I lost track of the AO/TK convoy. Too bad. But, I can see 4 other convoys south of Lord Howe Island and off the SE tip of Australia. At the second location, I sank an xAK. I have quite a few subs in those areas trying to catch some of the convoys. We'll see tomorrow how well I fare.
5 Fleet
My ambush of Ted's planes that have been bombing Adak was a smashing success! I had 99 A6M3as from KB2 LRCAP Adak with KB1's fighters protecting KB2, just in case. There were 36 Zeros over Adak when the first Allied strike of 3x B-24Ds, 14x A-29s and 13x SBDs arrived. Only one B-24 survived to tell the tale! There were no Japanese losses! Banzai!!!
The second raid of 4x B-24Ds, 8x B-26s and 6x B-26Bs fared better. Only 8 Zeros were initially in the air at the start of the battle (many left low on fuel and ammo from the previous battle), with another 20 trickling in over the course of the battle. Four B-26s and 3x B-26Bs were shot down for the loss of one Zuikaku plane and pilot.
Overall, 36 Allied planes (of a possible 48) were shot down for the loss of 4 Zeros and 2 pilots. A second Zuikaku pilot was lost when his plane crashed on the way home and a Shokaku and Soryu Zero were op losses, with a Soryu pilot WIA. Four pilots reached that important elite status. That was fun! [:D]
KB2 is heading to Truk. It'll arrive in 6-7 days where the A6M3as will upgrade to A6M5s and the fleet overall will repair and replenish. KB1 is still going to hang out and maybe ambush the remaining planes if Ted continues to bomb there.
4 Fleet
[>:]
SE Fleet
Same old bombing of Milne Bay for no loss on either side.
He sent 17 B-17s to hit Shortland Island again. He lost 2x B-17s for a loss of 2 Tojos and their pilots. The airfield isn't looking very good.
SRA
[>:]
Burma
None of my bombers hit Chittagong, but they did hit Cox's Bazaar. Ted still has ~40 fighters stationed at Chittagong and there isn't much airfield damage any more, but he's still not flying.
4
Well, I goofed here. [8|] The Oscar IIc has a normal range of 6 hexes, 8 hexes with drop tanks. My airfield is 7 hexes away. The question I have is: if the Oscar IIc has a strafe mission with drop tanks, will it carry 2x 250kg or 2x 30kg bombs (or no bombs)? If it is the smaller bombs, I will need to get an airfield closer to the target. At any rate, I didn’t execute my strafing attack of the Chinese air force. Too bad.
The answer is no bombs with drop tanks. You can check this by enabling drop tanks, and then clicking aircraft data link.
Ahh, thanks. Not what I wanted to hear, but that's what I figured. Since that was worst case & the most likely case, I had started a push to take a base within normal range of an Oscar Iic. I forgot to mention it above but I attacked a Chinese army in the clear hex just SW of Ichang. I had a hefty army sitting in the hex with a lot of artillery and had been bombing and shelling the Chinese for over a month. I easily pushed them out. Losses were 7807 (1782) Chinese to 2847 (5) Japanese. I'll chase them to the next base and then take it.
I should qualify my answer in that it depends upon the airframe, where the bombs are and where the drop tanks are. So you might be able to use drop tanks and bombs with other planes.
Fertile hunting grounds still exist to the west of Australia along the US SLOC running east-west to the south of Lord Howe Island. The I-169 and I-171 each found and sank an xAK. Sure, Ted has hundreds (or more) of them, but who knows what they’re carrying. I’ll take anything I can get.
5 Fleet
Well, Ted dumped a some replacement aircraft into those half dozen squadrons bombing Adak. I will probably hit them again with KB1 soon and then skedaddle with them. Ted has got to know who hit him the other day. If he has any subs in the area, I’m sure he’s sending them. It was really nice experience the pilots got from that attack. I wouldn’t mind doing it again with my other 3 carriers.
Anyway, here is what hit Adak today:
First Attack:
2x A-29
6x B-24D
3x SBD
Second Attack:
6x B-26
2x B-26B
There weren’t as many aircraft, but getting more KB fighter pilot experience is always a good thing.
