Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (Full Version)

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Hortlund -> Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (2/25/2010 2:53:04 PM)

No, this will not be a cheap copy of the best AAR in the history of the witp/ae-forums. I just could not come up with a good name. Besides, Yamato also means Japan so there.

Since my opponent Acepylut has started an AAR, I thought Id do the same.


No acepilots in this thread please.



[img]http://www.japantravelinfo.com/2010/images/fuji_main.jpg[/img]



Hortlund -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (2/25/2010 3:08:41 PM)

Initial thoughts

Malaya/upper NEI:
Im going for the Mersing gambit. All of the first-turn warp TFs will head to Mersing instead of Kota Bharu. I will not send any taskforces to the northern coast of Borneo yet. The Mersing invasion fleet will need all avaliable surface ships for protection, so I cannot land at Kuching or Singkawang at the same time. Instead the initial order of invasions will be Mersing - Miri - Kuching/Singkawang - Palembang

Lower NEI:
Nothing much at first. Initial landings will be at Menado and Tarakan, but they will not be dispatched until the CVL and CVE that starts off Peleliu can take up position to cover the landings. I will try to take the bases in the following order: Menado - Tarakan - Sorong - Ternate - Ambon - Kendari

Im moving an air HQ to to Babeldaob so I can base it at Menado as soon as that base falls. Then I can have Bettys with torpedos in the midle of the Celebes Sea, and that should put an end to any sort of naval defence in the lower NEI.

Phillipines:
Mindanao is a priority, I will put alot of forces here as soon as possible to remove the ability for the allies to base aircraft here.

Paras will land at Atimonan, Laoag and Vigan on day#1. I will use paras to take most of the empty bases south of Manilla. 2 divisions will land at Atimonan and then march three hexes north to Manilla, while the usual bunch lands at Vigan and gets to march down to Clark. I want to hit him from two directions to prevent him from massing troops.

Southern Pacific:
Not much initially. Eventually I will bring in 21st division from Shanghai to this area.

Burma:
15th Army will do its thing up here too.

China:
China is important, will put lots of effort into this theater. More on that later.



Hortlund -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (2/25/2010 3:30:11 PM)

Opening moves... December 7th-10th 1941

Day 1
Pearl Harbor was a disaster. My aircraft barely hit anything at all. This is bad because it means I have to attack Pearl again. That usually costs alot of pilots and planes. KB is ordered to move a couple of hexes towards home, but stay within strike-range. For tomorrow, all Vals are set on naval attack (they are useless against the BBs anyway) and all Kates are set on port attack.

Force Z escaped. It appears ace sent the ships south instead of on their death-run towards Kota Bharu. That is really really bad since it forces me to be super-careful in the NEI region. Potentially I have to defend all my invasion fleets against a Force Z on steroids together with Boise and Houston.

The Jap airforce put alot of hurt on Clark, Alor Star, Georgetown, Kuantan and Kota Bharu. Zeros were LRCAP:ing Mersing and managed to protect the fleet at least somewhat. Still, an AK took a torpedo hit. I hate to loose one of those AKs. Still, it could have been alot worse. But I wonder what will happen tomorrow when the full fury of the commonwealth airforce will be thrown against Mersing.

Day 2
Nells and Bettys on port-strike attacking Manilla were greeted by no less than 63 P-40s in the skies. Ive never seen an allied player manage to get that many fighters in the air over Manilla on December 8th. Fortunately enough I had a Zero wing on sweep that arrived before the main strike. In the end we shot down P-40s and P-26s at about 2-1 ratio and no fighters broke through to the bombers.

Over Pearl, the second strike were greeted by 40-something P-40Bs and we lost heavily to the allied fighters. All in all about 15 Kates and 10 Zeros were lost over Pearl on this day. We managed to get through though and several BBs were reported as having heavy fires and heavy damage. I hope some will sink, but failing that, they will at least be out of the war for a year or two.

At Mersing Force Z made a surprise appearance. Fortunately my BBs drew the longer straw and managed to sink the Repulse for no damage. I doubt the Prince of Wales will return alone tomorrow, so the landing should be safe. The transport ships had already left the base. Most of them still with cargo aboard, but the troops were ashore and I dont want to linger around too long that close to Singapore.

