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

[AcePylut]

Uncommon Valor: Battle for the South Pacific, and After Action Report between Ace and Dracho

UV is a turn-based "we-go" game simulating the battle for the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, and Rabaul in WW2, between May 1, 1942 and December 31, 1943.  The game is available for 20$ digital download, at www.matrixgames.com

A view of the overall map, shows the area of the SouthPacific portrayed in the game.  Truk, the island in the top middle, is where all Japanes forces, supplies, etc. arrives... on a user defined amount of variation from their historical date of arrival (from 100% historical to 100% random).  In the Southeast corner of this map, is Noumea, where all US forces and supplies arrive.  In the Southwest, you can see the northeast coast of Australia, incl Brisbane (where all UK, Aussy, NZ, etc. forces and suppliesarrive)  Above Aussy is the east half of New Guinea (and  Port Moresby).  heading North and East, we jump across the straight there, follow the big island northeast, and see Rabaul, the lynchpin of Japan, in the South pacific.  The Solomon Islands chain is clear in the center / center-right of the sceen (with Guadacanal in southeast). 


each hex is 30 miles across

Each turn is one day, broken into three phases:  Night, Morning Afternoon.  At the conclusion of the Afternoon turn, you will give orders to your forces (broken down into individual ships, aircraft squadrons, regiment sized combat infantry, company sized support ground forces, and individual commanders) for the following day.  Once you give your orders, you can not change them until after the next afternoon phase. 

Logistics play a heavy part in this game, if you don't keep bases supplied and ports fueled, you have no ammo to fire your guns and juice to move your machines.  Ground Forces suffer from fatigue, disruption due to combat, supply state, malaria (very few places on the map are Malaria Free.  Basically Australia & Noumea for the US, Truk for the Japs).  Experience, morale, commander quality, in range of it's superior headquarters, all factor into a ground units ability to do their job effectively.

Every ship, from the mighty BB-Yamato, to the future US president's PT boat, is included in the game.  There are your standard combat ships (CV, BB, CA, CL, DD... easy for all SFC'ers to know this) to your transports (AP, AK, LSx, AG, APD), to your gunboats and PTs (PT, PG, PC, SC), to mining ships (ML, MSW), to sub & sub chasers (SS, SC).  Ships require fuel and supplies from port to move and fire weapons.  Ships will suffer unavoidable System (SYS) damage at sea (price of being on the unforgiving ocean).  Damage from enemy weapons will hurt SYS damage, Floation (FLT) damage, or Fire damage.  If any of those get to 100%, ship sinks.

As always, Air Superiority gives the ultimate advantage.  Every 'common' airplane that fought in the South pacific is modeled, into squadrons.  Squadrons can be Fighter, Fighter-Bomber, Dive Bomber, Torpedo Bomber, Level Bomber, Recon, Transport, Search, Supply.  Each different type of squadron has unique types of missions it can fly (although many, such as 'level bombinb mission' overlap among the types), which you must order each turn (lest you screw up and set them on a long range mission during a Thunderstorm, thus taking unnecessary stupid losses). 

Control the Skys, and you control the seas. Control the Seas, and you control the Islands.  Control the Islands, and you control the bases.  Control the bases, and you control the Skys.  is the the order of business.

The "winner" is decided by who has most victory points.  You score victory points for sinking ships, shooting down planes, etc., and also for any base you control that's in supply at the end of the game, multiplied by the combined value of it's airport, port, and fortification.

All Jap stuff starts the game in control of Truk, Rabaul, Kavieng, and Lae, for the most part.  Allies start in Nomeua, Espiritu Santo, Australia, and Port Moresby, for the most part. 

[AcePylut]

So, Dracho and I decided to fire up a Grand Campaign game, starting May 1, 1942, ending December 31, 1943... and play it through.

Due to the operational, not strategic, scope of this game, some things are inevitable. All games start with a massive Japanese expansion, followed by a length of the when US industrial production stomps the Japanese into the ground, and then the Japs get crushed.

