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Luzon - April 9, 1945

Kuriles Campaign - April 9, 1945

This got messy fast. First, some E's in SCTF formation contacted some of my amphibs - which made the amphibs run away despite Direct/Absolute/Remain On Station orders. So an entire division is not landing at Shimushiri. I have attempted to re-order it to land twice, and each time the luck of the maneuvers has them be contacted by the E's first. I have several SCTFs attempting to interdict with a high reaction setting, but to no avail. Sad!

Additionally, at one point they contacted my CVs. No damage was done to either side, but the CVs ran directly away 8 hexes due to being reset to retire to Adak - again, despite Direct/Absolute/Remain On Station. I've since changed to Patrol Zones for the CVs, in the hopes that this will prevent them from retiring after inconsequential surface contacts.

All told, this ends up costing me several hundred VPs in ships and a few hundred VPs in LCU devices destroyed aboard those ships. But Onnekotan is ours, and can be built up to host B-29s. Shasukotan is ours, but will likely remain a dot base.

Shimushiri will be ours eventually. My opponent appears to be flying in additional brigades via transport planes. I'm OK with this - they'll just die there.

Kuriles

If I'd known that coming here would've flushed out the IJN, I would've done it months and months ago. All the BBs came to fight, all the CVs are coming...

On April 4, we lost CLAA Flint and 3 Fletchers to BB Mutsu and 6 IJN DDs... but we sank all 6 IJN DDs as well. BB Hiei came in and hit a CVE TF, sinking 1 and crippling 3 more, but another 2 IJN DDs are sunk. Unfortunately, Jills from the west put torpedoes into Arkansas and New York. It stings, but I don't think I will (strictly speaking) need them for further invasions up here. I'm not expecting heavy CD gunfire at places I am looking to invade.

On April 6, CV Amagi takes a sub torpedo outside of Etorofu.

On April 8, we put 3 more torpedoes into BB Kongo (after a torpedo and several bombs from CV planes yesterday when she was at Onnekotan) and she sank.

Also spotted are probably KB escorts - Matsu-class and CLAA Katori. On April 6, they are outside Kunashiri (little island just SE of Hokkaido). They get an 8-hex strike off on my CVs/CVEs, sinking CVE Activity and damaging a few others, but the KB strike wing is again gutted.

On the whole, we've sunk a lot of IJN "ASW" ships (being used for SCTFs) and have begun adding to the SSX toll again. The IJN only gets 86 SSX's total and we're up into the 60's on the number sunk.

On April 10, things pick up a whole lot:


Unfortunately, we also lose an AGC and several APA, all with troops onboard.

More Kuriles - April 11, 1945

To date, the Kuriles campaign has cost the Allies 8 CVEs, 8 APA, 1 LSD, 7 LST, 13 LCI of various types, 1 AGC, 1 CLAA, 4 DD, 4 DE, 1 APD, and 3 AM. 3 SS have been lost to mostly airborne ASW.

It's been 9 days since the landings.

The IJN, on the other hand, has lost:
-BB Kongo
-BB Hiei
-CA Tone
-CA Chikuma
-CL Oi
-CL Sakawa
-10+ DD's
-36+ E's
-5+ SSX
-A flock of SC's
-A gaggle of MTB/MGB

I think CAs Furutaka and Suzuya are also sunk, but it's possible they didn't. BB Ise took 3 more torpedoes for a total of 4, but I think she lived. BB Mutsu took 1 torpedo as well. Going into the 11th, here we are...

April 11-12, 1945

Wasn't this just about Okinawa time IRL?

CENTPAC
This will probably be quiet for the rest of the war, but we sent some DDs to bombard Saipan... mostly to clear the MTBs/SSXs spotted there recently. May as well clear them somewhere I don't care about than have to deal with them elsewhere, and any search/transport planes I can bag on the ground would be a bonus. Unfortunately, we just sink 2 MGB and accomplish little else.

