Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

[Mike Solli]

Ted doesn't typically send 1 xAK(L) TFs out intentionally other than at the war's start. Everything is running south to get away from me. Most of the TFs are 1-2 ships with a few exceptions. I did catch a TF composed of 3x xAP and 7x xAK with a CA & DD sinking 3 of them and heavily damaging 5 more. The map kind of looks like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

[RangerJoe]

Ted doesn't typically send 1 xAK(L) TFs out intentionally other than at the war's start. Everything is running south to get away from me. Most of the TFs are 1-2 ships with a few exceptions. I did catch a TF composed of 3x xAP and 7x xAK with a CA & DD sinking 3 of them and heavily damaging 5 more. The map kind of looks like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

From the Allied perspective, maybe a Chinese Fire Drill?

[Mike Solli]

I'm going to my old format even though some of the AOs have no action...yet. If forces me to check the entire map so I miss fewer things.

11 Dec 41

Sub War

The I-123 did good work today sinking an xAK & heavily damaging an xAP north of Tawi Tawi.

North of Pearl, the I-4 sank an xAK.

5 Fleet

This is the North Pacific/Aleutian AO. Nothing to report. I do have a few subs heading there to keep an eye on things.

I intend on taking the Aleutians this time, but will use greater combat strength to do it. Last time, it turned into a meat grinder with heavy losses on both sides.

4 Fleet

This is the Central Pacific AO.

The Guam invasion force (144 IR and 15 BF) will land tomorrow. Upon successful liberation of Guam, the 144 IR will move to Burma via Bangkok (it's part of 55 Division) and 15 BF will move to garrison Truk.

KB will bomb the hell out of Wake tomorrow. This is one of the very rare instances I will use KB against a land target. Akagi's Zeros will sweep Wake and the remaining fighters are all on escort with 40% CAP. All the Vals and Kates are set to naval attack with a secondary mission of ground attack. The Wake invasion force (Maizuru 2 SNLF and 53 NG) is sitting 2 hexes SW of Wake and will invade in 2 days. They are undetected. I have a sub in Wake's hex to increase the likelihood of saving a pilot who is shot down. I suspect the Wildcat detachment has been withdrawn from Wake. If that's the case, the the Nells in the Marshalls will join in the bombing fun when the invasion fleet goes in. The 53 NG will become the garrison (along with some engineers and AS later) and the SNLF will head south to other glory.

Nauru Island was liberated by 51 NG. They are currently loading and will head to Ocean island. After that, they will garrison some important, lonely island in the Central Pacific.

I'm considering doing something I've never done before. I may use the SNLF from Wake and invade Baker and Canton Islands. The idea is to leave a NG at each with some engineers to build up forts. This will push back the Catalina search blanket Ted has in the Central Pacific. Yes, he will take them back, but it will take time and casualties. Depending on where KB is when that happens, the enemy casualties may mount. It may also cause a battle with enemy carriers, which would be beneficial to me.

Finally, my goal in this region. In the past I would liberate certain bases and build the airfields to level 2. This go around, I will NOT upgrade the airfields. I will take a few important bases (Tabiteuea with its 0(3) airfield comes to mind) and build up the fort to level 3 or 4. With only a NG as the defender, Ted will take it back, but again, it will cost him time and casualties.

SE Fleet

I landed I/66 NG at Kavieng and will shock attack tomorrow. Engineers and AS are arriving tomorrow and will build the airbase up to level 2.

I have troops headed to Wewak and Madang that will land in the next couple of days.

SRA

Philippines

The northern third of Luzon is mine and troops are landing in the southern peninsula over the next couple of days. I am going to compress all the Allied troops into the center and hopefully cut off some in Manila with the rest in Bataan. I'm in no hurry to eradicate them. I'll bomb them into submission over the next few months.

I had moved some Zeros to Laoag and they did good work today, killing 6 P-40Es and 2 P-40Es for the loss of 3 Zeros (1 KIA, 1 WIA). Ted sent some B-17s to Babeldaob and flak got one!