Knowing that the whole "crushment of the Japs" means the game is really boring for the last 3/4s if you play historical (I.e. Jap CV's lost at Midway don't come into game), we are playing an alternate history game, where the Battle of Midway isn't fought, Jap pilot production is slighty improved, and Japs get a few extra ground forces.  We decided to stray from the historical reinforcement, and chose a variable based reinforcement.  This is a good cross between "no stupid crap like Hellcats & Corsairs in June '42" and "the CV reinforcement may take a month later, or earlier, or even longer".

Other options chosen were:  Allied Damage Control is On (allies repair ships at sea much better than Japs), Fog of War on (duh), reinforcement schedule variable, weather variable, Jap 160% Ship Commitment by HQ, Allies 100% (more ships to battle with, more victory points to lose to the Allied LBA).

Japan starts with the CV's Shokaku, Zuikaku, and CVL Shoho, escrots, and a good number of transports.  US starts with a few transports, the CV's Lexington & Yorktown, and escorting ships.

I introduce myself, AcePylut-San, the honorable and righteous Imperial Japanese Commander.  The cowardly and weak so-called "Allies" will be commanded by Dracho.

[AcePylut]

After 8 days of turns, I can post the orders I have given, and effect.  This map shows the route my 3 carriers took down from truk, with tick marks each day.  i had to "slow down" going through the straights to stay undetected, and kept the speed an "cruise" south of the Solomon Island chain when I got through those straights.  I ended up on day 8, in a thunderstorm sitting where i have that flag planted  , about 300 miles south of Guadacanal.

on opening day, I moved a squadron of Zero's to Lae, set them on CAP to fend off the inevitable PM bomb runs. Sent my surface fleet at Shortland Islands to cover transports, as they carried invasion troops to undefended Guadacanal and Tulagi.  Gave orders for my transports at truk (with subchasers, gunboats, minesweeprs in the tf's) to load up and head south, to keep them thar bases supplied.  I immediately begane building up those bases (airport first, then port, then fortification).



The week went by with usual nuisance raids from PM, my CAP is getting good kills.  Then again he's boosting the exp on those pilots pretty easily.   Copule days of T-storms, rested all a/c, no need to lose my super-high exp pilots to stupid crap like storms.  that's for the scrubs.

I decided, with my high exp IJN aircrews and better aircraft, an even amount of CV airpower (US CV's carry about 20-30% more aircraft than simiilar class Jap CV's), and his relatively crappy planes and pilots, to see if he sent his carriers out to play. 

After 7 days, when I parked my CV's south of Guadacanal, a t-storm hit the South pacific.  That's good, means lots of bases might be 'socked in' due to weather, and all air missions from that base would be cancelled.  Having spotted his carriers from Emily and Mavis search planes stationed in Shortland Islands, I knew they were lurking.  With the T-storm covering me, I decided to make a stab south, towards Noumea, far from any Japanese Port (incase I get damaged, and can't limp back to base, I might lose a CV) to see if i could get his carriers.  I set all my bomb/torps squadrons to naval attack, set most of my Zero's on CAP overmy fleet, the rest as escorts, and 1/2 my floatplanes to naval search, the rest ot ASW patrol, and gave orders to my ships to "react to enemy" and set a destination halfway between Noumea and Lungaville, his only two bases there, but juuusssst outside range of his land based air.

On day 8, Admiral Nagumo came out of the thunderstorm in the morning, and immediately prepared to launch aircraft, having sighted the US CV's with float planes... when 70 US Carrier based aircraft screamed out of the skies, and attacked Carrier Task Force 1.  I barely had time to get 30+ Zero's on CAP to defend my fleet.

[AcePylut]

My CAP broke through, but only chased off about 10-15 attackers, and the rest of his planes broke through, and began their attack runs.  Crap, not going good for me.

