Matrix Games Forums

Turn 22: December 27, 1941

>>VIDEO REPLAY<< >>COMBAT REPORT<<

Australia



I-22 fires a spread of six torpedoes at a destroyer and misses. HMAS Stuart doesn’t take it lying down and makes an effective depth charge run. Time for our sub to slink home.



I-5 gets a measure of revenge. The Australians send some gunboats out to hunt Japanese subs - the Swan is torpedoed for her trouble.

Borneo/Sumatra/Java

Our aircraft have been reporting Allied shipping hanging out around Batavia for a few turns now. Given the anemic response of the Dutch to the Palembang invasion - and the destruction of a large part of their bomber force in the past few days - I decide to send Akagi and Kaga down to say hello.



A single Dutch fighter rises to challenge our strike force and is brusquely knocked down. Kates, Mabels and Vals streak in.



Two strikes go out and we do a decent amount of damage. Light cruiser Glasgow is almost definitely sunk, heavy cruiser Canberra is hammered badly, and a few merchant ships and destroyers take painful hits as well. If I’m disappointed about anything, it’s all the misses on HMS Exeter. That’s a nasty ship, a River Plate veteran, and I’d like it sunk.



I’ll pull Akagi and Kaga back towards Cam Ranh Bay now. They’ve done great work in the past few days but I don’t want to run them down.



The Americans have resumed their B-17 strikes on Miri at Borneo - I suppose the airfield at Manila has been repaired enough at this point. Our Nates are enough to keep them away, though. The Ki-27 doesn’t have the firepower to actually take town a Flying Fortress - they’re barely fast enough to catch one - but the poor USAAF crews have such low morale that they turn back under fire.



South at Tarakan, we’ve started landing troops. They’re not doing so hot. Without adequate bombardment, the Dutch 75mm and 120mm gun crews are having a field day blasting away at our transports. At 7,000 yards with a stationary target, it’s hard for them to miss. Zenyo Maru sinks outright. This is another attack we’re gonna have to reinforce, I suspect.

Et Cetera



An S-boat sinks one of our transports. I do more industrial tweaking and start shifting troops around in Manchukuo. I’m going to be pulling the most experienced ones out via Korea to reinforce the far Pacific.

Aircraft Losses

Turn 23: December 28, 1941

>>VIDEO REPLAY<< >>COMBAT REPORT<<

Borneo



The Tarakan guns shoot up another one of our transports, and a parachutist attack on Bandjermasin has stalled. Annoying. Tarakan will need reinforcement - an attack by the Naval Guardsmen that have managed to land fails.

Sumatra



Palembang falls! The 4th Independent Mixed Regiment takes the place intact. A whole bunch of support troops begin landing shortly afterwards. With size 4 port and airfield, Palembang is an awesome base, and probably the future home of our bombers currently in Saigon.



The Brits keep launching strikes at our shipping and our Zeroes keep chewing them up. Wirraways and Vildebeests are particularly roughly handled.

Java

With all those ships still concentrated around Batavia, I decide to send Kongo and Haruna to see if they can pick anything off.

Night Time Surface Combat, near Batavia at 49,97, Range 21,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Kongo
BB Haruna
CL Jintsu
DD Kaosame
DD Hatsushimo
DD Akishimo
DD Asashimo

Allied Ships
CVL Hermes
CL Danae
CL Mauritius
DD Vampire
DD Banckert
DD Witte de With

Improved night sighting under 75% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 75% moonlight: 12,000 yards
Range closes to 19,000 yards...
Range closes to 17,000 yards...
Range closes to 15,000 yards...
Range closes to 13,000 yards...
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 13,000 yards
Allied TF attempts to evade combat
Range increases to 14,000 yards...
Range increases to 15,000 yards...
Range increases to 16,000 yards...
Range increases to 17,000 yards...
Range increases to 18,000 yards...
Range increases to 19,000 yards...
Range increases to 20,000 yards...
Range increases to 21,000 yards...
Range increases to 21,000 yards...
Allied Task Force Manages to Escape
Allied Air Combat TF evades combat

Super frustrating! We were extremely close to catching these guys, but the radar (presumably on HMS Hermes) gave them enough warning to escape.

