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

[jomni]

Albany looks like a great place to visit.
http://www.amazingalbany.com.au/category/natural/

[Sir Slash]

Do you think that's what the Japanese are coming for, the scenery? Or maybe to... change the scenery? Anyway, I guess Geekamoto is trying to find a soft spot to land on and then drive somewhere worth a lot of Vic. Points.

[KyzBP]

Albany looks like a great place to visit.
http://www.amazingalbany.com.au/category/natural/

Obviously, it was the Mt. Romance Sandalwood Factory.
http://www.amazingalbany.com.au/book/mt-romance-aust-pty-ltd-sandalwood-factory/
We have a large number of troops trying to protect this man made wonder.

Do you think that's what the Japanese are coming for, the scenery? Or maybe to... change the scenery? Anyway, I guess Geekamoto is trying to find a soft spot to land on and then drive somewhere worth a lot of Vic. Points.

That's exactly it.  He'll drive up to Perth, capture it, and cut me off from any supplies I was receiving from "off the map".

[Sir Slash]

That sneaky Bastard! As sneaky as you con be with hundreds of ships, planes and thousands of troops that is. How can he support such a large force logistically so far from his big bases? Nearest base is, what, Timor? Or Singapore?

[JasonPratt]

Geek could well be supplying it from several major depots. His control of the sea in that region is currently absolute (minus the occasional Dutch sub Rambo captain), and even if Kyz sent in a surface raiding party to sit on one supply line, the others could hold some extra flow until Geek sent a superstack along to crush the supply-line siege.

[FarAway Sooner]

Yeah.  The Pacific Theater as it evolved in the South Pacific was largely about figuring out how to extend your Land-Based Air superiority forward.  The Allies managed to do this in 1942-1943 through a grinding war of attrition and better long-range bombers, but it took them almost 18 months to peel that onion and make it far enough forward to neutralize Rabaul.  It was pretty conclusively demonstrated that carrier air power alone couldn't neutralize more than one or two land-based airfields at a time without putting their carriers at serious risk. 

In this game, of course, the IJN pilots are so much more seasoned and the Allied air forces are so depleted, it's hard to put more than a dent in the main Japanese carrier force.  Geek is wisely NOT replicating the foolish mistakes of the Japanese high command in 1942, where they divided their CV force and managed to thus fritter it away.  Still, it only takes one or two hits on his CVs to put a serious dent in his air cover.

Historical Aside:

Of course, that grinding war of attrition in the South Pacific was really just a warm-up for the knockout punch that the Americans were preparing to deliver in 1943.  US production includes ships slated for the Atlantic, but the comparison of wartime production is staggering:

• 1942 Merchant Ship production:  US 5.5M tonnes vs Japan 0.3M tonnes
• 1943 Merchant Ship production:  US 11.4M tonnes vs Japan 0.8M tonnes
• 1943 Airplane production:  US 85,898 planes vs Japan 16,693 planes
• 1943 Carrier production:  US 5 x CV, 7 x CVL (carrying 530 additional planes) vs Japan 0 CVs or CVLs

Somehow, I don't think Geek is going to wait until late 1943 to complete his operations in SW Australia...

[jomni]

Just curious. Where is Gen MacArthur now in this game? Is he still in the Philippines? In Australia? Or in the States?

[Sir Slash]

KyzBP is MacArthur. And Nimitz, Halsey, and Chang Kai-Shek all rolled into one. And he's..... in trouble.  ;D   But the Good Guys ALWAYS win. He needs to wait on John Wayne to show-up.

[KyzBP]

Just curious. Where is Gen MacArthur now in this game? Is he still in the Philippines? In Australia? Or in the States?

That's a good question.  As soon as I can get back to the game, probably Thursday night or Friday morning, I'll take a look.  He may be at Darwin.

[Sir Slash]

I'm mid-way through, War at the End of the World about Mac's campaign in New Guinea 42-45 and he really had to improvise a lot with what Washington and the Aussies would and could give him. He built a great team of commanders under him and learned after Buna never to take the Japs strongpoints head-on. Some of his greatest successes came in the air and at sea.

[KyzBP]

April 24, 1942

Sub attack at Albany.

16 men and one transport will hardly be noticed but we have to keep hitting whatever we can.  This certainly counts as "whatever".

Transports hitting the beaches at Albany.

The coastal guns hit a few ships and knocked out a few troops.  The bummer is I moved a non-static coastal gun unit from Albany
to Perth.  Those guns may have been useful here.  Now they're on rail cars headed East to be useless somewhere else.

Troops unloading at Albany.

