PAW with Sarsfield as Allies, Larry as Japs

[larryfulkerson]

Here's an air unit in Java that has mixed types. It's got 20 Nates and has room for 50 of them but there's only 9 on hand so it's probably not going to get any more from the pools. It's got 10 type II Oscars but there's only 6 on hand and I don't start making more until T42 so it's probably not going to get any more of those for a long time. It's got 21 type I Oscars with room for 25 in the unit and there's 13 on hand and I'm making 12 per turn so this unit may get more type I Oscars. There's room for 25 Tojos but I don't start making those for a long time yet so overall I'm guessing that this unit will decline in strength over time and it might make more sense for this unit to be parked where it won't see much action. Like in China somewhere.

[larryfulkerson]

I've just found a bomber unit at Pieking that has room for only a single Sally. I'm wondering why include it in the unit at all if there's only 1. I'd like to know the scenario designer's reason for that.

[larryfulkerson]

The battle over the rails in southern China continues. Progress is slow because of the low supply situation.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm still trying to clear out all the partisans on Mindano and I'm making slow progress. I didn't have enough troops last turn so I shipped in another division this turn to help out. I may have the entire island cleared out in another 10 turns or so.

[thomasharvey]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

I've just found a bomber unit at Pieking that has room for only a single Sally. I'm wondering why include it in the unit at all if there's only 1. I'd like to know the scenario designer's reason for that.

That should have been deleted as no longer needed. It served the same purpose as the 1/1 replacement air equipment. This allows the air unit to be replaced when only a few types are available in the pool. Normally it requires 50 percent of the first unit listed in the unit to be available in the pool. This matters when new types are introduced and the first unit listed is obsolete and no longer in production.

[larryfulkerson]

Hey there Thomas. Thanks for the quick answer. Are you going to update this scenario anytime soon? To fix things like this I mean? Also, there's the issue of the range of the B-29....I think I found it too short at some point in the past.

[larryfulkerson]

I've rounded up most of the engineers in the inventory and they have been busy repairing the rail leading from Bangkok to Singapore and they are getting close. There's a particularly troublesome broken rail at Kuala Lumpur but there's only a handful of places left to fix on the westside coastal rail. I'm going to get busy on the rail in the middle as well. Hopefully with the rail fixed the folks in the south can develop enough supply to attack properly. I need to rail some more arty down there to give the attacks more juice.

[larryfulkerson]

My next target will be the island of Vana Levu since I have all the other islands around it and it's all that's left to grab this far west. I have plans for New Zealand.

[larryfulkerson]

Bataan finally fell. Now I have the PI to myself. The troops need a little rest and then they are off to Java and Sumatra.

[larryfulkerson]

It's March 8, 1942 and this is the state of supply for the Japs near Singapore. Still single digits. More work to be done on the rails yet. Some of the units on the west coastal road are green now and can be moved closer to Singapore. I'm trying to keep them all green as they move south. I'm thinking of beefing up the heavy guns ships to give more support to the ground troops. Several of my BB's are scheduled for softening up Vita Levu prior to any Jap amphibious assaults. I need Vita Levu to be able to project force further to the east. After I capture that I'm going to give some study to maybe moving into New Zealand.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the situation right now in the South Pacific. I need to capture Vanua Levu yet to have control of the center of the action. There's an Allied subchaser near Sydney but I'm too lazy to chase it. Besides Karl's LBA might be more than I bargined for. So far the only thing visible in New Zealand is some fighters near Auckland. I'm guessing that there's some land troops there too they just aren't visible. Plus any ships that may be parked there that I can't see. I'll have to send a DD group down there to do some recon and gauge the LBA protecting Auckland.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on near Ceylon right now. The Allies have some small ships parked near Colombo and up north near what would be Jaffna. You probably already know this but in 1972 Ceylon named itself the Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. But I'm going to use the war-time names. I've done an exaustive study of the LBA within range of any potential targets and I've decided that the number of bomber units Karl has flown in to protect those ships is more than my mini-KB TF can handle. I have three CVE's and CVL's but they are the small types and can't carry a lot. I'd need at least three fighter units to shield all my ships from Allied bomber attacks. I just now checked out my carriers and three of them are seriously damaged and need to be parked for a while so any strikes on Ceylon will have to be delayed at least a month, maybe two.

[larryfulkerson]

The CV Akagi has been operating in the South Pacific and took part in the campaign to capture Ellis Island but was intercepted by Allied aircraft from the small islands near Ellis Island and the strike damaged both parts of the carrier units. Badly. So the unit needs to be parked in the home islands for about a year or so. That's just a top-of-my-head guess and it may turn out to be longer than that, I have no clue. It depends on how fast it mends I figure. I'm thinking of sailing directly north to get out of range of any Allied LBA and then shed the planes off the carrier to Truk. No need to remove the aircraft units from the theater as well as the carrier. I notice that the Akagi unit is down to it's last DD escort. And according to the Inventory dialog I'm not making either of the two types needed. This CV unit is somewhat handicapped for the rest of the game. It'll need a suplimental DD unit to escort it from now on. At least one.

[larryfulkerson]

It turns out that CVL Zuiho is damaged rather badly as well. I started the trip from Guadalcanal to Yokohoma but made it only as far as Saipan as the northernmost port I can reach with this TF. I need to fly a fighter to Saipan to act as top cover to protect the ships. Not that Karl has anything that can attack Saipan at this stage of the war. Just good practice. Just in case.

[larryfulkerson]

I had no idea that the CV Zuikaku was so badly damaged. This bad boy might just sit out the rest of the war. I'm wondering if it will make it to the home islands. I'm going to try to park it at Yokohoma since there's more room there than at Tokyo.

[larryfulkerson]

I decided that Yokohoma was already too congested for more units so I parked it at Hiroshima instead. There's plenty of room there and I can move a fighter aircraft unit that is resting to that hex for top cover.

[larryfulkerson]

Good thing I decided to check all the carriers because I found another one with damage. CVE Hosho needs to clock some shipyard time. I'll have to run some DD's down there to escort it before I try to move it to the home islands.

[larryfulkerson]

So here's the story with my carriers. I have three good ones left and the rest are in shipyards. So I'll have to get the three good ones together to protect each other and hope for the best. Karl is going to get lots of new boats and troops and aircraft units and the war is going to heat up. A lot.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the situation on the mainland. Not much has changed since last turn. The battle at Singapore is ongoing. I'm in the process of moving the rested troops near Manila to Java and some spots in the Celebes. There are still partisans on Mandano that need suppression. Karl is moving troops from India to Thailand by rail. I expect him to use some engineers to jump the river and move into Burma. I'm going to build a wall around Singapore and I'm going to make the Chinese pay for it.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought I'd run some DD's down to Cook Island and see what's there and I discovered an Allied TF that has a CV in it. So I need to get my 3 good carriers together to see if I can't put an airstrike on it. My DD's got hit by an Allied airstrike getting into the position they are in right now and I lost several DD's to the Allied bombers. But at least I know where one of his carriers is now.