4 Fleet
Nothing exciting. Actually, nothing at all except resupply and fort building.
SE Fleet
Ted hit Lae, Milne Bay and Shortland Island again today. Not much damage ensued and no Allied planes were lost in the first two raids.
The raid over Shortland Island was composed of an even dozen B-17s. Fourteen Tojos opposed them and successfully fended off the raid shooting down 4 of the evil bombers at a cost of 2 fighters and 1 pilot. No additional damage was done to the airfield. It’s still open (barely). It’s exciting to see that Tojos can shoot down enemy 4E bombers. The B-17E/F models are both out of production. Every plane I shoot down reduces forever the number of those models I have to experience. In the last 3 days I’ve shot down or destroyed on the ground 12 of the monsters. Yeah, I know, the B-24s are still arriving and the flood gates open with those guys in a couple months. Let me enjoy my little victories while I can.
I got lucky with a night raid over Pt. Moresby. Nineteen Helens hit the airfield causing a little damage as well as supply loss, and they also killed 2 bombers and damaged another 20 planes on the ground. Again, in the grand scheme of things, this is meaningless, but it will keep his focus on Gasmata and Rabaul instead of more important places. I’ll be happy if he decides to keep most of his 4E bombers in this theater for the next year or so. (Yeah, I know, wishful thinking.)
SRA
Nothing of note.
Burma
Well, Akyab’s airfield and port are both 100% damaged. I see movement up the road out of Akyab and I suspect it’s the whole garrison because there aren’t any engineers in combat mode since no repairs are taking place. (It may be because there isn’t any supply there either. Not sure which is the case.) They’re headed to reinforce the army up the road 1 hex that is stalemated with my main army. I suspect they’re pretty much out of supply and in pretty bad shape so I don’t expect them to help out much. At any rate, I expect to gain Akyab. If I do, I’ll fly in an infantry regiment and some support for starters. Then I’ll put some fighters there and use all the transports I have sitting around doing next to nothing to fly supply in. The 8 Division is enroute by sea and will arrive in ~10 days or so. They are prepping for Akyab and will become the garrison, for the time being. I’ll play it by ear.
My Helens hit Cox’s Bazaar (9 sorties) bringing the airfield damage to 74% and 34 sorties hit Chittagong damaging a handful of fighters on the ground. I see only 5% airfield damage there and ~40 enemy fighters at the airfield. None flew. I’ll keep pounding both Chittagong (main priority) and Cox’s Bazaar with my nightly Helen raids. When they fly, they do ok, at the very least, and occasionally do well.
I fly a chutai of Oscar Ic fighters daily over Akyab. Today, 8 of them flew and met 6 Hurricane IIcs. Each side lost 2 shot down with 1 Japanese OP loss and 2 Allied OP losses. I have 2 chutai in Burma flying the Ic. Today I upgraded one to the IIa and the other to the Tojo. I still have some in SE Fleet AO. They are next on the upgrade agenda. The only other place I have the Ic is in China (all but the strafe sentai) and a few in the SRA. Eventually, China will become the only active AO with the Ic and eventually (as production allows) the Ic will be relegated exclusively to training. I’m almost out of Nates, so it’ll be a necessity eventually, but not for a while.
Finally, Ted’s bombers didn’t hit my lone division today. Not sure why. Maybe he’s resting them to hit my main army in conjunction with a ground attack? Not sure. Anyway, I’m looking for more reinforcements to put into Burma for the future. It’ll be awhile though, because I need to make a reserve for 4 Fleet (division sized) and start building up my defenses in the SRA.
I have 6 Air Division headed to Burma as well. That’ll give me enough AS to have the ability to move sentai around and have excess at some air bases. Right now I don’t have any excess so all I can really do is to switch out units. No max effort ability but this will change that.
