Brothers at arms

[flaggelant]

i received a "blow" against my landing force, which is moving on trincomale before pushing on to India itself,
with the US CV's being untraced i cant risk running the entire landing force into a CV force of equal size to my KB.

therefore taking trincomale will enable me to station (ground based)fighters on missions against the enemy whilst the cv's remain on cap
(i'm thinking about swapping some val's for more zero's on KB)

here's the result on the initial allied bombing raid against my landing force;

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 16,26

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 94

Allied aircraft
Buffalo I x 18
Blenheim I x 20
Blenheim IV x 28
Beaufort V-IX x 27
B-25C Mitchell x 17
IL-4c x 7

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 77 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Buffalo I: 17 destroyed
Blenheim I: 2 destroyed, 5 damaged
Blenheim IV: 7 destroyed, 7 damaged
Beaufort V-IX: 7 destroyed, 11 damaged
B-25C Mitchell: 4 damaged
IL-4c: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged

Japanese Ships
CV Kaga, Bomb hits 1
CV Akagi
BB Kongo, Bomb hits 1
DD Yamagumo

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x IL-4c bombing at 10000 feet
3 x Blenheim IV bombing at 8000 feet
3 x Blenheim I bombing at 8000 feet
2 x Beaufort V-IX bombing at 8000 feet
4 x Beaufort V-IX bombing at 8000 feet
3 x Blenheim I bombing at 8000 feet
2 x Beaufort V-IX bombing at 8000 feet
2 x Blenheim IV bombing at 8000 feet
2 x Blenheim IV bombing at 8000 feet
3 x Blenheim I bombing at 8000 feet
3 x Beaufort V-IX bombing at 8000 feet
3 x Blenheim I bombing at 8000 feet
2 x Beaufort V-IX bombing at 8000 feet
3 x Blenheim IV bombing at 8000 feet
3 x Blenheim IV bombing at 8000 feet
1 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 8000 feet
3 x IL-4c bombing at 10000 feet
2 x Blenheim IV bombing at 8000 feet
3 x Blenheim I bombing at 8000 feet
2 x Beaufort V-IX bombing at 8000 feet
1 x Beaufort V-IX bombing at 8000 feet
3 x Blenheim I bombing at 8000 feet
3 x Blenheim IV bombing at 8000 feet
3 x Blenheim IV bombing at 8000 feet
4 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 8000 feet
4 x Beaufort V-IX bombing at 8000 feet
4 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 8000 feet
4 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 8000 feet
4 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 8000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i have absolutely no clue why those 20 fighters & 100 bombers dented my cap like this, after checking all settings i could put some of my cap on a higher lvl, but i wouldnt risk a large group passing the cap on low alt. so it'll be about 50/50 on 15K and 20 K alt.
after the initial raid there were some smaller attacks which were unescorted and easily brushed away. (despite the 77 damaged planes most of the zero's managed to get up into the air again in time)

kaga is @: 27 3 12
as long as the fires dont go into extremes i think ill let her stay with the force until after the trincomale landing, after that an AO force will replenish the fleet and she will depart the scene with those oilers. If i manage to get the airfield up & running within a couple of days, combined with some sweeping against calcutta once more, i believe that we will be able to ruin the Indian air force within days (60 fighters in calcutta, about 20 in madras + CV force on the other side of ceylon) the only thing we're waiting for is good weather.. the thunderstorms during the last week are the only real explanation for the high damage rate i can think of

[SierraJuliet]

Hi there flaggelant.

Good to see you two still at it and Kaga in the thick of things. She should shrug that hit off... does't look like it will hamper her too much. Then some R&R time for her crew. Good luck with that invasion.

SJ

[flaggelant]

some R&R is indeed needed, all CV's have been at it since the start of the war, they went straight from pearl,
to a (not very succesfull) intercept mission between gilbert & guadal, and on to the Indian invasion.
with 10 days in port at max since the start fo the war most CV's are between 5 & 10 sys.

tomorow will bring the landings @ trincomalee,
2 Bde's, 2 NLF and a special BF will be taking it to the beaches, with 1 unit (55 guns) i'm expecting a good fight, but that it wont last to long. the bombardment force will do her job, as well as some minesweepers and all CV planes.
i swapped 1 val squadron for some XP zero's from the mainland, with the landing force in need of CAP i dont want to risk any heavy damage to the TF's that still need to do the heavy work afterwards

[flaggelant]

Here´s a good one;

this happend some days ago, didn't think it would matter since i didn't expect any big results from the action, however..

in anticipation to the landings in trincomalee the Allied cv´s made a rush, to get within striking range.
The IJN nav search had spotted this movement early on and the carrier force escorting the transports react to the allied cv´s

In order to get within striking range they move closer to the cv´s and away from the IJN transport and bombardment TF´s
now here it comes: They move into a heavy storm and no missions are flown... in return most of the Allied CV´s fail to find a target in the clouds as well.
However some of the British airplanes manage to find the remaining fleet, the transport fleet is under protection of Hosho, the only IJN CV near India and not in the storms at that time, the Hosho´s crew do as they are trained and fend of many airplanes, but some of the swordfishes manage to get past the CAP.

