The Imperialism, the war against Blackwatch

[Tom Hunter]

We play freestyle, this map shows the Japanese advance over the first 3 days of the war:





Over the past two days he has also murdered 7 BBs in Pearl harbor, the Wee Vee is the only one still afloat. If he stays one more turn she will go down as well.

Allied aircraft have tried to bomb KB but they have not hit anything. So far so good for Blackwatch.

Rabual is under attack by over 16,000 Japanese, Buna and Gili Gili have already fallen. I doubt I can get more troops into PM so I am already working on NE Oz and have started the convoys to New Caledonia and Fiji as well.

At Singapore the Repulse took 4 bomb hits on Dec 8th she is now working her way South East and will go to the US East Coast for repairs. I expect she will get away, last game I lost her because I did not undestand the game mechanics well enough, that is not a problem this time.

In the NEI Blackwatch has made a hard push for Borneo. He has taken Brunei and is attacking Kuching though the garrison there just defeated his first attack. Allied bombers have been active there and Malaya bomb hits have been scored on a number of APs, PGs and other little ships. The really bright spot on the 8th was a successful torpedo attack on the Aoba which sank off Singapore.

[freeboy]

Looks like a man with a plan.. In one pbem game I took SRA and started for India by 2 15 42 as well as the solomans.. its after you hit resistance that the game gets interesting.. where will your line in the sand be?? the world waits in wonder[X(]

[Tom Hunter]

Here is some detail on what is now the main theater of the war.

I have conentrated airpower in Singapore to hit back at the invasion of Mersing. That is what sunk the Aoba on the 8th.

Prince of Wales 3 CLs and some DDs are heading towards Palembang to mess up the Japanese invasion. In our first game I botched this manuever because I did not understand the rules very well, this time I hope to do a little better. Repulse is also steaming towards Java but with 50 Sys damage she will keep going, she is bound for the yards in Frisco.

A Japanese TF has been spotted heading for Samarinda, I have (relatively) large concentrations of fighters and bombers at Samarinda and Balikpapan, and A TF of US warships lead by the Houston is rebasing from Balikpapan to Samarinda to stop the Jap invasion force. I am also moving PT boats to the area, hopefully they will prey on stragglers.

Thats it for the moment, I will start on strategy soon.

[Tom Hunter]

Prince of Wales, 3 CLs and 3 DDs rolled into Palembang on the night of the 9th-10th. I switched commanders from Leach to Spooner, who was Captain of the Repulse and has a 65 agression rating. This was a good move and I was rewarded with the sinking of 4 DDs and a CL off Palembang after which he moved in on an AP TF and sunk 4 more Japanese ships.

Samarinda remained quiet, the Japanese shipping did not advance and the Americans did not react.

Blackwatch is hitting the Philipines from Lingyan gulf and Tuguerarao on the East coast trying to cut off the US forces in the North of the Island. So far T has held so I may still be able to get them out. I am considering a counter attack at Linguyan, Blackwatch has 50,000 troops there, but his army is split and if Tug holds I might be able to beat up half of it.

Kendari fell to the Japanese assault, this is bad news for the Banda Sea, Blackwatch will have LBA down there soon and then I will not be able to cruise there any more.

There were clouds over Malaya so not much happened there.

The Japanese are up to 23,000 men at Rabaul and I have 2,300 defenders. 10 to 1 does not look very good.

Strategy wise I am not even trying to hold Port Moresby, Blackwatch is much too serious about taking it out this time. Instead I am sending stuff to Espiritu Santo, Noumea and Fiji. It will be a month before it gets there so we will see if it arrives in time.

I am moving my 2 CVs to the South Pacific to make mischief among Blackwatch's invasions. The PoW is going to try the same near Java. I suspect Blackwatch will go hard for Timor to avoid the bloodbath we had last time. I will fight there, but I am thinking of making Bali a bit stronger than it was last game. It helped a lot in the battle for Soerbaja and if it was strong enough to hold a while it might really gum up the works for Japan.

In Burma I am going to fly Chinese troops into the unspellable city of Myktisinanawagaananawoowoo in the far North. If you send the SE Asia command Chinese there they retreat to India where you can rapidly bring them to full strength.

Gotta play my turn, that is all for now.


I am moving some troops to Timor though.

[Tom Hunter]

December 10 1941

The Japanese unloading at Mersing continue to have cloud cover so the air forces concentrated at Singapore have not hit them. I have been hoping for torpedo attacks by the Wildabeests but no luck for the last 3 days.

