General Patton vs. larryfulkerson Focus Pacific #75

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on at Noumea right now. I've chased an Allied TF from Effete to Noumea and now I'm moving in for the final
air strikes on the ships in the harbor. I've got a replenishment TF headed this way for the carriers are really low on fuel and if they
don't get refueled pretty soon they might get stuck between here and Rabaul somewhere. So I'm really sweating the AO's headed
for Noumea. They have an escort but that's no guarentee that all will go well.

I'm expecting a little trouble with the airstrikes because the weather is overcast so the flights might not get through and the bombers
might not be escorted always and a hundred different things can go wrong. I've split up the carriers into two separate TF's to better
spread the escorts and for better mission coordination for the planes. I'm wondering why Brian is keeping his ships around the
harbor. Maybe he's got a bunch of damaged ships and they can't escape. That would be my guess.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: BillBrown
I would expect at least 1200 AV at Palembang by now.

That's a lot. That's more than my two divisions can handle. I might end up sending a LOT more than I had originally planned. I need
some good recon on the Palembang hex and I'm thinking of using one or more of the long range bombers to do that for me. The
necessary recon planes are mostly in China right now. I'll fly some down to Johore B. to see if I can't put some eyes on the target.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Brian: I thought I'd revamp the R&D air values and bumped most of them up to the next multiple of 5 or a round
number. The Ki-43 IIb was accellerated to 4/42 so I've started making some of those instead of the Ki-43 1d. I'm particularly tired
of Oscars but they are necessary for now. I'm trying to find better pilots for my Zero's which is a better plane I think. I'm trying to put
my best pilots in the best planes. That's the theory.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's how the economy is holding up. I'm down to my last 34 days of fuel so I'm thinking of bumping up the refinery in Tokyo since it's
the biggest and Tokyo has the most oil. That may help in the long run too.

[larryfulkerson]

I was bumping up the refineries in the home islands just now and accidently bumped up Balikpapan by 100 tons per day. And there's
no way to back it out either. I should have done a save game right before I started these maneuvers. I may be able to take advantage
of the event somehow. It's a costly error in supply too.

EDIT: Yeah, I know I can leave the repairs on NO for now.

[larryfulkerson]

I was looking around just now doing some planning on the Palembang operation and discovered a really good source of RES right next
to Singapore. I forget the name of the island right now. T-island has 321 tons per day of RES as I recall and a fairly good port and
even an airfield. I must have it. So prior to or during the Singapore operation I need some intrepid lads to take that island for me.
Although Palembang has priority over everything after Singapore.

EDIT: OH, and I wanted to say that in this mod Palembang has a ship repairyard and an aircraft factory. It's a must-have too.

[larryfulkerson]

I've just now discovered to my horror that ever since I've captured Wake it's been horribly overstacked and as a result is going through
supplies at a prodiguous rate. I've got to extract some of those guys and bring them some supply at the same time. Before I do one
other thing.

[larryfulkerson]

I did some investigation into the Wake Project and found out that there were three supply convoys there already. One was an auto-
convoy and two I had sent some time ago. I'm going to unload the supplies there and use the empty AK's to transport some of the
overstacking troops to Singapore or Port Moresby or somewhere.

[larryfulkerson]

I checked Tracker to see who else is overstacked and found a problem at Kwajalein ( 5 too many people there ) and at Ocean Island
where there's about 1300 too many people. I can use the RES AK's that are headed to Ocean island to move the people instead
just this one time emergency and then back to moving goodies. Ops, I don't think my ocean-going AK's will dock at Ocean so I'm going
to round up some of the little boy AK's and maybe some of the smaller AP's and see if we can't find something that will work.

[larryfulkerson]

There's a rather large contingent of INF troops at Ocean Island and some engineers. I need the engineers there to expand the
airfield there and maybe the port too. So I have to move at least some of the troops. I'm staring at Tulagi and how badly I need
that base. It's probably garrisoned and will need some SCTF assets to go ashore but I think it's doable. And now that Bataan is
freeing up at least 13 divisions I might be able to spare a couple to tackle Port Moresby.

[larryfulkerson]

The aircraft and engine inventory told me that there's a decided lack of airplanes on the front lines ( in the pools ). So I decided to
bump up production of several different models. I understand that I need to watch the engines for those additions. That'll need to
be bumped up to match demand.

