The Leader Bug strikes - BigB 1.5 Japanese version

[Rainer79]

April 28th + 29th, 1942:

Some days you just want to channel your inner castor troy...

DMS did not make it to port. I-23 also hit DMS Zane with a torpedo in a follow-up attack but as neither fires nor heavy damage were reported I am not exactly hopeful. The boat also attacked DMS Boggs but missed.

Between Pearl and Palmyra a group of 7 DDs heading southeast stumbled upon I-3 and buried the sub under a mountain of depth charges. Sometimes I really hate the fact that each allied warship makes an average of 6-8 ASW attacks while a Japanese escort gets 3-4 attack rounds - tops.

A sweep over Tennant Creek resulted in the loss of 5 Zeroes for 2 Kittyhawks. It was nice to see the never-ending allied bounce again over the base. Numerical superiority and coming in ~15k higher than the CAP does not seem to have much impact on the code.

On the ground in Australia the 16th Army troops continue to crawl towards Tennant Creek at a rate of 5 miles/day. One of the units leaving the town has been identified as an Aussie Tank regiment.

North of Canton the second attack to push back these Warlord troops also failed. Although this time it was a least closer with a very solid 1:1 attack. I would just like to know why the Japanese AV was reduced to 1/6 again. The two Infantry Divisions had ample supply, good XP and morale, decent commanders, low disruption and fatigue. *sigh*

[Rainer79]

April 30th, 1942:

Not much happening except for the new routine bombing missions. On the bright side the Brits had to withdraw 1 CV, 1 BB and 4 DDs so far - and all sailed home.

SS Seawolf attacked a AK 1 hex SW of Rangoon but did not score any damage. Currently the allied subs seem to be content to stay at the fringes of the empire.

[Rainer79]

May 1st - 3rd, 1942:

After a small pause the war is back on.

Australia continues to be main theater. 4 Allied units are moving along the road southwest of Tennant Creek to protect the Allied supply line while bombers punish my tank regiments in the desert. At the same time Zero sweeps have shot down more Kittyhawks protecting the base (3 A6M2 vs. 10 Kittyhawks). If the bombers at my airbases in the north ever decide to fly there should be a good chance to close the airfield there. The first troops have entered the base (finally) but we'll wait for the other units to arrive before making a serious attempt. Also additional supplies will have be shipped in. So far 100k supplies have proven to be insufficient for the task.

Also a few Glen-equipped subs have been ordered to look at the bases on the Australian east coast. If a big army is in the north, we'll see how much is left to defend the other parts of the continent. While I did not plan for a full scale invasion, I might try to take a shot at it if the odds look favorable.

The Allies have started to fly sweeps over Burma with their P-40Es. So far they have found only empty air. It seems that Daniel uses the short-ranged British planes for CAP while the American ones will be used offensively. So far there is still the option to decline a battle but once P-38s start to arrive in numbers I may no longer have that luxury.

Oscar LRCAP did shoot down a Lodestar transport over China. While such missions may not stop the flow of Allied material into China it might at least make it a bit more expensive.

Finally the fleet has been joined by a new CV. While Junyo is not the most capable carrier out there, every little bit helps.

A look at the points shows a comfortable 4,6 : 1 lead at the moment.

[Rainer79]

May 4th + 5th, 1942:

Australia: The Allies continue to bomb our advancing troops around Tennant Creek. At least the IJAAF bombers have decided to fly even if their hit rate is abysmal. During the first attack 45 Zeroes tangled with 21 Kittyhawks. 2 Zeroes and 1 Sally were shot down by the CAP but at a cost of 6 Australian fighters. The attacking Sallys and Helens scored but a single hit on the runway though at least a Beaufort was parking there. During the second attack not a single aircraft was shot down in air-to-air combat by either side though flak accounted for 2 attacking bombers. This time the IJAAF planes missed the airbase altogether (@ 11k feet). [:(]

China: Changsha also was visited again by over a hundred bombers. All in all we lost 8 planes to ops today which make such attacks very costly. The Allies lost only 4 planes despite the fact that they regularly fly nearly 1000 sorties more than we do.

