Lunacy In The Pacific Mogami Vs. Tom Hunter

[Tom Hunter]

Alas the Japanese overran Vanukolo on August 28th capturing 774 Allied soldiers and one damaged PBY in the process.

Game is pretty much the same as 3 days ago with the following exceptions:

CV fleet is heading for Brisbane

Thursday Island is almost fully garrisoned the last troops of the 32nd Division are unloading and there is a Marine CD unit on the way as well. AV is at 150+

Efate is getting more AV so the training program can begin in ernest. I am going to send some MSW to Luganville before I send in the BBs to bombard.

Current plan is to keep the CVs in Oz until Thursday is maximum size and fort with at least 2 divisions resident. Then turn them for the West Coast with a stop at Luganville to support an invasion on the way.

That will get me into late 42 or early 43 and the Essex will arrive. After that I will start invading near Allied bases, maybe Gili Gili, maybe somewhere in the Southern Solomons.

[Tom Hunter]

Another month passes

The game is in a strange state right now. The over all level of action is increasing, but the combat is not of any great importance on any given day. I have a number of pictures to show what is going on so I am going to post todays update in several posts.

An example of what I mean by more fighting but not important is going on in the waters near Wake Island right now.

In response to an earlier sighting of Japanese transports I had based a Canadian Wellington group on the island. I also moved some submarines into the hexes on the route from Tokyo to Kwajelin. On August 30th patrol planes saw some Japanese shipping and the Wellingtons dropped some bombs but did not hit anything. In response the American submarines moved closer to the projected path of the convoy.

On the 31st the Canadians were back at it and this time they hit a ship with 2 bombs. The the submarines moved in, results are on the picture below.

It is a nice little battle and a win for the Allies. More subs are coming and it may be possible to wipe out the whole convoy. But it is certainly not decisive, it's just another small battle much like Vanikolo or the many air attacks that occur all over the map every day.

[Tom Hunter]

The strategic map shows the over all situation pretty well.

The Allies are launching air offensives in 3 places, Burma, New Guinea and the New Hebredies. As usual there is a very active war in China with major battles in the North near Kaigan and the South near Canton and Kaifeng.

I could invade and take Luganville pretty easily but I need to train pilots much more than I need to take Luganville. Within a week Efate will have over 300 AV and a level 4 strip, that will allow me to train all my Wildcat, Dauntless and Warhawk groups up into the 70s.

Over in Australia Thursday Island is serving the same role for Kittyhawks, Warhawks and the occasional Tomohawk group. Thursday is now garrisoned as strongly as Port Moresby was with more stuff on the way. The CV fleet is also based at Brisbane now so if Mogami decides to go for Thursday the Allies can fight a decisive naval battle to keep the place. I doubt that Mogami will do this but I hope he tries.

Regardless of what Mogami does a strong base on Thursday Island makes the jump to Port Moresby much easier especially after the P38s arrive.

[Tom Hunter]

trying again for the map

[Tom Hunter]

Finally a look at China

Japan has started a major push on Kaigan, which is going about the same way all the other pushes by the ping pong army go.


Ground combat at Kaigan
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 372609 troops, 4040 guns, 58 vehicles
Defending force 187763 troops, 1200 guns, 0 vehicles
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 8
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 8)
Japanese ground losses:
10341 casualties reported
Guns lost 489
Vehicles lost 8
Allied ground losses:
1793 casualties reported
Guns lost 104

Further South the Japanese suffered 6000 casualties in a shock attack near Kwielin. Since then the Chinese have moved an army South from Wuchow across the Japanese line of communication. Some of the units bombarded this turn:

Allied Bombardment attack
Attacking force 27068 troops, 214 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 44876 troops, 564 guns, 0 vehicles
Japanese ground losses:
12 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
Allied ground losses:
51 casualties reported
Guns lost 5

But there are now 30,000 more and they are going to try to clear the hex with a shock attack during the next combat phase. If they can drive the Japs back to Canton then the 8 Japanese units North of the Wuchow-Canton hex will be islolated and there is a VERY large Chinese army at Changsha some of which is already heading South.

