Guadalcanal scenario: took Lunga & Tulagi, what now?

[Randy Stead]

Campaign update:

I am now 138 turns into the Guadalcanal scenario as Allies vs AI. It seems I am now completely dominating the map. In spite of the IJN still having some carriers, such as Junyo and the smaller ones still in the game after I sank Shokaku and Zuikaku, they do not want to come out and play. I've spotted them several times and sent carriers toward them but they do not advance. Once my carriers are spotted they disappear into port. Out of frustration, boredom and as an experiment I sent a 3 carrier port strike against Rabaul. I enjoyed some success but I paid for it, losing 10 Wildcats and about the same in dive bombers. I did get multiple hits on a CA and 2 CL in port but I think this was a waste of precious resources as I can more efficiently kill or damage those ships at sea. If they remain in port to stay safe, mission accomplished in the sense of denying them access to sea.

I've finally got Wasp within a couple of days of full repair at Sydney. I repaired all of her systems damage at Noumea before sending her to Sydney for repair of the major flotation damage of 27 or so. I've still got South Dakota and Washington at Sydney for major flotation damage repair. Washington is now finally in the shipyard berth and beginning repair of 33 major flotation damage. South Dakota has 12 systems damage and 32 major flotation damage. She is pierside repairing the systems damage. After that is down to 0 I plan to put her into the shipyard as soon as South Dakota comes out. I also have Achilles with 17 major flotation and a few other vessels with low major damage points, but as they are less needed at the moment they can wait for the big girls to get purtied up.

This scenario has been a very good schoolmaster for teaching me land combat, LOGISTICS [can I emphasize that word enough?] and long term air operations. At some point I realize I had completely neglected doing any upgrades to air units. I was having so much fun upgrading ships and subs I completely forgot my poor aviators. After several turns of things not upgrading I went under the hood and figured that out. Some of them had to do with being too far from an HQ so I moved them closer, and of course supply figures into the upgrade routines. I am now becoming more adept at managing that.

A word to my fellow newbs concerning ship repairs and upgrades. Don't go all out as soon as ships are eligible for upgrades. The ones that upgrade in place with no requirement for shipyard access, sure, go ahead and upgrade them. I threw a huge sabot into the works at Sydney by pulling in large numbers of vessels that needed a shipyard of at least size 5 to begin upgrades. This interrupted repair of CV Wasp and other ship repairs underway. Another large mistake was moving the SW PAC HQ up to Townsville so it could "influence" LCUs on New Guinea. Yeah, it sounded like a great idea when somebody said do it. Then when I was crying the blues about those tardy Aussie shipyard workers I began to look around for units with embedded naval support. And there was SW PAC with well over 200 stuck up in Townsville frolicking with local tarts when their skills were needed in Sydney. Right, get your hairy arr-sezz on that train on boogie on down to Sydney. Once they got down there and unpacked their bags and went to work there was a noticeable increase in the pace of repair in the yards. Lesson learned; do not be so hasty to relocate support units when they may be needed elsewhere. As Sydney is the only shipyard in the Guadalcanal scenario [of which I am aware] concentrate your naval support there. Yes, I know they can be helpful elsewhere for speeding up unloading of ships in certain ports, but you must decide what is most important: stevedoring or repairing. Tough decision, but that's why you get paid the big $ as the Grand Kahoona, chief.

In New Guinea I have just expelled the Hori Group of units from Kokoda Trail. Two or three rounds of deliberate attack, supported by air strikes and they are now on the run to Buna. I have been strangling Buna for many weeks; subs outside the port and every time he tries to ship in supplies I hit them hard. Last time they tried to bring in about 7-8 Marus and escorts. My carriers moved up to the southward side of New Guinea and clobbered them. I've done this several times over the course of the campaign and I believe I have sunk so many cargo vessels and transports that he has a severe supply problem in many locations. I'd love to clobber Rabaul once and for all but that is a long term goal and I don't think I even have to do that in this scenario. I've got so many points at present that the intel screen shows major victory. All I have to do is maintain what I have to win. However, as this is a learning scenario, I wish to try a few landings so that I may learn how to handle those lovely new LCI and LST vessels that are accumulating at Noumea. I have still not used any of the CVEs that have shown up; the first ones such as Long Island came in empty, but a few arrived several turns ago with planes already aboard. Those air units are now ashore doing training. If circumstances permit, I will see what I can do with them. At this point there are many ships I could do without, but I am not giving any back to Uncle Chester at Pearl.