Burma: The Allies have decided to strike again now that the British planes can be upgraded. 55 bombers (Mitchells, B-17s and Wellingtons) escorted by 35 fighters attacked Magwe's oil refinery. They scored 2 oil hits which equals to 20 damaged oil centers (out of 40). [:(]
Industry repairs all over Burma have been turned off as a result.

Southeast of Myitkynia the 2 Infantry Divisions and a tank regiment attacked several British and Chinese units caught there after the fall of Lashio. The 30 000 Allied soldiers decided to flee after a brief exchange of fire. They are now enjoying the beautiful Himalayan mountainside...

[Rainer79]

May 6th, 1942:

Burma:
A bloody day in the air. After yesterday's attack I set two Zero Daitais to LRCAP over Magwe. As expected the enemy came back though the results were not quite expected.

1st strike: 66 Beauforts (both I and VI-X models) escorted by 9 Lysanders and 7 Hurricanes were attacked by 20 Zeroes. A total of 10 enemy planes were shot down for no friendly loss and no hits were scored.

2nd strike: 16 B-25s, 14 B-17s and 23 Wellingtons came next. The escort of 50 Warhawks/Kittyhawks then proceeded to shoot down all 20 Zeroes while only suffering 4 losses themselves. [X(]
I really like the bounce "feature" in this game. If you come in ~10k feet lower than the CAP you will still get an endless bounce thanks to allied radar coverage and you can proceed to murder the Japanese planes at any height....

Anyway, the oil refineries were again targeted and more damage was scored. Strangely enough 2 oil hits this time translated into only 4 more centers out of commission.

Australia:
Today's attack on Tennant Creek was not any better. Despite having a 3:2 superiority 9 Zeroes were lost for 5 Brewsters and 3 Kittyhawks while a single Beaufort was torched on the ground again. At least the bombers have begun to hit the runway.

I wonder if replacing the 70+ XP Zero pilots with 35 XP rookies would make any difference with these results...

All in all 32 Japanese planes were lost in exchange for 30 Allied ones today. When looking at pilot losses the situation does not look quite as grim but I think it is fair to say that the Emperor is NOT happy.

[Rainer79]

May 7th - 10th, 1942:

Burma: A night attack by 4 Beaufighter VIFs against Rangoon turned out to be a bad idea for the Allies as two of them were shot down. During the next attack 5 from 6 attacking bombers were damaged.

There were also several attacks against Mandalay that scored no damage. An AA regiment and overstrength base force provide the flak defense of that base. While the guns appear to be not very effective at least they manage to down the occasional bomber.

China: In response to the Allied strategic bombing in Burma the IJAAF flew an attack against Sian and damaged an oil center there. Let's see if that discourages further attacks.

Also east of Wuchow the two infantry divisions plus troops arriving over the trails from Kashien forced two Warlord corps and a HQ unit to retreat. These units will now head to Canton for some r&r while the CEA will decide on its next target.

Australia: Dogfights over Tennant Creek continued. A total of 6 Zeroes, 3 Sallys and 12 allied planes were destroyed for minor damage to the base. I am still amazed how few hits two 80+ XP bomber Sentais can score despite daily recon.

South Pacific: Finally there was some activity in this region. After spotting several APs a few subs were ordered to try and intercept them. I-171 found a group of 6 DDs instead and bravely attacked them. As usual the torpedoes missed while the Allied counterattack scored a direct hit. The boat will have to head back to Truk but should make it.

[Rainer79]

May 11th, 1942:

After eating way too much at the family Easter dinner, the Emperor can look back at a nice turn.

Australia: The daily attack at Tennant Creek was a nice success with no Japanese plane lost. 4 Kittyhawks were shot down in the air and 4 more planes were torched on the ground. Due to the huge number of units there almost all damage to the base is repaired during the day. Therefore the IJAAF will now go in at 6k feet. While flak fire is intense at that height losses so far are acceptable.

At the same time the Allied continued to bomb our ground troops at the base. IJA reinforcements are 120 miles out and once they arrive we'll see how much combat power the allies really have amassed.