Philippines.pdf

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Mindanao

I landed a NG just SW of Davao. They won't do much, but it's a start.

Malaya

My troops are crawling along. Soon, I'll have forces at Alor Star and Taiping to liberate them and isolate Georgetown. Ted has fled south with everyone on a rail line. They're all in Singapore now. I see 30 units in Singapore and 3 in Georgetown and 5 elsewhere in the country. My armor should work its way south to try and cut off as many as possible. I'm moving a paratrooper unit over there to drop as far south as possible to cut the rail line.

I see 3 enemy fighters at Georgetown and 44 more in Singapore. I haven't yet begun to work on the fighters at Singapore. I want to get some more airfields (and AS) closer first.

In the air, things were quiet. The IJAAF bombers are working on airfields and troops in the north. My Betties and Nells did nothing, again.

The CL Mauritius caught Sendai and 3 DDs totally surprising them and the Uranami (Fubuki class) was lost. It was a pathetic display of Japanese naval power.

Burma

15 Army is crawling northward.

China

The second attack on Hong Kong resulted in reducing the fort level to 1. More infantry arrived so I'm trying a shock attack to clear the place.

Elsewhere in China, there's just the typical movement and massing for eventual attacks.

Other Stuff

I finally completed my ship construction. Basically, I shut off everything and started to turn on ship production by individual ship. I want to accelerate as many CVs as I can and all the DDs as they become available.

I'm going to keep tally of enemy Buffalo and P-40 losses. I figure that 100 Buffalo losses and 80 P-40 losses (both types total) will wipe out the enemy fighter strength in Malay and the Philippines.

Buffalo: 14
P-40: 15

I have a way to go...

[Mike Solli]

Ted is still on vacation for a couple of days and has the turn. In the meantime, I'm doing some planning. First resources. Right now, I need to get to Honshu 3,324,000 resources per month. Here's what I can ship that's nearby:

Remember, these are the monthly surpluses.

Hokkaido: 1,038,000
Kyushu: 684,000
Shikoku: 303,000
Sakhalin: 294,000
China/Korea/Manchuoko (C/M/K): 717,000
Formosa: 66,000
Amami Oshima: 12,000
Naha: 12,000
Sadogashima: 3,000

That leaves a deficit of 231,000, or 7700 a day. Not bad at all. China won't give me much extra as I liberate it. There will be HI & LI that sucks it up (and that is a good thing). It'll have to come from the SRA.

More later. Gotta run.

[Mike Solli]

To finish off resources, my goal is to bring in 400k a month beside what is listed in the previous post. To make it easy, I want to ship in/produce in Honshu a total of at least 3.7 million resources a month. That should increase the resource surplus in Honshu about 2 million per year. By mid-44, that would be about 5 million excess resources. That would keep the HI (fuel permitting) and LI running for the rest of the war assuming most of the nearby resources can make it to Honshu.

[Mike Solli]

Fuel/Oil

Basically, I want to ship as much fuel and oil as possible from the SRA to the Home Islands.

There are a couple of bases I need to expound on though:

I will not repair any refineries. There is a huge surplus of refineries in the Home Islands. 895 refineries vs. 156 oil fields. My idea is to ship as much oil to the Home Islands as possible. As soon as I liberate Rangoon and Magwe, those refineries will be shut off. I want the oil in Magwe (as long as it lasts) to flow south, not fuel. Fuel is lost to spoilage (unless there's a change I'm not aware of) but oil has no spoilage.

Miri - I will repair the 150 damaged oil fields but will NOT repair the refineries.

Balikpapan/Samarinda - They produce 400 oil and Balikpapan has 400 refineries. The fuel produced per day there will be sent to Truk, at least until Truk was bombed into the Stone Age in late 43.. I did that last game and Ted never discovered it. Truk never ran out of fuel.

