Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

[Mike Solli]

18 Nov 42

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

Four BBs and 2 CLs bombarded Adak killing 25 squads and disabling another 39. They also caused some airfield and port damage that was easily repaired.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Tulagi received 56x 4E bomber sorties, all against the troops. The garrison is an SNLF company and some engineers with level 3 forts. I need to send more troops here so they can hold out. There are also 50 mines, but no ACM. I suspect that is the target.

In PNG, 15x 2E bombers (including a dozen of the new A20A1 bombers) hit Nadzab. A total of 135 P-39Ds hit a couple of other bases there. I moved a sentai of Nicks to Madang and put them on CAP to cover Nadzab tomorrow. I want to crush the 2E bombers, which aren't really a match for the Nick.

Ted didn't come after Rabaul today. My fighters are repairing nicely and are ready for the next visit.

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

My bombardment didn't do much today. I'm really waiting for a couple of infantry divisions at Cox's Bazaar to recover so I can attack him. My raw AV is 1472 to his 879. Two more recovered infantry divisions (or maybe all 3 at Cox's Bazaar) added to the mix should be able to oust him.

China

Chengtu is housing the Chinese Air Force. Nine SB-IIIs were escorted by 11 I-15s, 2 I-16s and 4 H81-A3s(!). They bombed a tank regiment headed there probably killing a tank. I'm going to have my Zeros sweep Chengtu tomorrow to try and kill off some of the fighters. My goal at Chengtu is to enter the city from the east, west and 2 south hexes. I want to push the garrison out to the north, where they will starve. Then the armor will move east to take Kienko, the NE base on the Chungking plateau. Kienko has one corps of 14k troops. Chengtu has about the same number of troops, but 3 units. There's the garrison and the two remnants from Neikiang.

My bombardment of Chungking killed another 17 squads. My raw AV is 1843 to his 5164. I have 10 divisions there and want to double that. I also have more artillery headed there.

The influx of supply is helping a lot to get rid of the low supply all over China. I've added about 100k supply. That hurts, but it's necessary to take Chungking and bring China to its knees.

Other Stuff

Fusan's port finally reached level 8. Resources and fuel are flowing there easily now, but oil is still not doing well. It'll get there eventually.

The A6M5b Zero R&D advanced to 4/43 and is expected to become operational around 3/43. I'll then advance to the A6M5c, which is the model I want for its armor.

Reinforcements
Kure 6 SNLF and Yokosuka 7 SNLF. They will combine to become the Combined 8 SNLF. Each was half sized so I anticipate when combined, they will be the equivalent of a normal sized SNLF, but we shall see. I was surprised to see this. I never realized that would happen. I wanted to send one to China to cover a base that required a size 30 garrison (which is what each currently is). I'm trying to free up more divisions in the rear for front line duty at Chungking. I currently have 10 divisions for Chungking, which isn't enough. I'd like to double that, but that will take some doing to free up divisions elsewhere.

[Mike Solli]

19 Nov 42

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

I landed at Umnak today.

The 9 Division is waiting for PPs to change from Kwangtung to 16 Army and then head to Adak. That division has 80 experience! About 11 more days.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Sixty-seven P-39Ds and 18x 2E bombers targeted Salamaua today. No one went after Nadzab, where they would have been ambushed by a sentai of Nicks. I'll try again tomorrow.

Tulagi was the recipient of 57x 4E bomber sorties today. They do little damage, other than a little disruption (~10 points per unit).

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

Nothing to report.

China

The day started off with my "sweep" of Chengtu, by a whopping 3 Zeros. There should have been 15. Really? They ran into 4 I-16s and 8 H81-A3s and two Zeros were shot down (1 KIA). That sucked.

Later in the morning, the remaining 12 Zeros showed up and exacted revenge. For no loss, they shot down 1 of 4 I-16s and 5 of 7 H81-A3s. Banzai! They'll do it again tomorrow.

The 9 Chinese SB-IIIs bombed the 1 Tank Division in Chengtu, causing no damage. At least the flak in the division took down a bomber.

Other Stuff

Nothing to report.

