Matrix Games Forums

Is it possible to do an in between approach? I'm not an expert on the Japanese economy but to me the best solution is one where the net changes in engine production are minimal. So if you convert some Ocars AND Helens to Tojos I think that gets you a lot closer to a net 0 engine usage change.

Why not just do Option 1, and turn the Ha-34 factories off as desired?

Decisions, decisions… What do you guys think?

Some general thoughts.

The Oscar will be your frontline IJA escort fighter for the entire war, and in that role they'll die in droves. The later-war models are also pretty nifty, so you might get some value out of them by flying them over your bases as low CAP. The more you have stockpiled, the stronger the ablative armour of your late-war anti-shipping strikes will be.

The Tojo is your main sweep and CAP plane for 1943, but once you're in to 1944, you'll be replacing it with the Frank and Tony. If you run out of these, who cares? At best, they'll end up as rear-area CAP or night-fighters by '44.

Have you started training up your IJA bombers in naval attack roles? Considering how bombing Allied bases becomes too dangerous once the big Allied flak units arrive, it may be worthwhile to get some of the IJA units trained up to be capable of anti-shipping strikes, which takes alot of the pressure off scarce IJN 2E bomber units. They can't bomb Allied airbases, but they can bomb Allied ships.

Sangeli, the problem is that you have to convert an entire factory. The number of factories is a hard limit. So, it's one or the other.

I'm going to go with option 1. Mind_messing, what you say I've read countless times. Guess I'll really need those Oscars no matter how bad.

31 Jan 43

Sub War

Today was a busy day under the surface. Actually, every day is busy but I only report on events where damage occurs.

In the straights south of Takao, a US sub has been lurking. The only ASW TF I have available (in addition to some float planes on ASW patrol) is composed of PBs. Today, the lurker took out a Kiso class PB. Too bad, but that’s pretty much their fate.

One of the subs (3-4 that I can see) finally took a hit. The Fumizuki hit the Triton with a DC. She didn’t sink, but I’m sure she’ll have to head for the barn for repairs. That’s 5-6 weeks she’s gone.

I sent the I-158 to patrol off Perth. She’s still headed there, but found the AP Harris (nice big one) who was transporting troops and put a torpedo into her. No report of her sinking, but I’m sure those surviving troops need to change their shorts.

Finally, the I-173 is part of the east-west line of subs looking for signs of an invasion north into the SE Fleet area. She’s stationed a few hexes to the SW of Noumea. In the morning, she spotted and attacked a large xAK, but unfortunately missed. Later in the day, she put a torpedo into the TK Gufldawn, which was carrying fuel. No report of her sinking, but hitting a full TK about to reach a port where carriers were known to be recently is always a good thing!

Nice day for our submarine service!

5 Fleet

Adak is fully repaired, so now my engineers can continue to build up the fort, which currently is at 5.68. I’d like to get it to level 7, but 6 will work too.) Supply is >18k and rising. All the troops have landed and are accepting replacements almost constantly. I swapped out the Zero daitai with a 42 plane Oscar IIb sentai. Both units were originally training units. I can afford to lose an IJA fighter training unit than an IJN training unit. The Zeros did gain some valuable experience but I will move them back to Yokohama (they’re currently at Etorofu) where the experienced pilots will move to the reserve and the unit will begin training more recruits after swapping out their Zeros for Claudes.

The Zero daitai’s last excitement was to counter 3x B-24Ds Ted sent to bomb Adak. They shot down 2 of the beasts for a loss of 1 Zero (pilot ok) and the surviving B-24 caused no damage. Banzai!

SE Fleet

Ted chose to hit Shortland Island again with his 4E bombers, 49 this time. I shot down 2 with another 4 reported op losses for a Tojo shot down and a few more planes destroyed on the ground. I expect another day or two of bombing raids, hopefully on Shortland or Rabaul, then Ted will stand them down to repair and draw replacements.

Current airfield damage:

Rabaul – no damage
Shortland: 30 service, 69 runway
Gasmata: 7 port, 98 service, 2 runway

Ted hit Gasmata again, this time with 3 Corsairs and 18 SBDs. As soon as the service damage there drops below 50%, I will station ~60 Tojos and 30 Nicks to ambush those planes. I’d love to prove that I can shoot down a Corsair, and I can easily decimate the SBDs. Then I’ll skedaddle, because I know that he’ll send in 4E bombers to plaster the place.

I’ve noticed that there are currently no convoys headed to PNG, which is pretty rare. Either the Betties have been successful in causing Ted to pull back or he has enough stuff and doesn’t need more at the moment.

SRA

Nothing exciting. I should have figured that Ted would eventually find Davao. I should have continued to build up Babeldaob’s port, something I have neglected. It’s at level 3, and I am trying to bump it up. I have decided to send the 3 engineer regiments I got a few days ago there to get the port up to level 5, so it can be a proper hub.

Burma

Nothing real exciting here either. We each traded a fighter over Shwebo.

If you don’t recall, the 22 Air Flotilla guards the waters off Burma. It has 2x Zero daitai, a 36 plane unit providing CAP and Betty escort at Pt. Blair and a 45 Zero daitai that provides CAP over Rangoon. That unit just converted to a 36 plane unit. It actually has 2 functions, first as CAP, and second to train some 50/70 fighter pilots, which it does very well. Every now and then, I cull out some of the more highly trained pilots and add more 50/70 pilots.

