Castles in the Sand - Spidery(J) vs MrKane(A) no MrKane please

[Spidery]

November 12th 1942

Air Losses: 3 Japanese, 1 Allied, 2 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

The weather is bad. There are no air strikes or sweeps anywhere.

Pacific

Quiet

Burma

Quiet

China

Quiet

Australia

Quiet, runways are repaired at Darwin.

2 Days before the resupply reaches Darwin, all assets are moving to their jump off points.

Engineering

Carnarvon airfield to 2.

R&D

Ki-43-IV to 6/44.

[Spidery]

November 13th 1942

Air Losses: 2 Japanese, 4 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Pacific

Quiet

Burma

Quiet

China

Routine. Resurrected Chinese are pushing the defense at Chungking higher:

Ground combat at Chungking (76,45)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 10545 troops, 760 guns, 629 vehicles, Assault Value = 3793

Defending force 182477 troops, 462 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2053

Allied ground losses:
2099 casualties reported
Squads: 74 destroyed, 19 disabled
Non Combat: 13 destroyed, 18 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 2 disabled
Guns lost 16 (15 destroyed, 1 disabled)

Australia

4E bombers hit Darwin port. Damage is now 57 port, 58 service and 0 runway.

Dauntless bombers extend their range and sink 7 xAK of the resupply convoy. Not a good start!

The operation to deliver supplies to Darwin and, maybe, do some damage to the Allied air force gets a go.

Next turn could be a damp squid, a disaster or very interesting. Just discovered that you can't set LRCAP from a CV to a hex that is not in normal range even if it will be once you move. So having to CAP task forces that I expect will be in the Darwin hex.

Engineering

Rabaul airfield to 9.

Allies expand Russell Islands airfield to 1.

R&D

Quiet

[MrBlizzard]

Hi, following from some time but never posting before.
I think the most promising vector for Allied advance is Burma.
I was wondering if it's still strategically valuable to siege Chungking with a huge army in late42 with an enemy offensive starting in Burma?
How strong is your defence line in Burma on the Indian border? Have you got any reserves there?
Chungking is sterilized and doomed will probably fall in some months but if you risk to loose Burma in the same time is it still valuable your prize?
In Burma the Allies can mount offensive only till the start of moonson.
I'd try resist in Burma and move a part of the sieging units towards Burma paoshan and Lashio to secure that area and try to take Chungking later. In my opinion it's still too early to risk loosing Burma and leave Allies put a step into China and menace oilfields.
Nice AAR

[Spidery]

November 14th 1942

Air Losses: 39 Japanese, 83 Allied, 9 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Pacific

Quiet

Burma

Quiet

China

Routine.

Australia

Things went somewhat badly.

A lot of the supply task forces didn't reach Darwin but were strung out across the sea. The Allied 4E dropped down to 1000 feet and launched naval attacks in the afternoon. The zeroes on CAP had little effect (I should have had more set low), but flak was pretty good. 16 B-17F, 9 B-17E, 11 B-24D shot down plus 14 P-39D, 15 SBD-3, 9 SBD-2, 5 Hudson III and a P-38F for the loss of 19 A6M5 and 10 A6M2 plus a few army planes.

The 4E scored 1 hit on each of the Shoho, Kaga and Yamato but 2 hits on the Ryuho. Edit: correction, just one hit on the Ryuho and it was only "on fire" after the attack, Japanese damage control has allowed the fires to spread.

Ryuho is at 50/23/35/91 and will succumb to fires. Kaga and Shoho took light damage and the Yamato shrugged off the hit.

1 xAK sunk on the day and another xAK and an APD took dangerous levels of damage. All the resupply should be under the Darwin umbrella next turn so the carriers will withdraw.

CAs bombarded at night for only a few disabled squads and confirmed the presence of 24th Infantry Division, and 2nd and 5th Australian Divisions.

Engineering

Lanchow airfield to 8.

