Turnaround? Lowpe (J) vs Tiemanj (A) Stock

Post descriptions of your brilliant victories and unfortunate defeats here.

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Lowpe
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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by Lowpe »

I-2 has a busy day finding three task forces. The first and the last are big cargo groups while the middle one is the Portland and destroyer escort, probably a sliver of a larger BB escort group.



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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by Lowpe »

Burma Theater:

The ships are going in...I don't like to do it, but they are toggled for full speed run, since sticking around would probably be death from the air.

One group is a heavy cruiser bombardment group, and other is several destroyers with lots of torpedoes set to clear the harbor.

There have been plenty of ships here...so I hope they stick around for some nice night time engagements.



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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by Lowpe »

Soerabaja: the end must be near. Assault value in the high 200s for the defenders, forts down to level 2, now I need to rest the four divisions doing the heavy lifting, but keep up the artillery bombardment.

I think the Allies are going to get frisky with their ships here, but a lot of them are heavily damaged.



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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by Lowpe »

October 4, 1942

We have had better turns.

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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by Lowpe »

Then, in Soerabaja, my heavy Cruisers run into three mines, sinking a destroyer, and doing damage...

While a couple of his destroyers leave Soerabaja, inflict 2 hits on a sub, and head off north of Makassar. None of my planes flew and two CL task forces and one heavy cruiser force didn't close with him.

Who said surface groups don't hit minefields?[:)]



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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by Lowpe »

Not all the turn is bad: Soerabaja, Tjilatjap bombarded again. Good bombing runs in Soerabaja. His three wandering destroyers didn't find any convoys, and is now sitting in one of my minefields at Madjene. Of course he won't hit any.[:D]

Still, just a setback...I will keep bombarding and pounding his air base. I don't dare risk the KB pilots there, so I will keep plugging away with what I have.

Tomorrow both the Oscar IV and A6M5c advance a month...

Plus, Tiemanj is flying coast to coast so I have extra long to do the turn...I am thinking about using large heavily protected cargo/tanker groups given my predecessors losses of small ships (xakls) from Singers...the tonan whalers already have a dedicated ASW group, plus an AV support group protecting them which is working well.

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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by Lowpe »

China:

Very good progress is being made here. I am not destroying cutoff Chinese units, rather bombing them and letting them wither.

In two months of war here the Chinese have suffered huge losses in troops and also in supply generation. Not a recent battle has him in supply, and I am bombarding, attacking, bombing to keep him that way.

Early on the Flying Tigers were able to spring two cap traps, so they are still a force to be wary of along with some Lancers. I only have two small size 12 fighter squadrons operating in China, but I am content to bomb where he doesn't have fighter coverage and make progress on the ground.

I have suffered almost no losses to the ground forces.

I need to buy some more of the restricted units and get them to Canton for the push from that axis, but overall I think I can cutoff an additional 50 Chinese units from supply here and in the Changsha triangle area.

My garrison forces are really messed up still...slowly working improving it.






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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by Lowpe »

The Kuriles.

Where did the bombers go? Faulty intelligence or disbanded back to the pools? Hard to believe he disbanded them given the success he had recently with them.

I am leapfrogging support ships up the island chains, getting more forces into place. Will sweep his base today with 27 Zeroes hopefully they can cause some op losses.[:)]

Etorofu is almost size 4, now has the 2nd Air Division with torps and is a fairly strong festung with the invasion forces prepping.

AKEs are moving forward to get me daily bombardments of his base.

He got a 10 detection level on an xak and pb at Shimushiri yesterday, so I disbanded them to port and formed an xakl from the port. Hopefully this will entice his destroyers to come out and play. If not the base will get 800 supplies that it needs and my groups are ready to run in and bombard and sweep on the next day.

Another CL surface groups links up with the KB, which is moving south and west, to provide more protection from a destroyer rush, and the KB is also being refueled.



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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by Lowpe »

Solomon Seas:

I have been slowly building up here. I think it is an ideal area (along with the Timor & Marshals area) for my IJA divebombers when they come around in a few months. Lots of interlocking air fields. Good range to move quickly between theaters, and no need for torpedoes.

However, I think the Allies will bypass this area and go thru Kusaie or continue in the Kuriles.

