I can tell you guys that this is a very, very scary place for a AFB to be reading. There are some extremely diabolical ideas being hatched in here. You Guy's are going to give some of us AFB's some headaches, and a lot of sleepless nights.
Wow, that's what I like to hear! Thanks! We try. [:'(]
You must use loading troops only, do not try to load supply with the extra troops. You can get a lot loaded on turn 1.
I've been experimenting with this idea and you're right! You can bring alot more to the party on turn 1 I had previously thought. I wish I had known this before I started my current game, but c'est la guerre. But what else is a first game for but lessons in tough love!
Interesting. I've found that I can't really bring much of anything else. I've tried loading units and only small slices load, even though I set it to load troops only.
For what it's worth, I was experimenting with TF-97 at Samah headed for Singora on Dec 7. I added 4 Aden class xAKs and 1 Akasi class xAK to the TF. I then ordered the 22nd Recon, 18th Mtn Gun, and 3 AA companies to load (with supplies and fuel off). I ran the turn and voila, on Dec 7 all five LCUs were landing at Singora along with the other troops of TF-97.
I can tell you guys that this is a very, very scary place for a AFB to be reading. There are some extremely diabolical ideas being hatched in here. You Guy's are going to give some of us AFB's some headaches, and a lot of sleepless nights.
Wow, that's what I like to hear! Thanks! We try. [:'(]
Marc, don't worry. A few of us are quietly taking notes in here. [;)]
I've been experimenting with this idea and you're right! You can bring alot more to the party on turn 1 I had previously thought. I wish I had known this before I started my current game, but c'est la guerre. But what else is a first game for but lessons in tough love!
Interesting. I've found that I can't really bring much of anything else. I've tried loading units and only small slices load, even though I set it to load troops only.
For what it's worth, I was experimenting with TF-97 at Samah headed for Singora on Dec 7. I added 4 Aden class xAKs and 1 Akasi class xAK to the TF. I then ordered the 22nd Recon, 18th Mtn Gun, and 3 AA companies to load (with supplies and fuel off). I ran the turn and voila, on Dec 7 all five LCUs were landing at Singora along with the other troops of TF-97.
Maybe it's not a game changer, but it does work.
I suspect the reason why it didn't work for me was that I had already created a new TF and begun loading the units. Then I transferred them to one of the magic move TFs. That didn't work. I didn't want to start over from scratch just to do it.
This restart is very different from the last one, and it all started with the sub war. The only incident involving subs was between the I-153 and the DD Tenedos. Initially, the Tenedos spotted her and dropped a few depth charges ineffectually and the I-153 got away and came back around to launch a couple of torpedoes at the Tenedos, again ineffectually.
So much for the sub war. [8|]
Pearl Harbor
This was your typical raid. I once again separated Kaga out from the group to send to the SRA so there were only 5 CVs involved. One Akagi Zero found a P-36 on a training mission and promptly shot it down. Here’s the combat report:
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 90
B5N2 Kate x 117
D3A1 Val x 108
Allied aircraft
no flights
Japanese aircraft losses
B5N2 Kate: 9 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 1 destroyed by flak
D3A1 Val: 4 damaged
D3A1 Val: 1 destroyed by flak
Allied Ships
BB Arizona, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
BB West Virginia, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Manini, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
BB Pennsylvania, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
BB Nevada, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
AG Argonne, Torpedo hits 1
BB Tennessee, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 4, on fire
CA New Orleans, Bomb hits 1, on fire
BB Maryland, Bomb hits 4
BB California, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
DM Tracy, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
AVD Thornton, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
AO Ramapo, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
BB Oklahoma, Bomb hits 1
Training flight from 15th PG/46th PS has been caught up in attack
Magazine explodes on BB Nevada
Magazine explodes on BB California
Only 3 ships are showing as sunk but note the two BB magazine explosions. Banzai! Total losses for KB were as follows:
Akagi – 1 Kate and 0 pilots
Shokaku – 1 Val and pilot, 3 Kates and 2 pilots
Zuikaku – 1 Val and 0 pilots
Total estimated Allied plane losses on the ground are 66, so I suspect the majority of them were here.
I can live with that. KB is now heading due west to support the Wake invasion in 3 days.
Philippines
There were various bombing raids at Iba, San Fernando and Clark Field to soften up the invasions and wear down enemy air power. At the cost of 1 Betty and 1 Zero lost, I shot down 7 enemy fighters and destroyed at least 3 more aircraft on the ground.
