Name the AAR! Erkki(J) vs. Roger Neilson (A) (No Roger!)

[Erkki]

December 11 1941

Malaya:

The yesterday is revenged for: escorted bombers hit Georgetown's port and sink about 15 ships. Zeros sweep Singapore and shoot down at least 17 Buffaloes for 2 lost Zeros.

Off Borneo, Japanese cruiser squadron with 4 CA and 8 destroyers meet a Royal Navy cruiser squadron. In the very long nocturnal battle, the DD Usugumo is hit for moderate damage, but RN cruisers CL Dragon and CL Durban are hit very, very badly and very likely they both sunk. CL Danae is also hit badly and is later finished off by a submarine. Also 2 of the escort destroyers are badly hit and HQ believes at least the other one to have sunk. Japanese cruisers Mikuma and Suzya need some new paint on their armored towers... Banzai!

Then the same cruiser squadron finds a Manila survivor, DD Pillsbury, and finishes it off.

And then they find CL Mauritius at Singkawang and put some holes on her in 2 engagements... No heavy damage is observed but I doubt that she'll be a threat for some time.

Unfortunately an Allied submarine then hits CL Isuzu with 2 torpedoes and the resulting magazine explosion sinks her. Leader of her escorting destroyer squadron commits seppuku 2 hours later. Escort DDs made no attempt to even find the submarine...

In the daylight, Japanese Heavy Cover Force clears Singkawang of the Dutch pests that apparently tried to mine it...


Philippines and nearby:

IJN sweeps Luzon and shoots down about 12 P-40s to just 2 lost Zeros.

IJN surface units destroy 2 BIG fleeing tankers near Tarakan, multiple merchantmen in the Philippinear archipelago, a big fat troop transport and some lone xAKs are destroyed by Saigon's G3M2s.


SOPAC:

Multiple bases invaded, including Rabaul. CLs Tenryu and Tatsuta sink a troop transport that tried to escape.


Kido Butai Some idiot [8|] forgot to cut the range of attack aircraft and KB revealed its position by attacking the mine layer/sweeper that was fleeing from Guam... Darnit.

[Erkki]

December 12 1941

Another good day for the Japanese


Malaya and Borneo:

Japanese destroyer squadrons led by light cruisers, IJNAF and submarines sink the largest mine layer I've ever seen, a tanker, a USN destroyer near Palembang, an AS submarine tender support ship near Georgetown and the dutch submarine, ID'd as O16, near Singkawang. Troops land at Singkawang with no interruption and the place will fall tomorrow. Dutch bombers sortie against the invasion fleet but fail to score hits - and the day after tomorrow there will be Zero and bomber squadrons operating from Singkawang already.

Looks like theres a mine field deployed off Palembang... The sunk USN DD had hit a friendly mine before it got torpedoed. Hmm....

Also, theres still a massive number of ships in Singapore, including a "battleship". That one is probably CL Mauritius...


Philippines:

IJN surface units and attack aircraft from CVL Ryujo take out a handful more ships.

Near Luzon, 21 USAAF P-40s and 3 SOC-1 Seagulls attack the Japanese invasion fleet! The CAP of 7 IJAAF Ki-27s shoot down 3 Seagulls, while the AAA from the fleet damaged multiple strafing and bombing P-40s and down at least one. Two ships suffer light damage from gunfire, but bombs all miss.

Japanese invasion fleet unloads at Cagayan, Mindanao, but it looks like there are too many defenders, and the infantry regiment still at Bedeldoab will be needed(as expected).


Pacific:

Wake invasion force detects an Allied aircraft 13 hex from target! The course is changed to South for a day so that KB will be able to protect the fleet from tomorrow. KB is fully combat ready.

[Erkki]

I decided against building the second super battleship, BB Musashi, this time. With the same resources, we can build over 6000 single engine aircraft or build 2,000 and well trained aircrew to man them all. Or, say, 750 bombers and 500 fighters... So unlike last game, this time I will rationalize the naval production instead of expanding it. The capacity and HI that would have been used to finish the Musashi will be used to accelerate and finish quicker 2 Unryu class CVs and to build 2 more of the larger E14Y equipped submarines. Looks like a good trade, to me.

[Dan Nichols]

You have the dates above listed as being in December, 1942, Did you skip a year?

[Erkki]

ORIGINAL: Dan Nichols

You have the dates above listed as being in December, 1942, Did you skip a year?

oops!

