Condor Flies south for the war

[Philwd]

12/13 Well the cat's out of the bag. Condor just got too curious about the FT he saw coming into GG. He apparently sent CVE Chenago north to try a quick raid on shipping. Well he ran almost smack into my full invasion fleet. 90 mi SW.

I wasn't spotted but Zuihu apparently still had her kates on naval attack. I put 2 into the CVE losing 5 kates in the process. This is probably the only time in UV history when smacking a USN CV around is not what I wanted to see. I stood down all Vals and Kates and put up a 20% CAP.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Hudsons come a calling next turn.

I'll let the Chenago go try and make port. No sense in losing more planes to flak. I need them for TV.

Since only 14 kates flew maybe I can convince him it was just a scouting force. Probably not as he also flew night bombing raids against GG. Just got 2 Zeros so my air deployment is still secret.

I know he's got to be feeling a little schitzo as he told me he hoped the barge he sunk was full of ENG troops. He apparently thinks I'm reinforcing Irau. That will probably a stronger feeling when he sees this turns AAR. An APD hit the LAST mine at Irau . Actually the barges were to try and clear out a few subs and the APDs were picking up the last base force.

I have 1 transport TF still having to load; 3 regiments total. I gave up on loading at Lunga after the continued wierd unloading of transports there. I'm picking up the 38th div at GG.
The invasion fleet is now ~ 5 turns away from TV. Boy those IJN transports are ssllooww. I've rounded Rossell and running straight in. Condor has been sighting FT runs left and right north of the invasion fleet but has not yet sighted the invasion. That should quiet the complaints that naval search is too good .

I've basically completed my redeployment west. I've put ~20 ships into Rabaul for hopefully a quick couple points SYS repair before the FT runs into Cairns etc need to start. BB are leaving Lunga this turn for their runs into TV. I see 4 subs this turn. I'll be glad to put them behind me.

That's all for now. The nail biting starts real soon.

Quark

[Philwd]

Transports 1 day out of TV now. Invasion fleet has been subjected to 2 days of constant air attacks. The CVs have been putting up ~40-50 fighters as CAP; ~ 25%.(trying to stay a little historical)

Condort has lost almost 100 planes vs my 5. Kongo took 5 bombs hits but suffered absolutely no damage whatsoever. Kaga took one that raised SYS from 6 to 14. No transports hit. The escorts did their job. The carriers will now withdraw and run LRCAP. The BBs are doing the bombardment run. I expect to hit mines unless the transport MSWs do thier job first. I'm not sure of the order.

On the subject of mines 2 turns ago I hit my own minefield SE of Russel. The AI had always routed my TF around but for some reason it forgot about it and ran 3 TF through. 2 CAs hit and 1 AP. Unfortunatley the AP has burned for 2 turns and is now up to 45 SYS. Last turn the TF routed around it normally. Wierd. At least Condor ran into mines at Irau. Hope SD is out of the battle for a while.

The TF that gave me so much trouble at loading at Lunga made it to GG. I disbanded then reformed the TF. It loaded up fine last turn but upon getting this turn I saw it had unloaded half and loaded supplies instead!!!! This is starting to drive me crazy. I really need those extra 2 regiments its supposed to carry. I'm unloading and trying again.

Dropped troop at Cairns. Will take it this turn. A FT full of base troops leaving GG this turn.

I noticed Condor lost a C-47 last turn. I wonder if he has started airlifts into TV. Next turn I will have LRCAP over TV which should help stop that somewhat.

Finally my TF ran Chenango down and sank her in a hail of gunfire. Ok it was only 3 hits. Chenango sinks. Unfortunately the action keeps the BBs from linking up with the invasion fleet to get thier MSW for the bombardment run.

I will start air suppression attacks against his INF this turn.

Getting interesting now.

Quark

[Philwd]

2 more days of savage air battles. The P-38s make thier appearance for Condor and immediately their presence is felt.

The P-38s so effectively tie up my CAP(still at ~25% for which I pay) that he is able to get single hits on zuihu and Shokaku. After the fires are put out both >40 SYS. Needless to say they are heading back to Rabaul and then Truk at full speed. I moved both carriers Zero squadrons to Cairns which turns out to be a huge mistake. More on that later. At least the transports are spared most air attacks again.

A lone transport TF ignored orders and didn't move at all!!!(No sir we aren't going anywhere near that place. Its full of Aussies) All my LRCAP was over TV so it was sitting thier naked as can be. A single attack hit it damaging a CL and DD. Could have been much worse.

I am getting intermittent poblems with FT forces only loading half or nothing at all before heading out. I was and still am disbanding FT every turn to try and keep thier behavior under control.

I moved 4 Zero sqdns in from GG and Woodlark awaiting the base force which is to land next turn plus supplies.

BIGGEST MISTAKE OF THE GAME!!!!