Elsewhere

I detached a couple of heavy cruisers to bombard the Dutch base at Ambon in the eastern DEI. They run into a small task force of Americans on their way back to Palau:

Day Time Surface Combat, near Namlea at 76,108, Range 22,000 Yards

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
SOC-1 Seagull: 1 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CA Kurama
CA Ashitaka
DD Akatsuki
DD Hibiki
DD Sagiri

Allied Ships
CL Marblehead, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Chew, Shell hits 14, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Stewart, Shell hits 28, and is sunk

Easy money.



In China, one of our larger armies encounters an isolated enemy corps on the road to Changsha. We nearly wipe it out and continue heading west.

Aircraft Losses



I don't know where those P-40E losses came from..?

Turn 24: December 29, 1941

>>VIDEO REPLAY<< >>COMBAT REPORT<<

Java

With nothing appearing capable of stopping me, I decide to send Kongo, Haruna and their escorts to Batavia again tonight.



We run into Hermes et al once more and this time do some damage. I believe at least one of those shells that hit the CVL was a fat 36cm one from Kongo.



Anyways, we shoulder past them and find Canberra, Perth, two destroyers and a bunch of transports and maul this group too. A good night’s work.



Daylight comes with a surprise! Akagi and Kaga are back, I couldn’t resist taking another shot. Or maybe they reacted back into strike range, I can’t remember. Anyways, more air strikes from their pilots, more damage. I believe we finish off several damaged ships here.



Under the cover of all this naval action, I have succesfully landed the IJA 38th Division, two engineer regiments, and four artillery units at Merak. Next turn we’ll take the place (it’s undefended) and start marching on Batavia, just next door! I’m saving up political points to pull a second division out of Korea to help.

Borneo

A last desperate attack by my paratroopers fails at Bandjermasin. I will be shipping in some naval troops to finish taking the place. The paras will be supplied by airdrop.

The B-17s are still going after Miri so I’ve told our Formosa bombers to hit Manila again. Gotta keep em quiet.

New Britain/New Guinea/Solomons

Some bad timing going on here. I sent a small fast transport force south to reinforce the Rabaul attack. A couple CLs, an LSD, some APDs and a few conventional cargo vessels. They start unloading the 2nd Independent SNLF Company in the early hours of the morning.



Daybreak comes and oh hey look there’s a USN carrier within strike range. Here come the Dauntlesses.



They sink two APDs, damage another and bruise the LSD Shiushu - another one of those valuable ships that can be converted into a light carrier. It’s just one strike, thankfully, or I would have probably lost them all. I break up the task force by speed, so that the faster ships (the LSD and two CLs) have a better chance of escaping.



This is all happening within a day’s steaming of Truk. The whole Kido Butai is there, repairing after their very long trip through the far Pacific. I’m sending the four healthiest carriers south at high speed. Maybe we can catch the Americans off-guard? They’re still using Buffalos which means they’re vulnerable as fuck.

China



Ow ow ow I think I’m gonna lose Ichang. Outnumbered, my division there is getting mauled. Things are better by Kaifeng, where an ill-advised shock attack grants my boys easy targets.

Aircraft Losses



Nice and low, but now I really am pulling back Akagi and Kaga. For real.

Turn 25: December 30, 1941

>>VIDEO REPLAY<< >>COMBAT REPORT<<

Big day, another carrier battle!

Far Pacific

December 30 begins with an interesting (if one-sided) fight. Last week I sent out the AMCs (armed merchant cruisers) Kinryu Maru and Kongo Maru off to do some deep-ocean raiding - hopefully hit a few convoys.



Well, they hit a convoy today, all right, south of the Phoenix Islands. Unfortunately, it’s escorted by four cruisers and five destroyers.



