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three waves of four engine beasties totally destroy the IJA garrison at Kusaie....I have a full division of Army grunts prepped but will reverse course since they are spotted at 10/10dl and instead land paratroopers there. I should have landed them today...forgot at how good beasts were at destroying fragmented forces without AA. A new use for them...cleanup.

Long range bombardment, for fear of mines, didn't do much to the 500 or so troops on Kusaie...but the bombers certainly did:

Night Naval bombardment of Kusaie Island at 125,118

Allied Ships
CA Salt Lake City
CA Chicago
CA Chester

Port hits 19
Port supply hits 5

CA Salt Lake City firing at Kusaie Island
CA Chicago firing at Kusaie Island
SOC-1 Seagull acting as spotter for CA Chester
CA Chester firing at Kusaie Island

Merauke taken easily....engineers land today.

About a half dozen of the 12 AV fighting engineer units arrived in Buna...and they will move forward to our dot bases...

12 units at PM
11 units at Rabaul
5 units at Manus...but only 21 guns and still an airfield size 0
2 units at Hollandia
2 units at Mearuke
3 units at Salamua

Fiji Bde is making slow progress to Lae, which has one enemy unit, they are 30+ miles into their advance.

I have at least three paratroop units in the area...and will be taking more of the sps 1 dot bases from Japan with them but I have an unwritten rule not use fragments.

Making some progress here in western Australia...

Lowpe: A look at the night time intelligence Japan has of my ship movement.

?? How did you map those out? Take the Allied view and blot out the TFs that show no D/L? Or is there a way to get the IJ view?

BBfanboy wrote: Wed Sep 14, 2022 1:45 pm

Lowpe: A look at the night time intelligence Japan has of my ship movement.

?? How did you map those out? Take the Allied view and blot out the TFs that show no D/L? Or is there a way to get the IJ view?

It is easy. Here is the current turn picture of all the shipping in the Solomons. Quite a bit. There is a BB SAG at Lunga that IJ has 2/2 DL on but everything else isn't spotted. But a crafty JFB, like myself, maximizes night search for a variety of reasons, including surprise against the incautious.

However, if you take a screen picture during the combat replay, only those units visible to both players show up. Paying attention to that, allows you in turn to prepare some neat surprises for the enemy. Both night and daytime pictures give a good detail of information about the enemy.

Wow! I learned something really useful from that! Many thanks!

BBfanboy wrote: Wed Sep 14, 2022 3:40 pm Wow! I learned something really useful from that! Many thanks! cool.gif

You have been playing for how long?

But that is one reason why I stress to new players to have night air search as well. Especially for CV TFs to avoid enemy SC TFs.

Starting to put pressure now on Marshall Islands, along with eastern New Guinea and setting up to take Exemouth.

I am going to have to start a new policy of cleanup...getting fractional units back together again. My early push has left lots of fragments because of shipping constraints. Now I will make a big push to get them reunited...

So many neat Allied toys starting to show up in the inventories! Excited to try some out...

March 7th, 1943



China....I don't have any British 6 pounder AT guns in China yet, and will air lift some in...by stockpiling the 43 infantry I can create some fairly air mobile ad hoc AT gun units and get them into Kunming fairly quickly.

The MG Bns will be air mobile security if I can take Chiang Mai...

My basic plan, manipulate stockpile and create some AT gun units...most AFBs probably don't bother using these troops for anything but rear area defense.

Of course, the Indian units are better since you can splurge and fill the infantry slots...they are equipped with piats...making this relatively small unit capable of taking on an IJA Tanks...especially in x3 terrain.

Can I hold Kusiae...not throwing much effort here as in ships...

As a reminder, those Burma squads transform into 1944 Indian squads so don't throw those units away later, let them upgrade! That will help your push later as well.

That is a good idea for those battalions, turning them into small and air transportable AT units.

Japan has a really tough time reacting to constant pressure...so in an effort to take Kusaie very cheaply, we will start advancing very hard on New Guinea...supply will have to follow the best it can!

Dispatching most APs for their upgrades...so this advance is being done by plane and small ships & barges. Barges to the right. Barges to the left. Onward rode the barges!

RangerJoe wrote: Fri Sep 16, 2022 1:55 pm As a reminder, those Burma squads transform into 1944 Indian squads so don't throw those units away later, let them upgrade! That will help your push later as well.

That is a good idea for those battalions, turning them into small and air transportable AT units.

Didn't know that!

Lowpe: Barges to the right. Barges to the left. Onward rode the barges!

Barges! Sometimes we need steenking Barges!

Your new base nibbling on the flank of the Eastern DEI and your advance in NW Oz have to worry him. He must be thinking of defensive moves now, not taking back Kusaie Is.

Lowpe wrote: Fri Sep 16, 2022 3:47 pm

RangerJoe wrote: Fri Sep 16, 2022 1:55 pm As a reminder, those Burma squads transform into 1944 Indian squads so don't throw those units away later, let them upgrade! That will help your push later as well.

That is a good idea for those battalions, turning them into small and air transportable AT units.

Didn't know that!

Think of how many of those squads that you have in your pools as well as any of those Burma units that dissolve. Also, a quick way to upgrade the Burmese squads would be to fill up the units with Burmese squads for occupation duties and then upgrade them plus possibly disbanding one unit to pump more of those squads into the pools. Then breaking down Indian divisions and updating their squads one third of a division at a time should go a lot faster. Although there is a way to speed it up even faster.

BBfanboy wrote: Fri Sep 16, 2022 4:40 pm

Lowpe: Barges to the right. Barges to the left. Onward rode the barges!

Barges! Sometimes we need steenking Barges!

Your new base nibbling on the flank of the Eastern DEI and your advance in NW Oz have to worry him. He must be thinking of defensive moves now, not taking back Kusaie Is.

Japan has mentioned it in a couple of emails...and that the Allies are troublesome in March of 1943...

As Japan I always tried to launch one attack on the Allies.

As the Allies I can launch so many attacks I forget what I am doing and get surprised at watching the turns. Although, a lot of my attacks fail to find the enemy, but we keep trying. Burn the fuel and supplies, there is a limitless supply!

I think that once multiple Allied vectors of attack are possible, this should be the Japanese theme song. If you agree, let your opponent know or I can post something in his AAR.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arpidGq8SlA