I am putting more troops into Alor Star to meet the Japanese advance from Songahkia and moving everyone on the East Coast of Malaya west to meet the Japanese. I will end up with a defense in the North and in the South and a hollow middle.

I am forming up an evacuation TF at Trimcomalee when the Japanese really start rolling I will try to evacuate as many troops as possible from Georgetown back to India. Its much harder to get the troops further South out, I am afraid that job will be done with submarines and all I will get is cadres.

Baby KB is in the Sulu Sea intercepting ships trying to escape Manila. On the 11th he caught and sunk 4 DDs running South and also sunk one of the big AS ships. I have diverted everything else to the East to try and stay away from him. I also put 45 P40Es inot Davao on Naval Attack at 100 feet, that may be interesting or maybe not, we will see. The B17 try to bomb him every day but all they kill is fish.

In the NEI I am making a big effort to throw Blackwatch’s plans off schedule, this may cause another round of naval battles off Balikpapan on December 12th.

Blackwatch has a Cruiser force covering an invasion TF that is now one hex East of Balikpapan heading West.

At Balikpapan I have Houston, Helena and Marblehead with 4 US DDs, and some Dutch PT boats, half a day away coming in at full speed are the 3 Dutch CLs and 5 Dutch DDs, behind them is the PoW force: BB 2 Cls, 4 DDs sadly their torpedos are all used up. If PoW gets involved it will be during daylight, she is too far away for a night battle. In a way this is too bad because her night fighting is already in the 80s but daylight will allow her to pound away at long range.

If we get a battle and I win it will throw Blackwatch’s invasion plan off schedule for the first time. At Palamebang I sank APs carrying supply but this time they would be loaded with troops. That would be a very good thing, because Blackwatch is coming on too fast right now and I need to slow him down some.

Further West I have put some troops into Timor but not enough to hold it I am afraid. Supply is on the way as well but its coming from India and won’t arrive until January.

The Australians and Americans are scouring the South Pacific for ships to oppose the Japanese invasion of Rabaul and New Guinea. I am trying to concentrate at Brisbane but it will be a week or two before I have enough stuff there. I have a serious DD shortage developing in the combat zone right now. 4 US DDs that were bound for Brisbane diverted themselves to Kendari and got sunk by the Japanese covering force on the 9th, and I just lost 4 more to Baby KB on the 10th. The upshot is I don’t have DDs for the Cruiser force that I am trying to form at Brisbane and I will have to bring some down from Pearl.

The British have the same problem in the Indian Ocean, no DDs. Some damaged ones are on the way to Columbo and the Hong Kong DDs got away but I am still short of where I want to be.

Finally the US CVs are going to raid the force that is invading Mankin, I doubt there is much there but it will be good practice.

[Tom Hunter]

China won a major victory today when the Japanese offensive on Changsha was repulsed with heavy losses. Blackwatch moved 9 units in from Wuhan with 5 more coming in from the East Coast. He launched a bombardment attack while waiting for the rest of his army to show up:

Japanese Bombardment attack
Attacking force 63320 troops, 786 guns, 12 vehicles
Defending force 113450 troops, 700 guns, 0 vehicles
Allied ground losses:
140 casualties reported

I did not want to wait for more Japanese, 63,000 is plenty so I shock attacked them:
Attacking force 102785 troops, 690 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 73744 troops, 786 guns, 141 vehicles
Allied assault odds: 5 to 1
Japanese ground losses:
1305 casualties reported
Guns lost 49
Vehicles lost 2
Allied ground losses:
3552 casualties reported
Guns lost 91
Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!

He lost between 3,000 and 10,000 in the retreat as well. I forgot to set my army to pursue but I have changed that now, if he does not start for Wuhan right away I may be able to hit him one more time. That would cut his 70,000 men down to 60-50,000 which would be a good start to the war.

The really interesting question is the units coming in from the East. I hope they will keep moving toward Changsha. If they do then I can turn on them and chase them down the rail line. We will see if Blackwatch falls into that trap or not.

In the North I just moved an army onto the rail junction East of Homan I am shock attacking 3 Japanese units we will see what happens there. I would like to get control of that hex since it controls the North South RR inland.


More on December 12 coming it was an active turn

[Tom Hunter]

Outside of China there were other important developments on the 11th, I am saving them for last.