With the numerous ships in sight they pick the largest one in the formation, and Fuso takes a serious blow. She takes 3 torpedoes and so she is put out of the battle and has to return towards Rangoon, flotation is at 65 at that moment. 3 days later and still about 400 miles out of Rangoon, flotation has risen up to a critical level and she is scuttled..

So much for the glorious battle of the IJN CV´s...
After this attack the Allied fleet is satisfied and retires north, to stay out of range during the landings at Trincomalee.

at the moment we're past this and the "pre"invasion has commenced

Trincomalee falls into IJN hands after the sinking (maybe i should have kept her cruising around trincomalee instead of heading back the long way, not sure there) with the landing being a succes the Burma area is cleaned of Zero´s which are all flown into the new territory, after the victory another aviation unit and an air HQ are also moved ashore. Trincomalee is in steady hands and withing 1 or 2 days the major airbattle will start at madras, an allied airballance of over 1,000 shows heavy activity there.
The airbattle is to be fought before the IJN moves ashore at Triv. (will be flying recon at all shoreplaces, if bombay turns out ungarissoned this might be a nice port as well [8|] )

So the first Japanese Capital ship has sunk, with none of the Allied to have been reported sunk (POW, repulse and hermes are probably floating somewhere, being heavily damaged)

a single transport was sighted moving for Iwo Jima, probably for testing the defences, a CS with 20 floatplanes will try to bomb it, not sure if that will work [:D]

Shokaku started making some water during in the last turns, she´s now at flt 39, and i have decided to get her to kwajalijn (shorter distance than the HI) She is under escort of 60 ASW value, and has speed 18.

And south of midway a 3 CA force (probably more) is seen heading west, this seems likely to be a CV force heading for wake, to finish off Shokaku(?). Midway was bombed the day before by 50 B17, probably to close the airfield to disable an organised strike against this force. The B17 were met by 60 (unexpected) zero´s so damage wasn´t big (5 zero´s for 2 B17), so we will be attempting a strike against the TF heading for Wake, 80 Nells and betties, with the zero escorts mentioned before that should do a good job. So now we wait ..

[&o]

[1275psi]

rare to see stock played -nice reports!

[flaggelant]

here is what is supposed to become the raid on Shokaku;

[flaggelant]

Been a couple days (gamewise) since the last update so heres some news



1 India
2 Homan
3 SRA
4 Shokaku
5 Port moresby


1. India
We are landing in Trivandium in force, after some recon there seemed to be no units in there, so a quick landing by the 1st paratroopers regiment,
secured the beaches and gave some insight in the situation we were getting ourselves in. Minesweepers rushed ahead of the main transport fleet to clear the port of mines,
which was achieved within one day.

Air superiority is maintained easily without any strikes flown against the fleet, in the meanwhile the british airfleet is under constant presure and is likely to be out of order by the time our army is ashore.

some of our air attacks on Madras' airforce
==============================

Day Air attack on Madras

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 114
E7K2 Alf x 6
Ki-21 Sally x 53
Ki-49 Helen x 7

Allied aircraft
Wirraway x 3
Hurricane II x 16
Blenheim IF x 3

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 4 destroyed, 1 damaged
E7K2 Alf: 1 damaged
Ki-21 Sally: 2 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Wirraway: 3 destroyed
Hurricane II: 17 destroyed
Blenheim IF: 3 destroyed
Beaufort V-IX: 1 destroyed
I-16c: 1 destroyed
Lysander I: 1 destroyed

Allied ground losses:
12 casualties reported

Airbase hits 2
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 6
-----------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Madras

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 66
E7K2 Alf x 1

Allied aircraft
Buffalo I x 23
Hurricane II x 9
Blenheim IF x 3
P-35A x 12
P-40E Warhawk x 21

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 20 destroyed, 3 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Buffalo I: 20 destroyed
Hurricane II: 8 destroyed
Blenheim IF: 1 destroyed
P-35A: 9 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 10 destroyed, 1 damaged
========================================

Without the allies flying missions against the landing force our CV's remain fully intact and capable of hunting the enemy CV's, since they are cornered by now.
The fleet will replenish tomorow and head west after this, the actual location of the allied CV's is unknown but i am guessing that he will be trying to sneak them out by the map border. Next turn will see the Nell/Betty fleet on max range nav search again, so that will determine if we will make a run west or noth.

