Quisling! An AFB does Japan (No PanzerKat)

[John B.]

Tarkalak,

There is always, well almost always, hope!

[John B.]

No rest for the weary. Vicious fights continue on land and air in burma and at sea in the DEI. I outscored Scott in the air this time. I wonder what is fighter situation in Burma is because he had A-36's on CAP and flew P-40Es in for sweeps (plus a squadron of P-38Hs). Still, it's nice to get turns where I"m not wiped out.

[John B.]

As for Burma proper. At A I pushed a tank division and an infantry division across the river and pushed the Brits out of Shewbo and roughed up a Chindit bridage and a couple of support units in the process. I'm heading back, that was just for VP.

At B there is an Aussie division at Magwe. All I have is a Thai division defending with Level 3 forts. It won't last long. I did get in a good series of bombing raids on the Aussie and I wonder what his supply situation is like. But, I'm not repeating the bombing raid this turn. Because,

At C I have two well trained fully supplied divisions with high morale going against a flank guard Indian division. So, I think Scott will fly his cap over Magwe and thus my bombers will go after the Indian division. Then, a shock attak with the two IJA divisions. We'll see what happens, I hope he's a bit down in supply/moral since he's away from his supply line

[John B.]

Ooops, here is the Burma situation.

[John B.]

And, down in the DEI at A Ambon is not long for this world. No supplies and he's attacked me twice in a row. I think he has a BB bombardment TF coming in and then a shock attack. But, I've held him up there for more than a month so that counts as a win. My Emilys can fly in and pick up troops and I"ve just started doing that to have remnants that I can rebuild.

At B Scott has landed at Kendari and I think he is putting base forces ashore. I can actually get a CA TF there this turn from Soerabaja at full speed so maybe I'll catch him napping.

At C, he sent in a CA TF to bombard Tarakan. Not too much damage but my BB TF has not found him. I have a slight chance this turn to catch him so we'll see. Otherwise, I'll base this TF at Tarakan to get him in any future raid.

[John B.]

Well that sucked, but not a complete catastrophe!

The bad was that he shot down 75! planes. He got into the bomber stream with a long range cap that just did not quit. My long range cap disappears after about two fights. How do you make it stronger? Also, Scott got some B-24s to bomb my port in Soerebaja. Of course he was unescorted and of course I had TojoBs that intercepted and of course there was no damage done to his bombers (just like the 20 Nicks did not shoot down any of Scott's unescorted heavies over China). He lost 20 planes or so.

But, the attack went very well! The Indian division was roughly handled and retreated losing 150 or so squads and devices. And, it showed up as being in low supply. Recon shows the Australians running away from Magwe so he may be pulling back. News as it develops.

[John B.]

Well, the naval war went well this turn. I lost a TK to his sea pirates but Scott lost a CL TF that was covering Kendari and I took no losses. He has A BB TF heading towards Ternate so I wonder if my CVs can intercept it by heading north. Or the BB TF in Ternate.

[John B.]

No really vicious air battles this turn. I did actually shoot down 4 heavies with TojoIIbs. I did not guess right where his CAP was so my sweeps came up empty. I'm giving everyone a rest and letting Scott bomb the poor Thai division in Magwe.

[John B.]

I FINALLY got into Scott's bomber stream in Burma. I got 24 of his B-25s (someone told me that the detail report is more accurate than this general one) and that would make sense since they flew in unescorted and I had LCAP over the hex with a lot of planes. And, I got 7 of his P-40Ks in some sweeps in the area. I'm going to say this is an operation Japanese victory for now. Scott is pulling back from Magwe and Myitkyina. I also kicked him out so Shewbo and roughed up two brigades and an Indian inf. division. He's established next to Prome and will be able to push in after he builds up a base when he takes Ramree island but for now I think he's stymied.

In the DEI he continues to build up and Ambon is on the cusp of falling. I have been using Emilys to fly out troops to save on VP and to be able to rebuild the units without paying political points. One of my subs did put two torpedos into a CVE with a fuel explosion. It did not sink but it is only moving two hexes per turn so it must have pretty bad damage. The sub that sank it may be able to catch it outside of Moresby for one more shot at it.

Meanwhile the KB is wandering around keeping the sea lanes to Balikpappan open for now.

[John B.]

Things are continuing in the DEI while the attack in Burma is stalled. Scott did take Ramree island and I expect that sooner or later he'll build that up, but it's always nice to slow the allies down.

