RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (Full Version)

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FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/22/2010 11:27:20 AM)

Overall Situation at the End of March

Japanese still cannot crack the defenses of Hilo! I tried a shock attack on March 31, trusting in recon, that still reported damage on the airfield (and therefore no forts). The attack met 2 forts reduced them to 1 and suffered 5:1 casualties (30:1, counting only combat squads). I'll try a deliberate attack on the next day, and if it fails, protracted siege will be the only recourse. Thankfully, some Sallies are already on the way to start working on suppressing Allied fortifications. And Kona now is a level 2 airfield, 1-2 turns away from being level 3. Japanese can actually outbuild early-game Allies in this mod! Most support units that once landed in Hilo marched to there now. And the concentration of flak increased to the point the gunners started taking down Allied recon planes.

Power of US LCUs is definitely a nasty surprise. 38th and 48th are (were, by now, considering likely experience drop) my toughest divisions, yet their experience advantage seemingly amounts to nothing.

Meanwhile, my subs spotted Repulse and a bunch of other British combat ships southeast of Ceilon. Unfortunately, the only torpedo from I-155 that impacted Repulse did not explode. I can only muster 2 CAs, 3 CLs and about 15 DDs in DEI at the moment (2 more CAs were disbanded to repair minor damage in Soerabaja, but looks like insidious Dutch shipyard engineers sabotage repairs, because they haven't advanced at all in several days). CLs and a bunch of DDs now patrol Malacca Strait. Netty coverage in DEI is pretty good, contrary to what Yubari might think, but most groups don't have Zeros to escort them...

These news caused me to abort convoy movements to Burma and landings at Northern Sumatra. The latter still must be executed soon, to deny Allies airfields from which to recon Singapore.



janh -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/22/2010 11:42:47 AM)

Awesome AAR, FatR.  You are an extremely aggressive player, but watching an invasion of the Hawaiian chain unfold is of course always a highlight.  The Zero and Mavis losses due to the US bomber raid on the overstacked airfield were surely not nice, but counting the plane losses you inflicted previously, also not too serious.   Long term, if you can take and hold the other islands and Pearl, you will win an unsinkable CV which will pay off very well.

What LCU's do you presently have in this operation, and what else do plan to bring to reinforce?  Any units from Singapore or Java on plan for this?  I did such an invasion once in good old PacWar, and I recall it took me at least 5 or 6 division worth of forces to pull this off, as well as concentration of all CV and most BB/CA for almost 4 months.  And that despite having beaten the allied carries in battle decisively. 
What are your provision for protecting the KB, and where is mini-KB?  Are you constantly replenishing their fighter squadrons?  You appear to be handling your CV's extremely aggressively and always in sight of Hawaii, which surely does good to prevent major reinforcements from the West Coast.  But wouldn't you think this would present itself as an ideal situation for the allied player to scrape together all CV's he has and give battle with the advantage of his LBA nearby?  Or are you gambling for that?






FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/22/2010 11:51:40 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: topeverest
Can you perform sealane interdiction between PH and USA? Give him a piece of his own medicine by detaching a CV and patrolling about 20 hexes out. Make a hit and then change patrol zone? Anyway a thought

Unlike what some people think upon seeing my strategic plans, I'm actually a cautious player. The thought of detaching a carrier group that will certainly lose to US CVs if they met is anathema to me. Similarly, I do not dare to patrol sealanes with major surface combatants while Allied carriers lurk somewhere beyond my line of detection. But certainly, after LBA presence at Hawaii is established, Allied aviation is beaten into submission (which I believe is inevitable, given disparity in reinforcements and consistently inferior performance of Allied fighters so far), and both KB and mini-KB replenished their planes, I'll engage in large-scale raiding operations to isolate the theater.



FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/22/2010 12:16:22 PM)

Before I'll continue laying out the situation on March 31, which might take alot of time, I want to say, than on April 1 Allies launched a major raid against Kona (while 24th Sentai swept Lahaina and didn't find many targets, indicating only overbleeding CAP from Oahu), and the losses for the day looked like this:

[image]local://upfiles/33131/1299AE05CF4B4B459C0AFB78006B707C.jpg[/image]

Japanese pilot losses for the day were 3 men. Judging by Allied air performance, Yubari probably does not pay enough attention to pilot training, so losing a couple of dozens of semi-competent pilots today must hurt (I do not believe that an Allied player might sacrifice at least 1/3 of his total monthly fighter production at this stage just to obfuscate his pilot situation). So, at least my belief in the ability of Japanese airforce to suppress the Allied one had some foundation.

