Castles in the Sand - Spidery(J) vs MrKane(A) no MrKane please

[Spidery]

Japanese Sunk Ships

Apart from those lost from the Allied CV raid at the end of February, the only losses are one AMc and one PB.

[Spidery]

Allied losses in March

The AR Medusa is questionable. There are probably two more AMC and 2 ACM sunk.

[Spidery]

Situation in China.

The plan for April is to try and push at a few hexes, finish destroying industry, clear the West of China (North on the map).

1. This should fall soon opening the way towards Lanchow.
2. These are doomed but the attackers need R&R. They will move to destroy other cut off forces and then head South to defend Malaya and Burma.
3. I could take this hex if only I could get supply to the attackers.
4. This attack is stalled.
5. I think this hex can be taken.
6. Want to take this in April and then develop as an airbase to hold supply.
7. This needs to be taken in April

[Spidery]

April Economy

Happy with this apart from the continuing supply problems.

Convoys to the Home Isles are mostly working. Fuel and oil are being moved okay from the generating bases but Singapore is accumulating too much.

R&D is going to plan and there are good stocks of Engines.

Air production (after latest repairs):
90 Ki-43-Ic
62 A6M2
50 E13A1
28 Ki-21-IIa
20 D3A1
15 A6M2-N
15 Ki-49-1a
11 Ki-57-I (changing to -II when last Ha-5 engines used)
10 E8N2
9 E14Y1
8 H6K2-L
7 B5N1
6 H6K4
3 Ki-32

Not building:
8 Ki-15-II
11 Ki-46-II
23 G3M2
25 G4M1
34 Ki-48-IIa

[Spidery]

A member of the Imperial General Headquarters with too much time on his hands comes up with an April Fools Jest, a spoof order. By accident it gets sent to all units[:D].

"The practice of merchant seamen assisting with off-loading during amphibious assaults is demeaning to our glorious soldiers. Henceforth, no assistance is to be provided.

Prior to any amphibious assaults being launched, all units involved are to familiarise themselves with the target area. To demonstrate compliance, form AA-1 parts 1 to 17, is to be completed and sent in triplicate to the Imperial Headquarters. There is no risk that this will alert Allied forces of intentions as the cyphers in use are completely secure."

The Japanese bonus has come to an end.[:(]

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

A member of the Imperial General Headquarters with too much time on his hands comes up with an April Fools Jest, a spoof order. By accident it gets sent to all units[:D].

"The practice of merchant seamen assisting with off-loading during amphibious assaults is demeaning to our glorious soldiers. Henceforth, no assistance is to be provided.

Prior to any amphibious assaults being launched, all units involved are to familiarise themselves with the target area. To demonstrate compliance, form AA-1 parts 1 to 17, is to be completed and sent in triplicate to the Imperial Headquarters. There is no risk that this will alert Allied forces of intentions as the cyphers in use are completely secure."

The Japanese bonus has come to an end.[:(]

[:D] Well said!

[Spidery]

April 1st 1942

Air Losses: 1 Japanese, 2 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Sipora(auto), Tandjoengselor
Japanese land at:

Australia

A trial bombardment at Katherine to see just what the Australians have there - 2nd Australian Division, 3 armoured regiments and 2 brigades plus sundry others. 770 AV in total. This is too much for my two divisions to tangle with.

Indian Ocean

Quiet

China

Grounded the fighters and hit Chungking at night with half the bombers. Severe storms over target and very few hits.

Also hitting Kungchang airfield to eliminate supply.

Supply has reached the front line forces and will try some attacks.

Two Chinese corps attack across the river from Patung and meet a single regiment. They come off worse.

Pacific

An Allied ACM hits a mine laid at Kodiak.
Lots of sub attacks: AGP Niagara takes 1 torpedo, ARD YFD-2 takes 2, AG Vega 1 all in the same task force. Two sinking sounds are heard but no idea which of the ships have sunk.

DEI

A cut off Dutch unit is eliminated on Borneo.

A Dutch sub is detected at Bengkalis and attacked without result.

Burma

A supply convoy has arrived and is delivering 25000 supply to Rangoon.

