Coastal Elite
Status: offline 		Also, responding to Lowpe's suggestion of putting SAGs down at Colombo. Don't see how I can until the airfields there are repaired and CAP can be provided.

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Post #: 1242
RE: April 7th, 1943 - 6/23/2019 3:19:59 PM   
Lowpe


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Anachro

Also, responding to Lowpe's suggestion of putting SAGs down at Colombo. Don't see how I can until the airfields there are repaired and CAP can be provided.



Put one squadron of 3-4 destroyers down there...set them on low threat/direct, home port Colombo and fly one squadron of LRCAP over Colombo. If Japan has no recon on Colombo the first day send them there flank speed and disband them to port so they are hidden for a day....if this is the case I would send more ships and really surprise him.

There is almost no way Japan will risk tangling with the CAP at Triv with carrier planes, and the southern fleet has no bombers.

Use those 4 destroyers to deplete the ammo in the in southern task forces staging hit and run attacks against them, they should easily make it back to Colombo for air cap each day.

BTW, four destroyers will not draw a large heavy attack no matter what.

PS: Make sure you have night naval search from Colombo and perhaps from Triv blanketing the area you want to send the PT Boats and Destroyers. Make sure all PT boats have lower task force numbers than the Destroyer squadron, too. Perhaps even a night naval attack by flying boats or float planes very low from Colombo too! Hit him on all fronts! You might not get any hits, but you are looking to max your DL any way you can...so that destroyer squadron can make a torpedo launch on those CVs.

< Message edited by Lowpe -- 6/23/2019 3:49:37 PM >

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Post #: 1243
RE: April 7th, 1943 - 6/24/2019 1:42:13 AM   
CaptBeefheart


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Status: offline 		I might suggest reorganizing your surface forces into Fast BB+DD, Slow BB+DD, CA+DD, CL+DD etc. task forces. I think I first learned from CRSutton that the TF moves at the speed of the slowest ship, so slow BBs will keep CLs and CAs from getting quickly into or away from the action. Also, it helps if the guns have about the same range.

I like Lowpe's idea a lot. Also, how many engineers do you have at Colombo and how are their repairs doing?

Cheers,
CB

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Post #: 1244
RE: April 7th, 1943 - 6/24/2019 1:20:12 PM   
jwolf

 

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Status: offline 		I think Canoerebel had it right when he said that John is trying to flush you out. Kind of like the TRex in Jurassic Park. By keeping your cool, you are foiling his plan ... and he seems to be flailing trying to find an alternative. Air attrition of your LBA against his (mostly) carrier air should go way into your favor pretty quickly, if it came to that.

I could understand the Japanese trying to rescue troops out of Ceylon ... but to put more onto the island?? Just can't figure that out.

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Post #: 1245
April 8th, 1943 - 6/24/2019 3:21:52 PM   
Anachro


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From: The Coastal Elite
Status: offline 		April 8th, 1943

Wow, that's a lot of Japanese task forces! John is certainly spending a lot of fuel moving all those thingies around; it kind of reminds me of the fuel expended by the IJN in real life on its Midway operation, though obviously to a lesser degree. He is retiring to Diego, but might simply be refueling, restaging for an extended effort. If sigint is true, he is reinforcing Ceylon, and ships that look like a convoy appear to be approaching Koggala. On top of this, his troops at Dambulla are moving east...to Colombo? It could be he is trying to pull what he did against CR at Sabang...but Sabang was a lot closer to his supply lines than Ceylon would be. This could all be an elaborate attempt for preparing an evacuation.

I won't be submitting the turn for awhile as I go through the suggestions here. Perhaps I can now flank speed my offloaded carriers north. Once I can, I have divisions waiting at Trivandrum and elsewhere to quickly be send to reinforce the 1100 AV at Colombo. I'm having my LRP brigades also reinforce Colombo by air. What do you think John's plans are? He admits in his emails that he spends a lot of time on his orders here in India with all that's going on.

quote:

Not a lot happened but it took FOREVER for me to do orders!



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Post #: 1246
RE: April 8th, 1943 - 6/24/2019 3:34:10 PM   
Canoerebel


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Status: offline 		Why are you (still) thinking about flanking your carriers away? Why? They're safer where they're at and you may need them/want them before all is said and done. (This is based upon my understanding that you have enough combat TFs and LBA to at least stand toe-to-toe with John.)

If he does take the offensive on Ceylon, he may find himself in the reverse of the situation in his game against me - He may find you doing to him on Ceylon what he did to me at Sabang. You have so much in proximity while he has distance to content with.

No doubt you're doing this, but every sub available needs to be reporting for duty here. And if you think he's preparing for an all-out campaign for Ceylon, at least give thought to transferring assets from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean via the south route around Oz (assuming your sea lanes are relatively safe).