12/19 dawns with Condor ignoring the transports and CVs entirely. He sent the kitchen sink at Cairns!!!!! Oh no. I thought for sure he would try and kill more transports this turn. Cairns is now closed probably for the duration of the battle. 6 sqnds stranded;lost I think 15 planes on the ground. Almost all the supplies were destroyed. Also a big base force did manage to land but is now useless.

Elsewhere it just gets worse. I sent my bombers against TV and CT to try and catch some planes on the ground. So I went in at 1000ft. Over TV a single P-38 sqn met me. My escort Zeros turned tail or never flew. I can't tell. The Lightnings chew up several Betties and Nells. Base damage was almost non-existent

Over CT there was no flak and no fighters. I plastered it pretty well. But on the way home I lose 30 Betties to operational losses! What the? One squadron lost 21 planes destroyed and damaged. They are made of paper. Can't even fly on a milk run.

But the transports all obey this turn and unload ~75% of the troops. I'll wait another turn for eng and supplies then start the attack. CVs are continuing ground attacks.

The Tf bringing in a regiment of the 20th Div is 3 turns away from TV. Another TF trys to load the 38th at GG one more time. FT bringing combat eng to TV.

I'm really getting a bad feeling about this now. I really needed Cairns. CV Zero sqns are down 50% in couple cases. Those blasted P-38s. I am losing mostly green pilots but still.

We will prevail. We must.

BANZAI!!

Quarkk out

[Philwd]

2 more turns have passed. All troops ashore. Condor now knows I unloaded 84000 troops; 74000 of which are combat. First attack went in at a 0:1. Give it a couple of attacks and his fatigue will creep up. I had 3 eng units but forts only went down 1 lvl. Don't understand that.

I will unload supplies one more turn then turn the convoys around and keep the other 50K supplies ~3 days off for when TV falls. Four empty convoys left last turn to PM and Buna for supply and/or troop pickups depending on the situation.

3 more regiments 3 days away from unloading. These are my insurance against Condor flying in units from RH or Brisbane( I remember how he delayed the PM capture that way ). I am seeing units in CT now where I wasn't before. I wonder if Condor is already flying units around. I have noticed a couple C-47s in the lost column. Next turn is overcast so I will CAP CT with 1 sqn just to see what gives.

Condor is loving making the rocks jump at Cairns. He is giving his planes a rest this turn(he's never done that before during an invasion) so the damage at Carins drops to 90 runway and 50 services. I FT 2 more eng units in. I have moved several transports to GG and they will fly in more eng units.

Last turn I did what I should have from the start. I moved 4 more Zero squadrons onto the CVs to replace worn out sqdns. Those 108 Zeros(including both Tainan sqdns) are now fully rested and hopefully will help keep the tide of the air battle my way.

I have been rotating my sqdns on the CVs so I have 3-4 rested sqnds every turn. Meanwhile Condor has been using his almost non-stop. Last turn I actually got a few P-38s; a sure sign they were tired.

Elsewhere Condor is busy at Kourapotous(sp?). But I don't have much to interfere with it. I've worn out my cruisers and destroyers on FT duty. Only planes at Lunga are Oscars and Vals. I still have a div+ there so I think Lunga itself is safe. Anyway if the invasion at TV fails I'll have nothing else left so its moot.

I also have 3 reg at PM, 2 at Rabaul and a full div at Truk where its doing nobody any good. Just no transports to move it.

My plans for the next couple days is re-establish air dominance, continue deliberate attacks to raise the Aussie fatigue, wear down his fort lvls with eng, unload the new regiments and keep 2 BB TF close for any surface combat forays by Condor. I will start up the air to ground attacks again in a couple turns when TV is closer to falling.

Further when TV falls I will move 2 div after him to CT. One to take CT and two to drop the supply requirements for the autovictory.

One question for the pros out there. For an auto victory all I need is to hold TV any day on 1/1/43 or later with double the supplies needed just for 1 day? Or a longer time? I didn't see any time requirement in the manual. The pros will notice I'm not doing anything that would destroy supplies at TV as I want them intact.

Thanks,
Quark

[Philwd]

12/22 today's attack went in at a 1:1 but lost more troops; 1400 . Only one eng unit is reducing fort levels. I think I figured out why. Only one shows an assault strength >0 in the combat window. What gives?? I checked all units during the turn and they all have between 9-12 combat value. So I am confused.

My Zeros chew up Condor's feeble attempt at a ground attack. Plus no attacks against Cairns. Only 6 P-38s flew CAP IIRC. Put together could this mean Condor's air is in worse shape than I thought?? Dare I hope? In any case his VIIC sqdn and a P-39 sqdn are toasted for a while.

Cairns repairs to under 80 field damage. Replacement Zeros have been delivered. Couple bad weather turns and Cairns is back in business. Actually I am just hoping he continues to use all his heavies against Cairns. Keeps them away from my ground troops.

I resume my Betty attacks next turn against TV. Hope to do better than 30 op losses.

Next convoy arrives next turn escorted by Yamato's battlegroup. Anyone care to guess who's leading that battlegroup? I really hope Condor's BBs show up. North Carolina where are you?
Another convoy with 2 full regiments is 3 turns out. Escorted by Hiei and Kongo.

