Here we go again! tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J) - No tc464

[Mike Solli]

21 Jan 42

Ambon

I tried another attack after a pathetic CA bombardment. It didn't work. I got 1:1 odds and lost 65 to 106 Allied casualties. The only bright spot was that I knocked the fort level from 2 to 1. I'll try again tomorrow while reinforcements head closer.

Philippines

My forces were still moving toward Bataan, or so I thought! They all spontaneously reset their movement and are back to 0 miles travelled. Grrr.....

My daily air bombing cost me 2 planes for little appreciable gain.

Malaya

Air bombardment of Singapore cost me 2 planes here as well. At least I'm keeping the airfield slightly damaged, which means he's not improving the forts.

Billiton

Ted sent 2 B339Ds and 5 139WH-3s and I promptly shot down 1 and 2 respectively. Billiton's airfield finally reached level 2, so I'll try using my elite Zeros to sweep Batavia to see what I can find.

China

Just one attack today 2 hexes north of Chingting. I chewed up more Chinese, killing 920 for 268 Japanese casualties.

Pt. Moresby

I tried an assault including the 4 Division today, even though they were still distupted from the landing. It didn't work well, but I did mangle the Australians some more and I reduced their fort level to 1. I'll try again tomorrow.

[Mike Solli]

22 Jan 42

The I-8 found an xAK south of Hawaii and put 2 torpedoes into her. She reportedly went down.

Billiton

My Zero sweep over Batavia found nothing. Ted sent 5 139WH-3s escorted by a B-339D. This time none made it home. [:D]

Burma

A Tank Regiment caught some support forces at Tongoo, killing 358 and sending them packing. This opens the door for my infantry to surround Rangoon. I'll post a pic later.

Malaya

One Sally lost vs. a Vildebeast destroyed on the ground and some damage to the airfield.

Philippines

An Ann lost in the air bombing. My ground forces are attempting to move into Bataan.......again. [8|]

Other Stuff

I've discovered that I'm short of infantry for future invasions, specifically Southern Borneo. I've decided to pull the 20 Division out of Korea and send them south. That division is currently broken down. I'm considering keeping it that way for more flexibility. What do you guys think.

Shoho arrives in 3 days. [:)]

I've increased the vehicle factories by another 5.

I've increased naval yards by 10. My daily surplus has dwindled to 63, just enough to accelerate 1 CV. This extra 10 plus the Shoho will increase my surplus to 112, enough for almost 2 CVs or a CV and 4-5 DDs.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

I've discovered that I'm short of infantry for future invasions, specifically Southern Borneo. I've decided to pull the 20 Division out of Korea and send them south. That division is currently broken down. I'm considering keeping it that way for more flexibility. What do you guys think.

Really?

I didn't make a habit of playing the IJ with WiTP, so I don't know what the number of SNLF units present in that version was. However, it seems to me that in AE the IJN have a whole lot of SNLF groups (there's 3-4 in China, IIRC that can be 'bought out' too) that are ideal for use in Southern Borneo. Also, you should be due soon to get another 4 SNLF reinforcement units in Tokyo, IIRC. As early shock infantry around the DEI, I'd encourage you to reconsider your capabilities with these units before buying out regularly IJA.

4 experienced and high morale SNLF units x 60 AV each should be more than enough to scare off the rabble around Balikpapan. You probably would only need half that for Tarakan.

Banzai, Mike!

[Grotius]

Interesting that you're only now getting Shoho, whereas Shoho has been in my game from the beginning, I think. I'm playing Scenario 2, which probably explains it. I take it you plan to use her in mini-KB?

[Mike Solli]

Yeah, I'm going to add her to Zuiho and Hosho. The Ryujo is still out repairing for another month. Right now mini-KB is just training at Takao. I'll decide on a mission when Shoho arrives. That'll be an 80 plane TF. Right now Ted's hiding his warships. I'm sure he's building a nice TF to hit me somewhere. I have no idea where unfortunately. KB is heading south toward Ambon and will head to PM again. Hopefully, it'll be to escort the 4 Div into the SRA after successfully taking PM. I'll bomb with KB if I have to, but I don't want to.

[Q-Ball]

RE: Infantry, you never have enough as Japan early, but after Singapore and Luzon is wrapped up, that frees up alot of boots. The problem is all the commitments early: Singapore, Luzon, AND Java if you can swing it. And Burma.

Alot of the SNLF are reinforcements, but you get a consistent stream in early 1942. This helps alot.

[Mike Solli]

Q-Ball, I'm reluctant to spend my PPs on more infantry for the war effort. We'll see....

[Mike Solli]

23 Jan 42

Malaya

The usual bombing of Singapore cost me a Lily. Not much else going on other than my forces moving southward. I did take Johore Bahru empty. The resource level was 99(1).