In the skies above Mersing, allied bombers threw themselves on the small Zero CAP. No Buffalos were to be seen, and I shot down something like 10-15 bombers. I wonder where the Buffalos were...probably capping Force Z. I had stood down all my Nells and Bettys at Saigon since I dont want to see them throw themselves against some Buffalo-trap just offshore of Singapore. Seems it was the right call.

All in all, I think we had an excellent day. We shot down around 60-70 allied aircraft for the loss of 40 (20 of which were Zeros)

Day 3
Mopping up action around Manilla. We managed to catch alot of transports, others got away. No sign of Prince of Wales, no sign of Boise and Houston. I wonder where those last two are. My bet is that they are around Balikpapan right now and that he will use them to defend Kendari/Ambon. Troops went ashore at Menado, Miri and Davao. Some more small invasions here and there. Malayan penninsula is cut by my tanks, Singapore is now isolated, and alot of commonwealth forces were caught north of Johore Bharu. Tanks and infantry ordered to take Malacca, that will be the defensive line until Singapore falls.




Hortlund -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (2/27/2010 8:14:29 AM)

December 11th

Malaya
Nothing much, some fighter action in the north as my Oscars take down 4 Buffalos for no loss. I had ordered the entire airforce to ground strike 8th Indian bde who are advancing north towards Pakhoi from Kota Bharu, but poor weather prevented most of the attacks. I have emergency-ordered a guards regiment from Saigon to move to Pakhoi as the only unit I have there right now is an airforce bn. They should arrive before the Indians do.

Borneo
The Tarakan invasion force are ordered to go ahead, they should land in a day or two. Boise and Houston appear at Miri. In a surface engagemnent, my cover force consisting of a CL and 5 DDs manage to put the Houston in sinking condition for no own loss. Amazingly poor performance by the Boise who was out of the fight for most of the time.

Lower NEI
The Menado invasion fails. For some reason I had only brought a nav guard with 20 av...which of cource is not enough by far. Im re-routing the Sorong invasion force to Menado instead. Two of my BBs arrive at Peleliu and they form up the core of the Ambon invasion force. An infantry regiment together with some SNLFs and engineers should be enough. This force will first take Ambon and then move on to Kendari right away. Im taking an air HQ with me to Ambon aswell (this air HQ orignially comes from Formosa, I sent it to Peleliu with the intention to base it at Manado after the base fell. Now when that invasion was delayed Ill use Ambon as my "torpedo-base" instead.

Phillipines
Davao fell together with Surigao. The Mindanao invasion is right on schedule. Two divisions arrive at Atimonan and should start unloading tomorrow. This is the southern pincer which will move directly to Manilla. 65th Bde arrives at San Fernando. The northern pincer will start moving towards Clark tomorrow.

Central Pacific
Wake falls. Yay.




mike scholl 1 -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (2/27/2010 8:31:34 AM)

"Over Pearl, the second strike were greeted by 40-something P-40Bs and we lost heavily to the allied fighters. All in all about 15 Kates and 10 Zeros were lost over Pearl on this day. We managed to get through though and several BBs were reported as having heavy fires and heavy damage. I hope some will sink, but failing that, they will at least be out of the war for a year or two."


Does anybody else find it odd that this is still fewer losses than those actually suffered by the Japanese Historically during the "suprise attack" on 12/07 when only 5 Allied fighters engaged the attackers? [&:]



jeffs -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (2/27/2010 8:48:17 AM)

Well in my game...I got lose 5 BBs and about 7 IJN planes were lost..While it is unrealistic to expect exact historicals, a vague similarity to historicals would be nice.

Given how little carrier planes get hurt, I am surprsing more IJN players do not destroy as much as they can.

At least in WITP, it was pretty much guaranteed 25-33 planes would go down (I think 29 was the historic). And follow up attacks were the same.
That means the IJN must (as they should) really have to think about it.

If he coders can do something to make that first strike a bit more close to historics it would be helpful (especially if historic first turn one unhistorically also loses FARCE Z)



Hortlund -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (2/27/2010 9:27:51 AM)

The sum total of my KB bomber losses so far:

Kates 38 (9 AA, 20 Flak, 9 ops)
Vals 26 (20 Flak, 6 ops)




CapAndGown -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (2/27/2010 1:48:49 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: jeffs

Well in my game...I got lose 5 BBs and about 7 IJN planes were lost..While it is unrealistic to expect exact historicals, a vague similarity to historicals would be nice.

