July. 28
Battle of Changsha continues; we knock down about a dozen fighters and a couple of bombers for the loss of about a dozen fighters. Japanese troops continue to yo-yo in and out of Changsha; they march in, turn right around and march one hex east, then march back in again. I'm not sure what the point of it is...I'm assuming there is one, beyond faintly incomprehensible theatre.
Light carrier force returns to the Timor Sea; a maximum-effort CAP from them and Timorese land bases puts about 25 fighters over Darwin, which shoot up a couple each of LB-30s and B-25. Fortunately nothing substantial, and K-XII, the submarine on station, was able to recover all but one of the downed crews...I suspect tomorrow will be somewhat more intensive as the ships will likely be closer in. It's a shame groups get a little wonky if you overload them with pilots; I have enough USAAF bods who know what a ship looks like that it'd be practical to load for bear for a day and go after them. Unfortunately the situation will just have to be tolerated for another week or so; advance units are about 8-9 days out of Daly Waters, with AA, artillery etc another week or so behind them. On inspection I am fairly comfortable about the usability of Daly as the only airfields within IJA bomber range of the place is...Darwin, so as long as we can keep that down until we have Daly we should be ok. The supply situation remains the point of potential problem, but there's not really anything I can do about that until I have the place beyond hoping that the Japs left some behind.
Combined Chiefs of Staff's Supercomputer's Report [no Saros]
Moderators: wdolson, MOD_War-in-the-Pacific-Admirals-Edition
RE: Jumping July
July. 29
Well, that's one way of doing it...
It went down, taking its aircraft with it; I think the Pearl Harbour AA crews got another one, with more popping up at Dutch Harbour, Rarotonga, Cairns. Interesting that the things are so much more active all of a sudden.
Anyway, pretty much everywhere else was rained off, so our only losses are a couple of Hudsons over Taiwan - apparently groups with their schedules filled up with rest and naval search duties will still fly naval attacks. Who knew...
Well, that's one way of doing it...
It went down, taking its aircraft with it; I think the Pearl Harbour AA crews got another one, with more popping up at Dutch Harbour, Rarotonga, Cairns. Interesting that the things are so much more active all of a sudden.
Anyway, pretty much everywhere else was rained off, so our only losses are a couple of Hudsons over Taiwan - apparently groups with their schedules filled up with rest and naval search duties will still fly naval attacks. Who knew...
RE: Jumping July
July. 30
More submarines, off Brisbane, Townsville, Rarotonga...yet another one torpedoes destroyer Cassin off Hawaii. About half a dozen of them are still "blockading" Niue...which is kinda funny, since so many ships went in without incident in the days after the landing that the place has supplies for months yet. Beats doing anything useful with them, I guess?
Darwin is opposed again; today we get an answer to the question of where the seaplane carriers were going a week ago, as the raid is met by over two dozen float fighters. Unfortunately (for the Japanese) a B-17 is a little bit faster than those hunks of junk, so we're just down a couple of straggling B-25s and another LB-30. The real danger in these interceptions is not the trickle of lost aircraft (which is no great problem, having hoarded bombers for months) but the disruption to bombing - absent the capture of Daly Waters I think Darwin would essentially reopen (albeit perhaps intermittently) in about half a dozen raids disrupted more heavily; there's clearly a lot of engineers. Beyond the floatplane carriers and at least one "proper" light aircraft carrier playing chicken with O-24 off to the northeast there seem to be a fair few freighters in harbour - wonder whether they're picking up or dropping off?
What I find really inexplicable is that the Japanese have made no effort to attack Tennant Creek; place is overstacked to hell and has been since this little game started. Only thing that can reach it are some of the Navy bombers, but Broome has an airfield large enough to host them, and night attacks would at least be extremely disruptive...best not to complain, I guess.
Burma mostly quiet, except for smearing a Japanese recon detachment at Katha over their airfield. China similarly quiet; I was basically told "I'm waiting for the Tojo" so I guess a dozen pilots a day wasn't considered a sustainable loss rate over Changsha. Shame, really...the radar sets should make it in tomorrow. About half the Japanese force seems to have left Changsha; a single 4-aircraft RAF Lysander detachment are the only reliable recon aircraft local and they can't keep track of everything, so I don't "know" where they went (back to Wuhan, though, since I'd have noticed otherwise). Fortunately the Japanese haven't made a big thing of bombardments here. I think I may regret making Changsha too hard a nut whenever they get where they're going...
Jap 55th Div is reported planning up for a landing at Adak; it was previously operating on Java, then on Mindanao. That raises known potential commitment there to about a division and a half, while also suggesting that if 55th Div is involved it probably won't happen for another couple of weeks at least. I expect outright capture of the place would require around twice that commitment on the part of the Japanese (if not more), given the accessibility of the island to West Coast-restricted forces - as in, I can fly in 300 men a day from Anchorage if it comes down to that. Supply stockpiles on the island are just tipping six digits, and a US Army base force (to cater to the support needs of any airportable forces, since they won't be able to bring their trucks along) and a 12-gun artillery regiment are currently offloading. Dutch Harbour is a little less strongly held, but is also closer to Alaska. The eternal problem with these things - is it better to give the impression of strength, confidence, solidity etc and deter attack, or to flail about like an injured rabbit and invite the oppo. to do something stupid? I can't think of anywhere I'd like a Japanese Div. to be more right now, save perhaps Fiji...
More submarines, off Brisbane, Townsville, Rarotonga...yet another one torpedoes destroyer Cassin off Hawaii. About half a dozen of them are still "blockading" Niue...which is kinda funny, since so many ships went in without incident in the days after the landing that the place has supplies for months yet. Beats doing anything useful with them, I guess?
Darwin is opposed again; today we get an answer to the question of where the seaplane carriers were going a week ago, as the raid is met by over two dozen float fighters. Unfortunately (for the Japanese) a B-17 is a little bit faster than those hunks of junk, so we're just down a couple of straggling B-25s and another LB-30. The real danger in these interceptions is not the trickle of lost aircraft (which is no great problem, having hoarded bombers for months) but the disruption to bombing - absent the capture of Daly Waters I think Darwin would essentially reopen (albeit perhaps intermittently) in about half a dozen raids disrupted more heavily; there's clearly a lot of engineers. Beyond the floatplane carriers and at least one "proper" light aircraft carrier playing chicken with O-24 off to the northeast there seem to be a fair few freighters in harbour - wonder whether they're picking up or dropping off?
What I find really inexplicable is that the Japanese have made no effort to attack Tennant Creek; place is overstacked to hell and has been since this little game started. Only thing that can reach it are some of the Navy bombers, but Broome has an airfield large enough to host them, and night attacks would at least be extremely disruptive...best not to complain, I guess.