Philippines

Two Anns were destroyed over Bataan. My forces are (again) moving toward Bataan.

Burma

There is an Allied base force crawling down the road south of Moulmein toward Tavoy. I have a recon regiment that is crawling after them. They finally caught up with them and mauled them again, causing 153 casualties for no loss. My main force continues to maneuver to cut off Rabaul.

SE Fleet

A couple of P-40Bs showed up over Pt. Moresby. I shot one down. I'm not sure where they came from, but there aren't more than a couple of them. They don't stand a chance against 45 elite Zeros.

Billiton

Ted came after me again with a B-339D and 5 139WH-3s. 1 and 3 were shot down, respectively.

[Mike Solli]

24 Jan 42

Malaya

My forces are gathering before I move into Singapore.

Pilippines

Two Japanese planes were shot down bombing Bataan. My forces are making headway toward Bataan. Keeping fingers crossed that they don't reset movement again.

China

Three Japanese attacks today:

Chuhsien - 1:1 odds reducing the fort level to 0 and causing 386 casualties for 46 Japanese casualties.

1 hex NW of Chuhsien - 1:1 odds killing 203 for 94 Japanese casualties.

2 hexes N of Chingting - I pushed out the Chinese in a 3:1 attack killing 3829 for 303 Japanese losses.

I'm starting to see the dreaded ! show up in China. 50k supply should arrive in a couple of days.

[SqzMyLemon]

Mike,

I think I have reached my PP troop purchasing saturation point as well. The only thing I've been doing lately is PPing a few JAAF Bn's out of Kwantung, I'm finding I'm woefully short of aviation support in China.

Do you know if there is a way to transfer the 12th Air Flotilla HQ on Honshu to Hokkaido? I know it's restricted, but I'm not moving it off the home Islands so I can't figure out why I can't get it there, can it be air transported maybe? I wonder if there is another one free that I'm missing, maybe one on Kwantung. [&:]

[Mike Solli]

I believe you can air transport a restricted unit from one restricted base to another restricted base. I haven't tried it though.

[Mike Solli]

While waiting for my turn, I was messing with WitPTracker and noticed something very nice. My Ha-45 R&D factory was accelerated a month to Aug 43! Banzai! [:D]

[Mike Solli]

25 Jan 42

Reinforcement: CVL Shoho - She comes with some really good pilots. I pulled 3 out for TRACOM.

This was, to say the least, an exciting turn and pretty hard on the ole ticker. [X(] On the day where I get my first carrier reinforcement, I also lose my first warship. It was inevitable, but it still hurts. Anyway, here goes.....

China

I attacked Chuhsien and the hex NW of Chuhsien again and took both hexes. Combined, I lost 180 troops for 3721 Chinese casualties.

Burma

I beat up the Allied support forces fleeing Pegu again, this time catching them 4 hexes up the road with the pursuing tank regiment. 158 more casualties for no loss. I did lose an Ann over Rangoon, however. My encircling forces are crawling along.....

Malaya

I downed a Buffalo (the last one, I hope) for the loss of 2 bombers to Flak, all over Singapore.

Ted decided he didn't want to lose any more planes over Billition.

Philippines

More aerial bombing of Bataan, this time without loss. My ground troops should arrive in Bataan (finally) tomorrow.

Ambon

I landed a second SNLF and a third is 1.5 days out with the support forces hovering a day out. I'll wait until the last SNLF lands then attack again.

SE Fleet

Ok, now the heart-wrenching stuff....

First, I sent 3 Furutakas escorted by 2 DDs to scout out Tulagi prior to an invasion. (The Aoba is headed to Japan to repair some minor major damage from Wake Island - if that makes any sense.) Anyway, that little TF runs into the CA Canberra hiding out at Tulagi. That spunky little CA did a pretty good job on my forces considering she was outnumbered 5:1. The Oboro (Furutaka II) sucumbed to her wounds and the remaining forces limped away on both sides. The Canberra was in pretty bad shape with a dozen shell hits split pretty evenly between 8" and 5", as well as a torpedo hit. I don't think she'll make it. My remaining ships should all be ok. Three of the four had minor damage (only 1 major engine hit for the Kinugasa). The Kako took the brunt of the damage: 22-24(4)-12-0. They're headed to Rabaul (where an AR is) to patch them up. They will all be repaired locally. What really irritated me was that I had a sub sitting in Lunga's hex (one hex away) and never saw her. [8|] Here's the battle report:

Day Time Surface Combat, near Tulagi at 114,137, Range 20,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Kinugasa, Shell hits 2
CA Furutaka
CA Kako, Shell hits 5, heavy fires
DD Oboro, Shell hits 6, and is sunk
DD Yugao, Shell hits 1, on fire

Allied Ships
CA Canberra, Shell hits 12, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage

Ok, that was the "minor" engagement. At Pt. Moresby, I had a TF composed of 2 BB, 2 CL and 5 DD trying to catch small TFs Ted had running into Pt. Moresby. Of course they never engaged. Well, Ted decided to come looking for them and sent a hefty force. Here's the OOB for both sides:

BB Mutsu
BB Yamashiro
CL Kitakami
CL Oi
DD Yamagumo
DD Sawakaze
DD Yukaze
DD Tachikaze
DD Namikaze

BC Repulse
CL Java
CL De Ruyter
CL Tromp
CL Mauritius
CL Boise
DD Vendetta
DD Evertsen
DD Kortenaer
DD Piet Hein
DD Van Ghent
DD Scout
DD Stronghold
DD Jupiter

That was some hefty firepower on both sides. My two BBs concentrated most of their fire on the Repulse and the Kitakami put a torpedo into her pretty early on too. That took her out of the battle fairly rapidly. She put 2-3 main gun rounds into the Yamashiro and 1 into Mutsu. What saved me was that the Mutsu was a 6" shell magnet, which did little to her and most likely saved many of my DDs. Basically, everyone wasted lots of torpedoes (except for the lucky shot from Kitakami) and blasted off most of their gun ammo. Most ships were hit by only a few small caliber rounds and came off pretty well. My only concern is the Yamashiro: 36-33(6)-19(1)-3. I think she'll make Rabaul, primarily because the largest gun Ted has left is 6". The Repulse went down late in the battle. Her light armor just can't stand up to 14 & 16" shells.

After the battle, my Bettys finally flew. A total of 59 sorties put 1 torpedo into the Java and sank her for the loss of 3 Bettys. (These guys are supposed to be the elite. Geez!) Zeros flying over PM downed 2 P-40s as well.

Here was the final outcome:

Day Time Surface Combat, near Port Moresby at 98,130, Range 17,000 Yards

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
BB Mutsu, Shell hits 42, on fire
BB Yamashiro, Shell hits 1, heavy fires
CL Kitakami, Shell hits 2
CL Oi, Shell hits 3
DD Yamagumo
DD Sawakaze, Shell hits 1
DD Yukaze, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Tachikaze, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Namikaze, Shell hits 3, on fire

Allied Ships
BC Repulse, Shell hits 39, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
CL Java, Shell hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL De Ruyter, Shell hits 3
CL Tromp, Shell hits 1
CL Mauritius, Shell hits 1
CL Boise, Shell hits 1
DD Vendetta, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Evertsen
DD Kortenaer, Shell hits 1
DD Piet Hein
DD Van Ghent, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Scout, Shell hits 2
DD Stronghold, Shell hits 4, heavy fires
DD Jupiter, Shell hits 6, heavy fire

Here's the real kicker. KB was headed back to tend to PM, and was 1 hex outside of maximum range and couldn't engage. They were taking their good old time heading back. Had they moved the entire 13 hexes that turn, 4 deckloads of planes would have shredded those ships. It would have been after the battle, but most would be gone. The good news is that Ted doesn't know KB is there. Hopefully, they'll be either in PM port or not too far south. It could be a nice clean-up tomorrow.

It figures work is taking me out of town tomorrow and I won't be back until Friday afternoon. We'll just have to wait to see what happens.....

[Mike Solli]

Philippines:

[Mike Solli]

Malaya:

[Mike Solli]

And finally, Pt. Moresby. You can see KB is coming for a surprise party. The problem is that Ted doesn't know anything about the party. [:D]

[Grotius]

Exciting stuff! You say you lost a warship -- you mean the DD near Tulagi? If that's all you lose after all that action, you did pretty darned well.

Also, I take it your Betties are in Rabaul? Which Air HQ did you put there?

Anyway, great stuff. I look forward to seeing what happens with KB tomorrow.

[Mike Solli]

Yeah, the Oboro went down.  I currently have 2 Betty daitai at Rabaul along with some Zeros.  The entire 23 Air Flotilla is there.

[Grotius]

I assume you transported the HQ by sea. I've seen talk of air-transporting Air HQs, but you have to get the parent to the destination to get the torps, right? And that takes a long time via air-transport, even assuming you have a transport with the legs to do the job.

[Mike Solli]

Yes, the 23 Air Flotilla went by sea. I screwed up a bit though. They first went to the Philippines. I wasn't thinking when I did that. The 21 Air Flotilla is destined to protect the Southern SRA. I should have sent the 21 Air Flotilla to the Philippines instead of the 23. I ended up moving the 21 Air Flotilla to the Philippines to replace the 23 Air Flotilla and then picked up the 23 Air Flotilla and moved it to Rabaul. Just about all of the 23 Air Flotilla planes are in SE Fleet area. The only exception is a C5M2 unit, still at Jolo. It'll eventually move, once I take Tarakan & Balikpapan.