Nothing but grim news this period. In China at Nanking he steamrolls the defenders in the space of only 3 deliberate attacks, adding a few hundred more points in troops losses to his score. He has also taken all but one of the bases on the southern coast. In the air I manage to down 100 B24s in a couple of CAP traps but at the loss of twice as many fighters to his sweepers.
The main development however occurs at Legaspi on the southern tip of Luzon where most of his death star fleet shows up to cover a landing there. I load up Manila and the surrounding bases with a/c to attack, limiting their range to only the landing site, but despite this the CAP from his CVs lying one hex to the east decimates all my strikes. I lose 1000 a/c in return for sinking a lone LST. At least I lost "only" 300 pilots in the process. After this debacle I had no choice but to pull out all my shipping and depleted air groups from the area. His armour heavy invasion troops are now currently rolling up the road to Manila as I type. Once it and Clark fall their airfields will pretty much prevent me getting any more fuel back from the SRA.
In other news his night strat bombing of the home islands is starting to hit some of my a/c and engine factories hard but I've probably got enough already in the bank to see me through the rest of the game. I'm getting a large number of training units arriving and they seem to train up pilots pretty fast so at least I won't run out of them anytime soon either.
That's tough. I've been there. Quite recently. Nothing you can do but get things ready for the next opportunity. Might be possible to nip at his heels instead of going for the big strike, too.
Good work on the 4E. That should be a few months' production. Worth the 200 fighters. [:)]
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
Good work on the 4E. That should be a few months' production. Worth the 200 fighters.
I agree. Four engine planes are worth 2 VP while the fighters are worth 1 VP, so in the VP point situation, that is a gain for you since it makes it harder for Allied victory. Not to mention his trained aircrew lost over you base.
Seek peace but keep your gun handy.
I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing!
“Illegitemus non carborundum est (“Don’t let the bastards grind you down”).” ; Julia Child
Now that I'm the only Axis power still in existence, Kane is really starting to turn the screw.
Firstly, in China his large stack of ground units that rolled over Nanking in a few days have now been railed to Hankow and an attack there is imminent. It should hold out longer as I have a few high quality units there but we are talking weeks not months taking into account the massive daily aerial bombardment the base and troop are under, hundreds of bombers covered by twice as many fighters.
Meanwhile on Luzon recon indicates about 60 units about to reach Manila within a day or two. My plan is to hold for one attack before retreating everything to Clark, basically a reverse of the Allies tactics in 42. I did have a strong fighter presence there but two days of massive sweeps destroyed 150 of them for about half that number in return. I have a couple of supply convoys currently unloading at Iba, hopefully they will deliver enough to keep the defenders happy for a few months.
The big news is his Invasion of Iwo Jima covered by most of his fleet. His troops go ashore on the 15th but I have a stout garrison there. The result of his first auto shock attack:
Ground combat at Iwo-jima (108,77)
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 33266 troops, 614 guns, 1058 vehicles, Assault Value = 1179
Defending force 27616 troops, 322 guns, 20 vehicles, Assault Value = 602
Japanese ground losses:
1990 casualties reported
Squads: 16 destroyed, 138 disabled
Non Combat: 7 destroyed, 87 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 55 disabled
Guns lost 30 (6 destroyed, 24 disabled)
Allied ground losses:
8232 casualties reported
Squads: 243 destroyed, 557 disabled
Non Combat: 150 destroyed, 210 disabled
Engineers: 24 destroyed, 66 disabled
Guns lost 132 (36 destroyed, 96 disabled)
Vehicles lost 350 (257 destroyed, 93 disabled)
Units destroyed 1
He fails to knock down the fort level at all and takes some serious disablements, but time is on his side.
Current points totals are 74k to 52k in his favour. When he takes Manila soon that will shift another 3-4k his way. Auto victory will be likely soon after the soviets activate.
I'm pretty much on the ropes everywhere now. Firstly, the situation in Malaya:
The red circle shows the bulk of where both our troops are in this region at Singora. He has 5k AV to my 3k, but he lacks any armour here and his attacks have proved futile so far. I think his only hope of a breakthrough would an amphib landing somewhere on the west coast (green arrows) to cut off my troops. He is due a load of British CVL/E reinforcements at Aden in the next month, so I think he may try this in July/Aug. I only have a dozen old DDs at Singapore now, but I could still put up some strong air attack units if needed.