China: Suppressing Wuchow's airfield (and destroying supplies) is the current focus in this theatre while the ground units will rest to recover morale and reduce fatigue and disruption.

A couple of Sallys also destroyed a SB-2c on the ground at Tsuyung.

Burma: A huge coordinated raid from several Indian bases hit Mandalay today. About 155 bombers and 50 fighters were opposed by 8 Oscars on leaking CAP. The Oscars shot down 2 planes for 4 of their own (although they damaged a few more) but as only a single pilot was lost I will consider this a success. The bombers hit nothing which leads me to believe that they were targeting oil or resources again.

North Pacific: Allied activity at Umnak has been noticed for a while now. A Canadian base force had been unloaded there (half of which had been sunk en route to Attu earlier) and lately a few ships have also been spotted. Today the Kates at Adak attacked the shipping at the base.

The first attack featured 22 Kates against 3 Allied DDs. The older flush deckers were no match for the elite naval aviators of the IJN. DDs Litchfield (3 torpedoes) and Gilmer (2 torpedoes) were immediately sunk and Chew (2 torpedoes) was heavily damaged. [&o]

A second wave of 3 Kates also found an AK unloading supplies and scored a hit on AK Knoxville City.

[Rainer79]

May 12th, 1942:

ASW: A group of PCs and PGs found SS Stingray near Rabaul. They claim to have scored a direct hit and 7 near misses during two different attacks.

Also a group of 3 SS was spotted heading west towards Kwajalein. Perhaps a mine-laying missions? ASW and MSW groups have been readied just in case.

Australia: Just when I mention that flak has not been bad so far the AA guns at Tennant Creek shoot down 5 bombers (25% of the strike) during the daily attack run. At least the escorting Zeroes eviscerated a weak CAP and downed 7 (out of 9) defenders for no loss.

Burma: The Allies came back to Mandalay where a (leaking) CAP of 10 Oscars opposed them. One Oscar was lost in exchange for 4 Allied planes while the attacking bombers scored no damage (again). I wonder how much experience the bombers gain during these attacks...

Aleutians: The Allies flexed their muscles in this region when 27 B-17Es attacked Amchitka unescorted. 12 brand new A6M3s rose to defend their base and to try and stop the massive planes. They managed to bring down one of the massive bombers while 7 more were damaged. The damage to the Japanese forces was a single damaged fighter and a lone hit on the airbase. That could have been a lot worse.

The Kates flew another attack against the shipping at Umnak and were met by a CAP of 14 P-40Es and 18 P-38E/Fs (my fault, I forgot to reduce the range). One American fighter of each type was shot down while the IJN lost 4 Zeroes and 3 Kates. [:(]

The bombers did manage to hit the already damaged AK Knoxville City and AK Malama twice. At the end of the day the Knoxville City and DD Chew slipped beneath the waves.

Here is also a screenshot of the current air losses. So far 2 000 Allied planes have been destroyed for 918 Japanese ones. If only the ratio could stay that way...

[Rainer79]

May 13th + 14th, 1942:

Australia: Air attacks against Tennant Creek continue at a favorable exchange rate though most of the bombers are sitting damaged on the runway due to flak. The airbases in the north build up so very slowly. In hindsight I should have left an engineer regiment there to build them up and not send it forward but now it won't send them back.

Burma: After a leaking CAP of 10 Oscars encountered the daily 100+ bomber Mandalay attack again I've stood that Sentai down. All in all losses are about equal but the Allies have started to fly P-40E sweeps which would tilt the exchange ratio too much in their favor IMO. The performance of the AA regiment and base force at Mandalay has not been satisfactory so far.

Aleutians: The B-17s came back for Amchitka and tangled with the A6M3s again. They shot down a fighter and destroyed one more on the ground while only suffering damage to 4 planes. The sad fact is that thanks to its cannons there are no better options to combat the 4E menace available.