I'm considering doing something different this game. I'm thinking about shutting off some of the refineries altogether. Palembang and Miri come to mind. I'll ship just oil from those bases to the Home Islands. 10% of the oil will be converted to supply in Japan, which will desperately need it in the late war period. Last game, I let the refineries do their thing and ended up with excess supply in the SRA. I will let Miri's refineries work until the oil fields are repaired though. That supply will be needed for the repairs.

[Mike Solli]

Java

Java is its own little ecosystem. It has everything you need. Here is what is on the island proper:

Oil: 225
Refinery: 200
Resources: 290
HI: 60
LI: 180

Not including supply use to units, this is what you net per month:

Oil: 7500
Fuel: 50,400
Supply: 15,000
Resources: 39,000
HI Points: 3600

I am considering increasing the HI factories by 10 per month for a year. If I did that, here’s what would the monthly production of each of these items produced would be by the 12th month:

Oil: 7500
Fuel: 43,800
Supply: 31,600
Resources: -27,000
HI Points: 10,200

Here is what the total production would be during that year of increase of HI factories:

Oil: 90,000
Fuel: 565,200
Supply: 119,600
Resources: 72,000
HI Points: 82,800

The total cost would be 120,000 supply to do this. So, this would be the the break even point for supply. All supply produced after this would be extra. This extra would start in mid-43.

You see, the resources would be negative though. Fortunately, there are a number of islands near Java that could supply the additional resources needed, 27,000 per month which would be 900 per day, or only 45 resource centers:

Christmas Island IO: 10
Tobali: 20
Billiton: 20
Bandjermasin: 60
Pontianak: 20
Makassar: 20

So, you can see there are plenty of nearby places to get those excess resources. I anticipate liberating Java by June 42. So, by June 43, those monthly totals would be pumped out for quite a while.

You ask, what do I do with all that stuff so far from the Home Islands? The oil would be shipped to Singapore monthly by a smaller TK to be sent to the Home Islands. The fuel would be used locally (within the SRA) as needed and the excess shipped to Singapore and thus to the Home Islands. Supply would be used locally. HI points go into the pool.

If it turned out that there was an excess of supply, it would be shipped to the Home Islands.

I think Java is a cool little part of the SRA. The idea behind this is to make the SRA self sufficient for the late game when it becomes impossible to get that stuff safely to the Home Islands.

[Mike Solli]

SRA (minus Java)

The SRA is our goal. I'm considering doing things differently than last game. I want to shut off some refineries this time and ship more oil to the Home Islands, with the idea that more supply will be generated in the Home Islands rather than the SRA. (See the above post to see where some of the supply will be generated.)

So, let's begin with oil. I will repair all oil facilities when they are captured except for Madang.

The big one is Sumatra. The Palembang/Djambi complex (called Palembang) has 1150 oil centers. The refinery will be shut off, thus producing 345k oil a month, which will be shipped to Singapore. The port is maxed out at level 4, so there will be a number of TK TFs that will work it. Initially, I'll use whatever I can scrounge, but eventually, I'll use Type-1 TM (8150 capacity). Two TFs, each with 7 TK and 1 Ansyu PB. The TK will be accelerated. Palembang also produces 12k resources a month. A small cargo TF will suffice to ship it to Singapore.

Further up the coast is Bengkalis (40 oil) and Medan (210 oil). Medan's refinery will be on to provide fuel to Singapore, and the fleet stationed there. Medan produces 54k fuel and 3k oil a month, so 1 TF of 9 Type 1 TS (1250 capacity) will travel to Singapore with fuel and a single Type 1 TS (1250 capacity) will transport oil to a level 1 port on the west coast of Malaya. A small cargo TF will transfer the 12k of resources to the west coast of Malaya as well. The oil TF will change to the Std-C TK (2850 capacity) when they convert in June 42. That can't happen soon enough!

Edit: Note that Medan will also produce 6k supply a turn. I will ship this to Singapore.

Bengkalis produces 12k of oil a month. One small TF of 2 Type 1 TS (1250 capacity) will transfer it across the straight to Batu Pahat.

