Quisling! An AFB does Japan (No PanzerKat)

[John B.]

Nothing as dramatic as a carrier battle for the past few days, but still action on several fronts. In the Burma theater the British brigade that had landed at Port Blair was wiped out. Scott moved ships down to Ramree island but lost a very large AP. In a running series of battles the Razor had his T cross [:-] but managed to limp away after sinking the Brit CA. Unfortunatly a Blenheim put one bomb on the IJN CL, it caught on fire and burned itself out and is no more. Pay no attention to the sunk Lexington. I think what's going on is that it represents one of the sunk Brit CVs from the Rangoon battles. I did put a torpedo into an American CV three days ago and it was a dud. Dammit, my torpedoes are supposed to work!!!

[John B.]

Speaking of the US CVs, there are over here by Perth having taken the long way around. Scott came up north of Gerladton and almost, but not quite, got a number of ships moving troops from Oz back to Java. I knew there were coming because SBDs hit my subs near Melbourne several days before the carriers showed up. This is why I try not to have my carriers fly ASW if they are being sneaky, you really give away a lot of information. I have almost everyone evacuated from SW Oz and if his carriers go away I may be able to get all of the support troops out who are still there.

[John B.]

Alas, my clever plan to take advantage of the US carriers being far far away has not worked out as planned. I've been bombing Eniwetok for several days and put in a multiple CAs and BBs bombarding it as well as air strikes from the KB all to no avail. My invading regiment really got whacked. I stopped unloading in case I can avoid having to do another shock attack but it looks like this regiment (which was very good) will be gone by the end of the day. I guess it makes up for the dead British regiment at Port Blair. It was a brilliant plan to take advantage of the US CVs being far far away, it just happened to not work.

Hey, how to I find squadrons to fill out my carriers. I have several CVEs with no planes. There are a couple of zero units I could fly off of their decks.

[John B.]

Oooops, here's the combat report from Eniwetok. I caused no damage at all to the Americans and they were not even dug in.

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: John B.

Alas, my clever plan to take advantage of the US carriers being far far away has not worked out as planned. I've been bombing Eniwetok for several days and put in a multiple CAs and BBs bombarding it as well as air strikes from the KB all to no avail. My invading regiment really got whacked. I stopped unloading in case I can avoid having to do another shock attack but it looks like this regiment (which was very good) will be gone by the end of the day. I guess it makes up for the dead British regiment at Port Blair. It was a brilliant plan to take advantage of the US CVs being far far away, it just happened to not work.

Hey, how to I find squadrons to fill out my carriers. I have several CVEs with no planes. There are a couple of zero units I could fly off of their decks.

Conducting amphibious operations on atolls after the amphibious bonus expires for Japan is tricky. You really need your LSDs (all 2 or 3 of them). Use more APs and AK-ts than are necessary to try to get an many troops offloaded in one day as you can. Be sure to approach the atoll and get with 1 pulse of movement before moving to unload, or even, if possible, move onto the atoll set to "do not unload," so as to take advantage of all the unload phases before the combat phase. If possible, try to use lighter regiments that have a good number of lighter guns, such as the 70 mm mountain guns or mortars, where you do not expect to encounter much enemy artillery. The 105s and the 150s tend to have a very high number of disabled and destroyed offloading. Tank regiments with light tanks only (you have a couple) are very helpful. You can use the medium tanks, but again, you will suffer a high disabled/destroyed rate on offloading. Heavier devices also offload more slowly, meaning that you are less likely to get everything ashore before the combat phase.


As to your CVEs, I like to use 9 Vals and 18 Zeros on the CVEs. At this point in the war, you should have 2 size 27 Zero squadrons. You can divide these to create 6 groups of 9 Zeros. This will fill out 3 CVEs. You also should have about 6 small Val squadrons. I transfer 1 to each CVE and resize to 9. The LBA Zeros and Vals will need about 2 months aboard the CVEs before they are CV-capable (rather than just CV-trained). If possible, keep them on 0-range CAP until they are CV-capable to minimize pilot losses to operations. You can train Val pilots set to range 0 on the CVEs while they are only CV-trained, and you will not suffer any losses. This will also give you some extra CV-capable Zeros (Zekes/Sams) for other uses later in the war... such as removing the Kates and/or Vals from a CV and adding Zeros.

Later, when I have more CVEs (because I like to accelerate them in production, since they use merchant shipyards and not naval), I break down more squadrons to fill them out.

[John B.]

the regiment actually went ashore on three AMCs so two thirds of it was off in one landing phase. I'm glad some are left so I can rebuild it. I put the men on shore into defend mode so we'll see if it cuts me a break. I was very surprised at how poorly all the bombardments did. Even the BBs did not kill anything and the americans were not dug it at all.