At Malaya there was no important action. Japanese troops continue to unload in Thailand but have not crossed the border. Mersing contiunes to have could cover, I will soon have nearly 30 torpedo planes in Singapore waiting for the weather to change.

The Japanese bombard Rabaul preparing for a big attack. Aircraft from Port Moresby bomb Japanese shipping at Gili Gili but don't accomplish much.

In the Central Pacific the US CVs are heading to Tarawa, Mankin fell a day or two ago and I am hoping to find a weak invasion force to sink.

At Balikpapan a multi day naval battle starts. This is the list of all the forces involved:

Japanese Ships
CL Naka
DD Natsugumo, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Minegumo, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
DD Asagumo, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Murasame
DD Harusame
DD Yudachi
DD Samidare

Allied Ships
CL Java, Shell hits 2
CL De Ruyter, Shell hits 2
CL Tromp, Shell hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Banckert
DD Van Nes
DD Witte de With, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Evertsen
DD Kortenaer, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Piet Hein, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Van Ghent

Allied Ships
CA Houston, Shell hits 1
CL Marblehead, Shell hits 3
CL Boise, Shell hits 2
DD Barker
DD Bulmer, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Paul Jones
DD Parrott
DD Stewart

The American TF hit the same Japanese TF after the Dutch. Basically we did some trading, the Tromp got badly shot up as did 3 Allied DDs. The Naka also got hit pretty hard and 3 Japanese DDs did as well. When that was over 4 PT boats caught some Japanese transports escorted by PGs. No one got hurt but the Japanese invasion TF retreated so Balikpapan was saved.

[Tom Hunter]

I give up editing, here is the map I want to show:





I thought Baby KB would move towards the West to the hex SE of Balikpapan where I drew the dotted line so I sent all 3 of my big surface TFs that way. Well life is full of suprises. Baby KB ran back to Tarakan and my big gun TFs hit nothing. Instead a Japanese bombardment group came in and murdered my cripples that were retreating from the night before.

Japanese Ships
CA Myoko
CA Haguro
CA Nachi, Shell hits 1
CL Kinu
CL Oi
DD Oyashio
DD Natsushio
DD Hayashio
DD Amatsukaze
DD Yukaze

Allied Ships
CL Tromp, on fire, heavy damage
DD Bulmer, Shell hits 8, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Kortenaer, Shell hits 33, and is sunk
DD Piet Hein, Shell hits 24, and is sunk

However I got payback because the Japanese tried to invade the next morning and as usual Blackwatch covered the invasion with a mixed force of CLs and DDs. Guess who came back to catch them?

Day Time Surface Combat, near Balikpapan at 31,64

Japanese Ships
CL Nagara, Shell hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
DD Yukikaze, Shell hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
DD Tokitsukaze, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Yamakaze, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Kawakaze
DD Umikaze, Shell hits 1
DD Suzukaze, Shell hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Shiokaze, Shell hits 3, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
BB Prince of Wales, Shell hits 7
CL Danae, Shell hits 6
CL Dragon, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
DD Vendetta, Shell hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
DD Tenedos, Shell hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
DD Electra, Shell hits 11, on fire, heavy damage
DD Express, Shell hits 5, on fire, heavy damage


The Japanese started running away but the Dutch were coming up behind the PoW and they got in two more rounds of combat, in the end the entire Japanese force was sent to the bottom.

Another Japanese CL force was located by the US Navy CV TFs near Tarawa. It looks like a bad day for the Japanese CL forces:

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 5
SBD Dauntless x 49
TBD Devastator x 26


Allied aircraft losses
TBD Devastator: 2 damaged

Japanese Ships
CL Yubari, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CL Tenryu, Bomb hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Mutsuki, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AP Kinryu Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
DD Mochizuki
DD Oite, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage

Basically they all sink too.

There is a transport TF in the same area so I kept the CVs around for another turn. I know KB was 12 hexes West of Pearl on the 11th so I can raid safetly for another day. The weather is supposed to be clear and if I sink all the transports it may keep the Japanese off of Baker for a while.

Malaya was the same story, clouds protected Japanese shipping at Mersing, no ivasion from Thailand yet, I now have 4 brigades waiting for him in Alor Star. Blackwatch did launch a deliberate attack on Mersing, I had just moved a 3rd brigade into the hex and the 11,000 defenders behind a level 3 fort did just fine.

