Nomad pinch hits against PzB

[Nomad]

We have progressed two more turns and things look to be working right so far.

The 6th Aus Inf Div is landing at Buna and I think they can secure it. This was an operation
that David had going so I let it go. I am moving sizeable forces to the Solomon Islands and
NG area. I have two BB TFs and all of my CV/CVEs going there. I also have two divisions
and two raider bat. on the way along with some seabees and base forces. It appears that
there are at least 4 undeveloped and undefended bases around Shortlands Island. I will
take one of them and build it up to an AF of 5. That should allow me to put Corsairs and B-25s
in normal range of Raboul. Buna will be the last NG base I take for a while, I need to build it
and Dobadura up for now. I will also take Woodlark Island ( it's undefended ) and see about
building it up if necessary.

I'll try for some pictures next turn. [:)]

[Nomad]

Yeah, the 6th Aus Inf was able to take Buna that turn. However, 3 AKs took some torps form LBA and the North Carolina took one. NC will survive but it will take a while to get her back in shape. Not sure if any of the AKs will survive.

Here is a picture of the South Pacific. I need to build the bases at Buna, Dobdura, Goodenough Island, Kirawina Island, Vela Lavella, and Munda( whew ). I intend to take Buin and Woodlark Island in the near future. Buin will get me a buildable fighter base to help cover the taking of Buka and Green Island. Those two bases will give me bases within normal range of Rabaul using Corsairs when I get them next month. I should be able to pound Rabaul into the stone age that way and then either take Lae or bypass it and go further up the coast. I need to see what happens in the near future.

One thing that does bother me is that PzB is training a HUGE amount of pilots in China. There is nothing I can do about it, but it will make my job harder.



I am short on about everthing right now, but things are in the pipeline. In 5 days I get 9 SeaBee units and a Base Force. I know just where those Sea Bees will be going. I have a lot of building projects to get done in the next few months in the Solomon Isalnds. [:)]

The Essex is due out in 5 days also with escorts and two CVEs with replacement type squadrons. I have 3 USN CVs in the South Pacific, one Brit CV, and 3 CVEs with combat airunits on them. Not enough to go toe toe with PzB if he brings all he has, but enough to keep him from making any big raids as long as I stay well within my own LBA range.

I do not expect Central Pacific operations to begin again until the end of August 1943. By that time I should be able to gather 6 USN CVs and 7 CVL all or most with F6Fs. I should be able to extend my boundries somewhat at that time. With a little luck, my South Pacific attacks will be threating him enough he will have to split his resources.

[Nomad]

A few more turns go by. No new advances for me. PzB did send some CVs in and hit a couple of ships. The California was hit hard but should survive, but it will be 1944 before she is repaired. [:@]

I have received teh 9 new SeaBee units and right now 6 of them are in route to Nouema for deployement to an island in the Solomons. Not sure which one they will be going to. I have moved a marine raider unit to Lunga and a couple of Base Forces. I will be using FT to take Buka and to start building the base. I need to be able to mount a good bombing campaign against Raboul.

[Nomad]

A few more turn have gone by. No real combat news yet. I moved the Americal Division to Lunga from Tarawa and split it. I am moving the regiments to Vela Lavella, Munda, and Russel Islands. That will bolster the defense of those, they had all most nothing there. [:(] I dragged up 4 Base Forces and put them at Munda, it can now handle all the aircraft I put there. It is a 3 airfield now but is building to a 5.

I am taking the 7th Aus division to Gili Gili and am moving the independant regiment at Gili Gili to Kirwina Island. I have APs putting into Nouema in two turns and they will pick up a NZ division and take it up to NG to be split and used at Dobadura, Goodenough Island and at least one other location. Buna has the 6th Aus Division there so it is fine.

I was surprised at how little there was in LCUs in the area. Looks like Dave sent a lot to Central Pacific to take some Islands there. I have the 25th USA division at Pearl Harbor waiting for tranport to the South Pacific. Probably start its movement in a week or so.

Scrounged up 48 torp carring Beuforts and put them at Gili Gili. Moved some P-40s and F4Fs into the area from Central Pacific. Found 6 squadrons of Kittyhawk 1s in Canada that were all ready assigned to SWPAC. Put them on AKS and I am moving them to Australia for assignment to NG. I am going to strip most of the aircraft from Pearl Harbour and move them to forward bases.

Essex and escorts are on the way to the South Pacific and they are escorting a transport TF carring 6 Seabee units. They will find a lot of work to do in the solomons and on NG. [:)]

[Nomad]

I have not kept up this AAr since there wasn't much action at all. Now it looks like something might be up:




I am not completly sure about where those TF might be moving to. Thursday Island has a size 3 airfield and
I put some P-38s and SBDs in there. I might be able to hit some ships. I have two BB/CA forces in the area,
one at PM and one off the coast by Cairns. I also have a 3 CVE TF with F4Fs and TBFs. We might have the battle
of the CVEs. [:D] It remains to be seen just what is coming in. I am moving a regiment of the 7th Austrailan Inf Div and two Base Forces to thursday Island, mostly by air and then lastly fast transport.