All of these bases and the sea lanes will be heavily guarded with ASW TFs and Naval Search and ASW aircraft along with fighters protecting Palembang, Djambi, Medan and of course Singapore.

Borneo

Balikpapan: I will leave these refineries on. This base will produce 108k fuel a month (to include the 100 oil fields in Samarinda) which will be shipped to Truk. I will use 3 TFs using all 13 Manzyu TMs (7950 capacity).

Tarakan: The refinery will be shut off. There is 27k oil produced here monthly. It will be shipped to Hong Kong using 1-2 Type-1 TL (11,600 capacity) until I get some smaller ships to replace it.

Miri: This base starts with 150 oil and 150 more damaged oil which I refer to as 150(150). The 150(150) refineries will be off. I will not repair the refineries. So, in 5 (or more) months, the production will be 90,000 oil. The oil will be shipped to Hong Kong with whatever TK I have available. Yes, I am accelerating TKs!

Boela and Babo

Boela and Babo: They have 25 and 20 oil fields respectively and produce 7500 and 6000 oil monthly. I'll use small TKs to transport that (and xAK(L)s for the 12k resources produced monthly at Boela) to Babeldaob. When I can, I'll ship that stuff to the Home Islands.

So, how do I get the oil to the Home Islands? I'm going to attempt to get the engine to move the oil and resources overland through China to Fusan. I will have a TF constantly trying to pull oil and resources from there and move what I get to Shimonoseki. I am increasing Fusan's port to level 8 in an attempt to assist with this endeavor. We'll see if it works.

[RangerJoe]

I think that if you block the oil and fuel one hex away from Singapore at Jahore Bahru (sp?) then those will flow through Rangoon to Indochina. From there you can ship it to Hong Kong if you block the back flow to Indochina unless you can get the "magic" highway working. You can also do that with the excess resources as well.

Medan can ship to Georgetown which is a level 4 port.

I dump some oil at Fusan to "prime the pump" and then start CS convoys. This will at least get some oil flowing there.

I have managed to move the oil from Urumchi as well.

[PaxMondo]

So, how do I get the oil to the Home Islands? I'm going to attempt to get the engine to move the oil and resources overland through China to Fusan. I will have a TF constantly trying to pull oil and resources from there and move what I get to Shimonoseki. I am increasing Fusan's port to level 8 in an attempt to assist with this endeavor. We'll see if it works.

As RJ says, this should work. It takes a bit of time to get it going, but you shouldn't have any real challenge with this.

[PaxMondo]

... I want to shut off some refineries this time and ship more oil to the Home Islands, with the idea that more supply will be generated in the Home Islands rather than the SRA.

Mike, I'm scratching my head here a bit. If you simply do not repair any refineries in the SRA, I think you will find that you have plenty of oil to ship to the HI to keep those refineries running full stop. Now, I have to admit, I'm generally pretty unlucky when it comes to taking bases with respect to factories being damaged. So, in most games, I lose about 400 oil+refinery total in the SRA (including Burma). you're prolly not as unlucky so your loses will be lower.

Still, total SRA oil is about 2940 totally repaired. Total refineries=2560, but 150 need repair at start and take another 400 off for losses, leaves you about 2000 total. Net 940/day oil. IJ has 895 ref in the HI, so you're at least 45/day ahead, not counting the oil from Sakhalin (30) and China (50) conquests which would put you over 100/day.

I guess if you get totally lucky and capture all your oil fields and refineries intact, I can see you might want to shut off some refineries to build up your oil stockpile in the HI. Truthfully, I've just never been that lucky.

Getting back to supply and where to generate it; at least in the time period mid-42 to early-43 I want as much supply in the SRA as I can. Why? Major supply/resource grab in India is a common tactic and thus SRA halves the distance to ship supply to support these ops. Taking everything SE from Madras to Agra as a minimum generally nets me over 1M supply. For this area, roughly I get 350 HI and 750 LI = 1450 supply/day. I can generally hold it for + 9 months, call it 400K supply there, and then an equal amount of supply during conquest, not to mention all the VP's for the troops. Yeah, it is tough to suck all the supply out (convoys and via Ledo), but still, a lot of supply. Not to mention resources as well. If I can take Rawalpindi and Karachi, double those numbers at least. And don't overlook the fuel, 1M is not uncommon. These are all huge things for the IJ economy.

