Once Again into the Breach - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A)

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: rustysi

Five of my subs are still attempting to catch the Bunker Hill, to no avail. She keep eluding me. A couple of the subs are just about bingo and will have to head to Kwajalein for fuel soon.

[:(]

Oh well. There's nothing to do but try as long as you can. It does look as though she's eluded you.

Not necessarily. She's in the TF to the east and there's a 4 ship TF to the west (probably ASW). Down to only 4 subs chasing her though.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

ORIGINAL: rustysi

Five of my subs are still attempting to catch the Bunker Hill, to no avail. She keep eluding me. A couple of the subs are just about bingo and will have to head to Kwajalein for fuel soon.

[:(]

Oh well. There's nothing to do but try as long as you can. It does look as though she's eluded you.

Not necessarily. She's in the TF to the east and there's a 4 ship TF to the west (probably ASW). Down to only 4 subs chasing her though.

Edit: This is the end of the 29 Nov turn. Still waiting for the next turn.

[rustysi]

The US carrier bombers (35 Helldivers, 101 Dauntlesses, 72 Avengers escorted by 54 Hellcats) added to the damage to Rot-Namur's airfield.

'The Big Blue Blanket' is beginning to rear its ugly head. That's not good.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: rustysi

The US carrier bombers (35 Helldivers, 101 Dauntlesses, 72 Avengers escorted by 54 Hellcats) added to the damage to Rot-Namur's airfield.

'The Big Blue Blanket' is beginning to rear its ugly head. That's not good.

Ted is still making the mistake of splitting his carriers. If I had to guess, I'd say this TF has 108 Hellcats split evenly between CAP and escort. If I could get my carriers there, I could trash it. But, alas, it is not to be. Even if Bunker Hill gets away, she'll be in the body and fender shop for a while.

[rustysi]

I did not build up any infrastructure here, so if he want's some, he'll have to build it himself.

Yeah.[:D]

the second attack would hit the Chinese army immediately after the first attack when the Chinese army has a bunch of disablements that haven't recovered.

I doubt many of his disablements are recovering anyway.

Mike I like your ideas, but to which is best, I've no experience in this area so I'll reserve reply. Hopefully someone with more experience in this area will chime in.

[rustysi]

If I could get my carriers there, I could trash it.

But it looks like he's getting you to react to him more than the other way around. Inevitable. The initiative has switched.

[Mike Solli]

A little bit more about China. In 9 days, I get 10 Independent Infantry Brigades, all in China. I'm going to use them to free up 4 Infantry divisions that are currently on garrison duty or surrounding the few Chinese formations in other areas to add to the assault force. They're all the cheap infantry divisions: 66, 68-70 I believe. But that's still 12-1300 AV to throw in. Plus, they'll gain valuable experience.

Rusty, I too am curious to hear what others with experience have to say. This is all new territory for me too.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: rustysi

If I could get my carriers there, I could trash it.

But it looks like he's getting you to react to him more than the other way around. Inevitable. The initiative has switched.

For the most part, yes. It is late November 1943 after all. He complains constantly that he can't keep track of all his stuff anymore. [:D]

I don't have that issue. [:D]

[rustysi]

A little bit more about China. In 9 days, I get 10 Independent Infantry Brigades, all in China. I'm going to use them to free up 4 Infantry divisions that are currently on garrison duty or surrounding the few Chinese formations in other areas to add to the assault force. They're all the cheap infantry divisions: 66, 68-70 I believe. But that's still 12-1300 AV to throw in. Plus, they'll gain valuable experience.

Should help.

All those 'cheap' ID's are very useful ya know. They're cheap to buy out, ~1200 PP's (when at 100%). And they make great 'speedbumps' at some forward base, especially when given a bit of Eng, Arty, AT and Fort support. I've got my first one headed to the field now, and its only Mar '43.

[rustysi]

He complains constantly that he can't keep track of all his stuff anymore.

Bitch, bitch, bitch.[:D]

Don't cha wish ya had his troubles.[:'(]

Maybe he needs a staff to help out.[:)]

[Mike Solli]

I have a couple of turns to post. I'll have the next Japanese Army ready to attack Chungking in a few turns, but the army that recently attacked is moving to get some R&R and won't be available for a week or more. Here are some stats on the DAs I've done against Chungking. There still are a lot of Chinese troops there, but they're wearing down. Note that on the most recent attack, the adjusted Chinese AV was lower than the raw AV for the first time. Finally!

If anyone cares, the Delta column is the number of days since the previous attack. Also note that I divided the Japanese army into two to double the number of attacks beginning with the 10/29/43 attack.

So, any input on whether I should continue with 2 armies attacking roughly every 7-9 days or 2 armies attacking a day apart every 2 weeks or so or combining them into 1 big army attacking every 2 weeks or so?

