Castles in the Sand - Spidery(J) vs MrKane(A) no MrKane please

[Spidery]

With no bombers around you might want to do a daylight run for max effect.

Not willing to risk, he could have 4E on low attack, some PBY on naval attack, etc. If forces end up in the Buin hex they would be under enemy CAP and at risk.

However, how do you do daylight bombardments anyway - I couldn't work out how to achieve this when I was bombarding at Darwin?

[FeurerKrieg]

So far I'm 100% with daylight bombardment by doing the following:

* Mission Speed
* Remain at Station
* Start with bombardment TF at the high speed hexes distance +1. So if my TF speed says "7/4" then I start 8 hexes from target.

Has worked every time, with good effect. I don't currently have any air retaliation to worry about at the moment though. The first one should be coming up the next day or so when I get around to updating my AAR again.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

With no bombers around you might want to do a daylight run for max effect.

Not willing to risk, he could have 4E on low attack, some PBY on naval attack, etc. If forces end up in the Buin hex they would be under enemy CAP and at risk.

However, how do you do daylight bombardments anyway - I couldn't work out how to achieve this when I was bombarding at Darwin?

I have to agree with this line of thinking. If you get a good roll there isn't that much of a difference. But if your floats decide not to fly, well then...tough luck. Also if you hit a mine and are slowed down but still there that could be tough.

[Spidery]

May 9th 1943

Air Losses: 11 Japanese, 11 Allied, 5 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

Quiet

Solomons

There are more enemy SCTF and lots more PT boats at Buin than I expected so there are massive surface actions. Only three BB get through to try and bombard but they have so little ammo left they do no damage.

CA Kako hits two mines and is too slow to escape and sunk in the day combat after taking a torpedo hit and 54 shell hits. DD Uzuki hits a mine and succumbs in the same combat without taking any more damage.

CA Maya and DD Fumuziki were accompanying them and are only two ships that are not back near Rabaul.

Only Allied air strike was 4 Liberators on a night strike and the Rufes were able to disturb their aim and flak finished one off.

CA Houston is sunk by the Yamato[:)], CA Louisville is sunk by the Hyuga and others[:)].

DD Arunta, Norman, Barton, Monssen, Farenholt are all believed sunk[:)]. Also about 24 PT boats are sunk.

BB Nagato has 28/5/10/0 damage and lost some AA guns. With a refit due next month she will be in the yards anyway. None of the other BB took significant damage.

Cruisers took more damage with Furutaka, Maya, Mogami, and Tama in need of yard time. All fires are out and Tama is the worst damaged at 49/46/24.

12 Destroyers are in need of repairs, with Shinonome at 72/19/13 and 10 fires the worse but Sazanami at 61/21/21 with 24 fires also badly.

Liberators hit Rabaul port at night and put a bomb in a damaged PB being repaired. This shows that Rabaul can't be used as a repair yard except for emergencies.

If I can extract Maya and Fumuzuki and don't loose too many other ships to damage I'm counting this a win.

Burma

Sweep Kalemyo again, no defense and bomb it. Most of the bombers don't fly due to weather of 15 that attacked, 5 are lost to flak and they only damage a few planes.[:(]

Engineering

Quiet

R&D

Quiet

Reinforcements

SC CHa-17

[Spidery]

Two long lance hits scored, both on DD that were sunk.

Allies scored a hit on the crippled CA Kako. A PT boat scored a hit on BB Hyuga (a dud[:D]).

Torpedoes just seem too reduced in effectiveness by DBB.

[Spidery]

May 10th 1943

Air Losses: 3 Japanese, 10 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

I-6 sinks AKA Aquarius near Pearl Harbour.

I-21 sinks TK Miralda near Karachi.

Solomons

DD Shinonome is looking bad at 80/39/15 and 18 fires still burning. May need to scuttle. (I only save 1 VP by scuttling, I'll dock her at Rabaul and she may at least absorb a bomb from a Liberator.)

All other ships are back at safety and with fires out.

Liberators hit Rabaul at night again. The Endo detach attacks them but the night fighters seem to run out of ammo quickly. Each strike they damage one Liberator but none shot down.

Burma

Sweep Kalemyo again still no CAP. Send some OScars and Helens in to bomb at 30,000 feet. Destroy 8 fighters on the ground for one ops loss. Looks like I may be onto something, either he flies CAP or I bomb from high altitude with no aircraft and no AA interfering the pilots have a straight bombing run.

Engineering

Quiet

R&D

Quiet

Reinforcements

SC Ch 44, TK Meisen Maru (11,600 capacity), E Etoforu

[Spidery]

May 11th 1943

Air Losses: 75 Japanese, 54 Allied, 15 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

I-29 is damaged 19/53/0 in the Solomons and is heading back for repairs.

Solomons

Fires on Shinonome are extinguished at 87/31/16 damage with 49 days to fix what can be fixed at Rabaul. Not sure will be able to manage this without enemy action doing further damage.

Burma

Allies sweep and bomb Katha. The sweep starts with 36 Corsair and about 100 other fighters on LRCAP. The Liberators attack with good escorts but the defense do manage to get through to do some damage.

Losses for the day: 39 Ki-44-IIc (4 on ground), 17 Ki-43-IIb, 15 N1K1-J for 20 Hurricane IIc, 8 P-40K, 4 Hurricane IIb, 3 F4U-1, 12 Liberator II, 6 Liberator B-24D1. With the 4E double points that 1::1 on VP loss so a nice result. However, if he can hit Katha again the defense is weakened (but morale is good).

Engineering

Quiet

R&D

Ki-84a to 5/43 and enters production.

