The Sequel: laxplayer (A) vs. rroberson (J) - NO ROB!

[Laxplayer]

JANUARY 3rd

Northern Oz:
Looks like the KB is steaming west, intent on raiding some shipping. There's a lot of it to raid at the moment, but luckily almost all are empty cargo ships. I've got a group of 6 Clemson DDs headed to Perth in the area as well. He was able to sink 3 of 4 xAKLs unloading some supply at Derby, but nothing else. He shouldn't be able to get much, as everything that wasn't already vacating the area before, is now. The worst part is that I still don't see the KB in my search patterns, and I've got the entire area covered out of Broome.

CENTPAC/SOPAC:
Lots of stuff arriving in SOPAC at Pago Pago and Suva. Unfortunately I still need air defense and boots on the ground. I should be able to send the 24th Division from PH to Suva in the next couple turns. The 8th Reg from the 2nd USMC Div is already unloading at Pago Pago. I've also got a fighter group I want to send from PH to Suva, but I'm a little short of transports at the moment.

Aden:
The 2nd half of the 7th Armored arrived today in Aden. I'm packing it up and shipping to Karachi. From there it will head towards Calcutta and will be used in the eventual counter attack in Burma late this year.

SWPAC:The 49th Fighter Group comprised of P40Es, attached to SWPAC arrived on the East Coast today. They've been fleched out with full pilots, set to 80% Escort Training and shipped to San Francisco where they will board several ships and be sent to Brisbane ASAP. Oz needs those fighters, badly.

[Laxplayer]

JANUARY 4th

Northern Oz:
The KB, after sinking a couple xAKLs at Derby yesterday, has continued on what appears to be a NW course. I say appears, because I still don't see it on my screen, but there are several small TFs in the area which reported spotting or being spotted by Japanese Carrier Aircraft. During the AM hours, storms blanketed the area, hiding my ships from sight. However, in the afternoon the skies cleared and the KB was able to sink an xAKL, two small TKs, and set another small xAKL carrying an Aussie Buffalo Sqdn ablaze. She is a day or two away from the southern-most port on Java. I hope she makes it. I also hope that the KB doesn't come calling on Soerabaja. She could hammer it into oblivion, along with the 4 Brit CLs I have repairing there. Everything else has been set to sea towards Batavia and then on to places far and wide, from Colombo, to Capetown, to Perth. Wherever they are needed, and/or belong.

Pearl and Pacific Fleet Nav Search/ASW:
I have 2 divisions at Pearl, the 24th and 25th. They both begin the game as 3 Regiments, two of which are under the Hawaiian Dept (R) command, and one of which is under the unrestricted Pacific Fleet command and I believe each of those unrestricted Regiments begin the game in San Francisco. I've shipped both of them to Pearl, and then bought out the two restricted command Regs from the 24th. I got them at a discount because I changed command to one within the current chain, from Hawaiian Dept to Pacific Fleet. I think it was about 300pp. They all need to be the same in order to rebuild the division, which I did. It is now packing into strat mode and will be shipped to Suva. I have about 8-9 air units I want to send with them, but they take a back seat to the division. The unrestricted regiment for the 25th will end up at Christmas. In mid-43 we get 2 USA Divisions entering the war under the SoPac command. When that happens, the 24th will be returned to Pearl, to be used in operations in CentPac.

I also just dropped off 7 Catalina sqdns of varying sizes at PH, some full strength, some less than half strength. They will head to islands and atolls along my defensive line so that I can see him coming. I usually have 1 or 2 Catalina units (or smaller detachments) at Midway, Johnston, Palmyra, Christmas, Penrhyn, Canton, Pago Pago, Suva, Noumea. I will also put either full squadrons or minor detachments at empty bases like Baker, Nukufutau (sp?), Luganville, Ndeni, Norfolk, Vavau, Rarotonga, and then support them with an AVD/AVP for detachments, or an AV for a full unit. This will take some time to set up, and obviously I expect the Japanese will take some of these bases (Canton, Baker, Nukufutau, etc), so no, I can't cover all of this at the same time. Once I get Suva and Noumea up to level 7+ airfields, those Catalinas can be sent elsewhere, and I can use B-17's or Liberators to support my nav search. Kingfishers are currently training up ASW as fast as possible right now. Once I see them in the 50's I will switch them to LowNavB and hopefully get that to the 50s as well. Some will have to be used in active duty before that occurs, especially around IJN Sub hotspots like PH, Christmas, Suva/Noumea, and the east coast of Oz.

