- A raid of 27 Vals bombed an ASW fleet that was 1-2 hexes north of Batavia sinking USS John D. Edwards with 4 bomb hits.
Until ugrades or better classes enter the American DDs have pathetic ASW values (2). British and Canadian AV and AMs have 4. If you're going to risk American ASW platforms in range of enemy air the AMs which also have ASW values of 2 are better choices than DDs, although both are in such short supply in the early months that it's better to NOT risk them in range of enemy air.
- A raid of 27 Vals bombed an ASW fleet that was 1-2 hexes north of Batavia sinking USS John D. Edwards with 4 bomb hits.
Until ugrades or better classes enter the American DDs have pathetic ASW values (2). British and Canadian AV and AMs have 4. If you're going to risk American ASW platforms in range of enemy air the AMs which also have ASW values of 2 are better choices than DDs, although both are in such short supply in the early months that it's better to NOT risk them in range of enemy air.
hehe...if I had had any idea that the enemy carriers were lurking about then I would have left them at home. I figured it was better to have them at least attempting to find the subs than just sitting in port. They're all back in port now until the Java Sea opens back up, by which time I may decide to evacuate all shipping from the area.
- Palembang falls on the very first deliberate attack. [:@] He claims he got it with virtually no damage as well. I have no idea how I would verify that. So much for scorched earth. Now that Palembang is lost, I am going to have to fortify somewhere else. Batavia seems an obvious choice except that it is within range of LBA at both Singkawang and Palembang. Soerabaja is probably best, but I hate choosing the obvious path. I'll be trying to shuffle some troops over to Ambon, but I probably won't get much traction with that. If I were doing it over again, I might choose Timor instead, but at this point, I think I'm committed to Ambon (Timor BFs are already half moved)
- LOTS of submarine action today. I don't know if it is the low moonlight or what but both sides had a lot of action. For once, American torpedoes were not terrible. I probably sunk 3 or more AKs this turn. He sunk an empty AP and I think a cargo ship off of Fiji.
- He is snatching up bases in New Guinea and the Solomons. I had hoped to get the CVs down there to slow him down, but by the time they refuel and take the deceptive route I have planned to get there, nearly all of the Solomons will be in Japanese hands.
I'm going off of memory of the replay I watched last night. Working on the turn now, so maybe I'll think of more as I complete it.
- HMS Hermes has finished her tea and is sailing toward Sumatra to pick up a Swordfish squadron. She is in trail of the best ASW fleet the British Navy can put to sea - 3 KVs.
- Lexington will arrive in Pearl tonight. Enterprise is taking her sweet time coming from the north
- The KB has been spotted SE of Wake with two other fleets. I suspect that he is parked there to stop me from supplying or supporting Wake while he takes it. I did have a supply convoy on its way, but I have turned them back to Pearl. It may be that he is planning for a second Pearl attack, but I doubt it. Midway is also a possibility.
- Speaking of Midway, I made a stupid mistake. I loaded a ton of troops to send out to garrison that island without first looking at how many I already have there. As it turns out, I have room for only about 1900 more troops. I have three units on the way from SF, so I suppose I need to have them all unload and then load the ENG units back on the ships and stick them in Pearl for now. Noob mistake.
- He sent a transport fleet of some sort toward Kendari/Ambon but it is not escorted and I think it may have turned back north. An enemy aircraft was spotted over Houston BG a turn or two ago, and I believe that he thinks it is Force Z. If he would just come a little closer...
- I've ordered a turn of Airfield attacks by my B17s in Singkawang and Chiang Mai. I'm taking a risk at Singkawang that his carrier fighters will be flying LRCAP over it, but that seems far less likely than Palembang (which I also considered).
- Supplies are starting to flow into Rangoon, but I still haven't figured out exactly how to pump it to China
- Speaking of China, 2 AVG squadrons moved to Changsha for a day of revelry in the sky. One is set to LRCAP for my bombing run on enemy troops in the field. The other is set to fly CAP. Neither is full strength because some dummies decided to take their planes apart for a few days.
Things to watch this turn: Where does the KB go and what is going on at Wake? Will I have any B17s remaining after this turn? Will he finally attack with his landed Rabaul troops? I expect Singapore to come under heavy bombing attacks soon now that he has Singkawang and Palembang to use as air bases.
