Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

[Mike Solli]

28 Jan 42

Sub War

Nothing to report other that below.

5 Fleet

Nothing spotted.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

A surface TF composed of the 4 Aobas and 3 DDs snuck to the waters just SW of Pt. Moresby and caught some enemy shipping. The first TF was the PC Warrego and put her down with a few 20 cm shells. Then, they caught 4 US 4-stackers sinking Whipple and heavily damaging Alden and Edsall with the John D. Edwards getting away without damage. Finally, they caught a smaller Dutch xAP and put her down easily. The Ushio took a single shell and has 10 sys damage, but the TF is headed back to Rabaul. That was a nice little ambush.

Later, I-9 spotted the Edsall still burning fiercely and missed her with some torpedoes.

SRA

Malaya

More bombing/bombarding of Singapore.

Philippines

More bombing/bombarding of Bataan.

Borneo

Three SNLFs landed at Tarakan today. No engineers landed with them so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the oil fields aren't trashed. Three of the transports were moderately damaged from enemy CD guns, but they'll eventually make it to Hong Kong (baring enemy subs) for repairs.

In the afternoon, 7 Dutch bombers attempted to attack the invasion fleet, but Zeros from Zuiho and Hosho shot them all down. Banzai!

Sumatra

Troops are flowing north.

Java

The Ryujo TF and a CA TF are colocated just off the eastern Java coast as an attempt to kill off the remainder of the Dutch Air Force. The little ambush worked again today with two attacks against them. A total of 2x 139WH-3s and 2x PBY-5s attacked and only 1 PBY-5 returned home. Nice! The Ryujo's Zero pilots are becoming beasts!

Bandoeng and Semarang were liberated destroying a Dutch fighter and 3 bombers on the ground. The infrastructure was intact at both bases:

Bandoeng:
Manpower - 1(1)
Resources - 20(0)
LI - 20(0)

Semarang:
Manpower - 1(1)
Resources - 20(0)
LI - 20(0)

Burma

Troops are flowing north.

Chiang Mai's airfield is at 3.71.

China

Nothing exciting to report.

Other Stuff

Nothing to report.

[Mike Solli]

You have to take care of family!

Absolutely, Skyros!

[Mike Solli]

29 Jan 42

Sub War

A bunch of subs on both sides shot a bunch of torpedoes and wasted them all.

5 Fleet

Nothing spotted.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Nothing new to report.

SRA

Malaya

Bombing/bombardment of Singapore.

Philippines

Bombing/bombardment of Bataan.

Borneo

The 3 SNLFs attacked Tarakan unsuccessfully today. They'll try a shock attack tomorrow.

Sumatra

Japanese forces continue to flow north.

Java

Tjilatjap was liberated.

Burma

15 Army is still flowing north. Finally, more troops are arriving including 33 Division and 2x tank regiments.

China

Nothing exciting to report.

Other Stuff

Nothing to report.

[Mike Solli]

30 Jan 42

Sub War

The I-168 torpedoed and sank a PC off Cooktown.

5 Fleet

No sign of the enemy but Adak is building up its infrastructure. The port is 3(5) and the airfield is 2(4).

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Nothing to report.

SRA

Malaya

Bombing/bombarding Singapore.

Philippines

I tried a deliberate attack against Bataan. The attack failed (predictably), but I did kill a unit and killed off 63 squads of various types while losing only a handful of squads. The forts are level 2. Back to bombing/bombarding for awhile.

Borneo

The shock attack at Tarakan missed 2:1 odds by a hair (124:64). I'll try a shock attack again tomorrow. Now I'm really getting worried that the oil fields will be trashed when I take it.

Sumatra

Troops are still heading north.

Java

Bombarded Batavia. Most of 38 Division and most of 2 Division is there and 4 Division and the rest of 2 Division is enroute. I'll attack when they all reach it and 2 Division is recombined.

Burma

Still maneuvering.

China

Beat up on the cats I'm herding south of Nanchang. Still advancing on other fronts.

Other Stuff
Reinforcements
Kure 3 SNFL (SE Fleet) - Future Merauke garrison.
12 Naval Construction Battalion (SE Fleet) - Headed to SE Fleet AO but not sure where yet.

[RangerJoe]

You have to take care of family!