[Erkki]

December 13 1941

Disappointing naval actions but other than that, we're still doing well...


Malaya:

Ki-43s shoot down the last 2 Buffaloes that meet the port raid over Singapore, while the 20-ish Ki-21 bombers score hits on 7 ships. 6 (probably very small) xAPs and some xAKs are hit, but so is the DD Peary that escaped from Manila and later received hits in the night battle against the Japanese CA squadron near Singkawang. Heavy fires and heavy damage is observed after the side penetration.

G4Ms sink 3 small civilian ships in the Malaccan straits...

CL-led DD squadrons sink CMc Pro Patria and engage the lone, smoking CL Mauritius twice(failing to hit with torpedoes and scoring just 2 superstructure hits in the addition of 7 that didnt penetrate armor). They also engage CL Java, CL Tromp and 2 escorting DDs and score a superstucture hit on each of them for no received damage. An RN destroyer is engaged north of Singkawang but it escaped after receiving a single hit.

IJNAF air units will now fly in. Singapore is now pretty much cut off, and reinforcing Sumatra should be difficult as IJNAF bombers can reach every port of it.

Singkawang is captured by the Japanese troops, and with it many B-339 fighters and 139WH bombers are lost! For whatever reason they apparently could not fly to Singapore, Batavia or Palembang.


Philippines and Celebes Sea:

A CL squadron sinks a small merchant near Tarakan while CVL Ryujo and her escorts + a surface combat CA squadron have retired a bit to refuel.

Manado invasion in 48 hours.

At Cagayan on Mindanao, Japanese troops manage to push back the defenders and refuce fortifications to 0, after all! P-26s strafe Japanese troops but achieve nothing.

Over Luzon, Zero sweep finds only 3 P-40s and shoots down 2 of them. Aerial recce finds fighters only at Iba, 19 of them, but they were either stood down or attempted and failed to fly naval attacks against the Japanese invasion fleet.


Pacific:

Wake invasion in 4 days.

Second amphibious task force lands at Rabaul, and the place should fall tomorrow.

[Erkki]

December 14 1941

Looks like at least I am suffering of a game bug of some some sort... More about that later.


Malaya:

Looks like Roger is setting sail at Singapore - there are more task forces there that fit on my screen, mostly single ship. I'm not sure if Roger understands that the game AI that determines targets for naval strikes often ignores 1-ship task forces unless the ships in them are big. Netties and B5Ns from Singkawang, CVL Hosho and Kota Bhary sink a number of ships, merchantmen and small troop transports, near Singapore. About 10 or so, and apparently they were all carrying troops... Theres still a number of them left out there and another 70-ish(!) ships at Singapore.

During these attacks, CL Danae is hit with a 250kg bomb, fires and heavy damage are observed. This is the same ship that has received now over 10 heavy gun(200mm) hits from Japanese CAs and 2 submarine launched torpedoes near Singkawang!!!!

Buffalos manage to shoot down an escorting Zero, and the pilot is also lost.

I'm not sure if the troops aboard those sunk transports were heading in our out of Singapore... The convoys in the area are all heading away from it, though.

Ki-15s take a peek at Palembang - there are lots of bombers and fighters as well as many warships. And probably lots of mines. Hmm...


Philippines etc.

Disaster to the IJNAF. The Zero sweep is the last to arrive over Manila and unescorted bombers, in ones and twos, first. 12 G4M1s are lost to a CAP of less than a handful of P-40s, as is a Zero and multiple IJAAF Ki-27s. Nothing worked here: Ki-27s that were ordered to LRCAP Manila in the case of something like this happening did not show up. Zeros failed totally and on top of it all, most of the bombers used bombs instead of torpedoes. Just last turn I made sure that Takao had over 200 torpedoes and that every unit had them available. Didnt work.

On the good side, most of the shipping that was still hanging in Manila is now dead. Thats a small tanker, 10 or so xAKLs and xAKs and a big fat AO fleet oiler. They were all laden in fuel and I cant but think that Roger is, here, in Tarakan and probably in Palembang and Balikpapan, at least, too, just sacrificing his ships to 1) burn fuel to deny it from the Japanese 2) draw attacks away from his warships.

He could have evacuated both Singapore and Manila long time ago. It isnt absolutely necessary to keep literally hundreds of ships in mostly 2-3 ship TFs within bomber range and load them ALL(except the few warships and xAPs) with fuel. It does strike me as a bit gamey... OTOH if I can catch them with surface units, they'll be free kills & XP to the crews. At the expense of ammo and delaying the schedule...