China
I hit the 2 remaining Chinese corps located 1 hex SW of Ichang with a full army. I pushed them out after trashing them. Losses were 462(0) Japanese to 7807(1782) Chinese. I’m now moving down the road toward the next base. It’ll be a river assault so I’m keeping fingers crossed that I don’t take too much damage then. The base is 2 hexes away so I hope Ted keeps the trashed army (2 HQ & 11 corps) on my side of the river so I can hit them again before the river crossing. I need to take the next base and the one after that in order to have an airfield within normal Oscar IIa range of his air force.
The 3 Tank Division is taking on more replacements. I’m going to send them north to take out the towns up there including the one with oil. (Can’t remember the name of it right now.) I’ve heard that the oil doesn’t flow, but I’ll take it on the chance that some of it flows. At the very worst, it keeps that oil out of his hands.
Other Stuff
I got confirmation of an xAK sinking off Pt. Moresby on 7/24/42.
Not much else of note to report. I will make another comment soon. Note that this is 6 Dec 42. The way I determine the date is the date showing when the replay is run. So, it actually ran on 6 Dec, but the numbers I retrieve are for 7 Dec, the 1 year anniversary. So, this really is the 1 year anniversary of the Empire of Imperial Japan being force into a war we didn’t want because of the Capitalist Allies. (Must be an International Date Line thing.)
Ok, this is the 1 year anniversary of the war. So how do things look for me? Bleak? Nope, not yet, but there are definitely issues that I need to address or I’m going to be in a world of hurt. Some of the issues are beyond my ability to rectify. First I’ll discuss each AO then the important items. (This is probably going to be long.)
5 Fleet
In my high point I took Dutch Harbor. I never did take Unmak Island, which proved to be a thorn in my side. At this point I control Adak, the base to the east, and everything to the west. Adak is the only base with troops on it. I never had the air assets to protect anything. My total air assets right now are 2 Emily units. One is a 2 plane element providing naval search from Paramushiro-Jima to just beyond Adak and the other is a 9 plane chutai feebly attempting to keep Adak in supply. (Visions of Stalingrad keep coming to mind.) I currently have no troops in Attu. I’m sending an AS unit to build the airfield to level 2, then forts. I’ll move the 27 plane Tina daitai there to assist with supply movement. I’m going to try to send another xAKL with supply on a suicide mission, but so far they’ve all been suicide missions. Adak is barely holding its own, but the constant air attack is preventing any progress. I have 2x Naval Guard units there, plus a smattering of other stuff, but it’s not enough to defend against much. I have the I-124 sitting a few hexes out just waiting for an invasion so she can dump her mines just before the invasion arrives, hopefully. Still no sign of an invasion though.
Once KB1 leaves, the only naval assets I’ll have there are about a dozen subs. This AO isn’t very important, but I hope to have it distract Ted and keep his attention away from other more important areas.
4 Fleet
Absolutely no Allied interference is happening here. I am free to build up my defenses. Every base that is deemed to be remotely capable to the Allies has a Naval Guard on it. I also have a number of engineers building forts on those islands. Should Ted attempt to take any of them, they should beat up the ground troops a bit. I’m building level 6 forts everywhere and level 7 forts (for now) in the Marianas. The goal (supply permitting) is to get them to level 9. I’m also dumping troops there as I can. I know he’ll need at least 1 base there. He’s going to have to work to take it.
I currently have 12 Glen, 1 Fleet and 5 midget carryings subs here and the 24 Air Flotilla. I get ~5 more subs within a month and they will go mainly here. They are used for duty in the Central Pacific along the SLOCs I’ve found as well as picket duty for early warning against a raid from Hawaii. The 24 Air Flotilla is scouting and training. No combat at all.
SE Fleet
Like the 5 Fleet AO, I’m trying to keep his attention here as long as possible. This area is really meaningless to Ted, so I want him to expend forces here. I’ll keep my air force here as long as I can kill his fighters and bombers economically. So far, it’s working. I have the IJAAF 5 Air Division and IJNAF 23 Air Flotilla stationed here. The Zeros are almost all the A6M2, which I am not using. They are just CAP over Gasmata and Rabaul. I need better fighters for the IJNAF. I have 4 sentai of Helens and Sallys either training at Rabaul (1 sentai) or flying from Hollandia (1 sentai) or Rabaul (2 sentai). Why is one training, you ask? Lack of AS. I get the 25 Base Force in a week, and it’s coming down here. That should rectify that situation.
