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

[Mike Solli]

R&D factories and aircraft status. Note that engine production is based on airframe production.

IJA

Ki-44-IIc Tojo - 7x30, will become operational 12/13/42! All factories will become operational until surplus engines (currently 526) are used up. (Helen will use 120 a month and Tojo will use 210 a month.) Around the end of April 43 the pool will run out. Then Tojo production will decrease to 90. Total Ha-34 needs will be 210 and will equal usage.

Ki-84a Frank - 18 factories: 25, 2x23, 3x22, 3x21, 20, 2x19, 18, 2x17, 2x15, 13 - no idea when it will be operational.

IJN

A6M5b Zero - 6x30, will become operational 3/43, will work on A6M5c, which has armor. It will become operational 10/43.

N1K1-J George - 18 factories, 11x30, 29, 28, 26, 25, 24, 23, 8 - will become operational no later than 12/19/42. Five factories will become operational and the remaining 13 will continue R&D. K2 operational 3/43 and the K5 operational 9/43.

A7M2 Sam - 18 factories, 16, 14, 3x12, 3x11, 6x10, 8, 3x7 - no idea when it will be operational.

B7N2 Grace - 6 factories, 18, 15, 14, 2x13, 10 - no idea when it will be operational.

B6N2 Jill - 7x30, will become operational 1/21/34, 3 factories become operational and 4 continue R&D with the B6N2a. It will become operational mid-September 43.

[Mike Solli]

8 Dec 42

Sub War

The I-157 is in a nice area off the NW coast of Australia. Yesterday, she sank two xAKs and today she added an xAKL to the list.

At Buin, the Ansyu PB Keijo Maru, on a fast transport mission, was attacked (unsuccessfully). She retaliated and hit the Dutch sub KXVIII. Banzai!

5 Fleet

Three BB and 2 CL bombarded Adak killing 11 squads and damaging the port and airfield. These guys are starting to get significant sys damage. There's a new BB TF that'll leave the Home Islands in a couple days to replace them. These guys will head back to Japan for repairs.

56 Division is 2 days from Adak and 9 Division is 5 days out.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Nothing to report.

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

Nothing to report.

China

Chungking received 168 bombing sorties. Along with the bombardment, 16 squads were killed and another 66 disabled.

Raw AV:

Japan: 3388 (+15)
China: 5216 (-16)
Chinese ground strength: 295k, 88 units (no change)

There are 10 artillery units enroute to add to the 11 currently at Chungking. There are 9 infantry divisions (56k infantry) with 7 more enroute (but pretty far away).

Other Stuff

Only 4 days until the Tojo IIc becomes operational!

[PaxMondo]

As you can see, I try to be lean on my aircraft production.

Yes, but truthfully you only have had one aircraft really worth building, A6M, but you don't have that many groups for it. Now you have the N1K, but the same issue as with the A6M. And you have the Tojo, which first off is NOT an Oscar, but still not the Frank. So, yes, you like to build them, but you cannot win with the Tojo (unless you simply build countless numbers of them), so await the Frank. The Frank you cannot build too many of no matter what you do. As for George, the good news is that in '43 you get a fair number of new IJN fighter groups, so the N1K will be more prominent by the end of '43.

[Tomasek]

What about IJN pilot training? You should have the IJN pilot pool completely empty now. 150 new pilots per month (with close to 0 exp) is enough to replace standard attrition, but not large CV battles. Thus, it seems to me that your IJN aircraft production will be much faster than the pilot replacement.
To have more training units, you can expand some of them using Akagi/Kaga to form 81-aircraft strong groups (effectively 108 pilots to train in each). Training from 10 to 70 exp takes about 8 months.
Note that training sentais (arriving mostly in 1945) significantly accelerate pilot training (my experience is that it takes about 3 months to get close to 70).

[Mike Solli]

As you can see, I try to be lean on my aircraft production.