Burma mostly quiet, except for smearing a Japanese recon detachment at Katha over their airfield. China similarly quiet; I was basically told "I'm waiting for the Tojo" so I guess a dozen pilots a day wasn't considered a sustainable loss rate over Changsha. Shame, really...the radar sets should make it in tomorrow. About half the Japanese force seems to have left Changsha; a single 4-aircraft RAF Lysander detachment are the only reliable recon aircraft local and they can't keep track of everything, so I don't "know" where they went (back to Wuhan, though, since I'd have noticed otherwise). Fortunately the Japanese haven't made a big thing of bombardments here. I think I may regret making Changsha too hard a nut whenever they get where they're going...
Jap 55th Div is reported planning up for a landing at Adak; it was previously operating on Java, then on Mindanao. That raises known potential commitment there to about a division and a half, while also suggesting that if 55th Div is involved it probably won't happen for another couple of weeks at least. I expect outright capture of the place would require around twice that commitment on the part of the Japanese (if not more), given the accessibility of the island to West Coast-restricted forces - as in, I can fly in 300 men a day from Anchorage if it comes down to that. Supply stockpiles on the island are just tipping six digits, and a US Army base force (to cater to the support needs of any airportable forces, since they won't be able to bring their trucks along) and a 12-gun artillery regiment are currently offloading. Dutch Harbour is a little less strongly held, but is also closer to Alaska. The eternal problem with these things - is it better to give the impression of strength, confidence, solidity etc and deter attack, or to flail about like an injured rabbit and invite the oppo. to do something stupid? I can't think of anywhere I'd like a Japanese Div. to be more right now, save perhaps Fiji...
RE: Jumping July
July. 31
Darwin rained off again. Apparently the place averages 0.5 rainy days per month in July and August...I think we've had about 10 this month. One thing that people who prattle on about the SW monsoon tend to miss is that there's an Australian monsoon, too - even places like New Guinea and the Solomons, which seem to be generally thought of as being sort of consistently rainy. Anyway, estimated Japanese troop and gun numbers are half what they were yesterday, so I guess it was an evacuation; at a guess the infantry division. Bad or good will depend on where they go - I'd like to entertain the conceit that it's the first step of a full-scale evacuation, since that'd pretty much get me 1000 miles closer to Java in the time it takes to drive to Darwin...but I can't imagine that sort of thing would slip quietly into night. We'll see, anyway - we should have Daly Waters in four days.
Quiet elsewhere. An SBD claims to have inserted a bomb into a Japanese merchant cruiser off the Tongas, though I have my doubts. Interestingly, I noticed the Japanese never bothered occupying Batan Island, between Luzon and Taiwan - handy place, given presence of a reasonable airfield and a large enough supply stockpile to run a few offensive missions. I think I can do Things with it, if it's left undisturbed for a month or so...
Darwin rained off again. Apparently the place averages 0.5 rainy days per month in July and August...I think we've had about 10 this month. One thing that people who prattle on about the SW monsoon tend to miss is that there's an Australian monsoon, too - even places like New Guinea and the Solomons, which seem to be generally thought of as being sort of consistently rainy. Anyway, estimated Japanese troop and gun numbers are half what they were yesterday, so I guess it was an evacuation; at a guess the infantry division. Bad or good will depend on where they go - I'd like to entertain the conceit that it's the first step of a full-scale evacuation, since that'd pretty much get me 1000 miles closer to Java in the time it takes to drive to Darwin...but I can't imagine that sort of thing would slip quietly into night. We'll see, anyway - we should have Daly Waters in four days.
Quiet elsewhere. An SBD claims to have inserted a bomb into a Japanese merchant cruiser off the Tongas, though I have my doubts. Interestingly, I noticed the Japanese never bothered occupying Batan Island, between Luzon and Taiwan - handy place, given presence of a reasonable airfield and a large enough supply stockpile to run a few offensive missions. I think I can do Things with it, if it's left undisturbed for a month or so...
RE: August Alert
August. 1
Darwin rained off. Again. This is becoming a real problem.
One of a slightly different sort appears off Western Australia; if you look back to July 9th there's the first raiding attempt with Kiyosumi Maru, which accomplished nothing; we now have a large group, with at least one aircraft carrier and at least two cruisers heading southwards about 1000 miles west of Perth. Situation is this:
HMS Valiant is further southwest with an Adelaide convoy but fuel is an issue there. Actually fuel is an issue everywhere - it's a long trip and the old ships don't really have the range to play escort and fight. One or the other, sure...USS Mississippi and HMS Danae will enter map with another convoy in six days. Japanese attacks on a Dutch freighter yesterday featured Vals only; air group claimed as coming from Ryujo, which was definitely sunk off Malaya. None of the covoys has been spotted, so the Japanese will be rolling the dice as far as attempting to intercept one.
This is a puzzle; I am unsure whether there are more carriers involved. If there are, attempting to get cute will be dangerous; if there aren't, well, it'd probably come down to a surface engagement. Given what I know I don't know (more carriers? torpedo bombers? secondary cruiser force?) least worst option seems to be:
- Slow convoys will head back into the Indian Ocean while we deal with things; they're all close enough to the map edge to do so without too much danger, and have the battleships as overwatch.
- Fast convoy will split in four; one part to head southeast and then towards Adelaide, one to head southwest and decide on destination tomorrow, one to head due west, while Birmingham attempts to put the wind up the carrier force. Realistically I suppose that guarantees one part will be attacked, but, well, them's the breaks. I've lost a grand total of three merchants in the last two months, so I guess I'm due a few, heh.
- Portland, Indianapolis and destroyers will collect to the southeast of where they currently are to be in a position to interfere with any attempts to go beyond the Albany lane.
- Enterprise, Ceres and destroyers will hang about 300 miles off Australia and we'll see whether they're needed or not.
It's a shame Illustrious, Hermes, Formidable etc aren't around yet - they and a separate cruiser force are already heading into the IO to guard against exactly this sort of situation, but got delayed in the Atlantic coming over from Port Stanley and won't be on map until it's kinda late. Fortunately there's nothing critical on the line, in any case - couple of tankers here and there, but mostly just smaller freighters lugging fuel around.
Meanwhile, in Fiji...
Yeah, five parachute drops by fragments of the same unit. We had a rule against this at one point, but Saros ignored it so many times I just gave up bringing it up.
Quiet elsewhere. The calm before the storm...
Darwin rained off. Again. This is becoming a real problem.
One of a slightly different sort appears off Western Australia; if you look back to July 9th there's the first raiding attempt with Kiyosumi Maru, which accomplished nothing; we now have a large group, with at least one aircraft carrier and at least two cruisers heading southwards about 1000 miles west of Perth. Situation is this:
HMS Valiant is further southwest with an Adelaide convoy but fuel is an issue there. Actually fuel is an issue everywhere - it's a long trip and the old ships don't really have the range to play escort and fight. One or the other, sure...USS Mississippi and HMS Danae will enter map with another convoy in six days. Japanese attacks on a Dutch freighter yesterday featured Vals only; air group claimed as coming from Ryujo, which was definitely sunk off Malaya. None of the covoys has been spotted, so the Japanese will be rolling the dice as far as attempting to intercept one.
