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Does your scenario/John's mod use stock Crapnings or decent Lightnings?

I don't know what that means, so that means I don't know.

RA is based on DBB after JWE/Symon did the changes in air data. So, they have the 'good' Lightnings. [;)] They can rule the skies in mid to late '42.

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I don't know what that means, so that means I don't know.

It means stock or more realistic. Stock Lightnings are underwhelming at best, and typically just a liability.

Limited pools dampened my ability to make good use of the P38s during the Sumatra campaign, when they'd have been most useful. After those early months in Sumatra (Nov. '42 to February '43), LBA didn't play a major role in the game until January '44, when the air war in Burma started. By then, Lightnings were largely irrelevant. The pools are still limited and they don't seem to perform as well as the Jugs and Corsairs. I think they are superior to Hellcats against LBA at this point in the game, but I have something like a thousand Hellcats in the pools, and only about 20 Lightnings.

John's worked some long, tough hours the past couple of days, including today. He's gonna be pooped, but I think the war will resume tonight or tomorrow morning.

6/22/44

Fun House: Barring Japanese reinforcements, Manila may fall tomorrow.

Death Star: Barring weirdness, Death Star and Mini Death Star merge near Morotai tomorrow.

KB: Mini KB is in the Java Sea; no sightings of KB today. But the two are not in position to combine and try a Banzai attack.

Thailand: Allied army blows out Japanese army at Rahaeng, pretty much destroying all squads and guns. John does have a stack in the next hex; whether there are fresh troops there remains to be seen. The attack will involve a river crossing but it's open terrain.

Looking good![:)]
What kind of D/L does he have on DS and MDS? Is he keeping his search away from the deadly CAP?

He knows where there are, though he's not using a lot of nav search.

You went from Rangoon to Rahaeng in record time. That is a lot of nasty terrain you marched thru.

When John sent that turn this morning, he included this message: "SHOULD be able to do another this evening without issue."

Arg! The dreaded "without issue" clause almost always means there will be an issue.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
You went from Rangoon to Rahaeng in record time. That is a lot of nasty terrain you marched thru.

You're right, it is good defensive terrain. Once the Allied airforce is supreme in '43 or '44, the Japanese player has to use that terrain effectively in delaying actions.

Yesterday, "without issue" meant there was an issue, of some kind.

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Yesterday, "without issue" meant there was an issue, of some kind.

[:D]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Yesterday, "without issue" meant there was an issue, of some kind.

I mean, one could say that the turn was not issued.

Ah, I see. He processed the turn but didn't send it; meaning he didn't "issue" it. Rascally parsing of words, there!

4/23/44

Fun House: Allied 3:1 attack at Manila drops forts to 2 and does much higher damage to enemy defenses teetering on collapse. See graphic in following post.

Death Star: DS and Mini DS merged today, including a great armada of ships carrying reinforcements, fuel and supplies. Now the combined TFs move on Mindanao and Legaspi.

With Manila gasping, it does seem like Peep Show will be expedited considerably. I can't count on that until Manila capitulates, but I'll be ready if things work out.

Mini KB: Apparently raiding or up to some shenanigans in the southern DEI regions. The recent pendulum-like swings of this TF suggest that John hasn't been uncertain. I think he wanted MKB to provide security for the Miri reinforcement operation, but pulled it back when his transports were sunk.

6/23/44

Battle of Manila: Progress but not culmination.

Agreed that waiting a day will pay bigger dividends - it'll probably also give John heartburn watching Manila crumble the way it has....very similar to what happened in Burma. He doesn't have a very good handle on the raw Allied firepower available in 1944.

It will be very interesting to see what he does with the KB at this point. With the units still separate & your central location, will he attempt an engagement? Will he try to get his carriers back together?

He appears to be running out of options.

In the map annotations you wrote of part of the KB being between Truk and Saigon, but I suppose that is really Saipan?

The Japanese army at Manila is in awful shape. At this point he would need multiple fresh divisions to make any attempt to hold there. I would guess that is not reasonably possible, though I admit I don't really know just how much the Japanese have to work with at this point.