Asia
On the 10th, we had attacked at Kukong - a few thousand Chinese AV vs. 3 IJA Tank Divisions. We almost got a 2:1, dropped forts to 0. The tanks were roughed up a little bit. On the 12th we captured it - the tanks all drove away. I'll take it!

Liuchow's airfield expands to level 8 on April 11. Almost there! Nanning goes to 6 as well.

Philippines & SRA
Lots of planes destroyed on the ground at San Fernando, and lots of night CAP at Clark Field which prevents our bombers from doing much. Batangas is captured on the 11th, allowing us to rail everything from Naga to just outside of Manila.

Oosthaven is captured on April 11, and the IJA has no retreat path so they stick around to get beat up some more in future turns. On the 12th, we get a 6:1 attack at Benkoelen. It will fall to us soon, leaving just Palembang after that.

On the 12th, we sweep all around northern Luzon. A fair number of Hellcats are lost, but otherwise Corsairs and P-47s help to clear the air. Trying to set up regular daylight bombing now. Need to wear down supply stockpiles as much as possible before the first attack against Manila, which might come sometime in early May.

3 IJA units moved to Mauban, SE of Manila. Don't know why. Will move against them sometime.

Puerto Princesa... progress is made here. Forts are down to 1. The IJA are more or less starving.

NORPAC
On the 11th, SS Sea Fox misses a KB escort outside of Uruppu-jima. In the hopes that they stick around, I've moved my CVs to the SW - away from any focused naval search and bomber fragments based at Paramushiro, and hopefully on an unexpected vector. Hard to tell. Yet another Mixed Brigade is flown in to Shimushiri. I still like this development, even though it delays me. I was going to have to bring in more troops anyway (well, really at minimum the division that simply refused to land from the start), and it was always going to be an overwhelming number. They'll overwhelm an extra 360AV just as easily as they would have overwhelmed what was already present.

On the 12th, Ki-83's come to Onnekotan again, but Corsairs and P-51D's trade even with them. Need to get more Corsairs up here, but I also need to the airfield to be bigger first. Will get there... this was always going to be an operation about patience.

SS Atule hits BB Mutsu with 1 torpedo outside Kushiro, but damage doesn't look to be very bad. SS Capitaine almost certainly sinks BB Ise on the 12th outside Shikotan, as mentioned above.

Immediately in the night phase on the 12th, SS Pipe spots CS Nisshin and some good DDs outside Shikotan. Pretty much as expected/hoped... but could he really have replenished enough of KB's air wings in just a few days? I couldn't really figure out why they were up so quickly. In the first air phase, KB is spotted outside Etorofu. Definitely going to be a battle, and so there is:

Morning Air attack on TF, near Etorofu at 130,57

Weather in hex: Partial cloud

Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 40 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5c Zero x 36
A7M2 Sam x 48
B6N2a Jill x 10 All shot down
B7A2 Grace x 35 13 get through CAP
D4Y4 Judy x 129 41 get through CAP

Allied aircraft
F4U-1D Corsair x 116
F6F-5 Hellcat x 34

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5c Zero: 11 destroyed
A7M2 Sam: 3 destroyed
B6N2a Jill: 5 destroyed
B7A2 Grace: 12 destroyed, 7 damaged
B7A2 Grace: 1 destroyed by flak
D4Y4 Judy: 51 destroyed, 13 damaged
D4Y4 Judy: 5 destroyed by flak

Allied aircraft losses
F4U-1D Corsair: 1 destroyed
F6F-5 Hellcat: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
CV Illustrious, Torpedo hits 2, heavy damage
CB Alaska, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Japanese aircraft
A6M5c Zero x 15
A7M2 Sam x 27
B7A2 Grace x 12
D4Y4 Judy x 48

Allied aircraft
F4U-1D Corsair x 103
F6F-5 Hellcat x 31

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5c Zero: 4 destroyed
A7M2 Sam: 2 destroyed
B7A2 Grace: 6 destroyed
D4Y4 Judy: 27 destroyed Just 2 get through CAP and miss

