Dutch blasters...

Dutch blasters... (Full Version)

All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> War In The Pacific - Struggle Against Japan 1941 - 1945 >> After Action Reports

Message

ADavidB -> Dutch blasters... (9/2/2005 4:13:57 AM)
February 1 - The first of February brought a fair amount of good news for the Allied cause. First off, there was no sign of the KB. Next, the Houston received its first upgrade without a hitch. (The other Northampton-class cruisers will be back in port soon to receive their upgrades.) And for the second month in a row there was no British ship recall. That's particularly important because I am low on political points and I didn't want to either lose any ppints or give up any ships. And in combat there was even better (and funnier) news - the Japanese task force that was heading for Jambi ran off when it detected "enemy task forces". Those "enemies" happen to consist of two task forces containing two Dutch PT boats in each, [:D] but that's what happens when you send an invasion TF in without a combat TF to clear the way. So while Tophat is being rather cavalier about sending his surface combat ships into harm's way, he isn't shy about putting LR CAP over his TFs. Once again my brave (but ill-equipped) Dutch pilots flew after Japanese naval targets, but the escorts were decimated by enemy fighters and the bombers by flak, so they didn't get any hits this time. In other news, Tophat now has two Glen-equipped subs in the southeastern Pacific - one near the Line Islands and the other southeast of Hawaii. I can't imagine that he will risk sending the KB that far away from fuel just to go after transports, so I'm not too worried about those subs. Also, I've got plenty of escorts with my TFs, so eventually I'll catch those subs anyway. And on the land, Tophat's troops have disappeared from Mandalay. Did he pull them back to keep me from bombing them or has he sent them forward to Lashio and Myitkyina? More Chinese troops are moving into both bases on a daily basis, so I'm not too worried about his troops moving forward. And I've also reinforced all of the bases at the Indian border, so any land movement there will be met by impassible roads, malaria and lots of bombers. In any event, I've increased my recon in that area in case I can find out his plans. Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> RE: Dutch blasters... (9/2/2005 7:18:00 AM)
February 2 - The "Dutch Blasters" struck fear into the hearts of TF 43 again and the invasion was once more called off. This time, however, Tophat decided to send a task force of three DDs to try to deal with my PT boats. But on the way in the DDs were attacked by my ever dangerous Martin 139s and one DD was hit and set on fire. So when the DDs slugged it out with one of my PT TFs, only one PT was sunk. I still have more PTs in the area, so I'll send them all in to Jambi this turn. While Tophat is having some problems with his naval forces, his air forces aren't having anywhere near so much trouble with the Dutch. Tophat started a bombing campaign against Palembang this turn, destroying or damaging a number of my planes, and he did a serious Zero sweep of Balikpapan, creaming the fighters I had there. It's a good thing that Tophat is still using his Nells and Bettys in other regions or I would be in real trouble in the DEI. In ground action, Tophat's troops captured Dadjangas in one shock attack, wiping out the remaining troops of Mindanao. His artillery bombardments of Clark Field are also getting much stronger. I'm going to try to move some forces out from Bataan to delay the inevitable for a while. As long as Tophat doesn't do a serious ground attack in the next turn I ought to get away with it. In the realm of scouting and recon, it turns out that Tophat's troops are still in Mandalay. That's good, and it means that I have more time to get Chinese troops into Lashio and Myitkyina and more time to bomb Mandalay. In addition, while dropping off a load of mines at Kwajalein, the Argonaut noticed a TF with some CAs in it. I wonder what Tophat intends to do with it? Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> RE: Dutch blasters... (9/2/2005 8:16:10 PM)
February 3 - It's just as well that I've sent most everyone else home - the Dutch Blasters may very well win this war on their own. [:D] For the third turn in a row the Japanese invasion TF turned back from Jambi, even though this time it finally stood and fought, and eventually sank the two Dutch PTs that stood in its way. Let's put things in perspective - the Japanese TF contains the heavy cruiser Chokai, four DDs, 4 MSWs and 3 PGs, so it's not surprising that my PTs got wiped. But it is still funny that the Japanese TF won't land its troops. BTW - two of the three Japanese DDs from the SC TF of the day before came back and faced the lone survivor of the previous battle. This time the Dutch PT was on a roll and put a torpedo and 6 machine gun hits into one of the thin-skinned Japanese DDs. Later on the now pretty much "toothless" Dutch PT faced off with the remaining DD again, but they both "blinked" and the PT got an opportunity to replenish itself and "play hero" again for the next turn. Meanwhile in the air war in the DEI, Tophat's forces are slowly but surely wearing down the Dutch. He sent his Sallys against Palembang while he sent Zeros and Bettys from Menado against Balikpapan. That's actually good information from my p.o.v. - now I know that the waters to the South of Menado are no longer safe for my ships because of those Bettys. And in preparation of the eventual ground war in the main islands of the DEI I have started to go through and change the leaders of the Dutch LCUs. I've found that better leaders can make a big difference in combat, and so it is well worth the price in political points for me to change them. I can always change them back to lousy leaders once they are trapped and are about to be wiped out. In the Philippines Tophat's forces captured Tawi-Tawi, so the noose continues to close on my troops in Luzon. One thing I noticed while browsing my replacements listing was that I have accumulated a bunch of Philippine troop replacements. I have had "replacements off" in the Philippines because I didn't want to lose troops there that I would prefer to use elsewhere, but I can't use the Philippine replacements elsewhere, so I set the Philippine-only units to "replacements on" while leaving the US units set to "replacements off". Sure, that will use up more supply, but it might also cause the Japanese assault to drag out a bit longer. My SIGINT has told me that Tophat is moving an armoured unit in Burma. I presume that it is going into battle, and not the other direction. That's okay, my troops are almost completely in position and I don't mind having more targets to bomb. My daily bombing raids on Mandalay continue to be unopposed and so my pilots get more experience while causing casualties on a regular basis as well as damaging the facilities. I'm surprised that Tophat hasn't moved a base force in yet so that he can put up some CAP, but I'll continue to "count my blessings" and keep on with this routine as long as he allows me to do so. Last but not least, things were totally quiet in the Eastern Pacific. There were no sightings of the KB, nor of subs, and no Glens spotted any of my TFs. So I'll just continue with my "…while the Cat's away" routine. [;)] Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> Singapore slings... (9/3/2005 5:31:26 PM)
