Wrangling Loki - Mind_Messing (J) vs Lokasenna (A)

[mind_messing]

April 15th to April 16th, 1942

North Pacific

Evacuation is the word of the day here. The aviation support is off Adak, and all that remains is the bulk of the 80th Regiment's infantry squads, who'll be withdrawn in due course.

The Allies seem to be content to let us leave, which we can't complain with. Our submarines are the only thing giving the Allies anything to worry about, and they've not made a kill in quite some time...

Central Pacific

The Japanese Central Pacific holdings are shaping up to be a nice little fortress. We're focusing engineering efforts on those bases that have organic coastal gun defences. As a general rule, most islands have at least a naval guard, a AF battalion and about level three forts. It's not going to be worth anything if the Allies bring the hammer, but it means they'll need to bring the hammer, and won't be getting much on the cheap.

South-West Pacific

Following the withdrawal of the Japanese from Noumea, the Allies pour into the vacuum. Allied ships are pouring in to Luganville and Noumea. For the present, we'll need to let them be. Lugna is not yet an operational airbase, and Tulagi is only a level 2 airbase, so offensive torpedo operations are difficult. That will change as Lugna is built up.

As tempting as it is to build Ndeni up, it's too exposed to Allied raids from Luganville to be a worthwhile investment. It will get some mines and some Val's, and continue in it's function as a recon and naval search base, as well as serve as a tripwire for any Allied advance up the Solomons.

Austrailia

Nothing on the ground; our divisions are still marching overland, though the armoured spearhead is nearly at Daly Waters.

At sea, the Allied sub swarm makes itself felt. Only a handfull of expendable cargo ships are sunk, but considering the number of dud torpedo's, it has me worried for when the torpedos go off the a bang instead of a thud. Fuel is being moved in to Koepang to support a host of small ASW ships moving to counter the Allied subs.

In the air, the Allies very nearly score a major victory. Vildebeasts from Darwin sortie at the three IJN battleships sent to bombard Darwin. The battleships suffered from a routing problem that led to them being left in range of Darwin in daylight, and had no LR CAP assigned. The Fuso takes a torpedo and is down to 16 knots and is probably out of the war for a few months but the butchers bill could have been much heavier. The Nagato is sitting in Singapore harbour to preserve fuel, so she'll replace the Fuso.

Burma

Sweeps of Akyab are followed by a bombing raid that nets nothing bar a few damaged IJAAF bombers.

Magwe is nice and secure now. A healthy volume of flak, along with Zero's and 6 Tojo's on CAP, with hoards of Oscars on CAP and the adjacent bases. We're still short on aviation support and ground units, but we'll hopefully get some Manchurian units marched through China to Burma.

The Imperial Guards Division has had it's orders changed. It's being sent to Lashio, to join with a Thai division and a IJA armour regiment to push into China up the Burma Road.

China

The siege of Chungking carries on. Japanese bombardments continue to hammer the Chinese, with AV on both sides nearly equal at about 6.2k AV apeice. I'll wait for the Chinese Expeditionary Army HQ to arrive in the hex before ordering a deliberate attack.

Elsewhere, Kunming is kept suppressed by the air while garrisons are being optimized. We've even let the Chinese reoccupy a base to save us the bother of keeping the locals in line.

[center]
A Japanese infantry squad fighting in the streets of Chungking. The brutal street-to-street fighting between the Japanese and Chinese and huge bombardments had led to the battle being named the "Stalingrad of the East".[/center]

[mind_messing]

April 17th to April 22nd, 1942

It seems Bullwinkle's raiding has been educational for Lokasenna.

North Pacific

Some IJA recon planes spot a task force at maximum range south-west of Hokkaido, so the Home Islands defence forces swing in to action expecting a amphibious landing akin to the one that Bullwinkle pulled on Lokasenna recently.

As it emerges, Lokasenna's brought about three Allied carriers, as well as a host of crusiers and a battleship.

The result is mixed. Allied carrier aircraft firebomb Sapporo, but no real damage is done, and the host of Nate's and Claude's providing CAP damage a great many bombers, but shoot down hardly any.

