Lambs to the slaughter (Lowpe (J) vs Jocke; BillBrown (A)) Finished

[Lowpe]

Pinch me, I am dreaming.[;)]

[Lowpe]

Brrr...it is cold up here, and the Yanks keep landing troops and losing them. Mostly disablements, but a few guns fell into the freezing cold water and sank today.

Japanese artillery keeps their heads down once off the landing craft.

Seriously, with winter here, it is a time for reduced operations....but obviously the Yanks feel quite differently.

[Lowpe]

Allied juggernaut concentrated at Magwe attempts a bombardment. These Allied troops have been marching around for months in the monsoon, sometimes bombed, and once routed from Magwe.

Why can't they just regroup somewhere and recover morale?

Of course the oil wells are shut down while they are visiting, but it is mid November and the wells are in pristine shape.

[Lowpe]

I will get a picture up sometime today, but the Allied Deathstar is moving east from adjacent to Darwin back to Horn Island. When I decided to not interfere with the Darwin landing, I sent about 8 ships back for upgrades. Hopefully they can get them done.

Darwin is left with 130 fighters, very few bombers and no ships. Perhaps some shore bombardments are in order? I could take a risk and hit them during the day phase...

I don't think the Allied thrust will be up thru the SRA, but rather will now resume along the New Guinea coast.

I suspect the Deathstar will be used to oversee a 2nd Midway invasion. An invasion of Truk might happen though, as the Allies were pretty aggressive at attacking Rabaul.

And that will probably see us into Jan 1944.

On the plane front, the A6M8 has only 5 days of research left before all factories will go to something else. I am thinking all five will go to the Ki94II. Maybe one to the Randy 102b.

I have to look at Night Fighters again however...perhaps there is something that needs be done there.

[jwolf]

Seriously, with winter here [Alaska], it is a time for reduced operations.

IMHO the game is much too permissive of winter ops in cold climates. Carrier operations anywhere near Alaska, for example, should be flatly impossible during the winter.

[Lowpe]

Burma, enough to make you head spin.

I dislike how the Burma war is modeled in this game...too many troops,operational tempo to strong; but I understand why it happens.

All the time and clicks devoted to this theater takes away from other areas. It becomes a time and supply and material sink.

[Lowpe]

There is opportunity here, but also danger.

150 fighters and some aux planes are at Darwin....should I risk a rare daytime bombardment in hopes of hitting those fighters and slowing down airport expansion?

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: jwolf

Seriously, with winter here [Alaska], it is a time for reduced operations.

IMHO the game is much too permissive of winter ops in cold climates. Carrier operations anywhere near Alaska, for example, should be flatly impossible during the winter.

Monsoon too, I think. Overall, the pace of the game is too fast for scenario 1, but ok for scenario 2.

[Lowpe]

The small reversals the Allies have suffered recently....have they accomplished anything meaningful? Darwin is now supplied and expanding posing a B29 threat to the SRA. The Allies can leap frog up the New Guinea coast with little to fear. Burma is a giant mess and the British Navy is very strong.

The Allies hit Shwebo with B29s yesterday, and quite frankly the B29 being here in November, probably in numbers around 100 is quite worrisome and totally unexpected. I had planned on them showing up in mid January at the earliest. Perhaps this is some kind of West Coast reinforcement package or simply Scenario 2 present. I don't know.

I have destroyed 10 of them so far and it seems there is no production of them till April of 44. But who knows about more arriving squadrons?

I doubt I can do more than eliminate those three surrounded units east of Shwebo...the other 7 units surrounded have a good chance of breaking out thanks to one Allied tank unit and massed bombers.

Japanese expansion is still too big...too great of a perimeter and it needs to shrink quickly. Allied tactics will most likely revert to the bigger hammer theory...so I need to really think about what I really will defend. Mindanao? Lower SRA? And for how long....

My inclination is to really shrink back and turtle up in the Pacific...and look to really sting an over zealous/lax Allied force again there.

Today I spent 4 ship points in accelerating the first super E. Extravagant, yes. The fleet carriers will arrive in less than 60 days, and perhaps I will finish the Yamoto.

2 Squadrons of George (27 planes each) are repairing; 1 squadron of Jack is in Magwe; 2 Squadrons of Frank R are repairing and a dozen are flying over Magwe. 5 Squadrons of Frank are all in Burma but close to 40% are repairing.