As for the DEI, I've managed to get some local superiority and hopefully I'll be able to shut down Kendari for awhile. That's the level 4 airbase withing fighter range of Balikpappan. I moved out a majority of the entire IJN and had three TFs bombard the island under cover of the KB last night. The surface TFs are on their way back to refuel and (more importantly) reload at Soerebaja. The KB is going to send another BB TF to Kendari this evening and swing around to the south in an attempt to keep avoiding allied subs. Currently there is no sign of the American carriers.

[John B.]

Not a whole lot of damage from bombardments at Kendari but 11 planes dead including a few p-47s and any day that you're killing P-47s is a good day indeed. Scott did lose unescorted SBDs attacking form a land base but he also hit a DD.

[John B.]

One way Scott put a damper on my bombardment TFs was to have clouds of PT boats. I think I sank about 25 or so and there were another 25 in TFs that got away. They don't have much fuel and hopefully their torpedos are shot off so that tonight's bombardment has more success. My hope is to get these ships rearmed and to get in another round at Kendari to keep it down as long as possible.

[Bif1961]

In my game we have an HR of 6 PT boats x port size. That helps reduced the over use of 90+ PT boats to defend a 2-3 level port or base. However, if you sink them they may be rebuilt if you have the supplies and facilities to do so, but just up to the current port level times 6.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

In my game we have an HR of 6 PT boats x port size. That helps reduced the over use of 90+ PT boats to defend a 2-3 level port or base. However, if you sink them they may be rebuilt if you have the supplies and facilities to do so, but just up to the current port level times 6.

PT Boats are not so much rebuilt immediately as drawn from the pools. There is a limit of something like 64 PT boats at game start but that increases later. There is still a max number in the game though, and if PTs are sunk it takes a period of time before a replacement is available in the pools. So sinking a bunch of them will reduce numbers for a while (assuming pools are very low), but they will be rebuilt and available in a month or three. AFAIK, the British MTB pool is separate from the USN PT pool.

[John B.]

That's an interesting house rule but we don't have it so it is what it is. It is interfering with my bombardments (I guess by draining away ops points) but at a cost in VP. At some point the PT boats won't really matter when I'm not strong enough for local counter offensives like this. This one is just to delay his using Kendari to shut down Balikpappan and Soerebaja. The more I can get out of there the better!

[GetAssista]

PT boat production is limited for the Allies at some predetermined monthly figures, so if you kill a lot you can deplete the pool for some time.
My last AI game had ~170 US PT boats in pool/TFs/lost in May 43

[John B.]

He's down 10 more or so. Not too much action this time. I moved the KB north and Scott lost about 20 SBDs from a land based attack and an AKL and AVD to my KB. Four surface TF's have rearmed at Soerebaja and are heading back to bombard Kendari. At some point he'll run out of PT boats and the bombardments will be more effective. The US carriers are no where to be seen! I wonder where they are.

[John B.]

Apparently there are two secrets to a long and happy life. 1. Don't be a Japanese carrier pilot. 2. Don't serve on a US PT boat. The air results here speak for themselves. I lost 19 zeros (model 5) and a bunch of torpedo bombers and shot down 1 (one) P-47 that was over Kendari. What the screen does not show you is that, thus far, Scott has lost 63 PT boats defending Kendari and all he has to show for it is a torpedo in the Hiei. Still, I"m not despondent about these air losses. With the ground losses and tossing in a couple of heavy bombers, Scott had me at less than 2-1 and that's what he needs to win.

[John B.]

And, I'm making progress on my goal to keep Kendari shut down as long as possible. It's been getting at least one bombardment per day from a BB TF and I did just put in an air raid (which did a lot of damage but cost me a lot of planes). Two more BBs should go in tonight for another bombardment and then the KB will head back to port to refuel. I am getting another load of fuel and oil out of Balikpapan so that's helpful.

The big question is, just where are the American carriers? They have not been spotted for a long time. Is Scott going to head to the HI? Burma has gone quiet, are the Carriers heading up there? Too Sumatra? It's making me paranoid.

But, otherwise, given his push into the DEI and the stalemate in Burma, he's still a long way from the HI and all the VP cities/islands up there and no strat bombing until he gets a lot closer.

[John B.]

Another slow day (and each slow day is a victory for Japan). The Betties showed up but the fighter sweep did not. American CVEs may be east of Ambon.

does it make sense to put Georges on CVs or just leave the Zeros for that?

Why is the Matrix game site not secure?