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You should scuttle Ryuho to save yourself the 10% VPs. 94 System and 66 Fires is just not going to happen. There's a pretty good chance she'd burn up and sink in Tokyo Bay.

Kaga... It's a size 3 port, but I'd say better than 90% you're going to lose her too. Fires in each case.

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

You should scuttle Ryuho to save yourself the 10% VPs. 94 System and 66 Fires is just not going to happen. There's a pretty good chance she'd burn up and sink in Tokyo Bay.

Kaga... It's a size 3 port, but I'd say better than 90% you're going to lose her too. Fires in each case.

Not the answers I was looking for [:@] Was hoping you guys would have some super miracle trick. Oh well... we will see what happens.

Sept 22nd, 1943

Its been a while since I posted and we have moved about 3 weeks forward in game. There have been some
bitter air battles with high losses on both sides but the war continues on.



India/Northern Burma:

I have taken Imphal and got more of a reaction from the Allies than I expected. Troops from everywhere,
including the coast near Cox's Bazaar are on the move deeper into the jungle towards Imphal. With all the
movement I have spotted I have cancelled the rest of the operation and am pulling my troops back south
into my controlled area. Looks like a regiment has blocked my way south but they shouldn't be a match for
2 Divs of troops.

Rob has moved 800+ AS from the stack near Cox's Bazaar and most of his troops deployed north of Akyab. A
stack of allied troops has foolishly moved into an open hex and will be recieving a visit from my Helens
this next turn.



Sumatra:

My Netties would not fly from Singapore to hit the ships unloading at Siberoet so I sent in a small combat TF. They quickly sank the offending merchie and stuck around. Unfortunately Rob has moved at least 1 unit of Avengers to the island and they hammered my TFs with bombs. 1 DD is sunk, 2 damaged along with a Cruiser. The ships will flee this turn and they should all make it back to Singapore for repairs.


Indian Ocean / Ceylon

I have been playing tag with several Allied Carriers in the IO area around Siberoet for about a month (or
more) now. It was at least 1 US CV backed up with CVL Hermes and some CVEs. I had CarDiv 3 out here by
themselves, but sent in the new Unryu CVs for some support [before the CV battle in the Marshalls].

Well after the CV battle I kept the 5 CVs together and went hunting. I finally tracked him down at Ceylon.

Looks like he just moved into the port of Colombo when I caught him. I caught him a bit under protected
and if it wasn't for a bunch of LBA at Colombo it would have been a huge victory.


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

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid detected at 78 NM, estimated altitude 20,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 25 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5b Zero x 23
A6M5c Zero x 23
B6N2 Jill x 57
D4Y3 Judy x 101

Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb Trop x 32
F4F-3 Wildcat x 23
F4F-4 Wildcat x 7
F6F-3 Hellcat x 3

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5b Zero: 1 destroyed
A6M5c Zero: 2 destroyed
B6N2 Jill: 18 damaged
B6N2 Jill: 2 destroyed by flak
D4Y3 Judy: 1 destroyed, 7 damaged
D4Y3 Judy: 2 destroyed by flak

Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIb Trop: 2 destroyed
F4F-3 Wildcat: 5 destroyed
F6F-3 Hellcat: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
CV Saratoga, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
CV Lexington, Bomb hits 9, heavy fires, heavy damage
CVL Independence, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Kenya
xAP Empire Silver
CA Astoria, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Jenkins, Bomb hits 1
DD McCalla, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Hughes, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
DD Kane, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
LSI(L) Empire Battleaxe
DD Anderson, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
CA Vincennes, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Stack, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
LST 11, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
DD Allen

[Stupid Jill pilots kept attacking DDs with torpedoes instead of the carriers - very frustrating]

His return attack was feeble and completely missed (for once)

Morning Air attack on TF, near Koggala at 29,52

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms

Raid detected at 79 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 34 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5c Zero x 66

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 11
SB2C-1C Helldiver x 27
SBD-3 Dauntless x 16
TBF-1 Avenger x 29

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-3 Wildcat: 2 destroyed
SB2C-1C Helldiver: 12 destroyed
SB2C-1C Helldiver: 3 destroyed by flak
SBD-3 Dauntless: 10 destroyed
TBF-1 Avenger: 21 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CV Zuikaku
CV Amagi
CV Katsuragi
CV Shokaku
CV Unryu

Then in the afternoon my followup strike.

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

Weather in hex: Heavy rain

Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 18,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 26 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5b Zero x 19
A6M5c Zero x 22
B6N2 Jill x 63
D4Y3 Judy x 82

Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb Trop x 23
F4F-3 Wildcat x 5
F4F-4 Wildcat x 10
F6F-3 Hellcat x 6

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5b Zero: 1 destroyed
A6M5c Zero: 1 destroyed
B6N2 Jill: 5 destroyed, 12 damaged
B6N2 Jill: 1 destroyed by flak
D4Y3 Judy: 2 destroyed, 12 damaged
D4Y3 Judy: 1 destroyed by flak

Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIb Trop: 5 destroyed
F4F-3 Wildcat: 1 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
CV Saratoga, on fire, heavy damage
DD Hughes, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Vincennes, Bomb hits 7, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Astoria, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
DD Hammann
DD Allen
DD Conway
DD Jenkins, Bomb hits 1
DD Anderson, on fire, heavy damage


Next turn

With the lack of CVs in the afternoon strike I knew I either sunk them or they disbanded in port. With no
confirmed sinkings I figured they disbanded in port, so I moved the TF and hit the port with the next
turn.