Two seperate bombardment attacks go in, doing mild damage, and the Colorado and Trenton are caught by Kate's flying from Iwaki. They've no torpedos, but both Allied ships are left with heavy fires and heavy damage after a hail of 250kg bombs strike them. The Trenton is certainly gone, and the Colorado might sink before getting home.

At sea, more mixed results. The Hokkaido-Honshu resource convoys get bombed, with 8 or 9 cargo ships being sunk, so it's no lasting damage. The IJN makes a brave showing, with some old IJN destroyers fighting the modern USN destroyers and breaking even at two ships lost apeice.

The only real damage was to the IJN training cadres. A host of unescorted planes decide to chance a strike on the American carriers, and the Allied CAP tears them apart.

The total loss is 134 Japanese airframes (a full 10% of the total losses for the entire game) destroyed for 7 Allied planes. This might seem huge, but the airframes are easily replacable (losses were Nates, Betties, Kates and Claudes, all of which have healthy pools) and the pilots were rookies about half-way through their training.

If the Allied carriers decide to sit about, things will start becoming uncomfortable. IJN subs are flooding in, and the KB has started transiting back to the Home Islands from Truk (they need repairs and will be starting upgrades shortly).

I intent to walk a thin line here. I won't neglect this theater, but nor will I over-react and massively reinforce: it's a raid, not a invasion

. Some IJA fighter groups will be upgraded to Oscars, all the IJN fighter training groups will get Zero's and some smaller units will be sent to garrison the Kuriles. Aviation support within the Home Islands will be shuffeled about to give better coverage to Hokkaido.

Central Pacific

Taibutiea makes a level 4 airbase, and the engineers are being sent to build up Tarawa and Makin.

South-West Pacific

Lugna makes a level 1 airbase, and a base force unit is moved in. Shovels are working tirelessly in this region to build up airbases needed for the defence of Rabual and Port Moresby. A big supply and troop convoy for this theater is loading in Tokyo, and will head to Rabual once the American carriers off Hokkaido have sailed away.

Austrailia

The ABDA force in Darwin has started to move south. Evidently, the caputre of Daly Waters and the advance of the Japanese infantry on Katherine has made them realize their predicament. Bombing of Darwin has started in ernest, though heavy AA has forced the bombers to a higher altitude, diminishing effectiveness.

Hopefully, the battleship bombardment should start back up again and get better results.

Burma

Another B-17 raid on Magwe. This time, the Zero's do a bit better. One B-17 is an ops loss, while another is reported being shot down outright and the oil remains untouched.

Chinese guerilla forces are running around north of Lashio, so we'll divert some small units to hunt them down.

China

Chungking is reinforced by Japanese armoured units, bringing the AV totals roughly equal at about 6.3k Another 500 Japanese AV is about a week out. We're going to conduct a deliberate attack next turn to hopefully drop the forts another level.

[center]
A Japanese cargo ship on the Hokkaido-Honshu route is bombed by USN carrier aircraft. The Japanese aircraft in the region, though numerous, were outdated and unable to have any real impact on halting the American raids.[/center]

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

It seems Bullwinkle's raiding has been educational for Lokasenna.

SOP for Allies now. Make him pay.

Now one of the early IJN moves should be building up Bihoro or Kushiro with an air HQ making it a good Betty bases. Fly them in to hit the raiders, then fly them out again. Of course you need some warning...

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

It seems Bullwinkle's raiding has been educational for Lokasenna.

SOP for Allies now. Make him pay.

Now one of the early IJN moves should be building up Bihoro or Kushiro with an air HQ making it a good Betty bases. Fly them in to hit the raiders, then fly them out again. Of course you need some warning...

What hurt me was escorts. I'd not gotten around to upgrading all the Home Islands restricted groups to Zero/Oscar, so there were only a handfull of decent fighters for escort/CAP.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

It seems Bullwinkle's raiding has been educational for Lokasenna.

SOP for Allies now. Make him pay.

Happy to help, JFB dogs! [:)]

Now one of the early IJN moves should be building up Bihoro or Kushiro with an air HQ making it a good Betty bases. Fly them in to hit the raiders, then fly them out again. Of course you need some warning...

