Hello.
Welcome to my AAR for the fourth, "Marshalls-Gilberts Raid" mission of Order of Battle: WW2 U.S. Pacific campaign.
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| Figure 1 - Briefing |
As presented in the chapter devoted to my technology strategy, I chose "Centimetric Radar" (top left corner of figure 1). The description of warships' capabilities is accurate, all ship and aircraft up to 12 tiles from the emitter and beyond its visual range will be depicted as a radar blip. The one pertaining to aircraft's radar is misleading. All aircraft have a built-in six-tile radar and most have a three-tile visual range. This specialisation extends this radar range to eight tiles and thus contacts beyond the dominant three-tile visual range can be said to be in a "five-tile radar range". The U.S. PBY Catalina has a four-tile visual range and is "short-changed" with a four-tile radar range.
This mission is a nice change of pace in the campaign. It is the first aero-naval mission and the first where the U.S. forces have the initiative. It is also a light and easy mission where the Japanese opponent offers a rather perfunctory defense.
We are tasked to not lose any (aircraft) carrier over 25 turns, each turn earning us $20. That is all that is required to win the mission. If we also manage to not sustain any damage on our carrier(s) it (they) will be readily available on the next mission.
We are granted the use of one (auxiliary) aircraft carrier carrying one SBD2 Dauntless dive-bomber and two F4F4 Wildcat fighters (all auxiliary), and one (auxiliary) support ship. Not having taken any damage on (let alone losing) any of the carriers in any of my runs, I can only speculate that the damage/loss criteria applies only to the auxiliary carrier. The inclusion of the support ship leads me to further speculate that the relevant damage would be any not repaired by the last turn.
One New Orleans-class cruiser (CA36 Minneapolis) and one Gleaves-class destroyer (DD431 Plunket) are added to our core, both without any experience. As neither is in a port the option to trade cash for experience is not available.
There are three additional Secondary objectives pertaining to the destruction of JP units (aircraft, ships and Fuel Depots), each degrading the (unquantified) capabilities of the AI opponent in future (unspecified) missions. Clicking on the question mark for the Fuel Depot objective unequivocally identifies their location. The inserts along the right edge of Figure 1 depict the ones for this run (I'll expand on this feature on the next post).
All that remains to mention on Figure 1 is the amount of Resource Points available ($734) and of Command Points allowing the deployment of more core units (20 NavalCP and 15 AirCP). I will also expand on this on the next post when I present my force composition.
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| Figure 2 - Land masses |
Next up is Figure 2, depicting the primary (because they are the only ones meriting a name) land masses on the map as they appear in the Deployment Phase. Other than Butaritari Is./Makin Is. (which are located towards the southeastern corner of the map) they are displayed in roughly their relative positions. As the locations of the Fuel Depots are already disclosed we can glean the probable locations of the eight aircraft (airfields) and ten ships (ports) that have to be destroyed to achieve those secondary objectives.
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| Figure 3 - Allies and auxiliaries |
Moving along swiftly to Figure 3 which depicts the AI-controlled U.S. force of four New Orleans-class cruisers escorted by four destroyers (Blue Team), all deployed on the northeastern corner of the map. In my experience they never play a role on this mission other than take up CPU time at the end of each turn (the JP AI is sandwiched between the player and the Blue Team). The auxiliary Carrier and Support Ship are deployed amidst the cruisers.
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| Figure 4 - Strategic Map, Deployment Phase |
Figure 4 is the last one for this post. It is the Strategic Map as of the Deployment Phase. The land masses from Figure 2 are displayed in full color. Deployment zones are highlighted and the Initial (sea only) is somewhat of a misnomer: Aircraft Carriers, Battleships and Cruisers generate their own deployment zone for the aircraft they are allowed to carry. There are two locations on the southwestern corner of the map marked in red, they are exit points for JP units.
The lines depicted on the map are more of a general time/distance assessment than of actual paths taken. The blue line pertains to the ships deployed closest to Mili Atoll and indicates that Kwajalein is reachable within thirteen turns if we approach Maloelap and Wotje Atolls on the way. The green line indicates that Butaritari Is. requires a ten-turn round trip and is thus best dealt with by air units.
The aircraft aboard the auxiliary Carrier will have to take-off one per turn. The three yellow/gold lines closest to the West edge of the map depict possible routes towards Butaritari Is. As the SBD2 Dauntless is slower (eight tiles per turn) it is launched on Turn 1 and can reach its destination by Turn 6. The F4F4 Wildcats are faster (ten tiles per turn) and can catch up, particularly as the Carrier moves closer to join the core units that will be deployed forward.
Two core aircraft (SBD3 Dauntless and F4F4 Wildcat) will be deployed in the air outside the Initial (sea only) zone's edge. This is accomplished by deploying an Aircraft Carrier at the (southernmost) edge of the zone and taking advantage of its intrinsic deployment zone (the carrier's tile and the six adjoining ones). The SBD3 Dauntless can thus reach both the airfield and the port tiles by Turn 3 (the thin yellow line indicates its reach by Turn 3) and the F4F4 Wildcat is barely unable to reach the airfield by Turn 2 (the thin gold line).
The thick white line indicates a path for a OS2U Kingfisher reconnaissance floatplane on Turn 1. Deployed just outside the Initial (sea only) zone by the same mechanic as the SBD3 and F4F4, it moves in two pulses (perpendicular ticks). The smaller white line hexagon is its visual range and the larger one is its radar range at the end of Turn 1.
