A Good Place to Start - Matthew (A) v Fokko (J) - Bottlenecks Mod

[RangerJoe]

A lot of those Burma-approaching enemy troops could be the Thai divisions, which start out very understength, low on experience and with no heavy weapons. This early in the game they are still weak and could be destroyed if they get too far ahead of IJA support.

I suspect the Japanese are waiting for reinforcements from Singapore before pressing on. I’d never thought about this before, but the use of dot bases to make a supply cap also provides intel and early warning of any enemy moves, with the need. to capture the bases when on the move, unless they flip to enemy control (as they’ve done in Burma along the Thailand border). In the early days there was a lot of ‘flipping’ to and fro, but it seems to have stabilised now.

It’s going to make any surprise moves difficult on this front.

Don't forget that those dot bases can also be captured by paratroopers.

[M Peaston]

With the way bases can ‘flip’, paratroop drops could be very interesting in Burma in this Mod.


20th February 1942



CHINA

The Tojos and Sonias returned to Wuchow for the first time since the AVG started patrolling there. Seven Sonia’s claimed as shot down in return for one Warhawk.



ABDA

Japan captures Djambi.

The last fuel tanker, Anders Jahre, leaves Oosthaven bound for Darwin with 11,600 fuel.



SWPAC/SOPAC

The Japanese threat in the Coral Sea appears to have receded, apart from a destroyer flotilla west of the Solomons. Lexington is heading to north of the Santa Cruz; 1st Marine Rgt is now near Norfolk Island and making for Luganville - I haven’t given up yet on the idea of getting the Marines to Tulagi.

The Australian 29th Bde, having been diverted to Rockhampton, is now reembarking for Port Moresby.

I’m keeping the B17s/Liberators safely out of the way at Melbourne for now and I’ll move them up to Charters Towers only when needed.



CENPAC

I’ve lost sight of KB, so Spruance has been ordered to return to Pearl Harbor. Achilles and Leander bombarded Mili, inflicted a handful of casualties, dodged the return fire of the coastal guns, and are now returning to Suva via Canton Is - I don’t think there was any real value in this but it’s just too embarrassing to go all the way to the Marshalls and return without having fired a shot.



CIVILIANS

I haven’t mentioned the civilian evacuations for a while, but it’s been going pretty well. With one exception the only groups left are in the Pacific: Jarvis Island, Rangiroa, Tubuai, Hiva Ova, Tahiti and Nadi. The exception is the US civilians at Cagayan on Mindanao. I may have to fly them out, which of course would detract from the effort to resupply Bataan.

[M Peaston]

John D Edwards.png (1.65 MiB) Viewed 1417 times

[RangerJoe]

John D Edwards.png

With all of those dot bases in the Philippines, it may be useful to fly a few air support squads to some of them - especially if they have any supply generation. That way the dot bases won't flip, they can hide a damaged submarine or ship, they can be used for float planes and flying boats, and if the unit they came from is buyable, when the main part of the unit is destroyed then the fragment becomes the unit. Then the unit can be bought out cheaply and either flown out or loaded on SSTs for rebuilding elsewhere.

[M Peaston]

There are some small Australian units arriving as reinforcements which I think are included for just this kind of thing, but they don't arrive just yet. I do, however, have the small Samarinda BF unit currently at Balikpapan available. They might be prepared to 'volunteer' for such a mission.

[M Peaston]

21st February 1942



CHINA

22nd Artillery Rgt reaches Lanchow, joining the 11th, 24th and 61st Armies. I’m hoping to make Lanchow a tough nut to crack.



INDIA/BURMA

Japanese ground forces appear to start advancing on Martaban from Moulmein

RAF 224 Group BF is now established at Akyab, allowing me to deploy a Hurricane Squadron there.



