RE: Groundhog Day!

RE: Groundhog Day! (Full Version)

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Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (8/23/2015 9:47:47 PM)
Lae gets a surprise raid by cruisers. [image]local://upfiles/45141/6350689576F14B4A901486A034CE8B73.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (8/23/2015 9:49:38 PM)
The day after Port Moresby falls, troops unload at Buna attempting to cut off retreat. [image]local://upfiles/45141/E201571D4C7249FE9F121929106ADA54.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (8/23/2015 10:12:00 PM)
NJP attacks Chungking for the 3rd time. The fortifications hold and he faces massive disablements. [image]local://upfiles/45141/FE92C220BD0E4ED5944C4B6CD0FCBDBA.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (8/31/2015 7:29:36 PM)
I saw my counterpart's thread show up and it appears to be a good time for a status update. It is the middle of June. Many ships are in upgrades or will be upgraded. I still have about 200 ships to get into the docks for this month. Next month is a bunch of destroyers for gun updates. The naval groups are getting hellcat and dauntless 5 upgrades. Port Moresby is a level 6 airfield. It is supplying Buna which is level 2. I made a venture into the northern dot islands next to Finschafen but bombardments and airborne assaults took the islands back. I have put a significant foothold on Gasmata as well. Troops will move into Torokina within a week or two and capture that base. It is just a matter of building up enough bases close enough to shut down Rabaul and it's sister airfields. Right now NJP is making a show of his carriers up near Kavieng. I have a surprise for him, lets see what happens. [image]local://upfiles/45141/99D812F21D274E0E99B9A2017EB23795.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (8/31/2015 7:40:08 PM)
Slide Right.... I need some time to build up airfields and also get supplies built up in the Solomon Sea area. Several islands are causing an inconvenience for me at this time in the pacific. Ocean Island and Nauru need to be taken down to simplify supply transport. I am picking up a regiment at Tabituea for placement on Ocean Island. That base has one construction battalion that has had the piss knocked out of it for a while. Nauru island is another matter. It has something in the order of 18 units with 240 guns and 120 tanks. It is also a level 3 airfield. The plan is to move close to Nauru island and hopefully catch some dive bombers sleeping. Next turn bombardments go in to take down the airfield. If that is sucessful then I have the seas on equal terms with NJP. The essex is sailing west with a handful of smaller CV's to join the party. I am moving the bulk of my naval fighters to the theatre through Ndeni. Lets see if I can catch NJP off center or possibly catch his carriers in a disadvantageous position. [image]local://upfiles/45141/516D0A190E8D406DA9548A6B0E029636.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/1/2015 1:46:22 AM)
The BB Mutsu was torpedoed once in a surface engagement. It appears that it is hit again off the coast of Kavieng. [image]local://upfiles/45141/20F618094F3949F4A3639C7C47643143.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/3/2015 1:29:31 AM)
Orphan Ann informed me that a bunch of my capital ships were destroyed off of Rabaul... [image]local://upfiles/45141/2ABDFFC5F0A2468CBE4299D3A2D60B1F.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/3/2015 1:57:34 AM)
Late June 1943. I managed to take Ocean Island but was rejected at Nauru. I have the airfield closed by bombers. Lae and Finschafen are also seriously damaged. I have a large task force heading for Terapo and two medium task forces getting ready near Kira Kira. The task force for Terapo goes in tomorrow covered by the majority of my main CV's and a lot of LRCAP from Port Moresby and Buna. Several destroyer raids were sucessful lately so a couple more are going in to Rabaul tonight with light cruiser task forces lining up for tomorrow night. I want to make the whole Solomon Sea area dangerous for NJP. Then I need to shut down a few airfields and begin bombarding Rabaul. [image]local://upfiles/45141/748BDC4FE61547908E7B87E84B387A20.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/7/2015 7:14:05 PM)
Mid July 1943. Waiting for bases at Port Moresby and Buna to reach lvl 8/9 before I begin really pounding Rabaul and the vicinity. Sent another attack to Nauru island. Hopefully this time will be less hazardous for my troops. 1 day out I was spotted by NJP's bombers. The port/airfield has been bombed daily for weeks. Dont see much flak but that doesnt mean he is out of supply. This time we park the transports at the island and unload on the next morning phase which should be the turn after this next one. I am dropping a division plus 2 regiments plus a tank unit plus a tank destroyer unit plus a boat and shore unit. Most are not prepped for the attack but if I can manage to keep them on the island I should be ok. The majority of my carriers and a good bit of surface forces are following along to bombard and provide naval support. The KB is in an unknown location and could be as close as Truk. If and when this amphibious landing is sucessful the plan is to swing up and take out makin which has been bombed clear of troops. Once this is done the supply lines can shorten up considerably. [image]local://upfiles/45141/5C70F96554E14860AC98EB5D2B3AC5A4.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/10/2015 2:28:17 PM)
July 21, 1943 I am looking at the map 10 days ago and it is hard to accept the progress I have made. Seems more like 3 weeks. Buna will go to lvl 8 tomorrow and then have 560 aircraft capacity. Port Moresby is 25% to lvl 9. The Lae and Finschafen airfields are in bad shape, I am not sure that anything could fly on them. The current plan is to move up some AV onto Buin and further if necessary. NJP has 200 fighters at Rabaul. Once I get close enough I want to attack with 200-300 fighters, all my bombers and then come in under all that stuff with a couple hundred naval planes and see what a mess I can make of the place. He has several large STF's at Rabaul which I would like to take a shot at. The map with search off just seemed too quiet ;] [image]local://upfiles/45141/D09573990EA34B9EB1EED866EF616B54.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/10/2015 2:38:40 PM)
I smashed into Nauru island in the worst way. I lost a couple thousand troops, mishandled day 2 and was in poor shape. 9 days later I am nearing 400AV with my opponent at 150AV behind lvl 4 forts without supply. I can bombard and bomb the island for a while. He currently has 9380 troops based on the bombardment report. In the Pacific I have found that Kusai island is unmanned by Japanese forces which makes me want to grab it quick and I was on the way but I have no idea where the KB is and Ponape has a lvl 4 airfield soooooo..... I bent my forces up north. Stacking is a nightmare when you are the Allies and have more stuff than you know what to do with. But it makes the game more realistic and thus fun so I am dealing with too much stuff everywhere and not another place to put it. Time to expand.... I grabbed Ebon and Namorik last turn. NJP has few fighters and bombers in this area and I think was either surprised by my move or has conceded this sector. Last game it fizzled out and was not really part of the war anyway. This game will be different. Given that the KB is not on top of us and I have a bit of warning and NJP has no idea where I am going to go next turn I think I have 1-3 days before any serious opposition shows up. Tomorrow I will have boat and shore units unload on alinglaplap and I have a regiment of marines plus AA and a base force to follow up on this island as it stacks 10k Another force is heading for Majuro and I want to capture at least one more dot base to the northern side of these islands. [image]local://upfiles/45141/CD73C2319DB54ED582FCB672F0046BA3.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/10/2015 2:53:38 PM)
This is how I know that I caught NJP flat footed. He never risks his transports unecessarily. This is one of the few strikes I have gotten on them all war. [image]local://upfiles/45141/6C1BEC36EDDE4289B4E76FF8CD7D012E.jpg[/image]