R&D

Quiet

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: MrBlizzard

Hi, following from some time but never posting before.
I think the most promising vector for Allied advance is Burma.
I was wondering if it's still strategically valuable to siege Chungking with a huge army in late42 with an enemy offensive starting in Burma?
How strong is your defence line in Burma on the Indian border? Have you got any reserves there?
Chungking is sterilized and doomed will probably fall in some months but if you risk to loose Burma in the same time is it still valuable your prize?
In Burma the Allies can mount offensive only till the start of moonson.
I'd try resist in Burma and move a part of the sieging units towards Burma paoshan and Lashio to secure that area and try to take Chungking later. In my opinion it's still too early to risk loosing Burma and leave Allies put a step into China and menace oilfields.
Nice AAR

Thank-you for your suggestions.

With stacking limits, there is a limit to how much can attack along a single road. I have freed up the tank divisions and sent some artillery and an infantry division to help the push on Paoshan. I have also sent some brigades and another division the long way round to add to the Burma defense.

I don't have the experience to judge but I think it will hold in the jungle in Burma. There are 6 divisions and about 7 regiments or brigades plus various support troops in Burma at the moment.

I need to take Chungking to get the divisions free to defend the islands in 1943.

[Spidery]

November 15th 1942

Air Losses: 54 Japanese, 37 Allied, 21 Pilots[:(]
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Pacific

Quiet

Burma

Night strike against Calcutta meets significant CAP and flak and does no damage.

China

Routine.

Australia

Allies are content to sweep Darwin. 34 P-39D and 3 lightnings shot down for 17 A6M5, 16 A6M2, 12 Ki-44-IIa, 5 Ki-43-IIb.

Night strike by Helens against Fenton does little damage.

Darwin facilities are repaired and there is now 27000 supply present. Another 50000 or so still on ships to unload.

Hiei, Kirishima, Yamato do night bombardments for some effect and the CA and CL forces end up bombarding during the day.

Engineering

Kienko to 4. Allies expand Tarawa port to 4.

R&D

B6N1 Jill to 1/43 (will be ready at start of 12/42)

[Spidery]

November 16th 1942

Air Losses: 5 Japanese, 3 Allied, 2 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Pacific

Quiet

Burma

Allies send Liberator II to attack Rangoon at night. Oscar 1c on Night CAP fall out of the sky, 5 and 2 pilots are lost for no hits[:(]. Minor fires started.

Mitchells hit Magwe at night, Nicks seem to have very short intercept times, no hits, no losses and no damage.

Wellingtons hit Lashio at night, unopposed but score no hits

China

Routine.

Australia

Hiei and Kirishima day bombard but for only disabled squads. No Allied attacks. 3 Allied search planes shot down over Darwin.

Liberators hit Boela oil wells hard, only 2 are left[:(]. I expect they will hit Babo soon.

58000 supply now offloaded at Darwin.

Other News

A PB scores a hit on a sub near Toyohara. An xAK hits a mine at Toyohara, condition critical. There is an AMc at Toyohara that will start clearing the mines. A sub is detected in the Sapporo hex (presumably) dropping mines. I don't use Sapporo port so will ignore this[:D]. Looks like he may be running multiple mine laying attempts so will check all mine sweepers are in place.

A Dutch unit has been discovered in the swamps of Borneo![:D]

SigInt has twice reported on a unit in the mountains of Canada.

Engineering

Quiet

R&D

A6M5c to 1/44
D4Y4 to 5/44

[Spidery]

Estimated R&D Dates

Night Fighters

A6M5d-S 12/43
P1Y2-S 8/44
S1A1 7/45

Ki-45 KAId 1/44
Ki-46-III KAI 3/44
Ki-102c 1/45

Fighters

N1K1-J 2/43
N1K2-J 12/43
J7W1 12/44
A6M5b 5/43
A6M5c 5/43
A7M2 7/44

Ki-43-IIIa 6/43
Ki-43-IV 6/43
Ki-84a 6/43
Ki-84r 12/43
Ki-83 10/44
Ki-94-II 11/44

Bombers

B6N2 12/42
B6N2a 3/44
D4Y4 4/43
B7A2 12/43
P1Y1 4/43
P1Y2 4/44
Toka 3/45

Ki-74-I 8/44
Ki-115b 11/44

[obvert]

The Frank 'r' in late 43 is just devastating to the Allies. The Sam in mid-44 is also a huge step. If you get them when you think you will and have held decently well, gotten a lot of fuel and oil stored up, not expended too much supply or fuel in far flung efforts, you will be in great shape for the endgame.

