Lorks-a-lordy, my Empire is on fire! GBL vs 1EyedJacks - Nemo's mod

[goodboyladdie]

Just a quick update. I have got as far as Manila. I hate turn 1s!

I am sending transports to Devonport to pick up one of the base forces. It will be sent either to Cooktown, Norfolk Island or Noumea. I have not decided yet, but I am conscious of how dangerous Mike's paratroop units are and want to get enough into Noumea to stop him taking it easily before I rustle up a proper garrison. Hudsons and Beauforts from Darwin have gone to PM to try to damage the shipping he has off Rabaul. The company on Kavieng is loaded onto ships and will try to run for Thursday Island.

Here is the situation in the PI. The Mini KB appears to have 5 CVLs and be stationary, so I am attempting to surprise Mike by running everything that can get underway without sinking to the North of Borneo before he gets aircraft set up at Brunei...

[goodboyladdie]

Most ships in Manila had used 1000 ops points so they will only get one hex this turn. There will be carnage! 20th Base Force and Asiatic Fleet are loaded onto transports in the hope that some parts get through. I have left some badly damaged ships in Manila to try to make it a worthwhile target while others hopefully start to get way. I am moving some ships to Bataan to try to hide them while they repair flood damage. Any undamaged subs are off to lay minefields off the invasion beaches and Cam Ranh Bay. My ships from Hong Kong will be on the run too, but I do not hold out great hopes...

Here is the first part of the Manila shipping damage report.

[goodboyladdie]

On land in the PI, I am moving a blocking force to Lucena to try to stop Mike getting an early foothold in Manila that could cause complications as I retreat from the North. He dropped Paras into Naga and has what looks like a relatively small landing force coming in at Legaspi. I am also moving a unit into Lamon Bay to replace the Division that will be moving to Lucena.

I have started to move what bombers I can out of Clark for Soerabaya - only 1 aircraft was fit to fly. The B-17s at Cagayan will probably be moved so that I can bomb Brunei when he takes it to try to protect all the shipping I will have moving through the area. 34th and 6th PA squadrons are moving to Chungking with their P-35s. Anything else I will try to get out via Tarakan to rebuild. AF damage at Clark is 56/98. Manila AF is undamaged and I have 2 P-40E squadrons on 90% CAP. The 3 Vildebeests that were ready at Hong Kong are at Bataan - 1 remains as well as 2 Walruses that were not ready.

Here is the second page of woe from Manila:

[Alfred]

goodboyladdie,
 
In post #20, Nemo121 mentioned a v1.3.  Are you going to continue this game or do you intend restarting when v1.3 is made available.  I think you might find some significant nuanced changes in the update.
 
Alfred

[goodboyladdie]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

goodboyladdie,

In post #20, Nemo121 mentioned a v1.3.  Are you going to continue this game or do you intend restarting when v1.3 is made available.  I think you might find some significant nuanced changes in the update.

Alfred

Hi Alfred

You'd have to ask Mike. Unless I come a cross a game-killer, I intend to continue, but if Mike wanted to play the new version instead I'd stop and change over. I would prefer not to, as I learned from all our RHS-EOS restarts that it makes it very difficult to come up with surprises...

Very best regards

Carl

[ny59giants]

I'm considering a game against John 3rd, so I hope to see the newer version soon.

[Nemo121]

I'm just waiting on 2 people's feedback on the new version of the mod. Mostly what it does is weaken the Japanese even more logistically.
 
It also cuts the economic margin for the Japanese even narrower so that the wrong economic decisions will bring disaster even more rapidly. Basically the OIL reserves in Japan have been reduced by 50%, the Soviets have gotten more defensive strength ( but no increase in offensive strength ) and a review of Soviet plane arrival times means they get an early 43 bump instead of a late 43 bump.

Oh I also replaced the Thalia with a Ki-264-L which is a putative transport version of the Ki-264. MASSIVE range and payload but also a massively expensive plane to operate. You can run an entire 36 plane Daitai of Bettys on the supplies required to keep jsut 3 x Ki-264s in action for the same period of time --- and since supply is the japanese weak point the number of Ki-264s built is going to have be closely monitored.
 
If I get the feedback on Friday or Saturday I'll have the updated mod ( in ZIP files this time as people found the rar files too tough to deal with ) sent to the site and hopefulyl available for download within a day or two.
 
