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ctangus,

true about the 3:1 losses, but so far we traded planes 1:1 (if you don't count the planes destroyed on field on turn 1), which was an accomplishment I was quite proud of.

Rob,

well, the replacement rate for P40B's in CHS is 1 per month...  But I finally managed to accumulate enough Aircobras to "downgrade" a fighter squadrons with 24 P40E's at the West Coast, and now those Tomahawks will magically reappear on Java.  Divine intervention! [&o]

And to my complete surprise, a RAAF Buffalo squadron (2 machines left) decided to upgrade to Hurricane IIb's today!! [X(] They had been set to "upgrade allowed" since weeks and had enough supplies (and planes in the pool), but they never did. I had already given up on them.

Finally, there's that Hurricane squadron that arrived at Sabang today, and another one is unloading at Bombay, and there's one in Aden now, too... So I might be able to surprise my opponent with a sizeable fighter force soon. But India will need some figthers soon, too.

Maj. Boyington... well, if I were Capt. Mandrake I would write a funny and witty story to explain what happened. But I'm not; I'm VSWG, and I specialize in screenshots. So here's another picture heavy update - I guess this AAR has no readers with dial-up... [;)]

January 11th, 1942

Malaya:

The first Japanese units crossed the causeway and entered Singapore, while another large air raid inflicted heavy damage on the airfield. Singapore's flak shot down 33 planes, however; I doubt that Gary can keep this up.



DEI:

Much action near Balikpapan and Kuching. A large convoy left Kuching heading west, but my submarines attacked only the MSW-TF further east: SS KXVII engaged and sunk 2 MSW. While this effort is commendable, the skipper will be forced to memorize the respawn rule after his return to Singapore.

I have no idea about the destination of this convoy, but I have enough submarines to cover all hexes to the west of it.



At Balikpapan, the cruiser TF bombarded the base for the third time! Shouldn't they be out of ammo now?!

Naval bombardment of Balikpapan, at 31,64

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
P-40B Tomahawk: 2 destroyed
A-24 Dauntless: 5 destroyed
T.IVa: 1 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CL Sendai
CA Kumano
CA Suzuya
CA Mikuma
CA Mogami

Allied ground losses:
208 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
Vehicles lost 1

Airbase hits 8
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 38

This bombardment caused heavy damage to the 2 newly arrived Dauntless squadrons (many damaged planes), so they didn't fly any missions today. They and the Tomahawks were withdrawn to Soerabaja. Hudsons from Makassar and TB's from Tarakan did fly, though:



And finally, my brave PT Boats caused much havoc in the Japanese convoy - without losing a single ship! They must reload their torpedoes in Soerabja now, though.



Philippines:

The daily Japanese bombardment attack inflicted almost no damage today (67 casualties). My AV remains constant, and so does my supply leven (43.000).

China:

Another Japanese deliberate attack defeated at 0-1 odds! [:D]

Ground combat at Hong Kong

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 21516 troops, 90 guns, 2 vehicles, Assault Value = 364
Defending force 22474 troops, 59 guns, 1 vehicles, Assault Value = 207

Japanese max assault: 363 - adjusted assault: 281
Allied max defense: 180 - adjusted defense: 610

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 1)

Japanese ground losses:
117 casualties reported
Vehicles lost 1

Allied ground losses:
168 casualties reported
Guns lost 5

SWPac:

Nothing to report.

SoPac:

Operation Passenger began today: a convoy with 45.000 supplies arrived at the Samoan Islands. At San Francisco, all troops had boarded their ships and left for SoPac. The convoy was split into a fast and a slow group of ships; both TF's will meet additional escorts and the CV's somewhere east of Pear Harbor.

CentPac:

I-boats entered Midway and Pearl Harbor, probably to gather intel about the Allied fleet. SS I-15 was immediately engaged by a returning ASW TF and received two penetrating hits:

ASW attack near Pearl Harbor at 114,72

Japanese Ships
SS I-15, hits 9, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
DMS Wasmuth
DMS Perry
DMS Dorsey
DMS Elliot
DMS Zane
DMS Chandler
DMS Long
DMS Southard
DMS Lamberton

Things were going slowly because I moved during the lase couple of days. Now I'm all set again.

