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ORIGINAL: Brausepaul

I guess I read too much about the Pacific campaign recently...all you arguments sound like Yamamoto: threaten or take Midway and the Americans have to react[;)]

Better hope they don't react historically then. [;)]

ORIGINAL: BraveHome

I can understand your reasoning if the Allies hold Midway this late into the game. My curiosity was directed to why you didn't try for Midway early December '41. Many of your goals could be met with that approach as well....

Probably because I wasn't sure if I should take it or not. But now that I have been doing good and have heavily damaged his BBs from Pearl and sunk Force Z I am thinking of it again.

Xargun

If you had to do it all over again (new game say), would you go for Midway earlier?

ORIGINAL: BraveHome

If you had to do it all over again (new game say), would you go for Midway earlier?

To be honest, I don't know. Midway depends on a lot of things... Mostly where the US CVs are... I know Rob has at least 2 CVs somewhere around OZ or such. And I believe he has 2 more CVs in that area as well trying to escort his TFs for OZ... So that leaves the Hornet.. I can send baby CVs to cover the Midway invasion now and they would give the Horney a run for her money.. 2 real CVs would kill the Hornet...

Also, Midway is not worth that much early in the war - not much on it.. Like I said one of my reasons is to score points and I think Rob has a brigade or more there now. Also, early game you don't have the extra air groups to send to Midway - they are needed to support attacks against Malaya, Luzon, Borneo, etc...

Xargun

ORIGINAL: Xargun

To be honest, I don't know. Midway depends on a lot of things... Mostly where the US CVs are... I know Rob has at least 2 CVs somewhere around OZ or such. And I believe he has 2 more CVs in that area as well trying to escort his TFs for OZ... So that leaves the Hornet.. I can send baby CVs to cover the Midway invasion now and they would give the Horney a run for her money.. 2 real CVs would kill the Hornet...

Also, Midway is not worth that much early in the war - not much on it.. Like I said one of my reasons is to score points and I think Rob has a brigade or more there now. Also, early game you don't have the extra air groups to send to Midway - they are needed to support attacks against Malaya, Luzon, Borneo, etc...

Xargun

I don't look at Midway so much for points, but for other factors -- limiting the Allies deep eyes (especially in Wake area), annoyance Naval Search/Attacks, etc. I have some Betty's I'm not using elsewhere (jan'42, war proceeding as I'd hoped so far), so I temporarily have them on patrol at Midway. But you're right, if it's only points/resources you need/want, they are just so much flotsam around Midway now [;)]

Just wanted to step in & tell you that I think you are having a great game & I can't wait to see how this all turns out. Good luck in the coming rounds & I would try for Midway as it could drawn him out with his CV's [:D]

Jono

Yes, it's fun to hear about people actually fighting at Midway. Wasn't there some sort of small naval/air engagement there in real life?

Yeah, I seem to recall something about that, but I can't remember who one [:D]

Jono

Well with a new job - in which I have training 5 days a week and am effectively out of the house from 6:30 AM to 5:30 PM it has slowed down our game - and especially my reports here.. Also in the chaos surrounding the fact that I'm not a morning person and hate getting up early, I have lost the AAR file for 2-26-42.. But I have my notes and will do a brief recap.

A very sloooow day. My notes show only 2 ships sunk - unfortunately they were both mine [:@] An IJN AK and TK sunk from previous damage - the AK was about halfway loaded with supplies (around 3500 sunk with her) but the TK was empty. The TK is the greater loss as I have tons of AKs and supplies, but very few TKs...

My notes have nothing else in them other than to ship fuel to Kwajelein - basically I have 2 CVs TFs operating in the South Pacific and the Kwajelein area only has around 30k fuel in it -- not enough. I have several TFs running around trying to keep up with the CVs carrying about another 30k of fuel, but the area (which will see more action in the coming weeks) needs fuel, so I have sent 63k of fuel to it from Osaka. It will load up in a turn or two and start sailing. It is at least a week away - Man I hate these long distances...

Ok, back to business (I have the AAR for the turn)...

A much better turn for the Imperial Naval Machine as lots of allied ships are discovered and attacked.