So far, the area is held exceptionally lightly with mostly Naval Guard, a splinter of the 55th division, a few AA units, and a fair number of engineering units: some base forces and about 6 construction units.

What naval forces are at Truk, and the air power is currently pretty weak 1 squadron of bettys (with torps), kates (with torps) and a big Val unit, some Jakes, depleted Oscars and Zeroes.

So far, not a peep out of the Allies here.

As you can see, I still have quite a few bases to take and start developing.

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mind_messing
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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by mind_messing »

I think you need to get active around Port Moresby. There's no point building the Solomons up without Port Moresby under Japanese control: the Allies can build PM and the base to the North-West of it up, then push down the coast to Milne Bay.

Once the Allies are in Milne Bay, they can take and build up the island bases off-shore and you'll never get rid of them. With Port Moresby in Allied hands, they can mount an overland campaign to Buna, and with the Milne Bay region, they can move air units in to support a push on Buna, attack shipping in the region and bring in heavy and meduim bombers within range of your rear area bases.

You don't even need to mount an naval invasion of Port Moresby: land some troops to garrison Milne Bay and send everything you can scrape up overland to Port Moresby via Buna, while you hammer the base from the air.
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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by Lowpe »

Oct 5, 1942:

Big air day: Large Allied sweep at Magwe, and the Allies fly planes, bombers, into Soerabaja...lots of bombing runs but they don't really accomplish much -- 31 port damage on Probolinggo and a sunk ACM being about the extent of the damage.

However, he has somehow got divebombers back into Soerabaja...but I don't see any of his carriers. Perahps he reinforced units already there...I will be extra careful.

30 Vals attacked three destroyers south east of Java for no hits...Nells didn't fly from Makassar (which seems to be pretty much a constant, there is almost always bad weather there).

Fighters do well defending Magwe, mostly against the inferior Allied planes, but he does lose some Lightnings. I am particularly glad to see the Tojo not taking it on the chin.

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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by Lowpe »

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

I think you need to get active around Port Moresby.

I agree...I had been waiting for Soerabja to fall first. Thanks for the advice.
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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by Lowpe »

More joy on minefields:

W-4 was sweeping from an adjacent hex, found the minefield in Soerabaja, swept mines there and got pummeled by the coastal guns there.

Luckily she isn't on fire.

Allied minefields are very frustrating when teamed up with coastal defense guns and even just by themselves. And yet, my minefields seem to be notoriously ineffective...kind of like my air force. [:)]

I have hope on remedying the air force,and in fact, I think I have made great strides there in 60 days of play, but the minefields are going to crush me long term....especially when they start air dropping them. Not an a-historic outcome, as mines did do huge damage to Japan during the war (I think it was kept classified until the 80s or 90s it was deemed so successful).





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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by Lowpe »

the North: With the airbases being built up rapidly now, and torpedoes at Etorofu, I am debating about sending the KB away. I know Allied carriers are going to try to do something in Java or Marshalls but their plane contingent must be really weak.

Logistics are in place to shore bombard the Yankees daily now, and that should help, as long as I can avoid the minefields.

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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by mind_messing »

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

More joy on minefields:

W-4 was sweeping from an adjacent hex, found the minefield in Soerabaja, swept mines there and got pummeled by the coastal guns there.

Luckily she isn't on fire.

Allied minefields are very frustrating when teamed up with coastal defense guns and even just by themselves. And yet, my minefields seem to be notoriously ineffective...kind of like my air force. [:)]

I have hope on remedying the air force,and in fact, I think I have made great strides there in 60 days of play, but the minefields are going to crush me long term....especially when they start air dropping them. Not an a-historic outcome, as mines did do huge damage to Japan during the war (I think it was kept classified until the 80s or 90s it was deemed so successful).

Save the dedicated DMS's for the real emergencies: Japan has so few "fast" minesweepers that they can't afford to lose the proper ones.

Try to get some AMc's up in the Kuriles. Start converting more AMc's from the semi-worthless plethora of xAKL's that Japan has. They'll sweep mines, and coastal defences won't be a problem seeing as the ships are worthless and it keeps the better minesweepers intact for a later day when you need a base cleared of mines fast.

Try to disperse AMc's around the map, so that you've always got a local minesweeping force on call.

