The First Team: Take Two!

[John 3rd]

Brad--Catching the Royal Navy would be nice but I want those damned convoys to stop.  There is one unloading in Karachi right now.  If we plant the CVs about 7-8 hexes from Karachi and 3-4 hexes from the northern edge of the board they will be cutoff.  With some AO present we could hold the hex for weeks and truly institute a siege.  I know that there are fears regarding LBA so that is why we attach a pair of CVE carrying 54 Zeros to fly CAP.  We could easily field 125 or so Zero over head while blasting anything at sea...

It might FORCE a naval battle!

Am still mulling over options listed earlier.  Repairing Sys Dam, Upgrades, and Pilots are the immediate priorities.  If we immediately pull the CV back to Japan then we could--perhaps--have everything taken care of by the 1st week of August and then look at attack options...

     

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

Brad--Catching the Royal Navy would be nice but I want those damned convoys to stop.  There is one unloading in Karachi right now.  If we plant the CVs about 7-8 hexes from Karachi and 3-4 hexes from the northern edge of the board they will be cutoff.  With some AO present we could hold the hex for weeks and truly institute a siege.  I know that there are fears regarding LBA so that is why we attach a pair of CVE carrying 54 Zeros to fly CAP.  We could easily field 125 or so Zero over head while blasting anything at sea...

It might FORCE a naval battle!

Am still mulling over options listed earlier.  Repairing Sys Dam, Upgrades, and Pilots are the immediate priorities.  If we immediately pull the CV back to Japan then we could--perhaps--have everything taken care of by the 1st week of August and then look at attack options...

   

Absolutely, this should be done. Biggest problem is a lack of Zeros; all the ones I have are basically over Karachi. Maybe we can scrape up a Daitai somewhere to put on the transports. We have several Daitai in training that are about 2-3 weeks out from completion, so we should have more shortly.

[John 3rd]

Brad--How about I pull a Daitai of Zeros and Vals from the Central Pacific for replacements?  Not sure about Kates and we shall need all 27 of the pilots in a Daitai to replace the losses in that area.

New Plan:  I will recall all 9 CVs to Kwajalein.  Once present they will be split with 3 CVL going to Singapore and then Columbo and the 6 heavies going straight to Japan for repairs.  The VAST balance of the Fleet goes with them.  The Allies will do NOTHING for a while so we shall use that time to get everyone in operational shape.

Logistics:  In doing this we shall be able to build-up a decent amount of fuel at Truk, Kwajalein, Suva, and Auckland so we can have extended operations.  The AOs will move to Marcus with 60,000 fuel and wait for the operational decision of where to go to...

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

Brad--How about I pull a Daitai of Zeros and Vals from the Central Pacific for replacements?  Not sure about Kates and we shall need all 27 of the pilots in a Daitai to replace the losses in that area.

New Plan:  I will recall all 9 CVs to Kwajalein.  Once present they will be split with 3 CVL going to Singapore and then Columbo and the 6 heavies going straight to Japan for repairs.  The VAST balance of the Fleet goes with them.  The Allies will do NOTHING for a while so we shall use that time to get everyone in operational shape.

Logistics:  In doing this we shall be able to build-up a decent amount of fuel at Truk, Kwajalein, Suva, and Auckland so we can have extended operations.  The AOs will move to Marcus with 60,000 fuel and wait for the operational decision of where to go to...

Good plan with the fleet. One additional Zero Daitai should be sufficient; I have some Kates handy. Vals are useless anyway against those armored RN flight decks.

We should be out of the woods in about a month with our Zero losses, because

a) we will have Tojos. We have TONS of good IJA pilots that are sitting around waiting for good mounts. I have been training them from the 60s into the high 70s/low 80s. They can take some pressure off the Zero units
b) We have other IJN fighter units training up in Burma/China

[John 3rd]

Where do you want to do the replacements?  Do we just want to move the 3 Daitai back to the Home Islands and transfer pilots there?  Probably makes sense to me.  I will disband the CVs by Division in the Home Islands.  We have lots of open repair yards right now so that should be fairly easy and quick.
 

