Matrix Games Forums

3 Mar 42

Sub War

I finally returned the favor, but it cost me. I hit that Dutch sub that's been hanging around south of Balikpapan with a DC, but not before she torpedoed and sank and APD. She showed up as sunk but I doubt it. Not with only one DC hit.

5 Fleet

Those Allied ships that bombarded Dutch Harbor are still close to that base, but a couple hexes east today. I suspect they're headed to port, wherever that is, but I'm still closing with KB, 6 days out.

4 Fleet

Nothing new to report.

SE Fleet

Nothing new to report.

China

Still attacking some surrounded Chinese units and the victorious Loyang army is getting close to the 5 surrounded Chinese units at Tsiaotao.

Burma

Bloodbath today. There were 4 waves of Allied fighters. Overall, losses were 8 Oscars (and 1 op loss) with 6 KIA and 2 WIA and 8 Zeros with 4 KIA and 3 WIA against 9 various Hurricanes (and 2 op losses), 1x P-40E and 2x H81-A3s. Not so hot. What's really hurting me is the lack of level 2+ airfields. Only Taung Gyi (level 2) and Rangoon (level 5). The rest are still level 1 but building. Several of my AS and AA units gained radar. That sure helped a bunch. [8|]

Malaya

This theater is effectively finished. The victorious 25 Army is resting and rebuilding and will head out soon. Tomorrow, some DMSs will arrive to clear the harbor of mines. Then, we'll prepare for the movement of stuff to the Home Islands as soon as Palembang is liberated (which should be in a few days).

Java

Bandoeng was liberated today in a 6:1 attack. Losses were light, 9(0) Japanese to 136(79) Dutch, with the remnants withdrawing to Kalidjati. That base and Batavia are the only two remaining bases in Dutch hands.

More of the Dutch Air Force was captured: 14x B339D, 14x CW22 and 7x 139WH-3. I forgot to mention yesterday that I captured a C.XI-W, 3x T.IVa and 8 of the dreaded Do-24K-1s.

Bandoeng's infrastructure was in good shape at Manpower 1(1), Resources 16(4) and LI 16(4).

4 Mar 42

Sub War

Nothing new to report, but hopefully there will be tomorrow! [;)]

5 Fleet

Interesting events today. A new Allied bombardment TF from yesterday hit the two Naval Guard units marooned at Dutch Harbor again today. This one was composed of BBs Warspite, Mississippi, New Mexico, Idaho and Colorado as well as the CA New Orleans. That’s great! I hope they stay. KB is still 5 days out though. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that KB makes it in time. Then, something very interesting happened. I’ll do a rare posting of a combat result:

Morning Air attack on 65th Naval Guard Unit, at 171,50 (Dutch Harbor)

Weather in hex: Heavy rain

Raid spotted at 18 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 7
SBD-3 Dauntless x 36
TBD-1 Devastator x 15

No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
133 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 7 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Aircraft Attacking:
8 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 4000'
Ground Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
12 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 4000'
Ground Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
15 x TBD-1 Devastator bombing from 11000 feet
Ground Attack: 2 x 500 lb GP Bomb
8 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 3000'
Ground Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
6 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 2000'
Ground Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
2 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 2000'
Ground Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb

One US carrier reared its ugly head! [:)] I have a sub a few hexes away that is heading over there to see if she can get a shot. I also have one farther to the east that will move to a position where she might get a shot at the TF if it retires (or can pick off a cripple if KB makes it in time).

This theater could prove to be most interesting if Ted decides to stay for a while. I’d never stay in one place that long, but I’m not Ted. Let’s see what he does.

The regiment I bought out of Kwantung Army is loaded and headed here. It’ll stop at Adak, maybe farther west until the coast is clear.

4 Fleet

Compared to the place up north, this place is dead.

SE Fleet

Ted’s done burning up fighters in this area for the time being and my bombers refuse to fly against Pt. Moresby. Grrr…. [:@]

I’m finally moving against Tulagi/Lunga to build an airfield for recon to the south and east. I currently have an AV with 9x Jakes at Shortland. It’ll move to Tulagi once this area is secure.

One concern I have here is a shortage of AS. That is being rectified.

Philippines

The 16 Division will begin landing at Luzon tomorrow. The real battle for Bataan will begin in a week or so.

