Hairy Yankee Reports: Q-Ball (A) v Greyjoy (J)

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MAurelius
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by MAurelius »

exactly - I have seen Wasp go down with 1 TT hit as well
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Q-Ball
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by Q-Ball »

ORIGINAL: Cannonfodder

Unlucky that Wasp got hit, but by the looks of it you are lucky she didn't go down....

When I opened the turn, I expected her to be nearly sinking........she's wounded, but I agree, not bad at all considering 2 TT and explosions.

Great damage control there.

12-8-1942:

The buildup in Australia continues, with units prepping for multiple targets. I haven't 100% fleshed out the plan, but I am working on preps that will get me there.

I had 3 divisions prepped for Port Moresby, but I am cancelling that. There are over 30,000 Japanese troops there, and I am not having difficulty moving ships through the Torres Strait. A bigger problem is that he can SEE whatever goes through the Torres Strait, but I would have to clear all of NG to solve that problem, which isn't happening.

Instead, I am considering a landing at more lightly-defended Milne Bay; this should force him to either evacuate PM overland, or leave all those troops stranded.

Northern Oz:

Recon shows Darwin is held by a single base force. The only troops there now are that unit, plus the SNLF unit I am kicking around toward Katherine. Pretty soon, we'll land troops and supplies at Darwin, and start to build this up into a base.

I am getting to the end of how far I can go under LBA, so that is a problem
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Chickenboy
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by Chickenboy »

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

WASP, as you can see ate 2 torps. So did IDAHO.

By submarine, I assume? Same one (sub) or different?
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crsutton
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by crsutton »

Wasp, just seems to die quickly in every game. A torpedo magnet. Hope he has not stacked some more subs in the area as Japanese subs seem to be very good at catching cripples. Your looking at a long trip home and then 4 months in the yard if she makes it. The BB will be in the yard even longer. They just take forever to repair.

In my campaign with Ark, I would say we have traded torpedoes on at least 30 to 40 CV and BBs but amazingly our subs have failed to put a capital ship under.

That is, except for my killing of the Yamato which fell to four torpedoes in three different sub attacks. One sub hit him at Yap and then another sub caught it on the way home near Iwo Jima. Two attacks in one phase with three hits. The only time an Allied sub has put multiple hits on a Japanese capital ship in over 1,000 turns. [:@]
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witpqs
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by witpqs »

Wasp is small enough to repair quite nicely at Sydney.
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crsutton
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by crsutton »

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Wasp is small enough to repair quite nicely at Sydney.

As long as you are not repairing anything else. I usually have up to a dozen smaller ships repairing or upgrading in Sidney at any given time.
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Dan Nichols
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by Dan Nichols »

You do not have to have the ships in the shipyard to upgrade. The program will put some of them there, but you can move them to pier side repair with no problem and they repair at the same rate.
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Q-Ball
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by Q-Ball »

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Wasp is small enough to repair quite nicely at Sydney.

To answer Chickenboy, she was struck by 2 sub-launched TTs in the same salvo.

In this game, I have lost hardly any merchies to subs, but I have lost LOTS of capital ships. I have lost 2 undamaged BBs to subs within a turn (in both cases, 2 different attacks by the same sub). I lost another BB returning from Pearl; the ONLY ship that has seen an IJN sub between San Fran and Pearl the entire war. But losing NEW MEXICO and MARYLAND to subs, I have never seen that before, and as Japan I never cleanly sank anything larger than a CVE, ever. Just lucky I guess!

As for WASP, I am going to bring her to Sydney, and get a repair estimate; anything under 120 days, I'll leave her there. One thing, she isn't a big ship, so she repairs more like a cruiser than a large CV.
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Q-Ball
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by Q-Ball »

12-9-42 to 12-17-42

Buildup of Northern Australia:

There are alot of subs snooping around NE Oz, as well as planes. It's a good bet that Greyjoy is observing a buildup all over Australia, particularly NW OZ. I have been moving troops, supplies, and fuel to Port Hedland, to the point that it's a huge base, with lvl-6 port, 200K fuel, and over 600 Nav Support. Hard to miss that!

So no secret that I am planning a push into the Indian Ocean somwhere. That's a big territory to defend, though, so I still have options, and will still try to confuse him as to my ultimate objectives.

