Monday Night Montage (ex-Moose Crossings) - (J) vs. Bullwinkle/Obvert (A)

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

Calcutta's airfield has been increasing. I might send the 2 Kongos to bombard here

I think Calcutta is on a river and BB can't reach it. Also, to get to it you would need to pass the CD guns at Diamond Harbour.

Herp. You're right. Well, that changes plans.

I'll have to look again, but I'm not sure (when playing from the Allied side) that Diamond Harbour starts with a CD unit. It might...



One thing I forgot to mention - I know the Boise & Co. retreated this direction, along with what's left of the Dutch navy. I'm hoping to catch them at Colombo, maybe. If I'd thought this adventure out a little better, I would have sent some amphibious forces up to Akyab, seemingly unprotected, hoping to lure out the SCTFs like they did in SEPac and the Aleutians. Oh well, filed under lessons learned for next game.

[Lokasenna]

Captured Singapore this turn...and all the industry is destroyed. It was a Deliberate Attack, and I have ~800 Engineers there. Not all are combat engineers, obviously, but I had a fair few of those (3 independent regiments, plus the organic combat engineers inside 10 IDs). Report below.

Port damage is also 100 and I haven't been bombing the port at all. But really my question is... do I spend the supply to repair the industry? I honestly don't know. The Resources definitely not (duh), and the LI definitely not as it's not in the HI, but the Heavy Industry? There are 35 points. Each point I repair means 2 Fuel per turn that only has to go to Singapore as opposed to Japan. My breakeven on the Supply expenditure would be in 500 days from each point repaired, correct?

I'm definitely repairing the RepSY, which is 0(50) right now.

Ground combat at Singapore (50,84)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 142862 troops, 1442 guns, 501 vehicles, Assault Value = 4469

Defending force 46789 troops, 561 guns, 335 vehicles, Assault Value = 669

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 1

Japanese adjusted assault: 3981

Allied adjusted defense: 1089

Japanese assault odds: 3 to 1 (fort level 1)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Singapore !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
2999 casualties reported
Squads: 6 destroyed, 230 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 28 disabled
Engineers: 19 destroyed, 64 disabled
Guns lost 13 (1 destroyed, 12 disabled)
Vehicles lost 17 (3 destroyed, 14 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
62258 casualties reported
Squads: 1400 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 3354 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 223 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 757 (757 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 472 (472 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 35

Assaulting units:
4th Ind. Engineer Regiment
2nd Division
14th Tank Regiment
33rd Division
Imperial Guards Division
18th Division
54th Division
23rd Ind. Engineer Regiment
41st Infantry Regiment
56th Division
4th Division
53rd Division
55th Division
15th Ind. Engineer Regiment
91st Naval Guard Unit
5th Division
6th RTA/C Division
5th Mortar Battalion
25th Army
3rd Mortar Battalion
14th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
1st RF Gun Battalion
18th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
3rd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
32nd Field AA Battalion
Southern Army
16th Army
3rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
21st Medium Field Artillery Battalion

Defending units:
1st Mysore Battalion
22nd Australian Brigade
SSVF Brigade
2nd Malay Battalion
3rd SSVF Battalion
5/14th Punjab Battalion
3rd Cavalry Regiment
2/17 Dogra Battalion
11th Indian Division
2nd Loyal Battalion
27th Australian Brigade
1st Malay Battalion
2nd Gordons Battalion
9th Indian Division
III Indian Corps
22nd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
3rd Heavy AA Regiment
AHQ Far East
109th RAF Base Force
110th RAF Base Force
3rd HK&S Light AA Regiment
223 Group RAF
2nd HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
Singapore Base Force
112th RAF Base Force
1st ISF Base Force
Malaya Army
1st HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
Malayan Air Wing
111th RAF Base Force
2nd ISF Base Force
24th NZ Pioneer Coy
Singapore Fortress
1st Indian Heavy AA Regiment
109th RN Base Force

[Lokasenna]

Also, any links to threads about engineers destroying industry and such would be very, very helpful. Bullwinkle has 26 units at Palembang. I doubt he'll be able to move more in. But if the same thing happens there, it could be backbreaking for me. I can't afford to spend 2M supply to rebuild Palembang. I'd probably just spend 900k to repair the Oil and that's it, but that leaves me hurting on Fuel production. I'd last longer in Japan, but....