Condor has hit a few ships lately but it turns out he has been hitting them turn after turn. I have been leaving the cripples at TV to hopefully attact attacks.

And finally all my subs return to action after all thier transport missions. And I get lucky off RH. Sunk an AK. Lots of troops drowned. Heading towards TV?? I have placed 6 more subs in and outside the reef near RH as further discouragement to sea movement to TV.

Quark

[Philwd]

Well so much has happened since my last post.

Some background to bring everyone back up to speed.

I am playing Attack Condor in our 2nd game. Condor is Allies, I am IJN. We both have our own threads to post thoughts, strategies, etc and promise not to read each others thread.

Condor has lost 4 CV and a CVE. Hornet and Big E badly damaged during a surprise raid on Noumea. I expect both back very shortly although Condor claims he only has 3 CVE right now. But the defining statement of the game so far is...

I got my butt kicked trying for an autovictory at Townsville. That about sums it up.[:(]

We are now starting early Feb '43. I know Condor will get Corsairs soon. As if his P-38s aren't enough.

Let me update current happenings by area.

Solomons:
Condor took Irau without much of a fight from me as my troops were all being evacuated from TV. My mines have taken their toll. Condor sweeps every turn. Sweeping 10 turns now and all the mines still aren't swept.[:D]

His planes at Irau are being a real pain. SBDs hit an AV at Russell 2 turns ago. Not sunk but very badly damaged. I have seen 6 sqdns total at the size 2 field there. Although Condor may be rotating. I haven't seen the Wildcats for several turns.

Lunga has only been closed for 1 turn. My 3 Oscar sqdns are doing remarkably well. 31 kills for 7 losses. No 4E bomber attacks for 5 days. Last attack I shot down or damaged 67% of his attackers. Still I would have expected something. I wonder if he has moved them??

Two div equivalent at Lunga. Re-supply convoy 4 turns out.

Munda now a size 2 air. Two Zero sqdns stationed there.

New Guinea:
Been very quiet. I have sent 4 mining runs to PM and GG in last couple turns. Heading back to Truk for re-supply. Hudsons attacked GG at night from 20000 ft. He has learned my flak is deadly at 6000 ft.[:)]

ASW front:
Sank Sargo at Rabaul 3 turns ago. 9 total USN subs sunk vs 11 of mine. Not too bad really. Although I only have 1 combat worthy sub left. I saw Argonaut at Lunga a few turns ago and have the mines almost swept.

The troops:
Most troops evacuated have arrived at Truk. Surprisingly most formations are already at 0 disruption and 5 fatigue. I may be able to move much earlier than I thought. I got 78000 troops out of a max 97000 evacuated from Oz. But the cost was heavy...

The Fleet:
I have 2 BB, 6 CA, 5 CL, >30 DD, 6 CV and 2 CVL in theatre. Many need another 2-3 weeks to get SYS below 10. Commit lvl is low even after sending back 4 BB, 2 CV, 5 CA and 16 DD. I lost a CVL, CS, 4 CL, 2 CA and a host of DD in the evacuation. I believe I gave almost as good as I got. But an even exchange favors the USN.

Plans:
Get the troops and fleet back into fighting trim. Re-supply fwd bases. Counter punch when I see Condor's move. Continue to build support bases. Maybe re-take Irau to safeguard Lunga a little longer. Condor still only has 2 inf units there; one is small. I anticipate needing another 2-3 weeks realistically to be ready. Will Condor wait that long???

That's all for now. I'll post a more up to date loss picture soon.

Quark

[Philwd]

Oh boy.

My recon shows 4 BB at RH and a CVE approaching.
No 4E attacks on Lunga for 8 days now.
No troops at Kourapotous. Reconning again to make sure.
About 30 Aks at Irau. Too bad I can't count on my naval attack planes to actually attack there or his 3 fighter sqdns wouldn't be enough.
MSW swept at Taivu last turn then ran back to Irau.
Condor is also targeting my scout bases. He's sunk two AVs in past 3 turns.
My recon shows lots of AKs in and around Irau but almost none in Oz RH and north.

Taken together what does this mean???

Condor was attacking Lunga every single turn he could then suddenly stopped.

He's strippping troops it appears.

He doesn't want me to see him coming; especially near NG.

Irau is building up but no new increases in field size. With 2 or 3 eng units it must mean he's digging in.

Even with my debacle at TV I don't think Condor is strong enough to invade more than one area. He still claims to not have fleet CVs. If true an attack against NG would seem suicidal with my CVs hovering just north. I know Condor remembers the first invasion of Lunga. I also have ~300 Betties and Nells to supplement the CVs plus ~400 Zeros. They are well dispersed now.

So my first response is my reaction force is loading at truk. Full 41st div. Armored reg will load in a couple days. Together they should blunt any invasion. All bases at lvl 9 forts and should be enough to hold out for reaction force to arrive. Eng and AA heading to PM. I had pulled them out earlier.

