Canuck's Revenge - ADavidB vs PzB (Wobbly's game continued)

[Central Blue]

life really won't get easier till you get Corsairs.

[ADavidB]

ORIGINAL: Central Blue

life really won't get easier till you get Corsairs.

The only reason that I'm having troubles with the Bettys right now is because I've deliberately extended myself beyond where my CAP can completely cover. I realized that I was taking a risk and sure enough PzB is picking off AKs and the occasional small escort, but it is worth it from my p.o.v. For one thing, PzB has become "enamoured" with going after my transports in the PNG to Eastern Solomons area. In order to do this "safely" he has brought a lot of air power to the region. This means that he has to reduce airpower elsewhere. So, for example, he has essentially no air threat left around Timor, which is allowing me to rest up and improve my air power in that region as well as improve bases and move ships at will. He also isn't doing anything about the Gilberts. So it's been worth the risk and minor losses.

Yes, Corsairs will be a definite improvement. And my planning right now will allow me to base them at multiple strong bases in the main fronts. So my main focus now is to set myself up for early 1943 when I should be in a good position to start a serious counter offensive at which ever of the regions gives me the best opportunity. PzB continues to leave his carriers behind the lines in the hopes of catching me going too far - that's cool too, this way I don't have to worry about him raiding my supply lines.

So things ought to continue to be fairly "slow" for the next couple of game months if I have my way. Of course, PzB may decide to do one more major offensive. but I'm as prepared as I can be to counter him and if he ties up lots of forces I'll simply start my counteroffensive earlier elsewhere.

BTW - I will be going off on a no-computer holiday for the first couple of weeks of May, so this AAR will go quiet for a while starting next Tuesday.

Thanks for the comments -

Dave Baranyi

[Rob Brennan UK]

Thanks for the heads up on china .. and enjoy your holiday [:D]

[ADavidB]

The October 16 turn saw PzB get a chance to set things for himself, but it doesn't appear that the settings took hold. When I checked the settings from within the turn it still said that the Japanese sub doctrine was on, although PzB said that he turned it off. In a similar fashion, the same planes that showed "no upgrade" as faded out before were showing the same thing again this turn. But once again I was able change them to "upgrade" once I switched all planes in the drop down button again. My guess is that these options can only be set at the beginning of a new game.

Speaking of "options", in a recent thread by Brady titled, "Biased", Frag made a comment that "...we TOTALLY NERF Allied heavy bombers...". I figured that Frag was just pulling Brady's leg since there was no mention of changing Allied heavy bomber abilities in the notes accompanying v1.50, but then I got the following result:

Day Air attack on Sorong , at 42,74

Japanese aircraft
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 24

Allied aircraft
F-5A Lightning x 5
B-17E Fortress x 70
B-24D Liberator x 40

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-61 KAIc Tony: 1 destroyed, 6 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 7 destroyed, 16 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 5 destroyed, 5 damaged

Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 5

The previous turn my B-17s in PM were creamed against Rabaul for the first time.

These are the same bombers who had previously closed down everything within range in the region, including the B-24s that had closed all those bases in India. I'm going to do another test elsewhere where there isn't any CAP to see what happens, since all of these planes lost lots of morale on this mission (something that hadn't happened in the past). But if this is a new "works as designed" feature then I can't see why I will want to play any more pre-1943 Allied games. Being able to shut down Japanese air fields with Allied 4 engine bombers was the only way to prevent Japanese LBA from devestating Allied shipping:

Day Air attack on TF, near Munda at 64,95

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 6
G4M1 Betty x 12

Allied aircraft
P-40B Tomahawk x 10

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 2 destroyed, 2 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
P-40B Tomahawk: 2 damaged

Allied Ships
AK Diomed
AK Missourian, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
MSW Benalla, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

So add useless Allied long range bombers to the same useless ground movement and ground combat rules as before and this game starts to look to be pretty boring to play from the Allied side.

Maybe it's just as well that I'm going off on a couple week holiday away from this game. Maybe when I get back I will regain some interest in it.