Yes, but truthfully you only have had one aircraft really worth building, A6M, but you don't have that many groups for it. Now you have the N1K, but the same issue as with the A6M. And you have the Tojo, which first off is NOT an Oscar, but still not the Frank. So, yes, you like to build them, but you cannot win with the Tojo (unless you simply build countless numbers of them), so await the Frank. The Frank you cannot build too many of no matter what you do. As for George, the good news is that in '43 you get a fair number of new IJN fighter groups, so the N1K will be more prominent by the end of '43.

Very true, Pax. Right now, I have 2x 31 and 4x 9 plane land-based Zero units in combat, all in SE Fleet AO. That's only 98 aircraft. I could increase that a little bit, but I don't, mainly for a lack of airfield space down there.

Concerning the IJAAF fighter contingent, I have 2 sentai in SE Fleet AO totaling 78 aircraft. They'll all get the Tojo. In Burma, I'll probably give ~2/3 of the units the Tojo and keep the rest in the best Oscar available. Soon, I'll get the IIb model, which has armor. That'll be used in Burma as an escort for any future bombing campaign.

The only other area (other than China) where I have any fighters that occasionally fight is in southern SRA, at Saumlaki. I have 18 Oscars there. They'll be the first to get the IIb when it comes.

In China, I have 72 fighters, currently the Ic, because there is no need for anything better. There's no enemy Air Force there anymore so they are just training for sweeping right now. Later, they'll upgrade to a model that carries 2x 250 kg bombs and will strafe isolated enemy formations after Chungking falls.

My pilot losses are pretty low overall. That'll change when I get into some serious carrier on carrier action, but I don't think that will happen until the Essex class begins to arrive. I try to keep the pool sufficient to replace losses from any such action.

[Mike Solli]

What about IJN pilot training? You should have the IJN pilot pool completely empty now. 150 new pilots per month (with close to 0 exp) is enough to replace standard attrition, but not large CV battles. Thus, it seems to me that your IJN aircraft production will be much faster than the pilot replacement.
To have more training units, you can expand some of them using Akagi/Kaga to form 81-aircraft strong groups (effectively 108 pilots to train in each). Training from 10 to 70 exp takes about 8 months.
Note that training sentais (arriving mostly in 1945) significantly accelerate pilot training (my experience is that it takes about 3 months to get close to 70).

I play a very different game than a lot of people. I try to be conservative with my economics as much as possible. Right now, I have the following in the pilot pool:

IJN: 1642
IJA: 1954

Here's what I have in my individual pool that are trained. Note that these numbers do not count reinforcement pilots that have not yet arrived or WIA. I also am not counting low experience pilots that are in the pool temporarily before going to a training unit:

IJN:

Fighter: 58
TB: 72
DB: 116
2E bomber: I keep them in the training units. When I allocate from a training unit, I send them all to frontline units except for the cadre.
Float fighter: Same as the 2E bombers. Right now I have 1 FF unit in SE Fleet AO and the rest are trained up and working on defense.
Kamikaze: 9 (just getting started)

IJA:

Fighter: 84
FB: Same as IJN 2E bomber and FF.
Bomber: 89
Kamikaze: 95

This doesn't count any pilots in training units that are trained up but not yet released from their training unit into the pool. I am currently working on training up trained pilots in defense up to 70+. The goal is to replace the sub-par defense pilots with trained defense pilots. I doubt that will be 100% ever, but that's the goal.

Also keep in mind, that you typically lose many more aircraft than pilots. Note that I usually will tell you how many pilots vs. planes I lose in an action.

I won't increase any training units to 81 using Akagi/Kaga. That's self imposed. I think it's gamey. It's just a personal preference. Similarly, in my R&D, I don't skip any models to get to the model I want. I R&D every model to completion before moving on to the next. That's also self imposed.

[Mike Solli]

9 Dec 42

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

9 Division is 4 days out from Adak and 56 Division is 2 days out.

The 3 BBs and 2 CLs that have been bombarding Adak are beginning to run up their sys damage. I have a new TF of 4 BB, 2 CA and 2 CL that is at Yokosuka and will begin steaming to Adak tomorrow. It should take them about 6 days to get there. They will be reinforced by 4 CA and 1 CL currently escorting the two reinforcing divisions. That should be a nice little bombardment force.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

There were no 4E bombing missions today. Tulagi's port and airfield are both trashed and will be for a long time.