Allied aircraft losses
F4U-1D Corsair: 1 destroyed
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All shot down/do no damage (lots of KB splintering):
B7A2 Grace x 11
B5N2 Kate x 54

P1Y2 Frances x 18
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 3

Ki-32 Mary x 24
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 9

B7A2 Grace x 7
D4Y4 Judy x 10
B7A2 Grace x 9
B7A2 Grace x 3
B7A2 Grace x 10
D4Y4 Judy x 10
B7A2 Grace x 7
B7A2 Grace x 7

A6M5c Zero x 36
A7M2 Sam x 21
B7A2 Grace x 6
D4Y4 Judy x 21

A7M2 Sam x 26
B7A2 Grace x 4
D4Y4 Judy x 8

B6N2 Jill x 9
B6N2a Jill x 39

Not so bad. I would've preferred if Alaska wouldn't have taken a torpedo, but it's fine. She'll sail back to CONUS and rep up. Illustrious isn't too bad off either - damage in the 40s/50s. Then our strikes (I don't think everything flew in AM due to detection?):

Morning Air attack on TF, near Etorofu at 127,51

Weather in hex: Heavy rain

Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 18,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 34 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5c Zero x 59
A7M2 Sam x 82
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 10

Allied aircraft
F4U-1A Corsair x 21
F4U-1D Corsair x 26
F6F-3 Hellcat x 39
F6F-5 Hellcat x 60
SB2C-3 Helldiver x 57
SB2C-4 Helldiver x 61 90 Helldivers in total get through CAP
TBM-1C Avenger x 68
TBM-3 Avenger x 24 Some of these too, but I didn't count because they can't hit anything.

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5c Zero: 2 destroyed
A7M2 Sam: 1 destroyed
Ki-44-IIc Tojo: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F4U-1D Corsair: 1 destroyed
F6F-3 Hellcat: 1 destroyed
F6F-5 Hellcat: 4 destroyed
SB2C-3 Helldiver: 8 destroyed, 13 damaged
SB2C-3 Helldiver: 1 destroyed by flak
SB2C-4 Helldiver: 8 destroyed, 5 damaged
SB2C-4 Helldiver: 3 destroyed by flak
TBM-1C Avenger: 7 destroyed, 12 damaged
TBM-1C Avenger: 2 destroyed by flak
TBM-3 Avenger: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
CVL Zuiho, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CVL Ryujo, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CV Katsuragi, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CV Akagi, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage

Fuel storage explosion on CV Katsuragi
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Etorofu at 127,51

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 34 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5c Zero x 46
A7M2 Sam x 43
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 23

Allied aircraft
F4U-1A Corsair x 21
F4U-1D Corsair x 11
F6F-3 Hellcat x 38
F6F-5 Hellcat x 73
SB2C-3 Helldiver x 38
SB2C-4 Helldiver x 39 50 Helldivers get through
TBM-1C Avenger x 41
TBM-3 Avenger x 36 47 TBs get through

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5c Zero: 1 destroyed
A7M2 Sam: 1 destroyed
Ki-44-IIc Tojo: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F6F-3 Hellcat: 2 destroyed
F6F-5 Hellcat: 1 destroyed
SB2C-3 Helldiver: 14 destroyed, 6 damaged
SB2C-3 Helldiver: 1 destroyed by flak
SB2C-4 Helldiver: 2 destroyed, 7 damaged
TBM-1C Avenger: 9 destroyed, 7 damaged
TBM-1C Avenger: 2 destroyed by flak
TBM-3 Avenger: 5 destroyed, 9 damaged

Japanese Ships
CVL Zuiho, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
CV Akagi, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CV Taiho, Bomb hits 3, on fire
CV Soryu, Bomb hits 1
CV Unryu, Torpedo hits 1
CVL Chiyoda
CV Amagi
CVL Chitose, Torpedo hits 1
CVL Shoho, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
CVL Ryujo, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires

Ammo storage explosion on CVL Shoho
Fuel storage explosion on CVL Ryujo
Fuel storage explosion on CVL Ryujo
Ammo storage explosion on CVL Zuiho

Others present (attacked but not hit):
CV Kaga
CV Zuikaku
CV Hiryu

A few of our Avenger groups splintered and got shot down to a man by the enemy CAP.

