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Hi, PI

East SRA

Hi, The attack is on schedule and below cost. (There was a very good chance for high loss in farthest landings)
The plan only broke a few of my normal rules.
1. I never land on a base on turn 1 and stay 4 hexes out. This means the plan to fit a normal game would not have first landings before 9 Dec.
2. I stay inside aircover. Only the Java/Sumatra landings violated this because I assigned my CVL/CVE to provide cover where possible and the LBA could cover most of the other landings.

It is vital however that the IJN finish it's commitment to SRA as fast as possible because Southern Area Army are the only units that can board transports and so the whole herd has to be done by the time the Soviets are knocked out. (and the fleet and airforces have to support the opening attacks in that operation)

All operations that require landings on enemy bases must be conducted by SAA units and these units must have time to rest/refit and prep.

The Chinese portion remains very much in the air. I will kill as many Chinese as are provided for me to kill but I don't intend on going out of my way to kill them. I figure the Allies will do one of three things.
1. Go over to offensive and move forward
2. Head for Burma
3. Stand pat and try to block the road west.
I'm betting the Japanese can move faster then the Chinese. Whatever they take now I'll get back later. It takes a long time for the Chinese to march into Burma and again for number 3 I plan on the Japanese moving faster and in greater strength to overcome any roadblocks.

The IJN will have the mission of finding and destroying the enemy naval units. I have never tried to fight the Soviets or march units from China west so I don't really know how long it will take.
Since Japan has to have 4 to 1 on 1 Jan 1943 I need to not only advance as far as I can I need to be able to defeat any enemy offense late in 1942. (better if the enemy has no forces to mount one with. It will be best if they are bogged down trying to retake Seattle [X(] )

36 IJN pilots left in pool
398 IJA pilots left in pool

Damn, that is depressing news. [:@] Time for more Maybe I should have a few more

Let's see here:

TF 42 encounters mine field at Batavia (19,59)

Japanese Ships
CA Mogami, Mine hits 1, on fire ( that was a type 6 mine, Does that mean Mogami tripped over a 6 pack [:D] )

More ships sunk, nothing can move in or anywhere around the DEI. I can not get the Dutch Martins to fly at night against Palambang, it will take a long time to get B-17s there from the USA. Damn, what a mess. I still need more You don't think that is my problem? Too many beers? No way, more beer. [:D]

To bring this up to date. Mogami is still taking bases in the SRA. I have no ships other than subs in that area. they have either left or sunk. [:@] I did manage to move all of the PI based aircraft to other commands and out of the area. Most of the Dutch will just die, I do not have any PPs to spend and they are fast running out of places to base themselves. [:(]

It is only 12/21/41 and I am expecting the rest of the SRA to be in Japan hands by the end of the month. Note that that includes Timor. I have looked at his posting above and wonder what I should do in China. I guess I need to find an option 4. [:'(]

All [&o] to Mogami the 'meanest Japanese player.' [;)]

Time for some while I wait on a turn. [8|]

Hi Nomad & Mog, thanks for AARs, Mog really breeze thru the high value Allied bases being garrisoned by weak Allied units: Kedari, Amboina, Palembang, Borneo.[X(] Really amazing. Yep depressing.[:@] Are the dutch and british bombers helpful in harassing the jap tfs? Yep, now I need root beer.[:@]

More mayham. KB showed up back NE of PH. It vaporized a small 3-TK TF. Not really a big problem, the Allies get way more TKs than they need. I hope everything else can get out of the way. Going to be interesting, I have 3 PT squadrons going into and around the hex KB was at that turn. Plus I had a TF of 5 subs doing a transit of the area and ended up 2 hexes away so I split it up into 5 separate TFs and sent them in 5 directions. Soerbaja fell today 12/21/41 [:@][&:] I had 5 engineer units therre( base forces ) and they destroyed ZERO resources and oil. [:(][:o] Oh well, that is the way things go, one engineer unit at Palambang destroyed about 1/2 of the oil output. go figure.