I'm going to hunt around for some groups to put on the CVEs.

China is now settled into the typical stalemate with huge stacks facing off against each other.

And, I think that I'll send at least two of the three divisions from Perth to Burma. That will give me 5 divisions there plus various regiments which should be enough for now.

[Aurorus]

AMCs are not ideal for amphibious operations. They have higher unload damage than the LSDs, APs, and AKs (which also creates more disruption). The other question is whether or not sufficient supplies were ashore. If you do not continue to unload, the unit already on the atoll will not attack.

Bombardments tend to target the base facilities: airfield and port until these have sufficient damage. Then the bombardments will begin to target specfic ground units. For fighting in the Marshalls, I like to bomb the airfield until it is inoperable before naval bombardment. This will usually ensure that at least some of the bombarding ships will directly target ground units (typically in order of most "guns" to least. Once a unit reaches a sufficient level of disruption, the bombarding units will target a different unit. This is why massed air attacks and bombardments against fortresses and naval guns are necessary to begin to inflict disruption on other units in the hex. The fortress must be disrupted sufficiently before bombers and bombardment TFs will target another unit).

[John B.]

Ah, Well I'm not unloading so we may have a stalemate for awhile. But, with his carriers so far away my unit just might make it! The base facilities are pretty beat up so I can always hope that the next round of bombardment works. Does unloading supplies only trigger a shock attack?

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: John B.

Ah, Well I'm not unloading so we may have a stalemate for awhile. But, with his carriers so far away my unit just might make it! The base facilities are pretty beat up so I can always hope that the next round of bombardment works. Does unloading supplies only trigger a shock attack?

I believe so. I think that any unloading will. You could always evacuate the whole unit and rebuild it while preparing a fresh invasion force. I forgot to mention one thing about atoll and small island invasions after the amphibious bonus. Be sure to have good unit preparation (60+).

In Marshals, What I like to do in mid-late 42 is set up 6-8K-size counter-attack teams on Kusaie, Ponape, Nauru and Truk, prepping for Kwajalein, Maloelap, Roi Namur, and Jaluit. Typically a light ToE regiment (with 70mm guns only), and an SNLF, a brigade, or 3 SNLFs with either combat engineers (especially those electrical engineers) or a small tank unit and a mortar unit.

In my opinion, any allied player worth his salt is going to come through the Marshalls at some point; therefore it is worth preparing to fight there. In this case, he came before you could set up anything, but that is probably better, because you will have the opportunity to counter-attack there twice, possibly.

I know that most allied players disregard the Solomons, but in my opinion, I think that the Solomons is a much better place to begin an allied offensive than the Marshalls if the allies want to go on the offensive early: i.e. in mid-late 42 or early 43. Larger airfields can be developed there to support some 4-E ops, larger supply stockpiles can be built there, and it is closer to support and bases in Australia. As a JFB, I am glad, actually, that most allied players disregard the Solomons.

[John B.]

As a previous AFB I never thought much of the Solomons. They are a dead end that winds up at Rabaul and once you're there you have to get through Truk to get to Guam etc... I think that Eniwetok gives you a decent sized port (5) as I recall, that you can use to rearm bombardment ships for a relatively short hop back to the action and it's also a handy refueling base for everyone. Put in some AKEs and naval support squads and you have yourself a real rearming port for your naval operations.

I guess you look to fight the american carriers in the Marshalls in late 1942 with your counter attack teams?

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: John B.

As a previous AFB I never thought much of the Solomons. They are a dead end that winds up at Rabaul and once you're there you have to get through Truk to get to Guam etc... I think that Eniwetok gives you a decent sized port (5) as I recall, that you can use to rearm bombardment ships for a relatively short hop back to the action and it's also a handy refueling base for everyone. Put in some AKEs and naval support squads and you have yourself a real rearming port for your naval operations.

I guess you look to fight the american carriers in the Marshalls in late 1942 with your counter attack teams?

Fighting the U.S. CVs in the Marshalls in 1942 would be ideal. Fighting U.S. CVs in 1942 is always something that I want to do, the closer to Japanese waters and bases, the better.

The thing with the Marshalls is that the air-bases are too small for 4-Es to be used effectively, the U.S. must rely heavily on naval aviation to advance there. and the Marshalls are far from Pearl, which means it is difficult for the allied player to receive replacement planes for his LBA. These problems do not exist in the Solomons, where planes can be transferred to nearby bases in New Caledonia or Espiritu Santo or even Australia to pick up replacements. Eniwetok is the perfect launching off point for a move on the Marianas. However, without Kwajalein, Roi Namur, and Maloelap, Eniwetok is useless, because it is a size 0 airfield. Anything based there by a player who does not control Roi Namur and Maloelap will be destroyed.

