|
Wasn't the Ark Royal already sunk in the Atlantic by this point in OTL?
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2023 16:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 4, 2024 01:47 |
|
|
Sherbert Hoover posted:Wasn't the Ark Royal already sunk in the Atlantic by this point in OTL? Yes, I was wondering about that. Also the battlecrusier USS United States that I think was with one of the carriers or some convoy headed toward Pearl Harbor.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2023 20:18
|
|
|
  Well, yesterday we did about as well in that air as I’ve ever seen a first turn go for Allies, so maybe it’s only fair we did, uhhh, not so well   Yup, this is bad. Wait, Albacores?? Fulmars????? Sea Hurricanes!?!??!!!!?!?!  Nooooooooo   Rest in peace sweet lady  Apparently even being accidentally added as your 1944 refit wasn’t enough to save you  Sig Int posted:5/144th Infantry Regiment is planning for an attack on Guam.  Somehow these two are still hanging on by a thread, but I’m not overly optimistic. Still, if we scuttle Thracian Scout is in with a chance of getting the survivors to safety.  Slight tactical error with the B-17s at Clarkfield.  Look at all this poo poo at Singkawang, and look at Force Z right there  Still, I suppose we should clean them up in the night.  Danae. Longlance to the face, no biggie.  I’m sorry, what? Apparently not only were the Kongos here, so also were the carriers still? With no loving CAP??!?!? I suppose on the one hand it would have been lame for the war to be over on turn 2, but fuuuuuuuuuuuck  Evacuation of the lucky units from Singapore has gone flawlessly, with the exception of the one ship I’d chosen out as likeliest to have left the harbour and be targeted Oh well, loss of a few Buffaloes due to this doesn’t even register against the rest of the day’s events.  Since he did not have his armour set to pursuit, land based evacuation of Singapore should go as planned too.  This must be Ryujo, and if so she has only made five hexes since being hit yesterday. That waterline hit must have done substantial damage then, if she is slowed to barely more than half her usual cruising speed.  Marblehead and accomplices are fine, and after a week in Soerabaja docks, tops, will be fit for action again.  Ahahaha, get hosed you little shits. (I-121&122 are ancient submarines converted into submarine minelayers).  The KB is in full retreat, and not on the course I’d expect for Truk - but it is about right for covering a landing of Wake, so that’s my operational assumption until proven otherwise. Like I said, I’d hoped to save Wake from at least wave one, but I’m not going to take a fight 4v2 over it.  Drama is forming around the Bismarcks, and it looks like in fact the truly ancient Adelaide is going to be our first asset in the area - Houston is still east of the Solomons just peaking on the screen here and a good two days behind.   There is much that we must hope to accomplish at Mersing tomorrow, and we probably won’t. However, we’re drat well going to try, and key to it is the 223 Group RAF HQ at Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur is only a size 2 airfield and in a pretty dire supply situation too, however as a level 3 HQ they can supply torpedoes to Kuantan. Of course, the likeliest outcome with Mersing secured and the troops presumably all unloaded, is he just books it east in the night out of range.  Most of our bombers can therefore be based at Kuantan, with the undamaged level 4 airfield.  Any remaining Buffaloes are going on the offensive - it’s not like I expect them to achieve very much with a sweep, other than hopefully to pull the CAP upwards. Maximum altitude these barrels can reach, therefore.  Likewise all other available bombers are flying against Mersing at their maximum altitudes. The odds of disrupting the movement of all three of their armoured units and thereby saving Kluong for another day are slim to put it mildly, but we might as well try and again the main point is to pull the CAP up, not to actually hit anything.  Dutch transports are helping with some last minute evacuations from Singapore.  Force Z is going to patrol around Singkawang, and this time is definitely going to get into a fight!   This should clear the way for the Dutch to run in and flatten the airfield - although the airHQ he shipped in has a ton of aviation support squads, it has no engineers, and neither does the SNLF unit used to capture the airfield. He might have taken Singkawang, but we can render it useless until he can manage to get some shovels into the hex. If we’re really lucky he’s already stuffed it full of Betties, anticipating using it tomorrow, and we can catch them on the ground too.  Which maybe he has? I don’t really trust these reports, since any movements of aeroplanes would have occurred in the interturn, which I don’t think we should then be able to see reports for. Anyway, once Kortenaer has cratered the runway we’ll need a few days of bombing to finish the job.  One good submarine torpedo should finish Ryujo off, and two would definitely seal the deal. We’ve got at least a reasonable chance at catching her I’d say, and bagging Ryujo would take a lot of the sting from the loss of Ark Royal.  Sweeps at Clarkfield were pretty half assed today, and I’m hoping after a day of not responding to him we can catch him by surprise somewhat. Notice also that this game has no house rules with regards to fighter altitudes, and actually the P-40B isn’t as horrible high up as the later models. They’re still going to get taken apart by Zeros of course, but at least they’ll do a little better.  The B-17s are being evacuated to Batangas, where, maybe, with a little luck they might have a chance to become airworthy again.  Isis & Encounter will now proceed straight to Soerabaja, with nothing holding them here.  I divert a couple of small minesweepers from the Singapore Exodus to go and make sure there’s no surprises for us at Palembang.  Ohh, look at that. After their brush with Marblehead last night, Inaba & Harima have left for Babeldaob, leaving their convoy behind. Maybe we can sneak these destroyers in and catch them?  Actually, you know what? Maybe we can do something for those poor buggers at Wake afterall. Lexington is 25 hexes from an ideal covering position, whereas the KB is 39. This will have to be a lone mission for Lucky Lexy though, Enterprise is 33 hexes away, a very much less comfortable operating margin.  Since we can be sure there are no carriers in front of us, there is no need for escorting our strikes and Lexington’s VF squadron can focus exclusively on CAP, somewhat mitigating the risk of going in alone.  After Wake we shall of course go and say hello in the Marshalls - it would be very rude not to. So Enterprise will set up to meet Lexington for a combined strike the day after the former takes a pass at Wake.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2023 21:42
|
|
|
Bit off topic here, ub tin general what were your operational plans had the melee continued with Alikchi? I know that you'd advanced far enough into India to trigger emergency reinforcements - so what were your plans there if you'd been keeping going if you could goin broad swathes?