China

In addition to beating on a couple of surrounded Chinese Corps, I attacked Pucheng, in order to push the Chinese forces in the south to the west. I’m just focusing Ted’s attention here. When I’m done clearing out the pockets, I’ll push south to cut off the Chinese forces in this area. There aren’t many, but every dead Chinese unit is a good thing.

The Pucheng DA was not successful at 1:1 odds against a level 1 fort. Losses were 1992(4) Japanese to 1671(14) Chinese. I’ll probably bombard a bit while I surround the base.

Burma

More air attrition again today. I won this one today in the air but not on the ground. Ted apparently realized that my airfields >level 1 are only Rangoon (level 5) and Taung Gyi (level 2) and went after Taung Gyi with a vengeance today.

First there were 3 sweeps of Magwe totaling 46 Allied sorties and 50 Japanese Sorties. When it was all done, here were the losses:

5 Zeros shot down (+1 op loss) – 1 KIA, 1 WIA
6 Oscars shot down (+1 op loss) – 2 KIA, 3 WIA

5 Hurricane IIb shot down (+1 op loss)
6 H81-A3 shot down

I have noticed that he’s using P-40Es for at least one of his AVG squadrons. This tells me he’s running out of H81s. All 6 that showed up today were shot down. Actually, I’ll be surprised if I see more than a couple of this airframe tomorrow.

I figured he’d go after the oil again, but instead went for Taung Gyi, as mentioned above. In two bombing attacks, one with 72 bombers and the second with 12 bombers, he caused moderate damage, too much for me to repair completely. I have about 20 runway and 20 airfield damage remaining. I was able to counter the attacks with only 3 Zeros and 3 Oscars and managed to shoot down only 5 Blenheims (with an additional op loss) for no loss to my fighters. I’ll pull the fighters out of Taung Gyi today, expecting another bombing run there tomorrow.

I’ll let him bomb Taung Gyi and use the fighters based at Rangoon to LRCAP Magwe (along with CAP from the level 1 Magwe airfield). The goal is to get a high concentration of fighters there to attrit Teds fighters while sacrificing Taung Gyi. I’m building up several other fighter bases. Eventually, I’ll have too many air bases for Ted to be able to neutralize.

He took 7% bomber losses today. He can’t sustain that. I hope to burn out his bomber force within the next 2-3 weeks, assuming he continues to attack me.

I took Mandalay in a DA getting 8:1 odds against 1 fort. The remnants of the Allies retreated over the river. Losses were 169(0) Japanese to 1080(161) Allies.

Sumatra

Well, I did another stupid thing today. Remember my CA TF I was sending to bombard Akyab? Well, it formed and was on its way to Akyab when I saw an Allied TF at Medan. I thought, what the heck, I can kill that TF and then bombard Akyab. One little problem though. I forgot to change the TF to a surface combat TF. [8|] This stupidity warrants another rare posting of a combat report:

Naval bombardment of Medan at 46,76 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

20 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.

Japanese Ships
CA Kumano, Shell hits 1
CA Suzuya
CA Mikuma
CA Mogami
CA Nachi
CA Haguro
CA Myoko
CA Chokai
CL Natori


Allied ground losses:
323 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 8 disabled
Non Combat: 4 destroyed, 52 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled


Manpower hits 4
Oil hits 1
Fires 1430 [X(]
Airbase hits 8
Airbase supply hits 6
Runway hits 28
Port hits 12
Port fuel hits 4
Port supply hits 1

CA Kumano firing at Medan Coastal Gun Battalion
Medan Coastal Gun Battalion firing at CA Kumano
CA Suzuya firing at Van Aaran Garrison Battalion
Medan Coastal Gun Battalion firing at CA Mikuma
CA Mikuma firing at Medan Coastal Gun Battalion
CA Mogami firing at Medan
CA Nachi firing at Medan
CA Haguro firing at Medan
CA Myoko firing at Medan
CA Chokai firing at Medan
CL Natori firing at Medan Coastal Gun Battalion

Sheesh. I wonder what those fires are going to do? There were still still 420 fires showing. Word of warning: don’t bombard bases with oil! [:(]

I’m still going to bombard Akyab but I’m going to send the TF to Singapore to replenish first. Singapore harbor is still mined but the 6x DMS are there and should clear them out in a day or two.

Gotta look on the bright side. I have an SNLF a couple hexes south of Medan marching up there. That bombardment should have softened them up a bit! [:D]

By the way, the Allied TF was composed of 4x ML and an xAKL. They didn’t last long!

