Excel Empire - F Krieg vs Great Went - DBB-C 28

[FeurerKrieg]

March 9th, 1942

No freebie captures today. The Emperor is not pleased.

India/Burma
Royal Sovereign and company are back for another round at Colombo. We have some Kates and Mabels at Koggala now. If that big ship hangs around much longer maybe we will get a shot at it.

We try another attack at Trincomalee and this one fairs no better than before at 1:2 odds. We lose 1 tank and have another 2 dozen disabled. The enemy suffers 242 casualties.

Having flown several sweeps of Rangoon, and seeing no more CAP, we send some Sallys in on port attack. One bomb hits AMc Klias, sinking the small sweeper.

Meanwhile, the small Allied air force at Rangoon launches an attack on our airfields at Chiang Mai. Our Oscars are on alert however, and of the 13 Buffalos and 8 Blenheim I's that attack, all are shot down for the loss of only 1 Oscar.

[center]
Oscars do well today.[/center]

DEI
87 more mines are swept at Batavia.

With Batavia in our hands, we shift our Nells to bombing Palembang to soften it up for attack. We manage to destroy a Do-24K-1 on the ground and do light damage to the airfields there.

Pacific
The B-17 bomb that hit DD Kuri at Port Moresby yesterday was enough to do the little ship in. It sinks in port today at PM.

Also at Port Moresby, S-34 manages to hit a small xAKL with a non-dud torpedo. The ship sinks. S-35 takes a shot at another xAKL, but that torpedo duds.

China
We try again at Lanchow and nearly have it. 1:1 odds, but the adj AVs are 275:157. Perhaps a shock attack will do it?

The Chinese catch up to our 104th Division and 23rd Army HQ at Nanning, where they have joined the Yokosuka SNLF that was on garrison duty there. These are the two that got booted out of Liuchow a few days back. So far it is only 2 corps, but if that same force from Liuchow is on the way then we will likely get booted from Nanning as well. The good news is that I have reinforcements coming at Liuchow from the east, so maybe he'll leave it a little too empty in the chase to capture Nanning.

Submarines
West of Colombo, I-166 takes a shot at CL Capetown which is in the Royal Sovereign TF. They are out to sea about two hexes straight west from Colombo in the day phase, after the bombardment. I would assume this means they are leaving, but I'm not sure why they wouldn't just rearm at Colombo and stay there. Perhaps John is thinking about the level 2 AF at Koggala, but if so, then why aren't they on full retreat? And why did they go due west and not northwest away from Koggala? Of course, maybe they were headed away and this was just a sub attack along their route. He knows I have sub in the area, maybe he is thinking by goign wide to the west he'll avoid them. Hopefully our naval search will improve in this area.

Other
2 DDs reenter service at Singapore.

Kanoya Ku K-1 Det is withdrawn today. I don't recall what aircraft that was back when this turn ran.

[FeurerKrieg]

March 10th, 1942

DEI
Boeten is our free capture today, south of Kendari.

Dili airfield goes to size 3. This is one that I'll take to size 4 since it is something of a gateway to the DEI from Northern Oz.

East of Kendari a pesky Dutch sub puts two torpedoes into xAK Rokko Maru sinking the ship.

At Jesselton, we had intel on a couple enemy ships there. So a pair of light cruisers and destroyers were sent to investigate from Singapore. Sure enough, AO Trinity and xAP President Madison were hiding in port. Our ships took care of them with ease. An easy 35 VPs/15,000 tons of enemy shipping in the bag.

[center]
Naval action at Jesselton[/center]


Near Balikpapan, our 124th Regiment chases some Dutch units into the interior of Borneo. The Regiment will follow them through the swamp and eventually to the base beyond.

Philippines
We try a deliberate attack at Bataan now that the 16th and 48th Divisions have rested a bit. We only get 1:2, but casualties are good, and hopefully we use up a good chunk of any supply that is remaining.