Absolutely, Skyros!

+1

As least as long as the family members are not like the Equus Asinus types - or worse.

[RangerJoe]

The USS Alden had an officer who was half Cherokee and at least 1/4 Creek, he joined the US Navy as an enlisted man who was sent to the US Naval High School in Annapolis. He later commanded the USS Johnston in 1944 off Leyte Gulf . . .

This is what he said, before he even had orders to leave the ships he was escorting:
"“All hands to general quarters. Prepare to attack major portion of the Japanese fleet,” Evans said, according to Cox. “All engines ahead flank. Commence making smoke and stand by for a torpedo attack. Left full rudder.”"

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/uss-joh ... ans-samar/

May he Rest In Peace.

[Mike Solli]

31 Jan 42

Sub War

I-26 took light damage from a couple of APDs off San Diego and is headed home for repairs. She was low on fuel and was about to head home anyway.

5 Fleet

Nothing to report.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Landed at Tulagi and will take it tomorrow.

SRA

Malaya

Tried a deliberate assault today. It failed, as expected. The fort level is still 3. I killed 41 (mainly squads) and disabled 101 more. Imperial Guards Division took a beating, but only a few killed. I'll rest the infantry up and allow them to repair the disabled squads for a while.

Philippines

Chewed up some more Allied troops.

Borneo

Shock attacked at Tarakan again with 3x SNLFs. This one worked and there was no damage to the infrastructure! Banzai!

Oil: 90(0)
Refinery: 90(0)

Sumatra

Moving north and will move into Palembang from the north.

Java

Bombardment of Batavia again. There isn't a lot of artillery here so the damage is minimal. I'm still waiting for the remaining components of 2 Division and the 4 Division to arrive so I can do these guys in.

Burma

15 Army is concentrating to move north into the Magwe complex.

China

Herding cats.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements

AG Kinesaki, Osaka
31 Ku T-1 (12 Vals) 24 Air Flotilla, Manila, training
33 Ku T-1 (6 Jean) 13 Air Flotilla, Oita, training
33 Ku T-2 (6 Vals) 13 Air Flotilla, Oita, training
35 Ku T-1 (9 Vals) 3 Fleet, Takao, training
40 Ku T-1 (6 Vals), 13 Air Flotilla, Chiba, training
40 Ku T-2 (6 Jean), 13 Air Flotilla, Chiba, training
4 Air Division HQ, China Expeditionary Army, Canton
52 Infantry Brigade, 11 Army, Shanghai, part of 58 Division
58 Infantry Brigade, 11 Army, Shanghai, part of 68 Division
56 Infantry Brigade, 13 Army, Shanghai, part of 60 Division
62 Infantry Brigade, 13 Army, Shanghai, part of 70 Division
60 Infantry Brigade, 1 Army, Peiping, part of 69 Division
54 Infantry Brigade, 12 Army, Peiping, part of 59 Division
(The 6 IBs above will merry up with their counterpart IBs to form the divisions.)
69 JAAF AF Bn, Kuantang Army, Changshun
99 JAAF AF Bn, Kuantang Army, Changshun
201 JAAF AF Bn, Kuantang Army, Changshun
205 JAAF AF Bn, Kuantang Army, Changshun
The 4 Bns above will move to various airfields in Manchuoko to address AS needs.

[Mike Solli]

1 Feb 42

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

Nothing to report.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

A dozen Betties escorted by 9 Zeros attempted to bomb Pt. Moresby's airfield. They were met by 11 P40Es. The Zeros protected the Betties and shot down 5 P40s for no loss. The bombers did little damage to the airfield that was easily repaired. Five more precious P40Es gone.

SRA

Malaya

More bombardment of Singapore.

Philippines

Bataan was bombarded destroying 26 infantry squads. Banzai!

Borneo

Zuiho and Hosho are parked in the shallow hex 4 hexes to the NE of Samarinda providing aerial support the the invasions in this area. The Balikpapan invasion force (144 IR) moved to the shallow hex 3 hexes E of Samarinda (2 hexes south of the carriers). There is a CA TF covering the invasion TF. During the night, two separate Allied "TFs" ran into the carriers. The first was composed of an AVP and an AG. The second was an xAP. In both cases, both sides ran away screaming like little girls. Ted called them his Kamikaze support TFs.