The 23 Air Flotilla has 2 daitai of Betties, 36 and 45 planes. They have scouting and naval attack duties. I can’t let them fly as far as Pt. Moresby or they will get decimated by Allied fighters stationed there. They are protecting my inner bases in the region.
One of the chinks in my armor is at Pt. Moresby. I can’t prevent Ted from supplying the base but Ted doesn’t have the fighter strength to oppose me over Gasmata. Stalemate right now.
Ted took Buna a while ago, but hasn’t moved any farther. I pulled out most of my support units from Lae and the surrounding bases I still control. He could easily take them, but apparently thinks he doesn’t have the strength to go after them. That’s fine with me.
He has been bombing Milne bay for months. The port there is trashed, but the troops aren’t in too bad shape. I have a portion of an AS bn and a SNLF co. That’s it. I think he’s reluctant to actually take it because it’s covered by my fighters and Betties. If he came by sea, it would probably be expensive in ships and troops lost.
SRA
I had hoped to control northern Australia until the end of this year. I control only Pt. Hedland (no troops there) and the dot hex to the south. He’s recaptured everything else, but not much seems to be happening there. I have substantial naval resources close to this area. Davao is home to the Combined Fleet and KB. The Combined Fleet has 8 BB, 8 CA, 3 CL and 16 DD. In addition, there are 6 fleet and 2 Glen subs assigned. The subs are currently attached to the 5 Fleet area, but they should return by the end of the month.
KB, when there, has:
Akagi
Kaga
Soryu
Ryujo
Shokaku
Zuikaku
Aircraft totals: 201 Zeros, 90 Vals, 135 Kates
MKB has:
Junyo
Hiyo
Zuiho
Shoho
Hosho
Taiyo
Unyo
Aircraft totals: 120 Zeros, 81 Vals, 60 Kates
Their escorts are 4 BB, 2 CA, 5 CL, 32 DD. The escorts are assigned by mission.
Second Fleet is located at Singapore and can support either the SRA or Burma. It is composed of 3 CA, 1 CL, 16 DD, 5 fleet subs, 2 Glen subs and 2 coastal subs. The subs are split between the IO and the SRA.
My second chink in my armor is here, at Merauke, on the southern coast of New Guinea. He has about a dozen (that’s a guess) S class and Dutch subs here. I have tried twice to invade without success. I’m not sure what to do here. I keep several subs in the area to keep an eye on things and have recon and naval search out of Hollandia and the islands in the southern SRA, but he has a couple dozen fighters stationed here, more than I can tackle without heavy losses. Something is going to explode out of here. I don’t know what or when, but it’ll happen.
Fortunately, Ted is keeping his 4E bombers in the SE Fleet area (and a few in Burma) but there have been no bombing attempts against any of my oil fields in the Southern SRA. I’m happily keeping those fields drained as best as possible. The more I can get to Japan the longer I’ll be able to sustain the war effort.
Burma
I’ve poured a lot of supply and units into this theater, and it’s paid off so far. I have Ted’s army bottled up along the coast between Akyab and Cox’s Bazaar. Unfortunately, most of my army is stuck too, but it is in supply. He still outnumbers me, but my troops are superior to his. I also have my Panzer Corps (1 & 2 Tank divisions – that’s a joke) here but they are bottled up with my main army. I have the equivalent of 2-3 divisions guarding the border with 8 Division enroute. I hate having such a large army there, but I know I’ll need it. I keep sending supply there. So far, it’s working. Last monsoon, my supply got all screwed up and I wasn’t able to do anything. I hope there’s enough supply in this AO when the monsoon hits that I’ll be able to sustain limited ops. I want to extract my army, even though that means it’ll free up Ted’s army. I need a defensive line with my Panzers in reserve to counterattack (actually cut off) any Allied invading army. If I can do this just before the monsoon hits, I’m confident I’ll be safe through the monsoon season.
