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

[Mike Solli]

30 May 42
 
Reinforcements:
 
2 Ku S-1 - 12x A6M3, 13 Air Flotilla, trainers.  They came with 2 aircraft.  The A6M3 begins production on 1 Jun 42.  The first 27 (+4 spares) go to an A6M2 daitai in 22 Air Flotilla (Burma).  They'll get the next 10.
2 Ku K-1 - 12x D3A1, 13 Air Flotilla, trainers.
CVE Unyo - Addition to the CVE Division (Taiyo).
HQ 1 Air Army - General Defense Army
HQ 2 Air Army - Kwantung Army
Majoro Base Force - Majoro, of course.
88 JAAF AF Bn - Kwantung Army
 
Sub War
 
The I-171 found a TK just north of New Zealand and put a torpedo into her.  She most likely was empty.  She was reported as being sunk, but I doubt it.
 
Australia
 
Sallys bombed the airfield at Darwin again (they've been doing it daily for a couple of weeks now) losing one of their number (a rare occurrance) while destroying 1-2 Hudsons on the ground and doing moderate damage to the airfield.  I'm keeping the airfield damaged with daily air bombing and naval bombardments every couple of days.  This will prevent an increase in fort levels.  In addition, Baby KB makes periodic visits to knock off the occasional xAKL supply ship and I keep a sub in the hex as well.
 
Good news!  The mob, I mean, Darwin invasion force has reached Katherine and will take it tomorrow.  Darwin is now pretty much cut off from all supply.  I'm going to fly Oscar sweeps from Wyndham to see if he's trying to fly in supply.
 
I made a mistake in Broome today.  I sent two small xAKLs to Broome to start to move excess supply from there.  (There's a lot there, far too much.)  Ted sent two air attacks and succeeded in sinking both.  No real loss but a mistake nevertheless.  My 12 Oscars stationed there shot down 5 of 13 Albacores in the first attack and 1 of 8 Hudson Is in the second attack.  I moved a second chutai of the 50 Sentai to Broome in case there are any more attacks.  They're coming from Pt. Hedland.  I'm planning on invading Pt. Hedland with the 2 and 4 Divisions.  I'm currently getting them prepped for the invasion.
 
Burma
 
Again, Ted unsuccessfully bombed the oil fields at Magwe.  I'm encouraging that because he's not bombing the airfields in the area.  Taung Gyi is the only one with some damage, and that will be repaired soon.
 
Here are the airfields I want to use for my fighters and their airfield levels:
 
Rangoon - Level 5 & 72 avn spt
Magwe - 3 and 24
Meiktila - 2 and 24
Mandalay - 2 and 32
Tongoo - 1.53 and 120 (I'll initiate the operation when this airfield reaches level 2.)
Bassein 1.28 and 24
Pegu 1.28 and 24
 
There's plenty of avn spt.  I've settled on this for the operation:
 
114 Ki-43-Ic
27 A6M2
27 A6M3 (eventually)
12 Ki-45
 
In addition to the 180 fighters, I'll have several chutai of IJAAF recon as well as some Sallys, Lilys and Anns waiting in the wings to move up after I get air superiority.  I figure it'll take 2-3 weeks to clear out the British fighters.  Then the British Army is fair game.
 
Other Stuff
 
KB 1 (from Adak) has been redirected to Truk.  I moved the AR from Rangoon to Truk to assist in repairs.  KB 2 is also headed to Truk.  I made a mistake earlier.  The Shokaku and Zuikaku can upgrade in Jun 42.  I'll send them back to the Home Islands for upgrade immediately upon their arrival at Truk.  The remaining 4 carriers will form KB 1 and provide support to the Central Pacific as well as the SE Fleet area from Truk.
 
I don't think Ted will expose his carriers for at least another month (most likely 2).  He just started getting Avengers this month.  It'll take through at least the end of June to replace the Devastators (probably into July).  I'm not sure how many carriers he currently has.  He lost the Enterprise early to subs.  He has Lex, Yorktown, Hornet(?-probably), Wasp(?).  Not sure.  Does anyone know?

[Mike Solli]

31 May 42

Reinforcements: 1 CHa- class, 3x xAPs and 1x xAK

Burma

A ship was spotted at Ramree Island (where there is a British garrision) and the RO-33 was sent to investigate. She found an xAKL and shelled the hell out of it. I heard sinking noises and suspect she went down but it didn't show up in the intel screen.