US West Coast:
I now have 3 USA divisions (27th, 40th, 41st) sitting at San Francisco, in rest/train mode. They all cost about 1700PP each to buy out. It's going to be a while before I have that kind of clout. But I will probably buy at least 2 over the next 6-8 months and spread them to islands in defense of SOPAC, along with the Americal. I like using Marines as offensive troops for landings, and USA troops as island defense or over-land attack. Speaking of which, the USA 32nd Division comes this April under the SWPAC command, and it will be tasked, along with the Aussie 6th and 7th (which arrive soon) with the retaking of Northern Oz.

Here are my warships sunk thus far. The CL De Ruyter had some plumbing problems after her battle at Palembang and had to be scuttled this turn. I've also lost 10 TKs, mostly small one, but I am not happy with that. I am happy that none of my subs have sunk. Some have been damaged pretty badly, but none completely lost!

[Laxplayer]

Here are the Japanese ships sunk for the first month of the game. There is no way the CA Kinugasa sunk, so who knows how accurate this is. I will also say that I sunk over 500 transports (as per Rob) in 1942 in our last game, but only about 300 showed up on my list at the time, so FOW makes quite a muddle of things. Also, I forgot to add IJN subs to the filter. I will look that up when the next turn comes in.

[ny59giants]

The three Rgt of the 40th Division need to be allowed to accept replacements. They each get another battery of 12 x 105mm guns. There is enough in the pool to do this. [:)]  

[scott64]

You lost POW!! [:D] I saved her and lost Repulse. POW is roaming around in Spam and Saki trying to find a place to call home. [:'(]

[Laxplayer]

ny59giants: Thanks for the tip. For USA Divisions, I usually turn replacements on a few weeks before I'm going to purchase and ship them out... unless they are dramatically under-strength (like some of the 2nd USMC Regs at start).

scott1964: Yeah, that Force Z thing is such a dumb hardcode. She was hit and sunk before I ever got the chance to give her orders. Better than last game with Rob when the POW was sunk on the first day and the Repulse the next. BC Repulse is currently off map and about a week or two from Capetown. I don't see any more than 3 months of repairs, if that. But then what? Guess I'll put her in with the Brit CVs, or maybe join her to the other RN BBs I'm getting over the first few months, and they can all sit around and look pretty. Depending on what happens, I might send them to SOPAC, or at least to Oz.

JANUARY 5th

DEI: Ugh. KB annihilates a bunch of my support ships that had fled Soerabaja. I'm going to miss the AR and the 2 AS ships. I could care less about the rest, though I always kind of wanted to see the PC Soerabaja in a surface engagement vs. other PC/PB boats. If you aren't sure why, just check her gun value. [:D]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Madioen at 52,110

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid spotted at 21 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 7 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 17
B5N2 Kate x 35
D3A1 Val x 66

Japanese aircraft losses
B5N2 Kate: 1 damaged
D3A1 Val: 1 damaged

Allied Ships
AGP Sirius, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
PG Soerabaja, Bomb hits 11, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
AS Zuiderkruis, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
AVP Pollux, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
PG Asheville, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
AR Castor, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
AS Holland, Bomb hits 8, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
AVP Poolster, Bomb hits 7, and is sunk
PG Tulsa, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
AMc Alor, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
AVP Fazant, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
AMc Ceram, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also, Macassar and Temuloh both fell today.

Subs:
KXVII fires 2 torpedos and yet missed perhaps the largest transport ship in the IJN, the xAP Brazil Maru, as she cruised by Balabac. How could you miss a ship that size!?