The majority of the IJAAF 3 Air Division is located here. It’s been reinforced pretty significantly (for the Japanese at any rate). Off the top of my head, there are ~5-6 fighter sentai and ~5 bomber sentai. I can rotate the fighters and replenish them at will and keep the RAF off balance. Ted’s problem is that he has to station his fighters at Chittagong or closer to be able to contest me, and I can reach out to Chittagong in numbers to keep whittling him down. I also have significant IJAAF pilot reserves so I can sustain this for a long time. Most of my fighter sentai have very experienced pilots. I keep 2 elite pilots per fighter sentai and pull the rest out. I should have a very nice supply of elite fighter pilots when I need them in late war.
The IJNAF 22 Air Flotilla is located at Pt. Blair. Actually, 1 of 2 fighter daitai and 1 of 2 Betty daitai are there so I can swap them out as needed. So far it hasn’t been needed. The water to the north is extremely hazardous to Allied shipping, between these planes and a few subs. I have an infantry brigade defending Pt. Blair. At some point in the next few months, I’d like to add more defenses. As long as I can keep this base healthy and full of planes, I’ll be in good shape.
China
Ted hates this AO, even more than me. He’s lost a lot of units here. Granted, they come back at 1/3 strength, but they’re experience has got to really suck. I currently have ~30 units surrounded in the central part of the country. Twenty-four are in a base, and the remaining units are scattered around. I’ve got them ringed in and am slowly pushing them all to the base. I’ll then surround them and let them die on the vine. I won’t hurry it though. I don’t want them to return any time soon. As long as feasible, I’ll keep pounding here to kill infantry squads, which will slow down the inevitable build-up of Chinese forces. The longer I can hold off the Chinese counterattack, the better. I keep building up the forts everywhere. It really doesn’t take a lot of supply, about 50-100k from Japan a month.
Japan
Most of my port and airfield improvements are complete. I’m building forts everywhere now. My goal is level 6 forts everywhere. Yeah, that’s a lot of supply, but better safe than sorry and my supply situation is pretty good as discussed below.
Economics
Below is a chart of most of the stats I track. You can see how things have fluctuated over the past year. Note that I don’t have my fuel/supply/oil/resource stats for Japan handy. That’ll come later.
Supply: I finally exceeded my starting supply. I’m confident that, until Japan is blockaded, my supply situation will be good.
Fuel: My fuel dipped below 2.6kk briefly in Apr 42. Since then, it’s been rising albeit slowly. I’m looking for ways to cut use, but I don’t expect it to be significant. We’ll see how this goes.
Manpower: No issues.
Heavy Industry: As I take a few more Chinese bases, I may get a little bit more HI. My goal was 7500 so I’m good with whatever I capture undamaged. I probably won’t repair any more. The HI points have been a real success story of late. My goal was to increase the pool by 100k per month. When I set the goals up, the annual goals were 700k by the end of 42, 1.9kk in 43, 3.1kk in 44. I’m already at 885k with most of the month to go. I hope to hit 1kk by the end of Dec 42. I’m pleased with this.
LI: No issues.
Refineries: No issues.
Resources: I had no idea my resources would reach such highs. I’m still moving as much as possible to Japan. There will come a time when I’ll need it.
Oil: Frankly, I’m surprised the oil reserves are holding out as well as they are. I’m shipping it to Japan as quickly as possible. It’s immune to bombing, so it’s a nice way to store future fuel.
Naval Shipyards: I increased them to 1501 (can’t count – 1500 was the goal) first thing. That has worked well. Right now I have 5 CVs, 1 CVL and 3 DDs accelerated. I’d accelerate more DDs but none are within the window. I recently got the Musashi, so that freed up 233 points for the 5th CV. The Shinano is still halted. Not sure if I’ll ever restart her. I also shut off the transport subs
Merchant Shipyards: I accelerated 8 of the 11.6k fast TKs early on. Nothing is accelerated, nor will anything likely be accelerated in the future. I never increased merchant shipyards. I don’t see a reason to increase them. I shut off the xAKLs, tiny CVEs and small TKs. Life is good here.