[Mike Solli]

Well, I found the info on converting Chitose, Chiyoda, Mizuho and Nisshin.

Chitose and Chiyoda must upgrade at Tokyo, which must have the repair shipyard increased to 50. It's currently at 20 for me. Guess I'm increasing it starting tomorrow, which means I won't be able to start the conversions until late December 42. They could have started on 1 November. I am going to convert them. They will convert with their float plane units into a 21 plane fighter unit and a 9 plane torpedo bomber unit. Each ship will carry 27 torpedoes.

I will not convert Mizuho or Nisshin. I prefer to have their floatplane capability and at least one of them is pretty slow if I recall. If they are converted, they can convert anywhere there is a 25+ repair shipyard. They can convert starting on 1 December 42.

All four ships take 300 days to convert.

[Mike Solli]

While I'm waiting for the turn, I'm going to post some random thoughts on the game.

I have a fair number of ships hauling fuel, oil and resources from Fusan to Fukuoka. They past through Tsushima so they stay in shallow hexes the entire trip. I have a few extra ACMs so I'm sending two there and will drop 300 mines to dissuade any enemy subs from attempting anything nasty. I have mines in both port hexes. Earlier, I did see some enemy subs up there, but I haven't for a while. I have air and naval ASW and naval search plastering the area too. That is going to be a massive source of stuff headed for Japan for the entire war. There are 9 TKs and 24 xAKs hauling stuff. Right now I have no TKs accelerated and my merchant ship points is at 0. As soon as I'm gaining points, I'll start to accelerate more TKs.

Speaking of hauling fuel/oil, here's a general outline of what I do. Here are my hubs:

Singapore: 92k fuel (always like to keep at least 50k here), 40k oil and 1.2M resources. I ship from here to either CRB or HK.

Medan and Bengkalis (starting points): Haul oil, fuel and resources to the Malayan west coast. They're pretty well drained and the ships allocated keep up nicely.

Palembang (start point, not hub): 222k fuel, 32k oil, 86k resources. These ship to either Singapore (fuel when needed there), CRB and HK. Currently 30k supply which I send to Burma as needed.

Miri (another start point): 6500 fuel, 4400 oil. To CRB with occasional fuel to Manila as needed. I keep this base pretty well drained.

Tarakan (starting point): 11k fuel. I have a single 11.6k TK that constantly sends it fuel to Babeldaob.

Balikpapan (starting point): 7900 fuel. Sends fuel to Babeldaob and Truk. Keeps pretty well drained.

Soerabaja (starting point): 64k fuel, 12k oil, 161k resources, 10k supply. Has 3x 12.8k and 2x 11.6k TKs that haul fuel and oil to Babeldaob and 17 xAK hauling resources to HK.

Boela and Babo (starting points): Haul their oil and resources to Babeldaob.

Babeldaob: 215k fuel, 48k oil, 41k resources. I have a single 11.6k TK hauling fuel/oil to the Home Islands. I need more here. Whenever I send something out from the Home Islands to the Central/South Pacific or SRA, they always make a stop at Babeldaob to carry whatever they can back to the Home Islands. Anything that is sent from Japan to Burma always stops at Singapore to pick up something to haul back to the Home Islands. I try to minimize shipping coming back to Japan empty.

Between 4 and 16 March 43, I have 3x 11.6k and 2x 8150 TKs due. I'd love to get them accelerated as soon as I have the merchant ship points available. After that, there are 2-4 TKs (both of those types) per month so I should be good to go.

I have the following TKs scheduled to arrive between March 43 and April 44:

11.6k: 12
8150: 15
2850 (Std-C): 12

I can always add more if I think I'll need them. We'll see what the future holds.

Here are my TKs:

Tonan Whalers: 5
12.8k: 8
11.6k: 9 (remember, I just lost 1 from an accident)
8150: 15
7950: 11
2850: 17
1250: 30
500: 10

TKs lost:

7950: 3
1250: 1
11.6k: 1

[Mike Solli]

20 Nov 42

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

Unmak Island was liberated today. That was about the only excitement here.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Twenty-two P-39Ds escorted by 10 Wildcats went after Buin. I'm not sure what they were attacking because they caused no damage. I had 18 Zeros split between the A2 and A5 counter them. At a cost of one of each of the Zeros (1 WIA), they shot down a Wildcat and 3 FBs. Not bad.