ABDA

Brooke-Popham may be quite out of his depth as a theatre commander, but he ought to know a thing or two about managing an air campaign. If the Japanese follow their usual pattern, they’ll use the airbase at Palembang to assert dominance over Java and the Java Sea before carrying out an invasion. Brooke-Popham has ordered the Allied air forces to try and delay this by keeping the JAAF on the back foot at Palembang. Dutch Buffalos and RAF Hurricanes swept Palembang claiming 6 Oscars for 5 Buffalos. Sweeps will continue tomorrow, with USAAF Banshees ordered to attack the airfield, and RAAF Hudsons attacking shipping. I’m a bit concerned about what flak the Japanese have at Palembang and the affect this will have on the dive-bombing Banshees; we’ll see.

It wasn’t a great day for the Dutch air forces overall; Zeros swept Ambon claiming 8 Buffalos for no loss. Of particular concern at Ambon is is that a TF has just arrived there to evacuate Sparrow Bn and 2/4 Pioneer Bn to Saumlaki. I’ve moved a half-squadron of P40Bs to Ambon to provide cover, but I’m not convinced they’ll fare much better against the Zeros.

I’m replacing the Buffalos from front-line squadrons as much as possible now. 243 Squadron and 488 (NZ) squadron are converting to Hurricane IIBs at Koepang; leaving only 1 RAAF Squadron plus the Dutch operating the Buffalo.



PHILIPPINES

xAKNirvana has refuelled at Balikpapan and is about to make a high-speed run to Bataan with 3,700 supply.



SWPAC/SOPAC

The Coral Sea appears all quiet at the moment. Lexington is just north of New Caledonia and is heading for just north of Luganville. At Luganville 1st Marine AmphTrac Bn is loading for Tulagi. USS Raleigh has been ordered to patrol the Solomons in advance.

In hindsight perhaps it would have been safer to have Lexington a little farther south.

At the moment I can’t seem to get any fuel to flow north of Bowen, hampering my efforts to resupply Port Moresby from Townsville. These problems all started the day after I said I was happy with how my logistic system was working….. I’ve got some more fuel arriving in Sydney in the next couple of days, so hopefully this will sort itself out.



SUBMARINE WARFARE

RO-34 tries to torpedo KXIII in the Makassar Strait, but misses
Grayback encounters xAKL P-82 some 160 miles south of Etorofu, but decides it is too much for her to handle.
Grenadier has a busy day at the Pescadores, torpedoing xAP Hakusan Maru and hitting AO Notoro with a dud.

[BBfanboy]

You need to create a demand for fuel at Townsville by having a few ships top up there. Only then will more fuel flow toward the base. Setting fuel to stockpile there will help as well.

[RangerJoe]

You need to create a demand for fuel at Townsville by having a few ships top up there. Only then will more fuel flow toward the base. Setting fuel to stockpile there will help as well.

A player can create an artificial demand for fuel by setting the home port of a task force to a base but not have the task force go there.

[M Peaston]

It’s counterintuitive, isn’t it? When a location runs out of fuel my first thought is to divert TFs elsewhere - which of course reduces the demand for fuel and compounds the problem.

There is still some demand at Townsville; I don’t think it helps that Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane all have fuel demands exceeding current stocks. Hopefully once some of the Australia-bound convoys have refuelled and started the return leg demand at these locations will drop. Most of these passed Bora-Bora before the refuelling station was set up there.

I’ve made a note to start stockpiling fuel at Townsville when I get the turn back - I should have done this earlier. I can’t think I have any great need for fuel to flow beyond there.

I think I also need to go away and re-read Alfred’s Logistics 101.

Townsville.png (693.43 KiB) Viewed 1279 times

Brisbane.png (727.82 KiB) Viewed 1279 times

Melbourne.png (1.08 MiB) Viewed 1279 times

Sydney.png (795.13 KiB) Viewed 1279 times

[BBfanboy]

If there are bigger bases with greater fuel needs it will go there first. You need to start running fuel to Australia from USA, Cape Town and even Abadan if the IJN is not in the Indian Ocean.