I do not know if it will make much difference in the long run but I am hitting back at oil sources.

Night Air attack on Palembang , at 20,55


Allied aircraft
CW-21B Demon x 3
Brewster 339D x 11
Martin 139 x 6


Allied aircraft losses
Martin 139: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged

Oil hits 1

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Martin 139 bombing at 5000 feet
2 x Martin 139 bombing at 5000 feet
3 x CW-21B Demon bombing at 2000 feet
11 x Brewster 339D bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Air attack on Palembang , at 20,55


Allied aircraft
CW-21B Demon x 3
Brewster 339D x 11
Martin 139 x 6


Allied aircraft losses
Martin 139: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged

Oil hits 1

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Martin 139 bombing at 5000 feet
2 x Martin 139 bombing at 5000 feet
3 x CW-21B Demon bombing at 2000 feet
11 x Brewster 339D bombing at 2000 feet

Might as well use the martins at night, they probably will not make it out of the DEI.

Here is another oddity. I got 8 ships through the marshal islands and on to PH. But this one didn't make it:
Day Air attack on TF at 78,81

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 30

No Japanese losses

Allied Ships
MSW Whippoorwill, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
MSW Finch, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AO Trinity, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
* would you believe that Trinity survived until the pm flights put 2 more torps into her?


Here is the vaporization attack:
Day Air attack on TF at 116,60

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 51
D3A Val x 116
B5N Kate x 133

Japanese aircraft losses
B5N Kate: 1 damaged

Allied Ships
TK William H. Berg, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
PG Charleston, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
TK L. P. St. Clair, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
TK Emidio, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 5, on fire, heavy damage

Losing soerbaja with aircraft: [:@]
Ground combat at Soerabaja

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 33548 troops, 365 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 10758 troops, 85 guns, 16 vehicles

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 0

Japanese assault odds: 4 to 1 (fort level 0)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Soerabaja base !!!



Allied aircraft
no flights


Allied aircraft losses
Brewster 339D: 2 destroyed
Martin 139: 2 destroyed
T.IVa: 2 destroyed
Do 24K-2: 2 destroyed
Hawk 75A: 4 destroyed
CW-21B Demon: 1 destroyed
CW-22 Falcon: 4 destroyed

Japanese ground losses:
494 casualties reported
Guns lost 16

Allied ground losses:
1104 casualties reported
Guns lost 28

Not a very pretty picture. [X(][:D][:@][:)][;)] time for of course too much beer then

Well, it was I-25... this is the same sub whose floatplane bombed Oregon, and which actually stalked and torpedoed an American tanker up the Columbia River and then sunk a Soviet sub on the way home. Quite a record

Sinking a ship in the Columbia River was an urban legend. I-25 never attempted to enter the river. The Columbia River bar is one of the worst in the world and is known as the graveyard of the Pacific. Its treacherous enough crossing that bar with a pilot onboard and accurate charts in broad daylight. Plus the deepest part over the bar at high tide is only 55 feet. I-25 is much too big to attempt that.

Here is a synopsis of that patrol:

