WitP mod v903 Ngineer(Japan) vs. Feinder(Allies)

[Feinder]

For tech, yes, I just update the percentage each turn (manually). It doesn't really take that long. I haven't gotten any break-thrus yet, which kinda sucks. But it is what it is.

All in with Tech.. "There's never enough MPPs.."
In solo, I would normally max-out techs, then produce with anything left over, and keeping techs topped off as they expire.
However, it was my experience in my last two PBEM games with Jon that, having high tech is worthless if your units have 40% national morale. So I've put into land-air-naval warfare as possible, with the US focusing on Naval/Air morale as the primary combatant.

That being said, my rationale on delaying the mobility tech is that, as I haven't hit the maxes yet, I don't need them. No, I don't want to wait until I run out of builds, before I research mobility. But for now, I'm thinking I have more important things to worry about, than raising a cap that I haven't hit yet.

China... Yeah, I've read thru yours and OCB's AAR at this point. Both of you have said that China is a money-pit, I do hope you're right. And I saw you cranking out Fleet-CVs, and thought that was good idea, because in short-order he's going to have 10x Fleet-CVs. So getting more CVs for me into the pipe-line is going to be important.

[Feinder]

March 16th, 1942

Burma

Fighting along the river at Rangoon. Burmese Inf-Div occupies Rangoon flank. Indian Tank Division hits his IJA Inf-Corps 2xSP and withdraws. I landed a garrison at Andaman Island. Figured if/when/either-way it's a nice place to put spotters. So putting a garrison there would at least make him fight for it, instead of an easy landing.

Royal Navy continues it's trek towards Oz.

RAF and RIAF are stood down, and take replacements this turn.

[Feinder]

March 16th, 1942

DEI

Partisan activity in the Philippines.
He land additional troops to drive on Balikpapan. It holds but probably not for a second turn.
USN Sub heading SE to find another exit from DEI.
RN sub remains parked in the Sing/Sumatra straight (off screen).

[Feinder]

March 16th, 1942

North China

He's moved in more LBA. Hitting the Comm Chinese and now the industry. He did bring in some Fighters as escorts.
Flying Tigers gave some, and took some. Also received the Chinese Fighter unit back from the grave.
Hopefully with two fighters there, we'll blunt his LBA a bit.

[Feinder]

March 16th, 1942

China South

He pounded that Chinese port city, and wiped out the Division there with strikes from LBA, 2x CVLs and land attack. But didn't have enough to move in, so open city this turn.

He's testing the western flank, attacks supported by both artillery and land-based-air.

Fairly quiet in the center, which is fine as it allows me to dig in and organize the line a little better.

[Feinder]

March 16th, 1942

Coral Sea

He might(?) have gotten a contact report on the Med-Bmbrs I had in North Solomons.
I did get a quick (visual) look at his TFs, but I wasn't thinking about needing to immediately grab a screen-cap.

(I also hate that there's no save or replay feature on the Replay, I asked for it as a feature, but I'm not holding my breath)
Come to think on it, I might just start taking a video of the replay with my phone. Whatev.

Anyway, Med-Bmbr reported "There's a lot of sh_t down there... 4+ CVs, 1 CVL, 4+ BBs, multiple cruisers and escorts. Several invasion transports... Heading West..." before going off the air. Jon then proceeded to bomb/bombard the base into oblivion.

I think Port Moresby is the initial target, as he could just as easily have moved toward Lunga; but what I saw in the replay was ships moving west. You can see that he's move up DD/CL to blockade PM. I expect that he's planning on
a. Reduce port of PM.
b. Land/Capture Buna.
c. Assault troops over Kokoda Trail, and HQ in Buna.
d. Bomb/Bombard PM.
We'll see.

Anyway. I have the New Guinea division coming in 2 turns. Lets hope that we can hold, and have some place for it to spawn.

I moved up my USN-SS, it caught an IJN-CA asleep, and did 4 damage to her. That at least ought to annoy him. I don't know how many DDs he's go with him, but it might also absorb a few bombs from KB, that would otherwise land on Buna or Port Moresby.

And you can see he's got a IJN-SS poking around Lunga.

I moved up my Strat Bombers and two USAAC fighters. Maybe the intercept a few missions from KB. And the Strat Bombers can spot and maybe land a bomb or three from 16,000'. Yes, it's a risk to have my fighters in the coastal hexes (risk bombardment), but they're just in range of Port Moresby for intercept. And while he does have overwhelming force here, I can't bring myself to just let him roll it.

The 3x USN-CVs and escorts are due south of him, but still south of Brisbane. I ~think~ that gives room enough between the two of us. I obviously don't want to engage him head on.

But if I can plink some of his squadrons and wear him down a little with LBA, he may need to draw off some off some of supporting CVs, means fewer bombs on Port Moresby over the next couple turns.

