Once Again into the Breach - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A)

[Mike Solli]

12 Oct 42

Burma: Ted did what I expected and sent his 2E bombers after my army outside of Akyab. I set an ambush and, at a cost of an Oscar op loss, shot down 7x P-40Ks and 2x Wellingtons. The jungle did it's job of protecting my troops. His remaining 73 bombers did no damage.

I also shot down a couple of Hurricanes over Cox's Bazaar.

SE Fleet: Ted is focusing on all of my airfields in PNG. Today his bombers hit Goodenough, Madang and Terapo, causing light damage to each. It doesn't matter at all. I'll never station a plane at any of them again most likely.

[Mike Solli]

13 Oct 42

Burma: I sent a bombardment force to Chittagong, where he has most of his fighters. It was composed of 4 CA, 2 CL and DD escort. The bombardment destroyed only 1 Hurricane on the ground, but damaged a couple dozen planes and did heavy damage to the airfield along with light damage to the port. I should have targeted the airbase with my 100+ bombers for today but didn't think of it. Too bad. I have another CA bombardment force ready to hit Chittagong again tomorrow.

During the day, I shot down 2 Martlets at a cost of 3 Tojos over Cox's Bazaar. Hmm.. I caught his bombers over my army and got 2 more P-40Ks and 11x bombers(!) for no loss. Banzai! [:D]

I had a division also crawling over the river into the hex just east of Cox's Bazaar. It made it there today and caught the 267 armored regiment in move mode during it's shock attack. Here's the result:

Ground combat at 55,43 (near Cox's Bazar)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 12810 troops, 120 guns, 32 vehicles, Assault Value = 444

Defending force 1420 troops, 14 guns, 93 vehicles, Assault Value = 141

Japanese adjusted assault: 604

Allied adjusted defense: 169

Japanese assault odds: 3 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), op mode(-), leaders(+)
Attacker: shock(+), leaders(+)

Japanese ground losses:
708 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 50 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 11 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled

Allied ground losses:
265 casualties reported
Squads: 9 destroyed, 15 disabled
Non Combat: 17 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 32 (19 destroyed, 13 disabled)
Units retreated 1

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
33rd Division

Defending units:
267th Armoured Brigade

I'm not sure how long it'll take to rebuild that brigade, but it is trashed for the time being. It retreated into Cox's Bazaar. The only supply path Cox's Bazaar has is through the jungle hex to the north. The road is cut. So is the supply path for Akyab.....again. [:D]

Reinforcements:

51, 52, 58 Construction Battalions - Tokyo - They are all Southern Army units. They will move as a group to build forts where needed. I'm not sure where I'll send them first. They need replacements so I have time to decide.

54-57 Construction Battalions - Keijo - The first 3 are Southern Army units and the last is Kwantung Army. I'm buying that last one out. All four, after filling out with replacements, will work as a group to build forts as well.

53 Construction Battalion - Shanghai - CEA - I'm buying this one as well and will use it, possibly with the first 3 bns, as fort construction troops. This will give me 2 big piles of engineers to work on forts quickly. I'll probably assign transports and escorts to stay with them so they can move on to the next base as soon as they are done building.

[Mike Solli]

14 Oct 42

Burma: My second bombardment force of 5 CA, 1 CL and DD escort hit Chittagong today. Unfortunately, Ted moved all the planes out of Chittagong so I couldn't smash up those damaged planes. [:(] Gotta look on the bright side though. His fighters are now out of range of the front line, at least until Chittagong's airfield is repaired. That's going to take a while. It's pretty severely battered.

There was (obviously) no Allied aircraft to oppose me in Burma, and Ted chose not to fly in SE Fleet either. Quick turn.

Reinforcements:

Ch-36 - ASW
CHa-44 - ASW
34 Sentai - 27 Sallies - 5 Air Division - will head to SE Fleet where 5 AD is stationed.
35 Sentai - 27 Helens - 5 Air Division - will head to SE Fleet where 5 AD is stationed.

[Mike Solli]

15 Oct 42

Sub War: Ted realized at some point that I'm using Davao as a hub. I don't think he realizes I keep the Combined Fleet, MKB and KB2 there. My BBs rarely move. Fuel hogs. Anyway, one of my ASW TFs (I have several prowling around just south of Davao) caught a US fleet sub and hit her with 2 depth charges. She's reported as sunk, but who knows?