January 12th, 1942

Malaya:

Today's air raid on Singapore:
 
Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 19
G4M1 Betty x 9
G5N Liz x 9
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 58
Ki-21-II Sally x 42
Ki-49 Helen x 16
Ki-46-II Dinah x 4
 
Allied aircraft
no flights
 
Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 1 destroyed, 9 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 2 destroyed, 5 damaged
G5N Liz: 7 damaged
Ki-21-II Sally: 4 destroyed, 17 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 2 destroyed, 9 damaged
Ki-46-II Dinah: 1 damaged
 
Allied aircraft losses
CW-22 Falcon: 1 destroyed
Wirraway: 1 destroyed 
 
Allied ground losses:
125 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
 
Airbase hits 6
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 74

More troops entered the Singapore hex and launched a shock attack, which was easily repulsed:
 
Attacking force 40753 troops, 211 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1318
Defending force 83248 troops, 600 guns, 26 vehicles, Assault Value = 911
 
Japanese max assault: 628 - adjusted assault: 198 
Allied max defense: 845 - adjusted defense: 966
 
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 6) 
 
Japanese ground losses:
3677 casualties reported
Guns lost 36
 
Allied ground losses:
800 casualties reported
Guns lost 10



DEI:

The Japanese convoy at Balikpapan started unloading the 56th Bde this turn without interference by Allied planes or submarines, but 1 AK hits a mine. Balikpapan will fall soon.

Swordfish from Tarakan attacked a Japanese ASW TF north of Celebes: APD Patrol Boat No. 31 catches a fish. This ASW TF is heading toward Balikpapan, probably to escort the heavy cruiser out of the sub infested waters between Borneo and Celebes (15 Allied submarines).

The Japanese troops at Tarakan suddenly launched a deliberate attack - and took the base! The above mentioned Swordfish squadron had to be destroyed. The continuous raids of 40 Sallys from Brunei had taken their toll on the defenders, I guess.

The large Japanese convoy from Kuching moved closer towards Palembang. My LB sortied from Batavia and damaged several ships. Not too much damage, but I won't complain - at least they gain experience on those unopposed missions. Why this convoy is without air cover (LRCAP or CVL/CVE) is beyond me.



Countermeasures:

• 8 SS to the west and southwest of the convoy
• 74 Martins and 16 Dauntless (escorted by 45 Brewster 339) set to naval attack at Palembang
• 71 LB (Blenheims, B17's...) escorted by 22 Buffalo I set to naval attack at Batavia

Palembang has received 3 additional Dutch base forces during the last weeks (to increase damage to the oil wells), but no infantry reinforcements, so it will be a short fight once the enemy has landed.

PoW left Soerabaja this turn, destination Perth. Weather forecast is thunderstorms, and some good Australian ASW vessels are escorting her. 45 P40's are ordered to LRCAP her, and several transport TF's are in the hexes south of Soerabaja to distract I-boats and Bettys. This seems to work, as I-160 wasted three torpedoes on an already badly damaged AK, and PG Warrego (a trailing Aussie ASW ship) damaged I-162 slightly with 6 near misses.
*crosses fingers [&o]

Philippines:

Bad news from Manila: The first Japanese deliberate attack was easily repulsed (my adjusted AV was 51 times higher than the Japanese, 8500 vs. 660 casualties), but the Japanese engineers nevertheless managed to reduce my fortifications to 1!! [:@]  This turn they are back to 2 again, but I'm quite shocked to see that they can be lowered this easily despite overwhelming odds.



China:

My southern army entered Nanchang yesterday; today they withstood a Japanese deliberate attack. I want them to gain some experience, so they will stay at Nanchang for some bombardment attacks. Troops from Changsha will be rotated into this stack.

Japanese Deliberate attack
 
Attacking force 43207 troops, 204 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 924
Defending force 59775 troops, 294 guns, 2 vehicles, Assault Value = 1667
 
Japanese max assault: 974 - adjusted assault: 123 
Allied max defense: 1568 - adjusted defense: 227
 
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1  
 
Japanese ground losses:
2613 casualties reported
Guns lost 28
 
Allied ground losses:
944 casualties reported
Guns lost 11

SWPac:

Nothing to report.

SoPac:

The Japanese convoy reappeared at Nukufetau and started unloading the 52 Naval Guard, which took the undefended island immediately. SigInt picks up some radio transmission 4 hexes to the northeast of the convoy. Maybe some carriers covering the invasion convoy because a Mavis had spotted an Allied Tf in this area?