The other reason I know is that intel has given me several reports of troops movements or locations, enough to know that Roti and Waignapoe each have at least a Bde, and Timor is pretty stacked, with at least 2 divisions. Taberfane and Dobo have over 6K apiece on the other side of Darwin, and convoys are heading to Den Passar, Christmas Is, and Kendari. All in all, he is building in the DEI. I guess that makes sense.

I don't want to risk the CVs yet, so I am going to have to look for ways to advance under LBA, or with LBA support. That is extremely limited, but I do plan to advance north from Darwin, toward Babar and Samlauki, because those can be LRCAP (from Bathurst, when I get there)

Meanwhile, Australian Tanks have taken Katherine, and nearing Fenton, so we should have Darwin secured fairly soon.

Burma: I am stalled in Burma; he has a ton of guys there, and it's a good idea to defend the forward jungle. I can't bring enough right now to a single point to disodge him. Akyab is impregnible with stacking limits. It also doesn't help that I withdrew some troops from this theater for the Indian Ocean.

So, we are going to try to pin him. I do have an attack planned near Shwebo that I have some hope for, but not a ton. We'll see.

WASP: The repair estimate at Sydney is 118 days; just enough, I think, to leave her. Any more, and I would move it to the West Coast, but that's a 30-day trip, so I'll fix it in theater. All in all, not bad considering the severity of the hit; I was lucky.

IDAHO, with 41 Major Float Damage, will be departing for the West Coast, and probably 4-6 months of yard time.

China:

Oh, China. We finally have some aircover in China, at least at Kunming; I surprised him a couple days ago by basing 100 A/C there, shooting down 70 planes, including 35 Helens. Next day, he swept heavily with Tojos, shooting down a dozen of my planes for a loss of only 4. We rested, and will try again.

Not sure I can keep this up. The Allies should not get into an attrition war with planes, but I am deliberately using older types to go ahead and drain the pools; Hurricane I, P-400, P-40E, etc. I am hoarding P-40K for move into the DEI.

Otherwise, see below. This is a mess that will not hold much longer, maybe 60-90 days.

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Q-Ball
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by Q-Ball »

12-18-42 to 12-21-42

Taberfane: I forgot to mention, a few days back we destroyed a convoy unloading what appeared to be an engineering unit at Taberfane. Greyjoy told me it was 2 units, and were engineers, not base force. All I know is engineers were seen in the sinking vessels. I sank these guys with the cruisers squadron I have in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Almost immediately after this, two things happened.

First, a large surface force with "BBs" present anchored at Taberfane. If those truly are BBs, I can't tangle with them.

Second, a convoy that intel reported was headed to Christmas Island was heavily escorted by a cruisers force. I had hoped to jump with with a couple CAs out of Cocos, but I can't take them on without adequate nearby support.

He also has at least a CVE in the Indian Ocean; I know because Kates sortied and put a couple bombs on HMS CARADOC, who was out hunting for a picket ship I had spotted a couple turns back. CARADOC will live, but that's interesting he is out there with a CVE.

China/Kunming:

We have had several airbattles over Kunming. He is sweeping with Tojos, and we are trading 1 to 1, or even a little worse on my end. I don't think I can keep this up, a couple more turns and we'll throw in the towel. The reality is the Japanese have more planes than I do at this point, even though I am purposely using older types over Kunming (like Hurricane 1s)

On the Central Plains, the IJA is finally moving; I block all the roads, but he has plenty to knock me around. I have a number of units in the open because I don't have room for them in the cities, so they will get run-over by IJA tanks. It's bad!

Air Wars Elsewhere:

Over Burma, he is not contesting daily bombing runs on Akyab and Myiktinya. I can't really break thorugh on the ground, so I'm just burning his supplies at this point, and building GrndB skill. The other option is to go after Mandalay, where he has 200 fighters, but that is a tall order right now. I would lose alot of planes, and I can't afford a war of attrition.

The other point of contact is New Guinea. I have most of my 4E in NE Oz, and we are making bombing runs on the bases near the Torres Strait. Woodlark Is is rubble, and I am bombing Port Moresby as well. We hit Nadzab and Lae, though Nadzab we ran into some Zeros who shot down 5 P-38s. I am probably going to shift the 4Es once I have Darwin, but for now I want to keep these bases supressed if I move on Milne Bay, and also burn his supplies. At Port Moresby, in particular, getting a convoy there for him could get risky, which means he'll either have to move supplies from Buna, or not get any.

