Topic: Uncommon Valor: Battle for South Pacific. An AAR between AP and Dracho

[Dracho]

Well, being as this is the first full game of this thing I'll have played, and you have the only BB and CV in the theatre, I'm fairly certain you can do what you please... for a time, so talking about it here isn't exactly going to let me shift a bunch of forces, LOL.

You only have a few things you can do, some more dangerous than others:

You can try a direct Naval assault of Port Moresby, which will probably bring you into land based bomber range, making resupply... tedious for the long haul..

You can try a direct assault on Nomea, which is risky.

You can try an assault on Espirito Santo and / or the French Frigate Shoals, which would put Nomea within range of your Betty bombers, and seriously irritate any effort by me in the Solomans, because I'd basically have to withdraw to Brisbane.   

You could invade Australia, but that'll turn into a quagmire that'll eat troops like China if anything at all goes wrong.

So, my money, and what prep I can muster, is to prepare for a feint in Port Moresby and a full-court press in the southern Solomans. 

Oh, and I love transport planes.   


BTW, in late 1943, unless you've wiped me, I'm buying a new Truk.   


I'll get the turn to you early this evening.  The wife has been working me so hard around the house that I fell asleep at 8:30 last night.

[AcePylut]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 05/15/42

Weather: Partly Cloudy

GOOD NEWS!  Today, AcePylut-San  is proud to announce to the Emperor that Operation Frower Brossom was a complete success.  Troops of the 84th Naval Garrison, transported in 4 high speed destroyers, were able to sneak into Gili-Gili bay and capture this highry desirable port for the Son of Heaven.  Randing unopposed in the earry morning, the invasion commander quickry subdued the resident natives.  They quickry proved their royarty to the Imperiar Japanese, by fingering a rocal coastwatcher.

In other news, the first aircraft set down upon the newly constructed airfield at Lunga Point, Guadacanar. 

Surprisingry, the Arries have decided to send dayright raids against Lae, and over the rast few days, many weak Arried aircraft have been sent crashing down to the firery pits of doom.

Our proud aircraft carriers have refueled and re-armed after the Battle for Espiritu Santo.  Morale runs high among the Imperial Japanese Navy aviators, as they imbibe massive quantities of rice wine, celebrating their victory over the weak and cowardly american carriers.

Operation Wither Vine continues as pranned.

-----
Ground combat at Gili Gili
 
Japanese Shock attack
 
Attacking force 790 troops, 6 guns, 0 vehicles
 
Defending force 0 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles
 
Japanese assault odds: 36 to 1 (fort level 0)
 
Japanese forces CAPTURE Gili Gili base !!!
-----


One can now see bases that are under Japanese control.  The allies on New Guinea are being surrounded, and soon are in danger of being cut off.  Recon aircraft flying out of Shortland Island drop flyers to the allied forces at Port Moresby.  Flyers say "Surrender and save yourself.  You will be fed and watered.  Do not continue to fight for a dead country.  the USA will be destroyed shortly."



-------


Here is a pic of the detail screen all bases have.  As I've just captured Gili Gili, and haven't done anything with it yet, I can post it here. 



Counterclockwise, from top left, one can see the name of the base, and command structure the units belong to.  In this instance, it's the 8th Army HQ. 

Travelling counterclockwise, we can see all damage at the base.  There is port (no damage) airfield, and airfield service.  If airfield gets above 50, you can't run offensive missions, but you can still do CAP (getting damage above 50 is known as "shutting down the base").  Below that is the current amount of supplies at the base ( a typical transport can carry 2000-3000 supplies, depending on the ship), and the amount required.  I also have '1' fuel at the base, no idea where that came from.

Continuing, there are a couple things I want to points out:  Avaition support and avaition support required.  Av support req'd is always the "number of aircraft" at that base, in flyable condition.  Av support is the combined amount of Aviation Support (via ground "aviation" base-support units).  As you can see, I have no av support at the base, as I didn't include an aviation support in my invasion force.  However, that doesn't matter for the moment, as if you look clockwise from the top left, you'll see three items:   Port Capacity, Airfield Capacity, and Fortifications.  GG starts with a level 3 port.  The number in paranthesis is how much you can increase theport, before it starts taking twice as long to increase it another level.  Regardless, you can never raise a port or airfield level more than 3 levels above the number in paranthesis.  Fortifications can be raised to level 9 at all bases.  Level 9 fortifications is like Omaha beach fortifications.  Levle 0 is, er, take cover behind that bush kinda fortifications.

