My First Campaign - looks like it is going to be a short one!

[mbv]

There I was thinking that playing as the Russians would be a leisurely affair. Just send the boys out on patrol and bag a few merchants once in a while to keep the heights above Port Arthur free of the horde. But, oh no, it is nothing like that. This is a bloody slugfest where every task force patrol is inevitably met by the full might of the Japanese oppressor in the form of their shiny new cruisers and battleships.

I have only got to Feb 18th and so far the carnage stands at:

Japanese (sunk)

2 Merchants
11 Destroyers
Battleship Asahi
Battleship Hatsuse
Armored cruiser Iwate
Armored cruiser Asama

Russians (sunk)

The whole of the Port Arthur fleet gone except for a minelayer and two destroyers. I cannot believe Tsessarevitch is gone . She went down gallantly fighting to the last and took Asahi with her.

35 Destroyers/torpedo boats (I think, I have lost count! )
At least two gunboats (never even saw them sink, they just vanished in the fog of war)

It is looking grim brothers! Now I only have around three ships in the Port Arthur area and will have to bring down the remnants of the Vladivostok fleet to patrol the landing areas in Korea. If the Japanese keep up the current pressure with their cruisers and battleships I will be finished before the end of the month. Patrols will have to be fewer and with smaller numbers of ships to reduce losses and try and survive until the Baltic fleet arrives.

Pass me the Vodka someone, the day has been long .............to be continued

Tsesarevitch finishes off the battleship Asahi (and the two cruisers in the background)


Tsesarevitch goes down fighting to the last

 

[WallysWorld]

Good AAR, mbv.

You took quite the toll on the Imperial Japanese Navy. But maybe were too aggressive too soon. The goal of the Russians in the campaign is to sink 375,000 tons of supplies to help the Imperial Russian Army on land. Starve the Japanese Army of supplies and you win the game.

Hope you can make it until the Russian Second Pacific Squadron arrives and that Port Arthur holds.

Did you make an attempt to move the whole fleet at Port Arthur to Vladivostok as a permanent base? Or were you going to stay at Port Arthur?

 

[Rhetor]

From the AAR it seems that the Russian player has to wait until the Japanese ships get worn out and will go for overhaul.

 

[mbv]

While it might look like I was the aggressive one it is actually the Japanese who are locating my ships and starting the big battles off. Believe me, all I want is to plug the odd merchant here and there and have a nice easy war, but instead of merchants I find Japanese battleships and cruisers and they never run away. Maybe I have just been unlucky to be targeted by such large and powerful forces so soon, I don't know.

I had the main fleet at Port Arthur for the time being. After the initial surprise attack they were resting and repairing. I just sent out the minelayers and gunboats on patrol at first. This was the first time I had taken the big ships out to sea on a merchant/auxiliary cruiser hunt. Instead I found the main Japanese fleet and got thrashed!

The Vladivostock force is largely intact and patrolling the sea lanes south and east of Vladivostock, but I am now afraid to commit my larger ships to sea in case I meet another Japanese battle fleet early on.

 

[WallysWorld]

Instead I found the main Japanese fleet...

That's what happened to the real Russian fleet and Port Arthur and why they turned back to the safety of the Port Arthur guns. Even Markarov recognized that. He would challenge Togo, but would turn back when confronted with the main battle fleet of the Japanese.

It appears that Port Arthur really is a trap for the Russians.

 

[KGB]

@ mbv, what ships u got when u faced with the main Japanese fleet ?

 

[mbv]

Not entirely sure as I didn't write them all down before the battle where I lost most of the Port Arthur fleet. I know Pobyeda, Diana, Tsessarevitch, Retvizan, Petropavlovsk and four other cruisers plus an aux cruiser and perhaps three destroyers were all sunk. It was 13 Russian v 18 Japanese.

 

[WallysWorld]

At those odds, I would have turned tail and steamed back to Port Arthur. Preserve the fleet while making smaller incursions.

I like discussing the different strategic options available.

I will start my own Russian campaign tonight.

 

[mbv]

The above campaign has now hit a major bug where the Vladivostok fleet has simply vanished off the campaign map, not sunk just vanished I have sent a report of the problem and the saves before and after the bug hit me to Norm and Co. I hope they can find a problem and sort it. I will probably have to ditch this campaign :angry:

 

[cwmark]

In a pre-patch campaign I was able to sink the Chen Yen, and six protected cruisers, cripple a seventh PC, and sink two auxilary cruisers while playing as the Russians by Febuary 1904. This occurred in two battles.

The first was between 1 Russian AC and 3 PCs against 4 Japanese PCs. A simultaneous pincer move seems to work best - cruisers on one side of the Japanense battleline and destroyers on the other. Sank 3 PCs and crippled a 4th. Lost 1 PC in exchange.

The second battle occured from a chance encounter - the Russian 1st Pacific Squadron (all the battlelships plus a large division of destroyers) was rotating back to Port Arthur when it ran into a Japanese force made up of the old coastal battleship Chen Yen and 3 protected cruisers. Chen Yen took quite a pounding before she went under. The remaining protected cruisers simply became target practice for the Russian battleships at point-blank range. The Russians suffered only light damage in this engagement.:laugh:

At this point in the campaign, I was settling into a strategy of killing off as many Japanese cruisers as opportunity presents itself. I was hoping the Japanese AI would seperate the armored cruisers from their main battleship fleet and send them out piecemeal to make up for their protected cruiser losses. Then the Russian would be able to choose between picking off the odd merchant or bushwacking a small Japaense cruiser force with superior numbers (usually Russian cruisers with lotsa destroyers and t-boats accompanying them).:yummy:

Alas, my hard drive went under on me and I'm waiting for someone in Storm Eagle to help me get this wonderful game reinstalled.:nervous:

 

[mbv]

Sounds like you had a good campaign going there. Seems like it is a good policy to knock out some of the Jap cruisers early on as that frees up the potential for some unhindered merchant hunting. Hope you get your game reinstalled OK.

