The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[CowboyRonin]

You sound like Churchill lamenting about the fate of empires and some thing called LSTs...

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
What I really need is an aide de camp that can figure out for me how many troops I can reasonably load on the available shipping while prioritizing according to mein own priorities. Now that would be a tool I would use!

Ah! Most honorable Canoe-san! [bows] Happy to obrige! Happy to be aide de camp! Hai! Prease give us all transportation prans now. [bows]

[Canoerebel]

Thanks, Poultry Lad! (I think you're serious in the offer, but I sometimes have trouble differentiating between gesting and sincerity). But I'll do the work - it's tedious, but all part of the fun.

I know this - I'll start with making sure 27th USA Div. and 1st Marine Div. (the spearheads for Merauke and Port Moresby) get more than adequate room on the best ships. Then everything else should begin to fall in place.

[Cribtop]

1) Pile hoard plus sh#t-ton of shipping in port.

2) Test load.

3) Unload and send extra shipping back to CONUS to pick up ice cream and urchin roe. [:D]

[Canoerebel]

9/21/42

Bay of Bengal: No major enemy combatants. Subs are spread all over and enemy patrols are trying to keep up with Allied shipping moving hither and yon. A carrier raid is certainly possible. BB Royal Sovereign departs Chittagong tonight. More relatively small sweeps by Tojos run about even in losses. I have two heavy AA units at Ramree. A third - one of the big ones from Ceylon - is about to make the run in from Calcutta. For some reason, though, my Ramree AA doesn't perform well.

Burma: The Allies knock out another 65 squads of 4th Div., which is in a bad way. John has troops moving in to open a hexside. He'll succeed and extract the 4th Div. survivors, but that unit should be out of commission for a long time.

NoPac: Two enemy subs at San Fran. I'm hoping this indicates John is searching, searching, searching for my carriers and signs of a move on the Aleutians. A CB unit to begin landing at the second dot hex west of Kodiak tonight.

CenPac: The last of the USN carriers make their move out of Pearl. Ent and York will reach Tahiti tonight, joining Wasp and Hornet.

SoPac: The long chain of transports unmolested.

[Cpt Sherwood]

Do you have radar at Ramree?

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

The heck with Tracker and pilot training and all the other record keeping stuff in the game. What I really need is an aide de camp that can figure out for me how many troops I can reasonably load on the available shipping while prioritizing according to mein own priorities. Now that would be a tool I would use!

For all units, personnel load cost (amphib) is stacking cost + at least 10%. Under this and you are likely to leave behind a fragment.

For infantry units, multiply the cargo load cost X3 because some equipment cannot be stacked [e.g. trucks].
For armoured units, multiply cargo load cost X4 because a much higher proportion of their equipment is vehicles.
For artillery & AA, multiply cargo load cost X5 because guns take up a lot of space and the units need to take a lot of ammo.

If your amphib TF loading screen, post "unit selection", shows 115% or more personnel load and 200% cargo load you will not leave any fragments behind.

I use APDs for units with zero cargo load cost, like raiders and port service dets.

You could probably hire one of the math geeks from your local high school to do the spreadsheet!

[Canoerebel]

9/22/42

Bay of Bengal: Again, no major enemy assets apparent. John stands down raids on Ramree in order to focus on the ground bombing. BBfanboy, I checked and found I don't have radar at Ramree - just observor corps. I'll see if I have anything available further back. Thanks for the suggestion.

Burma: Two IJA regiments cross a river, shock attack, and open up a hexside for the beleagured 4th Div. The Japanese lose 200 squads in the shock attack and subsequent Allied deliberate attack. So 4th Div. is finally free, though it's wrecked. The two regiments also took heavy losses. (Yesterday, a UK Bde. beat back an IJA tank regiment in a jungle hex, booting it. All the "easy pickings" are done, now, so the Allied units will slide south and try to apply more pressure. I need more troops - 18th UK Div. will be coming from Diego Garcia. To the extent I don't need PP for the upcoming SWPac invasions, those will be used to buy restricted Indian units.

Pacific: Another quiet day for the train of Allied transports. John is reconning Norfolk and Lord Howe islands. So he's concerned about New Caledonia. Absolutely no indication of significant enemy activity up in New Guinea.

[Nemo121]

A question on phasing.... Given that John3rd is someone capable of entering himself into zugzwang when he doesn't actually HAVE to move do you have any plans about when to initiate these invasions?