Given how little carrier planes get hurt, I am surprsing more IJN players do not destroy as much as they can.

At least in WITP, it was pretty much guaranteed 25-33 planes would go down (I think 29 was the historic). And follow up attacks were the same.
That means the IJN must (as they should) really have to think about it.

If he coders can do something to make that first strike a bit more close to historics it would be helpful (especially if historic first turn one unhistorically also loses FARCE Z)


If we could get rid of die rolls and randomness, maybe we would have the game you are after. Course, it wouldn't be much of a game.



ny59giants -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (2/27/2010 2:04:53 PM)

If I could truly micro-manage the Pearl strike, I would click on "ignore BBs" and focus on CA, CL, and DDs. These are what an Allied player will use to build up his CV TF. 



Hortlund -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (2/27/2010 2:18:24 PM)

Or have the VALs focus on CLs, support ships and subs, while the Kates focus on the BBs...that would be sweet.

But as cap says...what would be the fun in that? Some dice rolls are neccessary



bklooste -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (2/28/2010 1:47:35 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: mike scholl 1

"Over Pearl, the second strike were greeted by 40-something P-40Bs and we lost heavily to the allied fighters. All in all about 15 Kates and 10 Zeros were lost over Pearl on this day. We managed to get through though and several BBs were reported as having heavy fires and heavy damage. I hope some will sink, but failing that, they will at least be out of the war for a year or two."


Does anybody else find it odd that this is still fewer losses than those actually suffered by the Japanese Historically during the "suprise attack" on 12/07 when only 5 Allied fighters engaged the attackers? [&:]



10 Zeros lost historically ??

I find it odder that their is no way the Japanese can get the 350 damaged or destroyed air frame damages historically despite most Japanese players sending a lot more to the airfields. I would love to lose 10 or 20 more Vals for those losses especially all but 3 PBYs.

quote:

Of the 402 American aircraft in Hawaii, 188 were destroyed and 159 damaged, 155 of them on the ground. Almost none were actually ready to take off to defend the base. Of 33 PBYs in Hawaii, 24 were destroyed, and six others damaged beyond repair. (The three on patrol returned undamaged.)



Hortlund -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (2/28/2010 11:24:21 AM)

A note on logistics and ASW

Since I decided to attack Pearl Harbor instead of Manilla, it means the submarine menace will be severe, and it will start pretty much from the first day of war.

I have focused my convoy routes to converge on Shanghai and/or Okinawa before moving into Japan. All my convoys will have Shimonoseki as their unloadning port. The main convoy route is shown in green. It will follow that exact path because I want to have it traverse shallow water and bases. All the bases will be mined heavily, in fact the black circled areas are the only places I will mine on the entire map. 400 mines to defend Tarawa might be nice, but what exactly can a minefield accomplish there? One or two minehits on a DD or an AK? 400 Mines at Tsushima will prevent any allied sub to venture there, and a single mine hit will usually cripple or sink a sub.

My ASW forces will be organized into special taskforces consisting of 1 DD and 3 SCs. These will patrol the convoy line marked in green, and several dedicated TFs will patrol the ASW-focus areas highlighted on the map. Im expecting to have at least 15 such taskforces in the Shimonoseki-area.

In addition to this, there will be several dedicated ASW-wings based in the area.

This area will be the almost exclusive focus of all my ASW assets. The convoys themselves will have PB/DD escorts, but only in reasonable numbers. The big TK-convoy will be a floating ASW-fortress however, with at least one CS to provide air-asw cover.

Right now I have moved all my big TKs to Port Arthur to move the oil from there to Japan. All the small TKs are at Cam Rahn Bay where they will wait until the NEI is secure. The small TKs will move oil and fuel to one or two main hubs, where the big TKs will pick it up. The objective is that no big TK will ever be in deep water or more than one hex from shore. More on the extended convoy routes later.


[image]local://upfiles/1562/E744B2C81B0A43EB9C8770929D12B774.jpg[/image]



bklooste -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (2/28/2010 12:22:04 PM)


I like it , maybe put some more floats on Naval Search nearby it really helps and maybe more succefull against subs than ASW at least until you get decent ASW skills..