August – October 1942:
In the summer of 1942, the Japanese high command developed a plan to attack the dense forest in the Pacific Northwest. The Japanese hoped that a large forest fire would draw American attention to defense of the west coast and cause the U.S. Navy to reposition its Pacific fleet closer to the mainland. The I-25 was ordered to undertake this operation, and was provided with six incendiary bombs for the mission.
So began a very successful patrol for the I-25. The submarine departed Yokosuka on August 15, 1942, and arrived off the Port Orford Heads on the Oregon coast by early September in bad weather. By September 9, weather conditions had improved. The I-25 surfaced just before dawn and the Glen seaplane was assembled and readied for the attack. Fujita took off at sunrise and flew northeast toward the easily visible Cape Blanco lighthouse. After flying southeast for about 50 miles, Fujita dropped one of his two incendiary bombs on Mount Emily, releasing the second a few minutes later a several miles east of the first. The bad weather that had delayed his mission a few days earlier had saturated the woods, and rendered the bombs ineffective. Otherwise, the bombs could have started large forest fires.
After releasing the bombs, Fujita descended to low level and returned to the waiting submarine. A U.S. Army A-29 bomber aircraft on patrol from McChord Field in Tacoma spotted the submarine, now on the surface to recover Fujita’s aircraft. The A-29 attacked the submarine with several bombs, but only inflicted minor damage as the submarine dove to the relative safety of the ocean floor just west of Port Orford.
The captain of the I-25 mounted a second attempt to ignite a large fire in the Oregon forests. The submarine surfaced just after midnight on Tuesday, September 29, about 50 miles west of Cape Blanco. Although the entire west coast of Oregon was blacked out, the Cape Blanco lighthouse was still in operation. Using the light as a navigation beacon, Fujita flew east over the coast for about 90 minutes and dropped his bombs. Although Japanese Navy records indicate that Fujita observed flames on the ground after this attack, no traces of the attacks have ever been located. The only U.S. records of this attack were of an unidentified aircraft flying east of Port Orford.
The I-25 did not use its last two incendiary bombs, and reverted to torpedo attacks on American shipping. On Sunday, October 4, the submarine sank the freighter SS Camden off Coos Bay on the south Oregon coast; one crewman was killed. The following Tuesday, the I-25 was successful again, this time sinking the tanker SS Larry Doheny off Cape Sebastian. Two crewmen and four U.S. Navy Armed Guards manning guns on the Doheny were killed in the attack.
The I-25 departed the Oregon coast a few days later. On October 11 while en route to its homeport of Yokosuka, the Japanese submarine attacked and sank the Soviet submarine L-16 while the Russians were in transit from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to San Francisco. The captain of the I-25 believed he was attacking an American ship; Japan and the Soviet Union were not at war at this time.

Chez

Hi Nomad

ORIGINAL: Nomad

Soerbaja fell today 12/21/41 [:@][&:] I had 5 engineer units therre( base forces ) and they destroyed ZERO resources and oil. [:(][:o] Oh well, that is the way things go, one engineer unit at Palambang destroyed about 1/2 of the oil output. go figure.

I do not know if it will make much difference in the long run but I am hitting back at oil sources.

Night Air attack on Palembang , at 20,55


Allied aircraft
CW-21B Demon x 3
Brewster 339D x 11
Martin 139 x 6


Allied aircraft losses
Martin 139: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged

Oil hits 1

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Martin 139 bombing at 5000 feet
2 x Martin 139 bombing at 5000 feet
3 x CW-21B Demon bombing at 2000 feet
11 x Brewster 339D bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Air attack on Palembang , at 20,55


Allied aircraft
CW-21B Demon x 3
Brewster 339D x 11
Martin 139 x 6


Allied aircraft losses
Martin 139: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged

Oil hits 1

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Martin 139 bombing at 5000 feet
2 x Martin 139 bombing at 5000 feet
3 x CW-21B Demon bombing at 2000 feet
11 x Brewster 339D bombing at 2000 feet

Might as well use the martins at night, they probably will not make it out of the DEI.

Here is another oddity. I got 8 ships through the marshal islands and on to PH. But this one didn't make it:
Day Air attack on TF at 78,81

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 30

No Japanese losses

Allied Ships
MSW Whippoorwill, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
MSW Finch, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AO Trinity, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
* would you believe that Trinity survived until the pm flights put 2 more torps into her?


Here is the vaporization attack:
Day Air attack on TF at 116,60

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 51
D3A Val x 116
B5N Kate x 133

Japanese aircraft losses
B5N Kate: 1 damaged

Allied Ships
TK William H. Berg, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
PG Charleston, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
TK L. P. St. Clair, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
TK Emidio, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 5, on fire, heavy damage

Losing soerbaja with aircraft: [:@]
Ground combat at Soerabaja

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 33548 troops, 365 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 10758 troops, 85 guns, 16 vehicles

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 0

Japanese assault odds: 4 to 1 (fort level 0)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Soerabaja base !!!