In other words do you have a date picked out or are you going to wait for him to, inevitably, lose patience and go "Hulk, Smash!!!" with KB somewhere on the board first so you know where KB is when you launch?... or some other criteria?

I ask because you got caught up in temerity with the Northern Op where you dithered about go/no go cause you didn't know where KB was and I was wondering if you've solved that issue for this op somehow.

[Canoerebel]

NoPac was unusual. It was like preparing to take the family sailboat out only to suddenly learn that a Category IV hurricane was sixty miles offshore and heading your way. Seriously. It's not like I got the willies or cold feet without reason. There was the most amazing run of concentrated SigInt all focused on the islands I was heading to. Had that not happened, and had the time come to trigger the invasion, I might have gotten cold feet if the location of the KB had remained ucnertain, but I never reached that point.

I will not trigger this op if I think John is prepared, but to this point everthing I'm looking at says he's unaware. Under these circumstances, I'll pull the trigger. In all likelihood, this will end in a carrier battles (after all, it doesn't take long for the KB to get to Buna vicinity from Truk or Saipan). But if I can take PM, Terapo and Horn Island (and, if things go very well, Merauke) before John can gather himself fully, I think the op succeeds.

Question for You Guys: I have a USN squadron at Calcutta with 30 F4Fs. How does that fighter fare against the Tojo?

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

NoPac was unusual. It was like preparing to take the family sailboat out only to suddenly learn that a Category IV hurricane was sixty miles offshore and heading your way. Seriously. It's not like I got the willies or cold feet without reason. There was the most amazing run of concentrated SigInt all focused on the islands I was heading to. Had that not happened, and had the time come to trigger the invasion, I might have gotten cold feet if the location of the KB had remained ucnertain, but I never reached that point.

I will not trigger this op if I think John is prepared, but to this point everthing I'm looking at says he's unaware. Under these circumstances, I'll pull the trigger. In all likelihood, this will end in a carrier battles (after all, it doesn't take long for the KB to get to Buna vicinity from Truk or Saipan). But if I can take PM, Terapo and Horn Island (and, if things go very well, Merauke) before John can gather himself fully, I think the op succeeds.

Question for You Guys: I have a USN squadron at Calcutta with 30 F4Fs. How does that fighter fare against the Tojo?

I personally consider the Tojo-IIc model to be slightly better than the F4F. Being as he's flying the unarmored and undergunned (comparative to the IIc) IIa, it's a push or perhaps the F4F is slightly better. Most of the differences will be due to pilot quality, getting a sweep 'jump', numbers in a scrum, etc. etc.

[Canoerebel]

9/23/42

Bay of Bengal: Tojo sweeps overcome the CAP, clearing the way of IJ strike aircraft to target shipping at Akyab. New Orleans takes a torp and bomb hits do moderate damage to a DMS and a CL. I'm beefing up the CAP, using Hurricanes tomorrow. Hopefully, the F4Fs will be ready in a day or two. USAAF pools are very low now, so I can't keep up this pace much longer, but I want to fight as hard as possible until the SWPac invasions take place. BB Revenge, which suffered light damage in the big battles a week back, passed Ceylon and will report to Capetown to have a turret repaired.

China: John's brought in another division to Chengteh and will probably attack tomorrow. A Chinese unit at 431 AV will arrive tomorrow, though it will be in Move mode.

Pacific: The same ol' story - the chain of ships hasn't been disturbed, yet, nor has it distrubted the enemy. Subs are active near Auckland, Melbourne and NE of Townsville. Lex and Sara are 26 hexes SE of Pearl and making progress towards Tahiti. It might be possible to commence loading invasion transports in as little as two weeks.

[Capt. Harlock]

I have a USN squadron at Calcutta with 30 F4Fs. How does that fighter fare against the Tojo?

F4F-3's or F4F-4's? The -4 variant has two more guns and a bit more durability. (At a cost in manuverability.)

[Canoerebel]

F4F-4

The squadron is busy at Calcutta readying planes and receiving more experienced pilots. I hope to have it available in two days.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

F4F-4

The squadron is busy at Calcutta readying planes and receiving more experienced pilots. I hope to have it available in two days.

In spite of the lack of armor, the tojo is 40 mph faster, has a higher ceiling, much faster rate of climb. My long experience with is was that the tojo generally ate my wildcats up for lunch.

In game terms, the biggest advantage that I think a fighter can have is speed. When you have a plane that is substantially faster, then most other factors do not matter.

The hellcat on the other hand owns the tojo.

[ny59giants]

A third - one of the big ones from Ceylon - is about to make the run in from Calcutta. For some reason, though, my Ramree AA doesn't perform well.

