Matrix Games Forums

Aug 12th, 1942


Economy:


Aircraft R&D Update:

A6M5c is now at 8/43 and the Ki-44-IIc Tojo is now at 9/43.

I have been hauling tons of resources from Hong Kong and Port Arthur back home and they are both down to about 500k stockpiled. I will soon be moving the larger convoys to Sapporo as there is over 2M resources there. While I drain Sapporo Hong Kong and Port Arthur will recover.

I figured out how to train NavL skills - naval bombing at 1k. Not sure if its any altitude under 5k or what, but 1k seems to work.


Economic Stats:

HI: 70,326 (roughly 2300 per turn stockpiled)
ARM: 119,282
Veh: 1257
NS: 8585
MS: 0



Burma:

I am moving a bunch of small tank units up to Akyab for support at Cox's Bazar. The Guards Tank Division is also being moved up- this should either allow me to break the deadlock at Cox or force Rob to commit his local reserves to holding the base. He has a division sized unit between Cox's Bazar and Chittagong (sp?) that I need him to commit before I can paradrop into Chittagong. Once I seize Chittagong, I can land troops at the port there and cut off his 1500 AS in the Cox area.

Rob has left his Warhawks flying LRCAP and my unit of Oscars at Akyab have been shooting down 1-3 a day flying sweep missions.



Java:

I have some small units moving around behind Bandoeng and are converging on Tjilatjap. Once I take this base, the troops at Bandoeng will be completely cutoff.



North Pacific:

The Yamato-led Bombardment force arrived in the Dutch Harbor area and picked up some enemy TFs with spotter planes. I bombarded Dutch Harbor and caught a lot of ships in port. Not sure why they didn't flee, but thats fine by me (See end for ship kills). The marines on shore got another good dose of 16" and 18" shells, as well as some aircraft being hit on the Airfield there (9 planes report destroyed and 29 damaged). The planes are fighters (Mohawks) and medium bombers (Bolo). I believe the AF at Dutch is only size 1 so not sure what the bombers are going to do there.



China:

The battle at Wasu has faltered and I have ordered the 2nd regiment up from Urumchi to help take the base. I will suffer some VP loss at Urumchi while they are gone, but I need to take Wasu so the troops can head south.

The battle at Changsha is going slow with daily bombardments from my 2000 artillery causing about 200-300 casualties. Going to take a while to break this base - I give it a month. I outnumber his men about 3:2 but he has some hefty forts.



Navy:

Darwin:

My men are dwindling at Darwin, the lack of supply and support are taking their toll. I have sacrificed a couple little xAKLs to deliver some supplies to my men, but its not enough. I have more supplies, men and ships closing on Darwin.

Port Hedland:

CarDiv 3 hit Port Hedland once more and then moved north to resupply. On the way to Singapore, my planes flew and sunk several AMc near Christmas Island IO sinking them.

CarDiv 3 is now at Singapore, rearmed and ready to go again. Trying to figure out where to send them. I am thinking Burma may need a bit of support at Cox's Bazar.



General Consensus:

Last turn was the first turn I have seen any aircraft at Darwin - some Wirraways tried to bomb my troops at Darwin - and failed to hit anything. I'm more concerned with delivering supplies and men to Darwin than the ineffective bombers.

My main focus is Darwin right now and then Burma. Chinas has calmed down a lot and elsewhere I am building forts and air bases for the inevitable invasions in mid-late 43. I'm hoping I can completely stop / destroy his first invasion attempt and inflict heavy losses on his side. That would buy me 4-6 months more time before he would have the naval strength to try again. Currently I believe he has 6 US CVs and 2-3 British CVs. I still have more, but if we went head to head the number of aircraft would be about even. I need to find his CVs and put some under water... I think the future inasion of Dutch may be just the place for this.


Ships reported sunk since last update (7/29/42):

DD 7
AMc 7
AS 1
AG 2
AGP 1
ML 1
xAP 3
AD 1
TK 2
PC 1
xAKL 5

Also got a sub reported sunk, but I only had 2 reported hits on it so I doubt very much it was sunk. Alot of the ships were either sunk at Port Hedland or Dutch Harbor with the 2 TKs being sunk by subs. I also hit CL Dragon with a torpedo at Deigo Garcia damaging her.

Aug 18th, 1942


Economy:


Aircraft R&D Update:

A6M5c is now at 6/43
Ki-44-IIc Tojo is now at 7/43
Ki-49-IIb Helen is now at 8/43 (Just started putting R&D into this model)

Economic Stats:

HI: 76,758 (roughly 2300 per turn stockpiled)
ARM: 122,745 *How many Armaments should I stockpile ??
Veh: 987
NS: 8456
MS: 4



Burma:

Rob has a regiment 1 hex south of Cox blocking my reinforcements and resupply to my troops at Cox. I am attacking them and hope to push them out of the way this turn - got roughly 350 AS making the attack, but the terrain is working against me.

Battle report from Cox's Bazar show two new units joining the fray at Cox - the 70th British Division and the 254th Armoured Brigade. If recon is correct, this should be the bulk of Rob's reserves in Burma. Other bases have units, but nothing of any real size has been seen. I have been flying recon since the beginning of the war and over land my recon does a decent job - at sea it sucks. I will be loading up the troops and using CarDiv 3 as support for the invasion of Chittagong. This will force Rob to adbandon Cox or allow me to destroy his men in place. This will also allow me to move the multiple divisions from Singapore to support the drive to Calcutta - my Indian target.



