EA Damian(J) V Nemo(A) "Renaissance"

[ny59giants]

I have a handful of subs that have a 50/50 chance to make it safely to port and survive. I will probably lose my 3rd Russian subs in the next few days as her damage control seems to be weakening. [:(]

However, I should be receiving my 1st Gato class sub soon. [&o]

I was on AS 34 Canopus from '79 - '81 working on SSBN as an Electronics Technician (repaired cryptographic equipment), so I like my subs and will hunt the few you have as soon as my Wilkes/Clemson Class get their upgrades on 1/1/42. So some of yours have less than a month before their life gets shortened. My one opponent whose game got to mid-43 would attest. [:)]

I'm proud to announce the promotion of the Captian on O16. He has sunk his 6th transport at Kuching (he also put the 3rd torpedo in your BB). He reported being out of position and had to setttle for the AK there vs the damaged CVE. I may need to make a reservation for him in the Line Islands. [:D]

[Nemo121]

SIX transports within the first month of the game? Not bad at all. O-16 always tends to do well though, he's a good captain.
 
P.s. WiTP Tracker is far and away the best tool I've ever seen for selecting leaders with just the abilities you value for that particular position. I highly recommend it.

[ny59giants]

Thanks Nemo,
I will have to see how many of my Russians can be improved in this area after a brief visit to Pearl. I will have to have some sunscreen flown in from the states for them before they get sent to harass the Japanese to the south. I have changed leaders on many LBA, so I guess I can start doing so for subs as they pass through their home ports. Don't want Damian to think I'm going to slack off on him. [:D]

[n01487477]

25~26/12/41 Back to the Action

Michael has scaring me off a direct & quick assault on Sumatra and Java, through his judicious use of British and Dutch Torpedo and short range LB, I'm trying to regroup and develop a Stormin' Norman war plan of bombing the crap out of all his airbases before I send the troops.

With many airbases open, I wont be able to stop everything, but maybe I can give his forces some pause to think...I've opened the base at Kuching, and placed some LB there with fighter escort.

Success was swiftly coming on the first day of ops (26th) ... attacks concentrated on Palambang, 24 Allied planes bit the dust, although from what I can tell, little damage was actually done to the runway.

Johore Bahru also fell on the 26th, so with this last base taken before my final assault on Singapore & most of my troops in place to perform this task, I'll concentrate on roughing up the poor troops in Singapore and killing off his ability to attack my troop transports.

Annoyingly there are still 3-4 PT's roaming near Singapore, I've sunk 20 of these already, but they are a thorn in my side ... I really dislike this aspect of WITP, but alas can't have it all!

I'll report on the Pacific Ops after they have been concluded... & a economic update at the end of the month

(no point in a screen shot until this new web site is going ... don't IT guys usually check this kind of stuff before migration ? )

[n01487477]

27/12/41 - Air Attacks continue on Palembang / China a mess of yellow dots!!

Michael must have removed some of his air units out of Palembang, there were less casualties for him today, but I will continue to pound this airbase, until it is inoperable. Dispersal to Java and maybe his remaining bases on Borneo is the main possibility. With a few TT's on route to clean these up, it wont be long before I can concentrate on hunting them down and dispatching them to a better place.

In China, I'm not sure what is going on, all I know is there is a sea of yellow, and I'm under the impression that if he combines all those yellows ... gulp ... I could be kicked outta there. I'd love to show you a pic ... but ...

Anyway, I kicked some troops out of Nanchang, but it was such a small force, I wonder if the other guys close by are coming this way...
Ichang also is now beseiged ... I don't think I can hold it, if he brings in more ... but we shall see.

In BB, I liked the fact that ground combat in China, was somewhat muted, here the Chinese seem to be much more active ... damn!

[n01487477]

28/12/41
My email to Michael

Today is not the day for the Christmas Is invasion ... you will know what I'm up to in a few days ... let's just say the news of Russian subs steaming Sth, has given me time to ponder what I want, what I can supply and what I can hold ...

