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Update: Dec.15, 1942

Ironman isn't pressing me, so I've got most of my striking power getting repaired/refitted in Brisbane & Sydney. My carriers had been on-station for six weeks and niggly little SYS damage was adding up.

So, I won't be particularly aggressive for about three weeks. Hopefully, Saratoga and Indiana will have joined up by then.

I just have a fast transport TF running 420 tons of supply into Guadalcanal for the time being. The Marines at Lunga have plenty of supply but Ironman's force there has been gaining AV.

I have most of my usable amphib transports (such as they are) at Brisbane readying up for an operation at Rossel Island.

Air campaign against Port Moresby is on hold as my mechanics patch up damaged planes. I am just short of having a third P-38 squadron ready to go there, and I have 30-odd more B-17Es at Pago Pago to transfer in.

The air grind at the Indian border shifts to Akyab. Magwe is pretty much beaten down.

Continuing to build up supply and fuel at Columbo, Perth and Karachi.

Ironman has aggressively used AMCs in unusual places. He had one nosing around in the Australian Bight but it blundered into the Warspite as it headed to Perth to refuel. Another has been pesky on the SF-Hono run. Two destroyers were not enough to repel the AMC, so I'll have to establish some escort service groups. A CVE, a major surface combatant and some cans. See if I can catch this rascal.

Been managing pilots, trying to get my rookies flying in relative safe defensive situations. On some of my more experienced units, I have pulled out the bottom five and brought in replacements, so my reserve gets sweeter.

Sam Dealy and the Harder just showed up. That is good because I am beginning to re-establish my Japanese-waters sub blockade.

In China, I liquidated the Kukong pocket and am now moving to the pocket outside Kanhsiang. I am also trying to drive Uncle Ho out of Nanning.

Not sure if you know this but here are two things about the Ironman IJA that will affect what you do in Guadalcanal:

1. If I understand correctly, Ironman gives the IJA supply every turn (at least up to their needs)
2. The Japanese can create infantry squads out of supply and stockpiled Manpower points. Pools of devices are not required for this.

This explains why the Japanese AV on Guadalcanal is climbing every turn. The infantry squads from supply will replace their destroyed squads up to TOE levels.
The only way you can counter this (since, I think, the supply is automatic and does not have to be brought in) is to mount a massive assault and keep the pressure on so that you destroy the units at a greater rate than Ironman can replace losses. So build your forces and bring in massive reinforcements before launching your attempt to take the island and destroy Ironman's forces. Poking at him occasionally will not wear him down.

I did not know that.

Thanks for the insight.

Sounds to me like I need to expedite hitting Rossel Island.

From there medium bombers can hit the airfield at Lunga and force Ironman to burn supply.

Update: Dec 17, 1942

Not much has changed.

I'm sending out Gato-class boats from Midway to renew the strategic offensive in Japanese waters. Still 20 boats in Midway getting 12/42 refits.

I did a deliberate attack at Lunga to probe Ironman's position. Ouch! 427 casualties. Level 5 forts. gotta get some combat engineers in.

Update: Dec. 17, 1942

I got a taste of just how strong they have made Ironman.

I thought the time was ripe for an air offensive in Burma.

It started off OK. I have beaten down oil production and refinery operations at Magwe by 75%. My one BG of B-24s is repairing damage for a while but losses were not unacceptable.

I opened an attack on Akyab. I committed two squadrons of P-40K, a bomb group of B-25C, a squadron of Hurricanes, and six squadrons of Blenheims. The sweeping P-40Ks did OK but the bombers and their escorts got mauled.

My B-25s, Hurricanes, and Blenheims are all back in Calcutta, licking their wounds. Given their low replacement rates they might be comatose for some time.

Saratoga (with her air groups) is en route to Christmas Island and points SW. Hopefully she'll be in Brisbane before all the refit ships are ready to go.

Other than difficulty keeping fuel in Sydney (I did turn off the HI), my logistics are going well.

Not a new update, just an observation.

I've been spending a lot of time managing my fighter pilots - particularly in the India-Burma area ad northeast Australia.

I try to build up depth in my squadrons so the loss of a single guys doesn't hugely degrade the squadron. As a rule I periodically ground my aces to force the newbies to fly (get better or die). At 20 kills I send aces to TRACOM.

Seems to be working. My kill ratios are improving.

As more and better airframes become available, I'll bring my studs back on line.

Interesting. Is it always the case that aces with 20 kills have the 80+ Experience needed to go to TRACOM?

Its not a hard and fast rule, but is the general direction I'm going.

Right now, I'm playing 'moneyball' with my fighter pilots. I'm still fighting mostly defensively and am trying to build up my stash of 5+ kill - high70s EXP pilots. If I leave my superstars active all the time they'll continue to hog the kills and EXP and I'll have squadrons with top-heavy EXP distributions.

Fighting defensively my fighters are at short ranges and a high percentage of my shot-down pilots are rescued and go back into action.

TRACOM is just a handy place to stash my stars til I get big numbers of better airframes in time for offensive operations.