[Mike Solli]

Pax, of course you're right. I didn't think it through. Yes, I lose oil and refineries taking the SRA too. I can usually minimize it by invading with large units and lots of engineers. In DaBIgBabes, the independent engineer regiments are smaller than vanilla (9 combat eng, 9 construction engineers and 9 construction labor squads) but I'll still put them in the invasions.

I wasn't thinking of the supply cost just to take the SRA. Yeah, I'll keep the refineries on until offensive operations are finished in the region. I usually like to take Darwin, just to prevent early bombing of the southern SRA, but this time I'm going to try and keep it suppressed with IJA bombers. I'm going to try for India this time. I've always wanted to invade that region, but never have. We'll see how it works out.

My goal is to create a surplus of oil in the Home Islands so fuel/supply can continue to be produced once the SLOC from the SRA becomes hazardous. I usually figure that happens around mid-44.

[Mike Solli]

So you ship oil/fuel from Singapore/Indochina to Hong Kong and then overland to Fusan? Or is it possible to have it move directly from Magwe/Singapore to Fusan? I've never been able to get it to work.

Also, what do you do to get the oil from Urumchi to move? I've never been able to get that to work either.

[RangerJoe]

So you ship oil/fuel from Singapore/Indochina to Hong Kong and then overland to Fusan? Or is it possible to have it move directly from Magwe/Singapore to Fusan? I've never been able to get it to work.

Also, what do you do to get the oil from Urumchi to move? I've never been able to get that to work either.

You have to literally suck Port Arthur dry of oil.

[RangerJoe]

So you ship oil/fuel from Singapore/Indochina to Hong Kong and then overland to Fusan? Or is it possible to have it move directly from Magwe/Singapore to Fusan? I've never been able to get it to work.

Also, what do you do to get the oil from Urumchi to move? I've never been able to get that to work either.

There is a limit to the number of pictures allowed.

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[PaxMondo]

So you ship oil/fuel from Singapore/Indochina to Hong Kong and then overland to Fusan? Or is it possible to have it move directly from Magwe/Singapore to Fusan? I've never been able to get it to work.

It will flow from Singers to Fusan, but you need to "work" it. Think through everything that moves "supply/oil/resources", you know all of it.

Couple of things to remember:
- Fusan can only get to Port 8, don't create any more competition.
- Everything moves base to base, not from end to end.

Also, what do you do to get the oil from Urumchi to move? I've never been able to get that to work either.

The same things are needed here as what you need to do for Singers to Fusan. Again, patience and being thorough.

PS: It is (a lot) easier to make everything flow through Port Arthur as it is Port 9, but Fusan can work. Obviously, Fusan is preferred as it is only 3 hex from Fukuoka.

[Mike Solli]

12 Dec 41

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

No eyes there yet. If I remember correctly, there aren really any Allied forces available to reinforce the Aleutians. I think he has a shortage of APs as well.

4 Fleet

KB launched a vicious attack against Wake's defenders preceded by a sweep of Akagi's Zeros, who shot down 3 Wildcats for no loss. The only losses to the bombers were a couple of op losses with no pilot loss. Tomorrow, KB will do the same thing and the invasion fleet will go in.

The 144 IR and a BF landed at Guam and will attack tomorrow, preceded by a 4 CA 4 DD bombardment force.

SE Fleet

Kavieng was liberated by a NG company. There are engineers and AS there and ground is being cleared to build up a level 2 airfield.

Tomorrow, forces will land at Wewak, Manus and Madang.

Last game, I released the Gds Bde (and eventually the rest of the division) to reinforce SE Fleet AO. The problem with that was that the rest of the division doesn't appear for quite a while. This time, I'm giving SE Fleet AO the 20 Division from Korea. They're all there and the only thing slowing them down is available PPs. There's an IR that I can buy out now and will send them shortly.

