Monday Night Montage (ex-Moose Crossings) - (J) vs. Bullwinkle/Obvert (A)

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

I would not leave Musashi there, get her some escorts, as many as you can spare and get her moving now before the subs flood the area. An AV would be nice too.

Jaluit was the logical place for her to go, and shaving one point of sys damage off every two days or so won't save her. Get her away from the Yank subs now!

Put her on cruise and get out of there! Only more subs are going to come I think.

There are already tons in the area, so I'm not sure it's going to matter there.

Before I move her, I am moving some of 6th Fleet to Jaluit. I would like the floatation knocked off - she can move well enough without it. I am also going to get some airborne ASW up. A turn or two... I could even bring KB over just for the blanket coverage. My air groups have good NavS skills and some ASW. Detected subs are silent subs.

[Lokasenna]

I'm the luckiest.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Aug 30, 43
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack near Kusaie Island at 128,116

Japanese Ships
CV Amagi
BB Kirishima
CL Ninaru
DD Onami
DD Niizuki
DD Hayanami
DD Fujinami

Allied Ships
SS Ray

SS Ray launches 6 torpedoes at CV Amagi
Ray diving deep ....
DD Hayanami fails to find sub and abandons search
DD Fujinami fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Fujinami fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Fujinami fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Fujinami fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Fujinami fails to find sub, continues to search...
Escort abandons search for sub

They're everywhere! He wasn't kidding. Have got to get air ASW here before I move those BBs.

I-22, east of the Gilberts, finishes APA President Adams and then cripples APA U.S. Grant.

He's bombing heavily in Burma, and also Nauru/Ocean, as usual. He loses 11 of various aircraft today to Ops. And that's about it.

In other news, total supplies went above 7M five days ago. We're gaining about 6K per day globally. Japan has 2.2M of that and growing by ~13K/day, which means we're at a deficit of 7K/day externally.

[Lokasenna]

August 31, 1943


Short day. SS Drum attacks a DD in the Kongo Force as it reaches Truk, but misses and evades ASW. Ho hum.

He bombs a lot in Burma, still. He isn't causing much for casualties, but he is advancing towards my positions through the jungle. My Supplies at Myitkyina are low and have always been. He took the rail line away by taking Katha (which I left as a dot) a few weeks ago, so I'm relying on the dirt road from Lashio. I will use Myitkyina as a test of his own logistics. My supplies suck, sure, but I've got a full division there with an HQ behind level 4 forts. His supplies have to flow through the jungle. He doesn't have a Chinese horde to soak up bullets and provide weight to his attacks, and I haven't seen much for US units in the theater, so it's just Indians/Brits.

The USN continues to retreat east from the Gilberts. Our subs don't find anything this turn.

The 2-ship TF near Tarawa was not the Lexington. It was 2 APDs, which landed 22 AV from a USMC raider battalion at Makin. The Naval Guard there easily defended the island, despite having no forts. No losses for the IJN squads.



Musashi minor floatation damage is down to 3. I want it at 0 before I move her. Will move Yamashiro at the same time. Each in 2-ship TFs with a DD, running for Kwajalein first. Once there, I'll reevaluate. I may be able to stop off at Eniwetok for a while, although Wake is in his hands... but at least Kwajalein is more easily defended than Jaluit.

[Lokasenna]

Been wanting to put this together for a while, with some comments.



Model (pool) - comments

A6M3a (67) - still producing as I still desire a longer range IJN escort plane for Bettys/Frances. Once my perimeter contracts more, so that I am not launching strikes at ranges >10 or so, I will cut this off.

A6M5c (137) - have actually moved the size 45 factory to A6M8. Still producing a few here as the range on the A6M8 is a little underwhelming, and I may decide to keep some units in KB with A6M5c for escort duties. The A6M5c also has that one extra gun...

A6M8 (27) - just came online in the last couple of weeks. Have only upgraded Katsuragi-1 so far.