I opted for the initial forces to be concentrated and used in the invasion of Iba. I’ll attack that place on 8 Dec. Assuming it is successful, I’ll rid myself of a couple dozen P-40s. If Ted disbands them, they’re gone and if not, I’ll destroy them on the ground. I’d much prefer the latter, but I’ll take the former as a quick fix to reduce Ted’s fighter strength by 25%. The invasion is composed of an SNLF and two detachments which, when combined, form the 2 Formosa Regiment of 48 Division, along with supporting units. I am going to combine units as soon as I can. I learned in the last game that small units in large battles get smashed very easily. The San Fernando invasion will be composed of the remainder of the 48 Division, 65 Brigade and more support. It’ll land in 2 days. I also paradropped the Yokosuka 1 SNLF at Cabanatuan, which I took. It is really a nuisance force. Hopefully, it’ll take Ted’s eye off the real invasions.
Here are the opposing forces at Iba:
Allied units:
31st PA Infantry Division
1st PI Base Force
The Good Guys:
Tanaka Detachment
Kanno Detachment
The two dets above form the 2 Formosa Reg/48 Div.
Sasebo 1st SNLF
21st Ind. Engineer Regiment
3rd Ind. Engineer Regiment
2nd Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
15th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
8th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
9th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
28th JAAF AF Bn
40th JAAF AF Bn
9th Field AF Construction Battalion
3rd Engineer Construction Battalion
56th Const Co
14th Army /1 (remainder of HQ is still unloading)
Note the two IJAAF AF Bns with 48 AS. This will allow me to move some short range IJA fighters and 1E bombers here for attacks against Clark Field.
I landed an IJAAF AF Bn at Vigen which it will take today. This will allow me to station 2 Zero chutai and a naval recon chutai there tomorrow for close fighter cover.
The mine laying sub beginning the war at Bataan laid her eggs and remained in the hex, but there was no contact of any kind. She’ll sit there today as well hoping to get a shot at something.
Once I take San Fernando, I’ll station a Nell/Betty daitai there along with as much of the 5 Air Division fighters and 1E bombers as I can to support the bombing of Clark Field. My goal is to get all of the 5 AD and most of the 22 Air Flotilla on Luzon as quickly as possible. The 22 Air Flotilla will be used to pick off as many ships as they can while the 5 Air Division will perform the land bombing.
China
The initial garrison shuffle, a couple of bombings and one attack. Pengu was taken in a DA. My losses were 27(0) to 748(44) Chinese casualties. Banzai!
Hong Kong
The attack force is moving toward Hong Kong. I bombed the airfield a couple of times to prevent an increase to the fort level. The 3 DDs stayed in port this time. Bettys paid them a visit twice causing no damage to either side.
4 Fleet
The Wake invasion force was augmented by the NG originally assigned to invade Tarawa. They will reach Wake in 3 days, at the same time as KB and the 4 Aobas, which will provide bombardment support.
SE Fleet
The 144 Regiment is headed to Truk to spearhead the invasion of Rabaul. Gds Bde will be bought in a few days and will also head to this theater. 90 Regiment will be bought next from Kwantung Army to augment this force for the Pt. Moresby invasion.
5 Fleet
The 7 Base Force is loading for an early invasion of Adak.
Burma
The 15 Army is loading up on trains to begin the trek to their jump off point.
Malaya
I opted for no invasions on 7 Dec. I think I am going to delay moving my invasion force today as well. Ted did something interesting. I got the following spotting report:
E13A1 Jake sighting report: Allied BB at 51,82 near Mersing , Moving West
I think Ted set some waypoints for Force Z in the hope of catching a Mersing invasion force. I never saw the BB again and my Netties didn’t attack any ships. I did set the Netties secondarily to ground attack so they plastered Kuantan repeatedly.
Ted sent several 1 DD TFs to seek out my invasion TFs west of Mersing. I think he had hoped to find one and attack it with a DD, then hit it with the RAF in the afternoon. No luck. The Brit DDs did nothing, my naval attacks didn’t occur, and I plastered Kuantan (and Kota Bharu) by air. In addition, I had sent a CA TF to bombard Kuantan, which it did very nicely. It’s going to high tail it out of there today, on the off chance that the BB is still hanging around. I think it’s gone, but I don’t want to take that chance. Hopefully, it’ll catch and pick off one of the DDs.
