Tale of the Sheep! - JocMeister (A) vs. Lowpe (J)

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: obvert
Good haul! [:)]

Strange set-up. A mixed speed TF with some decent ships and some very average ones. Sakura Maru, E Uruyame and DMS W-20 are way too good to be in that TF. You don't get may of any of those types, and they're all really useful.

Jeff seems to have a habit of doing very strange TFs. Recently had 4 CAs and nothing else rush into Luganville. [X(]

[Speedysteve]

Keeps things interesting for you at least. Good luck in India/Burma. Do you have plans to counter attack in Canada?

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

Keeps things interesting for you at least. Good luck in India/Burma. Do you have plans to counter attack in Canada?

If I could I would let him have it to the end of the war. But there are so much Japanese VPs there I have to take it back in 43.

I havn´t set a definitive date yet but I´m probably going to start something here in mid 43.

[ny59giants]

Can you spend supply to create huge number of those small barges at Prince Rupert to carry troops to the nearby bases?

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Can you spend supply to create huge number of those small barges at Prince Rupert to carry troops to the nearby bases?

Good idea. I´ll look into it! [:)]

[JocMeister]

Back from the dead sort of...

Had a great night out with the missus. Ate some of the best meat I have ever had. Rib eye from Poland and a Beef from Scotland. Simply amazing both of them. A night at the hotel with no kids didn´t hurt either! [:D]

Back home now and sent the turn off to Jeff. Another assault over Coal Harbor and a very, very risky attack in India. Attacked despite x2 time overstack...hopefully Jeff leaves the hex before the attack! [:D]

[JocMeister]

Back on track. Unfortunately Jeff having some power issues so I havn´t gotten the turn yet.

Got the replay and things didn´t look too brightly. Hard to tell without the turn but my attack on CH didn´t go well by the looks of it.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]19th October -42[/font]
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Not the best of turns. But nothing too bad either.

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NORPAC/WC
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Of course everything goes bonkers here with the sweeps/bombings as usual. The P39 LRCAP rain in again while the day is started with the weaker P40Es and Wildkittens on Sweep/LRCAP.

In the PM phase the bombers come first protected by only the Kitten LRCAP. Results arn´t good and I lose 17 4Es and 12 2Es. Not good. Last comes the Ks. But then of course the Japanese CAP is worn out and not even coming up.

Sucks but its normal AE behavior so I´m used to it. Havn´t decided on if I should continue tomorrow.

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India
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Wow. Absolutely nothing worked out here either. None of my TFs bombard but stay 1 hex outside Chittagong...[8|] Bombardments are so broken you might just as well just toss a dice.

I got really lucky here though that nothing got hit. I had a LRCAP up over the TFs just in case. Despite the LRCAP being worn out by the long range they managed to disturb the bombers enough that they all missed.

My LRCAP is completely spent with FAT in 30+. CAs will pull back to Calcutta under Hurricane CAP while Force Z will retire towards Madras. I´ve been here long enough. Time to head to Cape for the 10/42 refits and join up with BB Washington. The British CAs will remain in the IO alone for now.

Here is the screen of the carnage. 1:1 I´m happy with. But not 1:2. This simply isn´t good enough.

[Lokasenna]

Be sure to update to the latest beta. The bombardments might be fixed. If you missed the thread I started on it, Michael commented about how sometimes bombardment TFs would move at less than mission speed if the distance to the target was less than (or equal to?) mission speed... for no good reason. I'm not sure exactly what he changed, but he has changed something there.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Be sure to update to the latest beta. The bombardments might be fixed. If you missed the thread I started on it, Michael commented about how sometimes bombardment TFs would move at less than mission speed if the distance to the target was less than (or equal to?) mission speed... for no good reason. I'm not sure exactly what he changed, but he has changed something there.

Ah, thanks! Yeah, I missed that one. Pretty much only drops in to the forum to update my own AAR lately. Not much time for anything else. Don´t even have time to read other AARs. [:(]

I´ll talk to Jeff about updating!

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]20th October -42[/font]
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Nothing spectacular.

