Anachro
Posts: 2506
Joined: 11/23/2015
From: The Coastal Elite
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I have not yet received the next turn, but John did mention he'd get back to trying to fix his game (tech problems) AFTER the Chiefs beat the Pats yesterday. Well, they did beat the Pats (thanks to bad officiating once again, but that's par for the course in the NFL, plus Brady and the offense this year are truly mediocre).
In this game, John has kept the majority of his carriers concentrated most of the time. However, he has shown a propensity to still divide them in a risky manner on occasion. In four occasions (perhaps really five), John did divide his carrier forces and use them in a truly cavalier manner, but as you state Paullus (and others like Mandrake have alluded to in posts above), two of those occasions have bitten John in the ass (and in the others he was very lucky not to see his carrier fleet decimated). I will put them below with links to the original posts:
1. A Mini-KB Carrier Raid on Tahiti in mid-42: LINK HERE
John did an extremely deep raid into the South Pacific with a mini-KB composed of 4 CVLs. Through an immense effort that saw the Allied CVs come all the way south from a previous operation in the Aleutians (and thus through extreme and precarious use of fuel), we managed to get into carrier strike range of mini-KB and sink 2 Zuiho-class CVLs. Unfortunately for us, our coordination was a bit spotty and we didn't get as many hits in as we wanted. 4 CVLs should have been sunk here regardless, but the G.6 CVLs shown above were in this mini-KB and they displayed a remarkable ability to be impervious to bomb strike, wither everything bouncing off their armor:
2. Another mini-KB in Western Australia mid-42: LINK HERE
This should have resulted in the destruction of at least a few CVEs in addition to maybe a Junyo or Hiyo, but poor performance by my bombers leads to minor damage caused. Moreover, his bombers get through and put two torps into my British carriers despite far more fighters on CAP than he had on escort duty. It should be noted, my carriers aren't fully concentrated for this battle either.
quote:
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Carnarvon at 44,132
Weather in hex: Moderate rain
Raid detected at 74 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 29 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 59
A6M2-N Rufe x 10
F1M2 Pete x 6
Allied aircraft
Martlet II x 11
F4F-4 Wildcat x 50
SBD-2 Dauntless x 38
SBD-3 Dauntless x 47
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
A6M2-N Rufe: 1 destroyed
F1M2 Pete: 1 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
Martlet II: 2 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat: 2 destroyed
SBD-2 Dauntless: 5 destroyed, 8 damaged
SBD-2 Dauntless: 1 destroyed by flak
SBD-3 Dauntless: 11 destroyed, 10 damaged
Japanese Ships
CV Hiyo
CB Fuji
CVE Taiyo, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
CV Junyo
CB Aino
CVE Ibuki
CB Kita, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CVL Nisshin
3. Deep Raid South towards New Zealand: LINK HERE
Another carrier raid around New Year's day once again puts John's carriers in a precarious position where they can not only suffer from the almost-full concentration of my carriers, but I'd also have the advantage of heavy nearby LBA. Luckily for John, the querks of the game system cause me much frustration here as my lead TFs (despite being carrier Air TFs) decide to "flee enemy air threat." I know I should have gone absolute and direct in my routing orders here, but I never expected a carrier TF to behave as such. John got off lucky here. I should note also that prior to this that John also put a KB2 in a heavily isolated position far east of Palmyra/Christmas Island that I probably could have intercepted (and initially planned to do so), but advice here dissuaded me. That would be an additional time John risked defeat-in-detail.
4. Arrival of KB2 from India with a Risky Southern Movement: LINK HERE
And of course the battle we all know: John had a carrier force appear at Horn Island and this was most likely the carriers of KB2 which previously had been divided from the rest of KB as a second Japanese carrier force in the Indian area of operations (previously seen off Diego Garcia). Beyond the fact that he had two carrier forces divided in very disparate theaters, he was probably trying to recombine them here to take on Death Star, which was clearly operating in force in the SoPac/Guinea area. John's mistake here was to make a very risky movement south from Horn Island towards the heart of Allied local power without combining all his carriers first. My lucky decision to move out the same turn put him into great danger. However, to John's credit he no doubt planned to operate a combined KB1 and KB2 in the weeks ahead.
Compilation of Losses, Aug 24-27
An attempted categorization of losses up this point from the latest carrier and surface battles are as follows. More clarity on cruiser losses will come in the coming turns.
quote:
Definitely Sunk
2 Hiryu-class CVs
2 Akagi-class CVs
1 Aoba-class CLAA
1 Tokoro-class CL
2 Akitsuki-class DDs
2 Kagero-class DDs
1 Shimakaze-class DD
Likely Sunk/Heavily Damaged/Moderately Damaged
1 Aso-class CVL
1 Tone-class CA
1 Mogami-class CA
1 Takao-class CA
2 Myoko-class CAs
1 Tokoro-class CL
2 Akitsuki-class DDs
Lightly Damaged
1 Myoko-class CA
Total Sig. Damaged/Sunk
4 CVs
5 CAs
1 CLAA
2 CLs
7 DDs
< Message edited by Anachro -- 12/9/2019 2:39:17 PM >
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RE: August 27th, 1943 - Immense Relief - 
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