The landing zone remains under protection of land based Fighters during these operations.



2. Homan
In China our main push will start this week, with the northern army a couple of days out of homan and bombardment missions being flown for the past few days.
estimated AV will come out around 5000 Jap vs 3000 Chinese, due to the bombardment missions disruption will probably be a big problem for the Chinese units.

3. SRA
The siege of Soerabaja starts, most units have retreated towards Batavia, so it shouldnt take to long, with about 500 AS and a tank and eng. reg coming in its only a matter of time.
small bombardment missions are flown, because we dont want to damage the industrial site to much
Tarakan hasnt been under attack since the start of the war, but with most other targets being acomplished forces are moving there over land as we speak, over the roades it will take probably more than a week before we can start a siege there.

4. Shokaku
Shokaku will likely be making it safely to Kwajalijn, she's at 40 47 0 , with a good day af water in between the safe port.
with around 100 zero's watching here movement she'll be safe, or the Allied CV's are willing to make a dash that would endanger their own hulls.
The allied fleet moving west wasn't sighted again, so it remains unclear what exactly was planned/ happening by the other side.

Most airfields around Kwajalijn are, or wil move to lvl 4 within days, when Tarawa reaches LVL 4 there will be a raid on Canton,
because we have sighted several large TF's in port there for the last 2 weeks, containing BB, CA etc.

5. Port moresby
The landing force of PM is some days out of their target, still only 2 units sighted and a minimum of allied airpower in the area,
Zuikaku leading several of the smaller CV's has so far easily brushed aside any air attack that was mustered. The landings here will commence in approx. 3 days.

[gladiatt]

interesting game; i find it funny/amazing/interesting to look at the difference with my own Stock game.

Good luck [:)]

[flaggelant]

Hey there, those seem to be 2 different worlds at war.

the only similarities i can make out are KB being split up (something i'm still not entirely sure of weather its good or not)
and the lack of progress in china (which hopefully will change on both sides quiet soon)

my indian invasion pretty much made me halt most of the pacific progress, dont know if its a good thing or not,
since the game seems to end when the US moves down the pacific trail.

Making this trail as long as possible would have been a nice thing, taking on India was the "other alternative" [8|]

[flaggelant]

as a small sidenote on aircraft;

yesterday i noticed that the only Air HQ in China is situated at Canton, where only a few planes are stationed, on the other hand Wuhan is still crowded by Japanese Pilots, atm working their way towards the Homan offensive. To improve their efforts i changed the Air HQ's command and sent in some Tabby's to get the HQ towards Wuhan ASAP. The more planes i have over Homan the less time is lost in the siege!

In the philipines there are as allways 3 squadrons of sally bombing the snot out of some baseforce at lingayen, this is escorted by some 50 nates, im thinking of upgrading the nates to oscars to improve their range and start bombing the larger cities. doing so will provide more targets, disrupt more troops and destroy more supplies. upgrading second line (since PI isnt a real front of mine[;)]) nates wont hurt at all. Other nates are all in the HI, manchuko or China, where they dont encounter any hostilities (the chinese airforce is something i havent heard of since the start of the war..??)
I consider PI to be the main training site for LB to get into the 80's for ASW purposes, this really turned out well, being selective about my ASW squadrons is repaying by several hits per week, so the allied submarines probably noticed the change of strategy as well. but with only 3 or 4 squadrons (counting only sally/lilly/helen due to large bomb load) in the 80's atm ill be more than happy to get some extra's available.

[flaggelant]

China sees another withdraw of the Changsa offensive as the enemy cant penetrate the city lines due to heavy bombardment,
in the meantime the Japanese mayor offensive on Homan is only a few days away. Bombardments have been going on for a week and the
groundbombardments have started again as well.

in India a not very succesfull airstrike gets some runway hits, in combination with some airplane hits.