The Big Japanese shock attack finally hit Rabual and took it with ease. Blackwatch is in attacking that area in a big way and there is no possibility of me holding him, or even fighting hard for Port Moresby like our last game. I am already working on fortifying Noumea, Espirito Santo and the other important bases but it will be Janauray before any troops arrive.

In China my shock attack on the rail Junction near Homan found 100,000 Japanese and lost 6666 men. Oops! there goes 10% of my force. Well they are running back to Homan to rest and regroup.

India and Burma continue to prepare a defense in depth. The Philipines are static, Blackwatch is focused elsewhere so I expect them to stay that way.

I have moved as much fighter cover as possible to Balikpapan and reorganized my fighting TF, I also replenished it. I now have 1 14 ship TF with PoW in the lead, followed by Houston, Helena, Java, DeRuyter and 9 DDs. I don't know if Blackwatch will try to grab the place again but I am glad I was able to stop him for a couple of days and give him a bloody nose as well.

I seriously considered running the big ships away and just leaving the PT boats but I decided to take some risk and stick around one more turn. Also they now have full fuel bunkers so next turn I can get them away at full speed. I am concerned that Blackwatch will bring a very large air strike force to Tarakan but hopefully it won't get there until December 14th by which time I will be long gone. At least I have thrown the time table off a bit.

[Tom Hunter]

In our last game I fought Blackwatch hard from the beginning, though the Allies lost most of the early war battles very heavey losses were inflicted on Japan for example over 1400 Zeros were destroyed, twice the number I have seen in other AARs. That kind of attrition early in the game can really hurt Japan later on and Blackwatch's play in our new game shows a desire to avoid it.

From the look of this game so far Blackwatch had decided that he needs to get a defensive perimeter into place as quickly as possible. He has hit Rabaul and New Guinea harder and faster and he is pushing into the NEI very fast as well. The Philipines are under attack but for the most part are being left for later. Singapore is getting a serious effort as well but it lacks the lightning speed of the invasions against the Dutch.

Its pretty obvious that Blackwatch is trying to avoid the big attrition battles that we fought at Port Moresby and Timor in the last game and this fast advance is designed to secure the perimeter before he cleans up the rear area. I think he will clean up the rear a lot faster as well, I doubt he will give the British 5 months to build up Sumatra they way he did in the last game.


I learned a lot from the last game as well. I am raiding more with the US CVs especially in areas where I can throw Blackwatch's invasion schedule off. Right now they are killing Japanese surface TFs in the Tarawa area. This has already stopped an invasion of the Southernmost of the Gilberts and it may save Baker island as well, at least for a time.

I am also much more organized about my shipping in the war zone. I am not running un-escorted convoys in range of LBA they way I did in my first game. I do plan to do some major evacuations but this time they are prepared well in advance and will have strong CAP and surface forces protecting them. For example I am going to send a big convoy to pull troops out of Georgetown after the fall of Alor Star. I did that last time as well, but with multiple small convoys and without adiquate air cover. This time its going to have Hermes, the R Class BB, various smaller surface ships, Buffalos at Georgetown and the AVG flying long range CAP from Sumatra. With a little luck I will get 3-4 base forces and 3-4 shot up brigades out in one pull.

The rest of the forces in Malaya are going to have to be cadre evacuations, there is just too much Japanese shipping there.

I plan to use the same tactics at Rangoon to slow the Japanese advance into Burma. I am also moving Chinese troops to Burma by land and air. The goal is to have a defense in depth in India but make the Japanese fight the Chinese for Burma.

In the NEI I am trying to fight naval battles for bases that are far from the Japanese airbases and can fly a lot of CAP. The recent battles around Balikpapan are a good example of this, I hung out until this turn when I saw large groups of Kates and Zeros show up at Tarakan. Now the PoW group is running West at full speed with long range CAP set up at several points on the way.

Handling the surface forces correctly is much easier for me this time as well. I understand the rules now and know how dangerous the Japanese LBA is. I am also being smarter with my PT boats. They are operating with retirment allowed and they are only working in places that are near heavier surface units. This has already paid off for me, PTs are what actually forced the Japanese invasion of Balikpapan to turn around, and in the last turn 4 of them got into Baby KB and put a torpedo into a CS. In the last game my PT boats got murdered by DDs and did not accomplish much until September 42 when I finally figured out how to use them.