[BillBrown]

My game is at May 1, 1942 and I have 1307 AV at Palembang with level 7 forts. It will be a tough nut to crack.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: BillBrown
My game is at May 1, 1942 and I have 1307 AV at Palembang with level 7 forts. It will be a tough nut to crack.

Holy Mackerl ! Level 7 forts, wow. And 1307 AV already. That's horrible news. I started bombing Sijngapore so the fort
level wouldn't get that high. I wonder how well that worked. I can't see trying to reduce the forts by repeated direct
assaults. Or deliberate assaults I guess it's called. Too many losses that way. I need to take on the CD guns with my
BB's and make them go away so the ships can make the problem go away at Singapore. I'll probably lose one or more
ships doing that. But there's no other way to speed up the process short of aerial bombardment. And even that is hit
or miss. Still, I need to continue the aerial bombardment if only to prevent the expanding of forts. If that's even working.

[larryfulkerson]

I need to look around more. I only accidently noticed that there's some Allied ships trying to sneak into the waters around
Babeldoab. I happen to have some SCTF's nearby and I'm dispatching them to investigate. I have no idea why Brian would
send some ships this far into enemy territory unless he's trying to probe and see what's where using ships. That's costly or
can be. I've only spotted two ships so far so my two TF's ought to be able to handle whatever it is.

[larryfulkerson]

In reference to the above situation, the resolution was that one of my SCTF ran into the enemy TF and it turned out to be
2 Allied AK's. My TF sent them to the bottom of the ocean and that was that. I don't know where they came from but my guess
is Cebu and I'm only guessing there because there's still an Allied land contingent based there.

In the image below I'm finally loading the first load of troops at Manila for the trip over to Mersing. I've got AK's loading at Davao
also, and when they get there I'm going to try to put the divisions back together and make sure they are rested and ready for the
trip across the river into Singapore. I've got between now and September of '42 to try to take Singapore down to be on schedule
with the real thing. That's the theory.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's how the economy is doing right now: I'm probably missing something important but it's not obvious whatever the problem that
lurks still is. Eleven Meg in RES and it's climbing because of the shipments coming in from all over the map. The thing I worry about
now is oil and fuel. Mostly fuel. My ships need it to move and I intend on doing a lot of moving for a while. And I can't park the AK's
either: they are the lifeline of the whole operation. They stop and I lose the war.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Brian: I watched the combat replay and now I'm investigating the Tracker data. I pulled up the resource history of the
home islands and was delighted to find the oil and RES levels rising. Now if I can just keep this up for a while. And the fuel level.....I
need to do something about that. I've expanded some of the refineries on the home islands and I'll need a higher flow rate of oil to feed
the demand but there should be more fuel available. So far so good.

[larryfulkerson]

Brian has established a fine base at Milne Bay and he's got a bunch of aircraft there that threaten Rabaul and my other assets and I
thought maybe I should drive my big boats down there and bombard a little bit and I got some good hits. Now if I can just keep the
airfield closed by bombing it. Or periodic naval bombardments will do the trick. I'm thinking I might need Milne Bay to assault Port
Moresby eventually. I'm thinking I can use some of the assets that are leaving Bataan to take back Milne Bay. Well, actually I guess
you had to own it at one time to bake it back. And I haven't owned it yet. So that was inaccurate. But I'm going to need to get Port
Moresby if I'm ever going to assault the east coast of Australia.

[larryfulkerson]

Brian has sent one or more TF's into Tarawa waters and it could be a threat so I thought I'd drive a carrier down there and investigate
and it looks like Brian is trying to grab Tabiteuea and establish a base there. I arrived during the morning hours and sank two AK's and
maybe some other smaller ships and it looks like some subsequent air strikes are in order because there's more Allied ships there. I'll
keep you posted on the happenings.

[larryfulkerson]

I just got some more moves from Brian and I've been working on them for about 1/2 hour now and it occured to me that maybe I should
post something about the game before this thread goes to page 2 again.

I've chased some ships to Luganville and I've been doing airfield and port attacks for about three days now. Nobody flew yesterday
because of the weather but they flew today and I lost a few planes and he lost a few planes but there were no ships spotted [ or
else they would have been attacked. That's the theory. ]. So I need to back out of there and call it a day and grab a couple of
new groups of bombers and refuel and try it again in about a week. In some other place.