This is a puzzle; I am unsure whether there are more carriers involved. If there are, attempting to get cute will be dangerous; if there aren't, well, it'd probably come down to a surface engagement. Given what I know I don't know (more carriers? torpedo bombers? secondary cruiser force?) least worst option seems to be:
- Slow convoys will head back into the Indian Ocean while we deal with things; they're all close enough to the map edge to do so without too much danger, and have the battleships as overwatch.
- Fast convoy will split in four; one part to head southeast and then towards Adelaide, one to head southwest and decide on destination tomorrow, one to head due west, while Birmingham attempts to put the wind up the carrier force. Realistically I suppose that guarantees one part will be attacked, but, well, them's the breaks. I've lost a grand total of three merchants in the last two months, so I guess I'm due a few, heh.
- Portland, Indianapolis and destroyers will collect to the southeast of where they currently are to be in a position to interfere with any attempts to go beyond the Albany lane.
- Enterprise, Ceres and destroyers will hang about 300 miles off Australia and we'll see whether they're needed or not.
It's a shame Illustrious, Hermes, Formidable etc aren't around yet - they and a separate cruiser force are already heading into the IO to guard against exactly this sort of situation, but got delayed in the Atlantic coming over from Port Stanley and won't be on map until it's kinda late. Fortunately there's nothing critical on the line, in any case - couple of tankers here and there, but mostly just smaller freighters lugging fuel around.
Meanwhile, in Fiji...
Yeah, five parachute drops by fragments of the same unit. We had a rule against this at one point, but Saros ignored it so many times I just gave up bringing it up.
Quiet elsewhere. The calm before the storm...
RE: August Alert
I managed to lock myself out of my account in changing the e-mail address. Turns out if you bugger up the address it sends an e-mail off to the wrong place, and there's no way of reverting the change. Oops. Hopefully will be fixed at some point...the perils of ancient forum software, I guess.
August. 2
Darwin not rained off. A total of 99 aircraft fly, meeting minimal opposition in the air. Bomber gunners dubiously claim two Oscar; these and a Dinah are the only aircraft losses anywhere today. I think 99 is a record; certainly the recent squadron resize has helped. It does appear 4th (? - I forget) Infantry Div has been removed, leaving only engineers etc as a garrison. Suspicion from observed sea traffic is that the unit may go over to Broome or Port Hedland rather than Timor or wherever - I actually thought it was headed for Wyndham as some Japanese ships were approaching that base yesterday, but they seem to have had second thoughts. I wonder what the engineers left behind think of it? They've been stood up by the army several times now...
No action in Indian Ocean. Unsure whether this is a nerve issue (Japanese withdraw due to early detection) or a speed issue (Japanese carrier involved slow and so not yet in range of anything). If a fast one had kept going I would have expected some sort of meeting. In any case, we didn't spot them today. A relief, but also a slight disappointment; if they're still out there the cruisers should find them tomorrow.
USMC Parachute Bde is coming ashore in Australia. Intention is for use around NW Queensland; Horn Island, Mornington Is etc, though not for a little while yet. Also debarking is a regular Marine Rgt and a Def Bn; US Army reinf convoy is about a week away with 100 or so tanks and a whole trainwreck of engineers. 2nd Marine Div will be hopping over to the continent over the next 3-4 weeks; have decided to remove them from Tahiti as troops to replace them are available, fortifications extreme and Japanese interest negligible.
61st Infantry Group is reported preparing for Adak; that would bring commitment up to ~2 Divs. Mustn't complain...can't help but wonder at the point of it, though.
August. 2
Darwin not rained off. A total of 99 aircraft fly, meeting minimal opposition in the air. Bomber gunners dubiously claim two Oscar; these and a Dinah are the only aircraft losses anywhere today. I think 99 is a record; certainly the recent squadron resize has helped. It does appear 4th (? - I forget) Infantry Div has been removed, leaving only engineers etc as a garrison. Suspicion from observed sea traffic is that the unit may go over to Broome or Port Hedland rather than Timor or wherever - I actually thought it was headed for Wyndham as some Japanese ships were approaching that base yesterday, but they seem to have had second thoughts. I wonder what the engineers left behind think of it? They've been stood up by the army several times now...
No action in Indian Ocean. Unsure whether this is a nerve issue (Japanese withdraw due to early detection) or a speed issue (Japanese carrier involved slow and so not yet in range of anything). If a fast one had kept going I would have expected some sort of meeting. In any case, we didn't spot them today. A relief, but also a slight disappointment; if they're still out there the cruisers should find them tomorrow.
USMC Parachute Bde is coming ashore in Australia. Intention is for use around NW Queensland; Horn Island, Mornington Is etc, though not for a little while yet. Also debarking is a regular Marine Rgt and a Def Bn; US Army reinf convoy is about a week away with 100 or so tanks and a whole trainwreck of engineers. 2nd Marine Div will be hopping over to the continent over the next 3-4 weeks; have decided to remove them from Tahiti as troops to replace them are available, fortifications extreme and Japanese interest negligible.
61st Infantry Group is reported preparing for Adak; that would bring commitment up to ~2 Divs. Mustn't complain...can't help but wonder at the point of it, though.
was kfsgo, managed to lock myself out of acct. oops.
RE: August Alert
August. 3
No sign of carrier/s. I guess they went home? Will keep looking in any case...
Another rain day over Darwin; instead of grounding everyone rain just grounds 75% of everyone, so we're down half a dozen Mitchells and a couple of B-17s due to poor defensive ability of small formations. Will miss being in Daly Waters by two miles tomorrow, so we should be in on the 5th and in control on the 6th. The first day will be critical - the armoured units have very few engineers so construction, aviation support etc bods for the first few weeks of operations will all have to fly in - no problem, as long as the airfield doesn't get broken on day 1. Can't see that it will - no IJAAF airfields in range, and IJNAF bombers have long ceased to get involved in that sort of thing, but you never know...
China inscrutable. At least part of the force that was at Changsha is shooting off back towards the north; another part of it is back to the usual deranged see-saw movement into and out of Changsha. I don't think there'll be another attack here, at least for a while; the reason why is plastered over a few dozen units in the city:
Maybe not the most experienced units on the map, but they sure ain't rabble any more...
Supply situation in Changsha is actually ok - all the units have full supply - but every bombardment cycles 1000t or so through stockpiles, which isn't sustainable beyond short term as long as Rangoon remains closed. Fortunately the bombardments are sporadic...up north is liable to be less good, as supply sources are smaller. I do have a couple of small caches in out-of-the-way places that I've been sitting on for a while, which can be released if absolutely necessary. I was downright ruthless with the Chinese for the first few months of the war - lots of full-corps suicide charges just to keep Japanese engaged away from anywhere important for a few days etc. The wisdom of that in the long term is questionable, but at the back of my mind was the idea that, relieved of the need to un-disable eighteen trillion squads, the Chinese supply situation would be much improved. That seems to have worked out - there's essentially no dead weight in the NRA, so although the units are smaller they are using less supplies and fighting better. Is it better to have a large army, or a smaller army and an air force? Guess we'll see...