One can see all the troops, planes, and ships at the base, or click on the icon for a view of the squadrons.  Right now, as I've just captured it, and don't have a runway, yet, or any base forces to support my units, there is nothing there.

for planes... F=Fighters, RB/NF = Fighter Bombers or Night Fighters, DB = Dive Bombers, LB = Land based bombers, RE = Recon aircraft (very important to scope out various bases before attacking), TR = Transports, PA = patrol (naval search), FP = Float Planes, FF = float fighters, TB = torp bombers.

for ships... CV = carriers, BB = Battleships, CA = Cruisers, CL = Light Cruisers, DD = Destroyers (justlike SFC Space Navy Command), AP = troop transports, AO = Fuel ships, SS = subs, DM = Mine Warfare ships, PT = PT boats, AG = Barge Transports, AU I forgot, AV = seaplane tenders.

AV's are pretty sweet, becasue they have "inherent aviation support", and ifyou park them at a base, they will add their aviation support (usually around 20 Av support) to the base.  So you don't really need a base force tohave aircraft, if you have enough AV's.

Since I do'nt have any Engineering units at Gili Gili, yet, nothing will be built.  So, once I get anEng unit at GG, I will modifymy build to build my base up.  Sicne I already have a level 3 port there, I'll probably build up the airfield to level 2 (so I can do offensive missions), then build up fortifications a bit, then who knows, depends on how the war is going at that point

[762_XC]

What's an AV?

[AcePylut]

AV (and CS) are seaplane tenders.  Think of them as "floatplane aircraft carriers".  Most of my AV's have about 12 float planes in 2 squadrons (which are good for anti-sub patrol, and my long range float planes are good for naval search).  My CS ships have 24 float planes.

THey also have a small "aviation support" ability, that if you are at a 'hex' you own, and have some supplies there, the AV or CS ship will "act" as a aviation support base force, and provide a small amount of aviation support.

They have a few uses:

1) You can grab a forward location, move an AV there, and base the "big" floatplanes (Emilys, Mavises, PBY Catalinas for us) there.  You don't need an airport at a hex to fly floatplanes (but you still need aviation support), and you can use the AV to provide "aviation support", thus you don't need to move an 'aviation support base force there".

2)  You don't have enough Aviation Support Base Forces... so you can use the AV's or CS's to boost support for wahtever operation you want. AV's and CS's are good for this, because they can move from one location to another a lot faster than you can transport a base force.

3)  AV's and CS's (CS's basically are like 'big' av's) can be used as forward scouts for your task forces.  They can head out into the open ocean, and provide good ability to perform naval searches, that may be at or beyond the edge of the planes that fly out of bases.

4)  Decoy's.  Av's and CS's are often mistaken for aircraft carriers by the enemy.  Sometimes, I'll have a couple tf's heading into enemy waters, one comprised of a couple AV's, one is my Carriers.  Sometime, the enemy will make a mistake, and launch all their aircraft at the "AV task force", leaving my carriers untouched.  I'd much rather lose a couple seaplane tenders than a Carrier.

5)  ASW patrol.  Got a big task force of transports?  Sounds like juicy targets for subs?  Put an AV or CS in that task force, put all those planes on asw patrol, and help keep them pesky subs away.

[AcePylut]

A photo of the Imperial Jap Navy CS Chitose (CS = bigger better AV).  After the battle of Midway, she was modified into a light carrier, with a traditional flight deck for launching zero's and stuff.  This is a pik "pre-conversion", which is the unit I get to use in the game. 



The Chitose will be in theater shortly along with 24 float planes and decent aviation support woot!

[Commander La'ra]

Is this a 'download only' game you pay for?  It looks quite like 'my cup of tea', but I'm on 56K...

[IndyShark]

No, I have a cd. I should get it out and put it on ebay! LOL

Here is the website if you want to order it.

http://www.matrixgames.com/

http://www.matrixgames.com/games/game.asp?gid=216

It is $40 for a cd and $30 for a download only.

[Commander La'ra]

Ah! Thank you.

[IndyShark]

If you are interested, I'd be willing to sell you mine.

[Commander La'ra]

How much you want for it?

[Dracho]

They also have a free game:  Pacific War the Matrix Project.  It's the precursor to both Uncommon Valor and War in the Pacific.  Gary Grigsby released it back in the early 1990's, and they cleaned it up and debugged it and made it a free download.

[IndyShark]

How about $25?

[Commander La'ra]

Sounds pretty reasonable.  May be a couple of weeks before I can spare it, though.  It's truck payment time...

[IndyShark]

No problem. Let me know when you are ready.

