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

[JasonPratt]

The tension is palpable...

[JasonPratt]

Decrypt reports that the Imperial court thinks Catalinas may be cursed by the gods as harbingers of doom, and so the Emperor shall make them illegal to construct once Japan takes over the world -- along with cursed women, whatever that means.

[KyzBP]

Decrypt reports that the Imperial court thinks Catalinas may be cursed by the gods as harbingers of doom, and so the Emperor shall make them illegal to construct once Japan takes over the world -- along with cursed women, whatever that means.

Thanks Jason!  I'm glad to know they're getting under his skin a bit.  If he gets through to Attu all he'll find are cursed women and promiscuous seals.

[KyzBP]

February 4th, 1942

The Attu Turkey Shoot continues.

DD's and CL catch another one of Geeks transports.

This is looking like a pretty costly endeavor for Geek.  It's still tough to tell if Attu was the only target.  He certainly put
a lot of men into this.

The subs don't want to be left out.


And the Penguin gets into the action in a big way.

Not bad for a ship that should've been sunk at Guam in the opening days of the war.

Here's where the situation gets sticky.

Losing a Cat always hurts but the big question is: Where did these Zeroes come from?  I don't think their legs are
long enough to reach Attu but I could be wrong.  If I'm right that means there's a carrier out here that I didn't account for.

I'll put the Cats on full Naval Search and start to creep forward the carriers at Dutch.  If there's one there I should be
able to eliminate all it's fighter contingent and then send my surface ships in to finish her off.  In case you forgot, the
carriers I have attached to AM are carrying 7 squadrons of fighters and only 1 squadron of bombers.  I don't know if
a single bombing squadron can take out a carrier and her support ships.  I bet 3 BB's could though.

Monkey will  be put on hold until the Attu situation is resolved. :-\

The AVG continues to underwhelm me.

I was licking my chops when I saw this match up.  I thought for sure the AVG would slice and dice these Oscars.  In other
few other games I've played the AVG was pretty effective and usually racked up a good number of kills.  This must be the
AVG B Team.

Fierce fighting continues at Changsha.

He outnumbers me somewhere between 3 and 4 to 1.  Taking nearly even losses will only speed up the inevitable.

Given everything that's going on there really wasn't much more that was noteworthy.

[JasonPratt]

Heck, I'm impressed the Cats escaped with only one loss, considering the number of Zeros buzzing around in that thunderstorm! (A thunderstorm in the ass end of the Arctic North Pacific in February, for that matter. {shuddering})

[KyzBP]

February 5th, 1942

Surface Combat Group 2 manages to arrive at Attu.

A total ambush.  Not a single AK slipped away.  A complete victory, right?  Nope.  They were empty.  The troops managed
to land on Attu. "Insert F word here"!!!!  That will delay the Monkey.

Later in the day, the remainder of Geeks troops attacked the Coastal AA unit holding down Attu.

The Coastal AA never had a chance.  DOUBLE F!!!  Geek now holds Attu.  I'll remove him in short order but this will
no doubt alert Geek to the presence of extra troops, ships, and aircraft in the area.  I think he'll expect me to retaliate and
he'll expect it right where I was headed.  This may put the Monkey to bed.  I'll try to get some PBY's to start overtly checking out
some of the potential landing spots in the Kuriles...as soon as I replace the ones he destroyed when he took the island.

The group of CL's and DD's that were sent to Normanton, based on a single line in an Intel report, encountered a sizable landing force consisting
of a BB, CA, 3 DD's and some transports.  Things looked bleak with that BB present.

We may have gotten the better of this if the BB goes down.  He also lost 600 men + equipment.  He still managed to take Normanton.
We didn't have anyone defending it.

I'll have to continue 2/5/42 a little later.  Photobucket is being a little "B" word today. 

[BanzaiCat]

Consider that Geek might not be interested in following up with Attu since you spanked him, even though he did get troops ashore. But who cares? It's Attu. I think you need to decide what's more of a priority - retaking Attu or sticking it to him where it hurts. 

[JasonPratt]

So you spanked him with the Monkey, but if he retaliates that may put the Monkey to bed, requiring you to find some alternate landing spots in the Kurlies.

Got it.  O0

[Airborne Rifles]

Consider that Geek might not be interested in following up with Attu since you spanked him, even though he did get troops ashore. But who cares? It's Attu. I think you need to decide what's more of a priority - retaking Attu or sticking it to him where it hurts. 

+1

[JasonPratt]

Strictly speaking, Attu (and AM generally) was always about (1) pulling off Geek to somewhere mostly unimportant so that Kyz can stick it better where it hurts (not in the Kurlies per se) (man this discussion always seems to get weird fast); by (2) threatening to use Attu as a long range platform for bombing Japan.