Interestingly, there are 55 ships in harbour at Shanghai - add to that at least 250 at Singapore. Obviously not a very stressed logistical system on the other side of the fence...I guess having elves capable of teleporting 10,000t of oil 3000 miles every other day helps with that. Would certainly explain why there appears to be no significant traffic in the South China Sea.
No sign of carrier/s. I guess they went home? Will keep looking in any case...
Another rain day over Darwin; instead of grounding everyone rain just grounds 75% of everyone, so we're down half a dozen Mitchells and a couple of B-17s due to poor defensive ability of small formations. Will miss being in Daly Waters by two miles tomorrow, so we should be in on the 5th and in control on the 6th. The first day will be critical - the armoured units have very few engineers so construction, aviation support etc bods for the first few weeks of operations will all have to fly in - no problem, as long as the airfield doesn't get broken on day 1. Can't see that it will - no IJAAF airfields in range, and IJNAF bombers have long ceased to get involved in that sort of thing, but you never know...
China inscrutable. At least part of the force that was at Changsha is shooting off back towards the north; another part of it is back to the usual deranged see-saw movement into and out of Changsha. I don't think there'll be another attack here, at least for a while; the reason why is plastered over a few dozen units in the city:
Maybe not the most experienced units on the map, but they sure ain't rabble any more...
Supply situation in Changsha is actually ok - all the units have full supply - but every bombardment cycles 1000t or so through stockpiles, which isn't sustainable beyond short term as long as Rangoon remains closed. Fortunately the bombardments are sporadic...up north is liable to be less good, as supply sources are smaller. I do have a couple of small caches in out-of-the-way places that I've been sitting on for a while, which can be released if absolutely necessary. I was downright ruthless with the Chinese for the first few months of the war - lots of full-corps suicide charges just to keep Japanese engaged away from anywhere important for a few days etc. The wisdom of that in the long term is questionable, but at the back of my mind was the idea that, relieved of the need to un-disable eighteen trillion squads, the Chinese supply situation would be much improved. That seems to have worked out - there's essentially no dead weight in the NRA, so although the units are smaller they are using less supplies and fighting better. Is it better to have a large army, or a smaller army and an air force? Guess we'll see...
Interestingly, there are 55 ships in harbour at Shanghai - add to that at least 250 at Singapore. Obviously not a very stressed logistical system on the other side of the fence...I guess having elves capable of teleporting 10,000t of oil 3000 miles every other day helps with that. Would certainly explain why there appears to be no significant traffic in the South China Sea.
was kfsgo, managed to lock myself out of acct. oops.
RE: August Alert
August. 4
Essentially nothing interesting today. Darwin rained off, everything in Burma rained off, nothing in China, nothing off Australia. About the only substantial things that happened were an actual IJAAF bombing raid in Burma (against perenially undefended Akyab, which is kind of irrelevant - I think someone mistook aircraft over Bangkok and Rangoon (flying from Comilla) for me basing aircraft there) and another multiple-island drop by fascist 1st Raiding Regiment; 'only' three separate islands received two squads apiece today. Sure hope IJHQ's prepared to have to garrison every little dot base between Darwin and Balikpapan six months from now...
Essentially nothing interesting today. Darwin rained off, everything in Burma rained off, nothing in China, nothing off Australia. About the only substantial things that happened were an actual IJAAF bombing raid in Burma (against perenially undefended Akyab, which is kind of irrelevant - I think someone mistook aircraft over Bangkok and Rangoon (flying from Comilla) for me basing aircraft there) and another multiple-island drop by fascist 1st Raiding Regiment; 'only' three separate islands received two squads apiece today. Sure hope IJHQ's prepared to have to garrison every little dot base between Darwin and Balikpapan six months from now...
was kfsgo, managed to lock myself out of acct. oops.
RE: August Alert
August. 5
Another pretty dim day, really, though we do manage to hit Darwin. We are in Daly Waters but not yet in control. Should be tomorrow...I'm giving the air forces a day off in consequence - no sense in bombing tomorrow when they should have fighter cover after a night's rest.
Japanese submarine force has given up on Niue and Samoa; they're all heading back towards Fiji. Whether it's just a refuelling trip or whether they're off to actually do something useful I have no idea.
Incidentally, if you're staring at your patrol/transport operational losses and thinking 'dear god, how the hell am I supposed to build up these numbers when they keep crashing', czech this out:
Since I told half of them to take the day off every day, which was a decent while ago, I think I've lost...two or three? The only US transport squadrons that aren't at or near full strength are the USMC ones in Australia, which just don't get enough replacements period. Effectively I'm flying the same amount of stuff as I would be giving them no rest, since I have twice the number of aircraft as I would have, and I can go even higher in an emergency.
Same applies to the Catalinas - they basically only crash on base moves now. That still adds up to a fair few, given how they jump around all over the place, but there's no squadrons lingering along with three or four aircraft any more...
Another pretty dim day, really, though we do manage to hit Darwin. We are in Daly Waters but not yet in control. Should be tomorrow...I'm giving the air forces a day off in consequence - no sense in bombing tomorrow when they should have fighter cover after a night's rest.
Japanese submarine force has given up on Niue and Samoa; they're all heading back towards Fiji. Whether it's just a refuelling trip or whether they're off to actually do something useful I have no idea.
Incidentally, if you're staring at your patrol/transport operational losses and thinking 'dear god, how the hell am I supposed to build up these numbers when they keep crashing', czech this out:
Since I told half of them to take the day off every day, which was a decent while ago, I think I've lost...two or three? The only US transport squadrons that aren't at or near full strength are the USMC ones in Australia, which just don't get enough replacements period. Effectively I'm flying the same amount of stuff as I would be giving them no rest, since I have twice the number of aircraft as I would have, and I can go even higher in an emergency.
Same applies to the Catalinas - they basically only crash on base moves now. That still adds up to a fair few, given how they jump around all over the place, but there's no squadrons lingering along with three or four aircraft any more...
was kfsgo, managed to lock myself out of acct. oops.
RE: August Alert
August. 6
Let's see...
- We occupy Daly Waters with L3 forts intact. Absolutely key moment - supply flow will be twice what I was expecting. Seems a little was left behind, too - enough for operations to start immediately. Good thing I never bombed the airfield here, eh? There is a significant Japanese merchant group spotted out in the Timor Sea headed for Darwin, so I am going to kick in some USMC dive-bombers for one day - hopefully to intercept whatever's sailing in, but mostly to give the impression of being able to keep a bomber group flying out of Daly. I don't think that's realistic at the moment - they'll certainly have to go back down tomorrow - but IJHQ doesn't need to know that.
- USS S-32 torpedoes armed merchant Akagi Maru off Fiji.
