Quisling! An AFB does Japan (No PanzerKat)

[John B.]

Scott did do quick invasions with commandos of the two islands due east of Okinawa. That's in range of my fighters and bombers from the HI. One of the commando units is dead and the other is about to go. [:D] A small victory, but still feels nice.

[John B.]

Scott is closing in on taking Takao. For some reason my flak shoots down his 4E bombers at 18,000 but leaves his TBFs coming in at 8,000 untouched. [:@] But, as you can see, I've been using my air transport fleet to fly out units that won't help in the defense thus saving on supply and VP. I've started to do this at Manila as well. For example, the whole fleet HQ that was there has come home and I just brought in a 37 mm AT unit (it only had two guns left and 37 mm aren't all that great against allied tanks anyway).

At Manila Scott did a bombardment this turn with 5 BB and killed two squads. I don't have any CD units there and none of my land artillery shot back. Level 8 forts are holding up pretty good. I hope he does not reduce them next time!

[RangerJoe]

RangerJoe, that's the general plan, gear up and hit them just before they join the war. My hope is to catch a number of their planes on the ground and rack up some VP on the cheap. I've got a bunch of very good bomber pilots who have done nothing for the past two years

Not even drinking saki and eating sushi? Oh, the horrors!

. . . I just brought in a 37 mm AT unit (it only had two guns left and 37 mm aren't all that great against allied tanks anyway).

Can it upgrade? That might help.

[John B.]

RJ, it could upgrade but, to save on supply I've turned off upgrades and replacements for my units in Manila. It's one of these things where I have 106,000 supply points in Manila. Do I spend in now bombarding Scott and replacing losses on the theory that Scott will kick me out before the supply runs out or to I horde the supply to attempt to have Manila hold out as long as possible. I blow hot and cold on this topic. Once Scott gets the fort level down he may be able to simply blast me out of there but I am tying down a whole lot of allied resources (my four divisions are keeping 9 allied divisions busy).

[RangerJoe]

Would it be worth flying just a fragment of that AT unit out? Then while it matures into an adult, then upgrade.

[John B.]

That's a good idea. I flew out one unit that was down to 2 37 mm AT guns and some support squads. I'd replace and upgrade it anyway and if I can I'll try to fly it back in.

[RangerJoe]

When you fly it back in, leave a little behind to become the parent when needed. Besides, that would also show up as another unit on recon . . .

[John B.]

We have a couple of additional turns under our belt. As you can see, some flak and ops losses for the allies (last turn they had 17 ops losses which made the Emperor smile).

[John B.]

The big news this turn as a shock attack on Takao! It did not go well for the allies. I figure his losses are inflated but Scott almost certainly lost more VP than me. Even better, if he has to settle down for a siege that ties up three more divisions and lots and lots of his tank battalions. My supply level there is getting low so as soon as I"m down flying out the naval HQ (about 72 squads left) I'll switch to flying in supplies. It's short range from Hong Kong so I may be able to fly in enough to make a difference.

He keeps sending his TBFs in at 8,000 feet who are basically untouched by my flak so I flew in some old zeros. If he does not sweep (and he has not been) I may knock a lot of those out of the sky. If he does sweep, my old zeros are toast!

[John B.]

Meanwhile, in the Phillipines, I see several TFs heading towards Manila. I suspect that these are for bombardment. I'll wait one turn and then try some MTBs and subs to see if I can get lucky with a BB or something like that.

[John B.]

It's the very end of August and I did manage to pull off an aerial ambush on Scott's heavy bomber fleet!

[John B.]

I'm never sure how reliable these charts are, but the heavies came in during the morning turn and I guessed right that it would be at Amoy. My airforce has lain low for a long time but I think Scott suspected something because he sent sweeps in. But, unfortunately for him they flew in the afternoon. the one annoying mistake I made was that I did not turn replacements off for some of my squadrons so they took replacement aircraft which are not stuck, unrepaired, at Amoy. [:-]

It was not the massacre I hoped for, but it was nice to see some of them go down in flames.

[John B.]

The basic problem I have is that I cannot leave troops on the coast and the heavy bombers show up and obliterate them. But, if I don't have troops there, then Scott picks up on VP per turn. I suspect that this coast of China is the next invasion spot. Scott took Takao and got a jump in his VP. With those divisions I may come across the Taiwan straits sooner rather than later.

[John B.]

I do have an another aerial ambush planned over Manila. I flew in a whole LOT of Japanese planes as he bombs there each turn with A-20s and B-25s. He does sweep with P-38s but not too many and sometimes they don't fly. Upon further reflection I should have done this in connection with the Amoy ambush but perhaps Scott will react that that and target Amoy. Or, perhaps not, we'll find out shortly.

Manila still has 100K supply on hand so it will likley hold out for quite some time.

[John B.]

We come to the start of another month (and turn 1,000!). In the crucial VP category, it looks like I picked up 1,428 VP and Scott 3,127. This is not too bad given the loss of Taiwan this month and it less than the amount Scott needs to pass me by and get to 2-1. Just 15 months to go.

[John B.]

Resource wise I guess that this is fairly typical for this part of the game. Supply is down 105,000, fuel is down 179,000 and oil down 221,000. The big surprise is an increase in heavy industry up 89,000. This is even more surprising as I have some heavy industry in the HI turned off to conserve fuel. I have shut down all ship production (why build VP for Scott) and most fighter production is on hold pending better models that should be coming on line soon. But, I think HI wise I'm pretty much set. Using 250,000 per month with no additional production would take me to November 1945. Expect lots of planes to be built in the near future.

[John B.]

Now, in a more tactical recap, it was a bad turn to be an A-20 and flying over Manila. [:D] I think that I shot down every A-20 that flew over that city. There were 85 reported in the combat reports so this 112 number is not too far off. The complete destruction of the A-20 groups is confirmed by the total lack of ops losses. And, there were some dead PBY-Liberators as well. It is too bad that this was the turn that the B-25 groups opted to not fly as it would have been nice to get them too, but a very nice air ambush!

The down side was the loss of all the fighters on the ground at Amoy. They were damaged and could not fly so Scott will likely whittle them down over time.

[John B.]

With Taiwan officially gone I think Scott is going to go for China. The coast is his but I've set up blocking positions with divisions digging in where the units are circled. Hopefully these positions (which are are various crossroads) can hold out until reserves arrive.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: John B.
The big surprise is an increase in heavy industry up 89,000. This is even more surprising as I have some heavy industry in the HI turned off to conserve fuel.

Don't forget that it is supply that is the real bottleneck for Japan in the late game. And HI produces supply

[John B.]

I know! That's why I have not shut off HI in any real significant sense. My supply concern right now is the mainland. If Scott goes to China it will be tough to keep units in supply. I just shipped in 135K to Tsingtao (Shanghai is too vulnerable) plus 30K fuel. I built up HI in Shanghai and Mukden early on but even with Chungking and Hong Kong going I'm sure there is not enough HI/LI to keep the mainland supplied. There was a clear shortage given how fast the supply was sucked out of Tsigntao.