Other than that, just the usual Allied bombing of Adak and various PNG bases.

[Mike Solli]

16 Oct 42

Sub War: The I-169, patrolling off the fertile grounds around Norfolk Island, caught and sank an unescorted xAK. There was no report of burning fuel or swimming troops, so I figured it was just another supply shuttle. She was alone (I think) and definitely had no escort. I didn't realize until I was checking the intel report that she went down with a squadron of Wildcats! [:D]

All quiet on the Burma front (other than my bombers).

Typical daily bombing of Madang, Milne Bay and Adak.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement: TK Seishin Maru - accelerated 11.6k TK that will ship fuel from Singapore.

Tojo IIc R&D advanced to Feb 44. You may note that I skipped the Tojo IIb for R&D. In order to upgrade operational units without having them become damaged, you must upgrade in order. The Tojo IIb will become operational a month or two before the Tojo IIc does. I have 3x30 factories working on the IIc. That's the model I really want.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli
she went down with a squadron of Wildcats! [:D]

Sweet! Banzai! [&o]

Tojo IIc R&D advanced to Feb 44. You may note that I skipped the Tojo IIb for R&D. In order to upgrade operational units without having them become damaged, you must upgrade in order. The Tojo IIb will become operational a month or two before the Tojo IIc does. I have 3x30 factories working on the IIc. That's the model I really want.

I moved my repaired R&D factories from the IIa to the IIb and, a turn later, through to the IIc. I may have done overkill on it with 6x30, but I'll get 'em in December 1942. [8D] The IIb will not have come out yet. How do you recommend handling my (3) production IIa factories, Mike?

[Mike Solli]

17 Oct 42

Sub War: Again, the seas around Norfolk Island proved to be fertile. The I-168 caught another unescorted xAK and put a torpedo into her. She was not reported as sunk but I saw something odd in the intel screen that maybe someone can explain. I saw 8 or 10 (depending on the screen) B-24s as being destroyed on the ground. Usually, when planes are on a ship that sinks, they show up as op losses. I didn't do any airfield bombing where B-24s were so what could have caused it? I haven't a clue.

South of Davao, a US fleet sub caught and torpedoed the TK Arima Maru #4. She was one of the small 1250 capacity TKs, but of course she was full of oil from Boela. That sub got away.

Then, to make matters worse, the Dutch sub KXVI, operating off Koepang, caught the SC Ch-13 (in an ASW TF) and blew her into matchsticks. She got away too. I'll explain what's going on down there in a bit.

Daily bombing of Adak and Madang. At Madang, I had noticed that Ted would send 2E and 4E bombers unescorted so I set up a trap with my Nick sentai. It was at full strength of 27 planes and rested so I put it on 100% LRCAP from Gasmata to see if they could shoot down a few planes. Only 4 planes flew [8|] and they didn't do squat.

Australia: It's time for my little adventure in Australia to end. I have 3 divisions and a few small units there. I don't want to lose the divisions so I'm pulling them out. As of 18 Oct, one division is sailing away, the second is about 50% loaded and I've begun loading the third division. Ted is pushing north with 2 Aussie divisions and a few small units. I want to get the divisions out before he makes it to Darwin. I have the 11 garrison unit in the dot hex south of Darwin. They're at ~50% strength and are a speed bump to hold off the Aussies until I pull out the divisions and the AS battalion if possible. The transports that are pulling the troops out were stationed at Koepang. I think Ted got wind of the ships there and sent a sub to investigate. My transports got out before the sub arrived and found only the ASW TF. As the divisions are loaded, they're heading north to Kendari as an initial destination. I'm hoping the subs don't head toward Darwin until I'm gone. I do have 2x PB ASW TFs around Darwin to hassle any subs that may arrive.

Edit: Oh yeah, Miri made level 6 forts.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli
she went down with a squadron of Wildcats! [:D]

Sweet! Banzai! [&o]

Tojo IIc R&D advanced to Feb 44. You may note that I skipped the Tojo IIb for R&D. In order to upgrade operational units without having them become damaged, you must upgrade in order. The Tojo IIb will become operational a month or two before the Tojo IIc does. I have 3x30 factories working on the IIc. That's the model I really want.