- 80 Japanese fighters come at Changsha; CATF aircraft rise to intercept in the first radar-guided engagement ever conducted in China. I think it's fair to say the Japanese didn't distinguish themselves - we claim around two dozen reliable and another dozen questionable kills for around a dozen losses. Japanese morale seems poor; a number of aircraft turned away from engagements rather than prosecuting the fight. No sign of the promised Tojos, either...maybe tomorrow. We also acquire the first Chinese ace - the CAF is very much a capable force at this point, aided by the P-43 being one of the better fighters available to anyone at the moment. Shame replacements are about to dry up...
Let's see...
- We occupy Daly Waters with L3 forts intact. Absolutely key moment - supply flow will be twice what I was expecting. Seems a little was left behind, too - enough for operations to start immediately. Good thing I never bombed the airfield here, eh? There is a significant Japanese merchant group spotted out in the Timor Sea headed for Darwin, so I am going to kick in some USMC dive-bombers for one day - hopefully to intercept whatever's sailing in, but mostly to give the impression of being able to keep a bomber group flying out of Daly. I don't think that's realistic at the moment - they'll certainly have to go back down tomorrow - but IJHQ doesn't need to know that.
- USS S-32 torpedoes armed merchant Akagi Maru off Fiji.
- 80 Japanese fighters come at Changsha; CATF aircraft rise to intercept in the first radar-guided engagement ever conducted in China. I think it's fair to say the Japanese didn't distinguish themselves - we claim around two dozen reliable and another dozen questionable kills for around a dozen losses. Japanese morale seems poor; a number of aircraft turned away from engagements rather than prosecuting the fight. No sign of the promised Tojos, either...maybe tomorrow. We also acquire the first Chinese ace - the CAF is very much a capable force at this point, aided by the P-43 being one of the better fighters available to anyone at the moment. Shame replacements are about to dry up...
was kfsgo, managed to lock myself out of acct. oops.
RE: August Alert
August. 7
Well, not much of a day - Tennant Creek bombers were rained off yet again, and the Daly lot were all completely uncoordinated, so they trickled into Darwin and hit nothing useful. C'est la vie...we will have enough aviation support in place by tomorrow to keep everything at Daly running. Yet more Manchurian AA units are at sea, now headed for Darwin - there are as far as I'm aware no real combat troops there, just a naval infantry batallion or two and 18,000 cooks and engineers.
Am going to stage SEAC bomber squadrons into Changsha - whose airfield has just expanded sufficiently to hold them - for a day to hit shipping at Shanghai. We're up to 50 ships (merchants, tankers etc) in port with no fighters reported...there probably will be a few trickling in, but there seems to be essentially no AA etc. Ici the danger of stripping the back field bare should present itself. Can't keep them at CS as supply situation won't permit it, but they'll be ok for a day. Is a bit of a risk - half the force is Hudsons and the Wellingtons will be flying in daylight for the first time in the campaign - but would be criminal not to take a shot.
Well, not much of a day - Tennant Creek bombers were rained off yet again, and the Daly lot were all completely uncoordinated, so they trickled into Darwin and hit nothing useful. C'est la vie...we will have enough aviation support in place by tomorrow to keep everything at Daly running. Yet more Manchurian AA units are at sea, now headed for Darwin - there are as far as I'm aware no real combat troops there, just a naval infantry batallion or two and 18,000 cooks and engineers.
Am going to stage SEAC bomber squadrons into Changsha - whose airfield has just expanded sufficiently to hold them - for a day to hit shipping at Shanghai. We're up to 50 ships (merchants, tankers etc) in port with no fighters reported...there probably will be a few trickling in, but there seems to be essentially no AA etc. Ici the danger of stripping the back field bare should present itself. Can't keep them at CS as supply situation won't permit it, but they'll be ok for a day. Is a bit of a risk - half the force is Hudsons and the Wellingtons will be flying in daylight for the first time in the campaign - but would be criminal not to take a shot.
was kfsgo, managed to lock myself out of acct. oops.
RE: August Alert
August. 8
USS Sturgeon misses a torpedo on Akagi Maru off the New Hebrides. I guess the one two days ago didn't do much...
Darwin nearly rained off; as it is, thunderstorms mean we hit essentially nothing. Shanghai raid rained off completely. Very disappointing; forecast yesterday was good. We do get two freighters off Darwin; Tyuwa Maru is bombed by a B-17, Kasuga Maru a torpedo from HNLMS K-12.
USS Sturgeon misses a torpedo on Akagi Maru off the New Hebrides. I guess the one two days ago didn't do much...
Darwin nearly rained off; as it is, thunderstorms mean we hit essentially nothing. Shanghai raid rained off completely. Very disappointing; forecast yesterday was good. We do get two freighters off Darwin; Tyuwa Maru is bombed by a B-17, Kasuga Maru a torpedo from HNLMS K-12.
was kfsgo, managed to lock myself out of acct. oops.
RE: August Alert
August. 9
Quiet day. A few Japanese navy bombers show over Daly Waters overnight; the airfield's very crowded, but that can't be helped - losses are only a couple of Hudsons, anyway. Fortunately there's essentially no moonlight at the moment. We now have the airportable component of three construction regiments here, along with most of two aviation base forces; the heavy equipment - AA guns, artillery etc - is 15-30 days away. Can't supply much more than is here already, in any case - it's a minor miracle that I've been able to do as much as I have. Note to any budding users of the overland track - stockpile supplies at airfields so units get their own; supply's impossible if you don't, but it does just about work if you do.
The only real activity on the ground was a Japanese landing at...Batan Island. Funny how that goes just a few days after I mention it, after being completely ignored for nine months. I do suspect tomorrow may be busy - the bomber force in China is up to 180 aircraft at Wuhan.
One thing that I didn't mention yesterday was that a submarine off Borneo picked up a large Japanese shipping movement - over two dozen 18kt large army transports, heading ENE from Singapore. If I were a suspicious sort of person I might wonder whether they've got cold weather gear on board...
Quiet day. A few Japanese navy bombers show over Daly Waters overnight; the airfield's very crowded, but that can't be helped - losses are only a couple of Hudsons, anyway. Fortunately there's essentially no moonlight at the moment. We now have the airportable component of three construction regiments here, along with most of two aviation base forces; the heavy equipment - AA guns, artillery etc - is 15-30 days away. Can't supply much more than is here already, in any case - it's a minor miracle that I've been able to do as much as I have. Note to any budding users of the overland track - stockpile supplies at airfields so units get their own; supply's impossible if you don't, but it does just about work if you do.
The only real activity on the ground was a Japanese landing at...Batan Island. Funny how that goes just a few days after I mention it, after being completely ignored for nine months. I do suspect tomorrow may be busy - the bomber force in China is up to 180 aircraft at Wuhan.
One thing that I didn't mention yesterday was that a submarine off Borneo picked up a large Japanese shipping movement - over two dozen 18kt large army transports, heading ENE from Singapore. If I were a suspicious sort of person I might wonder whether they've got cold weather gear on board...
was kfsgo, managed to lock myself out of acct. oops.