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2023 00:36
|
|
|
I just read back through the previous update to be sure, and I don't see anything about Ryujo, but in this update you're acting like you got some hits on her. What happened?
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2023 02:32
|
|
|
wedgekree posted:Bit off topic here, ub tin general what were your operational plans had the melee continued with Alikchi? I know that you'd advanced far enough into India to trigger emergency reinforcements - so what were your plans there if you'd been keeping going if you could goin broad swathes? I'm not going to talk about up to date stuff like that in this thread in case that game ever restarts and Alikchi reads this thread, both things I'd like to happen. Feel free to bump the other thread if you want to ask. Zurai posted:I just read back through the previous update to be sure, and I don't see anything about Ryujo, but in this update you're acting like you got some hits on her. What happened? You made me check, but no, it's definitely there. Don't forget because of how I'm breaking the posts up now this is only day two, you need to go back to the first update for the combat results of day one. gradenko_2000 posted:the lone Beaufort going over Takao to provide recon for B-17s out of Manila Alas, looks like it's going to be Michael Bay instead. wedgekree posted:Let's go sink the Royal Navy! Less of that please! pthighs posted:Where, repeat, where was Force Z? The world wonders. Sherbert Hoover posted:Wasn't the Ark Royal already sunk in the Atlantic by this point in OTL? Certainly was. fartknocker posted:Yes, I was wondering about that. Also the battlecrusier USS United States that I think was with one of the carriers or some convoy headed toward Pearl Harbor. Uhh, yeah, it hadn't really occurred to me that anyone might read this who hadn't followed round one, if you're feeling lost about ahistoric ships popping up this might enlighten you a bit.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2023 08:07
|
|
|
OK, so this turn we had a desync, which means the 90 minutes I spent meticulously following and screenshotting the resolution is completely wasted because it all gets retconned at the end when the real results load. This is just something that happens with WitP, although it’s a little ominous to strike so early, it should be gone by next turn. Anyway, I found that so demoralising that all I can be bothered to do is screenshots of combat reporter. No that there’s really anything else I could do anyway. So without further ado:   Force Z encounters not the Japanese transports, but four CAs, then proceeds to flail hopelessly.  In a second bout Kumano at least takes a few heavy hits, but our destroyers get mauled.  Well Kumano seems to be limping off anyway.  Dominion Monarch is caught as she flees Singapore, but a heroic sacrifice by Stronghold enables her escape.  Unfortunately, it seems half the IJN is out here tonight, and this time there is no escape.  This TF then goes on to sink three more ships carrying evacuees from Singapore. Not ideal.  The Dutch then have a quick brush with Mogami, but with the Japanese low on ammo nothing dramatic happens. They should have then easily bombarded, but of course don’t because, v0v.  As day breaks they then encounter the other cruiser force, and proceed to get utterly clowned on   O20 claims a small but loaded freighter, and KXIV almost manages to lose a fight against another.  And to finish off the naval phase, Adelaide neatly intercepts the attempted invasion of Kavieng.  No CAP at Mersing today, but we don’t take great advantage of it, with only one bombing mission being launched and slowing only a single infantry regiment.  Our Blenheims from Victoria Point have got under his skin then. 16 less Oscars maintaining air superiority over Singapore, mission successful.  The IJA dive bombers attack Hongkong, and hit the drydocks, eating poo poo in the process. Win win for us.  Lilies come in rather low to attack the fortress, and we down one.  Suppression of the airfield at Kota Bharu continues.  Sweeps of Manila, but we have no CAP up and nothing left really worth bombing.  Rangoon continues to be bombed.  As Singapore continues to be swept.  Fokkers from Palembang manage to get a Betty at Singkawang.  Combined army and navy strikes finish most of what was left at Hong Kong.  Shorn of escorts and low on ammo for their heavy AA, we’re lucky to have taken only one torpedo really.  Vildebeest manage to sink a decent freighter off Mersing.  The carriers are around, somewhere, but don’t seem to have the range to do more than nip at our heels.  Unescorted Betties get chewed up at Palembang, and an escorted carrier strike choses to go for the cruisers rather than the tankers.  Lexington has made an entirely entirely unexpected contact in the middle of the Pacific, did he change his mind about Wake and decide to try for Johnston Island I wonder?  A second wave finishes off the transports, but Settsu gets away more or less scot free.  The Swordfish try for Mogami, but without result.  Oh yes, definitely upset about Bangkok.  He takes Nauru.  And plants the flag on Tarawa.   Well jesus loving christ, what an absolute goddamn shitshow. And to top it off the desync.   An overall decent day in the air. Three Jakes and two Daves, that’s enough for me to say Kumano didn’t make it.   Well, I don’t think we’ve ever needed two screens to show the ship loses before If we’d just had one of either Mauritius or Dominion Monarch survive, I’d almost claim that as a victory.  Loss of a modern CL is always going to sting of course, but Kumano is going to hurt him worse.  Tromp is also newish, but really more of a destroyer leader than a cruiser.  Fast, but sadly not quite fast enough. SigInt posted:2nd Recon Regiment is planning for an attack on Singapore.  