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

[goodboyladdie]

26/01/42

Mike seems to have more time to play and some of his pieces seem to be in place so I expect the war to hot up...

Darwin expanded it's airfields to size 4.

I-171 was attacked and sunk by USS Kilty and USS Kennison, which were detached from the Palmyra reinforcement convoy. They will now rejoin, but have used up most of their depth charges. A large ASW force arrived at Kwajalein, It is not known what, if anything, they were escorting, but DDs Akigumo and Hamakaze both struck mines (see screenie). It is an indication that Mike is likely to launch some form of offensive in the area. USS Plunger will sail from PH to lay a new minefield at Kwajalein and USS Cuttlefish has been diverted to the same destination. A sub has been spotted at Midway. It is either scouting, blockading or minelaying. 4 MSWs have sailed from PH to investigate. 70th PS flew their P-39s ashore at PH from USS Lexington.

The 4 DMs at SF are sailing to PH via Lahaina. 4 British Empire AKs were taken in hand at SF for conversion to AR. A sub has been spotted heading West. A-20s have deployed to Johnston to carry out ASW patrols across it's expected track. 71st Aviation Rgt is loading at SF for Hilo. As soon as I can spare the PPs (Americal Div due quite soon) I will ship reinforcements out to Hilo, Kona and Lahaina. 7th and 41st Divisions are the most likely units, with various supporting arms. I don't like to lean too far forward, but I want to make the Hawaiian Islands a very costly mistake for Mike while I have the time...

10,000 tons of supplies from the South Atlantic arrived at Dunedin in New Zealand. 10,000 tons of oil arrived at Auckland.

Edit Actually, looking at Bodhi's, one DD seems to have arrived as part of another tf a couple of days ago. It looks like Mike formed an ad hoc minesweeping force. It turned out to be quite expensive...

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: goodboyladdie
It looks like Mike formed an ad hoc minesweeping force. It turned out to be quite expensive...

But they got the mines!? [:'(]

[goodboyladdie]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: goodboyladdie
It looks like Mike formed an ad hoc minesweeping force. It turned out to be quite expensive...

But they got the mines!? [:'(]

[:D] Lol! I hope Mike has grasped that silver lining...

[goodboyladdie]

Mangalore now has a size 2 airfield, while the Japs have been busy at Aparri, expanding the airfield to size 3.

SigInt revealed that the 14th Tank Rgt is preparing to assault Singapore. It is the second Tank unit confirmed to be amongst the assault forces.

Brunei was bombed, with 2 oil centres hit. Unfortunately, no new centres were damaged. A vildebeest was shot down bombing the Jap 56th "Div" Brig at Ye. Jap forces are now present at Moulmein. All available bombers will bomb these forces. As can be seen from the screenie, I have no hope of stopping Mike here. The HI centre damaged at Hanoi has already been repaired.

Singapore, Manila (at least 2 Bettys downed), Bataan and Clark were bombed by the Japs. AK Atlas Maru was hit by a bomb at Laoag at the cost of a B-25.

K XIII now has sys damage of 15. She will lay mines at Georgetown on her way to Diamond Harbour for repairs. 2 4 stackers arrived at Batavia and 2 more were ready at Bombay and are on the way.

30 Sqn flew their Blenheim IVs to Bombay from Aden, losing a crew on the journey. All 3 Hurricane Sqns at Bombay entrained for Calcutta. 453 RAAF Sqn finally arrived at Madras from Batavia and upgraded to the Hurricane I. 48th LAA Rgt has loaded onto ships at Madras for Colombo.

Edit I forgot to include details of the bombardment of Johore Bharu. The 2 R Class BBs only caused 86 casualties. I was rather hoping for more, but must have forgotten to set up recon. The force is heading for Batavia escorted by Force Z.

[goodboyladdie]

In China I have withdrawn the LRCAP ambush over Nanchang on the hunch that Mike will want to do something about it this turn. A Jap deliberate attack at 48,36 was defeated with quite heavy casualties (mine were very light). The Allies were pushed back at 50,32.

The screenie shows my forces at Nanchang. The vulnerability of these troops is evident. I need to get strong blocking forces into the field to the South West to stop them being cut off. My forces pulling back to the South are moving too slowly and I do not think my forces heading down from Ichang will arrive in time...

[goodboyladdie]

I had sent minelaying subs to Petropavlovsk. To stop them causing an incident by moving through Jap waters I intended to give them a new destination once they were far enough North. I forgot and they laid a load of mines at the programmed turning point...

