I have stopped production on a number of airframes because I have sufficient numbers in the pool.
I am building MC-21 Sallys because I wish to use up the Nakajima Ha-5 engines. Once those are used up, I will switch the MC-21 factory over to producing something else.
The Dinahs are drawing down the Mitsubishi Ha-31 engines. I hope I can keep on building these without having to make any more Ha-31s. On 43/1 the Dinah upgrades to the III model which uses the Ha-33 engine. I am using my Dinahs as search AC. All my recon AC have been cross training on naval search.
When the game starts, the Japanese get three Aichi Ha-60 R&D factories. The only plane that uses these engines, however, is the Judy. So as soon as the Aichi became available, I switched two of those factories over to making more useful engines. Right now, one of those factories that was switched over to the Nakajima Ha-35 (Zero and Oscar) is still repairing.
Rather than build Topsy's as my transport AC, I am building Thalia's. This is because the Topsy uses the either the Ha-5 (model I) or the Ha-31 (model II) engine, neither of which is used for much else.
For the same reason, I am not going to build any Tony's when they become available. My R&D is focusing on the Tojo, Frank, and Helen IIa (has armor).
If there is one airframe that I never seem to have enough of it is the Sally IIa. I lose a lot of these guys to op losses because of their round the clock bombing of place like Singapore (when that was still allied controlled) Clark Field, Palembang and Soerebaja. Fortunately, my pilot losses are not nearly as high.
Now let's look at what I consider the most important screen for Japan in the whole game.
The region labeled "Honshu" here is a merger of Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku since oil and resources flow freely between these three islands, so it makes sense to treat them as a unit. The single most important number for the game as a whole is the number of oil days remaining. At least in the long term. At the beginning of the game, the Japanese player needs to move quickly to start getting resource convoys set up since "Honshu" consumes resources at a prodigious rate. I have managed to stabilize the number of resource days at around 50. I hope to be able to start building that number up soon by organizing resource convoys from the SRA to the HI. Oil and fuel convoys will also start to be organized fairly soon and hopefully that oil days number will start to climb, or at least not fall any more.
Here is one more important screen for the Japanese player: how are you doing in producing HI on which so much else depends?
My HI pool is growing nicely. I have expanded the HI factories at Singapore and Batavia. Those bases will be getting more than enough fuel and resources from the nearby sources (it ain't called the southern resource area for nothing!) to keep them going up until the bitter end. It seems to me that the Japanese player should never expand HI in the home islands. Rather, the place to expand HI is down in the SRA were the fuel and resources needed to run the HI factories is located.
After having read some threads on this forum, I am starting think I may be able to start shutting down armament production. I think I may let that number grow to 100,000. Maybe 120,000. But it is time to start thinking about saving those HI points.
Vehicle production, on the other hand, still needs to be expanded a bit. Not much, but a bit.
My philosophy on merchant shipyard points is to run the tiniest of surpluses while keeping everything building. Often, what these means is that I am accelerating the big 30 durability tankers up until they actually start building, at which point at set them back to a normal build rate. I am seeing a steady flow of ships come down off the ways.
Our game has been updated to the latest patch. This seems to have fixed witpqs's problem.
The major events of these turns have been the preparation for the capture of Palembang and the assault on Sorebaja.
The last units on the west end of Java have now been eliminated. One of the divisions at Batavia is now boarding ships to head to Osthaven on the southern tip of Sumatra. Osthaven was captured by an SNLF a few turns ago. That unit is now marching on Palembang. Hopefully, it will reach the base next to Palembang quickly. I can then send the division that I will land at Osthaven over there by rail, thus speeding up the tempo of operations there.
Paratroopers are at Singapore preparing to drop on Djambi.
Four SNLF units are just about to cross the river from Balikpapan to Samarinda. I hope the shock attack dislodges the defenders on the first to round.
The attacks on Sorebaja have been going very well. There were level 4 forts there, but they have now dropped to level 2 and the Dutch have taken a very large number of casualties. I won't need all 6 divisions on Java to take the place. The four I am using will be enough, even though I am going to rest them for a couple of turns since their disruption has gotten rather high.