Well, they’ve destroyed nearly 20% of the dry docks at Hong Kong, that’s something I suppose.  Electra is being scuttled.  This frees the remains of TF Z to reach Soerabaja in reasonable time. Repulse has taken that torpedo very lightly, but cumulative damage now means Force Z is off the table. That and we’ve ran out of destroyers  The disgraced remnants of the Dutch navy. Kortaener still burning, but she should be fine.  The first wave of evacuations from Malacca are completed, and the ships turn around for the next load.  The situation in the eastern Pacific. I now think he was trying for a direct run on Midway, with the KB being intended to cover such an attack. Very glad to have nipped that one in the bud, I really don’t need to deal with a Japanese Midway right now.   I had originally hoped for Houston and Boise to link up with the destroyers and cruise in the South China Sea, however it’ll be a minimum of four more days before the USN destroyers can be refuelled and make it to Iolio, which is at least three days too long. So therefore I’m going to have them take advantage of their current unspotted position to dash behind the enemy search areas in the night, and hopefully catch something nice in the East China Sea, instead of the South.  At the very least I should hope this is unexpected.  If the loving Dutch navy wasn’t so horribly useless we’d have smashed things to bits here. As it is, we’ll try high altitude bombing, on the basis the CAP he puts up will probably be anticipating a low run.  And more CAP for Palembang - we still have a lot of large tankers here needing protection.  This looks very much like an invasion of Ternate. We probably can’t stop them unloading something, but we can go and interrupt, and if we don’t make contact then head over to Manado.  I think it would be a good idea for Regulus to go and hide at Kure Atoll for a day or two.  With the KB heading for MIdway rather than Truk, Enterprise’s potential lead has opened up enough that it is safe for her to follow Lexington towards Wake.  Although, that said, there’s no reason she can’t go west first, then turn north west. Doing this should position her nicely to catch Settsu and whoever else is left.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2023 21:26
|
|
|
Tromp! *glug*
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2023 22:46
|
|
|
Woodchip posted:Tromp! *glug* Me as well, every time i hear about that boat.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2023 23:53
|
|
|
imagine that naval aviator's surprise when it's the second day of the war and they find a whole-rear end Japanese battleship out near Wake dang
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2023 12:51
|
|
|
Still desynced, cross your fingers for the next turn because I admit I find this somewhat dispiriting. If it doesn’t resolve, please let me know if you would still be interested in the LP as presented this last two turns?  The Dutch Submarines are in position now.  And they’re getting to work.  Not sure what this is about, has he turned the invasion fleet back and is just having the escorts vent their frustration? Or will we see landings later in the turn?  Sculpin takes a shot at an older CL, but of course misses.  As usual though, it is up to the Dutch to get the real work done.  The Japanese have got a couple of subs active in the Malacca strait, and they sink two small transports. Empty ones at least.  The USN destroyers also make contact, and with a vengeance.  And then they go on to find and destroy a second convoy. To think I almost didn’t bother with this and nearly just sent them tamely back to Tarakan for fuel.  WTF, I was convinced he wouldn’t dare bring the battleships in so far. So convinced I deliberated and then left the torpedo bombers on training!  I don’t even know what’s going on here, normally an air combat TF will break contact as fast as possible, but they obviously didn’t this time. At least Portland and Lamson took the punishment, not Lexington.  Clarkfield. We do about as well as P-40s could ever be expected too, but I’m sure there’s more to come.  But the next wave is purely bombers, and we go to town on the twin engined types. Unfortunately the Liz seem to have gotten through without interference and hit very hard.  Another sweep comes in.  And then a handful of Betties that we chew up very nicely.  Lilies visit Hong Kong.  Kota Bharu still being hit hard.  But not as hard as Kuantan. Oof  Persistently bad weather at Rangoon.  Was he anticipating sweeps to have the CAP so high? I can’t see where from, but they catch the bombers anyway.  That’s about the last of the Hong Kong shipping.  The Inabas are back, probably escorting an invasion of Ambon I’d imagine.  We get a little damage in at Mersing at least.  Even with escort penalties, KB pilots just rip through anything we can put up.  The weather over Rangoon clears enough in the afternoon for Betties to land a few bombs. Since I was using these ships to try and evacuate fuel, a few bombs is enough.  Hayate is finished off, by, of all things, Devastators. And with torpedoes.  We hit the others with two waves, and despite the weather get enough damage in to claim both of them, I think.  Three waves of Betties land only a single hit with a bomb, but that’s probably enough for a laden tanker.  And Victoria Point continues to distract a wildly disproportionate amount of effort.   Well, not quite so one sided today.  Not too bad in the air. Two Petes you say? That would be Settsu I take it.   No, no that would not be Hiei. Have we even seen Hiei yet? SigInt posted:114th Infantry Regiment is planning for an attack on Kota Bharu.  PoW and Repulse clinging on by a thread. Well, Repulse is really in no danger.  