[goodboyladdie]

27/01/42

My CVs arrived at PH. Any ships with damage and the Northamptons have disbanded. VF-2 (Lady Lex), VF-6 (Big E) and VF-42 (Yorktown) have upgraded to the dash 4 Wildcat. The range and ceiling tipped the balance.

[goodboyladdie]

Singapore, Manila (6 Bettys downed!) and the troops at Moulmein (2 Nates and a Mary downed) were bombed. Brunei sustained another oil centre hit and a Vildebeest was shot down by flak while bombing 55th "Div" Brigade at Moulmein. A Jap deliberate attack at Moulmein failed.

Jap subs have reappeared in the Java Sea. ASW forces have sailed to hunt them.

30 Sqn RAF flew from Bombay to Dacca.

I lied last turn - 3 Jap armoured units have been identified preparing to assault across the Johore Strait...





China

A Sally was downed by a Chinese I-16 mod 4 South of Honan. I am spreading my LRCAP ambushes out a bit to try to eat into Mike's training missions.

AK Daigen Maru # 3 was hit by a bomb from a Chinese IL-4C off Takao.

[Alfred]

goodboyladdie,
 
I don't have any utilities (such as Bodhi et al) installed.  Looking at your last screenshot, would I be correct in assuming that in order to run Bodhi, you have to rerun the turn with your opponent being the AI.  Does this mean that you have 2 saves of the same last turn - (1) the save received from 1EyedJack which you run and then input your turn before emailing it back and (2) a copy of (1) which is placed in a different slot and which is then opened by the Bodhi utility?
 
Alfred

[goodboyladdie]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

goodboyladdie,

I don't have any utilities (such as Bodhi et al) installed.  Looking at your last screenshot, would I be correct in assuming that in order to run Bodhi, you have to rerun the turn with your opponent being the AI.  Does this mean that you have 2 saves of the same last turn - (1) the save received from 1EyedJack which you run and then input your turn before emailing it back and (2) a copy of (1) which is placed in a different slot and which is then opened by the Bodhi utility?

Alfred

Hi Alfred

Once you have Bodhi's set up to read the right game you just need to open it before you extract the turn into the save folder. All you then do is click the check for new reports button and wait for it to update. The AI bit in the title is incorrect, but once I got it working I could not see the point of fiddling anymore. While it is doing that I tend to copy the turn file into Tracker and load that and once I have finished with Tracker, go and check up on anything I need to with Bodhi's. The initial setup of both is a little trial and error, but once you are going these utilities really help keep track. As the Jap player, I guess you'd open up Bodhi's, run the turn and then check for updates...

I only use them for one game as I think you'd probably need a copy of each utility for each game. I make the extra effort with this one because it is an AAR, but I will probably always use them for future games.

Very best regards

Carl

[goodboyladdie]

28/01/42

The New Mexico class BB Idaho arrived at SF and sailed for PH escorted by 2 DMSs. 102nd Infantry also arrived and was transferred to Pac Flt and began loading for Christmas Island.

In a bizarre incident I found my CVs merrily making their way to the DEI. I had indavertently left them with follow orders when I disbanded the BBs they escorted to PH. That tf designation had passed to a Dutch ASW group formed last turn so they were on their way to join up...

10,000 tons of supplies from the South Atlantic arrived at Auckland.

A Jap task force is heading for Johnston Island. I have withdrawn the A-20s back to PH. When I first did some work on this turn the mouseover revealed this...

[goodboyladdie]

During my third period on the turn, just before I pressed end turn, I had another quick look and the mouseover revealed this...





If it is a small invasion force taking advantage of Johnston Island's small garrison I will be happy as it will be well within range of everything I have at PH...

[goodboyladdie]

A patrolling Catalina and a Walrus spotted I-122 at 19,59. I think this is Merak. I have ASW forces heading to the hex. What sort of sub is I-122? I forgot to check.

A Catalina was destroyed on the ground as Singapore was heavily bombed. Manila also suffered a heavy raid, but damage was quickly repaired. A Beaufort and a B-25 were destroyed on the ground. 6 Beauforts and a B-25 were downed by Zekes over Laoag. The Beauforts are withdrawing and all B-25s will now bomb Jap ground troops at Clark and Lucena. Jap troops moved into Clark this turn (see screenie). This map obviously does not have the river to the North, so the shock attack I was expecting to cause did not happen.