I am fairly certain that Akagi sunk, and would be surprised if Shoho and Zuiho lived. I think the others all might have survived, but several will be in the yards for a while. I might see Unryu, Soryu, Katsuragi, Chitose, and Taiho again soon. Ryujo appeared to have taken heavier damage. Some Grace, Sam, and just 2 Judy "DOG"... since he launched strikes also, it's hard to tell exactly what sank. The Judys tell me that Akagi definitely sank, but the Grace/Sam could've been from any of the 3 that I think sank. For what it's worth, multiple sinking sounds were heard... but Ise could've been one of those, too.

April 13-14, 1945

China
Chihkiang, a base in the middle of the road network between Kweiyang and Changsha, is captured with a few paratroop squads on the 13th. The goal of this is to draw attention to the east of Kweiyang, just in case he gets a sniff of my big army in time.

Kweilin is suddenly empty on the 15th. Looks like they railed out. I'll take it - Hengyang and Changsha have more open terrain, I can bomb if I want to.

Philippines
Puerto Princesa falls to the Allies on the 13th.

NORPAC
BB Ise is sunk by 2 more torpedoes outside Kushiro. I think this means the IJN has only 5 BBs left at this date: Fuso, Mutsu, Nagato, Kirishima, and Haruna.

A few planes are destroyed in a bombardment of Etorofu on the 13th. Just harassing here to give my airfield at Onnekotan time to develop.

A handful of IJN E-class ships are sunk in various surface actions, and DD Sagiri is sunk well south of the Kuriles.

Other stuff
Benkoelen, on Sumatra, is captured on the 13th. Unfortunately, Djambi has been auto-occupied by at least 1 Japanese unit moving down from the north (I figure it to be the "orphaned" brigade that got beat up a few weeks ago), so there is once again a valid IJA retreat path. Oh well.



My screenshots will likely remain of China for a while. Things are moving relatively fast here, and the consequences could be huge if I am able to quickly capture much of the southern half of the country. Visions of non-coastal AF9's with B-29s...

April 15-16, 1945

China
IJA stuff around Kweiyang stands pat. OK... although now we see the 10 units at Tuyung moving NE. Unsure if this is a reaction for Chihkiang or catching a glimpse of the guys moving against Chungking.

We tried to capture Hengyang on the cheap, thinking the units would continue moving towards Changsha and we could quickly rail out army from Kweilin. Alas, there is the 34th Division broken into 1/3's there.

Philippines
Final IJA presence at Cebu is eliminated.

Landings begin at Aparri on the 16th. A few hundred casualties on the beach as we are not fully prepped with all units, but it'll do.

Batangas airfield expands to 4 (just outside Manila). This may not end up being important at all given that it seems the IJAAF/IJNAF have abandoned Luzon.

NORPAC
IJAAF 2E's begin bombing my troops on Shimushiri, so we put up LRCAP from Onnekotan on the 16th and we bag a few Georges that were escorting, but no bombers. Onnekotan's airfield expands to level 5 on the 15th, so we can fly in some more planes and stay under the stacking limits.

On the 15th, the IJA tried an attack at Shimushiri. Perhaps they thought I was low on supply or support or something similar? They achieve only a 1:4 ratio. Raw AV plummets from 696:559 in the IJA favor to 430:547 the next day, as they suffer about 2500 casualties in the attack.

Sub losses up here are beginning to mount. Almost all are from 250kg bombs from the plethora of AF9's on Hokkaido. We've lost 4 so far this month, with perhaps 8 to 10 others having to be sent back to base. We've only been operating up here for a few weeks...