Fourteen P-39Ds went after Nadzab and only 1 Nick, of a full sentai, went after them. There were no losses on either side. Really? I guess putting them on CAP over the hex doesn't work very well. I'm trying LRCAP tomorrow.

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

I had 2 CA and 1 CL escorted by 4 DDs enter Chittagong to bombard the airfield. They ran into 2 MGB and sank them easily, then ran into that elusive MTB. They evaded combat. The bombardment occurred destroying 5 fighters on the ground and damaging another 43 while killing 25 squads and damaging the airfield further. The airfield is currently at 21% damage. More CAs are leaving Singapore today to add to the carnage.

China

Six SB-IIIs escorted by 10 I-15/16s bombed the army HQ heading to Chengtu disabling a few squads.

Later in the day, my dozen Zeros swept Chengtu running into 6 H81-A3s and 6 I-16s. At no loss to themselves, they shot down 4 and 2 of the enemy respectively. Banzai!

Today's bombardment of Chungking netted 24 enemy squads destroyed. I have 8 artillery units here with another 8 (at least) enroute.

I attacked Lanchow today but only got 1:2 odds with no forts. I did kill 70 infantry squads and disabled another 45, along with 3 other kills and another 91 disablements. Gotta keep it up. It'll clear eventually.

Other Stuff

The Ki-44-IIc Tojo R&D advanced to 3/43 and is expected to become operational mid-December 42. At that point I'll allow all 7 R&D factories to produce the Tojo, producing 210 a month. Also, I'll turn on the Ki-49-IIa Helen factories, which will produce 60 a month. The Ha-34 engine for these aircraft are producing 210 engines a month and there are 525 in the pool. For the two aircraft, consumption of the engines will exceed the engine production by 120 a month. The pool will be depleted in 131 days. At that point, I'll convert 4 of the Tojo factories to an R&D project and then produce 90 Tojos and 60 Helens a month, matching the engine production. During that initial 131 days, I'll have produced 917 Tojos and 262 Helens.

[Mike Solli]

Oh yeah, I increased Tokyo's repair shipyard from 20 to 50. I'll start the 300 day conversion of Chitose and Chiyoda in a month.

[Mike Solli]

21 Nov 42

Sub War

The I-19, one of a handful of subs keeping an eye on Pearl Harbor, sank an unescorted xAK NE of Pearl. It's interesting that he still has unescorted convoys out there.

5 Fleet

Nothing to report.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

A full 42 plane sentai of Nicks flew LRCAP over Salamaua and Finschafen. There were 4 enemy attacks totaling 65 P-39Ds and one with 33 P-38s escorting 18x 2E bombers. When it was all said and done, I lost 2 Nicks shot down and some more op losses with 2 KIA and 4 WIA vs. 9 P-39s and 2 Lightnings. They were IJAAF pilots lost, so I'll take it.

Tulagi was hit by 40x 4E bombers in multiple strikes, all against the troops there. I took a couple of disablements.

Thirteen P-39Ds escorted by 8 Wildcats were sent against Buin. I had 18 Zeros defending. At a cost of 1 Zero (WIA), they shot down 4 Wildcats.

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

Nothing to report.

China

I bombed the airfield at Chungking and Lanchow to keep the damage up so no forts are built. Interestingly, there is no enemy flak at either base. Shortage of supply? I hope so. That would be a good sign.

Today's bombardment of Chungking netted 25 squads destroyed.

Other Stuff

Nothing to report.

[Mike Solli]

22 Nov 42 - Quiet day today.

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

Four BB and 2 CL bombarded Adak today killing 11 squads and disabled another 37. The airfield damage is at 95% and the port damage is at 47%. I don't anticipate any more forts being built.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Seven P-39Ds came to Buin for a strafing run (100ft) and ran into 18 Zeros. The Airacobras managed to shoot down 4 Zeros (2 KIA, 1 WIA) for no loss to them. Really?