Dave Baranyi

[Bombur]

Don´t worry, I made a small simulation with my Guadalcanal stock scenario. Placed 20 B-17´s and 20 B-24´s to attack Rabaul (127 planes based). Grounded all Japanese planes. In two days, 64 planes were destroyed in the ground. When bombers came at 5,000 feet they destroyed 36 planes. At 10,000 ft, 28 Japanese planes were lost. Bombur´s mod is still necessary[:D]

[ADavidB]

October 17 saw my tactical bombers still working quite well as they kept Koepang and Lae out of commission. I leave those bomber groups on "naval attack" with "airfield attack" as the secondary mission, just in case PzB tries to send in some supply ships. For the past while my boys have had to be content with getting practice by keeping airfields closed.

PzB's Bettys went out again all over the Gili-Gili to Lunga front. Some times I stopped them:

Day Air attack on TF, near Munda at 64,95

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 3
G4M1 Betty x 12

Allied aircraft
P-40B Tomahawk x 8

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
G4M1 Betty: 4 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied Ships
AK Diomed

and:

Day Air attack on TF, near Lunga at 67,97

Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 4

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 19

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 3 destroyed

Allied Ships
AK Trieste

Some times I didn't:

Day Air attack on TF, near Gili Gili at 56,94

Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 9

Allied aircraft
P-40B Tomahawk x 4

No Japanese losses

No Allied losses

Allied Ships
AK Mabella, heavy damage
AK Høegh Merchant, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

But the big news for me this turn in this region is that the airbases at Munda, Russell Island and Gili-Gili all reached "1", so I am now able to station a fighter group in each one instead of relying on LR CAP. This means that I will have better chance of downing those Bettys. And I've got more engineers on the way.

Most other areas were pretty quiet. My heavy bomber test in the Gilberts/Marshalls didn't fly, so I've re-targeted those bombers. I've also targeted Kendari again. It will be interesting to see how things go. If my heavy bombers continue to be ineffectual I'll probably move them back behind the fronts and save the air support points for tac bombers.

BTW - PzB is still chasing down and eliminating my stragglers in India. I wonder if he knows that I still have a bunch moving towards the Himalayas? (And does he care? [>:] [;)])

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

Well, on October 18th one of my heavy bomber tests did fly and it looks as if they are behaving the same against undefended targets as they did in the past:

Day Air attack on Kendari , at 33,71

Allied aircraft
F-5A Lightning x 3
B-24D Liberator x 31

Allied aircraft losses
B-24D Liberator: 8 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
47 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Airbase hits 5
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 56

So the problems I had during the previous v1.50 turns are likely to be just due to PzB bringing better fighters in for CAP. Okay, I'll rest my bombers while I build up more P-38 squadrons. The second squadron of P-39s just switched over. As long as I don't get too anxious and fritter the P-38s away I ought to be able to make a difference with them in November.

The presence of dedicated local CAP also appears to have detered PzB's Bettys in the PNG to Solomons region. That's a nice change of pace. But PzB is increasing his bombing of Java. That's fine - he has local superiority there - I just want to maintain local superiority in my other fronts.

The other area where the "jury is out" for me is the question of whether or not "Allied sub doctrine" is really turned off. So far my subs remain "target practice" for PzB's ASW and aren't doing any shooting back. I'm still pulling back lots of subs so we'll see how things go once they are rested, repaired and have better skippers.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

On October 19 I keep my heavy bombers back resting and let my medium bombers continue to do what they do well. I also moved around all of my subs. Speaking of medium bombers, my few remaining bombers in Java actually got off some hits on a retiring TF this turn:

Day Air attack on TF at 23,68

Allied aircraft
SBD Dauntless x 3
Beaufort V-IX x 2

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
AP Kembu Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
AP Montoiru Maru

and:

Day Air attack on TF at 23,68

Allied aircraft
SBD Dauntless x 3

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
PG Myoken Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage

I guess that PzB figured that I had nothing in the vacinity and gave his local fighters a "day off". [:D]

PzB's Bettys had an equally good turn against my CAP:

Day Air attack on TF, near Munda at 64,95

Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 7

Allied aircraft
P-40B Tomahawk x 16

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged

Allied Ships
AK Diomed, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
MSW Bowen

I've now changed the leader of that squadron - we'll see what a new guy can do. (Sometimes I've seen a leader change make all the difference in the world.)

