cap_and_gown(j) v witpqs(a) - no witpqs

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

I have crappy planes, crappy subs, crappy infantry, crappy tanks, crappy radar, and crappy ASW. I have probably left off some of the crap from that list. Basically Japan is a piece of crap.

Really that bad? Or just a brief rant?

From out here in the bleachers, it looks like you are doing great. Here it is mid '43 and witpqs is only in the New Hebrides .... almost one year behind the historical timeline.

I'm looking forward to seeing how George works for you if you use it. Haven't really seen an AAR yet where George got involved against the 4E's. Has Frank advanced yet for you?

[bklooste]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

I have crappy planes, crappy subs, crappy infantry, crappy tanks, crappy radar, and crappy ASW. I have probably left off some of the crap from that list. Basically Japan is a piece of crap.

Really that bad? Or just a brief rant?

From out here in the bleachers, it looks like you are doing great. Here it is mid '43 and witpqs is only in the New Hebrides .... almost one year behind the historical timeline.

I'm looking forward to seeing how George works for you if you use it. Haven't really seen an AAR yet where George got involved against the 4E's. Has Frank advanced yet for you?

George is a useless waste as you can only put it in 2 Daitai.

[CapAndGown]

June 3, 1942

Efate was invaded. Looks like Witpqs is moving very quickly to fill in the vacuum. He is using battalion sized units for these invasions, mostly paratroopers and raiders.

The bombardment of Broome was a disaster from the allied point of view. 10 P-47s and 6 P-40s were destroyed on the ground. I guess those P-47s were early arrivals since when I checked on the plane replacement pool for the allied side, they are not supposed to arrive until 7/43. Perhaps even worse for the allies, since they can replace the planes, was a reported 32 supply hits. Apparently armed forces in the Pacific stacked up their supplies on the beaches and covered them with big orange tarps so that they would be visible to the enemy from miles away. I am sure Milo cut a deal with somebody to arrange this. Anyway, that has got to suck since he had just unloaded a shipment of supply there. Trying to resupply those northern Australia bases can pretty much only be done by sea. So those supplies will be hard to replace.

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Naval bombardment of Broome at 62,127

Allied aircraft losses
P-47D2 Thunderbolt: 5 destroyed on ground
P-40K Warhawk: 3 destroyed on ground

Japanese Ships
CA Aoba
CA Haguro
CA Myoko
CL Naka
CL Noshiro
CL Agano
DD Yuzuki
DD Mochizuki
DD Mikazuki
DD Wakazuki
DD Niizuki
DD Hatsuzuki

Allied ground losses:
151 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 28 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled


Airbase hits 25
Airbase supply hits 32
Runway hits 240

Hopefully this will slow down any plans he may have for the development of northern Oz.

The combined fleet is pulling out of Nauru. First we head west. Next we may head south. In checking the reinforcement queue for the allies, I see that their big influx of CVs is not due until July. I thought it was June. The question here is twofold: where are the CVs now? and will he use what he has now or wait for reinforcements? Might the allied CVs be transiting to the Indian Ocean in preparation for an invasion of Malaya/DEI? That is a concern. If not, will they come out to counter a raid by my own fleet? Unknown. So I face a question of positioning the fleet so it can deal with invasions of either the Marshals/Solomons or Malaya. That argues for a basing at Sorong or Hollandia. Alternatively, a raid could draw out his carriers thus clarifying where his next offensive might be headed and result in a carrier battle before the July reinforcements. Right now the fleet is heading directly west from Nauru to the Solomons. From there the decision will have to be made whether to turn it south or north: south for a raid on his ships invading the New Hebrides, or north in order to rebase to a more central location and hide the position of the fleet. Decisions, decisions.

The presence of P-47s at Broome was quite a shock. None of my planes are a match for this monster. As a result, I reworked by R&D. I basically took every R&D factory that didn't look like it was going to produce anything in the way of useable research points (i.e. only 2 factories producing, or researching a plane that will show up in a few months anyway) and switched them over to the Tojo IIb. Why? Well the IIb is due in July. My experience has shown that when a factory is less than a month away from being production ready, the factories basically repair one point per day. So a 16 point R&D factory will generally repair in 16 days. So by the end of June, those IIb factories should be totally repaired. At that point, I can switch them over to researching the IIc model which is the one I really want. What I have also found is that if you switch a factory producing one model to the next model in its upgrade path, the factories are not damaged. They remain fully operational and don't need to be repaired. Thus, if this works out the way I think it will, I can have dozens of factories researching the Tojo IIc.