The attack at Hilo failed in the meantime. So, siege it is. I'll recon smaller islands to see if Japanese can land there while the bulk of the Southern Army is shipped from Singapore.


EDIT: To Jahn - Initially I was most afraid of LBA from Oahu and Allied CVs double-teaming the invasion fleet. At the moment I feel (by comments in emails and in-game events) that Yubari will not risk his force in a carrier battle. Until Kona airfield was operational, KB and Mini-KB hanged together, at the moment Mini-KB is at Kwajalein, waiting for Nisshin to join and for plane losses to replenish (Kwajalein was temporarily short on supplies). So, the devastating raid against Kona left me in quite a critical situation for a moment. I even contemplated retreating the fleet. But seeing the cautiousness of my opponent (at least where ships are concerned) I decided not to. And just now Yubari made keeping KB nearby not necessary anymore, so I'll retreat it as soon as the major supply convoy and the troop convoy that hauled reinforcements to Kona unload. Then they and battleships that blew their ammo bombarding Hilo will retreat under KB cover.

As about my further plans, I'll reveal them in the general theatres overview.



FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/22/2010 2:58:29 PM)

Victory Points at the End of March

I forgot to make a screenshot of the intelligence screen for March 31, here's the one for the next day. With the fall of Singapore, Japanese lead increased much. I also expect to rack up several hundred more points by cleaning remaining Dutch strongholds. Ship losses and lack thereof on the Allied side are still the sore point. By now I'm pretty sure that Nevada survived Pearl Harbor, and Marblehead dropped of the list of sunk ships. Whomever sends the latter under will receive a personal gratitude from the Emperor.



[image]local://upfiles/33131/1DF3A5E08D6945238193E8BD898A8216.jpg[/image]



FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/22/2010 3:47:39 PM)

The Pacific

While Midway and Johnston were taken quite easily and with little loss, The Big Island turned out into our Guadalcanal in terms of both force pull and losses for little effect. Currently 38th and 48th Divisions, 16th, 17th and 24th Regiments are besieging Hilo and all of these units are in quite bad shape after fruitless assaults, needing at least two weeks of complete rest before they can reach anything near full strengh. Losses in ships you can look up below. Most of them can be attributed to crap damage control on Japanese transport ships. Only one of the transport sunk by CD guns was lost outright, all of the others burned out on the way home. In terms of fast transport and minesweepers our losses are grievous. Two DDs also struck mines during the second raid against Oahu harbor two days ago, but managed to reach Kona. It should be noted that moving at full speed increases damage on crippled ships very swiftly, so unless they need to move more than 3-4 hexes it is probably better to risk moving them at cruise speed.

There are, however, three aspects of this campaign in which the Guadalcanal situation is diametrically reversed. First, Japanese have a functional airfield in the combat area and so far Allies were forced to fly attacks against it. They had success for a time, but now Japanese have finally had revenge. Things with only go downhill for Allies in the immediate future. With over 300 engineers and over 30 engineer vehicles in place, Kona will probably grow to size 5 in the next week.

Second, for the next several months, Japanese will be able to pump a lot more planes into the fire than Allies. Until August-September, Allies are outproduced in airframes to a massive degree. The entire US military gets 105 fighters/month, Japanese get 230 modern fighters/month. Planes arriving with units make the situation a bit better, but still, Allies are woefully behind my current production and this situation won't change in a big way until August (and in August I'll expand IJAAF production with Tojos). Yubari is quite cautious with his airframes, but not cautious enough, and, I believe not cautious in the right way. He could have achieved more by throwing as much as he can in as few air assaults as possible at key points, particularly in the days of landing.

Third, Allied fleet does not try to contest the waters around the battlezone directly. This might have saved Allies from a major naval defeat, but now it makes their garrizons de-facto blocaded, and also restricts their available airfields to Oahu. This might change, but as air superiority over Hawaii will, hopefully, be achieved soon, I believe that Japanese will enjoy the benefits of a fleet operating under CAP umbrella in the future.

In other words, I think it is now possible to grind down the US airpower in the region (and if my opponent - hopefully - persists, in general) and methodically isolate and take outlying islands. The invasion of Oahu is now in doubt, of course. It will all depend on the garrizon's strength.

