THE THREAD!!!

[nashvillen]

INP!!!! [8D][8D][8D][8D]

[Schanilec]

And good morning all.

[nashvillen]

Good Morning!

[USSAmerica]

Good Friday morning - Tithe. [&o][&o][&o]

[alaviner]

And another Friday Tithe [&o][&o] - See you tomorrow Mike

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: NCSUforest

And another Friday Tithe [&o][&o] - See you tomorrow Mike

Gonna be a blast, Andy! We should get to Benny's place around 1300. [8D]

[fodder]

Good Afternoon! [:)]

[fodder]

ORIGINAL: oldman45

It is a great day, I managed to survive 55 years.

Happy B-day, a day late, but still.

[nashvillen]

Leaving work in 20 min for the day. Going to playtest another GTS game "The Greatest Day: Sword-Juno-Gold" this weekend with a group here in Nashville. Watch the FB site for the series or search for the hashtag #swordjunogold for reports on the progress.

I will leave the INP watch to others that are just as capable as I... [;)]

[alaviner]

ORIGINAL: USS America

ORIGINAL: NCSUforest

And another Friday Tithe [&o][&o] - See you tomorrow Mike

Gonna be a blast, Andy! We should get to Benny's place around 1300. [8D]

I should be there about the same time[8D][8D]

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: USS America

ORIGINAL: NCSUforest

And another Friday Tithe [&o][&o] - See you tomorrow Mike

Gonna be a blast, Andy! We should get to Benny's place around 1300. [8D]

Hey you two...pictures or it didn't happen. [;)]

[DuckofTindalos]

Welp, its 1/3/44 and I now have five divisions ashore on New Caledonia and have secured Noumea. Repairing and stocking supplies there while my troops begin the slog north to La Foa and then Koumac.

The carrier battle was hectic, but I won it. He came with his Death Star, and unlike last time, all my flight decks were in one hex. He sank the Nassau by air attack, and I had to scuttle the Blue Ridge after she ate several bombs. The Kitkun Bay was badly damaged by air attack and unfortunately sunk by submarine whilst trying to reach Sydney.

The Idaho and a few smaller vessels are on the way back to CONUS for repairs after heavy damage, while the Langley is tied up at Suva for necessary repairs after a submarine torpedo hit her on the same day my task forces left Fiji. She stood her watch in the line through the whole battle, though.

On his side, I have confirmed a CA, 2 CL, a couple of DDs, and 15 SS sunk in the last two weeks. I know I landed bomb strikes on at least 5 of his flat tops, and left all five of them burning, but no sinkings confirmed.

The most important bit was the air battle. He's accelerated his aircraft to field A6M8, D4Y4 and B6N2, but my pilots don't seem to be scared of them any more. During my first strike against his carriers, he fielded nearly 200 A6Ms on the CAP. On the last one, it was around 30. His dive bombers and torpedo planes were equally savaged (but to be fair, my CAGs didn't look too good either). I can replace my losses, though.

My newest Hellcat squadron (on the Intrepid) went from 0 to 128 kills in three days.

I think, and hope, that this broke the qualitative edge of the Kido Butai. I think the decisive carrier battle will come in late summer, early fall. That'll be when I attack Saipan/Tinian/Guam to secure B-29 bases. Until then, more shenanigans in the South, and the loooooooooooooooong overdue reconquest of Ceylon.

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: USS America

ORIGINAL: NCSUforest

And another Friday Tithe [&o][&o] - See you tomorrow Mike

Gonna be a blast, Andy! We should get to Benny's place around 1300. [8D]

Hey you two...pictures or it didn't happen. [;)]

Speaking of which..... Hey Steve, where are our pictures from last weekend??? [:D]

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Welp, its 1/3/44 and I now have five divisions ashore on New Caledonia and have secured Noumea. Repairing and stocking supplies there while my troops begin the slog north to La Foa and then Koumac.

The carrier battle was hectic, but I won it. He came with his Death Star, and unlike last time, all my flight decks were in one hex. He sank the Nassau by air attack, and I had to scuttle the Blue Ridge after she ate several bombs. The Kitkun Bay was badly damaged by air attack and unfortunately sunk by submarine whilst trying to reach Sydney.