Quandary:

I am in a quandary, and can't decide what to do.

I am ready for a move into the DEI, and his preparations are likely not complete, but pretty far along in terms of using LBA. If all I was facing was LBA, I could make a move and take this to the next stage.

However, I am concerned about KB. Facing KB, with LBA backup, when all I have is carriers, would not go well. Greyjoy is smart enough to be able to focus his airpower quiclkly, and I know he has Air HQs all over, with a cluster of bases around each HQ. This is smart. So, any move can be greeted by massed LBA pretty quickly. I am not worreid about an IJA Air Fleet by itself; but couple that with KB, and that could be bad. Real bad.

If I go, I have to go soon, because after January I probably need to wait for the Dauntless groups to re-size, and I start getting Hellcats in March. Plus, APs upgrade to APAs. So, by April, I should be much better off, with lots of invasion shipping and modern planes, but the problem of course is that gives him another 3 months to dig and prepare.

Decisions, decisions......what do you think?
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PaxMondo
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by PaxMondo »

I think as the allies, you have to keep needling non-stop.  IJ intel sucks, so you can prep for anywhere you want and he will never get wind of it.  Dart in, invest a place, back out.  Keep his KB moving, burning fuel all the time. 

The allied timetable is both fixed and well known to both sides.  The problem for IJ is that it is very hard to disrupt that.  You want Guam by the time your B29's show up.  That gives you one axis of advance that initially needs little to no CV support.  You want to regain Burma, which you are already moving against.  Your troops upgrade in '43 with  alot of firepower gains, his don't.  He has to invest a LOT more ID's or the current stalemate ends with you taking Burma, and releiving your CHI forces.  Where can he get those ID's?  This leaves CentPAC and NorPAC to play with as you please, both being very dangerous to IJ as they are shorter routes to your goal.  IJ doesn't get all their garrisoning forces unti llate '44 -> '45.  Where are all of these forces going to come from in the meantime?

You've played the IJ a lot, you know all of this.  If he has a lot of assets in DEI, and with all of his army in CHI ... to me it means he is really thin everywhere else.  He has to be.  Not going after CHI like he is, you're thin at this as the IJ at this point.  He's used all of his Manchuria buyouts for CHI.  Make him pay for his CHI strategy.  Marshall's, Aleutians/North Kuriles, Wake/Marcus; all are on the table right now I think.  Not taking them all of course, just one here and there.  Invest with an ID, some engr's, and a lot (6 months) of supply, he can't take it back as all of his reserves are deep in CHI... two months away from an assault at best if he chooses.  And you know what it would take for the IJ to dislodge and allied ID in '43.  6xID?  More?  Can he get that? [;)]

The allied Armada doesn't arrive for another +9 months, so you can't go toe-2-toe.  But that doesn't mean you can't make it real hot for the IJ.

So stick and move.  Stick and move.  [;)]
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JeffroK
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by JeffroK »

Now you have GJ getting big numbers into Burma and seemingly spreading Brigades around a myriad of DEI bases, is it possible to start to drain off a Div or 2 from these areas and push him in another area.

From reading his game against rader I think GJ imagines the worst of everything, that his plans are flawed and his opponent is the Napoleon of the Pacific.

I reckon you could panic him out of some South Pacific islands.

Work on him[8D]
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wfaherty
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by wfaherty »

I would remember why the Japanese started the war,It was to get FUEL. Troops anywhere cannot fight without supplies(need FUEL to move troops and/or supplies)weapons,Aircraft(need FUEL for HI points).
Station LR dutch and S boats from Australia around TRUK,the US boats(I use 3 equal 1 SS tf's in a hex to increase odds of a live hit prior to Sept 43)on his resource/oil/fuel/supply convoy routes to/from the HI and nail those convoys,this does 2 things:
1)Sunk Tankers(62 IJN TK's at start) hurt big ,AO's(17 IJN AO's at start) even worse!. The KB and mini KB, powerful as they are,cannot do anything without fuel,unless a AO TF is dragged behind which of course would severely limit the speed of any Striking TF.
2)If the convoys are escorted,then this dilutes the IJN combat power and or not send DD's with capital ships(very bad move).
3)Whenever you can, kill his AP's(67 IJN AP's at start) especially the big ones(>1500 troops,>10VP) ,this will restrict his ability to move large troop formations quickly. All of this will take 4-7 months of game time to really take effect.

