January 25 -
It looks as if the KB may be traveling along with its refueling TF again because its Kates spotted and attempted to bomb the Gudgeon again this turn as the sub was trying to limp away. I'm not sure what the point of this is, other than to be a nuisance. If the KB keeps on crawling around the Northeastern Pacific at tanker speeds I'll have a couple of Essex carriers before it finds anything worth hunting… [;)] Oh well, I shouldn't complain.
Elsewhere, Tophat has some troops hunting down my last survivors in Mindanao. They will be done for soon. He is also moving more troops towards Clark Field. I guess that he is getting tired of fooling around there.
My Brit and Chinese bombers are starting to get the hang of doing their jobs as they hit Mandalay again today. Tophat now has two units in Mandalay. He will probably start to move one of them along soon.
Otherwise, things were fairly quiet. One of my US subs moved into the waters off of Northern Borneo where the Dutch subs have been having success recently, but its attack on an already damaged freighter was unsuccessful.
So now I am going to be taking a break from the Game for the next few days as my wife and I go off on a pc-free, "dirty weekend" in celebration of our 29th wedding anniversary. We will be wine-tasting and art browsing in a very picturesque area of Ontario known as Prince Edward County, on the north shore of Lake Ontario.
Cheers -
Dave Baranyi
Tophat vs ADavidB - Back at It
Moderators: wdolson, Don Bowen, mogami
Back from the Game-free weekend...
January 26 -
Tophat and I are back at it after I was away on a pc-free three day weekend with my wife. Good food, good wine, good sightseeing, and a good room in a historic inn made for a great 29th wedding anniversary celebration for the Missus and me.
Tophat is obviously trying to "spoil the mood" by having the KB sail south towards Midway. Kates and Vals attacked another of my picket subs, but this time they didn't score any hits. I wonder if the KB is raiding again, or is it setting up this time for an invasion? In any event, I'm ready for either contingency, and if Tophat isn't careful I might be able to surprise him.
Elsewhere things were fairly quiet. I continue to send my planes over Mandalay but only the Brit Blenheim IVs are having any success. But Tophat isn't opposing my planes, so I'll just keep it up. Tophat sent a fair number of planes after my Chinese troops at Tabun-Nur, but I was still able to pull three units back and the other will be out of there next turn. I'll back up to the Soviet border and see what happens. Tophat also continues to bomb my troops at Clark, but has been leaving most other troops in the PI and DEI alone except for Tarakan. So I'll continue building up behind the lines and keep an eye on where Tophat goes next.
Dave Baranyi
Tophat and I are back at it after I was away on a pc-free three day weekend with my wife. Good food, good wine, good sightseeing, and a good room in a historic inn made for a great 29th wedding anniversary celebration for the Missus and me.
Tophat is obviously trying to "spoil the mood" by having the KB sail south towards Midway. Kates and Vals attacked another of my picket subs, but this time they didn't score any hits. I wonder if the KB is raiding again, or is it setting up this time for an invasion? In any event, I'm ready for either contingency, and if Tophat isn't careful I might be able to surprise him.
Elsewhere things were fairly quiet. I continue to send my planes over Mandalay but only the Brit Blenheim IVs are having any success. But Tophat isn't opposing my planes, so I'll just keep it up. Tophat sent a fair number of planes after my Chinese troops at Tabun-Nur, but I was still able to pull three units back and the other will be out of there next turn. I'll back up to the Soviet border and see what happens. Tophat also continues to bomb my troops at Clark, but has been leaving most other troops in the PI and DEI alone except for Tarakan. So I'll continue building up behind the lines and keep an eye on where Tophat goes next.
Dave Baranyi
Tophat gets back into the Groove
January 27 -
The KB has vanished again. So I gave orders to my remaining ships in Pearl and sent them out to sea. I've put the rest of the forces in the region on Red Alert. I've got more subs going into the region, so I ought to detect something soon. There is also a Japanese sub to the Southwest of Hawaii, so I've sending an ASW TF after it too. We'll see if we get lucky this time.
Tophat has gotten back into the groove as far as bombing goes. He sent out bombers all around the Far East, including Singapore for the first time in a while. I was tempted to put some Dutch fighters into Sinagapore for a turn or two, but I withstood the temptation because he is still sending Zeros along with the bombers. And his Zeros can always decimate my Dutch fighters, as happened when some Dutch fighters escorted some Brit Hudsons that attempted to attack ships near Menado.
My bombers in southern Borneo did have some luck in attacking transports off of Brunei. Tophat sent a fresh invasion TF in and both the CD guns and my bombers got some hits. But I may not get away with this much longer - this turn Tophat sent some Sallys in to bomb Balikpapan, and my Brewsters that were on CAP didn't hit a one of them. Fortunately the AA did damage some of the bombers and thus the damage to the air field was light. But Tophat is bound to follow-up by sending some Zeros in as escorts which will end any pretense on the part of my fighter pilots. (If they can't shoot down unescorted bombers, they don't have a hope against Zeros.)
On the replacement/reinforcement front - one more day and I ought to have sufficient P-39s to retire the last of my P-26s. And it's only around two more weeks until I get my next big reinforcement delivery, including the fifth US carrier. Also, come February, some of my cruisers will receive their first upgrades.
Dave Baranyi
The KB has vanished again. So I gave orders to my remaining ships in Pearl and sent them out to sea. I've put the rest of the forces in the region on Red Alert. I've got more subs going into the region, so I ought to detect something soon. There is also a Japanese sub to the Southwest of Hawaii, so I've sending an ASW TF after it too. We'll see if we get lucky this time.
Tophat has gotten back into the groove as far as bombing goes. He sent out bombers all around the Far East, including Singapore for the first time in a while. I was tempted to put some Dutch fighters into Sinagapore for a turn or two, but I withstood the temptation because he is still sending Zeros along with the bombers. And his Zeros can always decimate my Dutch fighters, as happened when some Dutch fighters escorted some Brit Hudsons that attempted to attack ships near Menado.
My bombers in southern Borneo did have some luck in attacking transports off of Brunei. Tophat sent a fresh invasion TF in and both the CD guns and my bombers got some hits. But I may not get away with this much longer - this turn Tophat sent some Sallys in to bomb Balikpapan, and my Brewsters that were on CAP didn't hit a one of them. Fortunately the AA did damage some of the bombers and thus the damage to the air field was light. But Tophat is bound to follow-up by sending some Zeros in as escorts which will end any pretense on the part of my fighter pilots. (If they can't shoot down unescorted bombers, they don't have a hope against Zeros.)
On the replacement/reinforcement front - one more day and I ought to have sufficient P-39s to retire the last of my P-26s. And it's only around two more weeks until I get my next big reinforcement delivery, including the fifth US carrier. Also, come February, some of my cruisers will receive their first upgrades.
Dave Baranyi
Oh, By the way...
January 27, continued -
I forgot to mention this, but it is a fairly significant milestone in my plan - the first supply task force from India reached Northern Australia today. And there are three more supply TFs behind it. I plan to "top up" the supply levels at all of the Australian bases to above the "20K" level via supply TFs from India, not the West Coast. Since Tophat isn't paying a lot of attention to the DEI and I still have Singapore, this is quite easy for me. (And yes, I'm sailing those TFs "down" the Indian Ocean, not through the Straights of Malacca.)
