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By the 9 minute detection time it looks like your radar didn't work at Kaveing or there just wasn't any radar. I hate having CAP up and not getting to unescorted bombers.

The CAP was from Rabaul, long range and spilling both. The numbers you see here are those which were airborne at the time of the raid. Here is the lower part of the replay.

CAP engaged:
5th Sentai with Ki-45 KAIa Nick (9 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(9 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
9 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 13000
Raid is overhead
Spc.Attck.Unit with Ki-45 KAIb Nick (2 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(2 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
2 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 15000
Raid is overhead
Ryujo-1 with A6M2 Zero (3 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(3 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
3 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 10000
Raid is overhead
85th Sentai with Ki-44-IIa Tojo (1 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(1 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
1 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 9000
Raid is overhead

In other words, those fifteen fighters were all I had, but they also were on the spot, and in the correct altitude band (9 to 13 k, while the bombers were estimated at 9 and attacked at 7, and with decent weather).

I'm not sure I see the point of radars and detection times in this specific case. Aren't they supposed to allow more fighters to scramble than those already airborne, or to compensate large altitude differences? My explanation is that Kavieng is probably a very large hex, and the airfield is very far away from the port...

Francois

Detection time relates to almost everything ... if your fighters only had 9 minutes to react ... that isn't much. Remember, your fighters aren't that fast, so closing speeds aren't that fast. They are loitering at cruise speed, they have to spot, move to attack position, and close on the bombers. In a tail chase, they are only gaining 1-2 mi/min depending upon the bomber. A B29, they are only closing a few hundred yards/min.

No, 9 mins means the bombers have a good chance to avoid many of your fighters until AFTER the attack.

December 12th 1942

Akyab falls

Paras from Magwe captured Akyab today. The base was empty, and I had hoped that the forts (level four) would be kept, since the base was undefended, and this is what happens when you autocapture it. But no joy. Well, it was a good thing we didn’t have to fight through those four levels of forts, and a level six airfield and level four port provides a good jumping base for our attack on India.

Infantry from Burma (three or four divisions) should arrive tomorrow, tanks in a few more days. A air support unit is being air transported, and two squadrons are rebasing here.

The capture of Akyab poses an interesting question. My opponent holds Port Blair. So far, he did not really managed to prevent convoys to Rangoon, but now that Akyab is becoming my front line base, I wonder whether I should try and send convoys through the Indian Ocean, midway between Ceylon and the Andamans?

Burma is getting very short on supplies. Some do flow from China and Thailand, but levels are still very low everywhere, and so planning convoys from the DEI becomes a necessity.

Fuel, oil and resource flow

Most of my convoys to the Home islands are from Fusan. There are a few from Hokkaido, but I’m pretty much done with Hokkaido resources (160 000 tons left, down 150 000 a month).

Resources are nicely flowing to Fusan, and quickly brought back to Japan. We now have five million tons in stock, up 600 000 since last month.

Until recently, fuel did not flow up to Fusan, most of it remained in Singapore (where I now have 2.7 million tons of it), but I have begun starting small CS fuel convoys from Fusan, and it seems Fusan is slowly drawing fuel. In a week, the stock went from 10 000 to 100 000 tons, and my convoys are now bringing fuel to Japan. I am planning to try the same for oil. If so, it seems that fuel/oil draw from Fusan is a pretty simple affair. Just grow the port to maximum, then attach enough computer controlled fuel convoys, and there you go.

Just be careful where the fuel is coming from. I can draw it easily there, but it comes from Port Arthur and other Manchurian bases, and I never was able to get the draw from even Hong Kong, let alone farther south. I hope you can make it work.

Hi Erik,

It is still too early to call as those draw graphs take a while to settle (and I've been adding more convoys recently), but monitoring by region seems to give a clue. Over the last ten days, fuel stocks in Korea went up 100k, Manchukuo was stable, and China went down 100k. So my hunch is that I'm drawing from China. A closer look suggests Hong Kong. Now, Hong Kong used to be drawing from Singapore, so the question is, once Hong Kong stocks get lower, do we end up drawing from Malaysia?

I suspect fuel is relatively easy to draw, rebase enough ships in Fusan, and this should probably do the trick. I'm more curious about oil, which seems to flow in very weird ways. Right now, I have difficulty getting it anywhere BUT Singapore (it doesn't even stay in Port Arthur). Maybe it is just a matter of having enough Oil CS...



