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Thurmonator -> Taking Rabul in early September '42??? (1/14/2003 2:08:56 AM)
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Hello avid players,
This being my first post requires some intro stuff. Firstly, thanks to Matrix and 2 By 3 for making such a wonderful wargame. I remember putting hours and hours (and more hours) into a game called Guadalcanal, by Gary, and put out by SSI, on my Apple IIe, which spurred many future trips to the library to find books and info about the Pacific theatre in WW2. Well, here I am, what 15 years later, or should I say, two marriages and three kids later, playing the same basic game, albeit much improved and expanded with 15 more years of experience under the developers' collective belts.
I cannot wait to see War in the Pacific, and would love, love, love to see a remake of North Atlantic '86 with the kinds of additions that you've made with UV.
With that now said, let me turn to my experiences with my first game: Scen.17 - playing as the US vs. AI IJN, all historical settings at and 100% ship commitments. This may somewhat read like an AAR, but there's more...
May 42 - Moved as many ground units as I could to PM from Australia, to protect it from invasion. Avoided Jap CV's and didn't worry about Lunga or Tulagi yet. By the end of May, Japs had taken Buna and Gili Gili. My CVs had a few small scraps with Jap CVs and came away a little bruised but usable. I didn't sink any of his but I did damage a few.
June 42 - Using the built-up, heavily reinforced base of PM, now with B-17 support, in early June, I recaptured Gili Gili and Buna with the 7th Australian division and some elements of the New Guinea Force and the 3rd division. Supplying bases early on is a problem, but that will alleviate itself in time with more AK's and AP's on the way. With the arrivals of 2 more carriers, I commence to reinforce Lunga and start building up Tulagi, which although undefended, the Japanese did not endeavor to capture as of yet. Well it seems that I beat them to it as the first major Carrier vs. Carrier battle happened while I was defending my transports at Lunga. It was 5 on 5 as far as I could tell, and the US came out victorius with 2 CVL's sunk on the IJN side, and the Lexington put out of commission, but not sunk, on the US side. The Japs retreated leaving their transports defenseless. I sunk many during those few days. In New Guinea, not much action, just getting the supply lines worked out, and reinforcing PM and GG with Air Groups.
July 42 - Although the Japs caught me once with a night raid to Lunga, I learned their trick and slowly starting creaming their transports with nightly raids of my own into the Shortlands. with the Lex gone and the Yorktown joined up with the other carriers, I had a good many DD's to work with. Most of the time, I would catch APs docked, and I racked up the kills, but a few times, they had nice Surface Combat TF's waithing for me, putting a hurting on my TF. So by the end of July, my bombardment TF's were down to a few DD's. But that was OK as the 1st Marine Division was coming to town. I also moved SOPAC to Lunga and SWPAC to PM for the needed support troops.
Early August 42 - Sent full 1st Marine division into Shortlands. Using 5 carriers as a screening force, what was left of the Air Force from all the bombardments of the Shortlands was no threat to my invasion forces. By the time that the Japs knew what had happened , they scrambled their available CV's which took the hammer this time, and I managed to sink 2 more enemy CV's with very little damage to my own, only the Yorktown having to go back to PH. The Shortlands defense force was no match for the entire 1st Marine division with elements of the Americal division thrown in. I base all of the Lexington's and Yorktowns's planes on the Shortlands, and retreat 2 CV's back to Tulagi to refuel.
Late August 42 - With two new Australian divisions in Brisbane, I move one along with the New Guinea forces up to Lae, with two CV's in support released from duty over at Shortlands using the now numerous B-17s in PM to pound the heck out of that airfield, negating any air defense for the groud troops there. Lae falls to our forces, and we begin chaseing the remaining Japs around the region capturing all the other bases in that area. After Lae is secure, I send elements to Wewak and the other few bases along the northern New Guinea coast, and capture them all. Beyond some remaining troops that fled their bases, New Guinea is free of Japanese presence by September 1, 1942. Across the sea, at a very lightly defended Tulagi, the Jap AI makes a daring attempt to take the strategic port, but looses another CV and more transports in the process; mainly because of the 2 US CV's still in Tulagi, as well as a lot of LBA at Lunga and the Shortlands.
Questions???
Early September 42 - With New Guinea and the Shortlands taken care of, the question is, should I try to go ahead and take Rabaul? I have almost 2 infantry divisions with armor and the works all loaded up on AP's and ready to go. Do I reinforce my existing bases for an expected counter-attack? Build up new bases like Buka, that are closer to Rabaul? Or Take one of the two other bases on the same island as Rabaul? Or should I just go for Rabaul now?
At this point in the game, I have sunk 3 CV's, 2 CVL's, 2 CA's, 2 CL's, ~15 DD's, ~12 TK's, ~75 AP's. The Japs have sunk 3 CA's, 1 CL, ~20 DD's, ~4 AO's, and ~20 AP's. With that many AP's lost on the Jap side, can they mount an effective invasion at any time in the future? With 5 CV/CVL's gone, and not too many LBA at Rabaul, what would you do? Remember this is my first game, so I don't know what more the Japs will be throwing at me, but at this point, it seems as though I am winning very easily.
I will be truthful and say that in learing the game, I have done a few savegame reloads, but typically only when I made some newbie mistake in learning the interface and commands. No more though, as I have sufficiently learned the game to the point that I no longer want to reload.
I am looking forward to PBEM play, but I want to finish this first vs. AI game before I PBEM.
Thurmonator
Ps : I thought it was funny that I had two squadrons of B-17s show up without the planes, and no replacements on schedule for the B-17s. I guess these were units that I withdrew, that are coming back even though they do not have the replacement planes yet.
Also, really, how neccessary is it bring ground units back to Noumea or Brisbane? I mean, even a tired outfit would be better than no outfit in defending a base. It only seems to make sense for supply issues, and that would only be later in the game when there are a lot more troops available to be thrown around, and not enough supply available to bases far away.
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