And kinda a spare air HQ too, right? Aren't they thin on the ground in the first half of 1942? Always with the decisions, this game . . .[:'(]

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

It seems Bullwinkle's raiding has been educational for Lokasenna.

SOP for Allies now. Make him pay.

Happy to help, JFB dogs! [:)]

Now one of the early IJN moves should be building up Bihoro or Kushiro with an air HQ making it a good Betty bases. Fly them in to hit the raiders, then fly them out again. Of course you need some warning...

And kinda a spare air HQ too, right? Aren't they thin on the ground in the first half of 1942? Always with the decisions, this game . . .[:'(]

There are a few HI restricted Air HQ's. They can be flown to Bihoro, and the Hokkaido garrison division can be sent there to build up the airbase.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing
There are a few HI restricted Air HQ's. They can be flown to Bihoro, and the Hokkaido garrison division can be sent there to build up the airbase.

And in no time you have 100 torpedoes ready and waiting and a decent air base.

The fighter air cover is trickier...but doable. If you get the time the restricted 4th Sentai upgrades to Nicks which provides interesting options.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: mind_messing
There are a few HI restricted Air HQ's. They can be flown to Bihoro, and the Hokkaido garrison division can be sent there to build up the airbase.

And in no time you have 100 torpedoes ready and waiting and a decent air base.

The fighter air cover is trickier...but doable. If you get the time the restricted 4th Sentai upgrades to Nicks which provides interesting options.

I've found that by resizing the Home Islands fighter groups on your carriers, you can build up a very strong fighter force. The best thing is that even if they're restricted before flying onto the carrier, they revert to the "Independent" command. Very, very handy for the IJN fighter groups.

I noticed the Nicks yesterday, funnily enough. LowNav Nicks in the Kuriles might be a good way to make use of perma-restricted squadrons.

[Lowpe]

I put out a little longer message in a post you can't see, so I thought I would give you some of the details without breaking opsec. Common sense stuff that needs to be done, you have probably thought of it all, but here goes:

1. Position your restricted air hqs, and stock them with torpedoes in the north. Build that airbase up (preferably two bases).

2. Break down units and defend the beaches. Build forts on beaches to level 1. Redistribute your AA units.

3. If you don't use mini-subs, this would be a place to put them and forget about them to help versus shore bombardments. Minefields are probably needed elsewhere.

4. Watch you training plane groups. Use the 4th Sentai with Nicks and forget using it for training purposes. Trained in air to air and low naval it can be nasty and effective for a long time. Convert it to Nicks in 1/3rds.

5. Air search is not enough, throw a few subs out as pickets and a couple of expendable pbs. SBDs can target industry from 12 hexes I think so that is the danger area.

[mind_messing]

April 23rd to May 1st, 1942

We see out April with some interesting events.

I'll need to improve the rate at which I update my AAR, seeing as Lokasenna's running his own now...

North Pacific

We get some small measure of revenge for the Hokkaido firebombing raids by putting a torpedo into Enterprise when she's south-west of Attu. She'll not sink, but she'll need a port for repairs.

Amusingly enough, just as the Americans depart the theater, the reinforcements we'd have loved start to arrive. Sapporo gets a big AA regiment with radar and we've bought another AA regiment out of China for Paramushiro-jima.

On top of this is the airlift and sealift of restricted troops and aviation support out of the Home Islands proper and into the Kuriles. We've emptied out a fair bit of the pools for modern fighters to keep the fighter squadrons up here fairly competitive, and if Lokasenna decides to come back, things won't be as easy as the first time around.

The KB is sitting at Yokohama for the Kagero-class destroyers to upgrade their AA while the Junyo has just arrived, and will move to join the Mini-KB at Soerabaja.

Central Pacific

A USN amphibious task force has been spotted west of Canton Island, having slipped in through a gap in the naval search fence. I'd wager it's a bid to capture Canton and give the Allies an easier time supplying the South Pacific. Canton has an SNLF and some 170 mines, so if there's a well prepared marine regiment on those ships, it won't be flying the Rising Sun for much longer.

I'll stick to my plan for the Central Pacific: Taibutiea will be the main point of defence for the Lower Marshalls, with Tarawa and Abemama to support it. Engineers to do this will be arriving shortly from the Maraianas, where the engineering works are almost complete.

