The Calimari War - Cuttlefish Gets Charbroiled

[BigBadWolf]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Hmm, what do your pilot pools look like now?

Oh, they are much smaller now. Japan gets dozens of training groups in '45 and they have cut the pools by more than half. If only my reserve had lasted until those groups arrived...

Wait, ya'll confusing me

I was under impression that HI cost for pilot training program was paid based on numbers under "B". How can you reduce them?

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: jrcar

CF thank you for that, the amount of HI needed has been one of my key RFI's... We have overbuilt in aircraft and our HI pool isn't enough at the moment. This has given us a goal to head towards which we can now do.

As far as Kami's go how useful have aircraft like Helen been?

Cheers

Rob

The IJA twin-engine level bombers (Sally, Helen, Peggy, etc.) have been my favorite kamikaze planes. At this stage of the war there are not many chances for them to conduct ground attacks and they make poor naval attack planes. So, many of them volunteer for the Special Attack Corps. They score a fair number of hits and when they hit they do a lot of damage. Their biggest advantage over single-engine planes, other than the increased damage, seems to be that they have a better chance of surviving flak on their way in.

[Cuttlefish]

For what it's worth, here are some of the ship losses from the game:

Code: Select all

       Japan      Allies
 CV	9	5
 CVL	4	3
 CVE	4	19
 BB	7	14 (+1 BC)
 CA	14	14
 CL	15	12 (+4 CLAA)
 DD	81	71

[Capt. Harlock]

Japan Allies
CV 9 5
CVL 4 3
CVE 4 19
BB 7 14 (+1 BC)
CA 14 14
CL 15 12 (+4 CLAA)
DD 81 71

Just wow. This game ranks pretty high on the carnage scale. (I assume the Allied CVE losses were primarily from operations around Luzon?)

[obvert]

In mid-45 I would have thought this would be pretty low for IJN losses.

[jrcar]

Thanks, we are building up stocks, those and Oscar IIa should do OK...

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

ORIGINAL: jrcar

CF thank you for that, the amount of HI needed has been one of my key RFI's... We have overbuilt in aircraft and our HI pool isn't enough at the moment. This has given us a goal to head towards which we can now do.

As far as Kami's go how useful have aircraft like Helen been?

Cheers

Rob

The IJA twin-engine level bombers (Sally, Helen, Peggy, etc.) have been my favorite kamikaze planes. At this stage of the war there are not many chances for them to conduct ground attacks and they make poor naval attack planes. So, many of them volunteer for the Special Attack Corps. They score a fair number of hits and when they hit they do a lot of damage. Their biggest advantage over single-engine planes, other than the increased damage, seems to be that they have a better chance of surviving flak on their way in.

[JocMeister]

Thank you for doing this AAR. I just finished reading through it. Very intresting read! [:)]

When I started reading it looked like you opponent made huge strides in as early as in late 42 and early 43. I thought it would have been a done deal in 45 but that clearly didn´t happen. Any ideas on why? Did he overextend? Or did he simply try to grab too much too early? How much did the early loss of your carriers hamper you?

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Thank you for doing this AAR. I just finished reading through it. Very intresting read! [:)]

When I started reading it looked like you opponent made huge strides in as early as in late 42 and early 43. I thought it would have been a done deal in 45 but that clearly didn´t happen. Any ideas on why? Did he overextend? Or did he simply try to grab too much too early? How much did the early loss of your carriers hamper you?

I'll answer the question about the early loss of my carriers first. The first effect, more subtle but maybe more significant, was psychological. Any player, on either side, who loses his carriers early has to deal with the effects of SCLS (Sudden Carrier Loss Syndrome). But I was able to shrug it off and became determined, since I had to go on the defensive early, to put up as tenacious a defense as possible.

Their loss, as you noted, allowed Charbroiled to go on the offensive early and roll up some gains. But I started building up my inner defenses early in '42 and once he came up against those the pace of his advance slowed way down.

One thing that helped was the fact that, although I wasn't very good at sinking his carriers, I kept damaging them. I scored a lot of submarine torpedo hits against them and kept hurting them with LBA. So for a long time I don't think he had enough of a carrier force available to be a huge factor. He tried to fill the gap with CVEs but those I did sink.