A bunch of Helen kamikazes are shot down over my CVEs on the 16th, but some Peggy-t's sink CL Dayton (previously crippled in a surface action) and CL Uganda outside Uruppu-jima. A bunch of Frances and some escorts are shot down over the CVs, and 40 Helen kamikazes get just 1 hit on CV Shangri-La for minimal damage (this was back on the 14th).

April 17-18, 1945

China
We release the Zombie Apocalypse tomorrow. The army of the dead!

Tsuyung is captured on the 18th as well. Looks like he left the mountains very weak, although maybe there were issues with enough supply reaching those troops. It looks like the 1-2 divisions posted here (more than enough to hold off 1000 Chinese AV in the mountains) have been pulling back. One of them is the unit marching on the road to Chungking.

It looks like Changsha is not going to be heavily defended. Looks like the enormous army that begin its long retreat all the way back in Burma and Thailand is going to fall back to the Yangtze...or even farther, if the movement dots at Wuchang are any indication.

Kukong and Kanhsien have been captured. Going to march to cut off Canton's hexsides now.

Philippines
Aparri is not quite captured on the 18th.

Not quite the PI (or China), but B-29s from Cotabato bomb Takao's AF at night... not much in the way of results, except that 12+ Dinah NF's are shot down for the loss of just 1-2 B-29s.

Batangas AF expands to 6. I guess we'll get it to 9 and then shift everything up from Naga and just base everything here, including the unloading operations. May as well. It's not like he's going to be able to bombard the place and it's only 1 hex for the bombers to go to Manila. It'll be a little while yet, though... size 8 to 9 takes a long time.

NORPAC
CVE Makin Island is hit by an SSX at Shimu, but 4 SSX's are sunk there throughout the day. We unloaded more units, hastily re-prepped from Onnekotan. Our AV there is up to 697 by the end of the day on the 18th.

B-29s from Shemya have been hitting the airfield and port at Shikuka, sinking a few xAKs and keeping the runfield damaged.

We do try a DA at Shimushiri on the 18th and get a 1:1, dropping the forts to 5. Casualties are moderate on each side (718 to 848).

Tabbys and Topsys are shot down by the CVE CAP at Shimushiri for 2 days in a row. 40+, maybe 50+, lost. I dig it.

Took this screenshot last week because the number of kills in a group came up...

I also looked in my Japan game that's in 1944. A few of my LBA units, particularly Kaga-1 (which I resized to 53), have over 600 kills. Apparently Burma has been extremely active in that game.

For this game... note the average XP of the pilots in the groups. Ridiculous. The Yorktowns are really killing it. Game date 04/18/1945.

April 19-20, 1945

China
Liuchow's airfield reaches 9 on the 20th. Moving almost everything here now. Supplies are flowing in at an acceptable rate.

Hengyang is captured via paratroops, but most of our army has already left Kweilin on the road and will just march there. Besides that, IJA entered Kweilin from the SE. It's 4 brigades and an HQ, I think, that were previously at Wuchow. I'll close off the hex side and destroy them but it will take a week or two. Until then, no railing anything to Hengyang... shouldn't delay me too much. I'll just build Kweilin's airfield up as well in the meantime.

Chungking was captured. Picture below shows 2 days' worth of spawned units. More are coming...

Tuyun was captured on the 19th via paratroops, as planned. Supplies can now flow that much closer to Chungking.

Philippines
Iba stuff began loading at Saigon, setting out shortly.

Aparri is captured on the 20th, as is Laoag (via paratroops). Beginning to scoop up bases now as the IJA retreats towards Manila/Clark Field.

We moved 2 Divisions over from Batangas to Mauban (that base outside of Manila). Turns out there are 3 IJA Divisions there. We'll either force them to retreat to the hex east of Manila, or wait for them to walk back to Manila, but either way I am moving forces here via Batangas and the base just SE of it (to gain hex side control and prevent the cutting of the LOC from Naga to Batangas).

NORPAC
6 more midget subs are sunk here over 2 days. The IJN only gets 89 in total...

