RHS II scen 129 GP and me

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the waters of the home islands and the search patterns that I'm using right now. There's three subs lurking
and I'm after them with spotter planes and ASW TF's and whether I can sink him or make him go aeay, either is okay
with me.

[larryfulkerson]

I've got a lot of subs parked in "ambush spots" like in the hex with the base. Just in case some Allied TF comes
nosing around. I damaged an AM doing this. Maybe it'll pay off later in the game when the traffic is heavier.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the pattern I'm using around the Pearl area. Traffic coming from SFO and traffic headed SW will pass
near these groups and I'm hoping to get a lot of hit from traffic coming and going. The area closer to Pearl is
too hot to patrol there. Lots of spotter planes and ASW patrols and what not.

EDIT: Each yellow circled spot is a single Jap sub.

[larryfulkerson]

I've got three subs plying the waters off the coast of SFO and I've placed them in the probable path of ships
going to Pearl, which I'm guessing is most of the traffic leaving the coast. I should move one of them down
to LAX to monitor traffic out of there and San Diego. I'm not getting a lot of hits so far. Maybe it's too
early yet, or I've picked the wrong spots for interdiction.

[larryfulkerson]

I loitered too long in the same spot and a sub got a lucky hit on one of my
CVE's. This happened at an inconvient time. I was going to use him to stroll
along the northern coast of Java and see what pops out. Now I've got at least
one CVE that needs some tender loving care and a new coat of paint. This is
one of the first attacks in the combat replay. I'm watching it still because
I just got some new moves from Brian and I wanted to get the news out soonest.

[larryfulkerson]

My carrier flyboys thought they would launch a strike on the airfield at Port Moresby and ran into an ambush and
got mauled. Some of the better P-40 pilots I would say. I'll have to do a naval bombardment of the base to get
even.

[larryfulkerson]

That CVE that got hit by a torpedo....I flew the planes off to Balikpapan as I recall and the entire TF is headed
back to Karor for refueling and refit. I've got to start using better escorts.

[larryfulkerson]

I've circled the hot spots in yellow, those places where a fight is taking place or recently took place. I don't
have a master plan, I'm just trying to grab those places that have lots of RES or oil or fuel. So far so good.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the economic trend in the home islands. All the categories are slightly down except for supplies. The war
can go on is what this says. I've got RES and supply for another 50 days or so. So we're still a go for liftoff.

EDIT: I had another look at the regional areas and the oil is good for 220 days but the RES is good for only 24
days. I'm going to have to redouble my moving of RES to the home islands. Pretty quickly now.

[Yaab]

edit

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Yaab
edit

You can say that again. Thanks for the post.

[Yaab]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

My carrier flyboys thought they would launch a strike on the airfield at Port Moresby and ran into an ambush and
got mauled. Some of the better P-40 pilots I would say. I'll have to do a naval bombardment of the base to get
even.

Poor Wirraways. In RHS they are fighter-bombers - in either role they are toast.

[larryfulkerson]

Poor Wirraways. In RHS they are fighter-bombers - in either role they are toast.

Yeah, I started to say, in the inner ressesses of my mind I seem to remember that plane as a
light level bomber best suited for ASW or recon or supply transport or something like that.
I was surprised to see them in an air combat role being used as a fighter. They were cannon
fodder, bait for the better fighters to use to lure in the Japs.

[Yaab]

Though Wirraway is now FB, I bet those Wirraway pilots are trained in Gnd and Strafing skill, and your opponent didn't notice this. Easy points for you. Would be fun to see what pilots with high Air skill could achieve in Wirraways. Live another day, perhaps?

[ny59giants]

Port Moresby: Brian likes to hold that base!! I had waited until after the invasion bonus was over to land with troops fully prepped from the 14th Army (Luzon). It is now Apr 43 and he still holds it. [:(] He got 29 LCUs in there. He will sneak in troops and supplies by flying PBY/C-47s from Cairns. Land and develop Milne Bay and Horn island to cut off reinforcements by sea.

Where are all your Air HQs? They should be covering your advances. One in Malaya, Singkawang/Palembang, Denpasar, Koepang, Horn Island, Rabaul/Milne Bay. I would make these bases a priority to capture and develop enough to base Ms Betty and Ms Nell to keep the Allied Navy out. You can then back fill after this perimeter is done.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Yaab
Though Wirraway is now FB, I bet those Wirraway pilots are trained in Gnd and Strafing skill, and your opponent didn't notice this. Easy points for you. Would be fun to see what pilots with high Air skill could achieve in Wirraways. Live another day, perhaps?

I dare say that even the pilots with the higher skills are just putting
lipstick on a pig by flying the lower performing models. The rule of
thumb I've heard is putting your best pilots in the best planes wins
usually. That's what I try to do.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Port Moresby: Brian likes to hold that base!! I had waited until after the invasion bonus was over to land with troops fully prepped from the 14th Army (Luzon). It is now Apr 43 and he still holds it. [:(] He got 29 LCUs in there. He will sneak in troops and supplies by flying PBY/C-47s from Cairns. Land and develop Milne Bay and Horn island to cut off reinforcements by sea.

Can you not do naval bombardment with CV's providing top cover? Or is the
environment toxic to ships of any kind now? I expect him to build up the
area so it's got interlocking zones of support land and air. That's what
he usually does to me.

Edit: I read it again and then decifered your message to me. Thanks for the advice.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Where are all your Air HQs? They should be covering your advances. One in Malaya, Singkawang/Palembang, Denpasar, Koepang, Horn Island, Rabaul/Milne Bay. I would make these bases a priority to capture and develop enough to base Ms Betty and Ms Nell to keep the Allied Navy out. You can then back fill after this perimeter is done.

I've got one at Miri and one's on a boat to Singkawang for when we capture
that base. I'm working on it now. I need another HQ at Rabaul for the
bombers to get TT's from. I'm thinking of taking an HQ of some kind for
the invasion I'm going to do of Port Moresby just so if I get the base it'll
have support from day one.

[ny59giants]

Air HQ at Miri - how does that project power? Move it Balikpapan.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Air HQ at Miri - how does that project power? Move it Balikpapan.

I'm using it for the air support guys, the AF dudes. It's providing all the air support so far. I'll replace it with
some dedicated AF guys and move it to Balikpapan soonest.

[larryfulkerson]

Brian is back from his trip and he says they didn't take very many pictures
so it couldn't have been much of a trip. Anyway, I received some now moves
from Brian and there was a night naval contest at Port Moresby. I have
some carriers nearby and yesterday there was a huge furball over the base
and I thought I'd do a naval bombardment of the base and drove up into the
harbor and found some PT's there to oppose me.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the night naval bombardment results. I was hoping for a bit more but I'll take it. Actually, I was
hoping to find some Allied ships in the harbor and was mildly disappointed when there weren't any but killing
planes on the ground is almost as good.