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

[Lovejoy]

Yikes! You really did a number on his ships there, and he'll think twice about basing such assets there again. At the least, he'll have to bring up some fighters to protect the port if he wants to use it. Any chance of you trying to hit Colombo with some bombers from Madras?

[John B.]

The final toll for the Colombo air raids was (I have good reason to believe) 1 BB, 2 CAs, 3 CLs, 2 DDs, 1 AV, and 1 SS. So far my CV is afloat and trying to desperately get out of air range and I'm praying that I don't run into more IJN subs!

To give Demitry credit he had a lot of planes in Ceylon so it took a multistage effort to get these ships. First, night bombing the airfields to have him put fighters up at night (reducing his day time CAP). Then, move my CAs with the CVs within 8 hexes of colombo. The CV fighters protected the CAs from naval strikes since all fighters on board were flying CAP. Then the CAs could rush in to bombard the airfield at Colombo and the same day long distance fighter sweeps and any bomber that could fly hit the Ceylon airfields. I had actually started building up airfields in S. India for this very reason. This whittled down his fighters both from his naval strikes and the shore bombardment and the air bombardment and wrecked the airfield. Then, the next day the carriers came down for the port strike while land based air continued to fly fighter sweeps. The ships were originally there because I had damaged the BB from the surprise CV attack about 14 days prior. I suppose he should have moved them out but he may not have been able to do so due to damage and they may have been in drydock.

Now, the question is, what to do with my carriers.

[John B.]

Well, I'm sad to report that the Hornet ran into another IJN sub, took two more torpeodes and sank. I had ASW all over the place but it really seems like the shallow water limitation on subs does not apply to the IJN right now. I've had a number of occasions with British DDs at ASW 8 and good captains not even find subs after a torpedo attack.

Sigh, well, just pressing on.

[John B.]

Sorry for the pause, but not too much was happening. However, there are doings afoot in China and at Suva. First, the bad news is that I had a torpedo hit the Kaga near Tokyo. Naturally, it did not explode. [:@] Thank goodness the turn before US torpedoes had exploded on two AKLs. Demitry will be missing those AKLs as the war goes on. [8|]

But, the good news is that put the Kaga heading to Japan for its July 1942 refit. This confirms that Dmitry will be down 1-3 CVs over the next month down at Suva. Why is this important? I have every allied CV afloat converging on New Zealand along with 10 or so CAS, 5 or so CLs and a bunch of AKs to push supply through to Suva. My educated hope is to use the CV/CA combination to get close enough to Nadi to shut it down with bombardments and then get the supplies through. If I catch any IJN ships that would be a bonus. My CVs have been on a long long journey to get there, let's hope they can arrive in time and not run into subs. But, if he's down CVs for refit then the odds of this operation succeeding go up.

Suva needs the supply, it's down to 20K and Demitry has just landed lots of artillery and extra divisions from the Philippines there so anything I can get in will be helpful. I've got level five forts lots of artillery and 4 regiments plus one tank battalion and a corps.

In China, Demitry has started his push to Urumchai with 4 tank regiments. The long road behind them is susceptible to being cut and it has. No supplies for those units.

In India no action from Deitry but I have a plan that is ongoing to take the jungle northeast. I figure I might as well be using the extra divisions I have there.

[John B.]

So, here is the problem de jour. Suva is down to 11K supply. If it falls its worth 1000 VP plus a huge number of American troops and devices (1,200 artillery pieces just as an example). All of my carriers (5 American and 1 British) near New Zealand and heading north with scads of CAs and CLs as well as all manner of transports full of about 60K supply. The nut to crack, however, is Nadi. As you can see, there are lots of planes in Nadi. Lots and lots of planes. I have not been doing recon runs so I don't know how accurate these numbers are, but Demitry has clearly been building the airfield up to level 7. The best I can figure it is that I need to get shore bombardments in with the CAs to shut down the airfield, or at least damage the planes and demoralize the pilots.

But, I'll need to be within 9 hexes of Nadi to make that happen and then fight my way through his surface ships.This makes his zeros fly with drop tanks and if I put every fighter on the carriers into the air I should have 100+ or so. Plus, his bombers will have to chose between lots of targets (flooding the zone as it were). It's now or never and he does not have any carriers in the area. Or should I just abandon Suva to its fate and save the carriers from risk? I don't like that option but I should consider it.

One can only imagine the fuel and supply Demitry is expending to sustain his units on Fiji. My recon reports at least 69 units.

[panzer cat]

Go Dmitry

[Bif1961]

Send the multiple CA TFs in to bombard Nadi, and if not shutting it down at least damaging AF and groups, if he is over stacked he will suffer more losses. Keep your TFs small 2-3 CA/CL and 3-4 DDs to wear through whatever surface TFs he has there and then allowing later ones to work over the airbase unopposed. Also why do you need to be within 9 hexes when u can send them in at flank speed further away and therefore not subject to an attack on the way in. carriers kept back and max CAP over them in case he does launch air attacks with depleted units your CAP and flak should shred them and even if the airfield survives his squadrons may not.

[John B.]