The "20K" mark is important to me because at that point my engineers become most effective at upgrading bases and I can also upgrade planes without having the applicable HQ near by. I don't like to put much more than 30K worth of supplies in any forward base at this point in the game just in case the Japanese player does a sudden "lunge", captures a base by surprise, and gets a pile of supplies. And since I'm not waging any air campaigns out of Australia at this time I don't need to pile up megatons of supplies.
And once those AKs are empty, I'll just send them via the long Southern route to the West Coast. Sure, it will take more than a month to get there, but I've got a good supply of transports at both "ends" of the map because I've been quite successful at extricating my AKs and APs from the front lines and getting them over to my main supply depots. (I don't leave transports anywhere near the Front until I am on the offensive.)
Dave Baranyi
I forgot to mention this, but it is a fairly significant milestone in my plan - the first supply task force from India reached Northern Australia today. And there are three more supply TFs behind it. I plan to "top up" the supply levels at all of the Australian bases to above the "20K" level via supply TFs from India, not the West Coast. Since Tophat isn't paying a lot of attention to the DEI and I still have Singapore, this is quite easy for me. (And yes, I'm sailing those TFs "down" the Indian Ocean, not through the Straights of Malacca.)
The "20K" mark is important to me because at that point my engineers become most effective at upgrading bases and I can also upgrade planes without having the applicable HQ near by. I don't like to put much more than 30K worth of supplies in any forward base at this point in the game just in case the Japanese player does a sudden "lunge", captures a base by surprise, and gets a pile of supplies. And since I'm not waging any air campaigns out of Australia at this time I don't need to pile up megatons of supplies.
And once those AKs are empty, I'll just send them via the long Southern route to the West Coast. Sure, it will take more than a month to get there, but I've got a good supply of transports at both "ends" of the map because I've been quite successful at extricating my AKs and APs from the front lines and getting them over to my main supply depots. (I don't leave transports anywhere near the Front until I am on the offensive.)
Dave Baranyi
@#$% Subs...
January 28 -
The KB is still out of sight of my subs and land-based naval air patrols, so I'll assume that this means the potential for trouble continues. However, three of Tophat's long range subs showed up. I-16 was "run over" by a big, fast combat TF southwest of Hawaii and didn't get any shots off, but the combat TF also missed with its depth charges so it is a "wash" for now. But I've got a dedicated ASW TF in the area and I'll send them over to see if they get lucky. My patrols also located another Japanese sub to the northeast of Johnson Island, so I've sent a fast ASW TF after it too.
But the third sub, I-17, was the one that gave me the problems as it was hiding to the far southwest of San Diego and found one of my transport TFs. The escorts got off a couple of depth charge hits but not before the sub put a torpedo into one of the transports. So I've split that TF into two and will let the damaged transport limp along as best as possible with one escort while the rest continue along at flank speed. BTW - that other transport that was hit a week or so ago on the way to Christmas Island finally limped into Pago-Pago this turn. Once it unloads I'll re-board its troops onto undamaged ships and let them continue on their way to Christmas Island.
Elsewhere, Tophat continued his landings at Brunei, but my CD guns and air attacks weren't successful this turn. I expect that he will assault the base next turn. BTW - as I predicted, Tophat followed up his bomber attack on Balikpapan with a Zero sweep that shot down one of my Brewster 339Ds. But I'm not pulling out of there yet and I simply set the Brewsters to a higher altitude. Speaking of fighters, since Tophat attacked Singapore with unescorted bombers this turn I moved some Dutch fighters in to see if I get lucky next turn. [:D]
On the ground, Tophat tried a Deliberate Attack on Clark Field and lowered the fortification level by one, but he still ended up with a 0:1 result. I've ordered yet another worn-out base force to leave Clark and go to Manila. I prefer to only keep units in a battle that can contribute one way or another.
In other news, I finally upgraded my last squadron of P-26s to P-39s. Now I can let my P-39 groups elsewhere to start to build up their strength. That leaves only one more US squadron with third-string planes; the unit that is still equipped with P-35s. But since Australia doesn't seem to be at much of a risk right now, I'll probably let those planes alone and upgrade the P-36 squadron in Anchorage first. That also has the advantage of releasing P-36s for incorporation into my P-36 groups on the West Coast. This will all work out well as long as Tophat doesn't actively engage my forces in Hawaii for the next couple of weeks.
As far as the rest of the air war goes, Tophat continues to bomb my troops in the Philippines and China, and I continue to bomb Mandalay and Nanning unopposed. I am also getting my repositioned Dutch base forces in place so Tophat may well get a bit of a surprise at where my Dutch patrol and fighter aircraft show up in the near future.
Dave Baranyi
The KB is still out of sight of my subs and land-based naval air patrols, so I'll assume that this means the potential for trouble continues. However, three of Tophat's long range subs showed up. I-16 was "run over" by a big, fast combat TF southwest of Hawaii and didn't get any shots off, but the combat TF also missed with its depth charges so it is a "wash" for now. But I've got a dedicated ASW TF in the area and I'll send them over to see if they get lucky. My patrols also located another Japanese sub to the northeast of Johnson Island, so I've sent a fast ASW TF after it too.
But the third sub, I-17, was the one that gave me the problems as it was hiding to the far southwest of San Diego and found one of my transport TFs. The escorts got off a couple of depth charge hits but not before the sub put a torpedo into one of the transports. So I've split that TF into two and will let the damaged transport limp along as best as possible with one escort while the rest continue along at flank speed. BTW - that other transport that was hit a week or so ago on the way to Christmas Island finally limped into Pago-Pago this turn. Once it unloads I'll re-board its troops onto undamaged ships and let them continue on their way to Christmas Island.
Elsewhere, Tophat continued his landings at Brunei, but my CD guns and air attacks weren't successful this turn. I expect that he will assault the base next turn. BTW - as I predicted, Tophat followed up his bomber attack on Balikpapan with a Zero sweep that shot down one of my Brewster 339Ds. But I'm not pulling out of there yet and I simply set the Brewsters to a higher altitude. Speaking of fighters, since Tophat attacked Singapore with unescorted bombers this turn I moved some Dutch fighters in to see if I get lucky next turn. [:D]
On the ground, Tophat tried a Deliberate Attack on Clark Field and lowered the fortification level by one, but he still ended up with a 0:1 result. I've ordered yet another worn-out base force to leave Clark and go to Manila. I prefer to only keep units in a battle that can contribute one way or another.
In other news, I finally upgraded my last squadron of P-26s to P-39s. Now I can let my P-39 groups elsewhere to start to build up their strength. That leaves only one more US squadron with third-string planes; the unit that is still equipped with P-35s. But since Australia doesn't seem to be at much of a risk right now, I'll probably let those planes alone and upgrade the P-36 squadron in Anchorage first. That also has the advantage of releasing P-36s for incorporation into my P-36 groups on the West Coast. This will all work out well as long as Tophat doesn't actively engage my forces in Hawaii for the next couple of weeks.
As far as the rest of the air war goes, Tophat continues to bomb my troops in the Philippines and China, and I continue to bomb Mandalay and Nanning unopposed. I am also getting my repositioned Dutch base forces in place so Tophat may well get a bit of a surprise at where my Dutch patrol and fighter aircraft show up in the near future.
Dave Baranyi
Sub Wars...