PI:
The 53rd Division lands at Iba today. 142 casualties offloading. His PI campaign is moving very slowly. No troops have entered Clark/Manila yet, and not a single amphibious landing south of this, other than on Puerto Princesa and TayTay. Those units were probably used at Timor and Darwin and Singkawang and Palembang. It's not like I can support them or supply them. So he can take the PI at his leisure. The same with Singapore. Though Singapore will likely fall quickly, Luzon is another story. I took very little, if any, AV out.

[Laxplayer]

JANUARY 5th CONTINUED...

China:
Rob is making his first small push in China and he is doing it in the north. With about 1500AV he kicked 2 Chinese Corps out of a mountain hex, then again out of the wooded hex to which the Corps retreated. Instead of pushing farther, his troops have swung a hard left to the SE and are coming in to help knock my troops out of a dot hex that contains some resources. What this will do is open up a small back door where he can cut most of my northern troops off from supply (such as it is). I have divided a Corps in his rear and am moving to cut his supply lines to both the troops he has been attacking with, and the dot hex. We'll see if the new supply routines and fight capabilities that they talked about in the patch will actually pan out.

This is basically the fight in China. I can't really stop him from moving forward where he wants to. But what I can do is once he does move forward, I can take nearby troops and move them to block his supply lines. 4 Chinamen and a beat up mortar with zero supply can block a road just as well as a full strength Corps can. And if he does happen to knock me out of his road hex, I will move right back in as soon as he moves out again. If the unit gets destroyed (and several will) they pop up in Chungking a few months later as a 1/3rd strength unit! It's my aim to turn China into a morass. I didn't do nearly as good a job as I'd hoped last game, but a lot of it had to do with his artillery death stars vaporizing entire Corps in a matter of a few days. Hoping this time around is different.

Lastly, I ALWAYS seem to have supply issues in Yenan. Anyone else with this problem?

[Laxplayer]

JANUARY 6th

DEI:
A few more fleeing support ships to the KB. AG Gemma, AD Black Hawk, and the AVP Heron. I'm happy that most of the ships in the area that the KB swept through safely escaped, but I still got too many of my ships sunk because I was too slow to evac them, or too lazy to route them through safer waters. The KB has now popped up on my screen in the little waterway between Macassar, Balikpapan and Soerabaja. I have 4 full sqds of Martins and a sqd of Vildebeest who have been training naval bombing since we started and are now in the 40s for NavB skill. I've only got 3 sqds of B-339s/Buffalos, a sqd of Demons and a sqd of Hawks for escort. They are all flown by mostly poor pilots (low 50s or worse), but I'm hoping that all of them fly against the KB tomorrow if she heads within range to pound Soerabaja. You never know what might slip through!

Pearl Harbor:
I've decided to divide the 24th Division and send it peicemeal to SOPAC, starting with 1 regiment. I don't have enough ships to transport the whole division AND the 8 air units, and 6-7 assorted other LCUs/BFs that I wanted to send south from PH as well.

Capetown Logistics:
So far I've got one 50k supply convoy headed to Colombo (only 75k supply at the moment), and another 100k convoy that just started loading at the docks to go there as well. I've also got a 60k convoy just finishing up loading, and will leave tomorrow for Perth. The two smaller convoys will both be put on automated until I am happy with the supply situation. I've got a good number of the larger xAKs headed to Capetown. I will eventually grab about 100k worth and send them to Eastern USA, where I will start sending auto-convoys back to Capetown. If I have a lot of extras, they will be sent to through Cristobal/Balboa and onto the US West Coast where I am critically short of transports and oilers/tankers. I currently have about 40 ships heading from Oz to the US West Coast. They just passed Pago Pago and will probably arrive in a couple weeks.

It won't take long at this rate to get Colombo up to 500k+ supply, at which point, I may switch it to load fuel and start sending that to Perth as well. All tankers based out of Capetown are already heading to Perth... which is not many at the present time. On top of that, I need to get the fireline from Abadan to Colombo to Capetown to Perth up and running. Now that all of the tankers i was using to shuttle fuel in the DEI to Oz have been expelled from the area, I will have some to go around. I've sent the ones that haul less than 10k to either Abadan (to haul to Colombo) or to Perth (to haul to Sydney and north Oz).