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

Nothing to report.

China

The bombardment at Chungking killed 17 squads today. The raw AV is 1850 Japanese to 5120 Chinese. Mine is slowly increasing while the Chinese is slowly decreasing. I have 5 divisions and 11 artillery units in Chungking with another 6 divisions in the area. Some of them are moving to surround Chungking and the rest are heading into Chungking. Elsewhere in China, I have about 10 divisions and 9 artillery units headed to Chungking. It's such a slow process with the gap in the railroad between Wuchang and Changsha.

Other Stuff

My supply is finally increasing. It topped 2.83 million and seems to be rising. Finally.

[BBfanboy]

Maybe your Zeros were trying the 'bounce' attack on those P-39s at 100'. Makes rounding out your dive very touchy ...

[PaxMondo]

Question for the group: To do the CVS to CVL conversions, which base is used and what is the required naval repair level?

Thanks!

CS -> CVL must be done at TOKYO and IIRC, the RSY needs to be 40 minimum which means in stock you must expand Tokyo to be able to do it. This is all dependent upon how my "little grey cells" are working today ....

[Mike Solli]

Thanks for the input, guys. Been playing this game for decades and I still can't figure much of it out.

Something I realized a little while ago. In this mod you get only 1 supply per HI:

Economy - 26 Nov 42.jpg (474.42 KiB) Viewed 215 times

[Mike Solli]

23 Nov 42

Sub War

The I-173 managed to miss an AE off Auckland.

5 Fleet

Still waiting for enough PP to buy out 9 Division (80 experience unit) to send to Adak.

4 Fleet

The CA Indianapolis bombarded Tabiteuea causing some port damage. I took the base early in the war but withdrew the troops. Eventually, he'll take it back, with port damage.

SE Fleet

I'm reinforcing Tulagi with a NG battalion. I'm sending ships in one at a time because Ted can see everything I'm doing there. I had an xAK there today and it took a 500 lb bomb from a Catalina.

(I'm a few days ahead of this turn. It literally just dawned on me that I can fly the battalion in. The port has 97 damage but the airfield has only 9 service damage. Duh. I have a few Ansyu PBs on fast transport with troops aboard, but the rest of the battalion will go in by air.)

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

Nothing to report.

China

I performed my daily bombing of Chungking and Lanchow. Interestingly, neither base put up any Flak. Supply shortages?

Today's artillery bombardment of Chungking killed 18 squads.

Update on the status of the Chinese Army:

Kanhsien: 5 units totaling 42k troops surrounded. They have no access to supply.
Changteh: 6 units totaling 31k in town, 4 units totaling ~30k 1 hex to the NE, 20 units totaling 151k on hex to the SE. They have 20 LI in town with resources to feed it. They're starving. The entire group is surrounded.
Sian: 42 units totaling 249k troops in town and 4 more totaling ~30k to the south. This group is not pocketed but all the roads leading out are controlled by me at some point. At any rate, Sian is producing only 100 supply a day (20 from the refinery, 20 from HI and 60 from LI) so they are not exporting anything. They're starving.
Lanchow: 8 units totaling 43k troops. They're getting 150 supply a day (90 from the refinery and 60 LI). They seem to be starving too.
Chengtu: 3 units totaling 20k troops. They are getting 180 supply a day from LI and another 160 a day from HI if they have fuel (which is doubtful). They are not surrounded but when ousted, they'll retreat north into the mountains and starve.
Kienko: 1 unit of 14k troops. They have no access to supply. This is the base to the north of Chungking.
Chungking: 87 units totaling 287k troops. They're just about cut off (one hex still open for a few more days) and their supply situation is bad. They're getting 180 supply a day from LI. If they have any fuel (doubtful) they're getting an additional 360 supply a day from HI until the fuel runs out.

There are an addition dozen Chinese units scattered around that are in the boonies without access to supply. They're all starving.

