Aboard the Red Castle - Erkki(J) vs. Smeulders(A) - no lookin'!

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Got it. Sounds good. I guess it is better to have as much as possible. And with the DB units that adds a lot of punch.

[Erkki]

April 29th

Another silent day.


Burma: The Allies are finally moving troops(probably support) and aircraft forward - Chittagong just received its first squadron of bombers, probably Blenheims or Wellingtons. A Ki-43 squadron from Malaya is transfered reserve at Bangkok.

Australia: Aerial reconnaissance shows Wydham almost empty, too. Tomorrow its Darwin's turn.

Pacific: An American submarine sights our oiler convoy from Borneo to Truk, but fails to penetrate the convoy's escort screen twice. Excellent performance by the 2 destroyers...

[Erkki]

April 30th


Burma: Allies fly multiple reconnaissance sorties over at least Cox's Bazar and Akyab. We should have enough Ki-44s, Ki-45s and A6M3s to equip single squadrons in 2 weeks...

East Indies: Tomorrow, Timor will be 100% Japanese and on Java, Djokjarta will fall.

Home Islands: Some new aircraft enter production! Some A6M2 factories convert to the new A6M3(M3 will begin at 1/day, in a month it'll be 3/day, M2 keeps being produced 1/day for now), some Ki-43 factories convert to Ki-44-IIa(Ki-43 carries on 50/month while Ki-44-II also start 1/day target being 4/day), the Ki-45KAIa enters production 1/day and G3M2 factories upgrade to the über-long range G3M3(production remains 22/month).

Below is a screenshot of the area we'll probably next see some action. I'm going to hit Chittagong if nothing happens for a couple of days...

[Erkki]

May 1st


East Indies: Djokjarta on Java and Lautem on Timor fall! Darwin reconnoitered: a couple of thousand troops with only a few bigger guns and vehicles. Looks like it isnt reinforced.

Home Islands: The Allied submarines have finally arrived. A wolfpack of 3 American submarines attack a small convoy carrying resources from Mindanao, sinking one medium size Aden class xAK. Some convoys are re-routed with new waypoints, some ASW squadrons set sail from Nagasaki to sail among the "ASW tunnel" between Kyushu and Formosa, while the search arcs or aerial search and AASW units are double checked and readjusted.

[Erkki]

May 2nd

Another silent day...

No planes lost today, not even in accidents, its the 2nd such day in the war to the Japanese.

Kido Butai location classified.

IJAAF ordered to strike Chittagong tomorrow. 50 bombers escorted by circa 50 fighters, no opposition expected.

[Erkki]

This game has ever less action...

It is getting tempting to just start doing something... Because the Allies will not. And I dont think I have attrited them enough or conquered enough land to be able to just sit and wait.

Conquered: historical perimeter minus Wake and Aleutians but plus all Solomons, Ndeni, PM and Horn Island.

Japan naval losses: extremely light at 3 DD(1 old 1 long range), 1 DMS, 1 PC, 4 xAP(2 small), 1 AO.
Allied naval losses: 1 CV, 1 BB, 1 CA, 5 CL but 0, ZERO, ships sunk at Pearl despite attacking multiple days

[koniu]

ORIGINAL: Erkki

This game has ever less action...

It is getting tempting to just start doing something... Because the Allies will not. And I dont think I have attrited them enough or conquered enough land to be able to just sit and wait.

Conquered: historical perimeter minus Wake and Aleutians but plus all Solomons, Ndeni, PM and Horn Island.

Japan naval losses: extremely light at 3 DD(1 old 1 long range), 1 DMS, 1 PC, 4 xAP(2 small), 1 AO.
Allied naval losses: 1 CV, 1 BB, 1 CA, 5 CL but 0, ZERO, ships sunk at Pearl despite attacking multiple days

Yes Jap losses are extremely low.In my own game a have lost CA, 7DD, 2xCS[:@](sad day when i lost them) and 50 transports and second line ships
But all games are different.

[SqzMyLemon]

ORIGINAL: Erkki

This game has ever less action...

It is getting tempting to just start doing something... Because the Allies will not. And I dont think I have attrited them enough or conquered enough land to be able to just sit and wait.

Conquered: historical perimeter minus Wake and Aleutians but plus all Solomons, Ndeni, PM and Horn Island.

The same situation I faced. I was told often enough that it's the Japanese player's responsibility to dictate the pace of the game for 1942. That being said it still doesn't lead to a fun experience if the Allies won't come out to play.

In hindsight I should have expanded farther into the Aleutians and possibly into the S.E. Pacific. This would have set me up to be able to raid the Allied lines of communication, especially with the poor performance of my submarines and inability to find the convoy routes.