Pacific
B-17's hit Port Moresby again. Today we have some Zeros on hand with the Oscar As, but only manage to damage a couple bombers.

China
We fly a sweep over Changsha today with a dozen and a half Oscars. They find 16 H81-A3s of the AVG. The fight ends about even with 8 H81s and 7 Oscars going down.

Another deliberate attack at Lanchow fails to take the base. 1:1 (178:157)

The Chinese attack at Nanning and only get 1:2. We'll see if they bring more troops in.

Other
DD upgrades...
Repairs completed on DD Murakumo at Singapore, ship returned to service
Repairs completed on DD Uranami at Singapore, ship returned to service
Repairs completed on DD Usugumo at Singapore, ship returned to service
Repairs completed on DD Shirakumo at Singapore, ship returned to service
Repairs completed on DD Yudachi at Singapore, ship returned to service
Repairs completed on DD Suzukaze at Singapore, ship returned to service
Repairs completed on DD Fubuki at Singapore, ship returned to service
Repairs completed on E Saga at Singapore, ship returned to service

[FeurerKrieg]

March 11th, 1942

India/Burma

DEI
Near North Borneo, Balabac is occupied, although we had just landed troops here.

Christmas Island now has a functional airfield - size 1.

On the road to Djambi, the 6th Tank Regiment continues to chase Panang refugee units ahead of the armored advance. Meanwhile, south of Palembang, the 16th Nav Guard unit captures Praboemoelih. I'll have some port units landing in Oosthaven and marching to Praboemoelik to prepare for the capture of Palembang. I'd like to have the naval support units move in asap so we can start hauling stuff out of here.

Pacific
We manage to bring down three B-17E's over Port Moresby today without losing any fighters.

China
Having finally assembled a force of 8 divisions and 2 brigades east of Ichang, we try a DA and only get 1:2. I had hoped for better. Not sure if we'll be able to push through this wall of Chinese here. Might try a couple more attacks, but if things don't improve I think I would be better served leaving a few units here to tie these Chinese down and use my mobility advantage to hit them elsewhere. About 4000 casualties on each side from this battle.

Another attack at Lanchow gets 1:1 and keeps the forts at zero.

Other
Three more Destroyers returned to action at Singapore.

Always nice to see things like this: AVD William B. Preston is reported to have been sunk near Broome on Feb 27, 1942.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Feurer Krieg

I apologize if this seems disjointed to anyone who isn't following Overt's AAR but to continue a discussion from Overt's thread....

My initial general strategy and thoughts have been that I would expand as far as I could in any direction that the Allies were weaker than I expected. I have instead decided to set some very hard and non-negotiable expansion points. While they may still be too far out, I have at least set these limits. Also, I had always assumed I would use the Japanese production to try and attrit the Allies plane pools. I am moving away from that notion since it cost supply for me to pull my planes from the pools. But that isn't such a black and white thing.

It took me a while to come back to this.

It is still good in some areas to fight with everything to continue to keep pool slow. You also have to think about the morale and psychology of presenting a seemingly unbreakable air force. It makes the Allies prep heavily for each move forward and as we see in GJ-Q-Ball potentially even stay with one axis.

By theater it is like this -
India - I had always thought that if I can get Ceylon, then maybe if the tip of the subcontinent looked lightly held, I would make a grab for it. Not to hold it for long of course, but just to make the starting point for the Brits that much farther away from me. Now however, having a better understanding of the supply implications, I will not take anything beyond Ceylon and Burma, no matter how inviting.

The other thing to consider is your retreat timing from Burma, and watching diligently for invasions in your rear areas there. As the Allies get stronger in 44 it's hard to predict ground combat outcomes as easily as before. Their squad and device strength gets so much better and the air support more devastating so that you can't rely on your troops defensive positions as you did up through 43.

Australia - Originally I planned to grab the north coast - Darwin to Derby. But for a while I also started looking at the map thinking the west coast would not exactly be out of reach if the US lost their carriers early on. I don't think I ever entertained the notion of invading the east or south coast, but the west looked inviting. Now, however, I realize that just shipping troops all the way around there would eat a lot of fuel and of course the troops would eat lots of supplies, so again, that option is off the table.