The cowardly US Diver-bombers struck early, on the CVL Shoho... and two 1000lb bombs into her broke her engine and she shuddered to a halt.  A few dive bombers attacked the Shokaku and Zuikaku, and they each took a 1000lb bomb.  Distracted by the flame whisking from the Shoho, most of the remaining US aircrews turned on the Shoho, and she ate 5 more 1000lb bombs, and a pair of torpedos.  She exploded, and sank, suffering massive loss of life.  A flower blossom was laid over her wreath.

She did her job, however, and save the Shokaku and Zuikaku with her sacrifice, as the last couple US bombers only managed to score a glancing blow on the Zuikaku.  Our revenge will be swift.  After we eliminate another inbound squadron of American torpedo planes spotted by scouts.  My remaining 20 zeros attack, and quickly break up the attack.

Report of his strikes is as follows -

Air attack on Jap TF at 47,55

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 9
SBD Dauntless x 57
TBD Devastator x 13
 
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero x 1 destroyed
A6M2 Zero x 1 damaged
 
Allied aircraft losses
F4F-3 Wildcat x 2 destroyed
F4F-3 Wildcat x 2 damaged
SBD Dauntless x 12 destroyed
SBD Dauntless x 10 damaged
TBD Devastator x 1 destroyed
TBD Devastator x 8 damaged
 
CPO R.Bando of EII-1 Daitai is credited with kill number 3
 
LCDR C. Fenton of VF-42 bails out WOUNDED and is RESCUED
 
Japanese Ships
CVL Shoho, Bomb hits 7, Torpedo hits 2,  on fire,  heavy damage
CV Zuikaku, Bomb hits 2,  on fire
CV Shokaku, Bomb hits 1,  on fire
CA Aoba, Bomb hits 2,  on fire,  heavy damage
CA Furutaka
DD Sazanami, Bomb hits 1,  on fire,  heavy damage
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Air attack on Jap TF at 47,55
 
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 20
 
Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 9
TBD Devastator x 13
 
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero x 2 destroyed
 
Allied aircraft losses
F4F-3 Wildcat x 1 destroyed
TBD Devastator x 4 destroyed
TBD Devastator x 6 damaged
 
LCDR J. Brett of VT-2 is KILLED
 


All in all, I am very happy with the results.  I have absorbed his surprise attack, and only lost the Shoho.  My return strike from 2 Japanese heavy carriers, will be swift, and swift it is..

[AcePylut]

My Zeros fend off the CAP over the CV's, for the most part, only having a few turn back or get shot down.  I strike with over half my dive bombers and half my torp planes.

The first attack run on the CV Yorktown is made by a 4-plane element of Kate torpedo bombers.  Catching the york in a turn, they put two torpedo's into her starboard flank.  She immediately lists toward the hole, and the cap'n is forced to straighten the ship.  Which the experienced Val diver bomber crews note, and begin their long, screaming, bomb runs, and they quickly tag the Yorktown with 5 250kg bombs.  Jap crews beging alternating their attention between York and Les, knowing the York is crippled.  Lex takes a bevy of 60kg bombs.  Most fail to penetrate the belt armor, and only do superficial damage.  More Kates dive in on the crippled Yorktown, a sitting duck in the ocean, and pump 5 torps into her port bow.  She is sinking by by the bow, quickly.  Will Allied Damage Control save her?  The remaing 20 or so Vals dive on the lex, hitting her with a couple 250kg bombs and a copule 60kg bombs, when a Val gets lucky, and drops a 250kg bomb into the Lexington's AA ammo storage facility, and...



The last element of Vals drops a couple more bombs into the Lex, and all Japanes aircraft depart, leaving behind a Yorktown sinking heavily, and a Lexington suffering from contining explosion as the ammo in her holds cooks off.