The Idaho and a few smaller vessels are on the way back to CONUS for repairs after heavy damage, while the Langley is tied up at Suva for necessary repairs after a submarine torpedo hit her on the same day my task forces left Fiji. She stood her watch in the line through the whole battle, though.

On his side, I have confirmed a CA, 2 CL, a couple of DDs, and 15 SS sunk in the last two weeks. I know I landed bomb strikes on at least 5 of his flat tops, and left all five of them burning, but no sinkings confirmed.

The most important bit was the air battle. He's accelerated his aircraft to field A6M8, D4Y4 and B6N2, but my pilots don't seem to be scared of them any more. During my first strike against his carriers, he fielded nearly 200 A6Ms on the CAP. On the last one, it was around 30. His dive bombers and torpedo planes were equally savaged (but to be fair, my CAGs didn't look too good either). I can replace my losses, though.

My newest Hellcat squadron (on the Intrepid) went from 0 to 128 kills in three days.

I think, and hope, that this broke the qualitative edge of the Kido Butai. I think the decisive carrier battle will come in late summer, early fall. That'll be when I attack Saipan/Tinian/Guam to secure B-29 bases. Until then, more shenanigans in the South, and the loooooooooooooooong overdue reconquest of Ceylon.

Well done, T!

You forced him to fight on your terms, and it looks like you will have surely dulled the edge of his sword, if it didn't quite break in half yet. His pilot losses will likely be harder to replace than his planes, but there are a finite number of ships available to the penguin forces. Keep on sinking them! Might it be worth trying to pursue his naval forces to see if you can bag a few more or finish off a flattop or two?

[AW1Steve]

Photographic evidence that the July 2014 North Carolina summit DID occur. [:D]
AW1Steve , Chickenboy ,USS America , and the barbarian beer monster (AKA Historiker). Yes I know it's BARVARIAN beer monster , but the dude seriously dissed my IPA. THAT alone will get him classed as a BARBARIAN in my book![:D]

[AW1Steve]

ORIGINAL: USS America

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: USS America





Gonna be a blast, Andy! We should get to Benny's place around 1300. [8D]

Hey you two...pictures or it didn't happen. [;)]

Speaking of which..... Hey Steve, where are our pictures from last weekend??? [:D]

My spouse took 2 group shots of us , (one of which was blurred) and about 50 of your cats. [:D]

[DuckofTindalos]

ORIGINAL: USS America

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Welp, its 1/3/44 and I now have five divisions ashore on New Caledonia and have secured Noumea. Repairing and stocking supplies there while my troops begin the slog north to La Foa and then Koumac.

The carrier battle was hectic, but I won it. He came with his Death Star, and unlike last time, all my flight decks were in one hex. He sank the Nassau by air attack, and I had to scuttle the Blue Ridge after she ate several bombs. The Kitkun Bay was badly damaged by air attack and unfortunately sunk by submarine whilst trying to reach Sydney.

The Idaho and a few smaller vessels are on the way back to CONUS for repairs after heavy damage, while the Langley is tied up at Suva for necessary repairs after a submarine torpedo hit her on the same day my task forces left Fiji. She stood her watch in the line through the whole battle, though.

On his side, I have confirmed a CA, 2 CL, a couple of DDs, and 15 SS sunk in the last two weeks. I know I landed bomb strikes on at least 5 of his flat tops, and left all five of them burning, but no sinkings confirmed.

The most important bit was the air battle. He's accelerated his aircraft to field A6M8, D4Y4 and B6N2, but my pilots don't seem to be scared of them any more. During my first strike against his carriers, he fielded nearly 200 A6Ms on the CAP. On the last one, it was around 30. His dive bombers and torpedo planes were equally savaged (but to be fair, my CAGs didn't look too good either). I can replace my losses, though.

My newest Hellcat squadron (on the Intrepid) went from 0 to 128 kills in three days.

I think, and hope, that this broke the qualitative edge of the Kido Butai. I think the decisive carrier battle will come in late summer, early fall. That'll be when I attack Saipan/Tinian/Guam to secure B-29 bases. Until then, more shenanigans in the South, and the loooooooooooooooong overdue reconquest of Ceylon.