Pacific:

KB moves normally but the Wake Invasion Amhibious TF decides to warp speed. This "feature" that I see for the first time in the 1117 beta we play is incredibly annoying and has already cost me a lot of fuel, system and engine damage to ships and almost blew the Singkawang operation. About every other TF that is moving uses flank speed for at least 12 hours a day, for no reason, and even if forced to use cruising speed. After this turn KB and the amphibious TF should have been in adjacent hexes, but because the amphibious TF flanked(which its fuel situation doesnt allow it to do - or they wont be sailing back to Truk or even Eniwetok...), they ended up 3 hex apart.

I first thought that this was an issue with the old TFs, the ones that exist in the beginning of the scenario, but I now see that its not true. After the second turn's stupid warp jump that cost ridiculous amount of fuel the KB has behaved normally. The Heavy Cover BB TF did not, nor did many cruiser and amphibious TFs. The CA/CL & DD raider squadrons that I created using ships in KB, MKB, in ports and in amphibious TFs also did this. MKB warped first turn but has behaved as it should after that. Mine sweeper TF I created at Kota Bharu decided to flank to Singkawang in less than 2 turns and nearly arrived before the protecting screen of CA and CL squadrons! Some TFs seem to do it all the time and some not at all. Theres no logic to it: its not TF type, mission, movement mode, movement speed(cruise or mission), reaction, retirement or not, patrol waypoints or not... Even using patrol zones(and setting first patrol point as the current hex), some TFs have flanked and others did not. Some important ships like AV Langley got escaped(or at least probably escaped) from Manila because of this - the raider TFs had reached their destination points and decided to retire, or had flanked through their patrol points and decided to head home as they were low on fuel the day after.

Rabaul falls to Japanese Marines!

[Erkki]

BTW, this reminds me of the fuel use bug I had in my last game. Nobody else seemed to notice it and even to me it was completely random with no logic whatsoever: TF type, docked or not, aircraft or not, mines and minefield tenders or without them, some TFs used fuel even in port when most others didnt. Most annoying when the said TFs is KB that has every CV and float plane grounded, and its docked at Truk, and still uses fuel as if it was cruising.

Before you ask, my game install isnt the same. I'm playing this game on a fresh install(redownloaded the whole game from Matrix) using my laptop instead of the desktop PC.

[obvert]

KB moves normally but the Wake Invasion Amhibious TF decides to warp speed. This "feature" that I see for the first time in the 1117 beta we play is incredibly annoying and has already cost me a lot of fuel, system and engine damage to ships and almost blew the Singkawang operation. About every other TF that is moving uses flank speed for at least 12 hours a day, for no reason, and even if forced to use cruising speed. After this turn KB and the amphibious TF should have been in adjacent hexes, but because the amphibious TF flanked(which its fuel situation doesnt allow it to do - or they wont be sailing back to Truk or even Eniwetok...), they ended up 3 hex apart.

I first thought that this was an issue with the old TFs, the ones that exist in the beginning of the scenario, but I now see that its not true. After the second turn's stupid warp jump that cost ridiculous amount of fuel the KB has behaved normally. The Heavy Cover BB TF did not, nor did many cruiser and amphibious TFs. The CA/CL & DD raider squadrons that I created using ships in KB, MKB, in ports and in amphibious TFs also did this. MKB warped first turn but has behaved as it should after that. Mine sweeper TF I created at Kota Bharu decided to flank to Singkawang in less than 2 turns and nearly arrived before the protecting screen of CA and CL squadrons! Some TFs seem to do it all the time and some not at all. Theres no logic to it: its not TF type, mission, movement mode, movement speed(cruise or mission), reaction, retirement or not, patrol waypoints or not... Even using patrol zones(and setting first patrol point as the current hex), some TFs have flanked and others did not. Some important ships like AV Langley got escaped(or at least probably escaped) from Manila because of this - the raider TFs had reached their destination points and decided to retire, or had flanked through their patrol points and decided to head home as they were low on fuel the day after.

You have a tendency to be very attentive to things I just don't pay enough attention to during the game. I appreciate this!

Did the fuel use while docked get fixed, I can't remember?