B6N2 (118) - primary ASW/search/KB strike craft.

C5M2 (14) - awaiting Myrt

D4Y2 (261) - D4Y3 will start producing tomorrow, which will give me a DB that can range out to 8. I am thinking that I will still produce the D4Y2 until I run low on Aichi Ha-60, of which there are currently 367 in the pool. The only other plane that will use those will be the Judy night fighter, which I may not produce in numbers. The D4Y2, along with what few leftover D4Y1 I have, will be a kamikaze aircraft.

E13A1 (40) - my most commonly lost airframe, aside from the A6M2. I have lost hundreds upon hundreds to Ops. I have toned this down a bit lately, but it's still there, typically losing 1 per turn. This is what happens when you resize almost all of your FP units to 20 or 24, and use these guys on subs (only a few subs still have Glens).

G3M3 (42) - primary long range naval search platform, although I am lacking in unit numbers.

H6K4-L (26) - I overproduced here, unless I lose some to CAP somewhere later. There just aren't many IJN Transport units.

H6K5 (55) - Also overproduced. I did a lot of turns without changing anything or keeping track of stuff. Still, I don't know that I want to change the factory to anything else.

H8K2 (32) - Nearly all Patrol units are upgraded to this by now. I am building up a reserve of them to fill out any new units I might get (I think there are a few), and will turn the factory off at some point.

H8K2-L (10) - I would love to use tons of these planes, but I don't have the OOB for them. Again, not many Navy units can use them.

J1N1-S (38) - Only 2 or 3 units can use these yet, and only 1 is upgraded. His night bombing efforts are just too scattered. I am kind of waiting for the -Sa version, as I will produce that in numbers for the radar.

J2M3 (2) - This just came online. Still have 2 factories R&Ding for the J2M5, because why not?

Ki-100-I (105) - I will likely produce this plane through the end of the war, given my combat observations on it between all my games. It is a very good one.

Ki-43-IV (142) - For now it's a decent little fighter, and will definitely be a kamikaze later. Almost nothing still uses the Ha-35, so I'm going to produce a lot of these pretty blue babies. I might turn it off at 300 in the pool, and I might turn it off at 500. I really don't know.

Ki-44-IIc (99) - The Ki-100 has largely replaced this one, but I can't decide if I should cancel production entirely and shift the factories.

Ki-45 KAIa (19) - Still remains one of my defenses against 4Es.

Ki-45 KAIc (14) - Accidentally let this factory upgrade from the 'a' version. I have left it as it isn't a terrible plane, but only one unit is using it right now.

Ki-46-III (29) - Don't have a lot of Recon losses anymore.

Ki-48-IIc (0) - I just converted this factory 6 turns ago. I bumped it up to size 60 this turn. Nice plane, haven't used them at all.

Ki-49-II KAI (12) - Just upgraded another transport unit to them. It loses a little bit on range vs. the Topsy and Thalia, but carries more.

Ki-49-IIa (50) - Don't have many losses here as I barely use them anymore. I don't see much point in upgrading to the -IIb model, either. Most are in Burma or still in China, though some have shifted to the SRA. I could stand to overhaul my aerial ASW and use these.

Ki-57-II (57) - Not much to say here, other than I'm not producing the Thalia in favor of this plane. I regret the loss of range compared to the Thalia, but this is easier on my engine production.

Ki-84a (86) - Haven't decided which unit(s) are going to get these next, so have just been building the pool.

L2D2 (44) - Don't have that many IJNAF Transport units... I might still have a Tina unit or two that could upgrade, but...

N1K1-J (44) - Same deal here as the Frank-a, except that I do actually have some units in mind. However, the N1K2 isn't THAT far out, so I'm being patient. Current arrival date is 11/43 with 59% research, so definitely by the end of this month. I need to look at the N1K5 again and decide if I'm going to produce it. I think I might.

P1Y1 (65) - Long term replacement for the Betty, and probable kamikaze. I will continue to build this pool. I am researching the Okha version (same with the Betty Okha version) so that I can use the rocketmen.

