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

[Mikawa]

Awesome! Banzai! Nice to give a little back!

[Mike Solli]

28 Jun 42

Quick turn.

The I-168 ate a depth charge off Sydney. Damage wasn't too bad at 22-35(31)-0-0 but she'll be out of the war for a while.

The B-17s hit Buna today.

Other Stuff

The new bits and pieces of the 1 and 2 Tank Divisions are loading. They did a number on the vehicle points dropping the pool from 8246 to 5426. It'll keep dropping for the next couple of turns, but only by a couple hundred a turn. Glad I kept the factories on.

[Mike Solli]

29 Jun 42

Sub War

The Ro-63, off Cairns, put a bunch of shell holes into an xAKL. No report of her sinking.

SE Fleet

Buna looks like the landscape of the moon now from today's visit from the B-17s. The Nicks are almost fully repaired. They'll begin movement to this area tomorrow (from Bangkok).

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:

246 Sentai (24x Nates) - 51 Air Division - transferred to 5 Air Division and upgraded to Oscars. When repaired, they'll move to SE Fleet area giving the 5 Air Division a third fighter sentai (in addition to the Nick sentai). This sentai will increase in strength to 36 in Dec 42.

2 Area Army - Southern Army - Headed to Java.
2 Army - 2 Area Army - Headed to Java.
1 Area Army - Kwantung Army

[Empire101]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

28 Jun 42

Quick turn.

The I-168 ate a depth charge off Sydney. Damage wasn't too bad at 22-35(31)-0-0 but she'll be out of the war for a while.

The B-17s hit Buna today.

Other Stuff

The new bits and pieces of the 1 and 2 Tank Divisions are loading. They did a number on the vehicle points dropping the pool from 8246 to 5426. It'll keep dropping for the next couple of turns, but only by a couple hundred a turn. Glad I kept the factories on.

What level are you're vehicle factories at the moment mike?
I can't remember[:(]

[Mike Solli]

30 Jun 42

Sub War

The I-155 had orders to patrol off Perth. She finally caught an xAK, putting her down with 2 torpedo hits.

SE Fleet

Milne Bay caught the wrath of the B-17s today. Three days until the Nicks are on line to begin the hunt for 4Es.

Burma

I've been flying LRCAP with a small percentage of an Oscar sentai over Akyab. If you recall, I have a division on the road just NE of Akyab cutting the land route there. I've mined the hex and the CAP has been shooting down transports. Akyab is cut off. Today, Ted sent 10x Wellington Ics and 13x B-25Cs (first time seeing them in this theater) to bomb my division. Six Oscars opposed them shooting down 2 of the B-25s. The bombing run was unsuccessful. Tomorrow, I'll have a full sentai over my division. More bombers. Mmmm....

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:

66 Sentai (36 Sonias) - 2 Air Division - Will do LowN training for future Kamikazes (but we're not telling them that).
CHa-37 - ASW

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Empire101

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

28 Jun 42

Quick turn.

The I-168 ate a depth charge off Sydney. Damage wasn't too bad at 22-35(31)-0-0 but she'll be out of the war for a while.

The B-17s hit Buna today.

Other Stuff

The new bits and pieces of the 1 and 2 Tank Divisions are loading. They did a number on the vehicle points dropping the pool from 8246 to 5426. It'll keep dropping for the next couple of turns, but only by a couple hundred a turn. Glad I kept the factories on.

What level are you're vehicle factories at the moment mike?
I can't remember[:(]

Only 150. The pool peaked at 14,956 on 22 June. The Tank Division elements arrived on 23 Jun and the pool dropped to 8281. On the 30 Jun turn it's at 5146. It'll probably continue to decrease for awhile, but it'll build back up as the elements finish building to max strength. If I were to start again (God forbid), I'd probably bump it up to ~170 or so. I'm going to keep it at 150 to see how things pan out.

[Mike Solli]

Speaking of economics, with the start of the new month, my stats are looking pretty good. Note that none of this includes stuff currently loaded in convoys.

Supply: +143k from last month.
Fuel: -53k - I know there is >100k fuel in convoys right now.
Oil: -120k - Lots of oil in convoys too.
HI: +87k - Currently at 232k. I'm confident I'll exceed my goal of 700k by the end of the year. I'm getting 4000 to 4500 HI a day.
Armament: +3k - 100,539 in the pool right now. The tank division elements are pretty much eating up the 120 factory production I currently have on. I may turn on ~50 of the 500 that are off for a bit until the elements are fully repaired.
Vehicle - -6.8k - discussed above.