The turn starts with I-18 locating and attacking an allied AK. I-18 surfaced and pounded away with her deck guns as well, scoring 4 gun hits and 3 torps into the poor AK. The AK sunk quickly. I-18 failed to pursue other targets but gained intel that the AK was carrying a portion of the 102nd US RCT. Less troops to fight the war !

IJN I-20 joined in the fun atatcking another allied AK. I-20 surfaced as well, hitting the enemy ship with 2 gun hits and 3 torp hits. The allied AK West Cactus sunk rather quickly, taking a ship full of men with her as well [:D] Intel gathered from the floating bodies put these men with the 101st USN Base Force. Good score for me !!

CHINA

My Sallies from Hanoi hammered into the manpower at Kunming, claiming 7 hits - 1 Sally was lost and 3 more damaged. 7 Chinese fighters were providing CAP. My after attack intel claimed a fire level of 187 at the base - whether this was true or not is unknown. If it is it is great... Fire at an enemy base is always good.

British bombers attacked the IJA forces approaching Kungchang: 16 RAF bombers and 13 P-40s ran into 17 zeros and 4 Nates. In the brief battle, 2 japanese fighters were lost (1 of each) as well as 5 RAF bombers and 1 P-40. The bombers achieved no hits.

My own air strikes in china claim 59 chinese troops and 1 gun. Bombardment attacks in china claim a further 226 chinese troops and 5 guns.


My air raid on Singapore cost my 6 Anns (5 more damaged) and scored minor hits on the port facilities. A wasted attack. My subsequent attack from my Lillies scored a few losses on the ground forces and 3 planes damaged.

My arty strike at singapore claims 110 men killed.

My CV TF near Canton - sent to scout out the air power at the base before I launch my invasion of the island located an allied TF at Canton and attacked... 9 zeros escorted 88 bombers (44 of each) against the undefended allied TF consisting of 8+ AKs. 1 Kate was damaged from Flak in the attack. Also 7 of the 8 spotted AKs were hit with bombs, torps or a combination of both - all 7 ships were left burning. Over 500 men were killed on the ships in the attack. Of the 7 ships hit, 3 are known to have sunk. Looks like Rob was attempting to land reinforcements at Canton and I got lucky.

I landed a small force of sub commandos at Lae in an attempt to sieze the base early and they ran into enemy troops. It seems Rob has beat me here - like he has many places. In a brief battle, my couple squads were wiped out by a surperior allied force. The force is
consists of at least part of the 1st Aussie Brigade. I don't remember if the whole Brigade is there - I'd be surprised if it was, but its still troops there that I will have to fight to take the base.

My other CV TF in the South Pacific has refueled and is heading north for the long trip home to Japan. By the time they arrive, the CVs (and escorts) in Japan should be ready to sail out again, so they will simply swap positions, with the new CVs heading west to Malaya to support the invasion of Sumatra and Java which will happen in March.

The day started off slow - no night attacks at all.... surprising...

My daylight raid on Kunming was escorted with 8 zeros this time. The zeros engaged the chinese fighters shooting down 2. No Sallies were shot down, but 1 was damaged. The bombers claim 5 manpower hits.

I raided the airstrip at Bali. 27 Nells and 25 Betties (from Kendari) struck the base. They claim 1 airbase, 2 supply and 2 runway hits. No planes were lost or damaged in the raid but the fatigue sure went up.

A poor attack on my part caused the lost of 6 Nells over Port Moresby. I sent in a raid of 80 Nells and 11 Betties against the base. Unknown to me Rob has moved some real fighters there. A total of 6 Wirraway and 6 P-40s were flying CAP and engaged my bombers, shooting down a bunch of Nells [:@] But the bombers continued in on their targets anyways.. They claimed 28 men, 3 airbase, 4 supply, 13 runway and 1 port hits. They also claim 3 P-40s and 2 C-47s destroyed on the ground, along with a few damaged. Not a bad success despite the lack of fighter support.

More RAF bombing in china claims 91 IJA troops and 4 guns at a cost of 2 bombers destroyed and 4 more damaged.

My own air attacks in china claim 58 chinese troops and 2 guns.

My fighter sweep over Akyab encountered 10 Hurricans, but no real battle was fought. Neither side lost any planes.

