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

[CapAndGown]

I would not get used to calling Japanese tank divisions Panzer Divisions. More like mobile divisions, except perhaps in China.

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

The Japanese player really can't salivate over upgrades as the Allies are upgrading at the same time to better devices. . . .

The same can be said about your experten pilots. My personal feeling is that the time to use them is early in the war when the Japanese are looking for decisive gains and hold a qualitative edge over Allied aircraft. Yes you can save them for your Franks and Georges but you will be looking at Allied planes that are even better. Given the numbers and quality that you will face, I would expect them to die all that faster. In the end, even an average pilot in a P47 is going to be dangerous and you will be facing even greater numbers.

The logic of your argument here leads in the opposite direction than you think it does. If it is true (and I believe it is) that "In the end, even an average pilot in a P47 is going to be dangerous" this also holds true early on for Japanese pilots. Early on Japanese airframes will be good enough that even average pilots will do OK against allied planes. Later on, only very good pilots will be able to hold their own against superior allies planes. So instead of putting your best pilots in your early planes, when they are not needed, you should save them for later for when they truly are.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

I would not get used to calling Japanese tank divisions Panzer Divisions. More like mobile divisions, except perhaps in China.

It's a joke, cap. [;)] [:D]

[d0mbo]

Hi Mike,
 
The patch changed the resource distribution. Most notable effect: port Arthur isn't the magic black hole of resource suckage (tm) anymore. Cities with HI seem to draw more resources now. Since there are very few ports in Manchuria with HI i wonder if the patch has changed your convoy compositions?
 
Cheers,
 
d0mbo.
 

[BrucePowers]

Merry Christmas Mike[:)]

[Mike Solli]

Merry Christmas Bruce! [:)]

d0mbo, I haven't installed the patch. I don't do betas and I'm particularly glad about this one. It seems rather buggy. I'll wait for the kinks to be worked out of it first.

[Captain Cruft]

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

ORIGINAL: crsutton

The Japanese player really can't salivate over upgrades as the Allies are upgrading at the same time to better devices. . . .

The same can be said about your experten pilots. My personal feeling is that the time to use them is early in the war when the Japanese are looking for decisive gains and hold a qualitative edge over Allied aircraft. Yes you can save them for your Franks and Georges but you will be looking at Allied planes that are even better. Given the numbers and quality that you will face, I would expect them to die all that faster. In the end, even an average pilot in a P47 is going to be dangerous and you will be facing even greater numbers.

The logic of your argument here leads in the opposite direction than you think it does. If it is true (and I believe it is) that "In the end, even an average pilot in a P47 is going to be dangerous" this also holds true early on for Japanese pilots. Early on Japanese airframes will be good enough that even average pilots will do OK against allied planes. Later on, only very good pilots will be able to hold their own against superior allies planes. So instead of putting your best pilots in your early planes, when they are not needed, you should save them for later for when they truly are.

Exactly what I was thinking when I made my original comment. I have been messing around with Downfall, and I believe there is hope for the Jap air force in 1945 if you play it right.

[d0mbo]

Ah OK Mike, no problem!

And Merry Christmas of course

[Mike Solli]

6 Jun 42

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and have a fun and safe New Year. Our Christmas was fun and relatively quiet for the first half with my wife, two kids and I at home. The kids are 17 and 20 so the craziness of youngsters is still there but you don't need earplugs. [:D] It got loud and hectic when my sister-in-law, her husband and their 3 young kids arrived. Then I had to search out the earplugs. [:D] Anyway, the last of the Christmas gifts arrived yesterday. The four of us went to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra. It was a surprise for the kids. All they knew was that we were doing something and that they couldn't make plans. Man were they surprised! The show was wonderful! I highly recommend seeing them if you ever have the chance. For you Europeans, they're going to tour Europe next year so some of you may have the chance. The singers are drop dead gorgeous too! Fortunately, my wife didn't cover my eyes. [:D] I forgot my earplugs....

Anyway, back to the war.