Japanese Score: 20,827 (+883)
Allied Score: 10,088 (+373)
Japanese Ships lost: 118 (1141 pts)
Allied Ships lost: 222 (1593 pts)
Japanese ships lost this month: 5 (13 pts)
Allied ships lost this month: 23 (135 pts)

Japanese ships lost:
3 - xAKL
2 - SSX

Allied ships lost:
1 - CVL - Hermes - not sure she sank.
1 - SS
1 - DMS
2 - AM
2 - TK
1 - AP
4 - xAK
4 - xAKL

Other Stuff:

The Akagi, Kaga and 6x Shiratsuyus are at Kobe and will enter refit in July. The Shokaku and Zuikaku have completed refit and will arrive at Davao to fill out KB (Soryu). Ryujo is currently attached to MKB at Singapore. She'll move back to Davao shortly.

July brings the ability to change the size of many carrier daitai. Here's the new makeup of KB and MKB:

Ship-Zeros-Vals-Kates

KB:
Akagi-27-27-27
Kaga-27-27-18
Soryu-27-18-18
Ryujo-30-0-18
Shokaku-27-27-18
Zuikaku-27-27-18

Total-165-126-117

MKB:
Junyo-27-18-9
Shoho-21-0-9
Zuiho-21-0-9
Hosho-14-0-6
Taiyo-9-18-0
Unyo-0-0-27

Total-92-36-60

[Empire101]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

ORIGINAL: Empire101

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

28 Jun 42

Quick turn.

The I-168 ate a depth charge off Sydney. Damage wasn't too bad at 22-35(31)-0-0 but she'll be out of the war for a while.

The B-17s hit Buna today.

Other Stuff

The new bits and pieces of the 1 and 2 Tank Divisions are loading. They did a number on the vehicle points dropping the pool from 8246 to 5426. It'll keep dropping for the next couple of turns, but only by a couple hundred a turn. Glad I kept the factories on.

What level are you're vehicle factories at the moment mike?
I can't remember[:(]

Only 150. The pool peaked at 14,956 on 22 June. The Tank Division elements arrived on 23 Jun and the pool dropped to 8281. On the 30 Jun turn it's at 5146. It'll probably continue to decrease for awhile, but it'll build back up as the elements finish building to max strength. If I were to start again (God forbid), I'd probably bump it up to ~170 or so. I'm going to keep it at 150 to see how things pan out.

Hmmmm.....150-170.

I built up my vehicle factories to 400 in my present game, and I'm beginning to regret it.
I have to keep switching off my vehicle factories every few turns as it starts to overheat my economy[:(]

I think you are right Mike, although I think in my next game I'd go somewhere in the region of 175-200.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Empire101

Hmmmm.....150-170.

I built up my vehicle factories to 400 in my present game, and I'm beginning to regret it.
I have to keep switching off my vehicle factories every few turns as it starts to overheat my economy[:(]

I think you are right Mike, although I think in my next game I'd go somewhere in the region of 175-200.

I'm trying to minimize production of everything. Yeah, I know, that's a big risk. I remember my first game of WitP when I upgraded my A6M2s to A6M3as. I ended up with almost 1000 M2s in the pool. I don't mind a pool with planes I can use as Kamikazes, but that really hit home. My Zero pool right now is ~10 or so. The A6M3a comes online in about a week. When it does, the A6M2 production stops. I'll still have a sizable pool, but I can live with that. I estimate it'll be ~450. They'll eventually be used as trainers.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Empire101


Hmmmm.....150-170.

I built up my vehicle factories to 400 in my present game, and I'm beginning to regret it.
I have to keep switching off my vehicle factories every few turns as it starts to overheat my economy[:(]

I think you are right Mike, although I think in my next game I'd go somewhere in the region of 175-200.

ARM are expensive ... 6xHI each. 400 ARM => 2400Hi used each turn. That a lot for IJ. Easy to sink the economy with ARM ... IJ just doesn't have the economy to build much.

[SqzMyLemon]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

ORIGINAL: Empire101

Hmmmm.....150-170.

I built up my vehicle factories to 400 in my present game, and I'm beginning to regret it.
I have to keep switching off my vehicle factories every few turns as it starts to overheat my economy[:(]

I think you are right Mike, although I think in my next game I'd go somewhere in the region of 175-200.

I'm trying to minimize production of everything. Yeah, I know, that's a big risk. I remember my first game of WitP when I upgraded my A6M2s to A6M3as. I ended up with almost 1000 M2s in the pool. I don't mind a pool with planes I can use as Kamikazes, but that really hit home. My Zero pool right now is ~10 or so. The A6M3a comes online in about a week. When it does, the A6M2 production stops. I'll still have a sizable pool, but I can live with that. I estimate it'll be ~450. They'll eventually be used as trainers.

