Best Two Out of Three

[John B.]

Well, we continue to bash each other in Darwin. Scott stopped attacking and switched to bombardment which indicates to me that he has suffered some disruption. My forces are still there and I managed to sneak in a resupply convoy with 8,000 supply points (leaving me at 44K). No forts although I've started building again. I really wish we could turn off port and airbase repair but there you have it. In any event, as you can see below, more ships are headed my way. Looks like some heavy bombardment but no real reinforcements. Probably some resupply. Part of my hope in holding onto Darwin is that now that Scott has a whole corps there it makes him send ships into the teeth of the Darwin CD unit which has put some hurt on him thus far. My own next brigade reinforcement is a cav unit strength 111 that finally hit the main road so it should scoot on up to Darwin, but, will it make it in time?

He has set up search planes in Noumea. This won't help my pipeline to Australia but so far things are flowing smoothly.

Scott has pulled out of Moresby and headed towards Buna. I don't think he'll be back in the near future. And, given what I"ve read on other threads, I'm going to try to build moresby up to a level nine base so that I'm shielded from malaria while Scott would not be.

The KB showed up near Tarakan bombed the port at Balikpapan and now is leaving. Not much to show for that other than a damaged DD. But, Scott is pushing at Tarakan and may take it sooner rather than later so I'm trying to get as much oil and fuel out of Balikapapan as I can. I've also managed to sneak some small tankers into Osthaven. He may have spotted me but if not, I'll get some of that 100,000 tons of oil out of that port as well.

My carriers have retired to Colombo where they are resting right now. I don't need to send a resupply convoy to Rangoon anytime soon so I"ll just let everyone catch their breath.

In China, my wuchow adventure has gone wrong. I was so close but now his artillery bombardment is killing 30+ squads per day (my units are badly disrupted). I'm moving out of the clear as fast as I can, but it will be a few days. [:(] Scott has surrounded several corps near Yenan but it is a weak encirclement and I should be able to get out of it.

[John B.]

Drape the heavens in black, Darwin has fallen. [:(] Scott ran in another convoy and pushed me out (and I took a lot of casualties in the retreat). The CD guns went down swinging and I think took two more APs with them but still it's not good. Now I'm not sure of how much of this interior I should defend. It's not worth much and it's hard to supply but I don't want scott to just be able to pull out the two divisions and support troops to use them elsewhere.

Next up Tarakan fell. Scott landed a division there and overwhelmed the defenders so that did not really surprise me, it's just nice that they held on as long as they did. It has helped me to pull lots of oil and fuel out of Balikpapan. I'm sure that's next on the list and there is not too much there defending it. On a minor bright note I have managed to pull about 50K oil out of osthaven and I may be able to get most of the rest of it. I don't need it but Scott does and it's nice to know that he won't get the use out of it. My CVs are at Colombo and may help a Rangoon supply run before they upgrade. Scott's KB has disappeared. My guess is that he'll now either take another crack at Moresby or head on down for Suva or NZ. Time will tell.

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: John B.

Drape the heavens in black, Darwin has fallen. [:(] Scott ran in another convoy and pushed me out (and I took a lot of casualties in the retreat). The CD guns went down swinging and I think took two more APs with them but still it's not good. Now I'm not sure of how much of this interior I should defend. It's not worth much and it's hard to supply but I don't want scott to just be able to pull out the two divisions and support troops to use them elsewhere.

Next up Tarakan fell. Scott landed a division there and overwhelmed the defenders so that did not really surprise me, it's just nice that they held on as long as they did. It has helped me to pull lots of oil and fuel out of Balikpapan. I'm sure that's next on the list and there is not too much there defending it. On a minor bright note I have managed to pull about 50K oil out of osthaven and I may be able to get most of the rest of it. I don't need it but Scott does and it's nice to know that he won't get the use out of it. My CVs are at Colombo and may help a Rangoon supply run before they upgrade. Scott's KB has disappeared. My guess is that he'll now either take another crack at Moresby or head on down for Suva or NZ. Time will tell.