As far as the "sub doctrine off" situation goes, a few of my subs finally attempted some attacks and one even got a torpedo to work:

Sub attack at 61,85

Japanese Ships
ML Takashima, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS Grampus

This is such a change from the past that I ought to bring the bunch of them in to give them a few cold ones as a reward. [:)]

Meanwhile, back in India, PzB wiped out another straggler unit. I wonder if he will try to chase the ones who are making the "long trek"?

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

PzB is starting to do a lot of movements as of October 20. He has suddenly moved a lot of fighter cover back into the areas around Timor, including Kendari. That is interesting because according to my info, the air base there is still heavily damaged. So I'm going to send in a lot of heavy bombers to see if I can catch his fighters on the ground. If nothing else, it will show him that he can't take total control of the air just because he has a few Tonys around.

PzB has also moved what appears to be a small carrier group into the western Solomons - I was warned by an ML that ran-chicken at the first whiff of the carriers. Okay - carriers vs LBA - I'm game. Let's see what he does.

He has also put a sub right off of Guadalcanal. My ASW didn't get it so it got an already damaged tanker. I'll go back after it. My ASW is still acting pretty feeble and my subs anemic.

My heavy bombers continue to to well against undefended targets:

Day Air attack on Maloelap , at 82,81

Allied aircraft
F-5A Lightning x 3
B-17E Fortress x 39

Allied aircraft losses
F-5A Lightning: 1 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 15 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
20 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Airbase hits 11
Airbase supply hits 10
Runway hits 60

Of course, the whole point here it to keep such targets undefended by keeping the air fields closed.

There will probably only be one more turn before I go off on a two week holiday. PzB will get an opportunity to carefully set up and model out his next big strategy. I'll eat too much, sleep too much, and play hide-the-salami with the wife too much instead of sitting at this terminal...

Dave Baranyi

[Hornblower]

ORIGINAL: ADavidB

There will probably only be one more turn before I go off on a two week holiday. PzB will get an opportunity to carefully set up and model out his next big strategy. I'll eat too much, sleep too much, and play hide-the-salami with the wife too much instead of sitting at this terminal...

Dave Baranyi

[X(]

[ADavidB]

Huh? Pzb send a bombardment TF into Colombo hex, sat it there without doing anything all night and all day, and at the end of the turn the following resulted:

Naval bombardment of Colombo, at 14,24

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
Catalina I: 2 destroyed
Beaufort V-IX: 1 destroyed
Wellington III: 9 destroyed
Blenheim IV: 5 destroyed
Hudson I: 1 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CA Kako
CA Furutaka
CA Kinugasa
CA Aoba
CA Suzuya
BB Fuso
BB Mutsu
BB Haruna
BB Kongo, on fire

Allied ground losses:
4436 casualties reported
Guns lost 45
Vehicles lost 4

Airbase hits 18
Airbase supply hits 9
Runway hits 113

Anyone want to venture a guess why none of the many CD guns that I had in Colombo fired anything? There was over 100K supplies, all of the troops were at full strength, fully rested and set 100% to Colombo as their "target". There were no Japanese troops in the hex and all of the units were lead by good leaders.

If you are wondering why the Kongo is on fire, that's because my planes at Colombo hit the TF during the day:

Day Air attack on TF, near Colombo at 14,24

Allied aircraft
Blenheim IV x 8
Wellington III x 27

Allied aircraft losses
Blenheim IV: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
Wellington III: 1 destroyed, 7 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Fuso
BB Haruna
BB Kongo, Bomb hits 2, on fire
BB Mutsu, Bomb hits 1

and:

Day Air attack on TF, near Colombo at 14,24

Allied aircraft
Blenheim IV x 3
Wellington III x 16
Hudson I x 2

Allied aircraft losses
Wellington III: 3 damaged
Hudson I: 2 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Haruna, Bomb hits 2
BB Mutsu
BB Kongo, on fire

I would love to know what I am doing "wrong" here so that I can get CD guns to fire in the future in similar situations.