In refernce to being "safely back in port", beware that for the first six months essentially no port is "safe", certainly not from the KB and not even from a mini-KB if there is LBA in range to supplement it. You need about 100-150 fighters capable of standing up to front line Zeros (which the Buffaloes and B339s you have available in the DEI do not qualify as) to be able to protect TFs and disbanded ships in ports. Better to evac the area and send SAGs in only for raids and return them to more remote bases between the raids.
As for Midway, you would be better served to divert those reinforcements to Pearl to sort out what can be added to Midawy than to overload Midway and attempt to reload there what doesn't fit. Midway starts as a level 1 port (IIRC) and the reload time will be exceesive.
Drawing supplies to China through Burma is limited. I think something like 500 per day (I may be wrong on the amount). Set the Chinese base nearest to Burma (Poashan (SP?) I think) to draw supplies and you will get what can be sent each day.
I probably won't get the turn until late tonight or tomorrow morning, but I did get the replay. He moved big on Wake and took it in a single day. Also of note: I believe the mKB has moved to the East of Celebes and is making a stab at Ambon.
- The KB moves slightly west and attacks Wake in conjunction with a landing of about 200 AV. The island promptly surrendered. Turns out I should have moved the 11 search planes a turn earlier
- Lots of sub action around Babeldaob. I sunk 2 of his, but he sunk 1 of mine down by Fiji
- Sims Class DDs arrived. Yipee! They will be headed for San Diego and split down the middle as escorts for the Saratoga and the Yorktown (which arrives at the end of the month)
- Lexington arrived in Pearl and is refueled. Enterprise will arrive in the night. They will depart to the east and then move south in a big loop to NZ or Melbourne for fuel
- In China, he appears to be making a big push on Changsha (see screenshot). I have about 300 AV on its way to reinforce the 700 already in Changsha, but I don't think he is serious about taking it at this point. He seems to be testing the waters a bit. I'll move the Ichang army to the forested hex and toward Hankow in the hopes that this threat will force him to withdraw or at least keep some reserves back from Changsha.
- Lexington is at PH. I moved the Vindicators to Midway for the time being, but then I screwed up when I went to add marine fighters to the carrier. I added a VRF wildcat unit not really knowing what it was. I went to fill it out after I moved it to the carrier thinking it would fill to 18 and instead it drained my entire pool and now has 24 planes. This puts Lexington at 94/90 capacity. Not cool. I can move them off tomorrow if I need to. I'm already concerned about operating Enterprise and Lexington in the same hex, and now I have one of them overstacked. Ugh.
- I've started moving all shipping out of the Java Sea region and toward Australia
- Moved 2 patrol squadrons to Ambon. They should light up that whole region today for the first time. I'm hoping the mKB is located right off.
- My B17s stationed in Java took a real beating in Singkawang. I moved one squadron to Perth where they will wait for replacement aircraft.
- AVG will escort B17s in another day of bombing at Chiang Mai (assuming they obey my orders)
- The 2 AVG squadrons in Changsha will stay for an extra day to fly CAP. He has been bombing it pretty heavy lately, so I'm hoping to catch him without escorts.
- I forgot to order the Ichang army to march. I'll have to do that next turn.
SHOULD be a rather boring day as far as combat is concerned.
- Lexington is at PH. I moved the Vindicators to Midway for the time being, but then I screwed up when I went to add marine fighters to the carrier. I added a VRF wildcat unit not really knowing what it was. I went to fill it out after I moved it to the carrier thinking it would fill to 18 and instead it drained my entire pool and now has 24 planes. This puts Lexington at 94/90 capacity. Not cool. I can move them off tomorrow if I need to. I'm already concerned about operating Enterprise and Lexington in the same hex, and now I have one of them overstacked. Ugh.
- I've started moving all shipping out of the Java Sea region and toward Australia
- Moved 2 patrol squadrons to Ambon. They should light up that whole region today for the first time. I'm hoping the mKB is located right off.
- My B17s stationed in Java took a real beating in Singkawang. I moved one squadron to Perth where they will wait for replacement aircraft.
- AVG will escort B17s in another day of bombing at Chiang Mai (assuming they obey my orders)
- The 2 AVG squadrons in Changsha will stay for an extra day to fly CAP. He has been bombing it pretty heavy lately, so I'm hoping to catch him without escorts.