My CVs near Canton Island struck again hitting 6 AKs with a combination of bombs and torpedoes that left all 6 ships ablaze - 2 of the ships were sunk. A few men were lost as well, telling me that he has unloaded most of the men from the ships already [:@]

Some zeros from Kendari attacked an allied PT boat at Koepang, hitting it with 20 shells and 2 bombs. As the fighters were returning home, they reported the ship sinking....

The arty strike at Singapore was poor this turn... only 46 brits were claimed.

In sader news, IJN sub I-122 missed her last 3 radio checkins and is presumed lost from previous damage...

March opened up with more allied ships sinking... I-9 started the turn with a night run at an allied TF. The sub snuck in and put a torp into the side of an allied AK carrying men. The ship did not sink, but was heavy damaged and ablaze as the sub evaded the 3 allied DD escorts.

Another fighter sweep was ordered over Akyab, this time with a better experienced (and lead) sentai. The results were good.. My recon plane accompanying the raid was damaged, but no zeros were lost. My pilots claim 8 Hurricanes shot down..

My LR Bombers from Rangoon struck at Diamond Harbor once more as well. In total 3 bombers were lost and another 6 damaged, but they did a good job. The escorting zeros shot down 4 Demon fighters as well.. The damage to Diamond Harbor was 72 men, 1 runway and 3 port hits. The bombers also hit 1 PT (sinking it), along with an AP and an AK.

Rob's fighters from Bankha struck at the resources in Kuala Lumpur, scoring 1 reported hit.

I forgot to stand down my bombers at Kendari so they struck Bali again. None were lost - but the fatigue is huge now. They claimed 1 F.K. 51 recon plane destroyed on the ground as well as 13 men and 1 gun. They also claim 1 airbase, 1 supply and 10 runway hits.

My CVs near Canton struck twice at the island. The first wave was 21 Vals which attacked the airfield there. They lost 1 plane and another 1 was damaged. In return they claim 12 men, 1 B-17s destroyed, 1 B-17 damaged, as well as 1 airbase and 7 runway hits. The second wave was 38 Kates which targeted the ships docked. They hit 4 AKs sinking all four. One of the other AKs sank during the night from previous damage as well. In all my air raids on Canton have produced some fatigue and some morale loss, but I have only lost a couple actual pilots. Overall a good showing.

RAF bombers in china miss their targets but encounter heavy IJA CAP. No IJA fighters were lost or damaged, and they shot down 4 Hudsons and 2 P-40s.

My air strikes in china have claimed 52 chinese troops. In a failed air strike against chinese troops, Rob surprised me with RAF CAP over his units. His P-40s shot down 16 dive bombers before the rest fled.

Alrighty.. all caught up now !

My aircraft finally attacked Bankha. They have been ordered for several days and have refused to fly - although 1 day at least was because of weather... 64 Lillies pounded the base, but didn't hit much. They claim 1 C-60A destroyed, along with 4 airbase, 2 supply and 7 runway hits.

In mid china, I encountered another partial chinese unit heading for my backyard. I caught it and bombarded it for several turns with arty and planes.. After a couple days of actual attack the 58th Chinese Corps / A finally succumbed. 1887 chinese troops and 8 guns were taken into captivity.

My half-brigade force has finally reached Singkawang and attacked the base. The captured it easily, pushing the two base forces there south into another allied base. The unit will sit there a few days recouping from the long march from Kuching. I have ordered several AKs to load supplies and rush to the base to supply the unit for the next march. My troops found one Do 24K-2 destroyed on the airfield, as the allied enginers destroyed it as they fled. This finished off a dutch recon unit I believe.

My CVs near Canton have left the area, heading for Tarawa for fuel and supplies - replace a few lost planes. They will wait there to join up with the invasion force assembling there. Then they will return to Canton and take the island.

A division is 2 days from Rabaul. The unit is a veteran unit from the battles in the PI and should tip the scales in my favor at the base. I will land them quickly and then rest them a couple days before making a major attack.. Hopefully I can push the allies from the base without many losses. I need the airfield to keep Port Moresby shut down.

Xargun gave up or lost the KB to some Devastators with an average experience of 15...[:'(]

However well he's doing in combat, Xargun is losing the propaganda war. (Over three weeks since his last posting.) Care to comment on the activity around Canton?