For manilla is it viable to mine the approach ? What about the Taiwan area thats a sub hotspot ?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Panzerjaeger Hortlund

A note on logistics and ASW

Since I decided to attack Pearl Harbor instead of Manilla, it means the submarine menace will be severe, and it will start pretty much from the first day of war.

I have focused my convoy routes to converge on Shanghai and/or Okinawa before moving into Japan. All my convoys will have Shimonoseki as their unloadning port. The main convoy route is shown in green. It will follow that exact path because I want to have it traverse shallow water and bases. All the bases will be mined heavily, in fact the black circled areas are the only places I will mine on the entire map. 400 mines to defend Tarawa might be nice, but what exactly can a minefield accomplish there? One or two minehits on a DD or an AK? 400 Mines at Tsushima will prevent any allied sub to venture there, and a single mine hit will usually cripple or sink a sub.

My ASW forces will be organized into special taskforces consisting of 1 DD and 3 SCs. These will patrol the convoy line marked in green, and several dedicated TFs will patrol the ASW-focus areas highlighted on the map. Im expecting to have at least 15 such taskforces in the Shimonoseki-area.

In addition to this, there will be several dedicated ASW-wings based in the area.

This area will be the almost exclusive focus of all my ASW assets. The convoys themselves will have PB/DD escorts, but only in reasonable numbers. The big TK-convoy will be a floating ASW-fortress however, with at least one CS to provide air-asw cover.

Right now I have moved all my big TKs to Port Arthur to move the oil from there to Japan. All the small TKs are at Cam Rahn Bay where they will wait until the NEI is secure. The small TKs will move oil and fuel to one or two main hubs, where the big TKs will pick it up. The objective is that no big TK will ever be in deep water or more than one hex from shore. More on the extended convoy routes later.







Hortlund -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (2/28/2010 12:41:09 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: bklooste


I like it , maybe put some more floats on Naval Search nearby it really helps and maybe more succefull against subs than ASW at least until you get decent ASW skills..

For manilla is it viable to mine the approach ? What about the Taiwan area thats a sub hotspot ?



Yeah, pretty much all of the restricted airunits in Japan will be on ASW or Naval search in that area.

As for Taiwan, I wont be bringing resources or oil home from the NEI for another 2-3 months, so Ive got nothing there right now. Just 5-6 ASW TFs that are running between Vigan and Takao, almost all the USN subs are in that area now it seems. Ive got an idea about how to bring the resources home from the NEI wihtout having to run the gauntlet around Taiwan, will return to that later.



Takeshi -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (2/28/2010 1:15:15 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: jeffs

Well in my game...I got lose 5 BBs and about 7 IJN planes were lost..While it is unrealistic to expect exact historicals, a vague similarity to historicals would be nice.

Given how little carrier planes get hurt, I am surprsing more IJN players do not destroy as much as they can.

At least in WITP, it was pretty much guaranteed 25-33 planes would go down (I think 29 was the historic). And follow up attacks were the same.
That means the IJN must (as they should) really have to think about it.

If he coders can do something to make that first strike a bit more close to historics it would be helpful (especially if historic first turn one unhistorically also loses FARCE Z)



The coders have done exactly that. It's call Scenario 6.



PaxMondo -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (2/28/2010 1:16:21 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: mike scholl 1

"Over Pearl, the second strike were greeted by 40-something P-40Bs and we lost heavily to the allied fighters. All in all about 15 Kates and 10 Zeros were lost over Pearl on this day. We managed to get through though and several BBs were reported as having heavy fires and heavy damage. I hope some will sink, but failing that, they will at least be out of the war for a year or two."


Does anybody else find it odd that this is still fewer losses than those actually suffered by the Japanese Historically during the "suprise attack" on 12/07 when only 5 Allied fighters engaged the attackers? [&:]



Not really. Allied losses are also MUCH lower. I have never gotten anywhere near the historic results for BOTH a/c and ships, nor have I seen an AAR do so either. What I see is roughly commensurate results: JAP losses are about proportionately what the Allies lose.

On aircraft alone, historically the US lost 188 a/c that day for 29 JAP, in addition to all the ships (18 sank or severely damaged) and port and airfield damage. I've never seen better than about 50 a/c ... have you? And 18 ships on the initial attack? Rarely see more than 10 targetted and very rarely get one BB actually sank, let alone the historical 5BB's, 3CL's, 3DD's and 3AUX which were sunk, not mention the others damaged.

