Rising Sun over the Rockies - F.K. vs OSO - Wake captured by US

[FeurerKrieg]

January 21st, 1943
Artillery continue to shell Chungking, but other than that it is quiet today.

The last of the three new planes we received in January, the Ki-46-III.

Despite the excellence of the design, the Koku Hombu wanted to make sure they kept the Ki-46's technical edge, and in May 1942 the Army asked Mitsubishi to produce yet another upgrade of the type, to be designated the "Ki-46-III". The new variant was to have a top speed of 650 KPH (404 MPH), endurance increased by one hour to seven hours, and stronger main landing gear. The first of two prototypes flew in December 1942.

The Ki-46-III was powered by Ha-112-II engines with direct fuel injection, each providing 930 kW (1,250 HP) at altitude, giving the type with a top speed of 630 KPH (391 MPH) at 5,280 meters (19,000 feet). The engine cowlings had to be slightly redesigned to accommodate the new powerplants. The fuel tank arrangement was also redesigned. A fuel tank with a capacity of of 1,895 liters (505 US gallons) was added in the nose, and a ventral drop tank providing 460 liters (122 US gallons) was added as well. The rear machine gun, never a particularly effective means of defense, was deleted. It had often been removed from Ki-46-IIs in the field anyway.

The pilot's canopy was completely changed, forming a simple curved surface all the way to the nose and giving the Ki-46-III a very unique and elegant appearance. Unfortunately, difficulties in producing the Ha-112-II engines limited Ki-46-III production, and Mitsubishi continued to roll out the Ki-46-II in parallel.

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Ki-46-III Dinah[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

Hey all, I'm finally back! I have been playing turns, but haven't had time to post due to my recent move. That's right - I'm a proud mortgage holder now. So I have a room full of all my pretty video games and books. Wee!

Back to the action (or lack thereof)...

January 22nd, 1943
I-121 is hit by an enemy bomber while laying mines at Trivandrum on the tip of India. Damage is pretty significant, so we'll see what happens.

6 SB-2c's hit our troops around Chungking today to little effect.

Malacca airfield expanded (sz 3) and Baker Island is large enough to support dive bombers. We will expand Baker no more - hopefully some fighters and DBs there will be useful in supporting the defense of Canton Island.

[FeurerKrieg]

January 23rd, 1943
The mines our subs laid at Laysan paid off today, as APD Schley hit a Type 88 mine. The ship didn't sink, but hopefully the enemy lost some supplies.

44 Oscar IIa's attacked 3 P-38's over Laysan today and lost one of their own. The damaged a couple of the P-38's but those planes are hard to bring down.

More ominous is that Laysan airfield was opened for business today (sz 1). We will fly only recon tomorrow to see what the enemy plans to bring in.

[Alikchi2]

Hey all, I'm finally back! I have been playing turns, but haven't had time to post due to my recent move. That's right - I'm a proud mortgage holder now. So I have a room full of all my pretty video games and books. Wee!

Congrats!

[FeurerKrieg]

Sorry for the delays in posting guys - we are up to Feb 4th in game. Trying to get all those little home improvement projects done ASAP.

January 24th, 1943
SB-2c's bombed our troops at Chungking today, wounding 10 men.

Our recon flight at Laysan spotted a new American fighter today along with the P-38's. We will attempt some night bombing in the near future to avoid these new fighters.

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F4U-1 Corsair[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

January 25th, 1943
Night air attacked launched against Laysan. 14 Liz bombers and 20 Helens dropped bombs, but it is unclear if any damage was inflicted.

Several airbases were expanded today including Kuala Lumper and Rossel Island (between the Solomons and NG). (Both sz 3)

[FeurerKrieg]

January 26th, 1943
Things continue to be quiet just about everywhere.

A couple Allied minesweepers show up at Laysan to clear away our sub laid mines. As much as we would like to sink them, 2 MSW's are not worth the losses that Corsairs and P-38G's would likely inflict.

