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

[KyzBP]

Christmas Day, 1941

Apparently UCG's heathens don't take holidays off.

But neither does the Dutch Navy:

The Dutch subs continue to impress.  They're starting to take hits as well though.

And what's a turn without the IJN sinking something?

I just can't seem to stop his subs.

Even when I do this:

Another one just pops up in it's place.

It seems that the sub war is the focal point of the game so far, at least from my perspective.  I now have to increase the number ships in each transport/supply convoy just to spread out the damage that his subs will inevitably cause.  Nearly ALL of my DD's and land based bombers are assigned to ASW duties.  If I don't commit them to this mission, I won't be able to leave my ports.  I think sometime in 1942 I'll be able to upgrade the ASW abilities of some of my ships.  Until then I guess I just have to keep pressure on him.

[KyzBP]

A few good things happened for the Good Guys.

I somehow managed to sneak a supply ship to Guam.

The supply is desperately needed there.  I had originally sent a bunch of supply laden subs in that direction but I may reroute them
now.  I'll be surprised if Guam stays in Allied hands past the New Year so one ship worth of supply should be enough.  The real good
news is Guam is still there.  The ships that I thought were headed for Guam went to Saipan.  I don't think Guam will ever be out of the woods
but they may have an extra day or two now.

Also, the John D. Ford was fueled and made it to Ambon.

She's now setting sail to Darwin and eventually Brisbane to be repaired.  His 10 DD siblings are headed to interrupt the landing at Kendari since
the small CV task force did want to play.  They too appear to be headed for Kendari so we may get an engagement after all.  At which point I'll be wondering what in the hell I was thinking.

Three of the 4 ships in the "Feed The P.T.'s" task force cleared Java and are headed to Salajar (Salad Jar). 

I think you can guess what happened to the fourth ship.

[KyzBP]

In the midst of this colossal struggle, obviously innocent fishing and whaling vessels can get caught up in the conflict.

Here, for example, we most certainly have a wayward fishing boat near Dutch Harbor.  That can be the only explanation.

Just to be sure we're sending out some Coast Guard Cutters to point this boat in the proper direction.

Elsewhere, Singapore took some heavy damage from the endless bombing raids.  The islands of Mindanao are almost completely in
UCG's hands.  I had a few more P-40's ready to head south but they're now cut off so they'll be returning to Clark Field.  It's doubtful they'll
be able to contribute much but it's better than losing them on the ground.

Serious bombing campaigns by both sides are taking place all across China right now.  Hard to say who's getting the better of it.  My P.T. Boats near Haiphong are sortieing out for another strike.  In the mean time Geek has sent some ground units to take the home port of the PTs'.  They may be looking for a new home here shortly. 

[KyzBP]

One last and potentially major thing before the end of turn screens.

I found his main carrier task force:

The good news is it doesn't look like he's heading for my fledgling base at Luganville.

The bad news is:

It's headed to this area which is about 2 turns away from being inundated with convoys from the West Coast...
unescorted convoys from the West Coast.  I need to do something to draw his attention away from this area.

[KyzBP]

Here are the ships the Japanese Navy will have to do without:

It's nice to actually take down a warship.

My dead ships;


And the score:

[Sir Slash]

HURRAY for the John D. Ford!!!! The 'D' stands for, Damn Near Unsinkable.  O0

[KyzBP]

December 26th, 1941

I'll admit right now that I'm impressed with UCG's timing.  His strategy of rolling his CV's into the South Pacific just as my convoys are arriving was timed almost perfectly.  Although nothing has happened there yet, I don't think I can avoid it.  I'm going to have to send everything hard south to try to get around him but I don't think they'll be fast enough.  My other option is to send everyone west towards Christmas Island and have them stage there.  Either way my troops, planes, and supplies will be delayed.

Now back to the show.

The early morning started out on an up note

The resident B.A. Dutch subs deliver some decent damage on a light cruiser.  Heavy Damage plus Fire usually means a lot of yard time, if it makes it to port at all.

We continued to unleash the real power of the sea.

Another Dutch sub, another damaged ship.

But the Japanese don't take kindly to uppity mini nations blowing up their ships.

The O16 is much too proud to be sunk...for now

Her Float Damage is below 50% and there's no fire.  She should be able to make it to Manila but will probably be out of the war after that.
I'll put her under Priority Repair if she makes it.  If UCG doesn't hit the port at Manila I stand a chance of getting her back out with partial
repairs.  She can then head to OZ to finish up.

This did give me some insight into why I can't make his subs go away.  I've only been getting 1 or 2 hits on his subs.  The O-16 just took 6 hits
and really isn't as damaged as I would've expected. 

Then the day pretty much went downhill.

Remember these guys?  They were supposed to be providing fuel to the PT boats at Saladjar but again, UCG's timing was perfect and frustrating.
I doubt I'll be able to get fuel to those PTs before Geek closes down that area.

[jomni]

From what I can recall,  supplies automatically move by land based on demand between bases but the actual rate of movement and what influences it is beyond me.