Morning Air attack on Colombo , at 29,48

Weather in hex: Partial cloud

Raid detected at 76 NM, estimated altitude 20,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 25 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5c Zero x 54
B6N2 Jill x 74
D4Y3 Judy x 97

Allied aircraft
Beaufighter VIc x 31
Beaufighter TF.X x 6
Hurricane IIb Trop x 14
Hurricane IIc Trop x 2
P-38G Lightning x 3
F4F-3 Wildcat x 11
F4F-4 Wildcat x 4
F6F-3 Hellcat x 7

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5c Zero: 2 destroyed
B6N2 Jill: 1 destroyed, 15 damaged
B6N2 Jill: 1 destroyed by flak
D4Y3 Judy: 7 destroyed, 29 damaged
D4Y3 Judy: 5 destroyed by flak

Allied aircraft losses
Beaufighter VIc: 3 destroyed
Beaufighter TF.X: 1 destroyed
Hurricane IIb Trop: 1 destroyed
F6F-3 Hellcat: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
xAK Empire Tugela, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CVL Independence, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
CV Saratoga, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB West Virginia, Bomb hits 14, on fire
CL Java, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CVE Altamaha, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Astoria, Bomb hits 2, heavy damage
DD Walke, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CA Indianapolis, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Hammann, Bomb hits 1, on fire

Repair Shipyard hits 2
Port hits 11
Port supply hits 1

Ammo storage explosion on CV Saratoga

(Day Two Attack)

Morning Air attack on Colombo , at 29,48

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 78 NM, estimated altitude 19,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 25 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5c Zero x 52
B6N2 Jill x 59
D4Y3 Judy x 75

Allied aircraft
Beaufighter VIc x 26
Beaufighter TF.X x 8
Hurricane IIb Trop x 26
Hurricane IIc Trop x 2
P-38G Lightning x 1
F4F-3 Wildcat x 14
F4F-4 Wildcat x 4
F6F-3 Hellcat x 5

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5c Zero: 6 destroyed
B6N2 Jill: 2 destroyed, 11 damaged
B6N2 Jill: 1 destroyed by flak
D4Y3 Judy: 13 destroyed, 25 damaged
D4Y3 Judy: 5 destroyed by flak

Allied aircraft losses
Beaufighter VIc: 2 destroyed
Beaufighter TF.X: 2 destroyed
Hurricane IIb Trop: 3 destroyed
F4F-3 Wildcat: 1 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
CVE Altamaha, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CV Saratoga, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB West Virginia, Bomb hits 4
CVL Independence, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Indianapolis, Bomb hits 1, on fire

Allied ground losses:
20 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Port hits 5


There was no return allied attack on my CVs so the CVs either had no planes left, or were too damaged to
launch. Looks like my guess was correct on the CVs being in port, but I did not expect to find the BB West Virgina or CVE Altamaha. I got confirmation that the Lexington sunk along with several DDs - my Judys were really hitting the DDs with those 500kg bombs.

I have ordered the Carriers to retreat as the damaged inflicted on the surviving carriers should keep them in port for a year or so. Now I have to race back to the pacific where the CVs are needed.



Australia:

The Allied stack of troops is sitting in Katherine opposite my stack and nothing seems to be happening. He is not bombing me from the air so not sure if he has finally run out of heavy bombers to keep all of his units at strength or if he has moved them elsewhere.

He does have a pair of small units that appear to be trying to flank the base, but I am hitting them with
Helens and I don't think they will amount to anything should they make it around Katherine. I also have
troops at Fenton ready to move along the rail and clear any allied obstacles. I am tempted to bombard for
a turn and see exactly what he has there.



Central Pacific / Marshall Islands:

After the large clash in the Marshalls both Carrier forces retired - by my count I had more fighters left, but he had more attack aircraft. But neither of us had enough to mount another 'real' attack. Sub recon tracking showed his CVs heading back to PH - where he must have replaced sorties and disbanded other units on to his CVs as he replaced his losses was too fast for the normal 12 max aircraft a week.

His CVs are back in the Marshalls and bombing my islands at will. My fighters are putting up a little bit
of a fighter, but 15 fighters versus 40+ hellcats can't do much. It seems he is still stacking a
'deathstar' of US and RN CVs in one TF and another smaller TF with possibly some CVs, CVLs and CVEs.
He has brought 6+ BBs are well and has bombarded Roi-Namur putting the end to any airfields I had there.
The base there is 99/89/99 damage after the airstrikes and bombardments. Dozens of aircraft were damaged / destroyed on Roi-Namur in the attacks. My attack planes are not flying due to the large amount of allied CAP. I will probably pull the units back and rebuild them.

With the ability to not hold Roi Namur (6k max troop capacity) I am thinking of leaving the base destroyed and simply evaccing everything to another location, leaving behind a small token force to prevent paratroops from taking the base unopposed.



South Pacific:

The anticapated invasion of Ndeni seems to be finally arriving - amphibs are detected 1 hex away. I don't
have any dreams of holding the base, as nothing but a token force is left there - rest have been airlifted out.