Our forces and supplies are being built up on Canton Island, Tarawa, Abemama and Makin. Each island will soon have over 20,000 supplies and most will have significant amounts of air support. Army fighters and dive bombers are being brought in to augment our naval forces in the area also. A full division has been landed on Canton Island and the elite South Seas Detachment is on Tarawa, standing by over a hundred transport planes - ready to reinforce if needed. Makin will soon have 5 construction battalions working to get the base Betty capable.

At the same time, Wake and Midway are both armed to max that the small islands will support. Our bombers and fighters are resting up and will attempt some harassing raids on Laysan to slow the buildup of that base as long as possible, without taking repeated losses.

Zuikaku and Shokaku have departed Kwajelein and will head to Tokyo to get several new AA guns installed and then they will immediately return to Kwajelein.

[FeurerKrieg]

January 27th, 1943
A couple days ago, a submarine was spotted near the Solomons. Today a hunter group encountered the sub, S-34, but could not land a hit with any deptch charges. They will continue to hunt in that area.

3 more SB-2c's hit our troops at Chungking, today wounding 26 men and knocking out 1 gun.

[FeurerKrieg]

January 28th, 1943
Today, the SB-2c's at Chungking were jumped by our Oscar II's on LRCAP. 1 was shot down and the rest returned to base.

An interesting side effect of the fighting in the Pacific - while our planes have largely been resting on the ground, the enemy planes have been flying CAP and when flying - ops losses happen. The last week or two has seen most days with more Allied ops losses than Japan.

[center]
Oscar's make a now rare appearance over Chungking.[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

January 29th, 1943
All quiet today, other than shells flying at Chungking. A couple Allied recon planes shot down in the Pacific.

[FeurerKrieg]

January 30th, 1943
In the dark night skies, 26 Liz bombers and 18 Helens hit Laysan. Tonight a couple hits were confirmed on the airbase.

SB-2c's attacked at Chungking again.

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Night attack on Laysan.[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

January 31st, 1943
An additional Sentai of Helens landed at Midway and took off in the dark for another attack on Laysan. 21 Liz and 28 Helens this time. However, out of the dark skies, enemy cannons blazed at our bombers from P-38G's on night patrol.

While the P-38's didn't shoot any of our planes down, they did provide some bearing for enemy flak and 4 Helens and 1 Liz went down to AA fire. Now that the enemy has some of their fighters up at night, we will send a daylight raid soon escorted by Oscar IIs. The Oscars should be able to fight the bombers through if there are only a dozen or so enemy fighters, and the bombers can catch the night fighters on the runway - with daylight accuracy.

[center]
Nighttime A2A combat[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

January was mostly quiet. Nearly all of our air losses were Army frames. We did well in terms of ship losses. The enemy lost several ships on the way back to Pearl from the Line Islands.
Our subs got an MSW which almost got the sub ratio back up to 1:1.
Also, very clearly the Allied rate of ops losses is climbing as they become more and more active.

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[FeurerKrieg]

February begins with the Empire still in excellent condition. Resource and oil convoys move with no threat. Escorts are in sufficient supply to protect our cargo ships from enemy submarines.

Production hums along nicely, with large reserves of Armaments. Our HI reserves continue to slowly climb, and our ships continue to near completion. The first two Unryu's are now approximately 2 months from being finished, and Chiyoda and Chitose should be done about a month after that.

There are four main areas of potential US advances as shown on the map below. The Northern Advance is largely as ready as it can be for an assault. Although PJ and OJ do not currently have large troop concentrations, an attack against Adak, Attu, et al will trigger a reinforcing action to PJ and OJ.

Wake and Midway are both armed as much as possible given their small size.

The US could head south, but it is unlikely they would go so far from a friendly port. If so, they will find the southern islands fairly lightly defended, although there are IJN BF forces (the ones with CD guns) at all the island in that area. Please all of them are level 4 airfield and Bettys and Army fighters could be brought in quickly. The KB could move to cut off any retreat route, so, as stated, it is an unlikely place for an attack to happen - but it is possible.