- I forgot to order the Ichang army to march. I'll have to do that next turn.
SHOULD be a rather boring day as far as combat is concerned.
94/90 is fine. A carrier doesn't cease to be able to support flight ops until it exceed 110% of capacity.
- 4 PTs strike out from Iba at a big cargo convoy at Vigan. Scratch 1 Maru.
- I'm starting to lose a lot of P40s over Clark Field (as expected)
- Lots of submarine action again, but the other shoe seems to have dropped. Misses and duds all day long.
- Enterprise arrives in Pearl
SigInt: The 39th Division is moving to Changsha. The 6th Division is already there. I'm beginning to think he is making a serious attack here. He also has a sizable force leaving Sinyang toward Hankow - as though he feels the need to reinforce it. He would only really need to do that if he emptied it out to push for Changsha, I would think.
China
- The dance begins. The 26th Group Army (Ichang) is ordered to march east across the river in a show of force. Depending on what recon tells me in a few turns, it may be more than a show of force. I have to be careful of overstacking the forested hex, though, so 2 units that were going to arrive there today from other directions have been turned to different destinations.
- About 300 additional AV should arrive in Changsha tomorrow. There is another 373 that are sitting in the hex NE of Changsha. Without even moving, they are forcing him to leave troops a hex behind his main force to guard his retreat.
- 1 unit of AVG was moved back to Chungking. I have no idea why, but it dropped down to about 30% strength yesterday. My other AVG will continue to fly CAP over Changsha for at least another turn. It is at full strength
DEI
- Baja is weakly defended as far as AV is concerned, and this is bothering me more and more. I don't want to completely empty Batavia because I like the urban bonus there, but Baja is far more important to me, so...I dunno
- I'm waiting one more turn for some ships from Batavia to arrive and then the last support ships in Baja will ship out to Australia. The Java Sea is CLOSED
- The mKB was definitively spotted at the mouth of the Makassar Strait..1 hex from 2 of my submarines. Good luck, boys!
- Banshees are set to training. Now that I have eyes down there, there is no reason to have them sitting there on Naval Attack without there being anything to attack
- Bah! Forgot to change some of the patrols to transport new units (I've got to start typing these summaries BEFORE I send the turn back)
India
- Checked on garrison levels and stopped reinforcements to the garrisons that are now complete. I confess that I'm a bit proud of myself for sorting out exactly which units needed to go where. Most of them are within 10 AV of their required garrison levels. I hate math, but I like when it works.
- HMS Hermes is about a day out of range of her Sumatran Swordfish. Hatin' on the Hermes (AAR title?) is too easy, so I'll let it pass this time.
Australia
- I need fighters here and in PM desperately, but it will still be something like three weeks to go before the II Fighter Command reaches Cape Town. It won't be long at all before he is bombing PM from Rabaul. Perhaps when Lexington gets in town, I can transfer that massive VRF squadron to PM for a while
Elsewhere
- My 2 active CVs will depart PH in the night and head west for about a day and a half before turning south. I'm extremely nervous about sending them out like this because they do not have enough fuel to reach their destination without a replen at sea. That replen fleet is already filled and 3 days to the south, but given what I did to the poor Lexington at the start of my last game...
- I have 2 transport fleets bound for Adak. One is carrying an ENG unit and the other is carrying an INF unit. Unfortunately, I had to leave several units sitting at Prince Rupert because I didn't have enough cargo space and all my cargo ships are already used elsewhere. I don't expect him to put a lot of effort into NOPAC, but if he does, he won't meet with much resistance
I'm starting to look ahead at what troops to buy. The unit that I'm salivating over at the moment is the 35th Infantry Division which will arrive in Fort Ord in 4 days and would cost me 1973 PP. I currently have just under 500, so...yeah.
I'm starting to look ahead at what troops to buy. The unit that I'm salivating over at the moment is the 35th Infantry Division which will arrive in Fort Ord in 4 days and would cost me 1973 PP. I currently have just under 500, so...yeah.
I don't know if RA has changed anything but in stock the 35th has a withdrawal date, if you're looking at releasing US IDs the 27th, 40th and 41st on CONUS should be your first priorities as they are available to you and more importantly do not have withdrawal dates.
- mKB moves into the Makassar Strait and sinks a full TK that was trying to get out of the area to the south
- Rabaul is captured
- Malaybaya is captured. All he has left to do on Mindanao is a bit of cleanup.