[Rainer79]

May 15th, 1942:

Allied subs have been busy with mines being swept at Kwajalein and Rangoon. Another sub may be headed to Truk as well. MSWs are ready to get rid of this inconvenience.

Burma: The Allies have switched their target to Magwe again and score 2 more oil hits there. 1 Beaufort was shot down by the heavy AA battalion there. 31 Warhawks also swept Mandalay.

As a response I'll restart strategic bombing in China.

Australia: The Allied fighters seem to have abandoned Tennant Creek for now. Only a single Dutch Brewster challenged the 42 Zeroes on escort and was promptly shot down for its trouble. They still have the lvl. 5 airfield at Alice Springs though from which to conduct ground attacks from.

[Rainer79]

May 16th - 18th, 1942:

ASW: Kwajalein has become a pretty popular spot for US crews. About 10 subs are lurking around the atoll while the local ASW forces drop the occasional (ineffective) depth charge on them.

At least a Lily found and hit SS Searaven off Rangoon. Note that I don't use my LBA bomber Sentais in "vacuum cleaner" mode but a very few Sentais are set to naval search or ASW if there are not better missions for them available.

Strategic warfare: The Allies continued to trash the oil centers at Magwe. Wellingtons have also started to fly night attacks against Meiktila, probably hoping to take out the resource centers there.

In China the IJAAF has trashed about half of Sian's oilfield. Operations against the other oil centers are also planned. Once they are sufficiently trashed I will take a look at resources. The HI centers will probably be spared for now.

Burma: To make the Brits a bit more cautious a cruiser squadron (CAs Suzuya, Mikuma, Mogami and CLs Isuzu, Jintsu, Sendai) shelled Cox's Bazaar. Later during the day a Sally sentai also bombed the trashed airfield. Too bad that the other two sentais did not fly but the result is still very good. As the screenshot shwos a lot of British torpedo bombers were hit. If these squadrons are pulled back I might try to take a shot at the more distant 4e bases.

Australia: The airfield at Tennant Creek stayed empty but is still currently the target of the two bomber sentais (mostly to prevent fort building). Meanwhile the Allies continue to fly ground attacks from Alice Springs. About 1000 AV reinforcements are less than 60 miles away from the base so an attack is imminent.

Glen recon of the eastern coast shows a severe lack of allied units north of Brisbane. Depending on how the fight for the north goes, I might land about 2-3 division equivalents here as a diversion.

[Rainer79]

May 19th + 20, 1942:

Kwajalein: The actions around the atoll continue. While the MSWs decide to take a smokin break, a returning PG/PC squadron sweeps them the old fashioned way. They shoot at a few and then PC Takuna Maru #7 hits a Mk. 10 mine directly and sinks. [:@]

At least the ASW forces were inspired by the loss. SS Dolphin received a single Type 95 DC hit from a PC group, SS Growler was hit by a bomb from a patrolling Jake and DD Mikazuki damaged SS Shark with 2 Type 91 depth charges. Hopefully the boat will sink.


Burma: The Wellingtons still fail to achieve anything with their night bombing. A B-17D flew a recon mission over Rangoon so we might see some action there in the near future.


Australia: The IJA reinforcements have finally reached Tennant Creek and started to test the defenses. 2903 AV should be more than enough to deal with the allied defenders (1236 AV). Better safe than sorry though as this base cannot be allowed to remain in allied hands for now.

[Rainer79]

May 21st, 1942:

Industry: I forgot to mention during the last update that BB Yamato joined the fleet. The 185 naval points freed up by the completion have been spent on accelerating the first two Unryus and restarting two RO boats.


Kwajalein: The MSW continue to clean up the minefield at the atoll. The already heavily damaged SS Shark was hit by no less than 3 Vals and Kates on naval search and went down with the captain.


Burma: The nightime Wellington attacks on Meiktila continued. This time they actually scored a single airbase supply hit.

A Sally raid on Ledo destroyed a Dakota on the ground while Oscars shot down a few more in AtA combat. While it probably won't stop the airlift operation it might force Daniel to redeploy a few fighters.


China: The oil centers at Sian have been further damaged by 40 attacking IJAAF bombers. Only 4 remain intact.


