This is starting to get to the pointy end. With all those saved ACs you can look to open a large campaign.
I think what tophat means about supplies is the amount needed to run bombing missions - not replace lost ACs. Are these levels still OK? As a Jap player I like to hammer the resource locations in China and cut off the Burma trail for just this reason. Looks like Tophat has not tried this yet.
Sounds like Soerabaya is going to be a very tough nut for him to crack - supply created there and large forts - ouch. Watch out for port attacks to knock back you CD unit followed by heavy and repeated bombradments by his armoured turtles. I don't know what you can do to stop this - just something to watch I suppose - subs outside the port maybe???
Tophat vs ADavidB - Back at It
Moderators: wdolson, Don Bowen, mogami
RE: Fire Over China...
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RE: Fire Over China...
I may have to hire Dave to handle the logistics in...'our' late game [;)]
A man of the Doctors ability is just what the Empire needs to mobilize all its reserves for 'Total War'
since Dr Speer is already busy at it over in Germany!-)
A man of the Doctors ability is just what the Empire needs to mobilize all its reserves for 'Total War'
since Dr Speer is already busy at it over in Germany!-)
"The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without"
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
RE: Fire Over China...
ORIGINAL: wobbly
This is starting to get to the pointy end. With all those saved ACs you can look to open a large campaign.
I think what tophat means about supplies is the amount needed to run bombing missions - not replace lost ACs. Are these levels still OK? As a Jap player I like to hammer the resource locations in China and cut off the Burma trail for just this reason. Looks like Tophat has not tried this yet.
Sounds like Soerabaya is going to be a very tough nut for him to crack - supply created there and large forts - ouch. Watch out for port attacks to knock back you CD unit followed by heavy and repeated bombradments by his armoured turtles. I don't know what you can do to stop this - just something to watch I suppose - subs outside the port maybe???
I'm just trying to throw off Tophat's schedule - also, the more troops he moves forward the more problems he has with supply for himself. And yes, you do need ample supply for bombing runs, but nowhere what you need to repair and replace aircraft. I have lots of supply in central and western China - so that's where I have my long range Brit bombers. I'm also shuttling the fighters in and out of there.
Tophat nosed around Lashio early on after he took Mandalay, but he found a half dozen of the Chinese divisions that are assigned to SEAC, and the other half dozen are in Myityikana (sp?). As soon as his troops showed up the first time I started to bomb them from India - so he pulled back. It is miserably hard to mount an offensive campaign in Burma and it wasn't his priority at the time. Subsequently I have been building and building the fortifications at those bases and building up even more air bases in non-malarial India - so I'd more than welcome an attempt by the Japanese to take any of the jungle bases. I've also rested up all of the Burmese combat units back in non-malarial India. They are something to be seen when they are full strength and fully rested.
Meanwhile, I am hoping that Tophat sends some ships to try to bombard Soerabaja - I'd like to see how all of those 150mm and 120mm CD guns do. And as you mentioned, I've got lots and lots of supplies there to keep those guns shooting and to repair them.
So Tophat has his work cut out for him. What I am hoping is that he "over-commits" to China and/or Soerabaja which will allow me even more freedom of action in the theaters that are important to me.
Thanks for the comments -
Dave
RE: Fire Over China...
ORIGINAL: PzB
I may have to hire Dave to handle the logistics in...'our' late game [;)]
A man of the Doctors ability is just what the Empire needs to mobilize all its reserves for 'Total War'
since Dr Speer is already busy at it over in Germany!-)
Managing the Japanese logistics is too much like "work" for me...but thanks for the compliment!
Good luck -
Dave
Seventy Sallys Over Sian...
June 16 -
This was a turn where a some small things went okay and some small things didn't go okay, but all-in-all I was left with a dissatisfied feeling at the end. So, for example, my British bombers all flew this turn and generally hit their targets, but they didn't really accomplish much. And the latest fresh squadron of British Mohawks at Sian decimated the latest fresh squadron of Oscars to come in. But the following attack contained another squadron of Oscars and that good Daitai of Zeros. My Mohawks did well against the Oscars and actually shot up a number of Zeros. But by then the Mohawks had nothing left to throw at the 70 Sallys that were along. So the Sallys got to damage the airfield at Sian pretty good.
In light of this I pulled the last of my bombers out of Sian and decided against putting another squadron of Mohawks in. I'll let the remnants of the previous fighter squadrons fight it out with whatever happens to fly in. Instead I've moved all my Brit bombers to Chunking from where I am sending them all to Wuhan where those Sallys are operating from to see if I can damage that base seriously. This turn one squadron of bombers did hit Wuhan and did some damage. I've also moved some fighters close in to Wuhan in the hopes that they might also provide some escorts. But who knows - with the continuously stormy weather across the entire top third of the map and down along the right third of the map I'll be lucky if anything flies at all.
So while Tophat has been piling in planes in Eastern China, he has been pulling back his Zeros out of Koepang. I'm not sure why, unless he is trying to prepare himself for a potential raid by my Brit carrier TF. Certainly Tophat has spread out a lot more Bettys and Nells on naval search throughout the DEI. And as luck would have it, one of those Bettys spotted my Brit TF off of Java. So my hope at surprise is gone. This was my second big disappointment of the turn after having Sian shot up badly. In any event, with fewer Zeros in Koepang I am sending more bombers back. At least I am regularly shooting down Zeros there.
In other news, Tophat was able to automatically occupy Tassafaronga this turn. He still hasn't attacked Padang yet. The troops there shouldn't put up much of a fight because they don't have any supply and have been bombed back into the Stone Age. BTW - Tophat sent Japanese Army bombers back to Soerabaja this turn and they got the usual results - lots of planes damaged and a few casualties on the ground. Since Tophat has started his siege of Soerabaja the fighting strength of the Dutch troops there has actually gone up! [:D]
Dave Baranyi
This was a turn where a some small things went okay and some small things didn't go okay, but all-in-all I was left with a dissatisfied feeling at the end. So, for example, my British bombers all flew this turn and generally hit their targets, but they didn't really accomplish much. And the latest fresh squadron of British Mohawks at Sian decimated the latest fresh squadron of Oscars to come in. But the following attack contained another squadron of Oscars and that good Daitai of Zeros. My Mohawks did well against the Oscars and actually shot up a number of Zeros. But by then the Mohawks had nothing left to throw at the 70 Sallys that were along. So the Sallys got to damage the airfield at Sian pretty good.
In light of this I pulled the last of my bombers out of Sian and decided against putting another squadron of Mohawks in. I'll let the remnants of the previous fighter squadrons fight it out with whatever happens to fly in. Instead I've moved all my Brit bombers to Chunking from where I am sending them all to Wuhan where those Sallys are operating from to see if I can damage that base seriously. This turn one squadron of bombers did hit Wuhan and did some damage. I've also moved some fighters close in to Wuhan in the hopes that they might also provide some escorts. But who knows - with the continuously stormy weather across the entire top third of the map and down along the right third of the map I'll be lucky if anything flies at all.