My plans, then, are to be producing Franks, Tojo IIc's, and Tony Id's in early 44 or late 43. The Franks because they are the fastest and most well armed plan the IJA has until 1946. The Tojo's because they have a service rating of one. And the Tony's because they have a service rating of two but better armament than the Tojo's.

As to the George and Jack: I think the Jack might actually be better than the George because it is faster. I have found at least one unrestricted squadron that can upgrade to the George (the 202). Two more in the Home Islands can upgrade to it. More importantly, there are reinforcements coming that can use the plane. And even though the 1 model has a service rating of 3, the 2 model has a service rating of 2. Same with the Jack. So I think it pays to research these guys. But don't waste the R&D factories by letting them convert to production factories. Switch them to the later model before the factory becomes active. You can then convert over an existing production factory (in my case an A6M3 factory is slated to be converted to the George) to produce the new plane. Since there are not that many groups that use it initially, you don't need to engage in a big expansion, just enough to outfit a couple of squadrons.

[PzB74]

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

I have crappy planes, crappy subs, crappy infantry, crappy tanks, crappy radar, and crappy ASW. I have probably left off some of the crap from that list. Basically Japan is a piece of crap.

- But you have to admit that you have the biggest battleships, the biggest carriers and the biggest submarines!
Admittedly they're quite shite, but the "kewl" factor is immensly high [:D]

All evil Empires have big doomsday machines [:)]

[koontz]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

RE: Subs, Cuttlefish actually got good results against me with Subs into mid-1943, including the clean sinking of an undamaged USS WASP. I don't think they are worthless, though Allied ASW gets more dangerous.

Still as the Empire, I would hesitate to build alot of the subs in the queue, and there are ALOT. I tend to build the Glen Subs, and maybe a few attack boats, but that's it.

The best results I see are the KD/B types with 8 front tubes

Sank enterprise whit an RO sub but my opponet surrenderd after that...

had an game going vs Carnageinc and had atleast 10 DDs per 1xCV and had not an single
subattack.

anyhow subs are great for intel gathering, often tend to place them in numbers where I expcet major engaments.

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: PzB

All evil Empires have big doomsday machines [:)]

Emperor Palpatine has spoken. [:D]

[CapAndGown]

June 5, 1943

Witpqs continues his rapid reconquest of the New Hebrides. Luganville was invaded today. How is it his ships managed to avoid my mines? Probably because there weren't that many of them. I am puzzled why my search planes have not spotted any shipping down there. Again, it is probably because the TFs are small.

I have decided to send the carriers south before rebasing them to Hollandia or Sorong. I spent a bunch of fuel to get them over to CentPac (and lost 3 DDs and had a CLAA torped as well). Might as well try to bag something for it. I doubt he has carriers in the area, but if so that would be fine by me.

I was not expecting him to move so fast. What is interesting is that plane icons already show up at the bases he has just invaded even though I doubt he has aviation support there yet. I guess he figures the av support will arrive soon enough and it is more important to have some "eyes" than worry about some disabled planes.

I am currently installing Ta-Chi 7 radar equipped AAA units at my bases in the southern Solomons. I also need a few more engineers. But basically, except for fighters, we are set. I doubt we will have long to wait before the 4Es begin to show up over Lunga and Tulagi.

The challenge here, and this is where I see a concerted battle taking place, will to make it so that he cannot make effective use of Ndeni for fighter sweeps. I have AKEs in place at New Georgia and will be basing BBs and CAs here to make bombardment runs on the base to keep it suppressed. I may also do some bombardment runs on Luganville. I can foresee numerous surface clashes in this area and perhaps some CV engagements as I attempt to keep the allies from exploiting these bases.

ADDED: I should add that the SS Sawfish took at least one solid hit today when it tried to attack a TK convoy in the shallow waters between Shanghai and Kyushu. I think witpqs may be becoming frustrated that his subs have not been able to find my convoy routes from the DEI to the home islands and so is resorting to hunting in shallow water where his subs are much more vulnerable.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASW attack near Shanghai at 96,58

Japanese Ships
E Saga
E Otori
E Nadakaze
E Shimakaze
TK Palembang Maru
TK Manei Maru
TK Okigawa Maru
TK Tonan Maru #2
xAK Shinyubari Maru
xAK Kamoi Maru
xAK Venice Maru
xAK Durban Maru
xAK Yasukawa Maru
E Sokuten
E Yaeyama
E Kamo
E Kiji

Allied Ships
SS Sawfish, hits 4

[aprezto]

The Battle for the Solomons is about to take place and somewhat later than historical! Well done indeed Cap.

