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War in the Pacific PBEM AAR - sign up for Bay 12 fighter squad on page 31+!

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Erkki:
Here we go again!

The game is Matrix Games' War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition. http://www.matrixgames.com/games/game.asp?gid=351 and forums at http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tt.asp?forumid=528

It is a strategic and operational level, mainly, strategic game on the Pacific War between Japan and her ally Thailand against the Allies: USA, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Free France, China(both communists and nationalists or Kuomintang) and later the Soviet Union. In ground units, the smallest controllable units are about company size, biggest ones(that can be divided for more flexibility) are divisions. These units are modelled down to squadron/team level of ~10-20 men depending on the squad type. In naval units, nearly every ship, boat and submarine is there, only the very small yard barges etc. are missing, and they are all controllable individually. Air units are modeled down to individual aircraft and pilots, including the various skills and experience. All ships, land units, air units as well as HQs and task forces have also individual leaders whose stats effect the unit behavior and combat effectiveness.


CA Tone at sea

My esteemed opponent Smeulders runs his own AAR over at the WitP:AE forums, you are of course free to read it. However, with the gentleman's OPSEC rules, it is generally considered unsporting to comment/post in both AARs or break the OPSEC - you may ask questions and give comments, but you cannot pass any information whatsoever between the 2 AARs or the 2 players. Please do refrain from even asking leading questions to avoid spoiling the fun! You can of course pass information between the readers as long as you do so via private messages.

The Scenario is DaBabes Scen #28, which is the same as Scenario #1 but with some adjustments and about 2,000 small ships more - mainly to the Allies. Japanese also get some of their toys, mainly fighter aircraft, in actual historical schedule which is 3 to 1 months earlier than in Scenario #1. Also the AAA effectiveness has been made more consistent between different guns (also more effective) and Aerial ASW has been toned down somewhat.



The date is currently February 26th, 1942. What has happened so far, going first through the map clockwise:


Pearl Harbor: didnt go quite as well as it could have. For some reason half of the torpedo bombers failed to launch, so we failed to sink a single battleship, and the Zeros that attacked airfields took serious losses. I decided to bomb for 2 more days, which resulted in aerial battles over Pearl as well as over the Kido Butai when the Americans threw everything they had at the Japanese fleet. All but 1 of the USN BBs were at least heavily damaged, but we have no confirmed kills. We lost 120 aircraft and almost the same number of aircrew, which is NOT good as every each of them were irreplaceable... Allied air losses were only around 60.

CENPAC: Wake Invasion was canceled, so the only islands where we have secured have been Makin, Tarawa and Nauru. Ocean Island will be attacked in a few days.

SOPAC: I have committed strong forces in New Guinea and the Solomons chain. Port Moresby was captured by the 46th Infantry Division and 144th Regiment in an amphibious invasion supported by our carriers and battleship Mutsu. Currently, the whole of the Solomons is Japanese and the Allies have nothing left in New Guinea other than a few unoccupied bases that will get secured later. I will provide a screenshot of this area and my future plans later.

Dutch East Indies and Malaya: Japanese have moved very quickly in this area too. Singapore fell in early February, and the whole of Sumatra will be ours within days. The vital oil fields and refineries at Palembang, Miri, Brunei and Tarakan in Borneo are ours and completely intact. Java invasion force is at the very moment loading aboard ships - D-day is March 1st or 2nd.

Burma: Is almost completely Japanese. Allied units retreated without much fighting, and we secured Magwe's oil fields and Rangoon's refineries completely intact. We are now building up airfields and moving in AAA units and bases forces to protect Burma from future Allied land and air offensives.

China: We have been very active in China and committed a good part of our bombers here, half of them operating from Formosa. We have cleared the coast so we now have clear roads all the way from Singapore to Shanghai and Korea! That of course helps a lot with the supplies... The China Front is now consolidating as Japanese forces are approaching Changsha in the middle and Sian in the north. Chinese Northern army is mostly intact but their South/Middle army has taken some serious casualties.

Air war: Allies have been very passive so we havent had many air battles yet. They dont even fight over their own turf. The few "ambushes" by American Volunteer Group in Burma and China ended up in Japanese getting early warning and ambushers getting ambushed themselves... After Luzon's fighter force and Singapore's Buffaloes were decimated the Allied have pretty much pulled back their air forces.

Naval battles so far:

Philippines: thanks to crap weather, enemy fighters and bad coordination with Zero escorts, we failed to destroy a single one of the 28 USN submarines at Manila. However with carrier support our surface units managed to bag just about all of the important support ships, including America's first carrier AV Langley, the repair ships and most if not all of the passenger liners, tankers and oilers. USN warships managed to get out intact. In the skirmishes within Philippines and in the southern Philippinean Sea we lost 1 old destroyer to American cruiser CL Boise but I'm pretty sure that we also nailed one USN destroyer. With all the destroyed "civilian" and support ships I think we did pretty well despite of committing relatively little naval force.