I think it's a catch 22. Expand too much and it's hard to defend everything, while gaining a historical perimeter and digging in leads to boredom and no chance to really upset the Allied buildup timetable. My suggestion would be to determine a strategy on how you want to pursue the remainder of 1942. Do you want to consolidate, or try to extend the perimeter in a few directions to delay the Allies further? If I could do it all again I would extend the perimeter far enough out to be able to track Allied movements and create a few bases that I could stage cruiser and the odd carrier raid into the Allied LOC's. Given the SOP of your opponent, you are going to have to bring the fight to him and it's best to cause him as much grief now rather than later in my opinion. It may be worth looking at Northern Australia as well or at least isolating Darwin. It's almost impossible for Japan to rely on air power alone to neutralize a target, it only takes a few days of bad weather to allow the Allies to recover. So I think delaying any buildup of the Australian coast is a good thing and it will require the Allies to commit naval forces to expand from.

If you decide to consolidate don't do something just for actions sake. Have a plan and stick to it, you have to create the openings in which to strike at the Allies as there is no incentive for them to stick their necks out before they are prepared and Smeulders' is quite prepared to sit back and wait. He wants YOU to stick your neck out so plan accordingly. I had no plan and it's been a long haul. [:D] Just some thoughts as I'm still trying to evolve as a Japanese player, but I think you have to give yourself as many options as possible.

Happy hunting!

[Crackaces]

ORIGINAL: Erkki

This game has ever less action...

It is getting tempting to just start doing something... Because the Allies will not. And I dont think I have attrited them enough or conquered enough land to be able to just sit and wait.

Conquered: historical perimeter minus Wake and Aleutians but plus all Solomons, Ndeni, PM and Horn Island.

Here lies a problem for the Allies in doing a "Midway" ... 5 times in my game I set up a low risk trap to "do something" but my boys did not fly or could not find the target ..stuff was lost without any retort. With that game experience it is just not worth risking everything so I cannot possibly "do anything" for two years. So I pick my battles very very carefully.

If I might make a No limit Hold'em poker analogy .. why play the wrong cards like K-Q suited or A-T unsuited out of position or even worse 7-2 unsuited just because I have been getting lousy cards for the past few hours .. especailly knowing that aces are coming soon in the end game ... So we wait for those aces we know are going to come rather than risk it needlessly just to have some pleasure in doing something risky ...

It does not matter if the IJ expand .. GreyJoy's game shows that with India and China taken .. the Allies still can come back in '44 and beat the IJ senseless ...

[Erkki]

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

Here lies a problem for the Allies in doing a "Midway" ... 5 times in my game I set up a low risk trap to "do something" but my boys did not fly or could not find the target ..stuff was lost without any retort. With that game experience it is just not worth risking everything so I cannot possibly "do anything" for two years. So I pick my battles very very carefully.

If I might make a No limit Hold'em poker analogy .. why play the wrong cards like K-Q suited or A-T unsuited out of position or even worse 7-2 unsuited just because I have been getting lousy cards for the past few hours .. especailly knowing that aces are coming soon in the end game ... So we wait for those aces we know are going to come rather than risk it needlessly just to have some pleasure in doing something risky ...

It does not matter if the IJ expand .. GreyJoy's game shows that with India and China taken .. the Allies still can come back in '44 and beat the IJ senseless ...

The first of course is very true. The Allies can always run into full KB, a CA squadron in night combat or get bad die rolls. But its the same for the IJ. I dont play poker, but like you said in the end, the Allies can win almost one hand behind back even if they lose their whole fleet in 1942. Why not play in 1942 and try to change the course of the war early? Almost no amount of losses other than all the early CVs will put back the date Japan can be forced to surrender, while theres always the chance of getting some skilled and/or lucky shots in.

SqzMyLemon: I have one more offensive in mind that I hope to get some attention from the Allies, but the preparations wont be done until approx 1½ months from now. In the meanwhile I'll have some fun bombing empty Allied airfields (and training & replacing lost aircrew) in Burma to stop those half a million engineers from expanding those fields.

[Erkki]

May 3rd


Burma: 40 Japanese Ki-21s bombing at 15,000ft managed to score mighty 2 runway, 1 supply depot and 1 base hit at Chittakong! Allies didnt fly.

DEI: Kuching on Borneo falls, 3/4 of the 1½ battalion garrison dies or surrenders. Survivors flee in the rain forest... There are just 2 bases on whole Borneo still in Allies' control, but one is inland and neither has garrison. We'll go raise the flag some time later. Soekarta on Java falls tomorrow and we should need less than 2 weeks to conquer the rest of the island.

Kido Butai: Looks like CS Chitose has some 1000 tons of fuel as CARGO. No idea how that happened. It'd better not receive any penetrating hits before KB returns to port!

[Erkki]

May 4th


DEI: Soerekaja falls, infantry advances...

Other news:

Allies admit to have lost AP William Ward Burrows on December 12th 1941 some 500nm South of Oahu. Reported cause is said to be a 250kg SAP bomb. That report shouldnt have any FOW in it, but it doesnt make any sense - KB was not there that day(or the day before) and I have no reports of that ship or ships of the same class attacked at all, let alone by Japanese carrier aircraft! And if it was attacked and hit by a naval search plane and I wasn't reported, how come a single 250kg bomb, if it even was that big and not a 60kg one from an E14A or some other float plane, sunk a 4,000 ton ship, presuming it wasnt carrying, if they even can, fuel as cargo?