The Palembang invasion force (4 Division and 3x independent engineer regiments) will arrive in Palembang in a couple of days. I’m using the 120 or so IJA 2E bombers to bomb the troops in Palembang to prepare for the DA. They decided not to fly today though. [8|]

Java

My forces are closing in for the kill on Batavia and Kalidjati. I’ll take out Kalidjati first. I’m playing this one better than the last game. I’ll completely surround each base so the forces surrender when the battle is won. Last game, I left an opening at Batavia and the enemy forces withdrew to a hex where it took me a couple more weeks to slowly destroy them. That won’t happen this time.

SRA

My expansion continues. I took Sorong today, the first base in that area.

Other Stuff

In Malaya the 5x divisions (The Victors of Singapore!) are still resting and replenishing. I’m considering a raid on Ceylon. I want to invade, destroy the Allied forces there and pull out. I may leave a few light forces and some AS there to base some air power there temporarily, just to open another front for Ted to have to consider. I also want to do something different. I don’t think it’s something he’s even remotely considering that I’d do. I would most likely use 4 of the 5 divisions for the attack, along with as much support as I can muster. I’m going to start accumulating transport to see if I can do it in one shot. If I do invade Ceylon, I have to do it in March, before the invasion bonus ends.

I’ve been looking at British fighter and bomber replacements for the first time. They’re worse off than the US. To date, here are the British air replacements:

32 Hurricane IIb Trop – They’ve been in action 2 days and I’ve destroyed half of the pool. Today I saw 35 sorties. 3 squadrons? If there are only 3 squadrons, they’ll get burned out pretty soon.

Sea Hurricane Ib – He gets 5 per month starting in Jan 42. I suspect he’ll use them on his carriers. If he uses them on land it’ll be in squadron strength at best and they won’t last long.

Martlet II – Wildcat I believe? He gets 9/month starting this month. They definitely will be on his carriers.

Mohawk IV – 10 per month starting this month for 4 months. We may see them briefly.

As far as bombers are concerned, he gets 4x Hudson IIIa bombers a month starting in Jan 42. A few more unescorted bombing attacks and he’ll be in the red with these guys too.

Right now, that’s the only modern bomber he gets. He’ll start getting the Wellington Ic in April 42, but only 6 per month.

I love killing off his Blenheims (both I and IV). He gets no Blenheim I replacements at all and doesn’t get any Blenheim IV replacements until May 42 (12 per month for 7 months). So far he’s lost 3x Blenheim Is and 10x Blenheim IVs. Today there were 16 Bleinheim I sorties and 44 Blenheim IV sorties.

I have no clue how many reinforcement squadrons he gets, but with the low replacement rate, I can burn him out.

The concern I have right now is the B-17E. He gets 15 per month (started in Jan 42) and I haven’t seen them more than a couple of times. I’m wondering when and where they’re going to show up. Gotta get the Tojo!

Oh yeah, the CL Sumatra finally showed up at being sunk (on 18 Feb 42). She took a ridiculous number of 250 and 60 kg bomb hits in Soerabaja harbor. [X(]

5 Mar 42

Sub War

Finally some offensive action, but not much really. The I-172 caught an unescorted xAKL just outside Noumea. She emptied her shell magazine into the tiny freighter and then finished her off with two torpedoes. Her skipper was smart enough to use her rear tubes.

5 Fleet

The Allied BB and CV TFs around Dutch Harbor vanished today. Damn. KB is 4 days out but they’re still going to steam to within range of the most likely spot for the US CVs to reappear but out of recon range of any land mass. I don’t want naval search from my navy planes to give them away. Should either of the TFs reappear, I want KB to be in the sweet spot, outside US carrier range but inside Kate torpedo range. Ted is saddled with Devastators for a few more months.

4 Fleet

Snore. Not really. Frantic fort construction occurs daily, but that’s only newsworthy should Ted attack here. I don’t expect that for a while, but I’m ready now and will continue to improve defenses.

SE Fleet

A handful of P-40Es rose to meet my Zeros. Three P-40s met a couple dozen Zeros. For no loss, the Zeros shot down 2. I’m pretty sure the third was an op loss.

I continue to clean up the dot hexes in the area. The Tulagi/Lunga invasion forces are preparing to move in, covered by a BB TF.

The AV at Shortlands has sighted no enemy in the Solomons.

