Wedge Donovan Wins the War: Apbarog(A) vs Aurorus(J) DBB-B

[apbarog]

Here's the background on my upcoming game against Aurorus.

Latest AE Official Patch ver. 1.01.24 25 December 2014 (I think)
Latest Beta Patch ver 1126b 09/17/2016 (game version will show
1.8.11.26b Sep 17 2016)
Big Babes_B_AEScen28_V15.zip
Babes and Extended Map Art Hexes 05_12_14.zip
Babes Extended Map Data with SL 05_12_14.zip

These are the game settings requested:
Fog of War - ON
Advanced Weather - ON
Allied Damage Control - ON
PDU - OFF
Historical First Turn - OFF
Dec 7 Surprise - ON
Realistic USN Torps - OFF
Realistic R&D - Aurorus will choose
No Unit Withdrawals - OFF
Reinforcements - +/- 60 days
Combat reports - ON
Auto Sub Ops - OFF
TF Move Radius - OFF
Plane Move Radius - OFF
Set all facilities to expand - OFF
Auto Upgrade ships and air - OFF
Accept Air and Ground replacements - OFF
Turn cycle - 1

Here are the proposed house rules:
- PPs paid to change theatres (Japanese Thai units to cross into Burma)
- No strategic bombing until 6/43
- No turn 1 multiple port strikes from carriers
- No 4 engine bomber restrictions. (Aurorus request)
- No restrictions on night bombing. (Aurorus request)
- Manchurian and Korean command units may enter Russia should a war
begin with Russia. (Aurorus request)
- On turn 1, Allies can not form new task forces, but may move existing
TFs (like Force Z). Allies won't do much on turn 1, not knowing that the
war was about to start. No ground movement. No air unit movement or
change of orders. Air units on carriers at sea may change their orders.
Nothing will be done that could be construed as knowing that the war was
about to begin.
-No tiny paratroop drops to take empty bases.
-Amphibious landings only at bases.
- Mersing invasion on turn 2 is ok. Reasonable use of turn 1 invasion
locations. (Aurorus request)
- Sub reaction ranges set to 0.

[apbarog]

Aurorus will be starting work on the Japanese first turn. I'm looking forward to getting back into a game. I will be detailing the war day by day, much as I did in my last AAR.

[CaptBeefheart]

I like the name of this AAR. Good luck!

Cheers,
CC

[Lovejoy]

Happy to see that you've started another AAR. Will be following with interest!

[IdahoNYer]

Looking forward to this one Apbarog! Thoroughly your last PBEM AAR!

[Bif1961]

Good luck and have fun looking forward to your AAR.

[apbarog]

Thanks for the good wishes. Aurorus and I have exchanged a test turn, to make sure that we've gotten the right versions of everything installed. No error messages, so things look good. He will now be starting work on the big first turn for the Japanese. He has as much time as he needs to complete his work. Maybe a turn next week.

It feels kind of like opening day of your favorite sport, or the day before your fantasy draft. Looking forward to the game.

[apbarog]

I quickly did my work on the first turn, which is plotting for this non-historical start. The only work to be done, with our house rules, is moving existing TFs. I chose not to change any orders for sub TFs. I don't know that war is imminent, and shouldn't be hunting targets they don't know about yet. The moves I made with my surface TFs were reasonable and not aggressive. Again, I don't know that the war is coming.

Notable plots include the British 18th Division and other Indian reinforcements already on ships are going to Ceylon, at least temporarily. CV Lexington will move to within air transfer range of Wake. CV Enterprise will move to a point near Johnston Island.

I wished luck to my opponent Aurorus, and that my hope is that we both have an enjoyable game.

[Yaab]

Apbarog, can you do the following in DBB-B?


In DaBigBabes C, if you withdraw the following Allied air groups on December 8, 1941, you get:

19th BG (B-17) in San Francisco – 26 points
7th BG (B-17) in San Francisco - 68 points
Hudson Det – Rabaul - 24 points
Empire boats – Moresby - 42 points
Hudson detachment – Sydney - 23 points
Beaufort recon – Kuantan - 12 points

[apbarog]

Hi Yaab. I'll look at those withdrawals when I get the first turn file back, hopefully tomorrow.

[apbarog]

7 Dec 41 - Analysis of the replay only

Aurorus sent the replay file to me as soon as he had it. I was certainly in for a surprise. No attack at Pearl Harbor. The port at Manila was bombed heavily by land-based air. Many ships and subs damaged. A few sunk. Airfields at Manila and Clark bombed. No Philippine landings yet.