Really think about conservation of supply in terms of forts, airframe replenishment, troop buybacks and such things.

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: obvert

The Frank 'r' in late 43 is just devastating to the Allies. The Sam in mid-44 is also a huge step. If you get them when you think you will and have held decently well, gotten a lot of fuel and oil stored up, not expended too much supply or fuel in far flung efforts, you will be in great shape for the endgame.

Really think about conservation of supply in terms of forts, airframe replenishment, troop buybacks and such things.

I have hopes for them. I have been planning for the long game but am not sure how well I will do holding through 1943 to reach there.

When I started the game I was thinking of fuel saved as of value as HI. I now realise that fuel is also supply. So moving the KB for a day might expend 1800 fuel, that represents 1800 supply generation gone. 4 days of that is equivalent to the cost of expanding a size 7 airbase to size 8.

It is quite difficult to judge what is cost effective use of supply, given my lack of experience at judging the outcome of operations. For example, is it worth having level 6 rather than 5 forts at Darwin. Will the cost of building them to 6 be saved by reduced losses and supply hits?

[mind_messing]

For example, is it worth having level 6 rather than 5 forts at Darwin. Will the cost of building them to 6 be saved by reduced losses and supply hits?

If Darwin was any terrain other than "open". Size 6 forts, even with a x2 terrian modifier, are very difficult to deal with. I have doubts over size 6 forts being a worthwhile investment: even with the forts bonus, the Allied bombing force will slaughter your troops in the open terrain.

Terrain is something that the Japanese need to watch far more than the Allies. I'm making a point of doing my best to construct my major bases in at least x2 terrain.

[Spidery]

November 17th 1942

Air Losses: 62 Japanese, 18 Allied, 20 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

MrKane mixes it up in the air launching new strikes.

Allied losses include 12 4E bombers and 1 P-38G so the loss ratio is not as bad as it could be.

Pacific

I-158 attacks SS Tautog with 2 torpedoes and scores 1 hit for heavy damage. 200 nautical miles North of Johnston Island so will probably escape to safety. I-158 attacks again, 80 nautical miles to the East, but misses.

I-8 takes a shot at a large transport task force South of Pearl but misses.

Burma

Liberators, Wellingtons and Mitchells hit Magwe at night. The Nates and Oscar IIbs on CAP are ineffective and he manages to destroy 28 oil productiom.

China

P-38G appear on LRCAP over Chungking and shoot down many bombers.
Liberators bomb some of the besieging forces.

Australia

4E bombers hit Darwin at night. The A6M5 on CAP interfere with the main attack and some follow ons but the last few get through without any CAP and manage to destroy 24 planes on the ground[:(].

68000 supply is at Darwin and only 5 ships have not completed unloading so I am going to call an end to this operation.

Helens bomb the Allied forces but flak is bad and they do little damage.

Engineering

Allies expand Russell Islands to 2, slowly advancing in the Solomons.

R&D

Quiet

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

For example, is it worth having level 6 rather than 5 forts at Darwin. Will the cost of building them to 6 be saved by reduced losses and supply hits?

If Darwin was any terrain other than "open". Size 6 forts, even with a x2 terrian modifier, are very difficult to deal with. I have doubts over size 6 forts being a worthwhile investment: even with the forts bonus, the Allied bombing force will slaughter your troops in the open terrain.

Terrain is something that the Japanese need to watch far more than the Allies. I'm making a point of doing my best to construct my major bases in at least x2 terrain.

Wouldn't be able to build it to level 6 in the face of Allied bombardment so it was more an example of how difficult it is to judge the value of supply expenditure.

On the bright side, I think he only has about 400-500 4E available and gets about 70 a month so if I can kill 10 a day he will run out in 2 months

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Spidery
4E bombers hit Darwin at night. The A6M5 on CAP interfere with the main attack and some follow ons but the last few get through without any CAP and manage to destroy 24 planes on the ground[:(].

What do you think of the use of night bombing in 42 by the Allies?

How many factories do you have on the Ki-102c? By far and away the best Army night fighter....getting it in Jan 45 could really shut down Allied night bombing depending on your production of them. Go big, imho.