[AcePylut]

5/25/06

AcePylut-san reports to the Emperor... the Great Air Battle of Port Moresby has been progressing well.  Japanese Bettys and Nells, escorted by 3 Squadrons of Zeros, have beaten the outnumbered and outmatched American aircraft into submission.  The airfield has been subjected to 7 straight days of air attacks, damage has been done to the airfield, and a great many supplies have been lost by the Allies.  Soon they will be out of supplies, and starved and beaten into submission. Until then, however, those brave allies continue to send pilots to their doom in inferior aircraft.  The 1st Tinian Datai (Subaru Sakai, Ota, Nishizawa, Sasai) have broken the morale of the allied bombers, and have fended off multiple attacks.  The allied bombers refuse to assault Lae.  Multiple pilots of the IJN and IJA are on the cusp of Ace status.

4 Destroyers, carrying elements of the 84th Japanese Naval Garrison, have succesfully assaulted Buna, and the encirclement of PM continues.  Operation Frower Brossom is a success.  Operation Wither Vine continue to progress as planned.

Lunga Airfield, Guadacanal, is in full operation, ready to attack any enemy shipping approaching the Southern Solomon Islands.

An airbase has been constructed in the protected bay of Gili-Gilli, and shortly, short range bombers will be able to strangle.

Returning to port, fumes from teh single bomb that the Shokaku took were ignited by electricians spark, and explosions shuddered through the carrier.  Limping, she was able to mkae it to Truk, and has since been sent back to Tokyo for repairs

A short halt tothe war has been called, while Dracho-San fixes his computer   (that one bomb hit on the shokaku did 51 sys damage!.  The two bombs the Zuikaku took only did 13 sys damage)

The Zuikaku, escorted by a minimal amount of ships, was able to sneak out of Rabaul, move undetected into firing range of PM, and launched an airraid of the field that did massive damage, most importantly was destroying a number of supplies. 

Dracho-San decided to move a couple gunboats into PM, to deflect any naval attacks from their supply ships.

Recon over PM showed reinforcemtn of the Port Moresby ground garrison, and the withdrawal of a couple units.

Two transports suffered damage from allied torpedos.  one transport was succesfully attacked, however, the torpedo was a dud and no damage was done.  Sub chasers have been dispatched tothese area's, to locate and destroy those evil American submarines.

Scout planes over Midway and the Aleuts show that the Allies have withdrawn carrier forces.  My carriers dispatched for the invasion ofMidway have been diverted to the South Pacific.  Arrival is expected within 2-4 weeks.


Here's a picture showing some of the more common aircraft ranges.  Japanese ranges are measured from Gili-Gili, which one can tell, PM falls within range.  Allied ranges are measured from PM.  The important thing to note is the incredible range (23 hexes) of the Japanese Zero.  Basically, I can stay "just" out of range of allied fighter aircraft (until those P38's and Corsairs show up ) and bomb at will.  The "red dots" are locations of Japanese bases.  The "green" dots are locations of the allied bases.



I showed the ranges in a hexagonal form, but the game models it in a circular fashion, so there is alittle give and play on this, depending.

[AcePylut]

UV's modelling of my favorite aircraft the Jap A6M2 Zero... here's the stats.



Blammo, I love that pair of 20mm cannons.

And here's a current shot of my pilots at Lae, the 1st Tainan Daitai.  Check out Saburo Sakai's 4 kills.  He's got some competition though.... another guy in there has 4 kills.  Unfortunately, you can't see Sasai, Nishizawa (Japans best ace, irl he was killed while riding in a transport aircraft).

[AcePylut]

FEAR MY PILOTS DRACHO  They are coming!

[Dracho]

Yeah, yeah.. you're going to meet my top ace Skip... Skip Bombing.     Replaced my HDD last night.  I just need to flash the bios on my mainboard than I'll load UV tonight & get a turn out.

If I just didn't have so much real work to do int he evenings on top of this.  Last night after 5 I installed an anti-theft device in an '02 Ford and demolished the fireplace in the middle of our bedroom. 

[AcePylut]

I emailed Voidwar my "general strategy" and also what Operation Wither Vine is... so that when the tide turns and you crush all my samurai, we'll see how well it worked.

Oh yeah, can't wait for skip bombing to come into play.  

I went backed and looked at some stuff... you put 1 bomb into the SHokaku during the Battle for Espiritu Santo.  It did about 12 sys damage, 30 fire damage, and some 12 floatation damage.  The next day, I noted that the float and fire damage went down a bit.  But, but, the day after that, my fire damage rose to 40 and my sys damage rose to about 50.  Interesting.  Crappy Jap Damage Control.  Shes on the way back to Tokyo.  She'll be back   Probably just in time to get slaughtered by your Skip Bombers.

Notice I got my first ace after last nights turn  

The Emperor advises you to withdraw from Port Moresby.  There is no need for you to needlessly throw your soldiers to their doom.   