In the South Pacific I am giving up on Guadalcanal and putting the first fortified line at Noumea, Fiji, Pago Pago. If Blackwatch slows down I can always move up, but right now the troops needed to hold that line are not even in the game, instead I am just sending what I can and hoping the long supply lines will slow Blackwatch down.

In general I am trying to bloody Blackwatch's nose every time I can. Hopefully this will cause him to get catious and throw him off his time table. If he slows down that gives me time to get the air groups from the US West Coast into action and start to seriously hurt him.


Right now I am trying to slow Blackwatch down without losing the few surface TFs that I have in the combat area.

[Tom Hunter]

Here is the map



I am convinced that to hold China you need an active defense. O got off to a good start when I chased the Japanese out of Changsha, and last turn the Chinese troops NE of Changsha caught a single Japanese division that was slowed down by air attack:

Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 95949 troops, 577 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 18082 troops, 227 guns, 0 vehicle
Allied assault odds: 42 to 1
Japanese ground losses:
1846 casualties reported
Guns lost 96
Allied ground losses:
395 casualties reported
Guns lost 24

That runs the loss rate nicely in my favor, more to the point it makes the Wuhan army less of the threat in the immediate future. Blackwatch moved some troops SW from Wuhan into the hex with the red and yellow arrow in it, I am going to follow with the big army. Changsha has about 50,000 troops in it, so its momentarily safe from the disorganized forces in Wuhan. After I smack the 3 Japanese units I will need to pick a direction.

Further North the guys who launched the failed shock attack near Homan are heading home to reorganize. Blackwatch hit 18,000 Chinese troops there recently and did not do much damage so I am not sure how strong that formation really is, it may have supply problems. So I will probably come back into that hex soon, to cut the rail supply route.

Right now I have no air transport but when I get some into China I will start running around with some smaller units using air supply to keep them alive. That will further screw up his supplies and make winning that much harder for Japan.

The other thing to remember is that I still have tons of troops that are out of place in interior China. It will be January before they reach the combat area, at that time the fun can really start.

[Tom Hunter]

We had our last big fight at Balikpapan as a Japanese Cruiser TF ran into the Prince of Wales group. The Japanese seem to have won the action, though they got shot up pretty good themselves:

CA Chokai, Shell hits 5
CA Mogami, Shell hits 4
CA Mikuma, Shell hits 2, on fire
CA Suzuya, Shell hits 2
CA Kumano, Shell hits 1
CL Sendai, Shell hits 5, on fire
DD Maikaze, Shell hits 9, on fire
DD Nowaki, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Arashi
DD Hagikaze
DD Shinonome, Shell hits 1
DD Isonami
DD Sagiri
DD Yugiri
DD Otori
DD Hayabusa

Allied Ships
BB Prince of Wales, Shell hits 9, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CA Houston, Shell hits 5
CL Java, Shell hits 11, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
CL De Ruyter, Shell hits 8, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CL Danae, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1
CL Marblehead, Shell hits 12, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CL Boise
DD Barker
DD Paul Jones
DD Parrott
DD Stewart, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Banckert

Marblehead and DeRuyter are both 5 knot cripples trying to get to Soerbaya before they sink, the PoW can make 17 knots and is on her way out of the area and (eventually) to the US West Coast to join Repulse in the repair yard. Somehow Spooner was transferred from the PoW to a D class CL that was leaving the area after damage in a battle the day before, some Nells found the ships and killed him when they sunk the cripple. In retrospect I should have run last turn though I had a fuel problem at the time. Anyway the defense of the Maccassar straight is over.

Blackwatch has landed at Samarinda, shock attacked and taken the place. He is also ashore at Macassar itself and at Ambonia. More later heading for a movie now.

[Cap Mandrake]

Honorable General in Chief of All Allied Forces in the Pacific
Admiral/General and GrandPoobah Tom


My esteemed colleague;

I have indeed delivered your message to the Honorable Mr. Blackwatch. I regret to inform you of his bellicose reply which was adorned with a curious wagging finger and an oversized head.


please inform the cheap imperialist that the plans of Imperial HQ are to sink even his hometown, not just the cruiser.


With respect;

Her Cap Mandrake
Swiss Ambassador to Japan

[Tom Hunter]

As we can see above Blackwatch is very ambitious. [:D]

We are up to December 17th now, here is the update from around the map.

India/Burma: Preperations for defense continue. Many supply convoys have formed and moved out of Karachi, one of the things I do is ship supply from Karachi to the Calcutta area, this gets more supply up to the railheads at Ledo. The SEAC HQ is heading for Ledo with other units of various types to improve the bases up there.