I can not believe that he would try to take PM at this time from that direction. But PzB is cagey and he might
do most anything. I consider Thursday Island to be the likely target. I would think he would need more than
some CVEs covering to go as far as PM. He knows that I have a number of Bombers in range of PM and would
surely pummel any invasion fleet. The other base down there has a level 1 port and airfield, not much to risk
CVEs for. Up to last turn there was only a construction Engineer unit at Thursday Island so John might think he
can slip in. I hope so, I would like to give him a bloody nose( mostly he gives them to me [:(] )

I still have Mili, Tarawa, Makin, Nauru, Baker Island. I feel that they are in more danger. I only have 2 good
CVs( Hornet and Saratoga) and then Wasp and Formitable. I am sure that John can mass up 6 - 8 CVs and some
CVLs so I am not able to go head to head with him. Not sure what to do if he makes a concerted effort to
take one of those Islands. I have moved at least 2 brigades to each island and I am trying to get another
division to the area. Things move so slowly with one day turns. But I love it still.

[Nomad]

Well, I have seen the invasion fleet:

I can see some CVs, APs, and CAs. I think I saw 5 fleets, looked to be two CV fleets,
A SC fleet, a MSW fleet, and a tranport fleet. There could be more. There may be some
elements in other hexes that I did not spot that time. I hope I have enough around to
do some damage, I have 4 regiments on NI plus a CD and 2 base forces. I also have
4 SeaBee units to help keep the runways open [:D] That may be a shock. I have
3x6 PT boat squadrons available. I also have my pitiful 3 CV fleet hanging out SE of NI,
hoping to hit some transports. I also have about 1/2 a million mines there. [:)][8D] Of
course I have some Corsairs, SBDs, TBFs, Beufort V-IXs there. I am hopeful that I can
get a torp hit or two on a BB or CV. [:'(] That will make my day. I also have 160+ B-17/B-24s
available at Tarawa, that will put them well within normal range, I really want them to hit the
transports, there is also 48 P-38s there to escort them.




When I took over this game, I saw that these islands, Nauru, Mili, Makin, Tarawa, and Apamama
would be the biggest problem. There was a reason that the USN did not invade Tarawa until
November 1943, CVs. You need a lot of CVs to protect everything out there. The Japanese have
a number of large airbases and the long range aircraft to use them. I am short on CVs, CVLs, and
CVEs( with combat aircraft units). In the last 6 game weeks I have moved 3 divisions plus a number
of support units to that area. There is hardly anything left in PH [X(]. There is not a lot in either Makin,
Apamama, or Baker Island either, I stripped those to one regiment, one base force each. So Mili and
Nauru ended up with 4 regiments, and Tarawa has two left with 3 on the way( the first will be there in
4 days, then 10 days, and about 20 days).

This will be a large battle and will probaly go a long way to seeing if I can get the score back under
3:1 for the Japanese. I need to do that before the end of the year. I think I can do it in the last
6 months of 1943 but I will have to hold out here. [8|]

I hope that now that things are happening someone will post something( even 'why did you do that, idiot' ) [;)]

[Nomad]

No pictures this turn. His invasion fleet moved closer, I had some A-20s try to attack, against about 150 CAP?[&:] Not once but 3 times. [:(][&:][:@] They all got wiped out. [X(][:-] He sent one of his CV TFs a bit south of the direct lind and caught a transport Tf trying to flee the area and evaporated it. There is nothing left of 6 AKs and a TK along with the fuel and 2 SeaBee units. Damn. I am waiting for the next turn, I hope it is interesting. I send my own CV TF at full speed 10 hexes to the East, don't need to lose them. We will see where he parks his CV TFs. I moved another 24 Corsairs into Nauru Island. Sure glad that I guesses right, becasue Lunga could probably be taken, there is only the 1st Marine Division there now. [:o]

[wobbly]

Hang in there Nomad. Being the idiot that put you in this position I hope you can prove that SOMEONE can pull the chestnut out of the fire!

[Nomad]

Hi Wobbly. Here is the status screen from last turn:

As you can see, things are still somewhat grim. [8D] John is a tough opponent.
I am trying hard to keep that VP ratio below 4:1, right now I am about 3500 points
away from it. I still have a long way to go but I am hopeful that I can come out ahead
in the exchange we are going to have around Nauru. At least I think he will go there,
but with John you never really know.

[Tom Hunter]

Boy, that is an ugly picture.

Are all your bases in supply? If not you should supply them so that you get the VP for them. It could be the difference between 3.99 to 1 and 4 to 1.