[CapAndGown]

June 6, 1943

Our searchers spotted the 3 APDs that delivered the marine battalion to Luganville just one hex south of Luganville. That was a 13 hex range from my carriers yet they did not attack even though it is within Judy range. I have a suspicion that CV TFs won't attack unless their own organic searchers do the spotting.

ORIGINAL: aprezto

The Battle for the Solomons is about to take place and somewhat later than historical! Well done indeed Cap.

I wonder. The Solomons are very strongly held. It would be quite a fight to go through there. It seems to me that he might desire a shortcut; something much more decisive; something that can cripple me. In other words, there is much to commend an invasion of northern Sumatra, Malaya, or the Timor/Java area.

The only reason to go the Solomons route would be because he already has assets in place and because it is quicker to get US reinforcements into action via the Pacific than the Atlantic. Or, perhaps, he might be optimistic about being able to flatten everything in sight just using his 4E bombers. Perhaps his experience in the Somoa/Fiji theater has made him more willing to try to take on the Solomons.

BTW, I reconned Colombo today and there was no air icon there. There were no ships there either except a small ASW patrol. I wonder if I can use this to my advantage? I am going to recon Trincomalee tomorrow.

For now, the fleet is retiring to Rabaul where it will tank up and then rebase to a more central location like Sorong.

[CapAndGown]

June 7, 1942

Allied recon showed up over the southern Gilberts. Planning an invasion? Maybe a bombardment? I have sent out a BB TF to patrol the region. Maybe we can intercept a bombardment TF.

Another allied convoy is at Broome. This time there CLs reported to be in it. I am pretty sure these are the Dutch CLs one of my subs saw a while back escorting a convoy to Port Hedland. I am sending out a CL TF from Kendari to try for a night action.

This has been a hard month for allied subs. They have been caught in shallow water several times and paid for it. This turn, for instance, the Albacore was caught in the shallows near Wenchow. Although these subs are reported as sunk, I doubt that very much. More likely they are just pretty badly banged up. That, however is a positive since it will take them some time to limp home and get repaired.

[CapAndGown]

June 8, 1942

Noumea was captured today by a gaggle of Kiwis. With the rapid succession of loses of Noumea, Efate and Luganville, the Japanese score plummets.

[CapAndGown]

June 9, 1942

Another allied sub is hit hard. This time I know it was sunk since I heard the sinking sound. Again, a sub operating in the shallows between Shanghai and Kyushu. This ASW group is starting to get better. Some of the boats now have experience up around 55. Surprisingly, at least to me, the A/S mortar does not seem to be that accurate. I was really hoping this would be the Japanese wonder weapon. But the type 2 DC seems to be better. Not only do my boats love shooting off all their DCs, while only a handful of A/S mortar rounds are fired, but the type 2 has been hitting pretty consistently.

I decided to try putting my search AC on random to see if their spotting might improve, as per Castor Troy's suggestion. It does seen to work. I will give it a few more turns before I become totally convinced, but it is beginning to look like search arcs are an epic fail.

Question: I haven't had any "heavy radio transmissions" messages in a while. Maybe just a streak, but I was wondering if ships in off map locations do not generate radio transmissions? I ask because I am wondering if the US CVs may be transiting the Atlantic to get to the IO.

[CapAndGown]

June 10, 1943

Just as I decide to send my carriers to Sorong allied carriers show up south of Luganville. Are they there to protect the large amount of shipping moving in the New Hebrides? Or are they there to support an invasion of Ndeni? How many and what kind of carriers are they? I don't have answers to any of these questions. But the fleet is being turned around. First stop is back at Rabaul, then south into the Solomon Sea. I don't care if it is just his CVEs or his fleet carriers. I want a whack at them!

Of course, I would prefer to arrange a battle on favorable terms. For me that means a battle at around 11-14 hexes where my Judy's can reach but his AC cannot. So I am not going to just charge directly into battle. I want to try to get a read on his intentions and dispositions. So I may stand off a bit an let event unfold before committing.

