Threadwar 3x3 - Japanese Animal War

[Mike Solli]

4 Mar 42
 
Reinforcement:  Rufe Daitai (12 planes) for SE Fleet.
 
We lost another MSW from damage in the Kiska raid.
 
We landed troops on Luganville, Butuan, and Memboro.  The Allies continued to land troops at Adak.  They finally captured the base, but our troops have taken to the hills to continue to harass the Allies until our victiorious troops and ships can return to clean up the situation (whenever that will be [8|]).
 
Bruce made another deliberate assault at Singapore today.  2:1 odds for the second day in a row!  He reduced the fort level 4 to 3.  There were just over 2k casualties per side.
 
I deliberate assaulted Honan today.  The fort level was reduced from 3 to 2 with 2600 casualties per side.
 
KB hit the port and airfield at Noumea.  Other than damage to the base, some Kates hit a MSW with 4 800 kg bombs! [X(]  Toothpicks!
 
The Allies did get a few licks in down there too.  The B-25s out of Noumea hit an AK off Koumac carrying supply for the invasion force.  It won't affect the invasion though.  At Luganville, the S-44 put a torp into an AK.  Again, it won't affect anything.
 
Elsewhere, the Truant put a torp and 2 shells into the AK Momokawa Maru, heavily damaging her.  She put up a lively defense putting 4 3" shells into Truant. [:D]

[Mike Solli]

5 Mar 42

Adaks mines caused more harm again today.  Another US AP kissed one. [:D]  Our troops on Adak continue to resist.

The Sargo got a lucky hit on a resource loaded AK 180 miles ENE of Palau.  She'll make port. 

Our I-8 was caught by a minelaying force (8 DMs) and was hit by a depth charge about 360 miles W  of Midway.  She'll make port also.

Our forces took Memboro and Butuan today.  We also attacked the forces we chased out of Medan (1 hex NW) and pushed them into the mountains of northern Summatra where they'll starve.

In Singapore, Bruce deliberate attacked again, reducing the forts from 3 to 2.  There were 1621 Japanese casualties to 1184 Allied casualties.  I suspect he'll bomb and bombard for a few days to let his troops rest a bit.

New Caledonia Campaign:  We began landing the SSD at Koumac today.  We'll take the base tomorrow.  KB is hovering around Noumea bombing the port, airfield and troops preparing for the invasion force to reach Noumea in a few days.

Edit: Lunga's airfield hit level 3 today. Soon our Bettys there will be able to carry torps!

[Mike Solli]

6 Mar 42
 
We lost an AP to old damage and a Hudson put a 250 lb bomb into an AK north of Butuan.
 
The only thing of note today was that we took Koumac without a fight.  SSD is loading on transports to head to Noumea and assist the invasion there if needed.  There is one SNLF headed from Luganville to Koumac as the garrison there.
 
The Noumea invasion force is 1.5 days from unloading.

[USSAmerica]

Kind of like an Onime Blast, but different.  [:D]
 
Thanks for the update blast, Mike.  It seems things are progressing well.  [8D]

[Mike Solli]

7 Mar 42
 
Mike, yes things are progressing well.  I think we really surprised the dastardly Allies with KB and the invasion of Noumea. [:D] 
 
Before I continue I want to remind you all of a house rule we are using.  All forces that enter an area must be assigned to that area.  We've used a lot of PPs to assign additional forces to the SE Fleet area for the invasions of Pt. Moresby and New Caledonia.  Conversely, relatively few PPs have been used to assign additional forces to Burma, although I suspect that will soon change.  Currently in Burma is the 55th Div and a couple of tank regiments with the 31st and 33rd Divs still at Singapore.  They'll move north as soon as Singapore capitulates.
 
Back to the war.....
 
We lost an AK to old damage.  The only other ship damage was to the S-39.  She took one depth charge hit and a couple of near misses from one of our APDs.  Bravo Bruce!
 
Down in New Caledonia, our invasion force invaded Noumea, consisting of:
 
1 Gds Mixed Brigade (244 AV)
Maizuru 4 SNLF (24 AV)
21 Reserve Engineer (1 AV)
1 Mortar Regiment
 
One day's sail out is the South Seas Detachment.
 
Here are the Allied defenders:
 
14 NZ Bde (116 AV)
BICNM In Bn (27 AV)
754 US Tk Bn (84 AV)
131 US FA Reg
147 US FA Reg
148 US FA Reg
51 US BF
812 EAB
 
Much of the 1 Gds Mixed Bde has yet to land and the SSD also has not yet landed.  I can also land an additional SNLF if needed.
 
Next turn I'll bombard with part of KB.  The day after that, I'll bombard with 2 BBs and 2 CLs, KB and assault the joint.  Hopefully, Noumea will be ours shortly after that.

[Mike Solli]

7 Mar 42 9 (cont)
 
I forgot a couple of things.  The Rowboat Corps took Malakula Island (SW of Luganville) and we pushed the Chinese out of the hex SW of Hangchow.  That cuts the pocket I created in two, with 5 Chinese units each in each of the 2 bases Bob still controls in that area.
 

[Mike Solli]

8 Mar 42
 
The US sub Silversides got a lucky hit today.  She put a torpedo into the side of the Mutsu at Noumea.  The huge hole caused 35 flot damage. [X(]  Other than that, there was no other real damage.  She'll stay on station and put a load of main gun rounds into Noumea (along with another BB and a couple of CLs). I'm going to try for an assault tomorrow, just to see if I can take Noumea in a coup. I also have about 45 or so Bettys flying out of Lunga that will support the attack with a bombing run.
 