[image]local://upfiles/33131/A00E566D3B844A869D5C323E4B3A438C.jpg[/image]



FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/22/2010 3:56:12 PM)

Japanese Ship Losses in Operation HI

[image]local://upfiles/33131/B4F5C37035C44EA4AA7F78F6E95B517E.jpg[/image]

Another sub damaged by an air attack sank on April 1. Overall, the sub picket around Hawaii achieved jack (claiming only one xAKL).

Allied ship lossess in the same area I'm certain or almost certain about are 1 AV, 1 ocean-going PC, 3 DMS, 2 xAKL and 5 PT. Probably lost are 2 subs, with a couple more being damaged. A very disappointing haul.




FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/22/2010 4:09:28 PM)

DEI

Singapore was FINALLY finished giving Japanese a massive uncommitted infantry force, which, however, needs a bit of rest, at least until the morale of units is 99. Remaining Dutch troops on Java are huddling in the mountain stronghold of Malang. Artillery of the Southern Army sails to Soerabaja to help with smoking them out. I'm not in much haste to finish them off. I was slow to move from Samarinda on Balikpapan because the Imperial Guards brigade failed to land as a whole due to sub and air attacks, I once mentioned above, and because I wanted to soften the defenders, so that Balikpapan won't suffer as much damage as Samarinda did.

In good news, except for losing 20 oil wells out of 100 in Samarinda, Southern Resource Area fell into Japanese hands nearly undamaged. There were 21 damage to resources in Kuala Lumpur and minor damages here and there, but overall my trophies are in great condition. Yubari did not fight for either Batavia, Soerabaja or Magwe, so their industry and oil were seized without a scratch. He now retreats from Medan as well.

[image]local://upfiles/33131/D53569774A46493A937F98C710D90955.jpg[/image]



topeverest -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/22/2010 4:37:40 PM)

Good progress and smart move for the engineers. Invalidates his HB advantage. Need to clear the big island asap IMO. I would not underestimate the difficulty of hawaii. It will suck replacements and reinforcements like a vortex. PH is likely out of reach from amphibious assault if your opponent is smart. Without knowing if your esteemed opponent has overlowed the area with ENG too, I would bet on it. That makes the campaign boil down to naval and air attrition, and who is willing to lose more. I would not be overconfident that you are outproducing the combined American airpower as spring comes on. F4F, P40E, P39D as well as leftover prior models. Thats 105 planes / month alone without the new squadrons coming in, which are considerable. IMHO, you should be aware, he has PH which is an unlimited airbase / no overstacking penanties and functionally impossible to knock out. One thing is certain, there is not going to be a winner any time soon barring a magnificent event, so if this is your guadalcanal, what are your updated goals, expectations, and loss limits (not that you have to tell us) - and how are you going to achieve them.

Banzai!



FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/22/2010 6:27:41 PM)

Unfortunately, looks like my opponent saw through my plans, and with the Pacific Fleet remaining uncommitted, even in the best case I cannot achieve my main strategic goal unless he obliges me. I'll try to lay some traps and sneak KB between Hawaii and the West Coast once it replenishes, but this is just gambling on a lucky chance. By necessity, now I must seize whatever opportunities the flow of the game presents, because it is too late to change my strategic direction.

So if Yubari seems to be willing to engage in attritional air warfare, even though his fighters are no match for mine. I intend to capitalize upon this. Allies plane pools cannot be in good condition, considering the flying collection of antiquities I saw over Oahu and conspicous absence of AVG ever since the battle for Hawaii proper began. His raid at Johnston also indicates that he is not going to abandon the direction completely. Maybe cleaning up other islands will give Japanese superior positions for the convoy war. Unfortunately, we have a HR against strategic bombing, so starving Oahu completely might be extremely hard (even if local resource production will not be enough to feed a large garrizon and air force).

I'm on the fence about plans for the future. If I do not intend to storm Oahu in the spring - and the probability of success there seems quite low considering how extremely strong resistance at Hilo is - sending entire 25th Army to Hawaii might be excessive. In this case it's probably better to continue air campaign over Hawaii while using my reserves to take parts of northern Australia, Aleutians and other secondary parts of the perimeter. Also, some parts of the Singapore force would be very welcome at Burma and Northern Sumatra, to safeguard against the possibility of British moving there in force. More recon is needed! I'm sending some NavGuards to The Big Islands, to hopefully adjust Japanese AV favorably, and rotating bombardment battleship crew (two old BBs retreat for reloading, two more from Kwajalein). I've sent Nagato and Mutsu to DEI, as they cannot reload ammo any closer than Truk and need some repairs. Yamato will be in the cover force instead of them.



FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/22/2010 8:08:59 PM)

Burma

We chased a bunch of British base forces into deep jungle. Now the question is how to exterminate them.

Otherwise, the only action was sweeps against Calcutta. Yubari seems to be willing to stand and fight there. Not the greatest idea, because losses of Oscars to Hurricanes are roughly 1:1. Not counting Bufallos and Fulmars. While this no doubt incurs heavier cost in pilots on Japanese, British squadrons, in turn, fly CAP instead of 100% training, so this battle nicely disrupts their buildup of air strength. This will stop working in June, when British get better Hurricanes and 36 of them per month (now their reinforcements are limited to 16 Hurricanes IIa per month), but it's much better if these reinforcements will be used to revive a deeply depleted airforce, rather than form the vanguard of a healthy one. I need another full-strength Sentai, besides 1st, in this theatre, though. Small air units tend to get busted in a single combat.

And the main body of 77th Sentai refuses to upgrade to Ki-43-Ic too... I might try to gather all elements of 77th in one place, downgrade them to Nates, rebuild the unit and upgrade it as a whole.



[image]local://upfiles/33131/A3DC73EABBB749AF893DA621FD134132.jpg[/image]



FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/22/2010 8:25:41 PM)

China

Finally stabilized to the point where I no longer fear a massive collapse if my esteemed opponent pushes in the right places. Chinese southern army is in full retreat and probably will require a lot of time to recover. I beat up another corps and and an element there since my last report, approximately 350 more Chinese squads were squashed. Now my main body will return to retake Pucheng from Chinese engineers, which snuck into it and to make a fake move on Chuhsien. Then I hope to use an armored unit to slip between Chuhsien and Wenchow, and either provoke a retreat, allowing another piecemeal defeat, or seize the hexside control, allowing my main force to march on weakly-held Wenchow and take it. Or something like that. I need to bomb Chuhsien and see what sort of force holds it.

Chinese Ichang army just attempted some mischief at Hankow but retreated upon seeing that city remains held by a respectable number of units. Chinese Sian army seems to have stopped their retreat. It is attrited a bit, but still dangerous. And a bunch of troops moved to Tsiaotso. Without a road to retreat by, they are very dead, once my main force reaches the railroad.

I started removing aviation from Chinese front in the light of recent successes. There is still much hard fighting ahead, and, in particular, a new Chinese attempt to Nanyang can be dangerous, but I believe there is finally a clear path in sight after the time of uncertainty that followed my defeat on the road to Sian.

[image]local://upfiles/33131/266DAC6C942B44A0B507F70A146962A1.jpg[/image]



FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/22/2010 8:42:44 PM)

Detailed Air Losses

Carnage continues. Notably, overall Allied A2A losses overshot Japanese, with 325 aircraft downed outright in air combat throughout a little less than a month since the last report in exchange for 198. Unfortunately, huge losses on the ground at Kona prevented Japanese from closing the overal loss gap... Of note are huge Jake losses throughout this period (31 in A2A alone!). Oahu monster CAP certainly did a number on these planes. Mavises and Catalinas seem much more survivable when flying in CAPped areas.




[image]local://upfiles/33131/BC6234D7FD044A46B6F7A3F4306AA04C.jpg[/image]



FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/22/2010 8:54:22 PM)

Pilot Losses and Pilot Situation

Proportion of pilot losses to plane losses improved somewhat in the last month. Still, pilot losses remain huge. And many of them were elite naval pilots. Situation with IJNAF pilots, while not immediately critical (I still can maitain crack crews for all frontline units) remains quite troublesome (I still cannot crew newly-arriving units with good pilots and they must train up before going to the frontline). IJAAF almost swims in trained pilots, though.