[Lokasenna]

And here's R&D.



I put another factory on the D4Y3 so that it would finish this turn. We have non-historical R&D on... if I had known what this did I wouldn't have requested it. I thought it was simply more flexibility in which airframes I could change factories to (less penalty for switching "types"/lines). I only took advantage of the other features of the setting for the A6M5c to arrive around when the Hellcat arrived, and to skip all of the Oscars before the Ki-43. Otherwise, I've gone in order.

Some of these factories were set up later, as other models became obsolete, so that's why my third Ki-83 factory is so far behind the other two, for example.

Am I missing any?

[Lokasenna]

Engines.



Pools:

227x Ha-31
486x Ha-32
495x Ha-33
766x Ha-43
146x Ha-34
560x Ha-35
500x Ha-45

As you can see, I've turned off some Ha-34 production (only the Helen transport is using them), and almost all of my Ha-35 production. The repairing Ha-33 and Ha-45 factories used to be my 2x Aichi Ha-60 and one of my Ha-35 factories.

I still need more Ha-45 production. The Ha-33 production needs to increase as well. The Ha-43 production... no current planes are using it. I may have overbuilt here. It is the A7M Sam, J7W Shinden, N1K5, and Ki-83 only. Current production of 180/mo does not match the sum production of those models, but some will arrive sooner and won't need to continue building once others start building.

[Lokasenna]

Here is a look at Urumchi. Only 3 turns has it shipped out Oil, that I can discern. On turn 613, the Oil was bombed again from 49(1) to 30(20), so with the Size 20 Refinery on it is easy to see when the stockpile is being shipped out as it won't start producing again until it is under 30000.

It is impossible to tell how much Fuel is being shipped out as the Fuel spoilage limit is 19000. I've been producing for supplies only, since the Fuel isn't getting shipped out anyway and the Oil would also be simply not producing. It's hard to tell how much was shipped out prior, but if any was it was less than the 200 per day that needed to be replaced by the Oil production.

Back on Turn 593, it looks like about 1257 Oil did get shipped out, and another 800 or so on turn 596. So it's probably an average of a few hundred per turn.

[Lokasenna]

Global industry tracker on 9/1/43.

I've stopped caring about reducing my pilot HI training costs. This month it cost me about 23K HI. I think it's kind of whatever.

I have more ARM points than all of my reinforcements need through the rest of the war. I am not there yet on VEH points. I am trying to build a surplus of each for eventual Soviet shenanigans. I would like to delay there as long as possible. My target is 100K extra ARM (I only have about 55K extra now), and 50K extra VEH. I am about 40K short of my reinforcements need for VEH points through the rest of the war... I am producing 225 per day (with 25 shut off) and barely using any of them, so maybe a year before I'm at my 2-year needs.

In a few more turns, my MerSY will switch back to a surplus and I may juggle some factories on/off or I may look at what I'm producing.

I have NavSY slowly increasing by 26 more points, as I am sick of turning off subs and decelerating E-class production in order to accomodate everything. I still have a year before the last 3 CVs come out, which are the ones sucking up a lot of my production total of 1614(26). I would like to produce more of the subs, but unless I expand production by this little amount (another 30-point CL is finishing within the month), I just won't be able to afford to build more than the 4 or so that are currently in production. That barely keeps up with sub losses.

None of the Supply numbers match up between screens (WITP Chart shows 6,791,347 which isn't found anywhere on the Global screen or in-game), but I trust the Global total as it seems to be done correctly, I guess?

[Lokasenna]

Just realized that I messed up my R&D image. Oops. Have some duplicate factories there, roundabouts the George factories there at the bottom.

[Lowpe]

With your settings won't the Judy factories start researching the D4Y4?[X(]

I think the N1K5 is definitely worth producing if you can.