Later that night, both ran into the CA TF and all 3 ships were sunk.

The Balikpapan invasion TF will move in tomorrow.

Two B339Ds swept Tarakan (no clue why) and one was shot down by a carrier Zero. Free experience.

Sumatra

Moving north.

Java

More bombardment of Batavia.

Burma

15 Army still concentrating.

China

A deliberate attack on Nanyang was unsuccessful, but for the loss of only a couple of Japanese squads, 26 Chinese squads were destroyed with a bunch of disabled squads. Those are the kind of unsuccessful attacks I like.

Pingsang was liberated, destroying 136 enemy squads for no Japanese loss. Also, the 120 resources were captured intact.

Chengchow was also liberated. For a loss of 8 Japanese squads, some 229 enemy squads and 450 non infantry squads were destroyed. The infrastructure was beat up, but I'll take what I can get:

LI: 27(33)
Resources: 27(33)

None of it will be rebuilt.

Other Stuff

Nothing to report.

[Mike Solli]

2 Feb 42

Sub War

Nothing exciting today.

5 Fleet

Nothing

4 Fleet

Nothing.

SE Fleet

Seven Betties escorted by 6 Zeros went after an xAP in Pt. Moresby. Three P40Es rose to meet them and two were shot down for no loss to the Japanese. The vaunted Betties missed the xAP.

SRA

Malaya

Bombing/bombardment of Singapore.

Philippines

Bombing/bombardment of Bataan.

Borneo

The Balikpapan invasion force landed today. An Ansyu PB escort hit a mine and was heavily damaged. She'll attempt to make port at Tarakan. Fingers crossed. Fortunately, none of the important ships hit mines and only minor damage done by the shore batteries. I forgot to set the 144 IR to attack tomorrow.

Sumatra

Smacked around a small unit just west of Palembang. Still moving to enter Palembang from the north.

Java

4 Division arrived to bolster 38 Division at Batavia. Still waiting for 2 Recon Regiment to arrive so 2 Division can combine.

Burma

Still crawling through the jungle. Man is it slow up here!

China

Nothing exciting.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement

DD Kazegumo (Yugumo class), KB escort.

[Mike Solli]

3 Feb 42

Sub War
5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

The Zeros forgot to escort the Betties attacking Pt. Moresby's airfield. The remaining P40E shot one down and they did only 1 runway hit to the airfield.

SRA

Malaya

Bombing/bombardment of Singapore.

Philippines

Bombing/bombardment of Bataan.

Borneo

The rest of 144 IR landed at Balikpapan. This time I told them to do a deliberate attack tomorrow.

Sumatra

Moving north.

Java

Still waiting for 2 Recon/2 Division. 46 miles out...

Burma

Crawling around.

China

Herding cats.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement
AMc Hakata Maru, base minesweeper
SC Ch-33, ASW

[Mike Solli]

4 Feb 42

Sub War

The I-7, stationed 3 hexes east of Johnston Island, caught and sank the PG Sacramento today. What was she doing there? Recon?

That beat up Ansyu PB limping along toward Tarakan at 4 kts was attacked by a Dutch sub, but the torpedoes missed! I think that Dutch sub commander needs new glasses.

5 Fleet

Yawn.

4 Fleet

So, what's going on with Johnston island? The garrison there is 51 Naval Guard and 1 Engineer Company. When I captured the place, there was a lot of damage to the facilities. Just today, the engineers finally repaired the damage and will start work on the fortifications. The goal is to get the forts to level 4. We'll see if I keep it that long. It's really just a nuisance. I plan on dumping some mines there along with an ACM. I have a midget sub there as well. Again, just a nuisance.

SE Fleet

Merauke was visited by the Dutch fleet; all 3 CLs escorted by 6 DDs. They bombarded the base doing light damage (9/8/14) and hitting the 4 Engineer Company. Of the 9 engineers/const/labor squads, 4 were disabled, along with most of the support squads. I got off easy. They had just completed repairs of the infrastructure and started on the airfield, getting it to 1.04 when this happened.

Soon, I'm going to give Ted something else to think about. I'm going to drop the 2 Raiding Regiment on Horne Island. That should be interesting.