[image]local://upfiles/33131/4CF15DA48F71454FAF95C19F8F2B1856.jpg[/image]



FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/22/2010 9:10:36 PM)

Heroes of the Empire

I must say pilots of Tainan Ku S-1 really got their stuff together lately. Their start of the war was rather unlucky (Saburo Sakai went missing over Luzon and a couple of other experten were shot down as well), but in fights over Loemadjang on Java and Kona the rest of the pilots avenged their fallen comrades, shooting down 60 Allied planes overall in exchange for 31 plane of their own, with only 11 lost in A2A. Even in the darkest day at Kona Tainan Kokutai was mostly spared, losing only 8 Zeros (included in the totals above). Their pilot losses are 8 KIA, 5 MIA, 4 WIA and the average experience of the survivors is 70, as many of them trained up in battles.

Valiant 24th Regiment also should be mentioned. These guys stormed Rabaul, Port Moresby, Horn Island, now Hilo and somehow the unit remains at 93/99 strength (experience is 84 and morale is 98). There are rumors on the frontlines that Colonel Inuzuka is just very good at letting other units (like 17th Regiment, that got nearly obliterated at Hilo) take the brunt of Allied wrath, but success of his regiment during the assault on Horn Islands dispels such slander. Southern Army's tacticians note, that the success of 24th needs to be analyzed deeper, with both TOE and leadership decisions compared to other units.



FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/22/2010 9:25:22 PM)

Japanese Industry

The Empire is still resource-negative and I don't know what can be done to fix this, other than shutting down some LI.

Also, I need to cut down on tanker acceleration in the near future, combined with the ships laid down during this month it eats Merchant SY points way too fast. Some more armament factories can be shut down safely. And they will be, to save HI points for engines/airframes.





[image]local://upfiles/33131/F9872579D7584B5B931D6BCE4782F410.jpg[/image]



FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/22/2010 9:45:20 PM)

Aircraft Production

You can notice some major changes in bomber production easily. Ki-49-Ia became available and I'm shooting for 80 of these planes per month. Ki-21-IIa production was reduced to 72/month. IJAAF has a hard land-bombing campaign in Hawaii ahead (because there is no way I'm going to expend Betties on ground-pounding), so they need much more 2E bombers. Not all units have even recovered from their early-war losses, and the only Army bomber I have in ample numbers is Ki-36 (Ki-32s and Ki-30s pools are practically expended).

Also, Rufe is now available. Too bad not many seaplane units can upgrade to them.

[image]local://upfiles/33131/0F6D0E215A1941EDAAF7A6B16BBD0A3D.jpg[/image]



FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/22/2010 9:58:52 PM)

Naval Production

No, extra carriers of this mod are not the greatest surprise that will avait Allies in 1943. I pondered a bit whether I should accelerate Shokaku-Kais or Unryus, and, seeing how cautious my opponent is with his carriers, decided in the favor of the latter. They will give more planes on decks for the same expenditure of Naval SY points and they will be available just as the appearance of Essex-class carriers might make my opponent confident in his carrier superiority. Shokaku-Kais likely cannot arrive before the point Japanese will be forced to stop their expansion, so it's better to have more carriers for the Decisive Battle (tm) with 1943-early 1944.


[image]local://upfiles/33131/802C3F64FC204AF88147AAF4CF8F8D8C.jpg[/image]



topeverest -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/23/2010 12:59:14 AM)

oil falling at this time. Fuel on the slight rise. Seems to be nearly a 1 for 1 swap. Might want to look into that. I would be more comfortable if your oil and fuel were on the clear rise...but at least not going down fast.

Oscar 1C much better dogfighter than Zero from a maneuver perspective...something else to think about if you are not already.
A6M2 Manever zones 33 / 33 / 27 / 21 / 10 - speeds 331 / 207 climb 2640
Oscar 1C 46 / 46 / 37 / 28 / 19 - 305 / 199 3555

Allies will fear a well piloted 1c!



bklooste -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (8/23/2010 11:11:01 AM)

Molokai and Lihue need to be taken ASAP it is very likely he has very little there. Lahaina will be a tough nut. 

One question is has he gutted Oahu to defend the other islands ?



FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (9/2/2010 7:55:30 PM)

I'm moving TFs to seize non-defended Molokai (a Fast Transport TF there) and weakly defended Lihue right now.

As about fighters, while Oscar so far proved itself an excellent low-altitude dogfighter, whenever Japanese fought on equal or better terms, it is too undergunned to defeat Allied bombers. I plan to use Oscars instead of Zeros on sweeps whenever possible.

Anyway...