Java:

The first attacks at Tjilatjap failed to take the base, but attacks will continue.



North Pacific:

Bombardment TF 1 has returned to Etorofu Island and completed refueling and resupply. I have ordered them back to the Aleutians to bombard again.



China:

The two regiments have failed to take Wasu in a conventional attack so I have ordered a Shock attack this turn. Previous combat reports show no forts and only roughly 70AS of chinese troops guarding the base. My 200+ AS should take the base via a Shock attack - i also just replaced one of the rgt commanders for a more aggressive and higher skilled man.

My daily artillery bombardments are finally showing some worth - causing 350+ chinese casualties per day. The majority of these are disabled squads, but soon that will turn into destroyed. My deliberate attack caused 2400 chinese casualties for 10k of mine own. Almost all of my losses were disabled where he lost twice the number of squards destroyed than I. I also have plenty of supply here and I believe his supply level is critical.



Navy:

Darwin:

I landed some more supplies at Darwin with some BBs in the amphib TF for support fire and that seemed to help. The CD guns still killed a pair of xAKLs and damaged an xAK.

I have called off the support for Darwin as the CD guns are just too powerful and I don't have enough shipping to drop off enough troops and absorb the defensive fire.

I have landed at Wyndham to the west and should take the base this turn. Then I need to decide whether to fight for Northern Oz or simply evac. Rob is not fighting much and no ships and very little air power is showing itself in the theater, which makes me wonder where all the Oz troops are at ? Perhaps he is bringing them all together for one massive attack which I cannot repel ?

Should I work on evacing all the men from Darwin I can and forgot OZ, or give it the full push and bring in fresh divisions ?



General Consensus:

The KB is back north of OZ bombing troops and the airfield at Darwin to prevent fort buildup. I even flew some LR CAP over my troops there and shot down 7 Wirraways in exchange for no losses.

A sub put a pair of torpedoes into the CL Leander at Lord Howe Island (off the SE coast of OZ) and she is reported sunk. Seems she was escorting some xAPs so maybe I'll get lucky and sink those next turn.

Did you build more armament factories? That is a huge amount for that early. I don't think I ever got over 100k.

Pax advocates for some crazy amount to deal with the Russians when they arrive, but it look like you need to stat thinking about HI right now, so I'd shut them down. I would think of trying to get 1 million HI stocked each year for the next three at least. That would likely mean getting your daily to about 4-5k. In 42 it looks like you won't have more than 500k stored if you're very diligent from now on.

Obviously you'll need a few more vehicles as well. There is another tank division due in the autumn.

EDIT - Ahhhh. Just saw that this is DaIron Babes. Not sure about that OOB. Is this more stuff for you or for the Allies? Or both?

If it's like Scen 2 you will really need a lot more HI late to deal with extra pilot costs.

ORIGINAL: obvert

Did you build more armament factories? That is a huge amount for that early. I don't think I ever got over 100k.

Pax advocates for some crazy amount to deal with the Russians when they arrive, but it look like you need to stat thinking about HI right now, so I'd shut them down. I would think of trying to get 1 million HI stocked each year for the next three at least. That would likely mean getting your daily to about 4-5k. In 42 it looks like you won't have more than 500k stored if you're very diligent from now on.

Obviously you'll need a few more vehicles as well. There is another tank division due in the autumn.

EDIT - Ahhhh. Just saw that this is DaIron Babes. Not sure about that OOB. Is this more stuff for you or for the Allies? Or both?

If it's like Scen 2 you will really need a lot more HI late to deal with extra pilot costs.

Yes DaIronBabes B is scenario 2 with extended map and DaBabes OOB changes. I have noticed several more LCU and a bunch of new smaller ships as well. My vehicles was up to 5k about 2 game weeks ago, but my medium tank just upgraded and I got a bunch of new tank units all at once which has drained my pool. I have increased my vehicle output to 200 a day and don't really want to increase much beyond that.

I am thinking of turning off my armament for a month or so and see where I end up. I am worried about HI actually.

I would look at your LCU Production/Armaments tab in tracker. It will tell you how many ARM points you need in order to fill out.

FWIW, in my Scen 2 game I have 51k armaments in March. I've turned replacements on in a lot of places, perhaps even globally. I'm well above my needs curve. I haven't increased factories much (or at all?). I have 650. However, I've also not wrecked any divisions yet...

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

I would look at your LCU Production/Armaments tab in tracker. It will tell you how many ARM points you need in order to fill out.

FWIW, in my Scen 2 game I have 51k armaments in March. I've turned replacements on in a lot of places, perhaps even globally. I'm well above my needs curve. I haven't increased factories much (or at all?). I have 650. However, I've also not wrecked any divisions yet...

You'll be losing a lot of troops in 43-44, and loads in 45, so a good pool is really helpful. After about mid-43 I never turned armaments or vehicles off and I've had around 80k and 20k on average in those pools. That's not much when you start getting HI divisions and buying back destroyed units all at the same time in 44-45.

In Scen 2 type mods it's going to be a tough balance. More troops (higher arm/veh costs), more air groups and pilots (higher HI cost), but not more oil or HI capacity.

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

I would look at your LCU Production/Armaments tab in tracker. It will tell you how many ARM points you need in order to fill out.

FWIW, in my Scen 2 game I have 51k armaments in March. I've turned replacements on in a lot of places, perhaps even globally. I'm well above my needs curve. I haven't increased factories much (or at all?). I have 650. However, I've also not wrecked any divisions yet...

