Moses(AL)Jwilkerson(IJ)

[moses]

I have 661 navy pilots in the pool. With 60 more coming each month I look forward to the day when there has been enough carrier action to use those guys up.

On the 17th and 18th his carriers did in fact attack at Namonea. I forgot that my transport unload slower at a level one port then they do over the beach. So more AK's remained unloading then I had wanted. I'm probably going to end up losing 2 dozen AK's. I've also got a CLAA and a DD that is pretty sure to go down.

Except for a small and mostly damaged group of AK's most of my other ships are clearing the area. Unless Jwilkerson barrals ahead into my airspace I will escape with little loss to my surface or AP force.

[String]

Soon enough 661 pilots will not be sufficient to replace all of your naval pilots even once...

[moses]

21 Dec:

ORIGINAL: String

Soon enough 661 pilots will not be sufficient to replace all of your naval pilots even once...

It sure will be nice when that day comes. In 8 days I get the Essex and I'm getting 2 more CVE's as well. With Lexington repaired I will have a force of 3 CV's and 5 CVE's of which two have the VR sqadrens.

But even when production really ramps up and I get a ton of CV's (Around Nov 43 I get a bunch of CV's all at once.) It's hard to see how I can run out of pilots. Remember that not every killed plane equals a killed pilot. But then again I've never played deep into 43/44 so we'll see.

Namonea: The last Japanese are eliminated from the island and losses are about as I had predicted earlier. My CLAA did go down and a CL and a DD will almost surely go down. No AP's were lost but about 2 dozen AK's will end up sinking.

Jwilkerson has left what looks like 5 CV's sitting to the north of Namonea Island and I guess he can sit there forever if he wants. It's possible he might even try a counter invasion which would be interesting. But I don't know that this island is that important to him.

[tabpub]

ORIGINAL: moses

But even when production really ramps up and I get a ton of CV's (Around Nov 43 I get a bunch of CV's all at once.) It's hard to see how I can run out of pilots. Remember that not every killed plane equals a killed pilot. But then again I've never played deep into 43/44 so we'll see.

Watch yourself with the VR squadrons; as I recall, they are only about 1/2 full (27 of 54). In addition, those 27 pilots are usually pretty bad, to say the least. Like 40's or worse....
So, if you turn "on" replacements for those VR's, they will fill up to the 54 and suck 27 pilots from pool for each squadron; and, you probably want to do that, so that you don't have 30-40 rated pilots showing up in the middle of a street fight.
But, doing so will run down your pool....so, it's a bit of a trade-off. Plus, I think that you will want to have those replenishment CVE's sit for some time anyhow; remember not to take the VR squadrons off the ships, lest they start re-sizing in a silly manner to the point of not getting them back onboard or anything.

On the other hand, until you are operating for a long period of time off enemy bases without a base of your own in 1-2 days sailing, you don't really need them anyhow. They can't defend themselves at all and I find myself always worried that they will blunder into something. Make sure that they are either sailing in the same hex with real carriers or put some real one's (even L or E's) in with their replen group.

Oooo..oooh, and don't forget the Navy LBA; the Liberators and dive bomber units that are Navy pilots; overuse of them rather than the Marine units can deplete your Navy pool at a time that you might not appreciate.....

My rule of thumb is to let Hap Arnold's boys do the long and heavy lifting; Navy pilots get saved for the crucial times and the quick in and out stuff. I am even cutting out using the PB4Y's for strike missions as much as possible; losses among them detract from the gain in naval pilot pool strength.

[moses]

Hmm I didn't realize that some of my LBA was navy pilots. I guess I will have to keep an eye on my navy pilots. Still even if I start to run low I will soon be able to start my own pilot training program anyway.

There were two advantages to taking the Nanomea chain:
1.) Of course I get a base which allows me to view deeper into Japans ocean .

2.) I left the southermost base to Japn so that I can use it as a free fire training area. Right now I have no locations where I can train my pilots in a rapid safe manner. But once I get my bases here built up (which won't take long with the million's of seebees I have), I can start training my pilots in the same way that Japan is.

[moses]

25 Dec:

Namonea Island: Somehow my damaged DD and CL make harbor at Pago Pago and now will probably survive. So the total cost of the operation was one CLAA, a PG and 2 dozen AK's. Not bad.

His carriers seem to have moved off and I now have recon aircraft operating out of Namonea so I can keep an eye on the area.

Burma: I'm a little worried about my troops advancing on Akyab. My lead unit has been inching ahead and is now at 42 miles. All of my following units are at 40. Previously they were keeping up. I very much hope that they all move together as they are supposed to.

