Malay Barrier campaign - December 1941 – March 1942

Started by paulr, 16 January 2022, 12:11:39 AM

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paulr

Results

I think it is fair to say the results of the campaign were a bit of a surprise to Pierre the Shy. He had spent weeks desperately avoiding Japanese air attacks and withdrawing from superior Japanese forces. His main British force had been crippled in a drawn action. All his American cruisers had been sunk in a disastrous night action. The ANZAC squadron had a couple of significant successes but in one of these they had not been able to engage the out numbered Japanese warships.

The victory conditions required the Japanese to have successfully land 25 convoys to win. The Western Attach Force had completed all of theirs but the Eastern Attack Force ran out of time and failed to capture Dili, Timor and Surabaya, Java. This was due in part to the two successful intercepts by the ANZAC squadron. The Japanese Eastern Attack Force had also made what turned out to be a fateful decision early in the campaign. They attempted to gain dominance using strong patrols rather than dispatching 3 convoys.

The degree of victory was determined by the ratio victory points, based on ships damaged and crippled. The expectation being that the Japanese would sink and cripple up to 3 times more than the Allies. The Allies ended up with 54 victory points to the Japanese 39.75 giving Pierre the Shy a Strategic Victory, the best possible result.

His focus on destroying Japanese transports (half his victory points) and willingness to withdraw when the odds were against him had served him very well. He had been fortunate that a lot of the engagements had been during the day which allowed him to see what he was up against before engaging.
Lord Lensman of Wellington
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pierre the shy

ABDA did a bit better than I expected, though we still lost Malaya, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies to the Japanese. I won't say much more as I think Paul has summed it up really well just above.

Though much is taken, much abides; and though
we are not now that strength which in old days
moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are.

Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

Congratulations to ADABA and looking forward to the next campaign reports,
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toxicpixie

Well done ABDA, for dancing round a much superior force and getting its punches in where it matters!
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Ithoriel

A fascinating and delightful campaign and well reported! Much enjoyed, thanks for this.
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Duke Speedy of Leighton

Wow! Great results and wonderful write ups. Thank you.
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fred.

This has been a very enjoyable campaign to read about. 

Hope it was fun to play - sounds like Pierre may have felt he was loosing, even though he managed to disrupt Japanese plans and maintain a good damage ratio.
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paulr

I think both sides felt they were losing X_X  X_X

That made umpiring interesting
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toxicpixie

Quote from: paulr on 09 May 2022, 09:13:08 AMI think both sides felt they were losing X_X  X_X

That made umpiring interesting

Yes, real world actions are often so unbalanced that even doing better than history, and actually doing something that affects the greater war outcome, still feels very unsatisfying!
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fred.

Interesting that both sides seemed to think they were loosing - and I suppose correct assessment for the Japanese who knew they were behind schedule. 

I suppose it comes down to if this high level fog of war made it interesting for the players or not. The only similiar experience I had was with the Close Combat Market Garden computer game - where a lot of the battles as the British Paras where just about clinging on to a map - basically aiming for a draw due to time running out. Which gave more time for the XXX corps advance or reinforcement drops. 

Kind of worked playing against a computer, not sure how great it would have been with two human players. 
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toxicpixie

I wrote a large post, and the phone decided it wasn't connected when it posted.

So I'll just say aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Edit - oh THAT bloody posted fine.
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