Anyway, the air war wasn’t bad. At the cost of a Sally and Lily, I destroyed 3 Buffalos, 6 Hudson Is, 3 Blenheim IVs, a Wirraway and 8 Vildebeests! I would have liked to have destroyed more Buffalos, but I’ll take it. The Nates were ineffective, but I didn’t lose any so that was a positive. The Oscar Ia sentai didn’t shoot down any planes either. The Oscar Ib sentai shot down 11 planes! That’s currently the lead air unit. Very nice. I upgraded the 77 Sentai det to the Oscar Ic (12 planes) today. They’re stationed north of Malaya at one of those 2 bases that is now filled with 4 sentai and 1 chutai of Nates and Oscars.
I particularly like seeing all those Vildebeests go down. Not sure how many Ted has, but now he has fewer. Heh, heh, heh….
I’m now contemplating whether or not to send in the amphibious TFs today or tomorrow. I’m leaning toward tomorrow because of the lack of knowledge of Force Z’s whereabouts. I’ll probably wait a day. The Kuantan Invasion force is stationed 6 hexes due east of Kuantan and has not been spotted. It’ll take 2 days to reach Kuantan. I may move it a couple hexes west to bring it to within 1 day’s sail. It’ll have Kaga (36 Zeros) with it tomorrow so it’ll be rather safe. The Mersing Invasion Fleet is congregating 1 hex SW of Soc Trang. It’ll sit there a few days until I clear out any enemy surface threat, establish an airbase with Zeros at Kuantan and whittle down the RAF some more.
Speaking of Kaga, she was at Soc Trang when 4 Hudsons found the Mersing Invasion Fleet, one hex away. A Kaga Zero and 6 Claudes showed up for CAP. The Zero shot down 2 Hudsons and drove off a third. The fourth was shot down by flak before it could ID any ships. Those Claudes were from the 9 plane det of Yamada Det. They were upgraded to Zeros today and, once the planes are repaired, they’ll fly to Kaga to bring her Zero complement up to 45.
Other Stuff
I turned off Shinano and left all other ships alone. We’ll see what the Naval Build Point total looks like tomorrow.
Supply is down about 245k, which is not surprising. Over 110k is on xAKs headed to the SRA. Half will go to Miri and the other half will probably go to Malaya. Most of the remaining missing supply is loaded on invasion TFs.
Everything else looks good considering we’re 1 day into the game.
1 day turns.. my god, so if you do one turn a day, it will be 4 years before you are done.. too bad you didnt start the game on dec 7th you could have played each day at the historical 70th year anniversary
I got my popcorn
Good luck on your adventure
dis going be good
So a good first day. You guessed correctly, Ted prolly was trying to lay a trap for you at Mersing.
Is it still worth it to still land there? Can you close the door before he can move his units where he wants/needs? When I calc this, you don't have a lot of margin to close the door with an Armor unit by landing at Mersing ... Watching this now carefully ....
Nice results for you at Pearl, Mike! 2 BB's for sure sunk, along with Arizona and Tennessee eating 5 and 4 fish. They are gonna be critical with flooding damage.
Set your Nell/Betties out of Saigon at either 10 or 20% Naval Search with arcs that cover from about Kuantan to the east (almost to Miri). These should help you find any warships he may have sent to the east from Singapore. Keep the rest of their current settings.
You can order your transport to "Follow" a SC TF by one hex and then to be in the same hex once they reach their destination. Hopefully, his planes will go after the closer TF, which are your warships, and any of his SC TF will have to go through you warships.
Pax, I'm wondering the same thing about Mersing. I've sent at least one recon unit to all of his occupied bases in Malaya. It'll be interesting to see if he bugs out immediately or if he tries to defend. In the past he defended. My supply issue (I think) caused me to delay taking Singapore by 3-4 weeks. It may have been his abilities delaying my advance. Still not sure. At any rate, the forces I have allocated for Kuantan are 1 day's sail from there (or Mersing) and the Mersing forces are still congregating 1 hex SW of Soc Trang. I can always hit Kuantan and/or Kota Bharu. I hope to kill more if the RAF next turn with the Zeros.
Krup, I don't know how you do things like that avatar. It's wonderful. Thanks!
Mike, yeah I'm pleased with it even though initially it really doesn't look like much damage was caused. I was disappointed at the lack of cruiser and destroyer damage though.
Michael, next turn, the closest TF to Malaya is the CA TF that bombarded Kuantan on 7 Dec. It'll end up near the Kaga. Hopefully, the Zero CAP will bleed over onto it and tear apart the RAF. I need to look at the Allied side to see what the RAF looks like. How many of those damn string bags does he have?!
Edit: I forgot about the Netties. I did change them to 10% search. That usually does wonders for their intercept rates. I forgot to do it on 7 Dec.
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