Must be fun to be able to listen to Opera without the need of subtitles! One of the many advantages to being Italian.
Always amazing to compare the local weather. Down here Spring starts in late Feb or early March. By now we are 85-90F unless it rains. The brutal heat is just around the corner.
Normally here in May it's summer... 25-30°... but this year winter has pushed way beyond its normal borders... seems like a neverending winter this year [:(]
About the Opera...well, that show should be played in german... but it's often translated in Italian as Italian is the common language for the Opera... And to watch it at La Fenice it has a whole different flavour... those XVIII century theatres are really cool...
The D4Y4 will give me the chance to strike with 800kg bombs at 6 hexes, and with 500kg bombs at 8 hexes... the magic striking range[8D]
With the Kamikaze 'window' opening soon, it would be nice to have a sizeable pool of the D4Y4s on hand for a heavy strike too. Unlike the Peggy T that requires an air HQ with 'purchased' torpedoes, the 800kg beast on the D4Y4 will be much easier to equip from a small, rear-echelon air base.
Good times await, mate. Good times. [8D]
Well, I do hope the Kamikaze era won't begin too soon...that would mean that Brad has landed within 20 hexes from HI... You can bet about the pools tough: I will be producing 240 D4Y4s monthly...by mid 1944 those numbers will be brought to 350
Remember that there are other landmarks other than the HI that trigger Kamis. Tokyo, Takao or Saigon are trigger points. 20 hexes from Saigon will get you to the Western Malay coast (on the Bay of Bengal), no?
It's almost worth thinking about letting Brad get one of these (soon to be) superfluous bases to trigger Kamis early. [8D]
With the Kamikaze 'window' opening soon, it would be nice to have a sizeable pool of the D4Y4s on hand for a heavy strike too. Unlike the Peggy T that requires an air HQ with 'purchased' torpedoes, the 800kg beast on the D4Y4 will be much easier to equip from a small, rear-echelon air base.
Good times await, mate. Good times. [8D]
Well, I do hope the Kamikaze era won't begin too soon...that would mean that Brad has landed within 20 hexes from HI... You can bet about the pools tough: I will be producing 240 D4Y4s monthly...by mid 1944 those numbers will be brought to 350
Remember that there are other landmarks other than the HI that trigger Kamis. Tokyo, Takao or Saigon are trigger points. 20 hexes from Saigon will get you to the Western Malay coast (on the Bay of Bengal), no?
It's almost worth thinking about letting Brad get one of these (soon to be) superfluous bases to trigger Kamis early. [8D]
Tempting... but no, I wanna keep him as far as possible and as long as possible!
I don't really like the Kamikazes... too many wasted HIs... I will try to use them with grain of salt and ONLY as an extreme measure...
another day with lots of small actions. Enemy's PTs and DDs are becoming more and more aggressive. I notice that Brad started back to send his PTs far away from his bases, crossing miles and miles of deep ocean....mmmmmm[:(]
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Night Time Surface Combat, near Biak at 89,111, Range 5,000 Yards RAIDERS!!!
Japanese Ships
PB Takasago Maru, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
PB Tama Maru #8, Shell hits 2, and is sunk
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ASW attack near Lautem at 72,115 more riaders...
Japanese Ships
SSX Ha-17, hits 5, heavy damage
Allied Ships
DD Anderson
DD Schroeder
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Night Time Surface Combat, near Biak at 87,110, Range 7,000 Yards
Japanese Ships
DD Tatsukaze
DD Urukaze
DD Tawakaze
Reduced sighting due to 3% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 3% moonlight: 10,000 yards
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 7,000 yards
Chono G. crosses the 'T'
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Night Time Surface Combat, near Biak at 87,110, Range 7,000 Yards
Japanese Ships
DD Fumizuki
DD Nagatsuki
DD Suresushio
Allied Ships
DD Bennett
DD Boyd
DD Braine
DD Converse, Shell hits 1, on fire
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Night Naval bombardment of Saumlaki at 78,117
Allied Ships
BB California
BB Colorado
DD Welles
DD Nicholas
DD Halford
DD Franks
Japanese ground losses:
18 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 3 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 4 (2 destroyed, 2 disabled)
Vehicles lost 3 (1 destroyed, 2 disabled)
Port hits 2
Port supply hits 2
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Day Time Surface Combat, near Biak at 87,111, Range 17,000 Yards
Japanese Ships
DD Tatsukaze
DD Urukaze
DD Tawakaze, Shell hits 1, on fire
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Day Time Surface Combat, near Boela at 80,110, Range 30,000 Yards At BOELA!?!?! com'on....