On my first allied turn I shut off the refineries and refinery repair in Miri,Tarakan,Balakpan,Palambang,Merdan and Soerabaja,this way when the IJA/IJN take those places(which they will !!) there is little or no fuel left to use,do the same thing for the big 50k repair ship yards in Singapore and HK.(when the IJA take them after your engineers trash them,they are useless for 7-8 months unless the IJA/IJN spent HI points to repair them).
I load all the merchants in HK with fuel(load 50k out of 128k in fuel) before I try to run them to DEI and/or Australia/PM,again if they get sunk the fuel is gone,if not it can be used in Australia and PM.
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MAurelius
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by MAurelius »

I load all the merchants in HK with fuel(load 50k out of 128k in fuel) before I try to run them to DEI and/or Australia/PM,again if they get sunk the fuel is gone,if not it can be used in Australia and PM.

quite a few might call that VERY gamey...
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JeffroK
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by JeffroK »

And its a bit late to try.
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guytipton41
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by guytipton41 »

ORIGINAL: MAurelius

I load all the merchants in HK with fuel(load 50k out of 128k in fuel) before I try to run them to DEI and/or Australia/PM,again if they get sunk the fuel is gone,if not it can be used in Australia and PM.

quite a few might call that VERY gamey...

Hi MAurelius,

A reasonable allied commander in HK says we can't hold this, let's get what is worthwhile out... seems to me you could WitPAEzen it.

For my part the time to load anything is time not running. Unless you have a "can't form TFs first turn" HR you might get some of those ships out.

Cheers,
Guy
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Bullwinkle58
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by Bullwinkle58 »

ORIGINAL: guytipton41

ORIGINAL: MAurelius

I load all the merchants in HK with fuel(load 50k out of 128k in fuel) before I try to run them to DEI and/or Australia/PM,again if they get sunk the fuel is gone,if not it can be used in Australia and PM.

quite a few might call that VERY gamey...

Hi MAurelius,

A reasonable allied commander in HK says we can't hold this, let's get what is worthwhile out... seems to me you could WitPAEzen it.

For my part the time to load anything is time not running. Unless you have a "can't form TFs first turn" HR you might get some of those ships out.

Cheers,
Guy

In my game all but a couple of the merchants in HK were sunk on the first turn before I entered a move. I would not have used a second of dwell time to load them with anything. They need to be running like the IRS is after them.

But if you DO want to load fuel, how is that possibly "gamey"? It's your fuel, they're your ships.
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Chickenboy
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by Chickenboy »

I've got no problems at all with the Allies loading whatever they want from any of their ports before their exodus. Fuel especially. A small fuel load, if lit off will ensure quick destruction of the vessel. As a JFB, I'm quite pleased to see self-lighting, self-sinking Allied vessels that burn to the waterline with the smallest penetrating hit.

A small price to pay for evacuating meaningless quantities of fuel, from the perspective of a JFB.
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by Crackaces »

ORIGINAL: MAurelius

I load all the merchants in HK with fuel(load 50k out of 128k in fuel) before I try to run them to DEI and/or Australia/PM,again if they get sunk the fuel is gone,if not it can be used in Australia and PM.

quite a few might call that VERY gamey...

I might say that gamey is defined by the contestents. I can say although that the very wide chasim of that Witp AE is not a similation and is a game -- to some mythical set of realities ends up ruining a game. It is why I like the Moose's contest .. so it shall be said .. so it shall be done :)
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PaxMondo
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RE: China Area Panzer Army

Post by PaxMondo »

ORIGINAL: Retlaw

3)Whenever you can, kill his AP's(67 IJN AP's at start) especially the big ones(>1500 troops,>10VP) ,this will restrict his ability to move large troop formations quickly.

IJ can convert space on all of its xAK's to troop space. Kyushu's are as fast as most of the AP's and so are two fo the Yusen's. I rarely build any AP's. Plenty of replacements. Same with TK's; several classes of xAK's convert to TK's.
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