Once Again into the Breach - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A)

[Mike Solli]

Getting ready to run the turn. Here's my assessment of the RAF:

75-80 Buffalo
~20 Blenheim IV
~4 Hudson
~12 Swordfish/Vildebeest

Ted admitted his ships are running low on ammo. I estimate there are 4DDs, 1 CL and the PoW running around, with all damaged except for 1 DD down by Singapore.

[Mike Solli]

11 Dec 41

Have I said lately that Ted is a royal pain in the ass?

Sub War

The I-123 caught a fleeing TK 2 hexes south of Balikpapan and put a torpedo into her. I think she was empty. No fires.

5 Fleet

The Adak invasion fleet is 4 days out with no sign of life out there.

4 Fleet

KB will hit Wake tomorrow. The CA TF is escorting the invasion force and both will move to within 3 hexes of Wake. The invasion will take place the day after.

I was about to load the Tarawa invasion force when I noticed an Allied ship in the Tarawa hex. I'm attempting to get the Nells to hit it (we all know how wonderful my Nell pilots are [8|]) but I also have a sub heading there to investigate. The Tarawa invasion is on temporary hold. KB may swing by to clean the area up.

SE Fleet

I bought the Gds Bde today and it is loading on fast xAPs to head to Truk. It'll team up with the 144 Inf Reg to take Rabaul with support from KB when they arrive. I'll have enough points to buy the 90 Inf Reg in 4 days.

Subs are beginning to arrive in the vicinity of Rabaul and Pt. Moresby to snoop around and see what's hiding out there.

Hong Kong

I'm not bombarding tomorrow. The troops are low on supply. Hopefully, that'll rectify itself. I will continue to hit the airfield from the air to prevent building up the fort level.

Philippines

Nice day here today. Manila is empty of troops. I took Mauban with the paratroopers and will have an SNLF and const unit land there tomorrow. The paratroopers are heading to Manila to take in a coup. If I successfully take Manila, I'll cut off at least 3 units in south Luzon from the rest of the army.

The victors of San Fernando (48 Div and 65 Bde) are heading toward Lingayan which has the trashed 11 PA Inf Div, another PA Div and a trashed Base Force. They should be ousted easily.

I had stationed a Nell Daitai at Iba in case there were any other Allied ships fleeing the area. I noticed that there were ships in Manila Harbor and set it to port attack. 24 Nells flew and cleaned up, sinking 3x PGs and 9x PTs. There is no longer anything in harbor. It was nice to get rid of those pesky PT boats.

In the air, Ted put up 16 P-40Bs. They were opposed by 24 Zeros and 8 were shot down for no loss to me. I did lose one Ann to flak over Clark.

Overall, things look pretty good in the Philippines. The 16 Div will land at Batangas in 2 days. I may postpone it. Two of the potentially cut off units are there. If things go well, I may divert the 16th to Mindinao. We'll see.

Mindinao

The 4x BBs are 2 days sail from Butuan. They'll go there to clear out any lurking Allied ships (Boise maybe?). Behind them are the troops scheduled first to invade Butuan, then Davao, and now Butuan again. I want to clear out Cagayan because that's where I think Ted is hiding his B-17s. They keep bombing Babeldaob. The only damage so far was a Betty destroyed on the ground. I don't want him to get lucky. He's been lucky enough at Malaya already. [8|]

Borneo

I took Miri in a SA today. Losses were 94(0) for me and 34(2) for him. The best part was no damage to the facilities. The oil is 150(150) and refinery is 150(150). I'm going to repair the remaining oil as soon as I can get a supply convoy there. Unfortunately, the Houston has disappeared again. I'm trying to do some naval search in the area to find her. I am flying in some AS tomorrow and already have stationed a chutai of 9 Nates and the Yamada det (off Kaga) of 9 Zeros. I suspect to see some B-17s tomorrow and hope to shoot some down.

