Deaniks (J) vs Runnersan (A)

[deaniks]

March 3rd -6th
Not much happening on to many front's so just Australian front will be the focus of today
Australia Front

Perth invasion is under way well over 100 ships set sail from Soerabaja I'll use a miss direction and set Diamond Harbor or Ceylon as a target while my way point's lead me to west Aussie. from what I see most taskforce's have set sail from Perth a Tanker was torped 3 time's outside of Perth not to sure if it sank. KB will initially set sail for 10 to 15 hex outside of Perth to catch any Taskforce in transit from Capetown to Perth then head for Perth I expect heavy cap so my initial sorties will be fighter sweeps to kill what is over Perth then bomber's will bomb the port and airfield's in turn. Then KB will escort Port Augusta invasion and then if sorties aren't to bad will do a raid over Melbourne combined with MKB to destroy what's shipping is down there.

State State of the Empire
Disclaimer this will be from February 1st to 28th and not consist of any day's in March.

Another month and the war continues my opponent this month was relatively quiet on all front's no major naval engagement was seen or major air offensive. Australia was invaded for a start of this month so far the east coast invasion has not bin hampered at all expect for the occasional sub engagement or bombing of troops my cap can't reach other wise no large ship has tried to hamper the stream of reinforcement being brought in from Japan and the wide area of the empire. I expect this to be shattered as soon as Perth is invaded with this base being the last link to the outside world I anticipate heavy British and American assets protecting the port.

on other front's tho not to much is happening Rangoon will be conquered sometime next month and with that 2 division's are freed up I might try and invade Ceylon in April or May to expand the perimeter of the Empire in the east and try to cut off Cape town reinforcement to India.

China is slowly falling so far I've bin able to kill at least 350 plus squads per month and soon will buy out massive ART and ARM from Manchuria to help speed the conquest so that I can get closer to an auto victory now as I've said before I have no idea on my opponent feelings on whether or not he will continue if auto Victory becomes certain this will need to be discussed at a later date.
Ship losses
This Month was light most ship losses were from torps or the occasional bomb hitting them when a minor attack got through to a ship







Air losses
in the 90 turn's me and my opponent have done the aircraft losses seems really high with losses for both sides at 1300 a piece



looking at the plane losses so far the zero and p-40 are the highest destroyed frame at the current production rate for these planes I've produced about what I've lost while my opponent is running on around 100 deficit so far I haven't seen and p-39s in action or p-400's but I expect the plane's to be showing up soon since he's running out of p-40's.

[deaniks]

March 6th-13th

Australian Command
So the week start off with nothing much happening planes moving around and ships steaming towards Perth.
Darwin for several turn's was reported to have over 20 ships in port with around 60 aircraft on site sweeps were sent in for several turn's but weather did not permit for sorties to concur until recently when Zero's launched over the Base and killed about 5 or 6 Allied Fighter's the next turn saw Bomber's swoop in and bomb port facility's damaging or sinking several ships
Morning Air attack on Darwin , at 76,124

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid detected at 66 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 22 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 32
G4M1 Betty x 29

No Japanese losses

Allied Ships
SS O24, Bomb hits 4, heavy damage
AD Black Hawk, Bomb hits 3, on fire
AM Deloraine, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
AVP Arend, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
AVP Reiger, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
ARD Soerabaja KM, Bomb hits 2
AM Quail, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
AVD William B. Preston, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
AS Platypus, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AMc Cheribon, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk

Allied ground losses:
8 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Port hits 9
Port fuel hits 1

Now to Rockhampton reports were coming in of massive amount of fighter's were gathering at gathering at Toowoomba around 60 zero's sortied out shooting about around 20 allied fighter for around 2 to 5 Japanese losses. Also of some note Bowen is finally pocketed almost 30k allied troops are here with the 18th div Airstrike, Shore bombardment and Artillery bombardment are all and ready for next turn



Last but not least Perth So far KB has made it to the area last turn sweeps went over Perth and found no Cap bewildered to find nothing bombing of the facility's will go in.



Burma

Allied Carrier's hit a convoy Near Burma Naval search did failed to spot them before hand and by the time every fighter and bomber was moved to strike the fleet fled back to Indian Waters. Rangoon was captured today all the industry was sacked only about 44 refineries remain standing I'm not to worried as now more oil can be shipped back to the Home Islands.