So while Tophat has been piling in planes in Eastern China, he has been pulling back his Zeros out of Koepang. I'm not sure why, unless he is trying to prepare himself for a potential raid by my Brit carrier TF. Certainly Tophat has spread out a lot more Bettys and Nells on naval search throughout the DEI. And as luck would have it, one of those Bettys spotted my Brit TF off of Java. So my hope at surprise is gone. This was my second big disappointment of the turn after having Sian shot up badly. In any event, with fewer Zeros in Koepang I am sending more bombers back. At least I am regularly shooting down Zeros there.
In other news, Tophat was able to automatically occupy Tassafaronga this turn. He still hasn't attacked Padang yet. The troops there shouldn't put up much of a fight because they don't have any supply and have been bombed back into the Stone Age. BTW - Tophat sent Japanese Army bombers back to Soerabaja this turn and they got the usual results - lots of planes damaged and a few casualties on the ground. Since Tophat has started his siege of Soerabaja the fighting strength of the Dutch troops there has actually gone up! [:D]
Dave Baranyi
A Couple of Big "Ah $hits!!!"...
June 17 -
You know, this serves me right for trying to be "too cute". I deliberately did not put any troops into Baker Island so that I wouldn't attract Tophat's attention and start him on a build-up race in the Gilberts. Things were working fine and my plans were going along nicely, when, while looking over the operations report like usual, I suddenly noticed a sighting of 2 enemy ships at 93, 91. That wasn't one of the usual places to see a sighting, and two ships most likely meant that it wasn't just another sub returning from R&R. So I took a look in that region and suddenly froze - there was a TF at that location all right, and it contained two AKs, and it was only one hex NW of Baker Island and heading SE!
Ah $hit!!!!! Tophat decided to grab Baker since I didn't do anything about it. And while I have some combat ships in the region, they are all two days full speed away. Never-the-less I scrambled everything in the region into a mad dash towards Baker, including the useless picket-line subs that didn't spot the TF. Then I moved a group of B-24s to Canton and set them on to naval attack. Now, I don't normally use 4-E bombers on naval attack - I find them more useful for destroying bases. But I didn't have anything else that could get there. I also put together an AC TF with the Saratoga and Lexington along with plenty of cruisers and DDs and sent it towards Baker. Now, this could be part of a sophisticated trap by Tophat, but I've got to try to interrupt this plan. Otherwise I will have to re-jig my master plan, which I really didn't want to do.
In any event, that wasn't the only situation that caught me by surprise. Tophat had also moved LBA to all of his bases on Java and Sumatra and the Nells and Zeros at Batavia got "lucky" and spotted my Brit AC TF off of Sumatra. Two waves of attackers came in on the Brits, but the effect of "quantity over quality" came into play - despite being stuck with using Fulmars on CAP against a top notch Daitai of Zeros, my Fulmars held their own and not only fought the Zeros to a stand still but also shot down some Nells and caused the others to scatter. Well, I'm not going to trust my luck again, so I redirected the Brit TF further to the West/Northwest - I'm not sending them after that Japanese TF that is still at Padang any more.
Speaking of Padang, the Japanese troops captured it today and my troops surrendered. So organized resistance is now completely over in Sumatra. Java and Soerabaja is a different story, however, as once again the Dutch AA ravaged incoming Japanese Army bombers. But that wasn't all that was going on in the DEI. My Mitchells and Hudsons went after Koepang again, but it appears that Tophat did his own "switcheroo" and they ran into a tough squadron of Zeros. The B-17s that went in next did a fair amount of damage to the Zeros, but it looks as if I will have to pull those Mitchells and Hudsons out - they just can't take the pressure.
And to just get things a bit more complicated, Tophat sent a small AC TF out from Kendari. I don't think that he is going to try to chase the Brits - he is probably hoping to position himself to catch them returning to Australia. But I am still sending the Brits back to India - their current less-than-successful adventure is over.
In China, as I had predicted, the weather grounded my bombers, but it also grounded Tophat's bombers. But the weather didn't stop an attempted sweep of Sian by a Daitai of Zeros. This time it looks like Tophat was getting tired of having his Oscar Daitais wiped out and tried Zeros instead. I only had remnants in Sian but they stood up and held their own for the most part. Now I've reorganized my forces and, weather permitting, should be able to get a strong bombing raid off against Tophat's main air base next turn.
And in other news, Tophat started to land troops at Buna. Now with that potential mess at Baker Island, I am more than ever glad that I haven't invested any effort in a "death match" struggle in the PNG/Solomons Theater.
Dave Baranyi
You know, this serves me right for trying to be "too cute". I deliberately did not put any troops into Baker Island so that I wouldn't attract Tophat's attention and start him on a build-up race in the Gilberts. Things were working fine and my plans were going along nicely, when, while looking over the operations report like usual, I suddenly noticed a sighting of 2 enemy ships at 93, 91. That wasn't one of the usual places to see a sighting, and two ships most likely meant that it wasn't just another sub returning from R&R. So I took a look in that region and suddenly froze - there was a TF at that location all right, and it contained two AKs, and it was only one hex NW of Baker Island and heading SE!
Ah $hit!!!!! Tophat decided to grab Baker since I didn't do anything about it. And while I have some combat ships in the region, they are all two days full speed away. Never-the-less I scrambled everything in the region into a mad dash towards Baker, including the useless picket-line subs that didn't spot the TF. Then I moved a group of B-24s to Canton and set them on to naval attack. Now, I don't normally use 4-E bombers on naval attack - I find them more useful for destroying bases. But I didn't have anything else that could get there. I also put together an AC TF with the Saratoga and Lexington along with plenty of cruisers and DDs and sent it towards Baker. Now, this could be part of a sophisticated trap by Tophat, but I've got to try to interrupt this plan. Otherwise I will have to re-jig my master plan, which I really didn't want to do.
In any event, that wasn't the only situation that caught me by surprise. Tophat had also moved LBA to all of his bases on Java and Sumatra and the Nells and Zeros at Batavia got "lucky" and spotted my Brit AC TF off of Sumatra. Two waves of attackers came in on the Brits, but the effect of "quantity over quality" came into play - despite being stuck with using Fulmars on CAP against a top notch Daitai of Zeros, my Fulmars held their own and not only fought the Zeros to a stand still but also shot down some Nells and caused the others to scatter. Well, I'm not going to trust my luck again, so I redirected the Brit TF further to the West/Northwest - I'm not sending them after that Japanese TF that is still at Padang any more.
Speaking of Padang, the Japanese troops captured it today and my troops surrendered. So organized resistance is now completely over in Sumatra. Java and Soerabaja is a different story, however, as once again the Dutch AA ravaged incoming Japanese Army bombers. But that wasn't all that was going on in the DEI. My Mitchells and Hudsons went after Koepang again, but it appears that Tophat did his own "switcheroo" and they ran into a tough squadron of Zeros. The B-17s that went in next did a fair amount of damage to the Zeros, but it looks as if I will have to pull those Mitchells and Hudsons out - they just can't take the pressure.