I moved my repaired R&D factories from the IIa to the IIb and, a turn later, through to the IIc. I may have done overkill on it with 6x30, but I'll get 'em in December 1942. [8D] The IIb will not have come out yet. How do you recommend handling my (3) production IIa factories, Mike?

Well, the first question is, what do you plan on doing with the 6 R&D factories? You can always shut off the 3 production factories when the IIc becomes operational and let 3 of the R&D factories become operational. Then, when the IIb becomes operational, you can upgrade the IIa twice and have 180 per month production, if you want that much. If you don't, then you have 3 factories to play with for later. Right now I have several factories just shut waiting until I need something new. I just converted a Lily factory that had been off for months to a Helen factory. It can't hurt to have a few spare operational factories.

Man, it'll be really nice to have the Tojo IIc in Dec 42!

[Mike Solli]

18 Oct 42

Sub War: Off Townsville, the Ro-63 sank an xAKL. Not much, but I'll take it. Using my Ro class subs in this area is forcing Ted to flood the area with ASW TFs, when they can be much better used as escorts for xAKs carrying fighters. [:D] I still have 5 of the original 9 Ro class subs that started the war here. I've gotten the first of a string of 10 Ro-100 class subs that will end up down here as well. They may have short legs and not a lot of torpedoes, but they can still cause damage, and more importantly, pull Allied escorts from more important missions.

Ted still isn't contesting me in the air over Burma, mainly because Chittagong is still battered. So, only over Adak did he fly. Nothing over PNG either today.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement: 111 Naval Construction Battalion - 4 Fleet - Guess where they're going and what they're going to do?

Well, I'm officially caught up. Now I'm going to get some screen shots so you guys can see the sights.

[Mike Solli]

Aleutians - You can see that the front line is Adak and there is nothing behind it until Paramushiro Jima. Back there I have airfields, troops, planes, ships, etc. Note that there are also no bases built either. I opted not to build anything because then I would have to defend it. I don't have troops available to defend here. I'm relying on Ted's caution in this region. If he does choose to move west, I'll ambush him with KB coming up from the south and subs to his east.

[Mike Solli]

Australia - Let's go left to right. Pt. Hedland has a Naval Guard unit in it. I'm about to pull it out. You can see a string of 4 convoys to the north. I've been pulling resources out of there since I took it with no disruption from Ted. I've pulled out hundreds of thousands of resources. I'll keep pulling until he shows up there.

Broome - There were a lot of supply points sitting there. They wouldn't move. I'm collecting them.

Wyndham has a Naval Guard guarding nothing. I'll pull it out eventually. No reason to waste it there.

Darwin - There are ASW TFs to the east and NW, just in case any subs show up. The two Amphib TFs in the hex & third one 3 hexes north are carrying the 3 divisions I'm yanking. There is a garrision unit and eng co in the dot hex 2 hexes south of Darwin. That's the speed bump for the Aussie division just to the south of them. The garrison is ~50% strength and sitting behind level 3 forts. We'll see how long they hold. In Darwin itself is (in addition to the divisions being pulled out) an AS battalion and AS company. I have a Zero daitai and Nell chutai there as well, but they're leaving soon. I have ~75 transports flying out part of one of the divisions because there aren't enough ships to get the whole division. Off to the right, you can see I still control Wessel Island. The garrison there is exactly 1 support squad. That outta hold him! [:D]

Edit: The 75 transports are in Koepang.

[obvert]

Australia - Let's go left to right. Pt. Hedland has a Naval Guard unit in it. I'm about to pull it out. You can see a string of 4 convoys to the north. I've been pulling resources out of there since I took it with no disruption from Ted. I've pulled out hundreds of thousands of resources. I'll keep pulling until he shows up there.

While it's so tempting to pull resources from distant points like this I'm kicking myself now that I did. There are plentiful resources close to the HI from China, Manchuria and the North, and all returning convoys from the DEI can double up by taking resources back with them. Unless convoys are already heading here I would say based on 1944 fuel levels that I'd rather have the fuel than resources now.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Australia - Let's go left to right. Pt. Hedland has a Naval Guard unit in it. I'm about to pull it out. You can see a string of 4 convoys to the north. I've been pulling resources out of there since I took it with no disruption from Ted. I've pulled out hundreds of thousands of resources. I'll keep pulling until he shows up there.