I have added 30 Armament factories only giving me a total of 680 instead of the 650 you start with. I like to expand the little factories to make them more worthwhile - I don't touch the big ones.

I checked Tracker and over the next 3 years of the war I need 170k Armament points to fill out my arriving units - not counting losses. So basically I need another 50k Armaments just to fill out my arriving units, not counting battle losses. I am thinking I need a total of around 300k Armaments to last the war. That would give me around 130k for replacements. Think that will be enough ? So I need to run my full armaments roughly 265 days between now and the end of 45 - the rest I can leave off and enjoy the HI savings. Maybe I will turn on half of them and run then for the rest of the game and enjoy the benefits of both increasing Armaments and the HI savings.

Aug 30th, 1942


Economy:

Aircraft R&D Update:

A6M5c Zero is now at 4/43
Ki-44-IIc Tojo is now at 6/43
Ki-49-IIb Helen is now at 8/43

I also have 2 factories repairing to R&D the B6Nx Jill line - I'm going for the B6N2 Jill - only difference between that model and the B6N2a is gun armament and that matters nothing on a Torpedeo Bomber.

I also have 2 factories repairing to R&D the D4Yx Judy line (1 complete R&D Factory already working on the target model) - with my target model in this line being the D4Y3 Judy. I see no real advantage in the D4Y4 model.

Economic Stats:

HI: 119,610
Arm: 122,495
Veh: 2,617
NS: 6,714 * Has been dropping drastically last few turns and not sure why - still producing normally *
MS: 2


Burma:

I have cleared the trail between Akyab and Cox's Bazar and now have 1300 AS at Cox's Bazar. The allies have been bombarding for weeks causing no losses to my forces, but receiving losses. I have a feeling he is low on supplies - Betties from Rangoon sunk an allied xAKL trying to deliver something to Cox last turn (was not men - so I figure supplies).

I have ordered a deliberate attack here this turn - will see what happens. I have a lot of tanks here (6 Rgt and 1 Div) along with a bunch of troops and some arty - hopefully the attack will do some damage.

I am moving amphibs to Rangoon for the invasion of Chittagong - and they are bringing with them the 5th ID which is 100% for Calcutta (2nd wave at Chittagong). I will be landing the Imperial Guards Divison and the 7th Ind Tank Brigade at Chittagong on the first invasion wave with paratroopers from Yokosuka Assault SNLF landing and getting a Shock attack on the first turn - I hope to take the base the turn I land. Pre-war intel shows Chittagong has some CD guns so there will be losses - just hope it won't be bad.Going to time the initial landings for night.



Java:

Tjilatjap has fallen but my advancements are held up due to supply shortages. I am scrapping the barrels at Singapore for supplies and shipping in 12k to Batavia. I have ordered large supply deliveries from the Home Islands.



North Pacific:

I am ordering the Yamata TF back into the North Pacific to escort the mini KB. I plan on bombarding the new airfields at Umnak Island and using the mini KB to hammer the fields at Dutch Harbor as well. Subs east of Dutch Harbor report sinking a fuel laden xAK last turn.



China:

I have finally taken Wasu and am chasing the fleeing chinese into the mountains to further weaken then so my northern bases are in no danger of being taken back for the forseeable future. Reinforcments will arrive at Urumchi in a couple turns to take over garrison responsibilities.

Artillery Bombardments continue daily at Changsha as my ID recover from the last attack. I plan on another attack in a couple turns.

An attack at Wenchow had some success and lowered the forts to level 1, but suffered 6k casualties - only a total of 51 squads (all types together) destroyed - rest were disabled. The chinese suffered 450 casualties. I am resting my troops (and engineers) for another attack in a week or so. Once Wenchow falls, I will have 5 ID of strength to send to Changsha.



Navy:

CVL Ryuho arrives in 10 days and CVE Chuyo in 23 days. Two more CVEs are accelerated for early 43 and 3 CVs are accelerating for mid/late 43.

Darwin:

I finally tricked my Mavis AGs at Dili to pick up troops from Darwin - it kept telling me I didn't own the base, but I finally got it to work. I am evacing from Darwin and landing more troops at Wyndham - in hindsight maybe I should have done this to begin with knowing that the invasion bonus was gone and the CD guns at Darwin are
deadly. Oh well. I am landing more men and supplies at Wyndham and am trying to find some base units so I can put some fighters there.

I am also moving some barges to Bathurst Island to help move men out quicker - I think I can get barges to arrive and move out during the night phase to minimize Darwin's guns - if not I'm not really losing real ships.

KB is finished the next round of bombing Darwin and is returning for replacements. Not sure if I will send them back to Darwin or not. It may be time to take Dutch Harbor.



General Consensus:

Here is the scoring breakdwon for the game so far. Comments ?

Victory Status: Major Victory

Allied: 6699
Japan: 18873

Scoreboard:

Allied Aircraft Lost: 1316
Japan Aircraft Lost: 960

Allied Ships Sunk: 1763 (188 ships)
Japan Ships Sunk: 725 (94 ships)

Allied Army Lost: 7977
Japan Army Lost: 879


Questions:

Sub-base Glen Recon is stating a large number of ships at Diego Garcia, but no TFs. Do you think this is worth sending a CarDiv or more to strike ? Not sure if its combat ships or just merchies, but am wondering if its worth the fuel / time to hit it... CarDiv 3 is sitting in Singapore doing nothing and can easily go there - borrow a couple AOs for fuel and its easily strikable. Let me know what you think.

