Meanwhile, in another corner of the multiverse (No Dmitry Z zone)

[John B.]

I do. I learned my lesson from our game. But, they don't fly. Some merchant convoy of AKs passed within two hexes of singapore. I had fighters on escort, 70,000 supply, torpedos, vildebeests set on naval attack. High agression, high morale, well rested and now we see why they're well rested. They don't bother to fly.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: John B.

I do. I learned my lesson from our game. But, they don't fly. Some merchant convoy of AKs passed within two hexes of singapore. I had fighters on escort, 70,000 supply, torpedos, vildebeests set on naval attack. High agression, high morale, well rested and now we see why they're well rested. They don't bother to fly.

You also need Nav Search to localize the enemy TF before the TBs will fly, and weather has to be very good to take off with a heavy load like torpedoes.
Re: the Nav Search - if you find the enemy with night search you might get in a morning attack. If you find them in the morning with Nav Search, you will get in an afternoon attack if the D/L is high enough. Lots depends on the Nav Search abilities of your search squadrons. If the skill numbers are low, they may see something but misreport it. Like subs, TBs will often refuse to attack xAKLs (not worth it).

[John B.]

Well it's the night before Christmas and apparently Dmirty did not get the memo about not bothering with the So Pac Islands. [:)] He just took Rabaul (expected) and, as you can see, he has also taken Espiritu Santo. I'm not too worried about this since there is nothing I could do to stop it anyway, but it augers for an Australian campaign. I'm building up Suva by completing the NZ Brigade and there are some US artillery units there as well. Convoys are on their way to Oz with US fighter planes and some troops and the Aussies have gathered all of their divisions. I figure he can take Townsville pretty easily since it's far north and clear terrain so I'm holding the divisions to the south and fortifying every where. After some dithering I'm also sending the CVs down under.

I was going to send a second NZ brigade to Suva but with this push he may try to snag lots of VPs by taking NZ itself so I'm not sure that's a great idea.

I expect his next attack to be Morsby and Noumea. More as it develops.

[John B.]

Meanwhile, the the DEI, Dmitry just took Palembang but my dutch boys held out for four days causing him to bombard twice and do some sweet sweet damage to those oil fields. Not a lot, but I'm doing a bomber rush this turn to try and cause more. I'm sure there will be fighters so I'll just have to hope my sweep works.

As for my torpedo planes, you can see the TF two hexes off shore from Singapore. I have search planes there, dutch search planes and torpedo planes sitting on the runways with fighter escorts all warmed up and nothing. The TFs report is TKs, AKs, and CAs so I'm sure the targets are juicy enough So, since they have flown no missions at all in the entire game (which would make 32 opportunities to do so if you figure a morning and an afternoon air phase) I'm just going to figure there is something in the programming that means they won't fly. Oh well, no sense worrying about it any more.

China is a small bright spot in the 1941 disaster parade. He came across the river near Yenan and has lost three combats in a row. This turn a new unit triggered a new shock attack and he lost 177 squads to my 2. Ya don't get to gloat too much about china so you might as well take advantage when you can. [:D]

He is bombing Soerebaja from Balikpapan. This prevents me from sucking out troops and resources so, since this puts his fighters at extended drop tank range I'm going to try to mix it up a bit. I've gotten into his bomber stream a couple of times, let's see if I can again.

[John B.]

Ooops, here is the Singapore picture.

[BBfanboy]

Final shot in the dark - is Singapore AF damaged at all?

[John B.]

Nope, he has never even bombed it. C'est la vie. In good air news the Dutch crews went after the Palembang oil fields and scored a number of hits. It looks like they're down to about 780 or so right now and I'll see if I can get it down more. If the B-17s can fly that will be all the better.

[John B.]

Here is the question de jour re: Singapore. How come the factories do not seem to be producing. There are no Japanese units in the hex. I have 33,292 resources and about 150,000 fuel. Yet these stockpiles have not gone down at all in more than a week. Singapore is cut off so nothing can be flowing in and the production is set to "ON". What am I missing?

In other news, a very very large set of ships including the entire KB is heading towards Port Moresby. Or, maybe Townsville who knows. There is not a lot I can do to stop them and Dmitry is moving very fast. I'm just biding my time and hoping that the reinforcements arrive in time. I have pulled the first Dutch regiment out of Java and that will head down to Perth. They're not great and they're not bad and they do give me more units.