PoW is little more than a burning hulk now, however the Japanese 14” guns just don’t have the bunch to get through her belt. 86 systems and 46 fire is very worrying, even for an allied ship, however I’d still give her 50/50 odds.  Kortenaer in even worse shape, and so slow she will need two more days to get to Soerabaja. I’m not going to give her 50/50.  He’s pushing the carriers ever closer. Surely now just to cover the retreat of the battleships, they can’t have much aviation fuel or bombs left now. And certainly no torpedoes.  For some reason he hasn’t closed the pocket yet, so even our damaged airframes can be railed to northern Malaya.  Clark Field is no longer a field. Clark Crater.  The evacuation of Philippine shipping is a flood with the occasional xAKL heading the other way to try and sneak that last bit of supply in for the defenders. Although it’s looking very much like we will not manage any fortifications at Clark, which rather limits our plans to delay him.  Doom comes for Ambon, I very much suspect. And really nothing I can do about it at this point.  I, uhh, what the gently caress is the KB doing here??? Apparently he thought I would retreat to Pearl after yesterday’s skirmish. I look forward to showing him how wrong he is.  Portland is roughed up, but she’s not Lexington so we don’t really care as long as she doesn’t sink, which she’s in no danger of currently.   Well, if he’s got his CAP high at Singkawang, let's try our strikes low.  Houston & Boise are unspotted, and in for a good time in general I think.  You know what, let’s be extra cheeky with Boise. The worst she can be up against is a few destroyers.  Getting CAP up across Java. What a wasted opportunity to smash some more Betties  The evacuation of the Third Indian Corps via Georgetown begins.  He hasn’t swept Rangoon for a couple days now, so let’s do a CAP trap.  A tricky set of positionings for tomorrow. We can be confident the KB can’t sprint again until they can refuel, but we must set up for our strikes on Kwajalein whilst making it look like we are moving to cover Wake.  Further, the KB is now to the south of Lexington, which is rather awkward when we want to pretend to be travelling northwest to Wake, but then turn south for the Marshalls. Maybe if I park both of them by Taongi he’ll think he’s just lost contact with Lexington and is seeing Enterprise moving towards Wake as expected.  The 1st Australian Division is off for Alice Springs. Somehow I have a feeling they might be needed in the north quite soon.  And a convoy sets off for Rabaul. No escorts available at Sydney, they will have to join on the way.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2023 23:07
|
|
|
Mayhaps Hiei blew herself in port due to mishandling ammunition/powder? Also I'm always up for more WitP content, as long as you're having fun
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2023 23:49
|
|
|
Jobbo_Fett posted:Mayhaps Hiei blew herself in port due to mishandling ammunition/powder? Yep, I'll read it any which way it's presented.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2023 00:17
|
|
|
I also don't mind the current format, and if it's easier for you would be fine for it to stay this way even if the desync gets sorted.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2023 00:31
|
|
|
yeah this format is plenty good enough. did Prince of Wales and Repulse under-perform in that fight? i thought the Kongos were supposed to be somewhat dated.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2023 01:28
|
|
|
The current format is perfectly fine, IIRC from all the esoteric knowledge I have gained about this game, even if the rest of the TF closes the range, the CVs are counted independently and will always try to open it. Or something similar, I might be getting confused with the dutch wife flotation index and the soy sauce compartment fires.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2023 01:38
|
|
|
A good lol at Yorktown getting into gun range of Settsu of all things. Definitely game for any format, looking forward to what shenanigans Boise and Houston get up to.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2023 01:45
|
|
|
I actually prefer this format because the combat results are cleanly presented Don't lose hope! The eyes of a nation are upon you 
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2023 02:39
|
|
|
Yeah, Force Z got mauled. What happened there?
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2023 07:00
|
|
|
  They land in the far north of the Philippines.  I-155 beats up a small freighter coming down from Manila.  But then has no ammo for a second one.  Houston, what are you doing??? You cripple the escort, and then, just, leave?????  The Japanese are starting patrols off Vietnam, but I’m not very concerned.  Skipjack gets lucky with a functioning torpedo, but pretty unlucky on the damage caused it looks like.  Eat poo poo Kawakaze.  The USN destroyers get in close to a convoy at Manado, but don’t land any torpedoes.  Then Boise does the exact same thing Houston did At least Houston had the excuse of it being dark.  We wimp out on a daytime fight at Manado, probably because we’re low on ammo.  A burning Boelongan is ignored by I-153.  Damnit, no minefield at Tarakan.  Here they come at Ambon.  And Guam.  Wirraways bombing from 23k feet  But what else am I going to do with them?  A little direct ground support for the IJA at Lingayen. I don’t know why, I’m quite sure they won’t need it.  At least they aren’t bombing Clarkfield, I guess.  Nates continue to sweep Alor Star.  And Bataan, for some reason. Maybe he thinks I’m using it as a secondary airbase.  Sweeps, then heavy bombing of Clark. There’s really no hope of building fortifications here now, which is going to knock a month or more off his Philippine campaign I’d bet.  Kota Bharu, but we’ve already flown away anything that can, there’s not much left here.  