I have scrapped my first campaign due to the bug and will start again as the Russians. Lets hope I meet fewer large battleship and cruiser fleets this time round.

 

[KGB]

Not entirely sure as I didn't write them all down before the battle where I lost most of the Port Arthur fleet. I know Pobyeda, Diana, Tsessarevitch, Retvizan, Petropavlovsk and four other cruisers plus an aux cruiser and perhaps three destroyers were all sunk. It was 13 Russian v 18 Japanese.

Oh dammit...
U lost two best Russian battleships - Tsessarevitch and Retvizan...
Petropavlosvsk (or Poltava) class were a bit worse than these two ships.

Perhaps only Mikasa was even to Tsessarevitch and Retvizan, while Tsessarevitch had a little thicker main belt than Retvizan, though it was a bit shorter.

Anyway, u were no lucky.
Oh, and by the way - Osliabia, Pobeda and Peresvet were made more like raiders than battleships due to high speed and only 254mm main guns (to hunt for merchants and armored/protected cruisers. In fact, their counterparts were cruisers like Iwate, Idzumo, etc.).

 

[cwmark]

Russian raider battleships? Hmmmm. Perhaps using them with my cruiser-destroyer groups would make for a really nasty surprise against the Japanese cruiser groups out there.:laugh:

The Japanese Navy is very strong - but it cannot be strong everywhere at the same time.

My overall Russian strategy is to cut down as many Japanese cruisers as situation permits and opportunity present itself. Meanwhile harassing his merchants un-ceasingly. If the Japanese AI commits his armored cruisers piecemeal - so much the better:yummy: If he should send out his destroyers and T-boats on their own - then my cruisers will feast greatly:bite:

The goal here is to reduce the Japanese Navy to his core battleships and a handful of destroyer, t-boats, and a cruiser or two. Then with the arrival of the 2nd Pacific Squadron plus time to rest and refit at Port Arthur - seek out a final showdown with numerical 2:1 superiority in Russian battleships.

 

[WallysWorld]

Remember to win the Russian campaign, you must seriously hamper or disrupt the Japanese supply routes so that their mainland army is cut off from supplies. 375,000 tons of shipping is need to be sunk according to the manual and the Russians in the real RJW only managed about 63,000 tons.

To wait for the arrival of the Second Pacific Squadron may be too late to affect the supply situation on-land.

 

[Sneer]

well ...
I started in campaign as japan but see I'm too powerfull
in port artur russia took too big losses to offer good fight later

Tsessarevitch sunk
Petropavlovsk moderately damaged
pallada, novik , boyarin sunk

 

[mbv]

Ouch! - now that sounds familiar. I am liking the raider battleship idea which is OK unless you come up against 8+ cruisers or a mix of the full Jap battleship fleet and some cruisers thrown in like I did first time round, then you need to either stand your ground or make a run for it. With hindsight the latter would have worked best for me.

 

[KGB]

Russian raider battleships? Hmmmm. Perhaps using them with my cruiser-destroyer groups would make for a really nasty surprise against the Japanese cruiser groups out there.:laugh:

The Japanese Navy is very strong - but it cannot be strong everywhere at the same time.

My overall Russian strategy is to cut down as many Japanese cruisers as situation permits and opportunity present itself. Meanwhile harassing his merchants un-ceasingly. If the Japanese AI commits his armored cruisers piecemeal - so much the better:yummy: If he should send out his destroyers and T-boats on their own - then my cruisers will feast greatly:bite:

The goal here is to reduce the Japanese Navy to his core battleships and a handful of destroyer, t-boats, and a cruiser or two. Then with the arrival of the 2nd Pacific Squadron plus time to rest and refit at Port Arthur - seek out a final showdown with numerical 2:1 superiority in Russian battleships.

Ships in 2nd Pacific Squadron are worse than those in 1st.
U MUST save at least Tsessarevich and Retvizan, cuz these ships alone are capable of sinking lke 3-4 IJN BBs, especially if properly guided.

 

[KGB]

Ouch! - now that sounds familiar. I am liking the raider battleship idea which is OK unless you come up against 8+ cruisers or a mix of the full Jap battleship fleet and some cruisers thrown in like I did first time round, then you need to either stand your ground or make a run for it. With hindsight the latter would have worked best for me.

Yesterday I sunk 3 IJN PCs (those ugly fat boats with single 320mm gun onboard) and almost sunk Chin Yen (I left home saving game with heavy damaged Chin Yen).
One thing make me mad - one of those little bastards hit my flagship Petropavlovsk right in the 2nd caliber twin 8'' turret, destroying it. Dammit.
Oh, I can't describe how glad I was watching 305mm (12'') L40 gun shells exploding on the PCs decks :devious:

Anyway, for a raider force u need 1-2 fast BBs (Osliabia, Peresvet or Pobeda), some CAs (1-2) and PCs (2-3). Well, I'm still thinking about adding destroyers to this task force...

PS: Campaing is working good for me, only crashed 1 time during battle.

 

[cwmark]

Would you recommend any special tactics when it comes to deploying the Tsarevitch and Retzivan against the more modern Japanese battleships and armored cruisers?

Some of those Japanese armored cruisers are as strong as most Russian battleships in this game! Their only shortcoming is gun caliber size. Sometimes their armor is just as good as a Russian battleship.

Got my game reinstalled - but suffering from fleet disappearance syndrome now - lol - waiting for the next patch like everyone else.