I will have another 5 full strength regiments in another 3 weeks. While I don't have the lift to keep them also as a floating reserve they will fill in nicely some very underdefended areas.

So that all means an early invasion of Irau is out of the question. Another suicide recon may be in order.

I have almost completed garrisoning all the new small bases Condor could airlift into. Whew. One nightmare gone.[:)]

Looking at all available data it sure looks like Condor is feverishly building Irau up enough I can't attack without using everything I have left. Plus it looks like all his major fleet assets have moved or are moving to Oz. I am leaning towards Condor coming to PM. I can't believe he would stop his bombing if he really meant to come to Lunga. Feint and counter feint. Maybe.....

So while I won't move anything out of Lunga nothing more goes in. 2 div will have to suffice. If he wants to attack there without major fleet units it will be like shooting ducks in a pond. Recon of all bases will continue.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention I got another CVL released with 11 escorts. Its now at Truk and will arrive Rabaul in ~ 3 days.

I'll try and post a rundown of losses and available forces in next couple days.

Quark

[Philwd]

Its now 2/10.

The Shadow[:D] has started up his air attacks on Lunga again. However it is with only ~25 bombers. I am not impressed. What happened to the other 60?? I really believe he has moved them.

In the what goes around comes around category my Vals finally after about 7 turns set to naval attack finally decide to fly. I damage 5 AKs. According to the Shadow 1 might actually sink. As a side note I lost 16 Oscars to his 17 fighters. I now have 48 victories vs 21 losses. I believe my success so far is due to better use of altitude. One Oscar pilot is almost an ace!!![:)]

Condor recons almost every base last turn. Including Buna. I guess he noticed the 3 sqdns.[:)] I am considering moving them back to Lea and grouping with 3 Betties. That would give me a nice concentrated punch.

Floating reserve is off and will sit right on the big S in Solomons waiting for a clue where to react.

Condor is getting real brave with his MSWs. He sends 6 to sweep Taivu. Getting a bit cheeky I would say. I am thinking of a nice welcoming committee for next time.

My recon of Kourapotous confirms my previous intel. He has pulled out his troops. As Irau now sports at least 6 regiments and an armored unit I think I can guess where they went.

I see not only BBs and a CVE at or near RH I also see a DMS. That really has me worried. They are always where the Shadow plans a major push. No reason for them to be hiding there if he really wants to sweep off Lunga prior to an invasion. I count 11 APs near Oz. I can't recon Brissy so there may be still more.

As an added bonus my recon of RH shows 2 full div on the march north from RH. That had me confused. Why march? Either he doesn't have the lift or it is busy. Busy perhaps loading something at TV that needs to be replaced?? No my recon didn't show any big TF there. So my guess right now is he just doesn't have the lift to move every unit he wants to. Now why move them at all?? Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

My fleet in theater:
2-BB I sent 4 BB back to Tokyo to get Ryujo released. I kept Hiei and Haruna for CV escort.

6-CV and 2 CVL. Not counting Junyo which is at Truk. Zuiho and Shok in Toyko.
5-CA
5-CL
41-DD
17-AO/TK
16-PG/PC
3-SS Ouch. USN ASW is just too good.
11-MSW
8-ML Worth their weight in gold.
5-CS/AV
63-AP Looks good until you see how many I've lost. I'll post that later.

So overall I feel I have more than enough force to give Condor a big bloody nose. Air is in pretty good shape. All naval sqdns full strength. Betties average ~20 planes/sqdn. Nells ~16/sqdn. All Zeros full strength.

My worse area as noted before is my ground troops. Do I have enough time? Anything I can do to delay Condor I will consider. Even another CV raid into Oz. I hope the 5 AKs damaged at Irau help in that regard.

Next post will have losses to date.

Quark

[Philwd]

Well when I added up the losses for this post I got a real shock. Some of the numbers I really didn't expect.
USN IJN
CV 4 0
CVL/CVE 1 1
BB 1 1
CA 5 5
CL 5 9
DD 46 56[:(] First surprise. Both in USN losses and my own.
APD 1 6
DMS 1
DM 3
MSW 5 2
AO/TK 7 4
SS 9 10 Far more even than I could ever hope.
AP/AK 46 88[:(][:(] With 63 left I never imagined I lost this much.

As you can see the losses are mostly even except in 3 categories; CVs, DDs and APs. As I am not invading any longer the APs don't hurt me as much. I still have almost all my 3000 tonners. Most of the losses arte the smaller ones. As a testament to Condor's subs 41 of the lost transports were due to sub torpedoes. But even losses greatly favor the USN.

I am under no illusions. When Condor gets his CVs back(just a matter if time if not back already) any advantage I have evaporates. I just need to shatter one invasion. Just one...

Quark

[Philwd]

2/16 now.

2 turns of t-storms and rain. I have stood down all my air except search. Oscars at Lunga especially burnt out.