It is interesting to see that you don't have any J1N1-S researched. It is available the earliest, and seems to me to be worthy of accelerating just to get something that is a night fighter up in the air as quickly as possible.

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Spidery
4E bombers hit Darwin at night. The A6M5 on CAP interfere with the main attack and some follow ons but the last few get through without any CAP and manage to destroy 24 planes on the ground[:(].

What do you think of the use of night bombing in 42 by the Allies?

It is part of the game and it doesn't seem over powered so far. If he gets particularly good results, I just think of that as an attack at first light.

I'm a bit surprised my Nicks at Magwe can't hit his B-25C Mitchells.

With my carriers in for some repair, I plan on spreading the fighter groups around to give more protection of important targets. I may also move some of the training groups of Nates down to protect some of the bases at his extreme range (Hong Kong, Canton, etc.)

How many factories do you have on the Ki-102c? By far and away the best Army night fighter....getting it in Jan 45 could really shut down Allied night bombing depending on your production of them. Go big, imho.

1 at the moment but two B6N2 factories will switch over next month and I have one D4Y4 factory planned to switch. My hope is to keep the Allies from night bombing of the Home Isles before then.

It is interesting to see that you don't have any J1N1-S researched. It is available the earliest, and seems to me to be worthy of accelerating just to get something that is a night fighter up in the air as quickly as possible.

I think this was a mistake; I have made quite a few small mistakes on the R&D side. My thinking was to make sure I had a good night fighter defense in place over Palembang etc. when the B-29 is available and I was hoping that day fighters could cover over bases before then. On paper, the A6M5d-S looks better against the B-29 than the J1N1-S. Likewise, the P1Y2-S looks much better than the J1N1-Sa.

[Lowpe]

I agree that the P1Y2-S is the navy plane to shoot for. You can get it pretty early, and should perform really well. It did for Obvert even though he had only one squadron of them -- I think it was his most effective night fighter deployed.

I am not so sure about the 1946 night fighters. Yes they are good, but are they that much incrementally better than the P1Y2-S which comes so much earlier? I think the answer for the Army at least is that the Randy is. But the Navy? Not so sure.

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

I agree that the P1Y2-S is the navy plane to shoot for. You can get it pretty early, and should perform really well. It did for Obvert even though he had only one squadron of them -- I think it was his most effective night fighter deployed.

I am not so sure about the 1946 night fighters. Yes they are good, but are they that much incrementally better than the P1Y2-S which comes so much earlier? I think the answer for the Army at least is that the Randy is. But the Navy? Not so sure.

On paper, the S1A1 doesn't match well against the P1Y2-S (unarmoured, SR 4, lots of guns but not in the best place for night combat). However, the FD-2 was an air intercept radar rather than the H-6 being a raid detection radar. But is that modeled in the game? The raw stats for the FD-2 look worse than the H-6.

Also, it looks like the FD-2 isn't available until 10/45 so the Ki-102c won't be flying with radar anyway for all the critical periods and the S1A1 isn't worth advancing more than a few months.

[Lowpe]

Oh my, I never bothered to look at the radar for the 102c! I just assumed it would roll in sometime early in 45.

10.45 -- my goodness that is late. Especially for a scen 1 situation.

Hmm, lots to think about there. Thanks.

[Spidery]

November 18th 1942

Air Losses: 18 Japanese, 2 Allied, 2 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Pacific

Allies bombard Shortlands, minor damage.

Burma

Quiet

China

An infantry regiment heading West decides instead to head NW and shock attacks over a river in move mode against a Chinese corps. It is not well.

I decide not to bomb Chungking. Airfield damage remains reported as 100, is it possible he has no engineers left?

Australia

Lightnings sweep Darwin and shoot many zeroes down. Many AF units, a recon unit and a nav guard unit have been evacuated. Will take the rest of the ships and all aircraft out of Darwin. Darwin now has 70,000 supply and I hope that will last 3 months.

Liberators destroy all the oil wells at Babo.

Engineering

Quiet

R&D

Quiet

[FeurerKrieg]

Liberators destroy all the oil wells at Babo.

Do you know where they are flying from?