SRA

Malaya

Alor Star will be liberated tomorrow. The Brits fled. All that's left are a few damaged bombers.

The remnants of the former British Kota Bharu garrison are about to be hit once again a hex to the SW of Kota Bharu.

The rest of the 25 Army are flowing into Malaya, some by rail which will continue on to Alor Star.

About 16 Buffalos have been destroyed with intel saying there are 3 at Georgetown and 41 at Singapore.

I finally landed a lot of AS (108 with more landing) at Kota Bharu. Right now there are 51 fighters there but I'll move more planes there tomorrow.

Philippines

Things are proceeding nicely, finally. the 65 Bde liberated Baler and is moving W to Cabanatuan, its first goal. Cabanatuan is 1 hex NE of Manila and is undefended. Manila is defended by only 1 unit.

Two dets of 16 Division landed at Legaspi and Atimonan, both undefended, and will liberate them tomorrow. With them is an SNLF and a naval construction battalion. The rest of 16 Division will land at Mauban (1 hex SE of Manila) and will move to Manila after liberating Mauban.

48 Division is landing at San Fernando tomorrow.

A little 3 plane det of Vals stationed at Laoag put a bomb into DD Thanet in Manila harbor leaving her heavily damaged and burning fiercely.

A total of 23 P-40B/E have been destroyed.

Mindanao

Not much happening here yet. I liberated Digos (1 hex SW of Davao) with a NG company. More troops are headed there but still a way out.

West of the island, a surface TF caught and destroyed 7 xAKLs. Fortunately, they didn't use any torpedoes. The TF (2 CA, 1 CL, 5 DD) is heading north after possibly the Houston.

Burma

Victoria Point was liberated and the small det there was destroyed. I'm building the port up to level 2 and will eventually do a paradrop on Pt. Blair.

Elements of 15 Army made it to Chiang Mai and Rehaeng by rail and are beginning to crawl west.

China

I'm still moving units around to free up combat units from garrison duty. I am attacking Chinese units scattered all over to kill troops and push the remnants west.

Hong Kong survived another shock attack today. It was 2:1 with one level of forts that was reduced after the attack. So close! There's airfield damage so the forts won't be rebuilt. The troops that attacked are getting fatigued and disrupted but more infantry arrived and another shock attack is going in tomorrow. Hopefully, this does the trick.

Other Stuff

Nothing to report.

[Tanaka]

So you ship oil/fuel from Singapore/Indochina to Hong Kong and then overland to Fusan? Or is it possible to have it move directly from Magwe/Singapore to Fusan? I've never been able to get it to work.

It will flow from Singers to Fusan, but you need to "work" it. Think through everything that moves "supply/oil/resources", you know all of it.

Couple of things to remember:
- Fusan can only get to Port 8, don't create any more competition.
- Everything moves base to base, not from end to end.

Also, what do you do to get the oil from Urumchi to move? I've never been able to get that to work either.

The same things are needed here as what you need to do for Singers to Fusan. Again, patience and being thorough.

PS: It is (a lot) easier to make everything flow through Port Arthur as it is Port 9, but Fusan can work. Obviously, Fusan is preferred as it is only 3 hex from Fukuoka.

I am wondering if the new beta prevents this now with all of the flooding rework of the China map...

[Mike Solli]

13 Dec 41 - It was a good day for a change!

Sub War

Nothing to report. My subs are beginning to enter their AOs.

5 Fleet

A couple of subs are still a few days out. Then I'll start getting some intel.

4 Fleet

Guam fell easily. The 15 BF is heading to the 4 Fleet area (final destination as yet undecided) and 144 IR is headed to the SRA.

Wake also fell easily. The SNLF will withdraw for other adventures and the NG will become the garrison. I am sending an AS company there for the 2 plane Betty unit (converting to Nells) out there to act as a recon force for Midway. I should have sent the AS company out there days ago, but forgot, of course. I'm also sending some engineers there to build up the fort level. Oh yeah, two more Wildcats were shot down and 4 more were destroyed on the ground.

