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

[Nemo121]

Aye, there's a definite need for you to spread your pilot and airframe losses between the air forces involved. It might take a long time to ship USAAF fighter units to Oz but it is about the only way for Oz to remain in the fight since if you let the Oz and NZ airforces get isolated the Japanese CAN easily win an attritional battle against them ( and do so very quickly ).

[goodboyladdie]

ORIGINAL: Nemo121

Aye, there's a definite need for you to spread your pilot and airframe losses between the air forces involved. It might take a long time to ship USAAF fighter units to Oz but it is about the only way for Oz to remain in the fight since if you let the Oz and NZ airforces get isolated the Japanese CAN easily win an attritional battle against them ( and do so very quickly ).

Hi Nemo

I have a couple of USAAF squadrons on their way to SEAC, but am waiting for sealift (and now the KB to piss off) to get some more fighters out to SWPAC. I have to be careful not to get sucked in to any early attrition fests, as my real battles are a couple of months (hopefully closer to 6!) down the line in either India or Australia...

[goodboyladdie]

Mike has started to sweep Zekes all over the place looking to kill my fighters and also take out my PTs. PT-34 (14/13/0) at Manila, RN PT-26 (32/38/11) at Cagayan and TM-11 (44/26/10) at Tarakan all got shot up this turn and a follow up strike at Tarakan put a bomb into TK Francol (20/0/1). I am moving P-40Es of 3rd PS into Tarakan to ambush Mike's bombers. Tarakan is 0/6/3, while Manado is 0/6/12 after a CVA raid destroyed 4 M-139s.

6 Bettys were shot down, with 2 damaged over Manila, with 1 P-40E downed and a further one destroyed. A Sally was destroyed with 4 damaged over Bataan, while Clark took another pasting, with 1 Betty destroyed, 5 damaged and 5 SB-2Ms, 1 SB-2, 3 Beaufort VIIs and a Pe-2 destroyed. Clark is now 0/53/57 and I will have to abandon it again.

[goodboyladdie]

Off Malaya my bombers did some damage: AP Atutasan Maru (1 bomb, on fire); AP Ryugi Maru (1 bomb, 3 torpedoes sunk; AK Akita Maru (1 bomb).

DD Yamakaze was heavily damaged by a bomb at Legaspi, but another Beaufort was lost.

15th Corps Engineers arrived at Karachi and are heading for Calcutta, while 10th Engineer Bn is moving from Karachi to Madras.

CVL Hermes was finally ready for sea and is heading South for the DEI as a decoy force to hopefully confuse Mike as to the whereabouts of Force Z...

[goodboyladdie]

Hi Nemo

I am going to go back through and edit any questions that you might have missed in red to make them easy to pick, if that's ok with you? Sincerest apologies if you answered them elsewhere...[&o]

Very best regards

Carl

ps, is there a Zero Bonus in your mod? Is that why Zekes are still A6M2s as the slot was hard-coded?

[Nemo121]

GBL,
 
No worries I'm happy to anwer whatever I may have missed.
 
 
As to the Zero bonus... The Zero bonus is hard-coded to a specific slot. There' nothing I can do to get rid of it. On the other hand the A5M4 Claude occupie that slot so the "Zero bonus" now applies to the Claude NOT the A6M2. I doubt this will have a significant impact on the game as very few players are going to have hordes of A5M4s running around for long ( it is the end of December and I've just upgraded my last Claude carrier group to Zeroes )

[goodboyladdie]

29/12/41

Johnston is now 45/56/99 and 23 SB2Us/3 PBYs down after a visit from 9 Zekes, 113 Vals and 127 Kates. He only lost one of each bomber with a handful damaged. The KB seems to be leaving (see screenie). It loooks like he was just trying to tempt my bombers into his CAP. The B-26 Torpedo Bombers will go to PH after all.

CV Yorktown arrived at San Diego and is awaiting 2 CAs and 4 DDs that have left SF to escort her. The new CLAA Montpelier arrived at Colon and is on her way to SF in company with the repaired APD Little. She is my best AAW ship by some way and is no ASW slouch! I'll post a screenie for her later.

115 Sqn RCAF is now under SWPAC and has moved to SF to await shipment to Australia. I am going to need the Canadian replacements...

AE Poyang disbanded at Townsville as facilities at my Eastern Australia Forward Operating Base continue to grow.

[goodboyladdie]

Time for a little catch-up as I have almost 2 days of entries and no time...

Zekes were out after my fighters and PTs again. Clark, Bataan and Manila were bombed, as were Manado and Tarakan. In the plus column, CL Isuzu and DD Kawakaze were hit at Legaspi (1 and 4 bombs respectively), while 2 APs were hit off Singora, with another off Kota Bharu. DD Yamakaze was then hit by 2 torpedoes by S-40 at Legaspi. An AK was torpedoed by K XV.

You'll see from the screenie that the mini KB is heading East off Manado. I am pullling my US/Dutch Naval Strike Force out of Kendari in case they double back. The retreat of air units from Clark continues and I am pulling my fighters out of Singapore as the first stage of a withdrawal of air power. Losses are climbing and I cannot afford to fight on Mike's terms. RAF No 84 Sqn (Blenheim IVs) arrived at Aden and ferried to Bombay.

[goodboyladdie]

A Mavis attacked a Soviet sub, but missed. The Japs apologised...

2 Japanese deliberate attacks on guerilla units resulted in inevitable defeats. Writing this I realise I have forgotten to check to see what is happening for the last 2 turns. 34th PS has switched back to P-43As as the P-40Bs were needed by other units. I am nearly out of P-43As too, so I am having to be very careful.

Here is the Montpelier screenie I mentioned earlier.

