RHSEBO Test 10A vs Panzerjaeger: Cleaning up and consolodating

[el cid again]

3 DD at San Diego attacked but did not harm I-2.

2 ground attacks on guerilla regiments in East China caused them to retreat with minor casualties.
But another on the Hopei Militia Regiment caused 58 casualties - this elite unit still refusing to surrender or
give ground in spite of 12 to 1 odds - and facing 5 times their troop strength. There was a similar
attack in Central China where a guerilla unit stood its ground: 12 Japanese and 7 ROC casualties.

879 men of the New Guinea Volunteer Force attacked 126 survivors of the airlanding there the previous day.
These were forced to retreat to Lae - which was possible because we took it by air assault just for that reason.
They linked up with the rest of the 2nd Airborne SNLF.

The Brunei fortress bombarded without effect. 2143 Allies face 6115 Japanese at Brunei.

[el cid again]

I finally completed the turn for this game. Early turns involve a lot of work - and this was my birthday - and also Sunday - which for me involves singing in various languages.

My main concern is - where are those carriers? No sign of them. Are they running for Alaska or the US West Coast? Or are they hoping to ambush a Midway Invasion Force (which has not yet been sent)? Or are they threatening my SLOC? This latter is the worst possibility - and the only thing stopping it is - where would they refuel? The Ni Butai at Johnston - the nearest theoretically viable force - has not recovered its air groups from initial operations - and is unfit to take on even one CV. Johnston itself has horrible airfield damage - from my bombardment and possibly over use (in which case code is impressive). And KB itself is not fit to fight either - in terms of air group morale. So

1) KB will turn SE to hunt minor ships - and buy both time and distance (the enemy carriers must be NW of it).

2) Ni Butai (CVL force) will continue to stay at Johnston - where island and ships can benefit from each other.

3) We have maximized recon in the area from Wake, Kwajalein, Maleolap, Johnston (if it will fly), and Lahaina.

4) We have refused the follow up convoys - falling back - in some cases at full speed - on Enewetok - out of his viable operational range without tankers - pending more evidence the area is clear of hazzard.

These carries can be anywhere within 3000 miles West, NW or NE of PH.

To this add that we have lost track of 3 battleships in the same area. We sank 5 - and have no recon of any at PH (which may or may not be valid data). We hit all of them one way or another - with shells or bombs - but not with torpedoes - and if they are well away from PH we may lose them to come back to haunt us. Our primary mission is to render the United States Fleet unable to be a problem - and that means sinking it - either at once - or trapping it at PH where we will sink it when we capture the place. Loose ends of this size are not on mission.

Troops are having problems sorting themselves out at Singora and Aparri. This would really happen - too many troops for the facilities - but I am not used to it in the game. We are a day or two behind plan - not due to enemy action - but just due to units losing their march because some later element landed and code resets it. Still - this is nice in the sense it adds the sort of flavor of real operations.

I am confused why the ships in many places - and in the Philippines - have not run en mass? If he waits for Jolo and Kendari to be viable fully supplied air bases - he will suffer more. And running together means we run out of sortees before we run out of targets. He did that at PH - and it is working - I cannot get all the ships - even if I was willing to take the time to follow them all the way to the US coast - which I am not.

I am nervous about the many ships and new unit reported at Cayagan - and afraid to engage with just SNLF units at Jolo - and so I have started sending a division from Japan to Palau for that area - and revised the next target to Tarakan.

Large numbers of Japanese bomber units are low on morale - so the harvest will slow down now while they recover. We also have not done well over Rangoon - and lack the ability to bring "heavy bombers" (Ki-21s) to bear on it again tomorrow - so Ki-48s - the one good morale unit left - will see what it can do? Not being a day bomber - I am not optimistic - but I gave it lots of Oscar support.

[el cid again]

Panzerjaeger was apparently traveling with his family and has finally completed his reply to my last turn with these added comments:

I really like this scenario and the fact that Ive never played your mod before. It makes me very careful and cautious and defence-focused. Right now I dont know whether to expect massed invasions in Alaska or small strikes at Panama or San Fransisco. I dont know whether Australia and India are safe for now or whether I need to build up defensive positions there too. All in all, I think it puts me more in the shoes of the US command right after Pearl Harbor than the normal games since in those games you always know what to expect.


While we need to restart - because ASW devices don't work and because Japan cannot fly over Russia in a Russian active scenario - I will execute his turn to see what happened?

[el cid again]

11 December 1941

The night turn began with CL Durban hitting a mine at Palembang.

DMS Scout and Thanet attacked a small TF at Brunei - putting 3 shells each into a MSW unit
and a transport. The already damaged MSW unit is burning and severely damaged.

I-4 fired on and missed a SC near Victoria, BC.

I-2 torpedoed a DD near San Diego.

MSW 23 & 24 (IJN) sank during the night. So did CA San Francisco.

The day turn began with I-154 torpedoing a TK at Tarakan. It then put 2 fish into another TK.

Ro-33 torpedoed an AK at Olongapo = entrance to Manila Bay.

I-2 torpedoed AP President Fillmore near San Diego.

[el cid again]

23 P-40B of the AVG raided Singora Thailand. They met 21 Ki-27, 7 Petes and 6 Oscars. 5 were shot down for a loss of 2 Petes and 1 Ki-27.

26 Ki-48s escorted by 24 Zeros attacked Georgetown. Met by 5 Buffalos, 4 were shot down. 413 casualties, 7 guns lost, 21 vehicles lost,
33 airbase hits.

18 Allied bombers of 2 types raided raided Kendari. Escorted by 12 Buffalos, they met 8 Zeros. 2 Bufflaos and 1 bomber were shot down. 3 airbase hits. 6 B-17s followed up, scoring 6 airbase hits. 3 TV-IVs tried again later - but with no effect.

12 ROCAF SB-2s were ineffective in a ground attack in South China. 4 JAAF ground attacks in East China caused moderate casualties.

7 Allied bombers of 2 types caused 8 casualties to the 2nd Airborne SNLF on New Guinea.

5 Vildebeestes (and 2 B-10s) put a torpedo into Mutsu at sea of the NE tip of New Guinea. 1 Rufe and 2 Petes were not very effective because they met 3 Buffalos on escort - the Allies flying out of Tarakan.

5 Whiraways put a bomb into a junk group at Kompang Phet, Thailand. The Whiraways flew out of Burma (however they got there).

3 B-10s put a bomb into AK Meiko Maru in Dutch waters.

3 Ki-49s missed a DD at PH - but met no fighters. They had 12 Mikes as escort. They repeated this again - failing to score.
Finally 6 Ki-49s (and 2 Mikes) went to PH a third time - and put 6 bombs into DD Phelps. Later 5 Ki-49s put 2 bombs into an AK East of Hawaii.

KB sent 13 Vals after USS Phoenix NE of Hawaii - scoring 4 bomb hits. Phoenix sank later and subsiquent raids were wasted searching for her.
17 Vals also scored 6 bomb hits on DM Prebel. Then 12 Vals put 3 Bombs into DD Blue, but missed DD Helm.

8 Ju-88s - in the first strike from Kendari - put 6 bombs into 2 tankers at Balikpapan.

Troops landed on - and then captured - undefended Tarawa.

Undefended Kompong Phet Thailand fell to ground assault.

Undefended Savannahket fell to ground assault.

A Chinese Guerilla battalion surrendered to ground assault in East China. The Hopeh Militia
Regiment held its ground, 16 Japanese 33 Allied casualties.

Brunei finally fell - 11 to 3043 casualties - to ground assault.