Repair Shipyards: I increased a few repair yards to have a couple of large ones. Kobe, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong. I haven’t needed all of the capacity so far.
Armaments: I kept them at 620 and kept them all on until I reached 100k in the pool. Then I shut off 500. You can see where that happened. It’s been steady since then. I’ll turn some/all back on when the pool drops below 90k and leave them on until I break 100k again.
Vehicles: I increased them from 72 to 150 at the start of the war. My goal was 10k. You can see where it dropped. That was when the 1 & 2 Tank Divisions arrived. I let it build back up to 11k and the 3 Tank Division arrived dropping it to ~7k. I’m letting it build back up. When it reaches 10k again, I’ll upgrade the tank regiments, 1 at a time. Once all that can be upgraded are upgraded, I’ll build it back to 10k and then turn off ~100 factories.
Pilot Pools: I started my training program when the war started. IJN fighter pilot pools were nonexistent for the first several months. I finally got them built up and now they’re fine. I’ve actually upped the requirement for pulling pilots out of training because I started to run low on my general pilot pool. That seems to have stabilized now. My fighter pilots (both branches) are not pulled until they achieve 50+ experience and 73+ air rating. That’ll dip when my air losses increase, but right now they’re good.
TRACOM: I put pilots in here whenever possible and pull them out only when a new frontline fighter unit arrives that doesn’t have an elite pilot. My goal (achieved) is to have 2 elite pilots per fighter sentai/daitai and 1 elite pilot per fighter chutai. No other types of air units have elite pilots. Whenever they happen to get one, I pull it into TRACOM. KB/MKB’s fighter units have more than 2 elite pilots per unit. I usually keep it at ~4 per. Any higher than that, and I pull the extras out. Every now and then I get some pilots accelerated. I look at that as an HI savings. Each month a pilot is accelerated saves me 5 HI. It adds up.
MIA/WIA/KIA: To date, I’ve lost a total of 2255 pilots. Some or most of the WIA return but I have no idea how many so I’m assuming all are lost (conservative estimate). That comes out to just over 6 pilots lost a day or 180 per month on average. That’s just over half of the number of pilots that enter into training each month. That’s good. That means my pool is growing faster than it is dwindling.
Score: I don’t keep score, but for those of you who do, my ratio is 2.14:1.
Planes lost: We’re about dead even right now. I’ll break that down farther later.
Ships Sunk: You can see the totals below. Note that mine includes the Hiryu. More details later.
Ted is setting up shop in the deep sea straits north and south of Formosa. I don’t have enough decent ASW ships there. I’m moving some from the Home Islands to Formosa. I really need more assets there. I’m also using several 24 plane daitai of float planes for ASW work there too, but their bombs are too small. I may reallocate 1 or 2 training Val units to ASW work. I have a couple of Val training units in Formosa. I’ll just need to swap out the pilots. I may use the Vals exclusively for ASW and the float planes exclusively for naval search.
Fortunately, Ted’s torpedoes still suck, so they were either duds or they missed altogether.
5 Fleet
Ted sent a total of 20 2/4E sorties against Adak. That’s down from the normal 50+ sorties a day. KB1 is sitting around to the west. I keep debating whether to send their fighters in or not. I may pull MKB up there to replace KB1 on invasion duty and have KB1 try to cut down the number of sorties some more before they hit the road.
What I’ll do is to wait for KB2’s A6M3as to upgrade to the A6M5, then upgrade MKB to the A6M3a if needed before they hit the road. Tomorrow, I’ll see if KB2’s Zeros are within range of Truk so some of them can fly there and I can start the process.
4 Fleet
Nothing to report today.
SE Fleet
There were the unopposed daily bombings of Milne Bay and Lae. I’m going to try and ambush the Lae bombers again tomorrow.
He hit Shortland Island with 14x B-17s and was opposed by 16 Tojos. For a loss of 2 Tojos shot down and another op loss (1 KIA & 1 WIA) I shot down 4x B-17s and another op loss. One of 2 remaining Betties was destroyed on the ground and a couple of points of airfield damage accumulated. The airfield is still open, barely.