These are not problems for the U.S. player in 1944 when he has naval aviation aplenty. Prior to 1944, however, the Marshalls, is a place where Japan has an advantage. The same does not apply to the Solomons, where stacking limits allow for allied air HQs and bases can be expanded to accomodate 4-Es. The objective in defending the Marshalls heavily is to prevent any allied advance through CentPac until 1944 and to destroy sufficient U.S. assets as to delay any advance on Marianas until mid to late 1944.

The advantage to an allied campaign in the Solomons in 1942 is to threaten Kusaie, Ponape, Rabaul, Truk, and Naura: the non-atoll bases, so that the Marshalls can be taken in 1943, because the Japanese player must concern himself with defending these 2nd-line bases from a southern offensive.

[Bif1961]

I try to avoid invading atolls, as much as possible as the Allied player and take advantage of the non-atoll Islands to invade, so it sounds like you mentioned my general strategy. I however, do take some when I need to or they are left lightly defended. Some times one or two can't be avoided.

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

I try to avoid invading atolls, as much as possible as the Allied player and take advantage of the non-atoll Islands to invade, so it sounds like you mentioned my general strategy. I however, do take some when I need to or they are left lightly defended. Some times one or two can't be avoided.

The U.S. loses so many advantages on atolls that is possesses on larger islands, such as the ability to concentrate artillery and armor. Allied aviation support units have higher stacking cost than Japanese units as well, meaning that the allied player can base fewer fully serviced aircraft on atolls. In short, the Japanese military is ideally suited to fighting on atolls. The U.S. military is not. Fighting in the Marshalls for the U.S. is difficult prior to 1944, but I think that the allies need to take the Marshalls to advance on the Marianas.

Of course, the U.S. can advance through the DEI and ignore Centpac altogether, but this is a longer road to Japan, and limiting the U.S. advance to one front allows the Japanese player to heavily reinforce 2nd line bases in the DEI. Also fighting in the DEI is helpful in many ways to Japan because it is close to fuel and supply centers and there so many ambush points and bottlenecks in which to waylay allied amphibious groups. Also, CVs are always at risk of surface engagement when operating in the DEI. Focusing exclusively on the DEI seems to be a misuse of the advantage that the U.S. ultimately has in naval aviation.

[John B.]

If you can pull off the DEI advance it has the big advantage of putting the oil resources in range of allied strategic bombing quite early. One concern I have in my current game is that I did not take Darwin so that gives the US a major port as a springboard into DEI.

I think that there are only three atolls I like to take as the US. Eniwetok (as discussed) and then Wake and Marcus. If you have these two islands, the Japanese have no base for search planes to detect any sort of raiding group heading into home waters. Marcus is also close enough to serve as an emergency resupply/refueling/repair base for ships damaged in fights in the Marianas or subs damaged in convoy raids.

My current plan is to build up the Marianas as much as possible. Guam, Saipan, and Tinian each get at least one AT unit, AA, artillery etc.. I have to CD units on Saipan and I think I may put a division on each Island. If the US bypasses them I think I still come out ahead because of all the VP that he'll forfeit if he does not take and develop the bases. As for the Philippines, there are so many islands and bases I don't think it can all be defended so my current plan is to use Manila's industry to pay for fortifying that city and then have some units hold out until the death in there. That should keep him from building up to the level 9 port there for as long as possible.

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: John B.

If you can pull off the DEI advance it has the big advantage of putting the oil resources in range of allied strategic bombing quite early. One concern I have in my current game is that I did not take Darwin so that gives the US a major port as a springboard into DEI.

I think that there are only three atolls I like to take as the US. Eniwetok (as discussed) and then Wake and Marcus. If you have these two islands, the Japanese have no base for search planes to detect any sort of raiding group heading into home waters. Marcus is also close enough to serve as an emergency resupply/refueling/repair base for ships damaged in fights in the Marianas or subs damaged in convoy raids.

My current plan is to build up the Marianas as much as possible. Guam, Saipan, and Tinian each get at least one AT unit, AA, artillery etc.. I have to CD units on Saipan and I think I may put a division on each Island. If the US bypasses them I think I still come out ahead because of all the VP that he'll forfeit if he does not take and develop the bases. As for the Philippines, there are so many islands and bases I don't think it can all be defended so my current plan is to use Manila's industry to pay for fortifying that city and then have some units hold out until the death in there. That should keep him from building up to the level 9 port there for as long as possible.