I learned these lessons the hard way in my first AAR game. I built A6M2 Zero's at the rate of 233/month [X(] thinking that I could switch production over to the A6M3a. Wrong! Lesson learned.

I still probably over produced the A6M2 factory this time to the tune of 100/month, but I'm not building up a big pool and I turn the factory off most times to conserve the HI. I think 50-75 could be the sweet spot depending on the amount of combat early. As long as KB can replace any significant losses till the A6M3a arrives I'm happy.

I have six vehicle factories providing 240 points per day. By April I've reached a pool of 10k so should be in good shape for the remainder of 42 at the current pace of operations. Armament production is perhaps a little on the low side at 340 points per day and a pool of less than 30k so I may have to increase this number.

I've increased HI moderately, but instituted an expansion CAP to keep fuel usage within reason. My HI pool currently sits at 560k as of April 9/42. Now it's all about the crude.

My favourite part of the game seems to be the economy since I tend to suck at achieving any kind of significant CV battle regardless of my efforts. I get more excited about a tanker arriving safely than naval combat sometimes. [8|] [:D]

[Mike Solli]

Lemon, my A6M2 is at 100 as well. I needed that at the start to upgrade the Claude daitai. I don't think I turned Zeros off at all but my real issue is IJN fighter pilots. That's picking up though. I should get several dozen mid-July to ease my shortage.

Remember I had 14k vehicle points when the elements of the 1 & 2 Tank Divisions arrived in June. About a week later and I'm down to 5k. You'll need those points. I'm very reluctant to upgrade tank regiments. Keep an eye on armor reinforcements. They can suck you dry pretty quickly.

I'm doing major expansion of HI in Java, but just to use the resources produced on that island as well as the little sources all around Java. It'll be ~250-300 or so when it's complete.

I'm really curious how you got an HI pool of 560k by Apr 42! [X(]

[GreyJoy]

Mike, i know you're the guru of Japanese economy so i beg you some insight...
 
How much oil tons do you produce daily? How much is needed by your refineries? It seems to me that, no matter what you do, if you conquer the historical perimeter you will surely run out of oil in 1944 at best (just oil, not fuel). Am i missing something?
 

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

Mike, i know you're the guru of Japanese economy so i beg you some insight...

How much oil tons do you produce daily? How much is needed by your refineries? It seems to me that, no matter what you do, if you conquer the historical perimeter you will surely run out of oil in 1944 at best (just oil, not fuel). Am i missing something?

I'm very curious about this too, and if you can help that would be great. My oil is pretty low, and I thought it would be getting dire by mid-44. Strangely I've just had a leveling at about 500k in 12/43, so maybe it won't keep dropping quite as quickly as I thought. I did shut off a few HI refineries, so maybe that's some of it.

[GreyJoy]

Don't know if it's wise to stop the refineries Erik. Why would you stockpile crude oil shutting down refineries? It's fuel what we need!
 
In my game i'm short of 3300 oil tons each and i can't figure out how i can change this course of events... simply too many refineries for the oil pumps available

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

Don't know if it's wise to stop the refineries Erik. Why would you stockpile crude oil shutting down refineries? It's fuel what we need!

In my game i'm short of 3300 oil tons each and i can't figure out how i can change this course of events... simply too many refineries for the oil pumps available

I'll turn them back on to see if it makes a difference. They aren't producing every day due to shortages in the HI though. I just can't get enough of it there to feed them all of the time. I usually have between 2 and 15 days worth there.

[SqzMyLemon]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

I'm really curious how you got an HI pool of 560k by Apr 42! [X(]

I turned off most submarine construction, 90% of my merchant shipyards and a big chunk of armament production. So almost from day one I've been banking between 5-6k HI daily. If I increase HI expenditure somewhere, I look for an equal amount to turn off to keep the surplus growing. As my HI expansion kicks in I've slowly been increasing armament and merchant shipyard production again.

I've been able to do this without compromising construction of CV's and other naval vessels. I've been accelerating the CV Taiho, three Unryu CV's and every DD I can from day one while still completing the BB Yamato. When most of my major naval construction is complete I can either save more HI, or make good any shortfalls in armament, vehicle or aircraft production. I'm also in a position to accelerate a number of tankers now and will be looking to add a bunch more as HI becomes available.

It all looks good on paper right now, but a year from now it could be much different.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon
I think 50-75 could be the sweet spot depending on the amount of combat early. As long as KB can replace any significant losses till the A6M3a arrives I'm happy.