Forts and airbases are being upgraded on the coast and it strategic points in the interior. I think its best to defend areas where you have supporting bases, so for example I am fortifying Madras but also building up Mannargudi and Bangalore so that Madras will have supporting air bases. Mannargudi also gives air support to Colombo and Trimcomalee, hopefully that makes the picture clear.

Chinese troops are maching overland towards the unspellable city in Northern Burma and I am also flying in troops as well. So far I have 16 C47 and 8 Dutch Loadstars at work, more transports are coming. Japanese troops are over the boarder and heading for my first blocking force which is one hex East of Rangoon.

Finally the Royal Navy has put a major convoy to sea from Trimcomalee to evacuate troops from Georgetown. This is going to be a race, on to Malaya to see why.

Malaya
Alor Star was hit by 85,000 Japanese troops backed by nearly 1,000 guns and over 100 tanks. The Japanese ripped the fort in half from level 4 to level 2 but amazingly the 10,000 defenders held the line. There are 2 more brigades on the way, one of which will arrive in time for the combat round on the 17th but clearly this line is not going to hold very long. I am throwing every plane I have into ground attacks, and capping the position as well but things look very bad. Its a race to see if the ships can get there in time to get the men out or not.

Further South the Japanese at Mersing are being reinforced but they are not a serious threat. For Malaya Alor Star is the only battle that matters.

In the NEI bases are falling like cut Tulips into grandma's flower basket. The Japanese grabbeb Kuching, Samarinda, Macassar and Ambonia over the last two days. They are also ashore at Sinkep Island. Right now Balikpapan is still Dutch but all naval forces that were protecting it have left the area.

The PoW is now South of Bali with about 40 sys damage, she will be following Repulse to the US West coast for repairs and should be back in the game some time in June or 42. All the surviving British cruisers are heading for Columbo where they will be repaired there are no British Cruisers in the combat area left undamaged, they all have at least 33 Sys on them. De Ruyter sunk on the 17th, she was the last surviving Dutch CL, Java and Tromp both went down during the Balikpapan battles. That leaves Houston with 17 Sys and Boise which is intact and a bunch of DDs. They are heading for Darwin and going to link up with the Australian CAs and CLs and a couple of American CAs to form a nicely balanced surface combat group but it will be 7-10 days before they are all together.

Most air assets have been moved to Soerbaja, Kongo and Haruna have been transiting the Java Sea and I am trying to bomb them and put some torpedos into them as well. They are lucky ships though and have dodged dozens of bombs and at least 25 torpedos over the last 2 days. My air assets are working hard and have hit a pretty good number of transports but the high tempo of operations is using up the bomber formations. The Japanese have yet to get Zeros air combat so its all operational losses and flak but its still shrinking the small airforce that starts in the area. I have started sending Australian Wirraways in as reinfocements hopefully that will help some, but you know things are bad when Wirraways are being sent to save the situation. It looks even worse when you see this:


Day Air attack on TF, near Lautem at 33,78

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 42
G3M Nell x 11
Allied aircraft
Brewster 339D x 2
No Japanese losses
No Allied losses
Allied Ships
AP Westralia, Bomb hits 2, on fire
MSW Ipswitch, Bomb hits 1, on fire
MSW Cairns, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP Zealandia, Bomb hits 4, on fire
MSW Deloraine, Bomb hits 1, on fire

That is the first big attack by Japanese LBA trying to interfere with my build up in Timor. In the last game that started in June 1942, this time its starting 10 days after the beginning of the war. The other bad news is scout planes are reporting more Japanese BBs heading towards the NEI. I have nothing but Stringbags and Wildabeests to stop them with, and not many of those. Its going from bad to worse for the Dutch.

In New Guinea the Japanese continue to build up at Gili Gili I have Wirrarys bombing them with some success but the big suprise is the Cruiser group that is coming in from Oz and should hit in a day or two. Then they are off to link up with the surviors of the Balikpapan battles.

In the Central Pacific the US CVs are now at Canton Island and KB is 2 days steaming North of there, coming South at a high rate of speed. I have an AVD and some Catalinas on Baker that are watching them approach, the AVD is probably going to die but its worth a lot to me to know where they are. More Japanese transports rolled over and sank from the raid and I hope to see more sunk reports as the days go by.