China

To the west of Nanchang, I have surrounded 32 Chinese units. I’m slowly herding them into a base they control (can’t remember the name offhand). Twenty-four are at the base and the other 8 are in the countryside west of Nanchang. I have a ring around them so they are completely cut off from supply. I counted them today and saw that there are only 16 in the base and 8 outside, so 8 have died of attrition, because I am not attacking them intentionally in the base. My goal is to not kill them off but let them die of attrition. I’ve got the 13 Army doing this mission. I’d love to free them up for front line service, but first I want to wipe out these guys. Anyhoo, my main body of 3 divisions + support (it’s a pretty big ring around them) hit a 3 corps stack to push them toward the base. The 12:1 attack successfully pushed them where I wanted them to go causing 887(3) Japanese to 3921(218) Chinese casualties.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement:

SC CHa-51 – ASW/torpedo magnet (shh, don’t tell the crew)

With the end of the month, I got a total of 53 IJN pilots advance from month 10 and 56 IJN pilots advance from month 9. That’ll save me 545 HI.

The D4Y1 becomes operational. I chose to keep the D3Y1 factory intact (even though it’s been off for months, with 70+ in the pool) and decided to convert the B5N1 factory to the Judy (size 30). The B5N1 has been off for months. I used it to use up the Nakajima Hikari engines that started in the pool. I have >100 B5N1s in the pool, along with 60+ B5N2s in the pool. My Kate losses have been very light. I use the N2 in KB and the N1 in MKB. They will eventually be Kamikazes, I suspect. Anyway, I had no need for the B5N1 factory any longer since there were no engines left to build any more. I try to keep my options open as much as possible.

I will use both the Val and Judy in KB/MKB. The D4Y3 is the model I really want, due to its longer range, but I don’t expect to see that version until around Dec 43. I expect to have ~500 D4Y1/2 and most will become Kamikazes. They will be stationed on islands that are to be invaded and will be expended on shipping that comes within range. If I can pull that off, they should be devastating with their 500kg bombs. I will need to be precise as to where I place them though with their short range. I can see using them in the SRA where there are clusters of airfields in close proximity.

Corsairs die fairly easily, for Corsairs, when they are on escort missions. Nail those sobs![:D]

Stagger some of CAP to get a dive...

On Oscars, if you go all the way to IV and get those beautiful cl cannons, you sacrifice a little distance so chose wisely now because that extra range is very nice...but then so are the cannons! Your choice.

I've got the monthly rollup to post and a couple of turns too, but I will say that the 4E bombers have gone back to turning Gasmata into the face of the moon. They go in unescorted but it has always been preceded by a sweep by Corsairs. Hmm… Need to work out something.

Anyway, catching up before the morning turn arrives.

End of Jan 43 Economy Update:

Supply: Up 210k from last month! Life is good. My goal is 1.8 million in Japan by mid-44. Lots can (and will) happen by then, but at this rate I should far exceed my goal.

Fuel: Modest increase this month, but I’m getting more green months than red months now. Had I not had KB/MKB tooling around in the north, it would have been much higher, but it did prevent an invasion of Adak and allow me to get Adak in a position where it can possibly survive a division sized invasion. I count that as fuel well spent. My goal is 3 million fuel in Japan by mid-44. That may be inaccessible, but we’ll try.

Heavy Industry: Up 120k where my goal is 100k. My goal is 2.5 million in Japan by mid-44, or 700k at the end of 42, 1.9 million by the end of 43. Way ahead of schedule, but as the pilot training ramps up, I slowly increase my engine/airframe production and turn on more armament factories, my monthly surplus will decline. I’m confident that I’ll exceed the goal.

Resources: They’re fine.

Oil: It declined a bit last month, but it’s actually staying in the 2.6-2.7 million range, and has been since Jul 42. The goal is 2.5 million in the Home Islands by mid-44. I doubt I achieve that, but hopefully it won’t be too much below it. In addition to the obvious need for fuel from the refineries, I’m also counting on the refineries in Japan to produce as long as possible to produce much needed supply. If my supply situation turns out to be good, then running out of oil in early 45 is something I think I can live with. There’s really not much I can do here. I will take Urumuchi in Feb 43, but I’ve heard that the oil doesn’t flow out of there. I’m hoping it does. That should help out a lot.

Naval Shipyard Points: This fluctuates with time, so I don’t mind having the final total for the month to be low. I make sure it never hits 0, because then the computer decides how to allocate points for that turn. I’ve shut off all the transport subs. Shinano is off, as is Taiho (for now). I accelerate DDs as soon as they can (5 right now). Then I accelerate as many CVs as I can.

Merchant Shipyard Points: This has been plummeting 150-200 a day. I keep shutting off small and late arriving xAK(L)s and TKs but I can’t seem to stem the tide. I’ll get there. Nothing that uses these points is accelerated. I have shut off the tiny CVEs as well.

Armaments: Once I got to 100k in the pool, I shut off 500 of the 620 factories. I’ve been getting reinforcements pretty regularly now (compared to earlier) and they’ve been taking more armament points so about a week or so ago I turned on another 100 factories. That started to increase the pool modestly once again.

Vehicles: I keep all 120 factories on all the time. I am very cautious and critical about replacements and upgrades to my tank units. As a matter of fact, nothing gets upgrades until I hit ~11k in the pool. Then, one at a time each time the pool hits 11k again. I have all 3 tank divisions, so that huge drain on the pool is over.