What this reminds of more than my Sabang moments against John is my Shikuka moments against Erik/Obvert. In that case, I holed up at Shikuka and Erik threw everything in the world at me. It was very tough fighting for about three months, both sides lost a heckuva lot, but the Allies held the field of battle when the campaign ended. A lot of Japanese ships went down. I think you can do that here if I'm reading things right. But I doubt John would throw his assets at a Shikuka-like fortress. He's a bully. He likes to overwhelm and pick on 98-pound weaklings. He isn't fond of taking on Jack Dempsey.


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Post #: 1247
RE: April 8th, 1943 - 6/24/2019 3:38:51 PM   
Anachro


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From: The Coastal Elite
Status: offline 		My sea lanes are safe. The main carrier force is already on its way to Australia, having just arrived at Tahiti. In fact the majority of Allies forces are in Australia or on their way there.

The real question is I could transfer those to India, but the main Allied forces are in Australia, prepped and ready for invasions in the Austalian/Guinea theater.

< Message edited by Anachro -- 6/24/2019 4:22:09 PM >

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Post #: 1248
RE: April 8th, 1943 - 6/24/2019 4:00:05 PM   
Canoerebel


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From: Northwestern Georgia, USA
Status: offline 		Seems like you've got this thought through.

I don't think you need to move whole armies. That would be slow, would blunt your other efforts, and won't even be necessary. A campaign for Ceylon will be decided by ships and aircraft. Once decided, finishing off the surviving enemy units would be relatively simple, no matter how big and fearsome that force seemed to be at first.

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Post #: 1249
RE: April 8th, 1943 - 6/24/2019 4:13:46 PM   
Lowpe


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Status: offline 		How built up is Addu? Can you night bomb the port this turn with heavies? Close the runway during following days? You might catch oilers, tankers, akes'.

Close those five bases and he can't rearm easily, and he will be easy to bleed down and he will have to retire the carriers.

Open up another front on him, like you plan to.


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Post #: 1250
RE: April 8th, 1943 - 6/24/2019 4:57:31 PM   
Anachro


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From: The Coastal Elite
Status: offline 		Addu is a level 1(2) port. He has been using is for recon. I can check to see if anything is there. Some of my heavies need to re-arm though. My closest big port is Cochin; my only fast BB is the Prince of Wales. I am going to move some DDs down to Colombo to hit whatever he plans to put in at Koggala, unless that SAG to the southeast also comes. For now they will to and disband at Colombo. Unfortunately, he has 9/10 recon there. To others' questions, Colombo is now at 1 runway damage, 100 air service damage, and 25 port damage, with 40 engineers and 8 engineer vehicles. Unfortunately, I had a bit of a SNAFU where one invasion support convoy failed to follow others and remained Calicut; this saved them (and a lot of engineers/combat engineers) from John's carriers, but they are now stuck on the mainland for now.

Here are some of my forces in the area. Between Madras, Cochin, Trivandrum, and Tanjore, I have 700 fighters, 150 DBs, 30 TBs, 12 night beaufighters, 290 land bombers, and 113 transport planes. With the runway working, I could...perhaps put bombers there on low range to hit his surface ships moving to Koggala.



Invasion targets:


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Post #: 1251
RE: April 8th, 1943 - 6/24/2019 5:53:20 PM   
BBfanboy


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quote:

Anachro: I won't be submitting the turn for awhile as I go through the suggestions here. Perhaps I can now flank speed my offloaded carriers north. Once I can, I have divisions waiting at Trivandrum and elsewhere to quickly be send to reinforce the 1100 AV at Colombo. I'm having my LRP brigades also reinforce Colombo by air. What do you think John's plans are? He admits in his emails that he spends a lot of time on his orders here in India with all that's going on.


Unless this scenario gives Japan a considerable number of new divisions, I suspect his conundrum is that he wants to evacuate Ceylon but doesn't dare to try while you hold Colombo. So he is trying to dislodge you with the troops he has there and faking bringing in reinforcements. The latter is easily done by using ships to load fragments of distant area units and sending them to Ceylon (to create the SIGINT showing reinforcements). He lands the fragment at Ceylon and then has the transport to load up the troops he wants to evacuate. Even if he only gets out cadres he can save his units from the buy-back trash heap.

His initial plan for this area looks like he wanted to trap you with the strong CV force hidden to the NW while other ships started his evacuation of Ceylon (before you even took Colombo). Your moves surprised him and you didn't play into his confrontation trap the way he expected. So now he may be bringing the rest of his carriers to try and neutralize your air power so he can evacuate from Trincomalee.

Unless you want to fight the decisive carrier battle here, I think you should keep your US carrier force where he cannot concentrate his force against them without having to contend with Allied LBA too. I.E. run them up the west side of the map and bring them East in the Cochin area to reinforce. You will need lots of SCTFs too.

Alternately, keep your US CVs off NW Oz and invade somewhere he has to defend when the time comes. Oosthaven/Palembang anyone?

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Post #: 1252
RE: April 8th, 1943 - 6/24/2019 6:30:16 PM   
Lowpe


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Status: offline 		I wasn't clear enough, if you bomb it tonight with heavy bombers/patrols that can reach you might score some ships there.

