Grudge Match

Post descriptions of your brilliant victories and unfortunate defeats here.

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BBfanboy
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RE: Grudge Match

Post by BBfanboy »

Nice! I presume your CAP had Hellcats and great pilots?

Of the carriers I expect Ryujo is toast, but Kaga is a tough one and could survive 5 bomb hits. Junyo I give an 80% chance of sinking. Soryu will survive and can likely still operate planes.

I don't know what the threat is from LBA there. He will likely scrape up every Nell and Betty he can find and come looking for you. He might even turn his BB TF back to try intercept your carriers, and to draw off further strikes on his CVs. You might want to consider retreating your carriers and sending in subs to hunt cripples.

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RE: Grudge Match

Post by HansBolter »

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Nice! I presume your CAP had Hellcats and great pilots?

Of the carriers I expect Ryujo is toast, but Kaga is a tough one and could survive 5 bomb hits. Junyo I give an 80% chance of sinking. Soryu will survive and can likely still operate planes.

I don't know what the threat is from LBA there. He will likely scrape up every Nell and Betty he can find and come looking for you. He might even turn his BB TF back to try intercept your carriers, and to draw off further strikes on his CVs. You might want to consider retreating your carriers and sending in subs to hunt cripples.


Jan '43....no Hellcats.

He did it with F4Fs!!!!!
Hans

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RE: Grudge Match

Post by BBfanboy »

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Nice! I presume your CAP had Hellcats and great pilots?

Of the carriers I expect Ryujo is toast, but Kaga is a tough one and could survive 5 bomb hits. Junyo I give an 80% chance of sinking. Soryu will survive and can likely still operate planes.

I don't know what the threat is from LBA there. He will likely scrape up every Nell and Betty he can find and come looking for you. He might even turn his BB TF back to try intercept your carriers, and to draw off further strikes on his CVs. You might want to consider retreating your carriers and sending in subs to hunt cripples.


Jan '43....no Hellcats.

He did it with F4Fs!!!!!
Un - believable! Did the pilots all get amphetamines or steroids before the battle?
No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
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RE: Grudge Match

Post by John B. »

Here is a run down of the relevant action. This is the results of his 7 BB bombardment of Boela. Ugly stuff!

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RE: Grudge Match

Post by John B. »

Here is the incoming strike from the KB. The black circle is where the mini KB was operating.

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RE: Grudge Match

Post by John B. »

His strike. Note my CAP was significantly larger, this is just the first guys on the scene.

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RE: Grudge Match

Post by John B. »

Here are the losses from my CAP combat. The fighter boys did themselves proud. [&o] One amendment, it appears he did get a single hit on the Saratoga that was, of all things, deflected by armor. At the very least it does not appear to be on fire.

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RE: Grudge Match

Post by John B. »

My AC losses from the strike on his task force.

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RE: Grudge Match

Post by John B. »

last but not least, his AC losses from his afternoon strike on Boela from the mini (or not so mini) KB. Good thing these guys were far apart and not able to coordinate with the morning action. All the more losses to his naval aviation!

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RE: Grudge Match

Post by John B. »

BBFanboy,

Very interesting points! He may come hunting me with his BBs and he may not. From Scott's point of view his 7 BB task force just shot off most of his ammo in the shore bombardment and I have a fresh 4 BB taskforce with my carriers but we are very close. What I may do is swing the CVs around Ceram to use the island as a shield from his BBs and send my own BB task force in to do a little hunting. There is low visibility so my radar edge may help me avoid combat. I hate to turn tail and run and not exploit this victory by making sure the cripples go down and not make it back to the yards. Akagi was very tough to sink earlier in the war and only went down because a long range PBY managed to put a 500 pounder in her to finish her off. But, advice is always welcome.

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RE: Grudge Match

Post by BBfanboy »

ORIGINAL: John B.

