Vettim89 vs Greasylake - Reversal of Fortunes

[vettim89]

24 March 1942

I hate not posting more updates but when there is nothing going on what am I to do. No new invasions since Larry took Amboina. The Commonwelath troops at kuatang are about shot. As hard as it is to believe, this is a good thing. The fewere troops I leave behind the fewer that Larry can use as training targets.

Manila continues to be a stick in Larry's side. He cannot manage anything but 0 to 1 attacks. With supplies at 24 K, it will take some time to crack this nut if he doesn't bring in more units. I love to watch the combat replays and see his bombers attack BF and the 2nd Marine Regiment - no gonna affect the AV much that way. I still have good amounts of troops and supplies at Bataan and Baguio with forts rising and good amounts of supplies.

At PH, 3 out of my five CV's have upgraded to F4F-4's with 23 in pool so I should be able to upgrade in 2 or 3 days. Only two of the damaged BB's from the 7 Dec attack remain here. The rest are on the west coast with California at system 2! I am concerned as April 1 approaches as to how to manage all my April 42 upgrades. Should I send my CV's back to WC?

In Oz I have the damaged Dutch and USN CA/CL's repairing in Adelaide Melbourn and Sydney. Supply is growing in Oz and my fuel crisis is easing. Over 150 k oil will be at Sydney in a few days.

In SE Asia CA Cornwall has made Trico. Once flood damage is down I will move her to Bombay to repair. Oil is moving to Diamond Harbor and Madras to support HI there. I am building forts in NW India. Most are level 5 now. I will then move these units south and build another line. If Larry decides to Invade India I hope to have a series of defnsive lines of level 9 forts he will have to move through. I am considering doing the same thing in Oz

[saj42]

It's a good move to sent some of the 'spare' Brit AKs (6k size) and TKs (12k size) to the West Coast.
I then use them to support NOPAC (from Seattle and Canada) - thus freeing up US shipping for use in the main Pacific theatre.

p.s. Don't forget to convert a handful of the Brit AKs to ARs plus an AD/AS or two. Us Brits don't get (m)any Auxiliary ships at all during the game.

[vettim89]

Its April 1st. Heavy loss of LCU has really pushed the Japanese score higher. SOme things going on in last few turns which I will highlight in each section

[vettim89]

Ships sunk. I lost Canberra trying to resupply PM. More on that later. Both of us has lost a lot of our minelaying capability. I am averaging 10 AP/AK sunk a month. I think I ned to accelerate this and hopefully will be able to soon as all the damaged SS I had to withdraw are repaired and heading back into the Java Sea where they will appear to have targets soon

[vettim89]

Air Losses. Most of the Ann's were killed by AAA over Manilla. Nice to see the Zero losses so high. I wonder how many pilots went down in their planes?

[vettim89]

Situation in PI. In the last few days first Cagayan finally fell. Then Larry pulled two Divisions out of Manilla and took Baguio. Now he is at Bataan. I think he decided to clean up the remaining PI bases while whittling down supplies at Manila

[vettim89]

Situation NEI. There are CV's just south of Singapore and a large SCTF ENE of Batavia. I think Larry is finally on the move here.

[vettim89]

Situation in SoPac. PM is untenable for the moment. I tried to move supplies in a few weeks ago but Kates at Lae and Nells at Rabaul chewed up the AK's. Then I loaded up a TF with Aussie Ca's and Cl's for AAA and moved again. After surviving Kate, Nell, and now Betty attacks (from Truk), the TF made it in relatively unscathed. Then part of KB showed up and sank Canberra and roughed up the remaining Ca's/CL's. These will likely die next turn unless the long AK straggler distracts the IJN flyers

[vettim89]

Very Quiet here

[vettim89]

1 April 1942

Well I managed to "save" CL Hobart as she made Cairns with over 75 system and flot damage. Also 1 undamaged Ak and 1 undamaged DD survived the debacle. A SCTF bombarded PM and is now withdrawing East as is the CVTF. PM now has 4000 supply and that will have to do for a while. When I get my ducks in a row and start moving SWPac units this way I may Use My CV's to escort sme more supply in but not before then.

Japanaese are coming ashore in northern Java probably starting next turn at Merak I beleive. CVTF is hovering off shore but my Dutch LBA can't penetrate the CAP. Off course they did try to bomb BB Kongo which is like the 8th or 9th time they have done this in this game. Of course the few hits have just bounced. I sent my last two Dutch PT's to Merak where they will hopefully do some damage before dieing gloriously.

At PH all my DD's now have 11-12 System damage as a result of APril upgrades. My CV's only have about 5-6. It will take some time before the USN is ready to sorties again.

[vettim89]

5 April 1942

Larry is moving very slowly in Java. He has 5 units but only 6 k troop at Merak. I suspect there are at least a couple of BF there and he may be planning on staging CAP out of Merak. He appears to be withdrawing his CV's which includes Junyo. If I am right about fighters at Merak then the withdraw of his aircover makes sense. I will have nearly a dozen subs in the northern Java Sea within a few days. These are almost all Dutch and S-Boats so hopefully they will hit something. The units in place have already hit an AP and an AK. The Dutch AF is almost gone but with the withdraw of the CV's there is some hope for more success.

