Once Again into the Breach - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A)

[Lowpe]

Mike,

When do you think you will get the Frank a?

Also, what planes are you thinking of for kamikazes. Now is the time to be planning for them.

[Mike Solli]

Morning/afternoon everyone. Lowpe, I don't really know when the Frank a is coming. It's still sitting at 4/44. I have 8 factories so far, with more to come. Two are fully repaired to 30, one at 53/55 and the others are 28, 20, 14, 2 & 0 of 30. The R&D is advancing 2% a day right now (31 right now). Fortunately, there are currently 378 Ha-45 engines in the pool and should reach 500 in about 7-8 days. To venture a guess, I'm hoping late 43 for the a model.

[Mike Solli]

5 May 43

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

First thing in the morning, 3 Judys launched on a minesweeping TF in Adak and went after the DD Gillespie. Unfortunately, they missed. Wish I had a full daitai of them.

Four B24s arrived and avoided the Oscars. [8|] Fortunately, they didn't hit anything.

In the afternoon, the 3 Judys launched again, this time for DMS Trevor and hit her once with a 500kg present, leaving her burning fiercely and heavily damaged. Very nice.

I've decided to "sort of" go all out to destroy the 41 Division. I know I really need lots of support to do it right though. Here's what I'm sending:

KB2 - Junyo and Hiyo (54 Zeros, 36 Vals, 18 Kates).
Surface fleet - Yamato, Musashi, Nagato, Mutsu
MKB2 - Zuiho, Shoho and Hosho (54 Zeros, 24 Kates). They are headed for the Home Islands for replenishment.
Slow Replenishment fleet
19 Division
71 Division
4x 15cm Howitzer Regiments
1x 90mm Mortar Regiment

It'll take a while to get everything together. I'm also moving some other support ships (AKEs, ADs, ARs, etc.) to Etorofu to keep the battle going if necessary.

That leaves the full KB at Truk to counter whatever Ted throws my way when he's ready (probably at the end of May). Right now, the Shoho and Ryujo are at Truk, Shokaku and Zuikaku finish refit tomorrow and Akagi and Kaga finish refit in a week.

I spotted 2 US CVs (Lex and Hornet?) at Dutch Harbor.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Only Allied fighters swept Gasmata and Rabaul. I lost 4 fighters to 8 Allied fighters.

Damage:

Rabaul: 14-42-0
Tulagi: 2-0-0

SRA
Burma
China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:

SS RO-109 - SE Fleet
TK Jinei Maru - Type-1 ™

The Ki-100-II R&D advanced to 3/44. I expect to get them in July 43.

I decided to upgrade the Akagi and Kaga's DB daitai to the Judy. The SR3 rating pretty much ensures only 1 good shot, but they use a 500kg bomb out to range 6 and a 250kg bomb to range 7. It might make a difference.

I got my first George!

A pilot was found.

2x Momi PCs completed their upgrades.

Lowpe asked about Kamikazes. Here's what I'm confident I'll have in abundance so far. I'll have ~600 D4Y1/2. I know I'll have a bunch of Betties, Nells, Helens and Salllies. My losses to date have been low and production is good. Especially Helens. I'm producing 90 a month. I expect a very large number of them. I use them exclusively in Burma and I'm dominating his air force so far. He has a large number of bombers there, but they rarely fly because I've trashed his fighters there and the bombers take lots of losses every time they fly. I also have a few hundred IJA 1E bombers (Mary, Ann) that will be expended. I'll have all the excess Vals and Kates too. I estimate ~500 of them total. I need to do some more planning and start producing when possible. I know I'll have a bunch of Ha-35 engines later. I'll need to see what's available that uses that engine.

[Annagil]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

That leaves the full KB at Truk to counter whatever Ted throws my way when he's ready (probably at the end of May).

That is, unless he decides to try his new toy on a target close to home, where he already has a stranded division and where he knows, because you already did, that you send small CV forces very far from home. Oh, and where you will have steadily reinforced over the previous six weeks denoting an intention to take the base back completely, but you will likely not have been able to yet because it will take forever to move all those units, giving him time to prepare and mass his naval forces. All in all, I hope you are preparing for a single massed assault rather than a trickling Guadalcanal campaign in the Arctic.