January 29 -
The KB remains invisible. Did it sit down its search planes and sneak through my sub pickets into the Blind Zone or did Tophat withdraw it after being spotted? More Japanese subs keep on appearing around Hawaii, so Tophat is definitely scouting around. And why hasn't he made any move into the New Britain/PNG/Solomons areas, other than having some subs scout around? Meanwhile, SIGINT brought some very odd news this turn - 110K men are reported at Camranh Bay. Huh??? Why; and where are they going to go? [&:]
Perplexing Intel aside, this was definitely a day of Sub War. A ML TF on the way from Palmyra to Canton "ran over" I-8 about halfway between the two bases, but missed it with their depth charges. And the transport escorts out in the far southeastern Pacific route dropped more depth charges on I-17 but missed it also. At the same time my subs in the DEI were busy and one of them sank an AK during a flurry of attacks.
In the air war, Tophat sent bombers and escorts simultaneously over Balikpapan this time, resulting in more Brewsters being shot down. I will probably need to abandon Balikpapan soon. But since my planes hit another ship (an MSW) off of Brunei this turn, I'm reluctant to pull them out yet. Tophat didn't send any air attacks to Singapore, so my attempted surprise didn't work. Therefore I pulled my fighters back since Tophat likely knows they are there and will probably do a Zero sweep.
On the ground, Tophat finally started to land some troops at Jolo. I wonder why he waited so long? I pulled the base force out of there long ago - there are much better places for them to rest and recover. Tophat's troops attempted a Deliberate Attack at Brunei, but only got 1:1 odds. They will likely capture it next turn. And Tophat's troops at Clark Field didn’t do anything this turn as they rested from last turn's unsuccessful attack. But my troops were happy to bombard them.
Dave Baranyi
The KB remains invisible. Did it sit down its search planes and sneak through my sub pickets into the Blind Zone or did Tophat withdraw it after being spotted? More Japanese subs keep on appearing around Hawaii, so Tophat is definitely scouting around. And why hasn't he made any move into the New Britain/PNG/Solomons areas, other than having some subs scout around? Meanwhile, SIGINT brought some very odd news this turn - 110K men are reported at Camranh Bay. Huh??? Why; and where are they going to go? [&:]
Perplexing Intel aside, this was definitely a day of Sub War. A ML TF on the way from Palmyra to Canton "ran over" I-8 about halfway between the two bases, but missed it with their depth charges. And the transport escorts out in the far southeastern Pacific route dropped more depth charges on I-17 but missed it also. At the same time my subs in the DEI were busy and one of them sank an AK during a flurry of attacks.
In the air war, Tophat sent bombers and escorts simultaneously over Balikpapan this time, resulting in more Brewsters being shot down. I will probably need to abandon Balikpapan soon. But since my planes hit another ship (an MSW) off of Brunei this turn, I'm reluctant to pull them out yet. Tophat didn't send any air attacks to Singapore, so my attempted surprise didn't work. Therefore I pulled my fighters back since Tophat likely knows they are there and will probably do a Zero sweep.
On the ground, Tophat finally started to land some troops at Jolo. I wonder why he waited so long? I pulled the base force out of there long ago - there are much better places for them to rest and recover. Tophat's troops attempted a Deliberate Attack at Brunei, but only got 1:1 odds. They will likely capture it next turn. And Tophat's troops at Clark Field didn’t do anything this turn as they rested from last turn's unsuccessful attack. But my troops were happy to bombard them.
Dave Baranyi
Now, Air Wars...
January 30 -
There is still no sign of the KB in the Eastern Pacific, so I'm relaxing my alert level a bit and letting my combat TFs return to Pearl at "mission" speed. My sub picket lines are firming up and I believe that now I can find out whatever I need in time to be able to respond.
Another Japanese sub showed up near French Frigate Shoals - it is moving west and probably going for a fill-up after sitting around to the East with no traffic moving by. There is also a Glen-equipped sub off of Canton. It spotted my ML TF whipping along at 28 knots without identifying the ship-types. With any luck Tophat will think that one of my combat TFs is down there.
Some place called "Galeia" was occupied by the Japanese this turn; probably via "troop osmosis". Tophat's troops also captured an empty Jolo and other troops finally pushed my Brit base force out of Brunei. They held up quite well there.
Tophat sent escorted bombers against Balikpapan again, and once again my Brewsters got decimated. I've been flying in a fresh fighter squadron each turn and flying out the shot-up squadron. Despite having the airfield bombed my Martin 139s in Balikpapan were able to fly out and attack a transport TF at Brunei, hitting one DD. And near Sinkep Island my bombers from Java attacked a transport TF, hitting two APs. Tophat is finding out that I will defend some areas.
Dave Baranyi
There is still no sign of the KB in the Eastern Pacific, so I'm relaxing my alert level a bit and letting my combat TFs return to Pearl at "mission" speed. My sub picket lines are firming up and I believe that now I can find out whatever I need in time to be able to respond.
Another Japanese sub showed up near French Frigate Shoals - it is moving west and probably going for a fill-up after sitting around to the East with no traffic moving by. There is also a Glen-equipped sub off of Canton. It spotted my ML TF whipping along at 28 knots without identifying the ship-types. With any luck Tophat will think that one of my combat TFs is down there.
Some place called "Galeia" was occupied by the Japanese this turn; probably via "troop osmosis". Tophat's troops also captured an empty Jolo and other troops finally pushed my Brit base force out of Brunei. They held up quite well there.
Tophat sent escorted bombers against Balikpapan again, and once again my Brewsters got decimated. I've been flying in a fresh fighter squadron each turn and flying out the shot-up squadron. Despite having the airfield bombed my Martin 139s in Balikpapan were able to fly out and attack a transport TF at Brunei, hitting one DD. And near Sinkep Island my bombers from Java attacked a transport TF, hitting two APs. Tophat is finding out that I will defend some areas.
Dave Baranyi
Sumatra threatened...
January 31 -
There is still no sign of the KB, so I've decided to send a couple of "canaries into the coal mine". I created two small TFs in San Francisco - each one consisting of a single small AK and a single MSW as an escort. I'm loading them with supplies and sending one to Lahina and the other to Hilo along the normal Central route across the Eastern Pacific. If the KB and/or subs are out there waiting, this ought to draw them out. In the meanwhile I am continuing to set up my submarine picket lines (yes, that is lines; "plural") in the Central Pacific.
The action in the DEI continues to heat up. Tophat is bombing Tarakan and Balikpapan every turn now. The airfield at Tarakan is wrecked, but that doesn't matter because I pulled my planes out of there quite a while ago. I am still fighting at Balikpapan, and still losing Brewsters to Tophat's Zeros, but between the sacrifices of the Brewsters and the AA fire of my troops, Tophat's bombers haven't been able to do any cumulative damage to the airfields at Balikpapan yet. Therefore, my bombers at Balikpapan continue to be able to harass Tophat's ships off of Brunei, despite the presence now of Oscars on CAP there. This turn my Martin 139s sank an MSW and set an AP on fire off shore.
The other action in the DEI is happening at Sumatra where Tophat has a transport TF heading for Jambi. This is the same TF that my bombers hit last turn, but the ships are still steaming onwards. This turn Tophat had some Zeros on LR CAP over the TF and so my bombers and escorts had to fight their way through it and ended up unsuccessfully attacking a CA that is in the invasion TF. But I am prepared to respond on the waves as well as in the air, and have a Dutch PT TF waiting in Jambi as well as a second one on its way. Surprisingly, Tophat doesn't seem to have a combat TF going in along with the transport TF to clear the way first, so my PTs might have an opportunity with that and get lucky.