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My four remaining strongholds here are circled, Changteh and Changsha to the west, Hankow, and finally Shanghai on the eastern coast. He has tried several attacks at the first two bases but with mainly Chinese troops and all have failed badly and have not even reduced the fort levels, both are still at 6. At Hankow his attacks have reduced the fort to 3 but at horrific cost in disabled troops, the latest one for example:
Ground combat at Hankow (85,50)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 235702 troops, 2742 guns, 3027 vehicles, Assault Value = 8184
Defending force 153391 troops, 1398 guns, 646 vehicles, Assault Value = 4563
All the bases are under attack daily by hundreds of bombers and supply is showing zero at all of them, but the units themselves all have 70-80% of required supply so they are not going to collapse anytime soon.
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As I expected, Manila holds for one attack, although my best defending division is gutted in the process. I manage to retreat everything to Clark before his second attack takes the capital. With the fall of Manila my access to the SRA oil is pretty much cut off. The two tanker TF circled in red will probably be the last to deliver fuel home. I have about 2k AV plus change at Clark but he has at least 7k at Manila (half of it armour) with more to come plus total control of the air, so I'm guessing Clark will hold maybe a fortnight if I'm lucky....
In other news he sends a DD TF to Puerto Princesa that catches a tanker TF and escorts, they sink 7 medium sized tankers and about 10 escorts, which doubles my tanker losses for the entire game!
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After his initial attack at Iwo Jima failed to drop the forts and caused him a lot of disabled troops, he proceeded to bomb it with B29s and carrier a/c. Obviously I held back from any futile attempt to stop him. However, after a week or so he withdrew his fleet back to Guam and the B29's switched to attacking Honshu at night (more on that later). In the lull that followed I have managed to to get several FT supply convoys there, some PT boats and mines and a tank rgt. It won't be falling anytime soon unless he brings a lot more troops to the party. If it does then that opens up Tokyo and Osaka to P47/51 sweeps and that means goodbye most of my supply generation.
The TFs north of IJ (red circle) are pretty much the remainder of my fleet, I'm hoping if he sends in some FT and/or Amphib TFs (green circle) I can take a chunk out of them. As of the 1st June all his CVs appear to be back at Guam.
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Don't knock the old DDs at Singapore. With commanders with a high Naval and a moderate Aggression rating, they can be very useful. Send them out on low visibility nights (low moon light/storms) with a low aggression risk. If they run into something, they will probably launch torpedoes and retreat. Long Lances (or any torpedo) at 2 to 4 thousand yards can be devastating. Do that with 2 DD task forces and there could be a lot of cripples leaving. Also, any CV TFs tend to retreat when that happens, leaving any other Carrier TFs vulnerable. Not to mention transports where Kamikazes don't have to fight through as much CAP.
Mini-subs and MTBs could also be useful during low visibility times at invasion fleets. I enjoy it when they play "bumper ships" when the MTB/PT boats show up. [:D]
Add in some subs laying some quick minefields as well as subs coming in behind to pick off cripples and his forces could be severely depleted.
Seek peace but keep your gun handy.
I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing!
“Illegitemus non carborundum est (“Don’t let the bastards grind you down”).” ; Julia Child
He has been sweeping the western bases with huge numbers, this is an example of what I'm up against:
He can usually manage 3 or 4 sweeps like this every day. If I were to oppose a sweep like this with 200 of my best fighters and pilots I'd lose about 100 whilst shooting down 20/30 in return. Basically the whole of the HI in fighter sweep range is easy meat for his bombers, but for now most of them are still busy in China and the PI. With it being a PDU off game I'm stuck with a lot of Zero sqds that are cannon fodder now and can only upgrade to the last Sam model, which won't appear till the end of the year.
He has resumed night strat bombing and several raids on Tokyo have knocked out about 20% of the HI production despite me having half of my NF fleet and AA units there, although he has lost 30 B29s in the process.
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Well all those numbers can only go down now seeing as I won't be getting any more fuel back from the SRA. Probably enough to last till the end of the year I would imagine if I'm careful. I have plenty of a/c and pilots in the pools but quite a few of the engine factories have run out of stock so I'm having to prioritise a/c production to certain models.
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With a 4k point swing for the fall of Manila plus another 2k or so for strat bombing over the last fortnight it's looking like AV will arrive pretty much when the soviets activate. We shall see.
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Don't knock the old DDs at Singapore. With commanders with a high Naval and a moderate Aggression rating, they can be very useful. Send them out on low visibility nights (low moon light/storms) with a low aggression risk. If they run into something, they will probably launch torpedoes and retreat. Long Lances (or any torpedo) at 2 to 4 thousand yards can be devastating. Do that with 2 DD task forces and there could be a lot of cripples leaving. Also, any CV TFs tend to retreat when that happens, leaving any other Carrier TFs vulnerable. Not to mention transports where Kamikazes don't have to fight through as much CAP.
