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

[Mike Solli]

I just found your AAR.  I'll start it tonight.  Any idea when you're going to be able to get it going again?

[Cribtop]

Sadly, as I just posted, I think it is over for good. I plan to start another asap, but it will probably take a week to put together a new first turn, then I'm traveling for a week for work.

My opponent is a great guy, but moved to a new continent for a new job and it looks like he is too swamped to continue.

[Mike Solli]

Yeah, I saw it.  I read about half the first page.  I like the way it's written.  There's got to be someone out there that's ready to start a game.

[Cribtop]

Well not to spoil it, or spam your thread, but at least I got to end it with a good CV battle that was a solid victory. I have no doubt I'll get another opponent quickly.

[Mike Solli]

15 Apr 42

Not a lot happened, but a lot of things are in motion. Over Magwe, Ted did better in the air. I lost a Tojo and 2 Oscars to his 1 Hurricane and 2 Warhawks. I do have a surprise for him tomorrow there. I pulled out the Oscar Sentai so it can replace aircraft. It was down to 20 planes. The Tojos are down to 2, but I left them in there for fun. They suck actually. I replaced that Oscar Sentai with a full strength Oscar Sentai (42 aircraft). In addition, I moved a Zero Daitai to Rangoon and had it LRCAP Magwe. If everything flies, there will be 42 Oscars and 20 Zeros (along with 2 Tojos [:D]) flying over Magwe. I should win the next battle.

Well, for the N Australian battle, I'm down 1 CA. I saw the 5 Dutch PTs sitting next to Baby KB [X(] and didn't want them to react to my carriers. I sent 4 CAs with 4 DDs into the hex to tie them up. Of course, they put a torpedo into Kumano. She's a tough old bird but she's out of this battle. Her damage is 9-17(13)-0-0. I sent her to Soerabaja escorted by a DD. Oh yeah, the PTs got away without a scratch.

[Djordje]

What was the moonlight during the engagement with PTs? If it is lower than 50% I avoid them. Usually I conduct my operations to peek during full moon, to the point that my troops begin to feel their commander might be a werewolf...

[Mike Solli]

Djordje, I never even look at % moonlight.  I need to.  I'll check it tonight.

[Mynok]

Interesting.....where do you see what phase the moon will be in for the next turn?

[Djordje]

ORIGINAL: Mynok


Interesting.....where do you see what phase the moon will be in for the next turn?

You can't see the phase, but you see percentage. It changes 3-7% (or something close to that, didn't really watch that closely) each day, with full moon (100%) and pitch black (0%) lasting about 3 days, same as in RL. It takes 4 weeks to go complete circle, from 100% to 0% and back.

Set your Nell and Betty high experienced squadrons to night torpedo attack during full moon and if you are lucky your opponent might get some nasty surprises...

This is from my PBEM, I've seen many daylight engagements with worse visibility:


Night Time Surface Combat, near Jarvis Island at 164,148, Range 12,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
AMC Aikoku Maru

Allied Ships
AK Fomalhaut
AK Arcturus, Shell hits 1


Improved night sighting under 100% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 100% moonlight: 12,000 yards
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 12,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 12,000 yards

Edit: Forgot to answer the question, you can see moonlight during orders phase on the top bar, to the right of the end turn button.

[Mynok]

Ahh.....thank you.

[Mike Solli]

16 Apr 42

Some excitement today, both good and bad....

Summatra

The Palembang force crawls closer to their goal.

I attacked and took Medan, Bengkalis and Tandjoengbalai, along the NE Summatran coast. I had great results capturing the industry there:

Bengkalis:
Oil 30(10)

Medan:
Manpower 1(1)
Resources 20(0)
Oil 206(4)
Refinery 196(4)

Banzai!

Burma

Remember that ambush I wanted to do on the Allied fighters over Magwe? Well, it didn't quite work out how I had planned.....

Ted sent wave after wave of fighters after me, including the AVG (first time they showed their fithly faces). In the end, it looked worse than it was. I lost 18 Oscars (only 6 pilots killed and 6 more WIA) and 3 Zeros (1 KIA and 1 WIA) to 8 Warhawks and 4 H81-A3s. Ah well, we'll try again tomorrow. I'm in the process of sending more air support up there. Once I do that, I can flood the place with fighters. Maybe that will work. What I really need is a fighter that has the firepower to shoot something down. [8|]

Other Stuff

A few days ago I increased vehicles by 20 (to 120). I just increased it today by another 30. They'll be done in 5 days.

[Mike Solli]

I forgot KB!  They rendezvouzed with the replenishment fleet today and headed south.  Currently, about 5-6 hexes east of Brisbane, there are at least 2 TFs hunting one of my subs in the area.  One is DDs and the other is other riff raff.  Off Noumea is at least 1 TF of cargos that was spotted by another sub.  KB will arrive in range on 19 Apr.  I'm going after the warships first and then the cargos.  I will do a port attack on Noumea and possibly Brisbane.  I'll decide later.  Note that on my initial attack, I'm only going to set 1 or 2 Kate daitai to use torpedoes.  I don't want to waste them on DDs or the trash he has floating around there.  I'm saving them in case I find something juicy.

[Mike Solli]

17 Apr 42

Things started off with a bang. The I-175 found an xAK a few hexes SE of Sydney and launched 4 torps at her. Three hit and down she went.