This one is really bad if it's going against settings. Sounds like some of the problems with LR CAP sending planes past designated range limiters. I've noticed the KB warping from time to time when I didn't set that, but because I usually wanted it to get there faster anyway I didn't get too concerned. Maybe I should have. This was quite a few patches back, at the beginning of the game. I wonder if some kind of thing like this has always been in the game to some degree, but is magnified in recent patches for some reason.

I'll keep an eye out now to add to the thread in tech if I notice anything.

[koniu]

ORIGINAL: obvert

KB moves normally but the Wake Invasion Amhibious TF decides to warp speed. This "feature" that I see for the first time in the 1117 beta we play is incredibly annoying and has already cost me a lot of fuel, system and engine damage to ships and almost blew the Singkawang operation. About every other TF that is moving uses flank speed for at least 12 hours a day, for no reason, and even if forced to use cruising speed. After this turn KB and the amphibious TF should have been in adjacent hexes, but because the amphibious TF flanked(which its fuel situation doesnt allow it to do - or they wont be sailing back to Truk or even Eniwetok...), they ended up 3 hex apart.

I first thought that this was an issue with the old TFs, the ones that exist in the beginning of the scenario, but I now see that its not true. After the second turn's stupid warp jump that cost ridiculous amount of fuel the KB has behaved normally. The Heavy Cover BB TF did not, nor did many cruiser and amphibious TFs. The CA/CL & DD raider squadrons that I created using ships in KB, MKB, in ports and in amphibious TFs also did this. MKB warped first turn but has behaved as it should after that. Mine sweeper TF I created at Kota Bharu decided to flank to Singkawang in less than 2 turns and nearly arrived before the protecting screen of CA and CL squadrons! Some TFs seem to do it all the time and some not at all. Theres no logic to it: its not TF type, mission, movement mode, movement speed(cruise or mission), reaction, retirement or not, patrol waypoints or not... Even using patrol zones(and setting first patrol point as the current hex), some TFs have flanked and others did not. Some important ships like AV Langley got escaped(or at least probably escaped) from Manila because of this - the raider TFs had reached their destination points and decided to retire, or had flanked through their patrol points and decided to head home as they were low on fuel the day after.

You have a tendency to be very attentive to things I just don't pay enough attention to during the game. I appreciate this!

Did the fuel use while docked get fixed, I can't remember?

This one is really bad if it's going against settings. Sounds like some of the problems with LR CAP sending planes past designated range limiters. I've noticed the KB warping from time to time when I didn't set that, but because I usually wanted it to get there faster anyway I didn't get too concerned. Maybe I should have. This was quite a few patches back, at the beginning of the game. I wonder if some kind of thing like this has always been in the game to some degree, but is magnified in recent patches for some reason.

I'll keep an eye out now to add to the thread in tech if I notice anything.

LCAP past designated range happen to me couple turns ago. I was thinking that aggressive commanders decide to disobey orders and engage enemy. Fighter pilots do that, they are hunters, aren't they?
It end well because i shot down 40 enemy bombers. But if game work as designed it should not happen.

I hope Michaelm will fix LCAP and warping TF bug.

[Erkki]

ORIGINAL: obvert

KB moves normally but the Wake Invasion Amhibious TF decides to warp speed. This "feature" that I see for the first time in the 1117 beta we play is incredibly annoying and has already cost me a lot of fuel, system and engine damage to ships and almost blew the Singkawang operation. About every other TF that is moving uses flank speed for at least 12 hours a day, for no reason, and even if forced to use cruising speed. After this turn KB and the amphibious TF should have been in adjacent hexes, but because the amphibious TF flanked(which its fuel situation doesnt allow it to do - or they wont be sailing back to Truk or even Eniwetok...), they ended up 3 hex apart.

I first thought that this was an issue with the old TFs, the ones that exist in the beginning of the scenario, but I now see that its not true. After the second turn's stupid warp jump that cost ridiculous amount of fuel the KB has behaved normally. The Heavy Cover BB TF did not, nor did many cruiser and amphibious TFs. The CA/CL & DD raider squadrons that I created using ships in KB, MKB, in ports and in amphibious TFs also did this. MKB warped first turn but has behaved as it should after that. Mine sweeper TF I created at Kota Bharu decided to flank to Singkawang in less than 2 turns and nearly arrived before the protecting screen of CA and CL squadrons! Some TFs seem to do it all the time and some not at all. Theres no logic to it: its not TF type, mission, movement mode, movement speed(cruise or mission), reaction, retirement or not, patrol waypoints or not... Even using patrol zones(and setting first patrol point as the current hex), some TFs have flanked and others did not. Some important ships like AV Langley got escaped(or at least probably escaped) from Manila because of this - the raider TFs had reached their destination points and decided to retire, or had flanked through their patrol points and decided to head home as they were low on fuel the day after.