Irau
I hit Condor with another bombing attack. Hit an Ak and a DD; badly damaging both. Probably just a pinprick to Condor but any lessening of his lift capability is worth it.

Interesting thing was his near 100 plane attack on Tulagi by P-39s. Then no CAP over Irau. Interesting. Condor seems to be rotating sqdns in and out almost daily. Must be nice to be able to move planes so freely without losing 10% each time.

Lunga
Nuisance raids continue. They have little effect. Re-supply convoy unloads and leaves unscathed. Lots of recon over Tulagi and Russels. Russels is due for a troop rotation. Base is built up as much as I want. So eng unit is loading up and a SNLF unit rotating in. Well Condor crashed my party and sank a barge with a sub. No troops on barge. Got lucky there. I've been wondering where his subs went to and now I see they are back. But if he wants to go after barges I'll let him. I'm using barges as my transports are behaving wierdly again. I'll explain more below.

5 mine fields laid at Taivu to replace those swept. I was hoping for his MSW to show back up as I had my 2 big ML there. No such luck.

New Guinea area
Recon not showing a whole lot of change. Cairns and TV overflown this turn. Cairns now sporting planes and 2 eng units. Condor is getting serious now. I was wondering why Cooktown didn't have all his B 26s. One thing that bothers me about recon. I can see down to the last man what a ground unit has but I can't tell if an airbase has B-17/24s.

So do I compromise my rebuilt Betty force to attack Cairns before he attacks me or do I hold them for naval strikes?? I have ~140 at Woodlark. Decisions, decisions. I'll probably lose 15 planes to op losses even if there is no fighter opposition.

I see Condor's 2 div almost to TV. BB still sighted in TV harbor along with APD and DMS. Next turn RH.

GG is too vulnerable so I have rotated 2 BF out and moved Kate and Vals to Buna. Betties will move to Lea as mentioned a couple posts ago. I have 7 bomber sqdns at Woodlark. They will be the basis for my anti-naval strike force. Buna has naval strike sqdns with 2 Zeros right now. I will move a Tony sqnd in and move Zeros to Lea.

I have laid 7 more minefields at PM and GG. With DMS around probably not enough so another round of mine laying is ordered.

41st div 6 days from mid-ocean staging area. Gawd it takes forever to get from Truk!! I decided to shade closer to NG by ~180 mi because Lunga is much better defended than PM or GG. I have >700 assault point at Lunga with a lvl 9 fort. Condor would need almost 5 puny US div to get a 2:1.

Munda will get a CA and DD react force. Need to get port to lvl 3. Woodlark will also get a react force. I was considering GG but the same reason I am moving the air out convinced me not to base the naval sqdn there. Too exposed. If I get enough warning I may base at GG for 1 or 2 turns to be closer.

What has occupied my thinking is what should trigger my CVs to surge? Condor will surely ring Rabaul with subs and also line them up either at GG or near Lunga, depending on the target. I could use a few more sys points repaired but I really don't want to run a sub gauntlet. Looking at distances from TV or LV I would have to put to sea immediately upon sighting a TF to have any chance of intercepting before troops land. This opens me up to a feint or ambush. If I put to sea early I burn fuel and run up SYS damage but could afford to take a day or so to ascertain real threat axis. And hopefully miss his sub gauntlet.

Condor said in an email events are now in motion. He usually is not given to hyperbole in his emails. So I believe the hammer is about to fall. But where? I don't see anything moving!!

He also said retribution is near and there's nothing I can do to stop it. Well we'll see about that.

On wierdness
My transports have adopted a habit of loading phantoms. Phantom unit fragments to be precise. What happens is I form a TF. I pick destination then pick load only troops. First ship in TF(usually but not always just first ship) loads a unit fragment that was evacuated from TV but is not present at the base. When I look at the ship and click on unit the unit disappears but ship cannot go and load anything else. If I disband and reform TF same thing happens. Usually next turn it goes away. It also happens to FT. Sometimes the AI will add a ship to the TF to be able to load the phantom. But this is costing me many turns in getting my forces in place. It only started after I had lots of fragments from the TV evacuation. Frustrating.

Quark

[Philwd]

2/17

Hmmm.

Hmmm.

A full US marine battalion lands at Russel. Caught me in the middle of a troop rotation.

Kingfishers scout both Rennel and GG.

What ship carries Kingfishers? USN battlewagons are coming a calling. Looking to be headed for GG although I can't see them!!! Darn overcast weather.

Condor claims raiders are recon in force. He also claims BBs are a feint. Yeah right. Leaving port under T-storms and rain and then expecting me to see them.

Now I know why the sub was at Russell last turn. Clearing the way for his FT force to drop the raiders. I didn't see the FT but as I also didn't see the BBs its understandable. Condor also kidded me that I can't see his transports attacking my rear bases. How did he know I didn't see him??? I got the SNLF ashore but its only half the unit. No support in first wave. Eng unit all loaded and away. Raiders have an assault of ~25 same as my SNLF. So I order every bomber in the Solomons to ground attack with heavy escort and order the SNLF to shock attack. Condor claimed air support for the Marines was coming this turn. Should be interesting.