Engineering

Adak Island airfield to 1. Shwebo airfield to 2. Darwin airfield to 4.
Allies expand Christmas Island airfield to 2.

R&D

Ki-49-IIa accelerates to 7/42

Reinforcements

Some nice IJNAAF reinforcments - a group of 45 Nells with okay pilots at Chiba and a group to flesh out to 16 Mavis at Kwajalein Island.

[Spidery]

April 2nd 1942

Air Losses: 0 Japanese, 1 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Atka Island(auto)
Japanese land at:

Quiet almost everywhere with no naval action, no significant air actions, and the only land attacks in China.

2 Chinese corps and a HQ surrender.

Economy

Hokkaido has been sunked dry of resources and the convoys now only need to keep up with the production and that being landed from Sakhalin. Sakhalin will take another month or two to be sucked dry of stockpiles.

Fuel, supply, and resource stock piles in the rest of Japan continue to increase.

There is about a million units of fuel and half that of oil that needs shipping back from the DEI.

I have accelerated all the tankers that I can get in 1942 on the principle that if I can ship this back log back to Japan before the USN fixes its torpedoes it will probably pay for the extra HI and fuel usage.

Engineering

Davao airfield to 4, Chengchow to 3, Anshan to 2. Allies expand VaVa'u to 3.

[Spidery]

April 3rd 1942

Air Losses: 11 Japanese, 7 Allied, 7 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Kashgar
Japanese land at:

Burma

Allies sweep Magwe with Hurricane IIa. I had moved some of the better aircaft to Rangoon to take replacements and the defense was of Nate, Claude and a few Oscar 1c. They performed quite well shooting down 6 Hurricances for the loss of 8 Nate, 1 Claude, and 1 Oscar. Trading obsolete aircraft for the best and at less than the 2:1 VP ratio needed for Allied victory seems a good trade.

China

Another cut off Chinese Corps surrenders.

Chungking gets hit hard by a day attack. I'm only really interested in destroying LI and can't make my mind up between hitting LI direct or Manpower.

Armour is polishing off the minor bases.

Engineering

Chiang Mai airfield to 3. Lanchow to 5. Allies expand Tennant Creek to 2.

Supply Conservation

I expect to have the Helen IIa available in early May and will immediately start producing 60 of them. To conserve supply, the plan is to upgrade air groups just the once, even though I have some groups with insufficient aircraft. Generally, I will upgrade air groups that anyway need replacements.

[Spidery]

The Australian Question

I took Darwin but have not taken Katherine. At the moment I have two infantry divisions operating out of Darwin and MrKane seems to be sending a lot of Australian forces to the area and building bases.

The Australians will be operating at the end of a tenuous supply line.

I am wary of sending more forces there because:
(1) If I manage to push South I will be at risk of a landing behind me that cuts off a large army.
(2) In the open terrain the Japanese forces are exposed to attack from 4E bombers.
(3) It is a long way to send supply.

So some options are:
(a) To hold the Katherine river line long enough to build Darwin forts.
(b) To go in strong to lure the Allies into landing behind while keeping a strong Naval and LBA presence to destroy this.
(c) To give the impression of holding so more Australian forces are committed then up sticks and move to attack NE or West Australia.

MrKane is not predictable in his response so I think (b) is risky. For (c) could do with some idea how many forces Australia has and also I am not sure how easy this is to hide from Allied SigInt. Option (a) is the "safe" option.

Any suggestions?

[Spidery]

April 4th 1942

Air Losses: 0 Japanese, 0 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Kiuchuan, Patung
Japanese land at:

Australia

Air attacks at Katherine damage supplies and runways but not the aircraft at the field.

Pacfic

I-170 sinks DM Sicard near Pearl Harbour.

China

Bad weather grounds attacks.

Land combat where pressing gets good results but supply shortages again will slow attacks.

Engineering

Pisanuloke airfield to 2, Nanyang airfield to 5. Allies increase Alice Springs to 4, Brisbane to 5, Silchar to 1; Johnstone Island port to 2.

Production

The last Ha-5 engine is used and the Topsy factory will upgrade to the model using the Ha-31.

SigInt

Shows 279 ships in port at Pearl Harbour but only lists DE and AD - not sure how informative this is.