Malaya

The best for last, right? [8|]

Ted's ships are appearing all over the place. Yesterday, the DD Stronghold was sighted 1 hex east of Singapore. Today, she appeared in Saigon harbor(!) with the Vendetta and Jupiter. I had 3x 8k AOs and a Momi DD escort loading fuel to function as a replenishment TF for mini KB. They went up like torches. All four ships went down to no damage to the DDs. He had the audacity to leave the DDs in harbor. When the air phases happened, a total of 52 Nell sorties and 12 Betty sorties flew against them for no effect. [:@] I am really beginning to dislike those Nell pilots. Finally, at the end of the day, 21 land based Vals (from Kaga) put 2x 250kg bombs into the Vendetta. I'm not sure if she sank, but she's doomed. I'm sending a surface TF into Saigon tomorrow to see if they can take them out.

Other than losing the AOs, the day wasn't bad in this theater. A TF of 4 CAs and 4 DDs caught Tenedos at Patani and sank her for no damage. Another one down. The Kaga Vals that hit the Vendetta sank the CL Mauritius off Soc Trang with 10 hits. Kaga's Kates badly damaged or sank the CL Durban with 6x 250kg bombs just north of Kuching. I think Ted was trying to sneak her into the area.

Some interesting things are showing up in the sunk ship screen. The PoW is showing up as having sunk off Singapore. I doubt it since she only took 2 torpedo hits, but you never know. She may be hurt worse than I thought. Also, the Stronghold is showing up as sunk from unknown causes off Cam Ranh Bay. Mine maybe? The Voyager sank from unknown causes at Saigon. Maybe there were 4 DDs there? Another mine? I think this one is fictitious because there still are 250 mines at Saigon. The Stuart is showing up as sunk from unknown causes at Soc Trang. Can't figure that one out. I think it's fictitious as well. Finally, the CL Danae is showing up as sunk from unknown causes off Billiton. This may be a mine because I laid a minefield in the hex between Tobali and Billiton (where the I-122 hit 2x TKs and an xAK after laying the minefield on 8 Dec). Anyway, pretty weird.

I also noted that the Java is no longer showing up as sunk in a collision but the DD Evertson still is.

On land, the 1st tank regiment will reach Alor Star tomorrow and take it the day after. The IG Division is 60 miles north of Singora and the 14th tank regiment is in strat mode in Singora. The land invasion of Malaya is finally beginning!

Other Stuff

I moved the Yamada 18 plane daitai from Kaga to Soc Trang. Michael, I'm trying your idea for Nell escort and set it to escort with tanks. It's got a 14 hex range. We'll see. I put the Vals back on Kaga, so she's back to normal with 18 Zeros, 27 Vals and 25 Kates. The Ryujo has teamed up with her and sports 30 Zeros (cleaned out my pilot pool) and 18 Kates. The Ryujo still has a full load of 27 torpedoes but Kaga has only bombs. They have a huge TF composed of 2 BBs, 5 CAs, 1 CL and 14 DD. Almost 6k AA. Anyway, they're heading to a location where every port from Kuantan to Patanni and Kompong Trach to Saigon is in range and there are surface TFs covering the rest in the area where needed. I hope to get the invasion of Malaya underway in 2-3 days tops.

[Mike Solli]

More Stuff

The 4 Inf Div and 33 Inf Div will begin loading tomorrow and the 21 Inf Div will begin loading the day after.

[ny59giants]

Manila - take asap as he is losing at least one division of reinforcements that show up here in the next few weeks. If he doesn't have Manila, they will show up delayed at San Fran. They will be permanently restricted and spend the war on the west coast. [:)]

B-17 - I've had them move from Mindinao through Java and then launch from Singapore to hit Saigon. I had no CAP and had lots of transports damaged. It may or may not happen, but even a few Nates will help vs those D models as they have no rear guns.

Saigon - you flew 64 Nell/Betty in one phase?? If so, then increase the Air HQ torpedo allotment to 150 as 100 is not enough for them to fly with torpedoes in both AM and PM phases.

FOW - any ship hit by a torpedo ends up on the sunk list. PoW will need 4 to 5 to sink her unless you get an explosion from a hit.

Weather - start to do some hex clicking between Borneo, Malaya and Saigon to see what shows up. You may have some bad weather there closing down your air power and allowing him to hide in it. It isn't 100% predictive of what may happen, but at this time in the war i was able to extract my CVs off Pearl from KB by running into a storm front.

You may need to rename this part of your AAR, "How not to invade Malaya." I need to be supportive, but I figure you have learned many valuable lessons from your adventure here.