All in all , I agree with Cap&Gown .. the game is balanced. If a historical result is desired, play Scen 6. [8|]



PaxMondo -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (2/28/2010 1:36:36 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Panzerjaeger Hortlund

Or have the VALs focus on CLs, support ships and subs, while the Kates focus on the BBs...that would be sweet.

But as cap says...what would be the fun in that? Some dice rolls are neccessary

We all dream about this one ... but truth is you would have to sit in the back seat with a .45 to the pilots head to get him to do that. Pilot sees a BB and a CL, he is going to attack the BB everytime even if he KNOW he can't hurt because MAYBE ...

So while I wish we could adjust the targetting, it would be SO against human nature.

What I find amazing, and appreciate someone with background/insight responding, is how little damamge and how many hits it takes of 800kg bombs to sink a BB. I've done some testing with Kates at 8000' with bombs and while you can get the SYS dam to 99 pretty quick, flt/eng rarely climbs. I guess that is accurate, but is there some historical support? I think my testing has gotten up to 50 800kg bomb hits on a PH BB 4 or 5 times. I guess it would seem to me that at some point, it would start opening up seams ... ?

Appreciate the insights and apologize for a minor highjack.



bklooste -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (3/3/2010 6:04:24 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: jeffs

Well in my game...I got lose 5 BBs and about 7 IJN planes were lost..While it is unrealistic to expect exact historicals, a vague similarity to historicals would be nice.

Given how little carrier planes get hurt, I am surprsing more IJN players do not destroy as much as they can.

At least in WITP, it was pretty much guaranteed 25-33 planes would go down (I think 29 was the historic). And follow up attacks were the same.
That means the IJN must (as they should) really have to think about it.

If he coders can do something to make that first strike a bit more close to historics it would be helpful (especially if historic first turn one unhistorically also loses FARCE Z)

Since the game doesnt support refloats it probably is more accurate than we normally get :-) Didnt 6 BBs hit the bottom ?



bklooste -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (3/3/2010 6:06:18 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Panzerjaeger Hortlund



As for Taiwan, I wont be bringing resources or oil home from the NEI for another 2-3 months, so Ive got nothing there right now. Just 5-6 ASW TFs that are running between Vigan and Takao, almost all the USN subs are in that area now it seems. Ive got an idea about how to bring the resources home from the NEI wihtout having to run the gauntlet around Taiwan, will return to that later.


I mention Taiwan since a stack of US subs will be there its a good opportunity to fluke some kills and you have active Naval search there anyway.



bklooste -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (3/3/2010 6:10:42 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo


quote:

ORIGINAL: Panzerjaeger Hortlund

Or have the VALs focus on CLs, support ships and subs, while the Kates focus on the BBs...that would be sweet.

But as cap says...what would be the fun in that? Some dice rolls are neccessary

We all dream about this one ... but truth is you would have to sit in the back seat with a .45 to the pilots head to get him to do that. Pilot sees a BB and a CL, he is going to attack the BB everytime even if he KNOW he can't hurt because MAYBE ...

So while I wish we could adjust the targetting, it would be SO against human nature.

What I find amazing, and appreciate someone with background/insight responding, is how little damamge and how many hits it takes of 800kg bombs to sink a BB. I've done some testing with Kates at 8000' with bombs and while you can get the SYS dam to 99 pretty quick, flt/eng rarely climbs. I guess that is accurate, but is there some historical support? I think my testing has gotten up to 50 800kg bomb hits on a PH BB 4 or 5 times. I guess it would seem to me that at some point, it would start opening up seams ... ?

Appreciate the insights and apologize for a minor highjack.


Pax have you tried the same test while underway and not in port id be interested to see if the flt is reduced due to the port ? It does seem correct that it causes little flt damage though eng should climb more quickly. You are really relying on a CH as armour is almost useless vs these weapons at 90 degrees. Withotu a CH it would take quite a few shells look at the Bismark



Fishbed -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (3/3/2010 6:44:56 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Panzerjaeger Hortlund

No, this will not be a cheap copy of the best AAR in the history of the witp/ae-forums. I just could not come up with a good name. Besides, Yamato also means Japan so there.


