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

[Djordje]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

The only training I don't agree with is strafe for fighters. Too easy to die that way. Unless it's just to increase def, then that's a great idea.

When can xAKs convert to ARs? I don't remember. All I can remember is that whatever that date is, I wrote I would convert 6.

It is just to increase defense skill, I never strafe with fighters as it is too deadly.
I think AR conversions start in 42/05.

edit: G3M3 is better than both G3M2 and G4M1. With PDU on it is strong candidate to be main IJN production model until G4M2 which comes in 44/06.

[Cribtop]

You must continue to take dot bases so that the soothing red continues to expand and fill in the noxious green on the strategic map! [:D]

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

You must continue to take dot bases so that the soothing red continues to expand and fill in the noxious green on the strategic map! [:D]

That just convinced me! [:D]

[Cribtop]

Ahh, Mike, you and I really need to join an OCD support group. [;)]

[Mike Solli]

Cribtop, can you imagine being around a bunch of people like us? [X(]
 
3 May 42
 
Quiet turn overall.  Not a lot happened that was positive, but things are in the works that should happen in the next day or two.
 
Australia
 
Ted dropped off some mines by sub at Wyndham the other day.  I sent 2 of my few remaining DMS to clear them out.  One of them decided to remove that last mine.........with it's hull!   [8|]
 
A while ago, I had sent the I-122 to Karachi to lay 42 eggs.  She did so successfully and Ted removed them the next turn.  I doubt that I do that again.  I do better in the smaller ports.  Anyway, she's on her way home.  Today she found one of Ted's elusive TKs and put a torpedo into her, just NW of Ceylon.  The TK was unescorted.  I really need to get KB up there for a visit.  That's a long way from the Central Pacific though.  I doubt the TK sinks.
 
Home Islands
 
Ted's subs are still harassing me around the Home Islands.  One of his fleet subs got lucky and put a good torpedo into an xAK.  Down she went.  She was either carrying resources or empty heading back for resources.
 
Burma
 
There was a nice free for all over Magwe again today.  For the loss of 4 Zeros and an Oscar, I shot down 14 Hurricanes and a Blenheim.  Unfortunately, all five pilots were either killed or wounded.  So far, I've only gotten back 1 wounded airman.  Does anyone keep track of wounded?
 
He hit the oil again.  I'm down to 99 remaining out of 300....
 
SE Fleet
 
Ted admitted in an email that he was trying to sneak into Ndeni, but KB ruined that. [:D] I suspect there are engineers along with the Marine Regiment (8 Marines I think?).  When I sank that cargo ship, vehicles allegedly went down.  I figure they're engineer vehicles.  He said that he knew he was putting a certain organ on the chopping block. 
 
The invasion fleet (4x Naval Guards and 1 SNLF) are a couple hexes north of Ndeni and holding.  The cruiser TF (4 CA, 1 CL, ~8-10 DD) will arrive tomorrow and KB will arrive the next day.  Tomorrow I will give them the green light to invade.  They'll have cruiser support and air cover.  Ted has no recon coverage in that area, so he doesn't know what's coming.  No subs either that I've seen.  Oh yeah, I've got 3 subs patrolling to the east and one sitting in the hex.
 
My one downfall is that I haven't put any air support in Guadalcanal/Tulagi.  I'm sending some down there and will put some floatplanes/Mavis there to keep an eye on things.  I have an AV in the Shortlands that's not needed there anymore.  I'll send them south until I can build up an airfield.
 
Other Stuff
 
KB made a pit stop in Rabaul to refuel/replenish and replace pilots and planes.  Now, each daitai has a full load of planes/pilots with 3 spare planes and 3 extra pilots.  A little extra staying power.  The only daitai that don't have that are the Val daitai from Shokaku and Zuikaku.  They took so many losses in the stupid attack on Brisbane that they could only get 12 replacement planes each.  They're both at around 20 planes.
 
I've modified my pilot training once again.  Initially, I would check the training units every few days and pull out pilots that met my criteria (50+ exp & 70+ relevant stat).  I ended up getting a bunch of 50/70 pilots.  Then I decided to cull twice a month (1st and 15th of the month).  I culled on the 1 May and decided to change it again.  Now I will only do it on the last day of the month.  I'm hoping to increase the average culled pilot by a few points.  What do you guys do?

