Here we go again! tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J) - No tc464

[Mike Solli]

18 May 42

Yeah, it's the 18th again. When we updated with the new patch, I did the data thing and it screwed up the subs. We had to go back two days to fix it. Please ignore the previous 18 & 19 May.

Pretty quiet turn today. The I-155 moved into the port of Darwin to find some xAKs that Ted was moving there, probably to send supply. She successfully put 2 torps into an xAK sinking her.

In Burma, Ted bombed the Magwe oil fields again, causing minor damage. The field was reduced by 1 to 43 of 300.

[Mike Solli]

19 May 42

More quiet. The I-155 used up the remainder of her torps and just about all her shells damaging another xAK in the port of Darwin. She's heading back to rearm. A BB/CA bombardment force will hit tomorrow, hopefully cleaning up the rest of the merchants there before bombarding the base.

I took Pakanbaroe (Summatra) which has Manpower 1(1) and Resources 20(0). There's just a few beat up units left to kill scattered around the island and then Summatra will be mine.

I also took Christmas Island (the one near Java). Engineers are already building up the airfield so recon planes can be based there.

I've been waiting for the next turn all day. Some exciting things are about to happen. I get the Yamato and KB 2 will visit Adak.

[cookie monster]

What are you going to do concerning naval points when the Yamato arrives. Are you gonna accelerate anything?

[Mike Solli]

Cookie, yeah, I'm going to accelerate some CVs.  Right now I have only 1 accelerated.  That should increase by 3 or 4.

[Mike Solli]

Well, our schedules are synched, at least through the end of the year (which isn't saying much admittedly). I'll be out of town the first 3 weeks of January, which means no turns. [8|] I really need to get a laptop. The only highlight is that I'll be in DC the third week and Ted and I are finally going to get to meet face to face. About time. Anyway, we got 2 turns in yesterday and hope to get more in today.

20 May 42

Reinforcements

I finally got the Yamato! This allowed me to accelerate 4 CVs (making 5 total accelerated). I also have 5 or 6 DDs accelerated.

Burma

Ted bombed Magwe again and once again he hit the refinery reducing it to 62 of 100. The oil field is still pumping away at 43 of 300. [:D] He sent most of his bombers against Mandalay's airfield, causing more damage than I could repair. That's too bad but I can live with it. I have more construction and engineer units moving to the airfields I want to use as fighter bases, including Mandalay. I noticed he's got 3 fighter squadrons (2 Hurricanes and 1 Warhawk) sweeping Magwe and none protecting the bombers hitting Mandalay. I may try to ambush the bombers over Mandalay if they continue to hit the airfield there. We'll see what happens next turn.

I've allocated the 8 Division from Kwantung Army for Burma. All but the Artillery Regiment have been purchased. I'll have enough PPs to but the Artillery in 6 days. The division has moved to Pt. Arthur and a TF of fast xAPs is headed there to pick them up.

Mindinao

The 21 Division is on the island, along with the 146 regiment of the 56 Division and some artillery. The 146th took Suriago, capturing the 103 PA Infantry Regiment in the process. Below is the current status of Mindinao.

[Mike Solli]

21 May 42

Australia

Ted sent a dozen PT boats at Broome. I had a surface TF of 2 CA and 2 DD. Unfortunately for the PTs, they arrived during the day and never made it close enough to launch. The 8 survivors went home.

A handful of B-17Es attack my ground forces daily in N. Australia. Today the AA got lucky and downed one of them! The troops are nearing Katherine.

Java

Ted attacked Magwe's refinery again causing a couple more points of damage (now 60/100). Unescorted bombers hit Mandalay again. One more day of that and I'll ambush them.