He also had a real battleship shortage for a lot of the game. While I wasn't very good at sinking his fleet carriers, his battleships seemed to go through the game with big bulls-eyes painted on them. This hurt him. In order to advance he needed to take out my air bases, and one of the best ways for the Allies to do this is to pound them with naval gunfire. Nothing wrecks an airbase like a good bombardment. But I actually had superiority in surface ships for a while and I used it. So the game really became a contest between land-based air forces. I think it was this situation that led my opponent to forego island-hopping and make his axis of advance along the New Guinea-Philippines route.

Starting with my bases on northwest New Guinea this game saw a pattern that was repeated several times. It went like this. Phase one saw attacks against my forward air bases by massed 4E bombers. After several weeks of combat between my fighters and his numbers would dwindle and his bomber pilots would begin turning around at the mere sight of a Japanese fighter. Then he would stand down his attacks for a week or two.

Phase two involved sweeps by Allied fighters. This couldn't occur until he had occupied and built up bases closer to me. This phase lasted until his fighter groups were worn out. At this point I would start thinking "Hey, I won!" Then fresh groups of fighters would be brought in, and these usually got the better of my battered defenders.

In phase three his bombers would return and pound my airfields flat. I would withdraw my fighters to the next line of defense, resting them and replacing my losses. Free of the worst threat of attack from my LBA, his amphibious forces would invade. Once they had patched up the airfields and his air units had advanced the cycle would begin again.

All of this took a lot of time. I would say it took him more than six months to clear the Philippines alone. In the DEI we saw a similar pattern in Sumatra, another campaign that lasted more than half a year.

The key to the whole thing was careful planning of my airfields. I built them in mutually-supporting groups and I starting planning early in '42 which bases to build up and what engineer and aviation support units would go where, for my entire defensive ring. Doing this well was the single biggest improvement I made in this game over my previous games (against Q-ball and erstad).

I'd like to make note once again of what a great opponent Charbroiled has been. He is gracious in victory and cheerful in defeat, and he cranks out turns like a machine. This game is less than 23 months old and we are past the mid-point of 1945. That's quite a pace, at least for AE!

He is also very. very tenacious. As the Allies advanced he would shrug off even the worst defeats, regroup, and try again with improved tactics and forces. Also, it's no small feat just to manage the logistics of running the Allied advance in '44 and '45 and he has done it very well. Fear the opponent who is good at planning and logistics! This game has been a lot of fun to play, even these latter months when Japan has been tottering on the brink of ruin. I wonder if I can talk him into a rematch...

[obvert]

We can all hope for such a contest! Looks like both Jocke (my opponent) and I are looking into your AAR for some information about what the future holds. I hope I still have my CVs to augment the LBA though.

I'll have to take a thorough reread through the beginning to see how you planned the defense. It's been a focus of mine since day 1 and it sounds like you figured out some useful combinations.

[Cuttlefish]

This game has reached its conclusion. VJ-Day was September 30, 1945. On that date the Allies reached the 2:1 victory point level. Japan surrendered and the Allies were declared the winners with a marginal victory.

Before taking a final look at the game I would like to congratulate Charbroiled, not only for his victory but for taking a PBEM game deep into 1945. I don’t know what percentage of games started ever go that far, but I would bet it is rather small.

Death From the Skies: The last three months of the game mostly featured a massive Allied air offensive against the Home Islands. It was this that provided the Allies with the points needed to secure the win; as late as early August I was looking at the scoreboard and thinking that I might be able to secure a draw, but as the Japanese air defense weakened the points started piling up and the handwriting was on the wall.

Nagasaki was pretty much destroyed by conventional bombing, and many other cities suffered heavy damage. Charbroiled began by targeting airfields, moved on to bombing factories, and ended up trying to burn every Japanese city to the ground. It was pretty grim. I was prepared to try and resist an Operation Downfall-type invasion but in the end my opponent decided against trying it. I think it was a smart move. It would have cost him a bunch of troops and ships for an uncertain result, and it was unnecessary since he could accomplish his goals via much less expensive means.

Hell No, We Won’t Glow: Well actually, I kind of did. Tokyo received an atomic bomb on 16 August, and Osaka got one on 2 September (historic VJ Day, which I am pretty sure wasn’t an accident). The bombs did little to no damage to the military units stationed there but did moderate damage to most industries. Their biggest effect, actually, was that each one dropped was worth an instant 5000 victory points for the Allies. I had hopes that Charbroiled would see that effect and go nuts, nuking me left and right, but alas he had read the manual. I hate it when opponents do that.