What steps can I take to avoid this happening? I have read things like having my own engineers, preventing a retreat path (though Singers had no retreat path and it got 100% trashed), and higher assault odds helped. Anything else? Any of those wrong?

Can I feasibly just pound him into dust with artillery, disabling as many of his engineers as possible? I can't really starve out a hex that produces 1k supply/turn, not that well anyway.

[Spidery]

Captured Singapore this turn...and all the industry is destroyed. It was a Deliberate Attack, and I have ~800 Engineers there. Not all are combat engineers, obviously, but I had a fair few of those (3 independent regiments, plus the organic combat engineers inside 10 IDs). Report below.

That is seriously bad luck to have that level of damage from a deliberate attack.

A couple of thoughts, if you don't repair the HI does that make Singapore less of a draw for resources/fuel and increase the ability of Hong Kong etc. to draw from Singapore? I have no idea.

Also, when the Allies retake Singapore will they be able to repair the shipyards if they are not fully repaired? Or, are they limited by what you repaired? Probably still best to repair the yards.

[Lokasenna]

I was under the impression that beyond a certain level of demand at each base with HI/LI/Refinery, the surplus would begin to accumulate at the biggest ports. That's Singers with its 9, though I do have the Magic Coast Road open. So long as I don't start any CS convoys based at Singers, all of my Oil/Resources should flow to China and beyond. In my AI games I've had success with the Resources doing so, but not the Oil. I still have CS convoys set up for Oil there, because I don't have the slack to rejigger them.

I've decided to repair the HI and the yards, because I need the Size 50. I don't plan to build up the yard at Manila. If he wants a late-game yard big enough for a CV/BB, he's going to have to take Singers. Which is all the way down there. Or Hong Kong, which is that much farther and harder to get to.

The Allies can repair yards, but they can't increase their size. I have increased Saigon's yard to 20, and will likely increase Manila to 18 so that it can handle my CAs later but I haven't done so yet.


I just need this to not happen at Palembang. Balikpapan, Medan...those I could deal with. I expect to lose the Oil at Magwe fairly quickly, as well. So how I do stop it from happening at PB?

[obvert]

It's not too rare to have the Singers stuff destroyed as there was a shock attack to get in there in the first place and you had to siege it for a while. I agree, build the HI and the repair yard. You also save fuel not having to ship supply.

At Palambang my last time around my opponent built a mini-fortress there, and I had to lay siege for over a month, and I got it with almost no damage. So I thin it could have a lot of chance involved.

I haven't heard that having your own engineers counteracts the opponent having theirs in base. Maybe it does. Either way it's good to have the combat engineers anyway.

At Palembang just make sure to get his troops well disrupted by air but avoid naval bombardments! They can hit the oil/refineries, as I found out the hard way. Luckily only damaged a few refinery points, but didn't do that again. [;)]

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: obvert

It's not too rare to have the Singers stuff destroyed as there was a shock attack to get in there in the first place and you had to siege it for a while. I agree, build the HI and the repair yard. You also save fuel not having to ship supply.

At Palambang my last time around my opponent built a mini-fortress there, and I had to lay siege for over a month, and I got it with almost no damage. So I thin it could have a lot of chance involved.

I haven't heard that having your own engineers counteracts the opponent having theirs in base. Maybe it does. Either way it's good to have the combat engineers anyway.

At Palembang just make sure to get his troops well disrupted by air but avoid naval bombardments! They can hit the oil/refineries, as I found out the hard way. Luckily only damaged a few refinery points, but didn't do that again. [;)]

I'll have to look back at my interim save from the day before, but none of the industry was damaged by the initial shock attack. I had damaged the shipyard 14 points by setting my Oscars stupidly (they bombed/strafed with 15kg bombs!), but that was it. Also the port damage of 100 is something I've never seen before, not as a result from an attack.


I'm thinking of buying out a bunch of arty units from China to send to Palembang. Since we're playing with no HRs, most of Manchukuo's fat is already in China. I might have some arty units sitting around, though. And I definitely have the ones from Singers. I may pull the ones from Luzon, as he's bottled up there and I have no need to take Bataan anytime soon. Sending so much arty there will burn up a lot of supply, and if it doesn't do any good it'll just be that much more that I end up expending, but I figure I should do it.