I spotted his CV TF that killed the Aussie Navy just east of Kavieng heading NE (towards Truk) I have three US subs (no S-boats) near Truk and am moving them into intercept position. CL Hobart sunk last turn. Larry is griping about my mining campaign. He said he is wishing for 1943 to come around so I will put my subs back on patrol. I don't think he will like that as much as he thinks.

A couple of failed Deliberate Attacks at Bataan have reduce Forts to 2. He has three full Divisions tasked here.

In the Centpac I am continuing the shuttle missions moving SWPac, SOPac, and CentPac units to the HI. Once set there I will move SoPac units to New Caledonia (AMerical Division, 2nd Marines, and support). Once they are in place SWPac units will move to Oz. Once that is accomplished CentPac units will move to Canton Island. AS this will take some time, the play of the game may dictate my moves but that is the current plan. In my game vs the AI, I built up Canton Island, then Howland/Baker and from there moved on Tarawa. Like I said a lot of game to be played yet.

[vettim89]

9 April 1942

From the attached pic you can see the battle for the NEI shaping up. No succesful sub attacks today. The Dutch AF sortied and of course went after the combat ships including who else but Kongo (again). There is a group of TF's to the east that I am assuming is heading to Kendari. Throwing everything I have at Larry here but it is not enough. Also Japanese troops moved overland and are now in Medan.

Not much else going on elsewhere except for a Deliberate attack at Bataan that dropped forts to 2.

[vettim89]

10 April 1942

Hard to beleive we are only a month away from the historical Battle of Coral Sea in game time. Much better day today. Dutch subs hit an AP and a MSW (both are reported sunk). Then the TV1's hit an AP also. Deliberate attack fails to budege forts at Batavia.

Deliberate attack at Bataan reduces forts to level 1. Huge air bombardments at Manilla.

[vettim89]

11 April 1942

No hits by A/C or subs today. The japanese are now landing at Kendari. I sortied DD Evertsen which had been ther with 90+ Sys damge. Maybe she will get lucky. There is a SCTF (or maybe CVTF) SW of Kendari moving West. Only bombardments in PI. There were 7 separate raids on Manilla today by Japanese A/C. Not much else to report

[vettim89]

12 April 1942

Somethat is up. More on that later.

Kendari fell - Imp Guards are there. Talk about overkill. S-38 managed to torpedo an AP off Batavia. I do not know yet because of FOW but in the last few days we have hit 5 AP/AK. Unfortunately, Larry is coming ashore at Merak and is thereby missing 800 mines laid at Batavia itself. Well they will still cause some problems for him once he takes the base. There is a large TF just south of the SE corner of Borneo. Not sure if this is a SCTF or CVTF but it is just meandering around out there.

At Kwajalein two PC hit Mk 10 mines and sink.

Here is the strangeness. There were no air attacks anywhere in the PI this turn! No ground attack at Bataan and a bombardment attack at Manila was the only action we saw. I wonder if Larry has moved his IJA air assets out or is just resting them becasue of fatigue/morale issues. We have a House RUle that any unit transfering more than 9 hexex must stand down for at least one day. Hard to say where these a/c are now. Larry did say he rushed the turn so maybe it was just an oversight. We shall see.

[vettim89]

13 April 1942

Bataan fell. Still a lot of clean up work for Larry in PI and Manila still holds. Larry is moving around the North end of Java. I would assume he is going to invade along the west coast anywhere. He has carriers everywhere now. A dutch sub torpedoesd an AP and two more PC's hit mines at Kwajalein

[vettim89]

14 April 1942

The attached image says it all! A DD hita VH2 mine at Batavia which then fell to the Japanese during ground combat. A Dutch SS put a fish into an AK. Dutch are falling back on Kragen now. Not much to do but watch this happen at the moment.

Troops are unloading at Hollandia so Larry is finally on the move. Not much to report elsewhere although the units I bought from WC are now safely tucked away in Dutch Harbor. Hopefully Larry won't go much further up here.

[saj42]

I reckon that Amph Tf and ACTF are going for Tjilitjap on Java's west coast. Cut the island in half and prevent the defenders of Batavia making it back to Soerabaja for the final stand.

[vettim89]

18 April 1942

Close Tallyho but off by a little - the Japanese were heading for Malang which is the base adjacent to Soerobaja on the west coast of Java. It is now in Japanese hands. A dutch sub put a torpedo into CS Nissin off the NE corner of Java today. A protiion of the Imp Guards has landed at Makassar. Japanese troops are also now ashore at Hollandia.

Very little action anywhere else now. More mining ops in the central Pacific - I lay them, Larry clears thems usually losing a small craft or two in the process. My second to last shuttle is moving from SF to Hawaii. One more trip back to pick up the 32nd Inf Div and 2nd Marines and I will be set to start moving south. I finally got tired of waiting for Maryland to drop below 80 Sys damage so I formed up a TF with a bunch of escorts and sent them to SF. BB's are repairing nicely on WC with Oklahoma now down to 17 syst. All the rest of the ships damaged at PH are now back with the fleet including CS San Francisco. CVE Long Island is at Los Angeles. I am thinking of keeping her there to run ASW in case Larry increases his sub presence off the WC. AS Larry moves further out and I slowly expand my defensive perimeter, I think it is invariable that we will "bump" into one another in the next month or so.

[vettim89]

19 April 1942

Makassar and Badang (sp) fell. S-38 and a Dutch sub both hit an AK today. Bombardment attacks at Manilla. Very little else at going on elsewhere