Elsewhere, my B-25s now have the range on Maloelap from Makin:

Day Air attack on TF, near Maloelap at 82,81

Allied aircraft
B-25C Mitchell x 18

Allied aircraft losses
B-25C Mitchell: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
AK Florida Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
AK Naples Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
AK Canberra Maru
AK Iwashiro Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire

Maybe now, combined with heavy bomber attacks on the air fields and port I can totally shut down Maloelap.

PzB has decided to challange my LBA at Kendari:

Day Air attack on Kendari , at 33,71

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 16
A6M3 Zero x 12

Allied aircraft
F-5A Lightning x 5
B-17E Fortress x 40
B-24D Liberator x 32

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 5 damaged
A6M3 Zero: 8 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 3 destroyed, 26 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 11 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
172 casualties reported
Guns lost 5

Airbase hits 7
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 56

I've got more planes and I'm throwing them at Kendari this turn too. I also now have some escorts in range. They were rained out last turn, maybe they will fly this turn.

This may well be the last turn until May 18.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

October 22 was one of those game days when nothing much worked right. First off, my escorts for the raid on Kendari went off on their own and while they didn't get whacked too badly, they weren't there when I needed them:

Day Air attack on Kendari , at 33,71

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 12
A6M3 Zero x 5

Allied aircraft
F-5A Lightning x 3
B-17E Fortress x 39

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 3 damaged
A6M3 Zero: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F-5A Lightning: 1 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 2 destroyed, 9 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
34 casualties reported

Airbase hits 3
Runway hits 12

But I'm stubborn and I have more bombers, so they are going to try it again the next turn.

Also, the bombardment at Colombo continued quite happily with no response from my troops.

Then PzB started to use some LR CAP over Maloelap so my B-25s wouldn't fly. However my B-24s did:

Day Air attack on Maloelap , at 82,81

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 4

Allied aircraft
B-24D Liberator x 29

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
B-24D Liberator: 3 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
14 casualties reported

Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 13

So this time I have the B-17s and B-24s after the base where the LR CAP is originating and I've put my first P-38 group on "escort" on Makin. I'm hoping that they accompany the B-25s.

Otherwise, PzB had 100+ bomber raids simultaneously on Colombo and Java. I've got to think that those folks who whine so loudly about the abilities of the Japanese bombers are not playing as smart or as well as PzB does - he doesn't seem to have any difficulties at all massing huge and very effective Japanese LBA attacks and keeping them up very consistantly. I would love to be able to do the same thing with the Allied bombers.

Dave Baranyi

...time for a vacation...

[Nomad]

I have played( lost really ) a number of games to John. He is by far the best player I know. He misses very little and and always seems to have a plan of action. He can be fooled and taken by surprise at times, but he seems to surface with little wear and tear. Just to beat him in a game you started would be good, to beat him in this game will be very hard. [:)]

[ADavidB]

I'm back after a nice two week pc-free vacation to southern Italy with my wife. We went on a guided tour and had a great time. It's hard to readjust to the near wintry weather here, but at the same time it certainly is good to wake up in my own bed.

PzB resent the last turn to me because I forgot that I had received it just before I left. It wasn't that memorable a turn, although a number of my bombers did take off. PzB's bombardment TF at Colombo continued to get away unscathed and he sank another of my subs. Although we now have "Allied sub doctrine" set to "off", you couldn't prove it by looking for any changes in the behavior of my subs. I'm sending most of my subs back to port to get repairs and try to get better skippers.

My pullback of ships from the front continues. Now I'll get to fight the "repair syndrome" - big ships not repairing down to a level from which they can be upgraded. I'm using various "tricks" that I've read in other threads; it will be interesting to see if any of those "tricks" work. (I'm not a big fan of having to use "tricks" to get a game to work, but hey, we all have to do this here...)

The most interesting thing of this turn is that PzB has suddenly turned a number of recon groups to Chungking. I wonder if he intends to break the unwritten "truce" in China?

Dave Baranyi

[Sardaukar]

ORIGINAL: ADavidB
Anyone want to venture a guess why none of the many CD guns that I had in Colombo fired anything? There was over 100K supplies, all of the troops were at full strength, fully rested and set 100% to Colombo as their "target". There were no Japanese troops in the hex and all of the units were lead by good leaders.