I assume the OOB from the Palembang battles is in your AAR with Jocke? It looks like Bullwinkle left a ton of engineers at Singapore, so I would be surprised if he had a large amount at Palembang. I would guess he's pulled in all the units from south/central Sumatra, as well as the initial Indian/British brigades that start embarked on amphibious TFs.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: obvert

It's not too rare to have the Singers stuff destroyed as there was a shock attack to get in there in the first place and you had to siege it for a while. I agree, build the HI and the repair yard. You also save fuel not having to ship supply.

At Palambang my last time around my opponent built a mini-fortress there, and I had to lay siege for over a month, and I got it with almost no damage. So I thin it could have a lot of chance involved.

I haven't heard that having your own engineers counteracts the opponent having theirs in base. Maybe it does. Either way it's good to have the combat engineers anyway.

At Palembang just make sure to get his troops well disrupted by air but avoid naval bombardments! They can hit the oil/refineries, as I found out the hard way. Luckily only damaged a few refinery points, but didn't do that again. [;)]

I'll have to look back at my interim save from the day before, but none of the industry was damaged by the initial shock attack. I had damaged the shipyard 14 points by setting my Oscars stupidly (they bombed/strafed with 15kg bombs!), but that was it. Also the port damage of 100 is something I've never seen before, not as a result from an attack.


I'm thinking of buying out a bunch of arty units from China to send to Palembang. Since we're playing with no HRs, most of Manchukuo's fat is already in China. I might have some arty units sitting around, though. And I definitely have the ones from Singers. I may pull the ones from Luzon, as he's bottled up there and I have no need to take Bataan anytime soon. Sending so much arty there will burn up a lot of supply, and if it doesn't do any good it'll just be that much more that I end up expending, but I figure I should do it.

I assume the OOB from the Palembang battles is in your AAR with Jocke? It looks like Bullwinkle left a ton of engineers at Singapore, so I would be surprised if he had a large amount at Palembang. I would guess he's pulled in all the units from south/central Sumatra, as well as the initial Indian/British brigades that start embarked on amphibious TFs.

It's from my game with Historiker.

This is the beginning of a longish discussion and eventual siege of Palembang.
fb.asp?m=3119561

Here is where it was finally captured on April 2!
fb.asp?m=3254751

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: obvert

It's not too rare to have the Singers stuff destroyed as there was a shock attack to get in there in the first place and you had to siege it for a while. I agree, build the HI and the repair yard. You also save fuel not having to ship supply.

At Palambang my last time around my opponent built a mini-fortress there, and I had to lay siege for over a month, and I got it with almost no damage. So I thin it could have a lot of chance involved.

I haven't heard that having your own engineers counteracts the opponent having theirs in base. Maybe it does. Either way it's good to have the combat engineers anyway.

At Palembang just make sure to get his troops well disrupted by air but avoid naval bombardments! They can hit the oil/refineries, as I found out the hard way. Luckily only damaged a few refinery points, but didn't do that again. [;)]

I'll have to look back at my interim save from the day before, but none of the industry was damaged by the initial shock attack. I had damaged the shipyard 14 points by setting my Oscars stupidly (they bombed/strafed with 15kg bombs!), but that was it. Also the port damage of 100 is something I've never seen before, not as a result from an attack.


I'm thinking of buying out a bunch of arty units from China to send to Palembang. Since we're playing with no HRs, most of Manchukuo's fat is already in China. I might have some arty units sitting around, though. And I definitely have the ones from Singers. I may pull the ones from Luzon, as he's bottled up there and I have no need to take Bataan anytime soon. Sending so much arty there will burn up a lot of supply, and if it doesn't do any good it'll just be that much more that I end up expending, but I figure I should do it.

I assume the OOB from the Palembang battles is in your AAR with Jocke? It looks like Bullwinkle left a ton of engineers at Singapore, so I would be surprised if he had a large amount at Palembang. I would guess he's pulled in all the units from south/central Sumatra, as well as the initial Indian/British brigades that start embarked on amphibious TFs.

It's from my game with Historiker.

