Once Again into the Breach - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A)

[BrucePowers]

Mike, as my favorite player on the Japanese side I have a question for you. I am dipping my feet in the water, as it were, with this game again. I am playing against the AI with me as the Allies. My Chicago/Boise task force intercepted the first AI attempt to take Jolo and sank 24 of 28 transports. The British Task Force Z intercepted the first attempt at Miri and sank around 20 ships. As I am playing against the AI, I ran a turn as the Japanese so I could see actual losses. I have sunk somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 IJN transports. It is 2 January 42. Have I somewhat impeded the AI's ability to launch some of these early invasions?

[rustysi]

I can help with that one. You have to 'let' the AI get its early gains or you will 'break the game', so to speak. Especially if you are playing scenario 1, as Japanese resources are limited.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

George and Frank have been sweeping in at around 20k or just below. For me the George has been able to get at least 1:1 in losses while the Frank has been super in sweeping. Only P-38 and P-47 have been able to stand toe to toe with them.

I seem to have more success with the Tojo IIc. Maybe it's because the IJAAF fighter pilots are awesome right now with all the practice they get killing Hurricanes and P-40Ks in Burma.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: zuluhour

ref post#3022 or so
I don't think ASW a/c missions will be effective at 0 range. If you want 1 or 2 hex you need to set at range 2 and 4. I'm pretty sure on this.
I did not think an ARD can do sub repair. Is this true?

**I did some reading last night but RL intervened. I only saw ARDs can repair "ships"and small craft which I have to take
as yes an ARD will "load"/repair a sub. sorry.

Zulu, I came to that conclusion and set all ASW to a minimum of 2 hexes. They're functioning properly now.

Not sure what's going on but that sub did get fully repaired at Truk. I "think" I had it set to repair ship.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: BrucePowers

Mike, as my favorite player on the Japanese side I have a question for you. I am dipping my feet in the water, as it were, with this game again. I am playing against the AI with me as the Allies. My Chicago/Boise task force intercepted the first AI attempt to take Jolo and sank 24 of 28 transports. The British Task Force Z intercepted the first attempt at Miri and sank around 20 ships. As I am playing against the AI, I ran a turn as the Japanese so I could see actual losses. I have sunk somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 IJN transports. It is 2 January 42. Have I somewhat impeded the AI's ability to launch some of these early invasions?

Oh yeah. There are a lot of extra xAKs but that's got to hurt.

[Mike Solli]

Ok, time to start catching up with the game. I'm more than a week ahead but have been writing my notes. It's been relatively slow:

25 Jun 43

Sub War
5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

The only exciting thing that happened here was the daily air bombing of Rabaul. And that was half-hearted too. Only 40x 4E sorties showed up. I had a lot of my fighters resting so I had only 53 fighters in the air. For a loss of 9 fighters (IJA: 1 KIA, 1 WIA, IJN: 1 KIA, 1 WIA), they shot down 12 enemy bombers. Pretty nice.

Other Allied bombers hit the former Madang garrison (a few starving troops in the jungle), Tulagi and my guys at Shortlands, mainly for practice.

Current damage:

Manus: 0-70-70 – down a bit, sending more engineers to speed up the repairs.
Kavieng: 0-88-85 – down slightly, sending more engineers to speed up the repairs.
Gasmata: 0-0-0
Rabaul: 0-7-0 – down a lot, now all they need is supply.
Shortlands: 14-30-17 – down a bit, nothing we can do here to affect this because the 24 US Division is currently visiting.