CV Fleet:

The Kaga and Ryuho both sunk in port the turn after they made it to port. Guess the damage was just too
much. The rest of the Carriers were sitting in ports and most of the critical damage is fixed and I am
slowly moving the CVs to a repair yard. Figure another 7-8 days for the ships to reach the repair yards as they are moving slow and trying to avoid known sub locations.

I am down to 1 CV and 1 CVL operational in the pacific. Not enough to do anything so they are hiding at
the moment and will wait for the CVs from the IO to return before regrouping.



General Ramblings:

I know I should not have pursued the allied CVs in the IO but they have been poking around my oil in
Sumatra and being a pain, plus after the loss in the Marshalls I wanted some payback. I only have 1
confirmed kill (CV Lexington) but the damage to the Saratoga should keep her in port for a year or more
and the moral boost is nice too Although while I play in the IO he is rampaging around the Marshalls.

Oh well, with the max troops capacity most of those islands are unable to resist any invasion anyways.
I have finalized my tier 3 & tier 4 aircraft and R&D is working. I am also slowly building up the engine
pools needed for 44-45 and hope I can last. I am moving men and material to both the current line of
thrust in the central pacific and moving some into the Kuriles as well. Although with Rob's latest
victories I have a feeling he will come straight in and try to fight me head to head counting on his
superior aircraft to keep him safe -- just one or two lucky shots and I can put a hurt into his CV
Deathstar.

September 43 is almost over and kamikazes are fast approaching. If I understand the rules correctly they
should be activating on Jan 1st, 1944 since he still controls a couple dot islands in the philippines
which are within the 15 sea hex range of Takao. I have a bunch of low nav pilots being trained and it
should be exciting to see what they can do.

Sept 26th, 1943


I have just finished making what I hope to be the last major changes in my economy. I have finalized all
of my aircraft R&D factories and Engine production for the late war. I may have to increase some factories as they come online, but the aircraft types and such are all done.

My economy is churning along and I have 1,257,000 HI stockpiled along with 159,193 Armaments and 56,364
Vehicles. I have stopped production on all merchant ships (xAK, AK, xAKL) and stopped the last few AOs. I
have also stopped all the small Tankers (TK) but am continuing to build the larger ones as my sub losses
are slowly increasing.

On the Military side I have stopped all Subs after Jan 1st, 44 except for the I-400 line.. They are
useless but neat and I want to play with them. A couple DDs are accelerating as I have Naval Points. three CVs are also being accelerated and will arrive mid 44. Probably too late to matter, but at least I'll get their air groups.


Aircraft R&D:

IJN

A7M2 Sam - CV Fighter
B7A2 Grace - CV Bomber
J7W1 Shinden - LBA Fighter
S1A1 Denko - night fighter
C6N1-S Myrt - night fighter
P1Y2 Frances - Bomber and Kamikaze
Q1W1 Lorna - ASW


IJA

Ki-83 - Fighter
Ki-84r Frank - Fighter
K-102c Randy - night Fighter
Ki-46-III KAI Dinah - night fighter



India/Northern Burma:

My forces withdrawing from Imphal have smacked the 26th Indian Brigade out of the way (it retreated to
kalemyo) with minimal losses. The 5th Division is still leading the stack south - next destination Kalemyo and then back to our lines.

A stack of allied troops moved into the open 2 hexes west of Shwebo and I am greeting them with all my
bombers. Unfortunately the fighter cover decided not to fly and there was some heavy losses amongst my
helens - not happy. It also appears an armor unit of some sort has sprinted ahead of the enemy stack and
moved across the river. The 38th Division is moving from Shwebo west and will greet this visitors with
open bayonets.


Sumatra:

My Netties will still not fly to hit the ships that have reappeared at Siberoet - they can scout them but
not attack despite zeros being set to escort. Not sure why.

My damaged ships from the Siberoet area will be making port at Batavia next turn where they will rest a
bit to recover some sys damage before moving onward to the repair yards at Singapore.



Indian Ocean / Ceylon

My Cvs have refueled and will be moving around the southern tip of Sumatra this turn enroute to Singapore.

The Strait of Malacca has at least 2 allied subs in it currently so its not safe for capital ships. Once
the CVs refuel / rearm at Singapore they will head east to link up with the remaining undamaged CVs for
defensive duties.



Australia:

I have bombarded the allied troops at Katherine and there is quite a lot of units there, but most of them
appear to be at half strength or less. I have also noticed that they seem to be leaving the base and
heading south (at least some of them are). I am contemplating an attack.

My Helens from Darwin have been bombing the enemy troops at Katherine and Zeros and Jacks seem adept at
keeping the LR CAP of Lightnings away from my bombers so they can actually score some hits. I am concerned that he may be pulling back to try to encircle Katherine, but not sure if thats worse for me or him. We will both sit on the others supply lines. Not sure on that one. I would probably bring reinforcements from Darwin to smash them.



Central Pacific / Marshall Islands:

After beatin on Roi-Namur and Wotje for a turn the allied CVs have disappeared. I believe they are sitting out of easy patrol range waiting for something. I am surprised he hasn't landed another island in the Marshalls as Maloelap is not prime real estate. Perhaps he is waiting for more troops to arrive before moving back into range.

I am moving aircraft from Roi-Namur as they become repaired to truk for some rest and reorg. Not sure
where they will go next, but I am rebuilding them there as there is ample AV Support and supplies.



