General Patton vs. larryfulkerson Focus Pacific #75

[larryfulkerson]

TF 97 is still a couple days travel from Wake but my troops there already are holding up pretty well due to the aerial pounding the KB
is applying to the Allied troops defending there. But now I need the KB closer to Baker island and maybe to sweep the east coast of
Australia. I think I've found the Enterprise near Port Moresby and that may mean that the rest of his carriers are near there too. He's
probably got his carriers close together to protect themselves. I would.

[larryfulkerson]

There was a small skirmish near Milne bay as our planes passed each other in the air for strikes on the other. Here's the results of the
Allied strike. Not too bad at all. I can live with that.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results from my strike: I got some hits on the Enterprise.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm guessing I got off lightly here. I had no CAP over the targets and the Allied losses are light and I'll bet I can count on more strikes
yet from somewhere. I've grouped the severely damaged ships and set them on a course for Rabaul and I'm going to leave the rest
of them at PM to act as bait. Plus, prevent the reinforcement of PM if possible. I think this group came from the Enterprise also so if
the Enterprise can launch it's planes there could be another strike forming up.

[larryfulkerson]

So here's what's going on at Port Moresby now. I've got an escort group headed to Rabaul and a group that's staying at PM to
continue their mission. I'm hoping to get more strikes on the Allied carrier group and maybe send some LRCAP to PM for once.
Brian got in a good strike and these broken ships are going to be laid up for a while I'm thinking.

[larryfulkerson]

I tried an attack at Davao and it appears that I need to soften up the target a little bit still. Or I could just be in a hurry and try to
strong arm the defenders through DA's for about a week. The losses from such a program seem prohibitive. I'd rather give them
some treatment of a naval bombardment or two and see if that breaks down the target any.

[larryfulkerson]

I did a night naval bombardment of K-town and got in some good hits. Nobody hit a mine either. So far so good.

[larryfulkerson]

I need to look around more. I just now accidently found the 44th division at Guam and it would be perfect for taking Port Moresby.
I've got to get some troop transports to Guam and move that bad boy. I'm wondering if I need to grab Milne Bay before I try something
at PM. I'll have to think about it some more.

[larryfulkerson]

I discovered that the pieces of the 20th division of the Korean Army are close to each other so I thought I'd put them together and
then as soon as I have enough PP's to buy it out I can use it somewhere else.

[larryfulkerson]

I built some midget subs at Rabaul because I thought it might be fun to experiment with them around Brisbane and Sydney. See what
kind of results we get. Now I need a midget sub carrier for them. As I recall I have several but I don't remember which ones they are.
I'll have to look around some.

[larryfulkerson]

I found four of them without too much trouble since I left the note in the TF to identify them.

[paradigmblue]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

I tried an attack at Davao and it appears that I need to soften up the target a little bit still. Or I could just be in a hurry and try to
strong arm the defenders through DA's for about a week. The losses from such a program seem prohibitive. I'd rather give them
some treatment of a naval bombardment or two and see if that breaks down the target any.

You shouldn't have to worry about mines at Kwangchowan.

Did you have one of your battleship float planes doing night recon of the hex? I would have expected better results. Keep at it - Patton has very few air assets that can do any damage to your battleships in this area of the map at this point in the game, so you can continually bombard that airfield with your battleships until its out of commission and there is very little that Patton can do about it.

Patton is being much to aggressive with his carriers, and he's paid for it. Between the Enterprise and the two CLVs that you put the hurt on, it's going to be a while till he can counter even your CVL TFs. I would continue to be aggressive with your carriers until May/June. At that time the Joffre and Painleve will finish their construction if Patton has moved them to a large enough repair yard (and he's experienced enough with this mod that I'm sure he has), and most of the CLVs will have finished their refits and become CVLs, doubling their effectiveness.

Once that happens, you should probably start operating your carriers in larger TFs again.

Honestly, in Focus Pacific, while the ground-based air war is much tougher for the IJA in 42 than in stock, the IJN's carrier air-power is even more dominant during that same time frame. And, like in stock, it's not until spring of 43 when the Hellcat arrives that you really have to be careful. The additional French carriers field an excellent fighter, but there aren't enough of them until the French receive their two big carriers built on the Alsace battleship hulls to make a real difference vs a 4-6 carrier strong KB.