What I do is try to have about six AMc's in the following bases: Rangoon, Singapore, Soerabaja (when you take it), Ambon/Makassar, Babeldoab, Manila, Truk, Kawajalein, Rabual, Hiroshima/Kure and Hakodate. That gives you a decent minesweeping force within a few days range of just about everywhere the Allies are likely to drop mines, freeing the good stuff (ie, dedicated minesweeping craft) to support fleet operations.
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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by String »

I found an interesting bit of information about AMc's when scanning the forums one day. Apparently if you keep them disbanded in home port the AI will form a minesweeping taskforce of them during the resolution phase, sweep the base, and then will disband them before the phase ends. So instead of making lots of small TF's just keep them disbanded and have some fuel in the port. This feature will probably help a lot during the air droppable mine years of '44 and '45.
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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by mind_messing »

ORIGINAL: String

I found an interesting bit of information about AMc's when scanning the forums one day. Apparently if you keep them disbanded in home port the AI will form a minesweeping taskforce of them during the resolution phase, sweep the base, and then will disband them before the phase ends. So instead of making lots of small TF's just keep them disbanded and have some fuel in the port. This feature will probably help a lot during the air droppable mine years of '44 and '45.

You keep them in task forces so that they don't get bombed in port. Leave them disbanded and a Allied bomber raid turns up unexpected and you can say goodbye to your AM'cs. I doubt they'd survive a near-miss from a 500lber bomb, let alone a direct hit.
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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by Lowpe »

ORIGINAL: mind_messing
What I do is try to have about six AMc's in the following bases: Rangoon, Singapore, Soerabaja (when you take it), Ambon/Makassar, Babeldoab, Manila, Truk, Kawajalein, Rabual, Hiroshima/Kure and Hakodate. That gives you a decent minesweeping force within a few days range of just about everywhere the Allies are likely to drop mines, freeing the good stuff (ie, dedicated minesweeping craft) to support fleet operations.

66 local minesweepers [X(]

I have 8, 3 of which are in the kuriles, and they are all busy! I am making more...takes 15 days.

Unfortunately, my predecessor had his fleet of xakl that can convert get really nailed hard. I haven't added up all the losses, but they are extensive...so much in fact that I am going to larger and larger task forces to ship resources and taking a hit in effective fast port use.
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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by Lowpe »

ORIGINAL: String

I found an interesting bit of information about AMc's when scanning the forums one day. Apparently if you keep them disbanded in home port the AI will form a minesweeping taskforce of them during the resolution phase, sweep the base, and then will disband them before the phase ends. So instead of making lots of small TF's just keep them disbanded and have some fuel in the port. This feature will probably help a lot during the air droppable mine years of '44 and '45.

For this to work, fuel does need to be available in port as I understand it.

Obviously, I don't have enough AMcs. I have one sweeping between Palembang and Singers and that seems to work well, in fact they all seem to work very well...it is surviving his coastal batteries that is tough!.

Leaving them in a task forces is a small price to pay in fuel to be always sweeping -- just need to be mindful of surface raiders.
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RE: Kuriles Invaded - Aug 29th, 1942

Post by mind_messing »

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: mind_messing
What I do is try to have about six AMc's in the following bases: Rangoon, Singapore, Soerabaja (when you take it), Ambon/Makassar, Babeldoab, Manila, Truk, Kawajalein, Rabual, Hiroshima/Kure and Hakodate. That gives you a decent minesweeping force within a few days range of just about everywhere the Allies are likely to drop mines, freeing the good stuff (ie, dedicated minesweeping craft) to support fleet operations.

66 local minesweepers [X(]

I have 8, 3 of which are in the kuriles, and they are all busy! I am making more...takes 15 days.

Unfortunately, my predecessor had his fleet of xakl that can convert get really nailed hard. I haven't added up all the losses, but they are extensive...so much in fact that I am going to larger and larger task forces to ship resources and taking a hit in effective fast port use.

Better the xAKL's than something of more value.

Don't take my numbers as a hard and fast rule, it's just what I'd like to set up myself. There are some AMc's in the build que as well as the convertable xAKL's. The best thing is that the AMc's retain some rudimentary ASW value as well.


At the end of the day, they're cheap and expendable and they won't be missed provided the minefields are cleared.
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