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

Started by KyzBP, June 22, 2015, 04:02:39 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

KyzBP

February 10th, 1942

The line of subs at Palmyra Hit some AK's

The subs managed to hit 4 AK's...unfortunately only ONE torpedo actually detonated. It heavily damaged
an AK but it should've been much worse.  As his task force passes a group of subs, those subs will turn head east in
an attempt to finish off any damaged ships.  Eventually the subs will all meet at Palmyra at the same time his TF arrives. 
They'll then reestablish the line and hopefully hit some of the empties on the way back.  Then we go CV hunting. :knuppel2:


Now you may not believe this but, other than the same old bombardments and bombings, that was it for combat.  Since there
was hardly any combat I'll give you an idea of how I hope AM will work out.

First: The Targets.

The primary target will be Shimushiri-Jima (Code Name: ISH).  The secondary target will be Ketoi-Jima (Code Name: Jack)

Map courtesy of Operation Glacier( http://operationglacier.com/Home/Index?game_name=OperationGlacierI)

ISH has the potential for a level 3 port and a level 6 airfield.  JACK has the potential for a level 3 port and a level 4 airfield. These bases were chosen because
of proximity to the Home Island and potential airbase size.  JACK is there solely to provide mutual air defense and it's port will not be improved.

ISH has the following units assigned to it:
-201st  Separate Infantry Regiment
-108th Infantry Regiment
-4th Marine Defense Bn
-193rd Tank Bn
-1/151st Combat Engineer Bn
-19th Combat Engineer Bde
-154th Field Artillery Bn
-70th Coastal AA Bn

JACK Has the following units assigned:
-87th Mountain Regiment
-1st Rocky Mountain Bn (Canadian)
-1st Marine Defense Bn
-206th Coastal AA Bn
-34th Combat Engineer Regiment

Base Forces will be along afterwards because, well, I forgot to assign them. :uglystupid2:

I have ZERO intelligence as to what I'll be facing when I land so I'm hoping that 2 targets isn't 1 too many.

The attack will be led by minesweepers clearing ISH on Day One.  The minesweepers will then move to JACK and clear it on Day Two.
The Bombardment TF will hit ISH on the morning of Day Two.  They too will then head to JACK to pound it on the morning of Day Three.
Invasion Force ISH will hit the beaches on the morning of Day Two.  If Geeks CV's haven't shown up at this point, the carrier based bombers will
hit ISH as well.  Invasion Force Jack will hit JACK on Day Three.  Both invasion forces are carrying extra supplies as I don't foresee supplies getting
through once Geek's main carrier TF gets into the area.

The landings and support ships will be covered by the carrier aircraft.  There is a Float Plane Tender assigned to the ISH TF.  As soon as we gain control
of the island PBY's will immediately be dispatched to ISH to provide early warning of the approach of Geek's main carrier group.  At that point all ships will bug out and head
to Dutch.  All subs will remain in the area to harass Geek's carriers and intercept any invasion force sent to retake the islands.  All the subs in the area of Palmyra will tail
Geek's carriers until they settle in at AM. 

That's pretty much AM in a nut shell.  Once Geek's carriers are out of the Central/South Pacific I'll release all the ships I have destined for that area.  Maybe then we
can start taking the pressure off of Australia.  Fingers crossed.


KyzBP

February 11th, 1942

The gauntlet of subs at Palmyra continue to attack, with mixed results.

The Plunger's Captain goes to guns after 2 torpedoes fail to detonate.  Many a Geekanese sailor, soldier, and ship have been saved by
those involved in the development and deployment of the Mk.14 torpedo.  The good news is I only have to wait ~360 turns until they
are improved.

Here the Narwhal manages to get a couple of hits with torpedoes.

I think Geek switched tactics slightly.  All of my hits on his transports have resulted in very few actual casualties.  I think he's using more
ships to transport smaller units.  Not a bad plan if you can spare the transports.  I don't have that luxury right now.

We bombarded the obscure island of Male.

I imagine Geek took it to either keep tabs on traffic coming into the Indian Ocean or something more ambitious like turning it into a sub
base or something.  No matter, it will be recaptured shortly.  The one thing I'm not short of in this theater is transports.

The assault on Palmyra begins anew.