Historically Mogami and I have been unable to accomplish much against eachother in China, we crash into eachother but the land combat system means we have very few substantial losses. The battle in the South of China is the first chance that I can see for the Chinese to do some substantial damage to the Japanese.

[Tom Hunter]

And this in from Mogami, more fuel for Ron's arguments about supplies.

"Hi, 1 Sept 1942 Japanese supply index

Total on map 2,600,000
(totals of bases with 10k or more supply)
In Home Islands 760,000
SRA (entire area west of Home Islands that is not China) 573,000
(Palembang/Toboali accounts for almost 20 percent of total (110,000) However
77,000 of this arrived via AK from Home Islands to help repair Batavia and
Kendari. Over 100k of total is in PI and on Okinawa and was shipped from
Home Islands. 50,000 arrived last turn Kendari from Osaka (Kendari is really
damaged) So almost 50 percent of supply west of Home Islands is from Home
Islands.
China/Korea/Manchuria 402,000
Central/South Pacific 209,000

656,000 located at bases in amounts under 10k

SRA bases still repairing damage
Kendari, Batavia,Miri,Bruinei,Ambonia,Balikpapan,Clark Field,Bankha,Medan, " -Mogami

By comparison China has about 155,000 supply and the South Pacific has over 1 million. Karachi, San Francisco and Bombay have as much supply as all of the Japanese empire, but who cares? Now if there was a way for me to get a large amount of it to China, that would be interesting.

[Ron Saueracker]

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

And this in from Mogami, more fuel for Ron's arguments about supplies.

"Hi, 1 Sept 1942 Japanese supply index

Total on map 2,600,000
(totals of bases with 10k or more supply)
In Home Islands 760,000
SRA (entire area west of Home Islands that is not China) 573,000
(Palembang/Toboali accounts for almost 20 percent of total (110,000) However
77,000 of this arrived via AK from Home Islands to help repair Batavia and
Kendari. Over 100k of total is in PI and on Okinawa and was shipped from
Home Islands. 50,000 arrived last turn Kendari from Osaka (Kendari is really
damaged) So almost 50 percent of supply west of Home Islands is from Home
Islands.
China/Korea/Manchuria 402,000
Central/South Pacific 209,000

656,000 located at bases in amounts under 10k

SRA bases still repairing damage
Kendari, Batavia,Miri,Bruinei,Ambonia,Balikpapan,Clark Field,Bankha,Medan, " -Mogami

By comparison China has about 155,000 supply and the South Pacific has over 1 million. Karachi, San Francisco and Bombay have as much supply as all of the Japanese empire, but who cares? Now if there was a way for me to get a large amount of it to China, that would be interesting.

I'm finding the point being made hard to discern...is it that Japan actually had to ship supply out to the islands to repair damage? What does it have to do with the fact that local supply can be used for the same thing and is available?

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter
China has about 155,000 supply

Wow what a difference compared to my game (30 August) where Japan decimated China's supply production very early with strategic bombing.

I have 69000+ total supplies in all of China and about 15-20 Corps have zero supply on hand. And this is with the Burma Road staying open till almost the end of August.

I also managed to get an additional 8000-10000 supply to auto move to China from Myitkyina by basing the SEAC HQ there and then air lifting it out after it had stockpiled a lot of supply at the base by pulling it from Ledo. When the 36000 supplies left in Myitkyina then auto-distributed itself to surrounding bases about 8k-10k went to China (I had based 10 or so units in the northwesternmost Chinese base to increase base demands to pull as much supply as possible). Without this move, China would have only about 59k total supply right now.