Probably sound. The Darwin to Exmouth area is still great as a delaying occupation.

Pacific - Noumea, Suva were always on the table. But Midway, the Line Islands and even New Zealand were considered places I could potential reach out to. No longer.

Ideally, I would like to reduce the amount of places that air battles are going on. If I can take areas that are difficult to attack because their is a significant gap to the next large Allied base, then with luck we will have periods of time that don't involve daily air combat. This is somewhat unavoidable in Burma or India, but as I mentioned before, I would prefer the Commonwealth focus on Ceylon while I can build what I want in Burma. We'll see if that happens of course. For any of the fronts where I have planes just sitting on air search watching for amphibious enemy attacks, those are fronts that are not using much supply at all, but are still providing the buffer that I can trade for time once the enemy does start to attack.

Long winded yammering is over now... carry on.

Seems prudent overall. It's amazing how much thought I put into all of the areas in the DEI that could be invaded. Only a few were actually invaded, and very late.

But they can't be neglected either. Tough decisions.

[FeurerKrieg]

Thanks for the comments, obvert - I'll keep your thoughts in mind as I roll forward.

[FeurerKrieg]

It has been a busy week - John finished a writing course he was in, so now he has been firing me a turn a day. I keep bugging him to put those skills to use in his AAR so you guys can see things from the other side - plus it will be good reading for me when this game is done! Anyway - we are up to April 11th, so I'm not as far behind as I used to be. The next four weeks are packed with action though, so stay tuned!

March 12th, 1942

India/Burma
We try another DA at Colombo today. Adj AV is 1277:1157 and we drop forts to level 1. Casualties are bad for us though, 6700 IJA versus 1500 Commonwealth. We will probably need to rest a bit before the next assault.

DEI
Sally's near Ambon score a hit on SS KXII.

Philippines
Busuanga is occupied just before we launch an attack on it.

Pacific
Mostly quiet here, although we capture Green Island today.

China
Oscars tangle with the AVG near Nanchang, we lose two, they lose two.

We finally try a shock attack at Lanchow, and still don't capture the base. adj AV of 281:177, but forts go down to zero at least.

Submarines
Near Brisbane, RO-63 fires at PC Warrego, but misses.

Other
We get this lovely note today: CL Durban is reported to have been sunk near Derby on Feb 09, 1942.

Five assorted LCU's arrive in various places in the Home Islands. Generally these are all shipped to Tokyo so they can fill out (if needed) and then get shipped off to various places across the Empire.

[center]See the world! Join the IJN! (Or else) [/center]

[center][/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

March 13th, 1942

India/Burma
I-166 takes a shot at a destroyer near Colombo, but misses. Also spotted are CA Exeter and three light cruisers and three other destroyers. Later on, we see the rest of the task force - four R-class British battleships, three heavy cruisers and five light cruisers all lob shells at our troops at Colombo. Casualties aren't too bad - 500, but 95% are disables.

DEI
One of the islands off of Sumatra, near Padang, is our free capture today. The base is called Siberoet.

Pacific
CL Katori gets as fixed as it can at Rabaul and will now head up to Truk or the Home Islands to finish the job.

China
We try another attack on the Chinese stack east of Ichange and again only get 1:2. Casaulties are pretty heavy for us at about 7,500.

The 39th/C Division arrives at Kweilin to get a look at what is there. I had hoped too many Chinese had headed to Nanning, but there are plenty of troops here. We will likely get ejected tomorrow.

Submarines
Along with I-166's shot at Colombo, I-172 takes a shot at a minesweeper off Brisbane and misses.

Other
CVE Unyo arrives in Nagasaki. It will head south ASAP to join the other carriers operating in the Noumea/New Britain/Suva area.

