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silkworm -> I took Noumea in early October, 1942 (6/10/2002 3:42:02 AM)
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In my scenario 17 game against the AI (default options), Noumea fell to a force of nearly 100,000 Imperial Japanese troops on October 6, 1942. This attack was carried out by the entire 8th Area Army and elements of the 17th Army. In support of the infantry were more than 100 vehicles, 1000 artillery pieces, 500 aircraft, and except for two destroyers plus coastal ships, the entire Imperial Japanese naval force in the South Pacific.
Basically two things made this success possible -- meticulous management of transportation assets on my part, and reckless maneuvering by the AI.
This was my first real game after playing through the Coral Sea scenario (and achieving only a minor victory), taking many lessons from the excellent AAR's written here. My early strategy relied on a quick capture of Gili Gili and Lunga and have close range LBA ready to support my first carrier battle (I had actually wanted to strip my carriers and avoid risking them entirely). Just as my small landing force got on its way, my search planes discovered the Australian navy sitting in Gili Gili. My carrier force was still between Truk and Rabul. Right away my hopes of controlling the sea lanes around Gili Gili while withholding my carriers were dashed. Not knowing what else to do, I pulled back the invasion and threw in my carriers for an opportunity shot at the Australian ships (Rabul LBA was not being very responsive at this time), not knowing what the AI would do with its carriers.
After damaging the Australians, I got my first MAD battle with the American carriers. The AI had split his carriers between two task forces, while I put my two heavy and one light in a single task force, believing this gave me more flak (the carriers were themselves my best AA assets for mutual support). I had my fighters on 70% CAP and bombers on 0% naval search, relying on cruisers and LBA for naval search. The first round had me putting several torpedoes into one of his carriers, with me suffering moderate damage and still able to operate planes from all three. This gave me confidence that I now enjoyed a clear superiority, and I chased him down and sunk both his carriers while suffering no further damage. I also played with wolf packing my subs in support of the carrier battle, but they failed to catch anything. (I had even wanted to mine the area before the carrier battle, but my minelayers refused to move into station for fear of his carriers)
With his carriers gone, I no longer needed Gili Gili. I had captured Lunga with a light force and did not want to split my limited assets developing and defending it. I looked at the dates of my land reinforcements, and developed a logistical plan for placing a sizable force in Port Moresby at the earliest opportunity. I did not know when the Americans were going to receive carrier replacements and I wanted to waste no time. I set what turned out to be an overly-optimistic early June date for capture of PM.
By June I had landed about 40,000 of my top of the line troops in Lea Lea, the beach adjacent to PM. The one week march over had pushed their fatigue into the 60's. The HQ's were marching so slowly I had to pick them back up with transports and land them in later. Even with the march, not all my forces arrived on the same day, but the first wave was large enough to survive the counterattack of some 20,000 allied troops. Not having any experience with land battles, I fumbled with the different attack methods, to little success (although my engineers quickly reduced enemy fortifications to zero). The AI was gaining free kills and disruption using bombardments, so I followed suit and sulked at my failed timetable.
While I developed a plan to reinforce the stalled invasion force (with air cover from Lae and carriers), the AI bombarded Lunga, killing a few men of my small garrison each time. I busily mined the waters around Rabul and Shortlands and moved up some coastal batteries.
I had a lot of trouble keeping my bombardment task forces on station and keeping the airfield supressed. They kept running back to Rabul at full steam and running out of fuel. I learned from this the need for replenishment tankers which would help perfect my Noumea invasion much later.
Sometime in June or July, the AI sent up another carrier (or was it two)? They were promptly wiped out by my superior numbers and LBA support. In this and later carrier battles, I always chased him down when I came out on top and was out of land based Dauntless range. I did not fear his B25/B26's. I lost CV Junyo to a sub after suffering only light damage from the air battle (did the program detach Junyo without escorts?!). I had to send back several others for repairs, and never had more than two or three at a time throughout the game. Of the four midway carriers, only CV Kaga was made available to me for a short time before I had to sent it back for repairs.
Finally in July, with constant bombardment from my superior artillery forces, and with reinforcements from the 2nd and 38th divisions fresh from a direct landing into PM, my force of some 60,000 men overwhelmed the enemy defenders. From previous experiments I had learned the value of cutting off enemy supply before forcing his retreat, so I already had Buna in my hands. His entire 25,000+ force surrendered in two turns.
Smiling from winning a hard fought battle, I wanted to continue to control the pace of the campaign by maximizing the use of my transport assets. Rabul had been upgraded to level 9 port, and was now the hub of my fleet management, where ships could be maintained and repaired while they waited to be efficiently grouped (I will post some tips in another message). My Port Moresby veterans were returned to Rabul for rest. Coastal guns, AA's, base forces, and secondline garrisons were put in place. Forward fuel depots at Rabul and Lunga were getting stocked. My goal was only to hang on to my glorious posessions and enjoy the moment a little longer.
Gili Gili was taken with a moderate secondline force (naval garrisons).