This is the beginning of a longish discussion and eventual siege of Palembang.
fb.asp?m=3119561

Here is where it was finally captured on April 2!
fb.asp?m=3254751

That's a little encouraging. Maybe I did just get really unlucky at Singers here. In my other game, I captured it completely blown up but that was because it fell to the initial forced Shock attack.


On the plus side, with ~850 engineers working to repair the port and airfield, it should be up and running in no time at all!

[Lokasenna]

Look what I found!

More unmitigated defeat in the Aleutians with the sinking of a mediocre invasion TF at Adak (he's really committing up here, exactly what I don't want to see), but I get some licks in of my own in the Indian Ocean. More on that in a minute, back to the Aleutians. He's had 7 DDs harrying me like no other at Amchitka - sinking minelaying TFs before they can lay mines, harassing my amphibs, bombarding for hits on ships disbanded in port... Yesterday, BBs Warspite, Colorado, New Mexico, and Mississippi put in an appearance. I didn't lose any ships, but 3 subs are going to be stuck there for a while with several 14" hits each. 99 Sys on 2 of them. The BBs retired east. I have had MKB on the way from Truk for a while. Once I refuel them from an AO (couple of days). I expect he's got some AKEs/ADs at Dutch Harbor or something.

Today, my invasion TF ran into CL Honolulu and 3 DDs at Adak while his 7 DDs ran CL Tama off from Amchitka (attempting to lay mines before disbanding again). All sunk. I have to rebuild my Nav Gd unit (not showing up in destroyed ground units, somehow) and the JNAAF Bn that were drowned. I lost a DD, several CMc's, and about 6 xAKs as 2 DMs cleaned up.

MKB is grouping up SE of Adak. I'm hoping his BBs are at Dutch Harbor, awaiting reloads from the AKEs. I want to catch them there with my Kates. If not, perhaps I can catch Honolulu. MKB also has 5 CAs and extra DDs for escorts. I hope to sink the USN DDs with these. Fuel is my constraint right now.


The main event of the past few turns:

Last turn I sallied forth with KB. Either he was standing post off the east coast of Colombo. Foolish, if defending against KB. Smart, if expecting MKB or less.

Last turn I also set the 6th Guards Div at CRB to prepare for Cuttack. I've also turned some LCUs to prep for Akyab. Perhaps he was expecting me to go up and land. I'm trying to turn his SigInt against him as much as possible.

In any case, here's the really long money shot. I suffered some coordination penalties on my strike, and 40% of my Kates were on ASW as I was still concerned about where his sighted subs went. One of my DDs hitting a brand new mine at Port Blair cleared up that mystery. His entire strike package was shot down, as was most of his CAP. A glorious day for the empire.

Total losses for KB air groups was 20 Kates (4 A2A, 12 flak, 4 ops), 9 Vals (3 A2A, 5 flak, 1 ops), and 3 Zeroes (2 A2A, 1 to ops)

Morning Air attack on TF, near Koggala at 31,51

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid detected at 79 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 29 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 54
B5N2 Kate x 45
D3A1 Val x 67

Allied aircraft
Fulmar II x 9
Sea Hurricane Ib x 6
F4F-3A Wildcat x 3

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
B5N2 Kate: 11 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 4 destroyed by flak
D3A1 Val: 24 damaged
D3A1 Val: 2 destroyed by flak

Allied aircraft losses
Fulmar II: 3 destroyed
Sea Hurricane Ib: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
BB Royal Sovereign, Bomb hits 7, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
CVL Hermes, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires
CV Indomitable, Bomb hits 7, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Dorsetshire, Bomb hits 1
CL Emerald, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CA Salt Lake City
DD Express
DD Electra
DD Dunlap

VF-2 with F4F-3A Wildcat (1 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)

Ammo storage explosion on CVL Hermes
Ammo storage explosion on CV Indomitable
===================================================
Morning Air attack on TF, near Koggala at 31,51

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid detected at 29 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes

Japanese aircraft
B5N2 Kate x 16

Allied aircraft
Sea Hurricane Ib x 1
F4F-3A Wildcat x 1

Japanese aircraft losses
B5N2 Kate: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 4 destroyed by flak

No Allied losses

Allied Ships
BB Royal Sovereign, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CL Emerald, on fire
CL De Ruyter
CV Indomitable, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage

Ammo storage explosion on CV Indomitable
===================================================
Morning Air attack on TF, near Koggala at 31,51

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid detected at 49 NM, estimated altitude 19,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 20 minutes

Japanese aircraft
B5N2 Kate x 10

Allied aircraft
Sea Hurricane Ib x 1
F4F-3A Wildcat x 1

Japanese aircraft losses
B5N2 Kate: 1 destroyed, 8 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 1 destroyed by flak

No Allied losses

Allied Ships
CA Dorsetshire, Torpedo hits 1
BB Royal Sovereign, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
===================================================
Morning Air attack on TF, near Trincomalee at 33,48

Weather in hex: Heavy rain

Raid detected at 42 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 17 minutes

Japanese aircraft
B5N2 Kate x 13

Japanese aircraft losses
B5N2 Kate: 1 damaged

Allied Ships
CL Capetown, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
CL Caledon, Torpedo hits 1
CL Colombo
===================================================
Morning Air attack on TF, near Koggala at 31,51

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid detected at 15 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Japanese aircraft
D3A1 Val x 22

Allied aircraft
F4F-3A Wildcat x 1

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A1 Val: 1 destroyed, 9 damaged
D3A1 Val: 1 destroyed by flak

No Allied losses

Allied Ships
CL De Ruyter
CVL Hermes, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Salt Lake City, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CL Emerald, Bomb hits 1, on fire
===================================================
Morning Air attack on TF, near Trincomalee at 33,53

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid detected at 29 NM, estimated altitude 20,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 11 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 28

Allied aircraft
F4F-3A Wildcat x 2
SBD-3 Dauntless x 8

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
SBD-3 Dauntless: 5 destroyed
===================================================
Morning Air attack on TF, near Trincomalee at 33,53

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid detected at 33 NM, estimated altitude 18,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 21 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 36

Allied aircraft
Albacore I x 18
Swordfish I x 12

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
Albacore I: 9 destroyed
Swordfish I: 5 destroyed

[Lokasenna]

Screenie of the map:



1 - KB, plus SCTF of Kongo/Haruna/Jintsu/4 DDs. The other 2 Kongos, Abukuma, and 3 DDs will break off from KB and head north, hoping to catch some stuff on the surface. The Kongo/Haruna TF is sprinting west, then back to the east, to run down survivors. All 3 TFs should rendezvous in the same hex: 1 west of the current RN ACTF remnants.

2 - Ships Sighted: 7 // CL CA CL CL CVL CVL BB // Probably 3 DDs, 1 CA, 2 CLs, and Hermes, which sounded like it sunk after all air phases.
- Ships Sighted: 3 // CV CA // Probably Indomitable
Remains of the Royal Navy ACTF. Hermes is down for sure according to aircraft losses screen, but Indomitable is still afloat. If she survives the initial damage control phases, I hope the Kongos run her down.

3 - Ships Sighted: 10 // CA BB BB CV CV CV CV CV CL CL // Fighters 1 Bombers 53 Auxiliary 24
This is Lady Lex. The fighters sighted number has to be low. Still, KB can handle her with 80% of 54 Zeroes on CAP. Sighted heading SE, but am unsure which way he'll run. Honestly, I could be in for a bad surface battle if it occurs in morning between Lex's escorts and my Kongos. Moonlight is 0%, which will help me a lot, I'm sure.

4 - Ships Sighted: 2 // Heading southwest
Unknown what this is.

5 - Ships Sighted: 7 // CL CL CL DD DD // Heading northeast
This is where Capetown was sunk and Caledon was hit. I would guess these were heading to the Calcutta area to defend the coast.

6 - 1 ship sighted at Trincomalee. Probably harbor defense or mine-related.

7 - 2 ships sighted at Colombo by Jake Recon (not Nav Search). Unknown what kind of airpower he has on the island, but I'm wagering a lot on him not having much here. I have a lonely I-boat camping outside the entrance to the port. Hopefully I can pick off a cripple.



The way I figure it, with the given positions, he doesn't have much of anywhere he can run and get away. He could run for Colombo, but my fast BBs have a good chance of intercepting anything that does. He could also run east, but it's a long haul to Calcutta. He could run north to Madras.

