Dilvish said:
I salute my opponent. Kevin planned well and fought well. Thank you for playing.
Thank you. And, as easy as it may've seemed from outside, it wasn't. You had me guessing til the end. Plus, that final mission was a stunner to me.
Dilvish said:
Thank you to Glenn for running the game
Ditto & redoubled. He did so much of my "staff" work, he should be sharing victory credit with me.
Thx so much, Glenn, for your patience.
Dilvish said:
I had a tanker operating with my task forces
I wanted to do that, but the tankers were all speed limited (1 sq/t). Were yours faster?
Dilvish said:
try to lure Japanese ships away from the island, perhaps within close range of the approaching Lexington
You almost had me doing it.
I was hoping for a USN cruiser/BB force close enough I could engage at nightfall or at night, without leaving the beaches too exposed.
I also kept hoping I could deliver crippling blows & use my TF escort cruisers to finish the job...
Did
Akagi draw Lex to Midway? Had I left her "dark", until my transports landed, could I have used her to defend the landing? (Presuming PBYs didn't find her, not a given.) IMO, that might have been enough to save my landing.
Dilvish said:
In answer to your question about a 3rd Pearl Harbor Raid, I'll say that it would be a bad idea.
Never. Attacking an alerted Oahu with air is suicidal.
Besides, the damage to the Fleet, & the facilities, is enough to buy the year or so IJHQ anticipated needing.
It also, IMO (& by now, you all now what I'm going to say next
), tips the balance for Nimitz away from his CVs to his only remaining striking force...& that is extremely bad news for Japan.
This may, in fact, have shortened the war appreciably.
Dilvish said:
I ended the game with 16-18 steps of P-40s on Oahu, with a dozen or more steps of P-36s scattered around the islands. Hawaii's airfields can be reinforced quicker than either side's carriers.
That alone argues against coming back, from the IJN POV.
Dilvish said:
I had forgotten about being able to start the game with PBYs to the anchorages between Hawaii and Midway.
Count me glad.
It never crossed my mind.
Tho, what with the sub refuelling of my Mavises, it should have.
Dilvish said:
limited long range recon I had at Midway to begin with hurt.
You did get some bad luck (or I some good), because I managed to avoid you spotting my invasion force thanks to some cloud the day turn before (two turns before?) I ran in. More PBYs there might have changed that, IDK. More at, frex, FFShoals might have, too.
Dilvish said:
Midway should have received more PBYs. Kawai should have received more PBYs and B-17s. Though I probably concentrated the B-17s on Oahu to form a strong striking force of heavy bombers.
In game terms, IMO, keeping the B-17s together as a strike force was a good idea. As I'm reading the map, either on Kauai makes approach from SE even less attractive...
Dilvish said:
I wanted a cruiser striking force, because well, I like cruisers, and hoped for a surface engagement.
I had the same hope, but I figured keeping cruisers with the CVs protected them while not restricting independent action; putting the rest with the Midway Force was the logical place. (For everyone's info, I got, & I presume Dilvish got, blank counters for TFs to confuse recce, & I filled out two CV TFs with cruisers for VSs, my CVs, & blanks.)
I did put two CLs with my tanker force; in retrospect, not sure that was essential.
Dilvish said:
In retrospect, I should have followed USN carrier doctrine completely and operate the three carriers as three separate forces. Run the risk of losing one carrier to Kido Butai in exchange for being able to concentrate the rest of the fleet for an ambush.
That would unquestionably have made my job harder.
OTOH, what might have happened was, while I'm stooging around Oahu looking for your CVs, I'm approaching Midway & putting troops ashore, getting your attention...just in time for me to hit Oahu with BBs.
Dilvish said:
Later on in the game, I borrowed from the historical Japanese playbook. Lexington was being reinforced with land-based carrier planes, with others moving westward along the islands. Moving those planes west only happened after I knew that Midway was now the target.
I found that finishing stroke very well played, indeed. I thought I was going to get a clean win; it appears the invasion might (would?) have been thrown off. (Your BBs could have done to my troops what mine did to yours.
)
Dilvish said:
You had me completely believing that your target was Oahu and my fleet.
For me, it really was. In game terms, Midway was valuable, but my personal attention was on Oahu & the CVs.
Dilvish said:
Hmm, in that respect, assigning Zuiho and Shoho to Kido Butai protected your invasion forces better than if they had been with the invasion forces.
How so? Absorbing strikes? Or making Oahu look more important?
Dilvish said:
By the way, you had a submarine seaplane carrier as well?!
That was a cool addition to your force. Even more reason for me to have established bases at those anchorages. Could that submarine make torpedo attacks?
I had my own "Op K".
I take it my early recce over Oahu didn't reveal they were Mavises. I wondered if you'd notice & come looking.
(Those searches, in the main, were negative, telling me only where the CVs
werent.
)
Dilvish said:
I am wondering what lessons both navies will take away from this battle. Will the USN decide that carrier raids on island bases will be too dangerous unless the carriers are in large numbers? Will the IJN think the same thing? The carriers can attack a powerful land base, or fight an enemy fleet, but not both.
I would hope they'd take the lesson of the value of good recce.
More VSs for CAs? A stronger CA escort to augment TV scouting? More *SBDs? (There were OTL proposals for a dedicated recce type; IMO, a bad choice.)
Can I ask if you were flying "armed recce"? The SBDs OTL were supposed to be able to; AFAIK, in-game, I didn't have that option.
Dilvish said:
Hmm, I just had a brain storm. The US has two crippled heavy cruisers from this game. Would there be serious thought given to rebuilding them as light carriers? They are also already in the Pacific, if space can be found at West Coast shipyards.
I would guess, with the number built OTL, that won't be necessary.
I wonder if this puts paid to the USN BB force except for fire support.
My proposed reaction by Japan is upthread, so I won't repeat. Just one other thing: how much fuel oil has this burned?
How much tanker traffic is going to be needed to make it up?
How much new tanker construction (& so reduced freighter/cargo shipping)?
I would not want to be IJNHQ after this...