China

Killing more surrounded Chinese, but no units have surrendered yet.

Burma

Ted continued his bombing of the Magwe oil fields with two large air raids. The first was composed of 37x P-40Es escorting 51 bombers, opposed by 6 each Zeros and Oscars. For no loss, they shot down 2x P-40s and a Blenheim I, with flak claiming a Blenheim IV. The remaining bombers got through, unfortunately.

The second raid was 28 bombers escorted by 12x Hurricane IIb Trops, opposed by 4x Zeros and 5x Oscars. For the loss of 1x Oscar (pilot KIA), they shot down a Blenheim IV. This raid was ineffective.

Total loss to the oil field was 11, bringing the field down to 190 of 300.

My issue in this theater remains the same: lack of quality airfields. Fortunately, the damage on Taung Gyi’s airfield has been repaired. I have quite a few fighter units available to throw into the fray, but there’s no place for them to fly from that is close enough to Magwe. I fear that once that is rectified, it’ll be too late for the oil fields. At the very least, I want Ted to spend his bombing raids on hitting multiple airfields. That’ll keep Magwe’s oil field pumping out the liquid gold.

Malaya

The mines in Singapore harbor have been removed. There is a mass movement of TKs and xAKs, along with escorts, to Singapore to begin movement of the steady stream of goodies to the Home Islands. It’ll be a couple of days before that gets going. There’s already a nice pile of resources to ship back. Not much oil or fuel yet though. That’ll begin once Palembang is liberated.

Sumatra

The Palembang assault force is 22 miles from that city. The attack should come in a few days. The 120+ Sallys and Lilys out of Singapore are pasting the enemy ground forces in preparation for a quick battle. The attack force is composed of the 4 Division and 3x independent engineer regiments. I really need to take that base intact. It really hurt to see Soerabaja totally devastated.

SRA

The small TFs that are going to move resources to Java or Singapore are beginning to move into position. There are a lot of resources stacked up in those small bases.

The first 100k supply TF has left Japan for Soerabaja. It’ll be a long ride. In the meantime, local supply from Balikpapan and Tarakan will move to Soerabaja once the mines are cleared. I’ll send a second supply convoy in 2-3 weeks. I figure ~450-500k supply will be needed to get Soerabaja built up. It’ll take almost 7 months to completely rebuild the oil field and refineries. Once Batavia is liberated, I’ll do some calculations to see what I need to build the HI to in order to use all the resources in the area. I need about 260 HI (above what I currently have or have building) to make the magic 7500 HI. I suspect I’ll end up increasing Singapore above its current 100, but that remains to be seen.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement: 42 JNAF AF Unit – Southern Army

Looking at the numbers, I see that some numbers aren’t where they need to be. The HI pool is at 89,728, which is normal for this period of the war. It’ll increase more when I reduce my armament production.

My armament pool is currently 57,953. I want to get it to 100k and then reduce my armament production by about 500.

The question I have is about merchant ship points. Supposedly, if you let it run at 100%, you’ll build up a large surplus early in the war that will be eroded in late war. The question is whether or not the late war ships will be needed. Right now, it appears that they will not be needed, but in 1943, when the US sub torpedoes get their bite, things will start to look different. I currently have about 29k merchant ship points in the pool and it is growing daily by ~300. There are several options for this:

1. I can leave it as is. This will mean a lot of merchant ships in late war. Will they be needed? I don’t know. I can always halt them at 1 day, so they are available at a moment’s notice. The down side is that a lot of HI will be spent, potentially on ships that will never be completed.

2. I can reduce the production of merchant ship points. This will save HI for the late war. The problem with this option is that there may be a shortage of merchant ship points in late war, should a critical shortage arise.

3. There is also the option of leaving merchant point production as is and accelerating selective ships. I often think of accelerating some of the large TKs and possibly AOs. Right now, I really don’t have a need for them, but that may change quickly when Palembang starts pumping out its oil and fuel. A concern with this option is the same as #2. If I accelerate some ships, that may cause a shortage of points late war.