On Guadalcanal I have moved units into the Tassafaronga hex. I've had a couple of deliberate attacks which have shown that the LCUs there are not yet ready for the plucking, but I did hurt them at some cost to myself. I am rotating bombardment groups through in succession, with the odd air strike and lots of recon. I've got detection levels up to around 8-9/12, which help the bombardments. They inflict much heavier losses when the DL is high. A number of my LCUs at Lunga were reaimed from Lunga to Tassafaronga. At or near 100 I have moved them overland and they now co-occupy the base hex. With a sea and air cordon not much supply, if any is getting through to them. i am uncertain exactly what low supply does to LCUs in this game, but I know in real life it is a very bad state of affairs. Think of von Paulus and 6th Armee at Stalingrad after 1-2 months of inadequate supply. But instead of snow, throw in malaria. Not good for the Japanese LCUs there. Some of the bombardments inflict quite severe casualties, so I am sure I am wearing down both their numbers and increasing their disruption. The only thing keeping them protected to some degree is the fortification level. I've learned from enough turns that combat engineers are good at reducing fortification levels. Once I've got them down, it is simply a matter of numbers, which appear to be on my side. As is time.

Any suggestions for offensive action should I take Buna and Tassafaronga? I have been told that Buna is a side show, but I need to get practice at offensive action. Given enough time and cordoning off of Buna I should be able to take it from landward, so I have been told. I fear taking it be sea, having a supply fleet sitting there for several turns and having air units and those big IJN BBs showing up in the dark and screaming Boo! So, landward approach seems the circumspect choice. I've got a P-38 photo recon group snapping photos of Buna every turn. I may sneak in some surface groups for quick bombardments and run out again. The bomber situation seems to be will n hand; the Bettys come over in small batches of 3-9 now and pay for it every time they appear. I do have Lilys making runs at Port Moresby. They pay for it by the flak but my fighters do nothing. I suddenly realize they may be running night raids. I have to check the combat reports to see why they are not intercepted. Last raid was clear skies and I have radar there, so it must be night raids.

So much more to learn, but I am having fun.

[Randy Stead]

Confirmed: The unescorted Lily raids are taking place at night. I shall now convert a fighter unit at Port Moresby to night operations, though I have read posts on the forum lamenting night fighters, I do recall reading that they may have a disruptive effect on the raids.

[RangerJoe]

For Rabaul, use 4Es on Port Strike.

Armour will also effectively deal with fortification levels, the IJA and especially the IJN ground units usually do not have a very good anti-armour capability. The other land units bombard. Rest the armour units as needed.

Once ships start an upgrade in the shipyard, you can move them out with no problems. Also, set their repair criteria to "Low" as well, it will not delay the upgrade, only other repairs may be slowed.

Major damage of 5 or less may be repaired by an AR. Some "systems" damage may need larger repair facilities if the system (think gun turret) is knocked out and the available repair facilities are inadequate.

[Ambassador]

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead

Confirmed: The unescorted Lily raids are taking place at night. I shall now convert a fighter unit at Port Moresby to night operations, though I have read posts on the forum lamenting night fighters, I do recall reading that they may have a disruptive effect on the raids.

Yes, at night, a bad CAP is better than no CAP at all.

[Randy Stead]

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead

Confirmed: The unescorted Lily raids are taking place at night. I shall now convert a fighter unit at Port Moresby to night operations, though I have read posts on the forum lamenting night fighters, I do recall reading that they may have a disruptive effect on the raids.

Yes, at night, a bad CAP is better than no CAP at all.

I switched one P-39 unit to night operations. This is my first night fighter action ever since I began to play this game:

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Dec 23, 42
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Air attack on Port Moresby , at 98,130

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid spotted at 19 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-48-IIa Lily x 24

Allied aircraft
P-39D Airacobra x 11

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-48-IIa Lily: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged

No Allied losses

Aircraft Attacking:
23 x Ki-48-IIa Lily bombing from 10000 feet *
Airfield Attack: 2 x 100 kg GP Bomb

CAP engaged:
8th FG/36th FS with P-39D Airacobra (2 airborne, 6 on standby, 3 scrambling)
2 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 9000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 53 minutes

[Randy Stead]

Joe, what settings and escort do you advise for such attacks?