The big push is Singapore. Many carriers east of Singapore. Can't tell from the replay if all of KB is here, but enough of it is. The port at Singapore was heavily bombed. Many ships damaged and sunk. In my last game, I evacuated over 20 units from Singapore to India. Nothing will escape in this game. I'd left a Brit CL at Singapore, by itself in a task force, and it was sunk. Force Z ran to the south at normal speed. It ended up 5 hexes from what I'll call KB. Lots of carrier bombers went after Singapore's port, but some torpedo planes attacked Force Z. Repulse was sunk. I believe that Prince of Wales was hit by just one torpedo. I hope that is the case. Many torpedo planes missed the battleship. Some went after the destroyer there, and missed. So, a consolation prize "may" be having Prince of Wales escape.

The port at Georgetown was hit hard, sinking many if not all of the transport ships that start in port there. Malaysian airfields hit hard. I did get good hits on 2 xAKs unloading at Kuantan (I believe), with torpedo planes carrying bombs. A good number of enemy troops were lost on these ships.

The port at Hong Kong was hit hard also, again sinking most if not all of the ships in the port.

Our house rule prohibiting carrier aircraft from attacking more than one port did not prevent land-based aircraft from hitting many ports. There's a lot of Allied ships that start in port in an non-historical start, that would survive turn 1 of an historical start. Should the house rule be more restrictive? I don't know. I accept things as they are. It does modify my options. I liked sneaking fuel out of Hong Kong into nearby Chinese ports with the cargo ships that start there. And I didn't anticipate so many subs damaged and destroyed at Manila from land-based aircraft. They survive the historical start and escape on turn 2. But this is a different game.

A gaggle of enemy TFs were spotted a bit west of Sorong, on the northern tip of New Guinea. This looks to be a quick deep invasion. Not on turn 1, but coming soon. Maybe Ambon. Don't know yet.

My very, very early analysis is that this start is an aggressive one for the Japanese. KB (or alot of it) is near Singapore. A Palembang invasion could be immediate. A Mersing invasion on turn 2 is very likely. Singapore's airfield and port was already hit heavily, and no forts will be built if that continues. With KB there, it will continue. Singapore is going to fall much sooner than I'm used to seeing.

A quick capture of Singapore, with KB already here, not making the long travels from Hawaii, can speed up the Japanese timetable. An Indian move or an Australian move could happen. My early guess is that one of them WILL happen. This kind of opening isn't one done by a Japanese player wanting to expand in a historical manner and hold the line. I don't know how aggressive Aurorus' game is usually, but this seems aggressive to me.

I wonder about what to do with the troops at Singapore, and the ones to the north. A probable landing at Mersing would mean that most of the troops north can't get to Singapore. Maybe I need to come up with something different. Figuring that none of those troops will escape, maybe I can scatter them off-road, and force the Japanese to take the time to hunt them down. Just thinking.

And maybe a Philippine landing isn't coming in the near future. What can I do with that? It would be nice to sneak supply in. It looks like Aurorus' push south, west of New Guinea, is meant to cut off anything from Australia. More thinking required on this.

Pearl Harbor is unscathed. The slow battleships will be nice to have later in the war, but their utility is limited until then. They are nice torpedo targets until later. I will have an unexpected supply of aircraft at Pearl Harbor that usually gets destroyed. What to do with them? More thinking.

So, the game has begun. The wheels are turning, and I've only seen the replay. I'm looking forward to seeing the first turn file, and then looking at every single unit and base on the map, as well as starting the pilot training. And time to work on saving those damaged ships, one of my favorite parts of the game. Save the Prince of Wales!

It looks like it is going to be a challenging match. Very nice.

[Lowpe]

I would say your opponent is a master of first turn game engine.

I really like your attitude and approach for the first non-historical turn.

Good luck with your strategies and tactics!

[Kofiman]

..Other than skipping Pearl, the biggest VP and ship target available on turn one.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Kofiman

..Other than skipping Pearl, the biggest VP and ship target available on turn one.

I would argue sinking Force Z is better than hitting Pearl. But we don't know if it was a success yet.

Still, there are a lot of planes at Pearl undamaged, which at a minimum means decent search.

And, it is the Carriers, POW, Repulse and Brooklyns that are important...Allies I think can lose almost every other starting ship and be just fine.