Someone said once that if you own darwin you get 2 supply runs a week and if you lose it you only get 1.

The biggest problem trying to hold something south of Darwin is that he can plaster you with bombers and in clear terrain you dont have much of a chance. To add to that supply is a huge issue.

Try to build up alice springs and tenant creek in airfield size and that will help the situation.

I usually pull far back at this point so he cant hit me with any effective bombing strikes and set up a small CAP to stop him from trying.

[John B.]

Sorry for the radio silence. I was in Shanghai for a little R&R. Wargamer, thanks for the advice. I'm hightailing it south ASAP and, I think, I'll be able to get my troops away from Scott's rampage.

Here's a rundown on the fronts.

I've put units into Adak and they're building up the port. Supply convoys are still going to and fro between West Coast USA and East Coast Oz. Suva is at level 4 fort and building. It also has 34K supply so, in case Scott heads there he'll have a tough nut to crack with three NZ brigades and several US FA units and AA units (and a CD unit to help combat shore bombardments)

Port Moresby is building up tentatively. My main concern there is supply. I have 26K but I won't be able to run in any any time soon. Scott has just taken Katherine south of Moresby. But, the good news, I think, is that most of the units are getting away. He has an armoured unit south of Katherine but it just came into bombing range and I have a fresh unit there. B-17s have been used to drop supplies on the Katherine units and on Wyndam which also continues to hold out.

Scott took Balikpappan without too much trouble. But, I did get in another raid on Palembang that did 13 more damage. there were heavy losses to the Dutch bomber force but they did a good job.

Huge fights over Rangoon. I put in two merchant task forces and then added the f4Fs from my american carriers. Scott has sunk about 6 AKs, lost a number of Bettys and about even losses in fighters. I'm trying to run most of the empty merchants out this turn. Scott has an amazing amount of fighters there with more than 100 running sweeps each day.

My carriers are headed to South Africa to refit without their fighters. The CVs will be back in a couple of months after the refits are done. I hate to not have them, but if I did I'd just do something dumb with them.


I was puzzled by why supplies dropped so fast in Rangoon (20,000 per week or so) and I think it's because they're being sent to China in addition to the 500 per day for the Burma road being open. that would explain why the supplies were dropping so quickly. And, suppies in China started to drop while Rangoon was dry. It's an incentive to keep Rangoon but it can be expensive in terms of ships.

In China, Scott took Kukong a task to which he committed 8 divisions. He's moving north but I've put additional troops in front of him so I'm not sure how far he'll get. He's still stuck outside of Sian and I am trying to keep him away from oil as long as possible. Otherwise, he's just bombarding each turn killing squads and wasting my supplies. But, I'm sure it's not helping him too much.

Clark Field is still holding on, but the supply levels are dropping so it won't be too long.

[John B.]

In the screen shot below is one of those items that I find I really don't understand. Scott has sent this one armored unit south of Darwin chasing other armored units. It has been moving and fighting the entire time. I add in fresh armor that shows up and he simply obliterates the units without taking any causalities. In this instance, you can't really see, but Scott has about 1/3 the troops and vehicles that I have. My main until had morale about 90 and experience at 40 or so. They all got bombed, but by one squadron of strafing zeros and 10 Sallys. Yet, You can see the really lopsided casualties. I've bombed him to no apparent effect. I'm not sure what to do about it since I can't seem to get away and reinforcements simply die without causing any harm. Any suggestions?

[BBfanboy]

In early 1942 the "tanks" in most British/Commonwealth units are nothing more than armoured cars, easily knocked out by bombs and lacking a weapon that will penetrate the IJA light tanks. Until these are replaced with Stuarts/Valentines/Churchills they should not be used as tanks at all. They can help defend forts where the fort armour protects them somewhat.

As for your aircraft attacking his armour - your pilots are inexperienced and a true tank needs a direct hit to knock it out. Only expect to delay a tank formation by bombing. That will not change until you get some attack aircraft and pilots with experience in the 70s in LowG or Strafe [with cannons].