We do still have torpedo bombers at Kuantan, but we get fairly lucky.  CAP trap! Let’s hope for some Betties too.  God, if only I’d thrown up a CAP here. Oh well.  OK, low doesn’t work either. Time to give up on Singkawang  The carriers have come back a little further north, and destroy any chances of further evacuations from Malacca.  Remind me again why I decided Maries deserved to be useful??  We are still managing to exert a little attrition.  The Vildebeest too.  Actually, about the best day we’ve had yet.  The usual visit to Palembang by the carrier wings, and, as usual, we are completely outclassed. At least someone with a PomPom claimed a Kate.  Wait, what? How did they get there?? Oh well, RIP Portland.  And this is, if anything, even more confusing. Our carriers have been in the area for several days, why on earth would he send these guys out??  Our pilots are of course nowhere near the quality of the Japanese’, but we can claim Tatsuta at least I think.  If that’s all he’s bringing, we might actually be able to hold here.  The first day of fighting at Hong Kong, and the writing is clearly on the wall.  For some reason he delays yet another day to close the Singapore rail line. At this point it doesn’t actually change anything because everything I want out has already left.  And they formalise their hold on Lingayen. They could easily have taken it yesterday, and the extra day has allowed us to move the 155mm regiment to Clarkfield without losses, which is nice.   Well, that was largely disappointing.  A decent chunk of Sallies, but what I really wanted was Betties.  gently caress, we’ve lost both PoW and Kortenaer. That sucks.  Tennessee returns to service.  Hobart arrives at Aden. SigInt posted:15348 men are based at Truk (112,108).  Very busy at Soerabaja.  These guys weren’t that low on ammo at all, I feel they should have tried harder than they did.  Now what the hell is he doing with the KB? Did he zig after yesterday's zag just to catch Portland? Fair play if so, and either way he's now far behind and to the north of our carriers, which is all to the good.  But then of course there’s these guys to consider. We can only see what we attacked, and what we attacked was purely warships. But why would he have them out here unless it was another attempt on Midway, which would explain the KB’s positioning? For that matter why would he send anything basically right at our carriers??? I do wish our carrier pilots were a little better in these early days, letting us do more damage and see more information, but oh well, at least they’re getting a decent amount of practice recently  On second thoughts, poor leaders is probably the issue. Who the gently caress put this clown in charge of a scout bomber group?? Yes he might be the world's most inspiring clerk, but look at him, he’s a paper pusher personified. I don't suppose he even knows what a boat is. “What’s that? Bravo flight reported two carriers sighted, Zeros closing on us hel-. No, that’s an incomplete form submission, I can’t report it. Tell them to radio back a proper one. They’re not responding? Oh well, if you want me I’ll be in my office filling out a lost flight report, in triplicate.”   This is a long shot if ever there was one, but if we could catch the 4th division it would be a real triumph.  Boise is going home via Aparri.  Actually, let’s do something like this. He’s surely going to set the Betties from Formosa to naval bombing tomorrow, and if we set the patrol zone to linger east of Manila it will be in LRCAP range.  Then we can have the entire (well the eternity of what’s left) of the USAAFE fighters provide LRCAP.  The cruisers are heading out to patrol in the Celebes Sea, since he’s starting to probe here.  It would obviously be suicide to try and reinforce Ambon right now, but I think there’s a chance he might not manage to take it easily, and then maybe we could slip reinforcements in at some point.  We will provide CAP for Georgetown tomorrow, but try to confuse the issue by doing it as LRCAP from adjacent bases.  Well, there’s nothing stoping us from going and loving up Kwajalein now anyway. It’s not like we can do anything about whatever those other fleets are with the KB obviously moving to cover them. If we lose Midway we lose Midway.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2023 13:32
|
|
|
Vildebeest and Swordfish leading the way!Pharnakes posted:Who the gently caress put this clown in charge of a scout bomber group?? Yes he might be the world's most inspiring clerk, but look at him, he’s a paper pusher personified. I don't suppose he even knows what a boat is. reading a history of the Battle of Midway right now and, well, it's Stanhope Ring!
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2023 14:11
|
|
|
SIGSEGV posted:The current format is perfectly fine, IIRC from all the esoteric knowledge I have gained about this game, even if the rest of the TF closes the range, the CVs are counted independently and will always try to open it. Or something similar, I might be getting confused with the dutch wife flotation index and the soy sauce compartment fires. No, normally a air combat TF will try to break contact, no matter what they are against and how many escorts they might have. If they are unable to do so, the escorts will screen out the carriers, usually, although in this instance they didn't, as evidenced by Lexington's 8" magazines being nearly empty. habeasdorkus posted:Yeah, Force Z got mauled. What happened there? thatbastardken posted:yeah this format is plenty good enough. The Kongos are old, but Force Z had already lost badly against 4 cruisers, so obviously stood no chance against 2 more cruisers and 2 battlecruisers. Jobbo_Fett posted:Mayhaps Hiei blew herself in port due to mishandling ammunition/powder?