Allied aircraft
no flights


Allied aircraft losses
Brewster 339D: 2 destroyed
Martin 139: 2 destroyed
T.IVa: 2 destroyed
Do 24K-2: 2 destroyed
Hawk 75A: 4 destroyed
CW-21B Demon: 1 destroyed
CW-22 Falcon: 4 destroyed

Japanese ground losses:
494 casualties reported
Guns lost 16

Allied ground losses:
1104 casualties reported
Guns lost 28

Not a very pretty picture. [X(][:D][:@][:)][;)] time for of course too much beer then

Mog must be using fresh 5 & 18 Div for Surabaya.[:)] Very tough nut.. he is all over the place ... PH to Surabaya. I am lost for ideas too.[:(] Just can't believe it is a lost cause.

ORIGINAL: PzB

After I captured Karachi and David took over after Wobbly someone posted that it was possible to get Allied reinforcements to arrive in Oz, India or wherever by changing
a HQ to another map sector. I did a test with this and found that after I paid pp's to change the Northern Pacific HQ to southern asia the HQ dissappeared and got slated
for arrival in Karachi after 90 days or so. All other reinforcements belonging to this HQ would also arrive in Karachi starting from the day the HQ was changed.

I've never decided whether this is foul play or not - but somehow it doesn't seem right to me and I'll probably shun it. In this 'shady' game approach it would be
a more feasable option though - what does the rest of you think?

I believe that given a game set-up where players can confidently assert that it is easy for the Japanese to conquer BOTH Russia and China in a few months, that anything "gamey" you come up with as the Allies is "fair game". Your view should be that there is already so much BS built into the game that anything you can add by way of exploiting loopholes is mild by comparison. I couldn't stand playing under such totally absurd conditions (I enjoy dealing with history, not ignoring it)---but I must admit to some interest in seeing just how far into "Never-Never Land" you guys will be able to drag the situation......

I had 5 engineer units therre( base forces ) and they destroyed ZERO resources and oil.

I'm beginning to think that the bit about engineers destorying facilities (oil, resources, whatever...) is an "urban legend" in this game. [&:] ([;)])

That's why whenever I have a choice between losing a unit in the hopes of doing some damage, or saving that unit I'll always chose to save the unit.

Good luck -

Dave Baranyi

David, I don't know, could be some kind of rumer. Anyway, I had no chance to remove them anyway so it really doesn't matter. No ship that floats can get anywhere near the DEI now. Even subs are having problems. He is going all out, using Zeros at 100 feet to hit Naval targets, float planes on Naval attack. [&:] And all large formations are in the DEI, not Malaya, but I tried to get a TF to Mayala to evacuate some troops, those ships are not fish homes. [:(][X(]

Mike, I am really thinking about changing NOrth Pacific next turn and see what happens. I do think that keeping India in the game is key. Losing all of Russia, China, and India will be too much.

And Patrickl, the cause is not lost. I made a comment to PzB last turn that for the Allies, if Auto Victory has not kicked in for Japan, then the Allies are still winning. The Allies get so much that even with horrendous losses they have enough to make a good fight of it. David can tell you how bad the situation is in my game with PzB. So if your'e Allies only AV can stop you. [:)]


Waiting for Mogami to get out of bed and do a turn. Guy sleeps all the time. [:D] He needs more

ORIGINAL: ADavidB

I had 5 engineer units therre( base forces ) and they destroyed ZERO resources and oil.

I'm beginning to think that the bit about engineers destorying facilities (oil, resources, whatever...) is an "urban legend" in this game. [&:] ([;)])

That's why whenever I have a choice between losing a unit in the hopes of doing some damage, or saving that unit I'll always chose to save the unit.

Have there been instances of facilities being destroyed without any engineers being present? If so then your assertion is quite probably true.

It could also be that the number of engineers present is not a factor, as long as you have one engineer unit, the chance of facilities being destroyed is the same as with many engineer units present.