Burma shows no offensive activity yet. Our veteran Army pilots there continue to patrol and keep away the enemy bombers by staying out of range of escorting fighters (except the P-40Es).

Australia does not seem to have sufficient naval assets to launch any offensives, although our planes do keep a look out for any activity. Once Thursday Island hit sz 4, Bettys will move in and attempt to bomb some resources in central Australia.

Overall, things are going well. Feb 1943 and we still have New Zealand and nearly all of the Pacific. No move in Burma or DEI. But we all know it won't last forever.

[center][/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

February 1st, 1943
Our subchasers attacked S-46 south of Rabaul today, but only score glancing blows.

The airfield at Ulithi was completed and the airfield at Makin can now accommodate offensive missions. (Sz 4 & 2)

[FeurerKrieg]

February 2nd, 1943
Today, S-18 and S-43 were both attacked in the Solomons. Unfortunately, S-43 managed to hunt the hunters and put a torpedo into PC Tama Maru #8. The small ship will likely sink.

At Laysan, as planned our airplanes launched a major daylight raid on the small enemy airbase. 47 Liz and 76 Helen bombers, escorted by 35 Oscar IIa fighters encountered 6 P-38G fighters defending the base. When all was said and done we had moderately damaged the airbase, destroying 11 enemy planes on the ground, and actually shot down one P-38G with no loss to our Oscars. For the first time in the war we destroyed some F4U-1 Corsairs. This time at least, we got them the easy way - on the ground. Flak losses were pretty heavy, but now he'll have to keep more CAP in place, while our planes stand down and take it easy at Midway.

Losses:
Helens - 3 in the Air and 7 to flak
Liz - 3 to flak
P-38G - 1 in the air, 3 on the ground
F4U-1 Corsair - 7 ground
PBM Mariner - 1 ground

Our fallback defense continue to develop - today the airfield at Luangprabang expanded. (sz 3)

[center]
Bombing Laysan Airfield.[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

February 3rd, 1943
Three SB-2c's bombed our troops at Chungking today.

Recon spotted more P-38G's over Laysan today so the CAP was increased. And, as hoped, one P-38G was reported lost to ops losses.

Since the Corsairs still are not flying CAP, our next strike will be at high altitude - above the ceiling of the P-38Gs.

[FeurerKrieg]

February 4th, 1943
Quiet today. PC Tama Maru #8 sunk while trying to reach Shortlands.

[Alikchi2]

FK - reread the whole thing over the past week or so. I want to compliment you on a really superb command of the war. It's February 1943 and you're bombing Laysan Island and you hold New Zealand - not much else needs to be said. Especially considering that OSO has been a fairly competent opponent.

Nice work on the graphics, too. A purely technical question for you - how do you make those arrows? I always wondered how that was done.

In all seriousness though - this might be the first game I've observed where the Japanese might actually have a chance to keep the Home Islands out of B-29 range throughout the war. Kudos. [&o]

[FeurerKrieg]

ORIGINAL: Alikchi

FK - reread the whole thing over the past week or so. I want to compliment you on a really superb command of the war. It's February 1943 and you're bombing Laysan Island and you hold New Zealand - not much else needs to be said. Especially considering that OSO has been a fairly competent opponent.

Nice work on the graphics, too. A purely technical question for you - how do you make those arrows? I always wondered how that was done.

In all seriousness though - this might be the first game I've observed where the Japanese might actually have a chance to keep the Home Islands out of B-29 range throughout the war. Kudos. [&o]

Ha - You'll jinx me for sure! JK of course, thanks for the compliments. B-29's have a pretty far reach though, so maybe I can at least hold them off longer than the average game, but I'm sure it is just a matter of time before the Home Islands get ravaged by those American barbarians.

As to the arrows - in Photoshop (7) I select the line tool, then in the toolbar, to the right of all the Shape Tools, there is a little drop down arrow, but the only thing it does is give you arrow head options. You can make them long and skinny, short and fat, big or little - etc. Then the lines you make with the line tool will have arrowheads on them.