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2023 16:25
|
|
|
Pharnakes posted:as evidenced by Lexington's 8" magazines being nearly empty. Oh I missed that, also the idea of those cruiser guns actually being used is incredibly funny.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2023 17:28
|
|
|
I’m hoping for some surprise Uno reverse cards in your near future. I’m a Stan for any allied player, especially knowing how rough the start is.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2023 20:12
|
|
|
  Pope was heavily damaged at Manila and made it this far, but I think that’s the end of the line for her.  I-155 is still around, and still refusing to use anything other than her deck gun. Not that I’m complaining.  Ural Maru is still afloat then, but it looks like that torpedo started a fire they haven’t managed to put out two days later.   Ro-67 is lurking off New Britain, and takes a swipe at Voyager as the Australian squadron arrives at Rabaul.  KXI is driven off on her first attempt, but persists and lands a hit on a small minelayer. I’d have much rather she went for Shinshu Maru, but oh well.  A crippled Seawolf is finished off.  Ural Maru has almost made it to Takao, but is really suffering now. Why couldn’t you have just surfaced to finish her off damnit?  Unloading continues at Ambon.  And starts at Kota Bharu.  Miri.  And attempt two at Ternate.  After some sweeps they hit Alor Star. Pretty standard stuff.  A dead Lilly is a dead Lilly.  So without Boise to fly LRCAP over, our planes fly LRCAP over Manila itself, and being set to a bomber hunting 12k feet, get absolutely clowned upon.  No less than four sweeps of Rangoon. He mad   That is way more Zeros in escort than I had anticipated. Yikes.  Most of our bombers are set for port strike, but a handful I left on naval strike, and they finish off Tenryu I think.  Still bombing Singapore.  Not sure why we have CAP here instead of Georgetown, but   And then after the sweeps, some Lilies. AA gets one of them at least.  Whatever the reason, it means there’s no LRCAP over Georgetown, although at least by the afternoon they’ve sorted themselves out and slaughter the Maries.  We still haven’t flown the main strike, but a PM naval strike hits a very old destroyer.  Some Seagulls gently caress up an xAKL at Aparri.  I really wish you’d brought torpedoes. You’ve got them available for fucks sake.  A less escorted PM strike hits a more prepared CAP, and suffers for it.  Well, gently caress. So much for defending Ambon!  Guam also falls.  Hong Kong will hold another day, or two at the most.  He finally seals the deal at Kluong.  And at Sidate, somehow, doesn’t    No capital ships lost today!   A good chunk of Nells down, but the loss of Boise cost us in Warhawks.  RIP Boise, but you should really pay attention when you are in hostile waters like that.  United States got fairly unlucky on being hit I’d say, but has come out from that reasonably well.  We have our first pair of Aces, both flying, of all things, the Buffalo. Not only that, but Squadron Leader Clouston there got himself ace in a day!  Asheville is still technically afloat, but I think we’ll put an end to that.  KXI is in no immediate danger, but can’t stay on patrol. sigint posted:55th Infantry Regiment is planning for an attack on Kota Bharu.  We now have a respectable squadron based at Rabaul, that we can be confident can deal with anything short of carriers or battleships, which are currently mostly accounted for.  We couldn’t quite reach Singora before troops arrived there by rail. Oh well.  The troop convoys are soon to be arriving at Rangoon. We really need to not lose these guys, it’s rather nerve racking.   The Japanese armour has run ahead to cut off a Philippine battalion retreating from Aparri. I don’t suppose strafing them will achieve much, but it’ll keep our fighters away from the Zeros, and hey, you never know.  The one remaining squadron of Buffaloes will make a last stand at Singapore tomorrow.  Poolster is making a run for safety  Incidentally, Penguin is now around the corner of western New Guinea, and safe for now.  With DBB comes a very nice floating drydock for the Dutch at Soerabaja. Obviously it would be very nice to preserve this, at Perth for example there are no shipyards so having her there would be extremely useful.  Should have done this yesterday really, and had a bit more CAP up, but we can rescue the VMF squadron from Wake by having them fly south to land on Enterprise.  With United States slowed, Enterprise will now lead, with Lexington following to ensure we stay together properly.
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2023 23:13
|
|
|
This format is fine, works great to view on desktop. And now I've started an Allied campaign on hard, lost 6 BB on the 7th and ate a second attack, back off AI!
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2023 23:40
|
|
|
  The Japanese cruisers are out hunting again.  They catch another freighter, but much smaller.  Their subs are busy too.  Maybe this is why I-155 always tries to attack on the surface; they don't know how to aim torpedoes.  Heavy bombing at Alor Star.  Sweeping Batangas today.  A few bombers left over for Kota Bharu.  The main event though is Liz absolutely loving obliterating what’s left of the USAAFFE.  He’s starting to sweep Palembang. That’s not nice.  Rangoon sweeps continue.  We’re basically out of useable airfields in Malaya now.  And now there’s CAP up over the ships near Mersing. Happy time is over.  Although, oddly, at Mersing itself there is no CAP and the Swordfish claim one last victim. I’m sure that mistake will be rectified by tomorrow though.  Can we hold one more day? I doubt it.  They storm Johore Bahru, but all we had here was a permanently restricted base force and a few trucks from the Manchester Battalion we couldn’t fit on a plane.  They take Miri, and we can see he intends to get the airfield functioning straight away.  The defenders of Sidate continue to troll him.  A tiny SNLF unit plants the flag at Ternate.   One week in! This was, according to Greggimus, a frustrating turn, but I can’t imagine why. Unless he was that convinced he was going to take Hong Kong this turn? If he wanted something to be frustrated about, he could try his carriers just loving refusing to launch strikes on Kwajalein  Or having a choice between suiciding your planes into the air, or leaving them grounded to die anyway.  Or maybe he resents only having sunk five ships this turn? SigInt posted:4/24th Infantry Regiment is planning for an attack on Singapore.  The situation in the air over the Philippines is now so dire I’m just disbanding the air groups to at least get the pilots out. There are no more flyable aeroplanes or serviceable runways left. Maybe I shouldn’t have buffed the Liz either   Well, it’s not entirely true that he’s destroyed the USAAFFE, he’s been polite enough to leave our B-17s at Batangas alone, and a large number of them are now airworthy.   So we can pay to have them resigned to ABDA, and fly them down to Soerabaja.  This gets us 21 flyable B-17s at Soerabaja, with the range to hit the wells at Miri. The big question is will there be CAP facing us, I’m expecting yes on the grounds there were several airfield units unloading and participating in the attack. In fact, if anything, it seems like he intends to develop Miri into a major airbase, which I find a little confusing when he already has Singkawang. Still, hopefully tomorrow there won’t be much.  We can sweep from Tarakan, for all the good it will do.  CAP up at Balikpapan, I’m sure there’ll be Betties coming after these tankers soon enough.  We didn’t manage to catch those destroyers, but let’s try harassing them at Manado again.  What’s left of the CAP from Palembang is being withdrawn to Java. Now that he has started sweeps from Singkawang there is no longer any point contesting the air, however since we’ve got all of the tankers out now that’s not actually too much of a problem, and he will find a paltry 12k fuel left for him.  Ambon is obviously out of the question, so I suppose we’ll reinforce Koepang instead.  Well, nothing we can do now, but just keep going.  Welp, Houston has been spotted so probably won’t manage to catch whatever this in front of her is, but hopefully she can get back to Rabaul safely at least.  The 8th New Zealand Battalion has been loaded up at Fiji, and combined with a convoy of US artillery, is moving to garrison Rabaul.  New Zealand will provide cover.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2023 18:30