I have at Port Moresby now some P-40E Warhawks and some P-38s on the island. I have an air HQ at PM. I would assume it is best to have all the fighters with the HQ and/or within their radius, and as close or closer to the target as the bombers, from what I've read?

Over at Milne Bay I have two Kittyhawk 1A squadrons which have some killer pilots in them, but I think they are too far away to get into the action.

On the mainland I have B-17s and B-24 Liberators. I think hoping they could reach and coordinate with a strike package on Rabaul is wishing for too much.

[Randy Stead]

I'm getting close to the end of 1942. From what I understand, though I cannot recall where, the Mark 14 torpedo issue is resolved in 1943. Does this occur January 1st, 1943? Do boats with defective Mark 14s have to return to base to get the fixes ones, or do they resolve at sea? I have some American fleet boats at Noumea on leave at the moment, wouldn't want to send them out when a fix is so near at hand.

I know in real life resolving defective ordnance issues is not a "not working today, working tomorrow" type of thing, but in game terms I imagine it is coded in just such a manner. Is there a magical date in the game on which the Mark 14 dud rate reverts to normal?

Thanks.

[Ambassador]

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead

Campaign update:

I am now 138 turns into the Guadalcanal scenario as Allies vs AI. It seems I am now completely dominating the map. In spite of the IJN still having some carriers, such as Junyo and the smaller ones still in the game after I sank Shokaku and Zuikaku, they do not want to come out and play. I've spotted them several times and sent carriers toward them but they do not advance. Once my carriers are spotted they disappear into port. Out of frustration, boredom and as an experiment I sent a 3 carrier port strike against Rabaul. I enjoyed some success but I paid for it, losing 10 Wildcats and about the same in dive bombers. I did get multiple hits on a CA and 2 CL in port but I think this was a waste of precious resources as I can more efficiently kill or damage those ships at sea. If they remain in port to stay safe, mission accomplished in the sense of denying them access to sea.

Indeed, raids on ports are very dangerous for the early US carrier planes, you really don’t have that many spare planes to sacrifice.

I've finally got Wasp within a couple of days of full repair at Sydney. I repaired all of her systems damage at Noumea before sending her to Sydney for repair of the major flotation damage of 27 or so. I've still got South Dakota and Washington at Sydney for major flotation damage repair. Washington is now finally in the shipyard berth and beginning repair of 33 major flotation damage. South Dakota has 12 systems damage and 32 major flotation damage. She is pierside repairing the systems damage. After that is down to 0 I plan to put her into the shipyard as soon as South Dakota comes out. I also have Achilles with 17 major flotation and a few other vessels with low major damage points, but as they are less needed at the moment they can wait for the big girls to get purtied up.

This scenario has been a very good schoolmaster for teaching me land combat, LOGISTICS [can I emphasize that word enough?] and long term air operations. At some point I realize I had completely neglected doing any upgrades to air units. I was having so much fun upgrading ships and subs I completely forgot my poor aviators. After several turns of things not upgrading I went under the hood and figured that out. Some of them had to do with being too far from an HQ so I moved them closer, and of course supply figures into the upgrade routines. I am now becoming more adept at managing that.

Yes, as it’s being discussed in several threads at the moment, logistics is the master word of the game.

A word to my fellow newbs concerning ship repairs and upgrades. Don't go all out as soon as ships are eligible for upgrades. The ones that upgrade in place with no requirement for shipyard access, sure, go ahead and upgrade them. I threw a huge sabot into the works at Sydney by pulling in large numbers of vessels that needed a shipyard of at least size 5 to begin upgrades. This interrupted repair of CV Wasp and other ship repairs underway. Another large mistake was moving the SW PAC HQ up to Townsville so it could "influence" LCUs on New Guinea. Yeah, it sounded like a great idea when somebody said do it. Then when I was crying the blues about those tardy Aussie shipyard workers I began to look around for units with embedded naval support. And there was SW PAC with well over 200 stuck up in Townsville frolicking with local tarts when their skills were needed in Sydney. Right, get your hairy arr-sezz on that train on boogie on down to Sydney. Once they got down there and unpacked their bags and went to work there was a noticeable increase in the pace of repair in the yards. Lesson learned; do not be so hasty to relocate support units when they may be needed elsewhere. As Sydney is the only shipyard in the Guadalcanal scenario [of which I am aware] concentrate your naval support there. Yes, I know they can be helpful elsewhere for speeding up unloading of ships in certain ports, but you must decide what is most important: stevedoring or repairing. Tough decision, but that's why you get paid the big $ as the Grand Kahoona, chief.