Beside the carriers, we also spotted what looks to be a surface combat group in the same hex as the carriers. There also appears to be a surface combat group at Luganville. This certainly looks like the real thing. Even if it is a diversionary move, however, a chance to hit some of his carriers now, even if they are only CVEs is not an opportunity I want to pass up.

[Wirraway_Ace]

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

June 7, 1942

Allied recon showed up over the southern Gilberts. Planning an invasion? Maybe a bombardment? I have sent out a BB TF to patrol the region. Maybe we can intercept a bombardment TF.

Another allied convoy is at Broome. This time there CLs reported to be in it. I am pretty sure these are the Dutch CLs one of my subs saw a while back escorting a convoy to Port Hedland. I am sending out a CL TF from Kendari to try for a night action.

This has been a hard month for allied subs. They have been caught in shallow water several times and paid for it. This turn, for instance, the Albacore was caught in the shallows near Wenchow. Although these subs are reported as sunk, I doubt that very much. More likely they are just pretty badly banged up. That, however is a positive since it will take them some time to limp home and get repaired.

While this is a good sign, remember that in 1943 he will commission 55 Gatos and Balaos, or about one every 6 days. In 44 , it will be a new fleet boat about every 4 days.

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: Wirraway_Ace

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

This has been a hard month for allied subs. They have been caught in shallow water several times and paid for it. This turn, for instance, the Albacore was caught in the shallows near Wenchow. Although these subs are reported as sunk, I doubt that very much. More likely they are just pretty badly banged up. That, however is a positive since it will take them some time to limp home and get repaired.

While this is a good sign, remember that in 1943 he will commission 55 Gatos and Balaos, or about one every 6 days. In 44 , it will be a new fleet boat about every 4 days.

Thanks for ruining my whole day. [:(] [:D]

[Wirraway_Ace]

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

Thanks for ruining my whole day. [:(] [:D]

Glad I could help [:D]

[CapAndGown]

June 11, 1943

My search AC did not find the allied carriers today, at least directly. Three Dinahs were lost to CAP at Luganville and there is a lot of shipping there. My experience is that you are most likely to lose search AC to CAP when carriers are present, though it can happen at other times, especially if your altitude is below 15k feet. So I think that is where they are.

My own carriers made port today at Rabaul just as the first allied recon shows up there. [8|] What bad timing! One more day and they would not have been there. At any rate, they are heading south to the central Solomons to await developments.

Recon over Rabaul kinda freaked me out. I checked on the range of various allied bombers and found that the B-24D can just reach there from Cooktown. So rather than provide an open invitation for witpqs to bomb the port, I left only 2 ACMs anchored in the port. Everyone else, including all the support ships and reserve forces was formed into one large TF from which I will draw ships as needed. I also moved some fighters in to defend the place.

By my calculations, the allies only get about 120 B-24D's. They have lost about 30. The B-24D1 model cannot reach Rabaul from Cooktown. Still, 100 heavy bombers hitting my port would be bad news indeed.

I think that attrition is really starting to wear down the B-17s. Three more B-17F's were shot down today over Milne Bay. At most the allies get about 48 of these and about 30 are gone. B-17E's have also been worn down. If I am figuring things right, the allies get about 200 of these and so far about 100 have been lost. Pretty soon witpqs will have to start relying on the B-24s and those have proven more vulnerable because of their lower durability (only 60 versus 68 for the B-17). I am pretty sure this is why witpqs has been using B-17s against Milne Bay.

Speaking of which: I really do wonder what he is trying to accomplish by bombing this base. Kill my planes? I can make more. Kill my pilots? I really don't lose that many when fight over my own bases, especially when my pilots only have to tangle with the bombers. It can't be that he wants to shut down the runway. So far my engineers have been able to keep it open, if not necessarily in good shape. And there are 4 more airfields right next to it that have not been touched. Maybe he is just trying to distract me or pin me in place, since I have to defend the field?

Heavy radio transmissions today from Pearl Harbor (yawn) and Vava'u. That last is more intriguing. It is possible that he is assembling his forces in the Samoa/Fiji region there for his next invasion. Using Vava'u as an assembly point could point towards the Gilberts. Or maybe he just wants to clean out Suva. Indeed, I wonder if he will just leave those forces in place and bypass them, or try to clean up his back field. I have sent some subs with supplies down there to keep the garrison fed; I don't want them to die of attrition and I wish to leave open the option of flying in some planes to muck with him at some point.