That said, I'm sure I was not the only one to inquire with Ted over the last months if he had any news from you and I'm glad you are fine and back!

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli


I know I'll have a bunch of Ha-35 engines later. I'll need to see what's available that uses that engine.

Tsurugi is a great plane; fast, big bomb (800), and Ha35. Wish it was longer range, but always wish that. [:D][:D][:D]

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Annagil

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

That leaves the full KB at Truk to counter whatever Ted throws my way when he's ready (probably at the end of May).

That is, unless he decides to try his new toy on a target close to home, where he already has a stranded division and where he knows, because you already did, that you send small CV forces very far from home. Oh, and where you will have steadily reinforced over the previous six weeks denoting an intention to take the base back completely, but you will likely not have been able to yet because it will take forever to move all those units, giving him time to prepare and mass his naval forces. All in all, I hope you are preparing for a single massed assault rather than a trickling Guadalcanal campaign in the Arctic.

That said, I'm sure I was not the only one to inquire with Ted over the last months if he had any news from you and I'm glad you are fine and back!

I'm forming a string of Glen subs as far out as possible from the Aleutians to spot for that eventuality. KB is about a week from Adak. If he does this, and moves his carriers like he did this last time, they'll swing south and come up from the south of Adak. That would put KB to the south of him and KB2/MKB2 to the west.

My intent is to have all the ground units land on the same day. That risks transport collision, but that risk is worth it. I am using xAPs for this maneuver and all of the units are either loading or the transports are on the way. I'm going to have them meet at Ominato, top off their fuel, and head in from different routes. By the time the transports arrive, the combat ships will be in position.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli


I know I'll have a bunch of Ha-35 engines later. I'll need to see what's available that uses that engine.

Tsurugi is a great plane; fast, big bomb (800), and Ha35. Wish it was longer range, but always wish that. [:D][:D][:D]

Hey Pax, what is the designation for the Tsurugi? I never learned the names for the late war planes. [8|]

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli


I know I'll have a bunch of Ha-35 engines later. I'll need to see what's available that uses that engine.

Tsurugi is a great plane; fast, big bomb (800), and Ha35. Wish it was longer range, but always wish that. [:D][:D][:D]

Hey Pax, what is the designation for the Tsurugi? I never learned the names for the late war planes. [8|]

It's the Ki-115.

I'm researching it a little bit, but I don't expect great things from it... it's a kamikaze and that's it? I think it has low durability, from memory. Wasn't it made from a lot of wood?

[Annagil]

Wood and steel, very basic controls, awful sight and manouvrability, no weapons except a 800 kgs, round rather than elliptical section for easier production. I think they even lacked a landing gear.

I think they wanted to produce 8 or 10 thousand of those every month.

[PaxMondo]

All true, but as fast as the end model Oscar, and that awfully big bomb. Just what you want in a kami. Those 800kg, when they hit, things go BOOM!

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo



Tsurugi is a great plane; fast, big bomb (800), and Ha35. Wish it was longer range, but always wish that. [:D][:D][:D]

Hey Pax, what is the designation for the Tsurugi? I never learned the names for the late war planes. [8|]

It's the Ki-115.

I'm researching it a little bit, but I don't expect great things from it... it's a kamikaze and that's it? I think it has low durability, from memory. Wasn't it made from a lot of wood?

IIRC, the IJA training units that arrive with the crappy training aircraft can upgrade to it either without a PP cost or with a reduced PP cost. That's the real value of that airframe.

[Mike Solli]

Thanks for the info guys. The Ki-115 sounds like a winner (or maybe wiener) for a Kamikaze.

Sorry for the lack of turns here. Ted was in England for the week and had horrible access (but had a great time there). I got the turn Sunday and finally ran it but still haven't had the time to get it back to him. Anyway, here goes...

[Mike Solli]

6 May 43

Sub War

I have 4 midget subs hanging out at Adak. I finally figured out how to use them properly. Should they fire their subs and survive, I’ll disband them back into the pool. They then will be available a couple weeks or so later. Anyhoo, the Ha-40 found a small resupply convoy of 3x LSI(L)s and put a torpedo into one, heavily damaging her. She didn’t sink (yet) because after the turn, I saw what I think is her limping to the east. I did hear sinking sounds immediately after. I’ll explain what I think it is in the 5 Fleet section.