If he comes after me, I'm going to run like hell. But again, if he's chasing me, he not bombing PM.

If he sends a partial-something south, maybe an opportunity to skirmish-and-run. I'm not really jonesing for a fight, since I'm still trying to gather my CVs. My intention is really to try to pose somewhere between a temptation and a threat WITHOUT getting by arse kicked. Included pick of my CV-TF in the south.

[Feinder]

March 16th, 1942

Strategic Map.

I've got four Subs that I'm going to try to push thru North Pacific, and maybe a chance to skulk/intercept ships into Japan.

[Feinder]

March 16th, 1942

Admin Stuff

I missed the production numbers. I'll have to get those next turn.

Losses screen, Research (added a chit into Long Range Aircraft this turn), and my Build Queue.

It sure would be nice to get some points on the board (kill something).

[Elessar2]

IF his DD's and MB's are occupied elsewhere (Solomons/New Guinea), your subs might be able to cause some mischief, tho I'd have used more. When I went in KB was refitting and his DD's had nothing else to do but pound my subs into scrap metal.

[Feinder]

3 cheers for the much maligned Gen-Z!

My son set up a video capture app on my desktop as I type this. I shall have to consider taking the family to dinner while I await my next turn (which is admittedly somewhat self gratifying).

So now i can capture/record the replays and mine them for every bit of intel and spotting reports!

Ellissar... number of subs.. i have the one RN-SS in Singapore straight. One USN-SS in DEI. One USN-SS in Solomons, just torped a CA. And the other 4 USN-SS are all that remain, on their way to Japan.

[Feinder]

April 3rd, 1942

Burma

Well, he pounded the heck out Indian Inf-Corps in Rangoon with LBA and repeated assaults by the 2x Inf-Div and 2x Inf Corps as seen in the pic. Indian Inf-Corps was down to 1sp, so tried to evac it via transport, but was intercepted by his now discovered sub and that's all she wrote. The city is in shambles, so would have had to rebuild it a full-cost anyway, so some small consolation that, other than the cost to transport it, I didn't throw away a cheap rebuild.

Indian Tank-Div attempted to counter-attack south. Indicated a favorable odds, but the poor coordination and hostile terrain broke up the attack with loss of 1sp tank, 0sp for IJA. Tanks retreat.

Moved up two now refurbished fighter squadrons around Akyab. Only the RAF will be in range to intercept anything over Rangoon. But maybe they'll get the chance.

I expect Rangoon/Burma to fall next turn. It then (belated) occurred to me that the country would flip and my units not in cities/town would be stranded out of supply. Crap. I crossed the border with two Indian Divs to try to occupy those towns, and then try to connect with the Chinese Inf-Div at Mandalay. Dunno, we'll see. That was a "Doh!".

Landed UK Inf-Corps at Ceylon and also a RN-DD since he obviously has sub(s) in the area.

[Feinder]

April 3rd, 1942

Dutch East Indiea

Crap. Forgot to get a screen cap.

Still skirmishing with partisans in Philippines. At least it's tying down one of his Mech-Divs.

Borneo close to collapse. Held, but will probably fall next turn to the two assaulting SNLF-Divs.

One the plus side, he moved up a DD on my RN-Sub in Singapore Straight. Traded 1sp:1sp on his attack. He didn't move off, so on my attack I had 4:6 expected. Sure, why not. Ended up trading 2sp:7sp, so yay. Would love to have been able kill the last 2sp of that DD, but it'll cost him to repair it at least.

USN-SS finally finds an exit west of Timor and heads towards Oz. I'll probably push it west towards New Guinea since that's where his fleet is.

Royal Navy now off Melbourne. We'll be welcome addition, but they're still 3-4 turns out.

[Feinder]

April 3rd, 1942

China North

He's definataly good punch and shift. The weight of his LBA and ground assault now in Comm China. He destroyed the Comm-Chi Inf-Div, and occupied the mines there. He also pummeled my Cav-Div and forced it to retreat. I did hit back on his Inf-Div but didn't do much.

I pulled in my Chinese Tank-Div and Cav-Div, we'll see if they can help.

Flying Tigers and Chinese AF did their job, and ran a few interceptions. Traded a few SP, and then he target them (as high-value targets, they're expensive/impossible to replace). From the screen-cap, you can see lost a total of 12sp, they probably shot down 6 of his. Not a great exchange.

[Feinder]

The Center is quiet. Like I said, he's good at shifting guys around and then exploding at a section of the line.

In the far SouthWest, he pushed up with that Inf-Corps, 2x Inf-Divs, and that Artillery. Killed my fully entrenched and behind-the-river Inf-Div outright, and occupied the mines there also. I did have opportunity to push into his lines though. I hit his lead Inf-Corp hard (down to 3sp), and pushed against the length of his line; also you see my Inf-Div pushing South. He'll shift guys again. But at least it's somewhere that he's a little off-balance.