Northern Oz:
Reinforcements are starting to arrive in Tennant Creek from the south. The units expelled from Darwin have reach Katherine. I will see if he follows me all the way to Katherine. He seems to have stopped at Fenton, but that was likely to capture that dot base one hex south of Darwin. He will likely start moving again next turn. I expect him to push as far south as Daly Waters before he stops. Any farther and supply lines will get too stretched for him. Some good news is that Port Hedland is up to a size 2 airfield. And over the next 10 days, I will receive 5 full strength P40E Warhawk squadrons directly at Brisbane. They will be put to use immediately. At least 2 of them should find their way to Port Hedland, with others headed to Alice Springs and Perth. I've also got another large convoy of air units (fighters and 2E/4E bombers) on its way from the US West Coast. It's still a few weeks away though.

SOPAC:
Everyday I see SIGINT warning about units that are loaded on an xAP or xAK and heading to Rabaul. This has been going on for a week now. Something is definitely imminent.

[ny59giants]

I have 2 x TF of xAKs and xAPs heading to Panama from Cape Town, Speed 14, ETA 26 days. [X(]

I think the developers put in some "R&R" time at Rio for this trip. [:D]

[Laxplayer]

JANUARY 7th

SOPAC/SWPAC:
I see the Rabaul invasion force on the horizon, 2 hexes away. Intelligence reports 12 ships, all cruisers. [8|] I also see a TF icon with no information about 3-4 hexes north of Kavieng. I'm thinking that is the actual invasion force, with the first group the bombardment group... otherwise it's the invasion/bombardment group covered by the Baby KB. My gut tells me it's the former, since the Baby KB was just in the Celebes covering the Tarakan and possibly the Balikpapan invasions. However, there is a small chance that it left after Tarakan fell and headed over to aid the Rabaul invasion. This is possible because the KB had arrived south of Balikpapan, just off of Macassar, right before the Balikpapan invasion, thus freeing the Baby KB for other ops like this one. Either way, I've sent the Surface task group of 2 CAs, 3 CLs and the french DD to defend against it. I would like Rob to feel as if he has to bring the KB to SOPAC to cover his invasions. It would give my 2 USN CVs a LOT more openings to strike in the DEI. They arrived in Brisbane, refueled and are currently traveling around the southern coast of Oz on their way to Perth. I plan to strike against some of his smaller invasions as he cleans up some of the bases he's skipped over. I cannot do that if the KB is either in the DEI, or hidden.

DEI:
Sandakan fell. (empty base on the east coast of Borneo)
Praboemoelih fell. (empty base 1 hex SW of Palembang... my troops have fled all the way to Oosthaven and are currently being airlifted to Bandoeng by Dutch Lodestars.)
Malacca fell. (empty base on the road to Singapore)
Dili was invaded. This is the last base in my control on Timor. The Gull Bn is there along with the other dutch units ejected from Lautem. It won't last long.

China:
Several small scale attacks occurred all over China today. A couple in the south were attempts to eject my troops from his supply lines, both failed! Some in the north are an attempt to kick my troops out of the 2 dot bases, and Tsiatsiao. I have been very pleased with the Chinese troops since the patch. They are succeeding where they should (good defensive hexes where I have the AV advantage), and getting smashed where they should (open/clear hexes where I am even or have less AV). It seems much more fair to me now. It will be interesting to see what happens when he is able to mass large artillery groups.

[Laxplayer]

JANUARY 8th

SOPAC/SWPAC:
Rabaul invasion turned out to be a large surface force with the invasion hovering behind. 3 CA, 4 CL and Umpteen-million DDs. I was abit out numbered and out gunned, and the combat didn't last too long before my guys bugged out.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Rabaul at 106,125, Range 9,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Aoba, Shell hits 3
CA Furutaka, Shell hits 1, on fire
CA Kako
CL Katori, Shell hits 1
CL Tenryu
CL Tatsuta, Shell hits 3, on fire
CL Yubari
DD Oboro
DD Mutsuki
DD Kisaragi
DD Yayoi
DD Uzuki
DD Kikuzuki
DD Mochizuki
DD Yuzuki
DD Oite, Shell hits 1
DD Hayate
DD Asanagi
DD Yunagi