That's exactly how I view my A6M2 pool / production too, SqzMyLemon. Replacing losses and keeping KB stocked is where it's at. I do want a modest pool to allow for expanded airgroups come 6/42, of course, but not too much, as the A6M3a will be coming out in June-July 1942. It might even be worth 'upgrading' some CVs to A5 Claudes whilest they're in the yards getting their June 1942 refittings done, in order to free up some A6M2s for the usable pool. This can contribute to keeping the A6M2 production at the 50-75 level until the A6M3a comes on line.

I have six vehicle factories providing 240 points per day. By April I've reached a pool of 10k so should be in good shape for the remainder of 42 at the current pace of operations. Armament production is perhaps a little on the low side at 340 points per day and a pool of less than 30k so I may have to increase this number.

I'm pushing hard in China right now and need replacements / upgrades for my LCUs there to cover losses, yet maintain a schwerpunkt. I'm also cognizant of Obvert's observations on the matter of 'burning through' existing ARM and VEH pools rapidly when large clusters of LCUs (undermanned / under TOE, of course [8|]) come into play.

Thus, I'm still gunning for a 120-125K pool for ARM, 25-30K pool for VEH before I start turning things off.

I've increased HI moderately, but instituted an expansion CAP to keep fuel usage within reason. My HI pool currently sits at 560k as of April 9/42. Now it's all about the crude.

I think a key is to expand (moderately, of course) HI in those areas that are natural reservoirs for fuel and resources. Canton-Hong Kong; Batavia-Soerbaja, Port Arthur and Singapore seem intuitive. Minimal 'special' transport needed to get stuff back to the home islands. I don't think I've ever expanded HI on the home islands per se.

I get more excited about a tanker arriving safely than naval combat sometimes. [8|] [:D]

Heh. I hear ya. I've done a 'churning butter' JFB dance after landing a massive oil / fuel convoy before. [:D]

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

Don't know if it's wise to stop the refineries Erik. Why would you stockpile crude oil shutting down refineries? It's fuel what we need!

In my game i'm short of 3300 oil tons each and i can't figure out how i can change this course of events... simply too many refineries for the oil pumps available

Importing oil has always been as important as importing fuel, IMO. Oil=fuel and supply from refining, two things that JFBs are always complaining about in scenario 2. I struggle to keep up with demand from home island refineries too, but it's not for want of trying to feed 'em a heavy oil diet from day 1.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Speaking of economics, with the start of the new month, my stats are looking pretty good. Note that none of this includes stuff currently loaded in convoys.

Supply: +143k from last month.
Fuel: -53k - I know there is >100k fuel in convoys right now.
Oil: -120k - Lots of oil in convoys too.
HI: +87k - Currently at 232k. I'm confident I'll exceed my goal of 700k by the end of the year. I'm getting 4000 to 4500 HI a day.
Armament: +3k - 100,539 in the pool right now. The tank division elements are pretty much eating up the 120 factory production I currently have on. I may turn on ~50 of the 500 that are off for a bit until the elements are fully repaired.
Vehicle - -6.8k - discussed above.

Japanese Score: 20,827 (+883)
Allied Score: 10,088 (+373)
Japanese Ships lost: 118 (1141 pts)
Allied Ships lost: 222 (1593 pts)
Japanese ships lost this month: 5 (13 pts)
Allied ships lost this month: 23 (135 pts)

Japanese ships lost:
3 - xAKL
2 - SSX

Allied ships lost:
1 - CVL - Hermes - not sure she sank.
1 - SS
1 - DMS
2 - AM
2 - TK
1 - AP
4 - xAK
4 - xAKL

Other Stuff:

The Akagi, Kaga and 6x Shiratsuyus are at Kobe and will enter refit in July. The Shokaku and Zuikaku have completed refit and will arrive at Davao to fill out KB (Soryu). Ryujo is currently attached to MKB at Singapore. She'll move back to Davao shortly.

July brings the ability to change the size of many carrier daitai. Here's the new makeup of KB and MKB:

Ship-Zeros-Vals-Kates

KB:
Akagi-27-27-27
Kaga-27-27-18
Soryu-27-18-18
Ryujo-30-0-18
Shokaku-27-27-18
Zuikaku-27-27-18

Total-165-126-117

MKB:
Junyo-27-18-9
Shoho-21-0-9
Zuiho-21-0-9
Hosho-14-0-6
Taiyo-9-18-0
Unyo-0-0-27

Total-92-36-60

Hiryu in KB vs. Ryujo? Did you lose her?