February 4 - Tophat tried his first assault on Singapore today and I'm pretty certain this is not what he was planning…[sm=00000280.gif] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ground combat at Singapore Japanese Shock attack Attacking force 50628 troops, 538 guns, 12 vehicles Defending force 55555 troops, 431 guns, 12 vehicles Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 7) Japanese ground losses: 6137 casualties reported Guns lost 147 Vehicles lost 3 Allied ground losses: 217 casualties reported Guns lost 20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I guess that his troops marched in piecemeal, and without any engineers. Tophat's forces were more successful in Sumatra where they were finally able to force a landing at Jambi. One of my remaining Dutch PTs ran into a new surface combat force consisting of a CA and three DDs. There was a standoff during their first meeting but the Japanese force finally performed "as advertised" and wiped out the PT the next time. I'm sending the last PT in the region in next turn just in case it can sneak by the combat ships and find the transports, but I doubt that it will be that lucky. Likewise, luck is no longer with my Dutch flyboys. They are tiring out and getting pretty worn down, so they aren't reaching any targets any more. Tophat's Zeros and Bettys have made Balikpapan untenable so I've pulled my bombers and fighters out of there. I'll probably pull my search planes out next turn too. Elsewhere in the DEI, Tophat landed troops at Miri. My troops there have already been kicked out of Brunei, so they won't last long and the north coast of Borneo will belong to the Japanese. In Burma Tophat has a unit just outside of Lashio. I've targeted it with bombers and have a number of troops waiting for it. We'll see how well it can perform under malarial conditions with its supply line at Mandalay being bombed on a daily basis. In China Tophat is pressuring me at multiple locations, so I am trying to "push back" and keep him off balance. He isn't sending any "serious" air units at me so I've also left the air battle to the Chinese. Things are quiet on the other fronts, with the exception that Tophat has to sweep sub-laid mines out of Kwajalein. The big news on the build-up side of things is that the rest of my Northampton class cruisers received their February 1942 upgrades with no problems. The next ships due for upgrade are Saratoga and Lexington in March, so I'm keeping them close to port and avoiding adding unnecessary system damage while I'm waiting. There aren't any useful targets for them anyway, so there is no point to put them at risk at this time. Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> RE: Singapore slings... (9/3/2005 10:22:18 PM)
February 5 - Tophat got the Japanese forces a bit back on track this turn. His land forces captured Jambi and Miri, landed at Zamboanga and shock-attacked Singapore again as more troops moved into position. Although the result was again 0:1, this time the Japanese losses weren't as bad. (And the losses last time were mainly disruption anyway.) Tophat's air forces continued their control of the skies over the DEI as they attacked Palembang, Balikpapan, Kendari and Amboina. The Dutch air force is no longer able to mount much of a defense at all. My efforts to exchange those Australian Wirraways for Hurricanes is looking better and better with each passing turn - eventually I will need some type of semi-decent fighters to put into the sky. So all I can do for the most part right now is to keep to my rebuilding plan. As part of that I exchanged one of the last two groups of B-18s for Liberators. As with my other long range bombers I will set those Liberators on naval air patrol, but it is still nice to have them in my "back pocket" in case Tophat gets a bit too aggressive. Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> RE: Singapore slings... (9/4/2005 4:41:56 AM)
February 6 - Once again, there weren't a lot of "positives" to report for the Allied side. Japanese air power continues to wipe the skies clean of Allied planes in the DEI. Only in Burma are Allied planes accomplishing anything in their aerial bombardments of Mandalay and the 33rd Division, but there isn't any Japanese aerial opposition there, so it's hard to compare that against the slaughter in the DEI. I'm running out of places to "hide" my Dutch planes to let them recover. In the land war, Japanese troops captured Zamboanga this turn against no opposition. Tophat is also starting to mass troops near Hangchow and just kicked out the unit that I had there in the crossroads just to the East. So it looks like Hangchow is next in line for the Japanese "sledgehammer". Tophat finally got to start an artillery duel at Singapore rather than have his troops forced to do shock attacks at poor odds. He seems rather surprised that my troops are responding as well as they are. Maybe he thought that I had pulled combat troops out instead of the non-combat units that I actually moved to India. And at Clark Field Tophat's ever increasingly effective artillery barrages just incapacitated another LCU. I've been steadily shifting worn out LCUs to Manila and pulling still effective LCUs out of Bataan. By the time Tophat gets to Bataan there will be little there to stop him. I'm just lucky that Tophat never put a unit in Manila - since I have been able to retreat units into Manila it will make it harder for him to take it once he finally captures Clark. In the "upgrade war", I was able to upgrade the last group of B-18s - this time to B-25Cs. Now all of my bomber units are reasonably "modern". I also finally got to upgrade that P-36 squad in Anchorage to P-40Es. This means that I will now have enough P-36s in stock to fill-in the remaining groups in the West Coast. Now all I have to do is collect another two dozen P-40Es over the next couple of weeks and I will be able to upgrade the P-35s and be done with the obsolete fighters in the front lines. BTW - thanks to supplies going into the Northern Australian bases I was able to upgrade another two Hudson units to Beauforts. I'll take torpedoes over range any day at this stage of the war. And soon I'll be able to upgrade the last of the Wirraway units to Hurricanes, which will make all the difference in the world once Tophat starts to send bombers against Australia. Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> Clark finally falls... (9/4/2005 3:58:08 PM)
February 7 - The troops that I sent to Clark from Bataan were too little - Tophat's troops finally did a deliberate attack and overwhelmed my defenders. Fortunately, my troops went to Manila rather than Bataan. So it looks as if Tophat ought to be able to take the rest of Luzon by the end of the month. Meanwhile in Singapore Tophat moved a couple of engineering groups in, once again triggering a shock attack. The result was the same; 0:1, but Tophat's losses continue to decrease in these encounters. The air war in the DEI eased off a bit - it appears that even the Japanese have to rest their pilots once in a while. In China a more even-sided air war started with my I-16s against Tophat's Nates and Sonias. Let's just say that it "wasn't pretty" for either side. And my Dutch pilots continue to try to fight their way through the Japanese defenses, but they aren't having much luck - a bunch of my best Martin pilots attacked the surface combat TF off of Jambi, but only one plane was able to get a hit, and that was on the Chokai, so I doubt that there was any damage. Elsewhere, things remain quiet with Tophat and I allowing each other to build up and position forces without much in the way of interference. One Japanese action of note: troops started to land at Kavieng. This finally announces the start of the Japanese push into the South Pacific. I'll watch Tophat's movements carefully, but for now I'm just grateful for the time that he has given me in that region. Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> RE: Clark finally falls... (9/4/2005 8:05:32 PM)
February 8 - This was a fairly quiet turn. Japanese troops landed at Sandakan and captured Kavieng. And as usual, Japanese air power struck all over the Far East. So far Tophat hasn't moved his troops in the Philippines into either Bataan or Manila, and he hasn't moved in China recently, but it is only a matter of time. But Tophat also isn't interfering with my build-up strategy, so I'm not doing anything to change what I am doing at this time. There are only 4 more days until my next big delivery of reinforcements. Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> RE: Clark finally falls... (9/5/2005 1:52:35 AM)