On the 19th, Ki-83's sweep Shasukotan (dot base outside Onnekotan) and some of my CVs had range 1 CAP set up, and just 1 hex away... so a few dozen carrier-based CAP planes get shot down. Oh well.

Another DA at Shimushiri on the 19th gets a 1:2 and one of our engineer units dies. [:(]

Other stuff
DA at Palembang shows that forts there are at 6. Casualties are light. Lots of dead IJA on the roads outside Oosthaven (many thousands).



Exp/Morale for these units starts at 40/40, which is unfortunate but not awful. Sadly, I can't disband any. That's annoying. Oh well, 257 AV is still plenty to shuffle around and meet garrison requirements. The army that I sent here was under 5000 AV, and now its size is more than doubled... the only problem is supply, which will come in time.

This is a really interesting campaign, where at least through 1944 the control of SE Asia and SW China was pretty much exactly the opposite of historical. It gave a really weird look to the map but in the end it confirmed your strategy in that theater as being perfect for this campaign.

How far into 1945 will you play? That is, until auto-victory, acquiring certain territory, Soviet entry, or ...?

ORIGINAL: jwolf

This is a really interesting campaign, where at least through 1944 the control of SE Asia and SW China was pretty much exactly the opposite of historical. It gave a really weird look to the map but in the end it confirmed your strategy in that theater as being perfect for this campaign.

How far into 1945 will you play? That is, until auto-victory, acquiring certain territory, Soviet entry, or ...?

We have had a few emails about playing on. Right now, I am trying to reach the 2:1 AV ratio prior to the Soviet activation as that is the cutoff date for decisive victory. I am not sure I will make it, but I might. I'm currently at 1.67:1 in early May. The only big base multiplier that he has left is Hong Kong and Manila, and those aren't all that big for him. So the rest is almost all on me in terms of gaining VPs rather than him losing base VPs. We'll see. It could be really tough with just 115 days to go or thereabouts.

I would like to play on past Soviet activation in any case. Just to see what they're like. I could try to activate them early by bombing, but remember that it's only a chance for activation if IJA AV in Manchuria drops below 8K. It's not guaranteed.

We will start a new game once this one finishes, with the same scenario and settings.

Have fallen another month behind on the turns (I was only 2 weeks behind at one point), but haven't received a turn back in about a week so no big deal.

Things are continuing apace, other than not having a turn back yet. Will try to post an update this week. In short, I'm racing the clock to Soviet activation and the expiry of the decisive victory deadline.

How is the strat bombing going both outside (DEI/MAnchuria) and on the Home Islands?

ORIGINAL: obvert

How is the strat bombing going both outside (DEI/MAnchuria) and on the Home Islands?

It's not, really. There are too many fighters and I'm not really anxious to use unescorted B-29s. I have done the occasional B-29 raid at night on a few targets. I'm up to 1210 strat VPs now. The trouble is Onnekotan is my only airfield in the Kuriles right now, and is able to be pressured by a half-dozen IJ airfields if I do not keep them suppressed. As such, it's mostly fighters. On two occasions I've based either B-24s or B-29s there for a night raid and harvested a few points, but not much.

This will change when I eventually capture Shimushiri and Shikuka/Toyohara, if there's time for that. The offensive up here is not able to proceed as quickly as I would like, but that's OK as the reason for that is it has sucked a lot of IJ assets north, as if in a vortex... This should make it easier to push forwards in China without getting harassed from the air before I can build airfields and move my own air power forwards.

I'm a month or so from being in B-24 range of the western Japanese islands, I think. China is fun.



The DEI is all mine, sir [;)]. Manchuria isn't really in range yet, but in Scen 1 there isn't much there to begin with.

Strat bombing is they key to VPs. I have gotten nearly 1000 VPs in single day from manpower attacks. But you need fighters in range to clear the airspace. Though carrier aircraft can carry that load.