[Bif1961]

The Allies have very little in the way of fighters in OZ early in the war and since you are attacking eastern OZ and Darwin most of his limited fighter squadrons are probably spread rather thin.

[deaniks]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

The Allies have very little in the way of fighters in OZ early in the war and since you are attacking eastern OZ and Darwin most of his limited fighter squadrons are probably spread rather thin.

from the looks of it he is most of his forward base's aren't protected anymore after many sweep's and I know he has fighter in Suva and NZ so he's splitting the American fire power trying to protect to many base's at once when he should be trying to protect one base at this stage of the war I feel

[deaniks]

March 14th-22nd

Australian Front

It's happened Busselton has bin invaded now troops are walking on Perth and should be there in less then a week. A bombardment of Perth a couple day's ago proved vital as it put out the airfield and damaged or destroyed around 40 to 50 plane's putting the airfield out of action while KB can guard the Port Augusta invasion which should land here in a few day's.




Bowen siege was broken for a time the 7th armored brigade forced a retreat on 1st tank rgt while reinforcement's where on the way over these next few day's a full div will stand in the hex above Bowen while some troops retreat for resting and another div marches into the hex. in the next few day's here the 9th div out of Manchuria should make a presence in Australia I'll land the force straight on Bowen giving me 4 div's in the hex compared to his one but with the arrival of this force I'll have 9 divs in Australia by the end of March here 5 near Rockhampton 2 in Augusta and 2 in Perth 9 divs should be plenty enough to conquer all of Australia so any more reinforcement will go towards expanding my premier in the South Pacific and North Pacific and possibly the Indian ocean.



Burma Front

the oil fields in Burma were captured with no allied presence in the hex but as air unit's were lifting the an allied bomber force decimated the oil fields putting out of action 55 oil.

China Front

Several small pockets near Nanyang have bin liquidated to move force's for a conquest of Sian but the largest pocket will be bombed and bombarded until no supply is left for them and will be left to starve as I wait for the rest of China to be conquered.
I've prematurely moved some unit's into Changsha and so far it's costing my opponent several deliberate attack's by him costed enormous number of dead Chinese while leaving hundred's of mine disabled unit's are trying to flee the hex but if my opponent attacks for a third day in a row I fear a mass retreat will happen causing hundred or even thousand's of Japanese losses.

Philippines front

so far is quiet here air sorties and bombardment's have bin going on daily for at least a month now today I've decide to try a deliberate attack on the base to see what kind of result I can get.

[deaniks]

Air war in Australia

So far the air presence in Australia seems very weak. Now I've seen 40 or 50 fighter's in the Brisbane area but after these report's high level sweep's come in a destroy around 20 of these fighter for around 5 to 10 of mine gone after his mistake these past 3 to 4 day's no fighter's have bin at Brisbane or Townsville at all from this I can estimate my opponent is running out of fighter's Now even with PDU on I've killed a lot of American plane's



compared to mine



But lucky for me another reports are showing around 30 fighter's in Darwin sweeps will go in and see what I can find.

[Bif1961]

Darwin usually ends up with the American fighters bought out of PI and maybe a few British ones bought out from DEI. If you cut off the convoy route from the west coast of the US to NZ-OZ, he didn't have airfields close enough to dump fighters and fly to OZ. I assume since you have the KB on the east coast of OZ you did manage to cut off any significant reinforcements reaching OZ from the US. That would explain the lack of American fighters present and most Allied players start their defense from the Line Islands moving to Pago-Pago, Fiji, NZ and then eastern OZ, but you cut him off.

[deaniks]

true but I believe some transports slipped by and he's reinforced Australia by now

[deaniks]

March 23-24th

Australian Front

not to much happened on the 23rd but the 24th saw some major air action near Adelaide.
KB guarding my invasion down here spotted large amount's of taskforce's in the area and decided to launch sortie's against them.