Air attack on TF at 48,55
 
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 16
D3A Val x 46
B5N Kate x 50
 
Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 20
 
Japanese aircraft losses
D3A Val x 5 destroyed
D3A Val x 12 damaged
B5N Kate x 12 destroyed
B5N Kate x 21 damaged
 
 
ENS E. O'Hare of VF-3 is credited with kill number 4
 
LT Y. Subota of EII-3 Daitai is KILLED
 
Allied Ships
CV Yorktown, Bomb hits 10, Torpedo hits 7,  on fire,  heavy damage
CA Astoria, Torpedo hits 2,  on fire,  heavy damage
CV Lexington, Bomb hits 14,  on fire,  heavy damage
CA New Orleans
CA Portland

[AcePylut]

Imperial Japanese Navy Scout Plane Jake, flying from the CA Furutaka, reports at dusk, a confirmed visual of the US Yorktown sinking.  Lexington continues to burn heavily, ammo continues to heat off, but she is still level, and isn't listing. 

All in all, I'll take it.  My CV's have tough hides.  I'll trade a CVL for a pair of CV's, even if it means 4 months in rehab. 

Now, do I stick around another day, hoping to finish off what's left of the Lex? (or perhaps she is not as damaged as we are led to believe)  Or retreat, happy with confirmation of at least 1 CV sunk, at the cost of 1 CVL?

[Dracho]

All-in-all, it was a pretty historical representation of the Battle of Coral Sea, only SW of Guadacanal.

[AcePylut]

When the battle was over, I was thinking the exact same thing   

[IndyShark]

I have that game, but have not played in a long time. I was bothered by the air tasking. My planes never attacked what I wanted them to. Have they fixed that yet?

[AcePylut]

Depends,  were your planes fatigued?  Were they low on morale?  Were they green aircrews or elite? Did they have fighter escort?  What was tehir commander like?

Overcome all those factors and your planes will do what you order them to.  Among others.

[762_XC]

 

[AcePylut]

Darkness falls after a partly cloudy second day of the Battle for Espiritu Santo...

Admiral Nagumo, on his flagship Zuikaku, decided to hunt one more day for the crippled US carrier, before retiring.

Morning strike of 33 assorted Vals and Kates, attack his decoy screening fleet of ~5 Cruisers and ~8 Destroyers.  Fuchida sends message to Yamamoto, 3 Cruisers damaged by Val Dive Bombers, 1 CA and 1 DD damaged by torpedos.

Japanese float planes located the reminaing US Carrier, Lexington, steaming north east at 12 knots.  An afternoon strike is launched from the Zuikaku. The afternoon strike, a detatchment of 15 vals/kates attack the cripple, putting 2 more 250kg bombs and 3 60kg bombs into her flight deck.  Traingulating, the Vals send word that her speed is approximately 5knots, being towed northeast to Lungaville.

At noon, US forces intercept a radio message origination from Truk, with a high confidence it came from Admiral Yamamoto.  All that can be deciphered is "Execute Operation Wither Vine".

In late Afternoon, 58 Betys/Nells (Japanese medium bombers, the magic photons of Jap land based air) out of Rabaul, escorted by 44 Zeros from Rab and Lae (flown down on turn 1  ) blow through CAP over Port Moreseby,  and destroy 10% of Port Moresby's supplies in a port strike.



Nagumo decides to retire to Shortland Island over the night, but wisely decides to move to a location as far as possible from Allied land bases air, but still within range of the Lex, in the morning, so that he can launch one more strike before retiring home.

[IndyShark]

Depends,  were your planes fatigued?  Were they low on morale?  Were they green aircrews or elite? Did they have fighter escort?  What was tehir commander like?

Overcome all those factors and your planes will do what you order them to.  Among others.

No, they were not fatigued, low on morale or anything else. I just get frustrated when I have a good target and they hit something else miles away. I'd like to be able to pick which task force or port they hit.

[Dracho]

At least for the ports, you can now designate a target by clicking on the air unit. 