Still on holiday, reading Les Misérables, which really is a great book, a poet’s novel (as opposed to novelist novels, like Tolstoi, Balzac, or Dostoievsky). The war is going on, but it is slightly boring at the moment, so I’m just pushing turns around, hoping something happens…

December 13th

I am having more and more difficulty supplying the Solomons. Last week, a convoy to Tulagi was torpedoed near Ontong Java, and today, a light cargo ready to unload in Tassafaronga was sunk by Beaufighters from Rossel Island. I am evacuating most of my troops in the area, but I’d rather keep what’s left supplied. I have no airfields there, and don’t intend to build any. What do you do against this? Have Rufes on LRCAP? Supply by air?

I'd say some sneaky Rufe's moving in only when you have a supply TF arriving, and some night naval search and a following ASW TF with the transports.

I've not read enough of the French classics. I still must get through Proust, and Hugo and Balsac, but I'll put this on the list as well. [:)]

Have fun relaxing!

December 14th

A tale of two islands

Several squadrons from Ndeni bombed Kirakira and Lunga today. This happened a lot over the last few weeks. Is an invasion on its way? KB is a few hexes behind, undetected so far (I hope it lasts), and would be in position to damage anything jumping at Kirakira or Lunga. Kirakira is almost empty, and I am evacuating Tulagi and Tassafaronga. Lunga will take a while.

I am quite happy to let Guadalcanal go in January 43, and if a few ships can be sunk in the process, this might keep my opponent on his current slow rate of advance. This suits me fine.

The islands north of Darwin have been bombed too, with little damage done. Again, I have carriers and surface groups not far behind, just in case. I am not ready to let those go now, as I need a few months to reinforce the line behind them.

I am very late in my fortification plan, I hope my opponent waits some more (right now, I believe he is waiting for the new planes he’ll get in mid 43, that would be perfect).

Milk run in Port Blair

Ships were detected in Port Blair today, and the airfield was repopulated with fighters. We swept them from Bangkok, and bombed them from Rangoon and Sabang, but lost quite a few Oscars to their Hurricanes (losses were 25 to 7). We did manage to put a fish into a light cruiser, though.

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Port Blair at 46,58
Raid detected at 38 NM, estimated altitude 5,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 13 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 9
G4M1 Betty x 22
Allied aircraft
Martlet II x 6
Hurricane IIc Trop x 4
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed
G4M1 Betty: 7 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed by flak
No Allied losses
Allied Ships
CA Exeter
CL Caradoc, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Every one is on alert tomorrow, Betties from Rangoon, and Sabang, and Georgetown, and Vals in Trinkat, and Oscars and Zeroes… Let us see if we can make this costly.

December 15th 1942

Ten milk bottles hanging on a wall

So, today, everything that could fly was sent against Port Blair, in the hope of shooting Hurricanes down, sinking cargoes, and perhaps getting a few more hits on poor Caradoc.

I had tried to play it by the book, and in fact everything went relatively fine. First, my sweeping squadrons were based closer than my bombers. I swept from Bangkok, Victoria Point and Trinkat, and bombed from Rangoon, Georgetown and Sabang. And in fact, two sweeps happened before the bombers arrived.

Morning Air attack on Port Blair , at 46,58
Weather in hex: Thunderstorms
Raid detected at 42 NM, estimated altitude 22,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 10 minutes
Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 27
Allied aircraft
Martlet II x 9
Hurricane IIc Trop x 24
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IIa Oscar: 1 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIc Trop: 1 destroyed
Aircraft Attacking:
15 x Ki-43-IIa Oscar sweeping at 20000 feet

Morning Air attack on Port Blair , at 46,58
Weather in hex: Thunderstorms
Raid detected at 23 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes
Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 14
Allied aircraft
Martlet II x 4
Hurricane IIc Trop x 11
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IIb Oscar: 1 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
Martlet II: 1 destroyed
Aircraft Attacking:
2 x Ki-43-IIb Oscar sweeping at 16000 feet

Both sweeps managed to remove most of the CAP, and the first bombing runs were met by only four Hurricanes (down from the 33 my opponent had on CAP). Those weren’t very successful : only one cargo was hit.

Morning Air attack on TF, near Port Blair at 46,58
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 8
G4M1 Betty x 13
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIc Trop x 4
Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 7 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed by flak
Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIc Trop: 1 destroyed
Allied Ships
xAK Subadar
DD Express
DD Electra
xAK Esperance

Morning Air attack on TF, near Port Blair at 46,58
Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 11
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIc Trop x 2
Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 2 damaged
No Allied losses
Allied Ships
DD Nestor
xAK Benrinnes
xAK Tanfield
xAK Jalakrishna

Morning Air attack on TF, near Port Blair at 46,58
Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 16
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIc Trop x 2
Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 3 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed by flak
No Allied losses
Allied Ships
DD Electra
DD Nestor
xAK Clan Macindoe, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Morning Air attack on TF, near Port Blair at 46,58
Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 24
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIc Trop x 2
Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 7 damaged
No Allied losses
Allied Ships
xAK Esperance
xAK Clan Macindoe, on fire, heavy damage
DD Express
xAK Talthibius
DD Napier