Ah, what to do. At any rate, I won’t make any decisions or changes until I own Palembang for a month (at least). I want to see how the merchant convoys work out. In addition, come Jun 42, I’ll be able to convert the Std- series to TKs. That should alleviate some problems. Until then, I’ll use the Kyushu (18 kt) and Yusen N (15 kt) classes to assist movement of oil and fuel if needed. They’re the classes that have a 300 liquid capacity. Yeah, they’re relatively inefficient but they’re still big and fast. The Kyushu can carry 3006 liquid and the Yusen N can carry 3197 liquid. These are the ships given the task of moving resources from the SRA to the Home Islands, so they’ll always carry 300 oil in that capacity.

I am going to take a hard look at my merchant point using ships that are in the build queue. I may decide to halt certain classes (Std-E & F come to mind). We’ll see. At any rate, don’t look for a solution to my dilemma before Apr 42, more likely not until July-August 42.

One thing I definitely want to do is to ship as much stuff as I possibly can to the Home Islands before US subs get their bite in late 43. That gives me 16-18 months of all out cargo movement before the problems really start. As I’ve said before, I think Ted is making a big mistake by not being more aggressive against my merchant fleet with his subs. Yeah, they’re not very effective, but I can move ships with minimal escort and haven’t seen a sub anywhere along my SLOC between Singapore and the Home Islands at all. I still plan to heavily escort along that SLOC, but I’ll take the (so far) worry free travel.

One last thought. I took Soerabaja in a shock attack and the place was devastated. I noticed this in previous games as well. Don’t look for a shock attack against Palembang, or any base with lots of good stuff.

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

5 Mar 42


One last thought. I took Soerabaja in a shock attack and the place was devastated. I noticed this in previous games as well. Don’t look for a shock attack against Palembang, or any base with lots of good stuff.

Yep. I shocked at Chengtu and it wiped the place clean. All zeros.

I've noticed that SAs are bad for industry as well, and always DA key bases as a result.

Do you not plan to convert the Kyushu and Yusen to AK-t? This is pretty much the only large scale amphibious capability Japan has for the mid-war period. I would value the ability to quickly evac large LCUs more than getting Resources back a bit quicker. Maybe that's because I'm uber defensive though ...

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

Do you not plan to convert the Kyushu and Yusen to AK-t? This is pretty much the only large scale amphibious capability Japan has for the mid-war period. I would value the ability to quickly evac large LCUs more than getting Resources back a bit quicker. Maybe that's because I'm uber defensive though ...

No, I'm not and only because of the 300 liquid capacity for them. I'll repost what I'm doing with each class tomorrow. Gotta get some sleep. 5am comes too early.

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

I've noticed that SAs are bad for industry as well, and always DA key bases as a result.

+1

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

25 Feb 42

I forgot to mention that yesterday, Meiktila spontaneously changed allegiance from Brit to Japanese. All of the infrastructure is intact so now I have an additional 300 oil factories pumping out oil. I shut off the 100 refineries as well as the 200 refineries in Rangoon. The oil (~35-40k) is pooling at Meiktila and Rangoon. Hopefully, it’ll start to flow south soon.

Mike,

Are you sure it was Meiktila and not Magwe? I just checked my map and Meiktila has nothing for oil, but Magwe does have the 300 oil factories you refer to.

I ask because I've been getting quite a few CTDs lately and am starting to think something is messed up with my copy of the game - possibly now including the map. Hopefully you simply mistyped the name of the base. Otherwise, I think I'm going to have to reinstall.

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli
1. I can leave it as is. This will mean a lot of merchant ships in late war. Will they be needed? I don’t know. I can always halt them at 1 day, so they are available at a moment’s notice. The down side is that a lot of HI will be spent, potentially on ships that will never be completed.

You have an (ahistoric?) surfeit of xAK ships. Far more than needed, particularly if you 'scrape along' with your convoy setups.

I'm a resource hog. I like to bring in resources from wherever practical just so's I have the additional resource reserve going into 1945. I don't turn off my LI, so I've got ample supply moving forward too. But I need resources to power the LI to get the supplies.

So, long story short-it depends on the type of player you are and how you view the interrelatedness between LI, HI, supply and so forth. If you are of a scrounge mentality, you will have less of a surplus than if you were more frugal.

2. I can reduce the production of merchant ship points. This will save HI for the late war. The problem with this option is that there may be a shortage of merchant ship points in late war, should a critical shortage arise.

I did this beginning in mid-1943. Haven't regretted it a bit. It (and right-sizing my armaments and vehicle production) has allowed me to save an additional 2500 HI per turn or so.