SRA
Burma
China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

The following ships entered into refit at Kobe:
CV Junyo
CV Hiyo
CVL Shoho
CVL Zuiho
CLAA Tenryu
CLAA Tatsuta
DD Asakaze
DD Harukaze

[Mike Solli]

26 Jun 43

Sub War

Just one engagement where something happened, but it was exciting! The I-25 patrols to the SW of Pearl Harbor and has found the Allied SLOC toward Australia. Six days ago, she torpedoed a large xAK. Today, however, something else passed in front of her periscope. She saw and put a torpedo into the brand spanking new Essex! Based on our bantering earlier, he said there was a new carrier coming to replace the recently torpedoed Enterprise. I suspect this was it. Sure, the damage isn’t severe, but hopefully it’s enough to send her back to Pearl for repairs. At any rate, there are two healthy CVs in the Solomons, in addition to the Enterprise, which will need some yard time. There are also 5 CVEs down there. I hope this delays any further invasions for a month or two. Only time will tell…

In the ensuing depth charging, the I-15 took 13 points of sys damage and few flot damage points. Normally, I’d send her back home, but I’m keeping her on station until reinforcements arrives. This lane is too important to leave unattended.

5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Rabaul suffered no bombing runs today. She was able to finish repairs to her airfield. That’s the good news.

On the other hand, I had a supply TF (17k supply) that arrived at Rabaul yesterday and was supposed to unload its supply today. Well, that didn’t happen. They were supposed to be covered by a surface fleet of 3 CA and 4 DD. The surface fleet got hit by several air attacks:

17 SBD: 1x 500lb bomb bounced off Mikuma.
10 Beaufort VIII: put a torpedo into Kumano. 39 flot damage. No issue but she’s headed back to Truk with 1 DD for escort.
12 SBD: They missed.

They were 2 hexes NW of Rabaul but I had set all my fighters to 0 hex range so there was no fighter cover. Dumb mistake. I could have shot down a bunch of bombers.

Anyway, the supply convoy took off with all its supply still aboard. *Sigh*

I’m sending them back tomorrow with the remaining surface force as cover. The fighter on CAP at Rabaul are now set to 2 hexes. Let em come!

I just dropped off some mines at Shortlands Island for when Ted decided to reinforce the division doing nothing there. Of course, the reinforcements landed today. The subs dropped off their 24 mines and looked at the transports dropping off the 34 Combat Engineer Regiment. A day late and a dollar short. Sheesh.

Current damage:

Manus: 0-70-53 – damage dropping and more engineers enroute to accelerate repairs.
Kavieng: 0-88-81 – damage dropping a bit and more engineers enroute to accelerate repairs.
Gasmata: 0-0-0
Rabaul: 0-0-0 – the last of the damage repaired.
Shortlands: 14-30-17 – damage dropping a bit. Nothing more I can do with a division and combat engineer regiment visiting all the must see sights.

SRA

Merauke has been increasing its shipping stationed there. I have some Nells that do night naval attacks there every few days, but they haven’t hit anything yet. I’m sending the carriers stationed at Singapore to Ambon (CVL Ryuho and 3 CVEs – 9 Zeros, 54 Vals, 21 Kates) and a surface fleet as well (4 BB, 4 CA, CL, 12 DD). I suspect Ted is going to try and invade something, so I want to increase the combat power there. Currently, its 36 Nells/Betties and a dozen Tojos. There are also a half dozen or so subs.

The ships are a few days out. I’m just going to station them there, just in case.

Burma

I have 5 Sally/Helen sentai at Rangoon (139 aircraft) and they’re set to night airfield attack of Akyab. Last night they flew. Well, 50 flew in 3 separate attacks. They caused minor damage and destroyed a Sea Hurricane on the ground.

China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement: 89 Naval Guard, assigned to 5 Fleet. They’ll head to one of the islands that has high airfield capability along with some engineers to defend the place and build forts.

The N1K2-J George R&D advanced to 5/44 (will become operational 9/43).
The B6N2a Jill R&D advanced to 8/44 (will become operational 12/43).

[Mike Solli]

27 Jun 43

Quiet day over most of the area except for Shortlands Island. Most of Ted’s bomber sorties were against that base, with a smattering against other minor garrisons (or former garrisons in the case of the remains of the Madang garrison).


The 24 Division and 34 Combat Engineer Regiment attacked my garrison at Shortlands again, this time getting 1:1 odds and reducing the fort level from 4 to 3. They wore down my infantry quite a bit, unfortunately. Not much time left for those guys.