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NORPAC/WC
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Given most of my fighters didn´t fly on the 19th we go again on the 20th. We do a lot better but still only manage a 1:1. I have decided to stop the sweeps for now.

The current ratio isn´t good enough. We are well safe from AV so there is no need to throw away planes and pilots right now. I´ll disperse the fighters to cover as much as possible and see if I can hit some of his bombers.


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SOPAC
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A small Japanese DD force rush into Luganville after spotting one of my small xAKL TFs. I suspected something might come so I disbanded everything that had unloaded at Luganville. Only a lone xAKL remained at it was promptly sunk with 450 supply still onboard. Another TF is loading at Noumea.


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India
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The Navy disengages safely. Now I "only" have to avoid the subs before leaving for CT. The air force is recovering FAT and will do so for another turn. RAF is on CAP.

Japanese army has pulled back to Chittagong. Allies are in pursuit. To avoid overstacking I sent some forces back to clear the Ledo area together with some reinforcements.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]21th October -42[/font]
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Me stupid.

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NORPAC/WC
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Guess who forgot to stand down the Sweeps over CH? Yupp. Me. . 44 lost for 28 shot down...

SIGINT show the 2nd Army planning for Victoria. Have to look that one up and see what units are tied to it.

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SOPAC
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Nothing much. I did spot some Japanese DDs outside Hiva Oa. Took Jeff long enough to realize pretty much everything for SOPAC was going this route. [:)]

Nothing in danger here though. Have a TF returning to Balboa but they will go off map the next turn. Nothing incoming for at least a month. I´ll either send it deeper into SOPAC via Tahiti or give it an escort.

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India
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Nothing to report.

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General Allied moves.
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Nothing planned for October/November besides base expansion in SOPAC. Navy and merchants are getting that important 10/42 refit done.

In India we will expel the Japanese and then expand the bases towards Burma. I have yet to decided if I´ll go through Burma or something else. Will have to decide soon. 100 days of prepp...

[BBfanboy]

Only about 75 days of prep if you can leave them in rest mode.

The sweeps cancellation mistake was not stupidity - it's a symptom of someone overtired and rushed in doing things. You take a lot of things on yourself and you should expect that a few details will fall between the cracks. I'm amazed that you are doing so well in this game!

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Only about 75 days of prep if you can leave them in rest mode.

The sweeps cancellation mistake was not stupidity - it's a symptom of someone overtired and rushed in doing things. You take a lot of things on yourself and you should expect that a few details will fall between the cracks. I'm amazed that you are doing so well in this game!

What he said! [8D]

[JocMeister]

Thanks guys. Thing have been a little bit too hectic lately indeed. I keep waiting for RL to calm down but it never does. Sadly the game and AAR is suffering. Hope things settle down eventually. I´m getting some R&R next weekend. Will head to Dortmund to watch some soccer. All expenses paid by work. It will hell of a trip I´m sure! [:D]

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]22nd October -42[/font]
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Good a good two hours done on the turn. Been a long time since I really got to sit down and sort though everything!

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NORPAC/WC
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I´m getting more and more convinced something is brewing here. Been sifting through SIGINT and Jeff is moving a lot of troops into the area. I´m now counting at least 8 IDs in Hawaii and NORPAC. He has also moved a ton of artillery and armor in. Divisions have even been pulled from India to this area. And last turn I got this nugget.

CV Zuikaku is moving to Pearl Harbor (180,107).

Also have more arty moving for Hawaii...Moving KB to an area isn´t a defensive move. I´ll try to put up a list of the divisions I know are in the area. We may be looking at a full scale invasion of Canada or even the West coast itself.

Or he simply wants to hang on to his gains. That would make me just as happy as a Canada/WC invasion. Either way I win! [:)]

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SOPAC
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Finally got the time to sort this mess out. I´ve made some mistakes here and are now paying the price for it logistics wise. I let both Hiva Oa and Tahiti run dry of fuel. So I now have 2 big TFs stuck in Auckland...I also let Crisobal run dry. So instead of filling up Hiva Oa and Tahiti I had to send all the tankers to the EC to fill up Cristobal. This will cause at least a 4 week delay on my supply chain. Luckily I have enough fuel and supply in NZ to keep things going during that time.

