Once Again into the Breach - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A)

[Mike Solli]

Were you recommending against a shock attack? I've been bombing since day 1. The last bomber I lost to flak over Bataan was on 31 Jan.

[Mike Solli]

Some interesting numbers....

Looking at Allied planes here. The "Total" number is at start + reinforcements throught 10 Mar + starting pool + replacements through 31 Mar. Losses are losses to date.

I ignored a bunch of obsolete planes.

H81-A3s and Blenheim Is are gone.

A few more interesting types:

P-40E: Total 436, Losses 245 - Leaves 189
P-39D: Total 324, Losses 92 - Leaves 232
Hurricane IIb Trop: Total 150, Losses 87 - Leaves 63
Hurricane IIa Trop: Total 42, Losses 12 - Leaves 30

Not many fighters left. I expect to see the P-39Ds make a reappearance.

Hudson III(LR): Total 54, Losses 1 - Leaves 53
Blenheim IV: Total 121, Losses 47 - Leaves 74
Hudson IIIa: Total 37, Losses 6 - Leaves 31
Hudson I: Total 117, Losses 27 - Leaves 90

B-17D: Total 55, Losses 15 - Leaves 40
B-17E: Total 115, Losses 2 - Leaves 113
LB-30: Total 24, Losses 0 - Leaves 24

I wonder where the 4E bombers are hiding?

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli
I wonder where the 4E bombers are hiding?

Oh THAT's a good idea. ASK them to come out and start pounding on you. [:-]

[Mike Solli]

[:D]

[ny59giants]

Were you recommending against a shock attack? I've been bombing since day 1. The last bomber I lost to flak over Bataan was on 31 Jan.

No shock attack here until you get the (-) supply in a deliberate combat result. Plus, when you watch the replay, you should see a noticeable difference in the amount of flak your bombers face "if" his supply situation is really bad. It should be almost non-existent if he is out of supply or near that point.

[Mike Solli]

Yeah, you're right Michael. I know I shouldn't do shock attacks here yet. Just impatient.

[Mike Solli]

11 Mar 42

Pretty quiet day today.

Sub War

Nothing.

5 Fleet

Nothing going on. The replenishment fleet is a couple of hexes behind KB. KB will refuel tomorrow and then wait.

4 Fleet

Nothing going on here either.

SE Fleet

Pretty quiet here as well. A handful of Betties put a 250 kg bomb into an AM off Pt. Moresby hunting my subs. She didn't show up as sunk but she's got to be hurting.

No air battles today.

China

Nothing.

Burma

No air battles here either.

The CA TF will bombard Chittagong tomorrow. The day after that, it'll bombard Akyab with the remaining ammo and the BB TF will bombard Chittagong. We'll see what happens....

5 Vildebeests out of Akyab put a 250 lb bomb into the Mogami destroying a 25mm mount, but not much else. Well, he knows I'm there and probably has a good idea why I'm there.

Sumatra

I took Medan with the 2 Division in a DA. The infrastructure was in great shape: Manpower 1(1), Resources 20(0), Oil 203(7) and Refinery 196(4). I'll repair the oil. Very nice. That was the last major oil producing base.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement: 23 FA Regiment for Southern Army. I'm shipping it to Bataan. Hopefully, it isn't needed.

Hailar's airfield reached level 7 today.

Like I said, a quiet day.

[Mike Solli]

12 Mar 42

Sub War

The I-169 was patrolling between Sydney and New Zealand and ran into an xAK. The first attack hit her with one torpedo and shortly after, she put two more torpedoes into her, sinking her. She was either empty or carrying supply. No escorts either.

5 Fleet

KB refueled today. She's in position SW of Adak out of sight and waiting for the Allies to show up near Dutch Harbor. I have a screen of subs to the east of Dutch Harbor looking for some Allied capital ships. Hopefully, they'll come back.

4 Fleet

Nothing new.

SE Fleet

Rough day here today. Those Aussie Kittyhawks are killers. I can't shoot them down. There were a total of 5 different battles in and around Pt. Moresby including several bombing and naval attack missions of mine. Overall, I ended up losing 4 Zeros and 3 more op losses (3 KIA, 2 WIA, 3 MIA - ouch), a Lily and a Betty to 1 Kittyhawk op loss. Geez. The two naval attack missions were against the DD Barker at Pt. Moresby and they both missed. Oh well....

China

Nothing new.

Burma

There was one minor scrape over Magwe between 1 Zero and 4 Hurricanes with no loss to either side.

The CA TF hit Chittagong and plastered the place but I saw only 2x Blenheim Is destroyed but quite a few were damaged. I forgot to set their floatplanes to recon. Tomorrow, the BB TF hits Chittagong and the CA TF (with not much ammo) will hit Akyab. Ted moved most of his planes inland but I'll at least put Chittagong airfield out of commission for a bit. We'll see what we kill tomorrow.

