Once Again into the Breach - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A)

[Mike Solli]

5 May 42

Sub War

The Ro-67 was given orders to move into Merauke to hit some shipping there. Unfortunately, she hit a mine and sank. [:@] Merauke is mined! [:@]

Australia

The rabble of Darwin was attacked just north of Katherine, destroying a detachment. They withdrew into Katherine and my victorious army will follow them.

Merauke

MKB hit Merauke today with 20 Kates escorted by 26 Zeros. They shot down a P-40 (+1 op loss) and put 2 more bombs into the DD Grayson. I suspect she's done for.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement: xAK Nishi Maru (Std-D)

[Mike Solli]

6 May 42

Sub War

Setting up the SubDiv to patrol off Kodiak paid off today. The I-162 sank a large xAK east of Kodiak today.

South of Pt. Moresby, the Ro-62 put a torpedo into another xAK. Not sure if she sank or not.

SE Fleet

I sent a Sentai of Oscars against Pt. Moresby. Losses were 8x Oscars vs. 3x Kittyhawks and 3x P-40s. I need to keep this up to kill off his fighters. I can afford INJAF pilots. Planes are at more of a premium however.

Ted sent his B-17s against Lae again. He killed a Zero on the ground but had 2x B-17s shot down.

Burma

My army is crawling through the jungle to invest Imphal. Ted is sending his bombers against them. Fortunately, his bombers do little or no damage, but it's taking forever to crawl through that last hex. [8|] Today, I defended with some Oscars. For the loss of 1x Oscar, I shot down 5x Hurricanes but the bombers got through. They didn't do any damage fortunately.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement: 51 JNAF AF Unit - Southern Army

Of note today: Merauke's airfield reached level 3. [:(]

[Mike Solli]

7 May 42

Sub War

The I-10 put a torpedo into an Allied xAK off the US west coast. He continues to send them unescorted.

SE Fleet

I seem to have a bit of success using Sallies against PM at night. Tonight's raid killed a P-40 on the ground.

My Oscars flew against PM in the morning again. For 1x Oscar op loss, 2x Kittyhawks and 2x P-40s were lost.

In retaliation, the B-17s flew against Lae and destroyed 2x Oscars and a Zero on the ground.

Burma

Over my army, I resisted Ted's bombers again. Today's outcome was 1x Oscar shot down to 4x Hurricanes and a P-40 shot down. Eventually, he'll run out of fighters and the bombings will either stop or I'll chew them up.

Australia

My army advanced into Katherine over the river and shock attacked the rabble destroying the 2/4 MG Bn and pushing the rest south. They'll chase.

China

My army has been attacking the remaining 3 surrounded Chinese units just outside of SInyang. Today they destroyed one unit, leaving two remaining.

Other Stuff

I found another MIA pilot! [:D]

[Mike Solli]

8 May 42

China

Another attack on the 2 remaining surrounded Chinese units netted one. Only 1 to go!

Burma

Over my Imphal invasion force, the two air forces mixed it up again. I lost 3 Oscars to a P-40 and a Blenheim IV. At least they're getting through to the bombers!

SE Fleet

The B-17s hit Lae again killing 2x Oscars, 2x Sallys and a Zero on the ground.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:

TKs Manei Maru & Ayazono Maru (both Type-1 TM) - they (along with 2 other Type-1 TMs already out) will haul oil from Davao to the Home Islands. If you recall, these TKs were accelerated due to my need to haul fuel and oil more quickly. In addition, I have 8x 11.6k TKs accelerated. Note that my merchant points are ~35k and that with all this acceleration is decreasing <100 per day.

I lost the Kako today from very old damage. I can't remember the details but she got beat up around Merauke quite a while ago and made it to Koepang. Her fire damage never went out so I was never able to attempt to repair her. She sat there forever with low levels of fire and her damage levels slowly increased. Two CAs down. [:(]

[Mike Solli]

9 May 42

China

The last surrounded Chinese unit succumbed to the victorious Japanese army! That made >50 Chinese units destroyed since the war started. Excellent! [:D]

Burma

Another fur ball over my my Imphal invasion force cost 6 Oscars to 2 P-40s (+2 op losses). Ouch.

SE Fleet

A little better over PM today. 3 Oscars shot down to 3 Kittyhawks and 2 P-40s shot down.