I have been very worried that FT runs from Irau can get to almost any Solomons base. Looks like my fear was justified. I am just getting my rested naval garrisons back from Truk. I will double and triple up garrisons where I can. I also plan on mining some areas but I have more urgent priorities right now.

At GG my only response is to set all my air in NG to naval attack. I had moved Kates to Buna and Betties to Lae. Vals still at GG. Woodlark's Betties also set to naval attack(hope they don't fly to Brisbane). I have minimal exposure at GG now. A single Zero sqdn, 1 Val and 2 recon. 1 BF unit so I am short support(will take forever to repair damage too). I have moved BF to Buna and Lae. I also need to move the air HQ. Basilaki just east of GG and GG itself are heavily mined. Hopefully get a few hits. The real hope for my air is to pick off any cripples from mines. I halted almost all ship traffic into GG and emptied the harbor(1 ship). I send couple barges to Basilaki and couple stay at GG to tie up the bombardment force.

Condor made my decision about the CVs easy. I surge all 8 with heavy escort. For right now they are headed to a point SW of Woodlark. Out of the main shipping lane to Rabaul and hopefully out of any subs. 2 SC TF also head to react points at GG and Woodlark. Recon at Cairns and TV again this turn.

Elsewhere the attack on Russell makes me accelerate garrisoning the last couple bases. Dobadura gets a SNLF next turn leaving Gasmata as the only ungarrisoned base.

More wierdness. This turn a single transport TF was formed to take a naval garrison to Woodlark for troop rotation. Well the transport loaded up an artillery instead! Makes me spend couple turns unloading before I can use the ship again. GGRR!

Quark

[Philwd]

2/18

WOOHOO!!!!!

Yukaze sinks USS Saury at Rabaul harbor. A Val hits Greenling at Woodlark. Sink you sucker.

My Betties do in fact not attack the BBs but hit Irau instead which has no CAP!?! Two MSW sunk. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

We trade ground attacks at Russels. Condor loses 9 more men and I still own the base. I still see a sub there. No Us air showed up.

Condor's battlewagons do not seem to have moved. Vals from GG hit them and score a single bomb hit on Colorado. She must repair fast. I hit her with 5 torps at TV. I lose 12 Vals to flak. OUCH!

BUT.. as Condor didn't move my CVs are now in position to hit them as they retire next turn. They have not been spotted. [:D] Also I see a CA force with 2 DMS just behind the BB. That's the force I really want to hit with the CVs. My only hesitation is the losses I will take from the flak. Is it worth it when US CVs may be around? The chance to take out DMS tilts the decision to a yes. I do have several orphaned sqdns I can use to replace ones that lose lots of planes. And there is a good chance the ships will have hit mines at GG so they might not put up as much of a fight.

In other news P-70 night fighters show up over Lunga and get hammered by my flak. Come on back now you hear[:D].

Recon over TV now shows 3 CVE present in a TF with AP. Not good. I also see another small TF of AK. His 2 div will reach TV next turn.

A small group of 3 Betties decided to attack 6 APDs at Cooktown. To my surprise 20 P-40s rise to meet them. Seems a BF has unloaded. Very bad news. If Condor puts 2E's there all of southern NG is toast.

Undamaged USN subs present at Russell, GG and Munda. I am sending the newly blooded Yukaze TF to Munda to see if they can get rid of pesky S-38.

Here's to hoping next turn is as much fun. [:)] Its like golf. Bad swing, bad swing. I hate this game. Good swing. I love this game.[:)]

Quark

[Philwd]

It starts...

Transports sighted hugging the Barrier reef 120 mi NORTH of Cooktown. Oh SMURF!!! [:(]How did he get so far undetected? Depending on speed 2-3 turns from PM.

CVE TF sighted 150 mi SE of transports. Obviously providing LRCAP.

Buna hit by B-17s. Minor damage.

Kates from Buna sight and sink a DM 30 mi off PM. Can't tell if mines were laid so MSW hastily scrambled from Shortlands to escort 41st div in.

CVs sitting 30 mi SW of Woodlark(not spotted yet). I will be in range of transports next turn if they run straight north to PM. Lae now has 3 BF supporting 54 Zeros and ~60 Betties/nells. I hope they fly. Buna has naval attack sqdns plus 54 Zeros. Probably transports will still be out of range of Buna next turn. GG has Vals plus 1sqdn of Zeros. And Woodlark has most of the Betties/Nells but things didn't go quite according to plan last turn. I had put them on naval attack again hoping they would go after the BBs just sitting there but with no escort to discourage going into CAP. No such luck. They flew to Irau running into Corsairs and to TV running into P40s. But at TV they put torps into 2 BBs plus a DD(BBs apparently retired to TV. I see another BB TF just outside TV). Hopefully Condor was counting on them and this disrupts his plans a little. This foray costs me 20 bombers. Still they stay on naval attack this turn with escort.