Final Naval Actions: There is not much to relate in this department. My last handful of carriers and the remains of the Combined Fleet ended up trapped up around Port Arthur. As the Allied carriers closed in I sortied everything I had, if only to avoid the inglorious fate of having all my ships sunk in port. My opponent then did an interesting and rather chivalrous thing; he pulled back his carriers and sent in surface units. He didn’t have to do this, but he wanted to give me the chance for one last good fight.

It really was quite a fight. In the end, though, the Japanese were overwhelmed. Old Haruna distinguished herself; she took California with her and did heavy damage to several other ships. An Allied light cruiser was also lost. After the fighting died down the carriers came in; my carriers fought, but were simply overwhelmed, and that was pretty much it for the IJN.

Except for Yamato. Noting that the pride of the IJN was still at large somewhere, Charbroiled suggested that we arrange for Yamato and what escorts I could scrape up meet New Jersey and some other ships for a duel. So it was arranged. We both backed off our air forces and other assets and the two task forces met south of Tokyo for the final naval engagement of the war. The fight opened in daylight at long range and Yamato lost her radar in one of the first salvos; that was pretty much it for the battle. The big battleship went down fighting, though. In the end all I had left as far as major naval assets was Kongo and a pair of heavy cruisers.

Possibly as a test for an invasion of Japan, the Allies invaded Miyake-Jima just south of Tokyo in late July. It may have been this that decided Charbroiled against an invasion; Japanese MTBs sank two CVEs and air units and kamikazes sank four more CVEs, a few destroyers, and a fair number of transports.

China and Manchuria: The Allied invasion of China made some progress in the final months, but not a great deal. By the end of the war things were pretty much stalemated, with the Japanese holding a line anchored by Changsa and Shanghai.

This was not the case in Manchuria. The Soviet Army is an unstoppable juggernaut. So many units, and so powerful…I fell back and delayed as best I could, but in the end the only thing that stopped the Russians from conquering all of Manchuria and Korea was time.

Final Analysis: This game ended up with Japan in almost the same position that it was historically. I’m actually kind of proud of that; in this game, lasting almost a month beyond the historic surrender almost counts as a victory, whatever the score may be.

In looking back over the course of the entire game, a couple of things stand out for me. The first was Charbroiled’s very aggressive early play. It’s interesting to speculate on what effect this had on the war. It had the effect of slowing down my offensive, there’s no doubt about that. In the long run, though, I think it cost him. His heavy losses, especially in battleships, cruisers, and destroyers, probably hampered his counteroffensive, at least until ’44 when sufficient replacements had arrived.

This combines in an interesting way with the second thing, my defeats in our early carrier battles. I should have won some of those, at least on paper; he took long chances and got away with them. I am either inept or very unlucky when it comes to carrier battles, it seems. Possibly both. At any rate, I can’t help thinking about how the game might have gone had I been able to maintain carrier supremacy until well into 1943. Given how the second half of the game went, that might well have meant a draw or even a Japanese victory. But that is not, of course, how it happened. Of all the words of tongue and pen...

The game took almost exactly two years to play, a very fast pace. Charbroiled and are planning a rematch, which will start soon. This time we’ll play DaBabesLite. In the meantime, I would like to invite Charbroiled to post his thoughts about the game here and thank him one more time for a great game.
And thanks out there in forum-land to all who followed this rather intermittent AAR. It’s been fun.


The final victory screen:

[Capt. Harlock]

the two task forces met south of Tokyo for the final naval engagement of the war. The fight opened in daylight at long range and Yamato lost her radar in one of the first salvos; that was pretty much it for the battle. The big battleship went down fighting, though.

The way it should be.

The victory screen is very interesting: the Japanese were still ahead for both aircraft and troop losses. I assume that means you still had substantial aircraft and ground assets to defend against a Home Island invasion?

[Canoerebel]

How'd the Allies lose two strategic points?  [&:]  [:'(]
 
Congratulations to both of you for playing so long and enjoying each other's company.  [:)]

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

the two task forces met south of Tokyo for the final naval engagement of the war. The fight opened in daylight at long range and Yamato lost her radar in one of the first salvos; that was pretty much it for the battle. The big battleship went down fighting, though.

The way it should be.

The victory screen is very interesting: the Japanese were still ahead for both aircraft and troop losses. I assume that means you still had substantial aircraft and ground assets to defend against a Home Island invasion?

I did indeed. Any invasion would have been met with lots of troops and waves of air attacks.