[Mike Solli]

29 Nov 43

Sub War

A Dutch sub sank an xAK that was part of a convoy moving a mortar unit that is a recent reinforcement headed to Java. It is going to form an Independent Infantry Brigade with a Garrison Unit there. That ship must not have had much of the unit, because very little was lost. That's good.

A PB hit the Searaven off Brunei once with a DC. He tends to keep a sub in this area and I have several ASW TFs as well as some ASW bombers harassing them.

5 Fleet

Not much happening here other than a sentai of Sallies bombing Umnak. My troops there are still resting. MKB is out of range to the SW waiting for the BB bombardment group to return from replenishment. When they arrive back in the AO (from Japan, in a few days), I'll decide whether to just bombard again, or attack. Most of the infantry of the division is still disabled so I'm reluctant to attack. The raw AV is 166 Japanese to 124 Allied. I'm gaining only ~6 AV a day. I'll make a decision when the BBs arrive.

4 Fleet

The US carriers continue to bomb Rot-Namur's airfield with all of their bombers and ~half of their fighters. They're doing it from extreme range though. The carriers are 9 hexes south of the island. I'll gladly accept this. The airfield is out of commission so the bombers aren't really being used effectively. They're gaining fatigue and a handful are lost to op losses each day.

I've figured out a tactic Ted is using. He moves his carriers randomly but moves an ASW TF to the hex the carriers vacated in the hopes of catching my subs chasing the carriers. My subs haven't caught up with the carriers, but they're still trying.

Bunker Hill continues to elude me. I still have 2 subs east of her, but the others are trying to catch her. Frustrated that I can't get a shot. [:@]

SE Fleet

Not much happened here today. Ted seems to be content with consolidating his gains. Kavieng is showing 220 bombers now. I expect another bombing attempt against Truk soon. I've been upgrading my fighters there and resting the pilots. I'm ready for him.

SRA

Nothing happened here today. I see his CVLs to the east of Darwin and am sending my carriers (Kaga, Soryu and a mixed bag of MKB stuff) to try and hit him.

Burma

We traded a Frank and Hurricane over Chittagong. My bombers hit Ledo causing light damage.

I'm getting 72 AS soon at Saigon which I'll fly into Burma. I don't have enough AS there. In addition, I'm going to send a fifth bomber sentai there to try and cause some lasting damage to Ledo's airfield. I can't seem to do that with what I have there. I know he's flying supply into Chungking. I keep some LRCAP over Chungking and have a significant amount of Flak there too, but they're not causing any transport losses. Is it possible to fly supply at night? I need to check and see if that's possible.

China

My bombers killed 14 squads and disabled another 114.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:

E Manju, Etorofu class, ASW
E Miyake, Mikura class, ASW
SC Ch-50, ASW
SC Ch-52, ASW
MTB G-159, torpedo boat

The Zuikaku left Ulithi today enroute to the Home Islands for complete repairs. She can only travel 4 hexes a day so it'll take 10 days. Her damage is 3-51(51)-19(19)-0 so she'll be in the yard for quite a while.

[Mike Solli]

30 Nov 43

Sub War

The RO-101 was chasing after the US carriers in the Marshalls and ran into an ASW TF. She was hit twice and heavily damaged: 55-73(27)-18(15)-0. She'll attempt to make Truk.

5 Fleet

Nothing new to report. My bombing of Umnak continues.

4 Fleet

The US carriers continue to tool around in the southern Marshall Islands. They sent 33 Helldivers (escorted by 55 Hellcats!) after the airfield at Tabiteuea, which I control. They caused light damage, which is meaningless.

I suspect the carriers are going to withdraw, but I'll attempt to follow them with a couple of Glen subs to make sure they don't sneak back.

SE Fleet

Ted sent 57x 2E and 41x 4E sorties against Rabaul. Very little remains at Rabaul and it didn't do anything worthwhile. I suspect he may attempt an invasion at some point. He could take it with a battalion. [:D]

SRA

5x PB4Y-1s flew against Saumlaki. Two were shot down and an third crashed on the way home. No damage was done to the airfield.

My carriers launched against what I thought was the US CVLs. Ted played a dirty trick on me. The CVLs were sitting at Wessel Island with a small TF of xAKLs a few hexes to the north. My carriers were 5 hexes north of the xAKLs and launched on them, sort of.

The first attack was 13 D4Y1s escorted by 4x A6M5s (which never entered the fray) and 14x A6M5cs. The CAP trap was composed of 20 Wildcats and 14 Thunderbolts. All the Judies were shot down [:@] along with 5x A6M5cs, for 7 Wildcats. At this point I had no idea the targets were xAKLs.

In the afternoon, another attack of 16 D4Y1s went in, along with 18x A6M5s (again, they never attacked) and 12x A6M5cs, against 13 Wildcats and 12 Thunderbolts. The final result was an A6M5c and Wildcat shot down, along with 15 Judies. The last remaining Judy planted a 500kg bomb on an xAKL, but I think it was FOW, because she should have been obliterated but she never sank and the report showed only a bomb hit.