Japanese Ships
BB Hiei
CA Myoko
CA Nachi
CA Mikuma
DD Sagiri
DD Yugiri
DD Amagiri
DD Sazanami
DD Ushio
DD Takakaze
DD Benigumo
Aircraft Attacking:
20 x Ki-49-IIa Helen bombing from 6000 feet
Ground Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb
21 x Ki-49-IIa Helen bombing from 6000 feet
Ground Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb
4 x Ki-49-IIa Helen bombing from 6000 feet
Ground Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb
21 x Ki-49-IIa Helen bombing from 6000 feet
Ground Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb
3 x Ki-49-IIa Helen bombing from 6000 feet
Ground Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb
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Morning Air attack on 49th Chinese Corps, at 84,61 (Tsinkiang)
Weather in hex: Heavy cloud
Raid spotted at 13 NM, estimated altitude 9,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 3 minutes
Aircraft Attacking:
15 x Ki-49-IIa Helen bombing from 6000 feet
Ground Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb
4 x Ki-49-IIa Helen bombing from 6000 feet
Ground Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb
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Morning Air attack on 49th Chinese Corps, at 84,61 (Tsinkiang)
Weather in hex: Heavy cloud
Raid spotted at 7 NM, estimated altitude 7,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 2 minutes
Aircraft Attacking:
17 x Ki-49-IIa Helen bombing from 6000 feet
Ground Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb
These were the bastards that tried to raid Biak during the night...caught in the afternoon with their pants down[8D]... and the 500 kg bombs should sink even a fletcher
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Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Biak at 89,111
Weather in hex: Overcast
Raid detected at 57 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 14 minutes
Japanese aircraft
D4Y1 Judy x 42
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 15
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 1
Japanese aircraft losses
D4Y1 Judy: 4 damaged
D4Y1 Judy: 1 destroyed by flak
Allied Ships
DD Converse, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Braine, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
DD Boyd, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Bennett, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
Aircraft Attacking:
14 x D4Y1 Judy releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 500 kg SAP Bomb
11 x D4Y1 Judy releasing from 1000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 500 kg SAP Bomb
16 x D4Y1 Judy releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 500 kg SAP Bomb
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring DD Converse
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring DD Braine
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring DD Boyd
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring DD Bennett
In Burma an enemy Army of 40,000 men is marching to Lashio... we should be able to hold them back
GJ I like your air campaign and all your air combat tactics, your choice to fight only on your bases is very wise to save pilots, and also your selection on when it's worth defending. in my game I didn't and now I'm very short on pilots ...can you give some informations about your pilots pools (number in reserve and replacements for IJA and IjNAF?
I'm also curious how many pilots have you got in tracom and how many new pilots you get every month in replacements and how many have you lost till now?
Thanks and go on this way!
GJ I like your air campaign and all your air combat tactics, your choice to fight only on your bases is very wise to save pilots, and also your selection on when it's worth defending. in my game I didn't and now I'm very short on pilots ...can you give some informations about your pilots pools (number in reserve and replacements for IJA and IjNAF?
I'm also curious how many pilots have you got in tracom and how many new pilots you get every month in replacements and how many have you lost till now?
Thanks and go on this way!
Hi mate,
not a single one in TRACOM, cause I don't believe in it. All my best pilots are all operative.
The reserve pool is close to 500 fighter pilots for IJN and 1500 for IJA. but they arent' exactly "aces"... most of them are in their 30s exp and 70 A2A but very poor on the defence. I try to make them grow placing some of these reserves in crack groups, so they can gain experience fighting along with some of my TOP Guns.