Pilot Pools: The IJN pool is looking good, mainly because I don’t have a lot of training units. The IJA pool is hurting because I have so many training units. I have increased the requirements for the IJA to 52/73 experience/skill to slow down the drain on the pool.

Pilot Reserve: They keep increasing, which is what I want. Whenever I pull anyone out, I take the worst of the lot for the type I’m pulling.

TRACOM: The IJN is getting to a point where they’re accelerating significant numbers of pilots (109 this past month). I’d like to get the IJA to >100 this month. If I get them there, maybe they’ll start accelerating pilot training too. We’ll see.

Lost Pilots: I noticed something interesting. During the latter half of the month, most of the planes that were shot down were lost over friendly bases. My MIA pilots dropped tremendously and the number of WIA pilots increased significantly. My losses over the month (KIA & MIA) were slightly under 7 per day, with the average over the war at 5 per day. To date, I’ve never lost more pilots than I received from training.

Pilot Training: you’ll see that the 1-3 month totals for both the IJA and IJN are significantly higher, due to the increase in pilot recruitment for months 1 & 2 (the January and February 1943 classes). This is nice, but it’ll increase my HI expenditures for pilots and that is only going to grow throughout the year, and I don’t get those pilots until 1944. My goal is to keep pilot losses lower than 300 per month. That’s an average of 10 per day. We’ll see how that works out. Note that there were 216 pilots lost in Jan 43, which doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room.

Political Points: I haven’t had an issue with these for many months. I can usually buy what I want when I want it.

Score: For those of you who care, I’m maintaining a 2:1 ratio but it is ever so slowly dropping.

Plane Losses: My losses finally exceeded Allied plane losses. It is entirely due to Ted’s bombing campaign of my airfields in SE Fleet area. That’s fine with me. I have a 1.5:1 ratio over Ted in air-to-air kills and I have higher numbers in the other categories. Since I’m not doing much to kill Teds planes (other than over my airbases), I don’t expect Ted’s air losses to exceed mine any more.

Ship Losses: I'll post this separately later. I have figured out how to know for sure what sank. I'll discuss that as well.

Production: I’m pretty much at my high point. Next month will be slightly better after I take Urumuchi, but after that, it’s downhill all the way. I just hope it’s slow enough to keep the economy afloat.

Edit: Oops, forgot the table.

1 Feb 43

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

Something interesting happened. When the 20 Artillery regiment offloaded at Adak, I initially dropped the troops from 1 ship at a time. I ended up with 20 Art Reg/1 on the island with 10x 15cm guns and 12 support. A couple days later, the other 2 ships offloaded the remainder of the regiment and I saw 2 separate units, 20 Art Reg at 65% and the /1 portion described above. I expected them to combine the next turn but they never did. Now I have 2 different artillery units and the "main unit" is taking replacements and will eventually be a full strength regiment. Odd glitch, but I'll take it. I guess they can't find each other on the island.

There was a 4 ship TF that I spotted near Dutch Harbor, composed of a CVL, BB, CA & CL with 10 auxiliary aircraft. Hmm…

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Ted opted to go for Gasmata again, with 39x unescorted 4E bombers. He swept it with a dozen Corsairs first. I need to figure out what to do. Gasmata's airfield is closed.

There was something new as well. Ted sent 11x B-25Cs (from Luganville, I believe) to hit Guadalcanal. I have a level 2 airfield there but no AS, just a Naval Guard and some engineers. They hit the airfield unmolested. The damage was minor, but not completely repaired.

SRA

We traded an Oscar for 2 Kittyhawks at Saumlaki. Those Kittyhawks are pretty hard to kill. I'm going to pull my fighters out. No reason to lose planes or pilots here.

Burma

Bad day in the air. I lost 7 fighters to 3 Allied fighters, all over my airfields so my pilot losses were low.

China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement:

xAKL Daiju Maru - Std-E - I like these for expendable supply missions. They carry 828 supply.

The Ki-100-II R&D advanced to 2/45.

The 3 Hashidates entered refit. They exist at the start of the war and have no DC rack. They don't refit until Feb 43, so they've spend the entire war in port. I had them in a TF at Hong Kong for months to increase crew experience. They finally are going to get Type 95 Mod-2 DC racks. They have 3500 endurance, so they'll probably become convoy escorts.

I converted a 30 plane Helen factory to the Tojo (30 planes).

The Abukuma and the 18 surviving Fubukis completed refit. They'll head to Truk.

With my huge (relatively) supply surplus, I decided to upgrade my R&D factories. I had a Kayaba Argus and Ha-42 factory (neither of which was needed) and converted them to size 30 Ha-43 and NE Turbojet factories.

Ted and I have been trading turns and blows all weekend. I haven't had time to update this unfortunately. I have the 7 Feb turn in my inbox but opted to post a bit and do the turn tomorrow. This is becoming an interesting point in the war. I feel I still have superiority, but that will most likely change when he begins getting Hellcats in Apr 43. I want to cause as much damage as I can to slow him up. He's starting to get frisky too. The game is definitely getting more interesting.

2 Feb 43

Sub War

I've had a PB ASW TF guarding Tarakan since I took that base over a year ago. Today, a Dutch sub arrived and torpedoed and sank a To'su PB and got away. I also have some Marys on ASW patrol there, but they did nothing as well.

5 Fleet

Adak continues to fortify, with over 19k supply and the fort level increasing. Unfortunately, this is the high point for awhile….

4 Fleet

[>:]

SE Fleet

49x 4E bombers hit Gasmata again, closing the airfield. That's ok, I have no planes there at the moment.