Never thought of the Stars being hogs problem - but that sounds about right. I will have to have a look at my squadrons.

Happy New Year - both in RL and my struggle against Ironman.

Update: Jan 10, 1943
Some sea changes in progress.

My subs are getting hits as torpedo quality improves. Off Guadalcanal my S-boats got two hits on CVs whose names are not familiar. My Gato-class boats in Japanese waters are getting 4-5 hits a day.

I may be getting the upper hand in the air war. My big base at Chittagong has not been molested by Ironman for two weeks (beyond night attacks by a half dozen or so Lillies). The reason seems apparent. Ironman has finally run out of Oscars. My two Tenth Air Force fighter groups (23rd and 51st) have 1800 kills between them. In fact the tapering down has allowed these two groups to come to nearly full strength with all P-40K airframes. Even the British - I was worried about these due to slow replacement rates - have fleshed out their Hurricane squadrons. For two months, I had to put the Hurricanes on the defensive at Calcutta and chittagong and some of them were down to <5 planes. That has changed. I have two squadrons of hurricanes sweeping Akyab and another one escorting five squadrons of Vultee Vengeance dive bombers pummeling the Akyab airfield. I feel confident enough to start running small convoys into Cox's Bazaar (level 1 port) to support a lad assault on Akyab. I have the whole XV Indiana Corps (2 divisions and three brigades) wearing down the Level 3 forts at Akyab.

I have Port Moresby's airfield completely suppressed. Once I beat down the Zeroes, the Nicks and Tojos died quickly in P-38 sweeps. Either all the Betties were destroyed or Ironman moved them away.

I have the Rossel Islands invasion force embarked. As soon as the Saratoga (one game day out) arrives in Brisbane the whole armada goes for the attack. Then my gaggle of xAPs and xAKLs will drop the Americal Division on Guadalcanal.

Ironman had a surprise. He came back to Midway in force. He pummeled the base and auxiliary ships there and shot up a few Catalinas but did not use his considerable surface forces to bombard. Downside to attacking a sub base. Ironman found his carriers and surfaces force in a thicket of Gato-class subs waiting their turn to be rotated into Japanese waters. Ironman last seen retiring toward Kwaj.

Logistic situation looks good. Keeping fuel in Sydney is still a pain even after I closed down Sydney's HI. but I have three good-sized convoys heading that way.

My Chinese are doing better. I liquidated brigade-sized pockets at Kukong and Kanhsien. Now I have another brigade cornered SW of Kanhsien. I re-took Kwangchowan and have a big corps about to probe Amoy.

I have quite a number of LSTs due into theatre within he next week to 10 days. With 6-8 weeks I'll start converting APs to APA and AK to AKA. Amphib operations should get much easier then.

I think the AKA conversions don't happen until June, but many APA do occur in March.

Guadalcanal might be tough. In my game against the (normal not ironman) AI, they built up a level 6 fort with about 660 AV anchored by a pretty good division. I landed 2 divisions, tanks, 2 combat engineers, a land HQ, plus a USN force to help the unloading. After 3 attacks, separated by many bombardment turns, daily bombing, and naval bombardments, the fort is down to 5 and I finally have about a 2-1 raw AV ratio. It's more like Iwo Jima. Ugh. It seems reasonable that Ironman's defense would be at least as good as that ... if so ... you'll need a LOT more than just the Americal.

I'm sure the Aussies can scrape up a rugby team to rough up the IJA before the US troops attack ...[;)] It will cost some beverages though!

I am considering putting my growing air superiority to work for me.

Ironman has put very formidable forces at Port Moresby, Milne Bay, Lunga, and Tulagi. In aggregate about 100,000 men.

Maybe I would be smarter to evacuate Lunga and grab Munda, Woodlark Island and some other unoccupied like Thousand Ships Bay. I have beaucoup engineers. I can build these little islands up to their max bases fairly quickly. I could systematically make these strong garrisons into virtual self-supporting POW camps. I have lots of support and my fleet and land-based air forces can only get bigger. But I really don't have all that much infantry in the pipeline.

I've always been a big fan of "hit 'em where they ain't" especially when land units are so hard to move.

Bypassing Port Moresby with its 840 VP would hurt, though.

Just isolate PM and use it for bombing practice for a few months. When you are sure the IJA is out of supply and thoroughly disrupted, invade and conquer. You can have some units prep for it while you bomb.

January 16, 1943 update:

Big news in Burma. The XV Indiana Corps (two Indian infantry divisions plus two short-time motorized brigades and a short-time infantry brigade) took Akyab. About two-thirds of the Japanese force was destroyed. The British hold all the river crossings so they aren't getting away. Port and airfield are utter wrecked so I have engineers on the way.

Big news in China. Amoy fell to a single Corps attack. Further, Ironman - careless as always about his flanks - let my Chinese amoeba surround another regiment-sized unit. It is already out of supply. My first attack reduced the regiment by 60%. Should be gone by the end of the week.

