TOS - Land of the Blind

El Tigre and I have started a 2 player PBEM game to test the following:

1. Invisible subs - no units can see subs at the start of the,
(There are two techs which allow units to be built or upgraded that
can see subs.)
2. A combined sub tactics+ASW tech called "submarine warfare" (cost 170)
3. Possible problems with the population control mechanism

El Tigre is Japan and I am the USA, the other countries are AI.

We will be posting progress reports and the ocassional screen shot in
this thread.

Game length is 50 turns, 10 more than the usual short game to allow
us to get through more of the tech tree.

Special rules (apply to human players only):
1. No city razing.
2. Guerillas cannot be loaded on transports.
3. No more than 4 air uints per airbase (this does not apply to
cities) because of "airbase bombard bug".
__________________

Note, I changed the player order in this game so that EL Tigre could
watch the AI moves. So the USA actually went first. On my turn I did not,
move, fortify or draft any units. I did set up my research and production,
and I did sell advanced construction to the AI for a horde of gold.

El Tigres' comments, copied over from the TOS V3.00 thread:
My best Pearl Harbor so far! I sank 5 BBs and the CA, and the Harbor has been destroyed.

However, words fail me for what happened in the western theaters: a 1hp ANZAC in Hongkong killed three units (all could have retreated), the Repulse and Prince of Wales are in a better condition than at the start, Guerillas massacred my Infantry against all odds and although I took Sian, it cost me my Infantry Army on the very first turn (a terrible, terrible dice roll)! I took Aparri and Bhuket, and have prepared the assault on other cities (I could have probably taken more, but after what had happened in China, I became quite cautious).

Americans are outraged, of course, by this sneak attack and the heavy
loss of life. All except for Admiral Halsey who was overheard to mutter:

"Good, I won't have those damn old battleships to slow me down!"

Phillipines:
Sank 2 DD, lost 1 DD attacking

South of Midway:
sank 1 DD

North of Pearl:
damaged 2 BB and 1 CA with a combination of bombers & battleship
bombard.

Lastly, and most important, sank a transport due north of Rabaul.

Oops, forgot to mention, all sinkings were by subs, except the one near
Midway, that was done by dive bombers. In the future if I do
not say what sunk your ship, you can safely assume it was a sub.

Screen Shot: situation the the Phillipines:

El Tigres' comments, copied over from the TOS V3.00 thread:

Admiral Halsey will be very happy, because we sunk his last three BBs in Pearl Harbor!

However, this is what happened when I tried to attack the US Army Air Wing (Fighter, Bomber, 2 Dive Bomber) on Midway:

DD bombs Midway, bombing run fails
TB bombs Midway, -1hp for the MG Battalion
TB bombs Midway, -1hp for the MG Battalion
DB bombs Midway, -2hp for the GI. Every ground unit has only 1hp left.
DB bombs Midway, no report!? Not even "bombing run failed".
DB bombs Midway, no report!?
Zero bombs Midway, again no report!?! No damage to the airplanes at all. Why can't I destroy them?
Zero bombs Midway, again nothing. Attack on Midway cancelled...
TB reduces DD Shaw to 1hp

Is it impossible to destroy airplanes on airstrips with redlined units on them?

>Eric's note: yes it is, thats the bug in mentioned in post 1

Davao conquered after 2 Bettys and a DD bombed the City
Manila taken after heavy bombardment (Arty, 4BB) by 1 Marine, 2 Infantry and the 1hp Tank (ya, I know...).

Other fronts: lots of tactical victories against Chinese Infantry and Guerillias. Promotions in abundance. A major offenisve will be launched soon. Rangoon still in British hands, but I captured Medan. A paratrooper failed to captue Kudat.

Played and Sent

We intercepted an invasion force headed for the island of Tarawa.
Two enemy destroyers were attacked by carrier-based aircraft
and then one was sunk by a sub, the other by a destroyer.
Two of our cruisers then engaged in a long range gun battle with
the cruiser Maya, which was escorting a transport. The Maya
was slightly damaged, no US loses.