It has everything to do with numbers. Die rolls to be sure. One thing is that I had no time to get the new engineer units prepped for Soeraja. I wonder if that makes a large difference. No one( well no one here) really knows. I am sure that the experience level makes a difference and they were all low. I'll just be happy with Palambang losing a bunch. In the end it is not a game breaker by any means. Mog will utilize what resources and oil he gets to the maximum and I will just have to overcome that. [:D]

I do not know about any bases taken with no engineers present that took damage.

ORIGINAL: Nomad

It has everything to do with numbers. Die rolls to be sure. One thing is that I had no time to get the new engineer units prepped for Soeraja. I wonder if that makes a large difference. No one( well no one here) really knows. I am sure that the experience level makes a difference and they were all low. I'll just be happy with Palambang losing a bunch. In the end it is not a game breaker by any means. Mog will utilize what resources and oil he gets to the maximum and I will just have to overcome that. [:D]

I do not know about any bases taken with no engineers present that took damage.

I wonder if you have to have "real" engineering units (SeaBee-type units) to accomplish damage instead of just the engineers that are attached to base forces? There are enough "funny" things in this game that it wouldn't suprise me at all...

Have fun -

Dave Baranyi

Ministry of Homeland Security??? Since when did you guys start to create "Ministries" instead of "Departments" in your Government...[;)]

Dave Baranyi

I don't think so David. Mogami took Palambang 12/9/41, no chance for me to do anything, so it had the starting base force there with 5 engineers available and 2 vechicles. After he took it, it looked like this:

Manpower 2(0)
Resources 488(413)
Oil 258(443)

Not too bad really. [:D] But I was expecting big things at Soerbaja and it ended up with"

Manposer 2(0)
Resources 599(0)
Oil 102(0) It grew by 2 when he took it. [:@]

Anyone know why they add up to 1 more that is there?

I see that Tarakan was another good one for me:

Manpower 2(0)
Resources 277(324)
Oil 23(78)

I guess I had a bunch of really bad die rolls at Soerbaja. [:'(]

Damn, I wish Mogami would get out of bed. [;)]
I

Well, 12/22/41 is in the books. A small bombardment:
Naval bombardment of Batavia, at 19,59


Allied aircraft
no flights


Allied aircraft losses
Martin 139: 8 destroyed
Brewster 339D: 6 destroyed
Hawk 75A: 1 destroyed
CW-21B Demon: 1 destroyed

Japanese Ships
DD Shinonome
DD Fubuki
DD Hagikaze
DD Arashi
DD Maikaze
CL Oi
CL Sendai
CA Chokai
BB Hyuga
BB Yamashiro
DD Akatsuki
DD Samidare
DD Asagumo
DD Sagi
CL Kitakami
CL Yura
BB Mutsu
BB Nagato


Allied ground losses:
1099 casualties reported
Guns lost 24
Vehicles lost 3

Airbase hits 9
Airbase supply hits 11
Runway hits 127

I'm not hurt, not at all. [:D][X(]
-------------------------------------
KB disappeared from NE of PH. Wonder where he went? I sent subs and PTs after him to no avail. [&:]

He took Lautern that turn:

Ground combat at Lautem

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 1736 troops, 2 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 1227 troops, 29 guns, 2 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 7 to 1 (fort level 2)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Lautem base !!!


Japanese ground losses:
47 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Allied ground losses:
1629 casualties reported
-------------------

Rangoon fell, I had no one there, it is a death trap. He sent an armored unit straight across. not via the
railroad, avoided the shock attack on my little inf units there.

I got a turn from Mogami tonight and he said I did about 1/3 damage to Soerbaja and my recon was faulty. Sure enough when I did the turn I did a mouse over and I did about 1/3 damage( still not as much as I was hoping for, but a lot more that zero). Apparantly the program does not update the roll over the first turn after you lose a base? I am not sure, I have never been that worried about it or cared. What was damaged was damaged.