February 9 - That "river shock attack" rule is taking me a long time to remember. And it doesn't help that I sometimes forget where I've sent land units. So this turn Tophat had a real "laugher" as a Chinese cavalry unit moved into the crossroads between Hangchow and Changsha and shock attacked 136,000+ Japanese troops! [X(] I had forgotten that I had ordered that unit to that location a number of turns back. Oh well, live and learn… On the waters things were a bit better for me. One of my S-boats hit and sank a PC off of Menado while my Martins out of Palembang hit a PG off of Jambi. And that was despite the fact that Tophat had sent a bombardment TF into Palembang that first sank the last of my Dutch PTs in the area, then they bombarded the base, causing a fair amount of damage. But what I can do in the air pales besides what Tophat can do when he wants. For example, this turn he sent 15 Bettys and 51 Zeros against Amboina, hammering my handful of Brewsters there so badly that I had to pull them right out. It looks as if Tophat has an invasion TF on its way to Amboina, or maybe Kendari, I'm not sure which yet. But I've got a number of subs along the route who will help spot, along with lots of Dutch bombers including the yet-unused Dutch torpedo bombers. And just for "good luck", I've also got a surface force in the area that doesn't consist of PTs… [;)] In other news, Tophat's forces captured Sandakan. He is currently doing recon over the remaining isolated bases in the Philippines, and the first of his troops have moved in to Manila. The fortification level at Manila is only 2, and with all the refugees from Clark Field it won't last long against a strong attack. So I've ordered my remaining four infantry units from Bataan to move to Clark to tie up the Japanese forces there while they are split. My troops may well be blown right out of Clark, but if they aren't immediately this might throw a spanner into Tophat's plans. Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> Huh???!!! (9/5/2005 3:04:34 AM)
I keep track of things such as SIGINT, base captures and other interesting observations on a spreadsheet. I review SIGINT and the Ops reports while I set up a turn, but I find that copying over information into my spreadsheet brings things to light that I don't notice otherwise. Well, for the February 9th turn one bit of intelligence really caught my attention: *189219 men are based at Saipan.* HUH???!!! Almost 200K men at Saipan!!!!! [&:][&:][&:] What the devil is Tophat intending? He certainly doesn't need those quantities of troops to take empty bases in the South Pacific. He can't be considering a Hawaiian invasion this late in the game can he? Okay, February '42 isn't "late", but by the time he gets everyone on ships and across to Pearl it will be March, and since I haven't lost anything significant so far I have lots of forces with which to contest a Hawaiian invasion. But then, he did try to interfere with my Eastern Pacific shipping for quite a while, and he hasn't done anything other than the Kavieng invasion as far as the South Pacific goes. This will require some careful scrutiny... Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> RE: Huh???, again... (9/5/2005 5:11:27 AM)
February 10 - It looks as if Tophat has two invasion TFs going simultaneously at targets in the DEI - one headed for Tarakan and the other for Amboina. I have a number of subs along both routes, but I am only sending a surface TF to Amboina because Tophat has too many air bases that are too close to Tarakan for me to send any ships that way other than PTs. So the naval war will be heating up a bit during the next couple of days. In the ground war Tophat had his massive army that is sitting between Changsha and Hangchow "swat" my misplaced cavalry unit out of the way since my troops couldn't retreat fast enough. And his forces at Singapore tried their first deliberate assault. The Japanese engineers reduced the fortifications from 8 to 7, but they still got a 0:1 result. So Tophat incurred a fair number of casualties, but he still easily has a 2:1 edge in manpower there, so that won't hurt him much. Throughout the Philippines, DEI and China Tophat's air power continued to do pretty much what it pleased. Only in Burma am I able to maintain something resembling air superiority, but that is mainly because Tophat isn't challenging me yet. Tophat's land forces have stayed put in Burma so maybe my bombing is having some positive effect. I did get SIGINT, however, that suggests that Tophat is sending more forces forward. That's good from my p.o.v. - troops that are bogged down in the jungle aren't riding ships on the route to India. Speaking of SIGINT, here is an interesting match to yesterday's news about tons of Japanese troops being in Saipan: 183977 men are based at Truk Hmmm - is that a coincidence or does he have two huge forces in the Central Pacific? Oh well, all I can do is watch and see what happens. Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> Sub wars, again... (9/5/2005 7:17:52 AM)
February 11 - The naval battles in the DEI started a day sooner than I expected because Tophat was able to sneak a bombardment TF in to hit Amboina without me spotting it ahead of time. The TF did a lot of damage to the base, but the CDs at the base whacked a DD hard in turn. Never-the-less, the TF stuck around for a second bombardment and it appears that it is sticking around for the next turn too. However, as far as I can see, Tophat neglected to have a replenishment TF nearby, so when my surface TF hits Amboina tomorrow, those nice, fancy Japanese ships may well be a bit short on ammo. We'll see. The invasion TF will arrive tomorrow too unless my subs get lucky. Speaking of subs, one of my Dutch subs off of Tarakan hit and sank an AP in the Japanese invasion TF. I wonder what effect that will have? Was this a "bargain basement" invasion or does he have plenty of troops in other ships? Speaking of sunken ships, the Fillmore sank just as it reached Hilo. What a pain! I nursed that ship along for over a week, game-time. And Tophat sank another of my Dutch subs off of Singapore. Right now I've got subs going all over the place through the Philippines and DEI. Tophat must be really wondering what I've got going on. One good thing about this sub traffic is that a couple of those subs were spotted by carrier planes. So Tophat is "hiding" a carrier TF in the Philippines somewhere. That's another good reason for me to avoid the temptation to send a combat TF to Tarakan. Some of my February reinforcements showed up this turn and more show up tomorrow, including my fifth US carrier. [&o] Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> Ambush at Amboina... (9/5/2005 5:33:05 PM)
February 12 - My Dutch cruisers sailed into a trap at Amboina. Instead of finding the bombardment TF or the invasion TF, the Dutch ran into a well-prepared Japanese combat TF that surprised and overwhelmed them: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Amboina at 39, 73 Allied aircraft no flights Allied aircraft losses C.XI-W: 1 destroyed Japanese Ships CA Myoko CA Haguro CA Nachi, Shell hits 1 CA Aoba, Shell hits 2 CA Kinugasa CA Furutaka CA Kako, Shell hits 1 DD Hatsukaze, Shell hits 1, on fire DD Uzuki, Shell hits 1 DD Kikuzuki Allied Ships CL Java, Shell hits 3, on fire CL De Ruyter, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, on fire CL Tromp, Shell hits 11, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk DD Van Nes, Shell hits 6, on fire, heavy damage DD Witte de With, Shell hits 1, on fire DD Kortenaer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To add to the debacle, Tophat also had a small carrier TF nearby from which some Kates came to sink the fleeing Van Nes. Tophat was then able to land troops at Amboina without any opposition. At the same time, he hit Tarakan with another big bombardment TF that was lead by five battleships, and thus was able to land troops there too without any difficulty. It is obvious that Tophat is finally taking the invasion of the DEI seriously and that my days of getting "free shots" are over. Elsewhere in the region Tophat staged deliberate attacks at both Singapore and Manila. In both cases he got 0:1 results and didn't reduce the fortifications, but he also caused significant casualties at both bases even though he took heavy casualties in return. At this stage Tophat can stand casualties much better than I can. My troops in both bases have been weakened to such an extent that they can no longer cause Japanese casualties during bombardments even after the Japanese forces get 0:1 results. All this bad news served as a counter to the news of the receipt of more of the February reinforcements. Obviously I still need to be very careful of how I respond to Japanese assault. Dave Baranyi