The fort level was taken down to zero.  The island will probably fall tomorrow.  I'm preparing some troops in Hawaii to retake Palmyra
if/when it falls.  I can't let him hold this one for very long.  If he were to get bombers stationed here, I'd be forced way south when
shuttling convoys in and out of the area.

Australia is a mess.


The aircraft I have are pretty ineffective and I don't have enough of them.  My troops, while stout, are few in number and the Aussie Navy is
mostly at the bottom of "insert name of body of water".  It's going to take a real stroke of luck to slow Geek down.

The slap fight over Moulmein continues.

The morning raids had all the squadrons going in separately which resulted in me losing a few more planes than Geek.  The afternoon
raid went into together and, with 60+ planes involved, only resulted in 3 kills total.  I don't think either of us have to worry about air
superiority at this point.  Both of our air groups stink.

I think I was bamboozled at Midway.  I have no sightings nor reports of anything moving towards Midway.  I'm wondering if Geek used Midway to
tie up my carriers while he moved his transports to Palmyra.  I'll stick around Midway a little longer and then I'll head back to Pearl an get ready to
retake Palmyra.

JasonPratt

ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

MetalDog

And the One Song to Rule Them All is Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones


"If its a Balrog, I don't think you get an option to not consent......." - bob

KyzBP

Quote from: MetalDog on December 28, 2015, 01:27:37 PM
You've got a follow here, too.  From the beginning. :)

Thanks Metal!  I appreciate you following along.

KyzBP

February 12th, 1942

This will be short since not much happened except at Palmyra.  More on that in a minute.

The OTA (Other Than American) subs seem to be doing the Lion's share of the work.

Again, it stinks that I couldn't get a hit while the AK was full of troops but a ships is a ship, I guess.  I may be running out of time in Oz though.  Geek's Pacific Uber
operation is dropping troops off in Australia at a pretty quick pace.  If I don't make a stand somewhere, and in a hurry, then Oz will fall and the game will probably end. :'(

Townsville is seeing a lot of action.

There have been bombardments by both sides, air battles, sub attacks, you name it.  Maybe Townsville will be where I stop the Geekanese advance. :knuppel2:

Some angry Aussie fishing trawlers manage to pummel a sub they found in their nets.

Most of his sub operations seem to be centered around Australia and, soon, the South Pacific.  I observed a migration of his subs from the waters NE of Hawaii
towards the Palmyra-Canton area.  I'm guessing he's reacting to my rerouting of convoys South to avoid the Hawaiian waters.  It looks like I'll have to reroute
again.  I also have a butt load of ships standing by at Johnson Island are just waiting for the coast to clear.

Sadly Geek got enough troops onto Palmyra to take the island.

I have some CA's at Pearl about to come online.  They will begin bombarding Palmyra until I get some transports loaded.  Palmyra is now Priority One.  It should be
difficult for him to keep supplied unless he dedicates his big CV TF to it or at least splits them up.


In other news: Geek continues to bomb Alor Star.  He could walk in there with two guys and a box of doughnuts right now and what's left of my men would kill each
other just for the doughnuts.  They're out of supply.  I think Geek is using Alor Star to build up the Experience of his bombing crews.  There's no other reason not
to take it.

I believe the AM invasion force has been detected by a sub launched seaplane.  The good news is their path takes them close to Attu so Geek may think this is a force to
retake Attu.  It may misdirect him for a short time or draw his smaller CV force to try and intercept the landings.  Time will tell but our carrier pilots are on standby should those carriers appear.

KyzBP

February 13th, 1942

Another day much like the last.  The day was light on action but what did happen was significant.

Geek captures Siangtan.

Another Chinese city, another Chinese city lost.  That part isn't too big of a deal yet.  What has me concerned is Geek had to attack
across a river and that river didn't slow him down.  I was counting heavily on the river being a force multiplier at Pegu (near Rangoon)
but now I'm not so sure. 

Townsville falls.  :(

The loses were almost even but he had many more troops than I.  We also lost a lot of our armor in the retreat.  All the units, minus
the base force, made it back to Charters Towers.  Charters Towers is my largest airbase in the area.  The minute it looks like Geek is
going to attack I'll fly everything out of there.  Charters will fall quickly.  I wonder if Geek is bored of kicking my butt all over the map.

Just for fun.

I've been able to send this Armored Merchant Cruiser (AMC) up to Buna to resupply the troops pushed out of Moresby. Now I'm
using it to move the troops stranded at Gasmata over to Buna.  Next, I'll either send her back for more supplies or send her North to
try and rescue some of the Dutch units stranded on New Guinea.