[John B.]

BBFanboy,

Thanks for the insight. It's a sad day indeed when IJA armor rules the battlefield!

[John B.]

We're in mid-march and Scott continues to push me around. In N. Oz his all conquering armor regiment moves fast than me and takes no losses. He'll soon be in the range of B-25s but for right now it's just some B-17Ds now and again. My main Darwin army is managing to just keep one step ahead of his force heading south and is living off of air dropped supplies.

He has now landed at Java and, in a disaster entirely of my own making, he did a port strike on Soerebaja and sank four Dutch subs four TKs and two CLs. I got complacent and should have left dodge. However, the Dutch airforce boys have put in two strikes on Palembang in the past week (see below) and caused at least 25 oil point hits. Scott has to drag supply to fix these and it takes away 25 oil per turn. Since he took it in December 1941 I've managed to keep it near 700 which, at 200 oil lost per turn is quite nice.

He continues to do massive oversweeps at Rangoon and I'm not quite sure why. Port Blair lost an AK but is up to 5,000 supply. In China, I got the AVG back to north of Kukong and managed to take down some of his bombers and, I'm moving a nice big stack from north of Wuchow to Kukong that will either make Scott pull forces from his push to Changsha or risk getting them cut off. Otherwise, he continues to bombard me at several points. He kills about 10 squads per turn (my replacement rate) which I'm not wild about but, since it keeps him out of Chinese oil and drains his supply it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. especially as he's be doing that to me no matter where on the map I was.

Scott does seem to have the dream team sub commanders just off of Colombo. I'm not sure he knows that the American CVs went to S. Africa. They did get through 4 british DDs to put two torpedos into a british CV. These did surprisingly little damage and I'm not too concerned. It's job is to sit in port and help scott think that the Americans are there, then, in 100 days, I'll withdrawal it. But, I've got good British ships with good captains out hunting these subs and they have yet to score a hit.

Suva continues to fortify and I'm beefing up Perth as I think Scott may go down the west coast of Australia. The Americal is heading for Sydney so I can put an Aussie division in Perth. More as it develops.

[John B.]

Time for an update.

In the east, the Wasp made it through swarms of IJN subs to Pearl Harbor. It's March 26, 1942 and she'll be getting her upgrade soon. One sub got a shot in on her and missed. Phew. He sent a sub into the Pearl hex and it got pounded by ASW with two direct hits and 10 other hits reported.

I've been reinforcing the Aelutians and Suva. Not much to report there. ANd, with the KB so far away, I'm considering sending three dutch regiments into Noumean to retake it from his one regiment there. It has been hard to get any sort of detection level on the base even with two squadrons of PBYs flying recon so my bombardments have not been that effective. He has attacked Horn Island but my B-17s have been taken off of mid-Oz resupply duty to pound the attackers a little. In mid-Oz I keep running away and he keeps chasing me. I have some B-25s getting attacks in on his armour regiment now and again so at least now he's getting disrupted and losing a few vehicles.

On Java, for some reason Scott has been sending in air strikes without fighters so each turn the few dutch fighters shoot down 2-3 planes. Works for me and I'm sure one day he'll have escorts but so far I'm happy to use planes that are getting thrown away anyway to cause some losses.

The KB, has shown up and, as you can see below, it's in the Indian Ocean. Thanks to whomever told me not to upgrade my carriers there![&o] They're safely in South Africa. Meanwhile, as you can see, it's not a happy ending for the KB air wing with a reported 15 Vals shot down and 50 damaged. And, these are the really good pilots. Scott lost those planes for what turned out not to be much damage at all to the ships in drydock. He did damage the drydock there extensively but I don't really care about that, especially having the chance to take whack at his naval air like that. FOW may be exaggerating his losses, but that is the most I've ever seen from flak thus far.