Ted's bombers finally got lucky and hit Magwe's oil fields. They dropped by 11 to 31. [8|]

Australia

The attack on Katherine was a wild success. The 6 Australian Cav Bde was trashed and the remnants retreated north, to be part of the Darwin POW camp. For a loss of 187 (all disablements), I killed 2017 (primarily kills). The 38 Division, some artillery and 16 Army HQ headed south as a guard while the 14 Army is heading north to invest and capture Darwin, along with it's unlucky inhabitants.

Other Stuff

The Mitsubishi Ha-43 engine was advanced a month to Jul 45(!)

[Grfin Zeppelin]

Since you dont mind detail work. You can empty the squadrons in quiet areas to the exact number of pilots needed. then overfil it with recruits and set it to train. This way you have them still combat ready but get some slots.

[Mynok]

Lex, York, Hornet, Wasp, Saratoga.

[Mike Solli]

Thanks Mynok. Forgot the Saratoga.

GZ, I do something similar to that now.  My units are just about full of veterans with some veteran wannabees (skill ~50-55) and a few rookies.  If they're just performing cap, I set them to 80% CAP and 20% training.  That seems to work well.

One thing I've been kicking around but haven't done yet is to pull out some vets from some of the units that are well trained.  I hate pulling vets out of front line units.  Seems to me to be counter to what my goals are. 

I'm good with the IJAAF.  I have all of Kwantung and the Home Island restricted units to use for training.  It's mainly the IJNAF fighters that I'm concerned with.

One additional question for the group.  Experience 81+ pilots in line units.  How do you guys manage them?  I'm still torn.  With the IJAAF, I pull every one into TRACOM (up to 9 now) with the exception of 2 who are unit leaders in training units.  I don't want to pull them out because they have high inspiration.

IJNAF.  Currently I have 48 in TRACOM.  I haven't counted what I have in the line units but if I had to guess, I'd say 25-30 more.  I'll check it out tonight.  Units have 0-4 each.  I'm tempted to reduce that number.  What do you guys do?

[Captain Cruft]

All my golden boys are in TRACOM waiting for some decent aircraft to fly. They will therefore be there for some time, but in the meantime they slightly increase the survival chances of all the newbies coming through. I do the "live fire" training thing too with a mix of "vets" (60-80), "journeymen" (45-60) and newbies (30-45). Of course rear area groups are doing normal training too.

The only yellow guys I keep on map are those who are Leaders as in e.g. the KB. I believe these guys make a large difference since their stats are not matched by any of the guys on the normal list.

[Grfin Zeppelin]

I perceive TRACOM as my pilot bank. In case of Navy pilots I would put them later into new carriers or Kido Butai replacments if needed.

[Mike Solli]

Journeymen - I like that. [:D]
 
Interesting ideas on the "Golden Boys".  I like that too. [:D] In my training groups, I keep 2 experienced pilots to train up the riff raff.  I may reduce that to 1.  I'm also toying with the idea of reducing the Golden Boys to 0-1 per unit.  Gotta look at the implications of doing that right now.

[Captain Cruft]

I should add that my air strategy is focused very much on the end game. When I say decent aircraft I'm talking 1945 models ...

[Mike Solli]

I'm still torn between saving my pilots for the end game and using them early.  If you pull all of your elite pilots you're not getting the benefit of them early when you can kill off Allied planes and pilots.  On the other hand, many will die.  I like to have some of them sprinkled in the front line units and some in TRACOM to accelerate pilot production.  When I go on leave and have some extra free time, I'm going to count how many Golden Boys I have in the line units, training units and TRACOM.  Then I'll decide what to do.  I'm still not convinced that all of the Golden Boys should go into TRACOM.  I'm talking about the IJNAF.  With the IJAAF, right now I have exactly 11 Golden Boys.  Nine are in TRACOM and 2 are unit leaders.  Anytime an IJAAF pilot gets promoted to Golden Boy status, I move him to TRACOM.  But then, my pilot reserves for the IJAAF are much higher than the IJNAF.