The air war continues and I am now aiming at early February as the beginning of an all-out air offensive. All P40 groups have been pulled back for replenishment. At the moment I have only 15 P40B's on the map and my 2 P40E groups in Burma were both down to about 20 planes each. By February I should be able to build my two P40E back to 72 planes. I'll get some more P40E's by then by swapping one of my groups in Alaska for P38's or P36's. My P40B group should reach its current pilot compliment of around 30.

The key component of my plan is to bring 2 more F4F groups over from Austrailia. These will be converted to Corsairs in early February. So I plan on having 2 Corsair groups, 3 F4F groups, 3 P38 groups including one big 72 plane squadren. and 2 big 72 plane P40 groups. Combined with my heavy bombers I cannot see how he can stand up against that for long.

[moses]

27 Dec:

His carriers have moved over to Baker Island where there are two logical plans. Most likely is he is hoping to ambush anything that I might have headed for Baker. The other is that he might be staging for a raid into the east Pacific between Canton Island and Jarvis Island. Since I have nothing going towards Baker at the moment and since my recon can clearly see his carriers neither plan seems dangerous.

Next turn the CV essex arrives and in 3 turns I get another CVE. With Lexington now upgraded (current sys is now 6) I will have a force of 3 CV and 6 CVE (2 with VR squadrens) ready for action. Any ideas on something safe to do with this force??

[anarchyintheuk]

ORIGINAL: moses

2.) I left the southermost base to Japn so that I can use it as a free fire training area. Right now I have no locations where I can train my pilots in a rapid safe manner. But once I get my bases here built up (which won't take long with the million's of seebees I have), I can start training my pilots in the same way that Japan is.

Great move.

[moses]

31 Dec: After a long year I look forward to 1943!!!!

Air War: In Dec I killed 558 front line fighters the highest monthly total of the war beating last months record of 438.I did this while barely using any P40 aircraft and while using the P38's sparingly. The 3 F4F groups in Burma helped as did the three bomber groups that have been periodically bombing PM and Lunga in the South Pacific.

I think I'm really straining his pilot training program. On one turn I noted 479 Nates flew training missions from Manila. Thats a lot of planes out of the main action.

China: This is a dead theater. Nothing has moved in over a month. He has a couple Tony squadrens that fly here but this doesn't even compare to the daily bombing that used to occur. I'm now taking on replacements and building my supply stores. With the new year I believe that my Chinese troops get an upgrade and I will be ready for some limited offensive action.

Burma: My approach to Akyab is in good order. I was worried because my lead unit was at 56 miles with all the following units lagging at 48 miles. But there appears to be code that helps prevent piecmeal movement. My lead unit actually dropped to 52 miles this turn which now matches all my other units. I expect to move in 4 days.

Our units will then be in contact at 5 locations in Burma. My Chindit Bde's are engaged in 2 locations and the chinese army also is contesting one of the mountain hexes near Myintanka. Jwilkerson has little choice to continue contesting the airspace as whenever he stops my bombers will shred his ground troops.

Nanomea: His carriers still appear to be around Baker Island. It's slow going getting my new conquests supplyed as he has lots of subs in the area plus Betties flying from Tarawa. I don't want to push too much ASW force in because his carriers are around as well and I don't want to lose a bunch od DD's for nothing.

So I'm taking it slow. I layed some mines at Wallis island to discourage his subs there and I also have a small ASW group in that relatively safe location. I also sent a squadren of SBD's to Nanomea (Already a level 2 airbase) to fly ASW. Slowly I will build up my supply and base levels until the area becomes too dangerous for his subs.

Alaska: He still has a large naval force up here including at least 4 CV's. As long as that is the case we just sit and watch each other. The last 4 days he has had his carriers sitting 4 hexes off of my forward base. I have 64 A20's there with 24 F4F's and 16 Kittyhawks flying escort. Weather has prevented any action but I don't know that its wise for Japan to be playing around here. I don't know if any A20's can penetrate his CAP but what do I have to lose. I have huge numbers of A20's in my pool. If I lose every single one it will not hurt me one bit. But it sure would be nice if a few got through and bit his carriers.

[moses]

OK now, what should I do about these. We do not have a house rule about the use of this tactic. But to me it would seem un-historical for me to put hundreds of bombers placing mines on every port I can reach.

I have suggested for the moment that I restrict the use of this tactic to the smaller 12/16 plane bomber squadrens and as a further limit allow only one mission from each airfield.

So my questions are:

1.) Any thoughts about the fairness/appropriatness of the above restriction.

2.) How effective are these mines anyway.

Any thoughts from any of you???

[String]

ORIGINAL: moses

OK now, what should I do about these. We do not have a house rule about the use of this tactic. But to me it would seem un-historical for me to put hundreds of bombers placing mines on every port I can reach.

I have suggested for the moment that I restrict the use of this tactic to the smaller 12/16 plane bomber squadrens and as a further limit allow only one mission from each airfield.