I have not taken Darwin in one of my two games, and that worries me as well. My opponent has reinforced the position heavily. It is not too late to take Darwin in your game if feel that you have the force to do it. If you do not want to move on Darwin, you could also take Broome, Port Hudson, and Port Moresby as Netty bases to prevent your opponent from massing amphibious assets at Darwin for the time being.

You are right to begin transitioning to defense at this point, but that does not mean that you must forego any further offensive operations. Most of the transition, at this point, involves positioning base forces, construction btns, and other support units. Keep in mind that any allied advance in 1942 can be destroyed, so long as KB remains intact. You do not have to allow fear to govern all of your decisions... yet.

You also want to consider how your strategy in China relates to your overall strategy. For example, if you do not intend to take Chungking, you may want to try to establish a small perimeter in China which will allow you to withdraw a few divisions for forward defense in other theaters. By early 1943, you probably will have purchased most of the major units that you are able from Manchuria. This will be some 8 or 9 divisions and support. So you will have about 20 divisions, plus SNLFs, garrison units, and other light 2nd-line units, of unrestricted troops by early 1943. Can you purchase anything from China? How many divisions for Centpac? How many for Burma/India? How many for the DEI? Do you want to commit a division or 2 to the Solomons, SoPac, and Moresby?

Japan cannot defend the entire perimeter in force, no matter what you do. So Japan needs some plan that does not involve holding everywhere at all costs.

[John B.]

Just a quick update. The situation at Eniwetok remains dire for the American regiment and armor battalion that are on there. They get bombarded by sea and air every day and they are now losing squads at least to the bombing. For some reason my ships still don't do much damage but having been on the receiving end off all this I know it's not helping them. My regiment is almost entirely back up to snuff and is basically undisrupted. So, a couple more days and I'l send them up over the top. I think I'm still in the clear since I keep seeing the American KB down near Esperance in S.W. Oz.

Here is a fun fact. Unloading supplies from a sub transport did NOT trigger a shock attack by my lads on Eniwetok. This has them back at full supply.

In Oz I have a few more troops in Geraldton. An Air HQ and part of three armor regiments. I may get them out and I may not. I have two ships loading and I'm keeping an eye on the American KB mentioned above. I do have the Zuikaku and Shokaku hovering off shore to see if I can catch any surface TF heading to Geraldton. Any indication that the Americans CV are heading back and my boys are gone!

In Burma, Scott has a surface TF hovering at Ramree where he has part of an East African Regiment trapped. I have a BB TF heading that way. More news as it develops.

And, in China, Scott may be about to have several corps surrounded at Kwelein. It depends on if he notices that I just put a regiment on the road north of him.

[John B.]

We've made it to the middle of July 1942 and there is action on all fronts. Eniwetok just fell. That took a lot longer than I expected but I did get a nice prisoner haul and more than 100 VP from all the dead and devices. I'm not sure about going after other Atolls. Eniwetok was within land based air range of Truk and was never able to fortify. I'm sure that the other atolls have been digging in furiously and they are out of land based air range. So, I'm not sure what to do with the force I now have concentrated at Truk. I could put two regiments ashore at Roi Namor which would give the airbase back to me but I'm just not sure.

[John B.]

Well, I almost got away with it in Perth but then I got greedy. I was loading troops at Geraldton and decided to wait one more turn because there was no way that Scott could get his carriers north from Esperance to get at me. I was wrong. [:(] Lost several high value transports and lots of men drowned. this reduces the margin I got out of Oz but the odd thing is that Scott has been leaving his CVs at Perth for a long time. I"m not sure what he's up to down there. The rest of my men are fleeing north to see what I can get out of there.

[John B.]

Things are heating up in Burma. Scott still has part of the East African Brigade on Ramree island and he has been attacking the past two turns and got it up to a 1-1. I have help on the way but it's going to be awhile before it gets there. Scott really handed it to my CAP last turn shooting down 23! Oscars in exchange for just 13 Hurricane IIcs and bs. The mystery down is is that I could really hand him a defeat as Warzup because he has on Aussie division up there. But, I'm not getting any supply push up there. I'm putting an HQ there and building the airfield in an attempt to complete the supply flow. If I can get up up enough I can put in three more divisions and get at him five divisions to his one.

[John B.]

Here is China. It looks like Scott has a problem at Kweilien. He can get out by I've blocked the road so he has a very long resupply line. I'm attacking this turn on deliberate mode since I"m not sure what his supply situation is there. And, I think he's pulling out.