My Helens hit Pt. Moresby causing a couple points of airfield damage.
SRA
Nothing to report today.
Burma
Quiet day today. I bombed Chittagong again. My Tojos flying that day caught a flight of 4 Hurricanes and shot 1 down for no loss.
I noticed there are 16 fighters at Katha (a level 1 airbase). I’m going to sweep it with a sentai of Tojos tomorrow.
Ted’s Akyab garrison is still attempting to crawl out of that hex up the road to the main army, which is opposed by my main army. His army has been bombarding my army daily for a month or more, but didn’t do it today. Hmm… I guess something’s up. We’ll see. Maybe the Akyab garrison is almost out of Akyab. Fortunately, my supply situation in Burma is excellent right now. My main army is in full supply. I hope he attacks me. He has only a slight numerical advantage and I am in the jungle. My troops are all experienced and have excellent leaders. He’ll trash his army.
I had an infantry regiment as garrison in Rangoon that is now free to leave. I’m sending it up the road toward Akyab. If the entire Allied garrison leaves, the regiment will enter Akyab. If something is left behind, I’ll probably wait until the 8 Division arrives (about a week or so) and send it in to take Akyab.
China
The 3 Tank Division (at Peiping) is almost completely built up to full strength. Once it’s at 100% strength, it’ll head north to clear out that part of the world. I have a few units up there, but they aren’t strong enough to clear it out. I did notice that I had sent a tank regiment to Hami. It arrived and I see there are aircraft up there and 1 ground unit. I suspect it’s a base force. I’m attacking with the tank regiment. Hopefully, Ted won’t notice it’s there and I’ll push the base force out of the hex and destroy the planes and pilots. Keeping fingers crossed.
Other Stuff
I took a look at my aircraft and engine production as well as pools and future requirements. I changed around some engine production and increased some to keep up with my future needs. It’ll eat into my HI pool and savings a bit, but it is necessary for the future.
Shipbuilding is looking good. The completion of the Musashi helped a lot and later this month I get 3 subs on the same day that total 76 naval shipbuilding points. I currently have 5 CVs and (off and on) a CVL accelerated. The completion of the subs will allow me to keep the remaining 6 CVs (except the Shinano) accelerated constantly.
Shipbuilding is looking good. The completion of the Musashi helped a lot and later this month I get 3 subs on the same day that total 76 naval shipbuilding points. I currently have 5 CVs and (off and on) a CVL accelerated. The completion of the subs will allow me to keep the remaining 6 CVs (except the Shinano) accelerated constantly.
This is Scen 1, so I'm pretty sure that means you are not going to complete the Shinano. Be nice having all of those CV's accelerating constantly now.
I always debate with myself at the start of every game: build or not build the Musashi. I usually do just because she is already so far completed (meaning I get another BB at a steep discount) and even though she is a total fuel hog, teamed with the Yamato, they become an awesome bombardment team .... but at 6300 tons of fuel per fillup and those only go 8000 miles, so maybe 2 missions, I really gotta pick and choose when I use them. Still .... they are awesome. [:D]
I think your KB needs more fighters [:)]. And how is your progress on the D4Y1?
I'm waiting for that chart you promised later on in your roundup post.
Agree with Pax RE: the Yamatos. It really sucks to have Musashi using up 233 NavSY points all the way until December, but you'll never get another BB and you may need her, even as a fleet in being. Lately I've been feeling the same way about Ryuho, and I felt the same about Junyo/Hiyo - I keep having to turn off subs and DDs when I need them most, but I can't justify delaying the CVs. I finally bit the bullet and increased my NavSY recently so that I can get subs out during 1943 when they may still make a difference, and really need to get on the ball with the ASW escorts. Never enough of those.