Have you paid the PP cost to get one of those large NZ AA units?? Adding it to one of your invasions would surely help.

OT - My 49th FG (7, 8, 9 FS) are driving P-38Gs and recently swept base with Tojo, Nicks, and George on CAP. I lost 4 for 30 for Japan. [&o] Wow!! I have been doing very well in getting this FG to get ALL three FS to fly together and the 75 plane sweep is great. Do you have any P-38s ready for your coming operations?? John still hates this plane and it should be able to handle the Tojo when flying sweep missions.

[Canoerebel]

9/24/42

Bay of Bengal: More bigs sweeps and escorted raids. Once again, the Akyab CAP stands toe-to-toe with the Tojo and on equal terms, but eventually the Japanese strike aircraft make it through thanks to sheer numbers. Valient and Dorsetshire each take a torp. At this rate, I think the Allies can put up enough CAP for two more days. If John keeps coming, then I'll have to seriously consider pulling back ships and aircraft from the front, which will mean a new form a battle. I only have one BB left at the front. I'm still good on CAs. To answer Michael, I have two P-38F squadrons with only partially filled numbers. I need alot more of them and the P-40K.

Burma: It looks like the forward IJA division on the Akyab road is pulling back one hex. This should help me a bit as my lines will be more contiguous and better able to pick a target and then concentrate.

Pacific: Ack! SigInt that 38th Div., which was previously reported bound for Koepang, is now coming to Horn Island! Is this the start of a new flood of SigInt of "just in time" troop movements? The chain of transports continues to make good progress without enemy encounters. Most of 1st Marines is now ashore at Hobart.

[Canoerebel]

9/25/42

Bay of Bengal: The Japanse airforce stands down from raids against Akyab. The Allies will now bring in the F4F-4 squadron to see how it performs. Lots of damaged Allies capital ships in transit across the western Bay to Ceylon. BBs Royal Sovereign and Valient and CAs Pensacola and New Orleans are at risk. The CAs are repairing at Colombo, but the BBs will report to Capetown. CL Helena is ready to go at Colombo and will join a DD for the trip back to the front.

Burma: A few IJ air raids against some of the front line Allied combat units.

China: A 1:2 IJ attack at Chengeh begins the process anew, each side having fed in a fresh, big unit.

Pacific: SigInt of an base force unit inbound to Horn Island. I'll continue to monitor these "just in time" reinforcement developments, but for now the mission is a go. It's going to take quite some time to load units at Hobart - a level four port - so I will probably begin pretty soon. More IJ sub activity in the area - near Sydney, Melbourne, Wellington, Auckland. There's also sub activity in many other places - San Fran, Kodiak, Karachi. I get the feeling that John is testing out every possible area. He might have hunches, but I don't think he has certainties yet.

[JocMeister]

I don´t think Wildkittens are going to be much help against the Tojos. As Crsutton says, speed is king and Tojos rule the sky until you get Corsairs and Hellcats in decent numbers.

[Canoerebel]

9/26/42

Bay of Bengal: Another quiet turn free of Tojo sweeps and the menace of enemy combat ships or carriers. There are a couple of enemy TFs south (true) of Diego Garcia - at map's edge. These appear to be armed merchant cruisers attempting to raid. The F4F-4s are in position, giving Akyab 150 fighters. I need ot see if the mix is effective. Maybe not, as the gallery says, but I'll have to try it.

Burma: Mostly quiet as troops are busy moving to new positions.

China: In a surprise, an IJA deliberate attack takes Chengteh. I thought I had enough to hold there indefinitely. As I pointed out last week, I was willing to surrender the base if necessary, though I didn't want to give it to John for a variety of tangential reasons. It's hard to defend cities that are out of supply - much better to stand in the forest. So I'm glad to retire into the woods. The Allies lost about 800 squads (combat and non combat). The Japanese lost about 150 combat squads, so this army, which was already weakened, should have a hard time fighting in the forest if John is hoping to move forward.

Pacific: A USN sub tangles with a stout IJN combat TF including BBs Yamato and Musashi and five CAs. That's a huge part of the enemy fleet apart from those in the Bay of Bengal. No doubt now that John's "spidey senses" are tingling down south rather than in the Aluetians. Nothing major has taken place to trigger his suspicions, as far as I can tell. The Allies chain of transports continues to move quietly. Lex and Sara are two days out of Tahiti. No SigInt indicating troop moves in the area or interest of base building increases.