BBfanboy -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/10/2015 5:49:55 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Wargmr Another force is heading for Majuro and I want to capture at least one more dot base to the northern side of these islands. I would pick Bikini just to see what all the fuss is about ...[:)]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/12/2015 4:16:44 PM)
The Battle For Rabaul NJP had several large surface task forces under a 200 fighter cap at Rabaul. An allied plan was forming to perform a huge combined air and naval attack on the base to neutralize the task forces prior to any invasion planning. I needed to move them before moving forward was realistic. Buna is lvl 8 and Port Moresby is on the cusp of going lvl 9. On July 24, 2015 NJP sends out a cruiser surface task force. It encounters 2 anti-submarine ships and sinks one of them. I believe in a rare mistake on his part, NJP left the settings to 'Remain on Station' as the force was sitting just west of Buin in the morning. Several air task forces were dispatched to attack the surface fleet. The first one fails to do any damage. The 2nd attack manages to drop 3 500# bombs on the CA Aoba which bounce off and hit the CL Jintsu with 2 bombs and set it on fire. The 3rd attack gets 4 500# penetrating hits on the CL Jintsu and heavily damages it whila another 500# bomb bounces off the CA Furutaka. The 4th attack of the day is from dauntless carrying 1000# bombs and gets 2 penetrating hits on both heavy cruisers the Aoba and the Furutaka. At the end of the day we have 2 task forces of 7 ships which used to be 8 ships. At this distance the number of ships is usually accurate although I have never found the ship ID accurate at any range. Given the ships hit I am guessing at this point the CL Jintsu has sunk. [image]local://upfiles/45141/5508F40FF5E84366BB9379663349B583.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/12/2015 4:44:34 PM)
July 25th sees naval sorties to attempt to intercept the heavy cruisers on their way back to base. The first conflict involves combat with 4 heavy allied cruisers including the pensacola versus a Japanese surface task force fleet consisting of 3 light cruisers. The conflict is light with both sides trading some shells. The 2nd conflict involves the Pensacola CA task force against NJP's 2 BB task force the Hiei and Kirishima. Again there were minor hits on both sides before the task forces withdrew. The next conflict involves the CA Kako and the CA Chikuma against a CA task force lead by the Houston. The Kakao takes 5 shell hits and is set on fire along with minor other hits. The next conflict sees the Pensacola TF attacking the light cruiser task force of the Japanese again. In this case the light cruiser Abukuma is hit 6 times and takes heavy damage while the other 2 light cruisers are hit as well and are on fire. Again the Japanese BB's face off against the Pensacola task force and this time they hit the CA Louisville 3 times causing heavy fire and damage. The next battle finds the CA Chikuma and 4 destroyers against the Houston cruiser force and the Chikuma takes another 5 shell hits. After that battle the Houston CA force finds the CA Furutaka and puts 23 shells into her sinking her for good. During this combat 2 US Destroyers are sunk as well. The Houston CA task force now stripped of any destroyers comes into contact with the light cruiser task force and puts 13 shells into the CL Noshiro and 6 shells into the CL Abukuma with both of them having heavy fire and damage. The Japanese Battleship task force now locates the CA Hawkins that has taken a torpedo and several shells and is being escorted back to the base and sinks it along with it's DD escort. An American light cruiser task force locates the CA Kakao and puts another 23 shells into her for heavy fires and heavy damage. At this point, none of my 10 battleships were involved in the fracas... NJP sent several squadrons of unescorted bombers that got spanked over the course of the turn. And the objective still stands to take a bite out of Rabaul so.... BOMBARDMENT TIME!!!!