Our AMCs manage to close in and get a single hit on an AP - this convoy must be carrying a full division at least, that’s a LOT of big APs. Kinryu Maru takes several shells for her impertinence. When daylight comes, American carrier aircraft - Wildcats, Buffalo and Dauntlesses - appear overhead and bomb our boats to smithereens. Well! At least I know where another one (?) of his carriers is.

Philippines

Yesterday, I mentioned in passing that I would be ordering bomber strikes on Manila to keep the airfield down. They go out - without escort. I forgot that I’d set their escorting fighters to “stand down” and recover their fatigue a few turns back.



The USAAF fighters have a field day chewing up Betties over Manila. It’s a big mess and I lose a lot of them. A wing of Sallies show up without escort, too. Altogether we lose 16 Betties and 13 Sallies today, although not all of them over Manila.



On a more positive note, our troops are starting to reach the Manila and Bataan hexes.

Java/Borneo/Sumatra



We send in four heavy cruisers to Batavia and they sink a transport fleet with torpedoes. The enemy really has no defense here.

As expected, our troops take Merak with no opposition and start marching on Batavia.

New Guinea/New Britain/Solomons

Kairyu, Hiryu, Koryu and Soryu blitz south with their escorts. They make it to the western side of New Britain, just north of Cape Gloucester. The aircraft go scouting and what do you know: we are in a target-rich environment.



There appear to be at least two American carriers or carrier groups operating down here. They continue to bomb our transports at Rabaul, although thankfully the really valuable stuff (the LSD and two CLs) have made their escape in the night.



Japanese carriers begin flinging machines skyward.The first strike to go out is Zeroes and Vals, hitting ships spotted in Port Moresby harbour. These include the battlecruiser Australia, whose anti-aircraft guns take a fearful toll of the Vals. We only manage three hits on the battlecruiser, none of which appear to do much damage. Light cruiser HMAS Adelaide is not so lucky. She catches fire with the first hit, drawing Vals to her like moths, and is almost surely sunk. The poor RAN is really getting hammered this game…



Then the big strike goes out - Kates, after an American carrier revealed to be the USS Lexington. The Kates receive an unfortunately smallish fighter escort; the Zeroes have been partitioned out to ALL the strikes, including the ones against Port Moresby and the various allied transports floating around here for some reason. Another significant contingent stays behind to protect the CVs from a possible counterstrike. So: 54 Kates go in with 13 Zeroes as escort. Another 27 Kates separate from the main group and arrive with no escort whatsoever. One more caveat: this is an extended-range strike, meaning the Kates do not carry their deadly torpedoes or 800kg ballbuster bombs, but rather 250kg ticklers.



All that said, we do alright. There aren’t enough Zeroes to keep the Buffalo CAP off, and they shoot down quite a few Kates, but once we make it through the hits start trickling in. Three bombs smack Lexington in the first wave, and four more in the second, leaving the ship on fire and suffering heavily. I’d like to think we sunk it, but I have too much respect for American damage control. We’ve probably knocked the carrier out for five or six months at most.



More strikes go out - against cargo ships heading north and northwest towards Guam. This strikes me as bizarre. If he’d known or suspected there was going to be a carrier battle today, having a bunch of expendable ships floating around is a clever-but-gamey tactic. It certainly succeeded in diverting a bunch of my aircraft today. I don’t think Lord Windy is that kind of player, though.



Tomorrow we’ll cruise around to the southeastern side of New Britain. I expect Lexington to be running south as fast as she can. Maybe we can catch the other American carrier if she sticks around?

Aircraft Losses



A rough day for us. The heaviest single day of losses in the air war so far - and much of them unnecessary. At least the Kates died well, if you can call getting gunned down by tubby F2As dying well.

Turn 26: December 31, 1941

>>VIDEO REPLAY<< >>COMBAT REPORT<<

A relatively quick and quiet day. Keeping this update short, I need sleep.

Philippines



Operation #Vengeance4Betties begins. I sweep the hell out of the Manila airspace with Zeroes. P-40s rise to meet us and get shot down in lopsided numbers.

At Bataan, I roll the dice and hope for a lucky result with a shock attack by the 48th Recon Regiment. It doesn’t pay off. Going defensive until the 65th Brigade comes up to help. We need this hex to effectively isolate Manila.