Well done, T!

You forced him to fight on your terms, and it looks like you will have surely dulled the edge of his sword, if it didn't quite break in half yet. His pilot losses will likely be harder to replace than his planes, but there are a finite number of ships available to the penguin forces. Keep on sinking them! Might it be worth trying to pursue his naval forces to see if you can bag a few more or finish off a flattop or two?

Couldn't. My CAG's were savaged. Spruance's flagship Bunker Hill had 20 F6F, 2 SB2C and 1 TBM. And she was symptomatic of the rest of them.

But I was quite happy with the result. On the day before the carrier battle, Kido Butai was hit by LBAs from Luganville, Efate, Tanna and Suva. Took away some of his fighters, landed a few bomb hits and even got in a 75mm hit or two from strafing B-25Hs.

Last turn, I marched four divisions with heavy engineer, armour and artillery support up to his line at La Foa. He has about 14000 Penguins there, that were evicted from Noumea. Shouldn't take long.

I think he's trying to reinforce Koumac, but I have ships, subs and air enroute to interdict. There's about 50000 IJ there at the moment.

[DuckofTindalos]

Also, I misread the Intrepid's Hellcat score. It was the more established VF on the Bunker Hill that topped out at 127 kills, and this was her second big carrier clash. Still, Intrepid's boys got about 25 in their first outing, which isn't bad for noobs. The Iowa and New Jersey were also there, with all those many, many AA guns...[8D]

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Welp, its 1/3/44 and I now have five divisions ashore on New Caledonia and have secured Noumea. Repairing and stocking supplies there while my troops begin the slog north to La Foa and then Koumac.

The carrier battle was hectic, but I won it. He came with his Death Star, and unlike last time, all my flight decks were in one hex. He sank the Nassau by air attack, and I had to scuttle the Blue Ridge after she ate several bombs. The Kitkun Bay was badly damaged by air attack and unfortunately sunk by submarine whilst trying to reach Sydney.

The Idaho and a few smaller vessels are on the way back to CONUS for repairs after heavy damage, while the Langley is tied up at Suva for necessary repairs after a submarine torpedo hit her on the same day my task forces left Fiji. She stood her watch in the line through the whole battle, though.

On his side, I have confirmed a CA, 2 CL, a couple of DDs, and 15 SS sunk in the last two weeks. I know I landed bomb strikes on at least 5 of his flat tops, and left all five of them burning, but no sinkings confirmed.

The most important bit was the air battle. He's accelerated his aircraft to field A6M8, D4Y4 and B6N2, but my pilots don't seem to be scared of them any more. During my first strike against his carriers, he fielded nearly 200 A6Ms on the CAP. On the last one, it was around 30. His dive bombers and torpedo planes were equally savaged (but to be fair, my CAGs didn't look too good either). I can replace my losses, though.

My newest Hellcat squadron (on the Intrepid) went from 0 to 128 kills in three days.

I think, and hope, that this broke the qualitative edge of the Kido Butai. I think the decisive carrier battle will come in late summer, early fall. That'll be when I attack Saipan/Tinian/Guam to secure B-29 bases. Until then, more shenanigans in the South, and the loooooooooooooooong overdue reconquest of Ceylon.

Dunno, Terminus. If you haven't had a series of major engagemnents with his CV airforces, he could have trained up / cycled out 2-3 times the population of his airgroups by this comparatively late juncture. Realistically, I would expect most of his air strength to be renewed within 2-3 weeks.

You've got to keep hitting and hitting and hitting for him to run through his carrier pilots. IMO one or two big engagements a year or so apart is insufficient to throttle his carrier 'training pool'.

Good job on the reconquest of New Caledonia. Big Arry Burry! [:@]

[DuckofTindalos]

Your point is valid, but I'm quietly optimistic. He has accelerated both carriers and aircraft to the stops, while I am only going to get more carriers and better planes. All of these air-to-air kills were achieved by F6F-3 and FM-1 and -2. I still have more powerful Hellcats and carrier-capable Corsairs waiting in the wings.