[Mike Solli]

I've got a unit adjacent to Manila moving there this turn. If it doesn't move very far, I'll fly a transport unit into one of the hexes where there are paratroopers and fly them in next turn.

During the AM phase, 32 Nells and 6 Bettys flew. During the PM phase, 20 Nells and 6 Bettys flew. 100 torpedoes were enough for the turn. I may bump it up a bit but each turn I bring it back up to 100, for what it seems to be worth.

I never saw an explosion on the PoW. I suspect she's creeping along somewhere, probably in Singapore.

Weather is something I always ignore. I just never think about it. I'll check it out tonight to see what's going on. Good thought.

Yeah, Malaya.... This is the 4th time Ted and I have started a game. He's never done anything like this at all. He typically likes to hide and ambush me. I moved too fast assuming he'd do the same thing. The RN is getting trashed, but it's hurting me somewhat. Fortunately, he hasn't killed any of my ground units. They'll all recover. He is slowing me down though. I'm pretty sure I can crush the few ships he has in my area next turn. Assuming he doesn't slip any more in, I can use mini KB to keep the area south of Singapore clear. That's where he's been sneaking things in. I'll take Singkawang and put some Netties and Mavis there and I'll be good. His RAF bombers are vanishing so I won't have to worry about that soon. I may still land at Mersing. I'll take Kuantan and put some good air there and then go from there. It still appears that he's not moving ground forces other than out of Alor Star. It's empty of ground forces but still has aircraft there. You'd have thought he would have learned his lesson after losing 10-15 P-40s and pilots at Iba.

[Mike Solli]

12 Dec 41

Sub War

The I-158 found and sank the AO Trinity south of Bandjermasin. A little retribution for Ted sinking my AOs yesterday.

The Le Triomphant found the I-10 lurking around Fiji today and hit her with a depth charge. She's at 16-18(16)-0-0 so she'll head to Kwajalein for temporary repairs until she can go to Japan for permanent repairs.

China

The garrisons are starting to sort themselves out. Soon, they'll be complete and I can start some offensive operations.

Hong Kong

The 104 Division arrived to augment the Hong Kong invasion force. In addition, there is ample supply for a DA, which will happen tomorrow. There are a bunch of TKs and xAKs at Hong Kong harbor. I think Ted is waiting to send them out hoping I won't have anything to intercept them. I'm sending 2 Daitai of Bettys (54 planes) on port attack of Hong Kong harbor. I'm hoping for good things. [:D]

Air bombing killed a dreaded Vildebeest.

5 Fleet

The Adak invasion is 3 days out. Still no sign of Allies there.

4 Fleet

Today, KB didn't launch against Wake. [:@] I'm trying again tomorrow and hope to invade Wake the day after.

That ship is still sitting at Tarawa. My sub should reach it tomorrow. We'll see what happens. Maybe the Nells at Kwajalein will attack too.

SE Fleet

The Gds Bde began loading for Truk today. It's 6 days steam from Truk. Then it's off to the grand tour of the SE Fleet area.

I'm attacking Manus and Shortlands tomorrow.

Mindinao

The 4 BBs will reach Surigao tomorrow. After they nose around, the invasion fleet will head in. I'm still contemplating sending in the 16 Div. I'll discuss that later in the PI section.

Philippines

Manila is definitely empty, and there are about half a dozen auxiliary aircraft still there. Probably damaged. I'm paradropping one of the SNLF para capable units into Manila to capture it and block 3 units from the rest of the Allied Army.

The 16 Division is sitting off shore waiting to see what transpires at the PI. If things go well, I'll send them to Mindinao to clean that island up. If not, they'll land in the Philippines. I'll probably know in a couple of days.

The Ann Sentai stationed at San Fernando bombed Clark field again destroying an O-47A and a Stearman 75M. Oh boy!

In the vicinity, I landed at Puerto Princisa and will attack it tomorrow.

Burma

The invasion force is now trekking on the trail leading to the coastal road. It'll be awhile....

I took Victoria Pt in a DA. I took 48(0) casualties to 349(42) Brits. There is an AA unit and construction battalion, both destined to finish the war at Pt. Blair, and an infantry regiment of the 55 Div as well as the 91 NG. The regiment is already headed back to the railhead to head north to Burma. I'm not sure what the 91 NG will do. They may go to Pt. Blair but for the time being, they'll guard Victoria Pt.