Gasmata and Rabaul have no damage. Here’s the other important garrison damage:

Manus: 0-70-35, coming down.
Kavieng: 0-88-77, coming down slowly. Engineers enroute.
Shortlands: 37-30-6, higher from air bombardment. Doesn’t matter really, because the defenders are doomed.

That 17k supply convoy returned to Rabaul and will unload tomorrow. I have the surface TF at Rabaul as well to cover them should Ted get frisky. Both TFs are spotted but I have a LOT of experienced fighters there to cover them.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement: E Fukue, Etorofu class, ASW, nice little vessel.

The DD Sims was confirmed sunk at Gasmata on 12 May 43, I’m pretty sure by a mine. Could have been CD guns though.

[Mike Solli]

28 Jun 43

Sub War
5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

The end at Shortlands Island. The Japanese rabble was pushed to the dot hex to the north. Among the rabble is the 5 Air Division HQ. I’m using flying boats (Mavis transports) to pull as much of that unit out as I can. I’d like to use it elsewhere and don’t want to go through the process of having it destroyed, waiting for it to come back as a reinforcement and then rebuilding it. Should I get it all out (what’s left actually), I’ll start on something else to save. Probably some infantry, but I’ll make that decision should the time come.

The supply TF dropped all its supply today! Rabaul is now up to slightly less than 20k supply in its coffers. That’s great news! I can now use drop tanks and fly my fighters from Rabaul to Truk. I moved a couple units to Truk to either take on replacements aircraft or to upgrade, the single Oscar unit for replacements and a Tojo IIa to upgrade to the IIc. I’m tempted to upgrade the Oscars (IIb) but won’t for their range, in case I need to escort something in the future. Some people like the Oscar but they seem to be nothing but targets for me.

Anyway, the supply TF will head back to Truk and the CA TF will try to pop a small TF before heading back to Truk.

Right now, I can see 7 small Allied TFs within 6 hexes of Rabaul. They are all out of range of Allied air cover (unless it’s LRCAP). I moved all of my available Betties (~60) to Rabaul and set them to naval attack with torpedoes at 6 hex range along with a couple of fighter units for escort. Let’s see what happens. My primary goal is to have Ted pull the TFs back with a secondary goal of sinking things. I think Ted is eyeing Gasmata as the next invasion but he may be concerned about the defenses there. There are level 6 forts and a base force with CD guns along with a decent amount of infantry, mainly Naval Guards and SNLF.

SRA

Since I sank the Dutch sub between Palembang and Singapore earlier this month, the Allied subs in that area have disappeared. It might just be the all needed to refuel or rearm, but I think Ted realized that shallow hexes are detrimental to a sub’s health. That’s very helpful in getting fuel and oil out of Palembang and cargo TFs out of Singapore.

I’m still moving forward with increasing my ASW assets in the area. Muntok’s airfield reached level 1 and continues to grow pretty quickly. Eventually, I’ll bring in an IJA medium bomber sentai for ASW work, probably a Sally. Not sure if I’ll take it from Burma or buy one out from Kwantung yet. I’m also kicking around bringing in a 1E bomber training sentai, either an Ann or Mary. So, there are a few options to ponder…

Burma

About 50 of my bombers flew a night bombing attack against Akyab. Minor airfield damage was all they managed.

China

Another Chinese unit in the countryside took a beating.

Other Stuff

The Ki-84a Frank R&D advanced to 12/43 (will become operational 8/43). There are 8 factories total with 1x55 and 3x30 and the others repairing at 27, 19, 11 and 3. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the 27(3) factory will finish repairs soon to speed up R&D. When this model becomes operational, I’ll allow the 55 and 1x30 to become operational (and increase them both to 60) and have the remaining 6x30 work on accelerating the b then r models.