Early on I did a lot of this. It was sure fun! Now that I'm in 45 I would really like the fuel back, but maybe certain moves have a positive psychological effect as well. I'd make sure it's not too much to handle before committing though if you aren't bringing everything. Also, if it's way out there it might just vanish before you arrive.

I think more info would be smart, and maybe move the KB up to the end of Sumatra just in case they keep coming on.

You're doing pretty well in the air loss department.

ORIGINAL: Xargun

NS: 6,714 * Has been dropping drastically last few turns and not sure why - still producing normally *

Because ships go from "in planning", where they advance each day without using any points, to "building". I have this happening in my game as well. I had been able to turn some subs back on, but the other day I had to turn off 3 more (for a total of 4 turned back off) as ships farther back in the queue have transitioned to 'building', which is at 10 * (durability). Durability is also the cost per day.

In Tracker, you'll see this as "ship about to start building", "301 days until arrival", for a CL that costs 30 NavSY for example.

Excuse my broken sentences, I'm in a hurry today .

ORIGINAL: obvert

Early on I did a lot of this. It was sure fun! Now that I'm in 45 I would really like the fuel back, but maybe certain moves have a positive psychological effect as well. I'd make sure it's not too much to handle before committing though if you aren't bringing everything. Also, if it's way out there it might just vanish before you arrive.

I think more info would be smart, and maybe move the KB up to the end of Sumatra just in case they keep coming on.

You're doing pretty well in the air loss department.

I'm sending another recon sub into the area to get some more DL on the port. I have caught some warships and merchants here with my subs so I wonder if he's just gathering his ships in 1 place for ease of use -- I know I do that.

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Because ships go from "in planning", where they advance each day without using any points, to "building". I have this happening in my game as well. I had been able to turn some subs back on, but the other day I had to turn off 3 more (for a total of 4 turned back off) as ships farther back in the queue have transitioned to 'building', which is at 10 * (durability). Durability is also the cost per day.

In Tracker, you'll see this as "ship about to start building", "301 days until arrival", for a CL that costs 30 NavSY for example.

Excuse my broken sentences, I'm in a hurry today .

No problem about the rush - I appreciate any and all comments / suggestions / information. I am in completely new territory in this game - just reached 9/1/42 and its the farthest in any game I have ever gotten against another human. I have gone through the queue and stopped / halted a lot of xAKs all the way out to 44 and 45. Its amazing how long it took japan to build ships

ORIGINAL: Xargun

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Because ships go from "in planning", where they advance each day without using any points, to "building". I have this happening in my game as well. I had been able to turn some subs back on, but the other day I had to turn off 3 more (for a total of 4 turned back off) as ships farther back in the queue have transitioned to 'building', which is at 10 * (durability). Durability is also the cost per day.

In Tracker, you'll see this as "ship about to start building", "301 days until arrival", for a CL that costs 30 NavSY for example.

Excuse my broken sentences, I'm in a hurry today .

No problem about the rush - I appreciate any and all comments / suggestions / information. I am in completely new territory in this game - just reached 9/1/42 and its the farthest in any game I have ever gotten against another human. I have gone through the queue and stopped / halted a lot of xAKs all the way out to 44 and 45. Its amazing how long it took japan to build ships

A lot of those ships aren't even started yet. Good idea on halting the xAKs. I would bet almost anything that it's your Agano/Oyodo CLs entering "build" status that's clogging your naval queue.

I mis-stated in my previous post. They actually go from "in planning" to "in queue" at 30 * durability. They go from "in queue" to "building" at 10 * durability. If you've accelerated any while they're in the 11-30 * durability delay range (301 days - 900 days for the aforementioned CLs), then it only takes up 30 extra points. Once it hits 10 * durability, it takes up 60 extra points. So that could be another thing - check your accelerated ships.

I'd also check to see if you can actually handle some or all of the current production with your built-up pool. Later on, you don't really need to be building ships as they just give the Allies "free" VPs. For that reason, I'm a proponent of keeping your NavSY/MerSY pools relatively low. If I were in your situation, I would maybe cut back a little if my pool is dropping by a 3-figure number per turn, but otherwise I'd leave everything as-is until I'm down around 1,000 in the pool.

Digging through the production queue is one of the first things I do as Japan. I go all the way to the end, and knowing what changes I've made (stoppages, accelerations, etc.) I know roughly when I can stop producing NavSY. For on the fly adjustments of my NavSY production, I look at the trend. If I need to make changes, I'll go into the queue and look at how long it is until I get my next "I'm not stopping this production" ship (such as a CV, most DDs, etc.). I then either turn some other ships off (or on), or if there are no ships I want to turn on to use up a current surplus I will adjust the NavSY production itself to be less, saving me some HI.

Sept 5th, 1942


Economy:

Aircraft R&D Update:

A6M5c is now at 3/43 (10 R&D size 30 factories)
Ki-44-IIc Tojo is now at 5/43 (5 R&D size 30 factories)
Ki-49-IIb Helen is now at 7/43 (3 R&D size 30 factories)
B6N2 Jill is now at 10/43 (0 R&D size 30 factories - 2 repairing)
D4Y3 Judy is now at 8/44 (1 R&D Size 30 factory - 2 more repairing)

Need to start thinking about what planes to R&D after these so I can start changing factories and getting them built out to size 30.