Malaya

Today was definitely a better day. The two surviving Brit DDs that began the day in Saigon attempted to flee south. Kaga's Vals caught them and put the Jupiter under while leaving the Stronghold dead in the water and burning. I detached 2CAs and 4 DDs from mini KB to hunt her down tomorrow. That should be the last of the RN in that area. Here's my estimate of the RN that began the war in the vicinity of Malaya:

Repulse - she vanished, probably to Java for now. She'll turn up at some point.
PoW - she ate 2 torps. I suspect she's at Singapore trying to repair damage or may be Java, but my subs haven't spotted her.
4x CLs - at least 2 sunk with the other 2 heavily damaged.
13x DDs - 8 sunk, Stronghold to follow tomorrow, 2 heavily damaged. The last two I haven't seen. They started the war in Singapore with 20 sys damage.

Now there's the Dutch navy. Apparently, one DD collided with the Java, damaging the CL and sinking the DD. Of the rest, I've seen nothing.

US Navy - I saw the Houston when she trashed the Miri invasion TF. Nothing since then. I've got as much naval search going as I can and they've vanished into the ether. They'll surface eventually. Hopefully my BBs will catch them.

Something wonderful happened! Alor Star fell to the Rowboat Corps as the 1 Tank Regiment arrived at it's gates. The 14 Tank Regiment and IG Division were both in Singora in strat mode and are moving to Alor Star. That'll save some time.

I've decided to forgo the Mersing invasion and land at Kota Bharu and Kuantan. I've allocated 5 Division 41 IR (30 Div) to Kuantan and 18 Division to Kota Bharu. They've left Cam Ranh Bay and will slowly proceed to their destinations under heavy cover. [8|]

I killed a Vildebeest on the ground and shot down a couple of Hudsons at the cost of a Sally. The RAF is running out of bombers.

Other Stuff

The Pennsylvania showed up as sunk at Pearl Harbor. That's 4 BBs now. That attack is starting to look better every day. [:D]

4 Division began loading for Malaya today. It'll reach Cam Ranh Bay 6 days after it sails.

21 Division began loading today and is prepping for Batavia. I'll use it in Malaya if needed. Otherwise, it'll be used for Singkawang and Tobali before teaming up with 21 IMB for the Java invasion.

33 Division began loading today for Burma. It'll land at Bangkok 8 days after it sails.

Right now I have 3 CVs and 2 DDs accelerated. I'll probably get another CV and a couple more DDs accelerated after the increase in naval shipyards is complete.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

5 Fleet

The Adak invasion is 3 days out. Still no sign of Allies there.

You should be early enough. Hard for allies to garrison Adak this early.

I'll bet he will try and take it back though within 45 days .... the question is what assets will he assign to it? He seems to be a bit aggressive this game (so far).

If he doesn't come early, then I wouldn't expect to see him up north until late '43 ... which is still good, just not as fun. [;)]

[Mike Solli]

Oh, I'm having plenty of "fun" and so is he. The RN, well that's another story. [:D]

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

... You'd have thought he would have learned his lesson after losing 10-15 P-40s and pilots at Iba.

So, do you lose pilots when you take a base with planes at it? Did Ted confirm the pilot loss? Curious as I've neer been sure if you lose pilots or just planes in that circumstance.

[Cribtop]

I'm pretty sure you lose the pilots, Pax. PM me and I'll give my evidence.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

I'm pretty sure you lose the pilots, Pax. PM me and I'll give my evidence.

Crib, PM not needed. If you say so, good enough for me. Makes sense that you do, but I've always forgotten to check when it happens.

The depth of the model in this game ... amazing. Kudos to the devs...

[&o][&o][&o]

[ny59giants]

US Navy - I saw the Houston when she trashed the Miri invasion TF. Nothing since then.

You need to look at why?? [8|] She needs 8" guns ammo and the only 'safe' ports to get them from are Singapore and Soerabaja. She could go to Manila, but that probably isn't an option. [;)]

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

US Navy - I saw the Houston when she trashed the Miri invasion TF. Nothing since then.