You can usually move upgrading ships back to pier side repair, but one has indeed to watch carefully the upgrades to come. Be it for ground, air or naval units, I usually keep all upgrade options off, and only turn them on (or do it manually for planes) when I’ve taken them to the rear, and when I deem I have enough devices (for LCU’s) or enough other ships to hold the line.

In New Guinea I have just expelled the Hori Group of units from Kokoda Trail. Two or three rounds of deliberate attack, supported by air strikes and they are now on the run to Buna. I have been strangling Buna for many weeks; subs outside the port and every time he tries to ship in supplies I hit them hard. Last time they tried to bring in about 7-8 Marus and escorts. My carriers moved up to the southward side of New Guinea and clobbered them. I've done this several times over the course of the campaign and I believe I have sunk so many cargo vessels and transports that he has a severe supply problem in many locations. I'd love to clobber Rabaul once and for all but that is a long term goal and I don't think I even have to do that in this scenario. I've got so many points at present that the intel screen shows major victory. All I have to do is maintain what I have to win. However, as this is a learning scenario, I wish to try a few landings so that I may learn how to handle those lovely new LCI and LST vessels that are accumulating at Noumea. I have still not used any of the CVEs that have shown up; the first ones such as Long Island came in empty, but a few arrived several turns ago with planes already aboard. Those air units are now ashore doing training. If circumstances permit, I will see what I can do with them. At this point there are many ships I could do without, but I am not giving any back to Uncle Chester at Pearl.

You must have only one or two months left in the scenario, by this point, so don’t wait too much - you’ll be surprised to see how long it takes to organize an amphibious assault.

For the cargoes, that’s the AI’s problem : it follows scripts and a basic programmation, but fails to properly take into consideration the tactical and strategic situation. It’s part of the reason playing against the AI requires some restrain - if you don’t, you end up sinking the whole IJN before the end of ‘42.

On Guadalcanal I have moved units into the Tassafaronga hex. I've had a couple of deliberate attacks which have shown that the LCUs there are not yet ready for the plucking, but I did hurt them at some cost to myself. I am rotating bombardment groups through in succession, with the odd air strike and lots of recon. I've got detection levels up to around 8-9/12, which help the bombardments. They inflict much heavier losses when the DL is high. A number of my LCUs at Lunga were reaimed from Lunga to Tassafaronga. At or near 100 I have moved them overland and they now co-occupy the base hex. With a sea and air cordon not much supply, if any is getting through to them. i am uncertain exactly what low supply does to LCUs in this game, but I know in real life it is a very bad state of affairs. Think of von Paulus and 6th Armee at Stalingrad after 1-2 months of inadequate supply. But instead of snow, throw in malaria. Not good for the Japanese LCUs there. Some of the bombardments inflict quite severe casualties, so I am sure I am wearing down both their numbers and increasing their disruption. The only thing keeping them protected to some degree is the fortification level. I've learned from enough turns that combat engineers are good at reducing fortification levels. Once I've got them down, it is simply a matter of numbers, which appear to be on my side. As is time.

Low supply gives a big malus on the combat performance of LCU’s, and once completely lacking supplies, units are destroyed more easily. Without supply, no replacements either.

Damage on LCU’s is really in multiple forms :
- devices get disabled, then destroyed
- the whole unit suffers disruption
- fatigue applies to the whole unit too
All this reduces the effectiveness of units, and the combined effect of all together is even more potent. Continuous bombardment, by ground, air or naval assets, is key to whittle down a unit besieged in a good terrain hex, like the Jungle or Jungle Rough, Moutains, Urban, etc.