I haven’t lost any major battles, but due to severe supply shortages I have just had to withdraw from Sian and Yenen back to Kungchang (SP?) to consolidate what little combat power I have left in the north there. My units have slowly been wearing down and not replacing losses or recovering supply, so things are now starting to fall apart as his attacks continue to wear my Chinese down.

Attacking China’s supply and wearing them down may not be as exciting and sexy as mobile battles like in your game, but it sure looks to be a much more effective strategy for Japan than simply trying to outmaneuver the Chinese and leaving their supply untouched. Of course I assume you’ve captured a lot from Japan as well.

Jim

[Tom Hunter]

Ron,

I have no idea what Mogami's point might be, I am just reposting his emal.

Jim,

I agree completely, Mogami has chosen not to attack China's supply, at least not in a systematic way, if he had I am sure the Chinese would have much less available. In Fear and Loathing the Japanese have gone after Chinese supply and China is pretty much off the rail line now.

Not wanting to blow my own horn too much but in the early battles for China I did out manuever Mogami some. That got me about 30,000 supply from the Japanese which was a huge help at that time. It allowed me to push harder and it also boosted the Chinese replacement uptake a lot. Since then I have siezed another 5,000 to 10,000 at one time or another but it has never been in big chunks or made a lot of difference. China loves it if you can grab 17,000 supply in one base, but grabbing 3-4000 at a time does not produce the same reaction.


Speaking of the Chinese they re-opened the rail link from Chengting to Kaigan today:

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 91242 troops, 611 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 45126 troops, 450 guns, 299 vehicles

Allied assault odds: 2 to 1


Japanese ground losses:
343 casualties reported
Guns lost 40
Vehicles lost 2

Allied ground losses:
2758 casualties reported
Guns lost 63


Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!

Looking at the infantry loss statistic it appears the Japanese went up 50 points due to this retreat. The Chinese are in pursuit but pretty badly disrupted so I may call it off.

Down in the South the Japanese mangaged to escape back to Canton with no losses. Japanese troops move much faster than Chinese and as usual neither of us has been able to do anything decisive to the other in China.

The British did send some Spitfires to Chengting and those planes shot down a Zero and 8 Anns in exchange for 2 Spits on September 4. More British planes are heading that way, we might have some serious air battles there.


Elsewhere the Allies continue the bombing offensives shown on the strategic map. British troops marching overland from Akyab are getting close to Mandalay though it will still be a month before they are ready to start moving forward.

6th Australian division is in Noumea loading for Thursday Island, 5th airforce is in Cooktown loading for the same destination. Once those units arrive at Thursday I plan to pull the US CVs back 1 or 2 at a time for the fall refit. I think that even with KB in support Mogami cannot take Thursday if it has over 2 divisions defending.

Efate continues to build up and short range fighters at the airbase are bombing Luganville for XP every day. Slowly but surely the Allied airforce is getting XP parity with the Japanese.

We almost had an incendent near Luganville, Mogami sent a CS group to a point East of the base to hunt for targets of opportunity. I sent the Long Island and Hermes to a point West to do a little training against the base. 2 Japanese float planes slipped past the 7 Fulmars flying cap but failed to hit anything. If we had both been on the same side of the island we might have had a battle.

In general things are slow and easy to manage right now. I have no invasions planned in the near term, Port Moresby is too strong, and Luganville is to valuable as a training base for me to want to eliminate it.

If I wait my forces get stronger which is good, but I also get more forces into position in more places. I want to hit Mogami in several places similtaniously to take away his advantage of interior lines.

When these items are ready the allies can start a really powerful set of offensives:

P38s on Thursday Island

CVs have Autum upgrades

British ready to go in Burma

Then a second set of good things happen after that.


USS Essex arrives, US CV fleet gets parity with KB

CVEs arrive giving some air strength for invasion fleets

2 damaged older US BBs finish repairing (bringing old BB fleet to 4 ships)

South Dakota, Washington and Indiana all on map (brining new BB fleet to 4 ships)

If all goes well I am going to move the Royal Navy back to the Bay of Bengal when these things are true.