Do not run the Abadan ships directly to Perth - they will go too close to the DEI. I ran mine about 3 hexes from the western border strip of the map by setting a waypoint near Perth, But enough NW of Perth that the tankers can run diagonally straight to Perth from there.

The distance is such that those tankers will need a small addition refuel to get back to Abadan - that can be done at Colombo using a waypoint with minimal refuel instruction.

[RangerJoe]

If there are bigger bases with greater fuel needs it will go there first. You need to start running fuel to Australia from USA, Cape Town and even Abadan if the IJN is not in the Indian Ocean.

Do not run the Abadan ships directly to Perth - they will go too close to the DEI. I ran mine about 3 hexes from the western border strip of the map by setting a waypoint near Perth, But enough NW of Perth that the tankers can run diagonally straight to Perth from there.

The distance is such that those tankers will need a small addition refuel to get back to Abadan - that can be done at Colombo using a waypoint with minimal refuel instruction.

Or dump the fuel from Abadan at Karachi, let it flow to Cochin (7 hexes W of Madras) on the West Coast of India and then load the fuel on tankers for transport to Australia.

[M Peaston]

Thanks gentlemen, all already done or in progress (apart from Cape Town). I’ve got fuel coming from both Abadan and. the USA. There’s about 67,000 fuel at Perth which should be flowing eastwards (I’m tempted to prop the PC monitor up on one side to tilt it down towards Sydney to see if it helps). There’s a Pacific fuel convoy with a similar amount about 2 days out from Sydney.

At the moment convoys are coming from Abadan, refuelling at Colombo and (you’ll be pleased to hear, BB Fanboy) keeping well to the west on their way to Perth.

Running fuel out of Cochin hasn’t started yet, but is in the process of being set up. It seemed the best port to use. The port at Cochin is expanding and although no fuel has left there yet, tankers returning to Perth have been routed back to Cochin, not Abadan. I was concerned that my tankers might get delayed at Cochin waiting for enough fuel to accumulate, but I’ve found that just by having my tankers destined for Cochin fuel has started to collect there quite nicely.

I’m not too perturbed about the fuel situation in Australia long-term. It’s a bit tight at the moment but I just need to manage it properly. I think the problem is Sydney/Melbourne bound convoys creating the demand, rather than there not being enough fuel as such. I realise now that a convoy could be two weeks away in the South Pacific somewhere but still be causing a fuel demand at Sydney. I might try routing convoys to Tasmania and change the destination as they get closer.

[RangerJoe]

Thanks gentlemen, all already done or in progress (apart from Cape Town). I’ve got fuel coming from both Abadan and. the USA. There’s about 67,000 fuel at Perth which should be flowing eastwards (I’m tempted to prop the PC monitor up on one side to tilt it down towards Sydney to see if it helps). There’s a Pacific fuel convoy with a similar amount about 2 days out from Sydney.

At the moment convoys are coming from Abadan, refuelling at Colombo and (you’ll be pleased to hear, BB Fanboy) keeping well to the west on their way to Perth.

Running fuel out of Cochin hasn’t started yet, but is in the process of being set up. It seemed the best port to use. The port at Cochin is expanding and although no fuel has left there yet, tankers returning to Perth have been routed back to Cochin, not Abadan. I was concerned that my tankers might get delayed at Cochin waiting for enough fuel to accumulate, but I’ve found that just by having my tankers destined for Cochin fuel has started to collect there quite nicely.

I’m not too perturbed about the fuel situation in Australia long-term. It’s a bit tight at the moment but I just need to manage it properly. I think the problem is Sydney/Melbourne bound convoys creating the demand, rather than there not being enough fuel as such. I realise now that a convoy could be two weeks away in the South Pacific somewhere but still be causing a fuel demand at Sydney. I might try routing convoys to Tasmania and change the destination as they get closer.

Or set the home port to your refueling station between CONUS and Australia so there is less demand for fuel in Australia while also having "Do Not Fuel" or "Tactical Refuel" set for the convoys.