[AcePylut]

Day 3 of the Battle for Espiritu Santo, and as planned, the morning saw a Jake off the cruiser Furutako sight the wounded Lexington... not nearly as damaged as I was lead to believe by the sunset scout aircraft of yesterday.  Nevertheless, another 12 bombs (6 60kg, 6 250kg) tore into her... but she still floats.  Damnnation, what's it gonna take to sink her?  I've put 26 bombs into her over three days.  Ahhh, Allied Damage Control 

The Guadacanal Forward Meterology Station reports scattered thunderstorms moving into the area.  Nagumo decides to retire his carriers, partially satisfied with the battles result.  the Japanese traded 1 light carrier, and suffered damage on a couple escorts and minor damage to teh Shokaku and Zuikaku, in return for a confirmed sinking of one heavy US Carrier, Yorktown class, a possible sinking of a second US carrier, and damage to about 5 escorts.  Nagumo peers off to the east, as the sun sets over day three, and can not escape the nagging thought that perhaps that 2nd US Carrier will survive, to come back and haunt the Emperor's glorious forces another day.

On other fronts, 7 Nells out of Rabaul drank one to many cups of Sake, and decided to balls-out attack Port Moresby, unescorted.  Drunk, knowing the effects of alititude on alcohool, the pilots try to increase their buzz by flying at a high altitude.  Unwittingly, this save them, as PM's cap was butting around at low level, and was not able to climb and intercept by the time the bombs dropped.  But, just as you can't hit the toilet with your winkie when drunk, the Nell's couldn't hit a thing over PM, and all their bombs fell harmlessly onto the civilian population of Port Moresby.

In other news, another nighttime nuisance raid of A-20's attack Lae, and manage to drop a whole grenade on the airport.  Lae was shutdown for approximately 2 minutes.  But blah, his pilots gain more experience, the easy way. Lets just hope the op losses from night flying kills his pilots off faster than they can gain exp.

Weather: Partly Cloudy

Air attack on Lae , at 9,33
Allied aircraft
A-20B Havoc x 3
Allied aircraft losses
A-20B Havoc x 1 damaged
 
Runway hits 1
 
Attacking Level Bombers:
 3 x A-20B Havoc at 10000 feet
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on Port Moresby , at 10,40
 
Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 7
 
Allied aircraft
P-400 Airacobra x 3
P-39D Airacobra x 6
 
Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell x 1 damaged
 
Allied aircraft losses
P-400 Airacobra x 1 damaged
 
Attacking Level Bombers:
 3 x G3M Nell at 12000 feet
 4 x G3M Nell at 12000 feet
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on TF at 52,56
 
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 4
D3A Val x 17
 
Japanese aircraft losses
D3A Val x 1 destroyed
D3A Val x 2 damaged
 
Allied Ships
CV Lexington, Bomb hits 12,  on fire,  heavy damage

(12 + 14 = 26!!! bomb hits, and still not a confirmation of her sinking.  Oh boy, I can't wait until the Essex class carriers arrive in January with their armored flight decks)

[AcePylut]

Next day, meterology reports bear fruit, and thunderstorms roll across the always unpredictable South Pacific. Nagumo retires his carriers from the Battle for Espiritu Santo.  Spies throught the allied countries start to pore over newspapers and radio reports, to ascertain the fate of the Lexington.  The boat that too 26!!! bombs and was still afloat.

Things are probably going to be fairly quiet for the next couple weeks of game time, so in that lull, I'll post a few of the combat units (ships, planes, bases, troops) 'detail' screens, so the viewers can get an idea of the immense depth "behind the units" in this game, and some descriptions of "what does what".  Of course, I'll only be posting info on stuff Dracho already knows, fog of war and all that.... like I'll post the info for those Zero's I have at Lae, that just might take a nite flight for the heck of it     I can post a pic of Guadacanal (Lunga is the base name), since Dracho knows that 2 weeks into the game, it's probably got a level 1 airfield by now, but nothing else as the port, airfield, and fortifications all start at level "0".