CV Junyo arrives to Combined Fleet's OOB tomorrow.

[Crackaces]

ORIGINAL: Erkki

May 4th


DEI: Soerekaja falls, infantry advances...

Other news:

Allies admit to have lost AP William Ward Burrows on December 12th 1941 some 500nm South of Oahu. Reported cause is said to be a 250kg SAP bomb. That report shouldnt have any FOW in it, but it doesnt make any sense - KB was not there that day(or the day before) and I have no reports of that ship or ships of the same class attacked at all, let alone by Japanese carrier aircraft! And if it was attacked and hit by a naval search plane and I wasn't reported, how come a single 250kg bomb, if it even was that big and not a 60kg one from an E14A or some other float plane, sunk a 4,000 ton ship, presuming it wasnt carrying, if they even can, fuel as cargo?

CV Junyo arrives to Combined Fleet's OOB tomorrow.

That is where it sank not where it was attacked .. it is quite possible that a Nell ? or Betty? on a scouting mission with a torpedo struck the ship and this is where it made its final resting place ..

[Erkki]

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

That is where it sank not where it was attacked .. it is quite possible that a Nell ? or Betty? on a scouting mission with a torpedo struck the ship and this is where it made its final resting place ..

Yes, I know, but the date is weird - December 12th. That ship wasn't attacked in PH and KB refused to sortie against the 3 Allied TFs it sighted on its way out. I dont recall any hit reports by search aircraft either, and 90%+ of them are incorrect any way. KB did not sail anywhere near the strike or search plane distance from the place that ship sunk... And I think search planes always use bombs any way.

Weird. Very, very unlikely but still possible it was by an E14Y from a submarine using a 30kg bomb?

edit: I of course typo'ed and meant the E13A and not E14A, and now the E14Y.

[Erkki]

April 5th


Another silent day, only losses to either side are some poor Chinese infantrymen to a Japanese bombers near Nanning.

Home Islands: CV Junyo arrives! Her airgroups come with fully trained pilots, average experiences are randomized pretty high at 77(Zeros), 83(D3As) and 79(B5N). CVE Unyo will meet Junyo tomorrow near Nagasaki and they'll then receive some escorts and head to Singapore.

SigInt: CL Durban is confirmed not sunk but is still in service. I didnt think she was down, not an Allied cruiser after just 3 250kg bomb hits...

[Erkki]

Merry xmas, everyone!


April 6th


Another fairly silent day.

Kido Butai: starts looking for prey tomorrow...

Home Islands: the Allied submarines in the area are staying out of the South China Sea's shallow water hexes and south of all the Japanese traffic, I'm satisfied with the naval search as they sighted multiple Allied submarines today. No attacks on them though. All air search and AASW units in the area have received well trained ASW aircrew by yesterday, and I'd like to have some results. Not expecting to kill more than a handful or less submarines with air attacks over the course of the game, but I hope they can make the Allies afraid of losses and move their submarines away.

[Erkki]

April 7th

Once again, another silent day.


Burma: The forward-deployed bombers at Chittacong are Westland Lysanders... Lol.

DEI: Madioen falls on Java and another base tomorrow. Allies are evacuating the last of their aircraft... Dunno where, they have few to no bases in range and they are not flying via at least Ambon, Denpasar or Mataram. Maybe the units are being disbanded?

Kido Butai: KB is still unsighted by the enemy and now looking for fresh prey. I dont expect contacts tomorrow but the day after anything is possible and enemy contact is almost guaranteed in 4 days. CV Junyo and CVE Unyo will leave Nagasaki in 2 days.

[Erkki]

April 8th

Japanese troops advance on Java. Japanese submarine RO-66 sights a force of 4 destroyers near Brisbane and is damaged by depth charge attack.


April 9th


Kido Butai: American Catalina flying boat violates the airspace over the fleet and is shot down by PO2. Shiga V. from CV Hiryu, making it his 3rd victory. Kido Butai's position unfortunately is now revealed, right between Hawaii and Palmyra, 440 nautical miles from the closest island. I hate how good the Allied air search is compared to Japanese... KB will now keep sailing East in hopes of catching some slower convoys on route from San Francisco/LA/Hawaii to Palmyra, Baker, Fiji/Pago Pago and Australia/NZ, but I'm not holding my breath. Quite a lot of fuel burned to kill a Catalina.

Other than that, nothing...

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Erkki

... Kido Butai's position unfortunately is now revealed, right between Hawaii and Palmyra, 440 nautical miles from the closest island. ..

Truthfully, I have never been able to navigate that stretch without getting seen either. I always have to loop north of Midway to get in between WC and PH. Controlling Adak is what is crtiical to the northern searches ... If I have it, I'm ok. If the allies have it, unlikely that I can make the passage.

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Burma: The forward-deployed bombers at Chittacong are Westland Lysanders... Lol.

Probably doing recon. That's all I use em for.