Burkowski
Posts: 56
Joined: 9/9/2001
From: West Virginia SRA
Status: offline
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At the risk of cheerleading:
This is just a mini-AAR... just a snapshot to underline why I bought this game in the first place... despite all the gnashing of teeth about the particulars which could be better, bug reports, etc., the game works (mightily) at the "feel" level, at least for me...
I am playing the Japanese side in the long campaign vs. AI and have described the Jan. 42 situation in another thread... the campaign has gone well so far, with the exception being that I have been disappointed with the relatively light ship damage done to the Allies... in retrospect I think that has to do with adopting a very aggressive stance toward early expansion with the result that my conquest of PI/Malaya/Borneo is ahead of what I believe is historical schedule... the downside is my violation of a cardinal rule of warfare--concentration of force, i.e. I have been everywhere in terms of invasion, but not overwhelmingly strong in terms of seeking and fighting a Big Ticket Battle...
A central strategy has been to come at the Borneo/DEI from both sides... staging through Saigon and Camranh as well as taking Amboina and Kendari in December and threatening from that direction... after I made Singapore untenable for shipping, the reaction of the AI seems to have been to allocate at least some (I've not seen PoW) of its surface forces to interfere with IJN moves in Borneo, Celebes, and the central DEI ...
As I built up recon and search forces I received spotting notices including 1 or 2 capital ships cruising in different areas around Celebes, with only "brushes" of same with my invasion convoys...still elusive... by the second week of January, Kendari was secured by 56 BDE... the base force that landed with the assault troops was able to clean up the mess at Kendari quickly and progress from supporting float planes, to Mavis, Zeroes, and finally level bombers, though with operational loss risk...
In any case, the Allies had been reconning Kendari heavily and finally made a decision to try to disrupt the shipping there... the heaviest units I had within easy reach were DDs and CLs, with everyone else employed elsewhere or refitting/refueling... on Jan. 16, spot reports showed a BB/BC with several attendants apparently heading straight for Kendari from the west... this happened ONE DAY after a mini-squad of 9 Nells became operational at Kendari... the Nells were set on naval attack and did just that, with torpedoes, several times over several days... hits were reported on the Allied TF and it divided into sub TFs, with Repulse finally IDd and roughed up... she, along with Cornwall and Tenedos, were on slo-mo, but the Nells were damaged/fatigued enough that I thought the BC might escape... at this point a SC TF comprising Fuso and Yamashiro with DDs was on its way from Amboina to hit Soerabaja... they reacted and caught the crippled Repulse and friends in shallow water just south of Celebes... it was no contest... Repulse rolled over and went down at the hands of a 14" shell from Yamashiro.. Tenedos and Cornwall escaped...
IT WAS ABSOLUTELY THRILLING AND ABSORBING to watch all this unfold and is exactly why I bought WitP in the first place! It feels genuine. The planning, execution, bookkeeping, nailbiting, and uncertainty all point to moments like this, where nothing seems more apt than a rousing "Banzai" and a tip of the helmet to Matrix/2x3." On to Port Moresby!
Cheers. 
Burkowski
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Death of Repulse (Why I bought WitP!) - 
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