Morning Air attack on TF, near Adelaide at 75,163

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid detected at 92 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 34 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 45
B5N1 Kate x 6
B5N2 Kate x 40
D3A1 Val x 22

Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb Trop x 6
Kittyhawk IA x 22
P-39D Airacobra x 25
P-40E Warhawk x 6
F4F-3 Wildcat x 5

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 10 destroyed
B5N2 Kate: 2 damaged
D3A1 Val: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIb Trop: 1 destroyed
Kittyhawk IA: 3 destroyed
P-39D Airacobra: 3 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 2 destroyed

Allied Ships
xAK Changte, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Neleus, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
xAK Ellenga, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Gogra, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
PG Herald, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Masula, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
xAK Jaladuta, Bomb hits 2, on fire
xAK Nils Moller, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAK Empire Hamble
xAK Gandara, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires

Morning Air attack on TF, near Kingscote at 73,163

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid spotted at 12 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 4 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 7
D3A1 Val x 16

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 1

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A1 Val: 2 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-3 Wildcat: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
AMC Hector, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Adelaide at 75,163

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid detected at 113 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 42 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 30
B5N1 Kate x 8
B5N2 Kate x 21
D3A1 Val x 36

Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb Trop x 3
Kittyhawk IA x 9
P-39D Airacobra x 14
P-40E Warhawk x 3
F4F-3 Wildcat x 4

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 5 destroyed
B5N1 Kate: 1 destroyed
B5N2 Kate: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
D3A1 Val: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Kittyhawk IA: 1 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
xAK Jaladuta, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Pellicula, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires
xAK Masula, Bomb hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Clan Mactavish
xAK Mulbera, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Empire Hamble, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Gandara, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
xAK Penrith Castle, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk

ship's sunk



Air losses



I don't know how I feel I damaged or sank a decent amount of ships but I lost lots irreplaceable pilots well it will be well worth it once Port Augusta is invaded tomorrow. When it falls Australia should realistically be cut off from the rest of the world but it never happens like that so they probably won't.

[deaniks]

So with a few day's left of my amphibious bonus I need to start thinking of late game defense. What would be the best troop composition for an Atolls and other for normal Island's?
Now this is also stacking limit's as well.



So The idea here would be to well slow down the allies these base would give me some overlapping aircover plus I can have extra unit's on Truk for emergency redeployment to any Island that's invaded now if multiply island's are invaded I'll need to decide where to send them if I do at all.

Now do these base's look good should I take a base out or try and defend another. Any suggestions are welcomed

[deaniks]

March 25th - 28th

Australian Command

The 25th saw several night engagement's near Augusta where a small DD task force then later on a cruiser task force tried to engage the invasion sadly for my opponent non made it through and all allied combat ship's were lost for non of mine.

Night Time Surface Combat, near Port Augusta at 75,159, Range 12,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Fuso
BB Hyuga
CA Mikuma
CA Kumano
CL Kuma
CL Oi
DD Arashio
DD Natsugumo
DD Harusame
DD Yudachi
DD Samidare
DD Akatsuki
DD Hibiki
DD Akikaze

Allied Ships
DD Edsall
DD Van Nes

Night Time Surface Combat, near Port Augusta at 75,159, Range 12,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Fuso
BB Hyuga
CA Mikuma
CA Kumano
CL Kuma
CL Oi
DD Arashio
DD Natsugumo
DD Harusame
DD Yudachi
DD Samidare, Shell hits 1
DD Akatsuki
DD Hibiki
DD Akikaze

Allied Ships
DD Edsall, Shell hits 1
DD Van Nes, Shell hits 1

Night Time Surface Combat, near Port Augusta at 75,160, Range 11,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CV Shokaku
CV Zuikaku
CV Akagi
CVL Shoho
CA Aoba
CL Kiso
DD Kasumi
DD Kawakaze
DD Wakaba
DD Nagatsuki
DD Hayate
DD Minekaze
DD Shiokaze
DD Yukaze
DD Karukaya
DD Tatsukaze
DD Kyukaze

Allied Ships
DD Edsall
DD Van Nes

Night Time Surface Combat, near Port Augusta at 75,159, Range 12,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Fuso
BB Hyuga
CA Mikuma
CA Kumano
CL Kuma
CL Oi
DD Arashio
DD Natsugumo
DD Harusame
DD Yudachi
DD Samidare
DD Akatsuki
DD Hibiki
DD Akikaze

Allied Ships
DD Edsall, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
DD Van Nes, Shell hits 8, and is sunk

Night Time Surface Combat, near Port Augusta at 75,160, Range 10,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DD Asagiri
DD Oboro
DD Katsutade
DD Uruyuke

Allied Ships
CA Astoria
DD Craven, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Gridley, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD McCall, Shell hits 1
DD Balch