South-West Pacific

We decide to announce to Lokasenna that Guadalcanal is an operational Japanese airbase by Zero sweeps over Luganville. The result is a good Japanese victory in the air soured by the high ops losses due to the long distance flights.

Elsewhere is quiet, bar the sounds of shovels being used in the Upper Solomons and New Guinea.

Austrailia

The ABDA forces abandon Darwin, leaving a caretaker garrison to prevent a paratrooper or amphibious assault on the base, and rail south to Katherine. The co-incides with the IJA arriving on the outskirts of the town.

A smart move on Lokasenna's part, seeing as Darwin was in range of Timor and the Japanese bases in the lower DEI, while Katherine is inland, preventing battleship bombardment and out of range of the vast majority of IJA bombers.

We'll wait till our forces are concentrated, then move into Katherine . The IJA armour will push north to try to capture Darwin, which will give us a well developed port and airbase on the Austrailian mainland.

[center]
The British forces prepare to fight the Japanese invasion at Katherine. The miain concerns of the Japanese command is the British are planning to make a bid to escape to the South.[/center]

The Philippines

Bataan is at last cleared on May 2nd, freeing up three divisions and a great deal of artillery. Once we discover the strength of the ABDA force in Northern Austrailia, we'll decide where to deploy the victors of Bataan; if the five divisions the IJA has in Northern Australia isn't enough to deal with the British, we'll send them there. Otherwise, it's off to Burma for them.

This closes the Philippines as an active theater, hopefully for another two or three years.

Burma

I lose my nerve with an offensive on Akyab. Two IJA and two RTA divisions aren't going to be enough to push 30 odd British, Indian and Austrailian units out of the base. Instead, we'll go over to the defense for the time being on the Kaladan River, until further reinforcements can reach this theater from the Philippines, or overland from Manchuria.

In the air, we're being more aggressive. A big sweep went in at Chittagong, followed by IJA bombers hitting the port there. Flak was heavy, and the ships tied up at the docks were only low-value merchant ships, but hopefully it will drive home the point that Lokasenna can't leave VP's sitting in range of my bombers.

We'll follow this up with a combined IJN and IJAAF strike on Akyab: the bombers will hit the airbase while three Mogami-class crusiers plaster the base from the ocean.

China

We mount another deliberate attack at Chungkind and drop the forts to level 4, but at a fearfull cost. Over 30,000 Japanese dead alone, and although the bulk of losses are in disablements, we still lose a divisional equivilant in destroyed squads.

The good news is that we have the ability to cycle wrecked units to Chengtu to rest, recover and take replacements, and the concentration of HQ's means that units recover quickly.

This is best illustrated by the AV of the two sides. Japanese AV fell to just under 5k after the brutal deliberate attack, but has since rapidly recovered to 5.6k AV. Chinese AV, on the other hand, is slowly draining away as the massive artillery bombardments inflict an average of 200 casualties a turn.

[center]
Chinese soldiers fighting in the rubble of Chungking. Despite being surrounded and subjected to huge artillery bombardments, they nevertheless inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese attackers.[/center]

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

I put out a little longer message in a post you can't see, so I thought I would give you some of the details without breaking opsec. Common sense stuff that needs to be done, you have probably thought of it all, but here goes:

1. Position your restricted air hqs, and stock them with torpedoes in the north. Build that airbase up (preferably two bases).

2. Break down units and defend the beaches. Build forts on beaches to level 1. Redistribute your AA units.

3. If you don't use mini-subs, this would be a place to put them and forget about them to help versus shore bombardments. Minefields are probably needed elsewhere.

4. Watch you training plane groups. Use the 4th Sentai with Nicks and forget using it for training purposes. Trained in air to air and low naval it can be nasty and effective for a long time. Convert it to Nicks in 1/3rds.

5. Air search is not enough, throw a few subs out as pickets and a couple of expendable pbs. SBDs can target industry from 12 hexes I think so that is the danger area.

#1 is well taken care off, we've plenty of size 4 bases, and more are still under construction.