Good luck

[Nomad]

I don't have many bases, but yes they all have supplies.

The last turn was not too good but I am still hopeful, I lost a lot of bombers that turn and some Corsairs. I
moved 96 F4Fs into Nauru Island for next turn, 3 F4F and 1 P-38 squadron. Not nearly as many as PzB has
but maybe I can close the gap. I have a couple of Corsair units repairing aircraft at Baker and Lunga, maybe
they will be up in time to get some there and make a difference. A couple of fresh Corsair squadrons in a few turns
may be what I need. I am guessing that PzB started with about 270 fighters. I killed about 30 that turn. If I can do that three more turns he might be in trouble. Anyway, it will be two turns before he lands( he did confirm that Nauru Island
was his target. One thing that will happen is that he will have to split his fighters when he starts landing, that may give me the opening to hit his CVs that I need. Remember I have a 3 CV TF of my own waiting for clean up duty and the CV Essex is approaching the Tarawa area along with a CVL TF and my 3 CVEs are lingering southeast of Lunga, waiting to see if there will be any scraps. I airlifted aother regiment this turn. With 5 regiments and level 9 forts, John will have to spend a few turns here and I will be sending every bomber I have against him.

[Nomad]

Well that turn went better. This is the air loss screen for the previous screen:

This is 2/23/43

[Nomad]

This is for 2/24/43

(Matrix went down while I was doing this)

Over two days the losses are: Allies = 223 Japan = 250. this is for all aircraft and
all casuses. I am holding my own. John just realized that I have 40,000 troops on
Nauru Island. [:D][X(] Had one thing happen that I didn't plan for and it will cause a
bit of problem, two F4F squadrons on Nauru upgraded to Corsairs. [:(] they have no
ready aircraft for this turn. damn it, my fault, but damn it anyway. [8|]

One thing that helped my numbers were an unescorted 35 Betty raid and an unescorted
30 Betty raid into heavy cap( not Nauru ). And a lot of the Zeros downed were not from
his CVs, but I thing about 20 of them were.

[Nomad]

I got my turn with this email message:

This is when things really start to happen..my 250k storm troopers capture
your
tiny atoll in their first attempt ! Banzaai

I know that has to be a lie, he couldn't possiblly land 250K troops in one turn( could he?)

then the turn unfolds:




PzB has retired from the battlefield. Whoot, Whoot.

Now I can spend 4 months rearranging and reorganizing my forces while I wait for more
corsairs, P-47s, CVs, etc. [:(] I have no organization at all, I put what ever force I had
in the best place regardless of which command it reported to.

I know that John is capable of trying to hit me somewhere else, but I now think I have
a good chance of stopping him or at least hurting him a lot. I can stand 1:1 attrition of
all forces better than he can.

[wobbly]

hey congrats Nomad. 40K on an atoll would indeed cause a quiver of uncertainty when you thought about invading!

i notice in your AC losses you have some boomerangs - are they any good?

[Nomad]

Thanks Wobbly, the boomarangs are not bad, but I need some good pilots. That will be another priority in the next 4 months, training pilots. I have had to just use them up to try and stop John. Now that I have Corsairs, I do not need as many fighter groups at each base. In a few days I start getting P-47s to upgrade some of my USA fighter groups with. That should make a difference and allow me to do more rotation and selective bombing raids with escorts. I now understand more about how usefull the C-47 was. I was able to air lift 2 regiments in three turns from Tarawa to Nauru Island. That is putting firepower where you need it. [8D]

[frank1970]

If you only could conquer one base in India (Karachi or Bombay) you would get some Indian and British divisions. Dreams ...

[String]

About those 250k troops, don't count on it. I've landed 5 divisions +1 brigade in one turn

It did require approx 340 AP's though..

[Nomad]

I've been thinking about that. One problem is that it could be a one time all or nothing shot. If I just load up and go to India at some point, I would have to win or I lose the game for sure. In keeping with my orginal stratagy, I am thinking that an offense in the DEI might be the best. So right now I am thinking that I should continue to attack in NG and the Solomons. After taking Sorong and gathering enough forces an attack on Timor, taking all three bases. Some build up of Timor and then a series of asaults toward Java. The establishment of a base on Java will go a long way toward an asault on India. At the same time, attacking from Sorong toward Jolo area, trying to isolate the oil fields from Japan proper. Anyway, it is an idea I am pursuing. But I do think the establishment of bases on Java, Sumatra, and retaking Ceylon are esential. At the same time, cutting off a lot of the oil supply will have to be done. A lot of work remains to be done and I do not have a lot to do it with.

[Tom Hunter]

Interesting choice, but I would think that going across the Central Pacific and into the Phillipines in 1944 would work better because of shorter lines of communications. Once you build up big bases there the oil is going to stop anyway, but your strategic options are much better than they are in Java.