But the disappointing morning paved the way for a good afternoon: our first sweeps were hardly opposed

Afternoon Air attack on Port Blair , at 46,58
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 22
Allied aircraft
Martlet II x 1
Hurricane IIc Trop x 3
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
No Allied losses

Afternoon Air attack on Port Blair , at 46,58
Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 30
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIc Trop x 1
No Japanese losses
No Allied losses

And then then bombers flew in unopposed…

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Port Blair at 46,58
Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 16
Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 6 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed by flak
Allied Ships
DD Napier
xAK Esperance, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Express
xAK Subadar

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Port Blair at 46,58
Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 30
Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 13 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed by flak
Allied Ships
CA Exeter, Torpedo hits 1
DD Electra
xAK Esperance, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Pasha, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAK Silverwillow, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires
xAK Tak Sang, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Port Blair at 46,58
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 8
G4M1 Betty x 11
Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 2 damaged
Allied Ships
DD Express
DD Electra
xAK Tak Sang, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Napier

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Little Andaman at 45,60
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 8
D3A1 Val x 8
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 11
Japanese aircraft losses
D3A1 Val: 1 damaged
Allied Ships
CL Caradoc, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage

Esperance, Pasha and Tak Sank are reported sunk. Silverwillow and Clan Macindoe are probably not in good shape. Exeter is reported sunk, but this must be FOW, Caradoc might be done with… We lost 12 Betties, 6 Oscars and 4 zeroes, for ten Hurricanes and four Martlets.

I am not attacking tomorrow. My squadrons are just too fatigued. Some bombers have been kept on naval bombing a few hexes short of Port Blair, to try and catch stragglers. A surface force was sent at flank speed towards the possible retreat path of the damaged ships, and some fighters were ordered to LRCAP it. There should be a lull tomorrow, but I’m sure hoping to catch more the day after tomorrow. Finishing the Exeter and some of the destroyers would be nice.


I realize I have enough force to try and blockade Port Blair. My opponent has sixteen units there, which most certainly use a lot of supplies, hence those milk runs. I am now considering capturing Little Andaman (which is still British and unoccupied), and developing Car Nicobar, so that we can make the position very difficult to supply, and let those units rot. This will help securing the sea lanes to Rangoon and Akyab.


The lazy empire

If I were to describe the game so far, I would say I have botched my way into a decent position. Enemy advance has been stopped in the South Pacific, the East Indies are under control, we hold all of China, are on the move in Burma and seem to be successful at last at isolating Port Blair, the economy is fine, and I think I have a decent understanding of the strategic situation.

Yet, my defenses are terribly weak. For months, I have been pushing front line units around, changing a few parameters, but didn’t really care about the details, and whole parts of the game have been ignored. As we speak, lots of reinforcements are still in Japan, pilot training is quite insufficient, a large part of my navy is collecting rust in ports, I have no naval search to speak of, and base building is not really supervised.

Now, I do understand I need to do something about this. I have been understanding this for months, in fact, and did try on many occasions to correct a few things. Yet I never managed to turn this into a habit.

I believe the problem is that whereas I have a good idea of what needs to be done in the long run, and usually manage to do all the little things that have to be done every day, I lack a list of mid-term tasks, general things I want done over the upcoming month, and which I can check from time to time, as it is just impossible to micromanage everything every turn.

I want to try using this AAR as some sort of scheduling tool, circling through a list of subjects which would constitute all my “midterm subjects”, one subject a day. I’d like to get to something like 20 subjects, so that we circle through everything in a couple of weeks.

Here is a first attempt at a list of subjects. I am trying to split the tasks by service (army, air force, navy, and logistics), by mission, and to differentiate between front line, depots and the rear. And so I came up with this list of 21 tasks.

LCU : reinforcements, movement to rear area depots
LCU : garrison planning (who goes where)
LCU : movement from depots to front line, unit rotations
LCU : engineers, and base building (forts, ports)
LCU : air support units, and airfield construction

Naval : ship upgrades, conversions and repairs
Naval : submarine patrols
Naval : tenders, rearming, forward bases
Naval : ASW
Naval : surface group rebasing/ patrols/ pickets

Air: production, R&D
Air: squadron upgrade and rebasing
Air: ASW
Air: patrol, naval search and reconnaissance
Air: base defense, CAP and flak
Air: Pilot training
Air: transport

Logistics : fuel/supply to forward hubs
Logistics : fuel/supply to front line units
Logistics : resource convoys
Logistics : fuel/oil convoys


I’m very interested in opinions and suggestions. Should I add some more general subjects, like leaders, or morale, or fatigue? Have I missed something obvious, or something you think really should be done?

