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

[AcePylut]

Day 2 of the Assault on Buna... see's Dracho scaling back his attack:


AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 06/13/42

Weather: Partly Cloudy

Ground combat at Buna
 
Japanese Deliberate attack
 
Attacking force 7423 troops, 86 guns, 0 vehicles
 
Defending force 3780 troops, 38 guns, 0 vehicles
 
Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 0)
 
 
Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 95
 
Allied ground losses:
Men lost 47
Guns lost 1
 
 
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Ground combat at Buna
 
Allied Bombardment attack
 
Attacking force 3735 troops, 37 guns, 0 vehicles
 
Defending force 10331 troops, 165 guns, 0 vehicles
 
 Allied ground losses:
Men lost 2

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Dracho did a "Bombardment" attack with his ground forces.  Think "Artillery barrage".  So he used his arty on me, but didn't send my forces forward. 

I deliberate attacked again, and my losses went down a bit from the first day.  Something I noticed during combat resolution is that his troops lost strength very quickly (I have an "assault value" of 100+.  His forces have an "assault value" of about 60-80.  Combat ends after a certain number of attacks.  If before those attack, the assault value of either force gets to zero, they lose.  I think dracho's troops are about ready to fall, and am contemplating a shock attack to see if I can send them back to PM.  My odds have gone to 2-1, as opposed to 1-1 before.  Perhaps that's because I ran a couple more fast transport ships down to Buna in the last couple days, with reinforcements

Notice in the bombardment attack by Dracho did more damage to his forces than mine   Tokyo-Rose states "ohhh pooor GI tripping over your feet at Buna.  Maybe next time you wirr arm mortars after they're carried to your troops, instead of retting GI Crumsy drop one and kirr himserf andbuddy.  Maybe you outta just surrender, and save arr your rives"

[Dracho]

Since this IS my first game, and I'm most likely to get my head handed to me, I don't hesitate to speak up here.

One thing is that I *THINK* the computer fudges the battle reports a little if the "Fog of War" setting is on, especially when pilots report kills or damage to ports etc.  I've seen you think you hammered Port Morsby's supply and when I'd check the base, it didn't go down very much at all.. same for runway hits, though I'm surprised you bother.  My fighters suck so badly this early in the war they aren't worth shooting at.

As for Buna, what-the-hell, I figured it was better to fight at your base than mine.  The rest of the division should be along directly.  The very first thing I did was strip Australia of ground troops, because the randomizer had more infantry in the pipe (enough to defend the coastlines), so that flotilla you saw in the first couple of turns was delivering 5 divisions to New Guinnea, along with thousands of tons of supplies.  Also, my air transports and level bombers have been amazingly efficient at keeping Port Morsby supplied (along with submarines). 

I was much more concerned that you were coming after Luganville or Efate Villa (as I was pretty sure you'd get a bloody nose down south) because the South Pacific command is very light on ground troops in the beginning (we're not even to the historical US invasion of Guadalcanal yet), but that also has been rectified.  In fact, I was able to transport the 3rd Australian Divison to reinforce some of the islands.

My bomber crews, although fatigued, have been scoring steady progress against your transports.  They're getting competent enough that it's a risk for you to come inside my air zones now, even with heavy fighters.  All the allied planes carry 1000lb bombs and just 1 of those can ruin a Japanese Carrier if it gets a lucky explosion. I'll trade you carriers 2:1 and still come out ahead.

At this point anything you do is going to cost you and I'm just waiting for enough strength to go on the offensive.  Even if you take a major base at this point, it just shortens my supply lines.  I hate playing the Japanese because even if you take Port Morsbey, it can require so may troops to do so that you strip rear bases, leaving them vulnerable to invasion (especially with CVE's flying nothing but Marine Fighter groups escorting the transports continually).

What kills me about this game is supply.  In my stand-alone game I have invaded Rabual (March 1943) and I am using Shortland Island as a naval base (took it in late '42).  I have to run supplies all the way up from Noumea, and fuel etc, but I need those transports and freighters to supply the beachhead.  I have 70,000 troops being held on the beach by 20,000 Japanese because I can't keep them supplied well enough for their attacks to reduce the fortifications (it was 9 when I landed).

And mines!  OMG I hate mines!  I have lost more ships to mines than all the Japanese Navy, Air Force, and Naval Air service combined.

[AcePylut]

This is my first “real” PBEM game also.  That one I had against that other guy, well he gave up and never responded.  Probably because I, as the US, caught all his Betty’s and Nells at Lae with a 100 plane strike of P39’s, and shut down lae, and pretty much wiped them out over a weeks worth of action.

I’m pretty sure the Fog of War gives ‘inaccurate’ combat reports.  I did some checking in my “refresher” game against the AI, and would see the Japs apparently do “100 Runway Damage”, and then load up from the US side and see little to no damage.  And vice versa.  I’ve been running pretty steady recon, however, and * think * I have a pretty clear idea of what’s there. 

Hey, I’m doing this for fun, the South Pacific WW2 is one of my favorite, if not my most favorite, history subjects, and I don’t really care who wins or loses.  So if you have any questions, or note something funny in what I say (I.e “pounding PM” hehe), and want it clarified to “see how the game is doing it”, or just curious as to why I did something, please ask.  I’ll answer as best I can, and if I can’t because “what I’m doing” is part of a larger strategy, I’ll say so but still try and answer as best I can.

I really liked that move towards Buna.  It’s stuff like that that the AI would never do. You were able to take 4 undamaged destroyers, and run their SYS damage up with all those high speed runs between Rabaul and Buna.  For the three weeks those guys were on the march towards Buna, I continually had to “guess” what their intention was, and plan for each eventually.  Unlike the AI, which would never do something like that, and if they did, after a couple games you’d know that “on 6/10/42, there will be a regiment of troops showing up at Buna”.  Then again, doing something like that means I get to write glorious stories about the combat effectiveness of the IJN and IJA and the skill – or dare I say lack of skill - of the weak-spined, cowardly, Aussies hehehe.  Now, those guys up at Wau… not sure what to make of them yet.  Are you trying for a quick strike against Lae, if of course you suspect that Lae is lightly defended, or are you just trying to delay a potential invasion down from lae, or perhaps feinting towards Lae, and heading up to Madang?  Maybe it’s an ENG regiment trying to build up a base all sneaky like. Either way, they have to be using twice as much supplies as they normally would, due to distance, unless you’re keeping them in supply via C47’s. 

PS – I haven’t forgotten about Nevea, Gami-Gami, Lungaville, Wunpuko,

Note to other readers:  “Lunga” is not an abbreviation for “Lungaville”.  “Lunga” is the main base on Guadacanal (Think: Henderson Field).  Lungaville is a large base down by Nomeua, in Espiritu Santo

As much as some things in this game are frustrating, those are the things I like.  Like how airplanes will not really strike a tf with lots of CAP, if they don’t have escorting fighters.  Yeah, that’s how it should be.  But then to see a flock of Bettys fly from Rabaul to Townsville to strike 2 whole SubChasers because a 5 ship TF was defended by 3 P39’s… well that’s frustrating!  Just like Supplies, there’s never enough to do everything you want to do. And in my opinion, the US supply situation (like you described above) is the key to a Japanese victory.  Sinking transports brings more joy to me than sinking CL’s as a Theater Commander (but I’d rather take out those nasty Jap killing CLAA’s).  But sinking CL’s makes great headlines hehehe for the media boys, and sinking lowly cargo haulers don't.