ORIGINAL: Sangeli

Strat bombing is they key to VPs. I have gotten nearly 1000 VPs in single day from manpower attacks. But you need fighters in range to clear the airspace. Though carrier aircraft can carry that load.

We shall see about the carriers. I do have some size 90 groups with Corsairs that could do some sweeping but all the CVs are resting up right now. The problem is that I'm in kind of the same position as SqzMyLemon where I can't guarantee that the sweeps will show up before the unescorted bombers, and if I can probably only afford one of those aerial disasters without losing my ability to really bomb.

In my previous game, I didn't need strat bombing to get to the 2:1 threshold, but it was also a far less bloody game for the Allies in terms of LCUs. In this game, the absolute number of VPs on each side is probably +10K, which means I need an additional 20K VPs that I didn't need in that other game.

On the whole, I'm hoping that capturing all of China west of the Yangtze (as well as some of it north, and possibly even Shanghai) via land campaign, plus Luzon and perhaps Formosa, will get me close enough to the VP hump that I won't have to bomb much to get there. I will definitely be capturing Hangchow (that urban light west of Shanghai) as it was completely empty for multiple days in a row not too long ago, and there are no major IJA forces in the area except at Shanghai and to the north. That area should serve well as a network of B-24 bases within range of Sasebo, Kagoshima, etc.

I'm also looking for my first A-bomb. I might be able to use one before the Soviets/decisive victory deadline on August 31. What's the best way to use those - daylight and on the biggest manpower target possible? What would an extremely heavy CAP do to them? I know it's possible to basically miss, and flying higher to avoid CAP could tilt it that way.

Or is it just total industry size in a hex, not highest manpower?

The obvious targets are Tokyo, Kobe, Osaka, Nagoya, Yokohama, Fukuoka or Shimonoseki, Sasebo... I think those are the ones with the most industry.

Or I could go for the aircraft factories at Maebashi or Gifu, but there isn't much there in terms of total VP potential.

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
We shall see about the carriers. I do have some size 90 groups with Corsairs that could do some sweeping but all the CVs are resting up right now. The problem is that I'm in kind of the same position as SqzMyLemon where I can't guarantee that the sweeps will show up before the unescorted bombers, and if I can probably only afford one of those aerial disasters without losing my ability to really bomb.

In my experience carrier based sweeps are more consistent in arriving before bombers than land based aircraft. They also sometimes coordinate their sweeps which can be good or bad. Good in that they will have a higher K/D ratio but bad in that they may engage fewer fighters than multiple fragmented sweeps.

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
In my previous game, I didn't need strat bombing to get to the 2:1 threshold, but it was also a far less bloody game for the Allies in terms of LCUs. In this game, the absolute number of VPs on each side is probably +10K, which means I need an additional 20K VPs that I didn't need in that other game.

The great thing about strat bombing is that it makes everything else easier. Destroying industry will reduce supply production thus making your guys on the ground more effective. IMO fighter factories are best things you can destroy. Once you get rid of those its only a matter of months until you have uncontested control in the air everywhere.

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
The obvious targets are Tokyo, Kobe, Osaka, Nagoya, Yokohama, Fukuoka or Shimonoseki, Sasebo... I think those are the ones with the most industry.

Or I could go for the aircraft factories at Maebashi or Gifu, but there isn't much there in terms of total VP potential.

Without question you should go for Tokyo or Osaka. They are the most important VP targets BY FAR. Its' not even really close. I'd say Tokyo. Remember IRL the US went after smaller targets b/c they wanted to make a point and end the war right after. This is just a video game; it's rather fun killing those digital Japanese civilians [:D]

Yup. I've already located what was a size 220 Frank-r factory. I've knocked a handful of points off of it. It's at Shimonoseki, so will be within range from China. I will need to night bomb to get it, I think... daylight raids would be flying into too many airfields networked together. Good sweep bait, though.

Thanks for the vote in favor of Tokyo. If A-bomb raids can be launched at extended range, I can hit it already from China. If only from normal, then soon... before I have a bomb, I'm sure.