1 Jap DD sunk east of Midway by bombers and a sub.

One transport was sunk by a sub SW of Wake Island, I'll bet that
one was full!

Phillipines:
Our subs sank 1 DD and we lost 1 sub.
And Finally:
Our last destroyer in the Phillipines, the USS Bulmer was
racing down the east coast of the islands, when he came upon
an unbelieveable sight, a transport parked just off Davao, with
no escort!!!! It was sunk in a matter of minutes.

Two transports in one turn, Admiral Halsey is a happy man!

El Tigres' comment from other thread:

The few survivors of the transport, picked up by the escorting DD, will be
quarantined for the rest of the war.

Played and sent.

Battle of Tarawa:
DD Wooden sunk
CA Maya bombs CA Chester, no effect
Bomber bombs CA Chester, -1hp
Zero bombing run fails
DB bombs CA Northampton, -1hp
TB sinks CA Northampton
Zero bombing run fails
and most importantly, our Infantry savely landed on the island (which, btw, should be smaller, too),


Pearl Harbor:
Destroyer northeast of Hilo sunk
TB bombs PH, -1hp MG Batt.
DB bombs PH, citizens killed
TB bombs PH, -1hp MG Batt.


Philippines:
DD Bulmer bombed by DD Makikumo, -1hp
Zero bombs DD Bulmer, -1hp
DD Yugure sinks DD Bulmer
Guam bombed (CA, DD) and taken without losses
destroyed the Radar Tower southwest of Cebu

Other theaters:
Prince of Wales and Repulse sunk
Manokwari and the VP location on Borneo taken
Rangoon and Kuala Lumpur taken, no losses

USA mobilizes for war after rush building factory in S.F.
Peral Harbour - Badly needed air defence system completed

The Battle of Tarawa:
USS Chester fired a salvo at the Maya which missed, but then
dive bombers and torpedo bombers sent her to the bottom. The
crew of the transport breathed a sigh of relief when the Chester
turned around and sailed east! The relief was short lived though,
a couple of torpedos slammed into the transport and she had to be
abandoned.

Wake Island:
US submarine sinks another transport northwest of the island.

Elsewhere:
Lone Jap DD (probably way off course) was sunk by waves of torpedo
and dive bombers far to the northest of Hilo.

The US submarine service still has some sharp teeth left,
Admiral Halsey is is pleased.

The IJN hands out rubber boats to all infantry units in the Pacific theater. Perhaps now some of them will arrive at their destination.

Played and sent.

Tarawa:
CA Chester sunk

a BB killed the dreaded Sub west of Wake Island
Marines stormed Cebu

A major Japanese offensive in Asia has started:
Nanning, Hankow, Mandalay and Singapure conquered
3 ANZAC infantry east of Mandalay killed
destroyed the British air force in Burma
sunk a Dutch fleet west of Borneo (CA, DD, transport)

Edit:
This stack was overkill: one lonely infantry defended Hankow...

We finish researching amphibious warfare, not hard to guess what's next.
Even though we can't see subs, we need marines more.

A quiet turn, no ships attacked.

Population of US mainland is now 71, we started at 75, two died of
starvation and we drafted 2 so if there was any disease it was matched
by growth.

Played and sent.

A US transport sank near Hilo. It must have collided with the other transport, or maybe with one of those three flattops in the same stack...

Sorry, eric_A, but after loosing so many transports to your subs, I cannot resist gloating. As soon as you find and sink my sub, I will post a screenshot of the sweetest sight a submarine commander could ever dream of....

A DD detected and killed a sub northeast of Tawara. Probably one of yours.
Radar Tower northeast of Cebu (finally) destroyed.
Airfield next to Cebu taken.

Myitkyina taken. One green Infantry died. As a result, our Burma Army could bombard Kunming from the west. The city was taken without losses.
BB Revenge sunk by DB in the Sumatra Strait.
Menado fell to a combined Marine/Infantry assault.

It must have been hard for that sub commander to ignore all those
carriers and go for the transports instead, but if it's heading west
you have to assume it's full.