I don't have the fuel to stick around for long, especially with one of my SCTFs doing a full speed run for ~10 hexes this turn. I was originally thinking to send KB and the SCTFs north, but I'll have them stick to the SE. If he runs east, he has nowhere to go. It's possible that he slips some undamaged ships past me, to the south and Perth or Cape Town. I'll see what I can get in this next day or two, and then probably call it quits due to fuel concerns.

[SqzMyLemon]

I'd block him moving west or south. Right now he has a difficult choice to make. Run the gauntlet and take losses to reach open Ocean either west/south or withdraw east towards Calcutta and risk being bottled up indefinitely. If he tries to escape to open Ocean you'll likely get one more crack at him, but if he moves east then you've trapped him and can assess how best to take advantage of his lack of mobility. If he moves east it could also give you a chance to refuel KB.

You mention Lexington, are other American CV's accounted for? I'd look to close the door to Colombo and make it as costly for him to escape that way as possible. Regardless of what you do, it seems you have a good chance to catch him with your SCTF's and then clean up with KB. Good luck and hopefully you get some good reactions during the naval phase to start by catching TF number 2.

One small note of caution. Don't discount that he may simply write the ships off and make an all out effort to catch KB in a surface action.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon

I'd block him moving west or south. Right now he has a difficult choice to make. Run the gauntlet and take losses to reach open Ocean either west/south or withdraw east towards Calcutta and risk being bottled up indefinitely. If he tries to escape to open Ocean you'll likely get one more crack at him, but if he moves east then you've trapped him and can assess how best to take advantage of his lack of mobility. If he moves east it could also give you a chance to refuel KB.

You mention Lexington, are other American CV's accounted for? I'd look to close the door to Colombo and make it as costly for him to escape that way as possible. Regardless of what you do, it seems you have a good chance to catch him with your SCTF's and then clean up with KB. Good luck and hopefully you get some good reactions during the naval phase to start by catching TF number 2.

One small note of caution. Don't discount that he may simply write the ships off and make an all out effort to catch KB in a surface action.

Enterprise is sunk, as of ~40 days ago. Saratoga and Yorktown have never been spotted, but I'm confident that a KB at 90% of its air power can handle 2.8 CAGs (shot down ~1/5 of Yorktown's air group today).

I have left Tone/Chikuma and DDs in KB's TF.

Dorsetshire took a few bombs and a torpedo, while CL Emerald took a penetrating bomb as well. That leaves Salt Lake City, De Ruyter, Colombo in the area of CL or larger, plus Lexington's TF. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the starting Lexington TF. I've sighted much of the Pacific Fleet's surface power in the Aleutians (several CAs, the remaining Brooklyn, and DDs).

Boise is suspected to be in the IO somewhere.


I have moved to make him either book it south, try to slip past me west, or make him go east - trapping him in the IO so long as I remain between Colombo and Sumatra. I don't have great recon in the area, however I am flying Av Supp to Port Blair and will base 18+ Mavis there, which are currently at Bangkok.

[obvert]

Nice work.

I'd keep him in the IO for sure. Then figure out what to do with the remains.

Beware, he did try some fantastic stuff in his last one with CVs in a tight spot. Make sure to keep a good SCTF with the KB, with the CVTFs either following it or it on patrol. I find a 1 hex react usually means it'll get to anything coming at you before it gets to the KB.

Looks like fun!

Get all of the search you can into the area and make sure to have a lot of night search as well to get some reactions.

EDIT: Makes me feel lie he's doing something out here. Why else would all of these quality ships be gathered? I wonder if there are some fat troopships nearby?

[JocMeister]

Ooo, that got to sting a bit for him. But nothing too bad for yet. The RS withdraws in early 44 and doesn´t come back if I remember correctly. The Indomitable also stings a but also withdraws and doesn´t come back until mid 44 when its 56 planes won´t make much of a difference anyway. That being said its very useful early game before it withdraws!

Tomorrow will decide if you win a small victory or a big one!

Good luck! [:)]

[leehunt27@bloomberg.net]

Exciting turn to come. Moving towards Calcutta would make sense if he had decent fighter protection there to scare away the KB. But maybe splitting into many TF's and just running in all directions works too. Curious to see what he does

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Nice work.

I'd keep him in the IO for sure. Then figure out what to do with the remains.

