RHS II scen 129 GP and me

[larryfulkerson]

Submarine I-124 bravely waded through the minefield to lay some Japanese mines and then it's patrolling that same
hex. Maybe he'll get lucky and bag something.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the situation at Kota Bharu: My dudes are out of supplies so they will need at least one day of rest to
collect their beens, bullets, and bandaids. Plus, a lot of those units are Engineers and have other places to
go as soon as the fight is over here. I'm expecting some follow-on forces to land soon to take on the Allies in
the hex. Unless my guys can get it together sooner, then they will do the job.

[larryfulkerson]

One of my troop transports got hit by a TT and now it's on fire limping to Bataan Island 3 hexes away. It's got a
small port so the ship will probably spend the rest of the war there unless I can get it to Naha or someplace.
I think it's going to make it but what makes it exciting is that it's got an LCU aboard and I expect they are
helping put out the fires aboard. They are dipping their helmets into the ocean to get the water to douse the
fire.

[larryfulkerson]

If the Viet Cong of Vietnam fame were Vietnamese civilians with a little training in some simple task posing as a
soldier, were version 2.0, the version 1.0 is the Viet Minh units I'm going to be taking control of in the
Hanoi area soon. I'm not sure what good they will be, I'll have to make it a point to check them out. I'll tell
you what I find.

[larryfulkerson]

Brian says the Soviets are active and I'm getting Sig Int that proves it. They are up to something but Brian
says he wants a quiet Russian front and that's okie dokie with me.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's where all the landings took place. I watched all of 'em.

[larryfulkerson]

I've got the separate pieces of a Division in the same hex but I can't join them together and rebuild the division
because one of the pieces is got a different HQ than the other pieces so I have to change somebody's HQ. I look
for North China Area Army in the list of HQ's and it's not there. I don't appreciate that.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a little bit about the situation at Pearl. These are the missions set the aircraft on T1 and it seemed to
get good results so I think I'll do the same series of strikes a second time a second day just to try to hurt the
Allies a bit more. I've damaged a lot of ships but I haven't sunk very many and so far the losses have been
light. The losses from a second strike will be higher but they were hurt on the airfield and at the port and I
think another strike will help sink a lot of the ships that are hurting. I'm expecting a restart in the near
future because of all the bugs we're finding and I'd like to get some licks in before that happens. Plus, I
happen to think that the war will probably be over in late '42 because of the crash of the economy from lack of
fuel or supplies or both.

[Lowpe]

Don't expect much from a 2nd strike at Pearl.

Neat units, and I like the idea of disappearing trails.

Either put all pilots into Tracom for when you have better planes or make some really elite Zero squadrons for sweeping. You need good sweepers at Singers and most likely for a few days in Luzon.

The strange HQ was also a problem in stock, but not for that particular unit... a base force recombination I believe. I think it was corrected by AndyMac.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
Don't expect much from a 2nd strike at Pearl.

I gather that you have had some personal experience. You're better at this game than I am so I'll
listen to you. I thought I'd use the same missions as the first strike so that the port and airfield
get some loving attention. Although now that the runway is shut down there's no need to do much at
the airfield except for the planes on the ground. I'm really after those ships that got hurt in the
first strike.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
Neat units, and I like the idea of disappearing trails.

I'll see if I can find some more of them and post about it. There's a new unit that has a tug and a
glider. I have no idea how to use it and what it's for. I'd probably use it to haul supplies.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
Either put all pilots into Tracom for when you have better planes or make some really elite Zero squadrons for sweeping. You need good sweepers at Singers and most likely for a few days in Luzon.

I've been putting a couple in each of the training squadrons and your idea about a death star of a sweeping
squadron. I like the idea of a squadron that specializes in sweeping. I'll have to do that thanks.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
The strange HQ was also a problem in stock, but not for that particular unit... a base force recombination I believe. I think it was corrected by AndyMac.

Sounds good. Maybe we can get Sid to eventually look at the one I found.

[larryfulkerson]

I shut down all the shipbuilding past June of '45 because I don't think the war is going to last all that long.
I'm afraid I'm going to crash the economy and the war effort will collapse. I'm of course watching it and don't
WANT it to crash but the ships are smaller capacity than I'm used to and that is offset by having a lot more of
them.

I'm finding that it's a problem trying to memorize the new base names. Babeldoab is now Koror and that's just
an example of what's going on around the map. I have no idea why the names were changed but it's turning into
a minor hassle.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some of the information from the aircraft and engines display. I'm going to compare the numbers from the
display I got from last turn and see which way the numbers are changing. And they should be changing. I'm aiming
for about 100 planes in the pools for all my important aircraft types.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the ships that got sunk on 7Dec: The game engine is assuming a lot for some of those ships.

[Yaab]

Wait, you lost two xAKLs to CD guns on Yangtze? How did that happen?

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Yaab
Wait, you lost two xAKLs to CD guns on Yangtze? How did that happen?

Here's the battle in question. I guess I must have skipped it when I was going over the battles that heppened
in the above litany. I expect them all to be gone soon. I have no PB's nearby so help isn't going to get
there in time to save their bacon. I'm trying to disband them in a nearby port, that might help. This situation
is playing itself out in two other places on the rivers of China. I actually need combatants on the river.
Unheard of before.

[larryfulkerson]

I think I may have also skipped this air strike on Wake. I did this in the morning hours just as the sun was
rising in the east and attacked from the east and got some good hits and only one loss.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like at the airfield at Takao right now. There's over 500 planes parked at this field and
only about 26 of them are being repaired....everybody else is moving the sortie totals upward. I've given drop
tanks to the Zeros because I like it how they can reach just about anywhere important right now and be there
quickly, relatively speaking. I'm going to do some more sweeps one more time to clear out the pipes and then
move the fighters to the Singapore effort. That and the Miri area.

[larryfulkerson]

I've been monkey-ing around with this particular squadron at Takao and trying to make a sweeping squadron with it
and this is the best I can do so far with the pilots available. It's still "escort" quality I think. Not enough
TRACOM-qualified pilots to make a good sweeping squadron really. I'll try again.

[Lowpe]

Sweeping squadron should be your largest possible sentai of Zeroes. Air leader definitely should have well over 60 Air skill, high inspiration, leadership. Numbers mean a lot.

You want the pilots to have 70/70 air/def and as high experience as possible.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
Sweeping squadron should be your largest possible sentai of Zeroes. Air leader definitely should have well over 60 Air skill, high inspiration, leadership. Numbers mean a lot.

I'm working on such a squadron right now. I've moved about a dozen high quality pilots into TRACOM
and I'm going through the squadrons now looking for the other TRACOM-quality pilots there might be
mostly in the fighter and bomber squadrons right now. I've noticed that I don't have any transport
pilots in the reserve so I'll have to cull the transport training squadrons for those. If it's not
one thing it's another just now.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
You want the pilots to have 70/70 air/def and as high experience as possible.

Yeah, idealy all TRACOM-quality would be good but hard to come by in the early war years. I'm trying
to rotate the squadrons so the morale stays high and they can get some training time in while they
are out of combat for a couple of days. I'm told that combat is the place to build experience time
but I've got pilots with an experience level of 6, yeah, I found one. I've got him safely in the
reserve. Everytime I ask for reserve pilots I get him, he's listed at the bottom and I get rid of
him again. I'm going to have to find a way to retire that bad boy.