From Nukufetau Gary can easily recon Fiji and the Samoan Islands, so this is a serious threat to Operation Passenger. A small airfield can be build on this atoll, or he can use an AVD to station some float planes here. Let's see if he uses this island to recon SoPac, but if he does I'm in trouble. Either I have to pray for bad weather (and lots of luck) so that I can unload my convoy undetected, or I have to raid this island before the convoy moves in - or abandon Passenger altogether.



CentPac:

Nothing to report.

The PoW will need about a week to ten days of game time before you can exhale. [:D][:D]
In a game vs the AI, I had the Hornet get about the same amount of damage off of Cairns. By the time it got to the West Coast, it had improved the sys damage by about 5 points. [X(]

I feel your pain when it comes to combat in which the odds are no where near 1:1 or even 1:2 and the fort level goes down....[&:][&:]  This will probably NEVER be fixed in WitP. Hopefully, if a WitP II comes out, this will be fixed. [;)] I play Normandy by HPS and all the LCU's need to be disrupted before you can take the fortifications, even if you are down to 1 AT gun!!

POW is a tricky run . good luck

As for forts my opinion is that the engineers do a seperate die roll other than combat, so it could be that [;)]

Regarding PoW: I already consider her sunk, so that I can be pleasantly surprised should she make it. [;)]  Seriously, I try to keep my hopes down while doing everything I can to save her.

I guess I have to take wear and tear into account before I can send her to SF, ny59giants. Lets hope that Melbourne's repair yard can bring her to 90 sys fairly quickly.

Yes, I know about the seperate die roll for combat engineers. Shouldn't be completely seperate from the actual attack, IMO. Fortunately forts don't really matter at Manila, my defense depends on my AV, not on the forts (unlike Singapore). The forts shouldn't have reached 2 anyway: if Gary had bombed the city at least once in a while they would still be at 1. He didn't, so level 2 forts are actually an unexpected bonus here.

I'm still busy unpacking all my stuff after moving, so I have to concentrate all news into a three-day update.

January 13th - 15th, 1942

Malaya:

Not much to report, more units are entering Singapore:



Gary can't keep Singapore AFB closed with these losses, and the runway damage is already completely repaired after 1 day without airfield attack (airfield service damage is at 27). I moved the P40E's from Soerabaja to Batavia this turn to escort the Martins for a ground strike at Palembang, but then I might transfer them and all Hurricanes in the area to Singapore and try to ambush his bombers again.

DEI:

Japanese forces continue their two-pronged attack in the DEI: troops started unloading at Palembang, while Balikpapan fell and Makassar was invaded.
The last days had been really frustrating: despite dozens of Allied submarines in the path of almost all Japanese task forces, only one AK near Palembang and an APD near Tarakan were hit. The few other contacts made were Japanese ASW attacks (without serious damage to Allied submarines). Have a look at the situation at Balikpapan, several large Japanese TF's passes through this wolfpack unharmed!!
[:@]



Furthermore, Allied LB sortied almost daily, but didn't hit drat. Today's results were especially frustrating:

Day Air attack on TF, near Palembang at 20,55

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 19

Allied aircraft (from Palembang)
Brewster 339D x 16
A-24 Dauntless x 26 (all turned back)

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Brewster 339D: 7 destroyed, 2 damaged
A-24 Dauntless: 12 destroyed, 2 damaged

----------------------------

Day Air attack on TF, near Palembang at 20,55

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 7

Allied aircraft (from Batavia)
CW-21B Demon x 7
Buffalo I x 10
Blenheim I x 5
Blenheim IV x 7
B-17D Fortress x 9
B-17E Fortress x 4

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 5 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
CW-21B Demon: 5 destroyed
Buffalo I: 5 destroyed
Blenheim I: 2 destroyed
Blenheim IV: 2 destroyed
B-17D Fortress: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
MSW W.8
AK Palao Maru
AP Ayaha Maru
AK Hokuzan Maru
PC Kyo Maru #11
AP Kisogawa Maru

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x B-17D Fortress bombing at 6000 feet

At Palembang the Japanese troops suffered heavy losses (1535 casualties) during the first day of invasion, and today the convoy stopped unloading for unknown reasons. Although only one Allied Inf LCU is present at Palembang, the Japanese deliberate attack was defeated.



I though about airlifting a Dutch Brigade from Batavia to Palembang this turn, but the cost in PP (more than 600!) was prohibiting.