3. There is also the option of leaving merchant point production as is and accelerating selective ships. I often think of accelerating some of the large TKs and possibly AOs. Right now, I really don’t have a need for them, but that may change quickly when Palembang starts pumping out its oil and fuel. A concern with this option is the same as #2. If I accelerate some ships, that may cause a shortage of points late war.

That's essentially what I did, beginning mid-1943. Advance selective ships, including TKs, AOs and those ship class xAKs that were convertible to TK types. I've also halted a few ships-particularly xAKs-that were in surplus.

I wouldn't worry about shipbuilding xAKs late war. You have more than you need and late war additions will merely add to your opponent's ledger after he wrests control of the sea from you.

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

2. I can reduce the production of merchant ship points. This will save HI for the late war. The problem with this option is that there may be a shortage of merchant ship points in late war, should a critical shortage arise.

I did this beginning in mid-1943. Haven't regretted it a bit. It (and right-sizing my armaments and vehicle production) has allowed me to save an additional 2500 HI per turn or so.

3. There is also the option of leaving merchant point production as is and accelerating selective ships. I often think of accelerating some of the large TKs and possibly AOs. Right now, I really don’t have a need for them, but that may change quickly when Palembang starts pumping out its oil and fuel. A concern with this option is the same as #2. If I accelerate some ships, that may cause a shortage of points late war.

That's essentially what I did, beginning mid-1943. Advance selective ships, including TKs, AOs and those ship class xAKs that were convertible to TK types. I've also halted a few ships-particularly xAKs-that were in surplus.

I wouldn't worry about shipbuilding xAKs late war. You have more than you need and late war additions will merely add to your opponent's ledger after he wrests control of the sea from you.

Nearing the end of February 43 in my game and doing much of what Chickenboy has mentioned. I have a 58k surplus of merchant points and have practically turned off all merchant shipyards. I'm accelerating larger tankers, still constructing all AO's and TK's and select transports that can convert to tankers. Most other transports have been mothballed. I expect to be running a lean Japan come 44-45 so I don't want 1000's of tonnes of merchant fleet assets just sitting idle waiting to be bombed.

ORIGINAL: Icedawg

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

25 Feb 42

I forgot to mention that yesterday, Meiktila spontaneously changed allegiance from Brit to Japanese. All of the infrastructure is intact so now I have an additional 300 oil factories pumping out oil. I shut off the 100 refineries as well as the 200 refineries in Rangoon. The oil (~35-40k) is pooling at Meiktila and Rangoon. Hopefully, it’ll start to flow south soon.

Mike,

Are you sure it was Meiktila and not Magwe? I just checked my map and Meiktila has nothing for oil, but Magwe does have the 300 oil factories you refer to.

I ask because I've been getting quite a few CTDs lately and am starting to think something is messed up with my copy of the game - possibly now including the map. Hopefully you simply mistyped the name of the base. Otherwise, I think I'm going to have to reinstall.

Icedawg, you're right. I meant Magwe. My mistake. Sorry.

Thanks for the input, guys. Gotta find time this weekend to take a hard look at the merchant reinforcements and make some decisions.

6 Mar 42

Sub War

The 5 midget subs that I dispatched are now hanging out in two harbors waiting for targets to show up. I have been shadowing a large TF that appears to be headed to one of those bases (of course it’s the one I can’t remember – starts with an R). The other one is Christmas Island. I’m vectoring some other subs in to get a shot. The enemy TF seems to have come from the States. More to come (hopefully).

5 Fleet

A couple of Allied ASW small craft (an AM and YP if the intel is accurate) are hanging out in Dutch Harbor. The capital ships have vanished. KB is 3 days out. We’ll see what happens here as well.

4 Fleet

More fort building….

SE Fleet

A little more action happened today. There was some air to air action over Pt. Moresby between a bunch of Zeros and 3x P-40E and 4x Aussie Kittyhawk IAs. So the Aussies are getting in on the action. No losses on either side.

Then, 8x Betties out of Lae went after a TF in port. They were opposed by the same Allied planes and escorted by 7 Zeros. One P-40 went down and the bombers were ineffective. On the way back home, 2x Betties were shot down by the enemy.

The third attack was by 13 torpedo laden Betties from Rabaul escorted by 14 Zeros and opposed by 1 each P-40E and Kittyhawk. Both of the enemy planes were shot down for no Japanese loss. The Betties managed to put a torpedo into the DD Bulmer and she showing up as being sunk, but I doubt it.