So also, don't forget that North Island and South Island don't share fuel . . .

[BBfanboy]

Not sure that last statement is true RJ. Wellington (NI) is directly across from Blenheim (SI) so fuel should flow there. The problem is that Blenheim only has a size 1 port so the flow is limited to 50 per day. Building up the port will bring more fuel, but there is no other reason to build the port and with an SPS of 1, it will be slow and expensive in supply. So in the end sending a tanker works a lot faster!

[RangerJoe]

Not sure that last statement is true RJ. Wellington (NI) is directly across from Blenheim (SI) so fuel should flow there. The problem is that Blenheim only has a size 1 port so the flow is limited to 50 per day. Building up the port will bring more fuel, but there is no other reason to build the port and with an SPS of 1, it will be slow and expensive in supply. So in the end sending a tanker works a lot faster!

In my current game, Auckland has over 367k of fuel, Wellington has 5757 of fuel, Dunedain is the only South Island base with any fuel and it has 2003 of 2000 requested. I just noticed this so I diverted three large tankers to South Island of the Zealand continent . . .

[Platoonist]

(I’m tempted to prop the PC monitor up on one side to tilt it down towards Sydney to see if it helps)

Flipping the monitor display settings is easier but my guess is it doesn't help either.

[M Peaston]

(I’m tempted to prop the PC monitor up on one side to tilt it down towards Sydney to see if it helps)

Flipping the monitor display settings is easier but my guess is it doesn't help either.

Hi Platoonist, good point - I hadn’t thought of that, although with my computer skills physically tilting the monitor is definitely the easier option….

Thanks once again BB Fanboy and Ranger Joe; I know you both discussed a mid-Pacific refuelling point before. I’ve got some fuel in an expanded Bora Bora now, not enough for everything but it’s a start. What I hadn’t done was set Bora Bora as the home port but just as a waypoint. I’ll gradually change that over the next few turns. I’ll also have a look at New Zealand.

[M Peaston]

22nd February 1942



ABDA

Zeros sweep Ambon, shooting down 9 P40Bs in return for 3 Zeros claimed. However, the convoy evacuating the Australian forces from Ambon was not attacked, and hopefully will be away tomorrow. It needs to be, as there won’t be any air cover - I really can’t sustain these losses

The Allied air attacks go in at Palembang, losing 5 Hurricanes, 9 Dutch Buffalos, 1 Dutch B-10 and 4 Banshees in return for 10 Oscars claimed. On the positive side most of the bombers made it through (the Hudsons did so without loss, but on the down side they didn’t hit much - nothing more than a bit of light damage to the airfield. The strikes are going in again tomorrow as Indomitable will be within range, but this will probably be the last effort.

The Allied Light Cruiser squadron patrolling near Batavia is withdrawing to Soerabaja and will join with Boise and Durban. They won’t do much to stop the Japanese BBs and CAs lurking around, and ABDA’s focus is shifting now from trying to slow the Japanese advance in the DEI to trying to defend Koepang, Samulaki, Darwin and the sea communications to Perth.



PHILIPPINES

Bataan is subjected to the usual daily air and artillery attacks.

A Japanese deliberate assault at Cagayan is repelled. Supply here is perilously low.

xAK Jalagangra is being loaded at Darwin with supplies for Bataan. Perhaps I should be trying to get some into Cagayan too. My earlier decision to concentrate on pushing supplies into Singapore at the expense of other locations is coming back to bite, I think.



SWPAC/SOPAC/CENPAC

KB has reappeared just southwest of Ocean Island within easy striking range of Tulagi and Luganville. Lexington and the 1st Marine Rgt Convoy are heading south and will rendezvous at Norfolk Island. Spruance has been ordered to lurk between Johnston and Wake to try and lure KB north. I think Japanese subs have spotted aircraft from both carrier groups, so it will be interesting to see which way KB goes. I can’t keep up this game of grandmother’s footsteps for ever, as I will lose sooner or later, but I shall persist for another day or to and see what I can get away with. If I can’t get the marines to Tulagi they will reinforce Luganville instead.