The other little incident that happened here as the 1 Australian Parachute Battalion landed at Woodlark Island, a dot hex south of Gasmata. I do not want him building an airfield there. I have a little trick up my sleeve though…

SRA

[>:]

Burma

It was a good day in the air. For a cost of 3 fighters, I shot down 8 Allied fighters.

China

[>:]

Other Stuff

A6M5b R&D advanced to 6/43.

Reinforcement:

xAK Tsuruha Maru - Std-D - will convert to a TK.

3 Feb 43

Sub War

I can't begin to tell you how many times my subs have shot at enemy DDs and missed. It's ridiculous. Today, a few hexes off Prince Rupert, the I-26 took a shot at a DD and actually hit her, with a dud! [8|] In return, she was hit by a depth charge. She'll survive, but began the long limp back to Etorofu.

5 Fleet

Remember those 4 ships I saw a couple of days ago? Well, it wasn't 4 ships. It was 4 BB, 1 CA, 3 CL, 3CLAA and they bombarded Adak. Back to the drawing board. Damage is Port 100%, Service 71% and Runway 64% with the supply down to under 13k. Also, one of the two ACMs sank. Ouch. Oh well, there are a lot of engineers and the troops took little damage, with what little there was being disablement. *Sigh*

4 Fleet

[>:]

SE Fleet

The Allied bombers rested today, other than about a dozen B-25Cs bombing Guadalcanal again causing just a little airfield damage.

In various sweeps by Allied fighters, we lost 5 fighters to 3 Allied fighters shot down, including a Corsair. It is possible to shoot those beasts down!

I had the 3 Parachute Regiment hanging out at Rabaul, just in case there was a mission that could use their unique talent (jumping out of good airplanes). I massed 26 Tinas, 9 Topsys and 6 Mavis transports to drop on Woodlark Island. It was a smashing success! The 13:1 shock attack wiped out the element of the 1 Aussie Para Bn with no loss to my troops. The Aussies lost 773(67) troops. Banzai! I'll use the Mavis flying boats to pull the paratroopers out and bring in an SNLF slice. Ted later told me that he was surprised I was able to react so quickly. Heh, heh, heh….

SRA

[>:]

Burma

[>:]

China

[>:]

Other Stuff

Reinforcement:

62 JNAF AF Unit

7x DMS finished conversion to E.

4 Feb 43

Sub War

Not a great day today. Ted's subs caught the E Chidori (Tomozuru class) south of Hong Kong and the Std-B TK Sanju Maru south of Kobe and sank them both. [8|]

5 Fleet

Repairs of Adak continue. Supply is flowing in again with 2800 on ship that should arrive in the next day or two.

4 Fleet

[>:]

SE Fleet

Ted's bombers rested, other than the B-25s over Guadalcanal. I had some Zeros from Shortland fly LRCAP over Guadalcanal to try and ambush some. Only 3 arrived and all the succeeded in doing was damaging a few. The bombers did just a couple of points of runway damage. Ted stopped the bombing after today. Once he realized I could get fighters over Guadalcanal, then he figured it wouldn't be worth the lost planes.

In the air, I had a pretty good day, losing a Tojo for 5(!) P-38s.

Ted decided to try and bomb Woodlark with 3x B-24s. Nothing.

SRA

[>:]

Burma

We traded 2 Japanese for 3 Allied fighters.

China

[>:]

Other Stuff

An xAP was confirmed sunk on 9/5/42. It was a big 'un.

The fun begins tomorrow. [:D]

Today was an exciting day, but it didn’t start out very well. Anyway, when Ted sent me this turn, he made a comment about how I should change the names of my tankers to Zippo Maru. He definitely has a way with words, but he spoke a little too soon.

5 Feb 43

Sub War

Things started out ok with the I-168 putting a torpedo into an xAK between Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island. She didn’t sink.

Then things got worse. The Seadragon sank CHa-13 (lucky #13) 2 hexes south of Kobe and got away. The problem (I think) was that the TF she was in was out of fuel and limping back to port. I find that on occasion an ASW TF will not return to port to refuel. This was the case. Gotta look on the bright side. That sub used up 2 torpedoes that can be better used against a better ship.

Then, 3 hexes south of Babeldaob, the Trigger sank TK Moji Maru, full of oil. She was one of the baby 1250 capacity TKs that was hauling oil from Babo to Babeldaob. She wasn’t keeping up with production there and I have 3x Std-D TKs headed to that region to supplement the fleets drawing oil from Babo and Boela.

5 Fleet

No action at Adak today, just cleaning up the place. Damage is 100-71-55 (Port-Service-Runway).

4 Fleet

Nada.

SE Fleet

Ted’s 4E bombers rested today. That’s nice, because all of my damaged airfields continue to repair. He is sweeping Gasmata and Talasea (the base 2 hexes north of Gasmata). Overall, I lost 2 Zeros and a Tojo in exchange for 6 Kittyhawk IIIs (no pilots lost).

Base damage:

Gasmata: 7-100-22
Shortland Island: 0-30-19

SRA

I had 4 Otori E class in an ASW TF operating off Davao. I moved them to Babeldaob to drive off the sub that sank the TK today. They’re pretty good platforms. I need to find more decent ASW ships (2-3 more TFs) to protect Babeldaob because it’s surrounded by deep water hexes.

