I wont read anything on the thread that has anything to do with the game. Its hard enough not knowing I am just not a good player (IMHO) as I seem to not plan well enough for operations. Want to see Kenny get his licks in so I am going to play this one thru. Should be ugly as I am still unsure what to do in Burma and australia.
if your confused by what this all means, wellll its been a rough 4 days for the Japanese. It seemed to shaken Miller's resolve in continuing the game, but i was able to convince him to stick with it. He sure is a honorable guy as Rob stated above.
So back to the game....
Sept 10th - day started off harmless enough as the Japanese continued to land more troops at Darwin at the cost of a Jap DD being set afire by a coast defense gun hit. But the Aussie's were hungry for more. After a japanese carrier force was spotted offshore, the Aussie's launched 30 B25's and 36 Beauforts escorted by 21 fighters. Arriving on target they encountered 37 zero's on CAP. A fierce air battle ensued resulting in the loss of 12 allied fighters and 5 zero's. But the fighter's did there job by keeping most of the Zero's off the bombers back, with only 8 bombers shot down. With the Zero threat eliminated the B25's rose to 12,000ft, while the Beuaforts hit the deck to make their torpedo run. While the maneuvering TF was too fast for the B25's to hit anything, the TF wasn't fast enough to escape the Beaufort torpedos as they managed to put 2 torps into the CV Soryu and 1 torp in the CV Junyo causing major damage to each. 7 bombers were lost to flak. Meanwhile, despite the victory at sea, the japanese launched a major assault on the city of Darwin with over 100,000 troops. The attack was repulsed by the heroic defenders with heavy loss of life.
Elsewhere, over in Burma 40 Wellingtons and 30 LB-30's pounded Rangoon AF despite a 16 Tojo CAP, destroying 2 planes on the ground, and shooting a Tojo out of the sky.
Sept 11th - well my British Bombardment TF arrived off the coast of Rangoon in the middle of the night, and completely devasted the base. In all 59 planes were destroyed on the ground. Intel would later indicated that there were some 200 planes based there. Confident that the air threat was all but eliminated the commander decided to stick around to hit the base again (i forgot to change it to "retirement allowed" again). Later in the day with the most of the japanese air force grounded, my bombers hit the base again, destroying 6 more planes on the ground. Later in the day 63 Helen bombers from Bangkok attack the Bombardment TF off the coast of Rangoon. Fortunately only 1 250kg bomb hit, which just bounced off the BB Royal Sovereign.
Over at the Darwin theatre, my aircraft attacked the burning Jap fleet again, this time putting another torp into the CV Soryu and slamming one into the BB MUtsu. In all 9 allied planes were shot down and only 1 Zero as killed. Meanwhile B25's from Derby hit Wyndham causing moderate damage to AF and shooting one Zero down while losing 1 of their own.
Sept 12th - once again my Bombardment TF pounded Rangoon, destroying another 18 aircraft on the ground. The runway should take weeks to fix. Satisfied with his accomplishment the commander decided it was time to leave. Later in the day LB30's arrived overhead to destroy another 10 planes on the ground.
Over at Darwin, more troops landed today, mostly BF's though. My lone 9.2in CD gun was however able to zero in on a small jap coastal patrol boat and hit it with 2 shells which just tore the tiny ship to shreds. Frustrated with the lack of progress on land, the japanese commander at Darwin launched a massive frontal assault which cost them dearly, and yielded them no results.
Sept 13th - more bombers returned to hit Rangoon, destroying more planes on the ground. This time 11 more planes will never see the sky. Wasn't all good news though as two allied AK's sank and a 3rd needed to be scuttled, the result of Betty strikes a few days before near Anadaman Is.
Also of note, my SS Albacore spotted a tranport TF east of Marcus heading to Wake. Me thinks i'll have to pay them a visit with a crusier first from Midway [:D]
Plan - so as you can see Miller has plenty to be frustrated with. 2 reasons specifically, that with 100,000 troops vs 30,000 he was unable to knock down my forts despite 2 assaults (one deliberate, one shock). Then there was the debacle at Rangoon where despite having search planes out in force (Which even spotted my BB's coming in), backed up by numerous betties, my BB group managed to sneak in wrecking the entire base.
I hate to put the hurt on him, but its probably gonna get worse for him as my flanking movement at the city near Nanning is complete, and i should be able to cut off his force there next turn. Then i was able to upgrade a flight of SB-2's to IL-4's which will be used to hit Taan port next turn, where shipping was spotted. Worse still, heavy reinforcements will probably arrive before Darwin can be taken, thereby making it a Japanese POW camp. So it looks like nothing is going right for him at the moment and its only Sept 42'.
Here's some nice screeniess..
