An Idiots Guide To Losing Your CV's Before 1942: WiTP:AE KyzBP vs UCG

[KyzBP]

While researching the IJN the other day I learned that the Japanese started the war with about 66 submarines, not including midget subs.  Last turn about half of those got hits on my ships, sinking many.  At least it felt that way.

Other than the top 3 warships I believe the rest were sunk by subs.  What sucks is at this point in the game his subs and torps are so good and my ASW is so bad.

I was able to exact a little revenge:

One down, 65 to go...if that one sinks.

The sub activity around Pearl is aggravating.

Pilots continually report hitting subs but the herd doesn't look any thinner AND, if you look in the upper left corner, it looks like at least one
of those AMC's is still afloat.  Does anything of his ever die?

The Sallies and friends returned to Singapore after a much needed rest and bombed the crap out of it.  The AA didn't help too much today.
Kendari's airfield was also ravaged:

It may be time to get what I can out of there.  I think we overstayed our welcome.

I think Geek finally noticed Guam or has finally decided to do something about it.

The groups to the east and the south are headed that way, or so it appears.  I'll be pulling all the PBY's from there as well.

Did I mention how much I hate his subs right now?
What really sucks is I don't get any additional ASW help for another 3 weeks!

I will get 3 British sub in 10 days but those start in Indian waters.

Wasn't it just a few turns ago I was feeling really comfortable.

[KyzBP]

Christmas Eve, 1941

I'd like to introduce you all to the bravest ship in the Eastern Hemisphere:

CDR Weakly (poorly named) not only successfully fled Manila with the John D. Ford but he gave the CVL Zuiho a big middle finger
by way of a shell hit on the surprised carrier.

...but the Zuiho doesn't appreciate being surprised...or flipped off.

I thought I had a screenshot of the Ford being bombed.  I was wrong.  This is the aftermath.  She took some hits but is in pretty
good shape except for one little thing.  She'd dead in the water BECAUSE I RAN HER OUT OF FUEL! I put her at full speed to try and
get her out of the area.  There are 10 DD's at Ambon that I'm sending to help the J.D. Ford.  If he tries to finish her off on the surface then there'll
be 10 of Ford's friends waiting to meet them.  If he tries to sink him by air then we'll have about 500 points of AA there to say hi.  The Ford was hit by what looked like biplanes carrying only 100 lb bombs.  I think we can survive those.  The main thing is to get her refueled and out of there.

[Airborne Rifles]

Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics!  ;)

[KyzBP]

For awhile it looked like the sub war was turning in our favor  O0

We got more hits on the sub that I thought was dead.

The Dutch subs continued to make their presence known

The fact that it was carrying troops is a bonus.

Then Geeks subs got back in the game by sinking an AK near Hawaii followed by damaging 2 more in the same waters.  One of those is carrying
some PBY's.  A smarter person would have just island hopped them to where they needed to go.

Then this happens:

Why is it always the AP's?  Those thing are like currency to me at this stage in the game.  There's no other way (I know of) to
move troops around.

[KyzBP]

Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics!  ;)

I'm not sure there's a better game to test your fluency in logistics than this one.  ^-^

[KyzBP]

I had a group of wily DD's do the Bomb Avoidance Dance.


Twice.

They're part of the TF that's headed to help the J.D. Ford.  I really hope they can keep that dance up.

Singapore was hit a bunch of times again.  The good news is the Sally harvest must have started.  Hurray :-\


The Kingfishers used their superior pilot skills and some blue paint to out fox some apathetic Zero pilots.

They even managed to hit an AKL. 

The winners of the day though were the rocks and reefs surrounding Tarawa.

Geek suffered heavier losses landing on an empty island than he did taking Hong Kong...almost.

[Sir Slash]

That John D. Ford was one tough Summ-bitch.

[KyzBP]

That John D. Ford was one tough Summ-bitch.

Now that the Penguin is safe I'm going to make the Ford my next project.

She may not look like much but she has the brass stacks of a Battleship.

I did a quick read about her and in real life she was able to pull off some equally impressive feats.