5 Fleet

A minesweeping TF of 4x AMs swept 34 mines at Adak, leaving 21. I have a minelaying TF heading to lay its eggs at Adak, but with all the Allied TFs hanging out, they may not get a chance to reach port. The 4x AMs all were heavily damaged by the CD guns. I believe the sinking sounds I heard was an AM sinking. Later in the day, I heard more sinking sounds, probably another AM. How many AMs do the Allies get? He seems to have an unending supply!

The two remaining LSI(L)s dropped their supply, which sucks. I’m hoping the 41 Division is disrupted enough that it can’t attack, even with the supply. It didn’t attack today.

Rereading this, maybe this extra supply for the Allies is a blessing in disguise for the Japanese. With ample supply, Ted may attack again against rested, full strength Japanese forces with ample supply (currently 14k) and in level 6 forts. I’ll take those odds!

In the air, 4x B-24s and 3x B-25s attacked my troops at Adak. No Canadian Bolingbrokes (which I learned are the Canadian version of the Blenheim IV) flew today. Twenty Oscars intercepted, shooting down 2x B-25s and a B-24, while flak got another B-24 at a cost of a single Oscar. Banzai!

In the afternoon, my Judys got in on the action, attacking a TF in a dot hex 5 hexes to the east of Adak. Three Judys, escorted by 13 Oscars ran into 22 Wildcats. Hmm… The Oscars held off the Wildcats losing 5 of their number. The 3 Judys dropped on the Hornet! Unfortunately, they missed and a Judy was lost to flak.

My “intel” says there are 4 CVs in that TF. I suspect it’s only the Hornet because only 22 Wildcats intercepted. Intel says there are 29 fighters, 58 bombers and 4 auxiliary aircraft in the TF. Those numbers sound about right if the Lex left the AO. I estimate the bombers to be 10 Avengers and 48 Dauntlesses and that the Lex left most of her DBs and fighters on the Hornet. One TB squadron was entirely wiped out on 24 April. I hope she hangs around because the Junyo and Hiyo are heading north from Truk, but they are still 5-6 days out. They have 54 Zeros, 36 Vals and 18 Kates. That should be enough to overwhelm the Hornet. They’re heading north to come to a launch position 7 hexes to the SW of Hornet.

Adak’s damage is down to just 11 port. I don’t expect his BBs to show up given 1 of the 8 ate 3 sub torpedoes (and sank, I believe) and a second ate one torpedo. Maybe they will come back. We’ll see.

All of the troops are at 100% strength (or more in the case of the tank regiment) with only a couple squads and ~10 or so tanks disabled. My reinforcement of 2x divisions, 4x 15cm artillery regiments and 1x 90mm mortar regiment are loading, but it’ll be awhile before they get there. I suspect the carrier battle will be over long before they arrive. That will actually work out well. Should I prevail, I’ll have carrier support (KB2 and MKB2) in the vicinity to protect the transports as they arrive. Should Ted prevail, my reinforcements will not go in. It’s pretty simple. Should be exciting.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Enemy fighters swept Rabaul and Gasmata with a handful of B-25s hitting Tulagi ineffectively. Total losses were 6 fighters on each side.

Other than that, all was quiet in this AO.

Rabaul’s damage is down to 14-11-0 and Tulagi’s damage is fully repaired.

SRA
Burma

Nothing to report.

China

My troops continue to maneuver. A nice air bombardment of Chungking destroyed a couple Chinese fighters while damaging another half dozen planes.

Some of the Great Yellow Horde appeared just south of Chungking. I suspect they’ll move into Chungking.

Other Stuff

Engine, airframe and stuff pools are all looking good. The Ha-45 pool is up to 390, increasing by a dozen or more each day. I’ll hit 500 by mid-May so then my Frank, George and Francis R&D will double.