In Asia proper, Tophat is preparing an assault on Wuchow and has kicked out the unit that I had sitting on the crossroads in-between Wuchow and Canton. I have a lot of units on the road to the East - if Tophat disregards them and goes directly for Wuchow I'll simply move back into that crossroads hex and try to cut his forces off. Tophat is on the move almost everywhere in China simultaneously, so the situation there ought to get complicated fairly soon.
Burma, on the other hand, remains quiet. Tophat seems content to leave his two units in Mandalay, and I am content to bomb them on a daily basis. The first of my Chinese units reached Myitkyina today and others are following, as are the units who are nearing Lashio, so I ought to have the Burma Road fairly well secured soon. My general defensive strategy in India is also coming together nicely and within a few days the last unoccupied base in India will have a base force unit in it. I also have the British fleet strategically positioned, with lots of air backup, so I am starting to feel fairly comfortable about the situation in India. Now, if Tophat decides to embark those four divisions, or whatever he has in Camranh Bay, and send them to India along with the KB things will get interesting, but I still think that I can bog down any serious invasion and repel any raids.
In the Philippines, Tophat's forces continue to exchange artillery fire with my forces at Clark Field and also bomb various units there from the air. I expect that the next serious attack there will breach my defences. Never-the-less, I am quite pleased with how well my troops have held up - Tophat has a lot of units at Clark Field and more on the way. BTW - Catanduanes was occupied by "troop osmosis" this turn.
In the build-up activities, the big news this turn was that I was finally able to upgrade those B-18s in Pearl to A-20Bs. Sure, A-20Bs aren't the best bomber in the world, but there are lots of them and they are certainly better than B-18s. This also allows my B-18 groups in the West Coast to finally fill-in to near maximum.
Dave Baranyi
There is still no sign of the KB, so I've decided to send a couple of "canaries into the coal mine". I created two small TFs in San Francisco - each one consisting of a single small AK and a single MSW as an escort. I'm loading them with supplies and sending one to Lahina and the other to Hilo along the normal Central route across the Eastern Pacific. If the KB and/or subs are out there waiting, this ought to draw them out. In the meanwhile I am continuing to set up my submarine picket lines (yes, that is lines; "plural") in the Central Pacific.
The action in the DEI continues to heat up. Tophat is bombing Tarakan and Balikpapan every turn now. The airfield at Tarakan is wrecked, but that doesn't matter because I pulled my planes out of there quite a while ago. I am still fighting at Balikpapan, and still losing Brewsters to Tophat's Zeros, but between the sacrifices of the Brewsters and the AA fire of my troops, Tophat's bombers haven't been able to do any cumulative damage to the airfields at Balikpapan yet. Therefore, my bombers at Balikpapan continue to be able to harass Tophat's ships off of Brunei, despite the presence now of Oscars on CAP there. This turn my Martin 139s sank an MSW and set an AP on fire off shore.
The other action in the DEI is happening at Sumatra where Tophat has a transport TF heading for Jambi. This is the same TF that my bombers hit last turn, but the ships are still steaming onwards. This turn Tophat had some Zeros on LR CAP over the TF and so my bombers and escorts had to fight their way through it and ended up unsuccessfully attacking a CA that is in the invasion TF. But I am prepared to respond on the waves as well as in the air, and have a Dutch PT TF waiting in Jambi as well as a second one on its way. Surprisingly, Tophat doesn't seem to have a combat TF going in along with the transport TF to clear the way first, so my PTs might have an opportunity with that and get lucky.
In Asia proper, Tophat is preparing an assault on Wuchow and has kicked out the unit that I had sitting on the crossroads in-between Wuchow and Canton. I have a lot of units on the road to the East - if Tophat disregards them and goes directly for Wuchow I'll simply move back into that crossroads hex and try to cut his forces off. Tophat is on the move almost everywhere in China simultaneously, so the situation there ought to get complicated fairly soon.
Burma, on the other hand, remains quiet. Tophat seems content to leave his two units in Mandalay, and I am content to bomb them on a daily basis. The first of my Chinese units reached Myitkyina today and others are following, as are the units who are nearing Lashio, so I ought to have the Burma Road fairly well secured soon. My general defensive strategy in India is also coming together nicely and within a few days the last unoccupied base in India will have a base force unit in it. I also have the British fleet strategically positioned, with lots of air backup, so I am starting to feel fairly comfortable about the situation in India. Now, if Tophat decides to embark those four divisions, or whatever he has in Camranh Bay, and send them to India along with the KB things will get interesting, but I still think that I can bog down any serious invasion and repel any raids.
In the Philippines, Tophat's forces continue to exchange artillery fire with my forces at Clark Field and also bomb various units there from the air. I expect that the next serious attack there will breach my defences. Never-the-less, I am quite pleased with how well my troops have held up - Tophat has a lot of units at Clark Field and more on the way. BTW - Catanduanes was occupied by "troop osmosis" this turn.
In the build-up activities, the big news this turn was that I was finally able to upgrade those B-18s in Pearl to A-20Bs. Sure, A-20Bs aren't the best bomber in the world, but there are lots of them and they are certainly better than B-18s. This also allows my B-18 groups in the West Coast to finally fill-in to near maximum.
Dave Baranyi
February 1, 1942 Update
Here is a screen cap of the Intel screen with score, losses and so on. I'm quite happy with the low numbers of aircraft that I've lost.
Dave Baranyi
Dave Baranyi
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RE: February 1, 1942 Update
Here's a screen cap of the Japanese ship losses. Notice that most are due to submarine or air attacks. I have deliberately avoided committing my major surface combat ships to-date.
Dave Baranyi
Dave Baranyi
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- IJNLossesFeb1.jpg (55.33 KiB) Viewed 383 times
Dutch blasters...
February 1 -
The first of February brought a fair amount of good news for the Allied cause. First off, there was no sign of the KB. Next, the Houston received its first upgrade without a hitch. (The other Northampton-class cruisers will be back in port soon to receive their upgrades.) And for the second month in a row there was no British ship recall. That's particularly important because I am low on political points and I didn't want to either lose any ppints or give up any ships.
And in combat there was even better (and funnier) news - the Japanese task force that was heading for Jambi ran off when it detected "enemy task forces". Those "enemies" happen to consist of two task forces containing two Dutch PT boats in each, [:D] but that's what happens when you send an invasion TF in without a combat TF to clear the way.
So while Tophat is being rather cavalier about sending his surface combat ships into harm's way, he isn't shy about putting LR CAP over his TFs. Once again my brave (but ill-equipped) Dutch pilots flew after Japanese naval targets, but the escorts were decimated by enemy fighters and the bombers by flak, so they didn't get any hits this time.
In other news, Tophat now has two Glen-equipped subs in the southeastern Pacific - one near the Line Islands and the other southeast of Hawaii. I can't imagine that he will risk sending the KB that far away from fuel just to go after transports, so I'm not too worried about those subs. Also, I've got plenty of escorts with my TFs, so eventually I'll catch those subs anyway.