You need to look at why?? [8|] She needs 8" guns ammo and the only 'safe' ports to get them from are Singapore and Soerabaja. She could go to Manila, but that probably isn't an option. [;)]

Michael, that's the kind of detail I don't think about. I suspect you're right. The Houston went to Soerabaja to reload. She's lurking somewhere but I don't think she can easily get back into my little pond. I've got it cordoned off with subs and naval search pretty well.

[Mike Solli]

13 Dec 41

Sub War

The I-26 is stationed off San Francisco. Today she found a merchant convoy and put two torpedoes each into two different nice sized xAKs. They're both reported as having sunk.

The I-158 was stationed in the straights south of Balikpapan and found an unescorted convoy. She hit two xAKLs which she left burning furiously. I suspect they were carrying fuel from that base. I'm pretty sure they're gone as well.

5 Fleet

Still no sight of the enemy.

4 Fleet

KB launched against Wake's airfield probably putting a hurting on it. Unfortunately, that was in the PM phase and Wake launched some Vindicators against the CAs and invasion fleet. KB decided not to CAP those fleets right next door. [:(] Two of the CAs took a 1000 lber each suffering some damage and an AMC took 2 of those monsters. She won't survive to offload her troops. Too bad. The invasion goes in tomorrow.

The ship off Tarawa vanished today. The sub is there looking at an empty island. I'll wait a couple of days for KB support before I invade.

SE Fleet

I took Manus (Admiralty Islands) unopposed with an IJNAF AS company. I'll station some floatplanes there for recon for now.

The Gds Bde is steaming toward Truk and is 5 days out. Shortland Island fell as well.

China

Nothing new to report.

Hong Kong

I attacked but didn't do it. The DA resulted in a 1:1 attack, reducing the forts to level 2. I took 485(4) to 597(5) Brit casualties. I'll rest a day or so to bombard and build up more supply and try again. Probably a couple more attacks will be required.

Burma

Still plodding along.

Miri

I've got a 60k supply convoy a few days out. It'll be escorted by some cruisers and Zuiho and Hosho, who are nearing Cam Ran Bay.

Malaya

IG Division and 2x tank regiments are in Alor Star driving south to cut off Georgetown. That will probably be the only troops I can cut off unless Ted makes a mistake. He's in full flight everywhere except for Kuantan, Kota Bharu and Mersing. I think he has both Aussie Brigades in Mersing so a quick coup there is unlikely. My invasion fleets for Kuantan and Kota Bharu are 2, possibly 3 days out. The troops defending those two locations will probably be obliterated. The 56 Division is nearing Cam Ranh Bay and will reinforce one of the invasion sites soon after the initial invasion.

4 and 21 Divisions are enroute. My initial thoughts are to send 4 Division to Malaya and use 21 Division to take Singkawang and Tobali, to prepare for Java. The 21 IMB is loading and will take Tarakan and then Balikpapan, to clear that avenue to Java.

The bombers of the RAF are just about done. Several attacks over a CA TF resulted in 9 Blenheim IVs and 3 Hudsons destroyed while I lost 1 Oscar Ia. He's hoarding his Buffalos though, primarily in Singapore. Once I take Kuantan, I'll begin sweeps of Singapore using Zeros and Oscars. Reduction of the Buffalo population is required prior to the necessary bombing of Singapore.

The CAs sent to finish off Stronghold found her and sent her to the bottom with 2 torpedo hits. They never even had a chance to fire a shot.

Philippines

My daily sweep of Clark Field resulted in shooting down 3 P-40Bs for no loss.

Manila fell to a paradrop which resulted in the capture of 4 Seagulls and a Beech 18-S (whatever that is). I captured Manila's infrastructure intact:

Manpower 3(0)
Resources 40(0)
LI 100(0)
Shipyard 20(0)

I'll eventually increase the shipyard to 50-60 to handle large ships if necessary and the port will be expanded to size 7.

Lingayan was also liberated today in a stunning victory. The 23:1 DA resulted in 6268(867) Allied losses to our 415(0). The 11 & 21 PA Divisions as well as a coast artillery bn were destroyed. That makes 3 divisions destroyed so far. In addition, there are 3 units that are cut off from the main army. There still are ~30 units split between Clark Field & Bataan. Once I take Clark Field, the 5 Air Division will get lots of bombing practice until I clear the rest of the SRA and can clear out the remnants of the pocket.

