NOMAD VS BIGBABA..or "who gets the best place at the beach of rabaul?"

[Nomad]

I have dropped the forts at Irau to 5 so far. I got unlucky last turn when my CVs were under a cloud and 3 hexes away from a BB TF. [:(]

[bigbaba]

well, you were lucky, ken, since my BB TF went after your CV TF and i had a strong CAP over my surface TF.

[bigbaba]

04/17/43:

irau fallen to the USMC in the last turn after several weeks of fighting.

the allied fleet had some loses to the mines and submarines around irau. i still lead with 5000 VP difference and have to wait for the next allied attack.

the allied have now irau, rennel island and rossel island. PM, GG, lunga and russel island are still under the control of the empire and my surface fleet should be ready for the next fight in few weeks.

in the air, the corsairs make a difference but the last turns were realy quiet in the air except the daily heavy air attacks on irau by the allied forces.

[Nomad]

I don't care about points, so that is moot. I most interested in having fun, and I am.

I willl now need to do a lot of reorganizing, cleanup, and rearranging. I have pieces of units spread all over the
darn map and I need to fix that plus build airbases. I have more aircraft than I have room to put them and I need
to fix that. [:D]

I am not sure where my next attacks will be, but I have some ideas. ADM Nimitz has finally heard my pleas and has
dispatched some BBs to the South Pacific. And in 85 days i start getting F6Fs for my CVs. [:)] And another Corsair
unit just arrived.

[bigbaba]

my fun is going down and down, ken.[:D] actualy, i do care aboult VP.

i need time to collect what is remaining and to hope for a lucky shot (maybe finaly a sucesfull lucky attack on the essex?).

[Nomad]

A few quiet turns, could it be a gathering storm? [:)]

It is not so much that I completly disregard the victory points, it is just I do not tie myself to their
attainment. I do think they are a bit wrong, a P-40E should not be the same VP as a B-17E.

[bigbaba]

true, ken. my "paper flyers" should give half the VP and your heavies should give the double number of VP. someones fix that please.[;)][:D]

[Miller]

ORIGINAL: Nomad

A few quiet turns, could it be a gathering storm? [:)]

It is not so much that I completly disregard the victory points, it is just I do not tie myself to their
attainment. I do think they are a bit wrong, a P-40E should not be the same VP as a B-17E.

Very true. I had hoped they would amend the VP for a/c based on number of engines for AE........1 point for 4E, .5 for 2E, .25 for 1E.....however it appears they are sticking with 1pt per a/c, regardless if it is a Zero or B29.

How on earth they could class the loss of 15 Zeros to the same as a fleet DD is beyond me.......

[Nomad]

This is why I do not base my performance on VPs. They just do not tell the story correctly.

We are going to see how paper those "paper flyers" are this turn when I do a F4U and a P38G
sweep over Lunga. [:D]

[bigbaba]

the sweep was very succesfull..for the allied. the kill ratio was around 30:5 for the US pilots. mosty oscars and A6M2.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 04/28/43

Weather: Partly Cloudy

Air attack on Lunga , at 38,40

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 36
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 12
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 9

Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 24
P-38G Lightning x 32

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero x 9 destroyed
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 1 destroyed
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 6 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-38G Lightning x 2 destroyed
P-38G Lightning x 3 damaged

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 35
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 12
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 6

Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 36
P-38G Lightning x 25

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero x 10 destroyed
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 1 destroyed
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F4U-1 Corsair x 1 damaged
P-38G Lightning x 1 destroyed
P-38G Lightning x 1 damaged

PO2 F.Asada, one of my remaining navy aces shot down a P-38 but got 2 corsairs on his tail after his 7th kill and...he didnt made it back to lunga AF.

there is no need to get my fighters slaughterd at lunga so the 11th air fleet HQ orders a retreat of the fighter daitas into safer areas.

[bigbaba]

05/25/43:

night air attacks at rabaul forced the IJN units to move more to the north to safer waters. the japanese troops at rossel island were eliminated after a heroic fight and the island is now totaly under allied control.

over shortland, we had a air battle in the last turn when allied beauforts, corsairs and lightnings tried to attack a supply convoy. we lost 19 zeros in air combat while the allied lost 16 planes (most of them lightnings).

lunga is under heavy aerial attacks every day but the allied has not tried to invade the island (yet).

[Nomad]

Now that Rossel Island is fully in Allied hands, the next phase can move forward. I wonder where I should attack next? Lunga is a choice, so is Port Mosebey. I wonder how many troops are at Truk? Maybe a Marine Division or two could take it? How about a direct attack on Raboul? That would be a titanic battle.

[bigbaba]

today saw another small air battle over shortland. one AP was hit by a bomb but it will make it back to truk. in the air, the anglo-american aggressors[:D] lost 11 planes and the empire 13. not bad for the green replacements from tokyo.

and although the empire took some heavy hits in the last months, it still has claws!

[Nomad]

It's now 6/6/43 and the Second Marine Division and friends are landing at Russel Islands. This will provide a level 4 airbase
to allow me to isolate Lunga completly. No more barges bringing in supplies while my B-25s pound it every day from Irau.

[bigbaba]

not when the empire has something to say in the south pacific, ken.

today, kens carrier fleet went directly east of shortland and i bet his pilots thought about another milk run against poor trained greenhorns in their flying rice bowls....but things came totaly different for my too confident opponent.

baby-KB moved close to the allied carriers at full speed and we had our first CV-battle since several months.

the navy pilots (assisted by their army camrades flying from rabaul and shortland, managed to celeberate a "slaughter fest"...a glorious victory like in the glorious past year.

a intense air and naval battle took place in which one of my CVL got 3 hits which caused medium damage, while 2 US CVL/CVE recived also some light/medium damage.

in the air, the USN lost not less then 189! planes. 122 of them were wildcats and most of them were shoot down in dogfights. the air to air lose rate is nearly 3:1 in japanese favour, while most of my planes were shot down by kens deadly flak. we lost 146 planes, but a good part of the pilots should be saved because the battle was fought close to shortland.

a little succes in this late days but maybe this will buy me some times to get my surface fleet back from the docks.

[Nomad]

There was no "milk run" expected. But I needed to help protect the unloading fleets at Russel Islands. At this time it is not expected that my F4Fs can really compete with bigbabas air armada. But, in less than a month I start getting F6Fs and then I will not be at such a disadvantage. BTW, CVL Princeton has ZERO SYS damage and ZERO FLT damage. [8D] I think your bomb failed to penetrate.

[bigbaba]

this damnd "made in china" bombs....[:D]

[Nomad]

6/10/43 and Russel Islands are in Allied hands. Since the airfields and ports are already built to level 4, I will have attack aircraft flying in one or two days. the runway is at 0 damage already and the port and airbase will repair quickly.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: Nomad

There was no "milk run" expected. But I needed to help protect the unloading fleets at Russel Islands. At this time it is not expected that my F4Fs can really compete with bigbabas air armada. But, in less than a month I start getting F6Fs and then I will not be at such a disadvantage. BTW, CVL Princeton has ZERO SYS damage and ZERO FLT damage. [8D] I think your bomb failed to penetrate.

In a recent game I was amazed to watch one 60g bomb after another fail to penetrate the Enterprise's flight deck. She took 9 hits and went home with 9 system damage.

[Miller]

Jap 60kg bombs will never penetrate any allied warship larger than a DD. If they did, every Jap player would send most of his floatplanes out on naval strikes along with the Vals/Kates/Bettys......