Night Time Surface Combat, near Port Augusta at 75,159, Range 11,000 Yards

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
SOC-1 Seagull: 2 destroyed

Japanese Ships
BB Fuso, Shell hits 2
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 1
CA Mikuma
CA Kumano
CL Kuma
CL Oi
DD Arashio
DD Natsugumo
DD Harusame, Shell hits 1
DD Yudachi
DD Samidare
DD Akatsuki
DD Hibiki, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Akikaze

Allied Ships
CA Astoria, Shell hits 18, and is sunk
DD Craven, Shell hits 3, heavy fires
DD Gridley, Shell hits 14, and is sunk
DD McCall, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Balch, Shell hits 4, on fire

then later that day at Busselton a sub tried to engage that landing and was forced to surface and sunk

Sub attack near Busselton at 48,149

Japanese Ships
CL Tama
BB Ise
BB Nagato
CA Mogami
CA Haguro
CS Chitose
DD Namikaze
TB Hayabusa
DD Yomogi
DD Tsuta
DD Kuretake
DD Wakatake

Allied Ships
SS Searaven, hits 29, and is sunk

Also my opponent on several occasions has sent suicidal airmen out trying to hit anything several B-17's made it through but a majority or damaged or destroyed but so far no Naval bomber's have gotten past from these around 50 plane's have bin destroyed compared to around 20 of mine.

After two day's of attack Augusta falls Now officially Australia has bin split into at least 3 different parts.
Perth is on it's last last after 2 day's of deliberate attacks my div are still have low fatigue and should hopefully gain the base tomorrow or the next day.
I don't know if I said this before but Bowen has bin encircled with that 4 div's are now in the hex I want to liquidate this pocket as fast as possible so I can capture Townsville and use that has my major port for this side of OZ

[Bif1961]

Tabiteau is an important Island as it has 60,000 troop limit and can build airfields up to level 5. Taking it will be a thorn in his side and him taking it for free or cheaply would provide him a springboard into the rest of the Gilberts and lower Marshal Islands. They would be within bomber and recon range and vulnerable to attack. I designate certain resting units as counter-landing forces to Islands I believe he must take and once they get prepped to nearly 100% they will be ready if he does in fact land on one of those Islands. Counter-landing and taking an island he just took will slow him down for weeks if not months as he will have those units landed destroyed, if you are successful, and not having any additional troops prepped to land there again any time soon. It is a guessing game and all depends how much he brings with his initial landing and how depleted/disabled/disrupted they are and how soon you can counter-land. As the Japanese player I had done this successfully 3-4 times in each game I have played and it causes havoc with the Allied players timeline for his counter-offensive in 1943 and early 44, as he tries to take Atolls in Central Pac.

[deaniks]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

Tabiteau is an important Island as it has 60,000 troop limit and can build airfields up to level 5. Taking it will be a thorn in his side and him taking it for free or cheaply would provide him a springboard into the rest of the Gilberts and lower Marshal Islands. They would be within bomber and recon range and vulnerable to attack. I designate certain resting units as counter-landing forces to Islands I believe he must take and once they get prepped to nearly 100% they will be ready if he does in fact land on one of those Islands. Counter-landing and taking an island he just took will slow him down for weeks if not months as he will have those units landed destroyed, if you are successful, and not having any additional troops prepped to land there again any time soon. It is a guessing game and all depends how much he brings with his initial landing and how depleted/disabled/disrupted they are and how soon you can counter-land. As the Japanese player I had done this successfully 3-4 times in each game I have played and it causes havoc with the Allied players timeline for his counter-offensive in 1943 and early 44, as he tries to take Atolls in Central Pac.

Thxs for the advise I will try to Remember that

[deaniks]

March 29th - April 1st

Australian Front

a Massive air battle takes place over Augusta My weak cap was no much for the overwhelm superior force of fighter's that showed up so as of now Augusta has no Cap until more support unit's can be brought in to get sufficient aircover to hand the 100 or so planes that were reported to be stationed at Adelaide.

So west of Augusta on the 31st plane's spotted a taskforce still near Perth I was wondering what the hell is a taskforce doing this far west of Augusta at first I thought it was a surface taskforce heading to Perth but the what the report's told me didn't add up so I started a chase and today bomber's found the target again and sank them in air losses It was reported that 20 or so p-39D's were destroyed and from some confirmation from my opponent it was a convoy that he forgot about so 20 less plane's for the defensive of OZ it looks like
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Esperance at 62,166

Weather in hex: Heavy rain

Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 7 minutes

Japanese aircraft
B5N2 Kate x 20
D3A1 Val x 39

Japanese aircraft losses
B5N2 Kate: 3 damaged
D3A1 Val: 6 damaged

Allied Ships
xAK Maldive, Bomb hits 2, on fire
AMC Corfu, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Empire Raja, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
xAK La Cordillera, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Elmdale, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Mahsud, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
xAK Admiral Chase, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Benledi, Bomb hits 1, on fire

Other wise not to much has Happened Perth was captured with most of the all of the industry was sacked but at this point I want that If I want that since I don't plan on holding OZ long term the more industry sacked or damaged the harder it will be to supply later offensive into DEI and Guadalcanal.