SRA

Malaya

Bombarding/bombing.

Philippines

Bombarding/bombing.

Borneo

One of the xAKs in the Balikpapan invasion fleet hit a mine. She's hurt pretty badly, but she's big (a Kyushu) and the fires are out. Fingers crossed.

The 144 IR did a deliberate assault of Balikpapan getting only 1:1 odds, but reduced the fort from 2 to 1. I lost a single squad and did a number on the KNIL battalion defending. Another deliberate assault tomorrow. They barraged so I was able to see the change in AV for both of us. Mine decreased from 178 to 166 and the Dutch decreased from 46 to 23.

A special base force and a port unit landed, so I'm throwing their infantry into the attack tomorrow too.

Sumatra

Still moving.

Java

I swept Soerabaja today, but there were no takers. There still are some Dutch fighters out there somewhere. Where are they?

The 2 Recon Regiment finally arrived at Batavia today. I combined 2 Division, and all 3 are going doing a deliberate assault tomorrow. Finally!

Burma

Still moving.

China

Herding cats.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement
80 JAAF AF Bn, General Defense Army, stays in Home Islands

[Mike Solli]

Finally caught up. Ted is traveling for the next few days. That's good because I've been busy and have to catch up on my stats spreadsheet. He did say he was bringing his laptop and should be able to get a turn or two in.

[RangerJoe]

Remember that when your initial invasion attack does not work, then a Fast Transport TF dropping off supplies will bombard the enemy units plus it might force a counter bombardment. But this works both ways so you might see the same thing later. This will also work at the Chinese port base between Shanghai and Amoy even if your land units marched overland to get there.

The Ansyu-C PBs can take a mine hit fairly well. They can also go into minesweeping TFs if there is a real minesweeper in the same hex. They are slow clearing mines but they only need to clear a path through the minefield.

[PaxMondo]

So, what's going on with Johnston island? The garrison there is 51 Naval Guard and 1 Engineer Company. When I captured the place, there was a lot of damage to the facilities. Just today, the engineers finally repaired the damage and will start work on the fortifications. The goal is to get the forts to level 4. We'll see if I keep it that long. It's really just a nuisance. I plan on dumping some mines there along with an ACM. I have a midget sub there as well. Again, just a nuisance.

You kinda lost me here Mike. Are you thinking they took too long to repair the damage? Most Naval Guards have only a few engineer squads and the engr co, depending upon which one, may also only have a few. Worse, some of them might have been disabled upon landing. If they started with AF/AF Facilities/Port damage at something like 100/90/90, yeah it can take a long time. I don't recall how many units of damage/day an engr squad repairs, but it ain't much (1?). 280 pts of damage is a lot to repair. if you only have a handful of engr.

If I missed this entirely, sorry!!!

PS: In my game, I took Wake on 10 Dec 41. Maizuru SNLF had 8(4) Combat Engrs. Damage was 87/51/2. On 13 Dec 41 damage was 74/51/2 with now 12(0) combat engrs. So, 3 days 13 pts of damage repaired with something like an average of 10 engrs ... doesn't look good, but it does look like your Johnston Is.

[RangerJoe]

So, what's going on with Johnston island? The garrison there is 51 Naval Guard and 1 Engineer Company. When I captured the place, there was a lot of damage to the facilities. Just today, the engineers finally repaired the damage and will start work on the fortifications. The goal is to get the forts to level 4. We'll see if I keep it that long. It's really just a nuisance. I plan on dumping some mines there along with an ACM. I have a midget sub there as well. Again, just a nuisance.

You kinda lost me here Mike. Are you thinking they took too long to repair the damage? Most Naval Guards have only a few engineer squads and the engr co, depending upon which one, may also only have a few. Worse, some of them might have been disabled upon landing. If they started with AF/AF Facilities/Port damage at something like 100/90/90, yeah it can take a long time. I don't recall how many units of damage/day an engr squad repairs, but it ain't much (1?). 280 pts of damage is a lot to repair. if you only have a handful of engr.

If I missed this entirely, sorry!!!

PS: In my game, I took Wake on 10 Dec 41. Maizuru SNLF had 8(4) Combat Engrs. Damage was 87/51/2. On 13 Dec 41 damage was 74/51/2 with now 12(0) combat engrs. So, 3 days 13 pts of damage repaired with something like an average of 10 engrs ... doesn't look good, but it does look like your Johnston Is.