As a sidenote: Yamato is just a province among others in fact [:)]



Hortlund -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (4/18/2010 6:06:21 PM)

We skip ahead to January 2nd 1942.

The allied defences on the PI have been reduced to the Bataan holdout and some small islands. Mindanao is all but captured, the allies have been retreated to the small mountain holdout north of Davao.

Singapore has fallen, allies are making a stand at Taiping/Georgetown. Im in no hurry to reduce these bases yet, instead the troops from Singapore will be put into use on Java.

Palembang and Oosthaven has fallen. Together with Kalidatji (the base just southeast of Batavia on the coastline). Kalidatji will be the main landing point for my initial units (a division and a brigade together with support troops. The rest of the bunch will land at Semarang.

Koepang and Lauterm are in Japanese hands, together with Ambon and Kendari. These bases will be the staging area for future operations into northern Australia (If I opt for Aus instead of India).

The invasion of Port Moresby is underway, the first two regiments are in the process of unloading their ships. I expect the base to fall tomorrow as it has not been reinforced.

The KB have returned to the PM-area after having taken a tour of the eastern coastline of Australia. We managed to sink a handful of TKs, AKs and two CAs.

[image]local://upfiles/1562/AC405C75EE15478BB0DF70EBC61C91B9.jpg[/image]



Hortlund -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (4/18/2010 6:31:08 PM)

And now for the losses.

Mutsu was sunk in an engagement against Force Z off Kendari. It was night, thunderstorms, visibility at 2%. My ships were spotted on Radar and in a swift stroke, Force Z cut down my TF consisting of two BBs, some DDs and a CL. Amazingly every single torpedo launched by the British destroyers hit their target! The other BB, Yamashiro is at port with 30 sys 30 float. Other than that, my losses have been relatively light.

[image]local://upfiles/1562/28040328A9284AE7808372FADB7E2162.jpg[/image]



Cuttlefish -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (4/19/2010 5:12:20 AM)

Catchy title!

It looks as though you are about right on schedule. Fortunes of war: I had the same fight at about the same time and near the same area with Force Z in my game with Q-Ball and the battle was a draw, with no major losses on either side (well, except for Hibiki!). I don't remember for sure but I think there was considerably more moonlight, though.




Fishbed -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (4/19/2010 5:31:21 AM)

How many Hibikis would it take to make a Yamato? Just to see how much waste was that BB in the end...



Hortlund -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (4/19/2010 10:07:49 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

Catchy title!

It looks as though you are about right on schedule. Fortunes of war: I had the same fight at about the same time and near the same area with Force Z in my game with Q-Ball and the battle was a draw, with no major losses on either side (well, except for Hibiki!). I don't remember for sure but I think there was considerably more moonlight, though.


Thanks :) Glad you like the hat-tip.

Overall my losses have been light. Most of my losses come from allied submarines who prove to be more than a nuisance. It makes me wonder if I did the right thing to send KB to Pearl instead of Manila. If the allied subs cause me this much grief in 1941... Ive lost 15-something ships to submarines thus far, the most catastrophic loss being an invaluable AO off Rabaul.

I have had my ASW-forces patrolling the sealanes between Port Arthur/Shanghai and Shimonosheki (which I use as my main offloading-port) but it seems Acepylut is focusing his submarine forces in the frontline-areas instead of in my rear. Im moving my ASW assets forward now to assist in the battle for Java and Australia. It will make them more vunerable to enemy air, but on the other hand they will do more good there than patrolling empty seas.




Hortlund -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (4/19/2010 10:21:20 AM)

April 3rd 1942

Last turn I spotted an allied convoy leaving Darwin heading west. I sent a CA-TF to try a mid-ocean intercept and a small carrier TF (CVL+CVE) to see if I could catch them. The CAs were set to patrol in the likely area of the allied ships with a reaction range of 6 and it worked. We caught the ships and in the surface engagement they were slaughtered. Two xAPs, two DDs, an AD and AG together with some xAKLs and xAKs were sunk by cruisers and aircraft.

Also, a surface combat TF was discovered consisting of at least three allied CLs, they were LRCAP:ed by P40s out of Darwin but our Zeros managed to clear the way for the B5N1s who scored three bomb hits on a CL. CAs and CVs are now retreating north.