Mini-subs and MTBs could also be useful during low visibility times at invasion fleets. I enjoy it when they play "bumper ships" when the MTB/PT boats show up. [:D]
Add in some subs laying some quick minefields as well as subs coming in behind to pick off cripples and his forces could be severely depleted.
Solid advice Joe but Kane really knows what he is doing. He never tries any sort of operation in low moonlight. In fact I'm certain he hasn't ever tried an amphibious operation in anything less than 80-90 % moonlight.
(1) any game in which a Japanese player holds out into mid-1945 or later is a testament to their ability, dedication to the game, and reliability as an opponent.
(2) it helps when Japan doesn't accidentally invade Russia in early 1942.
Miller is a good chap.
"Rats set fire to Mr. Cooper’s store in Fort Valley. No damage done." Columbus (Ga) Enquirer-Sun, October 2, 1880.
(1) any game in which a Japanese player holds out into mid-1945 or later is a testament to their ability, dedication to the game, and reliability as an opponent.
(2) it helps when Japan doesn't accidentally invade Russia in early 1942.
Miller is a good chap.
Agreed, and a good player. If you get to mid-45, you have to be good. To get there against Mr. Kane, you have to be really good.
Well, the "all-in" battle I was looking for came sooner than I expected....
Early in the month my recon picked up his death star covering amphib forces heading slowly north west from Guam. By the 6th it was about 8 hexes south of Okinawa, target Naha I presumed. I had assembled virtually all my remaining fleet to intercept, hoping to do the trusty LBA/CV air 1-2 punch that had served me well in the past. Unfortunately on the 7th our CVs reacted to each other and the battle to took place one day sooner than I expected, therefore I had almost no LBA in place to attack his CVs....
It was a massacre on both sides. My CVs launch first in the morning with a mega strike. 430 fighters escorting just over 500 DB/TBs flying into his mega 1500 plane CAP:
Morning Air attack on TF, near Naha at 94,68
Weather in hex: Light rain
Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 19,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 40 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M8 Zero x 133
A7M2 Sam x 297
B7A2 Grace x 238
D4Y3 Judy x 168
D4Y4 Judy x 88
Allied aircraft
Corsair II x 66
Corsair IV x 24
Hellcat I x 95
Hellcat F.II x 66
Seafire IIC x 45
Seafire L.III x 109
FM-1 Wildcat x 86
FM-2 Wildcat x 425
F4U-1D Corsair x 190
F6F-3 Hellcat x 167
F6F-5 Hellcat x 224
OS2U-3 Kingfisher x 8
Allied Ships
CVL Belleau Wood, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
BB Richelieu, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
CV Enterprise, Torpedo hits 1
CVL San Jacinto, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CVL Bataan
CV Bon Homme Richard, Torpedo hits 1
CV Implacable, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, Kamikaze hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CV Formidable, Torpedo hits 2
DD Pringle
DD Murray
CLAA Tucson
CVE Stalker, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
CVE Barnes, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
CVE Prince William, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
CVE Copahee, Torpedo hits 5, and is sunk
CVE Breton, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 5, and is sunk
CVE Commencement Bay, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
CVE Ranee, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
CVE Kalinin Bay, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CLAA Oakland
CVE Arbiter, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CVE Matanikau, Bomb hits 1, on fire
BC Renown, Torpedo hits 1
CV Indomitable, Bomb hits 3, Kamikaze hits 1, heavy fires
BB Howe
CV Victorious
CV Illustrious, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, Kamikaze hits 1, on fire
CV Indefatigable, Torpedo hits 4, heavy damage
CV Hornet, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Iowa, Bomb hits 1
BB Alabama
CA Louisville
CVE Natoma Bay, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
CVE Nassau, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
CVE Tracker, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CVE Rajah, Torpedo hits 2, on fire
CVE Makassar Strait
BC Repulse
DD Leutze, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CVL Princeton, Torpedo hits 1, Kamikaze hits 1, on fire
DE Leland E. Thomas, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
DE Williams
CVE Pursuer, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
DD James C. Owens
DE Traw, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
DE Walter C. Wann
DE Kenneth M. Willet, Kamikaze hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CVE Slinger, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
The escorts take it on the chin but enable about 75% of my strike a/c to get through to attack. The weather gods were against me again but results are still good considering. His CAP gets another big attack on my retreating bombers and they are savaged as they withdraw. Of the entire strike of 930 planes I lose at least three quarters of them. No LBA launch to attack his CVs in the morning.
