Castles in the Sand - Spidery(J) vs MrKane(A) no MrKane please

[Spidery]

June 21st 1943

Air Losses: 11 Japanese, 5 Allied, 2 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:
Base VP: 16207

Subs

Quiet

Solomons

Fires are extinguished on Hyuga and repairs some flooding. She makes 2 hexes. I moved some fighters to Kavieng to provide some cover and they bled over to Rabaul and engaged Allied sweeps: 5 Ki-44-IIc, 2 J2M2 lost for 2 F4U-1. Liberators hit Rabaul at night, 2 are downed by flak.

Allies cheakly bombard Gasmata during the day. 3 Jake are destroyed on the ground. The airfield is closed, the base forces are disrupted and most troops are disabled but the ground units there are mostly untouched.

Forces from Buna and Milne Bay are being air-lifted out and others are marching through the Jungle.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Manus airfield to 2, Aitape to 2, building up a line just behind the danger zone.

Production

Quiet

Reinforcements

E W-28

[Lowpe]

You guys are back up to fast paced!

I think you got lucky that you even have a chance to save that BB...

[Spidery]

June 22nd 1943

Air Losses: 3 Japanese, 4 Allied, 2 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:
Base VP: 16216

Subs

E Kunashiri and E W-10 attack the SS Skipjack near Iwo-Jima and sink it[:)].

RO-35 and RO-34 take shots at CA off New Britain but miss and suffer mild damage (17/6/0 and 17/5/0) so will return to base.

Marshalls

I have pulled all the mobile forces from Jaluit, Mili, Maloelap, Wotje leaving just the forts behind. I have been dropping some supply off from SS heading out on patrol. Is this worth it? Is there any reason he would ever take these bases or can he just ignore them?

Solomons

Allies bombard Rabaul at night; 2 DD hit mines; neither sinks. 4E and sweeps hit during the day. Rabaul is now at 100/89.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Quiet

Production

Ki-46-III KAI Night fighter, the second factory repairs so this should be ready about 25th January 1944.

Reinforcements

CL Noshiro

[Spidery]

Dates seem to have gone adrift in the last few posts - this is correct[8|]

June 25th 1943

Air Losses: 5 Japanese, 4 Allied, 2 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:
Base VP: 16182

Subs

Yamakaze scores some good hits on SS Finback North of Ambon, enough to send it back to base but not to sink.

Marshalls

Quiet

Solomons

Day and night bombardments at Gasmata knock-out some 80 or so support squads. If he can keep this up for much longer there won't be any defenders left.

4E hit Rabaul.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Allies expand Torokina aifield to 8.

Production

Quiet

Reinforcements

SC CHa-38

[Spidery]

June 26th 1943

Air Losses: 0 Japanese, 3 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:
Base VP: 16227

Subs

I-161 is attacked near Ceylon and is RTB with 13/59/8 damage.

Marshalls

Quiet

Solomons

Allies bomb.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Quiet

Production

N1K2-J to 5/44.

Mitsubishi Ha-43 to 10/43

Reinforcements

SC CHa-30

[Spidery]

June 27th 1943

Air Losses: 0 Japanese, 6 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:
Base VP: 16214

Subs

Quiet

Marshalls

Quiet

Solomons

Allies bomb & bombard.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Quiet

Production

A B7A2 factory is fully repaired, that should advance it to 44/3 but with 3 more factories to repair...

Not sure how useful an aircraft this will be, looks a better TB than the B6N2 and complements the D4Y4 as a dive bomber (better range, 2 x 250kg versus 1 x 800kg or 1 x 500kg).

Reinforcements

Quiet

Other

Suddenly seeing more subs in the Ceram Sea area.

Also a sub of mine in the Arafura Sea got a 10/10 DL despite being 8 hexes from the nearest Allied air base.

[Spidery]

Just received "531 Ku K-1" this group is equipped with dive bombers but can upgrade to torpedo bombers, any views as to which is better D4Y4 or B6N2 for LBA? Dive bombers are cheaper to fly (1 point rather than 1 point + 10 for the torpedo) but the B6N2 has a longer range.

Torpedo bombers are less flexible but by now most bases have HQ support.

[Lowpe]

Why are the torpedo bombers less flexible? I think the opposite.

[setloz]

DBB has torpedo accuracy reduced. So I'd go with the Dive Bombers for LBA. Even if the bomb effect is reduced, the D4Y4 will hit more often than TBs.

[Spidery]

Why are the torpedo bombers less flexible? I think the opposite.

Only in that they can only use their torpedoes in range of air HQ.

[Spidery]

June 28th 1943

Air Losses: 0 Japanese, 3 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:
Base VP: 16214

Subs

I-174 launches 4 torpedoes at CA Northampton near Gasmata, misses, is counter-attacked, and is lost with all hands.

Marshalls

Quiet

Solomons

BB West Virginia and Maryland bombard Rabaul. They dodge the 500 mines.

Bombers hit Kavieng, Buka and Gasmata.

Hyuga is in trouble as damage increases to 38/82/30. 4 days to reach Woleai or I could divert to the dot base at Satawal (3 days) and send some AR there. I have 7 AR in the area plus could move some naval support.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Quiet

Production

Port Arthur runs out of oil. Since I started dropping oil at Hong Kong and pulling from Fusan, oil has stopped flowing from Urumchi. Ultimately, not sure how much this matters.