Will try to give you more details when i'll be at home
The news is that QBall is evacuating the 2nd Marine Division from Hollandia!!!!! BANZAII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![:D][:D][:D][:D]
??????????
Very strange!
Well, at least as far as I can see... he divided the 2nd Marine in 3 regiments...and one of them was missing during the last bombardment turn.
I think he got particularly lucky during the first DA when he got a 1-1 and dropped the forts to 2. I got a (-) supply malus despite the base was still supplied... think it was due to some strange movings of supplies among the different units. from that moment on, my units never suffered much and his bombing runs hasn't been that succesfull...probably the 2nd Marine Div was a bit mauled and he decided to remove it and substitute it with an Aus Division (one of those who tried, unsufccesfully, to conquer Rabaul)...we'll see... however he has lost something like 2 months during this operation... which is damn good! Hollandia will eventually fall...my supplies are running low and I cannot really hope to run this air bridge forever... but I consider already a victory having reached dec 1943 in this position
This is great news, GJ. Your excellent play has made Q-Ball rather one dimensional. Increasing material advantage of the Allies will eventually result in a breakthrough in the DEI/NG, but he appears locked in to "coming on the old fashioned way," which is proving very time consuming indeed. He is teetering on the verge of being behind on his long term timetables.
Experiencing problems with the DSL at home, so i'm stuck with the 56k connection line and so cannot upload any "big" picture file for the moment....
However, took a whole night to DL the last turn and send it back to QBall.... Wish i had not!
The allies were sitting with their CVs at Darwin.... And you know what does it mean, right? Reduced CAP!! So i decided to try my luck once again... Waited for a overcast/light clouds weather forecast over Darwin and over the launching site and then moved in at full speed.
8 hexes NW of Darwin. Perfect positioning. 1300 KB planes, plus 400 crack LBA fighters to sweep from lautem and 200 more LBA bombers with 100 escorts from DILI.....
Guess what?
In the morning thunderstorms over Darwin.... And my KB decided to waste their precious sorties against 1 xAK at Molu ( losing 60 planes) and against the old battlewagons at Bathrust Island and with more fragmented sorties against a CL TF NW of Darwin....
We apparently we sunk some 4 old BBs but not a single CL... Then, in the afternoon, clear skies over Darwin....and a fragmented series of sorties were launched....some Jills didn't even have torps anymore[8|].... Guess what? We lost 550 planes against his 22.... (No sweeps arrived in the afternoon) and managed to score 1 light torp hit on the wasp and another light hit on the Bunker hill....NOTHING MORE.....
If the weather was clear as it should have been, this could have ended in a massacre....instead we basically lost 450 prewar pilots for nothing...and, strategically, we now have the KB out of action for a while, leaving an empty road for his amphib TFs to advance.
Ok, i'm back at work with a working connection (was writing with the iphone this morning...which is a PITA!)
I truly think we could have made a perfect PH this turn. We had 250 zeros on escort, with 300 Jills and 250 Judys, plus some 80 Frances and more 90 Jills from LBA.
We lost a good bunch of sorties against minor or secondary targets in the morning, thus losing cohesion and wasting precious and limited torps... when in the afternoon the skies were clear over Darwin, instead of a coordinated flight, we had a decent 180 zeros+90jills+ 80 judys package... 50 jills and 45 judys passed through the CAP screen (which was reduced but, nonetheless, effective) but flak was horrible and we scored only those 2 torp hits, plus several more hits but on xAPs and xAKs [:(]
Then the rest of the Jills/Judys arrived unescorted... and it was a salughterfest for the allied CAP...not a single one passed through...
I bet that if the weather had been clear over Darwin in the morning, my 400 fighters on sweep could have somehow reduced the CAP and the striking packages could have been much better...
Seems like everytime my CVs are committed, lately, the weather gets much worse than how it was forecasted. I just hope he will get the same bad luck when he'll decide to commit his own CVs
Ok, i'm back at work with a working connection (was writing with the iphone this morning...which is a PITA!)
I truly think we could have made a perfect PH this turn. We had 250 zeros on escort, with 300 Jills and 250 Judys, plus some 80 Frances and more 90 Jills from LBA.
