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this aar just keeps getting better. I hope you keep the MKB intact as long as possible so we'll have ourselves a turkeyshoot come end of 44:)

Good luck and nice to see you've stopped the allies cold at Tulagi. Now, I know you planned a baker recapture op, but seriously, you need to kick the allies out of the Marshals, asap!

BANZAI!

Thanks, temagic! Burma is the focus right now, but we haven't forgotten Baker.

yes, I bet Operation Whirlwind will make CF cry. I mean literally cry, weep... Good luck. BANZAI!

Nice job

Intersting to see the effect of level 6 forts... looking forward to seeing some of ours tested

Cheers

Rob

Four days without an update [&:]

Cribtop is such a cruel fella....... hard to believe this sadistically monster created the lifeboats......






No pressure [:'(]

Doing a work conference but will be back soon... Glad to see the interest.

December 20, 1943

Subs

ASW harasses I-154 near Funafuti. Escorts chase off Searaven near Tandjoengpinang.

4th Fleet

Pago Pago goes to port 5.

SE Fleet

DD McCalla shows up on the sunk report, which we think to be accurate. IJAAF bombers visit Tulagi daily to make life miserable for the US Marines clinging to a narrow beachhead.

Southern Army

With a full moon, long range Nells hit the Alice Springs airfield, destroying 1 B-17 and damaging 14. I love these long range Nells! Is there any way in which G3M3 Nells aren't the best 2E LBA for the IJNAF? Am I missing something?

Burma

We sweep and bomb the hex near Katha where the enemy popped up. The objective is to allow useful base forces to abandon Myitkyina by rail before the line is cut. The sweep proves again that Hurris cannot match our Tojos, with a kill ratio of 12:2.

December 20, 1943

Subs

ASW harasses I-154 near Funafuti. Escorts chase off Searaven near Tandjoengpinang.

4th Fleet

Pago Pago goes to port 5.

SE Fleet

DD McCalla shows up on the sunk report, which we think to be accurate. IJAAF bombers visit Tulagi daily to make life miserable for the US Marines clinging to a narrow beachhead.

Southern Army

With a full moon, long range Nells hit the Alice Springs airfield, destroying 1 B-17 and damaging 14. I love these long range Nells! Is there any way in which G3M3 Nells aren't the best 2E LBA for the IJNAF? Am I missing something?

Burma

We sweep and bomb the hex near Katha where the enemy popped up. The objective is to allow useful base forces to abandon Myitkyina by rail before the line is cut. The sweep proves again that Hurris cannot match our Tojos, with a kill ratio of 12:2. Average EXP of the Tojo group used today went to 78. Not a single IJAAF Tojo group has average EXP of less than 70. Yikes.

December 21, 1942

A quiet day.

Subs

Pike misses an xAK near Damar.

Southern Army

Nells damage 20 B-17s at Alice Springs.

Burma

We again sweep the hex near Katha and reap a 13:0 kill ratio. Interestingly, P-40s join the Hurricanes today. A max effort or is CF running low on Hurris?

Other

Armaments stockpile hits 100K and we cut way back on production. We will only seek to maintain this level going forward.

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

With a full moon, long range Nells hit the Alice Springs airfield, destroying 1 B-17 and damaging 14. I love these long range Nells! Is there any way in which G3M3 Nells aren't the best 2E LBA for the IJNAF? Am I missing something?

I'm completely with you. After hitting the British fleet at 20 hexes with 100 G3M3 while they sat in Madras this plane lept to the top of my appreciation list. Teamed with the Dinah-III or Irving recon planes they are formidable. As long as there is no CAP. [;)]

PS- I just noticed your note about armaments going to 100k. Is this much necessary for later reinforcements? Mine is at 55k and I've held it there for the past 10 months or so. Should I bump it up to get ready for late 43 reinforcements?

December 22, 1942

Subs

Gudgeon duds on an AMC scouting in the Bering Sea. An ASW Sally reports a hit on a sub near Balikpapan.

5th Fleet

Recon Lightnings are regularly snooping over our bases in the Aleutians.