While it's so tempting to pull resources from distant points like this I'm kicking myself now that I did. There are plentiful resources close to the HI from China, Manchuria and the North, and all returning convoys from the DEI can double up by taking resources back with them. Unless convoys are already heading here I would say based on 1944 fuel levels that I'd rather have the fuel than resources now.

+1

Fuel is always the limitation. I don't spend a ton of fuel without seeing how it will either get me more, or preserve what I have.

[Mike Solli]

Obvert and Pax, good points. Sucking resources out of Pt. Hedland is pretty much at an end. My fuel is slowly rising right now. Also, my oil is pretty much stable. I'm trying to get as much of each that I can to the Home Islands before the end of the year. Once the US sub torpedoes get better, life will get harder. Remember, I have never made it past mid-1943 in a game. Soon I'll be coming up on new territory. Should be interesting.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Soon I'll be coming up on new territory. Should be interesting.

[:D]

[Mike Solli]

19 Oct 42

Sub War

Well, Ted gave me some intel a while back and it finally paid off. Back during the Merauke debacle, I heavily damaged the Warspite. Ted said that she survived but he wanted to get her back to Sydney for repairs. I sowed the eastern coastline of Australia with subs hoping for a shot and it finally came to be. The I-9 spotted her in the wee hours of the morning and launched 6 torpedoes. One hit, but she kept on going. Later in the day, the I-9 lined up for another shot on Warspite, launched another 6 torpedoes, and had the satisfaction of hitting her two more times and watched her go down. She used up two thirds of her torpedoes, but it was definitely worth it. She was unescorted. The lack of escorts is definitely hurting Ted.

The Dutch sub KXIII reared it's ugly head at Darwin. Two of the three infantry division TFs had already completed loading and had safely escaped, but the final TF, loading the 48 Division (the best of the 3) was still there loading. The sub missed an xAK and was prosecuted and damaged by escorting PBs. She was spotted again later in the day and damaged some more. I doubt she's damaged enough to leave but the two ASW TFs in adjacent hexes were given orders to move into Darwin's hex. Hopefully, they will be able to drive off or sink the sub tomorrow.

Burma: Still there are no Allied fighters over Burma. Tomorrow, I'll bomb Cox's Bazaar to try and destroy some supplies and damage the airfield.

SE Fleet: Milne Bay and Salamaua were targets today. No planes were lost on either side in the air.

Other Stuff

I had a 102k fuel convoy arrive in Nagasaki today. Upon reaching port, one of the 12.8k TKs kissed the DD Fuyo. The DD definitely came out the worse of the two. Damage was:

TK Nissyo Maru: 0-3(3)-1(1)-0
DD Fuyo: 3-45(42)-58(48)-0

The DD will be repaired at Nagasaki but the TK will make the trek back to Singapore before she gets repaired.

[KenchiSulla]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli



Well, Ted gave me some intel a while back and it finally paid off. Back during the Merauke debacle, I heavily damaged the Warspite. Ted said that she survived but he wanted to get her back to Sydney for repairs. I sowed the eastern coastline of Australia with subs hoping for a shot and it finally came to be. The I-9 spotted her in the wee hours of the morning and launched 6 torpedoes. One hit, but she kept on going. Later in the day, the I-9 lined up for another shot on Warspite, launched another 6 torpedoes, and had the satisfaction of hitting her two more times and watched her go down. She used up two thirds of her torpedoes, but it was definitely worth it. She was unescorted. The lack of escorts is definitely hurting Ted.

Suprising that your opponent gave you that much information.

[Mike Solli]

Cannonfodder, I was surprised too. At first I thought he was trying to mislead me, but the only other direction the Warspite could go would be west, and I own that piece of water. She almost made it though. She steamed past about half a dozen subs before the I-9 caught her.

[Xargun]

I haven't read all of your AAR Mike, but have been reading the last few days. What made you invade Northern Oz ? Other than denying the allies Darwin is there anything up there worth it ?

[Mike Solli]

Hi Xargun. You're right, I invaded N Oz only to deny those airfields to Ted. The goal was the end of 42. I guess late Oct will have to do. Before I leave I'll leave some eggs in Darwin harbor, but I suspect shipping to Darwin is rather hazardous right now. I expect most everything will make the land trek for the time being.