New Britain/New Guinea/Solomons



The Americans have vanished entirely. No sign of the carriers whatsoever. We try for a deliberate attack at Rabaul and are repulsed. Another SNLF will be sent to help here.. :sigh:

China

Northeast of Kaifeng, we hold, this time against a deliberate attack. At Ichang, though, we’re getting hit hard. Our division there is getting knocked around badly and there’s not much I can do about it.

Aircraft Losses



Fuck yo Warhawks.

Turn 27: January 1, 1942

>>VIDEO REPLAY<< >>COMBAT REPORT<<

Short update to kick off the new year! January 2 will follow soon.

Philippines



More sweeps over Manila. Losses aren’t as lopsided as yesterday, but it helps.



On the ground, things suddenly look nasty. He has a BIG army at Manila - 80,000 men to men to our 30,000 - and I haven’t arrived in good order. The Allies begin attacking to push me out of the hex. The casualty ratio isn’t bad today but I won’t be able to hold out too long. I’m going to have to rethink my strategy for the siege of Manila - and it’s definitely going to end up being a siege, not a battle.

Borneo



Jolo is built up enough and the Betties there are rested enough that I’m comfortable using them. I send them after ships docked at Tarakan and they score a few nice hits.

Further west along the southern coast, the important oil center of Balikpapan falls. I’m really quite pleased with the progress in the East Indies. Tarakan and Balikpapan’s coast defence guns put up a valiant effort though, I’ve lost a few transports.

Aircraft Losses

Turn 28: January 2, 1942

>>VIDEO REPLAY<< >>COMBAT REPORT<<

Far Pacific



I-21 gets very lucky! The heavy cruiser USS San Francisco steams into her sights west of Samoa and the captain reports two solid hits.

Philippines



I reactivate a mishmash of Army bombers and sent them after Bataan. As has been stated in the thread, once we take the peninsula and clean the minefields, we’ll be able to sail right into Manila Bay with battleships and hammer the city into submission. Given the number of troops the Americans have available, it’s a necessary prerequisite.

Malaya/Sumatra/Java

I’ve been stuffing Palembang full of air support units, engineers, base forces, aircraft and supplies. Today we unleash the Zeroes, Nells and Betties. The first wave goes for Singapore.



Now that’s a heavy CAP. The Japanese fighters are actually outnumbered for once and don’t perform well. A fair few bombers make it through but are too disrupted to do much damage. I decide to launch fighter sweeps in the future to clear the air before I try sending bombers in again.



A simultaneous attack hits Batavia port. The Dutch fighters are kept away and our bombers skim over the anchorage dumping 60kg and 250kg bombs everywhere. One of those 250kg bombs penetrates HMS Hermes’ flight deck and causes a fuel storage explosion. The 60kg bombs take out turrets, radar mounts and other subsystems with lucky hits.

China


Holy shit that’s a lot of Chinese at Luchow. I feel like I’m being outplayed by Lord Windy in this theatre. Maybe it’s just that my heavy punches (at Sian and Changsha) are taking longer to connect.

Aircraft Losses



The Brits (and Australians and New Zealanders) were rough on the Nells today.

Turn 29: January 3, 1942

>>VIDEO REPLAY<< >>COMBAT REPORT<<

Philippines

I’m an idiot!

I decided to ship in the headquarters of the 21st Air Flotilla from Formosa to Clark Field a few turns back. I figured that I could land them on the western hex side of Clark, facing the South China Sea.



Instead, the transports attempted to sail past Bataan and Manila Bay to land at Clark. They did not survive the American minefields and coastal defence guns.



A couple of ships are barely afloat. I’ll be beaching them and saving as many troops as I can. Still, yeesh. This is embarassing.

Malaya



As promised, we start sweeping Singapore. 42 Zeroes from Borneo go out today and do quite well! 8 Hurricanes, 7 Buffalo, 5 Whirlwinds and 4 Spitfires are shot down.