Australia: In preparation for the upcoming ground attack a Zero LRCAP was posted over Tennant Creek to hopefully stop the daily ground attack missions. At first 9 Zeroes encountered 5 B-17Es escorted by 17 obsolete Dutch fighters. 9 Dutch planes were shot down but the bombers shrugged off the attack runs. It seems that not even the 20mm cannons can reliably stop the 4e menace. A second attack (3 B-17Es, 2 Brewsters) got through without any losses.

5 Helens trying to bomb an Aussie division scored no damage but although all attackers showed multiple bulled holes when returning to base.

The deliberate ground attack was not too bad. The engineers reduced forts to 3 but the combat itself was resolved at 0:1 (1039 vs. 1399 adjusted AV). Losses were fairly light though and it is an encouraging sign that the Allies lost more men the IJA. All in all I don't think that the base can hold for long.

[Rainer79]

May 22nd - 24th, 1942:

Tennant Creek: While the assault troops are shedding disruption, 3 artillery units are bombarding the defenders. A dozen or so B-17Es are also daily visitors here while a few Helens and Sallys target the airfield to keep the engineers busy. I really need Daily Water's airfield to expand so that I can base another bomber sentai there (stacking limits). A lot of bombers are sitting damaged at the base because of flak damage.


China: 15 Sallys visited Lanchow and damaged 3 oil centers there. Repairing the wrecked ones could be expensive for the fragile Chinese economy.

Wuchow's airfield is also under constant attack. It helps train the rookie bombers and destroys even more supplies.

An Oscar Sentai also visited Chungking where it encountered 16 I-16cs on CAP. 6 enemy fighters were shot down and 3 more were damaged before they even knew that the IJAAF was there. Having an airbase (Ichang) in range of the capital sure is nice for the Japanese and I have quite a few plans for it in the future.


Burma: 15 Beauforts and 19 Hurricanes fought an inconclusive and bloodless duel with 7 Oscars over Lashio. The bombers then mostly missed the runway while being roughed up by the Japanese AA guns.

The Wellingtons also continued their useless night attacks.

[Rainer79]

May 25th, 1942:

Burma: The Wellingtons continue to achieve absolutely nothing with their nighttime attacks...

A repeat visit to Lashio resulted in 1 Hurricane shot down for damage to 3 Oscars. Somehow the pilots over this base seem very reluctant to engage each other. 4 runway hits were easily repaired by the base's engineers.


Tennant Creek: In a surprise move the whole allied army moved out of the hex this turn. A pity, next turn disruption would have been low enough to permit another attack and a flanking tank regiment would hopefully have cut the supply path at the same time. Though now that move has been aborted since that would only result in a lot of dead Japanese tanks.

Zero LRCAP over the base also bagged 3 more dutch fighters though as usual the B-17s got through.

Here is also a screenshot of the current industry situation. All in all stockpiles are looking good, especially the HI pool. If I had to do it again though I would increase vehicles more (say ~110 points). While tracker shows reinforcement needs of about 700 points left most of the pool actually is used for tank upgrades instead and there is (AFAIK) no way to currently predict that. Those upgrades regularly need several hundred points and seem to take precedence over bringing the units back up to full strength.

[Rainer79]

May 26th + 27th, 1942:

Burma: Pretty routine.

The troops on the trail south of Myitkynia have moved back onto the railroad. The Brits and Chinese that have embarked on their Himalayan holiday are now also enjoying daily bomber attacks. I hope that not much of them will be left once they reach China again.


Seagull sighting: After a long time an enemy cruiser-sized (or bigger) ship has been spotted again. Between Brisbane and Auckland a Seagull sighted one of my picket subs. Considering the seeming reluctance of Daniel to commit ships all over the map I find it interesting and will probably send a few more reinforcements to the Southeast Fleet area just in case.


Australia: An empty Tennant Creek fell to the IJA. The nice Aussies even left us 10k supplies as a welcome present. [:D]

B-17 attacks against the ground troops continue although a base force and a heavy AA battalion will arrive shortly. They probably won't make a difference but there will be at least the illusion of fighting back...