Terminus -> RE: Ambush at Amboina... (9/5/2005 5:35:01 PM)
Ouch, that's gotta sting!

ADavidB -> RE: Ambush at Amboina... (9/5/2005 5:55:13 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Terminus Ouch, that's gotta sting! Yes - Tophat has now changed to a "sledgehammer" approach and I'll have to adjust to it. I have nothing in the region to stand up to multiple massive attacks, so I'll just have to pull back the rest of my forces even further. The Dutch will have to face the onslaught alone. Tophat wrote to me that he had been hoping to catch the Warspite and Prince of Wales in that trap, so I should be happy that I didn't throw everything at him this time. The one good thing out of this is that with all that fire power in the DEI, Tophat doesn't have a lot left to send elsewhere, so my forces can "breath easier" elsewhere - particularly in the Eastern Pacific. I am assuming that Tophat is keeping some of the KB nearby, just in case I have carriers in the region. That CVL or CVE that hit the Van Res is probably a bit of a trap in itself. But with all those heavy crusiers and BBs in the DEI Tophat is unlikely to send the main KB out "ship hunting" in other regions at this time. Thanks for the comments - Dave Baranyi

Terminus -> RE: Ambush at Amboina... (9/5/2005 6:06:01 PM)
That's Japan's eternal problem. They can be VERY strong in one or two places, but not everywhere, like the Allies will eventually be able to be.