I pulled one out of Ted’s book today. I sent a bombardment fleet from Singapore to hit Darwin. I moved a sub through Darwin to make sure it didn’t have any mines then sent in 4 BB, 4 CA, 1 CL (escorted by 4 DD) and did a number on Darwin. I don’t like to post replay stuff, but I’ll make an exception here:

Night Naval bombardment of Darwin at 76,124 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
Kittyhawk III: 12 damaged
Kittyhawk III: 1 destroyed on ground
TBF-1 Avenger: 16 damaged
TBF-1 Avenger: 5 destroyed on ground
Beaufort VIII: 7 damaged
Beaufort VIII: 2 destroyed on ground
PBY-5A Catalina: 19 damaged
PBY-5A Catalina: 3 destroyed on ground
Kittyhawk IA: 6 damaged
Kittyhawk IA: 4 destroyed on ground

3 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.

Japanese Ships
BB Hyuga
BB Ise
BB Yamashiro
BB Fuso
CA Chokai
CA Maya
CA Atago
CA Takao
CL Naka

Allied ground losses:
415 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 16 destroyed, 55 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 5 disabled

Resources hits 1
Airbase hits 14
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 43
Port hits 14

E8N2 Dave acting as spotter for BB Hyuga
BB Hyuga firing at Darwin
BB Ise firing at Darwin
BB Yamashiro firing at Darwin
BB Fuso firing at Darwin
2nd RAN Base Force firing at CA Chokai
CA Chokai firing at 2nd RAN Base Force
CA Maya firing at Darwin
CA Atago firing at Darwin
CA Takao firing at Darwin
CL Naka firing at 5th Australian Division

When I checked out the ships this turn, I saw that only Chokai was low on ammo, so I sent them back for a second round tomorrow. When possible, I like to have bombardments 2 days in a row because there is a chance of killing a bunch of damaged planes the second day.

After the second bombardment (tomorrow), Ted asked if I was coming back for the third day of my “Darwin urban renewal program”.

Burma

First the mundane: I shot down 3 Allied fighters over my bases.

Ted decided to focus on my main army on the road between Akyab and Cox’s Bazaar. He sent 142x 2E and 20x 4E bombers in, escorted by fighters. They caused no damage and my flak shot down a Wellington! Amazing!

A couple of months ago, I wanted to set up to launch some torpedo bombers against Colombo. I’ve noticed he has no fighters there, and I constantly see convoys coming in and out. No Betty or Nell would reach Colombo from Pt. Blair within normal (torpedo) range, but I saw that the G3M3 Nell could just barely reach Colombo just within normal range from Little Andaman Island. I dumped a bunch of engineers and an Air HQ (for torpedoes) on the dot hex and built it up to a level 2 airfield. I placed a G3M3 daitai and chutai there and waited. Today it paid off. I’m going to break my golden rule twice in one turn:

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Colombo at 29,48

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid spotted at 18 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Japanese aircraft
G3M3 Nell x 22

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M3 Nell: 2 damaged
G3M3 Nell: 1 destroyed by flak

Allied Ships
TK Solor, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
TK British Unity
TK Saidja, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires
TK British Colonel, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
TK British Hope, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk

Aircraft Attacking:
15 x G3M3 Nell launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo
7 x G3M3 Nell launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo

At a cost of 1 Nell, I sank 2 TKs and seriously damaged 2 more. Better yet, they were full of fuel. Yeah, I know, it really doesn’t matter. It does slow things up a bit, and that’s the name of the game.

Also, I expect Ted to place at least a squadron of older fighters there at some point. I hope he doesn’t so I can attack again (and again), but eventually he will. That’ll also be a good thing, because it’ll take a few fighters off the front line.

China

Nothing exciting to report.

Other Stuff

Nothing exciting.

6 Feb 43

Sub War

I posted 4 subs around Woodlark Island thinking Ted might try and invasion to take it back from me. That never materialized (so far) but an ASW TF wandered over the RO-60 and hit her with a depth charge. She’ll survive, but she’s headed back to the fender shop.

One of my supply ships heading to Adak was a Std-E xAKL, a tiny, expendable ship. The S-44 surfaced and shot her up. She survived to unload her cargo at Adak.

5 Fleet

No other combat happened here today. Troops are taking on more replacements and awaiting the day when the island is able to receive DP guns for better defense (8 days from now).

I have decided to send some carriers back up here. KB1 is currently fully repaired at Truk, along with the fast replenishment fleet (fully loaded). KB 3 just arrived at Kwajalein and fully replenished itself. It’ll repair the minor sys damage it has.

KB2 (Kaga, Ryujo, Shoho & Zuiho) and the slow replenishment fleet are returning to visit Dutch Harbor. I decided to do this on the off chance that the bombardment fleet returns. (The last I saw them, they were east of Dutch Harbor headed east to Prince Rupert possibly. They’ll probably replenish there. Anyway, I see several TFs, a couple of which have small craft including one with a bunch of LCI(R). I’d love to blow them out of the water, along with the remaining small craft. That’s an invasion fleet. KB2 will be in position to attack in a couple of days. Should be interesting if the weather cooperates.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

52x 4E bombers hit Shortland causing more damage and killing 3 Zeros and a Betty on the ground.

Overall fighters shot down were 3 Japanese fighters to 8 Allied fighters.

My Betties flew out of Shortland again. Target: Pt. Moresby harbor. Usually I cringe when this happens but Ted had no fighters on CAP! The 6 Betties attacked a couple of xAPs sinking a big one. Very nice! Unfortunately, she was empty.

