The Newbs (sort of) - ny59giants stay OUT!

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sanch
Posts: 422
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 7:55 am

The Newbs (sort of) - ny59giants stay OUT!

Post by sanch »

Background.

I've been playing for less than 1 1/2 years, always as Allies. While a true newbie, I tried a pbem against string, and got obliterated. So I've been playing against the AI, and am starting to do ok.

Mr. ny59giants has been playing against the AI as Allies, but has never played a pbem. So I volunteered to play Japan against him. Standard Scenario 15.

He's never played pbem, so I'm guessing he's not prepared for the amount of violence a pbem player can produce compared to the AI. Offsetting that, I've never even looked at playing Japan, with its truly inscrutable production system. Further, we're doing 2-day turns, which I've never done before. So, it should be relatively balanced.

Strategy.

Gotta have one. So here it is:
1. Grab the SRA as fast as I can.
2. Conclude operations in the PI as fast as I can.
3. The holy grail. Gotta have one of those too. So its Noumea for me. Which implies that after 1 and 2, its out to the islands.

Setup, House Rules, etc.

I get free start (non-historical setup), and the Allies will do no moves on turn 1. Sub doctrines off, and 2-day turns.

Only 2 house rules:
1. No more than 4-ship ASW tf's.
2. Don't wildly overstack air bases.

sanch
Posts: 422
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 7:55 am

RE: The Newbs (sort of) - ny59giants stay OUT!

Post by sanch »

12/7/41, 12/8/41

KB goes to Manila! Further, every transport I can lay hands on loads up and goes to places such as Brunei, Jolo, Tawi Tawi, and so on. I even send forces to Lae, Lunga, Buna, Finschafen and Kavieng, and even Baker. I do the standard things in Malaya.

One sneaky move I did is land troops in Lingayen, and also in the coastal hex SE of Lingayen. This cuts off all forces in northern Luzon. Further, if they want to go to Manila or Clark, they will have to fight their way there. That's some 20 or 30 thousand troops now isolated in the boonies of north Luzon that I won't have to bomb, blast or otherwise leverage out of Clark.

For the other areas, I get lucky. I sent the Guam bombardment tf to Wake instead of to Guam, and its enough so I win Wake. I also get lucky (I did throw some air in), and grab Hong Kong. My other atoll attack at Tarawa also works.

The Manila port attack goes in as planned. But then on the 2nd day, its raining, and the kb doesn't even fly! Hmm, looks like I need to pay attention to the weather channel when playing 2 day turns ...

On the production front (where I am truly clueless), I convert Harbin's Nates to researching the upgraded Oscar, and Gumma's Nates to current Oscars. I also upgrade (as many as I dare, which boldly means one group of each):

Claude -> Zero
Nell -> Betty
Nate -> Oscar

Otherwise I don't touch production other than setup a few convoys to gets resource and oil to Japan, mostly from Shanghai.

1st Attack Results:

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A Val: 5 damaged
B5N Kate: 2 damaged

Allied Ships
AVD Childs, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
SS Sculpin, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
SS Sealion, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
SS Sailfish, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
SS Seadragon, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
SS Sargo, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
PT PT-33, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AK Princess of Negros, Bomb hits 1, on fire
SS Sturgeon, Bomb hits 1, on fire
SS S-41, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
SS Searaven, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
SS Perch, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Pillsbury, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
PG Tulsa, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
SS Snapper, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AV Langley, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
MSW Lark, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
SS Permit, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
SS S-40, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
TK Mindanao, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
SS Seal, Bomb hits 1, on fire
SS Seawolf, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
SS Saury, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

2nd Attack Results:

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A Val: 11 damaged
B5N Kate: 2 destroyed, 8 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
PBY Catalina: 5 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 15 destroyed

Allied Ships
MSW Quail, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Pillsbury, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
SS Sculpin, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
SS S-41, Bomb hits 1, on fire
PG Asheville, Bomb hits 1, on fire
SS Swordfish, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AS Otus, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
SS Seadragon, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
SS Salmon, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
SS Stingray, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD John D. Ford, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
SS Spearfish, Bomb hits 1, on fire
SS Permit, Bomb hits 2, on fire
SS Saury, Bomb hits 6, on fire, heavy damage
SS Sailfish, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
SS Sargo, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AK Paz, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AO Pecos, Bomb hits 1, on fire
SS Perch, Bomb hits 2, on fire
DD Pope, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
SS Tarpon, Bomb hits 1
SS Seawolf, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AVD Childs, Bomb hits 3, on fire
SS Skipjack, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AV Langley, Bomb hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
DD Peary, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AO Trinity, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
SS S-38, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
SS Porpoise, Bomb hits 1
SS Searaven, Bomb hits 2, on fire
PT PT-41, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AK Ethel Edwards, Torpedo hits 1
SS Sealion, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
SS Sturgeon, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
TK Mindanao, Bomb hits 1
SS Snapper, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AS Holland, Bomb hits 1, on fire
PG Tulsa, Bomb hits 1, on fire
SS S-40, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
PT PT-33, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP President Madison, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AK Anakan, Bomb hits 1, on fire
SS Shark, Bomb hits 1, on fire
SS S-37, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
PG Isabel, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AK Capillo, Bomb hits 1, on fire

kb rocks!