Noumea ... you know what I'm going for now. This turn I got a few transports, nothing to write home about ... you know by now that I have a CV or two there ... Not sure if I should be telling you this ... but I broke it off from KB when they hit Kwajalein, steamed them full-speed for a bit to get there (but I couldn't have done that without the number of AO's in this mod ... it's cool for offensive op's, in BB I'd have to wait a lot longer to move around my CV's) ... you have no aircraft showing at Noumea and little defence? excellent! I was worried that you had moved your CV's sth, but I guess they are cruising off Hawaii or worst case near Fiji. In which case I'll run home soon!!

I have to complain a bit about China and Russia... China - how the hell can I compete there? I think you could wipe the floor with me in a few months! Should I just bomb the hell out of your HI and Res Cntrs ??

Russia actually Kwantang region - none of my planes fly ... I have used a lot off PP's changing leaders, have supplies, enough Aviation support ... zip !! By now I had expected to at least damage some airfields, I regret expending all those PP's ... useless! And now I have no PP's left! I did some testing and ran 20 turns, nothing! So maybe it's because they are in Kwantang and not on Soviet territory ... I'm going to ask on Forum help.

Luzon is going to take a while, with Russia and China sucking up all my troops ... infact the more I think about this game, the more i REALISE, taking on Russia will lose me this war quicker ... longer to take Singapore, Java etc ... what the hell am I doing out in the Pacific ??? I promise myself if I play another PBEM, I'll just go after the Americans, that is where the real threat is!

Putting the final touches in place against the Danes ... HUH? ... WHO ? ... maybe you are pondering life, Hamlet ? Or about to fein madness or revenge? I was hoping for a suicide run ... by Boise, your love ...

CAN SOMEONE SUGGEST WHY MY PLANES AREN'T FLYING OFFENSIVELY IN KWANTANG ???
yes - > good leaders, supplies, enough AS ...

[Nomad]

You have to invade one particular hex - I hope someone knows which one.

[Nemo121]

Aye there is a particular hex one has to invade to unlock the full air attacks ( dumb design decision but there you go ).
 
Has he EVER hit a Soviet base? I'm asking because in my game I've hit  about 3 Soviet bases and several LCUs in non-base hexes without any problem whatsoever....

[n01487477]

29~1/1/42 The New Year Rolls in ..

Central Pacific:
Floating around the Pacific is not what KB was designed for and something that I hate having to use her for, she should be either Sth guarding the approaches to Panama, or Nth doing damage to his shipping to and from Hawaii ...

This turn I will guard my Transports into Palmyra and then I'll probably go hunting. I've probably missed an opportunity to get some good kills but I think the taking of Palmyra is so tight at this stage I didn't want to lose any troops to LB. Probably I will regret this decision later ...

South Pacific:
Just captured Noumea, my base force is due in a few days, with some a/c to keep this place a future bastion and launching point for some ship interdiction.

Philippines:
Due to a lack of troops,(they've been sucked into Russian territory). I'm taking my time here to build up and then launch some attacks ... And in my previous game, it took ages to take Manila, so I've no desire to lock up my troops for a few months. Well no yet.


China:
I'm being slaughtered by a better thought out strategy and seemingly overwhelming odds. I've actually had to add troops to the Chinese Exp force, rather than take them out. And Michael will take Ichang in a few days, if not before.


SRA:
I'm about to take Singkawang and Pontianak will fall in a day or two. Then it will be onto Java and Sumatra

Malaya:
Have taken all the bases except Singapore, and I'm just waiting for some stragglers before I head for the icon of British colonial power.

Soviet Union:
Just reinstalled the game, due to a problem with my a/c not flying into Soviet territory, This still doesn't seem to have fixed the problem ... I have no solution and testing is continuing.

My target at present is to move north and head for Iman with my large lcu units leading the field.

[n01487477]

Industrial Report ...