And to just get things a bit more complicated, Tophat sent a small AC TF out from Kendari. I don't think that he is going to try to chase the Brits - he is probably hoping to position himself to catch them returning to Australia. But I am still sending the Brits back to India - their current less-than-successful adventure is over.
In China, as I had predicted, the weather grounded my bombers, but it also grounded Tophat's bombers. But the weather didn't stop an attempted sweep of Sian by a Daitai of Zeros. This time it looks like Tophat was getting tired of having his Oscar Daitais wiped out and tried Zeros instead. I only had remnants in Sian but they stood up and held their own for the most part. Now I've reorganized my forces and, weather permitting, should be able to get a strong bombing raid off against Tophat's main air base next turn.
And in other news, Tophat started to land troops at Buna. Now with that potential mess at Baker Island, I am more than ever glad that I haven't invested any effort in a "death match" struggle in the PNG/Solomons Theater.
Dave Baranyi
A Dog's Breakfast...
June 18 -
This was a real dog's breakfast of a turn, with most things falling Tophat's way except for the actions of the Brit carrier TF. First off, an ASW TF popped out of Rabaul to readily sink the Perch. Then, as expected, that Japanese TF near Baker Island did land troops on Baker. But as is to be expected when 4 out of the 9 weather regions have heavy precipitation, 2 have rain and the other 3 have clouds, Baker was rained in so my bombers didn't attack. So Tophat landed his troops unopposed and they took the empty island on a shock attack. And to help make me feel even madder at myself, Tophat not only landed a small NLF-type unit but also a base force. So afterwards there was immediately an air unit in place - either a patrol unit or a fighter unit.
It also turns out that the invasion TF at Baker isn't as small as it looked with the first report, so my impromptu combat TF of three DDs may well have much more than it can handle when it arrives there next turn. But within a couple of days I will have some serious forces at the spot and I don't intend to let that TF get back to port. In any event, if the ever-malevolent weather gods in this Game allow it next turn I've also set those B-24s in Canton to do an airfield attack on Baker. I intend to pound the forces at Baker into coral dust long before they have a chance to get organized.
Meanwhile in China the weather gods rained out the bomber attacks from both sides again. Tophat did get a fighter sweep off against Sian again. Once more, this was with Zeros instead of Oscars, but my Mohawks held their own quite respectably caused some losses:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Sian, at 47, 29
Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 27
Allied aircraft
Mohawk IV x 20
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 4 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
Mohawk IV: 9 destroyed, 1 damaged
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tophat also sent bombers against Wuchow for the second day in a row. I had moved one of my Chinese fighter units back in so they were able to disrupt the attack. I also further reorganized my Brit air units - if the @#$%^ weather cooperates next turn I ought to be able to launch a significant air attack on Tophat's main air base.
Elsewhere, Tophat launched more Japanese Army Air attacks against Soerabaja which again resulted in most of his bombers being damaged and little in the way of casualties to the Dutch. That, of course, is because his naval LBA is set to hunt my Brit carrier TF. Well, even though I set the Brits out on a course away from land, they were still within range of the Nells and Bettys at Batavia this turn. However, they were out of range of any Zeros, so I finally got a break as a couple of squadrons of Nells and Bettys attacked at long range without escorts and my Fulmars were up in force:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 10, 60
Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 6
G4M1 Betty x 18
Allied aircraft
Fulmar x 49
Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 1 destroyed
G4M1 Betty: 12 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
Fulmar: 7 damaged
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, my Brit carrier fighter pilots received a fair baptism of fire the last two days and survived. That's a good sign for the future. Watch now - they will probably all be called back for withdrawal…
Dave Baranyi
This was a real dog's breakfast of a turn, with most things falling Tophat's way except for the actions of the Brit carrier TF. First off, an ASW TF popped out of Rabaul to readily sink the Perch. Then, as expected, that Japanese TF near Baker Island did land troops on Baker. But as is to be expected when 4 out of the 9 weather regions have heavy precipitation, 2 have rain and the other 3 have clouds, Baker was rained in so my bombers didn't attack. So Tophat landed his troops unopposed and they took the empty island on a shock attack. And to help make me feel even madder at myself, Tophat not only landed a small NLF-type unit but also a base force. So afterwards there was immediately an air unit in place - either a patrol unit or a fighter unit.
It also turns out that the invasion TF at Baker isn't as small as it looked with the first report, so my impromptu combat TF of three DDs may well have much more than it can handle when it arrives there next turn. But within a couple of days I will have some serious forces at the spot and I don't intend to let that TF get back to port. In any event, if the ever-malevolent weather gods in this Game allow it next turn I've also set those B-24s in Canton to do an airfield attack on Baker. I intend to pound the forces at Baker into coral dust long before they have a chance to get organized.
Meanwhile in China the weather gods rained out the bomber attacks from both sides again. Tophat did get a fighter sweep off against Sian again. Once more, this was with Zeros instead of Oscars, but my Mohawks held their own quite respectably caused some losses:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Sian, at 47, 29
Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 27
Allied aircraft
Mohawk IV x 20
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 4 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
Mohawk IV: 9 destroyed, 1 damaged
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tophat also sent bombers against Wuchow for the second day in a row. I had moved one of my Chinese fighter units back in so they were able to disrupt the attack. I also further reorganized my Brit air units - if the @#$%^ weather cooperates next turn I ought to be able to launch a significant air attack on Tophat's main air base.
Elsewhere, Tophat launched more Japanese Army Air attacks against Soerabaja which again resulted in most of his bombers being damaged and little in the way of casualties to the Dutch. That, of course, is because his naval LBA is set to hunt my Brit carrier TF. Well, even though I set the Brits out on a course away from land, they were still within range of the Nells and Bettys at Batavia this turn. However, they were out of range of any Zeros, so I finally got a break as a couple of squadrons of Nells and Bettys attacked at long range without escorts and my Fulmars were up in force:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 10, 60
Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 6
G4M1 Betty x 18
Allied aircraft
Fulmar x 49
Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 1 destroyed
G4M1 Betty: 12 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
Fulmar: 7 damaged
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, my Brit carrier fighter pilots received a fair baptism of fire the last two days and survived. That's a good sign for the future. Watch now - they will probably all be called back for withdrawal…
Dave Baranyi
The USN Strikes!