The A6M8 will arrive Jan 1 1944; Jack version 3 and George version 2 will arrive 1st qtr 1944. Frank B probably June of 44 (important to allow planes to upgrade to Frank R and then to Ki94II).

The Grace will arrive early, and thanks to the Ikoma TB squadron, I should be able to upgrade all squadrons to this plane that are eligible. Very excited about this plane.

I would like to get the Randy 102A and B planes early, but just recently assigned r&d...so no quick arrivals there. The Nick D NF looks to arrive in Feb; the Irving Sa in Jan; the Dinah NF in August, Peggy NF in Nov; Frances NF in September. Nothing allocated yet to build the Zero NF or the Judy NF. Need to look at the upgrade paths here and see if something is merited. No squadrons fly the Myrt NF, and Randy and Denko just come so late....

As to Kamikazes, I am really torn...there simply isn't a dedicated kamikaze that works with PDU off so I have to use a conventional plane.

[Lokasenna]

I disagree about Burma being a time sink. Once LCUs are in place in 1943, I spend very little time there. No more than a few minutes and only if something major happens during the turn. Stop agonizing!

I also think you need to reframe your thoughts about your perimeter. "It needs to shrink quickly" is the wrong thing to be thinking. You should instead be thinking "I don't care much about anything beyond Base B in this theater, but I'm not going to show it." You should not be thinking about actively shrinking back. Pick up your good units and don't lose them far from anything worthwhile, but that's it. Maybe replace them with some poor SNLF sods if you don't want the unit/troop count to go down that much [;)].

I don't see the point of building dedicated kamikaze planes. You can simply use production planes, even with PDU Off I would imagine - you just convert the squadron to kamikaze and you're off to the races. No need to build special planes, although I admit things like the Tsurugi are tempting for the 800kg bombs. Judy and Grace could fill in there for the IJNAF, but the IJAAF would be stuck in this case with things like fighters with 2x250kg.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna


I don't see the point of building dedicated kamikaze planes.

For the flavor of course.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna


I don't see the point of building dedicated kamikaze planes.

For the flavor of course.

Well, some people like Top Ramen, I guess...

[Lowpe]

Nov 18, 1943

Japanese fighters sortie at Shwebo and do some good work against the Allied bombers...

[Lowpe]

Every downed Allied plane counts and today was a freebie.

[Lowpe]

Nov 19, 1943

Kongo leads in a group for a shore bombardment of Darwin...and finds an incredible amount of PT boats. Moonlight at 53%, and clear skies leads to some great results among the PT boats who clearly thought they were on holiday.

[Lowpe]

Quiet day in the air by the Allies...mostly. Japan bombs these bad boys isolated in the jungle, and another group of Allied troops on the plains.

Frank Rs sweeps but no Allied fighters are up in the air.

[Lowpe]

During the daylight, the Kongo and company sink one more PT Boat...this is perhaps the single greatest victory I have ever pulled off against PT boats. Perhaps they were docked?

I have no clue why is was so absolutely successful. Clear weather must have done it...we spotted each other at 12,000 yards. In the first fight the American radar pinged us, but in the 2nd it was a Mark I Eyeball.

The 8th Australian is now at Darwin...along with a horde of other support troops busy building the runways up. The 150 fighters and other planes were all pulled out during the day...and only a half dozen aux planes are there now. Should have gone in the night before, but I was chicken.

The Kongo only made one hex away from Darwin, but had 200 fighters flying LRCAP over her...and there were no air attacks launched by the Allies.

[crsutton]

I was following this AAR up until it looked like Jocke was going to take you out on the West Coast. Then lost track. Figured that "this dude was toast" after that. Now, I caught up again and I can see that reports of your early death were highly exaggerated. [:D] Would you list major ship losses for you and estimates for Jocke to date? Thanks.

[Lecivius]

"Allied task Force attempting to get underway"..for a PT group?[&:] Never seen that before. I wonder if they really were docked, for some reason?

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

I was following this AAR up until it looked like Jocke was going to take you out on the West Coast. Then lost track. Figured that "this dude was toast" after that. Now, I caught up again and I can see that reports of your early death were highly exaggerated. [:D] Would you list major ship losses for you and estimates for Jocke to date? Thanks.

I will put something up when I get my next turn...I could load tracker up, but that takes ages and I am lazy.

Overall Japan is pretty strong, albeit with horrible experience troops that is still filling out from the Hollywood Invasion. Plane development is strong. Economy is very strong. PP scarce and used to buy out the destroyed divisions.