This is potentially good news.

If that scout report is accurate then his big CV force maybe moving out of the area.  If that happens I will immediately release the ships
standing by at Johnson and also begin the harassment bombardments of Baker and, now, Palmyra.  There are also a bunch of convoys
getting ready to begin their transit through the area.  Those convoys are carrying more than a few squadrons of fighters and bombers.
The big question though is: Where's he going?

AM and it's targets on the same screen.

The invasion force is moving too painfully slow for my liking but it's destination is now insight.  As I mentioned before, the TF runs very close
to Attu.  I know Geek knows it's there but where does he think it's going?  If he thinks Attu then we may end up with a very dangerous naval
engagement somewhere in the North Pacific.  The next game week will be extremely tense for me.

JasonPratt

ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!


Martok

Goodness, I missed a lot while I was away!  Philippines invaded (not that that's a surprise), Australia invaded (which is)...this is one heckuva war.  O0  Interesting to see that -- with a handful of exceptions -- the action appears to be focused almost entirely on southeast Asia and the South Pacific. 




Quote from: KyzBP on December 28, 2015, 03:23:45 PM
In other news: Geek continues to bomb Alor Star.  He could walk in there with two guys and a box of doughnuts right now and what's left of my men would kill each
other just for the doughnuts. 
Ha!  (And at the same time, ouch!  That's a rough supply situation, all right.) 

"Like we need an excuse to drink to anything..." - Banzai_Cat
"I like to think of it not as an excuse but more like Pavlovian Response." - Sir Slash

"At our ages, they all look like jailbait." - mirth

"If we had lines here that would have crossed all of them. For the 1,077,986th time." - Gusington

"Government is so expensive that it should at least be entertaining." - airboy

"As long as there's bacon, everything will be all right." - Toonces

Airborne Rifles

KysBP, I'm reading American Ceasar right now, and the Australians had actually planned to withdraw to the "Bribane" line if the Japanese invaded, abandoning the whole continent except the populated southeast. Could you do something similar?

KyzBP

Quote from: Airborne Rifles on December 30, 2015, 09:06:04 AM
KysBP, I'm reading American Ceasar right now, and the Australians had actually planned to withdraw to the "Bribane" line if the Japanese invaded, abandoning the whole continent except the populated southeast. Could you do something similar?

Lol, it's not really "could I" but "how fast can I?"  Geek is pretty much forcing this strategy on me.  I still plan to defend Darwin if just to tie up troops but he can have the rest of Northern Australia.  If I lose Brisbane then Australia may be in trouble.

Con

I did read another AAR (I think it was titled the world s worst and longest AAR on WitPAE).  It was a major read (very very funny though) but part of their strategy as the allies was to turn Northern Australia into the largest POW camp with hordes of emaciated starving Japanese mindlessly stumbling around like zombies up there as he choked off their supply lines.

food for thought

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2341315&mpage=1&key=

Con

KyzBP

Quote from: Martok on December 30, 2015, 07:43:49 AM
Goodness, I missed a lot while I was away!  Philippines invaded (not that that's a surprise), Australia invaded (which is)...this is one heckuva war.  O0  Interesting to see that -- with a handful of exceptions -- the action appears to be focused almost entirely on southeast Asia and the South Pacific. 




Quote from: KyzBP on December 28, 2015, 03:23:45 PM
In other news: Geek continues to bomb Alor Star.  He could walk in there with two guys and a box of doughnuts right now and what's left of my men would kill each
other just for the doughnuts. 


Ha!  (And at the same time, ouch!  That's a rough supply situation, all right.)

Welcome back Martok! :)

KyzBP

Quote from: Con on December 30, 2015, 06:24:56 PM
I did read another AAR (I think it was titled the world s worst and longest AAR on WitPAE).  It was a major read (very very funny though) but part of their strategy as the allies was to turn Northern Australia into the largest POW camp with hordes of emaciated starving Japanese mindlessly stumbling around like zombies up there as he choked off their supply lines.

food for thought

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2341315&mpage=1&key=

Con

That's a pretty good plan in general, I think.  I'll let him overextend and then begin cutting him off as soon as I have the troops to do so.  The trick is surviving long enough to pull off that maneuver.