South Pacific:

The 14th Naval Guard Unit (at about 90% strength) actually resisted the first allied attempt to take
Ndeni. The allies scored 3:1 knocking the level 3 forts down to 2. The IJN troops face roughly 6:1 odds in strength including two units of enemy tanks.

In the second day the allies attacked again and took the base, but the initial resistance has given me
hope that I can resist the allies on the larger islands. The 14th was not at full strength, nor a
particularly strong force at all. Their defenses were only level 3 forts as well, yet they resisted
against almost 400 AS of enemy troops and tanks.



CV Fleet:

The Soryu is repairing fine and will be ready in 13 days (7 turns). It should be repaired in time to meet
the CVs returning from the IO and join up with them.

The CV cripple fleet is slowly approaching repair yards, but at only 5 hexes a day its not moving quickly. It will probably be another week before they reach repair yards.

CV Junyo is at 1/36/0 damage (All major Flt damage)
CV Hiyo is at 36/4/6 damage (All major FLT and ENG damage)
CV Akagi is at 42/6/20 (All major FLT and 1 Major ENG damage)

I am figuring at least 3 months for repairs on the CVs above - more likely 180 days for Akagi.



General Ramblings:

The meager resistance at Ndeni has really lifted my spirits concerning the ground war. It was the first
successful defense of an island I've had so far - even if it did fall in the second attack. The main
reasoning I think is that the attack had no support - no bombardments or air attacks to increase
disruption of the troops. This is really pounding home the idea that my main defensive islands need both
air and naval support to survive. With my light losses so far I can at least provide 1 major defensive
attempt with full CV and BB support, and if its somewhere like Saipan I can throw another 200+ LBA into
the mix as well.

In the next 3 days I will be receiving 4 fighter units and 1 Night fighter unit. A couple will go to Burma but the rest will stay in the pacific - possible in the South Pacific to strength Rabaul incase he tries to move on the Solomons. I want to keep fighters in range of the Mariannas so I can react quickly if I need to, but I don't think he's ready for that invasion yet -- which is good, my defenses aren't ready either.

I have the 65th Brigade almost fully rebuilt in Tokyo and they are planning to recapture Wake Island once
the sea lanes are clear of enemy carriers. I don't plan on keeping Wake, but I want to land and smash
whatever he has there and then retreat just to remind him he has to defend what he takes.

I plan on using CVs and BBs to support that invasion. My BBs are almost done refitting in Singapore and
will accompany the CVs on their trip east. The only problem I see is having enough fuel where I can get to it (large enough port). I can't reliably use any port in the Home Islands as at least 15 US Subs are
loitering off my coastlines.

Oct 20th, 1943:


The turns have been slow over that past 3 weeks for a variety of reasons including busy work for Rob and myself, plus my week long vacation to Niagara Falls - the Maid of the Mist boat ride was excellent and I'd recommend it to everyone. We ended up like 30 feet from the falls and the mist was very heavy -- an excellent trip overall.


HI Stockpile: 1,348,008
ARM Stockpile: 158,559
VEH Stockpile: 60,151
NS Stockpile: 2,536
MS Stockpile: 1,956

Japan Score: 40,012
Allied Score: 16,092

Allied Planes Lost: 8,453
Jap Planes Lost: 5,839

Allied Army Lost: 15,769
Jap Army Lost: 2,606

Allied Ships Sunk: 579 ships / 5,884
Jap Ships Sunk: 254 ships / 2,423


I am micro managing my aircraft factories, altering the production almost on a turn by turn basis. I am still producing a few older aircraft (like the A6M2 Zero) and only want enough to fill my current need and not too many of them.I am anxiously waiting the new aircraft, but it will probably be a few months before I get anything new - R&D just takes forever. I'm hoping by mid-44 I have all my aircraft / engines as much later than that and I'm not sure they will be useful.

I am starting to conserve supplies and not really shipping much out of the HI except to Singapore / Burma and China. I am trying to push as much oil / fuel / resources into Japan as possible as I expect Rob to put a hurt on my oilfields by mid 44 - and his damn subs are starting to get hits / sinkings on almost a daily basis now. I've had them beat for so long, this is really making me mad. And my subs can't hit anything and a single US PC will cripple or sink my subs now - glad I have stopped most of my sub production.


India/Northern Burma:


My retreating spearhead is at Kalemyo and slowly moving southeast across the river. Some allied units are there, but 2 DIV should be able to push through them. Once the units get back to friendly lands, they will need a couple weeks R&R in Rangoon to recover.

A British Armor unit sat on my rail lines in the open NE of Shwebo for a couple turns blocking supply moving north, so I turned my bombers onto him. The unit must have been beat up badly, as my bombers destroyed it in a couple days of air attacks. Now all of Rob's units are back in the jungle and moving around - it looks like he is trying to consolidate them, but not really sure.

I have moved on of my new figher units into Rangoon and upgraded them to J2M3 Jacks for some extra firepower. They are sitting in Rangoon training new pilots but will be moved to the front soon. Hopefully I can catch his flock of medium bombers with them and they should do some good damage.



Sumatra:

Recon is showing allied air units at Siberoet but no bombers seem to be attacking and no fighters are flying so maybe they are just wrecks ? My invasion of this island is finally happening. I have landed parts of both the 46th and 48th Divisions here and will unload completely before attempting any attacks.

My bombers from Singapore are attempting to bomb the enemy troops but are not very successful despite a high DL.