June 19 -
My little impromptu three-DD combat task force surprised the Japanese TF at Baker Island and surprised me too. The DDs were out half way between Palmyra and Canton Islands on a mission to escort some DMs that I was going to use to put a friendly mine field in at Baker Island. I had intended to stop to refuel at Canton before going to Baker because the DMs have a very limited range. So when I spotted the Japanese transport TF just a hex away from Baker I split off the three DDs into a combat TF and sent them at full speed to Baker with their home base set to Canton. I didn’t expect a lot because I didn't have a chance to choose an admiral to command the force. But the DDs still "Crossed the T" on the Japanese TF and all of the US ships fired multiple times while the Japanese barely got off any shots and didn't get any hits on the US ships:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Baker Island at 94, 92
Japanese Ships
MSW Ataka Maru, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
MSW Banshu Maru #8, Shell hits 1, on fire
PG Edo Maru, Shell hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
PG Saiko Maru, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
PC Sonan Maru #5, Shell hits 1, on fire
PC Sonan Maru #6, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
AP Gotake Maru
AP Gyoko Maru
AP Horai Maru
AP Igasa Maru
AP Kakyu Maru
Allied Ships
DD Tucker
DD Cassin
DD Downes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Japanese TF jumped to the next hex after the defeat and the DDs are on their way down to Canton for refueling. (I have an AD and an AE on the way to Palmyra so I'll be able to re-arm the DDs as soon as they get back there.) In the meanwhile I have another 4-DD TF on its way to Baker just in case Tophat tries to send his ships back. But more importantly, I have bigger and better "hunters" who will be in the area by the next turn to try to find stragglers.
That is assuming that they can find anyone. Once again the game-weather is nuts in an overall as well as local sense. For example, this turn has 4 weather regions with heavy precipitation, two with precipitation, two with clouds and only one that is clear. And this is the first time in quite a while that there has been a "clear" region.
But the weather gods smiled on me in China this turn as my British bombers took off and smashed Wuhan:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Wuhan, at 48, 35
Japanese aircraft
Ki-27 Nate x 5
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 24
Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 66
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-27 Nate: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 4 destroyed, 8 damaged
Ki-21 Sally: 13 destroyed
Ki-15 Babs: 3 destroyed
A6M3 Zero: 3 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
Wellington III: 2 destroyed, 25 damaged
Japanese ground losses:
144 casualties reported
Guns lost 4
Airbase hits 11
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 48
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What was particularly gratifying to me was that not only I caught a pile of bombers on the ground but that my Wellingtons shot down a number of Oscars in the air on the way in. So Tophat did not get a bombing run off against Sian this turn, although he did get a Zero sweep that hit my Brit fighters fairly hard. But I have brought more Brit bombers into China and am sending all of them out again next turn. I hope to shut down Wuhan then go after the base from which Tophat is sending out those sweeps.
Tophat keeps on asking me when I will run out of supplies in China…
Dave Baranyi
My little impromptu three-DD combat task force surprised the Japanese TF at Baker Island and surprised me too. The DDs were out half way between Palmyra and Canton Islands on a mission to escort some DMs that I was going to use to put a friendly mine field in at Baker Island. I had intended to stop to refuel at Canton before going to Baker because the DMs have a very limited range. So when I spotted the Japanese transport TF just a hex away from Baker I split off the three DDs into a combat TF and sent them at full speed to Baker with their home base set to Canton. I didn’t expect a lot because I didn't have a chance to choose an admiral to command the force. But the DDs still "Crossed the T" on the Japanese TF and all of the US ships fired multiple times while the Japanese barely got off any shots and didn't get any hits on the US ships:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Baker Island at 94, 92
Japanese Ships
MSW Ataka Maru, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
MSW Banshu Maru #8, Shell hits 1, on fire
PG Edo Maru, Shell hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
PG Saiko Maru, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
PC Sonan Maru #5, Shell hits 1, on fire
PC Sonan Maru #6, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
AP Gotake Maru
AP Gyoko Maru
AP Horai Maru
AP Igasa Maru
AP Kakyu Maru
Allied Ships
DD Tucker
DD Cassin
DD Downes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Japanese TF jumped to the next hex after the defeat and the DDs are on their way down to Canton for refueling. (I have an AD and an AE on the way to Palmyra so I'll be able to re-arm the DDs as soon as they get back there.) In the meanwhile I have another 4-DD TF on its way to Baker just in case Tophat tries to send his ships back. But more importantly, I have bigger and better "hunters" who will be in the area by the next turn to try to find stragglers.
That is assuming that they can find anyone. Once again the game-weather is nuts in an overall as well as local sense. For example, this turn has 4 weather regions with heavy precipitation, two with precipitation, two with clouds and only one that is clear. And this is the first time in quite a while that there has been a "clear" region.
But the weather gods smiled on me in China this turn as my British bombers took off and smashed Wuhan:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Wuhan, at 48, 35
Japanese aircraft
Ki-27 Nate x 5
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 24
Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 66
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-27 Nate: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 4 destroyed, 8 damaged
Ki-21 Sally: 13 destroyed
Ki-15 Babs: 3 destroyed
A6M3 Zero: 3 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
Wellington III: 2 destroyed, 25 damaged
Japanese ground losses:
144 casualties reported
Guns lost 4
Airbase hits 11
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 48
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What was particularly gratifying to me was that not only I caught a pile of bombers on the ground but that my Wellingtons shot down a number of Oscars in the air on the way in. So Tophat did not get a bombing run off against Sian this turn, although he did get a Zero sweep that hit my Brit fighters fairly hard. But I have brought more Brit bombers into China and am sending all of them out again next turn. I hope to shut down Wuhan then go after the base from which Tophat is sending out those sweeps.
Tophat keeps on asking me when I will run out of supplies in China…
Dave Baranyi
Death Out of the Blue...
June 20 -
The flyboys of the Lex, Sara and even of their escorts came through in grand style against the fleeing ships of the Baker Island Invasion force. The first attack:
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Day Air attack on TF at 91, 90
Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 14
SBD Dauntless x 34
TBD Devastator x 15
SOC-3 Seagull x 2
Allied aircraft losses
SBD Dauntless: 1 damaged
TBD Devastator: 1 damaged
Japanese Ships
AP Horai Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Kakyu Maru, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AP Igasa Maru, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
PC Sonan Maru #5, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Gyoko Maru, Bomb hits 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The second attack:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 91, 90
Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 12
SBD Dauntless x 34
TBD Devastator x 15
SOC-3 Seagull x 2
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Horai Maru, on fire, heavy damage
AP Kakyu Maru, on fire, heavy damage
AP Gotake Maru
AP Gyoko Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AP Igasa Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
PC Sonan Maru #5, on fire, heavy damage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Even the Seagulls get into the act:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 91, 90
Allied aircraft
SOC-3 Seagull x 4
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Igasa Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
And:
Day Air attack on TF at 91, 90
Allied aircraft
SOC-3 Seagull x 6
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
PC Sonan Maru #5, on fire, heavy damage
AP Gotake Maru
AP Igasa Maru, on fire, heavy damage
And finally:
Day Air attack on TF at 91, 90
Allied aircraft
SOC-3 Seagull x 2
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Igasa Maru, on fire, heavy damage
Aircraft Attacking:
2 x SOC-3 Seagull bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two Japanese APs sank by the end of the day. But there are still stragglers left, so the Task Force will remain around one more day to see if they can pick off some more.