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/12/2015 5:15:18 PM)
On July 26, 1943 the Allied naval forces rush Rabaul to attempt to eliminate any wounded shipping and clear the port along with taking down the airfield. The first assault includes 5 slow battleships heading in from Gasmata. They encounter a Japanese DD and get 2 minor hits on it. The Japanese destroyer manages to peg 3 indifidual battleships as it's part of the bargain. The task forces then break off. The task forces re-engage and the Destroyer gets hit twice causing heavy fires and damage while getting another shell into a DD. The next battle involved an allied fast battleship group including the North Carolina and the Washington. These encounter 2 mine sweepers and sink them. At Rabaul the Destroyer yet again engages the slow battleship group and is sunk. 3 STF groups do manage to reach and bombard Rabaul and Namatani with satisfactory results. [image]local://upfiles/45141/2688B0DE7527463287E080501424C0FD.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/12/2015 5:24:15 PM)
Waves of heavy bombers come in and plaster the airfield and ports with more bombs and take out the support ships in the harbor. [image]local://upfiles/45141/4F767C2D89FD41A8B34C2BF931E1FB67.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/12/2015 7:53:08 PM)
Finally, at the end of all the festivities my CV's who just shot in from long range take a shot to make sure there isnt anything tasty left. Unfortunately, NJP had some heavy cap hanging out at Kavieng and Manus. [image]local://upfiles/45141/EA455D563C5E454CB0D39CDA457F065C.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/12/2015 7:56:38 PM)
Air Losses on the day It looks like I took out about 90 aircraft at Rabaul between bombardments and bombings. [image]local://upfiles/45141/394A5D1C2DB449A5AD371B17DFFEEAC9.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/12/2015 8:00:23 PM)
Aftermath... After a 3 day struggle I think that I ended up with the upper hand. It appears that the Japanese lost 4-5 light cruisers and 4 heavy cruisers. I have one heavy cruiser sunk with others that have significant damage but will return at a later date. We both lost our share of destroyers although I think the better hand might have gone to me on that one too. Damage control will decide that later. Losing 50 hellcats was painful but finishing off that heavy cruiser may have been worth it. That takes about 1/2 his heavy cruiser forces off the table I think. His BB's got away but so did mine. Here is a list of sunk ships. The Tone did not participate in the recent battles but is being tagged as one of the sunk ships. I am guessing the Aoba or the Kakao is being misidentified as the Tone or vice versa. That means it is likely he has lost one additional CA not on this list. [image]local://upfiles/45141/D2D30D5607F84773AA3932A27B0D0D16.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/17/2015 3:07:15 PM)
Early August 1943. Chungking falls. NJP picked up a few thousand VP's for that. I was surprised it was not more. Now he has troops to spare. I am moving troops back into India to prepare if he chooses to attack. It would not be advisable IMO but he does have 4000AV at least now to do what he wants with. I joked about him attacking Russia. In truth, the Russians stand ready with many in strat mode to move up north to prevent encirclement. I dont think he will go here but it is good policy to have troops ready. I have been training Russian troops and air groups since day one of the game and most are maxed out in experience. This game may go into late 1945 if not 1946 so either way it should be done. My philosophy of this game remains unchanged. I am going to use one vector to interdict his naval forces and force an embargo of oil from Japan. If that is sucessfull then the extra troops he has will be irrelevant. He has 2 choices for most of them, use them to bolster the defenses of burma, thailand and indochina or move them off continent to bolster island defenses. If he moves them off continent he adds fuel to the cost of supplies for those troops and risks supply shortages based on naval interdiction. A 4 squad PT boat crew just put a torpedo into one of NJP's heavy cruisers at merauke and I have a handful of surface task forces being held away from the base just to avoid them. Thank you Mr. Kane for making the statement that you expected your PT boats torpedoes to be effective. I thought of them as a defensive weapon but they certainly work in close quarters naval combat.