A turn or two ago my warships caught an allied merchie attempting to unload here and sunk it. The supplies must be low which will be helpful when I attack. Once the island falls, I will move parts of the 8th Malay Militia Regiment here to hold the island and send the 2 divisions north into Burma - this will probably be the last reinforcements for Burma for a long time.



Australia:

Recon has shown that the allies have landed a bunch of reinforcements at Cairns and I'm trying to determine if they are moving inland or simply prepping to invade Port Moresby.

We have had a couple skirmishes around Horn Island and Merauke in the Arafura Sea and Merauke could be a target as well - it has a nice max airfield (5) and would put pressure on both Darwin, the Islands north of Darwin (Dobo, Saumlaki - both of which I have built airfields at) as well as Sorong and the minor oil reserves at Boela and Babo. It will be a bit difficult for him to build Merauke up as he will need to ship in everything, but once an airfield is built he has no want of air units and can protect it from air easily.

I believe he has a couple flattops in the area as well from naval plane sightings. Not sure if they are full CVs or maybe just CVLs or CVEs, but they will give him local air superiority.

The Allied stack at Katherine has retreated back to Daly Waters and I believe he is going to just sit there and try to keep my units in Oz as long as he can until he encircles them. I am not waiting, I am already pulling more units out of Darwin via airlift and small Amphib TFs. Just hope I have enough time to keep moving slow as I don't think he has noticed what I am doing yet.

My Helens at Darwin are bombing his men at Daly Waters each turn and the escorts are shooting down a couple enemy fighters each turn. He has suspended most of his air activity in this area, which leads me to believe he just wants to hold me there and trap my men at Darwin.



Central Pacific / Marshall Islands:

The US has captured Eniwetok but seems to have pulled most of invasion troops back off the island. I am seriously conteplating retaking the island. He has not based much aircraft there either. Majuro has fallen to the US as well, as I airlifted the base force off there leaving it empty.

Netties from Truk visited Enwetok shipping a couple times and came away with only a single xAP sunk - was not happy watching torpedo bombers making runs at CAs and and other APs and miss. I had sent in 2 combat TFs this last turn to catch the enemy shipping, but they have fled and my ships came up empty.

I am using transports and patrol planes from Truk and Nauru Island to airlift base forces out of the Marshalls. I am also starting to make fast transport runs with PBs and they seem to be doing a decent job.

The distances are too great for barges unfortunately. I am also trying to sneak in small xAKLs in 1s and 2s to lift the heavier equipment out.

The allied CVs have just reappeared 2 hexes from Roi-Namur and Kwajalein. He hit the airfield at Kwajalein with a small strike as well as the airfield at Wotje. I don't spot any incoming transports so I think he is simply showing up to keep my airfields suppressed and try to see what he can kill in terms of aircraft and shipping.

I still have a bunch of air group fragments on various islands, the airfield damage is keeping them from repairing but as soon as they do I fly them off to Truk or Narua island.



South Pacific:

The allies have made a small air drop at Russell Islands with some troops a while ago, but nothing seems to be following up there. They have also just landed troops (via ships and airlift) at Rennell island and will probably be building that up. I intercepted their invasion force with a TF of E ships but after a few shots the Es retreated and left the lightly escorted amphib TF alone. Couldn't believe it, 6-8 Es wouldn't engaged 1 PG and a couple xAPs... I was very mad. they should have annihilated that small force.

I am beginning to evac construction units from Tulagi and Lunga in preparation of the inevitable attacks. I am also removing excess supply from Rabaul and Kavieng as I don't believe large battles will be fought here - especially since I am not committing large forces to hold them.



CV Fleet:

All wounded CVs have successfully made it to ports safely and are under repair:

CV Soryu - fully repaired waiting in port at Hong Kong
CV Junyo - repairing in Hong Kong with 55 days left
CV Hiyo - repairing in Hiroshima with 13 days left
CV Akagi - repairing in Nagasaki with 59 days left

The rest of my CVs (Hiryu, Shokaku, Zuikaku, Unryu, Amagi, Katsuragi and Ryujo) are sitting in port at Truk ready to go. I am building up Truk's LB aircraft and am sitting here waiting for an opportunity to strike at the allied capital ships - would like to catch some CVs unready, but sinking a handful of BBs would work too.

I am not risking another engagement with the allied CVs until I have all my CVs and hoping to catch them under friendly fighter cover - so somewhere like Truk, or the Marianas are the most likely.

The majority of my BBs are also at Truk and I will be sending them forth to bombard enemy held islands once the enemy CVs are gone. Perhaps they will be the bait to lure the enemy CVs to Truk.



General Ramblings:

In 26 & 27 days I get a lot of new combat units in japan (but lose 3-4 garrison units). These new units will most likely be sent to the north pacific to strengthen that area. I am also moving units to Iwo Jima and Chichi-jima in preparation of the eventual attack. Air units are slowly populating and being moved forward from Japan.

I am loading a huge load of fuel from Balikpapan and will deliver it to Saipan in anticipation of basing my CVs out of there soon. I am also moving some air units to Saipan along with HQ units. Several islands in the Marianas are allotted their own Army HQ in an attempt to hold the line there.

I still have plans to take back Wake Island and now possibly Eniwetok. Not so much as to hold those islands, but to deny them to the enemy and remind him he needs to defend anything he takes.