Maybe they are 155mm ones or smaller guns and cannot reach BBs/CAs if they bombard with "No Escorts Bombard" ?? I'm not sure if it's coded that way, but it's possible that smaller CD guns just cannot touch BBs and CAs shooting from far away in real life.

Most likely it's just some sort of glitch, though.

Cheers,

M.S.

[ADavidB]

ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

ORIGINAL: ADavidB
Anyone want to venture a guess why none of the many CD guns that I had in Colombo fired anything? There was over 100K supplies, all of the troops were at full strength, fully rested and set 100% to Colombo as their "target". There were no Japanese troops in the hex and all of the units were lead by good leaders.

Maybe they are 155mm ones or smaller guns and cannot reach BBs/CAs if they bombard with "No Escorts Bombard" ?? I'm not sure if it's coded that way, but it's possible that smaller CD guns just cannot touch BBs and CAs shooting from far away in real life.

Most likely it's just some sort of glitch, though.

Cheers,

M.S.

They were 6" CD guns - I guess that the game is modelling them as "out of range" of the 8 inch guns on the CAs... it doesn't matter much now since they have all been destroyed by the bombardments.

Thanks -

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

One of my P-38 groups got its first "blood" today (October 24, game time) as my long suffering strategy of setting up mutually-supporting groups of bases is finally starting to pay off in the Gilberts. PzB sent supply ships into one of his forward bases and minelayers into another. But both bases are now in range of my B-25s, which are no longer "afraid" of CAP with P-38s on hand:

Day Air attack on TF, near Maloelap at 82,81

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 4

Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 19
B-25C Mitchell x 33

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-38G Lightning: 1 damaged
B-25C Mitchell: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
AK Naples Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy damage
AK Taketoyo Maru
AK Iwashiro Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AK Canberra Maru, Bomb hits 1
AK Florida Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage

Not bad for a first try. The next attack, although marginally closer, did little in comparison:

Day Air attack on TF, near Jaluit at 81,84

Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 6
B-25C Mitchell x 41

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
ML Aotaka
ML Hirashima
ML Kyosai, Bomb hits 1, on fire
ML Katsuriki

In case PzB decides to use up a few of his longer range LBA against my forward base, I also have a good group of Wildcats on CAP. I now have Wildcats all around to keep pesky Bettys out of the hair of my troops.

Speaking of long range bombers, I caught PzB with his CAP down in the Admiralties:

Day Air attack on Admiralty Islands , at 58,84

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 39

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 6 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
24 casualties reported

Airbase hits 3
Runway hits 8

Sure, that's not a lot of damage, but PzB will need to put some CAP in place again or risk me repeating my attacks. I'm actually resting most of my heavy bombers in most locals so I am trying to keep PzB moving his fighters around by sending out bomber attacks at somewhat random locations.

It appears that PzB spotting one of my ground units on the way to that Indian city in near the Himalayas. I wonder if my guys can outrace his - they haven't been able to do that anywhere in India yet. I also have another 6 units crawling Eastwards at unreasonably slow speeds in the very north - it's too bad that ground movement was never fixed up.

Otherwise, I continue to move ships back from the fronts for repairs and upgrades. I have started to move damaged freighters to backwater ports so that I can get the "undivided attention" of the repair forces in my bases for my fighting ships. One BB just dropped from a damage level of 5 to a damage level of 4. I guess that it has to hit "3" to get an upgrade.

I checked over China more closely this turn and it doesn't appear that PzB is starting anything serious there. Anyway, there's not much for me to do. My bases are all built up and my troops are slowly resting up, although the morale isn't improving noticibly. which is yet another "fascinating" (read - incomprehensible) nuance of this game.

Dave Baranyi

[Captain Cruft]

ORIGINAL: ADavidB
there. Anyway, there's not much for me to do. My bases are all built up and my troops are slowly resting up, although the morale isn't improving noticibly. which is yet another "fascinating" (read - incomprehensible) nuance of this game.

The one concrete thing I can say about LCU morale is that an "inspiring" leader will help. Namely, one with an Inspiration of > 50. Not much use for the Chinese mind you ...

[ADavidB]

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

ORIGINAL: ADavidB
there. Anyway, there's not much for me to do. My bases are all built up and my troops are slowly resting up, although the morale isn't improving noticibly. which is yet another "fascinating" (read - incomprehensible) nuance of this game.