My naval ship point pool is allowing me to accelerate 3x CVs every other day. Those 3 CVs are all currently scheduled to arrive on 13 Dec 43. At that rate, they should arrive in September 1943. It will be nice to get another 200 aircraft capacity for KB. That’ll leave 3 more CVs that I am building. They are all scheduled to arrive sometime in 1944. I’ll look at them tonight to see if they’re worth accelerating when the first 3 are finished or whether I should just shut them off. I’m tempted to keep building them because to date, I’ve lost only the Hiryu. On the other side, Ted hasn’t lost any carriers at all.

So far, there has been no large carrier battle. The most recent exchange up north was between 3x Japanese CVLs and 2x US CVs. The Lex took some damage (1 torp and a 500kg bomb) that will require a few weeks in the yard to repair. My carriers took no damage. The Hornet is still hanging around providing cover to all the little TFs floating around up there. I’m hoping to take Hornet out in a week, should she stick around.

KB1 is currently composed of only 2 CVs (Soryu and Ryujo) located at Truk. The other 4 CVs (Akagi, Kaga, Shokaku and Zuikaku) are in refit at the Home Islands. Two will complete tomorrow and the other 2 will complete in about 4-5 days. That was a risk I was willing to take because I knew Ted was anxious to upgrade his Wildcats to Hellcats and that will take to the end of May. When KB1 is reconstituted, It’ll have a total of 201 Zeros, 54 Vals, 36 Judys and 117 Kates. In June, I’ll begin to upgrade the Kates with Jills (N2 model). That is in addition to KB2, MKB1 and MKB2, which have a total of 117 Zeros, 54 Vals and 60 Kates. I also have a CVE on TK escort duty with 27x Vals. I am going to upgrade them with Judys. A 500kg bomb will ruin a subs day.

If KB1 were to launch against Ted’s carriers, I think they could do a number on them. I keep my CAP set at 60% of my fighters, so the offensive potential is 54 Vals at range 6 and 36 Judys and 117 Kates at range 7 escorted by 80 Zeros with 120 Zeros for fleet defense. Very nice.

The Chitose, Chiyoda, Mizuho and Nisshin are all converting to CVLs. When they are done in a few months, they’ll add 84 Zeros and 36 Kates to the mix. By September 1943, assuming no carrier losses, my total carrier strength will be almost 1000 aircraft.

There are quite a few new models arriving in the coming months, to include:

June 43
B6N2 Jill – Carrier TB – 30/month
E15K1 Norm – New FP – 30/month

July 43
Ki-43-IIIa Oscar – 128/month
Ki-100-II Tony – 120/month
A6M5c Zero – Armor! – 120/month – land based, maybe some on carriers for CAP.
H8K2-L Emily (TR) – 4/month
N1K1 Rex (FF) – Not sure I’ll build these.

August 43
P1Y1 Francis – 30/month

September 43
N1K2-J George – 120/month
Ki-49-IIb Helen – 90/month

October 43
J1N1-S Irving (NF) – Not sure I’ll build any of these.

November 43
D4Y3 Judy – Carrier DB – 30/month

I currently have the best Tojo model building (Ki-44-IIc). I’m almost to the point where I can field a sentai. They will go to SE Fleet AO to upgrade the Tojos down there. The Ki-44-IIa is holding its own there (and in Burma) so I expect a lot from this new model. I hope to turn the tide a bit with my new fighters (Tojo, George, Zero and Tony) over the next few months. I may outfit a couple of my carriers with the A6M5c Zero for CAP. By using them in that way, their short range will not hamper offensive operations. I’ll take a closer look at their stats as well as field any comments (as always) on what model of Zero should be used on carriers for offensive ops.

Finally, I’m going to use a Judy recon chutai (maybe 2) on 1-2 of my carriers for naval search purposes to free up some of my bombers for their primary mission. I need to check to see what units are available. I suspect it’ll be a training unit. I’m doing well with naval search pilots in the pool so I can afford to release a naval search chutai.

[Mike Solli]

Been thinking about the Allies assault on Adak. My forces have an AV equal to about a division. With level 6 forts, that's doubled twice so Ted will need to either wear my troops down significantly or land 4 divisions to get 1:1 odds. The down side of my defenses is that it's composed of a bunch of small units. A division hitting small units can usually cause serious damage to them. Not sure how the forts affect that though. The one attack he did on my units was the turn after he landed. He used APAs (which are amazing!) so I have no idea on how much disruption the division had. We'll see...