SE Fleet

I finally attacked the 8 Marine Regiment isolated at Ndeni. I got 2:1 odds on the attack but there was a level of forts there. Ah well, at least I reduced the fort level to 0. I'll try again tomorrow. I did reduce the Marine AV from 72 to 36. I see some Marine POWs in my future. [:D]

I found a major port of Ted's. Vava'u. KB 1 (Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku & Zuikaku) is supporting the Ndeni attack. They will refuel tomorrow and head to Vava'u for a visit after Ndeni is liberated. They're 3 days sail from Vava'u and have not been spotted. The 3 TFs are single ship merchants. There's a shot below.

Aleutians

KB 2 (Akagi & Kaga) reached it's launch point yesterday but thunderstorms prevented a launch. Fortunately, they weren't discovered. Today the Akagi launched a full deckload (but the Kaga didn't [8|]). 4x KVs and 3 AMs were sunk. There are more TFs out there. I'm going to move KB and attempt another launch tomorrow, then hightail it out of there. One Val was an op loss and no pilots were lost.

Other Stuff

After sending the turn to Ted, I reviewed Tracker. I noticed that my Ha-31 production is slightly in the red. I'm going to increase production by 15 tomorrow. It's also time to increase Ha-35 production by 10. It's still good, but getting close to the break even point.

I got heavy radio chatter and discovered a TF popping out of the Karachi wormhole. No other info unfortunately. I'm preparing for the worst and am preparing the 22 Air Flotilla (81 Zeros and 117 Nells/Bettys) at Pt. Blair and Victoria Point, just in case. One of the Zero daitai is at Rangoon. I will probably use it (and probably a second) to ambush the bombers at Mandalay in 2 days then shift them to Pt. Blair.

[Mike Solli]

22 May 42

SE Fleet

Well, over 2300 US Marines just went into captivity. [:D] Does anyone know which division the 8 Marines belonged to? Just curious which division is hurting for awhile.

KB1 Just refueled and is heading for a rendevous with Vava'u in about 3 days time. The I-10 is one of the subs hanging around Vava'u keeping an eye on things. She sank an AK just east of the island for good measure.

Burma

Magwe's refinery was bombed for a loss of 2 and all 3 fighter squadrons flew sweep missions over Magwe. Some British bombers bombed Mandalay's airfield again. I moved a Zero daitai to Taung Gyi and ordered them to 100% LRCAP over Mandalay. Hopefully, I'll ambush some of the bombers and ignore the fighters. It'll only work once so I'll move them out after the turn tomorrow.

Aleutians

To start off the turn, the I-159 put a torpedo into a fuel laden TK. I don't think she sank, but we can hope for the best, can't we?

Today, both carriers launched full deckloads against 3 separate TFs. Ted lost 3 YPs, 3 DMS and 2 AMs. Overall, nothing really worthwhile, but I'll keep him reacting to me for a while. One Kate was an OP loss, but no pilots were lost. I have gained some nice experience these past couple of days.

Tomorrow, KB 2 will do a port attack against Adak, which is loaded with merchant shipping. Hopefully, I'll get some more shipping before vanishing to the SW.

[ny59giants]

Well, over 2300 US Marines just went into captivity. Does anyone know which division the 8 Marines belonged to? Just curious which division is hurting for awhile.

2nd Marine Division.

[Mike Solli]

Very good. Thanks.

[Captain Cruft]

Mike,

Nice AAR, thank you

As a fellow PDU off IJ player how do you feel about the KI-43 IIb? I am thinking it may be something of a decisive weapon (good or bad), simply because so many airgroups have to use it during the "decisive period". The question is - how to use it? Those 2 x 250kg bombs keep staring me in the face ...