Here are some of the aircraft losses for the game:

[Cuttlefish]

Here is the list of top Japanese aces. A few of them are even still alive...

[Cuttlefish]

As you can see, I did not lack for good pilots. Top IJN reserve pilots:

[Cuttlefish]

But I did have a critical shortage of planes to put them in. IJN fighter aircraft available:

[Charbroiled]

Two years ago, I really wasn't looking for a new game. Work/Home life was pretty busy for me and finding an opponent whose schedule matches is difficult to do. A person usually doesn't find out that their opponent's schedule isn't real compatible until after the game is started, and by then it is usually too late. Also, there is always the problem of an opponent "disappearing" when the game starts getting into 1943.

When I saw that Cuttlefish was looking for a game, I decided to send him an offer. I knew from his reputation that "disappearing" tricks were not his style, and since he was a fellow Oregonian, I couldn't resist the opportunity. There was never a moment where I regretted my decision!

We soon found that our scheduled meshed fairly well. We were usually able to get in 2 turns on weekdays and multiple turns on weekend. This makes for a game with a very nice pace. The game is more interesting and easier to manage when the pace is decent. Also, given the fact that Cuttlefish is a very honorable, friendly, and fair opponent, I found this game to be the most enjoyable game of WITP I have played.

At the start of the game, I decided to be aggressive from the start. I wanted to hold Guadalcanal earlier and to try and hold Burma. My thinking was that if I didn't have to spend time retaking areas, that I could work towards Japan sooner and maybe take bases before they were garrisoned and their forts built up.

The Guadalcanal buildup had some unintended ramifications that I believe became the turning point of the war. I was using Suva as a "jump off point" for my buildup in the Solomons. About the time I expected Cuttlefish to start his push through the Solomons, I received a intel report that one of his divisions was prepping for Suva. After I saw the report, I couldn't get troops to Suva fast enough. Needless to say, when he tried landing at Suva he was met with a very large garrison and coastal guns. The Suva battle ended up spreading north into the Gilbert/Marshall islands where the Saratoga and the Lexington took on the KB.....and won. I lost the Lex, but sunk or damage a lot of his CVs. It wasn't an intentional battle on my part, I was just trying to get out of his way as I knew the KB was in the area. Cuttlefish zigged when I expected him to zag and our CVTFs ended up within range of each other.

The Burma gambit worked, but only because Cuttlefish wasn't very aggressive towards taking Burma. As he was moving north of Moulmein towards Rangoon, I landed a couple of Divisions at Moulmein, cutting off his main attack force. This forced him to pullback and regroup and allowed me time to garrison Burma. From there, it became a stalemate until I was strong enough to push southward. It is not a tactic that I think I could get away with a second time.

I did very little buildup in Alaska, and wish I had. Some pressure on Japan from the east late in the war would have help a lot.

Overall, I stayed ahead of historic timeline, however, in early '44 (I believe) I had stopped advancing on all fronts for about 6 months as I was regrouping and juggling troops so that the troops I needed were where they were suppose to be. This delay ended up hurting me in the long run. The delay was a direct result of poor advance planning on my part.

Somethings I learned:

- Allied Battleships have "targets" painted on this hulls.
- Allied CVEs also have "targets" painted on their hulls and it doesn't take much to sink them.
- Two allied CVs CAN take on KB and win, but I suspect they would not win very often.
- Prepping for targets is VERY important to minimize losses, especially if they will be doing amphib landings....even on an lightly garrisoned base.

Quite often, during the game, Cuttlefish was able to get a SFTF within the same hex of my CVTF, but each time, my CVTF was able to disengage.

I would post some data pictures, but they wouldn't tell much more of the story differently then the ones Cuttlefish posted, other then my top ace. My top ace was G. Boyington with 19 kills.

To Cuttlefish: Excellent game my friend! [&o] Looking forward to the rematch.

[FatR]

Thanks for the AAR, Cuttlefish. Good food for thought in these late-game events. I also see you didn't do any aircraft research at all - surviving into late 1945 without exploiting it is truly heroic.

As about the problem of saving HI for late war, that was discussed on the previous page - why not just save a stockpile of planes? Some mid-war models retain their utility until the end, like Ki-43-IIb (as a kamikaze attacker, it is far cheaper than 2E bombers) and N1K1-J.

[KenchiSulla]

Congratulations on finishing the game!

[denisonh]

Congratulations to you and Charbroiled on completing a tremendous game and sharing it with the community.