Fuel is already being sent to North Oz to supply the RN ships on their way home, and plenty of other logistical moves are being made as well. It takes a long time to make anything happen in this game but things will move eventually.

[Tom Hunter]

Nothing much happened on the 5th on the 6th the most notable action was in China when the army that opened the Chengting Kaigan road hit 7 Japanese units at Poatang:

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 87567 troops, 511 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 48554 troops, 531 guns, 370 vehicles

Allied assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 0)

Allied Assault reduces fortifications to 0


Japanese ground losses:
1368 casualties reported
Guns lost 33
Vehicles lost 6

Allied ground losses:
1497 casualties reported
Guns lost 73

Not bad, but not good either. That brings this particular counter attack to a halt though I plan to bombard for a while.

On the 7th the Japanese tried for Kaigan again:

Ground combat at Kaigan

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 353867 troops, 3502 guns, 52 vehicles

Defending force 179858 troops, 1049 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 8)

Japanese ground losses:
13092 casualties reported
Guns lost 331
Vehicles lost 5

Allied ground losses:
4509 casualties reported
Guns lost 78

So as usual no one is going anywhere on land in China.

One thing that has been going on in China for a long time is daily Japanese air attacks. There are 2-4 big raids per day by the Japanese and mostly they happen without any interference from the Allies.

However that is going to start to change soon. The Chinese have 150,000 supply so I can send in some more fighters without starving thier army. Also the Allied fighter force in India, which includes some Chinese air units, has trained up by bombing Pagan every day.

Here is the composition of the Pagan raid from September 6 42:

Allied aircraft
Wirraway x 16
CW-21B Demon x 24
Hurricane II x 74
Spitfire Vb x 32
Beaufighter VIF x 12
CW-22 Falcon x 4
T.IVa x 7
Beaufort I x 31
A-20B Boston x 16
B-25C Mitchell x 54
I-153c x 24
I-16c x 71

More Allied fighters are going to China, including a CFS I-16 unit that is 70XP and full strength. This should boost attrition in the air over China and perhaps move things a bit in favor of the Allies.

In the South Pacific the USS Hornet left Brisbane heading for Pago Pago and then Pearl Harbor. USS North Carolina left Efate and is heading for Pearl as well. Intel showed a Japanese SNLF unit prepping for Wake, so I may send these two ships and thier escorts that way on a fishing expidition.

Efate is almost an L4 airbase now and just got a big base force that brought the AV up to 281. More planes flew in and will start bombing the Japanese immediately. It is difficult to emphasize how important this is for the Allies. Until now most of the US Marine and Army Air corps units had XP in the 50s, the units flying out of Efate are in the 60s already and still climbing.

Luganville is easy to invade and would probably fall fast but what I really want is a 70+XP airforce so Luganville is getting bombed to pieces instead.

[Tom Hunter]

China

The first real air battles in China occured on the 10th as Spitfires, Hurricanes and Mohawks intercepted Japanese raids on Kaigan.

First wave:

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 5
Ki-48 Lily x 6

Allied aircraft
Mohawk IV x 6
Hurricane II x 14
Spitfire Vb x 13

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 3 destroyed
Ki-48 Lily: 5 destroyed
Ki-15 Babs: 1 destroyed

And the second larger wave:

apanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 42
Ki-21 Sally x 81
Ki-48 Lily x 9

Allied aircraft
Mohawk IV x 6
Hurricane II x 14
Spitfire Vb x 13

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 17 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-21 Sally: 4 destroyed, 8 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Mohawk IV: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged
Hurricane II: 1 destroyed, 5 damaged
Spitfire Vb: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged

Mogami aslo has large bomber forces in the South escorted by Zeros. I decided to fight up North because that is where he is pressing the ground attack. This was not a bad start for the effort and it is the first time in days that there have been significant air losses on either side.