Strategically (i.e. long term), I have no clue whether hitting Manila instead of PH is good or bad. His BB's and PH air units are intact. But otoh, his sub force is definitely dented.

Roger Neilson
Posts: 899
Joined: Sat Oct 27, 2001 8:00 am
Location: England

RE: The Newbs (sort of) - ny59giants stay OUT!

Post by Roger Neilson »

Manila or Pearl is less of a question over the damage it causes and more of where the KB is and is able to get to in the next few days of the war. I normally hit Manila and get the sort of results you get, but I often regret later not at least keeping the his Bbs out of the war for a while. If you want the KB to raid and cause mayhem in the shipping lanes then Pearl is your frist point of attack, if you want to do a lot of damage in the middle map (DEI or Solomons) then Manila is better for the start. Manila can have an attack from the east then drop down New Guinea and Solomons and onwards, or West side attack and down into Sulu Sea or due west along past Brunei towards Singapore.

Just my opinion

Roger
sanch
Posts: 422
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 7:55 am

12/9/41, 12/10/41, 12/11/41, 12/12/41

Post by sanch »

More carnage in the PI. The kb spends 6 days port-attacking Manila (less 2 days for rain). And I parked a couple CL-DD squadrons outside Manila, and they intercepted some escaping TFs [:)]. Plus some sub sinkings in the area. So, after 6 days of hitting the PI, confirmed sunk in the area are:

4 DD
23 AP/AK
3 TK, 2 AO
16 SS
3 PT
3 PG
1 AV, 1 AVD
3 AS

Is this a good trade-off versus trashing PH? Time will tell. I'm hoping he'll have problems setting up a sub-base in Oz without the AS's.

Most of the troops landed on turn 1 just sat there on turn 2 staring at the enemy (or empty) bases - I guess there's no automatic attack when landing except for atolls. So on turn 3 they made their attacks. I gained Aparri, Vigan, Lingayen, San Jose, Taytay, Cagayan, Jolo, Tawi Tawi, Jesselton, Brunei, Miri, Kuching, Wewak, Kavieng, Finshchafen, Lae, Buna and Lunga.

I also gain via atoll/shock attacks Tarawa, Baker, Makin and Nauru.

In Malaya, Kuantan falls on 12/10, and Khota Bharu on 12/12. The forces in Kuantan are going to cut across the peninsula to see if they can isolate the Brits before they fall back.

On the flip side, when setting up the initial invasions, I mostly neglected to send in av-support along with the infantry. So now I got all these locations, some with good AF's, but can't fly from them. I did send engineers to Khota Bharu and Jolo, and have a datai of A6M2's in Jolo. For the rest, engineers are on the way, but it'll be like a week before they arrive and setup.

Plus (no surprise), is I'm rapidly learning to respect his cursed Martins. Only 3 ships sunk: 1 AP, 1 ML, and 1 MSW. But I already have at least 6 or 8 very-banged-up transports in, or trying to get to, various ports.

Also, I'm ripping through pilots and planes much faster than I had hoped. Never having played Japan before, I don't know if I'm doing typical or worse. But I'm not happy about it. KB has lost quite a few planes attacking Manila - the flak gets deadly when it wakes up. Plus I'm low on A6M2 and Oscar airframes, though the Oscar situation should improve as the converted Nate factory in Gumma comes online.

So, for the next week or so, I need to consolidate what I got (read - get av support to the front!). My CVL/CVE tf is at Palau refitting now (I wish I had some A6M2's to upgrade the Claudes).

But when rested, its ... Balikpapan! I have Jolo for LBA support, and when I do get Balikpapan, then I'll have LBA support over most of the southern SRA, especially Java. Otherwise, I'll keep pounding in the PI, and advancing in Malaya.

I am starting to discover that doing major stuff at more than a couple places is a stretch. I just don't have the forces.

On the home front, I noticed I have only 2 units of Pete's (1/2 range). And I have hundreds of Jake replacements. So, upgrade the Petes to Jakes, and change the Pete production (only 8) to Mavis. I'll get some more long-range recon; the tradeoff is the Mavis takes 4 engines versus the 1 engine of the Pete.

Score:
JP: 2659
AL: 7208
User avatar
saj42
Posts: 1127
Joined: Tue Apr 19, 2005 12:02 pm
Location: Somerset, England

RE: 12/9/41, 12/10/41, 12/11/41, 12/12/41

Post by saj42 »

I'm scared off from playing Japan by the production side. I assume you have read all the good stuff from Spookies website and old threads on the subject?
Don't convert/expand too much early on as supply in the Home Islands will drop very quickly. Halt the Shinano so the other naval vessels get completed on time. Also check engine production - you must do some work in that area.

Good luck
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