ADavidB -> RE: Ambush at Amboina... (9/5/2005 6:21:05 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Terminus That's Japan's eternal problem. They can be VERY strong in one or two places, but not everywhere, like the Allies will eventually be able to be. Yes, and what I have to do is to be certain that I don't waste my forces piecemeal over the next few game months so that I am eventually in a position to match that strength. But, oh the temptation... I must resist it... [:-] Thanks again - Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> RE: Ambush at Amboina... (9/6/2005 3:57:43 AM)
February 13 - Tophat occupied Lamon Bay by "osmosis" this turn, which is unfortunate because that eliminates my last escape route out of Manila. But then, there weren't any supplies in Lamon Bay, so there really wasn't any point in going there anyway. Five more Japanese units have shown up at Clark Field, so unless they all move on to Manila my hope to sneak in some Philippine infantry from Bataan and retake it won't work. My troops in Bataan are pretty heavily fatigued from lack of supplies and constant bombing. BTW - this turn Tophat decided to give his attackers at Manila a break and they only did a bombardment instead of another deliberate attack. The same thing occurred at Singapore. Tophat's invasion TFs continued to offload troops at Amboina and Tarakan without any ill effects - my troops are too wiped out at both locations from naval and aerial bombardments to be able to oppose the landings. But I was able to sneak the last US PT boat into Tarakan where it put a torpedo into an AP and machine gunned an MSW before escaping into the night. It looks as if the combat TF that Tophat has off of Borneo is on its way to bombard Balikpapan, so I've sent the PT back to Tarakan and pulled the last of the patrol planes out of Balikpapan. Meanwhile at Amboina it appears that Tophat has two small CV TFs in the region and that he is sending at least one of them south after the retreating Dutch cruiser TF. His Kates didn't find the Dutch TF this turn but instead were distracted by a lone AK that I had at Kai Island unloading supplies. The Kates put four bombs into that AK but didn't sink it. I've left the AK there in hopes of both finishing the offloading of supplies as well as it being a continuing distraction for Tophat's bomber pilots. Kai Island is one of the bases near to Australia where I moved isolated Dutch units from further along in the DEI. It is convenient to have level 1 airfields with base forces along the retreat route out of the DEI proper. And this way Tophat has to send in real invasion forces to grab those bases. It will be interesting to see how far south Tophat lets his CV TFs go. I have Beauforts in Darwin, along with Hurricanes and even P-40Bs. I'd love to get a shot at one of Tophat's CVLs or CVEs if he comes too close. [:D] And if those ships venture to the west a bit I've got torpedo bombers waiting in Kendari. Elsewhere, my bombers in Java were finally able to score a hit on the Chokai, but it is unlikely that there was any significant damage. And in the distance it appears that another Japanese bombardment TF is on its way to Palembang. So I've moved my Martins and Hawks out of there and am leaving the anti-ship responsibility to the bombers in Batavia. Things continue to be quiet in the Eastern Pacific. I've got a lot of convoys on the go now and the Hawaiian Islands and Line Islands continue to be strengthened. Tophat still has a number of subs in the region, but as many have gone west for replenishment as have gone east for troublemaking, so things are reasonably under control from my p.o.v. Also, since the KB hasn't shown it's colors recently I've moved my shipping routes back north again, so Tophat's subs are getting fewer sightings in the far southern routes. Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> RE: Ambush at Amboina... (9/6/2005 6:00:10 AM)
February 14 - Tophat apparently decided that "discretion is the better part of valor" and didn't send his CV TFs after my retreating Dutch TF, so those ships made port in Darwin. However, the AK that was hit at Kai sank shortly after leaving the base, having accomplished its work well both in transporting supplies and in distracting the enemy air attack. But Tophat's many TFs are staying just to the north of Amboina; with one transport TF heading westwards. Is it landing troops or supplies at Amboina or going further west? Amboina fell to the first attack so Tophat may well be planning to land a base force there so that he can interdict Northeastern Australia by air. But two can play at that game, and immediately upon the fall of Amboina I moved a B-17E squadron into Darwin and set it to start to bomb the air field at Amboina. Until Tophat starts to get "bomber killer" fighters like Tonys and Tojos I ought to be able to keep the airfield there relatively useless. In Borneo Tophat's bombardment TF with the five battleships hit Balikpapan and caused all sorts of damage as expected. But I had already pulled out my planes so my losses there are acceptable. And my PT got into Tarakan in time to scare off the invasion TF again, but wasn't able to engage it. I noticed that a cruiser TF is on its way to Tarakan so I'm sending the PT boat back to Balikpapan. There is no point wasting it. Never-the-less, the interference from the PT seems to have been enough to goof up Tophat's invasion schedule - when his combat unit attacked this turn it got a 1:1 result and so didn't capture the base, unlike what happened at Amboina. Off in Sumatra it turns out that the Chokai was leading a bombardment TF after all, and from the results of its bombardment of Palembang it appears that the bomb that hit last turn didn't do any damage at all. Fortunately, I had already pulled my planes out of Palembang so the damage was once again limited to the base and troops. My bombers at Batavia still had enough range to be able to hit an AP at Jambi. In Burma Tophat now has three units at Mandalay, so it looks like he had second thoughts about sticking around outside of Lashio and letting me bomb him at will. I don't mind him being in Mandalay - it makes it easier for me to focus my bombers on one target. Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> RE: Ambush at Amboina... (9/7/2005 12:23:57 AM)