And on the land, Tophat's troops have disappeared from Mandalay. Did he pull them back to keep me from bombing them or has he sent them forward to Lashio and Myitkyina? More Chinese troops are moving into both bases on a daily basis, so I'm not too worried about his troops moving forward. And I've also reinforced all of the bases at the Indian border, so any land movement there will be met by impassible roads, malaria and lots of bombers. In any event, I've increased my recon in that area in case I can find out his plans.
Dave Baranyi
The first of February brought a fair amount of good news for the Allied cause. First off, there was no sign of the KB. Next, the Houston received its first upgrade without a hitch. (The other Northampton-class cruisers will be back in port soon to receive their upgrades.) And for the second month in a row there was no British ship recall. That's particularly important because I am low on political points and I didn't want to either lose any ppints or give up any ships.
And in combat there was even better (and funnier) news - the Japanese task force that was heading for Jambi ran off when it detected "enemy task forces". Those "enemies" happen to consist of two task forces containing two Dutch PT boats in each, [:D] but that's what happens when you send an invasion TF in without a combat TF to clear the way.
So while Tophat is being rather cavalier about sending his surface combat ships into harm's way, he isn't shy about putting LR CAP over his TFs. Once again my brave (but ill-equipped) Dutch pilots flew after Japanese naval targets, but the escorts were decimated by enemy fighters and the bombers by flak, so they didn't get any hits this time.
In other news, Tophat now has two Glen-equipped subs in the southeastern Pacific - one near the Line Islands and the other southeast of Hawaii. I can't imagine that he will risk sending the KB that far away from fuel just to go after transports, so I'm not too worried about those subs. Also, I've got plenty of escorts with my TFs, so eventually I'll catch those subs anyway.
And on the land, Tophat's troops have disappeared from Mandalay. Did he pull them back to keep me from bombing them or has he sent them forward to Lashio and Myitkyina? More Chinese troops are moving into both bases on a daily basis, so I'm not too worried about his troops moving forward. And I've also reinforced all of the bases at the Indian border, so any land movement there will be met by impassible roads, malaria and lots of bombers. In any event, I've increased my recon in that area in case I can find out his plans.
Dave Baranyi
RE: Dutch blasters...
February 2 -
The "Dutch Blasters" struck fear into the hearts of TF 43 again and the invasion was once more called off. This time, however, Tophat decided to send a task force of three DDs to try to deal with my PT boats. But on the way in the DDs were attacked by my ever dangerous Martin 139s and one DD was hit and set on fire. So when the DDs slugged it out with one of my PT TFs, only one PT was sunk. I still have more PTs in the area, so I'll send them all in to Jambi this turn.
While Tophat is having some problems with his naval forces, his air forces aren't having anywhere near so much trouble with the Dutch. Tophat started a bombing campaign against Palembang this turn, destroying or damaging a number of my planes, and he did a serious Zero sweep of Balikpapan, creaming the fighters I had there. It's a good thing that Tophat is still using his Nells and Bettys in other regions or I would be in real trouble in the DEI.
In ground action, Tophat's troops captured Dadjangas in one shock attack, wiping out the remaining troops of Mindanao. His artillery bombardments of Clark Field are also getting much stronger. I'm going to try to move some forces out from Bataan to delay the inevitable for a while. As long as Tophat doesn't do a serious ground attack in the next turn I ought to get away with it.
In the realm of scouting and recon, it turns out that Tophat's troops are still in Mandalay. That's good, and it means that I have more time to get Chinese troops into Lashio and Myitkyina and more time to bomb Mandalay. In addition, while dropping off a load of mines at Kwajalein, the Argonaut noticed a TF with some CAs in it. I wonder what Tophat intends to do with it?
Dave Baranyi
The "Dutch Blasters" struck fear into the hearts of TF 43 again and the invasion was once more called off. This time, however, Tophat decided to send a task force of three DDs to try to deal with my PT boats. But on the way in the DDs were attacked by my ever dangerous Martin 139s and one DD was hit and set on fire. So when the DDs slugged it out with one of my PT TFs, only one PT was sunk. I still have more PTs in the area, so I'll send them all in to Jambi this turn.
While Tophat is having some problems with his naval forces, his air forces aren't having anywhere near so much trouble with the Dutch. Tophat started a bombing campaign against Palembang this turn, destroying or damaging a number of my planes, and he did a serious Zero sweep of Balikpapan, creaming the fighters I had there. It's a good thing that Tophat is still using his Nells and Bettys in other regions or I would be in real trouble in the DEI.
In ground action, Tophat's troops captured Dadjangas in one shock attack, wiping out the remaining troops of Mindanao. His artillery bombardments of Clark Field are also getting much stronger. I'm going to try to move some forces out from Bataan to delay the inevitable for a while. As long as Tophat doesn't do a serious ground attack in the next turn I ought to get away with it.
In the realm of scouting and recon, it turns out that Tophat's troops are still in Mandalay. That's good, and it means that I have more time to get Chinese troops into Lashio and Myitkyina and more time to bomb Mandalay. In addition, while dropping off a load of mines at Kwajalein, the Argonaut noticed a TF with some CAs in it. I wonder what Tophat intends to do with it?
Dave Baranyi
RE: Dutch blasters...
February 3 -
It's just as well that I've sent most everyone else home - the Dutch Blasters may very well win this war on their own. [:D] For the third turn in a row the Japanese invasion TF turned back from Jambi, even though this time it finally stood and fought, and eventually sank the two Dutch PTs that stood in its way. Let's put things in perspective - the Japanese TF contains the heavy cruiser Chokai, four DDs, 4 MSWs and 3 PGs, so it's not surprising that my PTs got wiped. But it is still funny that the Japanese TF won't land its troops.
BTW - two of the three Japanese DDs from the SC TF of the day before came back and faced the lone survivor of the previous battle. This time the Dutch PT was on a roll and put a torpedo and 6 machine gun hits into one of the thin-skinned Japanese DDs. Later on the now pretty much "toothless" Dutch PT faced off with the remaining DD again, but they both "blinked" and the PT got an opportunity to replenish itself and "play hero" again for the next turn.
Meanwhile in the air war in the DEI, Tophat's forces are slowly but surely wearing down the Dutch. He sent his Sallys against Palembang while he sent Zeros and Bettys from Menado against Balikpapan. That's actually good information from my p.o.v. - now I know that the waters to the South of Menado are no longer safe for my ships because of those Bettys. And in preparation of the eventual ground war in the main islands of the DEI I have started to go through and change the leaders of the Dutch LCUs. I've found that better leaders can make a big difference in combat, and so it is well worth the price in political points for me to change them. I can always change them back to lousy leaders once they are trapped and are about to be wiped out.
In the Philippines Tophat's forces captured Tawi-Tawi, so the noose continues to close on my troops in Luzon. One thing I noticed while browsing my replacements listing was that I have accumulated a bunch of Philippine troop replacements. I have had "replacements off" in the Philippines because I didn't want to lose troops there that I would prefer to use elsewhere, but I can't use the Philippine replacements elsewhere, so I set the Philippine-only units to "replacements on" while leaving the US units set to "replacements off". Sure, that will use up more supply, but it might also cause the Japanese assault to drag out a bit longer.
My SIGINT has told me that Tophat is moving an armoured unit in Burma. I presume that it is going into battle, and not the other direction. That's okay, my troops are almost completely in position and I don't mind having more targets to bomb. My daily bombing raids on Mandalay continue to be unopposed and so my pilots get more experience while causing casualties on a regular basis as well as damaging the facilities. I'm surprised that Tophat hasn't moved a base force in yet so that he can put up some CAP, but I'll continue to "count my blessings" and keep on with this routine as long as he allows me to do so.
