Notes on 12.10.41
Well first of all, I'm liking the search arcs. I had set all of my LB @ Takao to Naval Attack as I'd seen ships @ Hong Kong transferring supplies plus those DDs running into the South China Sea and then these enemy TFs running from Hong Kong.
My LB did ok except for a pair of groups that went into Manila where Fionn has a pair of TFs that show up as a CL and a pair of DDs. So that sucked two air groups into Manila and Fionn's CAP had it's way with them.
See the TF by Sabang? Last turn it was down near Kuala Lumpur and I thought it was Force Z. I moved Nells into Singora and set them to Naval Attack @ 6k. As you can read from the Combat Report I posted, I tapped TKs instead of the BB & BC I was hoping for.
Mini-KB lurks for fleeing merchies from Manila. I actually caught the Boise by Davao last turn where I put a fish into her. She's disappeared but I did tap into some merchant meat over there in the Sulu Sea. These CVL/CVE seem to have lower sorties then what I last recall. Of course my memory is probably a tad warped from my preference to play those what-if mods. I'll have to recall this TF soon, sigh. Fionn buzzed the mini-kb with B-17s and missed. Along with the fact that they are probably really low on experience, LB get a penalty if they try to bomb under 5k and his are coming in @ 3k. How about we keep that little bit of info just between us? [:D]
I've been watching sub ops and ASW ops closely. So far it looks like my ASW TFs do fairly well against his subs in shallow water. I've missed him every time in deep water. I've only seen about 5 encounters so it's not a huge body of evidence but I'm taking notes - lol.
If you read those naval encounters with Fionn's PTs, those were pretty sweet. He had moved those out near Laoag and I saw them last turn. I think maybe the slower tempo of movement in the game might be throwing Fionn off? Anyway, TF14(1CL, 5DD)SC had been following TF88(2PB, 9SC, 6DMS, 7xAK)Amphib. TF18 has a max speed of 10 so I took TF14 off of follow mode and shot it ahead and into Laoag.
I didn't see anything from Fionn @ Aparri but TF19(2CA, 1CL, 2DD)SC was escorting the Amphib TF there and did just fine. I wonder what setting Fionn had those PT TFs on for routing? I've seen several AARs where PT TFs just ran away, so my WAG is that he had them set on Direct Routing with the Threat Tolerance @ Absolute.
Anyway - those were some fun action scenes to watch.
I swept Clarke and Singapore hard this turn but Fionn has pulled back. I must be putting some serious hurt in his air ops. [:)]
What else to say... TFs are headed to the bases along Northern Borneo. Subs are almost all in place for the picket line along the Marshall and Glibert Isles. I've got PAs flying Naval Search plus every third sub has a wee little search plane.
I'm moving my mini-sub sows back to get more. I'm gunna try San Diego - rofl. I'd told Fionn in an earlier e-mail that I rated sinking the Boise as one of my top 5 things to do - just under sacking San Diego. If a min-sub can hit anything there it would be too cool. [8D]
Troops are being sent to the PI & Malaya. I'm gunna try to get into Palembang but it takes soooooo long to get troops to ships and get the right number of ships for port size, and then find enough escorts 'cause I'm deathly afraid of all of those damned subs I didn't sink in Manila. This is really Carl's fault. He had me so tied up with his sub operations the last time we played that I was almost in fits. I think he was laughing at me the whole time... <grin>.
And operations in China seem to be taking their own sweet time. PArt of that is trying to insure garrison levels and still try to start funneling CEA troops along the lower part of China. LCU from Manchukuo are starting the strategic movement phase so we'll see how long it takes to get that prong of the attack on place and moving in.
I sent Fionn the turn about 30 minutes B4 I started updating the AAR so with any luck I might see a turn in my box 2morrow morn.
TTFN.
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