[goodboyladdie]

30/12/41

Johnston is now 45/56/98. The KB has gone and supplies are being flown in. A part unloaded AK has also been sent from PH. I have diverted 4 DDs after a sub contact (I think the screenie is about this, but I really cannot remember until I post it...). 125th RCT is loading onto 2 APs for Midway. 2 fighter squadrons and a Bomber squadron have been assigned to SWPAC and have flown to SF to await transport.

B-19s from Brisbane will go after the port at Rabaul again. The one element of Asiatic Fleet HQ I actually managed to get out of Manila through the slaughter is unloading at Townsville. AS Holland has finally repaired float damage at Darwin. She has 40 sys damage and is off to Auckland to repair herself and then help with sub repairs.

[goodboyladdie]

Dutch PC Canopus took a torpedo from I-155 near Singkawang. She is still barely afloat. S-40 was attacked at Legaspi, but sys damage is only 8 so she'll hang around for a bit.

Singapore took a heavy attack. 11 Buffs were on CAP (I missed a squadron), but not for long! Mike lost 6 Sallies and I lost 13 Buffs and 4 other aircraft. My B-17 attack on Brunei scored 1 runway hit. Bataan, Manila and Clark were hit and I lost a total of 8 planes on the ground - time to go. Moulmein and Tarakan also took a pasting. Damage: Tarakan 20/2/0; Clark 0/59/60; Manila 0/27/15; Moulmein 0/27/39.

[goodboyladdie]

DE Hashidate was sunk by a T-IVa torpedo at Miri. CA Mikuma off Kota Bharu took 2 hits over 2 attacks but has no significant damage. 3 APs were heavily hit at Kota Bharu and off the PI, but my bombers are all having to run away as losses start to climb. All my PTs are running too. Most are damaged, so Mike has done some good work with his Zekes - I kind of wish I had let Mike keep them in China. They also damaged TK Francol further and she is running South with damage at 33/9/24. I forgot to mention above that PT KM-12 and AGP Poolster were sunk in port at Tarakan.

My HQ fragment that swam ashore when it's tranport was sunk was forced to retreat by a small deliberate attcak at Tay Tay. Forts at the Balinta pass were reduced to 2 as Mike continued to apply heavy pressure. I realise a couple of days too late that I should probably have put a Division into this position to take advantage of the terrain for longer...

Kuala Lumpur fell. 17th PS moved from Manila to join 3rd PS over Tarakan.

[goodboyladdie]

My deliberate attack at Ichang failed. I did not lose many more troops than Mike, but the lack of engineers in China means that in the face of forts I am helpless. I cannot move my base forces forward as they are busy operating aircraft and building defences in my towns. 2 Nates were downed by Flak and Chinese Lancers at 48,36.

Mike is moving a unit to reinforce the ferry point at Kiungshan, so my planned surprise attack will no longer work.

[goodboyladdie]

31/12/41

Johnston is now 45/56/93. Yorktown and her escorts are cruising North to SF. 2 subs have been identified off the West Coast (the one from last turn and another 6 hexes West of Aberdeen) and ASW forces are on the way to intercept. There is also a sub in the Torres strait (see screenie).

B-19s scored a Port hit at Rabaul, but have to stand back down due to poor morale. The RN has to withdraw a CL and 2 DDs. I probably cannot afford to lose the DDs, but will see if I can spare at least one...

[goodboyladdie]

The Dutch TK P. J. Duinker was torpedoed by both I-153 and I-121. She took 4 torps and some shell hits, so hopefully she has single-handedly denuded two subs of ammunition.

Moulmein, Singapore, Tarakan, Manila, Clark and Bataan were all hit. Clark has been hit by 3 unescorted Angels for the last 2 turns. I have moved an element of 17th PS there to see if an ambush will work. I have moved the T-IVa flight from Kuching to Soerabaya where it disbanded, but only after they lost another plane putting a torpedo into DE Sagiri off Miri. The Allied TK Pinna was attacked and left on fire by low flying Zekes at Tarakan.

There were Jap deliberate attacks at Balinta Pass in the PI and at 51,31 in China. Chinese troops were forced back, but the pass held for another turn. I am sure I should have put a Division in the Balinta Pass position to take advantage of the terrain, but it is too late now.

The leading elements of the AVG arrived in Chungking.

The mini KB is at Palau.

[ny59giants]

Carl,
Make sure you have over 16 Hurricanes in your replacement pool as reinforcements of Hurricanes start coming in  January. I got bit twice with not having enough and am asking for a do over of the last turn when 3 x 16 plane squadrons came in as Buffalos vs Hurricanes. I only had 14 Hurricanes in the pool. The Nz squadron that I had upgraded to Hurricanes will not go back, but the other one did. Hopefully, 30 Hurricane will do the trick. 

Just a friendly FYI.

[Nemo121]

Just to be clear... AS the Allies IF you have 3 x 16 Hurricane squadrons coming in you ONLY need 16 Hurricanes in your pool as the reinforcing squadron won't actually draw planes from the pool. This is obviously very different than what happens with Japan.
 
Basically though, 16 Hurris in the pool should be enough to bring all 3 squadrons in at full strength.

[goodboyladdie]

Hi Michael, Hi Fionn

Thanks very much for the tips. I have not used any Hurricane Is as I have been caught out so many times in the past by units not arriving with their historical aircraft. I have no P-40Es in the pool, but luckily all three squadrons just arrived safely (whether they'll remain safe is another thing...). Having five units on Kittyhawk means I am going to worry about her all the way to Brisbane - just what my ulcers need...

[goodboyladdie]

01/01/42

My Four stackers have upgraded. Here is the before.

[goodboyladdie]

And here is the after.