I also sent B-17s out of Canton to hit the airfield at Baker. It turns out that Tophat did put some Zeros there and the somewhat "virginal" B-17 pilots in this air group had some difficulties against the Zeros and didn't get to drop their bombs. But they will be back, as will other US forces.
Meanwhile, in China the weather again kept most of the bombers on the ground but the fighters came out again over Sian where my Brits came close to fighting the Zeros to a standstill. And my veteran Chinese pilots in those IL-4cs got off despite the weather and hit Changsha airfield hard.
At the same time in Java Japanese Army bombers came in again over Soerabaja only to meet the usual heavy flak and thus to suffer their usual heavy casualties while inflicting negligible damage on the Dutch. Then a strange thing occurred - a bunch of Japanese Tabby transports attempted to fly something - maybe supplies, maybe troops - into Soerabaja. Half of the Tabbys were damaged while the other half were shot down by the flak. Then Tophat tried a shock attack with his troops:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Soerabaja
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 100967 troops, 987 guns, 78 vehicles
Defending force 52165 troops, 327 guns, 44 vehicles
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 9)
Japanese ground losses:
1811 casualties reported
Guns lost 62
Vehicles lost 3
Allied ground losses:
838 casualties reported
Guns lost 39
Vehicles lost 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Dutch Assault Strength dropped only marginally and there is still plenty of supply there, so this wasn't a good day overall for the Japanese in Java.
The final big area under contention, Timor, had two things happen. First off, I sent in my B-17s again, and again they hammered the Zeros and the air base. But Tophat has yet another transport TF in harbor and is undoubtedly unloading more troops and supplies. And this time I don't have the Brit CVs nearby while Tophat does have Japanese CVs lurking a short ways away, so I can't really do much to interfere with this latest delivery. Oh well, it just means more troops to be trapped there. BTW - Tophat doesn't know it but I have C-47s bringing supplies to Dili and Lautem, so once he decides to go after those two bases the troops there won't be total pushovers.
Dave Baranyi
The flyboys of the Lex, Sara and even of their escorts came through in grand style against the fleeing ships of the Baker Island Invasion force. The first attack:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 91, 90
Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 14
SBD Dauntless x 34
TBD Devastator x 15
SOC-3 Seagull x 2
Allied aircraft losses
SBD Dauntless: 1 damaged
TBD Devastator: 1 damaged
Japanese Ships
AP Horai Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Kakyu Maru, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AP Igasa Maru, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
PC Sonan Maru #5, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Gyoko Maru, Bomb hits 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The second attack:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 91, 90
Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 12
SBD Dauntless x 34
TBD Devastator x 15
SOC-3 Seagull x 2
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Horai Maru, on fire, heavy damage
AP Kakyu Maru, on fire, heavy damage
AP Gotake Maru
AP Gyoko Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AP Igasa Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
PC Sonan Maru #5, on fire, heavy damage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Even the Seagulls get into the act:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 91, 90
Allied aircraft
SOC-3 Seagull x 4
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Igasa Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
And:
Day Air attack on TF at 91, 90
Allied aircraft
SOC-3 Seagull x 6
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
PC Sonan Maru #5, on fire, heavy damage
AP Gotake Maru
AP Igasa Maru, on fire, heavy damage
And finally:
Day Air attack on TF at 91, 90
Allied aircraft
SOC-3 Seagull x 2
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Igasa Maru, on fire, heavy damage
Aircraft Attacking:
2 x SOC-3 Seagull bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two Japanese APs sank by the end of the day. But there are still stragglers left, so the Task Force will remain around one more day to see if they can pick off some more.
I also sent B-17s out of Canton to hit the airfield at Baker. It turns out that Tophat did put some Zeros there and the somewhat "virginal" B-17 pilots in this air group had some difficulties against the Zeros and didn't get to drop their bombs. But they will be back, as will other US forces.
Meanwhile, in China the weather again kept most of the bombers on the ground but the fighters came out again over Sian where my Brits came close to fighting the Zeros to a standstill. And my veteran Chinese pilots in those IL-4cs got off despite the weather and hit Changsha airfield hard.
At the same time in Java Japanese Army bombers came in again over Soerabaja only to meet the usual heavy flak and thus to suffer their usual heavy casualties while inflicting negligible damage on the Dutch. Then a strange thing occurred - a bunch of Japanese Tabby transports attempted to fly something - maybe supplies, maybe troops - into Soerabaja. Half of the Tabbys were damaged while the other half were shot down by the flak. Then Tophat tried a shock attack with his troops:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Soerabaja
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 100967 troops, 987 guns, 78 vehicles
Defending force 52165 troops, 327 guns, 44 vehicles
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 9)
Japanese ground losses:
1811 casualties reported
Guns lost 62
Vehicles lost 3
Allied ground losses:
838 casualties reported
Guns lost 39
Vehicles lost 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Dutch Assault Strength dropped only marginally and there is still plenty of supply there, so this wasn't a good day overall for the Japanese in Java.
The final big area under contention, Timor, had two things happen. First off, I sent in my B-17s again, and again they hammered the Zeros and the air base. But Tophat has yet another transport TF in harbor and is undoubtedly unloading more troops and supplies. And this time I don't have the Brit CVs nearby while Tophat does have Japanese CVs lurking a short ways away, so I can't really do much to interfere with this latest delivery. Oh well, it just means more troops to be trapped there. BTW - Tophat doesn't know it but I have C-47s bringing supplies to Dili and Lautem, so once he decides to go after those two bases the troops there won't be total pushovers.
Dave Baranyi
Death Out of the Gray...
June 21 -
The Lexington/Saratoga TF caught a few of the remaining stragglers from the Baker Island invasion and pummeled them. More ships sank from earlier attacks as they tried to escape. But it was obviously time to head for home as one of my picket subs to the north got "run over" by a combat TF, and then was attacked by Japanese carrier planes. Yes, several Japanese air and surface combat TFs were on their way from Kwajalein towards Baker. Fortunately, the ever-present bad weather prevented them from finding my carriers. So I've now redirected all of my surface ships away from the Baker/Canton areas until I see what Tophat will do with his carriers.
Bad weather was everywhere again this turn. There were 5 regions with "heavy rain", 3 regions with "rain" and one with "heavy clouds". This translated into around 90% of my airbases socked in by thunderstorms again. But the same thing is happening to Tophat, so this acts to "slow down" the pace of air combat. It's virtually impossible to send out daily air missions and nearly impossible to even plan air missions because the bases are closed to offensive operations most days of the week. This makes it almost impossible to close down an airfield via bombing. What this means is that one has to place more reliance on land combat...gawd help us…[8|]
But there were a few other air operations in addition to my carrier attacks. Tophat has started a regular air offensive against Wuchow, so I'll have to "discourage" him about that too, just like I did at Sian. Now that I know that most of Tophat's carriers are in the Central and Eastern Pacific I have fewer concerns about a raid or invasion of India, which allows me to redistribute my air units that are there.