US Subs are starting to rack up some kills on my merchants and my asw is still ineffective. I just can't seem to get any hits - half my depth charges are still exploding too high.

My float planes seen ok at spotting a few subs but no visible attacks and my ASW TFs in the areas do not seem to be reacting and persucuting the sightings. Just like historically his subs are starting to be a pain. Nothing major yet, but at least 1 ship a day is crippled or sunk from subs.

ORIGINAL: Xargun

US Subs are starting to rack up some kills on my merchants and my asw is still ineffective. I just can't seem to get any hits - half my depth charges are still exploding too high.

My float planes seen ok at spotting a few subs but no visible attacks and my ASW TFs in the areas do not seem to be reacting and persucuting the sightings. Just like historically his subs are starting to be a pain. Nothing major yet, but at least 1 ship a day is crippled or sunk from subs.

If you aren't already, add night ASW missions to overlap your day ASW. This will keep the SS detection level high, and greatly assist your ASW TF's. High detection levels increase the chances that your ASW TF's will catch the SS on the surface/periscope depth where they can be hit.

Conversely, you've learned that the allies have gotten their ASW upgrades and your subs are really easy to kell. YOu have to be sure that their patrol vectors are such that they are able to clear detection every other day or so ... uses a lot more fuel, but greatly increases survival.

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo
If you aren't already, add night ASW missions to overlap your day ASW. This will keep the SS detection level high, and greatly assist your ASW TF's. High detection levels increase the chances that your ASW TF's will catch the SS on the surface/periscope depth where they can be hit.

Conversely, you've learned that the allies have gotten their ASW upgrades and your subs are really easy to kell. YOu have to be sure that their patrol vectors are such that they are able to clear detection every other day or so ... uses a lot more fuel, but greatly increases survival.

I will move some more Float plane groups to my target areas and run both day and night ASW - been running day ASW and night NavSearch, but will add some night time ASW as well.

yeah allied ASW is crazy - every encounter now seems to lead to a sunk or crippled sub. I am adjusting my subs to use different patrol zones to 'help' with this. I don't mind losing a sub (sunk or crippled) if I can land some torps on a cap ship (or fully loaded AP) but hate when a stupid PC or PG comes by and just squashes them like a bug.

ORIGINAL: Xargun

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo
If you aren't already, add night ASW missions to overlap your day ASW. This will keep the SS detection level high, and greatly assist your ASW TF's. High detection levels increase the chances that your ASW TF's will catch the SS on the surface/periscope depth where they can be hit.

Conversely, you've learned that the allies have gotten their ASW upgrades and your subs are really easy to kell. YOu have to be sure that their patrol vectors are such that they are able to clear detection every other day or so ... uses a lot more fuel, but greatly increases survival.

I will move some more Float plane groups to my target areas and run both day and night ASW - been running day ASW and night NavSearch, but will add some night time ASW as well.

yeah allied ASW is crazy - every encounter now seems to lead to a sunk or crippled sub. I am adjusting my subs to use different patrol zones to 'help' with this. I don't mind losing a sub (sunk or crippled) if I can land some torps on a cap ship (or fully loaded AP) but hate when a stupid PC or PG comes by and just squashes them like a bug.

If you're running night NavSearch, you're fine there. Add air groups until sub contacts are steady turn to turn with Detection levels >6 ... then I know I have continuous sightings ... your ASW TF's want to be 3 ship TF's ... SC or E's work best. I tend to use SC's in my ASW TF's and E's in my convoy escort simply due to speed matching the convoys.

For your subs, you need to have one leg of your patrol map to go way out to ensure you have reset your DL to zero. "Way out" depends upon what type of AC are getting the sighting on you. You have to watch for the plane type, then be sure you are going one hex further to get out of its patrol range. If he is using Cat's, I abandon that patrol area. Their range is too great and spend too much fuel breaking hte contact ...

Oct 30th, 1943:


Turns picked up a bit, then Rob went to comic con in San Diego to the weekend. But he is back now and we should get moving at a faster rate again.



India/Northern Burma:

For some unknown reason my men moving south from Kalemyo reset their mileage and had to start all over again. This really made me mad as they were almost out of the hex. They have been moving for a while now and should move out of the hex next turn. I am busy airlifting in supplies as allied units are all over the southern hexes preventing normal resupply.

Some fierce air battles have been fought over kalemyo in the past 10 days. I am flying LR CAP over the dot-base and Rob is sending in hordes of 2E bombers. My fighters get a few kills and some damage, but mostly they have been disrupting the attacks and really limiting the damage his bombers are causing. Last turn Rob put some fighters up there and I had just ordered one fighter unit to 100% LR CAP and there was a good fight. I lost 4 fighters but knocked down 6 enemy fighters, plus the usual 4-8 medium bombers.

Recon of Dacca showed several units there, but very low troop strength. In the past Rob had been basing aircraft out of there (and still seems to be doing so) so the majority of the troops there will probably be engineers and AV support. So I took a chance. I LR CAP Dacca as well as running a sweep with some fighters. This prompted multiple large aerial fights in which my fighters actually did better than the allied fighters... then the transports came in. Numerous transports were damaged, but they dropped off my paratroopers. In the first land combat I only amassed 10 Assault Strength, but the enemy had 0. Only forts saved him. In the second land combat nothing happened At the turn end I checked and I have 60+ AS there and will be attacking and hopefully taking the base next turn. I'm sure Rob will bomb my men and its hard to get LR CAP there (I have 1 unit ordered and it will probably not be enough). This is only another spoiler attack and the bulk of his troops are either in the jungle or at bases with no rail support. I don't expect him to be able to move any reinforcements into Dacca in time. Perhaps a unit is sitting in strat mode behind the front, but they won't help much if moved into Dacca. They will just be mauled for being in the wrong mode. I am airlifting in supplies this turn. If I take Dacca, I may hang out for a bit, but mostly will be removing my men via airlift.



