The First Team: Take Two!

[ny59giants]

Don't forget to use the "W" key to show ZOC. If both sides have an "AJ" in it, it is contested. The Allies can retreat into a hex that has an "A" in it. You can reset their movement by a simple LCU bombardment attack. The only way around that is to have a base as their destination and allow the AI to plot your course. If the Allies have done this, then you have to cut off their retreat. Keep up the bombardments both on the ground and from the air to increase their disruption and fatigue levels (slow them down).

Future goals - Go East Young Man!! Plan to take Canton Island. Then seriously think about Midway, Johnson, and the Line Islands. Bring the kitchen sink, but keep going until they stop you. Make them have to use CVs to retake islands and hopefully you can get them to have to send out their CVs for battle. I would not go around Australia, its only a diversion and a waste of resources (fuel).

My wall in the east would be Tonga, Pago Pago, Canton Island, Johnson, Midway, and Cold Bay.

[John 3rd]

Man.  People say I am aggressive!  Michael--Your thoughts are breath-taking and scare the heck out of me with the entire IJA committed to India.  I'd say Canton--Here we come...

[Rainer79]

The reason why the base facilities at Canton Is. have not been expanded much could be that the Allies have been building forts instead. A US division behind high level forts could be serious bad news for your landing party. It wouldn't hurt to send a few recon Glens against likely targets...

[ny59giants]

Admiral Cochran,

According to this novice Japanese player, you should be able to pull out the 2 x Mixed Bde, 2 x divisions, various engineer rgt, tank rgt, and some construction from Manchuria that will be about 4 months worth of Political Points. Add in the 3 x division and mixed bde from Japan. This means there are still troops to be used, but await PP to do so. I know Brad is filling out his BF to increase their assault value in Manchuria so you can get more out.

Once India slows down, then some of the smaller LCUs can be pulled out. The eastern Pacific needs more troops, but a few months worth of combat in northern Australia may be needed to take Darwin and push down to Tennant Creek. Got to keep the 4e bomber menace at bay. [;)]

As you well know, the USA will win the war for the Allies. India is nice, but the main threat is that 800 pound gorilla to the east. [:D]

[John 3rd]

May 1, 1942
Victory Points and Economic Summary 

Victory Points:

Score
Japan    20,407 (Up 3,810)
Allies     5,576 (Up 302)

The month of April saw the build-up and breakout in India and the gradual takeover of New Zealand

Ships Sunk
Japan   97—743 VP (Up 91)—11 Losses for April:  3 AK, 1 AP, 1 PG, 2 DD and 4 SS (4 I-Boats)

Total Losses:  2 CL, 6 DD, and 11 SS (9 I-Boats and 2 Ro-)

It is the 1st of May and our warship losses are almost the historical same as Japan in the real war.  We had some ships damaged in April but got nearly all of them home for repairs.  Considering the action 11 ships is nothing.

Allies    284---2,636 VP (Up 315)---Allies lost 30 Ships in April.  Exact sinkings were:  CLs Tromp, De Ruyter, and Java, 4 DD, 16 AK, 1 AP, 3 MSW, an AVD and 2 more SS.

Total Warship Losses are:  2BB West Virginia and Oklahoma, 3 CA, 10 CL, 23 DD, 40 PT, and 25 SS (18 Fleet and 7 S-Boat)

The Dutch Naval Squadron was sunk off of Viza and most of the others were taken out by LBA or Jap SS.

Manchukuo Garrison---8,757---(8,000 Needed)---Up 657
Political Points---759

Units Transferred:
2 Chinese Independent Brigades
2 Con Btn

Industrial Report
Supply         2,175,694  Down 61,227
Fuel           2,814,537  Down 281,147
Manpower       840 (94,046)  Down 43,397
Heavy Industry 14,148 (1,948)  HI Up 590 but Reserve dropped 3,400
Resources      19,281 (1,670,484)  Gained 1,418 Centers and Reserve Up 164,377

Oil             2,268 (1,359,677)  Up 4 Centers

Everything is looking pretty good.  We pulled a ton of fuel from the Home Islands and didn’t bring much oil in while the TK were running to distant Port Blair, Wellington, and Noumea.  LOOK at the jump in Heavy Industry and Resource Centers!  That is mostly due to Ansanol, Dacca, and Calcutta.

Shipyards
Naval               1,358 (17)            Expanded 2 Points of Yards
Merchant           952 (5,409            Expanded 4 Points of Yards
Repair              878                   Expanded Repair Yards by 123 due to Cebu and Diamond Harbor being captured as well as others expanding around the Empire..