Another air campaign that keeps on going despite the weather is Tophat's effort against Soerabaja. Fewer and fewer bombers are getting into the air each turn - I've got to think that their morale has to be in the pits by now. But they keep on coming and my AA keeps on shooting them up.
And finally, my Hudsons got past the CAP at Koepang to attack and hit an AP that was dropping off more troops. Tophat is really reinforcing that base. It looks like I will be able to tie up plenty of Japanese forces in the DEI for quite some time longer. This will allow me to reconsider the timing of my plans in the Central Pacific now that I know that Tophat is stationing a significant portion of the Combined Fleet in the Marshalls.
Dave Baranyi
The Lexington/Saratoga TF caught a few of the remaining stragglers from the Baker Island invasion and pummeled them. More ships sank from earlier attacks as they tried to escape. But it was obviously time to head for home as one of my picket subs to the north got "run over" by a combat TF, and then was attacked by Japanese carrier planes. Yes, several Japanese air and surface combat TFs were on their way from Kwajalein towards Baker. Fortunately, the ever-present bad weather prevented them from finding my carriers. So I've now redirected all of my surface ships away from the Baker/Canton areas until I see what Tophat will do with his carriers.
Bad weather was everywhere again this turn. There were 5 regions with "heavy rain", 3 regions with "rain" and one with "heavy clouds". This translated into around 90% of my airbases socked in by thunderstorms again. But the same thing is happening to Tophat, so this acts to "slow down" the pace of air combat. It's virtually impossible to send out daily air missions and nearly impossible to even plan air missions because the bases are closed to offensive operations most days of the week. This makes it almost impossible to close down an airfield via bombing. What this means is that one has to place more reliance on land combat...gawd help us…[8|]
But there were a few other air operations in addition to my carrier attacks. Tophat has started a regular air offensive against Wuchow, so I'll have to "discourage" him about that too, just like I did at Sian. Now that I know that most of Tophat's carriers are in the Central and Eastern Pacific I have fewer concerns about a raid or invasion of India, which allows me to redistribute my air units that are there.
Another air campaign that keeps on going despite the weather is Tophat's effort against Soerabaja. Fewer and fewer bombers are getting into the air each turn - I've got to think that their morale has to be in the pits by now. But they keep on coming and my AA keeps on shooting them up.
And finally, my Hudsons got past the CAP at Koepang to attack and hit an AP that was dropping off more troops. Tophat is really reinforcing that base. It looks like I will be able to tie up plenty of Japanese forces in the DEI for quite some time longer. This will allow me to reconsider the timing of my plans in the Central Pacific now that I know that Tophat is stationing a significant portion of the Combined Fleet in the Marshalls.
Dave Baranyi
RE: Death Out of the Gray...
Wow, awesome read Dave.I very much like your style of AAR writing. If it wasn't for all of the information that i can get from these kinds of threads, I probobly wouldn't have bought Witp, let alone learn how to play it. In fact I think that it was while reading your continuation of Wobblies AAR that I decided to buy the game. Keep up the good work, I will be following this one closely!
RE: Death Out of the Gray...
ORIGINAL: Redd
Wow, awesome read Dave.I very much like your style of AAR writing. If it wasn't for all of the information that i can get from these kinds of threads, I probobly wouldn't have bought Witp, let alone learn how to play it. In fact I think that it was while reading your continuation of Wobblies AAR that I decided to buy the game. Keep up the good work, I will be following this one closely!
Thank you very much for the nice comments. I'm glad that I helped you decide to buy the game - despite my complaints I still enjoy the game immensely and recommend it to any WW II game "otaku". [:)]
Dave Baranyi
( "otaku" - Japanese term applied to obsessive fans - particularly of anime and games - but can be applied to other activities that eat up too much time too. [:D] )
RE: Death Out of the Gray...
What's the estimated strength of the enemy units that landed on Baker Island - and will you counter attack them
before they dig in?
Seems like it was a 'shoe string operation' on your opponents part...no surface groups and no air cover.
Also seems like your opponent has something to learn about reducing fortified position. Shock attacking a city
with 9 forts is extremely expensive - for the attacking side!
I estimate that 3-4 engineer regiments and 2-3 divisions + siege arty and air attacks would be required to reduce Soerabaja.
Can you take notes of the units that are currently carrying out the attacks?
before they dig in?
Seems like it was a 'shoe string operation' on your opponents part...no surface groups and no air cover.
Also seems like your opponent has something to learn about reducing fortified position. Shock attacking a city
with 9 forts is extremely expensive - for the attacking side!
I estimate that 3-4 engineer regiments and 2-3 divisions + siege arty and air attacks would be required to reduce Soerabaja.
Can you take notes of the units that are currently carrying out the attacks?
"The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without"
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
It was a rainy day...
June 22 -
This was a quieter turn than many recent ones - other than the steady sound of rain everywhere. My night fighters flew out for their nightly raid and as is usually the case, hit nothing. I keep them flying because they are slowly building up experience and I want to see if there is any "magic number" at which they can start to hit the target regularly. Unfortunately it looks as if this is another case where the "baby was thrown out with the bath water" when the code was re-written to make it harder for the Allied player to send out massively destructive night bombing raids.
My Il-4cs did have a good daylight bombing raid on Changsha and caused a fair amount of damage in the absence of any CAP. And Tophat continued to send air attacks against Wuchow, first with a sweep of Nates and Oscars, and then with a bomber attack. I had no CAP in place, so the Nates and Oscars didn't find anything to fight, and the Japanese bombers didn't hit anything, so this was an alright attack from my point of view. Otherwise, the omnipresent rain storms kept the rest of the bombers in China on the ground. However, everywhere other than Wuchow where Tophat's myriad of recon planes flew they found CAP, which ought to give him some pause for thought. Things were even fairly quiet at Soerabaja - Tophat's bombers probably need all the rain that they can get in order to recover from their costly raids.
In the Canton/Baker Islands area my patrols spotted a TF just north of Baker that contained at least four CAs and was racing SE at 26 knots. That obviously has to be one of Tophat's carrier TFs - he wouldn't send an SC TF alone into waters where he has just seen a US carrier TF. My carriers were hidden by rain and were racing towards Christmas Island, about a day's travel to the east of the Japanese TFs. I have used the six months of "peace and quiet" that Tophat has given me in the south-eastern Pacific to build up Christmas Island along with Palmyra and put plenty of supplies and fuel into both.
Now, Tophat may decide to follow me to the East instead of checking out what I have going at Canton Island, as he suggested two turns ago. But at 26 knots it is obvious that the Japanese TFs don't have any replenishment TFs along. (Having a replenishment TF along was how Tophat kept the KB in the North Pacific for so long at the beginning of the game.) So while I will refuel my ships at Christmas Island and carry on, Tophat will be looking at the fuel gauges of his short-legged DDs and start to be slowed down by the automatic refueling of the smaller ships by the longer ships. I can always hope that Tophat will run his carrier TFs out of fuel and leave them to be sitting ducks, but I don't really expect that to happen.