Other Stuff

The fifth of 18 George R&D factories fully repaired today. Now, I'm up to a 10% increase a day in R&D. I'm still gaining 14 Ha-45 engines a day in the pool. I currently have 1414 engines in the pool. I'm still debating how many of the 18 factories will become operational when the first George model completes its R&D and how many will remain in R&D for future models. Right now I'm thinking 4 operational and 14 in R&D. That would give me a month's increase every 4 days. The one thing I'll have to figure out when the time comes (basically, when the factories are all repaired) is the N1K5, which uses the Ha-43 engine (as does the Sam). That engine won't complete until 7/43. (I want to make sure there are 500+ in the pool when the N1K5 goes into R&D.) There are 6x30 Ha-43 factories. I'll have to increase production of the Ha-34 to match the number of Georges and Sams I plan on producing. The max would be 540 of each. That's all going to take some math skills to figure out. Fun stuff! (I actually love doing that!)

[Mike Solli]

24 Nov 42

Sub War

I sent a midget sub into Milne Bay, which has a LOT of shipping. The hope was to get a shot off at something important. That wasn't to be. Some APDs spotted her and sank her.

The Dutch sub O20 torpedoed and sank a To'su PB. She was part of a resource convoy returning to Soerabaja from Hong Kong. This happened SE of Samah. I have 24 Jakes on naval search flying out of Samah and an ASW TF steaming in the area. I need more assets here (and just about everywhere else too).

5 Fleet

Nothing to report.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

This morning I dropped off 80 mines at Rennell Island, which is 3 hexes SW of Tulagi. Ted dropped off troops there and already built the airfield up to level 1. Immediately after dropping off the mines, I heard something hit one. It turned out to be Dutch sub KXVII. She was reported to have sunk, but that is not the case. At any rate, she's hurting.

Thirty-five 4E bombers hit the troops at Tulagi (as they do pretty much every day).

The handful of remaining 2E bombers and the P-39Ds are going after my troops in PNG.

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

Nothing to report.

China

Today's bombardment of Chungking destroyed 20 enemy squads.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements
SS I-176, headed to Soerabaja with a number of other subs of this class to blanket Northern and Western Australia.
6 Air Division HQ, 4 Air Army which is part of 8 Area Army, headed to the Marianas.
25 JAAF AF Battalion, Southern Army, destination undecided.
11 JAAF AF Battalion, Southern Army, destination undecided.

In addition to I-176, I'm getting a Glen sub tomorrow, another on in 3 days and the Musashi in 6 days. These four ships will total 325 naval shipyard production. Once Musashi arrives, I'll see what is excess and decide what to accelerate. Maybe Taiho? She would require an additional 206. We'll see.

[Mike Solli]

25 Nov 42

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

Three BB and 2 CL bombarded Adak killing 10 squads and adding to the port and airfield damage.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Tulagi was the recipient of 27 enemy 4E bombers.

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

Nothing to report.

China

Twenty-six squads were killed in today's bombardment of Chungking.

I Chinese Corps was destroyed by attrition. Will that one be rebuilt?

Other Stuff

Reinforcement
SS I-34, Glen sub, to Kwajalein for use in the Central Pacific/US West Coast.

[GrosserKreuzer]

Thanks for the input, guys. Been playing this game for decades and I still can't figure much of it out.

Something I realized a little while ago. In this mod you get only 1 supply per HI:


Economy - 26 Nov 42.jpg

Am I dumb?
The screenshot looks to me like you get 200 supply (and HI points) from a size 100 HI. Meaning 2 supply per HI.
What am I doing wrong?

[BBfanboy]

Thanks for the input, guys. Been playing this game for decades and I still can't figure much of it out.

Something I realized a little while ago. In this mod you get only 1 supply per HI:


Economy - 26 Nov 42.jpg

Am I dumb?
The screenshot looks to me like you get 200 supply (and HI points) from a size 100 HI. Meaning 2 supply per HI.
What am I doing wrong?

It's an Ironman scenario, so the formula for HI output was probably changed to 1 supply to make that more challenging.