Sumatra: during our Palembang invasion, an Allied surface force flanked our invasion force and laid some mines outside Palembang. Unfortunately, I had forgot to set one of the transport task forces to not react away from enemy, so they did, and hit the minefield: 4 big transports and an old destroyer sunk, with more ships hurt. Lucky me those vessels had no troops aboard them any more. Our surface units then engaged the enemy, who had 6 destroyers and 2 cruisers: Dutch CL Java was hit by a type 93 Long Lance torpedo and was heavily damage, and USN cruiser CL Marblehead was sunk by CL Oi using a similar torpedo. We lost an old torpedo boat. CL Java was not confirmed sunk but she had a long way to nearest port and we have not seen her for since(2 months now) and she has not been sighted by our aircraft doing repairs in a port anywhere.

Brisbane: in support of our Port Moresby invasion, I sneaked the whole Japanese carrier fleet down the Coral Sea and hit Brisbane. Surprise was complete when the hundreds of Japanese aircraft appeared, and there was no resistance whatsoever. The port had at least 5 cruisers: CA Canberra was hit multiple times by 800kg AP and sunk when her magazines exploded after a bomb hit through the deck. CL Achilles tried to leave the port in the following night but was sunk by Japanese destroyer force. CLs Perth and Adelaine were also hit hard and were possibly sunk. 2 other cruisers were also hit but they probably escaped. We also nailed 12 transports, a mine layer, a submarine tender, a passenger liner and destroyer DD Stuart that was escorting CL Achilles. 2 days later our submarines in this area also killed a Dutch submarine returning to port.

Java round 1: I consciously let Celebes uninvaded and did not raid Java Sea, instead keeping a heavy screen of submarines East and South of Java, monitoring traffic in and out. This was worth of it: submarine I-156 spotted Royal Navy's battleship BB Royal Sovereign with only light escorts, and put 2 torpedoes on her. 2 days later, Royal Sovereign was photographed doing repairs at Soerebaja's port, accompanied by multiple cruisers. 2 days later, Japanese air attack(against no enemy fighters) hit Royal Sovereign 16 times and also damaged cruisers Enterpise, Danae, Durban, and sunk a mine sweeper. The Allies immediately stopped the emergency repairs and started evacuating their fleet. Outside Soerebaja waited 13 Japanese submarines, and thanks to again worse than lacking ASW escorts, submarine I-160 put 2 more torpedoes on Royal Sovereign and sunk her. Banzai!

Java round 2: only days later, Kido Butai arrived Banda Sea from the East to raid Soerebaja. Allied quickly evacuated what they had left, and a submarine managed to put a torpedo on cruiser CL Dragon: with heavy damage reported fairly far from nearest port, she is a possible kill. Kido Butai managed to catch the very best Allied light cruiser in existence, CL Mauritius, and sunk her a couple of days later, together with an escort destroyer DD Vendetta.

Java round 3: it did not take long for the Allies to move in naval units once Japanese carriers had left. A Japanese force of 8 destroyers and 2 heavy cruisers found cruisers CL Tromp and CA Houston at Java's southern coast, but in a very weird night time combat in bad weather only managed to hit one of their 4 escort destroyers with no Japanese losses. We have some evidence of that destroyer sinking 2 days later.

I'm pretty sure that Java round 4 will come when we land at Merak in 5 days. We will be ready.

Submarines:

Allied submarines have so far managed to sink a couple of small transports, a patrol boat and 2 troop transports. We have 2 confirmed kills, both Dutch, with 2 more confirmedly at least heavily damaged and 1-2 more lightly damaged.

Japanese submarine force has during this campaign performed very well. We have lost only 5 boats as damaged(3 already fixed and returned to action), while we have managed to kill at least 10 transports and cargo ships, 1 huge passenger liner, a big repair ship, 3 tankers(one a huge 20,000 ton one). Submarines also sunk BB Royal Sovereign together with the IJNAAF bombers, as well as sunk a Dutch submarine near Sydney.