Summatra

I'm starting to move up the west coast and took Benkolen today. On the east coast, I pulled out one of the infantry regiments and will send them farther north to take the next base. Supply is enroute to repair the oil fields.

Burma

Ted sent his fighters at Magwe again. I was ready for him and did a much better job. At a cost of 1 Tojo and 2 Oscars, I shot down 6 H81-A3s, 2 Hurricanes and a Warhawk. Then, unescorted bombers came in. First, 14 Blenheim IVs came. Nine of them aborted and the remaining 5 were shot down. Then I saw the first Wellington Ics and shot one of them down as well.

Not a bad day at all over Magwe.

Pt. Moresby

Ted sent his daily raid of about a dozen B-17s again. This time the Zeros shot 2 of them down. Banzai!

Australia

The 14 Army is still not all ready to go at Koepang. They're destined for Darwin. The 16 Army is ready and the Broome invasion force launched yesterday. They'll hit tomorrow. I've been reconning all of the northern Australia bases and watched a ground unit leave Broome. I guess nobody will be home for the party tomorrow. I also launched the Wyndham invasion force today. It'll land the day after tomorrow. All looks good so far.

KB

KB is still headed south. Those 2 ASW TFs are still trying to find my sub. They're having a hard time of it. The sub isn't even moving. [:D] Anyway, KB will be in strike range on 19 Apr. KB is composed of Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku and Zuikaku. Only Soryu's Kates are armed with torpedoes. I really don't expect to find much but I'll sink whatever is out there.

Other Stuff

Kumano safely made the port of Soerabaja. It'll take about a month to repair her damage completely.

Oscar production is currently at 64. It's ok, but won't be forever. I bumped it up to 80 for now.

[Mike Solli]

18 Apr 42

Burma

His fighters came in droves again, and this time I shot down 11 Warhawks and 4 Blenheim IVs for the loss of one Ann that was part of a bombing campaign of the remnants of the 1 Burma Division, the old Rangoon garrison. The guys are doing just great. Magwe's airfield is beat up a bit still, but more engineers are on the way to fill the holes.

Australia

The Broome invasion force landed and will take Broome unopposed. The former garrison of Broome (no clue what it was) was spotted on the coast walking to Port Hedland. I've got an invasion that will head there in a day or two. Those poor guys are going to be stuck on the coast.

The Wyndham invasion force (one day out) was attacked by some Aussie Hudsons. One got lucky and put a bomb into an xAK. She'll survive but she's headed back to Koepang.

Baby KB is going to take up a position between Broome and Wyndham, but closer to Wyndham, in case Ted gets frisky with the couple of ships he has there. The Wyndham invasion fleet has a CA TF (3 CA, 3 DD) escorting it, as well. Wyndham appears to be empty too.

KB

KB will reach the launch point tomorrow. Those two TFs are still hanging around my sub. Hopefully, they'll become artificial reefs.

[Mike Solli]

Something interesting happened that I can't explain.  There are a bunch of air units belonging to restricted commands in the Home Islands.  For the most part they train pilots.  I had 2 IJN air units spontaneously change from a restricted command to independent!  No clue how it happened.  Does anyone have any idea?

[BrucePowers]

Magic![:D]

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: BrucePowers

Magic![:D]

Says the rocket scientist.....

[:D]

[BrucePowers]

Hey You want E=mc(squared)[:D]

How about V=IR?

P=I(squared)R?

w=2(pie)/T=2(pie)f

[Mike Solli]

Ted and I have been talking about the game to date.  Interesting stuff and he gave me a bit of intel too. [;)] He admitted that he shouldn't have pulled out of the Southern SRA so quick.  He also admitted that a big mistake was to not reinforce Timor and Koepang.  I agree with Koepang.  That's where my launch point is for my invasion of Australia.  From that air base, I can recon every base in Northern Australia with Dinahs.  I've gleaned a lot of intel from that.  I currently have 4 Dinah dets/chutai keeping tabs on his whereabouts.  He was surprised at how long it took for Singapore to fall.  That was my fault - lack of supply.  I should have sent supply there from Japan on 7 Dec.  That held up invasions of Northern Summatra and Australia.  25 Army has given up some units for 15 Army and is now preparing for another mission.  I still haven't mentioned that to you guys, but I will soon.
 
He also wondered where KB is.  Heh, heh..... He'll find out tomorrow.  I don't expect KB to kill a lot of things, but every escort/ASW platform that dies is a good thing for me.  Any merchant ships that sink and carry down all or part of a ground unit is an excellent thing as well.  It's much easier and quicker to kill ground units (and air units) by making them try to swim than on the ground (or in the air).
 
I made a comment about British fighter quantities.  He admitted that he's already running short of some of them.  Very good.  I can afford the Oscars more than he can afford his.  Right now, plane losses in Burma are running ~3:2 in my favor.  Not good enough, but it's getting there.  The best part is that he's fighting over my bases, so my pilot losses are very low. 
 
Akyab is a major fighter base.  I've sent a small bombardment force (2 CA, 1 CL) to pay a visit.  I'm going to try the night time float plane recon of that base with ship based float planes idea.  We'll see how that works.  I believe they will arrive in 2 days.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: BrucePowers

Hey You want E=mc(squared)[:D]

How about V=IR?

P=I(squared)R?

w=2(pie)/T=2(pie)f

I'll take it if that'll explain what happened! [:D]