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/17/2015 3:16:41 PM)
Advance on the Bismark Sea As predicted, NJP pretty much abandoned this area after the successful allied raids on Rabaul. I am keeping up heat by using the bombers at Port Moresby and Buna against the airfields. Just bombed a bunch of carrier planes at Rabaul this last turn. The objective now is to advance as quickly as possible until further resistance. I have an amphibious task force of a division headed to Hansa Bay. This is a dot hex just above Madang. Scouting shows a small unit there, hopefully a naval guard unit. This base is important as it can be increased to a level 9 airfield. They should arrive and start landing in 2 days. In the meantime, I have another small amphibous force running up north to drop units at Mussau island north of Kavieng. That will discourage any Japanese shipping from trying to re-supply the main island(s). Another force is headed somewhere, I keep changing it. This is all a prelude to a 100% prepped division landing at Namatani in 4 days. This division will have at least 4 tank units with it along with multiple combat engineers. My surveys show almost no vehicles at Namatani and/or Kavieng so I am going to try to take this island first. The 6th army whatever will accompany with motorized support and I will add at least 4 or more artillery units. I hope to take the island relatively quickly. There is another division somewhere prepped for Kavieng and I will bring it on once Namatani falls. [image]local://upfiles/45141/8E6636A9AF1D41E592AB93A75B86911B.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/17/2015 3:51:49 PM)
On the west side of New Guinea NJP is moving with a pack of smaller surface task forces. Not sure what he is doing but I managed to put a torpedo into one of the heavy cruisers with a PT boat at Merauke and now his initial plan might have changed. It could be a smart idea for him to evacuate the island as it is not going to be able to hold forever but he may be reinforcing and/or resupplying. If he has other intentions I am not responding to them. He has at least 5 subs at the tip of New Guinea to attempt to take out anything passing between. My carriers and most of my STF are staying put in the solomon sea. I am sending 2 light cruiser task forces to go up north and see if they can do a little raiding. My forces are close to taking Katherine and I will have eyes on Darwin next turn. None of this is necessary as I do not plan on coming through this area. In fact, I hope to trap some troops between Darwin and my real vector around the Sorong area. [image]local://upfiles/45141/5CAE860B0F424CFBBF952A5F7D07B829.jpg[/image]