#2 is the most pressing concern, seeing as I've engineers, but not many boots on the ground. A regiment is en-route from China to Paramushiro-jima, and there's some small IJA battalions that are being sent to be token garrisons on the smaller islands.

As for AA units, with Japan, you need to use them en-masse. Paramushiro-jima will likely get more than an AA regiment, and Bihoro will likely get some as well. Whatever I can buy from Manchuria on the cheap will go to the Kuriles because the unrestricted AA units are needed on the frontlines and the Home Islands AA will be needed for the late-war; Manchuria will be overwhelmed by the Soviets in 1945 regardless, so I may as well use their AA elsewhere.

#3 Mini-subs is an excellent idea, I'll start looking in to it.

#4 The unrestricted Nick groups are earmarked for the plane first, after them, the 4th Sentai will get some.

#5 Credit to Lokasenna, he slipped through the net very nicely. My PB picket ships and subs didn't spot him, and I doubt that will ever happen again.

[mind_messing]

May 2nd to May 4th, 1942

North Pacific

The positioning of reinforcements continues here. We're flying out a restricted Air Flotilla to Paramushiro-jima, leaving a big Air HQ at Bihoro. Even better, another big perma-restricted Air HQ, the 1st Air Army, is twenty days from arriving, and will complete the air defence nework in northern Honshu.

I'd have loved to have had these units about two weeks ago, as it would have made a defence of Hokkadio much easier, but ces't la guerre.

The upgrading of training units in mainland Japan is also underway. Some units are still stuck with Nates until Nick production ramps up, but we've enough Oscars and Zero's to make any raids a little more dangerous in future. It would have been nice to have them two weeks ago as well, but I'd seriously underestimated even the nominal military value of Nates and Claudes.

The KB remains at Yokohama while the destroyers upgrade thier AA armament, and are taking the time to resize Home Islands airgroups and train up. The KB should be operational by mid-May.

Central Pacific

The Nashville continues on it's pleasure cruise in the Central Pacific, dodging bombs from IJN torpedo bombers. I've moved a crusier surface combat group to Kawajalein just in case this is a early move by the Allies here. Tropedo equipped bombers are at Taibutiea, so the Allies might get burned if they come too close.

We're still sparse in terms of troops in this area. The Ichiki Detachment arrives in a short while, and if possible, I'll send them, along with some artillery and AA to garrison Taibutiea. This will bring the total AV on the island to something around 120 AV. Behind fortifications, and with AA and artillery (the main weaknesses of the SNLF's and Naval Guards) I'll feel comfortable in the lower Marshalls.

South-West Pacific

Quiet.

I've started to shift Air HQ's around to provide optimum coverage. Lugna will get a Air Flotilla, while Lae and Rabual will get an Air Division (bought from Manchuria) and a Air Fleet respectively. This will give us torpedo coverage over the vast majority of the region.

Austraila

The war of movement continues, but the big confrontation between the ABDA troops and the IJA divisions is fast approaching as three IJA divisions start to march into Katherine. We'll bombard to guage the Allied strength before deciding what to do

Elsewhere, battered ABDA troops are thrown out of Broome with the help of a Mixed Brigade, which will reload and head to Wyndham to support the thrust on Darwin.

Burma

I mess up, letting some Chinese units make a dash north to Bhamo, and thence to Myitkyina. From there, they can make India without any problems. No doubt they'll return to cause some problems eventually.

The Allies come back for more at Magwe, determined to shut down the oil production. The first wave, consisting of Hudsons, is slaughtered, though the repeated attacks by B-17s wears down the CAP. However, the concentration of AA in the hex forces Lokasenna to send his bombers in at over 25,000 ft, so only a single hit on the oil occurs. This should serve as a clear lesson to anyone wanting to beat the B-17: if you want to reduce the effectiveness of B-17s, mass your AA at likely targets.

The Akyab offensive, after a great deal of time spent staring at the map, resumes. The plan is to close all supply into Akyab by blocking both hexsides before starting a co-ordinated naval and air bombardment campaign to pound the defenders into dust.

During the process of bombardment, the IJA will be reinforced by the artillery and troops fresh from Bataan. Seeing as the Allied carriers are evidently commited to the Pacific theater and Western Austrailia, we'll be bringing the full might of the IJN to bear on Akyab.

