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Warspite3 -> A boiling hot Pacific! (6/20/2010 5:24:04 AM)
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This is not really worthy enough to call it a true AAR (no pics and not much detail) but it is basically kind of like that although I was trying to write more of a review of my game. So since it is more of a rough AAR then anything else, I decided to post it here. I spent several hours yesterday playing the pacific campaign as US. I have now realized this game is NOT a pushover. It has been a struggle since the start fighting Japan. Early during the game, I attacked one of their main fleets with carrier strikes and I had a huge victory at sea by sinking several ships and some carriers. When I tell you I put them on the bottom I put them on the bottom, I was so happy with the results. After this, I thought I had a solid advantage and was able to smell victory, that was until Japan just rapidly started taking over everything! Maybe I am just used to some other games where the AI just kind of sits there and don't do too much but man this Japanese AI in SotP is all over the place! They are aggressively taking over everything! They have taken nearly all of china, more then half of southeast asia, the philippines, borneo and counting, I can't stop them but it is only mid 1942 so its early yet. So I assembled a force out of pearl harbor of 3 cv fleets each with 1 carrier group and 3 patrol groups and sent them off to fight Japanese fleets while I wait for my battleships at pearl to be repaired. Those fleets seens some decent action and was doing ok. I also had a tactical bomber group in johnston island and a strategic bomber group at midway (both with good commanders) that was inflicting some solid damage on japanese ships
After a short while, I realized I had to do something because Japan has no mercy and are not stopping. So I started planning to take back the philippines. I was finally able to fully repair all of my battleships from the pearl harbor attack, took a few months. Then I assembled 2 surface action fleets which consisted of 3 battle groups and 1 patrol group each. After this I put together a transport fleet with 1 patrol group and 6 transports carrying infantry divisions. Then I put an invasion fleet together at san francisco, 1 battlegroup and 3 amphibious ships w/ 2 inf div and 1 inf corp and sent them off to hawaii. The corp I put general MacArthur in command for historical flavor ("i shall return") and fun, plus he is good. Then I had all ships at pearl pull anchor and set course straight to the philippines with davao as my main target. I was going to take back the philippines! Or at least I thought.
Well, my fleets were not even able to make it to the celebes sea. Once i entered the caroline islands sea zone, all hell broke lose. I was surrounded by Japanese fleets, some were powerful! So I unleashed airstrikes from all 3 cv task forces, delivering some minimal to moderate damage. I ended up in a few surface engagements and suffered some damage, even losing a loaded transport. I remained in the caroline islands for 2 more weeks (2 turns) launching strikes from my carriers but this time delivering minimal damage After ending up in more surface battles, I was slowly starting to realize I need to get my forces landed on davao asap. So I said heck with it, I am continuing my progress west towards the celebes sea. So I moved my 4 surface/landing fleets to the celebes sea and left my 3 cv task forces in caroline islands. Well, just after entering celebes, I encountered another japanese fleet and ended up into a heavy surface battle. I lost 2 more transports and suffered heavy damage. I was losing, yep losing and at this point too many valuable ships were sent to the bottom. The celebes sea has become a watery grave. Now, the worst thing happened, I was only able to get 1 div landed because I lost the corp and the other div. After this, I was not able to bombard with my offshore battle group, not sure why and then my only landed div ran into supply issues. I then realized I made many mistakes here, from planning this attack to the forces I had assembled for it. Just too many mistakes. One was I should have used amphibious ships for my other div instead of tranports. The transports cannot make amphibious assaults and I knew this but I guess I forgot when I assembled the fleets. Another I was not flying enough recon, for whatever reason I just was not doing it and payed the price. Well, this game is still going on and is far from over but I can tell you things are not going too good for the US. If I don't start taking some ground back, the pacific will get overun by japanese forces. I had recently put 6 new carrier groups and 6 sub groups on order with more inf divs. Hopefully all of these will help turn the tide on this war. I do realized the US has to struggle a bit early in the war but can come back strong later as in most pacific war games and in history, so hopefull I will get my comeback. BANZAI? No sir! I will stop them! [:D]
Ok back to the war...
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