I'm also gearing up for another bash at oil wells. Unlike the Vildebeest planes that just won't fly, the dutch medium bombers go in even unescorted. And they have caused some damage

Ariel recon shows jap forces heading towards burma. I've put in ground interdiction as each day I slow them down is one more day that the Burma road is open. I've pulled the main units out of Burma (no sense getting them killed for no gain) so once he gets in he'll take it all quickly. Not too much happening in China even where he could pick up some easy ground. I did remember to go through and turn off repair on the manpower and resource places so I'm not wasting supply there.

[bradfordkay]

Don't you need oil to get the heavy industry to produce?

[John B.]

THe manual says that each heavy industry point requires 20 resources and 2 fuel points so that can't be it. So the 70 HI centers should consume 1400 resources per turn add in the light industry taking up more resources and the stockpile should be going down unless these factories are not producing.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: John B.

THe manual says that each heavy industry point requires 20 resources and 2 fuel points so that can't be it. So the 70 HI centers should consume 1400 resources per turn add in the light industry taking up more resources and the stockpile should be going down unless these factories are not producing.

I think you missed a "0" on the fuel requirement there (S/B 20). HI produces two supply per turn, + an HI point (or two).
And Singers has LI too - only need 15 resources per centre to run that.

Maybe check that the base is not set to stockpile resources and fuel - that might prevent them from being used by industry?

[John B.]

Nope, not stockpiling. I"ll post on the technical issues.

[John B.]

Well we are zipping through turns. It's now January 15th and Dmitry has just landed in New Caledonia. The whole KB is wandering around off shore with AO support (and an ss just missed a shot at one . The US CVs are about to arrive in Melbourne and the first wave of US reinforcements headed south but are not at or near Sydney. It looks like an invasion of Australia at some point but I have to think that maintaining the SLOC that far south is tough to do and burns lots of fuel.

Speaking of which, it's easy for my bombers to find Palembang because of all the smoke overhead. I have bombed it down to about 625 oil. It costs a lot of Ducth bombers but, honestly, what else are they going to do. If I wait for the invasion they just die against CAP to disrupt a few inf. squads this way his oil production is way down and, with one more raid maybe, just maybe, I'll get it below 600. He'll rebuild it, but it does not help. And, I've also been bombing the New Guinea oil fields and they're about half gone.

Burma is embarassing. He's taking it with a couple of infantry regiments. I'm not fighting too hard for it but still.

China I made a major mistake and let an AVG squadron get overrun. D'oh! But, I got greedy and paid the price. [:-] I'm landing the British division and the Aussies in India for now but they're staying in Port for sending to Oz if the call arrives. And, in Oz, the shovel is digging in at the important cities!

[BBfanboy]

I think the AVG squadrons are withdrawn fairly early in the game, no? I think that squadron will come back in a year or so as an unrestricted US squadron.

[Bif1961]

July, 1942 I believe.

[John B.]

They do leave in July 42 but they are one of the few potent weapons the US has. Oh well, my mistake and my elctronic chinese pay the price.

Here are some screen shots. As you can see, Palembang is still above 600 and I probably only have one more shot left, but a gallent effort nonetheless.

[John B.]

It may not matter much in the end, but it is depriving him of a lot of oil every turn!

[John B.]

As you can see he has the KB laying siege to Suva. I have a NZ brigade and the 1st marine regiment there along with artillery and a coastal defense unit and an AA unit. He has taken New caledonia and all the way down to Efate (sp?). A very quick advance. Now, I think the only real purpose served here is to go after Australia for an auto victory otherwise it's a lot of fuel and ships just to keep his new bases operational. And, hopefully I have enough in Suva to hold out.

FYI, take a look towards the bottom right portion of the screen and you'll see two US TFs. One is the reinforcement convoy full of juicy APs and the other is a large tanker convoy. Dmitry was just 10 hexes away from these two with the whole KB (in other words, just out of search range) and if he had moved in the right direction he would have clobbered them. Phew! If the KB quits hanging around I can run in and finish unloading, If not, well, let's hope the marines and kiwis can hold

[John B.]

Final one. Here is China. It's been pretty quiet although I'm managed to roughly handle two IJA divisions and he's made a few corps surrender. But, in A I have five units in a total pocket (got to watch those guys slipping behind the lines and closing the circle) and in B I have a number of corps but he has four divisions and brigades. I hope to eliminate A but B has me worried. Most of my guys are iffy morale and experience but they are strong, non-disrupted, and in good terrain. Fingers crossed.

[MrKane]

If I may give my 5 cent here I will suggest immediately send reinforces to Tahiti build fort to lvl 6 there. Do not send staff to New Zealand it is his next step and He will came with strong force 3-4 IDs. And BTW invasion of NZ does not mean he will not invade India. Dimitri is very aggressive during 1 sage of war. However I have no clue how he behave later ;(