All told there are about 130 Allied fighters of various types in China now. As of the 10th the deployment is approximately as follows:

Moving forward:
16 Spitfires XP 66 Kumning
12 Hurricanes XP 70 Kwieyang
AVG 21 P40B Chungking
16 Spitfire XP 71 Myitikyna
8 P-36 XP 68 Kumning

83 planes total

On the front
24 I-16 XP 70 Changsha XP 70
15 Mohawks Chengting XP 66
16 Hurricanes Chengting XP 64
20 Spitfires Kaigan XP 68 on average
10 Hurricanes Kaigan XP 67

The XP numbers are from memory, sometimes it's good sometimes not.

To support this I am flying in the MAF avaiation unit that has 135 AV and will fly in an RAF base force after that. China does not have enough AV support units for me to fight in the air without sending some Brits. Since I have the whole of the Malaya army plus many Dutch BFs this is not a problem.

I am trying to send higher XP units to China because I want to attrit Mogami not the other way round. He will start responding soon and we will see how the battle goes. Right now all efforts are defensive, I want to clear the skies. Bombing would burn up too much supply.


Eventually when the British start to advance in Burma and the Americans and Australians push back into New Guinea I may launch a bombing offensive in China. If I launch it now Mogami will be able to focus on it and perhaps defeat it. But if it starts when Japan is under attack all over the perimeter he will either have to choose which battle to fight and which to lose by default.

[Tom Hunter]

Sept. 11

I was in Washington DC that day I'm never going to be able to say or write that date without remembering the smoke coming from the Pentagon.

But in 1942 that was far away. The air battle over Kaigan went into round 2, both sides brought in more planes but the British won again. I like this screen shot because it shows a Mohawk shooting down a Zero [:D].





More Spitfires flew into Kaigan today, the 20 planes of the AVG are at Chengting and other planes have gotten to Kaifeng and Chungking and Changsha. Further South the I-16s of the Chinese airforce and a 12 plane Hurricane group are now flying LRCAP over the Chinese army in the hex between Wuchow and Canton. That will open up another front in the air war over China.

In Burma the Japanese put LRCAP over Pagan for the first time in months. For good or for ill the only planes that flew missions were a group of Beauforts and they got shot up pretty bad by the 60 Japanese fighters waiting for them. If the Japanese show up again they will be met by a Hurricane sweep, who knows what the result will be.

The South Pacific continues to see raids on Luganville, Port Moresby, Lae and Gili Gili. More troops are coming in and the airforce XP continues to rise. Efate is now an L4 airbase and 200 planes are hitting Luganville every day.

Thursday Island is an L3 base and expanding more slowly because I am also building up the fort and the port. When it hits level 4 the number of fighters will be brought up to 200 and a couple of older slow US BBs will move in to prevent shore bombardment and maybe temp the Japanese into a suicidal battle or two.

In 8 days the USS Washington appears in 16 the South Dakota will show up. They will steam to Pearl and join the North Carolina in the US fast BB division. That will give the Allies 4 BB groups, Royal Navy Fast (Force Z plus cruisers and DDs) Royal Navy slow 3 BBs + escort, US Navy fast 3 BBs + escort and US Navy slow which will be 2 BBs + escort soon and 3 BBs plus escort by some time in October.

I am not putting any BBs into the CV TFs because in this stage of the war the Japanese air attack is too big to stop. Basically when 300 planes take off from KB they will kill all the capital ships in any TF they find so if you group a CV and a BB you lose a CV and a BB. So I am putting all the US CVs in one CV TFs and when I do fight KB one of those TFs will have a really bad day and the others will do pretty well.

I plan to keep the BBs under LBA because then they become a magnet for an airstrike that the Japanese don't even want to launch. 200-300 Japanese planes swarming on 2 old BBs while 200 land based fighters chew them up is a dream for the USA. If it happens then KB is weakend and the Allied CVs have a pretty good chance of winning the follow on battle.