April 3-9, 1942: First Cracks in the Sword

Well, save the last day or two, this was the most frustrating week of the war, and, combined with my RL problems, this was one of the reasons I didn't post updates. First of all, Allied 4E night bombing proved to be exceptionally murderous (unlike ineffective 2E night attacks). Not only night-flying Fortresses racked Zero air kills, while remaining untouchable, the effects on the ground were exceptionally devastating, until Kona reached level 4 and then 5. All in all, I lost about 100 planes there. Not many pilots, obviously, but still, Zero pools dropped to the levels where I was forced to downgrade some of the training squadrons in Home Islands to Claudes.

Second, my subs apparently stocked on trophy American torpedos, because I saw quite a long string of duds (or misses against escorts). In return, Allied ASW TFs sank RO-65 and damaged several more boats.

Third, and most importantly, I suffered a significant naval defeat at Malacca Strait, that featured major miscoordination, command mistakes and loss of a first Japanese major warship in the war. More on this later, when I have the time.

However, on April 8-9 luck turned towards Japanese. They routed the small Chinese force at Tsiaotso - unfortunately, my esteemed opponent saw the predicament he was placing his forces into too early for my liking, so only over 300 squads were destroyed. On April 9th, Imperial Guards brigade took Balikpapan and, thanks to a stroke of fortune or the preceding bombing campaign against Dutch troops, both oil and refinery were seized at 294/300. Which is awesome. Yubari now pulls Allied forces from Medan, and this means that DEI oil will fall into my hands with really miniscule damage.



topeverest -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (9/2/2010 10:40:31 PM)

Agree need to act in Hawaii. I like the idea of taking more islands, if only to reduce his options, as long as the forces committed will not make a difference on the big island. I doubt any small base or beach is well held. Such attacks will increase risk to the surface fleet, but I agree you should proceed in taking as many of the islands that are easy to take. Then I would want to get as many patrols out there as feasible.



PaxMondo -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (9/3/2010 5:51:29 AM)

PH-> tough nut.  Even more difficult than I thought.  Great read here.



FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (9/3/2010 8:10:37 AM)

Also, I forgot to mention, that SS Tuna torpedoed Akagi near Johnston on April 4. Until that moment my combat TFs led a charmed existence, with no attacks against major warships despite operating for weeks in sub-infested waters. Or combination of air ASW effort and several ASW TFs running around Kona was successful at suppressing American subs. One torpedo exploded and Akagi was mission-killed, with speed dropping to 3 hexes. This is bad news, as with only 5 carriers I'm not willing to fight American CVs now.


Naval Battle of Malacca Strait, April 5.

On 4th, I sent a convoy from Singapore to unload a regiment at Tandjoengbalai (the port right south of Medan) previously captured by small Japanese elements that marched overland from Southern Sumatra. With naval search flying from varios bases, including Georgetown, I hoped that RN should be located if it lurks within the striking distance. Also, convoy was covered by the TF that consisted of CLs Kuma, Yura and Kitakami with 6 DDs (mostly old) and 1 TB.

By the autumn of 5th, troops were unloaded and I order both the convoy and the escort to retreat. Except, I totally forgot to cancel unloading orders for the convoy. So its cover retreated down the strait, while the convoy itself was left in a vulnerable position. And of course, British were lurking just around the corner:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Tandjoengbalai at 47,78, Range 10,000 Yards
Japanese Ships
DD Hakaze, Shell hits 12, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
TB Kasasagi, Shell hits 2, on fire
TB Kari, Shell hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
PB Daiya Maru, Shell hits 12, and is sunk
PB Kogane Maru
xAK Ume Maru, Shell hits 13, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAK Kyokusei Maru, Shell hits 40, and is sunk
xAK Anzan Maru, Shell hits 6, and is sunk
xAK Konzan Maru, Shell hits 2, and is sunk
xAK Seisyo Maru, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAK Tazan Maru
xAK Zyunyo Maru, Shell hits 24, and is sunk
xAK Kusuyama Maru, Shell hits 8, and is sunk
xAK Rasin Maru, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk

Allied Ships
BB Prince of Wales
BC Repulse
CA Dorsetshire
CA Exeter
CL Hobart
CL Glasgow
CL Caledon, Shell hits 1
DD Electra, Shell hits 1
DD Express
DD Napier
DD Norman

Allied Ships Reported to be Approaching!
Japanese TF suspends unloading operations and begins to get underway
Improved night sighting under 78% moonlight

Sub attacks on 4th claimed xAK Tazan Maru, leaving Kasasagi and Kagane Maru as the only survivors.