Beware, he did try some fantastic stuff in his last one with CVs in a tight spot. Make sure to keep a good SCTF with the KB, with the CVTFs either following it or it on patrol. I find a 1 hex react usually means it'll get to anything coming at you before it gets to the KB.

Looks like fun!

Get all of the search you can into the area and make sure to have a lot of night search as well to get some reactions.

EDIT: Makes me feel lie he's doing something out here. Why else would all of these quality ships be gathered? I wonder if there are some fat troopships nearby?

I split Hiei/Kirishima/Abukuma/3 DDs from KB and they're following the same route as KB. I have react at 2, however. Unfortunately, I had no groups currently on Night operations, so it was of no use to switch them (there seems to be a 1-day delay in switching, at least from day to night ops - no planes ever fly the first day I switch them). Poor planning on my part.

Kongo and Haruna are going hunting.

He hasn't really reinforced northern Burma yet (Cox's Bazar, Akyab are empty; Chittagong has ~5 LCUs). Since Singers just fell, he may think now is a good time to do so, but I'm actually not splitting my Singers LCUs - with the exception of 2 IDs for Oosthaven, they're all heading to Java to steamroll it. It's possible that the one TF I didn't attack last turn, other than Lex's, is a couple of troop ships (TF 4). If these were all setting out from Colombo, the vector suggests Burma. It's also possible that they are returning.

Another possibility is that he was setting out to hunt a sniff of CVs in the area. The last he saw of KB, it supported the Darwin invasion last month. The last he saw of MKB, it was near Kendari. It's possible that he thought all the ASW search going on above his 2-3 subs near northern Sumatra came from MKB. Indomitable, Lex, and Hermes is a force that could be sent against MKB. If he thought KB was anywhere nearby, I'm sure they'd all have been hiding instead.

ORIGINAL: leehunt27@bloomberg.net

Exciting turn to come. Moving towards Calcutta would make sense if he had decent fighter protection there to scare away the KB. But maybe splitting into many TF's and just running in all directions works too. Curious to see what he does

I'm betting he does this. He's been bombing me at Rangoon without much success (just 1 Refinery hit so far). Given that he's been hitting me with ~30 bombers and that I haven't seen the AVG yet, my guess is they're over there.

Given my pace in "taking" Burma, I have no idea what he has beyond the Akyab/Mandalay/Lashio line - recon just doesn't reach much farther when based from Chiang Mai and Bangkok. My recon planes at Rangoon have refused to take off - AF damage is still going down.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Ooo, that got to sting a bit for him. But nothing too bad for yet. The RS withdraws in early 44 and doesn´t come back if I remember correctly. The Indomitable also stings a but also withdraws and doesn´t come back until mid 44 when its 56 planes won´t make much of a difference anyway. That being said its very useful early game before it withdraws!

Tomorrow will decide if you win a small victory or a big one!

Good luck! [:)]

Won't get the turn back until tonight, or sometime tomorrow, as Bullwinkle's just started doing some all-day work at a school again. I'm not sure if he's even watched the replay yet [:D]. Mostly I just like that I sunk RS for the VPs - she's not all that useful in SCTF, only amphib ops. I'd really like to nail Dorsetshire and Salt Lake City, if I can (right after Lady Lex). I think I got CA Houston early on with a sub, but that's it for the Golden CAs.

I'll have to spend my evening getting better at Rising Storm, I think.

[JocMeister]

I love the Brit CAs. Losing them sucks! So I´m sure Bull will tear a hair or two when he sees the replay. [:D]

You must have timed your dash perfectly! Looks like he was transiting to/from Calcutta.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

I love the Brit CAs. Losing them sucks! So I´m sure Bull will tear a hair or two when he sees the replay. [:D]

You must have timed your dash perfectly! Looks like he was transiting to/from Calcutta.

I had a healthy dose of dumb luck, that's for sure. Like I did when I caught Enterprise with a sub that was itself in transit to a PZ.

Two turns ago I was just SW of Port Blair, unsighted. I waited a turn because I wasn't sure what to do with KB/Kongos, then I sent them ~8 hexes NW. And then last turn I sent them even further, to where they are now. Perfect, and lucky, timing! I had no idea he was here. I just wanted to see if I could catch anything in port at Colombo.