Turnaround? Lowpe (J) vs Tiemanj (A) Stock

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: topeverest

Can you give more details on your Mariana's force deployment and defense strategy? The battle seems imminent.

I am not sure how hard I want to fight for the Marianas![X(] Command indecision! Is that wrong?

I think you are right, that Eni will go next, and Wake and all to soon the Marianas will be the front lines -- and all of New Guinea, Solomons will be circumvented. I would much rather fight the rest of 43 up thru the NG and the Solomons.

At the Marianas I have engineers and naval HQs and some land forces are trickling in. AF are built to normal, and forts are 5ish. Coastal batteries are present, and the planes are building up. Minefields are being laid. When I get my turn back I will post more...

I do have one plan for mini subs in the Marianas. By having plentiful supply at the bases, I can create all the mini subs and have them swarm the invasion hex after invasion day minimizing their dl while hopefully overwhelming the Allied ASW. I plan on standing off a dozen subs, to swarm in with them...Not sure how that would work, but I am going to try it.

Yes, the Marianas are within B29 extended range, but I am far more worried about P47 range. I certainly don't want to sacrifice the KB here, much rather save it for the fight at the Bonins. But I do want a credible defense that causes the Americans to slow down...time, I need time to get the Ki202 and SamJ up over the HI.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: topeverest

Can you give more details on your Mariana's force deployment and defense strategy? The battle seems imminent.

I am not sure how hard I want to fight for the Marianas![X(] Command indecision! Is that wrong?

I think you are right, that Eni will go next, and Wake and all to soon the Marianas will be the front lines -- and all of New Guinea, Solomons will be circumvented. I would much rather fight the rest of 43 up thru the NG and the Solomons.

At the Marianas I have engineers and naval HQs and some land forces are trickling in. AF are built to normal, and forts are 5ish. Coastal batteries are present, and the planes are building up. Minefields are being laid. When I get my turn back I will post more...

I do have one plan for mini subs in the Marianas. By having plentiful supply at the bases, I can create all the mini subs and have them swarm the invasion hex after invasion day minimizing their dl while hopefully overwhelming the Allied ASW. I plan on standing off a dozen subs, to swarm in with them...Not sure how that would work, but I am going to try it.

Yes, the Marianas are within B29 extended range, but I am far more worried about P47 range. I certainly don't want to sacrifice the KB here, much rather save it for the fight at the Bonins. But I do want a credible defense that causes the Americans to slow down...time, I need time to get the Ki202 and SamJ up over the HI.

I like to consider the Marianas as the "breakwater" to the Allied tide. It sits right at the geographic centre of the map and straddles the two direct lines from the West Coast to Japan. The Allies can grind up New Guinea, or make a series of quick thrusts through the Marshalls, but they need to breach the Babeldoab-Marianas line in order to make any serious progress towards Tokyo.

Also, the Marianas may only enable B-29s to fly at extended range, but you may want to run the numbers to see how many squadrons you need in order to fly 24 hour CAP at the major industrial centres in the HI. It's quite a lot.

I'll post some stuff on my AAR for you later today with some of my notions in regards to the Marianas.

[topeverest]

IMHO, Luzon is far more attractive than Mariana's and far more suited to empire late war assets. The problem is if the allies decide to avoid Luzon and go straight to Okinawa or Taiwan.

Agree that you have to fight for the Bonin's no matter what.

[Lowpe]

August 6, 1943

No night bombing: moonlight 28%.

Normal Allied bombing in Burma, Marshalls, and lower Solomons.

CA Sussex listed as sunk, by torpedo, near Ramree. Another damaged ship is trying to make it back to a better repair facility. Perhaps my subs can be a little more successful this time.

Allies have stopped bombarding at Tuang Gyi. Losses were to my favor, but as pointed out by Obvert, Allied losses were probably Mtn Guns which are next to near worthless, except for the VP total which every little bit helps.