There were 11x 2E and 56 P-39D sorties in SE PNG. Of them, 15 Airacobras went after Madang and ran into a buzz saw of 8 Zeros, who shot down 4 enemy for no loss. I moved a sentai of Nicks there tomorrow to reinforce the Zeros.

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

Nothing to report.

China

Chungking: There were a total of 167 bomber sorties. Combined with bombardment, 34 squads were destroyed.

Raw AV:
Japan: 3401 (+13)
China: 5171 (-45)
88 units (no change)

Other Stuff

Nothing to report.

[Mike Solli]

I just noticed something that I never saw before. I want to buy out 110 Division, which Shock Attacked into Chungking over a river. I moved them to Neikiang to rest until I had enough PPs to buy them out. I have 432 PPs available and need 1019 to buy the division out. So, everything outside of China is greyed out but all the HQ in China are available to be chosen. I can reassign that division to any HQ in China at no PP cost! That's pretty cool!

110 Division.jpg (219.75 KiB) Viewed 272 times

[Mike Solli]

I lied! It does cost some PPs, but only a few. That's weird.

[PaxMondo]

I lied! It does cost some PPs, but only a few. That's weird.

Should be 1/3 IIRC .... and yes, this is a VERY powerful tool to use in terms of freeing up units.

[Mike Solli]

Quick update on CV production. I have all 6 Unryus accelerated and will do everything I can to keep them accelerated. Three should become available on 6/20/43 and the other 3 should become available on 11/6/43. He has all 6 prewar carriers so (not counting MKB, which is made of tin foil) I have inferiority with 432 vs. 526 Allied planes. When my first 3 Unryus arrive, I jump to 621 vs. 616, parity. By the time the last 3 Unryus arrive I achieve my pinnacle of 810 to 1051 Allied planes. Ouch. I need to pare that number down by catching some Allied carriers by whatever means.

Last I saw, they were south of SE Fleet AO. Maybe Noumea? Not sure. Anyway, I'm going to pull subs from all fleets and shift them to SE Fleet AO to blanket the area just waiting until I see them again. Then I'll pounce and hope to get a shot or two.

[Mike Solli]

Waiting for a turn from Ted, the slacker. I've been contemplating different things that will impact the future. Currently, I'm considering oil and refineries. Right now, I have 3241 refineries producing and 3120 oil fields producing. That is a deficit of 1210 oil per day. My current stockpile of oil in the Empire is 2,426,714 + 108,399 on ships for a total of 2,535,113 oil. That looks really good right now, but eventually, the SRA will get cut off.

I have only 156,738 oil in the Home Islands. I have 156 oil fields and 1010 refineries in the Home Islands for a deficit of 8540 oil a day. The oil in the Home islands is good for only an 18 day supply. Yikes! I've decided I am going to shut off the refinery at Tarakan and ship only oil from there, to the tune of 900 per day. Right now I am shipping only fuel out of there. Basically, a single 11.6k TK is enough to keep the fuel drained. It gets shipped to Babeldaob, where it eventually gets shipped to the Home Islands. Right now I have 251k fuel and 56k oil there. I have a single 11.6k TK hauling oil/fuel to the Home Islands from Babeldaob. I'm going to bump that up with 3x 12.8k TKs. One of the 12.8k Tks will replace the 11.6k TK that hauls fuel (now oil) from Tarakan so I'll have 2x 11.6k and 2x 12.8k TKs hauling O/F from Babeldaob to the Home Islands.

The other thing I'm going to do is to start hauling O/F from Pt. Arthur to the Home Islands. Fusan is hauling LOTS of resources out but the oil and fuel just won't go there in quantity. Right now, Pt. Arthur has 1,335,198 oil (52.6% of the total oil in the Empire!) and 871,088 fuel there. I want to push oil to the Home Islands. My goal is 1 million oil there, but I'm not sure if that's attainable. We'll see. I'll start this grand plan if Ted ever sends me another turn.