BBFanboy,

Very interesting points! He may come hunting me with his BBs and he may not. From Scott's point of view his 7 BB task force just shot off most of his ammo in the shore bombardment and I have a fresh 4 BB taskforce with my carriers but we are very close. What I may do is swing the CVs around Ceram to use the island as a shield from his BBs and send my own BB task force in to do a little hunting. There is low visibility so my radar edge may help me avoid combat. I hate to turn tail and run and not exploit this victory by making sure the cripples go down and not make it back to the yards. Akagi was very tough to sink earlier in the war and only went down because a long range PBY managed to put a 500 pounder in her to finish her off. But, advice is always welcome.

John
Wasn't sure where your BBs were and in bombardments I have found BBs only fire off about half or less of their main ammo unless they are set to "remain on station", so I figured his BBs are still a danger. I like your idea to use Ceram as a shield. Not sure about the 4 BBs going hunting - doesn't Mini KB have Kates too? I am assuming old BBs in your TF - different if they are the new ones with good AA and some speed.
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RE: Grudge Match

Post by Capt. Harlock »

Congrats! I admit I was disappointed that the BB engagement turned into a damp squib, but damage to the naval air arm of the IJN is well worth it. A pity about the P-40K's on the airfield, but Hurricanes and Airacobras are not a crippling loss.
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RE: Grudge Match

Post by John B. »

BBFanboy, the BB task force I have has 3 modern BBs (North Carolina Washington and one other) plus the POW. The POW guns aren't that great but the crew experience sure is. Good captains on each one. I'll have to check the damage on the Saratoga before I make any decisions and that can't be until tonight.

Capt. Harlock, it is too bad about the p-40Ks. I took a gamble and rebased them there the turn before and that gamble did not pay off. I take heart from the fact that most of the reports are just that they were damaged so, if I can keep the IJN away for a few days they can be repaired and sent away. One important point is that Boela is very low on supplies and I have a resupply convoy heading that way that will need to unload.
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RE: Grudge Match

Post by John B. »

Here is the situation. And, as you can see, it's also where I learned how to type on my images instead of trying to draw. My techincal expertise knows no bounds. [X(]

The task force path is for my BB task force. I figure that if his wounded KB goes anywhere, it will be that path. Carriers with good boilers will get away, but any badly damaged ones should be in my path. BUT, his BBs are likely to be on the same path. He has 7 at 1/2 ammo (including the Mushashi) I have 3 modern and the POW will full ammo. However, it's only 4% visibility at night and I have better radar, I hope. If we get close his long lances could be bad. But, I'm also more likely to avoid him or get the jump on him.

As for my CVS, they are going to the other side of Ceram to use it as a shield. My fighter squadrons took a lot of damage and all but one are at 50% effective strenght. But, not too many losses so the morale remains high. I've dialed the CAP up to 70% since it's more important for me to hang on to the CVS than to cause losses at this time. I'm hoping his fighters are sharply reduced and have a lower morale and, frankly, that there are not that many of them. If he can put up a decent CAP then I may lose a lot of SBDs. But, it's still a good chance to finish off a couple of CVs so I think it's a chance worth taking.

Any subs in the area are also moving in to his projected path. It's a lot of shallow water which is death for subs but the payoff is worth the risk IMHO. We shall see.

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RE: Grudge Match

Post by Capt. Harlock »

BUT, his BBs are likely to be on the same path. He has 7 at 1/2 ammo (including the Mushashi) I have 3 modern and the POW will full ammo. However, it's only 4% visibility at night and I have better radar, I hope. If we get close his long lances could be bad.

I'm a little nervous that your torpedoes are still not as potent as they will become in late '43. Do you have British DD's as well as the POW?
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RE: Grudge Match

Post by John B. »

Very sad news to report from the front! First, the BBs did engage and I think I actually got the best of it. I lost a CA and a DD but inflicted serious damage on the Kongo and left the Musashi on fire. Oddly, two of my 4 BBs barely shot and I'm glad that the POW was there as it was lighting up the sky and even got two armor penetrations on the Musahsi!