Those are vicious lies perpetrated by Rob... Or uhmm... Well I have finished training for my new job and this week is the first week on-the-job. The training was a pain but actually working again full time is more of a pain.. I think you all should send me a check for like $50 so I can quit my job and have plenty of time to conquer the Pacific against Rob [:)]

Now on to a serious note.. I have been slow in getting turns back to Rob but hope toi increase the pace now that I have a set schedule and am getting used to the hours. I have tons of notes from he previous weeks of war that I will condense and post one day (probably this weekend - next day off). I hope to get back into posting my AARs as well.. Needless to say to those who have been reading Rob's thread - I'm sure what he thinks is not true.. I do know for a fact he thinks one of my CAs is sunk but she is almost completely repaired in Japan [:D]
I am moving against Canton with lots of troops and CVs / BBs in support. The landing should be happening in a couple turns as the APs race to the island. I do not think Rob has much air assets in the area to stop me, and my bombardment TF wiped out 3-4 DDs at the base. My landing force should take the island in 1-3 days - depending on what he has there (my guess is not much) and how complex his forts are - once again probably not much. I have fuel, supplies and aircraft ready to move in the turn I take it - Nells will make it a death zone for Rob to try to take it back. My guess is he will have to bring at least 3 CVs against the island to mount any sort of real attempt to take it back. And if he does that before 43 my planes will maul his ships.

Not much else to report, but like I said I'll get some updates out this weekend..

Xargun

Nice to hear that real life is starting to run normally again

Alright... TIme for a big update... Last post concerned March 2nd and it is now March 17th..

Let me first recap the ships sunk since then:

Japanese:

2 Subs (I Class), 1 Sub (RO class), 2 APs

Allied:

10 AKs, 4 DDs, 1 Sub

Bases Captured:

IJA forces have captured: Kungchang, Rabaul (6200 allied troops captured), San Jose, Cebu, Lae, Kweiyang, Amboina, Sorong and Ormoc.

Allied forces have liberated: Wallis Island, Namlea, Funafuei. -> all by sub assault.


Most of my losses were from air strikes - same with Rob's losses. All of the DDs were caught at Canton by my bombardment group and sunk - 2 IJN DDs were damaged in the fray. Rob's SBDs at Canton struck the next day at the capital ships hitting the BB Mutsu with several 1000 lb bombs - or at least they claimed.. The Mutsu had no fire or flt damage and only like 4 sys damage so except for the 2 DDs that got beat up, my attack on Canton went well - although I didn't get to bombard the airfields as much as I wanted.

Singapore is about to fall (only level 1 forts left) and my men have been inflicting 4:1 losses against the defenders for the past couple days. Once Sinapore falls, Java will be next - troops have been preparing for the invasion of Java and Sumatra for several weeks now and have decent Readiness.

Latest recon reports at Palembang show only a BF unit there - both of the IJA paratroop regiments have been preparing for air assault on Palembang and will take the place by surprise soon.

India / Burma

Several major air battles over Akyab have taken place with the british fighters taking a beating. Rob continues to kill zeros and nates on the ground - but my pilots are shooting his out of the sky in Burma. Air raids on Akyab and Chandpur have claimed low number of british aircraft - I would guess that 30-50 percent of the british airforce in the area is now engaged in NW china in the battle for Lanchow.

Northern China

My men are about to march on Lanchow, but Intel is showing 29 enemy units in the base - I'm sure there are only about 15-20 units, but it will be a difficult fight. I have a lot more arty power than he does and I'm slowly moving Sonias in range of the base for constant ground attacks. Sallies (flying at night) have been trying to hit the airfields at Lanchow and the other chinese base (NW of Lanchow), but very little damage is being done. Rob is constantly bombing my men in Kungchang, and my fighters and his are mixing it up a lot - so far it has been relatively even in the air battle.

Southern China

In southern china Kweiyang has fallen to my men and a lot of chinese troops are stuck between Kweiyang and Nanning along the trails there. Aviation support is being flown in and bombers / fighters along with them to continue the pressure on the chinese.