[RangerJoe]

Once you suck all of the oil out of Port Arthur, you can draw oil from Urumchi and other places there. While I never completely drained Urumchi of oil, once the oil started to flow to Port Arthur the oil storage at Urumchi fell below 10k. Granted, Port Arthur might run too low on oil to refine but at least you can get the oil out of Urumchi. You might have to adjust the stockpiles so the only oil Port Arthur or receives is from Urumchi. At least for short period of time.

If you have the magic highway running, then Port Arthur can draw oil from down there as well. There are ways of getting more oil at other ports as well if you "prime the pump" by dumping oil and stockpiling it at a port and then have a slightly CS convoy haul it out. If the oil runs out then the CS convoy can switch to loading fuel but the CS convoy needs to reset to oil to draw more oil to the port. Don't expect massive amounts of oil flowing there from Malaya but it can flow there if you have the stockpile settings done correctly. Just like getting the oil flowing from Urumchi, you might have to adjust the stockpiles so oil you might have to adjust the stockpiles so the only oil the Chinese ports receive is from SE Asia and/or Indochina by way of Burma. At least for short period of time.

Doing this, I would not unload oil at Singapore unless you then ship it to Indochina. Georgetown is a good place to unload oil from Sumatra so it will flow to Indochina but you have to have your stockpile settings so oil does not flow to Singapore.

I don't remember if I told you the easier way to reduce Chungking . . .

[RangerJoe]

Another way to get fuel to Fusan is to base a few large task forces there when they are located elsewhere but are not moving to Fusan. That will draw fuel there so you can haul it to Japan.

[Mike Solli]

Another way to get fuel to Fusan is to base a few large task forces there when they are located elsewhere but are not moving to Fusan. That will draw fuel there so you can haul it to Japan.

That's sneaky, Joe!

[erstad]

I lied! It does cost some PPs, but only a few. That's weird.

Should be 1/3 IIRC .... and yes, this is a VERY powerful tool to use in terms of freeing up units.

25%

[RangerJoe]

Another way to get fuel to Fusan is to base a few large task forces there when they are located elsewhere but are not moving to Fusan. That will draw fuel there so you can haul it to Japan.

That's sneaky, Joe!

Scotty knows the struggle.jpg (35.99 KiB) Viewed 154 times

Those are the best things to do!

[PaxMondo]

I lied! It does cost some PPs, but only a few. That's weird.

Should be 1/3 IIRC .... and yes, this is a VERY powerful tool to use in terms of freeing up units.

25%

Yep, you're right ...

[Mike Solli]

Well, it turns out Ted did the turn and forgot to send it. We're getting old.

I want to make my "stuff" shipping more efficient and am starting with resources. I have 182 Aden class xAKs which I want to use to ply the waters with resources, at least at the smaller ports. In places, I have smaller xAKs at larger ports, which has to be really inefficient. I like to make the TFs at 1/2 the max size of the smaller port. I'm hoping this makes resource movement more efficient and uses less fuel. We'll see...

[RangerJoe]

Well, it turns out Ted did the turn and forgot to send it. We're getting old.

I want to make my "stuff" shipping more efficient and am starting with resources. I have 182 Aden class xAKs which I want to use to ply the waters with resources, at least at the smaller ports. In places, I have smaller xAKs at larger ports, which has to be really inefficient. I like to make the TFs at 1/2 the max size of the smaller port. I'm hoping this makes resource movement more efficient and uses less fuel. We'll see...

To make it as efficient as is possible, get the magic highway running. At least as many sections as is possible. By dumping resources past Singapore with no resources allowed to flow to Singapore, they will flow into Indochina. Since Haiphong generates resources, stockpile them there and haul them out. That will draw more resources there and at least shorten the trip. Hong Kong will also gather resources but the ultimate goal is to get the resources to flow to Fusan and if not there, have them flow to Port Arthur. Trying to use only shallow water for your convoy routes with lots of ASW air and ASW TFs to keep the submarine menace reduced - or sunk!