 
I don't think anything in V1.2 makes it unplayable... The main difference between 1.2 and 1.3 is simply that I tweaked the economy a bit more to weaken Japan even more economically and made the Soviets a bit tougher defensively as I thought about how I wanted to balance things better ( I amn't seeking to balance things by making Japan militarily weak, I'm seeking balance by giving them lots of goodies BUT making those goodies as expensive as hell and making their economy as fragile as hell ).

[goodboyladdie]

I am on the home stretch and have two queries for Nemo, please.

1: Is this West Coast RCAF unit meant to be at Aden?

[goodboyladdie]

And 2:

I am sure I used the PWhex you put in the last zip, but my shipping seems to be able to use the southern entrance to Aden from the RHS map?

[goodboyladdie]

Will do an update later, but I have another screenshot for Nemo...

Are these bases meant to be Australian?

[Nemo121]

Hi,

1. Yup that RCAF unit is meant to be there. It's a bit of a hint/lure .

2. Aye I updated the PWHEX but unfortunately I have no art ability to change the map. This route is intentional and is designed to give the Allies a second route for re-invading India IF it were to fall. If you hit F6 it will show you all the exits from the Allied Shipping Channels. There are exits in the south-east corner of the route, near Perth and enar Addu Atoll.

3. Yup, it was a technical issue to do with RHS etc but I've figured out a way to get what I wanted while keeping those bases Soviet so now in V1.3 they are back to Soviet control. Functionally though that base flag is cosmetic, the forces at those bases are Soviet and work exactly as you'd expect.

[goodboyladdie]

Thanks for the super quick service once again. I really appreciate you taking the time to keep an eye on this AAR to answer such questions, as well as all the hard work you have obviously done on the mod. [:)][&o]

[goodboyladdie]

I have moved Martin 139s and/or T-IVAs to Manado, Tarakan and Kuching. The B-17Ds from Cagayan are at Balikpapan resting so they are ready to hit the AF at Brunei as soon as Mike gets planes in there. It will need to be suppressed to allow as many ships as possible to escape from Manila.

Force Z is running for Batavia with all the escorts I could muster. Aden has a 1000pt shipyard, so I guess POW and Repulse will be seeing a lot of Aden... (that's if I get clear of his subs and aircraft without taking any more damage!)

The RAF base force at Aden is loading onto APs for Addu Attol. All the aircraft at Aden are loading for Colombo. The Spitfires will be used to defend the Royal Navy's main operating base there. The Jat Rgt from Madras is loading for Trincomalee and SEAC HQ is loading at Colombo for Calcutta. I am spreading my forces in India out to try to make sure that most bases have enough assault points to defeat any pesky para's.

I am moving to build forts on the Indian frontier with Burma, as well as positioning to protect Rangoon, Mandalay and the Burma Road. In China I did almost nothing due to time constraints. The same applies to Russia.

Here is the damage to my fleet at Singapore...

[goodboyladdie]

ORIGINAL: goodboyladdie

I have moved Martin 139s and/or T-IVAs to Manado, Tarakan and Kuching. The B-17Ds from Cagayan are at Balikpapan resting so they are ready to hit the AF at Brunei as soon as Mike gets planes in there. It will need to be suppressed to allow as many ships as possible to escape from Manila.

Force Z is running for Batavia with all the scorts I could muster. Aden has a 1000pt shipyard, so I guess POW and Repulse will be seeing a lot of Aden... (that's if I get clear of his subs and aircraft without taking any more damage!)

The RAF base force at Aden is loading onto APs for Addu Attol. All the aircraft at Aden are loading for Colombo. The Spitfires will be used to defend the Royal Navy's main operating base there. The Jat Rgt from Madras is loading for Trincomalee and SEAC HQ is loading at Colombo for Calcutta. I am spreading my forces in India out to try to make sure that most bases have enough assault points to defeat any pesky paras.

I am moving to build forts on the Indian frontier with Burma, as well as positioning to protect Rangoon, Manadaly and the Burma Road. In China I did almost nothing due to time constraints. The same applies to Russia.

Here is the damage to my fleet at Singapore...

Edit: Doh! Quoted when I meant to edit - that'll teach me to try to post when I do not really have time....