Downside in China. Wuchow and Loyang fell to the IJA. I'm not too worried about Wuchow. That just slightly enlarges the Canton-Hong Kong lodgment. They aren't going anywhere. Loyang doesn't seem to have bought Ironman much. I haven't made much of an impression east of Nanning.

Near Guadalacanal my subs claimed a hit on Hiryu and three torp hits on Shokaku, but later Hiryu was engaged by another sub with no report of previous damage.

A large chunk of his navy is patrolling north and east of Guadalcanal. I can't even get a fast transport convoy in, but the forces at Lunga are well-supplied.

Rossel Island gets invaded tomorrow. My CVs are covering the invasion.

Port Moresby is suppressed but not shut down. Ironman must be expending supply like crazy. If I don't bomb it one day the AF will improve by 30%

I've been running my Capetown-Karachi convoys back by way of Abadan, so my stash of fuel at Cape Town is becoming impressive. Colombo is well supplied so most of my Capetown traffic is Karachi with about 10% going to Perth. I have 100,000 tons of fuel bearing down on Sydney. Otherwise my logistical situation looks good.

Warspite withdrawn early.

Ironman contiunues to operate an AMC along my SF-pearl line, but I not have two very heavy surface escort forces with CVE support. Just a matter of time before this AMC catches some 14" gunfire.

Ironman's raid on Midway didn't accomplish much. I just dispatched Sam Dealey in the Harder to relieve Creed Burlingame in the Silversides off Tokyo Bay.

January 30, 1943 update:

Bogged down at Akyab. even though I have ousted Ironman from the base his homeless garrison is strong enough the XV Corps can't quite seem to reduce them. I can't get my units fatigue under 25. Supply is marginally adequate.

Still having a tough time with seaborne re-supply as Ironman still has a lot of Betties around. I've moved four Hurricane squadrons to Cox's bazaar and engineers/base forces are marching toward Akyab. I've gotten the better of his fighters to the point all my fighter units are close to full strength even after I drafted away some of their top pilots.

My Vengeance DB seem to be worthless for close air support.

I've taken Rossel is and wiped out the garrison. I landed four SeaBee battalions there and they're beavering away to expand the port and airfield. Two 60-plane base forces plus a flak unit are on the way as well.

I have cruisers bombarding Lunga but more troops are gonna get there soon.

Invasion forces for Woodlark Is. and Munda are prepped as well as the Ellice Island bases.

Otherwise the theater is basically quiet as I moved up more shipping and supplies.

My experience in Burma is that troops will always be fatigued to around 25 or so, due I think to malaria. Results in combat are still OK as long as disruption is kept low. Disclaimer: more experienced players may well have contrary advice. [:'(]

ORIGINAL: jwolf

My experience in Burma is that troops will always be fatigued to around 25 or so, due I think to malaria. Results in combat are still OK as long as disruption is kept low. Disclaimer: more experienced players may well have contrary advice. [:'(]

I agree with your assessment. It helps to remember that the enemy suffer the same as you do( unless they have substantially more support squads and supply), so it's a wash.
The odd thing is, if you invade an enemy base you also get the benefit of whatever building has been done to decrease malarial effects - even before you take the base. I guess part of base development is to drain the swamps and cut back the jungle cover that mosquitoes love.

Feb. 4, 1943 update

Turns out posts #157 and 158 were right. I have adequate supply at Akyab and even though I delberatye attack ever day, my fatigue is not going up but Ironman's casualties are rising steadily. I should have them liquidated in two game weeks or so. I've moved flak units, engineers and base forces into Akyab and I am fixing to move an entire US fighter group (75 P40K) into Akyab to provide CAPover re-supply convoys from Colombo. The XV Corps will polish off the remnants then I'll relieve them. XV corps has a number of units due for withdrawal. IV Corps (fresh but green) will go booming down the coast road for Prome.

Rossel Island is developed and I have engineers, base forces and planes (Mildcats and Dauntlesses) in place. As the air base gets bigger, I'll transfer in V USAAF medium bombers to pound Guadalcanal and islands north.

I am accumulating shipping at Noumea to take the Americal and 37th Divisions (plus some armor, combat engineers, and artillery)into Guadalcanal. Then, I'll start the meat-grinder in earnest.


Other than the eternal moving of supply and fuel the Pacific is quiet. KB has dissappeared. That's OK by me. I'm still six months away from going KB-hunting. Ironman has some German convoy raiders plus a U-boat or two. They are a nuisance but by now I can fully escort mega-convoys.

Activity in China is winding down. Ironman's carelessness has not only allowed me to kill off over 100,000 of his troops but I have liberated much of southern China. I took the eight towns (7 are ports) along the South China Sea and Formosa Straits. He still holds Canton/Hong Kong prohibitively and is making a real fight out of it at Nanning. My Chinese units are getting tired - many over 505 casualties. I'll have to rotate them into Chunking for fleshing back out. I'll have to go defensive in China for a while.

Developing experienced aircrew is an ongoing project.

Specialized Amphibious craft (LST, LCI) and starting to filter in and in a month I'll start converting some APs into APA.

Problem is that turns are getting so big I fall asleep in the middle of the order phase.