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

[Spidery]

July 2nd 1943

Air Losses: 2 Japanese, 6 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:
Base VP: 16259

Subs

Quiet

Marshalls

Quiet

Solomons

Allies bomb somewhere and take flak losses.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Manus airfield to 3.

Production

Quiet

Reinforcements

Quiet

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: Sangeli

ORIGINAL: Spidery
AR Akashi heading to help the Hyuga takes a torpedo from the Steelhead. 9/21/5 damage so not too bad but ironic that she will now need repair.

I'm curious if an AR's own added naval support helps with its own repairs. I guess it would make sense given that all the equipment is still usable despite the hole in the side of the ship.

Don't know, I don't understand ship repairs.

2 AR (1 damaged) in readiness mode at a dot base with no ground troops present. According to the repair 101 guide the only sources for integrity repair for a ship in readiness mode are ship crew, naval support squads, and port. With a crew experience of 32, level 0 port and no naval support squads should have got 4 repair points. However, managed to fix 12 points of minor float damage in one day.

[Lowpe]

You are pumping out the counter flooding which always goes very fast...

[Spidery]

July 3rd 1943

Air Losses: 1 Japanese, 3 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy: Feni Islands
Japanese land at:
Allies land at: Feni Islands (sub transport, parachute?)
Base VP: 16484

Subs

Quiet

Marshalls

Quiet

Solomons

Allies bomb somewhere and take flak losses.

Allies land at and take Feni Islands.

A PB doing a pick-up troops option at Rabaul for some reason remains there in the morning, luckily no Allied naval strike occurs.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Aitape airfield to 3.

Production

Quiet

Reinforcements

Quiet

[Spidery]

Pilot Training

I have lots of IJA bomber pilots in reserve trained in GndB or ASW. I have 3 Sentai of Lily DB and they are fully staffed with NavB trained pilots and I have groups training up replacements. At this point I am redirecting most of my IJA bomber training to LowN with the view they will be useful for Kamikaze.

Is it worth training pilots for Kamikaze use in any other skill, NavS for example?

[Spidery]

Some rough supply expenditure estimates.

I have a supply income of 25,400 per day.

I estimate that my expenditure is roughly:
10,000 LCU maintenance (add up supply required indicated in Tracker by region)
4,000 air missions (8150 sorties but most will be CAP or training)
2,400 engineering (6665 engineering squads and 116 vehicles, assume 1/3 active)
3,000 R&D (varies)
2,000 air factory builds (N1K1 and H8K2-L)

Assume supply delivered for LCU, engineering and air on average loses 6% in transit for a loss of about 1,000 gives a daily saving of about 3,000.

[Spidery]

I was curious about the supply cost of building forts out of base hexes.

I hacked Guadalcanal scenario to add a US division on an isolated island with no base or dot base and gave it 5000 supply. The division had 763 devices including 18 engineers and 2 engineering vehicles. Stated supply requirement is 764.

In combat mode it builds forts and expends 31 supply per day.
In other modes it does not build forts and expends 26 supply per day.

I then changed the scenario to replace 100 infantry squads by combat engineer squads. Supply requirement remained at 764.

In combat mode it expended 51 supply per day.
In rest mode it expended 26 supply per mode.

26 supply is 1/30 of the 764 supply requirement rounded up.

So my tentative conclusion is that building of field forts costs 0.2 supply per engineer per day.

[Sangeli]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

I was curious about the supply cost of building forts out of base hexes.

I hacked Guadalcanal scenario to add a US division on an isolated island with no base or dot base and gave it 5000 supply. The division had 763 devices including 18 engineers and 2 engineering vehicles. Stated supply requirement is 764.

In combat mode it builds forts and expends 31 supply per day.
In other modes it does not build forts and expends 26 supply per day.

I then changed the scenario to replace 100 infantry squads by combat engineer squads. Supply requirement remained at 764.

In combat mode it expended 51 supply per day.
In rest mode it expended 26 supply per mode.

26 supply is 1/30 of the 764 supply requirement rounded up.

So my tentative conclusion is that building of field forts costs 0.2 supply per engineer per day.

Interesting results. I would go a step further in this test if you can. Each fort level is supposed to have a stated supply usage in order to increase a level. You should see if the difference in supply levels when you build a fort and when you don't is equal to that stated amount. If it is then your tentative conclusion becomes a lot stronger. Also might be worth switching engineering squads with engineering vehicles and see the impact of that.

[Spidery]

July 4th 1943

Air Losses: 4 Japanese, 4 Allied, 2 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:
Base VP: 16485

Subs

Quiet

Marshalls

Quiet

Solomons

Allies bomb. Buka is out of supply and the AA units are also running out of supply. Flak will stop next turn.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Quiet

Production

Quiet

Reinforcements

Quiet

Intel

Intel has increased DL on Perth to 2/3. This reports 277 ships in port (only 10 DD spotted) and 198 Ftr, 97 Bombers, and 81 auxiliary. It all looks convincing as a strike towards Java or the DEI (or just Cocos Islands) as soon as the KB is located. I consider "leaking" a fraction of the KB in the Rabaul area and then running it at speed to Java with oilers pre-positioned to top it up. However, can't see a good reason for the risk now.

