Empire of the Sun - DesertWolf101 (J) vs Andy Mac (A)

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

DD Blue was on patrol duty during Savo Island. It did not see the IJN coming in so it never sent an alarm but it survived. How appropriate here . . . [;)]

Yes quite right, the same thought crossed my mind. Too bad it was a destroyer force that my ships dealt with and not heavy cruisers [:)]

[DesertWolf101]

April 4, 1943

Some two weeks have passed with very little of major note. I am mostly consolidating my position in Burma, brining more George's into front line units, and preparing for a showdown in Burma. I think it will probably be more of a show in the air given supply limitations and the approaching Monsoon. The Calcutta garrison is being hammered from the air on a daily basis - still plenty of supply but it is decreasing over time.

On the Soviet front, Andy gave up his attempted push in the mountains after the single foiled deliberate attack that I noted before. Most excitingly, the Vladivostok Naval Fortress and its daunting guns has been annihilated by repeated bombardments from the Yamato task force. Now I can clean up the remaining naval mines and move my battleships even closer to the city for a real hammering!

Finally, I think I might try an operation in Western Australia. Andy has sent so many of his forces to India that I suspect he may have left Australia underdefended. I will probe and see. If that is the case, I think I may try to grab Perth and the area around it.

[castor troy]

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

April 4, 1943

Some two weeks have passed with very little of major note. I am mostly consolidating my position in Burma, brining more George's into front line units, and preparing for a showdown in Burma. I think it will probably be more of a show in the air given supply limitations and the approaching Monsoon. The Calcutta garrison is being hammered from the air on a daily basis - still plenty of supply but it is decreasing over time.

On the Soviet front, Andy gave up his attempted push in the mountains after the single foiled deliberate attack that I noted before. Most excitingly, the Vladivostok Naval Fortress and its daunting guns has been annihilated by repeated bombardments from the Yamato task force. Now I can clean up the remaining naval mines and move my battleships even closer to the city for a real hammering!

Finally, I think I might try an operation in Western Australia. Andy has sent so many of his forces to India that I suspect he may have left Australia underdefended. I will probe and see. If that is the case, I think I may try to grab Perth and the area around it.

For what reason would you go for Western Australia? What do you think you can gain there? Your main goal should be killing enemy ships and even more so enemy frontline units, that's the achilles heel of the Allied. If you can take out Russia you will most likely outnumber the Allied 3:1 in combat units.

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: castor troy

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

April 4, 1943

Some two weeks have passed with very little of major note. I am mostly consolidating my position in Burma, brining more George's into front line units, and preparing for a showdown in Burma. I think it will probably be more of a show in the air given supply limitations and the approaching Monsoon. The Calcutta garrison is being hammered from the air on a daily basis - still plenty of supply but it is decreasing over time.

On the Soviet front, Andy gave up his attempted push in the mountains after the single foiled deliberate attack that I noted before. Most excitingly, the Vladivostok Naval Fortress and its daunting guns has been annihilated by repeated bombardments from the Yamato task force. Now I can clean up the remaining naval mines and move my battleships even closer to the city for a real hammering!

Finally, I think I might try an operation in Western Australia. Andy has sent so many of his forces to India that I suspect he may have left Australia underdefended. I will probe and see. If that is the case, I think I may try to grab Perth and the area around it.

For what reason would you go for Western Australia? What do you think you can gain there? Your main goal should be killing enemy ships and even more so enemy frontline units, that's the achilles heel of the Allied. If you can take out Russia you will most likely outnumber the Allied 3:1 in combat units.

To be clear, I don't see an operation in Western Australia as a decisive one. Rather it's the fact that I have some available forces and if there is an opportunity to use them for some benefit then I will take it. In Western Australia there is the potential to damage some LCUs, hit some industry, and remove a potential springboard for action against the SRA. Drawing Andy's attention and resources away from other fronts will also be a nice bonus. Maybe he will even commit warships that I could then target. Nothing game changing, but potentially an op with good benefits.

Vladivostok is the only remaining target in the USSR, and that's a siege in progress. I have already taken the rest up to the mountains near Irkutsk. There is no benefit in going further since I can't stop the Soviets from crossing from off map. Better to hold excellent defensive positions than extend myself in the plains.

[DesertWolf101]

April 13, 1943

Over the last ten days, a Japanese infantry regiment that was marching down from Carnarvon captured Geraldton but I decided to abort the landing of more follow up forces as Andy rushed in large numbers of aircraft and troops into the area around Perth. He also sent in some 20 submarines and placed large numbers of PT boats around Geraldton. With my commitments in the USSR and elsewhere, I can't afford to get drawn into a major fight in Australia at the moment so I scrubbed the adventure.