One Kittyhawk was an op loss and some P-40s most likely were op losses as well, but I’m not sure. There were a total of 4x P-40 op losses today, spread out between here and Burma.

China

The 8 Chinese Corps, surrounded just NW of Paotow, finally surrendered today – 1869(309) Chinese losses to no Japanese. The Japanese victors, most of the Mongol Army, are headed west now, with the exception of 1x Cavalry Brigade who is headed north to terrorize the Chinese towns up there.

The 5 surrounded Chinese units at Tsiatow (or something like that – the dot hex north of Loyang) will be assaulted tomorrow.

Still working on the 10x surrounded units in central China as well.

Burma

One massive Allied raid happened today over Magwe. 75x British bombers escorted by 35x P-40Es and 12x Hurricane IIa Trops were opposed by 9x Zeros and 7x Oscars. For no Japanese loss (except for 4x Zero op losses – no pilots lost), 5x P-40s (plus up to 4 op losses) were shot down with a Hurricane and 3x bombers shot down and a bomber op loss. The remaining bombers bombed the oil field, damaging 13 more and bringing the remaining oil fields to 177 of 300. Just think of what I could accomplish if I had 80 instead of 16 fighters opposing them.

The CA bombardment force rearmed and refueled at Singapore and will head out to bombard Akyab tomorrow. It’ll take a few days to get there. I’m hoping it nets a few fighters and puts the airfield out of commission for a while.

Singapore

I’m converting Singapore to my major base in the SRA, with Soerabaja and Saigon being the secondary bases. I wish I had more IJA base forces (that have radar). There just aren’t enough to go around to provide constant radar coverage. I did discover that some AA units get radar too.

SRA

I’m setting up my convoys that I had decided upon much earlier. I’ll post my thoughts on that later and try to put it in a form that is easy to read.

Other Stuff

Someone asked about why I was doing certain things with certain merchant classes. Here’s an outline of what I’m using them for (speed). Note that the numbers don’t always add up. The remainder are spares or as yet unassigned. Also note that if I don’t specify where something is being hauled to, it’s to the Home Islands:

AK Yusen N (18) – 9 in class – I’m keeping them as AKs and they’re based in the Home Islands.

xAK Lima (14) – 38 – 10 hauling resources from Shanghai and 20 in 2 TFs hauling resources from Pt. Arthur. 6 to be converted to AKV. (6 were converted to AKE.)

xAK Yusen N (15) – 54 – 6 hauling R/O from Davao; 12 hauling R/O from CRB; 9 hauling R/O from Taihoku; 12 hauling F or R/O from Singapore; 12 hauling F from Tarakan to Davao – this last one will end ~July 42 when the Std-C TK conversions come online.

xAK Kyushu (18) – 30 – Hauling R/O or F from Singapore. Note that this could be converted to an AK but I’m not doing it. I’m using other classes as troop transports. I like the extra 300 liquid capacity as and xAK that would be lost as an AK.

xAK Yusen A (18) – 7 – Convert to AK and base out of the Home Islands.

xAK Aden (12) - ~180 – This is the workhorse and is they typical, slow transport of goods and troops. They’re based at various places to include Tokyo, Osaka, Nagasaki, Cam Ranh Bay, Saigon and Truk. Those based in the Home Islands are used primarily for movement of supply out and will pick up a load of resources on the way back if possible.

xAK Husimi (14) – 22 – 6 will convert to AR and the remaining 16 will be converted to AKs and based in the Home Islands.

xAK Akasi (12) – 49 – 32 are hauling resources from Hakodate to Ominato.

xAK Ehime (12) – 40 – Unassigned. Will most likely they will be near the front line moving troops and supplies forward, probably from a hub to a forward main base. About a dozen or so were converted to AGs.

xAK Toho (14) - ~55 – These are all being converted to the –t. They will be the primary people mover. I am forming them in groups of 5x Tohos and 2x PB Ansyus, which is a combined tonnage of 23,935. This will allow them to dock in a size 3 port. For larger ports, I will combine groups. Each group can carry 5800 troops and 13,225 tons of cargo. That’s about a brigade/regiment per group with room for supply. At 14 kts, they’re nice little groups.