===============================================

Day Air attack on Madras

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 51
G3M Nell x 73
G4M1 Betty x 39
Ki-49 Helen x 7

Allied aircraft
Lysander I x 3
Brewster 339D x 6
Buffalo I x 9
Hurricane II x 14
Blenheim IF x 2
P-40E Warhawk x 11

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 15 destroyed, 2 damaged
G3M Nell: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Lysander I: 3 destroyed
Brewster 339D: 4 destroyed
Buffalo I: 5 destroyed
Hurricane II: 10 destroyed
Blenheim IF: 3 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 3 destroyed, 4 damaged


Allied ground losses:
27 casualties reported

Airbase hits 8
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 26

===============================================

The fleet has finished unloading about 1/3 of the landing force, so far without any interruption from the Allied airforce
(as you might notice, about half of the zero's are over trivandium, this is likely to be the reason for the average results over madras)

the Carrier force didn't finish replenishing, not entirely sure why, but they are now heading NW together with their replenishment TF, hopefully to be done in one or 2 days to start the rush north. This is where the enemy CV TF is at. With the constant losses of fighter planes over Madras by now it should be a fair game for my expierenced KB pilots [8D]

[flaggelant]

Some of the highlights of today;

Shokaku makes port without further activity, her floatation drops 5 points instantly!! [&o]


another TF of 7 transports is seen headed west of johnston isl. I'm setting some nell's to intercept them at long range,
but it could also be a CAP trap, not sure what to think of them, but i've had it with those ships sailing witout being attacked!



India sees another sweep attack by zero's today however we fail to achieve a 1:1 ratio... losing 14 to 12 fighters..
this is probably the last sweep executed, since im running low in zero's (can't replenish the sq's atm because of a delayed supply transport to trincomalee, this will take about a week). XP is still good, but once new pilots are assigned this'll drop fast i'd say.

I'll keep bombing Madras, but only in escorting functions, no more plane hunting untill we are fit for it. Targeted tomorrow will be the port, since there are 3 SS sighted inside it, this should be a fun exercise.

KB hasnt replenished yet, theyre moving west, and remain unspotted during the day, its likely that they are out of range of any planes, and thus will stay unsighted until they will engage the cv's. Theres a large airforce activity in Bombay, probably mostly bombers, but still nothing im willing to get into in combination with the allied cv's (when madras has fallen we will be ready to start bombing Bombay, until then it remains a no-fly zone)


The land combat units are dealth up in 2 groups, the forward group, containing mostly armoured units, for a fast assault
and the main army, consisting of the divisions, Bde's, art & eng units, to finish the bigger pockets in the enemy lines.

Besides that i'm going to keep dropping para's on every place i see fit for it, this means that the para's will likely be decimated, but it'll also keep the allies moving/reacting to the little annoyance i'm creating there. (like cutting off the retreat route of the madras' units in the east).

[flaggelant]

within 2 days Trivandium is turned into a lvl 2 airfield, if this proceeds this way we will start flying the Trincomalee air HQ to Triv,
as soon as we have the mayority over there the fighters force will move to Triv (this should solve the supply problem that blocks replenishment of the fighter squadrons),
and start LRCAP over KB, we'll see who has most land based aircraft to rumble across the waters.

The armoured part of the landing will finish unloading tomorow and move out towards Bangalore,
a small NLF unit is moving out to mannargudi. The main army will remain unloading for several days..

Long range search spotted a TF moving south at the map border near KB, needless to say KB will move in to intercept, after doing so we will have to start
getting some fuel in, because replenishment is hard needed by now [:'(]

[gladiatt]

An idea of what could be this TF you spotted ? The trapped Royal Navy ??

[flaggelant]

ORIGINAL: gladiatt


An idea of what could be this TF you spotted ? The trapped Royal Navy ??

the sighting report gives away that it is composed of AP & ML, heading south, so it's likely to be a replenishment TF,
with a little luck it's loaded with some base forces or something to boost the Airforce in the pacific (i believe they are lacking aviation over there atm?)

but it could just as well be a couple of empty transports

[flaggelant]

some exiting news at last!

we are seeing some nice twists from both sides here [8D]

The transport force KB was sent to intercept was larger than the initial scouting reports revealed.
After the initial attack 8 transports and 3 ML are hit and likely to sink. The TF scattered a day before and is picked of one by one!
I'm expecting to sink another 10 transports in the seas, the screeny will show more;


Because KB is slow with Kaga at speed 18 she cant make it back to Trivandium to protect the landing force of India,
therefor KB will hunt the allied transports for another day.

I'm expecting the allied taskforce to hover where it is now, supplying air support for a smaller force that will race to the port to engage the transports.
despite the fact that several heavy cruisers and a BB have remained with the transports i will not be making this gamble.
The transports will retreat south, under aircover from Trincomalee.

