Focus Pacific: down with the Wulf ( no durnedwolf please)

[BillBrown]

Here is the combined air losses for the day.

Even if I discount Japans losses by 50%, it is still about a 4 to 1 victory for the day total.

Considering fighters, it is reported he lost 45 and I lost 8. Again discounting
his losses by 50% it is still a 22 to 8 or about 3 to 1 loss ration. I did lose
8 pilots on the day. His fighters were operating as LRCAP, so he lost a lot of pilots
in those fighters also.

His Bettys were lost over Batavia where they tried to bomb unescorted:

Morning Air attack on Makassar Base Force, at 49,98 (Batavia)

Weather in hex: Heavy rain

Raid spotted at 18 NM, estimated altitude 4,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 32

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 7 destroyed, 7 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed by flak

Aircraft Attacking:
8 x G4M1 Betty bombing from 3000 feet
Ground Attack: 2 x 250 kg GP Bomb, 4 x 60 kg GP Bomb

CAP engaged:
2-VI.G.V with CW-21B Demon (24 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
24 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 10000.
Raid is overhead

Training flight from 2-VI.G.V has been caught up in attack
-------------------------
All units were set to training, they will not be next turn.

[BBfanboy]

First time I have seen a report of Demons shooting down anything! Shows just how fragile the IJ aircraft are.
Good job on stinging him again - not a huge victory but enough to make him change plans ... and doubt his other assumptions about what you could do! [:)]

[BillBrown]

April 3, 1942

Another good day over Magwe.

Amazingly, I lost no pilots.
This time some Salleys tried to attack Akyab without escorts.

[BillBrown]

April 4, 1942

A boring day. I assume that bad weather kept all my flights to Magwe from flying.

There is a sub off of Victoria, Canada I will have to deal with, he fired but didn't hit
my KV.

It seems that Manila will fall soon, he got a 2 - 1 result this turn.

He is flying sweep missions everywhere. 12 of them over Palembang ( 219 A6M2s in total )

I got a moving report that elements of the 61st Inf division are heading to Umnak Island, which
he already owns. My guess is there are going to there to launch an attack on Dutch Harbor.

[BillBrown]

Something that needs to be said is that if you are thinking about
playing this mod, check all of your ship upgrades and conversions
carefully. Some of them take a 199 or 200 size repair shipyard.
Some of them are even USN DDs.

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: BillBrown

Something that needs to be said is that if you are thinking about
playing this mod, check all of your ship upgrades and conversions
carefully. Some of them take a 199 or 200 size repair shipyard.
Some of them are even USN DDs.

I think that part needs to be revisited.

[BillBrown]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

ORIGINAL: BillBrown

Something that needs to be said is that if you are thinking about
playing this mod, check all of your ship upgrades and conversions
carefully. Some of them take a 199 or 200 size repair shipyard.
Some of them are even USN DDs.

I think that part needs to be revisited.

Not really, these are some major upgrades, the DDs have their main armament changed out
along with more AA, ASW, and radar upgrades.

The upgrade time is not that long, it just reflects that these upgrades need to be done
at a major shipyard. The only ones are EUSA and Seattle.

[RangerJoe]

Okay, I understand then. The trained technicians would not otherwise be available.

[BillBrown]

April 5, 1942.

I lost Manila today, a bit earlier than I expected, but he die a shock attack to take it
and it cost him a bit.

Ground combat at Manila (79,77)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 84149 troops, 790 guns, 290 vehicles, Assault Value = 2259

Defending force 20212 troops, 372 guns, 332 vehicles, Assault Value = 108

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 0

Japanese adjusted assault: 1464

Allied adjusted defense: 271

Japanese assault odds: 5 to 1 (fort level 0)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Manila !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), supply(-)
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
1850 casualties reported
Squads: 31 destroyed, 105 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 9 disabled
Engineers: 6 destroyed, 28 disabled
Guns lost 7 (1 destroyed, 6 disabled)
Vehicles lost 4 (1 destroyed, 3 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
8830 casualties reported
Squads: 285 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 422 destroyed, 167 disabled
Engineers: 102 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 224 (224 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 35 (31 destroyed, 4 disabled)
Units retreated 7
Units destroyed 1

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Another good day over Magwe for the Allies.
I lost a pilot today and 1 a2a loss with 4 ops losses for the P38Es.
Only one picture, my losses are highlighted.
During the replays I notice that most of my aircraft get damaged, but
there is not a destroyed message.