[Mike Solli]

Thank you. To be honest, I haven't thought that far ahead. [;)] I'll check it out tomorrow. I pretty much use what I have to and hope my opponent is stuck with rotten aircraft as well. [:D]

[Mike Solli]

23 May 42
 
Well, today was a day of commanders and weather not cooperating. [8|] 
 
Burma
 
My devious plan to ambush Ted's bombers..... yeah, right.  The Zero daitai stationed at Taung Gyi had orders for 100% LRCAP over Mandalay.  Those fighters never saw Mandalay.  They reacted to Ted's sweeps over Magwe.  They ended up shooting down ~6 Hurricanes and 7 Blenheim IVs for a loss of 10 Zeros.  Four of the Zeros were shot down and the rest were either OP losses or written off.  I had 3 pilots KIA and 1 WIA.  The planes are easily replaced.  I have ~150 Zeros in the pool.  The pilots, not so easily.  I have about a dozen IJNAF fighter pilots in reserve, but I'll do a cull in about 6 days so that number will increase dramatically.  Anyway, the Blenheims attempted to bomb the oil fields unsuccessfully.  The oil field stands at 43 and the refinery is at 57.
 
The unescorted bombers hit Taung Gyi's airfield causing moderate damage. [:@]
 
Aleutians
 
KB 2 was tasked with hitting the port of Adak, which is filled with merchant shipping and some damaged riff raff from the previous day's naval bombing.  Thunderstorms over Adak prevented an attack.  I moved KB 2 to the west and will try one more time tomorrow and then head for the barn regardless of it's success.
 
SE Fleet
 
I'm pulling out most of the forces at Ndeni.  Actually, all I'm leaving there is a construction unit and a Naval Guard.  Everyone else is heading to Truk to replenish/rebuild.
 
Other Stuff
 
Miri's oilfield is completely rebuilt!  It's now at 300 and the refinery is 150(150).  12 TKs (10x 1250 ton & 2x 7950 ton) are doing a good job of pulling the oil and fuel out of there (and the oil that flows there from Brunei).  The only oil field still rebuilding is at Soerabaja.  A shortage of supply in Java is preventing repairs from being completed.  Only a few points remain damaged though.
 
There is a general shortage of supply in Java, Singapore and Burma.  I have created a 100k cargo TF that will move supply from Japan to Singapore and return with resources.  It's a slow process but it does move supply (and resources) in the right direction.  I may create a second for a while to get the supply levels up out there more quickly.
 
Most of my levels of stuff are headed in the right direction this month.  Here are some of the important ones:
 
Supply:  +240k
Fuel:  +150k
HI:  +30k (This will increase faster soon.  See below.)
Resources:  +230k
Oil:  -60k (inevitable)
Armaments:  +13k
Vehicles:  +3k
 
 
Armaments - My armament totals will reach 100k in the pool tomorrow.  I currently have 620 armament factories.  I'll shut off 500 armament factories when I hit 100k.  I should still have minor increases, which is what I'd like.  The nice thing is that I'll increase my HI by an additional 3k per day.

[witpqs]

Hey Mike, how do you see a summary of pilots you lose in a turn?

[Mike Solli]

If you open an air unit screen, look at the upper left part of the screen.  You'll see info on KIA/WIA/MIA.  It's something like this:
 
KIA ###/###
WIA ###/###
MIA ###/###
 
The first number is the number lost that turn.  The number on the right is the total to date. 
 
Sorry, I don't have a pic available to show you right now.

[witpqs]

Oh, OK - thanks. I thought you had some way to see global info for a whole turn (similar to the air losses screen).

[Mike Solli]

Nope, but that would be nice.  I take notes during the replay and check out losses by unit afterward.  In this case it was easy.  Only one Zero daitai fought.

[CapAndGown]

Look on the "top pilots" screen. At the lower left will be a list of KIA/WIA/MIA.

[Mike Solli]

Sure, but you don't know what units lost the pilots.

[erstad]

My devious plan to ambush Ted's bombers..... yeah, right. The Zero daitai stationed at Taung Gyi had orders for 100% LRCAP over Mandalay. Those fighters never saw Mandalay. They reacted to Ted's sweeps over Magwe.

You might doublecheck that they are on LRCAP and not CAP. Escort/CAP allows a destination to be set as well. On more than one occasion, I've set what I thought was LRCAP only to realize I actually had CAP because I moved the wrong slider.

[Mike Solli]

That was the first thing I checked after the replay was over.  100% LRCAP. [8|]