Damage:
Gasmata: 7-100-1
Shortland Island: 0-52-60

SRA

More excitement at Darwin. Here’s the result:

Night Naval bombardment of Darwin at 76,124

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
Beaufort VIII: 11 damaged
Beaufort VIII: 1 destroyed on ground
PBY-5A Catalina: 36 damaged
PBY-5A Catalina: 2 destroyed on ground
Kittyhawk III: 5 damaged
Kittyhawk III: 2 destroyed on ground
TBF-1 Avenger: 19 damaged
TBF-1 Avenger: 3 destroyed on ground
Kittyhawk IA: 3 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Hyuga
BB Ise
BB Yamashiro
BB Fuso
CA Chokai
CA Maya
CA Atago
CA Takao
CL Naka

Allied Ships
SS O20, hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
AM Geelong, Shell hits 1, heavy damage

Allied ground losses:
191 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 4 disabled
Non Combat: 15 destroyed, 33 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 3 disabled

Airbase hits 10
Airbase supply hits 4
Runway hits 26
Port hits 3
Port supply hits 1

E8N2 Dave acting as spotter for BB Hyuga
BB Hyuga firing at 5th Australian Division
E8N2 Dave acting as spotter for BB Ise
BB Ise firing at Darwin
BB Yamashiro firing at Darwin
BB Fuso firing at Darwin
CA Chokai firing at Darwin
CA Maya firing at 5th Australian Division
CA Atago firing at Darwin
CA Takao firing at Darwin
CL Naka firing at Darwin

That’s a total of 7 supply hits. I like it since it’s so hard to supply Darwin. Also, the O20 took 3 hits. No report of her sinking, but she’s definitely out of commission for a bit. There’s also a total of 23 destroyed planes and bunches damaged. Hopefully, some good pilots were killed too. Very nice little series of bombardments. That should slow down the build-up of that critical base. My bombardment TF is currently heading back to Singapore, but I may divert it to Soerabaja to replenish and top off for a possible return trip. We’ll see. I need to get some recon in that area to keep an eye on what’s going on at Darwin. I have a Glen sub headed that way, but I want some Dinahs there.

Burma

Ted’s bombers hit my main army again, this time causing 2-3 damaged squads. It just doesn’t seem to be worth it to bombard troops in the jungle.

There were no plane losses from the Allied sweeps.

China

The 3 Tank Division is motoring north toward Urumuchi. It’ll be a while before they get there. I’m confident that they’ll be able to take the base.

Other Stuff

The Ki-44-IIc R&D advanced to 8/43.
The Ha-43 R&D advanced to 7/45.

I’m sniffing an invasion at Adak and somewhere in the SE Fleet area. Right now I have the following carrier aircraft in those areas:

5 Fleet: 108 Z, 18 V, 54 K (KB2)
SE Fleet: 204 Z, 108 V, 135 K (KB1 & 3)

KB2 won’t stay up north very long. There is only about 15k fuel with the replenishment fleet. All the ships in KB2 and the replenishment fleet are currently just about full, but there definitely is a fuel concern. They’ll make 1-2 days of attacks then boogie out of there. I don’t think Ted is expecting this.

There is about 100k fuel at Truk and only 15k at Kwajalein (KB3 drank a lot when they returned). I get about 32k delivered every 2 weeks (probably a little more frequently than that). I need to figure out how long it really takes per convoy. I have 2 TK convoys, each of 4x 7950 capacity TKs that CS fuel from Balikpapan to Truk. So far, Ted hasn’t found them. I’m keeping fingers crossed that it stays that way. At any rate, when KB2 and the replenishment fleet return, they’ll use up most of all of that reserve in refueling and refilling the AOs. (The AO capacity is 56k.) I’m looking for another source to give Truks fuel reserves a jolt. Those 2 CS convoys pretty much keep Balikpapan drained. There’s 90k+ fuel at Davao, but it might be difficult getting it out. I need to find some TKs and slip them past the subs off Davao twice (getting in and out again). I’ll take a look at the possibilities tonight. I have some xAKs with 300 fuel capacity in Davao’s harbor. I may load a convoy of these ships and give it a go. I need to get more fuel to Truk, and soon. I have a feeling it is going to be needed. My goal is to get Truk up to 200k fuel as a reserve.

I’ll close with this morning’s email from Ted. He really has a way with words:

Cowardly little JFB,
Your nocturnal activities are far more irritating than I have led you to believe. While those Helens over PM, Milne Bay and Merauke are very similar to mosquitos buzzing in my ear, the recent redecoration of Darwin was more like a horsefly bite on the back of my thigh or a wasp sting on top of the big toe (both of which I have firsthand experience). I had a couple of squadrons of torpedo bombers in Darwin which are now smoldering scrap metal. Thanks much. You'll be hearing from me soon

I hope he has his bombardment fleet headed back to Adak. It should get there about the same time as KB2.

I recently got a lot of AS battalions. I’ve decided that I’m going to send most of them to SE Fleet area to set up shop at several of the islands in the Solomons chain so I can move my air units around (and give him more targets for his 4E bombers, diluting their efforts even more). It’ll take a while to get them there, but that should reduce the amount of planes destroyed on the ground. I want Ted to focus his efforts here and in the Aleutians. The more time spent here is less time destroying the stuff that matters.

I’ll send them in pairs, giving 48 AS per airfield. I can split up my Betty daitai allowing 9-15 Betties along with fighter cover at each airfield. They Betties usually fly in 6-9 plane flights anyway. They may have to carry bombs instead of torpedoes sometimes, but that’s something I can live with.