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Ground combat at Soerabaja (56,104)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 56219 troops, 571 guns, 262 vehicles, Assault Value = 1863
Defending force 18167 troops, 176 guns, 91 vehicles, Assault Value = 464
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 3
Japanese adjusted assault: 770
Allied adjusted defense: 278
Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 3)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 3
A note on the undersea war: I hate subs. They are so much work to manage. Even with the new patrol zone feature, they are still a lot of work. I wish the game had such a thing as "patrol boxes" that you could assign your subs to. Then all you would have to do would be to set up a box and then assign subs to that box. None of this setting up patrol boundaries stuff. You could set up large or small boxes, and then assign more or less subs to the box.
At any rate, witpqs has shown more aptitude at submarine ops than I have. He has ASW groups hunting down my subs in various regions, such as near India, Western Australia, and on the west coast of the U.S. And he has spent a lot more time managing his subs and their patrol zones (or at least it seems that way) than I have. Not that I have really lost that many ships since Batavia was secured. I try to routed my TFs around known danger zones and always have escorts.
All in all, submarine management is one of the micro-management headaches I wish we could do without.
Samarinda was captured today. The dice, however, were not with me. 48 oil centers were damaged, about 50%! I hope the RNG gods are kinder to me at Palembang. To try to influence them in my favor, I am going to start ground bombing Palembang around the clock in preparation for the attack there.
Another attack is planned for Soerebaja for tomorrow.
KB1 with Shokaku, Zuikaku, Soryu, Hiryu and Ruyjo left Truk today for the DEI. I am marshalling forces at Java for operations aimed at western Australia. I am also buying out all the armor regiments in Manchuria and China and sending them south. The RF batallions (47mm anti-tank guns) have also been shipped from the HI to Java. My plans for this theater have not been finalized, but I at least know the types of forces I will need.
The first big shipment of fuel from the SRA to the HI is loading at Singapore right now. This TF will carry 150,000 tons of fuel. I have 110 days of fuel in the HI right now. Hopefully, this first shipment will raise that number significantly.
Sorebaja fell to the Imperial forces today. The oil center took 30 points damage out of 190. Large amounts of shipping are heading to Soerebaja to pick up the troops there for operations elsewhere. First on the hit parade will be cleaning up the pocket on Luzon.
Altogether, I have 6 divisions on Java. One is loading up to head to Osthaven and then on to Palembang. Another division will be tasked with taking Medan. Three divisions will go to Luzon where they will join the two divisions there to clean up the allied pocket at Clark Field. The allied troops at Clark appear to be out of supply and so I would not expect that operation to take too long. One division is sailing from Korea to Singapore right now.
I need to take Christmas and Cocos Islands. I will also be taking out northern Australian bases such as Hedland, Broome, Derby, etc. All of this is prepatory to actions aimed at Perth.
Below is a layout of my resource convoys supplying the home islands.
My general principal is to use the largest ships available in order to cut down on the number of ships. This is meant to save fuel. The schematic laid out here is based on expanding some of the ports and is not available when the game starts. For instance, Fusan has been expanded to size 8, its maximum.
Most convoys have their own dedicated unloading port. This is so that they do not interfere with each other and prevent another convoy from docking. Undocked ships load and unload extremely slowly. So, for instance, the Port Arthur convoy goes to Fuokoka, while the Fusan convoy goes to the next port over, Shimoseki.
The Formosa convoy is less than full size because if it were larger, it would simply drain Formosa of all its resources.
These convoys are going to be supplemented by resource coming in from the SRA.
This convoy set up has kept the resource level on the Home Islands relatively constant at 50 days supply.
Attachments
HomeIslandConvoys.jpg (104.1 KiB) Viewed 252 times
The SRA has numerous smaller resource centers scattered around the Java Sea. My plan here is to pick up these resources and dump them on Java where they will then be collected into one large convoy for shipment to the home islands.
Singapore is another point where large amounts of resources gather. I have two resource convoys moving between Singapore and Nagasaki. These convoys serve a dual purpose. Not only do they deliver resources to the Home Islands, but they bring back supply on the return trip to Singapore. From Singapore, that supply can then be sent out to nearby bases that need it. These convoys carry about 100,000 tons a piece.
EDIT: The picture should say Batavia, not Sorebaja.