Will reinforce Java, I have an unrestricted Division coming free at Singapore and another at Manila soon so will send them to Soerabaja to act as a strategic reserve and defend Java.

[Spidery]

July 5th 1943

Air Losses: 1 Japanese, 9 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:
Base VP: 16498

Subs

Quiet

Marshalls

Quiet

Solomons

Allies bomb Buka and Rabaul. Ops losses for Allies include 4 B-25C and 2 F4F at Buka. Flak downs a B-24 at Rabaul. Allies sweep Kavieng with P-38H, first time seen this model, very similar to the P-38G.

Hyuga has reached Satawal and disbanded in the anchorage. Range 25 to the nearest Allied air field makes it reasonably safe; only the British Liberator GR.III could reach. However, the Allies will be developing Feni Islands and the range to that is 21 so may have to move. Feni Islands is a 0(3) air field so will take a while to get it to a state to support 4E. Can he use PBY-5 with drop tanks at extended range to reach with a bomb load?

47/85/30 damage with 0/34/3 major. 4 AR working on it for now but 2 more en-route, estimated 83 days to fix everything that can be fixed.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Quiet

Production

Quiet

Reinforcements

Quiet

[wegman58]

There is a thread (I think in the Newbie area) where the cost of building ports and airfields is discussed in detail. I don't remember if it covers forts or not.

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: wegman58

There is a thread (I think in the Newbie area) where the cost of building ports and airfields is discussed in detail. I don't remember if it covers forts or not.

There is, it doesn't, and I haven't seen anything discussing building of field fortifications. However, all I was really interested in (a) does it cost supply - answer yes, (b) does it cost a lot - not a lot but it all mounts up.

[JocMeister]

I´m pretty sure I´ve seen a thread about it too. Wasn´t that expensive really.

[Spidery]

July 6th 1943

Air Losses: 2 Japanese, 0 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:
Base VP: 16497

Subs

Quiet

Marshalls

Quiet

Solomons

Allies bomb.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Quiet

Production

Quiet

Reinforcements

Quiet

[Spidery]

July 7th 1943

Air Losses: 0 Japanese, 2 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:
Base VP: 16500

Subs

Quiet

Marshalls

Quiet

Solomons

Allies bomb.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Quiet

Production

Quiet

Reinforcements

Quiet

[Spidery]

July 8th 1943

Air Losses: 0 Japanese, 5 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:
Base VP: 16521

Subs

Quiet

Marshalls

Quiet

Solomons

Allies bomb Buka.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Rota airfield to 3, Hong Kong airfield to 8.

Production

Ki-46 III KAI Dinah to 9/44

Reinforcements

Quiet

[Spidery]

July 9th 1943

Air Losses: 2 Japanese, 1 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:
Base VP: 16520

Subs

2 AMC hit a tanker task force heading from Los Angeles to Pearl. 20 Tankers escorted by 5 SC. At night, they sink the TK Larry Doheny (31 VP) but the Allies manage to evade. Twice more the forces are described as being encountered but no engagement takes place. At the end of the day the Allies have evaded 5 hexes back towards Los Angeles, not sure if I will be able to engage again tonight. Night experience of the AMC has shot up from 38 or 44 to 59 so there is a reasonable chance of a better engagement.

Picture below shows situation, where do I send the AMC? Do I split them, both have good commanders. The AMC can make 5 hexes at normal speed and probably can't afford full speed given range constraints. Allies have no detection on the AMC or the subs.

Marshalls

Quiet

Solomons

Allies bomb Buka & Rabaul.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Quiet

Production

Quiet

Reinforcements

Quiet

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Spidery
Twice more the forces are described as being encountered but no engagement takes place.

Happens to me a lot.[:(]

I think I would be happy and call it quits...you may want those ships' transport capabilities within the next 6 months more than putting them at risk. Two Allied destroyers can sink them...

Having said that, I would split them and send one to SD and the other towards LA. I doubt they will survive.

[Spidery]

July 10th 1943

Air Losses: 1 Japanese, 4 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy: Lihir (auto)
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:
Base VP: 16527

Convoy Raiders

I pull the AMC back, now to get home without encountering a CVE or CV. At least this raid should encourage him to spend more effort protecting his convoys. Just disappointing that fast ships, found a perfect target, and couldn't do much damage.

A sub tries an attack on the Allied tankers but can't get through the screen.

Numerous ASW actions against Allied subs with little effect.

Marshalls

Quiet

Solomons

I put a few Franks from Manus over Kavieng. They leak over to protect Rabaul where they shoot down a PB4Y-1 Liberator, flak downs another 1 and ops account for 2 more. That should encourage him to sweep and take a few ops losses.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Manus airfield to 4.

Production

Ki-84r now 1/45.

Reinforcements

SC CHa-41, SC CHa-24

[Spidery]

July 11th 1943

Air Losses: 0 Japanese, 4 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:
Base VP: 16519

[>:]