Michael has targeted my Industrial capacity early on. I started the game with 12061 HI capacity and despite taking Vladivostok and Suchan, I now have 12321, with 441 Repairing. His 2 city attacks (HI), Bangkok had 23 damage and Sapporo(HI) 20 damage.

Everything is running low as I try to grapple with the economic realities of EA.
HI has stabilised at around 10K, but I've had to use creative economics to make sure that I get what I want. But I know in the next month or two, I'm going to have to turn on & repair more engines, veh and armaments. Hence my desire to increase HI at small bases where there are small Oil & Res facilities.

In fact my whole economic strategy is to diversify, to use my surplus Oil/Res regions to develop more HI and produce more planes, engines etc.

[n01487477]

LCU Production:
Manpower never seems to be a big problem playing as the Japanese ... so let me ignore that and concentrate on the all important figures for the next 14 Days.

Armament: Have 9955 Need 10323 Reinf 29651 ... and can produce 4872. I will have to turn of some reinforcements to units I have engaged in combat ... I have reinforcements off to all my troops except those that are engaged.
Vehicle: Have 31[X(] Need 1320 Reinf 6284 .. and I can produce an additional 4480. So I should be ok, if I turn of reinf.

[n01487477]

Ships:
Have accelerate CVL Kanto and Mizho to come in with CVL Shoho as my small auxiliary force. Halted 2 BC's and 2 CV's at present & Had to turn of some Merchant ship building, but will watch this for a while.

[n01487477]

Japan:
Using up about 7K in supplies & 7K in Oil a day, not sure if the supply is to repair the 1000+ factories under repair ... or just me loading some troops and supplies. Will work on WitpTracker to show this as well.

(sorry only two days showing)

[n01487477]

Air Production:
As I continue to repair my capacity, I'm slowly turning off airframes that I get a surplus esp. transports and FF's .
Fighters:
Have a healthy production run of A6M2's going, almost building 10 a day, and in fact I've just changed some factories over to other models as I wait for the 109 to appear in March.

I had planned on just producing enough Oscars to fill out a few grps, but with the need for fighters growing after the HI/OIL city attacks I've changed over more grps than I really wanted to, but these are pretty ineffective against concentrated attacks.

Lvl bombers:
Sally and Betty's are being used up at about the rate I produce them at present ... but I'm waiting for other production runs later in the year & thinking about tooling up for them.

Patrol:
Just turned H6K's off as I wait for the H8K in March.

Dive bombers and Torp Bombers:
Producing at full capacity ...

Engines:
Mitsub, Nak, Kawasaki & Ishikwjma are falling, the later two at an alarming 70+ a month. This month I will have to start repairing these engines and finalising what I will need for the coming 6 months.

I just wanted to case study the Ishikwjma Engines.
I'm losing 80/mth and have a pool of 107, so about 1.5 mths supply. I plan to shut down the G5N2-L Liz transport shortly after I have enough to convert one transport grp, saving me 60 engines a month. This will give me a net loss of 22/mth and plenty of time to repair enough engine factories for the run of 606 Ki44IIa Tojo's.

[Nemo121]

606 Ki-44 IIs? I don't understand, are you only planning to build 606 of them? Or is that a typo?

[n01487477]

ORIGINAL: Nemo121

606 Ki-44 IIs? I don't understand, are you only planning to build 606 of them? Or is that a typo?

606 Ki-44 IIs? I don't understand, are you only planning to build 606 of them? Or is that a typo?

Nemo, I plan to build more than this, 606 is just the TBO I will cover initially ...

2/1/42 Palmyra crushed!

Landing on two separate beaches (read 2 TT's)on the Is. of Palmyra, the small contingent of troops bravely battled through and won the day. Phew, I'm relieved, I thought maybe after their use and long trip around the Pacific, they would be battle worn and unable to perform. This is the main reason I changed tack and went for Palmyra first. If I had taken Christmas first, then they would have been in such a poor state I doubt they could have done so admirably. Also the thought of 30 Russian subs at Palmyra doesn't really rock my boat either. If I had waited a week, who knows how many might have been there ... as it was a TK was sunk by 2 torp from SS S-23.