So I would say the plan so far is doing well for at least (1) and maybe even still for (2) depending on what the outcome of (1) is. He can't just jump to (2) anymore and set up afterward for (1), which would have been admittedly ideal, but that doesn't mean the overall rationales are busted: that would have been great if possible, but not the primary rationale. The primary rationale is THREATEN THE HOME ISLANDS WITH NEVER-ENDING DOOLITTLE RAIDS IN ORDER TO FORCE GEEK TO DIAL BACK SOUTHERN OPERATIONS TO A POINT WHERE HEADWAY CAN BE MADE EARLIER. To me this rationale is still active.

[KyzBP]

After taking everything you guys said into consideration, I've decided to proceed with AM.  I will bombard Attu with the DD/CL TF once more and then assign them carrier protection duty.  Unless Geek brings seaplanes to Attu, which is what I'd do, he won't be able to launch anything from there for awhile so I'll just ignore it until after AM.

Continuing February 5th, 1942


The subs sent after Geeks carriers and resupply managed to find the oiler.

That oiler was hit only one hex from Geek's carriers.  If it were me I'd be clearing the area.  It would totally demoralize me to lose a carrier to a sub.
The bad news is I think this guy already met up with the carriers.

Here's a better look.

Don't be fooled.  Those BB's are really CV's.  The subs will continue to pressure him.

At Townsville, the Banshees manage to put a hurting on the Heavy Cruiser Kako.

As much as I like hitting these big warships, I'd really rather be hitting his transports.  I should really just be happy I'm hitting
anything at all.

At Cairns I get my wish.

Except it's empty, again. >:(

Here, the last of the Manila Flotilla "slip the gap".

If I would've paid more attention earlier I could've gotten a lot of ships out using this route.  These guys will be at Midway in a week.

I'm sure we lost a base or two but nothing noteworthy. 

[KyzBP]

February 6th, 1942

Overall a quiet day.  Absolutely nothing happening on the AM front.  There were a couple of things worth mentioning:

Something I've never seen before.

A little sub on sub action. ("Usually you have to pay extra for that, Cotton.").  I can't recall seeing that in any of the AAR's
I've read or games I've played.

The CA Kako takes a few more bombs from the Banshees.

I wonder how many more it'll take to put her down.

Geek's troops try Clark's defenses.

And certainly take the worst of it.  We've stopped our bombardment as our supplies were beginning to run a bit low.
I'd really like to keep that ratio.

Things didn't go so well at Changsha though.

The surviving troops retreated West, across a river.  I hope that'll buy us a little time to regroup.  Unfortunately, there is almost
no supplies here.

Going over the daily Intel Report I noticed Geek has a new target.

The first line is the one that caught my eye.  I immediately dispatched all the Mine Layers at Pearl to re-lay the Midway minefield.
I'm also sending the 2 CV's at Pearl in that direction.  They're the ones loaded with bombers.  I'll sit the carriers just East of Midway and wait
for him to show.  As of right now I don't think he'll have any air support for this landing unless he brings his carriers up from the South.  If he
does that then the Monkey invasion force will turn and head for Attu and the carriers with all my fighters aboard will steam south and try to hook up with
the others. 

This game seems to be about 4 months ahead of the real war.

[jomni]

Sub vs sub happens more often that you think. But usually inconclusive.

A showdown at Midway sounds interesting.  Wonder how much of the Japanse carrier force will appear.

[KyzBP]

A showdown at Midway sounds interesting.  Wonder how much of the Japanse carrier force will appear.

Luckily I have decent PBY coverage still so I'm able to keep an eye on his carriers.  If they start heading that way I should know.

[KyzBP]

February 7th, 1942

Another very quiet turn.

First, a sub attack just outside Port Moresby.

It seems the Allied subs are doing a little better lately.  Now if I could just catch his carriers with some of these.

Another assault on Clark.

He lost significantly fewer troops this time while I lost about the same.  The fort level held at 2.  When these guys finally do break
I hope they head for Manila and not Bataan.  I bet it'll be Bataan though.

Risky Intercept.

I'm sending my short on fuel Bombardment group North to try and intercept those AK's coming down towards the South.
I don't know what their intentions are but I think they're going to rendezvous with his big carrier group.  If I can catch them
at night I stand a great chance of sinking everything in that AK group, which is probably full of troops.  After that though, my
ships will be at the mercy of his carriers.  I hope it's worth the risk.

No further developments on Midway.  AM units are moving to the secondary staging point.  As soon as they are gathered up the fun begins.