Allied Ships
CA Louisville, Shell hits 1
CA Pensacola, Shell hits 1, on fire
CA Australia, Shell hits 1, on fire
CL Leander
CL Achilles
CL Adelaide
DD La Triomphant, Shell hits 2

Maximum visibility in Partly Cloudy Conditions and 64% moonlight: 11,000 yards
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 9,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 9,000 yards
Conolly, Richard L. crosses the 'T' ... a lot of good it did him. [8|]

My guys couldn't seem to hit much, but they seemed to hit a lot. Also, I was suprised at how quickly my ships retreated. Very few shots were fired. Oh well. None will sink from the damage they have now. Brisbane will patch them up nicely. It's too late now, but I should have brought my CVs to the fight. They could have reached if I had sent them 3 days ago. They were definitely in the area. But this early in the war, I don't like to tangle with even the Baby KB. Buffaloes and F4F3s are not exactly the best fighters, and Devastators are just flying coffins for the only trained torpedo bombers I have. I don't want a CV vs. CV battle before May/42 unless I outnumber him 2:1, or am even 1:1 CVs vs. CVL/CVE.

DEI:
Dili, Balikpapan, and Alor all fell

The KB finally got around to hitting Soerabaja. Thankfully I had evacuated all the important or non-damaged ships. Nevertheless... he did sink some subs, the first of the war for the Allies.

Morning Air attack on Soerabaja , at 56,104

Weather in hex: Heavy rain

Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 17 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 9 Small escort! Must have a large CAP, which would explain why my Martins refuse to fly.
B5N1 Kate x 9
B5N2 Kate x 141



Allied aircraft
B-339D x 27
75A-7 Hawk x 12


Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
B5N2 Kate: 5 destroyed, 14 damaged ...the more torpedo bombers I can attrite in the early months, the better! [;)]

Allied aircraft losses
B-339D: 3 destroyed
75A-7 Hawk: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
xAP Speelman, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
SS O19, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
AS Otus, Bomb hits 2
xAKL Joan Moller, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
SS Shark, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
xAP Siberg, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires ...sunk later in the replay.
SS Sturgeon, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
xAKL Benkoelen, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires ...sunk later in the replay.
xAK Woolgar, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAKL Benkalis, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage ...sunk later in the replay.

Allied ground losses:
13 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Repair Shipyard hits 2
Port hits 5

Overall, more ships sunk for the overall count... but nothing important. I'll gladly trade xAKLs to kill highly-skilled IJN torpedo bomber pilots.

[ny59giants]

With the improved naval search routine, the lack of sufficient patrol planes hurts the Allies in the SRA early in the war. The 2 PBY squadrons from Luzon are very important and their use needs to be strategic. I have used them to transport LCUs from point "A" to "B" and may have done so to the detriment of seeing carriers coming out of the morning mist and taking a chunk out of any ships left in Soerabaja. The 3 plane Dutch patrol squadrons don't seem to help much. [8|] Thankfully, my game vs AI is just a learning exercise until a mod comes out that I want to play (JuanG's CV Enhanced) in about a month or so. 

[Laxplayer]

ny59giants:
I actually find the DEI to be fairly well covered, mostly because there are so many of those 3 plane Dutch squadrons, and also because I put all my Martins on 10% search. Case in point, I saw the KB sitting there for 3 days before she struck Soerabaja. Where my coverage was weak was the northern coast of Oz.

I have thought about using the Catalinas (VP-101 and VP-102) to transfer troops. It might have saved me a few small ships, but honestly, the IJN/IJA search coverage is even more porous than ours, so I get probably 80-90% of the transports TFs in and out with no problem. I usually put one Catalina at Manila/Bataan, and then the second goes to Menado or Sorong. That gives me good coverage of the two "entrances" into the theatre. Menado/Sorong usually fall fairly early, so this southern squadron will jump around to the little Dutch bases in the area until they usually end up on Timor or possibly Darwin. Once the PI is about to fall, I will send the second squadron to Port Blair or Sabang on the northern tip of Sumatra to give me coverage of what is coming into the IO. In this game currently, I have one at Port Blair (where I used to to grab up the Victoria Point base force, then she went on nav search) and the other at Manila. I'll probably end up putting that Manila one at Port Hedland or maybe Broome sometime soon. I need to recheck the ranges to make sure I can still get there with all the bases he's captured so far, but I'm pretty sure I can go straight from Manila to Soerabaja to Port Hedland. If they somehow get marooned, I will withdraw them and they'll pop up at Port Hedland in 30 days where I have the Asiatic Fleet based.