February 15 - Tophat's expansion is occurring at a more rapid pace now. His troops occupied New Hanover "by osmosis", landed at Hollandia, landed at and captured Green Island via shock attack, and captured Tarakan via deliberate attack. He also mounted deliberate attacks on Singapore and Manila again, with 0:1 results, no fortification reduction and heavy casualties on both sides at both bases. And his forces are starting to bombard Hengchow. In response I was able to send a squadron of B-17s over Amboina and obtained a few airfield and air support hits. Considering that this was the first combat mission for those B-17 pilots and that they were at 20,000 feet, that's not too bad. At least I reminded Tophat that he will have to defend Amboina in some manner. Elsewhere, Tophat has stationed Zeros at Jambi now, and my Dutch bombers and fighters are taking too many losses from them while trying to do naval attacks, so I've cut back the maximum ranges of my planes to allow them to cover Palembang from Batavia, but not Jambi. Palembang is pretty much a write-off now, with heavy damage to all parts of the base. I've left a Dutch engineering group in Palembang so that there is some chance that they will damage the oil production capability once Tophat finally invades. Otherwise, things are going along pretty much as planned, particularly in India, Australia and the West Coast/Hawaii. As long as Tophat continues to focus upon the DEI, PNG and the Solomons over the next few weeks I ought to be able to complete my first stage of defensive redeployments. By mid-March my primary objective - the fortification of the Hawaiian Islands - should be firmly in place. Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> Cheeky Sub Captains... (9/7/2005 4:04:26 AM)
February 16 - Tophat has a really cheeky sub commander sitting to the northeast of Hawaii - he put a torpedo into a transport right under the eyes of two DDs and only three hexes away from Pearl! And none of my patrol planes spotted the sub! It appears once again that my Naval Air Patrol squadrons are being commanded by General Magoo… [:(] So, since I have about 30 DDs sitting in Pearl, doing nothing, I created 15 or so 2-ship ASW TFs and I am blanketing the area, including how far I think that sub can go at top speed. Someone ought to find something! [sm=00000003.gif] Other than that, things were very quiet. Tophat has already put some planes into Amboina, but I'll let him get away with it because I'm not ready to start an air-war-of-attrition yet. Tophat also let his forces rest in Manila and Singapore and didn't even have them do a bombardment. That didn't hurt my guys who did fire and got better results than usual because they didn't have to "duck" before firing. I could use more "quiet" turns like this, minus the "stealthy" Japanese subs. Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> RE: Cheeky Sub Captains... (9/8/2005 12:29:30 AM)
February 17 - Tophat's "stealth sub" got away somehow, despite the dozens of DDs that I had criss-crossing the waters to the northeast of Pearl Harbor. It appears that the transport that was hit will make Pearl, but it may sink once it gets there. Oh well, at least I spread the troops over three transports. In the meanwhile, the transport TFs that I sent to Hilo and Lahina arrived safely and are unloading. Both bases are now safe from all but truly serious invasions. By the end of the game month, if Tophat happens to decide to invade the Hawaiian Islands I ought to be able to cause him massive and potentially crippling losses. In the Far East Tophat has resumed his air strikes against multiple targets. He even tried a Zero sweep of Batavia, but my flyboys held their own and the result was a wash. But every Zero lost at this time is a much bigger deal for Tophat than the loss of Brewsters or Demons for me. On the ground Tophat ordered artillery attacks on Manila and Singapore again, but the attacks weren't that successful and were almost evenly matched by my counter attacks. It is looking more and more like my units may well last until the end of the month in both locations. And Tophat's forces in China tried a deliberate attack on Hengchow but received 0:1 results, with almost three times the losses of my troops and no reduction in fortification. In India things are progressing nicely, particularly since there is no interference from Tophat. I now have 6 British BBs available, along with plenty of cruisers and DDs. All Indian bases have a base force in them, and all of the coastal bases also have combat units in addition to the base forces. At the same time I am building up various inland bases very heavily with Air HQs, big air base forces and my armoured units. I have even been able to pull out a number of my infantry units from the Indian/Burmese border and am resting and rebuilding them in non-malarial bases. The only thing that hasn't been working regularly is my aerial bombardment plan for Mandalay. For some reason my Brit bombers don't like to fly very often, despite having plenty of supplies, a big air base, an Air HQ in the base and decent commanders. Oh well, at least Tophat isn't bombing me in return. The big news in Australia is that the last Wirraway squadron has just been converted to Hurricanes. Now any air attacks can be met with reasonable aircraft instead of trainers. And the longer Tophat waits to attack, the more planes I will build up in reserve. The only unit I have left to upgrade is still that P-35 unit. There ought to be enough P-40Es in another week, then that is it. I haven't been upgrading my P-40Bs anywhere - as far as I'm concerned they are "front line" fighters at this point. And my P-36's on the West Coast can stay that way until I start to get P-47s, or if by some miracle I actually build up 200 or more P-40Es in reserve (an unlikely scenario). Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> More sub wars... (9/8/2005 4:52:01 AM)
February 18 - More submarine tit-for-tat: Tophat's escorts in a CV TF whack one of my S-boats. A Japanese AP that was whacked by a sub a turn or two ago sinks. My AK that was whacked by a sub off of Pearl sinks in harbor. One of my Dutch subs whacks a Japanese AP off of Tarakan. One of Tophat's subs whacks a DM in a ML TF that is on its way to Canton Island. Submarine warfare has been very strange in this game. BTW - all of the attacks listed above happened in deep water. My Blenheim IVs finally flew and hit Mandalay fairly hard. Tophat has three units there, but still no base force. It seems odd. Maybe he doesn't care because he is too busy wiping out my Dutch fighter units in the DEI. He is now doing 50 Zero sweeps of my forward air bases. Then he asks me why I'm running away so fast…[8\|] And to answer all those folks who were wondering why I have my B-17 and B-24 units on naval search instead of bombing Japanese bases, here is a perfect explanation: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Amboina, at 39, 73 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 9 Allied aircraft B-17E Fortress x 9 No Japanese losses Allied aircraft losses B-17E Fortress: 1 destroyed Aircraft Attacking: 6 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 30000 feet 2 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 30000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I checked the air loss results and that B-17 was listed as lost in air-to-air combat. Dave Baranyi

