Kane and Unable ;] - Game over 1945.

[Mike McCreery]

September 21, 1944

The revealed map shows a lot of action going on. MrKane is not going to disappoint me as his carriers are southeast of Shikuka already.

[Mike McCreery]

I set some mine traps out (see above) and a couple destroyers and a heavy cruiser wandered into them. At worst this will make him take a few more hexes to come and go for replenisment until he can get rid of them.

MrKane has put more than a few of my ships into the yards due to his expert use of minefields.

[Mike McCreery]

Over 500AA guns at Shikuka. Hopefully I will have nearly 800 mines out in front after this turn.

MrKane is closing fast and I met my goal of 1/2 million supply so I am going to take almost all of the fleet and jhook up northeast 6 hexes (to the hex with the amphib fleets in it) with an attack set for 30% CAP at 15,000 feet max range 6 hexes with all the other aircraft to attack.

If MrKane comes up hot and fast we may clash this next turn. After the last 2 disastrous carrier encounters I am sort of gunshy. I verified multiple times that my fighter groups do not have anything as their target and hopefully that resolves the issue of no protection for my attack(s).

[Mike McCreery]

MrKane has diminished my STF ammunition by sending a lot of fluff after me

[Mike McCreery]

This turn I intend to do the same back by breaking off 4-5 Destroyer and DE STF's and shotgunning them out in front of Shikuka.

[Mike McCreery]

So, after that whole setup, the scientific naval graph and everything... Zip, Zero, Nada in the air war.

Dont know if the mine fields spooked MrKane or he never planned on moving further into the bay. On the plus side, the mine fields have done better than I could have hoped. I blame this on my pathetic use of them during the game causing MrKane to let his guard slip a bit.

[Bif1961]

Do you have HRs against using hundreds of empty ships to soak up a surface or air attacks? It seems a little gamey to me, unless you are playing unlimited HRs. I have HRs for limited PT boats per harbor because some have used dozens of PT boats to soak up ammo and op points of bombardment TFs because the game system allows/works that way. Remember those vessels, though possible not needed are crewed by real people and assigning them death missions is not what the Allies would do at this point of the war. I do give the Japanese more latitude because as the war got desperate for them they did start suicide operations below, on above the surface.

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

Do you have HRs against using hundreds of empty ships to soak up a surface or air attacks? It seems a little gamey to me, unless you are playing unlimited HRs. I have HRs for limited PT boats per harbor because some have used dozens of PT boats to soak up ammo and op points of bombardment TFs because the game system allows/works that way. Remember those vessels, though possible not needed are crewed by real people and assigning them death missions is not what the Allies would do at this point of the war. I do give the Japanese more latitude because as the war got desperate for them they did start suicide operations below, on above the surface.

MrKane purposely allowed certain allied units to remain in his Kamikaze zone so he got them activated on January 1, 1944 even though I was nowhere near his activation lines.

We are not playing a simulation, we are playing a war game :]

If there was an HR against it I would certainly follow it.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Wargmr

September 21, 1944

The revealed map shows a lot of action going on. MrKane is not going to disappoint me as his carriers are southeast of Shikuka already.

Yeah, but 4 days is too long a delay. You are really in the drivers seat here. Gonna be interesting to watch.

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: Wargmr

September 21, 1944

The revealed map shows a lot of action going on. MrKane is not going to disappoint me as his carriers are southeast of Shikuka already.

Yeah, but 4 days is too long a delay. You are really in the drivers seat here. Gonna be interesting to watch.

To be fair, I was ready to jump off near Davao when we tangled last time. I lost 450 dive bombers and torpedo bombers because of again having my fighters set to a target (not sure why that should matter). However, it did not fundamentally affect my ability to defend the transports.

Less than 2 weeks later those same carriers participated in an action off of Shikuka.

MrKane lost 2 days because my carriers went east immediately after a disastrous encounter with him and he didnt get any search lock on me due to weather and/or not looking where he did not expect me to go.