But that was not enough. 3 days ago, having heavy submarine screen at the Australian East Coast paid off, paid off big, as did Allied carelessness:



The brave crew of I-16 first attacked a USN carrier task force but was itself attacked escort destroyers and forced to dive and retreat. A second carrier task force followed the first soon after, I-16 slipping past Yorktown's light escorts, shooting 8 x 53 cm Type 95 torpedoes, 2 of them hitting: the first one caused heavy damage and massive flooding, and the second one hit boilers, caused more serious flooding and the mighty Yorktown began to list. I-16 then proceeded to fire 8 more torpedoes at a carrier that was identified the Saratoga, but those torpedoes missed. Yorktown was left sinking, listing badly, on fire, more than 150 nautical miles from Sydney.

More submarines were immediately ordered to the area at full speed, and the USN carriers did not move during the day any more, meaning the Yorktown was fatally damaged. The following night day, 4 submarines between the USN carriers and Sydney failed to make contact until late in the day when they sighted some ships but failed to get in attack position. Heavy volume of radio transmissions in the area, great number of Allied warships sailing past and forth, only 2 carriers sailing to Sydney's harbor let us believe that Yorktown did indeed sink, all of the aircraft still aboard her. Today's New York times(= my opponent) confirming it. Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!

Naval warship losses so far:

Japan, sunk:
2 x old WW1 vintage destroyers (DD), nothing serious
1 x TB, light destroyer "torpedo boat"
1 x DMS light destroyer "minesweeper"

Japan, damaged:
1 x old CL
3 x DD
3 x SS

Allies, confirmed kills:
CV Yorktown
BB Royal Sovereign
CA Canberra
CL Mauritius
CL Achilles
CL Marblehead
DD Vendetta
2 x SS

heavily damaged, 50% or better chance kills:
CL Java
CL Dragon
DD Stuart
DD John D. Ford (old)
DD Barker (old)
1 x SS

damaged but not believed to be sunk:
CA Astoria
CL Danae
CL Durban
CL Perth
CL Enterprise
CL De Ruyter
2 x SS

Pearl Harbor:
6 x BB + 2 x CA and 1 x CL + 2 x DD heavily damaged
My educated guess is that we got 1 x BB, 1 CL and 1 DD - not too well...

Anyone who wants to review the campaign so far almost turn-by-turn, my WitpAE forum AAR is there: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2864709&mpage=1&key=

Spoiler: CURRENT CLAIMS and stuff that has happened to them so far (click to show/hide)Okay, lets see. If at any time you want to know where your character is and hows he doing, feel free to ask. I'll add these in the end of the first post later...


Anvilfolk

I have a gut feeling that we'll be seeing lots of air action in Burma any day now. Theres no way the Allies will let Magwe's oil fields just be where they are and pump the Japanese 3,000 tons of oil a day that then gets right away turned into 2,700 tons of fuel in the refineries at Magwe and Rangoon. Most of the front line squadrons are already filled with pilots, but there are some that could use reserve pilots.

WO Takanaka, P. His skills are: EXP 50, AIR 70, DEFN 69 (there are other skills but they are not used by fighter pilots unless kamikazing, strafing etc but I'm not intending to use my fighters in those roles just yet...). EXP is general "flying skill" - the higher it is the less likely he is to crash, the more likely he is to survive home (including when hes flying a damaged plane, in poor weather, long range etc.), AIR and DEF are 2 skills used in air combat. AIR is only used by fighters, where DEF is also used by bombers and strike aircraft for dodging AAA fire and fighters AFTER the bombing run (afaik). Hes fresh from reserve flight officer school (means 3 years of service in Japan....) and has 2 months of advanced training in an operational training unit.

Takanaka will arrive in 3 days to his unit, the 59th Sentai at Meiktila, flying Ki-43-Ic. 59th's nominal strength is 30 planes and pilots, but now has 30+4 planes and 38 pilots. This base is just East from Magwe, and the unit's mission is to fly LRCAP over Magwe as well as over its own base at Meiktila. Magwe itself has the 77th Sentai and some reconnaissance units.


timferius

I'm afraid all the CV units are full(or as full as they are plausible to keep) but the Navy has about 1/3 of its fighter units flying from land bases.

Chitose Ku S-1 was divided today into 3 size 12 squadrons - 2 of them will stay at Rabaul while the 3rd, S-1/C, transferred to Tulagi.

PO1 Abe, K. He'll arrive at Tulagi in 4 days. Skills are EXP 73(a pre-war career officer...), AIR 70, DEFN 75. Chitose Ku S-1/C has 12 A6M2 Zeros and 16 pilots. It is based at Tulagi, its current task is to fly CAP above Tulagi, Florida and Guadalcanal and offer protection to the in and outgoing troop transports bring supplies and troops to the islands. It is also ordered to co-operate with Rabaul's G4M1 unit, so that should the torpedo bombers sortie to a nearby target, the S-1/C will (try to) meet and escort the bombers. Just across the strait to the South on Guadalcanal island, the Army 47th Independent Fighter Chutai flying 15 x Ki-43-Ic is based at Lunga airbase with the same mission.