[Nemo121]

No worries, I'm just glad to help people see if they like the mod.

[goodboyladdie]

I am working through the turn, but the situation in the PI requires thought, so I'll post the CenPac story while I get my thinking cap out of storage...

Firstly, I had an aircraft transport appear in Seattle this turn. Nemo has them classified as CVLs. At first sight this seemed bizarre, but it is a clever move as you are no longer restricted to putting a single air unit on them, as you are when they are classified as AKs. Capacity is 120. Does anybody have any idea what the max number of units I can place on one of these is?

[goodboyladdie]

Landings are reported at Guam and Wake Island. Overnight Akagi was in the sights of USS Pollack and torpedoes were launched with no result.

There were two raids on Pearl Harbor today. In raid one, on the port and airfields, 54 Zekes escorted 59 Vals, 110 Kates and 6 Recce Kates (C3N1). The small CAP was brushed aside. Jap losses were 1 C3N1 destroyed, 11 Vals destroyed with 14 damaged, 10 Kates destroyed with 11 damaged. US losses were 6 F4F-3, 2 P-36A, 5 P-40B, 1 B-17E, 2 PBY, 1 B-18A, 1 A-20B and 1 B-17D. Pac Flt was hit harder than in the day 1 raids:
Pennsylvania 1 bomb,
California 2 bombs,
Nevada 4 bombs,
Oklahoma 7 bombs and 1 torpedo (Sunk),
West Virginia 2 bombs and 1 torpedo,
Arizona 1 bomb,
Tennessee 3 bombs,
Maryland 1 bomb and 1 torpedo,
DD Ward 1 bomb.
Airbase 11 hits, supplies 2 hit, runways 68 hits and 8 on the port.

Raid 2 hit the AF. It cost Mike 10 Vals with 16 damaged and cost me 9 fighters and 3 bombers, with 6 further hits on the airbase facilities and 26 more on the runways.

Damage at PH stands at 15/68/95

[Alfred]

Regarding the CVL Kittyhawk, I don't know specifically but I assume you could load her up as a normal carrier.  IIRC a normal carrier can have up to 5 different air units on board.
 
You may however prefer not to immediately load her up with air units and instead send her to stand off Pearl Harbor and take on board short legged air units flown in from Pearl Harbor for rebuilding on the West Coast (thus conserving your supplies at Pearl in case your opponent pursues a blockade strategy there).
 
Alfred 

[goodboyladdie]

Hi Alfred.

That's a good idea. I was probably going to withdraw some units as I will not have enough fighters for some time. This is a hard mod - normally I have some pilots doing well in the first couple of days, but here I am getting reamed...

The Kittyhawk is on her way to SF. 2 Canadian Flower Class Corvettes have turned back to escort her. 2 "Steel" AKs have started to convert to AR at SF. I cannot really afford the loss of capacity at this stage, but will likely need plenty of forward repair ships if the first two turns are anything to go by.

11th BG flew from Palmyra directly to Charter Towers - I love the long legs in this mod...

The KB is off PH. I have sortied my PTs to try to catch it before it moves.

[goodboyladdie]

I have SigInt that 56th "Division" Brigade (?) is planning for Mandalay.

There were landings reported at Kota Bharu, Laoag, San Fernando, Aparri, Gen Santos (Mindanao), Legaspi and Rabaul. Legaspi, Wake Island, Laoag and Gen Santos fell.

Ise and Hyuga worked Brunei over again. Force Z escaped from Singapore, the escorts kicking the stuffing out of I-166 on the way. My ships in the Sulu Sea took very heavy losses from Carrier planes as the Baby KB moved North. That'll teach me to trust recon reports! LBA also hit some of my ships as they left Manila. The Mini KB is heading NW, so I will gamble and split my escaping ships up to spread the targets out a bit. Houston and 4 DDs should get clear, but everything else is highly likely to be sunk. I will have to get my ships out of HK this turn too!

Manila took a big raid and virtually all of my P-40Es on CAP were easily destroyed. The ships I left there did their job and used up some Jap ordnance. Clark was heavily hit also, with 106 runway hits as well as other damage.

4 or 5 raids went after Jap shipping at Kota Bharu and they were all very roughly handled. I lost loads of planes for no hits.

Edit: Manila Damage 26/0/0; Clark Damage 0/69/100