Woes did not end on that. The cover SCTF, now far away from the battle, reacted and ended up next to Georgetown at the morning. British carrier Albacores attacked it. Japanese ships maneuvered well, but 42 stringbag sorties in a day was too much. Kuma took 2 torpedos and Yura 3. Miraculously, both remained afloat and were ordered to retreat towards Georgetown and the small port next to it and to disband into ports there (I picked two ports to avoid putting all eggs in one basket if Yubari decides to hunt the cripples in force). He didn't, but Yura failed to disband into port in time and was finished by S-37. This is the first loss of a Japanese surface combatant above DD in the war.

Japanese aviation did not sortie, despite a lot of Betties in Palembang being well in range. Probably they chickened out of flying without escorts. As the only bright spot, I-123 found BB Resolution north of Medan and put a single torpedo into it, which hopefully will force some shipyard time.

On the same April 5, Allied cruisers raided Midway and sank a four-ship supply TF. It was my mistake to leave it around for long. However, this shows that Yubari is prone to react whenever Japanese ships are sighted at Midway or Johnston. Also, he doesn't fly search, instead reconning these islands. I think I can stage things so that his raiders will be met by Adm. Tanaka who itches to test the new secret weapon of the Empire.



janh -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (9/3/2010 10:39:31 AM)

What is the situation in Hawaii? Is Pearl remaining isolated from the Westcoast, or do you need to bring KB back?  I would think you will need it there, 5CVs or not, and you'll need a lot more naval units, air, and LCU to generate a center of gravity and overwhelm the US quickly, before the amphib bonus passes.  You need to get a foothold on Pearl quickly, and bomb it into the stone age.  This may be costly in air frames and squads in the short term, but you need to close down Pearl for his airforce and navy.   Else you will find yourself in a battle of attrition, which I am sure your opponent would love to see happening so close to the West Coast.   And as long as both you and him have part of those islands, both you and him have the benefit of an unsinkable CV adding to a carrier battle around that place.  And this battle must occur sooner than later.

Better sooner, it could be to your advantage to keep strategic initiative for a longer time frame.  In that case you could later transfer the massive forces you'll need there now (say at the least 5 or 6 more divs, maybe more?) back to other theaters and continue strategic offensives into 1943.   This would be very well possible if the West Coast would be isolated from Australia by a Japanese Hawaii and Line Islands, and the supply routes to Australia and India very stretched.  The USN would have to approach by long routes, be likely discovered early in any amphib attempt, and would likely first have to retake the unsinkable CV Hawaii in first place anyway, with high losses.  You could wreak havoc on Columbo, in Australia or whereever you wanted into late 1943...

Meanwhile MiniKB should try to deal with the British Navy in the Indian Ocean and set a trap... you need to get rid of those bugs in the Indian Theater...



FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (9/3/2010 11:07:17 AM)

Doesn't the amphibious bonus last only to the end of March? Anyway, there is no chance to land on Oahu in April. I'll send three divisions from Singapore to take Lahaina and help with Hilo within the next turn or two - troops really needed R&R after the siege and then I was afraid to form a super-convoy, after RN was spotted moving south - Singapore is reconned by Allies at the moment could have paid off really well. I will not storm Oahu until every other island is taken and a lot of barges and xAKLs are concentrated to land troops swiftly even without the amphibious bonus.

As I said above, right at them moment significant forces sail to take Molokai (from Kwajalein) and Lihue (from Tokyo). Mini-KB will cover the landings (I expect to land at Molokai in 2-3 days), and the landing at Molokai will be preceded by an all-out assault by LBA airgroups against Oahu CAP (that did not happen yet because I have ships at risk around Kona). I have strong doubts about PH isolation at the moment, because the list of ships present in the port recently have changed. Hilo is isolated by sea - SCTF at Kona would have reacted to any transport movements - however, looks like Americans are airlifting troops to there (this might be the real explanation for the surge of Catalina losses to CAP). I intend to use KB to make sweep either between PH and West Coast or around Palmira, to hunt for convoys and hiding raider groups, once carriers replenish their planes, pilots and sorties (at the moment KB is almost at Kwaj).



FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (9/3/2010 3:13:36 PM)

April 9: Subs as Scouts.