[apbarog]

I've received the turn. As I'm doing my traditional around-the-map routine, I've only completed the area around Pearl Harbor to Midway to Wake to Johnston Island. With no Pearl Harbor attack, it's a matter of moving ships out of Pearl, deciding when and where to send them. I'm not rushing everything out immediately. Aurorus didn't attack Pearl Harbor, but he still started with all those subs in the area. I'll wait until the sub exodus occurs in a few days.

I've identified 3 Catalina squadrons and 3 P-40B squadrons that will leave Pearl Harbor and head towards Australia. The Cats will start their air transfer today. The fighters will wait a bit for adequate shipping and escorts.

I will be spending a lot of time on Saturday with the turn. Even that may not be enough to get everything done. Wonder how BB Prince of Wales is doing? So do I. But I'm sticking to my routine of doing area by area, so we'll just have to wonder until I get over to that area.

One lesson learned: in a non-historical start, Allied task forces don't move their full day's movement on turn 1. Maybe they just moved one phase. I expected to get a carrier within range of Wake to rescue the air unit there, but the carrier didn't move as far as expected.

So much to do. Every base, ship, ground and air unit, as well as cities with infrastructure, and all of the initial pilot training to set up. One day into the war and Singapore is being threatened! That's ok, we have Wedge Donovan. He's going to win the war for us.

[apbarog]

8 Dec 41 - North of Australia

Looks like escorted invasion shipping. CVLs present. Headed to Ambon? We shall see shortly.

My work in the South Pacific is complete, as is Australia. Now work begins in earnest up through Java towards Singapore.

[Bif1961]

Good luck with all your toys in Pearl seems like all the BBs need upgrades sooner anyways, better to refit them without all that pesky damage.

[apbarog]

8 Dec 41 - Area near Singapore

My biggest fear is that the southern enemy carriers will make a high speed run south. They can get all the way to be in range of Soerabaja. Remember, this is a non-historical start, and this is the first turn that any ships that starts in a port can leave. I know this, Aurorus knows this. There's a ton of ships that start in Java. The logical thing for me to do is to load them up with as much fuel and run away. If he thrusts south full speed today, he'll catch everything loading. Not much for him to fear, either. No Allied carriers. Some Dutch bombers, but against KB, that's insignificant. Aurorus so far has appeared to be one to maximize every opportunity, pushing the limits of what is possible in the game. Should I have just evacuated every Dutch port and run away empty? For the game, maybe I should have. Didn't feel right, and wanted to load them up. They SHOULD have time to exit, but they may not.

The only good thing that could happen if this disaster occurs is that a Mersing landing would be less protected. Maybe some of my Swordfish can get to a target.

Very nervous working on this turn. As it should be, for an Allied player at the very beginning of the war.

[apbarog]

ORIGINAL: Yaab

Apbarog, can you do the following in DBB-B?


In DaBigBabes C, if you withdraw the following Allied air groups on December 8, 1941, you get:

19th BG (B-17) in San Francisco – 26 points
7th BG (B-17) in San Francisco - 68 points
Hudson Det – Rabaul - 24 points
Empire boats – Moresby - 42 points
Hudson detachment – Sydney - 23 points
Beaufort recon – Kuantan - 12 points

All of these are probably the same as what I'm seeing. Here's what I saw and why:

19 BG - was 23 points for me, but didn't included the DET unit in it
7 BG - didn't see the points message
Hudson Det Rabaul - yes, 24
Empire at Moresby - yes, 42
Hudson at Sydney - I saw 29, but there were 2 Hudson groups, I withdrew the other one first, and planes went to other, so yes, probably the same.
Beaufort recon Kuantan - yes, 12

[apbarog]

8 Dec 41 - Summary

Allied ships sunk include:

BC Repulse - near Singapore
CL Danae - Singapore
2 xAPs - Georgetown
1 xAP - Singapore
2 xAKs - Georgetown
2 xAKLs - Georgetown
5 xAKs - Hong Kong
3 xAKLs - Hong Kong
2 xAKLs - Singapore
2 xAKLs - off the coast of Malaysia
1 AMc - Georgetown
1 AMc - Singapore
4 HDMLs - Georgetown

There are about a dozen ships still at Singapore, badly damaged, some burning. Ugly to watch, but certainly no Pearl Harbor.

The only Japanese ship lost was a midget sub at Lahaina, who didn't get the memo that he was going in alone.

Allied air losses were:

26 Buffalos
9 Blens
4 Hudsons
3 P-40E
3 Vildebeest

Japanese air losses were:

4 Vals
4 Kates
3 Bettys
2 Nates