[FeurerKrieg]

March 14th, 1942

India/Burma
The British continue shelling our troops. Damage is about 50% less today, so perhaps they are low on ammo. I haven't checked to see what ammo can be reloaded at Colombo.

Zuikakau and Shokaku both finish up repairs at Singapore (a couple points of major engine), so Car Div 1 forms up and sets sail. If the Brits want to send battleships to Colombo again we will be waiting out in the ocean to the west of Colombo to try and cut off their retreat. I think that my four fleet carriers can handle the two British CVs and Hermes. Hopefully. If the US carriers show up in that area, we will have a problem.

DEI
Our Nells at Java find some TMs at Mataram (southeast of Denpasar) and try to hit with some bombs but miss. I will send CL Nagara and the Merry Men down to see what they can do to clear these pests.

[center]
Remnants of the Allied fleet in the DEI[/center]

Philippines
Forgot to mention Legaspi airfield hit level four yesterday. We will switch to some fort construction and then move on.

We try a DA at Bataan today and get 1:2. Most of the enemy casualties were destroyed units, so hopefully they are on the ropes.

Pacific
RO-63 fires at PC Herald near Brisbane and misses.

China
Another Division arrives at Kienko and again gets thrashed crossing the river. Odds are only 1:3, but casualties are high. At least the enemy is still showing a supply penalty.

Another DA at Lanchow get 1:1.

The Chinese shock into Nanning and get only 1:10 odds. Unfortunately casualties weren't that high. Hopefully their units picked up some disruption from that low result.

[FeurerKrieg]

March 15th, 1942

India/Burma
Surprisingly, the British continue to shell Colombo for a third day in a row. Casualties again are lighter than yesterday.

The third day, however, is a charm for us. We finally get a strike to launch from Koggala. 31 Oscars escort 6 B5M1 Mables and 3 B5N1 Kates towards the British fleet. 4 Fulmars and 17 Hurricanes try to block our way. We lose a fair amount of Oscars, but manage to get the torpedo bombers through. The Mables go for BB Resolution and the Kates go for BB Royal Sovereign. Flak brings down a Mabel and two Kates, but the flights press on. The four Kates manage to score a torpedo hit on Royal Sovereign and the remaining two Mabels also score a hit on Resolution. Perhaps the Brits will decide to leave now. Every sub I have in the area - which is about 7 or 8 - is going to try to line up on their path back to India. If those big ships have enough damage, our subs may have a shot at doing more.

In this air raid, we lost 14 Oscars (7 A2A and 7 Ops), 3 Mabels (2 were shot down post attack), and 2 Kates. We managed to take down 4 Hurricanes and 1 Fulmar II. So, in the air it wasn't the greatest, but two torpedoes into those battleships may at least put them in the repair yard for a bit. It may also make John more timid about attacking Colombo, but probably not since he is pretty aggressive.

[center]
Successful small raid on enemy battleships[/center]

DEI
CL Nagara and company show up at Mataram and tackle the TM's in the daylight. TM-4 through TM-9 are found and TM-6 is sunk. We will continue to come back and try to finish these little buggers off.

[center][/center]

On Sumatra, the 6th Tank Regiment reach Djambi and pushes the Padang refugees out of the base, capturing it in the process.

Farther east, on Borneo, the 15th Nav Gd unit captures Sandakan.

Philippines
We landed a small unit on Dumaguete yesterday and today it is occupied before the combat phase.

Pacific
As our fleet closes in on Luganville, 3 PBY-5 Catalinas attack our surface warships. The battleships and cruisers manage to bring down one of the Cats with AA fire and the other two miss their target.

China
Surprisingly the Chinese have not attacked yet at Kweilin. I suspect John just forgot, as they have 27,000 troops against our 4,000. I would think that is an easy win, even if they are low on supply. He could be waiting to make sure additional units aren't on the way since he has been bitten by that before.

Submarines
Near Brisbane, I-172 hits PG Herald with a torpedo. The ship is likely sunk.