[Mike Solli]

1 Jun 42

Reinforcements:  Two xAPs

Sub War

Off the SW coast of Colombo, the I-11 spotted an xAKL, surfaced and pumped her full of shells.  The crew had the satisfaction of seeing her go down.  I wonder what Ted is doing with his escorts?  A lot of my sub targets are lonely ships with no escort.  Speaking of no escorts.....

One hex SW of Vava'u, the I-10 put two torpedoes into an AKE and watched her go down.  I love seeing specialty ships such as AKEs go down. [:D] That also tells me that Vava'u (or another port in the area) is being built up as a major naval base.  With an AKE in the area, Ted is planning on rearming some large warships.  He's planning something for the Solomons or possibly Pt. Moresby. 

KB Plans

Both KBs are 1-2 days from Truk.  They will repair their minor damage there (level 7 port with an AR) and probably move south to Rabaul.  Not sure about the move though.  Ted hasn't had any subs (that I've seen anyway) near Rabaul for a few months but it would be easy to bottle up KB at Rabaul with just a few subs.  They would give good intel and possibly get a shot or two at my carriers. 

SE Fleet Plans

I'm building up Ndeni's airfield to level 2 to fly recon from.  It'll be ready in a couple of days.  Some air spt is headed there.  I am also building up the airfield at Lunga.  The goal is level 4 to house Bettys and Zeros, along with some more recon.  I really need a Mavis unit in that sector but don't have any.  I may buy one of the 2 Mavis units training in the Home Islands.  I don't like doing that but don't really see any alternative.  Tonight I'll see where all my Mavis/Emily units are and see if I can spare one from somewhere else.  I'll also check to see how long before I get more as reinforcements.  If Ted starts an offensive there, I suspect it'll be with all 5 US carriers and possibly the British carriers too (not sure how many of those there are).  I want to have my Zeros available to supplement/protect my carriers as well as the Bettys.  Right now I have allocated to SE Fleet the 23 Air Flotilla composed of:

100 Zeros (including Tainan daitai with some incredible pilots)
72 Bettys
15 Babs
8 Jakes

I'm still planning on sending Shokaku and Zuikaku to Japan for upgrades.  This upgrades includes air radar.  That'll leave me with 4 CVs that have (off the top of my head) something in the vicinity of:

~100 Zeros
~100 Vals
~100 Kates

I also have available Baby KB which is currently off the North Australian coast and really not needed there.  It has Junyo (enroute), Ryujo, Shoho, Zuiho and Hosho and is composed of:

96 Zeros
18 Vals
67 Kates

Each KB has a replenishment TF available.  There is an AKE at Rabaul large enough to rearm BBs (not sure about Yamato though - gotta check).  I don't have any surface group available other than the 4 Furutakas.  I really don't want to get them involved in a gun battle.  I may divert the Yamato and one other BB down there to team up with the Furutakas, just in case.  KB has the 4 Kongos and Tone and Chikuma.  They'll remain as escorts for the CVs.

Ted just started getting Avengers in May.  I suspect he has enough now to fill out 2 TB squadrons.  I can't see him going into battle with 3 squadrons of Devastators so I really don't expect anything to happen until late July, at the earliest.  I suspect he's upgrading all the ships he can right now.  When the Shokaku and Zuikaku complete their refit, I'll swap them out with (probably) Akagi and Kaga.  All 4 of the remaining CVs will be due for upgrades in July (or August?).  I'm opting for Akagi & Kaga first because they're slower.  We'll see.  That's still a long way off.  I lot can happen to change plans, but ya gotta have a plan, right?

Burma

Not much other than Ted unsuccessfully bombing Magwe's oil field again.  It remains at 31 of 300.  I'm squeezing out as much oil as I can from those doomed oil fields. [:D]

Other Stuff

A couple of days ago I learned that the Arizona wasn't sunk at Pearl, as I thought.  Now it's down to 3 BBs sunk at Pearl Harbor (allegedly) along with the Renown (now a reef off Pt. Moresby).