[Feinder]

April 3rd, 1942

Solomons

Ugh. He clobbered Port Moresby. HARD. Bombardments by multiple BB/BC/CA. Pounding by LBA from Med-Bmbrs (plural) off-screen in the NW. My fighters on the Cape York Penensula intercepted (good), and the promptly became the targets of KB. He wiped out one of the Fighters, and another 6sp from the other. It was hard to count, but I probably only did about 4 steps of damage to KB. Ugh.

I can't even reinforce Port Moresby Corps, because the town is down to just one Supply and port damaged also. I also considered that, I had shifted the New Guinea Div to defend Lunga. If New Guinea surrenders, nothing at Lunga. So I decided to risk loading them onto transports and landing them Buna, to possibly hit him from there. However, the transport ran afoul of the BB, and the convoy was destroyed. Other than the 17mpp it cost to transport them, it's not that significant a loss, since they would have surrendered with New Guinea anyway.

I thought about trying to hit one of his Flat Tops with Strat Bombers. But expected losses on the CVL were 5:1. I decided to bomb each of the SLNF-Divs, to try lower their readiness/morale. I've actually got a New Guinea Inf-Div coming in 3 days, ~IF~ Port Moresby can hold. I doubt it. But if it does, there's a sliver of hope that New Guinea can hold (for a few more turns). But from my last post on the Solomons (what I thought he would do), he managed to accomplish in one turn, what i thought would take him 4 or 5.

From the screen-cap, you can see he's got a least 3x CVs and 1x CVL. I'm almost positive that he's got at least 1 more CV and 1 more CVL, based on the number of strikes/intercepts I saw him running.-
With my available USN assets off Brisbane (3x CVs + Cruisers) and en route (1x CV + 2x BB), I definately can't go at him with 3x CV group.

Having relocated/lost the NG Inf-Div at Lunca, I pulled the Americal Div from Samoa, and landed them on the south dock of Lunga. You can see he's got the north blockaded. I was shocked to see that he American Div is at 40% readiness and 35% morale, after sitting in Samoa since the start of the game. I have no idea why morale sucks so bad for it, but with those numbers, it's not going to put up much of a fight.

I've massed/shifted the USN CVs, now east of Noumea. There are 4x CVs now + 2x old BBs, and the collection of Cruisers. I'm anxious about an engagement with his Ships all at Nav-2. His air-groups are probably at about 8sp each, and his heavies have taken a couple hits from Bombarding. I've situated myself east of Noumea, so that I might get a chance to interfere with Lunga. But again, I still feel like the odds are still firmly in his favor, and I feel like having a fleet as a threat, is better than no fleet at all. So we'll see.

[Feinder]

April 3rd, 1942

Strategic Map.

CV positions marked. Hornet arrived on West Coast. 5x Subs on their way to Japanese waters.

[Feinder]

April 3rd, 1942

Admin Stuff

Losses screen, Research (got a bonus advance on Radar), Production.
Added another CV to the build queue (4 now inbound Aug/Sep 1943). And rebuilt the shattered Fighters and Maritime Bombers.

Still trying to get some points on the board.

[Elessar2]

As I said in my Euro map thread, when you have different tiers of units, you will have Targets, and Killers. So China should take heart that it only lost 2 Corps, fwiw. [The HQ's loss is more troublesome] I had toyed with expanding the map (yes, from scratch) to a scale sufficient to allow nothing but divisions (as well as giving ships-which cannot stack of course-more room to breathe while on the open ocean), but that's far in the future at best.

[Feinder]

Ellessar... I have noted that the Japanese capital ships have a naval spotting range of 3, vs. Allied ships have naval spotting range of 2. (I'm glad I noticed that!). Is there anything (tech? radar?) that can be researched as Allies to extend that spotting range to 3?

I'm not crying foul. I get that IJN doctrine with the float-planes as scouts was superior. I'm just asking if there's anything I can do to extend the spotting range of my own ships.

Oh, and another question... What is the national moral hit against for each Atomic bomb? It looks like each bomb is 50/turn. Three bombs = 150/turn. Is that correct? For 150mpp per turn, what conditions must be met (given the diff in maps and the original Waw)? And what is the morale hit for each bomb vs. Japan?

[Feinder]

April 21st, 1942

Burma

He pummels Rangoon with both infantry assaults and bombers. RAF fighters do intercept first group of unescorted bombers downing several. Further attacks were escorted, and RAF takes losses in return. Assaults wipe out the Burmese Inf-Div, and Rangoon is declared an open city. Indian units move into occupy towns along the border.

RAF fighter squadron retreats to India for replacements. UK Inf-Corps and RN-DD refit at Ceylon.