SRA

Reinforcement: 44 JNAF AF Unit - Headed to Soerabaja.

I hit the former Palembang garrison one hex west of Palembang with 2/3 of the 4 Division in a shock attack. It was a river crossing. The attack pushed them farther west and caused 214(46) Dutch losses to 63(0) Japanese losses. I'll chase them.

Other Stuff

The first convoy left Singapore headed for the Home Islands with 92k resources and 5100 oil. I have 3 TFs loading at Singapore (and will try to keep it this way). One loads fuel, one loads oil and the last will load resource and a bit of oil. They'll try to keep Singapore drained as they load and I'll send them off when they finish loading.

I'm doing a good job of draining Palembang. Lots of fuel flowing to Singapore.

Mukden and Singapore's airfields reached level 7. Very nice. They'll both work on forts now.

Waiting for the next turn....

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

The attack pushed them farther west and caused 214(46) Dutch losses to 63(0) Japanese losses. I'll chase them.

I use bombers for this. It can really increase exp fast for them if their skill is high enough to actually cause hits. If you have 40/60 exp/skill pilots, they can gain 1 - 2 exp/day. Something to consider for pilot training.

[obvert]

Rough day here today. Those Aussie Kittyhawks are killers. I can't shoot them down. There were a total of 5 different battles in and around Pt. Moresby including several bombing and naval attack missions of mine. Overall, I ended up losing 4 Zeros and 3 more op losses (3 KIA, 2 WIA, 3 MIA - ouch), a Lily and a Betty to 1 Kittyhawk op loss. Geez. The two naval attack missions were against the DD Barker at Pt. Moresby and they both missed. Oh well....

I found with the Kittyhawks they performed well at even numbers. But once a big group of A6Ms flew into them, they were shredded due to the small group size and number of planes up to greet us. Especialy if you sweep two groups in one day.

[Mike Solli]

Pax, I was doing this with ~120 bombers stationed in Singapore. I just changed their target to Djambi which will be attacked in a few days. I need to clear the island anyway so the attack force is pushing them along while it does that. I need armor there to speed up things. I originally allocate 2x tank regiments to Sumatra but mistakenly sent them to Java. They'll be shipped over when Batavia is cleared.

obvert, I'm hoping that happens soon. I have 1 daitai and 3x chutai (50+ Zeros) allocated to sweeping Pt. Moresby daily. They just had a bad day. Usually, they get a better kill ratio.

[Mike Solli]

I'm planning a new op. I've allocated para units in each theater. Burma has the 1st Raiding Regiment and they've been in Chiang Mai drinking sake for awhile. I've got a sentai and 4x chutai of transports allocated to the theater as well. I'm going to fly them to Taung Gyi and then do a para drop on Ledo. After that, I'll fly in an infantry regiment of the 55 Division. We'll see what happens from there. I hope Ted has transports there but I need to do some recon to see what's there before the drop.

Edit: I'll fly in an engineer regiment as well for fort construction. After that, some AS possibly, but I'm not sure about that yet.

[ny59giants]

I would like to add another target here. I would use one of your small SNLF para, if available, to drop in at Tezpur. This would prevent him using the rail to get forces from Calcutta and the interior of India to Dimapur to counter your capture of Ledo. Force him to move his troops by "Move" mode to retake Tezpur. If you don't have the SNLF para close by, use some of the Raiding Rgt.

Like your idea here, just needs some refinement. [;)]

[Mike Solli]

Very clever idea, Michael. You're right, it needs to be refined.

[ny59giants]

It helps that I have played both sides and am learning to think like the other side when I try something. I didn't go far enough in my game when DivePac left Rabaul by going up the north side of New Guinea.

Let me know when you want to play the Allies and I'll take the Japanese side against you. It will have to be DaBabes based (scenario 1 or 2 or Reluctant Admiral), but besides that, I'm flexible.

[Mike Solli]

13 Mar 42

Sub War

Just a couple of misses.

5 Fleet

Quiet, too quiet.

4 Fleet

More quiet.

SE Fleet

Guess what? Even more quiet.

Philippines

The 16 Division will reach Bataan tomorrow and the DA will happen the next day.

China

Just movement.

Burma

I'm moving the 1 Raiding Regiment to Taung Gyi. I checked and the nearest available para bn is the Yokosuka 3 SNLF at Clark Field. Tomorrow I'll scrounge some transports to move them toward Burma. Looks like they have a suicide mission coming up.

Burma is getting some hefty reinforcements from 25 Army to include IG and 18 Divisions and a lot of artillery. They'll push to the border of Burma. I'd like to take Imphal and the area around there but we'll see what things look like in that area. I haven't done much recon out there.