Economic Stats:

HI: 117,105 (With the decrease in Armaments I am gaining just under 7k a turn - 3500 a day, 105k / month; 1.26M a year)
ARM: 122,764 (I have half my production turned off and will run this way until mid/late 44 at least)
Veh: 3,965
NS: 7,177 (Moving positive again - stopped all late war CVs. Will restart and accelerate as CVs arrive)
MS: 1



Burma:

Recon near Cox's Bazar show more allied units moving towards the fight here - how many more units does he have ? I am estimated that he is over the max allowed at the hex and is going through supplies in a rapid way - with supplies only coming in over land there is no way he can support that many troops at Cox without shipping in supplies - especially during monsoon season.

He just moved a unit onto the trails east of Akyab - maybe trying to get south of Akyab and try to cut the supply trail ? He can go for it, I'm not relying on the trail from Prome for supplies - moving them all via small xAKL TFs from Rangoon. Just another unit out of place waiting for destruction - and these units don't magically come back.

I have started the Yokosuka 3rd and 1st SNLF preparing for air assault on Diamond Harbour. After I take Chittagong the Yokosuka Assault SNLF will prep for Diamond as well. Diamond Harbour is the gateway to Calcutta which I hope to take.

I am conducting a deliberate attack at Cox this turn - supply level is good and I have 1300 AS and have a decent chance of taking the base. If I take it I will be able to drop supplies right into Cox and easily hold it. Once that happens, I will attack Chittagong and then crush the allied units between the two forces.



Java:

I dropped 12k supplies into Batavia last turn and they have evaporated. Not sure where they went, but troops at Bandoeng are still critically low on supplies and Batavia and Tjilatjap are showing low on supplies as well.



North Pacific:

The Yamato TF bombarded Umnak island and laid waste to the defenders there - over 300 casualties, including lots of airfield and supply hits. The TF is at 70% main gun ammo and is heading back for a quick rearm and then back to the area around Adak. SS RO-34 put a torpedo into xAK Trento and watched her blaze up as fuel stocks ignited. The merchie quickly sunk. At least 1 other xAK was spotted in the TF just a couple hexes from Dutch Harbour - looks like Rob is moving fuel into the base. Odd he is using xAK to move it - they are very inefficient moving liquids. Glen recon shows a TF at Dutch Harbour so the TF has reached the base and is unloading.



China:

Artillery bombardments at Changsha are causing 300+ losses each day. Another turn or two and I'll make an attack - I doubt the attack will take the place, but hopefully I can lessen the forts.

I attacked at Wenchow (fort level 1) and lost 3400 to his 600 (majority of mine were disables). He has terrain bonus, but negatives for experience and supply. This base is really killing me. I just can't bring enough men to bear due to stacking limits to smash it easily.



Navy:

Australia:

All troops have been lost of evac'd from Darwin. The bulk of the 2 divisions are at Dili resting and taking on replacements. A small sliver of one division has shown up at Tokyo and I need to move it back to Timor so I can split the division and get replacements faster.

The 65th Brigade has caught up with the fleeing troops from Wyndham and will attack this turn. If they have any combat effectiveness left this attack should destroy that. I just landed the 20 Inf Rgt at Wyndham and it is moving to join the 65th Brigade. I plan on holding the river crossing west of Katherine until more troops arrive. This will force any attackers to shock attack across the river into almost a full division of troops.


Mini BK is at Attu Island along with a replenishment TF and will wait for the Yamato TF to return. So far mini KB is unseen as far as I can tell.

KB is near the Marianas Islands heading to Japan to refuel and then into the North Pacific to aid in the attack on Dutch Harbour. I'm hoping 2 divisions fully prepped with the full KB and mini KB, as well as 7 BBs backing them will allow me to take the island. I should be able to land the divisions and then attack when I'm ready as its not an atoll. Figure 3 days to unload completely - just hoping he hasn't brought a large amount of CD guns there.



General Consensus:

Rob dropped a lot of troops on Umnak Island and he is always protective about the Aleutians. He keeps talking about his subs hammering me in 43 and the Aleutians make a nice sub base for refueling and rearming for subs operating around Japan. I have a feeling he may try a raid on Adak or other Japanese held islands. Adak is large enough that I can run bombers out of it to hit Dutch Harbour which will disrupt any sub plans. He will need at least 1 AS in the islands to rearm his subs, as no ports are large enough until you get to Canada and that defeats the purpose of a forward base for subs.

Sept 7th, 1942


Economy:


Aircraft R&D Update:

A6M5c is now at 2/43 (10 R&D size 30 factories)
Ki-44-IIc Tojo is now at 5/43 (5 R&D size 30 factories)
Ki-49-IIb Helen is now at 7/43 (3 R&D size 30 factories)
B6N2 Jill is now at 10/43 (0 R&D size 30 factories - 2 repairing)
D4Y3 Judy is now at 8/44 (1 R&D Size 30 factory - 2 more repairing)



Burma:

My deliberate attack at Cox's Bazar has taken the base on day 2 of the turn inflicting 13k casualties including 395 vehicles -- mostly tanks I'm assuming - several tank units were in Cox's.

I am redirecting my supply TFs to unload at Cox's instead of Akyab as there is only 20 supplies at Cox currently. I am setting my Oscars at Akyab to 50% LRCAP over Cox and 50% rest - they should be able to maintain that for several turns without gaining crazy fatigue.

The number of troops at Chittagong has drastically increased this turn, so he must be moving more troops through the base - hopefully not staying there.



Indian Ocean:

CarDiv 3 arrived at Diego Garcia and attacked. The initial port attack struck only 2 xAks and did minimal damage. I was not too happy at the initial showing of enemy ships in port. This got better on day 2 as I hit about a dozen merchies sitting in port. I do not believe any were sunk, but numerous were damaged.