Celebes



A big invasion convoy, escorted by battleships Nagato and Mutsu, is en route to Makassar. If anything I’ve overshot on troop numbers this time, and included quite a few aviation support units and base forces with the invasion force proper. I want to turn Makassar into a nice Betty/Zero base.

Et Cetera




Remember Hyuga getting pasted by Dauntlesses in the far Pacific? She’s finally safe and sound at Tokyo shipyard right now, undergoing major repairs. Expect her back in action around June.



Speaking of the distant seas, we’re dropping off a base force at Tabiteuea. I want to build an interlocking series of Betty/Zero bases with decent airfields to project power in this region.

We remain stalled at Tarakan, Rabaul, Wake, Ambon, and Bataan. I hope for all but Bataan and Wake to fall soon - reinforcements are coming.

Aircraft Losses

Turn 30: January 4, 1942

>>VIDEO REPLAY<< >>COMBAT REPORT<<

Malaya/Singapore



Many, many waves of Zeroes and Oscars sweep Singapore airspace. The Brits put up a tougher fight than the Americans at Manila have, generally, with the Spitfires and Hurricanes giving their defense some backbone. Still, we’re grinding them down. I hope to make the place untenable for aircraft by the time our troops arrive - we’d be able to bomb unmolested every day.

Philippines



I try a bombardment attack at Manila and am punished for it by American artillery. This is a bad place to be. The enemy counterattacks and inflicts 3000 casualties. If he keeps that up, I’ll be kicked out of the hex.

A deliberate attack at Bataan does poorly as well.

DEI

North of New Guinea, light cruiser Nagara and a pack of destroyers take out a lone transport.



The 38th Division has almost marched to Batavia to begin the siege there. Lots of independent artillery units are tagging along as well.



An invasion force approaches Kendari, and reinforcements are about to hit the beach at Ambon.

Aircraft Losses



Grinding them down...

Kudos for your AAR! [&o]

reading it, make me want to start a new game as Japan!!. This of course will need to wait as I am busy in my Allied, PBEM game... maybe against the AI

Happy hunting, I am signed

ORIGINAL: Jorge_Stanbury

Kudos for your AAR! [&o]

reading it, make me want to start a new game as Japan!!. This of course will need to wait as I am busy in my Allied, PBEM game... maybe against the AI

Happy hunting, I am signed

Thank you very much!

I'm not actually very good at this game, despite being around from the beginning, but my opponent is relatively new too. I imagine this all must look terribly amateurish to this forum.

ORIGINAL: Alikchi

ORIGINAL: veji1

Are you the Alikchi who did the Iron Storm scenario for the old WITP ?

Yes! Ages and ages ago.

I remember our fun, but brief, playtest of Iron Storm. I dug that AAR up a couple months ago and was reading through it. Been a few years now...

Soerabaja - An important base for Allied players. Ideal to service Dutch and American subs and reload larger warship's main guns. IMO, you should get some recon on base and plan to hit port hard when able.

Dutch have two things going for them in war - subs and CD guns. You need CAs or BBs embedded with your transports when invading places like Tarakan, Balikpapan, and Ambon unless you want your transports to get sunk.

ORIGINAL: Alikchi

ORIGINAL: Jorge_Stanbury

Kudos for your AAR! [&o]

reading it, make me want to start a new game as Japan!!. This of course will need to wait as I am busy in my Allied, PBEM game... maybe against the AI

Happy hunting, I am signed

Thank you very much!

I'm not actually very good at this game, despite being around from the beginning, but my opponent is relatively new too. I imagine this all must look terribly amateurish to this forum.

Few people is really good at this game; most of us are just enthusiastic amateurs.

Moreover, you are playing a custom scenario; so the "canned" strategies might not work here. Just be open minded to try whatever makes sense for your game

ORIGINAL: Feurer Krieg

ORIGINAL: Alikchi

ORIGINAL: veji1

Are you the Alikchi who did the Iron Storm scenario for the old WITP ?

Yes! Ages and ages ago.