Burnt Pies:

The above mentioned G4M1 unit at Rabaul, Kanoya Ku K-1 needs some pilots... The unit is stationed at Rabaul, its mission being flying naval search to max range and attacking any enemy surface units sighted(Tulagi and Port Moresby have more patrol & search units that can provide the Kanoya Ku K-1 with target info). Currently its secondary mission is bombing cut-off enemy troops at Lae.

PO2 Nishiura, P. Arrives at Rabaul in 4 days. Skills (of him an his aircrew) are EXP 55, NavB 58, NavT 62, NavS 66, ASW 34, GrdB 57, DEFN 55. Not so great in any one skill but at least he is versatile.

March 17th 1942: has flown 3 missions already. 2 to Lae and 1 to Finschhafen today. The unit has suffered no losses, and there has been no resistance yet whatsoever.


BishopX:

I-27 was completed a week ago and is now being transferred from Port Arthur to Palembang, currently off the coast of Luzon(Philippines). It is commanded by a above mediocre but poorly motivated Commander Yoshimura, Iwao. On their first cruise, I-27's crew is also far from crack, but not bad (EXP 55/53). I-27 also carries an E14Y fold-wing search floatplane with her. Once I-27 is refueled and refit at Palembang(a second floatplane pilot will be taken aboard as well as a second floatplane, unassembled, in the boat's external storages) it will most likely be ordered to patrol somewhere W or NW of Perth, Australia to monitor and attack any Allied traffic in the area.

March 17th 1942: I-27 now refueled and refit at Palembang. A second pilot is taken aboard as well as 2 unassembled E14Y floatplanes storaged on the deck outside the hull. The I-27 now sets sail to its assigned patrol area near Perth, Australia. The patrol is likely to last up to 5 months, or until the submarine runs out of torpedoes and has to head home. I-27's route takes her across the Java Sea, sailing from Java Sea to the Indian Ocean East of Java. Next time she sees land will be at the NW coast of Australia which she follows for 4 days until turning to her patrol position some 120 nautical miles West of Perth, where 3 submarines are already at station, including another E14Y equipped sub, I-29.


Anvilfolk 2:

PO1 Minobe, J. Skills are EXP 53, AIR 55, DEFN 56. Not a good fighter pilot at all, but his EXP is so high that I had to kick him out the operational training school some time ago because he was taking a slot from a low-exp pilot who would have (and did) learn the actual skills like 5 times quicker.

Same group as Timferius, but different squadron: Chitose Ku S-1/B at Rabaul(where the G4M1 unit Kanoya Ku K-1 is), operating A6M2. He will arrive at the unit in 4 days. Unit flies CAP above Rabaul, and as secondary role is tasked to escort the G4M1 bombers unless they fly outside of Zero's range; this unit is currently not using drop tanks. This is a very important unit as Rabaul's harbor has the Tanaka Squadron (4 heavy cruisers and 8 destroyers), Battleship Mutsu and her escorts as well as 4 light cruisers and over 40 other ships. The Chitose Ku S-1/B has perhaps the 2nd known Japanese pilot of all time, legendary PO1 Nishizawa, Hiroyoshi. His current skills are EXP 85, AIR, 74 and DEFN 84. The whole Chitose Ku S-1 group is yet to see any action to none of the pilots in the 3 sub squadrons have any kills.

March 17th 1942: flies his first combat mission. Today they escort Kanoya Ku K-1's  G4M1s to Finschhafen some 280 nautical miles to the West. There is no AAA fire no enemy aircraft, as expected, but these missions are good practice. Japanese troops just landed there and will occupy the place tomorrow, so this will also probably be the last non-CAP mission for some time.


Jerick:

DD Makigumo. Makigumo a brand new Yugumo-class destroyer that finished its operational trials just 11 days ago. It was immediately given the task to escort 3 xAKs transferring the 14th Naval Construction Battalion to Tulagi area. The task small task force left Kobe 7 days ago and is now approaching the Marianas. Makigumo will reach New Britain in about 7 days, after which it will join the fleet at Rabaul while the transports will continue to Tassafaronga(on Guadalcanal) unescorted.

Makigumo(Yugumo 12/42 class, exp 66/69(very good!)) is commanded by Commander Fujita, Isamu (leadership 62, inspiration 66, naval 70, admin 47, aggression 71 - this bloke is a pretty good one, I might actually later give him a bigger ship to command, maybe one of the light cruisers... All the bigger ones + most destroyers already have as good or even better commanders).



March 17th 1942: on station near Makassar.