RE: August Alert
August. 10
Nowt much. Darwin wet, everywhere else dull. The first group of USN transports departs Cape Town for Australia; I'm unsure at this point which of the potential options for Australian operations I will be going forward with (Port Hedland & Broome, Moresby & Milne) except that in principle whatever happens should happen around the beginning of October. Reasoning...
Hornet (or Yorktown? whichever the more damaged one was) is still in dock at Pearl Harbour - a bunch of ships took upgrades without me noticing and completely messed up the repair schedule. It'll be out in a couple more days; at this point we might as well wait for Washington and South Dakota which are due shortly. Added to that there may be a need or opportunity for a force up in the Aleutians; I'm hopeful that situation will resolve itself one way or another in the next 3-4 weeks.
Port Hedland is barely garrisoned and can probably be taken by the armoured car regiment tasked with tootling around the desert. Broome is a minor Japanese base at present but I haven't gotten around to actually sending a recon plane over for a while - need to remember to do that at some point. Sufficient force is available for this side of Australia but not bought out; running it would delay Burma by a couple of weeks.
As far as the other side, Japanese are making efforts to build up Buna, NE New Guinea, New Britain etc but have left Milne, Moresby, Horn Island, Merauke alone. Reasoning obvious. Fundamentally I don't give a tiny little mouse turd about New Guinea per se - I have no intention of going up the Pacific route to Japan so they're more than welcome to waste time and energy building - but I will need a shipping pathway to Darwin at some point and could use a troop commitment away from Singapore (which seems to be 'Japanese HQ') to ease things along in Burma. So, I unfortunately need to put myself into an intentionally precarious situation here. Recon aircraft in Australia have their hands full keeping tabs on Darwin; another recon squadron is a week out from Melbourne, at which point I can start actually looking at NG etc. Don't think there should be much difficulty in taking Horn Island given it's an isolated atoll and can be cleared by air if necessary; New Guinea bases are more questionable, so the decision will have to wait until I can get recon going properly. Most of all, though, I can't do much until October as it's only then that Wildcats get droptanks fitted to allow me to fly them between Niue and New Zealand, heh. Incidentally, the Japanese at Vava'u are now up to 15,000 troops - given that Niue is just a transit stop for aircraft I couldn't be happier.
As things stand, I'm looking at opening things in Burma around late October; I would like to get straight to Rangoon but whether or not that is viable will depend on the Japanese response. If it's the same as in Australia - ie "hide behind the engineers and scuttle away like a frightened mouse" we may be able to do that, but I'm not holding my breath. Should be able to get as far as Mandalay, though, and that's nearly as good...ultimately this is all meant to keep China on the boil, without which there would be real problems.
Nowt much. Darwin wet, everywhere else dull. The first group of USN transports departs Cape Town for Australia; I'm unsure at this point which of the potential options for Australian operations I will be going forward with (Port Hedland & Broome, Moresby & Milne) except that in principle whatever happens should happen around the beginning of October. Reasoning...
Hornet (or Yorktown? whichever the more damaged one was) is still in dock at Pearl Harbour - a bunch of ships took upgrades without me noticing and completely messed up the repair schedule. It'll be out in a couple more days; at this point we might as well wait for Washington and South Dakota which are due shortly. Added to that there may be a need or opportunity for a force up in the Aleutians; I'm hopeful that situation will resolve itself one way or another in the next 3-4 weeks.
Port Hedland is barely garrisoned and can probably be taken by the armoured car regiment tasked with tootling around the desert. Broome is a minor Japanese base at present but I haven't gotten around to actually sending a recon plane over for a while - need to remember to do that at some point. Sufficient force is available for this side of Australia but not bought out; running it would delay Burma by a couple of weeks.
As far as the other side, Japanese are making efforts to build up Buna, NE New Guinea, New Britain etc but have left Milne, Moresby, Horn Island, Merauke alone. Reasoning obvious. Fundamentally I don't give a tiny little mouse turd about New Guinea per se - I have no intention of going up the Pacific route to Japan so they're more than welcome to waste time and energy building - but I will need a shipping pathway to Darwin at some point and could use a troop commitment away from Singapore (which seems to be 'Japanese HQ') to ease things along in Burma. So, I unfortunately need to put myself into an intentionally precarious situation here. Recon aircraft in Australia have their hands full keeping tabs on Darwin; another recon squadron is a week out from Melbourne, at which point I can start actually looking at NG etc. Don't think there should be much difficulty in taking Horn Island given it's an isolated atoll and can be cleared by air if necessary; New Guinea bases are more questionable, so the decision will have to wait until I can get recon going properly. Most of all, though, I can't do much until October as it's only then that Wildcats get droptanks fitted to allow me to fly them between Niue and New Zealand, heh. Incidentally, the Japanese at Vava'u are now up to 15,000 troops - given that Niue is just a transit stop for aircraft I couldn't be happier.
As things stand, I'm looking at opening things in Burma around late October; I would like to get straight to Rangoon but whether or not that is viable will depend on the Japanese response. If it's the same as in Australia - ie "hide behind the engineers and scuttle away like a frightened mouse" we may be able to do that, but I'm not holding my breath. Should be able to get as far as Mandalay, though, and that's nearly as good...ultimately this is all meant to keep China on the boil, without which there would be real problems.
was kfsgo, managed to lock myself out of acct. oops.
RE: August Alert
August. 11
I may have been a little bit bored today:
God, imagine the chaos...
No major actions. Darwin bombed; Australian corvettes damage a Japanese submarine off Brisbane. USS Seadragon sinks a minesweeper escorting another fast convoy in the South China Sea - again military transports and large passenger ships. No direction details given - seems like the sort of thing that a submarine shooting torpedoes at a ship would notice...
First of the major fuel convoys makes port in Australia; at the moment I have about 300kt of fuel in the area, between mainland Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, with the same again at sea headed that way and 400kt at Cape Town awaiting shipping. Should be enough to keep things moving for a while...
I may have been a little bit bored today:
God, imagine the chaos...
No major actions. Darwin bombed; Australian corvettes damage a Japanese submarine off Brisbane. USS Seadragon sinks a minesweeper escorting another fast convoy in the South China Sea - again military transports and large passenger ships. No direction details given - seems like the sort of thing that a submarine shooting torpedoes at a ship would notice...
First of the major fuel convoys makes port in Australia; at the moment I have about 300kt of fuel in the area, between mainland Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, with the same again at sea headed that way and 400kt at Cape Town awaiting shipping. Should be enough to keep things moving for a while...
was kfsgo, managed to lock myself out of acct. oops.