Many thanks in advance…

Hardly botched your way, you are playing quite well as usual.

December 16th 1942

After the attack yesterday, I wanted to rest my fighter squadrons today. This proved to be a good idea. No enemy shipping was detected, which suggests they are still in Port Blair, and we can try to sink more tomorrow. Once squadron was left to sweep Port Blair, and this was a bad idea, as 12 Oscars IIb were shot down, for three Martletts and one sea Hurricane. In Burma, P40-K reappeared over Chitagong. We traded four for three Tojos.

Most of my units are rested now, and the battle for Port Blair will resume tomorrow. I believe my opponent will be in worse shape than me, as his fighters are service rating two, and mine are one. This, by the way, suggests a tactics for fighting enemy CAP. Sweep over long periods of time, resting one day as fatigue mounts. If service ratings correlate with fatigue and disablements, Japanese fighters should have an edge.


Here’s my first attempt at circling through a number of important topics. Not everything is related to the current game situation (this is the point of the approach, in fact), but I hope it will help me play in a more serious fashion.

Things to do: air transport

I have 13 chutai and three sentai of transports, for a total of 198 planes. All but three are unrestricted (or were bought). The last three will probably be at some point. Only one chutai is composed of float planes, the rest is regular planes, which need an airfield to land. This makes level one airfields important elements in one’s strategy. You can’t really fight from such an air strip, but you can use if to transport troops and supplies, or evacuate.

Patrol float planes (Emilies and Mavises) can transport troops too. I have about 150 of these, most of them currently being used to evacuate the Solomons. As those represent most of my float plane transports, I believe I will use them a lot for transport to front line bases.

Supplies can be transported from base to base, or dropped over friendly units. Most of my bombers can do this. So far, I never could move lots of supplies this way. The best it could do was to prevent one very small unit from starving. This needs to be tested.

As for troop transport, every squad and any device with a load cost of nine or less can be transported. This means all the mortars and infantry guns, and small caliber flak and AT guns. Some units can be air transported, others can almost be, a fast transport (Ansyu PB, which carry 1000 tons) being needed to take care of the few large items. At worst, the large devices can be disbanded, and will reappear later (at a cost in supply, naturally).

In practice, most infantry units can be air transported (save the SNLF battalions and some divisions that have tanks, or 88 or 150 guns). Light flak units (machine cannons and the like), HQ, engineers without vehicles, can be too. Air support can be air transported, save their radars or sound detectors. As a rule, base forces, artillery units, and armored units can’t be air transported.

I am planning to use air transport intensively. Right now, my patrol planes are evacuating Guadalcanal, redeploying the infantry north of the island chain in the Gilberts and in New Guinea. Once they are done, they will join my Mavis transport now busy sending construction companies to forward bases in the Timor sea, and then in Flores.

The rest of my (wheeled) transport squadrons are busy ferrying air support and small units. To reduce the dependence on float transports, I am beginning to build landing strips in many forward bases. In fact, every base I intend to defend must have a landing strip so that I can send reinforcements and supplies in, or evacuate part of my forces.

Of course, air transport is not magic, you need a while to move a big unit around, and so you can only reinforce or evacuate a base if the enemy advances slowly. But my current opponent seems to belong to the methodical variety.

I have not yet experimented with supply transports, but I will and try to define a policy in three weeks, when I’ll be back on the subject.

ORIGINAL: fcharton

I have 13 chutai and three sentai of transports, for a total of 198 planes. All but three are unrestricted (or were bought). The last three will probably be at some point. Only one chutai is composed of float planes, the rest is regular planes, which need an airfield to land. This makes level one airfields important elements in one’s strategy. You can’t really fight from such an air strip, but you can use if to transport troops and supplies, or evacuate.

Patrol float planes (Emilies and Mavises) can transport troops too. I have about 150 of these, most of them currently being used to evacuate the Solomons. As those represent most of my float plane transports, I believe I will use them a lot for transport to front line bases.

That's about average number of transports, but you have a lot of patrol planes. Or at least more than i build in a standard game. [;)]

December 17th 1942

Most of the action, today, was over Burma. At night, Liberators bombed Rangoon, with little success. Four planes were destroyed on the ground, and three Liberators we lost on their way back. I am happy with this kind of trade.

In the morning, we swept Port Blair with squadrons rested yesterday. Fatigue was probably mounting among the defenders, so we shot down nine Hurricanes, four Sea Hurricanes and two Martlets, for twelve zeroes and six Oscars. I am pretty sure we are done with the CAP over Port Blair, bombers will be back tomorrow.

Finally, we swept Ledo from Paoshan, and found a couple of P-40K there. Four were shot down.