On this day I-28 confirmed my suspicion that Allied surface raiders hang somewhere around Palmyra by putting a torpedo in CA San Francisco. I do wish my subs one day accomlish more than spotting the enemy, though. Out of three recent hits on major Allied surface combatants, this is the third time in a row only one torpedo connected and exploded (not counting outright misses).

Meanwhile, Sallies raided PH port at high altitude and hit nothing. The return Allied raid also hit nothing, but two Zeros were shot down in the air. On the next day they will bonb Kona, while almost every fighter from Kona airfield will sweep Oahu (Mini-KB hopefully will provide CAP.


On Destroyer Upgrades and Conversions.

I really feel that there is no point to upgrade Minekazes until 1944. A few extra 25mm
guns are not worth sacrificing half the guns (which are DP guns, and can fire at aircraft as well) and 2/3rds of the torpedos. APD conversion might be very well worth it from August 1942, when Minekaze-class APDs get a very sweet upgrade, with better DCs and even radar! Then you can just use them as convoy escorts, assuming you're not hurting for surface combatants. Until that, they should only be converted in case of dire need in APDs. And probably converted for that role first, because they have the best load of all converted APDs.
Kamikaze-class loses only 25% of DP guns and 1/3rd of torpedos on the first upgrade. Still, might be worth not upgrading them until the second upgrade in 1943. If one desires more radar-equipped ASW escorts, Kamikaze APDs get their good upgrade in 42/12.
Converting Wakatake-class is a coin toss. Both DD path upgrade and APD path upgrade that make them good ASW combatants are available from 43/2. DDs fire twice as many cans, but APDs get Type 2 DCs more than a year earlier. The choice should be dependent on the tactical situation.
Momi-class loses a lot of top speed when converted, making their usefulness as APDs very questionable. They probably should stay DDs.
Mutsuki-class carries Long Lances, therefore converting them to APDs is out of the question.



topeverest -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (9/3/2010 7:10:44 PM)

Re Malacca Straights - getting the escort an escorted seperated happens to everyone. It definately happens to me. If you split the escort and amphibious then eventually you will fub up the orders, or the commander initiative will let them split. If they are together, you let the enemy right in to attack the AP and AK. Between the two, the former is obviously better. besides, you you got whacked on the way back - after already delivering the troops. As far as Betties not attacking, IMHO, have to allocate escorts to maximize their effectiveness at sea. If naval attack skill below 70, you will have limited success, so choose your naval attack squadrons carefully. 2 well preapred squadrons are better than 6 'almost' prepared squadrons.



FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (9/5/2010 11:10:15 AM)

April 10, 1942: Payback

Massed sweeps were launched against Oahu, and I finally got lucky: 3rd Ku went in first, and, being the biggest of my units, with 44 fighters in the raid, as well as the most experienced, was detected at close range, so most enemy fighters were caught scrambling, and this broke the back of American CAP (85 US Army fighters, including Mohawks, from 15 airgroups - looks like most of American squadrons are understrength). Last sweeps in the day didn't even met any resistance. Japanese losses for the day were 11 a2a (2 to night-flying B-17s), 9 ops, with 11 pilots KIA or MIA. Allies lost 38 a2a, 7 ops.

Another piece of good news: a search Glen spotted Allied carriers not far from San Diego. Strangely, a CVL was sighted among them, which makes the sighting suspicious.

Japanese also seized Medan without damage to oilfields and refineries. This finishes the conquest of SRA. The Java army surrounded at Malang, though, fought off the today's attack with large casualties to Japanese. But at least engineers dropped the forts. Imperial Guards brigade probably will be needed to end this without heavy losses.

The invasion of Molokai commences tomorrow. USN subs swarm around in unprecedented numbers (but, thankfully, defective torpedos and vigorous ASW efforts prevented any further damage so far), and there are warships detected at PH, so the cover will include an ASW TF and a heavy SCTF with two battleships. I do not want the SCTF to react into Oahu minefields against PT boats, so it is set to patrol at Molokai at Reaction 0.

Meanwhile, another TF will unload reinforcements on the Big Island.

Evening of April 10 around Hawaii:


[image]local://upfiles/33131/84AA643B3A914DDFB5FFF13C86BDEB0B.jpg[/image]



topeverest -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (9/5/2010 1:51:17 PM)

Molokai?

That decisive battle you are looking for is coming soon! Mini KB as the escort. I hope you have about 10 CA and 6 BB's to come along! You have serious guts. Lets see if fortune will favor the bold!



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