Attachments
SRAresourceconvoys.jpg (127.88 KiB) Viewed 252 times
On the 23rd paratroopers dropped on Djambi and captured the base. Only 5 oil centers were damaged.
A division is currently unloading at Oosthaven. Should be unloaded in at most two days.
Forces continue to marshal at Sorebaja.
A division from Korea is unloading at Batangas to help with the reduction of Clark. Recon says there are now only 40 units there. For the longest time there were 42. Are they starting to die off for lack of supply? Allied AV is now down to 1700. When the siege started it was around 2000.
Our division tasked with taking Palembang has reached the adjacent base. It is still in strat move mode and will take two days to unpack. Once this division finishes with Palembang it will be shipped to northern Sumatra to capture Medan.
I have been ground bombing Palembang with the hope of damaging some of the engineers there so that not as many oil centers are damaged when I take the place. (The flak has been heavy and I have lost a number of Sally's.) Today's raid proved to be a massive security breach. I am moving KB1 to Batavia before sending it off into the Indian Ocean. Fighters from the Soryu and Hiryu, which are set to escort decided to try to escort one of the bombing runs on Palembang. Witpqs now knows where at least two of my carriers are.
Two divisions at Soerebaja are loading up for shipment to Luzon. This will give me 5 divisions for the final assault on Clark Field. Allied AV there continues to drop.
Things did not go as well at Palembang as I might have hoped. We only got 1-2 odds. The 5th division, the best division in the IJA, now has a disruption of 79. Will need to rest for a good while before attacking again. In the meantime, I am going to bring over another division from Sorebaja to help out.
Apparently, the reason for the poor result was some disruption. Not sure why there was disruption. I don't think there was any before the river crossing. At least we caused 25% more casualties than we took.
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Ground combat at Palembang (48,91)
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 13407 troops, 121 guns, 66 vehicles, Assault Value = 466
Defending force 6282 troops, 79 guns, 5 vehicles, Assault Value = 214
Japanese adjusted assault: 438
Allied adjusted defense: 502
Defending units:
Tapanoeli Gsn Battalion
Riouw KNIL Battalion
Zuid KNIL Battalion
Padang Garrison Battalion
Pakanbaroe Det.
So.Sumatra Garrison Battalion
Teloekbetoeng Base Force
Bintan Det. Base Force
Bengkalis Base Force
Djambi Base Force
Padang Base Force
Palembang Base Force
On May 7 the 5th division launched another attack at Palembang. This time things went much better. We achieved 2-1 odds and dropped the forts 1 level. I had a division about ready to unload at Oosthaven to help out at Palembang, but I stopped it. That division will now sail to northern Sumatra where it will capture Medan. At Palembang the 5th division is resting to reduce disruption before attacking again. For the next attack, an SNLF unit is marching into Palembang from the north. It has 80 AV to add to the assault. This should allow me to at least achieve another 2-1 result, dropping the forts yet again.
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Ground combat at Palembang (48,91)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 13437 troops, 121 guns, 66 vehicles, Assault Value = 469
Defending force 6136 troops, 78 guns, 5 vehicles, Assault Value = 202
Japanese adjusted assault: 340
Allied adjusted defense: 121
Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 3)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 2
Defending units:
Padang Garrison Battalion
Pakanbaroe Det.
Zuid KNIL Battalion
Tapanoeli Gsn Battalion
Riouw KNIL Battalion
So.Sumatra Garrison Battalion
Padang Base Force
Teloekbetoeng Base Force
Bengkalis Base Force
Bintan Det. Base Force
Djambi Base Force
Palembang Base Force
On Luzon two more divisions are unloading. Soon I will have 5 divisions at Clark Field. Another allied unit died there. He is down to 39 units at Clark and his AV has dropped to less than 1700. He is clearly dieing of attrition.
I am seeing the impact of Japan's reduced amphib bonus in some of the assaults I have launched lately. Casualties are much higher than previously. This experience has effected my thinking about Australia. I will need AKs for any major (and even minor) assaults and I only have so many. In June, however, I can convert many xAKs to AKs. So in about a week I will have a number of SNLF units invaded bases along the northern Australian coast, such as Derby, Broome, Hedland, etc. using the AK assets I have. I will then consider an attack directed at Perth.