My SC TFs with the BBs and cruisers sit at Woodlark. They will escort the 41st in also. 41st 5-6 turns from PM.

Next 2 turns will probably decide the battle. I need to maul or delay the transports before they hit the beach. Maybe if the carriers get sighted the transports will do the "CV shuffle". I will not risk the carriers too close to Cooktown.

Into the breach...

Quark

[Philwd]

We're going to a turn re-wind back to 2/5.

I discovered this turn when looking for several units that should have been recuperating at Truk that they were all missing!! What I discovered was the disapperaring unit bug that hit me earlier has returned. Units disappear immediately upon unloading. This happened to units on random ships in 2 separate Tf that arrived 3 days apart. What's worse is if a fragment of a unit was already at Truk then not just the newly unloaded fragment but both old and new would disappear. I lost 10 units total; 7 regiments, an armored unit and 2 recon units. Because of the crippling nature of losing almost 3 div Condor agreed to rewind the game.
I should have seen it earlier but I wasn't checking unloaded units I was hurrying to get units loaded and headed south.

But this puts a whole new light on the game as both sides now have a chance to review what went wrong and adjust strategies.

When I reported this last time U2 verified the bug. The only fix was to rewind then change the conditions of the ships unloading.

Quark

[Philwd]

We had to rewind one more time. My units again disappeared after unloading. Plus my barges at Lunga while trying to load the SNLF instead loaded the Yazawa regiment( which was at that time unloading at Rabaul) and as an added bonus loaded a Seabee unit of Condor's!! It was quite humorous to see a load of 1200 on the ship screen next to a capacity of 70. [:)]

This time around I am sending the transports back to Kavieng and Rabaul to unload. Last tiem this bug hit unloading at Kavieng worked. In 2 more turns I'll know if it worked.
This is costing me so much time. But I really need those 10 units.

Both sides have kept tempo low trying to sort this out.

Quark

[Philwd]

2/18 now. My troop problems originally seemed to have sorted themselves out. I discovered by unloading on undeveloped beaches my units would not instantaneously disappear. HOWEVER I found 4 that disappeared the turn after they finished unloading. I was royally upset until I discovered they had "beamed" over to Truk!! The other wierd thing here is the composition of the units is not the same as before teleporting. In general they are slightly stronger(hey I'm not complaining) but the support is off. If you look at the left column at the support and support needed lines the number of support present matches what the unit had before "beaming". However the unit strength only shows ~25 support. The next turn however the support showed the new amount. SMURF!

Secondly even at the beaches if it took 2 turns to unload 75% of the time the first turn's unloading would disappear on turn 2. The other 25% turned out to be the units that beamed to Truk. When I discovered this happening I moved all the rest of the transports on turn 2 of unloading at new beaches to save what had been unloaded.

Fast transport pickup of beached units is working 75% of the time. Have had 1 incident of disappearing FT load upon unloading.

Only about 1/3 of the units have unloaded correctly on their beaches and will be picked up. Isn't it a bit sick I have to go to such extremes to simply unload units??[:@]

I guess sending back all those BBs really did help. Although my commit level never went above low I got Ryujo and 11 escorts that have now arrived at Rabaul plus Tokyo has now released 6 transports and all the rest of the ML. Woohoo! If Condor was upset about the mines at Irau guess what awaits him everywhere else now.

The game is taking a decidedly different tack this time. No transports sitting at Irau for me to sink. He isn't forgetting to put CAP over Irau. No subs at Rabaul to sink. No BBs at TV waiting to be torp'd. No night fighters getting torn up over Lunga. No DM getting sunk trying to lay mines at PM. Sigh. What's a Quark to do?[:)]

One thing I am doing differently is only putting AVs at lvl 3 ports to protect from subs. So I moved from Rossell, Munda and Kiriwina for now until those ports reach lvl 3. Munda is now very close.

Weather is also very different as is my ship repair rate. My ships are hardly repairing at all this time around.

Condor just started his attacks again this turn. 80 B-17s hit PM. Supplies went from 43K to 13K in one turn!![:(] They are based at Cairns; well within my reach. I've decided to send the SC TF to Woodlark to use as a base for a BB run to Cairns. Will use 2 TF comprised of 2BB, 5CA, 5Cl and 9 DDs. I will time a night 150 plane raid from Woodlark to coincide with the bombardment. This also means few if any 4E's left in the east to hit Lunga.

Cooktown so far this time around is empty. Where are all those 2E's??

I have seen several subs around NG, Woodlark area. Unless they are moving around lots every turn I've seen 6 different subs. Another was sitting at Munda. So I've taken to big DD escorts for TF headed into that region. Also the game hiccup'd a few turns back. Up to now Condor has done almost no sub mine laying. A few turns ago when viewing the very start of the turn a message popped up saying so and so is loading mines. This happened 2 turns in a row. I told Condor and in deference to how I found out have done nothing about using the intel. However since this time last game was also when Argonaut reared her ugly head and laid mines at Russell, I now am also putting MSW in all TF.