One Sentai of Vals was set to Naval attack and picked up a TK TF and a single AP TF. A total of 3 Tks and 1 AP was sunk outside of the Deigo Garcia harbor.

I have set all bombers to hit the port and restricted all fighters to CAP duty only - I show like 40 ships in Diego's port and want to conserve ordnance for bombers and not escorts.



North Pacific:

Last turn I had spotted an allied TF roughly 15 hexes east of Dutch Harbour - no direction or ship information was available. This turn that contact has disappeared and my sub took a pot shot at DD King moving East. King was escorting an xAK so I'm guessng the fuel convoy is heading back to the mainland. But that disappearing contact concerns me. Rob also moved a sub into the shallow waters at Adak and put a torpedo in CM Tsugaru just as she finished laying her minefield.


China:

Time has come for another attack at Changsha. I have ordered a deliberate attack and my aim here is to lower forts by at least 1. I am expecting heavy losses.



Navy:

Australia:

The 65th Bde hammered the Wyndham Base Force, pushing it south into the river crossing hex I want. I will be moving into the hex and will push it across the river soon. I will then wait here and build forts.

I have 2 base Forces grouping near Timor for escort to Wyndham. Once they are there, aircraft will follow. Most likely recon and fighters.

With KB roughly a week away from the North Pacific I am pulling back mini KB and her refueling TF towards Etorofu. I think Rob has an invasion TF coming for Adak and he will be bringing multiple CVs - mini KB cannot handle more than 2 allied CVs at all, and maybe not even that. If he does invade Adak, I will rely on the 150 newly placed mines and the 100+ AS of troops I have there.

CM Tsugaru is loading some members of the 10th Garrison unit at Adak and fleeing for Japan. It will be much easy to rebuild the unit in japan than buy it back and then rebuild it. The base force there building forts (almost to level 3) is much easier to buy back and rebuild than a Rgt sized unit.

KB might make Ominato this next turn - where she will refuel. I have all air groups standing down and a good 1/3 of all aircraft is undergoing maintenance - lots of fatigue being removed. All maintenance should be done in 2-3 turns - right at the earliest time I would be using them



General Consensus:

Looks like Rob is about to conduct his first offensive move of the war. Last game he invaded Wake and I severely beat him, including heavy CV and BB damage / loss on his side. I just hope KB can get there in time to bite off a piece of whatever he has - especially if its allied CVs. Would rock if I can send my 6 CVs against like 3 or 4 allied CVs. There is some danger to KB at that level of engagment, but if i can sink several CVs it will make his early 43 attacks less. I just need to save my air groups - especially since CVL Ryoho just arrived in Yokosuka and needs some air groups. I might be able to scrounge up some fighters for her and have her join KB (or tail behind) for added fighter support.

Oct 11th, 1942


Rob and I have done a bunch of turns through the Christmas holiday but New years had me working a ton and we have slowed way down. Hope to pick up the pace today though.



Economy:


Aircraft R&D Update:

A6M5c is now producing with 3 factories building up to size 60 and 1 staying at size 30
Ki-44-IIc Tojo is now at 2/43 (5 R&D size 30 factories)
Ki-49-IIb Helen is now at 5/43 (3 R&D size 30 factories)
B6N2 Jill is now at 10/43 (1 R&D size 30 factories - 1 repairing)
D4Y3 Judy is now at 8/44 (1 R&D Size 30 factory - 2 more repairing)
A7M2 Sam is now at 6/45 with 0 factories (5 repairing)
J7W1 Shinden is now at 12/45 with 0 factories (2 repairing)



India:

With the capturing of Cox's Bazar I have changed this theater header to India from Burma since we are now in Indian territory.

The bulk of my troops are 1 hex east of Cox's, in the jungle trying to push past a large allied force. I will win this fight, but worried about the amount of time to do so.

Recon of Chittagong has shown a large force of troops there, so my plan to take it via air drop have been put on hold. I am still prepping for the air invasion of Diamond Harbour and the taking of Calcutta.



Indian Ocean:

CarDiv 3 hung around Diego Garcia for many days hitting the port nearly every day - weather prevented some attacks. Numerous merchant ships were sunk (see below). CarDiv 3 is now safely back in Singapore removing a couple points of system damage and preparing for its next mission.



North Pacific:

I was correct - Rob was coming for Adak and he took it He landed roughly 2 division of troops there and it looks like my mines did next to nothing to prevent it. I was unable to refuel KB and get here there in time to do more than pick off a couple stragglers. His supporting CVs - at least 3+ had moved on into the Central Pacific and bombed Kwajalein island, damaging a few ships.



China:

Changsha has fallen, taking 28k allied casualties with it. The base is in decent shape and I am chasing the troops fleeing to the west. They now all appear to be in Shaoyang, which is my next target.



Navy:

Australia:

The 65th Bde destroyed the Wyndham Base Force and is now sitting in hex 73,129. Across the river to the east is the 754th Tank Battalion and another allied unit just move into the hex across the river to the south. The 65th Bde is accompanied by the 20th Inf Rgt and together they should be able to hold the river.

Base forces have arrived in Wyndham and are enlarging the airfield. Currently a unit of Sonia and a unit of Zeros are stationed there.

The 4th & 48th Divisions are recouping at Dili and will soon make the mvoe to Wyndham to support the Australian invasion. My goal here is denial - and I want Wyndham (which I have), Katherine and Darwin. This should enable me to hold the allies here for quite some time - while allowing me an escape path via Darwin.