Each airfield "level" equates to being able to fly 50 airplanes a day.  So if you have a level 1 airfield, you can fly 50 aircraft total off it (most squadrons have 20-30 aircraft).  You need a level 2 aircraft to run offensive missions from it (and can fly 100 aircraft per day).  You need a level 4 airfield to fly 4 Engine bombers, which I won't have to worry about.  Well, I'll need to worry about it once Dracho-San gets enough 4E bombers to wipe out entire bases at a time.  Note, if you try to fly more aircraft than the airbase can handle, you take penalties, and some of your planes won't fly.  Let me tell you, it sucks when you "try" to send out 200 Betty's on a naval strike, and only 30 of the fly, because you tried to fly too many.  Also, to fly aircraft, repair them, etc... you need a "base force" troop unit at the airport.  Most of the Base Force units provide avaition support (some are infantry support only), and to fly aircraft, you need enough avaition support.  If you don't have aviation support, you won't repair planes that take damage.  If you don't have enough aviation support, some planes will fly, but since that base force is so overloaded with work, you're squadrons will suffer from Morale and fatigue loss (even if they don't fly), and you won't be able to repair aircraft as effectively as you need to.  Bad Morale + High Fatigue + Damaged aircraft = worthless.

[IndyShark]

At least for the ports, you can now designate a target by clicking on the air unit. 

Is there any way to designate a ship target?

[AcePylut]

At least for the ports, you can now designate a target by clicking on the air unit. 

Is there any way to designate a ship target?

No.  In a manner of speaking, I kinda like it like that. Keeps you from sending 3 Emily's against 100 Hellcats.  In a way, though, it's extremely frustrating, when 40 betty's go screaming off the Noumea to attack 3 AP's, instead of attacking those 10 AP's and 4 DD's steaming to Guadacanal. 

I tink a good idea would have been if you could designate a "target area" in which the aircraft will attemp to attack only ships in that area, if of course they pass their exp/morale/fatigue/etc.checks.  That way, you can at least have some control over your bombers heading off to max rangeto attack a PG boat, suffering the far more important fatigue and op losses than you gain from killing a PG boat.

Me and Dracho have run a couple more turns, mostly quiet, but there will soon be another post

[762_XC]

So when does Dracho start dropping nukes on Rabaul? 

[AcePylut]

Never, thank you very much   That would make the game "not fun".  And war should be fun!.  Now, if Dracho can just get the next turn off to me, I’ll have nother update about the Glorious Imperial Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces latest conquest hehehehe.  I’m going to be out of town over the weekend, so there won’t be anything after tonite until at least Sunday night, from me anyhow.

Sometimes, I wish Dracho wasn’t watching this forum, cuz then I could post a little about my tactical, operational, and overall “grand” strategy.  As time goes by, I’ll be able to unfold what I’m doing, or you’ll see what I’m doing.  Eventually, I’ll be reduced to about 10 destroyers, so I’ll be able to backdate my expansion strategy as the plans work or don’t work.

The big questions, some of which I haven’t answered yet, is how far I want to expand, before bunkering down for the inevitable Allied Land Based Air onslaught?  Where do I want to make my stand?  Do I want to focus on PM/Aussy, or on the Solomon Islands and Espiritu Santo?  How will I setup an semi-effective defense?  What bases should I “hold at all costs” and which ones should I “evacuate as soon as they smell the Allies”?  Should I try creating a bunch of “low level” bases, or should I go for a few “high level” bases (takes time to build them up, so you can’t do both)?  If given the choice, should I focus on killing his transports or should I focus on his combat ships (allies and Japs both suffer from ‘not enough transports to do everything you want).  When should I start being cautious with my Kido Butai (carriers ), and not try a stunt like I just did at Espiritu Santo?  How can I best feint one direction, while striking at another?  How will I use diversionary tactics to draw his planes/troops/ships to the “wrong place”?  How will I be able to do anything under the watchful eye of the PBY-Catalina’s?

Well, I know the answers to a couple of these questions.  Operation Wither Vine is progressing as expected.  A smaller operation, titled “Flower Blossom”, is about to bear fruit.  As you’ll see when the next turn arrives.