Dave Baranyi
This was a quieter turn than many recent ones - other than the steady sound of rain everywhere. My night fighters flew out for their nightly raid and as is usually the case, hit nothing. I keep them flying because they are slowly building up experience and I want to see if there is any "magic number" at which they can start to hit the target regularly. Unfortunately it looks as if this is another case where the "baby was thrown out with the bath water" when the code was re-written to make it harder for the Allied player to send out massively destructive night bombing raids.
My Il-4cs did have a good daylight bombing raid on Changsha and caused a fair amount of damage in the absence of any CAP. And Tophat continued to send air attacks against Wuchow, first with a sweep of Nates and Oscars, and then with a bomber attack. I had no CAP in place, so the Nates and Oscars didn't find anything to fight, and the Japanese bombers didn't hit anything, so this was an alright attack from my point of view. Otherwise, the omnipresent rain storms kept the rest of the bombers in China on the ground. However, everywhere other than Wuchow where Tophat's myriad of recon planes flew they found CAP, which ought to give him some pause for thought. Things were even fairly quiet at Soerabaja - Tophat's bombers probably need all the rain that they can get in order to recover from their costly raids.
In the Canton/Baker Islands area my patrols spotted a TF just north of Baker that contained at least four CAs and was racing SE at 26 knots. That obviously has to be one of Tophat's carrier TFs - he wouldn't send an SC TF alone into waters where he has just seen a US carrier TF. My carriers were hidden by rain and were racing towards Christmas Island, about a day's travel to the east of the Japanese TFs. I have used the six months of "peace and quiet" that Tophat has given me in the south-eastern Pacific to build up Christmas Island along with Palmyra and put plenty of supplies and fuel into both.
Now, Tophat may decide to follow me to the East instead of checking out what I have going at Canton Island, as he suggested two turns ago. But at 26 knots it is obvious that the Japanese TFs don't have any replenishment TFs along. (Having a replenishment TF along was how Tophat kept the KB in the North Pacific for so long at the beginning of the game.) So while I will refuel my ships at Christmas Island and carry on, Tophat will be looking at the fuel gauges of his short-legged DDs and start to be slowed down by the automatic refueling of the smaller ships by the longer ships. I can always hope that Tophat will run his carrier TFs out of fuel and leave them to be sitting ducks, but I don't really expect that to happen.
Dave Baranyi
RE: Death Out of the Gray...
ORIGINAL: PzB
What's the estimated strength of the enemy units that landed on Baker Island - and will you counter attack them
before they dig in?
Seems like it was a 'shoe string operation' on your opponents part...no surface groups and no air cover.
Also seems like your opponent has something to learn about reducing fortified position. Shock attacking a city
with 9 forts is extremely expensive - for the attacking side!
I estimate that 3-4 engineer regiments and 2-3 divisions + siege arty and air attacks would be required to reduce Soerabaja.
Can you take notes of the units that are currently carrying out the attacks?
Tophat only landed with one small NLF unit and a small base force. That has been his standard practice recently at any undefended base. I was considering dropping a Division on them right away, but with a sizable portion of the Combined Fleet sitting in Kwajalein I just don't have the time to be able to do that. (I had thought that most of his CVs were back in Truk, which would give me enough time.)
Tophat has been "lulled into complacency" by my refusal to contest most of his landings. Therefore he has developed a few "bad habits". He is learning, however, and now in the DEI he has a carrier TF in the background of his upcoming landings and I expect that he will keep those carriers in the Central Pacific close to any further expansion, unless he is silly enough to lose some of them by chasing me into the "hungry mouths" of my traps. [;)]
Tophat has over 100,000 men at Soerabaja now - several good divisions, several engineers, lots of artillery and even an HQ (I think). But he isn't bringing in the ships to bombard, his bombers aren't having any effect against all of the AA, and my troops have never been defeated in battle so they have good morale. He seems to believe that he can wear me down like he did my troops in Luzon and Singapore - but if those troops had been "blessed" with a steady supply source he would still be sitting outside the walls. Soerabaja is a unique location - he will eventually need to bring in even more troops and maybe even take the "hits" from doing bombardments. That's fine with me - I love seeing all those Japanese troops stuck there.
I couldn't do quite the same thing in our game because once Soerabaja or any other supply-producing base is captured the first time, it doesn't produce supply in the same manner any more. But in retrospect, I probably could have lasted a lot longer in Java if I had pulled back all of my troops and just dug in instead of letting you defeat my troops piecemeal.
But all that aside, I am much, much happier to be finding out how long the Dutch can last in Soerabaja and having my US, Aussie and Brit troops sitting back, "getting fat" than the situation that I found myself in against you. [:D]
Thanks for the comments -
Dave Baranyi
RE: Death Out of the Gray...
I think it's wise of you to wary your tactics Dave...your greatest asset can quickly turn into your
biggest weakness - predictability! [:)]
It's interesting to see that both Tophat and my opponent have exactly the same problem with Soerabaja.
Bypassing this place can easily become very costly. When your troops at Soerabaja are defeated - or immediately
before this happends - will you retire them into Merauk (the base to the SW)? I've prepared 6 forts here already
and hope to postpone the end by another week or two if possible.
biggest weakness - predictability! [:)]
It's interesting to see that both Tophat and my opponent have exactly the same problem with Soerabaja.
Bypassing this place can easily become very costly. When your troops at Soerabaja are defeated - or immediately
before this happends - will you retire them into Merauk (the base to the SW)? I've prepared 6 forts here already
and hope to postpone the end by another week or two if possible.
"The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without"
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
RE: Death Out of the Gray...
It's interesting to see that both Tophat and my opponent have exactly the same problem with Soerabaja.
Bypassing this place can easily become very costly. When your troops at Soerabaja are defeated - or immediately
before this happends - will you retire them into Merauk (the base to the SW)? I've prepared 6 forts here already
and hope to postpone the end by another week or two if possible.
I am becoming more convinced that Soerabaja ought to be one of the earliest Japanese targets possible. Perhaps doing a paradrop into it, even taking chances with the CD guns. The Japanese player should blitzkrieg down the south side of Bornea and do whatever it takes to grab Soerabaja as early as possible - maybe even early January. Waiting is a costly decision for the Japanese player. If I had put a decent Aussie Division into Soerabaja it might hold forever. [;)]
Take care -
Dave Baranyi
RE: Death Out of the Gray...
Does a base still produce resources, supplies when entered by an enemy unit? I thought this wasn´t so.
If you like what I said love me,if you dislike what I say ignore me!
"Extra Bavaria non est vita! Et sic est vita non est ita!"
"Extra Bavaria non est vita! Et sic est vita non est ita!"
RE: Death Out of the Gray...
ORIGINAL: Frank
Does a base still produce resources, supplies when entered by an enemy unit? I thought this wasn´t so.