[Spidery]

April 5th 1942

Air Losses: 1 Japanese, 1 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Goodenough Island(auto), Wau
Japanese land at:

[>:]

R&D

A6M5 due 11/42.

[Spidery]

April 6th 1942

Air Losses: 5 Japanese, 1 Allied, 3 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Djailolo
Allies occupy: Cox's Bazaar(auto)
Japanese land at:

Australia

B-17E hit the 14th Division at Katherine, they do little damage and 1 plane is shot down by flak[:)].

My bombing of Katherine airfield attracts no flak.

Pacific

In the waters between Australia and New Zealand a small CA task force finds a large slow convoy[:)]. Unfortunately[:(], they mostly use the torpedoes against the small DD targets and not the lumbering floating docks.

My ships have a long way to get to Noumea and thence to somewhere to fix them. DD Sukukaze is the only one that has damage at a risky level (54/13/25 with 5 fires). The main risk is that Allied carriers may be in a position to attack. Confirmed sunk are 2 xAK and 2 AG but more sinking sounds in the following repair phase so at least 1, maybe 2, more Allied ships are sunk.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Time Surface Combat, near Stewart Island at 94,185, Range 22,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Kinugasa, Shell hits 4
CA Kako, Shell hits 5, on fire
DD Shiratsuyu, Shell hits 4
DD Yamakaze, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Suzukaze, Shell hits 3, heavy fires

Allied Ships
CL Java, Shell hits 6, heavy fires
DD Voyager, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Piet Hein, Shell hits 1
DD Kortenaer
DD Evertsen
DD Witte de With, Shell hits 1
DD Van Nes, Shell hits 1
DD Banckert, Shell hits 1
DD Van Ghent, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
AS Platypus
ARD Tandjong Kv-1
ARD Tandjong Kv-2
ARD Tjilitlap Kv
ARD Soerabaja Kv
AG Wanaka, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
AG Pulganbar, Shell hits 2, and is sunk
AVP Pollux, Shell hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
AGP Eridanus, Shell hits 1, on fire
AVP Fazant
AG Willebrord Snellius
xAK Bengalen, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAP Cremer, Shell hits 1, on fire
xAP Maetsuycker, Shell hits 1, on fire
xAP Swartenhondt
xAP Tanimbar
xAK Enggano
xAK American
xAK Carolinian
xAK Challenger, Shell hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Lancaster, Shell hits 1
xAK Lena Luckenbach
xAK Mathew Luckenbach, Shell hits 7, and is sunk

China

Day strikes against LI at Chungking destroy 10 factories for the cost of 4 planes lost to flak. I am bombing from 10000 feet and accuracy is poor but flak is quite heavy.

More cut off Chinese surrender.

DEI

Ineffectual attack against a Dutch sub in the Malacca straits.

Engineering

Amchitka Island airfield to 1, Kavieng to 1, Ichang to 5, Magwe to 6.
Allies expand Suva to 6, Kunming to 4.

[Spidery]

April 7th 1942

Air Losses: 34 Japanese[:@], 3 Allied, 12 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Pentecost Island(auto)
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:

Australia

B-17E attack again for small damage.

Katherine is hit for some damage.

Pacific

Another sinking sound is heard, don't know what that was.

My South Pacific raiders have extinguished fires and are nearing air cover from Noumea.

Burma

Allies deploy a new fighter at Magwe, the P-38E. The defense is a disaster [:(] with 14 Zero, 7 Oscar, 5 Nate lost for 1 Lighting and 1 Hurricane.

An Allied division is seen heading down the coast towards Akyab. Defense at Akyab may be inadequate [:(].

China

Drop altitude for attacks on Chungking to 9000 feet. Bad move as flak losses are worse and hits no better [:@]. Thunderstorms are forecast so will ground aircraft to recover and then try again.

The last cut off Chinese force of 3 corps near Sian is eliminated[8D].

Two hexes in China are captured inflicting heavy losses on the defenders[:)]. One SW from Kweiyang and one in the woods West of Ankang. Also in the mountains NW of Sian the result is a 1:1 with heavy Chinese losses and light Japanese ones so the hex may collapse soon. In total, Allies suffer 140 LCU VP loss for the day.