7 Feb 43

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

Same ole thing. Repair, repair, repair.

Adak: 100-71-17

The ground units are in great shape. Almost all are at 100% strength. The only ones below are the naval guard unit (67%), an engineer company (94%) and the base force (97%). The artillery regiment is technically at 71% but is really over strength (since it is accepting replacements) with the slice that won’t attach back to it with 10x 15cm guns and 9x mot spt. The fort level is stuck at 5.69 and holding until the damage is repaired. Supply is offloading slowly with the port 100% damaged.

Only a week left until 24x DP guns are available. [:D]

KB2 is 2 days from launching against the TFs sitting at Dutch Harbor.

4 Fleet

Marcus Island is a couple days from reaching level 6 forts. I have a base force there and that electric engineer unit from Kwantung. I’m swapping them out with the Ichiki det (battalion sized infantry unit, which had been hanging out at Saipan). Marcus Island is an atoll and has a 6k personnel limit.

SE Fleet

The Allied 4E bombers hit Shortland again, 54 bombers today. Sweeps over Gasmata cost 4 Japanese fighters (1 KIA, 2 WIA) for 1 Corsair (and an op loss). The A6M5 and the Tojo seem to work well best against them. I think the Oscar’s armament isn’t up to the task.

Gasmata: 7-80-0
Shortland: 0-64-89

I am loading 2x AS units (48 total AS) at Tokyo for Tulagi. I’m looking for another airfield in the area to do the same thing. The idea is to create more potential airfields I can use against the Allies which will create more targets for Teds bombers, watering down the damage further.

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

We each lost a fighter over Katha (1 WIA). Ted is focusing all of his bombers on my army on the road between Akyab and Cox’s Bazaar. They did little damage (1 or 2 squads disabled). Tomorrow I am going to set up an ambush with all of my available fighters to try and whittle them down some. He sweeps with fighters, but usually they fly after the bombers attack.

China

The 3 Tank Division is about half way to Urumuchi. There are 3 enemy brigades and a base force (and some air units) there with one of my tank regiments sitting in the hex. Also, I have a cavalry brigade chasing around the remnants of a Chinese base force trying to destroy it in the area.

Other Stuff

Ted admitted that my DC attacks are causing a bit of damage:

The Mod 2 depth charges are doing some damage though. I've got 3 boats limping back with some serious damage and one of them will likely have to be scuttled. On the other hand, I just had 8 more finish upgrades

Unfortunately, that’s 3 out of a bazillion. [8|]

I’ve been looking hard at plane stats to try and determine which stats are most important. Ted said that all of his Corsair pilots are 70+/70+ for experience and air skill. His P-38 pilots are not that good, and they are definitely suffering more than the Corsairs. That being said, what plane stats are best? Here are some stats:

Plane Speed Max Alt Man Dur Armor Gun
A6M5 351 38,500 29 27 0 12
Ki-44-IIa 376 36,740 26 28 0 10
Ki-43-IIb 341 36,740 32 23 1 6

F4U-1 407 36,800 18 35 1 18
P-38G 400 39,000 14 37 1 16

The first thing I see is maneuverability. What good is it? Look at the Allied maneuverability vs. the Japanese maneuverability. Wow!

I see a combination of high durability and armor produces damages vs. hard kills. Sure the plane may crash on the way home, but hard kills are better (and much more satisfying).

Max altitude and speed definitely complement each other. Since maneuverability doesn’t seem to matter, being able to dive on the other guy is a definite benefit, or that’s what you would think. The P-38 can be shot down, often in substantial numbers, and nothing can climb as high. So, it should clean house, right?

That brings me to pilot experience & skill. That must be the difference maker with the Allied planes. Ted said that the USAAF pilots have been fighting from the beginning (true) and many good pilots were lost in inferior planes. So, the experience level of the P-38 pilots is lower. The Corsairs, on the other hand, have much better pilots because the USN pilots haven’t fought much (also true). Ted admitted putting the best pilots in his now 2 Corsair squadrons. He gets 30 per month so I need to kill 1 a day to keep up with production. So far I have failed. I saw my first Corsair on 22 Jan and it is 7 Feb. He has gotten about 38 Corsairs and 5 are gone (2 shot down, 1 on ground, 2 op loss). That leave 2 full squadrons +. I’ve lost 16(!) planes to the Corsairs but fortunately only a few pilots. The Corsairs can only reach Gasmata. I’ve considered using pilots from TRACOM in and elite IJA and IJN unit to try and ambush the Corsairs, but have declined so far. I’ve been opposing him with just a couple of units while the remaining fighters rest and replenish. I am going to go all out here soon to try and bring down a number of Corsairs over my base. I want him to expend his best pilots here. Every 70+ pilot downed will decrease the quality of his carrier pilots. My carrier fighter pilots are excellent, with 6x elite pilots per CV and 4x elite pilots per CVL/CVE. The average experience is 72-75 per unit. I’ll sacrifice some planes (and a few pilots) here to wear him down and erode his good pilots. Unfortunately, the survivors are only that much better. There’s always some bad with the good.

I always try to remember, I am going to lose everything by the end. My goal is to fix him on unimportant goals, like Adak and SE Fleet area. He can bomb and bombard the heck out of those areas as much as he wants for as long as he wants. Since the front lines have stabilized (~8 months ago) I’ve lost nothing more important than a sub in either of those areas. I lose planes and will lose troops eventually, but he’s losing precious time, which is far more important.

