Summary of Session IX (and Final?)
Dates: October 17, 1941 - April 12, 1942
The reason for the massive delay in my post is that we were quite unsure whether we would continue the series or not or declare an allied victory. It appears that we are going to possibly play on for one more session and might incorporate a bit of Operation Unthinkable into it. For all basic purposes though, this series appears to be done.
On the Eastern Front: My post will simply not do enough justice for the mess that was the Northern part of the Eastern front. At one time, both Germans and Soviets had pockets around each other troops simultaneously. The Russians front is just outside of Konigsberg in the north and their line runs through the former Poland. In the south, the Soviets have formed a line just outside of Romania and Hungary. As was the most likely prediction, once Destiny ran out fate turned against Germany. The Soviet Union clearly has the upper hand in the conflict.
Elsewhere in the East: Hungary and Romania both live and hold all of their territory and even a bit of gains currently. The Russians appear to have stopped their advances on this front to focus their efforts to push through Poland against the Germans.
In Italy: The UK began a concerted effort and Italy capitulated shortly after. The Uk fleet finally met the Italian fleet and destroyed it (including their carriers).
In Germany: The UK followed up its effort by continuing their offense into Germany through Austria. The British staged an invasion in the North of Germany around Kiel. Currently, Berlin sits surrounded (still with a decent sized garrison) by a lot of angry British armored divisions. Likely, it is only a matter of time before Berlin falls to the British.
In France: The Canadians have liberated Paris. Baguettes, wine and cheese for all!
In Ethiopia: Ethiopia has fallen to the Australians after an arduous campaign.
In China: Chinese forces appeared to be faltering but appear to have found traction. Japan holds the upper hand in the skies over China. Terrain is assuredly playing a huge factor here in the defense of China. For more on this theater, see below.
In the Pacific: This will be the meat of my post as I'm the U.S. player. Further, I'll flip over all of my cards and strategical thinking because this was the last serious session has been played in the series. I'll look through my successes, mistakes, and things to change for next time.
Overall strategy: First, the match up. I knew I would be playing Seppi as the main Japanese player. I have never faced off with Seppi before. However, Karsten (who is an excellent player) said that he thought Seppi was better than him. Now I didn't know if Karsten was being humble or Seppi was just that awesome, but either way, I knew I'd be likely playing against the best or second best player in the group. This influenced my strategy heavily. I went for a war of production and attrition, (as what happened historically). My goal was to strangle the Japanese economy and outproduce them. I knew he would have superior leaders and technologies compared to me in a few key areas.
Main focuses: Navy and air force. In my strategy, the army was completely hosed. My infantry weapons are still at the 1938 levels in 1942. I really shifted a massive amount of resources (IC and leadership) into the the navy and air force. As for my build up, I made the off-colored choice of choosing not to produce IC. I know right now, you're probably flabbergasted at such a choice, but I'll explain why I made this decision. In our group, we have an extremely restrictive IC building rule. To save you the math, the U.S. would only be allowed to build 5 factors initially at the 1936 start. Most other multiplayer groups allow for considerably more (such as 10% of base IC). when I analyzed this, I just throught it wouldn't really be worth it in the long run when I factor in the loss practicals from not building fighting assets. Also, those same practicals that I'd be missing out on would help fuel my tech speed which I would be lagging behind Japan (because of their modifiers for owning various straits). In hindsight, was this the right choice? I don't know. If the game had gone longer, probably not. But at this point, I do think I made the right call or at least one that didn't shape the outcome.
Production Numbers as of Dec. 7, 1941 for things I produced beyond starting number levels:
Subs: 39
Carriers: 27
Light Cruisers: 29
Destroyers: 39
Cag: 54
Int: 18
Tac: 8
Nav: 6
Strat: 7
Land: 2 Cav upgraded into Larm
That's correct, I did not have a single land unit produced for all of the game up until Dec. 7th. Why this choice? I knew that I wouldn't be needed in Europe early. Initially I had planned to make 1940 and 1941 my years to spam land units but as the game progressed and the UK's land army was clearly superior to Germany's I knew I wouldn't be needed in Europe early. Thus, the only threat to America at the time was Japan. This meant that the fight would be on the seas and in the skies mainly. Other places my IC went was 1. supporting the crap out of Nat China, and 2. fortifying the islands of wake, midway, and hawaii with radar stations, coastal fortresses, air fields, and infrastructure. These three positions I earmarked as my hold at all cost and do not lose territories.