Fortifications get reduced by combat engineers (not by regular engineers), and may also be reduced by deliberate and shock attacks. And the higher the fort levels, the less damage the unit takes, and the more effective its own firepower is on the defense. The first step in a successful siege is to ensure the fort levels don’t increase (bomb the port & AF to prevent the engineers in the hex from working on the forts), and then to actually reduce them.

Any suggestions for offensive action should I take Buna and Tassafaronga? I have been told that Buna is a side show, but I need to get practice at offensive action. Given enough time and cordoning off of Buna I should be able to take it from landward, so I have been told. I fear taking it be sea, having a supply fleet sitting there for several turns and having air units and those big IJN BBs showing up in the dark and screaming Boo! So, landward approach seems the circumspect choice. I've got a P-38 photo recon group snapping photos of Buna every turn. I may sneak in some surface groups for quick bombardments and run out again. The bomber situation seems to be will n hand; the Bettys come over in small batches of 3-9 now and pay for it every time they appear. I do have Lilys making runs at Port Moresby. They pay for it by the flak but my fighters do nothing. I suddenly realize they may be running night raids. I have to check the combat reports to see why they are not intercepted. Last raid was clear skies and I have radar there, so it must be night raids.

The key part of an operation is to identify the bases you will be able to develop to further protect your advances. The SPS is a big factor to check, as you can build the port or AF three levels above the SPS. So, be on the look out for Port SPS of 2 or 3, and AF SPS of 4 or 5. Down in SoPac, those are really great bases.
Mind the dot bases too, quite a few are interesting, and with the number of Seabees and EABs you get, you can pretty much develop any base from scratch (Japan is way different, for that matter).

So much more to learn, but I am having fun.

Glad to hear it.

[Randy Stead]

Thanks, as always Ambassador you give me a lot to chew on. Some of this I have been intuiting but you often manage to get my mind to explore a new avenue, for which I am grateful.

[Ambassador]

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead

I'm getting close to the end of 1942. From what I understand, though I cannot recall where, the Mark 14 torpedo issue is resolved in 1943. Does this occur January 1st, 1943? Do boats with defective Mark 14s have to return to base to get the fixes ones, or do they resolve at sea? I have some American fleet boats at Noumea on leave at the moment, wouldn't want to send them out when a fix is so near at hand.

I know in real life resolving defective ordnance issues is not a "not working today, working tomorrow" type of thing, but in game terms I imagine it is coded in just such a manner. Is there a magical date in the game on which the Mark 14 dud rate reverts to normal?

Thanks.

The dud rate drops by 20%, to a mere 60%, in January ‘43, and by the end of the year it drops to 10%. While some skippers tinkered with their torpedoes as early as in ‘42, this is not represented in the game, but the overall dud rate decreases twice.

No need to return to base, it’s not an upgrade.

[Ambassador]

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead

Thanks, as always Ambassador you give me a lot to chew on. Some of this I have been intuiting but you often manage to get my mind to explore a new avenue, for which I am grateful.

It’s a pleasure to help someone with an open and inquisitive mind.

[Randy Stead]

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead

Thanks, as always Ambassador you give me a lot to chew on. Some of this I have been intuiting but you often manage to get my mind to explore a new avenue, for which I am grateful.

It’s a pleasure to help someone with an open and inquisitive mind.

Thank you. I like to think I have an open mind, but to ensure it does not enter through one ear and out the other, I put a plug in one ear.

[Randy Stead]

I forgot to add: Wasp has been fully repaired and is about to enter Noumea. I hope there is not a Hashimoto in her way. That will make four fully operational fleet carriers plus a covey of CVEs. Stuff if just piling up at Noumea. I know it is the beginnings of the pushback against Japan, but with the limited resources of this scenario I have to plan carefully.

By the way, from what I have been told the scenario description is incorrect; the Guadalcanal scenario runs until April 1943.

I've found another little trick; with the backlog of ships with major damage needing repair seeming to slow down the pace at Sydney, I have moved all ships that have zero systems damage next door to Port Kembla. They may as well sit there having nothing done to them as at Sydney, distracting the shipyard workers and support squads. Do other players do this? It seems to help having only the ships actually being repaired in the port.

[Platoonist]

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead



I've found another little trick; with the backlog of ships with major damage needing repair seeming to slow down the pace at Sydney, I have moved all ships that have zero systems damage next door to Port Kembla. They may as well sit there having nothing done to them as at Sydney, distracting the shipyard workers and support squads. Do other players do this? It seems to help having only the ships actually being repaired in the port.