[Laxplayer]

JANUARY 9th

Subs:
SS S-40 got off 4 torpedoes at the CV Zuikaku, but they all missed. [:(] Hopefully we'll keep getting shots while he hovers in the area just between Soerabaja and Macassar.

DEI:
Another strike on Soerabaja by Kates from the KB. It was preceded by a night surface raid on the port. I only have some AMc TFs and 2 PT boat TFs there, so he probably thought he was going to catch a bunch of transports loading up. The first PT boat TF fled before even engaging, and the second shot about half their torpedos, then fled after one of them got sunk. The 3 CAs and 4 DDs then riddled one of the AMc TFs with shells and sunk all 4 of them before leaving the scene.

As for the air strike, I put up less CAP today (detected a lot later), and he flew a much larger escort. Results were about what you'd expect. Flak was rather disappointing.

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 38
B5N2 Kate x 100

Allied aircraft
B-339D x 20
75A-7 Hawk x 10

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
B5N2 Kate: 5 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
B-339D: 3 destroyed

Allied Ships
xAK Woolgar, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAP Speelman, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
SS KIX, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk

Port hits 10
Port fuel hits 1
--------------------------------------------------------------

PI:
About 700 AV worth of IJA Troops entered Clark today. They included the 53rd Division, 65th Brigade, 7th Tank Reg, and an Arty regiment. I've got over 1100 AV, so it's going to take a lot more to kick me out.

Darwin Invasion:
The 8th Tank Reg moved into Katherine today, totalling 78 AV. My troops fleeing from Darwin still had 72 AV. The modifiers kicked him up 20 and me down 20 so his shock attack was still at 1:1, and resulted in 211 casualties for me and 8 tanks lost for him. We're both still in the hex. With the amount of troops I've brought north, he's going to need more than just a tank regiment.

[Laxplayer]

JANUARY 10th

Subs:
SS Snapper gets off 4 torpedos at the CV Akagi and hits! ...but no explosion. [:(]

Darwin Invasion:
Another shock attack gets stuffed by the rag-tag troops in Katherine! If this keeps up, he'll have to go get some more guys. His odds fell to 1:2 for this attack, and his casualties doubled while mine were halved. [8D]

PI:
I tried a deliberate attack by my troops at Clark today. I was hoping to catch him before the rest moved in and punt him out and disrupt/disable his units. Unfortunately my AV took a pretty big negative modifier and I end up making the attack at 1:2 odds... not good.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Clark Field (79,76)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 27094 troops, 426 guns, 425 vehicles, Assault Value = 1106

Defending force 20328 troops, 185 guns, 90 vehicles, Assault Value = 719

Allied adjusted assault: 635

Japanese adjusted defense: 664

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
387 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 23 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 19 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled

Allied ground losses:
505 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 39 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 36 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Vehicles lost 9 (0 destroyed, 9 disabled)

Assaulting units:
31st PA Infantry Division
21st PA Infantry Division
41st PA Infantry Division
26th PS Cavalry Regiment
3rd/12th PA Inf Battalion
14th PS Engineer Regiment
91st PA Infantry Division
86th PS Coastal Artillery Battalion
31st Infantry Regiment
3rd/45th PS Inf Battalion
57th PS Infantry Regimental Combat Team
11th PA Infantry Division
192nd Tank Battalion
194th Tank Battalion
Subic Bay Defenses
1st PA Constabulary Regiment
1st PI Base Force
Far East USAAF
Clark Field USAAF Base Force
I Philippine Corps
200th & 515th Coast AA Regiment

Defending units:
65th Brigade
53rd Division
7th Tank Regiment
2nd Field Artillery Regiment
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was bombed pretty heavily by air units, so I'm sure that had something to do with it. Most of my units there are either 100% prepped for Clark, or at least 50% prepped. Only 3 units are not... the 2 that fled Iba (one of which is just a base force), and one unit that is prepped 100 for Bataan. Oh well... time to dig in and get defensive.