Sumatra:

I have attacked once and been bombarding since then. I am scheduling another attack with 1 division, while the second (weaker division) is bombarding only. I also have a combat TF arriving to bombard. Nothing major, but 4 CAs and their escorts will shell the allies during the evening phase.

I am trying to weaken his troops on Siberoet without weakening mine. I am hoping to get a good result this turn with the attack as I believe he is very close to being out of supplies. Bombers from Palembang and Singapore will be supporting the attack.



Australia:

Things have heated up again in Oz. Allies have landed at least 1 regiment at Derby and taken the base. I have spotted 3 units there so at least 1 (if not 2) engineering units are building up the ports / airfield. Allied air has completely closed the airfield at Broome and now are bombing my troops, slowly destroying them.

I have bombed Derby with Helens from Darwin and hammered the airfield there in an attempt to slow down construction, but not sure how effective my bombers are.

The allies have at least 2 carriers in the Gulf of Carpentaria - in talking with Rob I mention CVEs but he says all of his CVEs are performing ASW duties - so that would mean 2+ CVs. I believe its a low number as the overwhelming air power is not present to indiciate a larger number of CVs. He bombed Saumlaki with SBDs and Dobo with TBFs - my fighters at Dobo pushed through his escorts and mauled his TBFs killing around 20.

The allies have landed at Merauke, Horn Island, Groote Eylandt and Gove. My Netties from Darwin have hit a few transports at Merauke and last turn they showed up but so did some enemy fighters - it was bad for the Betties. My Betty unit at Darwin was decimated - but I upgraded them to Nells so once the new planes are repaired the unit is fully functional again.

Last turn I moved my new KB from Sorong to a position SE of Dobo in the Arafura Sea. I believe it is still undetected and it will be moving to a spot just west of Merauke and I hope to catch the allied CVs and crush them. I have 6 full CVs plus a CVL (40+ fighters). His Carriers have not returned to port, so the number of enemy aircraft is not at max - he is depleted in at least TBFs. I hope to sink his carriers and perhaps catch some amphibs as well. I have LR CAP from Dobo flying over the CVs and am running with heavy CAP.


I have fully withdrawn the 20th Regiment from Darwin (it is now at Dobo) and am in process of withdrawing the 4th Division using both ships and transports.




Central Pacific / Marshall Islands:

US DDs are roaming the marshalls trying to engage my fast transports. They caught a single PB and sunk it so far. A group of 4 US DDs were caught moving towards Ponape by my cruiser force and in a night battle I sunk 1 DD and damaged the other 3. Minimal damage was recieved in return until a DD collided with CA Tone. Ca Tone is fine, but the DD is not The ships all made it back to Truk but a week or so of inport repairs is needed to return the TF to top fighting condition.


I let my fighters fly at Tarawa and they bounced the US daily fighter sweep. In a couple battles half a dozen P-40s were splashed with only 2 zeros lost.




South Pacific:

The allied KB showed up north of the Santa Cruz Islands this turn, hitting the airfields at both Naura and Lunga with airstrikes. My fighters at Lunga hammered the escorts (20+ hellcats confirmed shot down) on the first turn, but failed to fly against the second day of strikes. the airfield at Nauru is shut down and the field at Lunga is half functional. I have withdrawn my fighters from Lunga to Shortlands as I'm sure he will concentrate on Lunga this coming turn.




CV Fleet:

My damaged CVs are repairing away, but we are still 45+ days away from having them all repaired. I have moved escorts to Hong Kong in anticipation of moving the Soryu to join the current KB, then they will return to escort the Junyo once its repaired.



General Ramblings:

In 14 & 15 days I get a nice load of combat and non-combat reinforcements - but I also lose 3 garrison forces. The bulk of these forces will be sent to Hokkaido and the Kuriles as I work on strengthening the northern invasion route. Rob hasn't shown any inclination to use this route, but that can easily change.

Saipan is receiving large shipments of fuel in anticipation of hosting the bulk of the combined fleet for most of 1944. The BBs arrive there this turn and will take a deep drink.

Amphibs are taking a day or two rest in Tokyo to fix some normal damage before embarking the 65th Bde for the invasion of Wake. While this won't do anything in the global scheme of things, it will be another base he'll need to take back before marching on Japan proper. A token force will be left behind to hold the island.

Nov 1st, 1943




India/Northern Burma:

Looks like Rob used my trick to reinforce Dacca and a bunch of paratroopers appear boosting his defense up to like 80 AS and my attack failed. Since I can't take the base, it looks like my paratroopers are cut off and will just die. I am moving the remains of the unit back to Rangoon to rebuild it.

Rangoon is 'magically' down to 10k supplies again.. One day I'll figure out the supply drain... does the
monsoon limit supply movement or destroy the 'extra' supplies ? Wonder if thats it.. Well monsoon should
be over now that is november, so I will try to monitor it.