wobbly -> RE: More sub wars... (9/8/2005 8:29:28 AM)
Nice with the replacement of all the third gen aircraft. The beauty of the new replacement system also means you can go back to Wirraways to recreate Hurricanes in the pool if he starts hammering your numbers somewhere (or any other plane for that matter).

ADavidB -> RE: More sub wars... (9/8/2005 1:22:44 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: wobbly Nice with the replacement of all the third gen aircraft. The beauty of the new replacement system also means you can go back to Wirraways to recreate Hurricanes in the pool if he starts hammering your numbers somewhere (or any other plane for that matter). I'm feeling tempted to turn one of my P-39 squadrons into P-400s so that I get access to both pools. Is the performance of the P-400 very much different from that of the P-39? Also, I am planning to replace my Brit planes in India with Spits, so I am hoping to leave the Hurricanes for use in Australia. I am not letting my Brit bombers in India change into Hurricanes, nor the fighters into bombers. My hope is that with the May upgrade I will have all Spits in India the same way that I currently have all Hurricanes in Australia (other than the US units - the AVG in India which I am leaving with P-40Bs and the Philippine escapees in Australia with a mix of planes). Take care - Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> Fewer sub wars... (9/8/2005 6:35:44 PM)
February 19 - The sub wars quieted right down. My patrols spotted a couple of subs around the Line Islands, but didn't attack them, and my ASW TFs came up empty again too. Meanwhile in the DEI I refuelled a number of my subs and set them in position to try to intercept the incoming invasion of Kendari. Tophat has a bombardment TF on the way as well as a couple of small carrier TFs near by in case I am silly enough to try to send some task forces to try to stop the invasion. In other areas, Tophat finally invaded Makin and captured it with an atoll shock attack. I wonder why he didn't invade it sooner. I always find it useful because it has a level three port. His troops also captured Hollandia, so he now has a foothold on the North Coast of PNG. Tophat's air attacks in the DEI eased off a bit, which isn't surprising because he does have to rest his air units from time to time. Elsewhere in the Far East his air attacks continued to be quite heavy. He is actually taking a fair amount of losses due to flak and operational damage - probably more than if I tried to stop him with fighters. [;)] I checked out the P-400s, and given their low rate of replacement (10 aircraft per month) I'm not going to bother exchanging one of the P-39 squadrons for P-400s. I seem to remember that one P-400 squadron arrives anyway, and if not, I have a P-26 replacement squadron arriving next game-month so I'll probably upgrade them to the P-400s. I'm doing little with my combat ships right now. In the Eastern Pacific I have them all positioned where I want them to be - they can respond to small attacks or mistakes by Tophat or they can safely flee from major attacks. This way they are also reducing system damage to allow for the March and April upgrades. I really don't want to commit my ships to any serious combat before they get radar and anti-aircraft upgrades. In India I have them positioned to contest any of my major bases if Tophat tries a serious invasion. Dave Baranyi

PzB74 -> RE: Fewer sub wars... (9/9/2005 1:10:45 AM)
I'm experimenting with efficient ASW methods myself these days Dave! The Allies got a much easier job than the Nips, but the combination of asw tf's and asw ac is the most promising. Try putting some experienced Dauntlesses on the Long Island on 100 asw at 1000 feet, use 6 good asw destroyers as an escort and have 1-2 additional asw groups in the vicinity of the group. Together with a few tankers such a group can stray far and wide. An attacking sub stands much less chance at hitting a ship in such a - hostile environment [;)] My problem is that the increasing number of US subs with good torpedoes are knocking holes in my destroyers on asw duty. They seldom sink..but still!