Again, he loses more troops to unloading than to any of my actions.  I have a feeling none of these troops "planned" for Albany.  Geek
probably set them to plan for somewhere else so my Intel wouldn't tip me off as to where they were headed.

Albany lost.  :-[

No big surprise there.  As soon as Geek's super stack is assembled they'll head North and cut off/capture Perth.  He'll find Perth empty
as I'm moving and consolidating the Perth defenders much farther East.  I'll continue to harass and disrupt his stack as much as
possible as it makes it's way East.  My chances of a win are beginning to quickly diminish.

Half a world away at AM the air war turns again.

Kates Destroyed: 2 (2), Good Guy losses: 0 (0)


Vals Destroyed: 5 (5), Kates: 0 (2), Good Guy losses: 0 (0)


Vals: 0 (5), Kates: 6 (8), Good Guy losses: 0 (0)


Betty's Destroyed: 11 (11), Vals: 0 (5), Kates: 0 (8), Good Guy losses: 0 (0)


Betty's 0 (11), Vals: 0 (5), Kates: 7 (12, Good Guy losses: 0

Final score: IGAF: 28 Good Guys: 0. O0  Unescorted bombers are the best way to keep my pilots trained and happy.
It works both ways though so I have to make sure I send escorts with my bombers.

Bombing Bundaberg.


There were a couple more raids and we kept up our 200 casualties average.  I was a lot more optimistic about Bunda before Geek's
super stack landed at Albany.  I need the Calvary right now to swoop in and save Oz but the Calvary is on boats headed to AM.

We tune in to Fuso and Friends.

I have to keep telling myself "Your time is coming, Fuso.  Your time is coming."  My men will bathe in the oil slick left by this nautical bully
as she slips meekly beneath the waves.  Your time is coming, Fuso.

[FarAway Sooner]

So (and I'm not reading his thread, so I can ask this question honeslty), with his landings in SW Australia, he's totally dependent on his carriers for air cover.  Aren't there soft spots in his supply line somewhere that you could send your own carriers rampaging for a week or two?

That will take a little while, but we've already seen what happens in Eastern Australia when he has a large land force that he's trying to supply in the face of Allied air superiority.  It don't work.

I'm not familiar enough with his LBA assets to know where such a soft spot might be, and I'm not sure it'll be enough to make any real difference in Australia, but the Perth theater remains a tactical issue.  If you can go rampaging through the middle of his supply lanes, that'll throw all sorts of things into confusion.

Your carriers are nibbling away at his fringes and getting good XP in Arctic Monkey and Western Australia, but even if you proceed with the invasion of Hokkaido, does that get you enough VP to make it worth the commitment of most of your discretionary resources?

I don't know the answers to these questions, and I suspect that the posts here are lagging the real game play, but I thought I'd ask...

[KyzBP]

So (and I'm not reading his thread, so I can ask this question honeslty), with his landings in SW Australia, he's totally dependent on his carriers for air cover.  Aren't there soft spots in his supply line somewhere that you could send your own carriers rampaging for a week or two?

That will take a little while, but we've already seen what happens in Eastern Australia when he has a large land force that he's trying to supply in the face of Allied air superiority.  It don't work.

I'm not familiar enough with his LBA assets to know where such a soft spot might be, and I'm not sure it'll be enough to make any real difference in Australia, but the Perth theater remains a tactical issue.  If you can go rampaging through the middle of his supply lanes, that'll throw all sorts of things into confusion.

Your carriers are nibbling away at his fringes and getting good XP in Arctic Monkey and Western Australia, but even if you proceed with the invasion of Hokkaido, does that get you enough VP to make it worth the commitment of most of your discretionary resources?

I don't know the answers to these questions, and I suspect that the posts here are lagging the real game play, but I thought I'd ask...

I'll do my best to to answer these but bear with me if I miss something or get sidetracked.

The Brit carriers are on their way to start interrupting the supply lines.  They have a couple of other TF's to deal with first but those TF's have no air cover so we should be able to shoo them away.  The problem is they will attract the attention of Geek's CV's.  The Brit's are no match for his big boys.  That may pull his air cover away from Western Oz though, so that may be a win-win move.

Hokkaido has more than enough VP's to offset anything Geek gains by taking Perth.  I'm not sure I need to go after Hokkaido just yet.  I've located a couple of high value/low risk bases that I might be able to snatch to stay even with Perth.  I'll reveal those a little later.

The AAR is about 2 games days behind.  It should catch up if Geek's not too busy this weekend.

I hope that was everything and thanks again for following this. 

[Airborne Rifles]

Really enjoying this!

[Sir Slash]

Me too. Most fun I've had with my clothes on.