Tony, yeah I agree with you and have the same dilemma with Musashi. I've always built her and I suspect I always will. I won't use her much, but when I do, it'll hurt Ted. [:D]
Obvert! Good to see you too. When I came back from my deployment, I really needed to learn to be a civilian again and I just stayed away from the game and the forum. Now that I'm back, I realize how much I miss this game, but in retrospect, I needed to focus on other things for a bit. It really is good to be back. I'm adjusting well to being a civilian. The Guard was a great gig (for the most part), but it was definitely time for me to move on.
Lokasenna, I've never considered not building The Junyo/Hiyo or Ryuho. The Junyo & Hiyo carry enough planes to actually pack a punch, but they are slow. I consider them the flagships of MKB. [;)] I don't consider using them with my fast CVs. At least, not unless the mission is close and I can get them there on time.
Ok, I've got 2 more turns to add here, but some other stuff first. I took a hard look at my aircraft/engine plans and finalized everything, down to my expected engine production needs. Here's the low down by engine:
Hitachi (early): 332 in pool. No production. I may use them to produce the Ki-55 Ida as a short range Kamikaze in mid-45, depending on the situation, of course. The only reason is because I have those engines sitting there. That would be 332 half price Kamikazes. I'll make that decision in about 2 years. [:D]
Hitachi Amakaze: 0 in pool. No production. No need for this.
Kawasaki (early): 0 in pool. No Production. No need for this.
Mitsubishi Ha-31: 0 in pool. 65 production. Using for Ki-46-II (will upgrade to the -III in Jan 43) and Ki-57-II, my IJA transport. At the end of the month, it'll just be the Topsy, so this engine will be turned off & on as needed. I'm only building 12 Topsys a month.
Mitsubishi Ha-32: 255 in pool. 240 production. Production goal is 330. Will use them for Jill (30), Norm (30), Betty (60-we're talking engines, not planes, you do the math), Emily (60), Francis (60), Sally (80).
Mitsubishi Ha-33: 710 in pool. 270 production (currently off). Production goal is 330. Used for Judy (40), Nell (60), Mavis Transport (16), Tabby/Tina (30), Dinah III Rcn (40), Dinah III NF (60), Tony (Ki-100) (90).
Nakajima Ha-34: 504 in pool. 420 production. 180 Tojo, 240 Helen.
Didn't mean to imply that I never build them, just that when I'm looking for shipyard points and trying to build all my ships for the least cost, I always run up against those and think "Just finish already! I need your points!"
Nakajima Ha-35: 535 in pool. 450 production (56 of them still repairing). Ultimate goal is 30 Nick FB (maybe) and the rest split somehow between the Zero and Oscar.
Nakajima Ha-5: 1 in pool (for the museum after we win the war). No production. No need for this.
Nakajima Hikari: 0 in pool. No production. No need for this.
Nakajima Kotobuki: 254 in pool. No production. No need for this.
Aichi Ha-60: 627 in pool. 120 production (off). If you recall, I realized earlier that I overproduced this engine. I'll use up these engines on Judys. They'll be Kamikazes later in the war. Their range isn't all that great, but they do carry a nice bomb.
Kawasaki Ha-60: 0 in pool. 90 Production but currently off. I've decided to not build any Ki-61 models. About 2/3 of the engines were repaired before I decided this. What a waste of HI and supplies. [8|] I'll eventually convert these engine factories to something else when needed.
Nakajima Ha-44: 0 in pool. No production. No need for this.
Nakajima Ha-45: 0 in pool. 120 production (goal is 270 production). Will use them for Grace (60), Myrt NF (30), Frank (90), George (90).
Kayaba Argus: 0 in pool. 5 production (off and never used). Will convert this factory to something else eventually. No need for this.
Mitsubishi Ha-42: 0 in pool. 2 production (off and never used). Will convert this factory to something else eventually. No need for this.
Mitsubishi Ha-42: 0 in pool. 40 production (goal is 330 if we ever get there. Will use for George (180) & Sam (150).
Toko Rocket: 0 in pool. No production. No need for this.
NE Turbojet: 0 in pool. 30 production (goal is 150). Will use for Karyu.
So, there you have it. There's my grand scheme, at least until it changes. [:'(]