Last but not least, things were totally quiet in the Eastern Pacific. There were no sightings of the KB, nor of subs, and no Glens spotted any of my TFs. So I'll just continue with my "…while the Cat's away" routine. [;)]
Dave Baranyi
It's just as well that I've sent most everyone else home - the Dutch Blasters may very well win this war on their own. [:D] For the third turn in a row the Japanese invasion TF turned back from Jambi, even though this time it finally stood and fought, and eventually sank the two Dutch PTs that stood in its way. Let's put things in perspective - the Japanese TF contains the heavy cruiser Chokai, four DDs, 4 MSWs and 3 PGs, so it's not surprising that my PTs got wiped. But it is still funny that the Japanese TF won't land its troops.
BTW - two of the three Japanese DDs from the SC TF of the day before came back and faced the lone survivor of the previous battle. This time the Dutch PT was on a roll and put a torpedo and 6 machine gun hits into one of the thin-skinned Japanese DDs. Later on the now pretty much "toothless" Dutch PT faced off with the remaining DD again, but they both "blinked" and the PT got an opportunity to replenish itself and "play hero" again for the next turn.
Meanwhile in the air war in the DEI, Tophat's forces are slowly but surely wearing down the Dutch. He sent his Sallys against Palembang while he sent Zeros and Bettys from Menado against Balikpapan. That's actually good information from my p.o.v. - now I know that the waters to the South of Menado are no longer safe for my ships because of those Bettys. And in preparation of the eventual ground war in the main islands of the DEI I have started to go through and change the leaders of the Dutch LCUs. I've found that better leaders can make a big difference in combat, and so it is well worth the price in political points for me to change them. I can always change them back to lousy leaders once they are trapped and are about to be wiped out.
In the Philippines Tophat's forces captured Tawi-Tawi, so the noose continues to close on my troops in Luzon. One thing I noticed while browsing my replacements listing was that I have accumulated a bunch of Philippine troop replacements. I have had "replacements off" in the Philippines because I didn't want to lose troops there that I would prefer to use elsewhere, but I can't use the Philippine replacements elsewhere, so I set the Philippine-only units to "replacements on" while leaving the US units set to "replacements off". Sure, that will use up more supply, but it might also cause the Japanese assault to drag out a bit longer.
My SIGINT has told me that Tophat is moving an armoured unit in Burma. I presume that it is going into battle, and not the other direction. That's okay, my troops are almost completely in position and I don't mind having more targets to bomb. My daily bombing raids on Mandalay continue to be unopposed and so my pilots get more experience while causing casualties on a regular basis as well as damaging the facilities. I'm surprised that Tophat hasn't moved a base force in yet so that he can put up some CAP, but I'll continue to "count my blessings" and keep on with this routine as long as he allows me to do so.
Last but not least, things were totally quiet in the Eastern Pacific. There were no sightings of the KB, nor of subs, and no Glens spotted any of my TFs. So I'll just continue with my "…while the Cat's away" routine. [;)]
Dave Baranyi
Singapore slings...
February 4 -
Tophat tried his first assault on Singapore today and I'm pretty certain this is not what he was planning…
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Singapore
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 50628 troops, 538 guns, 12 vehicles
Defending force 55555 troops, 431 guns, 12 vehicles
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 7)
Japanese ground losses:
6137 casualties reported
Guns lost 147
Vehicles lost 3
Allied ground losses:
217 casualties reported
Guns lost 20
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I guess that his troops marched in piecemeal, and without any engineers.
Tophat's forces were more successful in Sumatra where they were finally able to force a landing at Jambi. One of my remaining Dutch PTs ran into a new surface combat force consisting of a CA and three DDs. There was a standoff during their first meeting but the Japanese force finally performed "as advertised" and wiped out the PT the next time. I'm sending the last PT in the region in next turn just in case it can sneak by the combat ships and find the transports, but I doubt that it will be that lucky.
Likewise, luck is no longer with my Dutch flyboys. They are tiring out and getting pretty worn down, so they aren't reaching any targets any more. Tophat's Zeros and Bettys have made Balikpapan untenable so I've pulled my bombers and fighters out of there. I'll probably pull my search planes out next turn too. Elsewhere in the DEI, Tophat landed troops at Miri. My troops there have already been kicked out of Brunei, so they won't last long and the north coast of Borneo will belong to the Japanese.
In Burma Tophat has a unit just outside of Lashio. I've targeted it with bombers and have a number of troops waiting for it. We'll see how well it can perform under malarial conditions with its supply line at Mandalay being bombed on a daily basis. In China Tophat is pressuring me at multiple locations, so I am trying to "push back" and keep him off balance. He isn't sending any "serious" air units at me so I've also left the air battle to the Chinese.
Things are quiet on the other fronts, with the exception that Tophat has to sweep sub-laid mines out of Kwajalein. The big news on the build-up side of things is that the rest of my Northampton class cruisers received their February 1942 upgrades with no problems. The next ships due for upgrade are Saratoga and Lexington in March, so I'm keeping them close to port and avoiding adding unnecessary system damage while I'm waiting. There aren't any useful targets for them anyway, so there is no point to put them at risk at this time.
Dave Baranyi
Tophat tried his first assault on Singapore today and I'm pretty certain this is not what he was planning…
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Singapore
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 50628 troops, 538 guns, 12 vehicles
Defending force 55555 troops, 431 guns, 12 vehicles
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 7)
Japanese ground losses:
6137 casualties reported
Guns lost 147
Vehicles lost 3
Allied ground losses:
217 casualties reported
Guns lost 20
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I guess that his troops marched in piecemeal, and without any engineers.
Tophat's forces were more successful in Sumatra where they were finally able to force a landing at Jambi. One of my remaining Dutch PTs ran into a new surface combat force consisting of a CA and three DDs. There was a standoff during their first meeting but the Japanese force finally performed "as advertised" and wiped out the PT the next time. I'm sending the last PT in the region in next turn just in case it can sneak by the combat ships and find the transports, but I doubt that it will be that lucky.
Likewise, luck is no longer with my Dutch flyboys. They are tiring out and getting pretty worn down, so they aren't reaching any targets any more. Tophat's Zeros and Bettys have made Balikpapan untenable so I've pulled my bombers and fighters out of there. I'll probably pull my search planes out next turn too. Elsewhere in the DEI, Tophat landed troops at Miri. My troops there have already been kicked out of Brunei, so they won't last long and the north coast of Borneo will belong to the Japanese.
In Burma Tophat has a unit just outside of Lashio. I've targeted it with bombers and have a number of troops waiting for it. We'll see how well it can perform under malarial conditions with its supply line at Mandalay being bombed on a daily basis. In China Tophat is pressuring me at multiple locations, so I am trying to "push back" and keep him off balance. He isn't sending any "serious" air units at me so I've also left the air battle to the Chinese.
Things are quiet on the other fronts, with the exception that Tophat has to sweep sub-laid mines out of Kwajalein. The big news on the build-up side of things is that the rest of my Northampton class cruisers received their February 1942 upgrades with no problems. The next ships due for upgrade are Saratoga and Lexington in March, so I'm keeping them close to port and avoiding adding unnecessary system damage while I'm waiting. There aren't any useful targets for them anyway, so there is no point to put them at risk at this time.