RE: August Alert
August. 12
I think someone's annoyed about Darwin. Today sees 98 Japanese fighters over the place; 32 Zero and 32 Rufe from carriers north of Melville Island, and 29 Oscar and 5 Zero from Timor or Babar. Naturally none of ours condescend to get involved. Given the lack of a radar at Darwin and the distance they're flying the Japanese are not as effective as they might be - we lose something like a dozen bombers - mostly B-25 - for 8-10 fighters. For some reason none of the USMC Buffalos at Daly Waters will escort them - they've been meant to every day since we took the place but haven't flown a single mission. Very odd - they are in range. Anyway, everything from Tennant Creek will continue as normal - no sense letting up now - while 'a few' aircraft from Daly Waters, having flown in from the mainland, will take a shot at the carriers tomorrow. Assuming they haven't high-tailed it home, anyway. Will put another dent in supplies...won't be able to do it again for a week or so, I think. I did turn stockpiling at Tennant Creek off, so with the extra fort levels at Daly Waters and it being able to draw supply from TC we're actually not doing too badly up here, though it's obviously not an ideal situation.
Dull elsewhere; USS Whale sinks a subchaser off Sakhalin for the only naval action of the day.
I think someone's annoyed about Darwin. Today sees 98 Japanese fighters over the place; 32 Zero and 32 Rufe from carriers north of Melville Island, and 29 Oscar and 5 Zero from Timor or Babar. Naturally none of ours condescend to get involved. Given the lack of a radar at Darwin and the distance they're flying the Japanese are not as effective as they might be - we lose something like a dozen bombers - mostly B-25 - for 8-10 fighters. For some reason none of the USMC Buffalos at Daly Waters will escort them - they've been meant to every day since we took the place but haven't flown a single mission. Very odd - they are in range. Anyway, everything from Tennant Creek will continue as normal - no sense letting up now - while 'a few' aircraft from Daly Waters, having flown in from the mainland, will take a shot at the carriers tomorrow. Assuming they haven't high-tailed it home, anyway. Will put another dent in supplies...won't be able to do it again for a week or so, I think. I did turn stockpiling at Tennant Creek off, so with the extra fort levels at Daly Waters and it being able to draw supply from TC we're actually not doing too badly up here, though it's obviously not an ideal situation.
Dull elsewhere; USS Whale sinks a subchaser off Sakhalin for the only naval action of the day.
was kfsgo, managed to lock myself out of acct. oops.
RE: August Alert
August. 13
Japanese aircraft raid Pago Pago; 85 long-range Nells show up in the morning without fighter cover, losing eight aircraft to a 4-plane USMC fighter flight. Damage on the ground is minimal, just two Kingfishers - there's a USMC dive-bomber squadron local but they're all out on naval search in the daytime so they ain't on the ground to get hit. Some Japanese fighters appear later, but our aircraft are pretty much tired out by then so don't get involved with them.
Aircraft operations from Daly Waters don't amount to much - a TBF squadron bombs merchant Tamashima Maru to paste, and some Catalinas and Marauders unenthusiastically try to bomb the Japanese carrier force - Hosho, Taiyo, Chuyo - but despite complete absence of fighters (seriously, not one) they don't hit anything. Not a surprise - none of the pilots involved have any idea what a ship looks like, being trained for land bombing (or torpedos, in the case of the Catalinas, but we don't have any up here yet...) - they were just flying as distractions. Unfortunately the Japanese are just outside of SBD range from Daly Waters, and those were always going to be the main operators as far as shipping strikes. So, not a great success, but as our only loss for the day here was one TBF crashed on landing, it could've gone a lot worse. The force will now head back down to Normanton to resume supply flights...today's missions used 700t of supplies and there's no sense starving the locals while they're trying to improve the airfield. That job is going fairly quickly...we should have an L4 in 2-3 days and an L5 maybe by the end of the month. Given that in about a week the Australian AA units will arrive, it may be practical to move on Katherine then. We'll see...Japanese AA units continue to arrive at Darwin, which is now up to 19 LCUs and 220 AA guns. Still no combat troops.
Down in Melbourne, a large convoy is unloading - five USN construction batallions, two AA regiments, a USAAF base force and three tank batallions. Three new fighter squadrons also arrive - two RAAF and one RAF. All bring a pair of Spitfires; I've put the RAF on Hurricanes and the RAAF on Kittyhawks. Think the Australians will have to hang back and train a crop of pilots - there's only about a dozen competent ones in reserve, the fundamental problem being that you can't train fighter pilots with Wirraways - but the Brits can head up north. We won't get any more Spits until October, which makes the delivery of six a bit irritating, really. Another two USAAF squadrons are making their way from Hawaii to participate in whatever ends up ending up in Australia in the near future, and two FAA squadrons will arrive Perth in two days.
China quiet, except that the Japanese are now up to 200 bombers at Hankow. Their purpose is a mystery, since they haven't been flying...
Japanese aircraft raid Pago Pago; 85 long-range Nells show up in the morning without fighter cover, losing eight aircraft to a 4-plane USMC fighter flight. Damage on the ground is minimal, just two Kingfishers - there's a USMC dive-bomber squadron local but they're all out on naval search in the daytime so they ain't on the ground to get hit. Some Japanese fighters appear later, but our aircraft are pretty much tired out by then so don't get involved with them.
Aircraft operations from Daly Waters don't amount to much - a TBF squadron bombs merchant Tamashima Maru to paste, and some Catalinas and Marauders unenthusiastically try to bomb the Japanese carrier force - Hosho, Taiyo, Chuyo - but despite complete absence of fighters (seriously, not one) they don't hit anything. Not a surprise - none of the pilots involved have any idea what a ship looks like, being trained for land bombing (or torpedos, in the case of the Catalinas, but we don't have any up here yet...) - they were just flying as distractions. Unfortunately the Japanese are just outside of SBD range from Daly Waters, and those were always going to be the main operators as far as shipping strikes. So, not a great success, but as our only loss for the day here was one TBF crashed on landing, it could've gone a lot worse. The force will now head back down to Normanton to resume supply flights...today's missions used 700t of supplies and there's no sense starving the locals while they're trying to improve the airfield. That job is going fairly quickly...we should have an L4 in 2-3 days and an L5 maybe by the end of the month. Given that in about a week the Australian AA units will arrive, it may be practical to move on Katherine then. We'll see...Japanese AA units continue to arrive at Darwin, which is now up to 19 LCUs and 220 AA guns. Still no combat troops.
Down in Melbourne, a large convoy is unloading - five USN construction batallions, two AA regiments, a USAAF base force and three tank batallions. Three new fighter squadrons also arrive - two RAAF and one RAF. All bring a pair of Spitfires; I've put the RAF on Hurricanes and the RAAF on Kittyhawks. Think the Australians will have to hang back and train a crop of pilots - there's only about a dozen competent ones in reserve, the fundamental problem being that you can't train fighter pilots with Wirraways - but the Brits can head up north. We won't get any more Spits until October, which makes the delivery of six a bit irritating, really. Another two USAAF squadrons are making their way from Hawaii to participate in whatever ends up ending up in Australia in the near future, and two FAA squadrons will arrive Perth in two days.