I started converting 20 Std-C class  and 2 Std D class xAKs to TKs.  They'll be ready in a couple of weeks.  They're going to allow me to shift some things around.  Currently I have 3x 1250 ton TKs moving oil from Sakhalin to Honshu.  Hokkaido has about 35k oil just sitting in Hakodate.  I'll pull out the 1250 ton TKs and send them to the SRA.  Some of the converted TKs (haven't figured out how many yet) will move oil from Shikuka (where the oil accumulates) to Sapporo (shorter distance) and some more will move it from Hakodate to Ominato (very safe route).  The rest will head to the SRA to move oil from some of the smaller oil fields freeing up some 7950 and 1250 TKs for other duties.  There are two routes that need more TK support: 1. Fuel from Palembang to Singapore. 2. Fuel from Balikpapan to Babeldaob.  Both of those have been neglected badly.  I can really use the extra TK hulls.  There are also some more large TKs in the pipeline that I'll receive in a couple of weeks.

I'll post some of my monthly stats in a bit.

Wow, this was pretty long winded for a pretty quiet turn. [:D]

[Mike Solli]

Here are some stats:

[Mike Solli]

Notes:

Supply - That doesn't include 400k supply on ships - 300k to Singapore and 100k to Babeldaob.
Fuel - Coming along nicely.  I need more TKs to get more to Japan more quickly.
HI - I'm now netting ~4400 extra HI per turn.  That number should jump up next month.
Oil - Expected.
Naval Shipyard Points - Currently accelerating 5 CVs and 5 DDs with 2 RO class subs halted (along with Shinano).
Merchant Shipyard Points - Nothing accelerated.  Saving points for later when they'll be needed.
Armaments - 500 shut off.  Maintaining ~100k with a slight increase most turns.
Vehicles - Saving all I can for the 2 Tank Divisions arriving in 3 weeks.  Tracker says I need ~7200. 
IJA/IJN Reserve Pilot Pool - Rising but not quickly for the IJN.  This has been discussed adnausium.
M/W/KIA - Low pilot losses.  Ted's hiding except for Burma.  In a couple of days, he's going to see ~180 Japanese fighters appear.
Political Points - I just bought out the 8 Div from Kwantung for Burma.  I need to save up again.
Score - 2.7:1 gain for the Japanese for those of you who care.  (I don't.)
Ships sunk - I'll make a list in a later.  I did lose my first sub this month.

Edit: I skipped plane losses. Pretty even if you don't count the 80+ planes I sank in ships a few days ago. Fortunately, they do count. [:D] I wonder how many pilots went down with them....

[SqzMyLemon]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

All 4 of the remaining CVs will be due for upgrades in July (or August?).  I'm opting for Akagi & Kaga first because they're slower.  We'll see.  That's still a long way off.  I lot can happen to change plans, but ya gotta have a plan, right?

7/42 is the next batch of CV upgrades.

[Mike Solli]

Thanks Lemon. [:)]

[SqzMyLemon]

Sorry Mike, July I believe off the top of my head. Although I seem to recall 9/42 is a big upgrade time, maybe it's for a whack of DD's. Also posted those charts you were interested in seeing over in my AAR so if you have some free time take a look and let me know what you think [;)].

[Mike Solli]

No big deal, Lemon.  I suspect my CV upgrades will be dependent on any operations happening at the time.  I may have to send one at at time so I have 5 CVs available.  We'll see.

Ship losses are hard to determine (well, Allied losses). [:D]

Here's my best guess:

Japanese
3 xAKL
3 xAK
1 SS

Allied
3 SS
2 DD
10 xAK
10 xAKL
3 KV
5 AM
2 YP
2 TK
1 AKE
3 ???

Shrug?  Basically, the important losses (to me) are the subs, DDs and AKE, and the TKs get an honorable mention.

Edit: Lemon, I saw your stuff. Heading there in a minute.

[Captain Cruft]

Personally I would be dubious about shutting down armaments. Just a feeling really. I don't use Tracker, but does it take the "Great 1943 Base Force ToE upgrade" into account?

That's to say nothing of replacing LCU combat losses, which at some point must start to increase quite a lot i.e. when the Allies go on the offensive.

[Mike Solli]

Cap'n, that's a potentially temporary decision.  I'm trying to build up my HI reserves.  In addition, I currently have 100k armaments.  I'll turn it on once it drops to about 80k.

[Captain Cruft]

I just noticed that the "Type 1 Medium tank" becomes available in June 1942 as well. This is a much better vehicle than the Type 97 which all the IJA Tank Regts are equipped with.

Just musing ...