Balikpapan fell easily yesterday, but a single PT boat forced the Japanese invasion convoy out of the Makassar hex without combat, and the few Japanese troops already ashore failed to take the base, but reduced the forts to 1.

CL Natori, already damaged from earlier combat at Balikpapan, hit a brand-new VH2 mine while returing to Kendari. O19 and O20 are inflicting more and more damage....

PoW sortied from Soerabaja three days ago. Yesterday she was sighted by Bettys at Bali, but local I-boat was busy sinking other ships in the area, and bad weather prohibited any strikes by Japanese TB's. Now PoW is already past the dangerous straights to the south of Java! She might really make it!




Philippines:

Daily Japanese bombardment attacks at Manila inflicted few casualties during the last three days.

China:

A deliberate attack at Hong Kong achieved 1-1 odds and reduces fortifications to 0.

Stalemate at Nanchang: my AV is higher, and more Corps are close by, but I won't attack the city (defended by 2 divisons and a brigade + supporting units). I'll try to train my troops with bombardment attacks, and then retreat my southern army to Changsha.

SWPac:

Lae received reinforcement by barges and will shortly fall.

CentPac:

The Ellice Islands fall to Japan. Operation Passenger will continue as planned.

Surprise, surprise: Gary's back at Midway!! Did I say that I love SigInt?! [:D]



Furthermore, SigInt reports a Road Construction Battalion is on its way to Canton Island! All my subs are still in the area and will return to Midway ASAP.

SigInt: [&o] [&o] [&o]

For the first time my carriers will sortie to SoPac - but I doubt they will see combat. They are transporting 2 squadrons of Mohawks and 2 squadrons of Dauntless to Papo-Pago, but they will linger around Canton. Only if most Japanese fleet carriers are reported to be at Midway they will seek combat. Still, I want to be ready to exploit all opportunities. A Fast Transport TF is rushing the Marine paras from PH to Canton in case Gary tries a cheap landing with a SNFL, but I have only 1000 supplies on the island. Some AK's from the Samoan Islands are heading towards Canton now, but I don't know if they will arrive before the Japanese convoy.

They are transporting 2 squadrons of Mohawks.....

Carriers can transport Mohawks???

I wouldn't have noticed the pattern in the detected radio transmissions near Midway without Bodhi's utility. In case someone doesn't know what this utility does: it gathers all information from SigInt, Ops- and Combat Reports (provides you load the files into it every turn) and displays this data on a game map.

Here's the relevant part of the map from Bodhi's utility. Yellow squares indicate SigInt information for this square - clicking on it reveals the details.



Bodhi, in case you're reading this: I cannot express how thankful I am for your excellent utility. But the following link can! [:D]

http://isnichwahr.de/redirect15010.html

ORIGINAL: KDonovan

They are transporting 2 squadrons of Mohawks.....

Carriers can transport Mohawks???

I would like to know how to do that too. [X(][&:][X(]

Uhmmm, just load them on the carrier?! Of course I wouldn't try to fly CAP. [;)]

Where's the problem? Planes don't have to be carrier capable in order to be loaded onto CV's as long as they are at the same base. [&:]

Yep, if a CV or CVE is at a base, any 1E plane at that base (carrier capable or not) can load onto it. They can't fly missions, but they can transfer off (at their full transfer range) to another base and be ready to fight.

BTW, I agree, Bodhi's utility is a godsend. [&o]

Sounds like good news re the POW!

ORIGINAL: VSWG

Bodhi, in case you're reading this: I cannot express how thankful I am for your excellent utility. But the following link can! [:D]

http://isnichwahr.de/redirect15010.html

Glad you find it of use, and thanks to you for a great AAR.

Takes some time for them to get to the million doesn't it. [:D]

Not a good day for the Allies...

January 16th, 1942


Malaya:

Todays bombardment attack:



I moved 40 Hurricanes and 11 Buffaloes to Singapore today. The airfield is completely repaired (even airfield service damage), and I hope to catch another weakly escorted raid.

DEI:

Pics reveal the deal. My fighters got spanked over Palembang.





My subs are on strike!! [:@] I don't know what to do... In a desperate attempt, I switche AI control on. Even the AI can't be worse than me. [8|]

The raid on Balikpapan was the only success today, Gary has a lot of TF's and cities to CAP now.

Philippines:

First air raid on Manila since a month! Japanese bombers catch several cripples and some blockade runners in Manila bay. I had to scuttle most of them.