Somewhere his carriers must be lurking together with the Prince of Wales (and Boise). I was half expecting them to show up on the other side of Java to contest my landings at Kalidjati, but failed to appear. My bet is that they are either hovering around Exmouth or Darwin to defend the north coast. When they do show up, it will be a tough fight. I have no BBs in this area, they are at Java and Port Moresby. Im moving an air HQ to Koepang to put some Betty-cover over this region.

Today Port Moresby fell to my troops. That frees up two Regiments and the 21st Division for other tasks. Horn Island is next on the list, but after that its up in the air. Noumea, Suva, Australia.. we will see how things develop at Java and around Darwin before I commit them into the line again.

[image]local://upfiles/1562/736F54F8B21C4D5989C57CA72F0CF65D.jpg[/image]



Hortlund -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (4/19/2010 3:19:39 PM)

Now that I think about it, that convoy probably means that he is evacuating Darwin of all non-combat ships. I see little other reason for him to move out an empty convoy including an AD and an AG. That in turn means that he is probably in the middle of marching half the Australian army up the roads towards Darwin.

I think I need to speed up my assault-timetable here if I am to invade Darwin at all.

Edit:
Oh, and another thing. An unknown enemy TF consisting of 3 ships of unknown class just showed up three hexes off Paramushiro Jima. I find that very odd...what is he doing up there now? I really cant imagine he will try to invade up there...its January, his losses will be absurd. A raid?



Hortlund -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (4/20/2010 3:41:26 PM)

Early April 1942

Some thoughts on the strategic situation.

With the fall of Singapore and Clark Field, the equivalents of 4 Japanese divisions has been freed for other tasks. The Singapore units will assist in the capture of Java. I already have two divisions ashore on Java together with support units and a mixed brigade. What remains in the NEI for me to capture is Balikpapan, Java, Makassar and the northern bases on Sumatra. After Java, all of these bases can be cleared with SNLF-type units.

I have one regiment and three SNLF units at Koepang, these are immideately avaliable for deployment.

After the fall of Port Moresby, I have one division and four infantry regiments avaliable for operations. These units are at Port Moresby.

By now Darwin is prepared for war, and presumably heavily reinforced. Im expecting at least 200 AV at the base, and more coming along the roads north. 18th UK Div has not been spotted so far, and they could be anywhere. But since our operations in Burma are going at a snails-pace, I doubt he has reinforced that theater. I also dont think he is reinforcing Ceylon since the KB has not made any moves in that direction. It is reasonable to assume that the 18th is in Australia.

The US and UK carriers remain a wildcard, they have not been spotted since the outbreak of hostilities. Force Z also remains at large somewhere out there. I doubt the CVs are in the Darwin area, due to the proximity of Betty- and Zero-bases, but I fully expect that Force Z is in or around Darwin. One possible location for the CVs are around Exmouth, from there they can strike at any landing on the northern coast while still being able to retreat easily.

Gentlemen, I give you operation Spotlight, the offensive against Australia.


[image]local://upfiles/1562/0A954CDE99BA46ADAD4DB4E5CBCBEFF3.jpg[/image]


Initial landings will take place on the Australian east coast. A force of one division and three infantry regiments will land with the objective of cutting the railline between southern and northern Australia. This force will be the roadblock. The landings will hopefully force my opponent to shift his forces from the Darwin area to the northeast coast.

After these landings, the northern operations will commence. The northern invasion will take place somewhere between 1-3 weeks after the initial landings. The forces in the northern sector will consist of forces from Java and the Philipines.

Reinforcements are currently being gathered at Port Arthur and consists of several Tank regiments, engineers and cavalry units, well suited to the mobile warfare in Australia. These units will either land at Darwin or on the east coast, depending on how things are going on the respective front.

KB will cover the eastern landings, the northern landings will have to make due with land-based aircover only. Mini-KB will be sent deep into the shipping lanes of the Indian Ocean in an effort to intercept reinforcements from India.




Capt. Harlock -> RE: Big ship, bigger war - Adventures of the Yamato - AAR vs Acepylut (A) (4/20/2010 8:29:50 PM)

quote:

Gentlemen, I give you operation Spotlight, the offensive against Australia.


Looks quite plausible. Would you be able to establish an operating airfield on the east coast?



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