China quiet, except that the Japanese are now up to 200 bombers at Hankow. Their purpose is a mystery, since they haven't been flying...
was kfsgo, managed to lock myself out of acct. oops.
RE: August Alert
I am following this thread with much interest. In my game, I have waited until Tennant Creek is a level 6 airbase before moving forces south. Now, I am quite enthused that you are operating out of Daly Waters. That means that eventually enough supply will get there through Tennant Creek. [8D] I have the entire I AUS Corps headed to Daly Waters which I think will produce different supply demands but still your game is showing it can be done given the right force composition.
I mention this because I think IJ players have not yet come to your testing and discovery of the supply logic in the game. I feel evidenced by your adversary not reinforcing Darwin or opposing your operations significantly. Anyway, your game has influenced my strategy tremendously, and on multiple levels. ..[;)] I lurk this thread to understand how to best leverage my opponent's foray into Northern Oz ..
Back to the war ...
I mention this because I think IJ players have not yet come to your testing and discovery of the supply logic in the game. I feel evidenced by your adversary not reinforcing Darwin or opposing your operations significantly. Anyway, your game has influenced my strategy tremendously, and on multiple levels. ..[;)] I lurk this thread to understand how to best leverage my opponent's foray into Northern Oz ..
Back to the war ...
"What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so"
RE: August Alert
ORIGINAL: Crackaces
I am following this thread with much interest. In my game, I have waited until Tennant Creek is a level 6 airbase before moving forces north (!). Now, I am quite enthused that you are operating out of Daly Waters. That means that eventually enough supply will get there through Tennant Creek. [8D] I have the entire I AUS Corps headed to Daly Waters which I think will produce different supply demands but still your game is showing it can be done given the right force composition.
Tennant Creek is an L6 at the moment here (should hit 7 tomorrow or the day after) but also has L4 forts. So, there's that, and there's the fact that there are basically no combat troops there - just an infantry batallion and the aviation units. I've always kept the combat units behind the base with supply stockpiling on to force them to draw supplies from Alice Springs. If you don't do that...you can't operate.
On top of that, most of the RAAF and several USAAF bomber and USN patrol squadrons have been flying in supplies to Tennant; Wirraways can reach the place from Alice Springs, and several large squadrons at 1t/aircraft/day...it adds up. Even at that I'm only just able to keep things on an even keel (and forget having a surplus - bear in mind P-38s can actually reach Darwin from Tennant - except they can't, because there's never enough supply for them to use drop tanks) and have had to send several bomber squadrons south to enable me to turn stockpiling at Tennant off - which, of course, is necessary to get supply to move to Daly more than twice a week, but does have the effect of reducing the strength of operations over Darwin and so increasing their risk.
Note also that as earlier I've pulled most combat units out of Daly Waters, 1 hex to the south - I think they're actually drawing supplies from Tennant Creek at the moment. The force is entirely motor/mech units - they have a much lighter supply impact than the equivalent raw combat power in infantry units due to almost complete absence of artillery, engineers etc & smaller support base. Supply-wise I don't think it'd work with much more of a force than this. Of course, the catch is that it's actually not as potent a fighting force as it looks...but it looks bloody impressive, so conceptually that won't have to become evident until quite late. I have no confidence that they would actually be able to take Darwin, but if I can make it as far as Fenton - and I think I probably can eventually - that's basically game over for any shipping into Darwin.
Also - neither of the operations out of Daly Waters so far would have been possible if the Japanese hadn't left a fair amount of stuff there. So, uh, be wary of drawing too many conclusions as to your ability to do the same things. Still, a defensive fighter force on its own is pretty cheap on supply.
I mention this because I think IJ players have not yet come to your testing and discovery of the supply logic in the game. I feel evidenced by your adversary not reinforcing Darwin or opposing your operations significantly. Anyway, your game has influenced my strategy tremendously, and on multiple levels. ..[;)] I lurk this thread to understand how to best leverage my opponent's foray into Northern Oz ..
Back to the war ...
Saros definitely doesn't have a good handle on supply movement. Realistically it matters less for the Japanese - they'll always be operating on the right side of the railway network in these situations. Where they get the trains from is an open question, heh. This is actually most evident in China - the IJA is completely married to the road system and won't operate across country. This suits me fine, since it's allowed me to bulk up some key points safe in the knowledge that I can reinforce laterally in good time, but the Japanese could create a real crisis by attempting to.
For all that I grumble about the combat units at Darwin abandoning the engineers and AA units, it's actually a very sensible course of action (purely in game terms) - after all, there's no huge army bearing down on the place at 30 miles a day, just lots of bombing; doing this reduces the supply and so shipping load at Darwin, and if combat units are needed they can be introduced quickly at the appropriate time as long as the Japanese retain the ability to operate shipping, which they still do at the moment - Daly Waters is still a bit far to actually catch ships before they unload anyway, and there's always the carriers to cover stuff. They'll lose a few empties, but...
Finally, a single bombing raid on Tennant Creek on a bad weather day would have created enormous problems for me - my aircraft losses over Darwin have been exceptionally light, considering the situation they've been operating in (long range, opposed, no escorts), but the airfield at TC is massively overstacked due to heavy bombers and the absence of an air HQ. An escorted raid could easily have been launched from Daly Waters while the Japanese held it - I never bombed the airfield there as I wanted use of it as soon as I arrived, and there were obviously supplies to hand. So, I've had a lot of advantages that I never expected. Even at that this is all really kind of a distraction - something to keep the Japs occupied with.
was kfsgo, managed to lock myself out of acct. oops.
RE: August Alert
August. 14
Darwin rained off. Expecting resistance, tomorrow I'm going to conduct An Experiment - heavy bombers will fly at 25,000ft just to see exactly how the hit-rates compare versus flying lower. Japanese conduct nine separate parachute drops today; three each with three units, one of which also conducted four on Celebes yesterday. All were a single 19-man squad:
I am quietly looking forward to the likely reaction to me dropping a single squad on every base on Java in a year or so.
Up off Sakhalin, an unusual success for the US submarine service; USS Trigger and USS Whale sink small freighters Yuki Maru and Takegawa Maru with gunfire. A supply convoy is unloading another 25,000t of miscellaneous biomatter at Adak; place is liable to take some taking.
Darwin rained off. Expecting resistance, tomorrow I'm going to conduct An Experiment - heavy bombers will fly at 25,000ft just to see exactly how the hit-rates compare versus flying lower. Japanese conduct nine separate parachute drops today; three each with three units, one of which also conducted four on Celebes yesterday. All were a single 19-man squad:
I am quietly looking forward to the likely reaction to me dropping a single squad on every base on Java in a year or so.
Up off Sakhalin, an unusual success for the US submarine service; USS Trigger and USS Whale sink small freighters Yuki Maru and Takegawa Maru with gunfire. A supply convoy is unloading another 25,000t of miscellaneous biomatter at Adak; place is liable to take some taking.
was kfsgo, managed to lock myself out of acct. oops.