The downside is that it looks like he'll take Port Blair. He is using the KB as a shield since he does not know where my carriers are and bombarding Port Blair and landing reinforcements. Sigh. In China we're playing musical chair and he bombards me every chance he can get. But, he has yet to take a major city from me. he does not have much near Rangoon. I would counter attack, but I can't get supply convoys through to the city so I'm biding my time.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

In Jan./42 the Indian Ocean is still a holiday cruise for KB if they decide to go there. IRL it was around March/42 that KB raided Columbo.

That means committing your CVs to an upgrade in Columbo makes them helpless if KB arrives, even if you land their air groups to defend the base.
I would take no chances and take the two-week cruise to Capetown to do the upgrades. From there you have the option to head to Panama or back to the IO when the upgrades are done.

You're welcome![8D]

Once in a while I give some good advice to confuse people who normally get duff advice from me ....[:D]

[John B.]

BBFanboy,

You are da Man!!

[John B.]

It looks like Scott is going to make the India/China push in this game. As you can see below, he has a stalking surface force west of Rangoon and a whole mess of ships (invasion force most likely) south of Rangoon. He also is moving his armor towards Pegu. I suspect that he may not invade Burma but head into India but I'm not sure. (Incidently, I know that it's an invasion force as Scott needed a mulligan when he accidently unloaded his troops at Victoria point). Given that he bombards in china everyturn and has a LOT of troops there, I suspect he wants to cut the Burma road. I have not poured troops into burma like I have in previous games so I have a number of Indian divisions and both Australian divisions available to defend India of that's where he's going.

Any tips on defending india? If the KB is there I'm not sure that there is much the RN can do.

In Australia he is snapping up the northern ports. He did run into a minefield which was fun. And, he will clear out Java in short order.

On the good news front, I got a convoy into Port Moresby with needed supplies and another brigade. So, I think that's it for Moresby reinforcements. As soon as I can confirm that the KB is near Rangoon, I'll launch an invasion to retake Noumea. I have three dutch brigades and several smaller units ready to go and 5 BBs for fire support.

Things are heating up!

[John B.]

Well it's on in India! As you can see below, Scott landed at V(can't spell it which is why the British empire is doomed). I don't think he intended to run into cavalry regiment there and it's only there because I overlooked moving it. It's not a great unit but at least it's there and can slow him down for a couple of turns. Which is key since I have two decent divisions moving north out of Madras and may be next to these units by perhaps even next turn. And, the main fleet really does seem headed towards Akayb while he is also pushing into Burma.

I'm very glad that I did not pour divisions into Burma this time. Both Aussie divisions are near calcutta as well as several Indian divisions. Should be an interesting fight.

Not much in other theaters. Now that the KB is identified the invasion fleet for Noumea is heading out. Let's just hope there is not a fleet CV from the IJN down there somewhere. I don't think so but I guess that I'll find out.

He has puased outside of Soerebaja and Batavia which works to my benefit as the factories can build up a bit more supply. And, in central australia my bombers keep reporting bad weather and not being able to fly. So, Scott keeps pushing down. I did get the brigade into Moresby at the cost of only two AKLs and got an additional 10K supply into there as well. It can hang out on its own for awhile as I don't think scott is pushing at Australia. It's a land war in Asia!

[John B.]

The map is lighting up!

First, As you can see below, Scott invaded Akayab. He also put several turns of bombardment in on me at my main base at chittagong and, my two CD units scored a total of zero hits on his various task forces. At the same time, he headed into Pegu and pushed me out of the way. this was a little surprising since I had a level three fort and a good division but, be that as it may, Burma is gone. My men are running north ASAP and pausing only to kill the raider regiments who are in the way. Not much to be done about that.

He had the KB roaming the Indian ocean but, my last sighting had it heading down the straits of Malacca and there are heavy radio messages coming from Singapore so I suspect that it went to reload. So, my turn to pounce. I've worked the RN up the coast of India and, as you can see, I have a BB task force and a CA task force ready to bombard Akayab. I not too concerned about the bombardment, although that will be nice, but I really hope to catch his transports there. then, get out of dodge before the KB shows up.