ADavidB -> RE: Fewer sub wars... (9/9/2005 1:26:28 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: PzB I'm experimenting with efficient ASW methods myself these days Dave! The Allies got a much easier job than the Nips, but the combination of asw tf's and asw ac is the most promising. Try putting some experienced Dauntlesses on the Long Island on 100 asw at 1000 feet, use 6 good asw destroyers as an escort and have 1-2 additional asw groups in the vicinity of the group. Together with a few tankers such a group can stray far and wide. An attacking sub stands much less chance at hitting a ship in such a - hostile environment [;)] My problem is that the increasing number of US subs with good torpedoes are knocking holes in my destroyers on asw duty. They seldom sink..but still! Thanks for the suggestions John. I don't have the "Lost Island" yet, but I'll try out your suggestion once I do. I am also expecting my ability to find the subs to pick up once my ASW ships start to get radar. At this point my boys are pretty much deaf, dumb, blind and asleep...[>:] Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> Bombardment at Batavia (9/9/2005 6:56:50 AM)
February 20 - I now have a good idea where a lot of Tophat's battleships and heavy cruisers are located…unfortunately…[:(] Tophat hit Kendari with a bombardment task force as I expected. It contained five battleships and a CL, along with a bunch of DDs. He also hit Singkawang with four CAs and a bunch of DDs, which is no surprise because he has been bombing it from the air for quite a while. (It also looks as if an invasion TF is a day or two away.) But Tophat definitely caught me by surprise when he hit Batavia with 2 BBs, 2 CAs and a bunch of DDs. Ouch! He whacked the airfield and the Dutch air craft there pretty hard. So now, after the horse is out of the barn, I've relocated some of my planes from Batavia to other air bases in Java. BTW - One odd thing about the attack on Batavia was that none of the PT boats that I had docked there were hit. Go figure…[&:] But that was only part of the story as Tophat also sent tons of planes out everywhere in the DEI, PI and China. The only area where he isn't flying planes is Burma, where my ever increasing number of Blenheim IVs hammered Mandalay pretty well this time. They aren't taking losses from flak and Tophat isn't putting up any CAP, so my pilots are getting a nice bit of experience while slowly putting the airfield there out of action. Tophat now has four LCUs in Mandalay, so it is definitely worth my while to keep on bombing it. And in the sub war, I-15 took a look at one of my better protected transport TFs in the Eastern Pacific and ducked while the escorts tried to find it. They didn't, but I-15 didn't get any shots off either. I now have Hilo and Lahina protected well enough that if Tophat does happen to decide upon an invasion of the Hawaiian Islands he won't be able to take either without a couple of divisions. And I've also got good engineering groups with tractors in both, so the fortifications are going up quickly. Dave Baranyi

ADavidB -> Singing the Blues in Singapore... (9/10/2005 12:23:24 AM)
February 21 - Tophat is "Singing the Blues in Singapore" in his emails to me because he hasn't been able to capture that base yet. My feeling is that he underestimated the number of troops that he would need - I pulled back most of my troops in Malaya without having them lose battles, so they aren't quite the pushovers that they often can be. But I am starting to run out of supplies, so if Tophat just maintains his patience and perseveres he should be able to capture the base by the end of the month anyway. But what I'm going to try to do instead is to give him some "friendly advice", such as pull out and rest some of his troops…[:D] I don't know that he will buy that, but you never know. One thing I'm not going to do is waste transports in some hopeless attempt to re-supply the base. Tophat has total air and sea control in the area and I have no intention of trying to contest that. The situation is similar in Manila except: I have less supply there, Tophat has more troops in the battle, and he has more troops available near by; therefore I don't expect Manila to last much longer. And Bataan is almost totally out of supply so Tophat could probably sail his task forces right by the place with no concern. (At least the AI is able to do that when Bataan is out of supply.) Once again, I have no intention of trying to "run the gauntlet" with supplies to Luzon either. My precarious supply situation not withstanding, Tophat chose to only do artillery bombardments this turn, so I'm happy to not have to had to fend off assaults. He also continued to use his overwhelming air superiority to bomb anywhere in the DEI and PI that he chooses. I am reorganizing my planes in China because Tophat is starting to wear them down, but I don't intend to commit my AVG P-40Bs there at this time - they play too big of a role in my defense of India and my commitment to bombing Mandalay into the Stone Age. (I am half way there as far as the air fields go, and once the air fields are completely shutdown I will start on the Oil Fields in Mandalay.) On the high seas, one of Tophat's usually "stealthy" spy subs in the Eastern Pacific, I-19, appeared long enough to put a torpedo into one of my APs on the way to Hawaii, but this time the ship was part of a big transport TF with a bunch of APDs and AVDs in it, so the escorts caught I-19 and sank it. That will give me a bit more "privacy" along the West Coast to Hawaii route for a while. Dave Baranyi

Page: << < prev 2 3 [4] 5 6 next > >>

Forum Software © ASPPlayground.NET Advanced Edition 2.4.5 ANSI

1.171875