Failing at catching Rob's CVs or BBs at Adak, the KB has retired to Japan for some much needed R&R and upgrading. CV Hiryu and Soryu will be out of the yards in 5 days with their upgrades, while CV Akagi will need 11 days for her more extensive upgrade. CV Kaga, who took a torpedo from a sub while leaving the North Pacific will require 95 days for repair and upgrades.

I have also converted the Tenryu and Tatsuta into CLAAs and they will be ready in 170 days.



Ship Construction:

CV Unryu Feb 6, 44 (Accelerated) Should arrive around July-Aug 43
CV Amagi Mar 3, 44 (Accelerated) Should arrive around Aug-Sept 43
CV Katsuragi Apr 27, 44 (Accelerated) Should arrive around Aug-Sept 43
CVE Kaiyo Mar 22, 43 (Accelerated) Should arrive in Jan 43
CVE Shinyo Apr 13, 43 (Accelerated) Should arrive in Jan-Feb 43

I have the remaining 4 CLs under acceleration and 1 arrives in 9 days.



(Sunk ships since last posting - Sept 7th, 1942)
Enemy Shipping Sunk at Diego Garcia:


xAK: 38



Enemy Shipping Sunk in the North Pacific:


SS: 1 [S-30 hit a mine at Adak]
AO: 2
DD: 2
xAP: 2
xAK: 3



Enemy Shipping Sunk elsewhere:


TK: 3
AP: 1
DD: 1
HDML: 4
PG: 1
AM: 4
KV: 1




General Consensus:

Like I previously mentioned Rob's first offensive move has been a success - he has taken Adak island from me quite easily. The 130 AS I had there was murdered by his BB TF and then crushed by his 2 division assault. I couldn't get any air or naval response there in time. I am still toying with the idea of invading Dutch Harbour, but maybe I should just build defenses in the Kuriles and see what he does.

Hi Xargun. I try to keep 100k armament points in the pool. I can keep pace with usage by shutting off 500 of the 620 factories once I hit 100k. For HI, my goal is 100k per month.

ORIGINAL: obvert

Did you build more armament factories? That is a huge amount for that early. I don't think I ever got over 100k.

Pax advocates for some crazy amount to deal with the Russians when they arrive, but it look like you need to stat thinking about HI right now, so I'd shut them down. I would think of trying to get 1 million HI stocked each year for the next three at least. That would likely mean getting your daily to about 4-5k. In 42 it looks like you won't have more than 500k stored if you're very diligent from now on.

Obviously you'll need a few more vehicles as well. There is another tank division due in the autumn.

EDIT - Ahhhh. Just saw that this is DaIron Babes. Not sure about that OOB. Is this more stuff for you or for the Allies? Or both?

If it's like Scen 2 you will really need a lot more HI late to deal with extra pilot costs.

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Hi Xargun. I try to keep 100k armament points in the pool. I can keep pace with usage by shutting off 500 of the 620 factories once I hit 100k. For HI, my goal is 100k per month.

Mike - you and I are almost even in the war, we should get together and compare notes. I'm nearing end of Oct 42 in my game... need to make some posts

Oct 25th, 1942


Economy:


Aircraft R&D Update:

Ki-44-IIc Tojo is now at 12/42 (5 R&D size 30 factories)
Ki-49-IIb Helen is now at 4/43 (3 R&D size 30 factories)
B6N2 Jill is now at 10/43 (1 R&D size 30 factory - 1 repairing)
D4Y3 Judy is now at 7/44 (2 R&D Size 30 factories - 1 repairing)
A7M2 Sam is now at 6/45 with 0 factories (5 repairing)
J7W1 Shinden is now at 12/45 with 0 factories (2 repairing)
J2M2 Jack is now at 5/43 (3 repairing)
Ki-100-I Tony is now at 3/45 (1 R&D size 30 factory)
Ki-61-Ia Tony (2 repairing then will be converted to Ki-100-I)
Ki-61-Ib Tony (3 repairing then will be converted to Ki-100-I)
Ki-84a Frank (4 repairing)



India:

My troops are still buried in the jungle with British and Indian troops and not moving. Attacks and bombardments don't do a whole lot, so its time to start thinking of bypassing this mess and going for my main target. I just landed a couple more Base Forces and Eng units at Rangoon that I will be moving up to Akyab and Cox, to support a larger air presence. I need more bombers. I have air groups to spare, but not AV support where I need it and this should help.

Rob is night bombing me at Akyab, Cox and Mandalay. His bombers arent doing much but are probably gaining experience. I took a quick look at night fighters and wow there isn't much choice.



North Pacific:

Recon has spotted a ton of allied subs around the Aleutians but nothing else seems to be happening up here. The BB Yamato TF bombarded Dutch harbour again and is returning safely to Japan for refuel and resupply. Had 2 scares with allied subs attacking the TF, but both launched faulty torps and my TF escaped unharmed. I did considerable damage to the base, but nothing lasting. I think I might be done with these raids, as I was lucky that 1 or more BB didn't eat a torpedo and end up in the yard for a year.

In the future, I think my raids will be conducted by the Mini KB and friends instead of BBs.



China:

After successful artillery attacks, I waited a turn to gather supplies and attacked. Shaoyang falls to my attack, with over 31,000 chinese losses. The chinese retreat west along the road (1 unit was destroyed). I will pursue and continue to hammer the troops.