Sumatra:

My attack at Siberoet lowered the forts and did some decent casualties and confirmed my suspicion of enemy supply levels [(-) supply] appeared on the battle reports. I am resting my men for a turn or two and then should be able to finish them off.



Australia:

A good day for the IJN near Oz. Not a great day, but a good day nevertheless. I did not catch the US
Carriers but caught some worthy targets.

So I moved my CVs south and parked them 2 hexes west of Merauke - I knew there is naval activity there so
figured at worst case I would bag them. Judies went aloft to search and my first air strike of the day was decent sized and the first target was the US BB Colorado !! Throughout the day and the next turn as well, I sunk the Colorado, New Orleans, a DMS and probably 9 US AOs. The Aos were a huge surprise, but it looks like I caught his refueling TF near Horn Island and 500kg bombs made short work of them. In the mess of ships attacked I also damaged multiple DDs and 2 CLs. Most ships should require time in repair to become fully operational again. While I would rather have hit his carriers sinking that many AOs has to put a dent into his ability to refuel at sea. The cost for this operation was about 10 aircraft lost and ammo expended - a good trade.

I thought about hanging around and seeing if I could find the CVs, but if they went east they could be
down by Cairns and totally out of my reach so my CVs will retire back to Sorong, where they will refuel
and then on to other areas.

I think the appearance of my CVs will give him pause in the Oz area for a bit as now he knows I'm not
afraid to use my CVs in defense of the area. I have a feeling this appearance will prompt a visit from the US CV deathstar that is currently south of Lunga, but if those AOs were the only mobile fuel source, he may not have the fuel to play -- I have not seen many TFs of tankers moving to OZ so far this game, so Oz can't have a huge surplus of fuel once you take into account its industry usage.



Central Pacific / Marshall Islands:

I grounded my fighters again at Tarawa and good thing - at least 5 squadrons of fighters swept Tarawa
skies looking for a fight.



South Pacific:

Heavy Bombers from Ndeni as well as the full fury of at least 4 US CVs hammered the airfields at Lunga.
The fields are basically closed now and knowing Rob he will keep bombing them and keep them closed if he
plan on invading anywhere in the southern solomons soon - which I think is the reason he brought the US
Deathstar there - to support an invasion. If true, there is not much I can do to oppose this as I won't
risk my 6 able CVs against his deathstar without massive LBA support which I don't have in the Solomons.
Maybe near Rabaul I would do it, but not at Lunga - just not enough infrastructure there to support the
amount of aircraft I would need to bring in.



CV Fleet:

CV Hiyo just finished repairing at Hiroshima and is moving to Nagasaki.



General Ramblings:

My BBs have arrived at Saipan safely and all refueled except Kongo, which will finish refueling this turn. I'm tempted to use them to bombard Maleoelap but there are lots of allied subs in the area and its probably not worth the risk. A couple BBs may venture forth to support the landings at Wake.

Nov 7th, 1943



India/Northern Burma:

The next turn Rob paradropped more troopers into Dacca and my remnant there was surrounded and wipe out. The parent unit is now in Rangoon (~30% strength) and rebuilding.

I am thinking of leaving the 3 paratroop units in Burma and use them once Rob starts his offensive to drop behind his lines to cut supply routes - or at least to force him to keep reserves in bases so I cannot do that to him.



Sumatra:

Another attack at Siberoet removed the last forts and cost me a regiment. One regiment is down to 10%
strength and will sit out the rest of the fights - maybe throw some bombardments into the mix, but the
battle for them is over. My men are resting for a couple turns and then I hope to make another push and
take the base. It will be nice to wipe out the 2 divisions he has here and the misc units as well.

Another attempt to resupply the base ran into my roving combat TF and was annihilated.



Australia:

The allied stack of troops is coming back to Katherine and is catching hell from my helens daily - no enemy fighters are offering any support.

The 4th Inf Div is completely withdrawn from Darwin and is now being loaded onto transports at Dili. Not
sure where its moving to yet, but I will decide soon. Possibly either Central or SW Pacific - maybe
somewhere like Rabaul.



Central Pacific / Marshall Islands:

I am still using transports and fast transport TFs to move men around here, but Rob is now using DDs to
interdict my PBs and xAKLs. I don't want to use anything good to counter his DDs as he has 1000 pound bomb wielding SBDs at Maloelap waiting to sink some IJN Ships.



South Pacific:

The US CV Deathstar has left the area and I am guessing its somewhere along the coast of OZ - either
moving north to try to catch my CVs or trying to refuel. My subs near Ndeni sunk another AO full of fuel.

Hopefully I can continue to hit his replenishment ships.



CV Fleet:

My Cvs are leaving Babeldoab and should arrive at Saipan this turn.



General Ramblings:

My BBs are all refuelled at Saipan except for 2 which are finishing their upgrades at Singapore this next
turn. They will then move to Hong Kong to form up with the CVs repairing there.

I am loading the 64th Bde at Tokyo and they will be landing at Wake island to retake the island. All of
the allied CVs are near OZ so I should have a clear, safe shot at Wake.

I have noticed in Burma alot of my untis have low morale - below 50 and it makes me a bit worried. I'm
sure its the malaria and these troops have been here a year or so. I am shipping some replacement Base
Forces in from Japan and will rotate the units out as I can while maintaining security. The extra base
forces will be useful as well as I can always use more AV support.