Otherwise Singkawang was captured ... I'm getting closer to my offensive on Java and Sumatra ...

Lastly, thought I'd be tricky and launch a Port attack on Soerabaja, seeing as I think all his SS's are moving there

SS SHCH125, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
AK Berouw, Bomb hits 1
SS S54, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AK Van der Bosch, Bomb hits 1, on fire

Not as good as I would have liked, the flak seems to have caused a lot of my LB to return home early ... So I know maybe this is going to take a bit to close.

[n01487477]

3/1/41 Soerabaja multi air raids.

Thought after the slim pickings the turn before I'd run another raid against the Dutch ... I really want Michael to be cautious of having this as a sub repair base ... over the last week or so I've seen a load of subs egress through the tiny straights between Borneo and Celebes. Maybe I should have waited until there were more there, but this salvo was a cautionary blow.

I hit and sank the Russian made SHCH125 and damaged about 10 AK's and an AR ... so all in all a bit of a wasted day ... would have loved to have hit something more substantial ... but might move onto other ports and see what I can find. (This brings the total SS sunk to 18 ... not good considering the amount of time and energy I've placed into search and destroy)

I assume his British/Dutch surface forces are lying off India or maybe around Christmas Is.(as my SS's saw something and got hit a while ago) but as I have little search capability in this region at present I am a little unaware... but this will change shortly.

[n01487477]

4/1/42 2 more subs hit ...

[*]ASW around Borneo continues with the same ASW TF getting two separate hits today on SS SHCH113 & SS S-41 ... please be holed in a main compartment [:)]

[*]Balikpapan's airfield is hit for the first time, with deep ASW patrols now taking place, I don't want his forces to get a lucky hit.

[*]Soerabaja port attack again. The best thing is that I destroyed 6 P-40E Warhawk: 6 destroyed & 4
Brewster 339D's. Hit an AS and an AK ...

[*]Palembang is hit again, just because the intel said it wasn't damaged again, damn these Allies can repair things quickly!

[*]Allied B-17E's appear out of the wide blue yonder and have a go at my fleet off Palmyra, 2 are destroyed! When I try to do the same, my LB hardly ever attacks, I know he has some spotter SS's there, but coaxing the IJN LB to do the same is not easy[:(]

[*]Central China is a damn mess, not sure how to proceed or as the case may be withdraw here. Did the Chinese really have all these troops ready for combat? It's Fantasy ... but enjoyable because I get the advantage in other ways!

[n01487477]

5/1/42 Christmas Is and Pontianak Captured.

Using the same SNLF that only 4 days before had captured Palmyra, they quite easily mopped up Christmas Is. in a day ... These guys deserve some R&R now, maybe a few cocktails and then a bit of retraining. And to think I was worried they couldn't pull it off. Troops are a bit light this far out in the Pacific, I plan to reinforce this area in the next few weeks.

The capture of Pontianak reduces the Allies ability to make annoying small plane naval attacks & search. I also notice he has pulled his Dutch planes out of Balikpapan.

Preparation is under way to launch into the Celebes & Sumatra, I expect this phase to begin pretty shortly, but with Singapore really holding up everything I wont launch into Java until these troops are freed up. Singapore attacks will commence in 5 Days ... Michael I guess your troops are ready, I hope mine are too ...

[Nemo121]

As far as China goes the number of Chinese troops is, I think, quite accurate insofar as these things are possible to accurately gauge BUT the freedom with which the Chinese commander can employ them isn't. Many "Armies" really were forces commanded by warlords which simply weren't going to move from from this guy's base. They certainly weren't going to be able to operate in a co-ordinated manner with other forces from other regions as freely as is shown here.
 
Still, in-game the Japanese can make some pretty impressive and relatively easy gains IF they focus appropriately --- as can the Chinese. It is all about who sees and seizes the opportunities first. I think that in most games China will pretty quickly bog down though.