All of my strategic thinking is directed towards isolating Australia from significant reinforcement. Thus, I am interested in Perth. Another effort in this regard is a sweep currently being made by KB1 in the Indian Ocean. I am looking for transport TFs heading to Australia in this neck of the woods. Sinking a bunch of transports, of course, would be nice. More importantly, though, is the message such an attack would send about the safety of this route for transporting supplies and troops. Perhaps I can make witpqs very hesitant about sending convoys to Australia through the Indian Ocean.
Over to the east of Australia, I am planning a similar sweep by KB2 south of the Tonga Islands. I have Mavis's searching this stretch of ocean and a number of subs stationed off New Zealand and the western coast of Australia. They have not picking up on any movement here at all. But it is possible that he is sending convoys very, very far south and I am not picking up on them. Thus, my planned sweep by KB2. Before this sweep can occur, however, KB2 will need to be reinforced. Junyo is now available and Kaga (which was torpedoed by a submarine during the invasion of Pago-Pago) will be completely patched up in 2 weeks. Once those two ships mate up with the Akagi, Shoho, and Zhuiho at Truk I will feel sufficiently confident to undertake a raid into the South Seas.
Wow, mid-May already. You guys must be doing more than a turn a day. Congrats on moving so quickly! I forget: one-day turns or two-day turns?
I am seeing the impact of Japan's reduced amphib bonus in some of the assaults I have launched lately.
I guess this is why Q-Ball is always urging us JFBs to move faster, faster. The bonus runs out when, March 31? Or is it the end of April? Either way, it's a short deadline. I find it very difficult to take the whole SRA as fast as the Japanese did historically, even against the AI; I'm sure I'll find it impossible in my PBEM. Kinda hard to think about Oz when you're still devoting significant numbers of troops to taking Palembang, etc. Anyway, have you taken anything in Oz yet, or is this still in the planning stage?
Wow, mid-May already. You guys must be doing more than a turn a day. Congrats on moving so quickly! I forget: one-day turns or two-day turns?
I am seeing the impact of Japan's reduced amphib bonus in some of the assaults I have launched lately.
I guess this is why Q-Ball is always urging us JFBs to move faster, faster. The bonus runs out when, March 31? Or is it the end of April? Either way, it's a short deadline. I find it very difficult to take the whole SRA as fast as the Japanese did historically, even against the AI; I'm sure I'll find it impossible in my PBEM. Kinda hard to think about Oz when you're still devoting significant numbers of troops to taking Palembang, etc. Anyway, have you taken anything in Oz yet, or is this still in the planning stage?
I am pretty sure the bonus expires at the end of March. I should note the bonus does not just effect the unloading rate, but the number of casualties you take when unloading over the beach.
I have not yet taken anything in Oz.
My rate of advance in the SRA is slower than it otherwise might have been for two reasons: one, the KB was tied up for a long time supporting the invasion of Pago-Pago (which did not fall until the tail end of February); and two, because we do not have any HR about strat bombing the oil centers in 41/42. Because of the lack of this HR, I was unable to take bases such as Palembang and Balikpapan earlier, thus depriving myself of tactically important airbases which could have supported an earlier invasion of Java. Without these airbases, the KB was even more important for taking Java early, but as I said, it was not available until March at the earliest. (In the end, I never used any of my carriers for operations in the DEI; I relied soley on LBA.)
Palembang fell today. The damage was fairly extensive. 306 oil centers were damaged and 270 refineries. Fortunately, witpqs left behind a huge amount of fuel, supply and oil when he retreated. Over 140,000 fuel and 55,000 supply. Between this massive amount of supply and the supply generated by the refinery (over 700 per day), repairing both the refineries and oil centers can be accomplished without having to bring in any outside supply. In less than a year I should have everything as good as new. [;)]
Cocos Island also fell today. Christmas island would have been captured as well, except that I apparently forgot to set the SNLF there to attack. Cocos will serve as a forward observation base. A small aviation unit is being shipped there and a chutai of Mavis's are prepared to rebase to the island in short order. Those Mavis's will be able to patrol almost out to the map edge.