SE Fleet

Ndeni's airfield goes to 5.

Burma

Tojos crush a dwindling Hurricane CAP near Katha, 4:0. A night raid at Ledo destroys a C-47, damaging 8 more and 5 P-40s. Magwe makes forts 4.

Strategic and Operational musings on Whirlwind.

OK, I am finally catching up close to the actual game now. I am looking over the board and for the moment it's all about Burma. I am somewhat concerned that CF hasn't shown much of his US ground forces and that he may be drawing me away from the DEI, but in the end he can't yet maintain control of the seas and thus such a move would be an invitation to a favorable naval battle for Japan once I reacted. So, it's all about Burma.

Operationally, I have some concerns. First, CF has wisely increased the garrison at Chittagong, so the landing would have to occur at a lightly held Cox's Bazaar. Bad roads to Chittagong would slow things down a bit. Second and more importantly, what if CF has the guts to push on to Rangoon? I can probably take Assam, because his army is on the other side of the trackless jungle and can't double back quickly. However, if he has enough restricted Indian Army units, he could engage me in Assam with those forces while moving on to take Rangoon, re-open the China Road, and leave me in a bit of a mess.

How much does he have left in India? I've spotted 2 Brit Divisions, 2 Aussie Divisions and 8 Indian Divisions. I assume that's about all he's got, but am I wrong?

Finally, assuming I take Assam and he's cut off, what do I do next? If he turns around I'm thrilled, but eventually I have to either ferry or march my army back into Burma to fight him, and then even small Indian forces could re-take enough to re-open a supply line. I don't have enough to leave an Assam garrison that could hold for long.

Thoughts?

Crib, you have studied Sun-Tze.  You know your enemy as well as anyone other than himself.  Ask yourself....what has Cuttlefish's reaction been in similar situations.  Has be played aggressively as would be the case if he cuts to Rangoon rather than turning at least most of his force back to Assam?  Can you leave enough in Burma to prevent any precipitious advance by 1/2 his force on Rangoon and still have sufficient force in Assam to take all or substantially all of it?  If the answer to the latter is yes, then I would go forth if you have a strategic goal in mind in taking Assam (and you usually do).
 
Given MY PRECEPTION of his play to date, I'd say that it is highly likely he will take the conservative road and pull much of his force back to Assam or hold it in place rather than aggressively going for Rangoon.  A showing of red unit symbols between him and Rangoon would likely help him decide to go conservative.
 
Good luck !

Honestly, I agree Princep. CF has been conservative, and my gut is to assume the same here. I just hate to COUNT on it, if you see my point.

Option 1 - 2 IJA Divisions to defend the Assam road south of Akyab, 4 to cover the Taung Gyi to Toungoo line. Very thin near Toungoo, but leaves 8 crack divisions to hit the Assam (2 armored).

Option 2 - 2 more divisions go to the Toungoo area, leaving 6 to hit Assam (2 armored).

I'm leaning toward Option 1, but honestly it's a bit of a bluff in the south if CF has the cojones to call it.

What a game!

December 23, 1942

Subs

I-22 misses an AM on ASW duty near Sydney, then is bombed by a Wirraway that misses.

IJN escorts chase off Grayback in the Celebes Sea. A Betty from Munda reports a hit on a sub near Tassafaronga.

5th Fleet

We're using one group of the recon Judy up here. It's slightly inferior to the Irving but during the replay the Judy is often reported as a "Japanese Carrier Plane," so I like to send them up once in a while to keep CF guessing whether I've got any CVs in the area.

Southern Army

Searching Emilys from Java report hits on two AMcs at Exmouth. That encounter strikes me as a long way to fly to drop a bomb on a crappy little mine ship!

Combined Fleet

MKB sneaks through the narrow channel between Toboali and Palembang en route to Singapore and a needed re-fueling and re-fit.

December 24, 1942

Subs

The enemy DCs I-1 near Pearl and sends her home with a penetrating hit.

5th Fleet

Adak goes to airfield level 1 to facilitate recon efforts. I'm sure my troops appreciated the orders to build an airfield in the Aleutians in December.