Puerto Princisa fell in a DA for 72(4) losses to the Allied base force there to no Japanese losses. I destroyed 2 Kingfishers on the ground.

Mindinao

The 16 Division will land here in 2 turns in the NW corner (can't remember the base name). The other invasion in Butuan will land tomorrow. Looks quiet so far.

Other Stuff

The Arizona showed up as sunk now! I don't think that really happened though but 5 PH BBs are on the sunk list currently. Probably Japanese propaganda. [:D]

[Mike Solli]

One other thing. The 23 Air Flotilla HQ is loaded on a ship headed for Truk. The planes associated with that HQ will begin flying toward Truk. Their fate is to defend Rabaul and environs.

[ny59giants]

Port Blair - I don't know if you have any plans to take this base via para assault, but I would strongly recommend it. The short legged Allied fighters like the Buffalo and some other bombers need it to get to Burma and eventually India.

[Mike Solli]

Oh yeah, Pt. Blair is definitely in the plans. Right now the 1st Raiding Regiment is being flown from Canton to Samah, then from there to Bangkok. Then the paradrop will happen. I've got some AS, AA and engineers earmarked to fly in and will continue to fly in engineers until I get to ~150 or so. What I can't fly in will sail from Victoria point. I'll create some barges there and ship them. There won't be enough fuel in the barges but they'll make it. I've done that before. Then they'll sit in Pt. Blair until they repair and I'll disband them there.

[Mike Solli]

Have you guys read Chickenboy's TRACOM thread? Very interesting. I'm rethinking my elite pilot (81+ experience) strategy. Currently, I keep 1 (if available) in every front line unit. I just lost one a turn ago to flak. That really sucks. I'm now considering pulling them out of all of my frontline bomber units. I'll still attempt to keep one in every IJAAF fighter sentai. I'll also keep 2 per IJNAF fighter daitai and 1 per chutai, if I can. Every training unit (regardless of size) has one very good pilot in it. If he's elite, that's great, but not necessary. I'm beginning to think that after I pull my first cull of pilots, I may pull out the elite pilots from the training units into TRACOM. Right now I have exactly 1 IJAAF pilot in TRACOM. There's a shortage of pilots in the reserve due to units starting the war short of maximum strength. I haven't run into a plane shortage anywhere because of the pilot "crisis". What do you guys think?

[Chickenboy]

You know my stance on pulling elites out of the front line. I agree with your take on removing elite bomber pilots from LBA units especially. Too easy to get killed while piloting ronsons against decent Allied fighter units.

If memory suits, I didn't really start dumping my elites into TRACOM until the second or third month of the war. Let 'em serve in your schwerpunkt against easy opposition, removing them when Allied resolve (and capabilities) stiffen.

(sorry to hijack your AAR Mike on): I'd appreciate any other JFBs 'take' on the pilot situation I've posted on in the War Room too. (sorry to hijack your AAR Mike off). [;)]

[PaxMondo]

First, remember that I play against the AI and the game is quite different than PBEM.  In Ironman, Andy's AI is VERY agressive, there is NO Sir Robin whatsoever.  You are pressed everywhere and have to pick your fights in addition to your offensive ops.  With that in mind:
 
I use them (good pilots).  But I focus on keeping their losses low and them healthy.  Tricky, I know, but that's what I do.  I don't commit a unit unless I have a specific intent and the potential losses are worth the gain. 
 
For IJA pilots and IJN fighter pilots, not a big deal as they are essentially single skill pilots (quick to train up and replace).  For IJN bombers, all of them because of their multiple skills that take so long to train up, I am quite careful about committing them and I put a lot of squadrons to training squadrons to start the training pool. 
 
This decision with respect to the IJN clearly slows my offensive, but in Ironman scenario it is a small impact.  The allies are advancing themselves on so many quarters that you have to commit a large portion of your units to defensive ops initially (particularly in China).
 
I haven't seen the benefit yet of TRACOM.  I haven't completed a GC yet, so that may be a factor.  However, I spent the last year playing Downfall and worked out my strategies assuming a pool of 45/60 pilots (exp/skill).  I might like to save some pilots, but I can't.  I need every single one of them defending the empire against Andy's d%@#$%&&!! AI in Ironman.