At the moment about 3.700 AV has been landed, most of the arm. units are on the move to their first target, Bangalore.
most southern cities now hold only small garrisons, composed of 2 units. so the march to the North will be fast. The question will be how many units from the east are going to be disrupting this plan.


the Burma situation as shown below is steady and waiting for reinforcements;



Port moresby falls with the first assault in a 8:1 result, troops retreating towards Buna (or Buin??) i will be dropping a NLF there with fast transport and then destroy the PM defence force in the Jungle.

Homan
Tomorrow will see the first heavy attack, only 1 eng reg is there atm, 3 more coming in, so i'm not sure if we will have good results from this allready.

[1275psi]

How differnt stock plays to CHS, and to AE -like another world!

[flaggelant]

never played any of the mods, from what i know the roadsystems are allready a big change,
having a different approach route can make a lot of difference.

choosing/selecting other units/ships to produce, and having different air warfare systems are something i cant really put in place, but those will also have some real impact i can imagine!

and on AE .. well thats a whole other story [:D]

[flaggelant]

The Allied CVs moved upon the landing beach, but havent flown a single sortie against the fleet, since the fleet left port in the break of dawn, im expecting that there was suposed to be a port attack, canceled because of a lack of targets.

The main carrier group makes a run south-east, whithout attacking the fleeing transports.
The cv's are fully focussing on LRCAP over the landing force, staying out of striking range themselves.
Some of the CV escorts (2 CA,2 CL,4 DD) are ordered to destroy all the fleeing transports to the south.
Kaga returns south, to rendevouz with the main group in 1 or 2 days.

I'm expecting that the allied cv's try a breaktrough for clear water, so a southern intercept is what were aiming for,
this would be the first chance to really get textbook CV attack. Disrupting the CV's CAP with land based fighters, only to engage with a large CV force that will break trough the remaining CAP.

the land based fighters have a hard time in handleing themselves, mostly because the high XP fighters are on LRCAP over my transports, if a sortie would be flown against these i'd expect a identical massacre of allied bombers. this however doesnt happen..

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 13,19

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 25
G3M Nell x 13
G4M1 Betty x 12
Ki-21 Sally x 6
Ki-49 Helen x 3

Allied aircraft
Fulmar x 22
F4F-4 Wildcat x 45

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 19 destroyed
G3M Nell: 5 destroyed, 2 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 6 destroyed
Ki-21 Sally: 4 destroyed
Ki-49 Helen: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Fulmar: 3 destroyed, 3 damaged
F4F-4 Wildcat: 15 destroyed, 4 damaged

Allied Ships
CV Lexington
CV Indomitable
CV Enterprise
CA Portland

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 15000 feet
2 x G3M Nell bombing at 15000 feet
6 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 15000 feet
4 x G3M Nell bombing at 15000 feet
1 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 15000 feet

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 13,19

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 22
Ki-21 Sally x 3

Allied aircraft
Fulmar x 17
F4F-4 Wildcat x 27

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 10 destroyed
Ki-21 Sally: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Fulmar: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
F4F-4 Wildcat: 3 destroyed, 3 damaged

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------





Shokaku's flotation is down to 4, tomorow she will leave port with a main contingent of the Southeast fleet
(composed of Mutsu, 4 CA, 10 CL, and numerous DD + the escort carriers)

The carriers will all depart for India, because i am starting to doubt the chances of getting out of a full confrontation without losing cv's myself. If the main western CV group is lost the landings sites will be isolated and constantly threatened by the Allied airforce.

Shokaku and Kaga are in for some heavy R&R and i will try to start rotating the cv's towards the home islands once the shorelines are secured over a large enough area to prevent airstrikes.

[flaggelant]

A day without anything serious happening..

Trivandium is bombarded by 3 BB, causing 90 casualties, these BB's retreat north again and the CV's also are in their starting position.
It's unclear if the CV's will remain for another run, or if they will retire north. KB will regroup and replenish to the west of their position (unseen)
during this manouvre the land based fighters will get reinforcements and recover to full strength (XP will likely drop withing several squadrons since they lost a lot of airframes over the last week)

The CA group hunting the transports sink 4 and several others are scouted for folow up attacks


The rest of the world is covered in bad weather....



Engeneering units on their way to Homan will arive in about 4 days, disruption is high amongst most inf. Div in Homan, so we'll have to wait a couple more days before another attack can be made. expecting to drop forts to 6 or 5 upon this attack.



PRODUCTION
i was looking at my pools and i found that my SNLF squads are running low;
1700 used, 90 in pool, this sounds bad?? i increased some armament factories, but i'm unsure if this is the solution to this problem.

does anyone know if its really so bad, and if i did the right thing here???