I got some good intel from Ted about the Essex. When he returned the turn where she got torpedoed, he said that by the time her repairs are complete, he’ll have 2 new CVs. That tells me she’ll be in the yard for about a month. Seems like the Enterprise will be repaired about the same time. So, right now Ted has 5 pre-war carriers available along with at least 5 CVEs. Here’s where I think they are:

Solomons:
Yorktown – spotted 22 Jun 43. I'm pretty sure they're still at Milne Bay.
Saratoga – spotted 22 Jun 43. I'm pretty sure they're still at Milne Bay.
Enterprise – ate a Betty torpedo on 22 Jun 43, should be repaired by 1 Aug 43
5 CVEs – last seen ~20 Jun 43. I'm pretty sure they're still at Milne Bay.

Aleutians (could be just about anywhere now):
Hornet – spotted 27 Apr 43
Lexington – ate a 500kg bomb & 1 sub torpedo on 27 Apr 43, suspect she’s repaired now

7 hexes south of Pearl Harbor:

Essex – ate a sub torpedo on 26 Jun 43, should be repaired by 1 Aug

So, by 1 Aug, he should have 6x pre-war CVs, 3x Essex class and 5+ CVEs, say 870 aircraft capacity.

Right now I have the following available at Truk:
Akagi (36 F, 18J, 27T)
Kaga (36F, 18J, 18T)
Soryu (27F, 18V, 18T)
Ryujo (30F, 18T)
Shokaku (36F, 18V, 18T)
Zuikaku (36F, 18V, 18T)

SRA:
Ryuho (9F, 18T) – 18F, 9T when she gets her air group + 3T from Unyu
Taiho (27V)
Chuyo (27V)
Unyo (3T) – 9F, 18T when Ryuho gets her air group, 3T to Ryuho

In refit in the Home Islands (will be done by 1 Aug 43):
Junyo (27F, 18V, 9T)
Hiyo (27F, 18V, 9T)
Shoho (21F, 9T)
Zuiho (21F, 9T)

In addition, I’ll get 3x Amagi’s hopefully in Oct 43. I accelerate them as I can, probably averaging 1-2 a day.

So, when the refits are complete, around 1 August, I’ll have ~687 aircraft capacity. My carrier aircraft supremacy days are pretty much over.

The Snapper was confirmed sunk off Truk on 5/1/43. So, some of those hundred alleged sub hits each day really are hitting something other than whales!

In a couple days, I get a nice selection of IJNAF units, all assigned to training groups:

An 18 & 27 slot fighter group. Definitely for training. That’s 60 pilot capacity. Since I now train my pilots to 70 def, this is a big help. Plus, one of my current 27 plane fighter training units goes *poof* in a couple of weeks.

An 18 plane 1E TB unit. Definitely training since I like to train my naval torpedo bombers for naval bomb (68-70), naval torpedo (70+) and naval search (65+). It takes a long time to train them.

Two, 27 plane DB units. I’m thinking Kamikazes. I have only 1 IJNAF unit currently doing that and need more. The goal for Kamikazes is a minimum 40 exp, 60 low naval.

Two, 27 plane 2E TB units. More naval TB pilot training.

I have 4 more turns to report, but I will have to type them up...

[Mike Solli]

29 Jun 43

Sub War
5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Everything seems to be happening here (surprise, surprise). [:D]

My little surface force of Mikuma, Suzuya and 3x Fubukis caught an Allied surface TF (ASW?) of 2x DDs and a DE and hit each of them with 1 shell and had a 5" shell bounce off Mikuma in return. [8|] *Sigh*

Something then hit a mine. No clue what though. I have mines all over the place down here so it isn't surprising.

Then the CAs found a TF composed of 6x YMS and sank them all. It's fun watching a little ship be obliterated by an 8" shell. [:D] After that little Allied fiasco, I heard sinking sounds. It was something other than a YMS because they had already gone down. Maybe what had hit the mine earlier? Again, no clue.