Darwin is no longer as suitable a target for bombardment, so we'll be establishing two "Tokyo Express" lines into Akyab. The "Short haul line" will run from Rangoon to Akyab and consist of the IJN's heavy and light crusiers, while the "Long haul line" will run from Singapore to Akyab and deliver shells upwards of 36cm. The Yamato arrives shortly, so she'll be deployed here, as will all the slow IJN battleships.

China

Another attack on Chungking is planned within the week, as Japanese AV has nearly matched Chinese AV. After thirty thousand casualties at the last attack, my divisional commanders must think me a monster, but securing Chungking is a worthy goal. I dread to think of doing it all over again at Kunming (with a x3 terrain bonus instead of x2).

Some Chinese remants from the early 1942 battles appear to the east of Chungking, evidently looking to break the siege, but they've been caught by IJA armour and will be cut up next turn.

We continue to develop Chengtu to use as an airbase and as a rest center for the Chungking battles.

[center]
A Japanese Type 88 AA gun in a clearing outside Magwe. Along with fighters and radars, these guns were part of a trio that kept the Magwe oilfields intact.[/center]

[Lowpe]

What exactly is your AA commitment to Magwe? You never exactly mention.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

What exactly is your AA commitment to Magwe? You never exactly mention.

9 AA units in total.

1 AA regiment with 16x8cm guns and two radar sets. (The radar alone is worth the weight in gold.)
3 AA Gun Companies, with 6x8cm guns each
4 AA Field Battalions, with 12x8cm guns each

Total: 82 AA guns.

That's only counting the 8cm guns, seeing as the AAMG's aren't worth much at those altitudes. Combine this with Oscars on CAP, and you've a good recipe to keep B-17s away.

I'm slowly developing two smaller "flak traps" at Palambang and Rabaul.

There's a couple of other places I plan on concentrating AA at. Guam and Saipan seem prime bases, seeing as the Allies will need to bomb them eventually and I plan to move the most of the big Manchuko AA units (forget the AA Machinecannon unts, they've the nearly worthless 25mm) to somewhere between Hokkaido and Paramushiro-jima, but I've not decided where exactly yet.

Be aware, though: we've been using the updated scenario, which has some tweaks and fixes to AA.

[Lowpe]

Is there any use for the machine cannon units?

[mind_messing]

May 5th, 1942

North Pacific

The Skipjack attacks an unescorted xAKL making a supply run to one of the Kuriles, a cheap reminder that ASW aircraft are sparse in this area. Two small IJA 2-engined bomber squadrons are flown in to the region and will be operational within a few turns.

The Air HQ shuffle continues, with air transports ranging up and down the Kuriles. The 11th Air Flotilla is being flown out to Paramushiro-jima and the 51st Air Division to Bihoro. The 12th Air Flottila is sitting at Omitaro, and the 1st Air Army is due as a reinforcement in 18 days and together they'll provide torpedo coverage for Northern Honshu.

Central Pacific

This turn was spent organizing the defence of the Marshalls.

Several islands have Coastal Defences already built in. These are: Kwajalein, Wotje, Maloelap, Mili and Jaluit. Sadly, Kwajalein and Jaluit can't really be built up to hold effective airbases, so I'll be focusing my defences on those bases that can be turned into decent airbases.

The 11th Air Fleet (range 5) is in the process of being sent to Maloelap, where it can provide torpedos to the entirety of the Marshalls, bar Roi-Namur. To cover Roi-Namur, the 25th Air Flotilla (range 1) will be moved from Truk to Roi-Namur, and the base force at Roi-Namur sent to Manus, to provide a secondary base to support Rabual.

Not only will this set-up provide torpedos to every base in the Marshalls, but it ensures that the two biggest airbases (Roi-Namur and Maloelap) can hold the maximum number of aircraft.

On the ground, defences will be thinner, as stacking limits prevents any serious garrisons. Nevertheless, I have some hope that naval guards backed up by coastal defences behind level five or six forts will give a good account of themselves.