It might also depend upon the size of the facilities to repair.

[Mike Solli]

So, what's going on with Johnston island? The garrison there is 51 Naval Guard and 1 Engineer Company. When I captured the place, there was a lot of damage to the facilities. Just today, the engineers finally repaired the damage and will start work on the fortifications. The goal is to get the forts to level 4. We'll see if I keep it that long. It's really just a nuisance. I plan on dumping some mines there along with an ACM. I have a midget sub there as well. Again, just a nuisance.

You kinda lost me here Mike. Are you thinking they took too long to repair the damage? Most Naval Guards have only a few engineer squads and the engr co, depending upon which one, may also only have a few. Worse, some of them might have been disabled upon landing. If they started with AF/AF Facilities/Port damage at something like 100/90/90, yeah it can take a long time. I don't recall how many units of damage/day an engr squad repairs, but it ain't much (1?). 280 pts of damage is a lot to repair. if you only have a handful of engr.

If I missed this entirely, sorry!!!

PS: In my game, I took Wake on 10 Dec 41. Maizuru SNLF had 8(4) Combat Engrs. Damage was 87/51/2. On 13 Dec 41 damage was 74/51/2 with now 12(0) combat engrs. So, 3 days 13 pts of damage repaired with something like an average of 10 engrs ... doesn't look good, but it does look like your Johnston Is.

I "think" that first sentence was just a preamble to the update on Johnston Island. In this mod, NG battalions have no engineers (I recall that's normal) and the engineer company has only a handful of (3 or 4) engineers.

By the way, we're up to about a turn a day again. I'm a few turns behind, but we're plodding along. The oil fields are overall in great shape. Not too much supply needed to repair them, other than the 150 in Miri, which is always the case.

[Mike Solli]

So, what's going on with Johnston island? The garrison there is 51 Naval Guard and 1 Engineer Company. When I captured the place, there was a lot of damage to the facilities. Just today, the engineers finally repaired the damage and will start work on the fortifications. The goal is to get the forts to level 4. We'll see if I keep it that long. It's really just a nuisance. I plan on dumping some mines there along with an ACM. I have a midget sub there as well. Again, just a nuisance.

You kinda lost me here Mike. Are you thinking they took too long to repair the damage? Most Naval Guards have only a few engineer squads and the engr co, depending upon which one, may also only have a few. Worse, some of them might have been disabled upon landing. If they started with AF/AF Facilities/Port damage at something like 100/90/90, yeah it can take a long time. I don't recall how many units of damage/day an engr squad repairs, but it ain't much (1?). 280 pts of damage is a lot to repair. if you only have a handful of engr.

If I missed this entirely, sorry!!!

PS: In my game, I took Wake on 10 Dec 41. Maizuru SNLF had 8(4) Combat Engrs. Damage was 87/51/2. On 13 Dec 41 damage was 74/51/2 with now 12(0) combat engrs. So, 3 days 13 pts of damage repaired with something like an average of 10 engrs ... doesn't look good, but it does look like your Johnston Is.

It might also depend upon the size of the facilities to repair.

That I don't know, Joe. I do know that the engineer regiments have been nerfed of engineers. I believe they have 48 engineers in vanilla. In this mod, they have 9 combat engineers, 9 engineers and 9 laborers. I "think" that equates to 27 engineers, but overview on the main screen doesn't count the laborers. *shrug*

[PaxMondo]

9 laborers. I "think" that equates to 27 engineers, but overview on the main screen doesn't count the laborers. *shrug*

I believe the laborers are just supply eaters. They do NOT perform any useful work, that is why they don't show up on the main screen. As you say, the mod wanted to nerf the ENG units significantly and they did.

[Mike Solli]

That's lovely news, Pax. This mod makes it really difficult to build up bases.

I'm way behind posting again. I'm waiting for the 13 Feb turn from Ted. I'll try to catch up as best I can.

[PaxMondo]

That's lovely news, Pax. This mod makes it really difficult to build up bases.

Yes it does, but that was their intent. The allies suffer as well from this, but not nearly as many laborers. Suspicious to me!