In the afternoon, my opponent tried to bomb Akyab. I had only seven Tojos against 13 Warhawks and as many B25-C, but five Mitchells were shot down for no loss on our side. Those fighter pilots must have been very junior, or fatigued.

Plane losses today were 27 allies for 29 mine. I’m comfortable with this.


Kalemyo was attacked again. It takes a long time to get supplies back after each round, so I can’t attack more than once a week, and this gives my opponent some time to rebuild his forts. The silver lining is that this also provides time to repair my disablements.

Here’s the result for today. I was happy with the morale (-) indication, which suggests we’re progressing.

Ground combat at Kalemyo (59,42)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 57736 troops, 513 guns, 84 vehicles, Assault Value = 1809
Defending force 19019 troops, 282 guns, 627 vehicles, Assault Value = 550
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 2)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 2

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), preparation(-), morale(-)
experience(-)
Attacker:
Japanese ground losses:
2027 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 108 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 15 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 21 disabled
Allied ground losses:
212 casualties reported
Squads: 8 destroyed, 17 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 10 disabled
Vehicles lost 29 (5 destroyed, 24 disabled)


Things to do : Garrison planning

Of the 638 bases (including dots) Japan now holds, only 345 have garrisons, and 278 have engineers. I really need to garrison more bases, and to begin moving large units bought in China to their final positions.

There is no way I can provide all my front line bases with decent garrisons. But since my opponent has been quite prudent so far, I can probably go a long way with mock garrisons everywhere. The plan, right now, is to try to garrison everything, even with fragments, so as to avoid any autocapture, or free lunch. I don’t know whether this is doable, but I sure will try.

In term of units, troops from China have been relieving Southern Army units in Malaysia, and Burma, and I will soon begin moving those to the DEI. I am receiving a few militia regiments soon, which can probably play a role.

I probably should set up a large excel file, with a list of all units, and their destinations. This looks a bit like a huge endeavor.

Things to do: a note on troop transport speed

So far, troop transport seems to follow a relatively simple rule. All planes (large or small, float or not) transpot one squad or device per day on long distance, and 1.5 on very short ones (5-6 hexes for Emilies, 3-4 for the others). The number of squads transported (or the time needed to move a unit) therefore depends on the number of planes flying, which again depends on fatigue, and the percentage of the squadron resting, or training.

This puts a limit on what air transport can achieve. By concentrating my squadrons, I can probably move a lot of troops relatively fast. But on average, troop transport is a slow process.

With the holiday season ending, I am badly overworked, and the turn rate went down. Unfortunately, my current day (and evening, and night, right now) job does not mix well with AE. I am mostly programming user interface and utilities (file saves, shared parameters, that kind of things), all tasks which require a lot of attention to detail. So, in the evening, AE just looks like work. Anyway, the game is now at December 24th, the Allied offensive seems to be beginning at last, and I have a lot to report, so there is some catching up to be done.

December 18th

More action around Port Blair today. As suspected, enemy fighters had left, and the bombers had a free ride.

A first raid was soaked by the destroyers that escort the unloading cargoes. This usually results in no damage (enemy DD are probably too fast), but the second one went through

Morning Air attack on TF, near Port Blair at 46,58
Weather in hex: Light rain
Raid detected at 33 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 11 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 13
G4M1 Betty x 25
Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 3 damaged
Allied Ships
xAK Talthibius
xAK Pellicula, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Birchbank
xAK Subadar, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage
Massive explosion on xAK Pellicula

And then in the afternoon, xAK Pellicula was nowhere to be seen, and we finished Subadar

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Port Blair at 46,58
Weather in hex: Light cloud
Raid detected at 30 NM, estimated altitude 8,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 10 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 13
G4M1 Betty x 38
Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 5 damaged
Allied Ships
DD Electra
xAK Subadar, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Express
DD Nestor
xAK Talthibius
xAK Jalakrishna

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Port Blair at 46,58
Weather in hex: Light cloud
Raid detected at 29 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 10 minutes
Japanese aircraft
D3A1 Val x 10
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 9
No Japanese losses
Allied Ships
xAK Silverteak, Bomb hits 9, heavy fires, heavy damage

Only xAK Subadar was reported sunk, but a steady increase in VP over the last few days suggests several more cargoes went down unreported. Several task forces were detected on their way back to Ceylon. I am sending a surface group to try and finish some (CA Exeter would be a nice find…)

I will be bombing Port Blair again, but overall, I am happy with the action today. Quite a few cargoes were sunk, some in the beginning of the operation, which means lots of supplies sent to Port Blair (where my opponent has 16 units) were probably lost. This means Port Blair will have to be resupplied again soon, and we can sink more cargoes.