The TF was covering the withdrawal of the supply convoy that was running north for dear life so it can do it all over again. [:D]

Daylight found both my TFs withdrawing northward, safely out of range of enemy bombers. My Betties flew! [:)]

The first flight of 16 found the 3 DD TF that my CAs caught and put a torpedo into the DD Dewey, leaving her badly damaged.

The next flight, also of 16, put 3 more torpedoes into Dewey. [X(] There was nothing left but a wet spot on the water. [:D]

Finally, 18 more Betties went after an APA escorted by a DD, missing them both. [8|] I'd rather hit an APA than an old DD.

Current damage:

Manus: 0-69-0
Kavieng: 0-88-69

SRA
Burma

Nothing to report.

China

Beat up another errant Chinese unit.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:

30 Sentai - 2 Air Division - 27x 1E bombers - converted them to something obsolete to train.
CL Noshiro - will enter refit. The nice thing here is that it frees up 30 naval points. [;)]
1 Air Flotilla HQ - General Defense Army - Will part itself at Hiroshima.
1 INA Subhas Regiment (Burma Area Army) - will take replacements at Singapore then become the Georgetown garrison.
2 INA Ghandi Regiment (Burma Area Army) - will take replacements at Singapore then become the Alor Star garrison.
3 INA Azad Regiment (Burma Area Army) - will take replacements at Singapore then become the Malacca garrison.
4 INA Nehru Regiment (Burma Area Army) - will take replacements at Singapore then become the Victoria Point garrison.

[BrucePowers]

Hi Mike. I hope all is well. My question was basically because I am fooling with the game for the first time since we played against Bob, David and Steven. We used the wrong mod and allied B-17s were everywhere[:)].

I now have plenty of time to fool with this (other than golf days).[:D]

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: BrucePowers

Hi Mike. I hope all is well. My question was basically because I am fooling with the game for the first time since we played against Bob, David and Steven. We used the wrong mod and allied B-17s were everywhere[:)].

I now have plenty of time to fool with this (other than golf days).[:D]

That's great, Bruce. Despite the B-17s, that was a fun game to play. Are you living around where you used to live, where you can see rockets launch?

[Mike Solli]

30 Jun 43

Sub War

I only mention sub contact by both sides that actually cause damage. Ted has a constant sub presence in the following areas:

Adak: A couple subs are in Adak's hex and tooling around a hex or two around Adak.
Etorofu: I believe he realizes this port is my SLOC to the Aleutians and has 1-2 subs here all the time. I use a lot of "coastal" which prevents him from hitting my TFs in the area. I need an ASW TF with decent DCs (better than Type 95). In a few days, I will send a couple of Etorofus.
Home Islands: Maybe 8-10(?) subs hanging out here? They usually take shots at (and miss) my ASW ships. In return, my ASW ships usually miss them.
Truk: I see an any time up to half a dozen subs here. I'm pretty sure he knows my carriers are stationed here. I have several several ASW TFs and ~80-90 IJA ASW planes flying out of Truk. They claim to get a dozen hits a day. On 2 July, I'll convert 3x Helen sentai (99 aircraft) to the ASW mission by pulling out the ground bombing and replacing them with ASW crews. I'm curious to see how that affects the Allied subs here. Those bombers used to be at Hollandia and Rabaul to do bombing missions. That isn't feasible anymore. The only places I can safely bomb are China and Burma.

Anyway, there was some undersea action today...

The I-28, on the West coast to Pearl Harbor SLOC, sank an good sized xAK.

The I-33, about 18 hexes west of Perth, torpedoed the empty TK British Zeal. No report of her sinking.

5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

First off, an Allied bombardment TF of 4 CA bombarded Rabaul, missing all the mines there. [8|] They caused 4 Airfield, 26 Runway and 2 Port damage. It was either FOW or the 200 engineers there, but Rabaul has no damage. [:'(]

Then about 200 bomber sorties plastered Manus. Ted finally realized that he can't take out Rabaul right now, so he's going after everything else in the area. I'm ok with that, for now.

Finally, some SBDs found a small supply TF at Manus and sank all 3 Gozan class xAKs. Boo!