Then its the turn of his CV strike, which is absolutely devastating:
Morning Air attack on TF, near Daito Shoto at 99,68
Weather in hex: Partial cloud
Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 18,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 34 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M5c Zero x 6
A6M8 Zero x 32
A7M2 Sam x 72
Allied aircraft
Avenger I x 14
Avenger II x 51
Barracuda II x 24
Barracuda TR.III x 6
Hellcat I x 28
Hellcat F.II x 10
Seafire L.III x 23
FM-2 Wildcat x 14
F4U-1D Corsair x 182
F6F-3 Hellcat x 96
F6F-5 Hellcat x 208
SB2C-4 Helldiver x 261
TBM-1C Avenger x 65
TBM-3 Avenger x 219
Japanese Ships
CVL Chiyoda, Bomb hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
CV Junyo, Bomb hits 8, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
CVL Mizuho, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
CVL Ryuho, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires
CV Katsuragi, Bomb hits 9, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CV Unryu, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Oyodo, Bomb hits 8, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
CV Amagi, Bomb hits 16, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Hatsuzuki, Bomb hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Akizuki, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
DD Susuzuki
DD Niizuki, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Wakazuki, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
CV Hiyo, Bomb hits 8, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Wakazakura
CVL Chitose, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
DD Teruzuki, Bomb hits 9, and is sunk
DD Michishio, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
DD Arashio, Bomb hits 7, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Sumire
DD Shii, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Kaki, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage
DD Nashi, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
DD Tsuta, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
There is no way my paltry 100 plane CAP was going to get through to his bombers and his strike pilots enjoy better weather. The results speak for themselves.
With a 4k point swing for the fall of Manila plus another 2k or so for strat bombing over the last fortnight it's looking like AV will arrive pretty much when the soviets activate. We shall see.
Nice. Great job getting here in this shape. [&o]
I forgot also this is a PDU-off game. No wonder he's strong in the air at this point!! [X(]
To conserve supply you might turn off replacements to all of the new HI divisions you're getting now. You have a lot of PPs too, and could buy some to send to the Russian front soon. They're only like 400-500 PP before filling out.
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
In the afternoon phase his CVs launch another massive attack on mine:
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Daito Shoto at 99,68
Weather in hex: Heavy rain
Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 19,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 34 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M5c Zero x 6
A6M8 Zero x 9
A7M2 Sam x 38
Allied aircraft
Avenger I x 12
Barracuda II x 2
Corsair II x 27
Hellcat I x 5
Hellcat F.II x 6
Seafire IIC x 1
Seafire L.III x 13
FM-2 Wildcat x 3
F4U-1D Corsair x 164
F6F-3 Hellcat x 23
F6F-5 Hellcat x 145
SB2C-4 Helldiver x 216
TBM-3 Avenger x 188
Japanese Ships
CVE Kaiyo, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
CVE Shinyo, Bomb hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
CVE Chuyo, Bomb hits 11, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
CVE Unyo, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
CVE Taiyo, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
CV Zuikaku, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires
CV Taiho, Bomb hits 12, on fire
CV Shokaku, Bomb hits 5
DD Michitsuki
DD Haruzuki
DD Yoizuki, Bomb hits 3, on fire
DD Yamagumo, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Odake
DD Yadake
DD Natsugumo
DD Kiyousuki
DD Fuyuzuki
DD Shimozuki, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Katsura, Bomb hits 2, on fire
DD Hanekimo
DD Tochi, Bomb hits 7, and is sunk
DD Hatsuzakura, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
DD Azura, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Hanazuki, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
This strike should have wiped out all my remaining CVs but the bad weather spared a few of them from taking heavy damage. All I manage in the afternoon is a strike from survivors of the morning attack flying from Naha that finish off a few of his cripples:
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Naha at 94,68
Weather in hex: Clear sky
Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 40 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M8 Zero x 40
A7M2 Sam x 30
B7A2 Grace x 74
D4Y3 Judy x 41
D4Y4 Judy x 4
Allied aircraft
Hellcat I x 36
Hellcat F.II x 26
Seafire IIC x 11
FM-1 Wildcat x 22
FM-2 Wildcat x 132
F6F-3 Hellcat x 16
F6F-5 Hellcat x 41
OS2U-3 Kingfisher x 5
Allied Ships
CVE Gambier Bay
CVE Suwannee, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CVE Kwajalein, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
CVE Ommaney Bay, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CVE Windham Bay
CVE Kitkun Bay, Torpedo hits 1, Kamikaze hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CVE Sangamon, Torpedo hits 1
CVE Attu
DE Albert T. Harris
; Julia Child