The 4th division should finish loading at Tandjoengbalai on the 16th. From there it will march to Medan (northern Sumatra) and capture that oil center. It will then continue marching north to secure the remainder of Sumatra. With that, the entire DEI will be in Japanese hands.
On Luzon, the 18th and Imp Guards divisions have finished unloading. They will join the 14th, 16th, and 48th divisions at Clark Field. Allied AV there is now less that 1600. I expect to find the forts are at level 3. The terrain is also quite favorable to the defender. Nevertheless, he has obviously run out of supply and so cannot repair any of his casualties. This should not take too long.
After Clark and Bataan fall, at least two of those division will load up and sail to Mindanao.
Both the Japanese perimeter and interior are very close to being secured.
The first attack against Clark was launched today. It would appear that my bombing campaign started soon enough to keep him from getting to level four forts. Still, we only got 1-2 odds and the troops are now very disrupted. I will have to wait several days before launching another attack.
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Ground combat at Clark Field (79,76)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 70746 troops, 709 guns, 522 vehicles, Assault Value = 2433
Defending force 44897 troops, 623 guns, 516 vehicles, Assault Value = 1566
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2
Japanese adjusted assault: 1209
Allied adjusted defense: 3148
On Sumatra our troops are just about to enter Medan. Right now the mouse over indicates only 6 units there. That may climb as I raise the detection level. I think I remember there being 10 units there at one time. Did he get some of them out? Obviously, I have not been very diligent about recon in this sector.
Refinary never pays for itself as you have access at home , for oil repairs your break even point is the second half of 44.
I am not quite sure I understand how you break even on oil. A refinery produces supply so it can pay back (after 1000 days) the supply spent repairing it. But an oil center just produces oil.
At any rate, the only refineries I am repairing are those at Palembang (since this is self-financing, don't need to bring in extra supply) and one at Sorebaja. The Sorebaja refinery is being repaired because I want the extra fuel on Java to supply the HI centers there that I have expanded along with naval assets I have based there.
Medan fell today. The oil center and refinery were left almost completely intact. Only two damage points to each. One regiment of the 4th division will now march north and capture the two remaining bases on northern Sumatra. The other two regiments are going to ship out for Victoria Point and Georgetown.
The Yamato arrived a couple of days ago, allowing me to accelerate the Hiyo and Ryuho. The Hiyo will arrive in 30 days.
The second assault on Clark Field was launched today. We achieve 1-1 results this time and the allies took more casualties than the Japanese. The forts are down to level 1. Despite this success, the disruption on my units has climbed back up into the 30s and 40s, so we rest again for several more days.
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Ground combat at Clark Field (79,76)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 70105 troops, 709 guns, 610 vehicles, Assault Value = 2439
Defending force 42584 troops, 609 guns, 509 vehicles, Assault Value = 1374
Japanese adjusted assault: 1003
Allied adjusted defense: 712
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 2)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 1
Operations against Australia begin today. Four SNLF units are loading on AKs (real AKs, not xAKs) at Batavia. They will assault Broome. I have chosen this base as my first target because it has a size three airfield and so represents the greatest threat outside of Darwin. I have not yet decided what to do about Darwin. It is still only a level three airfield. And there are only four units there, not very big ones at that. The airfields leading down to Alice Springs are only level one, while Alice Springs is at level four. I don't know why he is not developing these fields. The only way to get supply up to Darwin is to increase the size of the bases there. Maybe he figures Darwin is a lost cause at this point in the war. Or he could be trying to lay some elaborate trap. Well, I am actually more interested in Perth than Darwin. I don't know if I will go for Perth yet or not, but an attack on bases like Broome, Derby and Hedland will perhaps give the impression that I am going for Darwin. I am also thinking about a demonstration on the eastern side of Australia. I have several divisions in Manchuria prepping for bases like Rockhamption, Townsville and Brisbane, thus giving his intelligence folk the impression I am going for northeastern Australia. A demonstration in the Coral Sea could reinforce that impression. An actual invasion of someplace like Charter Towers would be even more convincing. No matter what happens, though, it will be a while. I can start churning out AKs on June 1, but they will take 27 days to convert. So any invasion would be at the end of June, just about the time I should be finished cleaning up the Philippines.