We lost a good bunch of sorties against minor or secondary targets in the morning, thus losing cohesion and wasting precious and limited torps... when in the afternoon the skies were clear over Darwin, instead of a coordinated flight, we had a decent 180 zeros+90jills+ 80 judys package... 50 jills and 45 judys passed through the CAP screen (which was reduced but, nonetheless, effective) but flak was horrible and we scored only those 2 torp hits, plus several more hits but on xAPs and xAKs [:(]
Then the rest of the Jills/Judys arrived unescorted... and it was a salughterfest for the allied CAP...not a single one passed through...
I bet that if the weather had been clear over Darwin in the morning, my 400 fighters on sweep could have somehow reduced the CAP and the striking packages could have been much better...
Seems like everytime my CVs are committed, lately, the weather gets much worse than how it was forecasted. I just hope he will get the same bad luck when he'll decide to commit his own CVs
That sucks. Sorry. I've had MANY similar situations with the KB in the past game year. Things just seem to fizzle whenever I use it in spite of all of the elements being aligned perfectly from my end.
It was a gutsy call. If you succeed it's a brilliant move. If the weather intervenes you're being too aggressive at too late a stage in the game. I think as the Empire you have to roll the dice every once in a while, and you've certainly proven it can be worth it. Don't despair too much. There is still a lot of territory for him to move through, and you should get the KB up to fighting capability in a week again. In the meantime just bleed what you can with surface and undersea forces.
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
I'm sorry mate, 450 prewar pilots lost it's a real blow.
Ancient Romans used to say that Luck helps braves, but in your case it never works [:(]
Your 400 sweeps didn't fly in the afternon or they didn't kill anything? How many fighters did you find in CAP?
My 400 sweeps didn't fly, despite Lautem was blessed with clear weather in both phases. Usually when the destination hex is clouded by severe storms during the morning, sweeps refuse to fly in the afternoon, even if the weather improves. Not so the naval strike missions...
We found a mix of 1200 fighters on CAP, most of them were Hellcats and Corsairs.
Helps a bit my morale to have damaged or sunk 4 old battlewagons... but strategically they are useless at this point of the war. What could have really change the balance was the CVs...if a good number of them were damaged, QBall would have been forced to slow down even more...
QBall made a huge mistake in letting his CVs sit in a base hex for so many turns in a row... and he may have paid an heavy price for this mistake...just like at Colombo few months ago...I've learnt this very same lesson against Rader ...with the only difference that Rader always got extreme overcast weather when he moved his CVs[:@]
I was wrong...clearly. He has evacuated ONLY a regiment of the 2nd Marine Division...the rest of the Army kept on fighting...and last turn got another 1-1 with forts reduction... the first time in my career I see the HQ+ Bonus!... and we got a couple of bad dice&rolls with supplies I guess...our final AV was nearly half as the last time... now with only 1 fort left, our fate is doomed
round combat at Hollandia (93,116)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 26468 troops, 377 guns, 446 vehicles, Assault Value = 871
Defending force 27850 troops, 270 guns, 96 vehicles, Assault Value = 600
Assaulting units:
2nd Marine/A Division
2/6th Armoured Regiment
8th NZ Brigade
762nd Tank Battalion
3rd Marine Division
2nd Marine/B Division
I US Corps
Defending units:
47th Cavalry Regiment
Maizuru 4th SNLF
7th Ind Engineer Regiment
1st South Seas Gsn
51st Division
18th Garrison Unit
1st Raiding Rgt /3
12th Air Defense AA Regiment
34th JNAF AF Unit
36th JNAF AF Unit
58th JNAF AF Unit
17th Army
51st Air Div /1
15th Ind.Medium Field Artillery Regiment
85th JAAF AF Bn /4
31st Air Defense AA Battalion
26th JNAF AF Unit /1
51st JNAF AF Unit
15th Base Force
45th JNAF AF Unit /2
Yikes, that is an evil set of results! Really not looking forward to getting to this stage in my Japanese campaign, but looking forward to it in my Allied campaign...
Playing both sides definitely helps the morale throughout the various stages of the war [:'(]