The one concrete thing I can say about LCU morale is that an "inspiring" leader will help. Namely, one with an Inspiration of > 50. Not much use for the Chinese mind you ...

Unfortunately at this stage the Allies have lost a lot of their better commanders.

It's almost too bad that the Japanese Leader Bug doesn't give those "90/90" air leaders to ground units. Image the 2nd Marines suddenly equiped with one of those commanders...[;)]

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

On October 25, 1942 the KB finally showed itself again after several months of near invisibility. PzB has been keeping a small Air Combat TF parked in Buka for the past few weeks, but it wasn't doing anything other than making my minelayer TFs nervous. But this turn a big TF full of CVs has turned up due north of Tulagi and a night's steaming away from either the Solomons or Nauru Island.

Okay, which way is PzB going? Is he supporting an invasion or just raiding? And why is he putzing around in the Central Pacific instead of Java?

Fortunately, my build-up in both the Eastern Solomons and the Extended Gilberts is quite mature at this stage - bases are big, defenses are strong, supplies are in place and I have lots of planes in place with more in nearby reserve. I also don't have a lot of shipping in the general region right now, and those TFs that are around are being diverted away from the most likely locations of movement. I've also pulled everything out of Lunga except for some PTs, along with several damaged transports which are being used as "canaries in the mine shaft".

I keep on thinking that PzB might be hunting my carriers, but I've already pulled them far back for R&O and am pulling the ones in Australian waters even farther back. PzB may well try to blast by my landbased defenses and hunt TFs behind my lines. If he does I'll keep an eye out for any replenishment TFs - I would love to catch the KB short on fuel and far from home.

Meanwhile, back in Northern Australia I am now really wishing that I had some extra transports in the region because I would definately go after another base between Timor and Java if I had the ships available. I've been extra cautious there because I expected that he would go after Java next.

Of course, the KB may well go down to the Solomons to provide air support for some bombardment fleets, but my LBA is well rested and well trained now and I can bring a lot of tac bombers to play very quickly, along with long range fighters. On the other hand, he may be sending the KB out to try to interfere with my bombers in the Gilberts who are having a nice, easy time with his bases and ships in the Marshalls:

Day Air attack on Jaluit , at 81,84

Allied aircraft
F-5A Lightning x 3
B-24D Liberator x 41

No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
11 casualties reported

Port hits 8
Port supply hits 2

and:

Day Air attack on TF, near Jaluit at 81,84

Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 3
B-25C Mitchell x 37

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
ML Okinoshima, Bomb hits 2, on fire
ML Kurosaki

I also have lots of Dauntlesses and Wildcats in the Gilberts too, as well as more tacbombers in reserve.

I've also been resting the bulk of my long range bombers - it helps to have those big groups on 10% naval search; they repair well, get experience and add to the odds of my finding PzB's TFs.

Elsewhere, PzB and I are in a race to Rawalpindi. We both have one unit on the way. At the moment my unit is one hex in the lead. Will it win the race? Can I retake the city (for a second time) before PzB brings up more troops. Can my other half dozen non-combat units that are north of the Indus benefit from captured supplies? Actually, I'm just hoping for the later - my intention is to continue the non-combat troops along the long path to Ulan Bator. For some reason the Game allows me to set that as a destination, unrealistic as it is. But considering all of the other goofiness in the continental land movement system, this seems fair to me. Actually, I intend to just intern the survivors in the Soviet Far East. If PzB makes a concerted attack on the remaining Chinese bases I'll do the same with the orphan Brit bombers who are there too.

Speaking of China, PzB is continuing his reconning of Chungking, so I moved some fighters in. He also attacked Mandalay by air for the first time in months, so I moved fighters into there too. My Brit bomber groups are too weak to do anything but naval searches right now, but I don't want to lose them.

Otherwise, PzB is continuing his aerial bombardments of Colombo - he wants to keep the airfields closed while he replenishes his bombardment TF. That's fine, I'm still sneaking the odd bomber out. Also, that is one bombardment TF that I don't have to worry about elsewhere.

So it looks as if things will liven up considerably in the next few game-days - we'll see how well my plans pan out and if I get lucky.

Dave Baranyi