Depending on the pressure for assets elsewhere, there's the rough plan to develop Kusaie Island (it will be garrisoned regardless) into a support base for the Marshalls. As islands with no stacking limits are rare in this area of the map, we'll make getting something ashore here a priority.

South-West Pacific

Quiet, but there's an uneasy hum from the Allies in the New Hebrides and on New Caledonia. Noumea is a busy port, and the port at Luganville is being built up. If I can collect enough fighters and bombers, I might mount a few spoiling raids on Luganville in the next few weeks, but the extreme range and certainty of stiff opposition makes it a questionable venture.

Austrailia

Nothing new to report, other than that the Allies are developing Normanton, the only coastal base between Broome and Horn Island under Allied control. I'll recon the base to get some idea of what the Allies are doing here. If they've made a massive commitment of troops, it might suggest that they'll mount an overland campaign to recapture Austrailia.

Burma

Again, new to report, other than the bombing of the fleeing Chinese. At least two of them are corps, though they're extremely battered. Hopefully our armour can chase them down and force them to surrender before they escape to India to rebuild.

We're getting a little low on supply in Burma, so a big convoy has been sent from Tokyo in preparation for our coming offensive against Akyab.

China

The bulk of the Chungking "rescue force" is kicked around by IJA armour, but four battered units may just make it through to break the IJA ring of steel in Chungking. We'll do all we can to prevent this.

[center]
Coastal defences, air support and well-dug in naval infantry will all be combined to make any Allied attack on the Marshall Islands as costly as possible.[/center]

[ny59giants]

There is an empty dot base 2 SE of Kwajelien that has a AF 5 potential that begins with an "A" I think.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

There is an empty dot base 2 SE of Kwajelien that has a AF 5 potential that begins with an "A" I think.

You're right, thanks for pointing that out, I'd completely missed it.

Ailinglaplap is completely undeveloped though, and as a 0(0) port. Not worth the effort to build up, as far as I can see, but I'll get a Naval Guard, some mines and a ACM on it. Seeing as it's well-sheilded by the rest of the Marshalls chain, that should suffice.

[ny59giants]

Allied player look for those bases in Gilberts and Marshalls that have AF potential of 5 or greater (and elsewhere). Why?? B-17s can carry full load from them. [;)] I'll probably continue to lean towards th Allies, but playing both gives you a good perspective of what the other side looks for. Nemo inflicted me some expensive lessons. [:-] Some bases are more important to deny to the other side than for you. Port Moreseby is a classic case in point.

[mind_messing]

May 6th to May 7th, 1942

North Pacific

Nothing new to report, other than the constant flow of reinforcements from Japan to the Kuriles. Pamamushiro-jima has been built up to a level 4 airbase, with level 3 fortifications. Most of the engineers will be sent to build up Shimishuri-jima, and their billets taken by the AA crews and infantrymen that will form the core of the islands garrison.

The 1st Fleet Naval HQ is moving to Ominato, so that when this base reaches a size 7 port, it can rearm every weapon in the IJN's inventory in the event of fleet engagements in the Kuriles.

The KB's destroyers are still 15 days from finishing their upgrades. I'm using this time to resize all the IJN land-based groups to 81 planes using the Akagi. I doubt I'll have much need of 81 plane groups even if I fill them out with aircraft, but it's extra slots for training pilots and represents a massive expansion to the IJN's training program.

Central Pacific

The Nashville and company depart. I suspect this was Lokasenna testing our defences. I'm not sure how we performed.

As ny59giants kindly pointed out, I'd overlooked Ailinglaplap, which will get a Naval Guard and a minefield.

The garrison marked to Tabiutea, the 3rd Independent Mixed Brigade, is set to leave China by Hong Kong before May ends. It's at 25% strength following it's brutal shock attack into Chungking, and the veteran troops will no doubt welcome some rest on a tropical island.

Otherwise, the only thing stirring is the sound of Japanese engineers digging in furiously.

South-West Pacific

Quiet, thankfully. With our air defence network being repositioned and several key bases undeveloped, a respite here is to my advantage. A big convoy carrying the 17th Army and a host of support units arrives at Rabaul along with several thousand tonnes of supply, a welcome addition to the defences here.