From everything I've read on ship repair in this forum, a mix of ships in mint condition and those needing body work in the same port should make no difference in repair time. A major port like Pearl Harbor was doing quite a of both prior to the Japanese attack.

[Randy Stead]

ORIGINAL: Platoonist

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead



I've found another little trick; with the backlog of ships with major damage needing repair seeming to slow down the pace at Sydney, I have moved all ships that have zero systems damage next door to Port Kembla. They may as well sit there having nothing done to them as at Sydney, distracting the shipyard workers and support squads. Do other players do this? It seems to help having only the ships actually being repaired in the port.

From everything I've read on ship repair in this forum, a mix of ships in mint condition and those needing body work in the same port should make no difference in repair time. A major port like Pearl Harbor was doing quite a of both prior to the Japanese attack.

One would think so, but it seemed to me that after several turns with other ships set to low or normal at the piers, the big girl in the yard didnt' get the love I thought she should. I'll keep tracking it. Thanks for your advice.

[Randy Stead]

Just captured Tassafaronga with a final deliberate attack; got a 4-1 in on the final fort level of 2, which had been gradually knocked down from 6 or 7, forget which. I've also got Aussie LCUs in the hex at Buna, which has been starved out for some time. After my BBs have refueled, rearmed and repaired I am thinking of sending them over to bombard Buna. The bomber situation seems well in hand over that way; raids of Bettys and Lilys are only coming through in penny packets, so I think with air cover from the local bases and whatever my carriers can bring I should be able to protect the bombarding fleets.

Speaking of fortifications. I have Noumea at 6 of 9 and it will not go any higher. I have red numbers there and the increment toward 7 has been sitting red at 23 % for a long time. Do I need 20,000 supply to get it higher? I think so, but I'm not going to sweat it at this point.

[Sardaukar]

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead

I'm getting close to the end of 1942. From what I understand, though I cannot recall where, the Mark 14 torpedo issue is resolved in 1943. Does this occur January 1st, 1943? Do boats with defective Mark 14s have to return to base to get the fixes ones, or do they resolve at sea? I have some American fleet boats at Noumea on leave at the moment, wouldn't want to send them out when a fix is so near at hand.

I know in real life resolving defective ordnance issues is not a "not working today, working tomorrow" type of thing, but in game terms I imagine it is coded in just such a manner. Is there a magical date in the game on which the Mark 14 dud rate reverts to normal?

Thanks.

The dud rate drops by 20%, to a mere 60%, in January ‘43, and by the end of the year it drops to 10%. While some skippers tinkered with their torpedoes as early as in ‘42, this is not represented in the game, but the overall dud rate decreases twice.

No need to return to base, it’s not an upgrade.

Dud rate of mk 14 drops to 10% in September 1943. Mk 10 used by S-boats does not suffer from unreliability, 10% dud rate all the time.

[RangerJoe]

For practice, recon the next islands in the chain to see where the next targets are. You want to bypass strongly held bases. You might be able to capture empty bases.

[Randy Stead]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

For practice, recon the next islands in the chain to see where the next targets are. You want to bypass strongly held bases. You might be able to capture empty bases.

Already there, Joe. I have determined that the little island next to Tossafaronga is empty, as is the nearest hex on that long skinny island that stretches off to the NW.

Had a huge pile of action all in one turn. I didn't plan it quite that closely, but it was serendipitous in the way it worked, out, sorta...

I obliterated any remnants of enemy on the island of Guadalcanal with a final attack on the remnants that came in at several hundred to one. At the same time I had a large number of engineers and supplies coming in over the beach and what small tonnage could fit into that little port at Tossa which is now being rapidly expanded to a size 3 port, then the airfield will be expanded to 3. I am going to land on that island at the south end then move north overland. Just as the LCU reaches the adjacent hex next to the base at the top end I plan to use my LCIs to land supplies and some reinforcements as I believe I will have to fight for the base.

Looks like I am slowly moving up the chain, building bases and getting my air cover closer to Shortlands and Rabaul.