I'm considering taking Baker and Johnston Islands to mess with Ted's PBY coverage in that area. I hate PBYs...

SE Fleet

I landed on Wewak, Manus and Madang and will take them tomorrow. They will all become level 2 airfields.

SRA

Malaya

A couple more fighters were shot down and a few enemy bombers were lost to flak. I did make one mistake, sort of. I had 4 CAs and 4 DDs sitting off Kuantan and they were attacked by multitudes of enemy bombers. Three of the CAs were hit a total of 8 times but they all bounced off the armor. Several bombers were shot down. I decided to leave them there and put some Zeros as LRCAP over the TF. Hopefully, Ted tries again and I can put a dent in the RAF.

Alor Star was liberated. There were no enemy troops there.

Philippines

The 14 Army is pouring into Luzon. I will compress the Allied troops into Bataan them bomb/shell them into submission. One of the divisions (either 16 or 48, not decided yet) will be pulled for other missions, as well as all the tank regiments. That'll leave one division and 65 Bde to watch over the self made POW camp. The artillery units will be reinforced with the Southern Army artillery currently in Hong Kong.

The following bases were liberated:

Legaspi - Manpower 1(1)
Atimonan - Resources 40(0)

Eight B-17Ds attacked San Fernando. Two were shot down by my Zeros there.

Mindanao

Not much happened on the island. But, to the west, Ryujo's Kates launched twice. The am attack caught the TK Gertrude Kellogg and the ARD YFD-1 Dewey and put them both down! The pm attack found the Houston and hit her with 5 bombs. No report of her sinking but I don't see her either.

Also, the Haguro and her escorts caught and sank a TK and YO. Both were loaded with fuel.

China

Hong Kong was liberated! I think this was the quickest I've ever done this. The base is in really good shape too:

Manpower - 5(0)
Resources - 59(1)
HI - 77(3)
LI - 212(8)
Repair Yard - 48(2) - this is the only thing I will repair

Damage was only 4/13/12. I also captured 341k fuel! Very nice! Now, all I have to do is to remove the mines. There are a couple of enemy vessels still sitting in the hex. Not sure what they are, but I don't want to send in my DMS until they are gone. I have 100+ Betties/Nells on naval attack aimed at that hex. Hopefully, they'll actually attack for a change.

Other Stuff

Remember those two AMCs that begin the game in the South Pacific? They were headed to Truk and ran across an xAK off Vaitupu and sank her. One of them even hit her with a torpedo! Amazing!

Gotta run. Another turn just arrived...

[RangerJoe]

You can fly some squads from an Air HQ to Wake and they will do the job just fine.

I suggest dividing the Rjuyo's Kates into thirds, they are then capable of performing more attacks especially if smaller task forces are fleeing. Their bombs will work fine against the Allied CAs and smaller right now. Leave them with torpedoes as the main armament and they will fly with a full load of bombs at 1K - so will Nells and Betties! The Nells and Betties being torpedo bombers will be fully functional on level 2 airfields as well. If there are no torpedoes, they will fly with a full load of bombs even at 1K.

When I play the Allied side, I like to use the B-17Ds as ASW platforms because of their long range and bomb load. They would also work well for Naval Search. They are easier to kill than other 4Es due to the lack of a tail gun.

For Hong Kong and elsewhere, you can use PBs in minesweeping TFs but there has to be a minesweeper in the hex to form that TF. While the Ansyu PBs may not sweep that many mines, they can usually clear a mine with their hull and not sink. Those are also great ships to carry artillery and tank units in Fast Transport TFs. They can be loaded with supplies in a Fast Transport TF and then added to other TFs as escorts but not to non-fast transport TFs if they are carrying units. So there should be no need to have cargo vessels just loaded with supplies in amphibious TFs unless you want to add ships to help dilute any air attacks on the invasion convoys.