Other Stuff

The Helen IIa accelerated to July 42. They should accelerate to Jun 42 later.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

9 May 42

China

The last surrounded Chinese unit succumbed to the victorious Japanese army! That made >50 Chinese units destroyed since the war started. Excellent! [:D]

Burma

Another fur ball over my my Imphal invasion force cost 6 Oscars to 2 P-40s (+2 op losses). Ouch.

SE Fleet

A little better over PM today. 3 Oscars shot down to 3 Kittyhawks and 2 P-40s shot down.

Other Stuff

The Helen IIa accelerated to July 42. They should accelerate to Jun 42 later.

Hey Mike. Good to see you around.

There was an interesting discussion recently in fcharton's AAR about Chinese coming back after being destroyed. After some looking in H to H games it appears they might come back stronger than originally thought. Like at 40+ experience. Not a killer, but it might be better to not purposefully kill them off if you can help it.

[Mike Solli]

Too late now obvert. [:D] They're all gone now. Even if they come back at 40 experience, they're going to need a lot of infantry replacements. It'll take a long time to rebuild them to full strength. In the mean time, I'll take the rail lines and form a nice defensive line.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Too late now obvert. [:D] They're all gone now. Even if they come back at 40 experience, they're going to need a lot of infantry replacements. It'll take a long time to rebuild them to full strength. In the mean time, I'll take the rail lines and form a nice defensive line.

The issue Obvert refers to is that they come back at 1/3 strength free after 30 days (which we all knew about) AND it appears that they come back at something of their exp level they had when they were destroyed (which we did NOT know about).

[Mike Solli]

I'll let you know when the thundering Yellow Horde comes roaring out of the mountains Pax. [;)]

[Mike Solli]

10 May 42

Sub War

The I-17 found an xAK of Norfolk Island and sank her. It's interesting that Ted's subs have vanished again. Wonder where they're going to turn up this time?

SE Fleet

Ted seems to be bent on putting Milne Bay out of commission. His B-17s hit that airfield again.

Burma

The Brit bombers hit my Imphal invasion force again. At a cost of 3x Zeros, I shot down 3x P-30s and 3x Hurricanes.

Merauke

Nells hit the airfield at night again destroying a P-40 on the ground. I'm going to send part of KB down there to clear that place out and invade.

[Mike Solli]

11 May 42

Really short turn. B-17s hit Milne Bay again destroying a Zero and Dinah on the ground. Lots of movement but nothing much to talk about. It's curious that the Brits didn't hit my ground forces in Burma today.

[1EyedJacks]

It's good to see you still plugging away on this game!

[Mike Solli]

Thanks. I let real life get in the way too much. Been missing it a lot. It's good to be back. I'm finding a good mix of home life, work, military and WitP. This weekend is nice because I don't have much going on so I can spend a significant amount of time playing.

[inqistor]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

I lost the Kako today from very old damage. I can't remember the details but she got beat up around Merauke quite a while ago and made it to Koepang. Her fire damage never went out so I was never able to attempt to repair her. She sat there forever with low levels of fire and her damage levels slowly increased. Two CAs down. [:(]

There is rare, strange bug, that disbanded ship keeps 1 fire forever (maybe only in small ports). The only solution is to put it into TF, and fire will disappear.

There was topic about it in Tech forum some time ago. I had it happening in Guadalcanal Scenario.

[Mike Solli]

Thanks inquisitor. I'll remember that. Such is life.

[Mike Solli]

12 May 42

Another quiet turn.

SE Fleet

18 Betties found a couple of xAKLs south of Pt. Moresby and put a 60 kg bomb into one of them [8|] leaving it heavily damaged. The 2 ships will most likely run into a sub tomorrow.

Burma

Due to the slow building up of my airfields in northern Burma, I can only bring to bear 2 fighter units against Ted's bombers. Tomorrow, I'll have an Oscar sentai and Zero daitai flying LRCAP hoping to get sufficient fighters to rip him a new one. We'll see.

China

The heavy artillery units I bought out of Manchuoko a while ago finally reached Sian. A total of 60 artillery pieces of 24-30 cm. size will begin bombarding Sian, along with some medium artillery. I'm not using the infantry divisions in order to keep them from getting fatigue and disruption. Let's see how this works.

There are 12 enemy units in Sian for a total of 130k troops vs. my 120k troops, half of which are infantry. Tomorrow, I'll get a good idea of what is in the hex. Sian is totally surrounded, by the way.

Java

I took Pamekasan, that base on the island next to Soerabaja today. The KNIL Regiment surrendered.

Australia

I beat up the old Darwin garrison again, this time a hex SE of Katherine. I will continue to follow them. Not sure how far south I'll go though. At least to the next base.