[Lowpe]

Mike, when is the Frank a due? And in what numbers?

You will be happy with Tony, you might want to think about jumping production there another 30 planes a month. I think you will need them.[;)]

Definitely try to re-take the air initiative. So very important.

I don't know if you have looked at the BB to BB/CS conversion. Turns the BB into a floating AA gun deck (some of it worthless late war rockets), but 20 additional Rex/Rufes flying low CAP doesn't hurt the KB.

[Mike Solli]

Hi Lowpe. I'm not sure about the Frank yet. So far I have 2x30 factories completely repaired with another few within a couple of being completely repaired and 3 more that are a long ways away, for a total of 8 factories so far. I'm hoping it's complete by the end of 43, but that's just a guess. The Ha-45 production will help a lot and it's getting close to the magic 500 in the pool. The Frank a is still stuck at 4/44 so factory repairs are still painfully slow. My goal is to have 12 R&D factories, which will help a lot. Two of the 6 Tony R&D factories will convert to the Frank next month when the Tony becomes operational. But, they'll have to repair too, so they probably won't do much for a while.

4x30 Tony R&D factories will become operational (I think - need to check to be sure), so I'll have an instant 120/month production. I'll review my Ha-45 needs to see if the engine production can support an additional 30 planes/month. Ha-45 engine production (when repairs are complete) will be 660/month. I don't want to increase it further, so we'll see what I can afford.

Retaking the air initiative is a daunting undertaking. I hope that the new fighter models will cause heavier Allied losses, especially in 4E bombers. That will cause Ted to rethink his tactics. Then I can consider taking the fight to his airbases.

I haven't looked at BB conversions. I'll add that to the list for this turn. Currently, I use only the Kongos to sail with KB due to speed issues with the other BBs. Eventually, it may come to using them as well, but the fuel cost will be considerable.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Mike, when is the Frank a due? And in what numbers?

You will be happy with Tony, you might want to think about jumping production there another 30 planes a month. I think you will need them.[;)]

Definitely try to re-take the air initiative. So very important.

I don't know if you have looked at the BB to BB/CS conversion. Turns the BB into a floating AA gun deck (some of it worthless late war rockets), but 20 additional Rex/Rufes flying low CAP doesn't hurt the KB.

Sorry for the hijack, but I was under the impression that the BB conversions were CVBB conversions. Can't you put proper aircraft on them? According to wiki they had Judy's on them historically.

[Mike Solli]

I didn't check the BBs. I'll do that later.

I finally took a couple of screen shots so you can see what's going on here and there. In a lot of places, there's really nothing to see. Here's a shot of the Aleutians. Hornet is 5 hexes to the east of Adak. The intel says there's more, but I'm convinced it's only Hornet. Lex was hit by a torpedo and 500kg bomb and she's headed for the hills. I have a sneaky suspicion that the Hornet has both carrier's squadrons of Wildcats and Dauntlesses and one partial squadron of Avengers. The other Avenger squadron (I think it may have been Torpedo 8) was shot down in its entirety.

All those Allied TFs floating around are either AMs or LSI(L)s, just little stuff. Dutch Harbor has about half a dozen TFs. It's hard to tell what's there, really.

[Mike Solli]

Here's what on the ground at Adak. It's got about the equivalent of a division's worth of AV (324). The level 6 forts will keep those troops alive against a US division.

[Mike Solli]

And finally, here's central China. The 2668 AV army in the north is the 3 Army, which is heading along the road to hit the base to the east of Chengtu. That base has 1 unit. Chengtu has 2 units (I suspect it's infantry and a base force). The base to the west of Chungking has 1 unit and you can see the rest. I think the 200k Chinese army is more like 4-500k.

The 70k Chinese army has been sitting there for a couple of months getting pounded by artillery and assaults. The other hexes with Chinese each have 1 unit. I have units that are surrounding the 70k army. Then the 1600 AV army will move NW toward Chungking.

The 3 Army will take the two northern Chinese bases. The 2381 AV army will move NW along the road and take the base to the west of Chungking. Then all 3 armies will converge on and surround Chungking. In addition, there are 4 additional full strength divisions headed toward Chungking. I estimate the total AV that will attack Chungking will be ~7k.