[d0mbo]

Hi Mike,
 
Regarding AK's, yesterday i saw a bunch of hulls (18knotters, IIRC) that can convert to AR's in April of '42. I don't know if you are willing to sacrifice some valuable 18kt ships for that purpose, but it could be worth considering.
 
d0mbo.
 
 

[Mike Solli]

It's got to be the Kyushu class.  Gotta think about that.  I had planned on using the Kyushus to haul oil/resources between my hubs (Babeldaob & Takao) and the Home Islands.  There are 26 to start.  I think I can part with a few as ARs.  Actually, that might be a good choice.  I had originally planned on using Husimis as ARs.  They're 14 kt ships.  A few 18 kt ARs would allow movement to critical areas a bit faster.  Thanks!
 
I think I'll do 4 Kyushus now and 4 Husimis in June.

[Mike Solli]

Ok guys, here are this month's numbers.

Supply - I've been pushing out a lot. It's still going up.
Fuel - It's still dropping but not quite as fast. That should change when I take Palembang. By the way, I'm attacking Palembang tomorrow.
HI - I'm averaging ~1k points per day. That's down from 1.5k pts per day before. I've been increasing/turning on airframe/engine production. Soon I'll turn off most of the armaments so that should help quite a bit.
Naval Shipyard Points - Dropped a bit. I turn on and off accelerations to keep the point level above 0. Early in May some new ships hit the break point where they now consume points. I had to turn reduce an accelerated CV to normal. [8|] Time to turn off some more Ro class subs.
Armaments - I will probably turn ~500 points off at the end of the month. That'll help the HI stash next month.
Vehicles - You can see that I increased vehicle production by 50 to 150. Hopefully, that'll do it.
IJN/IJA Reserve - Those numbers aren't really correct. On 1 May (after I took the stats), I culled the training units. The reserves are as follows: IJA - 380, IJN - 229. From no on, I'm doing the culling on the last day of the month so the correct numbers are shown on the 1st.
10-12 Month IJN - 122 IJN pilots were accelerated from the 10 month to the 11 month class. It doesn't show here, but I should get a big jump in IJN pilots on 1 Jul (~270 vs. the normal ~150). We'll see.....
Score - Big jump here for the Japanese. I took many of the big point locations this past month.
Planes Lost - Although I lost more than Ted, most were due to op and flak. I'm still trouncing him in the A2A category. Also, most of the air combat has been over Japanese bases, so my pilot losses were lower than normal. Note that I lost (MIA/KIA) 109 pilots. My pilot graduation was ~330. Net gain of ~220 pilots. That won't last forever unfortunately....
Ship Losses - I'l post what was lost tonight, as well as the intel screen.

[Cribtop]

I cull once a month. Ideal days are either the last or second day of the month to ensure reporting is correct.

[Mike Solli]

4 May 42

I took Palembang today. I used the 4 ID, 8 Tank Reg, and 3x engineer regiments. It worked well. I took the joint with no damage! [:D] Manpower 1(1), Resources 20(0), Oil 900(0) and Refinery 1020(0). The place has 129k fuel (maxed), 90k oil and over 100k resources. I have sent a bunch of TK and xAK to haul the fuel to Singapore. I turned off the refinery temporarily until the fuel is drained. As a bonus, I destroyed 27 planes on the ground, including Vildebeasts, Hudsons, L212s and Catalinas.

I started 4 Kyushu conversions to ARs. Thanks D0mbo!

Nothing else to report.

[Cribtop]

Nice! No damage at Palembang is of course huge.

[erstad]

Now I will only do it on the last day of the month. I'm hoping to increase the average culled pilot by a few points. What do you guys do?

I mainly go by my real life time available to run the turn and my motivation. I keep a rolling list of different types of planes, and hit the next one(s) in order when I feel motivated. Below is my Japan list. So I would do "IJA Other" next and move the x.

Practically this means I do more culling on real life weekends rather than on a fixed game turn schedule.

IJN Trans/Recon
IJN Fighter
IJN DB
IJN TB
IJN FP
IJN Bomber/FF/other

IJA Trans
IJA fighter /FB
IJA bomber x
IJA other

[Djordje]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

You must continue to take dot bases so that the soothing red continues to expand and fill in the noxious green on the strategic map! [:D]

That just convinced me! [:D]

Mike look at Okinawa, there should be one small unit there that is due to withdraw on June 1st. Perfect unit for reckless invasions of dot bases once Japanese amphibious bonus is gone.