Reinforcements

Quiet

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: setloz

DBB has torpedo accuracy reduced. So I'd go with the Dive Bombers for LBA. Even if the bomb effect is reduced, the D4Y4 will hit more often than TBs.

With DBB torpedoes only really seem to be effective against BB, CVE and transports. CV, CA, CL seem to be too hard to hit. Against transports, there probably isn't much difference in the likelihood of a kill from an 800kg or a torpedo but the torpedoes will pay off against BB in particular.

One thing I'm not yet seeing, but hoped for, was that the 800kg bombs on the D4Y4 would be effective in ASW. Except, I think they may fly with the 500kg bomb on ASW duty. The 250kg bomb just doesn't seem to be able to sink a sub.

[Spidery]

Any idea how effective Oscars on night airfield attack at 100 feet would be and how many losses they would take from flak? And during the day? Does the gun make a difference, would the Ki-43IV be significantly better?

When we were fighting in Burma he didn't bother to CAP his airfields because if I sent Helens at 10000 or 15000 feet the flak losses outweighed any damage they could do and at 30000 feet they scored few hits and the ops losses and supply loss didn't make it worthwhile. Just wondering if I should have tried mass strafing attacks.

[Lowpe]

I think you will get really chewed up and to be at all successful you would need to allocated hundreds of planes. Captain Cruft tried mass strafing with Oscars and he had to stop sometime in 43 against British/Americans because flak losses were so heavy. Worked for a while...and continued to work in China.

I don't think he tried night bombing, but I bet the results would be the same -- high Oscar losses.

[Spidery]

June 29th 1943

Air Losses: 3 Japanese, 3 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:
Base VP: 16242

Subs

Quiet

Marshalls

Quiet

Solomons

Gasmata and Rabaul are bombed, Kavieng and Rabaul are swept.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Tsuyung airfield to 5, mainly for the VP but may help when retreat from Burma.

Uruppu-Jima forts to 5.

Production

Quiet

Reinforcements

E Fukue

[Spidery]

June 30th 1943

Air Losses: 1 Japanese, 2 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:
Base VP: 16266

Subs

Quiet

Marshalls

Quiet

Solomons

Rabauk and Buka are bombed.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Quiet

Production

Ki-84r to 2/45

H8K2-L enters production and will gradually replace the H6K2-L, only have 33 active at the moment but have 180 arriving reinforcements (plus 27 that will use the land-based TR for training) so a rate of 25 seems about right.

N1K1 Rex enters production, not sure how much use I will get from this so will build at a rate of 15 for now.

Ki-43-IIIa and Ki-43-IV enter production. Ki-43-IV will be produced and I will see how it compares against the Ki-44-IIc as an SR 1 fighter. I was thinking of having some Ki-43-IIIa for range but not so sure about that now.

Ki-44-IIb enters production, already obsolete.

Reinforcements

Quiet

[Spidery]

June in Review

The Allies have stepped up with the aggressive attacks at Rabaul and the surrounding bases but have not, yet, followed up with landings. I don't totally understand this so still suspect that it is a diversion to get the KB to show itself. I think he gets more Essex class carriers in July but I will also get the first Unryu class carriers so we still keep rough parity in CV strength.

In the air, points lost was about 1::1 because I downed nearly 100 4E fighters. At sea the subs redeemed themselves by sinking CVE Santee but otherwise could only claim 1 AM, 1 TK, 1 AK plus damage to another TK and an APA. ASW assets sunk SS Skipjack.

3 ACM and a badly damaged DD were lost to port attacks at Rabaul. 5 xAK were lost running much needed supply into Rabaul and the Hyuga still remains at risk. Allied subs claimed 1 TK and 1 xAKL. Allied ASW sunk 2 SS.

Code: Select all

           Japan   Allies
 Overall:   +726    +676
 Land:       +39     +29
 Air:       +481    +449
 Base:       +77    +107
 Sea:       +129     +92
 

[Spidery]

Economy

The oil drop seems high but averaged with the previous month it is in-line with expectations so I suspect a consequence of how Tracker counts resources in transit. Supply gain is okay for the month and, if maintained, will give me 4 million supply at the end of the year. Other gains are all okay.

Home Isle stocks: 1.4 million supply, 5.0 million fuel, 11.0 million resources, 1.4 million oil.

Code: Select all

 Oil:    -101,385
 Fuel:   +201,617
 Supply: +127,172
 HI:      +74,718
 Veh:      +1,744
 Arms:     +9,799
 

[Spidery]

July 1st 1943

Air Losses: 2 Japanese, 8 Allied, 2 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:
Base VP: 16265

Subs

AR Akashi heading to help the Hyuga takes a torpedo from the Steelhead. 9/21/5 damage so not too bad but ironic that she will now need repair.

Marshalls

Quiet

Solomons

Allies bomb somewhere and take flak losses.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Quiet

Production

Quiet

Reinforcements

Quiet

[Sangeli]

ORIGINAL: Spidery
AR Akashi heading to help the Hyuga takes a torpedo from the Steelhead. 9/21/5 damage so not too bad but ironic that she will now need repair.

I'm curious if an AR's own added naval support helps with its own repairs. I guess it would make sense given that all the equipment is still usable despite the hole in the side of the ship.