Dive Bomber1
Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
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December 9, 1942 – After the usual minesweeping and sub chasing during the night phase we finally got a serious Naval Confrontation at Lautem. AuTiger brought up most of the Pacific Fleet and had it waiting for my incoming ships. Surprisingly enough, my Cruiser Surface Combat TF did reasonably well, considering the odds against it. I needed a little bit of luck, and I didn't get it, but the results could have been much worse.
The first encounter went as follows:
Night Time Surface Combat, near Lautem at 33, 78
Japanese Ships
CA Atago, Shell hits 2
CA Mikuma, Shell hits 1
CA Suzuya
CA Kumano, Shell hits 5
CL Kuma, Shell hits 2
CL Kiso, Shell hits 7, on fire
CL Tatsuta, Shell hits 9, on fire, heavy damage
DD Naganami, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Shiranuhi, Shell hits 2
DD Oshio
DD Michishio, Shell hits 2
DD Asagumo, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Yudachi, Shell hits 1
DD Akatsuki
DD Inazuma, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Hatsuyuki
DD Uranami, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Asakaze, Shell hits 7, on fire, heavy damage
Allied Ships
BB Maryland, Shell hits 4
BB Colorado, Shell hits 3
BB Nevada, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
BB Oklahoma, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 2, on fire
BB Arizona, Shell hits 5
BB California, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
BB Tennessee, Shell hits 1
BB Idaho, Shell hits 8
BB New Mexico, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 1
BB Mississippi, Shell hits 2
CL Raleigh, Shell hits 3
CL Detroit
CL Concord, Shell hits 7, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Walke
DD Ralph Talbot, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Henley, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Monaghan, Shell hits 1
DD John D. Edwards, Shell hits 1
DD Vampire, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Van Ghent
DD Thracian
DD Crosby
My ships got the jump and were able to launch and score with a number of Long Lances before the US ships got to fire back. But that is where I needed some luck and didn't get it. During the first unanswered phase of torpedo launches two Battleships and one DD were hit. If that
US DD had sunk due to the torpedo hit that might have caused the entire US TF to disengage. Unfortunately, the DD shook off the hit and so the battle continued with the US ships getting to use their big guns.
The two TFs temporarily disengaged but then the resumed the battle:
Night Time Surface Combat, near Lautem at 33, 78
Japanese Ships
CA Atago
CA Mikuma
CA Suzuya
CA Kumano
CL Kuma, Shell hits 1
CL Kiso, Shell hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CL Tatsuta, Shell hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
DD Naganami, Shell hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
DD Shiranuhi
DD Oshio, Shell hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Michishio
DD Asagumo, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Yudachi
DD Akatsuki
DD Inazuma, on fire
DD Hatsuyuki, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Uranami, on fire
DD Asakaze, Shell hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
Allied Ships
BB Maryland, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1
BB Colorado, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
BB Nevada, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
BB Oklahoma, Shell hits 2, on fire
BB Arizona, Shell hits 1
BB California, Shell hits 1, on fire
BB Tennessee
BB Idaho
BB New Mexico
BB Mississippi
CL Raleigh
CL Detroit
CL Concord, Shell hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Walke
DD Ralph Talbot, Shell hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
DD Henley, on fire
DD Monaghan, Shell hits 1
DD John D. Edwards
DD Vampire, on fire
DD Van Ghent
DD Thracian
DD Crosby
Surprisingly, my ships got off more torpedoes and scored more hits against the US BBs. (Assuming, of course, that I'm not seeing Naval Combat Fog of War again like I did with that submarine attack a couple of turns ago.) So if the Combat Replay and Combat Report have any truth to them, my ships put torpedoes into six of the US BBs, including 4 torpedoes into Nevada.
Of course, what we are seeing here is the end result of poor luck right from at the very start of this pbem. This was a "Historic Start" and the KB's attack didn't sink or damage significantly any of the BBs at Pearl. In fact, only a PT boat was sunk during the attack. Thus, AuTiger has the entire suite of old BBs available to him right now, as well as the newer "fast" BBs, which I assume are off elsewhere.