I thought that manpower stopped, but oil and resources continued, and supplies that are produced from having oil, (or it is from having resources?) continue, don't they? (This is such a complicated game with so much to remember...)
Hopefully someone else who knows for sure will come by and help out here.
Sorry if I've confused things...
Dave Baranyi
The RAF Strikes!
June 23 -
Tophat's Central Pacific fleets stayed to the northeast of Baker Island this turn instead of heading south or southeast in search of my TFs. The search aircraft from the Japanese TFs attacked the subs that I had brought into the area, but did no serious damage on any of them. If the sub and air patrol reports are correct, the Japanese ships are now heading back to Kwajalein. I put my B-17s on Canton Island on to "search" because I don't want them to try to fly through any LR CAP that the Japanese carriers may be providing over Baker Island. Once the carriers leave the region I'll send the bombers back to hit the airfield at Baker again.
My British bombers finally took off together to bomb the main Japanese air base in China, Wuhan, and had had a successful time of it:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Wuhan, at 48, 35
Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 9
Ki-27 Nate x 3
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 16
Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 70
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 2 destroyed, 5 damaged
Ki-27 Nate: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 6 destroyed, 5 damaged
Ki-15 Babs: 5 destroyed
Ki-21 Sally: 8 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
Wellington III: 6 destroyed, 23 damaged
Japanese ground losses:
62 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Airbase hits 6
Airbase supply hits 4
Runway hits 28
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Wellingtons shot up a number of the fighters on CAP then hit more planes on the ground. I am resting the Brits this turn; I've sent a "message" to Tophat that he doesn't own the air over China. This also allowed my British fighters in Sian to get more repairs done. The supply situation in Northeastern China also improved during this latest stretch of bad weather.
The other Japanese action in China this turn was over Wuchow where Tophat again sent a bunch of Nates and Oscars on a sweep. But since I don't currently have any fighters in Wuchow, there was nothing there to sweep. Tophat's bombers didn't take off this turn against Wuchow. Sometime in the next game-week or so I will fly a few "surprises" into Wuchow to take care of those Nates and Oscars.
And my Chinese bombers flew out again to hammer a Japanese Mongolian cavalry unit that was to the northeast of Kungchang. This turn the Mongolians disappeared - I'm not certain if they retreated or if they joined the other Japanese troops that are besieging Kungchang. If they don't show up next turn I'll send those Chinese bombers back against the Japanese forces at Kungchang again.
BTW - Tophat's Japanese Army bombers took off yet again against my troops in Soerabaja and yet again took lots of casualties while inflicting trivial damage. My Dutch troops are now almost fully recovered from the last Japanese shock attack, despite the daily bombings, and the supply in Soerabaja is heading back up towards 50K again. Unless Tophat changes what he is doing my forces might last in Soerabaja until I decide to invade the DEI in a couple of years. [;)]
At the same time my Australian B-17s sent a different message to Tophat at Koepang:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Koepang, at 28, 77
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 23
Allied aircraft
PBY Catalina x 3
B-17E Fortress x 29
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 11 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 4 destroyed, 16 damaged
Japanese ground losses:
35 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So Tophat has a tough decision in front of him; he can continue to split his forces and accept bloody trades in air battles, or he can focus all of his strength in one area and let me bomb the other areas at will. And of course, he knows very well that I am currently only using a very limited portion of my strength. [:D]
Otherwise, Tophat got a bit aggressive with his ASW again for the first time in a while, hitting one of my Dutch subs hard. Never-the-less I think that sub will make it back to base.
The rest of my activities are going ahead as planned. One nice thing to look forward to is that the Wasp will arrive in three weeks time. [:D]
Dave Baranyi
Tophat's Central Pacific fleets stayed to the northeast of Baker Island this turn instead of heading south or southeast in search of my TFs. The search aircraft from the Japanese TFs attacked the subs that I had brought into the area, but did no serious damage on any of them. If the sub and air patrol reports are correct, the Japanese ships are now heading back to Kwajalein. I put my B-17s on Canton Island on to "search" because I don't want them to try to fly through any LR CAP that the Japanese carriers may be providing over Baker Island. Once the carriers leave the region I'll send the bombers back to hit the airfield at Baker again.
My British bombers finally took off together to bomb the main Japanese air base in China, Wuhan, and had had a successful time of it:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Wuhan, at 48, 35
Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 9
Ki-27 Nate x 3
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 16
Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 70
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 2 destroyed, 5 damaged
Ki-27 Nate: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 6 destroyed, 5 damaged
Ki-15 Babs: 5 destroyed
Ki-21 Sally: 8 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
Wellington III: 6 destroyed, 23 damaged
Japanese ground losses:
62 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Airbase hits 6
Airbase supply hits 4
Runway hits 28
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Wellingtons shot up a number of the fighters on CAP then hit more planes on the ground. I am resting the Brits this turn; I've sent a "message" to Tophat that he doesn't own the air over China. This also allowed my British fighters in Sian to get more repairs done. The supply situation in Northeastern China also improved during this latest stretch of bad weather.
The other Japanese action in China this turn was over Wuchow where Tophat again sent a bunch of Nates and Oscars on a sweep. But since I don't currently have any fighters in Wuchow, there was nothing there to sweep. Tophat's bombers didn't take off this turn against Wuchow. Sometime in the next game-week or so I will fly a few "surprises" into Wuchow to take care of those Nates and Oscars.
And my Chinese bombers flew out again to hammer a Japanese Mongolian cavalry unit that was to the northeast of Kungchang. This turn the Mongolians disappeared - I'm not certain if they retreated or if they joined the other Japanese troops that are besieging Kungchang. If they don't show up next turn I'll send those Chinese bombers back against the Japanese forces at Kungchang again.
BTW - Tophat's Japanese Army bombers took off yet again against my troops in Soerabaja and yet again took lots of casualties while inflicting trivial damage. My Dutch troops are now almost fully recovered from the last Japanese shock attack, despite the daily bombings, and the supply in Soerabaja is heading back up towards 50K again. Unless Tophat changes what he is doing my forces might last in Soerabaja until I decide to invade the DEI in a couple of years. [;)]
At the same time my Australian B-17s sent a different message to Tophat at Koepang:
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Day Air attack on Koepang, at 28, 77
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 23
Allied aircraft
PBY Catalina x 3
B-17E Fortress x 29
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 11 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 4 destroyed, 16 damaged
Japanese ground losses:
35 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 6
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So Tophat has a tough decision in front of him; he can continue to split his forces and accept bloody trades in air battles, or he can focus all of his strength in one area and let me bomb the other areas at will. And of course, he knows very well that I am currently only using a very limited portion of my strength. [:D]
Otherwise, Tophat got a bit aggressive with his ASW again for the first time in a while, hitting one of my Dutch subs hard. Never-the-less I think that sub will make it back to base.
The rest of my activities are going ahead as planned. One nice thing to look forward to is that the Wasp will arrive in three weeks time. [:D]
Dave Baranyi