China:

Hong Kong fell today. The siege lasted 40 days, what an heroic effort!

Ground combat at Hong Kong
 
Japanese Deliberate attack
 
Attacking force 21650 troops, 96 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 368 
Defending force 21979 troops, 51 guns, 1 vehicles, Assault Value = 187
 
Japanese max assault: 370 - adjusted assault: 1134  
Allied max defense: 151 - adjusted defense: 337
 
Japanese assault odds: 3 to 1 (fort level 0)
 
Japanese forces CAPTURE Hong Kong base !!! 
 
Japanese ground losses:
171 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
 
Allied ground losses:
30819 casualties reported
Guns lost 36



SWPAC:

First air raids by B-17's on Funafuti from Suva, no hits on the transports. There's an airfield icon on the northern island (no airbase), so there must be an AVD there. Maybe my bombers can take take of it, otherwise I'll send a small surface combat TF during bad weather.

CentPac:

My Fast Transport TF on its way to Canton Island stumbled over I-18: DD Lamson catches a fish and sinks immediately; a part of the Marine Paras is lost. Just great, now Gary knows that I'm reinforcing Canton. OTOH, maybe this makes him think twice... The FT TF is now only a couple of hexes away from Canton, so they'll drop of the Marines and try to get away before some carriers show up.

At Midway mines, PT boats and a sub attack kept the Japanese bombardment TF busy, so the bombardment caused no damage. The transport TF moved three hexes this turn (for the first time), so my subs missed it. Tomorrow I'll have enough subs here to form a carpet.

Some players switch their subs over to AI control with cruise vs mission speed selected once they reach their destination hex. Supposedly, they will follow a TF out of the hex and keep attacking it (never saw it in my games [:(]) if the enemy TF is not moving too fast. 

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Some players switch their subs over to AI control with cruise vs mission speed selected once they reach their destination hex. Supposedly, they will follow a TF out of the hex and keep attacking it (never saw it in my games [:(]) if the enemy TF is not moving too fast.

Never tried that before .. wonder if its just an urban (witp) myth ?

Mogami said that AI controlled subs follow enemy TF's. Didn't happen this turn, but I'll watch those subs closely and keep you updated.

The full KB showed up today! Update in a couple of hours...

I'll try it out in one of my games too, never thought about doing it before and vs 2ndACR my subs are hopeless, although vs Joe i seem to get some hero subs who do all the damage while others sit in the middle of nowhere waiting for a convoy to stumble over them and do nothing worthwhile at all [&:]

January 17th, 1942

Malaya:

My Hurricanes at Singapore waited for a raid that never came today. Maybe tomorrow, Singapore wasn't reconned today so their presence should be still undetected.

DEI:

A deliberate attack reduced the forts at Palembang from 3 to 2.

Makassar: no attack, and the invasion convoy retreated because of the single PT again! Bug?

Another large TF (DD Isonami and CA Kumano were identified by Hudsons) is two hexes south of Kendari, moving west. My cruiser squadron is shadowing it along the Australian coast.

Submarine warfare: no hits today, but at least several AI controlled subs engaged the Japanese TF's. I'll leave them on AI control for now in the DEI.

Philippines:

Another raid on Manila harbor by army bombers sinks the last remaining cripples, and damages the port moderately. The daily Japanese bombardment attacks cause less and less casualties. Still more than 40.000 supplies at Manila.

SWPac:

Lae falls after barges had reinforced the landing party (4th and 23rd NFL).

30.000 supplies are unloading at Port Moresby.

SoPac:

First hit by my 4E's on a Japanese AK at Funafuti, the Utide Maru is reported to be on fire. Catalinas recon the Ellice Islands daily, and as soon as the ships leave the first bombing runs will commence (to increase experience and to keep the airbase from being build up. These attacks from Suva have another advantage: Gary will think that I'm using the Fijis as my main base in SoPac, and not the Samoan Islands.

CentPac:

KB is between Pearl Harbor and SF - all six carriers!! [X(] A small supply convoy is slaughtered - luckily, nothing else is in the area. This is all Gary will get...



The retreating DD Yuzuki (mine hit at Midway) was torpedoed by S-35, but the torpedoes failed to detonate. The convoy is still moving closer to Midway, KB will probably cover the invasion.

KDonovan: Thanks! [;)]



More details tomorrow...