Colombo certainly can field fighters now, and you can range 8 hexes with destroyers and still get back from there. You will be able to rearm torpedo and he won't be able to if you deny him akes' at Addu.

Do you need your carriers to start the New Guinea offensive?

Where are your Corsairs?

Triv to Addu is 16 hexes, you should be able to do night search and some good night bombing runs if you have planes within reach...


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Post #: 1253
RE: April 8th, 1943 - 6/24/2019 6:44:18 PM   
BBfanboy


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From: Winnipeg, MB
Status: offline 		Can you still rearm torpedoes if the Port damage is 25? I know that once Singapore port was damaged at beginning of the game I could not rearm Prince of Wales and Repulse. They had to flee to Colombo with no main armament ammo! Fortunately the IJN had their SCTFs elsewhere.

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Post #: 1254
RE: April 8th, 1943 - 6/25/2019 3:06:22 AM   
CaptBeefheart


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From: Seoul, Korea
Status: offline 		It's too bad you don't have more engineers at Colombo. I'd say you'd be better served flying in aviation support and engineers there rather than the LRPs. I don't see how he dislodges what you have there already in the short term. Do you have any AKEs nearby to re-arm your BBs? Also, if you get enough naval support at Triv (or likewise Cochin or Calicut), you'll be able to rearm your 15-inch guns. You'd have to check the manual to see how much you'd need. Looks like Triv might already have 250 naval support.

Cheers,
CB

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Post #: 1255
RE: April 8th, 1943 - 6/25/2019 3:08:23 AM   
Anachro


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From: The Coastal Elite
Status: offline 		I'm not sure on the torps. I want to build up forts there, but can't until base repaired, but I'm guessing John will soon bombard Colombo. I will be basing some air units there most likely next turn to see if he leaves any unprotected riffraff nearby. Won't get the turn back to John till tomorrow, however; I'm a bit exhausted at the moment and can't focus on it. I do like the idea of night bombing Addu to see what's there this coming turn.

As for the New Guinea offensive, it would be good to have some carrier protection as KB1 (stronger than KB2 in the pics above) just appeared off Midway and so is known to be in the vicinity. It might be based out oft he Marianas though, so far enough away. I have built up the airbases above Cooktown and they can provide LBA to a certain extent, and I could rely on my CVEs for air protection while my BBs provide surface cover. This would free up my big boy CVs for movement to India. Oh, CV Essex arrives in 40 days. I have some LBA Corsairs in India at Trivandrum (36 I think); some in Australia. I don't have carrier-capable Corsairs yet, which are crucial in this scenario for later CV battles.

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Post #: 1256
RE: April 8th, 1943 - 6/25/2019 3:09:31 AM   
Anachro


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From: The Coastal Elite
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quote:

ORIGINAL: CaptBeefheart

It's too bad you don't have more engineers at Colombo. I'd say you'd be better served flying in aviation support and engineers there rather than the LRPs. I don't see how he dislodges what you have there already in the short term. Do you have any AKEs nearby to re-arm your BBs? Also, if you get enough naval support at Triv (or likewise Cochin or Calicut), you'll be able to rearm your 15-inch guns. You'd have to check the manual to see how much you'd need. Looks like Triv might already have 250 naval support.

Cheers,
CB


This is good advice; I could certainly ship in a lot of naval support. No AKEs nearby. I have more engineers on their way to Tanjore where by transports are located.

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Post #: 1257
RE: April 8th, 1943 - 6/25/2019 3:33:22 AM   
CaptBeefheart


Posts: 2301
Joined: 7/4/2003
From: Seoul, Korea
Status: offline 		Whaddya know? I managed to find a BBFanboy post with the relevant manual page:

What's Triv's port level, by the way?

Cheers,
CB




Attachment (1)

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Post #: 1258
RE: April 8th, 1943 - 6/25/2019 3:46:42 AM   
Anachro


Posts: 2506
Joined: 11/23/2015
From: The Coastal Elite
Status: offline 		Colombo is a level 9 port and so can rearm anything; I suppose I can run my BBs there and back quickly. Trivandrum is only level 2 at the moment.

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Post #: 1259
RE: April 8th, 1943 - 6/25/2019 1:29:38 PM   
Lowpe


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quote:

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Can you still rearm torpedoes if the Port damage is 25? I know that once Singapore port was damaged at beginning of the game I could not rearm Prince of Wales and Repulse. They had to flee to Colombo with no main armament ammo! Fortunately the IJN had their SCTFs elsewhere.



BB I am not really sure. I know Singers is damaged at game start (50%?) so that would be a pretty big hit on rearming I would think.

Colombo is significantly less damaged (by half). I kind of figured that the Allies would have some AD or AKEs at Triv they could run in, but that is not the case....

I am not sure what the formula is for reducing the rearm points for damage on the port. I believe that for a lot of calculations any damage on a port reduces the effective size of the port by 1 but I don't think that holds for rearming.

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Post #: 1260
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