Carriers
Hiyo              Completed
Taiho             675 Days
Unryu             809 Days (Accel)
Amagi             812 Days (Accel)
CVL Ryuho         86 Days (Accel)

Battleships
Yamato            19 Days
Musashi           214 Days

CVE
Chuyo              68 Days (Accel)

Weapons
Armament         597 (22,801)          
Vehicles           218 (8,002)                  Expanded 23

Armaments took a dip with the big reinforcement wave we got last month.  Vehicles expanded and pooled quite nicely. 

Aircraft
Engines             1,790
Assembly         933 + (410-Rd)

Engines expand 68 and production stays the same, and research expands by 100.

Engine Production Type                Producing---Need---Stockpile
Mitsubishi       865—741—1007
Nakajima         805(57)---629---8
Kawasaki         100---0---485
Aichi             20---0---89

Mitsubishi and Nakajima both dropped some.  Am not sure why we are not gaining a stockpile of Nakajima engines.  Perhaps Brad can answer that one.

Plane Production
Fighters            Planes/Month (in Pool)
Nate               0 (238)
Claude             0 (216)
A6M2               167 (188)
A6M3               72 (23)
A6M3a             0-Rd                11/42
Oscar              144 (37)
Oscar IIa          12-Rd              11/42
Tojo               252-Rd             08/42
Tony               48-Rd               08/42
A6M5               5-Rd                09/43
Jack               24-Rd               10/43
N1K1 George  48-Rd               05/44
Frank 1a           0-Rd                08/44

We get Franks in 2 YEARS and 3 MONTHS!  Banzai!!!

Seriously…

Naval Production:  A6M2/A6M3 production is rapidly build-up our Fighter totals.

Army Production:  Oscars are OK and have expanded some.  When we hit 252-Rd with Tojo perhaps we’ll get a month advancement pretty soon.  With India going on, we WANT those fighters.

Bombers
Nell                 0 (245)
Betty                66 (26)
Betty 2             4-Rd                07/43
Sally                99 (23)
Helen                46 (11)
Lily                 40 (51)
Val                  57 (257)
Kate                 48 (172)

Good numbers but bombers aren’t stockpiling very much.  With both Sally and Helen in production we should see growth here.  Vals and Kates are solid and I like having a good number of them.

Seaplanes
Mavis               0 (15)
Emily                30 (7)
Dave                0 (112)
Alf                   0 (40)
Pete                  0 (55)
Pete A              0 (8)
Rufe                 22 (55)
Glen                 4 (36)
Dinah               31 (21)
Jake                 34 (76)
Ida                   0 (81)
Babs (Ki-15)    0 (75)
Babs (C5M)      8 (30)

Emily expanded 14 from last month.  Cannot overestimate the value and vulnerability that these planes have for our side!  Shutdown Alf and Pete A

Transports
Tina                  20 (5)
Sally                 0 (18)
Topsy               25 (43)
Mavis-L             0 (34)
Tabby             20 (61)

Shutdown Sally and Mavis.

[Q-Ball]

As John pointed out, Naka engines are a problem. We need a stockpile for the Tojos to roll off the lines.

We're fixing that though by reducing Zero production (we have 188 in pool, so we can afford to scale back), and halting Lilly production. We should now see the pool grow.

[Hornblower]

I like the Canton plan.  i may have missed this, but any idea where the USN CV's are?

[John 3rd]

We haven't seen them for the entire war.  Perhaps they don't exist...

[John 3rd]

Combat Report
May 2, 1942

Pucheng, China
In what is truly becoming irritating the Chinese continue to hold against a 1-1 attack.  Getting supplies in to muster a full strength attack is proving next-to-impossible.  Forts have been at ZERO for the last 3 attacks but we cannot climb over the hurdle to get the magical 2-1.  I am trying to move supplies by air as well as have an Army HQ present and nothing seemingly makes a difference.  Anyone got any ideas here?

India
Columbo
Large bomber raid hit this town today.  Nearly 200 bombers smash into the AF destroying 7 Beaufort, 3 PBY, and 5 B-25 on the ground.

Addu Invasion Force
Fleet is moving towards this target pretty quickly without being spotted.  The Landing Force is covered by a STF containing TWO Japanese BB!  We actually have a pair of BBs back in action...  The Support Force of Junyo/Hiyo and 2 CVE are covering the convoy and STF.

New Zealand
Auckland
The Japanese Bombardment Force points 32 14" rifles at the town and gets a decent result of 310 Casualties, 7 G and 3 Vehicles destroyed.  Unfortunately the idiot Admiral in charge of the operation forgot to tell the escorts to not bombard so we may lose a DD for no reason.  HATE making stupid mistakes!

During the day the town is pummeled by 28 Zero, 52 Bombers, and 25 Kates.