But, that's all secondary. Scott really got me. He moved his carriers to Ambon and flew everything he could. And, the end result is that all five allied CVs were lost. [:(] It turns out I should have listened to all of your sage advice and run away while the gettin' was good. I did not give enough respect to his land based air. It was like the old Star Trek with the Yangs on the Coms ("we drained three phasers and still they kept coming"). Or Starship Troopers ("Bugs Mr. Rico, Millioins of 'em"). :-)

I did put three bombs into the Hiryu and it was on fire (it's airgroup was diverted so it must have taken some serious damage) and I also polished off the Kaga, Junyo, and Ryujo but those last three were already out of action for awhile. On the plus side, lots of the planes made it to Boela. My supply convoy made it there so I may get to use some of those planes next time.

So, here's the situation. No allied fleet CVs and none for awhile. He has all of his BBs and I have most of mine (lost two at pearl and one near Tarawa). The IJN CV situation is not great since he's lost 4 fleet CVs (Kaga, Akagi, Junyo and Hiyo) 4 minor CVs (three CVLs and one CVE) and the Hiryu may be out of action for awhile.

This is only my second game and last time we only made it to the end of 43. So the question is does it make sense to continue. It's a long time consuming game and a whole lot of fun. If I have some reasonable chance of prevailing then I'm happy to push on. If not then no sense in devoting lots of time to merely put a ribbon on the inevitable. Thoughts?
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RE: Grudge Match

Post by BBfanboy »

Shame about your CVs - but conventional wisdom is that trading nearly even on CV losses is a win for the Allies who have many more coming starting mid-43 and have a load of CVEs starting late 42.
You have a lodgement in the DEI, so lack of CVs gives you the chance to try an advance under LBA cover among the gazillion dot bases there. Your other advantage is the huge engineer force the allies get to rapidly develop bases, and the tough 4 engine bombers that can reach out and smack his airfields and ships.
You do need to guard against naval bombardments though - mines and subs are good for that when you don't want to risk your ships to Netties.

PS - Boela is probably overstacked with your CV aircraft and you could lose a lot of them to bombing or bombardment. I would fly them out or put them on the empty ships of the supply convoy to move them back to a better protected base. Consider transferring the best pilots to TRACOM of the Reserve pool so they are available when you get some CVs again.
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RE: Grudge Match

Post by Bif1961 »

Press as you will get so far more then he does from this point on. His losses will hurt him a lot more than your losses will hurt you in the long run. Plus now you can learn how to fight like the U.S. Navy did when all it had was a damaged Enterprise and Saratoga left and look how that turned out.
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RE: Grudge Match

Post by John B. »

BBFanboy and Bif, good points. I have not yet begun to fight! [:)] I expect heavy raids on Boela this time as he tries to keep it down. I have some good fighters there that just flew in, the hope is enough supplies get off the ships before Scott sends in some surface ships to take them out. My strike against his Hyru task force really did not do too well. I had over 100 strike planes and only got three hits on the Hiryu. I'm hoping for serious damage to that CV and it was on fire, but no fuel or ammo explosions to make my day better.

He is really pressing me in China. The amazing thing is how many planes he has. So. Pac., Burma, and China are all full up. But, that's defeatist talk. My plan now is to try to save Boela and consolidate. I think I can do an overland invasion of Buna from Moresby since I have good land based air there. Hold in China and Burma while waiting for the Essex class to come in and the subs to keep picking away. I hold Rangoon, Darwin, Moresby, Dutch Harbor, Changsha and Chungking so my defensive perimeter is intact, I just have to hope he does not build up to be truly huge when I can come at him again.
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RE: Grudge Match

Post by BBfanboy »

There are so many dot bases that he cannot build and defend them all. Any bastions he makes can be isolated by taking bases around them and bombing them to impotence and lack of supply.
No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
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