Merauke

It's quiet down here now. KB(-) is on it's way down from Saipan. It'll refuel in ~4 days then go in. I'm sending Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Ryujo. (Shokaku and Zuikaku will head to the home islands soon to refit in June.) MKB (Junyo, Zuiho, Shoho, Hosho and Taiyo) will support. This gives a total of:

KB
84 Zero
63 Vals
90 Kates

MKB
83 Zeros
33 Vals
30 Kates

For a total of:

167 Zeros
96 Vals
120 Kates

In addition, there will be a surface force and an invasion fleet. I'm determined to take it this time around. It's too close to the SRA to leave in Ted's hands.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:
xAK Bushu Maru (Std-C) - will convert to a TK in June.
SC Ch-30 - ASW

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: inqistor

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

I lost the Kako today from very old damage. I can't remember the details but she got beat up around Merauke quite a while ago and made it to Koepang. Her fire damage never went out so I was never able to attempt to repair her. She sat there forever with low levels of fire and her damage levels slowly increased. Two CAs down. [:(]

There is rare, strange bug, that disbanded ship keeps 1 fire forever (maybe only in small ports). The only solution is to put it into TF, and fire will disappear.

There was topic about it in Tech forum some time ago. I had it happening in Guadalcanal Scenario.

+1

I run into it once or twice a game ...

[Mike Solli]

13 May 42

China

The heavy artillery attack was wildly successful. I did find out that there are 3x HQ units, 8 infantry corps and a base force. The Japanese AV is 3503 vs. 2532 Chinese AV.

Burma

The 69 fighters I allocated to LRCAP sent a whopping 6 Oscars and 9 Zeros to counter 21 Allied fighters escorting 77 bombers. My fighters didn't penetrate the CAP and lost 2 of each vs. 4x P-40s (and an op loss). I'll try again tomorrow.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:

Sasebo 5 SNLF - SE Fleet
14 Naval Guard - SW Fleet - Destined for Australia to be part of the sacrificial rear guard.

[Mike Solli]

14 May 42

Sub War

The Ro-61 empties her 8 cm gun into the xAKL Oriskany leaving her on fire. She has most of her torps but didn't bother to launch any. This was off the coast of Cairns. [8|]

China

Another bombardment reduced the Chinese AV at Sian to 2496. I'll rest the guns tomorrow to allow their supply to build back up.

Burma

Over my Imphal invasion force, 9x Zeros caught 28 unescorted British bombers and shot down 11 of them. Banzai!

I also bombarded Cox's Bazaar with 2x BBs. They caused 56 & 45 damage to the airfield and port and destroyed 2x Hurricanes and a Catalina on the ground. I have a second TF of 6x CAs that will bombard tomorrow morning. I like bombarding 2 days in a row. You tend to get a lot of plane kills the second day.

SE Fleet

A small force of 9x Zeros and 6 Betties went after a TF in Port Moresby and got jumped by 5x Kittyhawks and 9x P-40s. I lost 2x Zeros and all the Betties [8|] shooting down a Kittyhawk and P-40. *Sigh*

I've grounded all the bombers in the region and put every fighter I that can reach Pt. Moresby on LRCAP. 96 fighters. We'll see how many arrive.

Ted's B-17s showed up to Milne Bay again and got one shot down for their efforts.

4 Fleet

Ted bombarded Wake with a single DM. It did no damage but my CD guns decided not to engage. [8|] I'm going to mine the place, just in case he makes a habit of visiting. Actually, I have several TFs going there. In order:

Mine Sweeping TF - Just in case the DM left any presents.
Minelaying TF - 275 mines.
2x ACMs
Small Fuel TF - That way the ACMs will actually do their job.

I will also have a surface TF of a CL and 6x DDs hovering nearby, just in case someone shows up to the party.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:

CMc Ma-2 - Tokyo
SC Ch 28 - ASW
SC CHa-34 - ASW

Note that I am getting some significant naval reinforcements soon. Tomorrow I get a sub (33 points), the day after I get a Yugumo and Akitsuki class DD (23 pts) and in 5 days I get the Yamato (233 pts!). That frees up 289 Naval points for acceleration. I can accelerate the last 3 CVs (183 pts) and a Yugumo, 2x Akitsukis and the Shimikaze (48 pts) leaving 58 additional points for other accelerations. Gotta figure out what to do with them.

[Zorch]

Just curious - how far along is Musashi (if you didn't stop it)?