[larryfulkerson]

Although some of the midget sub carriers are returning to Rabaul from as far away as Pearl they are all headed that way. So in about
a week or so there should be some kind of midget sub operation operating out of Rabaul. If it all works out alright then I'm thinking about
planing a midget sub in most of the ports between Sydney and Pago Pago inclusive.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: paradigmblue
You shouldn't have to worry about mines at Kwangchowan.
Did you have one of your battleship float planes doing night recon of the hex? I would have expected better results. Keep at it - Patton has very few air assets that can do any damage to your battleships in this area of the map at this point in the game, so you can continually bombard that airfield with your battleships until its out of commission and there is very little that Patton can do about it.

I hear you. Will do. Actually it's kind of crude fun to bombard his base and destroy
all those prescious planes. I don't remember putting anybody on nighttime recon for the
bombardment this time. I'll try to remember to do it for future missions.

ORIGINAL: paradigmblue
Patton is being much to aggressive with his carriers, and he's paid for it. Between the Enterprise and the two CLVs that you put the hurt on, it's going to be a while till he can counter even your CVL TFs. I would continue to be aggressive with your carriers until May/June. At that time the Joffre and Painleve will finish their construction if Patton has moved them to a large enough repair yard (and he's experienced enough with this mod that I'm sure he has), and most of the CLVs will have finished their refits and become CVLs, doubling their effectiveness.

Once that happens, you should probably start operating your carriers in larger TFs again.

I think that is really good advice and I'm planning on sweeping the east coast of OZ with
my carriers to see what I can possibly sink. I've rounded up some AO's for that task and
they are headed to Rabaul even as we speak.

ORIGINAL: paradigmblue
Honestly, in Focus Pacific, while the ground-based air war is much tougher for the IJA in 42 than in stock, the IJN's carrier air-power is even more dominant during that same time frame. And, like in stock, it's not until spring of 43 when the Hellcat arrives that you really have to be careful. The additional French carriers field an excellent fighter, but there aren't enough of them until the French receive their two big carriers built on the Alsace battleship hulls to make a real difference vs a 4-6 carrier strong KB.

Good advice still. I'm having a blast playing this mod. It's not as boring as stock.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a situation you don't see every day. I have a sub at Manus that has a detection level of 100/0 and I can't tell if that's good or
bad. Anybody see that before?

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Here's a situation you don't see every day. I have a sub at Manus that has a detection level of 100/0 and I can't tell if that's good or
bad. Anybody see that before?

It is my experience that if you take a base then that turn and/or the next turn the detection level is ridiculously high likely due to the recent occupation of the other player.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Wargmr

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
Here's a situation you don't see every day. I have a sub at Manus that has a detection level of 100/0 and I can't tell if that's good or
bad. Anybody see that before?

It is my experience that if you take a base then that turn and/or the next turn the detection level is ridiculously high likely due to the recent occupation of the other player.

That makes sense. Thanks for that. And a rapid reply too.

[larryfulkerson]

I found a TF that had left Babeldaob and was intended for Cam Ranh Bay and was part way along the path when I commendered it
and re-routed it to Guam to pick up the 44th division so I can use it on Port Moresby. PM needs some softening up yet but soon
it'll be ready. I want to round up the troops for the project so I don't have to do that later. I still need to find some unemployed AF
dudes and some road construction engineers for the PM project.

[larryfulkerson]

I found a squadron that had only 9 planes left and thought I'd use them for the LRCAP over PM to protect my ships from another air
strike. If it happens. I'm sending all the fighters except one which will rest. I have no idea how long they are going to need to do
this but at least as long as there's enemy ships within range it's needed. I mean enemy ships that can launch planes to strike.

[ny59giants]

Port Moresby - I would look at taking nearby "Lae" b4 you go for this base to offer a closer than Rabaul AF for possible LRCAP. Your efforts here seem to be done without much planning and just throwing together what forces you stumble across. Why??

OT slightly - In my game vs GP, Brian now has 23 LCUs at PM in mid-Feb and over 100 fighters. [X(] Rather than get upset or react quickly to this news, I've left him alone in this part of the map as I've expanded down the Solomons to Luganville with future sights set on Koumac and eventually all of New Calendonia. Some Allied players, but not me, will try to make a major stand at PM (you just ran into some of his CV to reinforce my thoughts here). IMO, it cannot be defended and most importantly reinforced easily once Japan takes Horn Island and Milne Bay (along with building them up). So, you can decide that you want PM now or do like me and make it a short term POW camp. I'm thinking of using the 14th Army on Luzon for the task in Apr/May.

2 weeks in - What is headed for Palembang right now? You cannot afford to let this base be in Allied hands for too much longer. He has a couple of Indian brigades at sea on the west side of India as the war begins. I would try to get them to Oosthaven and RR them into Palembang.