His fundamental flaw was not having a better force at Shikuka although honestly, there is not much a Japanese player can do in late 44 because the allies can simply go where they are not. Shikuka is going to hurt because I can hit him in the breadbasket in Asia. It is going to hurt him 2 ways, in his production and in his need to keep his bases covered by fighter CAP aircraft which will run down his supply. I saw his sorties drop down to around 6K for a while but the last few days they have been up over 9K.

I dont like to strat bomb for some silly reason. Not sure what to do in this game.

Havent sent out the B-29's yet, building a good reserve and will be strat bombing within 30 days once I have built up Shikuka.

[Mike McCreery]

Tried to steal Ketoi-Jima on the cheap because I thought it was uninhabited.

Oops. Going to unload 4 bombardment task forces and the 2EB's I have at Shikuka and pray it does enough to stop him from killing my Naval Base.

[Mike McCreery]

Two days of ground attacks from Shikuka and a full on raid from the carriers never materialized due to mistakes and/or weather. The base force still managed to wrest the base from the Japanese unit due to a massive bombardment attack.

[Mike McCreery]

Finally managed to put a few strategic points on the scoreboard a few days ago. I owe him plenty :]

[Mike McCreery]

October 1944

Ketoi-Jima has been secured. Onnekotan-Jima was pounded by bombardment forces and aircraft when those groups sailed to rearm at Attu island. The 75th infantry brigade and the 26th mixed infantry brigade got up over 100AV each but just got hit with 800 bombers from the returning carriers. AV showed 0 on bombardment so I am going to hit them by air again this turn and have my division attack. It should roll the base over to me.

MrKane just ran his first bombardment force against shikuka. He had a cruiser group hit it and caused some good damage while getting 2 destroyers hit by mines. It looks like the field will be down for about 4 days or so before I can continue to build up the airfield. With the current engineers that will take 8 days to lvl 8.

A large amount of engineers are converging on my carrier TF and should arrive within a week. They will be escorted to Shikuka to add to the building. Once the base goes lvl 9 it is going to get ugly in the air.

[BBfanboy]

Single bases are always very vulnerable to shutdown by bombardment. You may have aircraft set to Naval Attack and lots of search aircraft but a couple of days of bad weather and the enemy bombardment TFs might get to your base and shut it down.
It is good that you have Ketoi Jima already, but it is a little far away to support Shikuka. Any chance you can take Toyohara? Maybe drop in all your Chindits and Para units?

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Single bases are always very vulnerable to shutdown by bombardment. You may have aircraft set to Naval Attack and lots of search aircraft but a couple of days of bad weather and the enemy bombardment TFs might get to your base and shut it down.
It is good that you have Ketoi Jima already, but it is a little far away to support Shikuka. Any chance you can take Toyohara? Maybe drop in all your Chindits and Para units?

He has 8 units and 32,000 troops there. It isnt going to be easy to take it. Going to go in the land route once I throw another 1000 AV on Shikuka for defense.

[Mike McCreery]

October 1944

MrKane surprises me by bailing out of both Arythia and Bangkok at the same time. I was attempting to encircle it prior to assault. He decided it was not worth losing the troops apparently.

It has me a little freaked out TBH. I am going to have to take counter measures to defend against those troops now being free to move around. I am afraid for the Phillipines right now although a force that large could contest Java or other areas.

[obvert]

Any chance to hit hem in strat mode at Pnom Penh?

[Mike McCreery]

Late October 1944

There are 6 divisions trapped on Java that have been there a long time. 2 are stuck at Malang, 2 are at Loemdjang, 1 is at Madioen and one is at Bandoeng. I am currently pounding the crap out of Malang along with battleship bombardments to elminate that threat.

[Mike McCreery]

In addition to pounding it with hundreds of bombers at 10K I have this little beastie helping me out.

Forts were at 4 when he first attacked and each of 2 attacks has dropped the forts each time. Going in for a 3rd assault. His raw AV is down below 650 and I am cycling divisions in and out for the assaults keeping below the stack limit.