Current damage:

Manus: 0-100-98
Kavieng: 0-88-65

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

My night bomber raid did little to Akyab. I think it's just a waste of supply.

China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:
262 Ku S-2: 27 A6M2, 13 Air Flotilla, F training
331 Ku S-1: 18 A6M2, 13 Air Flotilla, F training
331 Ku K-1: 18 Mabel, 13 Air Flotilla, TB training
501 Ku K-1: 27 D3A1, 13 Air Flotilla, Kamikaze training
531 Ku K-1: 27 D3A1, 13 Air Flotilla, Kamikaze training
761 Ku-K-1: 27 G3M2, 13 Air Flotilla, TB training
761 Ku-K-2: 27 G3M2, 13 Air Flotilla, TB training
934 Ku T-2: 6 Jake, 3 Fleet, ASW
1006 Ku U-1: 27 Tina, 13 Air Flotilla, TR training
TK Hioki Maru: Type-1 TL (11.6k capacity), will convert to an AO
SC Cha-61: ASW

[BrucePowers]

Mike, Yes I live exactly where I did before. I went up to Everett, WA for a few years to keep my pension. My wife stayed here. I retired a couple of years ago and got back home.

[ny59giants]

Only 120 Franks per month isn’t enough IMO. I would go with three factories and steadily increase to 90 each. They are your best IJA fighters despite their SR3.

The Allies get over 90 CVEs. So count on 2 or 3 new ones per month. Some are with 21 fighters and 9 Avengers and others I make just fighter platforms for CAP purposes.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Only 120 Franks per month isn’t enough IMO. I would go with three factories and steadily increase to 90 each. They are your best IJA fighters despite their SR3.

+1

You are PDU ON ... you will want almost all of your IJA fighter units to be Frank at some point.
Frank A does NOT upgrade to "B", it goes to "r". "B" is a separate path. Sadly.

SR3 does take some practice to get used to. If you need to fire up an H2H or AI game and practice a bit with them. Your two best fighters George and Frank will be SR3 ...
In general, I don't have real issues until SR4 and above, those are more tedious.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Only 120 Franks per month isn’t enough IMO. I would go with three factories and steadily increase to 90 each. They are your best IJA fighters despite their SR3.

The Allies get over 90 CVEs. So count on 2 or 3 new ones per month. Some are with 21 fighters and 9 Avengers and others I make just fighter platforms for CAP purposes.

Michael, as always you're full of great news. 2-3 CVEs a month? Holy cow! I had no idea.

Thanks for the insight on the Frank. I've adjusted my plan. [&o]

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Only 120 Franks per month isn’t enough IMO. I would go with three factories and steadily increase to 90 each. They are your best IJA fighters despite their SR3.

+1

You are PDU ON ... you will want almost all of your IJA fighter units to be Frank at some point.
Frank A does NOT upgrade to "B", it goes to "r". "B" is a separate path. Sadly.

SR3 does take some practice to get used to. If you need to fire up an H2H or AI game and practice a bit with them. Your two best fighters George and Frank will be SR3 ...
In general, I don't have real issues until SR4 and above, those are more tedious.

Tony, SR3 does take some getting used to. The George is killing me. Also, I can't figure out how to use them. Michael (I believe it was him) said 1:1 losses was typical and acceptable. Right now I usually get better ratios (in my favor) without the George. I'm obviously doing something wrong.

[Mike Solli]

1 Jul 43

Sub War

Lots of action today. First, the I-28 put a torpedo into an xAK NE of Pearl Harbor. Immediately after that I heard sinking sounds but it was unconfirmed.

Then the I-36 surfaced and put a torpedo and shell into another xAK SW of San Francisco and had the satisfaction of confirming her sinking.

Later in the afternoon, the I-28 torpedoed another xAK. Later in the turn I heard more sinking sounds (twice!). I suspect one was this ship but I have no clue what the other was. Well, there are two possibilities that I’ll talk later below but they’re remote.