So my questions are:

1.) Any thoughts about the fairness/appropriatness of the above restriction.

2.) How effective are these mines anyway.

Any thoughts from any of you???

I'd say only one group flying from a base and only at night. This should simulate the historical ops losses and the fact that it can't be intercepted by cap. Also altitude should be limited to 6k feet or whatever was the historical altitude.

[moses]

4 Jan:

As for airial mining I will probably restrict myself considerably here. It looks as if the game allows me to lay mines with every level bomber. So I guess I could put have about 200 bombers hit Kiska (where his carriers tend to hang out) and put a couple carriers out of action in one days work. That seems a bit unfair.[:)]

The war rolls on. CV Lexington is down to 2 sys damage and very soon I will send my 3 CV's and 5 CVE's somewhere?? Preferably somewhere where they can't get killed.

My operation to transport 2 F4F squadrens to India is in full swing. I have my british CV's and quite a few CL/CA trolling the path trying to identify any threats. My subs are also on the look out and I have a couple AK/PG combo's out to try to ensure that my transport fleet doesn't get ambushed. Hopefully Jwilkerson has got nothing in the area but one never knows.

Japan still has 4 or 5 carriers around Kiska, Alaska and a similar sized force in the south Pacific staking out Baker Island. I assume the rest of his force is repairing sys damage in a safe area like Japan looking to rotate to active duty when the two carrier fleets mentioned above start to tire.

Around Namonea I'm slowly getting the area under control. His subs only have so much ammo!!! and I've damaged one or two as well. Operations are slowed because his carriers could still intervene and I don't want 20 AK's just sitting there. So I have 2 or 3 AK's at a time unloading at the island 2 hexes south of Nanome. Then I have some barges there that can move 2000 sp per trip over to Nanomea. These are size one ports so it takes a while. I have some transport aircraft working as well from Wallis Island but last time I tried suppling Nanomea that way I lost 12 C47's to LRC.

One last thing. My troops have entered Akyab. 2 UK divisions, 1 indian BDE, 3 big armored units and an HQ. They will dig in for one turn and then begin bombarding.

[moses]

8 Jan:



The situation in Burma now that we are fully engaged. Notice my Chindit Brigade which is now adjacent to Mandalay. It came down from Imphal along the trail and just last turn moved to its current location. On the same turn a Japanese unit moved north along the trail leaving us with the current confused situation.

My unit is cut off from ground supply but in turn essentially cuts the supply routes to the Japanese forces around Myitkina. With the bombardment battles in Myitkina and especially Akyab tilting in my favor I don't know how much force he has available in the area to dig my Chindit Bde out of its current position.

[moses]

18 Jan:

Burma: The big news is that the convoy from Perth carrying 2 F4F squadrens is 4 days from arrival and out of the danger area. In 2 weeks I will convert these to Corsiars and from everything I've heard about these planes I should be able to gain complete air superiority over Akyab. My british fleet will switch from escort duty to bombardment mission at Akyab and huge numbers of bombers will begin ground attacks against Akyab.

Further east my Japan is attacking my surrounded Chindit Brigade. Each attack costs Japan about double the losses I'm taking and my bombers are also hitting that ground force which may discourage further attacks at some point. But I suspect that my Chindits will give out in 2 or 3 weeks.

Pacific: In the Nanomea area Jwilkerson has pretty much left me alone. Some Betties visit every other day and have sunk a couple AK's, SC's and a DD. But the islands are now well supplied and building their infrastructure. I'm not sure it was even worth the costs of the Betty's lost flying long range missions.

His carriers have shuttled about between Baker Island and the Gilberts in clear view of my airial recon. I'm not sure why he hasn't just swooped down on Nanomea where on any particular day he could have sunk 5 to 10 AK's and disrupted my operations. Today his carriers have moved to within 5 hexes and may attack next turn. But it's too late as the bulk of my AK's have already departed.

Future Operations: My carrier force arrives at PH next turn. I'm still not sure where I want to send it but I guess it will go south toward Pago Pago and see what transpires. I certainly want to play it safe with my carriers for a time.

Final preparation for operations around Nindi (south of Lunga) have begun. I plan on taking Nindi and occupying all of the surrounding dot bases at once. Then with my million seebee's I will build these up into mutually supporting fighter bases. Eventually this will allow me to operate against the Solomon chain.

Austrailia: I've begun shifting to a more offensive posture here. I now have a carrier force of some substance and Jwilkerson seems to be completely uninterested in offensive operations. I mean if he was going to do something crazy like land at Sydney or Perth then surely he would have done so during the 3 month window in which I had no carrier force at all. I think I can discount the risk of any such offensive by Japan.