[center][/center]

Other
I had to rearrange a couple escorts for two small convoys going to Naha and Amami Oshima. In the process the Amami Oshima transports had no escort for a couple days. SS Grayling took advantage of that and hits and sinks a small xAK.

[FeurerKrieg]

March 16th, 1942

India/Burma
A bit of submarine activity near the horn of India today. First, I-158 fires at and misses DD Griffin. Not sure if Griffin is escorting one of the BB's we hit yesterday or not. Next, one hex northwest I-166 takes a shot at the same TF (which means it is sailing away from Colombo), CL Ceres this time, but still no sighting of a BB. I-166 also misses.

Presumably to reduce future TB attacks, the two undamaged British BB's, and their cruisers, pay a visit to Koggala. We lose a half a dozen Oscars and a Ki-15 recon plane on the ground, and lots of planes damaged, but the airfield is still operational.

Jaffna flips over to Allied control today. What a hassle. Since the Armor at Trincomalee aren't enough to take the place, we will pull back and recapture Jaffna. Hopefully my armor can get there before the 38th Division arrives so that John doesn't automatically know the 38th has arrive on Ceylon.

[center]
Situation at Ceylon[/center]

Near Malaysa, SS O20 takes out a subchaser of ours that was looking for the submarine. Oh well - better an SC than a DD.

DEI
A small units marched to Sintang in central Borneo, and the based was occupied today before the combat phase.

Our daily bombing of Palembang destroys a Do-24K-1 today.

Padang refugees are chased one hex closer to Djambi.

Pacific
Buna goes to level 2 airfield.

At Luganville, BB Kirishima and Hiei lead a bombardment of the base. AS Fulton takes a couple small caliber hits, and the base is lightly damaged. Our ground forces unload without any major mishaps and begin exchanging shells with the 2nd and 8th US Marine Regiments. From the looks of things we shouldn't have any trouble taking this island and capturing some valuable American marines.

Three more Catalinas are back at Luganville today, but our carrier cover is now in range and 25 A6M2's shoot two of them down and the last gets away.

China
Another DA on Lanchow almost takes the base - adj AV of 182:95. Maybe tomorrow.

Our two regiments finally reach and capture Ningsia! Now they will continue west and join the push from Lanchow up to Sining (assuming Lanchow goes down soon).

At Nanchang, a Chinese corp crosses the river into our level 4 forts and urban defenses. We only have 7000 troops there at the moment, but it is enough as the Chinese get 1:28 odds. We have two divisions on the way, I think one will arrive tomorrow so we should be safe. I didn't mention it, but we have been bombing the Chinese on the road to Nanchang all along to try and keep them out of move mode to buy time for my divisions to reach Nanchang.

The Chinese also finally attack at Kweilin and as expected kick us back into the forest. I have a decent force building up at the crossroad between Keilin and Liuchow. They will stay there until we are ready to push in this sector again.

At Nanning, the Chinese also attack getting 1:1 odds, but dropping our forts to zero. I suspect we may be getting pushed out of here soon as well. If so, we will go rebuild at Hanoi.

Submarines
At Rabaul, I-169 finishes system repairs and heads to Truk for further repairs.

Other
Paramushiro-Jima goes to size 2 airfield.

[FeurerKrieg]

March 17th, 1942
The silent service does some great work today!

India/Burma
In the first of many submarine actions today, I-154 finds Resolution right where we thought it should be. The skipper fires six torpedoes at the ship, two of which hit. In the same hex, I-158 tries to take a shot, but DD Van Ghent gets in the way. I-158 fires but misses the destroyer and then evades the ASW counterattack in the night. I-158 continues the chase though.

Several hours later, and a couple hexes northwest, I-158 finds Resolution again and this time Van Ghent does not get in the way. I-158 puts another torpedo into the battleship. That's a total of three submarine torps and one aerial torp for this battleship. It has to be running slow now and we have about eight subs looking for the old battleship.