Over in China, I am planning an offensive against Kweilin in order to deprive the Chinese of more supply. In preparation for this offensive, I am moving several divisions to threaten Changsa. The idea here is to pose a threat to Changsa so that the forces there will be less likely to be used to reinforce Kweilin.

[castor troy]

with 48 B-24D1, a dozen Navy Liberators and a small number of British LiberatorII you would have to take down at least two 4E bombers every day to keep the Allied 4E bomber numbers on the map static, otherwise their numbers will grow and grow and grow... From 2/43 on, I can´t see the Allied having a heavy bomber shortage, no matter what the Japanese do. Of course an attack on an airfield that is stacked with 4Es could take out a couple of dozens though, but that probably is a hard task to do because if I would have lots of 4Es somewhere, there sure would also be lots of fighters in the air to cover them. That´s why level 9 airfields are so valuable, there are no stacking rules and you can put 150 4Es onto such a base together with enough fighters to create a land death star.

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: castor troy

with 48 B-24D1, a dozen Navy Liberators and a small number of British LiberatorII you would have to take down at least two 4E bombers every day to keep the Allied 4E bomber numbers on the map static, otherwise their numbers will grow and grow and grow... From 2/43 on, I can´t see the Allied having a heavy bomber shortage, no matter what the Japanese do.

But the B-24D1 cannot reach Rabaul, and that is what I am worried about right now.

[CapAndGown]

June 12, 1943

Things seem to be heating up.

Lots of allied shipping down at Luganville. No indication of carriers though, just surface combatants and lots of transports. I lost several Dinahs to the CAP even though they are at 21k. I raised their altitude to 26k.

A rather poor day for the Japanese airforce. Another attack on Milne Bay with B-17s and P-38s. The first group of P-38s did poorly because their altitude was down around 13k. Then came B-17Es. I finally got a very good result, with 5 shot down (Nicks did most of the work here) and 3 reported as ops losses. But then came a 30k sweep by some more Lightnings and turned what would have been a good day into a rather poor one. They must have had good pilots. They kept getting on my guys' tails, which is death for any Japanese plane and even most allied planes. I lost 22 pilots to WIA, KIA and MIA today, including some Dinah, Helen, and Jake pilots doing routing patrol. Only 5 P-38s were shot down at a cost of 17 Tojo's and 3 Nick's.

Of much more interest is the movement of an allied TF from Cooktown towards the north. I saw this TF yesterday at Cooktown and thought it was delivering supplies. (It is reported as being made up of AKs.) But today it showed up north of Cooktown heading in the direction of Horn Island. It sure does look like an invasion, or at least a diversion. There is a small possibility that my spotting report is inaccurate and it is actually a bombardment TF aimed at Milne Bay. (Could it be an invasion of Port Moresby? I don't think so. Only 11 ships reported.) In the case of a bombardment, I have a CA TF at Gasmata with reaction set to 6. Hopefully, if it is a bombardment, the CA's will move to intercept. A transport TF just arrived at Milne bay to deliver some more troops and engineers. I hope that they can be protected from any surface raiders. I will have to rely on the airforce for protection from allied bombers.

I have ordered my carriers to head at full speed to intercept this TF, whatever its make up or intentions. (I hate moving at full speed. Usually I set my TFs to cruise speed. But there are times when a full speed move is called for.) Even if it is a diversionary force meant to draw me away from Ndeni, I don't much care. I don't want the allies to have Horn Island if I can prevent it and with interior lines my CVs can still head south next turn to deal with any threat appearing out of the Luganville area.

There is also a Zero/Nell team at Umbon Island that can deal with this TF. As far as air defenses are concerned, there are no indications that this TF can be covered by carriers and I would not expect LRCAP to be very effective. If they keep heading north they are likely to be slaughtered.

Allied recon showed up over Lunga today. How long before the 4E's follow?

One final note about this turn. I lost a B6N2 Jill today due to an ops loss. (My B6N2 Jill's are doing naval search for the KB since they have a max range of 12, which is greater than the max range of my Jake's which is 10.) That will show up in witpqs's intelligence screen. The question is: will he understand the import of this? Will he notice that this is not a B6N1, but a B6N2. If he does, what will he make of that? What do you, dear reader, think it means? Of course, you have the advantage of me making a special effort to point out this anomaly to you. Any guesses? [:)]