Mindinao

A second deliberate attack took Cagayan netting over 7700 prisoners for a loss of only 98 Japanese. I now control all of the island with 4 Allied remnants scattered around the countryside. I'll have to leave some garrisons to keep the rabble from re-occupying some of the towns. Anyway, the 21 Division is now prepping for Iloilo where I believe there is a Philippine division. The 146 regiment (56 Division) will be a garrison until I can get something there to replace it. Then it'll head to Malaya to merry up with the rest of the 56 Division.

Not much else of note to mention. I continue to clean up the unoccupied Allied bases/dot hexes around the map. KB (minus Shokaku) is at Truk where the AR is cleaning up the minor damage in preparation for their next mission. Their air complement is up to full strength now. The only concern is a lack of fuel. The fast replenishment fleet has emptied it's remaining fuel at Truk. There's now ~25k fuel there. There are a series of TK and xAK TFs sending fuel to Truk to bring it up to 200k fuel eventually. I want that as a minimum there in addition to both replenishment TFs full. The slow replenishment TF is one day's sail from Balikpapan where it'll refill it's TKs (they're currently just over 50% full). Baby KB (with Yamato, Yamashiro and Junyo) is at Balikpapan and is rearmed/refueled. They're headed for Truk. The slow replenishment TF will also head to Truk when it's full. Then it'll dump it's load of fuel at Truk and head back to Babeldaob for more fuel.

[Mike Solli]

7 Jun 42

Reinforcements: I got two Type-1 TM (8150 ton) TKs today. That's wonderful! They'll head to Singapore to start another fuel/oil hauling mission from Singapore to Takao. Right now only the five Tonan Whalers are hauling oil/fuel on that route, and it's not nearly enough. This will help somewhat. Basically, my plan is to send all the fuel I get from the line North Borneo-Palembang and north to Japan as well as all the excess oil in the SRA (of course). The fuel produced south of that line will be for fleet operations. That fuel accumulates primarily in Soerabaja, Balikpapan and Babeldaob. I've not had enough shipping to ship much to Truk so I'm shifting around my xAKs to move more fuel. More planning is needed.....

Aleutians

The I-30 had a nice day today. She's been hanging around to the south of Adak with a primary mission of reconnng that place. She found a loaded TK just to the SE of Adak and put a torpedo into her, leaving her heavily damaged and burning. Later in the day, she found an xAKL, surfaced and pumped her full of shells. There was no confirmation that either sank unfortunately.

Mindinao

Two of the 4 Allied remnants melted away. That leaves only one that's near enough to bother me. The other not a concern.

Australia

The Australian operation is proceeding nicely. About a dozen B-17s are harassing my troops but it's not enough to really matter much.

Burma

Toungoo's airfield finally reached level 2. I've got 72 Oscars, 12 Nicks and 54 Zeros that are now going to fight Ted for air superiority over the Magwe complex. There are another 40 Oscars that I'll move in tomorrow with an additional 30 if I can find airfield space. It's going to cost pilots, but I'm confident that I'll win this battle, for a while at least. I realize that eventually Ted will gain air superiority. I would like to postpone that as long as possible though. I'll willing to spend pilots (primarily IJAAF) to do that. I have plenty of fighter pilots available with many more training. Once I gain air superiority, I'll probably pull out one Zero daitai and bring in some IJAAF bombers to take the battle to Ted. We'll see.....

[Mike Solli]

8 Jun 42

Reinforcement: I got my first Std-A class xAK which is being converted to a TK.

Summatra

I took Sibolga today, eliminating the last Allied presence on Summatra. 447 Dutch surrendered.

Burma

Ted decided to use his bombers attacking one of my infantry units for little gain. He escorted them with his Hurricanes so only the two squadrons of Warhawks met my fighters. The net result was 2 Zeros and 1 Oscar shot down (and one of each an op loss) for 7 Warhawk losses. I lost an IJN pilot killed and one WIA and 1 IJA pilot killed. Not a bad start.

Other Stuff

A day or two ago I sent my last 4 midget subs down to Vava'u hoping they'll hit something. I'm not sure if I get any more. So far, I've hit a BB on 7 Dec 41 and then didn't do a thing with the rest since then.