[center]
Hunting BB Resolution[/center]

A bit to the south, while was being set upon, Ramilles and Revenge again shell Koggala damaging more planes and shutting the airfield down. When the sun comes up, 11 Hudsons will drop some bombs on the damaged airfields as well, destroying one Oscar. I'll be glad when the 38th gets here so we can take the airfields at Trincomalee.

Finally, the enemy troops bombard us today at Colombo and it is clear that some of the traffic spotted lately was bringing in reinforcements. The Australian 7th Division has been identified at the enemy base. Clearly the troops we have on hand are going to have to wait for the 38th before we have a shot at taking Colombo. Does anyone know if the 7th Aus Div is restricted? It would be great if he had to pay PPs for that unit.

DEI
CL Nagara and company try again with the TMs at Mataram, but can't land any hits today. However, they also find a MTB and do manage to hit that boat, sinking it.

Pacific
Near Tabiteuea, Onotoa is occupied today. Speaking of, Tabiteuea's airfield goes to size 2. Torpedo bombers can fly in the Gilberts now. Once we get some torpedoes to the island that is.

Another bombardment of Luganville doesn't accomplish much given lower ammo stocks.

In coordination with the landing at Luganville, we had a fast transport TF drop off a small unit at Ndeni yesterday and they secure the island base today.

China
After yesterday's close call at Lanchow, we try a shock attack again. This one finally succeeds and the Chinese retreat towards Sining. We capture 3 I-15-III's on the airstrip as well as some light industry.

A couple probing units enter Liuchow to see what is there, and it is still a fair amount. We'll attempt to retreat, but may get pushed back by the Chinese first.

Submarines
Ceylon isn't the only place our submarines were at work. Far away from India, off the coast of Sydney, I-5 finds an xAKL and hits the ship with a torpedo. Later on, I-5 finds another xAKL and attacks this one on the surface, hitting the ship with 8 shells before submerging. Not to be outdone, I-6, also near Sydney find xAKL Corrimal and hits that small ship with a torpedo. Given the small size of these ships, we except all three have been sunk.

Other
Ominato's port expands to size 7. This will certainly help move resources from the Hokkaido to Honshu.

[offenseman]

Very interesting times these days with excellent updates and news. I appreciate your efforts.

[FeurerKrieg]

Thanks, offenseman! This is just the start - there are several interesting days ahead!

[FeurerKrieg]

March 18th, 1942

India/Burma
The hunt for Resolution goes on. First I-156 makes and attempt but is spotted by escorts and takes a mild hit from a depth charge dropped by PC Jumna. I-156 will have to head home for repairs. However, I-165 takes advantage of the distraction caused by I-156 and manages to plant two torpedoes into Resolution, sinking the big old ship. Aside from the initial aerial torpedo, this battleship was sunk solely by submarines. Banzai!

[center]
The British BB doesn't get away[/center]

DEI
Near Timor, Moa is our freebie capture today.

Our armor chasing the Padang survivors shock attack into Djambi destroying one of the enemy units and capturing the base. The armor will head south now to assist with the attack on Palembang.

Philippines
At long last our 'offensive on a budget' operations on Luzon come to an end as we shock attack Bataan and force the surrender of 28,000 US and Filipino troops. The 16th and 48th Divisions are high in experience and in good condition. They will hike it back to Manila while fast transports head over to pick them up. They will get shipped to Ceylon ASAP. The artillery will likely be sent to China where they can come in handy in some of the slow siege warfare going on there.

Pacific
Our first deliberate attack at Luganville goes well. We get 2:1 odds and forts drop from 1 to 0. I expect we will capture the base tomorrow. The marines put up a solid fight - our casualties are 2400 versus the USMC's 900. Thankfully we have 35,000 troops to their 8000.

We capture Long Island today with a small NG unit.

China
As expected, the Chinese eject us from Liuchow. These two units will join the others at the crossroads by Kweilin and Liuchow.

The Chinese also attack at Nanning, but we manage to hang on with a 1:1 result.