[Lokasenna]

They won't. They will upgrade to the D4Y4 once it is available, however. I had a couple of A6M5c factories upgrade to the A6M8 in this fashion... it's why my A6M3a units are set not to upgrade.

[Lokasenna]

September 1, 1943


The I-22, apparently our ace submarine, sinks the APA John Penn in the middle of the ocean. Another damaged ship from the Tarawa invasion.

He takes Maiana using SSTs. Eventually he will have a working cluster of islands here. Tarawa's airfield advanced to 1 yesterday.

The Australian paratroop unit is dropped at Merauke (most of it anyway) and my single AF Bn holds due to forts 4, but they won't hold for much longer. Oh well. One less airfield to defend, I guess, but New Guinea is not exactly heavily defended for me yet. I had been hoping to keep him at arm's length for a little longer. Merauke is more like elbow's length.

A group of P-47s sweep Meiktila, one of my fighter bases in Burma. I have Georges and Jacks up high, with Tojo-a's down low. We actually shoot down 8 for the loss of 7 of our own. I think the big difference is that he does not have an advantage in pilot quality.

Ise and Hyuga are being sent to Singapore to upgrade. I'm not going to do the conversions. I'll keep the 4 rear guns in case I want to bombard an invasion or something.

Pagan's forts expand to 5.

I did a count yesterday. I only have 14 divisions in Burma. I think I may need to reallocate away from Manchuria. When Chungking fell, I sent about 2500-3000 AV back to Manchuria for use in 1945. I may need to bring about 1500 back west... they are crack troops, too.

[Lokasenna]

Merchant production

Given the trouble I have been having clearing the Fuel/Oil out of the DEI, I decided to turn some MerSY back on and produce only tankers - some time ago. Here's a screenshot of the CSV from Tracker on Ship Production, filtered for Merchant and ships being built only, then filtered out the barges/LSTs/etc. and sorted by arrival date.

I will turn on more of the xAP Kongo Maru class as the ones I am building finish. I think there might be a few more in the queue.

I might be able to turn more MerSY factories off as some of these finish... we'll see.

[Lokasenna]

Naval Production

Same deal here - lots of filters. I've filtered out some of the things I am producing, like the CH-class SCs. I am not producing the CHa-class SCs as they never get better than the Type 95 depth charge, which is absolutely worthless.

Also filtered out some of the Type C/Type D/etc E-class vessels so that they didn't get in the way of the major production (the CVs, CLs). This is arrivals being built for the next 9 months. I would really like to turn more subs back on. Yes, they'll die in mid-44, but they'll also help keep him honest. Just realized that I filtered out the subs also. Oops. Right now just the I-54, I-12, I-37, and I-56 are being produced. All boats with FPs. Arrival dates of 3/31/44, 4/25/44, 5/20/44, 6/8/44 respectively. Very late... Once Tokachi arrives I can turn another one on. And a couple more in October when all of those Shimakaze DDs arrive. Unfortunately, it means I will probably be deciding between RO-boats (cost 26/delay 260) and I-boats with FPs (cost 30 or 33, delay 300 or 330)... that extra month might make a difference.

Oh, and I am producing the I-400s. For fun. They don't arrive until the tail end of '44 and first days of '45, though. I could accelerate for just 33 points right now, but don't have them to spare.

[Lokasenna]

Burma Bungles

I screwed up by not being here in more strength. Thailand and Indochina are basically undefended. I may have sent too much of the Chinese army to the Pacific. We'll see...



I am moving more units to defend at the front, but I also am trying to keep the western Chinese mountains strong because I don't want him taking Chengtu/Chungking away from me at all, ever, if I can help it. The white circles are heading for Bhamo. Yellow circles are heading for Thailand and the coast. Currently Tavoy is empty and Moulmein barely defended. Some units at Chungking are moving west - all of the ARTy and all but 1 ID from Chungking/Chengtu/Neikiang each.

I am sending the Guards Tank to help out in the rough jungle outside Prome, if they can get there in time. I am pulling the ID back from Shwebo to Mandalay, which seems to be able to get supplies more easily.