|
|
|
  I-153 taking a leaf out of I-155’s book.  The Dutch and Marblehead catch a small convoy off Manado, sadly it seems if they were carrying any troops they are already ashore.  That would be the convoy we sent Houston to intercept I bet  Murasame foils an attack by Sargo.  The Cruisers are on the other side of the Sulu Sea today.  Most of what he has in this area now is just ASW patrols I think.  Sweeps, but no bombing of Alor Star today.  Looks like we got our B-17s out just in time.  Hong Kong’s AA batteries going out with a whimper, not a bang.  Manila gets it again, but there’s really very little left now.  Welp. I always forget just how hard it is to launch even the most local of counter attacks in the beginning.  He’s flying these guys from Manado, where at least they don’t have torpedoes available.  That’s a ridiculous amount of escorts, but thankfully so few bombers it doesn’t really matter.  And the second wave has no escorts at all.  Hello, what now?  We do remarkably well, considering the storms. Although Zuiho does seem to manage to get the fires under control between the morning and the afternoon, we’ve surely put her out of the war for several months.  The cut off Filipinos surrender, putting him right outside Manila.  And Hong Kong falls.  They chase the Malaya militia out of Kota Bharu.  And our luck runs out at Sidate.   Well, that was an entirely unlooked for little bonus.  God, our planes and pilots suck so much.  With no sudden spike in losses for Japan, we can say that claiming Zuiho is a little premature. Still, she’s stuck at Ponape for quite a while now, even if she does stay above water. She’s definitely far too damaged to leave even the safety of a level one port.  Melbourne arrives, confusingly, at Sydney. SigInt posted:20th Infantry Regiment is planning for an attack on Mauban. Also that there’s another wave inbound for Mersing, which is actually good since he seems to be under the impression there’s far more defenders at Singapore than there actually are. In reality he could perfectly well get away without further reinforcing his Malayan campaign and use the troops elsewhere.  Saratoga arrives at Pearl Harbour, and swaps out the old destroyers that escorted her from the west coast for modern types, and adds two heavy cruisers.  Then we fill her deck with Warhawks for Rabaul.  Penguin is home safe at Darwin.  He’s certainly been accumulating quite a fleet at Ponape, but I’m a bit confused about what for. It isn’t noticeably closer to any of our stuff than either Truk or Kwajalein, which are more developed. Or maybe he was just trying to be sneaky.   Houston must thread the needle to make it back to safety. If I was him with our carriers around making naval strikes dicey, I’d send a surface force to pick her up, but I’m hoping he won’t because, uhhh, because he won’t!  I’m not really at all sure what this is, and it’s likely to run away from the perceived threat of our carriers anyway I should think, but we’ll leave Rabaul to set up a barrier patrol.  The carriers will continue to plough due west, the better to interfere with whatever nava strikes he might try to launch at Houston, but I restrict the strike to range 5. Ponape has a level two airfield that I’m sure will be swarming with Zeros by tomorrow, so attacks on the atoll itself would be suicidal.  With her decks crowded to inoperability, Saratoga must take a more circuitous route to Australia than straight through the Marshalls.  We might very well just get ourselves swept out of existence, but we need to put CAP up in case he tries to bomb these troop convoys. If we can get them all ashore safely we might make something like 800-1000AV at Rangoon, which with level four or so forts will become a sufficiently hard nut that a large enough nutcracker will struggle to be supplied overland.  The AA we rescued from Singapore we shall send to Soerabaja. I have no intentions of leaving them to die on Java either, but hopefully the fall of Java is at least six weeks out, and in the meantime I’m sure Soerabaja will shortly need every gun we can get our hands on.  Three Dutch destroyers head west to escort Hermes into Soerabaja. Hermes is now absolutely critical to the defence of the DEI. She’s a total glass cannon with no fighters on her deck, but her Swordfish can and will gently caress up any invasion fleet outside of air cover. Pharnakes fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Jan 11, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2023 19:02
|
|
|
Any day you're putting bombs into Japanese flight decks is a good day.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2023 00:24
|
|
|
Yeah, getting the Zuiho is real nice.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2023 01:10
|
|
|
Congrats! I think you also hit Ryojo a few days ago too? So that's both the decent IJN CVL's out.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2023 02:29
|
|
|
Pharnakes posted:
OTL there was no HMAS Melbourne during WW2. The most recent was a light cruiser sold for scrap in 1929. This one looks like a County class, which makes sense if it's replacing OTL HMAS Australia.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2023 03:58
|
|
|
SIGSEGV posted:Oh I missed that, also the idea of those cruiser guns actually being used is incredibly funny. To be fair I'm not sure I'd actually posted that, but yes, Lexington was all up in that battle, even losing one of her 8" turrets to 31cm hit. In fact that's probably the best possible place for her to have taken the hit, anywhere else would have done major damage. Good job WitP doesn't have turret flash fires! Woodchip posted:This format is fine, works great to view on desktop. If it's working for you guys we'll stick with it, the desync has actually resolved now, somewhat to my surprise, but this takes me less than a quarter of the time to write up, greatly improving the chacnes of me having the motivation to keep with it. wedgekree posted:Congrats! I think you also hit Ryojo a few days ago too? So that's both the decent IJN CVL's out. Indeed we did, she took a 500lber to the waterline on the opening day. sniper4625 posted:Any day you're putting bombs into Japanese flight decks is a good day. Yes, and along with Ryujo, we are now actually ahead on removed flight deck capacity (75 for him and 60 for us) for the all critical opening period. Of course, our losses are permanent, whereas his aren't, yet anyway. thatbastardken posted:OTL there was no HMAS Melbourne during WW2. The most recent was a light cruiser sold for scrap in 1929. This one looks like a County class, which makes sense if it's replacing OTL HMAS Australia. Yup, that's it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2023 08:37
|
|
|
Is Zuiho likely to make it to a port? It looked real banged up with heavy damage, heavy fire.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2023 18:22
|
|
|
Pharnakes posted:To be fair I'm not sure I'd actually posted that, but yes, Lexington was all up in that battle, even losing one of her 8" turrets to 31cm hit. In fact that's probably the best possible place for her to have taken the hit, anywhere else would have done major damage. Good job WitP doesn't have turret flash fires! Lesson learned: Ablative turrets have a place in carrier design.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2023 19:14
|
|
|
Pharnakes posted:If it's working for you guys we'll stick with it, the desync has actually resolved now, somewhat to my surprise, but this takes me less than a quarter of the time to write up, greatly improving the chacnes of me having the motivation to keep with it. Yeah, its totally fine, you can save the blow-by-blow screenshots for when Iowa and Yamato face off in early 1944!