Submarines
Near Brisbane, RO-63 fires at AM Cairns and misses.

[center]
HMS Resolution[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

Something koniu mentioned in another thread - and another reason to not necessarily try to attrit Allied plane pools. I think I will make a list of Allied production rates so I'll have some idea of which planes have tight pools. That way I'll have some sense as the game goes on of which planes are worth trying to put up a fight against, and which are not. At least from a pure losses standpoint, clearly the target and other operational issues influence the importance of fighting or not.

This is the amount of supplies to replace each aircraft. By the time aircraft losses reach 30-40,000 this can be a lot of supplies - 600,000-800,000 easy. I've already started standing down planes in places where the damage they are inflicting is only marginal since even ops losses use up supplies in this fashion.

I test it i my game few second ago
I only test it on few group so not sure if this have something to do with class or durability or something like that
F, FB 12 supply
DB 15 supply
2E bomber 30 supply

[obvert]

Nice work against the RN! [:)]

[FeurerKrieg]

There is plenty more action coming, both with the RN and USN, some good, some not so good. Hopefully I'll get some more updates done soon. John's mom broke her foot, and he is on 'helpful son' duty so probably won't get a turn back to me for a couple days.

[FeurerKrieg]

March 19th, 1942

India/Burma
Some Hurricanes sweep Koggala, but we are grounded from the shelling of the British BBs. A dozen Hudson's also come in, but they pretty much miss the airfield.

The Allies must have a high opinion of the damage their battleships did as they launch a deliberate attack on us at Colombo. They only achieve 1:2 (903:1738) results and take a bit more casualties than we do. We have forts for our troops at this point too, so I'm not to concerned about getting pushed out. In fact, if they are attacking I think it works to our benefit.

DEI
Nagara and company manage to hit one of the TM's at Mataram today.

The North Borneo base hop continues as we capture Kudat today.

Philippines
Siquijor is our semi-free capture today. We had landed troops there, but the base flipped in the night phase. The troops will march up the road on Cebu to the base on the other end of the island.

Our sweepers waste no time having been sitting at San Fernando waiting for the fall of Bataan. They move in and start clearing mines. 148 are cleared today, although one of the AMc strikes a mine and sinks.

Pacific
At Luganville we do a shock attack on the Marines and take the base with a 10:1 result. 10,100 US Marines surrender for the loss of 1,000 Japanese!

[center]
Capture of Luganville and a fair amount of US Marines[/center]

We also capture Goodenough Island.

China
At Nanning, the Chinese keep up the pressure, but we hold on for another day. 25,000 troops versus our 10,000 and still 1:1 odds. Forts are back to zero. If they rest a day, we'll have level 1 forts again.

I had moved a small SNLF unit into Pakhoi to see what was there, and there is two elements of the 64th Chinese Corp there. They attack and push out my small 500 man SNLF unit.

[FeurerKrieg]

March 20th, 1942

India/Burma
As our tank regiment near Jaffna, it flips back to Japanese control. Great timing since the 38th division is just offshore. Now the first time John should see the 38th is when they are at the gate of Trincomalee.

The Hurricanes and Hudsons hit Koggala today, not many runway hits, but 3 Oscars are toasted all the same.

Of note is that the KB is into the Bay of Bengal now, and is heading west towards the Indian Ocean. It is moving at a leisurely pace, but the goal is to make it out to the west (game map) of Ceylon to trap the British fleet if it remains in place. So far we haven't been detected, so we will continue to move slow to conserve fuel. We do have our AO fleet lingering about ten hexes west of Port Blair for either the battleships that are with the 38th Division, or the carriers, whoever needs fuel first.

Philippines
Another 120 mines are cleared from Bataan.

Pacific
At Terapo, the Australians that retreated from Port Moresby come out of the jungle and shock attack our troops. We have the 66th Naval Guard and Kure 2nd SNLF units in place, but since those have no engineers, there are no forts at the base. None the less, we manage to fight off the weary Aussies with a 1:2 result. There are about 12,000 of them versus 3,600 of our troops, but with no supply source, I don't see how they can get any stronger, especially with all these mosquitoes around...