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/18/2015 5:40:30 PM)
Troops take Katherine and reveal 30,000+ troops and 300+ AFV's at Darwin. I dont believe he is planning on leaving without a fight. On the east side of New Guinea transports landed at Hansa Bay yesterday revealing a NG unit AV 31 with a current AV of 18. Not sure whether that is due to disruption from the landing or supply issues. I only managed to get 82 AV on the beach so hopefully more will join this turn. Will bombard the base with a STF and send in bombers to soften them up but I assume that I can take the unit(s) out without much problem. Hopefully I can move north quickly along the coast of New Guinea. It appears that the only base NJP majorly increased in size is Vanimo. I am not sure what he has there or anywhere else along the northern coast as I did not want to tip my hand. Within the next 30-60 days will be a race to see what I can get away with. Here is a map of lower new guinea and what I am looking at. Sarmi at the north end of the map is still in allied control. [image]local://upfiles/45141/94E0BF5D36E5464EBBB77AE6AD1C5C92.jpg[/image]

zuluhour -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/18/2015 9:49:46 PM)
I'd like to know how you can post all the mouse overs on one map, sure looks convenient to me. I make up intel screens for wall paper on Sunday and email them to my work machine to ponder during the week. Looks like it all I would add is sorted intel monkey and recon flight info.

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/18/2015 11:08:11 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: zuluhour I'd like to know how you can post all the mouse overs on one map, sure looks convenient to me. I make up intel screens for wall paper on Sunday and email them to my work machine to ponder during the week. Looks like it all I would add is sorted intel monkey and recon flight info. It is a compilation of pictures. You take a print screen of the map and save it. Subsequently you take a print screen with one of the mouseovers. Then you crop that picture until only the mouseover is left. Move the mouseover on top of your original screen print and then combine it with the cropped mouse over. Rinse and repeat. That one photo took between 20 and 40 minutes to create using this method. The upside is that the mouseovers can go where you want and you can crop out all irrelevant data (such as range)

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/18/2015 11:37:59 PM)
Ceram Sea - Early August 1943 NJP has built up a shield wall with the islands north of Darwin. This was my path of last advance. If you check the development of the bases behind this however, you see that not many airfields have been developed. It is my hope to slide between the shield bases and philipines and create a partial and eventually full blockade of the southwest portion of the map from NJP. Having most of these bases undeveloped gives me great potential. I have also highlighted all of the allied dot bases that have not been taken by the Japanese. This gives me plenty of room to spread out for naval searches, etc. [image]local://upfiles/45141/06F21030D795415FB0A1F1217EDC56EE.jpg[/image]

BBfanboy -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/19/2015 12:19:17 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Wargmr On the east side of New Guinea transports landed at Hansa Bay yesterday revealing a NG unit AV 31 with a current AV of 18. Not sure whether that is due to disruption from the landing or supply issues. I only managed to get 82 AV on the beach so hopefully more will join this turn. Will bombard the base with a STF and send in bombers to soften them up but I assume that I can take the unit(s) out without much problem. Looks to me like he may have realized that Hansa Bay was wide open and started to fly in troops just before you got there. That means he will continue to fly in more, so I hope your suppression efforts have the desired effect before he can build forts!

Mike McCreery -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/19/2015 3:44:14 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: BBfanboy quote: ORIGINAL: Wargmr On the east side of New Guinea transports landed at Hansa Bay yesterday revealing a NG unit AV 31 with a current AV of 18. Not sure whether that is due to disruption from the landing or supply issues. I only managed to get 82 AV on the beach so hopefully more will join this turn. Will bombard the base with a STF and send in bombers to soften them up but I assume that I can take the unit(s) out without much problem. Looks to me like he may have realized that Hansa Bay was wide open and started to fly in troops just before you got there. That means he will continue to fly in more, so I hope your suppression efforts have the desired effect before he can build forts! It was a single SNLF unit probably there to prevent fragment airdrop. The attack went in at 86 to 1 and the unit has retreated south toward Madang with the Allied division in pursuit. A naval construction battalion and a regiment will land tomorrow along with an advanced port facility. My management of multiple small units has greatly improved in this game with the majority of naval construction battalions in the field rather than sitting on the EC or at PH. An airdrop goes in at the next dot base north for next turn. That is reaching a bit but maybe I can reinforce before he counter attacks ;] Amphibious assault at Namatani sucessful with 500AV ready and a total of about 700AV on the beach. He has 300+AV behind forts so some more softening up is in order. I have artillery on the way so I can start bombartment(s).

BBfanboy -> RE: Groundhog Day! (9/19/2015 4:45:08 AM)
I hear ya on the small unit movement. In my current game I converted a lot of the 3900 ton capacity xAKs to xAPs with 1000/2200 capacity - very handy size for moving CB units and some of the EABs. I also converted quite a few of the 1750 ton capacity xAKLs to xAPs with 500/750 capacity - great for raiders, independent companies and Aussie bird battalions - if their 10 kt. speed is not an issue.

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