In China the Big Chinese army just rolled into the hex I said I wanted to attack a few days ago. Its going to recon by Shock Attack, we will see what happens there.

Stats wise things are pretty good. Japan is winning the army loss rate they have 3 to 1 on me with both our losses still in the hundreds. IN the air its no contest and won't be for a while, the Zero bonus is at its maximum and I am not even trying to fight those planes unless its critical. At sea Blackwatch has a lot more points than I do because he sunk so many BBs at Pearl but the total ships sunk is 48 on both sides which makes me feel pretty good.

[Bradley7735]

Damn!! 10 days of war and you're out of Dutch and British cruisers!! I wish POW had performed a bit better, but I think you've given more than you've taken. Certainly when you think of the strategic successes. Unfortunately, you have no reinforcements for some time to come, but he has enought to keep on coming.

Can you post a quick summary of what types of ships have been lost (ie, 7 BB's, 2 CA's, 5 CL's, etc)?

No biggie if you've got more important things to do.

[Tom Hunter]

Ship losses to December 17 1941

48 ships each

BB
Allied: 7
Japan: 0

CA
Allied: 0
Japan: 1

CLs
Allied: 5
Japan: 6

DD
Allied: 15
Japan: 17

PC
Allied: 1
Japan: 3 (one sunk by PT boat!)

PG
Allied: 0
Japan: 1

MSW:
Allied: 3
Japan: 0

SS
Allied: 1
Japan: 5 mostly near Pearl Harbor and sunk by air

PT
Allied: 8 but they are doing pretty well, even torpedoed a CS the other day
Japan: 0 I have not found his one PT boat yet

AS
Allied: 1
Japan: 0

AP
Allied: 3
Japan: 11

AK
Allied: 3
Japan: 2

Japan has many damaged ships because he tends to sink mine when I damage his. This happens because the Allies launch a lot of small bombing raids with 3-6 planes that score 1 or 2 hits. Also some of his CAs must have been hurt in the last Balikpapan battle, on the Allied side the only damaged CA I have is the Houston.

[Bradley7735]

Tom,

figures on your sunk ships are known without FOW by you. Figures for his have some unknown fow. I would estimate that you've sunk 50% more ships than you know about (I haven't read his aar). You have to assume that most of what you sink (more than 50%) does not show up on the sunk ships list for 30 days (on average). You're only 10 days into the game, so you probably have a lot of ships sunk that aren't on the list yet.

You have to be feeling good with yourself. He'll really miss those DD's and CL's someday. (plus the fact that there are probably another 10 of them that haven't shown on the list yet.)

[Tom Hunter]

Bradley,

I don't know how many unknowns I don't know about. Damn I just blew my cover, in real life I am Donald Rumsfeld.

The 1-2 bomb hit ships come in as sunk reports from time to time, for example on the 17th combat replay 3 Japanese ships went to the bottom but I am not sure that I actually hit any of them this turn.

Of course the ships that I really wonder about are the CAs that went mano a mano with the PoW, Houston etc. Its possible one of them is going to sink depending on wether the shells were 14" 8" or 6"

Regardless its going to be a while before the losses start to tell.

[String]

ORIGINAL: Bradley7735

Tom,

figures on your sunk ships are known without FOW by you. Figures for his have some unknown fow. I would estimate that you've sunk 50% more ships than you know about (I haven't read his aar). You have to assume that most of what you sink (more than 50%) does not show up on the sunk ships list for 30 days (on average). You're only 10 days into the game, so you probably have a lot of ships sunk that aren't on the list yet.

You have to be feeling good with yourself. He'll really miss those DD's and CL's someday. (plus the fact that there are probably another 10 of them that haven't shown on the list yet.)

PBEM doesn't have FoW on sunk ships

[String]

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

Bradley,

I don't know how many unknowns I don't know about. Damn I just blew my cover, in real life I am Donald Rumsfeld.

The 1-2 bomb hit ships come in as sunk reports from time to time, for example on the 17th combat replay 3 Japanese ships went to the bottom but I am not sure that I actually hit any of them this turn.

Of course the ships that I really wonder about are the CAs that went mano a mano with the PoW, Houston etc. Its possible one of them is going to sink depending on wether the shells were 14" 8" or 6"

Regardless its going to be a while before the losses start to tell.

As not one of them reported any damage or fire then i think those hits were small calibre. DP and AA guns that didnn't penetrate the armor

[Tom Hunter]

and a picture from December 19th 1941