Also, now that Luganville is secure, Car Div 2 (Akagi, Kaga and the CVLs and CVEs) all head back to Rabual to refuel, rearm and restock planes. They will then turn around and come back to cover our move on Noumea.

China
The Chinese succeed in capturing Nanning today. As planned, the 104th Division, Yokosuka 4th SNLF and 23rd Army HQ, will head to Hanoi to rebuild. I doubt the Chinese will follow given the force that I've assembled near Liuchow and Kweilin. In the mean time, since we have bought out the last part of the 8th Division from Manchukuo (8th is being assembled on Luganville), I will buy four non-divisional armor units and send them on a run down to Canton and eventually use them to try and support some creative maneuvers in this area of China. Once those have been bought, I will finally start buying some air units out.

Submarines
Near Brisbane I-160 takes a shot at PC Warrego and misses.

Just east of Luganville, I-23 catches a couple ships headed to Suva, presumably from Luganville before we arrived. AS Fulton is hit by two torpedoes and AVD Ballard is also spotted. The Fulton looks like a big ship, so it isn't clear if it was sunk or not.

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A nice hit from our sub[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

March 21st, 1942
No freebie today, although the list of eligible bases is getting pretty small.

India/Burma
The Brits continue to fly over Koggala. I'd prefer that than to see them attacking my carriers, although I have so far stayed out of Hudson range of Colombo.

DEI
Nagara and company are unable to hit any of the TMs at Mataram in the night, but they circle back in the daytime and manage to take out TM-5. Our Nells from the north end of Java join in as well, but don't manage to hit any of the small ships.

Heading south from Djambi, the 6th Tank pushes the Padang Base Force closer to Palembang.

Philippines
As we struggle to clear mines at Bataan, an American sub hits one! It certainly wasn't our mine as we haven't put any down yet. SS Shark is the sub that hit a mine, hopefully it will sink. We clear another 120 mines today.

China
Yesterday our reinforcements arrived at Nanchang and we deliberate attack today. The weakened Chinese unit is an easy enemy for us and we kick them back across the river with a 23:1 result. We will give chase because John has moved a few units into Pingsiang and I'd rather not lose that base since the resources will keep getting damaged if it goes back and forth.

Speaking of Pingsiang, the Chinese try a DA there, 18,000 Chinese versus 7,000 IJA, but we survive today with a 1:1 against fort level 2. Unfortunately the forts drop to level 1. Air power will try to hammer the enemy troops here. Also, we have a couple more divisions headed to Nanchang and they will head south out of Nanchang on the good roads to see if they can reach Pingsiang in time to relieve the defending 12th Ind Mixed Brigade. Given the way the Chinese have to pause for supply we might be able to pull it off if our air can weaken their attacks enough.

The Chinese also try a DA at Kienko today. 102,000 troops versus our 54,000 and they get a 1:2 result. (394:1005) They take a fair amount of casualties more than us, although we actually have more destroyed squads.

Finally, some Chinese attack our force outside of Kweilin/Liuchow and only get a 1:22 result. This is the force that I think will force them to not chase me to Hanoi. And another division is on the way to join these guys.

Here is a screenshot from the replay, so it is missing many of my units. Once I get caught up to the game, I'll post a better picture to explain whats going on in this theater. Hopefully this will at least help for those who don't play the game all the time with understanding where these bases mentioned above are located.

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Submarines
I-23 finds AS Fulton again and hit it with another torpedo. The ship is reported sunk this time. A big tonnage score for I-23. I-16 fires at AVP Teal near Nadi, but misses.

Other
TWo destroyers come out of refit at Kobe, and 3 subchasers get into refit at Tokyo.

We also receive a report that xAP Neptuna was sunk at Manila on Dec 10, so that is good to see.