Pissed me off. Most of the planes never attacked, probably because they had their sights on a few xAKLs. The Judies all came from a CVE, who started with 27 +3 reserves and ended the day with 2 planes. The fighters came from the Shokaku (no clue where the phantom A5M5s originated). Shokaku ended up losing 6 pilots.

The CVs were in one TF and MKB was in another. I combined them into 1 TF and am withdrawing them. I detached 4 Kageros to steam out and try to catch the xAKLs to sink them, then withdraw. We'll see what happens.

What I think is going on is that the Thunderbolts are stationed at Wessel island and they and the Wildcats were on an LRCAP mission over the xAKLs, a classic CAP trap. Ted doesn't often catch me with a CAP trap, but fortunately, the bombers were definitely second stringers and only 6 fighter pilots were lost. Ah well, c'est la vie.

Burma

My Franks flew against Chittagong but no enemy fighters rose to meet them.

My bombers did not fly against Ledo.

China

My bombers destroyed 6 squads and disabled another 139.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:

20 Sentai, 30 fighter, 51 Air Division, training
Unyo-2, 9 TB, Tokyo (since Unyo is a fish apartment), training for now
TK Shimotsu Maru, Type-1 TM, 8150 capacity
SC CHa-71, ASW

The Ki-43-IV R&D advanced to 7/44 (will become operational 2/44).

[mind_messing]

3. Keep 1 army of 11k AV and attack every 2 weeks (or however long it takes to recover).

This is your best option IMO. God (and AE gods) tends to be on the side of the big battalions. The higher your raw AV, the better the chance to flip ownership of the base, at which point you're free!

Your overall strategic position is looking great for late '43, and it's about to get better once China falls completely out of the war. The raw AV is great, but the real value is the excess aviation support and planes that you can gut for the Pacific front.

[Lokasenna]

I don't buy into the smaller attacks either. I understand why some forumites do this, and I think in certain select situations it is beneficial, but in almost every case I do not see the point in not attacking with every unit fit to attack in the hex at the time of the attack.

Some units will come out of it better than others.

In essence, you still have "2 armies", it's just that Army 1 is those fit to attack and Army 2 are those units that are recuperating (and may include units rotating out of hex if need be).

[Zorch]

"God is on the side of the big battalions" - Napoleon (I think)

[Mike Solli]

Thanks for the response, guys. I had split my army for much the same reason I like to do naval bombardments on consecutive nights. The goal is to disrupt/damage squads/planes the first night and then destroy them the second. Two armies were able to attack twice as often. Now that the forts are gone, I'm going to combine the armies into 1 to bash them. I also have more divisions headed there with another 3-4 freed up in about 8 days to add to the fray.

I move the divisions out to the base 2 hexes west of Chungking, then split them and set them to rest. I have the CEA HQ and an army HQ (range 1) commanded by the leader with the best admin score at my R&R base. That army HQ is supposedly best for allowing units to recover. It takes 6 days for movement back and forth. I've left a couple of units that participated in the last attack in Chungking to compare and see if it might save some time by leaving the units in Chungking. We'll see. At any rate, it'll be awhile before the next attack.

[Mike Solli]

Update on how the economy is doing, over the past month. "on ships" means being hauled.

Supply: 4,209k + 75k on ships, up 214k
Fuel: 3,276k + 251k on ships, up 205k
HI points: 2,399k, up 32k
Resources: 21,958k + 585k on ships, up about a million
Oil: 2,039k +156k on ships, up 180k
Armaments: 169k, up 9k
Vehicle points: 29.7k, up 4700
Japanese Score: 45,319, up 1,603
Allied Score: 22,859, up 1,288
Japanese ships lost this month: 37 worth 206 points
Allied ships lost this month: 30 worth 447 points
Japanese planes lost: 9,944 (776 this month)
Allied planes lost: 11,236 (834 this month)

[rustysi]

Darn, outta time. Aren't you lucky.[:D] Be back tomorrow if I can to make comments. If not have a happy Thanksgiving.

Paul

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Update on how the economy is doing, over the past month. "on ships" means being hauled.

Supply: 4,209k + 75k on ships, up 214k
Fuel: 3,276k + 251k on ships, up 205k
HI points: 2,399k, up 32k
Resources: 21,958k + 585k on ships, up about a million
Oil: 2,039k +156k on ships, up 180k
Armaments: 169k, up 9k
Vehicle points: 29.7k, up 4700
Japanese Score: 45,319, up 1,603
Allied Score: 22,859, up 1,288
Japanese ships lost this month: 37 worth 206 points
Allied ships lost this month: 30 worth 447 points
Japanese planes lost: 9,944 (776 this month)
Allied planes lost: 11,236 (834 this month)

You're still adding to the pools. At what point in the real war did Japan go into negative gain/loss?