Also, Zamboanga was invaded yesterday and conquered today. Jolo was also invaded today. Those are the first to PI bases south of Clark since the opening 3 days of the war (TayTay and Puerto Princesa fell in the first week).

[Laxplayer]

JANUARY 11th

Subs:
The KB under HEAVY sub assault this turn... LOVE IT! [:D]

The SS Snapper fires 4 torpedoes at the CV Kaga. 1 hits, but is a dud. Later fires another 4 at a transport south of Kendari, another dud strike. Poor Snapper. She's 4 for 4 at accuracy, but nothing explodes for her.
The SS KXI fires 2 torpedoes at the CV Akagi, both miss.
The SS KX fires 2 torpedoes at the CV Hiryu, 1 miss, 1 strike!!! Penetration, Critical Damage, Engine Damage... all good stuff! She probably has at least a month or 2 of repairs.
The SS O20 fires 2 torpedoes at the CS Chitose, both strike!!!

DEI:
More bombs falling on Singapore. Martins from Batavia fly a naval strike on some transports leaving Palembang, but nothing hits. There is a landing at Mersing at the same time as Johore Baru falls. All my troops and all the supply in Malaya are at Singapore. Unfortunately I've stripped it of 2 Divisions... so it should last long I'm afraid. We shall see.

Based on where the CS Chitose was torpedoed and the SIGINT I got today. It looks like Rob will make his second landing at Wyndham. I have nothing there but a couple base forces. He should take it easily. I just wish I had something to attack it with. I should probably create a surface force from the boats at Perth and sail it around to hold station at Exmouth. He will probably cover it with the KB, but you never know after the Hiryu got hit. He might get a little gun shy and pull her back. It would be really nice if he detached the CV Hiryu and sent her somewhere for basic repairs, before shipping her back to HI for drydock. I have subs all over the place and I can see him tripping over one.[:D]

PI:
Lots of bombers over Clark now. Also, Davao gets invaded. I have withdrawn all troops on Mindanao to the mountain hex base, Malaybay. We will do our best to make a defense there. I've had them all prepping since turn 1 as well as sucked all supply there.

[Laxplayer]

JANUARY 12th

Overall:
Lots of bases falling today.

Mersing fell.
Davao fell.
Waingapoe fell.
Zamboanga fell.
Rabaul fell.

Mostly, I'm moving stuff around and training pilots. Very few places I can strike back at right now. I'm kind of kicking myself for not using my CVs at Rabaul, but fuel had started to become an issue. Even so, I probably still could have replenished at Townsville and made it to Rabaul in time for the festivities.

Lots of bombs are falling on Clark. Fighter sweeps have started over Batavia. I fought them off today, but I'm sure their numbers will increase soon.

Good news is that I'm starting to receive some good reinforcements. I've got 3 Hurricane and 1 Blenheim and 1 Catalina sqds coming into Aden. Also arriving in Aden was the first Regiment of the Aussie 6th Division. It will be completely arrived in 7 days, which is when I will rebuild it, and then pack it up to ship to Oz. I'm still debating where I should offload it. Broome/Derby? Perth? Sydney? Rob is moving slow in SOPAC, I could put it at Port Moresby along with some extra Base Forces I've got at Perth. That would take a while as I would need to go around the southern end of Oz, then back up the east coast. That voyage could take nearly a month. Probably too slow. I will put it on a ship and send it south, regardless, and figure out where to send it sometime before it arrives. Bunch of other good LCU/support troops arriving on the 15th too.

I've also got a ton of transports (xAKs mostly) arriving at Balboa/Cristobal. They are needed! As are the subs. BB Royal Sovereign will be nice to have, but I find it hard to put her to much use with the skies over the DEI black with nells and betties.