December 19th 1942

Little action today, most of my bombers were too tired to fly, we sank another cargo near Port Blair, but that was all. Sweeps over Ledo shot down a couple of Warhawks.

In the East Indies, one long range raid by 24 B-24D was all it took to destroy ALL the oilfields in Boela (from 25(0) to 0(25)). This doesn’t really hurt, since I took most of the DEI fields intact, but I am more than a bit puzzled about the efficiency of strategic bombing, and the concentration of resources and oilfields. Somehow, I would have thought that whereas industry and refineries were concentrated over small areas, and might be easy targets, resources and oilfields were more scattered, and therefore difficult to bomb, or destroy upon capture. Oh well, I’m a grognard, I like it rough… or I suppose…

December 20th 1942

A few days ago, as the battle around Port Blair, I sent a surface group to try and intercept cripples, or cargoes on their way back to Ceylon. Today we caught two cargoes.

Night Time Surface Combat, near Trincomalee at 36,51, Range 12,000 Yards
Japanese Ships
CA Tone
DD Hakaze
DD Shiokaze
DD Yakaze
DD Tachikaze

Allied Ships
xAK Tanfield, Shell hits 8, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Varsova, Shell hits 7, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk

In Port Blair, a few Sea Hurricanes on CAP were easily swept away, and Betties from Rangoon sank a couple more cargoes on their way back.

Morning Air attack on TF, near Port Blair at 46,53
Weather in hex: Overcast
Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 16
Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 4 damaged
Allied Ships
xAK Talthibius, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
xAK Jalakrishna, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk

This concludes the battle over Port Blair. I am counting ten British ships, two cruisers and eight cargoes, sunk during this resupply operation, plus a few more that probably failed to make it back home.

In the air, losses were 6 to 19, in our favor. My opponent is bombing my troops around Kalemyo, which does a good job in reducing supplies, but also causes quite a few losses to fighters on CAP. I am counting 40 B24-D lost. He will run out of them, eventually…


Carrier aircrafts were detected over Lunga, and a large task force was spotted near Rennell Island. Could this be the Allied offensive against Guadalcanal? If it is, we might be in for interesting times, as KB is near Ontong Java, on its way to Truk. Rufes were sent to patrol over Lunga, we’ll see tomorrow.

December 21st 1942

The carriers spotted near Guadalcanal were gone today. But there were P38 sweeping Lunga. Oh my poor Rufes! No other task forces were detected today. I am not sure what my opponent is doing, but I very much doubt an invasion is forthcoming. Sending the carriers first sound like a strange idea, and then the absence of bombardment task forces, or even subs, is strange.

December 22nd 1942

More of the same... sweeps over Lunga, but my Rufes are gone. Beaufighters attacked the port, and probably think they sank an ACM.

Afternoon Air attack on Lunga , at 114,138
Weather in hex: Thunderstorms
Allied aircraft
Beaufighter Ic x 13
Allied aircraft losses
Beaufighter Ic: 2 damaged
Beaufighter Ic: 1 destroyed by flak
Japanese Ships
ACM Choan Maru #2, Shell hits 8

In reality, the ACM has 2 sys damage…

I am now pretty sure no attack will come here. My opponent might have tried to attract KB with his carriers. I’m retiring to Truk.

December 23rd 1942

Taberfane it is! Today, several task forces were detected in Taberfane. Why they didn’t bombard or unload is beyond me. Waiting for the night in the harbor?

Tomorrow should be interesting, as I have a large surface group near Ambon, which should be able to disrupt the invasion tomorrow. I have sent Betties and Oscars to Ambon and Namlea (my closest air base), which might achieve something, too. Finally, a carrier division (Hiyo, Junyo and Zuiho) is near Koepang, and will sail towards Ambon. It should be able to intervene the day after tomorrow. KB is also on its way and will try to strike over the isthmus, near Nabire, and ships from Singapore and Surabaya on their way.

Taberfane has a mixed brigade, a RF gun unit, and a tank regiment, behind level two forts. It might prove a bit tougher than the previous bases my opponent took, but most importantly I think I am well positioned to damage his amphibious groups. Unless he has carriers in the area (I doubt it, since I saw some of his carriers new Lunga two days ago), his air support must come from Darwin, and that’s a pretty long range.

ORIGINAL: fcharton

I suspect fuel is relatively easy to draw, rebase enough ships in Fusan, and this should probably do the trick. I'm more curious about oil, which seems to flow in very weird ways. Right now, I have difficulty getting it anywhere BUT Singapore (it doesn't even stay in Port Arthur). Maybe it is just a matter of having enough Oil CS...