On New Guinea at Buna I brought up a powerful bombardment fleet of two BBs, several cruisers and DDs. I had reconned Buna for a while and had high DL. I kept bombarding the base and the LCUs there have been without supply for quite some time. I hit them with air strikes and one deliberate attack the next turn after the fleet bombardment and the structure just collapsed. I made quite a mess of the place so my engineers will be busy for a while. Anticipating its capture I have been moving engineers and reinforcements overland from Port Moresby. The Jap LCUs at Buna lost thousands in the battle and I am in hot pursuit. I will give them no rest as they retreat up the peninsula. I may hit them with a nasty surprise by landing a good sized LCU behind them and cut off their retreat, then if that works out I can hop into the size zero hex.

Now some bad news and some good news. The bad first... I got cute with my four carriers. I sent one group of two to follow the bombardment force at distance 0 to give them air cover. They got in and hit Buna hard. The IJN had been launching air strikes from NW of New Britain at range to hit Port Moresby. I detached the two carriers that were with the bombardment force and moved them closer to get within range and set my planes to range 6. The other two carriers were a day behind, as I wished them to cover the rear and possibly hit any supply runs down the Solomons. I should have put all four carriers in the same hex and had a nice size CAP for what came next...

I hit them first, seeing the sinking of CV Hiyo and a CVL. I think I bagged the other two CVLs or terribly mauled them, as there have been no carrier base strikes since the battle. My losses... Wasp got hit with four torpedoes and sank before I could make any attempt to save her. Saratoga hot about 28 systems damage and 50+ flotation. Enterprise got some annoyance damage from a Val's attention.

Saratoga is healing up systems damage in Milne Bay, the closest sanctuary. When her systems damage is down to 0, and if she is still alive, I shall move her to Sydney. Enterprise is on her way to Sydney, in the company of Hornet, which is undamaged. She has less than ten each in systems and flotation.

The surviving air groups from Saratoga and Wasp landed at Milne Bay. Some could not make it so I had some ditchings and a few rescues. I am gathering the strays and moving them down to Sydney for the reunion. The orphaned air groups from Wasp will find new homes on those escort carriers. I may take a few pilots out of the units and put them in reserve, in order to flesh out the refitting units with veterans.

I could have done better and of course this is all a learning experience. But if you do the math, the exchange rate has been well in my favour: one CV for 3 CV, 2 confirmed CVL and 2 probable CVL. I forgot to mention that in those air strikes Kirishima took 10-11 1000 pound bombs, Hiei took a pile, as did some cruisers and a few destroyed DDs. There were a few torpedo hits in there as well on various ships, including two annoying hits without booms. Grrr.

The consolation is that my fleet boats with the Mark 14s are now getting more booms and have taken a few Marus down. I hope to see more success for them as 1943 rolls on. I am near the end of the second week of January 1943; the scenario ends in April 1943 from what I have heard. I doubt Saratoga will be operational by then, perhaps just in under the wire. Once Enterprise is repaired from her fairly light damage I shall still have two CVs and several CVEs with which to fight, as well as a sizeable surface fleet.

It has all been tremendous fun so far and I have done as well as I have because as the song goes, "I get by with a little help from my friends..."

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

For Rabaul, use 4Es on Port Strike.

Armour will also effectively deal with fortification levels, the IJA and especially the IJN ground units usually do not have a very good anti-armour capability. The other land units bombard. Rest the armour units as needed.

Once ships start an upgrade in the shipyard, you can move them out with no problems. Also, set their repair criteria to "Low" as well, it will not delay the upgrade, only other repairs may be slowed.

Major damage of 5 or less may be repaired by an AR. Some "systems" damage may need larger repair facilities if the system (think gun turret) is knocked out and the available repair facilities are inadequate.

Having a gun turret or radar knocked out is not called systems damage, it is "device destroyed". You do not know how long it will take to repair the device until the ship has already been under repair for a turn. Next turn, the days to repair will jump higher if the device repair is longer than the initial repair estimate when the ship started repair. There are requirements for the port to be able to do the repair, based on the load cost of the device. Sydney should be able to handle any device replacement, but Brisbane cannot.

BTW, Randy, you said Sydney was the only SY you were aware of. In Scenario 1, Brisbane and Melbourne have SYs size 10.
As for Sydney having hordes of ships to repair system damage, you might send some of the smaller ones to Port Kembla and Newcastle.