Zrk2:

Commander Morioka, R of DD Yugumo. Ultra-aggressive very skilled naval commander with lacking leadership skills, not liked by his crew but hes efficient.

Those crappy old ones dont see much action because thanks to short range they are unsable as escorts and small size and light armament makes them bad surface combatants. You'll get... DD Yugumo, flag ship of the Yugumo class(stats same as Makigumo's). Yugumo is now part of TF 5, the most forward-deployed surface task force we have, providing distant cover for Makassar invasion fleet in the Java Sea by sailing ahead of the main fleet. The force is led by CL Sendai, escorted by DDs Yugumo, Akigumo, Natsushio, Ayanami, Asagiri, Yugiri and TB Hato.

March 17th 1942: on station near Makassar, Sendai TF the Yugumo is part of acts as a cover for the carriers as well as the unloading transports.


Inteuniso:

Captain Izawa, Ishinosuke. Shoho and her escorts, including CA Takao and BB Haruna, are ready at Truk. Shoho is a Zuiho class CVL with aircraft capacity of 30, speed of 28/15 knots, next to no armor and light AAA armament but very good range of 9240 nautical miles without refueling. She also carries 18 torpedoes and a unit of 9+4 B5N1 strike aircraft with well trained pilots that make her a threat to anything that floats including other carriers and battleships.

Shoho TF's mission is to be ready to react to any enemy move in the Central or South Pacific. Shoho only carries 38 aircraft aboard her, currently 21 ready Zeros and 9 B5Ns with 4+4 reserve planes and 40 pilots, but she and her escorts are a serious threat to anything that isnt another carrier task force. Haruna's task is to act as a floating anti-aircraft battery and a bomb & torpedo sponge. The force is also not operating alone but is supported by long range bombers at Truk and Rabaul(Kanoya Ku K-1) as well as fighters and search aircraft at Rabaul, Namatanai, Tulagi, Munda and Marshalls. Whenever possible, the Shoho TF will be stationed close to land-based fighters that will fly LRCAP over it while Shoho's and more forward land-based fighter units will provide escorts to Japanese air strikes by Shoho's and land-based strike aircraft.


Hanzoku: to be assigned a Zero pilot ASAP

Erkki:
Upcoming stuff:

China: Battles for Changsha and Sian starting in 2 days

DEI: Merak invasion and the beginning of the Battle of Java in 2 days, D-day planned for March 1st-2nd

South Pacific: A raiding force led by BB Haruna and CVL Shoho will try to find some convoys to hit between Fiji and Baker(almost halfway from Fiji to Hawaii). USN CVs are most probably all far away at or near Sydney now so Shoho should be safe. Lets see if we can find a fuel/supply convoy or two from San Francisco/Los Angeles to Sydney. This raiding TF also acts as a distant cover to our Ocean Island invasion force and the transports that bring more troops and engineers from Tokyo and Yokohama to the Solomons and New Guinea.

Spoiler: SOPAC and CVL Shoho TF (click to show/hide)

Erkki:
February 27th

Another silent day, pretty much the only action is occupation of Ocean Island.

Java invasion force leaves the port, if everything goes right, it will reach the landing beach in 2½ days. Surface action squadrons and 2 squads of DMSes will sweep ahead, CVEs Taiyo and Hosho will provide LRCAP while they are themselves LRCAPed by Ki-27s from Singkawang. We're leaving the battlewagons home this time.

You guys will get some screenshots tomorrow - not much to see in the Java Sea yet. I'm estimating the Allies to throw what is left of the Dutch East Indies Air Force at the invasion fleet as well as submarines, all the PT boats and harbor defense vessels, possibly even actual warships. We will use a heavy screen of over almost 2 dozen cruisers and 30+ destroyers, a light carrier task group, submarines, fighters from Palembang and Oosthaven as well as 2 mobile surface action squadrons with 4 heavy cruisers and 8 destroyers each. Ideally those heavy units will fight some night time battles against intercepting enemy surface forces and further attrit the Allied cruiser fleet, the 80+ fighters we have will decimate their air force and troop transports get to safely unload all the 55,000 troops that land in the first wave.

Anvilfolk:
I love this... I love to read about the game, love thinking about it, seeing AARs, dreaming about playing it, but it'd probably never get around to it (assuming they'd lower the $80 price tag....). Too much detail for one commander, taking too long and all that. The best thing they could do is set up a multiplayer version where everyone takes care of one smaller theatre or operations or something like that.

Please keep it coming :)

timferius:
I agree with all of the above. I'd love to play it, but I just can't justify the 80 dollar pricetag, for the amount of fail I'd have at it.

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