Good advice, the CA TFs are broken down into the various smaller contingents. The problem is that if the surface TFs can't be there at dawn then they don't bombard they just move close enough to bombard at the next dawn and that would leave them sitting ducks for an entire day of air attacks. So, I need to be within 9 hexes so that they will run in the next day (speed is 9 for each TF) and the carriers need to be there to provide the aircover. 9 hexes is also outside of the normal range for his zeros (at least for now) so his escorts would be flying at a disadvantage and, hopefully, let my fighters get through to the Betty's and Nells.

If I do get the bombardments off he may well lose a lot of planes. The last read was 400+ planes stacked at the level 7 airfield. All my TFs are stacked together so hopefully at least some of the bombers go after CA TFs.

Demitry is likely to see me this turn so we'll see what happens!

[BBfanboy]

If his Zekes are escorting bombers, your CAP should shred them. Go for it, if you know KB will not combine with the LBA.

[CaptBeefheart]

Very interesting AAR. Could you show us a sunk ship list showing down to the CL level? Also, a point screen would be great to see at this juncture.

I've had to build up Vavau and/or Tongatapu in the past against an aggressive Andy Mac Ironman-on-Steroids AI (Tongatapu was actually a base in real life). Let's hope you can salvage Suva. The problem is it's a little early in the Allied buildup for it to serve as a proper Guadalcanal meatgrinder.

Cheers,
CC

[John B.]

On the eve of a crucial battle, here is how things stand. Sunk ship list next.

[John B.]

CVs, BBs, and CAs.

[John B.]

End of the CAs and the CLs.

[John B.]

End of the CLs plus the CS my PT boats took care of at Pago Pago.

[John B.]

And, where the ships should be at the end of the day. The marked patrol zone is where my carriers and surface TFs will be, in range for a run at Nadi. Resupply ships are right behind!

[John B.]

And, of course, there is always a twist (it's why we love this game). Lo and behold a mini KB has been seen heading to Canton Island. It sank two AKs and a DD this turn with Kates and Jakes. Will it keep heading towards Canton or storm down to Nadi? Could it make a difference down there? Will the land based air attack my CVs and to what effect? Does Demitry know I'm coming? Are there Jap subs lurking that I cannot find? Well, to paraphrase US Grant, I'm tired of worrying about what Yamamoto is going to do to me and I'd rather worry about what I'm going to do to Yamamoto!

The turn has been sent.

Ialia Jacta Est!

[Bif1961]

Looks like he was trying to intercept ships traveling from East of Canton to Suva area with his mini-KB. I would assume finding some targets he will continue to move east hunting more convoys. Good luck with your operation and you are right there are hundreds of things to think about but you have to just let the chips fall where they may. It is the burden of being a commander, you send out the men, ships and planes and hope they accomplish the mission and enough of them make it back. I don't play like Stalin throwing away 100,000 troops for a possible advantage 6 months or a year later. He could do it because he controlled the media so little truth got back to the people but as the Allied player it would leak out as the gold star flags started appearing in the windows across the nation at a rapid rate. I feel some Allied players play more like the Axis players.

[John B.]

Ok, here are the results from Day One. I think BBFanboy said once that the most accurate air-to-air results are on this screen and let's hope so! A few bombers did make it through the the CVs but there were no hits (boy is that nerve wracking to watch!). I hope this not only puts a dent in his pool of planes on Nadi, but that it also damages the moral of the pilots who survived making them less effective tomorrow.

So, tonight there are 6 surface TFs heading into Nadi for shore bombardment. He has a LOT of ships there so I hope at least a few make it through for the actual bombardment. There is 0% moonlight which should help me getting through but give the Japs an edge if it comes to combat. Or not, we'll see.

I'm putting the CVs right up next to Suva. this will allow them to take advantage of the Suva fighters who are set on maximum escort with a range of 1. If Dmitry comes out to fight and try to intercept the supply ships coming out he may run into my carriers to I do have a BB TF set for the same hexes as the carriers.

On to Day two!

[John B.]

Dmmitry's CV TF did head towards Canton Island. If he maxs speeds he might get within range of my CVs, but barely. It depends on whether or not he feels like tusseling with me with his CS and CVL/CVE mini KB. The dent in his landbased air power should make that a riskier gambit for him.

[John B.]

That could have gone much better! OTOH that could have gone much worse. First the very sad totals. I lost 7 CAs, 1 CL and 4 DDs and he lost 5 DDs. Yeah, it was an ugly night/day series of surface combats. One of the most frustrating things was that his subs have been hitting pretty much anything they've been shooting at while I think I'm up to 9 misses in a row (the only two hits were duds) even when shooting at AKs and APs. Sigh. The only potential positive not is that the Kirishima took 14 hits and was reported with heavy damage and on fire. The CA Tone took a torpedo hit, the Suzuya took 12 hits and was reported to be on fire, the Chikuma took 10 hits. If he loses a BB and a CA it will be much more even.

More sadness is that there were no bombardments of Nadi so he had 120 fighters in the air. I only had one squadron go in and I don't think anyone came out (I must not have done the range reduction.