I could't find that sub, but far to the northwest of Pearl Harbour,
the SS Batfish, encountered one of your subs and sank it.

I sold amphibious warfare to all the allies for lots of cash.

VPs
6154 Allies
8747 Japan

Screen shot:

The opening of the battle of Tarawa, the SS Batfish spots the
2 Jap Destroyers, you can just see the DDs from the USS Enterprise
group in the top right.

This is what I saw when I opened the save, without moving the sub:

The US fleet in parade formation. The commander of I-21 is impressed...

Closing in...



I decided to kill a transport because I thought that the flattops carried only fighters on air superiority. Later I realized that you must have sunk the DD a turn before with carrier based DB and TB. Anyway, sinking a transport left me with enough hitpoints to kill the second transport. More importantly than sinking a ship is the information about your fleet I-21 gave me, and that it is still alive.

Turn report (last turn for today):

I sunk the (empty) transport next to Hilo. One transport to rush buy...

CA Kumano found the CV Enterprise and bombed the escorting CA.

Foochow and Dongala conquered, but a 1hp ANZAC in Kudat killed two Marines!! Two Chinese cities will surrender soon...


Edit: How do you remove the link? And why is the image not where it should be?

Yes, that last transport you sank was empty.

The Kumano came to Fiji looking for trouble and found it.
They managed to damage my Cruiser the USS Louisville,
before my elite dive bombers got them.
Now Kumano sleeps with the fishes.

El_Tigre said:

Foochow and Dongala conquered, but a 1hp ANZAC in Kudat killed two Marines!! Two Chinese cities will surrender soon...

Click to expand...

Just when I was thinking my AI allies were good for nothing!

A DB surprised the heavily damaged DD Edsall near Cape York. The ship sank immediately.

The CA Louisville didn't make it back to port. A torpedo sank the ship.

What looked to be another easy victim for I-21, a DD east of Hilo, proved to be the death of the famed I-Boat.

I lost two subs attacking one of your subs near Midway.

Kudat and Taiyan conquered. Two Infantry lost in China, but a fighter and a bomber were destroyed on the ground. Chunking still in Chinese hands.

----
The Battle of Fiji, two turns earlier: The Enterprise group, known to be in the Tarawa region, is spottet by Torpedo Bombers. CA Kumano heads south to intercept the carrier west of Fiji. Both CAs are sunk in the encounter.

One of my destroyers "found" a sub about 4 tiles SW of Pearl and
was sunk attacking. Then the battleship Idaho came along and sank the
sub and got promoted.

The overall situation:
VPs:
Japan 12201
Allies 7985

Japan holds 2 of the 3 island airbases in the Central Pacific. These
are Kwajelien and Tarawa. The third island, Wake, is still in US
hands due mainly to the efforts of one brave sub crew. This means
there is a hole in Japan's defence perimeter and I would
not be suprised to see a major Japanese operation to try and sieze it.

US convoy operations got off to a bad start with 1 transport sunk
enroute to Hilo and the other sunk just after unloading. However,
4 Japanese subs have recently been lost in the Hawaii area so things
may be improving.

Finally there is the USS Entreprise task force, last seen near Samoa, playing
hide and seek with the IJN.

A DD attacked and destroyed a sub northwest of Midway. Otherwise a quiet week in the Pacific...

Palembang fell this turn. One Infantry and a Bomber lost. Dutch resistance is stiffening: the city was defended by a MG Battalion and a Combat Engineer.

Sangkoelirang taken without losses.

Dutch and British subs sank 2 DDs and an empty transport in Indonesia this turn.

Victory locations: Do I have to put a unit on them if they are within my borders? Do I gain VPs if one of my units is on top of them, but they are in enemy territory?

El_Tigre said:

Victory locations: Do I have to put a unit on them if they are within my borders? Do I gain VPs if one of my units is on top of them, but they are in enemy territory?

Click to expand...

It says in the conquest booklet that it must be occupied by a military unit
to get points.