Hello gents,
I got my grubby little pirate hands on War in the Pacific - Admiral's Edition and I've been trying to learn it. I've only gone for smaller scenarios (Battle of the Coral Sea and a couple of attempts at Guadalcanal) in order to get a grip on the technical aspects of the game. I have learnt one thing:
I cannot handle the pressures of being a combat leader alone so...
Since there's so much detail to the game, I'll handle most of the low level technical stuff. What I want to decide with you guys is stuff like:
- Broad strategy: what are our mid- and long-term goals?
- Doctrine: how do we react to situations and short-term goals, e.g. how do we organise amphibious invasions, naval attacks, use carriers in general, refuel and resupply ships and bases, react to enemy sightings of air task forces (TF), surface combat TFs, transport TFs and so forth.
First, let me brief you on the Guadalcanal campaign:
The American's main foothold here is on Noumea. That's where most of our stuff is located. There is a base on Efate that has a squadron of Catalinas (long-range recon float-plane), and another base on Espiritu Santo, called Luganville. This one is closer to the action, and may also support some air squadrons.
Luganville currently holds our amphibious invasion fleet and supporting surface combat TF's.
This is our invasion fleet. Two amphibious assault task forces, plus some surface combat fleets.
This is our target. This is
Guadalcanal. The japs are building an airfield there that they can use to sever communications to Australia.
We must not let this happen. Guadalcanal is located in the Solomon islands, all occupied by the Japanese, but High Command only wants that airfield at this time. We know there are enemy
carriers and battleships somewhere in the area, though
not in the immediate vicinity. We can expect they will show up not long after the invasion. The smaller amphibious force is going to land on the Tulagi, the rest at Guadalcanal. The accompanying TF's will establish themselves in both hexes and provide invasion bombardment and AA support. We estimate the landings and initial occupation to be problem-free (by which I mean it's no sweat in my previous attempts).
Further to the east is our
carrier task group. It consists of three Task Forces, each with a carrier: the
Wasp,
Enterprise and
Saratoga. The Enterprise is travelling with the North Carolina battleship, slowing the TF from 32 knots to 28. The Wasp is slower, at 29 knots. Saratoga's TF can go a mighty 32 knots. Right now, their orders (down from HC) are to settle somewhat to the east of the target and support the invasion.
All of them are relatively low on fuel.
For all practical purposes, each carrier contains an air group with the following components:
VF, an F4F Wildcat fighter group used for CAP and escort,
VS, an SBD Dauntless scout squadron,
VB, an SBD Dauntless bomber squadron and
VT, a TBF Avenger torpedo squadron.
VF's have 30+ planes, VS/VB's have 15-20 and VT's 9-15. There is no practical difference between VS and VB, but for the sake of the name, one can do scouting while the other is used offensively only. Furthermore, some cruisers (CA) carry floatplanes that can also be used for recon.
Their default orders are above. The VS squadrons have
Naval Strike as a primary mission (i.e. they will attack ships if they see them), with
Airfield attack as a secondary mission (i.e. if no naval targets are present, the commander will choose an airfield and attack it).
I want to revise this, since they might hit the airfields that we are trying to take.
Another vital component of the Allies in this campaign is
Port Moresby, next to
Buna, between which
our land forces are engaged with japanese. They currently hold the upper hand, but not high enough that they can roll us over. Port Moresby has good enough installations for some air units. Currently stationed there are:
And on the ground:
We may want to move some of these to support the ground troops currently engaged. Southeast of Port Moresby is
Milne Bay, sporting a small airfield and some naval installations.
It is strategically placed to cover the Solomon Sea, that we know the Japs use for transport and will possibly use for counter-attack.
Overall, we have the following other forces in "reserve":
- Submarines under computer control scattered around.
- At Noumea we have two Catalina squadrons, two Wildcat units, and 4 B-17 units.
- Luganville and Efate have a Catalina squadron each, plus one Wildcat squadron.
- In Australia we have loads of B-17s, B-26s and P-39's.
- There are plenty of transport ships at Noumea, plus
a single oiler capable refuelling at sea.
- After a few days, we should be able to free some aviation support units from their restricted HQ's. Eventually, we may want to move them to Guadalcanal to support air units we station there (otherwise all planes flying from there will be out of commission/in need of repairs they can't get).
- After a few weeks, we should be able to free a strong infantry unit from somewhere in Australia and move them closer to the frontlines.
- A few weeks in, we'll get Escort Carrier (CVE) Long Island, capable of hosting 16 planes.
We will also get two more SBD squadrons, and a bunch of transports, destroyers (DD) and possibly some cruisers and light cruisers (CA, CL). I only know this happens because I've played a few weeks in - not sure how to check it otherwise.
So this is our situation. The most important issues right now are:
- Do we want to attack any airfields or ports near Guadalcanal and Tulagi with our carriers? We might hit something we will be owning soon...
- Carriers will need refuelling
soon. How do we want to do that, now and in the future? An underway refuelling TF will take some days to set up and load fuel, and we don't have many ships capable of doing it. Alternatively, we can just move the carriers all the way back to Noumea.
- How will we prepare for the counter-attack? It may include carriers and battleships, so the heavy stuff. Not sure whether they will buff up north Guadalcanal.
- Troops will be tired and in low morale after invasion of Guadalcanal. Do we want to have them start moving north immediately to try to take all of the island ASAP? North Guadalcanal doesn't have any particularly interesting facilities.
- What about the Port Moresby area? Ground troops engaged, some fighters and bombers, and some other units AT Port Moresby. How do we use them?
- Do we want to make Milne Bay into something more than it is right now (just host to some Kittyhawks)?
I await your input!
Author
Topic: War in the Pacific - Let's lose together: Guadalcanal (Read 13739 times)