- TONS of submarine action near Fiji. He must have 6 or so subs over here. DDs are on the way from Pearl, but there won't be much I can do about this stuff for a while yet. He also sunk one of the DDs I already have down there.
- He attacked (deliberate) in Changsha with 1245 AV in 3 divisions (6th, 13th, 40th, & change). Odds were 1 to 2. We destroyed 7 and disabled 139 of his squads. He destroyed 18 and disabled 45 of ours. Decent for the Chinese, I suppose, but only because of the urban bonus.
- Adjusted some routes to ships that might be within range of the mKB
- Sent one of my cruiser fleets south of Ambon to Brisbane. It was looking iffy on fuel and Baja is not an option at the moment
- Set my CV aircraft to minimal search/CAP and training the rest. We'll be out in the middle of nowhere for a while.
- Ordered the 7IND to take up a position south of Chittagong in the woods along with an Armored unit
- A submarine at Manila finished repairing and was sent out with orders to sink, burn, or take as a prize any enemy ship it comes across. An AO and DD also finished repairing and will be making a daring, if more than a little foolhardy, attempt to reach Midway. I don't expect to have Manila this time next week.
As for locales other than Palembang for taking a stand in the DEI, neither Batavia nor 'Baja are very good choices. You certainly can't defend them both and while Batavia is the better choice of the two it is really futile to try. The main factor in a DEI fortress is a locale that he has to hit across the beaches. There are so many vulnerable ports in Java that he can simply pour ashore at any on of them and overwhelm Batavia overland.
I believe Koepang is the better choice. Easier to support by both air and sea from Australia. Delaying his conquest of Timor as long as possible helps delay his assault on Australia as well. However, to build up Koepang, you almost need to have started on the first turn. Sending some of III Indian Corps there, moving every last available Dutch seaplane there and air transporting every last Dutch unit in their range there from day one. Getting the PI fighters there....getting the entire Dutch airforce there....air transporting the Dutch HQs there from 'Baja......starting regular supply and fuel missions there from Capetown....so on and so forth.
I wish I had thought of Timor before now, but it is far too late for that now. What few forces start out on Timor are already either completely or partially moved to Ambon.
I think on Java that my plan should be to abandon Batavia altogether and defend Soerabaja as best I can. It's not a good choice, but there really isn't a good choice for the DEI.
I'm holding Force Z south of Ambon until my CVs get to NZ. They will then converge on each other and the CV groups will assimilate the Brits into their fleets.
- The mKB moved much further south. It is just a little NE of Soerabaja now
- The subs around Fiji are proving to be a terrible annoyance. They are sinking or damaging at least one ship per turn and my ASW fleets are either ineffective or out of fuel and waiting for the first fuel shipments to arrive
Orders Summary - 12/19/1941
- Force Z and the Houston BG will drift SE this turn to stay out of the mKB's range. If he charges that direction he will be under the LBA of Ambon, but it is possible he could stretch and reach them even after their move. I expect he'll go west instead
- I disbanded a bunch of TKs and a CM into various ports SE of Java, the idea being that they won't be susceptible to his Naval Attacks. He's creating a headache for me the long he stays
- In China, I am starting to put some pressure on his rear in the Changsha area. Hopefully this inspires him to withdraw from my city and gives me some breathing room.
- Due to thunderstorms in the DEI area, my search planes and his attack planes could not fly. That means that I have no idea where his carriers went
- For a second day, Japanese subs south of Fiji sink a light transport ship. This means that 2 of the 3 ships being used to carry the Tahiti detachment to Noumea have been sunk. They weren't much but now they are only a third of that!
Orders Summary - 12/20/1941
- I'm leaving Force Z SE of Ambon and hoping that he did not come that direction during the Typhoon
- Houston BG is racing up to Sorong for a turn. He landed there last turn and I'm hoping to catch some ships up there before retiring this group to Australia
- I'm probably being a bit too aggressive in China, but I want him to pull back from Changsha and so I'm pressing on the two bases east of Ichang with ~ 2000 AV. He appears to be moving another division into Changsha, though.
- 27th Inf Div has arrived at March Field and I have set it to plan for Melbourne. I won't be able to afford the PP for this until 1947, but its good to plan ahead.