We have a big OP coming up in a few days here. Luganville will be reinforced even further. Simultaneously we will land at Aoba and establish a new forward base North of Luganville. This time I´m not going to rely on small TFs. This is a big OP with good cover. I threw in a surprise here for Jeff. This is basically a trap. Lets see if he takes the bait!

I tried moving a small xAKL TF up to Townsville. I had hoped Jeff wasn´t keeping an eye up here but the TF was spotted and I had to pull it back. This will slow things down for now. I had hope to ship some engineers up to Portland Roads. They will now have to walk instead. Its a looooong walk. [:(]

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India
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Jeff has taken a stand a Chittagong. The rest of India is just mopping up for now. We upgraded to the latest BETA so I´m going to try another bombardment here shortly.

I also took a big risk here and decided to let the USN upgrade at Colombo. With Zuikaku moving for Pearl and at least 2 CVs in SOPAC I feel pretty safe from CV strikes in the IO. Nonetheless I have moved 100 Fighters to Colombo for CAP. This has removed my offensive capabilities for a while in India. Its a compromise.

During this time Force Z is on Ceylon guard awaiting BB Washingtons arrival from CT. Northampton, Vincennes and Houston just departed Aden after repairs and refits. This will boost my strength significantly. I´m chronically short on DDs though and this won´t be solved for a very long time.

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Overall situation
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I´m pretty happy and confident at the moment. Japanese forces concentrating in NORPAC/CENTPAC is truly a boon and gives me a lot of room to maneuver in India and SOPAC.

For now I´ll continue to power creep forward there while remaining on a defensive stance in NORPAC. Allied VPs are slowly rising thanks to base expansion in India, SOPAC and OZ. When Chungking falls we will take a big dip in VPs but there is no danger of AV. Chungking is already n red so we are not getting my VPs from that anyway so it will mostly be a boost to Japanese VPs.

Once forts are built up on the WC I can switch to expanding AFs/Ports which should get me some extra VPs as well. To sum it up I´m happy with the situation but not with my own play.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Japanese Divisions in NORPAC/Hawaii[/font]
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4th ID
12th ID
14th ID (This is uncertain. Was moving for the Phillipines 3 months ago and havn´t been seen since then)
16th ID
48th ID
6th Guards ID

Another 2 IDs are unaccounted for. Last SIGINT I found was them going for India. But as far as I can remember I have never run into them in India. So they might be elsewhere.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Thanks guys. Thing have been a little bit too hectic lately indeed. I keep waiting for RL to calm down but it never does. Sadly the game and AAR is suffering. Hope things settle down eventually. I´m getting some R&R next weekend. Will head to Dortmund to watch some soccer. All expenses paid by work. It will hell of a trip I´m sure! [:D]

Nice! How does that work? Are you there for the Hamburg match next Sunday?

I'll be close by from Thursday to Sunday in Bonn. Also for work. Should be fun! [8D]

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: obvert
Nice! How does that work? Are you there for the Hamburg match next Sunday?

I'll be close by from Thursday to Sunday in Bonn. Also for work. Should be fun! [8D]

We were supposed to watch the Bundeliga game on Saturday. But that one was moved so now we are going to see some lower league game. A bit of a bummer...Murphy at his best. [:(]

At least the beer will be free! [:D]

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]23rd October -42[/font]
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Nothing to report.

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NORPAC/WC
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More SIGINT coming in. Couldn´t find the 8th division in the OOB. Anyone have any info?

8th Division is planning for an attack on Prince Rupert.
48th/B Division is planning for an attack on Prince Rupert.

Regardless I think this is fake. PR is the worst place in NORPAC to invade. Besides if I remember correctly another part of the 48th is prepping for Victoria.

So at least for now I´ll write this of was fake.

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SOPAC
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Everything moves into the start position. Everything should be in place next turn.

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India
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Nothing.