[KyzBP]

From what I can recall,  supplies automatically move by land based on demand between bases but the actual rate of movement and what influences it is beyond me.

That's pretty much where I'm at too.

[KyzBP]

UCG strolled a little too close to the Philippines so the P35's had to remind him about personal space.

I kind of wish they would've hit the tankers though.

I made most of the adjustments in the Philippines.  I'm just waiting on the engineer unit at Bataan to finish upgrading the fortifications there and then I'll send him to Manila. Geek's been reconnoitering the Philippines more the last two turns.  I'll bet he's been able to push up his timetable on the Philippines because of successes like these:

From China.

Their troops and generals are about as reliable as their future export goods.  The real good news is I forgot to even look at China for the upcoming turn.

From Singapore

This should at least be a good fight...

...not so much.

Singapore falls in ONE turn.  My biggest frustration is that I can't slow him down anywhere and he's only taking light losses.  He also took Kendari this turn
and has been taking the unoccupied bases south of Rabual.

[KyzBP]

I know I seem obsessed with subs right now but they've been playing such a big part of the early game for me.  Now here's why I'm getting so frustrated:

It just doesn't seem like I'm putting a dent in him.  I have no more resources to throw at this problem either.

Here's another little problem:
Those DD's I sent to Kendari to interrupt the landing did their job.  His ships temporarily fled.  Unfortunately, enough troops had gotten onshore to take the base.
But here's what I'm left with:

They are sitting ducks for his little carrier force.  I'm going to try to redistribute the fuel in the fleet and hope they have enough to get out of the area.  If I can't do that then whoever can run will run.

[KyzBP]

That "fishing boat" near Dutch Harbor turned out to be an AMC.  The PBYs at Dutch and these guys

are headed to intercept the AMC.  I can't tell yet if he's probing with these AMC's or using them as Raiders against my shipping. 
Either way I think we can handle it for now.

Intel shows Geek has at least a regiment preparing for Guam.  It won't be long now.

Here's his losses:

A couple of warships  O0

My losses:

All but the top few were lost when Singapore ran lovingly into the arms of the Japanese...cowards.

End of Turn:


I really hope tomorrow is better but I won't hold my breath.

[KyzBP]

December 27th, 1941

This was a far busier day than I was expecting.  Once again, Geek's forces have shown great timing.  Just as I was starting to build up Clark Field his bombers appeared overhead.

The good thing is the Warhawks that weren't able to get out of the Philippines managed to knockout a few Jap planes without losing any themselves.
Unfortunately the runway was hit pretty bad.  They showed back up later in the day and destroyed 2 of the P-40's on the ground.

But from their secret base somewhere in the Philippines, the P-35's strike again!


...and again.

We did lose one to Flak.  These guys have been incredible.  It will be a sad day when they eventually become POWs.

Geek then sent his planes to check in on Port Moresby.

He's flying over at 25,000 ft.  The Warhawks start losing effectiveness after 15,000ft.  They are only about half as effective at that altitude.  I will lose that battle every time.  The Zeroes may lose effectiveness too but I'm not sure if it's as drastic.

His carrier based planes begin looking for targets around Suva.

They found the sole NZ ship in the area and put a bomb in her.  That's going to anger the boys in Auckland.

The KB is causing me to reroute nearly everyone in the area.  This will end up confusing me in the long run.

The Dutch pilots have decided to go to work.
First a Dutch float plane flies in under the unsuspecting CAP of Zeroes:


Then some Dutch fighters splash a few Nells.

They'll come back with an escort, if they can.

The Air activity was much heavier this turn, even the subs took a back seat.  The ASW patrols reported a lot of sub hits, none confirmed.
The DD task force that ran out of fuel was bombed multiple times by the small carrier force.  The good news is that NONE of the Kates could
hit them.  I don't expect to be so lucky next turn.

I was looking for someone to make a stand and the brave forces at Brunei have come through.  They repulsed an attack and dealt the Japanese some decent
losses.  Most of Borneo has not been so lucky.  Nearly the entire island is in UCG's grubby mitts.

The AMC near Dutch Harbor continues to steam towards the West Coast of Canada.  My little task force assigned to eliminate the AMC whiffed on attacking it.  I'm not sure he even knows I know he's there.  He's not causing any harm so I may just let him float around for awhile.  Maybe he'll tell his friends that the coast is clear (see what I did there).

The game claims that we both only lost a ship each this turn.  He lost a sub ;D, I lost an AK.  I think he lost more...or will.

Here's the end of turn score:

[besilarius]

USS Edsall during the Indian Ocean raid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Edsall_%28DD-219%29

[KyzBP]

USS Edsall during the Indian Ocean raid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Edsall_%28DD-219%29

I love reading about these little pieces of history that I never bothered to indulge in.  I hope to get the Edsall and the rest of her group into safe harbor.  My problem is getting fuel to some of these ships.  I've never had these problems against the AI.