Heavy radio traffic has occurred at Noumea. I'll send a couple of subs to snoop the place. I've got a screen north of there but nothing around that base. I'd really love to find his carriers. The only one I ever saw was the Enterprise when I sank her at the start of the game. Not a glimpse of the others ones at all. I haven't a clue where they are.

[Cribtop]

I thought midgets were like PTs - pay supply and they show up.

[Mike Solli]

That's right Cribtop, but there's none in the pool.

[Cribtop]

Ah. Does the pool re-charge?

[Mike Solli]

No clue. They show up in Tracker. They're halted but allegedly appear on 10 June. We'll see....

[Cribtop]

Oh, well. It's not like they're a super weapon or anything.

[Mike Solli]

9 Jun 42

Reinforcements: The SS I-33 arrived and will head to Singapore to do it's work in the IO. I received another xAP as well.

Burma

More fighting in the skys over the Magwe complex. Today I lost 3 Zeros (1 WIA, 1 KIA) to 5 H81-A3s and 1 Warhawk. Again the Hurricanes escorted the bombers which bombed a Japanese infantry brigade. It's currently at 94%/100% so no permanent damage has been done. That's the first time I've seen H81-A3s in a long time. Maybe they were flying CAP? Not sure.

Australia

The Japanese mob (14 Army) heading north to Darwin finally moved to the hex NE of Katherine and shock attacked 4 Australian units on the other side of a river. They were successful in pushing the Aussies out (3:1 odds). The Aussies were composed of 2 Australian Division, 26 Aus Cav Bde (the guys that were trashed in Katherine), 2/2 Ind Co and 2/4 MG Bn. The last two units were destroyed. Total casualties were 2280 for the Japanese to 3031 for the Aussies. That was more than I had hoped but expected due to the constant B-17 bombing and then a shock attack. Anyway, all that's in their way of investing Darwin are the 2 Aus Div and the Cav bde.

Ndeni

The B-25Cs that have been bombing Ndeni from Luganville found a surprise today. Six B-25s ran into 8 Zeros over Ndeni. Two B-25s were shot down for no Japanese loss and the remaining bombers were ineffective. There are reportedly some Allied fighters (a couple dozen) at Luganville but apparently too short ranged to escort the B-25s.

[Wirraway_Ace]

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

I would not get used to calling Japanese tank divisions Panzer Divisions. More like mobile divisions, except perhaps in China.

Well, according to Rottman, they were based on the Panzer Division organization--so maybe "baby panzer divisions" or "whanna-be panzer divisions"?

Of course, I don't think the Panzer Division org structure was all that great--too few tanks and too many horses...

[Mike Solli]

10 Jun 42

Burma

The British DD Inconstant (strange name) caught the I-32 off Colombo and hit her with a depth charge. She sustained moderate damage, 10-37(27)-1-0, and is headed home.

The air war over Burma continues to go my way. Zeros, Oscars and Nicks (in their debut) shot down 4 Warhawks and 7 Hudson IIIas for the loss of 3 Zeros and one IJN pilot WIA. The Nicks wee particularly effective, shooting down 4 planes. [:D]

Not much else to report. Just the same old things, spreading out in Australia, taking dot bases and repairing minor damage in KB.

[Mike Solli]

11 Jun 42

Reinforcement: 53 JNAF AF Unit

Burma (the only real action in town)

A British ASW TF (different from the one from yesterday) attacked the I-11 hitting her with a depth charge. She took a little less damage (5-13(5)-9(5)-0) but enough to head for Singapore. I may turn Baby KB around to make a surprise attack up there. Killing those British DDs with a lot of racks would be a nice thing.

I had 2 CAs bombard Akyab. They succeeded in destroying an H81-A3 on the ground and causing quite a bit of damage and fires. There was some damage left on the airfield during the next turn.

Ted sent fighters to tangle with my fighters again. Only one daitai of Zeros engaged. I guess the Oscars didn't feel like flying out 4-5 hexes to engage today. Anyway, I lost 5 Zeros (and 3 pilots KIA) for 3 Warhawks and 11 Hurricane IIb Trop shot down. Banzai! Once again, the fight is in my favor.

Intel

The Pennsylvania was reported today to have sunk near Pearl Harbor. Now we're up to 4 BBs sunk again....