[deaniks]

April 2nd-5th

Australian Front

Bowen still hold's I hope another 3 or 4 day's will yield the base to me. But other wise not to much is happening Augusta is surrounded pretty much all my naval assets are being refueled and rearmed and will head back as soon as possible. I plan on brining one div from Perth over to Augusta to strength the force's then possibly grab one from Bowen as well not to sure yet. I might have plan's for that one when the time come's.

Other Front's

I don't talk about these much since nothing going on with them almost all the major base's are captured what's happening now is just the art bombardment's and bombing runs I'll only update if necessary.

South Pacific

Now this is want I want to talk about If I want to officially stretchy the Australian supply line's to the breaking point I need to capture Suva and Pago Pago as of right now another div is going to be bought out of Manchuria I need 200 PP I make 60 a day so around 4 day's when they are bought out I have another div from Davao to be committed and I will use one from North Australia bringing the invasion force's of Suva to 3 div's plus a tank brigade. this will be at least another month, 2 at the latest before this happens I need an Airbase close enough for Fighter's to sweep Suva.
Anatom from the looks of it is the closest base that has cover from Noumea while being built up lots of Eng are on there way and I hope to have it running within a week or two and have suva decimated 2 week after that.

[Bif1961]

If you take Tama and build it up you can use it for fighter sweeping of Fiji.

[deaniks]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

If you take Tama and build it up you can use it for fighter sweeping of Fiji.

I already have the base but Anatom give's me range with the a6m5 as well and I can use Noumea as a bomber base

[deaniks]

State of the Empire

Another month has gone and sadly no more amphibious bonus with that Invasion will have to be more carefully planned.

but with this Month west oz was invaded with Perth and Augusta taken with that tho I payed a heavy price in the air with around lots of zero's destroyed but the allies payed the same toll in a way.



just this month alone around 1000 airframe's have bin destroyed between the two of us being one of the bloodiest month's of the war.

[deaniks]

6th-12th April

Australian Front

After the capture of Bowen not to much has happened unit's are now marching for Townsville.
In Kalgoorlie there are at least 3 allied brigade's there versus 2 tank regiment's and one div supplies should be a limiting factor for the defender's so the base should fall eventually.
every day the situation in Augusta look's dire as more and more troops surround the hex more reinforcement's are on the way and should be there in a couple days.

Anatom was captured and the airbase started construction more unit's are on the way and in a few day's 100 or so engineers should be in the base constructing it. for the Suva invasion Nadi has bin picked as the desired base to invade 8 day's from now unit's will start to load on transport's and move to Truk this should take a minimal of 2 week's for all of them to gather and another 2 for the invasion to start.

Also some sad news today Soryu supporting the construction of the Anatom base was torped twice leaving the carrier at 8, 39(26), 17(14)
the carrier will defiantly need some dry dock's and will make it's way to Noumea then to Truk to the HI for repairs.

Philippines Front

Clark field was captured leaving the last major stronghold of the island Bataan after a few day's of resting unit's will march into the hex and try and take over the base to free up two of these div's for a possible invasion into the Aleutians.

[deaniks]

13th -21st April

Australian command

Augusta saw some reinforcement's show up. lot's of air battle's raged down in this sector for the past week seeing hundred's of allied and Japanese plane's shoot down. my fighter pools are quiet low zero pool is down to 20 after all combat in Australia most of my fighter wings are sitting around around 60 to 70 percent toe. the A6M5 should active next month which will help levity the crisis I might be facing soon.

Another div will land in Augusta in 2 to 3 day's hopefully deterring the allies from pushing into the hex while I wait for the west and north to be cleared.

Other front's

not to much happening every where else a carrier group tried to raid Palembang but met stiff resistance losing around 20 plane's are so for 4 small cargo ships which I'll take any day since I have so many cargo ship's right now.