[AcePylut]

Update - 6/12/1942

Since the last report, it's been pretty quiet in the South Pacific.  Dracho continues to bunker down at all locations, including Port Moresby.

There has been a continuing air battle over Port Moresby, as nearly every day my bombers fly down and pulverize either the airfield, port, or ground troops.

In a surprise move, however... Dracho decided to move a regiment of troops up from POrt Moresby heading towards Buna.



Watching this move, I initially thought that Dracho was just going to protect the area's around POrt Moresby.  As another week had passed, this regiment had moved towards the top of the 14k foot ASL Owen Stanley mountain range.  I suspected that he was either placing the unit there to delay any ground invasion of PM, but thought he might be trying to grab some initiative, and capture a lightly defended Buna (especially since he is aware I moved those troops to Dobudaru (1 hex east) to grab the potential level 6 airfield there.

I know that the "Kanga Force" started the game at that US base up by Lae.  At this time, I'm not sure if he kept it there, or if he had withdrawn it back to PM.  Time will tell.

Looking over my assets, and thinking taht I needed to plan for the possibility that he may be trying to recapture Buna, I loaded up tthree "Fast Transport" task forces (destroyers can act as transports, and destroyers can mover at 30+ knots, as opposed to the slow lumbering regular transports that move anywhere from 10-20 knots) with a full strength regiment of my own...

And it was a good thing, because the day after the entire division finally was re-located to Buna, Dracho's troops came down from the mountains and tried to capture Buna.

My troops also attacked...

-----
Ground combat at Buna
 
Japanese Deliberate attack
 
Attacking force 7556 troops, 86 guns, 0 vehicles
 
Defending force 3974 troops, 40 guns, 0 vehicles
 
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 0)
 
 LTJG A.Kamisaka of F1/Tainan Daitai is credited with kill number 2
Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 164
 
Allied ground losses:
Men lost 57
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Buna
 
Allied Shock attack
 
Attacking force 3928 troops, 40 guns, 0 vehicles
 
Defending force 7437 troops, 86 guns, 0 vehicles
 
Allied assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 0)
 
 
Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 23
 
Allied ground losses:
Men lost 186
Guns lost 2

---

I "deliberate" attacked Dracho, Dracho "shock" attacked me  (shock attack is "attack with reckless abandon", deliberate attack does not push as hard.  Deliberate is good to wear down the enemy, Shock is good to crush a worn down enemy)

As one can see,. both attacks faired about evenly, however, I have a definite man advantage, and the abiliy to reinforce much quicker via fast transports.  I suspect his unit is very fatigued, after their month long trek up the unforgiving Owen Stanley Mountain range, and mine are fairly disrupted due to their quick transport.

It's too bad Dracho decided to send this unit to it's doom  I was more than content to let it sit 1 hex away and suck some serious supplies out of Port Moresby.

Oh- speaking of supplies, during this two week period, I sent my 1 carrier in theater with a full contingent of cruisers and destroyers - 25 ships in all, down around GG towards PM.  Three hexes from PM, I split the TF into two, 1 contained the carrier and minimal escort (4 destroyers), all the ships went inot the other.  This 20 ship Cruiser and Destroyer TF bombarded Port Moresby, causing some 200+ runway damage, and shut down the airfield for a couple of days while repairs were made ( and supplies sucked away).  It also caused 7 Supply hits, which translates to 70% of PM supplies lost.

PM started out with lots of supplies.  By my continual attacks on PM, along with Long Range Cap intercepting and turning back Dracho's C-47 Supply Squadrons, it should be running low on supplies.  Dracho is going to have to find a way to keep that base supplied, if he wants it to have any effective use.  I smell a transport convoy soon, because his C47's are taking a beating from my Long Range cap flying over PM (that's where that pilot got the kill from in the combat report above).  I doubt his replacements will be able to keep up with his losses.  I also noticed that Dracho is using B17's on naval attack missions, at 100ft.  That's fine with me.  He only gets 7 B17 replacements a month, and if they get lots on attacks on transports, I'll take it because in 8 months, he should only be able to send 50 plane B17 attacks agaisnt my airbases, instead of 200 B17's

With PM shut down from my bombardment task force, all my forces were able to retire without loss.  I was also able to sneak in a couple transports to those forward bases, wihtout fear of an air attack out of PM.  They delivered much needed supplies to my forward outposts, which should be enough for about 4 weeks of action.

PS - All those carriers that weren't lost at Midway are starting to make an appearance.  Very soon I should have 6 aircraft carriers in theater (he should have around 4, plus some odd light carriers and such) and the game will be heating up quickly.  My 6 or so vs his 4 or so is actually an even battle... because Jap carriers only carry about 60 planes on average, where as the US carriers carry 90 aircraft.