The pilots in Corsairs are more than likely USMC pilots, as there aren't many USN LBA fighter units. So killing them won't affect the quality of his CV crop.

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli
I’ve been looking hard at plane stats to try and determine which stats are most important. Ted said that all of his Corsair pilots are 70+/70+ for experience and air skill. His P-38 pilots are not that good, and they are definitely suffering more than the Corsairs. That being said, what plane stats are best? Here are some stats:

Plane Speed Max Alt Man Dur Armor Gun
A6M5 351 38,500 29 27 0 12
Ki-44-IIa 376 36,740 26 28 0 10
Ki-43-IIb 341 36,740 32 23 1 6

F4U-1 407 36,800 18 35 1 18
P-38G 400 39,000 14 37 1 16

The first thing I see is maneuverability. What good is it? Look at the Allied maneuverability vs. the Japanese maneuverability. Wow!

I see a combination of high durability and armor produces damages vs. hard kills. Sure the plane may crash on the way home, but hard kills are better (and much more satisfying).

Max altitude and speed definitely complement each other. Since maneuverability doesn’t seem to matter, being able to dive on the other guy is a definite benefit, or that’s what you would think. The P-38 can be shot down, often in substantial numbers, and nothing can climb as high. So, it should clean house, right?

That brings me to pilot experience & skill. That must be the difference maker with the Allied planes. Ted said that the USAAF pilots have been fighting from the beginning (true) and many good pilots were lost in inferior planes. So, the experience level of the P-38 pilots is lower. The Corsairs, on the other hand, have much better pilots because the USN pilots haven’t fought much (also true). Ted admitted putting the best pilots in his now 2 Corsair squadrons. He gets 30 per month so I need to kill 1 a day to keep up with production. So far I have failed. I saw my first Corsair on 22 Jan and it is 7 Feb. He has gotten about 38 Corsairs and 5 are gone (2 shot down, 1 on ground, 2 op loss). That leave 2 full squadrons +. I’ve lost 16(!) planes to the Corsairs but fortunately only a few pilots. The Corsairs can only reach Gasmata. I’ve considered using pilots from TRACOM in and elite IJA and IJN unit to try and ambush the Corsairs, but have declined so far. I’ve been opposing him with just a couple of units while the remaining fighters rest and replenish. I am going to go all out here soon to try and bring down a number of Corsairs over my base. I want him to expend his best pilots here. Every 70+ pilot downed will decrease the quality of his carrier pilots. My carrier fighter pilots are excellent, with 6x elite pilots per CV and 4x elite pilots per CVL/CVE. The average experience is 72-75 per unit. I’ll sacrifice some planes (and a few pilots) here to wear him down and erode his good pilots. Unfortunately, the survivors are only that much better. There’s always some bad with the good.

Hi Mike, it seems to me that your issue here is high max speed delta. Yours A6M5 real maneuver values against F4U are more like this: 14/14/12/5 vs 20/19/18/16/12 of Corsairs due to slower plane being subjected to rule of reduction maneuver up to 50%. As you can see F4U can outmaneuver Zero on every altitude. So, over 31K alt it fly more like B-24 than fighter. When you add superior firepower and durability and good pilots killing F4U may be problem. I am sure that N1K1-J can do the trick due to altitude advantage and good firepower. But in case of using A6M2, Ki-44, Ki-43 you need force his to dive low and engage him under 15K alt.

Fuel & Oil: I would use both Balikpapan and Tarakan to build up your fuel surplus at Truk and beyond. If using CS convoys, use waypoints and then click the small icon at bottom of these three waypoints to have convoy return the same way with "Do Not Refuel" set to not use any fuel to return back to these two bases. The oil from Boela and Babo should go to a base that you bring the resource back for collection before going back to Japan. Is it Davao for you or Babeldoab?? I use the dual capacity xAKs (cargo and liquid) to load both resources and oil for trip back to Japan for efficiency. Most of mine are operating out of Singapore when I play Japan. I use those small 1250 capacity TKs or smaller (std-'x') to go from Miri to Manila and use the 'coastal' routing option to keep them in the shallow hexes to avoid Allied subs. Naga on Luzon is built in size 4 port for those small resource gathering TFs in the archipelago. The oil/fuel from Miri gathers at Manila for eventual use or transport back to Japan.

Urumuchi (China) - you will probably need a small LCU as garrison after your Tank Division takes the base. To get the AI to move the oil out of this base, you will need to create a need in Manchuria. So, once you see what you have after capture, be prepared to haul lots of oil back to Japan from Manchuria to get it sucked out.

Adak - I would mine a hex/base/dot base to the east to see if the BB TFs coming in are being routed through the shallow sea hexes. Then, above the mined hex, place two to fours subs both above and below this hex. Force him to get hit by something so you can see how his TFs is getting in and out.

About a couple of months behind you in my game v Comsolut so interested to see how you deal with the Corsair problem. As I'm playing a PDU off game, I'm restricted a lot more about what fighters I can use.

I'm R&D the fighters that my groups can use the most and hoping that I can use my numerical superiority to grind down his pools. I'm not sure its going to work!

Can I ask you why you converted the DMS Minesweepers to E class escorts?

Of course they are. Shows how much I really know about the Allied side. [8|] Thanks. [:D]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

The pilots in Corsairs are more than likely USMC pilots, as there aren't many USN LBA fighter units. So killing them won't affect the quality of his CV crop.