I have landed in Noumea and, while I'm ashore, it's a bit dicier than I anticipated. He has Nells on Espiritu Santo and he put the BB Maryland on the bottom. [:(] I landed troops and supplies for three turns and now I've back off for a turn to let some shore bombardment go into Espiritu. I got on off the day before but I've got two more TFs (CA and CL) heading to do it again and hopefully give my troops a respite. Yes, I should have gone in with air cover. Lesson learned.

In central Australia I managed to kill his armor regiment that stormed down the middle of the country. The Darwin troops are close enough to Daly Waters to scent being home free and I have two armor battalions heading north to help them. If he keeps advancing, he's going to run into a nice bomber force that can hammer him from the air.

Stay tuned!

[John B.]

It has been awhile, but the game continues to chug on. Here's a quick re-cap. It's now April 30, 1942. At Noumea the IJN subs and Nells have been awful. He has sunk 2 BBs and put torpedos into every captial ship I have sent there. The main problem has been for me to land supplies. I outnumber him on the ground, but I can't keep a sustained offensive going. I did get the Wasp there, but one turn it's CAP did not fly over the invasion hex and the very next turn scott put one torpedo into it. Now, it's on fire and heading towards Auckland. Any tips on how to keep it from burning down. It was at 34, then 17 and now it snuck back up to 22. I'm worried it will burn itself down to a hulk and take all of it's planes with it. Any tips on how to get that fire level down or do I just pray?

Scott tried an attack at Clark and got busted so he's just bombarding. He's in no hurry there nor on Java which will fall sooner or later.

He did bust through in Burma and now is chasing my troops out. there is one big stack in danger of being surrounded, I'm not sure it can get out but I have several indian brigades that will make it away safely. The one bright spot is that he did not fly CAP the turn after he took the oil fields so a massive British raid reduced them from 300 to 68. Not too much oil coming out of Burma. [;)]

scott did take Cox's bazar but is now stymied in the hex next to it. He can't bombard the hex and I have the two very good Aussie divisions in there. I'm also routing a couple of US divisions to India on the theory that at least they'll be in the fight there. I finally figured out how to get torpedoes but the raids won't fly so someday I may have reports of IJN ships hit near India.

I had a shot at the Hyru, the torpedo hit and . . . dud.[:@]

[BBfanboy]

As Alfred (one of the guys out there who really knows how the code works) recently pointed out, flooding problems can affect fire fighting, so I would recommend putting your CV at cruise speed so the DC parties can get the flooding stabilized first, then they will deal with the fire. Of course this will mean subs have an easier time catching the CV, but if it is still operating all DB and TB on ASW and Nav Search that should keep them down.

About Noumea, often the best approach is to send troops in through La Foa and march them south. Problem is, you are fighting for Noumea too early for the Allies. He still has command of the sea and lots of troops to bring to the fray. Rather than risking direct confrontation between CVs and major warships, you might try small raider TFs to hit his supply convoys. The old US CLs with 3-4 DDs make a good hit and run team.

[John B.]

BBfanboy,

You are, as always, a fountain of great advice. I slowed the Wasp down to cruise speed and let's hope for the best. I have several DDs with her and a CA so hopefully they can deter an Subs. I've lost two carriers burning out after one torpedo hit (previous games) so I'd like the Wasp to make it back to port especailly as her planes are stuck on deck.

Good point about invading noumea from the north. I went in early because Scott as all of his capital ships over in the Indian ocean. I"ve kept pretty good tabs on the KB and it has been in the vicinity of Akyab for all of april. And, I had all the peral BBs (not as many now thanks to subs). Still the main challenge has been supply on land and that may wind up delaying me enough that I don't take it.

[John B.]

Well Noumea has turned into an unremitting disaster. The Wasp was at FL damage level 60 and two hexes out of port when it went down with all of its planes. No pension for that damage control officer.

The bigger issue is that I can't seem to keep my ships safe from his subs. His subs have sunk two BBs, hit four others, three CAs, the CV and numerous merchant ships around Noumea regardless of escorts and ASW TFs. He just now sank a high speed fast transport ship (AVD I think) at night with no moonlight and sent it down. In the meantime, my subs have never hit one of his bombardment TFs coming out of Luganville. He walks over a carpet of them each way each sub patrolling in just one hex so there is no overlap.

