1089
Posts: 210
Joined: 7/4/2001
From: Portland, OR
Status: offline
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Well, since everyone else was publishing their AARs, I decided not to do mine at first. But since I've finished it, I thought I'd give a synopsis.
I selected the Scenario 17 as the Japanese, so I'd have something to do right away. I decided to delay Port Moreby and concentrated on getting Lunga and Tulagi, which I then built to oversize. Lunga had a size 6 airfield and size 3 port. During this stage, various carrier battles caused the Allies to lose all but one carrier, Wasp, and even that one disappeared after a couple torps hit it, so I assume it went to Pearl.
This left me with the air power I felt needed to stop the Allies from reinforcing Port Moresby, and so I proceeded to build an invasion force in Rabaul with the 2nd and 38th divisions, and keeping the 35th Brigade in reserve. Which was good because I needed it later. Meanwhile my carriers, minus Shoho in Japan, and Zuikaku that sunk after 3 months in port (After building up her depleted airgroups, which could not be removed), were busy removing all transports that tried to reinforce PM. My nightly bombardment forces took care of any that slipped through, so I quickly sank about 40 or so, and the Allies didn't seem to have any more, or the AI would have sent them unprotected as well, I'm sure. Around August 7, PM fell. I then took till Sept 2 to take Gili Gili.
I then consolidated for a month or so, and built an invasion force for Luganville. When it arrived there was not much resistance, since the AI had wasted all its transports, and so could not have reinforced it much, even if it wanted to, but apparently it didn't want to, since there were only second-line troops there. It fell on November 7. It took a month or so to get supplies in and build the airfield to a six and get base forces, etc.
Then I took Port Vila on December 11. After that the AI got frustrated and began to show me who was really in charge. My beat up cruisers and fast battleships (I never was sent any of the others), were anchored at Luganville, trying to repair, when suddenly on the 13th, the AI formed them into a surface combat TF and sailed them to Noumea! It then bombed them pretty good, but not enough to put them out of commission, so I decided to take advantage of the situation and bombard Noumea, and then get out of Dodge. Well, the bombardment went pretty well, but I failed to notice that the AI had made the Japanese battlegroups home port Noumea, so they failed to get out of there that turn. Luckily almost every day since I took Port Vila was turning out to be a Thunderstorm day, so the planes couldn't bomb it that morning.
The Thunderstorms were evidently the AIs way of telling me it was displeased, since they carried on intermixed with rain for the remainder of the game. Maybe two overcasr days and a partly cloudy. Perhaps it was trying to protect Noumea from the port attacks by 151 Bettys and 25 Nells, that really showed me the most effective way of removing those pesky Allied subs. The Indiana cannot be sunk in port, however, since no 250kg bomb can penetrate its deck armor. At least my 26 hits didn't. It wasn't even smoking! But the DDs and SSs sure dropped like flies.
Well, it came to be January 1, 1943, and nothing happened so I proceeded to plot another turn. I found the Indiana sailing with the Wichita and the Phoenix, and torpedoed them all. This really made the AI mad, since these were the last big ships it had. (I got the Wasp in December on an overcast day with my CV TF.) So at the end of the turn, instead of giving me the anticipated decisive victory screen (did they make one, Iain?), it dropped me into the Scenario selection screen without even being able to save the turn to see if I got the Indiana or not. Sour grapes, AI, sour grapes!
Anyway, I think the AI is pretty easy to beat as the Allies. I'll try letting it be the Japanese, but I bet it will get the Hiryu, Soryu, Junyo, Hiyo, Yamato, Nagato, Mutsu, and have all the ships it sends back returned, as well. It didn't give me any of those, nor did it return any I sent back. I guess it knew I didn't need them after all.
I think the AI must have been designed with playing the Japanese in mind, as it constantly attacked, even when it should have consolidated. It was a lot of fun, though.
kp
:)
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The Earth is but a hollow nougat, reverberating with the sounds of the big bands... :cool:
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Auto victory? A bit tuned down. - 
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