[John 3rd]

This has been the normal thing in the air for the last two weeks:

The stupid yellow arrow is meant to be pointing at the Allied daily losses as well as for the whole campaign...

[Q-Ball]

The fact that we keep seeing Mohawks and Buffalos tells me that the RAF is critically short of airplanes. I haven't counted, but I bet they're short on pilots too; they start with a good pool, but only add 30/mo.

An attrition war against the USAAF is suicidal as Japan, but you can bleed the RAF.

[n01487477]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball
An attrition war against the USAAF is suicidal as Japan, but you can bleed the RAF.

That is why any good Allied player will have a good mix of USAAF and Commonwealth planes to sortie against the Japanese... spread the load.

Wait a sec, I'm a JFB ... what the ...[;)]

[vettim89]

ORIGINAL: n01487477

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball
An attrition war against the USAAF is suicidal as Japan, but you can bleed the RAF.

That is why any good Allied player will have a good mix of USAAF and Commonwealth planes to sortie against the Japanese... spread the load.

Wait a sec, I'm a JFB ... what the ...[;)]

Actually up to about this point, the Japaese could have bled the USAAF dry of at least fighters. However, production will be ramped up enough by now that it is no longer to accomplish that goal at this stage.

I read this thread and a certai pop culture reference comes to mind:

Pinky: "What are we gonna do tonight Brain?"
Brain: "The same thing we do every night Pinky: TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!"

[Q-Ball]

Today we hit more bombers at Chungking. This brings up a question: Can the Allies stage aircraft through Russia? If so, they can easily make it to Alaska from India.

[John 3rd]

Here is the fight over Chungking this turn...

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Today we hit more bombers at Chungking. This brings up a question: Can the Allies stage aircraft through Russia? If so, they can easily make it to Alaska from India.

I don't believe the Allies can stage aircraft through neutral Russia. With you guys having taken the western Aleutians, I don't think any Allied aircraft currently in the game have the legs to stage from Kodiak to any Chinese bases.

[Hornblower]

the Japanese and Allied air losses don't seam that far off.

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Today we hit more bombers at Chungking. This brings up a question: Can the Allies stage aircraft through Russia? If so, they can easily make it to Alaska from India.

I don't believe the Allies can stage aircraft through neutral Russia. With you guys having taken the western Aleutians, I don't think any Allied aircraft currently in the game have the legs to stage from Kodiak to any Chinese bases.

I believe you are mistaken about that. I think the game engine permits it. In the real world, I'm not even sure there would have been a legal proscription against it....given that no attack on Japanese forces were launched from Soviet territory.

As they almost certainly cannot have enough supply in China to operate B-24's in a sustained fashion, I think you can safely conclude they are fresh B-24's coming into theatre. Less likely they are spent formations being rotated out.

[Canoerebel]

I'll bet they are B-24s from India. 

I don't think you can base American bombers in Russia.  (In real life you couldn't do so - one of Doolittle's B-25s landed in Russia and was "impounded" since it was violating Russia's neutrality).

[John 3rd]

This is the last piece of business before the true assault upon Bombay can begin.

[John 3rd]

I asked that use of Russian AF question in the War Room because that is exactly what the Allies are doing. They have flown their 4EB from Karachi to China to Russia and on to Kodiak.

No comment from this player...

[Cap Mandrake]

Uggh...Buffalos [X(]

[John 3rd]

Mandrake--we LIKE Buffalos!!! They taste yummy on the tummy.

We also like Chinese Biplanes!

[John 3rd]

The Allies have run convoy after convoy without us being to seriously interfere. It has driven me nuts for two months of game time. Well---NO MORE to that! Several ships enter into Karachi's Harbor we have a STF placed to attack as well as nearly 100 Betty.

We are able to do this safely as Karachi and Bombay have been pretty evacuated of Aerial Units and Columbo is no longer a thorn in our flank. As soon as Ceylon is fully ours then life will be pretty good. We can move the IO Fleet into decent bases and reshuffle our Bombers and Fighters.