You have a tendency to be very attentive to things I just don't pay enough attention to during the game. I appreciate this!

Did the fuel use while docked get fixed, I can't remember?

This one is really bad if it's going against settings. Sounds like some of the problems with LR CAP sending planes past designated range limiters. I've noticed the KB warping from time to time when I didn't set that, but because I usually wanted it to get there faster anyway I didn't get too concerned. Maybe I should have. This was quite a few patches back, at the beginning of the game. I wonder if some kind of thing like this has always been in the game to some degree, but is magnified in recent patches for some reason.

I'll keep an eye out now to add to the thread in tech if I notice anything.

Hey obvert - btw this forum has waaay to many Eriks! [;)]

The fuel bug never got fixed and I fought with it until my opponent decided to finish with both of his PBEMs. Eventually it actually did stop at Rabaul(with only the ACMs still using fuel to tender minefields, but thats what they did and should do everywhere else too) but KB and some other TFs kept doing it. Even after I disbanded and reformed the TFs. I havent seen that happen yet in the current game but OTOH there are few to no idle task forces at the moment that sit at port hexes with fuel available, but it could pop up again.

I'd rather have the fuel bug in 2-3 TFs in the entire fleet than than the flank speed bug in possibly half the navy every turn. [:(]

BTW I also had Ki-43s overwrite their escort mission to Singapore and just stand on their thumbs. Target was cleared and there was no report of why they did not fly. The bombers did, from the same base. Luckily there was no CAP left any more. Over Manila it got worse... I should have had 10+ Ki-27s over Manila, which was the set target, but not one Ki-27s showed up and the G4Ms were slaughtered. Later some Ki-27s showed up outside of the max range I had given them only to shoot down a friggin SOC-1 Seagull that attacked the invasion fleet.

The flank speed bug, now that I notice it every turn in multiple key TFs, is making the game almost unplayable... Japan has no fuel to spare, no time to have half her fleet on yards repairing flank speed sys and engine damage, and definitely she cant afford to have any of the critical early war offensives fail because of something like that. It was already a close call at Singkawang when SCTFs decided to flank, reach destination and then retire, leaving amphbious TFs unprotected. Luckily I set some to remain on station and 2 SCTFs did not flank, and actually followed their orders(and did sink most of the Allied TF that was trying to intercept the amphic TFs).

[Erkki]

Bump. Has anyone else observed similar TF behaviour in the recent betas? The game is pretty much unplayable right now - the TF movement is just too random, plus fuel burn and damage hurts. [:(]

EDIT: BTW, I remembered this only now, but I had one LCU, that was trying to block the rail from Alor Star to South, cancel its movement the turn it would have moved to the rail hex. Annoying, as that let a couple of enemy LCUs escape. I'm 100% sure it was still moving as I checked that LCU every turn to keep track of its progress while hoping the stat movement packing to take too much time for Alor Star units to escape.

[Erkki]

December 15 1941

Kido Butai engaging enemy carriers near Wake Island! Looks like the plan worked after all. Stay tuned on! [;)]

[Erkki]

December 15 1941 (cont.)


In a CV on CV battle near Wake Island, the Kido Butai has engaged the USN task force led by CV Lexington, and sunk most of it.

CA Portland, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires
CV Lexington, Bomb hits 11, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Flusser, Bomb hits 1
CA Astoria, Bomb hits 16, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Porter, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Mahan
DD Lamson, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
CA Chicago, Bomb hits 6, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Drayton, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage

CV Lexington, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Lamson, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage

The Allied strike only had a light escort and was slaughtered. Just 19 planes made it through, and the only 2 hits scored were 500lbs bombs on BB Kirishima. On another note, out of the 140+ B5N2s attacking the Allied CVTF, only 5 hits were scored: 2 duds on Lexington, 1 on a crippled DD and 2 on crippled Chigago. Allies lost 84 planes this turn, including 12 Devastators "on ground" so looks like we got her.

After the CV "duel", USN planes from Wake attacked the IJN amphibious task force nearby, between KB and Wake. KB's LRCAP got 'em all.