Initially, Mr. B was slated to be my co-op. The initial plan was that I would control the subs and he would control the carrier fleets. This would stretch the Japanese navy thin because they couldn't be fighting huge carrier battles and hunting subs at the same time. Most of the ints, and all of the tacs were slated to do battle in the skies over Nat. China against the Japanese. The strats were originally to be sent to Europe and bomb the Germans but they were never needed there. The naval bombers were to hopefully follow home a defeated fleet and finish it off in port. As we all know what they say about plans, many things ended up changed.
The things that remained the same were that most of my ints and all of the tacs went to help Nat. China. My strats weren't needed in Europe with Germany appearing to be close to capitulating. Thus, I sent them to Indonesia. As I was not in a position to strike the home Japanese isles with them without having them shredded I made no attempt. Instead they did runs and hit some IC in Indochina. Perhaps most importantly, Mr. B was transferred from the Allies to the Axis. Thus, I no longer had the co-op I had planned on. While Ib was gracious enough to agree to help me out, I didn't want to put him in the high pressure situation of managing the naval assets. Thus, I had to control the 5 carrier fleets and 13 sub fleets simultaneously. This is the time to also mention that that we play on speed 2. Luckily, I was pretty good at Starcraft and other RTS games. As Japan opened initially by taking the Philippines and pursuing the war in Nat. China, I had plenty of time to get the subs out and convoy raiding. I could tell that the Japanese players had their attention elsewhere because the subs were uncontested for quite some time and scoring great results. I kept my carriers in port to finish up some critical upgrades. I had decided to concede the Phillippines to Japan to buy me time and to respect Seppi's skill as a player. I knew that I didn't have to win my fights against Japan; I just had to make sure that I didn't lose them. My IC and strategy would allow me to outproduce Japan in the long term as long as I didn't take catastrophic losses in decisive encounters. I also hoped that the convoy losses (in a best case scenario) would eventually result in Japan being unable to supply their troops in China and allow the Chinese to push back the Japanese on the ground.
Summary of naval actions:
1. Convoy raiding: Overall, I would term it a success but I haven't been inside the save game as Japan to confirm what magnitude it was. What I do know from spy intel was that I forced him to throw a shitton of convoys into the queue and build. This feeds into my strategy of keeping Japan fighting and burning up resources. If he's forced to produce almost nothing but convoys, it means that he can't produce far more useful things. Once they went dry, I would be able to deliver a killing blow through superior amounts of forces.
2. Dealing with sub hunters: As I was convoy raiding Japan heavily, he would naturally have to respond. Overall, the results are mixed here. I currently have 19 subs remaining. That means that 50% of the fleet was lost. Now, naturally these are disproportionally the worst subs, I did lose some nicer ones due to mis-microing. Two incidents of mis-microing cost me 2 1940 subs and 2 1937 subs. That being said, I was able to micro some subs to safety. However, twice I got subs to safety to only have them bombed away in ports. While this focuses on the controlling of units rather than the strategy necessarily, it clearly shows me where I can improve my play. From the downside though, there were successes. First, I used a battleship fleet to engage a group of 6 destroyers that were sub hunting (I'm sure they were older ones though). My battleship fleet came in, killed all six destroyers, got engaged by a Japanese carrier fleet, and was able to run away to Ceylon without losing any ships. Beyond that though, as my sub placement for convoy raiding is extremely aggressive (encircling the Japanese home isles and just off the coast of the Philippines and Indochina) it means that I didn't send carrier fleets in to engage for risk of losing them that far from home.
3. Carrier battles: There was only one large carrier engagement and it was off the coast of Saipan. I had just lost Guam (as I had planned to) and I realized that Germany was about to fall to the British. I had originally intended to not use my carriers in a decisive battle until Japan tried to assault Wake, Midway, or Honolulu. I knew that as our time for the session was drawing to a close and that there might not be a next session, I decided to give battle with the Japanese fleet to see how my fleet would hold up because it wouldn't matter in the long run. I believe that Japan fielded 3 carrier fleets (possible four, but probably only three) against my 5 carrier fleets of 5 carriers each. As for how many carriers are in a carrier fleet of Japan, I can't remember. I didn't have time to go inside the battle and look. I would estimate it is roughly the same as my fleets though. One difference is that my fleets tend to use light cruisers as escorts while the Japanese fleets use destroyers.
In the battle, I sunk 2 carriers and 2 destroyers of Japan. In return, the Japanese sunk 4 carriers, 3 destroyers, and 3 light cruisers. As I predicted and feared, the Japanese carriers would be better pound for pound. Knowing this, I knew that I would have to engage a carrier fleet of Japan twice to score any kills. The first engagement would certainly take some losses but would de-org the Japanese fleet. The second engagement would allow a fresh fleet to fight a weakened Japanese fleet and sink some ships. The true question in regards to the losses is whether both sides can sustain them or would they be fighting sub-optimally afterwards. Personally, I have spare escort ships to make up the losses there. Further, I had two carriers in reserve that will replace two of the four losses. Thus, the true loss for me is 2 carriers. As Japan lost relatively few ships as well, I highly doubt it will put a huge dent in Japan. As such, I consider the battle a draw.