With Tennant Creek's capture also my pre-war objectives have been completed. The Imperial staff will now reexamine the map and consider the feasibility of one or two additional offensives but I am not wedded to the idea. In any case fort construction across the outer perimeter will be continued.

[Rainer79]

May 28th + 29th, 1942:

Burma: In addition to the Wellingtons hitting (or better missing) Meiktila a small group of B-17s has started to attack Rangoon during the night. So far their effect is pretty much nil. A quick check showed that the first dedicated nightfighter sentai will arrive in ~180 days although they will probably be just as useless.

Over Lashio the daily attacks continue. Typically the Oscars damage or shoot down one or two Hurricanes and are then driven off by the Beauforts. All in all, I don't mind if these small scale actions continue as the Allies loose a lot more pilots and planes.


Aleutians: Trusting the recon reports seems a bit like playing roulette. A 3 ship AP task force Dutch Harbor (at least that is what the Emily crews kept telling me for days) turned out to be a lone MSW. The Oriole quickly sank after sustaining 11 main gun hits. Oh well, let's just call this advanced training for the crews.

[Rainer79]

May 30th + 31st, 1942:

Quiet. At least Churchill demands that a CL + 2 DD head back during June.

Burma: The nighttime bombing runs continued to miss anything of significance. [>:]

Over Lashio 4 more Hurricanes were shot down during these two days. A single Oscar was lost. I certainly do not mind this sort of attrition.


Tennant Creek: About 40 B-17s are now flying ground attacks from Alice Springs. A first attempt to stop these raids was a failure. Out of 10 intercepting Zeroes the bombers damaged 3 while sustaining no hits themselves. [:(]


China: 50 Lilys trashed Changsha's airfield and scored even more valuable supply hits. The Chinese airforce seems to have abandoned everything south of Chungking and has (at least partly) relocated to India.

Wuchow is also bombed daily as it becomes the preferred advanced training target. CV Junyo's Kate group for example is almost ready to graduate. Pamakasan still serves as the main IJN fighter training facility but its days are numbered.

On the ground the IJA forces continue to rest but this is the calm before the storm. A summer offensive will soon be launched...

[Rainer79]

June 1st + 2nd, 1942:

Pretty much the same.

Australia: At Tennant Creek the Allies finally switched to airfield attack. 50 B-17 trashed the airfield and torched 14 Zeroes on the ground. So much for 70% CAP setting. [:@]
Only two 4e monsters were lost.


China: On the screenshot you can see the current Chinese troop dispositions around the target. It may be ambitious but the CEA will attempt to seize Hengchow and Changsha and thus having complete control over the North-South railway. The true goal however will be the destruction of some 30 Chinese units.

Phase I will be the isolation of the target bases from the rest of China. About 5000 AV will receive movement orders over the coming days (in addition to about 2000 AV already blockading Changsha).

[Rainer79]

June 3rd + 4th, 1942:

Again pretty much routine bombing. The 4e bombers continue to menace the Zeroes although this time around the fighters fared a bit better. Since the only other semi-active air theatre is over Burma (and I am relying on Oscars there) I can afford the attrition to the IJN fighter arm for now. Airframe numbers is certainly not a problem as most of the fighter factories have been temporarily shut down. Tojo and Tony are sadly still scheduled to come online 08/42.

Here is also a current map of the Japanese Empire. No further expansion (except for China) is planned at the moment. While I could have emulated John 3rd and gobbled up most of the South Pacific I specifically chose not to. The reason is the atoll stacking limit our game operates under. Being limited to 20k troops / atoll seems to be both a blessing and a curse. On the bright side there are enough troops to fill pretty much every frontline CenPac base to the maximum but it also means that they won't be able to survive a determined US assault.

Therefore I WANT the US to build up the South and Southwest Pacific bases and commit a lot of troops there. It should be better for me to invite Daniel to make a long and difficult journey along the Solomon chain instead of throwing everything against CenPac. I guess we'll see if the choice was wise.