Tenno heika banzai!

[Erkki]

December 15 (cont.)

A very good day.


Malaya:

It looks like the Allied TFs in the Malacca Strait are heading OUT and not in! Kota Bharu's G4M1's sink about 8 or 9 more ships today and they are all carrying troops. Is this evacuation of Singapore by sea? Zeros skirmish with the Buffaloes that try to protect these convoys - Yamada Det S-1's elite pilots wipe them out without a loss.

Ki-43s escort Ki-21s to Singapore for the 3rd time, and the lone Buffalo found intercepting is promptly shot down. Singapore's airfield is moderately damaged.


Java Sea:

Japanese destroyers and Dutch submarines fight all night and day but no confirmed hits are scored... Well, they wont have many torpedoes or much fuel left once the operation to invade Sumatra begins.


Philippines:

Zeros sweep Manila and shoot down 5 P-40s to no loss. 13 P-40s attack the unloading IJN fleet near Aparri, but Ki-27s shoot down 3 of them! However 2 Ki-27s are also lost and one of the transports gets hit by a small bomb.

Japanese troops advance and are soon at the gates of Manila from both South and North. But the Allies have not yet evacuated to Bataan... Perhaps they will choose to hold in Manila? That would make my job easier as I doubt that the Allies will be able to move all, or even more than 60-70%, of the men on Luzon to Manila.


Pacific:

KB takes out CV Lexington, 2 CAs and 2 DDs to no naval losses. 2 A6M2s, 6 D3A1s and 1 B5N2 are lost to enemy fighters and AAA. Weather was Overcast and D3As hit their targets VERY well indeed, but B5Ns totally failed - just 5 hits with 2 duds and the 3 that went off were on cripples. Also majority of attacks targeted the 3 escorting heavy cruisers and the destroyers and not the CV - though the first attacks did target, hit, and damage it well so I guess the they decided to go for the others then.

12 Vindicators were admitted as lost aboard the Lexington, so the surviving Wildcats, Buffalos, Devastators and Dauntlesses must now be on Wake, minus ops losses and the ones shot down today(over 50 confirmed kills...).

Tomorrow its time to finish off the survivors, and the day after KB will hit Wake's airfield to remove the air threat for good. The planes now on Wake cannot be flown out, AFAIK, other than possible patrol planes or heavy bombers, with the range to reach Johnston or Midway. But those CV planes aren't going anywhere. The amphibious TF will move some distance away to wait for the KB to soften the target. On board are the 144th Infantry Regiment, engineers and a base force.


I guess I should include some screenshots in the next update... What do you think? [;)]

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Erkki

December 15 (cont.)

A very good day.

Pacific:

KB takes out CV Lexington, 2 CAs and 2 DDs to no naval losses. 2 A6M2s, 6 D3A1s and 1 B5N2 are lost to enemy fighters and AAA. Weather was Overcast and D3As hit their targets VERY well indeed, but B5Ns totally failed - just 5 hits with 2 duds and the 3 that went off were on cripples. Also majority of attacks targeted the 3 escorting heavy cruisers and the destroyers and not the CV - though the first attacks did target, hit, and damage it well so I guess the they decided to go for the others then.

12 Vindicators were admitted as lost aboard the Lexington, so the surviving Wildcats, Buffalos, Devastators and Dauntlesses must now be on Wake, minus ops losses and the ones shot down today(over 50 confirmed kills...).

Tomorrow its time to finish off the survivors, and the day after KB will hit Wake's airfield to remove the air threat for good. The planes now on Wake cannot be flown out, AFAIK, other than possible patrol planes or heavy bombers, with the range to reach Johnston or Midway. But those CV planes aren't going anywhere. The amphibious TF will move some distance away to wait for the KB to soften the target. On board are the 144th Infantry Regiment, engineers and a base force.


I guess I should include some screenshots in the next update... What do you think? [;)]

Yes! Screenshots!

Well done. Looks like he got a bit careless there and you surely made him pay.

Strange about the TBs. What was the weather like?

[Erkki]

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: Erkki

December 15 (cont.)

A very good day.

Pacific:

KB takes out CV Lexington, 2 CAs and 2 DDs to no naval losses. 2 A6M2s, 6 D3A1s and 1 B5N2 are lost to enemy fighters and AAA. Weather was Overcast and D3As hit their targets VERY well indeed, but B5Ns totally failed - just 5 hits with 2 duds and the 3 that went off were on cripples. Also majority of attacks targeted the 3 escorting heavy cruisers and the destroyers and not the CV - though the first attacks did target, hit, and damage it well so I guess the they decided to go for the others then.