Of course what will really happen is Mogami will carefully avoid combat. But that is ok, all the peices of a multi front Allied offensive are coming together and when they get going something is going to break on the Japanese side.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

I am not putting any BBs into the CV TFs because in this stage of the war the Japanese air attack is too big to stop. Basically when 300 planes take off from KB they will kill all the capital ships in any TF they find so if you group a CV and a BB you lose a CV and a BB. So I am putting all the US CVs in one CV TFs and when I do fight KB one of those TFs will have a really bad day and the others will do pretty well.

So you find one big CV TF more survivable than several with (say) 2 CV's each?

[Tom Hunter]

No excatly the opposite.

6 CVs = 6 different TFs one of which is absolutely certain to be sunk. But the other 5 are unlikely to get hit at all.

I am sorry if this was not clear before. But in the face of the huge Japanese coordinated strike that the game generates putting your eggs in one basket is senseless.

Also if you have a seperate BB TF in the area there is some chance the Japs will launch the huge strike against the BBs. Then all you CVs live.

Another thing I am considering but have not decided on is putting my Wildcats on 100% escort to get my bombers through. I would have Seafire CAP of 60 planes which would stop every strike but the monster, and with 210 Wildcats flying offense some of the bombers and torpedo planes would likely get through and shoot up the Japanese.

Of course all of this assumes we get a battle and since neither of us will accept one on the others terms this may be unlikely.

[witpqs]

Wow, that large escort mission looks interesting. Love to see it in action (as you say, 'if').

[Tom Hunter]

Most of the serious action is happening in Burma and China now as the British and Chinese fight Japan for dominance of Asia.

On the 12th the Japanese managed a decent ambush of a big air raid over Pagan:

Day Air attack on Pagan , at 31,31

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 10
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 21
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 7

Allied aircraft
Mohawk IV x 24
CW-21B Demon x 16
Hurricane II x 14
Beaufighter VIF x 12
CW-22 Falcon x 4
T.IVa x 7
Beaufort I x 15
B-25C Mitchell x 56
I-153c x 24
I-16c x 24

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 2 destroyed, 5 damaged
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 5 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Mohawk IV: 16 destroyed
CW-21B Demon: 3 destroyed, 4 damaged
Hurricane II: 6 destroyed, 2 damaged
Beaufighter VIF: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged
T.IVa: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
Beaufort I: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged
B-25C Mitchell: 4 destroyed, 9 damaged
I-153c: 15 destroyed
I-16c: 6 destroyed, 9 damaged

This pushed the Allied air to air losses up to 88 total for the turn. Minutes after the bombers got murdered the Hurricane Sweep from Mandalay showed up and it was Japan's turn:

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 15
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 31
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 8

Allied aircraft
Hurricane II x 40

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 21 destroyed
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 3 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane II: 15 destroyed, 10 damaged

Still the day went to Japan 40+ lost planes to 80+ on the Allied side.

Things were quiet on the 12th but on the 13th the airwar continued with large battles over Kaigan in China:

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 3
Ki-30 Ann x 3
Ki-48 Lily x 56

Allied aircraft
Hurricane II x 19
Spitfire Vb x 28

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed
Ki-30 Ann: 1 destroyed
Ki-48 Lily: 31 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane II: 4 damaged
Spitfire Vb: 7 damaged


apanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 50
Ki-32 Mary x 26
Ki-21 Sally x 138
Ki-48 Lily x 25
Ki-15 Babs x 6

Allied aircraft
Hurricane II x 9
Spitfire Vb x 13

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 21 destroyed, 3 damaged
Ki-32 Mary: 4 destroyed, 3 damaged
Ki-21 Sally: 11 destroyed, 5 damaged
Ki-48 Lily: 5 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-15 Babs: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane II: 3 destroyed, 3 damaged
Spitfire Vb: 7 destroyed

and an accidental one over Pagan in Burma:

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 24
A6M3 Zero x 23
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 29
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 9

Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 12
B-17E Fortress x 47

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 5 destroyed, 19 damaged
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 3 destroyed, 3 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Wellington III: 3 destroyed, 6 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 11 destroyed, 25 damaged

In China the Allied fighters have pulled back to Chengting to rearm and wait for more planes to show up. I don't recieve reinforcement aircarft in China because it burns supply too fast and that gives me a logistics problem because keeping one squadron at the front requires 3 in total, one moving up, one leaving for replacements and one at the airbase. Still these results are good and the Japanese have already stopped bombing in the Wuchow area because they are pulling their airforce North.

In Burma a very large raid has been ordered against the Japanese airbase at Rangoon. 72 P40Bs and 24 Demons have a sweep order and then another 150 or so medium and heavy bombers are going to attack the base. Weather is not supposed to be bad, I waited for a window, and if the missions launch it could be a big defeat for Japan.

The map shows the ground situation in Burma. The British are moving troops to get 3000 APs to the Mandalay area and then they will drive South. The Chinese division on the coastal road is a diversion, and there are Chindits waiting to be flown in and other troops in Indian ports that will be transported in as the campaign goes forward.

South Pacific is all about training LBA and rotating ships through refits now, a steady rain of bombs on Japan but nothing really interesting.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 10
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 21
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 7


Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 15
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 31
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 8

and an accidental one over Pagan in Burma:

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 24
A6M3 Zero x 23
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 29
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 9

I assume since this is a Lunacy game PDU's are turned on? In my game I face 200+ Tony's in Burma, quite different from the above air force you are fighting. My opponent has or is replacing all his fighters with Tony’s across the board, why isn’t Mogami doing this?

I just lost about 100+ fighters (70+ experienced groups of P-40E's and Buffalo's) to about 10 Tony kills in my game in 2 days. VERY frustrating, it feels like nothing has changed from the zero bonus +5 days.

Jim

[ADavidB]

I just lost about 100+ fighters (70+ experienced groups of P-40E's and Buffalo's) to about 10 Tony kills in my game in 2 days. VERY frustrating, it feels like nothing has changed from the zero bonus +5 days.

You shouldn't be flying Buffalos against anything...

And while your P-40Es are probably your best US fighter early in the game, don't let them get outnumbered by crack Japanese units.

Good luck -

Dave Baranyi

[Tom Hunter]

PDU is on

Mogami sent me a note about Tonies saying that he thought they did not really enter the war until late 42. I forget the month, but he said that he would not start building them until then.

I have seen the Tojo, but I don't think I have seen the Tony.

In spite of this being a Lunacy game we have both been fairly restrained about aircraft upgrades. I have a lot of twin engine planes in service and have only switched one or two groups, maybe 80 planes total from medium to heavy bombers.

Personally I think PDU is a total disaster and the fact that a lot of people wanted it just shows that most people playing the game don't have any foresight or ability to predict the effects of major changes to the game.

[Jim D Burns]

I personally am a stickler for historical accuracy so I haven’t upgraded any 2E to 4E bombers at all. But given the utter disaster in Burma I just recently wrote my opponent and told him I think the ONLY allied option to combat the Japanese overproduction and mass Tony strategy is to use the uber 4E upgrade strategy.

The Reason I’m using Buffalo’s ADavidB is because he’s already slaughtered my Hurricanes and Spitfires. I’ve managed to rebuild some Hurricane groups but those are experience 50-60 and I didn’t want to base them forward till they get trained up.

But given the results I’m seeing no allied fighters have a prayer unless/until I can base 200+ Spitfires or P-38’s against his hordes of Tony’s. And that won’t be till at least mid to late 1943. PDU’s are a game breaker I think given Japan’s overproduction capabilities and all the allies can do is convert the 4E bombers. There is also no guarantee that that will work either, the Tony has a high gun factor and can shred bombers too.

Jim