Off Soerabaja, the Ch-22 hit the Scamp with a DC. Right after this is when I heard that final sinking sound but I really doubt she sank. She showed up as sunk but wasn’t confirmed by being added to the number of ships or ship points for sunk ships. I doubt it. (This is one of the remote possibilities I mentioned above.)

Finally, the S-28 (yes, an old US rust bucket) parked its old leaking butt at Kwajalein and sank a PB. He’s getting pretty bold with his subs.

5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Not a lot happened here, unless you count the 200+ bomber sorties that hit Madang’s port. That base is totally shut down now.

I’ve been using Mavis flying boat transports to pull the 5 Air Division out of the dot base the former Shortlands garrison retreated to when they were ousted. I got just about all I can fly out and have started on a Naval Guard. It’s only 6 flying boats so it’s rather slow, but it’s working.

Now there are about half a dozen Allied subs (that I can see) within a couple of hexes of Truk. The subs are ineffective with 150x 2E and 30x 1E bombers flying ASW within 2 hexes of Truk along with 3-4 ASW TFs there as well. I have regular fuel TFs arriving from Balikpapan as well as other convoys moving in and out regularly, and none of them are having issues.

I sent out another 17k supply convoy to Rabaul. Hopefully, it will survive the trek a second time to dump its load.

I’ve been busy pushing supply out to important bases using 1-2 Ansyu Fast Transport convoys. Should have done this months ago. Supply used to hover ~100k at Truk. It’s currently down to half that but a convoy of 100k supply is enroute from the Home Islands and should arrive in a week or less. It’s become a rare event when I move supply out of the Home Islands.

During the early sub attacks, I heard a mine hit. I had no clue what it was but after the turn was over I saw that the CA Chester was reported to be sunk by a mine. No conformation, but I suspect she may have eaten that mine. Gasmata maybe? She allegedly sank at Milne Bay. *Shrug* This is the second potential sinking, but I doubt it.

Current damage:
Madang: 85-100-96 Ouch
Kavieng: 0-88-61

SRA

I’ve been loading my largest TF to move to the Home Islands from Singapore. Portions are still loading but it’ll be some 100k oil, 200k fuel and 150k resources. I’ll give you the final numbers when it sails.

Burma

Another sweep of Akyab with a Tojo IIc sentai netted 9 Allied fighters for 2 Tojos.

I stopped the night bombing with my bombers as a waste of supply. In this theater I have 4x sentai of Helens and 1x sentai of Sallies. I transferred the Sallies to Singapore to transfer out their ground bombing pilots for ASW pilots. They will fly to Muntok when that airfield reaches level 2 (on its way to level 4).

China

Another attack, this time on a stack of 4 units. Three were destroyed, a HQ, Corps and Base Force. The remaining base force just sat in the hex. To give you an idea of what kind of shape they were in, only 57 steps were destroyed.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:
SS RO-37 – SRA
1 Independent Tank Company – rebuilt after being destroyed in the Solomons. Not sure why I bothered to rebuild it.

Pilot Accelerations:
IJA 18, month 10
IJN 37, month 10
IJN 119, month 9
IJN 136 month 7
IJN 33, month 3
Those accelerations saved 1715 HI.

New operational plane models:
A6M5c – I screwed up here. I was just a couple of points from hitting July 43 on 30 June and upgraded 4 of the 6 to the A6M8. The other two pushed the A6M5c to July and became operational. Figures. Anyway, I’m still building the A6M5 and will keep those 2 building the A6M5c, so I can have some armored fighters for land based use. Their range is too short for carrier use.

H8K2-L Emily Transport – Even though they are armored, I probably won’t use them. I’ll continue to use the Mavis transport because of its incredibly long range.

N1K1 Rex – Will not build.

Ki-43-IIIa Oscar – upgraded from the IIb.

[ny59giants]

Allied CVEs:

'42 - 8

'43 - 13

'44 - 44

'45 - 25

Total: 90 [X(]