Forts status:

Mandalay - 4.14
Meiktila - 4.63
Magwe - 4.53
Taung Gyi - 3.91
Toungoo - 3.10
Lashio - 6, with 1 ID plus ARTy plus 1 RTA division and other support.
Prome - 3.98
Rangoon - 4.97
Pegu - none...will build up soon.
Ramree - 5.58 [:(] Was trying to entice him to land here early, now I need to leave it.

Chiang Mai - 6 [:)] AF will expand to 5 soon
Moulmein - 5.40

Chinese Expeditionary Army HQ is at Lashio, to draw supplies there.

[Lowpe]

East of Ramree...you probably will be okay, you need more artillery there though which I guess is coming from Ramree.

You need IJA 43 squads and artillery. Try never to give up a x3 terrain without a fight. And watch out for an end run thru the open terrain and parachute attacks which you already have felt.

Good luck; you are in a strong position. I think I had about 8 divisions there in August of 43. Those Allied troops can really come screaming down the dirt road very fast.

Ramree is a funny base...nice to keep just to deny Allies an airfield. Hard to supply. Fly in some naval guards or something if you can to make him divert to take it. Especially with those forts.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

East of Ramree...you probably will be okay, you need more artillery there though which I guess is coming from Ramree.

You need IJA 43 squads and artillery. Try never to give up a x3 terrain without a fight. And watch out for an end run thru the open terrain and parachute attacks which you already have felt.

Good luck; you are in a strong position. I think I had about 8 divisions there in August of 43. Those Allied troops can really come screaming down the dirt road very fast.

Ramree is a funny base...nice to keep just to deny Allies an airfield. Hard to supply. Fly in some naval guards or something if you can to make him divert to take it. Especially with those forts.

I'm having supply nightmares also. I think everything I drop at Rangoon just keeps going right back on down to Singapore. Or at least that which doesn't get drawn north into Burma. It's awful.

Edit - errr, actually I noticed it was flowing to Kunming because the CEA HQ was there. That's why I moved it to Lashio. Now it just seems to be going back to Singapore.

[JocMeister]

If I were you I would pull back from Myitkvina. There is no point hanging on to that now. In fact I would pull back from Lashio as well and hope he turns something East into China...I would also strongly suggest abandoning the central plains and move into the woods along the line at Prome. Its a very long flank to cover and you are approaching the time when clear hexes means death for the Japanese.

If you do stay in central Burma make 100% sure you have air superiority because if he turns the 4Es on ground attack...he can disable everything you have there in 2 weeks. [X(]

[Lowpe]

I don't know, if he built the forts up and has some AA then holding the central plains will be okay for a few more months, it only really gets painful moving in open, and not dug in.

Myitkina is tough to keep fed, also I would think about building up Uttaradit. Kid of hard to see how the Allies will come down the Uttaradit/Tuang Gyi road, but you never know, and Uttaradit is on a rail road hex, and makes for a great base in addition to Pisanuloke.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

East of Ramree...you probably will be okay, you need more artillery there though which I guess is coming from Ramree.

You need IJA 43 squads and artillery. Try never to give up a x3 terrain without a fight. And watch out for an end run thru the open terrain and parachute attacks which you already have felt.

Good luck; you are in a strong position. I think I had about 8 divisions there in August of 43. Those Allied troops can really come screaming down the dirt road very fast.

Ramree is a funny base...nice to keep just to deny Allies an airfield. Hard to supply. Fly in some naval guards or something if you can to make him divert to take it. Especially with those forts.

I'm having supply nightmares also. I think everything I drop at Rangoon just keeps going right back on down to Singapore. Or at least that which doesn't get drawn north into Burma. It's awful.

Edit - errr, actually I noticed it was flowing to Kunming because the CEA HQ was there. That's why I moved it to Lashio. Now it just seems to be going back to Singapore.

Supply is screwy in Burma...just double check your supply settings.