Combined Fleet

MKB and her attendant TFs make Singers without incident. We will repair SYS damage and top off the air groups. We are very pleased that a review of the groups shows very low pilot losses during the long but disappointing voyage from Truk to Singapore via Noumea.

Burma

Today our sweeps are rained in but the bombers fly, resulting in the predictable losses to Oscar escorts. We are pleasantly surprised that the new armored Helens hold up pretty well, only losing 2. In the PM phase, Tojo sweeps exact revenge with losses of 5:1. Cribtop Intel picks up on the fact that we are flying against Hurricane IIb models today. This is the first sighting of the IIb in months - a sign of strain on the RAF pools?

33rd Division marches out of the jungle and moves toward Mandalay. We need to get all of CF's divisions on our side of the jungle before the Whirlwind landings.

China

Ichang goes to airfield 4, which facilitates the daily supply bombing of Chungking.

Obvert,

Getting back to you on armaments. My understanding from wise economics ministers is that Japan should build up 100K armaments and 20K vehicles, then slack off a bit and just maintain those levels. I assume this is to accommodate the 43-44 reinforcements, but I confess I'm just following orders here. Seems to be working out though. Between easing off on ARM and VEH production and increasing HI in the conquered territories, HI is going up very well. I plan to top out at 7500 HI. Most of the increase came at Georgetown, Singers and Hong Kong to use up "colonial" resources without need to ship them home.

December 25, 1942

Merry Christmas!

Subs

Our ASW TF near Balikpapan renews its long acquaintance with K XVIII without effect.

Kingfish duds on a fast TK near Takao. Scary.

A glen spots a lot of xAPs at Perth. We think we have a good handle on the enemy's convoy routes here and will hunt them.

SE Fleet

B-24s hit the port at Milne Bay. First time going after this target and damage is minor. We recently re-supplied the base, CF perhaps was fishing for disbanded ships here.

A 6 ship TF, including a CA, is reported at Ndeni.

Burma

Today two Indian Divisions march into the Katha hex, preventing an IJAAF company from railing out by one day. Hardly fatal but we hate unforced errors.

December 26, 1942

Subs

No contacts. We are pulling "long haul" convoys back to base in anticipation of better torps. We will shift to a system of big, well escorted convoys for these routes. The small stuff will stay as is. We have lots of small ships to replace losses, and these CS convoys are limited by port size anyway.

SE Fleet

After spotting a CA at Ndeni, we increased the range of our Bettys at Munda to go after this base. A waste of time as it turns out the CA is a misidentified DD or DMS. We waste torps on these ships in the AM phase, then a small strike in the PM goes after an xAP and an xAK but attacks from ahead or astern. Interesting to note the lack of CAP here, though.

Kavieng goes to Port 2. We see this as a safer harbor once the inevitable 4E raids come to Rabaul. Tulagi goes to airfield 1. We plan to got to level 2 here to provide a credible Val threat for point defense against further Allied moves.

Burma

Trincomalee goes to airfield 7.

China

Trapped KMT planes are damaged and destroyed in quantity as raids against Kweiyang continue.

December 27, 1942

Subs

Nada.

Southern Army

B-17s find and hit hard an armored unit hiding in the desert to the East of Daly. CF must have gotten SigInt on this.

Enemy picket ships are detected near Exmouth. We are still alert to a move here, but the likelihood is low as CF last saw MKB in these waters and probably can't take a chance.

Burma

We spot an xAK convoy at Chittagong. Cribtop Intel believes CF is having to bring in supply for his massive Burma army. We will try to interdict this by sub and Betty.

Two Indian Divisions take Katha by DA today, odds 8:1, casualties 53(1) vs 658(51). A brigade of an RTA division and an IJAAF coy are the sacrificial victims here. We will withdraw toward Myitkyina and eventually Bhamo. Our intention in upper Burma is strictly delay now.

Other

Coming this weekend: Now that Katha has fallen, we will post a screenie of the entire Empire at its height just for fun. How far and how fast will it shrink? What brave efforts by our forces can delay, prevent or reverse the Allied counteroffensive? Time will tell...