Not much else happened elsewhere. Andy's focus remains centered on Calcutta. He bombed and shelled it heavily on a daily basis and today he decided to resume direct ground attacks. He knocked down forts this time from 8 to 7 but at a cost.

[DesertWolf101]

April 16, 1943

After a couple more days of heavy bombing with about a thousand bombers daily, Andy launched another deliberate attack against Calcutta. Forts were knocked down again once more and the garrison appears to be on its last legs. The concentrated airpower is a great tool in Andy's belt here. He did a great job leveraging the capability by using the large number of airfields built up and supported by huge numbers of engineers and air support units, giving him the ability to really mass his squadrons.

[DesertWolf101]

April 17, 1943

In a somewhat desperate effort to negate some of his pounding from the air, I decided to commit my fighters via LRCAP over Calcutta. My elite pilots proved themselves once more, but in defeating the sweeps and escorts they could not press home their attacks against the bombers. The exception was a couple of waves of Avenger torpedo bombers that came in early enough before the Japanese fighters were completely exhausted. I lost two fighter pilots KIA, neither of them aces.

[DesertWolf101]

It seems my fighters still did enough to lessen the damage from the bombers, as Andy's next attack made less headway than expected. It seems it was mostly an armor/engineer attack however, and I harbor no doubts on the outcome when he unleashes the full weight of his forces against the city's garrison once more.

[DesertWolf101]

Now I have to decide whether to risk another LRCAP of the city. I am leaning towards yes, but I expect Andy will move to make it a lot more difficult for my boys by bringing in more Corsair/Lightening units.

I should add - this was the first real test of the George. Overall I am quite pleased. Most notable improvements over the Zero are the clearly more deadly firepower and the greater survivability.

I currently have four x30 Frank factories, and hopefully will get another one soon. With the engine bonus I expect to have the Frank in service by summer 1943.

[DesertWolf101]

Duplicate

[jdsrae]

I can see 130:19 reasons to keep the LRCAP over Calcutta.

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: jdsrae

I can see 130:19 reasons to keep the LRCAP over Calcutta.

[:D]

[DesertWolf101]

April 18, 1943

I decided to rest my pilots for a day before sending them back into the fray over Calcutta but Andy had other ideas. He sent in his heavy bombers to hit them at Chittagong and caught them napping. I lost 24 fighters on the ground (no pilots - they don't seem to be hit by bombing) but my flak defenses did destroy nine confirmed heavy bombers and a few medium bombers in return so it wasn't all bad.

[DesertWolf101]

April 19, 1943

I sent in a couple of my destroyers to knock out the small craft around Geraldton and the mission was a success. Two task forces composed of a total of 24 PT boats and 3 MGBs were completely destroyed. Illustrated below is the first task force. I wonder how many PT boats the USN gets in total?

[DesertWolf101]

I made sure to send my pilots up over Chittagong this turn and they did a good job knocking out the incoming enemy sweeps. Unfortunately, while my fighters were distracted protecting their airstrip, Andy struck Calcutta hard from the air once more. He did a good job reclaiming the initative here.

[DesertWolf101]

With the incessant air attacks, the garrison is now about to fold - the next attack could very well be the last....

[castor troy]

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

April 19, 1943

I sent in a couple of my destroyers to knock out the small craft around Geraldton and the mission was a success. Two task forces composed of a total of 24 PT boats and 3 MGBs were completely destroyed. Illustrated below is the first task force. I wonder how many PT boats the USN gets in total?

so many you won't be nearly able to destroy them all until the end of the war [:D]

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: castor troy

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

April 19, 1943

I sent in a couple of my destroyers to knock out the small craft around Geraldton and the mission was a success. Two task forces composed of a total of 24 PT boats and 3 MGBs were completely destroyed. Illustrated below is the first task force. I wonder how many PT boats the USN gets in total?

so many you won't be nearly able to destroy them all until the end of the war [:D]

Sounds like it - I looked it up and it would seem 531 served during the Pacific War.

[DesertWolf101]

April 21, 1943

I rested my fighters for a turn and sprung for another LRCAP over Calcutta on the 21th. Wasn't able to get as many fighters over the city due to drop tank/supply issues and with the greater number of Corsair/Hellcats encountered the returns were more modest. Two of my fighter pilots were KIA.

I also decided to risk another air strike mission against one of Andy's mega-airfield complexes. No surprise, the massive amount of flak he relies on to cover his airfields tore my bombers to pieces. But silver lining, I did knock out an almost equal number of aircraft on the ground.

[DesertWolf101]

Calcutta still stands - barely