"Anxious to strike back at the Japanese, Ford departed Surabaya 11 January 1942 for Kupang, Timor, where she arrived on the 18th to join a destroyer striking force. Two days later the force sailed for Balikpapan to conduct a surprise torpedo attack on Japanese shipping. Arriving off Balikpapan during mid watch 24 January, the four destroyers launched a raid through the Japanese transports while Japanese destroyers steamed about Makassar Strait in search of reported American submarines. For over an hour the destroyers fired torpedoes and shells at the astonished enemy. Before retiring from the first surface action in the Pacific war, they sank four Japanese ships, one a victim of John D. Ford's torpedoes. The striking force arrived Surabaya 25 January."

Who knew?

[KyzBP]

If you haven't figured it out by now, I love the underdog.  I cherish the overlooked and under appreciated.  There's nothing I enjoy more than having a unit that has been given up on or never given a chance in the first place take center stage and dazzle us all.

Here I have another one of those groups:

This PT group has been trying to get into position to ambush a/any Japanese transports.  In the process they've dried up most of the fuel depots in the area.  With their remaining fuel, I'm going to send them to Salajar.  I'm sending a tanker from Soerabaja to meet them and fuel them up.  The hardest part will be trying to do it right under UCG's nose.  They'll then lay in wait for a juicy target to show up...unless they become juicy targets first.

[JasonPratt]

I'm more worried about the tanker becoming a juicy target. PT boats are notoriously hard to whack.

[KyzBP]

So this is what the big picture looks like right now:

The dots represent just the task forces and bases.  As you can see UCG has been busy.  He's been very methodical, almost predictable but I haven't been able to do much even though I know where he's going. 

Here's the end of turn score:

What's sad is he's sinking my ships at a rate of 10-1.  I need to get lucky somewhere. (insert best joke here).

Next turn we should see Guam fall.  Ambon will likely be under attack unless our DD group can cause some havoc.  I'm sure we'll see his subs sink more of my ships and we'll see the Dutch Air Force go fishing using 250 lb bombs. 

Oh, and it'll be Christmas.

[KyzBP]

I'm more worried about the tanker becoming a juicy target. PT boats are notoriously hard to whack.

That's exactly what I think is going to happen.  :(

[Sir Slash]

I was wondering about the Phillipines. Are the forces there able to sustain themselves being cut-off from the rest of your bases? Or will at some point Geek-san have to come and face them at full strength?

[besilarius]

In regards to the Phillipines, are you able to fix the logistics bungle at Bataan?  In the haste to get to a defensible area, McArthur left tone of foodstuffs and ammunition behind which was a windfall for the Japanese.

Doug might have full meals in Malinta Tunnel, but the troops on Bataan fought on half-rations, and then less.

[KyzBP]

Thank you both for bringing up the Philippines.  Until you guys asked about it I'd only been checking on the plane and ship/sub situation in the Philippines.  After the first few turns it became apparent that Geek was just going to starve out the troops here.


So I started looking a lot closer and noticed a few things:

1. Many of the units not at Bataan were set to prepare for Bataan.  I guess, by design, they're set to retreat there once the action starts.
2. Bataan only has about 4000 supply remaining while Manila has 30k and Clark Field has 12k.  We will not be retreating to Bataan.
3. Bataan has a fortification level of 3+, as does Clark Field.  Manila only has a level of 1.  Manila lacks an Engineer unit while the other two each have one.

I'm really glad you guys got me to look deeper here.  I'll be making the following changes:

1. All units will be set to plan for either Clark Field or Manila.
2. All outlaying units will begin moving to Manila as soon as their supply level drops below 1000 or the first Japanese attacks begin.
3. The Engineer unit at Bataan will immediately be heading to Manila to start building fortifications.  Once Clark Field hits level 4 then that Engineer unit will move as well.

I'll try to defend just those two spots.  I expect he'll use Long Range Bombers to bomb the place for a month before he ever sets foot on the island.

As far as moving supplies goes, my answer is: I don't really know.  I know you can move it around using ships, subs, and planes but I'm not sure how to move it across land, from base to base.  Another thing I'm not really sure about, and that is probably REALLY important is supply consumption. 

Here's a typical unit:

You can see on the left "Supplies: 357 Supplies Required: 323."  So they have more than the necessary supplies.  How they consume them is a mystery to me.  I'm sure someone will pop in and give a great yet simple explanation.