Hudson's out of Mindinao hit 2 AKs between the Philippines and Mindinao with a 250 lb. bomb each.  These ships are part of invasion forces cleaning up all the little islands in the area.
 
I landed a NLF on Goodenough Is.  This is the force that will clean up all the little dot bases in the Rabaul area.
 
Tomorrow should be interesting.

[BrucePowers]

The Sabang invasion force was ordered to sail. That should pretty well clean up Sumatra.

[Mike Solli]

9 Mar 42
 
Quiet day today.  The I-18 was hit by a 6 DD ASW force about 500 miles N of PH.  One hit and about a dozed near misses caused 28-28-0 damage.  She's headed back to Kwajalein.
 
Goodenough Is. was taken today.  One of Speedy's subs is lurking in the area, so I sent an ASW TF to bother her.
 
Noumea:  I assaulted today and discovered that they will take a bit of time to reduce.  The 1BB 2CL bombardment force (the other BB that ate a torp decided to go back to Rabaul [:@]) beat up on them and but I just don't have enough force to take it quickly.  I suspect (read hope) it'll take about a week game time.  Noumea has level 3 forts.  In 3 days, the 14 NZ Bde's AV dropped from 116 to 5. [:D]  The BICNM Bn has dropped from about 30 to 18.  The main defensive unit, 754 Tk Bn has dropped from 84 to 83.  KB's Kates are working them over daily and will remain until Noumea falls.  The construction bn headed to Luganville will land tomorrow and begin working on the airfield.  The base force for Noumea is still a couple days sail out.  We'll see.....

[DuckofTindalos]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

8 Mar 42

The US sub Silversides got a lucky hit today.  She put a torpedo into the side of the Mutsu at Noumea.  The huge hole caused 35 flot damage. [X(] 

Game's broken! Everybody knows US torps couldn't hurt a flea in 3/42. Speedy must be cheating...[:D]

[Mike Solli]

Of course Speedy is cheating.  That was one of the house rules. [:D]
 
By the way, the sys damage increased by 6, flot damage down 10 and fires down by 5 to 15-25-3.

[DuckofTindalos]

She'll be fine... Just wait for AE, then he'll be even more obnoxious with the submarines (and have to do less work for it).

[Mike Solli]

Yeah, I can't wait. [8|] 

[DuckofTindalos]

It'll be even more fun to be a JFB...[:D][:D]

[Mike Solli]

Always T. [:D]

[BrucePowers]

3/11/1942:

Special News Alert.................


Singapore has fallen[8D]

[Mike Solli]

Well done, Bruce. [:D]

[Mike Solli]

10 Mar 42
 
Well, Bruce finally did it!  Singapore has fallen with over 48k more POWs, I mean, guests of the Imperial Japanese Empire. [:D]  The SRA is basically ours, with the exception of most of Mindinao and many of the small islands south of the Philippines.  Faber is cleaning that up as I type.
 
Most of the victors of Singapore are preparing for the invasion of Burma.  You may recall that the current Burma invasion force is the 55th Div and 1-2 tank regiments and is marking time waiting for reinforcements.  There are a LOT of Chinese wandering around Burma.
 
Bruce is busy collecting up all the APs and AKs he can gather for a massive invasion.  It's a massive invasion force.  He wants about 100k points of APs. [X(] [:D] I'll let Bruce give you the details.
 
Elsewhere in the war, we received 3 ARs and a MLE as reinforcements.  Most of that will head toward Singapore for use by Bruce in the SRA.
 
Speedy's subs were rather effective today. [:@] The S-42 hit an AK carrying some construction troops at Luganville.  The S-45 put 2 torps into an AK at Noumea (carrying supply) and the KX machine gunned and put an 88 mm shell into an AP.  In return, the AP put a 3" shell into the Dutch sub. [:D] [:'(]
 
We continued to land troops at Cagayan and Noumea. 
 
I attacked the Chinese at Honan.  I got 3:1 odds and reduced the forts from level 3 to 2 at the cost of 3491 casualties to 1590 Chinese casualties.

[Mike Solli]

11 Mar 42
 
One of our subs scored just north of Pt. Blair today.  The I-29 put 3 torps and 4 shells into a tiny Allied AK, blowing it apart.  We lost the AK at Noumea that got hit by sub torps yesterday.
 
We landed troops at Cagayan, Emirau Island, Fergusson Island and Noumea.
 
I mistakenly attacked Honan again.  We got lucky and caused 545 casualties while losing 95 troops and did not reduce the fort level (still at level 2).

[Mike Solli]

12 Mar 42 (Rerun)

Bob noticed that his Great Yellow Horde moved off into the mountains against his will so we agreed to a rerun of this turn. Here goes....

We took Fergusson Island and Emirau Island, a couple of dot bases, just to clean up the area.

We lost an AK to old damage from the Noumea campaign.

The I-24 put a torpedo into the TK Gertrude Kellogg 180 miles E of Christmas Island (S. Pacific one).

Bruce's Nells and Bettys sank an AK (and damaged another AK) and the DDs Encounter and Express off Pt. Blair. The 2 remaining DDs in that ASW TF put down the I-157. I hate losing warships, but I have to admit that was a decent trade.