So, many big units which were prepped for defensive duty have now begun prepping for targets on the north coast. Forces are being rearranged so that all my key cities are still defended by some infantry but so that a number of large forces are freed up to move north. In March or April we will see how much force he has defending North Oz.

[ny59giants]

Where are you using your heavy bombers, in masse (B-17/24's)??

How are they standing up to his newer fighters??

[moses]

3 groups of B17/LB30 operate in Burma. The Tony's are a bit hard on them but I've got so many bombers and I kill a lot of planes on the ground. With the P38's and F4F's running sweep missions over the same airfields they make a good combination.

In the Pacific I have had 2 B24 groups operating against Port Moresby for some time and another group sitting at Luganville which occasioinally hits Lunga while otherwise standing by for naval interdiction. The zero's have a hard time against the bombers and two turns ago Japan pulled his fighters out of PM.

[moses]

20 Jan:

A brutal day in the sky as Japan has Jake's flying in Burma for the first time. 88 Japanese fighters including 30 Jake's go down, almost all in air-to-air. I lose 90 P40's, P38's and F4F's in equal measure. I also lost 40/50 bombers of various types.

On the ground Japan's 20th division goes into action against my surrounded Chindit Bde. So there are at least 5 Japanese divisions in Burma. No idea how long the Chindits can fight. Battles are at 30-1 and 15-1 for the last two days. But losses are about equal.

On the plus side my F4F's reach India next turn and my carriers are at PH.

[moses]

30 Jan 1943:

Air War: I took down 535 front line fighters this month despite resting my P40's and using my P38's with discretion. His Jake's have appeared and while effective, are not wonder weapons. I've shot down 72 of them almost all in air-to-air combat. I have 5 F4F type airgroups in Burma now and I just converted the first to the new Coursairs. Very shortly a new air offensive will begin.

China: I tried a little offensive around Homan when I saw that Japan had massed his big armor stack between Ichang and Chungking. 15 Corps of mine moved south where Japan had 11 units and immediatly shock attacked. Unfortunatly it wasn't a bluff and all 11 of those units were divisions or strong Brigades. Plus I must have got some bad rolls because I took about 15,000 losses. My troops have retreated with their tails between their legs and are in pretty bad shape. But so far Jwilkerson shows no signs of trying to follow up.

Burma: The long grind continues. Japan seems to have the edge in the east where he has retreated one of my Chindit Brigades. It's posssible that he could eventually cut of my troops in Myitkyina but it will take 2 months and by then I should control the air. At Akyab I'm a little stronger but clearly not strong enough to take the city anytime soon. But my build up continues there and I will keep pounding every day.

He has a significant naval force operating from Rangoon now. Lots of BB's and at least a couple carriers. We had the first big surface battle of the war recently when my bombardment force got intercepted at Akyab. The surface battle was indecisive but I clearly got the worst of it. Japan may have lost a DD and had some minor damage to his other ships. My BB Valiant was hurt bad and sunk the next mourning by a carrier strike of about 21 Kates.

Austrailia: Everything is shifting around and preparing for my northern offensive. My prep values are still around 15-20 so I'm still over a month out before the start date.

Pacific: Japan's carriers have disappeared. Havn't had a sniff in the last 10 days. The Namonea area is secure with both my bases holding over 20,000 supply and infrastructure building nicely.

My invasion of the Nindi area will proceed in due time. A few more needed troops will arrive in Numea and Luganville in 4 days and we'll get started.

My carriers are now rounding Pago Pago and will be available to participate. I want to be very careful of course. But he is operating his carriers in at least three groups. Some CV's are in India and 4 or 5 are in Alaska. Presumably he has some in safe ports somewhere recovering system damage. The force that was in the area consisted of 4 or 5 CV's. If that same force tries to intervene around Nindi I may be willing to engage. Particullarly if his carriers jump in and attack my invasion force (protected by some LBA) and then I can jump in the next by surprise for a counter-strike while some of his aircraft are damaged.

Alaska: The situation must be getting progressivly difficult for Japan here. I have a combined sub/bomber mining offensive which has damaged several ships in the last 10 days. I'm only using one 16 plane 4E bomber unit and about 10 subs and now have mines in virtually every shallow hex. My recon planes have been hitting an AG about every day for the last month and one of my Coranado's actually hit the CV Soryu!!!! a couple days ago. I'm beginning to use a small BB surface fleet in the area and so it's concievable that we may have a surface battle if Jwilkerson wants to play. I also am employing the large number of PT's that I a now recieving.

[nobunaga]

ORIGINAL: moses

His Jake's have appeared and while effective, [...]

wow those floatplanes are deadly for sure [X(]









[:D]

now just wait for his Rufe´s to appear in burma, then you are screwed [:D]

[moses]

oops!!![;)]

I've been refering to the Jack fighter as Jake's in the last couple posts. [8|]