During this time of consolidation, I had a number of inconclusive surface and carrier engagements near Lunga. The carrier engagements were inconclusive because I wanted to avoid battle until I got strong LBA in place for support, and in any case didn't have the fuel to chase him much further beyond Lunga. In surface battles, my battleships gave disappointing results against his cruiser force.
Lunga was eventually built up with a force of more than 300 engineer squads (basically everyone that wasn't needed elsewhere). And soon had more than 200 Betty's and Zero's. This force decimated his ships that came near, and sunk maybe two carriers. I had lost track of battles at this point because it became clear to me the AI was not going to survive the presence of strong LBA in a place it was interested in. It simply behaved recklessly.
By August/September, the AI had lost five, maybe six fleet carriers. I did not have a strong carrier force myself (several carriers damaged from battles that enabled the LBA to be built up), one CV, one CVL, one CVE, and two CS sea plane cruisers which I used to good effect, stationing sea plane fighters and scouts and providing better-than-CA flak.
Extensive recon missions had revealed heavy infantry in Luganville..
..and a whole page of engineer units in Noumea. Noumea had some 100 bombers, but no fighters..
I had amassed a well rested 8th area army in Rabul, plus engineers, artillery and tank (which I didn't expect to be useful). I looked at my reinforcement schedule, and saw that this was as large a land force as I was going to have for many more days.
I was disinterested in any auto victory conditions. I wanted bases that felt good to me to have in my hands. I wanted that ring of guard towers around Australia that would knock it out of the war.
The decision was made to go for Noumea with every available asset. Success there would end Allied naval reinforcements and guarantee me the oceans of the South Pacific. Rabul, PM, Lunga, Truk were garrisoned with naval garrison forces, coastal guns, and AA. My minelayers, which had contributed enormously to the surface battles around Lunga, were busy mining these harbors. In any case, I believed that I could save my LBA if I could keep just two of these four bases, and thus owning the game in any case.
For this operation, I gave a purpose to every single ship, except for coastal assets (PC, PG's etc). Two powerful bombardment fleets would keep Noumea, and Luganville if necessarily, under continuous bombardment, followed by a trail of replenishment ships. Every transport was used to carry the invasion force, which would land directly into Noumea. Thanks to careful convoying, I had lost so few transports, the entire invading army could be carried at one go. Every sea going plane would be carried in a well protected air combat force to give additional bombardment and air cover. Lunga stood ready with over 350 land based fighters and bombers to assist with fleet engagements and airfield suppression. (Noumea is just inside normal range of Bettys)
An operation of this size could not be without gags. My invasion force mysteriously refused to travel faster than 2 hexes/day as we approached Noumea (program trying to conserve fuel? alas, how can I tell you about the more than 50,000 tons of replenishment fuel following your way?) My bombardment forces insisted on running AWAY from replenishment tankers after just one mission, one of which would not come back, despite repeated orders to do so, until it has made a stop over at Lunga. My carrier air cover seemed content to show up at the air combat screen, yet do nothing while my Bettys get slaughtered by Wildcats. At the same time messages were informing me my minesweepers are "widening a path", explosions are going off left and right.
But the plan had to move ahead. It would be several days before the AI would realize the situation and bring up air cover from nearby bases. I had my invasion force stop just one hex away from Noumea, so they would have their full movements to unload the next day. A large first landing made sure there was no counterattack (this is with EVERY SINGLE transport there was). Before long, I had 100,000 men on shore.
But alas, those engineer battalions my recon planes told me about, were now 60,000 men in battle. Fortifications were reduced to zero after 3 bloody deliberate attacks, but I was not making other progress. The size 9 airfield refuses to be supressed, and air attacks are launched each day. Fortunately I had packed my light escort carrier full of fighters, and these attacks are driven off each time. I finally coaxed my bombardment forces to stay close by placing replenishment tankers directly in Noumea, so the ships could replenish during their bombardment. Dozens of anchored allied ships go to the bottom. Enemy surface relief efforts are futile in the face of my air superiority.
Many ships are sunk by enemy air on their return voyage, including one BB and some CA's. I was too preoccupied with the land battle to give them a safer route home.
With 1000 field guns blazing (to his 200), I notice the bombardment casualties shifting in my favor. Looking at my disruption and fatigue, they have been kept low by a direct landing, and plenty of HQ support. Could the enemy be wearing down more than what I'm told in numbers? Two deliberate attacks later, I was finally killing more enemy than I lost.
Fast transport forces hurriedly occupy nearly enemy supply points, as per lesson learned in PM. The enemy had actually vacated a nearby base to reinforce Noumea. Excellent.
Since he's now losing more men, and the manual says shock attacks double the casualties, then a shock attack would give me...
3 to 1 odds! Noumea captured!
Tired as I was, I needed to know if I had won the game. Loaded the game from the allied side, their ship list showed no ships larger than a patrol boat, not even a destroyer.
I will write another post on strategies and tips, elaborating on some the experiences discussed here.
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