Summary of Air actions:
1. The skies of China. It was rather brutal. The Japanese had the advantage of having their planes there with full org and ready for the battle. The American planes were forced to fly in (and fight immediately) on Dec. 7th. Thus, while most of the interceptors were in decent shape, they have very little org. The tacs on the other hand got cut up pretty badly and would need a decent amount of repair time before they would be serviceable. Also, Japan has religiously bombed Chinese air fields further complicating the matter. As it stands right now, Japan definitely has most of the power in the skies over China.
2. Strat bombing. As part of the goal to strangle Japan economically, the strats were intended to see action against Japan far later in the war. They were supposed to first be used against Germany to ensure that Germany would fall. As they were not needed in Europe, I sent them to the Pacific and have only had them bomb Indochina. As it stands right now, they have not paid for themselves investment wise because the war has been so short.
3. Naval bombing. This is always rather tricky because the goal is to sink the enemy's ships and not level up their admirals while doing minimal damage. We had one bombing run with them against Saipan before Guam fell. I did this because I knew that I would lose Guam and thus bombing range of the Japanese fleet in port before I could fight them otherwise. Optimally, I would have had the carrier battle and then sent the bombers after the damaged fleets in port. However, this opportunity has not presented itself yet.
Land Action: Right now, I have currently only produced 5 divisions of marines that were shipped to Europe under Ib's command. He dutifully has led them in the European fight against Hungarian troops. The object of this was to get some combat experience and provide minor assistance to the British advance in Germany.
Overall thoughts of my strategy and critiques: Right now, my strategy seems to have done well enough overall but realistically, its far too early to tell. Only 5 months and 1 week of combat has elapsed. Further, I have gone for a long term strategy and we are still in the relative short term. One thing I should clarify is why I chose to go for a long term strategy. Our previous game lasted until Dec. 1943 and easily could have gone into 44 or 45 at the rate it was going. Thus, I planned accordingly expecting a game to go that long. That being said, my strategy has clearly not hit its stride yet and is still in its holding back Japan phase. A few key technological choices haven't yet shown their full power (as in none yet). I have literally just completed acoustic torpedoes. I made this choice because I wanted my subs to be as beefy as possible. With acoustic torpedoes, I hoped that they would have enough power to fight off (and possibly even kill) any small fleets of old destroyers that were hunting for them. Thus, I hoped this would lure the Japanese carrier fleets into being forced to hunt for subs and allow my carriers the chance to jump the Japanese fleets. However, I have just finished it and none of my subs have upgraded them yet. As I spent a lot of leadership points on tech rushing this very far ahead of time, it's a bit painful that these effects have not been seen yet. I also set myself up to begin researching radar guided bombs and radar guided missiles short but haven't had the chance yet. Also, I question whether I should have defended Guam. While I basically sent my fleet in just for the hell of it because I feared the game would be over soon, a better strategy would have been to defend Guam (because I basically fought in the same locations). This would have allowed my naval bombers to follow home the Japanese fleet and possibly score some more kills. At a minimum, it would have slowed down the repairing rate of the Japanese fleet by forcing them to flee or take more damage.
As for the skies over China, I'm not sure what could have been done better besides being more careful with the rebasing of planes. While Nat. China is currently holding, the situation in Nat. China seemed rather dire forcing my planes into action immediately. Some tech rushing of the fighter planes may have helped.
Final thoughts: Overall, I'm relatively happy with the strategy. As so much of it was centered around convoy raiding and I can't confirm how much IC is being forced into building new convoys, it's a bit hard to judge how successful it was. Further, I made a heavy leadership commitment into tech rushing for my submarines. However, as it was pop up hell for periods involving all the notifications of convoys we sunk, I think it will be decent at a minimum. Further, acoustic torpedoes, continued sub production, and forcing the Japanese carrier flee to fight instead of sub hunt would have contributed to the continued success. However, the most obvious and accurate assessment of the war in the Pacific was that it was incredibly far from being decided. A catastrophe for either player involving large numbers of carriers being sunk could have swung the balance in either direction. Japan hasn't yet hit the defensive areas that I set up and I haven't gone on the offense yet outside of convoy raiding, one carrier battle, and air force actions.
As always, I encourage my fellow players to add their thoughts on the session and game. Further, if you have any questions about my strategy or wish me to elaborate on certain parts, feel free to ask and I'll give you my reasoning.