There was one small skirmish over Mandalay today between 4 Zeros and 4 Hurricane IIbs. Two Zeros were shot down but no pilots were lost fortunately.

The CA TF hit Akyab today for no effect due to their lack of ammo. The high speed runs to the two targets cost this TF most of it's fuel. It'll stop at Rangoon to refuel before heading back to Singapore to repair the sys damage incurred by the full speed runs.

The BB TF pummeled Chittagong today as well. My intel shows 76 airfield damage remaining. 3 Hurricanes, 2 Blenheim IVs and a Blenheim I showed up as destroyed on the ground. I did make a mistake though. I didn't set waypoints for this TF to head home so they headed due south and ended up 4 hexes south of Akyab, within torpedo range of the handful of Vildebeests there. Sure enough, they attacked.....twice. The first time 5 showed up and missed while losing one of their number to flak. The second attack was 2 Vildebeests and of course they both hit the Ise. Fortunately, the damage was slight at 23-19(8)-1-0. She'll be repaired at Singapore.

SRA

Spreading out and taking the small bases.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements (lots and lots):

41-44, 46-48 Naval Guard Units - 4 Fleet
25 Air Flotilla - Headed to Batavia
8-11 RF Gun Bns - Burma
29 Independent Engineer Regiment - Kwantung Army
Hong Kong Special Base Force - Hong Kong (Duh)
21 Special Base Force - SRA
85 JAAF AF Bn - Burma
DD Makigumo - Yugumo class - KB escort - My first DD of the game!!!

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

It helps that I have played both sides and am learning to think like the other side when I try something. I didn't go far enough in my game when DivePac left Rabaul by going up the north side of New Guinea.

Let me know when you want to play the Allies and I'll take the Japanese side against you. It will have to be DaBabes based (scenario 1 or 2 or Reluctant Admiral), but besides that, I'm flexible.

That's an intriguing proposition. I've been thinking I'd like to try the Allied side just to see what it's like being on the receiving end. Let me think about it.

[Phanatikk]

Isn't there a social convention against going both ways? </snicker>

This AAR is my bookmark to the WITP:AE site.

[ny59giants]

I just started to use the option under "Waypoints" to have the TF return the same way they went to their objective (why I waiting this long is unknown [&:]). Really helpful for CS Convoys to hug the coast and stay in shallow waters. I have to give those SC and PB a chance to hit something with the Type 92 DCs.

[Mike Solli]

Very quiet day. There was a small skirmish in the air over Pt. Moresby costing 1 Zero (+2 op losses) to 2 Kittyhawks (+1 op loss). None of my pilots were lost.

Burma

I did a recon of Ledo and discovered 3k troops. That para drop probably isn’t going to occur. That’s too bad. I was hoping to piss off Ted. There are some 30 transports there with no fighter cover. I might try a bombing raid to try to get some transports, or at least make him move some of his fighters there to cover them and take them away from his offensive (in both senses of the word) operations. I’m going to do some more recon and see if there is a good mission for my paratroopers. I won’t throw them away, but if I can cause Ted some heartache, I’m all for it.

Something weird happened today. I saw 20x H81-A3s sweep an empty hex. Unless I missed something, there are only 79 in the game and my intel shows about that many destroyed. [&:]

The 18 Division is loading at Singapore for a little sea voyage to Rangoon for use in Burma. The IG Division will follow in a day or two.

Chittagong’s airfield is showing 86% damage. Too bad that won’t last long.

Java

I’m attacking Kalidjati tomorrow. I’m confident this attack will succeed. There is a division(+) equivalent of infantry and 5x tank regiments, along with some engineers and artillery.

Soerabaja finally has enough supply to begin repairing the infrastructure (actually started repairing yesterday).

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:

68 Sentai – 2 Air Division – Nates – training unit
92 Sentai – 1 Air Division – Lilys – training unit

1 each AMc and CMc and the SC CHa-30.

Mid-month pilot cull:

IJN

F – 5
NavS – 15
ASW – 1
NavB – 4

Only 5 fighter pilots. I have dozens that are at 70+ air stat and 47-49 exp. They’ll pop eventually.

IJA

F – 44
ASW – 4
NavS – 8
GrdB – 20
Rcn – 10
Trn – 2

I now have enough fighters to fill all my front line fighter units and pull out some of the extra elite pilots into TRACOM. I still don’t have enough GrdB pilots to fill all the holes but I will probably have enough to send 3-4 full strength sentai to Burma. I still have a Sally airframe issue (not enough of them).

R&D Update

I had 3x30 Rufe factories. They have all completely repaired and two of them have converted to the A6M5. The third will remain as Rufes and will become operational next month.

I had 3x30 Helen Ia factories and all have completely repaired. They have all been converted to the Helen IIa, which will probably be accelerated from Sep 42 to June 42.