[PaxMondo]

4 Nov 42

Nine P-38Fs swept Rabaul against 108 Japanese fighters, shooting down 1 Zero (KIA) for no loss. See what happens when planes get the bounce on other planes?

Bounce is part of it, but speed is the other. The issue is that the A6M's only get one shot at the P38's in passing because they cannot catch them. Not only not catch them, but with the speed differential so great, they probably only see them momentarily as a flash ....

It is a fact that the only speed that matters in the ACM is the "instantaneous speed" at the time of contact. We don't know this, ever. The only 2 things we have are the cruise and max speeds, then instantaneous speed is generally between the 2, but not always.

I think this mod didn't change the airframes too much so looking at Scen 1, the P-38G's cruise speed is 340 vs A6M2 max speed of 331 .... A6M cannot catch the P38 even when the P38 is only cruising ...

[PaxMondo]

Thanks for the input, guys. Been playing this game for decades and I still can't figure much of it out.

Something I realized a little while ago. In this mod you get only 1 supply per HI:


Economy - 26 Nov 42.jpg

O M G!!

First let me congratulate you that you are able to accumulate ANY supply whatsoever. Then, allow me to be horror struck that they slashed the supply consumption so much. I had no idea of that. The implications are huge.

First no expansion of either LI nor HI is worthwhile at all. They completely took "this off the board" for consideration in the game. Wow. Huge gameplay change.

Second, and I know this was part of their intent, it severely limits your aircraft production. Not only directly mind you, but it also severely limits how many missions/day that you can support, hence limits your production again in addition to the initial expansion cost. You produce too many and you can rapidly crash your economy. IIRC the supply usage is:
LB: bombload/1000
All other attack AC: 1
CAP: 1/3

just from memory, needs to be checked. Assuming 50/50 fighters/other, 5000 missions=>3300 supply/day minimum. Yikes. And that's early war. Mid-war, the allies will be WAY over 10000 missions/day. How will you match that?

Third, it limits your operational parameters as everything you do needs to generate more supply, not consume it. Not sure that taking CK is worthwhile now, and a lunge into India is almost a must. OZ? NZ? I don't think you can afford the supply of either. SOV early? again, I don't think the supply expenditure will allow for it. OUCH!!!!

Holy crap Batman!!!!

[PaxMondo]

Oh yeah, I increased Tokyo's repair shipyard from 20 to 50. I'll start the 300 day conversion of Chitose and Chiyoda in a month.

So, I don't do this anymore. It's a thin razor of a decision, but these 2 CS's are the only ones that can keep up with the KB. The 15 hex range of the Norm makes it a good NavSearch, although not nearly as good as the Judy (but that requires the Ha-60 engine) at 20/21 hex. And not having ANYTHING for 300 days ...

If I have the CS's with the KB units, I have all the NavSearch I need, I know I will have good spotting of whatever targets the KB chooses. Having to depend upon my BB/CA NavSearch: with so few aircraft, I have to spend more PP's on leaders to be sure of good info on the sightings that I get, and then so few aircraft means lower DC on my targets ... I'm looking at DC=6/7 instead of 9/10. Finally, a 9 plane TB group is only good for "trash" targets, meaning TK/AK types, not hard targets that have any kind of fighter cover.

So, these would be a better fit into the MKB as opposed to the KB in terms of capability and target selection. However, as they have the speed to keep up with the KB, I want them there.

Anyway, I keep them as CS. They do ASW for it mainly. Example: when I use the KB to invade India. When my KB is in the Indian ocean, I'll have 4 - 6 ASW TF's following the KB at 0 hexes and 3 range attack with the CS on full ASW/NavSearch. I don't kill many SS's, but I do scare/damage them away and rarely lose a CV to SS torp.


Once you convert them you can do the almost same thing by setting them up with Jills. Bonus, you get a half dozen more aircraft in ASW/NavSearch, but you lose some range (12 v 15) and of course you lose those precious 300 days when you still have the initiative.

Just my thoughts ...

[sfatula]

While I have not converted those two CS myself yet, the other advantage of doing so is having more carrier fighters to help protect the fleet instead of floatplanes.