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2023 20:06
|
|
|
  One downside of this format is that the hallowed WitP tradition of Bonk can no longer be recognised.  KX makes contact with the returning Ambon invasion, but misses her target.  She then re-engages more aggressively, but this time is spotted and forced to dive before she can find a solution.  Maya’s victim tonight is the floating drydock Dewey.  I should probably send O19 somewhere more useful than this.  RIP Poolster, made it past Singkawang but not past I-154.   They start cleaning up Hong Kong.  Welp, time’s up for Wake.  Sweeps have mostly died down, except for Alor Star. I think these Nates have just been forgotten about.  They absolutely hammer Batangas. Sorry, the B-17s are in another castle.  Luv a CAP trap, me.  Betties without torpedoes are really not much of a threat.  Even less to a rapidly manoeuvring warship.  Oof.   Maybe our best day yet.  A positive kill ratio against Zeros? Some dead Betties to sweeten the deal?   Poor Scout, to have made it so far. Mind you, she was probably just going to get picked up by Maya and friends anyway. SigInt posted:34462 men are based at Kobe (108,59).  The Sims class arrives at Balboa, the western end of the Panama Canal.  Errr, ummm, yikes? And yes, that is his four Pacific carriers off to the south west. I had seen these counters as the turn resolved, and was feeling very indignant that our carriers didn’t launch any strikes, but I repent now  It had been in the back of my mind the last couple days that the carriers could be returning to Kwajalein, and then after refuelling be capable of sprinting again, and in fact the carriers are exactly as far from Kwajalein as I would expect them to be if that is what happened. What I had not anticipated was simultaneously getting bracketed by surface TFs  The worst of it is I can’t even use the opportunity of having the carriers localised to reinforce Midway. The USN is so badly prepared for this war that this piddly little thing is the only ship available at Pearl that can carry troops.   These are the moments that I will forever love WitP for providing, when you just get absolutely blindsided by something your opponent does and have to try to get in his head and do the opposite of what was expected to unfuck yourself. With the way forward thoroughly blocked I decide our only chance is to book it back through the Marshalls.  This strategy quite likely involves sacrificing United States, but I want our two carriers together for mutual protection. The stacking limit for Allies until 1943 is 100 aeroplanes per TF, which we are certainly exceeding, but it’s only a chance of discoordination, and that only applies to offensive missions anyway, CAP is unaffected. Hopefully at least if there is a surface battle, United States being slower will be caught while the carriers escape.  And you know what? gently caress it, we’re going to be going right past Kwajalein anyway, we might as well return to our original mission. Maybe the prospect of imminent death will sharpen our officers’ minds enough to get them to fly an attack.  We have fuel enough to reach Johnston Island (I think, full speed calculations are always a bit wonky), but probably not Pearl, so Neosho prepares for a refuelling mission.  The Australians are going to hide at Tabar Island until this all blows over.  Well, I suppose we send what we can, while we can. I buy out a regiment from the Hawian garrison, and start loading into every single available transport at the largest naval base in the world (three).  Lahaina yields three more transports, which should total us being able to move about half a regiment of troops, plus all of the heavy equipment. That will come out to roughly 60AV, that should be enough for a very nasty surprise if he’s budgeting for the 40AV we start with.  Tennessee will provide cover.  The Seagulls flee the imminent fall of Manila.  I’m going to gamble, hard, that tomorrow will be a sweep day, not a strike day at Rangoon. Withdrawing the CAP to Mandalay is certainly risky, but this is, afterall, a turn for gambling  Trying a day of CAP at Georgetown.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2023 21:13
|
|
|
In a game where plans can take literal weeks or months to come to fruition, I do love those scrambles. Good luck carriers!
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2023 22:12
|
|
|
You did notice that sub he's got parked on Johnston Island right? RIGHT? Just...in case Neosho turns out to be important for future operations.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2023 00:55
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 4, 2024 01:47 |
|
|
Well, the refueling might be an important operation...
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2023 01:01
|
|