Dave Baranyi
RE: Singapore slings...
February 5 -
Tophat got the Japanese forces a bit back on track this turn. His land forces captured Jambi and Miri, landed at Zamboanga and shock-attacked Singapore again as more troops moved into position. Although the result was again 0:1, this time the Japanese losses weren't as bad. (And the losses last time were mainly disruption anyway.)
Tophat's air forces continued their control of the skies over the DEI as they attacked Palembang, Balikpapan, Kendari and Amboina. The Dutch air force is no longer able to mount much of a defense at all. My efforts to exchange those Australian Wirraways for Hurricanes is looking better and better with each passing turn - eventually I will need some type of semi-decent fighters to put into the sky.
So all I can do for the most part right now is to keep to my rebuilding plan. As part of that I exchanged one of the last two groups of B-18s for Liberators. As with my other long range bombers I will set those Liberators on naval air patrol, but it is still nice to have them in my "back pocket" in case Tophat gets a bit too aggressive.
Dave Baranyi
Tophat got the Japanese forces a bit back on track this turn. His land forces captured Jambi and Miri, landed at Zamboanga and shock-attacked Singapore again as more troops moved into position. Although the result was again 0:1, this time the Japanese losses weren't as bad. (And the losses last time were mainly disruption anyway.)
Tophat's air forces continued their control of the skies over the DEI as they attacked Palembang, Balikpapan, Kendari and Amboina. The Dutch air force is no longer able to mount much of a defense at all. My efforts to exchange those Australian Wirraways for Hurricanes is looking better and better with each passing turn - eventually I will need some type of semi-decent fighters to put into the sky.
So all I can do for the most part right now is to keep to my rebuilding plan. As part of that I exchanged one of the last two groups of B-18s for Liberators. As with my other long range bombers I will set those Liberators on naval air patrol, but it is still nice to have them in my "back pocket" in case Tophat gets a bit too aggressive.
Dave Baranyi
RE: Singapore slings...
February 6 -
Once again, there weren't a lot of "positives" to report for the Allied side. Japanese air power continues to wipe the skies clean of Allied planes in the DEI. Only in Burma are Allied planes accomplishing anything in their aerial bombardments of Mandalay and the 33rd Division, but there isn't any Japanese aerial opposition there, so it's hard to compare that against the slaughter in the DEI. I'm running out of places to "hide" my Dutch planes to let them recover.
In the land war, Japanese troops captured Zamboanga this turn against no opposition. Tophat is also starting to mass troops near Hangchow and just kicked out the unit that I had there in the crossroads just to the East. So it looks like Hangchow is next in line for the Japanese "sledgehammer". Tophat finally got to start an artillery duel at Singapore rather than have his troops forced to do shock attacks at poor odds. He seems rather surprised that my troops are responding as well as they are. Maybe he thought that I had pulled combat troops out instead of the non-combat units that I actually moved to India. And at Clark Field Tophat's ever increasingly effective artillery barrages just incapacitated another LCU. I've been steadily shifting worn out LCUs to Manila and pulling still effective LCUs out of Bataan. By the time Tophat gets to Bataan there will be little there to stop him. I'm just lucky that Tophat never put a unit in Manila - since I have been able to retreat units into Manila it will make it harder for him to take it once he finally captures Clark.
In the "upgrade war", I was able to upgrade the last group of B-18s - this time to B-25Cs. Now all of my bomber units are reasonably "modern". I also finally got to upgrade that P-36 squad in Anchorage to P-40Es. This means that I will now have enough P-36s in stock to fill-in the remaining groups in the West Coast. Now all I have to do is collect another two dozen P-40Es over the next couple of weeks and I will be able to upgrade the P-35s and be done with the obsolete fighters in the front lines. BTW - thanks to supplies going into the Northern Australian bases I was able to upgrade another two Hudson units to Beauforts. I'll take torpedoes over range any day at this stage of the war. And soon I'll be able to upgrade the last of the Wirraway units to Hurricanes, which will make all the difference in the world once Tophat starts to send bombers against Australia.
Dave Baranyi
Once again, there weren't a lot of "positives" to report for the Allied side. Japanese air power continues to wipe the skies clean of Allied planes in the DEI. Only in Burma are Allied planes accomplishing anything in their aerial bombardments of Mandalay and the 33rd Division, but there isn't any Japanese aerial opposition there, so it's hard to compare that against the slaughter in the DEI. I'm running out of places to "hide" my Dutch planes to let them recover.
In the land war, Japanese troops captured Zamboanga this turn against no opposition. Tophat is also starting to mass troops near Hangchow and just kicked out the unit that I had there in the crossroads just to the East. So it looks like Hangchow is next in line for the Japanese "sledgehammer". Tophat finally got to start an artillery duel at Singapore rather than have his troops forced to do shock attacks at poor odds. He seems rather surprised that my troops are responding as well as they are. Maybe he thought that I had pulled combat troops out instead of the non-combat units that I actually moved to India. And at Clark Field Tophat's ever increasingly effective artillery barrages just incapacitated another LCU. I've been steadily shifting worn out LCUs to Manila and pulling still effective LCUs out of Bataan. By the time Tophat gets to Bataan there will be little there to stop him. I'm just lucky that Tophat never put a unit in Manila - since I have been able to retreat units into Manila it will make it harder for him to take it once he finally captures Clark.
In the "upgrade war", I was able to upgrade the last group of B-18s - this time to B-25Cs. Now all of my bomber units are reasonably "modern". I also finally got to upgrade that P-36 squad in Anchorage to P-40Es. This means that I will now have enough P-36s in stock to fill-in the remaining groups in the West Coast. Now all I have to do is collect another two dozen P-40Es over the next couple of weeks and I will be able to upgrade the P-35s and be done with the obsolete fighters in the front lines. BTW - thanks to supplies going into the Northern Australian bases I was able to upgrade another two Hudson units to Beauforts. I'll take torpedoes over range any day at this stage of the war. And soon I'll be able to upgrade the last of the Wirraway units to Hurricanes, which will make all the difference in the world once Tophat starts to send bombers against Australia.
Dave Baranyi
Clark finally falls...
February 7 -
The troops that I sent to Clark from Bataan were too little - Tophat's troops finally did a deliberate attack and overwhelmed my defenders. Fortunately, my troops went to Manila rather than Bataan. So it looks as if Tophat ought to be able to take the rest of Luzon by the end of the month. Meanwhile in Singapore Tophat moved a couple of engineering groups in, once again triggering a shock attack. The result was the same; 0:1, but Tophat's losses continue to decrease in these encounters.
The air war in the DEI eased off a bit - it appears that even the Japanese have to rest their pilots once in a while. In China a more even-sided air war started with my I-16s against Tophat's Nates and Sonias. Let's just say that it "wasn't pretty" for either side. And my Dutch pilots continue to try to fight their way through the Japanese defenses, but they aren't having much luck - a bunch of my best Martin pilots attacked the surface combat TF off of Jambi, but only one plane was able to get a hit, and that was on the Chokai, so I doubt that there was any damage.
Elsewhere, things remain quiet with Tophat and I allowing each other to build up and position forces without much in the way of interference. One Japanese action of note: troops started to land at Kavieng. This finally announces the start of the Japanese push into the South Pacific. I'll watch Tophat's movements carefully, but for now I'm just grateful for the time that he has given me in that region.