I've got Fusan drawing fuel on a regular basis and Port Arthur seems to draw as well consistently having between 75-150k on hand most days. Oil is another matter at Fusan and doesn't really stockpile well for me, but I'm only drawing small amounts. Fusan will completely dry up on me in terms of resources though. I can export a lot for a week or two, then it seems to stop and the stockpile reads as the daily 400 for a week or more until another large influx arrives again. I thought this would stop with my recent gains in China, but it hasn't. I do not draw resources from Singapore on a regular basis so I don't think that is affecting anything.

I export fuel/oil from Singapore big time, but I also notice that Saigon is drawing fuel from Burma I believe. Since game start it has increased from a stockpile of 300k to over 400k now. I've started to try loading load oil at Saigon and have enough after a few days to fill up two 7950 or 8150 capacity tankers. This tells me it's either drawing oil from Singapore or Rangoon. I know it's not that far from Singapore in terms of shipping, but oil is moving east along the land route when loading at Saigon, it just won't stockpile in any appreciable amount. I'm going to start trying to load oil from further along the land route, maybe even as far as Hong Kong to see what happens.

Hi Joseph,

For me, Fusan works very well for resources. It seems to be drawing very large quantities (over 200 000 tons, on average), every nine or ten days, and I am sending about 25 000 per day to Japan, so it is basically stable.

Fuel level used to be low, until I began basing many fuel convoys there. Stocks now vary between 10 and 100k. The number of ships you use seem to matter more than their capacity. So you might as well use all the small tankers.

Oil is weird. It looks like I'm drawing 20 000 tons every other day, and sending them back to Port Arthur the next day. I am still exporting enough to keep Japan stocks stable (fuel and resource stocks are up, oil is stable, around 2 million tons), but it doesn"t seem to flow the same way.

I suspect other convoys (from Port Arthur or Shanghai) are causing some those variations in oil flow. I want to try stopping all oil convoys except those from Fusan. I will test this once I get that Taberfane affair under control...

I have been exporting oil from Singapore too, but most of my oil is staying there (I have about a million tons in Singapore).

Francois

December 24th 1942, Taberfane, first wave

As expected, the Allies landed in Taberfane this morning. The initial bombardment was not very impressive.

Pre-Invasion action off Taberfane (82,117)
Defensive Guns engage approaching landing force
88 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Allied Ships
CL Concord
DD Mustin
AP Crescent City
DD Clark
Japanese ground losses:
Vehicles lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Allied ground losses:
38 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

And so the landing damage was high. My opponent is using an Australian division, probably reinforced with tanks. This might be a bit low to take the place, especially if they go one losing troops like this.

Amphibious Assault at Taberfane (82,117)
TF 86 troops unloading over beach at Taberfane, 82,117
Allied ground losses:
664 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 173 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 50 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 54 (1 destroyed, 53 disabled)
Vehicles lost 45 (0 destroyed, 45 disabled)
3" Mortar lost in surf during unload of 6th Australian Div /3
11 troops of a AIF Inf Section 42 lost from landing craft during unload of 6th Australian Div /8
11 troops of a AIF Inf Section 42 accidentally lost during unload of 6th Australian Div /9


Then, in the morning, my surface group showed up.

Day Time Surface Combat, near Taberfane at 82,117, Range 26,000 Yards
Allied aircraft
no flights
Allied aircraft losses
SOC-1 Seagull: 2 destroyed
Japanese Ships
CA Mogami, Shell hits 1
CA Mikuma
CA Kumano, Shell hits 9, on fire
CL Agano
CL Jintsu
DD Makigumo, Shell hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Samidare, Shell hits 1
DD Suzukaze
DD Satsuki
DD Hatakaze
DD Fuyo, Shell hits 1
DD Myojinami

Allied Ships
CA Portland, Shell hits 12, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
CA Louisville, Shell hits 9, on fire
DD Lang, Shell hits 3
DD Stack, Shell hits 1
DD Sterett, Shell hits 1
DD Dunlap, Shell hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage

Portland is gone, and Louisville is probably in bad shape. On our side, Makigumo had to be scuttled, and Kumano is good for the yards. A good trade, I think.

As I suspected, the Allied carriers are not around, and my opponent is fighting with Naval 4E (we have no home rule against it…) for little effect. My CAP was composed of Oscars from Ambon, fighting at long range, and therefore not very efficient.

Morning Air attack on TF, near Taberfane at 82,117
Weather in hex: Light rain
Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 6
Allied aircraft
B-24D Liberator x 10
P-38G Lightning x 11
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IIb Oscar: 2 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
B-24D Liberator: 2 damaged
Japanese Ships
CA Mogami
CL Agano
DD Satsuki

My Betties flew many sorties, but only scored a few hits, here against a bombardment force.