Brunei suffered an oil hit and 82 oil centres are now damaged. 2 Vildebeest were shot down by flak over Moulmein. Moulmein fell to a deliberate attack. All forces that can withdraw from Rangoon will join the exodus to the North and East. Kuantan was captured too.

MSW W.16 was torpedoed at Brunei by O-16.

[goodboyladdie]

A large AP/AK convoy is leaving Aden for Sydney to pick up 7th AIF Division for transport to India when it arrives. As you'll see from the screenie my sealift capacity is going to be very stretched in 15 days time...





Edit Looking at this again, I am struck by the enormous difference in load cost between a US Infantry Division and an Australian Infantry Division...

[goodboyladdie]

1st Lt Conkling of 3rd Sqn AVG got his fifth kill in an ambush near Honan today. 3 Sallys were shot down in that battle, with a Mary falling to an I-16 mod 4 nearby.

I have ordered 2 Field Armies to cross the ferry onto Hainan to disrupt Mike's plans for all the units at Taan. 9th Provisional Corps, retreating from Wenchow, has accidentally got across the supply lines of Mike's units threatening to envelop Nanchang (see screenie). Hopefully it will cause more problems for him than me!

[goodboyladdie]

29/01/42

Noumea's port and airfield have expanded to size 3. SigInt has interecepted radio transmissions at Nauru - HMAS Adelaide has sailed from Noumea to investigate.

Johnston was hit by a long range raid from the approaching task force consisting of 9 Zekes, 1 C3N1 recon bird and 110 Kates. That number means the KB is still messing around in the Central Pacific. 1 Kate was destroyed with three damaged. 3 PBYs were burned out on the water and the base took 10 hits, supplies 4 and the runway 152. Damage is 0/20/30. I am hopeful that the task force will be attacked by my long range heavy bombers next turn, but the heavy CAP may mean they do not fly. 13th BS flew their B-25Ds in from SF to reinforce PH. All land based medium, dive and torpedo bombers are restricted to range 4 (the range of the available fighters). My CVs will wait to see if any Jap ships get damaged. I may pull them back to the East of Oahu.

6 S-boats arrived at Colon. They are off to lay mines at Canton Island before returning to PH for individual assignments. AS Griffin and 3 DDs (2 Fletchers and and a Somers) arrived at Panama and sailed for PH. 8th photo recon arrived at LA and I was disappointed to find that the F-4 Lightning only has a range of 7 hexes. They have transferred to SWPAC and moved to SF to await transport.

4 TKs are loading fuel at SF for Brisbane. They will take the 2 stray Dutch PTs with them.

All remaining elements of the Asiatic Fleet HQ are now at sea and on the way to Townsville.

[goodboyladdie]

SigInt has revealed that IJA 53rd Div is planning for an attack on Manila. 16th Div has been identified at Lucena and 2nd Div at Clark by bombing this turn.

TK Falkefjell was sunk by 3 torpedoes from I-158 east of Celebes. She had been on her way to Balikpapan to load oil.

Rangoon, Singapore and Clark were bombed, singapore suffering a particularly heavy raid. Brunei took an oil hit in return, with 90 centres now damaged.

A Jap deliberate attack at Clark reduced forts to 0. Ass points were 467 (292) to 235 (283). Casualties were 232/7 to 62/5.

733 Sqn FAA moved their Beauforts to Kuching from Soerabaya. 3 new FAA squadrons arrived at Aden. 817 FAA flew their 12 Albacores onto HMS Formidable which is now almost at capacity. 827 (Albacores) and 810 (stringbags) loaded onto AKs for Colombo. Formidable and her escorts have sailed for Batavia. I would love to have the time to swap out the ship art on this mod...

[goodboyladdie]

FO E. Gray of 3rd AVG shot down a Sally East of Honan for his 5th kill. Another Sally was downed by Chinese flak to the South East.

[goodboyladdie]

30/01/42

Johnston was hit again by 9 Zekes, 1 C3N1, 100 Vals and 86 Kates. A Kate was destroyed in return for 4 PBYs. 10 base hits, 6 supply hits and 111 runway hits brought damage up to 0/46/66. The continued presence of the KB, even after Mike became less distracted by work, seems to be another indicator that he has plans for the Central Pacific.

[goodboyladdie]

4 DDs sailed out of San Francisco after a sub contact SE of San Diego. CL St Louis was fully repaired at Victoria and sailed for PH. 111th Aviation Regiment is unloading at Anchorage.

Here is a comparison between the F-4 and F-5 Lightnings. You can see why I found the F-4 so disappointing.