Java:

Soerbaja falls !!! A single division takes the city on its first attack. I did an artillery attack and it met with very little resistance, so I attacked and claimed the town. Manpower was hurt by 1 but everything else was captured intact. Zeros are already patrolling above the harbor. Now I just need to bring down some MSW to clear the mines and I have a new port to use.

I expect the mop up in Java to wake another 2 weeks, with most of the time spent marching units south and pushing the allies ahead of me until the end of the island where they will surrender.

Soerbaja will make another nice port for basing out of as I move into the archipeligo south of Java and near Timor.



Navy:

Australia:

I am still holding the river crossing at 73,129. Numerous allied units have joined the Tank Battalion on the other side and the unit to the south has crossed the river heading west - possibly to try to encircle and cut me off. I have landed a mostly restored division at Wyndham and it is marching to aid the 65th Bde.

From the lack of convoys heading to OZ I am guessing his supply levels cannot be all that great. If his units are low on supply that may buy me the time to get my divisions there and give me an edge in the fight.

I guess I will get to test that theory, as this turn I have detected movement on the allied side of the river as troops prepare to cross. I have 350 AS sitting behind lvl 2 forts on my side of the river, so we will see. If i can hold against the shock attack it should decimate the allied troops. I have the 48th ID marching up along the trail for reinforcements - its only at 90% but it should be plenty. If the shock attack fails misserably, I may attack back and push them back across the river Then when the 4th ID arrives I will march on Katherine and Darwin. Should have thought of this a while ago instead of the direct attack. Would have saved me a month of game time and a lot of supplies / ships.



Ship Construction:

CV Unryu Jan 23, 44 (Accelerated) Should arrive around July-Aug 43
CV Amagi Feb 17, 44 (Accelerated) Should arrive around Aug-Sept 43
CV Katsuragi Apr 13, 44 (Accelerated) Should arrive around Aug-Sept 43
CVE Kaiyo Mar 8, 43 (Accelerated) Should arrive in Jan 43
CVE Shinyo Mar 30, 43 (Accelerated) Should arrive in Jan-Feb 43

I have the remaining 3 CLs under acceleration

I am also accelerating every DD I can. My NavShip points are finally starting to go down. I have 8600+ and have turned off a couple naval shipyards to save HI and decrease this pool. It dropped roughly 100 points last turn so at this rate I have a bunch of turns I can let it bleed out my points.



General Ramblings:

Sub-based recon have spotted a bunch of large convoys coming from the US to south pacific islands - namely Rangiora and now Pago Pago. I am guessing Rob is finally building up his pipeline to Oz. perhaps it means he plans on fighting in the Solomons as well, but its hard to say.

Rob has also let go of the leash on his sub force finally. I have detected at least a dozen new subs moving into position along my convoy routes. I have suspended all convoys into and out of Japan for a couple days until I can spot his subs and route the convoys around them. I am also sending out ASW TFs to acquire and attack these subs in shallow water. I have a route shaping up, but another wave of subs have been detected near Saipan heading into my convoy routes... Did I mention I hate subs... they cause so much time to be wasted to avoid them. The count is up to roughly 15 subs now, but they may be repeat spottings.. On the good side, I did get my first aerial attack on a sub last turn. Now my pilots just need a bit of seasoning and maybe I can hit some of these suckers.

Rob has errantly (or maybe on purpose) moved an allied unit into Indochina activating all 4 VM Divisions, but I notice they are static. I remember they used to be movable, but now I have to waste supplies on units I cannot move. Is this normal or a bug ?

I have noticed that naval search results are very poor. Often they detect my own TFs and are not very good at detecting enemy fleet movements. By this I mostly mean Land based - my glen-equipped subs do a good job and if I recon ports I get decent data, but everywhere else naval search is horrible. Is it this poor normally ? Or are my pilots just crappy at it ?

I need to spend some time figuring out night fighters. Rob is starting to use night bombings, so I might as well begin looking into night fighters. Other than Air skill is there anything else the pilots need ? Which night fighters do you guys like ? use ?

Oct 27th, 1942


Not much happened this turn other than a ton of sub attacks around the Home islands and Formosa. One US sub fired like 10 torpedoes and kept missing at a lone xAK Looks like Rob needs better trained crews.

My ASW forces scored multiple hits on an allied sub in the Malacca Straights with the possibility of sinking her. I also laid mines at the small base south of Yokohama as allied subs are prowling right off the coast. I have stationed an ACM there to maintain them. During the turn execution there was the noise of a sinking ship, but nothing was reported. I am thinking an allied sub hit a newly placed mine or the sub I hit in the Malacca straights sunk. Either way if it was a sub, I'm happy.



Australia:

Robs forces crossed the river into hex 73,129 and shock attacked. I don't have the unit list with me, but it was sizable. Losses were pretty even on both sides at aroun 1200. The 49th ID is 1 hex away, so I doubt I'll be losing control of the hex anytime soon.

Amphibs are arriving at Dili next turn, to bring parts of the 4th ID down to Wyndham. I am also bringing a couple artillery units along for the fun.



General Ramblings:

I am accumulating a lot of PPs and not sure what to spend them on. I have bought a lot out of manchuria and can only buy a little more before coming to close to the 8000 number and risk soviet activation. How close do you guys go to the 8k number ? I'm around 9k right now. Could probably afford to pull another Div or 2 out, but not sure.

I am beginning to look at the Divisions in Japan and may buy them out and send them to India to support the upcoming invasion. I want to keep a decent PP stockpile to buy back units as they are destroyed. Should I go through all my Division leaders and replace them ? most of my air group leaders are decent - I watch them pretty good.