Queen Elizabeth arrives at Sydney with 159th (Sep) Rgt. They and 223rd Field Art Bn (currently at Melbourne) will go to Darwin via Perth.



SUBMARINE WARFARE

John D Edwards dodges 2 torpedoes from RO33 near Tarakan.

Likewise the plucky xAKL P-82 dodges 2 torpedoes from Pike south of Etorofu.

[CaptBeefheart]

It'll probably take a while before Oz is flush with fuel. As mentioned, setting "No Refuel" to the Oz fuel convoys helps, with them picking up fuel somewhere along the way (like Christmas Island or Bora Bora).

One hint: I found if I have an xAK in a tanker TF, my escorts won't go dry. I've had some of the shorter range escorts run dry and start accumulating system damage if they're in a pure tanker TF, while somehow if there's an xAK in the TF, they will stay fueled. If you don't like to micromanage your convoys, and I definitely don't, put an xAK in with your tankers, of course with the same or better speed.

Cheers,
CB

[M Peaston]

Cheers Capt Beefheart, I’ll give that a whirl.


23rd February 1942



CHINA

Apart from some sporadic air attacks things have gone rather quiet in China for the last couple of days. There will be some action tomorrow as the 7th Chinese army and 3rd Guerrilla Corps try and fight their way out of the swamp at Sihong near Haichow in the 11th War Area.


ABDA

Indomitable’s strike against Palembang resulted in minor damage to the port, one Fulmar was lost. The medium bombers from Batavia and Bandoeng achieved nothing, losing 5 Hudsons and 2 Martins. The Hurricanes exacted some revenge, claiming 7 Oscars for no loss

Oosthaven was attacked for the first time, with Nells sinking AMc Sin Air Lee.

Thankfully there have been no attacks on the TF evacuating Sparrow Bn from Ambon.


PHILIPPINES

Three small xAKLs arrive at Bataan with 570 supply which hopefully will be unloaded overnight. xAK Nirvana should arrive tomorrow (if left unmolested - a big if) with 3,700 supply. I didn’t think either TF would make it this far. Supply in Bataan is down to 2,400. If I can get the supply unloaded over the next day or so this would be a major boost to the defences.


SWPAC

KB is still southwest of Nauru Island. I’ve given up on the idea of getting the 1st Marine Rgt to Tulagi - for now at least. The marines will head for Noumea and when it’s safe Lexington will escort them to Luganville. If I get the opportunity I’ll try and send some smaller units to Tulagi at lower risk.

2nd and 5th US Marine Rgts are unloading at Sydney. They’ll go into reserve for now, but I’ll have one of them preparing for Tulagi….just in case

Fuel in Sydney is up to 93,000, and there’s a further 64,000 waiting to unload. It soon goes though!

KB Nauru Island.png (1.55 MiB) Viewed 952 times

CENPAC

Spruance has been ordered to approach the Marshall again. I don’t want to allow KB to dictate events in the Southwest Pacific while simultaneously protecting the Marshalls just by sitting in the middle somewhere. I want to try and force Fokko into having to make a choice between the two. There is Mini-KB though; it whereabouts have been unknown for some time……maybe he can have his cake and eat it.


SUBMARINE WARFARE

It’s Lexington’s turn to play at dodging torpedoes, with four of them being sent her way by I-175 near Luganville. Phew! I won’t repeat what I said to my destroyer captains.

xAP Kachidoki Maru also avoids a spread of four torpedoes from Grenadier at the Pescadores.


STRATEGIC/OPERATIONAL ISSUES

I’ve had a rethink on using Cochin as a fuel terminal for the run to Perth; I still intend to do this in the medium term, but I’ll do this incrementally as the facilities expand. For the moment I’ll just run a couple of tanker TFs from Cochin.