Allied VP total drops by over 200. Presumably, Chungking is now below 100% supply level.

Engineering

Sian expands airfield to 5 and Muroran airfield to 4.

[Spidery]

April 8th 1942

Air Losses: 2 Japanese, 1 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:

Australia

Quiet

Pacific

Quiet. A task force reporting as 2 BB is spotted at range 14 from Noumea. Nells and Mavis at Noumea turn back due to range, fatiguing the pilots and planes and losing two to ops. I have a 3 BB task force in the vicinity that may try an intercept.

Burma

Quiet. More evidence that Allied land forces may be advancing.

China

Capture the mountain hex East of Tienshui, 3 Chinese corps trashed[:)].

Cross the Yellow river North of Lanchow. For some reason a shock attack doesn't trigger. However, the defenders are weak and moving down a minor road so should be unable to escape[;)].

Allied VP goes up - presumably Chungking is back in supply, is this because I didn't bomb it this turn?

Also see that Allies have moved some fighters into Chungking.

[Spidery]

Just noticed 5 reported sightings of subs off the East coast of Honshu. I have no subs in the area so it looks like some Allied sub activity at last.

Created some ASW task forces and set some aircraft on ASW missions.

[Spidery]

April 9th 1942

Air Losses: 33 Japanese, 10 Allied, 26 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Tanahdjampea(auto)
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:

Australia

Quiet

Pacific

I-30 follows a task force into Seward harbour and sinks an xAK by torpedo and 2 YO by gunfire. 3 ships in one day [8D]

I-27 also finds a task force but elects not to attack [:(]

Burma

Bomb Ledo airfield and destroy 5 aircraft on the ground.

China

Sweeps hit Chungking followed by some city attacks. The H81-A3 outclasses the Oscar by a mile and the pilots must be trained up by now. Fortunately, most bombers are targeted against ground units instead of attacking Chungking, even so 21 oscars and 11 sallies are traded for 5 H81-A3[:@].

I need to work on my air combat tactics[:D].

As expected, a ground attack pushes the Chinese back towards Sining.

Also, an isolated Chinese unit is devastated by launching a shock attack across a river near Nanning; it will be destroyed in the next few days. He started moving it the same time as I had units heading for Burma here.[;)]

Engineering

Taihoku airfield expands to 4. Lots of Allied airfields expand.

[pontiouspilot]

It's not time yet to get outa northern Aust but in my view there comes a point where it becomes a quagmire for the Japanese player. It can be a wonderful distraction for the IJA vs the Allies early on but the risk is that it becomes a huge POW camp if not timely getting out.

[obvert]

China

Sweeps hit Chungking followed by some city attacks. The H81-A3 outclasses the Oscar by a mile and the pilots must be trained up by now. Fortunately, most bombers are targeted against ground units instead of attacking Chungking, even so 21 oscars and 11 sallies are traded for 5 H81-A3.

Every Japanese player gets jumped occasionally. You have to move forward, and airstrikes can help you. The question is here, what are you bombing? Also, if the Allies move fighters in you have to either sweep a lot and turn off the bombers or just recon the place and see what is there.

Every time you lose 30 planes that is 30 kills and a lot of experience for the Allied pilots. This adds up quickly.

[Spidery]

Some minor things I have discovered

Admin effect on packing

I had a number of Nav guard units at Tokyo that I decided to strat move to an embarkation port. Some of them take 1 day to pack others 2. I had a look and the ones taking longer have low Admin leaders - some of the detail in this is amazing.

How to Fix Carrier Planes

The planes on my CVs were showing significant plane fatigue, 20 or 30 or more. I put them to stand down and moved the mini-KB into Singapore for a few days and some aircraft were fixed but many left with high fatigue levels.

The KB returned to Japan after the Northern action and I decided to re-size some LBA groups. So I offloaded the planes from the Akagi (while it was docked), putting all the planes into maintenance, the next day - almost all the planes are completely fixed. I can reload them onto the Akagi and in a few days they will be ready to fly with no fatigue.

This seems a rather effective way of fixing planes.