Reinforcements

SC CHa-25

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

May 11th 1943

Air Losses: 75 Japanese, 54 Allied, 15 Pilots

R&D

Ki-84a to 5/43 and enters production.

You are getting more active I see and congratulations on getting the 84a. Let us see how that plane stands up against the Corsair.

[Spidery]

May 12th 1943

Air Losses: 2 Japanese, 3 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

Quiet

Solomons

Something Allied sunk, no idea what. VP suggets about a DD size.

Seem to have poked a hornets' nest at Buin and no idea what is going on. Lots of task forces just North of Torokina but they all look like small stuff, I guess they could include landing barges. Few planes reported at either Torokina or Buin so doesn't look like a CAP trap. Shot down two Kingfisher straying over Rabaul so he may be moving BB or cruisers into the area.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Taihoku airfield to 8.

R&D

Quiet

Reinforcements

SC CHa-18

[Spidery]

May 13th 1943

Air Losses: 2 Japanese, 18 Allied, 2 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

Quiet

Solomons

I discover what the Allies were up to. He sends PT boats on a suicide mission to raid Rabaul.

Lost 5 Std-C Tankers containing valuable fuel and 2 Lima class AKE, 88 VP down the drain. The PT boats, that survive, seem to be out of fuel 1 hex SE of Rabaul. 29 PT boats sunk and another 10 that I should get tomorrow but still a loss. Good luck that I withdrew the AO, bad luck that I had just moved the AKE in to replace torpedoes on the cruisers.

N1K1-J sweep Torokina, 16 F4F-4 shot down for no losses. Odd bug occurs in that a pilot on the Shokaku becomes an Ace despite his group being grounded and miles from any combat.

Burma

Oscars bomb Ledo from 30,000 feet, damage a couple of planes.

Allies have withdrawn most planes from Kalemyo.

Engineering

Quiet

R&D

Ki-43-IV to 7/43, stop here and move over to researching something else (J7W1, Ki-83, P1Y2-S, ?). If I carried on to get it June I would have it about the 8th but I think I can afford to wait the extra three weeks.

Reinforcements

Quiet

[Lowpe]

Watch out for longer legged fletcher raids, too! Countering them is the challenge...

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Watch out for longer legged fletcher raids, too! Countering them is the challenge...

Yes he has done that before but it didn't work out too well for him.

[Spidery]

Sunk Ship Summary

As reported by Tracker. I make it 94 PT boats sunk so far. Historically, about 99 were lost throughout the war in all theatres. In this game, PT Boat crew is about the most dangerous posting around.

There are 9 PT boats sunk by 36cm shells and 2 by 40cm shells.

[Spidery]

May 14th 1943

Air Losses: 11 Japanese, 6 Allied, 4 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Monsoon starts on the 15th. Supply draw at Akyab has dropped to 450.

Subs

Quiet

Solomons

Surface forces finish off another 8 PT boats near Rabaul.

4E hit Rabaul at night. I supplemented Endo det with some Tojos hoping to keep the bombers from getting hits which cost a few planes. However, an ACM is sunk and DD Shinonome takes two more bomb hits and is now at 99 system damage. He does lose 3 4E bombers from flak and ops. Noticed that Endo Det is claiming its first kill.

Burma

Quiet

An Emily out of Port Blair spots a convoy at range 28 - that may confuse him!

Engineering

Quiet

R&D

Quiet

Reinforcements

Quiet

All dive bombers on the carriers are now D4Y1 or D4Y4.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

Monsoon starts on the 15th. Supply draw at Akyab has dropped to 450.

What was it before?

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Spidery

Monsoon starts on the 15th. Supply draw at Akyab has dropped to 450.

What was it before?

900

[Spidery]

May 15th 1943

Air Losses: 20 Japanese, 10 Allied, 7 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

I-7 sinks a small xAK (3000 tons) off Perth and is damaged in turn and will head back for repairs.

At Ponape, SS Gunnel is attacked and near misses damage some torpedo tubes.

Solomons

Quiet

Burma

Corsairs, aided by P-40K, sweep Katha. 3 F4U-1, 6 P-40K downed for 12 N1K1-J, 7 Ki-44-IIc, 1 Ki-43-IIb lost - not a good ratio.

Allies seem to have moved their airforce to Silchar.

Engineering

Dadjangas airfield to 4.

R&D

Quiet

Reinforcements

Quiet

First Ki-84a deploy into Burma but it will be a while before they are flying.

[Spidery]

May 16th 1943

Air Losses: 1 Japanese, 0 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Very Quiet

[Spidery]

May 17th 1943

Air Losses: 1 Japanese, 0 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Very Quiet

Subs

Lots of Allied subs spotted around the Marianas. Sub swarms have often been the prelude before an Allied attack.

Solomons

Quiet

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Guam forts to 6. Not sure whether to keep on to 7 or expand the airfield to 8. Expanding the airfield gives a strong defensive point but also gives him an airfield for free if he takes the Marianas.

Paoshan airfield to 4.

R&D

Ki-43-IIIa to 7/43 which is where it will stop at.

Mitsubishi Ha-43 to 12/43.

Reinforcements

Quiet

[mind_messing]

Guam forts to 6. Not sure whether to keep on to 7 or expand the airfield to 8. Expanding the airfield gives a strong defensive point but also gives him an airfield for free if he takes the Marianas.

Guam is the island you really want to make difficult in the Marianas.

Saipan and Tinian max out at airfield 7, but Guam maxes out at 8, giving it the important x2 aviation support bonus.

MrKane can make the airbase useless with heavy bombing, but the only way he's going to knock the forts down is if he lands and pays the price in attacking.