Morning Air attack on TF, near Taberfane at 81,120
Weather in hex: Heavy cloud
Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 9
Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 3 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed by flak
Allied Ships
BB Idaho
CL Honolulu
CA Minneapolis, Bomb hits 1

And then, much to my surprise, my carriers attacked at 8 hexes, Kates with bombs.

Morning Air attack on TF, near Taberfane at 82,117
Weather in hex: Light rain
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 7
A6M3a Zero x 18
B5N2 Kate x 14
Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 2
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
P-38G Lightning: 1 destroyed
Allied Ships
DD Sterett, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Mustin, Bomb hits 1
CL Concord, Bomb hits 1, on fire

None of those ships will sink, but every damage counts, and all those raids pretty much eliminated all opposition by P-38.


In the afternoon, more Betties raiding only resulted in more Betties lost, but the same was true for enemy B24D. And then, the remaining cruisers and destroyers found the enemy transports

Day Time Surface Combat, near Taberfane at 82,117, Range 26,000 Yards
Japanese Ships
CA Mogami
CA Mikuma
CL Jintsu
DD Samidare
DD Suzukaze
DD Satsuki
DD Hatakaze
DD Fuyo
Allied Ships
CL Concord, Shell hits 3
DD Hammann, Shell hits 1
DD Mustin, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Clark
AP Wharton
AP Harris, Shell hits 1, on fire
AP J. Franklin Bell
AP W.A. Holbrook, Shell hits 2, on fire
AP Heywood, Shell hits 2
AP George F. Elliot, Shell hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
AP President Jackson, Shell hits 1
AP President Adams, Shell hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
AP President Hayes, Shell hits 4, heavy fires
AP President Polk
AP Crescent City, Shell hits 1
AK Libra, Shell hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
AK Titania
AK Electra, Shell hits 3, on fire
xAP Red Jacket, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
xAP Harpoon
Allied ground losses:
69 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 21 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 5 (1 destroyed, 4 disabled)

I am quite happy with this first day. One enemy cruiser (Portland) and one destroyer are reported sunk, and several transports and cargoes are probably done with. In exchange, I had to scuttle one destroyer. My surface group is low on ammo, and will retire, and KB is a few days away.

Air losses were 40 japanese to 30 allies, but I suspect his defenses will be low tomorrow, as all his planes have high service ratings.

In his return email, my opponent was a bit puzzled by the lack of surprise. He seems to believe I saw his troops sailing through Horn Island. I am not denying this, since it might encourage him to move the long way around Australia, the next time. But in fact, I was expecting something in this area, and had prepositioned cruisers and carriers after I saw him sending fuel to Darwin (you don’t do this to support defensive forces), and aggressively patrolling this area. I only regret that I sent my carriers around Koepang a week ago. Positioned as they were, just behind Ambon, they would have been in position to intervene yesterday, and it would have been a very bad day for the good guys.


So, what now? I have no surface forces to engage tomorrow. Cruisers and destroyers from Singapore and Surabaya are on their way. KB should arrive in two or three days. As a result, my only force is the carrier division which is now north of Taberfane. It has a light cover, and therefore is vulnerable to a raid by enemy surface forces, but so far, my opponent never tried to engage carriers with surface groups. I am taking the risk, and moving closer… I might live to regret it, but if we can launch a few raids tomorrow, I believe we can make this invasion very costly (and then have the KB mop up whatever is left).

I don’t think I can prevent the Allies from taking Taberfane, but once it falls, it will be very vulnerable, like Port Blair is now, and further advance will be difficult. Also, the heavy ship losses (after those in Ndeni, and in Terapo) might help my opponent keep his prudent stance. Delay is the word.

On a different level, I am somehow relieved to see the Allies move at last. I have noticed that long lulls make me complacent. I tend to play my turns to fast, without attention to all the details. Some pressure, and risk, should help a lot. Besides, I want to learn defending as Japan, and you need the Allies to cooperate, and take the offensive, to do so.


In Burma, another attack on Kalemyo achieved very little. Three divisions are now closing on Imphal. A bombardment of Cox Bazaar revealed that the base was abandoned. Only four units are left, and the base should fall tomorrow. I am cancelling the bombardment mission that was supposed to soften the base, but am keeping those ships around : yesterday, my search Betties detected the Hermes, 15 hexes from Rangoon (just out of Zero escort range). If my opponent tries to be smart, he might be in for a surprise…

That is a very good day for the IJN! Well played!

I would agree, move in while you have an opportunity. He may send something at you but it looks like you've damaged or crippled most of his surface forces, so he may just be thinking of getting everything out of harms way tomorrow.

If any of your DDs from the previous day have god ammo left you might send 1-3 ship TFs right at him to both allay any surface forces heading toward you and to sneak in and get to whatever remaining ships/cripples hang around.