xAK Std- Series (varies) - ??? – I will convert the Std-A, B, C and D to the TK starting in June 42. The C & D will haul out of small ports to hubs and the A & B will most likely form TFs to move to the Home Islands. Some people think they are inefficient, but my goal is to get as much oil and fuel to the Home Islands as soon as possible, especially before the numerous US fleet subs get good torpedoes. My motto is “Something is better than nothing!”

xAK Ansyu-C (14) - ~55 – All of these were converted to the PB (~100 in all). These are the best of the PBs. They can often survive a torpedo hit and they have long endurance (6000), better than most DDs. Their down side is that they are rather large (2780 tons) so they are inefficient to use out of small ports. These PBs are best used over long distances escorting fast (14 kt) convoys as well as in ASW TFs.

xAK Gozan (10) – 55 – 20 are moving R from Toyohara, 24 are moving R from Fusan and 11 will move R from Manila to Takao.

xAKL Miyati (10) – 59 – Spread out over many small resource producing bases to include Bandjermasin (13 each), Makassar (4), Pontianak (4), Billiton (4), Tobali (4) and the 5 islands south of the Philippines (5 each). They ship R to either the Philippines or Java.

xAKL Kasu-D (12) – 42 – This is the fastest of the little guys at 12 kts. 24 are assigned to Truk in 4 equal TFs. 3 pull R from Nauru and the last pulls R from Ocean. 6 may be assigned to the Miri-Cam Ranh Bay run with F if needed and 2 are teamed up with 2x 1250 TKs to haul R from Boela to Davao.

xAKL Daigen (10) – 66 – These guys are front line people/supply movers. 36 are assigned to the SE Fleet area and 20 to the SRA. There are a handful moving R from Singkep, Bacolod and Tandjoengpinang.

xAP – All (17-23) - ~51 – These guys are also people movers. Right now they’re based in Tokyo but some of them have low endurance. At some point I’ll need to rebase some of them closer to the front line. They may be used to move reserve units scattered around the Empire as needed.

AMC – All (18-21) - ~10 – These guys are based in the Home Islands primarily. They are fast, have some guns and can get troops to where they’re needed. Not yet sure what the future holds for them.

I’ll put together a spreadsheet with my current and projected convoy routes and composition later.

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

ORIGINAL: Icedawg

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

25 Feb 42

I forgot to mention that yesterday, Meiktila spontaneously changed allegiance from Brit to Japanese. All of the infrastructure is intact so now I have an additional 300 oil factories pumping out oil. I shut off the 100 refineries as well as the 200 refineries in Rangoon. The oil (~35-40k) is pooling at Meiktila and Rangoon. Hopefully, it’ll start to flow south soon.

Mike,

Are you sure it was Meiktila and not Magwe? I just checked my map and Meiktila has nothing for oil, but Magwe does have the 300 oil factories you refer to.

I ask because I've been getting quite a few CTDs lately and am starting to think something is messed up with my copy of the game - possibly now including the map. Hopefully you simply mistyped the name of the base. Otherwise, I think I'm going to have to reinstall.

Icedawg, you're right. I meant Magwe. My mistake. Sorry.

Thanks Mike. Combined with the crashes, and the apparent discrepancy between our maps, I was thinking my game was getting messed up.

Naw, I'm just messed up. [:D]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Naw, I'm just messed up. [:D]

Based on how well you play this game, you must be messed up in a way that's pretty good!

I got you fooled. [;)] [:D]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

I've noticed that SAs are bad for industry as well, and always DA key bases as a result.

Yet another useful snippet of info....thanks cribtop![8D]

Mike we have found little use of the AG's although early on their extra armament is useful against surfacing subs.

We have about 20 AKE of various sizes, this is probably too many (although it gives us a reserve). We have found AKE in groups pf 3-4 is the optiumum from an ops reloading point of view. I think 6 groups of 3 spread in pairs of groups in the DEI, SWPAC and maybe CENTPAC is plenty and then they don't need to move inter theatre. You could get away with 4 groups of 3 and accept a little more risk (or add AD's into the mix, which we don't even use or bother to track).

Four groups of AO's has been very useful, we have converted some (8) of the slower 8000 ton vessels to AO early on (we currently have about 15 AO, having lost 4, 8 are 8000 ton 13kt). This has been sufficient, with four groups, two groups each supporteing two fleets... when not needed they have hauled fuel and oil.

Depending on your plans once you get Truk, Rabaul, Singapore, Sorebaya up and running the need for support ships drops off.

cheers

Rob