[Mike Solli]

Djordje, I think you're talking about the I/33 In Bn.  I snatched them up early and sent them to Luzon.  They got trashed in one of the attacks on Bataan and are currently waiting for their withdraw date in Manila.  I didn't waste resources rebuilding them.
 
Sorry for the delay.  Ted and I have been playing, but I haven't had time to post here.

[BrucePowers]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

4 May 42

I took Palembang today. I used the 4 ID, 8 Tank Reg, and 3x engineer regiments. It worked well. I took the joint with no damage! [:D] Manpower 1(1), Resources 20(0), Oil 900(0) and Refinery 1020(0). The place has 129k fuel (maxed), 90k oil and over 100k resources. I have sent a bunch of TK and xAK to haul the fuel to Singapore. I turned off the refinery temporarily until the fuel is drained. As a bonus, I destroyed 27 planes on the ground, including Vildebeasts, Hudsons, L212s and Catalinas.

I started 4 Kyushu conversions to ARs. Thanks D0mbo!

Nothing else to report.

Always nice to kill Catalinas[:)]

[Mike Solli]

5 May 42
 
Sub War
 
Reinforcements:  TK Akane Maru (Type-1 TM) - Headed to Truk for pushing fuel to Kwajalein and Rabaul.
 
The I-10 found and sank an xAK SW of Fiji.  The subs in that area continue to hound Ted's supply line to Australia.
 
The I-2 was searching for targets off the coast of San Francisco and found 2 DEs.  They managed to hit her with one depth charge.  She'll survive, but now she starts the long trek back to Kwajalein.  Her damage is 20-15(6)-0-0.
 
Ndeni
 
I invaded with 1 SNLF, 4x Naval Guards and a construction Battalion.  They took ~50-70% disabled squads unfortunately.  The 8 Marine Regiment is the only occupant of the dot base.  I bombarded with 4 CAs.  The 8 Marines has an AV of 115.  It'll be awhile before I can attack there.  I'll continue to bombard.  Also, KB is hovering about 6 hexes to the north, just in case.  There are also ~6 subs in the area as well.

[Mike Solli]

Definitely Bruce.  I hate Catalinas.
 
6 May 42
 
Sub War
 
The I-173 put down an xAK south of the New Hebrides. 
 
Burma
 
Magwe's oil fields were hit again.  The field is now down to 91 of 300.  Each side lost about 3 planes.
 
Ndeni
 
Ted attacked me with the 8 Marines unsuccessfully.  His AV dropped to 108.  I decided to buy the Gds Brigade for SE Fleet area.  It is being prepped for Ndeni and is loading at Tokyo - destination Ndeni.  I've been thinking about buying this unit for SE Fleet as a reserve.  Should have done it a month ago. [8|]

[Mike Solli]

7 May 42
 
Sub War
 
This time the I-15 struck, east of Hawaii.  She took out the DD O'Brien.  Banzai!
 
Burma
 
I withdrew my fighters from around Magwe for awhile, relying on AAA for the defense of Magwe.  Yeah, right.....  Anyway, Ted hit the Magwe oil fields again dropping them to 83 of 300.
 
Other Stuff
 
I took Tobali intact (Resources 20(0)).
 
I didn't realize the importance of a change in the air rules from WitP to AE.  Now you can only add a maximum of 12 aircraft to an air unit each week.  I hadn't realized the ramifications of this.  In a battle where an air unit takes heavy losses it could take a couple of weeks to replace them.  To date, I haven't added reserve aircraft to any units.  Not any more.  I added spares to as many front line daitai/chutai as I could.  Granted it's only up to 4 aircraft, but it's a little more staying power.  Small but important rule change.

[Mike Solli]

8 May 42
 
Burma
 
Magwe was hit by Allied bombers again showing oil facility damage.  When I checked, there was no additional damage!  Still holding at 83 of 300.
 
I took Myitkyina.
 
Nothing else to report.

[Mike Solli]

9 May 42
 
Ndeni
 
Ted has been bombarding with the 8 Marines.  He loses a little each time.  Their current AV is down to 86.  My troops are slowly rebuilding and the Guards Brigade is enroute to Ndeni by fast transport.
 
Burma
 
I staged an ambush over Magwe.  Nine Hudson III (LR)s attempted to bomb the oil fields.  Some Oscars and Zeros caught them unescorted and shot down 5 before the bombing attack.  Flak got one and the remaining 3 were shot down after the attack.  The bombing run was unsuccessful. [:D]