Dave Baranyi
The troops that I sent to Clark from Bataan were too little - Tophat's troops finally did a deliberate attack and overwhelmed my defenders. Fortunately, my troops went to Manila rather than Bataan. So it looks as if Tophat ought to be able to take the rest of Luzon by the end of the month. Meanwhile in Singapore Tophat moved a couple of engineering groups in, once again triggering a shock attack. The result was the same; 0:1, but Tophat's losses continue to decrease in these encounters.
The air war in the DEI eased off a bit - it appears that even the Japanese have to rest their pilots once in a while. In China a more even-sided air war started with my I-16s against Tophat's Nates and Sonias. Let's just say that it "wasn't pretty" for either side. And my Dutch pilots continue to try to fight their way through the Japanese defenses, but they aren't having much luck - a bunch of my best Martin pilots attacked the surface combat TF off of Jambi, but only one plane was able to get a hit, and that was on the Chokai, so I doubt that there was any damage.
Elsewhere, things remain quiet with Tophat and I allowing each other to build up and position forces without much in the way of interference. One Japanese action of note: troops started to land at Kavieng. This finally announces the start of the Japanese push into the South Pacific. I'll watch Tophat's movements carefully, but for now I'm just grateful for the time that he has given me in that region.
Dave Baranyi
RE: Clark finally falls...
February 8 -
This was a fairly quiet turn. Japanese troops landed at Sandakan and captured Kavieng. And as usual, Japanese air power struck all over the Far East. So far Tophat hasn't moved his troops in the Philippines into either Bataan or Manila, and he hasn't moved in China recently, but it is only a matter of time.
But Tophat also isn't interfering with my build-up strategy, so I'm not doing anything to change what I am doing at this time. There are only 4 more days until my next big delivery of reinforcements.
Dave Baranyi
This was a fairly quiet turn. Japanese troops landed at Sandakan and captured Kavieng. And as usual, Japanese air power struck all over the Far East. So far Tophat hasn't moved his troops in the Philippines into either Bataan or Manila, and he hasn't moved in China recently, but it is only a matter of time.
But Tophat also isn't interfering with my build-up strategy, so I'm not doing anything to change what I am doing at this time. There are only 4 more days until my next big delivery of reinforcements.
Dave Baranyi
RE: Clark finally falls...
February 9 -
That "river shock attack" rule is taking me a long time to remember. And it doesn't help that I sometimes forget where I've sent land units. So this turn Tophat had a real "laugher" as a Chinese cavalry unit moved into the crossroads between Hangchow and Changsha and shock attacked 136,000+ Japanese troops! [X(] I had forgotten that I had ordered that unit to that location a number of turns back. Oh well, live and learn…
On the waters things were a bit better for me. One of my S-boats hit and sank a PC off of Menado while my Martins out of Palembang hit a PG off of Jambi. And that was despite the fact that Tophat had sent a bombardment TF into Palembang that first sank the last of my Dutch PTs in the area, then they bombarded the base, causing a fair amount of damage.
But what I can do in the air pales besides what Tophat can do when he wants. For example, this turn he sent 15 Bettys and 51 Zeros against Amboina, hammering my handful of Brewsters there so badly that I had to pull them right out. It looks as if Tophat has an invasion TF on its way to Amboina, or maybe Kendari, I'm not sure which yet. But I've got a number of subs along the route who will help spot, along with lots of Dutch bombers including the yet-unused Dutch torpedo bombers. And just for "good luck", I've also got a surface force in the area that doesn't consist of PTs… [;)]
In other news, Tophat's forces captured Sandakan. He is currently doing recon over the remaining isolated bases in the Philippines, and the first of his troops have moved in to Manila. The fortification level at Manila is only 2, and with all the refugees from Clark Field it won't last long against a strong attack. So I've ordered my remaining four infantry units from Bataan to move to Clark to tie up the Japanese forces there while they are split. My troops may well be blown right out of Clark, but if they aren't immediately this might throw a spanner into Tophat's plans.
Dave Baranyi
That "river shock attack" rule is taking me a long time to remember. And it doesn't help that I sometimes forget where I've sent land units. So this turn Tophat had a real "laugher" as a Chinese cavalry unit moved into the crossroads between Hangchow and Changsha and shock attacked 136,000+ Japanese troops! [X(] I had forgotten that I had ordered that unit to that location a number of turns back. Oh well, live and learn…
On the waters things were a bit better for me. One of my S-boats hit and sank a PC off of Menado while my Martins out of Palembang hit a PG off of Jambi. And that was despite the fact that Tophat had sent a bombardment TF into Palembang that first sank the last of my Dutch PTs in the area, then they bombarded the base, causing a fair amount of damage.
But what I can do in the air pales besides what Tophat can do when he wants. For example, this turn he sent 15 Bettys and 51 Zeros against Amboina, hammering my handful of Brewsters there so badly that I had to pull them right out. It looks as if Tophat has an invasion TF on its way to Amboina, or maybe Kendari, I'm not sure which yet. But I've got a number of subs along the route who will help spot, along with lots of Dutch bombers including the yet-unused Dutch torpedo bombers. And just for "good luck", I've also got a surface force in the area that doesn't consist of PTs… [;)]
In other news, Tophat's forces captured Sandakan. He is currently doing recon over the remaining isolated bases in the Philippines, and the first of his troops have moved in to Manila. The fortification level at Manila is only 2, and with all the refugees from Clark Field it won't last long against a strong attack. So I've ordered my remaining four infantry units from Bataan to move to Clark to tie up the Japanese forces there while they are split. My troops may well be blown right out of Clark, but if they aren't immediately this might throw a spanner into Tophat's plans.
Dave Baranyi
Huh???!!!
I keep track of things such as SIGINT, base captures and other interesting observations on a spreadsheet. I review SIGINT and the Ops reports while I set up a turn, but I find that copying over information into my spreadsheet brings things to light that I don't notice otherwise. Well, for the February 9th turn one bit of intelligence really caught my attention:
189219 men are based at Saipan.
HUH???!!! Almost 200K men at Saipan!!!!! [&:][&:][&:]
What the devil is Tophat intending? He certainly doesn't need those quantities of troops to take empty bases in the South Pacific.
He can't be considering a Hawaiian invasion this late in the game can he? Okay, February '42 isn't "late", but by the time he gets everyone on ships and across to Pearl it will be March, and since I haven't lost anything significant so far I have lots of forces with which to contest a Hawaiian invasion.
But then, he did try to interfere with my Eastern Pacific shipping for quite a while, and he hasn't done anything other than the Kavieng invasion as far as the South Pacific goes.
This will require some careful scrutiny...
Dave Baranyi
189219 men are based at Saipan.
HUH???!!! Almost 200K men at Saipan!!!!! [&:][&:][&:]
What the devil is Tophat intending? He certainly doesn't need those quantities of troops to take empty bases in the South Pacific.
He can't be considering a Hawaiian invasion this late in the game can he? Okay, February '42 isn't "late", but by the time he gets everyone on ships and across to Pearl it will be March, and since I haven't lost anything significant so far I have lots of forces with which to contest a Hawaiian invasion.
But then, he did try to interfere with my Eastern Pacific shipping for quite a while, and he hasn't done anything other than the Kavieng invasion as far as the South Pacific goes.
This will require some careful scrutiny...
Dave Baranyi