[Laxplayer]

JANUARY 13th and 14th

DEI/PI:
Several more small invasions and captures are happening at a bunch of little unoccupied bases far behind his front line. Sidate, Jolo, Mergui, Salajar, Kuantan, Bacolod... The only one that might be of interest is Kuantan. It's the final base on Malaya other than Singapore.

SOPAC/SWPAC:
Slowly starting to heat up here with the Rabaul invasion and now he's just landed at Madang. I would love to have some better air units at Port Moresby, but I'm holding off. The Banshee pilots are still in their 40s in NavB skill.... and 30's in Exp and Def, and teens in just about everything else. They'd just get shot down for very little gain. And I want to save those airframes until I can get those pilots trained up to at least high 50s.

Reinforcements:
Regarding the xAKs (~40) that just arrived at the Panama Canal: I'm sending 33 to San Fran, and the rest to PH.

My first Brit CV shows up after tomorrow in Aden, but the second not for another 2 months. Their squadrons are not good enough, especially their planes. They can do some damage against convoys, but not against warships, against whom they just get torn to pieces. She will travel with the Royal Sovereign and 3 DDs to Colombo, where she will pick up a more suitable escort... then maybe go for a stroll [;)]

I've got a boatload of USA Base Forces and Aviation Wings at both US West Coast and 2 Aviation wings at Karachi. The US Aviation Wings have to be bought out, but the USA BFs are good to go... just need to decide where to put them. They have very little Aviation support, but for overall support at your large bases they are often essential. The 2 British Air Wings will go to Calcutta and Chittagong, where I am basing a lot of my air for the time being.

What I would LIKE to receive are some USA Divisions that I don't have to BUY with PPs. [:@] Also some more USN base forces and some sea bees please =)

[ny59giants]

What I would LIKE to receive are some USA Divisions that I don't have to BUY with PPs. [:@] Also some more USN base forces and some sea bees please =)

You didn't say, "Mother may I."

[Laxplayer]

JANUARY 15th

DEI:
Haven't seen the KB for a while. I am pretty sure the Baby KB is up near Singapore. I'm guessing she's going to provide coverage for the Port Blair invasion I'm seeing on SIGINT. Not sure how I can counter this... but I might try. Meanwhile, my subs are getting off lots of shots, but very few explosions. I'm going to just have to deal with this until mid 43... or at least until the Dutch boats get better crews.

PI:
I've been trying my Catalinas on different settings lately. I used to just set them on 50-60 search, 20-30 train and the balance on Rest. I've since changed them to Naval Attack... but then I've upped their search % to 50, along with 30% on train and none set to rest. Nothing much has happened until the last few turns where my Catalina Sqd in Manila has started throwing 2-3 plane attack formations at boats that are in range. The best part is that I have an Air HQ at Manila, so they carry torpedoes! They sunk a boat a couple turns ago, and took a few shots at the xAP Brazil Maru this turn. I LIKE this! [:)] The nice part is that depending on what their "orders" are... Naval Search or Naval Attack, that is what they train in. You can also swap between NavB and NavT training by flipping the Using Torpedoes/Using Bombs toggle on the squadron window. Great touches to this game! Nice work Devs... [&o]


China:
I'm really liking the results in China since the patch. Chinese troops in defensible hexes with even or better AV ratios are faring FAR better. Here's an example where Rob is trying to evict me from Tsiatsao:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ground combat at Tsiaotso (88,42)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 11209 troops, 92 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 344

Defending force 14516 troops, 81 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 462

Japanese adjusted assault: 240

Allied adjusted defense: 904

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 3 (fort level 2)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+), disruption(-)

Japanese ground losses:
1108 casualties reported
Squads: 43 destroyed, 48 disabled
Non Combat: 14 destroyed, 55 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled


Allied ground losses:
218 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 28 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 28 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled


Assaulting units:
16th Ind.Mixed Brigade
101st NCPC Route Brigade
3rd Ind.Mixed Brigade
15th RGC Temp. Division

Defending units:
5th New Chinese Corps
27th Chinese Corps
47th Chinese Corps
7th Construction Regiment
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before this patch my casualties would usually be at least even with his, and more often than not, double or even triple. This is much better... and more playable.