12 Vindicators were admitted as lost aboard the Lexington, so the surviving Wildcats, Buffalos, Devastators and Dauntlesses must now be on Wake, minus ops losses and the ones shot down today(over 50 confirmed kills...).

Tomorrow its time to finish off the survivors, and the day after KB will hit Wake's airfield to remove the air threat for good. The planes now on Wake cannot be flown out, AFAIK, other than possible patrol planes or heavy bombers, with the range to reach Johnston or Midway. But those CV planes aren't going anywhere. The amphibious TF will move some distance away to wait for the KB to soften the target. On board are the 144th Infantry Regiment, engineers and a base force.


I guess I should include some screenshots in the next update... What do you think? [;)]

Yes! Screenshots!

Well done. Looks like he got a bit careless there and you surely made him pay.

Strange about the TBs. What was the weather like?

Weather was overcast... Japanese torpedoes havent really shined in this game. Netties and B5Ns have had trouble scoring hits even on merchants. Many ships have escaped air- and submarine launched torpedoes and I'm already considering about keeping CV TB unit sizes as they are and expand dive bombers when I can do that in summer of 1942. I might also give some boost to the D4Y and B7A programs.

And then the duds: Type 93 Long Lances have had 2 duds(the other dud is the only Type 93 hit on a warship so far), while submarines have had 3 duds, of 2 were on DDs around Hawaii. Without those duds we'd have bagged a Dutch CL, 2 modern USN destroyers and a handful of civilian ships including a big TK - I-154 attacked TK Augustina 3 times shooting 2, 2 and 4 torpedoes, but every shot missed. Netties and B5Ns have had the usual 10% of duds. Dud rates are the usual 10% in DBB C, too, so I've just been unlucky.

OTOH Allied subs have also dud twice on Japanese DDs near Singkawang. But that just evens out what they did to CL Isuzu. [:(]

[Erkki]

December 16


Malaya/DEI:

There are nearly a hundred ships in the Malacca Strait heading NW and towards the Indian Ocean. Multiple convoys will escape overnight... G4Ms and G3Ms from Kota Bharu sortied to attack these escapees all day long, and managed to sink many merchants as well as some Dutch gunships and auxiliary military vessels. CL Java and CL Tromp were attacked sighted and attacked near Singapore, but the attacking G3Ms for some reason were armed with bombs only, and no hits were scored. 1 G4M was lost to a Buffalo fighter, while escorting Zeros and Ki-43s shot down at least 4 Buffalos to no loss.

Ki-21s bombed Singapore's port and hit the ships in it well. CL Danae and DD Peary were hit once each... Man are the Allied ships tough to kill sometimes.

In the Java Sea there are about 20 warships sighted at Palembang and nearby, mostly heading out. Are the Allies really pulling back? A6M2s sweeping Palembang met a very heavy CAP of over 40 fighters: CW-21 Demons, Hawk 75s and B-339s. 3 Zeros and 2 pilots were lost for 6 kills. Not a very good ratio but the Dutch fighter force MUST be reduced, and the sooner that is done, the better.


Celebes Sea:

Manado is invaded and will probably fall tomorrow. We have 1 Marine battalion, an aviation support company and a base force... Bombers and Zeros will be flown in ASAP.


Pacific:

Kido Butai pursues the fleeing survivors of the Lexington Task Force. CA Portland is attacked again but weather protects her... Shes still on fire and now with 7 more hits, of 3 penetrated deck armor. Besides Portland, naval search only finds 2 destroyers... No sign of CVs or the 2 other CAs, so things are going great it'd seem.

Wake Island will be invaded tomorrow by the 144th Infantry Regiment, a Base Force and an Engineer battalion. Kido Butai is divided into CarDivs - Hiryu and Soryu will pursue the Portland and make sure that its dead. At this point I believe that it is worth it to use a day of KB's time to make sure that the Allies have a good CA less - after all the CAs are the most useful warships out there, right after CVs. The rest of the KB will support the invasion of Wake Island by hitting the airfield and the garrison.

Screenshots coming later...

[Erkki]

KB, Wake and survivors of the Lexington TF.

[Erkki]

Allied TFs between Palembang and Singapore - all of them have warships (or so the naval air search says).