In any event, although none of my ships were sunk during the battle, many of my DDs and CLs are badly damaged and won't likely make it to safety. And "to add insult to injury", CA Suzuya, which had escaped damage during the battle, was hit by a submarine torpedo while retiring.
So my hopes of slowing down the Allied advance into the DEI are pretty much finished now. I had the KB off in the "wrong place at the wrong time", and anyway, AuTiger has a huge air presence at Lautem right now. He even now has his first bombers in place; likely some dive bombers. It will be some time before I can bring in replacement ships, and by the time that they arrive I suspect that AuTiger will have so many planes in place that any attempts at attacking Lautem will be totally hopeless.
So while the night sky a Lautem was lit by searchlights, gunfire and explosions, things were quiet at Adak as AuTiger apparently sent his minesweeping TF back to base after its location was detected by one of my subs last turn. In any event, my TF got back to Kiska without any contact with the enemy. I reassembled a new TF out of the ships that were in the best shape and sent the more heavily damaged ships back to Paramushiro Jima. In any event, the battle at Lautem now convinces me that AuTiger has few if any heavy ships in the Aleutians at this time, so as long as my ships can avoid mines and subs and the weather stays bad, I ought to be able to continue to harass Adak.
In other, and reasonably unhappy, news, Allied troops captured Akyab on the first try this turn. I was very surprised at this because I expected the Allied troops to be fatigued and disrupted by their march. Of course, it didn't help that none of my attack bombers ever actually flew against the on-coming Allied troops over the past couple of game-weeks of trying. So score this victory as another one "for the AI".
BTW, in a really frustrating and totally unjustifiable manner, the AI sent my defeated Brigade onto a mountain to the East of Akyab instead of along the roadway to the South. My guess is that the AI "calculated" Mandalay as being closer so it sent the unit that direction instead of south to Rangoon. But with the @#$%^ "mile-a-day" rule the Brigade will never leave that spot before it is cut off. So that will likely be yet another unit that will remained trapped and provide target practice for AuTiger ad infinitum. I am totally sick and tired of this sort of thing happening in this pbem. It makes the entire game pointless – I can't compete against both the AI and a good opponent at the same time.
BTW II – AuTiger continues to use Chinese troops everywhere as his main attacking forces in order to wear down my defenses without risking his more valuable units. Two Chinese divisions participated in the assault on Akyab, and the unit that is trying to cut off Mandalay is also a Chinese unit.
BTW III – after I joked again in an email about "invading San Diego" last turn AuTiger sent me a screen capture of the San Diego base, and interestingly enough, the only troops there are a small base force and a CD unit. I wonder if AuTiger moved all of his West Coast combat troops forward? I suppose that if I had moved out my Home Defense troops as well as some of my other Restricted Command units earlier in this pbem I might have advanced a little more, but that's all theoretical now, because that's not how I wanted to play the game.
So, to a good extent, it's now "game over" with Akyab and Lautem firmly under Allied control. AuTiger will soon be able to totally destroy all of the DEI and SEA from the air, and I won't be able to do anything about it. I've made too many bad decisions, and I've also had too much poor luck, particularly with the AI, to be able to do anything further. Essentially, if a Japanese player doesn't win the Game during the first six months, he has lost it, and I have clearly lost this pbem badly.
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Printable Version
RE: Frustration Time - 
Other Allied Patrol planes spotted some of the many combat TFs that I have sailing around the region, so that ought to also help to keep AuTiger a bit edgy. 
There must have been a few rookies in amongst the pilots because AuTiger lost 6 B-17s to various operational and flak causes. Fortunately, I only had a few Recon planes at the base and so my losses were reasonable. I guess that Maumere will be next. 
) on the way in. 
) that AuTiger will presume that those are replacement Surface Combat ships for the ones that slugged it out with his RN ships at Akyab. I replenished the TF and ordered it off to the Andaman Islands. 
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