Austrailia

Three IJA divisions enter Katherine. They'll rest a turn to recover supplies, while the artillery bombards to find out just what they're up against. Two more divisions are on the way, and a armoured regiment is heading to help close the hexsides.

Just north of Katherine, the 1st Tank Regiment routs an Austrailian coastal gun regiment and the NAOU boys. While victories are always welcomed, the 1st Tank Regiment is badly out of position, and Austrailian troops are marching from Fenton to engage them. The JAAF will bomb Fenton with every plane that will fly to enable the Japanese tankers to escape north-east.

Seeing as Darwin is garrisoned by only two units (one of which is a static CD unit), a tentative plan is forming to seize the base by a combined paratrooper and armoured attack. If the 1st Tank Regiment can outflank the Austrailians at Fenton, two IJN paratrooper units are availible to be dropped to support it, and combined with heavy air support, the combined force should be great enough to capture Darwin. Once Darwin is secured, a IJA infantry regiment is on standby to be landed to consolodate the capture.

A naval landing directly at Darwin is off the cards, seeing as I feel that exposing transports to 6-inch shellfire isn;t worth it. A secondary option is to land a IJA infantry regiment in the clear hex to the east of Darwin, but it's a non-base hex, and I think that the losses caused by landing in a non-base hex might make it a pointless venture.

The operation would normally only have moderate importance, but Darwin has a nice big airbase and port, and most importantly, it's where I plan to get all my units back out again, and as such, getting a hold of it as quick as possible is probably a good idea.

Burma

The British respond to the move by the IJA to cross the Kaladan River north of Akyab by appearing to pull out themselves, retreating up the coast road.

This could just be a few units moving a single hex to take advantage of the forced shock attack, or it could be a general withdrawal from Akyab. For the present, it's not important. The priority of the IJA is to fix the British and Indian units in place, allowing the IJN to conduct constant bombardment runs on them and as the only Allied ships spotted here for weeks have been the two (?) British submarines, it looks like the IJN will get a free hand to bombard.

In the north, it's likely that the Chinese are all but safe in India. We'll keep bombing them in the hope of catching them and forcing a surrender before they can escape.

The program of airstrip building in Burma is about a third complete. Magwe is a size 4 airbase, and Mandalay nearly at size 5. Now, Meiktila will be built up to a size 3 airbase to support the two and then the IJA engineers will start working back towards Rangoon, focusing only on bases connected to the rail network. The only real exception to this is Lashio, which will be built up to size 3 or 4 to provide coverage for Northern Burma and for to support raids on the Chinese mountain strongholds.

The forces fresh from the Philippines have started to embark from Manila, bound for Rangoon

China

Another deliberate attack at Chungking is ordered. This time, the results are much more equal:

Ground combat at Chungking (76,45)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 208669 troops, 2372 guns, 1494 vehicles, Assault Value = 6309

Defending force 241438 troops, 1145 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 6620

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 3

Japanese adjusted assault: 3361

Allied adjusted defense: 11607

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

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
18294 casualties reported
Squads: 78 destroyed, 2036 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 233 disabled
Engineers: 7 destroyed, 200 disabled
Guns lost 147 (3 destroyed, 144 disabled)
Vehicles lost 170 (5 destroyed, 165 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
7143 casualties reported
Squads: 158 destroyed, 512 disabled
Non Combat: 35 destroyed, 453 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Guns lost 23 (2 destroyed, 21 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

With the majority of squads disabled and losses much lesser than previous attacks, things bode well for the siege of Chungking. The apperence of the supply malus for the Chinese suggests to me that the hard part of the siege is over. With forts down to three and the Chinese having supply problems, seeing the Rising Sun flying over Chungking in 1942 is a real possibility.

I am disapointed in the absence of a leaders bonus for the Japanese. Considering how every division, corps, army and army group formation has a excellent leader in command, I've not seen the "+ leaders" bonus yet.

We'll grind on at Chungkingrad: knocking China out of the war is a worthy goal.

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A curious combination: Type 95 tanks and Imperial Japanese Navy paratroopers in a combined operation to capture a lightly garrisoned Darwin. Would the Austrailians let themselves be outflanked?[/center]