I remember our fun, but brief, playtest of Iron Storm. I dug that AAR up a couple months ago and was reading through it. Been a few years now...

It was a good time! Good to see you're still kicking around.

Turn 31: January 5, 1942

>>VIDEO REPLAY<< >>COMBAT REPORT<<

Subs



Ah god dammit. The fires burn out of control and Shiriya cannot be saved.



TOO MUCH TUNA



Noooooo

Malaya/Singapore



The sweeps have done enough damage that I’m pleased to send the bombers in from Palembang again. We do very well - quite a few hits on the runway. Many aircraft are destroyed on the ground, including five Spitfires!

DEI

[timg]http://lpix.org/1964885/sorong.png[/timg]

Kendari and Makassar invasions are progressing well. Scouts report a gang of Allied ships hanging around Sorong for some reason. The IJN will pay them a visit in the morning.

New Britain



Our final batch of reinforcements for Rabaul are almost there. I expect to take the damn place this time. It’s a second SNLF, 60 AV.

Central Pacific



I’ve given up on Wake. The evacuation force is heading that way, escorted by the KB (all six carriers are seaworthy enough). We’ll pick up the survivors and come back another day. Maybe we can sink the Allied ships reported to be hanging around the place in the process.

Sunk Ships



The most valuable (by points) ships reported sunk in the Pacific War so far.

Aircraft Losses

Turn 32: January 6, 1942

>>VIDEO REPLAY<< >>COMBAT REPORT<<

DEI



Sorong! A bunch of USN refugees from the Philippines are hanging out here for some reason, including the Galloping Ghost of the South China Coast.



They’re brave, but they aren’t equipped to fight Nagara and her destroyer pals. Down they go.



Our division & change arrives at Batavia and launches an artillery bombardment.



We’re significantly outnumbered, but I doubt the Dutch have the power to actually push us out of the hex, like the Americans have done at Manila. It looks like Windy has pulled almost everything mobile on Java over here, too. I plan to slip an SNLF around the city and start capturing the island behind the KNIL’s back.



To reinforce the Batavia attack proper, the 28th Division has begun loading at Fusan in the southern tip of Korea.



Another force is passing unmolested through the Java Sea already, with troops set to occupy the island of Flores. Also: Kendari falls, and a deliberate attack at Tarakan destroys the fortifications of the place. Not much longer now.

Malaya/Singapore



Our troops are racing south with no opposition. Tank regiments are leading the way. We capture an undefended Kuala Lumpur today.With control of the railway, we can now send our footsloggers south much more quickly.

Philippines



MacArthur’s huge American/Filipino army pushes us out of the Manila environs. We went in half-cocked and paid the price for it. Our boys will rest and refit at Clark, and when we return, we’ll do it right.

Not pictured: Betties go in before the fighter sweeps over the city and get roughly handled by Manila’s brave remaining aerial defenders. A bad day over here in general.

Aircraft Losses



I’m really bad with Betties and Nells. Geez. Doing okay otherwise.

Turn 33: January 7, 1942

>>VIDEO REPLAY<< >>COMBAT REPORT<<

China

Shit is developing all over the place here.



1 - Our march on Sian is developing nicely, with no real opposition
2 - At the crossroads northwest of Kaifeng we continue to hold our ground. 71,000 Chinese troops attack 16,000 Japanese and our repulsed. Multiple divisions of reinforcements are only a mile away from entering the hex. If he goes for another assault tomorrow he’ll be in for a surprise.
3 - The Chinese capture Luchow, badly mauling the 116th Division and accompanying units. We simultaneously take Hwainan to the northeast.
4 - Battle east of Changsha continues. It’s a stalemate, with roughly 40,000 troops on both sides. We have reinforcements on the way, but they may have to be diverted to Hankow, which the Chinese appear to be marching on.
5 - Get thee hence to the Southern Resource Area.

Philippines



We try another deliberate attack at Bataan and are again repulsed. The full 21st Division is a few days’ march away from reinforcing the assault - that should clear the place out. We can then start clearing out mines.