Same story with torpedo planes. Many an AKL lies at the bottom of Noumea Sound thanks to his Bettys. I kind of expected that but in counter point, my albacores with carrier trained pilots have hit one ship in over 40 sorties. This last turn 26 torpedo plans from Chittagong hit his TF in port at Akyab and the weather has been clear with no fighter opposition. Each plane missed (60+ experience, torpedo bombing and naval search for almost all of the pilots).

I'm not sure what I'm doing so wrong and what Scott is doing so right but it is very disheartening.

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: John B.

Well Noumea has turned into an unremitting disaster. The Wasp was at FL damage level 60 and two hexes out of port when it went down with all of its planes. No pension for that damage control officer.

The bigger issue is that I can't seem to keep my ships safe from his subs. His subs have sunk two BBs, hit four others, three CAs, the CV and numerous merchant ships around Noumea regardless of escorts and ASW TFs. He just now sank a high speed fast transport ship (AVD I think) at night with no moonlight and sent it down. In the meantime, my subs have never hit one of his bombardment TFs coming out of Luganville. He walks over a carpet of them each way each sub patrolling in just one hex so there is no overlap.

Same story with torpedo planes. Many an AKL lies at the bottom of Noumea Sound thanks to his Bettys. I kind of expected that but in counter point, my albacores with carrier trained pilots have hit one ship in over 40 sorties. This last turn 26 torpedo plans from Chittagong hit his TF in port at Akyab and the weather has been clear with no fighter opposition. Each plane missed (60+ experience, torpedo bombing and naval search for almost all of the pilots).

I'm not sure what I'm doing so wrong and what Scott is doing so right but it is very disheartening.

DL's make a huge difference in sub combat. If you dont have air search over his ships lighting them up then he will have better odds against you. Alternatively if he has great sub search patterns and is lighting you up then you will have a decreased chance of hitting ships.

[John B.]

My goodness it has been a long time since I sent in an update.

Scott and I keep plugging away and, at least for the past three weeks of game time, the disasters have abated. First, in India. The two australian divisions plugged the hole and Scott has not been able to advance on Chittagong. He did come overland and take Imphal. It's pretty much a stalemate there as well and there is a US division on the way with more after that.

As you can see from the map, the black outlines the 1st Burma division battlegroup that has been trying to get out of Burma for nearly three months. It has been bombed and pounded and barely able to make headway but many supply drops and a lucky retreat into the jungle road hex means it has a fighting chance if it can make it two more hexes where lies a armoured brigade.

the bigger news this time is the planned onslaught on Akyab. The blue shows you where the torpedo bombers will be coming from and, before they make it, two different British TFs (the red line) will go in for some surface combat. A 2 BB TF and a 4 CA TF. My torpedo bombers have started to find a little range and took down a few AKLs and AKs in the past three weeks or so thus putting Scott's plans on hold. The British Hurricanes have been able to establish some level of air supremacy that Scott needs the KB to challenge. Next turn may reveal to major surface actions (reports show Scott with transports and an escorting surface action fleet) and perhaps some successful torpedo strikes.

In China he keeps coming sooooo close to breaking through to Sian but some brave and very depleted corps continue to stand in the way. Otherwise, he shoots his artillery every turn no doubt hoping to wear China down now that the Burma road is cut.

He's about to take the rest of northern australia. There is not really anything I can do about that.

I continue to cling to my part of Noumea (still an IJA base) and have been running supplies in by sub and fast transport which keeps them hanging on. The KB has disappeared and it is upgrade season for them so I may have an opening. I have the American KB in Auckland and I'm about to head out to take an island between Espirtu Santo and Noumea (the name escapes me) and perhaps land north of Noumea as well. Lots of allied ships are there to bombard his airfield and, let's hope, his subs don't continue to be supermen.

I'll let you know how the surface/torpedo battles of Akyab do.