ORIGINAL: Mike Solli
I took Billiton (Resources - 20(0)). A boat load (many boatloads, actually) of engineers landed and 72 air support landed. I got them to work on the airfield. As soon as it reaches level 1, I'll station some Zeros (and recon) there to start sweeping Batavia. That Zero unit from the 22 Air Flotilla is really experienced. They have 5 pilots (of 18) who are 81+ experience. I'm tempted to pull a couple out and put them into TRACOM. By the way, TRACOM has 10 IJNAF pilots and they haven't done a darn thing. [8|]
Hi Mike,
Enjoying the AAR.
Don't airfields have to be size 2+ to be able to LRCAP or sweep from them?
Most likely. [:D] I'll try anyway. If not, they'll CAP Billiton until the airfield reaches level 2.
My understanding is that Naval Support speeds up the repairs of ships pier side, but not those in Repair Shipyards. This has led me to do some rethinking of deployment of those large BFs that each have 120 Naval Support (only 24 Aviation Support). They will need to be placed in bases relatively close to potential front lines to help with ship repairs after battle and be substitutes for Naval HQs high Naval Support value. So much to learn, so expensive has the learning curve been for me (see FatR's AAR as I haven't updated mine to include the latest lesson [X(]).
Yeah, fuel is giving me headaches already too. I don't have enough TKs at Truk to keep Kwajalein and Rabaul's fuel reserves above 0. [8|] Definitely headaches. I've already send some TKs to Truk and need more there. I'm thinking about 6-8 7950 ton TKs.
And before you guys say anything, no I don't have enough xAKs available right now. I'm probably going to send some 14, 15 or 18kt xAKs to haul fuel from Truk. I'd like to use the 18kt xAKs but they're rather vulnerable out there. It'll probably be 14kt, probably the Toho class. Each can haul 1760 fuel a trip. There are 53 to start. Possibly 20 at first? I think that'll do it. I can use the Aden PBs for escorts, probably 10.
If it is any consolation, fuel is a serious bitch for the Allies as well. I am in June of my game and my tanker lossed have been very light. Still, I can't keep enough fuel in OZ. It is bad for the Allied player to lose carriers early, it is just as bad for them to lose tankers.
You lost only 27 Zeros in more than 4 weeks of fighting ?
I lost already 33 in five days including 10 Ops losses. Most against Buffalos and P40´s.
And i was sweeping the enemy airfields a lot at high altitude.
However, i lost 99 planes and destroyed 233. Not too bad for the first time and the high losses i had over Pearl at day one
with about 30 IJN planes lost.
Mike you and Q-Ball have been talking a lot about invading Western Australia. For the benefit of us new players maybe you could go into some details about why this makes military sense and what Japan can get out of such actions.
If you have gotten a big enough advantage in both Naval and air superiority to even think of doing an invasion, then the only way the allies can attack you would be by marching ground LCU's up to attack the ground forces you send in. And Australia is vast! How do you do a limited invasion and expect to hold on to what you get? [&:]
seille, I'm convinced that air losses are directly related to your and your opponent's aggressiveness. My opponent hasn't opposed me in the air other than in the Philippines and Malaya. I overwhelmed him in both areas. I think that's why my losses are so low.
Frandoxx, my idea of invading Australia is to buy time, which is most important for the Japanese player. The longer you can keep the Allied 4E bomber menace away from your oil fields, the longer you'll keep your industry functioning. Northern Australia is a must. I'm only exploring the idea of invading Western Australia. Q-Ball can give a better discussion of that right now. I plan on using overwhelming force to take the objectives and destroy as much Australian ground force as possible. Then I'll pull out most of the ground forces for defending the SRA and put a minimal force in Australia. What's left there will eventually be destroyed, but the time they hold the airfields from the Allies will buy the SRA time. During that "safe" period, I'll suck as much oil and fuel as I can out of there.
The problem with anything on Australia is that you can't hold it forever, in fact defending Australia as Japan is fairly tough. The idea is to create space though to give yourself more time, and to hopefully destroy ground units in the process.
NORTHERN OZ is a defensive play; you have to chase the Allied Navies from the top of Australia. That will limit their advance to 2 narrow corridors, the first around Exmouth, the second through the Torres Strait. Unfortunately, it's also easy for the Allies to eventually get a land campaign going overland toward Darwin, which is unwinnable for the Japanese in the long run. It will take the Allies time, however, to get that going, particularly if they want any kind of air support.
WESTERN OZ is very interesting. The benefits to Japan are:
1. Prevents on-map convoys from India to Australia. This limits ability to send British Reinforcements, and supply/fuel to Australia. Not a game-changer though, since you can still go off-map via Capetown.
2. Creates a ton of "space". The Allies can only take it back with CV support, as there are no airbases within range, not even 4E range. So, it will take a major Allied commitment just to re-occupy it. It will take further time to then start to advance up the coast toward Northern Oz. It will be awhile, therefore, before the Allies can advance into the DEI, or at least advance without a hugely long and easy to attack supply line. (Sure, you can skip Northern Oz and land in DEI, but that is way too long a supply line).