At Clark, the units repulsed from Manila are switched to “rest” mode to take on replacements. It’ll likely be a few weeks before we return to the Philippine capital. That’s okay. It gives us time to repair the airfield and facilities at Clark and bomb Manila to pieces.


Malaya



A major air raid pounds Georgetown from the air while the 41st Infantry Regiment lays in an artillery bombardment on the ground. The Brits have evacuated the place apart from their static fortress unit so it shouldn’t be long now.

Sweeps over Singapore continue. The RAF does well today, shooting down a few Oscars.

Sumatra



Our troops are fanning out across the island from Palembang. Today we grab Lahat.

Celebes



Makassar falls to a shock attack. With its excellent port facilities and airfield - and support troops already in place - I expect it to be a very important base in the near future. Engineers immediately get to work prepping the place and expanding where necessary.

Northern Pacific



Yes, this theatre exists! It’s time to do some planning. I’ve started dropping off engineers at Paramushiro Jima (1) to build the place up, but I need to take some of the Aleutians or Windy will be able to build up heavy bomber bases and bother me. The question is how far to go? Taking Attu (2) alone is a bad idea - the place would be easy to isolate and take. Historically, the Japanese stopped at Kiska (3). I think I’ll go for Adak (4) - those extra few hexes of distance between it and Umnak (5) could provide a measure of security.

Aircraft Losses



The 2:1 loss rate in our favor is leaning more towards 3:2 now, with the fighting over Manila and Singapore the principal culprits.

Turn 34: January 8, 1942

>>VIDEO REPLAY<< >>COMBAT REPORT<<

Philippines

Nagato, Mutsu and friends are returning to Formosa after their bombardment at Makassar and happen to blunder into an American task force south of Palawan.



The Americans are caught by surprise. Boise is a brave one and goes down fighting, badly damaging Agano with 6” shells and laying fire into the battleships as well. It’s not enough.



40cm shells send her down. Brooklyn-class CLs are nasty fighters and I’m glad we caught Boise at such a disadvantage.

Malaya/Singapore



Another major raid on Singers by the Palembang boys. 36 hits on the runway are reported and we knock out many aircraft on the ground. Unfortunately, I underestimated the Singapore flak. The Nells fly low for increased bombing accuracy and are torn up. Goddamn they’re fragile.

Georgetown falls.

Borneo

A deliberate attack at Tarakan reduces enemy fortifications to 0. Not much longer now.

Central Pacific



Our long-range scouts report some kind of Allied task force (1) east of the Marshalls. We sortie Unho, Junho, Harima and Inaba from Truk (2) to head that way. Meanwhile, Kido Butai and the Wake Island evac force are just a few days out (3).

Aircraft Losses

Turn 35: January 9, 1942

>>VIDEO REPLAY<< >>COMBAT REPORT<<

China



As I’d hoped, the Chinese go for another deliberate attack at the (88, 43) crossroads, not realizing that my reinforcements have arrived. 67,000 of them attack 85,000 Japanese soldiers. Our men inflict huge casualties. This battle is now winnable.

Philippines

Not much happening here - more artillery bombardments and aerial bombings. We’re making decent progress at Clark: airfield runway damage is down to 34.



Agano is limping home, she’ll need some time pierside.

DEI



A string of bases fall on Borneo: Samarinda, Sambas and Pontianak. Tarakan should fall within a few days, the Dutch troops there are played out. Djambi (on Sumatra) falls to an armoured recon regiment, as well. All these bases falling means quite a few Dutch aircraft are captured on the ground, particularly at Pontianak.

Also, our marines begin landing at Ruteng, which is undefended.

New Britain



Rabaul falls! Fucking finally. It’ll be a bit before it’s actually useful - we need to ship in engineers and other support troops. Still. Thank Christ.

Central Pacific


The allied ships spotted yesterday have vanished - probably moved out of our air search radius. Our Wake evac force should arrive tomorrow.



At Truk, the 40th Brigade is well-rested and prepping for an invasion of Port Moresby. Now that Rabaul is dealt with, Moresby is next on the list.

Aircraft Losses