Canton

Probably the hotest area right now. I have several CVs in the area supporting an attempted amphibious invasion of the island. Unfortunately Rob has been able to land some reinforcements, but I'm not sure how many or what type. My APs arrive this next turn and will unload. I have the CVs out of SBD range from Canton and hitting the airfield there with bombers, while flying LR CAP over the AP TF. Should my men take the island, bombers, fighters and a ton of fuel and supplies are waiting to land there - to begin cutting off his supplying of OZ and New Zealand.

Marcus Island

I've had a recon plane equipped sub in the North Pacific for some time now (like 3 weeks or so) in case Rob tried to raid Japan with CVs and guess what I spotted ? A TF heading W (SW) with at least 1 CV in it. It seems to be heading for Marcus Island, but it could be turning north to hit Japan as well.

This past turn, another sub (which was heading to Midway after repairs in Japan) ran across an AO in the North Pacific. Most likely a replenishment TF for his CVs.

I had a CV Tf heading to Japan for repairs when I spotted the enemy TF and it is now moving north and then east to circle around behind the US CVs. I also launched a 3 CV TF from Tokyo (1 new CV and 2 fully repaired CVs) which is almost to Marcus Island. I will attempt to catch Rob from both sides. Worst case, I should be able to catch his AOs and sink them, limiting his ability to project power too far from a base.

SRA

More of the SRA has fallen to the IJA. Not much in way of land, but two nice oil producing bases - Amboina and Sorong. Both have been captured with only 1 oil point lost in damage. Amboina had little oil stockpiled (I think most of the stockpile was destroyed in the battle) but Sorong has 30k of oil waiting for me [;)] Gotta love that.

An invasion fleet is assembling (loading men) for the assault on Tarakan as well. They should land in a couple days and take the last important base on Borneo away from the allies. I also have half a brigade marching down the western coast of Borneo taking those bases as well.


In all I am doing pretty good, despite not being able to devote enough time to the game in the past weeks. My extra time spent at the beginning enabled me to miss a couple weeks of normal planning and still do well. The first batch of capital ships in Japan are fully repaired (3 BBs and 3 CVs) and will be soon entering the fight once more. I have several baby CVs in Tokyo right now undergoing some repairs as well as about 10 DDs undergoing the rest of their upgrades. Even a BB or two have been upgraded recently.

I have been shipping resources and oil home to Japan in ever increasing numbers - it is slow going right now, as I am using damaged ships to haul resources / oil, but the next batch of ships are not damaged and can make more than 1 hex a day. Rob's subs have been merely a small pest so far, claiming a couple merchie ships and only 1 TK throughout the war so far. I have sunk a lot more of his subs than I thought I would and I credit that to massing my ASW ships (mostly DDs, APDs and PCs) together in TFs and his subs sitting still after being spotted - makes it easy for me to attack his subs.

I have 8 or so subs either in repair or enroute to repair yards. Several subs have been repaired and are returning to duty around PH - I'm sure Rob is thinking about moving the rest of his damaged ships out of PH and to the west coast soon.

My stockpiled HI is still over 37k and my Manpower is hovering around 60k. A lot of base units are still in Japan filling out and most units at large bases are set to recieve replacements as well. I have over 6k in my armament pool as well. I have also done a small second round of industry increases - mostly armaments only, although 1 or 2 repair yards got boosted too.

I can't think of anything else right now, so if you have specific questions ask away... and I will try to keep more up to date on the AAR.

Latest recon reports at Palembang show only a BF unit there - both of the IJA paratroop regiments have been preparing for air assault on Palembang and will take the place by surprise soon.

I would have thought there would be a noticeable shortage of Oil in Japan by now if you haven't captured Palembang or anything on Java. Did the stockpile seized at Sorong make a big difference?

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

I would have thought there would be a noticeable shortage of Oil in Japan by now if you haven't captured Palembang or anything on Java. Did the stockpile seized at Sorong make a big difference?

No. The stockpile at Sorong has not even been touched yet - just captured it a couple days ago. What has been keeping me alive is the oil from Brunei / Miri and ... uhmm.. can't think of the base's name - southern base in Borneo.. I have shipped a lot of oil from these bases since their capture in the first week of the war. Right now my oil surplus is still dropping, but as new bases come online this will change - at least temporarily. I will be capturing Tarakan and Sumatra soon...

Xargun