The attack that evening goes in and does good work.  We get a 1-1 assault (771--456) that drops the Forts to 5.  Casualties are pretty light:
Japan  815 cas, 23 Guns, and 1 Vehicle
Allies  1,087 Cas and 13 Guns

Surprisingly unit disruption is less then 30% for every unit in the attack so we decide to launch back-to-back assaults tomorrow.

CarDiv2
Adm Yamaguchi issues orders for all leaves to end by dawn May 5th so the Fleet can sortie on its next mission...

[John 3rd]

Brad and I have been bouncing emails chatting about topics:

My First Note:
I THOUGHT I had checked the darned Bombardment settings!  Hate to waste a ship that doesn't need to be...

Am going to try back-to-back attacks at Auckland.  Noticed my boys weren't very disrupted at all (highest was at 29) so we'll hit them again and see if we can get a 2-1 or simply lower the Forts again.

As to Burma, my thoughts are to thrust a Inf Duv east of Lashio and cutoff their retreat.  It is only the troops you booted out and so they should be easy to knock out.  Additionally, I would Shock Attack--Pursue after bombing that Chinese Corps with every bomber you have.  If you can get it to retreat then the tanks will move most of the way into the next hex.  My .02...

That was damned rude of those troops to be kicked out of Menares!  (&&^+%$$ Troops are escaping along that northern road.  Can we just use a Star Trek transporter and beam them in to cut the dratted raod??!!

Admiral Yamaguchi's Fleet will move out on my B-Day--May 5th.  I've got two TK that will unload at Exmouth for Yamaguchi to be able to top off from before swinging around. 

Playing some head games by ordering Mavis and Emily Recon of some Aussie Towns...

Brad's Note Back
I ordered the 55th Div to march east of Lashio yesterday or the day before, as soon as I saw those 9 units there.  Not sure if we can cut them off, but we can at least cut off the rest.

 I think they are going to escape with most units from NE India.  The base forces at Chittagong and Akyab are toast, and we might bag another one or two, but that's it; the road is open to the north, and they are squeezing out.  Oh well, at least they are leaving. 

Auckland looks great, I would try again, it was very nearly 2-1.  If you succeed tommorow, I think it will fall very quickly. 

If the rest of NZ falls, and we garrison Addu Atoll, Australia will be cut off.  It won't starve; but the biggest benefit is that they can't get air units there, which means they can't really do anything offensive.  In fact, I will have to check, but I think it will be even cut off from 4Es staging there; that would be something.  I am pretty sure you can't fly from Papaete to Australia, and maybe even Papaete to NZ isn't possible.  If so, that means Australia is neutralized until they open a supply line.  That also would make a conquest of NZ an Allied priority for sure.

Last Note:
We'll grab what we can with Burma and India.  Totally disappointing but it makes sense when we broke through in the west.  If you can swing that concentration NW of Raipur further north then perhaps the door can be closed.  Doubt it though.  Might be worth a try.  Bombay should be the priority though.  If we can get that then that will force the Allies back to the corner if India and we can then pound away and see how far we can go.  Will need Tony/Tojo for that phase because it will shift to an attritional fight.

I ordered a Shock Attack at Auckland and REALLY Hope I get a 2-1 out of it.  If we get that then I will rest them a couple days and we'll take the city.  Am prepared to immediately shift south and take that island fast.  Will then decide what sort of garrison needs to be left at that point.

Concur about creating the need to for them to counterattack at NZ.  Might be a great place to CHOOSE a fight later.  Will need to think about that some. 

The idea of reinforcement pools staged inside the perimeter to counterattack is of high value but I think Truk is too far back for reasonably fast response.  Might be good to look at Kawjalein and Noumea as concentration points for troops and warships.  Idealistically it would be good to have a division-sized force at each location ready to move immediately.  Once India and Burma are clear do you think we could pull 2-3 Brigades out to help create the core for these attacking forces?

I am going to swing CarDiv2 around Australia and then link it up with the rest of the Fleet at Noumea.  Once there then I will swing due east for a raid to fix American eyes by attacking eastward looking for convoys and shipping.  The Canton Invasion will be closely examined based on recon of the island.

Those be my thoughts.  

[John 3rd]

Things are looking good down south...

[John 3rd]

To say that things are fluid in the east portion of India is a massive understatement!

[John 3rd]

Here is the first of a long series of Pacific Screenshots detailing the bases possessed, their size, and strength as of May 3, 1942. I will work from North to South:

[John 3rd]

Coming south to Marcus and Wake:

[John 3rd]

Kwajalein area:

[John 3rd]

Tarawa and our next Allied target: Canton...

[John 3rd]

The extreme SE Pacific Area:

[John 3rd]

Over to Noumea...

[John 3rd]

Here are our current booty kickers!

[John 3rd]

Just after I post the Aces Screenshot I watch a new turn where the Allies demonstrate that we are closer to THEIR AF then we are to ours!