Moulmein fully repaired. I would like to hit the shipping at Ramree, but their are 8 distinct one to 10 ship task forces of crappy little boats strung out in a line southwest of Ramree. This means an approach from the west, tough to do given naval search.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: topeverest

IMHO, Luzon is far more attractive than Mariana's and far more suited to empire late war assets. The problem is if the allies decide to avoid Luzon and go straight to Okinawa or Taiwan.

Agree that you have to fight for the Bonin's no matter what.

The Allies have 8 possible landing sights in the Marianas. Of those 8, 3 are more or less useless islands that can't be built to anything worthwhile. That leaves you 5 islands, closely clustered together, all within supporting range of each other.

Plus, it stands to reason that you should defend somewhere the Allies need to invade rather than somewhere the Allies may invade.

[Lowpe]

August 7, 1943

No night bombing; Normal bomping by Allies in Marshalls, Solomons, and Burma plus hit the China.

Forced the surrender of two more Chinese units, both splinter (one thirds). Allies slowly destroying the old defenders of Lashio in the jungle.

[topeverest]

What is the current empire CV situation? How many available at present / how many trained naval attack pilots?

So if you committed to a CV battle, could you avoid the great Mariana turkey Shoot.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: topeverest

What is the current empire CV situation? How many available at present / how many trained naval attack pilots?

So if you committed to a CV battle, could you avoid the great Mariana turkey Shoot.

Not real good.[:(] Airplane and pilot losses have been horrendous in this game 13K Japanese losses to 10K Allied losses in frames alone.

Two CVs are are out 15 and 60 days with torpedo strikes, 2 CS convert in 21 days. The Shokaku and the Junyo are gone. Allies have lost Lex, Saratoga, Enterprise, Illustrious, Hermes, and Long Island.

Fresh Naval pilots are in short supply, and I have enough for two contested strikes. I take that back, Tracom is pretty generous, but those pilots are all going into night fighting squadrons.

I am not planning on having a major clash, Allies will have to trap me somehow.

[Lowpe]

August 8, 1943

No night bombing.

Massive strikes, unopposed, on Moulmein close the runways. Normal bombing elsewhere in Marshalls, and lower Solomons.

Making massive efforts to ship fuel and oil to China, and from there it goes to Fusan and then the HI.

I have some small supply ships headed to Ponape and Kusaie to top of their supplies. Especially, Kusaie which gets bombed fairly regularly.

IJN SST picked up a radar set in the lower Solomons and is bringing it back to Rabaul...I sure wish those subs used less fuel and had more space.

We are not taking a hiatus for the Holidays, but turns will slow, especially on my side as the family is all present for Christmas! Something to be thankful for!

[Lowpe]

August 9, 1943

No night bombing.

Supply convoys make Ponape, an attempt to bomb some Allied Fletchers fails or range.

Normal Allied bombing -- no opposition other than flak by Japan.

Chinese send three corp out of Chungking and temporarily gain control of a hex south of Chungking. Chengtu bombed heavily and bombarded will be attacked in a day or two for the second time. Hoping for at least a 1-1 if not even a 2-1.

[Lowpe]

August 10th, 1943

August of 43 1/3rd of the way finished...a naval engagement at night where IJN propaganda claim the sinking of many American warships...

[Lowpe]

Round 2, after a quiet night of no aerial bombardment despite the 71 percent moonlight.

Go Yubari!

[Lowpe]

A third round of engagements, still at Rabaul!

[Lowpe]

Another fight!

[Lowpe]

Another fight at Rabaul!

[Lowpe]

Heads will roll![:@]

[topeverest]

The weather prevented bombers from flying / locating. I hate it when that happens

[ny59giants]

Lily vs Fletchers doesn't seem like you would have hit much. Olorin had KB catch some Clevelands and Fletchers off Sorong (sub attacks ate up op points and left them exposed) in mid '44 and without fighters I still did not have any sunk.

[Lowpe]

Aug 11, 1943

Fletchers to the right, Fletchers to the left. Argh! I despise Fletchers.

I actually heard sinking sounds late in the day, and since there has been no other action I think one of the Fletchers from yesterday or toady went down to a combination of high speed runs and damaging hits. That would be nice.[:)]

[Lowpe]

Damage report....not bad.