For the next few turns my priority is getting all my scattered units back to Truk for refit and some flak to fwd bases(poor PM!!). This puts me way behind the 8 ball compared to last time around. No lift avail for a floating reserve yet. CVs not repaired. Resupply of bases not done etc. I see many opportunities that I just can't take advantage of. For example Irau is very weak this time around. Only 1 reinforced div present.


Quark

[Philwd]

2/20 Tarpon got greedy and met her match. 8 hits from a barge encounter and Tarpon will bully nobody any longer.

Only 45 bombers hit PM this time. Supplies cut in half to 7000.

Amazingly the bombardment forces are in place for their night runs to Cairns without being seen. Condor has several PBY sqdns on recon and only 1 on search. I also see 1 small transport TF in port at Cairns and another 10 ship TF on its way. I hope it reaches. I hope it reaches. I hope it reaches.[:D]

140 plane night LBA raid set up in support of the bombardment forces. After this I wouldn't be surprised if Condor switched from hitting PM to Woodlark.

All for now.

Quark

[Philwd]

2/21 Well I didn't quite hit the home run at Cairns I had hoped for. I'd call it more like a double. Betties went in at 2000 ft and plastered the airfield. Some P-70s destroyed and damaged.(have to watch out for those night fighters in the future!!!) Only half the bombers flew; probably due to supply level at Woodlark. My losses 3 bombers. Both bombardment TF went in and got around another 48 hits apiece. But the TF in port had left and the other ended up 30 mi out. SMURF! Total runway hits ~150 and total structure hits ~50. That should slow Condor down a little. No 4E bombers hit at all. When Condor hits me with 50 airbase hits I lose 10-15 planes on the ground. Oh well. It was worth the try. Thinking more it maybe was a good thing only half the bombers at Woodlark flew. It may deceive Condor into thinking most of my planes are elsewhere.

Further recon of Irau has convinced me I need to lance that boil before it gets too much bigger. My transports start arriving at Truk over next couple turns. I ran a little experiment north of San Cristobal. I ran a TF east for a while on its way back to Truk from Lunga to see if it would be detected. Condor has moved a PBY sqdn into Irau. No detection. Thinking back Condor has never detected a TF coming from the north. That has given me the idea of loading up my 3 div worth of combat ready troops and come in from the north side of San Cristobal. I have a good chance of getting within a turn before he sees me. My troops will be fresh while his will be fatigued from malaria. My combat eng will be fresh and able to take down any fort lvls. The goal will be get in, 2 turns max of attack, then get back out. Hopefully I can ground his air at the same time but as I have never been able to do that they might escape. CVs will cover and the bombardment TF will go in first. CAP provided from Lunga and Munda. Who knows. If all goes well maybe I'll try and pick off the isolated div on Kourapotous also. Every one I can pick off now is one less he has to hit me with later.

Timeframe looks to be around 9 days from now.

As a diversion I will send 2 CVL to Woodlark so Condor thinks I am set up to defend NG. After they are spotted they will run fast east to join up with main CV force.

Am I crazy??

Other plans. PM badly needs reinforcing and re-supply. I have a smaller TF that is committed to bring in 2 AA, a new eng unit and the 8th naval garrison. Since it is all slower ships about 2 weeks away. Mining activities continue. Sub attack on ML Saishu last turn but I got away.

Every other transport not needed for Irau or PM expeditions will resupply Rabaul. Six new transports arrive at Truk in 6 days.

Quark

[wobbly]

Definately not crazy. Once Condor gets strongly based in the Solomons (namely irau) he can make life very difficult for you all the way up the rest of the chain. Life in Lunga, munda and shortlands even (and all bases in between) will be about dodging bombs.
If you can organise a good offense - as often quoted - it should be the best defense.

[Philwd]

Thanks Wobbly. I agree and don't think I really have much choice. just after the success I've had with invasions lately...[:(]

Condor asked in an email why didn't I follow up the Cairns attack last turn. Well with a night fighter sqdn there it didn't seem to be in my best interests. I had thought with only destroying 3 planes he would have 12 or so flying next night. Well then Condor tells me he only had 3 or 4 left and had pulled them back to Brisbane. Oh DUH! So I still don't attack again. Why? Because the supply situation at Woodlark won't let me. I need to conserve supplies.

Last transports I need for the Irau attack arrive at Truk next turn.

Forces chosen for the attack. 41st div, 20th div, 35th brigade and the Yazawa regiment. 9 full strength rested IJA regiments. 2 Eng battalions and the HQs of course. I am also bringing along the recon battalions for garrisoning purposes.

Other than that the supply situation is getting the most attention. Earlier in the game I had seeded ~5000 supplies at several small bases just in case. Well that "in case" has arrived and I am sending small Tf left and right collecting that supply for Lae and Woodlark; both of which are <15000 supplies. Barges are being redeployed to Lae for that purpose.

Quark