[BillBrown]

I targeted the refinery at Magwe today and here is the result.

[BillBrown]

A short note, my opponent is out of town on business, but he should send me a turn sometime this weekend.

[BillBrown]

April 6, 1942

Another good day in the air over Burma. Today's target was Mandalay.
Reported air losses give a ratio of 31 to 2. Cutting his losses by
50% still gives a 15 to 2 ratio. Not bad for April 1942.

I lost no bases this turn but I did lose a small xAKL off of Midway to a sub.

I have to admit, I am a bit worried about the long term viability of this game.
I really do not feel my opponent has pressed forward enough in the first 4 months
of the war. As I have stated before, in this mod Japan is given a huge hammer
but it must be wielded well to be effective. He has a huge economy, just few items
will tell you something.

He starts with 1881 oil centers, compared to stocks 305.
He starts with 2445 refineries, compared to stocks 1135.
He starts with 13015 HI compared to stocks 7180.
Aircraft factories 639 compared to 380
R&D air 344 to 16.( repaired )

He starts with 19 BB/BCs - that includes Yamato and Musashi active on Dec 7, 1941.

As you can see, an Japanese player should be able to really advance in the early
stages of the game and needs to in order to force the Allied player to try and
defend somewhere.

[BillBrown]

April 7, 1942

Another boring day. More success over Mandalay today. Reported are 22 enemy A2A losses and 2 ops losses. My losses are 1 A2A P-38E with 2 ops losses.
I hit the airfield again today, tomorrow I will hit the ground forces at Mandalay.

[CaptBeefheart]

Maybe he plans to let you come to him? It doesn't look like he needs to take the DEI with that kind of oil infrastructure.

Cheers,
CB

[BillBrown]

ORIGINAL: CaptBeefheart

Maybe he plans to let you come to him? It doesn't look like he needs to take the DEI with that kind of oil infrastructure.

Cheers,
CB

He can most likely do without most if not all of the DEI's resources and oil, but he would be leaving me a lot of good places to start a drive on Japan.

[BillBrown]

April 8, 1942

Another day without much happening. I lost an xAKL near Batavia to a sub.

I bombed troops at Mandalay, but I was not happy with the result. I see that
Magwee is repairing its damage and I need to bomb it. Since I am not seeing
many fighters up over Mandalay, I will split my fighters and bombers and hit
both airfields for a few turns. They are the only two that are bigger than
size 1, so I would like to keep him from building them up. I have been flying
4 P-38E units so far, I have now added another P-38E and a P-50 Skyrocket unit
to the mix. In a few turns I will add two B-26 units. this turn 4 new B-17E
units will join in the bombing.

No bases lost last turn.

China evacuation is proceeding nicely.
My count is that I will get 11 Light Infantry corps, 6 USA supplied corps,
and 89 regular corps out of China into India. Also most of the corp and army
HQs, 9 construction regiments, and 30 Base Forces. I have previously moved
all of the air units to India where they have filled out with pilots and most
aircraft and are training. In this game they will be a force.

[BBfanboy]

Had to look up the P-50 ...

[BillBrown]

Here is a comparison between a P-38E and the P-50.

Note that the P-50 does not have armor.

[BillBrown]

April 9, 1942

Not much happening today. Weather kept all my aircraft in Burma area from flying.
I will try again tomorrow.

I have a SBD-3 unit at Ambon and they flew today. He keeps sailing some small
TFs around Sorong.

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Sorong at 82,107

Weather in hex: Severe storms

Raid spotted at 25 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 9 minutes

Allied aircraft
SBD-3 Dauntless x 15

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
PB Wa 14, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
PB Takasago Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
4 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
8 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 4000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb

Heavy smoke from fires obscuring PB Wa 14
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring PB Takasago Maru

[BillBrown]

April 10, 1942

Not a lot happening. I lost too many P-38Es over Burma today. I only get
30 per month and I can not lose 12 in one day. I am going to concentrate
my air war against Magwee for the next few days. I really need to get more airfields built
up that are closer to the bases in Burma. Only the P-38s and P-50s can reach Magwee.