1 hex South of Brisbane, but if I read the rule correctly, and the map, Western Australia is actually "North" of Brisbane. (Not IRL of course, but on the map it is.)
South of Hawaii, the I-2 put a torpedo into the DM Pruitt. I put 8 subs there since the beginning of the war (I-1 through I-8). Seven of them are still patrolling the area. I-6 is headed to Japan to repair 6 major flot damage. At what point do you guys send ships back for repairs? I thought about it for a time and decided to repair damage as soon as possible so they would be available later.
For what it's worth, I always repair major float damage regardless of level, but on subs the major engine damage has to be at least 4-5 before I'll send it back (unless it's based out of a shipyard port, but as you've undoubtedly noticed subs based out of Kwaj, Truk, Rabaul, etc. are a long way from a shipyard). It seems like you can sneeze and accumulate a point or two of major engine damage. Probably not unreasonable.
12 Jan 42
China
I'm trying to do a flanking maneuver to the NE of Ichang. I want to guard the west flank of the attack along a river and made an attack 1 hex E of Ichang to secure that flank. I pushed out a pretty big Chinese Corps (not so big any more) causing almost 2700 casualties to 186 Japanese.
I attacked another Chinese Corps 2 hexes N of Chingting, attempting to grind it down. (This isn't the first attack against this unit.) I caused 536 casualties to 826 Japanese casualties. The Chinese unit is still there. It's mountainous terrain, so it's going to take awhile.
Philippines
I attacked the 5 cut off Allied units at Cabanatuan again. Three of the five units were destroyed leaving the 1 PA Division and a base force. My guys are pretty tired but I'm going to make one more attempt tomorrow to wipe them out so I can concentrate on Bataan and pull out a division to augment the 38 Div and 21 Bde in their Java invasion.
KB arrived at Babeldaob (port level 4) and refueled from the Replenishment TF. I made a discovery that I should have realize long ago. Wherever KB goes, I need >20k supply (much more). There was just over 20k supply there so I wasn't able to add more than a few replacement planes. I did resize all of the carriers and added as many good pilots as I could. It'll take a few days for the pilots to wander to their ships, but they're on the way. Hiryu and Soryu now can carry 23 planes in each daitai and Shokaku and Zuikaku can carry 24 each. That makes 282 planes max for KB, or 94 each Zeros, Kates and Vals. I have a lot more supply headed to Babeldaob, but it'll be awhile. I may send KB out without the replacement planes. We'll see.
Sub War
I almost had my first sub on sub contact. One of my subs saw an enemy sub but couldn't get into firing position. [8|]
The I-2 is doing pretty well. Her sys damage is better by one and flot damage up by 2.
Other Stuff
I landed at Lae and Ternate today. I'll attack tomorrow. 4 Div is loading at Truk and headed for Pt. Moresby.
12 Jan 42
China
I'm trying to do a flanking maneuver to the NE of Ichang. I want to guard the west flank of the attack along a river and made an attack 1 hex E of Ichang to secure that flank. I pushed out a pretty big Chinese Corps (not so big any more) causing almost 2700 casualties to 186 Japanese.
I attacked another Chinese Corps 2 hexes N of Chingting, attempting to grind it down. (This isn't the first attack against this unit.) I caused 536 casualties to 826 Japanese casualties. The Chinese unit is still there. It's mountainous terrain, so it's going to take awhile.
Philippines
I attacked the 5 cut off Allied units at Cabanatuan again. Three of the five units were destroyed leaving the 1 PA Division and a base force. My guys are pretty tired but I'm going to make one more attempt tomorrow to wipe them out so I can concentrate on Bataan and pull out a division to augment the 38 Div and 21 Bde in their Java invasion.
KB arrived at Babeldaob (port level 4) and refueled from the Replenishment TF. I made a discovery that I should have realize long ago. Wherever KB goes, I need >20k supply (much more). There was just over 20k supply there so I wasn't able to add more than a few replacement planes. I did resize all of the carriers and added as many good pilots as I could. It'll take a few days for the pilots to wander to their ships, but they're on the way. Hiryu and Soryu now can carry 23 planes in each daitai and Shokaku and Zuikaku can carry 24 each. That makes 282 planes max for KB, or 94 each Zeros, Kates and Vals. I have a lot more supply headed to Babeldaob, but it'll be awhile. I may send KB out without the replacement planes. We'll see.
Sub War
I almost had my first sub on sub contact. One of my subs saw an enemy sub but couldn't get into firing position. [8|]
The I-2 is doing pretty well. Her sys damage is better by one and flot damage up by 2.
Other Stuff
I landed at Lae and Ternate today. I'll attack tomorrow. 4 Div is loading at Truk and headed for Pt. Moresby.
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